On this week’s show : Legislators and Volkswagen
agree on how to fix the dieselgate scandal,
Tesla offers customers a month’s free autopilot
trial, and a Formula E stunt you just have
to see to believe.
These stories and more, coming up next, on
TEN.
Enjoying today’s show on Youtube and want
to read the stories we’re referring to today?
Just head to our website at Transport Evolved
dot com forward slash TEN, where you’ll
find today’s show notes -- as well as links
to the latest future car news, buying guides,
tech primers, and car reviews.
It’s Friday, April twenty-second, twenty
sixteen, I’m Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, and
we’ve just gone one hundred percent wireless
at Transport Evolved headquarters thanks to
a six-month loan of the Plugless Power wireless
charging system for the Nissan LEAF electric
car.
Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks
because our first video about this month-long
loan is on the way.
We start today’s show with the latest news
in the ongoing dieselgate emissions scandal,
namely news of a settlement that’s been
agreed between the U.S. EPA, the California
air resources board, and Volkswagen.
While the details of the settlement are confidential
among the concerned parties -- and is still
only an ‘agreement in principal’ that
will have to undergo additional legal and
public scrutiny, it appears Volkswagen will
contact owners of some four hundred and eighty
two thousand affected 2.0-litre diesel-engined
Volkswagen and Audi vehicles, offering to
either buy back customers cars or have them
modified at Volkswagen’s expense to bring
them in line with the limits set by the Clean
Air Act.
Additionally, Volkswagen will waive any lease
cancellation fees from owners who leased their
cars and set up two funds to help recompense
those affected by the scandal.
The first will offer customers a rumored $5,000
each in exchange for their agreement not to
sue Volkswagen for selling them an illegal
vehicle.
The second will help to support “appropriate
remediation efforts” to counteract the environmental
impact of the noncompliant cars being driven
for the past six or more years.
Looking forward, VW and the U.S. regulators
now have until June 21 to turn that agreement
in principal into a legally-binding agreement.
We’ll keep you posted for more developments
as and when they happen.
Moving away from Volkswagen’s dieselgate
scandal, we’re off to the state of Michigan
now, where Ford spent nearly two hundred thousand
dollars -- plus taxes -- to get its hands
on a TEsla Model X crossover SUV.
As we reminded you on Wednesday this week,
buying a rival’s car and then dismantling
it in order to understand its secrets is common
practice in the automotive world -- every
automaker does it in one way or another.
But what’s particularly interesting about
this case is that Ford had to jump through
some pretty big hoops to get its hands on
a Model X.
Because Tesla only sells direct to customers,
Ford was left paying more than fifty-five
thousand dollars over list price just to get
a Model X to pull apart.
Where did it get the car from?
A Michigan dealership which had purchased
the car from a Tesla Model S owner who had
won the right to order a Model X Founder's’
Edition through the first Tesla Model S referral
program.
That car is now being pulled apart and if
our sources are correct, isn’t the only
Model X to be purchased in this way.
Earlier this week we heard that German automaker
Audi had purchased its own Model X in a similar
way, shipping the expensive plug-in to Germany
just to get its hands on one.
The problem?
It didn’t have any U.S.-spec Tesla charging
stations to plug the car into.
Whoops.
Staying with Tesla for a second, we heard
this week that the California automaker is
leveraging its software-centric vehicle design
to offer Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X customers
with autopilot-ready cars who haven’t paid
for the service to be activated a free month-long
Autopilot trial.
Activated via a simple popup on the vehicle
dash of customer’s cars, the trial is something
of an automotive first as far as we can tell,
and is a great way for Tesla to sell customers
new products and services without the usual
pressure that comes from automotive upsells.
We also note that in the same week, Tesla
has released a software easter egg to make
it possible for Tesla customers to experience
other variants of their car, allowing customers
to emulate lesser-spec Tesla variants with
a touch of a button.
The emulation system, which allows a Model
S P90D owner to make their car behave like
a Tesla Model S 70D for example, remaps throttle
response and could be a great option for use
in daily driving if you don’t want to continually
unleash all that raw torque under your right
foot.
Someone no stranger to free trials is Tesla’s
Silicon Valley rival Apple which, as we explained
on Tuesday this week, has recently hired former
Tesla VP of engineering Chris Porritt to reportedly
head its top-secret autonomous electric car
project known only as “Project Titan”
While the more salacious headlines suggested
that Porritt had been poached from Tesla’s
halls by Apple, the truth of the matter was
that Porritt left Tesla back in November last
year, before spending a few months doing other
things before joining Apple in the past few
weeks.
Porritt, who you’ll see in this video, joined
Tesla back in 2014 after a considerable amount
of time at British firm Aston Martin.
Prior to that, Porritt began his automotive
career at Land Rover, where he worked his
way through the ranks to become Principal
Engineer in Vehicle Dynamics.
While he was at Tesla, Porritt worked on Model
S, Model X and more recently Model 3, so we’ll
be interested to know just how soon his influence
will be felt 1, Infinite loop -- and more
importantly, just what Apple’s Projet Titan
will turn out to be.
But Tesla isn’t the only automaker suffering
some brain drain this week either: It turns
out BMW is losing its electric vehicle specialists
to pastures new as well.
The new pastures in question?
Not another well-known western automaker but
Future Mobility Corp., a Chinese electric
vehicle company backed by Tencent Holdings
Ltd and Foxconn Technology Group.
Y’know, the company that makes most of the
components you’ll find in an Apple iPhone?
According to Automotive News, the three executives
in question -- Dirk Abendroth, Benoit Jacob
and Henrik Wenders -- will be joining at vice
presidents of software and connectivity, design
and marketing respectively, and will join
another ex-BMW staffer -- former project manager
for BMW’s i8 plug-in hybrid sports car Carsten
Breitfeld.
While you probably don’t know any of these
men by name, it’s worth noting that combined
they played an important role in the development
of the BMW i3 and BMW i8 -- and more importantly
aren’t the first BMW i-brand execs to leave
for a Chinese-backed startup: Richard Kim,
lead designer of BMW i3 and BMW i8 concept
cars, is now at California automaker Faraday
Future.
There must be something in the water… either
that or BMW doesn’t do Funtime Fridays and
Margarita Mondays…
Future Mobility Corp isn’t the only company
from the People’s Republic of China on today’s
show, because the next story involves Chinese
media giant LeEco and the unveiling of its
very first autonomous electric car.
Driven out on stage during a press presentation
in China this week the car -- called LeSEE
that’s Capital L, small e, capital S, capital
E Capital E -- is only a concept car at this
stage.
However, company CEO Jia Yueting, known to
his fans as “Jia Jobs” --- after his Steve-Jobs
like dress sense and Charisma -- says he hopes
the car will launch in the next few years
as China’s first smart, connected and automated
self-driving car.
Think it’s not possible?
Think again.
As a major player in the Chinese tech world,
LeEco has plenty of fingers in plenty of pies,
and certainly seems to have the technical
prowess to achieve Jia’s grandiose goals
and prove itself a worthy adversary in the
global automotive marketplace like so many
South Korean and Japanese automakers before
it.
It’s worth noting too that LeEco is the
principal funding source for California startup
Faraday Future, and has some ever-increasing
ties to British luxury marque Aston Martin.
While we’re not sure it has what it takes
to tackle Tesla just yet, we certainly think
this is a company Elon Musk should be scared
of .
Changing gear now, we’re off to Ohio next,
where Japanese automaker Honda let slip on
Wednesday that it is planning to build a battery-electric
version of its Clarity fuel cell sedan alongside
a plug-in hybrid variant we already knew about.
As our friends over at GreenCarReports detailed,
it’s all part of a ploy to ensure that Honda
offers customers a range of hyper-efficient
vehicles that meet their needs, powered by
either electricity stored in a battery pack,
a hydrogen fuel cell stack, or a plug-in hybrid
drivetrain.
It’s also a clever way for Honda to spread
the costs of developing the expensive unique
platform on which the Honda Clarity FCV production
fuel cell car sits.
With battery electric and plug-in hybrid drivetrains
far cheaper to produce than hydrogen fuel
cell ones, the Clarity Electric Sedan will
enter into production some time in 2018.
It will join the already available Clarity
Fuel Cell Sedan and Clarity Plug-in Hybrid,
but we note it may not be available nationwide,
leading us to suggest it could be another
compliance car.
Still, with seating for five, the mid-size
battery electric vehicle could garner itself
some serious sales figures -- if only Honda
gives it the right sticker price.
Something that may not be the right price
for the market is the Renault ZOE electric
car, which will enter the New Zealand market
later this year for an eye-watering seventy
five thousand New Zealand dollars (or about
fifty three thousand U.S. dollars).
It’s all part of an attempt to kick start
the New Zealand electric car market that will
see the Renault ZOE, REnault Kangoo Z.E. and
Renault Twizy all go on sale there by the
end of this year.
On paper, the ZOE should be a perfect fit
for the island nation, especially given the
fact that Renault is viewed as something of
a up-market brand there.
But the problem here is that New Zealand isn’t
known for its electric car incentives.
In fact, there’s not a single electric car
incentive offered by the New Zealand government
right now, and sales tax (or GST) adds a massive
fifteen percent onto the already high sticker
price of any new car.
We’re hopeful Renault will manage to engage
buyers but given the high price, we think
it’ll be an uphill struggle, something Nissan
found last year when it pulled its LEAF electric
hatch out of New Zealand all together because
it said people just weren’t buying the car.
Good luck Renault, sounds like you might need
some blind trust and a heck of a lot of good
luck.
Talking of blind trust, that’s exactly what
our final story is about.
And, we should note, is something that you
certainly should not try at home.
You see this is world-renowned free runner,
gymnast and stuntman Damien Walters.
A former member of the Jackie Chan stunt team,
he’s the guy behind plenty of hollywood
hit action scenes, including much of the action
scenes in movie adaptations of Mark Millar’s
dark comic classic Kick Ass and Secret Service
(the latter of which lost its original name
and was rebranded Kingsmen when it was turned
into a movie.)
And yes, you just learned that I have a soft
spot for ultra gory comic books.
Sorry.
Anyway.
This past week, a video of Walters jumping
over a moving Formula E race car went viral.
All he had to rely on was his senses to ensure
that he didn’t become a splat on the tarmac.
It’s truly stunning, mind blowing, and proves
I guess that electric cars aren’t the silent
killers that some people claim they are.
Just everyone needs to learn themselves some
parkour eh?
That’s something I don’t think I’ve
got the skill for, but I could probably stretch
to a few hours in the gym.
This extra flab won’t lose itself sitting
on the couch.
I’ll be back next week at the usual time
with another episode of TEN.
In the meantime you can find all the news
that’s fit to print at our website at transport
evolved dot com, catch up with us on twitter
at transport Evolve, or check out our latest
shows on our usual YouTube channel.
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As always, there’s a lot we haven’t managed
to fit into today’s show, including news
of Washington State’s new threshold for
electric vehicle sales tax, we discover the
Mahindra e20 has better specifications than
we thought it would -- but is still woefully
underpowered for Europe -- Nissan donates
100 electric vehicles to help relief efforts
for last week’s Japanese megaquake, and
Ford explains why it’s not interested in
making a 200-mile electric car.
So when we’re done, be sure to head to our
site to read them all.
Thanks for watching, I’m Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield,
have a great weekend, and until next time,
keep evolving!
