VW has ‘long-range’ electric vehicle in the works
Volkswagen is attempting to make its name synonymous with the future of mobility; the company’s new post-diesel strategy calls for 30 new electric cars by 2025. CEO Herbert Diess said the automaker is preparing a “very long range” EV, according to automotive-lifestyles website Autos Cheat Sheet. He said the car would have a projected range between 395 and 595 kilometres, numbers that only Tesla has so far come close to delivering. Diess said he sees production starting by 2018 or 2019. Size-wise, he said the car would have “the space of a Passat on the footprint of a Golf.” Hybrid boost might make Bugattis even faster: Supercar maker Bugatti might one day build a hybrid-powered car, using the technology not for environmental concerns, but expressly to make more power and speed. The French automaker’s newest limited production land missile, the Chiron, is powered by a 8.0-litre, 16-cylinder engine with four turbochargers, each feeding four cylinders; it makes 1,480 horsepower and 1,106 pound-feet of torque. Even with that, Bugattis of the future “will probably need to produce more,” writes auto lifestyles webmag Motor Authority, which is where hybrid technology can help. Bugatti boss Wolfgang Dürheimer told British car magazine Autocar such a development would be “purely for amplification of power and performance.” The next Kia Rio appears: The company’s fourth-generation Rio compact hatch made its world debut at the 2016 Paris Auto Show in late September sporting a bold new shape, advanced connectivity features, more safety enhancements and possibly featuring Kia’s own stop/start technology. According to a preliminary statement, a longer front overhang, longer wheelbase and a more upright appearance than exuded by the previous-generation Rio define the new car’s character. Its shape was a joint effort between Kia design studios in California and Germany, working with the automaker’s design hub in its South Korean headquarters. Production of the new Rio will commence in South Korea late this year for European markets, with a 2017 production launch and model-year launch likely for U.S. versions. Air-quality consciousness rising in Europe: United Kingdom Internet searches relating to air pollution have increased up to 750 per cent in the past decade, according to Nissan. The popularity of search terms “best air purifier” and “air quality index” both rose by a factor of 750 per cent from August 2006 to August 2016; the phrase “air pollution facts” climbed 350 per cent over the same period. The data demonstrate a rising sense of health consciousness among residents of Europe’s capital cities when it comes to air quality, “with consumers increasingly seeking their own solutions to help ‘clean up’ the air around them,” Nissan — which builds the world’s best selling zero-emissions vehicle, the Nissan Leaf, with more than 225,000 units sold worldwide — said in a statement. Self-driving electric bus to roam Helsinki streets: The capital city of Finland has welcomed the driverless electric EZ10 bus onto its roads, writes emerging technologies website New Atlas. The bus will contend with pedestrians, motorists and commuters in the city’s Hernesaari district, as it is “let off the leash” along routes with real traffic for the first time. The fully electric EZ10 is manufactured by French company EasyMile and operates entirely autonomously; it doesn’t even have a steering wheel. It doesn’t require special infrastructure to run, as it uses a mix of sensors to detect obstacles and navigate.