AD #3112 – Battery Fire Prevention System Developed; MINI Going for New Look?; Renault Aims for Affordable EVs

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

CANADA ANNOUNCES ICE BAN
Several dozen countries have announced plans to ban ICEs and now Canada is adding its name to the list. It will prohibit the sale of any vehicles with tailpipe emissions by 2035. Norway is banning ICEs starting in 2025 and a bunch of European countries will follow in 2030. More join the list in 2035, including California. If they all stick to their plans, we’re going to see a massive drop off in sales of cars and trucks with piston engines.

GREAT WALL DEVELOPS BATTER FIRE PREVENTION SYSTEM
Seems like every car company has to have its own Battery Day, and Great Wall Motor announced it’s coming out with a new generation battery that it will start using next year. The big news is that it’s designed to prevent thermal runaway events, which are those uncontrollable battery fires you’ve likely seen videos of. The battery is called Dayu after a legendary Chinese king who first initiated flood controls. It uses NCM 811 cells, or nickel, cobalt, and manganese. Great Wall says it uses a multi-echelon converter system, a multi-level targeted explosive disposal system, and a fire extinguisher box to prevent it from catching fire. Interestingly, Great Wall says it will make its patents for the battery available for free.

HYUNDAI CELEBRATES BOSTON DYNAMICS ACQUISITION
Last week, Hyundai completed its acquisition of the robotics company Boston Dynamics. And to celebrate, the two companies put together this YouTube video of robots dancing with Korean boy band BTS. If you haven’t seen Boston Dynamics’ robots dancing before you should check it out. It’s an interesting mixture of cool and creepy.

IS MINI GOING FOR A NEW LOOK?
Last year MINI looked into the future of mobility with a concept, called the Vision Urbanaut. It has about the same footprint as a typical MINI, but is more like a lounge on wheels with flexible seating and adjustable lighting that can be set to the mood of the passengers. While it debuted in digital form, the BMW Group says it will make a physical model of the Urbanaut for people to interact with and hopefully start to understand its future vision. What we find interesting is that it doesn’t have the MINI look. With a lineup of vehicles that all look the same it’s possible that Mini pigeon holed itself into attracting a limited amount of customers. And based on sales performance it seems like MINI might have done that. But the Urbanaut suggests to us that MINI wants to expand beyond the MINI look and get into new segments.

RENAULT AIMS FOR AFFORDABLE EVs
Renault continues to reveal more information about its transition to EVs. It’s going to work with French startup Verkor to co-develop high-performance, locally-sourced and sustainable batteries by next year. A compact e-powertrain will allow Renault to cut costs by 30% and reduce wasted energy by 45%, which it says will give its EVs an extra 20 kilometers or about 12.5 miles of range. This will help make its cars more affordable. An electric version of the Renault 5 will cost 33% less than a ZOE, which should put its price around 15,500 euros or about $18,400. The ability to send power back to the grid will generate up to 400 euros per year for owners of EVs that stay plugged in 8 hours a day. Lastly, Renault will offer health certificates of batteries in used EVs that can be used to increase the residual value up to 500 euros.

BEAM DEVELOPS TRANSPORTABLE EV CHARGING STATION
Jeep wants to install charging stations at off-road trail heads so EV owners have a place to fill up before hitting the trails. But, no doubt, someone will eventually get stranded somewhere. That’s what a company by the name of Beam Global wants to help avoid. Its EV ARC system is a charging station that’s transportable and can be easily deployed almost anywhere. Because it uses solar panels, it doesn’t need a connection to the grid or use any generators or liquid fuel. It’s capable of charging up to 6 EVs at a time and is able to provide up to 265 e-miles in a day. Beam envision both military and civilian use of the EV ARC system.

MERCEDES INTRODUCES eACTROS TRUCK
Mercedes officially introduced the electric version of the Actros, its first mass-produced electric truck. Called the eActros, it includes two electric motors along with a two-speed transmission. It’s available with three or four battery packs that have a capacity of about 105-kWh. That means it can have a total capacity of 420-kWh, which provides a range of up to 400 kilometers or just under 250 miles. However, Mercedes says that’s in ideal conditions without a trailer. With three battery packs, the truck can charge from 20 to 80% in a little more than an hour. Production of the eActros kicks off in Germany this August. It will initially be available in most west European countries before making its way to other markets.

VOLTA TRUCKS SHOWS PROTOTYPE CHASSIS
And speaking of electric trucks, the startup Volta Trucks, unveiled its first running prototype chassis, which it designed and developed in just six months. The chassis is for its Zero model that Volta claims is the world’s first purpose-built, fully-electric, 16-tonne commercial vehicle. The Zero will have a range of 150 to 200 kilometers or 95 to 125 miles. The next step is to test the chassis at the proving grounds, followed by pilot tests on public roads by the end of the year before heading into full-scale production by the end of 2022.

Ford shocked the industry when it said it was coming out with a pickup truck that costs $20,000 and gets 40 miles to the gallon. And we’re going to learn a lot more about the Maverick on Autoline After Hours tomorrow. We’ve got Trevor Scott, the marketing manager, and Chris Mazur, the chief program engineer, coming on the show. We’re already getting questions from viewers about things they’d like to learn about the truck. And if you’ve got a question, post it in the comments section, send a tweet to @Autoline, or send an email to viewermail@autoline.tv.
Then join John and Gary as they go live at 3 pm eastern time.

And a programming note here. The Autoline crew will be off next week for our summer break, but we’ll be back on July 12th.

And that’s it for today, thanks for watching.