Battery Metals

Tesla Model S and Model X are often seen as the benchmark of what can be achieved within the electric vehicle market.

These are the cars everyone is looking to beat, and are bonafide replacements for combustion powered cars – provided you have the cash.

Model S and Model X are known for their long range, hilarious software gimmicks, and terrifyingly fast 0-60 acceleration.

However, one thing that is rarely associated with these cars is their off-roading skills or their ability to handle on the snow.

Express.co.uk was lucky enough to travel to the ski town of Alpbach, Austria – a relatively short drive from Munich.

Driving on snow and ice is something that is actively discouraged in the UK.

And that’s understandable, as it’s often dangerous.

But behind the wheel of the latest Tesla vehicles, it’s just plain fun.

Due to the impressive all-wheel-drive system onboard, there’s almost no need to worry about going wrong because it works the entire time to help the vehicle keep its grip.

Tesla’s 100 per cent all electric All-Wheel Drive system now comes as standard on both, and you could really feel it working on the ice.

What’s more impressive is that – with both cars weighing over two tonnes – you’d expect them to just dig in and get stuck.

In some circumstances, with the fluffy, deep and powdery snow, the car’s did run into a bit of trouble, but for the most part the EVs took the terrain in their stride.

Of the two cars, unsurprisingly, the Model X was the more capable in the snowdrifts.

Model S could hold its own for the most part until it got too deep and then got stuck a few times.

But for a luxury saloon car that weighs a couple of tonnes, it has absolutely no right to be decent driving on snow and ice at all.

The variable heights of the air suspension gives you that extra assurance that you have enough ground clearance to get over obstacles and not puncture the battery.

A lot of its competency is down to the all-wheel drive system of the EV.

Model S and Model X are powered by dual-electric motors, one above each axle.

By applying the torque to each axle almost instantaneously, they allow the ride and handling of the car to be tuned more precisely than any gasoline-powered vehicle.

One of the virtues of its being an EV is that torque can be applied separately on both axles with ludicrously fast reaction time.

The AWD system can be supplemented by the car’s stability control. By independently braking each wheel, the control system can transfer torque or regeneration forces to and from each wheel on the same axle. Torque is applied or removed depending upon the traction that each wheel has, a function that operates continuously.

One of the tasks that really put the Model X to the test was the emergency braking.

You had to drive as fast as you can down an icy path and then slam the brakes when instructed.

It’s very counterintuitive to drive fast on snow, but even at relatively high-speeds on sheet ice and snow, the Tesla never gave you any indication you needed to be worried.

Model S and Model X are both lovely cars, with great visibility thanks to the glass roofs, the potent and instant acceleration and that impressive software features on board, that feel as intuitive to use as an iPhone.

But for me the best and worst feature of the Model X and Model S was how they put combustion-powered cars into perspective.

At the end of the trip after the Model X was dropped off and we got into petrol-powered Volkswagen for the airport transfer.

It felt sluggish, jolty, noisy, dreary and so unrefined.

You get used to the peace and quiet, the comfort and the features on board and it’s as nice to be behind the wheel as it is to be a passenger.

So what you should take away from this is – don’t drive a Tesla, as it will probably ruin your car for you.

Porsche and Audi, Volkswagen’s main luxury car divisions, plan to develop a joint platform for electric vehicles that will enable them significantly cut down on costs, German newspapers quoted their chief executives as saying.

“By 2025, we’re facing a low single-digit billion euro sum to develop the architecture,” Audi CEO Rupert Stadler told both the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten.

“If both would act on their own, costs would be 30 percent higher,” Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said, adding Audi was hiring 550 developers for the project and Porsche 300.

From 2021 onwards, both businesses want to bring several models to the streets based on the joint platform, with Stadler saying that would build two sedan cars in Neckarsulm and two sports utility models at its Ingolstadt base.

Porsche’s Blume said the sportscar maker could build its first model based on the joint architecture in Leipzig, where it is already assembling its Macan sport-utility model. “I currently see good chances for Leipzig,” Blume said.

PASSENGERS will be able to board electric buses to get around Oxford later this year after the city council secured a £1.7m Government grant.

Five open-top sightseeing buses will be retrofitted to become fully electric and 78 other diesel buses will undergo work to make them less polluting.

The city council said it would mean the level of dangerous nitrous oxide levels in the city – which have already dropped by 36.9 per cent in the last 10 years – will continue to plummet.

The £1.7m will be given to the city council over two years and will be paid by the Department for Transport’s Clean Bus Technology Fund.

The department has split £40m between to 20 local authorities to reduce emissions from buses.

Measures to cut air pollution in Oxford include the Low Emission Zone, which was introduced in the city centre by the city council and Oxfordshire County Council in 2014.

The first policy of its kind outside London, it requires all buses used in Oxford to be low emitting vehicles.

The councils have now said they want to set up a Zero Emission Zone in the city centre before 2020.

Councillor Susan Brown, leader of Oxford City Council, said: “I am delighted that this grant will enable us to introduce fully electric buses to Oxford. Currently Oxford has air pollution levels in the city centre which are above legal levels and therefore can damage the health of Oxford’s residents and visitors.

“We are looking at all measures possible to reduce pollution in our city centre.

“In recent years, nitrogen dioxide levels have remained fairly constant, so we need to take more radical measures to tackle this issue.

“The Zero Emission Zone is one such step change, but this will help us to achieve our goal of cleaner air.”

The city council, with support from the county council, has already been given £500,000 of Government funding to install charging points for electric taxis.

Another £800,000 Government funding will also install 100 electric vehicle charging points around Oxford.

The Government said last year that it plans to ban new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040.

The city council has worked with the Oxford Bus Company, which owns City Sightseeing Oxford, and Stagecoach on the electric bus bid, and the bus companies will retrofit their own vehicles.

Oxford Bus Company’s managing director, Phil Southall, said: “This is the first step in a long process towards introducing ultra-low or zero emission buses more widely within Oxford.”

Environment minister Therese Coffey added: “Poor air quality affects public health, the economy and the environment, which is why we are determined to do more.

“The government is delivering on its commitment to improving the environment within a generation and leave it in a better state than we found it.”

The iX3 will be the first of many full electric crossovers from BMW in coming years. The German automaker has trademarked every nameplate from iX1 through to iX9, so it’s likely BMW will one day have a compact electric crossover, a three-row electric SUV and other products to cover off every crossover/SUV segment in between.

The iX3 will share a platform with the new, internal combustion engine-powered X3. It will feature a large battery pack mounted in the floor of the vehicle, which can be seen protruding from beneath the prototype in the gallery above. It should provide around 200 miles of range on a single charge, sending power to single electric motors mounted at each axle. The test vehicle shown here also has a charge port just behind the driver’s side front wheel and ‘Electric Test Vehicle’ stickers on its hatch and passenger side door.

We hear the BMW iX3 is expected to arrive sometime in 2020 as a 2021 model year vehicle. It will be the second vehicle to arrive as part of the BMW’s electric vehicle product plan, which will see it introduce 12 electric cars between 2019 and 2025. The first of these products to arrive will be the Mini electric, which is due next year.

When it does go on sale, the BMW iX3 will compete with other upcoming premium electric crossovers such as the Jaguar I-Pace and Mercedes-Benz EQC.

THE future of driverless driving looks like a giant toaster with a funny hat.

That’s an approximation of a new autonomous vehicle unveiled last week by Nuro, a Silicon Valley startup that’s been cryptic about its business plan since it launched about 18 months ago. Nuro’s shiny, minimalist appliance on wheels doesn’t have doors or windows to speak of, because it will be carrying packages-not people. As every major automaker and dozens of tech companies race to replace drivers in Uber cars and taxi fleets, Nuro is ignoring humans altogether and steering for Amazon.com, United Parcel Service and any retailer looking to build its e-commerce business. “We realised we could make it possible to deliver anything, anytime, anywhere,” said co-founder Dave Ferguson. “We like to call it a local teleportation service.”

Nuro’s delivery pod weighs about 1,500 pounds, with most of that mass packed into a battery pack that powers its electric motor. It’s roughly the same length and height as a conventional SUV, but only 3.5 feet wide. There is a glass windshield, mostly just to keep other drivers from freaking out.

Each will come with a modular, customisable interior that can carry about 250 pounds. A grocer will be able to opt for shelves and refrigeration; a dry-cleaner can go with hanging racks; while peer-to-peer versions shuffling the detritus of Craigslist may have two empty cargo bays with some anchoring straps. “We spent a bunch of time doing ergonomic experiments,” Ferguson said.

Along the spectrum of self-driving technology, Nuro’s cargo vehicle falls somewhere between a car from the ‘The Jetsons’ and one of those smart suitcases that follow travellers around the airport. To be sure, the market is massive. UPS alone delivers about 19 million packages a day. Excluding management and pilots, it employs roughly 353,000 people and spends 57 cents of every sales dollar on compensation and benefits. Robot-cars, meanwhile, are far easier to negotiate with at review time and ask only for some electricity.

Of course, Nuro isn’t the first company to notice the Amazon Prime packages piling up on porches. Ford began testing human-free pizza delivery with Domino’s last summer. Toyota rolled out a delivery vehicle in Las Vegas this month. Dubbed e-Palette, the futuristic van already has partnerships with Amazon.com and Pizza Hut. Renault-Nissan plans to unveil a driverless delivery van in September. Udelv Inc, a self-driving startup, is testing an autonomous delivery vehicle in California this month.

However, Nuro, by all accounts a scrappy newcomer, has some street cred. Co-founders Jiajun Zhu (who goes by ‘Jay-Z’) was one of the first engineers working on Waymo, the self-driving unit launched by Google (now Alphabet Inc) Ferguson, who has a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, joined him there in 2011.

Since leaving Waymo, the pair has rounded up $92 million of venture capital over two rounds led by Banyan Capital and Greylock Partners. The company’s most critical asset, however, may be its staff. It’s lured dozens of workers from Bay Area giants, including Apple, Google, Tesla and Uber.

As the South Australian government fights a state election where Labor is in a three-way battle for power with the Coalition and Nick Xenophon’s SA Best party, it has announced plans to build a 250MW “virtual power plant”, linking household rooftop solar and battery storage.

Beginning with a trial of 1100 low-income Housing SA (social housing) properties, the project aims to connect at least 50,000 households over the next four years, in what it says will be the largest virtual power plant in the world.

Each property will be fitted with a 5kW solar panel system and 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 battery, which will be installed at no charge to the household and financed through the sale of electricity.

The energy generated by the solar panels will be stored in the Tesla batteries and any excess energy will be fed back to the grid, which will be centrally controlled.

The government claims electricity costs for participating households will be cut by 30%. About 6500 people have already registered for the program and it may be extended if public interest remains high.

The project will ultimately create 650MWh of storage, allowing the combined resource to be pooled to help provide grid stability and extra capacity when supply is short.

It is expected to create more than 500 jobs over the next four years, 250 jobs from the installation of the solar panels and batteries and a further 260 in the supply chain.

The government predicts the project will mean an end to blackouts like the crippling statewide blackout in September 2016, as well as providing 20% of the state’s average daily energy requirements. Tesla said the virtual power facility could provide as much capacity as a large gas turbine or coal power plant.

The government’s website says: “Powerwall can detect an outage, disconnect from the grid, and automatically restore power to your home in a fraction of a second. As long as the battery has storage in it at the time, you will not even notice that the power went out.”

The program will be funded via a $2 million grant and a $30 million loan from a state-funded technology fund. The project has a total value of $800 million, most of which will be funded by investors.

“My government has already delivered the world’s biggest battery, and now we will deliver the world’s largest virtual power plant,” Premier Jay Weatherill said on February 4. “Our energy plan means that we are leading the world in renewable energy and now we are making it easier for more homes to become self-sufficient.”

Social Housing Minister Zoe Bettison said people in social housing can often struggle to meet their everyday needs and this initiative will take some pressure off their household budgets.

“But all South Australians will also benefit from the increased generation in the South Australian energy mix, with lower energy prices and increased energy stability,” she said.