Bultaco reborn to make electric motorbikes

Motorbike riders looking for something with a little Latin flair have had plenty of choices on their hands, but most of them come from Italy: marques like Ducati, Aprilia and Moto Guzzi. But what if you wanted something more Spanish than Italian? That's where Bultaco comes in. Or came in, we should say, because the Barcelona-based motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1958 closed in 1983, but now it's staging a comeback.

Instead of returning to the market with internal-combustion motorbikes like it made for decades, the new Bultaco is working on a line of motorcycles with electric propulsion. The revival effort has stemmed out of LGN Tech Design SL, a Spanish startup established that, among other activities, competed in electric motorcycle racing and has now grown into the rebirth of the Bultaco brand.

The company has several electric motorcycles under development, but is starting with the Rapitán (pictured above) and Rapitán Sport, powered by a brushless electric motor with 54 horsepower and 92 pound-feet of torque on tap, a 90-mile-per-hour top speed and regenerative braking to keep the lithium-ion battery topped off. The on-board charger will fill the battery from empty in three and a half to five hours for a combined SAE range of 87 miles, and without a gas tank between the rider and the handlebars, will even store a full-face helmet on board.

The team behind the revival, having benefited from the guidance of the late former BMW, Rolls-Royce and Maserati executive Karl-Heinz Kalbfell, aims to bring its first vehicles to market sometime this year, initially to be distributed in select markets across Europe.
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Mahindra plant and engineering ops comes to MI, electric bikes planned

Depending on who you speak to, India's Mahindra & Mahindra might be best known in the States for the six-year saga of huge hopes and dashed dreams embodied in a small, diesel pickup truck, as a tractor maker pushing its way into a US market ruled by John Deere and Kubota, as the owner of Ssangyong, as one of the companies that tried to buy Aston Martin or as an automotive engineering firm providing product development services to almost every carmaker out there. It's that last division that gets headlines now, Mahindra announcing an expansion of its facilities in Troy, Michigan on top of the news that it's setting up a factory in Ann Arbor, Michigan to build its GenZe scooter.

The Mahindra North American Technical Center (MNATC) is an outgrowth of the first tech center set up by Mahindra Engineering Services (MES) in 2012, now called Tech Mahindra. Mahindra Engineering is - obviously - the contract engineering services arm that serves a variety of industries, including transportation companies from Navistar to McLaren to Seat. Rick Haas, the president and COO of the MNATC, told Autoblog that he had five subject matter experts working out of the Tech Mahindra building doing product development for Mahindra in Chennai, India. Those experts weren't involved with Tech Mahindra, simply "squatting" in the building while they worked on products in the home market. About a year later it was deemed that the product development team "was exceeding our expectations, [so] we decided to turn this small group into a proper PD team and start full vehicle Product Development out of the Detroit area."

Those five engineers have moved into their new building and are now, Haas said, "up to 42 heads, on our way to about 100 this year, and more after that as we build a proper automotive PD center here to support the global aspirations of Mahindra in our auto business worldwide." They'll be "100% focused on supporting Mahindra's OEM auto business," supporting the engineering team in Chennai, India. "No work will ever be done for other companies" out of the MNATC, Haas said.

The Ann Arbor facility will build the GenZe, an electric scooter with a 30-mile-per-hour top speed and a price tag of $3,000. The plant is scheduled to manufacture 9,000 scooters per year, with the ability to increase that to 20,000 per year if sales take off. They will be sold direct in California, Florida, Oregon and Virginia, and through dealers in other states.
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Meyers Manx receives electric powertrain and a big honor

The Meyers Manx is one of the iconic vehicles of the 1960s and is partially responsible for popularizing the dune buggy. Now, the car has another accolade to add to its history. Company founder Bruce Meyers' original 1964 Manx prototype, nicknamed Old Red, is the second vehicle added to the National Historic Vehicle Register. The first one to make it onto the list was Shelby Daytona Coupe CSX2287.

Meyers' prototype Manx used a custom fiberglass monocoque that Volkswagen Beetle parts bolted to, but later models utilized the whole Beetle floorpan. The idea spawned a ton of copycats and became hugely popular. However, the original company went out of business in 1970. Meyers returned to the kit car world in the 2000s with Meyers Manx, Inc. offering a variety of kits to be built from VW components.

In addition to making it to the NHVR, the Manx is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a new electric dune buggy in cooperation with REV-Tec from Las Vegas, NV. At the moment, it's only a prototype called the Manx V (pictured above with Old Red) and packs an electric motor with 83.6 peak horsepower or 40 hp continuous and a 10-kilowatt-hour, lithium-ion battery pack. The rear-wheel drive EV has a theoretical top speed of 62 miles per hour, but the company plans it as a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, which limits it to 25 mph to 45 mph depending on the state. According to Autoweek, the business is aiming the V at tropical resorts and plans to release more details at the LA Auto Show in November.

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Commodore EV was almost ready before Holden collapsed

When you look at a Holden Commodore, you're not likely to see a "green" car staring back at you. (That is, assuming you're in Australia where the Commodore is sold. Or in the UK where you can get a Vauxhall VXR8. Or here in the US where it's rebadged as a Chevy SS or before that as a Pontiac G8 or GTO.) It is, in many cases after all, a big, rear-drive V8 muscle sedan. Not, in other words, known for its frugal sipping of fuel. But that didn't have to be the case.

According to our VB-guzzling compatriots from Down Under, a joint venture was on the verge of bringing an electric version of the Commodore to market. That joint venture was called EV Engineering, and it was the same outfit that built the (unofficial) record-setting Commodore that drove on electric power alone for a full 24 hours, covering 1,172 miles in the process. With development all but complete, EV Engineering was all ready to bring its electric Commodore to market, until all its constituents started dropping out.

First Futuris dropped out, then Better Place went under, GE Finance pulled its backing and GM turned Holden into an importer. After that Bosch and Air International dropped out, leaving just one constituent to the joint venture. The sole remaining partner, Axiflux is on the lookout for potential partners for the electric vehicle technology on which it collaborated, but given the state of the Australian automobile industry these days, it could be facing an uphill battle - up Ayers Rock, no less - to capitalize on the technology it's got.
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Kia expects US to be Soul EV's top market

While its sister brand Hyundai invests in hydrogen fuel cell technology, Kia is entering the battery-powered electric vehicle market with the new Soul EV. The Korean automaker plans to sell some 5,000 units of its first electric vehicle around the world. While it's not saying exactly what proportion it hopes to sell in (or how many it's allocating to) any individual market, the latest reports indicate that it expects the United States to be its biggest market.

Part of that may come down to the growing popularity of electric vehicles in America, but also to the substantial incentives offered by federal and local government agencies towards buying an EV. Though the Soul EV retails for a reported 42.5 million won in South Korea - equivalent to less than $41,500 at today's rates, of which the battery alone accounts for about 40 percent - incentives will mean that the actual cost to a buyer in the US will be about half that, although Kia hasn't announced official pricing yet.

The latest electric vehicle on the market is based on the existing Kia Soul hatchback, a vehicle chosen due to its packaging vis-à-vis more conventionally shaped vehicles. The 27 kWh lithium ion battery pack adds about 330 pounds to the vehicle's curb weight, resulting in a 0-62 time of 11.2 seconds and a 92-mile range. The Kia Soul EV will initially be sold only in California, Oregon, New York, New Jersey and Maryland.
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Is Cadillac working on an ELR-V? [w/video]

Could it be? Could Cadillac be working on an even higher-end version of its ELR plug-in hybrid? Well, General Motors' Executive Vice President Mark Reuss has gone on record as... well, not saying much. The exec was more than a bit coy on video (which you can view below) when asked about the idea of an ELR-V, although he did say that Cadillac was looking at "expanding the tuning envelope" for its plug-in coupe. What that means could be hinted at in these spy photos.

Cadillac is certainly up to something with this little red ELR. As is often the case, it's the car's enhanced brakes that give it away. Bigger binders are a telltale sign of sportier aspirations, and it's safe to say that rule applies with the ELR. The larger rotors and four-piston Brembo calipers are sourced from the Buick Regal GS, which we imagine would be plenty to bring the high-priced hybrid to a halt.

Obscuring those rotors and calipers are larger, double-armed five-spoke wheels. And, according to our spies, hiding behind that camouflage is a new grille. Outside of those two items, though, there's not much aesthetic change.

Perhaps the biggest hint that Cadillac is looking at a more potent ELR is the vehicle this car was being tested with - a Tesla Model S. The poster-child for the EV movement is a known performer, so it'd make sense that Cadillac is benchmarking this car against it.

Despite these bits of evidence, though, we're still far from convinced. Building an ELR-V seems to go against everything Cadillac is trying to do with both the ELR and the V range. Instead, we're betting this will become a VSport, following in the footsteps of the new CTS VSport.

That could explain the new brakes as well as the aesthetic changes, but not necessarily the Model S being tested alongside it - we suppose it's possible that GM could add a bit of grunt to the ELR's powertrain.

Continue reading Is Cadillac working on an ELR-V? [w/video]

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Chinese Tesla Model S buyers to get free license plate... a $15k value

Tesla buyers in in Shanghai, China, are getting even more of an incentive to choose its electric sedans. Each purchase of a Model S in the city will come with a free license plate.

That might not sound very important, but Shanghai operates under a government-organized auction system to distribute plates. Last year, they were selling for as much as $15,000, according to Car News China. The measure is a way to control the number of cars on the road, which contribute to the city's bad traffic and poor air quality.

Electric cars are exempt from the auctions and get a free license plate. However, that rule only covers Chinese-made electric cars. Obviously, Tesla doesn't build cars there (at least for now). But the Shanghai government will exempt 3,000 foreign electric cars per automaker to receive free plates, according to CNC. After they are gone, the company would have to go back and ask for more.

Tesla confirmed the plan to Autoblog and pointed out there was a small blurb about it in the automaker's Q1 2014 financial release: "Model S drivers in the city will be entitled to free license plates, thereby avoiding the usual public auction price of $10,000 to $15,000 per plate." It certainly seems like a great enticement to grab early buyers for the Model S there.
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