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Ola Electric becomes India’s newest unicorn with new $250 million investment from SoftBank

India’s Ola is further widening its lead over Uber in the nation — and getting the help it needs from their mutual investor. Ola Electric has raised $250 million from SoftBank as India’s largest ride hailing firm pushes to scale its electric vehicles business in the country. The Series B financing round, details of which… Continue reading Ola Electric becomes India’s newest unicorn with new $250 million investment from SoftBank

BMW isn’t finished with internal combustion engines yet

Many automakers now see electric vehicles as the long-range future of the passenger vehicle.

What may actually say more though, in the language of corporate nuance, is that few companies have gone so far as to solidly declare that the end is nigh for internal combustion engines.

Among the examples that have been so bold: Volvo won’t develop a new generation of engines after its present one; and Volkswagen will develop its last generation of internal-combustion tech in 2026. Both brands might of course keep building the engines for a decade or more after freezing development.

Don’t count BMW in that group. BMW plans to keep investing in the engineering and development of internal combustion engines for a long time—with diesel engines expected to be part of the automaker’s global product line for at least 20 years and gasoline engines for at least 30 years.

2019 BMW M2 Competition

That reality check, from remarks made by Klaus Fröhlich, the company’s BMW Group board member in charge of development, to Automotive News, stands as a sharp reality check to what was otherwise the news from BMW’s NextGen event in Munich earlier this week: electricfication.
The event this week brought a series of sweeping electric-vehicle announcements that included a stepped-up plan to electrify its lineup and bring 25 new plug-in models by 2023.

BMW Concept iX3

Fröhlich, who called the shift to electrification “overhyped” and pointed to issues with battery raw materials, noted that even with the most optimistic assumption of electric vehicle adoption, at least 80 percent of its vehicles would still have an internal-combustion engine in 2025.

Beyond then, even, the lack of a charging infrastructure may slow the adoption of fully electric vehicles in Russia, the Middle East, and even Western China, Froelich said.

The continued development of IC engines by BMW runs counter to what many inside the industry have predicted. In 2017, for instance, Wolfgang Schaefer, the CFO of the supplier Continental, predicted that investment and engineering for engines would taper off between 2023 and 2025.

That said, there will be casualties as engine lineups get trimmed down. Some of BMW’s specialty diesel engines won’t be replaced. BMW’s gasoline V-12 used in Rolls-Royce products might not be around much longer either. And BMW is currently putting together a case to save something Americans hold near and dear: the V-8.

Lightyear aims to build solar-team expertise into an electric car

If the future is electric, the latest electric-car startup company looks more like the future than most.

Dutch startup company Lightyear is developing a futuristic-looking sedan with sleek aerodynamics, wheel-hub motors, and 53 square feet of solar panels on the roof and hood. That could amount to about 795 watts of solar power—about three-quarters as much as is claimed for Europe's upcoming Sono Sion solar-assisted electric car.

Lightyear says the panels are enough to add 7.5 miles of range per hour on a sunny day. But there are plenty of asterisks we should add to a claim like that—such that it's a rate you likely won't ever see unless you're out in an open field in the middle of summer, at noon, parked at a very specific angle.

Lightyear was born out of solar race team in the World Solar Challenge, Solar Team Eindhoven. is tied for the most wins in the race across Australia. The team, based out of Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, has been looking to commercialize its technology since 2012.

The five-seat Lightyear One is all about efficiency, from its sleek aerodynamic shape to its unique wheel motors that eliminate the need for a transmission and allow space for a bigger battery. Lightyear claims it can drive 400 miles on a charge given sufficient sunlight to feed the solar panels. It has not specified the battery size but said that in a worst-case scenario the Lightyear One will have almost 250 miles of range.

Lightyear One

The car can also accept DC fast charging up to 60 kilowatts, likely using the CCS standard.

With no transmission, the wheel motors are capable of 0-62 mph acceleration in the 10-second range—more like a Prius than a Tesla.

The styling—somewhat reminiscent of a 1980s Citroën CX—was crafted by Italy's Granstudio and has among the best drag-coefficients of any production car, the company says, with an overall height of just 52 inches, a little taller than a Subaru BR-Z sports car.

At a price of more than $135,000, the Lightyear One is clearly aimed at a more luxury than mainstream market, and the company says it will build only 500 of them, starting in 2021. That could put it in competition with the Lucid Air and Tesla Model S.

Lightyear plans to follow up the model with more affordable, mainstream sedans and to build in some self-driving features in future models.

Cooling issue slowing some Electrify America fast chargers over holiday week (Updated)

This story has been updated to clarify Electrify America's steps to stabilize the affected charging units, and the as-yet-undetermined timeline to bring them back to full charging power.

Drivers of the Audi E-tron electric SUV aiming for a holiday-week road trip could be up for a longer wait at the charging station.

It's no fault of the vehicle, and it's not a widespread issue; but if you have an E-tron it would be cause for some advance planning. The charging network Electrify America today announced that it will temporarily reduce the power of 30 of its fastest (for current vehicles) 150-kw CCS DC stations due to concerns over a potential coolant leak.

150-kw Electrify America charger – The Cannery, Sacramento CA

The affected systems, from the charging-hardware provider Efacec, have a built-in safety mechanism that will shut them down automatically if the coolant issue arises. In the meantime, to make sure they keep running, Electrify America is helping rapidly deploy a software update that will limit the output power of the chargers. It is following that up within the next week, with a firmware update and physical adjustments that together will be done by a technician.

The affected models, the HV160 and HV350, are capable of providing power levels of up to 160 kw and 320 kw, respectively. It's a global issue, not one specific to Electrify America.

Electrify America stresses that the issue affects liquid-cooled CCS connectors; CHAdeMO connectors aren’t impacted. They also emphasize that most of their charging stations—and most of their higher-power stations—are operating at full capacity.

Electrify America mobile app

Stations with reduced power will be indicated within the EA app, as well as on PlugShare. Session fees will be waived during this time, and chargers will operate with the lowest per-minute rate.

At present, E-tron owners might be the only ones to notice the difference. A few other new electric vehicles from Hyundai and Kia using CCS can go beyond 50 kw but not past 100 kw. The Kia Niro EV, for instance, will hit a claimed 100 kw for a brief time; and the Hyundai Kona Electric will top out at around 70 kw.

While these stations will be running and a functional part of the network for the foreseeable future, the slowdown might not be resolved in time for peak road-trip season. Electrify America is dispatching maintenance technicians to the affected stations for the firmware and adjustments, but a followup visit will be required to retrofit the hardware to Efacec's specifications—details and timeline yet to be announced.

Waymo makes autonomous vehicles available to Lyft riders

VIDEO5:2505:25Self-driving Waymo minivans are now available on Lyft in ArizonaSquawk BoxWaymo, a subsidiary of Google-parent Alphabet which is developing autonomous vehicles and related services, has officially expanded its reach and is now making some of its self-driving minivans available for customers of ride-share firm Lyft.
The rides are restricted to a small area just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, where Waymo has been testing self-driving vehicles and has started its own autonomous ride-share service called Waymo One.
Waymo's limited partnership with Lyft is the latest example of the company branching out to work with more companies as it develops autonomous vehicles and services. Earlier this month, Waymo struck a deal with Nissan and Renault to build self-driving vehicles for those automakers.
By partnering with Lyft, Waymo CEO John Krafcik believes the relationship gives both companies “the opportunity to collect valuable feedback.” For Waymo it will be able to better gauge how the public interacts with a self-driving vehicle. Until now, those getting rides in Waymo vehicles in the Phoenix area have been pre-screened and accepted into the Waymo early rider program.
Waymo's steady expansion comes as competitors are making their own plans to roll autonomous ride-share services. Later this year, General Motors subsidiary Cruise, is expected to unveil an autonomous ride-share service in a small area in or near San Francisco.
Uber, which dominates the ride-share industry in the U.S., is also working on its own fleet of self-driving vehicles. Earlier this month, Eric Meyhofer, the head of Uber's Advanced Technologies Group, told CNBC his company is working to deploy self-driving cars without safety drivers in limited areas. But he said Uber wants to be in “the good graces of public trust and regulatory trust” before deciding when to roll out Uber vehicles without someone behind the wheel.
Michelle Krebs, an analyst for Autotrader, believes widespread deployment of self-driving vehicles, whether in a ride-share program or elsewhere, is still years from happening.
VIDEO6:1806:18Tesla could surprise to the upside with autonomous driving: AnalystTrading Nation “Nobody knows the right answers technically, and certainly, nobody knows the right answer for building a business model,” she said. “So I think there is going to be a lot of partnering up, changing partners, and figuring out strategies before this settles out, and I think that's a way down the road.”
For now, Waymo is making just a handful of its vehicles available in the Phoenix area and eventually, up to 10 Waymo self-driving minivans will be eligible for Lyft rides. The service will be limited to those Lyft customers planning to start and complete a ride within the geofenced area where Waymo vehicles have been operating.
When Lyft customers in certain suburbs of Phoenix call up the app on the phone and look for a ride, they will be offered the chance to be shuttled in a Waymo autonomous-drive minivan or a traditional Lyft vehicle with a human driver. The Waymo minivans in the Lyft program will all have a safety driver behind the wheel.