Chris Till

  • Will a Non-Leaf EV Be Announced This Year?

    I wrote earlier in the year about whether there would be any new EV models announced this year. It wasn’t looking good back then and it’s still not looking any better now. The new Leaf is announced tomorrow, which is very exciting. I’m hoping we see Bolt type range and 80kw charging possibility. Maybe up to current Supercharger speed of 120kw.

    I hope it does come out this year because we can’t have a year with absolutely no other new EVs at all. The Model 3 is obviously in production now but we’ve known about it for so long, and I’m talking more about announcements.

    The real test will come at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Generally though, we tend to find out about a lot of announcements beforehand these days, and we haven’t seen anything about a new EV from any manufacturers. But I really hope that we see something. Another motor show without a new manufacturer announcing its first EV would be a massive disappointment.

    As far as EV launches in 2017. The Leaf should make it out before the end of the year around the world. It seems like they have the car ready to go as soon as it’s announced. The Model 3 is the other big new car this year and I’m excited about it, but personally, the most exciting thing for me is the affordable end of the market. Cars that are about half the cost of a Model 3. I want everyone to be able to afford an EV. I want to get rid of ICE cars as soon as possible.

    So with that said, has 2017 been a good year when it comes to affordable EV annoucnements? No, it hasn’t. The last major update was the Renault Zoe with massively improved battery pack. The updated Zoe with 200 mile range came out at the tail end of 2016 and there isn’t a similarly sized and priced car to challenge it. The Zoe has been the only EV in the B Segment since it was launched in 2013. That to me is totally unacceptable. This is the segment that can bring EVs to everyone, and the manufacturers can’t be bothered to compete. They are simply more interested in bringing out petrol / diesel powered crossovers based on their existing B and C segment hatchbacks.

    You could argue that manufacturers should at the very least be bringing out EV versions of small crossovers because those are the popular segments right now. But the thing is that EV drivers are generally pretty knowledgeable. They know that hatchbacks make more sense than SUVs in almost all driving scenarios. They know that aerodynamics play a role in range and that SUVs are never going to be as efficient as similarly sized saloons and hatchbacks.

    But if you’re going to expand the market, you have to offer EVs in other segments. And if you’ve got the platforms already developed, why not make a crossover version for the more mainstream future EV buyers?

    There are two issues here. EV manufacturers need to make different types of EVs. And non-EV manufacturers just need to make EVs! Someone make a Renault Zoe competitor so I have a decision to make when it comes time for me to give back my Zoe.

  • What I would change about Formula-e for season 4

    1. Change the qualifying format
    2. Get rid of fanboost

    These are the two big changes that I think the championship would really benefit from making.

    My proposal for qualifying would be to have 1 super pole type session but for all the cars. Each driver takes their turn to set one fast lap. The order they go is determined by the combined times from free practices 1 and 2. This way, the element of luck is removed and because the championship contenders would be more likely to be near each other in the running order, things like weather and track evolution would be less likely to play a role.

    Even if drivers were effected by unfortunate circumstances, it would be more likely that their rivals would not benefit in the way they might have in the first 3 seasons.

    Fanboost is the other thing I would change. Personally, I don't think it's become as integral to the championship as they imagined when they thought it up. The same few guys seemed to always win this season. Perhaps because people don't want to see it play a role in the championship outcome. Perhaps those drivers just have the biggest fan bases. Either way, I don't think anyone would miss it if it didn't return in season 4.

    Also, the fact that they showed the standings early on in the day and you see that half of the drivers have 0% firstly makes it look like no one is voting. It doesn't reflect well on the championship.

    It also makes people less likely to vote for the 0% drivers, believing it was a lost cause, even though the vote leaders may have only had a few hundred votes by that point. Many people, including me, waited until just before the start or slightly after before voting anyway.

    There may be some other changes made. I'm sure the powers that be have a few interesting ideas. But whatever else they do, these are two things I really hope they have on the agenda.

  • Why I lost my passion for motorcycles

    I used to wax lyrical about how motorcycles were better than cars, more fun, more practical, easier to afford and so on. But the insistence of the motorcycle industry to focus on its traditional audience who love aftermarket exhausts and deafening noise, rather than innovate with electric bikes has lead me more towards 4 wheels, and those above statements are no longer as clear cut as they once were.

    The car industry has always been ahead, but in recent times, the difference is astounding. Even in the traditional area of motor racing, manufacturers are flocking to Formula-e in their droves while in bike racing, electric is virtually nowhere to be found. This year, the only electric bike in competition from a manufacturer (Honda) was the Mugen TT Zero machine, except this time, they had no competition whatsoever. Dorna have announced an electric class in MotoGP from 2019 but it will be most likely hidden away, ranked below even Moto3, and maybe not fully televised. It’s an incredibly weak proposal when you consider what could be possible. For some odd reason, even Pike’s Peak lacked electric competitors this year despite the obvious advantage of running an electric powertrain at high altitude.

    That’s the motorsport situation. The production situation is arguably only slightly better, but not by much. Only one of the major makes (BMW) are making electric motorcycles, and that is a maxi scooter. None of the recognisable brands, including all of the Japanese manufacturers, are making electric motorcycles in 2017. That is incredibly sad to me.

    I’m sure there is some element of money involved here. The motorcycle industry is tiny compared to the car industry. The R&D costs are going to be hard to justify for businesses that really need to focus on short to medium term revenue. It’s harder for them to look too far into the future like the car industry can.

    However, I don’t think money is the only reason. Motorcycling in general is far more closely associated with motorsport and noise in particular than the car industry is. Combine that with the fact that the male baby boomer generation have been the ones primarily supporting the industry in the last decade or so, and you have a cocktail that doesn’t create an environment for electric bikes to thrive. There are older male riders who are into tech and love riding their Zero bikes, but they are few and far between.

    Yamaha and Honda are tentatively taking baby steps into production EVs with this scooter sharing service in Japan that they’re collaborating on. I’m sure they also have some exciting tech ready to go in the background, but for now, they don’t feel confident enough to release anything for fear of alienating their customer base that they rely on tremendously. We’ve seen the concepts from both manufacturers at motor shows, but nothing has made its way into production.

    Will 2017 be the year they announce a production electric bike? Surely it has to be, but I’ve been predicting that and being let down each year for the last few years, so I can’t be sure. Vespa were the only bright spot in the motorcycle show season last year when they announced an electric model, but we’ve heard little of it since then, if anything.

    Yamaha, Honda and the rest need to stop being afraid to change. At some point they’re going to have to present electric sports bikes to petrolhead fanboys at a press conference. But we’re reaching a point now where even die-hard litre bike fans and harley riders are starting to understand the extent to which the industry is changing. People are realizing that electric isn’t a threat, it’s awesome fun and that initial negative opinion, fueled by fear, is now turning more and more towards excitement. There is some risk in acting too soon, but there may be even more risk long term in waiting too long. The young people that they’re so desperate to go after probably won’t come unless they embrace EVs. And companies like Zero are positioned to take advantage if they aren’t challenged in the next couple of years.

    If the big manufacturers can change the conversation with some great production machines, they can reignite my passion in bikes, and capture a potentially huge market worldwide that is untapped at present.

  • Is a Sub 2 Second 0-60 Tesla Roadster Suitable For Road Use?

    With the recent revelation that Tesla are giving discounts on their yet to be unveiled new Roadster to Tesla owners with more than 10 referrals, the subject turned to evolving electric performance. More specifically, how much acceleration is too much.

    If you’ve seen videos of people scaring the shit out of their family members and friends by doing hard launches in Tesla cars, then you’ll know how violent they are. Even the lowest spec Model S cars have far more acceleration than is necessary, but when you get into the sub 3 second 0-60 times, it starts to become dangerous in my opinion.

    With the new Roadster, we’re probably looking at sub 2 seconds for 0-60, which in my view should only be accessible when the car knows it is at a race track / drag strip or in the relative safety of private property.

    Unsurprisingly, this view is unpopular with many speed freak Tesla owners and fans other than myself who immediately rifle off a list of reasons as to why I’m entirely wrong. But let’s be honest, the P85D with insane mode was already extremely fast. But now they’ve gone so much further with the P100D Ludicrous. That car is capable of around 2.3 seconds to 60 in ideal conditions. That is crazy enough, but the Roadster as a sports car will be even crazier.

    Tesla are trying to be all things to all people with the same car. They want to be the fastest, the safest, the most fun to drive and have the best self driving features. That in itself is a great thing, and as a driver I appreciate that sometimes I want to drive, and sometimes I would love to be driven around by the car. But when it comes to performance and safety, the only way you can truly have both is to limit the performance when being driven on public roads. Tesla cars know where they are and can adjust suspension settings depending on their location. It would be easy to make insane and ludicrous modes location aware.

    I don’t think it would be right to do this on current models because owners bought the cars under the impression that they would always have insane and ludicrous modes available anywhere. But on newly built cars that have 0-60 times lower than 3 to 3.5 seconds, I think they should strongly consider making those modes track only. On current cars, they should take a more serious approach by strongly promoting these modes as designed for track use, rather than goading drivers into potential dangerous driving by asking if they want their mummies. It’s funny, but probably not the best idea.

    It isn’t entirely unprecedented for Tesla to make changes in this vein. They updated the software to limit the number of ludicrous launches people could do lifetime before the power would be permanently lessened. They also did a similar thing with supercharger speeds for drivers who are very heavy users of rapid charging in order to protect the battery packs.

    Something will inevitably have to give at some point. If Tesla don’t act first, then some kind of law will likely be brought in for fast cars in road use. It seems unlikely that authorities will turn a blind eye to extremely fast cars once the focus squarely turns to making autonomous cars and the road network in general as safe as it can possibly be for everyone.

    I’m not a killjoy telling Tesla to stop making fast cars. Make them super fast, but be fast on track and keep them sensible on the roads.

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