All Electric Swedish Super Cars The New Formula 1

Posted on by cannasolar

As reported on https://electrek.co, Supercar maker Koenigsegg announced that it is taking a $170 million investment from NEVS, SAAB’s all-electric successor, and the company says that they will use the money to ramp up their electrification effort.

The two Swedish companies were already collaborating, but this latest move deepens their ties.

With a EUR 150 million (~$171 million USD) investment, NEVS is taking a 20 percent minority stake in Koenigsegg’s parent company and they are also setting up “a joint venture to expand into new market segments where NEVS AB is contributing USD 150 million in starting capital for a 65 percent stake and Koenigsegg obtains 35 percent by contributing primarily with intellectual property, technology licenses, and product design.”

Koenigsegg says that it will enable them to develop “parallel vehicle models in slightly higher volumes with emphasis on electrification.”

Christian von Koenigsegg, Founder and CEO of Koenigsegg, commented on the announcement:

“Koenigsegg is breaking new ground, capitalising on our unique technology, performance track record and market position to explore and develop new products. This partnership will create the best conditions for Koenigsegg to accelerate growth in the hyper car market, as well as enabling us to break ground into an untapped market segment together with NEVS. We very much look forward to working together with NEVS to develop products that ensure a sustainable future.”

The CEO of the world-famous supercar maker recently said that the new Tesla Roadster is ’embarrassing’ them and it is pushing them to look more into all-electric vehicles.

The company has previously incorporated hybrid electric powertrains into its vehicles, but they have yet to go all-electric.

Kai Johan Jiang, Chairman of the Board of Directors at NEVS AB, also commented on the new partnership:

“Koenigsegg is an enticing company developing advanced cars with unique technology and with a customer base that is one of a kind. To be able to expand our investment in the Swedish automotive industry through a company that we know and have an established relationship with, is an important step for us. We have both competencies and facilities to support Koenigsegg on their journey forward, something we look very much forward to”,

NEVS’ investment in Koenigsegg comes after they secured $2 billion in funding from China’s Evergrande Group, best known in the EV community for having taken a large stake in Faraday Future.

Porsche All Electric Vehicles Very Sexy!

Posted on by cannasolar

Porsche today announced a deal with Electrify America, VW’s EV charging network born out of the Deiselgate settlement with the U.S. government, to provide upcoming Taycan owners with “three years of charging at Electrify America public stations across the country.”

It’s an interesting development because Porsche was talking about addressing the charging problem by building its own network of charging stations ahead of the launch of the Taycan.

Last year, the company announced plans to deploy hundreds of stations capable of delivering high charge rates. That includes a recently announced network of 500 EV charging stations in the US and Canada.

It was supposed to be a mix of high-powered stations to support the Taycan’s 350 kW charge rate installed at both dealerships and strategic locations along highways to enable long-distance travel.

Later, they even ramped up the effort to 700 stations across North America.

But now, following this deal with Electrify America, Porsche is only talking about installing 191 charging stations at its dealerships:

“To further expand power options, all 191 U.S. Porsche dealerships will install DC fast charging. More than 120 of these dealerships will feature Porsche Turbo Charging, which is the automaker’s own DC system that delivers up to 320 kW and also uses the CCS plug. The remaining dealerships will install 50 kW fast chargers.”

We asked Porsche if they abandoned their plan to have their own charging network outside of dealerships following this deal with Electrify America and we will update if we get an answer.

Update: Porsche confirmed that their own network will only be at dealerships.

Klaus Zellmer, President and CEO of Porsche North America, commented on the Electrify America deal:

“Every Porsche is a sports car with soul, and the Taycan is soul electrified. Together, Electrify America and our Porsche dealer network will provide a national infrastructure for DC fast charging that frees future Taycan owners from range anxiety. And Porsche home charging technology will turn the customer’s garage into the equivalent of a personal gas station.”

By the time the Taycan hits the market, Electrify America claims that it will have 484 locations with more than 2,000 chargers.

Electrek’s Take

That’s actually disappointing. It feels like a step back from having their own network.

Porsche’s previous plans felt like the most significant effort in fast-charging from an automaker since Tesla’s Supercharger network.

Instead, they are going to rely on a third-party network.

Though it happens that the third-party network is owned by their parent company.

What it shows really is that CARB and the EPA forcing Volkswagen to spend their settlement money on Electrify America is not really a “punishment” for Dieselgate. They are just using it for their own charging network.

This article was originally published – Jan. 28th 2019 12:21 pm ET by Fred Lambert

of https://electrek.co

Honda delays its fun retro-looking all-electric vehicle to 2020

Posted on by cannasolar

Honda’s first next-gen all-electric vehicle was supposed to go on sale this year, but the production has been pushed to “early 2020” and we might have to temper our expectations when it comes to availability, according to a new rep.

Back in 2017, Honda Motor Co. President and CEO, Takahiro Hachigo, unveiled the “Urban EV Concept”, a small retro-looking all-electric vehicle, and said during his speech:

“This is not some vision of the distant future; a production version of this car will be here in Europe in 2019,”

Now Auto News Europe reports that it will actually go on sale next year.

Interestingly, the report claims that Honda is planning to show two iterations of the vehicle before starting production.

They say that the Japanese automaker plans to unveil a new version of the concept at the Geneva auto show in March and then the production version at the Frankfurt show.

Here’s the original concept vehicle that Honda unveiled in Frankfurt back in 2017:

honda EV concept 3
honda EV concept 2
honda EV concept 1

The report also states that Honda is only planning to sell about 5,000 units per year in Europe, which could mean that they are aiming for the vehicle to only be a compliance car – like the electric version of the Clarity.

Honda has been taking a more tentative approach to electrification by focusing more on hybrid vehicles than fully electric ones.

The Japenese automaker also unveiled an all-electric sports car concept based on the new electric platform and with a similar design language as the retro-looking urban, but it didn’t announce any official plan to bring the vehicle to production.

Nonetheless, Honda is reportedly still interested in all-electric vehicles.

Last year, GM and Honda announced that they are partnering to build next-gen batteries for electric vehicles and the automaker is reportedly working on an affordable all-electric Fit-based car with China’s biggest battery maker.