Author: Green Car Online News

Maserati joins ranks of EV holdouts among exotic automakers

Teaser for Maserati Alfieri sports car
Although it announced the end of using Ferrari engines in its cars last week, Italian luxury-carmaker Maserati won't be going all-electric any time soon.

“This is a brand that needs combustion engines,” Maserati's North American chief, Al Gardner, told Motor Trend in an interview earlier this month. “It needs that raw emotion,” he said.

As if electric cars can't deliver raw emotion. Just ask any Tesla Model S P100D or original Roadster owner.

And Tesla's electric cars have been running over the rest of the luxury passenger-car sector in sales, to become the top selling car in both the luxury sedan and premium sedan markets.

READ THIS: Jeep Grand Commander EV leads FCA electrification push

Gardner is adding Maserati's voice to a chorus of classic sports-car makers saying electric is not for them. Although Porsche's parent, the VW Group is going all-in on electric cars and has said that it will transition to an all-electric automaker and is currently developing its last combustion engine, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said last November that the 911 would never become an EV. (Although two hybrid variants of the 911 are reportedly under development.)

And Gardner made his statement in the face of Fiat Chrysler's business plan announced last June, showing that Maserati planned to launch eight new plug-in hybrids and four new battery electric vehicles by 2022, and that those vehicles would cover 68 percent of the company's lineup.

Maserati 2022 roadmap

At least some of the electric models would use 800-volt battery architecture for the fastest possible charging—up to 350 kilowatts, or an 80 percent, or bulk, charge in less than 10 minutes.

The company at the time said that the electric models would use three motors to provide torque-vectoring control, and have 50 percent more power than today's models.

Those plans aren't necessarily off the table, but according to Gardner, it won't be enough for the brand.

Just as Tesla wanted to stand out from the mass of internal-combustion cars when the company launched the Model S, Maserati and others are counting on the individualized character of internal combustion engines to stand out from the nearly silent crowd in the mainly-electric future.

EVgo fast-charge network commits to 100 percent renewable power

2019 Jaguar I-Pace at EVgo charger
If electric cars are supposed to clean up the environment and reduce global warming—and they are—EV drivers would like to rely on 100 percent renewable energy to do charge. And charging networks are striving to provide it.

Many, including Tesla with its Supercharger stations, are building new charging stations with solar canopies or stations with battery storage, or both.

READ MORE: Charging network EVgo goes tagless, tests battery buffers at stations

But there's more than one way to deliver clean power. Charging network EVgo announced last week that it signed contracts with all its power providers to deliver clean energy to all its chargers.

The company claims it will be the first charging network in the U.S. to provide 100 percent renewable electricity, and that it already receives all its electricity in California from wind and solar power. It did not specify whether all the new renewable power it will buy elsewhere will come only from wind and solar or whether it could include energy from other renewable sources such as hydro power or biomass.

CHECK OUT: EVgo launches first curbside fast chargers

Of course, that doesn't mean that every electron that flows into the battery came only from a windmill or solar panel. It only means that the money drivers pay to charge flows back to support such endeavors. As such systems expand, though, it pumps larger buckets of funding to building new renewable energy sources.
EVgo has also installed a variety of types of battery backups at several of its California stations to test what types of systems remain the most cost effective over the long run. It installed its first fast-charging solar-array canopy at a fast-charge station in Baker, California, in the desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas last year.

Dyson EV takes form, Maserati keeps engines, EVgo going all-renewable: Today’s Car News

2020 Opel Grandland X Hybrid4
British vacuum-cleaner maker Dyson patents some designs for a future electric car. Maserati boss says not all carmakers will go all-electric. EVgo commits to all-renewable energy sources. And an annual AAA survey on electric cars shows that more Americans think cars will drive themselves in 2030 than will be all-electric. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

New patent filings from electric-car hopeful and famous British vacuum maker Dyson show its first electric car could be an efficient crossover people-mover to compete with the Tesla Model X.

Maserati's North American boss says the brand won't go all electric, but will retain some gas engines to give its cars “character.”

EVgo, the largest network of fast-charge stations for electric cars, will commit to buying all renewable power for its chargers, going forward.

A new AAA survey shows that 40 percent of Americans think all cars will be electric by 2030—and 50 percent think they will be self-driving by then.

Rich Benoit, who became famous on YouTube for rebuilding a flooded, salvage Tesla and helping others with their Tesla problems, plans to expand his service by building his own shop.

Opel introduces its first extended-range electric vehicle in Europe, the Granland X Hybrid4 SUV.

Finally, BMW is teaming up with Microsoft to develop the next-generation voice assistant for cars. The two plan to develop an open-source voice recognition system that others could build on.

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VW ID 3 racks up 10,000 deposits in first day

2020 Volkswagen ID Neo spy shots
Three years after Tesla started taking $1,000 reservations for its Model 3, Volkswagen is racking up similar orders for its upcoming ID 3 hatchback in Europe.

Perhaps not to the degree, sure. Tesla amassed 180,000 orders for its “affordable” long-range electric car in one day in the US, while VW took 10,000 first-day deposits on the day it opened reservations for the ID 3 hatchback.

DON'T MISS: VW names fully electric hatchback ID 3, starts taking deposits in Europe

Still, the advanced orders are a hopeful sign for VW, after Tesla, Nissan, GM, and other automakers got a head start in building long-range electric cars.

Volkswagen said the orders exceeded its expectations, and said that in some cases its computer systems couldn't keep up with the deposits.

READ MORE: VW releases video of electric ID hatchback testing in South Africa

The company is booking reservations for the first edition of the ID 3, the ID 3 1ST, which comes with the long-range 62-kilowatt-hour battery pack, as well as 2,000 kwh of free public charging at Ionity fast charging stations around Europe.

The 62-kwh battery is expected to give the ID 3 a range of 260 miles on the notably generous European WLTP driving cycle. A shorter range, 48-kwh, is expected to deliver closer to 200 miles.

CHECK OUT: VW ID Buggy teases potential of electric-car platform with some beach fun

VW says the ID 3 will go into production by the end of 2019—about six months later than its original estimate—and the first cars will be delivered in Europe in mid-2020.

Volkswagen has no plans to sell the ID 3 the US, though it does plan to import future electric cars based on the ID 3's platform to the US, starting with the ID Crozz later in 2020.

First Mercedes-Benz EQC rolls off assembly line in Germany

2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC Edition 1886
German automakers have all said they will go all-in on electric cars, Yet so far, few have actually arrived, with the Audi E-tron trickling into a few U.S. dealerships last week.

Now Mercedes-Benz has announced that it produced its first new electric EQC SUV on Monday at its factory in Bremen, Germany. The car will go on sale in Europe, but is not expected to come to the U.S. until next year.

We're headed out to sample the EQC from behind the wheel and will update readers as soon as we've had a chance to gather first impressions.

CHECK OUT: Mercedes-Benz EQC Edition 1886 electric SUV kicks off a new era

In the meantime, Mercedes says the EQC's 80 kilowatt-hour battery will give it a range of 280 miles on the old, and very optimistic, New European Drive Cycle tests. That could equate to little more than 200 miles in the U.S., though Mercedes has said it will have as much as 279 miles of range when it goes on sale here.

The EQC's main competitor, the 2019 Audi E-tron quattro, which just went on sale, has only a 204-mile EPA range rating.

The EQC also includes a relatively fast 7.4-kilowatt Level 2 onboard charger.

DON'T MISS: It's a long(er) story? 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC scraps 200-mile range estimate

Mercedes announced European pricing, with a “base version” that starts at 71,281 euros, or just short of $80,000. That makes it slightly less expensive than the E-tron quattro in Europe.

With a “net basic price,” Mercedes says, of less than 60,000 euros (just over $67,000) it qualifies for Germany's 4,000-euro federal tax incentive for EVs.

READ MORE: 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC specs revealed (Updated)

Mercedes says the EQC will get between 3 and 3.3 miles per kilowatt-hour.

The EQC is based on Mercedes' GLC SUV and expected to go into production in the U.S. at Mercedes's Tuscaloosa, Alabama, factory late this year, with batteries produced at another plant near the factory.

Mercedes-Benz EQC, VW ID 3, FCA emissions boost Tesla: Today’s Car News

Tesla Model Y – introduction, Hawthorne CA, March 2019
Electric cars are starting to roll out from German automakers. Volkswagen gave a name to its new electric hatchback, and started taking orders. And Mercedes-Benz rolled the first electric EQC SUV off its assembly line in Germany. Details emerged of Fiat Chrysler's deal with Tesla to share emissions credits. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

Volkswagen opened its order banks for its first of a new generation of electric cars, the ID 3 electric hatchback, albeit only in Europe.

Mercedes-Benz also launched its new EQC electric SUV in Europe, with the first example rolling off the assembly line this week.

The emissions deal between Tesla and FCA announced last month could be worth a surprising amount to Tesla's bottom line.

And in our latest Twitter poll, most readers reported realizing the full amount of the federal tax credit if they bought an electric car last year. A sizable minority, however, didn't.

Google is revamping its Android Auto driving interface to give it a cleaner look, more flexibility, and simpler operation.

Finally, BMW says it will roll out a fleet of 500 fully-self-driving SUVs based on its iNext electric SUV concept, in 2021.

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Electrify America releases new pricing plans and mobile app

Electrify America DC fast chargers in Gulfport, Mississippi
A new debate is raging in the electric-car and charging communities: Whether electric-car drivers should pay for charging like gas, by the kilowatt-hour; or like parking, by the minute.

Electrify America, which has been firmly in the latter camp, released new pricing plans last week that takes a few steps toward the former.

With chargers getting faster all the time, it may make less sense to charge by the minute. Instead, the company will charge users for the time connected, yet also according to the charge rate, to help off-set the added costs of higher powered charging stations.

DON'T MISS: Electrify America turns on first 350-kw fast charger in California

Electric cars that can charge at rates charge faster than 125 kilowatts—about the speed of a Tesla Supercharger up until now—will pay the highest rates. The next highest will be cars that charge between 76 and 125 kw, and standard rates will apply to cars at 75 kw or less—about the speediest DC fast charges for most existing cars that offer the technology.

Cars that can accept charge rates of 100, and 150 kw are beginning to arrive on the market. The Audi E-tron quattro is the first capable of charging at 150 kw, which equates to 160 miles in about 20 minutes.

Electrify America, a charging-network division of Volkswagen formed under a court decree as part of VW's legal settlement over diesel emissions cheating, is in the vanguard of installing these state-of-the-art fast chargers. All of Electrify America's highway DC fast chargers it has installed have chargers capable of 150 kw, and at least one charger at each of its stations is a 350-kw unit (often two).

Under the decree, the company is required to have 484 charging stations open in 42 states by the end of 2019, when it plans to have 2,000 chargers online, and will continue to open more through 2025.

READ MORE: Electrify America lays out plans for second round of chargers in California

As faster-charging cars roll out, the company plans to reduce its standard per-minute rates as well, from 30 to 35 cents per minute (depending on the location) to 24 to 28 cents per minute, the company announced at an event at its headquarters in Virginia last week.

Drivers will still pay $1 to initiate a charging session and up to 40 cents per minute for parking after their charge is complete.

Those rates will be set according to different membership levels, which the company also announced at an event at its headquarters last week. The corresponding subscription plans mirror those of other charging networks, although Electrify America is required by its court decree to have credit-card readers that will allow any EV driver to initiate a charge.

CHECK OUT: One-step Plug&Charge coming to (Electrify) America

The first plan, called the “Electrify America Pass,” will include the mandatory $1 session fee. Users who sign up for the “Electrify America Pass +” for $4 a month, will get lower charging rates and additional discounts.

To help drivers keep track of that, the company also introduced a new app—as if EV drivers need yet another app to find and keep track of charging on their cell phones. While there are several more universal apps that will help drivers find accessible and compatible charging stations beyond a single network, the Electrify America app provides additional services such as tracking your charging session and notifications when the charge rate slows down (as apps from other networks already do.)

Electrify America calls the point at which the charge rate slows down, because the battery can no longer accept such fast charging without damage, the “bulk charge.”

Electrify America mobile app

Electrify America also says that the app will be able to upload users' payment info to initiate a charging session. In January, the company laid out plans to adopt the ISO's 15118 Plug&Charge standard which will transmit payment data via the car as soon as it's plugged in, but this announcement didn't further those plans.

The company said more specific rate details will be revealed at the end of May.

Electric car hopeful Nio closes California office amid layoffs

Nio ET Preview concept
Chinese electric-car startup Nio announced Thursday that it will close an office in California and lay off 70 workers, according to a report in The Verge.

The layoffs were filed with the California Employment Development Department.

After introducing two new SUVs alongside its high-performance electric sports car, Nio unveiled a new concept for its first sports sedan at the Shanghai auto show two weeks ago.

DON'T MISS: Nio unveils ET Preview electric sedan in Shanghai

The company closed its office in San Francisco where it employed 20 people and the company also laid off 50 workers at its U.S. headquarters in San Jose.

Nio began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in September, where its stock saw an initial spike, but has since dropped back to below its IPO level.

CHECK OUT: NIO aiming to innovate with battery cooling, patents suggest

In March, it revealed new patented battery cooling technology that cools the bus-bars in the battery and the junction box during fast charging.

Currently, Nio is the only company operating a network of electric-car battery swapping stations in China.

READ MORE: Electric carmaker Nio begins trading on NYSE, aims to sell cars in US

Nio had plans to build its own auto factory in China, but announced to investors in March that it had put those plans on hold in the face of “uncertainty” after the Chinese government cut subsidies on Chinese cars. For now, at least, it will continue to have its cars built at a contract-manufacturing facility owned by JAC Motors.

In a statement to The Verge, a Nio spokesperson said, “After four years of rapid growth, we’ve set up a global organization. However, fast development has also posed issues like repetitive functional departments, undefined work tasks, unclear work responsibilities, and insufficient work for certain people. We would like to solve them by optimizing management efficiency this year.”

Correction: An earlier version misidentified the number and location of the job cuts. Those figures have been corrected.

EVgo launches first curbside fast chargers

EVgo curbside DC fast chargers at Southside Park, Sacramento, California [CREDIT: EVgo]
With wires running along almost every street in America where cars drive, putting EV chargers along the curb would seem a natural enough place to put them.

While several other countries such as Britain have begun efforts to put charging stations on light poles, in America, chargers have been sited almost exclusively in parking lots and garages.

Now EVgo, a network of mainly DC fast chargers, has set up the first public fast chargers along the side of the street in Sacramento.

READ THIS: California utilities commission passes record incentives for chargers

The new installation, on 6th Street alongside the city's Southside park and blocks from the major interchange of Interstate 5 and the I-80 business loop, includes three 50-kilowatt DC fast chargers and three new 150-kw DC fast chargers that can provide up to 150 miles of range in less than 30 minutes.

The first cars capable of charging at that speed are just beginning to arrive on the U.S. market with the rollout of the Audi E-tron quattro this month.

DON'T MISS: EVgo, Chargepoint annual reports show growth in electric-car charging

The park is a popular place for locals to hang out, with a pond, and a certified farmers' market, and lots of neighborhood restaurants and shops.

The new 150-kw chargers will have both 175-kw Combo plugs and 100-kw CHAdeMO plugs, while the 50-kw chargers will have both types of plugs rated at 50-kw. (Teslas can use an adapter.) All six chargers are made by ABB.

CHECK OUT: EVgo launches first public 350-kw fast charger

One challenge was to secure the right of way to reserve parking for EVs at the charging spaces on the street.

“Low-cost and convenient EV charging on our city streets will make it easy for residents and visitors alike to shift to electric vehicles and away from fossil fuels,” said Sacramento Councilmember Steve Hansen. “Now … users will be able get the charge they need and take time to enjoy the park, walk to Insight Coffee, or enjoy the Sunday Farmers Market.”

Polestar will qualify for $7,500 electric-car credit separately from Volvo

Polestar 2
The 2021 Polestar 2 will look and feel a lot like a Volvo, but federal and state regulators won't treat it like one in the U.S. when it comes to qualifying for various green-car incentives.

The biggest incentive is the $7,500 offered as an Internal Revenue Service tax credit for the first 200,000 electric cars sold by an automaker.

READ MORE: 2020 Volvo XC60 T8, 2020 V60 T8 plug-in hybrids get Polestar Engineered performance

“We get the full credit, the $7,500 is there and it's not attached to Volvo,” spokesman J.P. Canton told Green Car Reports at a private media unveiling of the Polestar 2 electric sedan in San Francisco. “We have to sell 200,000 Polestars until it runs out.”

That leaves the door open for Volvo to earn up to 200,000 of the $7,500 federal credits on its own electric cars (minus the few plug-in hybrids the Swedish brand has sold so far) alongside state, and other credits.

The separate, untapped $7,500 incentive pool could give Polestar a big advantage out of the gate compared to General Motors and Tesla, which have both sold more than 200,000 qualifying vehicles in the U.S.

READ ALSO: Tesla Model 3 vs. Polestar 2: How the two electric cars compare

“Polestar Automotive USA is a separate brand,” said Gregor Hembrough, Polestar's head in the U.S., clarifying that the cars will be registered not as Volvos but as Polestars.

The Polestar 2 is a high-riding all-wheel-drive electric sedan that began life as a Volvo concept car intended to replace the S40, but its design was transferred to Polestar. It is fitted with a pair of 150-kilowatt electric motors and a 78-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery stuffed in its driveline tunnel.

The car is expected to go on sale by the end of the second quarter of 2020 in the U.S., initially in West Coast markets. Though select Volvo dealers will actually handle logistics of the Polestar sales, the automaker plans to build gallery-like showrooms staffed with product experts not on commission—similar in concept to those used by Tesla.