Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

michaels

JKenH said:

Tesla Lowers Supercharger Rates in Several U.S. Regions After Doing the Same in Europe

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/tesla-lowers-supercharger-rates-in-several-us-regions-after-doing-the-same-in-europe-204798.html

Revenue maximisation in a competitive market place?

Martyn1981

Nottingham to start electrifying their bus fleet later next year.

Nottingham To Receive 78 New Electric Buses

The city of Nottingham, UK, will be receiving 78 zero-emission electric buses to electrify its city transportation fleet as part of a Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas fund (ZEBRA). The Nottingham City Council and Nottingham City Transport (NCT) were able to secure funding in the amount of £15.2 million to help achieve the city’s goal of reaching carbon-neutral by 2028, which is part of a total £34 million project.

The money is being used for the purchase of 78 new electric buses and to turn the Trent Bridge Bus Garage into a fully electric depot. The Trent Bridge Bus Garage has been in operation since 1901 and used to house horse-drawn carriages and electric trams back in the early days.

The NCT fleet’s first 12 entirely electric, zero-emission buses will be delivered by Pelican Bus & Coach and are expected to go into operation in late 2023. The buses will be manufactured by Yutong Bus & Coach, which has a lot of experience in manufacturing buses. The company says it has delivered over 133,000 zero-emission vehicles to date and has logged over 32 billion kilometers of operating experience.

The 12.2-meter buses will offer full electric air conditioning, full accessibility, silent travel with no engine vibration, and free Wi-Fi and USB charging stations on board.

Martyn1981

Teeny bit of pedantry, the headline and intro describe the goal of expanding the London ULEZ. Obviously at first it penalises higher emissions vehicles. But ..... great goal, and I hope air quality improves quickly.

Whether this moves folk to public transport or low emissions cars, the cost for a working year would be around £3k.

5 Million More Londoners To Breathe Cleaner Air Thanks To ULEZ

London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will be expanded on 29 August 2023. It will operate London-wide across all London boroughs, up to the current Low Emission Zone (LEZ) boundary. To be clear, this means five million more Londoners will soon breathe cleaner air.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone London-wide as an action to address the damage from air pollution, the climate emergency, and congestion. More directly, it is to ensure that five million more Londoners will be able to breathe cleaner air. Vehicles must meet strict emission standards to drive in the ULEZ area. Vehicles that do not meet the standards must pay the £12.50 daily charge. Mayor Sadiq Khan published a report in April 2020 on improving air quality in the global city, and his administration has been continuing the wise policy of cleaning up London’s air since then. The report showed dramatic improvements in air quality on London’s roads as a result of the halving of traffic in London due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Grumpy_chap

Martyn1981 said:

Whether this moves folk to public transport or low emissions cars, the cost for a working year would be around £3k

Hmmm, do you think this has anything to do with air quality?
Or raising money?

A big expense to install all that monitoring.  If it fails to generate a financial return through ULEZ, something else will need to be created to generate the financial return.

michaels

WE live outside the M25 but make trips inside for kids football matches.  This will bring a lot of the matches inside the ulez.  Our car is ok but I suspect many teammates may end up missing matches as they can't afford £12.50 or £15 or whatever it will cost by then. 

Similarly, it covers many of the less prosperous parts of London where older cars are not that unusual.  Still, it is only the poor who suffer and they (in London) probably will still vote Labour anyway even as their opportunities are closed off.

Martyn1981

I do like news items about BEV's in Africa and Asia, Great to see ever more opportunities. Need to displace petrol 2 and 3 wheelers, and ideally get ahead of the curve as the rollout of larger and heavier vehicles gathers speed.

People Attending Africa Electric Mobility Week Exhibition Were Pleasantly Surprised About The Progress In E-Mobility

The Association for Electric Mobility & Development in Africa, AEMDA, supported by Kenya’s leading electric vehicle charging network EVChaja, The Waterfront Mall, UNEP, KNCCI, WRI, Absa Bank, Standard Group and UTU, organized a very successful inaugural edition of the Africa Electric Mobility Week and Exhibition.

On Exhibition day, 15 e-mobility companies displayed their vehicles, including standing scooters, mopeds, e-bikes, motorcycles, electric bicycles, tuktuks, cars, and buses. The 2-wheeler segment was the most represented. Motorcycles are a really big deal in Kenya. The motorcycle segment is now Kenya’s largest vehicle segment.

The greatest takeaway from the exhibition was the look on people’s faces as they went around all the stands and discussed all the developments in the electric mobility sector. Most people couldn’t believe that there were this many active e-mobility companies in Kenya and the region. The delegates were impressed by the wide range of electric vehicles on display across the various categories. It’s still early days in the e-mobility sector in Kenya and the East African region, but the exhibition showed that a great deal of progress has been made over the last 5 years.

zeupater

Hi

So, Semi & Cybertruck will be 1MW+ charge with possible hints of charger upgrades soon ... interesting ... <thinking hat on> ... ponder ... 4680 ... narrow diameter cable ... awkward, but smug knowing glances ... <lightbulb> ... would this eventually mean ..... ??? ... and short timescales? ... well, possibly!

<cough>, <sputter> .... if so, nice to have known you, RIP legacy!

Z

Martyn1981

Hi Z. Remember back after the launch event, when that guy Adrian(?) on the EV thread kept saying the semi was just vapourware, and the two trucks that drove down the road and onto the stage, where 'stage-locked mock ups'?

Then we had the guy from Daimler (who sell more trucks in Europe and the US than any other company), who said that the claimed 500 mile range at max weight wasn't possible, since as far as he knew the same laws of physics applied in California as Germany.

[Info from the launch event, and some Youtube'ers double checking, it seems the recent run that the Semi did at 81,000lbs, and 500 miles, was without recharging, on normal roads, with the destination being net 13ft higher than the start, and the battery charge going from 97% down to 4%. It was a stock truck, no aero mods or cheats.]

Didn't that MSE bod also make some claim about the charger cables being too heavy to lift .... clearly he hasn't used one of the small and light liquid cooled cables at a Tesla Supercharger (V3 chargers).


Anyway, back to the news, and here's an article on the Semi-Delivery Event (not a full event ;-) ). I thought it was interesting that they changed from the planned 4 TM3 motors, to 'just' 3 Plaid motors. So instead of ~1,000bhp, they are going to have ~1,500bhp, with just one motor permanently engaged, providing roughly the same power as a large diesel truck engine.

Crucially now, I expect companies will be trialling these trucks (and other BEV trucks), and if they can do what they claim they can do, then things will change .... as fast as supply is possible.

Tesla Semi Reveal — Huge Power, Huge Charging Ability

Tesla held its long awaited ceremony to introduce its electric Class 8 tractor, known simply as the Tesla Semi, on December 1. If you weren’t able to watch the livestream of the event, there is a video of it below. In it, you will see Elon Musk drive a white Semi on stage followed by two others decked out in Pepsi and Frito-Lay livery.

Martyn1981

Oops - should have mentioned what wasn't mentioned.

We weren't told what the price will be. Probably fair to assume that cost has risen from the original estimate of $150k (300 mile version) and $180k (500 mile version). But, the new Inflation Reduction Act (unfortunate acronym) is to offer a $40k subsidy for trucks.

We weren't told the tractor weight. Quite important as heavy batts are expected to reduce the max weight of goods that can be carried. But some folk have, based on the weight of the concrete blocks used in the 500 mile trip, estimated that the tractor and trailer weigh about 37,000lbs, roughly equal to the weight of the heavier/bigger diesel Class 8 tractors. So with the additional 2,000lb max weight allowance for BEV trucks, looks like the 500 mile range truck will only have a small weight penalty for loads. But apparently ~85% of loads are volume limited, not weight limited. In fact the majority of trips in the US are under 250 miles per day, with around 80% below 350-400 miles.

We weren't told the battery size, but speculation remains at about 1MWh for the 500 mile truck - based on the repeated claims from Elon/Tesla that the truck would consume ~2kWh/mile at max weight. In fact I think the claim has been revised to less than 2kWh/mile.

Martyn1981

OK here's an article I found really interesting and educational, but to be fair, whilst it proves something is possible, it also kinda proves it's not practical.

So a tesla Model 3 was driven around the coast of Australia (18,000km) over 80 days, charged only from lightweight rollout printed PV panels. That's the really fun and impressive bit.

The 'bad news' is that a days charging only gives a few hours driving, and a quick bit of maths suggests 225km / 140miles. And the panels cover 400m2, wow. Assuming the car manages 4miles/kwh after charging losses, then it was getting about half a tank full each day, around 35kWh.

[I suggest 4miles/kWh even after any charging losses, as I saw a recent article about how long Tesla batteries last, and the article (from Australia) had a screen shot of the trip from a TM3 which has done 183k km's, and averaged 141Wh/km (or 228Wh/mile), so I guess Australia is a nice sweet spot for battery efficiency ..... or those km's were done slowly. 

Field Testing Printed Solar Panels

What is the best way to field test printed solar panels? After 20 years in development in the lab at the University of Newcastle, it was decided to invite Stuart McBain to drive 18,000 km around the coast of Australia for 3 months and really put them to the test. Stuart was the obvious choice for a driver. He had already driven around the coast of the British Isles and the coast of Iceland. This was to make the point that there is no range anxiety when you plan well. “It can be a bit of a laugh actually,” he told me.

When he was initially approached, Stuart was at home in Liverpool, UK, and thought it would be a simple matter to get to Newcastle (about 300 km) for the test. Then he found out it was Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. A bit of a longer trip. For full details, see here.

Stuart left Newcastle in Australia on the 3rd of September with a car full of rolls of panels and a support RV for the technicians and accommodation. He arrived back in Newcastle on the 22nd of November. Obviously, the charging was done during the day and then the team drove for two hours in the evenings. Stuart made the point that this is not the future of EV charging because the area to lay out the panels is huge and the charge is slow. The panels are very light and can be rolled up and stored in the boot of the Tesla Model 3 with the back seats down.