The automotive industry is quickly shifting toward an electric future with new technology, new products, new policies, and new questions surfacing every day.
Here are the biggest EV-related stories, debuts, and reviews from the past month.
Sound of Safety: Canada’s introduces EV and hybrid noise mandates
2021 Tesla Model 3 Photo by Graeme Fletcher
People have been making some noise in the comments section of our piece outlining Canada’s new mandate to legislate noisemakers on hybrids and EVs. Turns out artificial noise is a touchy subject.
Nearly all hybrids and EVs sold today currently already include sound devices, however, the new mandate — effective immediately — makes it law for all cars, SUVs, trucks, buses, and low-speed vehicles weighing 4,536 kg or less to have a kind of sound comparable to the volume of a gas car engine. The reason is that it helps to notify pedestrians and cyclists that a car in nearby. What that specific noise sounds like is being left to the automakers.
Everything you need to know about Ram’s fully electric 1500 coming 2024
Ram pulled the sheets off of its first electric truck at CES this month, but didn’t actually reveal too much about the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept. Its Grand Saloon style doors, removable infotainment screen, and expanded box look like fun features, but the only sentence in the release about the truck’s actual electrification setup is as follows: “The Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept can add up to 100 miles of range in approximately 10 minutes with 800-volt DC fast-charging at up to 350 kW.” That’s about twice as fast as the quickest-charging Ford F-150 Lightning.
Other fun facts about the Ram 1500 include its capability of rear-wheel steering with 15 degree articulation, five degrees more than Ford’s best, and that it features a voice-activated Shadow Mode that uses cameras and sensors along with autonomous driving capabilities to follow someone walking ahead of the vehicle.
Opinion: Canada’s new ZEV mandate may harm automakers
Production Associates inspect cars moving along assembly line at Honda manufacturing plant in Alliston, Ontario March 30, 2015. Photo by Fred Thornhill /Reuters
The so-called Proposed Light-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Regulations are designed to increase the number of EVs in Canada, but will they also deal damage to automakers? David “Motor Mouth” Booth makes his argument as to why the move to “outlaw the sales of passenger cars powered by fossil-fuelled internal-combustion engines as of 2035” may feel like a bullet in the foot for some automakers who have invested heavily in hybrid technology that’s not so acceptable under the new mandate.
Under the new debit and credit system, explains Booth, “if automakers have trouble producing the requisite numbers of EVs — or consumers simply refuse to buy them — they will have to artificially limit the number of ICEs they sell.” Read the full column here.
A first look at the improved 2023 Toyota Prius AWD
2023 Toyota Prius AWD Photo by Graeme Fletcher
One surefire way to ensure satisfaction is to set the bar low, and in this way, the 2023 Toyota Prius AWD was well-placed for success. The first three generations are not known for their spirited performance or good looks, but the fourth attempt looks like it may at last earn marks in those columns. Additionally, the 2.0L unit replaces the outgoing 1.8L, and there’s more electric power for boosting the total output from 121 to 196 horsepower. This cuts the sprint to 100 km/h from 10 to 7.2 seconds without ceding fuel economy.
Canada will receive the Prius AWD exclusively, which operates in AWD mode at all speeds, unlike the previous model that cut AWD over 70 km/h.
Toyota also made some significant and welcome changes to the cabin and exterior styling. Learn more and scroll the gallery here.
8 awesome EVs coming this year
2024 VinFast VF 7
If your New Year’s resolution is to learn more about the electric vehicle scene, good news: there are lots of stellar products coming down the pipeline, so the education should be fun. The year’s syllabus includes Honda’s first full-electric vehicle, the 2024 Prologue SUV; Polestar’s third EV and first SUV, the Polestar 3; the 2023 Volvo EX90, a three-row, 500-plus-hp SUV from the other Swedish brand; and four models from Vietnamese newcomer, Vinfast.
But there’s one vehicle that, should it finally enter production, could dominate the EV conversation. Will 2023 be the year Tesla finally gets going on the Cybertruck, or will we be including the smashable, non-gasable pickup from the most polarizing billionaire on our driving wishlist for 2024?
Project Arrow EV launches at CES 2023
Project Arrow unveiled at CES 2023 Photo by Project Arrow
Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association is celebrating a win after hitting its “moonshot” and successfully delivering a complete Project Arrow EV to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The operational one-off Level 3 autonomous electric vehicle features 25 all-new, made-in-Canada technologies, and operates with a 82.5 kWh lithium-ion pack driving a dual-motor, all-wheel drive system.
Project Arrow was devised as a way to showcase the county’s automotive production capabilities in the age of electrification.
“It is, in my opinion, the biggest industrial collaboration project in Canadian automotive history,” said association president Flavio Volpe. “We had more than 50 suppliers, who in some product categories compete, and unrelated companies working on the same project at the same time for the same date under the same premise.”
Keyword: EV News Roundup: New noise rules for EVs, the electric Ram 1500 Revolution, and more