Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

EVandPV

MCDONALD’S TO INSTALL ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING POINTS AT UK RESTAURANTS

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/mcdonalds-electric-car-charging-points-uk-restaurants-fast-food-instavolt-a9590116.html

almillar

EVandPV said:

MCDONALD’S TO INSTALL ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING POINTS AT UK RESTAURANTS

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/mcdonalds-electric-car-charging-points-uk-restaurants-fast-food-instavolt-a9590116.html

Great stuff and a no-brainer for fast food companies/coffee chains. Any that are near a rapid charger (and it's rapids they're installing) have already been getting more custom from me!

Martyn1981

The good and the bad. Hyundai to build a nice packaged mini-bus, and looks like Byton are in financial trouble, perhaps a big established motor company will buy them up.

“County Electric” Minibus Is Hyundai’s Next Electric Play

Byton Going Bye-bye? Chinese Carmaker Suspends Operations

Martyn1981

French EV sales are looking good, and growing fast, with BEV's accounting for ~6% of sales in June.

France June 2020 EV Market Share At 9% — Almost 4x The 2019 Result!

France, Europe’s second largest auto market, saw electric vehicle market share climb to 9% in June, a huge jump up from the 2.5% of a year ago.

The result comes as the overall French passenger auto market recovered to historical levels, with electrics taking a record 20,990 of the total 233,820 auto sales.

And I'm not exactly sure what this means, if anything, but it's a nice milestone:

Tesla’s Market Value Overtakes Exxon In Historic Paradigm Shift [TSLA > XOM]

An energy paradigm shift is underway. According to Bloomberg, “Tesla Inc.’s market value has surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp.’s in a sign that investors are increasingly betting on a global energy transition away from fossil fuels.” Bloomberg touted the turning point as a “symbolic energy shift” that could signify a seismic transformation taking place in the sector.

EVandPV

https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/membership/uk-earmarks-1bn-to-attract-ev-battery-gigafactory-and-kick-start-lithium-ion-economy/

Coastalwatch

Great to have an alternative battery technology available for the future and one which could enable costs of around $80/kWh. If that's the price of new then what price might second life batteries go for once there life in an EV is deemed over!

Why Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries May Be The Key To The EV Revolution

The lithium-ion battery is dead. Long live the lithium iron battery! Those words signal a revolutionary change in battery technology, one that will cause a dramatic increase in the demand for electric cars and trucks. Over the past decade, zillions of hours and billions of dollars have been invested in figuring out how to make solid-state lithium-ion batteries. Now it seems lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries may be about to change the conversation completely.

One of the features of LFP batteries is they don’t use cobalt. Not only is cobalt expensive, but much of it is dug out of the ground by children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which gives anti-EV advocates that opportunity to spout off about the evils of electric cars and vent their rage on digital devices that use cobalt in their batteries.

Meng tells CNBC that to reduce battery costs, companies will have to also get rid of nickel, which is the second most expensive component of batteries. While current nickel manganese cobalt batteries — the choice of many automakers other than Tesla — could reach the magical million mile threshold, they won’t be able to do so on a cost effective basis with today’s nickel concentrations she says. With lithium iron phosphate, which eliminates both nickel and cobalt, there is a possible pathway for getting battery prices down to as low as $80/kWh.

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/07/01/why-lithium-iron-phosphate-batteries-may-be-the-key-to-the-ev-revolution/

Martyn1981

Tesla deliveries in Q2 have been announced and they pulled a rabbit out of the hat, with only a 5% drop compared to Q2 2019. The only way is up for BEV's.

Tesla [TSLA] 2nd Quarter Production & Delivery Numbers Are …

And (of course) Norway continues to shine with BEV sales accounting for ~44% of the car market.

Norway June EV Market Share At 66%, Overall Autos Down 25% YoY

Martyn1981

More European results, and BEV ferries for Washington State.

The Renault Zoe continues to shine:

Renault Zoë — The Unexpected European Summer Champion

About 7% of sales in Sweden are BEV's, but they really like their PHEV's over there. 

Tesla Model 3 Is Best Selling BEV In Sweden As Market Hits 25%

Big ferries going electric, both retrofits and new ones:

Vigor Chooses ABB Battery Electric Power For New Ferries In Washington

EVandPV

Martyn1981 said:

More European results, and BEV ferries for Washington State.

The Renault Zoe continues to shine:

Renault Zoë — The Unexpected European Summer Champion

Not too surprised by that, great little car.  Had  mine just over a year now and can’t fault it.

Still toying with the idea of buying out the battery lease.

Martyn1981

Continuing the June results for Europe we have Germany with just shy of 4% BEV's, which I suppose is pretty good for such a big market. Will be interesting to see how that figure grows (fingers crossed) with all the pro EV policies Germany is now rolling out, but supply limitations may still be the problem.

Germany Hits 8.4% EV Market Share In June, & Heading Higher!

It’s very clear that BEVs dominate the highest demand models, but that PHEVs, though less highly sought after (per model), come in many more model choices. The PHEV model sales then stack up to slightly higher combined volumes than BEVs (the 55:45 volume split mentioned above). This suggests that model variety and supply volumes of BEVs are still not keeping up with potential demand, and the results that we see are suppressed by these shortages.