It's flipping the hybrid script: instead of using electric for low demand and gas for more juice, it's electric for the main power and gas just for the battery.
This puts the heavy lifting on the 90% efficient powertrain and eases up on the super inefficient 25% one.
Toyota should've been all over this back in 2015.
METI (the Japanese Ministry that develops Japan's R&D strategy) is hesitant about using lithium ion battery technology due to lithium dependency issues and memories about the impact the 1970s oil shock had on Japan [0][1], along with IP issues.
This is why Japan has been pushing it's domestic champions to research Hydrogen Fuel Cells [2] and solid state batteries [3]
This is also the strategy that Toyota adopted [4][5].
[0] - https://www.sojitz.com/history/en/era/05/
[1] - https://www.ide.go.jp/library/English/Publish/Periodicals/De...
[2] - https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/enecho/shoene_shinene/suiso...
[3] - https://www.meti.go.jp/english/report/pdf/0520_001a.pdf
[4] - https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/39330548.html
[5] - https://global.toyota/en/newsroom/corporate/39330500.html
And natural gas; it's clear from https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/enecho/shoene_shinene/suiso... that the plan is to get hydrogen from natural gas, with electrolysis as a thin renewable figleaf over the issue of CO2 emissions.
(don't trust any source that describes hydrogen as an "energy source". There is no naturally occurring hydrogen reserve. It is not a source.)
They might be in a better place if TEPCO hadn't messed up their nuclear plant designs in a tsunami zone.
Did you take into consideration optimal load efficiencies? What about the total cost of ownership for the energy conversion from ICE?
In 2015, hybrids were already well optimised for the current technology limitations.
Lohner–Porsche is a term encompassing several electric vehicles designed by Ferdinand Porsche and manufactured at Lohner-Werke in the early 1900s. They include the first hybrid electric vehicle and the first commercial hub motor car. The hybrid "Mixed" or "Mixte" racecars are powered by a gasoline engine which drives four electric motors, one in each wheel hub. The battery-powered "Touring" or "Chaise" commercial cars utilize only two front-wheel hub motors.
2.9 l/100 km is pretty good though.
A quick online search has the Hyundai Sonata Hybrid as the highest range hybrid at 670 miles (1000km so half BYD’s figure), with a 50L tank that would put at a 5l/100k.
So it has double the range AND double the efficiency of the current highest range, costing half the price… seems like a very big deal
But doubling the range is not that interesting to me, they could make the tank 4 times bigger and that would be useless for most purposes, and that was just my point. The price seems interesting indeed, but that is the price in China, which would be very different elsewhere I guess.
I’m conflicted about these tariffs since on one hand I understand the security threats and I’d like the rest of the world to catch up so it’s not just China dominating the market, but on the other it seems sad that affordable and effective EVs are here and probably can make a significant dent in emissions but the politics keep them from being utilized.
In Mexico they assemble cars from Chinese parts and ship duty free to the US and Candada.
Or build more factories in the US. Geely owns Volvo and they're building in the US. All the EU makers, the Korean and Japanese makers too have factories in the US.
Tariffs are on real imports, not on US or USMCA made products.
Considering China, South Korea, and Japan just finished up a meeting which included moving forward with talks on a Free Trade Agreement in the face of American-led sanctions and tariffs...
It's going to be fun seeing just how effective American diplomacy and economic violence actually is nowadays.
If you were looking for your first EV, you wouldn't be looking at this car because it is not an EV.
I imagine that under the right test conditions, if you were using a plug-in hybrid design and have a fairly substantial battery pack, then it would be different - because then you're just using EV mode for part of the range, and the gas for the rest of it (and choose your speed for optimal ICE performance vs. drag losses).
Most PHEVs are Hybrid ICE first and battery second. BYD's is the other way around because Japanese companies didn't ToT Hybrid engine technology in the 2000s unlike battery tech (BYD's was initially a ToT JV by Panasonic EDIT: NTT, Sony, and Sanyo. CATL was TDK and Panasonic).
(In the i3 the range booster was an optional extra.)
Does that unicorn still even exist or do I have to wait for UE to do something about it?
Cars will monitor driver attention, reckless driving, speeding and tattle to the manufacturer and insurance company. I expect these changes to be gradual and people will grouch about it before ultimately relenting.
I wonder if part of the reason that there's such a resistance to chinese cars is because they wouldn't give free tracking data to the US government.
Looks like incredible value and fuel efficiency at the price point.
In any event, the EU will impose 30%-100% import tariffs to protect their inferior car industry. This will hurt the European consumer and will hurt European competitiveness in the long term, but car companies are important to Germany and France so import taxes are a forgone conclusion.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/30/chinese-ev-imports-europe-mi...
The imported cars fulfill the TÜV and cost less if they are even available here.
1. https://www.carscoops.com/2024/02/vw-wants-german-dealer-to-...
