25 April 2018 | Porsche 911 Will Go Electric, Ford F-150 Becomes Hybrid and Nissan Solve Range Anxiety
Episode 100, Apr 24, 2018, 11:01 PM
Tesla Racing Series ElectricGT Announces Calendar | Lamborghini And Porsche 911 Join EV Party | 1,000 Pure Electric Buses For Paris | Call For Outlander Owners To Help With Study | Plug-In Ford F-150 | 60 New Charge Points For Liverpool | Maybach Luxury Electric Crossover Concept | Range Anxiety Has Been Solved
Wednesday 25th April 2018.
TESLA RACING SERIES ELECTRIC GT ANNOUCNE CALENDAR
- There are two exciting new EV racing series on the horizon, such as the Jaguar I-PACE series which will support Formula E. And also Electric GT which will be racing Tesla Model S P100DL’s.
- And Electric GT have just announced the calendar for their inaugural series after being officially approved by the motorsport governing body the FIA.
- There will be 10 races, starting in Spain on November 3rd, which follows a short test in October. Each event will be a mini festival of electric engineering, and the racing will involve a practice, a qualifying, a race and a dusk race.
- And that’s one of the great things about electric racing, you can do it at times when you wouldn’t normally be allowed with other series due to the noise pollution. They will race in France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Silverstone UK and Portugal.
- It’s great they’ll be at circuits like Jerez, and Paul Ricard, the Nurburgring and Silverstone, and Formula 1 circuits with a rich heritage which will help give the series some gravitas with petrol heads, something I think Formula E will fix soon, because the city races are both great and also lack some heritage.
LAMBORGHINI AND PORSCHE JOIN THE EV PARTY
- Talking F1, former Scuderia Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicalli who now heads up Lamborghini says their next hypercar will be electrified. We are talking the Aventador and the Huracan. Full EVs are also on cards but not quite yet: “I don’t think that the technology for a full electric Lamborghini will be ready until 2026,” he said. “Hybrids are a step towards that.”
- Lamborghini’s technical director, Maurizio Reggiani, told Top Gear, “The big questions are packaging and weight. Yes, this will be a silent Lamborghini, but push the accelerator and the engine will come. Silence will only last for some seconds, then comes the sound.”
- Next up another sports car, and the legendary Porsche 911, where electric power will be used for the very first time. Again it will be a hybrid perhaps with a new engine which might upset the Porsche purists. August Achleitner, director of the 911's development team, said: “Some fans rushed the barricades; it was all gloom and doom for many. And then the same thing happened as always: nothing. The new models have always received even more rave reviews than their predecessors. That encourages us to think about fundamental innovations in the future as well."
1,000 CLEAN AND CHEAP ELECTRIC BUSES FOR PARIS
- Cities like Schenzen already have all their public buses running on batteries, that’s over 16,000 buses like the BYD ones you might have seen. Their next plan is for all 17,000 cabs to be electric too, so Western cities need to catch up quickly. A sidebar here, whilst China is producing hundreds of thousands of electric cars and buses, our own media only want to report on Elon’s latest tweet. One day everyone will turn round and China will be making your next car, like they make everything else!
- Back to buses, and Paris will see 1,000 new full BEV buses, which is part of a larger plan to electrify all buses, by 2025.
- RATP has 4,500 buses to replace. Catherine Guillouard, president and CEO of RATP said: “The massive order to equip our fleet with electric buses demonstrates our ambition to become a vital player in the energy transition of the public transport sector. Our aim to ensure a 100% clean fleet by 2025 in the Paris region is what can only be described as a technological challenge that requires us to adapt our 25 bus depots within a very tight time frame. The entire company has been mobilized to succeed with this challenge”.
- Which is true, it’s a big job. One that some Chinese cities have already done – the buses, the depots, the grid upgrades, the on-street chargers to top up mid route? Yep, all done.
- Tomorrow on the show, I’ll take a deeper dive into the general state of electrified mass transport.
MITSUBISHI PHEV OWNERS NEEDED FOR RESEARCH
- Calling all Mitsubishi Outlander owners in the UK: “We are currently looking for owners/drivers of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (purchased from new) for a paid market research event being held at a market research studio in Central London between the dates of Tuesday 08th and Thursday 10th May 2018. The project is being conducted on behalf of a major car manufacturer and we are simply interested in gaining feedback from owners regarding their experiences with electric vehicles and their ideas on the UK electric vehicle market. For anyone who takes part in a 1.5 hour discussion there is a cash incentive of £80.”
- I’ll put a link in the podcast notes if you’re interested.
http://www.myoutlanderphev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=41988
PLUG IN YOUR FORD F-150
- The legendary Ford F-150 truck isn’t something you can imagine is an ideal candidate for being an EV, but they’re seen a way to reduce carbon emissions for customers. The trucks are built by Ford and electrified by XL, in addition to plug-in charging capabilities, the trucks' technology also uses regenerative braking during deceleration to charge the battery pack, and uses electric assist during acceleration to increase fuel economy.
- Eric Foellmer, XL's Director of Marketing said: “Because the XL plug-in hybrid electric system works seamlessly with the Ford drivetrain, it works and drives just like a factory F-150 would – but with a 50% MPG improvement and substantial reductions in CO2emissions".
60 NEW CHARGE POINTS FOR LIVERPOOL UK
- Liverpool in the UK is probably best known around the world for the Beatles, or these days, having a huge international following for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool Football Club. Or Soccer, if you like.
- But now it’s becoming famous for EVs as 60 more charging points are added as sites like hospitals, train stations, car parks, sports venues and even Jaguar Land Rover.
- John Robinson, managing director at Symphony EV-ZE said:
“We are also currently working with Arriva to install infrastructure for the super-fast rapid charging points for their electric bus project for the Liverpool City Region.”
MERCEDES-MAYBACH EV REVEALED AT AUTO CHINA 2018
- We’ve heard some whispers, and seen some teasers, now Mercedes-Maybach have shown off their luxury electric crossover – The Vision – at Auto China 2018. It’s an EV with four motors and all-wheel drive, and of course it’s a Maybach, so it’s the height of luxury.
- It’s a concept vehicle at this stage, which always means it’s technically capable of running on magical fairy dust, however Maybach assure us the specs are real. Those specs being 550kW or 750hp of power, with an 80kWh battery. They’ll build it with DC fast charging at 350kW for the elusive 80% charge in less than 20mins, or for slower speeds, induction charging also included. Because sometimes you’re just too posh to touch a cable!
RANGE ANXIETY HAD BEEN SOLVED
- In a recent media session, Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Chairman Carlos Ghosn said: "We have seen that consumers do not talk anymore about range or autonomy as long as you guarantee more than 300km. You could not have guessed this [result] through studies. When you look what are the electric Chinese cars that are selling, they are very, very affordable cars. The price point of the Leaf today is not adequate for the Chinese market.” His Renault Zoe ZE40 is marketed at 300km and the upcoming 60kWh LEAF with LGChem cells, and some thermal management to keep them at happy temperatures, will probably get over 350km on the new WLTP test cycle. That’s around 225 miles.
I’d love to spread the word about electric cars so, if you can, share this somebody who might be interested.
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