Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Tesla Gets Mediocre Grade In European Assisted Driving Test

The NCAP testing found the Tesla Autopilot suite on the Model 3 was clearly superior technically to anything offered by any other company, ranking it first among all similar system in the safety backup category with a rating of 95. But….and it’s a big but…..it rated Autopilot worst when it comes to what it calls “assistance competence,” giving it a score of only 36 — well below any of the other 8 cars tested. Combining the two scores left the Model 3 only mid-pack overall.

Elon Musk continues to tout the wonders of Autopilot but he clearly does not factor in that many of his customers are irresponsible jerks. As my old Irish grandfather liked to say, “The most dangerous part of any automobile is the nut behind the wheel.”

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/02/tesla-gets-mediocre-grade-in-european-assisted-driving-test/

Martyn1981

In case folk missed it, there was a 2 day war on the internet/Youtube involving Nikola.
They issued stop notices against a whole host of Youtube sites that have been critical of them for years, and challenging their claims of having 'super duper' technology.
The stop notices claimed that the sites had breached copyright by playing the 'Nikola in motion' video, that shows the truck supposedly driving uphill, but actually just rolling down hill. This video was on Nikola's site and was used as B roll (the free stuff that sites, news etc show in the background during stories) for years, but it was deleted from Nikola's website last week, and then the stop notices issued.
These stop notices are very serious and could have resulted in the various channels being shut down, with loss of all material as well as jobs and income.
All of the sites, including those not targeted, cried foul, and (apparently for the first time) they won. They made enough noise that the mainstream media noticed what happened, and the FT ran an article on it ....... and the bad PR stopped Nikola ...... in motion!
All stop notices have been removed, and Nikola made a statement that it was just an automated error made by Youtube.
Youtube have said no it wasn't them, and given the fact that it was targeted only at sites that have been very critical of Nikola and Trevor Milton, I can't see how it could be just an automated error.
So Nikola that loved all the internet interest and was marketed that way, now seems to be a little shy.

For the sake of the employees, and the investors, I hope Nikola is more than just an empty company with great renders, but I remain sceptical.

If anyone is interested, and I appreciate this is 'odd' news, but BEV's and the internet/Youtube do go hand in hand these days, then Nikki from Transport Evolved explains it all in detail in this video which she issued prior to Nikola's withdrawl of the stop notices:

As It Struggles With Its Reputation, NKLA Nikola Turns On YouTubers. Here's Our Response

JKenH

UK must step on the gas to join race for an electric future

China and Elon Musk's Tesla has stolen a sizeable march - but Europe is investing heavily in closing the gap in electric cars

But the giants of European car making have finally woken up to the challenge of electrification – and they are wasting no time.

From Scandinavia to the Rhineland and the plains of south-west France, tens of billions of euros from companies including Volkswagen, BMW, PSA, BASF and others are pouring into a string of ambitious “gigafactories”.

“If the batteries go out of the UK so will the car industry.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/10/04/uk-must-step-gas-join-race-electric-future/

Martyn1981

Extract from this week's Carbon Commentary Newsletter:

9, Battery costs and technologies. Tesla appears to have started using Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries in its Chinese factory. These contain no cobalt, avoiding one of the major issues with battery supply. This has surprised some observers who comment that the energy density of these batteries is typically substantially lower than standard lithium ion, meaning that the range of the car may be more limited. Or, as seems very possible, Tesla supplier CATL has improved the density of its cells. The absence of cobalt means the battery will be cheaper and a new investigation suggests that Lithium Iron Phosphate costs will fall well below $100 per kilowatt hour by 2023. The full battery cost for a 250mile/400km car will then be little more than the engine parts for a medium sized internal combustion engine car.

Martyn1981

Another pondering (or is it ponderous!) post by myself based on thoughts, some mine, some Steven's (from Solving the Money Problem) reacting to a great little interview of Sandy Munro by Alex (of E for Electric). Sandy suggests that Tesla is 5 to 7 years ahead on technology, which Steven points out that with Tesla's policy of price cutting as costs fall, could mean the competition can't catch up.
My thoughts, the other companies have falling sales and revenues, but have to expand expenditure in BEV's whilst selling at price points where they may not be profitable. The 'good' news is that if Tesla does expand to 20m vehicles pa by 2030, then that leaves 75-80% of the market for the others, but the 'bad' news is that Tesla should reach fully autonomous driving long before 2030, which should lead to robo-taxis and perhaps a 50-80% reduction in new vehicles entering the market.
All speculation and ponderings built on a mountain of speculation and ponderings, but we may be quite close (2-5yrs) to developments and changes that will have a simply staggering impact on what the industry looks like in 2030.
Have fun.

How Far Ahead Is Tesla REALLY? (w/Sandy Munro)

JKenH

SMMT figures for September. Another good month for plug in vehicles taking 10.5%of the sales for the month and 8.8% of sales YTD up from 2.5% at this stage in 2019.

michaels

Other imports were 5.8k so the Model 3 must have only just missed out on hitting the top 10 in a registration change month.  I wonder if it might have been the highest grossing vehicle for the month (price x volume)?

EVandPV

The bad news .....

Worst September for UK car sales this century

The good news .....

Sales of electric cars are rising fast, even as the market for diesels continues to collapse.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-54415947

JKenH

UK: Huge Record Of Plug-In Electric Cars Sold In September 2020

https://insideevs.com/news/447327/uk-record-plugin-electric-cars-september-2020/

JKenH

See The Best Selling Battery Electric Cars Of All-Time Here

We don’t hear much about the Leaf now but we shouldn’t forget that for a long time it was the best selling EV in the world and only the Tesla M3 has sold more.

https://insideevs.com/news/447165/see-best-selling-battery-electric-cars/