Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Tuesday 10th July edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.
Housekeeping: first 4 Fully Charged Live videos online now.
Thank you to Leon Clarke who just sent me a link to the Nissan story, they’ve admitted falsified data on car exhaust emissions at it’s Japanese factories. I’ll pull together all you need to know about that on tomorrow’s programme.
Also a lot of news today, so thank you for your emails and comments, we’ll do a bumper batch tomorrow.
#ROADTOZERO - THE GOOD, BAD AND UNCERTAIN
Every country around the world, wherever you're listening, is somewhere along the path to zero-emission transport. That part isn't in doubt. The interesting thing is how quickly it will happen and whether you, the car buyers will make it happen, or whether it's going to be regulation and Government.
Well here in the UK the Government just released a long awaited Road To Zero transport strategy, which some hoped would be a clear and definitive roadmap to the future. What do you think of this? And would it go down well where you're listening? Are you already ahead of the UK or do you have catching to do? Would this plan work where you live, or is the road to nowhere? Let's dive in.
The talk of bans is out the window to be replaced with targets and ambitions, target for at least 50% of new cars to be ultra-low emission by 2030, and vague promises like “all new cars and vans to have significant zero-emission capability” by 2040 and “almost every” car and van to be zero-emission by 2050.
All new builds homes as well as street lights to get EV chargers. I say this is good news because it brings the costs down when they're integrated, when you're buying in bulk, when developers building apartment or office blocks integrated solar, storage and chargers.
No ban on combustion engines - the diesel lobby will be toasting a drink tonight because they got their way. The Guardian says: "Petrol and diesel hybrid cars will still be permitted to be sold in 2040, the government has conceded, in a move that has angered environmental campaigners but was welcomed by the car industry.
Companies in the charge point installation business are up sharing a £400m Charging Infrastructure Investment Fund
Businesses retrofitting charge points can claim grants for 75% of the costs.
No detail or commitment on incentives.
A review of all this planned for 2025 which builds IN uncertainty.
In comparison Norway wants to phase out new combustion cars by 2025.
Greenpeace said the car industry was “yet again being given a free pass” and the targets were weak by international standards.
The body whose job it is to fight for diesel in the UK is the SMMT, and Mike Hawes their Chief Exec said the strategy recognised “the vital role conventional engines, including diesel, will continue to play in the transition to 2040 and beyond”. That's morally obscene knowing what we do now about particulates killing people and the damage to health they cause.
My take: economics wins. Math wins. Most respectfully, politicians have never occupied a lower estimation in many minds than in 2018, hence the protest votes around the world. This is a political greenwash of policy whilst keeping diesel makers happy, but none of it matters because economics wins. Cheap motoring wins. Whilst you and I want to say we're doing this for the environment, time after time people have been shown to always do what's in their own interest. Which in this case is save money when EV's become cheaper than ICE cars. There is no point talking about 2030 or 2040 and hybrid car targets. The largest pre-order in the history of consumerism was the Model 3 and every car maker wants a piece of that. For many it doesn't suit them to move over until 2020 because of existing investments but after that they'll do what sells.
If we are to give politicians any credit it will be California, not just with EV's but over the years, helping to make cars greener. And the European Parliament which has put strict new CO2 limits in place. Those along with China will drive the move initially, and after that it's down to consumers.
TESLA RAISES PRICES BY NEARLY 20 PERCENT IN CHINA
In a response to President Trump's ongoing trade dispute between the U.S. and China, electric automaker Tesla has raised prices of its vehicles in the Chinese market around 20%
China has called it the "biggest trade war in economic history."
This will surely speed up investment in China by not only Tesla but all auto makers hit by tariffs.
OVER 18,000 EV'S FOR FRANCE SO FAR THIS YEAR
"In France, the electric vehicle segment has surpassed 18,000 registrations since the beginning of 2018" reports Green Car Congress: "After a few subdued months, the electric passenger car market rose significantly in June. The Renault ZOE has maintained its lead and continues to carry registrations of electric passenger cars (60.90% of market share), In second place, the Nissan LEAF showed a rise of 143.01% with 469 vehicles. The BMW i3 retains third place with 182 new registrations, including 74 units equipped with a range extender."
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/07/20180709-avere.html
BMW i3 REVIEW: LIVING WITH THE ULTIMATE ELECTRIC CAR?
Another one of those little things I like, seeing how mainstream press talk about EVs, we did this yesterday with the LEAF. Pocket-Lint have actually bought a BMW i3 this is no loan car to the press.
"Stamp on the accelerator and the i3 gives you its first surprise – it feels truly quick, leaping forward with the kind of abandon that's usually the reserve of sports cars. But with almost no noise. Our own unscientific traffic light grand prix experiments over the past months actually suggests that it's as quick (or quicker) away from the lights than just about any other car on the road for the first 20 meters or so." And on the subject of regen: "after a while you start to actually think more about your driving, start to lift off the pedal a little earlier so you don't need to manually brake, and think ahead. In some ways, we think it's made us a better driver".
On the topic of going back to a combustion car: "Getting back in a petrol or diesel car also genuinely feels old fashioned. The noise, the vibration, the changing gears, the stopping at fuel stations, the idling in traffic. All are relegated to the past in an electric car."
YOUTUBE DELIVERS FOR MORE NUBURGRING EV VIDEOS
What did we do before YouTube was around so I could search for videos of test cars pounding around the Nurburging. Yesterday it was the Mercedes EQC and today another.
This time it's the Porsche formerly known as the Mission E, now the Taycan, hitting the 12.9-mile Nordschleife.
The debut is still set for early 2019, with production pencilled for mid-2019. By which point, in 12 months’ time, I will guarantee you Elon will not have been able to keep schtum about the new Roadster so we'll definitely have something to compare it to.
FORD HAS BIG ELECTRIC PLANS - BUT THEY'RE STILL JUST PLANS
Ted Cannis, Ford's global director of battery electric vehicles, said during a recent interview with Engadget: "With (Ford CEO Jim) Hackett, we're all in. We're going to be bigger and we want to change the process. When it was compliance cars, there's nothing wrong with Ford Focus Electric. It's executed well. But, it's not too exciting. Let's make them awesome. Let's amplify what's best about that for that user group and really make awesome vehicles".
https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/09/ford-future-ev-interview/
GERMAN CARMAKERS LEFT RELIANT ON OTHERS FOR BATTERY CELLS
Reuters had a story yesterday which did highlight the biggest issue for those luxury German car makers, despite knowing EV's have been coming for years: "Plans by a Chinese company to build a battery cell factory in Germany should serve as a wakeup call for the national car industry, whose lack of its own production capacity risks leaving it exposed in a dawning era of electric mobility." says Douglas Busvine for Reuters: "BMW has awarded a contract worth just over 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) for CATL to make cells for electric cars, while Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has picked CATL and South Korea’s Samsung and LG Chem to deliver $25 billion worth of batteries."
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-china-batteries/german-carmakers-left-reliant-on-others-for-battery-cells-idUKKBN1JZ0C0?utm_source=applenews
TESLA GIGAFACTORY BATTERY TECH RISK IS A MYTH
I missed this article from Saturday but I wanted to bring it to you from Christopher Arcus at Clean Technica, on the subject of advances in battery tech and whether Tesla is wrong to commit to the Gigafactory: "It is no secret that Tesla’s Gigafactory represents an important advantage in lowering battery cell costs and supplying battery cells for storage and electric vehicles. But its a myth that factory investment ties Tesla to one lithium battery technology. In fact, we know Tesla already produces both NCA and NMC cells at the Gigafactory, but even other tech (like solid-state batteries) is compatible with existing production equipment."
And I wanted you to check it out because it's one of the argument the old auto makers use, that they're waiting for battery tech to improve or solid state batteries. When Elon announced the Tesla Semi and head of Daimler Trucks said the range and specs were against the laws of physics (I'm paraphrasing) unless Tesla knew something which Daimler didn't. And that's the thing, they do. Then at the shareholders meeting Elon said that was perhaps conservative, the Tesla Semi is already working out better than promised. As a pure electric car maker they spend every second of every day working out how to make battery tech better. Rather than behave like a car makers, with slick just-in-time supply chains and everything bought in, they've pushed the technology themselves rather than bought it in.
https://cleantechnica.com/2018/07/07/tesla-gigafactory-battery-tech-risk-is-a-myth/
ELON MUSK'S MUSKIEST MOMENTS OF 2018
And finally, something a little light hearted. And someone at Mashable has too much free time on their hands because they've been keeping tabs on the best of Elon Musk in 2018 - or they like to call the muskiest moments of the year.
SpaceX had a monumental first successful launch of its Falcon Heavy rocket,
The Tesla Roadster and its dummy astronaut, which reportedly disappeared into deep space
Becoming the 'It' couple of the Met Gala with musician Grimes. There was the nerdy joke that brought them together, the memes the relationship spawned, and his own personal Grimes playlist.
Selling Not A Flamethrowers - $500 each, and a rename to get round regulations
In May Musk tweeted about creating a website that "would rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication.
He filed a law suit against a former employee who admitted to installing malicious code on servers to leak private data to unnamed parties, and the press
And finally - a farting unicorn.
https://mashable.com/2018/07/08/elon-musk-moments-of-2018-so-far/
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