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This car will prove the law of diminishing returns applies to ever heavier batteries. If this range is not achieved by the lightweight battery they claim they have, it will never leave China. Any sign of excessive weight, poor handling and reduced braking will be seen as a liability and not an asset. I also wonder if the vast resources they have thrown at autonomy will be wasted? With "only" 90 Kwh however (and without the taxi sign on its roof) it would be rather good.
NIO launches autonomous driving model ET7; up to 621 miles range with solid-state 150 kWh battery
At NIO Day, in Chengdu, NIO launched its first autonomous driving model, the smart electric flagship sedan NIO ET7. The ET7 has a pre-subsidy price starting from RMB 448,000 (US$69,000), or from RMB 378,000 (US$58,400) with BaaS (Battery as a Service). The ET7 features a 180 kW permanent m...
Once range exceeds 300 miles owners will get to a point where less time is spent "filling-up" en route than they did with ICE. Home and destination charging may allow users to drive without ever again visiting an unplanned location. The charging stations we see everywhere will be as unused and out of date as a fuel pump. And with induction charging, their fast filler cap might stay closed for years!
Lucid Motors releases details about its electric drivetrain technology
Lucid Motors provided some details about it proprietary, in-house developed electric drivetrain that will power the forthcoming pure-electric luxury Lucid Air. With up to 1,080 horsepower available in a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive architecture, the Lucid Air is able to achieve quarter-mile ti...
How expensive will it be, and why is it only a level 3-4 sensor? Musk thinks level 5 is possible with cheap cameras, so why is a lidar sensor aiming lower?
Ibeo to begin worldwide delivery of ibeoNEXT LiDAR sensor in October
The Hamburg-based LiDAR sensor specialist Ibeo Automotive Systems GmbH will begin worldwide delivery of its new ibeoNEXT LiDAR sensor (earlier post) to partners and customers starting in October 2020. The sensor, which generates a high-resolution 3D point cloud for reliable object detection, is...
Ammonia is a highly toxic substance. If a gas tanker powered by it were to explode in a port, how many people could die? The worst case scenario could be like the recent Beirut explosion and the Bhopal disaster merged into one nightmare scenario. How is it possible to ensure the safety of a fuel like ammonia?
NYK Line, JMU and ClassNK partner to commercialize ammonia-fueled ammonia gas carrier
NYK Line, Japan Marine United Corporation (JMU), and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) signed a joint R&D agreement for the commercialization of an ammonia-fueled ammonia gas carrier (AFAGC) that would use ammonia as the main fuel, in addition to an ammonia floating storage and regasification barge...
The safety of gas ships is always an issue. But the horrific toxicity of ammonia suggests to me that it can never be allowed to become the default green method of powering commercial shipping. "Impossible" collisions still happen, as do sinkings near population centres. How can vessels like these ever be truly safe?
CSIRO team optimistic about use of nitrogenase in applications such as green ammonia production for carrying H2
In a review paper published in the journal ChemSusChem, researchers from Australia’s CSIRO conclude that the combination of synthetic biology and materials chemistry will provide many viable options to allow the use of nitrogenase for energy applications, such as the production of green ammonia ...
Why is the safety of ammonia never discussed? I have experienced ammonia vapor and it horrifically nasty, even in tiny concentrations. It attacks the airways and eyes, making breathing and vision almost impossible. In bulk it could be devastingly toxic and kill like a nuclear explosion if powerfully dispersed to air. IMO, no ship transporting it or using it as fuel could ever be allowed to dock anywhere near a major city. The risk of terrorism alone should forbid it. The risk of corrosion in older vessels and collisions is too high IMO to ever allow these ships to become commonplace unless the safety design is literally bomb-proof.
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard receives green light from Lloyd’s Register for ammonia-fueled ships
Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co., a unit of Korea Shipbuilding, has been given the green light for its ammonia-propelled ships from Lloyd’s Register. Hyundai Mipo Dockyard intends to commercialize the ammonia-propelled ships by 2025 in cooperation with global engine maker MAN Energy Solutions and Lloy...
Similar ICE companies own the Ionity charging network. Their 500% price increase shows they want to force up recharging prices everywhere. I have no doubt the Enevate batteries will be first seen on hybrids built using the old ICE platforms they are determined to keep in production. Nissan, Renault etc will restrict BEV production until the last possible moment. The ICE giants will continue to do this until they have no choice, or go bust. Just like Kodak, Polaroid, Xerox....
Enevate announces new 4th-generation Si-dominant battery technology; optimized for high volume production
Enevate, a developer of advanced silicon-dominant Li-ion battery technology capable of extreme fast charging for electric vehicles (EVs), announced its new fourth-generation technology optimized for high volume commercialization and manufacturing at gigafactory scale. The new XFC-Energy technol...
What a disastrous concept this is. Not for its technical specs (which do not read as sci-fi), but the styling subtext of making a 4x4 look like a Mars rover. It screams out that off-road EVs are excitingly futuristic, whereas this will soon be a reality in a market VW have no intention of competing in. Competitors are even taking orders for their designs! VW product planners must think the Rivian, Bollinger and Tesla Truck are such small-fry (compared to their overwhelming hugeness) that they can be playful and put their competition off to the far future when styling like this will be the norm. The German car industry has so much investment in ICE production it is looking on the EV revolution with rabbit in the headlight ignorance. It will all end in tears.
Audi unveils AI:TRAIL quattro electric off-roader concept
Audi is showcasing an electric off-roader concept at IAA 2019: the Audi AI:TRAIL quattro. The AI: TRAIL joins the other three exploratory use case vehicles—the Audi Aicon, AI:ME, and AI:RACE—on Audi’s stand. The performance specifications for the Audi AI:TRAIL are markedly different from t...
The importance of this is obvious. Goodwood has been a petrol head cathedral for decades. When the all-time record falls to an EV, the reverberation will spread far and wide. How long before the old petrol record falls to a road legal EV? Five years? Or even sooner?
Volkswagen ID.R sets new record at Goodwood
The Volkswagen ID.R has set a new all-time record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Romain Dumas completed the 1.86-kilometer track in the south of England in just 39.90 seconds. In doing so, the 500-kW (680-PS) electric race car broke the previous record, which had stood for 20 years, by 1.7 ...
Confusion reigns over its recharging speed. Tesla quote 1000 MPH for its latest/best combo. But the Honda appears to add less than 200 MPH, which is problematic in a car with such short range. A 200 mile highway journey would be more bearable with a few minutes recharge instead of half an hour or more.
Honda releases more technical detail about Honda e EV
Honda has released more technical details about the upcoming Honda e urban EV. The Honda e is equipped with a high-power electric motor delivering up to approximately 150PS (110 kW) and torque in excess of 300 N·m. The 35.5 kWh battery in the Honda e is one of the most compact in its class,...
Proteon have published suspension design studies showing that it's un-sprung mass is well within the control parameters of conventional suspension design. I suspect the first applications will be commercial vehicles and off-roaders, but eventually it's packaging advantages will be too hard to ignore for innovative small car designers.
NEVS buys in-wheel motor developer Protean Electric
National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), a subsidiary of Evergrande Health, has acquired Protean Electric, a leading developer of in-wheel motor technology. The acquisition is part of Evergrande’s strategy to become a major player in the global electric vehicle (EV) industry, and paves the wa...
This study seems to assume long range (future) BEVs will have batteries manufactured with the same inefficiencies as today. But is that possible to predict, or even likely? If a BEV is charged mostly by renewables, surely that would tip the balance back in their favour? Also, BEVs have usable lifespans that are many times longer than ICE-engined vehicles. When you factor in their innate longevity and ability to be fueled mostly with renewable energy over a greatly extended lifetime, surely the BEV would win the lifetime emissions comparison?
Fraunhofer, KIT study finds CO2 mitigation potential of higher-range PHEVs greater than expected
In an open-access paper published in Scientific Reports, a team from Fraunhofer ISI and KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) has presented the first systematic overview of empirical findings on the electrification of vehicle mileage based on on actual PHEV (plug-in hybrid) and BEV (battery-el...
The Model 3 has to be a success, so is likely to be the most conservatively engineered of all Teslas. It therefore should be the most reliable Tesla and have high resale values as long as they use their tried and trusted solutions. However, if Tesla choose this model to debut untried technology (new chemistry batteries, advanced super capacitors, compact hub motors etc) then their customers and the brand will suffer the inevitable consequences.
J.D. Power: Tesla Model 3 buyers may not be as tolerant of quality issues as Model S, X owners
Problems associated with Tesla Model S and Model X have little influence on the overt affection owners have for these cars and the brand, according to a new J.D. Power report titled “Tesla: Beyond the Hype.” However, the J.D. Power report suggests, consumers who opt for Tesla’s next model, the M...
Tilting vehicles are normally man-wide so that they can navigate and park like motorcycles. But the moment they reach micro-car width and size they lose these advantages. So why tilt at all? Also, tilters tend to have a very hard ride and only work well on ultra smooth surfaces. So in the real world, this concept looks to be somewhat short of comfort, logic or desirability.
Toyota i-TRIL Concept Car; targeting SMESTOs
Toyota unveiled its i-TRIL concept car—a vision of mobility in 2030—at the Geneva Motor Show. Developed by Toyota Motors Europe (TME) in collaboration with the company’s ED² design studio in Nice, the new i-TRIL Concept showcases numerous innovative aspects of Toyota’s research into ever better ...
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