19 July 2018 | Longer Range BMW i3 Coming, Germany Wants Tesla Subsidy Money Back and $2000 LEAF Discounts
Tesla Model S Logs Over 400,000 Miles In Three Years | BMW i3 120Ah Rumoured To Have A Range Of Over 350 Km | Volvo XC60 EV Versions Hinted With B4, B5 Trademarks | Germany Orders Tesla Drivers To Pay Back EV Subsidy | LG Chem To Build $1.8 Bln Ev Battery Plant In China | Electric Car Supercharging Hubs For UK | Tesla Virtual Power Plant In Australia Passes Initial Testing | And Finally - Leaf Discounts
Read today’s show notes on https://www.evnewsdaily.com
Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Thursday 19th July edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.
NEWS IN BRIEF
*VW's North American CEO, Hinrich Woebcken, told Autocar that it's future EV's, cars like the I.D. Crozz and I.D. Buzz would need to be built in North America rather than imported
* The new Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric vehicle in Europe for the first half of this year, selling 18,000, and that's now 37,000 it total for the new model Europe since last October
* Volkswagen Motorsport, fresh from setting records with the I.D. R Pikes Peak racer, has urged World Rally Championship to find an alternative energy solution for the series, including electric drivetrains from 2020
TESLA MODEL S LOGS OVER 400,000 MILES IN THREE YEARS
- Congratulations eHawk! Tesloop, the shuttle service in California and Nevada, have a habit of christening their cars and it's eHawk which we're celebrating today, because 400,000 miles just ticked over on the clock.
- "eHawk has undergone three major services during its time with Tesloop" says Stephen Edelstein on Digital Trends: "The car’s front drive unit (this is an all-wheel drive “D” model with electric motors for the front and rear axles) was replaced at 36,404 miles. The car’s 90-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack has also been replaced twice: in August 2016 at 194,237 miles, and in January 2018, at 324,044 miles.
- "But the battery packs weren’t replaced because they were too degraded, according to Tesloop. The first replacement would not have been necessary if a firmware update had been available earlier, the company said. The car’s range estimator would decrease by 10 miles, even without any loss of charge, something Tesla attributed to an issue with the software that calculates range. The second pack was replaced when the car was brought in for an unrelated issue, Tesloop said."
- And in case you're wondering, yes Tesla did all that work for free. With an 8 year warranty, and at the current mileage, eHawk will be a million-mile Model S after 8 years.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/tesloop-tesla-model-s-90d-covers-400000-miles/
BMW i3 120AH RUMOURED TO HAVE A RANGE OF OVER 350 KM
- "The BMW i3 and i3s models will soon get a bump in range" according to the experts in know over at BMW Blog: "An i3 120Ah model is launching late this year – early 2019 for some markets – bringing a bigger capacity battery pack and implicitly longer driving range. Intensive preparations are underway in the background for the debut of a BMW i3 120Ah , which promises a standard range, according to NEDC, of over 350 kilometers – around 217 miles"
- Will BMW keep the range extender?
https://www.bmwblog.com/2018/07/17/bmw-i3-120ah-rumored-to-have-a-range-of-over-350-km
VOLVO XC60 EV VERSIONS HINTED WITH B4, B5 TRADEMARKS
- ANTHONY ALANIZ, Motor1.com USA: "Volvo trademarked both the XC60 B4 AWD and XC60 B5 AWD nameplates. Deciphering the trademarked names is easy. The B4 and B5 likely denote the XC60’s powertrain, which would be on brand for the automaker. You see, Volvo signifies its petrol powertrains with T – T5, T6, or T8 (plug-in hybrid). Diesel engines go under D4, D5, D6. If Volvo is introducing a new line of powertrains, then a new designation is needed. And if Volvo is pushing to sell electric vehicles, then B for battery almost makes too much sense."
https://uk.motor1.com/news/252974/volvo-xc60-b4-b5-trademarks/
GERMANY ORDERS TESLA DRIVERS TO PAY BACK EV SUBSIDY
- Imagine getting a free $5,000 subsidy off a new Tesla, having it on your driveway and using it every day, and then getting a letter from the government saying you have to pay back the grant. Because that's what has happened to Tesla owners in Germany.
- "Germany's Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control said in a statement on Tuesday that approximately 800 Tesla Model S owners who purchased their vehicles before March 6 must pay back a €4,000 (about $4,650) EV subsidy" as reported by Andrew Krok for CNET's Roadshow.
- The issue comes down to whether a base Model S can be bought for 60,000 Euro, which at Germany decided you couldn't then decide you could, and now seem to have decided you can't. Maybe someone at the government just needs to go to the Design Studio, select the base car with no options, see that it's under 60k and made a decision. It doesn't help that the grant is also paid for by other German car makers. Oopsie.
- TEsla said: "The arbitrary decision to temporarily remove Tesla from the list of vehicles eligible for the Environmental Bonus (Umweltbonus) was unjustified, contrary to the stated goals of the program, and unfair to our customers," said a Tesla spokesperson in an emailed statement. "We are appealing [the German government's] decision to take this action against our pre-March 2018 customers. To make sure our customers are not harmed by this decision, we will cover the cost of the bonus for them until the issue is resolved."
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/germany-tesla-model-s-subsidy-payback/
LG CHEM TO BUILD $1.8 BLN EV BATTERY PLANT IN CHINA
"South Korea’s LG Chem plans to invest $1.77 billion to build its second electric car battery plant in China to meet growing demand, a company spokesman said on Wednesday" Reuters reports: "The investment will be made by 2023 to increase its total output capacity to 32 gigawatt hours per year, or batteries for around 500,000 electric vehicles, the company spokesman said. LG will break ground on the new factory in October and expects to begin production in October 2019."
ELECTRIC CAR SUPERCHARGING HUBS FOR UK
Pivot Power is the UK company building out a £1.6bn network of 45 grid-connected batteries with the added bonus of charging stations attached to them.
Utility Week says: "Pivot Power has revealed more details on its plans to build an electric vehicle (EV) charging “superhub” with a 50MW battery on the outskirts of Southampton. The battery will have storage capacity of 50MWh and cost up to £25 million. Construction is expected to begin in March and be completed three months later in July 2019. The superhub will offer rapid charging for as many as 100 cars at a time and will be capable of supporting the fastest chargers currently available."
https://utilityweek.co.uk/ev-charging-superhub-with-50mw-battery-coming-to-southampton/
TESLA VIRTUAL POWER PLANT IN AUSTRALIA PASSES INITIAL TESTING
Steve Hanley for Clean Tehnica is keeping up to date on the world's largest virtual power plant, 50,000 5kW rooftop solar systems coupled to 13.5kWh storage in Australia.
"So far, the installation of rooftop solar and storage batteries has been completed on 100 homes and the results are everything Tesla expected them to be. In addition to completing the remainder of the Tesla Virtual Power Plant system, the Liberal government that came into power in March is expected to announce $100 million in grants to install battery storage systems on 40,000 more homes in South Australia. Other companies, particularly sonnen, will be involved in the battery storage aspects of the systems for those additional homes."
AND FINALLY - LEAF DISCOUNTS
Waded Malone at InsideEVs has news to put a smile on prospective Nissan LEAF buyers: "Nissan is now offering $2,000 cash back if you finance through Nissan Motors Acceptance Corporation (NMAC). So long as you live in a state that has adopted a ZEV mandate that is. As is usually the case for electric vehicles from traditional automakers, the best offers are relegated to a few states."
COMMUNITY
YouTube comments
You can listen to all previous 184 episodes of this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, TuneIn, Stitcher, and the blog https://www.evnewsdaily.com/ – remember to subscribe, which means you don’t have to think about downloading the show each day, plus you get it first and free and automatically.
It would mean a lot if you could take 2mins to leave a quick review on whichever platform you download the podcast.
And if you have an Amazon Echo, download our Alexa Skill, search for EV News Daily and add it as a flash briefing.
Come and say hi on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter just search EV News Daily, have a wonderful day, and I'll catch you tomorrow.
CONNECT WITH ME!