Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Magnitio

Grumpy_chap said:

zeupater said:

 everything comes down to a pretty complex consideration of safety, cost and realistic performance benefits which probably means that everyday affordable vehicles that will not need anything other than basic steering will only move technologies when it's both cheaper and has a proven safety record ....

That seems to be a quantum paradox.
Won't be adopted until there is a proven safety record.
Can't achieve a proven safety record until it is adopted.

All safety-critical transport systems undergo thorough testing before they are adopted.

Failures can still occur. If you've ever tried to drive a modern car where the power steering or brake servo has stopped working, you would know that it is very difficult to control for most people. Fortunately, such failures are rare.

orrery

michaels said:

I thought Labour were reinstating the 2030 target - has that been quietly dropped, it wouldn't surprise me, they seem to be much more green wash to those who want green and sceptical to other voters....

Rishi Sunak changed the date from 2030 to 2035, but he failed to change the underlying sales schedule targets which still require 80% of car sales to be EV by 2030. Complying with this schedule is causing the car manufacturers to bleat a lot and the government has said they will take another look at it, but that the schedule won't change - presumably they are looking at some measures to help.

michaels

orrery said:

michaels said:

I thought Labour were reinstating the 2030 target - has that been quietly dropped, it wouldn't surprise me, they seem to be much more green wash to those who want green and sceptical to other voters....

Rishi Sunak changed the date from 2030 to 2035, but he failed to change the underlying sales schedule targets which still require 80% of car sales to be EV by 2030. Complying with this schedule is causing the car manufacturers to bleat a lot and the government has said they will take another look at it, but that the schedule won't change - presumably they are looking at some measures to help.

The double bump in VED starting in April is bound to help....

Martyn1981

For anyone following or interested in the China numbers, they remain very bullish. Whilst Jan is down on Dec for PEV sales, it's up on January last year, with the article speculating a rise from 48% for the full 2024 year, to ~55% for 2025.

So that's the largest auto market in the World, with one of the highest BEV/PHEV rates of adoption, and supposedly having passed peak oil too.

Geely & Xiaomi Shine In China — January EV Sales Report

Year on year (YoY), while the overall market dropped a significant 12%, to close to 1.8 million units, plugins started 2025 with a 11% rise, to some 774,000 passenger new energy vehicle registrations.

This allowed the plugin vehicle (PEV) share to start the year at a high 42% (24% BEV), a full 10% more than a year ago (or an extra 6%, if we count just BEVs). Although this score is below the final 2024 result of 48% PEV share (25% BEV), expect that mark to be achieved sometime in the summer, and the year to end at 55%+ share. A couple of months in the last quarter of the year should even end above 65% share.

Coastalwatch

Milence installs its first MCS charger in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges

The first publicly available MCS chargers installed by Milence at its charging hub in Belgium come from Power Electronics. There are now a total of two MCS chargers at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges location.

https://www.electrive.com/2025/02/25/milence-installs-its-first-mcs-charger-in-the-port-of-antwerp-bruges/

Martyn1981

Funny how things change. I saw this headline and was pleasantly surprised, but then quickly thought - 'why not?'

Given that buses operate within populous areas (typically) it makes huge sense to reduce the diesel emissions, plus the economic benefits of going BEV.

The article points to the UK being in second place (for major European markets) at 56% just behind Spain at 57%.

Half of New EU City Buses Were Zero-Emission in 2024

Nearly half (49%) of all new EU city buses were zero-emission (ZE) in 2024, making city buses one of the early success stories of the European Green Deal. Sales exceeded T&E’s projection made last year, despite it assuming exponential growth. This is due to the faster-than-expected uptake in fuel cell buses, making up 3% of new EU city buses in 2024. Battery-electric however remains by far the dominant powertrain, with a 46% share.

This success is both due to new European regulation last year sending a clear market signal that the days of diesel buses are numbered, but also thanks to city-level policies such as zero-emission zones and fleet targets. As a result, the city bus market is shifting much faster to zero-emission than what is required under the EU’s Clean Vehicle Directive and the CO2 standards for trucks and buses. At this growth rate, city buses are on track to reach fully ZE sales by 2027. For city residents, that means quieter streets and cleaner air.

The European market is led by the Netherlands, Finland and Iceland, with 100% battery-electric city bus sales in 2024. Spain leads among major markets (i.e. markets with over 1,000 new city bus sales annually), reaching a 57% ZE share and overtaking the United Kingdom which ranks a very close second at 56%. Italy ranks third with a 44% ZE share, but under the EU27 average of 49%. France and Germany come 4th and 5th place with one-third of ZE city buses.

Martyn1981

Another surprisingly high month for BEV's with 25%. I did think that Jan may be carried over orders from last year (to help with 2025 targets), but who knows?

SMMT’s Car Registration Data

JKenH

Martyn1981 said:

Another surprisingly high month for BEV's with 25%. I did think that Jan may be carried over orders from last year (to help with 2025 targets), but who knows?

SMMT’s Car Registration Data

Two Teslas in the top 3 best selling cars. The M3 is outselling the MY which suggests buyers are hanging on for the new MY (Juniper) which has just started deliveries in US and China. Tesla still increased overall market share going from 2.1% to 2.38% of the overall car market. Not exactly a disaster all things considered although a lot of people are talking Tesla down.

They do say that February and December are traditionally poor months for new registrations as your new car is a year or a registration plate older in the eyes of the motor trade by the time the month is out - not great for residual values - although BEVs often do well in these months. That doesn’t explain why BEV sales are up 41% y-o-y. What is more likely is buyers rushing to avoid the expensive car supplement which (unless HMG changes its mind) is due to kick in on BEVs in April. The SMMT expects an even better March for EVs.

Martyn1981

Folk are probably bored of me talking about Trojan Charging, and their approach to on-street charging, but here they are again. A nice contract for over 500 spaces in Camden.

The beauty of Trojan is that they don't install one or two chargers in a street with parking restricted to charging vehicles. Instead they install multiple charger locations along a road, and the EV driver carries the 'pole' in their car.

I've always thought that it's not just a great idea / solution, but most folk, who still have an ICEV, will find themselves parking at a charging spot and realise that they can move to a BEV, when they are ready.

Trojan Energy to install more than 500 chargers in London borough of Camden

UK Charge point operator Trojan Energy has won a contract by Camden Council to install 570 charge points in the London borough. And these have a rather unusual design.

But back to the contract in Camden. All 570 charge points will be installed by the end of 2026. The first 70 charge points will go online as early as July of this year, Trojan Energy specifies. The borough previously tested the technology during a pilot as part of Innovate UK in 2022.

Martyn1981

Nice report results from Germany on reliability of EV v's ICE.

Kinda funny to see that ~50% of breakdowns, be it EV or ICE, were down to the 12V battery ..... some things never change.

And perhaps my BEV bias is showing, but it mentions that the problems with the Ioniq 5 were mostly down to the integrated charging control unit (ICCU) - so I assume that's an issue with a piece of tech/kit that can be resolved, not an uderlying issue for that or other BEV's.

EVs more reliable than ICE vehicles, with the best and worst electric cars identified

A new study conducted by Europe’s largest automobile association has found that electric vehicles (EVs) are less prone to breaking down than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles of the same age, which can suffer two and a half times as many breakdowns as electric cars.