Rivian shows off their “tank turn” capability on their all-electric R1T pickup truck. The quadmotor system allows independent control of each wheel. Very similar to a tank that can put one set of tracks into reverse to help control turning, the Rivian R1T is able to perform a true on a dime turn, although not sure how much control you have with it or if part of it is based on a loose surface.
Meet the Rivian R1T Truck. Rivian, a startup company that began in 2009, posted a teaser video of their upcoming pickup truck the R1T a few weeks back. Recently debuting at the L.A. Auto Show, Rivian has released a new video of the truck. The specs are fairly impressive. At the top end with a 180kWh battery option, the truck is expected to have a range of over 400 miles per charge. The base model, with a 105kWh battery pack will have a range of over 250 miles. Even the smallest battery is larger than any other EV on the market today. Of course, the 2020 Tesla Roadster is expected to have a 200kWh battery.
This was a short-lived user interface change to the Suspension Settings on the air suspension equipped Model S/X where the screen showed a submarine type vehicle. This update was rolled out in the initial V9.0 of the software, but when the v9 software received a minor update about a week or two later it was reverted back.
EV Drive offers a conversion kit to take your Honda CRF250 and make it electric. It will be interesting to see if these model specific kits can take off. Currently, the prices seem a bit inflated, but when you get into replacements for model specific kits, you’re certainly dealing with a micro-niche market.
http://www.evdrive.com/prototypes/evdrive-trains-for-e-motos-the-e-motocrf250r-conversion-kit/
Track Mode was just announced to start rolling out as an over-the-air update by Tesla today. So far it looks like it will only be available for the Model 3’s with the Performance package.
In this video from Engineering Explained, the myth of whether or electrical vehicles are worse for the environment than fossil fuel powered combustion engines is debunked. This takes into the account the production of the vehicle, mining for lithium (which is the most common battery type used in electric vehicles today), and if you live in a state that is powered primarily by coal vs. hydroelectricity or another renewable source of energy.
This car is producing 800hp and a top speed over 220mph, but an even bigger number is the price tag. $750,000. Genovation is a conversion company that takes factory Corvette’s, removes the engine, and converts them to electric motors while retaining the factory transmission.
https://genovationcars.com/
Here’s a fairly unique automotive painting technique referred to as a “pearl bomb”.
