Talk by automakers attending the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Vegas was nothing short of electric.
Ford Motor Co, General Motors Co (GM) and Volkswagen AG (VW) have made it clear they are betting on electric vehicles for the future, even though the segment is only a small sliver of the global industry.
Some of the vehicles unveiled at the Consumers Electronics Show have been concepts or prototypes, but GM displayed the final version of its Chevrolet Bolt, which aims to capture buyers who are interested in electric propulsion without the price tag of a Tesla.
Photo: AFP
However, the boldest statement came from California startup Faraday Future, which on Monday in Las Vegas unveiled its FFZERO1 concept car, resembling a Batmobile and touted as a game-changer in the industry.
The company, which has revealed little about its financial backing or management, has already said it would invest US$1 billion in a Nevada manufacturing plant and that it expects cars to be produced withing two years.
Volkswagen used CES to unveil its BUDD-e — a version of its hippie favorite Kombi minivan transformed into an electric, connected vehicle of the future.
Photo: AFP
The German automaker, hit by a global scandal over its diesel cars, said it expects the electric ones to be on the road by the end of the decade.
Ron Montoya of the auto research firm Edmunds.com said VW has a possible winner with the minibus.
“You can easily see that being a production car,” he said. “Not only would it be a very stylish car that a lot of people have emotional connections with, but it could be potentially one of the first [electric] minivans.”
Photo: AFP
In a move that could make electric cars affordable to a mass market, GM showed its definitive version of the Chevrolet Bolt and confirmed it would be in production later this year.
The Bolt is designed to travel 320km between charges, and it will cost less than US$30,000 after tax breaks, GM said.
It also features some of the connected technology found on rival vehicles, including a Wi-Fi hotspot offering access to apps and services.
“The Bolt EV [electric vehicle] is truly the first EV that cracks the code of long range and affordable price,” GM chief executive Mary Barra told a CES forum.
Meanwhile, Ford reaffirmed its plan to invest US$3.5 billion over the next five years in electric car development, with a goal of producing 13 new EV or hybrid vehicles by 2020.
Several other automakers are also committed to electric, and some see the segment gaining traction, even though electrics only represented 0.08 percent of the global auto fleet at the end of 2014.
There are signs consumers are warming to EVs. In Norway, for example, one out of every five cars registered last year was electric.
“EVs will play a bigger role in the automotive future — there’s little question about that,” Kelley Blue Book analyst Akshay Anand said. “The Bolt is a big step simply because of its price and range.”
However, Anand said there is still some reluctance.
Lower fuel prices have reduced the sense of urgency and “most consumers want an EV as a primary vehicle, so range and charging time are critical factors,” Anand said.
One company that has had success in some respects is Tesla, whose highly regarded electric vehicles have become a hit.
However, its price tag has been too high for the general public.
Faraday Future and others have hinted about a new ownership model, raising the prospect of plans that allow consumers to get a car as needed without a hefty commitment.
This takes on a new perspective if cars become autonomous.
“VW hinted that cars might become ‘devices’ at some point in the future,” Anand said. “The social aspect of a car is bizarre to think about, but it could very well happen down the road.”
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day