Tag: BMW

UPDATE 2-BMW moves UK Mini plant shutdown to just after Brexit in case of no deal

(Adds supplier comment on JLR) By Costas Pitas LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) – German carmaker BMW said it will move the annual maintenance shutdown period for its British Mini plant to just after Britain is due to leave the European Union in April, in case there is no Brexit deal. Carmakers generally close their factories… Continue reading UPDATE 2-BMW moves UK Mini plant shutdown to just after Brexit in case of no deal

Honda: No-deal Brexit ‘would cost millions’

The senior vice president of Honda Europe has warned that a no-deal Brexit would cost his company tens of millions of pounds. Ian Howells told the BBC that quitting the bloc without an agreement would affect the carmaker’s competitiveness in Europe. He said the Japanese firm was preparing for a no-deal outcome but had not… Continue reading Honda: No-deal Brexit ‘would cost millions’

British engineering firm brings lightweight race car design to production cars

Gordon Murray Design iStream construction
British race car design company Gordon Murray Design showed off its new lightweight race car body last week at the Low Carbon Vehicle Show in England.

The company calls its body-in-white—an industry term for a car body with no components attached—iStream, and it says it's the result of a new process it patented to make lightweight racing technology easier to manufacture.

CHECK OUT: 2019 Mercedes-Benz A-Class sedan sets wind-cheating record

Cutting weight can make all kinds of cars more efficient, from pure electric, to hybrids, to conventional cars. Automakers have known how to make cars lighter for a long time, but the lightweight, affordable, and easy to manufacture trifecta has been a challenge.

Gordon Murray Design said that thanks to its patented manufacturing methods, the iStream is expected to be half the weight of a comparably-sized conventional steel body at the same cost. Like the BMW i3, the iStream uses a carbon fiber reinforced body structure paired to an aluminum pan that holds the vehicle's mechanical components.

READ MORE: Carbon fiber from plants close to carbon-neutral? Scientists hopeful

Gordon Murray also released concept specs for a sports car based on the body based on the body in white.

The company says it would weigh just 1,874 pounds. Using a 220-horsepower, 1.5-liter 4-cylinder engine would give an iStream race car a power-to-weight ratio of 8.5 pounds per horsepower. With a six-speed manual transmission geared for maximum acceleration, that could give it a 0-60 time of just over 4 seconds.

Gordon Murray Design iStream construction

Reducing the weight of the body reduces the need for even heavier batteries for an electrified version and would the use of smaller, lighter brakes and other components, too.

Along with the iStream body, Gordon Murray showed a lightweight seat that the company says weighs 30 percent less than conventional seats. The seats use a tubular frame and fiberglass or carbon composite structure, and can fold for access for cars that need it.

Gordon Murray didn't specify the cost of the race car body or the racing seat.

The BMW Vision iNEXT. Future focused.

iNEXT– the building blocks for the future of the BMW Group.At the BMW AG Annual General Meeting in May 2018, Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management at the BMW Group, described iNext as follows: “The iNEXT project will provide our building blocks for the future, from which the entire company and all of… Continue reading The BMW Vision iNEXT. Future focused.

BMW drives to cut battery costs, share costs on autonomous vehicles -exec

NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) – German luxury vehicle maker BMW AG plans more deals with mining companies to secure electric vehicle battery materials, and is open to forming alliances to share the costs of developing autonomous-vehicle systems, the automaker’s research and development chief told Reuters. BMW management board member Klaus Froehlich said automakers and… Continue reading BMW drives to cut battery costs, share costs on autonomous vehicles -exec

BMW Group and Swiss Re develop ground-breaking car insurance concept

Munich. The BMW Group and Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies, are working together to develop a vehicle-specific insurance rating that primary insurers worldwide can use to calculate car insurance premiums: The innovative assessment system takes integration of safety-relevant driver assistance systems into account. The automotive sector is in a period of… Continue reading BMW Group and Swiss Re develop ground-breaking car insurance concept

ChargePoint commits to build charging stations for 2.5 million cars by 2025

2014 BMW i3 REx fast-charging at Chargepoint site, June 2016 [photo: Tom Moloughney]
At the Global Climate Action Summit this week in San Francisco, several companies made commitments to reducing climate change.

ChargePoint, one of the oldest electric-car charging networks in the U.S., said Wednesday that it aims to complete enough charging stations globally by 2025 to cover 2.5 million parking spots. The commitment does not include thousands of home chargers that ChargePoint also sells. Each station could cover one or two parking spots, a ChargePoint spokeswoman said.

READ MORE: ChargePoint invests in commercial charging for buses, delivery vans, taxis

According to the company's website, it currently has 45,000 charging locations across the U.S. and has begun expanding in Europe.

Setting such a goal by 2025 represents a huge challenge for the company.

ChargePoint Express Plus modular DC fast-charging system for electric cars, launched at 2017 CES

“Our commitment to deploy 2.5 million charging spots by 2025 comes as the company embarks on the most significant period of growth in our history and in the midst of a revolution in transportation,” said Pasquale Romano, president and CEO, ChargePoint. “The time for transformative change is now, and broadly distributed, substantial and immediate investments in charging infrastructure are necessary to usher in the future of e-mobility.

“We're at a huge tipping point here,” he said, “where this thing begins to accelerate very, very quickly.”

Even as the Trump Administration in Washington, D.C., begins dismantling the legal framework that incentivized electric cars, Roman said, it's a “train that has already left the station.”

CHECK OUT: Gas stations aren't a model for electric-car charging: ChargePoint CEO

Romano said that he expects the electric-car business to grow from almost $78 billion last year to almost $128 billion by 2022.

The additional chargers from ChargePoint will help expand public charging at businesses, workplaces, apartment buildings, as well as charging for commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses.

ChargePoint recently acquired Kisensum, a data analytics firm focused on helping utilities manage power loads.

Facing increased competition, especially from Electrify America, operating under a court mandate to spend $2 billion expanding public charging in the same time frame, Romano says there is room for multiple charging networks in the industry, but he expects some consolidation.

ChargePoint to grow global EV charging network to 2.5 mln

FRANKFURT, Sept 14 (Reuters) – ChargePoint, operator of one of the world’s largest charging station networks for electric vehicles (EV), is targeting a near fifty-fold increase in its global network of loading spots by the middle of next decade, it said on Friday. The group, in which German companies BMW , Daimler and Siemens hold… Continue reading ChargePoint to grow global EV charging network to 2.5 mln