First Demo Run Of Lucid Air Grand Touring | 23 May 2021

Show #1091.

 

Today’s big EV stories:

·       Exclusive Demo Of Lucid Air Grand Touring

·       Model S Plaid Delivery Event June 3rd

·       Volkswagen Takes #1 And #2 In German Market

·       Tesla Installs Megachargers at Frito-Lay

·       Dantaxi & E.ON Launch Charging Hub

·       How the Electric Ford F-150 Compares to the Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T

·       44,500 F-150 Lightning Reservations

·       Question Of The Week Answers

 

 

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Sunday 23rd May. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

 

Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.

 

"InsideEVs' Kyle Conner just completed an exclusive demo ride in a pre-production 2022 Lucid Air Grand Touring with Derek Jenkins, Lucid Senior Vice President of Design and Brand.

 

According to Kyle, who already had an opportunity to check out the Lucid Air in November 2020, the first ride experience was truly impressive." reports InsideEVs: "the range indicator showed 219 miles (352 km) remaining, despite less than half a charge left on the battery. That's another strong point of Lucid. The main things, like the powertrain, are ready according to Lucid, although details - both with the hardware and software - as well as fine-tuning, still require some work. Lucid Air Grand Touring is a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive with an expected range of 517 miles (832 km) and 800 HP. The price starts at $139,000."

 

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"Tesla hasn't delivered one of the luxury sedans since the start of the year thanks to a computer chip shortage and a redesign of the car, once the company's only offering. Since then, CEO Elon Musk has been promising the return of the Model S was around the corner, saying as recently as April that deliveries would resume in May." says CNN: "Musk's tweet said the June 3 event will also feature the debut of a "Plaid" version of the Model S. "Fastest production car ever," Musk tweeted about the updated Model S. "0 to 60 mph in under 2 seconds. No matter the eye-popping acceleration or other new design quirks, however, the long delay in bringing the Model S back to consumers is proof that the former Tesla mainstay has become something of an afterthought for the company, said Dan Ives, tech analyst for Wedbush Securities. It's still important that Tesla continue to offer the Model S and Model X, Ives said. Given that their prices can easily top $100,000, the high-end vehicles can generate far bigger profit margins than the Model 3 or Model Y."

 

 

"The German plugin vehicle market scored over 50,000 registrations last month, with both core plugin vehicle powertrains rising fast — +413% for BEVs and +380% for PHEVs year over year (YoY). Last month’s plugin vehicle share ended at 22% (10% BEV), in line with the yearly tally of 22% (10% BEV). This market is firmly in The Disruption Zone." writes Jose Pontes for CleanTechnica: "olkswagen leads the way, taking both 1st place and 2nd place. The e-Up took the top spots (Behind it, the Volkswagen ID.3, Hyundai Kona EV, and Volkswagen Golf PHEV all benefited from the Tesla Model 3’s off month and climbed a position each, which they will likely lose again in the next couple of months.) . That’s right, the little e-Up earned its third win in a row, a surprising performance for the veteran model. Interestingly, among the top 8 models, only two are PHEVs, which would lead one to think that BEVs outsold plugin hybrids. However, that actually that wasn’t the case, as PHEVs represented 53% of plugin registrations in the country in April."

 

In Germany they're now delivering the Audi Q4 e-tron and Skoda Enyaq.

 

 

"Frito-Lay Inc. is installing Megachargers for Tesla Semi at its Northern California Warehouse. Upon completion of the installation, the company will have the first known charger for the Semi electric truck." according to Tesmanian: "They will serve the first 15 of 100 electric trucks ordered by PepsiCo, which are due to be delivered this year. Tesla's new chargers will be installed alongside existing chargers. At the moment, it remains unknown how many Megachargers will be installed, and how they will look. However, the site plan indicates that a Megapack battery will be installed there, which is most likely needed to stabilize the grid."

 

 

It will be easier to hail a fully charged electric taxi in Copenhagen. Most of the city's current approximately 300 electric taxis are a part of Dantaxi, and for the drivers, the problem of finding an available charging station has grown so big that the capacity of the in-demand zero-emission vehicles cannot be fully utilized” says Dantaxi's commercial director.

The five ultra-fast chargers can charge up to ten taxis at a time. The ultra-fast chargers deliver the absolute fastest charging on the market, making them particularly important for taxis as they are not stationary for long periods of time unlike private cars. Ultra-fast chargers can charge up to 300 kW.

 

 

"Really, this is a two-horse race between the Rivian R1T and the F-150. Based on price alone, the Ford might possibly move more units. The Lightning's base price of just $39,794 before incentives is extremely attractive for an EV, especially a full-sized pickup. The torque rating is also excellent, as is the payload and horsepower for both trims. The range is lacking slightly in the base trim at an estimated 230 miles, although it's likely a conservative number based to what we've seen with EVs from Ford and other OEMs." says The Drive: "The Rivian has the same range for its higher price tag and is positioned as a more luxurious vehicle. The top trim R1T is claimed to have 800+ horsepower, and the truck is available with 22-inch wheels. The Cybertruck is not really comparable here until more precise specifications for the production models are released. "

 

 

"Less than two days since Ford Motor Co.'s unveiling of an electric version of its best-selling pickup truck, the automaker said it already had received nearly 45,000 reservations for F-150 Lightning." according to The Detroit News:" Ford opened up reservations Wednesday night upon the reveal, allowing customers to put down a $100 deposit to reserve a truck. They will later be asked to place an actual order."

 

 

 

 

 

RAJEEV NARAYAN

I would like to see an electric Ambulance become available. Currently patient care in the ones we have are cramped affairs. In many it’s challenging to have more than one EMT working on the patient in the patient compartment. So much so that often patient stabilization has to happen on scene prior to transporting to the hospital. Also the vehicles tend also to spend a lot of time just idling wasting gas. An ambulance could have more space, and waste less fuel.

 

ABC

I think the two best special vehicles to go EV are police cars and ambulances. I live in a smaller Suburban Neighborhood with the streets combined only covering about 54 miles vs the 9700 mile in London. So both don’t have travel far to get anywhere (Average 911 response here is a little over two minutes for majority of people (my house is within a minute or so of PD) in the city and patrol at slow street speeds stopping often. On top of that most ambulances stay in a station all day and can constantly charge and have a much more pleasant experience at idle . Our local department already know this with there newer Explorer hybrid which for the most part idles well of the small batterie. So they would probably wouldn’t mind an EV to replace the next cruiser they wreck (Why they have the explorer*). So a mustang mach-e(cost within 4 grand of current explorer interceptor even if it doesn’t have the upgrades it gets) or a converted e transit for an ambulance would work great. Fire engines probably won’t work because of there insane weight here in the states (15,890Kg)

 

MARK RICHARDS

I was at Sea World in San Diego a year ago (right before the pandemic).  They had these big, smelly, noisy diesel tour buses that takes you around the park.  These go in big circles all day, and probably don’t put 50 miles a day on, and they never really go above 20MPH.  But, they are sitting idling most of the day waiting at the stops.  This is a PERFECT place to put in an EV bus. You could even do wireless charging at each stop, and keep a pretty small battery! Many cities also have these tour buses that drive you around the city and show you all the landmarks.  Again, a perfect use case for an EV.  They have all night to charge, do relatively few low speed miles. Setting aside the pollution, think how nice it would be to get rid of all the smell and noise from these behemoths.

 

 

MICHAEL HEYMAN

Ski slope groomer.  Many ski slopes are advertise 100% renewable electricity for things like their lifts but at night they bring out loud smelly grooming equipment and run them up and down the slopes. These things have all day to charge and like a low center of gravity.

 

STEPHEN TROYER

I think it's a tie between postal trucks and school busses.  Both have fixed routes, they could do a lot of regen with the constant stopping, and both would be more enjoyable to everyone if they were quiet and free of fumes.

 

 

ROBERT GRACE

As to the question, I know that it is technically difficult, for a lot of reasons, but the thing that we need most is some sort of trans-oceanic airliner with zero carbon emissions.  They represent a large source of CO2. Maybe hydrogen?

 

 

Do you have an opinion on hydrogen power for personal transport? Yes or No, both good answers, and if yes then what do you think?

 

Email me your thoughts and I’ll read them out on Sunday – hello@evnewsdaily.com