Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has opened an automotive R&D facility and hired some big names, with the goal of taking Europe by storm.
Tesla:Suck hot air out of cabin & gain range. https://insideevs.com/news/794960/tesla-range-vacuum-new-patent/ According to the patent, Tesla’s method involves installing a suction unit into the car’s HVAC system. This creates negative pressure (aka: vacuum) that can be applied to specific vents in the car near these pockets of hot air. The hot air is then sucked into the car’s HVAC system and conditioned with the rest of the cabin air before being recirculated back into the car.
Honda admitted it was “unable to deliver products that offer value for money better than that of new EV manufacturers, resulting in a decline in competitiveness,” after suddenly announcing plans to cancel three new EVs in the US in March, warning restructuring costs could reach 2.5 trillion yen ($15.7 billion).
Starting next year, Honda plans to begin introducing its next-gen hybrids, underpinned by a new hybrid system and platform. Honda said it aims to improve fuel economy by over 10% in its upcoming hybrids. The new system is expected to help cut costs by over 30% compared to Honda’s current hybrid system.
Not a surprise. Honda’s in a terrible position to make EV’s. Their largest markets is the U.S. (by a lot), followed by Japan and China. The U.S. gutted much of its support for EV’s, making it a very difficult market segment for any automaker going forward. Japan has always given EV’s the cold shoulder in favor of their preferred hydrogen economy (still!). And China’s the most brutal market of all, with all the government assistance given to domestic firms. The absence of any real presence in Europe, the second largest EV market, makes it even harder for them.
They really needed the U.S. EV market for them to have any economic path forward to making EV’s…and the dismantling of federal subsidies and changes to fuel economy regulations basically made that infeasible for them.
As an Acura ZDX owner for nearly two years I can also tell you Honda/Acura have tried to approach those EVs as mere cars. And while my ZDX is an EXCELLENT car, it is an average EV, and that is the problem.
Examples:
The Lyric got SuperCharger access 10 months before the ZDX/Prologue.
The Lyric has plug-and-charge support for 4 or 5 networks, and app-integration with 3 others. Not as impressive as Ford or Hyundai, but I have only 1!
The Lyric has had noticeably more OTA’s than ZDX/Prologue.
Anyone want to buy it? I’m eyeing the new Volvo EX60 later this year…