ONE Gemini Battery Nearly Doubles Tesla Model S Range

land-rover defender Full OverviewI don't know what it is about adulthood, but I've noticed that the older I get, the more weekends become a time for chores and projects and less about actually resting and recuperating for the upcoming week. It, to be frank, sucks. But every once in a while, the calendar is miraculously free and clear, and vehicles like MotorTrend's long-term 2021 Land Rover Defender 110 really help me make the most of those rare days. Faced with a free Saturday a few weeks back, my wife and I decided to load the pups up in the Defender and make a beach day out of it.Located smack dab in the middle of the Central California coast about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, Oceano Dunes is one of the few beaches in the state you can drive on without being in law enforcement or the military. Rex, our 8-year-old beagle dachshund mix, is a regular road warrior, but this four-hour stint would be the longest drive Rosie, our 11-month-old German shepherd mutt, had had since we scooped her up from a rescue in San Diego. All of four months old at the time and still traumatized from her stint living in a dumpster on the other side of the border, Rosie's first ride with us was marked by her utter refusal to get into the car in the first place and her attempt to bail out on the way back to Los Angeles near the Orange County line.Despite that rocky start, Rosie quickly made herself at home in the back of the Land Rover. With a massive greenhouse and spacious back seat, she spent the first hour of the trip window surfing before settling into a nap, while all 25 pounds of Rex made himself comfortable sleeping on top of the Defender's jump seat. Up front, my wife and I cranked up the stereo and took advantage of the now-wireless Apple CarPlay capability; the Defender's cabin, already noisy due to the gear carrier and expedition roof rack, had only gotten louder since we fit the roof ladder and onboard air compressor. Looking cool has its costs.We arrived at the beach just past sunrise and slotted ourselves into the long line of pickups, Jeeps, Subarus, and the odd minivan or two. Thinking back to when I beached a Rivian R1T at the tail end of our Trans-America Trail expedition a year back, I made sure to ask about the conditions out on the beach. "You'll be fine," the park ranger said while looking over our Defender's snorkel and all-terrains. "Not so sure about them, though," as she gestured toward the Toyota Sienna in line behind me.Reassured, I pulled past the gate into the parking lot to air the Defender's tires down while my wife attempted to keep the increasingly impatient pups focused on treats instead of the exciting ocean smell, distant crashing waves, and legions of beachgoers in 4x4s around us. I normally avoid airing down unless it's absolutely necessary (I'm lazy; sue me), but the Land Rover's relatively high 47/50 psi front/rear recommended air pressure coupled with how easy the Defender's new onboard air compressor is to operate was motivation enough. I quickly connected the air compressor to each wheel, twisted the dial to drop the pressure to 35 psi, and let it painlessly deflate each tire. After quick confirmation of dropped pressures on the digital dash, we lowered the rear windows to allow the dogs to take their waist gunner positions and hit the sand.One of the things I love most about driving the Defender is how seamlessly the "Auto" Terrain Response 2 mode and full-time four-wheel-drive system transitions between different surfaces, and that proved to be the case here on the beach. The sand at Oceano Dunes varies greatly—it's soft, silty, and almost desertlike up near the dunes, gets harder, firmer, and rutted toward the middle of the beach, and it's soft and wet (duh) down by the waterline. No matter where we were on the beach as we explored looking for a good spot, the Defender was faultless. In the few soft sections where the Land Rover started to sink, all it needed was a little extra throttle while four-wheel drive and terrain response sorted things out. It's quite literally off-roading for dummies.After exploring for a bit and putting the Defender through its paces, we finally found a secluded spot and made it our base camp for the day. Rosie had never been to the beach before, and she initially looked unsure of the sand between her toes and the loud ocean waves. But after watching Rex howl into the wind, dig after sand crabs, and chase the receding waves, she quickly got the hang of the beach, running up and down the dunes, helping dig, and splashing after seagulls in the ocean. Meanwhile, my wife and I made ourselves at home picnicking out of the Defender's cargo area and reading on the front bench.After a few hours hanging out and playing with the pups, we made our way back to the park entrance, aired up, and pointed the Defender's nose back south toward home. While Sunday would no doubt be filled with all the responsibilities we shirked, we were thankful for that one brief respite—all made possible by our Defender's baked in capability.Looks good! More details?For more on our Land Rover Defender:Our 2021 SUV of the Year joins us for a yearlong testBetter than any pickup truckSo, about that break-in period…A rooftop tent just looks so right on the Defender 110Accessorizing our Land Rover Defender

This entire issue is devoted to exploring the increasingly electrified and automated "inEVitable" future of mobility, looking 15 years or so into the down the road. Because that's kind of what this page always sets out to do, I'll spend this month's word budget on a highlight reel of sorts, describing a future world in which the best concepts explained in previous Technologue columns have successfully reached production to keep the world's inhabitants and goods moving sustainably.Note that separate online stories (scan the QR code on this page with your phone for more) dedicated to each of these headings will delve deeper into the present status and prognosis of these technologies, without rehashing any of the nitty-gritty science.Carbon-Free Combustion Forever!Combustion still powers certain vehicles, but running bio- or e-fuels, they emit no new carbon. Most that run on alcohols burn biobutanol, which nearly matches gasoline's energy content and octane rating (problems with low vapor pressure were resolved post-Biden). Most vehicles run on chemically equivalent gasolines assembled from smaller molecules. Nacero Blue and Green gas is built from methane sourced from natural gas that would have been flared and from landfill gases, while the rest comes from scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere and combining it with cleanly electrolyzed hydrogen (see Prometheus fuels and Haru Oni/Porsche).How We Got to Cheap, Long-Range, Quick-Charging EVsEvery aspect of the EV was holistically reimagined, and vehicles with different missions look and drive differently. Integrating the battery into the structure with carbon electrodes and electrolyte resins makes sense in the smallest cars (and electric planes). Sports cars needing to rapidly store and release energy leverage both ultracapacitors and batteries. Lithium-sulfur chemistry has helped triple batteries' energy density, and solid-state batteries that can recharge in minutes are now a reality. The lowest-cost EVs use cheap reluctance motors, with torque smoothed by Dynamic Motor Drive tech. Retooling after Chipocalypse brought us better gallium-nitride chips that enabled faster charging, and building on manufacturing efficiencies pioneered by Lucid Motors helped further reduce cost. Finally, mining the Clarion-Clipperton Zone seabed for polymetallic nodules greatly eased supply-chain pressures for manganese, nickel, copper, and cobalt.Infrastructure Improvements for Better DrivingAll new EVs now support wireless "opportunity charging" when stopped at intersections (a rarity now that vehicles and infrastructure are all connected and smart), or even when driving on remote stretches of highway. Some of that electricity is now provided by smaller, more localized pebble-bed nuclear reactors running on thorium or another fuel as easily stored or disposed. Major roadways have all been mapped with ground-penetrating radar for another weatherproof means of precisely geo-locating autonomous vehicles, and most roadways are now made of low-CO2 concrete featuring silica fume particles or magnesium. Bridge supports use carbon-negative algal carbon-fiber panels sandwiching similar concrete that incorporates self-healing sodium-silicate capsules to greatly extend the bridge's useful life.Life on Board a FuturemobileIn-car connectivity took a huge step forward when fragmented aperture technology democratized satellite internet, and with so many passengers looking at a phone or tablet, airbags more safely deploy from the ceiling, forcing devices into our laps instead of our faces. Anti-odor chitosan seat fabrics and odor-canceling "white smell" dispensers please our noses. A transparent "braille screen" allows blind passengers to "see" the passing scenery, while sighted passengers amuse themselves by watching claytronic "solid holograms" enact miniature 3-D plays. Onboard sensors monitor our health and forecast injury statistics to first responders in the (increasingly unlikely) event of a crash. Alas, Nissan's proposed "thinking cap" electroencephylography system of controlling the car via brain waves is still on the drawing board.The Vehicle ItselfAs crashes become rare, designers gain some regulatory freedom, and designs once deemed aerodynamically problematic become feasible with low-pressure air nozzles that employ the Coandă effect to keep air attached to curved surfaces, reducing drag. Impossibly thin roof pillars inflate in a crash to increase their strength. Tires now feature rubber made from kudzu enzymes, self-healing 3-D-printed seasonal-design treads, and either self-inflating devices (since Goodyear and Coda settled their patent dispute) or airless tech like Michelin's Tweel. Spherical tires have reached production, but only for very low-speed delivery applications, so don't hold your breath for Audi's RSQ I, Robot movie concept. At least not yet.

The best laid plans of mice, men, and track day addicts, right? Because just when you thought global supply chain woes couldn't get any worse fate says, "Hold my beer." Or is that hold my Flaming Moe? Yes friends, a transport ship named the Felicity Ace loaded with approximately 2,500 brand new cars is on fire close to the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,000 miles west of the Portuguese mainland. All 22 members of the crew abandoned ship and are safe. The boat itself is "Not under command," however. That means no one is at the helm. Moreover, no one is putting the fire out.The Felicity Ace left the German port of Emden on February 10 loaded with Volkswagen Group products, scheduled to arrive in Davisville, Rhode Island on February 23. We don't know the exact breakdown of the cargo, but alphabetically speaking it could include Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Volkswagen products. True, Bentley is owned by Volkswagen AG, but those vehicles are built in Crewe, UK, and are presumably shipped to North America separately. We don't know the cause of the fire, but we do know that 1,100 of the (presumably) doomed cars are Porsches. We reached out to Porsche for a comment on what happens next, in case one of those might be yours."Our immediate thoughts are of relief that the 22 crew of the merchant ship "Felicity Ace" are safe and well.A number of our cars are among the cargo. We are in contact with the shipping company and the details of the cars on board are now known. Customers affected by the incident are being contacted by their dealer.While it remains too early to confirm what occurred and next steps, we are - along with our colleagues at Porsche AG - supporting our customers and our dealers as best we can to find solutions. Anyone concerned by this incident and the implications on the car they've ordered should maintain in contact with dealer with which their order was placed."We asked Porsche if any of the cars were salvageable and they replied that at this time, they just don't know. We do know that one of the cars specifically was destined—eventually—for Los Angeles. None other than our friend and founder of The Smoking Tire, Matt Farah, was scheduled to take delivery of a Frozen Berry Metallic Porsche 718 Spyder. His plan was to hand the car off to Damen Motorsport in New York and have them punch the 4.0-liter flat-six engine out to 4.5-liters, taking the horsepower from a respectable 414 to a nutso 565 hp! Damen shortens the gears, too, among other performative tweaks. That's no longer happening. From Farah:"When I saw the story, once I saw that all the crew had been evacuated, I wondered where my car might be, given that it was expected to be delivered on February 25th. I texted my dealer in New Jersey, who confirmed that my car is on the boat, (which super sucks, because I ordered it in August). They have no further information at this time, but said they would keep me posted with any updates from Porsche directly. I also spoke with Porsche PR people who had no further information at this time. I assume, like the 2019 GT2 RS thing, that Porsche will prioritize getting those special order cars rebuilt and shipped, but who knows. Yeah, it's super shitty."Not sure what's left to be said.