Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Been waiting for this to break, ever since a 'bod' on the Navitron site mentioned it a few days ago. He's a very (very, very, very) clever person and nuclear engineer, who called out 'Astongate' when he saw the original story and posted

"One thing immediately struck me: the report (which you can find here) appears to have been sponsored by a list of transport industry players not known for their leading positions in EVs: Aston Martin, Bosch, Honda, McLaren, Optare and the Renewable Transport Fuel Association.
So I immediately shot the article over to Auke Hoekstra, Senior Advisor on Electric Mobility at the Eindhoven Technical University. Auke is the probably the world's leading expert on life-cycle emissions of EVs, diesel and petrol cars. He has published peer reviewed papers on the topic, but on twitter he is known as the Debunker-in-Chief, famous for his threads demolishing bogus report after bogus report that claim EVs are worse for emissions than internal combustion vehicles:"

Aston Martin Linked To Study Spreading Misinformation About EVs

Auke Hoekstra, who researches electric vehicles at The Eindhoven University of Technology and NEON Research, and whose specialty lies in comparing CO2 emissions of EVs with fossil fuel vehicles, just debunked a study claiming that EVs needed to go 48,000 miles before emitting less CO2 than fossil fuel vehicles.
There’s more. That same study was shown to have been linked to Aston Martin through the company Clarendon Communications, which was just created in 2020. The link was found by BloombergNEF Founder Michael Liebreich.

Hoekstra pointed out that there weren’t any researchers involved in the study from what he could tell and that it looked more like a group of lobbyists and a PR firm came together to create a brochure for their list of sponsors. “A who’s who of anti-EV organizations,” he tweeted. The study, utilizing marketing tactics, covers internal combustion engine (ICE) emissions, EV emissions, and biofuel emissions while underestimating ICE emissions by a bit less than 50% by “substituting reality with laboratory tests and forgetting fuel production.”

Martyn1981

Not quite the end of the year but 'Victory' can be declared, as PEV's and more importantly BEV's are hitting disruption numbers, perhaps a year earlier than expected, so hold on tight, the ride is about to get bumpy.

13% Plugin Vehicle Share in Europe — Almost A New Record!

Despite the overall auto market being in the doghouse, -27% year over year (YoY), Europe’s passenger plugin vehicle market is on fire, having logged 147,000 registrations in October (+195% YoY). That’s the market’s second best score ever, only behind the 160,000 registrations of last September. The relative result was a 13% market share for plugin vehicles, 6.5% for full electrics (BEV).

In the first 10 months of 2020, plugin vehicle sales were up 113% compared to the same period in 2019, reaching 900,000+ units. The plugin vehicle (PEV) share for that period rose to 9.5% (5.1% for BEVs alone). It is all but certain that the disruptive/symbolic 10% milestone will be achieved this year across Europe.

JKenH

First-Ever Transport Of Teslas From China Reaches Europe

The Toscana ship is now unloading several thousand MIC Model 3 (reportedly Standard Range Plus with CATL's LFP batteries).

The cool things is that at the same time, there is also the Grand Aurora ship in the port, unloading Tesla cars from San Francisco:

It is not clear which customers will get which battery in their M3. Given the choice which would you opt for?

https://insideevs.com/news/456941/first-transport-teslas-from-china-reached-europe/

Martyn1981

Astongate is really blowing up now, the vlogs are full of it, with an excellent breakdown of the misinformation by Nikki of Transport Evolved:-

Why #Astongate Shows Us Some Automakers Are Still Trying To Kill EVs

Looks like the legacy automakers are really scared of the transition to BEV's, despite what they may be saying publicly (or should that be openly).
And here is the Guardian's response to it, and the 'study' that was run in The Times then picked up by the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail.

Aston Martin in row over 'sockpuppet PR firm' pushing anti-electric vehicle study

Aston Martin is at the centre of a climate lobbying controversy after a study co-commissioned by the company that cast doubt on the green credentials of electric vehicles was found to have been attributed to a PR company registered to the wife of a director at the luxury carmaker.

The study, which has since been widely debunked by experts, was presented as “groundbreaking” third-party research and appeared to show that electric cars would have to travel as far as 50,000 miles before matching the carbon footprint of a petrol model.

Thursday’s report was commissioned by companies including Aston Martin, Bosch, Honda and McLaren shortly after the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, called for a ban on the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles from 2030, and presented as the work of Clarendon Communications.

But it can be revealed that the same companies that commissioned the study collaborated to write the report themselves, and the communications firm is a company registered under the name of Rebecca Stephen, who is the wife of Aston Martin’s government affairs director, James Stephen. The company was set up in February, and registered to the address of a property jointly owned by the married couple.

Solarchaser

Holy moly, corruption that isn't linked to a government minister, well that's refreshing!!

EVandPV

I wonder if Bond will be driving a Tesla in the next film ?? 

Martyn1981

CMA seeks to build UK consumer trust in electric car charging

The UK’s competition regulator is investigating electric vehicle charging to work out how to tackle “range anxiety”, one of the key factors holding back the move away from fossil fuel cars by 2030.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it wanted to build consumer trust in the availability of electric car charging as well as address any competition issues.

Building an extensive network of public charging infrastructure across the UK is seen as one of the main factors preventing quicker uptake of electric cars to meet the government’s goal of banning the sale of internal combustion engine cars by 2030 and hybrids by 2035.

EVandPV

Can see this being massive with the ladies (and plenty blokes too) !
Great looking little car with good range. 199 miles in sherpa mode, apparently. 

https://youtu.be/JsSAPAkTfT8

JKenH

Toyota announces first all-electric SUV for 2021

E-TNGA gives the possibility for Toyota to create vehicles that have a different width, length, and height. Also, the company can choose to build a front-, rear- or all-wheel drive vehicle from the same platform. According to Toyota the possibilities with this platform are endless.

The Japanese company is currently working with Panasonic to boost efficiency of development and production processes for batteries by 10 times. 

https://www.whichev.net/2020/12/03/toyota-announces-first-all-electric-suv-for-2021/

ASavvyBuyer

JKenH said:

Toyota announces first all-electric SUV for 2021

E-TNGA gives the possibility for Toyota to create vehicles that have a different width, length, and height. Also, the company can choose to build a front-, rear- or all-wheel drive vehicle from the same platform. According to Toyota the possibilities with this platform are endless.

The Japanese company is currently working with Panasonic to boost efficiency of development and production processes for batteries by 10 times. 

https://www.whichev.net/2020/12/03/toyota-announces-first-all-electric-suv-for-2021/

At last, they have realised that the way forward is pure EV's. The concept looks interesting and hopefully should add more choice when it comes to changing our EV's.