Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

michaels

I think the expectation is that at least in the short term the car market will bounce back from pent up demand plus a large number of the better off not (yet) being impacted.  So why do scrappage now when you are just supporting sales that will happen anyway. Wait a few months and if the economy is slumping then it may be time to shell out on  levers like this one.

Only my opinion.

Martyn1981

Some BEV news:

Netherlands hits 9% BEV sales in June, and the Kia Niro doing really well,

Plugin Vehicles = 16% Share of Auto Market in Netherlands, Tesla Model 3 Still #1

The Dutch auto market is moving out of pandemic-related disruption, and the recovery is going faster in the plug-in vehicle sector (down only 13% in June) than the in overall market (down 39%).

This means that the PEV share of the market continues to rise, with 16% share in June, and 11% share for full electrics (BEV) alone. That pulls the 2020 PEV share to 13% (9% BEV), well above last year’s result of 6%.

Does this sound somewhat less than inspiring?

360,000+ Home EV Chargers In UK By 2025?

There are currently 120,000 or so EV charging stations in the UK. A producer and installer of high-end EV chargers in the UK, Andersen, forecasts there will be 360,000+ by 2025.

There are approximately 28 million households in the UK at the moment. If you assume 30 million households in 2025, that would mean approximately 1.2% of UK households would have a home charger by 2025. If you assume 35 million people, that’s about 1% of households.

Martyn1981

Great looking car (I think), and a good package:

Cupra el-Born — Sporty & Hip Variant Of Volkswagen ID.3

Some news/info from the IEA who expect a 10 to 20 fold increase in battery production this decade:

International Energy Agency: Electric Vehicle Battery Tech Rapidly Improving

The IEA expects global EV battery capacity to explode (figuratively speaking, of course), from around 170 GWh per year today to 1.5 TWh per year in 2030 (in the “Stated Policies Scenario,” based on existing government policies) or 3 TWh (in the “Sustainable Development Scenario,” based on the climate goals of the Paris Agreement). Modes of transport other than cars are expected to account for only 11% of battery demand in 2030, so electric passenger cars (Tesla’s specialty) are central to the development of the battery market.

Make no mistake, however: electrified vehicles are already greener than gas burners, and they are steadily getting greener. The IEA report unequivocally states (as many others have) that the lifetime greenhouse gas emissions of a plug-in vehicle are lower than those of an average internal combustion engine vehicle.

Martyn1981

Bit pricey (me thinks) but a nice little package:

London Electric Vehicle Company Rolls Out New Electric Delivery Van

London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) is well known for its iconic London taxis, which are now range-extended electric vehicles. Based on that experience, the company has just rolled out an electric van as well. It has similar styling, but more cargo space and certain other modifications.

Deliveries of the van will start in the 4th quarter of this year for right-hand drive orders, while buyers that want a van that drives on the left-hand side of the road will start receiving the VN5 in March 2021, according to current plans. (Who knows what 2021 brings?)

Demonstrating the electric van’s appeal for delivery services, LEVC notes, “With up to 5.5m3 capacity, VN5 cargo capacity easily accommodates two Euro sized pallets with a gross payload of 830kg. It has been built with a large side-loading door (enabling a pallet to be side-loaded) and a 60/40 split door at the rear to make loading and unloading easy for the driver.”

The van is being produced in Ansty, Coventry. LEVC notes that this factory is “the UK’s only dedicated electric vehicle factory.”

Martyn1981

Nice big and detailed article on BEV's in the Guardian, with a lot of general information before getting down to the title bit:

Electric cars: five best buys, from new models to used bargains

If you’d love to replace your ageing car with an electric model but have been put off because you don’t have a drive on which to charge it, it’s time to think again.

Martyn1981

Audi still pushing for better ICEV's. And whilst I can see some logic in investing in ICE development, I'd have thought they need to be very concerned about sunk costs if they have to divide the R&D across far less cars and years, if BEV takeup continues to accelerate:

Audi Snubs EVs, Says Will Continue To “Massively” Invest In Combustion Engines

joefizz

JKenH said:

This hasn’t been well handled. Why let the rumours run for so long when it must have been putting people off buying a new EV?

This government does that a lot. Just to test the (mainly twitter) waters.

If you think about it however, it really doesnt make much sense in the market. How many people are going to go from a 10+ year old car to a 40k EV? Im probably a minority in that camp ;-)
Similarly the car market is very different to the last scrappage scheme, very few people actually own their own cars now as opposed to renting them. Look at the current payment holidays and no repossession edicts currently in force. That probably will indicate the direction of future thinking more than anything else.
As you later mention (twitter comments back this up) the perception (and I use the word perception deliberately) is that any large ev grant is just giving rich people more money... now... not getting political but... you can view it two ways, yes it will happen as per traditional political standpoints or it wont happen because of the 'borrowed electorate'.
There is also a noticeable drift to a shift away from individual policies but as above thats out in the wind and acted upon by the vagaries of social media and online newspaper comments.

JKenH

Apologies if this has already been posted as it is 3 day old news.

Just wondering about Tesla’s pricing strategy. If the MY is selling well, why not bank the money until sales falter?

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-y-price-reduction/

Edit: maybe the plan is to undercut all the other premium EV makers and put them on the back foot. So long as Tesla break even they could just go for volume and kill off the competition? Never a dull moment with Mr Musk.

michaels

joefizz said:

JKenH said:

This hasn’t been well handled. Why let the rumours run for so long when it must have been putting people off buying a new EV?

This government does that a lot. Just to test the (mainly twitter) waters.

If you think about it however, it really doesnt make much sense in the market. How many people are going to go from a 10+ year old car to a 40k EV? Im probably a minority in that camp ;-)
Similarly the car market is very different to the last scrappage scheme, very few people actually own their own cars now as opposed to renting them. Look at the current payment holidays and no repossession edicts currently in force. That probably will indicate the direction of future thinking more than anything else.
As you later mention (twitter comments back this up) the perception (and I use the word perception deliberately) is that any large ev grant is just giving rich people more money... now... not getting political but... you can view it two ways, yes it will happen as per traditional political standpoints or it wont happen because of the 'borrowed electorate'.
There is also a noticeable drift to a shift away from individual policies but as above thats out in the wind and acted upon by the vagaries of social media and online newspaper comments.

I think there are a couple of issues at play:
1) The UK currently has a massively generous EV incentive in place for company cars (I think I saw one calc suggesting that an 80 Tesla S or X would be about 80-k cheaper than an equivalent ice car over 5 years - which means an 80k hit to the exchequer) and so demand for EVs may be sufficient without additional incentives
2) In other countries there was a definite bounce back of car sales 'pent up demand' from the lockdown period so no need for additional incentives yet - wait till the recession really starts to bite once the impact of the current and post furlough layoffs becomes real then bring in the incentive.

JKenH

‘Tesla of the sky’ aims to transform transport

His company [Lilium] hopes to transform transport, filling the skies with five-seat autonomous electric aircraft that can take off and land vertically by rotating their 36 small electric fans.

Eventually Lilium, which is test-flying an unmanned prototype, aims to rival high-speed trains for price of journey up to 300km (186 miles), but with trips taking a quarter of the time.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/12/tesla-sky-aims-transform-transport/