Nov 29th, 2017 News of the Day: BMW unveils new i8 Roadster and Coupe with more electric range

author: Lydia   

BMW unveils new i8 Roadster and Coupe with more electric range

At the Los Angeles Auto Show today, the BMW is unveiling an updated version of the vehicle with a slightly bigger battery pack for more range and a new roadster version to go with the coupe.

The biggest upgrade to the powertrain is a new 11.6 kWh battery pack up from the 7 kWh battery pack of the original BMW i8 and a slightly more powerful motor (12 more hp).

The new BMW i8 Roadster accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 4.6 seconds and has a top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph).

Tesla owner builds a bitcoin mining rig in a Model S to use free Supercharger power

The bitcoin world is even encroaching in the Tesla world as Model S owner built a cryptocurrency mining rig in his electric car.

For those not familiar with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, they require crowdsourced computing power to process transactions and maintain the blockchain, which acts as a ledger of the entire currency.

People who contribute to that computing power are called "miners" and they are compensated with the same cryptocurrency.

Cruise's self-driving launch plan doesn't include small-scale pilots like Waymo's

Cruise spent some time this week detailing its plans for self-driving deployment, and one of the key features of its approach is how it differs from that of some of its competitors.

"We're not going to do small-scale pilots," explained Cruise CEO and cofounder Kyle Vogt during a press briefing prior to a Cruise self-driving vehicle ride along. "We're [also] not going to launch a ride hailing pilot where you've got drivers still in the car."

Meanwhile, Cruise has mapped around five square miles of New York so far and plans to deploy its first self-driving test cars in that part of the city early next year. It hopes to have its expanded fleet doing around 1 million miles per month in test driving by early next year, too, across all of its test markets.

BMW's Mini brand could go electric only, says executive

The Mini Electric is expected to be BMW's first new electric vehicle in a series of new production EVs coming to market in the next few years.

Now a board member of the company suggests that it could result in the brand going electric only – not unlike Daimler did with its smart car brand in North America. Though in the case of the smart cars, the move may have happened too early as their current EV offerings weren't on par with the gas-powered smart cars, which led them to lose two-thirds of US dealership following the move to electric only earlier this year.

Management board member Peter Schwarzenbauer told Reuters today that they are in discussions with other automakers "around the world" to expand Mini's electric lineup, which could lead to the entire lineup being electric only.

Lydia

Lydia is the project manager of audience development and social media at Futurecar. Lydia started her career in Tokyo at a Fortune Global 500 company before moving to Silicon Valley. Lydia put her bilingual skills to the test by covering the automobile industry and entrepreneurship. Her other journalism experience includes a sports reporting internship at Titan Media and numerous freelance writing gigs. Her professional skills include content optimization, business innovation, and working with industry trends in technology sectors. Lydia holds an M.A in Public Policy from Hitotsubashi University and B.A. in Arts Journalism from Fudan University.