Update: The DeLorean EV will arrive early than expected, and here's our best look so far
In recent years automakers have been promising electric cars with extraordinary amounts of range. So much range that if you went back in time to tell someone about it 10 years ago, they’d never believe it. The latest is the Fresco XL, which promises an extraordinary 620 miles per charge.
The kicker, though, is that this car is an eight-seat crossover. Other cars with such high range typically have a sedan/saloon design, since they are smaller, lighter and can offer better aerodynamics.
Sadly, Fresco hasn’t revealed a physical version of the car, just a 3D model. And it looks an awful lot like someone turned Apple’s Magic Mouse into a car. In fact, if someone told me this was a fan-made Apple Car render I’d believe them. But I digress.
We don’t know a great many details about the Fresco XL right now, other than the eight-seater crossover design and the fact its battery pack will be a structural component. Fresco says the battery cells will be double-stacked, for maximum storage capacity, and it will have vehicle-to-load capabilities.
In other words, the main battery can be used to power something other than the car. Usually this means the car has power sockets that you can plug electronics into, be it a laptop or a microwave, as you would inside your home. In a lot of cases this also means bidirectional power, which can turn your car battery into a backup power supply for your home, or sell energy to the grid.
The car is also set to come with dual motors, which isn’t a huge surprise, and will be designed for “harsher climates.” Given Fresco’s home country is Norway, I suspect that means the XL will be built for better performance in the snow. Maybe not as much as the Polestar 2 Arctic Circle, which is a rally car, but better than your basic Honda Civic.
However, it’s worth staying a little skeptical of the car at this stage — at least until the automaker can show us an actual working prototype, rather than a 3D model. However if you’re already convinced, the Fresco XL is available to pre-order with a €1,000 ($1,466) deposit. The car itself will eventually cost €100,000 ($114,666) and 3,000 of them will be available, but there’s no word on when it might arrive.
Still, if the company really can pull off a 620-mile range, that would be an impressive accomplishment. Emphasis on the "if," since the only car we’ve seen that offers anything similar would be the Mercedes Vision EQXX concept — a car that only exists as a simulation and which needed some serious design and engineering work to actually hit that figure.
Meanwhile, the longest-range EV that is on the road is the Lucid Air Dream Edition, which offers up to 520 miles of range thanks to its light, aerodynamic design. The upcoming Tesla Cybertruck, complete with its blocky angular form, is supposed to have 500 miles of range in its tri-motor form, but problems with supply mean that it won't arrive anytime soon.
It’d be nice to see if Fresco can do what it promises, and we’ll be watching with interest. But in the meantime, here are the best electric cars you can actually buy.
