Photo: image edited by autoevolution
It's not always easy to conduct a yearly assessment on a certain topic, and when it comes to automotive trends, it's probably even harder. Not to say that I consider myself a fine connoisseur of global tendencies in this area, but my job does include reading just about every single piece of automotive news I can get by grubby hands on.
In other words, I'm probably allowed to offer my opinion about the evolution of electric and/or self-driving cars over the course of 2016.
Oh, but wait! There are plenty of production electric cars on the road right now, but is there such a thing as a production autonomous car? Some, if not most, will probably say no. I'm happy to oblige in having a similar opinion, up to a point.
Adding more to that line of thought, I would say that there haven't been any valid electric vehicle alternatives to ICE cars in 2016 either. Before some of you start to sharpen their pitchforks, let me explain.
Sure, we have access to relatively inexpensive electric cars like the Nissan Leaf or the Renault Zoe, but even after receiving battery updates they're still way behind some gas-guzzling ICE counterparts from this perspective.
The Tesla Model S is ludicrously fast and rather luxurious, not to mention that it offers a lot more range than a Leaf or any other current electric car, but it has two problems.
Firstly, it's not a true alternative to a car running on an internal combustion engine because it's priced against models likes the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which is anything but a people's car.
Secondly, the version with the biggest battery has an EPA-rated range of 315 miles, while in Europe it's rated at about 380 miles NEDC (613 km).
For reference, a Mercedes-AMG S63 4Matic Long, which is not among the most fuel-efficient luxury sedans with oomph out there, has an NEDC range of 448 miles (721 km). Not to mention that until the equivalent of a Tesla Supercharger in every neighborhood gets built, the S63 can be refueled in minutes just about everywhere.
In other words, those who say that range anxiety or affordability regarding electric cars are problems of the past are probably living in an alternate reality, where the word "bad" is archaic.
Yes, there are ongoing plans about making EVs cheaper and with no range anxiety, but in my opinion, none of those cars exists yet. And the infrastructure to cater for them is many years away from actually existing on a large scale.
Crippled by the Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen has vowed to offer the world nothing less than the electric equivalent of the original Beetle in a few years, but the slow rise in the number of public charging points will still confine it to a niche, just like any other upcoming EV.
Getting back to the second part of this diatribe, which involves the emerging trend of self-driving cars, I'm afraid that 2016 has put its fair share of dents in their armor as well.
Tesla naming its driver assistance systems Autopilot and Mercedes-Benz talking about fully autonomous cars in ads that show the E-Class W213 aren't making things better for the public's perception about the technology either.
That said, the trend of electric and/or autonomous cars is the bandwagon that is currently jumped on by just about every self-respecting carmaker out there. Sadly, despite the initial hubbub, neither of these two movements seem to have progressed enough during the past year.
That is to say, if you'd ask me which io the two has won the 2016 virtual boxing match, I say that neither. Despite all the noise, I think that we're still a long way from home in both areas, and for reasons that don't look like they will be soon resolved, despite the exponential progress of technology.
In a nutshell, for electric vehicles, it's the almost non-existent charging infrastructure, while self-driving cars still have that dreaded legislation problem, which needs to be well-thought and, most of all, consistent on a global scale. Will 2017 give us more contenders in the game of “which emerging technology is the biggest disruptor in the automotive business?” Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it. My guess is that we'll still be stuck with these two, dysfunctional ones. We just have to make them work better instead of just enforcing them on the public.
Oh, but wait! There are plenty of production electric cars on the road right now, but is there such a thing as a production autonomous car? Some, if not most, will probably say no. I'm happy to oblige in having a similar opinion, up to a point.
Adding more to that line of thought, I would say that there haven't been any valid electric vehicle alternatives to ICE cars in 2016 either. Before some of you start to sharpen their pitchforks, let me explain.
Sure, we have access to relatively inexpensive electric cars like the Nissan Leaf or the Renault Zoe, but even after receiving battery updates they're still way behind some gas-guzzling ICE counterparts from this perspective.
The Tesla Model S is ludicrously fast and rather luxurious, not to mention that it offers a lot more range than a Leaf or any other current electric car, but it has two problems.
Firstly, it's not a true alternative to a car running on an internal combustion engine because it's priced against models likes the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which is anything but a people's car.
Secondly, the version with the biggest battery has an EPA-rated range of 315 miles, while in Europe it's rated at about 380 miles NEDC (613 km).
For reference, a Mercedes-AMG S63 4Matic Long, which is not among the most fuel-efficient luxury sedans with oomph out there, has an NEDC range of 448 miles (721 km). Not to mention that until the equivalent of a Tesla Supercharger in every neighborhood gets built, the S63 can be refueled in minutes just about everywhere.
In other words, those who say that range anxiety or affordability regarding electric cars are problems of the past are probably living in an alternate reality, where the word "bad" is archaic.
Yes, there are ongoing plans about making EVs cheaper and with no range anxiety, but in my opinion, none of those cars exists yet. And the infrastructure to cater for them is many years away from actually existing on a large scale.
Crippled by the Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen has vowed to offer the world nothing less than the electric equivalent of the original Beetle in a few years, but the slow rise in the number of public charging points will still confine it to a niche, just like any other upcoming EV.
Getting back to the second part of this diatribe, which involves the emerging trend of self-driving cars, I'm afraid that 2016 has put its fair share of dents in their armor as well.
Tesla naming its driver assistance systems Autopilot and Mercedes-Benz talking about fully autonomous cars in ads that show the E-Class W213 aren't making things better for the public's perception about the technology either.
That said, the trend of electric and/or autonomous cars is the bandwagon that is currently jumped on by just about every self-respecting carmaker out there. Sadly, despite the initial hubbub, neither of these two movements seem to have progressed enough during the past year.
That is to say, if you'd ask me which io the two has won the 2016 virtual boxing match, I say that neither. Despite all the noise, I think that we're still a long way from home in both areas, and for reasons that don't look like they will be soon resolved, despite the exponential progress of technology.
In a nutshell, for electric vehicles, it's the almost non-existent charging infrastructure, while self-driving cars still have that dreaded legislation problem, which needs to be well-thought and, most of all, consistent on a global scale. Will 2017 give us more contenders in the game of “which emerging technology is the biggest disruptor in the automotive business?” Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it. My guess is that we'll still be stuck with these two, dysfunctional ones. We just have to make them work better instead of just enforcing them on the public.
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