Reading Time: 3minutes2024 will see the launch of a hybrid to replace the Hurácan, as well as a hybrid Urus.
Lamborghini, renowned for its sonorous, multi-cylinder, naturally aspirated engines, has long epitomized the essence of high-performance motoring. While Ferrari ventured into turbocharging, Lamborghini’s engines remained larger-capacity powerhouses, emitting symphonic notes across their rev ranges. However, such engines are incongruent with Lamborghini’s ambitious emissions reduction goals: a 50% decrease in fleet emissions by 2025 and an 80% reduction by 2030. In response, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann announced plans to introduce hybrid versions of all its models.
“In our sixtieth anniversary year, we unveiled our inaugural plug-in hybrid, the Lamborghini Revuelto,” Winkelmann stated. “We showcased our LMDh race car in summer, set to compete in Doha this March and at Pebble Beach in August, alongside Lanzador—a preview of our first battery-electric vehicle slated for 2028.”
During our October visit to Lamborghini’s Italian headquarters, we discovered the marque’s commitment to sustainability. Initiatives such as increased rail freight usage, enhanced waste material recycling, and a biomass reactor powering factory operations underscore Lamborghini’s dedication to reducing both vehicle and production emissions—aiming for a 40% CO2 reduction by 2030.
The legendary V12 Aventador has yielded to the hybrid V12 Revuelto, entering production in 2023. This year, the Urus SUV will receive a hybrid powertrain upgrade. Furthermore, anticipation builds for the 2024 debut of Lamborghini’s successor to the mid-engined Hurácan, anticipated to feature an electric motor and traction battery. The forthcoming “entry-level” Lamborghini is poised to depart from its naturally aspirated V10 heritage, possibly adopting a smaller-displacement V8 twin-turbo setup.
The transition to a fully electric Lamborghini presents several challenges to the brand’s traditional recipe of super-sports cars. Achieving the right power-to-weight ratio is paramount, considering that lithium-ion batteries are bulky and heavy. Moreover, a Lamborghini must retain its dramatic sound, a defining characteristic of the brand. However, Lamborghini enjoys an advantage with its relatively young customer base, which may be more open to innovative changes compared to other brands like Ferrari.
“The biggest challenge is electrification, more so than digitalization, which may be more relevant for other brands but is the foremost concern for us,” explained Winkelmann. He highlighted the success of the Revuelto, which has sold out for the next few years, indicating that the brand’s customer base remains enthusiastic despite the shift towards hybridization.
Nevertheless, Lamborghini is committed to developing a full Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), set to be unveiled in 2028. Winkelmann believes that being part of the Volkswagen Group offers distinct advantages in terms of development and production. Leveraging the group’s resources allows Lamborghini to internally source components like batteries, software, and other essential elements.
The upcoming BEV, slated for 2028, will be a 2+2 GT car, followed by a fully electric SUV to replace the Urus in 2029.
Lamborghini’s Chief Technical Officer, Rouven Mohr, emphasized the potential of electric motors to redefine dynamics and driving experiences. He expressed excitement about the dawn of a new era for super sports cars, where sustainability intertwines with the brand’s core values of emotional performance and driving enjoyment.
People are becoming more aware of environmental issues and are beginning to take action to address them. One of them is the transition to electric vehicles, which, as it turns out, is a bad idea. Although these vehicles provide us with new sensations, incredible speed, and technological innovations that make our journey or life easier through the use of various amenities, they are not the solution to the global problem of greenhouse gas emissions. Although I am a huge fan of these devices and their automotive applications, I’d like to look at it from an ecological standpoint and mention a few facts. We’ve been seeing this issue for a long time. In recent years, there has been a significant trend of promoting electromobility as the only correct direction for the automotive industry. Otherwise, we face a bleak future. The issue is that we don’t know the truth about electricity.
Why is the technology of these cars not so great?
-the amount of energy that we are able to contain in a given volume. Gasoline is among the batteries in this respect. 12.9 kWh of energy is enclosed in 1 kg of gasoline. Electro-optimists believe that the cell density of the future is to reach about 0.5 kWh/kg. Currently, Tesla achieves in the range of 0.22-0.25 kWh / kg, which is 52 times less than gasoline. This means that to close the same energy as in a kilogram of gasoline, we need 52 kg of electric cells. However, despite the fact that the petrol engine will transfer only 45% of the accumulated energy to the energy driving the wheels, and the electrician 95%, it is still unrivaled in favor of petrol.
-Despite the claim of zero emissions when driving electric vehicles, the production process of batteries is forgotten, the process of extracting the raw materials necessary for their construction, such as lithium, cobalt or nickel are just some of the elements whose deposits are limited. Everyone talks about running out of oil and little is heard about the deficiencies of the mentioned elements. And the extraction of these elements requires, to a large extent, almost artisanal work of minors in Africa.
-Green NCAP-checked the full life cycle of individual cars to calculate their overall emissions. The results were surprising. Combustion cars did not remain in the shadow of electric cars, achieving not so much worse results. However, it must be admitted that electric ones emit less greenhouse gases over their entire life cycle than internal combustion cars. But that doesn’t mean they’re organic either. They will be defined as a commercial product, where environmental costs are set aside for future generations. “Ecological is walking, not driving”
Let’s look at this problem in more detail. It turns out that it is not motorization that is destroying our planet.
Approximately 50 gigatons of greenhouse gases are emitted annually. The main sources of global emissions: about 73% is energy consumption, and road transport generates less than 12%, including cars and trucks. So in the worst case, passenger cars take up only a few %. Even the entire replacement of combustion cars with electric cars would not eliminate these percentages, because they would be transferred to other sectors responsible for electric energy and the production of these cars.
Since cars are a small percentage, where should we look to reduce gas emissions?
It turns out that China is responsible for 38% of all global emissions. Adding the USA and INDIA together, they account for 60% of all emissions, while all of Europe is only 8%.
So does anyone really think that a European ban on combustion cars will bring any relief to the planet?
It turns out that it does not and much other and more serious factors have an impact on it, which should be dealt with first, rather than waging a war over technology, which provides us with amazing opportunities, changes our lives and, despite the fact that it is not the best source of salvation for our planet, because as we already know there are more important things that affect it, we need it immensely.
Today electric cars are being pushed into the world car market to make it more environmentally friendly for people to travel. Its theory is for people to buy electric cars to travel and make less pollution. But are cars the main reason for polluting in the first place yes they are everywhere but are electric cars the solution?
The world is ready for electric cars but can the producing keep up with it? Batteries are seen to be the biggest issue with better technology their production is rapid. But batteries are the most damaging stage of the production procedure in cars. The production of batteries starts with lithium mines that are mostly located in Chile, Canada, and Australia then the raw material is transported to Europe for cleaning and mixed to make lithium for its final stage to being made into batteries. But for the production of clean lithium batteries, the material has to be transported again from Europe to china where the biggest producers of batteries are. This procedure does not sound clean to me with all of the transport happening. But looking at the long run this is definitely an option to make the world cleaner.
Looking at what will power these batteries is another problem that we face. These called green sources of power have mixed ideas of eco-friendly. Wind turbines can be a case when a lot of people sed that to produce a wind turbine makes more damage then it will produce this is not true but except one aspect of the producing the amount of concrete to place a wind turbine is huge and the production of that is great and as we know producing such specific concrete is very deadly for the idea of being eco-friendly. We all get to listen to the ideas of everything and how good it will be in the future but why don’t they tell us how it affects us now so what if in 100 years it will be better were in a situation where in need of change right now. Looking at sea transport for the raw, not raw, and final product of the batteries is one of the main transport to move such large quantities of the material because of the high demand to produce the batteries. Looking at statistics container ships account for 18% of air emissions but the problem here is that they do not take into account a very important aspect. What if the ship sinks? Sinking a ship affects the whole world because of all of the toxins that are not contained and leak into the whole sea, not just the area where the ship sank.
The sinking ship is not a rare occasion between 2011 and 2020, 348 cargo ships sank, 40 chemical and product tankers sank, 37 Ro-ro ships sank and 35 container ships sank. The listed ships are the ones that make the biggest change in climate damage but the list goes on.
this is not a small number as each has a huge amount of toxins on board which would take many years to undo the damage but there’s nothing really happening to attack this damage done by the biggest corporations and firms around the world.
Another aspect of pollution is our consumption. Today we are pushed to have new technology the newest clothes everything new but what happens to the old things that we don’t use yes there are recycling procedures but there’s a limit to how an item can be recycled. Clothes are sent to poor countries and delt there which is not the worse idea but what about other items? Something like a phone is only 15% reusable. Look how many phones there are today and how much waste is involved. buying a new smartphone every year is a norm for many people because there’s a new model that comes out. We don’t look anymore at do we need this function of design to make our life easier only we look at” that is new we need it” and that is our problem. I don’t blame society but I do blame the corporations that push these new items if they dint look at making profits only to make sustainable money and make eco-friendly products, producing it would help the environment but then you would say that people would lose jobs, that’s the loop that I can’t find any information about.
So looking back at if electric cars are the soluting to pollution I say yes but in the long run, definitely will not make a change today we have many different aspects to look at first then cars which could be taken as just another way to make more money with an eco-friendly change in theory.
Nowadays all manufactures in the automotive industry are switching from internal combustions engines (ICE) to electric, with the intend to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars in Europe by 2035. Moreover, the media keeps telling us that this change will benefit the environment and help reduce the amount of CO2 that we produce. But have you ever thought about the truthfulness of these statements?
One of the companies that are making this change is Volvo, which has released data about the amount of CO2 that is produced during the manufacturing and use of an electric car (XC40 recharge). In the report Volvo has compared it to the ICE equivalent (XC40), but keep in mind that the data doesn’t consider the productions and utilization of the batteries.
Looking at the first part of every automobile, the production process. Volvo states that the production of the electric vehicle increases carbon emissions by 70% in comparison to its ICE equivalent. This is mainly due to the increase of materials that are needs to produce sed vehicle. Looking at the numerical data that is provided from the company, we can see that the production of the XC40 Recharge generates 26.4 tones of CO2, whilst the XC40 ICE produces only 15.7 tones (Elisabeth Evrard, Carbon Footprint Report, 2020). Putting this into perspective, the entire automotive industry produces around 3 billion tons of CO2 (in 2020) (Tiseo, 2021) in the production processes of vehicles. If the entire industry started only producing electric cars this number would change to around 5.1 billion tons of CO2. Moreover, the world would be at great risk of having a crisis due to the limited supply of Li-ion batteries. This would affect almost every aspect of our life, since this type of batteries are used in almost every device that we buy and use everyday.
The most important part of a car’s life cycle is the “use phase”, in which the two types of vehicles differ substantially. Volvo in its analysis tells us that electric car is supposed to travel 200 thousand kilometers before being dismantled. During this time the cars is estimated to produce 24 tons of CO2 on the global electricity mix, which being compared to the 43 tons of CO2 that the internal combustion equivalent is estimated make, sounds like an amazing improvement. Nevertheless, this brings the breakeven point of the car’s pollution at 110 thousand kilometers (Elisabeth Evrard, Carbon footprint report, 2020) of driving but keep in mind that the average person travels 21.7 thousand kilometers per year (Transportation, 2022). Which means on average it will take a person around 9 years to reach the end goal of 200 thousand kilometers. Most if not all of, electric car manufactures guarantee that the battery will last 8 years and decrease it compacity to only 70% (Corby, 2022), which also means that the range that the vehicle can travel on one charge will decrease. Throughout the estimated cars use cycle the user might need to change the cars battery or replace the entire vehicle. In the instance of replacing the entire vehicle (generating 26.4 tons of CO2) the breakeven point in carbon pollution will be at around 250 thousand kilometers, which exceeds the scale of the analysis.
(Elisabeth Evrard, Carbon footprint report, 2020)
Coming to the end phase of the vehicles life cycle, it is the least polluting process with both types of vehicles producing the same amount of CO2. The problem with this is that the data doesn’t consider the fact that the utilization of batteries is a very harmful process for the environment. Nevertheless, in the most optimistic circumstances the batteries will be refabricated and reused in some other way.
(Edelstein, 2015)
Concluding, electric vehicles aren’t as ecological, with regards to the information that we are given in the media. Data shows us that this change will have a very different outcome on our environment than what people believe it will have. There are very many downsides to the change and putting the world on the verge of a crisis isn’t a solution. Maybe there is more behind this change than we think?
Feel free to comment about this topic, I am curious of your opinions.
Bibliography
Elisabeth Evrard, J. D.-H. (2020). Carbon footprint report. Retrieved from Volvocars: https://www.volvocars.com/images/v/-/media/Market-Assets/INTL/Applications/DotCom/PDF/C40/Volvo-C40-Recharge-LCA-report.pdf
Elisabeth Evrard, J. D.-H. (2020). Carbon Footprint Report. Retrieved from Volvo Cars: https://www.volvocars.com/images/v/-/media/Market-Assets/INTL/Applications/DotCom/PDF/C40/Volvo-C40-Recharge-LCA-report.pdf
Tiseo, I. (2021, December 14). Carbon dioxide emissions from passenger cars worldwide from 2000 to 2020. Retrieved from statista: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107970/carbon-dioxide-emissions-passenger-transport/
Transportation, U. D. (2022, May 31). U.S. Deparment of Transportation. Retrieved from U.S. Deparment of Transportation: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm
Edelstein, S. (2015, January 30). Where Will BMW Electric-Car Batteries Go When They Retire?Retrieved from Green Car Reports: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1096552_where-will-bmw-electric-car-batteries-go-when-they-retire
Corby, S. (2022, March 22). What is the lifespan of an electric car battery?Retrieved from Carguide: https://www.carsguide.com.au/ev/advice/what-is-the-lifespan-of-an-electric-car-battery-86149
It is generally known nowadays rapid technology changes are becoming closely related to the world automobile market. Electric cars are the ones that are expected to replace common cars operated on conventional petrol, at least we are moving to it with giant strides. One of the first companies that made its bet for electric transport is Tesla, and they have become the leader of the market so far. However, many other associations saw the great success of Elon Musk’s company and decided to keep up.
One of those companies is the “Jaguar Land Rover” corporation. The British company announced their plan to leave the “petrol” market till 2025 and start their own production in the electric car industry. For the next 5 years, the company is to move Jaguar as well as their prime-segment models into fully eco-engines. It is worth noticing Jaguar has already produced an electric model (Jaguar I-Pace) which has a great success in the electric-cars market. Anyway, it is hard to imagine an electric version of Jaguar PROJECT-8.
Also “Jaguar Land Rover” company is planning to introduce six fully electric Land Rover models by the end of 2025, having no electric cars in their model-list right now. The first electric Land Rover is planned for 2024. It is also remarkable that 60% of Land Rover cars to be sold will be equipped with electric power units till the end of 2030. Till the same time, all Land Rover models will be presented in both variants – fully electric and with an internal consumption engine.
Besides, the company is planning to reject using diesel engines in all Jaguar and Land Rover models till the end of 2026.
From the myriad of new technologies and innovations presented at CES, the world’s largest electronics show in Las Vegas, there was one concept that stood out in the spotlight – Mercedes-Benz VISION AVTR. This advanced vision transportation, inspired by James Cameron’s iconic movie, Avatar, is part of the Mercedes-Benz strategic agenda for the next years, which strives for a more sustainable future. The connection to the film results from its essential message: the Mercedes-Benz plan’s line of reasoning perfectly fits with Avatar’s environmental and spiritual themes. During the reveal, James Cameron, the director of Avatar, joint with Mercedes-Benz members, highlighted the importance of sustainability and coexistence of technology and humans not interrupting the development of nature.
This futuristic concept vehicle is said to be entirely eco-friendly. It is electric, carbon-neutral, and supposed to interact with the surrounding world. The exterior design of the car is supposed to blend in with nature. After opening, the doors are designed in a way to imitate the dragonfly, and at the back of the car are located 33 individual hatches that resemble breathing scales on a reptile.
The futuristic design even extends to the interior part of the vehicle, as there is no steering wheel, and it is driven using biometrics. You are one with the car. This concept of using a driver’s biometrics is adapted straight from the Avatar movie and should imitate the symbiotic relationship between the driver and the vehicle. The comfort and infotainment of electronics in this vehicle are based on the driver’s hand, as by waving gesture, we are able to drive the car.
After getting in, the system of control lights up on your right hand, and by gestures and waving, you can operate this eye-popping vehicle. By touching the element in the center of the car, it wakes up. The lights and element go up and down to imitate breathing and heartbeat. Not only does this car drive straight and backward as a regular car, but it also has an ability to drive sideways. Large odd flamboyant wheels enable this car to move, little resembling crab-walk, perpendicularly. The vehicle went through the real-life test on the roads of Las Vegas and proved itself to be ready to hit the streets to saturate them with the aspirational and eco-friendly idea of the future.
The presence of James Cameron and his collaboration with Mercedes-Benz is not only all about sustainability, but also the longly-awaited sequel of Avatar movie. Whether it is just a costly marketing or a real car that could be seen in some time on the market and roads, we cannot argue that it is a successful fulfillment of the statement “Vision of Tomorrow.”
Last week, on the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, we could witness a birth of a new player in the electric cars’ game – Rivian.
To start with, I’ll explain what is hiding under this rather modern name. Rivian’s owner describes his products (because they already launched two, not one) as “The world’s first Electric Adventure Vehicles”. As it turned out, they’ve been working on their project for the last seven years in their headquaters in California (obviously), developing their product with the smallest details and avoiding mistakes previously made by competitors.
So, they made two models – a seven-seat SUV called R1S and R1T, which is a five-seat pick-up. Both of them are based on Rivian’s invention named ‘skateboard’ platform (sounds cool, doesn’t it?), which basically means that parts like the battery, suspension or drive units are placed below the height of each wheel. Not only does it provide much more passenger space, but also a low centre of gravity, which might make the difference in the car that weights 2.6-tonnes.
Potential buyers can opt for three battery sizes: 180kWh (400 mile range) and 135kWh (300 mile range) and a 105kWh battery (230 mile range). Rivian also promises that their products’ interiors are provided with the best quality materials, such as actual wood on the dashboard.
Right, but it all sounds like we’ve already heard that story about a complete revolution in the electric cars industry, best materials, biggest batteries and even bigger numbers attached. Rivian’s owner, RJ Scaringe claims that he “started Rivian to deliver products that the world didn’t already have.” So, what is so special about this brand?
First of all, their cars are provided with kind of artificial intelligence of the new level. While driving the Rivian, an algorithm constantly analyze your driving style and learn how to better optimize its charge. Welcome to the future!
As the Electric Adventure Vehicles, they are expected to provide you some load space, right? Well, in the R1T, there’s 330-litres under the hood (because there’s no engine inside), a 350-litre space in the R1T’s so called ‘gear tunnel’, and a 200-litre bin beneath the rear bed floor.
Moreover, both models are equipped with tools like cameras, lidar, radar, ultrasonic and GPS, which allow for ‘Level 3’ autonomy. What does it exactly mean? In Level 3 cars, you’re still needed as a driver, but you are able to transfer safety-critical functions to the vehicle, depending on traffic and other conditions, so they are really close to producing fully autonomous cars with a highest Level 5 autonomy.
And the last but not least – speed. These things are TREMENDOUSLY quick. Both are claimed to reach 60mph in 3 seconds. In a car of this weight, these numbers are far more than impressive.
You can already order both of Rivian’s models. The pick-up is expected to be delivered in 2020, and the SUV no earlier than a year after.
So, what do you think about the whole project, apart from the these cars’ names which you probably associate more with a Star Wars’ characters rather than cars? Will Rivian find its niche or make a huge loss? Let me know below!
Reading Time: 6minutesTen years ago, thinking about riding a fully electric car was an illusion. Nobody could have said that cars would be motorised only by electric motors in such a short period of time. After improving the technology thanks to hybrid cars principally, some start-ups and carmakers succeeded to build 100% electric vehicles. And, the number of sales is always growing. This is why today, you can easily cross cars like Tesla Model S, a BMW i3 or a Renault Zoe in the streets or on the roads.
Nevertheless, these cars are only regular cars and everybody’s dream is to own a supercar, a car you enjoy driving every day and which you can bring on the racetrack to go on full throttle. And now, carmakers are able to raise the bar, to push it to the next level. The result? 2 zero-emission sports cars: the Porsche Mission E (concept released in 2015 and on sale at the end of 2019 because the concept is still in development – but at its final stage) and the Rimac Concept One. To these two environment friendly vehicles, we can add the Tesla Model S P100D – the sports version of the well-known Tesla Model S. Why are these cars so special? Can they compete with Tesla?
Porsche Mission E:
Porsche is the first big sports carmaker to get on with the electric power. Indeed, due to the wish of the Volkswagen Group – Porsche belongs to the enormous Volkswagen Group (see the picture below) – to electrify every car by 2030, which means that every car would be either hybrid or full-electric, brands are spending a lot of money to improve their current models and offer at least hybrid cars. So, in the next few years, you would probably see hybrid Lamborghini or hybrid Audi RS series – Lamborghini is currently working on a new hybrid car to respect the Volkswagen Group’s objective.
Before beginning the “Mission E” project, Porsche has developed a successful hybrid hypercar (Porsche 918 and Porsche 918 Spyder). And now, the next step is to develop a no-combustion-powered vehicle. The brand has already spent more than 3 years on the Mission E. This four-door sports sedan, looking like the well-known Panamera, is the first 100% electrically powered Porsche. Here are some facts about this futuristic car:
The all-wheel-drive vehicle is powered by two electric motors, one in the front and one at the back. The batteries are made of only lithium-ion and are located in the floor of the car to distribute equally the weight and to lower the centre of gravity.
Like the other brand’s series (911, Macan, Cayenne, Boxter, Cayman and Panamera), Porsche is planning to offer different performance levels for the Mission E. The most powerful version would have 600 hp (>440kW) and the top speed would be over 250 km/h.
According to the last updates of the development car’s figures, the range of the car amounts to 530 kilometres (330 miles). To compare, Tesla Model S has just a range of around 450 kilometres (270 miles)
Acceleration speed: 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in under 3.5 seconds. Though, the sports version of the Tesla Model S is quicker than the Mission E – P100D version reaches 100 km/h in 2.7 seconds – but Porsche says that there will be software updates in order to improve the performances and the range of its new car.
The car has no exterior mirrors: there are cameras on the side of the car and the images are directly projected in the lower windshield corners.
And a lot of others features (presented in the next video)
“The time is ripe for this study. It shows that, in addition to our plug-in hybrids, all-electric drive systems can truly meet our standards of intelligent performance. For us, this declaration is distilled into one clear philosophy: Porsche E-Performance.”
Charged via an 800-volt charger unit specially developed for the car – which is twice as powerful as today’s quick-charge systems – the lithium-ion batteries integrated within the vehicle floor have enough power again for 80 percent of the range after just 15 minutes. The charging port is hidden at the side of the front fender. Moreover, the vehicle can optionally be recharged wirelessly by induction thanks to a coil set into the garage floor. To drive 100 kilometres, you just need to “refuel” the car for 4 minutes. Impressive, isn’t it?
The engine used by this futuristic car is a PSM high performance motor. PSM stands for “permanently excited synchronous machine”, which means that it’s an electric motor with extremely high-power density, high efficiency and consistent performance over the entire range of speed and distance. Thanks to this technology, it is possible to push at full throttle several times in a row without a loss of performance.
The video below shows how the car was designed and what are the new features and technologies inside the “Mission E” project.
According to Porsche’s CEO, Oliver Blume, the brand is “beginning a new chapter in the history of sports cars”. Thanks to this project, over 1000 jobs are being created and around 700 million € will be invested in its factory in Stuttgart for the new production line.
Due to the announcement of the car launch before 2020 during the Frankfurt International Motor Show (IAA) in September, the market leader, Tesla, fears that he will lose market shares because of the price of Porsche’s car. Indeed, the basis cost would be around the same than the Panamera’s price, so around 85000€. And the Porsche offers a more sportive DNA than the Tesla Model S P100D, for the same price range. Let’s see what Tesla will bring to answer its new rival’s car.
Rimac Concept_One:
Always more powerful, always faster: this is the dream of every car brand. You might probably don’t know this automaker because Rimac Automobili is relatively new. Rimac Automobili is a Croatian start-up founded in 2009 by Mate Rimac. The world premiere of the Rimac Concept_One was revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011, but the production of this car only started in 2016. But why do I introduce you this car? This is because the Concept_One is the fastest and most powerful 100% electric hypercar ever built. And this car is far away ahead of its time.
In fact, this car can achieve 100km/h (62mph) in under 2.5 seconds, what makes this car one of the fastest for drag races. The official top speed recorded is 355 km/h (220 mph) thanks to the four engines (one for each wheel) which combine in total 1224 horsepower. All of that to say that electric vehicle can even beat the best internal combustion engines currently on the market.
According to test drivers, this is car is most insane car they have ever driven. It exceeds all the expectations and you usually flirt with the limits. But don’t forget to not overtake these limits because car crashes with that kind of hypercars happen quickly, as attested by the Richard Hammond’s car crash while testing the Rimac Concept_One – Richard Hammond was one of three presenters of the BBC’s program “Top Gear”, and was testing this car for the new Amazon Prime’s show “The Grand Tour”.
In contrast with the Porsche Mission E, which is affordable for nearly everybody, the Rimac Concept_One is exclusive: this car is worth over 1.2 million €. We might say that this toy is not something to give to the standard driver. A common characteristic between these two cars is that you can control all the data (estimated remaining range, telemetry data, location, speed, …) thanks to a mobile phone app.
And the trend of developing 100% electric cars continues, because new carmakers are entering this promising market like Faraday Future, which has recently revealed its new electric sports car called FF 91. In addition, the use of electric features in racing championships – Formula1, Formula E and other championships – will help the development of electric engines to make the sports car drive faster. Moreover, other brands – Volvo as it happens – have said that they will progressively give up producing vehicles with combustion engine. Other start-ups or carmakers enter the market and directly focus on hybrid or electric cars.
In my opinion, the way we will move in the next decades will change. And this change will go through the improvement of the electric car’s technology. Due to all the regulations in the EU about the carbon dioxide emissions, car brands are obliged to develop new engines and, to anticipate the next regulations, it’s better to build hybrid or electricity-powered cars. I think the technology about full-electric car is progressing so fast in terms of performance, range, price, etc. that before 2030, everybody would be driving a hybrid or a full-electric car. And the revolution has already begun. Electric vehicles are gaining market shares in nearly every country, which means that the population is aware of the ecological issues and that they want to improve this situation by buying more electric-powered vehicles. And Norway is an example for the other countries because nearly a quarter of the automotive fleet is composed of electric cars. (see article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car_use_by_country)
Everybody know Mercedes have one of the best exclusive cars in the world but not many people know they just made first electric heavy urban transport truck.
Now both demand and supply for ecologically friendly electric cars are growing as new companies are joining the market showing their propositions. Tesla was the pioneer in the case of passenger though in the case of tracks Mercedes decided it will not give them the firs mover advantage and designed the first big rig of its kind.
The all-electric truck was presented in Stuttgart at the end of past month. It is especially designed for urban purposes. It is meant to be used at the final kilometers of transport shipping cycle. That is because of both: its advantages and disadvantages. The first being good acceleration and better energy efficiency when often stopping and accelerating (which is how it often looks in the cities full of traffic jams and lights). Moreover, in some places it might be used in city centers where petrol cars are forbidden to ride while hybrid and electric can (for example Warsaw). By use of electrical engine, Mercedes wants to reduce noise which is important when driving in cities (everybody knows how noisy they can be.) The disadvantage of this truck, on the other hand, is its limited range of only 200 kilometers with total maximum weight of 26 tons.
The competition on this market will be for sure visible as two weeks ago Elon Mask, CEO of Tesla revealed that company is working on Semi transport track and is planning to present it as early as next year.
Mercedes-Benz is still waiting for close-up to start production for world scale. Daimler said the prices of batteries between 1997 and 2025 got 2.5 times smaller and batteries performance are expected to keep the same proportion.
Do you like idea of replacing all trucks in cities with those fully electric ones?
