The Driver - Spring 2017 TheDriver_Spring_2017_v4_singles | Page 11

You have to believe that change
is in the air. When marques that
have built their reputations on
performance-oriented luxury vehicles
are now presenting the world with their
solutions, forward-thinking brands like
BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land
Rover and Volvo and Audi, to name a
handful, something is going on.
To be clear: at this time as far as an EV
without range anxiety is concerned, few
manufacturers have hit the mark. For
model year 2018, Jaguar claims that its
concept EV, the I-Pace will have a range
similar to or in excess of the Chevy Bolt.
But they’re not there yet. BMW have
channeled enormous resources and
dollars into the BMW “i” program: to
date, although they may have produced
six hybrids, the closest to a BEV, the i3
has a limited range. M-B has the V class
250e, but this, too has a limited range.
Korean manufacturers are responding
to the thrown gauntlet. With the all
new Ioniq, there will be three models
available in 2017: the all EV; the hybrid;
and, ultimately the plug-in hybrid. Today,
the Ioniq EV has a range of over 200
kilometres – there have been rumblings
of increasing battery output and storage
to ultimately field about 320 kilometres.
But commercially, it’s not yet there.
In a nutshell, OEMs have not backed
off. They are attempting to wring out
additional range going forward, but to
date, that ability in multiple vehicles isn’t
exactly setting the world on fire. Do we
continue to listen to what engineers are
telling us? Will the public ultimately seek
different answers?
Usually, where there’s smoke, there’s
often fire – albeit seemingly burning
embers at this time. If there aren’t
significant changes to the availability of
EVs with the ability to travel for longer
distances within the next couple of
years, and without a real incentive (not
necessarily instant provincial financial
gratification) to consider switching from
gasoline or diesel-powered automobiles,
the possibility of the civilized world’s
highways and byways being travelled by
silent, perhaps also autonomous autos
will be the stuff that dreams are made of.
The very first electric vehicles were
around over one hundred years ago. In
that time, we could not have developed
batteries which did the job?
As cliched as it sounds, we have
already put a man on the moon – and
that took way less time.
Is there something else acting as a
governor against the success of this
technology? TDM
Within North America...the desire to purchase some type of EV – whether a hybrid or
even an all-electric vehicle is still a ways off. – Jennifer Barron, Director at Lexus Canada
Out of the 30,000-odd plug-in electric vehicles on the road in Canada, Chevy has sold
about 9,000 plug-in electric vehicles.
Nicolas Longpre, Brand Manager
for Chevrolet Canada out
of General Motors Canadian
headquarters in Oshawa, Ontario.
thedriver.ca
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