from the electric-jaguars,-land-rovers-and-volvos;-Oh-my! dept.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has pledged to stop building cars powered solely by petrol and diesel. The company hopes that every car built after 2020 will either be fully electric or a hybrid that makes use of both an electric motor and a traditional petrol-powered engine.
"Every new Jaguar Land Rover model line will be electrified from 2020," Jaguar Land Rover boss Ralf Speth said in a statement. "We will introduce a portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles."
The move comes just months after rival Volvo Cars confirmed that it would electrify its entire range of vehicles by 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, Volvo plans to launch five new electric vehicles, while every other car in the range will feature some form of hybrid engine. Honda has also promised that all of its new models from 2020 on will have an electrified variant.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @04:53PM (21 children)
If "mild hybrids" (BAS and the like) are now included under electrified, then it doesn't really mean much...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Monday September 11 2017, @05:38PM
It's Electric Car Press Release Season! Don't be the last CEO caught without your Electric Car Press Release!
Last chance today to be noticed, because tomorrow someone will be hogging all the free advertising!
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 11 2017, @05:41PM (19 children)
A hybrid that just has a small engine driving a generator is perfectly acceptable. It will work under a fixed load and RPM and won't require rapid response. So, something like a Stirling engine will be perfect.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @11:21PM (18 children)
But that's not what "mild hybrid" systems are. They're parallel hybrids where the engine is a normal car engine (100hp or so) and the electric motor/generator is an overgrown starter motor providing 10 or 15 hp. (Or when serving as a generator, consuming that much.) They're little more than a start/stop system.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 12 2017, @12:50AM (17 children)
Like the Prius? I can't think of a worse way to make an electric vehicle...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @03:37AM (16 children)
Nope, not like the Prius. The Prius's motor/generator adds/subtracts about 30 hp, and more importantly the Prius can run as a pure EV (at low speeds and for short distances) with the combustion engine stopped.
Mild hybrids not only have about half the electric power and correspondingly smaller batteries, but (by definition) are running the gas engine whenever the vehicle is moving.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:20AM (15 children)
The electrics only provide assistance? Sounds worse still... needless complexity, unless the electric motor works through a simple mechanical sprag clutch. Hybrids really don't make sense, more of a sales gimmick than anything else. I suppose my initial post doesn't describe a hybrid, mild or otherwise, at all, but if I wanted a long range electric vehicle, that is the way I would do it. It wouldn't need a Rube Goldberg transmission or any fancy electronics, and with the Stirling turning the generator, it wouldn't need a muffler either, and would be very flexible on the type of fuel you can use, sorta like Mr. Fusion [universetoday.com]...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @01:17AM (14 children)
Strike [soylentnews.org] one [soylentnews.org]
Strike [soylentnews.org] two [soylentnews.org]
Strike [soylentnews.org] three [nytimes.com]
Better to be THOUGHT a fool, eh?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 14 2017, @03:35AM (13 children)
Oh please! [autobytel.com] Why do you hate your mother? On the other hand, thanks for making my point about needless complexity... totally unimpressive (20.4 miles per gallon). Hybrids still suck. Good idea to post AC (probably the same one lashing out in the other thread). I wouldn't reveal myself either if I posted such nonsense.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @03:50AM (12 children)
As expected, you COMPLETELY missed the point [youtube.com] in your haste to bluster your way into sounding informed and knowledgeable. As with most technology, there are multiple applications that fall outside the purview of the narrow-minded.
How's your *snrk* Mr. Fusion [youtube.com] equipped electric car coming along?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 14 2017, @03:55AM (11 children)
That, is not a hybrid. Wanna try again?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:05AM (10 children)
You require spoon-feeding apparently.
Electric. Motors. Can. Be. Paired. With. Internal. Combustion. Engines. Not. Only. To. Improve. Fuel. Economy.
As. Shown. In. The. Provided. News. Article. And. Also. Highlighted. In. The. Youtube. Video. Electric. Motors. Can. Greatly. Enhance. The. Performance. Of. A. Vehicle. In. Lieu. Of. Fuel. Economy.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 14 2017, @05:24AM (9 children)
:-) You are fun to watch, but you're still not making the sale.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @02:51PM (8 children)
You mistake my audience. It's quite apparent to them and I that the vacuum between your ears is both present and in absolutely no danger of being breached.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 14 2017, @03:43PM (7 children)
:-) yeah, it keeps out the riff-raff... If you get my drift... Which you probably don't
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @03:53PM (6 children)
There is no drift in a vacuum - by definition.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:17PM (5 children)
:-) So, I was right. You didn't. Now, off you go... Thank you for this most entertaining chat.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @04:36PM (4 children)
Your claim to powers of long-distance mind-reading have unfortunately not bolstered your knowledge about applications of electric and/or ICE-electric hybrid vehicle technologies [soylentnews.org].
What social situation have you recently exited in which is considered proper or useful to perceive a "win" in a discussion by vapidly declaring yourself correct, then immediately attempting (impotently, I might add) to end further conversation?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 14 2017, @06:06PM (3 children)
:-) Such a mischievous fellow... Your name is Peeves, right?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @06:24PM (2 children)
The message is more important than the messenger. The message here began with your freely-offered commentary [soylentnews.org], how that commentary was hilariously [soylentnews.org] inaccurate [soylentnews.org], and now on to your continual deflection, misdirection, and pointless gum-flapping in an attempt to distract from your revealed naked shame of ignorance behind your flimsy facade you imagine to be insight.
English not being your first language is no excuse for such flimflam.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 14 2017, @06:49PM (1 child)
:-) You're not for real. I doubt you are even a human. I'll have to call it a day until I know for sure.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 14 2017, @07:01PM
Consider yourself fortunate that I am not likely to be an extraterrestrial engaged in the process of analyzing a presumed normal human as part of a process to determine whether or not your planet should be obliterated to make way for a new intergalactic highway.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday September 11 2017, @05:16PM (3 children)
Since go many government and corporate fleet customers require hybrid and electric, of course the automakers will offer versions with that feature. The questions that matter are whether normal customers become willing to pay the electric premium and whether governments can continue borrowing money to subsidize them to the extent that even a few are willing to buy them.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @05:47PM
lol
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @08:40PM (1 child)
I'm not sure where you are coming from because Land Rovers and Jaguars don't fit the government and corporate fleet vehicle market.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday September 11 2017, @10:41PM
There is a world beyond the U.S. Here in the U.S. the sales of those two brands is statistical noise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @06:24PM (10 children)
How difficult will it be for Land Rover to re-engineer in their famous river wading capability so that these vehicles can be electrified?
(Score: 3, Informative) by jcross on Monday September 11 2017, @06:51PM
Seems like it would be easier, since electric motors don't need air to function. This is exactly why, before nuclear power plants, submarines had to run on batteries and electric motors when submerged. In theory you could seal the entire power train, with just wires going into it.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Monday September 11 2017, @08:55PM (7 children)
How to get a charge in the deep woods. We go dry camping and bring several cans of fuel with us because there are no gas stations. How does one get take extra electrical charge off roads ? This will just cement the Land Rover as the 4x4 for soccer moms and footballer Wives rather than for a actual off road usage.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 1) by caffeinated bacon on Monday September 11 2017, @10:48PM
So get the model that also has a traditional petrol-powered engine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 11 2017, @11:24PM (4 children)
Several cans of fuel and a generator? Or you do like the other reply says and use a hybrid instead of a pure EV, then it's just cans of fuel.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday September 11 2017, @11:41PM (3 children)
Yeah but really, what's the point? The electric motor and batteries are then little more than extra weight. I don't get this hybrid thing. I get it's hyped as more environmentally friendly and efficient technology, but I just don't see it in practise.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:11AM
Hybrids can make a real, practical difference in stop-and-go driving, where the extra weight more than pays for itself, using the energy gained from regenerative braking to accelerate back up to speed. On the highway, it adds absolutely nothing but weight (though highway mileage is dominated by aerodynamic drag, not rolling drag, so the weight isn't as big a penalty as you might think) compared to a normal vehicle with the same size engine. (Of course, you can argue for comparing them, not on an equal-engine basis, but on e.g. equal 0-60 time; then the conventional vehicle needs a more powerful engine because it doesn't benefit from electric assist off the line, and the hybrid with its smaller engine would be a bit more fuel efficient at cruise. Not a big difference either way.)
So if most of your driving is stop-and-go city traffic, it probably saves you money on gas (although it may or may not save you enough to pay for itself -- depends how much you drive), and it still works like normal (jerry cans and all) for long trips.
In other words, it's not something you'd buy for camping trips, and occasionally use around town; it's something you'd buy for around town, and use for occasional camping trips.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:26AM
It has a couple of benefits, especially for large vehicles. The main one is that electric motors give you a large amount of torque, especially at lower speeds. This means that the manufacturer can choose to provide smaller and more efficient engines that are tuned to a narrower RPM range. Most of these benefits are there whether you are using the engines on a generator (like locomotives) or a combined drive (like many cars). Land Rover could have that in mind given that they love showing people bouldering in their commercials.
(Score: 3, Informative) by RedBear on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:47AM
You're right, in a way. A lot of what they call "mild" hybrids really don't accomplish much, the Prius notwithstanding. There are actually non-hybrid versions of some hybrids that get equal or better gas mileage than the hybrid version.
But the equation changes with plug-in hybrids, as long as there is enough electric range involved. Like the second-generation Chevy Volt. It has 53 miles of usable electric range. For most Americans that means at least 90% of daily driving can be done entirely within that electric range. If you can plug in at work as well as at home, it essentially becomes an electric car with 106 miles of range, plus whatever the fuel tank provides at 42mpg. Many Volt owners visit a gas station once a year or even less frequently because they so rarely need to use the gasoline engine. It only kicks in on really cold days or long road trips. Effectively, they get hundreds of miles per gallon. Depending on the region, electricity can be significantly cheaper per mile traveled than gasoline. Lots of utilities have special lower rates for nighttime EV charging.
Of course it should go without saying that if the electricity in your area is produced mainly from solar, wind, hydro, geothermal or nuclear then it is significantly better for the environment than using fossil fuels. It's also becoming common for large cities around the world to ban vehicles in the city center that aren't zero-emmision, so in the near future many millions of people will need some kind of hybrid with usable electric range in order to drive in the city legally. There's nothing wrong with the concept of hybrids, it's the execution that makes the difference.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:59AM
And when you run out of those extra cans of fuel? Then what? How about when we stop pouring $700 billion in yearly subsidies into the fossil fuel industry and prices get too high for you to afford using those cans full of fuel for something as frivolous as a family vacation?
If your vehicle runs on electricity you could "refuel" it off-grid any number of different ways. You could haul a trailer with additional batteries to double or triple the range. You could recharge the battery using a large, efficient generator that would get more miles out of the same fuel cans. You could take enough solar panels with you to get hundreds of miles of range from an 8-hour charge. Or you could take a couple of portable wind turbines with you, and recharge at night. Or any combination of these things.
Fact is, with an EV and the right equipment you could technically wander out into the wilderness and drive around every day for ten years without needing to return to civilization to acquire "fuel". No fossil-fuel vehicle will ever be able to do that. You can also have solar and wind-powered EV recharging stations in the middle of nowhere with no additional infrastructure supporting them. Like in the middle of a National Park. No hundreds of miles of electrical wires or fuel delivery trucks necessary.
The age of fossil-fueled personal transportation may last in some way through most of our lifetimes, but eventually it will come to an end and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. EVs are our future. It's time to learn to think outside the box.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @01:38PM
Will an electric Land Rover be able to stop a charging wino? Not if the electrics are built by Lucas.