Cars

brompton-c-line-electric-review:-fun-and-foldable,-fits-better-than-you’d-think

Brompton C Line Electric review: Fun and foldable, fits better than you’d think

brompton, brompton c-line, Cars, e-bikes, ebikes, Features, folding bikes / /

Brompton C Line Electric Review —

A motor evens out its natural disadvantages, but there’s still a learning curve.

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What can I say? It was tough putting the Brompton C Line Electric through its paces. Finding just the right context for it. Grueling work.

Enlarge / What can I say? It was tough putting the Brompton C Line Electric through its paces. Finding just the right context for it. Grueling work.

Kevin Purdy

There’s never been a better time to ride a weird bike.

That’s especially true if you live in a city where you can regularly see kids being dropped off at schools from cargo bikes with buckets, child seats, and full rain covers. Further out from the urban core, fat-tire e-bikes share space on trails with three-wheelers, retro-style cruisers, and slick roadies. And folding bikes, once an obscurity, are showing up in more places, especially as they’ve gone electric.

So when I got to try out the Brompton Electric C Line (in a six-speed model), I felt far less intimidated riding, folding, and stashing the little guy wherever I went than I might have been a few years back. A few folks recognized the distinctively small and British bike and offered a thumbs-up or light curiosity. If anyone was concerned about the oddity of this quirky ride, it was me, mostly because I obsessed over whether I could and should lock it up outside or not.

But for the most part, the Brompton fits in, and it works as a bike. It sat next to me at bars and coffee shops and outdoor eateries, it rode the DC Metro, it went on a memorial group ride, and it went to the grocery store. I repeatedly hauled it to a third-floor walkup apartment and brought it on a week’s vacation, fitting it on the floor behind the car driver’s seat. And with an electric battery pack, it was even easier to forget that it was any different from a stereotypical bike—so long as you didn’t look down.

Still, should you pay a good deal more than $3,000 (and probably more like $4,000 after accessories) for a bike with 16-inch tires—especially one you might never want to leave locked up outside?

Let’s get into that.

  • The Brompton C Line, pre-fold (mid-beer).

    Kevin Purdy

  • Step 1: Release a clasp and pull the bike frame up, allowing the rear wheel to swing forward underneath.

    Kevin Purdy

  • Step 2: Loosen the clamp and fold the front half back to align with the rear wheel, lining up a little hook on the wheel with the frame.

    Kevin Purdy

  • Step 3: Remove the battery (technically unnecessary, but wise), loosen a clamp holding up the handlebar, then fold it down onto the frame, letting a nub tuck into a locking notch.

    Kevin Purdy

  • Step 4: Drop down the seat (which also locks the frame into position), rotate one pedal onto the tire, and flip the other pedal up.

    Kevin Purdy

Learning The Fold

Whether you buy it at a store or have it shipped to you, a Brompton C Line is possibly the easiest e-bike to unpack, set up, and get rolling. You take out the folded-up bike, screw in the crucial hinge clamps that hold it together, put on the saddle, and learn how to unfold it for the first time. Throw some air in the tires, and you could be on your way about 20 minutes after getting the bike.

But you shouldn’t head out without getting some reps in on The Fold. The Fold is the reason the Brompton exists. It hasn’t actually changed that much since Andrew Ritchie designed it in 1975. Release a rear frame clip and yank the frame up, and the rear wheel and its frame triangle roll underneath the top tube. Unscrew a hinged clamp, then “stir” the front wheel backward, allowing a subtle hook to catch on the rear frame. Drop the seat and you’ll feel something lock inside the frame. You can then unhinge and fold the handlebar down, or you can keep it up to push the bike around on its tiny frame wheels in “shopping cart mode.”

If you forget the sequence of the fold, there are little reminders in a few spots on the bike.

If you forget the sequence of the fold, there are little reminders in a few spots on the bike.

Kevin Purdy

After maybe five attempts, I began to get The Fold done in less than a minute. After around a dozen tries, I started to appreciate its design and motions. The way a Brompton folds up is great for certain applications, like fitting into a car instead of using a rack, bringing on public transit or train rides, tucking underneath a counter or table, or fitting into the corner of the most space-challenged home. It can also be handy if you’re heading somewhere you’re wary of locking it up outside (more on that in a moment).

Brompton C Line Electric review: Fun and foldable, fits better than you’d think Read More »

tesla-may-be-in-trouble,-but-other-evs-are-selling-just-fine

Tesla may be in trouble, but other EVs are selling just fine

bmw, Cars, EV adoption, Ford, General Motors, GM, hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen / /

relax, EVs aren’t dead —

Almost every other automaker is seeing double-digit EV sales growth.

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Generic electric car charging on a city street

Getty Images/3alexd

Have electric vehicles been overhyped? A casual observer might have come to that conclusion after almost a year of stories in the media about EVs languishing on lots and letters to the White House asking for a national electrification mandate to be watered down or rolled back. EVs were even a pain point during last year’s auto worker industrial action. But a look at the sales data paints a different picture, one where Tesla’s outsize role in the market has had a distorting effect.

“EVs are the future. Our numbers bear that out. Current challenges will be overcome by the industry and government, and EVs will regain momentum and will ultimately dominate the automotive market,” said Martin Cardell, head of global mobility solutions at consultancy firm EY.

Public perception hasn’t been helped by recent memories of supply shortages and pandemic price gouging, but the chorus of concerns about EV sales became noticeably louder toward the end of last year and the beginning of 2024. EV sales in 2023 grew by 47 percent year on year, but the first three months of this year failed to show such massive growth. In fact, sales in Q1 2024 were up only 2.6 percent over the same period in 2023.

Tesla doesn’t break out its sales data by region anymore, but its new US registrations were down by as much as 25 percent, month on month, as its overall marketshare of EVs closes in on 50 percent this year; by contrast, Tesla was 80 percent of the US EV market in 2020. (Overall, Tesla’s global deliveries fell by 8.5 percent.)

The other sick patient in addition to Tesla is Volkswagen. Despite local production of the ID.4 crossover in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the brand saw EV sales fall by 37 percent in Q1. It has also abandoned plans to bring the ID.7 electric sedan to North America, and the long-awaited ID. Buzz microbus has yet to reach US showrooms more than eight years after it was first shown here.

But all this noise has been enough to spook executives into action. Both Ford and General Motors took the embarrassing step of rolling back their electrification goals, all but admitting they bet on the wrong horse. Instead of turning away from new internal combustion engine products, we’re set for a new flurry of hybrids—just don’t expect any of them to show up before 2026.

GM’s difficulty in ramping up its new family of EVs built around the UItium battery platform has been well-documented. The end of production of the Chevrolet Bolt, which sold for less than $30,000, didn’t help; with the little electric hatchback (and the slightly stretched Bolt EUV) no longer contributing to the sales charts, GM’s Q1 EV sales fell by 21 percent.

The problems with assembling Ultium cells into battery packs appears to be in GM’s past now. Cadillac Lyriqs are starting to become a common sight on the road, and GM CEO Mary Barra told Bloomberg that GM expects to build between 200,000 and 300,000 Ultium-based EVs this year, a huge increase over the 13,838 it managed to ship last year.

Meanwhile, Ford’s EV “slump” is nothing of the kind. In May, it sold 91 percent more F-150 Lightnings than last year. E-Transit sales were up 77 percent. And the Mustang Mach-E showed growth of 46 percent. In total, Ford’s EV sales for the first five months of this year were up 87.7 percent on 2023, helped no doubt by the company’s price cuts.

High double-digit sales growth (in Q1 2024) has also been occurring at Hyundai and Kia (up 56.1 percent), BMW (up 57.8 percent), Rivian (up 58.8 percent), Mercedes (up 66.9 percent), and Toyota (up 85.9 percent).

“As anticipated, Tesla’s sales took a hit, influencing the overall market dynamics. However, a few brands saw significant EV sales increases, achieving over 50 percent year-over-year growth,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. “As noted in January, we are calling 2024 ‘the Year of More.’ More new products, more incentives, more inventory, more leasing and more infrastructure will drive EV sales higher this year. Even so, we’ll continue to see ups and downs as the industry moves toward electrification.”

“We view the current headwinds that EV sales are experiencing in the US and Europe as short-term in nature. The buildup of charging infrastructure, availability of affordable EV models with a fall in battery prices, combined with government regulations, will drive sustainable BEV growth in the long run,” said Cardell.

Tesla may be in trouble, but other EVs are selling just fine Read More »

f1-cars-in-2026-will-be-smaller,-safer,-more-nimble,-more-sustainable

F1 cars in 2026 will be smaller, safer, more nimble, more sustainable

Cars, F1, Formula 1 / /
A render of a 2026 F1 car

Enlarge / For 2026, F1 cars are going on a little bit of a diet.

Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile

Earlier today, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile laid out the direction for Formula 1’s next set of technical regulations, which will go into effect in 2026. It will be the second big shakeup of F1’s technical regs since 2022 and involves sweeping changes to the hybrid powertrain and a fundamental rethink of how some of the aerodynamics work.

“With this set of regulations, the FIA has sought to develop a new generation of cars that are fully in touch with the DNA of Formula 1—cars that are light, supremely fast and agile but which also remains at the cutting edge of technology, and to achieve this we worked towards what we called a ‘nimble car’ concept. At the center of that vision is a redesigned power unit that features a more even split between the power derived from the internal combustion element and electrical power,” said Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s single-seater technical director.

Didn’t we just get new rules?

It feels like F1 only just got through its last big rule change with the (re)introduction of ground-effect cars at the start of 2022. Since the early 1980s, F1 cars have generated aerodynamic grip, or downforce, via front and rear wings. But drivers found it increasingly difficult to follow each other closely through corners as the dirty air from the car in front starved the following car’s front wing of air, robbing it of cornering grip in the process.

The 2022 rules changed this, requiring cars to use a sculpted floor that generates downforce via the venturi effect. This reduced the importance of the front wing, and indeed, the cars were able to race closely in 2022. In two years’ time, F1 cars will use less complicated floors with smaller venturis that generate a smaller ground effect, which the FIA says should mean no more having to run “ultra-stiff and low setups” to avoid the problem of porpoising.

Overall downforce is being reduced by 30 percent, but there’s an even greater reduction in drag—55 percent is the target, which is being done in part to accommodate the new hybrid powertrain.

More hybrid power

The V6 internal combustion engine is becoming less powerful, dropping to an output of 536 hp (400 kW), but the electric motor that also drives the rear wheels will now generate 470 hp (350 kW). That leaves the combined power output roughly where it is today, but only when the battery has enough charge. However, cars will be allowed to harvest twice as much energy (8.5 MJ) per lap under braking as now.

And as Ars has covered in the past, the engines will run on drop-in sustainable fuels. The new engine regulations have succeeded in tempting Honda back into the sport, as well as bringing in Ford and Audi, and possibly Cadillac in time.

Since the cars will be less powerful when they’re just running on internal combustion, more than halving the amount of drag they experience means they shouldn’t be too slow along the straights.

When F1 first introduced its original hybrid, called KERS (for kinetic energy recovery system), the electric motor boost was something the driver could use on demand. But that changed when the current powertrain rules came into effect in 2014, and it became up to the car to decide when to deploy energy from the battery to supplement the V6 motor.

In 2026, that changes again. The hybrid system is programmed to use less of the electric motor’s power as speeds pass 180 mph (270 km/h), down to zero at 220 mph (355 km/h), relying just on the V6 by then. But if a car is following within a second, the chasing driver can override that cutoff, allowing the full 470 hp from the electric motor at speeds of up to 209 mph (337 km/h), with up to half a MJ of extra energy.

F1 cars in 2026 will be smaller, safer, more nimble, more sustainable Read More »

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Ars drives the second-generation Rivian R1T and R1S electric trucks

car review, Cars, electric truck, Rivian, Rivian R1S, Rivian R1T / /

no more car sick —

The EV startup has reengineered the R1 to make it better to drive, easier to build.

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A Rivian R1T and R1S parked together in a forest

Enlarge / The R1S and R1T don’t look much different from the electric trucks we drove in 2022, but under the skin, there have been a lot of changes.

Rivian

In rainy Seattle this week, Rivian unveiled what it’s calling the “Second Generation” of its R1 line with a suite of mostly under-the-hood software and hardware updates that increase range, power, and efficiency while simultaneously lowering the cost of production for the company. While it’s common for automotive manufacturers to do some light refreshes after about four model years, Rivian has almost completely retooled the underpinnings of its popular R1S SUV and R1T pickup just two years after the vehicles made their debut.

“Overdelivering on the product is one of our core values,” Wassym Bensaid, the chief software officer at Rivian, told a select group of journalists at the event on Monday night, “and customer feedback has been one of the key inspirations for us.”

For these updates, Rivian changed more than half the hardware components in the R1 platform, retooled its drive units to offer new tri- and quad-motor options (with more horsepower), updated the suspension tuning, deleted 1.6 miles (2.6 km) of wiring, reduced the number of ECUs, increased the number of cameras and sensors around the vehicle, changed the battery packs, and added some visual options that better aligned with customizations that owners were making to their vehicles, among other things. Rivian is also leaning harder into AI and ML tools with the aim of bringing limited hands-free driver-assistance systems to their owners toward the end of the year.

  • Usually, an automaker waits four years before it refreshes a product, but Rivian decided to move early.

    Rivian

  • The R1 interior can feel quite serene.

    Rivian

  • Perhaps you’d prefer something more colorful?

    Rivian

  • An exploded view of a drive unit with a pair of motors.

    Rivian

  • There are two capacities of lithium-ion battery, and an optional lithium iron phosphate pack with 275 miles of range is on the way.

  • Rivian’s R1 still looks friendly amid a sea of scary-looking SUVs and trucks.

    Rivian

While many of these changes have simplified manufacturing for Rivian, which as of Q1 of this year lost a whopping $38,000 on every vehicle it sold, the company has continued to close the gap with the likes of BMW and Mercedes in terms of ride, handling, comfort, and efficiency.

On the road in the new R1

We drove a new second-gen dual-motor 665 hp (496 kW), 829 lb-ft (1,124 Nm) R1S Performance, which gets up to 410 miles (660 km) of range with the new Max Pack battery, out to DirtFish Rally School in Snoqualmie in typically rainy Seattle weather. On the road, the new platform, with its revised suspension and shocks, felt much more comfortable than it did in our first experience with an R1S in New York in 2022.

The vehicle offers modes that allow you to tackle pretty much any kind of driving that life can throw at you, including Sport, All Purpose (there’s no longer a “Conserve” mode), Snow, All-Terrain, and Soft Sand, alongside customizable suspension, ride feel and height, and regen settings. The R1S feels far more comfortable from all seating positions, including the back and third-row seats. There’s less floaty, car-sick-inducing modulation over bumps in All-Purpose, and Sport tightens things down nicely when you want to have a bit more road feel.

One of the big improvements on the road comes from the new “Autonomy Compute Module” and its suite of high-resolution 4K HDR cameras, radars, and sensors that have been upgraded on the R1 platform. The new R1 gets 11 cameras (one more than the first gen), with eight times greater resolution, five radar modules, and a new proprietary AI and ML integrated system that learns from anonymized driver data and information taken from the world around the vehicles to “see” 360-degrees around the vehicle, even in inclement weather.

While the R1S has had cruise control since its launch, the new “Autonomy” platform allows for smart lane-changing—something Rivian calls “Lane Change on Command” when using the new “Enhanced Highway Assist” (a partially automated driver assist), and centers the vehicle in marked lanes. We tried both features on the highways around Seattle, and the system handled very rainy and wet weather without hesitation, but it did ping-pong between the lane markers, and when that smart lane change system bailed out at the last minute, the move was abrupt and not confidence-inspiring, since there was no apparent reason for the system to fail. These features are not nearly as good as the latest from BMW and Mercedes, both of which continue to offer some of the most usable driver-assist systems on the market.

With the new R1 software stack, Rivian is also promising some limited hands-free highway driver-assistance features to come at the end of the year. While we didn’t get to try the feature in the short drive to DirtFish, Rivian says eye-tracking cameras in the rearview mirror will ensure that drivers have ample warning to take over when the system is engaged and needs human input.

Ars drives the second-generation Rivian R1T and R1S electric trucks Read More »

toyota-tests-liquid-hydrogen-burning-corolla-in-another-24-hour-race

Toyota tests liquid hydrogen-burning Corolla in another 24-hour race

Akio Toyoda, Cars, hydrogen engine, hydrogen internal combustion, Toyota GR Corolla, Toyota GR Racing / /

yep, still at it —

The experience has taught it how to improve thermal efficiency, Toyota says.

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A Toyota GR Corolla race car

Enlarge / “It got more attention than last year, and the development feels steadier, faster, and safer,” said Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda when asked how the hydrogen-powered Corolla had improved from 2023.

Toyota

A couple of weekends ago, when most of the world’s motorsport attention was focused on Monaco and Indianapolis, Toyota President Akio “Morizo” Toyoda was taking part in the Super Taikyu Fuji 24 Hours at Fuji Speedway in Japan. Automotive executives racing their own products is not exactly unheard of, but few instances have been quite as unexpected as competing in endurance races with a hydrogen-burning Corolla.

A hydrogen-powered Toyota has shown up for the past few years, in fact, as the company uses the race track to learn new things about thermal efficiency that it says have benefitted its latest generation of internal-combustion engines, which it debuted to the public at the end of May.

With backing from its government, the Japanese auto industry has continued to explore hydrogen as an alternative vehicle energy source instead of liquid hydrocarbons or batteries. Commercially, that’s been in the form of hydrogen fuel cells, although with very little success among drivers, even in areas that have some hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

But the hydrogen powertrain in the GR Corolla uses an internal combustion engine, not a fuel cell. The project first competed in the 24-hour race at Fuji in 2021, then again with a little more success in 2022.

For 2023, there was a significant change to the car, now fueled by liquid hydrogen, not gaseous. Instead of trying to fill tanks pressurized to 70 MPa (700 bar), now it just has to be cooled to minus-253° C (minus-423° F). Liquid hydrogen has almost twice the energy density—although still only a third as much as gasoline—and the logistics and equipment required to support cryogenic refueling at the racetrack were much less than with pressurized hydrogen.

The new (left) and old (right) liquid hydrogen tanks.

Enlarge / The new (left) and old (right) liquid hydrogen tanks.

Toyota

The liquid hydrogen is stored in a double-walled tank that was much easier to package within the compact interior of the GR Corolla than the four pressurized cylinders it replaced. This year, the tank is 50 percent larger (storing 15 kg of hydrogen) and elliptical, which proved quite an interesting technical challenge for supplier Shinko. The new tank required Toyota to rebuild the car to repackage everything, taking the opportunity to cut 50 kg (110 lbs) of weight in the process.

From the tank, a high-pressure pump injects the fuel into a vaporizer, where it becomes a gas again and then heads to the engine to be burned. Unfortunately, the pump wasn’t so durable in 2023 and had to be replaced twice during the race, costing hours in the process.

For 2024, a revised pump was designed to last the full 24 hours, although during testing, it proved to be the source of a fuel leak, wasting the team’s time while the problem was isolated. Luckily, this was much less severe than when, in 2023, a gaseous hydrogen pipe leak in the engine bay led to a fire at a test.

Sadly, the new fuel pump had intermittent problems actually pumping fuel during the race, most likely due to sloshing in the tank. Later on, an ABS module failure sidelined the car in the garage for five hours, and while the team was able to take the checkered flag, it had completed fewer laps in 2024 than in 2023.

But 24-hour racing is really hard, and the race wasn’t a write-off for Toyota. It achieved its goal of 30-lap stints between refueling, and while the new pump wasn’t problem-free throughout the race (nor had to run for the entire 24 hours), it didn’t need to be replaced once, let alone twice.

2 filter.” height=”654″ src=”https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240524_01_05-980×654.jpg” width=”980″>

Enlarge / For 2024, there was an automated system to clean the CO2 filter.

Toyota

I’m still scratching my head slightly about the carbon capture device that’s fitted to the car’s air filter. This adsorbs CO2 out of the air as the car drives, storing it in a small tank. It’s a nice gesture, I guess.

Since starting development of the hydrogen ICE engine, Toyota has found real gains in performance and efficiency, and the switch to liquid hydrogen has cut refueling times by 40 percent. All of those make it more viable as a carbon-free fuel, it says. But the chances of seeing production vehicles that get refueled with liquid hydrogen seem remote to me.

Even though Toyota still has optimism that one day it will be able to sell combustion cars that just emit water from their tailpipes, it’s pragmatic enough to know there needs to be some real-world payoff now beyond that the chairman likes racing and people like to keep him happy.

“Hydrogen engine development has really contributed to our deeper understanding of engine heat efficiency. It was a trigger that brought this technology” Toyota CTO Hiroki Nakajima told Automotive News at the debut of the automaker’s new 1.5 L and 2.0 L four-cylinder engines, which are designed to meet the European Union’s new Euro 7 emissions regulations, which go into effect in 2027.

Toyota tests liquid hydrogen-burning Corolla in another 24-hour race Read More »

china’s-plan-to-dominate-ev-sales-around-the-world

China’s plan to dominate EV sales around the world

BYD, Cars, china, EVs, syndication / /
China’s plan to dominate EV sales around the world

FT montage/Getty Images

The resurrection of a car plant in Brazil’s poor northeast stands as a symbol of China’s global advance—and the West’s retreat.

BYD, the Shenzhen-based conglomerate, has taken over an old Ford factory in Camaçari, which was abandoned by the American automaker nearly a century after Henry Ford first set up operations in Brazil.

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, visited China last year, he met BYD’s billionaire founder and chair, Wang Chuanfu. After that meeting, BYD picked the country for its first carmaking hub outside of Asia.

Under a $1 billion-plus investment plan, BYD intends to start producing electric and hybrid automobiles this year at the site in Bahia state, which will also manufacture bus and truck chassis and process battery materials.

The new Brazil plant is no outlier—it falls into a wave of corporate Chinese investment in electric vehicle manufacturing supply chains in the world’s most important developing economies.

Financial Times

The inadvertent result of rising protectionism in the US and Europe could be to drive many emerging markets into China’s hands.

Last month, Joe Biden issued a new broadside against Beijing’s deep financial support of Chinese industry as he unveiled sweeping new tariffs on a range of cleantech products—most notably, a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles. “It’s not competition. It’s cheating. And we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said.

The measures were partly aimed at boosting Biden’s chances in his presidential battle with Donald Trump. But the tariffs, paired with rising restrictions on Chinese investment on American soil, will have an immense impact on the global auto market, in effect shutting China’s world-leading EV makers out of the world’s biggest economy.

The EU’s own anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric cars is expected to conclude next week as Brussels tries to protect European carmakers by stemming the flow of low-cost Chinese electric vehicles into the bloc.

Government officials, executives, and experts say that the series of new cleantech tariffs issued by Washington and Brussels are forcing China’s leading players to sharpen their focus on markets in the rest of the world.

This, they argue, will lead to Chinese dominance across the world’s most important emerging markets, including Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and the remaining Western economies that are less protectionist than the US and Europe.

“That is the part that seems to be lost in this whole discussion of ‘can we raise some tariffs and slow down the Chinese advance.’ That’s only defending your homeland. That’s leaving everything else open,” says Bill Russo, the former head of Chrysler in Asia and founder of Automobility, a Shanghai consultancy.

“Those markets are in play and China is aggressively going after those markets.”

China’s plan to dominate EV sales around the world Read More »

the-2024-subaru-solterra-is-nimble-but-sorely-lacks-range,-personality

The 2024 Subaru Solterra is nimble but sorely lacks range, personality

car review, Cars, Subaru, Subaru Solterra, Toyota bZ4x / /

how about an electric Baja —

Slow charging and inefficient driving, Solterra is no electric WRX or Forester.

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A Subaru Solterra drives on a dirt road

Enlarge / With just 222 miles of range, you can’t venture far off-grid in the Subaru Solterra.

Subaru

Over the years, Subaru has generated a cult following in the US, making its name with all-wheel drive powertrains and a go-anywhere attitude. Cars like the rally-bred WRXes and STIs did a lot of work here, but lately, Subaru has seemed to go in the opposite direction, phasing out fun drives like the STI lineup in favor of volume-movers like the Ascent and bloated versions of existing models such as the Subaru Wilderness editions.

Its first electric vehicle is perhaps even less in character. The $44,995 Solterra is the result of an ongoing partnership with Toyota and was developed together with the bZ4X. Unlike the Toyota, there’s no single-motor option for the Solterra. It’s all-wheel-drive only, with a pair of identical 107 hp (80 kW) permanent magnet electric motors, one for each axle. That means you can do some, but not all, of the off-road things you’d expect to do with a Subaru.

Looks are deceiving

At first glance, the Solterra looks like the edgy, tech-leaning offspring of a Crosstrek and an Impreza wagon. The 8.3 inches of ground clearance is slightly less than the Outback or Forester, while the Solterra comes in at 184.6 inches (4,689 mm) in length, placing it squarely in the middle of the brand’s stable. It’s a rather compact SUV, even more so when you try to get comfortable in the cockpit. My short frame was cramped, and anyone taller than me won’t feel welcome on long drives.

The large multifunction steering wheel can obscure the small instrument display in front of the driver.

Enlarge / The large multifunction steering wheel can obscure the small instrument display in front of the driver.

Subaru

In what seems to be the norm with Subaru these days, the interior is full of plastic and cloth. Even on this top-line Touring trim test car, which comes in at just under $55,000, there’s a very cheap-looking dash with a plethora of rigid lines. Controls are close by, but the overall layout is borderline infuriating, with slow response times through the central infotainment system and a driver alert system that beeped and shrieked every 20 seconds for one reason or another. There were so many driver warnings and advisories popping up that I eventually tuned them out, which is probably not the intended effect.

Range Non-Rover

There’s about five miles (8 km) of charging difference between the 228-mile (367 km) Premium trim level and the Limited and Touring trims, which have an EPA range of 222 miles (357 km) on a single charge of the 72.8 kWh lithium-ion battery. In my 10 days with the car, the only time I eclipsed 200 miles (321 km) was leaving my driveway with the range reading 201. After about 10 minutes, it slumped back under 200 miles. In fairly normal city and highway conditions, I realized around 180 miles of range (290 km). When the weather called for air conditioning, I lost another 5–7 miles (8–11 km).

  • The Solterra is 184.6 inches (4,689 mm) long, 73.2 inches (1,859 mm) wide, 65 inches (1,651 mm) tall, with a 112.2-inch (2,850 mm) wheelbase. It has a curb weight of between 4,365 and 4,505 lbs (1,980–2,043 kg) depending on trim level.

    Subaru

  • The Toyota-developed infotainment system can be laggy.

    Subaru

  • The back seat has 35.5 inches (902 mm) of rear legroom.

    Subaru

  • There’s 27.7 cubic feet (783 L) of cargo volume with the rear seats in use and the cover in place.

    Subaru

  • Wireless device charging, as well as wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, are available in the Limited and Touring trims.

    Subaru

Charging is slow, however. A stop to recharge from about 20 to 80 percent state of charge took the better part of 45 minutes. At launch, the Solterra was rated at an even longer 56 minutes to DC fast-charge to 80 percent, but for model year 2024, Subaru says that in ideal conditions, this should now be as quick as 35 minutes.

Charging at home was an overnight endeavor—nine hours on a level 2 charger. The Solterra currently features a CCS1 charge port, but in 2025, the company will adopt the J3400 standard, with adapters made available to existing customers so they can charge at Tesla Supercharger sites.

The 2024 Subaru Solterra is nimble but sorely lacks range, personality Read More »

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Nvidia emails: Elon Musk diverting Tesla GPUs to his other companies

Cars, elon musk, NVIDIA, Nvidia H100, Tesla, Twitter, X, xAI / /

why not just make cars? —

The Tesla CEO is accused of diverting resources from the company again.

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A row of server racks

Enlarge / Tesla will have to rely on its Dojo supercomputer for a while longer after CEO Elon Musk diverted 12,000 Nvidia GPU clusters to X instead.

Tesla

Elon Musk is yet again being accused of diverting Tesla resources to his other companies. This time, it’s high-end H100 GPU clusters from Nvidia. CNBC’s Lora Kolodny reports that while Tesla ordered these pricey computers, emails from Nvidia staff show that Musk instead redirected 12,000 GPUs to be delivered to his social media company X.

It’s almost unheard of for a profitable automaker to pivot its business into another sector, but that appears to be the plan at Tesla as Musk continues to say that the electric car company is instead destined to be an AI and robotics firm instead.

Does Tesla make cars or AI?

That explains why Musk told investors in April that Tesla had spent $1 billion on GPUs in the first three months of this year, almost as much as it spent on R&D, despite being desperate for new models to add to what is now an old and very limited product lineup that is suffering rapidly declining sales in the US and China.

Despite increasing federal scrutiny here in the US, Tesla has reduced the price of its controversial “full-self driving” assist, and the automaker is said to be close to rolling out the feature in China. (Questions remain about how many Chinese Teslas would be able to utilize this feature given that a critical chip was left out of 1.2 million cars built there during the chip shortage.)

Perfecting this driver assist would be very valuable to Tesla, which offers FSD as a monthly subscription as an alternative to a one-off payment. The profit margins for subscription software services vastly outstrip the margins Tesla can make selling physical cars, which dropped to just 5.5 percent for Q1 2024. And Tesla says that massive GPU clusters are needed to develop FSD’s software.

Isn’t Tesla desperate for Nvidia GPUs?

Tesla has been developing its own in-house supercomputer for AI, called Dojo. But Musk has previously said that computer could be redundant if Tesla could source more H100s. “If they could deliver us enough GPUs, we might not need Dojo, but they can’t because they’ve got so many customers,” Musk said during a July 2023 investor day.

Which makes his decision to have his other companies jump all the more notable. In December, an internal Nvidia memo seen by CNBC said, “Elon prioritizing X H100 GPU cluster deployment at X versus Tesla by redirecting 12k of shipped H100 GPUs originally slated for Tesla to X instead. In exchange, original X orders of 12k H100 slated for Jan and June to be redirected to Tesla.”

X and the affiliated xAi are developing generative AI products like large language models.

Not the first time

This is not the first time that Musk has been accused of diverting resources (and his time) from publicly held Tesla to his other privately owned enterprises. In December 2022, US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Tesla asking Tesla to explain whether Musk was diverting Tesla resources to X (then called Twitter):

This use of Tesla employees raises obvious questions about whether Mr. Musk is appropriating resources from a publicly traded firm, Tesla, to benefit his own private company, Twitter. This, of course, would violate Mr. Musk’s legal duty of loyalty to Tesla and trigger questions about the Tesla Board’s responsibility to prevent such actions, and may also run afoul other “anti-tunneling rules that aim to prevent corporate insiders from extracting resources from their firms.”

Musk giving time meant (and compensated) for by Tesla to SpaceX, X, and his other ventures was also highlighted as a problem by the plaintiffs in a successful lawsuit to overturn a $56 billion stock compensation package.

And last summer, the US Department of Justice opened an investigation into whether Musk used Tesla resources to build a mansion for the CEO in Texas; the probe has since expanded to cover behavior stretching back to 2017.

These latest accusations of misuse of Tesla resources come at a time when Musk is asking shareholders to reapprove what is now a $46 billion stock compensation plan.

Nvidia emails: Elon Musk diverting Tesla GPUs to his other companies Read More »

think-evs-are-too-expensive?-here-are-11-for-under-$40k.

Think EVs are too expensive? Here are 11 for under $40K.

Cars, cheap electric car, cheap EV, Electric vehicle, electric vehicle adoption, EV adoption / /

or buy used —

The average new car costs more than $47,000—here are 17 EVs for less than that.

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A piggy bank inside a

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

New cars have gotten pretty expensive, and it feels like electric cars are especially pricey. The average sale price of a new car has dropped a couple of thousand dollars since it peaked in early 2023, but at more than $47,400 in April, sticker shock is understandable, particularly as interest rates have doubled over the course of the past two years. Based on reader feedback, that impression is particularly pronounced when it comes to new electric vehicles. But EV prices have actually been falling, and inventory is growing. So we put together a list of all the new EVs on sale today for less than the average transaction price of a new car. You can buy 17 different EVs for less than the average price of a new car, and 11 are available for less than $40,000.

Nissan Leaf

The Leaf is the cheapest new EV on sale today.

Enlarge / The Leaf is the cheapest new EV on sale today.

Jonathan Gitlin

First on the list is the Nissan Leaf, which starts at just $28,140 for the version with a 40 kWh battery pack. Nissan was an early EV pioneer, and the current Leaf is the second generation to wear the name. But it hasn’t always been on the cutting edge, and some of the Leaf’s specs that felt a little outdated in 2017 may feel more so in 2024. The Leaf is eligible for a $3,750 IRS clean vehicle tax credit.

Mini SE

There's an old joke where I come from.

Enlarge / There’s an old joke where I come from. “How do you get to Wales in a Mini,” it asks, except instead of “to Wales” the country, the joke is “two whales,” and the answer is “one in the front, one in the back.” Such jokes are unlikely to be repeated about the new battery electric Mini Cooper SE, but if they are, the answer will probably be “slowly, because you have to stop and charge it a lot.”

Jonathan Gitlin

With new tariffs on Chinese-made EVs, no one is entirely sure when the next electric Mini Cooper will go on sale in the US. But right now, you can buy the current Mini Cooper SE for a starting price of $30,900. Although the suspension can feel stiffer than a supercar’s, if you live in a city and don’t need mega-miles of range, the Mini fits the bill quite effectively and is much more of a hoot to drive (and much cheaper) than the John Cooper Works GP mini.

Fiat 500e

Fiat thinks the 500e makes the perfect second car.

Enlarge / Fiat thinks the 500e makes the perfect second car.

Stephen Edelstein

The $32,500 electric Fiat 500e is one of the newest cars on our list; we only drove it for the first time in early April. It has more range than a Mini, and it charges faster, too.

Think EVs are too expensive? Here are 11 for under $40K. Read More »

the-refreshed-2024-hyundai-elantra-n-remains-a-darn-good-enthusiast-car

The refreshed 2024 Hyundai Elantra N remains a darn good enthusiast car

car review, Cars, Hyundai Elantra N / /
A blue Hyundai Elantra N

Enlarge / The regular Hyundai Elantra is a perfectly fine compact sedan. But once the boffins at Hyundai N got hold of it, they transformed it into something with a lot more character.

Peter Nelson

Few cars are aimed quite at driving enthusiasts like the wholesome sport compact. In terms of everyday usability and fun factor, little can touch them, and luckily, there’s still a good variety of them on the new market. Among the best is the Hyundai Elantra N, which, for the 2024 model year, received a styling and chassis refresh. Pricing starts at $33,245 for three pedals and a manual gearbox, or $35,515 for a dual-clutch eight-speed, and either is a massive value for the performance and fun factor that they offer.

Amply sporty styling, plenty spacious

The 2024 Elantra N’s biggest change is in its face. Where previously it had beady eyes surrounded in a sea of black trim—kind of like the vehicular equivalent of a Belgian Malinois—its headlight, grille, and intake are now more geometric. Looks are subjective, but I’m a fan of the headlights, and the functional inlets improve radiator and brake cooling over the previous fascia.

Elsewhere, it’s pretty much the same angular four-door wearing some trapezoidal accents across its body panels and a pronounced rear spoiler. A new set of forged 19-inch wheels is wrapped in 245/35/19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires—these also shave off 8.25 lbs (3.75 kg) of unsprung weight at each corner, which bodes well for acceleration and handling.

  • The Elantra N is easy to distinguish via its bodykit and rear wing.

    Peter Nelson

  • Hyundai

  • The Elantra N’s seats hold you in place.

    Peter Nelson

  • There’s a grab handle for the passenger.

    Peter Nelson

  • the turbocharged four-cylinder engine has character.

    Peter Nelson

Inside, the Elantra N is spacious, offering great head- and legroom for tall folks up front and much of the same in the back. The front seats are some of the best on the market, offering excellent firmness and very assuring bolsters to keep you held in place when cornering. The steering wheel’s rim is thick and confidence-inspiring, though I wish I could have telescoped it closer to my torso.

Materials quality is good for its price, with substantial soft-touch surfaces where it matters, and the various switchgear and controls are laid out in a very clean manner—as is its infotainment system, which is lag-free. Conveniently, there’s a grab handle carved into the center console for the front-seat passenger. Finally, the N’s spacious interior translates to good overall visibility from a sporty driving position; you don’t sit up high but rather down in it, as any good sport compact ought to be.

The refreshed 2024 Hyundai Elantra N remains a darn good enthusiast car Read More »

turn-almost-any-bike-into-an-e-bike-with-the-clip

Turn almost any bike into an e-bike with the Clip

Cars, Clip, e-bikes, friction drive / /

Easy e-bike —

Dead simple to use, the Clip offers up to 12 miles of electric range for your bike.

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Clip attached to a mountain bike

Enlarge / The Clip attached to a late-90s vintage mountain bike.

Eric Bangeman

Shortly after World War II, a French manufacturer by the name of Solex started selling mopeds. These were not your “typical” moped that looks kind of like a motorcycle with pedals—the mopeds made by Solex were essentially bicycles with a small, two-stroke engine mounted over the front wheel that could propel the rider around 100 km on a single liter of gas mixture. The downside: Solex mopeds were loud and cumbersome to ride due to the weight distribution, and they never really caught on in North America.

Clip, a startup based in Brooklyn, New York, has come up with its own twist on the Solex. Its only product, the eponymously named Clip, is a friction drive unit that attaches to the front fork of any bicycle, turning it into an e-bike. At $499 for the Commuter model and $599 for the Explorer, it is a relatively inexpensive way to turn just about any bicycle into an e-bike for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

The Clip mounts to the front fork just below the brake caliper.

Enlarge / The Clip mounts to the front fork just below the brake caliper.

Eric Bangeman

Weighing in at 8.8 lb (4 kg) for the Commuter model (the Explorer is a pound heavier), the Clip is at its essence a portable friction-drive. There’s a detachable controller that mounts on the handlebar and the unit itself. The Explorer model, the one we reviewed, has a 192 Wh battery that takes an hour to fully charge. Its range is pegged at “up to 12 miles,” a claim that is pretty accurate based on our testing, and the top speed is 15 mph. The Commuter model offers half the battery capacity, charge time, and range.

Twelve miles may not seem like a lot, especially in contrast to e-bikes with ranges that exceed 70 miles. But the Clip isn’t designed for long, leisurely rides. It’s a tool for folks who want to resuscitate old bikes that might be gathering dust in the garage. In my case, that bike is a 1997 Gary Fisher Marlin mountain bike that is now only ridden once or twice a year.

Clipping the Clip to your bike

The Clip arrived in a box with a single sheet of instructions glued to the inside with a pair of QR codes. One leads to the product manual, but the other one has a surprising function: scheduling a one-on-one orientation session with Clip, which is unusual and fantastic at the same time. Mine took about 20 minutes.

The Clip remote. Hold the red button down to go; the white button below will regenerate the battery.

Enlarge / The Clip remote. Hold the red button down to go; the white button below will regenerate the battery.

Eric Bangeman

In theory, attaching the Clip to a bike is simple, and it is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. First, remove the remote from the Clip, which attaches to the bicycle’s handlebar with a clever rubber loop. Next, grab one side of the Clip, slide the button on the handle, and push the handle forward. Then align the top edge so that it sits just below the brake caliper and pull down on the handle of the Clip. If you’ve done it right, you’ll hear a satisfying click, and the white LED battery charge indicators on the Clip will light up. The wheel of the Clip should now be resting on the front wheel of the bike, so congratulations—you now have an e-bike.

The view from the top.

Enlarge / The view from the top.

Eric Bangeman

Operation is dead simple. Press and hold the red button to activate the friction drive. Press and hold the white button for some regenerative braking action. The lack of displays and apps means we have to take Clip’s word that the regen function can restore 12 to 18 percent of the device’s range. In practice, it acts as a low-key brake as it sends charge back to the battery.

Immediately after mounting, I found that I had to pedal for a second or two before a button press would register with the Clip. After that, it worked like a charm. Positioning the remote close to the grip worked the best, and I gradually got used to holding the button while pedaling. Remembering to switch to the regen button while slowing down was a bit harder.

The extra 10 pounds of gear attached to the front wheel messes with the weight distribution, leading to one or two “whoa” moments my first time riding with it attached. But I figured out how to handle the bike and its new center of gravity fairly quickly. If you’re feeling lazy, you don’t need to pedal at all, and the Clip will eventually get you moving around 15 mph. Start pedaling, and you’ll feel the Clip adding to your effort—unless the road is wet. The Clip works best on dry roads; leave it at home if it’s raining.

At the end of the ride, unmount the Clip and take it with you.

Enlarge / At the end of the ride, unmount the Clip and take it with you.

Clip

Once you’ve reached your destination, grab the handle, pull it back toward you, and remove the Clip from the bike. Drop the remote back into its spot, and carry the Clip with you.

There are loads of e-bike conversion kits to choose from, but I have a hard time imagining something easier to install and use. And that’s what makes the Clip such a good product—there’s no messing with tools, installing motors, and mounting batteries. The Clip literally clips to your bike and electrifies it. I wouldn’t use it for a trip to the grocery store because I wouldn’t want to lug the Clip up and down the aisles. But for quick trips or short commutes, it’s a fantastic way to give new life to an old bike.

Turn almost any bike into an e-bike with the Clip Read More »

jeep’s-first-ev-is-the-600-horsepower,-300-mile-range-wagoneer-s

Jeep’s first EV is the 600 horsepower, 300-mile-range Wagoneer S

Cars, Jeep Wagoneer, Jeep Wagoneer S, Stellantis, STLA / /

four screens —

Jeep invented the luxury SUV in 1963. Now it’s made an electric one.

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A silver Jeep Wagoneer S drives on a rainy city street

Enlarge / Jeep is ready to join the electric SUV fray with the new Wagoneer S, which goes on sale later this year.

Jeep

The Jeep brand has finally debuted its first purpose-built electric vehicle. It’s targeting the hotly contested SUV segment with the new Wagoneer S, which goes on sale this fall. But other than its name, it shares little with the gasoline-powered Wagoneer; the Wagoneer S uses the same EV architecture—called STLA Large—as the forthcoming electric Dodge Charger.

It looks like Jeep is using a similar playbook to Dodge and Ram as it introduces its electric models: Give them the same name and styling as a familiar bestseller to keep customers comfortable, then give them serious power output and some headline-grabbing numbers to generate a halo effect.

Powerful

That’s why the Jeep Wagoneer S Launch Edition will offer 600 hp (447 kW), 617 lb-ft (837 Nm), and a 0–60 mph (0-98 km/h) time of 3.4 seconds. It’s powered by a 100.5 kWh battery pack with nickel manganese cobalt chemistry operating at 400 V.

Jeep said that’s sufficient for at least 300 miles (482 km) of range on a single charge, which is far from the 4.3 miles/kWh (6.9 kWh/100 km) that parent company Stellantis said it was targeting for US-bound EVs when it originally announced the STLA Large platform. Despite the size of the pack, it should fast-charge quite rapidly, going from 5–80 percent state of charge in just 28 minutes (20–80 percent takes 23 minutes, we’re told).

Don't expect to get access to the Tesla Supercharger network.

Enlarge / Don’t expect to get access to the Tesla Supercharger network.

Jeep

Native J3400 ports won’t show up until model-year 2026, so it’s CCS1 for the time being. When Stellantis announced it was adopting the Tesla-style J3400 port, it made no mention of having negotiated access to the Tesla Supercharger network, and the Wagoneer S reveal is similarly silent on the matter.

Each Wagoneer S axle is driven by a permanently excited electric motor rated at up to 335 hp (250 kW), and the front drive unit can be disconnected by a clutch for better efficiency. Befitting an SUV wearing the Jeep name, it features a range of on- and off-road drive modes.

According to the spec sheet, this is the most aerodynamic vehicle ever to wear the Jeep badge, albeit with a drag coefficient of 0.29 that’s merely average when compared to other electric SUVs.

Not cheap

If you were expecting a bare-bones cheap Jeep EV, you’ll have to keep waiting. Jeep invented the entire concept of a luxury SUV with the original Wagoneer in 1963, and it says this new Wagoneer S evolves the brand “with a new embrace of technology, luxury, and innovation.”

  • The Wagoneer S is 192.4 inches (4,886 mm) long, 74.8 inches (1,900 mm) wide, and 64.8 inches (1,645 mm) tall, with a 113-inch (2,870 mm) wheelbase. It’s quite heavy, with a curb weight of 5,667 lbs (2,571 kg).

    Jeep

  • 2024 Jeep® Wagoneer S Launch Edition Radar Red Interior.

    Jeep

  • The launch edition of the Wagoneer S doesn’t lack for power.

    Jeep

  • The Wagoneer S has user-customizable interior LED lighting.

    Jeep

The Launch Edition—which starts at $71,995 and is eligible for the full $7,500 IRS clean vehicle tax credit—comes with a lot of equipment standard, including heated and ventilated seats in the front and back, a 19-speaker McIntosh sound system, and a bevy of screens that include the main instrument display, the main infotainment screen, an infotainment screen for the front passenger, and a fourth screen for the climate controls.

But in keeping with the increased social responsibility that comes with building EVs, the interior uses synthetic leather instead of cow hides, and the headliner and carpets are made from recycled materials.

“The launch of the all-electric Jeep Wagoneer S marks a new chapter in the storied history of the Jeep brand,” said Jeep CEO Antonio Filosa. “Building upon nearly a century of innovation and design, this first global EV will introduce a whole new generation of owners to an experience that is distinctly Jeep and 100 percent electric in every way. With new energy in the Jeep vehicle lineup, ranging from EV to V8, customers have never had more freedom to choose their own adventure.”

Trailhawk concept

Since the Jeep name is synonymous with off-road activity, the company also showed off a Trailhawk concept of the Wagoneer S. This “showcases what the all-electric Jeep Wagoneer S lineup is truly capable of, whether cornering tight turns with ease or traversing new ground off the beaten path,” Filosa said.

  • Jeep also showed off this Trailhawk concept based on the Wagoneer S.

    Jeep

  • The interior was probably designed with dudes who collect axes and morale patches in mind.

    Jeep

There’s lifted suspension for better ground clearance and a more aggressive off-road look, with body cladding protecting the Jeep’s lower extremities. The interior features a grab bar for the front passenger to hold onto while the EV negotiates steep angles, or for you to mount gear onto. There’s also a meteorite-inspired stone veneer on the dash and an octagonal steering wheel with “tactical-inspired grip section[s]” at the 9 and 3 positions.

Jeep’s first EV is the 600 horsepower, 300-mile-range Wagoneer S Read More »