07 Apr 2019 | Mercedes Battery Factory, Tesla Event To Demo Autopilot Tech and Question Of The Week Answered
Mercedes-Benz Cars Lays Foundation For A Battery Factory At The Untertürkheim Site | VW Seals 10-Year Lithium Deal For Electric Cars | Elon Musk, Sec Told To Meet About Tesla Ceo’s Tweets | Tesla Model 3 Jumps To #1 In The Netherlands, Among All Cars | Toyota Offers To Share Electrified Tech With Rival Firms| Tesla Flexes Its Software Prowess In Latest Over-The-Air Update | Question Of The Week Answers
Show #436
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Sunday 7th April 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I’ve been through every EV story I could find today, and picked out the best ones 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.
Hello to new Patreon Producer supporter GAVIN HULME.
MERCEDES-BENZ CARS LAYS FOUNDATION FOR A BATTERY FACTORY AT THE UNTERTÜRKHEIM SITE
- "At the site of the Mercedes-Benz Untertürkheim plant in Germany, the construction of the battery factory at the Brühl sub-plant has begun with the symbolic foundation-laying ceremony. By the end of the decade, Mercedes-Benz Cars will produce high-efficiency traction batteries for future Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles of the EQ product and technology brand on 12,000 m2 in a newly erected and carbon-neutral battery factory at Brühl." says Green Car Congress: "The new battery factory is an important component in the global battery production network within the production network of Mercedes-Benz Cars comprising nine battery factories at seven locations on three continents. Mercedes-Benz Cars is investing more than one billion euros in a global battery production network within the worldwide Mercedes-Benz Cars production network. Local battery production will be a major success factor in the electric initiative of Mercedes-Benz Cars, and the crucial component when it comes to meeting the worldwide demand for electric vehicles flexibly and efficiently, the company said."
https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/04/20190405-mb.html
VW SEALS 10-YEAR LITHIUM DEAL FOR ELECTRIC CARS
- VW said yesterday it had secured 10 years worth of lithium for electric car batteries from Chinese manufcturer Ganfeng. "The two firms "signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on long-term lithium supplies for battery cells," VW said in a statement, although it did not reveal the financial terms of the deal. "Volkswagen is thus already securing a significant share of its lithium requirement," the Wolfsburg-based group added." says TheLocal.de: "With harsh EU emissions limits set to bite from next year and toughen further by 2030, the sprawling 12-brand company plans some 70 new electric models by 2028. As it emerges from the shadow of its painful "dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal, VW aims to sell around 22 million electric cars over the coming decade to escape fines from Brussels. Each smartphone battery contains three grammes of lithium, a laptop around 30 grammes and an electric car battery more than 20 kilogrammes"
https://www.thelocal.de/20190406/vw-seals-10-year-lithium-deal-for-electric-cars
ELON MUSK, SEC TOLD TO MEET ABOUT TESLA CEO’S TWEETS
- A federal judge in New York has ordered Bay Area-based Tesla CEO Elon Musk and U.S. securities regulators to meet for at least an hour to try and settle a dispute over Musk’s tweets. Judge Alison Nathan also told both sides Friday to send her a letter by April 18 saying whether they have reached a deal. If they don’t, Nathan will decide on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s motion to find Musk in contempt." reports CBS.
- com said: "The regulator weeks ago asked Nathan to hold Musk in contempt over a February tweet that misstated, and then clarified, a 2019 production forecast for Tesla vehicles. The agency argued that the tweets demonstrated that no one at Tesla was really keeping watch on Musk's communications as was mandated by a 2018 settlement with the agency. Musk's attorneys countered that the standard for what tweets must be reviewed wasn't clear enough to charge Musk with contempt. Jim Cramer said that he considers the hearing a "win" for Tesla, because he believes that the judge "punted."
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/04/05/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-sec-told-to-meet-about-tweets/
https://www.thestreet.com/video/cramer-elon-musk-court-date-win-tesla-14918413
TESLA MODEL 3 JUMPS TO #1 IN THE NETHERLANDS, AMONG ALL CARS
- "The Dutch plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market had another sales surge last month, with 4,721 plug-in registrations, up 252% year over year" according to CleanTechnica: "This good market performance was mainly due to the Tesla Model 3, which had 2,195 deliveries in March, a new record for any Tesla in the Netherlands, also allowing the Tesla sedan to last month’s best seller in the country, all fuel categories included, with an advantage of more than 1,000 units over the #2 Ford Focus (1,187 units)."
TOYOTA OFFERS TO SHARE ELECTRIFIED TECH WITH RIVAL FIRMS
- "Toyota will offer other car firms royalty-free use of nearly 24,000 patents it holds for electrified vehicle technology, in a bid to accelerate the development of such machines." says James Atwood for Autocar: "The royalty-free technology licences relate to systems including electric motors, power control systems and system controls. While the bulk have been developed for Toyota’s hybrid technology, the firm says they can also be applied to plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles. Toyota will also offer fee-based technical support to firms producing electrified vehicles that feature Toyota motors, batteries, power and electric control systems. It says the guidance will allow firms to “achieve high levels of vehicle performance.”
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/toyota-offers-share-electrified-tech-rival-firms
TESLA FLEXES ITS SOFTWARE PROWESS IN LATEST OVER-THE-AIR UPDATE
- "Earlier this week, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) announced another software update for its vehicles. The update, which brought Tesla vehicles a step closer to autonomous driving, highlighted how rapidly the automaker can deploy a significant new feature -- all through a seamless over-the-air update." reports Daniel Sparks for Motley Fool: "Based on another announcement from Tesla last week, there's apparently much more to come on this front. The company announced it is unveiling its in-house-developed full self-driving (FSD) computer at an event in Palo Alto, California, on April 22. At the event, Tesla executives will discuss the computer and give test-drives to experience features that are "under active development.""
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/04/06/tesla-flexes-its-software-prowess-in-latest-over-t.aspx
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
RAJEEV NARAYAN
With respect to the question of the week; I feel that I my data and location are already tracked in so many ways- my phone, Smart TV, CCTVs, credit card usage, such that the incremental risk of tracking my “smart” cars location/ driving habits is minimal, but the advantages in terms of allowing better software upgrades, etc... is greater than the risks.
Also this sort of tracking is already present in many ICE cars now - for example most GM cars here in the U.S. have Onstar which tracks your location if you pay for the service or not.
However for the vast majority of us, it’s totally irrelevant.
Who doesn’t have a smart phone? That gives away far more information to anyone who can get access to the data than a connected car ever will.
(I’m not going to lose sleep over it as I have nothing to hide. In fact it would be pretty boring if it was accessed AND identified by anyone. Most of this sort of data is normally totally de-identified.)
David Nye
Simon Clark
With reference to your question on connected cars and privacy, this matter came up about 12 months or so ago on LinkedIn with specific reference to GDPR. There wasn’t a clear cut answer, but it’s not just connected cars. Most modern cars record telemetry in their engine management system which is then downloaded when the car is serviced. Different cars record different things, but all of that data is ultimately available to the manufacturer. However you don’t need an EV to be connected. A number of cars, including my Peugeot 3008 are ‘online’ either directly or via my mobile phone.
JOSHUA PRITT
Privacy in connected cars? What about privacy on smartphones? If you have a smartphone already then you're not really giving up any more privacy than you already have. Only now both Google and the car company can track you. It is worth it though since you can track your car if it's stolen and automatically call for help in a crash. In fact I even pay a monthly fee for this to OnStar. Having the cameras inside will help figure out who messed up your car if you ever loan it out. You can always cover it up with tape or something if you're paranoid. Like those that cover their laptop camera with a sticker or tape. I myself am not bothered one bit. I even have an Amazon Echo in almost every room of my house so I can turn lights on and off and set the temperature from wherever I am.
ANDREW JACOBS
Connectivity to cars is great. There are so many advantages such as being ably to remotely control the car, over the air updates and mobile internet connectivity. However information collected by companies should always be in the control of the customer. They must be able to turn off or on ANY information that is sent, even if it sacrifices the functionality of the car.
JOHN FRUHWIRTH
The question of privacy versus convenience is old and stale.
That train has left the station. That ship has sailed, The jury is in.
In general, society only works when there is a certain level of trust. We have already voted in favour of convenience over privacy.
Here is my evidence:
We routinely hand over our ID for "security" checks.
We conduct business with credit cards, Transactions that can be tracked.
We allow pre-authorized payments from our bank accounts for our regular bills.
We share our intimate lives freely on social media.
etc.
I could go on, but I think you get the picture.
MIA OPPELSTRUP
For me, whether my EV is connected or not is not just a tradeoff between my own convenience or privacy, but also the greater good. If sharing my driving data helps make EVs the best self-driving cars, helps make them safer, or helps companies better plan charging networks based on where EV drivers actually travel, I'm all in. However I do believe that each person should have full control of their own data and EV drivers should have the ability to opt out of tracking, should they wish to do so.
Thanks kindly for all you do to support EVs. Congrats on being the #1 auto show in the UK! I'll continue to spread the word here in the US.
COMMUNITY
And thanks to MYEV.com they’ve set us another Question Of The Week. Keep your comments coming in on email and YouTube…
Would you buy a very high mileage EV?
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