Two years ago, we were announcing that Toyota and Tesla Motors had entered an agreement that would net Tesla $60 million to design and manufacture an all-electric powertrain for the RAV4 SUV. Finally, after all of this time we have a debut date set. Unfortunately, it isn’t a showroom debut, but rather a showing of the final product.
Toyota has just has unveiled this new Tesla and Toyota collaboration to the U.S. at the International Electric Vehicle Symposium in LA on the May 7th at noon. The new RAV4 EV is powered by a 154 HP electric powertrain and has a driving range rating of approximately 100 miles and charging time of approximately six hours on a 240V/40A charger. It comes with two driving modes: Sport and Normal. In Sport version the car will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 7.0 seconds and will go up to 100 mph, while in Normal mode it will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in 8.6 seconds with a maximum speed of 85 mph.
Compared to the standard RAV4, the new EV version will get a re-styled the front bumper, upper and lower grill, side mirrors, rear spoiler, and under body design to maximize air flow around the vehicle. The model will be offered in three exterior colors: Blizzard White Pearl, Shoreline Blue Pearl and Classic Silver Metallic combined with a unique "Neutron" fabric for the interior.
UPDATE 05/08/2012: The new Toyota RAV4 EV will go on sale in late Summer 2012 through select dealers at a starting price of $49,800.
It’s not the most fashionable or most powerful concept vehicle BMW has been involved with, but as far as significance is concerned, it just might be one of the most meaningful car projects that they’ve been a part of.
The concept vehicle is called the Visio.M MUTE, a prototype vehicle developed by Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) that now has the involvement of partners from the German auto industry, spearheaded by BMW. The concept is being pegged as a vehicle for the future, one that is being developed to determine the feasibility of developing an efficient, mass-market electric vehicle that ensures the same level of safety and affordability as the combustion vehicles of today.
The project recently received €10.8 million ($14.1 million at the current rates) in funding from the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). The Visio.M MUTE is the prototype model that will play a critical role in determining how it can handle new technologies in logistics, crash safety, propulsion, and energy storage for a future, mass-produced vehicle.
As it currently stands, the car only carries and output of 20 horsepower and weighs only 400 kg without batteries. It certainly won’t break any speed records anytime soon, but in terms of significance, the Visio.M MUTE could be one of the most important concept vehicles to come out in recent years.
After being teased for quite some time now, the Rimac Concept One has finally made its official debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The Concept One is not only the proof that "supercar" and "electric" can be used in the same sentence, but it also previews a limited edition model that will arrive in 2013 in a quantity of only 88 units.
Mind blowing as it is to comprehend, Rimac is promising an output that’s unheard of for an electric sports car. Concept One uses a unique powertrain which is divided into four sub-systems, each consisting of one motor, inverter and reduction gearbox. With a total output of 1,088 HP and 2,802 lb/ft of torque, the Concept One will sprint from 0 to 60 mph in only 2.8 seconds and comes with an electronically limited top speed of 189 mph.
The Concept One is the work of some of the most famous designers around the world. The carbon-fiber body is designed by Adriano Mudri, while the interior is designed by a team of former Pininfarina employees, led by Mr. Goran Popović.
UPDATE 04/20/12: The Rimac Concept One has been on display at the 2012 Top Marques Monaco, which was the perfect opportunity for the company to unveil new images of the supercar. Check them out in the picture gallery!
UPDATE 05/07/12: Rimac has unveiled a cool teaser video for their Concept One supercar that will be produced in a limited run of only 88 units. Watch the video and see if this car is really worth the €740,000 ($980,000 at the current rates) price tag associated with it.
Hit the jump to read more on the Rimac Concept One.
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Ferrari has already confirmed two things for its future. The first to come was the fact that it will soon feature a V-12 hybrid drivetrain dubbed the HY-KERS system. The second thing that Ferrari confirmed was the fact that a new Enzo-like vehicle will debut in the coming years boasting this HY-KERS system as its power plant.
Some snooping around also produced that this new “Enzo” may bear the F70 name. Currently, the details on this upcoming F70 are scarce, at best, and all we have seen in the form of visuals on it are some spy shots of its testing mule, which looks more like an Italia 458 with poorly placed metal slabs bolted onto it. The same rings true for the interior. What we do know is that in an effort to reduce weight, the F70 will include some carbon-fiber panels.
We also know a good deal about the 6.3-liter V-12 HY-KERS (Hybrid-Kinetic Energy Recovery System) that will power it. Starting with the internal combustion side; this engine will be as efficient as possible, using multi spark technology – a series of cooler sparks as the piston travels upward – that assures that no fuel goes to waste by the spark plug igniting multiple times before the each cylinder hits top-dead-center. This combustion engine links to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
On the electrical side, you have a series of components working together for optimal efficiency. On the backside of the seven-speed trans, you have a high-power traction motor. This motor electrifies the seven-speed trans, adding to the power the engine delivers to it. Attached to the gasoline engine is an auxiliary generator that charges the batteries, as needed. Lastly, on top of the transmission is the hybrid power unit, which features two inverters and a smart cooling system.
All of this crazy technology plops down a whopping 920 combined horsepower and a 0 to 200 km/h (124 mph) time of 6.5 seconds. This also drops the CO2 emissions by a whopping 40 percent, 10 percent more than the initial tests.
We will continue to keep you updated with additions to this review, as more info becomes available, so stay tuned!
With the recent leak from OnStar, we now have a good amount of certainty that the Cadillac ELR, a gas-electric hybrid that Cadillac teased back in 2011, is nearly a certainty to arrive for the 2014 model year. Its impeding release will mark the first time the luxury automaker will dive into the hybrid realm with a vehicle not named “Escalade.”
However, this is not the first time in Caddy’s long history that it’s tread into the economy car world. The first one was the laughably Cavalier-like Cimarron. If you recall, Cadillac was so embarrassed by the Cimarron that the automaker refused to call it a Cadillac and instead dubbed it the “Cimarron by Cadillac” originally. GM later forced a name change to “Cadillac Cimarron.”
Needless to say Caddy does not want to relive those days, so there is certainly some understanding in this release taking so long. With this newfound evidence of its release, it is about time we take a closer look at the 2014 Cadillac ELR and see how it stacks up against others luxury hybrids.
Click past the jump to read the entire review to see if the ELR will end up on TIME’s “50 Worst Cars of All Time” list alongside the Cimarron.
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Usually, when an auto maker wants to rev their car’s engine as loud as possible when pushing it to its limit, they take it to the Nurburgring race track. This time, however, our spy photographers had a few problems hearing the prototype testing at the famous race track and almost skipped it entirely. That’s because the prototype is the Audi R8 e-tron test mule.
The R8 e-tron is not a secret anymore and every car addict knows that a production version will arrive sometime next year, but this prototype still shows that Audi is meaning business with their e-tron projects.
As you can see from the spy shots and may already know, the future R8 e-tron will look almost the same as the standard R8 sports car, except for the lack of exhaust pipes due to the fact that this a zero-emissions model. Then there’s the change in the rear window where fans can typically check out the V8 or V10 engines. That’s been covered up now that the engines are non-existent and there is also a big hole for the cooling of the batteries.
A production version of the Audi R8 e-tron will arrive in 2013, built in limited numbers.
We are no vacuum cleaner experts, but we can say from firsthand experience that Dyson vacuums suck, in a good way. As a company it’s obvious that they don’t suck, as the above video makes it look like the employees and management sure do know how to cut loose sometimes. Okay, we are done with the “suck” jokes.
The video shows what happens when a company has a few too many spare parts lying around, some extra time, and a team of engineers that simply love building random stuff. What you get is a fastest vacuum cleaner car competition.
The rules were simple; build an electric car using spare parts from a Dyson vacuum cleaner. Some of the cars looked a little boring, but others were amazingly innovative and downright fast. The engineers then launched their creations down a drag-racing track made from empty boxes and wooden pallets to see whose car was the fastest.
Though the video doesn’t show a winner, it was still entertaining. Far and away our favorite clip was the dude donning full racing garb going down the track on a go-cart-like contraption that he built. We’re pretty sure the racing equipment was more for effect than actual fear of injury. Another funny one is at the 0:32-second mark when the operator looks like he’s diffusing a bomb, when in reality he is pressing the launch button on an impressively quick creation.
It’s always nice to see a large company like Dyson pulling off a fun project like this. And it’s even more impressive to see the kinds of wheeled contraptions engineers can zip-tie together from a few spare vacuum parts. Enjoy watching what happens when engineers have too much free time on their hands.
Toyota’s road racing days pretty much grounded to a halt when corporate headquarters pulled the automaker from the F1 program after the 2009 racing season. Since 2009, Toyota Motor Company has shown improvements, as buyers began returning after the car-buying slump ended and the safety issues that plagued the automaker were rectified. This allowed Toyota to start to experiment with road racing again and develop the TS030 Hybrid.
The TS030 Hybrid had its debut race set for the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 5th, 2012. Things were looking good for the 3.4-liter V-8-powered TS030 Hybrid until its most recent test run. An undisclosed driver was testing out the TS030 at Paul Ricard and must have had a fairly horrific crash, as Toyota Racing Team President announced that the team could not build a new monocoque – chassis for those that don’t speak race-a-nese – in time for the May 5th debut.
Most people would think “Why not just use a second body; they all have spares, right?" Well, when you are easing your toes back into the racing pool, like Toyota is, you can’t really afford to go blowing millions of dollars building and testing multiple cars. In the future, yes, they will have multiple monocoques, but for now there was only one.
According to the press release, a new monocoque will be ready in time for the June running at the Le Mans 24 Hours.
A few things come to mind here. First off, was Toyota planning on arriving at the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with only one monocoque? Secondly, how much of a bum does the driver that thrashed their only vehicle feel right about now? Maybe that’s why they kept wraps on which driver it was that wrecked it.
Well, here’s to a speedy rebuild, Toyota, and we hope to see you in June, sans the black cloud floating over your head.
Hit the jump for the official presser from Toyota Racing and a cool video of the TS030 testing.
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As much as we try to resist talking about every single celebrity’s car, there are some cases where a celebrity car also happens to be 100% ridiculous. In those cases, well, we just can’t help ourselves. Enter in, Justin Bieber’s 2012 Fisker Karma.
We aren’t reporting on the fact that this teen pop idol is being environmentally friendly, nor that he was handed the keys to this beautiful black Fisker Karma free of charge. Nope, that’s not the story. The story is that this 18-year-old pop sensation turned this beautifully sculpted ECO-supercar into a rolling mirror, literally.
We are cool with a little chrome, but there is a point when it becomes excessive. Mr. Bieber, you hit that point of excess, then broke through the barrier and tossed a live grenade at the remainder of that barrier to make sure it can never be crossed again.
This young man chromed out the entire car, not just a few accents here and there, the e-n-t-i-r-e car. Top to bottom coated in shiny, sunlight-reflecting chrome. Now, if he lived somewhere that the sun wasn’t excruciatingly intense, that might be cool, but this dude lives in California. As you can see from the above video, the sunlight creates a nearly blinding reflection on the car’s surface, which we would assume is illegal.
Um, nope, according to California law, a fully chromed out car is perfectly legal, but those pretty little mood lights under the front bumper are not legal. I remember getting pulled over repeatedly in Pennsylvania for my Camaro’s exhaust being too loud, that monstrosity of a Karma is louder than my Camaro’s exhaust could have ever been.
Hit the jump to see this beautiful machine before Bieber ruined, err, customized it.
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One of the biggest allures people have of supercars is the ear-splitting noise these cars produce. After all, nothing speaks to a car’s power than all those ponies working in harmony to produce a roar like no other.
But what happens with a car like the Audi R8 E-Tron, a supercar that’s powered by silent electric motors?
In the case of Audi, it involves a few compromises. In this video, Audi talks about the challenges of producing that emotional sound supercar owners love on a car that’s run by electricity. The solution, as far as Audi engineers are concerned, was to develop a synthetic sound signature that can be played with a loudspeaker attached to the car’s undercarriage.
Take note of the word "synthetic" because that in itself means that the sound is fabricated and not directly derived from the engine. Nevertheless, the objective with the "E-Sound" was to generate enough noise to allow drivers to enjoy the thrills of a supercar with an electric powertrain.
Check out the videos - one of which you can find after the jump - to find out how Audi accomplished giving the Audi R8 E-Tron the supercar-like sounds similar to its gasoline-powered siblings.
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