Watt Happened: From Porsche to Canoo, March 4-11's Electrification News
By Phil Royle – March 12, 2021
About a week ago, Porsche unveiled its Taycan Cross Turismo, which you could say is a more practical version of the Taycan. Acceleration, battery size, and pricing will largely resemble the “OG” Taycan variants but, as we stated in our article, “The biggest winners with the Cross Turismo are undoubtedly the rear passengers, which gain a substantial 3.62 inches of additional headroom.” Cargo capacity increased over the standard Taycan, too, albeit minimally. Really, though, if you like performance wagons and want versatility – and you have between $92,250 and $188,950 to spend – the Cross Turismo is your jam.
Have more money to spend after buying the Taycan Cross Turismo? Porsche will now sell you eBikes to strap to the back, ranging in price from $8,549 to $10,700.
Kia teased its next EV, the creatively named EV6, which we instantly labeled as a Tesla Model Y competitor based solely on dark teaser images indicating this will likely be a crossover. Little is known about the EV6 other than it will utilize Hyundai Group’s E-GMP platform, meaning it will be built on an 800V architecture and thus charge from 10% to 80% in less than 20 minutes. The EV6 should also have a range somewhere in the 250-mile arena, and we’re guessing the price will kick off in the mid $40,000s. Expect more information on the EV6 to come as soon as the end of this month.
Considering this is nearly all of the information we have about the forthcoming Kia EV6, we managed to predict quite a lot. (Image courtesy Kia)
Late in the week, Canoo announced a pickup truck. For those who remember the original subscription-based-slash-ride-sharing Canoo concept from a few years back, imagine that van as a pickup – and that’s exactly what Canoo’s pickup concept looks like. Sure, this pickup is stuffed with cool features, like a bed that extends by more than two feet as well as a side step and a “party up frunk” with six power outlets and four USB ports, but we’ve been waiting so long for Canoo to release any vehicle that it’s hard to get too excited over this right now.
MarketWatch reported that analysts for the Swiss bank UBS have predicted that of all the auto manufacturer making – or hoping to make – EVs, the race is going to come down to Tesla and Volkswagen:
"UBS analysts said ... that they predict that, within the next few years, Tesla and Volkswagen will be the two global leaders in electric-vehicle sales. The analysts expect that Volkswagen will catch up with Tesla in terms of total volume of cars sold as soon as next year, when the two companies could deliver around 1.2 million cars each.”
“The global automobile giant Volkswagen Group owns brands including Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. In the past year, the company has raced past Tesla to become the most dominant electric-vehicle group in Europe – the world’s largest EV market behind China. Volkswagen now controls between 20% and 25% of the market in this key region."
According to UBS analysts, if any company is a Tesla killer, it’s VW. (Image courtesy Volkswagen)
And finally, if you think that you’re sticking it to the man by driving an EV and thus not paying any of the taxes piled onto the price of gas, The Sacramento Bee reports that may soon change. In order to pay for a proposed $2 trillion infrastructure bill, the Biden administration is contemplating, among other things, an EV tax:
“Other ideas included how to get electric vehicle owners to pay for infrastructure, since they are not subject to fuel taxes. The group talked about installing a ‘user fee’ for electric vehicles on highways.”
“Another idea mentioned ... was a carbon tax. That tax would apply to both businesses and consumers, putting a tax on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.”
You can also hear The Watt Car’s editors discuss many of these topics and more in this week’s podcast:
(Main image courtesy Porsche)
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