Lucid Goes Public To Accelerate New Products | 27 July 2021

Episode 1157,   Jul 27, 2021, 12:00 AM

Today’s big EV stories:
• Lucid Goes Public
• Plugin Vehicles Hit 19% Market Share In Europe In June
• New Mercedes EQE SUV confirmed for launch in 2022
• The UK's first EV-only trackday
• VW pushes ahead with 'super platform' for self-driving electric cars
• Good luck getting a state rebate on your new electric car
• Europe to boost battery production as electric-vehicle shift accelerates
• Polestar to Launch in Further Nine Markets
• A robot that charges electric cars by itself

Show #1157.

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Tuesday 27thJuly. 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.

LUCID GOES PUBLIC

- Shares of luxury electric vehicle start-up Lucid Motors rose nearly 10% on Monday following their Nasdaq debut as the race to populate the world's roads and highways with electric vehicles continues to heat up.

- The startup received about $4.4 billion in cash from the transaction, after expenses, according to reports. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has invested more than $1 billion in Lucid. It will own about 60% of the company. The reverse-merger deal, which faced last-minute challenges being approved due to difficulties communicating to retail investors holding the stock to vote, values Lucid at around $24 billion.

- The Lucid Air has a price tag of around $70,000 after tax credits, while the Air Dream Edition will cost $162,000. The EV features an autonomous driving system with 32 sensors including long-distance Lidar


PLUGIN VEHICLES HIT 19% MARKET SHARE IN EUROPE IN JUNE

- The European passenger plugin vehicle market continues in the fast lane, having gotten over 237,000 registrations in June and over a million registrations YTD

- Last month’s plugin vehicle share of the overall auto market was 19% (10% full electrics/BEVs), which pulled the 2021 plugin vehicle (PEV) share to 16% (7.6% for BEVs alone).

- #1 Tesla Model 3 — The sports sedan had another peak month, scoring 26,178 deliveries in June, its best performance ever in Europe and the second best performance ever by an EV in this market, only behind the 28,110 units of the ID.3 that Volkswagen registered (or, should I say, pre-registered) last December.

- #2 Renault Zoe — Its 8,244 deliveries in June show that the French hatchback is recovering its good form. This is its best score this year.

- #3 Volkswagen ID.3 — The German hatchback is slowly returning to form as well, getting 7,101 deliveries last month, its best score in 2021.

- #4 Volkswagen ID.4 — Sitting on the vortex of the current hottest trends (plugins and compact crossovers), much is expected from the new Volkswagen, especially considering that its ID.3 sibling is yet to fill the Volkswagen Golf’s admittedly big shoes. … In June, the Volkswagen crossover had 6,619 registrations.

- Still outside the top 20, a mention is due for the first full month of two important models, with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 retro-futuristic XXL hatchback scoring 1,102 registrations, while the attractive Audi Q4 e-tron had 1,869 registrations in June


NEW MERCEDES EQE SUV CONFIRMED FOR LAUNCH IN 2022

- Mercedes has confirmed that a third pure-electric SUV will arrive in 2022 with the launch of the Tesla Model X-rivalling EQE SUV.

- It won’t be the largest Mercedes electric SUV we’ll see in the coming years, but it will be positioned towards the top end of the company’s EV line-up, sitting above the EQC and the smaller EQA and EQB SUVs when it arrives.

- The EQE badge will be shared across a large saloon and the SUV.

- From the A-pillars back, the SUV takes on more traditional 4x4 proportions. Compared to the EQC, styling changes include a stubbier bonnet, longer wheelbase and a more swept-back cabin.The EQE will sit on the same EVA2 underpinnings as the EQS limo. It also marks a shift away from the conventions set by the EQC, which uses a modified version of the GLC’s platform rather than dedicated electric architecture.

- As well as ensuring the EQE is able to accommodate a large battery, Mercedes has also been prioritising ultra-rapid recharging with the new architecture.


THE UK'S FIRST EV-ONLY TRACKDAY

- This is an exclusive event for EV owners to drive their vehicles on track. Llandow is perfect for all levels of driver and offers some technically challenging corners even though it's smaller than most other UK tracks.

- The number of cars on track at any one time will be very limited. We've invited Ed Moore and his team of driver coaches from Motorsport Events/Stay Sharp along. They will be on hand all day to give help and advice on and off track. This is the perfect chance to find out how your car performs on track in a relaxed atmosphere with like-minded EV owners. No earplugs required!

- This is also the very first time a trackday has been organised exclusively for Electric Vehicles in the UK, so you'll be making history!

- The nearest Tesla Superchargers are 11 miles from Llandow at Sarn services

- £180.00 Inc VAT

  
VW PUSHES AHEAD WITH 'SUPER PLATFORM' FOR SELF-DRIVING ELECTRIC CARS

- Volkswagen Group will produce 40 million vehicles on its new electric "super platform" that will replace combustion-engine and full-electric platforms used by its brands including VW, Skoda, Seat, Audi and Porsche.

- The automaker is accelerating the development of the Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) despite having only recently started the rollouts of its MEB electric platform for volume EVs and its PPE architecture for upscale electric cars.

- VW Group's development chief Markus Duesmann, who is also Audi's CEO, said the design of the SSP platform with its differing 'modules,' battery sizes and body lengths will allow plenty of brand differentiation.

- "We will reduce today's complexity by about 50 percent. And I think you can understand what this means for us in terms of economies of scale," Duesmann said.

- "By the end of this decade, we will have rolled out as SSP across all of our core segments and all brand groups," Duesmann said. By 2030, cars on the SSP platform would "already cover a bigger volume than PPE and MEB put together," he said.


GOOD LUCK GETTING A STATE REBATE ON YOUR NEW ELECTRIC CAR

- Sam Dudley of Encino knows that California government has gone all in on zero-emission vehicles. So has he. He’s all about cutting back on greenhouse gases.In May, Dudley splurged on a new electric car, a metallic black Chevy Bolt EV LT. He loves it.But now it’s July, and the after-school program director, 39, wonders when the state will make good on the EV-incentive rebate money it owes him.He figures he’s due $4,500. He might have to wait until next year for a check to arrive, he said a rebate program representative told him by phone. And, he was warned, he and thousands of others might not get back as much money as promised, or might not receive any money at all.


EUROPE TO BOOST BATTERY PRODUCTION AS ELECTRIC-VEHICLE SHIFT ACCELERATES

- If Europe is going to shift to electric cars, it will need lots of batteries.
After years of slow progress, there are now plans to invest 40 billion euros (S$64 billion) in 38 European factories that could turn out 1,000 gigawatt hours of batteries per year,

- With average battery capacity of 60 kilowatt hours, that would be enough to power 16.7 million vehicles

- EU Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic recently said the planned factories put the EU "well on track to achieve open strategic autonomy in this critical sector".

- Europe has domestic sources of lithium, notably in the Czech Republic and Germany, but it will also probably have to depend on imports.  Mr Montique said Europe would likely end up "developing supply agreements with markets where there are abundant resources, favourable diplomatic ties, and strong investment frameworks" to reduce the threat of shortages.


POLESTAR TO LAUNCH IN FURTHER NINE MARKETS

- wedish electric performance car brand Polestar said Monday that it will launch in a further nine markets in 2021 and double its retail locations to support the brand's continuing growth.

- The brand currently has city-center retail locations under its Polestar Spaces concept, but is introducing larger, easy-to-access out-of-town locations where the company can also hand over customers' cars, in a new concept called Polestar Destinations

- by the end of 2021 it will be present in 18 countries and have up to 100 retail locations,


A ROBOT THAT CHARGES ELECTRIC CARS BY ITSELF

- The Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) in Austria teamed up with the ARTI Robots start-up and the electric vehicle service ALVERI to develop “ALVERI - CharBo” – a robot capable of charging parked electric cars without human supervision.  The robot can move autonomously between the cars, recognize charging connections, and plug in. Electric vehicles are on the rise, and so is the demand for charging infrastructure. This creates a noticeable disparity, which this robot aims to fix.

- At the moment, the charging lid of the vehicle needs to be kept open, so the robot recognises that it needs to be charged. In the future, the team plans to remove this inconvenience, by establishing some sort of communication between the vehicle and the robot, either through an app or something else.


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With 2877 Superchargers globally and 25000 stalls, what do you think about Tesla’s plan to open up the network to everyone?

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