Tesla Berlin Delayed? Conflicting Reports | 03 May 2021

Episode 1071,   May 03, 2021, 05:00 PM

Tesla’s German Plant Delayed Until 2022 | But…Local Politician Denies Claims | Global EV Outlook 2021 | New Lower Benchmark For Battery Costs | Citroën’s all-electric Ami is coming to the U.S. | Ford F-150 Lightning Name Will Return for Electric Pickup | Electric Highway opens UK’s largest high power motorway charging site | GM Releases Fix For Chevy Bolt EV Battery Issue | New Genesis Electrified G80: EV saloon arrives with luxury focus | Arrival partners with Uber to design an EV for ride-share

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On today’s podcast:

  • Tesla’s German Plant Delayed Until Next Year
  • But…Local Politician Denies The Berlin Delay Claims
  • Tesla tweaks application for German Gigafactory
  • Global EV Outlook 2021
  • New Lower Benchmark For Battery Costs by Steve LeVine, The Mobilist
  • Citroën’s all-electric Ami is coming to the U.S.
  • Ford F-150 Lightning Name Will Return for Electric Pickup
  • Electric Highway opens UK’s largest high power motorway charging site
  • GM Releases Fix For Chevy Bolt EV Battery Issue
  • New Genesis Electrified G80: EV saloon arrives with luxury focus
  • Arrival partners with Uber to design an EV for ride-share drivers

 

Show #1071

 

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Monday 3rd May. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

 

Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.

 

Christiaan Hetzner on Twitter: "The series production start at Tesla‘s #GigaBerlin is delayed until the end of January 2022, reports @Automobilwoche, citing company sources (presumably at the #Grünheide plant). Among other issues, it cites problems between the structural battery pack and the new 4680 cells. https://t.co/2E1vUCIBbb" / Twitter

 

- The series production start at Tesla‘s #GigaBerlin is delayed until the end of January 2022, reports @Automobilwoche, citing company sources (presumably at the #Grünheide plant). Among other issues, it cites problems between the structural battery pack and the new 4680 cells.

 

 

TESLA’S GERMAN PLANT DELAYED UNTIL NEXT YEAR: AUTOMOBILWOCHE

 

- Tesla Inc.’s factory outside Berlin won’t start production before the end of January next year due to delays affecting battery pack output, German trade magazine Automobilwoche reported, citing unidentified sources close to the company.

 

- Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gave the team in charge of the plant six more months to complete the project

 

- Tesla Inc.’s factory outside Berlin won’t start production before the end of January next year due to delays affecting battery pack output, German trade magazine Automobilwoche reported, citing unidentified sources close to the company.

 

 

Tesla ‘Gigafactory’ in Brandenburg: Production to Commence with Delay – The Berlin Spectator

 

- In quite some time, Musk has not said anything about his project in Brandenburg, since he slammed the German authorities and the country’s infamous bureaucracy. He demanded changes to the authorization process in the land of sausage and cuckoo clocks. Brandenburg’s Environment Agency is giving him headaches. Musik is used to the much simpler procedures in the United States.

 

- Tesla has to remove parts of its ‘Gigafactory’, or even the whole thing, if it does not get the authorizations it needs

 

- Brandenburg’s government cannot wait for the factory to be operational, also because it will create thousands of jobs. It even created a Tesla Task Force which has helped the company.

 

- In part, the delays were caused by Tesla itself, since the company kept on changing its plans and had to amend applications for permissions all the time.

 

 

BUT…LOCAL POLITICIAN DENIES THE BERLIN DELAY CLAIMS

 

- Brandenburg Economic Minister Jörg Steinbach, who has been one of Tesla’s most vocal supporters in their quest to open the German facility, isn’t buying the six-month delay story at all. Steinbach still believes Tesla is on pace for a late-Summer or early-Autumn start at Giga Berlin.

 

- “I don’t have the faintest idea of how anyone can come up with a six-month delay. If nothing happens out of the ordinary, I still expect a start of production in late Summer or Early Autumn.”

-Jörg Steinbach, German Economic Minister, State of Brandenburg

 

 

TESLA TO TWEAK APPLICATION FOR GERMAN GIGAFACTORY

 

- Tesla (TSLA.O) plans to tweak the application for its planned gigafactory in Europe, the German state in which the plant is being built said on Tuesday, adding it was not possible at this stage to say how long it would take to approve the site.

 

- The Ministry of Agriculture in the German state of Brandenburg said the amended application would include the construction and operation of a battery cell factory, which was previously flagged by Tesla.

 

- Tesla earlier this month sharply criticised lengthy regulatory processes in Germany ahead of the planned opening of its first European gigafactory this summer.

 

 

GLOBAL EV OUTLOOK 2021

International Energy Agency on Twitter: "We just released Global EV Outlook 2021, which shows accelerating momentum despite the pandemic After a 40% rise over the whole of 2020, electric car sales more than doubled in the 1st quarter of 2021 from the same period a year earlier Our report 👉 https://t.co/RHhWF6hY7K https://t.co/66FunyBw2h" / Twitter

 

- We just released Global EV Outlook 2021, which shows accelerating momentum despite the pandemic

 

After a 40% rise over the whole of 2020, electric car sales more than doubled in the 1st quarter of 2021 from the same period a year earlier

 

- Last year, Europe overtook China in terms of electric car sales for the 1st time, with registrations soaring to 1.4 million, compared with 1.2 million in China

 

It's too early to say if this is a lasting shift: China’s market has started 2021 strongly

 

- Under current policy settings, the number of EVs on the road globally may reach 145 million by 2030. But greater policy efforts to put the world on track to meet climate goals could boost EV markets further.

 

- Electric 2/3-wheelers like motorbikes & mopeds are the largest single EV sector, with 25 million sold in 2020, mostly in Asia.

 

Electric buses, vans and trucks are growing rapidly, too.

 

 

 

NEW LOWER BENCHMARK FOR BATTERY COSTS BY STEVE LEVINE, THE MOBILIST

 

- For a decade or more, the orthodoxy has been that if you could profoundly lower the cost of the battery, the most expensive part of an EV, you would bust through the sticker price of combustion vehicles and bring on a new electric transportation age

 

- Dave Howell, the long-time head of the U.S. Energy Department’s influential Office of Vehicles Technologies, told me there was a new target — $60/kWh, a full 40% below the long-time benchmark.

 

- Wasn’t $100/kWh the true maxim?

 

- Howell, in a followup exchange of emails yesterday, told me that not only had his office adopted a $60/kWh standard, but two years ago — in 2019 — he had even suggested a $50/kWh target, using a metallic lithium anode.

 

- A big thing that $60/kWh will do is give all EVs, regardless of their size and style, cost parity with their combustion cousin, said James Frith, head of battery storage at BNEF. Then both VW and Tesla should be able to market a competitively priced, compact EV on which they will make the same profit as they do with conventional models, he said.

 

- He said that was a truer representation of cost parity

 

 

CITROËN’S ALL-ELECTRIC AMI IS COMING TO THE U.S. (BUT NOT CANADA—YET) | DRIVING

 

- Citroën may be coming back to the U.S., but not in a big way. Instead, its tiny, all-electric Ami will be coming to Washington, D.C., and available through car-sharing service Free2Move.

 

- Free2Move introduced it on its LinkedIn page by saying it’s coming “From France With Love.”

 

- in France, where apparently it’s possible to operate one without a driver’s license if you’re at least 14 years old,

 

- It’s powered by a 5.5-kWh lithium-ion battery; it can go up to 45 km/h; and has a range of about 70 kilometres.

 

- In France, the Ami is available as a short-term car-share to drivers through Free2Move, or through other companies that have partnered with the automaker on long-term rentals, starting at €20 a month.

 

 

FORD F-150 LIGHTNING NAME WILL RETURN FOR ELECTRIC PICKUP

 

- Ford's new electric pickup truck will be named the F-150 Lightning, according to a Ford document provided by a source to Car and Driver.

 

- The electric Ford F-150 Lightning will go on sale in the middle of next year.

 

- ord sold 787,422 F-Series trucks last year, and the new electric model will go against other upcoming electric pickups such as the GMC Hummer EV Pickup, electric Chevy Silverado, and Tesla Cybertruck—all of which claim more than 350 miles of range.

 

- Ford says the electric F-150 will provide more horsepower and torque and the fastest acceleration of any F-150 currently on the market.

 

 

ELECTRIC HIGHWAY OPENS UK’S LARGEST HIGH POWER MOTORWAY CHARGING SITE | GRIDSERVE

 

- The Electric Highway – the world’s first nationwide charging network, has today opened the UK’s largest high power motorway charging site,

 

- The installation is the first under the Electric Highway’s new partnership with GRIDSERVE, which saw the company take a 25% stake in the Highway

 

- MOTO’s brand-new Rugby services at Junction 1 of the M6.  The new facility includes 12 state-of-of-the-art high-powered pumps from Tritium, able to charge supported vehicles at 350kW –

 

- funded by GRIDSERVE investor Hitachi Capital (UK) PLC – all existing 50kW pumps will be replaced this summer while in parallel, work has begun on high power installations

 

 

GM RELEASES FIX FOR CHEVY BOLT EV BATTERY ISSUE

 

- General Motors has released a fix for the Chevy Bolt EV battery after it recalled 69,000 units of the electric hatchback over fire risks.

 

- 2017-2019 model year Chevy Bolt EV last year after it received reports from owners of the vehicle’s battery pack suddenly overheating and catching fire.

 

- dealerships will use diagnostic tools to test affected vehicles for battery problems and replace the battery packs as necessary. These vehicles will receive “advanced onboard diagnostic software”

 

- The automaker will also release a software update restoring battery capacity in affected Chevy Bolt EV vehicles to 100 percent.

 

- Chief Engineer Jesse Ortega also said previously that the battery fires can be traced back to defective cells manufactured by GM supplier LG Chem in South Korea between May 2016 and May 2019.

 

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