Happy October everyone and welcome to another edition of our weekly round-up, where we recount the EV news that we didn’t cover at length. Along with the EV news that we did not cover, we have a recap of all the news that we did cover in length at the bottom as well, in case you missed it. For those interested in the past month’s Tesla news, we did a monthly recap.
Nissan Shows an Electric City Car
While we are patiently waiting for an IMx-based electric SUV to make its way, Nissan threw a curveball and showed off an electric car concept that is perfect for the city. It doesn’t seem that Nissan has any plans to take this car into production, but they want to showcase the future design language that they are hoping to go for, dubbed “Timeless Japanese Futurism”. Satoru Tai, executive design director at Nissan, states that:
“As a small EV for a new era, the Nissan IMk is designed to be at home in sophisticated cityscapes as much as in traditional Japanese towns. The IMk fuses a modern, clean look, driven by its Japanese heritage, with cutting-edge EV technology. Unconstrained by conventional concepts of the kei car segment, its design is interwoven with Japanese culture. It’s a luxury small EV that I hope a lot of customers are going to drive.”
As an example of the “Japanese DNA”, Tai pointed towards the fact that “the bumper, wheels, tires, windows, tail lamps, roof and high mount spoiler treatment borrow from the flowing patterns of mizuhiki, a thin twine made of Japanese rice paper. Just as mizuhiki flows naturally by design, on the IMk this flowing pattern blends the front, sides, and rear of the concept together for a completely new presence, outside and inside.” Truthfully it reminds me of Nissan’s previous Cube which was definitely a love it or hate it type of car, and this one will be no different. The interior is the standard concept affair with not a single physical button in sight and holograms being used to display information to the driver. There was no word on any sort of speculation regarding perspective battery and range, instead, the IMk is here more to act as a reference for what designs and technology goals Nissan will be trying to shoot for in the near future. But hey, maybe we’ll get a Cube EV to fight with the Kia Soul again?
Read More Via Nissan
Mitsubishi MI-TECH Plug-In Is Packing a Gas Turbine
Now, this is certainly an interesting powertrain configuration. While Mitsubishi has been pretty quiet on the electric front, their upcoming MI-TECH concept has piqued our interest. The Mi-Tech concept will be shown at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show and is described as “an electric SUV that delivers unparalleled driving pleasure and confidence over all terrain in light and wind”. The Mi-TECH features a plug-in hybrid system that has four electric motors, one for each wheel for optimal torque vectoring. Additionally, the MI-TECH uses a gas-turbine engine generator rather than a general gasoline-engine generator. In the picture above you can see what appears to be four ventilation holes. We are very interested to hear what Mitsubishi’s reasoning for this is and what kind of drive experience you can have with it. Additionally, the inside is packed with tech, featuring an AR windshield that can project different bits of relevant information around the windshield. Judging from the image above, the MI-TECH looks to adopt an off-road appearance with no doors and very sharp angles in the bodywork. Look out for the Tokyo Motor Show at the end of the month to see the reveal of this interesting plug-in.
Read More Via Mitsubishi
Porsche Preparing for an Increase in Taycan Production
For many months leading up to the Porsche Taycan unveiling, we had heard different snippets from Porsche executives stating that it seems like the demand for the Taycan had been more than originally thought. The fact looks to be confirmed as Porsche recently announced that they had bolstered their Taycan manufacturing team as Porsche hired 500 more people to help with increasing their production in the Zuffenhausen plant.
Taycan’s original production capacity was 20,000 units. This continues to be the requirement for the first year of production. By increasing its workforce by the end of the second quarter of 2020, Porsche is providing itself with the necessary flexibility to be able to produce more units if necessary.
The total amount of people involved in the manufacturing process of the Porsche Taycan is close to 2,000. And speaking of Taycan manufacturing, Porsche released raw footage of the manufacturing process of the Taycan which you can see above.
Read More Via Porsche
Audi Teasing Electric Car Possibility Using PPE-Platform
Audi is not wasting any time with throwing electric cars at us and, and it seems like they slipped an unannounced electric car in some recent press images. Audi recently released some images with their currently announced electric cars and showcasing all the different platforms that they used. For those keeping score: the e-tron uses the MLB evo platform which is a modified platform that the VW Group uses for gasoline cars. The Q4 e-tron uses Volkswagen’s MEB platform which you have probably heard about a million times already and will underpin almost every electric car in the group. The e-tron uses the J1 platform which is the same platform that the Porsche Taycan and upcoming Taycan Sport Turismo ride on. Lastly, we have an obscured car, roughly the size of an A4 or A5. This car will ride the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) platform that Audi and Porsche have been co-developing for at least a year now. This platform will, as the name implies, only be used for the Volkswagen Group’s most premium offerings. The platform is based on the J1 platform of the Taycan, so it will be capable of 350 kW fast-charging and look to provide at least 300 miles of range for maximum ‘premiumness’. With Audi already slipping the PPE model into press shots, we wonder how long it will be before we get to have a full look at the concept.
Read More Via Car
EV News You Missed:
- Tesla finally released software update V10, here is everything that is inside.
- Tesla aquired AI startup Deepscale to help with their full self-drinving goals and future robotaxis.
- Electrify America tries to provide an economical option with a new home charger that looks to undercut other populat options.
- Porsche stated that they could probably set a faster lap time around the Nurburgring given that the car used was not a Taycan Turbo S.
