Looking for a new form of transport that will be kinder to the environment than a traditional gas-guzzling auto? After all, 2020 will be the year of electric rides. We have something here for bike-hounds, scooter supporters and car connoisseurs. And for those not so green, a Lexus lux yacht, no less.
BMW 8 Series Gran Coupé and E-Scooter
If Micro’s special edition 150-watt, 12mph BMW E-Scooter is the toy your inner child craves, the all-new 8 Series Gran Coupé is the toy you crave that accommodates your actual child. Children, even. For it is BMW’s answer to the Porsche Panamera and Mercedes-Benz CLS – a genuine grand-touring sports coupé, but with four-door practicality. Recent years have seen BMW’s design team on occasion over-wringing things, with crimps, creases and scoops occluding the purity of past achievements. But the swooping lines and poised stance of the 8 Series Coupé have been expertly retained, even with a wheelbase that is just 201mm longer to absorb the two additional doors.
Shallow headlights flank a massive take on BMW’s famous kidney grille, which itself uses active aero aids and a sealed underbody to help keep the 8 Series pinned to the road at pace. The 8 Series also features Apple CarPlay-over-Bluetooth, a superb head-up display, and BMW’s advanced driver aids – steering assist on motorways coupled with advanced cruise control, affording a glimpse of what autonomous driving will be like. For night drives, the optional laser headlights are some of the best around. And should you need to park a distance from your destination, break out that BMW E-Scooter from the boot for an eco-friendly last mile.
From £69,340 | bmw.co.uk
Ferrari SF90 Stradale
According to Flavio Manzoni, the gregarious head of Centro Stile Ferrari, the SF90 Stradale’s design lies "somewhere between a race car and spaceship". Named to mark the 90th anniversary of Enzo Ferrari’s Scuderia race team (stradale is Italian for road) Manzoni’s team has worked in concert with the engineers of Ferrari's Maranello headquarters to distill its Formula 1 technology into a form fit the public highway: and, yes, the upshot is something from the near future.
It is the first ever V8-engined Ferrari to feature PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) architecture, integrating the internal combustion engine with three electric motors, two on the front axle, with the third at the rear between the engine and the gearbox. Thanks to a patented "electronic side slip control" system distributing the dynamics to all four wheels, plus a drag-reduction-style mobile spoiler (dubbed, in rather un-Italian fashion, the "shut-off gurney"), the result is easy, confident and high-performance driving. In other words: fun … 0-to-62mph-in-2.5-seconds fun.
From £450,000 (estimate) | ferrari.com
Lito Sora Generation 2 Electric Superbike
Back in 2009, Montreal-based Lito Green Motion embarked on a singular mission: to build the first all-electric superbike, without sacrificing any of the performance or luxury the sector demands. Where was once a howling engine would be a series of polygonal lithium batteries, powering you to 118mph with just the rush of wind and a thrilling, Tron-like hum as the soundtrack.
Ten years on, the re-dubbed Lito Motorcycles has a ready-for-market, genuinely "production" limited edition of 20 examples. The Sora Generation 2 has a battery delivering 50 per cent more range, up to a real-world-ready 180 miles. The liquid-cooled, three-phase permanent magnet AC motor will hurl you to 60mph in three blurred seconds, and all the way to 120mph. And just to complete the Tron experience, the dashboard is a single, all-in-one 5.7in LCD touchscreen. In the words of Tron's Kevin Flynn, on the other side of the screen it all looks so easy.
$82,250 (£66,870) | litomotorcycles.com
Look E-765 Optimum
For over 30 years, long preceding McLaren’s F1 supercar, Look has pioneered carbon fibre on the road. The French bicycle manufacturer made the first production carbon frame in 1986, as well as the first track carbon monobloc frame (not to mention the first clipless pedal). But as its devoted customers have grown up with the brand, their priorities have matured. The road still beckons, but endurance and time with your riding buddies matters more.
That and the fact that 10 per cent of the global cycle market now constitutes e-bikes, with the line continuing to climb. Which is why you’re looking at Look’s very first electric-motor-assisted two-wheeler, endorsed by nobody less than five-times Tour winner Bernard Hinault. Otherwise carbon framed, the bottom-bracket motor and its lithium battery – made as a single detachable unit by Germany’s Fazua – adds just 4.6kg to the E-765 Optimum’s 13.2kg overall weight. Cutting in progressively with a low whine to boost your progress uphill (you can choose between three assistance levels), it’ll add up to 250 watts of power output. Given a pro will put in 250 watts alone when "pushing on", that’s an impressive leg-up.
€8,399 (£7,550) | lookcycle.com
Nikola NZT & WAV
One possible future of electric is hydrogen-fuelled – a technology being harnessed out in Arizona by start-up Nikola (yes, as in Nikola Tesla). Its sci-fi-styled trucks are set to disrupt the notoriously polluting haulage and logistics industry from 2020, with mega-brewers Anheuser-Busch having already placed an order for up to 800 of their Nikola One lorries.
Meanwhile, it has the super-nippy, all-lithium-powered, all-terrain Reckless utility vehicle for the military and, for the personal sector, the NZT pictured here. Looking something like a cross between and tractor and a dune buggy, it boasts four independent motors at each wheel, integrated in e-axles with the inverter and gearbox, yielding a rollicking 590hp and 775 ft-lb of torque, plus a 0-60mph acceleration in four seconds. Nikola calls it an "off-highway vehicle", which conveniently applies to its next adventure in EV: the all-electric WAV waterski.
$80,000 | nikolamotor.com
Cérvelo Áspero Gravel Bike
If gravel riding is hot right now, gravel racing is on fire. With off-road races such as Dirty Kanza, Grinduro and now GBDURO bonafide fixtures of the cycling calendar it’s the perfect time for Cérvelo to play on its road racing pedigree and design a gravel grinder that’s engineered for bagging Strava dirt segments. The Áspero (Spanish for "rough") features a paired-down carbon frame with "aero" style seat-stays, a burly down-tube protector and no rack mounts (this ‘ain't no touring rig). With a capacity for 42mm tyres on a 700c wheel or 49mm tyres on a smaller 650b wheel, Cérvelo are again pegging themselves at the racier end of the market.
The most unique feature of the Áspero? The fork. Switching around something called the Trail Mixer, a metal insert positioned at the "drop out" (where the fork meets the centre of the wheel), changes the "rake" (or fore-aft offset) by 5mm, altering the bike’s handling characteristics. Run it in its forward position for a longer/more stable ride, or reverse for a tighter wheel position and quicker handling. This simple feature enables riders to correct the bike geometry when alternating between two different wheel sizes, or simply to tweak the handling to suit riding style. Cérvelo offers a choice of SRAM or Shimano group-sets for riders to build a bike according to budget. Choose between SRAM’s value Apex, Shimano’s highly anticipated GRX gruppo or SRAM’s top-of-the-range Force Etap wireless shifting. Look out for Áspero's lining up at the front of a gravel race near you soon.
Bike from £2,699 | cervelo.com
Lexus LY 650
Luxury carmakers are no strangers to the world’s exclusive waterfronts, and who can blame them; brand cross-fertilisation aside, the flowing forms of a superyacht are catnip to any automotive draughtsman, eager to translate their tarmac-bound design language to the shimmering waves. Ferrari kicked things off in the early nineties with a run of Riva runabouts, predictably adorned in lurid rosso corsa. Aston Martin and Quintessence’s AM37 powerboat – a tasteful exercise in teak and carbon fibre – weighed anchor in 2016, followed swiftly by Toyota’s luxury division, Lexus.
Toyota Marine’s Ponam line had already established itself as Japan’s market leader in premium yachts, but 2017’s breathtakingly sinuous 42ft Lexus Sport Yacht raised the bar, hotly pursued by the LY 650 – the 65ft, six-berth Lexus Luxury Yacht, due to take the plunge in autumn 2019 and developed in partnership with the master craftsmen of the Marquis-Larson boat group in Wisconsin. Powered by twin 800hp Volvo IPS engines, it’s the distinctly Lexus design that’s everything: viewed in profile, the elegant rise and fall of the yacht’s roofline flows into the rising, broad hips of the rear section. Inside, it’s pure, leather-trimmed decadence.
£TBC | lexusyachts.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
