Audi
Audi has promised to offer three new electric vehicles by 2020, with a third of all cars sold by 2025 to be electrified in some form.
Lower in the range, the rollout of electrification is likely to begin with mild 48-volt hybrids. Cars fitted with these systems use a water-cooled belt-driven generator in place of a traditional starter motor, allowing the car to coast with the engine off for almost a minute in the right conditions.
When the throttle is prodded, the engine can fire instantly back to life, while a camera allows the system to see when traffic is moving and preemptively start the internal combustion engine.
Further up the EV tree will be e-tron cars, with fully-electric powertrains. A crossover, previewed by a number of concept cars in recent years, will lead the charge in 2018.
Expect to see internal combustion playing a major role in the Audi line-up for years to come, though. Senior figures have said conventional engines are still “unbeatable” for their blend of power and efficiency, not to mention convenience.
BMW
BMW used a December event in Munich to outline its modular, electric future. The company wants to have 25 electrified models on sale by 2025, with 12 of those to be pure-electric. By this point, around a quarter of total sales are expected to be electrified vehicles.
Dr Ian Robertson, member of the BMW board of management, says the “trend toward e-mobility is irreversible”.
To cater for the range of body-styles required for success in the current landscape, there will be modular platforms for passenger vehicles – think sedans, hatches and wagons – and the ever-growing X SUV range. Battery packs with heights between 80 and 140mm will be developed to suit the differing model lines.
Batteries will be housed between the axles, in 60kWh (450km range), 99kWh (660km range) and 120kWh (700km+ range) trims.
They’ll be paired with electric motors with 100kW, 190kW, 250kW and over 300kW for a varied model range with entry-level, mid-spec, warmed-over and genuinely-hot performance models. The new architecture will debut in 2021.
General Motors
American car manufacturers are known for their big-engined muscle cars, but GM has been open in its desire to get ahead of the game on electric vehicles.
The Detroit giant has committed to offering 20 electric vehicles by 2023, the first two of which will arrive in the next 16 months. Unlike some of its competitors (and American upstarts) the company says fuel-cell vehicles will play a big role in the future as well.
“We think with electric vehicles, there is a two-pronged approach to this,” Dan Ammann, GM president, told media earlier this year. “One is battery-electric vehicles, obviously, but we also believe fuel-cell will play a significant role and we are going down both paths. The BEV will be the mainstream high volume [path] in the shorter term.”
“On the BEV side, we have launched the Bolt here – we were first to market with an electric car with usable range – we believe that the future will be heavily electric. Fuel cell will play a role in that and we are investing across all these technologies.”
Volkswagen
Just as its current success is built around a smart, modular platform, Volkswagen is planning to build its electric onslaught around the modular MEB platform, debuted in Paris with the I.D concept.
The I.D and I.D Crozz will both launch in 2020, priced similarly to the Golf hatch and Tiguan crossover respectively. The new I.D Buzz, a modern take on the legendary Kombi, will debut in 2022, while reports have also suggested the next Beetle will be a rear-driven electric-vehicle.
By 2025, the company wants to sell three million electric cars per year, while the entire VW Group line-up – somewhere in the vicinity of 300 models – will be electrified come 2030.
Fiat Chrysler
Er, next? Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Chrysler CEO, has been very open in his skepticism about electric vehicles.
Rather than banking on pure-electric power, Marchionne says the company will focus on combining electric power with internal combustion to meet tightening CO2 regulations.
“We are investing without making a lot of noise on electrification,” he said. “We will combine it with combustion to yield the right level of CO2. But we’re not betting the bank on going fully electric in the next decade. It won’t happen.”
Marchionne also said he hopes people don’t buy the 500e. In other words? If you’re keen on a pure electric car, look elsewhere.
Toyota (and Lexus)
Toyota is planning to aggressively ramp-up its electric technology in the coming years, with the goal of offering electrified powertrains across its range by 2025, and selling more than 5.5 million electrified vehicles by 2030.
Of those 5.5 million sales, the company wants 1 million to be zero-emissions. If the goal is met, more than 50 per cent of all Toyota and Lexus models sold will feature some form of electrification.
More than 10 battery-electric cars will be offered by the early 2020s, with the rollout commencing in China and spreading gradually to Japan, India, North America and Europe.
Solid state batteries will be a big part of this rollout, with plans to have the technology ready for consumers in the ‘early 2020s’.
Along with solid-state batteries, Toyota has joined Panasonic for a study into prismatic batteries. The technology promises to cut weight and costs, allowing companies to squeeze greater voltage from batteries with fewer cells.
Finally, the next few years will see the development of the Hybrid System II currently doing service in the Prius.
A more powerful version of the powertrain will appear in some models (Supra, anyone?), while a simpler iteration will also help expand the hybrid line-up ahead of the early 2020s.
Volvo
Volvo will have an electrified powertrain in every vehicle released from 2019, meaning all petrol- or diesel-engined cars will also feature a plug-in or mild hybrid system as well.
The move is part of a push to sell a total of 1 million electrified cars by 2025. The company also wants to have all its manufacturing plants carbon neutral by 2025, in keeping with the greener focus of electric vehicles.
Five fully electric vehicles, the first of which has been unveiled under the Polestar badge, will hit the market between 2019 and 2021.
The move is “about the customer” according to Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Cars. “People increasingly demand electrified cars, and we want to respond to our customers’ current and future needs.”
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