Charged with Electric Vehicle News and Views
The guys from Everyday Driver climb into a loaded P85+ model to see if the S lives up to all the hype, and where it excels.
They also give the 17" Touch Screen Interface a good demonstration.
Mitsubishi Electric will display its EMIRAI 2 concept car at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. The car is a continuation of the original EMIRAI first exhibited in December 2011 with rear projection customizable dashboard display, biometrics capabilities, and sensor array.
Advanced automotive technologies and products will be displayed in two EMIRAI 2 electric-vehicle concept cars. One vehicle features an EV powertrain and the other a driving-assistance system to offer safer and more comfortable driving experiences in the coming future.
The EV powertrain system incorporates high-accuracy traction control and acceleration control. The driving-assistance system features integrated image sensing and powered on-board display technologies.
The show will be held at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition complex in Tokyo, Japan from November 23 to December 1.
An all-electric version of the Kia Soul is still on track to launch globally in early 2014. It will be Kia’s first electric car sold outside its home market of South Korea, following up on the domestic Ray EV.
The Soul will be equipped with a 27 kWh lithium-ion polymer battery making it capable of travelling up to a claimed 200 km on a single charge. Paired with that is an 81 kW / 285 Nm electric motor, propelling the Soul EV from 0-100 km/h in less than 12 seconds, and on to a top speed of 144 km/h.
Power is sent through the car’s front wheels via a single-speed constant ratio gear reduction unit. In a test drive Autocar.co.uk says there is and there’s surprisingly aggressive deceleration upon throttle lift off. Kia says the Soul EV’s battery can be fully charged in around five hours when using a standard 240-volt outlet, or in 25 minutes when using a fast-charge unit with a 100 kW output.
The Soul EV is expected to go on sale in the first half of 2014 and pricing is expected to start at 40 million KRW ($35,490 / €27,480).
Katie Fehrenbacher recently interviewed Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen to discuss the process of how Tesla started with a clean sheet to design the Model S from the ground up as a dedicated electric car.
For established carmakers, car design is a very iterative process with decades of work to build from. Tesla Motors had no such history to work with, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing according to Holzhausen.
Nissan said Friday it would unveil a sporty concept electric vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show
The company, which has been selling its Leaf electric vehicle since late 2010, said it hoped its Nissan BladeGlider would help it reach a market of male drivers who still want performance and styling in an environmentally friendly car - a major hurdle to widespread commercial sales.
The car, to be unveiled at the biennial Tokyo exhibition later this month, features an aerodynamic design that widens from the front to back with space for a driver in the middle and two passengers in the rear.
The design -- one metre in the front (3.3 feet) and 1.89 metres at the back and made with lightweight carbon fibres -- puts the vehicle's centre of mass on the rear tires to allow for tighter turns, Nissan said.
"The driver's seat has been positioned in the middle of the vehicle to give a sense of a pilot in an airborne glider," Nissan said.
The concept vehicle is squarely aimed at moving into a higher-end electric vehicle market already tapped with some success by US-based Tesla.
The Japanese firm has invested about 4.0 billion euros ($5.4 billion) in electric car development in a partnership with French carmaker Renault, which owns more than 40 percent of Nissan.
This week, Renault-Nissan announced an electric car tie-up with Mitsubishi.
Nissan said it has sold more than 80,000 Leaf electric vehicles globally since its rollout three years ago.
The Japanese automaker will also be showing off its second commercial electric vehicle, the e-NV200 minivan, which it unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
DRIVE's Chris Harris tests the World Record Holding - Drayson B12/69EV Electric LMP1 Race Car.
Mitsubishi Motors plan to refocus its lineup on Plug-In SUV's and electrified sedans under a new three-year business plan that aims to boost global sales 29%.
At this month's Tokyo Motor Show, it will unveil three electrified concepts: a plug-in hybrid SUV, a plug-in crossover and a microhybrid van with an engine start-stop system. The Outlander plug-in hybrid, already on sale in Japan and Europe, is due to be launched in the US but may not arrive in the United States until 2015.
The company will push electrified drivetrains in a bid to make 20 percent of its vehicle output either all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2020. That will entail the development of a next-generation electric vehicle technology that gets a longer driving distance on each charge and a lower price point. Mitsubishi will downsize EV components and aims to introduce a wireless charging system.
Earlier this week on the eve of unveiling the mid-term plan, Mitsubishi announced it was furthering technology and vehicle development ties with the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Under that deal, Mitsubish plans to sell a Renault-based mid-sized car in the United States. The car will be the first of two Renault-based sedans sold by Mitsubishi under the product and technology exchange.
As part of the latest deal, the companies also aim to share technologies and "product assets" related to electric vehicles and recent product platforms.
Nissan is the global market leader in electric vehicles, with its Leaf EV, while Mitsubishi, which markets its own EV called the i, has made EVs and hybrids a central pillar of the company's mid-term business plan.
Mitsubishi and Nissan will further cooperate to develop a new small car to be sold globally. An electric version of the car is also planned. That car will be based on a jointly developed platform for Japan's minicar segment, a type of car restricted in overall dimensions and restricted to engines no bigger than 0.66-liters.
The company says they will boost R&D spending by 30% to an average of 80.0 billion yen ($812.7 million) a year over the next three years, compared with 63.0 billion yen ($640.0 million) a year over the outgoing three-year business plan.
It's no secret that the Tesla Model S is the newest "must-have" toy among America's most affluent citizens. But a shocking analysis from Edmunds.com finds that in some of the country's richest communities, the Model S sells better than any other car on the market.
According to Edmunds.com's analysis of new car registration data from Polk, the Model S is the top-selling vehicle this year in eight of America's 25 wealthiest ZIP Codes. The analysis further finds that all eight communities are located in California. Leading the way is Atherton, CA, where the Model S accounts for 15.4 percent of all new car registrations within its borders. According to Forbes, Atherton, which sits adjacent to Tesla's Palo Alto headquarters, is the wealthiest zip code in America, with a median home price of $6,665,000.
While the analysis shows that the richest populations are snatching up Teslas now, Edmunds.com says that the data offers hints about Tesla's potential to appeal to a broader range of buyers.
"It's a classic pattern for any retail product, including cars: the wealthy and influential buyers set a trend, and the mainstream aspires to follow," says Edmunds.com Sr. Analyst Jessica Caldwell. "As Tesla increases the number of models and improves its price points, it could find itself in demand by more than just those in these wealthy enclaves. After all, luxury car companies typically find the most volume in their entry-level vehicles."
Tesla has made it clear that its next frontier is to make its vehicles more affordable to the mass market. In May, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared that he hopes to offer a vehicle to car shoppers for under $40,000 within the next four years.
If Tesla does plan to break through to new buyers, it will have to expand its appeal outside of California's borders. Edmunds.com's analysis found that Tesla's market share exceeds 1.0 percent in only one of the non-California zip codes ranked in the top 25 by Forbes (#19 Water Mill, NY with 1.2% of all new car registrations in 2013, through August). The Model S national market share sits at just 0.1 percent.
Speaking in Dublin, Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk said that a right-hand-drive version of the Model S, appropriate for the roads of England and Ireland, as well as for Australia, should be ready for production by the end of March 2014.
It is understood that Tesla has scheduled an initial production run of 500 Model S cars bound for right-hand-drive markets, including the UK, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. Tesla has told buyers it expects Australian deliveries of right-hand-drive Model S sedans to begin sometime between March and June.
Tesla already has an Australian presence, with a store and service centre in Sydney, although neither is open to the public. The workshop functions to serve existing Tesla Roadster owners in Australia,
Tesla has been inviting Australian applications for Model S purchases for some time; securing a vehicle from the general production run requires a refundable AU$6,000 deposit, while ordering a top-spec Signature model won't leave you with any change from AU$40,000.
BMW has announced an SUV will not be added to the recently introduced "i" range of frugal models.
The Bavarian marque has already started work on future "i" models but none of these include an SUV.
BMW introduced it's first EV earlier this year with the launch of the i3 available as a full electric car or with a range-extending engine. At IAA in Frankfurt this past September the lineup was expanded with the unveiling of a sportier i8 plug-in hybrid which reaches 62 mph (100 km/h) in 4.4 sec.
BMW has already trademarked all nameplates from i1 to i9 and even if each designation will be covered, none of the added cars will include an SUV. These are the words of i3's project manager Roland Kowalski who added the BMW i philosophy is "about an urban concept for megacities." The third "i" model could be an i5 sedan or a crossover providing more room compared to the i3 and go up against the Tesla Model S.
BMW are are also planning to have a plug-in hybrid version of their entire model range.
