Can conspicuous luxury ever be a
force for good, in a world dogged by economic austerity and worries over
pollution and climate change?
That's the question being vigorously
tackled, head-on, by a pair of upstarts to the luxury automobile scene. The
twin-stroke assault by Tesla and Fisker, on the primacy of high-octane
gas-guzzling in the luxury automobile sector, aims to flip its accepted notions
on their head. Whereas low mileage, fuel-hungry engines have been a badge of
honor for top-of-the-range car owners, electric drive-trains hold out the
prospect of a different aspirational grail – fusing the yin of exhilarating
road performance to the yang of down-to-earth (and planet-saving) fuel
economics.
The notion that the switch to
electric vehicles (EV's) can be driven from the top, down, may just be the
saving grace for the sector. While solid mid-range EV models – such as Nissan's
Leaf, Ford's Focus Electric and GM's Volt – have been slowly and steadily
(perhaps a little too steadily) chipping away at the mainstream market,
top-shelf products from Tesla and Fisker have entered the public consciousness
in an entirely different manner. To put it bluntly, the Tesla Model S and
Fisker Karma are sex-on-wheels. And in the world of automobiles, luxury or
otherwise, sex sells.
Luxury EV's - the designer's white
board
The starting point of that visceral
appeal is the raw power that electric motors can channel from battery to wheel.
Tesla's Model S hooks 416 of horsepower to the accelerator pedal, whereas the
Karma puts twin 201-hp motors at its drivers disposal. Even fatter electric-hp
numbers are on their way to the road, too, courtesy of established players like
Porsche and Ferrari. But it's not just those loud numbers that are doing the
talking for luxury EV's; it's the suppleness of the power delivery that has had
auto-journalists panting. And electric drive-trains are opening up the
automobile chassis to a flexibility of form that combustion-engined designers
envy.
So the potential for a re-shaping of
the luxury car sector – maybe even the changing of its game – is there. And
given the aspirational nature of the consumer market that car sales flourish
in, the setting a new green standard for status-symbol cars could well light
the touch-paper for EV's – and perhaps see them exploding into the mainstream.
In the meantime, if you happened to have the $60,000 to $100,000 entry fee
needed to slip into one of these shiny new lux-EV's, what kind of
electric-driving experience can you expect?
Model S – electric from the ground up
Well, let's start with the Tesla
Model S. This all-electric affair has won awards and plaudits by the boot-full
over the last year. And glance along its low liquid lines suggests part of the
reason. Thanks to being engineered from the ground up as an electric car, the
designers had total latitude with the form. They took that freedom to summon up
the world's lowest drag factor for any car on the market.
That efficiency, combined with the
top model's 85 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, give the Model S a mileage rating
of 95 MPGe (gasoline-equivalent,
though it doesn't touch a drop of the stuff). That means it can do 100 miles on
just $4 electric fuel. And it pushes its range to 265 miles, and dead-battery
worries to the edge of the horizon.
The electric road-trip
But Tesla have a strategy to
completely blow all-electric range anxiety out of the water – and have paired the Model S to a custom
network of fast chargers. The company has strung these proprietary 90 kW 440V
Tesla Supercharger units along the major routes of both east and west coasts.
They can 'super-charge' the Model S up to half-power (about 130 miles) in just
30 minutes, making the all-electric road trip a reality. Best of all, these
chargers are being upgraded to source electricity from solar power.
Such luxury-levels of on-road
performance are carried through to the interactive driving experience Tesla
have furnished the Model S with. The hub of that is the 17” infotainment
touch-pad reclining down the center of the dash. This pad integrates a host of
driving functions, including charging and range information, navigational maps,
status displays and media information. This can all be controlled through
buttons on the driving wheel, and with a recent upgrade, voice activated
controls.
Karma Fisker – the James Bond hybrid
The Fisker Karma takes a very
different stance to Tesla on how electric-drives will play out on the roads, in
the near-term at least. In essence the Karma is a plug-in hybrid – just an
exceptionally powerful one, that looks like it's driven off the 007 movie set,
and which can hit 60mph in 6.3 seconds. The drive is, however, 100% electric,
with it being entirely battery-driven for the first 50 miles; after that a
gasoline-generator kicks in, to produce the electrical power to zip this
sporty-looking car along.
No range anxiety here, then. But that
does mean that the Karma is less impressive on the mileage side of the
equation, being rated only 52MPGe by the EPA (for combined city/highway
driving). That is still a league away from the sub-15 MPG experienced by gas
cars in its class, like the Maserati Quattroportes, however. While its
gas-powered switch over offers total reassurance when traveling at distances,
drivers are likely to rely on the 20 kWh lithium-ion battery most of the time
for more typical short spurts. That battery, however, charges up at a somewhat
turgid 6 hours, even through a Level 2 240V connector.
The ultimate sun-roof
An interesting twist on battery charging
is provided by the Karma's integrated solar PV roof. While this only supplies a
tiny fraction of the energy consumed by nipping around town, it keeps the 12 V
battery, which drives the air-conditioning and interior devices, nicely topped
up, putting less strain on the main battery. And it does add a cool blue sheen
to the car's immense and powerful good looks. Another notch upon the
cool-o-meter comes courtesy of the buzzing spaceship noises the car makes when
moving at less than 30mph – possibly a request from Fisker's marketing
department, as it apparently is a real head-turner.
So will there be a place in the
hearts of the capaciously wallet-ed classes for electric cars like the Model S
or Karma? Conventional marketing analysts seem doubtful that there's room for
two more entrants, into an already crowded luxury car market. But possibly
they're missing out on couple of factors that may help break the mold – and
earn success – for these top-end EV's.
The China Factor
First, the buyers of cars in this
class are seduced not just by racy-stylings, but by the potential for racy
rides. Electric-motors are already proving themselves capable of outperforming
gasoline engines – and they are only at the start of their technical learning
curve. Add that to the superior handling of better-balanced EV frames, and the
possibility for EV's to blow their gas-powered brethren off the road looks
likely to ramp up. That will matter to a significant part of the luxury market.
The other factor is China. China is
an increasingly important market for all classes of automobiles, but especially
for those at the luxury-end of the scale. So far China's better off citizens
have shown little inclination for going electric. But China's dirty coal and
gasoline-fueled cities are not going to stay smog-clogged for much longer.
After the terrible fug of pollution that has choked Beijing this winter, the
political pressure for action to clean the air is rising.
It seems entirely plausible, in this
new climate, that zero-emission lux-EV's, such as the Tesla Model S and the
Fisker Karma, will do very well riding the coat-tails of China's elite – newly keen to be seen to be clean and
green.
Martin is a freelance writer from the UK, who specializes in writing on the strategic impact of environmental issues. After a 10-year sojourn as an analyst at Brady plc – a Cambridge-based provider of services to commodity investment banking professionals – Martin set himself up as self-employed writer at the beginning of 2010. Since then he has written for a number of environmental websites and companies, and has been one of the principle journalists for green news website, The Earth Times.
