Re*Move

Driving the Tesla Roadster Sport... at 120mph

Joe in the Tesla Roadster Sport at Millbrook after lapping the high speed bowl

I'll get the disappointments out of the way first. There is no video to accompany this blog. So you'll have to make do with my words and your mind's eye. And yes, when you thrap the knackers off a Tesla Roadster (to coin a colloquial Yorkshire term - ed), then the quoted 225 mile-odd range probably isn't achievable  - as Jeremy Clarkson was so keen to point out when he tested it on Top Gear last year. Yet to dismiss what Tesla has achieved with the Roadster, and specifically the new, faster Roadster Sport version I drove yesterday, is to do the company an absolutely huge disservice.

Words struggle to describe what happens when you plant your right foot in this car. In a 'normal' sports car - let's say a Porsche 911 - when you flatten the gas pedal from low revs, the car takes a moment to build a sense of acceleration, before screaming towards a red line of - typically - 7000 rpm. You then change up a gear, the sense of acceleration diminishes slightly, and the process starts again in the next gear. It's terrific fun, addictive, but the noise - from the engine - is central to the experience.

So in comparison, you'd expect an electric car - with no engine noise, and only a single gear speed - to feel perhaps anodyne, unexciting, and maybe uninvolving. But the reality is different. Very different. Setting out from Millbrook proving ground's central area, I pick my way silently between other cars, exhibits and people unaware of the Tesla's stealthy, silent presence behind them (apparently, it being bright yellow isn't enough for them to notice me). Already though, I can feel the sporting intent - the tiny steering wheel, heavy, feel-some, unassisted steering.

Navigating the roundabout on the way out onto the proving ground, I squeeze the throttle pedal perhaps a quarter of an inch, and the Tesla rockets round, limpet like, feeling like a heavier, planted Lotus Elise (which isn't exactly a surprise). Then we turn onto the access road to Millbrook's famous high speed bowl. Built by GM in the 60s, this is a high speed proving circuit. Two-miles long, it is banked, fiercely, across its 5 lanes. As we round the corner to join the bowl, a familiar, British speed limit sign appears. But it causes me to do a double take. Instead of the usual 40 or 50, the number in the red circle says '130'. If only you saw that every time you joined the M1...

View Larger Map

Google maps aerial view of the Millbrook proving ground.

Not knowing how many other cars will be on the circuit, I approach things gingerly, just slightly squeezing the throttle to join the track. We're doing about 30mph. Audra from Tesla, who's sitting to my right, glances over her shoulder, turns to me and says "you can just go, plant it".

So I do... Foot to the floor. And even though I've driven a number of electric cars now, and even though I reckon I've read nearly every road-test of the Tesla Roadster, I'm still unprepared for what happens next. It feels like we've been hit from behind by a silent express train. One which has no intention of stopping. We're positively flung forwards - 40mph, 50mph, 60mph, 70mph... the numbers coming up on the speedometer faster than you can read them. I let out a stupid laugh, and glance across at Audra who's now grinning wildly. "Wow" I say. And we're not slowing down. The acceleration rate hasn't let up, I haven't changed gear. We're just pilling on speed as if we're attached to a manic bungee chord which is intent on 'twanging' us towards the horizon, with all its might. This is the roadster sport, after all. It does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds...

By now I'm up in the fourth highest lane of the banked bowl, the car tilted at perhaps 15,20 percent against the horizontal. But looking down at the speedo, I'm doing 95mph, and the notional 'speed limit' in this lane is 80mph, so with a big deep breath, I squeeze the throttle once more, and gradually slip out into the fifth - and highest - lane of the banked bowl. I'm scared. In the top lane, all you see to your right is a crash barrier, and then the sky above it. You're pitched at a crazy angle against the flat horizontal, very aware that your passenger is sitting much higher up than you are because of the tilt of the car. A thought flashes through my mind - "god she's brave - putting her life in my hands (and feet)". The manic whine of the electric motor is being drowned out by the noise of the wind as we cut through the air at nearly two miles per minute. Such is the angle of the banking, and the forces that they generate, legend has it that at 100 mph in this top lane, you can take your hands off the steering wheel, and the car will simply continue to stay where it is, circling the bowl.

Snatching a glance at the speedo shows we're doing 120mph now though, so I think better of taking my hands off the wheel, and then a thought briefly flashes through my head - "what if we had a tyre blow out, what if I let go of the wheel... we'd be gonners, what would people say to my fiance if they found me in pieces amongst a mangled yellow sports car on the other side of the car barrier?" I quickly banish the thought from my mind, but it's enough to make me back off the accelerator, and filter into the next lane down. I take a moment to savour what I've just done. As a gearhead, circling the Millbrook bowl in the top lane has always been on my "things to do before I die" list, and I've just ticked it off. In an electric car. The weirdness of that thought distracts me from the fact that I've just overtaken a new Saab 9-5, still covered in disguises and camouflage tape. And then I think "sod it", and mash the throttle pedal again. And this is all you need to know about the Tesla Roadster: it feels like it's accelerating as fast at 80mph as it is at 30mph. And it's addictive. So much so that I complete another couple of laps. Who said the future wasn't going to be fun? What a car.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 11th September 2009. Joe was attending LCV2009 at Millbrook proving ground, on 09th and 10th September.

Driving an electric vehicle (EV) - what's it like?

Right now, the vehicle revolution looks set to be electric, but very few people have driven an EV to date. So to dispel a few myths about electric vehicles being about as quick as a milkfloat, or as attractive as a noddy car, we though we'd use our recent experience in the Smith Electric / Ford Transit Connect BEV to tell you what driving an electric car (well, van-based car) of the future might be like.

Starting up

Getting in to Smith’s demonstrator Ford Transit Connect EV is just like stepping into a regular Transit Connect. It looks like any automatic transmission vehicle. There are two pedals and a centrally mounted gearshift, with park, drive and reverse ratios. It’s when you turn the key in the ignition that things get different. Instead of the churn of a starter motor and the flare of revs as an internal combustion engine bursts into life, what you’re instead greeted with is a barely perceptible whining noise, as the car’s 12volt system powers up, and the diagnostics run a check on the traction batteries. Once that’s done and they’re powered up, you hear a ‘pop’ noise as the connectors kick in, signalling the vehicle’s ready.

Moving off

From there, it’s simply a matter of slipping the gearshift into drive, and then silently, eerily, moving away. The lack of sound is – quite unsurprisingly – the thing that takes most getting used to. If you’ve ever sat in a car being pushed or towed with its engine off, the first few yards you cover driving an EV will feel familiar. Your brain, used to the gentle rise of revs from an internal combustion engine, struggles to comprehend that you’re moving without sound. Video:

Accelerating and on the move

Moving away from rest is a doddle. Simply press the accelerator, as you would in an automatic car and the van hurries away from the line with no fuss. Electric motors produce nearly all of their torque from zero rpm, which means good acceleration at low speed, and instead of the rise and fall in acceleration rates (and engine noise) you’re used to from an internal combustion engine, there’s simply a constant, linear accelerative force – as if a giant elastic band has been attached to the front of the van, and is hauling you toward the horizon.

One thing that's worth noting is that you do become more aware of other vehicular noises - from the tyres, wind, and interior of the vehicle. We wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of work going into the next generation of electric vehicles to really try and muffle or eliminate some of this other ambient sound, as we suspect that if - say - the interior developed a creak or rattle in your electric car, it'd really draw attention to itself and prove to be much more noticeable and annoying than in today's internal combustion vehicles. Nontheless, the lack of motor noise makes this whole experience feel, as Vinay suggests from the back seat, “a little star trek” – the van has only one gear ratio, which means you just don’t feel the same sense of acceleration. So it comes as a surprise to look down and find you’re doing 60 miles per hour. This thing is not slow. Video:

Braking

The most noticable driving difference in the Transit Connect EV over a regular car or van is the regenerative braking system. Prius and other hybrid drivers will already be familiar with such systems, which capture energy when a vehicle is slowing down, and feed it back into the battery. The Transit Connect EV has the most aggressively set up type of this system I’ve yet driven – and if you’re clever and read the road ahead, it means you’ll rarely need to touch the brakes. Simply lift your foot off the accelerator, and the vehicle begins to slow – quite quickly – to the extent that, when exiting a motorway at 65mph, the van had brought itself to a stop at the end of the off-ramp, without me touching the brake pedal at all. Video:

Our view

If you’re British and of a certain age, your perception of what an electric vehicle will be like is probably rooted around the milk float – the ancient morning delivery vehicle with a top speed of around 15 miles per hour. Smith Electric, Ford’s partner on this project, actually used to build those vehicles as far back as 80 years ago, but the Transit Connect EV bears so little resemblance to such a device that the method of propulsion almost ought to be given a different name. Both are electric vehicles, but comparing the two is like comparing Issigonis’s original Mini with a contemporary Porsche.

The most complementary thing we can say about the Transit Connect BEV is that it drives at least as well as its internal combustion counterpart, and in many regards it’s better. It easily keeps up with traffic. The lack of drivetrain shunt, engine noise, and not needing to change gear significantly reduces the load on the driver – meaning they’re free to concentrate on the road. Smith report that fatigue and strain levels in drivers of its EVs are significantly lower than in equivalent internal combustion powered vehicles. Critically, in the small delivery vehicle market, this should lead to safer, more aware drivers, who have fewer accidents. The proof of that particular pudding will be in the eating, when these vehicles go on sale in the US next year. But Smith report that of the drivers on its existing fleets who’ve made the jump from gasoline to electric drive, not one now wants to switch back to an internal combustion engine. From a group of drivers who are notoriously hard to please, that’s the best endorsement going.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 2nd September 2009.

The Movement Design Bureau team visit Smith Electric's production facility in Washington, Tyne & Wear, UK on 17th August 2009. Thanks to Dan Jenkins and everyone at Smith for being so accommodating and patient. Disclosure: Ford is sponsoring The Movement Design Bureau's design and research work in 2009

Silently rolling down Smith's production line, Ford's first EV is here. We drive it

It’s been a long time coming, but be in no doubt that the electric vehicle (EV) revolution is finally upon us. What makes us so sure? We’ve seen Ford’s first EV coming down a production line, and actually driven it on public roads.

While GM has long stolen headlines in the US with its Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, cross-town rival Ford now looks set to beat it to market with a humble Transit van. It might not be Aptera-sexy, but its impact on the environment – especially in cities – could be in a different league to the trailblazers currently in the market, like Tesla.

Whereas most car drivers still worry about the range limitations inherent to electric vehicles, with a van or small truck – where daily routes tend to be predictable, and well under 100 miles a day in urban settings, ‘range anxiety’ for the driver practically disappears. Ford’s move to make its first mass-market electric vehicle a van, therefore seems smart – especially as many will go into big fleets, where operators can closely monitor vehicles and provide detailed feedback on the performance of what is still quite new technology.

First Ford Transit Connect BEV (here as Tourneo - a crew version) for the US, on the ramps in Smith factory

The Transit Connect BEV as Ford calls it, goes on sale in North America in 2010, but the first vehicles to hit American shores are rolling down a production line right now - in a factory in North-East England, where they’re built by Smith Electric Vehicles. Earlier this week, Smith’s Dan Jenkins showed us the first Ford Transit Tourneo Connect BEV on the production line floor, which you can see in this video below:

Smith has a long history of building electric vehicles, with a number of big-brand customers in Europe such as Sainsbury’s (supermarket), TNT (deliveries), and TK Maxx (retail) already using its vehicles in their fleets. They’ve been converting Ford vans for some years, so the official partnership between Smith and Ford that was announced last year – which will ultimately see electric Transits being built in a factory in Kansas City, seems logical.

The real proof of the pudding is in the eating though, and having seen the first production vehicle on the factory floor (see video above), we then got to drive Smith’s demonstrator prototype, fresh from a tour where it was shown to people like Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. As you’ll see in our video (below), from the back seat, the feeling of traveling at 50 miles per hour in a vehicle with no engine noise, feels more than “a little star trek”. But the real story is that, from behind the wheel, the Transit Connect BEV drives just like a regular car or van, only one that’s much simpler to operate, and much quieter on the move. We've driven the future, and it's electric:

Check out more videos from the day we spent with Smith on our Blip TV channel - and watch this space for more blogs and videos on this subject, which we're following very closely. All Movement Design Bureau material is available for republication under a Sharealike Creative Commons 3.0 license.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on the 21st August 2009

Images - Robb Hunter

Disclosure - Ford is sponsoring The Movement Design Bureau's design and research work in 2009 - however we have an independent brief and say what we think. If you disagree, we want to hear from you. Thanks to all at Smith - and especially Dan Jenkins - for giving up their time to show us round the factory.

The last 12 months of auto design - Joe's favourite things

I returned from France a few days ago to find Robb and Mark discussing the last 12 months of cars and car design, because they were thinking about which ones ought to be entered into the upcoming Spark design Awards.

While the auto industry’s been in the doldrums for some time now, Spark Awards provides an opportune moment to take a look at some of the more interesting cars, concepts and automotive details of recent times. So without further ado, here’s a scratch list of some Simpson favourites…

BMW Gina

Designed years ago, but then dumped in a secret hanger until such time when BMW needed an on-demand concept to unveil (the opening of BMW-Welt proved to be just such an occasion), BMW’s Gina is arguably the single most innovative thing to have happened in auto design for years. As its mastermind Chris Bangle remarked at unveiling “what do we need the skin of a car for anyway? What is it made out of? Does it have to be made of metal?” Too few ‘what if’ questions are asked in the auto world, and the moments that they do happen are typically hidden from public view – as this one was for so long. But we’re glad it finally saw the light of day, and that like all the best concepts it asks more questions than it answers.

Nissan Cube

In a world where even family hatchbacks are competing to set the fastest time in the class around the Nurburgring, Nissan offers a leftfield approach. The Cube has been around in Japan for years, but now Europe and the US are getting the second generation. Why? Nissan realise that most drivers aren’t interested in the minutae of cornering finesse, or top speed; they’re interested in something that manages to provide huge utility, but have personality at the same time. The Cube has both in spades. Essentially a box-on-wheels, it features a ‘sun and moon’ set of dials, ‘curvy wave’ seating, and asymmetric styling in the shape of one side rear window turning around the corner into the rear windshield. When he had one on test recently, Michael Banovsky noted “I feel awful leaving the cube downstairs at night. He looks so sad”. It’s the kind of car that elicits such feelings. Jean Jennings, Automobile Magazine and long-time Spark friend, raved about it to us recently, too.

 

Audi LED lights

They’re by no means universally loved, nor were Audi first to introduce LED headlight technology, but through smart design strategy and brilliant detailed execution, Audi have taken ownership of the LED headlight. Subtly different on the R8, A6, A5 and A4, the wavy bands of bright white lights, piercing through the daylight when in DRL mode, are now as much an Audi identification hallmark as the shield grille and four rings - leaving you in no doubt as to just which type of car is behind you, and would like you to move over, thank you very much…

The end of the family car?

I’ve had several conversations recently with people who are either in or strongly connected to the auto industry, who’ve all told me the same thing:

“In the future, we’ll all have two cars – a petrol/diesel/hybrid for long distance, and an electric car for city/local trips.”

This isn’t just interesting because it’s completely different to what they’d have told you two years ago (although that in itself is an important sign of how much the market and mindset has moved). No, it’s that in all straight-faced seriousness, they believe a majority of people will park (and own) two cars on their drive in years to come.

While conversations with people in the industry tend to be a bit abnormal anyway, as they quickly turn to talk of how many classic Porsche’s they’ve got in their garage - due to it being their passion, the stark truth is that in the UK less than 30% of people have access to more than one car, and in urban areas that figure shrinks dramatically. Most people view cars as a convenient, comfortable way of getting direct from A to B – and choose a single vehicle that best suits their need. Their car tends not to be something they’re obsessional about.

Currently, focus, energy and cash is all going into new powertrain development. In many regards it needs to. But there’s an unstated assumption (alluded to by those guys I quote above) that once we’ve overcome the current roadhump, and get workable electric / hydrogen cars to market, business in the car industry will continue pretty much as it did before. People will go down to their local car dealer and choose what suits their needs and desires, every two or three years.

There’s a problem with that though. The average person can afford to run, maintain and often only has space to park, one vehicle. Which vehicle they choose to buy right now depends on what their personal circumstances are and the types of journeys they do. Hence young people living around cities tend to buy small hatchbacks, and middle class families buy large estates or (more recently) SUVs. Both work best within a certain usage envelope, but if needed, can cover every single transport base (what I mean by this is that a city car often isn’t at home on a motorway, but if needs be, you could still drive one all the way to Milan tomorrow).

This cover-all bases approach is one of the reasons current vehicles are so comparatively inefficient. Creating right-sized vehicles with the right powertrains, for a variety of different journey scenarios, therefore makes a load of sense. But it creates a scenario where suddenly, your average one-car buyer is faced with the prospect of buying something that can no longer meet every single journey need. That the car industry’s answer to this appears to be “well, you’ll just have to buy two cars!” makes me feel a little bit sick. Reports suggest that even if we replaced most of the current gasoline vehicle fleet with EVs, the planet would still be in fairly major mess. To quote BP’s incoming Chairman: “The growth of car ownership and airtravel is unsustainable.”

This is one reason we’re seeing start-up car companies such as Riversimple promoting the idea of leasing rather than selling to customers - their argument is that it encourages them to develop long lasting vehicles, without built in obsolescence, which are absolutely optimised for their environment. It’s probably why Daimler are quietly building out a potentially very interesting next generation car club in the shape of car-2-go, and most shockingly of all – one of the reasons we’re seeing Exxon getting not only into electric cars, but vehicle sharing, with the announcement this week that they were behind an EV being dropped into a pilot programme in Baltimore.

Of course, while most customers aren’t as car obsessed as your author or those working in the car industry, they are however, quite accustomed to the idea of owning their own car. It’s a big jump to just having access to one as a means of mobility, one that other people can also use. In the average customer’s mind, this throws up a whole set of doubts and concerns.

There are ways to begin to address this, and I’d argue now’s the time to focus on doing so. Primarily, having recognised automotive brands address the issue and be present in the space is a key step. Not to do a disservice to Zipcar and their ilk who really kick-started and ‘own’ the car-share space right now, but Daimler getting into the sector excites me quite a lot more. They have the name, size and capital to lever mobility on demand/car sharing as a key part of their business, if they so choose. They can reach and communicate to people, that not only they offer such a service at all, but fundamentally, communicate what the hell it really is and why you might want to consider using it. The name, presence and PR machine means that – done wholeheartedly, they could reach millions of potential customers in a way it would take Zipcar years to do.

This leads me to the second key element, which is education. It’s easy to assume that most people now know what someone like Zipcar actually does. But the truth is, most probably still don’t. The name, ‘car sharing’ is confusing, for a start. You don’t actually get in the car at the same time as a stranger – but a lot of people think you do.

I’d advocate a large-scale education programme – which reaches all the way from teaching groups of kids about mobility and the future of cars, as demonstrated very ably by Dan Sturges:

Kids Can Drive from Dan Sturges on Vimeo.

And it should run all the way through existing industry and governmental channels, reaching right up to dealership education programmes. Helping the people in the sales end of the automotive industry not only develop new models of ‘selling’, but to assist people navigating their way through various mobility and transport options of the future may be the key to making this stuff work in a big way.

Done right, the people in the car showroom of the future could offer much more than the ability to simply sell someone a vehicle on a three year finance deal. They could help consumers overcome the misconceptions that currently surround not only diesels, hybrids, EVs, and hydrogen cars, but also car-sharing, leasing, and mobility on demand. Ultimately, the car dealership of the future becomes a one-stop mobility shop; which does much more than just sell cars. In times when many car dealerships are struggling to stay in business due to plummeting car sales, surely it’s an idea that many could embrace?

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 26th June 2009

Images: car dealer sale - emilio labrador on flickr, car in garage - erocka on flickr

Knitting patterns: taking hybrid cars mainstream

Until recently, the typical hybrid buyer tended to be the sort of person you’d try to avoid sitting next to at dinner parties. Ok, perhaps that’s a bit mean, but one had to be fairly committed to the cause to go hybrid.

However, things are changing. A new Prius is here, which (whisper it) doesn’t drive like a mooing double bed on castors anymore. A couple of weeks back we reviewed Honda’s Insight, which can be had at a cheaper price than a hybrid’s ever been before. And then you can throw into the bargain the new Ford Fusion Hybrid - we’ve driven it, and it’s brilliant (unlike the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, which isn’t). Hybrid’s going mainstream.

Manufacturers are falling over themselves to ready hybrids – even once staunch opponents such as VW – because the technology is settling as one pattern by which America will go green. Europeans have long known diesel will deliver similar fuel economy benefits as a hybrid – but those on the other side of the pond still aren’t too sold on the idea. Before we embark on a Euro-bash of Americans and/or hybrids, there are fairly credible reasons for this. Diesel’s more expensive to buy in the US than in Europe – here, diesel’s been pushed (with tax breaks) – particularly by the French and Germans, so there’s now much more refinery capacity, for instance. And while diesel delivers better fuel economy (and hence lower CO2 emissions) than petrol, NOx and particulate matter from diesel exhausts are still problematic. They contribute to local respiratory diseases, and cost big money to reduce. Just ask Mercedes, BMW and VW who are adding expensive ‘ad-blue’ exhaust treatment systems to the cars they sell in North America, in order to pass the Tier II Bin 5 regs (don’t ask).

 In Europe, we've long believed diesel is the way to go - particularly when you need serious torque, in the world of SUVs and pick-ups.

What’s really significant is that Porsche and, yes, even Ferrari, will soon debut hybrids. Hybrid technology in performance-orientated cars is serious news. It’s easy to argue manufacturers who are about to get hit over the head (with heavy fines) by the EU over fleet emission have to go down this route, but that misses the point.

Firstly, it means that hybrid technologies can be seen to have benefits in a wide spectrum of automotive applications (not just ones primarily aimed at city-based, compact family vehicles bought by people who aren’t gear-heads). Secondly, it alludes to the notion that hybrid technology could actually enhance, rather than detract from the driving experience. The Prius and Insight are automotive cardboard. One doesn’t extract pleasure from piloting them down a challenging road. But if the technology is arriving in a Porsche and a Ferrari, then you can be sure that is about to change. ‘Fun’ and ‘hybrid’ will shortly be appearing in the same sentence, without being followed by guffaws.

This slow but steady greening of the automotive industry bears remarkable similarity to a previous automotive ‘trend’, which resulted in a complete attitudinal change in consumers back in the 1990s.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, only Volvos and Saabs were famed, and bought, for their safety. Of course, Mercedes had invented the airbag back in the 1970s - and it was appearing on top of the line S-classes in the late 1980s, but very little else. Then in 1993 Ford launched the European Mondeo – the first real mainstream affordable car with a driver’s airbag fitted as standard across the entire range. Except, in the UK, Vauxhall decided to beat Ford to it, literally by weeks, by doing the same in their updated Cavalier.

Once upon a time, only Volvo (above) and Saab were renowned for safety prowess.

By 1995, buying a new car that didn’t have a driver’s airbag was the exception rather than the norm. Then in 1997, Euro NCAP appeared. Suddenly, buyers knew which cars were ‘safe’ and which weren’t – and it was being thrust in their face. Safety became a selling point – which brands like Renault capitalised on. Come 2009, and it’s odd for any vehicle not to get 5 stars (the top crash rating) in a Euro NCAP test. Cars are much more crashworthy than the ones of twenty years ago. Consumers expect safety. They believe if they’re involved in a 40mph shunt, they’ll walk away. It took them a while, but it became the expected norm. Cars which flunked tests, suffered in the sales figures.

It sounds cynical, but I think that’s what you’ll see with hybrids, and green cars generally. Before long, it looks likely most new cars will include - at a basic level - something like stop-start technology. This is a big deal in itself, because emissions and wastage from idling cars in traffic is huge. But it’s looking like many vehicle will include some kind of hybridisation – regenerative braking, additional electric motors, a road-going version of F1’s KERS.

One day, will all vehicles wear this badge?

So what you might say? There are three main reasons this is important:

• It will cut emissions and raise fuel economy standards across the board.
• It means the fun to drive, performance-orientated car is far from dead.
• It conditions the market. Consumers, brought up for 100 years on a constantly running petrol or diesel motor, get used to the fact their car turns itself off at the lights, needs starting up in a different way, or doesn’t have a conventional gearbox. That’s good news – it leads us down a path of faster acceptance and uptake of new technology, and new forms of vehicles.

BMW's efficient dynamics campaign

The revolution is here now, and already being advertised. BMW calls it efficient dynamics. Audi’s just jumped on the bandwagon – and is calling it ‘recuperation’. Just as safety was the selling point of the 90s, judging by current adverts, hybrid, energy and green have now gone mainstream too. Before long, the consumer will expect – and likely demand - it.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 10th June 2009

Images: knitted jumper - janetmck on flickr, Touareg V10 TDi - Asurroca on flickr, crash XC90 - hollesdottir on flickr, BMW banner - BMW

Introducing Electric Delivery

Electric Delivery is a new Movement Design Bureau project to explore and document fleet electric vehicles, particularly delivery vans and trucks.

The delivery van market is one of the first areas in which the electric vehicle could become the new transportation standard. The relatively short trips, often in stop-and-go traffic are ideally suited to current generation electric vehicles, unlike some of the more traditional uses of the car.

Fleet vehicle buyers can spend the time to understand the bottom line benefits - environmental and financial - for making the electric vehicle switch in a way that ordinary car buyers cannot always do, making fleet buyers able to switch to new electric vehicle options more easily than ordinary car drivers.

Our new project - Electric Delivery - seeks to understand the commercial electric vehicle market in real detail: over the next six months we will talk to vehicle manufacturers, fleet managers, drivers, customers, and everybody else involved in making real electric vehicles work.

There's a real chance that a new generation of battery technology will give us great new electric vehicles which are more sustainable, affordable, simple, reliable and higher performance than current generation gas and diesel vehicles.

That's for tomorrow. Electric Delivery is about documenting the progress of the working electric vehicle today. White vans first.

See more of The Movement Design Bureau's coverage of future transport, strategy and vehicles - including several in depth interviews and analysis with Ford's top sustainability and design people, here.

Posted by Vinay Gupta and Joseph Simpson on 21st May 2009.

Eric Britton's shared vision for future transportation

Eric Britton has a plan. The man behind worldstreets.org, thinks a lot about the future of transport, and its connection to the overheating nature of the planet. His 'Plan B' vision is a radical twelve point blueprint that he thinks needs to be gone through to stop us cooking the planet - and is an interesting read.

In the green transport field right now, alongside electric cars, high-speed rail, and all the usual stuff that gets tossed around, perhaps the most intriguing idea concerns not the development of new products, but the networking together, and sharing of existing ones. Our cars, bicylces, space - how do we 'use' them more effectively? Take cars. Right now, we're fast-forwarding to a world of hybrids and EVs - but what's the point when we've still got single vehicle occupancy, one-person-to-one-car ownership, and one hour in every 24 utilisation rates?

The problem is that at the very heart of the notion of today's car is a concept built around ownership, freedom and the ability to cut yourself off in a little glass and steel box. Your car is a space that, right now, you probably only choose to 'share' with your friends and family. Sharing a car with a complete stranger (even if you're not both in it at the same time) is a relatively big leap to make, but it's something worth thinking about.

That's what Eric wants to look into in more depth. So in the video chat (above) we had with him a few weeks back, he described the idea of a conference - for want of a better word - to draw people together to talk about sharing within the bounds of future transportation. On the first day, Eric suggests transportation-related talk should be banned. Instead, the attendees - linked together with experts and interested parties across the world via video and internet, would seek to understand the human psychology behind sharing things. Then on the next days, this would be developed into the field of transportation applications. The big news? Eric doesn't think it will work without a woman at the helm...

Can we make this happen? Can you help? Watch the video, let us know what you think, and check out Eric's pages for more.

Understanding plug-in hybrids, EVs and the electric vehicle infrastructure landscape

Right now there's a lot of confusion about the kinds of activities that various future grid-powered vehicles will support. Today, everybody is used to the idea that you can drive as far as there are gas stations, and that there are gas stations all the way to the ends of the earth. Which isn't quite true, but close enough!

Electric vehicle manufacturers argue that the vast majority of travel isn't multi-day drives through the tundra, but within twenty or thirty miles of home. So plug-in-hybrid manufacturers hope you will make most of those trips mainly running off stored grid power. The fully electric vehicle manufacturers hope that by extending range further, to one or two hundred miles, you can make all your trips fully electric. It’s worth looking at this landscape in more detail.

 
Shopping trips are short, local round trips of less than about 20 miles. Both plug in hybrids and full EVs have no problem with battery capacity for these short hops. Even unconventional options like compressed air cars can also handle these frequent, short trips with no problems.

Commuting trips are longer, regular trips. A typical round trip is 40 to 60 miles, but could be up to 100 to 120 miles per day. A plug-in hybrid would probably switch to gasoline power for a part of many of these trips. A full EV might have enough battery capacity for the regular commute, depending on its length, but perhaps not enough for a side trip on top of a long commute. This is the territory where another thirty miles on the round trip can make a substantial difference. Buyers of first generation EVs, in a time when charging infrastructure away from home may be spotty, will have to count their miles carefully.

Traveling trips are weekend journeys, road trips, and the three-hour drive to your aunt. Right now, hybrids will make these trips on gasoline to all intents and purposes. A plug-in hybrid battery will help for the first fifty miles, but after that it will be operating primarily on gasoline. Electric vehicles have real problems at this distance, and there are several opinions about what to do at this range. For the moment it may be as simple as "rent a gas car for the weekend."

See our companion piece on the future of the road trip at our new sister green blog "BritsOnGreen"

Posted by Vinay Gupta and Joseph Simpson on 19th May 2009

Daimler invests in Tesla - two looking to future strategic co-operation

On stage at Daimler's museum, right now, Daimler and Tesla are announcing a strategic alliance. Daimler plans to invest in Tesla - quoting it paid "a double digit million-dollar sum for around a ten percent stake" in the silicon valley company. The two will go forward to co-operate, perhaps - we speculate - even on future models.

Talking about how the two combine the best of 'future' and 'historical' auto industry, what we found most interesting about what is being said, is that Daimler - one of the most vehement pushers of Hydrogen technology to date -  has suddenly decided it needs to get on board the EV train.

Secondly, that Daimler says an alliance with Tesla allows an electric-mobility future to be got to market much faster, because of the small, flexible, quick-responding nature of a small company like Tesla. Daimler further announced that by 2012 it would begin mass production of Smart EVs - and make them available to regular customers (at present, Daimler and Tesla are co-operating on a limited test fleet of Smarts). Mercedes will also help Tesla with future vehicle development, and even supply components in the future, the company said.

More soon... 

[This piece first appeared on BritsOnGreen - The Movement Design Bureau's new dedicated strand for green news and insight]