COMMENT
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Print – ISSN 1753-0482
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Andrew Allcock, Editor
Foot off the gas
The miles towards destination e-mobility are being eaten up
faster than few would have imagined possible just a couple of
years ago. Some governments have put a date on the end of the
sale of new internal combustion (IC) engine-only vehicles, but
these look as if they will be easily met. Car makers are adding
increasing horsepower to their efforts as they compete to claim
poll position in a race that holds out the prospect of large sales of hybrid/electricdrive
cars and underpinning technology for the victor (car-related puns now end).
Volkswagen appears to be the front runner. In January it said that its electric
offensive has picked up speed. With the world premier of the new all-electric ID.3 in
September and the start of production at its Zwickau electric vehicle plant in
November, the Volkswagen brand has already delivered 250,000+ electric cars.
Under the latest plans, the strategic target of one million electric cars is expected
to be reached by the end of 2023, two years earlier than previously predicted. The
brand expects 1.5 million electric cars to be produced in 2025.
Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Drive Toolkit has also been adopted by Ford.
Volkswagen will supply the platform plus “battery packs and structural components”
to the US-headquartered firm. This common use will drive down costs and so prices
and therefore boost sales. A virtuous circle in more than the usual price-demand
sense, then – climate-wise, too, at least for exhaust pipe emissions.
Even luxury and sports car makers are heading the same way; McLaren actually
introduced a hybrid in 2013, the McLaren P1, although is not currently going fully
electric, due to the limitations of battery technology. Not so Lotus, which has been
seen testing its 1,972 hp EV hypercar, the Evija. It will go into production next year
but will only be sold in the US; it won’t be street-legal in the UK. And Maserati is
reporting the start of the testing phase of its new full-electric propulsion systems.
Luxury marque Bentley is going out with a petroleum-fuelled bang – eight of them,
in fact – with a limited edition 6.75 l V8 Mulsanne – Mulsanne is the firm’s current
flagship model. Only thirty of the special models will be made, with production of
the top-of-the-range Bentley ending this Spring. I suppose that as it is owned by VW,
this shouldn’t be a surprise. Bentley’s all-new Flying Spur will become the
company’s flagship model, with that receiving a hybrid powertrain by 2023.
As has been stated before in the pages of this magazine, this major
technological shift will see knock-on effects for manufacturing and manufacturing
technology suppliers. It will also see new manufacturing requirements, of course.
The EU needs three million EV chargers by 2030 to become carbon neutral, for
example – someone’s got to make those. ■
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