Electric vehicles – Page 9211 – I wish I had more to offer

The discreet doer

Oliver Zipse has helped BMW once before to correct a wrong decision. What does the new CEO have in mind with the Munich-based carmaker? Christof STACHE / AFP Friday, 19.07.2019 17:09 clock In one of his rare interviews, Oliver Zipse once made an almost prophetic statement. “And then there is certainly the luck of the… Continue reading The discreet doer

ZF Introduces 2-Speed Drive For EVs To Boost Electric Range

ZF tries to convince OEMs to use a 2-speed transmission and decrease the energy consumption of passenger EVs by some 5%. ZF presents its new 140 kW 2-speed drive unit for electric cars (scalable up to 250 kW), which consists of an electric motor, 2-speed transmission and power electronics – all integrated into a compact… Continue reading ZF Introduces 2-Speed Drive For EVs To Boost Electric Range

Energy Union: Commission takes action to reinforce EU’s global leadership in clean vehicles

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Energy Union: Commission takes action to reinforce EU's global leadership in clean vehicles

08/11/2017The Commission proposes new targets for the EU fleet wide average CO2 emissions of new passenger cars and vans to help accelerate the transition to low- and zero emission vehicles.
The Commission today took a decisive step forward in implementing the EU's commitments under the Paris Agreement for a binding domestic CO2 reduction of at least 40% till 2030. At the same time as the international climate conference takes place in Bonn, the Commission is showing that the EU is leading by example. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker outlined in the State of the European Union speech in September: “I want Europe to be the leader when it comes to the fight against climate change. Last year, we set the global rules of the game with the Paris Agreement ratified here, in this very House. Set against the collapse of ambition in the Unit..

Self-driving startup AutoX expands beyond deliveries and sets its sights on Europe

AutoX, the Hong Kong and San Jose, Calif.-based autonomous vehicle technology company, is pushing past its grocery delivery roots and into the AV supplier and robotaxi business. And now, it’s taking its business to Europe. AutoX has partnered with NEVS — the Swedish holding company and electric vehicle manufacturer that bought Saab’s assets out of… Continue reading Self-driving startup AutoX expands beyond deliveries and sets its sights on Europe

New mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette to become electric…probably

Chevrolet just unveiled its new mid-engine Corvette, the 2020 Stingray, and though it’s an ICE car, comments from GM brass leave the door open for future electric versions of the sports car — possibly even an all-electric version. Sources at Chevy told Autocar’s Paul Eisenstein that the powertrain does allow for electrification, noting that “mild… Continue reading New mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette to become electric…probably

Nissan Australia touts LEAF V2H capabilities, disses Tesla battery project

Nissan’s Global Director of Electric Vehicles, Nic Thomas, recently took a trip Down Under for the Australian launch of the Nissan LEAF Plus. In his speech, he highlighted the LEAF’s bidirectional charging capability, which he said is already being used in Japan, and is expected to be available in Australia within months. Nissan Australia’s Manager… Continue reading Nissan Australia touts LEAF V2H capabilities, disses Tesla battery project

Superchargers at the Strip: Tesla rolls out first entire V3 station in Las Vegas

Want to leave whatever happened in Las Vegas? Tesla is allowing its owners—especially those with a Model 3—to do just that, with a very speedy recharge right on the Strip.

That’s where Tesla, on Thursday, officially opened its first station that entirely features V3 fast-charging hardware. Although V3 has already been introduced at several locations, including Tesla’s Fremont, California, manufacturing base, this is the first station that doesn’t pair it alongside V2 hardware.

Tesla Supercharger V3 station – Las Vegas Strip

With V3 hardware, vehicles no longer split charging power between posts, so every single V3 charger there will run at up to 250 kw—if and when the car allows it—even when they’re all in use. With the V3 hardware, Tesla owners will be able to recover up to 180 miles of range in just 15 minutes (in a Model 3 Long Range).

The station includes 24 V3 Superchargers, along with 15 Level 2 Tesla Wall Connectors for those parking at the site for a longer time.

The Strip location will be Tesla’s largest Supercharger station in Nevada. Tesla says that the site can service 1,500 owners per day—far beyond the 6,500 Supercharging sessions per month seen in the Las Vegas area prior to this site’s opening.

Tesla Supercharger V3 station – Las Vegas Strip

Tesla says that the Supercharger site is built on Caesars Entertainment property located just off the Strip, below the High Roller or the LINQ promenade. Tesla says that it supports Caesars’ “CodeGreen” goal to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 30 percent by 2025.

Access to the site is free for those staying under an hour, and Caesars says that its guests with Platinum, Diamond and 7-star Status will get complimentary Supercharger access with their card.

The station also serves as a new design template for Tesla Supercharger stations, with solar canopies providing shade to users plus solar energy to on-site Powerpack batteries.

So while you might end up leaving what happened in Las Vegas in Las Vegas, you’ll be seeing plenty more like that new Supercharger station that helped you get away.

Toyota expands battery supply with CATL deal

As it gradually moves to begin selling more plug-in and electric cars, Toyota is widening its net to secure more batteries.

Japan's largest automaker signed a deal this week to buy batteries from Chinese suppliers Contemporary Amex Technologies (CATL) and BYD. The agreement adds to a January deal Toyota signed to buy batteries from Panasonic.

All three deals go beyond simple battery supplies. Toyota will work with the three battery suppliers on everything from developing new solid-state batteries to building out systems to recycle the batteries they produce.

Toyota executives have said in the past that they don't believe lithium-ion batteries are the best solution for electric cars, and that they expect better chemistry to emerge to make electric cars more affordable, reliable, and safer.

With the electric-car market looking set to expand dramatically in the next few years, Toyota and other automakers that have stood on the sidelines are scrambling to ramp up their own supply chains to begin producing EVs.

Toyota announced in June that it is developing its first dedicated electric-car platform, potentially for a mid-size SUV, in conjunction with Subaru.

Executive vice president Shegeki Terashi told reporters in Japan last month that the company expects half of its sales by 2025 to come from hybrids, electric-cars, or plug-ins, according to a Reuters report. “There may be a gap between the amount of batteries we can produce, and the amount of batteries we may need,” he said at the time.

Elon Musk Tells Motor Trend About The Origins Of The Tesla Model S

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Published on July 18th, 2019 |

by Steve Hanley

Elon Musk Tells Motor Trend About The Origins Of The Tesla Model S

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July 18th, 2019 by Steve Hanley

Elon Musk recently told Motor Trend in an interview that the auto industry is slow to evolve. Boy, howdy. Let’s say you’re a car company and raking in record profits year after year by selling cars that are pretty much the same today as they were 5, 10, or even 20 years ago. Oh, maybe you add a crease here or tweak a tail light design there, but underneath the sheet metal, it’s same old, same old. And people are still piling into dealer showrooms begging you to take their money. Where is your incentive to change?

Credit: Tesla

When the Tesla Model S was first introduced, almost everyone in the car business yawned and went back to doing what they had been doing for decades. And yet (or because of that), 7 years later, the Tesla Model S is still the quickest production sedan Motor Trend has ever tested. The magazine asked Musk during an interview at the company’s southern California design studio why that’s the case.

“‘Well I don’t know,’ Musk answered. ‘It’s surprising to us. I thought the industry would have had cars that are competitive to the Model S well before now because as we were talking about—the Model S debuted in 2009, and even if people thought, “Well, that’s an impossible car to build,” which conventional wisdom said that the Model S was an impossible car to build, and there were many articles written to that effect.

“‘But once we started delivering them to customers and they were approved by the regulators and met all of the safety requirements, it’s like, the Model S has got the best safety rating that NHTSA had ever tested of any car. I really expected that there would be within maybe three years or something, we’d have something that was better than the original Model S. But I guess the car industry is just fairly slow to evolve, and it didn’t take electric vehicles really seriously until 2015, maybe 2014 you could say.'”

Motor Trend has just named the Tesla Model S its Ultimate Car Of The Year (COY). Of all the 70 COY awards the magazine has provided, it is the ne plus ultra of the lot. What is it about the Model S — and all Tesla automobiles — that stirs such passion in people?

“‘[T]he overarching goal is, what can we do to make you fall in love with this car? And I think the biggest thing about Tesla and the cars that we make is that this is not designed by a soulless corporation. There’s not like some finance spreadsheet or something like that with some market analysis. There’s none of that.

“‘Obviously we need to bring in more money than we spend, but at the end of the day, we want to make a car that we love, that hits us in the heart, that makes you feel. And how many of these cars, they have no soul. They make all these cars that have no soul or no heart, and they wonder why nobody feels anything for them. Why should they?'”

Looking back at the original Model S design, which was created in a tent inside SpaceX headquarters in 2008 and revealed to the public in 2009, Motor Trend asked Musk what emotional reaction he has to seeing that original car again? “Heartache,” he says. “We gave our heart to this car for sure. Everything, just like, all in.”

Chief designer Franz von Holzhausen took that statement a little further. “It kind of felt like we jumped out of the airplane and then decided we need to figure out how to get a team of people to design the parachute. So we were trying to find the people and design and create the product all kind of mid-flight, which is somewhat perilous. We put everything into it.” Perilous seems a little too mild for what was going on at the time.

What about that enormous touchscreen inside the Model S, an industry first?

“‘The basic principle was, it’s a computer on wheels. So if you had a laptop on wheels you want to have a big screen, you want to have a touch interface, and you want to have over-the-air [updating] capability. Then that gives you a lot of freedom to keep improving the car with software. The over-the-air stuff, we started doing that even on Roadster.

“‘It’s just kind of like being normal in that, what is normal for a consumer trying to buy this would be that you can get an over-the-air update. PCs have been doing over-the-air or connected software updates for 30 years or whatever. So if you are going to make a computer on wheels, then you should obviously be able to connect to the internet, you should be able to update it, it needs to have at least the computer capability of an advanced laptop, and then you’ve got your laptop on wheels. … If you live in Silicon Valley, you definitely want a software-upgradable, always-connected [car]. Seems crazy not to.'”

The conversation then turned to Tesla’s role in the future. Here Musk reiterated the litany of upcoming products — Tesla Semi, Model Y, Tesla Pickup, more factories, and so forth. But what really fires his imagination is autonomy.

“‘I think the autonomy is really going to transform automotive. … I mean since the major innovations in production that Henry Ford and others came up with, the next two massive disruptions for cars are electrification and autonomy, and electrification and autonomy are happening at the same time very basically. So the future will be all electric, all autonomous. I don’t mean some electric, some autonomous, I mean all electric, all autonomous. And in fact, I would really caution someone against buying a gasoline or diesel car or truck because it will have poor resale value in the future.

“‘Let’s say it is 100 years ago, 1919, and a lot of people were still buying horses, and there was like this new radical thing called cars. Essentially you have this Model T or whatever, and people are like, “That’s weird automobile technology that will never catch on,” and they bought a horse, so that was a mistake. So trust me when I say the future is electric autonomy. So you want to buy a car that is electric, and you want to buy a car that is capable of autonomy, which a Tesla is. This will, I think, become very obvious within a few years.

“‘It will change things quite a lot. If things were autonomous and cars are in use a lot, the fundamental utility of a car is right now is maybe 10 or 12 hours a week. Let’s estimate an hour and a half, two hours a day. With a shared autonomous fleet, that goes up to like 50 or 60 hours on average, maybe more. So then the cars will be used a lot more. You’ll want probably dynamic personalization, so it’s like you step into the car, it knows who you are, it knows everything you want, and the car reconfigures itself automatically to all your preferences. So you could step into any car, and that’s how it would be.'”

Von Holzhausen put a punctuation mark on Musk’s prediction. “I also think Model S proved that an electric vehicle can be beautiful and fun to drive and something you desire to own. And I think Tesla will do that with autonomy, as well. So it’s not going to be a scary, ugly, dystopian future. It’s going to be a fun, beautiful experience. And I think all of our products will have that.”

Lots of industry executives saw the original Model S and did not realize what their eyes were telling them. It has taken nearly a decade for car companies to fully embrace electric cars and some — mostly in the US — are still determined to ignore the new reality. The EV revolution is just getting started in earnest and already another transportation revolution — autonomous cars — is gathering momentum.

Traditional car companies are far more willing to embrace self-driving cars because transportation as a service is seen as a major new source of profits. In theory, autonomy could apply to conventional cars with gasoline or diesel engines, but in reality electric and autonomous go together like baseball and hot dogs. It’s possible that autonomy will accelerate the EV revolution in a way that no one could have predicted at decade ago.

A brave new world of transportation is upon us, fostered by the vision of Elon Musk and brought to life by the people of Tesla. When the Model S was revealed in 2009, I think nobody could have predicted how that car would upend the auto industry. Now autonomy is poised to disrupt conventional wisdom even more. Some of those traditional companies are going to fall by the wayside over the next 5 to 10 years largely because one man refused to be dissuaded from following his dream.

About the Author

Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. His motto is, “Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away!” You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

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Toyota Upgrades Prius Plug-in Hybrid In Europe To A 5-Seater

With the fifth seat, the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid will be more functional, which could improve sales a little bit The European division of Toyota announced today that the 2019 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid (aka Toyota Prime) has improved the passenger capacity from 4 to 5 seats. The 5th seat was announced in the U.S.… Continue reading Toyota Upgrades Prius Plug-in Hybrid In Europe To A 5-Seater