DEVELOPING Live updates: Tornadoes reported in southwest Florida as Hurricane Milton approaches
Hurricane Milton is a Category 4 storm forecast to bring extreme flooding, high winds and heavy rain to the central west coast of Florida.
The fastest Corvette ever made comes out later this year, and it's not powered solely by a howling V8.
The E-Ray is a gas electric hybrid, the first all-wheel-drive version of Chevrolet's storied sports car with the front wheels running on an electric motor the traditional 6.2-liter V8 powering the back.
Aimed at affluent buyers who want new technology in the top-line Chevrolet sports car, the $104,000 E-Ray jerks your head back as it goes from zero to 60 mph (97 kilometres per hour) in 2.5 seconds. General Motors says it can cover a quarter mile in 10.5 seconds.
Although those figures are slightly faster than its race track-ready brothers, the Z06 and Z07, it's civil enough for the daily commute even though its rear tires are almost wide enough to compete in the Indianapolis 500.
Tadge Juechter, the Corvette's executive chief engineer, said people would ask for the best version of the car, only to wind up a "track monster" that they're trying to drive every day. "For the same money you can get all-wheel-drive, and comfort, security, and the livability that comes with a car like this," he said. "We've really divided the family into pure track and to everyday utility."
The E-Ray, which makes its debut exactly 70 years after the first Corvette was introduced in New York back in 1953, is a step toward an all-electric version of the car that will come out at at unspecified date.
Although GM may be over-selling the practicality, the E-Ray does come with all-season tires so it can be driven year-round, and the all-wheel-drive system is configured so it's confident in the snow, up to just 4 inches due to its low ground clearance.
"This is going to propel the Corvette to a new set of markets," said Mark Wakefield, global co-leader of automotive for the consulting firm AlixPartners.
As performance cars go, the Corvette always has been more practical than most, with storage space in the hatch and the front trunk, said Sam Abuelsamid, e-Mobility analyst for Guidehouse Research. "It is actually surprisingly liveable," he said, conceding that someone buying a sports car costing over US$100,000 probably has another vehicle in their garage for the daily drive.
Unlike most hybrids, it's not really made for efficiency, although will get a little better city mileage than a standard Stingray at 16 mpg. But because of higher mass and air drag, it will do worse than the standard Corvette's 24 mpg on the highway. The electric motor adds 160 horsepower to the 495 generated by the V8, for a total of 655. Both systems come on at once for maximum acceleration.
Engineers say its technology sets the stage for the all-electric Corvette. When the latest generation of 'Vette came out four years ago with the engine in the middle, engineers designed it so there could be hybrid and electric versions in the future.
The car's computers are configured to keep it stable by applying power to individual wheels when it's slippery. GM engineers say most electronic stability controls rely on braking individual wheels. It's a lot of engineering work for a niche product, but GM says knowledge from developing the car will show up in other vehicles. GM sold only 34,510 Corvettes last year.
"I think the blending of the motor control and brake control is something that they'll be able to apply to the EVs," Abuelsamid said.
The 1.9 kilowatt-hour battery is small compared with a full electric vehicle. It's positioned under the console. You can't plug it in to recharge it, but it gets energy restored from regenerative braking and from the V8 motor. It can be driven in "stealth mode" up to 45 mph for a short distance to quietly leave a neighbourhood, GM says.
"As fast as you can discharge it, we recharge it, and we always keep it at a pretty optimum state of charge," said Mike Kutcher, lead development engineer for the E-Ray. "We have a pretty high target state of charge so you always get maximum performance."
The E-Ray will hit showrooms sometime during the second half of this year as a 2024 model, GM said.
--------
AP Video Journalist Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this report
Hurricane Milton is a Category 4 storm forecast to bring extreme flooding, high winds and heavy rain to the central west coast of Florida.
A Turkish Airlines jetliner headed from Seattle to Istanbul made an emergency landing in New York on Wednesday after the captain died on board, an airline official said.
Hundreds of thousands of vehicles are being recalled in Canada due to a steering-related issue that could increase a driver's risk of crash.
One in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in their lifetimes, according to the American Cancer Society. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death for women in the United States, with 42,000 women dying every year from this cancer.
A B.C. woman who was recorded praising Hamas as 'heroic and brave' can return to protest rallies, authorities confirmed this week.
Erin Folk and her family are dealing with a nightmare of a situation, after their pet dogs were shot last week and left to suffer.
An organization that ranks the best universities across the globe says its latest report shows a concerning trend that several of Canada’s institutions are slipping down its list.
COVID-19 could be a powerful risk factor for heart attacks and strokes for as long as three years after an infection, a large new study suggests.
The federal government introduced a number of measures related to housing on Tuesday, which include measures for homeowners wanting to add a secondary suite, taxing vacant land and building homes in place of underused federal properties.
Have you ever seen videos of hovercrafts online or on TV and thought, 'Wow, I wish I could ride one of those.' One Alberta man did, and then built his own.
Saskatchewan’s Jessica Campbell has made hockey history, becoming the first ever female assistant coach in the National Hockey League (NHL).
A B.C. couple is getting desperate – and creative – in their search for their missing dog.
Videos of a meteor streaking across the skies of southern Ontario have surfaced and small bits of the outer space rock may have made it to land, one astronomy professor says.
A unique form of clouds made an appearance over the skies of Ottawa on Sunday evening.
Bernie Hicks, known as the ‘Batman of Amherst,’ always wanted to sit in a Batmobile until a kind stranger made it happen.
Bubi’s Awesome Eats, located on University Ave West took to social media to announce the closure on Friday.
Weeneebayko Area Health Authority and the Government of Ontario have awarded a $1.8 billion fixed-price contract to design, build and finance a new Far North hospital.
Manitobans are in cleanup mode after intense winds barreled through southern parts of the province this weekend.