22 June 2018 | Kona Waiting Time Could Be 12 Months, How To Use EV Batteries To Store Excess Renewables and A Live Call To Munich
Letter To Kona Buyers In Norway Reveals Waiting Time | Security At Giga Beefed Up | F.I.A. Chief: Buy Electric | Volvo XC40 To Be Firm's First Fully Electric Vehicle | EV Batteries To Balance German Grid | Footage Of The Tesla Semi | China Invests 7 Times More In EVs Than Europe | A Live Call To Munich To Hear Direct From Solar, EV And Battery Show
Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Thursday 21st June 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.
SECURITY AT GIGA BEEFED UP
- A Tesla spokesperson said: ""Yesterday afternoon, we received a phone call from a friend of Mr. Tripp telling us that Mr. Tripp would be coming to the Gigafactory to 'shoot the place up.' Police have been notified and actions are being taken to enhance security at the Gigafactory."
FIA CHIEF: BUY ELECTRIC
- Jean Todt, head of Motorsports FIA, which governs Formula E as well as things like Formula 1: "We are trying to make electric cars more user friendly in order to encourage more people to buy electric cars, especially in cities. You know, one problem that we have with electric cars at the moment is limited autonomy. Recharging times is another as it takes quite long. On top of that, each recharge is only good for a relatively short distance. That is why we strive to give a fresh perception or feeling to consumers. When you think about mobility, climate change, and the environment, the electric car is obviously better suited. We also need to address pollution. The electric car is a way to reduce pollution in cities. Another aspect that is not directly linked with what we do now but also high on our list of priorities is traffic congestion because citizens living in cities really feel the traffic and congestion everyday. In a way, they get used to that but it is time consuming, it is expensive, and again it causes pollution."
VOLVO XC40 TO BE FIRM'S FIRST FULLY ELECTRIC VEHICLE
- The Volvo XC40 will be the first battery electric car from Volvo and will arrive in 2019 after the Polestar 2. It will be followed by an electric XC90.
- Thomas Ingeleth has been quoted by Autocar at the launch of the S60: "“It’s not a secret any more that the first full electric Volvo is on its way with the XC40 coming. It will arrive very soon after the Polestar 2. That is the first to come that’s not exotic. We’ll start with XC40 and then on it will come step after step into our model range. The next car will be the next-generation XC90. That will be the masterplan of how electrification will come to the Volvo product range. We will not establish products beside our hybrids, we will introduce electrification as a powertrain variant within the existing portfolio. You could say that is different to a lot of the mass-production brands. But I have a hard time to understand how their plan will work in the long run. Electrification is the future of the automotive industry, so how do you handle that as soon as you come to the majority of electric cars? How do you handle it in your portfolio? I think it’s much more natural to say it’s a powertrain variant that over time will take up the majority of the sold vehicles."
EV BATTERIES TO BALANCE GERMAN GRID
- There's a new project to balance the German power grid, and Germany is a leader in renewables. But we know sometime the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. "Mercedes-Benz Energy, is revitalizing an old coal power plant in Germany by turning it into a big energy storage facility. The company unveiled the new project on yesterday, June 21st, at the Elverlingsen power station, which makes use of more than a thousand modules from the battery packs of its Mercedes electric vehicles." says BenzInsider.com
- Although they've pulled out of the consumer market they're still moving forward with energy storage for commercial applications.
- "The new project of Daimler stacks 1,920 battery modules in the facility that can hold 9.8 MWh" from an installed capacity of 8.96MW
- Daimler said: "“The large storage plant is, therefore, a symbol for the transformation in the storage and use of energy—away from fossil electricity grid supply and towards a sustainable extension of the e-mobility value chain that reduces CO2"
FOOTAGE OF THE TESLA SEMI
- We’ve been used to seeing footage of the Tesla Semi Trucks in shaky mobile camera footage but now something direct from Tesla's twitter account. Simply "Tesla Semi driving to Santa Rosa"
- Fred Lambert at Electrek says: "Santa Rose is about 50 miles away from the Golden Gate bridge – though the trip had to start at another location south of the bridge. The Tesla Semi prototypes have often been spotted around Sunnyvale, where Tesla has a prototyping facility, and Fremont, where Tesla has a factory. It wouldn’t be surprising if the vehicle started its journey from one of those locations – making the trip about 100 miles." That 600 miles range is still doubted by many in the trucking industry. History has taught us not to underestimate Tesla.
CHINA INVESTS 7 TIMES MORE IN EVS THAN EUROPE
- "In the past year, China has secured €21.7 billion of investment in electric vehicles while Europe only secured €3.2 billion, according to a study by Transport & Environment, a European non-profit promoting sustainable transport policy." writes Benjamin Uyttebroeck for FleetEurope: "The Chinese government requires carmakers to obtain credits for the production of EVs that are equivalent to 10% of the overall passenger car market in 2019 and 12% in 2020. The European Commission, on the other hand, proposed new car CO2 reduction targets of 15% in 2025 and 30% in 2030 but didn't include any sales targets for zero-emission vehicles."
- Julia Poliscanova, clean vehicles manager of Transport & Environment, said: “China bet decisively on electric cars and is winning the race. It understood that production follows demand, and demand is created with smart, ambitious industrial policy. But Europe still can’t shake off its dirty diesel legacy. The EU ministers have two choices: either we set an EV sales target to keep auto jobs at home, or allow European carmakers to go on selling dirty diesels here while investing the earnings into EV production abroad and importing back made-in-China electric cars.”
COMMUNITY
Email from Hyundai to Norwegian customers of the Kona.
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