Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Funny coincidence, I was thinking about this last night. At what point do PHEV and BEV prices match with the added cost of the ICE powertrain being equal to the savings from a reduced battery capacity? At that point buyers who choose the PHEV are also choosing higher running costs and larger depreciation. If the manufacturers don't pivot fast enough, or have enough BEV specific platform production ready, then buyers may simply put off purchasing new cars until more BEV's are available. Potentially a major crunch point - even worse / sooner if buyers start to consider the demands of those that will buy the car S/H from them, or even those that will buy it S/H further down the chain.

Carmakers Betray Their Customers With Outdated Plugin Hybrids

The bulk of the new “electrified” models are hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and plugin hybrids (PHEV) in the middle part of the market, the very lucrative section where the volumes are still high and the margin is already that of the luxury models. These are autos like the Volvo 40 and 60 models, the BMW 3 Series, the Ford Kuga, and all those other moneymakers from Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, Infiniti, Lexus, and others. This might look like a short-term, safe play for carmakers, but it is not good for consumers. In fact, it is even dangerous for carmakers — they could miss the market transition to more profitable BEVs.

NigeWick

Martyn1981 said:

This article raises the question of whether (or not) battery fires will slow down BEV take up. I assume that it would if supply was unlimited, but perhaps demand will remain greater than supply, so it won't have any actual impact on take up. I don't think all the bad press Tesla got (going back) for some fires had much of an impact, again due to supply issues, rather than demand issues.

Fingers crossed that any and all problems will be solved before this becomes a major concern/issue to take up.

Battery Fires May Slow The EV Revolution

Ford, GM, and Hyundai are all struggling with battery fire issues in their electric and plug-in hybrid cars. A few years ago, battery fires in Tesla automobiles were major front page news events but these latest troubles have caused less of a media frenzy. Still, those who of us who wish for a faster transition to all electric transportation understand that people who are on the fence about driving an electric car don’t need any excuse to delay their decision to buy one.

Good job petrol and diesel aren't flammable!

Martyn1981

The Chinese are coming with decent BEV's ........ or are they already here?

China Is Breeding A Herd Of Purebred Trojan Horses To Conquer The Western BEV Market

Thanks to the Great Recession of 2008, which forced large restructuring and divestments from the Western automotive industry, Chinese companies have saved some old auto companies from liquidation or bought just the brandname, IP, and goodwill. This has enabled these Chinese companies to enter European and American markets with trusted brand names. The quality and price of their EVs is already on par with or even better than what Western OEMs deliver. They’ve been able to start on equal footing with the Western domestic brands.

The following Trojan horses have been welcomed at Western markets. People professing that they will never buy “cheap Chinese crap” are willing to pay a premium for these Chinese products.

EricMears

Martyn1981 said:

The Chinese are coming with decent BEV's ........ or are they already here?

There's the MG of course.

JKenH

Cruise To Be 1st To Send Self-Driving Cars Onto San Francisco Streets Totally Without Humans

Today, Cruise received a permit from the California DMV to remove the human backup drivers from our self-driving cars. We’re not the first company to receive this permit, but we’re going to be the first to put it to use on the streets of a major U.S. city.

Before the end of the year, we’ll be sending cars out onto the streets of SF — without gasoline and without anyone at the wheel. Because safely removing the driver is the true benchmark of a self-driving car, and because burning fossil fuels is no way to build the future of transportation.

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/16/cruise-to-be-1st-to-send-self-driving-cars-onto-san-francisco-streets-totally-without-humans/

JKenH

JKenH said:

JKenH said:

Tesla dropped the price of the Model S by $8,000 this year alone and sales are still going down.

Supply constrained?

The EV market is evolving fast and, like with most new tech, buyers want the latest model. Nissan Leaf sales have also been decimated. There are so many exciting new cars being rolled out that it is no surprise that anything dated is losing out to the new generation. 

https://electrek.co/2020/10/14/tesla-reduce-model-s-price-again-elon-musk-takes-shot-lucid/

Tesla Model 3 Price Drops By $3,300–3,700 In Norway

Good news unless you have just bought one (or you are a leasing/finance company).

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/17/tesla-model-3-price-drops-3300-3700-in-norway/

JKenH

Tesla Model 3 logs 100,000 miles with little reported battery capacity loss

Nissan Leaf owners, eat your heart out.

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/tesla-model-3-logs-100000-miles-with-little-reported-battery-capacity-loss/

Martyn1981

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

The Chinese are coming with decent BEV's ........ or are they already here?

There's the MG of course.

They mentioned MG, but till it was pointed out, I hadn't really thought how many examples there already are.

• Polestar, Geely-owned Volvo’s daughter going solo, should have opened our eyes with its beautiful and well designed Polestar 1 and Polestar 2, but it did not for most.

• Now we have MG (SAIC) becoming a larger brand in Europe than its British predecessor ever was. The success of the ZS EV is followed by the rebadged Roewe Ei5 as the MG 5 SW EV.

• Volvo (Geely) is slowly incorporating Chinese technology and parts and will soon start exporting from China to the West.

• Former Saab cars can’t use that name anymore, but the new company is trying to keep a European face by calling itself National Electric Vehicles Sweden (NEVS), but it is 100% Chinese owned.

• Lotus is still made in the UK, but owned by Geely.

• The famous London Taxis are now made by Chinese-owned LEVC (Geely). Expect vans based on the same platform in the rest of Europe soon.

• Smart is now a joint venture between Daimler and, again, Geely. The production is being relocated to China.

JKenH

A Tesla battery researcher showed updated test results pointing to batteries lasting over 15,000 cycles or the equivalent of over 2 million miles

https://electrek.co/2020/10/18/tesla-battery-test-results-over-2-million-miles/?fbclid=IwAR0gY1RS-Kbb8tbrJIpcSz_zc_rWdOiQ_KC2RciymDXzh-N8s_4uk2NReVM

EVandPV

JKenH said:

A Tesla battery researcher showed updated test results pointing to batteries lasting over 15,000 cycles or the equivalent of over 2 million miles

https://electrek.co/2020/10/18/tesla-battery-test-results-over-2-million-miles/?fbclid=IwAR0gY1RS-Kbb8tbrJIpcSz_zc_rWdOiQ_KC2RciymDXzh-N8s_4uk2NReVM

Interesting !
So is this saying that any lithium battery topped up to 80% every day should suffer less degradation or just Tesla's new 4680 cells ?