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Morgan Supersport: The New Second Car for Enthusiasts
Plus Six replacement arrives with the company hoping owners will think of it as the second, not third, car in a garage The Supersport is the Morgan they think could go from being the third car in your garage to the second one.Instead of owners having a daily driver, something more special for semi-regular amusement and a Morgan for high days and holidays, the new Supersport, the company reckons, could fill the second slot – in place (this sounds ambitious) of something like a Porsche 911.Initially Morgan’s engineers only meant to update the Plus Six, their straight-six roadster. But this facelift/update/call it what you will took on a life so large that it yielded a new name, a new appearance, even a new chassis derivation: CXV (115 – Morgan’s age last year) replacing CX (110). That has even necessitated homologating and crashing it again.Perhaps helpfully, it positions the Supersport further from the Plus Four, the traditional shape and style and still the meat of Morgan’s menu.
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Honda HR-V Refresh: Can It Compete with the Nissan Qashqai?
Family-centric crossover gets a mid-life refresh centred on refinement. Is it now a Nissan Qashqai beater? You will be forgiven for not noticing that the Honda HR-V was given a very minor update at the end of last year.It amounted to a new front grille (now squared rather than rounded), a reworked front bumper, sharper headlights, a bit of shaping worked into the body (especially at the sides) and the addition of a new range-topping trim (Advance Style Plus) that adds a panoramic roof and funky alloy wheels.But that’s it. So while other car makers are slimming down their line-ups or bringing in substantial updates, Honda has basically given the HR-V what amounts to a haircut. On the contrary, and to be fair to Honda, that’s really all it needed. When the current, third-generation model arrived in 2021, Honda’s push to exit the design doldrums was clear to see. Gone was bit of a hitherto anonymous crossover and in its place arrived a surprisingly sleek design.What’s more, it went hybrid only, as denoted by the ‘e:HEV’ element of its name. It drives like an EV at town speeds but uses its engine alone on the motorway to maximise efficiency and it blends the two on routes that fall somewhere in the middle.Honda isn’t just targeting a fresh aesthetic and exceptional efficiency with this car, either, but also class-leading packaging and cabin comfort, and a car that hs been “engineered for the joy of driving”. That has resonated with drivers, as the new HR-V has been Honda’s best seller by a mile: 7980 in the UK last year, 2500 more than the e:Ny1 and ZR-V. And so just a light freshen up was due to keep the car at pace against a broad spectrum of newly updated rivals such as the Peugeot 2008, Renault Captur, and Nissan Qashqai.It’s an overpopulated class, with no shortage of competition, so have these tweaks helped the HR-V again stand out? We find out.
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Mercedes Innovates EV Battery Technology with Groundbreaking Solid-State Design
Mercedes is trialling battery tech from its Mercedes AMG HPP F1 team
When Mario Illien and the late Paul Morgan founded Ilmor Engineering in 1983, neither could have dreamed what part of their company would be doing 40 years later.
Based at Brixworth, the firm was formed to develop methanol-fuel Indycar engines but soon branched into Formula 1 and eventually sold its F1 division to Mercedes-Benz.
Today, as Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP), it’s playing a major part in developing what could be the most advanced EV battery yet.
Solid-state batteries have been on the radar for years now, but we’re still waiting. So news that Mercedes began road testing a new battery earlier this month in an EQS using cells from US-based Factorial Energy is significant – not least because it tackles a key drawback associated with these high-capacity lithium batteries by using a new patented technology.
The earliest prototype lithium battery developed by British chemist M Stanley Whittingham had metal anodes made from a blend of lithium and aluminium rather than the graphite used today. The design proved unstable and manufacturing too complex for production, but the thinking was spot on.
Lithium metal has the highest energy capacity of any anode material and has the potential for batteries with correspondingly higher energy density, delivering longer range than existing production EV batteries. But there are two problems.
The first is that lithium metal anodes produce tentacle-like dendrites, which eventually travel through the liquid electrolyte of a conventional lithium ion battery, touching the cathode and destroying the battery. Solid-state batteries prevent this by using a solid electrolyte.
The second problem is that the volume of cells containing lithium anodes increases and decreases during charging and discharging, which causes a mechanical problem in a tightly packed battery.
HPP has come up with a hydraulically actuated ‘floating’ cell carrier so the cells can swell and contract without damage. It represents a major step in being the first time a battery with lithium metal anodes has been successfully used in a production car.
Will it be the most advanced EV battery? The numbers suggest so. The EQS is targeted to achieve 620 miles, around 25% more range, using a battery of the same weight and dimensions as the standard EQS battery.
Its cells are based on the maker’s Factorial Electrolyte System Technology (Fest), which it describes as “quasi-solid electrolyte technology”.
Its sulphide-based tech, called Solstice, has an all-solid-state electrolyte material that in future trials will raise the range game still further.
Fest also has a lithium metal anode giving similar performance and safety advantages to all-solid-state electrolytes mixed with the production ease of conventional lithium ion batteries.
Factorial also has deals in place with Stellantis and Hyundai, which bodes well for more affordable cars too.
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