Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Grumpy_chap

CKhalvashi said:

Also take into account driving hours. You'd simply need to be able to put 400km into the lorry in about 50 minutes.

Does charging more quickly affect the efficiency of the charge?

CKhalvashi

Grumpy_chap said:

CKhalvashi said:

Also take into account driving hours. You'd simply need to be able to put 400km into the lorry in about 50 minutes.

Does charging more quickly affect the efficiency of the charge?

Other than standard battery limitations, no.

I'm referring to the rules on driver hours. If rapid charging can be integrated into mandatory rest periods twice daily with a slower (but likely still fast) overnight rest period charge, there's a very good chance that the entire system can be made more efficient.

In the use case above, during parking, it's likely that a 50kWh charge would be acceptable.

thevilla

I think this has neen shared before but it confirms the usability of electric trucks in Germany.  In the last couple of episodes successful trips to the UK where the only thing of note was the inflated price of charging compared to Europe.

https://youtube.com/@electrictrucker?si=wlPeuiTc7ZZCuf6l

michaels

Drove the new (to me) fisker 500 mile round trip in past 48 hours and really enjoyed it. No real issues, travelling at 70 returned about 3 miles per kWh as measured by the car, actual energy input was higher as car said charging at 6kw when charger was drawing 7kw. Had a check on a fast charger where we got 170kw.

Shame there are only 450 in the UK. It is not a bad car and of course now has the cachet of not being yet another model y 

michaels

1961Nick said:

While Juniper is technically a 'facelift' you only have to look at the pictures to see that in reality it is as close to a new model as you can get without actually being one. The bigger the change visually & technically, the greater the short term impact will be on the bottom line due to outgoing model discounts & customers waiting for the new model to be launched. With only 2 mass market products & the Y being the market leader, Tesla were clearly going to suffer some financial pain during this period.

The surge in sales numbers when Juniper is in full production & available in all markets will no doubt be put down to Musk backing away from DOGE. Margins may also improve as Juniper initially won't require any incentives - compare 3/Y contract hire prices on the Tesla website.

Hmm.......

Martyn1981

SMMT figures for May are out. I think they are good (good enough?) 21.8% BEV + 11.9% PHEV.

I still have my own personal metric, where I'd like to see PEV's at 10% x the year of the deacde, so 50% for this year, at some point in the later peak months.

Doubt that's on the cards, but at least we aren't too far behind (fingers crossed).

SMMT UK Car Registrations May

Martyn1981

So close, so close. China is on the brink of reaching 50% PEV sales so far for 2025, after passing that mark for May.

Famous last words, but China is almost certain to exceed 50% for PEV's this year, which will be a monumentual achievement for the World's largest auto market.

53% EV Share in China! — May 2025 Sales Report

Share-wise, May saw plugin vehicles reaching 53%! Full electrics (BEVs) alone accounted for 31% of the country’s total passenger auto sales.

This good result in May pulled the 2025 share to 49%. BEVs were stable on their own, at 30%. Expect to see plugins at 50% and BEVs at around 31% by the end of June.

Martyn1981

Other world news to follow has been Ethiopia's ban on ICEV imports. They've now expanded this to include kits or semi-assembled vehicles. 

The article goes on to look at some other African nations initiatives.

Given the size and population of Africa as a whole, i do think it's interesting to see what the many countries do. Whilst in many cases vehicle ownership (especially cars) is low, the potential for the auto market is huge. Combine that with excellent solar potential, and tumbling PV/storage costs, and leap-frogging ICEV's seems like a great move. Add in the avoidance of FF emissions, and the impact on trade balances, and BEV's become essential.

Ethiopia Updates ICE Vehicle Import Ban To Include Imports of SKD & CKD Kits

In an unprecedented move over a year ago, Ethiopia became effectively the first country in the world to ban the import of internal combustion engine vehicles. That ban was not some futuristic target for 2030 or 2035. It was an immediate ban on the import of ICE cars. Ethiopia’s motivation? A high fossil fuel import bill of over US$5 billion a year, taking a huge chunk of the country’s scarce foreign currency resources. Energy security and self-sufficiency were other major drivers.

In another move that should boost EV adoption (well, new-car buyers in Ethiopia don’t have a choice, as they can only import EVs now), those looking to hang on to their current ICE vehicles a bit longer may be persuaded to make the switch early, as the government is continuing with its plan to gradually remove subsidies on fossil fuels. Ethiopia plans to introduce 15% VAT and 15% excise on fuel. This will increase the total cost of ownership for ICE vehicle drivers.

QrizB

Interesting that the article notes the cost (in US$) to Ethiopia of importing oil is one of the factors driving this.

Oil reserves are concentrated in certain areas; states with lots of oil benefit from this, those without don't.

Sunshine and wind can be found almost everywhere, albeit with seasonal variations, so energy autarchy should be possible for most states. (High-population microstates like Monaco or the Vatican City might struggle.)

Martyn1981

QrizB said:

Sunshine and wind can be found almost everywhere, albeit with seasonal variations, so energy autarchy should be possible for most states. (High-population microstates like Monaco or the Vatican City might struggle.)

..... well ...... you're gonna love this recent news that I saw then:

Vatican City now runs on solar power — no miracle needed

On May 29, 2025, the Vatican City officially transitioned to solar power, marking a significant shift in the European energy landscape. The heart of this change is located at Santa Maria di Galeria, a former Vatican Radio site that has been transformed into a solar energy hub. This project was carried out by ACEA, an Italian utility company, which installed systems to meet all of the Vatican’s energy demands.

What makes this significant is not the size, but that Vatican City is only 0.49km², and there was no loud campaign, no press tour, just action set in stone and implemented. A sovereign state deeply rooted in tradition has adopted one of the most forward-looking energy transitions.

[Obviously there's more to this, and I assume we are talking 'net solar powered', and the Vatican City has a bob or two to spare, but still impressive.]