Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

TMY's have now arrived in Europe. Apparently 8,210 left China in July. I wonder how many will be sold in Germany before Giga Berlin comes on line.

Tesla’s ‘Not a Model Y’ lands in Europe

Tesla’s Model Y, or not so Model Y, has finally landed in Europe after some speculation on whether the all-electric crossover would arrive on the continent ahead of production at Giga Berlin.

Last week, we reported that Tesla was sending Model Ys produced at the company’s Giga Shanghai production facility in China to Europe ahead of Giga Berlin’s initial production phases. These reports were based off of Tesla’s Account Manager in Munich stating that the Model Y had arrived in Europe and Tesla ship trackers stating that ships were headed toward European import docks.

CKhalvashi

Martyn1981 said:

TMY's have now arrived in Europe. Apparently 8,210 left China in July. I wonder how many will be sold in Germany before Giga Berlin comes on line.

Tesla’s ‘Not a Model Y’ lands in Europe

Tesla’s Model Y, or not so Model Y, has finally landed in Europe after some speculation on whether the all-electric crossover would arrive on the continent ahead of production at Giga Berlin.

Last week, we reported that Tesla was sending Model Ys produced at the company’s Giga Shanghai production facility in China to Europe ahead of Giga Berlin’s initial production phases. These reports were based off of Tesla’s Account Manager in Munich stating that the Model Y had arrived in Europe and Tesla ship trackers stating that ships were headed toward European import docks.

There are already a small number in Ukraine, and several 'in person' cars for sale in Eastern Russia second hand which have presumably come from China in recent weeks.

Grumpy_chap

Looks like the Government favour of the day is hydrogen FCV:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58238367

Only clean energy if the hydrogen is generated sustainably.

JKenH

Just like electric cars - only clean if the electricity generation to run them is clean.

ABrass

JKenH said:

Just like electric cars - only clean if the electricity generation to run them is clean.

It's more pronounced with Hydrogen. The UK grid means that EVs are cleaner than an ICE now. There is no green hydrogen at the moment, but if it ever gets produced then it'll probably be entirely green powererd, fossil fuels are too expensive.

Martyn1981

I don't know how important or significant this is, but an investigation has been launched in the US into the number of partially autonomous Tesla vehicles that have driven into stationary emergency vehicles at the scene of accidents/incidents etc..

Sounds like a sensible thing to investigate, and hopefully raises the need for drivers to pay attention until such time as the vehicles are fully autonomous.

The recent 2020 Impact Report issued by Tesla (and no pun intended), does show on page 37 that Tesla with autopilot engaged are involved in 9x less accidents, but that's no excuse for driving into emergency vehicles.

[Side issue - there's been a lot of news recently about the impact report, especially page 24, which states that EU and US laws will allow BEV trucks to weigh an additional 2tons (EU) and 0.9tons (US) to offset battery weight, and maintain weight limited capacity.]

U.S. Tesla Autopilot Probe — What We Know

The U.S. has opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system, Yahoo! Finance and others reported have reported. The article stated that the investigation was opened after almost 12 collisions involving first-responder vehicles at crash scenes. The probe, which is being conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), will cover around 765,000 Tesla vehicles from the 2014–2021 model years. The regulator decided to investigate after 11 crashes that resulted in 17 injuries and one fatality.

The NHTSA wrote, “Most incidents took place after dark and the crash scenes encountered included scene-control measures such as first-responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, and road cones.

michaels

Martyn1981 said:

I don't know how important or significant this is, but an investigation has been launched in the US into the number of partially autonomous Tesla vehicles that have driven into stationary emergency vehicles at the scene of accidents/incidents etc..

Sounds like a sensible thing to investigate, and hopefully raises the need for drivers to pay attention until such time as the vehicles are fully autonomous.

The recent 2020 Impact Report issued by Tesla (and no pun intended), does show on page 37 that Tesla with autopilot engaged are involved in 9x less accidents, but that's no excuse for driving into emergency vehicles.

[Side issue - there's been a lot of news recently about the impact report, especially page 24, which states that EU and US laws will allow BEV trucks to weigh an additional 2tons (EU) and 0.9tons (US) to offset battery weight, and maintain weight limited capacity.]

U.S. Tesla Autopilot Probe — What We Know

The U.S. has opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system, Yahoo! Finance and others reported have reported. The article stated that the investigation was opened after almost 12 collisions involving first-responder vehicles at crash scenes. The probe, which is being conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), will cover around 765,000 Tesla vehicles from the 2014–2021 model years. The regulator decided to investigate after 11 crashes that resulted in 17 injuries and one fatality.

The NHTSA wrote, “Most incidents took place after dark and the crash scenes encountered included scene-control measures such as first-responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, and road cones.

'almost 12 collisions' - is that 11?!

Unless we know how many collisions there are per billion miles driven compared to other vehicles it does not mean anything anyway. 

We may be seeing the first instance where driver assistance technology is safer than unassisted but is criticised/rejected because it is not 100% safe which I think we will see more of as driving becomes automated.

Martyn1981

michaels said:

Martyn1981 said:

I don't know how important or significant this is, but an investigation has been launched in the US into the number of partially autonomous Tesla vehicles that have driven into stationary emergency vehicles at the scene of accidents/incidents etc..

Sounds like a sensible thing to investigate, and hopefully raises the need for drivers to pay attention until such time as the vehicles are fully autonomous.

The recent 2020 Impact Report issued by Tesla (and no pun intended), does show on page 37 that Tesla with autopilot engaged are involved in 9x less accidents, but that's no excuse for driving into emergency vehicles.

[Side issue - there's been a lot of news recently about the impact report, especially page 24, which states that EU and US laws will allow BEV trucks to weigh an additional 2tons (EU) and 0.9tons (US) to offset battery weight, and maintain weight limited capacity.]

U.S. Tesla Autopilot Probe — What We Know

The U.S. has opened a formal investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system, Yahoo! Finance and others reported have reported. The article stated that the investigation was opened after almost 12 collisions involving first-responder vehicles at crash scenes. The probe, which is being conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), will cover around 765,000 Tesla vehicles from the 2014–2021 model years. The regulator decided to investigate after 11 crashes that resulted in 17 injuries and one fatality.

The NHTSA wrote, “Most incidents took place after dark and the crash scenes encountered included scene-control measures such as first-responder vehicle lights, flares, an illuminated arrow board, and road cones.

'almost 12 collisions' - is that 11?!

Unless we know how many collisions there are per billion miles driven compared to other vehicles it does not mean anything anyway. 

We may be seeing the first instance where driver assistance technology is safer than unassisted but is criticised/rejected because it is not 100% safe which I think we will see more of as driving becomes automated.

Yeah, it's an interesting subject, and will involve a lot psychology too. A bit like the way we demand high safety on planes, but take risks in cars when driving ourselves. No idea how any of this will get worked out.

Personally I ponder the situation where the total number of accidents, injuries and deaths is far lower, but perhaps occasionally an autonomous vehicle will have a complete failure, driving at high speed into a wall (or emergency vehicle), or off a cliff. Will that be acceptable, if the net gain is huge? Hopefully, situations like that won't happen.

Also need to consider the drivers in these accidents, not just the failure to pay proper attention, since I can understand folk literally taking their eye off the ball, if the system is 'almost good enough', but also in some of the more recent accidents I believe high speed and DUI's (driving under the influence) were involved.

Probably a useful investigation, with hopefully lots of interesting findings. I just hope the overall picture is one of positive safety improvements.

Martyn1981

And another story that I have no idea regarding its importance.

It's about added support for the UK's giga battery factory, but as it includes the supply of cobalt, which can be a thorny issue depending on the source, I thought it might be important ..... or not!

Glencore stake boosts Britishvolt’s £4bn plans for battery factory

Mining giant Glencore has agreed to buy a stake in Britishvolt, the startup with plans to invest £4bn building the UK’s first large-scale battery factory to help accelerate the rollout of electric vehicles.

Glencore said it had made an undisclosed investment in the company as part of a long-term strategic partnership with Britishvolt to supply cobalt to its pioneering battery “gigafactory” in Northumberland.

Glencore is one of the world’s biggest producers of cobalt, a byproduct of its copper mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its nickel mining in Australia and Canada. It is also a key material used in manufacturing the batteries found in electric vehicles.

Britishvolt chief executive, Orral Nadjari, who founded the company in 2019, said the partnership was “a huge step in the right direction” which would help to lock in its supply of cobalt and lower the risks for the multibillion pound project.

JKenH

Interesting chart for California EV sales. 2021 figures are not for the full year and no doubt 2021will set a new record but so far not quite the S curve we might be expecting. The falls in 2019 and 2020 were surprising compared to the sales growth seen in the rest of the world. 

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1133143_us-ev-sales-have-been-record-breaking-so-far-in-2021-despite-supply-chain-issues