Meander around the expansive halls of the Geneva Motor Show, collar one of the many engineers busy explaining their latest innovation and ask them a simple question: what powertrain will you be using in five years' time, The answers are always a mixed bag. It's also talking about Vehicle-2-Grid technology and ways to harness the power of green energy via virtual power plants, but across from its stand, fellow Japanese marque Mazda didn't even mention batteries or electric motors once.

In fact, it was busy bigging up the benefits its homogeneous charge compression ignition Skyactiv-X engine that it claims moves the game forward in terms of emissions and refinement. Fabrizio Giugiaro, CEO of GFG Style and the man behind the GFG Sibylla Concept - a partnership with smart energy company Envision.

Felix Zhang, Envision Energy group executive director. To address this, Envision has incorporated its EnOS energy Internet of Things (IoT) platform into its concept vehicle, which allows it to plug into the surrounding energy infrastructure and sees the car become intelligently connected the grid. An example of Envision's push towards a clean energy future is its partnership with Sonnen, Germany's largest residential storage solution.

When paired with the sonnenCharger, which is available for free to any EV owner, it connects to an existing community of tens of thousands of solar and wind generators to make clean electric charging possible. Hey Tesla, how hard can it be to actually make a car, Hey Tesla, how hard can it be to actually make a car,

According to a recent report by Reuters, the shift towards EVs has caused many carmakers to slash billions from their cost base to help offset the lower profitability of electric cars. Conversely, there were a number of relatively new faces gracing the halls of Geneva's Palexpo Congress Centre that didn't seem too worried about this fact - quite the contrary.

China-based Iconiq Motors, which showcased its Model Seven all-electric MPV and a fully autonomous variant, is another upstart making the most of its abilities to react to rapid changes in the automotive world. The concept housed two large seats in the rear that were connected to the cloud, allowing the car could identify passengers and set up multimedia profiles accordingly.

Most of the interaction was carried out via voice recognition, and CEO Bruno Lambert explained that it was working closely with AKKA and Microsoft to develop the technology further. Lambert stated that in China and Dubai, the two key markets for Iconiq, there is strong demand among high-net-worth individuals for spacious and luxurious chauffeured transport that boasts all of the latest technology. Ride sharing and hailing is already popular, while the adoption of electric vehicles has been much faster than both the US and Europe.

In an attempt to counter this, the UK government recently announced a newly launched Faraday Institution that will see Oxford university lead research into solid-state batteries. Supposedly lighter, more powerful and quicker to charge, the next generation of battery technology is slated to greatly diminish range anxiety and break down some of the barriers surrounding residual values and reliability currently facing new customers.

A range of more than 200 miles will pitch it against the EV market leaders from the off, which will help tempt more buyers into EV ownership who hadn’t previously looked at it seriously. The snappily-titled Next Green Car Next Generation Award 2017 winner, Jaguar’s I-Pace has really caught the imagination of EV fans.



We’ve combined the two models here because they are very similar and use exactly the same powertrain. Just as Jaguar is getting ready for an electric year, Land Rover isn’t going to miss out on this plug-in potential and has launched PHEV versions of its flagship Range Rover, and popular Range Rover Sport.