+++ The DACIA SPRING , which is one of the most affordable new electric vehicles sold in Europe, is due for a 2024 makeover that should make it more attractive to customers in an increasingly crowded market. The Spring, which is built in China and shipped to the Old Continent, is based on the Renault City K-ZE and debuted in Europe in 2021, where it immediately became the cheapest new EV on sale. Currently, the baby SUV that seats 4 and measures just 3.740 millimetres long has a starting price of €21.750 in the Netherlands, but incentives in some European countries lowered the purchase cost to as little as €13.000, making it an ideal choice for a second car or even for the main city runabout in a family. With a single electric motor making just 45 hp in the base version and a WLTP-rated range of 230 kilometres, the EV isn’t anything to write home about, but it gets the job done for a low price. Now, Dacia’s design boss, David Durand, says that the Chinese-made hatchback is “lacking a bit of modernity” and that it “needs to be reconsidered to express more of this electric trend”. The comments come even as the Spring got a mild facelift for the 2023 model year, which also brought a second, more powerful Extreme variant with 65 hp to the lineup. Currently, the budget EV sits on Renault Group’s CMF-A platform, a fact that will remain unchanged for the next generation, as we reported back in 2022. In other words, the next-gen Spring won’t be related to the upcoming Renault 4 and Renault 5, both of which will be underpinned by the company’s CMF-B platform. The Romanian brand has sold roughly 120.000 units of the pint-sized EV in Europe since its debut in 2021. +++
+++ The entry-level 4-cylinder variant of the LOTUS EMIRA will be unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the brand has confirmed. It features the turbocharged M139 engine from Mercedes-AMG, the world’s most powerful four-pot and used in the AMG A 45, C 63 S E Performance and the SL 43, among others. However, this engine has received “fundamental changes” for the Emira, including a new intake and exhaust, which reduces power outputs from the 385 hp and 480 Nm of entry-level AMG cars to 365 hp and 430 Nm. An 8-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox is fitted to the AMG unit as standard. In First Edition trim, the AMG-engined Emira will cost around 139.950 euro in the Netherlands; soms 10.000 euro cheaper than one fitted with the supercharged Toyota V6. For reference, the Japanese engine (which previously featured in the Evora and Exige) produces 400 hp and 420 Nm and can, crucially, be optioned with a manual gearbox. Deliveries of the 4-pot Emira are expected to begin in the autumn and a significantly cheaper trim level (originally pitched at 115.000 euro but expected to cost more on arrival) will go on sale before the end of the year. The Emira will be Lotus’s final combustion-engined series-production sports car. All new models will adopt battery-electric powertrains sourced from Lotus’s Geely group parent company. The brand is set to radically expand its EV line-up over the next few years, launching a saloon based on the new Eletre in 2024. A high-volume rival to the Porsche Macan EV is scheduled to arrive by 2028 and is expected to contribute roughly 75.000 sales a year to Lotus’s overall output. Such cars will be engineered at Lotus’s new factory in Wuhan, China. However, purist sports cars in the mould of the Emira, Evora and Elise will continue to be made in Hethel, Norfolk. Hethel’s first electric sportscar will be the Type 135, which (despite the collapse of Lotus’s collaboration with Alpine) will arrive in 2026. It will be built around the dedicated Project LEVA (Lightweight Electric Vehicle Architecture), which places batteries in a Lotus-typical mid-’engine’ layout. +++
+++ LUCID boss Peter Rawlinson believes the affordable electric vehicle of the future needs to focus on high efficiency and a small battery pack to drive down EV costs. In an interview, Rawlinson said Lucid’s technology can help the mass-market EV industry to bring prices down. The correlation between high efficiency and small battery packs is key to accomplishing that, he stressed, noting that the driving range will become less relevant in 10 years. “The biggest impact on the mass market car will be with smaller battery packs. My vision is could we get to 10 km per kWh? We’re at 7 now. Could we get to 10 km per kWhour with a fast-charging infrastructure, with overnight charging? The electric car of the future only needs 400 km. We don’t need 800 km cars in the future, 10 years from now”. Rawlinson added that if an efficiency figure of 10 km per kWhour can be achieved and the average buyer would only need 240 km of range, that means future EVs could have 25 kWh battery packs. That would obviously help drive down production costs and EV prices. “That’s a €4.000 pack particularly with a bit of industrializing scale and battery manufacture. That’s what we need to make a €33.000 car and that’s what the environment and the world needs urgently to get masses into electric cars. You need the €33.000 car”. That said, Peter Rawlinson noted that Lucid does not have the financial power to develop and build such a EV on its own, but it could contribute to making it a reality via its tech supplying business that kicked off recently with the Aston Martin deal. The head honcho said he sees a lot of potential in this part of the business and is hoping that Lucid could become the EV equivalent of Intel. “Now is Lucid going to make that? No. It’s a horrible thing to be making. But could we be the ‘Intel Inside’ for that car? The enabler? Absolutely. And that’s where we could get the multiplier effect”. Rawlinson hinted at the ‘Intel inside’ logo featured on many computers and said it “would be lovely to see ‘Lucid Inside’ on cars, too”. While building a €33.000 is out of the question, Lucid will deliver cheaper models than the 115.000 Air luxury saloon in the second half of the decade. First, the EV startup has to launch the Project Gravity: a SUV for which deliveries are expected to begin sometime in 2024. “After Gravity we’re going to do Model 3 and Model Y competitors. We think around €65.000, something like that. It’s too early to say, but that’s the vision”, said Rawlinson. +++
+++ Revealed more than a year ago, the MAZDA CX-60 was the first model from the company’s RWD era. Based on a new architecture and offered with new engines (including an inline-6 diesel), the early impressions for the family hauler vehicles was quite positive and it’s now time to find out how good the CX-60 is in the moose test. The CX-60 recently had a run around the cones and the version which was tested was the inline-6 diesel. This powertrain has a displacement of 3.3 litres and produces a peak output of 260 hp. The 6-cylinder mill is mated as standard to an 8-speed automatic transmission and an all-wheel drive. With this setup, Mazda wants the CX-60 to rival the 3 German premium brands in the mid-size SUV segment. More precisely, the Audi Q5, the BMW X3 and the Mercedes-Benz GLC. The tested car was equipped with 20-inch wheels and Toyo Proxes Sport tyres in 235/50 size. In fact, this is the only available wheel dimension for the range-topping Takumi grade, which is represented in the video at the top of this page. In certain markets, only the entry-level model comes with 18 inch wheels. As a final note, I’d like to remind you the CX-60 is also available in Europe with a plug-in hybrid powertrain and a 3.0-litre turbo petrol unit. And now about the moose test. The test team managed to get around the cones without hitting any of them with a speed of 77 kilometers per hour, which was a rather impressive result for such a large and heavy vehicle. However, the test driver noted that the CX-60 wasn’t exactly agile but this shouldn’t really come as a surprise given its dimensions and high centre of gravity. Still, the 77-kph result beats most other SUVs from the segment. +++
+++ The next-generation MERCEDES-BENZ S-CLASS will allegedly ditch the steering wheel with capacitive-touch buttons. The company plans to bring back physical switches in the model, but they won’t be on a traditional wheel. A new report says the automaker will replace the wheel with a rectangular yoke, following an emerging trend among automakers. The new yoke will allegedly take inspiration from the rectangular controller in the Vision One-Eleven concept. The company allegedly believes the flattened shape will allow for an unobstructed view of the road and driver’s display. Mercedes will do more than swap out the wheel in pursuit of a trend, as the company will also introduce a new steer-by-wire system designed to eliminate the steering column that the company could launch in the EQS. The automaker wants to replace the EV’s mechanical steering system with its next facelift in 2 or 3 years. The yoke won’t arrive until the new S-Class launches, which the publication claims will go on sale near the end of 2027, so the rectangle won’t show up anytime soon. However, like most S-Class tech, it should trickle down into the automaker’s popular models before showing up in the rest of the lineup. Customers might also have to wait to enjoy the return of physical buttons as models riding on the upcoming MMA platform will continue to feature capacitive-touch buttons on steering wheels for the foreseeable future. The report alleges that buttons won’t begin making a return to the wheel until Mercedes launches models on the MB.EA platform. Insiders also told that customers have heavily criticized Mercedes’ capacitive-touch steering wheel. Drivers are not enjoying the finicky controls that can be unreliable and difficult to engage while driving. Last month, Volkswagen admitted that the touch controls used in its newest models were a mistake and vowed to fix them. Mercedes will pair the yoke with software designed to variably adapt the steering response to the driving conditions so drivers aren’t steering hand-over-hand reaching for a wheel that isn’t there. At low speeds, the software can eliminate exhausting shuffle-steering that’s common during u-turns or tight parking manoeuvres. The opposite happens at higher speeds as the software lowers the steering response for improved stability during lane changes and highway driving. The technology sounds similar to Toyota’s steer-by-wire system that’s in development for Lexus. It won’t arrive until 2024 or 2025, but some journalists has already sampled the system twice. It’s better than Tesla’s yoke, although the automaker is developing a proprietary steer-by-wire system. They said Lexus’ tech was “almost certainly the best” and that remains true for now. +++
+++ A classic NSU has been transformed into as a striking EV by a group of 12 Audi apprentices to mark the 150th anniversary of the German firm’s factory in Neckarsulm. Called the EP4 (its name is a reference to the Prinz 4), it houses a rear-mounted 240 hp electric motor derived from an old Audi e-Tron, with power supplied by a front-mounted battery used in the plug-in hybrid Audi Q7 TFSIe. The battery sits under the carbonfibre bonnet in place of the Prinz’s fuel tank. Despite an extensive modernisation, the car (a 1971 NSU Prinz 4 that had been lying dormant) retains its front and rear lights and prominent shoulder and roof lines. Modifications have been made to accommodate the new powertrain, which is 210 hp more powerful than the Prinz’s original 2-cylinder petrol engine. The main changes were made to improve cooling. Air is now able to circulate via large green intakes at the foot of the bumper, with hot air escaping through an opening in the bonnet. Even the tailgate can be fixed half-open to stop the electric motor overheating. In addition to this, the floorpan, brakes and axles are taken from an Audi A1, upon which is mounted an extensively widened body, wide wheels and performance tyres. At the back, a bright yellow wing is attached to the roll cage rather than the bodywork. The body itself is coated in Suzuka Grey and Brilliant Black paintwork (Audi colours) with ‘150’ lettering on the doors. The inside shows a minimalist approach. Apart from the roll cage, painted in the same colour as the rear wing, the EP4’s interior gets Recaro bucket seats and a digital instrument display showing a speedometer and on-board computer. Dean Scheuffler, one of the apprentices on the project, said: “We wanted to build a car that was not only fast and looked cool but also honoured the 150th anniversary of the site”. +++
+++ PORSCHE will debut the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) it’s developing with Audi in 2024 when the next-generation, electric-only Macan is scheduled to come out. The zero-emission crossover was supposed to debut this year, but it has been pushed back due to software issues. As to what will happen to the current ICE model, Zuffenhausen representatives have said it would continue to be sold for a few more years alongside its EV counterpart. However, the petrol-fuelled Macan could have its shelf life prolonged. Porsche had intended to discontinue the ICE version in the United States in either 2025 or 2026 but that’s reportedly not happening anymore. Instead, the new plan is to see how the EV will perform in terms of sales, especially since customer feedback revealed there just aren’t enough chargers in the US. The German luxury brand needs to be extremely careful with how it decides the Macan’s future considering it was the second best-selling model in 2022 when 86.724 units were delivered. At a meeting with dealers held in Canary Islands, Porsche said they are going to review what will happen to the petrol version following “customer pushback” about the underdeveloped charging infrastructure estimated to negatively impact sales of the EV model. During the same meeting, dealers had the chance to see the electric Macan as well as an updated Taycan scheduled to come out next year. The spectacular Mission X concept was also there, but Porsche didn’t say anything about planning a production version. However, I won’t be surprised if the electric hypercar will indeed become a 918 Spyder successor in the following years. Beyond the Macan EV, Porsche is working on 2 additional electric SUVs as the next-generation Cayenne will also lose its ICEs while a flagship 3-row model is planned as well. Meanwhile, the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman will bow out around 2025 to make room for electric sports cars. The only model in Porsche’s lineup not getting the EV treatment anytime soon is the 911. However, in the coming years, there will be a hybrid derivative. Rumour has it the GT2 RS will be partially electrified to push out more than 700 hp. +++
+++ Ever since the RIVIAN R1T all-electric pickup and its R1S SUV sibling debuted in North America in 2018, prospective customers in Europe have been asking when the 2 zero-emissions vehicles will become available on the Old Continent. Some American R1T owners that relocated to Europe even went to the trouble of shipping their electric trucks overseas, but that’s not something everybody can do, seeing how one has to first purchase it in the United States. However, during a recent interview, the company’s founder and CEO, RJ Scaringe, said that Rivian now has an operational base in Europe, which includes servicing and parts procurement, and hinted that this base will expand to accommodate for the firm’s later expansion on the Old Continent. The comment comes as the first batch of Amazon Electric Delivery Vans (EDVs) is heading toward Europe, marking the beginning of Rivian’s official presence on the continent. With this being said, however, Scaringe didn’t specifically mention the R1S and R1T as part of the company’s plan to expand in this part of the world. Instead, the soon-to-be-revealed R2-based vehicles, which will be smaller and more affordable, will spearhead the European expansion. “It’s important to get those vehicles there. Amazon has a lot of business in Europe, but it also represents not just turning on production and vehicles that get shipped overseas, but all the supporting infrastructure”, said RJ Scaringe. “So we have parts distribution capabilities, we have service capabilities and the EDV program is really a wonderful way for us to open those markets with highly predictable and planned service intervals, and deliver intervals, so it’s the beginning of us opening up the European market for our products”. Asked about why Rivian hasn’t updated its production and delivery guidance figures to more optimistic figures, considering it has had a record second quarter, Scaringe said that he prefers to underpromise and overdeliver so that all the risk factors that could potentially disturb production are taken into account. “One of the other things we’ve gone through is just being, you know, very much thoughtful in not wanting to overpromise. We want to make sure that we overdeliver on our numbers, overdeliver on our targets, and knowing all the unknowns that still exist in the system, the supply chain is much healthier, but wanting to protect for just some of the unknowns that could happen”, he said. As for the firm’s reluctance to detail the production and delivery figures for the passenger and commercial side of things, Rivian’s CEO said that going forward, their focus will be on the R1S, R1T and future R2-based vehicles, while the Amazon EDV will amount to roughly 20 percent of the company’s manufacturing efforts. “If you think about over the full year, we’ve guided to roughly 20 percent of our production for the commercial vans”, RJ Scaringe said. “You know, as we think about going forward, the consumer side of the business will grow disproportionately relative to the commercial side, especially as we bring in our next-generation products, with the R2 and the R2 platform representing a significant step-up in volume at a much lower price point”. Late last month, Rivian’s chief financial officer Claire McDonough said that the first R2-based model will be a mid-size crossover SUV. In the second quarter of 2023, Rivian produced 13.992 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) at its plant in Normal, Illinois, which is 218 percent more than a year ago, and delivered 12.640 units; up 183 percent year-over-year. +++
+++ In June, new passenger car registrations in the UNITED KINGDOM increased by almost 26 percent year-over-year to 177.266. After 6 months of 2023, the total number of new registrations amounted to 949.720 (up 18 percent). Meanwhile, the plug-in segment noticeably outpaces the general market, scoring the best June ever. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reports that 44.470 new plug-in cars were registered last month (46 percent more than a year ago). This result represents about 25.1 percent of the total volume (it was 21.6 percent a year ago). Both all-electric and plug-in hybrid car sales increased noticeably compared to 2022, and we guess that this trend will continue in the second half of the year. BEV sales were 31.700 (up 39 percent) and had 17.9 percent market share. PHEVs did 12.770 (up 66 percent) and had 7.2 percent market share. So far this year, more than 215.000 new passenger plug-in electric cars were registered in the UK, which is 29 percent more than a year ago and more than one-fifth of the market. New plug-in car registrations year-to-date: BEVs: 152.965 (up 33 percent) and 16.1 percent market share. PHEVs: 62.155 (up 21 percent) and 6.5 percent market share. Total: 215.120 (up 29 percent) and 22.7 percent market share. For reference, in the 12 months of 2022, more than 368.000 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in the UK, reaching an average market share of 22.8 percent. The Tesla Model Y once again achieved a spectacular success in the UK, becoming the most registered new car in June, with 5.539 registrations. This allowed to strengthen in the year-to-date standing, moving from 7th position to 4th place (19.551 units), just behind the third Nissan Qashqai (19.983). No other stand-alone all-electric model was able to get into top 10. +++
