Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Coastalwatch

ABrass wrote: »

Lithium supplies are running out. Oh, no, sorry, wrong news, there's too much supply and the price has cratered.
https://www.mining.com/nemaska-lithium-goes-bankrup-first-victim-of-market-glut/

Thanks for posting ABrass.

It's not that good for Nemaska of course but it is further evidence that falling battery prices could arrive before too long. After all, we've been waiting some time for the cost reductions to arrive. Guess the EV market will be the first to benefit as competition ramps up. Lets hope the cost savings reach home storage in the near future!

ABrass

Coastalwatch wrote: »

Thanks for posting ABrass.

It's not that good for Nemaska of course but it is further evidence that falling battery prices could arrive before too long. After all, we've been waiting some time for the cost reductions to arrive. Guess the EV market will be the first to benefit as competition ramps up. Lets hope the cost savings reach home storage in the near future!

It was a bit tongue in cheek, the materials cost is only a fraction of the produced cost, especially when you price it up at the pack level. But you will always hear about when the price rises, less so when it drops.

Coastalwatch

ABrass wrote: »

It was a bit tongue in cheek, the materials cost is only a fraction of the produced cost, especially when you price it up at the pack level. But you will always hear about when the price rises, less so when it drops.

Yes, I have to agree with you there. However, as it would seem that after each process or link in the chain it seems then the price perhaps doubles, thus mining, manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer then maybe a factor of 16 results before it reaches the end user! No idea how many kg's of Lithium are required for the average EV. However, the Leaf weighs half a ton more than the Focus, for a similar size chassis, so it's several at least, I feel sure:o. Just an opinion of course!

GreatApe

almillar wrote: »

I'll go with your 'proximity doesn't matter' for the purpose of this example. Can you confirm that you know what a Zappi does? Charging your car, while the sun is shining allows you to say it's solar charged. Taking 2kw to charge your car, whilst YOUR solar panel produces 3, means you can say your car is charging via solar. You can wrap yourself up in practicalities and grids all you like, but that's fairly simple.

You don't understand how electricity works

Like most people you probably imagine electrons flowing out of your solar panels into your car battery. That's not remotely correct

Think of the UK AC grid as a well an alternating electric field
What powers your light bulb isn't electrons flowing out of a power station and into your light bulb
In fact in AC the electrons flow one way for 1/50th of a second and then the opposite way for 1/50th of a second so they aren't really moving anywhere.

What any power station on the UK grid does is add to this AC electric field
Your solar panels aren't powering anything in particular not your car not your TV
The solar panels provide a DC electric field to your inverter which adds to the grids AC electric field


So you can't say your solar panels are powering X or y or z it's a meaningless thought

Your solar panels are contributing to maintaining the grids AC electric field
Just like all other sources of power for nuclear to coal to wind are all maintaining this AC electric field


So the two things are very distinct and separate
Your PV adds and supports the UK grids AC electric field
Your Car or your light bulb converts this grid electric fields energy into something else

There is no correlation to say your PV is powering your car it doesn't make physical sense
Your PV setup is adding to the grid AC electric field
Your electrical devises are converting the grid AC field into other things

GreatApe

Think of it this way

Say I buy your PV panels but they stay on your roof
I live on the other side of the country
Let's say I charge my BEV or turn on my TV

Are my PV panels (the ones on your roof) powering my BEV or my TV?

That they are 200 miles on the other side of the country doesn't matter as electricity moves at the speed of light

So what are those solar panels powering?
You think they are powering whatever is nearest to them?
You think they are powering my TV because a piece of paper says I own the panels?


No, as I explained earlier those panels are just adding to the UK grid AC electric field
They aren't powering anything in particular they are just helping maintain the AC field

And if you plug in a BEV something needs to add to the grids AC field and that something is about 98% of the time a gas fired power stations. Irrespective of if you have Chinese panels superglued onto your roof or not

Martyn1981

2020 set to be year of the electric car, say industry analysts

Europe’s carmakers are gearing up to make 2020 the year of the electric car, according to automotive analysts, with a wave of new models launching as the world’s biggest manufacturers scramble to lower the carbon dioxide emissions of their products.

Previous electric models have mostly been targeted at niche markets, but 2020 will see the launch of flagship electric models with familiar names, such as the Mini, the Vauxhall Corsa and the Fiat 500.

The number of electric vehicle (EV) models available to European buyers will jump from fewer than 100 to 175 by the end of 2020, according to data firm IHS Markit. By 2025 there will be more than 330, based on an analysis of company announcements.

The new supply will cater to a rapidly expanding market as demand for petrol-powered vehicles gradually recedes. UK EV sales will rise from 3.4% of all vehicles sold in 2019 to 5.5% in 2020 – or from 80,000 this year to 131,000 in 2020 – according to forecasts from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. By 2026 electric vehicle sales will account for a fifth of sales in the UK, the forecasts show. Similar predictions from LMC Automotive suggest 540,000 electric cars will be sold across the EU in 2020, up from 319,000 over the course of 2019.

Martyn1981

Been a good yer for BEV's and PHEV's in Europe:

Tesla Model 3 & Plug-In Hybrids Boom In November In Europe

The European passenger plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market landed some 55,000 registrations in November (+44%), with the Dutch market and plug-in hybrids (+80% year over year, or YoY) pulling the market up the most, while fully electric vehicles (BEVs) were waiting for the 2020 flood (+23%, their lowest growth rate since June 2018). That led to an unusually even breakdown between the two types of powertrains in November (53% BEVs / 47% PHEVs vs. 64% BEVs / 36% PHEVs for the year through November).

With plug-in hybrids picking up speed, PEVs climbed to 4.6% (2.4% for BEVs alone) of the overall auto market. That pulled the 2019 PEV share to a record 3.3% (2.1% BEVs), above the 2.5% result of 2018.

ABrass

Tesla is going to start delivering their China made model 3s on Monday. Technically that's still 2019!

Tesla announced that it will start deliveries of its new made-in-China Model 3 vehicles on Monday after weeks of waiting for official sale approval.

https://electrek.co/2019/12/27/tesla-start-made-in-china-model-3-deliveries/

Martyn1981

Nice looking BMW, which will share the chassis of the 3 & 4 series, which might help with production costs, or limit future savings v's a dedicated BEV platform. I dunno?

BMW i4 Will Likely Have 330+ Miles Of EPA Range

1961Nick

ABrass wrote: »

Tesla is going to start delivering their China made model 3s on Monday. Technically that's still 2019!



https://electrek.co/2019/12/27/tesla-start-made-in-china-model-3-deliveries/

Tesla's market capital may have just crept past VAG last week making it the worlds 2nd most valuable car manufacturer.

Next stop Toyota ... but that'll need the share price to reach $1500. I wouldn't bet against it though!