Author: Green Car Online News

Faraday Future joint venture to create electric MPV based on FF91

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MPV designed by Faraday Future, for joint venture with The9
Last month the troubled electric car hopeful Faraday Future was given (another) new lease on life, via a new joint venture with The9, a Chinese online game company, that will produce a new model for the Chinese market based on Faraday’s nearly mothballed FF91.

It’s now a lot clearer what that vehicle, to be produced as soon as next year, is. It isn’t a version of the FF91 but a van-like MPV—that Faraday Future teased in a photo released yesterday.

DON’T MISS: Faraday Future gets new money from gaming company to build in China, and the US

Faraday Future’s design team is creating the new vehicle, according to the California company, which is to be produced in China at up to 300,000 units annually.

Faraday Future FF 91

The vehicle will share its skateboard-layout Variable Platform Architecture with the FF 91. Based on the released teaser photo above, the vehicle is modern and van-like, with a steep rake to the windshield but a flat, extended roofline that should extend enough headroom and interior space to a second and third row (or perhaps more). As with the FF91, the wheels are pushed out to the corners, with very little overhang.

CHECK OUT: Faraday Future loses final founding executive

Faraday Future CEO Jia Yueting added to the description, tweeting (via an unverified account): “The V9 concept: a new mobility luxury intelligent space that blends design, AI and seamless cabin connectivity.”

Faraday Future FF 91 first pre-production prototype in Hanford, California factory

The company confirmed to Green Car Reports that there is no plan to offer the V9 in North America. Chinese suppliers and scale are also vastly different, so it may not have a significant impact on the economics of producing the FF91.

READ MORE: Faraday Future factory completes its first full car

The initial investment from The9 to Faraday Future, of $5 million for the U.S., is primarily for the design operations of the vehicle, according to the company. But additional tranches of funding will arrive provided milestones are met—with the completion of this design and Faraday Future turning over land to be used by the Chinese joint venture.

With the first sign of new vehicle and design work in many months, and the drama of Faraday’s past year of funding woes in the rearview mirror, the company could, potentially, get to why it exists—producing electric cars—by the end of the year.

Ford electric SUV could meet 300-mile target, and then some

Ford crossover EV teaser photo
Ford has been teasing—even promising—a new Mustang inspired high-performance electric SUV, perhaps called Mach E or Mach 1, that it says will have a 300-mile range.

Now the company has announced that the model has earned a 370-mile range rating in the generous European WLTP driving cycle.

DON'T MISS: 2021 Ford Mach E: What we know about 300-mile electric SUV

That doesn't mean that it will earn anything close to that rating on U.S. driving cycles.

The WLTP is known for generating higher ratings than EPA tests that have been adjusted to account for higher modern highway speeds and more use of air conditioning.

CHECK OUT: What past name should Ford revive for a future electric vehicle? Twitter poll results

The Nissan Leaf, for example, gets a 15 percent longer range rating in Europe on the WLTP diving than it does in the U.S.

Using that as a guideline, the potential “Mach E” might have a range of around 328 miles in the U.S.—a strong showing versus the Tesla Model Y—but that's far from official, and U.S. ratings from as many as five different tests mathematically combined can yield a wide range of results.

Still, anything close to 328 miles would be a very competitive range for an electric SUV. And anything over 300 miles would hold to Ford's promise.

Lithium battery production set to grow 50 percent a year

Lithium-ion battery cells
One of the biggest upcoming challenges for electric cars is having an adequate supply of lithium batteries.

A new report by Benchmark Minerals, first cited by CleanTechnica, shows battery makers are working quickly to meet growing demand for new lithium-ion battery cells from automakers.

According to the company's Battery Factory Data, battery suppliers ramped up their forecast supply from 922 gigawatt-hours in 2023 to 965 in February, an increase of 4 percent in February alone. Extrapolated to an annualized forecast, that would increase battery supplies available in that year by 50 percent this year alone.

READ THIS: German automakers commit to massive battery purchases, sidestep some hard realities

It's unclear, of course, whether growth in supply forecasts will continue soaring on that trajectory for the rest of the year, but constraints in battery supplies have already emerged as a likely obstacle to planned electric-car production by the middle of the next decade.

The Volkswagen Group alone has ramped up its investment in developing future electric cars to $50 billion by 2023. Other automakers including BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler.

DON'T MISS: Chevrolet Bolt EV to get electric sibling, with Michigan plant investment

So far, most electric car batteries have come from just a handful of suppliers, including Korean LG Chem, Nissan's SAIC, CATL, Panasonic (for Teslas), Samsung, and SK Innovation.

That has left some automakers planning big investments in electric cars at the mercy of battery suppliers and led to delays in some products and likely to lower production of some models than the automakers could sell.

The Benchmark Minerals report shows production capacity for lithium-ion battery growing to almost 1.6 terawatt-hours by 2028.

Grove launches hydrogen fuel-cell car brand in China

Grove Hydrogen Automotive fuel-cell car
China is the world's largest market for cars—especially electric cars.

The country has even announced that at some point in the future it will ban internal combustion cars. But it's not all about battery electric EVs, it turns out.

A new company called Grove Hydrogen Automotive Co. announced that it will focus on fuel-cell cars, starting with a four-door SUV that it plans to launch in China later this year. The company says it will reach mass production sometime next year. Grove is home to several former automotive executives from Volkswagen, Audi, Infiniti, and other established automakers.

MUST READ: Why the future of electric cars depends on China's war on pollution

Grove says the car will have up to 625 miles of range from its hydrogen tanks, which can be refueled in a “few minutes.” The company says the car will be built with composite materials and use regenerative braking to maximize efficiency, which implies that it also includes some battery capacity that could be used to provide extra bursts of power beyond the fuel-cell's output.

The car is scheduled to debut at next month's Shanghai auto show.

Grove Hydrogen Automotive fuel-cell car

Grove has plans to sell a line of hydrogen cars, not just a single model, and will set up “experience centers” similar to Tesla stores, in China. It plans to explore export markets in 2020, but did not specify where.

The car company was founded by the Institute for Geosciences and the Environment, which develops hydrogen from industrial wastes, giving it a more sustainable, less carbon-intensive footprint that most hydrogen produced in the U.S.

READ MORE: 2019 Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle pricing: Puzzling economics

IGE plans to roll out hydrogen fueling infrastructure in “Tier 1” cities in China starting in 2020, Tier 2 cities in 2021, and then “aggressively” throughout all “significant” cities in China thereafter. They gave no indication what's considered a significant city.

The company is working with officials in China to pave the way for the rollout.

Grove did not specify any plans to come to the U.S., where hydrogen infrastructure is still sparse. If it did, it might find a more fertile market as a supplier of renewable hydrogen production and refueling equipment than as another automaker trying to sell fuel-cell cars in the States alongside Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and GM.

New electric motor could eliminate transmissions

Linear Labs Hunstable Electric Turbine motor
It isn’t just batteries that are making big strides in electric cars.

Several companies are also striving to make electric motors more efficient and powerful.

Now a new Texas company claims it has a new motor technology that can generate twice the torque, three times the power, and 10 percent more range for electric cars in the same weight and space as a typical electric motor.

READ THIS: Motor supplier sees mass-produced in-wheel motors around 2023

Linear Labs founders Brad Hunstable and his father call it the radial flux Hunstable Electric Turbine.

The wound motor uses four rotors where most motors use one or two, and current can alter the magnetic field inside the cylindrical stator to vary the ratio of torque to horsepower. “The more rotors you have interacting with the coils, the more power you have,” says CEO Brad Hunstable.

The coils are surrounded on four sides with magnets creating what Hunstable calls a torque tube.

The pair discovered the technology while working on windmills to deliver water to African villages.

With twice the torque of a standard electric motor and the ability to vary the output to favor higher rpm horsepower, as well as torque, they say the motor can eliminate the need for a gearbox in electric cars, saving $8,000 to $10,000 per car.

Although none of the production electric cars on the market today has what drivers would think of as a transmission that shifts gears, they do all have gearboxes that step up motor rpm to deliver the kind of off-the-line performance that drivers expect.

READ MORE: Better electric motors can boost electric-car efficiency

Linear Labs’ Hunstable electric machine generates enough torque to get a car rolling by varying the magnetic field to maximize torque, then backs off to develop more horsepower for better performance at higher speeds.

The company says it has 21 patents on the design and another 29 pending.

Hunstable says the motor can be used for any kind of electric application, from generators in windmills and water pumps to cars to air conditioners.

The company isn’t starting out in cars, but says its motor will go into commercial production in a scooter next year. Hunstable expects it will make its way into a car in 2021.

$35,000 Tesla Model 3 deliveries still delayed

Tesla Model 3 all-wheel drive Performance rolls off a new assembly line in a temporary structure
Tesla finally introduced its long-promised $35,000 Model 3 earlier this month, but it still isn't delivering them according to numerous media and owner reports.

In the call introducing the Standard Range Model 3, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the first cars would be delivered in two to four weeks, but buyers who have ordered Standard Range Model 3 sedans have reported on at least three different Tesla forums that they have received texts from Tesla saying their deliveries have been delayed, and been given no updated delivery date.

When we contacted the company to ask about the delivery schedules, Tesla declined to comment.

DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3 Standard Range arrives soon at $35,000 and 220 miles. Really.

As it introduced the base Standard Range Model 3, Tesla also announced an unexpected new model, the Standard Range Plus, with 20 miles of additional range and what Tesla calls a Partial Premium Interior. The Model 3 Standard Range Plus sells for $39,310 to start. (The equivalent price for a non-Plus Standard Range model, with delivery, is $36,200.)

Plenty of buyers say they have confirmed delivery dates for Standard Range Plus models (though some have been delayed), but in an extensive search, we could find no references to base Standard Range models that still have confirmed delivery dates, which has led some to question whether Tesla has really started building base cars.

Some Standard Range Model 3 buyers say Tesla representatives have called them and tried to upsell them into more profitable models.

MUST READ: Commentary: Tesla races to outrun perfect storm from tax credit, production, cost hurdles

Last summer, CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that it could not afford to build the base model until several months of “full production” of better-equipped, more expensive models, or “Tesla will die.”

In the base Model 3 announcement, Musk said that the company would close all its stores to cut enough costs to generate a return on the base Model 3 at $35,000. Since then it has reversed that decision and reopened most stores. It has also raised prices on all of its other models to offset the losses from leaving stores open and building the $35,000 Model 3. In a blog post explaining the measure, the company said, “We will only close about half as many stores, but the cost savings are therefore only about half.”

Yet there's still no evidence that the company is actually building the car.

DON'T MISS: Tesla will raise prices on all but $35k Model 3, keep more stores open

During the introductory call, when Green Car Reports asked when new buyers might get the car, Musk said: “It is very likely that someone who orders will get the car in the US by the end of June, let's say. Before the next tax-credit cliff.”

That timeline is critical, because Tesla's cars are already eligible for only half the plug-in vehicle tax credit that those from most other automakers are, and several others now sell for the about the same nominal $35,000 sticker price. On June 1, Tesla's tax credit will fall by another $1,875.

The tax credit could be particularly important for price-sensitive buyers looking for a rock-bottom price on a new Model 3.

Elon Musk at Tesla Model 3 reveal

There could be an additional reason that the Standard Range Model 3 is delayed even while the Standard Range Plus is not: While the Standard Range Plus is essentially a decontented version of the Mid Range Model 3 that Tesla sold from November through February, the entry-level Standard Range car has more manufacturing differences from other models, including fully manual seats with cloth upholstery not offered in any other Model 3, and a different center console. Those are parts that may take longer for the company to ramp up from suppliers. And it may be that in addition to generating less revenue, the base Model 3 may add to manufacturing cost and complication.

READ MORE: Tesla shuts down Model 3 production for five days amid quality concerns

Tesla's original accounting for Model 3 costs, prices, and profits was undoubtedly built on Musk's assumption that his fully automated “alien dreadnaught” assembly line would dramatically cut production costs—a prediction that famously didn't pan out last spring as the company struggled to ramp up production of the Model 3, ripped out parts of the automated assembly line, and hired workers to replace them—then built a separate, less automated line in a tent outside the main factory.

The costs of those extra workers could still be pinching the Model 3's bottom line, even after Tesla laid off more than 9 percent of its managerial and engineering workforce to save money.

In the meantime, based on forum responses (and following the comments of our readers), it looks like releasing the Standard Range Plus along with the Standard Range may have been a good move on Tesla's part: The vast majority of commenters who have placed new orders seem to have placed them for the Standard Range Plus, generating a little bit of extra cash for Tesla—and ensuring that their new cars arrive within weeks, rather than months.

Volvo to boost plug-in hybrid production to 25 percent of fleet

2020 Volvo XC90
While other automakers are moving away from plug-in hybrids to electric powertrains, Volvo is finding unexpected success with its lineup of plug-in hybrids.

At a recent roundtable with journalists in Sweden, Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said the company is disappointed that it underestimated demand for its plug-in hybrids.

DON'T MISS: Volvo XC90, XC60 T8 plug-in hybrids add electric miles for 2020

“We are not happy because we could sell more [plug-in hybrids],” he said, according to Automotive News (subscription required.) “We underestimated the demand.” He said the company did not have a big enough supply of batteries, motors, and other electrical components to build more of its plug-in hybrids, which sell for about 30 percent more than non-hybrid versions of the cars.

Samuelsson said the company will boost its capacity for those plug-in hybrid components for 2019, from its current 10 or 15 percent worldwide, up to 25 percent of its sales.

READ THIS: Audi plans new plug-in hybrid Q5, A6, A7, and A8 for Geneva reveal

Last year in the U.S., Volvo sold a little less than 1,500 XC90 T8 PHEVs, a little more than 2,100 XC60 T8 PHEVs, and fewer than 500 S90 T8 sedans, but it sold almost 27,000 plug-in hybrids in Europe, combined.

At the same time, the company announced an upgrade to upcoming XC60 and XC90 T8 hybrids to boost their plug-in range by about 15 percent.

CHECK OUT: Fiat Chrysler lays groundwork to build electrified Jeep models

The new models haven't been rated by the EPA, but current models have an estimated 17 miles of electric range, which would put the new ones up around 20 miles. The Volvos use a 2.0-liter turbo-4 and an 8-speed automatic transmission to drive the front wheels, and an electric motor to provide another 87 horsepower and 177 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels.

Volvo also announced a new B5 line of mild-hybrid SUVs for Europe.

Other automakers, such as Audi, BMW, and Jeep have also announced plans to boost their lineups of plug-in hybrid SUVs, earlier this month at the Geneva auto show, so the new Volvos will have plenty of competition.

Tesla eliminates annual service, keeps some periodic maintenance

2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance
Electric cars are supposed to be more reliable than internal combustion models. Certainly, they have a lot fewer moving parts and need a lot less lubrication.

Yet Tesla, like most corner auto dealerships, has made money selling extended service plans for annual maintenance on its cars, sometimes mandatory.

With hundreds of thousands more Teslas hitting the road, all those service visits—along with repair work—have reportedly backed up the company's service centers. Now the company has reportedly put an end to those extended service plans and is hoping instead to highlight electric cars' inherent reliability—and hopefully reduce the wait times at those service centers.

DON'T MISS: Tesla aims to make service quicker, roadside assistance automatic

In an earnings call in January, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said improving service is one of his main priorities for 2019. He later made another change to eliminate parts distribution centers and stock common Tesla repair parts, including some body-repair panels, at the service centers themselves.

Tesla hasn't revealed what percentage of its service-center visits are for annual maintenance versus repairs. The annual maintenance schedule covers things like the cabin air filter (or HEPA filter, in the case of cars that include Tesla's Bioweapons Defense Mode), replacement of air-conditioner desiccant, tire rotation and wheel alignment, and brake fluid tests every two years, since the hydraulic brakes don't get used as much in electric cars and the hygroscopic brake fluid (which attracts water) tends to sit still for too long in the brake lines where it can cause rust.

READ THIS: Tesla opens its first in-house body shops to reduce repair times

Tesla recommended the service every year or 12,500 miles for the Model S and Model X and every two years or 25,000 miles for the Model 3.

Now Tesla tells owners: “Your Tesla does not require annual maintenance and regular fluid changes,” and instead recommends only periodic, as-needed servicing of brake fluid, pads, and calipers, filters, and air conditioning.

CHECK OUT: Tesla Model S Service Contract: $600/Year, Or Warranty Voided (2012)

In independent reliability reports, such as those from Consumer Reports, electric car cars have proven to require vastly fewer repairs of critical systems such as their drivetrains—if not necessarily any better overall reliability based on body hardware and minor annoyances such as squeaks and rattles. These are the kinds of things that independent mechanics can mostly accomplish if they have access to the parts.

It remains to be seen whether eliminating annual service visits in favor of waiting for problems to crop up will improve or diminish either customer satisfaction or service-center wait times.

In the meantime, in Texas, which has banned Tesla from selling through stores in the state, the legislature has introduced a bill to ban the company from working on its cars at its service centers. So far, there's no indication how likely it is to pass.