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Suzuki will road-test EVs in India, start production with Toyota in 2020

NEW DELHI — Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp will start testing prototypes of electric vehicles in India by October, its chairman said on Friday. "We will start road-running tests using a fleet of 50 EV prototype vehicles in India from next month in order to develop safe and easy-to-use EVs for Indian customers," Osamu Suzuki said at the Global Mobility Summit at New Delhi. The company would then launch EVs in India around 2020 in cooperation with Toyota, he added. However, Suzuki said that for EVs to become popular in India, there had to be well-developed charging infrastructure. "In this regard, we look forward to proactive leadership from the Indian government," he said. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a plan to electrify all new vehicles by 2030, a target many experts call ambitious. EVs are expensive due to the high cost of batteries which are still not manufactured in India, and carmakers say a lack of charging stations could make the proposition unviable. Suzuki, parent of India's top-selling automaker, Maruti Suzuki, would start production of lithium-ion batteries for automobiles at its plant in western India from 2020, Suzuki said. India is one of the world's fastest-growing car markets, but EV sales are negligible compared with millions of petrol and diesel cars sold every year. Suzuki said to meet India's environmental challenges, the government would have to look at hybrid and CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles also.Related Video:

Pentagram aims to cut through the noise of EV sound design

What does an electric vehicle sound like when it goes from 0 to 60, when it signals a turn, when it’s powered down for the night? EV motors have fewer parts and are therefore incredibly silent, which presents safety concerns for drivers who recognize speed by sound and pedestrians who canÂ’t hear an approaching vehicle.  In 2019, regulators in Europe and the U.S. began requiring EVs to have warning sounds, but they left it up to the car manufacturers to choose those sounds. Many have taken the new legislation as an opportunity to not only create a branded sound, but also to stir up some marketing hype by enlisting famous musicians to compose the noise of an electric engine. Hans Zimmer created the Blade Runner-esque sound concept for BMWÂ’s i4 electric sedan, and, strangely, Linkin Park is creating EV sounds for BMW.  Sound designer Yuri Suzuki, a partner at design consultancy firm Pentagram, recently conducted a research project into the crucial role electric car sound has on a userÂ’s safety, enjoyability, communication and brand recognition, out of which he developed a range of car sounds. Suzuki says that while some automakers have chosen beautiful and interesting car sound designs, chasing celebrity clout is not the way to go when designing the sound behind serious machines.  “We really have to design carefully based on the psychological effects on a human,” Suzuki told TechCrunch. “ItÂ’s all about the relation between the human being and the machine itself.” Suzuki says smart sound design can help ease the difference between human and car by providing a shared language. Based on surveys he conducted, Suzuki came up with two new skeuomorphic electric engine sounds as well as adaptive sounds that reflect the time of day and the location of the drive.  His engine sounds are reminiscent of internal combustion engine revs, providing both drivers and pedestrians with a recognizable indication of speed increasing and decreasing. The sounds are placed at different pitches: one quite low, like a spaceship taking off; the other a bit higher, like a hovercraft vertically ascending. Audi, Ford and Jaguar Land Rover have also chosen to make futuristic copies of gasoline engines for some of their new electric vehicles.  SuzukiÂ’s sound design also includes in-car sounds, like powering on, turn signals or horn honking, that use AI to adapt to the time of day.

Toyota, Honda, Nissan and more collaborating to increase fuel efficiency

Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Daihatsu have announced an alliance that will see a push to improve fuel economy from both gas-powered and diesel-powered engines by as much as 30 percent before the end of the decade.
The newly assembled Research Association of Automotive Internal Combustion Engines put the roughly $20-million project together, with the Japanese government committing to half the cost while the eight manufacturers will chip in the rest.
According to Automotive News, the automakers will team up and share basic research on internal-combustion engines in a bid to cut costs. Eventually, the results of the research will find its way into a production vehicle, although it's unclear just when we'll see the fruits of this partnership on the road.