Hi, welcome to REV.
We're in Munich for the 2021 IAA, and we're going to take you through the top five trends
that we've noticed at the motor show this year.
Transformers are in.
As urban spaces are getting more and more crowded, it seems like urban mobility solutions
are shrinking.
What you see right here is the City Transformer.
It is the comfort of a car crossed with the flexibility and the space-saving capabilities
of a motorcycle.
From what I understand the car, when you drive it at normal speeds on the road is 1.4 metres
wide.
But when you need to park it, it can shrink to just one metre wide, which means that in
a single parking slot, you can park four of these City Transformers, thereby increasing
the chances of actually getting parking in the cities and also saving a lot of time and
saving space.
I'm not quite sure if this counts as a “transformer” or not.
But let's just say that this is something of the X-Men of last-mile mobility solutions.
It is all the benefits of let's say a motorcycle, although pedal powered with assistance from
a 1000 watt battery, combined with the flexibility of moving goods like you would in a van.
This is the Fulpra, which honestly reminds me of something we have back in India called
the “jugaad”.
But it's a lot safer and a lot more legal.
Another thing that we've noticed that the IAA 2021 is the fact that there is still an
attempt being made to save the internal combustion engine using synthetic fuels.
aFuel is a global energy carrier.
There is a focus to produce e-Methanol in desert countries.
So for example, in the sun belt.
There, we have high energy density of the solar.
And then we can produce methanol, and as well as the additional component – the C-Sink.
So we produce 290 % methanol and 10% graphite, which you can burn down in the ground, and
there's a storage for the carbon.
So that's the reason why we can achieve minus 24 gram per kilometer.
CO2 neutral is too less because we already already have too much temperature on Earth.
So we need more we need to be active, we need to reduce emissions.
And then at the moment, there are different concepts to reduce CO2 emissions, but one
way which can store for a long time is to do it in solid state.
Another trend that we've noticed that the IAA 2021 is that while most of the show is
BEV dominated, the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle hasn't been written off yet.
Right here with me is BMW iX5 Hydrogen.
It is the company's Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, which they believe can complement their battery
electric vehicles, because they believe that not every customer leads a lifestyle that
is compatible with electric mobility.
This car has a power output of 275 kW, which is a combination of the fuel cell as well
as the battery.
Although BMW says that with just the fuel cell alone, the power output is 125 kW, which
means it is the most powerful fuel cell currently used in the automotive industry.
Currently, this car can give you a range of 500km, although in the future BMW hopes to
take that number up to 600.
We’re in the 21st century now, which means that a lot of things that we though were just
figments of Isaac Asimov's imagination are now coming true.
Which brings me to one of the biggest trends at the 2021 IAA, which is autonomy or the
self-driving car.
If you take a look right here, I'm sitting in the i-Cristal Mobileye electric autonomous
shuttle.
There is absolutely no steering wheel and no pedals.
This is a shuttle with Level 4 autonomy and it can function as a bus, it can function
as a metro.
It can also function as a personal mobility solution where you call it using an app and
it ferries you around with absolutely no need for a driver
It doesn't drink and drive, doesn't text and drive.
It doesn't get you know, agitated or distracted, it doesn't fall asleep.
There are a lot of advantages why actually this technology will save lives.
And we know you know 94% of actually all accidents, 1.35 million traffic deaths per year, about
15 million injuries per year, are actually caused by human errors… human drivers.
Continuing on the theme of autonomous driving, this right here is Hyundai’s Robotaxi.
It’s meant to be Hyundai’s driverless car that will hit the roads in 2023.
It comes with Level 4 SAE self-driving capabilities, which means at your beck and call is a driverless
car to ferry you around.
This might seem like something of an obvious statement to be making, but the truth is the
overall and overwhelming statement that the 2021 seems to be making is that the future
is electric.
Remember, when I said that IAA 2021 was overwhelmingly electric?
Well, I wasn't kidding.
What you see behind me is the Porsche Mission R. This is Porsche’s interpretation of an
all-electric racecar that they will offer their customers very soon, possibly as soon
as 2025.
So essentially, what you could see is an all-electric Porsche Cup, with cars just like this taking
to the racetrack.
Of course, this is still a concept car.
But Porsche is planning to go in this design direction.
And if you're wondering why I'm so excited about an all-electric Porsche racecar, it's
because Porsche has 19 overall wins at Le Mans.
So when they say they know how to build a racecar, I believe them.
What do you think of the trends that we've seen so far?
Let us know in your comments below.