Electric Cars

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At this year’s North American International Auto Show, we saw gorgeous concept and production cars from companies around the world, but there was only one concept that was an almost-universal hit. Damn-near everyone who saw it said that they wanted to take it home. That car was Volkswagen’s nostalgia-infused I.D. Buzz electric van. With its futuristic flare and autonomous functionality, it felt like yet another tease of a Microbus reboot that would delight before ultimately disappearing.But that’s not the case. Volkswagen has not only confirmed that the I.D. Buzz will arrive at dealerships in 2022, but they were kind enough to let me drive the concept car along the beautiful California coast. Many hours later, I’m still smiling.

The numbersOne look at the I.D. Buzz and you’ll know this is a car that is not about the numbers, but given it is all-electric and EVs tend to be judged on the merit of their range and performance ahead of all other factors, lets start there. At its debut, VW said the I.D. Buzz concept had a big enough battery pack to enable approximately 270 miles of range on the American EPA cycle. It’ll also put a whopping 369 horsepower to the ground through its all-wheel drive system.

The original Microbus? It had 25 horsepower. My how things have changed.
The I.D. Buzz puts a whopping 369 horsepower to the ground. The original Microbus? It had 25hp. My how things have changed.

That’s enough performance to get the car from zero to 60 in less than five seconds, but really that’s not a challenge I expect many potential I.D. Buzz owners will think about. More important are the planned autonomy features. Press on the large VW logo on the steering wheel and the entire thing folds back into the dashboard. Once autonomy is enabled, the drivers’ seat can swivel and rotate 180 degrees, even sliding around on channels in the floor.

The completely reconfigurable interior is Volkswagen’s vision for what a future of autonomous driving will look like, a decidedly trendy look at the “living room on wheels” idea we’ve seen from so many manufacturers lately. With one of the most comfortable, wide-open, bright layouts I’ve ever seen in a car, if this is the future of self-driving transportation, color me sold.

Of course, the current concept can’t really drive itself. That’s where I came in.It’s impossible to not smile when driving this thing.
Ingo Barenschee
The driveIf you’ve ever had the opportunity to attend Monterey Car Week, the whole series of events is best described as the most beautiful, most expensive traffic jam you’ll ever see in your life. Getting anywhere takes three times longer than it should and you’ll spend plenty of time sitting in traffic while watching and smelling some priceless automotive relic overheat.And so driving at high-speed around the sinuous canyon or coastal roads is almost always out of the question. And so my brief time behind the wheel in the I.D. Buzz concept was at a pretty low speed — but not just because of the traffic. A VW rep also asked me to keep the speed down because the charge in the pack was getting low and, frankly, because this is still just a hand-built concept.But it is a fully functional one. Walk up and glide your fingers along a touch-panel situated within the car’s inset beltline and the doors open themselves automatically. Hop in and they close themselves, too — just like the Model X. To go, just step on the brake pedal and press the “D” on the steering wheel. The gear illuminates and away you go, though since there’s no actual autonomy here it’s up to you to keep both hands on the oddly shaped but comfortable wheel.Steering is phenomenally light, electronic boosting turned to the max with no regard for driver feedback, but frankly none needed. Steering is also quite slow, which makes turning this thing feel just a bit like a real bus. Acceleration, too, is a bit municipal, but it was impossible to tell whether that was thanks to the lack of remaining charge or simply a decidedly relaxed throttle map to keep heavy-footed journalists from slinging this priceless yellow concept into the bay.The I.D. Buzz interior is open, airy and as welcoming as the exterior.
Ingo Barenschee
Basically, it wasn’t a particularly exhilarating drive, but that really didn’t matter. I was grinning ear-to-ear the entire time, more so than I have in any other car in a very long time. The incredibly bright, wide open interior creates a very airy space, but it’s the visibility that enables you to see the smiles on the faces of everyone around when you drive this thing, people who congregate around this thing in droves. Their smiles are seriously contagious.I don’t know what it is about that iconic bread loaf shape of the Microbus that inspires so many good feelings from everyone around. With the fumes of Dieselgate still hanging in the air, clouding consumer confidence in the brand, Volkswagen could use some goodwill here in the US. Based on my brief time behind the wheel, I’m pretty confident the I.D. Buzz is exactly the kind of bright, yellow ray of light the company needs. I can’t wait to see these on the road. More

If you spend a few weekends off-roading in the desert you’ll start to notice a trend. Instead of the air-cooled dune buggies of yesteryear, people are now scrambling over rocks and roosting in the dunes in UTVs. These souped-up little golf carts can make close to 200 horsepower and fly over the desert floor like Superman.Enter the Nikola Zero, an all-electric UTV that trounces the competition with the equivalent of 555 horsepower and, get this, 4,900 pound-feet of torque. Let me spell that out for you: four thousand nine hundred pound-feet of twist. The manufacturer claims that can send a Zero loaded with four passengers from a dead stop to 60 miles per hour in 3.9 seconds. Great googly moogly, what is this world coming to?If that all sounds like a bit much, the base-model Zero gets 415 horsepower and 3,675 pound-feet of torque. Both models feature four independent motors pulling power from three battery options: 75kWh, 100kWh and 125kWh. The largest battery can store enough juice for 200 miles of range even while in 4×4 off-road mode.

32-inch tires and beadlock wheels make the Zero ready for the rocks.
Nikola
You might remember Nikola as the company that showed off a hydrogen-electric semi-truck concept in December 2016. CEO Trevor Milton is obviously a fan of twisting power, although that 4,900 rating takes a bit of engineering. The Zero has a single-speed reduction gearbox. Before gear reduction each motor produces 490 pound-feet of torque. After the reduction at the wheel hub, you’re looking at 1,222 pound-feet of torque at each wheel. Multiply that by four to get 4,888 pound-feet, which the company has rounded up to 4,900. That is the number that will register on the dyno. All that torque is available as soon as the driver touches the throttle.There’s room for four so bring the kids!
Nikola
The Zero’s geometry looks pretty good, with 20 inches of travel and 14 inches of ground clearance. LED headlights and taillights are standard, as is a 10-inch infotainment display. No word on if it will run Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.

You’ll have to pay a bit extra for some cool options like torque vectoring, ABS, traction control and a street-legal package that makes the Zero compatible with local laws, although only in some states. Also extra are front and rear winches, vital for getting yourself or others unstuck, and a camera system. 

I haven’t driven the Zero yet so I have no idea if it will live up to its spec sheet. Dirt driving often requires quick throttle inputs and spinning wheels are inevitable, both of which will decrease range. 200 miles seems pretty optimistic, but I’ll reserve judgement until I get behind the wheel.The Nikola Zero starts at $35,000, a pretty impressive price tag when you consider a kitted-out Polaris RZR, long considered to be the gold standard of UTVs, starts at $10,000 less. Reservations will be taken starting in January 2018.This interior would look better if it were covered in dirt. 
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The Honda Clarity Electric is sort of the awkward middle child of the largely identical Clarity trio of electrified cars. Nestled between the hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid variants is the automaker’s fully electric large sedan. But with just 89 EPA estimated miles of cruising range, it’s a bit of a tough sell compared to the rest of the current crop of electric cars, and even relative to its own hydrogen and hybrid siblings. But the electric Honda isn’t without its charms and its existence and scope says a lot about Honda’s vision for clean mobility.Engine room with room to spareThe Clarity Electric is a big car with a very small engine.
Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow
As implied by the name, the Honda Clarity Electric has a torquey electric motor hiding beneath its hood. Specifically, it’s powered by a 120-kilowatt — or about 161-horsepower — electric motor producing 221 pound-feet of torque. That’s technically a little less power than an Accord four-cylinder, but with much more torque. So, it should feel about as responsive off the line and around town the performance was nearly identical to that of the Clarity Fuel Cell.

The EPA reckons fuel economy equivalent for the battery-powered Clarity at about 114 mpge on its combined cycle. Around town, that estimate climbs to a peak of 126 mpge. That’s about on par with the Chevrolet Bolt’s 128 mpge city estimate, but short of Hyundai’s Ioniq Electric, which is good for 150 mpge around town. Though with electric cars, range is king, not efficiency. We’ll get back to that momentarily.In addition to the electric motor, you’ll also find a lot of empty space under the the Clarity Electric’s hood. That’s because the Clarity series was designed to be modular; its engine bay is large enough to accommodate large hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell powertrains. (Heck, there’s enough room to squeeze in a V-6 engine if Honda decided to go that route.) But electric motors are much smaller — with fewer moving parts, fewer accessory systems and no real transmission — so the Clarity’s e-motor ends up looking very small in the middle of the sizable engine room. You can see clear down to the aerodynamic shield that lines the sedan’s undercarriage.

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Five things you should know about the Honda Clarity Electric

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89-mile battery packThe Clarity Electric draws its power from a 25.5 kWh battery pack located at the rear of the vehicle. On a full charge, that’s enough juice to cruise up to 89 miles according to Honda’s and the EPA’s estimates. You may get more with a light touch — the trip computer estimates a little over 100 miles — but probably not much. I finished my short time behind the wheel at around 94 very carefully driven miles.

Compared to the Kia Soul EV with its 27 kWh battery and just 90 miles of range, the Clarity Electric doesn’t look too bad. Then again, Honda’s own Fit EV does 82 miles with just a 20 kWh battery pack, you’d think Honda’s newer EV would be more efficient than that. To be fair, most cars that the Clarity Electric will be compared to the are significantly smaller vehicles, so perhaps the Honda’s larger-than-average size is partially to blame for its low stated range.But as stated before, range is king when comparing electric cars and the fact is that the Clarity’s real competition will come from a newer generation of EVs like the 124-mile Hyundai Ioniq Electric or the upcoming Nissan Leaf with its rumored 140-mile range. More dramatically, the Clarity Electric has to live in the same world as Chevrolet’s 238-mile Bolt EV and pretty much every car that Tesla Motors builds. Like I said, it’s a bit of a tough sell.

A spacious and silent rideSo the Clarity Electric has taken some pretty big criticisms at this point. There’s gotta be something good about it, right? Well, yeah, there’s quite a bit. For starters, I mentioned that the Clarity Electric is built on an identical body and chassis as the Clarity Fuel Cell we tested earlier. Both are big sedans with spacious cabins and plenty of head, leg and shoulder room for up to five passengers. The ride is comfortable and quiet, thanks to its well sorted suspension and silent powertrain. The Clarity also boasts the same aerodynamic and styling tricks as its hydrogen-powered older sibling.The weird little window between the seats greatly improves visibility.
Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow
The Electric also boasts pretty good all-around visibility, even out back thanks to a weird slit window that allows the driver to see beneath the rear parcel shelf and through the trunk when peeking into the rearview mirror. It looks stupid, but really helps with rear visibility.Interestingly, the lithium-ion battery pack is smaller than other Clarity’s hydrogen tanks, so the Clarity Electric gains a bit more trunk space when compared to the Fuel Cell model. You even get a tiny pass-through into the trunk when the rear seats are folded flat, so the EV can accommodate longer items.Driver-aid tech and smartphone smartsThe dashboard tech is also identical to the Clarity Fuel Cell, which is another tick in the “positive” column. There’s an excellent loadout of onboard features, starting with the HondaLink infotainment system with its list of digital media sources and solid navigation system. There’s also standard Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity to fill in any gaps with audio streaming apps and alternative navigation options. Also standard is the Honda Sensing suite of driver aid tech. Out of the box, that means you get Honda’s LaneWatch blind-spot camera, a reversing camera, lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking assist. I’d have preferred a true blind-spot monitoring system to the LaneWatch camera, but this is still a solid standard list of safety features.The Clarity’s dashboard layers Android Auto and Apple CarPlay atop a solid suite of infotainment tech.
Antuan Goodwin/Roadshow
That’s good, because there are no options. Every Clarity model comes “fully loaded,” with the only choice for the owner being the car’s color.Battery beta test?When it hits dealerships in August 2017, the Clarity Electric will be facing stiff competition. It’s entering the market as an 89-mile EV in an era where 100 miles is seen as the bare minimum range for many EV buyers. Chevy’s Bolt does over 200. Hyundai’s Ioniq Electric does over 120. Heck, even the old Nissan Leaf, a car that hasn’t fundamentally changed since its debut in 2010, does 100-plus miles! Things aren’t looking great out of the gate for this first-generation Clarity Electric.To be fair, the Clarity EV is a much larger car than any of those listed, and the only EVs today that rival the Honda for scale are the Tesla Model S and Model X; vehicles that also boast better range than the Clarity, but are also more expensive than the Honda. Or are they?The Honda Clarity Electric hits dealerships at the relatively low lease price of $269 a month for 36 months (before available California’s state Clean Vehicle Rebate of $2,500). Currently, you can only lease the Clarity Electric; no price is listed to purchase one outright. That simultaneously makes apples-to-apples price comparisons tricky and reaffirms a suspicion I’ve had for a while now.This first-generation Honda Clarity Electric feels very “first-gen” when the rest of the EV industry is already a generation or two down the road. I don’t mean the car itself — the comfort, cabin and construction are all up to Honda’s quality standards for a production car — but the “electric car” part of the equation feels almost like a beta test of the automaker’s battery technology. Honda will likely learn a lot about building and selling EVs from the Clarity Electric and have a much better product a generation down the line. Right now, the Clarity Electric feels like a way for Honda to dip its toe into electric cars, and with its fairly low lease price, a way for buyers to dip a toe in as well.  But that’s OK for Honda; it doesn’t seem like the automaker really even wants to compete and sell a ton of battery electric vehicles because, in the words of Global CEO Takahiro Hachigo at a gathering of the press earlier this year, “[Honda] believes fuel cell vehicles are the ultimate type of zero-emissions vehicle.” For Honda, the future — where it’s placed its big bet — is hydrogen. More