EV Startup Rimac To Buy Bugatti From Volkswagen | 27 June 2021

Show #1126.

 

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Sunday 27th June. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

 

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- According to a media report, the Croatian electric car specialist Rimac wants to acquire a majority stake in VW subsidiary Bugatti. Rimac is to be floated on the stock market by 2022.

- according to the German publication Manager Magazin citing those close to the matter, the Bugatti deal is close to completion.

- Volkswagen is initially expected to transfer responsibility for Bugatti to Porsche, and Porsche would then form a joint venture with Rimac in which Rimac would acquire 55 per cent of Bugatti’s shares. In comparison, Porsche would control 45 per cent. However, Porsche’s stake in Rimac, which was increased to 24 per cent in March, is apparently to remain unaffected by the deal.

 

Original Source : https://www.electrive.com/2021/06/23/rimac-buys-majority-stake-in-bugatti/

 

 

- Volkswagen will soon decide on the future of its luxury brand Bugatti, Oliver Blume, Volkswagen management board member and CEO of Porsche AG, said on Monday.

- Porsche boss Oliver Blume earlier this year said intense discussions on Bugatti's future were ongoing and that Rimac could play a role as the brands were a good technological fit, adding that a decision was expected in the first half of 2021.

 

Original Source : https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/porsche-to-decide-soon-on-bugatti-future/ar-AALhtfJ

 

 

From Phil Allen who emailed me this one:

 

- A new giant battery storage system for recharging electric vehicles has gone live in Oxford today, creating a creates a blueprint for other towns and cities to achieve net zero carbon emissions.  The 50MW lithium-ion battery is directly connected to the UK’s high-voltage transmission system, run by National Grid.

- An 8km private wire network will deliver power from the battery to both public and commercial EV charging locations across the city. These will include the UK’s largest public charging hub, with up to 10MW of power on site, which will feature 38 fast to ultra-rapid chargersdelivering 100% renewable energy to EV drivers day and night when it opens in a few months’ time.Fastned will initially install 10 chargers at the hub with 300kW of power

- Matt Allen, CEO of Pivot Power, which has led the £41 million Government-backed scheme, said: “This is the first grid-scale battery to directly connect to the transmission network in the UK, and represents a key milestone for the completion of Energy Superhub Oxford and our mission to accelerate the UK towards net zero. We are planning up to 40 similar sites throughout the country.”

 

Original Source : https://www.fleeteurope.com/en/new-energies/europe/article/new-50mw-battery-goes-live-support-ev-charging

 

 

- An EV public superhub at one of Oxford’s Park & Rides will provide up to 50 charge points catering for a range of vehicles and speeds, so that visitors can charge in minutes or while they work or shop in the city. The network has the capacity to expand with EV adoption and provide power for local businesses seeking to electrify their fleets, from logistics companies to bus operators.

It shares a connection to National Grid’s high voltage transmission network with a 50MW hybrid battery storage system, helping our electricity network to make more use of renewable energy. This means that as more EVs hit the road, we can increase the amount of low carbon electricity powering them and accelerate Oxford’s journey to zero carbon.

 

Original Source : https://www.pivot-power.co.uk/our-projects/

 

 

- The release of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta Version 9 has been delayed another week, CEO Elon Musk told Twitter followers early today. The FSD Suite has been primed for a new release for several months, and Musk has hinted toward an imminent rollout of the semi-autonomous driving functionality.

- Musk said early this morning that “we [Tesla] need to fix some obvious issues before releasing beta 9, hopefully next week.” This has been a repetitive tone of the Tesla CEO, who says that he’s currently utilizing FSD “Alpha 9” in his personal vehicle.

 

- I’m driving “alpha” 9, but we need to fix some obvious issues before releasing beta 9, hopefully next week. FSD subscription capability should be turning on via the Tesla app.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 25, 2021

 

- The most recent update to the FSD Beta V9 came on June 6th, when Musk updated Tesla owners with details on what was expected to be V9’s long-awaited release. “One more production release of pure vision this week, then FSD Beta 9 a week or two later. V9.0 FSD is also pure vision. Foundational improvements are immense,” he said.

This would have slotted V9 to be rolled out to customers on June 20th, at the latest. But the update never came

 

Original Source : https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-fsd-beta-v9-delay-fix-some-obvious-issues-elon-musk/

 

 

- The claim: California told electric vehicle owners to not charge their cars because of a power shortage.As a record-setting heat wave swept across the Western U.S. in June, the organization that oversees most of California’s power grid sounded the alarm for residents to cut electricity consumption to avoid outages.The “Flex Alert” issued by the California Independent System Operator on June 17 was meant to ease the strain on the power grid by encouraging residents to avoid activities that draw heavy electricity during peak hours. That included running major appliances or lowering thermostats.But it did not tell electric vehicle owners they couldn’t charge their cars, as a June 21 Facebook post claims. The post said the state “literally” told electric vehicle owners not to charge their cars.

 

- California ISO also suggested residents lower their thermostats earlier in the day to “pre-cool” their homes and charge electric vehicles before the alert was in effect.It did not require electric vehicle owners to stop charging their cars.

 

Original Source : https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/06/25/california-didnt-require-electric-car-owners-stop-charging/5320286001/

 

 

- bp ventures has invested $7million in smart electric vehicle (EV) charging firm, IoTecha, leading a $13.2 million investment round. IoTecha’s easy-to-use technology connects EV chargers with the electricity grid using the IoT, optimising the charging process by automating payments and delivering cost and potential energy savings to customers.

 

- IoTecha’s Intelligent Power Platform, IoT.ON™, allows private and fleet vehicles from any manufacturer to communicate seamlessly with charging stations to signal when they need recharging. The platform gathers information over time, identifying patterns and the energy requirements of each user across all forms of EV charging.

 

- The technology also enables EV owners to sell unused electricity back to the grid through a process known as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) or bi-directional charging.

 

Original Source : https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/news-and-insights/press-releases/bp-makes-7-million-dollar-investment-in-electric-vehicle-charging-firm-iotecha.html

 

RON B, SAN JOSE CA

For single charging stop journeys (less than 400 miles) I would rely on in-car charging planner of the Porsche Taycan. For multiple charging single day I will review route on ABRP (A Better Route Planner). Web on laptop for better big picture or Phone App if remote. Then use in-car routing. For multi-day family road trips I plan either way picking hotels and venues. In this case I will attempt to find hotels with charging or hotels near charging. For example in Carson City I found a reasonable hotel that was only 3 blocks from free Level 2 charging at a government building.

 

The car does a good job but seemingly not Tesla level yet, but the car excels in other areas. :-)

 

MARK BUCKINGHAM

 

Easy! Powertrip app. power trip.co.nz

 

KIMBERLEY LLOLYD

I'm still quite new to driving our Nissan LEAF 40kWh so I plan everything in advance before I leave, and am probably over cautious in terms of knowing how to travel between chargers.

 

BILLY LANG (on Twitter)

With the best planning in the world you can't predict charger unreliability, so you have to stay on your toes and be prepared to re-route

 

JONATHAN MATTHEWS

It's one of the best things about a Tesla, just getting in and letting the car navigate to the next Supercharger. Many people I talk to don't realise this is also available on Tesla's website.

 

KENNY STRONG

When I go on a long journey I try to have a Plan A and PLan B for each stop. it's not always possible but you have to be prepared for a charger to be busy, or worse blocked by an ICE car, so I always try to stop where there is another option closeby.

 

LESLIE IN BIRMIGNHAM

This is without doubt the worse part of any EV I've driven. But in a way I understand it. You have to try and collate tens or hundreds of different networks, hopefully provide some sort of live update, and then expect it to be in every model of EV on the market? It's almost impossible.

 

 

 

If you could only afford one, would you rather - Solar Panels or battery storage? On one hand, energy generation. But then again, being able to store electricity when it’s cheap and use it later to charge your EV. 

 

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