Wait a minute Doc!
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.
About the Author: Parker Penn
