Tesla Truck, Volvo & Jaguar Electrifying, Alta Motors & LAPD Leadership, & More (CleanTech Talk Today #7)
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Welcome to another episode of Cleantech Talk Today, where we discuss the latest batch of fresh electric vehicle & cleantech news. In this daily podcast and video series, we ramble on and on and on … and on … about anything electric that moves, crawls, flies, rides, drives, swims, swings, or skips.
Zach Shahan, Kyle Field, and I are now co-hosting this daily tour. You can listen to this episode above or you can watch and listen below. Or you can head over to Soundcloud or iTunes to listen.
Elon Musk Solicits Input on Tesla Truck on Twitter
We kicked the discussion off with a recap of what we learned this week about the Tesla Truck … which was a lot. A short tweet about the Tesla Truck from Tesla CEO Elon Musk asking the public for ideas gathered thousands of responses in just a few hours. Along the way, we learned that the truck would sport 400-500 miles of range with dual-motor all-wheel drive and dynamic suspension as standard features. The battery on the truck was a popular topic since numerous commenters were eager to tap into the battery as a means of eliminating the need for a generator. Elon Musk seemed surprised when someone suggested adding the capability for a compressed air system to run tools off of, but seemed interested in the idea.
Volvo XC40 SUV = Volvo’s First All-Electric Car
It’s official, the Volvo XC40 SUV is the company’s first all-electric car. According to Volvo design chief Thomas Ingenlath, “It’s not a secret any more that the first full electric Volvo is on its way with the XC40 coming. It will arrive very soon after the Polestar 2. That is, the first to come that’s not exotic. We’ll start with XC40 and then on it will come step after step into our model range. The next car will be the next generation XC90.”
Jaguar Land Rover Boosts Electric Investments
We’re happy to see the Jaguar Land Rover group confirming its electrification plans. Those are getting a boost of no less than $18B spread over three years. Congratulations, Tata Group. I guess it’s true what they’ve said about Tata since he left the UK after having buying Jaguar and Land Rover. He waved back and said … “Tata.” … Oh, come on, what did you expect?
nuTonomy Is Back In Boston, Everywhere!
We’re happy to report that you can soon drive a Renault Zoe in America if you go to Boston, where local startup nuTonomy is testing a fleet of Zoes as part of its autonomous driving development program. After an Uber autonomous test car killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, earlier this year, the city of Boston asked nuTonomy to suspend testing its self-driving cars while it reassessed the situation. That process seems to be over and nuTonomy can test again.
LAPD Gets 20 Redesigned Bulls Sentinel eBikes
We were surprised to find out that the LAPD found the resources and wisdom to reach for a very good e-bike manufacturer, Bulls, to redesign its Sentinel e-bike for police use. The results: An easy-to-fix bike, the ability to smoothly get on and off with gear, and perfectly tailoring for the LAPD — all done in 9 months.
Alta Motors 2019 Redshift EXR Is Here!
OK, I’m excited about this one because when I hear Alta, it’s usually accompanied by winner against all odds, or at least for mainstream news reporters. Alta has further tweaked and refined its already impressive Redshift lineup, and this year won’t disappoint again. I would not recommend watching the video and would recommend going out for a ride instead. Seriously, do not watch it!
OK, never mind. For all the juicy details from our discussion, have a look at the video or listen to the podcast, above or below.
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