Hey guys, welcome to our end of the week wrap up, where we hit you with some news stories that we didn’t get a chance to write about. Hope you guys have a great day, here’s what we missed:
GM is Partnering with Delta Americas to bring 400 kW charging
Refueling times are still one glaring issue when comparing the lifestyle between gas and electric cars. To help combat this, GM has partnered with power company, Delta Americas under a Department of Energy sponsorship to design chargers that go up to 400 kW. This not only destroys Tesla’s current superchargers that go up to 120 kW, but also edges out Porsche’s planned 350 kW chargers. The chargers are planned to provide 180 miles of range in just 10 minutes. Delta Americas plans to have a prototype finished by 2020, and GM to have a fleet of 20 electric models ready to use it by 2023.
We got our first look at Tesla’s version 9.0 software update
Over a series of four separate tweets, Tesla tinkerer Jason Hughes showed a couple of shots of the upcoming 9.0 software update. The biggest apparent change is made to the UI to make it look like the one in the Model 3. No more app bar, instead there are boxes that pop up over the navigation. On top of that there was a “Drive on Nav” option for the autopilot that we don’t know the use of. As Jason states in the tweets, these are subject to change, so don’t assume that this is the final version of the update. As of now, Elon Musk plans to roll out the update broadly by the end of the month.
Near production version of Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire shown
During the company’s 115th Anniversary celebration in Milwaukee, Harley brought out a design validation version of its brand new LiveWire, which signifies its closeness to production readiness. The project has been in the works since at least 2014. The LiveWire is planned to appear in 2019 as Harley tries to capture the more youthful and urban demographic with its simple “twist and go” philosophy. The LiveWire is an important motorcycle for Harley as it will be the first stepping stone for the company into the EV world with more models ready to come after the LiveWire’s release.
Kia Niro EV reaches 310 miles on a single charge.
Rated range on electric vehicles is a difficult task that has a lot of factors that influence the range. Kia has stated that they are targeting a range of up to 240 miles on a single charge on their product page. But EV Youtuber Bjorn Nyland was able to squeeze out 310.8 miles with 6.8 miles left over on a single charge during hist little trip. This is an amazing range for the price of this car, even at 240 miles of range its good, but 310 miles is down right phenomenal. And yes, while he wasn’t putting the car through its paces, her averaged a speed of about 56 mph, which isn’t terribly slow.
Tesla Model 3 was the 5th best-selling sedan in the US for August
Thanks to the production ramp-ups that occurred within the month of August, Tesla was able to get a good amount of Model 3s out the door. According to goodcarbadcar, the Model 3 was the 5th best-selling sedan in the United States for August. The four above it are the much more affordable mass-market Toyota Corolla and Camry and Honda Civic and Accord. For the prices those cars sell it, it would be unreasonable to expect the Model 3 to beat those number for the time being. So it would seem to be a great accomplishment for the Model 3 to be ranked so highly. (Provided all these numbers are accurate, there would have to be a 7.65% error for the Model 3 to fall into 6th place.)
