Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Really impressive range from Mercedes' upcoming ESprinter van upgrade. They achieved almost 300 miles with the largest of the planned battery packs. And whilst that may be empty (I'm not sure), and good temps and speeds, it's still very impressive.

Might be wrong, but for steady motorway cruising, I don't think loaded weight makes much difference to energy consumption. Energy consumption at a steady speed has to equal drag I think. So extra energy accelerating, but maybe not much more (greater tyre drag(?)) for long distance cruising. But I digress, ~300 mile potential is a number that will hopefully allow this van, and others, to grab more of the market.

New Mercedes ESprinter Goes 475 Kilometers In Real-World Driving

The Mercedes eSprinter has been for sale in Europe for some time, but with a range of just under 100 miles. That’s too short for most people and companies. But now Mercedes is getting ready to start production of the next-generation eSprinter in two factories in Germany in February of 2023. US production is scheduled to begin in Charleston, South Carolina, in the second half of 2023.

Recently, the next-generation eSprinter van drove from the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart to the airport in Munich. The trip was on public roads that included some mountainous sections. When it returned to Stuttgart, it had covered 295 miles (475 km) and had about 12 miles (19 km) of range left. That’s a pretty impressive number for a big cargo van that has many features but good aerodynamic efficiency not being one of them.

JKenH

EricMears said:

JKenH said:

For every public charging point in the UK, there are 15 electric cars vying for its use. This 15:1 ratio may not seem like a lot, but it has tripled from 5:1 since 2019, and EV drivers are reporting an increase in queueing.

https://www.novunavehiclesolutions.co.uk/media/eojek5ys/eve-report-final-version.pdf

"vying for its use." is NOT defined !  It makes it sound as though there are actually 15 cars queued up at every charger whereas most of those potential users probably charged their car fully last night and may not need to charge today.

My response moved to the EV discussion thread

Coastalwatch

JKenH said:

EricMears said:

JKenH said:

For every public charging point in the UK, there are 15 electric cars vying for its use. This 15:1 ratio may not seem like a lot, but it has tripled from 5:1 since 2019, and EV drivers are reporting an increase in queueing.

https://www.novunavehiclesolutions.co.uk/media/eojek5ys/eve-report-final-version.pdf

"vying for its use." is NOT defined !  It makes it sound as though there are actually 15 cars queued up at every charger whereas most of those potential users probably charged their car fully last night and may not need to charge today.

Semantics. More interestingly are you happy with the direction of travel? Wouldn’t you prefer it if the ratio was the same as in 2019? Obviously, the more chargers there are, the higher the ratio can go but the roll out of chargers is slipping too far behind. That, and the percentage that are out of service, is what drove me back to petrol. Motorway charging is a disgrace and the answer is not avoid motorways as you previously have suggested but install more chargers.

Pretending the charging situation is ok will not help EV roll out. Strange this seems to be a line quite often adopted by the groups who are promoting EVs, witness this comment from campaign group Transport and Environment, earlier this year

The growth of the electric vehicle (EV) fleet is being mirrored by the growth of charge point installation rates, T&E says. 7,600 public chargers were installed in the last year. Although critics claim that the current network is not sufficient, the analysis shows that the existing public network has enough charge points for the number of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) currently on the roads in the UK. As long as the installation rates continue at pace, the country will be more than ready for higher targets to be adopted in the UK’s proposed Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate.

http://https//www.transportenvironment.org/discover/workplace-charging-network-doubles-availability-of-uk-public-charge-points-new-study-finds/

It astounds me how many EV enthusiasts (perhaps because they have home chargers and rarely use public charging) try and shoot down any criticism of the charging network as though it casts EVs in a poor light. Maybe it would be better to acknowledge the criticism is valid and push for improvement.

Perhaps a topic for the discussion thread rather than here?

JKenH

Coastalwatch said:

JKenH said:

EricMears said:

JKenH said:

For every public charging point in the UK, there are 15 electric cars vying for its use. This 15:1 ratio may not seem like a lot, but it has tripled from 5:1 since 2019, and EV drivers are reporting an increase in queueing.

https://www.novunavehiclesolutions.co.uk/media/eojek5ys/eve-report-final-version.pdf

"vying for its use." is NOT defined !  It makes it sound as though there are actually 15 cars queued up at every charger whereas most of those potential users probably charged their car fully last night and may not need to charge today.

Semantics. More interestingly are you happy with the direction of travel? Wouldn’t you prefer it if the ratio was the same as in 2019? Obviously, the more chargers there are, the higher the ratio can go but the roll out of chargers is slipping too far behind. That, and the percentage that are out of service, is what drove me back to petrol. Motorway charging is a disgrace and the answer is not avoid motorways as you previously have suggested but install more chargers.

Pretending the charging situation is ok will not help EV roll out. Strange this seems to be a line quite often adopted by the groups who are promoting EVs, witness this comment from campaign group Transport and Environment, earlier this year

The growth of the electric vehicle (EV) fleet is being mirrored by the growth of charge point installation rates, T&E says. 7,600 public chargers were installed in the last year. Although critics claim that the current network is not sufficient, the analysis shows that the existing public network has enough charge points for the number of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) currently on the roads in the UK. As long as the installation rates continue at pace, the country will be more than ready for higher targets to be adopted in the UK’s proposed Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate.

http://https//www.transportenvironment.org/discover/workplace-charging-network-doubles-availability-of-uk-public-charge-points-new-study-finds/

It astounds me how many EV enthusiasts (perhaps because they have home chargers and rarely use public charging) try and shoot down any criticism of the charging network as though it casts EVs in a poor light. Maybe it would be better to acknowledge the criticism is valid and push for improvement.

Perhaps a topic for the discussion thread rather than here?

I have moved my comments to the EV discussion thread as suggested.

Martyn1981

November's figures for the UK. It does show a small increase for Nov, but typically Tesla didn't use to supply much outside of the 3rd month each quarter, so the numbers may be a little different now that deliveries are more spread out this year.

Just some musings, but a couple of things did catch my eye, firstly I'm seeing a trend, I think. Looks like BEV's are growing slowly, PHEV's are actually declining slowly, and petrol/diesel keep moving (again slowly) to HEV's/MHEV's, actually diesel is tiny now, but it does make up 1/3rd of the MHEV's. Obviously too soon to call, but perhaps that's the future of the market, oversimplified, but a 3 way market of petrol ICE's into HEV's + BEV's, and then into BEV's.

Secondly, and I don't think this is new, just I'd missed it, but MG is pretty significant in the UK BEV sector.

Also, the BEV share is great at 21%, but the year to date figure is only 15.1% which isn't great, I'd love to see 20% for 2022, and 30% 2030 etc, but so many factors in play, and I don't expect the BEVolution to be linear.

UK Plugin EVs Take 27.7% Share — Tesla Model Y Bestseller

JKenH

BEV ytd share is actually 15.1%. 10.6% was last years ytd figure.

orrery

Martyn1981 said:

Obviously too soon to call, but perhaps that's the future of the market, oversimplified, but a 3 way market of petrol ICE's into HEV's + BEV's, and then into BEV's....

 

Interesting, but I don't really believe that. BEVs are being held back by supply problems (chips and batteries) and continuing high costs as volumes are held back too. The hold-ups slow down the cost/production curve, but I'd still bet on it being 'game over' for ICE well before the 2030 deadline. In reality, this isn't a bad thing as the charging infrastructure isn't keeping up with the current volumes.

JKenH

orrery said:

Martyn1981 said:

Obviously too soon to call, but perhaps that's the future of the market, oversimplified, but a 3 way market of petrol ICE's into HEV's + BEV's, and then into BEV's....

 

Interesting, but I don't really believe that. BEVs are being held back by supply problems (chips and batteries) and continuing high costs as volumes are held back too. The hold-ups slow down the cost/production curve, but I'd still bet on it being 'game over' for ICE well before the 2030 deadline. In reality, this isn't a bad thing as the charging infrastructure isn't keeping up with the current volumes.

Some EVs still have waiting lists but standard range Model 3 and Model Y are available in 2-4 weeks, with around 50 Model 3s listed in new car inventory and I think 18 TMYs. LR and P versions are listed as Jan-Mar 2023. I think what is being delivered this month will be reasonably representative of Tesla demand. 

For other marques with waiting lists there is a time lag between orders and registrations so we don’t yet know what the trend is there. I was expecting some levelling off and November’s BEV registrations surprised me, being significantly up on October even excluding the Tesla bump.

JKenH

MG4 crowned 2023 DrivingElectric Car of the Year

Hopefully this won’t trigger any debate.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/mg/mg4/356881/mg4-crowned-2023-drivingelectric-car-year

JKenH

Nissan LEAF grabs another ‘Best USED Electric Car’ Award

https://www.carsuk.net/nissan-leaf-grabs-another-best-used-electric-car-award/