15 July 2018 | Polestar 2 Targets Mass Market Buyers, New Renault Zoe for 2019 and Tesla Are Upselling Model 3 Performance
Polestar 2 Electric Will Debut At Geneva To Take On Tesla Model 3 | Elon Musk’s Talks To Bloomberg About Learning From Model 3 Production | Next-Generation Renault Zoe Expected In 2019 – Unveiling This Fall? | Lexus Boss Warns EV Push Could Be Too Soon | New York ePrix: Di Grassi Wins, Vergne Crowned Champion | Tesla Want You To Buy A Performance Model 3
Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Sunday 15th 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.
POLESTAR 2 ELECTRIC WILL DEBUT AT GENEVA TO TAKE ON TESLA MODEL 3
- On yesterday’s show I was reviewing my day at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed, where not only did the Polestar 1 make it's world debut on track, but also the time I spent with the production car on their stand. Clearly it lacks some green credentials because it's got a 2 litre petrol engine tied to those electric motors, albeit a very respectable 70 miles pure EV power.
- "The Polestar 2 will debut at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show as Volvo’s now standalone brand delivers an electric saloon car aimed at the Tesla Model 3." says Cars UK.net: "the Polestar 1 is only Polestar’s opening salvo, and every future Polestar will be a pure EV, starting with the Polestar 2 which, according to Evo, will debut at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show. Polestar say they want to pitch their offerings somewhere between Tesla and Porsche, but the Polestar 2 looks to be an electric saloon car built on Volvo’s CMA platform (the one underpinning the XC40 et al) and have a price range of £35-50k. Which seems like it’s aimed straight at the Model 3."
- Evo reports: "Polestar will certainly pursue its focus on driving dynamics with the Polestar 2, the company intent on positioning itself as an EV performance car brand that can deliver to customers who aren’t excited by the current crop of stylish and safe Volvos. Speaking to evo at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed, Polestar’s chief operating officer Jonathan Goodman revealed his intention that Polestar cars will always be ‘great looking cars that add a dimension, as far as Volvo is concerned, because they’ll be designed as driver’s cars"
http://www.carsuk.net/polestar-2-electric-saloon-will-debut-at-geneva-to-take-on-tesla-model-3/
ELON MUSK’S TALKS TO BLOOMBERG ABOUT LEARNING FROM MODEL 3 PRODUCTION
- Simon at Teslarati has picked out some key quotes from the Elon Musk interview with Bloomberg: "It’s been super-hard. Like there is for sure some permanent mental scar tissue here. But I do feel good about the months to come. I think the results will speak for themselves. To the best of my judgment, I do not think we have any future bet-the-company situations. We will still need to work hard and be vigilant and not be complacent because it is very difficult just to survive as a car company. But it will not be the same level of strain as getting to volume production of Model 3”.
- com were also picking one their highlights: ""We were huge idiots and didn't know what we were doing," Musk said in a recent interview with Bloomberg, referring to the massive production delays resulting from an over-reliance on robots on Tesla's assembly line. Musk and his team made a big bet that automation would help Telsa make more cars in a single month than it ever had before, only to have robots repeatedly fail, forcing the company to halt the entire production process to fix the problem. It's like you just took all the highways away from L.A. or something. Part of the problem is that the designing heads were naive about manufacturing," Musk said in the interview. "Just because we have something that works great in a simulation does not mean that it works great in reality."
NEXT-GENERATION RENAULT ZOE EXPECTED IN 2019 – UNVEILING THIS FALL?
- "There is a fair chance that this fall we will see the second-generation Renault ZOE (maybe at the Paris Motor Show in October)" reports Mark Kane for InsideEVs: "According to French sources, Renault will be retooling the Clio and ZOE factory in August to double the production output of ZOE to 440 copies a day from September on. First, Renault intends to introduce the next-generation Clio and it’s expected that in 2019 the all-new ZOE will hit the market. The Renault-flagship BEV potentially will be longer and bigger, but the battery pack (41 kWh) and electric motor (R110) are expected to remain the same at initial launch at least. The new feature will be DC fast charging using CCS Combo."
https://insideevs.com/renault-zoe-2-expected-2019-unveiling-paris/amp/
LEXUS BOSS WARNS EV PUSH COULD BE TOO SOON
- "Fully electric car technology is not ready for mass adoption, and nor is the environmental impact fully understood, Lexus president Yoshihiro Sawa believes." that's according to Jim Holder who's found this story for AutoCar: "Speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which he is visiting for the first time, Sawa confirmed that the firm - in conjunction with parent company Toyota - is working on all types of powertrain, including full EV and hydrogen, but said that it would not leap into the market until the customer and environmental benefits were clear."
- He said: "“Pure EVs currently require a long charging time and batteries that have an environmental impact at manufacture and which degrade as they get older. And then, when cells need replacing, we have to consider plans for future use and recycling. It is a complex issue - much more complex than the current rhetoric perhaps suggests. I prefer to approach the future in a more honest way. If we are looking for the best solution it is my opinion that the best solution is not only EV; we must consider petrol, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell. If we focus on EV only we will not provide the answers people need.”
NEW YORK EPRIX: DI GRASSI WINS, VERGNE CROWNED CHAMPION
- Alex for motorsport.com reports on Formula E in New York: "Audi’s Lucas di Grassi won the first race of the New York Formula E double-header on Saturday, as Jean-Eric Vergne was crowned champion despite starting from the back of the grid."
TESLA WANT YOU TO BUY A PERFORMANCE MODEL 3
- Tesla might not be anti selling the Model 3 now, but they are Upselling it. Elon Musk himself took to Twitter yesterday urging reservation holders to take the P3D for a test drive even if they weren’t planning on just getting the standard long range battery; he said "Whether you plan to buy a Dual Motor Performance Model 3 or not, take it for a test drive anyway. It’s like having pure fun jacked straight into your brain whenever you want.
- Plus he had news for the upgraded parts: "Performance version suspension is 1cm lower & has stronger brakes in upgrade package"
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