David

Back on July 26th, 2023, we reported that seven automakers came together to form a charging network to rival that of Tesla. Today, they announced that on February 1st, 2023, CEO Seth Cutler started IONNA operations in Torrance, California with the announcement of having received approval from regulatory authorities, and is commencing operations. This joint venture of these foremost automakers will bring a open charging network that is accessible to all electric vehicles with both NACS and CCS connectors. The aim is to provide a seamless, vehicle integrated, best-in-class charging experience. IONNA's charging stations will offer canopies to park under while charging wherever possible with additional customer amenities, such as restrooms, food service, with retail nearby or in the same complex, in digitally integrated and appealing locations. These locations will offer unprecedented comfort with network functions and services that facilitate seamless integration with participating automakers in-vehicle and in-app experiences, encompassing reservations, intelligent route planning and navigation, payment applications, transparent energy management, and additional features to come. Aligning with the sustainability strategies of the seven automakers, IONNA has a target of 30,000 high-powered fast charging stations strategically positioned throughout North America, backed where possible by renewable energy and storage. The first high-speed fast charging stations will open in the United States in 2024 followed by stations in Canada shortly thereafter. IONNA LLC aims to become a leading force in providing convenient, accessible, and reliable North American Fast-charging infrastructure to significantly enhance the appeal of zero-emission driving for millions of customers. View full article

Kia is nailing it in both their style and interiors. Not a fan of all black but have to say that is a very nice interior for a car. Glad they are sticking it out in the mid-size sedan market.

AWD is the one thing missing from this as it would be a perfect family hauler in all types of weather if AWD was available.

Have to say for a Minivan, it is very nice looking. Much better than what Toyota or Honda have offered. I like it as it does have that SUV vibe.

@Drew Dowdell Is there an AWD option? I see plenty of AWD Toyota Minivans at the pass. I would think this would do well with large families doing winter sports.

This is awesome news and a great way to ensure you are always starting the day fully charged for driving rather than having to stop by a gas station to fuel up.

As Porsche has just proven, with superior charging controller on board and cutting the re-charge time in half both at the DC chargers and at home, having a proper onboard controller capable of 19 kW or more will make people very happy with EVs. Those OEMs that are not putting a proper controller into all their EVs will suffer. I am looking at you GM 19.2 kW controller in the Cadillac and then as you move on down slower controllers with Chevrolet getting a pathetic 9.2 kW controller. Stellantis with your new STLA platform for full size 800V has a pathetic 7.2 kW controller for home charging, Toyota with a pathetic 6.6 kW for their EVs, the list of those late to the EV party is showing their disdain with slow charging controllers on their EVs. 11 kW should be the bare minimum with top end 22 kW since the difference becomes 8 hours of home charging versus 4 hours between these two controllers. ALL EVs should have the fastest possible onboard charging controller for best experience at home.

Been into a big Jazz mode with my work being crazy and changes to our work now that we have to return 3 days a week to an office that is so small not sure where everyone will fit. so much for my work from home of the last 4 years. Now I am called Hybrid. Anyway, Jazz sooths the soul.

Will have to say that the dash is a technical masterpiece. Really loving it. Also, I am loving all the new colors, but really digging this purplish color.

Love the split converter so you can maximize the charging at 400V chargers. Very cool that they have a new 19.2 kW onboard controller allowing you to home charge on 220V/240V in 4.8 hours for full recharge compared to the first-generation model of 9.5 hours.

At the rate Tesla is ignoring their customers when their products new catch fire and they say file an insurance claim as we are not being responsible to cover it under warranty, then Tesla days are numbered. Tesla ‘caught fire' while idling at home - and Musk's company has yet to explain why (msn.com) This is proof that Tesla is loosing customers due to the way Musk has ignored customer service and quality. I can see other Auto makers besides BYD surpassing Tesla this year or next. Charted: Tesla's Global Sales By Model and Year (2016–2023) (visualcapitalist.com) OUCH, I just read this: Tesla warning that 2024 growth rates in vehicle deliveries would be "notably lower" than 2023 levels and Wall Street analysts trimming their revenue forecasts, job cuts are likely inevitable. Elon Musk mimics Big Tech as Tesla delivers harsh warning to workers (msn.com)

Reviewing Magna press release, I missed their CES press release of their all new 800V eDrive unit that can be used as a primary unit or as a secondary unit to any of their other 800V drive units. At 250 kW / 5000 Nm which is 335 HP / 3688 lb-ft of torque this could make a very complimentary front AWD unit to this for Lincoln. Magna Unveils Next Generation eDrive at CES 2024

Depending on how much you pay you get better or worse AWD based on features. You also just picked an entry level model in the Seltos. If you look at the bulk of AWD in SUVs where people are paying about 40 to 60K for one, they have the ability now due to software to send torque and HP where needed among all the wheels. Yes, I can afford an Escalade, AWD system that is far superior to what you find in the Seltos. Your AWD is overrated comment is wrong as you brush a wide stroke with that comment. One could say that all insurance companies suck and are all the same as they only want to make money for their CEO and screw us. All RWD auto's suck in the snow All FWD auto's suck in the Snow We can go down the path of broad stroke of the brush in statements like that. It would be better to say that based on the class of auto, some AWD autos without snow tires are no better than a RWD or FWD with Snow tires. We could for sake of this argument just say that if you cannot afford any decent mid to full size upper level auto, if it rains outside and especially snows you should just stay home as you will be a problem on the roads. One cannot just make these broad stokes and think it is OK. How would you like it if due to the experience of one bad insurance adjuster at your work, all adjusters are trash and your company should be avoided like the plague.

AWD with proper snow tires is far superior to a 4x4 or 4x4 with snow tires and especially FWD or RWD with snow tires.

Very cool to see how many new EV charging stations were built. The US Installed More Than 1,000 EV Charging Stations Since Summer - Bloomberg Interesting that 1.2 million EVs were added and electricity use went down. The US Added 1.2 Million EVs To The Grid Last Year, & Electricity Use Went Down - CleanTechnica

Yes the MX30 concept is a dual but then Mazda talks about the future being a single rotor generator is how I took it, but then I could totally be off base due to the way they talk about it.

Totally can see this as a Lincoln Navigator EV. I wonder what they will do to make it an AWD unit. Good chance that a full-size SUV could have the room underneath for two of these bad boys, so you have a near 2,000 hp and 11,000 plus lb.-ft of torque. That would be a crazy awesome SUV EV.

As long as your under 5'6" tall then people will fit in a Tesla. Worst design of an auto ever with piss poor interior space for a car or CUV.

Do you mean dual rotor rotary motor which was in the RX-8 compared to this single rotor rotary generator?

Plenty of good options for a first car for people.

COMPLEXITY, Right, not what the public wants, but some will say Hybrid is better than pure EV. I will acknowledge that for some a Hybrid will be better than a pure EV and this will probably be the last Hurrah for the Rotary till we get proper deep solid-state batteries into production.

Interesting movement in Tesla Stock and not a good one. Tesla Stock Just Made A Death Cross As Market Sentiments Shift (msn.com)

Every automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM) has their own platform, or they have signed an agreement with another OEM to use their EV platform. The following chart lists all of the current North American Automotive OEMs and the platform details that they have released. While there are a few oddball platform voltages such as the Toyota/Lexus/Subaru platform with a 355-volt system or the Lucid with a 924-volt system, the bulk of the OEM auto manufactures have gone with a 400-volt or 800-volt system. Many of these OEMs are already planning or have moved to an 800-volt platform such as Tesla with the production start of their Cybertruck that is based on an 800-volt system running a 48-volt electrical system compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) autos that run a 12-volt system to run electronics while burning gas or diesel. While the chart above pretty much answers the question of what is the voltage as of today for every North American OEM platform, this still leaves the bigger question of does the voltage make a difference? In short YES, voltage does make a difference in how the battery pack of an EV charges. The transition of moving from 400-volts to an 800-volt EV charging system offers the following advantages: Weight savings Enhanced performance Increased efficiency and charging power The largest drawback if you consider this a drawback is the need to convert existing charging stations to support the higher 800-volt specification and the need to redesign electrical components to support the higher voltage system. Lucid has one such platform as they say it can handle over 1000-volts though it is officially rated at 924-volts. The current leaders of an 800-volt architecture are as follows: Porsche Audi Hyundai Genesis Kia Volvo Polestar Bentley Lamborghini Tesla Cybertruck only What makes up an EV Charging system? For this I use a diagram from the ev charger design website. The basics are pretty simple that make up the EV charging system: Battery Motors Controller Sensors Wires Electrical paraphernalia As one can see above in the diagram you have two types of charging, DC fast charging which is a connection right into the battery pack delivering the largest and fastest charge possible. Second is the AC Charger, this can be from level 1 or 2 public chargers or from your own place of living, home, condo, townhouse, apartment and goes through an on-board controller and then into the battery pack. Now that we have covered the basic of an EV charging system, let's take a look at what makes up the charging of a battery system. Charging of a battery system breaks down into a simple 4 stage system. Stage 1 Constant Current - Voltage rises at constant current Stage 2 Saturation charge - Voltage peaks, current decreases Stage 3 Ready mode - Charge terminates Stage 4 Standby Mode - Occasional topping charge As the battery cells get saturated with power, the current drops off and this is why charging slows down as the battery pack fills up. DC Fast charging will power up the battery pack till it reaches a preset charge level that is usually set by the EVs built-in software and then charging stops, and nothing is ever added as to why some public charging stations including Tesla stations now charge for connections that are not charging to an auto as they want to free up the charger for other EV users. AC charging will charge up a battery pack to full but has the ability to sense if the battery level drops to top off the battery pack. This comes in to be very useful in extreme hot or cold environments where the battery pack needs to either be chilled or warmed up. End result is when you go to leave in your EV, you always have a full battery pack, based on the setting of the EV software. This could be 80%, 90%, etc. that you the end user chooses. 800-volts is the future replacement for the current 400-volt systems in use by the majority of auto OEMs. So what does this 800-volt system get us? Faster charging power Performance enhancement Efficiency Weight reduction End result is that the 800-volt system reduces the amount of time it takes to charge a battery pack, getting one on the road that much faster. This equates to the minimal time it takes to fill a gas tank in a traditional internal combustion engine auto. Currently the average gas fill-up takes approximately 5 minutes per the U.S. government. This in comparison to the average charging time of an EV: Level 1 charging can take 2 to 3 days @ 110 volt Level 2 charging can take 7 to 15 hours @ 240 volt Level 3 charging can take 15 to 45 minutes to reach 80% state of charge on a current 400-volt system The charging information above is based on a 60kWh battery pack from empty to full (80%) using a 7kW charging point. This can for level 1 and 2 change based on each EVs built in controller speed. See the chart above for controller charging speed by OEM. If the EV built in controller was to handle 14kW, then the Level 1 charging time would be 1 to 1 1/2 days. Level 2 charging would be 3 1/2 hours to 8 hours. Reduced even further the higher the controller kW is capable of handling. Faster DC charging also allows for EVs to have smaller battery packs (weight reduction) when you can quickly charge up the battery pack allowing for reduced battery pack size. Even with the average commute of auto owners being between 30 to 50 miles, range anxiety is an issue that has been blown up in the media depending on each media's agenda in support or against EVs. This is where weight increases have come from as people tend to have come to feel having 300 miles of range is a must in an auto. This also brings up the future of Solid-state batteries that in early prototype have shown to be four to ten times energy dense as current lithium-ion batteries. This allows the OEMs to then reduce the overall size of batteries, thus reducing weight of an EV. Another benefit that comes with 800-volt battery packs is the ability to charge in serial or parallel mode. This multi-charging system allows ease of working with all formats of 400-volt or 800-volt charging stations. Per a Harvard research release, solid-state batteries will dramatically reduce charging times. Researchers have proven that Solid-state lithium batteries can last 20 years with minimal degradation while recharging in minutes. They used the example of a 110kW battery pack that would be equal to today's 60kW lithium battery fully charging in only 10 minutes at 800-volt and could be reduced even further if charging was pushed to 1,200-volts or higher. Here we end up with smaller battery packs and faster charging by using 800-volt systems, add in solid-state batteries and you end up reducing the size and weight of the battery along with speeding up charging times. Yes, there are plenty of writeups showing the pros and cons of 400-volt to 800-volt with the biggest con being that money has to be spent by the companies to upgrade their auto design, components, etc. to handle the higher 800-volt charge, yet if they want to be competitive, then they cannot sit on the sidelines. End result is faster charging for all with an 800-volt system over the 400-volt systems allowing for a far superior experience by end users. Auto EV Platform Info 2023.xlsx View full article