15 May 2019 | Electrify America Opens Superfast Charger, Audi Goes After Tesla Supercharging Speeds and Loads Of Battery News
One Year Into Electrify America | Porsche Taycan's Interior Seen For The First Time In Spy Photos | Audi Networks With Traffic Lights In Europe | SK Innovation To Invest $490 Mln In 2nd Chinese Car Battery Plant | Scania To Purchase Batteries From Northvolt | Volvo Taps Asia's LG Chem, CATL For Long-Term Battery Supplies | Audi Goes After Tesla Supercharger V3: ‘Sustained Power Beats Top Power’
Show #472
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Wednesday 15th May 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I’ve been through every EV story I could find today 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.
ONE YEAR INTO ELECTRIFY AMERICA
- There's a great, long-read CNBC article all about Electrify America which I recommend today. "Almost a year to the day after opening its first charging station, Electrify America says it is rolling out the country's fastest-growing network of fast chargers. Funded by $2 billion from Volkswagen's 2016 diesel emissions settlement, it has a goal of building hundreds of stations and putting nearly 2,000 chargers in place by the end of this year." says CNBC: "Setting up a nationwide infrastructure is the next big challenge, according to many analysts. An August study by McKinsey & Co. projected it will cost as much as $50 billion to ensure public charging stations are as easily accessible as gas stations in three key markets — the U.S., Europe and China. The U.S. alone is expected to require an investment of as much as $11 billion, McKinsey estimated."
- But why replicate the gas station model? Shouldn't we charge at home and work?
- "Electrify America's new Level 3 systems will almost all provide a minimum of 150 kilowatts at 400 volts and many will push even further, taking that up to 250 kW and 800 volts. That's far more than most of the current crop of electric cars can handle. The new Porsche Taycan will be the first to be able to make full use of the technology, which can add about 20 miles of range per minute.To make things easier and speed up the charging process, Electrify America this week is rolling out a new smartphone app that can be used to locate its charging stations and see how long it will take for someone already hooked up to finish charging."
PORSCHE TAYCAN'S INTERIOR SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SPY PHOTOS
- "In these two spy images taken from the Taycan Forum, you can see that the cabin of the first all-electric Porsche is almost the same as what the Mission E concept had in its debut three years ago." says Motor1.com today: "The resemblance starts at the dashboard layout, which is crowned by a horizontal digital display that flanks across the dashboard. Moreover, the touchscreen control panel by the center console has been carried over from the concept."
https://www.motor1.com/news/349137/porsche-taycan-interior-spy-shots/
AUDI NETWORKS WITH TRAFFIC LIGHTS IN EUROPE
- Audi is introducing the vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) service “Traffic Light Information” to Europe. From July Audi will network new models with the traffic lights in Ingolstadt/Germany; further European cities will follow from 2020 onwards. Then cars will be more likely to catch a “green wave” in the city: Audi drivers will see in the cockpit what speed is required to reach the next traffic light on green. If that is not possible within the permitted speed limit, there will be a countdown to the next green phase. Driving in cities will thus become more relaxed and efficient. In the USA, Audi customers have already been using this service since late 2016. Audi is the first manufacturer worldwide to network its series-production models with traffic lights in cities.
- In the USA, Audi customers have been using the “Time-to-Green” function for two years: if the driver will reach the lights on red, a countdown in the Audi virtual cockpit or head-up display counts the seconds to the next green phase. This service is now available at more than 5,000 intersections in the USA, for example in cities including Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland and Washington D.C. In the US capital alone, about 1,000 intersections are linked to the Traffic Light Information function.
- Since February Audi has offered a further function in North America. The purpose of this is especially to enable driving on the “green wave”. “Green Light Optimized Speed Advisory” (GLOSA) shows to the driver in the ideal speed for reaching the next traffic light on green.
- Audi etron will get this function.
SK INNOVATION TO INVEST $490 MLN IN 2ND CHINESE CAR BATTERY PLANT
- "South Korea’s SK Innovation said on Wednesday that it plans to invest 579.9 billion won ($488.30 million) to build its second China factory for electric vehicle batteries, in a bet that China will open up its market to Korean battery makers." reports Reuters today: "The latecomer to the battery market is aggressively expanding its production capacity globally, starting to build new factories in Hungary, China and the United States since last year with a total investment of 5 trillion won. SK Innovation said its second China factory aims to meet rising orders for EV batteries globally, without elaborating on its Chinese partner, the site and capacity of the proposed plant."
SCANIA TO PURCHASE BATTERIES FROM NORTHVOLT
- "Scania, the Swedish truck and bus manufacturer (part of Volkswagen Group), signed a battery supply deal with Northvolt, according to what Chief Executive Henrik Henriksson told Reuters." according to InsideEVs today: "Northvolt, founded by former Tesla executive Peter Carlsson, plans to build a battery gigafactory in Skellefteå in Sweden, which will cost some €3 billion ($3.36 billion). The first step will be raising €1.5 billion ($1.68 billion) split equally between debt and equity. There is also the potential for a second factory in Germany.
- According to the article, Scania (and many other known companies) is in talks with Northvolt about equity investment. Northvolt already raised €80-100 million. The list of investors includes Scania, ABB, Vestas, Vattenfall, Siemens and BMW. Various customers are currently in talks about the volume of batteries: Atlas Copco, Husqvarna, Vestas, Volvo Cars, Jaguar Land Rover, Daimler, BMW."
VOLVO TAPS ASIA'S LG CHEM, CATL FOR LONG-TERM BATTERY SUPPLIES
- "Swedish carmaker Volvo said on Wednesday it had signed long-term battery supply deals with Asian firms LG Chem and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), as it pushes its EV target of 50 percent of sales by 2025." as reported by the New York Times: "The agreements follow a series of pacts between Asia-based battery companies and global carmakers, who are planning a $300 billion (232 billion pounds) surge in spending on electric vehicle (EV) technology over the decade."
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/05/15/business/15reuters-lg-chem-volvo.html
AUDI GOES AFTER TESLA SUPERCHARGER V3: ‘SUSTAINED POWER BEATS TOP POWER’
- "With the launch of Supercharger V3, Tesla pushed the industry to higher charge rates, but Audi argues that it doesn’t mean much if they can’t sustain it for a decent period of time. Charging speed is seen as one of the main features that need to be improved in order to facilitate the widespread adoption of electric vehicles." writes Fred at Electrek: "When combining its new Supercharger V3 and the Model 3, Tesla pushed the charge rate to 250 kW, which is a new high for electric vehicles currently in production. Audi’s e-tron is able to maintain a 140 kW+ charge rate until a much higher state of charge. The German automaker claims that it is able to do this due to its battery cooling technology and its bigger than average energy buffer. The e-tron has a 95 kWh battery pack, but the pack has an 8% reserve at the bottom and 4% at the top."
https://electrek.co/2019/05/15/audi-vs-tesla-supercharger-v3/
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