A biweekly round-up of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Lamborghini debuts Urus SUV, cementing 2017’s reputation as worst year ever
Lamborghini, the Italian supercar company that used to be cool, is now yet another crossover manufacturer. Their Urus, which will almost never see any sort of terrain more challenging than a speed bump at Park Royal, officially debuted to the world with a twin-turbocharged V-8 making 641 horsepower to four driven wheels.
It’s pretty terrible looking, resembling the skin of a dead Aventador draped over an Audi Q7. Maybe that’s because it’s basically a German crossover cosplaying as a raging bull; thanks to shared platforms, this is the future that awaits us all.
Yes, Lamborghini needs to be profitable, and yes, more people buy crossovers than sports cars. And yes, it’s not like a lot of Lamborghini owners are using their cars to ten-tenths at the track.
But seriously, the company that gave us the svelte Miura and the hairy-chested Countach now makes the automotive equivalent of the world’s largest cubic zirconium. The only thing bringing a smile to my face is the thought of one accidentally backing into a Bentley Bentayga in a parking lot.
Uber saddles rider with $18,500 bill
Here’s another unintended consequence of the sharing economy: the continuing mess that is Uber. Plagued by scandals including lawsuits, harassment litigation, charges of working its fleet of drivers to the bone, and a recent massive security breach, maybe Uber isn’t so Uber.
If you think autonomous vehicles are going to be some instant panacea for our traffic-clogged roads, maybe think again. Predatory capital companies like Uber can be the worst to deal with, as evidenced by the eye-watering bill handed to a Toronto rider recently.
Uber uses surge pricing to jack up prices when there’s high demand in an area. In this case, it looks like the algorithm missed a digit or two, charging $18,500 for a 20 minute ride.
Eventually, the charge was corrected, although not before a lot of back-and-forth. The bus might be less convenient, sure, but at least they don’t suddenly try to charge you the cost of a new Honda Civic for riding.
Hyundai projects battery costs to level out in 2020
As a final Debbie Downer (I’ll try to be more cheerful in my next column, promise), Hyundai is calling for battery costs to stop dropping after 2020. With EVs on the rise, albeit slowly, greater demand for the raw materials to build batteries could create a bottleneck for production.
Over the past five years, lithium-ion batteries have dropped in cost by 60 per cent or so. Range and capacity are up, and EVs are looking more practical than ever. Still, concerns about the ability of the grid to support increasing demand must now be married with the looming prospect of a shortage of cobalt, nickel, and lithium.
But let’s stay positive. Reclaiming materials from scrapped EVs is one easy way to keep rare earths in rotation. Greater numbers of plug-in hybrids can use smaller-capacity batteries that will be cheaper to manufacturer (most of us don’t need much range from our vehicles for day-to-day use).
And, lastly, there’s always the chance of a breakthrough in battery tech that will reduce weight and increase power density by a significant amount. Don’t be pessimistic that won’t happen: it’s not so long since a cellphone was the size of your shoe, and now you’re probably reading this on a tiny magic box that fits right in your pocket.
Watch this space for all the week’s best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to [email protected].
