Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Here are a couple of articles from the press which give contrasting views on shortage of vehicles for sale. One is from the US and one from the UK.

https://cleantechnica.com/2021/10/05/thoughts-on-cathie-woods-take-on-gm-blaming-the-chip-shortage-for-low-us-sales/

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news-dealership%2C-sales-and-marketing/just-how-long-will-you-have-wait-new-car

Perhaps the UK situation is different from the US but there seems no shortage of demand for popular ICE cars here hence the high secondhand prices. It seems illogical that manufacturers wouldn’t build new cars if they could  to take up this demand.  

JKenH

UK’s used car price rises are Europe’s highest, says Indicata

Electric Vehicles (BEVs) were the fastest-selling used cars in October, according to Indicata’s latest Market Watch report, which attributed the trend to EVs being “more readily available than other fuel types” 

https://www.am-online.com/news/market-insight/2021/11/19/uk-s-used-car-price-rises-are-europe-s-highest-says-indicata

JKenH

Fleets ‘urgently’ seek payment solution for EV business mileage

HMRC recently increased the Advisory Electricity Rate (AER)that employers can use for the tax-free reimbursement of business miles, from 4 pence per mile (ppm) to 5ppm.

However, Mina says that the new rate still massively underestimates the true cost of recharging electric vehicles (EVs).

“Relying on the AER means many employers are underpaying their drivers without even realising,” said Ashley Tate, CEO and co-founder of Mina.

Meanwhile, more than a third (35%) of fleet decision-makers are attempting to calculate their own EV mileage reimbursement rates; a complex and potentially risky process, it says. 

“Over-paying drivers for EV business miles not only erodes the savings from running EVs but could also leave a company and its drivers on the wrong side of an HMRC investigation,” added Tate.

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2021/12/07/fleets-urgently-seek-payment-solution-for-ev-business-mileage

JKenH

More on the used car price debate which suggests in the UK the price rises are being demand driven.

Auto Trader says the increase in used values has been driven almost entirely by the exceptionally high levels of consumer demand caused by semiconductor shortage's impact on new car production.

With manufacturers around the world continuing to struggle to get hold of the components needed for their latest models, production delays have seen order books expand and estimated vehicle deliveries pushed back to more than 12 months in some cases.   

The online marketplace says this seen unprecedented traffic to its website, which last month was up 30 per cent compared with October 2019.  

Another indicator of the huge demand in the market is the average number of views a car advertised on Auto Trader receives. Last month this average increased 35 per cent on a year ago. 

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-10170117/Used-car-prices-October-record-month-growth.html

JKenH

European Electric Car Sales Growth Will Slow Before Spurting, While China Lurks

Sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are exploding in Western Europe, but growth will slow over the next couple of years, restrained by the semiconductor shortage, and actions by manufacturers who will seek to push demand for internal combustion engine (ICE) powered vehicles before European Union regulations destroys ICE profitability.

Tesla TSLA +0.8% will retain its lead in BEV sales and profitability and only the best of traditional manufacturers like VW and Mercedes look like posing a serious challenge.

Meanwhile, Chinese carmakers, which tried and failed to penetrate Europe markets with traditional ICE cars, look like being much more of a threat with electric ones.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/2021/12/08/european-electric-car-sales-growth-will-slow-before-spurting-while-china-lurks/

Solarchaser

JKenH said:

Fleets ‘urgently’ seek payment solution for EV business mileage

HMRC recently increased the Advisory Electricity Rate (AER)that employers can use for the tax-free reimbursement of business miles, from 4 pence per mile (ppm) to 5ppm.

However, Mina says that the new rate still massively underestimates the true cost of recharging electric vehicles (EVs).

“Relying on the AER means many employers are underpaying their drivers without even realising,” said Ashley Tate, CEO and co-founder of Mina.

Meanwhile, more than a third (35%) of fleet decision-makers are attempting to calculate their own EV mileage reimbursement rates; a complex and potentially risky process, it says. 

“Over-paying drivers for EV business miles not only erodes the savings from running EVs but could also leave a company and its drivers on the wrong side of an HMRC investigation,” added Tate.

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/latest-fleet-news/electric-fleet-news/2021/12/07/fleets-urgently-seek-payment-solution-for-ev-business-mileage

Most of my company fleet are charging at home for 5ppkwh and driving between 3.5 and 5mpkw so somewhere between 2p and 1p per mile.
So 5p/mile seems pretty good.

On the flip side, if you were always charging by superchargers at 35ppkwh then it would be between 10p and 7p/mile.

So some companies are offering more.
However the idea that hmrc would investigate seems like absolute tosh as its simply an advisory rate.

It does seem to be a total postcode lottery on chargers, and NE England always seems to come out worst in public charging, so no wonder you are unhappy about it Ken.
But super boris will sort it out with his leveling up agenda, so you need fear not.🤥

JKenH

Well, I did make it to Wales and back (154 miles each way) at the weekend without running out. I spent an hour on Friday listing a dozen or so chargers each way before I set off, working on the basis I would top up at the first charger that would get me the rest of the way and if no luck move on to  the next. First stop on the M1, the only charger was in use, so moved on to an Instavolt which was 45p a kWh but worked fine. Got there with 10% battery. Got a granny charge at my cousin’s to set me off on the way home on Sunday and a couple of charges en route with no problem. 

Grumpy_chap

Solarchaser said:

However the idea that hmrc would investigate seems like absolute tosh as its simply an advisory rate.

I don't think that is as tosh as you think it is.

The AMAP rates may have "advisory" in their name, but really work as a cap - the employer can pay up to the advisory rate and neither the employer nor the employee are exposed to any associated taxation.

The employer can simply pay above the AMAP rate, then the employee is subject to tax on the surplus.

OR, the employer can try to build a case that the rate paid is true cost and not subject to tax, but that will be exposed to challenge by HMRC and really not worth it for anyone.

The alternative that the employer has is to not pay mileage at all, but to provide the electricity either at work-place or "energy-cards" (if that would be the correct phrase for the equivalent of a fuel card) as employer-provided electricity is not subject to BIK rates as "electricity is not fuel" (HMRC phrase, not mine).

JKenH

There’s a story breaking about Tesla faking an autonomous driving video in 2016. Now some will immediately dismiss this as FUD but it was the New York Times who broke this, usually a reliable source. There is a link here to the NY Times article but it is paywall protected so there is a second link to another source that quotes the NYT article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/technology/tesla-autopilot-elon-musk.html

As Tesla approached the introduction of Autopilot 2.0, most of the Autopilot team dropped their normal duties to work on a video meant to show just how autonomous the system could be. But the final video did not provide a full picture of how the car operated during the filming.

The route taken by the car had been charted ahead of time by software that created a three-dimensional digital map, a feature unavailable to drivers using the commercial version of Autopilot, according to two former members of the Autopilot team. At one point during the filming of the video, the car hit a roadside barrier on Tesla property while using Autopilot and had to be repaired, three people who worked on the video said.

The video was later used to promote Autopilot’s capabilities, and it is still on Tesla’s website.

https://jalopnik.com/the-car-used-in-teslas-promo-video-for-autopilot-hit-a-1848167379

Edit: more detail here.

Comparisons are being drawn to the staged Nikola video.

https://www.thedrive.com/tech/43408/former-tesla-employees-say-2016-full-self-driving-video-was-staged

Coastalwatch

Keep digging, you'll soon find enough room in that hole for a GSHP!