Drew Dowdell

I didn't think turning rotors was still a thing.

At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show, Markus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer for Mercedes-Benz announced the company’s plans to build a North American charging network and an ambitious schedule to complete in 2027. The plan includes more than 400 charging hubs with over 2,500 high-power chargers spaced out over the continent.  The hubs will be located at regular intervals close to highways, major intersections, and metropolitan areas. The charging hubs will be open to all brands, however, Mercedes owners will get extra benefits such as the ability to reserve an outlet in advance.  Depending on the location, hubs will typically have four to twelve charging stations, with some high-traffic locations having up to thirty. The stations will be equipped with 350 kW charging stations with distributed intelligent charge-load management allowing each vehicle to charge at its maximum capacity to minimize charge times.  The hubs will be built with food and restroom facilities nearby. Mercedes is partnering with charging network ChargePoint for its U.S. buildout. Mercedes-Benz plans to launch its network in Europe and China at a future time, eventually expanding to 10,000 chargers worldwide. View full article

Nor will it be. Ford might put a Lincoln on there to try and earn some ROI on it, but Ford is already moving on to version 2.0 of that platform, but the differences are so large that it might as well be a whole new platform. I think Rivian and Ford backed away from each other on vehicle development. They might share some motor or battery tech in the Lightning, but their cooperation on development has mostly ended. Elon woke a sleeping dragon by taunting GM. VW is doing it because they got the pants sued off them, but they are equally as methodical and their MEB platform looks very solid.

It's a concept, so it has the entire set of Star Trek brave-new-worlds inside.

IT HAS A MIDGATE!!!!

At the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show, RAM showed their Ram 1500 Revolution battery-electric truck concept. The concept is built on the new Stellantis STLA Frame platform for full-size vehicles. The platform sandwiches the batteries between the frame rails and in this concept features a dual-motor design for all-wheel drive. The concept features four-wheel steering, a powered midgate with powered glass, and a passthrough, even into the frunk, that allows objects up to 18-feet long. The RAM 1500 Revolution is capable of 800-volt DC fast charging to add up to 100 miles of range in 10 minute. RAM describes the concept as “brutiful” – brutal yet beautiful, and features their “tuning fork” front grille design with fully animated LED logo. The tuning fork theme follows into the interior. The interior, while clearly in concept form, shows the direction RAM is heading with their interiors, with more luxury and more sustainable materials. RAM says the interior is significantly more spacious (RAM is already at the top of the class for interior room) than their ICE model and in the concept, has flexible seating configurations, including a third row, with seats that can fold flat, have an extended recline, and even have a conference mode. The production version of this concept is expected to be introduced as the RAM 1500 BEV in 2024. View full article