The new one or the old one?
By the way, if people have things they'd like us to look at in front page coverage wrt EVs, this thread is a good place to do that.
The Electric Car Thread
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The new one or the old one?
By the way, if people have things they'd like us to look at in front page coverage wrt EVs, this thread is a good place to do that.
The Niro PHEV is on the list. I had a regular Niro hybrid in December for a week as it was one of the cars being considered for World Car of the Year (I am one of the current jurors). Expect the review of that one in a week or two.
I'll add the Clarity to the list as well.
Surprised you're only just seeing Bolts there now. They are becoming thick on the ground in the DC area.
WRT stop-start, some systems are better than others. In the Alfa Giulia QV, there was enough of a lag that going for gaps in traffic could be difficult. But the system fitted to the Infiniti QX35 and Jaguar F-Pace I tested last year it was very good. Even the McLaren 570S had it. And in a car with only two pedals, even just easing a little pressure off the brake pedal at a stop is usually sufficient to fire the engine up again.
I would think it will become increasingly common as more and more cars move to 48v: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/05/48 ... ns-cheats/
Tim Stevens' Model 3 review just went up at Roadshow: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/auto/2018 ... ge/review/
If it's an older Model S, don't forget that a very significant proportion of those have had to have their drive units replaced because they would fail. From reading Tesla forums it seems like that might be a solved problem now though.
Smart Mobility? I have no idea what it is but it sounds super hip and cool so clearly I want that!!!
I still think the sweet spot is the series(ish) hybrid setups, for the next generation of cars.
Come on now, mobility has been the buzzword in the industry for the last two years now. Despite conjuring images of fat people riding rascals in Wal*Mart (or maybe fat people in Wall*E) it's supposed to be a combination of electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, connected cars and infrastructure, and ride hailing.
It's a ridiculous term and that's why you always find me putting it in italics on the front page and referring to it derisively.
Huh? If you mean one-pedal driving, I was under the impression from Nissan's behavior at the new Leaf launch that this is very much not the case.
Edit, no you're talking about something else. The pedal remaps depending upon what mode you're in, so there's not just one pedal position/torque map.
BTW when i asked them about a NISMO version the answer I got was that if it did happen here in the US it wouldn't include improvements to the powertrain.
Are used BMW i3s as cheap in the UK as they are here in the US?
The thing you have to understand about the Model 3 interior is that the main priority was making it as cheap as possible to build, which is why there is essentially no switchgear at all, and even gimped steering wheel stalks.
Oh, we know what they said; it was all the claims that Autopilot V1 was self-driving and Tesla was using the system beyond the operational domain it was designed for. https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/09/te ... of-safety/
Yes, there is more to come; this announcement was just about supplying batteries for Europe and China. VW says it will tell us about North America in the near future.
NTSB also investigated the Josh Brown crash, and unlike NHTSA, they absolutely did find problems with Autopilot: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/09/nt ... l-s-crash/
Exactly. I actually quoted the NTSB report, but Teslaphiles don’t like reading people saying things like the system was allowed to used outside of the operational domain it was designed for. It’s OK, I understand when people become so emotionally invested in a brand that it defines their self-worth. Any negative criticism of the brand becomes a personal attack on their ego. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t have the Battlefront. Hell, I used to be like that about Apple. But we shouldn’t define ourselves by the car we drive, or wish we drove, or the laptop we use, or the games console we play.
In other news, Tesla now says that the Apple engineer who drove head-first into that concrete barrier was using Autopilot: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/30/1718 ... -statement
NTSB is not happy with Tesla: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr- ... tal-crash/
Quick, resident apologists, spin this as somehow good news.
Quick, resident apologists, spin this as somehow good news.
You read that from a piece I wrote, I think. And more recently I've been hearing from OEMs that things aren't that bad. (Whether that's because the OEMs are negotiating new contracts, idk). Jaguar is planning to do OTA updates and new features with the I-Pace, GM is planning something similar on some cars soon, and there were a couple of others that told me it's kosher now. Tesla deserves a lot of credit for this, IMO.
I've been in few new cars with a worse interior than a Model S or Model X. I am honestly surprised the Tesla community hasn't just appropriated the old canard about "you buy an engine from Ferrari and get the car for free" to "you buy a Tesla for the powertrain and get the car for free."
GM works with hackers, it also has an internal red team (I've met them) and a year ago placed cybersecurity on the same level of importance as physical safety testing. It remains to be seen how the GM rollout happens but from personal experience as well as talking to people in the field, cybersecurity is something it (and the industry) are taking a lot more seriously as of the last 18 months.
There are a number of different OTA platforms out there from suppliers; I spoke with both Airbiquity and also Harman about this recently and there are others out there, so that's not a particularly difficult thing to do, and GM has more experience with telematics than anyone else, because of OnStar.
On the other side, I'm also not hearing much concern even from security companies about malicious actors. The attack surface is getting larger, but there are easier targets out there for ransomware—you're more likely to get a hospital to pay ransomware than someone driving a Chevy Bolt.
Great. I must have missed the article you wrote on that one, but then again I rarely read the OMG EXPENSIVE ICE CAR ones.
No, you haven't missed it because it's been perpetually on my "need to sit down and actually write this damn thing" list for ages and something always gets in the way. It is coming though.
Plus there's that whole glider truck loophole...
There are hybrid heavy duty trucks: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2015/06/he ... the-trash/
Yes, they did praise the electronics, but that circuit board that got so much praise is made by Nvidia, not Tesla.
I am pretty sure it was a Drive PX from Nvidia. Even Electrek acknowledges that Tesla buys them: https://electrek.co/2017/05/22/tesla-nv ... autopilot/
I’ve written about Ford’s EV plans a few times, most recently last month. It’s not a secret, we know they plan to release six EVs by 2022: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/03/he ... tric-cars/
No, it said six:
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedi ... -2020.html
Although actually it might be seven.
And as Eric Bangeman repeatedly beat into me, Ars is a US site so we report on US stuff. Same reason I can't write "whilst" or "colour" or "tyres" or use metric measurements without also including F and hp and ft-lbs and feet and miles. (Although I keep pointing out that the science section doesn't have to use archaic units and no one cares...)
The trouble is, Musk has been borrowing quite a lot against his shares, and with interest rates rising and their share price falling, it could get uncomfortable.
Amazing interior, lots of fun to drive, and would handle your commute easily.
Review of the original one: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2014/12/bm ... he-future/
Review of the bigger battery version: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/08/a- ... expensive/
If you can get one with $10k off that solves my remaining problem with the car, which is it’s too expensive.
One day someone will coherently explain to me why it's so very terrible that the Volt can act as a series and a parallel hybrid, and why that means every Volt should be fed into a giant crusher and the resulting cube of scrap dropped into the Challenger Deep.
Until that day, perhaps people can stop letting perfect be the enemy of good.
It's like some fucked up automotive version of the no true scotsman fallacy.
PS: the I-Pace is unbelievably good.
Until that day, perhaps people can stop letting perfect be the enemy of good.
It's like some fucked up automotive version of the no true scotsman fallacy.
PS: the I-Pace is unbelievably good.
As I wrote last night, Tesla refused to comment on the matter when I spoke to them yesterday.
It's OK but not as good as MMI or the current Volvo Sensus system. Maybe a little behind iDrive, ahead of all but MB's very latest MBUX.
Because they didn't prioritize aerodynamic efficiency (ie as low-drag as possible) to the extent Tesla has with its cars. 90kWh will still get 240-odd miles of range and with the performance Jaguar wanted. I don't know the CdA for either car, but the Model X has a Cd of 0.24 and the I-Pace is 0.29.
A few years ago I explained at length why that is never going to happen: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2014/06/th ... otainment/
No, he confessed to leaking to Business Insider because he was despondent about the state of Tesla. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... e6c7f02134
Here at Pikes Peak this weekend to see the VW I.D. R Pikes Peak. Forget real tech transfer, it's a purpose-built prototype racer, but holy shit is it fast. I think there's a decent change Dumas will break Loeb's record (8:13.something), never mind the EV record (8:57.something). Feature should run next week.
I need to bug the company that manages the Honda fleet in DC and arrange one; realistically even if it's on the fleet already I doubt I'll have time to drive it until August, but consider in the pipeline.
I know, but I also know my preferences.
Tablet with torque, a odb2 plug, a2dp bridge into the audio...
Welp, there's always the aftermarket.
...
Speaking of new vehicles, are you guys going to write up the new Insight soon?
I need to bug the company that manages the Honda fleet in DC and arrange one; realistically even if it's on the fleet already I doubt I'll have time to drive it until August, but consider in the pipeline.
New as in a fourth kind of plug? Or new as an a new entrant? Because Electrify America is spending $2 billion as a result of dieselgate to do the latter.
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