18 Oct 2018 | Long Range LEAF Price Possibly Leaked, Tesla Secures Shanghai Land and Volkswagen Moves To Online Sales For EVs

Silent Mercedes-Benz A-Class Spied Possibly EQA Mule | 60-Kwh Nissan Leaf Price Possibly Revealed | Da Costa Tops Second Formula E Test Day For BMW | Tesla Secures Shanghai Site For Gigafactory | Elon Musk To Buy $20 Million Of Tesla Stock | DPD UK Opens Its First All-Electric Delivery Depot | NIO Reports Increased Deliveries Of Its Es8 EV | Volkswagen Digitalizes Sales For EVs | Workhorse Ngen-1000 Electric Delivery Van Enters Production | Teslas To Get New Self-Driving, Autopilot Chip In Spring 2019

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Thursday 18th October 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.

 

 

VW I.D.'S SPOTTED

• On Twitter Matthias Schmidt @auto_schmidt says: "In Wolfsburg today and spotted an electric Tiguan and Touran, presumably ID. test mules"

 

SILENT MERCEDES-BENZ A-CLASS SPIED, COULD BE EQA TEST MULE

• I'm loving how many EV stories are cropping up on Motor1.com, fast becoming my go-to website alongside InsideEVs.com: "what’s up with this camo-wrapped model wearing heavy coverings on the front end? Actually, we should draw your attention to the back, where there’s a curious absence of exhaust. We’re not just talking about telltale puffs of vapor, either. Looking close we can’t see any piping at all, which means this is likely an all-electric Merc. That assessment is further supported from description of this 4K spy video from walkoARTvideos on YouTube, which says the car was “quite silent” and emitted no visible exhaust."
• So I'll just say...EQA? However when the car pulls away from the lights after a few seconds I think it looks like it is shifting up from 1st to 2nd. But that doesn't make sense if it's an EV!

 

https://www.motor1.com/news/269650/silent-mercedes-spied-eqa-test-mule/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNAXbr0t2t4&feature=youtu.be&t=25

 

60-KWH NISSAN LEAF PRICE POSSIBLY REVEALED

• Talking InsideEVs, they seem to have uncovered some dealer documents and they've done some Sherlock Holmes-ing with the new larger battery LEAF: "When it debuts sometime next year, the upgraded 60-kWh version may well cost an additional $5,500, which would bring its starting price to $35,400 (excluding destination and handling charges, tax, title, license, and options)."
• The current MSRP in the US is $29,990 (excluding any charges and tax) which translates to £22,854. However on the Nissan website today here in the UK that price starts at £25,190 and I believe Nissan already take off £4,500 government grant.
• Again these are rough maths but an extra $5,500 is £4,200.
• So here's a question, for $35,000 do you go for this, or a very basic Model 3? When he unveiled the Model 3 the base model was promised to be $35k, have 220 miles of range, 5.6 secs 0-60 and 130mph top speed.
• As someone online said today: "If this article is accurate, 50% more range, active liquid cooling, no RapidGate issues, and 100+kW fast charging for only $5500 more is a WINNER!"

 

 

https://insideevs.com/60-kwh-nissan-leaf-price/

 

DA COSTA TOPS SECOND FORMULA E TEST DAY FOR BMW

• And finally a super quick update from Motorsport.com: "Da Costa claimed the honours for BMW for a second day in a row by setting the pace in the three-hour morning session with a 1m16.977s – the first lap below the 1m17s barrier so far in testing."

 

TESLA SECURES SHANGHAI SITE FOR $2 BILLION CHINA GIGAFACTORY

• "Tesla Inc has signed an agreement with the Shanghai government for an 860,000 square meter plot of land to build its first overseas Gigafactory, the electric carmaker said in a Chinese social media post on Wednesday." reports Reuters today: "The land agreement marks a key step toward the firm and its Chief Executive Elon Musk making cars locally in China for the fast-growing market, even as tariffs imposed by Beijing on U.S.-made goods have caused it to hike prices of its imported models."

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-china/tesla-secures-shanghai-site-for-2-billion-china-gigafactory-idUSKCN1MR151

 

ELON MUSK INTENDS TO BUY $20 MILLION OF TESLA STOCK

• "Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk told the electric car company that he plans to purchase $20 million of common stock during the next open trading window, according to a filing related to the CEO's settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission." says a CNBC article today.
• According to a new Tesla filing today: "Elon has notified Tesla that he intends to purchase from Tesla, and Tesla expects that it will issue and sell to Elon, $20 million of Tesla's common stock during the next open trading window at the then-current market price"

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/17/elon-musk-intends-to-buy-20-million-of-tesla-stock.html

 

DPD UK OPENS ITS FIRST ALL-ELECTRIC LAST-MILE DELIVERY DEPOT

• "DPD UK has opened its first all-electric last-mile delivery depot in Westminster, London today. The 5,000ft² Westminster site, which can handle 2,000 parcels per day, is the first of eight all-electric depots planned across the capital." which I say today in MotorTransport.co.uk: "It cost £500,000 to refurbish the facility, which included a new charging system for DPD’s fleet of electric vehicles based at the site. Three types of electric vehicle will be used at the site: Mitsubishi Fuso eCanters, Nissan eNV200s and Paxsters. Two 7.5-tonners eCanters, with 82kWh batteries capable of travelling up to 85 miles between each charge, will be used to trunk parcels to the depot each day from the London City depot. Final mile deliveries will carried out by seven Nissan eNV200 all-electric vans, capable of making 120 stops per day on one charge, as well as eight Norwegian-built Paxsters. The latter is a micro-vehicle with a 1cu m, 200kg load capacity and a 9.2kWh battery pack that will be used to deliver goods in the immediate vicinity of the depot. It is expected to operate 60 stops on one charge per day and DPD has a further 23 Paxsters on order."

 

https://motortransport.co.uk/blog/2018/10/17/dpd-opens-its-first-all-electric-last-mile-delivery-site/

 

NIO REPORTS INCREASED DELIVERIES OF ITS ES8 EV

• Carscoops say: "A month after Chinese electric startup Nio was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, the automaker has announced a significant increase in deliveries. The company revealed on Monday that in the third quarter of 2018, it delivered 3,268 examples of the ES8 SUV, slightly more than the 2,900-3,000 being targeted by Nio. According to the firm, this positive result means it remains on track to achieve a delivery goal of 10,000 ES8s for the second half of the year, Reuters reports."

 

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/10/nio-reports-increased-deliveries-es8-ev-one-month-ipo/

 

VOLKSWAGEN DIGITALIZES SALES FOR EVS

• "Volkswagen is making its sales organization fit for the future. The brand is to fundamentally realign its sales model together with its dealers. The new sales model is to be launched in Europe in April 2020. Today in Berlin, Volkswagen and the European Dealer Council presented their vision for the future world of Volkswagen’s 5,400 dealers and service partners as well as their 54,000 employees in Europe. The objective is to provide seamless individual round-the-clock support for customers going far beyond vehicle sales on the basis of a unique Volkswagen customer ID. Each year, the Volkswagen brand intends to introduce about 5 million customers to the new world of mobility around the globe and to offer them individual services on the basis of their ID. The car buying experience itself will also change. On-line sales are to be massively expanded and direct sales are to become possible. Five new sales and service formats such as city showrooms or pop-up stores are to be added."

 

https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/2018/10/volkswagen-digitalizes-sales-new-era-of-car-buying-to-start-in-2.html

 

WORKHORSE NGEN-1000 ELECTRIC DELIVERY VAN ENTERS PRODUCTION

• Workhorse Group announced that the Workhorse NGEN-1000, a new light-weight electric delivery van, has entered initial production.
• The NGEN-1000’s curb weight is 4,000lbs – less than one-half of what a traditional diesel step-van weighs – while carrying the same cubic footage of storage, 1,000 cubic feet.
• Management believes this weight reduction, coupled with the 100-mile (160 km) range, will have cost-savings implications that will make the EV alternative to traditional fleet delivery vehicles all the more appealing.

 

TESLAS TO GET NEW SELF-DRIVING, AUTOPILOT CHIP IN SPRING 2019

• Elon Musk took to Twitter Tuesday to announce that owners will get a new Autopilot chip in about six months that will be much more powerful and enable the company's long-awaited Full-Self Driving Mode. In a series of tweets, Musk said that owners who have prepaid for the Full Self-Driving Mode feature in their cars—which is still not operational—will get the new chip for free when it becomes available." according to Green Car Reports: "Other Tesla owners who want better performance for their car's Autopilot system—which is a combination of adaptive cruise control and active lane control—can buy the new chip for $5,000, along with the Full Self-Driving option."

 

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1119407_teslas-to-get-new-self-driving-autopilot-chip-in-spring-2019

 

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