An Electrifying Year
Electric vehicles led the auto-tech charge in 2016
Idon’t know about you, but for me this past year has been simply electrifying. I was the first journalist to drive the Vancouver-built Electra Meccanica Solo; I was among a handful of the first auto writers to drive the world’s first electrified minivan; I road-tripped from San Francisco to Mendocino County in the planet’s only all-electric SUV; and I was there at the L.A. Auto show when the ‘IT’ EV car of 2017 won the Green Car of the Year Award.
See a common thread there? (Or maybe that should be ‘cord’).
Yes, electric vehicles figured prominently for me in 2016, as they did for more and more Canadians. That said — and as the internal combustion engine (ICE) trolls are only to eager to point out — EV sales in Canada are still a small part of overall vehicle sales. But as Blair Qualey points out in his column today, EV sales in 2016 are up 60 per cent over the same ninemonth period from 2015.
What’s lost on many ICE-olytes, apart from the many and obvious benefits of EVs, is gas stations must now account for the fact there is a real alternative to their product.
In other words, gas-powered drivers are benefiting from the rise of the EV.
In the not-so-distant past, when a litre of petrol hit $1.50, consumers parked their Ford F-150s and jumped into Honda Civics and similar econo-boxes.
Sure, those little cars didn’t use as much fuel as a gas-guzzling pickup, but they had to pull up to the pump to refill.
In 2017, if gas prices flirt with the loonie-and-a-half mark, some of those drivers will now jump into any number of small and affordable EVs new to the market (again, see Qualey’s column for a list of those).
What that means is that the gas companies have lost those customers, and once those new EV owners experience and reap the benefits of going electric, chances are they won’t ever be back to the pump.
So, you’re welcome ICE-ers.
Now, back to the year that was, and a look at my favourite electric memories.
Electra Meccanica Solo
The debut of this all-electric, single-seater is a big story on at least a couple of levels.
First and foremost, it’s Canadian-built, fabricated and assembled in a New Westminster shop.
The brain behind the Solo is Electra Meccanica CEO Jerry Kroll, though many other big-thinkers — most of them British Columbians — contributed to the design, battery technology and fabrication of the futuristic vehicle.
The brawn is Henry Reisner, owner/operator of longtime Vancouver sports car builder Intermeccanica (in the spirit of full disclosure, I wrote that company’s remarkable story in the 2010 book, Intermeccanica: The Story of the Prancing Bull).
Kroll wisely approached the experienced Reisner to build his threewheel vision, and that decision resulted in the remarkable quality of the Solo.
At least, that was my take-away from a couple of hours of seat time in the first production model in October.
With a price tag under $20,000, a full-charge range of 160-kilometres, and a fun-to-drive quotient off the charts, the Solo ticks all the EV boxes.
Full-scale production ramps up this coming year, and as CEO Kroll stated in his most recent missive to Solo owners and stakeholders, “2017 will likely be the most profound year in the history of Electra Meccanica.”
2017 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
From EV startup to Big Three powerhouse, the evolving story of electrification was a common theme throughout 2016.
Chrysler made history last month with the debut of the world’s first electrified minivan, the Chrysler Pacifica Plugin Hybrid (PHEV).
While not a true all-electric — at its core is a 3.6-litre V6 engine — its propulsion system is state-of-the-art, a fact recognized two weeks ago when it was named to Wards 10 Best Engine list for 2017.
This new take on a hybrid system pairs a dual motor electrically variable transmission with the specially adapted V6 gasoline engine and a 16-kWh lithium ion battery pack.
The result is an all-EV range of 53-kilometres, a driving range of 911 kilometres, and most impressively, a fuel economy rating of 2.9 Le/100km.
And all with no drop-off in performance, which when you’re hauling a team-load of players and gear is imperative.
Chrysler invented the minivan category decades ago, and the 2017 Pacifica PHEV is a natural progression into the electrified age.
Expect to see other minivan manufacturers follow suit with hybrid models of their own very soon.
Tesla Model X
It might not be a minivan, but this all-electric SUV is the gold standard for a gas-free, family road trip.
I did just that in August, heading north out of San Francisco’s heart, over the Golden Gate Bridge and up to picturesque Mendocino County in a Model X.
A round-trip of just more than 400 kilometres, the adventure was rollicking testimony to not only the Model X — without question one of the best EVs in the world — but also to the ever-expanding Tesla charging system, both public and private.
We plugged into a multiple-bay Tesla Supercharger Station at a big mall in Petaluma on the way up, and then plugged in for the night at a private charger at Dennen’s Victorian Farmhouse B&B, in a quaint seaside town called Little River.
After spending a few days kayaking, hiking and sipping our way through the incredible coastlines and valleys of the county, we silently slipped back to San Fran, with another charging stop in Petaluma.
The Model X performed flawlessly as a road-trip warrior, and the route into what was for us uncharted territory really brought to the fore the strength of the vehicle’s navigation system and its integration into the Tesla charging station infrastructure. A real trip into the future.
Chevrolet Bolt
The future of EVs arrives in just a few short weeks when I’ll be among the first journalists to drive the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt (fittingly, in Silicon Valley).
The term ‘game-changer’ is bandied around with the same frequency as the word ‘class’ when it comes to millionaire athletes, but in the case of the Bolt, it applies.
A purported full charge range of a Tesla-like 320 kilometres; a price, with government rebates, in the sub$35,00 range; and a zero to 96 km/h sprint of 6.5 seconds. Add it all up and it equals ‘game changer.’ Better still, GM has committed to building plenty of Bolts, meaning the company is serious about making this a mainstream vehicle.
Remember I mentioned people trading in their F-150s for Civics when gas prices spike? The Bolt will be a big benefactor of the next fuel hike, as will all the other new EVs coming to Canada dealerships in 2017.
All which leads me to conclude that, as electrifying as 2016 was, the coming year will be a watershed one for electric vehicles.