Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Martyn1981

Article / update on lithium sulphur batteries:

Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Could Be Cheaper & More Energy Dense

Sales of new electric vehicles have been surging, but there are constraints around battery and vehicle production. New EVs have ranges of about 200-300 miles or so. Potentially, lithium-sulfur batteries could expand EV ranges considerably and cost less because sulfur is a more abundant material than lithium. Transportation is a major generator of greenhouse gases, so many more EVs are needed. Lithium-sulfur batteries eventually could help speed up EV production and adoption.

Martyn1981

Yet more vertical integration at Tesla ..... perhaps?
Tesla is building a pilot battery cell manufacturing line in Fremont – getting into the cell business

If you needed more proof that Tesla is going to make its own battery cells, we’ve now learned that Tesla is building a pilot battery cell manufacturing line in Fremont and designing its own equipment to produce the cells.
For a few months now, Tesla has been rumored to be working on making its own battery cells for its electric vehicles.
It started with the acquisition of Maxwell, a supercapacitor manufacturer with some battery cell technology, and later at its annual shareholder’s meeting, Tesla all but confirmed that it’s going to manufacture its own battery cells.
Later, we reported that Tesla referred to battery cells as a new “product line” for the company in some job listings for cell manufacturing.
Now we’ve learned that Tesla is building a battery cell pilot production line in Fremont, according to a new ‘Pilot Line Production Engineer, Cell Engineering’ job listing.

EVandPV

"Petrol and diesel car sales ban could start in 12 years, says Shapps"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51474769

Martyn1981

EVandPV said:

"Petrol and diesel car sales ban could start in 12 years, says Shapps"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51474769

Hiya, thanks for posting as I've been pondering this since I heard it on the car radio news. I think this is big, really big, as it could mean government policy driving car company policies. I'm not sure if there's enough BEV production to meet World demand plus say 10% of UK car sales (150k?), then maybe 300k, and 450k and so on each year.
Perhaps governments 'guaranteeing' a market will allow car companies to go all in, much faster on BEV development? At least that was my somewhat shocked takeaway from this news, which is far more significant than the change from 2035 to 2032 might at first appear.

EVandPV

Martyn1981 said:

EVandPV said:

"Petrol and diesel car sales ban could start in 12 years, says Shapps"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51474769

Hiya, thanks for posting as I've been pondering this since I heard it on the car radio news. I think this is big, really big, as it could mean government policy driving car company policies. I'm not sure if there's enough BEV production to meet World demand plus say 10% of UK car sales (150k?), then maybe 300k, and 450k and so on each year.
Perhaps governments 'guaranteeing' a market will allow car companies to go all in, much faster on BEV development? At least that was my somewhat shocked takeaway from this news, which is far more significant than the change from 2035 to 2032 might at first appear.

The Scottish Government are already aiming for 2032 and possibly even 2030 ....

https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/scotland-ban-petrol-cars-cities/

Martyn1981

So, what is Tesla up to? At the earnings call they were adamant that they wouldn't need to raise more capital, but as the share price rose another 30% or so, they have now announced a $2bn capital raise from selling shares (which seems very sensible), but for what purpose as they are currently doing fine in terms of cash balance and cash receipts ........ Giga Texas, rapid expansion of (additional) in-house battery production, speeding up Cybertruck, or semi production.

Also, something Gali (of Hyperchange) noted, Tesla's CAPEX estimate has changed from $2bn-2.5bn pa for the next two years, to $2.5bn-$3.5bn. The plot thickens.

Tesla - there's always something happening and it's usually quite loud!

Tesla jolts market with $2 billion stock offering, SEC subpoena

Tesla Inc. surprised the market with the news that it’s planning to offer about $2 billion of common stock in an underwritten deal, but an initial negative reaction gave way to hopes it’s the right step considering the recent runup for the stock and the Silicon Valley car maker’s expansion goals.

buglawton

Tesla is simply trying to sell at the top. Run a mile.

1961Nick

$2 billion is roughly the cost of the Chinese gigafactory ... could another one be on the cards in addition to Germany?

Martyn1981

PEV's take 11% of the new car market in France last month, that's pretty incredible, BEV's accounting for 8%. Maybe a hold over due to legislative changes, but certainly a market to watch going forward. The TM3 sales were tiny, but their sales seem to fluctuate massively all over Europe, perhaps simply down to which country(s) the ships are sent to that month?

And there was i wondering if UK policy and the size of the market could drive company policies, whilst France seems to be doing it already. Cool.

11% Electric Vehicle Share In France!

The French plug-in passenger electric vehicle market broke all of its previous records in January, with all-electric models jumping 258% to 10,952 units and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles surging 238% to 3,813 registrations. Both powertrains beat their own previous bests, adding to a record 14,765 plug-in vehicle registrations.
This brilliant start of the year, added to a falling overall market (-13% year over year), pulled the 2020 plug-in vehicle (PEV) share to an amazing 11% share (8.2% for full-electrics alone). That’s a big boost from the 2.7% of the same month last year, and with hybrid vehicles also jumping (9% share last month versus 5% in January 2019), 20% of the overall market is already electrified, which is making the pure fossil fuel share dive, and diesel in particular is now at a decades-low 32%.

buglawton

Some interesting vids on Youtube about an independent Tesla repair shop in the US and about the complexity of fixing anything Tesla, and the fact that regular breakdown and tyre replacement services won't touch Teslas. Even run of the mill EVs seem to be twice as expensive to insure in the UK, due no doubt to higher repair costs.

I really don't think that the mooted 2032 deadline will happen in a country like the UK which is so famously bad at rolling out new infrastructure (read: a decent, nationwide, standardised charge point strategy). In your dreams Boris!

Impressed with what the Norwegians are doing though.