By the end of this year, there will be several luxury SUV models offered in the U.S. with plug-in hybrid powertrains that let them run 12 to 20 miles on electricity alone.
We’ve now driven one of them, the 2016 Volvo XC90 T8 “Twin Engine” model, which will go on sale this fall.
And based on our impressions of a pre-production prototype driven 96 miles through the Spanish countryside southwest of Barcelona, we think buyers will be pleased.
The plug-in XC90’s most immediate competitors will be plug-in hybrid versions of the BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE (nee ML) luxury crossover utility vehicles.
The big Volvo plug-in has one advantage over its near-term electrified competitors, though: It’s the only vehicle that was designed from scratch with a plug-in hybrid powertrain envisioned.
That allowed Volvo to put the battery pack not under the load bay, as the BMW and Mercedes do, but in the tunnel between the front passenger seats–meaning cargo capacity remains exactly the same as in the gasoline-only version.
That also makes it the world’s sole seven-seat plug-in hybrid SUV; the German models and also the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid all have only two rows and five seats apiece.
The lithium-ion battery pack itself has a capacity specified at 9.2 kilowatt-hours, of which 6.5 kWh is used to power the vehicle. Volvo quotes a range of 40 km (25 miles), but that’s on the European NEDC cycle. We estimate that the comparable EPA number is likely to be between 18 and 21 miles.
The complete powertrain of the XC90 T8 comprises Volvo’s 316-horsepower 2.0-liter supercharged and turbocharged four-cylinder engine powering the front wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission, with a 60-kilowatt (80-hp) electric motor driving the rear wheels.
There’s also a 34-kW (46-hp) starter-generator motor between the engine and transmission, which recharges the battery during regenerative braking or engine overrun, and can also provide additional torque to the transmission when maximum power is required.
The battery and both electric motors are liquid-cooled, and the battery coolant can also be refrigerated if additional heat must be shed.
Volvo quotes a combined power output of “about 400 horsepower,” but a precise torque figure of 472 lb-ft (compared to the 295 lb-ft produced by the non-hybrid version).
The onboard charger operates at 3.5 kilowatts and will have a North American standard J-1772 socket, though maximum amperage for the charger was quoted at 16 amps–a figure we’re double-checking with Volvo.
The company quotes a recharging time of 2.5 hours at 240 volts and 16 amps.
Elon Musk’s electricity empire could mean a new type of power grid
Earlier this week, during a disappointing Tesla earnings call, Elon Musk mentioned in passing that he’d be producing a stationary battery for powering the home in the next few months. It sounded like a throwaway side project from someone who’s never seen a side project he doesn’t like. But it’s a very smart move, and one that’s more central to Musk’s ambitions than it might seem.
To understand why, it helps to look not at Tesla, but at SolarCity, a company chaired by Musk and run by his cousin Lyndon Rive. SolarCity installs panels on people’s roofs, leases them for less than they’d be paying in energy bills, and sells surplus energy back to the local utility. It’s proven a tremendously successful model. Founded in 2006, the company now has 168,000 customers and controls 39 percent of the rapidly expanding residential solar market.
Fueled by financing systems like SolarCity’s, government subsidies, and a rapid drop in the price of photovoltaics, solar has been growing fast. But with that growth, some of solar’s downsides are coming to the fore. Obviously, the sun isn’t always shining when you need power, and sometimes the sun is shining when you don’t need power. The former is a problem for the user, who needs to draw on the grid when it’s cloudy or dark; the latter is a problem for the grid, which needs to find a place for that excess energy to go. When there’s a lot of solar in the system, it can get hard to keep the grid balanced.
That’s part of the reason that California, with one of the most aggressive renewable energy mandates in the country, recently declared the most aggressive energy storage mandate as well, with a goal of 1.3 gigawatts of storage by 2020. As other states adopt intermittent renewables like solar and wind, they’ll need to install energy storage too, providing a ready and waiting market for Tesla’s batteries.
Tesla Powerwall display (Image: T. Larkum)
This has been part of the plan for the Gigafactory all along. At an event in New York last fall announcing plans for SolarCity to build a gigantic PV-panel factory, Musk and Rive mentioned that every SolarCity unit would come with battery storage within five to ten years, and that the systems would supply power at a lower cost than natural gas. Those batteries will come from the gigafactory, currently being built in Nevada. Once the factory comes online, the strong demand for energy storage will allow it to immediately ramp up production and achieve economies of scale. Tesla CTO JB Straubel (who has said that he “might love batteries more than cars”) says that the market for stationary batteries “can scale faster than automotive” and that a full 30 percent of the gigafactory will be dedicated to them.
Indeed, SolarCity has already begun installing Tesla batteries, mostly on commercial buildings like Walmart stores, which have to pay higher rates when they use lots of power during peak hours. Tesla’s batteries let them store up solar power when they don’t need it, then use it when rates are high, shaving 20-30 percent off their energy bills, according to Ravi Manghani, an analyst at GTM Research.
SolarCity is also running a pilot project with 500 homes in California, according to the company’s director of public affairs, Will Craven. The project uses Tesla’s 10-kilowatt-hour battery packs and can power homes for about two days in the event of an outage, Craven says.
The prospect of cheap solar panels combined with powerful batteries has been a source of significant anxiety in the utility sector. In 2013, the Edison Electric Institute, the trade group for investor-owned electric companies, issued a report warning that disruption was coming. “One can imagine a day when battery storage technology or micro turbines could allow customers to be electric grid independent,” the report said, likening the speed of the coming transition to the one from landlines to cellphones 10 years ago. Suddenly regulated monopolies are finding themselves in competition with their own customers.
They haven’t had to deal with this on the residential side yet, primarily because people can sell excess power back to the utilities at fairly high rates — a practice called net metering. But that’s hurting utilities, too, and some have tried to lower the price at which they buy back power, which has been met by furious protests from people leasing panels. If utilities lower the buyback rate too much, however, and batteries get cheap enough, people may just unplug from the grid altogether — or more likely, install systems that let them rely on it only rarely — prompting what those in the industry call “the utility death spiral.” It’s quite a bind: by fighting net metering, utilities would help make battery storage more economically viable, driving the transition to a distributed grid.
Manghani believes utilities aren’t doomed, but they may undergo a radical transformation, becoming something closer to service providers and minders of an increasingly distributed grid rather than the centralized power producers they are today. Such a system would require lots of batteries to help balance the load and supply extra power during peak times, which is why GTM estimates the market will grow from $48 million today to about $1 billion in 2018.
This is the position SolarCity is taking as well. Last April, Peter Rive, SolarCity’s CTO, wrote that the company had no interest in prompting mass defections from the grid.
“When batteries are optimized across the grid, they can direct clean solar electricity where (and when) it is needed most, lowering costs for utilities and for all ratepayers,” he wrote.
Utilities are in the best position to direct that electricity, he said, inviting utility operators to contact him. Will Craven, Solar City’s director of public affairs, calls it “infrastructure as a service.”
“Utilities aren’t doomed, but they may undergo a radical transformation”
It would be a tricky transition, but some utilities may be open to it. During an earnings call last year, Straubel, Tesla’s CTO, said they were working with utilities.
“The long-term demand for stationary energy storage is extraordinary,” he said. “We’ve done a huge amount of effort there and have talked to major utilities and energy service companies.”
Another potential bright spot for utilities is Tesla itself. If electric vehicles take off, demand for power will go up, helping compensate for people whose homes are relying less on the grid.
All this is very good news for Musk, who starts to look less like a carmaker and more like the architect of a vertically integrated energy company, with SolarCity making solar panels that send power to Tesla batteries, both in the home and on the road.
“They’re not just carmakers,” Manghani says. “They’re part of the electricity network. At least folks in the energy industry are very well aware of Tesla as a battery maker.”
The UK’s political leaders have pledged to work together to combat climate change, whatever the election result.
In a joint statement, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg said climate change was one of the most serious threats facing the world.
They said climate change threatens not just the environment but also security, prosperity and poverty eradication.
They have promised to end coal burning for power generation in the UK – unless it uses new clean-up technology.
Environmentalists say the pledge is significant because it quells some of their fears that the Conservatives might adopt a more climate-sceptic line, to mirror UKIP’s position.
‘Moment of unity’
The move will be noticed by the UK’s European partners working towards a global agreement on climate change at the UN conference in Paris in December. Some of them had been nervous that the UK might soften its leadership position in the talks, given the level of climate scepticism expressed by some newspapers and Conservative backbenchers.
The statement will also please investors who have been deterred from sinking money into renewable energy systems because they feared a withdrawal from climate policies.
It has been brokered by Matthew Spencer of the think tank Green Alliance, who told BBC News:
“The purpose is to create space for the current and future PM to ensure that the UK can play a full role in securing a good outcome in Paris.
He added that another aim was “to reassure investors that agreement remains strong across current leaders on emissions reduction, and that we’re unlikely to see a major change in direction whichever party forms the next government”.
“It’s very unusual to get a moment of unity in the midst of a general election, and it is generating lots of excitement. A non-partisan approach is the holy grail in the US. It is in our national interest to act and to ensure that others act with us.”
Severe Flooding, Against a Background of Wind Turbines: November 2012, Tyringham, Bucks. (Image: T. Larkum)
The leaders have gone so far as to promise to ban “unabated” coal-fired power generation – meaning that, if it is to continue, the emissions will need to be captured and stored in rock formations. This decision has been long debated and will send a strong signal of intent to the power industry.
The leaders state:
“Acting on climate change is an opportunity for the UK to grow a stronger economy more efficient, and more resilient to risks ahead.”
They pledge:
to seek a fair, strong, legally binding, global climate deal which limits temperature rises to below 2C
to work together, across party lines, to agree carbon budgets in accordance with the Climate Change Act
to accelerate the transition to a competitive, energy efficient low carbon economy and to end the use of unabated coal for power generation
Critics fear that combating climate change will make energy unaffordable. UKIP says climate change fears are inflated and the party’s UKIP’s energy spokesman recently said his party wanted to repeal the Climate Change Act, which commits the UK to step-by-step reductions in CO2 until 2050. He said the relationship between CO2 levels and global temperatures is “hugely open to question”.
Labour leader Ed Miliband recently restated that tackling climate change “goes to the heart of” his beliefs. A Liberal Democrat source said tackling climate change was in the party’s DNA.
The Green Party says the UK should be making much more urgent progress towards getting the country powered by renewables.
Greenpeace welcomed the new statement. Its director John Sauven said:
“This pledge marks a turning point in the collective effort to take Britain’s energy system out of the Victorian age and into the 21st century. Party leaders now need to set a clear expiry date on coal pollution, stop subsidies to coal plants, and start investing in the clean energy infrastructure this country really needs.”
Industry leaders will need reassuring about how this can be done without pushing up energy prices and making the UK uncompetitive.
Renault welcomes decision to introduce banding to Plug-in Car Grant
Renault ZOE now up to £552 cheaper from 1 April 2015
Renault EV sales in the UK rose 90 per cent in 2014
Renault welcomes the changes to the Plug-in Car Grant announced today by the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
The Plug-in Car Grant (PiCG) changes that will take effect from 1 April 2015 recognise the technological and environmental progress that vehicles have made since the original grant was announced in 2010 and provide further financial incentive for motorists to move to Ultra Low Emissions Vehicles such as the Renault Z.E. (Zero Emissions) range.
Commenting on the announcement, Ken Ramirez, Managing Director, Renault UK said:
“We welcome the changes announced today by OLEV as the move to a banding system for grant funding recognises the real-world practicality and zero tailpipe emission advantages that electric vehicles have over other types of alternative fuel vehicles.
“The Renault ZOE hatchback was already the most affordable electric vehicle on the market. The move to the 35 per cent funding for cars in the lowest emitting band will make ZOE even more affordable and encourage yet more motorists to move to zero tailpipe emission vehicles.”
The changes to the PiCG from 1 April 2015 mean that a Renault ZOE will reduce in price by £552 on the Expression trim level and by £152 on the Dynamique trim levels due to the move from a 25 per cent of vehicle value cap on the grant to a 35 per cent cap for vehicles in the new Band One (up to 75g/km and a range of 70 miles or above).
The Renault ZOE is a 5-door hatchback that has been designed from the ground-up to offer all the advantages of a practical supermini, including a 5-star Euro NCAP safety rating, with the environmental and running cost savings of a pure electric vehicle.
ZOE has an official NEDC range of 130 miles from one charge. Thanks to its patented Chameleon™ charger, and unlike its rivals, it is able to adapt itself and make the optimum use of any charging power source and therefore charge from empty to 80 per cent capacity in just 30 minutes – be that at home with the free charging wallbox that comes with the car when new or from a wide range of public sources.
Renault was a pioneer in the emerging electric vehicle market and offers a range of 100% electric cars and vans to suit most requirements. The ZOE supermini sits alongside the fun and distinctive Twizy urban run-around. Twizy is also available in a commercial vehicle version with a boot instead of a rear passenger seat – Twizy Cargo. Completing the Renault Z.E line-up is the Kangoo Van Z.E. – the perfect urban van for deliveries and tradesmen and is available in a range of bodystyles.
The Twizy is priced from £6,895, the ZOE from £13,995 (after the PiCG) and the Kangoo Van Z.E. from £12,995+VAT (after the Plug-in Van Grant).
Renault electric vehicle sales in the United Kingdom rose by 90 per cent in 2014, to 1,286 vehicles. Total Renault electric vehicle sales in Europe in 2014 stood at 17,580 vehicles – 11,231 of which were ZOEs, an amount up 27 per cent on 2013.
After a night charging up in the garage, the 2015 Volkswagen e-Golf’s display showed 108 miles of range when I pushed the start button. After slogging through San Francisco traffic then running down a rain-soaked freeway at 60 mph, covering 12 miles, the range figure was down to 82 miles, suggesting my real-world range from the garage had been 94 miles.
Still, it was considerably better than the EPA range of 83 miles for the e-Golf and illustrated the vagaries of electric car range estimates.
The e-Golf is Volkswagen’s entry into the electric car game, and incidentally broadens the Golf range beyond its gasoline and diesel offerings. As with other electric cars on the market, it could be considered a “compliance car,” necessary to meet zero emission vehicle (ZEV) sales requirements in seven US states that have adopted the ZEV mandate. Despite its limited range, however, I found nothing in the e-Golf to suggest it’s anything less than a fully realized car.
e-Golf is an attractive new electric from VW (Image: CNet)
Some of the e-Golf’s quality driving feel comes down to the base Golf model. Getting a major update for the 2015 model year, the new Golf is built on Volkswagen’s MQB platform, a modular chassis designed to handle a variety of drivetrains. The Golf GTI hot hatch and Golf TDI diesel share that platform and the basic Golf hatchback body with the e-Golf.
For the e-Golf, Volkswagen leaves out engine, transmission and fuel tank, replacing them with an 85-kilowatt motor driving the front wheels with a single reduction gear and a 24.2 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Impressively, this electric driveline gear does not impact the cabin space at all, nor does it unbalance the car. Instead, it gives the e-Golf 83 miles of zero emission driving, according to its EPA rating. The EPA rating of 116 mpg equivalent makes the e-Golf the most efficient compact electric car on the market.
As with electric cars from other manufacturers, Volkswagen offers just one well-stocked trim level. For the US, that means the navigation-equipped SEL Premium, at a price of $36,265 with destination fee. Volkswagen also offers the e-Golf in the UK, again with navigation, for a price of £30,845. UK buyers can shave off £5,000 with a government electric vehicle grant, and US buyers can figure in the government’s $7,500 tax credit.
“We opened our largest Supercharger Station in Europe in Køge, just south of Copenhagen, Denmark. It has 12 Superchargers and is the first one in Europe with a solar canopy.”
States Tesla Motors.
Tesla’s Largest Supercharger In Europe…And Check Out That Solar Canopy
This site brings Tesla’s Supercharger tally in Europe too…well…we’re too busy to count and when Tesla redesigned its Supercharger site that continent-by-continent tally disappeared. See for yourself here.
Figures recently released show that the Nissan LEAF maintains its position as the most popular electric car or van in the UK, with at least 5,838 vehicles registered by the third quarter of 2014, representing over a third of all EV sales.
The registration data also shows the new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has made a dramatic entry to the UK market; the electric SUV is already in second position with over 2,706 sales less than a year after its UK release.
In third and fourth places are two more established plug-in hybrids, the Toyota Prius PHEV (with 1,226 registrations) and the Vauxhall Ampera (1,039 vehicles). The BMW i3 now ranks fifth with at least 1,029 UK registrations (454 all-electric and 575 range-extender variants).
The Renault ZOE and Tesla Model S are also selling well in the UK with over 775 and 474 sales respectively; the two models in fourth and fifth sales positions across Europe as a whole (YTD October 2014).
UK electric vehicle registrations UK (Image: Next Green Car)
With the recent announcement from OLEV that 23,083 claims have been made through the Plug-in Car Grant scheme, the number of electric cars and vans in the UK now exceeds 24,500 vehicles for the first time.
Another indicator that the EV market is gaining momentum is the number of fully electric and plug-in hybrid models available in the UK. While only 9 EVs were available for the major manufacturers in 2011 (excluding quadricycles), this increased to 18 models in 2013, and now stands at 24 high-quality cars and vans (in 2014) with more models due for launch in 2015.
Dr Ben Lane, Director of Next Green Car said:
“The strong growth of the EV market in the UK as elsewhere provides yet more evidence that the light-duty vehicle market is undergoing a radical change with consumer preferences changing from petrol and diesel models to electric power-trains. With sales growing exponentially, the EVs are set to become commonplace on UK roads within the next few years.”
Until now, the only way you could get the words “electric” and “Golf” so close together was the put the word “cart” after them. Knowing that the e-Golf would be the next step in Volkswagen’s tilt at electrification, the automaker designed the MkVII platform to fit a myriad of drivetrains, none of which would require purchasers to sacrifice the Golf-ness that makes the best-selling car in Europe, not to mention a huge hit here in the States. In the e-Golf that means power electronics underhood and an amoeba-shaped battery that fits in the floorpan, between the axles, where it won’t ooze into the interior space.
We look at the e-Golf as another kind of crossover: traditional cars that just happen to be electric, offering a taste of the new EV religion in soothing, recognizable garb. We had one for a week in its natural habitat, Los Angeles and the surrounding area. We really like the fact that, powertrain aside, it maintains everything we dig about the Golf. The caveat is that this is an EV first and a Golf second – you must first address the EV challenges and live within EV constraints, then you can enjoy the Golf bits. Even so, it’s the electric car this writer would buy once we acquired the lifestyle to make proper use of it.
Volkswagen e-Golf (Image: J. Ramsey/Autoblog)
The most noticeable exterior change to the e-Golf are 16-inch Astana wheels wrapped in 205-series tires that reduce rolling resistance by ten percent. Once you’ve cottoned on to that, the other alterations become apparent: the blue trim strip underlining the radiator grille, the redesigned bumper with the C-shaped decoration LED lights and the full-LED headlamps above them, the little blue “e” in the model name on the rear hatch. You won’t notice the underbody paneling, that the frontal area of the e-Golf is ten percent smaller than that of a traditional Golf, that the radiator is closed off, or the reshaped rear spoiler and vanes on the C-pillars. Volkswagen says this results in a ten-percent drop in drag, getting the coefficient down to 0.281, but the standard Golf is also listed at 0.28. The TSI and TDI are 0.29. No matter those numbers, the point is the e-Golf looks just like… a Golf.
The 12,000-rpm, 85-kW electric motor equates to 115 horsepower and 199 pound-feet of torque, which compares to 146 hp and 236 lb-ft from the 2.0-liter diesel Golf. It takes 4.2 seconds to get to 37 miles per hour, 10.4 seconds to hit 62 mph, and the little guy tops out at 87 mph. That sounds like slacker acceleration, but it never feels that way – you can pull away from a light with the rest of traffic, and any time you need a squirt, 199 lb-ft of instant torque is there to woosh you forward.
Here is another short video review of the Kia Soul EV.
This time it comes from The New York Times and is a quite interesting presentation that maybe will be useful for those who are considering purchasing Kia’s electric car.
“Soul EV packs on an average of 500 pounds, making it one hefty hamster. In corners this mass is felt — generally in a good way — because of a lowered center of gravity. Acceleration is punchy and satisfying in city skirmishes, though over all, Soul EV is not particularly fast. Going from 0 to 60 hovers in the 11-second range. Don’t race a Prius. You will lose.”
After a few difficult years, Renault is finally moving upwards with electric car sales. Year 2014, with just over 18,000 EVs (almost 15,700 cars) sold, is still 3% down compared to 2013 (or 0% if we exclude Twizy), although the last couple of months of 2014 were really strong.
December ended with new record of over 3,300 sales (over 3,100 without Twizy) and it’s the very first time when Renault exceeded the mark of 3,000.
Growth year over year in November almost hit 50%, while in December it reached 57% for cars.
Renault Electric Car Sales (Image: InsideEVs)
All the good numbers comes from one car – the ZOE, because the three other models have seen sales going down. Fluence Z.E. almost doesn’t count (out of production), Kangoo Z.E. is struggling to sell at its pace from 2012 & 2013 (28% down year over year), while Twizy again weakened by 20% to 2,450.
ZOE shines at over 11,000 and this makes it the second best selling all-electric car in Europe, just behind the Nissan LEAF.
More than half (probably ~53%) of Renault ZOE sales occurred in France. Total number of ZOEs on the roads is now over 20,000.
We believe that Renault sold over 40,000 electric cars and additionally over 14,500 Twizys for a total ~ 55,000 EVs globally to date.
