Author: EVAI

Driving on the tight mountain roads on the Spanish island of Tenerife, the 2024 Mercedes-Benz AMG CLE 53 coupe chomps at the bit. Too big to feel comfortable on skinny roads with short run-off areas that vary between steep drop-offs and close-set barriers, the coupe could take flight in the worst ways. Yet it’s too powerful to putter behind…

Ramps and tonneau covers are common pickup truck accessories. A recently surfaced Toyota patent application combines them. Published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) April 16, 2024, and originally filed by Toyota in 2022, the application details loading ramps that could be stowed on the underside of a tonneau…

The sales manager of a Porsche dealership in South Carolina commanded hundreds of thousands of dollars in “under-the-table” payments from customers hungry for high-demand vehicles.

The Emily GT, an electric sedan prototype created by former Saab engineers in Sweden with Chinese funding, may see production in Italy under the auspices of a Canadian startup, reports Autocar.

The startup in question is called EV Electra, and it has just had an offer to buy an Italian factory approved, CEO Jihad Mohammad said in a LinkedIn post. EV Electra had previously discussed plans to build cars in Turkey, as well as the former Saab factory in Trollhättan, Sweden, but the startup failed to agree on a deal with the factory’s current owner, according to Autocar. Saab’s former development center, meanwhile, is now being used for work on the Polestar 5.

NEVS Emily GT prototype – Photo credit: Plint/Protean

EV Electra has shown renderings of other body styles beyond the initial sedan, including a wagon, coupe, and convertible. It’s also shown a sports car called the Rise and a luxury sedan called the Capital ES. In separate LinkedIn post, Mohammad said the startup is already moving on to choosing dealers, and expects to begin delivering at least one of these proposed models in August 2024.

The Emily GT originated under NEVS, which bought the remains of Saab—including its future product development—after the Swedish automaker went bankrupt in 2011. NEVS planned four EVs for China based on the Phoenix platform that was going to underpin the next-generation Saab 9-3, plus an electric version of the old 9-3 and 9-3X using that model’s General Motors legacy platform. A version of the latter was publicly shown in 2017.

NEVS Emily GT prototype – Photo credit: Plint/Protean

Similar in size to the Tesla Model S or Lucid Air, the Emily GT was created with those Saab roots as a demonstrator for Protean in-wheel motors, rather than a production model. China’s Dongfeng Fengshen E70 recently became the world’s first passenger vehicle to use them. Protean just this past week also showed a Land Rover Defender EV conversion taking advantage of the tech as part of weight-saving measures.

Development reportedly started in 2019, with the first prototypes reportedly being completed in 10 months. However, the Emily GT wasn’t revealed to the public until 2023. EV Electra bought the rights to the project, development of which had reportedly halted in 2021, that same year.

Nearly every domestic and international brand attended the showcase event of the Chinese auto industry. Here are the hits (and a few misses) from the show, which featured more than 100 premieres.

EVs and charging stations have aspired to provide EV drivers with something that rivals the turnaround time of gas stations.

While charge rates are important, reliability and simply being able to get a charge, ultimately, are perhaps more important points that some charging networks seem to have glossed over in the process.

According to a 2023 study, roughly 20% of EV public charging attempts fail. On the other hand, if there’s an issue at a gas pump that appears operational, it might run a little slower, but it typically won’t shut down completely, rendered inoperable. 

A group of U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) researchers have kept that idea in mind with a project. They seek to get EV charging closer to that gas-station experience—by aiming to add resilience around two typical issues at high-power charging stations. And it appears building a little more flexibility into the station layout and controls might be all it takes.

Electrify America station with 2 of 4 chargers inoperable – April 2024

Experts: EV charger shutdowns often unwarranted

As ORNL pointed out in an update on the efforts earlier this month, either of the two issues focused on by its team of researchers—sudden voltage drops to the station, or power fluctuations within chargers—can be remedied in a way that doesn’t shut out chargers until a maintenance visit or remote restart.

The solution to one of them, a sudden voltage drop, is as easy as a “ride through” algorithm that restores power seconds later when it typically returns. As they point out, that not only helps the end user but also helps assure there isn’t a corresponding voltage surge. 

Presently, such a voltage drop can render chargers useless, requiring a maintenance visit to re-activate them when the equipment is fine.

Inside the charging cabinet, a charger may also shut down due to a fault when one of its three power modules has an issue. According to the researchers, looking at algorithms, it would better serve customers who simply need a charge if the control strategy allowed the other two to compensate somewhat and provide reduced overall power until a repair, rather than shutting down. 

You’d be more satisfied if you got a charge, with an apology that is was a bit slower than usual, rather than no charge at all, right?

GM and Pilot Company’s EV charging network

EV charging stations need to be more gas-station-like?

For better reliability taking advantage of these ideas, the researchers point to a different kind of layout versus present-day charging stations—with a “multilayered approach for control and communication” across a charging station that “resembles a gas station with many pumps.” At it, a system-wide controller would alter equipment settings based on issues at individual chargers, to maximize performance and uptime. 

The federal government is tackling EV charger reliability in the U.S. infrastructure buildout, and through its Charge X consortium it’s already focused in on several aspects that amount to a tangle of technical barriers, including non-standardized error reporting and payment issues.

It’s not surprising that automakers have stepped forward, opting to create their own networks in some cases—like the upcoming Supercharger-rivaling Ionna—rather than ally with existing ones. Rivian has even adopted a grading system for public chargers that will be used for its own dynamic route planning. 

The Rivian R1T is aimed more at camp sites than job sites, but a patent filing from the automaker hints at a new feature that could enhance the electric pickup truck’s usefulness as a work vehicle. In a patent application filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2022, but only published in April 4, Rivian details a…

What kind of vehicle is the 2025 Subaru Legacy? What does it compare to? Few midsize sedans remain on the market, and the 2025 Subaru Legacy marks the last year of production for the affordable all-wheel-drive offering. Competitors include the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. Is the 2025 Subaru Legacy a good car? Yes. The Subaru Legacy isn’t…

The vice president of automotive and manufacturing at Amazon Web Services (AWS) talks about the proliferation of generative AI advances across different areas of the auto industry. Further, she details efforts to ensure women thrive in auto-tech careers.

Audi’s conquests of the World Rally Championship (WRC) and 24 Hours of Le Mans rank among the automaker’s most prominent racing achievements, but this Audi race car, set to be auctioned off by RM Sotheby’s, hails from a different corner of the racing world. One of the featured lots at a Monaco auction scheduled for May 10, this 1991 Audi V8…