Jaguar I-PACE – the “future of electric motoring” hits the streets (video)

Jaguar I-PACE - the "future of electric motoring" hits the streets (video)

6 hours ago by Mark Kane

Jaguar touts great feedback from the debut of its I-PACE Concept, which did indeed sparked enthusiasm beyond expectations (see photos and videos of the I-PACE in Photon Red from Geneva here).

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

The British brand encourages the public to visit the mini-site it has set up for the EV, and of course to also click the  'I want one' button, as the final production-intent version will be presented in September 2017 (which apparently will be a happening month as the Nissan LEAF 2.0 will also debute), with sales to begin in the second half of 2018.

One of the prototypes was recently demonstrated for the first time on the streets of London, at the famous Olympic Park – see photos below.

"Jaguar has unleashed its first electric vehicle – the Jaguar I-PACE – onto the streets for the first time. Driving on the streets of London's famous Olympic Park, the electric performance SUV concept previews Jaguar's first electric vehicle, the Jaguar I-PACE, which will be revealed in late 2017 and will be on the road in the second half of 2018."

"The I-PACE will be a long distance sprinter that accelerates to 60 mph in around 4 seconds, with a range of more than 500km (NEDC cycle) from the 90kWh lithium-ion battery. Charging is easy and quick, with 80 per cent charge achieved in just 90 minutes using 50kW DC charging.

Compact, lightweight electric motors at the front and rear axles generate a combined output of 400PS and 700Nm of torque, with the all-weather benefits of all-wheel drive. The I-PACE will also deliver the agility, ride comfort and refinement that will set it apart from all other electric vehicles: it will be a true Jaguar and a true drivers' car."

Ian Callum Director of Design, Jaguar said:

"The feedback on the I-PACE Concept has been fantastic. With the I-PACE Concept we've torn up the rule book to create a vehicle with supercar inspired aesthetics, sports car performance and SUV space, in one electric package. It has surprised people and the enthusiasm for our first electric vehicle has been beyond all my expectations."

"Driving the concept on the streets is really important for the design team. It's very special to put the car outside and in the real-world. You can see the true value of the I-PACE's dramatic silhouette and powerful proportions when you see it on the road, against other cars. The I-PACE Concept represents the next generation of battery electric vehicle design. For me, the future of motoring has arrived."

Quick specs:

0-60 mph in ~4 seconds

AWD, 400 hp total and 516 lb-ft of torque (two 200 hp electric motors)

220+ mile / 350 km all-electric range

liquid-cooled 90 kWh battery with cells from LG Chem

23-inch wheels (pretty standard fare for a concept vehicle)

drag coefficient of 0.29

at least 50 kW DC fast charging with CCS Combo

Heat pump

class-leading regen – up to 150 kW

5 seats

length: 184 inches, width: 74.4

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Jaguar I-PACE Concept

Tags: jaguar, Jaguar i-Pace, Jaguar I-PACE Concept, Jaguar i-Pace production, Jaguar i-Pace release date

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Source: Jaguar I-PACE – the "future of electric motoring" hits the streets (video)

Volvo USA CEO Says Automaker’s First EV Will Have 250-Plus Miles Electric Range, Price Of $40,000 Or Less

Volvo USA CEO Says Automaker's First EV Will Have 250-Plus Miles Electric Range, Price Of $40,000 Or Less

6 hours ago by Mark Kane

Volvo Cars' vision of an electric future

Volvo would like to introduce its first all-electric, series produced, electric car in 2019.

Volvo Concept 40.2 profile

However, the Swedish brand is also setting the bar high for its first EVs abilities, while maintaining relatively affordable price:

at least 250 miles (400 km)

price between $35,000 and $40,000

Lex Kerssemakers, CEO of Volvo Car USA said:

"That's what I put in as the prerequisite for the United States. If I want to make a point in the United States, if I want to make volumes, that's what I believe I need."

"Why are people reluctant to buy a full electric car? It's between the ears. It's that they believe there's not sufficient range."

Still, we still don't know whether Volvo will launch an all-new BEV model, or will offer all-electric version of existing model.

That said, if it comes in under $40k for 250 miles of real-world (EPA) miles we will be impressed regardless the platform.

source: Automotive News

Tags: volvo

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Source: Volvo USA CEO Says Automaker's First EV Will Have 250-Plus Miles Electric Range, Price Of $40,000 Or Less

Detroit Electric's EV business gets a $1.8 billion jumpstart

However, it's the longer term plans that are more likely to raise eyebrows. The two companies are planning both an all-encompassing new facility (both design and production) and hope to develop an electric SUV that could be ready for production as soon as 2018. A third vehicle would launch in 2020. Suffice it to say that this is aggressive, if not optimistic. Even a fast-moving company like Tesla takes years to get an EV ready, let alone a relative newcomer that has yet to make a big splash with its first model.

However, the joint venture is nothing to sneeze at. That's a lot of money for a young car company, and a Chinese partner could help Detroit Electric succeed in that country's increasingly hot EV market. Detroit Electric is getting the kind of financial nudge that many fledgling car builders only dream of. The tricky part is spending that money wisely to avoid the troubles that some of its rivals face.

Source: Detroit Electric's EV business gets a $1.8 billion jumpstart

Volkswagen’s Electric Hippie Van is Close to Being Approved, But There’s a Catch

If your life goals for the near future include recreating the Summer of Love, there's some far-out news arriving from Volkswagen. Public reaction to the automaker's electric I.D. Buzz concept proved positive enough to give executives confidence in European and American demand for the reborn Microbus.

Unfortunately for latter-day hippies and retirement-age flower children, their enthusiasm for this out-of-sight green machine won't be enough for VW to start production. It seems that the model's future hinges not on the Counter Culture Revolution, but the Cultural Revolution.

For VW to give the model a green light, the automaker must be confident in its global success. That means sparking interest not only in San Francisco, but also Beijing.

According to Autocar, the automaker needs to be sure of Chinese buy-in.

"The concept has been well-received in the US and Europe," VW design chief Klaus Bischoff told the publication at the Geneva Motor Show, "but the missing link is China. From the business case point of view it's quite an investment – it needs a global green light. In the meantime, it's thumbs up."

After 16 years of Microbus-inspired concepts that went nowhere, one hopes VW has concluded that this can't go on indefinitely. An EV model built on the company's dedicated electric architecture would allow for authentic retro proportions, while the green element seems tailor-made to tap into the brand goodwill of the 1960s. It seems the company knows this.

At the concept's launch late last year, VW sales and marketing head Jurgen Stackmann stated, "I think this is the most realistic shot ever at the Microbus coming."

Designers in Wolfsburg are already working on turning the I.D. Buzz into a production-ready vehicle, Bischoff told Autocar. The model is "more than a show car," he claimed. After previous failed attempts to resurrect the Microbus, Bischoff implied that this is the last kick at the can.

"I've tried quite a bit to bring this [the Microbus] to life," he said. "This is the final temptation."

If VW does decide to go ahead with the model, it would appear alongside an electric compact car and a host of other models at the start of the next decade. VW claims 270 miles of range and all-wheel drive, making the I.D. Buzz a fairly practical people carrier.

[Image: Volkswagen]

Source: Volkswagen's Electric Hippie Van is Close to Being Approved, But There's a Catch

CERAWeek: Pumping the Brakes on Electric Vehicle Uptake

Electric vehicle recharging its batteries in a parking lot. Source: Getty.

The emergence of electric vehicles (EVs) has been pointed to as a signal that "peak oil demand" could be just around the corner. However, that corner is not nearly close as some may think, according to several people who spoke at this year's CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

Bob Dudley, group chief executive of BP, was one of them. He said EVs will play an important role in future energy demand, but a limited one in terms of their displacement of the liquid fuels used in transportation. "It will grow," Dudley said of the EV market share, "but I don't think we will all be driving electric vehicles."

Citing figures from the firm's most recent energy outlook, which puts today's global fleet of EVs at around 1.2 million, Dudley predicted that, at the very least, there may be 100 million on the road by 2035. His high number was 200 million.

In either case, EVs in relation to all road vehicles would still represent a small fraction of the sum total in the time frame covered by the outlook. BP and others say that the world is on pace to go from a billion cars today to about 1.8 billion by 2035—leaving a wide gap between the two car categories.

A panel of automotive experts who also spoke at the conference held annually by IHS Markit did not issue any such data points or say when a tipping point would arrive, but they did echo Dudley's tempered tone on the pace of uptake.

Mateo Jaramillo, a former senior vice president of Tesla Energy Products, the home battery and solar power arm of the notable EV manufacturer, dismissed the idea that EVs pose an immediate risk to oil demand.

"I think it's still early days in terms of what the electric vehicle can be at scale," he said, emphasizing that Tesla currently turns out only about 100,000 vehicles each year. "That's a tenth of a percent of the market."

Tesla is not the only automaker in this game, however. The panelists said most legacy automakers have joined the race and will be introducing up to 20 new EV models over the next 2 years.

"One of the things that is going to drive the growth in electric vehicles is simply choice," said Jeremy Carlson, the senior analyst of the automotive technology group at IHS Automotive. "Just by giving consumers more of a choice, you are going to get more of them interested in the alternatives."

Though this shows a clear trend is on the horizon, the panel said it is not reason enough for the oil and gas industry to lose sleep. Jaramillo explained that at current rates, it will realistically take about 20 years to cycle through the world's existing population of vehicles. This means for decades to come, a small but growing number of EVs will be sharing the road with an outsize number of conventional vehicles.

The panelists were also in agreement that, in the medium term, select urban centers will become EV "hot spots" where consumer adoption far outpaces the overall picture. This may be realized in part through municipal mandates to transition toward EV-focused transportation policies aimed at curbing air pollution or to increase a city's attractiveness to certain demographics.

But such scenarios bring to light a not-so-often discussed constraint: local power grids. Bill Morelli, senior director of IT and networks technology at IHS Markit, said the world's cities generally do not have enough power supply to handle a substantial increase in EVs.

One of the most glaring challenges involves what would happen to a local power grid when rush hour commuters in a major city returned home at the end of the day and began recharging their cars around the same time.

"That is going to create tremendous strain on the overall system," said Morelli, noting that even in energy-rich Texas, utilities have in recent years struggled to cope when their customers crank up air conditioning units en masse during the hottest parts of a summer day, a situation that has led to occasional brownouts.

Morelli said cities need to prepare themselves for higher numbers of EVs by investing in smart-grid technology, which will help them manage and distribute electricity supply more efficiently.

This raises another sticky question over who pays for such upgrades, especially if they are viewed as being implemented to support one type of car consumer. A potential remedy discussed by the panel involved creating different pricing structures that address the unique power demands of EVs.

In addition to advanced electric grid technology, cities and entire regions are going to need more electricity before too many EVs arrive. Jaramillo pointed out that if 1 million of the 20 million currently registered vehicles in California were EVs, they would require 10 GW to recharge each day. The problem is that demand would represent 20% of the state's current peak power capacity.

Jaramillo said reaching such a large number of EVs could realistically happen within 5 or 10 years, meaning that EVs potentially pose a bigger risk to electricity supply than they do to oil demand.

Source: CERAWeek: Pumping the Brakes on Electric Vehicle Uptake

Norway Just Proved That a Future With 100% Renewable Energy Cars Is Possible

Norway is arguably the leader in the global pursuit for sustainable energy. The Scandinavian nation currently has the highest number of electric cars per capita – and they're only getting better.

More than half of the new cars bought in Norway so far in 2017 are either electric or hybrid.

Through January, electric cars accounted for 17.6 per cent of new vehicle registrations, while hybrids accounted for 33.8 per cent. That's 51.4 per cent, combined.

Take Action: Tell the US to Preserve Its Commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement

Hybrid cars feature an electric motor and a normal gasoline engine. The latter kicks in once the former runs out of juice. Electric cars don't use any gasoline. Because they don't have a traditional engine, the vehicle has more room for batteries, allowing the car to travel further on electric power than a hybrid.

"This is a milestone on Norway's road to an electric car fleet," Vidar Helgesen, Norway's Minister of Climate and Environment, told AFP. "The transport sector is the biggest challenge for climate policy in the decade ahead."

Image: Twitter/Vidar Helgesen

Read More: Last Month, Half the US Was Briefly Powered by Wind

The movement towards renewable energy in transportation has added significance for Norway, which is among the world's most oil-rich nations. In 2016, exports of crude oil and natural gas accounted for NOK350 billion (US$42 billion).

But Norway exports almost all of that gas – the nation is in the process of banning all cars that run on fossil fuels by 2025 – and invests that money in renewable energy efforts, mainly hydropower. In an effort to export renewable energy, Norway has made agreements with other EU nations to trade excess power based on available resources. Denmark, for instance, sends excess energy produced by wind power to Norway in exchange for energy from hydro power. This way, Denmark has energy on days the wind isn't blowing.  

In the US, Hawaii is making a similar push for green energy in transportation. The state is considering a bill that would require all ground transportation run on renewable energy by 2045.

Read More: Hawaii Aims for 100 Percent Renewable Energy by 2045

In January, the Netherlands announced all its electric trains are now powered by wind energy. The French train company Alstom announced the CO2 emission-free "Corodia iLint" last September. The first hydrogen passenger train will start running in Germany in December 2017.     

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary greenhouse gas contributing to man-made climate change. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that fossil fuel combustion for transportation accounts for a third of CO2 emissions in the United States.

Norway's government has taken extensive steps to curb climate change, like becoming the first nation on Earth to ban deforestation. The latest development, however, has come from the people opting for green energy cars over gas guzzlers, proving that coercive power isn't necessary for a sustainable future.

We just have to choose it. 

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Written by James O'Hare

James is an Editorial Intern at Global Citizen. He believes education is the starting point in working for social justice and hopes to someday eliminate the spectacle in American politics. He habitually quotes Mitch Hedberg and believes there should be a national holiday in honor of whoever invented chicken-bacon-ranch pizza.

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Source: Norway Just Proved That a Future With 100% Renewable Energy Cars Is Possible

Renault's electric Trezor concept is a race car of the road

Renault is making electric cars look good. The French automaker's Trezor electric coupé has a low, wide body that resembles a stalking predator, and given that it goes from 0 to 100km/h in less than 4 seconds, the prey won't be able to run very far. The vehicle borrows its electric motor and regenerative breaking system from Renault's Formula E racing cars and runs on two batteries, each with its own cooling system. 

Renault

Renault's Trezor concept sports coupé. 

In true Parisian style, the car's interior was designed with romance in mind. Everything from the windshield to the leather seats, and even the wood trimmings is red. According to Renault, the Trezor is supposed to remind you of falling in love.

As with all futuristic cars now days, the Trezor can be operated in three modes: neutral, sport, and autonomous. While in autonomous mode, the wheel will actually expand in width, to create a bigger screen on which the driver can enjoy a movie. 

As a concept, the Trezor isn't likely to end up on the road, but maybe some of its features will trickle down to Renault's production cars. Just maybe not the blazing red interior. 

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Source: Renault's electric Trezor concept is a race car of the road