Electric vehicle discussion

Range Rover's second generation Velar has shed more disguise, confirming that it's a fastback. This evolution is likely to further differentiate it from the Range Rover Sport. It looks a bit as if the cancelled Road Rover from the 50s and an SD1 had a child. In an alternate timeline one can imagine Rovers evolving into this.

 

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Range Rover's second generation Velar has shed more disguise, confirming that it's a fastback. This evolution is likely to further differentiate it from the Range Rover Sport. It looks a bit as if the cancelled Road Rover from the 50s and an SD1 had a child. In an alternate timeline one can imagine Rovers evolving into this.

It is so weird seeing that super high beltline on something with a Rover badge.

My first experience with a Rover was an old P38, and the beltline there was clear down at my waist. It honestly felt very uncomfortable, like I was sitting on top of the car rather than in it.

But the high beltline like in the Evoque is a step too far the other direction, IMO.
 
It is so weird seeing that super high beltline on something with a Rover badge.

My first experience with a Rover was an old P38, and the beltline there was clear down at my waist. It honestly felt very uncomfortable, like I was sitting on top of the car rather than in it.

But the high beltline like in the Evoque is a step too far the other direction, IMO.
The practical purpose of the low belt line of the P38 was to accurately place the vehicle on a narrow off-road trail. Spotting and avoiding low obstructions like boulders and tree stumps. For the last two decades the Ford F-series has featured a low belt line cut out on the front doors for the same practical reason. The P38 was really the last capable and durable off-road Range Rover, and even then, most of them came with fragile and maintenance intensive air springs.

The modern high belt line trend really came from the 2004 Chrysler 300C, which in turn was inspired by the low roof 4-door coupe version of the Rover P5B. Odd that a British car largely unknown in the USA inspired the very last successful new American sedan. So for Jaguar’s doomed new EV sedan and Range Rovers to adopt the same high belt line look is just a return to a Rover design of yesteryear.

The high belt line did make 300C drivers feel more secure on roads where full sized SUVs were more popular than today. Most people forget than Tahoes and Expeditions were in their peak sales years at the time the 300C appeared as the last gasp of the traditional sedan. Visually, the upswept high belt line of the 300C accommodated enormously large diameter wheels for the era and the high cowl gave room for tall coil over front suspensions that could accommodate AWD. Where it really fell down was the peculiar roofline of the Magnum wagon, and Europe only 300C wagon, which shared their doors with the sedan. The station wagons were horribly visually and in terms of rear packaging because of that high window line. Just like a number of smaller Range Rovers like the Evoque.

So maybe the Range Rover P38 wasn’t so bad with a low window line. Assuming you had one with steel springs.
 
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1.5 MW charging.
Given the soaring price of oil and geopolitical instability in the Mideast, EVs are in a not unfavorable position.
 
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I've been following this project for a while and I have some doubts about it's overall viability. Aside from some questionable design choices, such as no power windows and no radio, it's price seems to be creeping up. If this truck is priced over $ 30,000 the market will evaporate.

To be honest something along the lines of the Toyota Hilux Champ is what the market needs but it is was pretty much designed for the developing world so it'll never make it to the U.S.

 
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I've been following this project for a while and I have some doubts about it's overall viability. Aside from some questionable design choices, such as no power windows and no radio, it's price seems to be creeping up. If this truck is priced over $ 30,000 the market will evaporate.

To be honest something along the lines of the Toyota Hilux Champ is what the market needs but it is was pretty much designed for the developing world.

No power windows and no radio make it about the same market as the non-road-legal Kei Trucks you used to see in the US: Running around various bases or large facilities. It being road legal means you can send the apprentice on a run to the parts store (or coffe/sandwiches) in one.

Now, if someone was making a series-hybrid aka diesel-electric pickup truck in the 3/4 or 1-ton size classes for work trucks, now there's a market. The US has shifted from "toolboxes for cab&chassis trucks" as work trucks to "toolbox as a trailer that you leave at the job site," and that means that truck buyers care a lot more about towing capacity than direct load capacity. And maximum towing capacity is usually achieved by diesel-electric drivelines.
 
Electric trucks

High gas prices--just the thing to move those Cybertrucks...

A real EV truck

Driving safety

Offerings
 
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So Honda had a stunning new design that could catapult them to the front of the pack giving Tesla a run for their money and they abandoned it ? It's amazing that pretty much everyone, including the Japanese, were asleep at the wheel when it came to EV's but China was the one country bold enough to bet the house that this was going to be the future.

 
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I've been following this project for a while and I have some doubts about it's overall viability. Aside from some questionable design choices, such as no power windows and no radio, it's price seems to be creeping up. If this truck is priced over $ 30,000 the market will evaporate.

To be honest something along the lines of the Toyota Hilux Champ is what the market needs but it is was pretty much designed for the developing world so it'll never make it to the U.S.

The Hilux Champ is essentially a very small 2-wheel drive chassis cab. Oddly enough, all Toyota trucks were originally shipped to California as chassis cabs where a rust prone American made bed was added. However, that was due to a long closed loophole in the 25% “Chicken tax.”

Another issue is that the Hilux Champ only seems to be sold in regular cab with 2wd with tiny tires. Again, a format that is fundamentally dead in America. I suspect that it was designed that way to protect the more profitable configurations of the Hilux even in the Thai market.
 
No power windows and no radio make it about the same market as the non-road-legal Kei Trucks you used to see in the US: Running around various bases or large facilities. It being road legal means you can send the apprentice on a run to the parts store (or coffe/sandwiches) in one.

Now, if someone was making a series-hybrid aka diesel-electric pickup truck in the 3/4 or 1-ton size classes for work trucks, now there's a market. The US has shifted from "toolboxes for cab&chassis trucks" as work trucks to "toolbox as a trailer that you leave at the job site," and that means that truck buyers care a lot more about towing capacity than direct load capacity. And maximum towing capacity is usually achieved by diesel-electric drivelines.
The problem is that series hybrid/diesel electric drive is hideously inefficient on a scale smaller than a railway locomotive. The is exactly why a Honda Civic Hybrid has a direct drive clutch despite lacking a multi speed gearbox. And also why Nissan has taken so long to offer their inefficient series hybrids in North America. If diesel electric drive was even marginally efficient, every Class 8 truck would have been built that way for decades. And keep in mind that the heavy truck industry was always far more open to innovation than the mainstream automotive industry. From 2-stoke diesels to the strange low RPM diesels in Mack trucks that allowed for simpler gearboxes, it was all tried. Notably, GM subsidiaries once lead in both diesel-electric locomotives as well as heavy truck diesels and automatic gearboxes, as well as building heavy trucks themselves. Even GM didn’t attempt a diesel-electric truck despite having all the pieces of the puzzle at a time when efficiency and emissions weren’t regulated.
 
The problem is that series hybrid/diesel electric drive is hideously inefficient on a scale smaller than a railway locomotive. The is exactly why a Honda Civic Hybrid has a direct drive clutch despite lacking a multi speed gearbox. And also why Nissan has taken so long to offer their inefficient series hybrids in North America. If diesel electric drive was even marginally efficient, every Class 8 truck would have been built that way for decades. And keep in mind that the heavy truck industry was always far more open to innovation than the mainstream automotive industry. From 2-stoke diesels to the strange low RPM diesels in Mack trucks that allowed for simpler gearboxes, it was all tried. Notably, GM subsidiaries once lead in both diesel-electric locomotives as well as heavy truck diesels and automatic gearboxes, as well as building heavy trucks themselves. Even GM didn’t attempt a diesel-electric truck despite having all the pieces of the puzzle at a time when efficiency and emissions weren’t regulated.
They did IIRC, in the early 1990s or late 1980s. Vortec 4.3L v6 (on propane) driving the generator, electric motor driving the axles. Because late 80s early 90s there wasn't a good small diesel generator.

There was also the HEMTT A3 Pro-Pulse technology demonstrator, which was set up almost identically to a train using no batteries to store power. That happened sometime in the early 00s.

As I understand it, the issue then was the motor controllers needing to be massively big, heavy, and prone to catching on fire if improperly maintained. Which is now a solved problem because people have successfully scaled high power solid state motor controllers. Hence Edison trucks.
 
They did IIRC, in the early 1990s or late 1980s. Vortec 4.3L v6 (on propane) driving the generator, electric motor driving the axles. Because late 80s early 90s there wasn't a good small diesel generator.

There was also the HEMTT A3 Pro-Pulse technology demonstrator, which was set up almost identically to a train using no batteries to store power. That happened sometime in the early 00s.

As I understand it, the issue then was the motor controllers needing to be massively big, heavy, and prone to catching on fire if improperly maintained. Which is now a solved problem because people have successfully scaled high power solid state motor controllers. Hence Edison trucks.
I previous dealt with the lack of credibility of “Edison Motors.” https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/tesla-cybertruck.32688/post-807483

More excuses:

The fact remains that off-highway use gensets aren’t emissions legal for on-highway use in either the US or Canada. Just as I previously stated. Red tape isn’t holding back this venture, just the laws of thermodynamics and a lack of technically and financially viable business plan. Diesel-electric transmission losses make it less efficient than mechanical drive and the wishful thinking of bearded hipsters in BC won’t change that any time soon.
 

Translation: Off lease, and out of warranty, electric cars are being sold to the poorest of used car buyers who can least afford out of pocket repairs, higher insurance costs, have less access to home 220v charging and can least afford public fast chargers that are often more expensive than a tank of gas in an ICE car. The surge in used electric car sales is basically a fire sale and does nothing to prop up falling lease residual values and resales values.
 


Chinese electric heavy duty truck market penetration was 28 percent in 2025. China sold over 230,000 heavy-duty new energy trucks (hybrid, BEV, etc) in 2025, more heavy duty trucks than were sold in the entire USA.

December statistics are front-loaded but the trendlines are quite clear at this point. Electric heavy-duty semi-trucks are completely and totally viable, if you have the charging infrastructure. They are not a niche product or an embryonic product; they are mass-market.
 
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First post-introduction post on this forum, and likely the only one on this topic. :D

I came across this while visiting the Musée Bourdelle in Paris. Incidentally, this museum is first and foremost dedicated to sculptures a specific sculptors.
However it nonetheless has a few pieces of art that, as you can see, do not fit in that category, such as classical paintings and designer pieces of furniture from the 1920ies. The sort of things that are not that uncommon to come across in an art museum.

Anyway, among the few things that were not related to the art of sculpting there was that:

_IMG0233.jpeg

And what I thought could be of interest is the fact it dates back to 1940.

Aside from its name "Faure", the fact it is an electric car, and the designer being Michel Dufet, there were no additional details.

Hope that will be of interest to some.
 


Chinese electric heavy duty truck market penetration was 28 percent in 2025. China sold over 230,000 heavy-duty new energy trucks (hybrid, BEV, etc) in 2025, more heavy duty trucks than were sold in the entire USA.

December statistics are front-loaded but the trendlines are quite clear at this point. Electric heavy-duty semi-trucks are completely and totally viable, if you have the charging infrastructure. They are not a niche product or an embryonic product; they are mass-market.
Meanwhile, China’s electric car sales collapse, along with the sales of Chinese domestic brands, with VW and GM joint ventures returning to #1 and #2 in overall sales. https://www.autocarindia.com/car-ne...les-in-china-again-byd-drops-to-fourth-439230
 


Chinese electric heavy duty truck market penetration was 28 percent in 2025. China sold over 230,000 heavy-duty new energy trucks (hybrid, BEV, etc) in 2025, more heavy duty trucks than were sold in the entire USA.

December statistics are front-loaded but the trendlines are quite clear at this point. Electric heavy-duty semi-trucks are completely and totally viable, if you have the charging infrastructure. They are not a niche product or an embryonic product; they are mass-market.
I strongly suspect that most of those sales are for port trucks and maybe local-delivery trucks, not long haul OTR.
 
Meanwhile, China’s electric car sales collapse, along with the sales of Chinese domestic brands, with VW and GM joint ventures returning to #1 and #2 in overall sales. https://www.autocarindia.com/car-ne...les-in-china-again-byd-drops-to-fourth-439230
With market share of NEVs falling from 50 to 42 percent despite a fairly large pullback in subsidies and reimposition of vehicle taxes, in a very soft vehicle market in general.

Given current events, EVs are the way to go as far as the PRC is concerned.

___

As for long distance, battery swap networks are already going up. Every liter of demand pulled off the line is a liter of supply for another truck.

 
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Tesla trouble


Greater range

Scooter

The future
 
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FWIW, Jaguar has started a new ad campaign. No pink to be seen. Coming after they let journalists drive prototypes, it suggests that the unveiling of the new car will happen soon.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFaUfQTyT7Q

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfQ2UsIctH0

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCU7UJcFlEg
Already overshadowed by reports of the products that were killed for the sake of this already failed rebranding. Jaguar’s old lineup was probably commercially dead anyway, but the act of killing off the ICE line and allowing a product hiatus, leaving dealers with nothing aside from 2 year old remaindered inventory was probably a worse PR move than the advertising campaign. The message was that the Jaguar brand was completely dead. It doesn’t help that these monochromatic YouTube thumbnails harken back to that fateful ad. Anyway, the chief designer is gone and we’re all just waiting for a massive write down. Perhaps following through with a disastrous product launch is just being done for tax reasons? Hopefully, as the curtain closes on Jaguar, spare parts will remain available. Nothing would please Jaguar enthusiast more than to see the parts business and moribund brand transferred to an organization equivalent to British Motor Heritage.

 
Hopefully, as the curtain closes on Jaguar, spare parts will remain available. Nothing would please Jaguar enthusiast more than to see the parts business and moribund brand transferred to an organization equivalent to British Motor Heritage.
Does BMH have enough free capital to acquire the old Jag bits?
 
Wow. First Apple abandons development of an EV after spending a massive sum of money on it and now Sony and Honda follows suit. It's amazing that so far Xiaomi is the only tech company to successfully launch an EV and have massive success. The problem with this car, apart from it's utterly bland styling, was its hefty price tag. A Lucid EV would be a better deal. Is Honda just giving up on electric vehicles ?


 
Wow. First Apple abandons development of an EV after spending a massive sum of money on it and now Sony and Honda follows suit. It's amazing that so far Xiaomi is the only tech company to successfully launch an EV and have massive success. The problem with this car, apart from it's utterly bland styling, was its hefty price tag. A Lucid EV would be a better deal. Is Honda just giving up on electric vehicles ?



It’s worth remembering that Honda is actually quite small as a global automotive manufacturer but is absolutely huge in motorcycles, which sell in greater numbers in some developing world countries than cars.

It’s also worth remembering that Honda is in last place, or near last place, in overall European sales and doesn’t have huge joint venture market share in China. So basically, Honda is not a dominant player in either of the two future biggest EV markets. Moreover, cars like the Afeela all felt like decade old throwbacks, competitors to the now cancelled Tesla Models S and X, or maybe the equally irrelevant Lucid Air.

Honda’s plan in the United States is to increase sales volumes by selling more base model non-hybrid Civics, Accords and CR-Vs now that fuel economy penalties are lifted. (All of Honda’s non-hybrids are fuel efficient to begin with and shouldn’t have been penalize by silly CAFE regulations. It’s shameful the government fuel economy penalties essentially limited the production of cheaper bases model cars, even efficient ones like Hondas)
 
Does BMH have enough free capital to acquire the old Jag bits?
I’m using it as an example. BMW spun off BMH when they disposed of MG-Rover. Realistically, Jaguar is now in worse shape as a brand than MG-Rover was on its final days in 2005, let alone the day BMW disposed of it.

BMW created a lot of good will by creating an independent British Motor Heritage to support classic car owners, something Tata should consider for the now moribund Jaguar brand after all of the bad will generated by the Ingenium diesels in the UK. Personally, I think Tata would be well advised to dispose of all of JLR’s UK assets to Chery, move engineering and management to India, and perhaps keep only the Slovakian plant that builder the current Defender. Or better yet, ditch the current Defender and either buy Ineos or rebadge Grenadiers as Defenders and replace the rest of the lineup with Indian made Tatas.
 
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I’m using it as an example. BMW spun off BMH when they disposed of MG-Rover. Realistically, Jaguar is now in worse shape as a brand than MG-Rover was on its final days in 2005, let alone the day BMW disposed of it.
Sure, I'm just thinking that "British Motor Heritage" really should also include Jaguar if at all possible.
 
https://weibo.com/2656274875/QyBO79A7N

Recently, the new generation Xiaomi SU7 completed a crash test exceeding the China New Car Assessment Program (C-NCAP) under the supervision of an authoritative institution. The test involved a frontal 50% overlap moving progressive deformation barrier (MPDB) collision at a relative speed of 120 km/h, far surpassing the standard test conditions (standard relative speed is 100 km/h) and collision energy (about 1.44 times the standard test energy). The occupant cabin had zero failures, the battery had zero leaks and no fire, and the emergency systems were fully activated.

Facing collision energy 1.44 times that of the standard test, the new SU7 used ultra-high-strength materials like 2200 MPa steel and three force transmission paths to effectively divert impact forces, ensuring the integrity of the occupant cabin structure. At the same time, the driver airbag, passenger asymmetric airbag, and dual super-long side curtain airbags deployed in coordination. Combined with a triple-redundancy door handle design, this ensures comprehensive protection and escape/rescue options for occupants. The battery system also withstood the test under the CTB integrated technology and multiple layers of protection.
They really did well in some aspects.
 
Oil prices... are not very optimistic. Even if a ceasefire is reached now, the Middle East would still need about four years to recover.
As for the SU7, I don't think it is all great if we look at
SU7 did indeed have problems in the past. Last year, there was actually a very serious traffic accident involving an old SU7. The door handles on the old SU7 were electronically controlled, not mechanical, which resulted in the doors being unable to open after a severe malfunction occurred. Electronic and hidden door handles might look cool, but they won’t be used anymore, as the relevant national authorities no longer allow automakers to make such door handles.

As for that ranking report, honestly, its reliability is questionable. On one hand, in that self-proclaimed fair report, the cars ranked at the top actually sold less than some of the cars ranked lower, so naturally the number of complaints was far lower than that of the lower-ranked models. On the other hand, the evaluators were not that "official" either, so it can only be said to have a certain degree of credibility.
 
Does BMH have enough free capital to acquire the old Jag bits?
Not even close but, considering the ten year post model replacement rule for spares, they may just have that gifted. A complete debacle.

It is a slight possibility that Jaguar end up like Morgan and build a few 'continuation' and 'niche' products but if they continue to free fall even that may be a pipe dream.
 
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