Rimac Return, New EV Tyres and Audi e-tron | 8 Mar 2018
Goodyear Reinvent | Rimac C_Two Insanity | Renault Zoe Gets Bigger Motor | Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Gets Increased Specs | Toyota Unwrap New Auris With Two Hybrid Options | Audi e-tron Prototypes
Thursday 8th March 2018.
Coming up today, more manufacturers stop selling diesels in favour of hybrids whilst one very large one commits to diesel. Plus more from today’s Geneva Motor Show like the Hyundai Kona which you and I will to on the show tomorrow.
EV TYRE TECH
- The 2018 Geneva International Motor Show has been dominated by headlines of the best to electrified vehicles, but Goodyear didn't want to miss out. They used the show to debut their Efficient Grip Performance with Electric Drive Technology tyre which, apart from being a bit of a mouthful, is designed for the new breed of electric vehicles.
- According to Goodyear, regular old tyres you'd get on an ICE car can wear up to 30% faster when fitted to an electric vehicles because in EVs we have all the torques.
- Cars like the BMW i3 already come with custom tyres mainly because they thinner to have less rolling resistance. And it's not just the next generation of batteries which will give us longer range, it's the rubber too.
- And finally there's the noise issue. For anyone who has had gone into an ICE car after being in an EV you find yourself shouting because they're so loud, well the new Goodyear's are ultra quiet too to match the cars.
- The say the custom tread design prevents sound waves from entering the grooves, which in turn reduces cabin noise.
- Also in Geneva Goodyear showed the Oxygene concept tire. The concept has a unique structure that features living moss growing within the sidewall. This open structure and the tire’s smart tread design absorb and circulate moisture and water from the road surface, allowing photosynthesis to occur and therefore releasing oxygen into the air. OK then
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/03/20180307-goodyear.html
RIMAC C UNDERSCORE TWO
- The Rimac Concept One is a beast and, when it's not being set on fire by The Grand Tour, is one of the best examples of how to make an electric hypercar.
- Well now we've seen the Rimac C_Two at the Geneva Motor Show. They teased us with it last month but now, in the flesh, it takes your breath away.
- First, let's get speccy. The specs are: 4 electric motors, 1,914bhp, 0-60 in just 1.85 seconds and a top speed of 258 mph. And get this, the front two motors have one gear whilst the rear motors have two gears. What kind of witchcraft is this? The 0-184 mph stat, which is something I look for in every car I buy, is a rather lazy 11.8 seconds.
- Only 150 of them will be made which is disappointing because I'm sure we were all ready to sell the house, put the dog on eBay and the cat on Craigslist just to raise the cash.
- The battery is 120kWh, liquid cooled, which is good for 400miles unless you stamp on the electron pedal.
- They've also built it with Level 4 autonomous driving so, in theory, you could buy one of the greatest driving machines ever made and have it do all the fun bits. Although if you use self driving in places where it’s not legal, like here in the UK, the police will probably pull you over and send you to jail forever with nothing by memories of the time you drive a Rimac.
https://www.autoblog.com/2018/03/06/rimac-c_two-electric-hypercar-almost-2-000-horsepower/
RENAULT ZOE GETS MORE MUSCLE
- Car Magazine in the posted some wonderful pics of the Geneva Motor Show which I urge you to check out. Along with supercars and luxury hybrids was the new and very purple Renault Zoe ZE40 R110.
- The R110 moniker is a reference to the 107bhp motor which is newly upgraded to 80kw and, whilst it doesn't provide much more of a gut punch when you pull away from the light, will dramatically improve the 50-70 time and motorway driving.
- Oh and it's purple. So very very purple. The press pics a while ago were nice but seeing it in the flesh, it's ALL the purple.
- The new Zoe will also come with Android Auto and third party apps can be used including Waze, Skype and Messenger.
- No word on whether the charging will be any faster. Months ago on InsideEVs i read an article about future Zoe's coming with CCS socket and ability to handle up to 150kW charging. With a 40kWh battery to top up, that would be nice, but I can't find anything either way. I'm guessing not.
OUTLANDER GETS A POLISH
- The Mitsubishi Outlander is the outrageously popular plug in hybrid which just keeps on selling in Europe.
- The updated version was shown at Geneva which is now cleaner, more efficient, smoother and with a more powerful motor.
- I don't know much about combustion engines, shock horror, but it moves from an Otto cycle to an Atkinson cycle petrol 2.4 litre unit.
- The important electric bits all get a bit of spit and polish with more power from the inverter, the motor, 15% battery capacity and a higher rate to discharge that power. Altogether a nice set of improvements.
TOYOTA OFFER AURIS WITH TWO HYBRID OPTIONS
- So you may know I have a love/hate relationship with Toyota. They were early with electrification and have sold a bazillion cars with a battery in, but just recently they’ve decided to throw shade at plug in cars to advance their own market lead on soft hybrids. Come on Toyota let’s all move forward to together without you starting a fight against owners of plugins and pure electric vehicles.
- However I do love them for cars like the Auris which sell like hotcakes, and Geneva showed up the third generation which…fanfare please…won’t have a diesel option. Instead there will be two petrol-electric versions. I love you Toyota. However no chance of a third option of a pure electric. I hate you Toyota. Not really.
AUDI E-TRON MOVES FROM CONCEPT TO PROTOTYPE
- Audi were at Geneva with the e-tron. Not so much a concept but a protoype these days. How miffed do you think they are that the Jaguar I-PACE is taking orders whilst they're not ready yet?
- Journalists have been in one, although not driving one, which is what Jag were doing last December, which was three months away from launch. However all I can get from Audi is that the e-tron will start production before the end of this year.
- Same as the I-PACE it's compatible with rapid chargers up to 150kW.
- Same as the I-PACE real-world driving range of 300 miles is the claim.
- If only idiots like me would stop comparing it to the Jaguar which, did i mention, you can currently buy.
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