News

Solid-state batteries and wireless charging represent the next big technological improvements for electric vehicles. Nissan now says it will have a production EV with solid batteries in 2028.Promised are longer range, shorter charge times, and less chance of fire, but questions about cost and life span must be solved.Other automakers, including Ford, BMW, and Toyota, are all working on solid-state technology, with plans to introduce some version of the tech as early as 2025.All this month, Nissan is hosting an exhibit at its Global Headquarters Gallery in Yokohama, Japan, called Nissan Futures. As the name implies, the display focuses on how Nissan works on that elusive “future of sustainable mobility” concept. One of the core ideas to be discussed is “evolved solid-state batteries.” According to one report, we might see a production Nissan electric vehicle with these next-gen packs by 2028.Nissan’s plans include getting a pilot production plant producing the first solid-state batteries by 2025, completing the initial application engineering by 2026, and then the vehicle application in 2028, according to a new report in Autocar. The automaker is working with researchers at the University of Oxford on the project.”We Think We Have Something Quite Special””We think we have something quite special and are in a group leading the technology,” Nissan senior vice-president for research and development in Europe, David Moss, told Autocar. “We want to get the cost down [compared with standard lithium-ion batteries] by 50 percent, to double the energy density and to offer three times the charging speed.” Evolved solid-state batteries are also known as all-solid-state sodium batteries or ASSBs. As Moss explained to Autocar, ASSBs—which have no liquid electrolyte—are Nissan’s target, but the company will continue to develop lithium-ion batteries as it works on ASSBs. Moss told Autocar that Nissan expects to introduce a next-gen lithium battery in the next few years and a cobalt-free li-ion battery in 2028. Moss said these cobalt-free li-ion packs could reduce battery costs by up to 65 percent.Other automakers are working on solid-state batteries. Toyota is partnering with Panasonic on solid-state batteries that will be used in a hybrid in 2025. Last year, a startup called Solid Power started making solid-state test batteries for both Ford and BMW vehicles.A Chance for Nissan to Pull Ahead Nissan was once the leader in lower-cost, mass-market EVs, but the delayed rollout of the Ariya and the rise of an entire fleet of competitor EVs has since squandered the head start provided by the Leaf. Being early to market with a solid-state EV—which, as Moss said, could provide a long range with short recharge speeds—would put Nissan back on top, at least technologically. Moss told Autocar that solid-state packs would also offer Nissan engineers options.”If you can put in energy three times faster, is it any different to filling a [gasoline] vehicle?” he told Autocar. “We don’t know yet [about battery size], but we might have two sizes of battery—one for really heavy users who need massive range, but if you can put energy in like [gasoline], do you need the size?” This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Ariya Details and Specs More

Hybrid power came to IMSA’s top-class GTP prototype division this year, which changed the racing at the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona race dramatically. Four major automobile manufacturers chose to build and back hybrid GTPs, an undertaking that required large engineering staffs, huge amounts of computing power, and rigorous testing. The new rules that ushered in the hybrid era are as complicated as the cars themselves, combining both real and virtual energy usage. The changes challenged the teams from Cadillac, BMW, Porsche, and Acura to sort out myriad scenarios in defining their race strategies. This year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona saw the debut of hybrid race cars in IMSA’s top GTP Prototype class. While hundreds of thousands of hybrid passenger cars have been humming along our roads for more than two decades, the new GTPs’ systems are as different from those on street cars as a hard-boiled egg is from an omelet. We spent time at the race with Cadillac, one of the four major vehicle manufacturers—along with BMW, Porsche, and Acura—that brought hybrid GTP machines. We quizzed their engineers mercilessly in an attempt to learn how the complex powertrain systems work and how they’re used in the race. We appreciate that they spoke slowly and tried to use simple English when explaining their wild-looking cars to us. Richard PrinceShared Hybrid TechnologyPer the regulations set up by IMSA, the series’ sanctioning body, the manufacturers in GTP were mandated to use an identical hybrid system. Bosch supplied the motor-generator unit (MGU), which nestles between the engine and the seven-speed Xtrac rear transaxle. The MGU produced a peak of 40 horsepower at Daytona and will be enabled to deliver slightly more at longer tracks such as Le Mans. Today’s 24 Hours vs. 1987The MGU feeds a tiny 1.35-kWh battery; the system operates at up to 800 volts. A GTP car’s total system output—gas engine plus electric motor—cannot exceed 500 kW (671 horsepower) at the rear wheels at any time in these rear-drive race cars. Torque sensors on the rear axles ensure that the teams keep to that power output. IMSA monitors the rear-wheel power via the same telemetry the teams use in the pits. The cars have an adjustable regen system that works on the rear axle to recharge the battery. Car and DriverThe design of the gasoline engines powering each GTP car is up to the manufacturer. Cadillac developed a 5.5-liter naturally aspirated 32-valve V-8; BMW used a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8; Porsche went with a twin-turbo 4.6-liter V-8; and Acura stuck a twin-turbo 2.4-liter V-6 in the tail of its two cars. Nine of the electro-monsters were on the grid, three from Cadillac and two each from the other manufacturers.Shape-Shifting Hybrid PowerThis is where things get weird-science freaky. When no electric power is being used, the gas engine can supply the full 671 horses. When the MGU is feeding power through the transmission, it cannot add to that total. If the electric motor is on full blast, adding its 40 horses, then the gas engine is automatically dialed down by that amount. This would theoretically enable the driver to save fuel and stretch a driving stint. A lot of the regen is accomplished while braking, but it can also be done on the straightaways; at Daytona the tiny battery can be depleted in a lap of the 3.56-mile road course and just about recharged in a lap. If regen is being used while going down the straightaway and puts the equivalent of 40 horsepower of drag into the rear axle, the team can turn up the gas engine by 40 horsepower to offset that. Which means that the gas engines in the GTP cars can make more than 671 horsepower when needed. Passenger-car manufacturers sometimes use hybrid systems to fatten up the low-rpm torque curve of their cars for better performance. We were told that a GTP’s electric motor has virtually no effect on the performance of the car, but we’re not so sure. Race teams don’t like to give away any technical advantages that they might have discovered during development. Life in the Virtual LaneAs if this isn’t complicated enough, there’s an important virtual aspect to the new GTP class. IMSA has decreed that the GTP cars are allowed to use no more energy per driving stint than 920 megajoules, or 255.6 kWh. The calculation is made utilizing the torque sensors on the rear axle. IMSA monitors the total energy (the combination of gas-engine power and hybrid electricity) to ensure the teams don’t exceed the maximum amount during a stint. If they do, a time penalty is assessed, putting them that much further behind. The initial penalty is 100 seconds. No team wants to suffer that. IMSA describes the GTP cars as having a “virtual fuel tank” that needs to be “virtually refilled” when the energy limit is reached. When the 920 megajoules of total energy are about depleted, the team brings the car in even if there’s gasoline remaining in the tank. When the gasoline fueling hose is attached to the car, the clock starts and the megajoule allotment is replenished at the rate of 23 megajoules per second for as long as the hose is in the car. The gas tank might refill in 15 seconds, but a full megajoule fill-up takes 40 seconds, so the car can be sitting still even with a full gas tank if the team deems it necessary to top up the megajoules. In situations where cars pit early during a caution period or for a flat tire, a shorter virtual fill-up will do. Generally, the pit stop schedule will revolve around energy usage rather than purely gasoline consumption as the cars will sometimes have enough gas to keep circulating beyond when the megajoule limit is reached. Woof!Strategic OverloadAll this created so many strategy possibilities—for how and when the hybrid electrical power was deployed and how to play the megajoule game—that the car companies’ computers were smoking from overwork. And what would some of those strategies be? The Cadillac engineers weren’t talking, nor did other GTP teams go public with their thinking before the event. This is racing, and any advantage a team thinks it has it protects with a wall of silence. The Caddy people did admit that the new cars are so much more complex now, and that the possible race scenarios are so great in number, they had to quadruple the number of software engineers on the team compared to when they ran IMSA’s top DPi prototype class last year. Cadillac driver Alex Sims said the drivers control only the regen level directly from the cockpit. Their job is to drive flat out and not crash. How and when the hybrid’s juice is deployed is a team secret; it’s switched on automatically depending upon which powertrain setting is chosen by the driver at the direction of the team’s engineers. We think we’ve got all of that right. But we know that the teams did, because the top four GTP finishers were on the same lap and within a handful of seconds of one another after 24 hours. The winning Acura ARX-06’s quickest race lap was about three-tenths of a second quicker than its second-place sister car’s. And that car’s best lap was only one-thousandth of a second quicker than the third-place Caddy V-LMDh’s. It was a great race right to the very end. And best of all, you didn’t have to know anything about megajoules to enjoy it. More

• Finished in the classic red over tan, this Ferrari 308GTS is an Eighties poster child.• In the care of the same owner for 37 years, the car has under 12,000 miles.• This Bring a Trailer auction ends February 9.Car and DriverThe go-go 1980s were a boom time for high-dollar sports cars, and perhaps none was better-known than Ferrari’s mid-engine V-8 two-seater, the 308 (and the later 328). The 308 got a big push from its star turn in the long-running TV series Magnum, P.I., but it also played a supporting role as Christie Brinkley’s ride in National Lampoon’s Vacation.Related StoriesWhether you’ve always harbored a desire to be Thomas Magnum, zooming around Hawaii sporting a killer mustache, or whether you see yourself as a long-haired supermodel flirting with station-wagon-driving dads, this 1985 Ferrari 308GTS Quattrovalvole for sale on Bring a Trailer (which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos), offers a chance to live that 1980s dream.Bring a TrailerBring a TrailerAs a GTS, this car features the must-have lift-off targa top, and being a Quattrovalvole, its 2.9-liter flat-plane-crank V-8 has the four-valve heads introduced in 1983. Unusually, its tan Connolly leather interior is contrasted with red carpets. The cabin is also home to a tall-boy shift lever that moves through a chromed gate, a platoon of toggle switches, and a period cassette stereo to play your mix tapes.Bring a TrailerBring a TrailerThe car was sold new at Bob Sharp Ferrari in Danbury, Connecticut, and the current owner acquired it as a year-old used car with 5000 miles back in 1986. Exhibiting a monk-like restraint, the longtime owner added fewer than 7000 miles over the succeeding 37 years. As a result, the car is in exceedingly well-preserved condition, judging by the photos. This example’s current odometer reading of just under 12,000 miles certainly raises its value relative to most 308s out there, which means this Ferrari might be expected to live a life of climate-controlled storage. But we think that the new owner would do well to re-create P.J. O’Rourke’s cross-country road trip undertaken in a 1980 308GTS. Or, alternately, go racing around Oahu. More