I drive the car electric - [Back Story]
2020; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Volume: 57; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1109/mspec.2020.9055895
ISSN1939-9340
Tópico(s)Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Technologies
Resumoawrence Ulrich not only reviews the world's hottest new cars, he does so in some of the world's most glamorous places.This year he drove an Audi RS Q8 up the slopes of Mt.Teide, in Spain's Canary Islands; took the new mid-engine Corvette Stingray C8 from Phoenix to Tortilla Flat, Ariz.; and tested a Mini Cooper SE on the Formula-E street circuit in Brooklyn, not far from where Ulrich lives.Every year the locales are fit for a James Bond movie, but the hot cars keep changing in fundamental ways.The technological evolution is faster than anyone has seen in a lifetime, and not all of it is beyond the pocketbook of the average driver, as we show in our annual Top 10 Tech Cars roundup [p.30].Take the Stingray, the car you see above, with Ulrich in the driver's seat.Putting the engine in the middle was a wrenching departure for General Motors classicists, and yet the result, which blends very high performance and affordability, is just the baseline for still more powerful Corvettes to come."It has clearly been designed with future electrification in mind," Ulrich says, "with room for electric motors up front and space for batteries in the aluminum space frame."It's part of the multibilliondollar bet that GM has placed on electric-drive vehicles, he adds.It's a bet that Ford, Volkswagen, and a host of other carmakers have also made.What's it like switching between the latest six-figure, high-tech marvel at work and the 1993 twin-turbo Mazda RX-7 in which Ulrich tools around his Brooklyn neighborhood (when that old car is running-which it isn't right now)?He says it comes with the car-testing territory.Besides, today's marvel is often just a preview of what we'll all be driving a few years down the line.■
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