Happy Thursday. Did you enjoy the Hillclimb at Pikes Peak and Goodwood this past weekend? Our Colorado team got to enjoy checking out some of the vehicles for the Pikes Peak race last week, including a stripped-down Tesla that was piloted by Blake Fuller. On Saturday, part of our team got to drive the BMW iX and BMW i4 M50 at a BMW event held at the Denver Broncos stadium. A great weekend for EVs.
This week we have news on Hyundai, an update on McMurtry, VW, May Mobility, Cruise, Einride, and more.
Have an amazing Thursday and have an even better Fourth of July.
EV News
My birthday is Saturday, and all I want is a Hyundai Ioniq 6 (Dad, I know you get this newsletter every week). The Ioniq 6 is built on the same-GMP platform as the Ioniq 5 SUV with a beautiful, streamlined design hitting on notable features like wheel gap reducers and slimline digital side mirrors to achieve new heights in aerodynamics.-Holly
In other EV News
Mustang’s Mach-E made the top of the list of Detroit’s most popular EVs. Tesla’s Model 3 came in second place.
Update from last week – Congrats to Max Chilton and McMurtry for breaking the outright record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Click the link for a video of the record run.
Speaking of lofty, impressive goals, Phoenix, Arizona wants 280,000 EVs on public roads by 2030. As of last June, there were 28,770 electric vehicles registered in the state.
Another sedan unveiling this week came from Volkswagen in the form of the ID.AERO concept, its first all-electric sedan, with a hefty range of 385 miles. The new model carries a 77-kWh lithium-ion battery pack.
Cadillac opened up 2024 Lyriq Pre Orders after the car brand sold out of their 2023 models. GM would not share how many orders this was, but we will go with a lot. Customers can expect their 2023 models to be delivered by next spring.
In other Cadillac news, if the Lyriq doesn’t do it for you, how about the $300,000 Celestiq? Less than 500 of the limited edition Celestiq will be made each year. Which one are you buying?
EV of the Week
I definitely need to work on my autocross skills. Last weekend my dad and I went to the BMW Ultimate Driving Experience EVolution in Denver and got to enjoy the iX and i4 M50. The best part was getting 6 laps around the autocross course in the i4 M50. The i4 M50 was so fast that I don’t even think I was able to give it the full beans around the course. For a heavy car, it hides it well and handles the corners quite smoothly. If you haven’t done a BMW driving event, you need to. It’s free and a great way to spend a morning, that’s why the i4 M50 is the EV of the week.
To ride in Cruise’s autonomous rideshare vehicles in San Francisco, you now have to pay up. The cost of riding varies during the day but appears to be cheaper than an Uber rider. A 1.3-mile trip was around $8.72 with Cruise and was around $10.41 with Uber. I know we have some subscribers in San Francisco, send us an email if you have taken a Cruise (pun intended) and how it was. We will include it in our next newsletter!
In other AV News
MIT’s research department has created the world’s first open-source photorealistic simulator for AVs. With multiple 3D LiDAR cameras, the VISTA 2.0 can navigate multiple-lane roads and complex interactive scenarios.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense will test an unmanned robotic combat vehicle starting in 2023. Alongside autonomous capabilities, the tank will have environment sensing capabilities, a drone, and an autonomous turret.
May Mobility has been testing its autonomous vehicles in Greenwich, London. In fact, I got to visit their company while I was in London in March! Now, May Mobility and Softbank are venturing to launch their AV technology in Japan.
Happy Thursday. Our Colorado team is planning to check out some of the EVs that will be participating in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb tomorrow at Fan Fast in Colorado Springs. Should be a good time.
Our newsletter this week has highlights on Texas, The First Lightning, McMurtry, Sony, Wejo, and more.
Have an amazing day and don’t forget to share the newsletter.
EV News
The McMurtry Spéirling is an electric track car that can hit 0-60 mph in under 1.5 seconds, making the car supposedly faster than the Bugatti Chiron. The single-seater can reach a top speed of 150 mph. The Spéirling has twin fans that pull air from under the car to increase downforce. The Spéirling will be driven by former F1 driver, Max Chilton, who will be going for the overall record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Good luck, Max!
In other EV News
Toyota and Redwood Materials are partnering to collect and recycle EV batteries. Redwood removes the materials from the batteries, such as nickel and copper, and can reintroduce these materials into the battery supply chain in the form of materials for anodes and cathodes.
Sony and Honda are embarking on a new venture to establish a new company, Sony Honda Mobility Inc., with the sole purpose of manufacturing electric cars.
According to Volkswagen AG’s top U.S. executive, the U.S. will face challenges while increasing battery production to meet the demand for electric vehicles.
Check out Electrek’s list of best EV discounts from American dealers. There are not many discounts out there right now, but there are some.
Nick Schmidt has made history by becoming the first owner of an F-150 Lightning. Nick ordered his new EV last May and recently picked up his first to-be-delivered Lightning.
Kroger Supermarkets are adding level 2 and level 3 EV chargers at select locations. The popular grocery store chain has previously tested 350 chargers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Ever dream of a DIY EV conversion? Some people made these dreams come true with their DIY EV Builds.
Schneider Electric acquired EV Connect to expand its open-standards-based charging platform. The two companies have conducted business in 14 European countries.
FedEx is done with EV testing and has switched to adoption with BrightDrop zero-emissions delivery vehicles. The shipping company has a goal to use only electric delivery vehicles by 2030.
The state of Texas is planning to add EV stations to support 1 million electric vehicles. The Texas DOT’s 5-year plan is that every 50 miles, along non-business routes, there will be a charger.
EV of the Week
GR stands for Gazoo Racing and this is the performance brand for Toyota. There are rumors floating around that we are going to manifest a GR version of the electric bZ4x. As it stands, the non-GR bZ4x with twin motors has 215 bhp. We would expect the GR to have elevated performance and hope this is a sign of more performance-focused EVs from Toyota in the future. If we make the GR bZ4x the EV of the week, will Toyota put this into production?
-John @ Mobility EVO
AV Corner
Vueron Technology’s LiDar sensors were approved by the state of California to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. Vueron successfully drove 383 miles at a top speed of 70 mph, and the safety driver did not intervene with the technology once during the trip.
In other AV News
We wrote about an electric Ferrari last week, but now we have some sad news. According to the CEO, Benedetto Vigna, don’t expect a fully-autonomous Ferrari. The company will utilize driver-assistance technology but will never deploy Level 5 autonomy. I guess that means people like driving their Ferraris.
Wejo Group launches a smart AV platform to utilize live and historical connected data to boost autonomous technology development. By gathering billions of data points each day, Wejo will play out possible AV outcomes.
If you still do not fully understand what the metaverse is, you are not alone. However, in order to ensure sufficient safety for customers, Oxbotica is using advanced artificial intelligence in the metaverse to deploy safe and sustainable technology for autonomous vehicles technology.
Driverless trucks and cars are now allowed in Pennsylvania as of Monday, according to an ordinance passed by the Pennsylvania House.
Happy Thursday. Our Colorado team saw another R1T last weekend outside of Fairplay, CO. It’s where the R1T belongs. Our newsletter this week has highlights on BYD, BMW with a longer range, Ziggy, Ferrari, Nvidia, RoboRide, and more.
Have an amazing day and don’t forget to share the newsletter.
EV News
Netherlands company Lightyear is launching a luxury vehicle, the Lightyear 0, the first solar-powered EV on the market. The Lightyear 0 is supposed to allow the driver to travel freely for up to seven months without plugging into a charger. The vehicle has fifty-four square feet of solar panels which allows the driver to charge while driving or while parked and can provide the vehicle with 43 miles of range per day. The model plans to begin production in fall 2022 and will produce 949 vehicles initially. The price is around $250,000-263,000 euros.
In other EV News
Ferrari’s CEO, Benedetto Vigna, announced the plan to launch its first electric model by 2025. Vigna expects the makeup of vehicles to be 20% ICE, 40% Hybrids, and 40% fully electric.
The White House has developed a plan to construct a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers. The DOT has outlined that the chargers will be user-friendly, dependable, accessible, and “interoperable between different charging companies.”
BMW is testing its iX SUV that can achieve 600 miles by enabling chemistry from Our Next Energy (ONE). The iX without the help of ONE has an estimated range of 324 miles. ONE’s battery claims to be more sustainable than standard EV batteries because the product reduces lithium and graphite used.
A new intelligence report from Bloomberg believes Volkswagen will surpass Tesla sales by 2024. VW already sells more EVs in Europe compared to Tesla (310,000 vs. 170,000).
Electric car maker BYD has reached a comfortable position in the ranks of China’s top three automakers. The company’s sales numbers doubled in May, reaching 113,768 new energy passenger cars, attracting all eyes to BYD for the rest of the year. BYD’s sales marked a year-over-year increase of 159.5%.
EV of the Week
Ever tired of driving around trying to find a parking space. Do you ever get tired of driving around to find a charging station? There’s a solution for both. An autonomous robot named Ziggy. With the app for Ziggy, you can summon Ziggy to reserve a parking space for you. Once at the parking space, Ziggy will then pull out, and allow you to park. You can then use Ziggy to charge your EV. A unique EV of the Week. John @ Mobility EVo
Cameras on all four sides
A headlight and a tail light
A safety sensor band
Large screens on both sides
All-Wheel Steering
AV Corner
Hyundai Motor Group is launching a level 4 autonomous RoboRide service in Seoul’s Gangnam District. Hyundai will collaborate with Jin Mobility for RoboRide and use the Ioniq 5 for its ride-hailing service. The pilot will operate from 10 am to 4 pm Monday to Friday and can accommodate up to three passengers
In other AV News
Massachusetts-based company GPR has invented autonomous vehicle technology to allow vehicles to look underground to get around public roads.
Chinese automakers Baidu and Geely have partnered with project Jidu to encourage autonomous vehicle adoption in China.
Nvidia has applied for a patent to assist autonomous vehicles to detect ambulances on public roads.
Stellantis is using Valeo’s third-generation Scala lidar to launch SAE Level 3 autonomous driving. Multiple models will be able to utilize the technology in 2024.
Like in China, A.I. robotaxis may begin deployment in the United States. Momenta has begun considering partnerships with GM, Mercedes-Benz, and other American car manufacturers to deploy A.I. in the US.
A Pennsylvania House Committee has passed legislation to allow driverless cars in the state.
Happy Thursday. Our Colorado team has been seeing more and more Rivian R1T’s on the road, including at a car show last weekend. Pretty amazing to see more and more hit the road. Our newsletter this week has highlights on Solid-State Batteries, Ford, Tesla, Chick-fil-A, and much more. Enjoy the newsletter and don’t forget to share.
Have a great rest of your day.
EV News
Camping season is here. Okay, okay, the Cybertruck isn’t out yet, but that didn’t stop Space Campers from dreaming up a camping solution for the Cybertruck. For $24,000, owners can transform their Cybertruck into a camper van by adding a wedge-like camper modification to lay on top of the vehicle. The camper can house a double bed and features a solar roof, interior lighting, four electrical outlets, and much, much more. This is my kind of camping.
In other EV News
Looking for a used EV? You may want to look at this list, target certain markets, and avoid others. iSeeCars recently completed a study to see where the most expensive cities were for specific EVs compared to the cheapest cities. For example, if you are in the market for a Tesla Model S and you live in St. Louis, MO, you may want to avoid your city and look around Norfolk, VA to save over $30,000.
Registered electric vehicle numbers are up 43% in Arkansas in the first 5 months of 2022, when compared to the end of 2021. The numbers are up nearly 300% from the end of 2019 to the end of May 2022.
Colorado-based Solid Power has begun pilot production of its solid-state batteries. Solid Power expects to have batteries ready for vehicle testing with BMW and Ford later this year and possibly be ready for mass production in 2024.
Ford made a big announcement late last week about plans for a $3.7 billion investment across Michigan, Ohio, and Missouri. $2 billion will be spent in Michigan which includes funds to increase the production of the Lightning.
North Carolina State University’s Industrial and Systems Engineering Department has developed a model to determine prime spots for EV charging facilities.
VW is actively looking for sites in the U.S. for assembly and battery facilities. Right now, VW has plants in TN and Mexico. No specific details were shared.
Canadian company FLO is opening a plant in Auburn Hills, MI. The company builds charging equipment for electric vehicles. The facility is expected to cost $3 million and supply 133 jobs to the area.
Qiantu unveiled the K20. The two-seater EV has around 300 miles of range, 4wd, and costs between $13,000-22,500, depending on how you have it configured.
EV of the Week
Need something to get around your city, but tired of the rain ruining your e-bike commute? Nimbus has a solution with the One, the ultra-tiny EV that’s like a motorbike, but with a roof. The EV will cost around $9,980, but Nimbus will also offer a subscription service for $200/month. Nimbus expects to start delivering to customers in Q3 2023. I can see myself cruising the streets of Rome in my One and that’s why the Nimbus One is the EV of the Week. – John @ Mobility Evo
Top Speed of 50 mph
Range of 93 miles
Charges in 1.2 hours with a Level 2 charger
Removable Battery
No Motorcycle license needed to operate
AV Corner
I wish I lived in Austin. Chick-fil-a is testing autonomous delivery vehicles with Refraction AI in the city. The partnership will have a fleet of AVs downtown that will deliver within a mile of two of their restaurants. After the initial tests, the plans are to expand within Austin, starting later this month. If you live in Austin, check this out and let us know about your experience.
In other AV News
Waymo and Uber Freight are partnering to allow future customers to deploy autonomous trucks efficiently to reduce shipping costs and reduce miles traveled. A timeline has not been announced.
Cruise may start charging for autonomous rides in San Francisco. To do so requires a permit in SF, and Cruise could have this permit soon.
10.12.2 is out and Tesla said the update is available to 100,000 vehicles. The update is said to produce a much smoother driving experience and improve the decision-making framework. For the future, version 10.13 is said to handle roads with no map data.
Motional is an autonomous taxi service venture between Hyundai and Aptiv. Motional’s fleet consists of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and they are operating worldwide, including in Las Vegas. The taxi service is currently operating with a backup driver but plans to remove the backup driver beginning next year.
Gatik’s self-driving trucks are to deliver Georgia-Pacific products to Sam’s Club stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The trucks will begin delivering in July, while driving up to 300 miles a day.
Happy Belated Autonomous Vehicle Day and the first week of June. Our newsletter this week has highlights on the first GV60 delivered, a new BMW, Star Wars, DeLorean, Bosch, Kansas AV laws, and much more. Enjoy the newsletter and don’t forget to share.
Have a great rest of your day.
EV News
Volkswagen has unveiled two special edition ID.Buzz vans, just in time for the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on Disney Plus. Instead of producing concepts, Volkswagen is launching skins for the cars, one decorated with the Light-Side Edition and the other decorated with the Dark-Side Edition. Would you wrap your ID.Buzz like this?
In other EV News
The BMW i7 EV and 7-Series look similar. Why? The goal is to combine luxury and electric into one vehicle to encourage EV adoption further.
The first GV60 in the U.S. was delivered last Thursday in Santa Monica, California. The newest owner, Patricia Wayne, was incredibly excited about her new ride.
Aptera’s new solar electric car has over 22,000 reservations as production nears. For $44,900, the EV can reach up to 1,000 miles of range. At $34,600, buyers can get up to 600 miles. Aptera is aiming for the end of the year to bring its vehicles to production.
Tata Motors Ltd is eyeing a Ford Motor manufacturing facility in Gujarat, India to house its EV manufacturing. Ford decided last year to cease their production in India.
Volkswagen is scouting US manufacturing sites for its new Scout electric pickup trucks and SUVs.
Volvo is partnering with Epic’s Unreal Engine, yes, the creator of Fortnite, to enhance “photorealistic visualization” in its upcoming EVs. Intrigued? Check out the artist’s renditions here.
Meet the BMW iX1, BMW’s entry-level EV SUV. The SUV comes with a 64.7 kWh battery pack, can do 0-60mph in 5.7 seconds, has a max speed of 112 mph, and a range of 257-272 miles. Unfortunately, It will not be coming to America.
EV of the Week
Marty McFly has had a good week with DeLorean unveiling the first images of the Alpha 5 electric vehicle, the brand’s attempt to bring back the DeLorean name under an electric label. With this huge news, we decided to name the DeLorean Alpha 5 the EV of the Week. Check it out in person at the Pebble Beach Concours d”Elegance on August 18th.
0-60mph- 2.9 seconds
Top Speed 155 mph
Range 300+ miles
Battery Capacity- 100+ kWh
AV Corner
Under new legislation, Gatik is now allowed to put medium-duty driverless delivery vehicles in Kansas for their customers, such as Walmart. The law allows for the operation of fully autonomous trucks to operate without the aid of a human driver. Gatik is just one example of who the bill benefits as it applies to autonomous vehicles under 34,000 pounds.
In other AV News
Bosch acquires autonomous company Five AI in a business venture that will take approximately two months to complete. By acquiring Five AI, Bosch hopes to upgrade its autonomous technology.
Hyundai is lowering the autonomous driving speed limit of its Genesis G90 sedan to 60 kilometers per hour to keep speed limits in line with international standards. The G90, equipped with Level 3 autonomous driving technology, is set to launch in late 2022.
States have been leading the way on autonomous legislation, totaling up to 40 states passing laws concerning AVs. The federal government’s AV Policy 4.0 is one of the few legislations the government has passed.
The Ministry of Interior and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) organized a workshop to introduce autonomous vehicles in Saudi Arabia.
Apollo Group is the first European company to offer insurance for zero-occupancy, on-road autonomous driving, in response to Oxbotica’s latest record-breaking journey.
UK’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles published research that states AVs are six times safer if trained using one-in-a-million “extreme” accident data.
It’s been a tough month. I cannot imagine what the families are going through in Uvalde, TX and Buffalo, NY. It’s impossible to comprehend such disregard for innocent lives. I hope the families find peace.
On a more personal level, we had to put our best friend Dallas down yesterday (pictured above). He was the most loyal friend we’ve ever had, and we are sad to see him go. We hope he is swimming in a lake somewhere.
Hug your family and dogs today.
-John
EV News
Mobile EV Charging is one of the newest solutions to charging deserts. Through an app, SparkCharge will offer a mobile charging service anywhere you want and has recently raised $23 million in investments for additional expansion. Around 60% of SparkCharge’s users have range delivered to their home, while 40% have range delivered to their place of work.SparkCharge has plans to expand to 20 cities in the next couple of months. Say goodbye to range anxiety.
In other EV News
Louisiana is looking to pass a bill to “promote rapid development of a statewide electric vehicle charging network.” By encouraging the Louisiana Public Service Commission to take action, the hope is to install more public charging infrastructure to keep up with the growing trend of EVs within the U.S.
Mahindra signed an agreement with Volkswagen to utilize MEB electric components for Mahindra’s Born Electric Platform.
BMW CEO, Oliver Zipse, has claimed their future electric vehicles will match their ICE car profits in the near future.
Stellantis, in a partnership with Samsung SDI, has chosen Kokomo, Indiana as the company’s next site for its electric vehicle battery factory. The factory will create 1,400 new jobs, cost approximately $2.5 billion to build, and have an initial capacity of 23 GWh, with a target of up to 33 GWh in the next few years.
Bank of America has teamed up with Electrify America to install more chargers at banking locations nationwide. 172 chargers have already been installed, with plans to grow to 350 chargers in 90 locations.
In other Stellantis news, CEO Carlos Tavares expects battery and raw material shortages by 2024-2028. We have heard similar concerns from other manufacturers, such as Rivian. Tavares believes that the significance of shortages will reduce availability and adoption.
Blackouts and overloading grids have engineers looking into alternative solutions to charge EVs and create electricity: gravity. Because electric motors generate electricity, EVs can use their own motors to recharge their batteries. Under ideal conditions and at the proper angle with a heavy load, EVs can generate more than enough power to make a return trip and in some cases, there is excess electricity that can be used elsewhere.
EV of the Week
Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motor Corp. have introduced two $14,000 EVs in Japan. The companies hope that a push like this will encourage wider EV adoption in the country. The vehicles will go on sale in Japan this summer. These “kei” cars are a popular source of transportation in Japan. Since we could only pick one, we decided the Nissan Sakura is the EV of the Week. John @ Mobility EVo
Fits four people
Battery capacity of 21 kWh
63 horsepower
144 lb.-feet of torque
Top Speed of 81 mph
Range of 112 miles
AV Corner
Amazon’s autonomous vehicle Zoox, is a 4-passenger vehicle with bench seats that face each other like in a train car and large automatic doors. The vehicle is completely symmetrical from front to back allowing it to go in forward or reverse without ever turning around. This also means it is built using fewer unique parts. Before launching on public roads, Zoox believes they will receive a 5-star crash rating, made possible by a custom horseshoe-shaped airbag that will deploy in an accident and wrap up each bench seat.
In other AV News
Elon Musk is confident – Tesla will not need human drivers in its self-driving cars around this time next year.
South Korea’s defense technology development agency has invented an artificial intelligence-based autonomous driving technology for off-road and rough terrain. This new innovation will be used within South Korea’s military to enhance weaponry systems.
Locomation’s new autonomous hardware was on display for two public events this week. The company’s owners expect the hardware to be commercially launched on trucks by 2023.
With a goal to bring autonomous vehicles to India, start-up company Minus Zero has raised $1.7 million for its next round of development.
Gatik’s next target: Walmart in Kansas. The self-driving startup has signed a deal with Walmart to deploy its autonomous technology within Walmart’s delivery trucks.
FedEx is employing more testing for its Aurora self-driving delivery vehicles by adding a commercial lane for its test routes in Texas.
Oklahoma passed a new law allowing fully autonomous vehicles on public roads.
Autonomous company Oxobotica has completed Europe’s first public autonomous vehicle journey with no human beings in the car. The program began in April 2021.
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