21 Sep 2019 | Amazon Orders 100,000 Rivian Vans, Chinese EV Apporved For European Sales and Tesla Sued By Car Dealers
Amazon To Deliver With 100,000 EV Trucks From Rivian | Chinese Electric Vehicle Aiways U5 Approved For The Eu | 2020 Karma Revero Gt Gets Pedestrian Noisemaker | FAW-Volkswagen’s Chinese Factory Could Soon Make The E-Tron | Tesla Gets Sued By Car Dealers Afraid To Compete With Them
Show #587
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Saturday 21st September 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story to save you time.
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AMAZON TO DELIVER WITH 100,000 EV TRUCKS FROM RIVIAN
Firstly from the press release: "By joining The Climate Pledge and agreeing to decarbonize on a faster time horizon, signatories will play a critical role in stimulating investment in the development of low carbon products and services that will be required to help companies meet the pledge. Amazon’s previously announced investment in Rivian is an example of this. Rivian is a producer of emissions-free electric vehicles with its headquarters in Plymouth, Michigan and a manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois. The $440 million investment will accelerate the production of electric vehicles critical to reducing emissions from transportation. To further advance this goal, Amazon today announced the order of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian, the largest order ever of electric delivery vehicles, with vans starting to deliver packages to customers in 2021. Amazon plans to have 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road as early as 2022 and all 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2030 – saving 4 million metric tons of carbon per year by 2030."
TechCrunch: "Rivian noted that this was the largest order to date of any electric delivery vehicles, and that they’d begin actually deploying for Amazon starting in 2021. Amazon led a $700 million investment round in Rivian in February, and the company announced a further $350 million from auto industry giant Cox Automotive earlier this month. Automaker Ford revealed a $500 million investment in Rivian in April, too."
Wired.com: "Let’s put Amazon’s order for 100,000 electric delivery vans by 2030 into perspective. Today, FedEx uses 85,000 “motorized vehicles” to deliver packages around the world. UPS has around 123,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles, including about 10,000 the company says use “alternative fuel and advanced technology.” One hundred thousand delivery vans? That’s a lot. The purchase might also broaden lawmakers' and policymakers’ ideas about what’s possible: If Amazon believes it can electrify a huge slice of its fleet quickly, why not push others to do the same?"
https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-all-electric-future-fleet-vehicles/
The Los Angeles Times: "Amazon ships 10 billion items to consumers around the world each year using fossil-fuel-burning planes, trucks and other vehicles. The company also has hundreds of distribution and fulfillment centers — including several in Southern California — along with a network of data centers, including those used by Amazon Web Services, or AWS, a “cloud” provider of data storage, web hosting and other computer services to businesses."
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-09-19/amazon-climate-change
Ars Technica kicks off with a Jezz Bezos quote: ""The first electric delivery vans will go on the road in 2021," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos at an event in Washington DC. "The 100,000 will be completely deployed by 2024, let's say." Amazon's press release on the initiative offers a different timeline, saying the company is aiming to have 10,000 vehicles on the road by 2022 and all 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2030—six years later than the date Bezos gave. We've asked Amazon to explain this discrepancy and will update if we hear back."
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/09/amazon-orders-100000-electric-trucks-to-fight-climate-change/
CHINESE ELECTRIC VEHICLE AIWAYS U5 APPROVED FOR THE EU
TUV Rheinland has presented the Chinese vehicle manufacturer Aiways with the certificate for the EU-wide type approval of the Aiways U5 electric vehicle. For the type approval, TUV Rheinland tested the model in accordance with the requirements of the valid European Framework Directive for Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA). The Aiways U5 is a sports utility vehicle (SUV) and, according to the manufacturer, stands out due to its long range, among other things. The WVTA certification makes it the first electric vehicle from a Chinese manufacturer that can be sold in the European Union. The approval marks Aiways' official entry into the European market. For the presentation in Frankfurt, two vehicles of the Aiways U5 had driven more than 15,000 kilometers from the Chinese Xi'an via Russia, the Baltic States, Scandinavia, Denmark, the Benelux countries and France.
The EU type approval is mandatory for all vehicles, vehicle parts and systems sold in the European Union. The certification covers aspects such as vehicle safety, environmental protection and emission values.
The ai-ways.eu website isn't written in the best English, it's either a translation from Chinese or perhaps German, where they seem to have a European registration for their website - for example: "Abandon the wrong idea that “the vehicle is designed for a person”. Shift the focus of design from a person to a family. The concern in design is how to make all family members comfortable, including the aged and the children." and when describing their interior: "Provide comfort from each direction. Feel soft and look nice"
From Automotive News Europe back in February: "Aiways is targeting "most of Europe" with the U5 but will not rely on a dealer network it said, without giving more details. No pricing or market information for European models were given ahead of the Geneva unveil. The car will not be available in right-hand drive for the UK market. If sales go ahead in Europe by the end of the year as planned, Aiways would be ahead of Chinese rivals to bring an electric car to market. Lynk & CO, owned by Geely, plans an electric car but will not launch the brand in Europe until 2020. Aiways was founded in 2016 by the former chief financial officer of Chinese automotive giant SAIC Group, Gu Feng. The company's chief product officer is Roland Gumpert, the founder of sports car company Apollo Automobile and a former head of Audi Sport."
Their twitter account was abandoned on May 15 and now appears to be dormant. Questions like the Euro NCAP safety test will need to be answered. As will customer support.
https://europe.autonews.com/geneva-auto-show/china-ev-startup-aiways-will-launch-suv-europe
2020 KARMA REVERO GT GETS PEDESTRIAN NOISEMAKER
"Since the 2020 Revero GT’s internal combustion engine only acts as a range extender, it doesn’t exactly provide Karma’s electrified luxury car with the necessary noise it requires so as to alert pedestrians of its presence." says CarScoops: ""With that in mind, Karma joined forces with the ECCO Safety Group in order to come up with an audible warning technology that will help keep distracted pedestrians safe. According to Karma’s director of infotainment systems and connected car, Joe Durre, the Revero GT’s new sound can be described as a low-level, throaty-electric hum, similar to electronic audio tones heard in certain futuristic movies."
FAW-VOLKSWAGEN’S CHINESE FACTORY COULD SOON MAKE THE E-TRON
News from China that the Audi e-tron Sportback, Audi's debut pure EV, could kick off in early 2020 as a result of the joint venture FAW-Volkswagen, at their plant in Changchun. How any could we see per year? Some reports say 45,000 to 50,000 units is the target.
TESLA GETS SUED BY CAR DEALERS AFRAID TO COMPETE WITH THEM
"Tesla is still facing some direct sales bans in the US, and the saga seems to have no end. The company is now being sued by the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers who took them to court to try to avoid competing with Tesla." writes Fred at Electrek: "In 2015, New Jersey allowed Tesla to open four sales location in the state. The car dealers’ association believes that Tesla should have never been allowed to open those locations. Tesla also opened an additional location called “gallery” to showcase its products, and the association states in the complaint that they shouldn’t be able to operate this location"
Read the rest on Electrek: https://electrek.co/2019/09/20/tesla-sued-car-dealers-afraid-compete/
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