Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Bit of news for on road car charging in the UK, with 190k 7/22kW chargers to be deployed (just in this example).

Totally dodgy maths, so no need to tell me its wrong, I already know, but let's say 6hrs at 7kW will provide an average weeks driving. Then theoretically (with perfect vehicle swopping, perhaps two spaces per charger to reduce ICE'ing, etc etc) then 190k chargers would help:

190,000 chargers x 4 cars per day x 7days per week = 5.3m BEV's that can't charge at home / business / at rapid chargers on longer trips.

So a decent start, even at a fraction of that number.

Connected Kerb Scores £110 Million Investment; Plans 190,000 Curbside Public Chargers

The company intends to install 10,000 public chargers in West Sussex, with 4,000 of those in operation by the end of this year. But now it has received a £110 million investment from Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva PLC, to support plans to install 190,000 on-street EV chargers in the UK by 2030. The goal is nothing less than to revolutionize access to EV charging for the millions of drivers who do not have access to off-street parking.

michaels

Tesla now have their own row on SMMT - have they signed up?

UK new car registration data, UK car market - SMMT

Model Y 2nd best selling vehicle in UK in September. BEV YTD 14.5% from 9.5%, cars with plug 20.6% YTD

Martyn1981

Been a long wait. Hope it's as good as promised. Elon/Tesla seem to be sticking with most of the original specs like efficiency and range (500 miles for the larger battery version), and will have three motors, not the original claim of four. But the price has been removed from the website.

Tesla Semi Deliveries Begin December 1st!

It’s been a long wait since we very enthusiastically discovered all of the amazing features and specs of the Tesla Semi when it was revealed 5 years ago, in November 2017. It has been the Tesla vehicle I’ve been most eagerly awaiting, thinking of how much it could cut emissions from high-polluting, heavy-duty, noisy, fossil-fueled semi trucks. There were so many orders originally — PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch, Walmart, DHL, Sysco, Frito Lay, Titanium Transportation Group, and many others ordered the hot new Tesla Semi. But it has taken longer than expected back in 2017 for those electric semi trucks to reach the road.

Martyn1981

And to put the Tesla Semi news in context, here's BYD continuing to roll out trucks (and of course they've sold 1,000's of buses). Also BYD's BEV car sales are rising incredibly fast, they are now at over 90k per month, so over 1m annualised. They are (I think) catching Tesla quite quickly.

Lots of very interesting and promising Chinese EV manufacturers, but BYD remains the standout star.

BYD Delivering 120 Electric Semi Trucks In 2022

BYD, meanwhile, just announced (3 days later) that it has already delivered the first 5 units of its new electric semi truck (aka semitrailer tractor). The 5 units of the semi truck, called the Q3MA, were delivered by BYD Mexico to transportation company Marva in Puebla, Mexico. The big shocker, though — which you already saw in the headline to this piece — is that BYD plans to deliver 120 fully electric semi trucks to customers within 2022.

Grumpy_chap

Is this news?
Lot's of EV & PHEV sold in China:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62825830

Can we expect the future of EV cars to be led by affordable but quality vehicles originating from China? 
Will it be like the growth of cars from Japan in the early 1980's?

Coastalwatch

Travelled the 220 mile journeys to and from Swanage at the weekend in our 40 kWh Leaf with mixed charging experiences.

Firstly, temperatures were above average which gave us a little more leeway regarding range, although strong SW head wind probably counterbalanced much of the gain. The four of us rocked up at Cobham extra Services(120 miles) around 11.30 and delighted/relieved to find a Gridserve charge pump with Chademo connector available. Hooked up and charging within a minute, but 65p/kWh! Had it been busy there was an option of a charger along the A3 at Guildford, Lidl, Pod Point also with a Chademo connector and within range but had no knowledge of any other necessary facilities close by so charged to 92% and away in three quarters of an hour and arriving at our B&B with 12% SOC. Charged overnight via granny cable to 100% for which we were charged a fee of £10, so circa 25p/kWh.

The return journey on Monday in similar temps but with northerly winds saw us arrive at Cobham again around 11.30. The place was heaving. Several coaches disgorging, all Gridserve charge pumps being used and with someone already waiting. The vehicles under charge at either pump being at only 55% & 65%, one being a Tesla, CCS of course but tied up the dual purpose Chademo pump, we decided to give it a miss and head on to Clacket Lane services also within range. Arrived with 10% SOC and a charger available, connected up but the card reader wouldn't recognise either of our contactless cards. Resorted to phoning Gridserve who were very helpful but despite trying different options, such as removing/replacing connector and eventually sending a software update through failed to resolve the issue.

Fortunately, the lass was able to initiate charging from her end without a card being presented. When I asked if she required our card details she replied, thank you, but as it was their reader at fault then we should have a free charge.

It wasn't so much the range of the Leaf that imposed stops, as much as it was for calls of nature which naturally coincided. But even so, a further stop was required for this latter purpose.

Ironically, there were six other charge pumps on site at Cobham, albeit via Ionity, but limited to CCS connectors, so a little disappointed there are just two pumps with Chademo connectors to serve both East and West lanes of the M25 here. Also strange that a third Gridserve pump had two CCS connectors which seems an odd choice when only one connector at a time can be used to supply energy.

It was quite noticeable how many EV's drove past the charge points, either leaving or arriving at the Services so there is for sure a need to rapidly expand the charger network to cover for peak times.

michaels

Coastalwatch said:

Travelled the 220 mile journeys to and from Swanage at the weekend in our 40 kWh Leaf with mixed charging experiences.

Firstly, temperatures were above average which gave us a little more leeway regarding range, although strong SW head wind probably counterbalanced much of the gain. The four of us rocked up at Cobham extra Services(120 miles) around 11.30 and delighted/relieved to find a Gridserve charge pump with Chademo connector available. Hooked up and charging within a minute, but 65p/kWh! Had it been busy there was an option of a charger along the A3 at Guildford, Lidl, Pod Point also with a Chademo connector and within range but had no knowledge of any other necessary facilities close by so charged to 92% and away in three quarters of an hour and arriving at our B&B with 12% SOC. Charged overnight via granny cable to 100% for which we were charged a fee of £10, so circa 25p/kWh.

The return journey on Monday in similar temps but with northerly winds saw us arrive at Cobham again around 11.30. The place was heaving. Several coaches disgorging, all Gridserve charge pumps being used and with someone already waiting. The vehicles under charge at either pump being at only 55% & 65%, one being a Tesla, CCS of course but tied up the dual purpose Chademo pump, we decided to give it a miss and head on to Clacket Lane services also within range. Arrived with 10% SOC and a charger available, connected up but the card reader wouldn't recognise either of our contactless cards. Resorted to phoning Gridserve who were very helpful but despite trying different options, such as removing/replacing connector and eventually sending a software update through failed to resolve the issue.

Fortunately, the lass was able to initiate charging from her end without a card being presented. When I asked if she required our card details she replied, thank you, but as it was their reader at fault then we should have a free charge.

It wasn't so much the range of the Leaf that imposed stops, as much as it was for calls of nature which naturally coincided. But even so, a further stop was required for this latter purpose.

Ironically, there were six other charge pumps on site at Cobham, albeit via Ionity, but limited to CCS connectors, so a little disappointed there are just two pumps with Chademo connectors to serve both East and West lanes of the M25 here. Also strange that a third Gridserve pump had two CCS connectors which seems an odd choice when only one connector at a time can be used to supply energy.

It was quite noticeable how many EV's drove past the charge points, either leaving or arriving at the Services so there is for sure a need to rapidly expand the charger network to cover for peak times.

Or an indication that they have enough range that they have to stop for other reasons rather than a charge?

Martyn1981

I may be wrong (most likely in fact), but I don't recall posting PEV numbers for Ireland before, so here's an article for September sales, and hats off to Ireland, a very impressive September %age. And also to the VW ID4, an absolute standout.

[Just to say, for 2022 overall (so far), Ireland seems to have an adoption rate very similar to the UK's ~17%.]

29% Of New Cars In Ireland Electric, 37% Plugins

Like in many other European countries, electric car sales are booming in Ireland, but they are booming even more there than is the norm. In September, 36.66% of all new vehicle registrations in the home of leprechauns were plugin vehicle registrations. 29.31% were full electrics and 7.35% were plugin hybrids.

Plugin hybrid registrations in the first 3 quarters of the year were almost exactly the same as they were last in the first 3 quarters of 2021 (7,439 this year versus 7,452 last year), but full-electric vehicle sales nearly doubled (14,513 this year versus 7,819 last year). In terms of their share of the overall Irish auto market in the first 9 months of the year, full electrics accounted for 14.3% and plugin hybrids accounted for 7.33%, meaning that 21.6% of brand new vehicles in the country had a plug.

Martyn1981

I can't explain why, but I thought this article was a great read for putting BEV's in context. Including the photo of the 'small' motors, it helped me understand (or confirmed my beliefs) the superiority of electric motors over combustion engines.

Nice read, plus any opportunity to praise Volvo for their excellent BEV trucks, shouldn't be wasted.

First Drive: The Volvo VNR Electric Class 8 Semi Truck

With little fanfare, I was rolling down the track, testing out its acceleration and impressive three level regeneration. Much like in passenger vehicles, the regeneration used in the Volvo VNR enables functional one pedal driving for the vast majority of use cases. After my test drive, I was told that the trailer was fully loaded with a 76,000 pound / 34,400 kilogram load, thanks to several pallet loads of sand in the trailer. I couldn’t tell at all and while this could be chocked up to a simple lack of experience behind the wheel of a class 8 truck, the truck didn’t feel like it was struggling at all. It is simply mind boggling how much power electric motors pack into such a small package.

On the power front, these tiny twin motors paired with the two-speed transmission come in a tiny bundle that seems smaller than the engines found under the hood of a passenger vehicle. Comparing it side by side with Volvo’s massive diesel power plants and transmissions from legacy combustion-fired trucks, the twin electric motor and transmission combination are roughly the same size as the transmission. This translates to some serious weight savings in the motor department. Of course, any weight savings coming from the engine bay are quickly offset by the large battery packs that provide the energy needed to power the twin electric motors.

shinytop

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/10/07/next-gen-abrams-hybrid-power/

What's next - BEV tanks?