Tesla’s Charge Port Is Getting Hot On Purpose | 05 Oct 2020
Volvo XC40 Begins Production | BMW ix3 goes in to production | Citroen e-SpaceTourer and Peugeot e-Traveller available | Jeep Renegade 4xe review | Tesla to acquire German battery assembly maker | What Does The Tesla Selfie Cam Capture? | Tesla starts activating new charge port heater | Tesla China Demand Is Higher Than Eve |Electric car sales UK | Lynk & Co’s compact SUV costs €500 a month | All 2,200 Polestar 2 Delivered So Far Will Be Recalled
On today’s podcast:
- Volvo XC40 Begins Production
- BMW ix3 goes in to production
- Citroen e-SpaceTourer and Peugeot e-Traveller available
- Jeep Renegade 4xe review
- Tesla to acquire German battery assembly maker
- What Does The Tesla Selfie Cam Capture?
- Tesla starts activating new charge port heater
- Tesla China Demand Is Higher Than Eve
- Electric car sales UK
- Lynk & Co’s compact SUV costs €500 a month
- All 2,200 Polestar 2 Delivered So Far Will Be Recalled
Show #900
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Monday 5th October. 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.
VOLVO XC40 BEGINS PRODUCTION
"Volvo announced Thursday that production of its first fully electric vehicle, the XC40 T8 Recharge, has started in Ghent, Belgium." says Green Car Reports: "The electric SUV is bound for the U.S. starting late this year, and in terms of pricing, performance, and packaging, it’s shaping up to be one of the closest rivals yet to the Tesla Model Y. Volvo Cars North America told Green Car Reports and a group of journalists Thursday that while demonstration cars are likely to arrive at many dealerships in December, first deliveries won’t likely start until January. The Recharge was engineered and developed concurrently with the Polestar 2 by the same Volvo-led engineering teams in Sweden, and with the same designer, Thomas Ingenlath. Both models have 78-kwh (75-kwh usable) battery packs configured into a ‘T’ under the back seat and drive tunnel, plus front and rear 150-kw motors. Volvo promises a 0-60 mph time of 4.7 seconds for the 402-hp dual-motor vehicle, as well as an expected range of more than 200 miles."
BMW IX3 GOES IN TO PRODUCTION
"Unlike many other car makers, BMW has decided that the way to get punters in to electric cars is to make the electric bit a powertrain option – alongside ICCE, Hybrid and PHEV – in the belief that familiarity will be a bigger factor than novelty. That’s why the new BMW iX3, the BEV X3, is being built on the same production line as the ICE X3s in Shenyang, China. And production is now underway." according to CarsUK.net: "But despite production of the iX3 already starting, the UK is going to have to wait until summer 2021 for delivery, but if you do want to jump in to an iX3 you can order in the UK, despite the wait, but you’ll need quite deep pockets. The only models available to order are the iX3 Premier Edition which costs a thumping £62k, with the iX3 Premier Edition coming in at £65k."
CITROEN E-SPACETOURER AND PEUGEOT E-TRAVELLER AVAILABLE
"Peugeot and Citroen are taking orders for their pure electric MPVs - the e-Traveller and e-SpaceTourer respectively. Both models share a platform and powertrain components, with a range of up to 143 miles on a charge quoted. Each use a 100 KW electric motor powered by a 50 kW battery. This is able to be charged at up to 7 kW AC or 100 kW from ultra-rapid DC charge points" according to Next Green Car: "The Peugeot e-Traveller seats up to eight passengers - two in the front with two rows of three seats behind - while the Citroen e-SpaceTourer seats up to nine. Retail customers will get an eight-seater configuration, but a Business trim is aimed at professional users, with three rows of three seats, alongside materials designed for added durability. Prices are available for Citroen's e-SpaceTourer, with Feel starting at £46,250 and Business from £45,600. Deliveries are expected to start in November."
JEEP RENEGADE 4XE REVIEW
"Jeep’s first plug-in hybrid will certainly stir up some mild interest in certain circles – perhaps you’re a company car driver who likes a spot of greenlaning at the weekends? " says BBC's Top Gear: "first up is the Renegade 4xe (pronounced four-by-e, incidentally). You’ve got a 60bhp electric motor and 11.4kWh battery turning the rear wheels and a turbocharged 1.3-litre 4cyl petrol at the front that comes in two power outputs depending on trim level. It’s 4WD, but there’s no mechanical connection from front to back, it’s all achieved through electronic wizardry. It’s all very smoothly integrated and the car always keeps enough juice available to power the back wheels when the four-wheel drive is called upon. The Renegade 4xe will take basically whatever you throw under it right in its stride – a shame, because no one will ever use it. Jeep assures us hardcore trailheads will lap it up, but who wants to hold up a greenlaning party while you charge your batteries?"
TESLA TO ACQUIRE GERMAN BATTERY ASSEMBLY MAKER
"Tesla Inc TSLA.O has agreed to acquire German ATW Automation, a supplier assembling battery modules and packs for the auto industry, a source familiar with the transaction said on Friday." according to a Reuters Reports today: "ATW, a subsidiary of Canadian ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc ATA.TO, was on the brink of liquidation due to a slump in orders, German media reported in September. ATS on Sept. 25 announced that certain assets and employees at one of its Germany-based units would be sold and transferred to a third party, without disclosing the name of the company. ATW, based in western Germany, has about 120 employees and has completed more than 20 battery production lines for international automakers, according to ATS’ website."
WHAT DOES THE TESLA SELFIE CAM CAPTURE?
"A well known Tesla white hat hacker, known simply as “green” on Twitter (@greentheonly), has revealed — to some extent — what the Tesla selfie cam is watching out for. What’s the Tesla selfie cam? It’s a camera right behind the rearview mirror in a Tesla vehicle." writes CleanTechnica: "Elon Musk has said before that the selfie cam is not being used yet, and that it’s in the cars for when they become self-driving cars/robotaxis. Despite not being in use yet, though, “green” has identified what this sole interior camera is set up to watch and take notes about. Naturally, at a stage where the Tesla isn’t yet capable of 100% self-driving service unmonitored by a human, it could be useful to see if the driver’s eyes are closed or looking down away from the road. The system could then give a warning — perhaps a loud warning — that the driver should open their eyes or look up or else the car will pull over and park itself."
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/10/05/what-does-the-tesla-selfie-cam-capture/
TESLA STARTS ACTIVATING NEW CHARGE PORT HEATER
"Tesla has started activating the elusive new charge port heater in Model 3 and Model Y, but it’s unclear who has it in their Model 3." says Electrek: "Now Tesla Model 3 and Model Y owners are starting to receive an additional feature called “Charge Port Inlet Heater” in the update 2020.40. So far, only owners of recent Model 3 vehicles are reporting receiving the new features."
Tesla Says: "Your car can now use the charge port inlet heater to help defrost the inside of the charge port. The charge port inlet heater can be activated in cold ambient temperatures by enabling preconditioning using the mobile app, activating the rear defrost button on the vehicle’s touchscreen, or preconditioning the vehicle using scheduled departure."
https://electrek.co/2020/10/01/tesla-charge-port-heater-unclear-who-has-it/
TESLA CHINA DEMAND IS HIGHER THAN EVE
"Tesla has seen a large rise in sales after introducing some price cuts for Model 3 in China. The price cut affected two variants from the MIC (Made In China) Model 3. The standard range plus version was reduced from ¥271,550 to ¥249,000. This is equivalent to a $3500 cut. The price cut for the long-range rear-wheel-drive version was of approximately $5000." reports Torque News: "Producing and delivering so many vehicles will definitely be an important logistical challenge and if Tesla is unable to keep up with the pace of orders customers will start becoming dissatisfied by long delivery times."
https://www.torquenews.com/11663/tesla-china-demand-higher-ever-beijing-after-model-3-price-cuts
ELECTRIC CAR SALES UK
"The UK new-car market has suffered its worst September since twice-yearly plate changes were introduced, but as in previous months there was strong growth in the proportion of car sales that were electric or hybrid." says Driving Electric: "Pure-electric car sales went from 7,704 in September 2019 to 21,903 in September 2020 – a 184% increase. Year-to-date, 66,611 pure-electric cars have been sold in the UK so far in 2020, which is up from the 25,097 that had been sold by the same point in 2019. While the Tesla Model 3 sold strongly through lockdown, it has since fallen out of the overall top 10 most registered models. The Vauxhall Corsa (now available in pure-electric Corsa-e guise) took the top spot in July, slipped to fifth in August, but was back on top in September."
https://www.drivingelectric.com/news/678/electric-car-sales-uk-near-7-market-share-september-2020
LYNK & CO’S COMPACT SUV COSTS €500 A MONTH
"Car company Lynk & Co has finally revealed the details of its hybrid ownership model, which lets people subscribe to its Lynk & Co 01 compact SUV for €500 per month, with the option of renting the vehicle to other Lynk & Co members to begin earning that fee back." writes The Verge: "The company’s 01 hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars will begin shipping to European members in April. The €500 membership fee can also be split between multiple individuals, allowing a group of friends in the same city to share a single car. The monthly fee includes insurance and servicing by the Volvo dealer network. (Digital keys can also be shared with Volvo, to let its employees retrieve your car and return it when servicing is complete.) The monthly fee doesn’t cover the cost of fuel or electricity, however. Paid memberships can be canceled with one month’s notice."
ALL 2,200 POLESTAR 2 DELIVERED SO FAR WILL BE RECALLED
"We have already told you that Polestar 2 cars are stopping in mysterious circumstances. Drivers either get an error message or nothing at all, and their cars stop working. Nothing is able to reboot them, and the vehicles have to be towed for repair. Some are waiting for more than a month. The Swedish publication Dager Industri discovered the reason and that the company will recall all 2,200 units of the Polestar 2 delivered so far." says InsideEVs
You can listen to all 899 previous episodes of this this for free, where you get your podcasts from, plus the blog https://www.evnewsdaily.com/ – remember to subscribe, which means you don’t have to think about downloading the show each day, plus you get it first and free and automatically.
It would mean a lot if you could take 2mins to leave a quick review on whichever platform you download the podcast.
And if you have an Amazon Echo, download our Alexa Skill, search for EV News Daily and add it as a flash briefing.
Come and say hi on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter just search EV News Daily, have a wonderful day, I’ll catch you tomorrow and remember…there’s no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.
PHIL ROBERTS / ELECTRIC FUTURE (PREMIUM PARTNER)
BRAD CROSBY (PREMIUM PARTNER)
AVID TECHNOLOGY (PREMIUM PARTNER)
PORSCHE OF THE VILLAGE CINCINNATI (PREMIUM PARTNER)
AUDI CINCINNATI EAST (PREMIUM PARTNER)
VOLVO CARS CINCINNATI EAST (PREMIUM PARTNER)
NATIONALCARCHARGING.COM and ALOHACHARGE.COM (PREMIUM PARTNER)
DEREK REILLY FROM THE EV REVIEW IRELAND YOUTUBE CHANNEL (PREMIUM PARTNER)
RICHARD AT RSYMONS.CO.UK – THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE SPECIALIST (PREMIUM PARTNER)
DAVID AND LISA ALLEN (PARTNER)
OEM AUDIO OF NEW ZEALAND AND EVPOWER.CO.NZ (PARTNER)
GARETH HAMER
eMOBILITY NORWAY HTTPS://WWW.EMOBILITYNORWAY.COM/ (PARTNER)
BOB BOOTHBY – MILLBROOK COTTAGES AND ELOPEMENT WEDDING VENUE (PARTNER)
DARIN MCLESKEY FROM DENOVO REAL ESTATE (PARTNER)
JUKKA KUKONEN FROM WWW.SHIFT2ELECTRIC.COM
RAJEEV NARAYAN (PARTNER)
ALAN ROBSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)
ALAN SHEDD (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)
ALEX BANAHENE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)
ALEXANDER FRANK @ https://www.youtube.com/c/alexsuniverse42
ANDERS HOVE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)