Autos News

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Yesterday a team organized by Men’s Health magazine set off on a cross-country trip meant to help create a healthier, more satisfying road trip experience, raise money for an essential car, oh, and show-case an electric car taking a long distance trip. Electric car owners are supposedly quivering in fear of the dreaded range anxiety, but the Mens Health team is driving a Ford Focus Electric from brand new release York City to the Santa Monica Pier (in Los Angeles) which makes us ask how the team will accommodate the range limits and recharge velocity of that car. The team includes race car drivers, Navy Seal commanders, models, and a couple editors of Men’s Health magazine. Among the teams goals is to set the record for the fastest coast-to-coast drive in an electric car, but the team does not expect to be breaking any velocity limits in the process.

The Men’s Health 2012 Electric Car Challenge set off from the NY Auto Show on April 11. The vehicles involved include a 2012 Ford Focus Electric, and a 2012 Ford F-150 with EcoBoost as a backup vehicle. The team expects to stop 40-60 times during the cross-country trip to recharge the Focus Electric battery pack. Each stop, because of the 6.6 kilowatt on-board charger, will require only 2-4 hours.

The faster charge rate on the Ford Focus Electric than, say, the Nissan Leaf’s 3.3 kilowatt charge rate, replenishing the battery pack more quickly, making long distance travel like this more efficient. This much is true, except it ignores the availibity of CHADEMO fast charging in electric cars manufactured by both Nissan and Mitsubishi, which can recharge an electric car to 80% capacity within 30 minutes. These sort of claims (“our charger is faster than theirs”) is meant to mollify range anxiety concerns with the idea of being capable to pop into a charging station for a quick recharge. The Ford Focus Electric 6.6 kilowatt advantage will evaporate next year when the Nissan Leaf also has a 6.6 kilowatt charger.

The schedule for the Electric Car Challenge is meant to allow the team to arrive at the Santa Monica Pier on or before Earth Day, on April 22. The team left NYC on April 11, and expect the whole trip to require 10-12 days. Making the trip in that time will establish the record for cross country electric car drives, creating a brand new release target for brand new release challengers to beat.

Regardless of the 6.6 kilowatt charge rate of the Ford Focus Electric, the team will face an interesting challenge going coast-coast with an electric car. It is not an impossible challenge, others have done this before, just that the challenge has some complications. The electric car recharging network is, at this time, primarily clustered around cities. While there are plenty of recharging opportunities at public and commercial electric car charging stations in most cities, what about the space between the cities? Especially out west where there are long distances between even the small towns?

The first strategy is that the team will stay on side roads, rather than on main highways. This will reduce energy consumption, making the charge in the battery pack take the car further. It also gives the team more opportunities for the second part of the strategy, which is to crowd-source recharging opportunities from people who have 240 volt 40 amp electrical outlets. These outlets are commonly used for dryers, and are also commonly availcapable at campgrounds. A quick browse using the PlugShare iPhone app indicates there are plenty of people listing Strength outlets in that application, even in the countryside between large cities, but that there are still plenty of long gaps with no declared charging stations. As of this writing the team is in Pittsburgh, making a few stops around the Carnegie Mellon campus, and apparently has stopped at more than one campground to recharge.

How is Men’s Health planning to demonstrate a healthier and more satisfying road trip? This sort of trip involves a stop every 1-2 hours to recharge the car, and the team hopes to fill the time of those charging periods with “exciting, life-changing experiences that you can’t enjoy when racing down the highway”. The adventures will include exercise and fitness challenges, culinary pursuits, environmental missions and more.

“With gas prices expected to reach nearly $5 per gallon this summer, the Great American Road Trip is poised for a Great American Renaissance,” told David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health. “We created the Electric Car Challenge to demonstrate a more eco-friendly approach to the road trip that will have a positive effect on you, your wallet, and the environment.”

The team is providing updates at menshealth.com/ElectrifyUS which includes a map created from FourSquare checkins. Follow @MHTechLust or the #ElectrifyUS hash tag on twitter.

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It is essential to note that, Mardenborough is Nissan’s most recent Gran Turismo Academy winner. What is the GT Academy? It is a pretty awesome competition that gives potential race car driving hopefuls (couch potatoes) a chance to go from driving in a video game to real life race car driving. The competition is sponsored by Sony, Nissan, and played via PlayStation’s Gran Turismo racing game online. There is then a group of sixteen candidates that are sent to race car driving school to refine their skills. The GT Academy has produced several successful racing drivers.

The 20 year-old British racer will take on the ridiculously difficult and fast Monza track in the brand new release Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3. “The GT-R has very good high velocity stability and fantastic brakes so I hope we can go out there and get a great result. We want to do well in this championship so we need to do a good solid job and not take any big risks.” told Mardenborough.

The No.35 GT Academy Team RJN car will be up against a lot of stiff competition. This includes brands such as Audi, Aston Martin, BMW, Dodge, Ferrari, Jaguar, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes and Porsche.

“I’ve never even been to Monza before let alone raced there,” told Jann. However he has driven the track via his PlayStation in the Grand Turismo racing games. “I know which way the corners go and I can’t wait to get out there for real.” he added.

There is quite a surprising entry to the driver pool this year, Valentino Rossi. In case you didn’t know Rossi has nine Grand Prix World Championships under his belt. Of course these championships were won on vehicles of the two-wheeled variety, specifically in Moto GP. (Moto GP is considered the Formula 1 of motorcycle racing.) Rossi can be found driving the Ferrari 458s at Monza this year.

This means that Jann Mardenborough, in one year, has gone from entering the GT Academy as a total beginner to racing Valentino Rossi. Keep in mind, Rossi is considered one of the greatest motorcycle racers to every grace the earth. I am sure he knows a thing or to about going fast on two or four wheels.

The essential question facing this brand new release professional race car driver, is he scared of the great motorcycle racer Rossi? A lot of drivers or racer would be!

“I don’t know too much about bikes but I know he is the guy to beat on them.” told Jann. “Actually I need to get his autograph for a friend of mine.”

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For much of the past century auto-racing in America by the established automakers has served two purposes. First, it gives the automakers a way to shine a light on their cars. This is known as the halo effect. Buyers (mainly men?) follow the racing sports and they mentally make a connection with their favorite team and auto-maker. Win on Sunday (when viewers and spectators around the country watch the races) and sell on Monday, when those fans go to buy their next family car, is an age old truth. Second, the automakers claim, perhaps with some sincerity, that the things they learn racing about durability can later find its way into your driveway. True or not, it gives the automakers an excuse to be involved with motorsports.

The problem for the Asian and European automakers is that they missed the memo that NASCAR would become America’s favorite racing series. That hasn’t kept them out of racing, and may even have benefited them, since NASCAR racing cars have absolutely nothing to do with the brands whose name they wear. Honda has done very well with Indy Car engines and even found itself a sponsor for Talladega Raceway as a generator supplier to keep its name in racing. For years Subaru was the car that came to mind when someone told “rally car.” Mazda is known and loved by SCCA and many other racers for their Miata. Now Hyundai and Kia are both finding ways to get their cars into racing.

Hyundai has just rebrand new releaseed a four year agreement with Rhys Millen Racing (RMR) to compete in the Formula Drift series. For those not in the know, drifting is basically driving a rear-wheel drive car sideways with grace and style – and a lot of burning rubber. Although the RMR car is modified to make well over 600 horseStrength, its rear-drive platform and many key components such as the engine block are from the stock Hyundai Genesis Coupe. The Genesis Coupe is Hyundai’s “sleeper” pony car that competes with the Chevy Camaro, Ford Mustang, and other rear-drive muscle cars. Steve Shannon, Hyundai Motor America’s VP of marketing, sums up the plan for Hyundai’s sponsorship of RMR this way “It’s thrilling when a driver of Rhys Millen’s caliber combines tire-smoking Strength with surgical drifting precision. And, in addition to the intense drifting action, Hyundai will give trackside interactive facilities where drift fans can check out its latest products, driving games, music partnerships and race fan gifts.” In other words, “Hey fans come see the Hyundai race car stuff and maybe think about a Genesis of your own.”

Kia is Hyundai’s corporate sibling and also has a racing series. Kia races its Forte Coupe in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. The street tuner class it races in is a good way to highlight the sporty nature of the car. With some recent podium finishes the program is yielding Kia publicity it can parlay to marketing.

Automakers have always found themselves in racing and Hyundai and Kia’s racing programs have brought the Korean manufacturers street ‘cred and some marketing buzz to help it sell cars.

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It’s Easter time which means communities around the country gather for parades featuring bunny rabbits, candy, and group after group of people showing community pride in one thing or another. This weekend in Campbell CA, one of these groups were members of the San Francisco BayLEAF’s group driving a contingent of 12 Nissan LEAF’s dressed up in bunny ears and whiskers. The BayLEAF’s is a Nissan Leaf owners group based in the SF Bay Area.

The event was the annual Bunnies and Bonnets parade held in downtown Campbell. Campbell is situated in a corner of Silicon Valley, next door to Los Gatos. Campbell itself is a small town, that borders on San Jose, and is a key node in the fabric of cities that comprise Silicon Valley. Coincidentally Campbell happens host the world headquarters of Coulomb Technologies, operator of the ChargePoint network of electric car charging stations.

Campbell recently installed several electric car charging stations, all part of the ChargePoint network. The stations are scattered around parking lots and parking garages in the Downtown Campbell area. These stations of course saw an uptick of usage yesterday with the BayLEAF’s coming to town.

One of the BayLEAF members had for years organized the Porsche club appearance in this same parade. This year, as a brand new release LEAF owner, he decided to organize the BayLEAF’s group to appear. Organization was done through the BayLEAF group on Facebook, and the goal was to have anywhere between 5 and 1000 Nissan Leaf’s participate in the parade. The 12 Leaf’s in the parade was well within the target range, and all had a good time.

The LEAF owners covered a broad spectrum of humanity, equally men and woman, young and old, united in a common dream of showing off their electric cars. One young man had tricked out his Leaf with extra lights and other doodads. A retiree coming all the way from Alameda with his LEAF had also built several electric car conversions over the years. He was using the CarSounds app for his iPhone, connected via Bluetooth to the car sound system, to make his LEAF make vrooming noises. Another not only owns a Leaf, but is one of the Electronauts in the BMW ActiveE program.

The appearance was essentially the same as any other car group in a small town parade, much like the muscle cars and Porsche’s featured later in the parade. The car owners doing their best to show off pride in their cars, the cars of course dressed up in bunny rabbit decorations. The bulging headlights on the Nissan LEAF actually makes a great base for eyelashes to start create a bunny motif, then with something resembling a nose on the charging flap up front, a fuzzy something or other on the rear window wiper, and attach some kind of ears into the windows or roof, creates the illusion of a giant bunny rabbit. The most appropriate ears were constructed by a LEAF owner from Santa Cruz, using the stiff 3-conductor wire used to wire electrical circuits in a house.

What this appearance means is a stage in the mainstreaming of electric cars in America. For a long time electric vehicles have been a fringe activity, with most of the few electric car owners either having built their own, or driving one of the electric cars left over from earlier era’s of electric car adoption. (Disclosure: I drive a beautiful 1971 Karmann Ghia that I converted to electric drive last year) Last years sales of electric cars vastly increased electric car ownership in the U.S. and considerably lowered the barrier-to-entry for electric car ownership. These factoids combine to start a wave of change that could be like dropping a pebble at the top of a snow covered mountain, that eventually causes an avalanche as the dropped pebble unleashes a chain reaction of forces that gather and build momentum.

A month ago we wrote about the Emerging Technology Hype Cycle and specifically the Trough of Disillusionment, describing how this is playing out with electric cars. Primarily those purchasing electric cars over the last year are thought to be the “early adopters.” These are the people who buy the brand new release thing because it’s cool. For the brand new release thing to become mainstream a second or third wave of purchasers must also decide to buy in, and those people look to the first wave purchasers before jumping on-board. The trough of disillusionment refers to the negative backlash that always strikes against brand new release products. With electric cars that backlash is taking the form of extreme right wingers deriding electric cars with the often outright false things being told.

An event like yesterday’s parade is an opportunity for the excited first adopters to reach out to the second or third wave purchasers and essentially say “come on in, the water is fine.” Put another way, it’s an opportunity for the LEAF owner to show the neighbors they aren’t so nutty after all, and that the LEAF is a perfectly fine, functional, car, that is worthy of being in a parade. In this instance, the BayLEAF’s apparently were invited to participate in Campbell’s 4th of July parade.

Electric car owner groups around the SF Bay Area are planning electric car showings at several Earth Day events over the next couple weeks, and are organizing what’s hoped to be a large contingent of electric cars at the Hybrids2Hotrods show in May.

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Frank Ahrens, Hyundai’s director of global public relations in Seoul, had hinted the night before at a media dinner that there was a surprise coming. It probably had something to do with being up for 44 straight hours but that’s all he would say.

The Santa Fe Long Wheelbase (or LWB for short) was almost presented as an afterthought by Hyundai Motors America president and CEO John Krafcik. A lengthy presentation had been made on the 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe (details below) when Krafcik told, in effect, there was one more thing to show – and the wall moved back and out slid the brand new release Santa Fe LWB.

It’s going to be a seven-passenger model with a 3.3-liter V6 producing 290 horseStrength. Hyundai told it is the only gasoline direct injection V6 in a midsize crossover, which helps it achieve an estimated 19-mpg city and 26-mpg highway.

Buyers of the short wheelbase Santa Fe, which seats five passengers, have a choice of two engines: a 2.4-liter Gasoline Direct Engine (GDI) engine or a turbocharged 2.0-liter GDI engine. Both engines have been well tested in the Hyundai Sonata a and have the ability to tow up to 3,500 pounds.

With 190 horseStrength and 181 lb-ft of torque (estimated), Santa Fe Sport 2.4 still manages fuel economy of 23 city and 33 highway (estimated). The higher output 2.0-liter turbocharged engine found under the hood of Santa Fe Sport 2.0T increases horseStrength to 264 (estimated), while delivering fuel economy of 23-mpg city and 31-mpg highway.

Both Santa Fe models have exciting availcapable technology. Buyers will have the opportunity to opt for the intelligent active All-Wheel-Drive (AWD) system and TVCC, which cooperatively controls torque and braking in conjunction with the Vehicle Stability Management System. This system can anticipate traction requirements and deliver additional stability through braking via continuous monitoring of driving conditions compared with other AWD systems, which can only react to conditions after they occur.

As Hyundai explained, “All AWD Santa Fes access an intelligent control unit that continuously analyzes data from the vehicle controller, and through a multi-clutch plate distributes torque to any single wheel at a time. The coupling system is fully controllcapable via an electro-hydraulic actuation system. Braking force can also be sent to any single wheel at a time via the software. These processes are known as torque vectoring and torque braking. All this analysis is completely transparent to the driver.”

Also, behind the wheel, drivers will be capable to choose among Hyundai’s all-brand new release Driver Selectcapable Steering Mode, with three operating modes: comfort, normal and sport. This system allows drivers to adapt Santa Fe Sport and LWB Santa Fe’s steering characteristics to varying driving preferences and road conditions.

Comfort mode is ideal for city and parking environments, offering the greatest ease of steering with a 10 percent decrease in steering effort from Normal mode. Normal mode is ideal for a mix of driving conditions. Meanwhile, Sport Mode is optimized for higher-velocity freeways or winding roads and increases steering effort by 10 percent from Normal mode. The Driver Selectcapable Steering Mode not only adjusts Strength assistance levels in each mode, but also adjusts on-center build-up feel and steering build-up curves throughout the steering range, for a very natural and progressive feel.

Not that many years ago, the media would have only showed up to a Hyundai press event eagerly seeking the free lunch being served afterwards. (Never get caught between an auto journalist and a free lunch – it’s a dangerous place.) Now, Hyundai is actually serving up brand new releases at its brand new releases conferences.

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