22 Nov 2018 | Hyundai Turns Up Kona EV Production, Chinese Claim Solid State Battery Success and The Hidden Subsidies In Oil Industry

Hyundai Turns Up Kona EV Production | 2020 Kia Soul Shown In Profile Ahead Of L.A. Auto Show | China Kicks Off Production Of Solid-State Batteries | Tesla Partners With Car Auction Firms To Sell More Used Cars, Report Says | Schaeffler Enable Audi's Legendary Quatrro On The Etron | British Columbia Plans To End Non-Electric Car Sales By 2040 | Recap On VW Plans | More On Big Oil Vs EV Subisides

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Thursday 22nd November 2018. It’s Martyn Lee here and I’ve been through EV story today so you don’t have to.

 

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.

 

HYUNDAI TURNS UP KONA PRODUCTION

• Here in the UK the Kona recently underwent an overnight ~10% surprise price increase, and took some flak online for it. Did they under-price it originally? Is this them trying to make a profit on each one? Is it just the market because demand is high and the waiting list is 11 months.
• Earlier this year we heard from our Norwegian listeners who has placed their money down, and again there it was a case of demand outstripping supply.
• Now we hear that last month production was increased and 4,600 Kona EVs were made, with the split around 50/50 for how many stayed in the domestic market of South Korea and half going for export.
• A friend of mine with knowledge of this has previously told me the long range 64kWh model is far more popular and that's the one Hyundai are now increasing for production.
• 4,000 to 5,000 a month puts them in the 50k to 60k per year territory and in any other world apart from one where the Model 3 has probably done 125,000 already and has a target of 7,000 per week, that would be impressive.

 

2020 KIA SOUL SHOWN IN PROFILE AHEAD OF L.A. AUTO SHOW

• "A week after showing just a hint of the 2020 Kia Soul, Kia has shown a shocking amount of the compact hatchback in another teaser. It reveals almost the entire profile of the Soul, and a few other teasers give us a peek at the interior. Overall, it's right between evolution and revolution of the current model." according to Autoblog today: "On the evolution side, the Soul retains is funky box shape and many of its most recognizable design cues. The window line at the back kicks up to form the car's distinct triangular D-pillar. Also, as we've seen in spy shots, the electric model could have a range of over 200 miles, with the battery being the same as that in the standard range Kia eNiro of 39.2kWh"

 

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/21/2020-kia-soul-la-auto-show/#slide-7471466

 

CHINA KICKS OFF PRODUCTION OF SOLID-STATE BATTERIES

• I am fascinated by solid state batteries because the technology has so much potential and yet the major players from Elon Musk to Panasonic say that nobody has cracked the way to commercialise them.
• "The Chinese start-up Qing Tao (Kunshan) Energy Development Co. Ltd launched its first production line of solid-state battery cells in the city of Kunshan, east China’s Jiangsu Province." reports Mark over at InsideEVs: "Through the investment of 1 billion yuan ($144 million) the company has developed a production line good for 0.1 GWh (100 MWh) of cells annually, which is about 1,000 100 kWh packs. It’s not enough for the automotive industry, so the first cells will be utilized on “special equipment and high-end digital products”.
• I have no way of verifying these claims or that the technology even exists. It would seem strange for a small Chinese company to have done what all the major cell manufacturers say can't be done.
• Of course Fisker is the one car maker promising solid state batteries from 2020 so there much be something which is working today, and being crash tested, and being stress tested for charging etc. Toyota say they'll make full electric vehicles with solid state batteries but have also put a much longer time frame for the technology to make it's way from the lab to the road.

 

https://insideevs.com/china-kicks-off-production-of-solid-state-batteries/

 

TESLA PARTNERS WITH CAR AUCTION FIRMS TO SELL MORE USED CARS, REPORT SAYS

• Next up and an Electrek report on what to do with used Tesla's, well the answer is to get them turned around and sold.
• "According to a new report from CNBC, Tesla is now working with Manheim and Adesa KAR to sell larger volumes of vehicles through wholesale customers"
• “To manage a growing used car business, Tesla is relying on outside firms, including Manheim and Adesa KAR, according to two people familiar with the situation. These businesses help move and manage used cars, putting them through inspections, reconditioning and sales to wholesale customers.”"
• "Tesla is currently receiving a big influx of vehicles as more 3-year leases are ending. The automaker is now handling an increasing number of used cars and it outlined in its latest earnings that it expects its used car business to grow significantly. When a lease ends or an owner upgrades, Tesla generally takes back the vehicle, refurbishes it, and puts it back for sale in its inventory."
• I've looked at buying a used TEsla, a CPO car in the UK, and last time I checked they were still using catalogue photos or stock images, not those of the actual cars. Mind you that was at a time when Tesla would fix any cosmetic damage, their used cars were as good as news. Now they check them mechanically but all that cosmetic tarting up had to stop as there were so many cars.

 

https://electrek.co/2018/11/19/tesla-partners-car-auction-firms-sell-used-cars/

 

SCHAEFFLER ENABLE AUDI'S LEGENDARY QUATRRO ON THE ETRON

• Schaeffler has begun volume production of transmissions for the electric drive in the Audi e-tron. The transmission is available in both parallel axis and coaxial versions and offers a high input torque with low design envelope requirements. Both variants are fitted in the new Audi e-tron.
• The coaxial variant provides a comfortable rear-wheel drive and selection of the parallel axis variant on the front axle enables all-wheel drive. In combination with the electric all-wheel drive, the two electric machines provide impressive driving performance and agile handling.
• Jochen Schröder, Head of the E-Mobility business division at Schaeffler said: "“The two transmissions for Audi have been in volume production since August. For the future, we expect a production volume of up to 250,000 transmission units per year. Thanks to the modularity of our products, we can adapt the transmission for other applications.”

 

https://electriccarsreport.com/2018/11/schaeffler-begins-volume-production-of-transmissions-for-the-electric-drive-in-the-audi-e-tron/

 

BRITISH COLUMBIA PLANS TO END NON-ELECTRIC CAR SALES BY 2040

• " British Columbia's premier said on Tuesday his government will introduce legislation next year that will require all new light-duty cars and trucks sold in the province by 2040 to be electric or zero-emission vehicles." according to a new Reuters report today: "Premier John Horgan said the province will phase in the sales targets, which apply only to new vehicles. They would start at 10 percent by 2025, rising to 30 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2040. Electric vehicle sales are booming in Canada, more than doubling in the second quarter of 2018 compared with the same period of 2017, according to clean-tech data firm FleetCarma. But demand is still far lower than for conventional vehicles. Tesla's Model 3 is the most popular electric car in Canada, followed by Nissan's Leaf and General Motors' Chevy Bolt."

 

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/21/british-columbia-zero-emissions-vehicles-evs/

 

RECAP ON VW PLANS

• With the “Roadmap E” Volkswagen AG is consistently promoting e-mobility. By 2025, up to a quarter of its turnover is to be produced by battery-driven vehicles alone. With the Modular Electric Drive System (MEB) and the Premium Platform Electric (PPE), the Group is developing two new platforms specifically for e-cars, which form the technological basis for the future electric fleet. In addition, the company Ionity, co-founded by Volkswagen, is setting up a Europe-wide network of fast-charging stations for e-cars along the motorways. 400 stations are to be built throughout Europe by 2020.
• In the next five years, it will invest nearly 44 billion Euros in future topics such as electric mobility, autonomous driving, new mobility services and digitalization. This corresponds to around a third of its total investments in the planning period between 2019 and 2023.
• "We want to take e-mobility out of its niche and make the e-car affordable for millions of people. This is based on large scale and efficient production," says Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen Brand responsible for e-mobility. For this reason, the German location will be decisively expanded - above all the Zwickau plant with an annual production capacity of 330,000 electric cars. In the future, electric small cars and sedans from several brands will be assembled in Emden, while the Hanover plant will focus on ID. BUZZ family alongside conventionally driven vehicles. Sales of 150,000 e-automobiles are planned for 2020, and by 2025 this figure is expected to rise to more than one million worldwide.

 

MORE ON BIG OIL VS EV SUBISIDES

• Bloomberg has taken a view on Big Oil lobbying for no more EV subsidies: “Addressing climate change means encouraging a switch away from emitting vast quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in order to power our societies. Leaving aside the unfortunate desire of certain parties to ignore or obfuscate the scienceframing that threat, the central question is how to encourage that switch most efficiently. In general, handing out regressive subsidies based on the government elevating this or that technology, while perhaps politically more doable, doesn’t meet that objective.”
• A far-more efficient method is to put a price on the stuff you want less of and then let capitalism do its thing, pushing consumption away from the undesirables and investment toward innovative alternatives. Indeed, all these letters demand government officials stand back and let the market do its thing — except their version of the market leaves out one essential element. 
• Greenhouse gases and the threat they pose are everyone’s problem, but the individual generating them at any given moment doesn’t pay toward dealing with that. Dump your garbage on your neighbor’s lawn and you’ll wind up paying to have it removed and probably a fine, too. Release 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by burning a gallon of gasoline, and it’s a freebie. This is an enormous effective subsidy for fossil fuels and makes a mockery of market piety”

 

• I highly recommend you read the full article here:

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-11-19/big-oil-vs-electric-cars-carbon-tax-would-level-playing-field

 

 

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And thanks to MYEV.com they’ve set us another Question Of The Week. Keep your comments coming in on email and YouTube…

 

Since most dealers today are not well educated in EVs and don't carry enough inventory, what would you choose: going to a dealer or using a service where an EV of your choice would be brought over to you for a test drive and you will be educated to make an informed decision, but…for a fee?

 

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