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Recharge Wrap-up: Georgia gets E15, new PSA EVs will be cheaper and offer more range

What would it be like to test drive a gasoline-powered car in an EV-dominated world? A post by Tibor Blomhall at Tesla Club Sweden gives a glimpse into this alternate universe. The review begins by noticing the pushiness of the dealer at the "repair shop" that sells the car, which is cause for suspicion - a clear nod to Tesla's lack of such franchise dealerships. Of course, the author mentions the noise, vibration and the smell of the exhaust. He notes the inefficiency of the idling vehicle and its less-than-smooth operation, particularly when it comes to changing gears. The one plus: refueling is quick. The downsides, though, are that the fuel is toxic, dangerous and expensive, and you can't refuel at home. "Imagine if you could charge your electric car only at the power companies' most expensive fast chargers - and nowhere else!" Read more at Tesla Club Sweden. Georgia's first E15 station opens Friday, May 8. The Gulf Quick Stop Food Store at 855 S Cobb Drive SE in Marietta, Georgia will offer the 88-octane E15 ethanol blend. Two other Gulf locations in Madison and Greensboro will also offer E15 in Georgia. Customers at the Marietta location can enjoy "Happy Hour" pricing from 4 to 5 pm on May 8, and festivities include music, a concert ticket giveaway, face painting and a moon walk. State officials will be present for the celebration. Read more at Domestic Fuel. PSA/Peugeot-Citroen says its second-generation EVs will be less expensive and offer more range (surprise). The company is also planning to launch a plug-in hybrid in 2019 using the company's EMP2 platform, shared by the Peugeot 308 and Citroen C4 Picasso. "PSA will make pure electric cars from the bottom of the market upwards based on the new platform by the end of the decade," says a PSA spokesman. As for the plug-in hybrid, PSA CEO Carlos Tavares says, "We have completed the architectural aspects and are currently deciding on the battery technology." Read more from Automotive News Europe. Related Gallery 2014 Peugeot 308: Frankfurt 2013 View 23 Photos News Source: Domestic Fuel, Automotive News Europe, Tesla Club SwedenImage Credit: Citroen Green Tesla Citroen Peugeot Alternative Fuels Ethanol Electric recharge wrapup

Mary Barra thinks GM is a leader in autonomous tech

Saying General Motors is "among the leaders" in autonomous vehicle technology, CEO Mary Barra rapped about her company's driverless work in an interview with USA Today. Barra covered a number of topics, including well-known efforts, like Cadillac's upcoming Super Cruise technology, as well as hinting at "a lot of efforts that are confidential." "Things are moving quickly in autonomous [cars] because there's so many different pathways and the standards aren't even set. A lot of people can claim leads because people are making advancements in different areas," Barra said. "Next year we're going to have Super Cruise on one of our Cadillacs. On highways you'll be able to take your hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals – with a very creative way to make sure the driver is alert and involved in the driving process." As for those "confidential" efforts, feel free to speculate. GM has recently confirmed that it'd be running autonomous Volts at its Warren, MI tech center, which certainly indicates that the company is playing with much more than Super Cruise. GM will need to continue to embrace autonomous driving, owing to both traditional competitors like Toyota, as well as non-traditional opposition, like Google and Apple. Speaking of its competition from Silicon Valley, Barra was asked about two of the region's biggest names – Apple's Tim Cook and Tesla boss Elon Musk. "I have tremendous respect for Tim Cook, and I don't really think he needs advice from me," Barra told USA Today with a laugh. And when asked about Apple's future as a "viable competitor," she said, "I have no insights other than what I read in the papers. But it would be foolish for me not to assume that they're going to." As for Mr. Musk's openness about future products and how it contrasts with GM's relatively closed attitude, Barra also gave a chuckle. "I'm sure you would like me to say yes. I think we're fundamentally different. Look at our volume and look at the segments where we compete. His product line – his two products – his scale, it's completely different." The rest of Barra's interview is certainly worth a read, and includes talk about the Volkswagen diesel scandal, GM's changed relationship with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and Uber. Head over to The Detroit Free Press website for the full story from USA Today.

2016: The year of the autonomous-car promise

About half of the news we covered this year related in some way to The Great Autonomous Future, or at least it seemed that way. If you listen to automakers, by 2020 everyone will be driving (riding?) around in self-driving cars. But what will they look like, how will we make the transition from driven to driverless, and how will laws and infrastructure adapt? We got very few answers to those questions, and instead were handed big promises, vague timelines, and a dose of misdirection by automakers. There has been a lot of talk, but we still don't know that much about these proposed vehicles, which are at least three years off. That's half a development cycle in this industry. We generally only start to get an idea of what a company will build about two years before it goes on sale. So instead of concrete information about autonomous cars, 2016 has brought us a lot of promises, many in the form of concept cars. They have popped up from just about every automaker accompanied by the CEO's pledge to deliver a Level 4 autonomous, all-electric model (usually a crossover) in a few years. It's very easy to say that a static design study sitting on a stage will be able to drive itself while projecting a movie on the windshield, but it's another thing entirely to make good on that promise. With a few exceptions, 2016 has been stuck in the promising stage. It's a strange thing, really; automakers are famous for responding with "we don't discuss future product" whenever we ask about models or variants known to be in the pipeline, yet when it comes to self-driving electric wondermobiles, companies have been falling all over themselves to let us know that theirs is coming soon, it'll be oh so great, and, hey, that makes them a mobility company now, not just an automaker. A lot of this is posturing and marketing, showing the public, shareholders, and the rest of the industry that "we're making one, too, we swear!" It has set off a domino effect – once a few companies make the guarantee, the rest feel forced to throw out a grandiose yet vague plan for an unknown future. And indeed there are usually scant details to go along with such announcements – an imprecise mileage estimate here, or a far-off, percentage-based goal there. Instead of useful discussion of future product, we get demonstrations of test mules, announcements of big R&D budgets and new test centers they'll fund, those futuristic concept cars, and, yeah, more promises.