Kia announced today that it will introduce the Soul EV in 4 more US states: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland. 19 new Kia dealers will be certified to sell and service the Soul EV, which will now be available in 10 states. The car was already available in California since late last year and in Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii since earlier this year. Expand Expanding Close
Charging is still the primary concern of any new potential electric vehicle buyer. They want to know where they can charge the car and how long it takes. Now with the numerous charging standards and the difference between car models and battery pack sizes, it can be a difficult landscape to navigate. The bigger the battery pack, the longer it takes to charge, but at the same time, you can get an higher charging rate.
Netherlands-based charging station start-up Fastned is making the (safe) bet that battery packs will soon get bigger and, more importantly, they will be able to take higher charge rates. Expand Expanding Close
BMW’s DriveNow program, which gives users access to a fleet of BMW i3’s to rent by the minute, is shutting down in San Francisco indefinitely because the automaker and city officials can’t come to an understanding over parking permit regulations according to Auto News.
The Netherlands is an excellent market for electric cars, it’s not quite Norway, but when adding plug-in hybrids it’s getting close. As for all-electric vehicles, Tesla’s Model S is by far the best-selling in the country based on registration data.
Yesterday BMW released its US sales report and confirmed 1,710 BMW i3’s delivered in September; a 67% increase over the 1,022 delivered last year and 116% increase over the 792 units sold in August. This is excellent news for the German automaker’s electric lineup especially since i3 sales were flat or even lagging for most of the year. Expand Expanding Close
I have to say, as an EV enthusiast, these new ads from Chevy leave an incredibly bad taste in my mouth. Yes, the Prius’s NiCad batteries are older technology –and frankly as a Prius Plug-in owner there are plenty of vectors for attack on its battery system – but the Prius STILL gets better mileage than the Volt once the battery is used up, and the Volt’s battery ain’t that big. If I were making the Volt ad and I felt the need to attach the Prius, I’d point out that it is almost impossible to drive electric only with it where the Volt only uses gas on long trips.
Chevrolet’s global chief marketing officer, Tim Mahoney, said those ads have been extremely effective in helping improve Chevrolet’s brand image. Mahoney said Chevrolet’s “shattering perceptions” ads have bumped consumers’ favorable opinion of the brand by 3 percent.
The Leaf ad traps the focus group between floors in dead elevators, leaving them stranded there to emphasize the frustration of being stuck, a major concern for drivers of battery powered cars such as the Leaf. The Prius attack ads points out the car’s engineering is yester-tech.
The Internet ads will be cut down and broadcast on TV, Mahoney said. Volt ads will stress three things: The car’s 53-mile all-electric range, its technology and a combined gasoline and electric driving range of more than 400 miles. Most drivers, Mahoney said, will go between 1,000 and 1,500 miles between tanks of gasoline.
“We’re going to go head-to-head with Leaf and Prius,” Mahoney said. “The ads allow Chevrolet to talk in one way and they allow Chevrolet’s personality to come through. We’re going to be taking more risks,” he said.
In the below commercial, Chevy compares the Leaf’s 80 miles (guess they didn’t hear about the 100+ mile version that will be available in many places before the 2016 Volt) to the Volt’s 400+ with gas. I get it – but why not play up the bits about being electric? Expand Expanding Close
Fully Charged published a very interesting video today about electric vehicles and blind people. The lack of engine noise in electric vehicles is often cited as a potential danger to pedestrians and especially the blind. Fully Charged collaborated with someone well-qualified to talk about the subject, Andre Louis, a sound engineer who happens to be blind. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla Motors is set to release by early next week the number of Model S’s delivered during the third quarter 2015. Tesla’s sales are an important metric for the short and mid-term future of electric vehicles. Like any other industry, the automotive industry is driven by profit-making. If an automaker solely manufacturing electric vehicles, like Tesla, can show growing sales while maintaining favorable profit margins, there is no better motivator for the incumbents to accelerate their electric vehicle programs.
Lets take a quick look at Tesla’s sales so far this year: Expand Expanding Close
Fisker Automotive announced today a name change to Karma Automotive, as well as a new logo (see above). The company was named after its co-founder and famed car designer, Henrik Fisker. Fisker resigned from the company during financial difficulties in 2013. The company filed for bankruptcy soon after. Then the Wanxiang Group, a Chinese auto parts conglomerate, bought the company’s assets out of bankruptcy for $149 million. They also picked up A123, a battery maker who at the time was supplying Fisker with battery packs before both companies went under.
Wanxiang has since been trying to relaunch the company and especially its flagship electric sedan, the Karma, hence the new name of the organisation. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla launched the Model X last night in Fremont. You can read our quick overview of Elon Musk’s walk-through of the vehicle here, but here’s the video of the event and a roundup of the videos shot during the press day leading up to the event.
If you have been following news about Tesla Motors lately you know that the company is launching the Model X today, but you might have also heard that they will launch a “600+ miles vehicle” in about 2 years. Several publications have been publishing articles with a variation of the following headline: “Elon Musk says Tesla will have a 600 miles vehicle by 2017“.
These headlines, to no fault of Musk, are due to either a severe lack of knowledge about electric vehicle range or a malicious click-baiting attempt. Expand Expanding Close
This is part 2 of my report on the beta version of Tesla’s Autopilot. Please read part 1 if you haven’t yet.
Most advanced commercially available autonomous features
The language about the responsibility around the ‘Autopilot’ is somewhat straight-forward. The system is clearly not intended to turn the Model S into a self-driving vehicle with a bunch of redundant autonomous features, but it’s rather an evolutionary step toward self-driving. It alleviates some tasks for the driver, but without ever taking any responsibility.
Tesla uses very clear legal language throughout the beta release to place all the responsibilities with the driver. The driver can and should take over control if he or she thinks it’s necessary. Expand Expanding Close
In mid-August Tesla sent out the first release of its beta v7.0 software update to early access testers all around the U.S. and parts of Europe. This particular update is an extremely anticipated one, not just because of the UI design overhaul, but because it includes several new ‘Autopilot’ features, which some Model S owners have been waiting for close to a year now.
We wrote a first look at the update when the release came out and we followed-up with Tesla’s second release of the beta v7.0 earlier this month. Now this weekend I had the opportunity to fly out and have a complete (unofficial) walk-through of the new update and more importantly, I got to experience the new ‘Autopilot’ features. Expand Expanding Close
As images of the Tesla Model X are rolling off the assembly line, we are seeing a number of improvements to the car over prototypes that have been publicly shown. One such improvement was revealed in a video showing the front trunk or ‘Frunk’ of the Model X. Compare the size of the Frunk in the shipping model above to a Prototype shown off by CEO Elon Musk last year.
Another image of the Model X Frunk, straight on the assembly line, is below. Expand Expanding Close
‘Wild’ may be an exaggeration but at the Tesla plant in Fremont, a spy caught a prototype Model X opening and closing (video below) its Falcon Wing doors . The spies seemed to be concerned about the door closing mechanism, and many of the mules we’ve seen have had partially opened doors, but it is unlikely that this is the final design/spec.
In any case, we’ll be live on the Model X launch on the 29th, come back and join us! Expand Expanding Close
Tesla is still tuning the Model X’s options ahead of its launch scheduled for September 29th at the Fremont factory. Earlier this month, the company added an option for hitch accessories directly at the purchase of the vehicle in order to get around the limitations of the ‘Falcon Wing’ doors. Later, it updated the EPA-rated range to 250 miles for the P90D version of the all-electric SUV. Today we learn Tesla now added an option for a 6-seat configuration to the vehicle. Expand Expanding Close
This morning Tesla updated the pre-order webpage for its upcoming all-electric SUV, the Model X, to indicate that new reservations will only ship out during the “second half of 2016”. Only yesterday, the estimate was “early 2016”, but with a growing backlog of reservations ahead of the September 29th launch, it is not surprising for Tesla to warn new buyers about the delivery schedule. Expand Expanding Close
Chargepoint, one of the leaders in the commercial EV charging market, this week announced a new line of home chargers that are available at Amazon.com. The lineup starts at $499 for an indoor (garage) with a 16A/240V which can add 12 miles per hour of charge. This is a little over double the speed of 110V 15A plugs that go into regular 110V outlets.
Outdoor charging, hard/plug wiring, cord length and double speed 32A all raise the price in $50-$100 increments where a 32A Outdoor with a 25-foot wire cost $799.
A quick look at Amazon’s best seller list (cached to the right) shows that a few days in, Chargepoint dominates EV charger sales at the online retailing giant.
Chargepoint also offers an attractive design (which I got to review at CES at the beginning of the year), integration with Nest and other home automation platforms and software updates over Wifi which will bring new functionality in the future.
At a starting price of $499, however, there are some better deals on the market and particularly at Amazon especially if you are looking at straight W/$.
One of my favorite chargers (and the only other in Amazon’s top 10) is the Electric Motor Werks Juicebox 40A/10KW with 24′ cable for $499 shipped. This is more powerful than Chargepoint’s by a significant margin (40A vs. 32A) and equivalent to Tesla’s home charger and gets outstanding 4.5/5 star reviews from Amazon’s customers. It is so small that it can be taken off its bracket and used as a Travel charger anywhere there is a NEMA 14-50 plug… Expand Expanding Close
Apple has reportedly hit the gas on its plans to launch an electric car codenamed Project Titan and added another 1,200 employees to the development team, according to the Wall Street Journal. The team working on the electric vehicle has now tripled in size. The reason behind the push? Apple wants to finalize the project in 2019, a full year ahead of the originally-reported 2020 production date.
The Artega Scalo joins the long list of all-electric luxury cars being unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week. The German sports car maker now focuses mostly on “electromobility” in partnership with battery maker Voltabox.
The company says it will achieve a range of 250 miles on a small 37 kWh battery pack. The claim is difficult to believe, but the range is most likely calculated based on the New European Driving Cycle, which allows for longer range than most real-life driving cycles. Expand Expanding Close
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Kia announced today that it will introduce the Soul EV in 4 more US states: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland. 19 new Kia dealers will be certified to sell and service the Soul EV, which will now be available in 10 states. The car was already available in California since late last year and in Georgia, Texas, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii since earlier this year. 
