Author: Green Car Online News

Tesla factory and screen interface, Byton back at CES: Today’s Car News

Byton M-Byte concept
Patent filings show new features that may be coming to updated Model S and Model X cars later this year. Chinese startup automaker Byton makes another appearance at CES. And our latest Twitter poll asks readers which electric pickup they think may hit the roads first. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

On Sunday night, Musk took to Twitter to announce that the company would break ground on its much-needed second factory on Monday. The new plant in China will produce “affordable” Model 3s and Model Ys for the Chinese and surrounding markets.

A patent filing late last year shows a new Windows-like control interface that may be coming to updated Model S and Model X cars later this year. The screen will allow drivers to see four functions at once.

Chinese startup automaker Byton will make its second appearance at the CES show in Las Vegas this week, after giving rides in its M-byte SUV last year. This year, an updated M-byte that's closer to production will have a curved screen across the dashboard, more screens for rear passengers, and even a few actual buttons for driver controls.

If 2019 is the year of the electric SUV, it's also the year of electric pickup concept announcements. Our latest Twitter poll asks readers which company they think will get an electric pickup on the market first: Rivian, Tesla, Ford, or Bollinger.

A spy photographer in Germany caught photos of the upcoming BMW iX3, due out in 2020, testing on public roads. Lest there be any doubt that it was the electric version of the X3, the test car had signs emblazoned on the front doors proclaiming, “Electric Test Vehicle.”

Finally, Jay Leno got a chance to test drive the new Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 prototype and released a new video on “Jay Leno's Garage” to rave about the experience.

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Volvo Polestar 2, Tesla Model 3 range, self-driving Lexus: Today’s Car News

Volvo 40.2 concept
Tesla bumps up the range of its Mid Range Model 3, slightly and announces it will start delivering Model 3s to China in March. Volvo teases a look at its first electric model, the Polestar 2. Faraday Future flutters its eyes open, looking for its future, as it agrees to a mutual cease-fire agreement with its main investor. Toyota reveals its first fully-self driving vehicle. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

Tesla gave buyers a few more reasons to choose its Mid Range Model 3 with an updated range estimate that's four miles longer than before: now 264 miles.

The company also announced it will begin delivering Model 3s to China in March.

Volvo teases a picture and a few more details about its first electric car, which will come from its new Polestar performance brand.

Faraday Future ended a months-long dispute with its chief investor, Hong Kong's Evergrande Health group, giving a spark of hope for the company's revival. The company is now seeking new funding, but with few employees and no remaining executives with automotive experience, it's hard to gauge how much interest it may find.

Toyota reveals its first fully-self-driving system in a comfortable Lexus sedan that might make passengers want to pay to ride in it.

Finally, Infiniti gave a clearer look at its upcoming electric SUV concept scheduled to appear later this month at the Detroit auto show.

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Byton brings its big-screen electric SUV back to CES, a step closer to production

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Byton M-Byte
The China-based electric vehicle maker Byton brought a close-to-production prototype version of its M-Byte SUV to the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show this week.

The debut of the vehicle, still headed for a starting price of around $45,000 and an available driving range of up to 325 miles, marks another step toward production for what was one of the surprise stars of last year's CES show.

Prior to last year’s show, few had heard of, Byton. And in all fairness, the real star of the show wasn’t the vehicle (then just called Byton Concept) so much as what it called the Shared Experience Display—a massive 49-inch screen tamed with gesture controls—and an elaborate, detailed proof-of-concept presentation to CES attendees and media.

DON’T MISS: Startup Byton: EVs aren't the innovation; personal-tech features are

Much of the Concept’s screen actually worked, and responded well to gesture controls, as demonstrated. It was what amounted to an effective distraction, at an electronics show, from the fact that the rest of the vehicle was still very much a cobbled-together concept car, with roughly a year of actual vehicle development underway.

What a difference a year can make. This year Byton reported at CES that the M-Byte, as it became called, is currently in prototype testing, and it brought the close-to-production prototype to CES 2019 with some significant tweaks—to the cabin design especially.

Byton M-Byte interior – production prototype for CES 2019

In addition to all the screen real estate that’s already accessible to those in front, Byton has added a new tablet-style screen between the driver and passenger, while keeping and redesigning the steering-wheel screen that serves as a small control tablet. Two big screens bring entertainment and other functions to rear-seat passengers, and face-recognition functions automatically recall personalized settings; directional microphones will accept voice inputs separately from each passenger.

CHECK OUT: Byton electric SUV promised for 2019 at $45,000 after CES debut: first-ride video

Otherwise the dashboard itself has been given more of a wrap-around design, with pragmatic concessions like climate-control vents and hard buttons added to the center-console area.

That said, the concept-car-style front seats still swivel 12 degrees, to allow those in front to converse, when the car isn’t in motion (or at some point in the future, when an autonomous mode is activated). And Byton says that the screen will meet crash standards in all target markets.

Byton M-Byte interior – production prototype for CES 2019

Byton is working on a Level 4 autonomous-driving system, but the M-Byte will only launch with some driver-assistance features (smart cruise control and limited steering assist).

READ MORE: Byton reveals self-driving living-room on wheels, the K-Byte, in LA

The company states that it “aims to create a premium brand rooted in China which has a global reach.” It has an impressive roster of executives from BMW, Tesla, Apple, and Google, and it emphasizes its international building blocks. The carmaker is building an assembly plant in Nanjing, China, with production equipment from Japan and Germany. The company’s strategic investors include Chinese automaker FAW, Chinese battery giant CATL, and key suppliers such as Bosch, BOE, and Faurecia.

Byton M-Byte and K-Byte

Byton revealed its first drivable prototype of the M-Byte just last year and, in concept form, the K-Byte, an electric sedan that it plans to follow the M-Byte.

In what has to be one of the tightest timelines yet, for from-scratch development of a vehicle intended for the U.S. and Europe, the company is targeting mid-2019 for the debut of a production version of the M-Byte, with a mass-production start at the end of the year. If all things go right, and the company avoids Faraday Future–style drama, it could reach the U.S. sometime in 2020.

Here are the electric-car models on the way for 2019

2019 Audi e-tron first drive – Abu Dhabi UAE, December 2018
Regular readers of Green Car Reports know we have been saying for a year now that 2019 is the year of the electric SUV.

Now the year is finally here, and we thought we'd give our readers a peek at what we know about all the upcoming models. Most are SUVs, with a couple of hatchbacks thrown in.

In many cases their specific arrival dates are not made public, but we've estimated as closely has we can based on statements by the automakers.

2019 Hyundai Kona Electric

2019 Hyundai Kona Electric

The Hyundai Kona Electric should be going on sale any day and is one of the most promising electric cars of 2019. With a rating of 258 miles of range, it was a finalist in Green Car Reports’ Best Car to Buy competition for 2019. Its small-crossover format gives ample space inside and a good view out. With only front-wheel drive available, some may consider it a car, rather than an SUV. Hyundai has said that it will start at $37,495.

2019 Kia Niro EV

2019 Kia Niro EV

The Kia Niro EV is related to the Hyundai Kona Electric from Kia’s sister company. The pair uses the same 64-kwh battery, and the Niro EV is expected to have 239 miles of range, a little less than its corporate sibling. It will be the first all-electric version of Kia’s dedicated green car: the Niro Hybrid went on sale in 2017 and the Niro Plug-In Hybrid in 2018. Kia has not announced pricing but the Niro EV is expected to go on sale in February.

2018 Nissan Leaf SL

2019 Nissan Leaf long range

Perhaps the biggest news in affordable electric cars is that the original modern electric, the Nissan Leaf, will finally move into the age of long-range electric cars. While Nissan never intended the Leaf to be a compliance car, the original model was rated at just 73 miles of range. Despite a few improvements over the years, the new model introduced in 2017 could only go 151 miles—better than anything but a Tesla at the time, but still short of what many drivers wish for.

The long-range Leaf will have a 60-kilowatt-hour battery made by Korean conglomerate LG, which is expected to carry it about 220 miles. Dealer pricing guides have shown its cost will land right in line with the longer, 238-mile, Chevy Bolt EV. It is expected to go on sale in the spring and to debut next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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Tesla ekes 4 more miles out of Model 3 Mid Range

2018 Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD
After a $2,000 price drop on Wednesday, Tesla buyers just got four more reasons to choose a Model 3 Mid Range.

According to the order page on Tesla's website, the Mid Range Model 3's EPA range rating went up four miles overnight, from 260 miles to 264.

To be sure, it's a minimal improvement on top of what was already a pretty useful number of miles—about a percent and a half.

READ MORE: Lower-cost Tesla Model 3: Does 260 miles, $46K before incentives split the difference? [Updated]

We reached out to Tesla to ask about how they made the improvement, and the company responded with a statement, saying: “We have updated the rated range of our Model 3 Mid Range to 264 miles to more accurately reflect the results that were achieved during testing.”

It's not clear whether company engineers found a little more efficiency in the battery pack or the motor controllers, if the car gained efficiency by some other means, such as different tires, for example, or if Tesla or the EPA simply performed new tests and got better results.

Though Tesla has not released official specs, for the Mid Range battery capacity, it is estimated to be between 60 and 62 kilowatt-hours.

DON'T MISS: Tesla Model 3 Mid Range goes an EPA-official 260 miles

Last month, the EPA released official efficiency estimates for the Mid Range Model 3 of 128 MPGe in the city, 117 highway, and 123 combined, slightly lower than the discontinued rear-wheel-drive Long Range Model 3. (The Long Range version is now only available with all-wheel drive.)

While automakers conduct their own tests according to EPA specifications, the EPA regularly conducts cross-checks with its own tests.

If we had to speculate about what improved the Model 3's official range, we'd guess that an EPA follow-up test delivered better results than Tesla's own tests.

Future Model 3 rival: Volvo Polestar 2 electric performance car teased

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Polestar 2 teased
Volvo’s Polestar sub-brand has released a teaser picture and revealed a little more about its first electric car, to be called the Polestar 2. And the fledgling tech-performance brand doesn’t miss a beat in mentioning the Tesla Model 3.

The Polestar 2, which will be the first fully electric vehicle from the entire Volvo Car Group, will be a four-door fastback that offers more than 300 miles of range and more than 400 horsepower. Polestar says that it will be sold in the same range as the Model 3—which currently, given the Model 3’s price cut this week, starts at $45,200.

DON’T MISS: Volvo confirms Polestar 2 electric “sedan”

With production volume too small to justify its own from-scratch platform, Volvo/Polestar is expected to borrow from Volvo and Geely’s shared CMA architecture, which underpins the Volvo 40-Series models, such as the XC40. The design of the Polestar 2 is expected to be a little more SUV-like than Polestar is making it sound here, though—more like the Volvo 40.2 concept, a small SUV more like the BMW X4.

Volvo 40.2 concept

Polestar says that the 2 will be the first vehicle in the world to get the new Google Android HMI (human-machine interface)—essentially the successor to Android Auto—as well as the in-car version of Google Assistant.

CHECK OUT: Volvo XC40 crossover SUV to be company's first all-electric car

It will be available for sale, but the company will emphasize a subscription based on the Care by Volvo package, which wraps the vehicle plus all associated motoring costs (like insurance) into one monthly payment—and, significantly, offers the ability to trade for other Volvo models for a few days a year outside the U.S.

The 2 will go into production in early 2020 (or possibly as soon as later this year). The first electric vehicle to bear the actual Volvo badge is expected to be a version of the XC40 crossover, reaching the market later in 2020. Volvo has already suggested that model will have a range in the vicinity of 250 miles and a starting price of $35,000 and $40,000.

Polestar will borrow some ideas from the Tesla playbook while tapping into the on-the-ground resources Volvo already has in place. Vehicle purchase—or subscription—will be via a web page, but shoppers can see the vehicle at its own urban showrooms. Traditional Volvo dealerships come into play as service and logistics hubs for concierge service.

Volvo says that a full reveal of the Polestar P2 is just a few weeks away.

Tesla plans to begin Model 3 deliveries to China in March

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2018 Tesla Model 3
Tesla has confirmed that it plans to start making deliveries of its Model 3 sedan to China in March.

That will complement an export strategy that’s ramping up in multiple ways. With the volume of U.S. deliveries potentially falling due to the reduced federal plug-in tax credit on Teslas in 2019, and the following a strong sales push through the end of 2018, Tesla will be focusing efforts in 2019 toward Europe as well as China. European deliveries, Tesla has said, will start in February.

DON'T MISS: Tesla ekes 4 more miles out of Model 3 Mid Range

Tesla has initially priced Model 3 for China at 499,000 yuan for the Dual Motor Long Range version and 560,000 yuan for the Performance version. That equates to about $72,600 and $81,500, respectively. Both are currently available for reservation in the automaker’s configurator for the Chinese market, and both will arrive in March.

In November Tesla cut its prices in China for the Model S and Model X by 12 to 26 percent in order to make the model more “affordable”—in reaction to the additional tariffs that were levied on U.S imports that made the cars much harder to sell. These official prices for Model 3 likely too reflect such an adjustment, as they're lower than the unconfirmed/projected prices leaked last fall.

CHECK OUT: Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2019: Tesla Model 3

Tesla then said that it was absorbing a significant part of the tariff, and said that the matter would force it to speed up investment in its China Gigafactory, to be located near Shanghai.

That facility, which will build the Model 3, upcoming Model Y crossover, and potentially other models, is expected to make up to 500,000 vehicles per year, with a potential production ramp-up starting late in 2020.

Tesla cuts prices $2,000, almost hit 250,000 vehicles in 2018

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2017 Tesla Model 3
Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk made a multi-layered end-of-year push, focused on Tesla's final days and weeks of $7,500 federal EV tax credit eligibility. And with more than 90,000 vehicle deliveries in the fourth quarter of the year—a new record for the California electric-car maker—it appears to have worked.

According to Tesla, it delivered 90,700 vehicles in Q4 2018—8 percent more than in Q3. That included 63,150 deliveries of its mass-market sedan, the Model 3.

DON'T MISS: What effect will lower tax credits on Tesla and GM plug-ins have in the new year?

Model 3 sales alone, for the full year, added up to more than 145,000 vehicles—not far from the 150,000 level, but falling short of some end-of-year estimates. In all, Tesla delivered 245,240 vehicles, which means the automaker is now in close company with any number of strong-selling established brands.

2018 Tesla Model S

The production rate for Q4 2018 included 86,555 vehicles, with 61,394 Model 3 sedans and 25,161 Model S and Model X vehicles. For the Model 3, that amounts to an average rate of 4,722 vehicles per week over the quarter—a fair amount below the 5,000/week rate that Tesla CEO Elon Musk said would be required to make the car profitable in 2018.

Tesla notes that it's reducing the number of models in transit through improvements to its logistics system. Deliveries exceeded production across both of Tesla's model lines, but the company didn't clarify whether that serves as evidence of the improvement.

CHECK OUT: Tesla offers to cover remainder of full tax credit if it can't deliver by year-end

It may prove easier to build stock this quarter because Tesla's eligibility window for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit has passed. Tesla is countering that, however, with a $2,000 U.S. price reduction for the Model 3, as well as the Model S and Model X. Since customers can still receive a federal tax credit of $3,750 on Tesla vehicles for the next six months, it helps soften what's effectively a price hike.

Tesla claims to have started 2018 with a delivery run rate of 120,000 vehicles and ended it at more than 350,000 vehicles per year. We've heard such claims before—like Musk's original target of 500,000 vehicles in 2020—so just as with the financials on the fourth quarter, we'll just have to wait for the numbers.

Pickup drivers target Tesla Superchargers in “ICEing” incidents

Dodge flatbed blocking a Tesla Supercharger in Tennessee, fake charging [CREDIT: freckletan, Reddit]
People are jealous of things they can't (or don't) have.

In a spate of incidents reminiscent of “rolling coal,” truck drivers have begun seemingly intentionally blocking whole banks of Tesla Superchargers across parts of the South.

Trucks blocking Tesla Supercharing station at Sheets in Hickory, N.C. [CREDIT: Leicina, Reddit]

Photos shared across Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit over the weekend showed all kinds of trucks blocking Superchargers, from small pickups to big semis. Some have termed it ICEing—a reference to the internal combustion engines under the hoods of the offending trucks.

The incidents occurred in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, and even overseas.

In two cases, whole rows of trucks either pulled across whole rows of Superchargers or backed in to block several at a time.

READ THIS: 'Rolling Coal' Fine Would Be $5,000 Under Proposed Illinois Law

In two more cases, semi-trucks pulled across rows of Superchargers, blocking them, when other parking was available.

Another time a full-size quad-cab pickup with a fifth-wheel horse trailer did the same.

One flat-bed pickup driver backed into a Supercharger spot and draped the cable onto his pickup bed so it would look like he was charging.

Trucks block Tesla Superchargers in at Hampton Inn, El Paso, Texas [CREDIT: RedfieldStandard, Reddit

So many incidents in a short period of time make it look like an organized campaign, though it's not yet clear who might be behind it.

In the North Carolina case, the pickup drivers reportedly began yelling obscenities about Tesla. Tesla driver and Reddit user Leicina contacted a Sheetz employee, who got the drivers to move the trucks. “Who do you report activity like this to?” Leicina wrote. “It was really uncomfortable.”

In an incident in El Paso, Texas, police were called.

CHECK OUT: What does a “green car” mean to you? Twitter poll results

Many cities have passed laws restricting parking at electric-car chargers, including Tesla Superchargers, to electric cars, or even to electric cars that are actively charging.

The incidents seem to reveal a growing hostility toward electric cars, or at least Teslas, as Tesla moves into more markets across the country.

President Trump has taken issue with electric cars from General Motors after the company laid off 15,000 workers and announced the closing of five factories, including the one that makes the Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. “All-electric is not going to work,” he tweeted.

DON'T MISS: Plug-in hybrids to charge again in Beverly Hills

And he has promised his constituents that he will save the coal industry, which has not recovered, even as electric-car sales have expanded.

It's also possible that Teslas are being targeted specifically because they are expensive luxury cars and qualify for a large federal tax credit. That credit is shrinking by half for buyers who take delivery after Monday, however. Tesla owns its Superchargers. They are not a government endeavor.