These memes about Russia’s hideous new “Tesla killer” EV are *chef kiss*
Russia has a new electric vehicle concept design from the Moscow Polytechnic University that was revealed on social media earlier this week. It’s called “Amber,” and while we know basically nothing about it from a technical perspective, memes of the… unfortunate looking EV are already proliferating on social media. And they’re pretty, pretty, pretty good.
I want to be clear: We’re not taking any political stance on this vehicle, which is undoubtedly a byproduct of rather severe sanctions on Russia internationally right now. We’re also aware that most of these memes are written in Ukrainian, which is… not surprising! But regardless of geopolitics, I think we can all agree on one thing: This is a very unfortunate looking piece of design. Now, a selection of a few Amber Memes.
There are more over at this Ukrainian news site, and I certainly recommend having a look. There’s also a post covering the news in a less tongue-in-cheek manner at Auto.ru.
More seriously, the Amber is a preliminary design, and apparently the final vehicle won’t appear like this concept. Though, that’s pretty obvious, given the seamless front body panel would be nightmarish to produce and replace. Also, because it looks like a fish dressed up as a bread van for halloween. The final version of the car will allegedly be classified as a “large quadricycle” when it enters production sometime in 2025.
But wow, who thought this even looked good as a concept? Even if you told me it had 500 miles of range and could drive itself using only a Pentium III and an old closed circuit security camera, the Amber is the visual definition of “no thanks, I’m full.” I’m sure there have been uglier cars, but something about the idea of driving this thing around just makes me sad — like opening a can of Pringles and discovering they got all wet and congealed into a vile potato slurry. The Amber is like turning on a TV that only displays interlaced video. It’s like walking into a Mexican restaurant… in Scotland. It’s like getting an email that your FedEx package is ready for pickup… at the distribution center. It’s like biting into a warm Klondike Bar. Ok, ok, I admit: That last one might just be my own personal nightmare.
Anyway, if you’ve ever wondered what a Volkswagen Golf would look like if it melted 70% of the way into a Power Wheels, today’s your lucky day.
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WattEV has just opened the first electric truck charging depot in the US to use the new Megawatt Charge System, capable of delivering up to 1.2 megawatts of power, currently the highest-speed charger available in the US, along with solar and battery backup on-site and a unique partially grid-islanded setup.
WattEV says that its charge depot in Bakersfield, CA, includes the first MCS charger in North America, and the fastest as well. Tesla has a number of its own 750kW chargers deployed “behind-the-fence” in Pepsi and Tesla facilities, but this 1.2MW charger beats those in speed and is also publicly available.
MCS is a new charge standard being worked on by charging standards organization CharIN. The standard is close to being finished, though currently there aren’t really available MCS-capable trucks, or even UL-certified charging units.
As a result, WattEV’s installation is somewhat of an experiment. The site has 50 total chargers, split between 32 grid-tied 360kW CCS chargers on one side, and 3 1.2MW MCS and 15 240kW CCS chargers on the other side, attached to backup batteries and solar and fully grid-islanded.
That latter part is particularly interesting – WattEV got grants from the California Energy Commission to create this grid-islanded setup, wherein power for the chargers is fully provided by 5MW of on-site solar (which WattEV wants to expand to 25MW eventually) and 3MWh of battery backup.
WattEV could connect the setup to the grid, but between its grant from CEC, the lack of UL-certified MCS chargers, and delays that would have been caused in the permitting and interconnection process, it decided that grid-islanding half of the site would be the right decision for the time being.
The inclusion of an MCS charger promises the ability to fill a truck in the same time as a traditional truck rest stop. While trucks don’t currently have 1.2MW charging capability, WattEV wanted to be ready for when they do.
Notably, something many operators bring up is that they’re waiting for chargers before they start building or buying trucks. Here, however, we have an infrastructure provider out in the lead – building infrastructure before trucks are being built or purchased. In a world where operators have gotten used to using infrastructure as an excuse, WattEV seems uninterested in allowing them to continue to use that excuse.
Like WattEV’s other chargers, this one will be publicly available either via membership or scanning a credit card/QR code at the site. It’s near an industrial park in Bakersfield with several distribution centers and near the 99 freeway, which services the California central valley. WattEV also offers a “truck-as-a-service” model, wherein the company offers electric trucking at a set price with lower startup costs.
The charger could be of use for those distribution centers, bringing goods in from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and also for traffic in the valley, as there are many local farming facilities and produce delivery services (for example, OK Produce in Fresno, which has committed to full zero emission operations).
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