Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

[TheGreenAnger]

Professor David Kipping on the electric vehicle market and the availability of Lithium. As ever, he is totally lucid and very interesting.

[PHXPhlyer]

Will You Buy One?

DeLorean’s new car looks nothing like the one you remember. Here’s why

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/29/business ... index.html

If you’ve seen the new DeLorean Alpha5 electric car, you might be disappointed that it doesn’t look much at all like the famous DeLorean DMC-12 from the “Back to the Future” movies. Really, other than the gullwing doors, there’s not much that clearly ties the cars together.

But the Alpha5, which made its public debut recently, does resemble some DeLoreans you might not remember because none of them were ever actually made.

It’s one thing to buy the DeLorean name, put it on some new vehicle and declare it an “official DeLorean.” But the DeLorean DMC-12 was an icon of modern design. Its successor should not just bear the DeLorean name, it should look like a DeLorean, too.

But after 40 years, what should a DeLorean look like? Surely it should at least somewhat resemble the DMC-12 that starred in the movies, but the car company went bankrupt before the first film even debuted. So the company’s designs didn’t evolve over the following decades the way those of other car brands did. Ironically, the “Back to the Future” car remained firmly stuck in the past. To imagine what today’s DeLorean would look like, the company’s new designers had to fill in a nearly 40-year gap.

The DeLorean Alpha5 is generally modeled on a DeLorean four-seat model envisioned in the 1980s.

They wanted to imagine what DeLoreans would have looked like if everything hadn’t stopped. To do that, they’ve filled in some rather large gaps in the timeline, starting with the future the original automaker had envisioned for itself.

As it turns out, the Alpha5’s progenitor really wasn’t the DMC-12. Instead, the Alpha5 traces its roots back to DeLorean’s second car: the four-seat DMC-24, a car the new designers didn’t just make up.

Having gone out of business in 1982, the original DeLorean Motor Company never produced the DMC-24, but it was in development. ItalDesign Giugiaro, the Italian design firm that crafted the angular, bare metal form of the DMC-12 had gotten as far as crafting a concept car version before DeLorean went under. The DMC-24 was ultimately unveiled later in 1982, in slightly modified form, as the Lamborghini Marco Polo concept car.

The DeLorean DMC-24 concepy car was never unveiled under that name.

Then, of course, there are all those other cars ItalDesign helped develop for DeLorean over the next 40 years. There was the Alpha2, revealed in 1996, the Alpha3 of 2006 and, the Alpha4, a hydrogen-powered SUV unveiled in 2013.

OK, not really. The new DeLorean once again turned to ItalDesign, now a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group, to design its new cars and, together, they decided to create a detailed fictional design history for the brand.

None of those vehicles – Alpha2 through 4 – ever existed, but DeLorean executives and ItalDesign’s designers speak of them as if they did. There are one-quarter scale models of all these cars. There will be period car magazines with these “just revealed” models on the cover. There’s Hot Wheels packaging designed by Mattell graphic designers in the correct style for each period just as if the toys had hung on drug store racks back in the day. (Hot Wheels really is selling a model DeLorean Alpha5.)

The new DeLorean Motor Company and its partners at ItalDesign aren’t trying to fool people. Anyone who has been alive for much of the last 40 years knows these vehicles never existed. But just going back to a car from 1982 to design a modern vehicle would have left the company trapped with a “retro” look that could really only be applied to one model, CEO Joost de Vries said. So designers made up a history as a way of freeing themselves from the constraints of the actual history.

The process of creating different vehicles helped designers figure out the key elements of DeLorean’s “design language,” such as a subtle front wing. It was modeled on the strip of darker material across the nose of the DMC-12 but turned into a functional aerodynamic feature. The Alpha4, the SUV, will serve as a model for DeLorean’s next planned model after the Alpha5, an electric SUV.

A darker reality, and the birth of a new DeLorean
This faux history looks promising but DeLorean’s real history was far darker. It stands as a warning to any number of new automotive start-ups, including the new DeLorean, about how badly wrong things can go and how quickly. After only barely starting production, DeLorean went into liquidation shortly after its founder, former General Motors executive John DeLorean, was arrested on drug charges in a videotaped sting operation. He was later acquitted, but the company, which had been struggling anyway, didn’t survive.

DeLorean’s assets were purchased by a Texas mechanic named Stephen Wynne, along with other undisclosed investors. Wynne’s company built a reputation maintaining and repairing DeLoreans. The initial plan was for the new DeLorean company to make electric versions of the original DMC-12 but, in the last several years a much bolder plan was hatched.

The new DeLorean Motor Company was formed, with Wynne’s original company as the biggest investor, to make all new electric vehicles. De Vries, who formerly worked with Tesla and Karma Automotive, another EV startup, leads the company, and a new headquarters building is planned in San Antonio.

For the time being, there will be no DeLorean factory, de Vries said. The company will work with an outside company to build the cars, de Vries said, just as the start-up Fisker is doing with its new Ocean SUV. The Alpha5 is planned as a limited edition. Only 9,531 will be made, just one more than DeLorean built of the DMC-12. The company expects those cars to be in production some time in 2024.

“The coupe is our halo car,” said de Vries. “It’s awesome. It’s the purest interpretation we have of the brand, but we need to get to the SUV if we’re going to become a car company.”

That was a big part of the reason for a made-up history. DeLorean needed a design heritage to draw on, he said, in order to stretch those more evolved themes into vehicles that might not have even been envisioned in 1982. De Vries expects to reveal a new DeLorean full-sized luxury SUV in early 2023.

“We’re actually launching our second generation SUV,” de Vries said, “because we did have an SUV in 2013.”

Well, not really, but designers will be working from the Alpha IV to derive the company’s future production SUV. After the radical looking Alpha5, de Vries promises, the big SUV won’t be conservative and constrained.

“We can’t afford to have a brick,” he said.

DeLorean also unveiled two concept vehicles at the house in Monterey, California, where the company was showing off its first planned production model. One, the Alpha5 Plasmatail, is version of the Alpha5 with a higher back end for more storage space. The other, the Omega, is an extreme off-road EV with huge tires and a slender body high off the ground.

DeLorean’s designers have filled in the past and are looking far into the future. For now, the present remains a work in progress.

PP

[fin]

California plans to stop using gas cars, while asking electric car owners NOT to charge theirs. Brilliant! No pollution.

[llondel]

California plans to stop using gas cars, while asking electric car owners NOT to charge theirs. Brilliant! No pollution.

It just shows that there needs to be serious expansion of grid capacity over the next few years. Of course, that won't happen because of the time it takes to plan and build new generating capacity, as well as uprate the transmission lines.

[llondel]

Professor David Kipping on the electric vehicle market and the availability of Lithium. As ever, he is totally lucid and very interesting.

There is development work on sodium batteries. They do exist, they do work, but their reliability is poor. It seems that a sodium electrode expands and contracts way more than a lithium one during the charge/discharge cycle, so they have to figure out how to make one that doesn't fall apart after a few cycles.

[OFSO]

Spain has the solution. Price electricity so high nobody can afford electric cars. Make getting a licence for solar cells so difficult that's no alternative either. Then subsidise petrol and diesel.

[VP959]

California plans to stop using gas cars, while asking electric car owners NOT to charge theirs. Brilliant! No pollution.

It just shows that there needs to be serious expansion of grid capacity over the next few years. Of course, that won't happen because of the time it takes to plan and build new generating capacity, as well as uprate the transmission lines.

The UK is quite fortunate, as it has plenty of spare grid and generation capacity, enough to not need any upgrades for EVs for some years. At the moment, we have enough spare capacity to be able to charge over 20 million EVs, and it's going to take a decade or more to get to those sort of numbers. Unlike some other countries, we have a very high ratio of daytime peak to night time off-peak demand, which creates management problems for the grid as it stands, so anything that consumes more energy overnight will actually make grid management a bit simpler. Amongst other things, it may well stop the daft situation we have at the moment where we pay generators to turn off when demand is low.

[OFSO]

Now be honest, all you owners of electric cars. Wouldn't you really rather be sitting in this magnificent V12 powered beast?
(Parked behind my Ford yesterday. German plates but steering wheel is on the correct side).

[OFSO]

[G-CPTN]

Make?

Jaguar engine?

[VP959]

I bet it's pretty sluggish compared to my humble electric saloon car, TBH. Once you've experienced the almighty shove in the back from a car that delivers around 470 lb-ft to all four wheels from a standstill then it's hard to go back to the lack of low speed grunt from the majority of conventional cars.

[OFSO]

V12 Jaguar.

[fin]

I bet it's pretty sluggish compared to my humble electric saloon car, TBH. Once you've experienced the almighty shove in the back from a car that delivers around 470 lb-ft to all four wheels from a standstill then it's hard to go back to the lack of low speed grunt from the majority of conventional cars.

True, but doesn't sound as cool.

[PHXPhlyer]

I bet it's pretty sluggish compared to my humble electric saloon car, TBH. Once you've experienced the almighty shove in the back from a car that delivers around 470 lb-ft to all four wheels from a standstill then it's hard to go back to the lack of low speed grunt from the majority of conventional cars.

True, but doesn't sound as cool.

Then get one of these!

Most electric cars are quiet. But Dodge says its future electric muscle car will be super loud

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/17/business ... index.html

Dodge, famous for offering cars with big and powerful V8 engines, is phasing out some of its iconic, gas-powered muscle cars in favor of electric power. To ease fans into this new era, the company has opted to mimic some muscle car sensations — including shifting gears and a loud exhaust — in an electric concept car it unveiled on Wednesday.

It’s part of an overall shift from Dodge, the American performance car division of Stellantis, towards electrified vehicles. The brand’s current gas-powered muscle cars, the Charger and Challenger, end production next year. The concept muscle car, called the Dodge Charger Daytona SRT, resembles a model that will go on sale 2024, according to executives. It will join a new small SUV called the Hornet that will be available as a plug-in hybrid and is set to go on sale later this year.

Dodge dealerships will offer an expedited ordering process for aftermarket convertible modifications for the 2022 Dodge Challenger through Drop Top Customs, the oldest convertible coachbuilder in the U.S. Convertible aftermarket modifications through Drop Top Customs will also be available for the 2023 Dodge Challenger when orders open for the new model year.
You can buy a Dodge Challenger convertible as the model ends its run
The Charger Daytona has exhaust pipes that make noise and a transmission that shifts gears. None of that is necessary in an electric car, of course, but Dodge assumes its target customer isn’t looking for what’s strictly needed. These customers are looking for excitement, Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis said, which requires more than just fast acceleration.

“We think we’re going to bring a car to market that customers didn’t see coming,” he said. “But they’re definitely going to hear this one coming.”

The Charger Daytona makes low, loud thrumming tones that sounds a bit like high-voltage electrical equipment. The sounds aren’t produced by speakers, like the sounds from most electric cars, but by air pulses forced through pipes with baffles and chambers inside.

The air pulses vary in speed and force depending on how fast the car is going and how hard the accelerator is pressed, much like the air pulses created by an internal combustion engine. The sounds it produces can be up 126 decibels, according to Dodge. That’s about the level at which the ears begin to hurt and well above levels at which sustained exposure can cause hearing loss, according to the National Hearing Conservation Association.

Unlike most electric cars, the Charger Daytona has a transmission with more than just one or two speeds. Most electric cars have only a one-speed transmission because, unlike gasoline engines, electric motors provide their full pulling power at even very low speeds and keep providing that power up through very high rotating speeds. Gas engines, by contrast, have a relatively narrow band of operating speeds at which they can provide full power so it’s necessary to have a transmission with different gears to keep the engine within that “power band” as the car moves slower and faster.

The Dodge Charger Daytona SRT concept car's front end includes a hidden wing, hidden in this view, that allows air to pass through for improved aerodyamics.

But Dodge designers and engineers felt electric car drivers might miss the sounds and sensations of a transmission shifting, so, even though it’s not really needed, the Charger Daytona has a multi-speed transmission. Kuniskis would not say how many gears the transmission has. The gas powered 717-horsepower Dodge Challenger Hellcat has an eight-speed transmission. Classic Dodge Charger muscle cars, like the ones the EV is modeled on, had three- or four-speed transmissions.

Dodge hasn’t yet announced how much power the all-wheel-drive car’s electric motors will produce, though the company promised that it will be faster than the Dodge Challenger Hellcat “in all key performance measures.” The supercharged Hellcat, a gasoline-powered rear-wheel-drive car, can go from a stop to 60 miles an hour in 3.7 seconds, according to Car and Driver.

With its narrow rectangular nose and dark color, the Charger Daytona EV resembles a late 1968 Charger. In its dark paint color, it looks a good bit like the Dodge Charger used in a famous chase scene in the movie “Bullitt,” the one that chases – and gets chased by – Steve McQueen’s Ford Mustang.

The front of the Charger Daytona EV hides a wing that runs just above the “grille.” The wing allows air to pass underneath it, improving the car’s aerodynamic efficiency. Air vents cut in the sides at the front and rear of the vehicle also help to improve the aerodynamics of the generally squared-off body.

Dodge has not said how much the production version of the car might cost when it goes on sale.

PP

[OFSO]

Clutch seemed a bit tricky in that Kougar. Driver was feathering it as she pulled away, trying not to stall. But a lovely car. In a town where Ferraris and Lambos don't get much attention, this one did.

[llondel]

Saw an interesting claim today, no idea if it's true.

Using an EV and charging it from a diesel generator is 20% more efficient than using a diesel car.

I guess it comes down to how efficient a diesel generator is running at a constant speed compared to the variable speed and loading found in a diesel car. It's got to be quite a bit more, because you always put more electrical energy into a battery than you get out as electrical energy, so you're already starting from behind. On the other hand, the friction losses in a diesel car transmission are probably not insignificant either. A direct-drive electric motor is probably pretty efficient compared to running through a gearbox, and often a fluid flywheel too. You also gain from the regenerative braking if you're in an urban environment, and that may well be where the real gain is made, although a hybrid would also potentially give a good account of itself too.

[OFSO]

I'm going to have a look at the mehv Puma tomorrow while the Mondeo is talking to their computer. Might see if there's a deal to be done. Ford has over a million and a half euros worth of Pumas stored in Spain, built and waiting for customers. Perhaps for the third time they'll make me an offer that I can't refuse....

[PHXPhlyer]

GM unveils $30,000 electric SUV that will be one of the cheapest EVs available

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/08/business ... index.html

ectric SUV Thursday that the automaker expects will be the cheapest compact electric SUV on the market when it goes into product in about a year. The Chevrolet Equinox EV will have a starting price around $30,000 which, at any rate, will make it among the cheapest electric vehicles of any sort.

The average electric vehicle available today has a base sticker price of about $47,500, according to Edmunds.com. The $30,000 price for the Equinox EV would be, of course, for the simplest version with no optional features. That price does not include tax credits but GM is not currently eligible for any electric vehicle tax credits, anyway, and it’s uncertain if any GM vehicles will be eligible under new rules, either.

Among 2022 model year mass-market EVs, only the Nissan Leaf, with its base price $28,500, costs less and it also currently qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit. There are a few other models in the low- to mid-$30,000 price range, too. Among them are Chevrolet’s own Bolt EV and the SUV-ish Bolt EUV.

Despite having the same name, the Equinox EV shares very little with the gasoline-powered small SUV that is Chevrolet’s second-best-selling model after the Silverado pickup. GM took the same approach with the Chevrolet Silverado EV pickup and the Chevrolet Blazer EV SUV, both of which were unveiled earlier this year. They share only their names and their basic size and form with gas models. All three, along wth GM’s GMC Hummer EV truck and Cadillac’s Lyriq SUV are designed around the same electric vehicle battery pack design and structure.

The Equinox EV is almost three inches wider than the gas model and slightly shorter, as measured from the roof to the ground. Unlike some electric vehicles, it has no front trunk. Instead the area under the hood holds electronics equipment and the front electric motor. GM (GM) designers and engineers decided to save the cost and complexity of trying to create a space under the hood and spend vehicle development time and money, instead, on creating a better experience inside the cabin, said Scott Bell, GM (GM)’s vice president for Chevrolet.

The Equinox EV will be available with two-tone paint jobs, something that’s been an industry trend for several years. Customers getting the sportier-looking RT models will be able to get a black roof with a differently colored body while those getting the standard LT models will be able to choose a contrasting white roof.

The cheapest version will be the so-called Blazer 1LT with a single 210 horsepower engine powering only the front wheels. It will have total driving range on a full charge of about 250 miles. Equinox EV 1LT SUVs will also be available with more driving range — up to 300 miles — and with all-wheel-drive and a driving range up to an estimated 280 miles, but those versions will, presumably, cost more. All-wheel-drive versions will be able to get as much as 290 horsepower from two electric motors.

Better-equipped versions, the 2LT and sportier-looking RS, will have either the 300-mile range or all-wheel-drive with up to 280 miles of range. Unlike the more expensive Blazer EV, the Equinox EV will be available only with all- or front-wheel-drive. There will not be a rear-wheel-drive option.

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Jeep’s first three electric SUVs want to be able to tackle anything

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/08/business ... index.html

Jeep will bring out three new all-electric SUVs over the next few years as it moves toward selling only electric vehicles in Europe by 2030 and having half its sales in the US be all-electric by then, too.

Executives for the off-road SUV brand also indicated that more fully electric SUVs will be revealed in the near future. Jeep currently offers two plug-in hybrid models in the US, the Wrangler 4xe and the Grand Cherokee 4xe. The Wrangler 4xe is, by far, the best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle in America. In Europe, Jeep also has available plug-in hybrid versions of the Jeep Wrangler and Compass small SUVs.

With a history dating back to World War II, the SUV-only Jeep brand is now part of Stellantis, along with brands like Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat and Citroën. It has long been identified with off-road capability and outdoor recreation, and accordingly, that’s a big part of what it’s targeting with its first electric offerings.

The all-electric Jeep Recon will be able to tackle rough off-road trails, the company says.

In North America, Jeep will offer the Recon, a Jeep Wrangler-like off-road vehicle, and much like the traditional Jeep Wrangler, it’ll come complete with removable doors and a large cloth sunroof that allows nearly the entire roof to be opened. The Recon will only be available as an electric vehicle, according to Jeep. It will have a storage area under the hood where the engine would ordinarily be in a gas-powered SUV. Full details on the vehicle will be provided sometime next year and it’s planned to go into production in 2024.

While it’s similar to the Wrangler, the Recon will not immediately replace that vehicle, said Christian Meunier, global head of the Jeep brand.

“The Wrangler stays the Wrangler,” he said, calling it “the icon of the brand.”

The new Jeep electric vehicles all have some version of Jeep’s famous “seven slot grille” even though electric vehicles don’t really need grilles. The design element points up the delicate balance between Jeep’s long heritage as a rugged off-road brand and the future demands for environmental sensitivity.

The all-electric Wagoneer S is modeled on Jeep's top-of-the-line luxury SUV.

Jeep will also offer a new larger electric SUV the brand has code-named the Wagoneer S. This vehicle will have a “unique, sleek aerodynamic design and 4x4 capability as standard,” Jeep announced. The 600 horsepower SUV will be able to travel 400 miles on a charge and will able to go from zero to 60 miles an hour in 3.5 seconds, according to Jeep. It’s design incorporates a large rear wing over a sloping backend.

The smaller Jeep Avenger will be targeted for Europe and Asia first.

In Europe, Jeep will offer the Avenger, a compact electric SUV smaller than the current Jeep Renegade, the smallest model Jeep offers in the US. Jeep expects the Avenger to be able to drive as far as 400 kilometers, or nearly 249 miles, before needing to recharge. Jeep also promises impressive off-road maneuverability for a vehicle of its size. The Avenger will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show in October, according to Jeep.

Jeep also plans to install 80 solar-powered electric vehicle chargers on off-road trails around the United States, Meunier said. So far, four have been installed but the company intends to increase the pace of installations, he said.

PP

[Undried Plum]