06 June 2018 | Tesla Refutes Model 3 Refund Claim, EV Sales Up In U.K. and Daimler Says It’s On Target
Tesla Shareholder Meeting | Tesla Denies Report Claiming That 23% Of Model 3 Deposits Refunded | Tesla Has Installed A Huge Amount Of Storage | Sales Of Hybrid Cars Soar As Diesels Plunge By Nearly A Quarter | Europe Up Against Asian Juggernaut In Electric Car Battery Drive | Daimler Says Electric Cars On Target After Report Of Launch Delays | Builders Will Be Forced To Put In Electric Car Chargers | Kesko To Double Number Of Electric Car Charging Points In Finland | GM China To Launch 10 NEV Models By 2020
It’s Wednesday 6th June 2018 and this is your EV News Daily. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening! Wherever you're listening around the world, a very warm welcome from London, UK. Here is today’s news about electric cars and the future of transport. My name is Martyn Lee and I go through every EV article online so you don’t have to.
TESLA SHAREHOLDER MEETING
- Nuggets of information about the Model 3 production ramp and a potential capital raise for the Silicon Valley car maker.
- Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., will start at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and it will be webcast.
- Elon Musk usually peppers his introduction with updates on company deadlines and goals
TESLA DENIES REPORT CLAIMING THAT 23 PERCENT OF MODEL 3 DEPOSITS WERE REFUNDED
- You may have heard or read reports that 23% of Model 3 deposits were being refunded, and whilst i was tempted to report it, I have been looking into the company which made the claims, any validity and just checking this wasn’t more of an attempt for them to get their name out for a product or service, and using the power of Tesla to generate headlines. There's no doubt more people have now heard of Second Measure since they issued their claim, which is based on credit card transaction data.
- Well before I could finish digging into them, Tesla denied Second Measure's figures, with a spokesperson stating, "this does not line up with our data."
- According to The Drive: "The spokesperson pointed to Tesla's own first quarter shareholder letter for semi-current reservation figures, which were then in excess of 450,000. In its production press release for the same period, Tesla stated that its net reservations "remained stable," attributing any customer refunds to "delays in production in general and delays in availability of certain planned options, particularly dual motor AWD and the smaller battery pack."
TESLA HAS INSTALLED A TRULY HUGE AMOUNT OF ENERGY STORAGE
- Another milestone reached in Solar according to Tesla: "Since 2015, it has installed a worldwide total of a gigawatt-hour of energy storage–technology that is critical for using renewable energy at scale. For comparison, that’s nearly half of the entire amount of energy storage installed globally last year. As the company’s electric car business quickly grows, the energy side of its business is growing even faster" says Fast Company in what they call an exclusive report: "The cost of battery storage keeps falling; between 2010 and 2016, the price across the industry fell 73%, from $1,000 a kilowatt-hour to $273 a kilowatt-hour. By 2020, it may drop to $145 a kilowatt-hour, and by 2025, to $69.5 a kilowatt-hour."
- CTO JB Straubel said: "It’s at a scale now where it’s undeniably making an impact. We see it as absolutely core to our mission as a company of accelerating sustainability. Electric vehicles, where we started, are one key piece of that puzzle. They’re an enabler for using sustainable energy and transportation, but they need to be linked to an energy generation source . . . We really want to solve this all the way, with a big-picture mind-set of truly solving the problem, not just providing someone a piece of the [solution] and then they have to go and figure out how to charge their car sustainably. The economy of scale that we can derive, and have derived, from building the Model S and the Model X, or now the Model 3 at scale, is what has allowed us to bring down the cost of energy storage for all these different applications."
SALES OF HYBRID CARS SOAR AS DIESELS PLUNGE BY NEARLY A QUARTER
- Adam Vaughan, writing in yesterday's Guardian newspaper here in the UK, says "Sales of plug-in hybrid cars soared by nearly three-quarters year on year in May, dramatically outstripping the 3.4% overall growth in new car registrations."
- Adam's article continues: "Nearly 4,000 plug-in hybrids, which typically run for about 50 miles on a battery before a combustion engine kicks in, were bought last month, up from 2,301 in May 2017. Registrations of purely battery-powered cars, such as the Nissan Leaf, were up by nearly a fifth, to 1,099. The numbers are still a small fraction of the total 192,649 cars bought in the month but all electrified vehicles combined, including hybrids such as the Toyota Prius, took a record market share of 5.8%."
EUROPE UP AGAINST ASIAN JUGGERNAUT IN ELECTRIC CAR BATTERY DRIVE
- "Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD is looking at launching battery production in Europe, joining Asian rivals aiming to cash in on a green car revolution and threatening attempts by Brussels to nurture a home-grown industry." according to a Reuters report: only Sweden's Northvolt and Germany's TerraE www.terrae.com have plans for large lithium-ion battery factories in Europe so far and some leading European carmakers have already struck deals with Asian suppliers setting up in Hungary and Poland. South Korea’s LG Chem, Samsung SDI both have European factories due to open soon while China’s GSR Capital already produces battery cells at a UK plant it bought from Nissan."
- However auto makers have had to get on with signing battery or cell supply contracts before they could invest in their electric plans: "German’s BMW said it was not involved in the European alliance while Europe’s biggest automaker, Volkswagen , said it plans to get batteries from LG Chem’s Polish factory due to open this year. Mercedes maker Daimler has awarded a contract to CATL."
DAIMLER SAYS ELECTRIC CARS ON TARGET AFTER REPORT OF LAUNCH DELAYS
- Yesterday Daimler had to issue a rejection of stories circulating that they were struggling with delivering on planned launches for their electric EQ sub brands.
- Germany’s Handelsblatt said that they were facing delays because of battery shortages and other technical problems.
- They claimed the delays would mean the EQC isn't even in showrooms until June 2019, however Daimler said they had never specified a launch date for the EQC.
- Daimler said: "We are on target, there are no delays"
BUILDERS WILL BE FORCED TO PUT IN ELECTRIC CAR CHARGERS
- In Ireland, "New petrol stations, supermarkets and car parks could be forced to install charging points for electric vehicles under proposals being considered by the government." according to the Times.
- Denis Naughten, the climate and environment minister: "Charging at home at night is the most cost-efficient and eco-friendly way of charging an electric vehicle. Given the high proportion of homes with driveways and dedicated parking spaces, Ireland has greater capacity for home charging than other countries.”
GM CHINA TO LAUNCH 10 NEV MODELS BY 2020
- General Motors plans to launch 10 heavily electrified vehicle models in China by 2020, and another 10 in the three years between 2021 and 2023 according to GM’s China chief Matt Tsien who was speaking yesterday, June 5th.
- In China, New energy vehicles is the catch-all term used for pure BEV vehicles, PHEV's and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.
KESKO TO DOUBLE NUMBER OF ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING POINTS IN FINLAND
- Heading to Finland next and earlier this week, on Monday, Kesko announced it will build a nationwide network of charging points for electric vehicles in 2018–2019.
- According to the Helsinki Times: "The retail conglomerate also revealed it will launch a series of projects to develop new mobility services, starting with a car-sharing trial on its premises in seven cities in Finland. Kesko’s charging point network will double the number of electric vehicle charging points, as well as make the retail conglomerate one of the leading charging point operators, in Finland. The network will also account for a fifth of the national target of building 2,000 charging points by 2020. The charging points will be powered by solar panels on the roofs of the retailer’s stores."
SWITCH TO ELECTRIC CARS THREATENS 75,000 GERMAN AUTO INDUSTRY JOBS
- And finally, 75,000 jobs in the engine and gearbox industry could be at risk according to German trade unions. The auto industry itself is a pillar of the German economy with 840,000 jobs in the sector, and EV's are far more simple to construct.
- Whilst new jobs will be created in battery assembly, they say more will be lost.
- The report by Reuters quotes Volkswagen's top labour representative Bernd Osterloh: "electric car powertrains have only a sixth of the components when compared to combustion-engined variants, which means electric cars can be assembled more quickly. Electric cars take 30 percent less time to assemble than current passenger vehicles, Osterloh said. A battery factory requires only a fifth of the workforce when compared with an engine plant” Osterloh said.
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