Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Another Telegraph article

Electric car take-up could be hindered by power grid shortcomings

Effective planning of future infrastructure will require a new understanding of the existing electric grid, and how it intersects with the transport grid. This will require us to map in unprecedented detail major sites and sources of future demand, including new towns, future population movements and working patterns – whether, for example, working (and therefore charging) from home will become a permanent trend – and the knock-on impacts of new charging points on the local environment, such as improved air quality.

Only by understanding these factors can we see where capacity will need to be increased to ensure equal access to EVs, or where “smart charging” incentives will need to be targeted to ease the burden on the grid. We will also need real-time monitoring and maintenance of roadside EV infrastructure as any faults could now affect both transport, businesses, communities and households.

The growing decentralisation of energy generation and storage will also mean the power grid has more assets, and therefore vulnerabilities, that must be monitored to avoid faults or failures.  

https://kaleistyleguide.com/cars/comment/electric-car-take-up-could-hindered-power-grid-shortcomings/

JKenH

Carmakers must be honest: even electric cars aren’t clean

There is no such thing as a clean car today, and telling consumers that there is, is immoral.

First we must tell the truth. And the truth here is an inconvenient one. All products have an environmental impact, electric cars are not an exception.  However, as opposed to a fossil-fuel driven car that can never reach climate neutrality, with EVs we can. Now, finally, we have a real chance. We must not waste the opportunity.

We must offer complete clarity, or risk losing the trust of those who really matter, our customers. Without clear industry standards, manufacturers will continue to create sustainability “benchmarks” that only serve their own purposes, making any real comparison impossible.  

https://kaleistyleguide.com/business/2020/09/09/carmakers-must-honest-even-electric-cars-arent-clean/

JKenH

Another article from the Telegraph for World EV day.

Let’s stop being unrealistic about how quickly electric cars are going to take off

Petrol and diesel are still here for now, and many people with perfectly ordinary lifestyles really do need it to be here for a long while yet. That’s absolutely fine and reasonable. Even the most zealous of electric car fans understands that. Some even understand that there are aspects of a combustion engines – the sound, the power delivery, the scope for character in a performance car – that an awful lot of people are never going to want to give up.  

So, rather than constantly fuelling this bizarre and unnecessary antagonism between those who do or don’t like EVs, and instead of taking a survey that shows that around half of motorists may go electric in five years and writing a headline off the back of it insinuating that nobody wants an EV…  Maybe we just need to be up front about the fact that battery cars are still a compromise in many ways for some motorists, but things are getting better very quickly.

https://kaleistyleguide.com/cars/comment/stop-unrealistic-quickly-electric-cars-going-take/

Martyn1981

Been trying to work out why GM and Nikola are linking up. I thought it would be an interesting thing to research, and also help to quell my fears that Nikola is the next Theranos and will bring the whole BEV industry into dispute if they collapse. The full story is enormous, and quite funny, so I thought I might share some bits and pieces.

So, looking at the details of their partnership, GM gets 11% of Nikola for the right to sell Nikola GM products ...... wait that can't be right!

And Nikola will rely on GM for all the batts and H2 tech ..... wait, what? If Nikola have batteries that are twice as energy dense, and cost half as much as Tesla's, as they have claimed, then why will they be buying GM's battery technology? And if Nikola is the leading company in HFC technology for cars and trucks, as they have claimed, then why will they be buying GM's HFC tech?
This means that Nikola's Badger pick up, will just be a re-badged GM that they have to buy off GM, before adding their mark up on top. So it won't have groundbreaking technology, but will cost more due to extra mouths to feed in the supply chain.

I kinda see what GM gets, as they will be selling pickups to their customers, and also to Nikola's reservation list, plus they can pretend that they are doing something to transition to BEV's now, I think?

Still no news on Nikola's HFC truck that was due to sell this year, when I watched the launch in 2016, though a lot of the details have now changed. For instance they hyped that it would cost 97c/mile to run, v's 99c/mile for a diesel, and weigh 2,000 pounds less, which they stressed was crucial to the trucking industry as the weight saving would earn the haulage firms more money. But since then we've found that the diesel cost was an old one, and the Nikola truck specs have been revised 'slightly' - they've halved the fuel economy and range having found out the trucks will use twice as much H2/mile, and have changed the weight to 1,000-2,000 pounds 'more' than a conventional diesel.

They should now be halfway through the rollout of the 700 H2 fueling stations they promised, but still haven't built any ..... apart from the test fueling station they own, which is the largest and most efficient in the Western World ...... according to Nikola, though it's not open to the public, and no details/specs have been given.

As I said, Nikola scare me, I'm starting to wonder if their partnership with GM is just to add legitimacy to the company so that they can run out the clock, since the bosses get $100's millions in an unusual compensation package in 2023 simply if the company still exists, on paper. To date they have built and sold nothing*, and we have found out that the truck displayed at the launch in 2016 which had the controls chained off, "to stop anyone driving off in it", was actually a 'pusher' with no motors, gears, nor H2 tech. And the reason for omitting the H2 parts, was, according to Nikola, that they were worried it might blow up and kill audience members ....... I'm not joking.
*Actually they did have a sales revenue last quarter, approx $30k for installing a PV system on the bosses new multi-million dollar mansion he bought by selling shares as soon as Nikola went public.

Perhaps real construction will start on their factory site now (or not), a couple of months after the public launch. Since then the small number of site vehicles (a couple of graders and back hoes) has gone down, and the giant 'phallic symbol' that was drawn in the ground, by the graders, has now been 'rubbed out', so to speak.

So there you are, I doubt I've found even a fraction of what is going on, but it is pretty fascinating. Is this partnership something that will lead to greatness, or just a PR exercise by two companies, one that needs BEV credibility, and the other needing people to stop saying it's a scam?

JKenH

Martyn1981 said:

Been trying to work out why GM and Nikola are linking up. I thought it would be an interesting thing to research, and also help to quell my fears that Nikola is the next Theranos and will bring the whole BEV industry into dispute if they collapse. The full story is enormous, and quite funny, so I thought I might share some bits and pieces.

So, looking at the details of their partnership, GM gets 11% of Nikola for the right to sell Nikola GM products ...... wait that can't be right!

And Nikola will rely on GM for all the batts and H2 tech ..... wait, what? If Nikola have batteries that are twice as energy dense, and cost half as much as Tesla's, as they have claimed, then why will they be buying GM's battery technology? And if Nikola is the leading company in HFC technology for cars and trucks, as they have claimed, then why will they be buying GM's HFC tech?
This means that Nikola's Badger pick up, will just be a re-badged GM that they have to buy off GM, before adding their mark up on top. So it won't have groundbreaking technology, but will cost more due to extra mouths to feed in the supply chain.

I kinda see what GM gets, as they will be selling pickups to their customers, and also to Nikola's reservation list, plus they can pretend that they are doing something to transition to BEV's now, I think?

Still no news on Nikola's HFC truck that was due to sell this year, when I watched the launch in 2016, though a lot of the details have now changed. For instance they hyped that it would cost 97c/mile to run, v's 99c/mile for a diesel, and weigh 2,000 pounds less, which they stressed was crucial to the trucking industry as the weight saving would earn the haulage firms more money. But since then we've found that the diesel cost was an old one, and the Nikola truck specs have been revised 'slightly' - they've halved the fuel economy and range having found out the trucks will use twice as much H2/mile, and have changed the weight to 1,000-2,000 pounds 'more' than a conventional diesel.

They should now be halfway through the rollout of the 700 H2 fueling stations they promised, but still haven't built any ..... apart from the test fueling station they own, which is the largest and most efficient in the Western World ...... according to Nikola, though it's not open to the public, and no details/specs have been given.

As I said, Nikola scare me, I'm starting to wonder if their partnership with GM is just to add legitimacy to the company so that they can run out the clock, since the bosses get $100's millions in an unusual compensation package in 2023 simply if the company still exists, on paper. To date they have built and sold nothing*, and we have found out that the truck displayed at the launch in 2016 which had the controls chained off, "to stop anyone driving off in it", was actually a 'pusher' with no motors, gears, nor H2 tech. And the reason for omitting the H2 parts, was, according to Nikola, that they were worried it might blow up and kill audience members ....... I'm not joking.
*Actually they did have a sales revenue last quarter, approx $30k for installing a PV system on the bosses new multi-million dollar mansion he bought by selling shares as soon as Nikola went public.

Perhaps real construction will start on their factory site now (or not), a couple of months after the public launch. Since then the small number of site vehicles (a couple of graders and back hoes) has gone down, and the giant 'phallic symbol' that was drawn in the ground, by the graders, has now been 'rubbed out', so to speak.

So there you are, I doubt I've found even a fraction of what is going on, but it is pretty fascinating. Is this partnership something that will lead to greatness, or just a PR exercise by two companies, one that needs BEV credibility, and the other needing people to stop saying it's a scam?

Hype, delays and unfulfilled promises seems to be the normal agenda for new tech manufacturers bringing AFV technology to the market. 

Martyn1981

I wasn't sure whether to share my thoughts on Nikola yesterday, as it's not that important to us, but since it had been mentioned on here a couple of times, and we also chat occasionally about share ownership (I have Tesla and Arcimoto investments in the auto industry), I just felt uneasy about not offering up at least a warning.

Well, it seems I needn't have worried, as Hindenburg Research came out yesterday with an absolutely damning report on Nikola, shooting them down in no uncertain terms - has there ever been a more ironic situation Hindenburg v's hydrogen company?

But first a disclaimer, Hindenburg used their report to justify heavily shorting Nikola's shares, so it's in their best interests to suggest that the company is a scam and doesn't have any proprietary technology. But this would explain why a company 'name' built up on their claims to have the best battery tech, best hydrogen tech, and plans to build a factory, would give away 11% of their stock to GM, to get GM to build the vehicles for them to buy off GM, using GM technology, giving GM full retention of all IP, and also pay GM $700m to build out the production line.

It's really worth reading the list of concerns that Hindenburg raised, I was shocked, and those that haven't been following Nikola will be absolutely gob smacked. Here's just one for fun:

Trevor has appointed his brother, Travis, as “Director of Hydrogen Production/Infrastructure” to oversee this critical part of the business. Travis’s prior experience looks to have largely consisted of pouring concrete driveways and doing subcontractor work on home renovations in Hawaii.

And I'm also glad I made a reference yesterday to Theranos:

Every now and then a story comes around that exposes how little the “experts” really know. Theranos inked partnerships with Walgreens, Safeway, and Cleveland Clinic and staffed its board with luminaries. We think Nikola’s partners did not do their homework.

Nikola: How to Parlay An Ocean of Lies Into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in America

And Reuters article:

Nikola, short seller Hindenburg clash over critical report

Lastly - All of the EV stocks seem to be very high at the moment, and they fluctuate massively, even on a day by day basis. So if anyone is thinking of jumping on board, have a good think, make sure it's money you can afford to lose, and remember that the automotive revolution/disruption whilst now being unstoppable, is still an investment that should be looked at over a 10yr period at least. Have fun!

JKenH

Re Nikolai above:
Fascinating read. 

“ We think Trevor Milton is incapable of telling the truth. We believe he lies like most people breathe. It is natural for him, and our extensive review of his history suggests it has been this way throughout his entire business career.”

I had the misfortune to work with an individual just like that. In answer to what would be a straightforward enquiry of him, almost always the response would be a lie even though it was not in anyway prejudicial to his interests to tell the truth.

I couldn’t help noticing some similarities in the article about Milton’s personality which in part reminded me of another well known electric car developer.

Martyn1981

GRIDSERVE UNVEILS MAJOR PARTNERSHIPS AS ELECTRIC FORECOURT NEARS COMPLETION

GRIDSERVE unveils major partnerships to offer “Best of British” retail customer experience as world's first Electric Forecourt® nears completion.

Household brands including WHSmith, Costa Coffee, the Post Office, Booths, and Gourmade together with technology partners Tesla, ABB, and the AA join forces with GRIDSERVE to deliver “world class” customer experience of the future
GRIDSERVE today announces multiple new partnerships with leading retail, service and technology giants to deliver a “world-class” customer experience at the UK’s first Electric Forecourt®, due to open near Braintree, Essex, this November.

Toddington Harper, Founder and CEO of GRIDSERVE, said: “Our UK-wide network of over 100 customer-focused Electric Forecourts® will eliminate range and charging anxiety by making it easier and cheaper to charge an electric vehicle than to fuel a petrol or diesel alternative. The UK’s first Electric Forecourt®, represents so much more than an electric equivalent of a modern petrol station – it will deliver a fully loaded customer experience, offering the Best of British retail and customer service to cater for a full range of consumer and driver needs.”

Martyn1981

silverwhistle said:

The most important recent EV news, IMO, is...I'm getting one next week. Liquid cooled battery, so degradation should be low. It's got to last me a long time!

Hiya, any news you want to share with us yet? Do you have the car ...... and a great big smile?

Martyn1981

Bit late with this, so spoiler after the article if you want to read it first. Hopefully this will make the news and show just how capable BEV's now are for long journeys, as well as city driving.

Electric Car Record To Be Attempted By Zero Carbon World

Three representatives from UK charity Zero Carbon World will attempt to make the fastest journey in an electric car from John O’Groats to Land’s End on Saturday, 12 September 2020, and while doing so aim to break the Guinness World Record for the journey’s shortest charging time in an EV.

[Spoiler warning - According to the comments, they broke the records for fastest journey, and least charging time.]