There are a lot of major car launches to go through this week, but away from the show lights a small company in Sweden is quietly starting a battery revolution.
Festival of EVs
For more than three decades, the Goodwood Festival of Speed has been a celebration of tradition and tweed. No, really—you have to dress in period attire to get through the gates, to match the classic motoring atmosphere.
This year, things were a little different at the festival in West Sussex, England. For the first time ever, an electric vehicle graced the sculpture in front of Goodwood House, which changes for the occasion each year. And it was a Chinese-owned electric MG, too.
Other tradition-dodging firsts included Alfa Romeo’s first-ever EV, the first-ever John Cooper Works electric Mini, and the first-ever Chinese electric hypercar premiering on European soil, the Yangwang U9.
What, me distracted?
After Volkswagen introduced ChatGPT into its vehicles earlier this year, the Stellantis Group is next to integrate the AI chat tool throughout its line-up.
The global giant owns brands such as Fiat, Peugeot, Opel, Dodge, Jeep, and more, and it’s already rolling out the tech to 17 European countries by the end of this month.
It says drivers will be able to talk to their cars more naturally with flowing conversations that open up loads of possibilities towards a better overall user experience.
At the moment Stellantis models with the ChatGPT function support 12 languages.
Giant Panda
Sticking with Stellantis, the Group’s Fiat brand kicked off its 125th anniversary celebrations with the launch of the all-new Fiat Grande Panda, which will spearhead the entry-level EV side of the market for the company.
The new Panda, with its retro design harking back to the iconic Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed original from the 1980s, is billed to go on sale for under 25 000 euros, representing the goldilocks zone of budget EVs in Europe.
Even cheaper models of the Panda will be available, reportedly starting from less than 20 000 euros, but those will be plug-in hybrids or conventional petrol-engined models rather than zero-emissions.
Next-next-gen batteries
A battery revolution is underway in Sweden with a company called Sinuous, which has figured out how to develop carbon fibre that can store electricity, effectively producing paper-thin sheets of batteries.
This innovation has the potential to decrease the weight of future vehicles by up to 50%, while significantly increasing rigidity, since the technology would allow these carbon fibre batteries to be incorporated into the design of a car as integral parts of the structure.
So far Sinuous has managed to get the tech to work at a level similar to your standard issue AAA batteries, but the company’s aspirations stretch as far as aeroplanes.
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