Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Europe: Volkswagen ID.4 Tops Plug-In Car Sales In April 2021

The interesting thing for me was flagged up in one of the comments on this article.

Nearly 2/3 of the plug-in sales YTD are not from models in the top 20.

The TM3 is till the best selling plug in car in Europe but now accounts for just 5% of the plug in market YTD.

https://insideevs.com/news/510015/europe-plugin-car-sales-april2021/

Edit: interesting chart showing the rise of OEM manufacturers in the European BEV market. (I believe this is to the end of March 2021).

https://insideevs.com/news/504821/tesla-returns-top-western-europe/

QrizB

Not news exactly but an anecdote. My employer offers car leasing via salary sacrifice. They've recently announced that the scheme will be changing and only BEVs and PHEVs will be offered.

The times they are a'changin' ...

JKenH

QrizB said:

Not news exactly but an anecdote. My employer offers car leasing via salary sacrifice. They've recently announced that the scheme will be changing and only BEVs and PHEVs will be offered.

The times they are a'changin' ...

It is quite tempting to apply the lyrics of that anthem to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, particularly the lines 

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall

However, one of the reasons the song is still so relevant is the fact that the times are constantly changin’. As Dylan sings: 

And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’

which could be applied to the EV manufacturing sector as could the subsequent lines 

For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’



 

NigeWick

Martyn1981 said:

 the whole thing scares me quite a lot too.

I've had our TM3LR for five months. I now trust the autonomous braking to avoid crashes. That said, it annoys me when it suddenly brakes for a cyclist or pedestrian on the nearside footpath, and, on certain curves when there's a vehicle coming from the opposite direction. Hopefully they'll sort challenges with the fully fledged software.

NigeWick

QrizB said:

My employer offers car leasing via salary sacrifice. They've recently announced that the scheme will be changing and only BEVs and PHEVs will be offered.

It's because of the much lower tax that has to be paid. Son in law No 2 now has a BEV for his business "because it's a no brainer."

silverwhistle

Martyn1981 said:

Electric Buses

Last time I was there the shuttle buses at Stonehenge were fairly decrepit diesels. There's a number of operations like that which would really benefit from electric buses and where the required range is consistent and known.

Martyn1981

QrizB said:

Not news exactly but an anecdote. My employer offers car leasing via salary sacrifice. They've recently announced that the scheme will be changing and only BEVs and PHEVs will be offered.

The times they are a'changin' ...

Same for Wifey. Scheme should have launched in May 2020, but the 'Rona' virus delayed it. Now due for launch June, so we're gonna look at the vehicles and deals, and have a thunk. Might be worth selling the Ioniq, and getting something with a larger hatch, especially as we are back to two Retrievers again.
I'm hoping one of the bigger MG's will be allowed/available.

Martyn1981

This is big, no I mean BIG! Looks like the US EV credit bill is progressing, but there's always time for the Repubs to spoil the party.
Basically it replaces the $7,500 dollar tax credit, that starts to expire once you've sold 200k EV's in the US (so GM and Tesla, now don't qualify), with a credit applicable to all EV's, until they account for 50%+ of new sales pa.
Up to $12.5k is available per car, if you tick all boxes, and if you don't pay enough tax, to benefit from all of the tax credit, then a direct refund applies.
This could send EV sales through the roof in the US, since at the moment sales are low due to low gas prices. One tiny issue is that it may not go live till 31/12/21 (even if it passes), so that could potentially harm leccy sales for the rest of 2021.

I'm reading between the lines, but suspect this bill is going to make it, as I've been watching Tesla slowly increase their US prices by $2k ($500 every 3 weeks) - the theory here being that they are about to become $10k cheaper to the consumer, and they did drop their prices by roughly half of each reduction in the tax credit when it started to expire for them a few years ago. Presumably they know which way the wind is blowing?

Fingers crossed this bill makes it, and without being cut down too much. If the US falls, then that's probably it for ICEV's, with sales next decade being massively reduced.

Electric Vehicle Tax Credit Bill From US Senate Finance Committee Looks Great

Also, the credit finally solves for the problem of favoring wealthier people with more income. It is a refundable tax credit — if you only owe $3,000 in taxes in the tax year you buy a plugin vehicle, for example, you will then owe $0 in taxes and get a $4,500 refund. However, the max refund is no longer $7,500 either.

In addition to the base $7,500 credit, and extra $2,500 would be available if the vehicle is manufactured in the United States, and another $2,500 is available if the vehicle is union made.

Grumpy_chap

Is it me, or is this BBC news article headlined to be alarmist and create negative sentiment from the headline amongst those that don't click-through?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-norfolk-57284221
"Tesla car written off as lorry sheds load of slabs in Norfolk"
I certainly read that initially as though the issue was either that the car was EV or a failure of the autonomous features.  In fact, the make of vehicle, whether it was EV, ICE, driven by computer or a human or a moron is all irrelevant.  Must have been terrifying for the driver and passenger, though.

Hexane

Grumpy_chap said:

I certainly read that initially as though the issue was either that the car was EV or a failure of the autonomous features.  

I saw the headline, didn't make either of those assumptions, and didn't bother clicking on the link. This is fairly standard UK headline-writing, all manner of news outlets will absolutely jump on any story of cars perceived as expensive, exotic, or desirable being crushed, clamped, confiscated, blown to smithereens, and even given parking tickets. (Even people purchasing such cars with "ill-gotten gains" gets a mention.) And if there's an interesting-ish video to go with the story, then away we go.

It's just an indication that Teslas are perceived as desirable and high-tech. Probably not a bad thing at all.

My favourite foolish BBC headline remains "Nine innocent civilians beheaded by suspected extremists" (my emphasis)