Youtube daily vehicle Oct 28 2018

Hey guys and welcome to Charged Up news, a weekly roundup of EV stories from

around the globe. This week's show will include petrol and diesel bans in Israel

and Denmark, some African desert testing of the Audi e-Tron, making electric cars

a little bit noisy and sales begin for the electric version of the iconic Vespa.

But first up, Porsche is one manufacturer that seems to be taking the threat from

Tesla very seriously. With six billion euro in investments and over 1200 new

employees for the launch of the Taycan alone, Porsche is undergoing massive

change while firmly committing to electric mobility. Their management is

predicting that 50% of Porsche models delivered from 2025 will be electrified

but one of the best things for me is their sustainability plans. The Taycan

production process will be carbon neutral while the future goal in

production is to establish a factory with no environmental impact. What we

know about the Taycan so far is that it will be an 800 volt,

600 horsepower four-wheel drive sports car with a zero to 100 per hour time

under 3.5 seconds, zero to 200 in less than 12 seconds, range around 500

kilometers, much less than the upcoming Tesla Roadster but Porsche is sticking

to the idea of speed instead of weight. Porsche will build 400 high-power

charging stations with a capacity of 300 kilowatts per charging point across

Europe by the end of 2019 and is also planning to install more than 2000 AC

charging points at destinations such as hotels. The recharging could be as fast

as 15 minutes for 400 kilometers or if you just need a quick 100 kilometer

top-up, a 4 minute charge... amazing.

Audi has released footage of their brand new

e-Tron, desert testing in Namibia in Southwest Africa. Now you would expect an

Audi Quattro to be good off-road as they've been refining the four-wheel

drive design since the original Quattro was released in the 80s where it

completely dominated the World Rally Championship. But it is still awesome to

see this new generation of electric cars coming through with little to no

compromise in performance or handling. As you can see from the footage Namibia is

an extremely dry place. They have battled

with recurrent and devastating droughts and floods in recent years and on

the back of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change which looks specifically at the impacts on water stressed countries, it

seems perfectly appropriate to test and showcase a zero emissions vehicle in a

country which will have so much to lose if we don't make some serious changes.

Speaking of the IPCC report, twelve years is the amount of time that the world's

leading climate scientists have given us to make unprecedented changes to

transport, energy and food production in order to prevent climate catastrophe and

Israel and Denmark are the first countries to act immediately on the

research. Both countries have made statements that from 2030 onwards new

sales of petrol and diesel cars will be banned with only electric cars being

available in Israel while Denmark will phase out all new hybrids by 2035.

The two countries have very few plug-in cars at present so it will be interesting to

see how the incentives, infrastructure and availability of cars progresses with

the full support of their respective governments.

Bollinger Motors has announced that they will also build a pickup version of their all-electric

sports utility truck. Sharing the same internals as the B1 with its dual motor,

all-wheel-drive, hydropneumatic suspension and 120 kilowatt hour battery

pack, incorporating more cargo options was a priority for the b2.

The rear tray will be the same size as a traditional 6x4 4 trailer and for carrying 16 foot

lengths of timber it will also have the same pass-through design as the B1.

With 520 horsepower, 0-60mph time of 6.5 seconds, a 100mph

top speed, 10 to 20 inches of variable ground clearance, a 7500lb

towing capacity, 200 mile range, room for four adults, fast charging

and a portable power supply for tools, machines and even off-grid cabins,

this could be the only vehicle you need for the rest of your life

I showed my partner these and she definitely wasn't all that complimentary

about the looks but for me, as I've been a big fan of the Land Rover Defender, I love it.

In Valencia Spain, Nissan has made their debut in the fifth

season of the Formula-E championship at the circuit Ricardo Tormo .Driven by

former Series champion Sebastien Buemi, Nissan finished the day in 8th place

with the time of 1:18.1 with lap times being nearly three

seconds faster than last year. The energy storage capacity has been

doubled compared to the generation 1 cars so with new batteries, aerodynamics

and no mid race car swaps, the expectation is that there will be fast

close racing from the 22 drivers. If you want to see some crazy onboard footage

then check out the YouTube video of Sebastien Buemi's front wheels coming

off at the 2010 Chinese Grand Prix. I'll put a link in the description.

Now I'm a bit conflicted about the next story. One of the best things about EVs is their

lack of sound. The smooth, almost silent, effortless gliding along the road makes

for an incredibly relaxing driving experience but unfortunately this

attribute can be a bit of a problem in urban environments for pedestrians and

especially for those who are visually impaired. Ahead of new UK legislation

which comes into effect in july 2019, Jaguar has developed an audible vehicle

alert system for the I-pace which is permanently active at speeds up to 20

kilometers per hour. Have a listen to what they've come up with..... Now I totally

understand the need for cars to make some noise but can you imagine ten to

twenty years down the road when there are millions of EV's on the road, the

potential cacophony of whining and beeping sounds coming out of vehicles

every time they're moving at less than 20 km/h...

The Piaggio Group in Italy has

started the online booking campaign for the Vespa electric where European

customers can reserve the first versions of the iconic scooter. Performance-wise

the scooter will be similar to the 50 cc models but with much better acceleration

and Hill starts. The scooter will have a maximum range of 100 kilometres, a

four-hour recharge time from the onboard charger using a standard power point and

a retail price of 6390 Euros. Twist and go

scooters are perfect around town and if I didn't have an electric cargo bike

already I would definitely consider one of these. In our last story for the week,

Alta motors, the electric motorcycle company from California, has

continued their impressive performance racing against gas bikes with the latest

podium finish at the Carnegie Classic Hill Climb in Tracy California. Competing

against heavily modified race bikes up to 700cc they're nearly stock redshift

EXR with an extended swing arm managed to come in fourth place while in the

enduro climb shootout a head-to-head battle through enduro type obstacles

before heading straight up the hill to the finish line, they came in second.

Just as I was putting this show together I came across a report that said Alta

Motors had ceased operations while they look for new investors. This is really

disappointing as they've made some fantastic bikes but hopefully it's just

a small hiccup and not the end for this awesome company.

So, thanks for tuning into the show. As always, if you'd like to keep up to date with the latest EV

news and you're not subscribed already, then hit the red subscribe button and I

will see you on the next one

Stephen Tooke Charged Up News