Mark Reuss, Denise Gray.
“I think the platform that we’ve got here is really the platform of the future for us.”
GM product chief Mark Reuss echoes what GM CEO Mary Barra said last week: The Bolt will serve as a platform for more electric vehicles.
gmauthority.com
“It’s a target. It’s aggressive. We don’t have a roadmap that’s going to get us there tomorrow. But everybody is working toward it.”
LG Chem CEO Denise Gray says that she “can’t agree or disagree” with GM’s prediction that the price per kWh will fall to around 145 dollars this year, but says her company is working hard to reach the 100 dollar/kWh target – maybe not this year, but soon.
designnews.com
Cheaper upgrade: The over-the-air upgrade of a Tesla Model S 60 to Model S 75 just got 2,000 dollars cheaper. Some drivers reported being offered the upgrade for now 7,000 instead of 9,000 dollars, though it remains unclear whether the price will be the same for all. Just a few months ago, Tesla upped the price of its base version by 2,000 dollars, presumably to make the upgrade more attractive.
“Look to China rather than the U.S. for the future of electric cars. China is compelled to act – that’s the main difference.”
“The single largest drawback to electrification to us as OEMs is that we’re no longer in control of the components side; all batteries will be made by others.”
“A full-electric RS car, yes, it’s coherent with the strategy of Renault and the evolution of the market and we’re looking at the improvements of the batteries now, but it’s still not enough yet.”
Renault Master electrification: The French are not only showing their new Kangoo Z.E. with 270 km range at the Brussels Motor Show, but also premiered the electric version of its transporter van Master. The latter will arrive at European dealers towards the end of the year and will be fitted with a 33-kWh battery pack that allows for a range of 200 km according to NEDC, even though 120 km are a more realistic estimate.
“Increasing capacity at existing Supercharger locations now has top priority. Some are overflowing while a nearby one is empty.”
“Before we had the concern about the degradation of the battery — that’s why we had to limit the amount of energy we could pull out of the vehicle. But year by year this durability is being improved.”
“Quite frankly, if we compare ourselves today with Samsung and LG they are light years ahead of us.”
Bentley adds e-power: The British luxury brand wants to offer a hybrid variant of every one of its future models, Automotive News reports, quoting Bentley CEO Wolfgang Duerheimer. The first one on the list will be the Bentayga, scheduled for 2018, followed by the next generation Continental GT.
“We are at the leading edge in this technology, but at the same time, in the last five, six, seven years, battery electric vehicles have developed much faster and further than we expected, and the advantages of fuel-cell vehicles as far as range is concerned, as far as filling time is concerned, has become much smaller.”
“I believe the trend toward clean energy is irreversible.”
“Over the last couple of years, German manufacturers and others have been investing very heavily in electric mobility. They are still a bit slower than Tesla but I wouldn’t underestimate their progress.”
Hybrid anniversary gift: The Mercedes-AMG hyper car that will hit the road for the companies 50th anniversary, will be called Project One. It will be presented at this year’s IAA. Mercedes-AMG meanwhile released a new teaser and confirmed that the vehicle will be fitted with the hybrid drivetrain from the current Formula One racer.
“We will, I call it, begin ‘EQ-ing’ our cars. We will also see electric cars from Mercedes-AMG and Mercedes-Maybach, so that’s what we are thinking.”
“Premium high-performance cars will probably be attractive in the future, but we have a feeling they will not be based on gasoline combustion engine.”
“We already see the stop/start feature coming to M vehicles and the next step is electrification. At the end it will also be pure electric, but it’s going to take some time.”