Archiv der Kategorie: e-mobility

Die Neue KFZ-Steuer für Elektroautos in Österreich ab 1. April 2025: Aktualisierte Berechnungslogik und Kostenübersicht

Die lange geltende Steuerbefreiung für Elektrofahrzeuge in Österreich endet bald. Ab dem 1. April 2025 werden auch Elektroautos der motorbezogenen Versicherungssteuer (mVSt) unterliegen, was für Besitzer dieser Fahrzeuge eine jährliche Mehrbelastung von mehreren hundert Euro bedeuten wird. Diese Änderung betrifft sowohl bereits zugelassene Elektrofahrzeuge als auch Neuzulassungen und stellt eine bedeutende finanzpolitische Wende dar. Im Folgenden wird die Berechnungslogik der neuen Steuer erläutert und für die gängigsten Elektroautomodelle in Österreich berechnet.

Die Berechnungslogik der neuen KFZ-Steuer für Elektroautos

Die motorbezogene Versicherungssteuer für Elektroautos wird auf Basis von zwei wesentlichen Fahrzeugmerkmalen berechnet: der Dauerleistung (30-Minuten-Nennleistung) und dem Eigengewicht des Fahrzeugs. Beide Werte sind im Zulassungsschein vermerkt und bilden die Grundlage für die Steuerberechnung. Anders als bei Fahrzeugen mit Verbrennungsmotor, bei denen die Steuer anhand der Motorleistung und des CO₂-Ausstoßes berechnet wird, wurde für Elektrofahrzeuge eine spezielle Berechnungsmethode entwickelt.

Die Steuerformel beinhaltet Freibeträge für beide Komponenten, die vor der eigentlichen Berechnung abgezogen werden. Bei der Dauerleistung werden 45 kW abgezogen, beim Eigengewicht sind es 900 kg. Nach Abzug dieser Freibeträge erfolgt die Berechnung anhand einer gestaffelten Formel.

Leistungskomponente (pro Jahr)

Die Berechnung der Leistungskomponente erfolgt nach dem Abzug des Freibetrags von 45 kW in drei Stufen:

  • Für die ersten 35 kW: 3 Euro pro kW (mindestens jedoch 30 Euro)

  • Für die nächsten 25 kW: 4,2 Euro pro kW

  • Für jedes weitere kW darüber: 5,4 Euro pro kW

Gewichtskomponente (pro Jahr)

Nach Abzug des Freibetrags von 900 kg wird die Gewichtskomponente ebenfalls in drei Stufen berechnet:

  • Für die ersten 500 kg: 0,18 Euro pro kg (mindestens jedoch 36 Euro)

  • Für die nächsten 700 kg: 0,36 Euro pro kg

  • Für jedes weitere kg darüber: 0,54 Euro pro kg

Die Gesamtsteuer ergibt sich aus der Summe der Leistungs- und Gewichtskomponente. Da die Steuer über die Kfz-Haftpflichtversicherung eingehoben wird, wird sie in der Regel gemeinsam mit der Versicherungsprämie bezahlt.

Die 20 gängigsten Elektroautos in Österreich und ihre Steuerbelastung

Auf Basis der verfügbaren Zulassungsstatistiken für das Jahr 2024 und ergänzender Daten zu Gewicht und Leistung der einzelnen Modelle kann die zu erwartende Steuerbelastung berechnet werden. Insgesamt wurden in Österreich im Jahr 2024 etwa 44.622 Elektroautos neu zugelassen, was einem Rückgang von 6,3 Prozent im Vergleich zu 2023 entspricht. Dabei entfielen lediglich 23,5 Prozent der Neuzulassungen auf Privatpersonen, während der Rest auf Firmenfahrzeuge entfiel.

Tesla Model Y – Spitzenreiter bei den Zulassungen

Das Tesla Model Y mit einer Dauerleistung von 153 kW und einem präzise dokumentierten Eigengewicht von 1.997 kg muss künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 780 Euro rechnen. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 469 Euro (basierend auf der 30-Minuten-Leistung) und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 311 Euro. Als meistverkauftes Elektroauto in Österreich sind von dieser Steueränderung viele Fahrzeugbesitzer betroffen.

BYD Seal – Der Newcomer auf Platz 2

Der BYD Seal hat sich als Überraschung auf dem zweiten Platz der meistverkauften Elektroautos positioniert. Mit einem Leergewicht zwischen 2.055 und 2.185 kg (je nach Ausführung) und einer geschätzten Dauerleistung von etwa 105 kW muss dieses Modell mit einer Steuerbelastung zwischen 714 und 760 Euro rechnen. Die chinesische Limousine hat 2024 einen bemerkenswerten Markteintritt in Österreich hingelegt und zeigt die zunehmende Akzeptanz von Marken aus Fernost im europäischen Markt.

Škoda Enyaq – Etablierter Favorit auf Platz 3

Der Škoda Enyaq 85x mit einer Dauerleistung von 77 kW und einem beachtlichen Eigengewicht von 2.384 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 574 Euro belastet. Davon entfallen rund 96 Euro auf die Leistungskomponente und etwa 478 Euro auf die Gewichtskomponente. Der hohe Gewichtsanteil an der Gesamtsteuer wird bei diesem Modell besonders deutlich. Der Enyaq, für den Škoda 2024 ein Facelift eingeführt hat, fiel vom zweiten auf den dritten Platz zurück, blieb aber mit 2.310 Neuzulassungen eines der beliebtesten E-Autos in Österreich.

BMW iX1 – Starker Zuwachs auf Platz 4

Der elektrische BMW X1 (BMW iX1 xDRIVE30) mit einer Dauerleistung von 104 kW und einem Eigengewicht von präzise 1.940 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 493 Euro belastet. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 206 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 287 Euro. Mit 2.291 Neuzulassungen im Jahr 2024 konnte der X1 ein beachtliches Wachstum verzeichnen.

BMW i4 – Stabiler Mittelklasse-Favorit

Der BMW i4, der mit 2.086 Neuzulassungen Platz 5 der meistverkauften Elektroautos in Österreich belegte, hat ein Leergewicht von 2.125 kg und eine 30-Minuten-Leistung von 105 kW (beim i4 eDrive40). Die jährliche Steuerbelastung wird sich auf etwa 567 Euro belaufen, wovon 210 Euro auf die Leistungskomponente und 357 Euro auf die Gewichtskomponente entfallen. Trotz des relativ hohen Gewichts bleibt der i4 aufgrund seiner ausgewogenen Verhältnisse ein beliebtes Modell in der elektrischen Mittelklasse.

Tesla Model 3 – Der Klassiker auf Platz 6

Das Tesla Model 3 mit einer Dauerleistung von 153 kW und einem genauen Eigengewicht von 1.851 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 686 Euro belastet. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 469 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 217 Euro. Mit 2.077 Neuzulassungen und einem Plus von 6,7 Prozent konnte das Model 3, das im Herbst 2023 ein Facelift erhielt, seine Position auf dem österreichischen Markt festigen. Im Vergleich zum schwereren Model Y ist die Gewichtskomponente hier deutlich niedriger.

Audi Q4 e-tron – Premiummodell mit zunehmender Beliebtheit

Der Audi Q4 e-tron landete mit 1.599 Neuzulassungen auf Platz 7 der beliebtesten Elektroautos in Österreich. Mit einem Leergewicht von 2.145 kg und einer geschätzten Dauerleistung von etwa 90 kW wird die jährliche Steuerbelastung bei etwa 493 Euro liegen. Davon entfallen etwa 135 Euro auf die Leistungskomponente und 358 Euro auf die Gewichtskomponente. Als Premium-SUV positioniert, zeigt der Q4 e-tron, dass auch in höheren Preissegmenten die Nachfrage nach Elektrofahrzeugen wächst.

VW ID.4 – Der elektrische Tiguan-Nachfolger

Der VW ID.4 schaffte es mit 1.527 Einheiten auf Platz 8. Mit einem Leergewicht von mindestens 1.966 kg und einer geschätzten Dauerleistung von 85 kW wird die jährliche Steuerbelastung etwa 425 Euro betragen. Davon entfallen etwa 120 Euro auf die Leistungskomponente und 305 Euro auf die Gewichtskomponente. Als einer der ersten elektrischen Volumenhersteller im SUV-Segment hat der ID.4 eine wichtige Rolle in der Elektrifizierungsstrategie von Volkswagen.

Cupra Born – Sportlicher Ableger mit Designanspruch

Der Cupra Born, der im Vorjahr noch besser platziert war, rutschte mit 1.497 Neuzulassungen auf Platz 9 ab. Mit einem Leergewicht zwischen 1.811 und 1.946 kg (je nach Ausführung) und einer geschätzten Dauerleistung von 80 kW wird die jährliche Steuerbelastung zwischen 358 und 391 Euro liegen. Die sportliche Ausrichtung und das markante Design des Born sprechen besonders jüngere Käuferschichten an.

Volvo EX30 – Der Überraschungserfolg aus Schweden

Der Volvo EX30 schaffte es als Neueinsteiger mit 1.112 Zulassungen auf Platz 10. Mit einem Leergewicht von 1.850 kg (Single Motor) bzw. 1.960 kg (Twin Motor) und Dauerleistungen von 80 kW bzw. 105 kW wird die jährliche Steuerbelastung zwischen 374 und 517 Euro liegen. Als kompaktes Elektro-SUV mit Premium-Anspruch hat der EX30 eine interessante Nische besetzt und konnte trotz seines erst kürzlichen Markteintritts bereits viele Käufer überzeugen.

Weitere beliebte Elektroautomodelle und ihre Steuerbelastung

Für einige weitere beliebte Modelle, die zwar nicht unter den Top 10 rangieren, aber dennoch in Österreich verbreitet sind, können ebenfalls präzise Steuerbelastungen berechnet werden:

Der VW ID.3 mit einer Dauerleistung von 70 kW und einem dokumentierten Eigengewicht von exakt 1.934 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 362 Euro belastet. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 75 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 287 Euro. Als kompakter Elektrowagen bleibt der ID.3 eine wichtige Säule im Elektrofahrzeugangebot von Volkswagen.

Der VW ID.5 Pro mit einer Dauerleistung von 89 kW und einem präzisen Eigengewicht von 2.117 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 463 Euro belastet. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 132 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 331 Euro. Als Coupé-Version des ID.4 bietet der ID.5 eine sportlichere Alternative mit ähnlicher technischer Basis.

Der VW ID.7 Pro mit einer Dauerleistung von 89 kW und einem genauen Eigengewicht von 2.172 kg wird künftig mit einer jährliche Steuerbelastung von etwa 482 Euro belastet. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 132 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 350 Euro. Als Flaggschiff der elektrischen ID-Familie von Volkswagen positioniert sich der ID.7 im oberen Mittelklassesegment.

Besondere Fälle: Extreme im Preisspektrum

Interessant ist auch ein Blick auf Fahrzeuge, die besonders hohe oder niedrige Steuerbeträge aufweisen werden:

Der Audi Q8 e-tron mit einer Dauerleistung von 158 kW und einem beachtlichen Eigengewicht von exakt 2.724 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 1.234 Euro belastet – eine der höchsten Steuerbelastungen im Elektroautosegment. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 496 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 738 Euro. Als Luxus-SUV im Premium-Segment ist der Q8 e-tron jedoch für eine wohlhabende Kundschaft konzipiert, für die diese zusätzliche Steuerbelastung vermutlich keine entscheidende Rolle spielen wird.

Am anderen Ende des Spektrums steht der Hyundai Inster mit einer Dauerleistung von 28 kW und einem Eigengewicht von präzise 1.503 kg, der mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von lediglich 144 Euro rechnen muss. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus dem Mindeststeuerbetrag für die Leistungskomponente von 30 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 114 Euro. Als eines der leichtesten und leistungsschwächsten Elektroautos auf dem Markt profitiert der Inster besonders von den Freibeträgen bei der Steuerberechnung.

Der Renault Zoe mit einer Dauerleistung von 51 kW und einem Eigengewicht von 1.577 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 153 Euro belastet. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 30 Euro (Minimumbetrag) und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 123 Euro. Als eines der ersten massentauglichen Elektroautos bleibt der Zoe auch mit der neuen Steuer eine verhältnismäßig günstige Option.

Der kompakte BMW i3 mit einer Dauerleistung von 80 kW und einem erstaunlich geringen Eigengewicht von nur 1.345 kg wird künftig mit einer jährlichen Steuerbelastung von etwa 185 Euro belastet. Diese setzt sich zusammen aus einer Leistungskomponente von etwa 105 Euro und einer Gewichtskomponente von rund 80 Euro. Obwohl die Produktion des i3 bereits 2022 eingestellt wurde, sind noch viele Exemplare auf Österreichs Straßen unterwegs. Dank seiner innovativen Karbonkarosserie bleibt der i3 eines der leichtesten Elektroautos und profitiert entsprechend von der gewichtsabhängigen Steuerkomponente.

Auswirkungen und Kritik der neuen Steuer

Die Einführung der motorbezogenen Versicherungssteuer für Elektroautos wird in der Öffentlichkeit kontrovers diskutiert. Durch diese Maßnahme erhofft sich die Regierungskoalition nach Angaben des Verkehrsclubs ÖAMTC Mehreinnahmen von rund 65 Millionen Euro jährlich. Für das Jahr 2026 rechnet die Regierung sogar mit Einnahmen von 130 Millionen Euro, da die Zahl der E-Auto-Zulassungen kontinuierlich steigt.

Die Entscheidung stößt insbesondere bei Umweltverbänden und der Automobilwirtschaft auf Kritik, da sie die Attraktivität der Elektromobilität in einer ohnehin schon herausfordernden Marktphase weiter verringern könnte. Brancheninsider befürchten, dass sich vor allem Privatkäufer wieder verstärkt Verbrennungsfahrzeugen zuwenden könnten.

Allerdings bleibt der steuerliche Vorteil von elektrischen Firmenwagen unangetastet, was angesichts der Tatsache, dass rund 80 Prozent der Elektroautos in Österreich Firmenfahrzeuge sind, von Bedeutung ist. Zudem plant die Regierung Verbesserungen im Bereich der Ladeinfrastruktur, insbesondere an Autobahn-Raststätten, wo zusätzliche Schnellladestationen vorgesehen sind.

Fazit: Eine neue Ära für Elektromobilität in Österreich

Mit dem Ende der Steuerbefreiung für Elektroautos ab April 2025 beginnt in Österreich eine neue Phase der Elektromobilität. Die jährliche Mehrbelastung von durchschnittlich 400 Euro pro Jahr, in manchen Fällen sogar bis zu 500 Euro, stellt für viele E-Auto-Besitzer eine spürbare finanzielle Veränderung dar. Besonders schwere und leistungsstarke Elektro-SUVs werden dabei deutlich stärker belastet als leichte Kompaktmodelle mit geringerer Leistung.

Diese steuerliche Änderung fällt in eine Zeit, in der der Elektroautomarkt in Österreich ohnehin leicht rückläufig ist. Mit einem Rückgang der Neuzulassungen um 6,3 Prozent im Jahr 2024 gegenüber dem Vorjahr kämpft die Branche bereits mit Herausforderungen. Ob die neue Steuer diesen Trend verstärken wird oder ob andere Faktoren wie verbesserte Ladeinfrastruktur und neue, erschwinglichere Modelle diesen Effekt ausgleichen können, bleibt abzuwarten.

Für Kaufinteressenten lohnt es sich jedenfalls, bei der Modellauswahl auch die künftige Steuerbelastung zu berücksichtigen und vor dem Kauf eines Elektroautos die zu erwartenden Kosten genau zu berechnen. Die Besteuerung von Elektroautos markiert jedenfalls einen bedeutsamen Schritt in Richtung fiskalischer Gleichbehandlung verschiedener Antriebsarten, auch wenn die ökologischen Vorteile der Elektromobilität weiterhin durch andere Maßnahmen gefördert werden sollen.

Tabelle: Steuerbelastung der gängigsten Elektroautos in Österreich

Modell Dauerleistung (kW) Eigengewicht (kg) Leistungskomponente (€) Gewichtskomponente (€) Gesamtsteuer (€)
Tesla Model Y 153 1.997 469 311 780
BYD Seal 105 2.120 210 504 714
Škoda Enyaq 85x 77 2.384 96 478 574
BMW iX1 xDRIVE30 104 1.940 206 287 493
BMW i4 eDrive40 105 2.125 210 357 567
Tesla Model 3 153 1.851 469 217 686
Audi Q4 e-tron 90 2.145 135 358 493
VW ID.4 85 1.966 120 305 425
Cupra Born 80 1.878 105 253 358
Volvo EX30 (Single Motor) 80 1.850 105 240 345

Extreme Fälle: Höchste und niedrigste Steuerbelastungen

Höchste Steuerbelastungen

  1. Audi Q8 e-tron: 158 kW, 2.724 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 1.234 Euro

  2. Mercedes EQS 450+: 140 kW, 2.480 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 1.046 Euro

  3. BMW iX xDrive50: 140 kW, 2.555 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 1.083 Euro

  4. Tesla Model S: 155 kW, 2.240 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 1.011 Euro

  5. Porsche Taycan Turbo S: 160 kW, 2.380 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 1.144 Euro

Niedrigste Steuerbelastungen

  1. Hyundai Inster: 28 kW, 1.503 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 144 Euro

  2. Renault Zoe: 51 kW, 1.577 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 153 Euro

  3. BMW i3 120 Ah: 75 kW, 1.345 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 185 Euro

  4. Smart EQ Fortwo: 41 kW, 1.040 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 123 Euro

  5. Fiat 500e: 42 kW, 1.230 kg, Gesamtsteuer: 135 Euro

EVs Are Losing Up to 50 Percent of Their Value in One Year

https://www.wired.com/story/evs-are-losing-up-to-50-percent-of-their-value-in-one-year/

Some electric car brands are hemorrhaging value, with the worst losing as much as $600 a day. Learn which models to watch, why this is happening, and how you can game the market to your advantage.

Electric vehicle depreciation is something of a hot topic right now, and for good reason. On one hand, there are some fantastic deals to be had on the secondhand market, but on the other of course, there’s the thorny issue of some EVs losing half of their value in a single year.

Cars losing you a chunk of cash the instant they’re driven off the dealer lot is nothing new, especially at the pricier end of the market. And if you intend to keep your shiny new EV for a long time, then its worth after just a year or two matters far less. But what if you’ve experimented with your first EV then decided its range or your local charging infrastructure isn’t up to scratch, and want to sell within the first year? If that’s you, you’d better be prepared for a significant loss.

In a bid not to tar all EVs with the same brush, we’ve aimed to be balanced in our approach to discovering trade-in valuations. There’s plenty of color to be reported here, too—like the US dealer who actively warned our reporter against selling him their EV, or the story of a Mercedes EQE that lost more than $600 each day—but for now let us deliver the cold, hard numbers.

 

We are using two tools for this research. The first is an online appraisal system by Edmunds, the US automotive industry resource, and the second is Cap HPI, a vehicle valuation service for the UK auto trade. Let’s start with the UK electric trade-in landscape, then compare it with the US’s.

Main Offenders

Our first discovery was that, in the UK, various new electric cars lose 50 percent of their value in the first 12 months. Yes, you read that right—some EVs depreciate by 50 percent in a single year.

 

Now, this cannot be said of every EV, but Cap HPI data provided to WIRED by Parkers, a respected UK online car resource, revealed how six different EVs are all projected to halve in value after 12 months and 10,000 miles. These include the Audi e-Tron GT, which plummeted by 49 percent from £107,675 ($138,000) to £54,700 ($70,100), and the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which fell by 52 percent from £59,325 to £28,575. According to the data, a Polestar 2 would also lose 52 percent of its £52,895 sticker price in just 12 months.

The Tesla Model 3 fared only slightly better, falling by 45 percent in its first 12 months and 10,000 miles, while the Porsche Taycan fell by 49 percent and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 lost exactly half in the same period. These prices are all based on a midspec version of each car, since factors like battery size, trim level, and even paint color can have a marked effect on trade-in value.

Miley Face

But do you know what has less of an impact on depreciation? Mileage. If the long-range Polestar 2 mentioned above had covered 20,000 miles in its first year instead of 10,000—well above the annual UK average of just 7,000—its estimated trade-in value falls by only an extra £975, or a further 2 percent of its original price.

It’s a similar story with the Taycan. A 4S model with the long-range battery fell from £100,200 to £50,700 in its first 12 months and 10,000 miles. But if it had covered 20,000 miles in the same year it would have fallen by only another £2,650. Or, after two years and 20,000 miles it would be worth £44,175, according to the Cap HPI data. Age (beyond the first 12 months) has a similarly insignificant effect. A 10,000-mile Taycan is worth £50,700 after one year, or £46,600 after two years.

YouTuber The MacMaster has been charting the decrease in value of his own two-year-old Taycan, which dropped from a new price of £120,000 down to a Porsche dealership valuation of £44,650 in March earlier this year, leaving him in negative equity as he still owes approximately £64,700 on the EV. To make matters worse, the Porsche dealership giving the valuation supposedly refused to take his Taycan.

Remember, these are all estimated trade-in values. You would expect to earn more by selling the car privately, and you’d see the same car advertised for more by a dealer to ensure they make a profit.

Depreciation of the Tesla Model 3 also slows significantly after the first year. Cap HPI data states how a 2023 Model 3 Long Range would fall from £50,000 to £27,550 after one year and 10,000 miles, then by only an additional £2,500 after two years and 20,000 miles. Had the first 10,000 miles been spread over 18 months instead of 12, the price would fall by only an extra £825 in those six months.

The ability for Tesla, and other EV manufacturers, to update and upgrade a car’s software months or even years after it left the factory should help with long-term depreciation. We’ve seen how Tesla can push out major user interface upgrades, and even add entirely new features, over the air. Back in 2019, Jaguar pushed out a software update that claimed to increase the range of its I-Pace by up to 8 percent, and in 2022 the Polestar 2 gained Apple CarPlay—a feature that manufacturers used to charge handsomely for—via a free OTA update.

EV vs. ICE

As we said earlier, heavy day-one depreciation has long been par for the car ownership course. But how do year-old EVs stack up against similar internally-combusted cars? And more specifically, what happens when you compare two cars of a similar size and price from the same manufacturer? Cap HPI data has the answers and, again, the results are best viewed sitting down.

 

When comparing a gas-powered Audi Q7 55 with an electric Audi e-tron 55 SUV, both one year old and with 10,000 miles, the gas-powered car is worth 42 percent more after 12 months, despite costing less when new.

 

This is also true with lower-value cars. Cap HPI data showed how, after three years and 30,000 miles, a gas-powered Volkswagen Golf has a 46 percent price premium over an electric Golf.

We expected to find a similar difference between the gas-powered Porsche Panamera and electric Porsche Taycan. However, Cap HPI data suggests similar, midlevel 4S variants of each lose a similar amount of value over two years and 20,000 miles. The Panamera fell from £93,140 to £63,250, while the Taycan dropped from £84,030 to £53,000.

Auto America

Now for the US prices. According to Edmunds, a 2022 Porsche Taycan Turbo with 10,000 miles (well under the US annual average of 14,000) was worth about $106,000 at the time of writing in July 2024. That’s about $50,000 below what it would have cost new, not including optional extras, which pump up the retail price but tend not to affect resale value.

Historical data produced by Edmunds shows how the car’s value briefly rose from $129,000 to almost $131,000 between August and October 2023, but has fallen markedly since, tumbling by as much as $4,000 per month between November 2023 and February 2024 before dropping a further $10,000 over the next five months.

 

The valuation tool states: “This vehicle’s value is likely to decrease within the next month. Time is not on your side if you’ve been waiting to sell/trade for maximum value.” WIRED found just such a Taycan for sale in Los Angeles for $120,000, suggesting a dealer profit of roughly $13,000 before any negotiation.

Although initial depreciation isn’t as brutal in the US as the UK, there are still plenty of deals to be had. WIRED found a fully-loaded 2020 Taycan Turbo with just 5,000 miles on the clock for $92,000—a saving of $86,000 on the original purchase price. That’s the equivalent of more than $17 per mile in depreciation.

A 2023 Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor with 10,000 miles on the clock has a trade-in value of $30,500, according to the Edmunds appraisal tool. This increases to $32,500 if sold privately, and the tool states an estimated dealer price of $35,000. The trade-in value represents a $20,000 or 40 percent drop from the car’s approximate retail price.

 

As with the Taycan, Edmunds says the Polestar 2’s value is trending down, but interestingly it increased in three of the previous eight months to July 2024. During our research WIRED saw how, in some cases, Edmunds would suggest holding onto the vehicle, since prices were on the up. As one EV specialist stressed to us, car values constantly change regardless of how they are powered.

Covid Consequences

The used-car market was turned on its head in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, as production slowed, key components such as microchips became scarce, and secondhand prices rose. According to iSeeCars, a US car search and research company, the effects are still being felt, and all cars held their value better in 2023 than in 2019. Prior to the pandemic, the average car would lose 50 percent of its value in five years, the company said, but by late 2023 this had fallen to 38.8 percent.

However, electric cars are performing less well, losing an average of 49.1 percent of their value in five years, according to analysis of more than 1 million 2018-model-year cars sold between 2022 and 2023.

A June 2024 study, also from iSeeCars, found used EV prices had fallen below gas-powered cars for the first time. Having analyzed more than 2.2 million used cars between May 2023 and May 2024, iSeeCars found the average used EV had fallen from $41,000 to $28,800, while the average gas car had fallen only slightly, from $32,700 to $31,400.

“It’s clear used-car shoppers will no longer pay a premium for electric vehicles, and in fact consider electric powertrains a detractor, making them less desirable—and less valuable—than traditional models,” said Karl Brauer, an analyst from iSeeCars.

Secondhand Supremacy

While undoubtedly a concern for anyone who plans to sell their nearly-new EV, the data is great news for secondhand buyers. From a £5,000 ($6,400) Renault Zoe and £12,000 ($15,000) Citroen e-C4 to a $25,000 Polestar 2 or a $30,000 Jaguar I-Pace, there are amazing deals to be had. And, what’s more, EV batteries are lasting longer than expected, according to Recurrent, whose community of 20,000 EV drivers states just 2.5 percent of battery packs have been replaced outside of manufacturer recalls.

It’s common knowledge among EV buyers that replacing a failed battery pack can be incredibly expensive. According to Recurrent, replacing an EV battery out of warranty costs between $6,500 and $20,000.

 

The fear of coughing up more cash than the car is worth to swap out a broken pack lingers in the mind of any driver whose EV is no longer protected by its manufacturer’s battery warranty, which often lasts for eight years or 100,000 miles. That said, battery failure is rare, and many aftermarket warranty providers now include EV battery cover, according to the RAC, a British breakdown company.

And the Loser Is …

Yet despite EV batteries lasting longer than expected, year-one depreciation horror stories remain. The most acute eample we’ve seen was of a Mercedes EQE run for six months by TopGear. An anonymous call to a Mercedes dealer revealed it had lost £40,000 ($51,000) in just three months and 4,500 miles. That’s close to 50 percent in 12 weeks, or the equivalent of about £480 ($615) per day.

 

Parkers data provided to WIRED told a less extreme story, but still revealed how a midrange Mercedes EQE 350 is estimated to plummet from a retail price of £89,290 to just £49,500 in its first 12 months. A gas-powered Mercedes E-Class also fell to just under £50,000 after one year, but it cost £20,000 less to start with.

Why Is This Happening?

Car depreciation is nothing new, especially at the luxury end of the market; anyone who has shelled out six figures for a German executive sedan will know what steep losses feel like.

Factor in the even higher costs of electric cars and their optional extras, plus the omnipresent concerns of EV range and charging infrastructure—then look at how quickly EVs are improving with every facelift, with new models gaining extra range, performance, and charging speed over their predecessors—and soft residuals are bound to occur.

Consider too how many of the EVs grabbing depreciation headlines right now are examples of first-generation technology. The Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron, and Mercedes EQ families are all first attempts by legacy manufacturers caught napping by Tesla and, more recently, by a slew of low-cost, state-backed upstarts from China. They are the original, non-3G iPhones of their day and are now already being replaced by facelifted versions that go much farther and charge more quickly.

Discounts on new EVs also have an effect on the used market. Tesla is well known for its wildly fluctuating prices, but others have slashed prices recently, too. WIRED found official Porsche dealerships in the UK offering several brand-new (but previous-generation) Taycans with a £20,000 ($25,000) discount on their £110,000 list price. One example, a GTS Sport Turismo was being offered with a £33,500 discount.

With the new 2025 Taycan having only just arrived, discounts on last year’s tech are to be expected, and that’ll twist the knife even further on used prices, as well as on a secondhand market already filling up with three-, four- or five-year-old EVs that have just reached the end of their lease deal.

So, What Should You Do?

Despite rampant depreciation, EV sales are still on the up. They accounted for 18.5 percent of all new vehicle sales in the UK in July, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, up 18.8 percent on the previous year, and are outselling plug-in hybrids 2 to 1. According to Edmunds, 6.8 percent of new vehicles sold in the US in May were fully electric, four times that of plug-in hybrids.

For buyers who can charge at home—and perhaps benefit from associated tax incentives, too—buying a new EV can still be a sound financial decision, providing you intend to keep it for the long term. Buying the car outright, or with a bank loan, and selling it within 12 months will likely leave you significantly out of pocket. But, as the data in both the US and UK shows, prices tend to stabilize through subsequent years.

 

The best advice? Buy secondhand, unless you can truly afford to not care otherwise, and enjoy your bargain EV—complete with its low running costs and minimal maintenance requirements—for the half-decade or more still on the battery warranty.

Who Gets to Build the Next DeLorean?

Decades after her dad’s iconic sports car time-traveled into movie history, Kat DeLorean wants to build a modern remake. There’s just one problem: Someone else owns the trademark on her name.

Video: Getty Images; Ángel Guerra

In the fall of 2020, bored and restless in Covid-restricted Spain, Ángel Guerra doodled a dream car. The automotive designer, then 38, wanted to make a tribute to his first four-wheeled love: the time-traveling DeLorean DMC-12 that rolled out of a cloud of steam in Back to the Future. The sketch that took shape on Guerra’s computer had all the iconic elements of the 1980s original—gull-wing doors, stainless-steel cladding, louver blades over the rear window, a rakish black side stripe—plus a few modern touches. Guerra smoothed out the folded-paper angles, widened the body, stretched the wheel arches to accommodate bigger rims and tires. After two weeks, he decided he liked this new DeLorean enough to stick it on Instagram.

The post blew up. Gearheads raved about the design. The music producer Swizz Beatz DM’d Guerra to ask how much it would cost to build. Guerra started to think that maybe his sketch should become a real car. He reached out to a Texas firm called DeLorean Motor Company, which years earlier had acquired the original DeLorean trademarks, but was gently rebuffed. The design seemed destined to live in cyberspace forever. Then, by some algorithmic magic, a different kind of DeLorean showed up on Guerra’s Instagram feed in the spring of 2022—a human DeLorean by the name of Kat. Her posts showcased her love for her puppy, hair dye, and above all her late father, John Z. DeLorean. Although the general public often remembers him as a high-flying CEO with fabulous hair and a surgically augmented chin who went down in a federal sting operation, Guerra chiefly thought of him as a brilliant engineer. He sent Kat a message with some kind words about her dad and a link to the design. Kat saw it and got stoked.

Kat DeLorean inside of the original DeLorean car

Kat DeLorean is a frequently stoked type of person. At the time, she had recently dyed her long hair in rainbow colors to, in her words, “create the rainbows in my heart on my head.” Yet for much of her life, her relationship to the DeLorean name had been an unhappy one. When people asked why she didn’t own a DMC-12, she would reply: “If there was an iconic representation of your entire life falling apart, would you park it in your driveway?” She would say, only half-jokingly, that the initials stood for “Destroy My Childhood.” A fortysomething cybersecurity professional, Kat lived in a ramshackle farmhouse in New Hampshire with her husband and a few kids. But when Guerra’s note arrived, she was undergoing a pandemic- and work-stress-induced reevaluation of her life’s purpose. She was dreaming up ways to reclaim her father’s legacy. She wanted to launch an engineering education program in his name.

One thing she insisted she didn’t want was to start a car company. It was a car company, after all, that had ruined her father. But then something happened that changed her mind. In April 2022, the Texas company that had given Guerra the cold shoulder announced it would soon reveal a new DeLorean. Kat kept her feelings about this to herself only briefly. First she drew attention to Guerra’s design, posting it on Instagram. (“A timeless classic given the treatment it deserves!”) Two days later, she made her feelings explicit: “@deloreanmotorcompany Is not John DeLorean’s Company,” she wrote. “He despised you.” Details about the new Texas DeLorean emerged a few days after that: Called the Alpha5, it would have four seats instead of two, would reportedly be built mostly from aluminum rather than stainless steel, and would be available in red. Like many DeLorean purists, Kat hated it.

DeLorean Motor Company Alpha5

As people kept messaging her about the pretty design they’d seen on her Instagram feed—some even offered to help build it—a new plan took shape. Kind of a crazy one. She started to think: Why not build one car and film the process of building it for the engineering students? Eventually that turned into: Why not make several and sell them to fund the engineering program? But then why not …

As Kat’s ideas tend to do, this one snowballed: an engineering program in every state, funded by cars; her mind could easily leap from there to notions of rebuilding the industrial Midwest and rejiggering American work culture in general, the ultimate realization of her oft-stated belief that “everyone should have the same opportunity to live their dream.” John DeLorean had plotted to return to the car market until the day he died. Now, she thought, shouldn’t she give the nerds what they wanted? Fine, she had zero experience running a car company, but she could find people for that, and anyway she’d spent, by her estimate, thousands of hours talking engine design with her dad. She described herself as having “gasoline in her veins.”

Which didn’t really change the fundamentals, including how difficult and outrageously expensive it is to bring a car to market, not to mention the itchy point that the “DeLorean” branding technically belonged to someone else. Never mind all that. Kat was a DeLorean—a name, for good or ill, associated with wild ambition.

John DeLorean

John Z. DeLorean was a suave, swashbuckling General Motors executive who dated young models and palled around with celebrities. He became automotive royalty in the mid-1960s, when he had the idea of sticking a bigger engine into an “old lady” car, thereby reinventing the Pontiac brand and launching the “muscle car” era. But DeLorean felt stifled at GM, and he dreamed of building what he called an “ethical car”: safe, reliable, affordable, and environmentally friendly. He left the company in 1973, the same year he married the supermodel Cristina Ferrare, his third wife. Two years later, he founded the DeLorean Motor Company. And two years after that, DeLorean and Ferrare, who shared an adopted 6-year-old son named Zach, welcomed their baby daughter Kathryn.

The original DeLorean Motor Company’s brief and turbulent history spanned Kat’s early childhood. She has few direct memories of the time her dad spent assembling a team of mavericks and dreamers enticed by the idea of building a whole car company from a blank sheet of paper. With a generous investment from the British government, DeLorean opted to put his factory outside Belfast, Northern Ireland. This was during the Troubles, when the idea of Catholics and Protestants working side-by-side seemed impossible. But, for a time, it worked. “There was a bog, then there was a factory, then there were jobs,” William Haddad, an executive for the company, recalled in a 1985 interview. “It was really exciting as hell.”

It also happened to be an era of inflation and soaring gas prices. An inexperienced workforce and frequent bomb scares further complicated production. Timelines slipped, production costs ballooned, demand collapsed, debt accrued. The company had to recall a couple thousand cars. DeLorean’s original vision, described by one classic car aficionado as a $12,000 “Corvette killer” featuring “unprecedented safety and efficiency attributes,” morphed into a $25,000 vehicle with few of those qualities. Then, in October 1982, with little Kat approaching her fifth birthday, came the world-famous denouement: John DeLorean caught on tape with an FBI informant in a room with nearly 60 pounds of cocaine. The informant had pitched the sale of the drugs as a way to raise enough money to save DeLorean’s struggling company.

Kat was 6 when her dad’s high-profile trial ended in an acquittal in the late summer of 1984, on the grounds of entrapment. Her dad’s company and career were destroyed; as he ruefully asked reporters outside the courtroom: “I don’t know, would you buy a used car from me?” Also destroyed was a kind of childhood idyll for Kat, who went very suddenly from living in an intact, wealthy, and famous New York City family—complete with an apartment on Fifth Avenue worth $30 million in today’s dollars—to being a child of bicoastal divorce. Within the year, her mother was remarried to a television executive, and Kat was mostly living in California. She was allowed 10 minutes a day on the phone with her dad back East, which she extended by enlisting his help with math homework.

Back to the Future came out a year after John’s acquittal. Although a studio official had pushed the filmmakers to use a Mustang for their time machine—Ford was willing to pay handsomely for the product placement—the screenwriter reportedly replied, “Doc Brown doesn’t drive a fucking Mustang.” The selection of the DMC-12 for the honor (cue Marty McFly: “Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean?”) prompted John to write a thank-you letter to the director and screenwriter, who he said had “all but immortalized” his car. Unlike Guerra, Kat has no recollection of seeing Back to the Future for the first time. “It just felt like the movies were always there, always a part of my life,” she told me.

As a teenager, Kat was allowed to choose which parent to live with, and she picked her dad. She spent her high school years on a farm in Bedminster, New Jersey. (The exact site that would later become the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.) She rode dirt bikes around the vast property, did musical theater in private school, and sometimes endured cocaine jokes from her peers. Her best friend at the time taught Kat how to fix her own computer and inspired her habit of tinkering with the machines.

She modeled for a few years after high school but stayed geeky, spending her nights on hacking competitions. Then, in her early twenties, pregnant with her first child from a brief first marriage, she decided she didn’t want to raise her son in the world she’d known as the daughter of a supermodel. (These days she refers to “that world” of fabulous wealth from an almost mystified remove, as if the visit on the Schwarzeneggers’ private jet and the pajama party with Kourtney Kardashian had happened to someone else.) Instead, she took an IT internship at Countrywide Financial—later to be acquired by Bank of America—and started working her way up. She met a systems engineer named Jason Seymour at a company Christmas party and married him a little more than a month later at a drive-thru wedding chapel in Las Vegas. (Jason had wanted an Elvis impersonator to officiate, but he wasn’t available.) The following year, in 2005, her father died. John DeLorean had spent some of his final months attempting to trademark the name “DeLorean Automobile Company” through a company called Ephesians 6:12, which he’d set up with Kat and Zach as co-owners. (The name is a reference to a biblical verse about struggling “against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”) But he passed away before application could be approved, so it was officially listed as “abandoned.”

John’s death devastated Kat. Although she remained fiercely proud of her father and kept attending car shows in her capacity as a DeLorean, she went professionally by her married name, Seymour, and maintained a separation between those two identities. But in the 2020s, as the DMC-12’s 40th anniversary approached, John’s name was popping up in documentaries and movies again, and Kat was not happy with some of the portrayals depicting him as a kind of narcissistic hustler. She became determined to get the positive story of John DeLorean out.

As a big “trust the universe” person, she believed it was meaningful that an actual angel (Guerra) had shown up in her life with a design. So through the summer and fall of 2022, Kat’s ambitions took the shape of a car. The model would be called JZD, her dad’s initials, and the company would pour the sales revenue into more education programs—expanding into underserved areas in the industrial Midwest where her dad made his career. She resisted even calling the venture a “car company”; she much preferred to say it was a “dream-empowerment company fueled by automobiles,” in the same way Girl Scouts is a youth-empowerment organization fueled in part by cookies.

Whatever the company was, the New Hampshire farmhouse turned into its de facto headquarters. Kat and Jason took video meetings, recruited talent, and entertained wild ideas about what a new car “with DeLorean DNA” could do. (She joked: “Leave it to me to start a car company right when nepo babies are a thing.”) Could they source sustainable stainless steel for their first car by melting down old appliances? Could they use recycled computer chips to control it? Could they make virtual-reality manufacturing labs for their students, to assemble first a virtual car and then a real one? This was going to be a brand-new kind of car company—among the first ever founded by a woman and likely the first intended to be a not-for-profit.

With these big visions came big promises. In August 2022, Kat posted a screenshot from John’s final automotive business plan, which promised to “shake the automotive world” with a car that would kick off “an affair with man and machine at a price point that will be affordable.” She expressed an intent to follow these wishes with her own car company. The company’s name: DeLorean Next Generation.

DeLorean Next Generation JZD

The news spread, first with an item on Fox News and then in outlets all over the world. Jason was so high on enthusiasm for the new company, and pride in his wife’s ambition, that he dashed off a public promise on the DNG Motors Instagram account. “UNVEILED SEPTEMBER 13, 2023,” read an image of white text on a black background, with Jason’s caption: “DeLorean is back in the Motor City.” He’d just committed them to building a car for the Detroit Auto Show. When Kat saw the post, she flipped out.

Soon afterward, the DeLorean Motor Company in Texas sent Kat a cease-and-desist, demanding she stop using the DeLorean name for her planned car. She and Jason had their lawyer send a reply asserting their rights and expressing their willingness to litigate, and kept going.

DeLorean Motor Company sits in a squat building off a tangle of highways in suburban Houston—you drive past some shabby lots and fields, and then the 1980s spring up around a curve in the road, where a retro-looking DMC logo looms over a row of DMC-12s in the parking lot. You might even spot a JIGAWAT license plate there. Inside the garage/warehouse is an array of disembodied gull-wing doors that evoke a flock of injured birds. Old covers of Deloreans magazines stare out from frames in the showroom.

This is the realm of Stephen Wynne, a Liverpool-born mechanic who has devoted his life to DeLorean the car—to the point of driving his son Cameron to kindergarten in DMC-12s that appeared in Back to the Future. Wynne is less impressed with DeLorean the man, however. “I have more respect for the team that he put together,” he says. “All you hear about is John DeLorean and not the team, and that, to me, is not right.” John was, Wynne said, ahead of his time as an engineer. But: “He made the company, and he also, you know, killed the company in the end.”

It was Wynne who picked up the pieces, effectively securing a monopoly on the small, strange market for DeLorean parts. This was not a decision about preserving someone else’s legacy; it was about securing his own future. “It felt to me like, to control my destiny, going forward, it was to have control of the parts,” he told me in the shop as tools clanked against cars behind us. “If someone was going to get it, I wanted it to be me.” He founded the new DeLorean Motor Company in 1995.

Wynne considers the original buyers of the 1980s DeLorean to have been “entrepreneurial, outside-of-the-box-thinking type people,” with something a “little bit different about them”—less interested in owning a really fast sports car than a piece of cultural history. (The original DeLorean did 0 to 60 in about 10.5 seconds, something my used Hyundai can easily beat.) “We believe that there’s much more wealth in that market these days,” Wynne says.

Over the years, Wynne and team made various plans to serve this market of “modern nerds” with new cars built mostly from original parts. But federal regulators were slow to relax the rules that said these historic replicas had to meet current safety standards, so the revival of the DMC-12—with its lack of airbags, a third brake light, and antilock brakes, for instance—never happened. Still, the company did a thriving business in parts sales and car service. It also made a good buck from the DeLorean brand, which it alternately licensed for apparel, video games, and the like, or zealously protected via cease-and-desists and lawsuits.

Finally, Wynne got to talking with a Tesla alum named Joost de Vries, who’d been involved in previous efforts to electrify the DeLorean. The DeLorean brand, de Vries argued, was so universally beloved, and startup costs for electric vehicles were so much less than even 15 years earlier, that they could partner up to build a brand-new electric DeLorean. Together they formed a San Antonio–based spinoff of DeLorean Motor Company, called DeLorean Motors Reimagined, with the Wynne family as the largest shareholders and de Vries as CEO. (Wynne’s son, the former time-traveling kindergartner, is now the companies’ chief brand officer.) De Vries would lead the development of the car, and funding would come largely from private investors. The company incorporated in Texas in November 2021 (smack in between when Guerra posted his design in late 2020 and when Kat got involved in mid-2022). Wynne and de Vries hired Italdesign, the same firm that had drafted the original DMC-12, to design the Alpha5.

DeLorean Motors Reimagined hoped to build 88 cars to start (88 mph being the speed at which Doc Brown’s DeLorean traveled through time), then about 9,500. The car would be “low volume, high-end, very exclusive, weird, wild technology,” according to de Vries, an imposing, bald Dutchman with the hard-charging swagger of the Silicon Valley executive he once was. “DeLorean was always attainable luxury. My price tag is not going to be attainable luxury.”

Sketches of the DeLorean Motor Company Alpha5

DeLorean Motors Reimagined went from founding to concept car within nine months. The company even bought a 15-second Super Bowl spot in February 2022, cryptically teasing the new car and setting off buzz in the automotive press. The Alpha5 premiered at the Pebble Beach auto show that August. It was only a concept, meant to show off design and technology, not a finished product that could operate on the road. But it was a real object that existed in the real world and was promised to be on sale to the public in 2024.

By that point, the JZD, Kat’s model, was still in the design phase, living for the most part in computers.

The steps to getting a new car from invention to production are standard, whether you’re General Motors, DeLorean Motors Reimagined, or DeLorean Next Generation. On average, the process takes about five years. You have to design and engineer the car; find suppliers for thousands of parts, from wheels to seats to instrument panels; get tools custom-made to stamp out your body panels; and find or build the facility and the workforce to put these things together. This is all before you can actually mass-produce something that resembles the original design.

So it is not at all unusual for a concept car to appear at an auto show and then for nothing resembling it to ever materialize on actual roads. A paint facility alone can set a company back hundreds of millions of dollars. This is in fact why the original DeLorean was stainless steel: John DeLorean couldn’t afford a paint plant. (His marketing genius, Kat says, was that “he made you all think it was intentional.”) John Z. DeLorean had his first prototype by 1976, within about a year of founding his company; the first DMC-12s went on sale in 1981.

Theoretically, then, it was possible to build a one-off JZD concept car—if not a production-ready prototype—in the 11 months Kat and Jason had between founding the company and the 2023 Detroit Auto Show. Kat projected confidence onstage at a Miami auto show in January 2023, while a digital rendering of the JZD zoomed along mountain roads on a screen behind her. But shortly after that appearance, she started getting stressed out about the timeline. Potential manufacturing partners were telling her it was wildly unrealistic. Even getting the doors to open and close the same way every time was its own feat of engineering, and Kat couldn’t tell them whether the car would run on gas, batteries, or both. (She wanted students to make that decision as part of an engineering challenge she had yet to set up.) Kat began to have visions of living the same arc of ambition and collapse that befell her father.

DeLorean Next Generation JZD

This was her preoccupation when she showed up on a warm March 2023 morning in Augusta, Georgia, as a special guest at a “DeLorean Day” event. Well before 8 am, she was stalking around the parking lot in a rainbow plaid skirt and a NERD (Northeast Region DeLorean Club) hoodie with Jason in tow, enthusing to fans about their cars, talking not just with her hands but sometimes with her feet. She literally jumped up and down after a green ’66 Pontiac GTO Tri-Power pulled onto the lot. She inspected the carburetors under the hood and declared that this model, in midnight blue, was her “ultimate dream car,” shout-laughing when the owner confessed to the absurd gas mileage—about 8 miles per gallon in the city—then apologizing, through laughter, for laughing.

By 8 am she was posted up behind a mic to discuss her father and her own plans. “My father was my best friend in the whole world,” she said. “In the summers, I sat and played gin rummy with him on the couch, to the point where there was a worn spot in each place where we sat—a big one and a little one.” She got teary-eyed during the Q&A period when a kid of maybe 10 told her of his plans to be a robotics engineer. He hoped, he said, to make cars that could turn into robots that could “help people and protect humans from like, anything bad that can happen.” She would later tell me that this moment and others like it in Augusta added up to a turning point for her—that “all of a sudden it was like, OK, whatever I have to do, whatever pain I have to go through, if it means building a car company, then I’m going to do it, because I want that moment every day for the rest of my life.”

And when a well-meaning questioner brought up the Alpha5, she spoke carefully through a tight smile. “That is being made by the company DeLorean Motor Company Texas, and they’re not affiliated at all with the family or the original car. And I think that’s about all I’m going to say about that one.”

When I asked Joost de Vries about Kat DeLorean’s efforts a few weeks later, he was less diplomatic. “There’s just something loose in her head,” he said. “Kat’s thing is illegal. And she’s being shut down.” He said in a later conversation that she would be “hammered with lawsuits” as soon as her car appeared at the Detroit Auto Show.

De Vries and I were in a bland tech office park in San Antonio, where he sat in his glass-walled office. He was well aware that the Alpha5 design was polarizing in the DeLorean community. (Some DeLorean forum users had groused that the model just looked like another Tesla with gull-wing doors; one called the whole effort “little more than slapping the name of a beloved car on an unrelated vehicle.”) He also knew the discouraging fate that had befallen many an EV brand before his. Other high-end EV companies such as Lucid, Rivian, and the failed-then-resurrected Fisker had burned through billions and missed production targets, and even market leader Tesla was then struggling to bring its hyped (stainless-steel) Cybertruck to market. DeLorean Motors Reimagined had hit supply-chain snags and cut its planned production run by more than half, to 4,000 cars. But de Vries had something most EV companies didn’t: a brand that much of the world already knew. “The only thing I need to do is put good product into an existing brand,” he said.

The question, of course, is whose brand “DeLorean” really is. Both companies insist on their own rights to use it. And each calls the other’s claim transparently illegitimate.

Stephen Wynne registered and enforced trademarks on “DeLorean” and “DeLorean Motor Company” in the 2000s, as John’s trademarks were canceled or abandoned, and he has renewed and protected them ever since. Furthermore, in a 2015 settlement with John DeLorean’s estate, a woman named Sally Baldwin DeLorean, acting as John’s widow, acknowledged “the worldwide rights of DMC to use, register, and enforce any of the DeLorean Marks for any and all goods and services” related to cars, clothes, and “promotional items”—for which DMC paid her an undisclosed sum. So, yes, it is Kat’s name. But it’s someone else’s trademark, and it’s one she has never tried publicly to contest until now.

Kat’s argument includes that seemingly simple but possibly irrelevant part—it’s her name—but also a convoluted part. She doesn’t believe John actually ever married Sally. Nor do several people I spoke to from John’s orbit at the time, including his son, Zach, none of whom can recall John mentioning a marriage to her. Kat told me she searched for and never found a marriage certificate. Nor did a private detective she hired. (Sally Baldwin DeLorean’s lawyer did not return requests for comment, and attempts to reach her directly via listed phone numbers were unsuccessful.) John’s will names his son as executor. Zach, balking at the prospect of attorney’s fees, never actually filed the will. Kat contends that Sally’s settlement with the DeLorean Motor Company is illegitimate, as she was never in a position to act on behalf of the estate in the first place. What should have happened, Kat thinks, is for the US Patent and Trademark Office to reach out to her and Zach, as co-owners of Ephesians 6:12, about her dad’s pending application.

Then there is the question of infringement, a key standard for which is “likelihood of causing confusion.” Kat’s DeLorean Next Generation is not using the exact same set of words as Wynne’s DeLorean Motor Company, but it is fair to say, based on the Alpha5 question that Kat got in Augusta—and on a well-meaning Reddit commenter who’d tried to buy Kat’s car only to accidentally reserve an Alpha5—that some members of the public are indeed confused. Yet each side accuses the other of doing the confusing.

Both sides have told me a lawsuit is inevitable. No jury decision is guaranteed—determining “likelihood of confusion” itself involves a (confusing!) 13-factor test. But New Jersey trademark attorney Richard Catalina, who is not affiliated with either party, told me that the “stronger legal arguments” belong to the Texas company. “Trademark rights only accrue with use. If you’re not using the mark, you can lose your rights to it,” Catalina said.

“I just learned the. Craziest. Thing,” Kat told me on the phone last summer. She’d recently come across the 1985 interview with William Haddad, the executive who’d found it “exciting as hell” how much good DeLorean Motor Company had achieved in Northern Ireland. Haddad had been crushed by the company’s collapse, and now, in 1985, called it a “scam” and John himself a thief. (John had always denied this and was never convicted of financial misdeeds.) But Haddad was wistful about John’s squandered ambition to locate factories where they could do the most social good. “If only he had done it … Can you imagine it?” Haddad mused in the interview.

Kat knew the Northern Ireland story well already, but Haddad had put John’s goal and his downfall in terms that suddenly clicked for her. She and Jason had been so caught up in the crazy timeline they’d set for themselves that they were risking following precisely her dad’s path—letting one car distract them from their bigger goal of supporting young engineers. “If my car company fails, that’s OK,” Kat said. Her goal had always been to create an education program for students who have “dreams that have been robbed from them,” she said. “And if I can’t do that with this car, then it’s not worth the car.”

One thing was obvious: They were moving too fast. Kat decided she would not unveil the prototype of the JZD until her father’s 100th birthday, in 2025. In the meantime, they would have students build a clay model for Detroit—not a full-size one, as automakers typically do during development, but one about the size of a shoebox—and debut it not at the Auto Show but concurrently at the Detroit Historical Society. Later on, they’d enlist students to help build a prototype of their Model JZD on top of a Corvette C8 platform, picking participants through an online contest in which students described their dreams. After that would come a separate line of cars under something called Project 42, involving a hand build of 42 customized cars. These would have a sales price of probably over a million dollars each (which would also include driving outfits and a motorcycle to go with each car). They’d use the proceeds to fund the education program. So if the Alpha5 was going to be “unattainable luxury” and its likely market rich tech bros, then these custom cars would be yet less attainable and probably serve a market of billionaires.

DeLorean Motor Company Alpha5
DeLorean Next Generation JZD

It’s been two years since DMC Texas and Kat DeLorean both announced their new car projects. Neither has sued the other yet, and both are cagey about plans to do so. Joost de Vries stepped down from the helm of DeLorean Motors Reimagined last October, for reasons the company won’t disclose. A lawsuit against de Vries and other DeLorean Motors Reimagined executives, in which de Vries’ former employer Karma Automotive accused him and others of stealing the EV maker’s intellectual property, was dismissed after a reported out-of-court settlement. Timelines have slipped enough now that Cameron Wynne won’t specify exactly when the Alpha5 will be on sale—he says sometime in 2025. For Kat’s venture, meanwhile, Ángel Guerra continues to revise the design. The car will not be stainless.

DeLorean fans have been burned many times by promises of the next car, and given the delays in both projects, skepticism about both potential new ones pervades DeLorean-related internet forums. (Indeed, as this story went to press in April, a San Antonio paper reported that DeLorean Reimagined had shut down its headquarters; a DMC executive told me the company was just moving locations.) Both companies continue to promise big things. Promises, after all, are part of the DeLorean legacy too.

Source: https://www.wired.com/story/delorean-showdown/

Elon Musk’s challenge: Stay ahead of the competition

DETROIT, Feb 24 (Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-challenge-stay-ahead-competition-2023-02-24/) – Elon Musk will confront a critical challenge during Tesla’s Investor Day on March 1: Convincing investors that even though rivals are catching up, the electric-vehicle pioneer can make another leap forward to widen its lead.

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) was the No. 1 EV maker worldwide in 2022, but China’s BYD (002594.SZ) and others are closing the gap fast, according to a Reuters analysis of global and regional EV sales data provided by EV-volumes.com.

In fact, BYD passed Tesla in EV sales last year in the Asia-Pacific region, while the Volkswagen Group (VOWG_p.DE) has been the EV leader in Europe since 2020.

While Tesla narrowed VW’s lead in Europe, the U.S. automaker surrendered ground in Asia-Pacific as well as its home market as the competition heats up.

Reuters Graphics
Reuters Graphics

The most significant challenges to Tesla are coming from established automakers and a group of Chinese EV manufacturers. Several U.S. EV startups that hoped to ride Tesla’s coattails are struggling, including luxury EV maker Lucid (LCID.O), whose shares plunged 16% on Thursday after disappointing sales and financial results.

Over the next two years, rivals including General Motors Co (GM.N), Ford Motor Co (F.N), Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE), Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and VW will unleash scores of new electric vehicles, from a Chevrolet priced below $30,000 to luxury sedans and SUVs that top $100,000.

On Wednesday, Mercedes used Silicon Valley as the backdrop for a lengthy presentation on how Mercedes models of the near-future will immerse their owners in rich streams of entertainment and productivity content, delivered through „hyperscreens“ that stretch across the dashboard and make the rectangular screens in Teslas look quaint. Executives also emphasized that only Mercedes has an advanced, Level 3 partially automated driving system approved for use in Germany, with approval pending in California.

In China, Tesla has had to cut prices on its best-selling models under growing pressure from domestic Chinese manufacturers including BYD, Geely Automobile’s (0175.HK) Zeekr brand and Nio (9866.HK).

China’s EV makers could get another boost if Chinese battery maker CATL (300750.SZ) follows through on plans to heavily discount batteries used in their vehicles.

Musk has said he will use the March 1 event to outline his „Master Plan Part 3“ for Tesla.

In the nearly seven years since Musk published his „Master Plan Part Deux“ in July 2016, Tesla pulled ahead of established automakers and EV startups in most important areas of electric vehicle design, digital features and manufacturing.

Tesla’s vehicles offered features, such as the ability to navigate into a parking space or make rude sounds, that other vehicles lacked.

Tesla’s then-novel vertically integrated battery and vehicle production machine helped achieve higher profit margins than most established automakers – even as bigger rivals lost money on their EVs.

Fast-forward to today, and Tesla’s „Full Self Driving Beta“ automated driving is still classified by the company and federal regulators as a „Level 2“ driver assistance system that requires the human motorist to be ready to take control at all times. Such systems are common in the industry.

Tesla earlier this month was compelled by federal regulators to revise its FSD software under a recall order.

Tesla has established a wide lead over its rivals in manufacturing technology – an area where it was struggling when Musk put forward the last installment of his „Master Plan.“

Now, rivals are copying the company’s production technology, buying some of the same equipment Tesla uses. IDRA, the Italian company that builds huge presses to form large one-piece castings that are the building blocks of Tesla vehicles, said it is now getting orders from other automakers.

Musk has told investors that Tesla can keep its lead in EV manufacturing costs. The company has promised investors that on March 1 they „will be able to see our most advanced production line“ in Austin, Texas.

„Manufacturing technology will be our most important long-term strength,” Musk told analysts in January. Asked if Tesla could make money on a vehicle that sold in the United States for $25,000 to $30,000 – the EV industry’s Holy Grail – Musk was coy.

„I’d probably be asking the same question,“ he said. „But we would be jumping the gun on future announcements.“

Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/elon-musks-challenge-stay-ahead-competition-2023-02-24/

Mercedes-Benz cars to have ’supercomputers‘, unveils Google partnership

BERLIN, Feb 22 (Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/mercedes-benz-partner-with-google-branded-navigation-2023-02-22/) – Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE) said on Wednesday, February 22 2022 it has teamed up with Google (GOOGL.O) on navigation and will offer „super computer-like performance“ in every car with automated driving sensors as it seeks to compete with Tesla (TSLA.O) and Chinese newcomers.

Automakers new and old are racing to match software-powered features pioneered by Tesla, which allow for vehicle performance, battery range and self-driving capabilities to be updated from a distance.

The German carmaker agreed to share revenue with semiconductor maker Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O), its partner on automated driving software since 2020, to bring down the upfront cost of buying expensive high-powered semiconductors, Chief Executive Ola Kaellenius said on Wednesday.

„You only pay for a heavily subsidized chip, and then figure out how to maximize joint revenue,“ he said, reasoning that the sunk costs would be low even if drivers did not turn on every feature allowed by the chip.

But only customers paying for an extra option package would have cars equipped with Lidar sensor technology and other hardware for automated „Level 3“ driving, which have a higher variable cost, Kaellenius said.

Self-driving sensor maker Luminar Technologies Inc (LAZR.O), in which Mercedes owns a small stake, said on Wednesday it struck a multi-billion dollar deal with the carmaker to integrate its sensors across a broad range of its vehicles by the middle of the decade, sending Luminar shares up over 25%.

Mercedes‘ announcements at a software update day in Sunnyvale, California, detailed the strategy behind a process underway for years at the carmaker to move from a patchwork approach integrating software from a range of suppliers to controlling the core of its software and bringing partners in.

It generated over one billion euros ($1.06 billion) from software-enabled revenues in 2022 and expects that figure to rise to a high single-digit billion euro figure by 2030 after it rolls out its new MB.OS operating system from mid-decade.

This is a more conservative estimate as a proportion of total revenue than others like Stellantis (STLAM.MI) and General Motors (GM.N) have put forward.

„We take a prudent approach because no-one knows how big that potential pot of gold is at this stage,“ Kaellenius said.

GOOGLE PARTNERSHIP

Mercedes said the collaboration with Google would allow it to offer traffic information and automatic rerouting in its cars.

Drivers will also be able to watch YouTube on the cars‘ entertainment system when the car is parked or in Level 3 autonomous driving mode, which allows a driver to take their eyes off the wheel on certain roads as long as they can resume control if needed.

Other carmakers like General Motors, Renault (RENA.PA), Nissan (7201.T) and Ford (F.N) have embedded an entire package of Google services into their vehicles, offering features like Google Maps, Google Assistant and other applications.

All vehicles on Mercedes‘ upcoming modular architecture platform will also have so-called hyperscreens extending across the cockpit of the car, the company said on Wednesday.

CALL TO EARTH

The $3.50 go-anywhere ticket to fight climate change

Westbahn Klimaticket promo train (2)
 
 
(CNN) — You wake up in suburban Innsbruck, the snowcapped peaks of the Austrian Tyrol glistening in the distance. After breakfast you hop a tram to Innsbruck Hauptbahnhof, the city’s main railway station and climb aboard an Austrian Railways ÖBB Railjet bound for Vienna.
After more than four hours crossing some of the prettiest scenery in central Europe, you arrive beneath the undulating zig-zagged roof of Wien Hauptbahnhof, from where you head down into the curving tunnels of Südtiroler Platz metro station.
After rumbling through six stops of the city’s U1 metro line, you reach Praterstern, not far from the shores of the Danube River. From there, it’s a short stroll to catch a regional train on the S4 line, heading north a further nine stops to Korneuburg.
 
We’re not done traveling yet.
Here you climb aboard bus 853 for the final leg, a gentle 20-plus minute trundle through quiet, leafy streets, past compact one-story homes, until it’s time to finally disembark beside the plain clocktower in the village of Enzersfeld.
Give or take the occasional stop for refreshments — perhaps a bosna sausage and a cream-topped Viennese coffee — you’ve been on the go, on public transport, for more than eight hours, clocking up hundreds of miles across bus, rail, tram and metro services.
And how much has this epic ride cost you? Just $3.50 (or €3).
Fifteen years after it was first proposed, Austria’s new Klimaticket, or climate ticket, goes live on October 26. Offering seamless travel across all modes of public transport it is intended to galvanize the Alpine nation’s fight against climate change.
The annual pass, priced at $1,267 (€1,095), works out at just $24 (€21) per week or $3.50 a day. If all goes according to plan, it should encourage people to swap their cars for more climate-friendly forms of getting around.

Surge in demand

Trams and local buses are included in the price of the Klimaticket.
 
 
Trams and local buses are included in the price of the Klimaticket.
Figurniy Sergey/Adobe Stock
Public transport is already popular in Austria. Its combination of reliable, high-quality, integrated services, simple ticketing and attractive pricing have long made it a winner for commuters and leisure travelers.
Yet even though Austrians travel more kilometers by train every year than everyone in Europe except the Swiss, according to official government figures only 16% of journeys in 2018 were made by public transport.
It’s hoped that Klimaticket will change that by making it much more affordable and convenient, especially for regular users.
The signs are positive, with initial interest in discounted early bird tickets so strong that the booking website www.klimaticket.at immediately crashed.
 
Spearheading the initiative is Austria’s Green Party „superminister“ Leonore Gewessler, whose responsibilities include climate action, environment, energy, mobility, innovation and technology in the current coalition government.
„I think you can see how happy I am,“ she said after announcing the deal. „This is a big day for the climate and for transport. If this summer has shown us anything, it is that the climate crisis has already arrived with us.“
National passes and discount cards are nothing new in Europe. Switzerland, Austria and Germany, among others, offer monthly travel passes, half-fare cards and other discounts to encourage public transport use.
What makes Austria’s new offer different is its remarkably low price.
Switzerland’s General Abonnement (GA) travelcard offers unlimited use of the Confederation’s entire public transport network, but costs three times as much. A similar annual ticket for buses, trains and metro in the Netherlands is more than $3,500 (€3,066).

Hassle-free

Vienna's Hauptbahnhof railway station.
 
 
Vienna’s Hauptbahnhof railway station.
Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
„One of the things I like about Klimaticket is that it is valid on all modes of public transport, a concept that should be replicated elsewhere as it removes the hassle of having to find and buy multiple tickets,“ says European rail travel expert Andy Brabin.
„It is potentially revolutionary, removing some of the barriers to using public transport and making spontaneous trips much easier as you don’t have to worry about buying tickets, which can often be expensive at short notice for longer journeys.“
No less than $278 million (€240 million) of federal government funding has been agreed to support the new initiative. Ongoing costs are expected to be around $175 million (€150 million) a year. Despite this, the ticket is regarded as central to Austria’s ambition to become climate neutral by 2040 — backed by the European Union’s post-Covid „Green Deal.“
 
The Austrian government’s 2030 Mobility Master Plan aims to reduce private car use from 70% of total annual kilometers traveled to 54% by 2040, at the same time increasing public transport’s share from 27% to 40% and doubling active travel (walking and cycling) from 3% to 6% of the total.
A passenger on an electric train requires just 55% of the energy used by a battery electric car for the same journey, according to the master plan, meaning big carbon emission cuts can be made with a relatively small percentage shift to more sustainable modes of travel.
Of course, it hasn’t exactly been a smooth journey to get to this point. Klimaticket is the result of 18 months of often-heated negotiations between federal and regional governments, transport organizations and providers.
Even the €3 per day cost is a compromise — the Green Party’s manifesto pledge at the last federal elections was to slash travel costs to just €1 a day within any region and €2 across any two regions.

Two-year battle

Vienna's U-Bahn network is covered by the ticket.
 
 
Vienna’s U-Bahn network is covered by the ticket.
Andrew Michael/Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
„Klimaticket is an impressive political achievement'“ says Keith Barrow, editor of UK magazine Today’s Railways Europe, pointing to remarkable levels of cooperation among Austrian provinces and their regional transport authorities.
„The provinces have different politics, different geographies and different priorities. Then there are municipalities and numerous public transport operators — 40 in the Vienna region alone. It is remarkable that all these different parties have managed to find common ground on this issue.“
They very nearly didn’t.
 
The past two years saw Intense debate and criticism, especially from more rural regions where public transport density and usage is at its lowest. Opposition parties have welcomed the introduction of the ticket but said it was only a first step toward meeting climate goals.
Johannes Margreiter, transport spokesman for the liberal Neos party, said: „Price isn’t the reason why people do not switch to public transport. In many places, the problem is the lack of availability because of poor or absent connections.“
The Vienna region, home to 50% of the country’s population and 60% of its public transport journeys (around 300,000 people commute into Vienna on a normal weekday) was also late to sign up to the scheme, raising fears that the new ticket would be compromised from the outset.

Blueprint for change?

Cross-country trains are also covered.
 
 
Cross-country trains are also covered.
Matthias Balk/picture alliance/dpa/Getty Images
However, the last-minute deal confirmed Klimaticket’s status as a truly national travel pass.
Its coverage stretches from Bregenz on the shore of Lake Constance in the west to the outskirts of the Slovakian capital Bratislava in the east.
Whatever the reservations, a nationwide ticket removes one of the biggest barriers to using public transport — trying to figure out which tickets are needed for which journeys. That’s particularly the case for foreign visitors.
The framing of the ticket as an environmental initiative has also been important.
It’s hoped it will compel Austrians to think about the environmental impact of how they travel, while making the low-carbon option more accessible and attractive.
 
But, if successful, does Klimaticket have the potential to become a blueprint for other countries looking to drastically cut transport emissions?
Austria has perhaps succeeded because it’s a relatively small country with a well-funded, cohesive and popular public transport system already in place. Others without this could struggle to emulate its achievement.
„There are two things you need before you can launch into an initiative like this — network density and service frequency,“ says railway magazine editor Barrow.
„Austria has invested heavily in building capacity on its main rail corridors so it can accommodate more fast inter-city services as well as regular-interval regional services, frequent S-Bahn networks in city regions and increasing volumes of freight.
„It has the infrastructure it needs to accommodate more passengers, or it is in the process of constructing it.“

Who’s next?

Germany's transport network could be a candidate for a similar scheme.
 
 
Germany’s transport network could be a candidate for a similar scheme.
 
Could similar initiatives happen elsewhere?
Barrow says the Netherlands could be a contender, benefiting from an already interlinked public transport network that operates with high frequency. The densely populated country faces a pressing need to find solutions to transport challenges.
Germany is also in the frame, he adds.
„I think there is an appetite for something like Klimaticket in Germany. The Greens‘ success in the recent federal election might spur them to emulate their counterparts in Austria and push for a national annual public transport pass.“
The problem in Germany, say Barrow, is state-level variations in commitment to public transport. Bavaria, the south, is relatively pro-road whereas neighboring Baden-Württemberg has been actively improving public transport for a long time.
And will it succeed in Austria?
 
The country certainly has the requisite core rail network and urban transport systems around major cities such as Vienna and Graz. These have benefited from a policy of continuous development, broadly supported across the political spectrum.
At the periphery of the system the story is less positive.
Decades of rural rail closures have cut many smaller towns off from the national network — but on secondary lines that remain, there now seems to be more willingness to improve infrastructure, enhance timetables and replace polluting diesel trains with electric, battery or hydrogen trains.
Klimaticket could boost improvement prospects still further, especially when coupled with targeted investment in feeder bus routes and active mobility. Green campaigners have called for the offer to be expanded to include cycle hire and e-scooter rental, providing a wider range of seamless travel options.
Klimaticket is just one plank of Austria’s plan to meet its carbon reduction targets, but if it delivers positive results quickly, as its supporters believe it will, pressure could grow to develop similar products in other countries around the world that make mobility without a car easier and more cost effective.
 
Top image credit: Westbahn
 

Bill Gates orders £500m hydrogen-powered superyacht

Microsoft billionaire’s innovative and eco-fuelled 112m Aqua vessel to launch after 2024

The ‘Aqua’ superyacht powered by liquid hydrogen
The ‘Aqua’ superyacht powered by liquid hydrogen – a snip at £500m. It can travel 3,750 miles before it needs to refuel. Photograph: Sinot/Cover Images

Bill Gates has ordered the world’s first hydrogen-powered superyacht, worth an estimated £500m ($644m) and featuring an infinity pool, helipad, spa and gym.

The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft has commissioned the Aqua ship – a 112-metre (370ft) luxury vessel completely powered by liquid hydrogen – which was publicised last year at the Monaco yacht show by the Dutch design firm Sinot.

Speaking about the project last year, the marine designer Sander Sinot said: “For the development of Aqua we took inspiration from the lifestyle of a discerning, forward-looking owner, the fluid versatility of water and cutting-edge technology, to combine this in a superyacht with truly innovative features.”

The boat has five decks and space to accommodate 14 guests and 31 crew members. In a further environmentally friendly feature, gel-fuelled fire bowls allow guests to stay warm outside without having to burn wood or coals.

But its most cutting-edge feature is tucked away below decks – two 28-tonne vacuum-sealed tanks that are cooled to -423F (-253C) and filled with liquid hydrogen, which powers the ship. The fuel will generate power for the two one-megawatt motors and propellors via on-board fuel cells, which combine hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity. Water is a byproduct.

The vessel is unlikely to take to the seas before 2024, according to the Sunday Telegraph, which reported the Gates commission. When it does, it has the potential to reach speeds of 17 knots (about 20mph) and travel 3,750 miles (or roughly London to New York) before it needs to refuel. The Sunday Telegraph said the boat would have a “diesel back-up” due to the scarcity of hydrogen refuelling stations.

Gates, 64, who is currently ranked as the world’s second-richest man with a $118bn (£92bn) fortune, is a regular superyacht holidaymaker who has not previously owned his own vessel. Typically renting yachts for his own use, in the past he has holidayed off the coast of Sardinia onboard the $330m yacht Serene, which is owned by the Stolichnaya vodka magnate, Yuri Scheffler.

The investment underlines Gates’s long-standing interest in alternative fuels, and his enthusiasm for new technology that could tackle emissions from industry and transport that together make up 75% of the world’s carbon footprint.

He is an investor in Heliogen, a Californian startup that aims to turn sunlight into a source of heat exceeding 1,000C that could help replace fossil fuels. It is the first company in the world to concentrate sunlight to reach temperatures that are high enough to power heavy industry without carbon emissions.

Gates has also pledged to give most of his estimated $118bn fortune to good causes via The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This week he donated $100m to help tackle the coronavirus.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/09/bill-gates-orders-500m-hydrogen-powered-superyacht

June 2018 Tech News & Trends to Watch

1. Companies Worldwide Strive for GDPR Compliance

By now, everyone with an email address has seen a slew of emails announcing privacy policy updates. You have Europe’s GDPR legislation to thank for your overcrowded inbox. GDPR creates rules around how much data companies are allowed to collect, how they’re able to use that data, and how clear they have to be with consumers about it all.

Companies around the world are scrambling to get their business and its practices into compliance – a significant task for many of them. While technically, the deadline to get everything in order passed on May 25, for many companies the process will continue well into June and possibly beyond. Some companies are even shutting down in Europe for good, or for as long as it takes them to get in compliance.

Even with the deadline behind us, the GDPR continues to be a top story for the tech world and may remain so for some time to come.

 

2. Amazon Provides Facial Recognition Tech to Law Enforcement

Amazon can’t seem to go a whole month without showing up in a tech news roundup. This month it’s for a controversial story: selling use of Rekognition, their facial recognition software, to law enforcement agencies on the cheap.

Civil rights groups have called for the company to stop allowing law enforcement access to the tech out of concerns that increased government surveillance can pose a threat to vulnerable communities in the country. In spite of the public criticism, Amazon hasn’t backed off on providing the tech to authorities, at least as of this time.

 

3. Apple Looks Into Self-Driving Employee Shuttles

Of the many problems facing our world, the frustrating work commute is one that many of the brightest minds in tech deal with just like the rest of us. Which makes it a problem the biggest tech companies have a strong incentive to try to solve.

Apple is one of many companies that’s invested in developing self-driving cars as a possible solution, but while that goal is still (probably) years away, they’ve narrowed their focus to teaming up with VW to create self-driving shuttles just for their employees.  Even that project is moving slower than the company had hoped, but they’re aiming to have some shuttles ready by the end of the year.

 

4. Court Weighs in on President’s Tendency to Block Critics on Twitter

Three years ago no one would have imagined that Twitter would be a president’s go-to source for making announcements, but today it’s used to that effect more frequently than official press conferences or briefings.

In a court battle that may sound surreal to many of us, a judge just found that the president can no longer legally block other users on Twitter.  The court asserted that blocking users on a public forum like Twitter amounts to a violation of their First Amendment rights. The judgment does still allow for the president and other public officials to mute users they don’t agree with, though.

 

5. YouTube Launches Music Streaming Service

YouTube joined the ranks of Spotify, Pandora, and Amazon this past month with their own streaming music service. Consumers can use a free version of the service that includes ads, or can pay $9.99 for the ad-free version.

youtube music service

With so many similar services already on the market, people weren’t exactly clamoring for another music streaming option. But since YouTube is likely to remain the reigning source for videos, it doesn’t necessarily need to unseat Spotify to still be okay. And with access to Google’s extensive user data, it may be able to provide more useful recommendations than its main competitors in the space, which is one way the service could differentiate itself.

 

6. Facebook Institutes Political Ad Rules

Facebook hasn’t yet left behind the controversies of the last election. The company is still working to proactively respond to criticism of its role in the spread of political propaganda many believe influenced election results. One of the solutions they’re trying is a new set of rules for any political ads run on the platform.

Any campaign that intends to run Facebook ads is now required to verify their identity with a card Facebook mails to their address that has a verification code. While Facebook has been promoting these new rules for a few weeks to politicians active on the platform, some felt blindsided when they realized, right before their primaries no less, that they could no longer place ads without waiting 12 to 15 days for a verification code to come in the mail. Politicians in this position blame the company for making a change that could affect their chances in the upcoming election.

Even in their efforts to avoid swaying elections, Facebook has found themselves criticized for doing just that. They’re probably feeling at this point like they just can’t win.

 

7. Another Big Month for Tech IPOs

This year has seen one tech IPO after another and this month is no different. Chinese smartphone company Xiaomi has a particularly large IPO in the works. The company seeks to join the Hong Kong stock exchange on June 7 with an initial public offering that experts anticipate could reach $10 billion.

The online lending platform Greensky started trading on the New York Stock Exchange on May 23 and sold 38 million shares in its first day, 4 million more than expected. This month continues 2018’s trend of tech companies going public, largely to great success.

 

8. StumbleUpon Shuts Down

In the internet’s ongoing evolution, there will always be tech companies that win and those that fall by the wayside. StumbleUpon, a content discovery platform that had its heyday in the early aughts, is officially shutting down on June 30.

Since its 2002 launch, the service has helped over 40 million users “stumble upon” 60 billion new websites and pieces of content. The company behind StumbleUpon plans to create a new platform that serves a similar purpose that may be more useful to former StumbleUpon users called Mix.

 

9. Uber and Lyft Invest in Driver Benefits

In spite of their ongoing success, the popular ridesharing platforms Uber and Lyft have faced their share of criticism since they came onto the scene. One of the common complaints critics have made is that the companies don’t provide proper benefits to their drivers. And in fact, the companies have fought to keep drivers classified legally as contractors so they’re off the hook for covering the cost of employee taxes and benefits.

Recently both companies have taken steps to make driving for them a little more attractive. Uber has begun offering Partner Protection to its drivers in Europe, which includes health insurance, sick pay, and parental leave ­ ­– so far nothing similar in the U.S. though. For its part, Lyft is investing $100 million in building driver support centers where their drivers can stop to get discounted car maintenance, tax help, and customer support help in person from Lyft staff. It’s not the same as getting full employee benefits (in the U.S. at least), but it’s something.

Source: https://www.hostgator.com/blog/june-tech-trends-to-watch/

2017 Guide to all Porsche Models

Porsche 911 GT3 991.22018 Porsche 911 GT3 991.2.Porsche

Porsche rounded out the 911 family on Tuesday at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show with the introduction of its latest track-bred GT3 variant. At the heart of the new Porsche 911 GT3 is a 4.0-liter, naturally aspirated flat-six-cylinder engine, which produces 500 horsepower and 339 lb.-ft. of torque. The GT3 becomes the first of the 991.2 generation 911s to eschew turbocharging.

Customers can option the GT3 with either a traditional six-speed manual transmission or a seven-speed twin-clutch PDK unit. The 2018 Porsche 911 GT3, expected to reach US showrooms this fall with a starting price of $143,600, is available with active rear-wheel steering and carbon-fiber aerodynamic elements.

According to Porsche, the PDK-equipped GT3 can sprint to 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds and reach a top speed of 197 mph. In six-speed guise, the Porsche requires 3.8 seconds to reach 60mph before hitting 198 mph. Even though, the six speed is slower off the line, the holy combination of a clutch pedal with a naturally aspirated powerplant will be too much of a draw for Porsche purists to ignore.

There are few cars in the world more iconic than the Porsche 911. Over the years, the rear-engine sports car has gotten bigger, faster, and more technologically advanced. But its spirited driving dynamics and on-track capabilities have continued to make it a favorite among enthusiasts worldwide.

But you often hear the complaint that all current 911s look pretty much the same. And if you ask critics such as Jeremy Clarkson, host of Amazon’s „Grand Tour“ show, he’ll tell you that all Porsche 911s since the model’s debut in 1963 look identical. The truth is, most of the various versions of the current generation of 911s do look similar, yet they can all be identified by numerous subtle but important differences.

Like Taco Bell in the fast-food industry, what Porsche has managed to do so successfully is create multiple iterations of the 911 by mixing and matching the same ingredients, and packaging them in a lot of different ways. And if you’ve ever driven a 911, you’ll probably agree with me in saying there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

So here it is, the most current lineup of Porsche’s 911 Taco Bell menu.

 

Carrera: The Carrera is the „base“ 911, if there is such as thing. The 991.2 Carrera powered by a 3.0-liter, 370-horsepower, twin-turbocharged, flat six …

Carrera: The Carrera is the "base" 911, if there is such as thing. The 991.2 Carrera powered by a 3.0-liter, 370-horsepower, twin-turbocharged, flat six ...

Porsche

… and the Cabriolet is the convertible version of the Carrera.

... and the Cabriolet is the convertible version of the Carrera.

Porsche

The Carrera 4 Coupe is a Carrera Coupe with all-wheel drive …

The Carrera 4 Coupe is a Carrera Coupe with all-wheel drive ...

Porsche

… and the Carrera 4 Cabriolet is the convertible variant.

... and the Carrera 4 Cabriolet is the convertible variant.

Porsche

The Carrera S gets a 50 hp boost from the base Carrera, thanks to larger turbochargers and an upgraded exhaust system on the 3.0-liter 420 hp flat-six engine …

The Carrera S gets a 50 hp boost from the base Carrera, thanks to larger turbochargers and an upgraded exhaust system on the 3.0-liter 420 hp flat-six engine ...

Porsche

… and here’s the convertible Cabriolet Carrera S.

... and here's the convertible Cabriolet Carrera S.

Porsche

The Carrera 4S is the Carrera S with all-wheel drive …

The Carrera 4S is the Carrera S with all-wheel drive ...

Porsche

… and the Carrera 4S Cabriolet is the convertible edition.

... and the Carrera 4S Cabriolet is the convertible edition.

Porsche

The Carrera GTS is a step up from the Carrera S. With turbochargers even larger than those found on the S, the GTS packs a stout 450 horsepower.

The Carrera GTS is a step up from the Carrera S. With turbochargers even larger than those found on the S, the GTS packs a stout 450 horsepower.

Porsche

… and the Carrera GTS Cabriolet is yet another convertible version!

... and the Carrera GTS Cabriolet is yet another convertible version!

Porsche

The Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS is the GTS with all-wheel drive …

The Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS is the GTS with all-wheel drive ...

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… and Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet is, naturally, the accompanying convertible.

... and Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet is, naturally, the accompanying convertible.

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The Targa 4 is a Carrera 4 with an awesome electric lift-away roof!

The Targa 4 is a Carrera 4 with an awesome electric lift-away roof!

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While the Targa 4S is a Carrera 4S with the special „Targa“ roof.

While the Targa 4S is a Carrera 4S with the special "Targa" roof.

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The Targa 4 GTS is a Carrera 4 GTS with the Targa roof.

The Targa 4 GTS is a Carrera 4 GTS with the Targa roof.

Porsche

The latest generation of the legendary Turbo gets a 3.8-liter, 540 horsepower version of the twin-turbocharged flat-six found in other 911 models. Thanks to a pair of monster turbochargers, the Turbo has become a benchmark vehicle for aspiring supercars everywhere.

The latest generation of the legendary Turbo gets a 3.8-liter, 540 horsepower version of the twin-turbocharged flat-six found in other 911 models. Thanks to a pair of monster turbochargers, the Turbo has become a benchmark vehicle for aspiring supercars everywhere.

Porsche

There’s a Turbo Cabriolet, as well.

There's a Turbo Cabriolet, as well.

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The Turbo S is a Turbo with a 580 hp engine.

The Turbo S is a Turbo with a 580 hp engine.

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And of course … a Turbo S Cabriolet is available, too!

And of course ... a Turbo S Cabriolet is available, too!

Porsche

The GT3 is the hard-core, track-oriented member of the 911 family. In the spirit of purity, its 500 horsepower, 4.0-liter engine is naturally aspirated — making it the only 991.2 to refrain from turbocharging.

The GT3 is the hard-core, track-oriented member of the 911 family. In the spirit of purity, its 500 horsepower, 4.0-liter engine is naturally aspirated — making it the only 991.2 to refrain from turbocharging.

Porsche

Finally, there’s the 911R. It’s an ultra-lightweight special edition, with only 991 expected to be built worldwide. The 911R is powered by a 500-horsepower, naturally aspirated, 4.0-liter unit that’s shared with the GT3 RS. It is also the only 911 that’s available exclusively with a manual transmission. The 911R is out of production — which means there will be no 2017 models made. However, they may be a few new cars floating around out there, but they will likely come with an extreme markup over the $185,000 MSRP. The 911R is a 991.1 spec model.

Finally, there's the 911R. It's an ultra-lightweight special edition, with only 991 expected to be built worldwide. The 911R is powered by a 500-horsepower, naturally aspirated, 4.0-liter unit that's shared with the GT3 RS. It is also the only 911 that's available exclusively with a manual transmission. The 911R is out of production — which means there will be no 2017 models made. However, they may be a few new cars floating around out there, but they will likely come with an extreme markup over the $185,000 MSRP. The 911R is a 991.1 spec model.

Porsche

What will the car of the future look like?

Technological breakthroughs such as autonomy are giving free rein on car design, so we’ve asked leading designers what the car of the future might look like

Autonomy, digitalisation, electrification and connected cars are no longer fashionable buzzwords looking to a brighter future.

Today, aspects of all three are already present on our roads, from cruise control functions that read the road ahead and adjust your speed, through to the self-driving Tesla Autopilot and Mercedes Driver Assist functions that are already on stream.

These are technological breakthroughs with far-reaching consequences; they are the result of the march of time and advances in understanding, and they are statesponsored because of the promise of fewer road injuries and accidents. They are an inevitability that will, in the words of Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche, prompt a profound change to cars “as radical as the industry has seen in its 120 years of existence”.

At the heart of this pivotal moment in time stands a generation of car designers with an entirely new rule book at their fingertips. But what does that rule book look like and how radically different is it?

Autocar polled leading designers from around the automotive industry to hear their views.

MICHAEL MAUER, Volkswagen Group head of design, on whether cars will end up looking the same:

“The mobility world of tomorrow gives us designers entirely new creative possibilities. Electric drives and autonomous driving remove any obstacles and change design more radically than has been the case in recent decades.

“But that does not mean we will have uniform autonomous vehicles. The streetscape of the future will become even more varied, even more colourful, even more emotional.”

SATORU TAI, executive design director for Nissan, on changing priorities and the short and longterm challenges:

“Cars may go through a phase of looking similar, but in the long run I think further advancement of technologies will then enable us to have more freedom in shaping unique designs, just as they did in the past.

“With the complete change of powertrains, the layout will become more flexible. We will no longer need an extended bonnet or bootlid. If we only pursue efficiency, I think the overall design of cars will become boxier and mono-volume orientated.

“Since many of the upcoming technologies are about man/machine interfaces, there will be a transition period and I am sure interior design will have more significance than exterior design. To a degree, the interior will influence the exterior design all the more and they will, eventually, resume the relationship they have today.”

GORDEN WAGENER, head of design at Mercedes-Benz, on bringing simplicity to complex solutions:

“Look at how much design has changed this company in the past three years. We’ve made the transition from an old luxury company to a modern luxury company, simply through design. Looking to the future with the challenges to come — digitisation, electrification — I think designers are the people to envision it.

“We’re living in the future; we’re five, 10, even 15 years into the future. Design has never been more important. There’s so much happening and, as designers, we’re really in the driver’s seat here. The new world will become very complex and it’s the designers who will try to make it simple.”

KLAUS BISCHOFF, Volkswagen design chief, on a focus on interiors:

“The biggest shift for design will be the interiors of EVs. Because we have pushed the ID concept’s climate control system into the nose, the dash can be pushed back 20cm — which gives a great deal more room in the cabin. Today’s car interiors are close to the driver, almost hemming them in; in future EVS, space in the cabin will be far greater.”

LAURENS VAN DEN ACKER, design chief for Renault, on whether to go radical or remain conventional:

“The first thing to say is that there’s never been a better time to be a designer. Technology means engineers can do things they couldn’t five years ago and that has opened up all sorts of avenues. Marketeers have realised that in a world of no really bad cars, design is what makes the difference.

“We can write our own future — and I don’t see car sharing taking that away. People will still care what their car looks like. People won’t want to be in a vehicle that looks like a trash can, and besides, most people won’t want to share a car. It’s something personal; it would be like sharing your cat.

“The biggest opportunity in the near future will be space; an electric drivetrain is 40% more compact than a combustion one, so that’s an opportunity. But how far do we go? I’m in favour of change but think customers will still want to see classic proportions. I don’t see a reason for revolution.”

SIMON HUMPHRIES, president of ED2, Toyota’s design HQ in Europe and one of the key development centres for Lexus and Toyota, on why there’s no single answer:

“Consumers’ values will become increasingly diverse, and consumers will become increasingly confident in their ability to choose without following mainstream trends. Acceptance of new, radical design and non-traditional hierarchies will result, and that may signal the end of mass trends in design as people seek new methods of self-expression.

“Size will no longer define the automotive hierarchy and branding strategies will have to change. The paradigm shift from gasoline to electric will not happen overnight; they will co-exist, resulting in each finding its own speciality. Choice will depend on lifestyle and the ‘allrounder’ car of today will be replaced by more specific designs, with the different experiences being offered becoming the brand differentiator.

“There will also be new influences from developing regions, leading to new concepts and ideas based on criteria other than the traditional European view of the car.”

MORAY CALLUM, vice-president of design at Ford, on how the designer’s job is changing:

“There’s more design to do because it’s more complicated. So much more goes into everything. When I started we chose between a 5.0in round headlight or a 7.0in headlight. Now we’ve got around 35 people on headlights, because there are around 50 different parts.

“We’re not just going to the car design schools to recruit now, because our role is getting wider as our relationship with the car is changing. As designers, we have an expanding role around how these systems we add work. For instance, the designer’s job is to make the [infotainment] logic logical to customers; we’ve got more interior designers than exterior designers now. You fall in love with the exterior but live with the interior — and most of the pain points are inside.”

ALFONSO ALBAISA, corporate vice-president and executive design director for Infiniti, on changing limits and how to persuade customers to embrace that change:

“I don’t feel there is a limit to designing cars for the future. The only issue is how we walk with our customer into the future, because the customer’s appetite for change is what we must relate to. Sometimes, depending on culture, the customer can be slightly conservative. This also depends on their social situation, but sometimes they are ambitious and expect significant design changes.

“I think premium customers are open to change if we provide a clear benefit to them. It’s important; if you change something significant, there must be very clear customer benefit. If there is not, the customer will reject it because they have so many good choices in the marketplace.

“In reality, the modern user experience and how it relates to and works with the owner has a much higher value than piping or wood on an interior, and I feel there is a great potential in the coming digital technologies.”

ROB MELVILLE, McLaren chief designer, on whether driver-focused supercars are less likely to change than conventional cars:

“They’ll change too — and soon. Our philosophy is to create breathtaking designs that tell the visual story of their function, and we have an amazing bandwidth of functionality and focus coming in our products. We plan to do this by using our advanced technologies, aerodynamic software and manufacturing processes to create our beautiful yet functional designs. We will continue to be brave and innovate.

“Clever design will be the dominant force and will always predominate over new legislation, which is an opportunity to find new solutions and make cars even more individual. It’s an exciting challenge for the team. The freeing up of crash structures will mean improved aerodynamics, which is fantastic, and the interior space/ volume of the car will be designed to suit our vehicle’s requirements.

“Customers will accept the changes as long as it is authentic, radical design. Radical design just to be trendy lacks integrity and this turns customers off. Our customers are very sophisticated and appreciate radical design that delivers improved experience, usability and fun. It has to put a smile on your face.”

STEFAN SIELAFF, Bentley director of design, on ultra-luxury design — and a history lesson:

“Maybe ‘transport boxes’ will be part of the future, but it will go one step at a time and I can say our customers want our cars because they make a statement, not just because they do a job.

“Bentley will always follow a fusion of performance and luxury; dynamics must be part of the mixture. But even if sometimes you will want to turn the seats around and leave the control to the systems, sometimes, at the right times, our customers will want to drive. It’s a compromise we know at Bentley; for 100 years our owners have done the same, albeit with chauffeurs driving.

“The question is not just about design but also technology. How will that change what we want from the interior space? And even if we give people more space, it won’t be about just opening the car up. Our customers want architecture, not just space.

“I am old enough to remember East and West Germany. In the East there was basically one car, a Trabant, available in five colours. The day the Berlin Wall came down, people were clamouring to change. That history lesson suggests there is no desire to own cars that look identical.”

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/what-will-car-future-look