Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Friday 29th June 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.
BP TO BUY CHARGEMASTER, THE UK’S LARGEST ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING COMPANY
And so the press release came through at 8am this morning, British Petroleum aka BP will buy Chargemaster plc, to become BP Chargemaster, just 10 years after it launched. All staff keep their jobs.
The company with 6,500 charge points. There are 40,000 customers of the POLAR network, also owned by Chargemaster, and they pay a monthly subscription, get it as part of their home energy tariff or use it on a pay-as-you-go basis.
BP said: "Combining BP's and Chargemaster's complementary expertise, experience and assets is an important step towards offering fast and ultra-fast charging at BP sites across the UK and to BP becoming the leading provider of energy to low carbon vehicles, on the road or at home."
David Martell Chief Exec of Chargemaster said: "I am truly excited to lead the Chargemaster team into a new era backed by the strength and scale of BP, which will help us maintain our market-leading position and grow the national POLAR charging network to support the large range of exciting new electric vehicles that are coming to market in the next couple of years"
Business Green: "The move follows rival Shell's acquisition last year of European EV charging network Newmotion and provides the latest evidence that leading oil majors are looking to diversify into clean technologies. BP customers in the UK can expect to access BP Chargemaster chargers on forecourts over the next 12 months."
This is small change in the grand scheme of the oil industry. Business Green add "The deal is the latest major low carbon investment from the company, which earlier this year returned to the solar market with its $200m investment in PV developer Lightsource, of which the oil giant now owns a 43 per cent share."
BP predicts there will be 12 million electric cars on Britain's roads by 2040, a marked increase from the 135,000 in use last year.
This Is Money: "In October last year, BP's rival, Shell, snapped up Dutch-based NewMotion, which is the owner of one of Europe's biggest electric charging networks"
Fred at Electrek's take was; "f you have a weird feeling about an oil company buying into EV technology and companies, it’s maybe because you remember that oil companies once bought and killed some EV tech. Chevron did it with the battery tech in the original Toyota RAV4 EV and there were a few other examples with electric motors in the 1990s. But I think I can safely say that it won’t be repeated. EVs have become so mainstream this time around that killing off a few startups wouldn’t have a major impact."
The Independent looks to the future: "It also plans to roll out ultra-fast charging equipment, which will include 150kW rapid chargers, which will take just 10 minutes to give cars enough energy to drive 100 miles."
HYUNDAI KONA UK PRICES
PANASONIC FLAGS BATTERY SHORTAGES
"A senior Panasonic Corp official on Thursday said a pickup in production of Tesla Inc’s Model 3 cars, after earlier delays, has resulted in occasional battery shortages." accordingt to news agency Reuters: "Panasonic currently produces battery cells for Tesla in Japan as well as at Tesla’s so-called Gigafactory in the U.S. state of Nevada, which Panasonic jointly operates. Panasonic sees batteries as central to its plan to boost automotive business revenue to 2.5 trillion yen by the year through March 2022 from 1.8 trillion yen ($16.3 billion) estimated for this financial year."
Yoshio Ito head of Panasonic’s automotive business, said at the company’s general shareholders meeting: "“There has been a sharp improvement in production equipment and we are now occasionally having battery shortages. I wouldn’t say the delay (in Tesla’s Model 3 production) had no impact on our business, but we are in close communications with Tesla and working to steadily improve production"
BYD WANTS THE BATTERY CROWN
And although Elon Musk has often talked about creating the worlds biggest building, "BYD Co. is building what would become the world’s largest vehicle-battery factory next year in an effort by the Chinese electric-car maker to increase capacity and help revive earnings growth."
If not by floor space, then by capacity. com say: "The plant will have an annual capacity of 24 gigawatt-hours when it is fully in use in 2019, enough to equip 1.2 million BYD Tang electric cars, according to the manufacturer backed by Warren Buffett. BYD invested $1.5 billion in the factory, which will help meet the company’s plan to boost its battery-making capability almost fourfold by 2020."
CARE BY VOLVO SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE LAUNCHES
" Care by Volvo subscription service is about to debut its most desirable vehicle, as the S60 T8 Polestar Engineered sedan will be available exclusively via the (iOS-only) app starting at noon ET today" reportrs Engadget: "Only 20 of the AWD cars are coming to the US, with upgraded plug-in hybrid powertrains capable of 415HP thanks to a finely tuned ECU, 19-inch rims, upgraded suspension and gold-painted Brembo brake calipers. With the service, the cars will cost $1,100 that covers the car plus accompanying insurance and maintenance. The only things you'll need to pay for otherwise are taxes/registration fees and gas/electricity."
REVEALED: 34,000 FINED LAST YEAR FOR NOT TAXING VEHICLES WHICH ARE FREE TO TAX
"Drivers paid over £500,000 in fines last year for not applying to tax vehicles which cost nothing to tax, data obtained by MoneySavingExpert.com shows."
"Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that between April 2017 and April 2018 the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) issued 34,012 penalties to the registered keepers of 'nil-rated' vehicles - vehicles which don't cost any money to tax." according to MoneySavingExpert.com
Failure to register, even tho though it's registering to pay £0, could get you an £80 fine.
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Thank you Brian Weatherall
Kevin Smith and his converted e-NV200. James, Kate & Florence video.
Simon Yapp email
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