Here is Monday Morning’s Electric Vehicle News. Nissan Nismo and Williams, BAIC likes Fisker, Honda Fit hybrid and Tesla Motors wants to cut down charge time.
Nissan Nismo Buddies With Williams. Here are two names you’ve never heard together before, Williams, King of the F1 world and Nissan, leader in the electric car world and affordable supercars. So what are those two names doing together? Nissan Motorsports, AKA NISMO will be working with Williams Advanced Engineering to bring you wicked versions of Nissan road cars as early as 2014. Nissan says it will launch one Nismo model a year. This year, the Nismo Juke showed up in the US, next year we could see a Nismo 370Z, since Europe already has it. What about the GT-R? It is rumored to go on sale in 2014, as well as a Nismo Leaf. Now that is something we are looking forward to try.
Chinese BAIC Looks at Fisker Automotive? You know Chinese car manufacturer are eyeing the lucrative American market but also understand it is a long and strenuous road before the public here accepts them. One way to do it is to buy an American company. Aptera and now Fisker are good example of this. Both trailblazers hit bumpy roads and are up for grabs. Also in the runner up to grab Fisker, Volvo owner Geely Automotive, and A123 Systems, now owned by Wanxiang, China’s number two car maker. Check out Alysha Webb‘s blog for Chinese EV related news.
Honda Fit Goes Hybrid. The Honda Fit Hybrid has done well everywhere so far and has a new powertrain in Japan we’d love to see on…. say a CR-Z? It has the company’s new Sport Hybrid i-DCD, which stands for Sport Hybrid Intelligent Dual Clutch Drive. It is mated to a 1.5-liter four-cylinder Atkinson Cycle engine with a single electric motor, putting out 20 kilowatts (27 HP) with a combined output of 134 HP (100 kW). Best part of it, it’s a dual clutch automatic. Can you extrapolate where this is going?
Tesla To Half Supercharger Time. Yes, there are still people who feel waiting 30 minutes to recharge an electric car is too long. Can you blame us? We are a “right now” society, and waiting a half hour to recharge is out of the question. Although we will be able to swap batteries in as little as 90 second, Tesla is still working on slashing that charge time by ten minutes or less. Can you guess why Tesla Motors is doing this?
That’s it for Monday morning’s electric news.
