31 Mar 2019 | BMW i3 Successor To Be Cheaper, More Used EVs Going Up In Value and Apple Take Tesla’s Engineering Head
Update On The Mini Electric From Peter Glass | German City Of Stuttgart Bans Older Diesel Vehicles From April 1 | New Top Gear Magazine Out Now: Electric Special | Bmw i3 Successor Set To Be Much Cheaper | These Used Electric Cars Are Increasing In Value | Largest Tesla Battery Storage Installation In Asia For Japanese Railway | New York City Ordered 15 New Flyer Xcelsior Charge Electric Buses | Apple Hires Tesla’s Head Of Electric Powertrains In Effort To Bring Electric Car To Market
Show #431
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Sunday 31st March 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 MIA OPPELSTRUP who sent me a note to say she’s happy to be an EXECUTIVE PRODUCER of the podcast.
HOUSEKEEPING – UPDATE ON THE MINI ELECTRIC FROM PETER GLASS
- “I can assure everyone the Mini EV will be built in Cowley. Our EV group booked a tour for 15 of us last week to go around the BMW Mini Oxford plant. It's quite amazing in particular the first construction hall welding the steel pressings together called "Body In White", making 3 body shell types. This is a £500million recent investment with over a thousand £150k robots [work that out] and it's clearly going nowhere soon. The philosophy there is 'cell manufacture' not linear production line [final assembly is done in long lines] with separate cages of clusters of robots. While we weren't allowed anywhere near it, they were building the construction cells for the variation required in the Mini Cooper body, mainly the floorplate, to hold the batteries in a "T" under the back seat and former transmission tunnel.”
GERMAN CITY OF STUTTGART BANS OLDER DIESEL VEHICLES FROM APRIL 1
- "A ban on older diesel vehicles in the German city of Stuttgart will take effect on April 1 and will include car owners who live in the city, the city said on Thursday, following a local court ruling last year." Reports Reuters this week. "The city said it would ban vehicles with engines conforming to the Euro 4 emissions standard from driving or parking in the city unless they are given an exception. Vehicles with engines conforming to the Euro 5 emissions standard will not be affected at the moment but a decision on whether to ban will be made after examining emissions results in mid-2019, the city said."
- As Kyle Hyatt points out though, Euro standards mean little to those listeners I have in the U.S.: "Essentially the Euro 4 ban encompasses all diesel passenger cars registered from December of 2010 and earlier. Euro 5a began in January of 2011 and Euro 5b ended in December of 2013."
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/stuttgart-germany-diesel-car-ban-april-1/
NEW TOP GEAR MAGAZINE OUT NOW: ELECTRIC SPECIAL
- "Electric cars are no longer the ‘future of motoring’ – they’re already part of the mainstream. And what better way to prove that than with a features run solely devoted to the EV. So, in this month’s Top Gear magazine - out now - we take an in-depth look at two cars trying to make battery power cool. At one end of the spectrum there’s the retro-looking Honda E Prototype – a little city car with boxy styling and six screens in its interior. Then there’s the Pininfarina Battista. A 1,900bhp electric hypercar from the famous Italian design house, and further proof that speed-freaks will be catered for in the EV world. We also ask our man Paul Horrell to answer four of the biggest questions surrounding ownership of electric cars. How green are they really? Where will all of the electricity come from? Can I have one if I live in a flat? Find out the answers in the new issue."
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/electric/new-top-gear-magazine-out-now-electric-special
BMW i3 SUCCESSOR SET TO BE MUCH CHEAPER
- "Aside from being BMW's first all-electric model, the i3 was special due to its carbon fiber construction something usually associated with high dollar sports cars not small city carse. Building the i3 with so much carbon fiber seemed like a great idea for weight saving but it caused production issues for BMW early in the car's life cycle. Carbon fiber is also expensive to produce, which contributes to the i3's high price." Reports CarBuzz.com: "If BMW does build a second generation, it will likely rely on more conventional lightweight materials like steel and aluminum. We know BMW plans to release 12 new electric models by 2025, so it will be interesting to see if a next-generation i3 makes the cut. Manager Magazine says BMW could use the 'i2' name, likely signifying that it will be cheaper than the current i3. The i2 could arrive in 2024 with a starting price of around 30,000 euros (approximately $33,821)."
https://carbuzz.com/news/bmw-i3-successor-set-to-be-much-cheaper
THESE USED ELECTRIC CARS ARE INCREASING IN VALUE
- As electric cars begin to become more and more prominent in the automotive world, the demand for small electric cars on the used market is increasing." Reports Dominik Wilde for Motor1.com UK: "Some models are even increasing in value according to the experts at automotive data company cap hpi, which says that some owners could even buy an electric car, run it for 12 months and still sell it on for a profit."
- Top 3 - Nissan Leaf, Renault ZOE and Mitsubishi I-MIEV
https://uk.motor1.com/news/315464/secondhand-evs-increasing-in-value/
LARGEST TESLA BATTERY STORAGE INSTALLATION IN ASIA FOR JAPANESE RAILWAY
- "Tesla has completed its largest battery storage installation in Asia in Osaka, Japan. The 4.2 MW / 7 MWh facility uses 42 Tesla Powerpack battery storage units, which were installed in just 2 days following their arrival onsite." Says CleanTechnica today: "The customer is Kintetsu Railway, whose electrified trains operate on 500 km (311 miles) of track. Many of those tracks pass through tunnels which can hamper rescue efforts if there is a power outage. The Tesla batteries can provide enough electricity for stranded trains to operate for up to 30 minutes — enough for them to exit those tunnels and perhaps reach the nearest station, according to ArsTechnica."
- "A report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance dated March 27 says, “the benchmark levelized cost of electricity for lithium-ion batteries has fallen 35% to $187 per megawatt-hour since the first half of 2018.” BNEF analyst Elena Giannakopoulou adds this insight: “Looking back over this decade, there have been staggering improvements in the cost-competitiveness of these low-carbon options, thanks to technology innovation, economies of scale, stiff price competition and manufacturing experience.”"
NEW YORK CITY ORDERED 15 NEW FLYER XCELSIOR CHARGE ELECTRIC BUSES
- com says "The New York City Transit will expand its electric bus fleet by 15 low floor 60-foot Xcelsior CHARGE from New Flyer. The latest order – the biggest for articulated Xcelsior CHARGE buses so far – includes also 16 150 kW Siemens DC fast chargers. The New Flyer’s buses are powered by XALT Energy batteries."
- "“The order supports NYCT’s efforts to develop a cleaner, greener public transportation footprint, which focuses on building greater environmental sustainability, reducing emissions, and modernizing the MTA’s bus fleet. Each bus will leverage New Flyer’s CONNECT 360™ business analytics and reporting tool to optimize performance and operations.” “The 60-foot New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE™ buses feature long-range, heavy-duty lithium-ion batteries. New Flyer batteries are designed specifically for rigorous 24/7/365 transit demands of New York City, utilizing American-based battery technology and American-based manufacturing supplied by XALT Energy. The award includes New Flyer providing sixteen (16) Siemens 150 kW direct current interoperable chargers with installation, testing and commissioning to be performed by the recently announced New Flyer Infrastructure Solutions™.”"
- In the comments section, Dim says: "This is good news, as each electric bus will displace at least as much oil as 30 electric cars. So even such a small order of 15 electric buses, will have the same effect as 450 electric cars. When a single city like Shenzhen switched to using 16,000 electric buses, this displaced the same oil as 480,000 electric cars (or almost 5 years worth of Tesla’s production at 2017 levels and 140% of Tesla’s production at 2018 levels). Focusing political pressure on switching our cities to electric buses, will have really significant results"
https://insideevs.com/new-york-city-new-flyer-xcelsior-electric-buses/
APPLE HIRES TESLA’S HEAD OF ELECTRIC POWERTRAINS IN EFFORT TO BRING ELECTRIC CAR TO MARKET
- "Earlier this month, we reported on Tesla losing its VP of Engineering behind its latest electric powertrains; Michael Schwekutsch. We described his departure from Tesla as a big loss for the company since he is amongst the most experienced engineers who have brought electric powertrain programs to market, not just at Tesla, but in the industry as a whole." Says Fred at Electrek: "Now Electrek learns from separate sources that he joined Apple’s Special Project Group, which includes the Cupertino company’s Project Titan division. He is the latest of several top Tesla engineers to join the project, which was for a time thought to only consist of a self-driving system for vehicles after a scale-back of the plan. Now that Schwekutsch, who has exclusively worked on electric powertrains over the last decade, has joined Apple, it is becoming clear that the company plans to bring a complete electric vehicle to market."
https://electrek.co/2019/03/30/apple-car-tesla-electric-powertrain/
QUSTION OF THE WEEK ANSWERS
Emails then…
Neil 3 days ago
Re question of the week.
I currently drive a Toyota hybrid and I am currently looking at buying an EV so this is a question I have been thinking about. Generally I keep a car for between 4 to 8 years depending on how it holds up (I drive 25k a year I did put 200k miles on an ICE car with only routine servicing). I decided to estimate the cost of ownership over 4 years. For instance going from my previous car to my hybrid saves me £600 a year. A rough guess going to an EV that could do 3 miles per kWhr would save £1500 a year assuming petrol prices stay constant. That is £6k there. Then there is reduced servicing (Teslas announcement this week caught my attention), reduced road tax, etc. The number gets large quickly.
Ashley Hill 3 days ago
QOTW: I can't give a perceived value here; as since researching into effects of breathing car exhaust and other pollution; I can't justify purchasing any other vehicle but full EV, because "I care about the air your breath" (think i might put that on a bumper sticker...)
Zoltán Kárpát 3 days ago (edited)
EVs don't cost more than ICE cars. At least the cost of ownership is massively subsidized for gas cars. In 2018 it's estimated that in the US, big oil and big car got 1 trillion dollars in subsidies (800 billion in 2017) ... that's roughly a 4000USD/vehicle subsidy in just one year. In the meanwhile EV makers get about 5000USD/car in ZEV credits and buyers get 10000USD max, only once, for the life of the car. Long story short, if we eliminated all subsidies, then purchase price of EVs would be slightly lower than gas cars, but gas would be at least 4x more expensive than it is now.
Arnis 5 days ago
I will pay 5 years of fuel(minus electricity bill). 2000€ per year. Sooo... 10 000€ max premium is acceptable.
COMMUNITY
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EVs are connected cars, but how much do you think we should value convenience vs privacy?
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