Hey guys and welcome to Charged Up news, a weekly roundup of EV stories from
around the globe. This week's show will include petrol and diesel bans in Israel
and Denmark, some African desert testing of the Audi e-Tron, making electric cars
a little bit noisy and sales begin for the electric version of the iconic Vespa.
But first up, Porsche is one manufacturer that seems to be taking the threat from
Tesla very seriously. With six billion euro in investments and over 1200 new
employees for the launch of the Taycan alone, Porsche is undergoing massive
change while firmly committing to electric mobility. Their management is
predicting that 50% of Porsche models delivered from 2025 will be electrified
but one of the best things for me is their sustainability plans. The Taycan
production process will be carbon neutral while the future goal in
production is to establish a factory with no environmental impact. What we
know about the Taycan so far is that it will be an 800 volt,
600 horsepower four-wheel drive sports car with a zero to 100 per hour time
under 3.5 seconds, zero to 200 in less than 12 seconds, range around 500
kilometers, much less than the upcoming Tesla Roadster but Porsche is sticking
to the idea of speed instead of weight. Porsche will build 400 high-power
charging stations with a capacity of 300 kilowatts per charging point across
Europe by the end of 2019 and is also planning to install more than 2000 AC
charging points at destinations such as hotels. The recharging could be as fast
as 15 minutes for 400 kilometers or if you just need a quick 100 kilometer
top-up, a 4 minute charge... amazing.
Audi has released footage of their brand new
e-Tron, desert testing in Namibia in Southwest Africa. Now you would expect an
Audi Quattro to be good off-road as they've been refining the four-wheel
drive design since the original Quattro was released in the 80s where it
completely dominated the World Rally Championship. But it is still awesome to
see this new generation of electric cars coming through with little to no
compromise in performance or handling. As you can see from the footage Namibia is
an extremely dry place. They have battled
with recurrent and devastating droughts and floods in recent years and on
the back of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change which looks specifically at the impacts on water stressed countries, it
seems perfectly appropriate to test and showcase a zero emissions vehicle in a
country which will have so much to lose if we don't make some serious changes.
Speaking of the IPCC report, twelve years is the amount of time that the world's
leading climate scientists have given us to make unprecedented changes to
transport, energy and food production in order to prevent climate catastrophe and
Israel and Denmark are the first countries to act immediately on the
research. Both countries have made statements that from 2030 onwards new
sales of petrol and diesel cars will be banned with only electric cars being
available in Israel while Denmark will phase out all new hybrids by 2035.
The two countries have very few plug-in cars at present so it will be interesting to
see how the incentives, infrastructure and availability of cars progresses with
the full support of their respective governments.
Bollinger Motors has announced that they will also build a pickup version of their all-electric
sports utility truck. Sharing the same internals as the B1 with its dual motor,
all-wheel-drive, hydropneumatic suspension and 120 kilowatt hour battery
pack, incorporating more cargo options was a priority for the b2.
The rear tray will be the same size as a traditional 6x4 4 trailer and for carrying 16 foot
lengths of timber it will also have the same pass-through design as the B1.
With 520 horsepower, 0-60mph time of 6.5 seconds, a 100mph
top speed, 10 to 20 inches of variable ground clearance, a 7500lb
towing capacity, 200 mile range, room for four adults, fast charging
and a portable power supply for tools, machines and even off-grid cabins,
this could be the only vehicle you need for the rest of your life
I showed my partner these and she definitely wasn't all that complimentary
about the looks but for me, as I've been a big fan of the Land Rover Defender, I love it.
In Valencia Spain, Nissan has made their debut in the fifth
season of the Formula-E championship at the circuit Ricardo Tormo .Driven by
former Series champion Sebastien Buemi, Nissan finished the day in 8th place
with the time of 1:18.1 with lap times being nearly three
seconds faster than last year. The energy storage capacity has been
doubled compared to the generation 1 cars so with new batteries, aerodynamics
and no mid race car swaps, the expectation is that there will be fast
close racing from the 22 drivers. If you want to see some crazy onboard footage
then check out the YouTube video of Sebastien Buemi's front wheels coming
off at the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix. I'll put a link in the description.
Now I'm a bit conflicted about the next story. One of the best things about EVs is their
lack of sound. The smooth, almost silent, effortless gliding along the road makes
for an incredibly relaxing driving experience but unfortunately this
attribute can be a bit of a problem in urban environments for pedestrians and
especially for those who are visually impaired. Ahead of new UK legislation
which comes into effect in july 2019, Jaguar has developed an audible vehicle
alert system for the I-pace which is permanently active at speeds up to 20
kilometers per hour. Have a listen to what they've come up with..... Now I totally
understand the need for cars to make some noise but can you imagine ten to
twenty years down the road when there are millions of EV's on the road, the
potential cacophony of whining and beeping sounds coming out of vehicles
every time they're moving at less than 20 km/h...
The Piaggio Group in Italy has
started the online booking campaign for the Vespa electric where European
customers can reserve the first versions of the iconic scooter. Performance-wise
the scooter will be similar to the 50 cc models but with much better acceleration
and Hill starts. The scooter will have a maximum range of 100 kilometres, a
four-hour recharge time from the onboard charger using a standard power point and
a retail price of 6390 Euros. Twist and go
scooters are perfect around town and if I didn't have an electric cargo bike
already I would definitely consider one of these. In our last story for the week,
Alta motors, the electric motorcycle company from California, has
continued their impressive performance racing against gas bikes with the latest
podium finish at the Carnegie Classic Hill Climb in Tracy California. Competing
against heavily modified race bikes up to 700cc they're nearly stock redshift
EXR with an extended swing arm managed to come in fourth place while in the
enduro climb shootout a head-to-head battle through enduro type obstacles
before heading straight up the hill to the finish line, they came in second.
Just as I was putting this show together I came across a report that said Alta
Motors had ceased operations while they look for new investors. This is really
disappointing as they've made some fantastic bikes but hopefully it's just
a small hiccup and not the end for this awesome company.
So, thanks for tuning into the show. As always, if you'd like to keep up to date with the latest EV
news and you're not subscribed already, then hit the red subscribe button and I
will see you on the next one
Stephen Tooke Charged Up News
No comments:
Post a Comment