For the month of January, every item purchased in our Merch Store, we’ll make a donation to the verified GoFundMe for the fires. Even if you don’t make a purchase, we hope you can help out in any way you can.
Electric Vehicles
Hyundai Mobis’s concept of 90-degree rotating wheels shocked onlookers at CES 2022 in Las Vegas. The rotating wheels were displayed in the M. Vision Pop electric vehicle and the M. Vision 2GO hydrogen cell vehicle.
In other EV News
- The parent company (Thor Industries) for Airstream is looking at changing the RV game. They recently signed a MOU with auto supplier, ZF, so the company is able to obtain access to ZF’s eTrailer system in a travel trailer RV. The trailer will have its own battery pack and electric drive. The trailer will communicate with the towing vehicle and sync on when to brake and when to apply power. The main advantage is the trailer would extend or maintain the range of your EV when towing. You can take the family camping in your EV and tow this trailer without reducing your range. Thor has quite a few brands under it, so it remains to be seen which brand will get this feature first.
- Stellantis has installed the Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) technology under roadways in Italy to wirelessly charge electric vehicles The strip will also feature 5G connectivity. The company is planning to invest €30 billion to push electrification worldwide.
- Becoming the first luxury car maker to begin production in India, Mercedes announced their decision to produce the electric EQS in the country. Mercedes plans to begin selling the EQS in late 2022. The company also has set an “EV roadmap” for India, but plans are in early stages and require a lot more preparation around government policies.
- According to BMW sales chief Pieter Nota, BMW plans to double EV their sales to 200,000 in 2022. To obtain this lofty goal, BMW plans to meet strong demand for electric vehicles by adding 6,000 jobs. In 2022, BMW plans to launch the i5 and MINI Countryman EV.
- In 2021, Audi increased their EV sales by over 50%. In 2022, the company expects to have the largest fully electric portfolio among other automobile manufacturers. After 2026, Audi has decided to not launch new ICE vehicles. With these deadlines in place, Audi hopes that over 30% of their sales will be electric in 2025.
- According to the China Passenger Car Association, EV sales are expected to reach 6 million by the end of 2022. The surge in sales was credited toward the looming end of government subsidies, which won’t be available from 2023 on. Startups such as Xipend, Nio and Li Auto have decorated the EV industry in China, making young drivers gravitate toward electric vehicles. If supply chain issues and delivery obstacles can be sufficiently overcome, China’s EV market has potential to soar in 2022.
- Daymack Spiritus launched its first test drive of its max 85 mph, light electric 3 wheeler. Daymack hopes to build 50,000 of the Spirtus vehicles per year in Ontario, Canada.
- Rivian has hit a big milestone with over 1,000 vehicles produced in 2021 since the company began production in September. Most of production has consisted of its R1T.
- FOMM Corporation has developed an EV that can float on water if needed in an emergency situation. The 2.6-meter long EV underwent test runs at Osaka University’s Suita Campus in a pool of water about 3 feet deep. The vehicle is made from resin with propeller like wheels.
Autonomous Snapshots
The second round of the Indy Autonomous Challenge was held this weekend in Las Vegas. Two vehicles raced side by side at 170 mph powered by a 2.0 liter, turbocharged 388 bhp Honda (K20C) engine. The IAC race cars help engineers develop faster reaction times and improve dexterity overall for future AVs. In the end, the winner was PoliDRIVE and took home $50,000.
In other AV News
- Startup Optimus Ride has been acquired by Magna International while adding more than 120 Optimus Ride employees to their team. The joint venture will use expertise from both companies to expand autonomous technology capabilities for advanced driver assistance systems. Other Optimus Ride employees will remain in Boston, where the former company’s headquarters were located, to operate Magna in New England.
- While autonomous cabs are definitely in the near future, they will mostly likely be hailed from an app in contrast to manually waving your arm to get the car’s attention like in the past. According to Forbes’ Lance Eliot, hailing an AV cab could be possible due to LiDAR sensors on the vehicles.
- Volvo has begun testing its autonomous technology in Sweden and plans to start testing Ride Pilot in California in 2022. The company has announced an EV SUV, an unsupervised autonomous feature RIde Pilot, and a subscription service for self-driving technology.
- Dallas hopes to be Ford and Argo AI’s next location for their joint venture to commercialize self-driving technology. The two companies plan to launch around 1,000 AVs through Lyft within the next 5 years. In Dallas, the city is offering a $3 million proposed tax break and a 250,000 grant towards the construction of the facility.