Items tagged with electric vehicles
Electric vehicles sure have come a long way. Forget about the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight (an excellent car, by the way), Ford's new all-electric Mustang Mach-E 1400 is a different animal. Sure, it's from the same general family—just as domesticated kittens and lions of the wild are similar. But the Mustang Mach-E 1400 is also wildly different. Ford describes the Mach-E 1400 as a "road rocket," an apt designation, considering it harnesses the same 1,400 horsepower as the Mustang Cobra Jet 1400, which incidentally is also an all-electric vehicle. In this case, all that muscle comes by way of seven (yes, SEVEN!) electric motors, with power delivery being split evenly between the front and...
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You may have figured Sony would blitz CES with new headphones and other audio products, and perhaps a wide assortment of electronic gadgets. Instead, the company is sparking interest with the Vision-S, a concept electric vehicle (EV) with nearly three dozen sensors in and around the car, and a bunch of high-tech goodies. Sony is not the first name that comes into mind when thinking about automobiles, and the EV category specifically. However, the Vision-S is a bold (and surprising) attempt to inject Sony into the discussion, and in a big way. If nothing else, this is certainly an ambitious move by the PlayStation maker. "Sony wants to change mobility as we know it. How can we inspire people through...
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How many times have you been in a situation where you are towing 1 million pounds of cargo and thought to yourself, 'I could never do this in an electric vehicle!' Probably never, but if you did find yourself in that situation, you would be wrong for making such a statement. Ford just proved it by towing a train filled with dozens of trucks, using a prototype all-electric F-150 pickup truck. Cue the Tim Allen grunt. Electric vehicles are making headway in the automobile industry, spurred in large part by Tesla's efforts. It's not just Tesla, though. Other automakers are pushing electric cars and trucks. Hell, even Harley Davidson is getting in on the action by developing electric motorcycles...
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If you wait long enough, what's old becomes new again, to a new generation. We see this not only in fashion, but also technology—just look at the success of Nintendo's NES Classic and SNES Classic Edition game consoles. Mercedes-Benz is going back even further, though. Some 81 years after introducing its W 125 hit the racetrack, the automaker is paying homage to its sleek design with a new electric vehicle concept. Mercedes-Benz unveiled its new Vision EQ Silver Arrow show car during Monterey Car Week, which is an event for car aficionados and collectors from all over the world. The Vision EQ Silver Arrow is a one-seater vehicle designed in the same general shape as its record breaking...
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German automaker Audi is not messing around with its latest concept car, the PB 18 E-Tron. For all intents and purposes, this nifty (and futuristic) looking vehicle is an electric hypercar (or supercar, if you prefer the term) with copious horsepower and torque for plenty of get up and go, never mind that it's rocking a battery operated drive system. The PB 18 E-Tron features three electric motors, one up front and two more in the rear. Those latter two are centrally located between the steering knuckles, each driving one wheel via half-shafts. They combine to deliver 600 horsepower to all four wheels. Or in terms of electric power, they deliver 150 kW to the front axle and 450 kW to the rear,...
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Audi has been talking about its E-tron Quattro electric SUV for several months now, with the German automaker most recently announcing a delay. In a follow-up to that, Audi says it is planning to unveil the E-tron Quattro on September 17 during a global launch event in San Francisco, California, at which time it will begin taking pre-orders. "We’re introducing a premium, customer-centric vehicle in a premium, customer-centric way," said Scott Keogh, president of Audi of America. "With our owners and our dealers, this process allows us to offer transparency from reservation and build all the way through delivery." The E-tron Quattro is fully electric, five-passenger SUV aimed at the premium...
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In an excited email to employees, Tesla founder and chief executive officer Elon Musk wrote, "We did it!!," making sure to add an extra exclamation point for emphasis. What Tesla did, according to Musk's email, is finally achieve the automaker's goal of producing 5,000 Model 3 electric vehicles in a single week, hitting the goal in the last week of the quarter. But that's not all. "Not only did we factory gate over 5000 Model 3’s, but we also achieved the S & X production target for a combined 7000 vehicle week!," Musk added. 7000 cars, 7 days ♥️ Tesla Team ♥️ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2018 While it took some time for Tesla to reach its goal of producing 5,000...
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The future of high-speed racing might very well be performed using electric vehicles. Performance-oriented electric hypercars are getting stupid fast, to go along with their sometimes aggressive styling, as we bear witness to once again from Rimac. The company's newest concept vehicle, the C Two, hit the pavement and went from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 1.85 seconds, believe it or not. Hitting 60 mph in under 2 seconds is nothing short of incredible. It also makes the C Two one of the fastest cars in the world, electric or otherwise. The C Two is plenty powerful too, obviously, with nearly twice as many horses underneath the hood as its predecessor. Whereas the previous generation Concept...
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Late last month Porsche dished out new details on the Mission E Electric performance sedan that aims to challenge Tesla. Porsche is back with another electric concept that is essentially a lifted SUV wagon version of the Mission E Performance sedan called the Porsche Mission E Cross. Porsche calls it a "Cross-Utility Vehicle" and says that it is designed for individuals with an active lifestyle, and was intended to be practical for year-round use. Inside the concept is designed with plenty of cargo space and exterior mounting systems to carry large objects like surfboards or bikes. Four people can sit inside and the dash is fitted with a display and control concept that has touchscreens and eye...
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The era of electric vehicles may one day arrive in earnest, especially with some automakers pushing out performance oriented sports cars that run on batteries. Porsche is one of them. The company is prepping its Mission E for launch, and like Tesla's Model S, it is an intriguing vehicle. Stefan Weckbach, the guy in charge of Porsche's EV efforts, spoke in an interview about the Mission E and what's in store. One thing Weckbach said is that Porsche is not likely to devote resources to developing technologies that simulate the throaty sounds of muscle cars that run on gasoline. "Porsche is unlikely to lower itself to gimmicks of this kind or use sound effects," Weckbach said, according to Autoblog....
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After witnessing Bitcoin's explosive growth, everyone and their uncle is now getting into cryptocurrency mining, some for extra money and others in hopes of striking it rich. There are now more than a thousand cryptocurrencies out there. With new miners now showing up in droves (and existing ones expanding their operations), the collective power consumption could be on track to outpace the needs of electric vehicles. Morgan Stanley analysts led by Nicholas Ashworth wrote in a note that cryptocurrency mining could require up to 140 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2018. To put that into perspective, that figure is in line with the total electricity consumption of Argentina, and is 0.6 percent...
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Tesla is indeed developing custom AI semiconductors that will help with autonomous driving chores, company CEO and founder Elon Musk has finally confirmed. It is not entirely clear if Tesla is working with AMD on specialized hardware for its electric vehicles, though Musk did offer up that Jim Keller, a microprocessor engineer who previously worked for AMD and Apple, is working on the hardware for Tesla. Keller joined Tesla in 2016. He is the automaker's President of Autopilot Hardware and Software Engineering, and presumably is the one who is in charge of the company's effort to build to a custom AI chip. Previously he spearheaded both AMD's K8 and Apple's A-Series chip efforts. When Tesla brought...
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Lamborghini builds some of the most powerful automobiles on the planet, and like several other automakers, the Italian company has plans of releasing an electric vehicle (EV), too. That is the reason why some of Lamborhini's engineers are in Massachusetts—the Italian supercar company is collaborating with two laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on an electric super car concept called "Lamborghini of the Terzo Millennio." "Exactly one year ago we have signed an agreement with the MIT-Italy Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which marked the start of a collaboration between two outstanding entities for the creation of a project that intends to write...
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Tesla is one of the leading automakers working towards a complete self-driving solution where it will one day be possible to hop in your car, plug in a destination, and let the vehicle do all of the work. That type of end-goal requires a lot of advanced sensors and computing power. To help with the latter, Tesla has tapped Advanced Micro Devices to design purpose-built processors to its specifications.AMD is a fabless operation and does not actually produce processors—that task falls on GlobalFroundries, which has a wafer supply agreement with AMD that runs through 2020. However, AMD designs its chips and is said to have shipped samples to Tesla of its first implementation of a processor infused...
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Honda is trying to catch up with it competitors, announcing plans to reveal its first dedicated electric vehicle by the end of 2017 and introduce self-driving vehicles by 2025. Honda has been working tirelessly to revamp its automobile line and increase its popularity among buyers. Seven and a half years feels like quite a ways off, however, Honda appears to be starting from scratch with autonomous vehicles. Honda Chief Executive Officer Takahiro Hachigo noted, “We are not concerned about plans of Nissan or other car-makers. We set the 2025 target because if we don’t set a plan, it will be very unclear for our R&D staff to know what they should do by when.” Nissan, Ford, and Volvo plan to...
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The remarkable thing about Tesla's automobile lineup is not just that they're electric vehicles with fancy technologies such as Auto Pilot (self-driving mode), but that they remain sporty in performance. This is especially true of the 2017 Tesla Model S P100D. Initiating what Tesla calls Ludicrous Model, which puts added stress on the motor, gearbox, and battery for a performance boost, the Model S P100D was able to hit 0-60 miles per hour in less than 2.3 seconds.The enthusiast drivers at Motor Trend took the 4,891-pound vehicle to the track where it posted the fastest 0-60 mph time of any production car in the world. Tesla now holds the record to beat, which is precisely 2.275507139 seconds....
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Scoot your booty Tesla, and make room for Faraday Future, an electric vehicle startup headquartered in California that just announced its first production automobile. Faraday Future unveiled its FF 91 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and has even started taking reservations for it at $5,000 (fully refundable) a pop. The first 300 orders will have the option in a couple of months to upgrade their pre-order to join an exclusive launch series dubbed the Alliance Edition. Faraday Future describes the FF 91 as a "bold new breed of electric mobility that combines supercar performance, precise handling, the comfort of an ultra-luxury passenger vehicle, and a unique collection of intelligent...
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One of the benefits of an electric vehicle and many hybrids is that they reduce noise pollution compared to their gas guzzling brethren. On the surface, that sounds like a good thing, until you get plowed into by one because you didn't hear it coming. To prevent that from happening, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has added a sound requirement for all newly built hybrid and EVs. "We all depend on our senses to alert us to possible danger," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "With more, quieter hybrid and electrical cars on the road, the ability for all pedestrians to hear as well as see the cars becomes an important...
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Tesla is growing faster than probably most people anticipated. The company is certainly outperforming Wall Street's expectations coming off its first profitable quarter since 2013 in which it recorded net income of $22 million, or 14 cents a share, for the three-month period ended September 30, 2016. To keep the momentum going and to hit its ambitious target of producing 500,000 cars per year by 2018, Tesla today announced plans to acquire Grohmann Engineering, a major player in automation manufacturing systems. "Accelerating a sustainable energy future is only possible with high-volume factories. They allow us to manufacture high-quality products with economies of scale, making them more affordable...
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Tesla Motors is sitting on cloud nine this morning after posting third quarter earnings that beat out Wall Street estimates and sent its stock price up. Specifically, Tesla reported net income of $22 million, or 14 cents per share, for the third quarter ended September 30, 2016, marking the first time the company has posted a profit since the first quarter of 2013. Just a year ago, Tesla posted a loss of nearly $230 million, or $1.78 per share. However, the car maker was able to more than double revenue from then to now, collecting $2.3 billion in the Q3 along with a positive free cash flow of $176 million. The impressive jump in numbers was due to a whopping 114 percent increase in car deliveries...
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Luxury automaker Maserati has avoided the whole electric vehicle (EV) craze that's been driving product design at its competitors, but not anymore. The mandate from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne is to build a Maserati EV as quickly as possible, so that's what engineering boss Roberto Fedeli is now focusing on, though he won't have anything ready before 2019. "I think that we could show something before 2020. Maybe 2019," Fedeli told Car and Driver during an interview at the Paris auto show. "We are working to be ready with something that we can show during the next couple of years."Fedeli is well aware that Maserati will be last to market with an EV model, but he isn't concerned...
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Tesla Motors is working feverishly to finish constructing its $5 billion, 3,200 acre "Gigafactory" located outside Sparks, Nevada (near Reno). It's already semi-operational with 1,000 construction workers toiling away seven days a week in two shifts. The factory, which is two years ahead of schedule, will help meet what's anticipated to be high demand for lithium-ion batteries for Tesla's not-yet-released Model 3 sedan. "We have to be ready with cell and pack production well ahead of vehicle production," JB Straubel, Tesla’s chief technical officer and co-founder, told The Wall Street Journal during a walk-through of the factory. "We’re accelerating our construction plans and accelerating our...
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