Maserati is Joining the Electric Car Club; Formula E Third Season Kicked Off in Hong Kong; Henrik Fisker is Coming Back with an EV “Spiritual Successor to the Fisker Karma”
Maserati is Joining the Electric Car Club
According to the Car and Driver, Maserati wants to build an EV by 2020. This news came out from Maserati/Alfa Romeo’s engineering head Roberto Fedeli.
The electric Maserati is expected to be “a sleek grand-touring coupe”. One of the interesting tasks is to give the electric car the Maserati identity – the brand is proud of its fine-tuned signature engine sound. There even is a composer working at the company. It becomes tricky since electric cars sound very different (in any words, quiet).
Another task is to make the car enjoyable to drive. EVs are heavy from the weight of battery. Fedeli said “Torque and power are interesting for a very few seconds but then the weight does not let you enjoy the car on a normal road.”
Formula E Third Season Kicked Off in Hong Kong
Formula E – The electric version of Formula 1 – kicked off its 3rd season. The Round 1 HKT Hong Kong ePrix raced on Oct. 9, first-ever waterfront ePrix. The circuit is about 2 km, with 10 turns.
In this eventful race, the defending champion Sebastien Buemi (Renault e.dams) got the title, although he started at the fifth place. Team ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport’s Lucas di Grassi had a great race too, catching up from the 19th place to finish at 2nd. Renault is leading the team standings with 37 points.
Next round will be in North Africa Marrakesh on Nov 12. Formula E has expanded to 10 teams this season, with the addition of Jaguar and Faraday Future. Carmakers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi have plans to build teams for the 2017 season.
Henrik Fisker is Coming Back with an EV “Spiritual Successor to the Fisker Karma”
According to Fortune, Henrik Fisker, the creator of the Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid (and also BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage), said he was launching Fisker Inc. to build a new electric car. The new car will be a “spiritual successor to the Fisker Karma” and have “the world’s longest electric range of any production car previously developed,” Fisker said.
The car will run 400 plus miles on electric, supported by a different battery chemistry developed in-house. Moreover, the car “will include dynamic, never-before-seen design features, combining advanced materials with the use of the latest optimization software. The car will have more rear legroom and headroom than any of its closest competitors”, according to Fisker’s press release.
Fisker plans to unveil the EV in the second half of 2017.