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Volvo signals 'end of the solely combustion engine-powered car'
- f4rker 9y ago"The switch is taking place because costly after-treatment systems will be needed to make diesels comply with tougher emissions regulations." Government controlling the economy via regulations
- L15p3r 9y agoSeems like Musk is starting to succeed in his plan in forcing the car makers to go electric
- comboy 9y agoExactly my thoughts. Plus, I wonder where are they going to get batteries from ;) Current hybrids pure electric range is laughable.
- johansch 9y ago> Plus, I wonder where are they going to get batteries from ;) Maybe here: http://nordic.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-former-right-hand-man-is-opening-a-$4billion-battery-factory-in-sweden-2017-3/ http://nordic.businessinsider.com/elon-musks-former-right-ha...
- bgarbiak 9y agoOr from LG: http://www.lgchem.com/global/lg-chem-company/information-center/press-release/news-detail-783 http://www.lgchem.com/global/lg-chem-company/information-cen... Batteries supply appears to be a solved problem quite soon.
- ckastner 9y agoOr rather from Panasonic. That's where Tesla get's its batteries from. (Tesla financed the Gigafactory, but it is operated by Panasonic, and they previously bought their lithium-battery cells from Panasonic. This is according to Tesla's own 10-K filings [1,2]). [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000156459016013195/tsla-10k_20151231.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000156459016... [2] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000156459017003118/tsla-10k_20161231.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000156459017...
- T-A 9y agohttps://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/china-is-about-to-bury-elon-musk-in-batteries https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-28/china-is-...
- mywittyname 9y agoThe range is probably not China's concern so much as emissions. Even mild hybrids reduce co2 emissions considerably (around a third). That's not accounting for the ability to power accessories without running the engine in gridlocked traffic.
- hjalle 9y agoAlmost 3 years ago the CEO (Håkan Samuelsson) said that he did not believe in pure elecric cars but rather hybrids[1]. Will be interesting to see if that still holds or if he has changed his beliefs. [1] http://www.dn.se/ekonomi/rena-elbilar-tror-vi-inte-pa/ http://www.dn.se/ekonomi/rena-elbilar-tror-vi-inte-pa/ (translated, https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dn.se%2Fekonomi%2Frena-elbilar-tror-vi-inte-pa%2F&edit-text= https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=y&prev=...)
- geff82 9y agoHe does not want to go 100% electric, but 100% hybrid AND electric.
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoPlugin hybrids do seem to offer the best of both worlds right now.
- alkonaut 9y agoMy problem with them is that they don't offer the greatest benefit of electric: the simple drive train. No thousands of moving part kept moving by a handful of fluids and rubber pulleys all needing meticulous care. With the hybrid you get the best of both worlds in convenience and range but the worst in maintenance. Battery aging? Check. Expensive combustion engine service schedules? Check.
- opencl 9y agoPeople keep saying that electric cars are inherently more reliable but Tesla has worse-than-average drivetrain reliability.
- alkonaut 9y agoI'm sure ev reliability will be bad for years as it's young technology but all the more reason not to duplicate risks by having two separate drivetrains.
- worldsayshi 9y agoCan we please standardize charging stations to not require a person to manually establish a connection? It seems that it would pose such an awkward and unnecessary hurdle. Especially in the coming age of self driving cars. Every time you arrive or leave you have to remember to (dis-)connect the charger. Why not just have some kind of inductive energy transfer or I dunno... something. Edit1: Heh, this could work I guess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM0lRfX6YI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM0lRfX6YI - seems it could be too expensive for mass-usage though. Edit2: This is more what I had in mind: https://www.pluglesspower.com/ https://www.pluglesspower.com/
- yardie 9y agoHave you felt how much heat your average 10W Qi charger puts out. While that energy loss is acceptable for a smartphone or tablet with a 10Wh battery your average BEV stores kWh of charge. 2 slabs of metal can move way more electrons than an electromagnet.
- londons_explore 9y agoA charging connector on the bottom of the car with some kind of self-aligning plastic shield could serve the same purpose. Park in a parking space, and the spring loaded charging connector built into the road surface springs up and connects the car and charging begins.
- yardie 9y agoThen you get into the whole how do you design a better mousetrap problem. Floors get dirty. Roads get dirty. Car bottoms get dirty. Electrical contacts like to be clean. When they are not they get hot, carbonize, and then enter a chain reaction until it fails or catches fire. Whatever solution you can conceive is going to be too expensive simply because you have to protect a high voltage/high amperage connection from the elements.
- jdietrich 9y ago>Can we please standardize charging stations to not require a person to manually establish a connection? It seems that it would pose such an awkward and unnecessary hurdle. It's a total non-issue in practice. Inductive charging has barely made an impact for mobile phones, because plugging in a cable just isn't a big chore. It very quickly becomes an automatic habit that requires no conscious effort.
- okket 9y agoMaybe this has something to do with the new Chinese owners? Maybe they see the future differently? And also, maybe, these owners have a somewhat privileged access to the largest battery production in the world?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- TYPE_FASTER 9y agoYes. From what I've read, the e-Drive powertrain has been in the works for a while, and Geely's investment is allowing Volvo to bring it to production.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoNot wrong, but the reasoning is off. China has basically mandated from the top a huge push in electric vehicles. This hmeans everyone has to ramp up on their tech. Toyota was for example hugely caught off guard because they were betting on hydrogen. Geely and other Chinese companies are quicker to receive these signals.
- leojg 9y agowhy not both? hydrogen cells seems to me as a great tech with a lot of potential. They can be used in situations where electrical chargers are not avaiable.
- skywhopper 9y agoHydrogen fuel cells are essentially just a really complicated battery. The technology undoubtedly has uses, but powering automobiles seems a poor choice. 30 years ago, it probably seemed more reasonable to transition the gasoline shipping-and-pumping power delivery to hydrogen, but the primary benefit is just the zero-emission aspect (at the car itself at least). But today, chemical battery tech has progressed to the point that it's on the edge of full practicality, and hydrogen isn't really any closer to reality than in was in the 90s.
- coldcode 9y agoPlug in ignores one very large population: people who live in apartments. Unless the apartment builders start to consider charging stations sufficient to the population, plug-ins are pointless. A hybrid works since I don't need a plug.
- lmm 9y agoApartment builders won't start putting in charging stations until they see residents wanting to plug in. For cars intended to last for years it makes sense to put the plug in now - installing charging stations in existing parking lots is more practical than adding plugs to existing cars.
- selectodude 9y agoMy apartment building doesn’t provide off-street parking. I’d love an electric car but it’s far from an option.
- aembleton 9y agoUbitricity offers street charging from lampposts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKaEhBjt1ls https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKaEhBjt1ls
- audunw 9y agoWhat? Plug-in hybrids don't need to plug in. It's just an option. It makes sense wether you have access to nightly charging or not. It's much better if you can charge, but the battery still helps you with efficiency by storing breaking energy, and the plug can also be used other places. Once plugins become more ubiquitous you'll probably start to see supermarkets and such offer charging in their parking lots. And it's really not that hard to add charging infrastructure to apartment parking. It's just a matter of will. The technology is simple and relatively cheap. You'll start to see companies offer owner of apartment complexes a pretty good deal: they'll install the chargers for free in exchange for them charging the tenants for the electricity (+ margins) This is a problem that be market is pretty good at solving if the government just gives its kick-start. Once plugins hits 20-30% market share (sales) it'll practically solve itself.
- agumonkey 9y agoShouldn't it be mandatory for ICE car manufacturers to make hybrids only ? It would push the market up, simplify through less options and help ecology and health in the process.
- lmm 9y agoHybrid is the means rather than the end. Better to require CO2 emissions to conform to a certain limit (or better still a gradual tax scale - that's already how it works in my country) and let the manufacturers achieve that by whatever way seems best. The bigger problem in the US is that "commercial" vehicles are exempt from many of the regulations, and so manufacturers get a lot of their cars legally defined as "light trucks". Start treating businesses the same way as individuals.
- agumonkey 9y ago"treating businesses the same way as individuals" too leftist for America I believe
- rciorba 9y agoIt should be mandatory to hit MPG and emission targets, not to force a certain technology.
- agumonkey 9y agoFirst, companies lied about emissions. Second, hybrid would probably tone down emissions in cities tremendously, even consumption. I have no actual data, but the amount of time spent at low speed or waiting is staggering. A tiny DC motor + regenerative breaking is great.
- freehunter 9y agoThe lying about emissions thing only became a problem because the testing wasn't sufficient enough to catch the cheats. Companies are going to cheat, they're going to lie, they're going to skirt as much regulation as they can. That's a fact of capitalism, companies are going to do whatever they can to make as much money as possible. It's the job of government inspectors to make sure the regulations are being followed properly and punish the companies when they fail to meet expectations. Real-world testing scenarios, code review, and a corporate death penalty to follow it up would go a long way towards stopping them.
- throwawaymanbot 9y agoOne has to wonder if every car is electric or Hybrid gas/electric, where we will mine the ingredients to make all these batteries? Theres only so much of it to go around apparently.
- devy 9y agoWhile Tesla's leading a electric vehicles revolution and having an immense success in introducing the mainstream consumers to it, majority of the traditional big automakers are getting it and aggressively shifting their production plans to EV: BMW, Volvo, Mercedes, GM, Nissan. BMW's plan is even to go all-in on EV[1] and will compete with Tesla head-to-head. [2] [1]: http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/10002/bmw-going-all-in-on-electric-cars-after-ev-sales-jump-50-percent http://www.thedrive.com/sheetmetal/10002/bmw-going-all-in-on... [2]: https://global.handelsblatt.com/companies-markets/bmw-set-to-introduce-electric-3-series-789071 https://global.handelsblatt.com/companies-markets/bmw-set-to...
- jksmith 9y agoI love advancement of technology and when a major player steps up to the plate to execute it (with risk). Volvo also has a marine division and I'd love to see them come up with a way to migrate the technology. Could finally crack the 10-20k engine service hour mark, so no more $75k overhauls. Would be a gamechanger for the midsize yacht/sport fisher industry. Right now combustion engine overhauls can happen all over the place. 1k hours, 5k hours, because of lots of variable. Do you have an open checkbook service policy, do you let your boat sit too long, do you run it hard too much, did run it at too low rpms, etc.
- slac 9y agoSadly not the same Volvo. Volvo Cars is owned by Geely, a Chinese company. Volvo Trucks is publicly listed, no clue who owns marine division if it still exists..
- moogly 9y agoVolvo Penta is still owned by the Volvo Group. Volvo Cars and Volvo Aero (aerospace: jet and rocket engines) are the two big companies that no longer are part of the Volvo Group.