+++ BENTLEY has just confirmed that there will be an electric sports car coming. The Bentayga is currently one of the most powerful SUVs out there – being the fastest and most luxurious SUVs on the market today. The British automaker hoped for it to be a best-selling model, but with its hefty price tag, it isn’t that easy to sell. In 2017, Bentley has sold under 700 units in the United States. With this track record, Bentley has decided to back on its plan to develop more SUVs. The automaker said that they will be developing a sports car instead of a sub-Bentayga SUV. What makes it even more interesting is the fact that it will be completely electric, just like the EXP12 Speed 6e concept that was presented at Geneva earlier this year. Once finished, it will be the luxury automaker’s 5th model in the lineup. Wolfgang Durheimer, CEO of Bentley, said at the Frankfurt Motor Show that a small SUV is no longer part of their immediate plan, and that they are prioritizing a car that will carry a full electric powertrain. Another thing that we learned from Durheimer is that the new sports car will have the same J1 electric platform as the Porsche Mission E. It will also be a little bigger than the EXP12 concept, though it may get a lot of its design elements from it. Bentley did not give us a ton of information regarding the electric powertrain, but based on the EXP12’s instrument panel, it seems like the sports car will be capable of around 480 kilometers, while working with its four-wheel drive powertrain. Durheimer also said that the British marque’s vision is to become the leader of electrification in the luxury segment. He sees that this would be perfect for the brand and their scheme of low rev torque that can seamlessly accelerate. Within the next few years, Bentley not only will focus on the electrified sports car, but they also plan to introduce 3 new plug-in hybrid vehicles. Sadly, they did not provide a more detailed timeline. It will be the Bentayga SUV that will get the very first plug-in hybrid treatment. This will then be followed by the Continental and Flying Spur. I am anticipating that within 2 years, the first all-electric Bentley will go into production. +++
+++ BMW ’s M Division says it will not produce a small-capacity high-performance turbocharged 4-cylinder engine until it can find the right way to counter the deficits of such a power unit with electrification. The boss of BMW’s M Division, Frank Van Meel, said the performance sub-brand is keen to maintain its 6-cylinder power units despite rival Mercedes-AMG having made use of smaller capacity 4-cylinder units. “We are really happy with our 6-cylinder engines because for BMW and BMW M that is our heritage engine. We started with 6-cylinder in the M1 so it has a long history. BMW is a 6-cylinder inline company and, for us, it’s an iconic engine”, Van Meel said. “If you look at it with a 4-cylinder, I don’t see characteristics that I would like on an M car, on a small displacement turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. I wouldn’t do a 4-cylinder standalone turbocharged with high performance, because you always have the characteristic that if you want high performance you lose the low-end torque and you lose the overall driveability you want to have from the car”. Electrification, however, may prove to be the answer as it solves the initial lag and lack of torque that is generally on offer from a high-output but small-capacity turbocharged engine. Even so, creating a hybrid powertrain has its own set of disadvantages. “Electrification would help because low-end torque is done with electric motors. On the other hand, you are putting a lot of weight into the car, so that answer is not so easy. To say ‘just do it’, you lose the motorsport topic of power-to-weight ratio which is very important with overall weight. “So, at the time-being, it’s a dilemma, but we are working on that with our project ‘i’ colleagues to have a look at the next generation of battery cells, regarding weight, power, density and range to find the right tipping point to say ‘now it makes sense to go in that right direction’, but today is not the right time”. BMW has already confirmed it is looking to add electric motors to its M vehicles, however, Van Meel admits it would take some more evolution of the technology before it makes sense in future M models. “With the current generation we see ‘E’ motors that are still not strong enough for M applications, and if you look at plug-in hybrids, it will add 200-300 kg, which for a car like an M3/M4 with 1.500 kg, would put that completely out of balance and we couldn’t rebalance that towards a typical M philosophy. “So, with nowadays technology, we don’t see that working, but I can’t tell you what the next steps with the BMW group will be”. +++
+++ The Frankfurt motor show is big. Every 2 years when I attend the show, I always vow that next time, I will actually see things. The problem is, the show is so big, and I have so many executives to interview, that it’s all but impossible to actually see every one of the dozen or so halls that house the show. And each one of these halls is a gigantic display of extravagance as manufacturers try to outdo each other for sheer ‘wow!’ factor. In saying all that, I did actually get to walk around a bit this year and the one thing that became bloody obvious was that 2017 Frankfurt motor show was all about ELECTRIC mobility (don’t fall asleep, yet). BMW did an entire 30-minute presentation to the world’s media as the very first scheduled item of day one, and didn’t even mention its new Z4 concept. Instead, it was all electric this and electric that. Thankfully, no one fainted. BMW even had people riding around on electric scooters and motorbikes during the presentation. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were also offering free hugs with Penguins. It was that ridiculous. This is a brand that makes twin-turbo V8 performance cars that like to go sideways. This is a brand that less than a decade ago built the V10-powered M5, its engine derived from Formula One technology of the time! Who are they kidding? We want the old BMW back, thanks. We know it’s just hiding in the background. If you take all the hype and shameless self-promotion of electric mobility at face value, you would think that Elon Musk is right: electric cars are killing the internal combustion engine at a rapid rate. But that’s simply not the case, not for a very long while anyway. You see, while the German and the world’s mainstream media continue to hammer the internal combustion engine (ICE), and more major cities talk about wanting to ban the ICE from a certain date, all the car companies seem paranoid to even mention development work on fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Well, except Mazda. It’s almost as if, the entire talk track is about electric and anything other than that is blasphemy. It makes great business sense, of course. No one wants to be targeted as the manufacturer that isn’t focusing on ‘future mobility’. It’s not only bad for the company’s share price, but the media backlash is unwarranted and unwanted. Apart from Tesla (obviously), there is no mainstream car company today, that we can find, which will admit it’s investing more of its research and development budget in electric vehicle development than the continued development of the internal combustion engine and its associated technologies. Think about that for a minute. So lets look at the facts. In Europe, electric vehicle sales are up around 30 percent, which seems huge, but on the whole they account for just under 2 percent of the market. That’s it. Everyone from Mercedes, to BMW, Audi and even Porsche talked nothing but electrification. There were Greenpeace protesters at the Frankfurt show that held up signs indicating their displeasure at the likes of Volkswagen for not doing more to rid the world of the awfulness that is the ICE and particularly, its diesel engines. So herein lies the crux of the problem. Dieselgate. It was Elon Musk’s wet dream. If you actually track the share price of Tesla since Dieselgate hit the media (which happened 2 years ago this month), it is up more than 65 percent. Volkswagen’s share price nearly halved when Dieselgate broke, but it has recovered by around 48 percent since. It is still down by nearly half since its peak highs in April 2015. Volkswagen, or any of its brands, is not going to talk about pouring cash into the internal combustion engine. That would be seen as a big no-no by everyone involved. Can you imagine the headlines? At the motorshow, the boss of Volkswagen Group (Matthias Müller) talked loud and proud about investing 20 billion euros in zero-emission vehicles by 2030. Sounds impressive. If you break that up into the next 12 years, that’s roughly 1.67 billion euros each year invested into electric mobility. But, do you want to know what Volkswagen group’s financials show for total R&D budget in fiscal year 2016? How about 11.5 billion euros. Yep! Assuming the budget remains relatively unchanged going forward, only around 15 percent of the brand’s R&D budget is being spent on electric mobility. That makes sense, because most brands believe electric cars will only make up about 15-25 per cent of their model lineup by 2025-2030. So why the hell wouldn’t they invest heavily into the other 75 or so percent of their vehicles? Is Volkswagen working on a new generation of diesel engines? Of course, it would be absolutely mad not to. But is VW going to talk about it? Not on your life. BMW will, though. The boss of Mini was honest and proud enough to admit that diesel still has a very bright future at the BMW group and that the brand looks forward to selling plenty of them in the coming years. He even went on to say the current talk around diesel engines is not rational, but driven by political agendas, and he is dead right. Am I saying we shouldn’t embrace electric cars? Far from it. I love Tesla and what it has done for the industry, but it comes at the car from a different approach. Tesla doesn’t make electric cars, Tesla makes a technology statement riding on 4 wheels. For that we love Tesla, dearly. Let’s be realistic about the uptake of EVs, however. They are not going to be the mainstream form of personal propulsion for many, many more decades. I would predict it would be more than likely that it will take at least until 2050 for the world’s total vehicle sales to switch for the first time in favour of electric vehicles over those those using an ICE. So, while the marketing and PR departments of mainstream car companies are doing their very best to electrify us with their messaging, the reality is far different. There are tens of thousands of engineers around the world, at this very instant, who are working flat-out on the next-generation of internal combustion engine technologies, both petrol and diesel. There are more engineers doing that, than there are working on electric mobility. Believe it, because it’s true. Ignoring all the environmental issues of sourcing, making and recycling batteries, the electric mobility future we have all dreamed of is still coming. It’s going to be good and we will save lots of penguins in the process, but it’s not coming for a while. +++
+++ We have already reached a generation wherein automakers are making the switch from gasoline engine cars to hybrid and all electric vehicles. So far, the trend is for automakers to gradually transition their range to accommodate electric vehicles. That’s why it is significant news when automakers say that they’re not looking into electrifying their models. While Porsche and Bentley are joining the norm by developing sports cars, it seems like FERRARI and LAMBORGHINI have no plans of doing so, and they have just confirmed it. Both Italian automakers do not believe that electrification is the future of supercars, but they do believe that hybrid options are. At the Frankfurt Motor Show, Michael Leiters, Chief Technology Officer of Ferrari, said in an interview that it will take a lot more time, effort and innovation to get the same performance, and more importantly the driving pleasure of what we have today with the non-electrified models. It will not be that easy to replicate the performance and ease that we have now. In the same interview, Leiters mentioned that they have to consider the important aspects of a supercar including the performance and sound of the car. So the automaker’s first step would be hybridization, and we will likely see this first in limited models like the LaFerrari before it trickles down to mainstream models like the 488 GTB. In fact, the pictured Ferrari 488 may have a hybrid setup. Lamborghini, on the other hand, has the same views as Ferrari. Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Lamborghini said that he does not feel that electric vehicles are the future of sports cars; well not immediately. He then added that hybridization will still happen, and that we will see this in the next 5 years. Having said that, they will continue to develop the new Urus SUV with a plug-in hybrid option, but the automaker will stick to naturally aspirated V10 and V12 engines. What we also know is that the Lamborghini Urus will be their very first model with the plug-in hybrid option, equipped with a V8 engine. The Italian automaker has not said a lot when it comes to hybrid sports cars, but rumours indicate that they might be developing a special one-off with new technology. I guess these supercar makers know best when it comes to developing cars, and they may be right when saying that technology is not ready yet to replicate today’s supercar performance with full electric vehicles. But for the moment, all eyes are on Porsche and Bentley as they prepare to come out with their fully electric supercars. +++
+++ MINI says that it looks forward to selling many diesel-powered vehicles in the year to come, defending the engine type against its current political and environmental issues following ‘Dieselgate’ and committing to the technology for the long term. Mini senior vice president Sebastian Mackensen said that discussions around diesel are currently not rational, but driven by other agendas. “Mini is looking forward to selling many of them, committed to diesel long term. Right now, diesel doesn’t get an objective discussion, it’s an emotional, political, media discussion. Let us see how this develops”, Mackensen said. “The EU6 diesels have really good emission quality, they are very well-made machines and I think there is a future for diesel in Mini vehicles”. Mini, like its parent brand, BMW, has committed to its electric future with big showcases and displays of its upcoming electric mobility platforms at this year’s Frankfurt show. Nonetheless, it still admits that electric vehicles are unlikely to make up more than 25 percent of its sales in the coming decade, so a focus on the traditional internal combustion engine must still be at its core for the foreseeable future. “We always have to see how things further develop, one thing we mentioned this morning is flexibility, it will be really important for all car manufacturers, diesel gets really beaten up right now, we all know why, let’s not talk about that, but I want to state again that we have pretty expensive tech in the diesel cars which makes sure they have the emissions they have, and the BMW diesel cars have excellent emission values. If you would switch all current diesels in Germany and put them on BMW diesels it would reduce emissions by 40 percent”. According to Mackensen, there is no rush to make any sudden decisions on diesel vehicles, with the technology still evolving, decisions need to be made on a case by case basis. “We have to see what happens to the future of technology in the diesels and take it a case by case decision. We have markets, like Portugal, where it’s 88 percent share of diesel for the Mini brand, we can’t say Portugal you were nice to us but we are out of here. Germany has 15 percent only”. So whilst talk of electric mobility seems to be the buzz for the moment, car companies appear to be investing in, and clearly being committed to, both petrol and diesel powertrains for decades to come. +++
+++ Back in 2013, NISSAN introduced the IDx Concept at the Tokyo Motor Show. When the audience first saw this, a lot of people got excited to see a lightweight sports car as part of the Nissan’s lineup; particularly one that’s even lighter than the outgoing 370Z. The Japanese company eventually said that we should not expect a rear-wheel drive model, but instead it will preview the brand’s future direction in terms of design. A few years later, Nissan finally comes back with what seems like a preview of a production model of the IDx. Furthermore, the company has recently filed a patent under the name “Nissan IMX” that will be used for a production model, according to sources. That’s not all, the trademark filing said that this will be used on “electric vehicles” and “sports cars”. The name will be used on vehicles for locomotion by land, air, water, or rail. This includes electric vehicles like electric automobiles, wagons, trucks, vans, SUVs, buses. Apart from that, recreational vehicles like campers, motor homes and trailers are also included. Moreover, sports cars, racing cars, bicycles, lorries, and fork lift trucks like tractors were part of the list too. But that is not all, Nissan also included structural parts and fittings like brake pads, vehicle bumpers and safety devices (for land vehicles). These include airbags, mudguards, air pumps and license plate frames. So far, that is all we know about the “IMX” patent since the company has kept quiet when it comes to sharing details of it. But looking back, the IDx concept had 2 variants namely Freeflow and Nismo. While the Freeflow comes with a 1.4 liter inline-four-cylinder engine, the Nismo gets a 1.6 liter turbocharged inline four that can produce 230 horsepower. In just 7 seconds, the Nismo can hit 100 km/h from a standstill before it continues to a top speed of 210 km/h. The Nismo’s red interior was supposed to look like it “came directly from a driving stimulator”, while the Freeflow was inspired by blue jeans. The IDx, as we know, has so far remained as a concept. This is supported by the fact that the Japanese automaker said that they are not planning to make any new sports car anytime soon. In other news, the 370Z will remain as it is for the next couple of years. When Nissan first introduced the IDx, the automaker explained that they took the name ID from “identification”, or personalizing the car. The “x”, on the other hand, is the variable that represents the values and dreams born through communication. +++
+++ The newly minted RENAULT Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance, complete with a new logo, has laid out its ambitious growth and cost reduction plans for the next 6 years. A major component of the new plans is to boost the use of common platforms. At the end of 2016, Renault and Nissan produced around 2 million cars per annum off 2 common modular platforms. By 2022, the companies hope to produce 9 million cars annually off 4 common platforms. The 2 additional platforms will be spun off from the existing Common Module Family (CMF), which underpins everything from the Renault Kwid and Nissan Qashqai to the Renault Espace. One new platform will be for mid-size cars, and the other will be designed for electric vehicles with autonomous driving systems. The latter platform is expected to go into production in 2020 along with a new generation of electric motors and batteries. In total, 12 new EVs will be launched by the companies by 2022. By then, battery costs are predicted to fall by 30 percent, a 600 km NEDC range will be possible, and a 15 minute quick charge will yield around 220 km of extra driving. Mitsubishi will start moving from its own unique platforms and engines to the alliance’s shared ones from 2020, and its plug-in hybrid drivetrain technology will be adopted by the alliance for its larger vehicles. The companies will also streamline their other powertrain offerings, with 22 of the alliance’s 31 engines to be used throughout the organisation by 2022. These 22 engines will account of 75 percent of the alliance’s output. As of 2016, only 14 out of 38 engines were used across multiple brands. As far as self-driving technology goes, the alliance plans on having a “highly autonomous” system, requiring continuous monitoring by the driver, available for highway use by 2018 and city use by 2020. A more advanced highway system only needing occasional driver intervention will also be available in 2020, with a fully autonomous driver-free car pencilled in for 2022. Under the new strategy, the 3 automakers hope to grow annual sales from over 10 million this year to 14 million by 2022. Revenues are forecast to grow from 180 billion dollar in 2016 to 240 billion dollar by 2022. Synergies will reportedly be doubled from 5 billion euro in 2016 to 10 billion euro. Some of these cost savings will come from Mitsubishi’s fuller integration in the alliance, with the 3 companies looking to share research and development costs, manufacturing facilities, and common platform utilisation. In launching the new 6-year plan, Carlos Ghosn, head of the alliance, said: “The Alliance has grown and performed with 2 members since 1999. With Alliance 2022, we will prove that we will grow and perform with 3 companies or more”. +++