Reviews and Articles relating to Electric Cars
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I have been driving the latest Tesla Model S P85D over the past few days, specifically to experience software update 7.1 and the improvements to Autopilot functionality.
We discussed the technology behind Tesla Autopilot and also the future of autonomous and driverless cars.
You can listen to a recording of the stream and find out what we thought.
Following on from the Tesla Model S P85D Auto Park manoeuvre from Yesterday, I was as a rapid charger today and took the opportunity to make a short video explaining the functions of the centre console. Enjoy…
I thought I would post a short video showing the Tesla Model S P85D performing an Auto Park manoeuvre. This will hopefully form a series of posts and videos detailing the new updates to the car which include ‘Autopilot’ which is basically an advanced cruise control system. In the meantime, enjoy…
We’re going to be reviewing the Auto Pilot functionality of the Tesla Model S at the end of January 2016 and I’m not completely certain the UK model will have this functionality, but it looks as though the promised upgrade to allow for ‘Summon’ mode has been released in the wild.
According to a number of websites, Summon Mode allows for driverless parking in a recognised parking space or garage and summoning of a vehicle from 39 feet away along with integration with automatic garage doors. I seems that you can now park your car in spaces you reduced access and summon your car from it’s garage.
The video’s below illustrate both parking and summoning of the Model S from a garage. Below that is the video of the ‘Snake’ charger that we hope will be released soon.
I have the P85D for a few days to review at the end of January, so I’ll report back on both Autopilot and the release times for ‘Summon Mode’ in the UK
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Its my last broadcast of the year and I so talk about my top 5 gadgets of the year. Listen to the stream to hear what I thought of the following :-
These are all products I’ve reviewed in the past, so you can click on each of them to take you to it’s relevant feature.
There has been a slew of announcements from Volkswagen Group today, but the the real news for us is the announcement of the Porsche Mission E electric sports sedan!
Back in April, I spoke to notable people at Porsche (notably Mark Webber) at the WEC at Silverstone about the potential of Porsche launching a fully electric sports car, at the time everyone was understandably tightlipped even going so far as to say that they couldn’t see it happening. Well, it has happened, in the form of the four seater Porsche Mission E.
Obviously there is a direct comparison to the Tesla Model S P90D with it’s Ludicrous Mode and super fast charging and it seems that Porsche have specifically targetted these areas with Mission E.
The Mission E has all wheel drive dual electric motor drive producing 600HP accelerating the car from 0-60mph in less than 3.5 seconds. The technology for this vehicle has been inherited from the awesome Le Mans class Porsche 919 LMP1 giving exceptional energy recuperation.
Charging the vehicle can be just as rapid as Porsche have chosen an 800 volt ‘Porsche Turbo Charging System’ which can replenish the battery to 80% in just 15 minutes! The car also supports 400 volt home charging and even inductive charging meaning parking over an inductive charging plate will begin replenishing the cars power plant. Fully charged, the Mission E gives up to 310 miles range, which is again in Model S territory.
The interior is future-proofed by the inclusion of 3d eye tracking displays and holographic controls with race bucket seats for all four passengers.
This is a massive announcement from the world’s most popular sports car manufacturer and we can now look forward to the eventual production model and the technology finding its’ way down the VW Group food chain to the other brands in the group.
I love the fact that Porsche are so incredibly active in the EV and Hybrid market. It’s a very exciting time for car manufacturers at the moment. As I’ve said before, we are seeing a gold rush in the electric vehicle market, driving it forward faster than ever and this can only benefit ‘us’, the drivers in fuel efficiency, performance and most importantly – safety.
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This week we stay with hybrid cars, but this time we look at the Audi A3 etron. First things first, this car looks spectacular! I have never seen such a bright red in my entire life and the big alloy wheels enhance the look even more. It’s certainly a head turner.
The A3 etron comes with a 1.4 litre turbo charged engine outputting 150 bhp, however yet again it sits alongside an electric motor which when combined in ‘Sports Mode’ increases the performance to just of 200 bhp and will get you to 60 is 7.6 seconds. When you are feeling less ‘eager’ to get around town, you can elect for pure electric which is the default mode at start up or 3 forms of hybrid mode, normal, battery save and battery charge.
The battery can be charged from a very cleverly hidden port on the front grill and on electric alone will take you around 30 miles per charge. You aren’t going to want to be taking long journeys on electric alone as the car is designed for hybrid use, it’s probably better to let it decide which forms of power it uses as it will drop to electric in slow traffic and moderate speed.
If you are feeling excitable, then pulling the gear stick backwards enables Sports Mode, the gear information changes from D1,D2,D3 etc on the dashboard to S1,S2,S3 to indicate sports use. Be very careful in this mode at it transforms the car to very high performance. The car is however very good at governing acceleration I I didn’t notice any wheel spin in sport mode, although we did notice some in pure electric (this is possibly down to the higher torque of the electric motor).
A full review of the A3 etron will be coming soon, in the meantime grab a listen to the attached audio from Mondays show.
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This week we move back to hybrid cars with the Volvo V60 D6 Twin Engine Plug in Hybrid vehicle. The D6 is unique as it is a Diesel – Electric Hybrid rather than the standard Petrol Electric that we are used to.
This is a very powerful snappy car, at full ‘Power’ mode it is outputting a combined 280bhp and you certainly feel it. Along with beautiful ride, upholstery and fuel efficiency, I can see this being very popular in the company car sector.
We will be reviewing it in greater detail soon online, but in the meantime, listen in the the stream from Monday 13th July.
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This morning, I chatted to Mark about the new breed of cars currently hitting the markplace around the world, namely PHEV’s or Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. I’ve already reviewed the e-Golf a few months ago, however the GTE takes the electric technology from the e-Golf and combines it with the performance on the Golf GTi. It’s quite a vehicle to drive.
From a distance you might be fooled by the Volkswagen Golf GTE, it shares its DNA with the legendary Golf GTI, but can also be driven in zero emission mode like the all electric e-Golf. It’s design and equipment has been adapted directly from the Golf GTI with the red hints altered to ‘eco friendly’ blue. The front grill mounted VW badge doubles at the access cover for the charge port.
The engine or ‘engines’ are supplied as a 1.4 litre 150hp turbo charged fuel injected petrol engine and a 102hp electric motor providing a combined power output of 204hp in GTE mode. Essentially you have two independent drive systems that provide almost silent operation and zero emission with speeds up to 86mph in electric mode, morphing to a 146 mpg fuel sipping hatchback in hybrid mode to the insane 0-60 in 7.6 seconds hot hatch with maximum speed limited to 137mph.
When you switch into GTE mode, there is a noticeable change in engine sound which at first caught me off guard and speculating how it was achieved? After a little light reading, I discovered that VW are employing a ‘method’ similar to the BMW i8 supercar. Electronic engine sounds is played into the cockpit of the car via integrated sound system, fooling the senses that you are driving a big V8. It really does fool you, as coupled with the sudden full boost unleashed via the turbo charger, you are catapulted from a completely silent standstill to a roaring power house in an instant.
This is one of the new range of ‘Plug-in Hybrids’ which are current coming to market. There is a very good reason for plug-in hybrids though. Originally hybrids were designed to be charged by the main internal combustion engine and regenerative braking systems and was only really used to bring the car up speeds above town use. With the advent of Plug-in Hybrids, the on board battery is now larger and able to power the car for reasonable distances before requiring recharge. In the Golf GTE’s case, the battery will allow for about 30 miles before recharge. You might think this isn’t much, but the average car journey to place of work in the UK is 9.9 miles, so on average you could drive to work and home without using the petrol engine at all. I tried this and the car was reporting 300 miles per gallon! It certainly gives you a good idea of how much cheaper an electric car is to run. In ‘optimal’ driving conditions, VW reckon you should get 146 miles per gallon! Charging the car takes 2 and half hours via a normal 220v electrical supply.
If you are considering a hybrid, you couldn’t go far wrong with the Golf GTE. It combines ‘hot hatch’ performance with zero emission short distance driving. The price is in line with the Golf GTI, so you would be looking at paying around £33,000.
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Imagine going from 0-60 in 3.2 seconds, powered by a dual motor 690BHP electric car? Now imagine doing that on one of the wettest days of the month?
Well that’s just what happened on Thursday this week!
We were able to spend a very wet hour with the car, but you wouldn’t have noticed. The all wheel drive and very advanced traction control kept the car stuck firmly to the ground.
We also had a tour of the workshops and saw for ourselves what amazing technology is behind the Model S
After our Insane test drive, I spoke to Laura Hardy from Tesla Motors about the P85D and the future for Tesla. Listen to the stream above to find out more!!
