Honda’s tiny urban EV could be available to order next year

from Inhabitat:

Honda recently announced that the Urban EV Concept they unveiled last year at the Frankfurt Motor Show could be ready to order by 2019. The Verge described this little vehicle with a retro feel as a “Japanese plush toy made real.”

The Urban EV “previews Honda’s first mass-produced battery electric vehicle sold in Europe,” according to the company. At a 2018 Geneva Motor Show press conference, Honda Motor Europe senior vice president Philip Ross confirmed the company anticipates opening order banks for the car early next year, with a production version coming to Europe later in 2019.

The Honda Urban EV’s retro vibe is accompanied by utterly modern features like a wrap-around panoramic screen. Four people can go for a spin in the car, sitting on two bench seats. The design is intended to call to mind the “ambiance of a lounge,” according to Honda.

The dashboard display offers vehicle information, with the screens on the doors acting as side mirrors via digital camera displays. The Verge said there aren’t many switches or buttons in the car, although they pointed out such minimalism isn’t rare in concept car design. Another futuristic feature is the Honda Automated Network Assistant, which “learns from the driver by detecting emotions behind their judgments” to offer recommendations.

Honda has not yet divulged the range of the Urban EV. When they debuted the vehicle in 2017, they mentioned their Electric Vision strategy launched at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show; development of “a dedicated electric vehicle platform, featuring fully-electric powertrain technology” is part of that vision. The automaker said, “Key parts of that powertrain development will include a high-density, lightweight battery pack, integrated heat management and the evolution of energy transfer functions — both to and from the vehicle.”

Crazy love/hate car porn from the UKfun viewing

Corporate Infomercial of the Month

Tony Hawk, never one to shy away from corporate endorsements, holds onto some integrity with this one.



Nice work kid.

My first, and only new car I ever owned was a Honda. In 1983 I bought a 1971 Mercedes Benz 280 SEL (now owned by Brett Ratner). After I bought that car I vowed i wouldn't buy another car unless it was electric. Luckily I live in New York City and haven't owned a car in many many years...

Revenge Of The Electric Car Trailer Hits!

One of my favorite documentaries of the last 5 years "Who Killed The Electric Car" is about to be followed up with it's sequel! "RevengeOf The Electric Car".

While Bill O’Reilly and David Letterman sit wondering where all the electric cars are, Director Chris Paine has actually been out there documenting their resurgence. The result is his documentary “Revenge of the Electric Car”, a sequel to the hit 2006 film “Who Killed the Electric Car?”.

With their official Facebook page hitting 10,000 fans this week, the first trailer for the flick (complete with thumping Gregorian chants) is now online. In an email to AutoblogGreen, the producers wrote, “The fact that so many people want to see this film and spread the word proves how important it is for everyone to learn about electric vehicles as an alternative to gasoline-powered cars and to be informed about new developments in EV production and what kind of options there are out there for consumers ready to shift into an electric gear.”

Check out the trailer below.

from Ecorazzi

Oslo’s All-Electric Car Share Program Just Reached 1,000 Members

Some mornings we here at Inhabitat like to grab a cup of coffee, cozy up on the couch and dream about future days of sharing electric vehicles in our urban havens. But dream no longer – with EV car share programs like the “Cell” in the pipeline, this electrifying dream is becoming a reality. Move About, Oslo, Norway’s EV car share program, has just hit an impressive 1,000 members! An all-electric vehicle phenomena, customers of Move About pay a mere NOK 100 (or $17) for a monthly membership and are given an all-access pass to a fleet of EVs they can take around town for just $17 an hour. As a city already dominated by Think City electric vehicles, Norway is setting an inspiring green model ready to propel the rest of the world towards a more sustainable future.

Move About is able to furnish the needs of all 1,000 of their members with just 80 cars — a less than 10 to 1 ratio! The company also provides memberships beyond the public realm, offering a unique car sharing program for corporations as well. For corporate accounts, a small fleet of vehicles has been setup as an alternative to individual corporate cars, where sometimes just five cars are enough to support a full staff of 150.

The Move About program has been so successful in Oslo that they’ve already expanded to Gothenburg and Copenhagen, further initiating partnership programs in Germany and Austria. A convenient, efficient and eco-friendly solution to seemingly insurmountable traffic issues in urban areas, this is the kind of car share program that every city in the world could have. And for those of us at Inhabitat who know the perils of having too many cars on the road, we can only hope that Move About extends its plans and moves across the Atlantic very soon!

from Inhabitat Via Autoblog Green

GM’s assembly line delivers bouncing baby Volt

Director Chris Paine (above) is still filming the follow-up.
from his "Revenge of the Electric Car" blog, the director of one of the great documentaries of the last decade: "Who Killed The Electric Car".

Chris Paine and the Revenge crew (Sean, Craig, Jessie, and Jessica) are proud to say that they are among the first film crews ever to professionally film mass production of an EV. (Of course, this is mostly because no one has made them in so long.) Since GM will be one of the first to the EV market with its Volt in 2011, we came to film them being put together through the multiple stages of the car manufacturing process. Chris is pleased to announce that he and his crew were there live to see the completion of Chevy Volt pre-production car #100 at the Hamtramck Assembly Plant in Michigan. The delivery was made at 9:25AM, August 25, 2010. The baby is 177 inches, 3500 pounds. One fine beauty. And accompanied by quite a few of the Volt’s siblings in all colors.

How the world has changed in five years!

In 2005 we were editing Who Killed the Electric Car? and trying to put together the pieces behind the ridiculous decision by car makers to terminate their advanced electric car programs. Now here we are in 2010, as welcomed guests of GM no less, watching electric cars roll off the assembly line for the first time since the EV1 stopped production in 1999. So it was very, very cool to see! And we feel that some very real changes are coming to the car industry.

In short, we had a great final shoot in Detroit.

Being in a state-of-the-art factory certainly updates every cliche of 1950′s car manufacturing. Robotic body and frame welding, magnetic delivery systems for motor/engine marriage to the carriage, dashboard installation by hand, battery pack installation by dolly, tires being torqued into position by wrench jockeys… it was a glorious sight. Hamtramck has an extremely complex integration of Auto Union procedures (and Hamtramck has a great local Union from what we could tell), management, workers, managers, conveyor belts carrying car parts, hundreds of components and thousands of processes. Torque pressure monitors, zipping airguns, palettes of parts, and layers of quality control processes. People plus machines plus computers plus experience.

Our favorite visuals of the shoot were or those Volts being manufactured on the same line as old-school gasoline guzzlers. How great to see a new Volt coming off the line after 6 Cadillac SRXs. With consumer demand for EVs (that means you, gentle reader) and continued government support, one day that ratio will be reversed. 1 Cadillac SRX to every 6 Volts. Or better yet the Cadillac SRXs will be electric too.

and in the comments section i found this little diddy:
"Seems the electric car killer really hasn’t changed their ways".