SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
All Volvo car models launched after 2019 will be electric or hybrids, the Chinese-owned company said on Wednesday, making it the first major traditional automaker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by the internal combustion engine.
The Sweden-based company will continue to produce pure combustion-engine Volvos from models launched before that date, but its move signals the eventual end of nearly a century of Volvos powered solely that way.
While electric and hybrid vehicles are still only a small fraction of new cars sales, they are gaining ground at the premium end of the market, where Volvo operates and where Elon Musk's Tesla Motors has been a pure-play battery carmaker from day one. As technology improves and prices fall, many in the industry expect mass-market adoption to follow.
"This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car," Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson said.
The company, owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said five new models set to be launched in 2019 through 2021 - three of them Volvos and two Polestar-branded - would all be fully electric.
"These five cars will be supplemented by a range of petrol and diesel plug in hybrid and mild hybrid 48-volt options on all models," Volvo said. "This means that there will in future be no Volvo cars without an electric motor."
Source: Reuters
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Wednesday July 12 2017, @10:01PM (1 child)
> What prevents you from finding a new city, workplace and housing combination? Are you dependent on the social opportunities of a city?
In a nutshell, yes. The UK (where I live) is such that only London has any decent opportunities left. London keeps the rest of the country afloat more or less, primarily the financial sector. I have been looking abroad in the EU, but the issue there is one of language. I am not fluent enough in the three main languages (French/Spanish/German) to take a job there. Other English speaking countries are an option, but they are too far from family for me to consider relocation atm.
Although I am trying to improve the language thing, it will be a while (couple of years I suspect) before I can consider a job abroad.
So I am working on it :-)
> Could it be possible to approach it by inserting some hardware MITM to control specific aspects of the car?
I thought I explained that with the gearbox example? Mapping one type of gearbox to another is quite a bit of work, and I suspect it will never work that well. Likewise trying to emulate different suspension setups, etc... It really makes it hard to reuse components.
> And the emission issue could possible be solved with an all electric car?
True, but I have absolutely no interest in electric cars myself. Especially if I want to build my own car. The visceral experience from petrol engines is what does it for me really.
Those who do DIY electric cars do have it easier, as they can pretty much take off the shelf industrial 3 phase motors/controllers, and just really need to build up the DC power supply and charging circuits themselves. AFAIK there are no restrictions on electric DIY cars, so they are not strangled in any way (emissions wise). They still need to meet all the other criteria, of which there is an entire rulebook though.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday July 13 2017, @12:12AM
Job) Most larger companies seems to do the English language thing regardless of the local variety. Maybe the family can relocate too? Another approach is to find another job or explore opportunities outside of the job market.
And if you are really good at something companies want. They will most likely be satisfied that you know English which is the international to go language + desired skill.
ECU-MITM) The idea was to let the normal ECU through. BUT whenever your own box deems the ordinary ECU doing something wrong or bad it will intervene like a thunder on a clear day. I think especially the drive-by-wire + cellular phone-home is a bad combination that may need some extra monitoring and safety checks.
DIY car) Do these off the shelf industrial 3-phase (AC) motors and controllers really perform well, ie with torque and without excessive heat at the edge cases of really low speed or high? I have some memory of VFD sucking in those circumstances.
Maybe you can make use of other fuels like Methanol or wood gas? it may even be really economical. Wood gas should be like 5x cheaper than ordinary car fuel.