Electric Cars
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Buyers looking to drop the top with a 2019 BMW i8 Roadster will be met with a $164,295 price tag when the car launches this spring. That makes it the most expensive BMW sold on these shores. Pricing for the roadster and coupe was confirmed through BMW on Tuesday, after an initial report by BMW Blog. The coupe will cost $148,495, including destination. Leather upholstery and 20-inch wheels are standard equipment on both cars. Heated front seats, head-up display, Apple CarPlay compatibility, premium audio, adaptive dampers, and navigation are thrown in for good measure too. A Tera World option...
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Faraday Future receives $1.5B lifeline
Faraday Future's vision hasn't exactly panned out as once imagined, and serious financial problems have ensued. However, a Hong Kong-based entity has thrown the struggling electric-car maker a $1.5 billion lifeline to keep the lights on. Business Insider reported on Tuesday that the unnamed entity...
Sean Szymkowski -
Polestar's new headquarters will be a translucent cube
Polestar was only spun off from Volvo last October but the performance brand for electric cars already has a plant under construction in China and now a headquarters being readied in Sweden. Expected to be completed in September 2018, Polestar's headquarters will resemble a cube carved out of snow...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Ares previews a stylish Tesla Model S convertible
Although consumers have largely fallen out of love with convertibles, there's still something about a drop-top that stirs up feelings. Ares Design, based in Modena, Italy, has something cooking that certainly strikes directly at said feelings. The firm hasn't provided any details but it did release...
Sean Szymkowski -
Tesla reveals 2017 financial results, records near $2B loss
Investors have rallied around Tesla, riding high on a wave of future promises from the electric car company. Tesla's 2017 financial results released on Wednesday still show the company has a long way to go, however. Tesla lost a total of $1.96 billion in 2017 and posted its worst financial quarter...
Sean Szymkowski -
Australia plans "virtual" power plant of distributed solar panels, Tesla batteries
Having built the world's biggest battery in the Australian state of South Australia a year ago to provide energy to the grid in the event of a supply shortage, Tesla is now involved in the state's next energy security plan by helping to create what's known as a “virtual power plant.”...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Volvo last October spun off its Polestar performance arm into a standalone brand for high-performance electric cars and revealed the first model in the form of the plug-in hybrid Polestar 1. But Polestar isn’t taking the slow road to success. The brand is already constructing its own plant in Chengdu, China and will follow up the Polestar 1 with Polestar 2 and Polestar 3 models in the next few years. Speaking with Auto Express, the brand's CEO Thomas Ingenlath, previously the head of design at Volvo, said the Polestar 2 will be revealed in 2019 before entering production in 2020. He...
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SpaceX sends Falcon Heavy rocket to Mars carrying Tesla Roadster payload
Hats off to Elon Musk because he's done it. He and his team at SpaceX on Tuesday successfully launched the Falcon Heavy rocket on a mission to Mars—with a Tesla Roadster strapped to the nose. This is a test run for what's likely to be more missions to Mars, and it's being used to gather data...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Byton partners with Aurora for self-driving tech
Chinese startup Byton announced on Monday it will lean on Aurora, a U.S.-based self-driving technology company, to help incorporate Level 4 and Level 5 self-driving tech into its prototype and possibly its production cars. Aurora has plenty of other partnerships with more established automakers...
Sean Szymkowski -
All core McLarens to feature electrification, self-driving tech beginning in 2019
McLaren will set foot in a brave new world after announcing that all of the brand's future care models from 2019 onward will boast electrified powertrains and some form of self-driving technology. An Autocar report published on Tuesday detailed the sports car and supercar maker's grand plans, which...
Sean Szymkowski -
2019 Kia Niro EV spy shots
The Kia Niro compact crossover SUV is already available as a hybrid or plug-in hybrid. Soon, there will be an electric option too. Kia previewed its electric Niro at last month's 2018 Consumer Electronics Show with the Niro EV concept. We now have our first spy shots of the production version...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Porsche investing $7.5B in electrification over next 4 years
Porsche will aid VW Group's electrification charge with an even larger investment than it had originally planned. Through 2022, Porsche has $7.5 billion earmarked for electrification, up from $3.7 billion. The investment will focus on plug-in hybrids, pure electric cars, the brand's Turbocharger...
Sean Szymkowski -
Chinese electric car startup Xpeng only revealed its G3 SUV to the world at last month's 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but the vehicle, a potential rival to the Tesla Model X, has been testing in prototype form since 2016. That's why Xpeng is confident of getting the G3 into showrooms, in China only initially, as early as this year. Xpeng on Monday took another major step toward production of the G3 and other planned models with the announcement of funding of $350 million from multiple investors including e-commerce giant Alibaba and tech goods manufacturer Foxconn, the same...
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FIA backs Tesla Model S-based electric GT race series
It may be early days for electric cars but they already have support from motorsport's governing body, the FIA, in formula racing, and now in GT racing too. The FIA this week sanctioned the new GT race series being built around the Tesla Model S. It's been branded the Electric Production Car Series...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Ares announces its own Tesla Model S shooting brake conversion
The world will soon have three separate options to choose from for Tesla Model S shooting brake conversions. The latest comes from Ares Design based in Modena, Italy. The firm announced on Thursday that it will produce its own Model S shooting brake, and it also plans to outfit the interior with...
Sean Szymkowski -
Nikola selects Arizona to manufacture electric semi-trucks
Nikola has taken a major step toward bringing its extended-range electric semi-trailer truck to market. The company announced on Tuesday that Buckeye, Arizona will be home to its future manufacturing facility. The American startup debuted its One electric semi in December 2016. At that time, Nikola...
Sean Szymkowski -
Jaguar I-Pace set for 2018 Geneva auto show debut
Jaguar's I-Pace electric SUV will be revealed to the world in production trim on March 1. The reveal will take place online ahead of a formal debut on March 6 at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show. The I-Pace was first previewed in concept form in 2016. Prototypes have been testing on public...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Giugiaro to show electric sedan concept at Geneva auto show
Giorgetto Giugiaro has remained busy after parting ways with VW-owned Italdesign. His newest company, GFG Style, will bring a new electric sedan concept to the 2018 Geneva Motor Show and we have our first teaser photos of it. GFG Style worked with a new Chinese energy company to "explore broader...
Sean Szymkowski -
The Formula E Championship has managed to transform from a minor spectacle to a vital race series backed by major automakers in the space of a few short years. It's hard to believe that we're only at the start of season four of the FIA-sanctioned electric car racing series, but despite this short timeframe we've seen the likes of Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche and Renault all commit to the sport. Now Formula E organizers have revealed the new race car that teams will compete with in the 2018/2019 Formula E Championship, the series' fifth, and the two seasons after that...
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Porsche's 800-volt fast charging stations will rival Tesla's Supercharger network
Porsche's first battery-electric car, the production version of the Mission E, will feature immense charging infrastructure support from the brand itself. Eventually, Porsche's 800-volt "Turbo Charging" stations will populate highways and offer Mission E drivers a Tesla-like charging...
Sean Szymkowski -
Youngster builds his own electric car from a 1980 Toyota Celica
By any automaker's crystal ball, the future is electric. A slew of electric cars will more than likely flood the market in the next decade or so, but one 18-year-old from Texas decided to use the past as inspiration for the future. Adam Lansing received a non-working 1980 Toyota Celica from a...
Sean Szymkowski -
Volvo Trucks plans electric delivery vehicle for 2019
Not to be left out of the push for electric and electrified commercial vehicles, Volvo Trucks announced Tuesday that it will begin selling electric trucks in Europe in 2019. The company sees its electric trucks as a way to not only reduce pollution but also alleviate traffic congestion and improve...
Sean Szymkowski -
Why do electric cars usually have only 1 gear?
You won't jump into a modern electric car and row through a number of gears as you race down the road, which begs the question: why is it that electric cars usually have only one gear? It's but another topic for Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained to cover for us, so throw on your learning caps...
Sean Szymkowski -
Pininfarina enters Formula E as sponsor of Mahindra Racing
Pininfarina on Tuesday announced it is entering the Formula E Championship as a sponsor of Mahindra Racing. In a statement, the Italian design house said its decades of experience crafting cars will help Mahindra Racing in developing its Formula E race cars, starting with the M5Electro being...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran