Author: Green Car Online News

Future Tesla Autopilot chips may come from Samsung self-driving push

2017 Tesla Model S testing at Consumer Reports
The race to build self-driving cars is heating up, with Google (Waymo), Tesla, Uber, Lyft, Ford, GM (Cruise), and others all vying to build the first reliable self-driving system.

Now add Korean electronics giant Samsung to that list—with a twist. Its first client could be one of the major competitors in the business, Tesla.

Tesla once had a partner in developing self-driving software, Israel's Mobileye, when it first launched its Autopilot system to great fanfare in 2014.

DON'T MISS: Teslas to get new self-driving, Autopilot chip in spring 2019

After a widely reported fatal accident in Florida tied to the company's original Version 1 Autopilot system, which used the Mobileye hardware, Tesla has been on its own to develop the next-generation Autopilot 2 hardware.

In October, the company introduced new software that enabled full on-ramp to off-ramp self-driving in the system it calls Navigate on Autopilot, on existing Autopilot chips. CEO Elon Musk has since tweeted that with the upcoming faster chips, the system will be able to handle commuting from home to work without human intervention.

Industry sources told the Investors Business Times that Samsung has been on a hiring spree for electronics engineers with automotive experience.

CHECK OUT: Consumer Reports tests Tesla's Navigate on Autopilot

Musk announced in October that the company would roll out new, faster chips in the spring that will enable the company's long-promised Full Self-Driving Mode features, which many customers have pre-paid for. He tweeted that the new chip will be 50 to 200 times faster than the current hardware.

IBT sources say that Samsung has already begun assembling the chips expected to be rolled out to the Model 3 in March.

Central to Musk's plan to have Navigate on Autopilot work in more situations and on surface streets is having more drivers use the system and feed driving data back to Tesla's artificial intelligence servers. If a new chip is also on horizon, however, more data may not be enough.

READ MORE: Tesla drivers log 1 billion miles on Autopilot

Samsung has denied the rumors that it is forming a new self-driving car division.

The insiders noted that Samsung's practice is to line up a leading customer before launching new business lines.

With the Consumer Electronics Show on the horizon in Las Vegas early next month, it wouldn't be surprising to see the electronics giant introduce such a system there.

Green Car Reports reached out to Tesla for comment on this story, but had not heard back before publication.

Chinese electric sports car Qiantu K50 might be made in U.S., with Coda connection

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Qiantu K50
There's quite a list of Chinese automakers that are relatively unknown outside China yet have grand plans to enter the U.S. market. The latest is China’s Qiantu Motor, which is developing an all-electric luxury sports car called the K50,

The K50 will be sold through California’s Mullen, which claims to be “the affordable electric car company”—although at a price tag that’s the equivalent of more than $100,000 in China, this vehicle may serve as something of a flagship.

Last week Mullen announced a “strategic cooperation agreement” with Qiantu to co-develop, assemble, and exclusively market the K50 in North America—with a potential arrival as soon as 2020.

DON’T MISS: China will lead US in electric cars for this one reason

The K50 is built on an aluminum structure with carbon fiber closures (hood, trunk lid and, we would assume, doors as well). Its 402 horsepower, from two electric motors enables a 0-62 mph acceleration time of 4.6 seconds, and a top speed of 124 mph. With a 78-kilowatt-hour battery pack, it has a claimed 236-mile range on the highly optimistic old European NEDC standard—so likely something less than that for the EPA cycle.

Qiantu K50

If it does arrive via Mullen, it would be quite the contrast piece. Up until now, Mullen has included several car dealerships and primarily sold low speed vehicles, which are limited to 25 mph and intended for golf courses, resorts, large private subdivisions, and urban streets with speed limits of 35 mph or less. It also purchased pieces of the long-defunct electric-vehicle maker Coda, which took a compact Chinese sedan, with 1990s Mitsubishi roots, that was assembled as a “roller” in China, and then upfitted it with an electric powertrain in the U.S.

CHECK OUT: 2012 Coda Sedan: First Drive

In October, Mullen entered a joint-venture agreement with two different companies—Beijing Kingdom Motors (BKM), and Zhejiang Jonway Group. Mullen will be responsible for homologating a BKM vehicle, to be sold as the Mullen 750. And it claims the venture with Jonway will result in an SUV, commercial vehicles, and other passenger vehicles. That company, Mullen claims, has “a set of incredibly versatile and friendly family vehicles that will resonate with the US consumer.”

Starting with that project, Mullen even aims to build passenger vehicles locally “in California and/or Nevada”—which we would have to assume would be in the same way it upfits the Coda Sedan.

Mullen 700e

The company claims to have a “breakthrough battery technology.” Some of Coda’s original launch materials, like an introduction video, remain in use by Mullen eight years later. Some claims in Mullen's material—like that 31-kwh battery pack being 30 percent larger than others—are sorely out of date.

READ MORE: Coda Electric Car Returns From Dead As Mullen 700e At LA Auto Show

We’ve reached out to Mullen for clarification, as the company hasn’t revealed whether this is the same lithium-iron-phosphate pack that powered the Coda Sedan, or if it’s been updated. The Coda Sedan was EPA-rated at 88 miles of range, and Coda was working on a future upgrade to 50 kwh.

In September Mullen hired Weipin Zou, the former senior engineer for Coda, who worked at Faraday Future for some of the years in between.

Coda’s biggest weakness at the time, outside of its unreasonably high price, was the anonymity and relatively poor assembly quality of the car itself, not its powertrain. With all the rapid improvement that Chinese-market vehicles have undergone this decade—K50 sports car or not—we could end up with some interesting electric vehicle possibilities.

GM battery facility discharge suggests no immediate successor for Chevy Volt

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2019 Chevrolet Volt
Will the Chevrolet Volt get an immediate successor, or will any other model soon carry on with the potential of its brilliant Voltec plug-in hybrid system?

Considering what General Motors announced yesterday, both of those possibilities are now looking less likely.

GM said that it will cut 50 jobs at the Brownstown facility that assembled battery packs for the Volt, as well as a few other models, including the Buick LaCrosse and its eAssist system.

DON'T MISS: What will happen now that the Chevy Volt has been discontinued? Twitter poll results

This news comes in addition to GM’s previously announced plant closings and layoffs, which include the closure of five plants and the layoffs of 15,000 workers. One of those slated for closure is GM’s nearby Detroit-Hamtramck plant, where the Volt is assembled.

2019 Chevrolet Volt

GM had previously suggested that the Volt would be succeeded by a crossover utility vehicle, using the Volt’s Voltec plug-in hybrid system, after the current Volt finished its run around 2020. But with the Volt unceremoniously cut from the lineup as part of massive GM cuts and closings announced late last month, it’s looking a lot less likely.

It’s probably no coincidence that the Volt will go out of production on March 1, 2019, a month before GM’s per-vehicle amount for the federal EV tax credit (Volt included) drops from its present $7,500 to $3,750. With that rule sunsetting, GM no longer has the incentive to produce plug-in hybrids with rather large 16-kwh battery packs (the current version has an 18.4-kwh battery), and it’s likely that the expensive-to-assemble Volt will be eclipsed by new fully electric vehicles from GM.

CHECK OUT: Electric cars “not going to work,” Trump says of GM's plan

It’s an odd juxtaposition of funding and priorities. GM invested $449 million toward upgrading Hamtramck and Brownstown in 2014 for the current generation of the Volt, and Brownstown itself was made possible, in 2010, with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as a facility for the assembly of lithium-ion battery packs.

“We issued a WARN [Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act] letter for Brownstown that indicated that 37 hourly employees and 13 salaried employees would go on layoff with the end of Volt production,” confirmed Kim Carpenter, a GM spokeswoman for manufacturing and labor, to Green Car Reports. The plant will remain open and “will continue to support other business,” added Carpenter, who said that there are currently 110 GM employees at Brownstown.

READ MORE: GM to kill Chevy Volt production in 2019 (Updated)

Those businesses are likely to include GM’s joint ventures with Honda, including development of battery cells and modules, fuel-cell development, and plans to assemble next-generation fuel-cell stacks for both automakers at Brownstown.

Battery pack assembly for 2015 Chevrolet Spark EV electric car at GM's Brownstown, Michigan, plant

GM confirmed that no Honda employees work at the facility itself, so It’s likely that many of the 60 GM employees that remain stationed at Brownstown are part of those efforts.

One possible explanation for this closure is that GM simply decided to cut its losses and outsource the battery for any future iteration of the Volt and its drive system to LG Chem, which has been involved in the Volt’s battery all along and now assembles packs for the Chevy Bolt EV in a Michigan facility of its own. So it’s far too early to write an obituary for the Volt or to strike out the possibility of a Voltec crossover.

EVgo launches first public 350-kw fast charger

EVgo 350-kw DC fast-charge station, Baker, Calif.
The desert is full of apparitions. The latest is a high-powered DC fast charger for electric cars that don't yet exist.

This apparition is an EVgo charging station in Baker, California, the “Gateway to Death Valley” on Interstate 40, halfway between L.A. and Las Vegas, installed last week.

DON'T MISS: Porsche already has a prototype that will charge faster than its 350-kw Taycan

The new station is equipped with every electric-car charging buzzword, including a solar canopy—both to collect 20 kilowatts of energy from the blazing desert sun and to shield drivers from it—battery storage, and fast charging that can reach speeds of up to 350 kilowatts—a speed no electric cars yet on the market can handle.

A 350-kw DC fast charger can replenish about 240 miles in a long-range, 300-mile electric car in less than half an hour.

EVgo isn't the only charging network that has begun installing 350-kw fast chargers. Electrify America installed one two weeks ago in Livermore, in northern California. Ionity, a charging network in Europe supported by that continent's major automakers, has installed several in Germany. Porsche and BMW even opened a 450-kw demonstration site in Dresden last week.

READ MORE: Porsche's 800-Volt fast charging for electric cars: why it matters

Cars designed to use such fast chargers include the upcoming Porsche Taycan electric, its corporate stablemate the Audi e-tron GT, the Aston Martin Rapide-E, and some new cars from startup electric carmakers, such as the Lucid Air. None are on the market, but the Porsche, Audi, and Aston Martin are expected to be delivered to customers within two years.

The 350-kw fast charger can also slow down to speeds that today's cars can accept.

CHECK OUT: Electrify America switches on the first 350 KW fast charging station in Chicopee, Mass.

Along with the super-fast charger are two 50-kw DC fast chargers, and one new 150-kw and 175-kw station each. All have both CHAdeMO and CCS Combo plugs.

All five chargers at the site are connected to 88 kilowatt-hours of second-life batteries from BMW i3s which store power from the solar panels for use when cars need to charge. The station is similar to a smaller one that EVgo installed in a University of California, San Diego pilot project, though that station does not include a 350-kw charger.

Independent group aims to be for emissions what NCAP or IIHS is for crash safety

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Portable Emissions Measurement Systems (PEMS) on a Peugeot 308
A newly formed organization called Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) wants to make impartial emissions ratings available to vehicle shoppers.

Using a simple rating from A (best) to H (worst), they would tell you, at a quick glance, how much you’re endangering the health of your family with tailpipe pollutants.

Although the idea may seem new, it’s certainly not without precedent. Before the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the U.S. New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) became more rigorous, comprehensive programs for occupant safety in the 2000s, it was difficult for shoppers to make an informed decision about the relative safety of vehicles. Shoppers know that a vehicle met minimums, but it wasn’t always readily apparent which ones went above and beyond.

DON’T MISS: EPA finally rules tailpipe emissions are harmful: Another reason to buy electric cars

For emissions, it remains a bit like that time, before crash-test programs became tougher and more transparent. And the Volkswagen diesel scandal has left the auto industry bruised and consumers distrustful.

Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) infosheet

By providing impartial test results, such a plan could actually help automakers stabilize the downfall of diesel vehicles, restoring trust, to some degree, rather than leaving owners bracing for the next emissions scandal. And of course it would point out which diesels stay true to their efficiency and emissions promises.

Most U.S. emissions approvals are granted based on paperwork filed by automakers, from results measured in their own labs, possibly run on other continents with various conversion factors applied, and spot-checked only sporadically by the EPA.

AIR, which is currently seeking members, aims to build trust in the wake of dieselgate and provide “genuinely independent information.” It’s pushing for a “prompt and cost-effective approach to emissions that can also immediately address the diesel NOx emissions crisis, and do so in an accessible, transparent, and accountable way.”

CHECK OUT: Mixed messages on future of diesel at Geneva auto show

AIR’s solution to the issue is to create an independent, on-the-road vehicle test and rating system—with the test process transparent and the data available to everyone. There is one corporate partner built into this test—the UK’s Emissions Analytics, a maker of Portable Emissions Measuring Systems (PEMS).

Allow Independent Road-testing (AIR) infosheet

Using PEMS equipment, each vehicle will be given a four-hour test through the same driving loop. After the test, vehicles will be rated into those eight different letter-grade categories. AIR sees the results as helping consumers make the right vehicle choice, helping municipalities and governments develop policies, and allowing automakers to regain consumer trust.

Most immediately, the group is casting its attention toward diesel. It claims to be “the only global initiative that provides a prompt and cost-effective approach to the current diesel NOx emissions crisis.”

AIR argues that the laboratory-based Real Driving Emissions (RDE) test that the EU has introduced doesn’t go far enough, as it still allows automakers to perform their own tests, isn’t standardized to a particular driving cycle, and only affects vehicles that are entirely new.

READ MORE: 8 things you should know about EPA plan to let cars emit more (cutting fuel economy as well)

So far AIR is only for Europe, but it’s a global effort—one that includes emissions expert Dan Gardner, who was the leader of the West Virginia University group that first broke the news, in published form, that Volkswagen’s TDI diesel engines weren’t even coming close to meeting their meeting their emissions claims in real-world use.

The group aims to push automakers to provide a reduction in harmful urban emissions by ensuring that vehicle fleet emissions are the lowest possible. It ultimately hopes to test 1500 vehicle models.

Because of crash-test programs like NCAP and the IIHS and their sought-after five-star and Top Safety Pick+ accolades, automakers no longer aim to merely meet the minimum occupant protection required by the law. The formation of AIR, likewise, should encourage automakers to produce vehicles that don’t just comply, but actually pollute as little as possible—because the details of how far above and beyond they actually went will no longer be lost in the smoggy haze.

Electric cars “not going to work,” Trump says of GM’s plan

Donald Trump
In an interview with Fox News last week, President Trump revealed his inner thoughts about electric cars—not that many had any doubts.

“All-electric is not going to work,” he said, referring to General Motors' stated goal to transition to “a world with zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion.” The company announced last year that it will launch 20 new hybrid, plug-in, and electric cars by 2023 to meet more stringent emissions standards in China, Europe, California, and elsewhere.

READ THIS: GM to kill Chevy Volt production in 2019

Referring to GM CEO Mary Barra's announcement of the plan, Trump said, ““They’ve changed the whole model of General Motors. They’ve gone to all-electric. All-electric is not going to work … It’s wonderful to have it as a percentage of your cars, but going into this model that she’s doing I think is a mistake.”

DON'T MISS: Trump vows retaliation against GM for layoffs

GM announced last month that it would shut down five assembly plants, including the Detroit Hamtramck factory that builds the Chevy Volt and the Lordstown, Ohio, factory that builds the compact Chevrolet Cruze that underpins the Volt. At the same time, the company plans to lay off 15,000 workers. Those workers, in Michigan and Ohio were some of the supporters that handed Trump the election in 2016.

CHECK OUT: Is Trump presidency the real market test for electric cars?

When GM made the announcement in the end of November, Trump vowed retaliation against the company, and he reiterated that stance last week. “I don’t like what she did,” Trump told Fox News, referring to Barra. “It was nasty. To tell me a couple of weeks before Christmas that she’s going to close in Ohio and Michigan, not acceptable to me. General Motors is not going to be treated well.”

As GM as looked to ramp up production in China to meet the country's demand for electric cars, Trump has imposed new tariffs on Chinese-made products to make them harder to import. That has thrown a monkey wrench into GM's plans (and those of other automakers) to sell some of those cars in the U.S.

Hyundai plans to take hydrogen fuel-cell systems beyond vehicles

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Hyundai Mobis fuel cell announcement
Hyundai sees a lot of potential in hydrogen fuel-cell technology. And it may find success with it by looking well past cars and SUVs—to other uses that could, as the company puts it, “transcend the transportation sector.”

With this week’s opening of a second plant making fuel-cell systems, in Chungju, South Korea, Hyundai's Mobis unit will increase its annual production of fuel-cell systems from its current 3,000 annual units to 40,000 units by 2022.

DON’T MISS: 2019 Hyundai Nexo: first drive of 380-mile fuel-cell crossover utility

The plan, called FCEV Vision 2030, highlights the parent company’s “commitment to accelerate the development of a hydrogen society.”

By 2030, Hyundai Motor Group aims to make 700,000 fuel-cell systems annually, of which 500,000 would be units for personal-use and commercial fuel-cell electric vehicles. That leaves 200,000 units for drones, vessels, and forklifts and other uses outside transportation such as power generation and energy storage systems.

That’s still a very small portion of what the company currently produces; in 2018 it expected 7.7 million worldwide vehicle sales across Hyundai and Kia.

CHECK OUT: 2019 Hyundai Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle pricing: Puzzling economics

To accomplish this plan, Hyundai established a dedicated division for fuel-cell business this month. Under the program, the Hyundai Motor Group and its suppliers plan to invest $6.8 billion to expand R&D operations and facilities, with an estimated 51,000 new jobs created.

Hyundai justifies the very steep growth curve by citing a McKinsey & Company study, pointing to an estimated global demand for up to 6.5 million fuel cell systems by 2030.

Hyundai Nexo

The 2019 Hyundai Nexo, which showcases the potential of a new generation of fuel-cell tech from the brand, with an estimated 380-mile range, will be available by sale or lease starting in January—albeit only in California, where a nascent commercial fueling infrastructure exists. That model is going to be the first test vehicle for a Level 4 automated-driving project with the autonomous-vehicle tech company Aurora.

READ MORE: Toyota enters $82 million partnership to roll out hydrogen trucks in Los Angeles port

Honda and GM continue to work on a next-generation fuel-cell system that will be produced in Michigan, and Toyota has confirmed that it’s looking to put the technology into more affordable, mass-market vehicles as well as commercial trucks and buses.

There’s another reason why Hyundai should be so bullish on fuel cells. The South Korean government is subsidizing a $2.3 billion plan to support various stages of the hydrogen fuel-cell development chain, including automakers, as well as 310 new hydrogen fueling stations.

Given the biggest limitation for fuel-cell technology in the U.S. today—a lack of hydrogen fueling infrastructure—aiming the growth of the technology toward commercial uses and very well-defined use cases could be a good plan to play on its strengths.

Porsche already has a prototype that will charge faster than its 350-kw Taycan

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FastCharge 450-kilowatt charging station prototype
The Porsche Taycan, when it arrives toward the end of 2019, will likely have the quickest, highest-power DC fast charging of any production vehicle.

But Porsche apparently is already setting its sights higher. Yesterday, as part of a research consortium that includes BMW, it presented a prototype for using CCS-standard charging hardware at up to 450 kw at 800 volts, which can also operate at 400 volts for cars that don't have 800-volt systems. Porsche says that the new hardware promises charging rates three to nine times faster than what’s currently available.

DON’T MISS: Porsche Taycan specs trickle out ahead of debut next year

Although charging-station operators would have to make big plans for siting such stations, the hardware doesn’t need to make as much of a leap. Most makers of fast-charging hardware have already targeted charging up to 460 kw, or as high as 500 kw, depending on the maker, at a maximum of 920 to 1,000 volts. The system uses the liquid-cooled cables intended for 150 kw and beyond, and the same connector used by other CCS hardware.

FastCharge 450-kilowatt charging station prototype

In the research prototype, a Cayenne SUV, Porsche points to the “innovative cooling system” that provides “even, gentle temperature control in the battery cells” as one of the keys to the vehicle’s high charging capacity. It does not clarify whether it’s the same system as what’s to be used in the Taycan (and subsequent Audi e-tron GT).

CHECK OUT: Audi e-tron GT electric sports car is its take on Porsche Taycan

The vehicle, with a 90-kwh battery pack, was put to the test at over 400 kw, which Porsche says allowed it to regain the first 62 miles of range in less than three minutes. Given that one piece of information, and the way that higher-power DC charging often works with current cell technology, it’s likely that the system tapers its power down significantly after that.

A BMW i3 prototype with a 57-kwh battery pack, however, did charge with the system from 10 percent up to 80 percent state of charge—about 165 miles of added range, based on EPA ratings, in just 15 minutes.

The prototype is on a real stretch of German autobahn, and the project is funded by the German government, as part of an $8.9 million Fast Charge research project that started in July 2016. The related consortium includes the BMW Group, Allego, Phoenix Contact, and Siemens, as well as Porsche.