Judging from the articles that appear in the mainstream press, there’s still a lot of confusion and ignorance about how EVs actually work. Anyone who’d like a little deeper understanding of the workings of an electric powertrain, without going to engineering school, would do well to watch “How does an Electric Car work?” Part of… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Tesla Model 3"
Teardown of Chevy Bolt points to massive disruption ahead
It’s not unheard-of for financial analysts to tear down a vehicle to get an accurate estimate of what it costs to produce. Back in 2015, a consulting firm took apart and reverse-engineered a BMW i3. More recently, a team from UBS disassembled a Chevy Bolt and published a cost analysis of the new EV. However,… Read more »
Plug-in sales shatter records in May, Prius Prime takes the lead
As more and more automakers are accelerating their plans for an electric future, sales of existing EV models are also gathering momentum. Monthly US plug-in vehicle sales have now beaten previous-year figures for 20 consecutive months. The trend continued in May, as an estimated 16,568 plug-ins were sold, a gain of 44% over last May…. Read more »
Will Ford’s new CEO put more emphasis on EVs and AVs?
Ford has replaced CEO Mark Fields with Jim Hackett, the head of the company’s Smart Mobility division. The company also appointed a new executive in charge of “strategy and business model development for electrified vehicles and autonomous vehicles.” The buzz in the media is that the new regime will put more emphasis on electric and… Read more »
EV tech explained: Why do EVs restrict the amount of battery capacity that can be used for driving?
All EVs that use lithium-ion batteries are designed so that their full capacity can’t be used in driving – a few kWh are always left over as a buffer. Sometimes you’ll find this figure in spec sheets, which might (for example) quote capacity as “60 kWh (55 usable)” or some such. What is the reason… Read more »
Elon Musk: GM is in it for the CARB credits, will produce only 25,000 Chevy Bolts per year
As a plethora of pundits pontificate about Tesla and the hypothetical competition for its upcoming Model 3, many fall into error because they don’t understand the dynamic between Tesla, which exists to sell EVs, and the legacy automakers, which grudgingly sell a few in order to comply with government regulations. Elon Musk is happy to… Read more »
Peppy young filly meets old workhorse: Prius Prime vs 2006 Prius
The Toyota Prius is one of those cars that you see everywhere – it isn’t exactly an “old classic,” like an aging Corvette or Cadillac, but rather an “old faithful,” like a Honda Civic or a Volvo. Their owners don’t take them to classic car shows, but many of these workhorses have been on the… Read more »
Plugless chargers pass a milestone: one million hours of charging
Evatran Group has announced that its installed base of Plugless wireless chargers has logged one million hours of charging time. Evatran field-tested its Plugless inductive charging systems from 2012 to 2014 with partners including Google, Duke Energy, and Hertz. In 2014 it began selling 3.3 kW wireless chargers for the Volt and the LEAF. Since… Read more »
Pricing and a video review for the Lucid Air
EV startup Lucid Motors unveiled its Lucid Air electric luxury sedan in December, leaving EV-watchers hungry for more details (Bloomberg recently checked out a couple of preliminary prototypes). Now Lucid has given us a much fuller picture of what the Air will look like when it hits the roads in 2019. The company’s promises of… Read more »
Southwest Research Institute consortium conducts independent battery benchmarking
Comparing the spec sheets from different parts manufacturers is tricky business for engineers in any industry. However, the advanced battery market seems to be uniquely challenged in this regard. As Tesla CEO Elon Musk often points out, when it comes to batteries, the BS factor is outrageous. Even if you assume that every vendor provides… Read more »