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Recharge Wrap-up: Grimsel electric car breaks acceleration world record, electric Ford Raptor ATV debuts

An all-electric version of the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor is now available... as an ATV. Made by Caddyshack Golf Cars, it features officially licensed Ford badging borrowed from the super-macho pickup. It has a lifted chassis with leaf springs in the front and rear, hydraulic shocks and off-road tires. Powered by a 48-volt motor, it can do 0-25 mph in 2.9 seconds. Range is an estimated 30 miles - plenty to get you through 18 of the most rugged holes of golf you've ever played. Caddyshack also offers other miniature electric Fords, including a Shelby GT500, Shelby Cobra and 50th Anniversary Mustang. Read more at Green Car Reports. Lexus takes a crack at the BMW i3 in a new video from Funny or Die. In the decidedly anti-EV film, a group of guys drives to Las Vegas for a "dad-chelor party" in a Lexus CT 200h and a BMW i3. The Lexus hybrid makes it to Sin City without any problems, while the BMW's occupants need to make several lengthy stops to charge along the way, missing much of the fun. The video lampoons the inherent range limitations of the EV (the BMW group ends up driving slowly through the desert with no AC or radio to save energy), all in a well produced, if somewhat misguided, short comedy film. Perhaps they should have considered the i3 with a range extender? See the video below, or read more at Green Car Reports. Students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University have set a new EV acceleration world record. Their "Grimsel" racing car was able to zoom from 0-100 kph (0-62.137 mph) in just 1.785 seconds in less than 30 meters (98.425 feet), crushing the previous record of 2.134 seconds. Even more impressive is that the Grimsel was built by the students themselves, as part of the Formula Student team at the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich. The car weighs just 370 pounds and provides 200 horsepower and 1,202 pound feet of torque from the four hub motors. The Grimsel uses traction control to manage torque for maximum acceleration. See the record acceleration run in the videos below or read more at Gizmag, at Electric Autosport or in the press release from ETH Zurich below. 'grimsel' breaks world record The 'grimsel' electric racing car today broke the previous world record for acceleration in electric cars. The vehicle accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 1.785 seconds in under 30 metres. The new record was set by students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, who also designed and built the vehicle.

Lexus LC 500 gets customized at SEMA before it even goes on sale

We still have to wait until next year for Lexus to start delivering the gorgeous new LC 500 to dealer showrooms, but that little fact didn't stop Lexus from letting people modify it for SEMA. The first LC coupe to get the custom treatment is this bright yellow example modified by Gordon Ting and Beyond Marketing. Prospective LC 500 buyers who want to modify their rides won't have to wait long do start adding these parts to their cars. Because Lexus let these companies develop parts this far in advance, the parts should be available around the same time as the car. On the outside, the LC 500 gets a new Artisan Spirit body kit that consists of a front diffuser, fender flares, side skirts, rear diffuser and rear spoiler. The car also has a lower stance thanks to a kit developed by KW Suspension. It features adjustable springs for ride height, plus a hydraulic lift system to keep the custom body work from scraping. The Lexus rolls on HRE P101 wheels that are stopped by Brembo brakes. The other highlight of this custom Lexus is under the hood. The LC 500 comes with a 471-horsepower 5.0-liter V8 that's also found in the RC F and GS F. However, the engine development team at Hard Media, Inc. and D SPORT Magazine had the engine rebuilt with CP pistons and Carrillo connecting rods, and it was given new cylinder sleeves from LA Sleeves to increase bore-size. The end result is a 5.6-liter engine making 525 horsepower. According to Lexus, 525 horsepower is far from the limit of this engine, saying that its capabilities could be, and in fact "have been more than doubled." If anyone at Lexus is reading this, we don't doubt the claim, but we'd also be more than happy to see this capability proven. Perhaps at next year's SEMA show? Related Video: Featured Gallery Customized Lexus LC 500: SEMA 2016 View 9 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / Autoblog Aftermarket SEMA Show Lexus Coupe Luxury lexus lc 500 SEMA 2016

Genesis cars win accolades, offer value — so why are sales so bad?

My high-school buddy Brent Cormier was so smitten with the Genesis G80 when he saw it at an event I hosted at SXSW in 2016 he bought a used 2013 Hyundai Genesis a short time later and fell in love with the car. "It surpasses my every expectation," said Cormier, a self-described "renaissance man" who owns and runs a real estate agency with his wife Laura, is a food service executive chef and part owner of Austin-based Thin the Herd Guitars. "I was locked into Mercedes and Audi for 10 years," he added. "And felt trapped in an endless pit of maintenance costs." After owning the Genesis over the past two years — including using it as an Uber and Lyft driver to earn extra cash — Cormier learned what some frugal luxury sedan buyers and a handful of car reviewers have discovered: Genesis offers great bang for the buck compared to other premium brands and can compete with the best in terms of performance, features and comfort. Hyundai's luxury brand also earned a prominent third-party endorsement last week when for the first time Genesis topped J.D. Power's 2018 APEAL study, surpassing German luxury-performance icon Porsche. The APEAL study (which stands for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) "measures owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement across 77 attributes," ranging from performance to comfort, and asks nearly 68,000 owners of new 2018 models to score vehicles on a 1,000-point scale. In its second year ranked as a stand-alone brand, Genesis earned an APEAL score that bumped it up 15 points to 884 and helped push it past Porsche — and past BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Cadillac, Land Rover and Lexus, in order of ranking. Last month, Genesis also topped J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey (IQS) for the first time this year. And both its models were awarded Top Safety Pick Plus ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, among 11 Plus ratings in all for Korean vehicles. Despite high J.D. Power rankings and great reviews, Genesis U.S. sales were off 50 percent for the first six months of 2018 compared to 2017, and in June Genesis sold only 796 vehicles — the first time U.S. numbers dropped below 1,000 in a month. Part of Genesis's APEAL and IQS success can be attributed to its small product lineup: just two models, the G80 and G90 sedans, with a third, the 2019 G70, launching later this year. And while those numbers may help in J.D.