19 June 2018 | Kia Soul EV Dominates Sales, Renault Opens Another Experience Centre and Japan Spends $90m On Solid State Batteries
Tesla Responds To 'Extraordinarily Unusual' Fire | Mercedes EQC In New Spy Shots | Mercedes A-Class Hybrid Could Get Electrically Driven Rear Axle | Nissan Freezes Fuel Cell Car Development | Kia’s Soul EV Model Is Getting Popular | Second Renault Electric Vehicle Experience Centre | Japan Nedo Launches $90m Solid-State Battery Project | Zero Electric Motorcycle UK Demo Tour | Norway’s First Electric Aircraft To Take Off On Monday
Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Tuesday 19th 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.
TESLA RESPONDS TO 'EXTRAORDINARILY UNUSUAL' FIRE
- I've steered away from this story because it really was just a random video on Twitter, and who knows the background. The Tesla Model S belonging to West Wing actress Mary McCormack.
- The video, posted to Twitter on Friday, shows the Tesla parked on the side of Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, with a small jet of flame shooting out from underneath it.
- It looks unlike every video I've ever seen of an EV fire and as you can imagine, if there's something online I'm more interested than most.
- Tesla have issued a statement: "This is an extraordinarily unusual occurrence, and we are investigating the incident to find out what happened. Our initial investigation shows that the cabin of the vehicle was totally unaffected by the fire due to our battery architecture, which is designed to protect the cabin in the very rare event that a battery fire occurs. While our customer had time to safely exit the car, we are working to understand the cause of the fire. We’re glad our customer is safe."
- Tesla has made 300,000 cars they've produced, which have travelled 7.5 billion miles and only five incidents of cars catching fire per billion miles travelled.
- S. Federal Highway Administration that shows there are 55 incidents of fire for every billion miles driven when looking at all automobiles in the country.
MERCEDES EQ C IN NEW SPY SHOTS
- com has new spy shots of the Mercedes EQC, in what they call a near-production prototype, with the hanshtag switchtoEQ on.
- "The black and blue body cover has a contrasting splash of colour at the back where Mercedes slapped on a red strip all over the tailgate on the taillight level and we can see the tape is extending onto the rear fenders. Even though the body design still remains largely concealed underneath the wrap, the EQ C already looks substantially different than other three-pointed star SUVs, such as the similarly sized GLC for example." says Motor1: "The large mesh up front might trick you into believing the EQ C has a conventional grille, but being fully electric, it doesn’t need one. Pictured above, the concept had a panel mimicking the appearance of a traditional grille and we’re expecting the production-ready model to feature a similar look. At the back, the aforementioned red tape could be a clue suggesting the zero-emissions CUV will have a full-width light strip in the same vein as the showcar."
- Michael Kelz, Chief Engineer for the EQC, says: "“With the finishing straight in sight, we are now able to absolve another extremely demanding test programme with our pre-series vehicles. But after successfully completed endurance tests in winter at minus 35 degrees C, we are confident that the heat trials will confirm that we are well on schedule for the start of series production.”
https://www.motor1.com/news/249422/mercedes-eq-c-new-spy-photos/
MERCEDES A-CLASS HYBRID COULD GET ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN REAR AXLE
- Meanwhile, Anthony Karr writes about the new Mercedes A-Class and a new Plug In Hybrid for next year: "Autocar claims the hybridized powertrain of the A-Class PHEV will combine a 1.3-liter gasoline engine with 163 horsepower (121 kilowatts) and an electric motor on the rear axle, providing additional 90 hp (66 kW). This layout will basically turn the A-Class into an AWD vehicle, hence the A250e 4Matic predicted name." There's no full BEV A-Class plans I've read about, however if you apply the pattern for Mercedes, that would be an EQ A equivalent.
https://www.motor1.com/news/249433/mercedes-a-class-hybrid-details/
NISSAN FREEZES FUEL CELL CAR DEVELOPMENT
- "Nissan is halting its development of fuel cell cars. Company officials have concluded that demand for the vehicles is unlikely to take off anytime soon." according to NHK: "Nissan announced plans in 2013 to develop and mass-produce fuel cell cars with Daimler of Germany and Ford of the United States. But the company says high vehicle price tags and delays in setting up hydrogen stations have limited the market potential."
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180618_27/
KIA’S SOUL EV MODEL IS GETTING POPULAR
- Whenever I talk or tweet about the Kia Soul EV, or the Niro EV, or the Hyundai Kona EV, it gets a reaction. Those Korean cars are finding a fair few fans around the world.
- "Kia Motors said Sunday that seven out of 10 Soul models of cars it sold in Korea in the January-May period were electric vehicle variants, with overall local sales jumping 13 percent from a year earlier.
- "Gasoline and diesel-powered Soul models are also available in the domestic market, but they were outpaced by the EV version in terms of sales due to a growing demand for environmentally friendly vehicles."
http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3049443
SECOND RENAULT ELECTRIC VEHICLE EXPERIENCE CENTRE
- Following their experience centre opening in Stockholm, Renault have opened their second experience centre, in Germany, based in a busy shopping centre.
- According to Sebastian Blanco at Forbes: "here are digital and static displays that give information about EVs and the purpose of the store, "is to engage with customers and answer frequently asked questions about electric cars, while promoting the benefits of driving such vehicles," the company says. Test drives and vehicle orders can be arranged at the new store as well."
- "Given that Nissan is the electric vehicle sales leader, and that it is part of the same corporate alliance with Renault, would a collection of EV-only storefronts make sense in America? They wouldn't necessarily be able to sell the Leaf there, given our auto dealer laws, but Tesla has had success spreading the EV news with its stores and that's a mission that would undoubtedly help sell more Leafs through normal retail channels."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastianblanco/2018/06/18/nissan-renault-ev-only-store/
JAPAN NEDO LAUNCHES $90M SOLID-STATE BATTERY PROJECT
- "Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) has launched the second phase of a major solid-state Li-ion battery project in a quest to achieve both high energy density and safety in batteries for electric vehicles" reports Green Car Congress: "The project ultimately aims to lower the battery pack cost to around ¥10,000/ kWh ($90/kWh) by around 2030—about one-third the cost for existing lithium-ion batteries. The research also targets a fast-charge time of 10 minutes, also around one-third of that needed for lithium-ion batteries."
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/06/20180617-nedosslib.html
ZERO ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLE UK DEMO TOUR
- Last weekend, on Sunday, San Francisco's Zero Motorcycles started an eight stop tour across the UK, giving riders a chance to test ride the company’s latest model range, reports RideApart.com, on InsideEVs "One of the biggest obstacles electric motorcycle manufacturers have to overcome isn’t merely churning out a quality product, but convincing the public to actually give eBikes a try. With the electric powertrain’s full torque always on tap at any point, eBikes are a lot more fun to pilot than most would expect"
- “Riding a Zero is quite an experience so we’ve decided to go out and take our bikes to the people, to give them an opportunity to try one for themselves,” explains Zero’s UK Country Manager, Dale Robinson. “Lots of people have preconceptions about electric motorcycles but I’ve never met anyone yet who didn’t come back from a test ride with a smile on their face. There’s no hard sell, just an opportunity for riders to ask any questions they may have, take one out for a ride and make up their own minds on electric motorcycles.”
- June 24 North Yorkshire, June 27 Hampshire, July 21 & 22 Northumberland, August 18 Scotland, August 19 Scotland and September 19 Surrey.
https://insideevs.com/zero-electric-motorcycle-demo-tour-starts-today-in-uk/
NORWAY’S FIRST ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT TO TAKE OFF ON MONDAY
- And finally, yesterday you and I were talking about the Jaguar powerboat. Now Norway’s first electric aircraft is 6 days away from take off. The electric aircraft, an Alpha Electro G2 produced in Slovenia, is scheduled to take off from Oslo Airport on Monday afternoon. The plane can carry two passengers and takes two hours to charge.
- Anja Bakken Riise of Norwegian environmentalist NGO Future in Our Hands says: “Unnecessary flights contribute to damaging the world’s climate through enormous carbon dioxide emissions. This aircraft shows it is possible to fly on electricity. The point of the flight is to show it's possible"
COMMUNITY
Le Mans hybrid batteries.
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