Jameson Dow

Manufacturers love to bring their electric concepts to California, and this year was no different.  Most manufacturers had at least one plug-in model of some sort, either for sale or as a concept. There were a lot of impressive displays…and some a little less so.

Impressive: Chevy, Tesla, Hyundai, Jaguar, Zelectric, the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid and the Cadillac CT6.

Conflicted: MINI’s Countryman Plug-In Hybrid.

Disappointing: Ford, VW/Audi, and of course every manufacturer with no plug-in models on display (Land Rover, GMC, Dodge, SRT, Jeep, Ram, Mazda, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Buick).

Check under the break for the gallery and some short impressions.

(Missing from the gallery – “Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid Executive” Plug-In Hybrid, and any others they may have been showing (the 918 perhaps?), because Porsche’s booth was in a separate area which I missed, and a full-body photo of the Prius Prime Plug-In Hybrid because the photo I took of it was unfortunately out-of-focus)

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Update: Tesla confirmed to Electrek that the station is back online – sooner than previously anticipated.

Someone has sabotaged Tesla’s Barstow supercharger, just before the big holiday travel weekend. Whoever it was, they seem to have acted deliberately.

The supercharger seems to have been down since at least Saturday, per a post on Tesla Motors Club in the Barstow supercharger thread, but was working as of Thursday around noon per PlugShare checkins. Tesla is aware of the outage, but will likely not have the station up until the end of the month – after the big holiday travel weekend.

Tony Williams, longtime EV driver and owner of EV charging adapter provider Quick Charge Power, went and checked the damage.  He has posted some pictures of the damage, which is quite extensive, and suggests that the job seems to be a deliberate act by knowledgeable people with access to “commercial grade” tools – certainly more than just a “smash ‘n grab”.

There is currently no solid information as to the motivation behind the sabotage.  We don’t want to speculate as to that motivation, though we’re sure there will be plenty of speculation in the comments below.

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France will shut down all of their coal power plants by 2023, French President Francois Hollande has announced.  The announcement took place at COP22, the UN’s annual climate change conference happening now in Marrakech.

France has been a leader in non-polluting electricity sources for a long time, with 95% low-carbon sources and 77% nuclear power (page 4, data from 2014), but they still use some fossil fuels for electricity, getting 3% of their power from coal through the month of November so far.  Given that their share of coal for electricity generation has been dropping since the 60s and is now a fairly small amount, it seems likely that France will easily meet their goal of eliminating the power source by 2023.

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Tesla recently put the brakes on free supercharging for life for new Model S orders, limiting Teslas ordered after January 1 or delivered after April 1 of 2017.  Most owners will still get plenty of free electricity, though, with a 400kWh yearly credit, and with electricity past that point still costing less than gasoline would.

The change of the program was presented only for the Model S and X, and Tesla didn’t want to elaborate on the Model 3.
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After some misadventures with the ELR, Cadillac has stepped back into the Plug-In Hybrid game with their new CT6 PHEV.  The car is expected to ship in the spring of 2017 and start at $76,090 before incentives are taken into account.

The CT6 compares well to its gas counterpart, offering much higher efficiency (65 MPGe), better performance (335hp, 0-60 in 5.2s, compared to 5.3-6.1s depending on engine configuration) and 30 miles of all-electric range.  This is less electric range than the Volt offers, and even less than the ELR did, which is an unfortunate step backwards by GM.  That said, 30 miles fits almost exactly the average daily mileage driven by American drivers (29.2 miles), so this should still allow many drivers to avoid using gasoline on most days, especially if they have a short commute or can charge at work.

The gas-powered CT6 costs $69,585 for the “Premium Luxury” trim level and twin-turbo engine, which is the most comparable to the PHEV version, which means the PHEV version comes with a $6,505 premium.  However, it includes some extra options, and various government incentives will be available, including the $7,500 federal tax credit and possibly state incentives as well.  This should mean that the CT6 Plug-In Hybrid will be cheaper than a similarly-equipped gas version after incentives, in addition to the performance and efficiency benefits – which means even more savings on gasoline in the long term.  At this price, if you’re thinking about getting a CT6, there’s no reason I can imagine not to get the plug-in version.

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We’ve covered reports that Jaguar was working on an electric SUV before, and today Jaguar officially revealed their SUV concept, along with their name for it: the “I-PACE.”  It’s largely modeled off of their recent “F-PACE” SUV, only Jaguar has taken the step of “electrifying” the design by giving it some future-y touches which are sure not to age well, but seems to be irresistible to automakers when jumping into the EV market.

While this design is still labeled as a “concept” – and as such, maybe Jaguar will tone down the “Tron lightcycle” looks a bit before release – Jaguar states that the car will hit the roads in 2018.  This seems exceedingly quick for an electric concept to make it to the roads, especially for a company with no other electric models yet.  But Jaguar has been signaling some seriousness about electric cars, particularly with their entry into this year’s Formula E championship.  There are no timelines yet for regional availability.

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The reviews are in, and the 2017 Chevy Bolt EV has topped all competition to become Motor Trend’s 2017 Car of the Year.  This is GM’s second electrified car to win the award, and the third electrified car and second pure EV overall (2011 Volt, 2013 Tesla Model S). Among other electric cars considered by Motor Trend were the Model S and X, both of which became finalists in their categories. More on them below.

Motor Trend praised the Bolt’s performance, packaging and roominess, ground-up engineering as an EV, efficiency and value at $37,495 or $29,950 after $7500 US Federal Tax rebate.

Of particular interest are the Bolt’s performance numbers, which time the Bolt EV at a 0-60 of 6.3 seconds.  With performance like that, Motor Trend said the Bolt could make “a helluva hot hatch” and that in “fun per mile” it competes against the Mazda3 or Golf, with similar performance and price range as a Golf GTI.  It’s no P100D, but for a small front-wheel-drive EV, the car has a lot of power.
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Just a few days after confirmation of the “Tesla Glass” tech group within the company, Tesla has quietly changed the Model S design studio, adding an all-glass roof option for the Model S. The option is available for the same price as the sunroof previously was, $1,500, and the panoramic sunroof option is now $2,000.

The new option notes that it is “Tesla Recommended for an open, expansive cabin feel.”  The option removes the crossbar over the car’s B-pillar, and should make the Model S interior feel even more airy than with the panoramic sunroof.

The change to the design studio also removes the P90D option.  In addition, the “ludicrous” upgrade seems to no longer be an individual option on any car – if you order a “P” model car, of which the only one available is now the P100D, ludicrous speed is included.

This leaves a rather significant gulf in pricing between the 90D and P100D models, a $45,000 difference in price between the two trim levels for the Model S and a $40,000 difference for the Model X. A future non-performance “100D” model seems inevitable to fill that gap.

UPDATE: Tesla has updated us about availability, they say the all-glass roof is entering production right now and will be in showrooms in the next few weeks.

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On a recent Saturday afternoon, Kim Reynolds from Motor Trend brought a Chevy Bolt to a Tesla meetup in Orange County, California, to see what a group of local Tesla owners thought about Chevy’s new entry into the market.

This longtime EV driver was fortunate enough to be at the meetup, and I must say I was quite impressed.  I’m predisposed to being impressed by any serious EV, but Chevy really does seem to have done a good job with this one.

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Tesla is at Universal Studios in Los Angeles to unveil its new solar roof product, Powerwall 2.0, and potentially a new Tesla charger. The event will be live-streamed on Tesla’s website starting at 5:30pm PDT (UTC-7) and we will be live from the venue to bring you as much information as possible.
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Considered part of the “Triple Crown of Motorsport” alongside the Indianapolis 500 and Monaco Grand Prix, the Le Mans 24 Hours race, started in 1923, is one of the oldest and most prestigious races in the world.  Teams are allowed three drivers and must race to complete the most laps over a 24 hour period, which means that winning cars must show exceptional performance, reliability and efficiency.

As a result of this, the race has been used as a proving ground for many technological advancements, most recently the appearance of hybrid electric vehicles which first raced in 2009 and have won the race every year since 2012.

Audi has absolutely dominated the 24 Hours of Le Mans ever since they returned to the race 18 years ago.  With 13 wins in those 18 years, they have been the manufacturer to beat at the race. In particular, they are credited with heralding the “diesel era” of the race, leading to diesel-engined winners from ’06-’11, and diesel-electric hybrids from ’12-’14.

So today’s announcement that they would quit the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans race comes as a bit of a shock. Or does it?
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Earlier this week, Consumer Reports came out with their annual car reliability survey, which included an update on Model S reliability in which they re-recommended the car due to improved reliability, and also a warning on reliability of initial Model X vehicles due to many issues, particularly with the falcon wing doors.

But as we reported two days ago, since Model S reliability is improving, we should probably expect a similar story to play out with the Model X.  Today, Tesla gave confirmation that this is indeed the case, with a sentence in their shareholder letter:

“Reliability of our vehicles continues to improve and our  warranty accrual rates on new and used vehicles declined from Q2 to Q3.  The amount of issues that we have addressed with ModelX have fallen by 92% in the last 12 months, a reflection of the improvements we have made in Model X due to our ability and commitment to react quickly to issues.”

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Consumer Reports really likes the Model S.  Last year, it somehow managed to place both first and second in their “best cars of 2015” list, and the P85D broke their rating system by scoring 103 out of 100 points – beating the previous 85kWh model which had previously been described as the “best car ever” when it scored 99 out of 100 on the same scale.  That’s right, not the best EV ever, but the best car ever.  It has also topped their list with the highest owner satisfaction ratings ever seen in multiple surveys of their subscribers, as well as the highest satisfaction for repairs and service.

So last year, when Consumer Reports rescinded their recommendation, it was big news.  But today, Consumer Reports has reversed that decision based on new reliability ratings, and now that the Model S is back in “average” reliability range, it means that Consumer Reports can once again recommend that consumers buy it.

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Earlier this summer, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed rumors that Tesla is working on a fully-autonomous ride-sharing/taxi service to compete with Uber and Lyft. He described the concept in his ‘Master Plan Part Deux’:

“You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you’re at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost.”

With today’s introduction of “enhanced autopilot” features and fully self-driving hardware in all cars, Tesla released more information about the service which it is apparently calling ‘Tesla Network’.
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California’s Center for Sustainable Energy announced another modification to their Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) today, raising the credit by an additional $500 for low-to-mid-income earners (below 300% federal poverty line) and lowering the eligibility cap to $150k for individuals and $300k for joint filers.  This raises California’s rebate to $4,500 for battery electric vehicles, $3,500 for plug-in hybrids and $7,000 for fuel cell vehicles for buyers in the lower-income category.

The standard rebate for buyers who do not fit either of the above categories remains at $2,500 BEV/$1,500 PHEV/$5,000 FCV.  The new income limits apply to vehicles purchased after November 1st, 2016, and the rebate is applicable to any new electric vehicle purchase, or a lease with at least a 30-month term.

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In comments at the Automotive Press Association on Wednesday, Jeff Carlson, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, stated that consumers would much prefer to do business at traditional auto dealerships than to do business with Tesla’s retail model.  Carlson’s statements were based upon the idea that dealerships often “discount” their prices and allow haggling, and that this somehow results in vehicles being cheaper when bought through middleman dealerships than when bought through a vertically integrated model which removes the middleman entirely.  He cited a study which concluded that intra-brand competition from nearby auto dealers can result in decreased prices for new car shoppers.

Of course, there have also been studies showing that Carlson’s belief about consumers’ preferences is quite off-base.  Polling data collected by Gallup for over 40 years ranks professions by the public perception of their honesty.  The most recent data available, from December 2015, puts car salesmen near the bottom of the list, ahead of only “lobbyists” and tied with “members of Congress” and “telemarketers” with only 8% of the country considering car salesmen as above average in honesty and ethics.

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In advance of Formula E’s 2017-2018 season start this Sunday in Hong Kong, news came today that Mercedes has signed an “option agreement” reserving their position as one of 12 teams for the 2018-2019 season, up from 10 teams this season.

Mercedes joins a growing list of manufacturers involved in Formula E – Renault, Citroen, Mahindra and NextEV are already team title sponsors, with Jaguar, Audi, and Faraday Future all joining this year, and McLaren recently beating out Porsche and current supplier Williams to supply batteries for the series in the future.

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For the last two years, Formula E’s season-ending double-header, with two races on the same weekend, took place in London’s Battersea park.  But today, Formula E confirmed that the 2016-2017 season finale will be moved to New York City, taking place in Red Hook, Brooklyn in mid-July.  The race will be run on city streets near Pier 11 and the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  It will be the first FIA-sanctioned open-wheel race ever to take place within the five boroughs of New York City.
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Electric drag racing is still a niche pursuit, but a few enterprising racers are setting some very impressive times in custom electric drag racers.  In the last couple weeks, new records have been set by both Black Current, an electric VW Beetle based in the UK, and Shock and Awe, an electric Pontiac Firebird built by students at Bothell High School in Washington state.  We’ve all seen – and been impressed by – Tesla drag race videos, but these electric door slammers take it to another level entirely.
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Four years ago, Rafael de Mestre became the first EV driver to solo circumnavigate the globe in his Tesla Roadster.  He’s just done it again, this time with company, once again showing that EVs are entirely suitable for long distance travel.  After challenging EV drivers to join him in an around-the-world road rally, they departed in June and finished in 80 days as planned, under the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona.  The rally included eleven teams from nine countries, including eight Tesla Model S, one Tesla Roadster, one DENZA (a joint brand from Daimler and BYD), and an electric bus from Hungarian firm Modulo.

The journey was catalogued on their YouTube channel with local coverage in various languages, a Bing map shows the route of all 11 teams, and the charge points used have been added into the database at electromaps.com.

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