Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Tesla's New Year offer: Full self-driving option free for 3 months on new cars

There are still 100+ Model 3s available for accelerated delivery on Tesla’s UK website if anyone fancies trying out FSD for 3 months. I’m not sure whether this means it includes the Beta trial.

https://auto.hindustantimes.com/auto/news/tesla-s-new-year-offer-full-self-driving-option-free-for-3-months-on-new-cars-41609301086120.html

Martyn1981

Some CT articles on BEV's today that I found interesting.

First a recap on the record breaking sales of BEV's (and EV's overall) in Europe.

Record Electric Vehicle Sales In Europe!

Despite the overall automotive market being in the doghouse, -14% year over year (YoY), Europe’s passenger plugin market is on fire, having score a record 166,000 registrations in November (+198% YoY). That placed last month’s plugin share at 16% share — 8% full electrics (BEV). That helped the numbers rise 123%, to over 1 million units, pulling the market into the … Disruption Zone, as the 2020 plugin vehicle (PEV) share crossed north of the 10% mark (5.4% for BEVs alone). We can now say with some certainty that part of the fall on the overall market has more to do with the disruption provoked by plugins than Covid-related issues. Let the games begin!

… And let’s not forget that December should bring another record month. We should see some 15%-plus 20% market share in the last month of the year.

Looking back, imagine that in January I was feeling adventurous by predicting 6% plugin share at the end of this year. After all, 2019 ended with 3.6% (2.2% BEV), which was already well above the 2018 market share (2.5% PEV share). Oh, how times have changed!

So, will we see plugin share hit 20% in 2021?

New York pushing for cleaner public transport, aiming for emission free by 2035 and incentives for bus routes that are in / near disadvantaged areas.

NY Governor Cuomo Unleashes New Electric Bus Initiatives

Under this program, purchasers of new, zero-emissions all-electric transit buses are eligible to have 100 percent of the incremental vehicle cost covered on the condition that these buses are housed at bus depots or operate on routes located within a half-mile of a disadvantaged community. This funding builds on the NYTVIP program expansion announced earlier this year. Combined, these transit operators currently run more than 1,300 transit buses.

And a piece on VW's efforts, or not, to promote EV's, referencing the recent secret shopper findings that were not exactly BEV friendly at the dealerships. Whilst the article is pretty negative, I think we have to appreciate VW's need to make profits on ICEV's to ease the pain of the transition, and also praise Herbert Diess (VW Group CEO) who pretty much put his VW career on the line to accelerate the transformation to electric. Perhaps VW and their dealerships are heading for a major clash sooner rather than later. The last paragraph I've referenced can probably be viewed two different ways - minimise short term BEV sales, or maximise long term BEV sales, depending on what the intention behind it is. I may be about to get fooled again, but I'll give Diess (if not VW) the benefit of the doubt for now.

Volkswagen Dealers Making 4.5% Margin Selling ID.4 vs. 14%+ For Fossil Fuel Vehicles — CleanTechnica Exclusive

The new VW dealer agency model introduced for the ID line provides a fixed commission or base margin to the dealer. Compared to fossil fuel vehicles, dealers do not need to buy and finance them upfront, which reduces costs. This makes dealers agents for VW and eliminates finance costs, but also flexibility, because ID prices are fixed and dealers can’t give discounts to push sales.

On top of that, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have very low maintenance and service requirements, which make selling an ID less attractive for a dealer too. In addition to the commission, dealers get a bonus if they sell a certain defined number of fossil fuel vehicles that they don’t get for ID sales.

The bad news is not only that dealerships are getting a penalty if they sell an ID instead of an ICEV. The bad news is also that VW did not stop misleading the public. Volkswagen is not selling every BEV it can. The company is trying to find the optimal vehicle mix to make the highest possible profit regardless of what that means for CO2 emissions and climate change.

JKenH

EV drivers have no regrets reveals Zap-Map survey

https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/electric_hybrid_vehicles/ev-drivers-have-no-regrets-reveals-zapmap-20201230

JKenH

Martyn1981 said:

And a piece on VW's efforts, or not, to promote EV's, referencing the recent secret shopper findings that were not exactly BEV friendly at the dealerships. Whilst the article is pretty negative, I think we have to appreciate VW's need to make profits on ICEV's to ease the pain of the transition, and also praise Herbert Diess (VW Group CEO) who pretty much put his VW career on the line to accelerate the transformation to electric. Perhaps VW and their dealerships are heading for a major clash sooner rather than later. The last paragraph I've referenced can probably be viewed two different ways - minimise short term BEV sales, or maximise long term BEV sales, depending on what the intention behind it is. I may be about to get fooled again, but I'll give Diess (if not VW) the benefit of the doubt for now.

Volkswagen Dealers Making 4.5% Margin Selling ID.4 vs. 14%+ For Fossil Fuel Vehicles — CleanTechnica Exclusive

The new VW dealer agency model introduced for the ID line provides a fixed commission or base margin to the dealer. Compared to fossil fuel vehicles, dealers do not need to buy and finance them upfront, which reduces costs. This makes dealers agents for VW and eliminates finance costs, but also flexibility, because ID prices are fixed and dealers can’t give discounts to push sales.

On top of that, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have very low maintenance and service requirements, which make selling an ID less attractive for a dealer too. In addition to the commission, dealers get a bonus if they sell a certain defined number of fossil fuel vehicles that they don’t get for ID sales.

The bad news is not only that dealerships are getting a penalty if they sell an ID instead of an ICEV. The bad news is also that VW did not stop misleading the public. Volkswagen is not selling every BEV it can. The company is trying to find the optimal vehicle mix to make the highest possible profit regardless of what that means for CO2 emissions and climate change.

I thought the CleanTechnica article was naive and biased in the extreme and welcome your analysis/comments about VW. I think there is too much negativity on some websites, particularly CT who are very pro Tesla, about legacy automakers who are moving to BEVs. We are where we are and need to look at all transition to BEVs as positive, not dwell in the past.

Dealers do get bigger margins on some cars than others, particularly cars that are proving difficult to shift. The dealers can then discount the car so perhaps make no more from the sale of a diesel than they do an EV. There is an advantage to manufacturers doing this rather than the losing face cutting list prices on slow selling stock. The fact that dealers don’t have to buy and finance the cars should encourage them to sell more EVs rather than buying in ICE stock that is proving difficult to shift. (By doing this are VW moving closer to the Tesla model?)

Anecdotally, and a little surprisingly, it seems VW are discounting the iD3, at least in the U.K.. Why would they do this if they didn’t want to sell them?

Edit: Carwow are offering dealer sourced 62kwh iD3s for just over £25k on PCP.

https://www.carwow.co.uk/volkswagen/id3/deals

Coastalwatch

Afraid no mention of battery size or means of energy in this announcement but at least it states electric as opposed to any other form. Being a start up from just three years ago it's perhaps difficult to place too much confidence in the outcome but at least it is of commercial scale, even if still a decade away from its anticipated service entry!

Wright Electric works on large electric passenger plane

The electric aircraft start-up Wright Electric has started to develop the electric propulsion system for a 186-seat electric aircraft called Wright 1. Specifically, this involves a 1.5 MW electric motor and a 3-kilovolt inverter.

Designs haven’t been finalised, but the Wright 1 airliner will use distributed electric propulsion. The company is now starting to design and test about a dozen of the 1.5-megawatt motors, according to CEO Jeffrey Engler.

“It’s a distributed electric propulsion system, similar to that, for example, of eVTOL companies. If you think of a typical Boeing 737 or [Airbus] A320, it’s got one engine underneath each wing,” Engler told Avionics International. “Ours is going to be a distributed span of between 10 and 14 electric motors. And so what we’re announcing is the development of this is essentially one of these electric motors that then will be duplicated to make our distributed electric propulsion system.”

https://www.electrive.com/2020/02/02/wright-electric-works-on-large-electric-passenger-plane/

michaels

JKenH said:

Martyn1981 said:

And a piece on VW's efforts, or not, to promote EV's, referencing the recent secret shopper findings that were not exactly BEV friendly at the dealerships. Whilst the article is pretty negative, I think we have to appreciate VW's need to make profits on ICEV's to ease the pain of the transition, and also praise Herbert Diess (VW Group CEO) who pretty much put his VW career on the line to accelerate the transformation to electric. Perhaps VW and their dealerships are heading for a major clash sooner rather than later. The last paragraph I've referenced can probably be viewed two different ways - minimise short term BEV sales, or maximise long term BEV sales, depending on what the intention behind it is. I may be about to get fooled again, but I'll give Diess (if not VW) the benefit of the doubt for now.

Volkswagen Dealers Making 4.5% Margin Selling ID.4 vs. 14%+ For Fossil Fuel Vehicles — CleanTechnica Exclusive

The new VW dealer agency model introduced for the ID line provides a fixed commission or base margin to the dealer. Compared to fossil fuel vehicles, dealers do not need to buy and finance them upfront, which reduces costs. This makes dealers agents for VW and eliminates finance costs, but also flexibility, because ID prices are fixed and dealers can’t give discounts to push sales.

On top of that, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have very low maintenance and service requirements, which make selling an ID less attractive for a dealer too. In addition to the commission, dealers get a bonus if they sell a certain defined number of fossil fuel vehicles that they don’t get for ID sales.

The bad news is not only that dealerships are getting a penalty if they sell an ID instead of an ICEV. The bad news is also that VW did not stop misleading the public. Volkswagen is not selling every BEV it can. The company is trying to find the optimal vehicle mix to make the highest possible profit regardless of what that means for CO2 emissions and climate change.

I thought the CleanTechnica article was naive and biased in the extreme and welcome your analysis/comments about VW. I think there is too much negativity on some websites, particularly CT who are very pro Tesla, about legacy automakers who are moving to BEVs. We are where we are and need to look at all transition to BEVs as positive, not dwell in the past.

Dealers do get bigger margins on some cars than others, particularly cars that are proving difficult to shift. The dealers can then discount the car so perhaps make no more from the sale of a diesel than they do an EV. There is an advantage to manufacturers doing this rather than the losing face cutting list prices on slow selling stock. The fact that dealers don’t have to buy and finance the cars should encourage them to sell more EVs rather than buying in ICE stock that is proving difficult to shift. (By doing this are VW moving closer to the Tesla model?)

Anecdotally, and a little surprisingly, it seems VW are discounting the iD3, at least in the U.K.. Why would they do this if they didn’t want to sell them?

Edit: Carwow are offering dealer sourced 62kwh iD3s for just over £25k on PCP.

https://www.carwow.co.uk/volkswagen/id3/deals

If VW have not met the emissions target of 2020 then each EV they sell is worth 8.5k EUR reduced fine.  If they have got it wrong in their mix between countries and demand is not as strong as anticipated in the UK whilst they are sold out in Europe they can't shift the cars elsewhere so it may still make sense to sell at a discount in the UK as long as the car registers as a 2020 sale.  The discounts may disappear tomorrow evening.  Not sure if it is worth trying for an even bigger discount tomorrow as individual dealers may also be looking to unlock volume bonuses....(not sure with the EU fines and govt EV grant whether it makes sense for the dealers to pre-reg EVs or not)

JKenH

Fiat Chrysler to invest in Poland for new electric Jeeps, Fiats and Alfa Romeos

Read more here: https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/business/national-business/article248175185.html#storylink=cpy

JKenH

Every Volkswagen ID electric car previewed

For a company that apparently isn’t pushing EVs VW are rolling out quite an impressive range. This one is my favourite.

https://www.whatcar.com/news/every-volkswagen-id-electric-car-previewed/n21865

shinytop

Some nice cars there.  And a brand people will buy; VW could be onto a winner.  Remember, the second mouse gets the cheese. 

Martyn1981

Can we now call it - BEV buses have won?
There's always a point where 'victory' becomes inevitable long before the finish line is reached. Like the rapid fall in PV costs in 2012, and off-shore wind contracts in 2017, when the cost curve and technology advances make defeat impossible, which kinda, sorta, makes it easy to call the ultimate winner.
In the case of BEV buses, I think we may have reached that point (may have some time ago actually) where the costs, comfort, reliability, and crucially pollution, now mean they can't fail to win ..... so to speak. 

Bogota Gets 470 New Electric Buses, Berlin Gets 90

Before getting into the specifics of both stories, let’s quickly review why so many cities are adopting electric buses. As we’ve covered before, car buyers can be irrational. An electric vehicle like the Tesla Model 3 may be more expensive to buy initially than the car you would have bought otherwise, but the lower fuel and maintenance costs ultimately make an EV the better buy after 5 years. Many buyers haven’t figured this out yet and still prefer what they’re comfortable with and what has a lower initial cost to buy.

Transit authorities are more rational, though. They run all of the numbers, and even though it costs more to buy an electric bus, they can’t ignore that it will cost far less to operate over the course of the lifetime of the bus. This drives adoption even harder in countries with lower budgets, because the cost savings are that much more important.

The other benefits of electric buses, like less noise, lower pollution, and easier driving, are just a bonus.