While gaming isn’t something that we ordinarily write about, despite the fact that there is tremendous popularity among the professional automotive community in “driving” virtual cars on some of the most challenging (virtual) road courses in the world or in the world of Grand Theft Auto (and we might as well note for the two or three of you who don’t know, “Grand Theft Auto V” will drop in September, something released at the COMPUTEX fair in Taipei caught our attention as it has to do with BMW. And, yes, it is related to gaming.

Actually, it is a BMW subsidiary, DesignworksUSA, which was hired by ASRock, a manufacturer of computer motherboards, to develop a compact gaming PC.

And they developed the M8. It’s a gaming tower that can be positioned horizontally or vertically. The side panels are transparent so that the motherboard is visible. And the side panels are also magnetically attached to the case so that they can be removed to get inside the guts of the machine. The front knob features an OLED that provides information about the operating performance of the M8.

Speaking of the execution, Laurenz Schaffer, president of BMW Group DesignworksUSA, said, “Gaming is all about emotion and individuality. So we created a design which is very much an exaggerated mode of expression. It speaks to the gamers’ souls and offers iconic differentiation in a small gaming PC.”

Almost sounds like he’s describing a car, doesn’t it?

Following up on yesterday’s piece on the Fit EV lease and the charging time requirements, it is worth pointing out that last week Elon Musk, CEO, product architect and co-founder of Tesla, announced that the company is greatly expanding its range of 120-kW Supercharger stations.

Today there are eight stations. By the end of summer, 25. By winter 2013, one will be able to go coast-to-coast via I-80 with proximate stations. And by 2015, Musk says, there will be 98% travel coverage of the U.S. and Canada with Supercharger stations.

He also says that they are working on developing the means to accelerate the charge time, which is going to be on the order of 20 minutes for three hours’ worth of driving.

Oh, and one more thing (in keeping with yesterday’s quasi-economic EV considerations): those rolling up to a Supercharger in their Tesla Model S can keep their credit card in their pocket. The fill-up is free. “Now, and forever,” says Musk. Which is a long time.

Again, realize that as there is a burgeoning EV market, not only will there be technological developments like faster charging and better batteries, but also the need to roll out with new infrastructure. While some of this infrastructure is being built out by utilities who are interested in having people plug in to their portions of the grid, Elon Musk evidently sees the need to greatly supplement those efforts via the creation of Supercharger stations.

The man is certainly smart. Remember, he not only founded PayPal, which was sold to eBay for $1.5-billion (he was the largest shareholder at the time of the sale), but he is also the CEO and CTO of Space X, the company that develops and launches rockets. Yes, arguably Musk is a rocket scientist.

It is difficult to imagine a world where there are GM or Mercedes gas stations. But in this timeline, it seems as though EV stations may come branded with names other than those of an energy supplier.

Although these are still early, early days in the electric vehicle (EV) market, a time when things are being sorted and shifted, organized and dissolved, there is an interesting development, one that shows the EV market is becoming more competitive in a more significant way.

Honda, staring June 1, will be lowering the lease price for the Fit EV to $259 per month from $389.

As Steve Center, vice president of Environmental Business Development at American Honda, put it, “Now it’s the only EV on the market with no down payment, unlimited mileage, collision coverage and a free home charging station, giving customers an unprecedented value that only Honda can provide and a compelling reason to get off the barrel and onto the grid.”

While the “that only Honda can provide” may be a bit over the top, the “off the barrel and onto the grid” is a rather clever phrase.

“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking. “Didn’t I hear that cars including the Chevy Spark EV, Nissan LEAF, and Fiat 500e have a monthly lease payment of $199? Why couldn’t Honda do that?”

Well, Center and his colleagues have calculated the costs of leasing an EV thusly:

The collision coverage is a nice touch, as is the home charger credit (a Leviton 240-volt, 32-amp system: you have to pay for installation, but you get to keep the charger after the lease is up).

That home charger makes a lot of sense. Here’s why. Say that one would drive the Fit EV 12,000 miles per year. The car has an EPA-rated driving range (city and highway combined) of 82 miles. This means that one would need to charge the car 144 times, or so, during the year. The 240-volt AC level 2 charger connected to the standard 6.6-kW onboard charger requires a charging time of “less than three hours.” Let’s just call it three for the sake of simplicity. That means the recharge time would be about 433 hours, or 18 days of recharging time during the course of the year.

See why you want to plug it in at night after you’re done driving (sort of like the way you probably charge your cell phone).

Still, moves like Honda’s will undoubtedly be countered by others, and more people will seriously consider getting “off the barrel and onto the grid.”

One might think that when it comes to R&D, automotive supplier companies are probably dwarfed in their efforts and investments as compared with their OEM customers.

And one might be wrong.

At least so far as Delphi goes.

Jeffrey J. Owens, chief technology officer and executive vice president of Delphi, heads up a team of thousands, and makes R&D investments in the billions.

You read that right.

Owens says that the company is focused on tech developments in three areas:

• Safe: Active safety systems, like collision mitigation systems.
• Green: Engine control units and diesel and gasoline systems.
• Connected: Integrated display, navigation, and various other telematics.

What Delphi is doing in these spaces and why the future of autos may not be wholly autonomous (at least anytime soon) but will be profoundly systems- and sensors-based are among the topics Owens explores with John McElroy, host, Peter DeLorenzo, the Autoextremist, and Gary Vasilash on this edition of “Autoline After Hours.”

In addition to which, McElroy, DeLorenzo and Vasilash discuss everything from fuel cells to Danica Patrick.

Earlier this week, Better Place, the company that came up with the idea that electric vehicle batteries ought to be exchanged rather than recharged (well, the driver would have the battery exchanged; Better Place would then recharge the battery so that it could then be replaced in another electric vehicle) filed a motion in court in Israel for “dissolution of the company and the appointment of a temporary liquidator.”

According to a statement from the Better Place board of directors: “We stand by the original vision as formulated by Shai Agassi of creating a green alternative that would lessen our dependence on highly polluting transportation technologies. While he was able with partners and investors to overcome multiple challenges to demonstrate that it was possible to deliver a technological solution that would fulfill that vision. Unfortunately, the path to realizing that vision was difficult, complex and littered with obstacles, not all of which we were able to overcome. The technical challenges we overcame successfully, but the other obstacles we were not able to overcome, despite the massive effort and resources that were deployed to that end.”

Over the years, we had the opportunity to interview Shai Agassi—who had a seriously convincing way about him—and to witness the first functioning battery exchange system in Tokyo.

While it seems like a good idea, there were probably more technical challenges than the statement of the board would imply. For example, OEMs are selecting different battery configurations and battery chemistries. There isn’t something like a C-cell battery. What’s more, some OEMs are basically using the battery as part of the structure, so this isn’t something that is readily replaced.

Some people might perceive this as being another blow to the whole notion of electric vehicles, to their viability. Fisker. CODA. Better Place. Etc.

The streets are being littered with electrons, it seems.

Source: American Automobiles, a fascinating website worth spending some time with

Yet if we look back to the history of the auto industry in the U.S. alone, from the ABC to the Zentmobile, there were literally hundreds of companies that tried and failed, cries of “Get a horse notwithstanding.”