Author: Green Car Online News

Hyundai rides on top with new double-decker electric bus

If converting city buses to electric power is one of the most effective ways to reduce harmful pollution from particulate matter and nitrogen oxides in cities an even more effective way is to double the number of people they can carry.

London has begun converting its iconic double-decker buses to electric models made by China's BYD, and now Hyundai plans to jump into the fray with a new bus that can carry 70 passengers—not quite double what a regular bus can carry but about 1.5 times the capacity, Hyundai says.

The company introduced its new double-decker at the Land, Infrastructure, and Technology Fair in Korea last month.

READ THIS: First all-electric London double-decker bus in service; made in China by BYD

Hyundai says it has a range of about 188 miles and can fully recharge its liquid-cooled 384-kilowatt-hour in an hour and a quarter.

Its primary motivation comes from a 321-horsepower motor on the independently-sprung drive axle as well as a smaller motor to recover electricity on the third axle.

The bus is 42 feet long and just over 13 feet tall. The third axle also steers to give the bus more precise steering in tight maneuvers.

DON'T MISS: California to transition to 100 percent electric buses by 2040

It can accommodate 11 passengers seated on the main floor, including two “fixed-in-space” wheelchairs, and 59 more passengers on top. The floor on the bottom slides out for wheelchair access.

In a page from its recent automotive releases, Hyundai notes that the new bus will include electronic stability control, automatic emergency braking, and automatic lane assistance—perhaps even more important safety features for carrying 70 people, almost 60 of them six feet in the air.

CHECK OUT: LA gets first double-decker electric city bus

“The double-decker electric bus is an environmentally friendly vehicle optimized for global eco-friendly trends,” said ByoungWoo Hwang, Head of Commercial Vehicle Advanced Engineering team at Hyundai Motor. “This will not only ultimately improve the air quality, but also contribute greatly to easing commuting hour traffic congestion by accommodating more passengers.”

Los Angeles has also introduced its first electric double-decker bus on a commuter route from Pasadena to downtown.

Electric Jaguar XJ flagship to compete with Tesla Model S

Jaguar Land Rover plans to launch its new flagship with a jolt. At a recent investor day, the company said its new flagship XJ sedan will launch first as an electric model, likely in 2020. Models with gas engines are expected to follow.

The automaker previously announced it will offer electric and plug-in hybrid versions of every model it sells by 2025. The new XJ is expected to be the first of those models based on a new modular architecture designed to accept both electric and gas platforms.

The electric XJ will likely have a 90.2 kilowatt-hour battery with a targeted range of 292 miles, according to Nick Miles, JLR's head of product engineering, as presented at the investor day. That range is likely on the somewhat optimistic new European WLTP driving cycle.

The new “Modular Longitudinal Architecture” is unrelated to the platform underpinning Jaguar's electric I-Pace, which is built at a Magna-Steyr contract manufacturing facility in Austria. The XJ and vehicles on its modular MLA platform will be built at Jaguar's home factory in Solihull, England.

2020 Land Rover Range Rover

The new platform will also underpin two new SUVs from Range Rover, a new flagship Range Rover in 2021 and a new Range Rover Sport a year later, according to a report in Automotive News Europe (subscription required.) Both Range Rovers will be offered with plug-in hybrid powertrains, and at least one of Range Rover's four models will include a fully electric option.

Both the Range Rover and the Range Rover Sport currently include plug-in hybrid options, but they're based on an older platform, one not shared with Jaguar. The new plug-in hybrid models are expected to achieve a slightly longer electric range.

The MLA platform is expected to replace five platforms the company currently uses, but may not be the company's only electric architecture. Outgoing design head Ian Callum told Automotive News that the I-Pace platform is also likely to continue to underpin new, updated electric models.

Electric Jaguar XJ, hybrid airplanes, more driving, fewer Chinese EV makers: Today’s Car News

Americans driving more miles could cancel out emissions progress. Airbus looks to build hybrid airplanes. China puts restrictions on who can build electric cars in the world's largest EV market. And Jaguar plans to launch its new flagship XJ sedan as an electric. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

Jaguar Land Rover plans to introduce its next-generation Jaguar XJ flagship sedan first as an all-electric model, with gas engines following later. The company also plans a new electric Range Rover along with plug-in hybrids.

As the EPA proposes to roll back increases in emissions standards, new data from the U.S. Department of Transportation shows that Americans are also driving more miles every year, limiting the effectiveness of any fuel-economy increases.

European aircraft-maker Airbus is developing a new hybrid version of one of its most popular airplanes, which could have a single jet engine and a couple of electric motors for takeoff boost.

China, the world's largest EV market, has too many electric carmakers, according to the government. New restrictions designed to weed out marginal electric carmakers will require companies that build electric cars in China to achieve critical mass and have significant financial assets.

Another electric-car startup isn't aiming directly at Tesla, though it could take away some of the company's Silicon Valley spotlight. Drako Motors is developing a 1,200-horsepower, 206-mph supercar called the Drako GTE.

Finally, in first drive of the new light-duty Chevy Silverado diesel pickup our partners at The Car Connection averaged 34 mpg, which is pretty impressive for a full-sized pickup meant for towing.

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Mack plans to send electric trucks to the garbage dump

A lot of ink, pixels, and synapses get spent trying to figure out how to make heavy duty electric trucks that can travel 500 to 1,000 miles in a day and get a fast enough recharge before heading back to work.

Recent studies have shown a far more effective way to reduce pollution is to supplant short-haul machines that spend most of their time in city centers, spewing black smoke every block as they stop and start for pickups and deliveries.

City buses have been particularly effective. Beyond that, the next logical step could be garbage trucks, if truckmaker Mack has a say.

At the Las Vegas Waste Expo earlier this month, the American subsidiary of Volvo trucks rolled out the Mack Electric LR, a new line of trucks made for the dump. It follows on parent-company Volvo's electric garbage truck which rolled out last year.

Mack plans to begin testing the new trucks with the New York City Sanitation Department next year. The department operates more than 2,200 garbage trucks of various sorts to clear the streets of trash, debris, and snow. A typical trash route might be only 30 miles in a day, but takes all day with stops and starts—exactly when a diesel truck is less efficient.

The new electric trucks use two electric motors producing a combined 496 horsepower and 4,051 pound-feet of torque at 0 rpm. Mack says they use 600-volt lithium-manganese cobalt batteries and electric drive systems to boost power and charging speeds, though Mack did not disclose the battery capacity or range. With short, stop-and-go routes, range may not be the big issue anyway.

Using step-down converters, the trucks have two additional electrical systems, a typical 12-volt system to run the truck's lights and accessories, and a 24 volt system that takes power from the main battery to run the hydraulics for the compactor and the dump system, which may use as much juice in a day as driving the miles needed to cover the trucks' routes.

At the end of the day, the trucks can connect to 150-kilowatt DC fast chargers before starting in all over again the next morning.

The New York Sanitation Department also rolled out an electric street sweeper concept at this year's New York Auto Show.

The godfather of EVs in China has turned his attention to hydrogen cars

It's no accident that nearly half of the world's electric cars on the road today are in China. According to the International Energy Agency, of the 1.9 million battery electric vehicles on the road, 951 million are found in China.

Wan Gang had a lot to do with that. The former Audi exec is now China's state science and technology chief and helped launch the country's aggressive push toward zero-emission vehicles after he delivered a report in 2000 outlining the country's need to develop an electric-car industry. China heavily subsidized that industry and helped push the world toward electrification.

Now, Wan may have his sights set on hydrogen-powered vehicles. Wan told Bloomberg last week that the benefits of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles would benefit long-haul transportation: buses, trucks, etc.

“We should look into establishing a hydrogen society,” he told Bloomberg. “We need to move further toward fuel cells.”

His opinion carries more than its weight in mere words. Wan said the country may keep in place its subsidies for fuel-cell development, even if battery electric car incentives wane. China's nascent hydrogen fuel cell market is much smaller than Japan's, which leads the world in hydrogen adoption. But that may change if China's government can spur growth for hydrogen fuel cells through incentives the same way they have for EVs in the last 20 years.

2018 Honda Clarity Fuel Cell at hydrogen fueling station [photo: Chris Baccus]

Toyota, Hyundai, and other companies such as Nikola have developed hydrogen-powered semis and retail vehicles, although infrastructure has lagged behind in many countries other than Japan. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, China had 12 hydrogen refueling stations in operation in May 2018 compared to more than 100 in Japan who has stated that it aims to have roughly 200 by the end of next year.

Wan says the country will move toward building more infrastructure to support hydrogen-powered vehicles.

“We will sort out the factors that have been hindering the development of fuel-cell vehicles,” Wan told Bloomberg.

If China's push toward hydrogen matches its push toward electrification that could net a seismic change for the industry within the next 15 years.

Fiat Ducato Electric debuts in Europe, first electric commercial van from brand

In the U.S., pickups reign supreme for most work detail. Abroad? That duty often falls to slab-sided commercial vans like the Fiat Ducato. In the U.S. the Ducato is offered as the Ram ProMaster, but is largely identical.

Earlier this month, Fiat Professional rolled out its 2020 Ducato van with slight updates inside and out, but the brand offered for the first time an electric powertrain that could make it into wider production soon.

Fiat didn't offer many details about the electric powertrain such as range, power, wheels driven, or batteries, but the automaker said the vans would be available for pre-order soon and would be offered to select buyers first to test and study how owners will use the vans.

A spokesman for Ram didn't immediately comment on whether the vans would be offered in the U.S.

Although hardly sexy, electric commercial vans on the roads would reduce emissions significantly in dense cities. The vans are often used for myriad jobs and constantly run. Any emissions improvements in commercial vehicles can have wide-reaching impact in carbon reductions in cities all over the globe.

Although this is Fiat's first foray into electric vans, they're not alone. For instance, Mercedes-Benz has announced an electric version of its Sprinter van, the eSprinter; Ford has a range-extended version of its Transit Connect commercial van; and Nissan offers in the U.K an electric e-NV200.

That's a boon to businesses across Europe, who have significantly higher running costs for gasoline-powered vehicles than they would with electric vehicles. EVTrader found last year that light-commercial vehicles in Europe cost roughly 23-28 cents per mile to run versus 6-7 cents per mile for an electric van.

Porsche CEO: EVs are the future, but they won’t completely replace combustion engines

The Volkswagen Group has made one of the largest investments in electric-car building, infrastructure, and development for any automaker on the planet. In the next decade, Volkswagen and its subsidiaries including Audi, Porsche, and others, plan on building millions of EVs and will invest billions more into charging infrastructure.

In an Op-Ed published Monday in USA Today, Porsche Cars North America CEO Klaus Zellmer says the future for any automaker will be electrified, but he stopped short of saying that all cars will be electrified. That's a surprising pivot for a Porsche CEO whose future Taycan promises to be one of the most highly anticipated EVs to arrive next year.

DON'T MISS: An electric car can't fully replace a gas-powered car in my world

“Let’s be clear: We believe EVs will quickly become commonplace in the U.S. new car fleet, not that they will fully displace internal combustion engines,” Zellmer wrote. Instead, he says that offering EVs, PHEVs, and ICE will be commonplace and offer consumers the right fit for the right circumstances.

That's not to say that Zellmer sounds bearish about the prospect of performance EVs in his commentary. In fact, the CEO lays down the groundwork for converting enthusiasts from flat-6s— found in the iconic 911 sports car—to EV powertrains in future cars thanks to the immediate response and nearly unlimited power.

“Frankly, EVs are fun to drive,” he wrote. “Electric motors provide instant torque for quick acceleration, and the lower center of gravity from battery packs will reinforce the sporty feeling. So don’t be surprised when all of this truly catches on in the near future.”

READ NEXT: Fully electric Porsche Macan due by 2022 will replace gasoline model entirely

The column contains a nuanced position—that EVs represent a future for performance vehicles, and that internal combustion will live alongside electric performance. It's a pragmatic take, but a surprising one ahead of the Taycan's launch.

Overall, Zellmer lays out a comprehensive argument for Porsche—and Volkswagen's—push into EVs and infrastructure, and he enumerates his logic for demand, adoption, and support of those future vehicles. It's a compelling argument, and worth the read.

To hear the CEO of a major North American sports car maker publicly embrace electrified powertrains is not only encouraging, but perhaps also a harbinger of a larger sea change of attitudes among mainstream automakers—but it's hardly an all-or-nothing “attitude.”

Nissan Leaf batteries are lasting a very long time

Since even before the first market deliveries of its Leaf electric car in late 2010, Nissan has made frequent mention about the need to create second-use demand for the Leaf's battery packs.

It turns out, they may need to see many of those ideas put into place. According to comments made last month by a Nissan-Renault executive, citing charging and battery degradation data from Nissan on the 400,000+ Leafs sold globally, the battery packs are going to easily outlast the life of the vehicles—not just the ones that are in accidents.

“We are going to have to recover those batteries,” said Francisco Carranza, the managing director of Renault-Nissan Energy Services, at the Automotive News Europe Congress.

Nissan Energy Solar

In the UK, the company is currently offering Nissan Energy Solar solutions, combining solar panels with battery storage and an app-based control system. In some other places within Europe the Leaf is allowed to be grid-connected, and globally the 4R Energy Corporation, a company founded by Nissan and Sumitomo, is testing a scheme that would use second-use EV batteries to take street lights completely off the grid. And there have been some novel solutions along the way, such as using them for pop-up travel trailers.

Nissan x Opus camper with reused Leaf batteries in Britain with Nissan Qashqai

Other larger-scale uses include megawatt energy-storage systems good for smoothing peak demand at commercial venues, industrial plants, or smaller buffers used for electric-vehicle charging stations. But some big-picture fundamental questions remain: Like whether recycling existing less-efficient batteries for their raw materials might be better.

Some months ago Nissan in the U.S. said that it’s examining a wide range of uses but hasn’t committed to any on a larger scale. We’ve reached out to Nissan once again for comment to see if that remains a fair characterization—and to see if the company’s experience with degradation and projected life mirrors that in Europe.

Volkswagen last month said that it expects the battery packs in upcoming ID models, built on its mainstream modular electric platform (MEB) to last “the life of the cars.”

VW MEB platform

Specifically, VW says that its batteries will keep 70 percent of their original capacity for 8 years or 100,000 miles.

That’s close to Nissan’s goal at the original rollout of the Leaf—that they then expected its battery to keep 70 percent or more of its original capacity after 10 years—although its original warranty was also for 8 years or 100,000 miles.

But even when their capacity degrades far lower than that, they'll be fine for second uses. Nissan R&D staff, for example, projected that at 20 years the typical cells might store less than 40 percent of their original energy capacity. That would still make them a productive piece of larger-scale energy storage.

With VW planning 22 million electric vehicles in 10 years, all with active thermal conditioning that could give those battery packs an even longer life, let’s hope more companies get together on solutions that can truly scale up.

Beyond Tesla, electric cars lose value faster than other vehicles

Lower maintenance and repair needs plus lower energy costs can make a very convincing case for electric car ownership.

The same isn’t always true for those who own vehicles the old-fashioned way, going with what’s new and fresh every three years or so, before trading it in for the next. Then, electric vehicles have an issue that can turn the math on its side: appalling resale value.

The average new electric vehicle loses 56.6 percent of its original value in three years, according to the car-deal search engine iSeeCars. The average among all kinds of vehicles is 38.2 percent of depreciation over three years.

The depreciation is from its sticker price, so it doesn’t include things like a potential EV tax credit of up to $7,500—which not every buyer may be able to claim.

In a recent analysis, iSeeCars found that the Fiat 500e had the steepest value plunge among EVs. Its average three-year-old used price was just $10,358—a depreciation of nearly 70 percent from its original price. The BMW i3 after three years cost just $19,784, which was a 63-percent cut from its original price. The Nissan Leaf (despite hints of an uptick last year) and Volkswagen e-Golf also posted steep value losses of nearly 60 percent over three years.

2018 BMW i3s

The Ford Fusion Energi was also called out by iSeeCars a plunge in value that was nearly as steep as that of those EVs. The Fusion Energi is worth just $15,983 after three years.

The new trends come from an analysis of more than 4.8 million car sales, comparing average price weighted by sales volume for vehicles sold between January and May 2019 with those of the same model sold between January and May 2019, adjusting for inflation via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

2019 Tesla Model S

Tesla is an exception to the rule, though—and proof that EVs don’t have to be resale-value money pits. After three years, the average Tesla Model S remains worth a strong $57,517, according to iSeeCars, which is just a 17.1-percent reduction from its price when new.

For nearly all the other non-Tesla models, these losses help enforce the value of leasing (under what are in many case highly subsidized offers), while purchasing may only make sense when planning to keep an EV over a longer timeline.

All of the electric models that lost the largest chunk of their original value are short-range models. One of the keys to success (and a signal of success) for the new long-range fully electric vehicles is that they escape the pull of strong depreciation. With the first Chevrolet Bolt EVs due to near that three-year mark early next year—and the new ones in their tax-credit phaseout—we’ll start getting some answers on whether that's the case in a matter of months.

Honda E electric car: 50/50 weight distribution, “in action” tease next month

Honda’s sporty, retro-cute Urban EV Concept created quite a buzz ever since its 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show debut. And now, with the Honda E, as it will be called, fast-tracked and due to be shown in production form later this year, Honda is aiming to keep up the excitement.

This week, Honda revealed some key details about the production vehicle’s platform and battery—including one very interesting piece of information: that the Honda E will have a near-perfect 50/50 weight distribution.

The battery pack in the Honda E charges either with a Type 2 (230-volt AC) connector or via CCS DC fast charging, enabling an 80-percent charge in just 30 minutes. The charge port is at the front of the car, in the center. Honda claims a range of “over 125 miles” but doesn’t specify whether that’s to the WLTP or NEDC standards, or to an internal specification of its own.

Honda E powertrain infographic

With rear-wheel drive (no word about all-wheel drive yet) and short overhangs, maneuvering in tight urban environments should be a cinch. The E rides on a four-wheel independent suspension, with suspension components themselves made of forged aluminum for weight savings.

The 35.5-kilowatt-hour battery pack is water-cooled to help maximize its efficiency, and it’s positioned low, just below the passenger floor, and between the front and rear wheels—the key to that weight distribution and what should be a very low center of mass.

That could be put to the test—or at least demonstrated—soon, as the Honda E Prototype will be presented “in action” at next month’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, in the U.K.

Honda aims to “feature electrified technology in 100 percent of its European sales by 2025”—meaning that in addition to fully electric models there may be multiple hybrid systems (including the carmaker’s i-MMD two-motor system) as well as fuel-cell tech.

2019 Honda Clarity Electric

Where does that leave us in the U.S.? Honda currently offers one fully electric model, the Clarity Electric, although the model is only available in California and Oregon, and only by lease. Honda is clearly aiming for much wider availability for the E, and notes that it has already received 31,000 “expressions of interest” across Europe. Although Honda has repeatedly told us it’s not being designed for the U.S. and won’t come here, we can only hope for something so inspiring.