Philippa Kaur

Battery-electric cars, like the Model Y, are just one option.
Tesla

The day’s of electrification relegated to a couple cars is gone. Hybrid, battery-electric and fuel-cell vehicles are here to stay and their quickly moving to become real candidates for your next car. Still, these many forms may be confusing for buyers, even though they have similar goals. That is, to increase efficiency and move toward reduced-emissions driving.Read more: Best electric cars for 2021Read on below as we break down each kind of electrified vehicle, plus their pros and cons so you can make the best buying decision for your electrified vehicle. There are lots of good things, but some negatives you may want to be aware of when making your decision.Yeah, even truck’s are in on the mild-hybrid game.
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Mild hybrid A mild hybrid system is the simplest and most cost-effective way of adding electric drivetrain components to a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine (ICE). In a mild hybrid system, the ICE will often shut itself off entirely under no-load conditions such as coasting down a hill or coming to a stop. The hybrid system allows the ICE to be restarted almost instantaneously and can power ancillary systems on the vehicle such as the stereo or air conditioning. Some mild hybrid systems will feature regenerative braking or will offer power-assist or torque-fill to the ICE, but all lack the ability to run solely on electric power. Advantages Can power many of a car’s electrical systems.Stop-start system saves fuel during idle.Can reduce turbo lag by torque-filling until the engine comes on boost.Lighter weight compared to other electrified vehicles.Lower complexity.Lower cost. Disadvantages Increased cost and complexity versus internal combustion-only engines.No full-EV mode.The OG hybrid.
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Series hybrid The series hybrid — also known as power split or parallel hybrid — is what most people think of when they think of a hybrid vehicle. These use a downsized ICE to provide power at higher speeds and in higher load conditions, and a battery-electric system to move the vehicle at low speeds and low-load conditions. This allows the ICE to work in its ideal efficiency range, thus providing excellent fuel economy, especially in city driving conditions. Advantages Excellent efficiency at around-town speeds.Gasoline-powered ICE for longer range (and longer journeys).Offers a good compromise between efficiency, usability and overall cost. Disadvantages Typically higher cost than a purely ICE-driven vehicle of the same size.Maximizing efficiency means reducing power output.The RAV4 Prime has a whole lot of electric range to it.
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Plug-in hybrid The plug-in hybrid is the next logical step forward from the series hybrid system. These cars move closer to the fully electric vehicle side of the continuum, with the ability to go longer distances on electric power alone. The plug-in part of their name comes from their ability to be plugged into an electric car charging station, rather than just relying on the ICE and regenerative braking for battery power, thus effectively eliminating range anxiety. Another area where plug-in hybrids differ from either mild hybrids or series hybrids is in the size of their battery pack. This is what gives them their extended EV-only range. Advantages Increased range over battery electric vehicles (BEVs) due to range-extending gasoline engine.Lower purchasing cost compared to BEVs.Lower running cost compared to series hybrids. Disadvantages More expensive to buy than series hybrids or mild hybrids.Larger battery packs mean more weight.More complex than mild hybrids.Everyone knows the Model 3.
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Battery electric Battery electric vehicles are mostly what they sound like: A big battery with at least one electric drive motor wired to it. Oh, and tons of complex software to manage the thousands of individual cells that make up that big battery. Mechanically speaking, BEVs are the least complex of all the vehicles we’re covering when you consider that even the simplest multi-cylinder internal combustion engine has many hundreds of moving parts, while an electric motor only has its rotor. Purely electric vehicles are becoming more and more common, thanks to innovation from relatively new companies like Tesla and industry stalwarts like General Motors and Nissan. Advantages Mechanical simplicity means less maintenance than ICE.Tons of instant torque.Nearly silent operation.Electricity is cheap, for now.No tailpipe, therefore no emissions and no emissions testing.Low center of gravity is great for vehicle handling. Disadvantages More expensive than similar size series hybrids or ICE vehicles.Limited range.Lengthy charging times.Charging station infrastructure still up and coming. Impractical for most people unless you have 240-volt Level 2 charging at your home or parking spot.Higher weight than similarly sized vehicles.Uncertain environmental impact for end-of-life battery disposal.The Hyundai Nexo is only available in select areas.
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Hydrogen fuel cell A fuel cell takes hydrogen and oxidizes it to create an electrical charge, which is then channeled into a battery and used by electric motors. This technology has been around in automobiles for a few decades, but due to costs, size of components and a relative lack of infrastructure, there aren’t many companies still working with it. Miniaturization of tech in the last few years has made hydrogen FCVs more commercially viable, and we’re starting to see more interest from manufacturers like Honda and Hyundai. Advantages No need to charge; simply fill your car with hydrogen and go.Silent operation, much like a BEV.Only emission is water. Disadvantages Hydrogen prices fluctuate wildly, oftentimes more expensive than fossil fuels.Limited refueling network outside of select cities such as Los Angeles or San Francisco.Hydrogen tanks can eat into passenger compartment or cargo room if the vehicle wasn’t designed from the ground up for fuel cells.

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I’m always on the lookout for the next cool dirt-mobile, and Vanderhall has my curiosity piqued with the all-electric Brawley. This electron-powered enclosed side-by-side has a range of up to 200 miles with four electric motors producing 404 horsepower and 480 pound-feet of torque. It will be the first high-performance electric UTV when it comes online as a 2022 model.Vanderhall, famous for its whack-a-doo three-wheeled vehicles, teased a four-wheeled dirt-slinger called the Navarro last November. The Brawley looks to be the next iteration of that concept, albeit with a name change.

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Visually the Brawley looks like it’s had a lot of inspiration from the Jeep Wrangler in the front end with its slotted grille and round headlamps peeking out from behind. However, with 22 inches of travel, 35-inch tires and internal bypass shocks, it’s likely going to be able to handle the whoops at a much faster pace. Also included is four-wheel steering, which seems like a bit of overkill with such a short wheelbase — but hey, if you want to turn on a dime, this is the machine for you. Energy for those 200 miles is stored in a 40-kWh or 60-kWh battery running on 300-volt architecture. That’s not going to allow for crazy-fast charging like in the 800-volt Porsche Taycan and Hyundai Ioniq 5, but DC fast charging is available to give you 80% of a charge in under an hour. I’m feeling a little Jeepish just posting this photo.
Vanderhall
Further, the company did not specify if those are 200 pavement miles or dirt miles. In my experience, a 60-kWh battery paired with a light-weight vehicle is only going to last that long on the pavement. I’d expect the dune-bashing as shown in the company’s promo video to yield a range closer to 50 or 60 miles on a charge. That soft sand offers a lot of resistance, y’all.The Brawley has a removable roof section and also comes with heating and air conditioning, a stereo system and optional heated seats. There is room for four adults in the two-door Brawley.One thing I don’t see on the Brawley is a spare tire, which is a bit worrisome. Hopefully Vanderhall adds a mount to the rear before launch. I’m certainly not going off-road without a spare, and neither should you. Vanderhall did not release pricing or availability, but you can preorder your Brawley starting July 15 on the company’s website.
Vanderhall Brawley electric off-roader is part Jeep, part UTV

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Like many other automakers, Volvo envisions an all-electric future.
Volvo

Could Volvo be pulling a Lincoln and switching to real names for its future products? Going by a report from our friends at Automotive News, the Swedish brand may be in the process of dropping its long-running alphanumeric nomenclature.On Wednesday during a presentation about the company’s upcoming electrified future, an event where it revealed the Concept Recharge EV, announced future battery technologies and talked about its new Android Automotive OS-based infotainment system, Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson said the company’s upcoming all-electric flagship will not carry the XC90 moniker. “This car will have a name, more like a child,” he noted. Whether that means it will be called Sven or Abigail or something more evocative like the Climate Cooler XL or the Ice Age Initiator remains to be seen.But why go with a new name when XC90 is already so solidly established? Well, Volvo is doing this for a number of reasons. First, the battery-powered utility vehicle rides on a new platform, will only be sold online and comes standard with lidar for better safety. Beyond that, it will eventually offer advanced hands-free driving capability and, like a Ford F-150 Lightning, be able to power your home during blackouts since it will be capable of bidirectional charging. Pretty important stuff, and thanks to its space-saving EV architecture, this new flagship-caliber product should offer a sprawl-out-spacious interior.This new, all-electric utility vehicle’s name will be unveiled when the production model debuts, likely next year. The machine is expected to be built at Volvo’s factory in South Carolina with deliveries kicking off in 2023. Curiously, this will not be the only product to feature the Swedish automaker’s new naming convention. According to the Automotive News report, the company’s upcoming EV onslaught will also benefit from the same nomenclature. These future vehicles will be built atop Volvo’s new second-generation Scalable Product Architecture.

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Southern California has vast quantities of lithium brine that could be used to power the future.
Controlled Thermal Resources

As the automotive industry slowly switches from internal combustion to electric propulsion systems, it may be trading one dependency for another. Instead of being at the mercy of fluctuating oil prices, car companies are increasingly reliant on lithium, a critical component in advanced electric-vehicle batteries. To ensure that it will have a stable supply of this material, GM is working to source lithium from its own backyard, the United States. On Friday, GM announced a strategic partnership with and “multimillion-dollar” investment in Controlled Thermal Resources, which was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in both California and Australia. When asked by Roadshow for some financial specifics about this deal, the automaker declined to comment. CTR will supply sustainably produced lithium sourced from its Hell’s Kitchen Lithium and Power project located near the Salton Sea in Southern California. If everything goes according to plan, GM could have all the lithium it needs because this region of California contains one of the world’s largest known sources of lithium brine, enough to potentially meet 40% of global demand. Today, around 95% of the world’s lithium comes from a handful of sources including Australia, China and South America. Extracting this material also typically involves destructive open-pit mining. But this is one area where CTR’s technology shines.Electric-vehicle batteries require large quantities of lithium to function.
GM
Using renewable power, CTR’s closed-loop lithium extraction process is expected to dramatically reduce the time it takes to produce battery-grade lithium while causing negligible environmental degradation. Basically, it extracts brine from deep in the earth, removes the lithium it contains and then pumps the brine back into the ground. CTR’s operations also have a near-zero carbon footprint and take up little physical space.Thanks to this investment, GM will have the first rights to lithium produced from this development, which is expected to yield significant volumes of usable material by 2024. If all goes to plan, the automaker’s partnership with CTR could make it possible for GM to meet its ambitious electrification goals. The automaker wants to eliminate tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles by the year 2035 and make its global operations carbon-neutral by 2040.Doug Parks, GM executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain said in a news release, “By securing and localizing the lithium supply chain in the US, we’re helping ensure our ability to make powerful, affordable, high-mileage EVs while also helping to mitigate environmental impact.” Parks said GM will work with “state and local leaders” as well as CTR.

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Mazda’s first EV, the MX-30, arrives in California this fall.
Mazda

Mazda announced plans this week to have a fully electrified lineup by the year 2030. Hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully electric models are all part of this plan, which Mazda detailed as part of its Sustainable Zoom-Zoom 2030 vision.”We will deliver multiple electrification solutions to meet various customers’ needs, environmental regulations and the electric power generating infrastructure in a market,” Mazda said in a statement. The start of this onslaught comes in 2022 when Mazda says it will introduce its Skyactiv Multi-Solution Scalable Architecture, which can accommodate traditional hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric powertrain setups. Mazda will further develop its efficient Skyactiv-X gas engine for use with electrification, and will introduce a new straight-six engine, which is rumored to power upcoming rear-wheel-drive SUVs.Beyond that, Mazda said it will launch its Skyactiv EV Scalable Architecture in 2025. The company will introduce “several vehicles” on this platform, all between the years 2025 and 2030. “Based on this product launch plan, we assume that 100% of our products will have some level of electrification, and our EV ratio will be 25% by 2030,” the company said.Currently, Mazda definitely trails the rest of the automotive industry when it comes to electrification. The company does not offer any hybrids or EVs in its US lineup, and the first electrified vehicle — the MX-30 — will launch in California later this year. We’re excited to see what Mazda has in store, as we’re big fans of electrified vehicles here at Roadshow. If these new products can keep Mazda’s great-driving ethos in check, then it should be a big win-win for eco-mined enthusiasts.
Mazda MX-30 EV has suicide doors and cork interior trim

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GM’s Ultium battery technology, coming to a locomotive near you.
Wabtec

In the coming years, GM’s advanced Ultium battery technology will power a sprawling range of electric vehicles, from high-end trucks and luxury SUVs to family-friendly crossovers, a flagship-caliber luxury sedan and even locomotives. Wait, what?Yes, you read that correctly. Ultium batteries will be used in trains. On Tuesday, a partnership between GM and the Wabtec Corporation, a prominent player in the rail sector, was announced. The two firms signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the aim of developing and commercializing Ultium technology as well as the automaker’s Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cells for use in locomotives.If Ultium batteries can move a massive Hummer SUV, they can pull an entire train.
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The automotive industry isn’t the only one that needs to be cleaned up. Significant gains can be made by decarbonizing trains, something Wabtec’s FLXdrive locomotive, the world’s first 100% battery-powered train, has already proven. Back in May, this locomotive’s efficiency gains were announced and the machine demonstrated an 11% average reduction in fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. According to the company, this is equal to saving more than 6,200 gallons of diesel fuel and eliminating the production of around 69 tons of CO2. These figures were announced after a three-month test program with BNSF Railway in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where FLXdrive was used in revenue service on more than 13,300 miles of hilly terrain. The locomotive had 2.4 megawatt hours of on-board energy storage capacity, but if it had 6-mWh of juice, Wabtec estimates the train could reduce emissions and fuel consumption by up to 30%. The FLXdrive locomotive clocks in at some 430,000 pounds and contains 18,000 lithium-ion cells, 18,000. This provides a range of around 350 miles and a top speed of about 75 mph. And you thought the Tesla Model S had a lot of battery capacity. This train engine charges at the rail yard and, just like, say, a Toyota Prius, uses regenerative braking to recuperate energy while underway. With GM’s advanced technologies and expertise, Wabtec is aiming to do even better than this. Next, the company plans to build a locomotive with more than 6-mWh of onboard storage capacity to push the FLXdrive’s environmental gains further.

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Cadillac’s Lyriq crossover SUV is headed to dealers for the 2023 model year.
Cadillac

General Motors will substantially accelerate its investment in electric cars and autonomous vehicle technologies, the company announced Wednesday. The Detroit automaker will ramp up its investments from a previously announced $20 billion to $35 billion through 2025. A portion of that funding will go towards the creation of two additional lithium-ion battery cell plants in North America, doubling today’s total. “GM is also announcing two new Ultium battery cell plants in the US, in addition to our plants that are already under construction in Ohio and Tennessee,” GM’s CEO Mary Barra said in a statement on LinkedIn. The automaker did not disclose where those plants will be located.The $35 billion investment total is a dramatic ramp up from the figure announced in March 2020 (largely prior to the pandemic) and that amount pushes GM’s planned investments past those of arch-rival Ford, which has committed $30 billion to EVs and AVs over the same time period.The news comes amidst increasing profit projections for this year, despite the pandemic and the semiconductor shortage, which has been hurting production of new vehicles. According to a GM press release, the company expects its second-quarter profits to be $3 to $4 billion higher than earlier estimates. The company is now targeting first-half earnings of $8.5 billion to $9.5 billion before interest and taxes, up from $5.5 billion.

As part of the announcement, GM also confirmed it will launch a third generation of Hydrotec fuel cells by “mid-decade,” as part of a joint-venture agreement with Japanese automaker Honda.GM previously announced plans to unveil 30 electric vehicles by 2025 worldwide. At present, however, it only offers the recently refreshed Chevrolet Bolt EV and its new crossover derivative, the Bolt EUV. The automaker has already revealed other new EVs, including the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq (shown above) and the 2024 GMC Hummer pickup. GM has already confirmed its electric transformation won’t just be for everyday new consumer vehicles. Among its other battery-powered power plays, the company previously revealed a commercial delivery van from a new business division called Brightdrop that’s expected to be assembled in Canada. In January at CES 2021, the automaker also confirmed it is pursuing developing flying vehicles, including an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, which could carry Cadillac branding.GM stock is up over 2.5% as of publication.
Cadillac’s eVTOL is an electric, autonomous personal air taxi

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