Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

orrery said:

Martyn1981 said:

... but the BEV/PEV trend for the year is still incredible.

And I still get people saying that this EV thing isn't the way to go and it won't catch on.

If you give sufficient incentives and tax the alternatives anything will catch on. Let’s see what the next 3 months bring now the subsidy pot is empty.

EV subsidies on hold in Sweden & the Netherlands

https://www.electrive.com/2021/08/31/sweden-netherlands-ev-subsidies-on-hold/

JKenH

Just posting this to show how things change in the motor industry when governments change policy.
1980s-mid 1990s
Diesel engines are transformed by turbochargers and direct injection. In 1995 diesel cars make up less than 10% of the car pool in Europe.

1997
Kyoto protocol is signed, legally obliging UN nations, including EU members, to reduce CO2 emissions. It is estimated diesel cars emit around 20% less CO2 than petrol cars.  

1998 
In Europe, car manufacturers agree to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% over 10 years, backed by EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock and Environment Secretary John Prescott.

2001 
Gordon Brown introduces tax breaks for diesel cars – sales surge.

2010
Sales of diesel cars overtake petrol cars for first time. UK is in breach of EU limits for NO2.

2011 
Diesel car sales peak at 55.7% of UK market.

https://www.boundless.co.uk/be-inspired/driving/a-brief-history-of-diesels-place-in-the-car-industry

Then we all know what happened after that as government changed policy again.

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

Karl Marx

Martyn1981

A few bits of BEV news that stood out for me, especially the VW 'crisis meeting'.


As always, massive BEV numbers from Norway

Tesla (TSLA) pushes Norway electric car sales to yet another record

Now the data is in from September, and all-electric car shares reached 77.5% of the market via Norway office of statistics:

Of 17,992 first-time registered new passenger cars in September, 13,941 were pure electric cars, ie 77.5 per cent. This is an increase of 45.8 per cent compared to the same month last year. In addition, there are 2,508 rechargeable hybrids, and then the number of cars with a cord ends at 91.5 percent in September. The previous September record was last year, when the number was 15,552 first-time registered new passenger cars.

BEV trucks continue to prove their value in the US

Electric Trucks Make Sense — We Now Have Data To Prove It

As companies around the country start electrifying their fleets, the North American Council on Freight Efficiency (NACFE) and RMI wanted to find out the challenges and opportunities they face. To do this, NACFE followed 13 electric trucks from the United States and Canada on their regular routes for three weeks, collecting metrics and stories from the road.

The event, called Run on Less – Electric, proved that certain trucking segments are more than ready to go electric. And when they do, we could save 100 million tons of CO2—equivalent to eliminating 25 coal-fired power plants.

Michael Berube, the US deputy assistant secretary for sustainable transportation, emphasized that just a few years ago people thought we would never be able to electrify trucks. “But the reality as you guys have shown is that today there are some parts of the market that are ready.” He emphasized that 50 percent of all freight in the United States moves 100 miles or less, and 75 percent moves 250 miles or less, meaning a large portion of freight can be moved by electric trucks.

Despite the massive moves towards BEV's that VW has made, which put most of the other legacy companies to shame, they still recognise that they are losing ground to the Chinese and Tesla, and are planning to up their game even more.

Alarm mood: VW bosses want to radically rebuild the main plant

Last Thursday, Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess and brand boss Ralf Brandstätter called all 120 top managers together in Wolfsburg for a crisis meeting.

Compared to Tesla and Chinese manufacturers, VW is too expensive and slow, both emphasized. Now it is a matter of taking up the “fight against Grünheide”.

Therefore, the plans for the main plant in Wolfsburg are to be revised and more radical. In order to keep up, old buildings would soon be demolished and new buildings erected.

Thursday evening at 5 p.m. in the factory forum in Wolfsburg. VW boss Herbert Diess and brand boss Ralf Brandstätter stand side by side on the stage. It’s serious. The brand and the group are coming under increasing pressure on the world market. The world’s largest car manufacturer is not only lagging behind its competitors when it comes to electrification and digitization. VW is also losing ground when it comes to productivity. If everything stays the same, so the haunting words of Diess, VW will no longer be competitive.

In the crisis meeting, the duo swore the most important decision-makers to a revolution in Wolfsburg: “We have great responsibility for this location,” says Diess. “We have to accept the new competition.” Diess demands unity in the upcoming challenge. “We need the will to live and a jolt at the location,” he says. What does he mean by that? A radical rebuilding of the main plant in Wolfsburg, an open-heart operation at Volkswagen. According to this, old buildings are to be demolished and new production halls built in order to make processes more efficient.

Tesla, but also the many new Chinese manufacturers, produce cheaper and faster. The quality of their vehicles is getting better and better and has now reached European standards. Consequence: According to auto experts at the Kearney management consultancy, more than 70 percent of Chinese customers have already decided to buy their next premium vehicle from a Chinese manufacturer. Reasons: top quality, affordable price. From their point of view, German models like the ID.4 cannot keep up.

Brandstätter, who is not said to have the very best relationship with the CEO, agrees with Diess in the crisis round: It is urgently necessary that the course in Wolfsburg be set again, according to Brandstätter. Future competition with Tesla’s new Gigafactory will be brutal. The electric car pioneer would set new standards in car production. A Tesla 3 is built in ten hours, more than three times as fast as a VW ID.3 in Zwickau. This puts Tesla in a different dimension when it comes to productivity and profitability.

JKenH

Study from 2019 on China EV manufacturing covering GHG emissions. “The technical parameters are presented in Table 4, and they are similar to those of the BAIC EV-series. The curb weight is about 1,464 kg, including the [27kWh] battery, which weighs 164 kg.”These vehicles are smaller than the average EV sold in the European and American markets and the smaller size of battery no doubt helps to offset the higher CO2 emissions of the local grid. The conclusion does take into account that the  carbon intensity of the Chinese grid will improve by 2030.

The Role of Electric Vehicles in Decarbonizing China’s Transportation Sector

According to the calculation in this study, the GHG emissions for today’s EV in the three locations, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, are between 10.44 and 17.94 kg-CO2eq/100 km. Taking the total mileage into consideration, the GHG emissions per EV throughout its whole lifetime range between 15.66 and 26.92 t-CO2eq, up to 43% lower than those of a similar ICEV, which has emissions of 27.36 t-CO2eq. However, the GHG emissions from the manufacturing phase of an EV are in an approximate range of 11.40-13.94 t-CO2eq, which are 0.93-3.47 t-CO2eq higher than those emitted in manufacturing an ICEV. Therefore, when EVs replace ICEVs, our lifecycle estimates of reduction of GHG emissions is reduced by approximately 36% due to GHG emissions from the manufacturing sector, especially battery manufacturing. Conversely, if 100% of the EVs are recycled this reduction can be cut in half.

Despite the higher GHG emissions in the manufacturing phase, EVs can help reduce the GHG emissions from the transportation sector by up to 6.2% in 2030 with a 20% penetration rate, assuming the carbon intensity of regional power grids continues to improve. These findings assume a national average emission factor, which ignores regional difference. Actual emission reductions will be higher in southern China, which has access to hydro-electricity generation, and lower in Northern China, which remains dependent on coal-fired generation.

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/role-electric-vehicles-decarbonizing-chinas-transportation-sector

Edit: Figure added

JKenH

Tesla delivered 241,300 vehicles in the third quarter, topping expectations

I have to say I am impressed given the difficulties facing the industry.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/02/tesla-tsla-q3-2021-vehicle-delivery-numbers.html

Martyn1981

Just a simple little article scoring the supermarket chains on EV charging.

Tesco Takes Top Spot For UK Charging At Supermarkets

Tesco topped the list, with almost half (45 percent) of its UK superstores boasting charging facilities, while Morrisons came second with four in 10 (40 percent) of stores offering EV charging. At the opposite end of the scale, just seven percent of Sainsbury’s stores offer at least one EV charging point.

Other chains, including Aldi, Asda and Lidl, were only marginally better, with all three providing EV charging at less than 20 percent of their stores. Just one in 10 (10 percent) of Aldi stores have at least one EV charger, while 15 percent of Lidl stores have chargers. One in five (19.7 percent) of Asda stores have charging facilities.

Grumpy_chap

Martyn1981 said:

Just a simple little article scoring the supermarket chains on EV charging.

Tesco Takes Top Spot For UK Charging At Supermarkets

Tesco topped the list, with almost half (45 percent) of its UK superstores boasting charging facilities, while Morrisons came second with four in 10 (40 percent) of stores offering EV charging. At the opposite end of the scale, just seven percent of Sainsbury’s stores offer at least one EV charging point.

Other chains, including Aldi, Asda and Lidl, were only marginally better, with all three providing EV charging at less than 20 percent of their stores. Just one in 10 (10 percent) of Aldi stores have at least one EV charger, while 15 percent of Lidl stores have chargers. One in five (19.7 percent) of Asda stores have charging facilities.

This is encouraging, but I wonder how much demand there is for EV charging at the supermarket.  For most people most of the time, this is a local journey, so the value of the offering will be when away on holiday or such like.

I've not seen EV charger at local stores (though I've not looked but assume they'd be sufficiently prominent I'd notice) other than at Costco (where I understand 100% of stores have EV points?).  Costco have an ample number of EV points and away from the popular parking near the entrance - it still does not prevent selfish so-and-sos with ICE from parking in those spots (perhaps to make a point, though I am not sure what point they'd be making?)

I wonder whether the supermarkets will have the "bottle" to enforce EV spaces for EV only?  Given their performance in this regard on disabled spaces, I doubt the supermarkets will be interested in any action they perceive as potentially upsetting a customer.


On another matter, I've seen the comments about numbers of "EV" vehicles sold including "PHEV" - I am not sure that PHEV really counts - especially in UK where many are for BIK tax only and never get the lead even unwrapped.

Solarchaser

Ev running is a different mind set, you arnt aiming to run full to empty, you are taking small top ups wherever there is a place to top up.
So if you are in tesco for an hour, you can get a wee top up of say 28 miles (7kw).

I've seen no chargers at either Edinburgh or Glasgow Costco so far

shinytop

Solarchaser said:

Ev running is a different mind set, you arnt aiming to run full to empty, you are taking small top ups wherever there is a place to top up.
So if you are in tesco for an hour, you can get a wee top up of say 28 miles (7kw).

I've seen no chargers at either Edinburgh or Glasgow Costco so far

Would you do that if you have a charger at home?  Even if supermarket charging were free (is it?) I'm not sure I could be bothered for 28 miles.  I'm obviously not in the mindset; maybe I'll change when I get an EV!

Solarchaser

Yeah you do.
They are free, and there are designated ev charge points, when you are used to it its really no hassle.

Also if the chargers are 11kw and you are there for an hour and a half its more like 66 miles...