Tesla Prepares For Self-Driving Subscription | 21 Sep 2020

Episode 895,   Sep 21, 2020, 12:00 AM

Tesla is preparing to launch Full Self-Driving subscription | Buy the Only 220-MPH Rimac Concept One on the Market | UK Police & Fire services buy Peugeot electric vehicles | Accelerated electrode drying could reduce battery production cost | Tesla Battery Day could introduce us to the world of dry electrode manufacturing | ChargePoint reportedly closer to going public | Golf GTE Reviewed

On today’s podcast:

 

  • Tesla is preparing to launch Full Self-Driving subscription
  • Buy the Only 220-MPH Rimac Concept One on the Market
  • UK Police & Fire services buy Peugeot electric vehicles
  • Accelerated electrode drying could reduce battery production cost
  • Tesla Battery Day could introduce us to the world of dry electrode manufacturing
  • ChargePoint reportedly closer to going public
  • Golf GTE Reviewed

 

Show #895

 

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Monday 21st September 2020. 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 marketlace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.

 

TESLA IS PREPARING TO LAUNCH FULL SELF-DRIVING SUBSCRIPTION

"Tesla is preparing to launch a new Full Self-Driving monthly subscription based on an update to its mobile app and it is putting a deadline on the newly reintroduced Enhanced Autopilot package." writes electrek: "Elon Musk confirmed that Tesla planned to release such an option “toward the end of the year”. With the FSD package’s price back into focus as Tesla reintroduced its Enhanced Autopilot package yesterday, we see evidence that the subscription launch might be imminent. While Tesla has had codes to prepare for a new subscription model for a while, this update closer to the end of the year could indicate that Tesla is preparing to soon release the new way to access its Full Self-Driving software. When confirming plans to offer a monthly subscription to access the features, Musk made it clear that buying the FSD package will remain the best option financially"

 

https://electrek.co/2020/09/20/tesla-full-self-driving-subscription-deadline-enhanced-autopilot/

 

BUY THE ONLY 220-MPH RIMAC CONCEPT ONE ON THE MARKET

"hat we have here is the only Rimac Concept One coupe on sale right. Yes, that Rimac Concept One, the ultra-rare electric hypercar Richard Hammond famously drove off a cliff in 2017 while filming an episode of The Grand Tour. Only eight were built, seven remain, and this is an incredibly rare chance for someone to acquire one of the fastest electric cars on earth. For $1.6 million—electric speed isn't cheap." writes The Drive: "The Rimac One is all-electric using a 90-kWh battery and four hub-mounted electric motors generating 1,224 horsepower and 1,180 pound-feet of instant torque. According to Rimac, this kind of performance allows the Concept One to reach zero to 60 in under 2.5 seconds and run silently all the way up to 220 mph. There’s not a lot of information on this car except that it has a little over 100 miles on the clock."

 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/36559/nows-your-chance-to-buy-the-only-220-mph-rimac-concept-one-on-the-market

 

UK POLICE & FIRE SERVICES BUY PEUGEOT ELECTRIC VEHICLES

"Peugeot is seeing growing demand from UK Police and Fire services for electrified vehicles. The French company said, 13 per cent of the cars ordered were all-electric with the e-208 being among the bestsellers to serve in British emergency services." says electrive: "The all-new e-208, launched in January this year, accounted for 81 vehicles within the final total of 611 cars to 38 forces. These vehicles delivered have been put to operational use, supporting frontline activity across the UK, according to the Peugeot press information. The other vehicles on order include 308 and 308 SW, Traveller, 3008 SUV and 5008 SUV, Partner, Expert and Boxer vans as well as the all-new 208 and said e-208. Mayn of these are from Peugeot’s electrified line-up on offer in the UK."

 

https://www.electrive.com/2020/09/20/uk-police-fire-services-buy-peugeot-electric-vehicles/

 

ACCELERATED ELECTRODE DRYING COULD REDUCE BATTERY PRODUCTION COST

"The quality of Li-ion battery cells depends on the electrode layers that store the battery’s energy. Both the anode and the cathode material are applied in a thin layer of water-based or solvent-based paste onto a conducting foil made of copper (anode) and aluminum (cathode). Researchers of KIT’s Thin Film Technology (TFT) group developed a coating process that allows electrodes to be produced in less time than with traditional methods." says ChargedEVs: "EPIC focuses on energy-efficient drying technologies and optimal moisture management for the materials used along the process chain, from drying to cell assembly. TFT studies conventional drying processes, high-power radiators and drying management in general."

 

TFT’s Dr. Philip Scharfer: "Higher coating speeds are particularly attractive when drying time can be reduced and the expensive drying line does not have to be extended."

 

TESLA BATTERY DAY COULD INTRODUCE US TO THE WORLD OF DRY ELECTRODE MANUFACTURING.

 

As per TEsmanian: "Currently, batteries use what's called a wet slurry technology to coat the electrode foils for a battery. What they do is they mix a super toxic solvent with some binder, with some carbon and with the active material. And then they run it through a drying line and those drying lines are hundreds of feet long and consume huge amounts of energy" In contrast, a binder, the carbon material, and the active material are mixed up in Maxwell's dry electrode technology, resulting in a dough or bubblegum-like substance which will run through a machine similar to an extruder. One of the benefits of using dry battery technology would be that it decreased the degradation of batteries.". and it could speed up the process by 16x.

 

And from the UK Guardian "Patrick Hummel, an analyst at investment bank UBS, said he was expecting news of a battery containing so-called dry electrodes. These would be produced with a simplified manufacturing process that does not require energy-intensive drying before the electrodes are fitted in batteries. The rewards for developing that technology are potentially enormous for an electric carmarker, removing some of the obstacles to breaking the stranglehold of fossil fuels. Dry electrodes are expected to deliver gains in energy density of as much as 50%, and they could be cheaper to make too. They could also allow Musk to achieve his professed aim of eradicating ethically questionable cobalt from Tesla’s batteries"

 

https://chargedevs.com/newswire/accelerated-electrode-drying-could-reduce-battery-production-cost/

 

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/tesla-million-mile-battery-maxwell-dry-battery-electrode-technology

 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/sep/20/sober-investors-hope-to-get-a-buzz-from-teslas-battery-day

 

CHARGEPOINT REPORTEDLY CLOSER TO GOING PUBLIC

"ChargePoint Inc., one of the world's oldest and largest electric vehicle charging networks, is nearing a deal to go public through a reverse merger with Switchback Energy Acquisition Corp, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The deal for ChargePoint could value the company at more than $2 billion (1.54 billion pounds) and be announced as early as next week, the sources said, cautioning that talks could still collapse and terms may still change." says Autoblog: "Switchback Energy is a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) which raised $300 million in an initial public offering in July 2019. A SPAC is a shell company that uses IPO proceeds, together with debt, to acquire another company, typically within two years. Investors are not notified in advance what the SPAC will buy. Nikola went public earlier this year through a SPAC merger while electric carmaker Fisker has agreed to a reverse merger with Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp."

 

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/09/19/chargepoint-ev-charging-company-nearing-ipo/

 

GOLF GTE REVIEWED

"Packing a plug-in hybrid powertrain that combines the 112-horsepower electric motor with a 147 HP 1.4-liter turbocharged petrol engine, it does the 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) sprint in 6.7 seconds and has a 140 mph (225 km/h) top speed." reports CarScoops: "Compared to its predecessor, the new Golf GTE has a 50% bigger battery. The 13 kWh unit takes five hours to charge at 2.3 kW and 3 hours and 40 minutes at 3.6 kW, and gives the car a zero-emission range of around 37 miles (60 km) with a maximum speed of 81 mph (130 km/h). So, can the new generation Golf GTE be considered the electrified version of the 2020 Golf GTI Mk8? "

 

https://www.carscoops.com/2020/09/jump-inside-the-new-vw-golf-gte-and-experience-the-plug-in-hybrid-hot-hatch-first-hand/

 

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