29 September 2018 | Tesla On Target For Quarterly Goal, Honda Urban EV and Smart Forease Concept Goes Topless In France

Tesla On Target For Quarterly Goal | Model 3 #1 In Model And Manufacturer Rank, For The Month And For The Year | Tesla To Test Full Self Driving With Employees First | Honda Urban Ev - The Face Of An Emoji | "Brand Based Driving Pleasure" - What?! | Smart Forease Concept Goes Topless In France

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Saturday 29th September 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.

 

I’ll start off with the big one today and for better or worse, I’m going to leave it alone. Yes the SEC have initiated legal proceedings against Elon Musk so that now becomes a matter for due process. And I’ll tell you why I don’t need to cover it even though it’s a prominent story. 1) For that reason it’s everywhere, check our Rob Maurer’s Podcast for a pragmatic take on it 2) everyone is an armchair expert suddenly at corporate governance! and 3) I prefer to stay in my lane and politics to me are a sideshow from the main event of the cars, I’ve said before I’m a cheerleader for EV’s and me spending time speculating about something I’m not an expert in, well the internet has plenty of those people! My only comment I’ll allow myself, remember the influence and finance of the oil industry, and the vested interests Elon is disrupting with his plan for a better future, they spread deep and wide. These people won’t go down without trying everything they can, but you and I are on the right side of history. And that’s why I know we’ll win.

 

TESLA ON TARGET FOR QUARTERLEY GOAL

• Whenever I take a step back and think about it, Tesla is still a new car company on track to make 50,000 Model 3's in July, August and September. That would be 200,000 a year on top of 100,000 Model S and X's. On top of a Gigafactory making 20GWh of batteries per year, heading to 35GWh soon. It's massively impressive.
• Electrek report a reliable source with knowledge of the matter, this quarter MOdel 3 production just tipped over 51,000. If they keep up this current rate over the weekend they could hit 80,000 cars.

 

MODEL 3 #1 IN MODEL AND MANUFACTURER RANK, FOR THE MONTH AND FOR THE YEAR.

• InsideEV's now have all the August Plug In Numbers: "The best-selling model for the month is the Tesla Model 3 with record 18,300 (estimated). This massive figure enabled it to take the lead for the year too with 59,305 after eight months. No other model even came close to half of Model 3 sales. It means that the Nissan LEAF is now second best for the year with 56,773 sales (7,334 in August). The third is the Chinese BAIC EC-Series with 43,434 (including 3,028 in August), which is expected to accelerate later this year thanks to the release of a new version."

 

• Tesla: 25,793 (115,631 YTD)
• BYD: 20,846 (110,516 YTD)
• BAIC: 9,522 (78,549 YTD)

 

https://insideevs.com/global-august-sales-tesla-model-3-lead/amp/

 

TESLA TO TEST FULL SELF DRIVING WITH EMPLOYEES FIRST

• "Elon Musk has asked for Tesla employees to test what the company has billed as full self-driving capability and is dangling $13,000 in savings to entice them to help" writes Dana Hull for Bloomberg: "Musk wrote in an email obtained by Bloomberg News that Tesla needed about 100 more employees to join an internal testing program linked to rolling out the full self-driving capability. Any worker who buys a Tesla and agrees to share 300 to 400 hours of driving feedback with the company’s Autopilot team by the end of next year won’t have to pay for full self-driving -- an $8,000 saving -- or for a premium interior, which normally costs $5,000, Musk wrote."

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-28/tesla-enlists-employees-to-be-full-self-driving-beta-testers

 

HONDA URBAN EV - THE FACE OF AN EMOJI

• When Honda showed off the Urban EV concept at Frankfurt 2017 and said they wanted to make it, i must admit my cynic gene kicked in, but they were serious. This is the city car full of personality and said to be a few months away.
• Motor 1 have mocked up what it could look like: "If the look of the concept is generally preserved, several elements have been retouched. Thus, our Urban EV forgets the two large suicide doors to adopt four doors opening in a more conventional day, and have flush handles. It also abandons the side cameras in favour of traditional mirrors, receives more conventional wheels and has a new shield incorporating a lower grid. In addition, it is content with a metal logo at the front (and no longer bright) and abandons the load indicators placed on the sidewalls. The two round headlights and the boss on the bonnet are still part of them."

 

https://uk.motor1.com/news/267730/illustration-honda-urban-ev-electric/

 

"BRAND BASED DRIVING PLEASURE" - WHAT?!

• "Storage capacity further increased, having now doubled since the market launch of the BMW i3 – Operating range for locally emissions-free mobility is increased to as much as 260 kilometres in everyday conditions without any loss of brand-based driving pleasure – Additional new features: sports package for the BMW i3, new colours for the exterior and interior."
• They go on to say: "BMW i is consolidating its position as an innovation leader and trendsetter in the field of pioneering electromobility"
• "Since the market launch of the BMW i3, the storage capacity of its high-voltage battery has been doubled, thereby increasing the car's range as well. At the same time as the introduction of the new battery, a new body finish, a new colour for the optional interior design Loft and adaptive LED headlights with matrix function for the high beam are also available for the BMW i3 and BMW i3s. In future, a sports package will be available for the BMW i3 that includes black wheel arch surrounds and a sports suspension with specific dampers, springs and stabilisers, lowered suspension, a widened track and 20-inch light alloy wheels."

 

SMART FOREASE CONCEPT GOES TOPLESS IN FRANCE

• This year is the 20th anniversary of the Smart Car brand which these days is all electric and soon be to Mercedes EQ branded.
• "Smart today unveiled the Smart Forease concept, which will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show next week. While much of the current Smart design language is still tucked away in there but it took a different approach to the roof -- it cut the whole darn thing off. Hopefully you live somewhere where it never rains." reports CNET: "As with every other Smart currently on sale outside of Europe, the Forease concept is entirely electric. In fact, it's based on the production Smart EQ Fortwo, which uses a single 80-horsepower electric motor to provide an EPA-estimated 58 miles of range. Considering it lacks a roof, Smart might be able to eke a few more miles out of the Forease than the Fortwo."

 

 

COMMUNITY

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

 

How do you charge at home? What charger have you got? Who installed it? Was it something which came with a new car or did you arrange yourself? And if you want to share, how much did it cost and did you get any incentives?

 

 

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