British automaker Jaguar Land Rover is temporarily shuttering two of its main factories over chip shortages that are plaguing much of the automotive industry.

JLR said there is going to be a limited period of closure at its Halewood and Castle Bromwich plants in the UK, from Monday, BBC reports .

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, all kinds of tech manufacturers have been affected by silicon chip shortages which have come as a knock-on effect of factory closures in Asia.

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Thanks to Hans Zimmer, the BMW i4 EV will sound brilliant

Electric cars don’t snarl, parp, and pop like high-powered combustion engines, but that doesn’t mean they can’t sound cool.

Case in point, the BMW i4 and its IconicSounds designed by none other than Hans Zimmer, or as I’m going to call him from now on: Hans Bimmer.

Anyway… In a tweet earlier today, BMW gave us a sneak peek at what its BMW i4, i4M, and iX vehicles will sound like as they drive along.

Typically, I find EV sounds quite cliché. They always end up sounding like something from a low-budget sci-fi movie. When we ranked the best (and worst) EV sounds , most of them left me quite uninspired.

But if you ask me, BMW just gets this one right. It has the perfect amount of depth and drama, and doesn’t rely too heavily on sounding electronic or futuristic.

BMW says the sounds adapt depending on how the car is being driven, and the driving mode selected. In comfort mode, the vehicle will sound calm and relaxing. But throw it into sport and slam your foot to the floor, and it will become “dominant and powerful.”

It’s a legal requirement in most countries for EVs to emit a pedestrian warning sound at low speed. This is to make sure people hear them coming and don’t step out into the road and get run over.

Manufacturers, however, are taking the opportunity to carefully design their sounds in such a way that it brings a bit of personality to their vehicles.

Before you go moaning and saying, it’s not the same as the natural and raw engine note of a combustion engine,” car manufacturers have been augmenting and tuning the exhaust note of their cars for ages . So don’t think what you have is “all natural.”

The only thing is now, with electric cars, audio designers start with a completely blank slate. We’re probably only just getting started with what EVs are going to sound like, but BMW’s off to a great start.

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Elon Musk reveals Berlin-made Tesla Model Y will get its new batteries first

Tesla head honcho Elon Musk revealed in a tweet that the company is working on new, more efficient EV batteries that it aims to begin using in its upcoming Gigafactory near Berlin.

Musk noted that when the Berlin plant — which will likely open next year — will use a larger cylindrical 4680 format cell in its new structural battery pack. The company had unveiled this cell design at its recent Battery Day event last month.

We’d previously learned that this fourth Gigafactory is slated to begin producing a revamped Model Y with a “radical redesign” of its “core technology” in the second half of 2021, so that’s where this battery will be implemented.

He added that this move will introduce some production risk, and that it’ll take a couple of years for Tesla‘s Fremont- and Shanghai-based plants to adopt this technology.

Electrek noted that this is a major change for the way this car is manufactured , as Musk mentioned new casting for the 4680; the vehicle’s rear and front underbody will need to be produced in  single pieces of casting and linked with the battery pack, rather than mounting said battery pack on a chassis.

The move should not only make for a more efficient battery and increased range, but also a 56% reduction in cost per kWh. That could eventually give the company an edge in competing with rival EV makers in the coming years.

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