09 Feb 2020 | Ford’s Mustang Mach-E Progress
BMW Ramps Up Motor Output | VW ID.4 Crossover Debut Pushed Back | Tesla Soars In Germany With Massive 168% Increase | Tesla China To Restart Production In Giga Shanghai | Nikola Tre To Build Electric Trucks At Iveco In Germany | Switching To An Electric Car Could Save You £41,000 | The Tax Break That Could Save You 40% On An Electric Car | Which European Country Has The Most DC Fast Chargers? | NATSO And Chargepoint |To Add 4,000 Travel Plazas | Ford’s Mustang Mach-E Progress | Question Of The Week Answe
Show #692
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Sunday 9th February 2020. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story to save you time.
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.
BMW RAMPS UP ELECTRIC CAR MOTOR OUTPUT AT BAVARIA PLANT
"BMW said on Thursday it is increasing production of electric vehicle powertrain components at its plant in Dingolfing, Bavaria, and raising its staff numbers to 1,400 this year, from 600 at present." says Reuters: "Responding to tougher emissions rules and the threat of multi-million euro fines, carmakers are stepping up efforts to sell electric and hybrid cars. BMW aims for hybrid and electric cars to make up a quarter of new vehicle registrations by 2021. The number of employees assembling electric motors in Dingolfing will rise to 1,400 by the end of 2020, and is slated to grow to 2,000 over the mid-term, BMW added."
VOLKSWAGEN ID.4 ELECTRIC CROSSOVER DEBUT PUSHED BACK
"If you were eagerly awaiting Volkswagen to pull the veil off its ID 4 all-electric crossover, it appears you will have to wait a bit longer. Initially expected to debut at the New York auto show in mid-April, its reveal has now apparently been postponed and it may be shown at the Detroit auto show, in June of this year." says InsideEVs: "Autocar doesn’t make the Detroit reveal like a sure thing, though, so the car may be shown even closer to the end of 2020. We also don’t know if VW is going to reveal both the regular ID 4 and the coupe like ID 5 version at the same time - the latter is actually the model previewed by the ID Crozz concept. The ID.4 and ID.5 will also be the first Volkswagen models to bear the GTX electric vehicle performance badge, but the automaker will surely make a GTX version of the ID.3 and other models in the ID series (especially since the ID.3 is the EV equivalent of the Golf and GTX is more or less the EV equivalent of GTI)."
https://insideevs.com/news/397413/vw-id4-debut-postponed-detroit/
TESLA SOARS IN GERMANY WITH MASSIVE 168% INCREASE IN REGISTRATIONS IN JANUARY
"Tesla registrations in Germany increased by 168% in January, helped by strong demand for the Model 3" according to Teslarati: "Tesla leading the pack of imported vehicles is a good sign for Elon Musk’s electric car company. With the construction of Giga Berlin expected to set to start as early as mid-March, Tesla can only expect more organic demand when Germans and electric vehicle enthusiasts from nearby European countries see firsthand more of its vehicles on the road."
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-sales-germany-january-2020/
TESLA CHINA TO START PRODUCTION IN GIGA SHANGHAI ON FEB. 10
""esla plans to start production from its Giga Shanghai facility in China on Monday, Feb. 10. After the coronavirus outbreak, the Tesla factory in China shut down productions from Feb. 2." says International Business Times: " Tesla Vice President Tao Lin announced this week that the factory would resume productions on Feb. 10. However, the deliveries of Tesla cars would take a hit. On Saturday, the Shanghai government stated that it would consult the banks to give loans with manageable interest rates to small businesses and exempt companies in the hospitality sector from any value-added taxes, which is badly hit after the outbreak. Similar benefits are applicable to foreign firms."
NIKOLA TRE TO BUILD ELECTRIC TRUCKS AT IVECO IN GERMANY
"Iveco-owner CNH Industrial and Nikola Motor will build the Nikola Tre in battery-electric and fuel cell version at the Iveco plant in Ulm, Germany. The first e-trucks to go into production from 2021 are the battery-electric 4×2 and 6×2 vehicles. The fuel cell version is planned for 2023." says electrive: "The two partner companies have formed a joint venture called Nikola Tre – like the truck – which will manufacture the battery-electric model with a modular battery that can be configured to a capacity of up to 720 kWh. The electric drive has a maximum continuous output of 480 kW. Production is expected to start in the first quarter of 2021. The Nikola Tre, which was adapted for the European market, has little in common with the company’s US models shown so far; instead, it is based on Iveco’s popular S-Way platform."
https://www.electrive.com/2020/02/07/nikola-tre-to-be-built-in-ulm-germany/
SWITCHING TO AN ELECTRIC CAR COULD SAVE YOU £41,000
"DRIVERS could save more than £40,000 by switching to an electric car, a new investigation has revealed. It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnston announced that a ban on new petrol and diesel models would be introduced in 2035." writes The Sun: "Recent data from EDF Energy found Brits could save £41,000 in fuel over their lifetime by getting behind the wheel of an electric vehicle. Drivers on average spend more than £56,000 on filling up their car with petrol or diesel over the course of their lives. But if they drove an electric model, they would only spend around £15,000 over the same time period."
https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/10904797/switchin-electric-car-save-fuel-costs/
THE TAX BREAK THAT COULD SAVE YOU 40% ON AN ELECTRIC CAR
"There is potentially, however, something of a financial game-changer for driving an electric car, which might save 32 per cent to 42 per cent of the monthly cost of getting behind the wheel. The key to this is salary sacrifice, the same system many employers use for pension contributions, cycle to work schemes, and childcare vouchers, allowing workers to effectively pay tax-free." says Simon at ThisIsMoney: "This saves you both national insurance and income tax, which for a basic rate taxpayer is 32 per cent and a higher rate taxpayer 42 per cent. But a special exemption was put in place for ultra-low emission vehicles to encourage motorists to swap their petrol and diesel cars for electric ones. This meant that the government theoretically had no problem with your employer allowing you to pay for an electric car from untaxed income through salary sacrifice. At the moment, the benefit-in-kind, or BiK rate, on a pure electric car is 16 per cent and the way that the maths works means much of the tax benefit of the salary sacrifice is eaten up by the charge. This changes in April though, when electric cars will have a zero BiK rate and salary sacrifice benefits can be felt in full. The monthly cost for a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus with no deposit down over 48 months could be roughly £530, but under salary sacrifice for a higher rate taxpayer it effectively costs 42 per cent less, or £307 of the wages they would normally see."
WHICH EUROPEAN COUNTRY HAS THE MOST ELECTRIC CAR CHARGERS? #
When looking at the number of fast charging points, the top 10 European countries were:
Germany – 5,074 fast chargers
United Kingdom – 4,008 fast chargers
Norway – 3,426 fast chargers
France – 1,975 fast chargers
Spain – 1,242 fast chargers
Netherlands – 1,069 fast chargers
Sweden – 1,023 fast chargers
Switzerland – 846 fast chargers
Italy – 833 fast chargers
Austria – 575 fast chargers
https://www.carwow.co.uk/blog/best-driving-roads-for-electric-cars
NATSO, CHARGEPOINT MAP OUT CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR 4,000 TRAVEL PLAZAS
"ChargePoint, which has more than 108,000 electric vehicle charging stations, and NATSO, the trade association for truck stops and travel plazas, will collaborate to build out a network of 4,000 off-highway charging stations, including in rural America, by 2030." reports Frieghtwaves.com: "The two will use money from the Volkswagen “Dieselgate” emissions scandal settlement plus grants and plaza owner investment of up to $1 billion to knit the mostly direct current (DC) fast-charging network, which ChargePoint will manage. ChargePoint and NATSO will work together to identify public and private sources to support the build-out. The deadline is Feb. 26 to apply for Volkswagen Settlement Appendix D Funds, money set aside by the German automaker following its 2015 diesel emissions cheating admission."
EXCLUSIVE: FORD’S EV PRODUCT CHIEF REVEALS UPDATES ON MUSTANG MACH-E PROGRESS
"Electrek met with Darren Palmer, the product chief for Ford EVs, to learn where things stand. Palmer said that the Mach-E is “close to sign-off” for vehicle engineering. And he confirmed that Ford will hit the 300-mile range target for the long-range version." says Electrek: "Palmer explained that customer focus groups revealed that EV buyers want a 300-mile version. Hitting that number, he said, is an important strategy for converting gas-car owners to electric. He confirmed that 80% of Mustang Mach-E pre-orders are for the long-range model, promising up to 300 miles. Of course, the lower-cost Mach-E versions, and those offering all-wheel-drive, will have between 210 and 270 miles. every Mach-E (and likely every Ford EV) will come with a portable, Level 2, 240-volt charger. It’s a strategy to eliminate the question about what home-charger to buy. Palmer also said that Ford’s test teams are currently taking long all-electric road trips to discover any issues about using highway charging. He said that any problems are documented and fed back to the company’s EV charging-network partners."
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
MARTIN YOUNG
The main reason I purchased a Chevy Volt was because it was time for me to replace an old worn out car, and I didn't want to replace it with old worn out technology in a new wrapper. I wanted something truly different...something that looked towards the future instead of the past.
Yes, I was concerned about the environment, but on your scale of 1 to 10, I was at most a 5.
And then something interesting happened.
After driving the Volt for a few weeks, and no longer making trips to a gas station where I used to regularly inhale carcinogenic fumes, and noticing all the exhaust coming from other cars and realizing that my car wasn't constantly spewing toxins from its tailpipe, my concerns about the environment started to grow. So that now, after a year of driving mostly on electricity, on your scale of 1 to 10, I would say my concern for the environment is closer to 10. And this reveals a truth that we should never lose sight of: the easiest and most effective way to change a person's attitude is to first change a person's behavior.
DOUG BUTCHER
When I found out a few years ago about the terrible air quality in cities, I knew I would eventually go electric. However, it was only when I had a drive in a friend's Leaf that I actually decided to take the plunge. That experience was in September 2019, and I am now the proud owner of a 2016 Leaf. The environment is still a consideration but I'm mostly looking forward to the savings in my pocket now.
MUNAVER
I would love to own an EV mainly for the environmental reason and would give it a 10 out of 10 as the main reason to purchase one. Unfortunately I live in Australia where we have a limited range of cars available and no government support.
PETER MOONEY
I brought my EV for environmental reasons mostly. Specifically air quality. Running costs were a close second but I doubt I would have bothered changing it if I didn’t care about the toxic diesel fumes.
JOHN HARCOMBE
For me enviroment low 1 out of 10, I just wanted new tech of ev. My wife wanted mini, so when ev mini announced on your show we were both onboard and straight into dealer to put order in. Due April 2020.
STUART JACKSON
My decision to move to an EV is entirely motivated by environmental considerations. I use my car a lot for work and feel very guilty about the environmental damage (locally and globally) that it causes.
JIM BAXTER
Great show, for the question I would say 10 - the biggest reason I have an Hyundai Ioniq ev lease on order is the environmental issue. I already have a hybrid and because it is easy and fun to drive, I was going to replace it with a hybrid plug-in but 6 months ago I decided to choose an ev for the environment.
MARK GARNETT
Environmental reasons Was absolutely not my reason for going EV, so that’s a “one”. However my awareness and interest in environmental issues is now right up there.
ASEER
I do high mileage and feel that switching to EV does mean my emissions has an effect however I will say financially an EV for high mileage make more sense than any other solution and by reducing my toxic emissions helps too.
PHIL KEMP
I give that (in 2018) a 7; my wife reckons 8.
Other factors included:
- urgent need to replace aged ICE
- need for something more restful to drive in my declining years
- desire for something different; this is likely my last car buy
JOHN FRUHWIRTH
- Wanting my dream car - 60%
- Wanting the best car on the used car market for $100k Canadian - 30%
- Wanting it to be environmentally friendly - 10%
DARREN FINDLAY
9 out 10
Environmental impact of dino juiced propulsion was my primary reason for going EV – I also went veggie at the same time (2 years ago). That said, I love the tech too.
TOM RAFTERY
In my case, it was very definitely a 10. I moved to Spain in 2008 and needed to buy a new car. At the time my filter for cars was emissions. The best option available (with a young famil...