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Challenging Tesla, Ferrari Will Build An Electric Sportscar -- and an SUV (theverge.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader Kant shared an article from The Verge:
Ferrari will build a battery-electric supercar in a bid to challenge Tesla for a piece of the high-end, eco-conscious luxury market. CEO Sergio Marchionne, who also heads Fiat Chrysler, said that the Italian racecar company would also make a Ferrari SUV -- after previously dismissing the idea as ridiculous. Speaking at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Marchionne didn't offer any specifics on the electric Ferrari, but indicated the company would release it before the Tesla Roadster hits the road in 2020.
"If there is an electric supercar to be built, then Ferrari will be the first," Marchionne said, according to Bloomberg. "People are amazed at what Tesla did with a supercar: I'm not trying to minimize what Elon did but I think it's doable by all of us."
BMW and Porsche also have plans to introduce all-electric supercars, and Marchionne says "I don't know of a [business] that is making money selling electric vehicles unless you are selling them at the very, very high end of the spectrum."
His remarks were also "a significant departure" from comments made in 2016 about the Ferrari SUV: 'You have to shoot me first.'"
"If there is an electric supercar to be built, then Ferrari will be the first," Marchionne said, according to Bloomberg. "People are amazed at what Tesla did with a supercar: I'm not trying to minimize what Elon did but I think it's doable by all of us."
BMW and Porsche also have plans to introduce all-electric supercars, and Marchionne says "I don't know of a [business] that is making money selling electric vehicles unless you are selling them at the very, very high end of the spectrum."
His remarks were also "a significant departure" from comments made in 2016 about the Ferrari SUV: 'You have to shoot me first.'"
The modern supercars they put out are kind of stupid anyway. They poured so much effort into shaving a couple of tenths of a second off the 0-60 time with a petrol engine, only to be trounced by an electric sedan costing 1/15th as much.
Okay, I get that a petrol engine makes a nice sound and can be fun to drive, but these modern supercars don't sound particularly great, are hybrid anyway and the driving experience is carefully managed by the computers needed to wring that level of performance out of a combustion engine. There are plenty of interesting, fun fossil performance cars, but things like the La Ferrari are the iPhones of the car world, expensive jewelry that's good but not terribly interesting.
And now Tesla have a supercar that does 0-60 in 1.9 seconds, and doesn't overheat. The closest Ferrari have is 2.4 seconds, so they need to learn how to build an electric performance car and shave half a second off their current best. I'm sure they will do it eventually and probably make a car with superior handling, but it will cost at least 5x as much as the Tesla and won't arrive for 5 years.
Like most European manufacturers, they kinda missed the boat.
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I can never tell what is a supercar and what isn't. I thought it had to be a super fast, expensive sports car. Why doesn't the Tesla Roadster 2010 qualify? It's six figures in cost. 3.7 0-60 time. That puts it on par with a 2008 Mercedes SLR McLaren Roadster (3.7), 2010 Spyker C8 Aileron (4.1), 2010 Dodge Viper SRT-10 (3.6), 2010 Audi R8 (4.1), 2017 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S (3.9) or DB11 (3.8). I'm not saying it is a supercar, what I'm saying is what the hell is the definition of a supercar then? Does it even matter more than marketing?
Here's a list of times. https://www.zeroto60times.com/body-style/supercar-hypercar/
The Tesla Roaster 2020 is on there at 1.9 seconds, but 3.7 or even 3.9 seconds 0-60 fits on that list plenty. So, I don't know why it's not on the list. I'm sure the definition of a supercar is a topic people argue about plenty.
The Tesla phenomena isn't just about the cars - Tesla's range and supercharger network have played a critical role in their success. Most other manufacturers are still at step 1 in the process - building the cars - and they won't be really successful until their is a common charging infrastructure that all cars can use.
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Forget {...} your A.I.-driving gadgets, what we need to make a difference is electric cars that anyone can afford, i.e. sub-$15K electric cars.
Several European car makers tend to disagree.
Some of them tend to see driving-assistant gadget as essential tools to increase safety.
As an example VW for the past few year has offered some form of forward collision avoidance as a standard on *all* of their cars, including the cheapest ones (e.g.: VW Up! - and electric variations thereof).
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Regarding the price of electric cars themselves : the big barrier is the price of the battery it self. With most cars (Tesla being a prime example), you aren't as much buying an overpriced car, as you're actually buying an giant expensive battery, with the manufacturer adding a car chasis around that battery for a modest increase of price.
Though there *are* variation (Renault offers plans where you buy the car alone, sans the battery, for a more reasonable price, and then rent the battery for a monthly fee).
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They poured so much effort into shaving a couple of tenths of a second off the 0-60 time with a petrol engine, only to be trounced by an electric sedan costing 1/15th as much
As long as you don't expect to do a whole lap....
http://www.thedrive.com/news/5...
Sure, you can do a few ludicrous 0-60 runs before you have to recharge. The petrol engine can do them all day long.
Electric engine, really ?? Some people are trying to say electric engine when they mean electric motor. This is because they know that cars have engines (internal combustion) and therefore are familiar with the term engine in everyday usage.
A steam locomotive, also known as a steam engine, uses a piston engine, there is a crankshaft and conrod to convert the linear motion of the piston into rotational motion of the drive wheels.
Similarly, an internal combustion engine uses a piston engine, there is a crankshaft and conrod to convert linear motion of the piston into rotational motion of the drive wheels.
An alternative name for an automobile is motor car. The sport of racing supercars is called Motor Racing. Therefore, all cars have motors but only some have engines aka a piston engine (steam or fossil fuel). In other words, an electric motor is not a piston engine but a piston engine is a motor. eg. motor boat.
We need to quickly kill off this term "electric engine" because traditionally it is called an Electric Motor.
In addition, the mass of an Electric Motor is much less than the mass of an internal combustion engine. Also the Electric Motor can be placed very close to the axle of the drive wheels. Therefore, attempting to put the Electric Motor in the centre of the vehicle will be disadvantageous as the drivetrain would be over-complex.
I wish they'd put out an electric sports car, with a range of at least 400+ miles to a charge, 2-seater and make it comparable in price to a corvette (not the Z06)....more of the base model.
I'd scoop one up in a heartbeat.
I"ll never have Ferrari money....but there are plenty of us that would spring for an electric 2-seater with performance in the $60-80K range....
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