Electric vehicle news and information

At freight yards like the Port of Los Angeles, Utility Tractor Rig's are hauling containers back and forth. At that port there is a high concentration of these trucks, overwhelmingly diesel powered, which makes for a high concentration of horrid air pollutants. This hydrogen fuel cell truck is one possible solution to the problem. In this application a fuel cell does not have the disadvantages of their use for passenger cars - the UTR's do not travel far, and can therefore be refueled on site.

Kia joins hands with Ionity, a company operating ultra-high-power charging station services in Europe. This says that 2021 Kia and Hyundai electric cars will be able to handle 800 volt charging, and be able to handle the 350 kiloWatt charging rate that Ionity delivers.

Zero emission aircraft could be fueled by hydrogen produced locally using renewable electricity. Airports have lots of open land where solar farms could collect electricity to fuel hydrogen electrolysis equipment, surely. That's the message by ZeroAvia, who is developing a fuel cell based drive train for medium size electric airplanes. Their test mule, pictured here, is a six passenger Piper M-Class aircraft. Clearly they intend to supply drive trains to existing airplane manufacturers. The selling point is lower fuel cost than using regular jetfuel. The founder, Val Miftakhov, previously launched Electric Motor Werks and in 2017 he sold that company to ENEL.

The coming wave of robocars requires robotic charging systems it seems. All the automakers are planning autonomously driven cars, that require no human driver, to provide automated taxi services - kind of like Uber or Yellow Cab but without the driver. Such robotaxi's will need charging stations, and Stable looks to provide fast charging services for these robotaxi's. The first step is a pilot project in San Francisco.

The coming wave of robocars requires robotic charging systems it seems. All the automakers are planning autonomously driven cars, that require no human driver, to provide automated taxi services - kind of like Uber or Yellow Cab but without the driver. Such robotaxi's will need charging stations, and Stable looks to provide fast charging services for these robotaxi's. The first step is a pilot project in San Francisco.

As Volkswagen says all these heart-warming things, that we must stop avoiding the question of climate change and move on to action, we have to remember the recent history of the Volkswagen Group. What VW says in this press release is very nice, to be sure. A few years ago VW was caught red handed cheating on emissions testing. They had rigged the Volkswagen TDI drive train to operate in a super-clean mode while under emissions testing, and to operate in a "normal" (hence polluting) mode in normal operation. VW had to deliver on the Fahrvergnügen promise (German for driving enjoyment). As a result VW has had to pay steep fines, several executives have gone to jail, and suddenly the VW Group is more interested in electric vehicles than before. If that's what it takes to make progress, so be it.

As Volkswagen says all these heart-warming things, that we must stop avoiding the question of climate change and move on to action, we have to remember the recent history of the Volkswagen Group. What VW says in this press release is very nice, to be sure. A few years ago VW was caught red handed cheating on emissions testing. They had rigged the Volkswagen TDI drive train to operate in a super-clean mode while under emissions testing, and to operate in a "normal" (hence polluting) mode in normal operation. VW had to deliver on the Fahrvergnügen promise (German for driving enjoyment). As a result VW has had to pay steep fines, several executives have gone to jail, and suddenly the VW Group is more interested in electric vehicles than before. If that's what it takes to make progress, so be it.

While Hyundai and its partner company Kia have some very well designed electric vehicles, Hyundai is also keen on fuel cell vehicles. In this deal they prove that the primary way to get hydrogen is by extracting it from fossil fuels. Therefore the claim that the hydrogen economy is super clean is largely a fiction. Unless the hydrogen is extracted from a clean source, like water, it is a fossil fuel masquerading as a clean fuel.

Many people are looking forward to self driving cars, presumably so they can play on Facebook with their mobile phones without worrying about hitting the cars around them. But the same technology is going into other sorts of vehicles. Autonomous vehicle technology is being put into weapons systems -- if I read correctly between the lines of this contact from a recuiter.

Nissan has been backing away from the battery manufacturing factory they built in Tennessee, and overall the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance haven't had a common battery supplier. This investment is for Silicon-dominant Li-ion batteries which may mean it's an investment in the future, and will not help current battery supply issues. But it points to a future where the Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance hopes to be leaders in electric vehicles.

Electrify America is coming to California, with one DC Fast Charging location in Southern California, and a string of locations by the end of 2018 primarily along the Hwy 99 corridor between Sacramento and Los Angeles. One location, Dunnigan, is a thankful addition to the stretch between Sacramento and the Oregon border. While the southern half of California -- south of the line connecting the SF Bay Area, Sacramento, and Reno -- have gotten lots of fast charging, the northern half has gotten very few, making trips north more difficult than it should be.

A few years ago Harley-Davidson garnered a lot of interest with the LiveWire concept electric motorcycle. Even though that bike lacked performance matching extant electric bikes on the market, it was awesome to see a major motorcycle manufacturer taking electrics seriously. Today the company is announcing details on the 2020 LiveWire, and plans to begin shipping in late 2019. So, yes, Harley-Davidson may be ready to let go of producing motorcycles that make obnoxiously loud horrendous noises.

The multiple EV charging networks with differing membership capabilities have been a big hindrance for public EV charging. EV owners have had to maintain memberships in multiple networks, and have faced the challenge of only charging at stations where they have a membership. This agreement enables "roaming" similar to how we are able to use any ATM machine -- meaning they're implementing a system of agreements with other EV charging operators to form a larger charging network.

Volkswagen has been making big claims for years, that VW would be the prominent electric vehicle seller offering a full range of EV's. Here they are again making a big claim. VW is asking us to believe that during 2010 they'll sell 150,000 electric cars of which 100,000 will be the VW I.D. and VW I.D. SUV. VW plans to jump from zero ID sales to 100,000 per year over the next 2 years. But, how will that be done?To do that VW has developed the MEB vehicle architecture.

Volkswagen's investment into Electrify America is increasing.

Mazda is all about engines, and therefore one should not be surprised to learn their "electrification strategy" is "compact, lightweight electrification technologies while further refining the internal combustion engine". As Mazda puts it, internal combustion engine vehicles are expected to be in the majority of new cars for years to come. Either Mazda is stuck in engines, or they're aptly pointing out the conversion to fully electric drive will take years to accomplish.

Porsche is throwing down quite a lot of money and investment - new employees - new production facilities - for the purpose of "electrification". Notice in the title for the press release Porsche used the word "electric", but in the body they used the word "electrification". However they are describing a fully electric sports car and the advantages of moving to an 800 volt drive-train. It's a matter of physics, with the same wiring thickness Porsche can move double the wattage with their 800 volt system versus a 400 volt system. This enables ultra-fast charging at 350 kW, and higher power delivery for all subsystems.

BMW has upgraded the BMW i3 battery pack to cells with 120 Ah capacity, and a total energy capacity of 42 kiloWatt-hours. Because the i3 is built with carbon-fiber its energy efficiency is vastly superior to all other electric cars, giving the i3 more driving range than implied by the 42 kWh pack, or a total expected driving range of 260 kiloMeters. That's a 30% improvement over previous model years.

Lucid Motors, a new luxury electric car startup company, has announced an agreement with Electrify America regarding a nationwide fast charging plan. The Lucid Motors car can support ultra fast EV charging, and the company plans to go to production in 2020. It just so happens that Electrify America is building a nation-wide network of fast charging stations, with charging power up to 350 kiloWatts. The immediate goal is that by June 2019 the company will have over 2,000 DC fast charging locations across a large portion of the USA. Such a network is required in order to be competitive against Tesla Motors.

To hear the rhetoric about the Trump Administration, they are gutting all environmental and renewable energy projects and we are headed back to the dark ages in government policies of all kinds. The reality is that the Dept of Energy is continuing to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency project, and the project funding announced here is an excellent example. This is a $5 million package of funding in three areas - "Energy Planning" at the state level, "Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy" and other "Clean Energy Activities". I have no idea whether the funding level has decreased or not, just that the DoE is regularly making similar announcements to this, demonstrating that funding is not $0.

Audi began talking about the E-Tron in 2011, IIRC, and has shown several different cars under this name. They've settled on this, an all-electric luxury SUV. This car has a lot going for it, with plenty of cargo space, to a high power drive train, a dual motor drive train with very good performance, high power 150 kiloWatt fast charging, and a 95 kiloWatt-hour battery pack. Curiously this press release keeps reiterating ways Audi engineers designed-in energy saving features to extend driving range. Why would that be? What's going on. The Audi E-Tron should equal the Tesla Model X in luxury, capabilities, driving range, charging speed, though not quite in raw performance. Unfortunately, Audi designed in a huge flaw: the E-Tron is only available on special order. Therefore, Audi is not serious at this time in competing with Tesla. If Audi were serious about this they'd simply take the E-Tron to production and go head-to-head with Tesla.

With the newly unveiled Audi E-Tron, Audi is showing off several EV charging connections. In a deal with Arcadia Power, E-Tron buyers can make a deal to buy renewable energy via a Community Solar program. In a deal with Amazon, E-Tron buyers can have charging stations installed by Amazon Home Services. Finally, Audi showed a concept charging facility design in San Francisco.

The Nissan Leaf is still one of the most affordable electric cars available. However, how can one justify a Leaf when for about the same price GM offers the Chevy Bolt with a larger range. Having a 150 mile range in the Leaf is a big step forward over the 72 mile range on the 2011 Leaf, but the competition has a 238 mile range for not much more. Surely this is why GM is selling more Bolt's than Nissan is selling Leaf's.

BMW is unveiling an updated version of the BMW X5 Plug-in Hybrid SUV. It is primarily a fossil-fuel powered SUV, with electric assist and a meager all-electric range.

Nissan and EVgo have teamed up on another "Arc", meaning a series of EV Fast Charging stations connecting points A and B. In this case the route between Boston and Washington DC seems, going by the PlugShare map, to be already well-populated with fast charging services. More charging stations are certainly a good thing, however, and will encourage more of us to drive electric on longer trips. In this case it appears the maximum charging rate is 50 kW, which isn't sufficient for road trips, but the press release also says the facilities have been designed to support 150 kiloWatt fast charging in the future.

Has Mercedes-Benz designed a Tesla-killer? There is a lot to tackle in challenging Tesla, because of the range of services Tesla offers beyond just selling cars. To offer an all-electric luxury SUV indicates Mercedes-Benz is feeling the heat from the Tesla Model X, and is seeking to do something in response. MBZ is well known for luxury cars, and we can assume Tesla will be challenged by the EQC on that front. On performance metrics, the MBZ is very powerful, delivering a very good sub-five-second 0-60 miles/hr time, but the performance Model X of course beats that time. Also, the battery pack is smaller at 80 kiloWatt-hours, and the charging system is less powerful at "only" 110 kiloWatts, meaning that EQC owners will have slightly less autonomy than Model X owners. Finally, the production rate is not specified. Will MBZ try to build as many cars as does Tesla? If not, MBZ will be left in the dust wondering what happened.

A few days ago Elon Musk idly tweeted that he's considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share, and that funding is lined up. At least this wasn't posted on April 20. After initial excitement some realists started studying this, asked where the funding was, the SEC started mulling a stock manipulation investigation, and so on. And now the NY Times has an article following an hour-long interview with Musk, describing him as overworked, and the Board is worried and is looking for someone to take over some of Musk's responsibilities.

Airbus has flown an unmanned high-altitude airplane for 3 minutes shy of 26 days, beating an endurance record also owned by Airbus. The airplane combines solar panels and energy storage to enable continuous flight, and operates at a 70,000 foot altitude where there is little air turbulence. The primary goal for such an airplane is to implement a kind of very-low-orbit satellite -- that is, remaining at a very high altitude means such an airplane can perform reconnaisance or communications services like a satellite, but without the expense of launching a satellite into orbit.

The 70,000 foot altitude is above the weather, above regular air traffic, and for example is high enough to provide a very wide viewing angle for camera systems, or for telecommunication systems, that might be mounted on such a vehicle. By operating on solar power such an airplane could theoretically operate indefinitely. But of course it is useful for it to land every so often for maintenance.

A couple years ago the Solar Impulse solar electric airplane used a similar drive train to complete an around-the-world journey. In that case the airplane was manned, and therefore its time aloft was limited to pilot endurance. The longest flight of the Solar Impulse was from Japan to Hawaii and (if memory serves) took over five days.

The most obvious time to recharge an electric car, immediately upon arriving home from work, is not the best for the grid. In the early evening is when the "duck curve" dictates a need to steeply ramp up fossil fuel electricity production because the sun is setting lessening solar power. It's necessary to instead orchestrate electricity demand, like electric car charging, to occur later at night when demand is lower and the grid has excess power.

Honda has struck a deal with eMotorWerks (a subsidiary of ENEL) to integrate eMotorWerks' JuiceNet platform, using that service to orchestrate the best timing of electric car charging. The eMotorWerks system taps pricing information from electricity grid operators to optimize electric car charging.

The current deal is to implement a beta program among Honda Fit EV "owners" to study optimum timing for electric car charging.

Toyota is sticking with hydrogen fuel cells, this time for a class 8 heavy duty truck. The truck was unveiled at a meeting of the Center for Automotive Research, and increases the estimated range to more than 300 miles per fill. The vehicle operator has a larger sleeper cab than the previous iteration. The previous iteration began operation in April 2017 and has logged almost 10,000 miles of testing in real world service at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Toyota plans to put the new vehicle into operation this fall.

The design uses the fuel cell drive train from the Toyota Mirai - two Mirai fuel cell stacks plus a 12 kiloWatt-hour battery pack.

The described target is not long-haul trucking, but drayage trucking. That is, the trucks driving back and forth between cargo ships and train depots and warehouses. There's a large number of these trucks the vast majority of which are diesel powered and produce a horrid form of air pollution.

Former Toyota business partner, Tesla, is targeting a different market with their battery-electric class 8 truck. Namely, the long haul trucking market.

Ships at sea no longer must be powered by Diesel fuel. Research led by Sandia National Labs shows that hydrogen fuel cells can be used instead. An accident need not necessitate spilling toxic polluting diesel fuel into the water, because spilled hydrogen cleans itself up automatically dissipating into the atmosphere with no harm, and the exhaust is not toxic but is instead pure water. The work at present is about designing research vessels that run on hydrogen, but the team is also interested in other vessels. An earlier effort had focused on ferry boats such as are used on San Francisco Bay to shuttle around commuters. The result is the Zero-V research vessel pictured here.

Cummins is continuing its move into clean energy technology by acquiring Efficient Drivetrains, Inc., a manufacturer of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fully electric drive trains for commercial trucks. Cummins is of course a large manufacturer of big trucks, and is looking to shift towards clean fuels away from the Diesel fuel that normally powers the industry. Earlier Cummins acquired Brammo, a manufacturer of electric motorcycles and energy storage systems, and Johnson Matthey's battery business. Another related announcement is that Cummins is developing both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid drive trains for transit busses.