Electrified Vehicles at the 2022 Chicago Auto Show

Earlier this month I attended the 2-day media preview of the Chicago Auto Show. I’ve attended the show every year since 2014, except last year when the usual February show was rescheduled to the summer because of the pandemic. This year’s show was smaller than previous years, but there was still a lot to see.

Some terms you’ll see in this post:

• BEV = battery electric vehicle
• FCEV = fuel cell electric vehicle
• Frunk = front trunk
• HEV= hybrid electric vehicle
• ICE = internal combustion engine (i.e: a gasoline engine)
• MPGe = miles per gallon equivalent
• PHEV = plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
• Unibody = body & chassis are designed and built together, different than body on frame

In the past years you’d see a number of HEVs and the occasional BEV, but in 2022 the BEVs were everywhere. Most vehicles on display were ICE vehicles, but it was the electric vehicles that were the center of attention at most displays. Only manufacturers that have a dealership network are part of this and other big car shows; so no Telsa, Rivian, Lucid, etc.

Ford

Ford F-150 Lightening BEV:  Like the ICE F-150, the electric version is big. Other than a light bar front & rear it looks like any other new pickup. Ford intentionally kept the truck looking similar to other F-150s, a smart move considering the F-series is the best selling vehicle in America.

1978 Ford F-100 Eluminator BEV: I was very excited to see this truck. It was converted to a BEV using Ford’s BEV crate motor, first shown at the ’22 CES (Consumer Electronics Show).

Ford Mustang Mach-E BEV: I’ve seen a couple on the streets in St. Louis, and a friend’s husband got one. I got to ride in one on the test track, which included a too fast launch control demonstration. I asked if they could demonstrate regenerative braking to stop the car but they said no.

Ford E-Transit BEV delivery van: Delivery & work vans are a big market and they’re good candidates for electric vs ICE since they’re not driven long distances.

In addition to vehicles, a lot of displays talked about their electrified vehicles.

Ford Maverick HEV compact pickup: Ford’s new unibody compact pickup was one of my favorite vehicles at the show, though it’s still larger than the smallest pickups of the 1970s. The base powertrain is hybrid, but a larger non-hybrid ICE is optional. Truck purists aren’t a fan of unibody trucks, others include the Honda Ridgeline and the new Hyundai Santa Cruz.

To complete Ford’s electric marketing this banner was displayed on their test track.

GENERAL MOTORS

General Motors is working toward being a leader in BEVs, but they had little to offer — make that nothing small, only big trucks.

Recently the EPA numbers on the GMC Hummer became public — this is now the least efficient BEV you can buy, only 47 MPGe! Seems appropriate. We need a BEV equivalent term for a gas guzzler, electron hog?

TOYOTA

Toyota, with the Prius HEV, has been into electrified vehicles for decades. They’ve made some BEV versions of their RAV4 compact crossover, but they showed their first BEV on a new non-ICE platform.

SUBARU

Subaru had a very large, interesting display. The premium spot was for their first BEV, the Solterra. Toyota and Subaru worked together to create the new BEV platform shared by the bZ4X (above) and the Solterra.

VOLKSWAGEN

Following the costly dieselgate scandal on many Volkswagen Group vehicles, they had to pivot to electric vehicles. The ID.4 is the first such VW here in the United States.

NISSAN

Nissan had a huge lead in BEVs with the Leaf, but odd looks, limited range, and price limited sales.Now they’ve got a new BEV platform and vehicle.

BMW

BMW no longer offers the unconventional i3 — now offering more conventional BEVs.

Kia

The sister brand to Hyundai has a new BEV platform, a new model, and a bulky concept.

HYUNDAI

Hyundai has 3 car brands: Kia, Genesis, and Hyundai. All three have a new BEV on a new platform, shown above in the Kia section. Genesis wasn’t at this show, so I didn’t get to see the GV60 BEV. Hyundai has used the Ionic name for a few years, on a vehicle available as a HEV, PHEV, or BEV — depending upon market. Now the Ionic name is being used as a sub-brand. The Ionic 5 BEV crossover is the first of their trio of new BEVs to market.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

It was great seeing so many BEVs in one place, like it or not vehicles are quickly switching from internal combustion to battery electric.

I wish more emphasis was placed on efficiency, rather than just 0-60 time or total range. In reviewing MPGe numbers on FuelEconomy.gov I can see none of the world’s legacy auto manufacturers can beat the efficiency of Tesla & Lucid. Chevy & Kia do have models in the top 10 in efficiency.

Think of it like an efficient car with a small fuel tank going the same distance as a heavy inefficient vehicle with a huge fuel tank, the latter being able to travel the same distance simply because the tank is so large. It makes sense that Tesla is great at efficiency, they’ve been at this the longest. Lucid, however, has only begun shipping their first cars and yet they’ve beaten all the efficiency of BEVs from legacy manufacturers.

More on efficiency, charging, etc in a future post(s).

— Steve Patterson

This Is Our Chance To Reconnect Two Neighborhoods Long Separated By Highways

Urban highways & interstates allow drivers to get from point A to point B quicker than had they taken surface streets, but they’re also a major divider between the existing neighborhoods they cut through.  In the late 1950s the downtown’s 3rd Street Parkway was being extended north, eventually connecting with the new Mark Twain Expressway (aka I-70/I-44) in July 1961.

I live on the west side of the highway, but I can stand in my kitchen and see Broadway & Cass, on the east side of the highway. I know first hand how the highway divides the historic north riverfront from my neighborhood, Columbus Square.

Ideally we’d remove urban interstates and weave our neighborhoods back together, but that’s never going to happen. What should happen is when we rebuild crumbling infrastructure we add connections civil engineers in the 1950s never considered at the time the highways were planned.

The distance from Broadway & Cass to Broadway & O’Fallon is only 2/10 of a mile, but the distance required for the last 60 years has been double that — 4/10 of a mile.

The Missouri Department of Transportation supports pedestrian facilities:

MoDOT works with planning partners to create transportation facilities that work for all users because we value bicycle and pedestrian travel. Accommodating for bicyclists or pedestrians may be as simple as providing a well-designed road that all road users share or as complex as a separate-grade structure, such as a bridge. Developing appropriate facility design for nonmotorists depends on a variety of geometric and operational factors that are inter-related, such as available right-of-way, projected traffic counts and adjacent roadway design speeds.
 

We strive to integrate nonmotorized travel into the existing system to provide connections where none exist to promote efficiency and to focus on a primary concern—the safety of those who depend on walking or bicycling to reach their destinations. (MoDOT)

Unfortunately MoDOT failed to accommodate the needs of cyclists and pedestrians in the replacement. This is a huge mistake — it’ll be another 60+ years before we get another chance to reconnect these areas.

You might be thinking it would be too difficult to include a pedestrian sidewalk.  The old bridge, removed over the weekend, couldn’t have easily been retrofitted. But when building the new bridge entirely from the ground up it is actually pretty easy.

Here’s the overview:

Now let’s take a look at the old bridge and highway exit ramps.

The solution is the one southbound lane of Broadway splits into 3 before Cass — one left, one right, one straight ahead. This means the same width bridge can also accommodate bikes & pedestrians. The traffic exiting the southbound express lane and the highway have plenty of length for drivers to decelerate. Rumble strips (or similar) can be used to communicate to the driver to slow down as they approach Broadway. The 2 highway exit lanes can narrow to one before Broadway. Not sure if signals are necessary or just a flashing red light and notices to yield to pedestrians.

I would like to see Broadway south of Cole to return to two-way traffic in the future, so I’d like the new bridge to accommodate 2-way traffic and pedestrians on one side.

Again, I’m trying to connect two areas that have been separated for over 60 years. Both have enormous potential for redevelopment — new construction & adaptive reuse to the south and mostly captive reuse to the north. I’d love to see football fans have pre-game drinks at Shady Jack’s Saloon and then walk down to the Dome to see the St. Louis Battlehawks when the XFL returns under new ownership.

We must use this moment to correct past mistakes!

— Steve Patterson

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