2008 Bmw 5 Series on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Obama Administration wants 200-mile EV that charges in under 10 minutes

When it comes to electric vehicles, you can find issues preventing mass adoption pretty much anywhere. Which is why you can then also look for solutions pretty much anywhere. That's the method the Obama Administration announced yesterday and it involves everything from shorter charging times to more public chargers, from bigger government fleets of electrified vehicles to an "Electric Vehicle Hackathon." The new plan is looking into blistering charging speeds of up to 350 kW. Perhaps most exciting, there was a commitment made to try and increase the speed of fast charging. Today, Tesla's Supercharger network has the fastest public charging available ( up to 145 kW), but the new plan is looking into blistering speeds of up to 350 kW. That's fast enough to recharge a 200-mile EV in under 10 minutes. Another cool future was promised by the Battery500 Consortium goal, which wants to create better batteries that cost under $100 per kWh. There was no actual technology revealed at this time, but announcements like this are about new ways to approach the future, not the nitty-gritty technical details. That's why the new announcement touts the fact that 12 utilities and charging companies have committed to increase their deployment of EVs and charging infrastructure, that there are 35 new partners (businesses, non-profits, universities, and utilities) for the DOE's Workplace Charging Challenge, and that there will be an EV "Hackathon" this fall to, "discover insights and develop new solutions for electric vehicle charging." The White House's announcement comes on the heels of the first-ever Sustainable Transportation Summit (STS). The STS was sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and was held earlier this month in Washington, DC. After all this activity, almost 50 companies and organizations have signed on to the new "Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure" document, including the usual suspects: Tesla, BMW, Nissan, Ford, General Motors, Chargepoint, the California Air Resources Board, and the State of California (notably, the usual suspects are also missing). You can read the entire announcement from the White House here, but we've put the Guiding Principles below. The Obama Administration has made strong pushes for electric vehicles before, including proposals to increase the tax credit for EV buyers to $10,000, among other things.

2015 BMW 740Ld xDrive

When it first came stateside in 1978, choosing a BMW 7 Series was a simple process. With one engine and one wheelbase, you could just pick what color you want and be on your merry way. Today there are ten different models, forcing drivers to choose among four engines (plus a hybrid), rear- or all-wheel-drive, and two different wheelbase lengths. As if this isn't tricky enough, the options list has more custom choices than the Taco Bell app. Do you want standard paint and upholstery, or something from the pricey BMW Individual collection? What about the headlights: Do you want LEDs, or are the standard xenons just fine? Need a head-up display? Night vision? Adaptive dampers? The list goes on and on. After a week with a new version of BMW's flagship sedan, we've sorted out which model you actually want, although it's still up to you whether or not to order a ceramic-glazed iDrive knob. Our favorite 7 Series is now the 740Ld Xdrive, a conclusion we came to after a week at the helm of the smooth, torquey land yacht. Driving Notes When the diesel 7 first arrived at the 2014 Chicago Auto Show, its engine was already familiar to American consumers. It's the same 3.0-liter, turbodiesel inline-six found in everything from the E90 3 Series to the past two generations of X5, as well as the current 5 Series. A robust 413 pound-feet of torque lathered across the rev range, with peak twist available between 1,500 and 3,000 rpm, and the corresponding horsepower tops out at 255. 0Í–60 happens in a sedate 6.1 seconds, and for those with autobahn dreams the top speed is a modest 130 mph. While those figures aren't terribly impressive, as is often the case with diesels, the real-world application of the engine's power is far more dramatic. Even small throttle inputs produce a smooth surge of acceleration, making the 740Ld feel a lot quicker than the performance metrics might indicate. Even with the current cheap price of gas, the superior fuel efficiency of a diesel engine is worth noting, especially as this model only costs $1500 more than a 740Li xDrive. The diesel tips the scales at nearly 4,700 pounds, yet it boasts a 31-mile-per-gallon highway rating. It's rated at 23 mpg in the city, while our real-world testing saw returns in the mid-to-high 20s. Simple anecdotes about acceleration and fuel economy figures only convey a small part of the 740Ld's goodness.

BMW i introduces home energy storage using i3 batteries

What happens when you take the battery out of a BMW i3 and put it into a grid-connected box? According to BMW, you get a home energy system that, "integrates seamlessly with charging stations and solar panels." It should also give i3 owners a bit more value out of their used cars, if BMW ever explains how they can sell their cars or the batteries back to the company for use in a system like this. Announced at the EVS29 event in Montreal today, BMW's stationary energy storage system solution uses i3 batteries to store excess electricity when available for use in power outages or when demand is high. While the system uses new 22- or 33-kWh i3 packs now, it "can be expanded to incorporate 2nd Life Batteries as they become available in the market." BMW says that the average US household used 15-30 kWh of electricity a day in 2014, so the BMW's packs would hold enough juice for a day or two, depending on the situation. Currently, BMW is testing out repurposing used Mini E batteries in a solar electric grid system at the BMW Group Technology Office in Mountain View, California. Related Video: Battery storage system electrified by BMW i announced at EVS29 in Montreal. The BMW i3 battery system – from the power source of the Ultimate Driving Machine – is integrated into an intelligent storage solution for residential and commercial applications. Montreal, Quebec June 21, 2016. ... BMW i, a leader in innovative electromobility since 2011, announced a stationary energy storage system solution integrating its BMW i3 vehicle battery at the Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition 29, making it the first automotive manufacturer to utilize a complete automotive high-voltage battery for energy storage. The battery storage system electrified by BMW i, enables customers to more fully realize their commitment to sustainability – and to take the next step towards energy independence. With this system, which integrates seamlessly with charging stations and solar panels, customers can offset peak energy costs and also enjoy the added security of an available backup energy supply during power outages. The system utilizes BMW i3 high-voltage batteries and can be expanded to incorporate 2nd Life Batteries as they become available in the market. This strategy will extend the useful life of the battery for the owner, even beyond in-vehicle use.