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We’ve seen and driven the upcoming Audi e-tron quattro electric SUV, and this week got a look at the more affordable Q4 e-tron as well as four new plug-in hybrids coming from Audi.

In between, the brand is also scheduled to release a fastback version of the e-tron Quattro SUV, called the e-tron Sportback. Auto-industry observers got their first look at the car this week in Geneva, in production prototype form albeit with an orange-and-black camouflage wrap.

Like its more upright and utilitarian brother, the e-tron Sportback is expected to have a range of about 240 miles and use an electric motor on each axle to provide all-wheel drive with a total of up to 400 horsepower and 490 pound-feet of torque.

Audi has said the e-tron Sportback will be tuned for sportier driving than the standard e-tron Quattro, and has hinted that as with the SUV, a more powerful version, with a second motor at the rear, will be available later.

Like the e-tron quattro, the Sportback will offer 150-kilowatt charging capability when it arrives. In the U.S., Volkswagen affiliate Electrify America is in the process of installing the hardware needed for that on a widespread basis, as are several other major charging networks.

The e-tron Sportback is expected to be Audi’s second all-electric model when it goes on sale in 2020, and will, based on what Audi has suggested up until now, start slightly higher than the e-tron quattro’s $75,795.

Following the e-tron Sportback, Audi will also sell a smaller, cheaper electric SUV, the Q4 e-tron, a luxified SUV based on VW’s humbler (and potentially ubiquitous) affordable MEB electric-car platform. It is also expected to go on sale next year as a 2021 model. After that, the company plans to roll out the e-tron GT, a sporty electric sedan based on the Porsche Taycan.

NIO, the Chinese electric car startup founded by William Li, has been promising big things for a few years. It says it has 3,000 people devoting all their energy to developing world class electric powertrain and self driving technology. “I believe autonomous driving, AI, and auto intelligentization will become crucial in reshaping user experience,” Li says. “The smart car has just given China a head start to run on a different track.”

NIO is doing at least one thing right. Its first production car, the ES8, is a fairly conventional looking sport utility vehicle, the type of vehicle that is in the greatest demand by new car buyers in most markets around the world. Last fall, NIO became one of the first Chinese companies to be listed on the New York stock exchange. At that time, it said it was planning to build a factory in Shanghai to produce cars for the Chinese market and for export.

The price for NIO stock at the time of its IPO was $6 per share. That quickly zoomed to $12 per share shortly thereafter before falling back to Earth. Since then, it has been trading in the $6 to $8 range but is on a downward trajectory now that the company says it has abandoned its plan to build its own factory.

That factory wasn’t expected to be ready until at least 2020. In the meantime, the ES8 would be built by Chinese manufacturer JAC Motors, which is owned by the Chinese government. That arrangement apparently will continue now that a new factory for NIO is no longer in the cards. JAC made 12,750 ES8 SUVs last year according to The Verge. The company generated $720 million in revenue in 2018 but finished the year with a loss of $1.4 billion — double the size of its loss in 2017.

The arrangement with JAC Motors means NIO will have a harder time becoming profitable because the fees it must pay to JAC are higher than what its production costs would be if it had its own factory. NIO says one part of its decision not to build a factory is that the Chinese new car market was down last year for the first time in three decades. Deliveries in the first two months of 2019 have been far below expectations.

Junheng Li, a stock analyst who focuses on the Chinese auto industry, told The Verge that NIO “doesn’t sell enough cars to warrant [captial expenditure] expansion. This is not a real company. It’s experimental at best,” she said. The same could be said of many startups lured by the enormous potential profits that electric and autonomous cars offer, many of which have burst on the scene never to be heard from again. Faraday Future certainly falls into that category. Others on the periphery of fame and fortune include Lucid, Karma, and Fisker.

Jerry Seinfeld liked to say, “Dying is easy; comedy is hard.” That sentiment could be applied to the automobile business as well. Saying you are going to build world class electric and self-driving cars is easy. Actually doing it is hard. Anyone who has been following the travails of Tesla Motors as its stock ricochets up and down from one day to the next will understand just how hard it is.

Quadro Vehicles just unveiled an electric version of their popular four-wheeled Qooder at the Geneva Motor Show. The eQooder blurs the line between electric motorbikes and cars.

Quadro unveils the new eQooder

Swiss-based Quadro entered into a partnership with Zero Motorcycles to develop the eQooder.

To power the eQooder, Zero supplied their Z-Force 75-7 motor.

Until last month’s unveiling of the new Zero SR/F electric motorcycle and 75-10 motor, the 75-7 was the most powerful motor produced by the California-based electric motorcycle manufacturer.

It provides up to 45 kW (60 hp) and 110 Nm of peak torque for the eQooder.

That makes the eQooder more powerful than a number of large maxi scooters. According to the company:

“Compared to a thermal engine, eQooder’s electric motor performance is equal to a 650ccdisplacement. Furthermore, eQooder’s torque is three times more powerful than that of the400cc Qooder (38,5 Nm).”

Additionally, the eQooder sports a 10.8 kWh modular battery pack also supplied by Zero. The battery has a recharge time of 6 hours. Quadro claims the eQooder has enough battery capacity to travel 150 km (93 mi) on a single charge. Or in their words:

“The eQooder will be able to travel in and out and within the historical center of Rome 150 times, cross the Paris Boulevard Périphérique 5 times, or the Avinguda Diagonal in Barcelona 15 times.”

Just in case it’s easier for you to think in terms of European metro areas.

The eQooder comes with two power modes, Eco and Sport, as well as a third mode that is user-customizable via an accompanying smartphone app. Quadro partnered with evway, an app supporting EV drivers. Together, they’ve enabled the eQooder app to show a convenient map of all charging locations nearby.

The eQooder also includes a reverse gear, which can be helpful for maneuvering the four-wheeled scooter.

The eQooder’s unique design requires the Zero ZForce motor to be coupled to a mechanical differential like a typical four-wheeled car. That provides the eQooder with smooth rear wheel drive. The system is also equipped with dual rear traction control to ensure proper grip and optimal safety.

Unlike a four-wheeled car though, the eQooder leans into turns and handles nimbly like a scooter or motorbike.

The eQooder will be launched in December 2019 in the European market. Eager buyers can already place a €5,000 deposit on the vehicle via the Quadro website. The full price of the vehicle has not yet been revealed.

Interestingly, Quadro is offering reservation holders a long-term rental of a standard gas-powered Qooder while they wait for the eQooder to begin deliveries. That rental will cost €190 per month.

The eQooder joins a short list of other electric maxi-style scooters such as the BMW C-Evolution.This may very well be the only electric maxi scooter with four wheels though. So for riders who prefer to keep their feet off the ground and desire two wheels for every foot, the eQooder could be the ride for you.

The big news at the Geneva auto show this year has been the unveiling of the Audi Q4 compact electric SUV and the Honda Urban EV in near production-ready form as well as the “pie in the sky” announcements from Piëch about its ground breaking, “never seen anything like this” battery and charging technology. But there have been other big announcements in Geneva this year, perhaps none of them more interesting that the modular, customizable electric car Fiat brought to the show.

Fiat Centoventi Concept

The Centoventi (120) concept from Fiat is intriguing, to say the least. Electric cars lend themselves to a skateboard platform — a pancake battery mounted between wheels that are pushed out toward the corners of the car. Just thinking about it makes people dream about the good old days when a Volkswagen Beetle chassis could become the basis of a dune buggy, a replica of an MG TD, or any one of a number of different variants. Could the electric skateboard design spawn a new era of infinitely customizable cars? Fiat certainly thinks so.

What follows is what they call on Jeopardy! a “visual daily double.” Feast your eyes on these graphics and we will fill you in on the details below.

Here’s more from The Verge. Centoventi means 120 in Italian. The Centoventi is meant to commemorate Fiat’s 120 years as an automaker, which makes it one of the oldest marques in the world. Customers will have a choice of four different roofs, four bumpers, four wheel covers, and four paint wraps. Among the roof choices are a soft top option or a solar panel that helps power the cars electronics.

The fully customizable interior even has attachment points for accessories that owners could create with their 3D printers at home. The company will offer a dizzying array of 114 accessories from seat cushions to head restraints to bottle holders and sound systems marketed under the Mopar brand.

“[T]his is a new business model for automotive accessories, enabling them to be resold or traded on the Web, nurturing a real community of brand fans or connoisseurs of Fiat’s Italian design, just as with collectors’ items,” according to a Fiat press release. “This new business model is focused on e-Commerce, the virtual market that knows no boundaries.”

Some will be quick to make a connection between Fiat’s new online accessory plan and Tesla’s 100% online sales model. The internet is taking over the world of sales (it has already made Jeff Bezos the wealthiest sexter in the history of the world) and companies can either lead, follow, or get out of the way.

The battery is customizable as well, beginning with a smallish unit with a paltry 100 kilometers of range and going all the way up to a much larger unit with 500 km of range. Batteries could be purchased with the car or leased. Leasing could be an attractive option for many as it would allow subsequent owners to select the appropriate size battery for their needs without being locked in by the choice of the original purchaser. Very smart, Fiat.

Mitsubishi Unveils New V2G Technology

Mitsubishi is presenting its Dendo Drive House vehicle-to-grid technology in Geneva this week. It’s a renewable energy/electric car owners dream — solar panels, home storage battery, inverter, and bi-directional car charger all in one system that people can purchase directly from Mitsubishi dealers, according to The Verge. Maintenance will be included in the package as well. The system is compatible with battery electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

While V2G trials are taking place at the moment both in Europe and America, Mitsubishi says its system will be available for purchase later this year, making it the first to market. It won’t be cheap, however. The bi-directional charger itself is said to cost around €10,000, although Mitsubishi says it is working to make it less expensive. Let us know when that happens, please. Maybe at around €2,500 people might start to get interested.

• Toyota has long said it believes hybrids are a better bridge between internal-combustion vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
• Most competitors, however, have been been bullish on developing battery-electric vehicles.
• A Toyota executive finally outlines the logic behind the company’s EV decision making.

Toyota does not sell a single full-electric vehicle in the United States, not counting the hydrogen fuel-cell Mirai. It has indicated plans for electrics, which at last check would involve Mazda, but so far remains committed to plain old gasoline-electric hybrid cars, of which it offers plenty. The obvious question, then, with Tesla’s expanding brand power and mainstream automakers racing to introduce EVs, is why Toyota isn’t chasing them all into the fracas.

At the 2019 Geneva auto show, Gerald Killmann, Toyota’s vice president of research and development for Europe, enlightened us as to why the automaker hasn’t embraced EVs: battery production capacity. Now, Toyota isn’t exactly limited in its battery production, although its capacity is significantly lower than that of, say, Tesla. It is how Toyota is allocating that production that matters. According to Killmann, Toyota is able to produce enough batteries for 28,000 electric vehicles each year—or for 1.5 million hybrid cars.

Per Toyota, selling 1.5 million hybrid cars reduces carbon emissions by a third more than selling 28,000 EVs. Put another way, the company is generating a more positive environmental impact by selling many times more gas-electric hybrid cars than it would by selling far fewer EVs (and therefore, far more fully gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles), while also providing its customers more practical vehicles (because of no range or charging anxieties) at more affordable prices. There are only so many batteries to go around, after all.

Toyota also is one of the few automakers still using nickel-metal hydride battery (NiMH) chemistry in a large number of its electrified products (including some trim levels of the Prius hybrid), although the company also offers lithium-ion tech in some trim levels of the Prius and in the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid (pictured below). Not only are nickel-metal hydride cells cheaper than lithium-ion units, but Toyota has found that their susceptibility to memory-related degradation—essentially, partial discharge and recharge states, versus full battery drainage and refilling—relative to lithium-ion packs aren’t as drastic as initially feared. Need proof? Look at how many big-city Toyota and Ford hybrid taxicabs running their original batteries have six digits on their odometers.

Killmann wouldn’t go deeper than that fuzzy math (for example, details around those carbon emissions calculations), and it’s difficult to say whether the logic was created to explain away Toyota’s nonexistent EV offerings or if it has been Toyota’s plan all along to take an unsexy, pragmatic approach to reducing new-vehicle carbon emissions globally. But Killmann has gone on record before stating his preference for distributing Toyota’s finite battery capacity among a greater number of hybrid vehicles than a smaller number of full-electric models. Our discussion in Geneva marks the first time we’ve heard the logic behind that thinking articulated so clearly. So just know that because Toyota doesn’t sell any EVs now doesn’t mean it can’t sell EVs or lacks the means. It is simply taking its usual careful, calculated approach to a long game. Toyota still sees hydrogen fuel-cell tech as the true future of mobility, and clearly hybrids are an important bridge to that future.

The volume production of Tesla Model 3 and the deliveries of the electric sedan in its home state has helped electric car sales surge to new highs in California.

According to registration data gathered by IHS for a California New Car Dealer Association report, all-electric vehicle sales have increased by over 80% in California in 2018.

EV sales went from 51,176 units in 2017 to 92,447 cars in 2018.

The bulk of the increase can be attributed to Tesla introducing Model 3 in the US.

In 2017, the automaker only delivered a few thousand Model 3 vehicles in its home state, but the number surged to 51,293 Model 3 registrations in 2018.

According to the registration data, Tesla had the two best selling all-electric cars in California in 2018:

Even when including hybrids and plug-in hybrids, Tesla still comes on top when it comes to overall market shares for “alternative powertrain” in California.

While Model 3 helped EV sales increase in 2018, electric cars still have a long way to go in California, which is the largest market for electric vehicles in the US.

Gasoline vehicles still represented over 80% of the market, but their market share went down:

All-electric vehicles saw the biggest market share increase in the state of California in 2018 – again explained by the introduction of the Tesla Model 3.

The trend is expected to continue in 2019 with several new all-electric vehicles, like the Audi e-tron and Kia Niro EV, hitting the roads in California.

It’s still not very significant when compared to EV adoption rate leader: Norway.

Last year, electric car sales grew by 40% in Norway — 31.2 percent of all passenger car sales were all-electric vehicles and when adding all plug-in vehicles, it increases to 49.1 percent of the market.

Tesla is only now launching the Model 3 in Norway and it is expected to have a similar impact on the market as it did in the US.