Volvo’s Electric Future Open Door For $20bn IPO | 17 Sep 2021

Show #1214

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Friday 17th September. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

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"Although this version of the ID.4 is marketed under the GTX subbrand in Europe, the U.S. model gets a subtler moniker here but has the same upgraded powertrain. With the 2021 ID.4 AWD Pro and Pro S now ready for sale, Volkswagen has announced the EPA estimates for range and efficiency, along with pricing for the newest member of the ID family."

"The Volkswagen ID.4 AWD Pro and Pro S models add an extra motor on the front axle, increasing power by 94 horsepower to 295 and boosting torque by 110 pound-feet to 339. These powertrain upgrades drop the range by around ten miles according to the EPA, with the AWD Pro going 249 miles on a charge while the Pro S can manage 240 miles."

"The 2021 ID.4 AWD Pro will start at $44,870 and the the AWD Pro S will cost $49,370, increases of $3680 over the rear-wheel-drive models."

"China's Geely Holding (GEELY.UL) is in advanced discussions with banks to list its Volvo Cars unit in the coming weeks, three sources told Reuters, in what is expected to be one of Europe's biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) this year."

"Volvo Cars is aiming for a valuation of about $20 billion in the planned Stockholm listing, the sources said, with one saying the launch was pencilled in for the end of September."

"Geely, which bought Volvo from Ford Motor(F.N) more than a decade ago in the biggest acquisition by a Chinese firm of a foreign car maker, sought to float shares in the Swedish firm in 2018 but then pulled the deal. A $20 billion valuation for Volvo would be equivalent to six to seven times its earnings, a level some analysts say is high although it would put it in line with rivals Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and BMW (BMWG.DE). Tesla's valuation is more than 70 times."

"Rivian, which rolled its first electric pickup truck off the production line this week, will seek a valuation of about $70 billion to $80 billion when it goes public at the end of this year, sources have told Reuters."

"EV charging provider InstaVolt has published a pledge to install 10,000 electric vehicle chargers across the UK by 2030. However, the company has some way to go but points to some powerful partnerships."

"So far, InstaVolt has a thousand chargers either active or in development and yet set ambitious intermediate targets. Speaking of the commitment, InstaVolt CEO Adrian Keen said the company was on track to deliver or exceed its earlier pledge of 5,000 rapid chargers by 2025"

"InstaVolt points to important partnerships in recent months, including deals with McDonald’s and Costa Coffee where it began rolling out new 120-kW charging stations. This is a notch up in an engagement going back to June 2020. At the time, McDonald’s had more than 1,300 branches in Great Britain."

"InstaVolt relies on BYD technology for the new charging units that deliver up to 125 kW. The charging stations have one CCS and one CHAdeMO connector on each unit allowing two cars to be charged at once."

"Chinese electric vehicle startup XPeng unveiled its latest vehicle on Wednesday named the P5. The fully electric P5 fastback will compete with models like the Tesla Model 3.  The P5 is also the world's first production vehicle equipped with automotive-grade lidar technology to support safe autonomous driving."

"The more affordable P5 is immediately available for order in China with six different configurations available. The retail price ranges from RMB 157,900 to RMB 223,900 (US$24,484 to $34,717). The P5 comes with either a 55.9 kWh, 66.2 kWh or 71.4 kWh battery option."

"The P5 expands XPeng's autonomous driving feature called "Navigation Guided Pilot" (NGP). The feature originally worked on highways but now its being updated to work on secondary roads for point to point navigation. The city version of NGP will allow for high-precision navigation that's specifically tailored to China's challenging city road conditions. NGP will also be upgraded to "NGP-L", which integrates with lidar for even safer automated driving on China's highways and expressways."

Ola’s S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters are off to a massive start after the first day of sales, with CEO Bhavish Aggarwal claiming that the company is selling two electric scooters every second."

"The company boasted 80,000 sales in the first 12 hours. To put that into perspective, that’s a daily sales rate that matches the quarterly sales rate of electric scooter industry leader NIU."

"The Ola S1 and S1 Pro are powered by an 8.5 kW electric motor. The base-level S1 has a top speed of 90 km/h (56 mph) while the S1 Pro can reach higher speeds of up to 115 km/h (71 mph)."

"The world’s first battery-electric freight train was unveiled at an event in Pittsburgh on Friday, amid a fresh attempt by some US lawmakers to slash carbon emissions from rail transport in order to address the climate crisis."

"Wabtec, the Pittsburgh-based rail freight company, showed off its locomotive at Carnegie Mellon University as part of a new venture between the two organizations to develop zero emissions technology to help move the 1.7bn tons of goods that are shipped on American railroads each year."

"Housed in a traditional locomotive body, the new battery system drives the axles of the train and uses the kinetic energy of the train’s braking to partially recharge the battery, . The newest version will be a 7-megawatt battery locomotive"

New Jersey’s incentive program providing up to $5,000 toward the order, purchase or lease of an electric vehicle is running out of money again and will be suspended as of 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15.The Charge Up New Jersey program began last year, then went on hold for more than six months after the funds were fully allocated. It restarted on July 6 – but is already going back on hold ahead of schedule just 10 weeks later.The program has provided an estimated $30 million a year in incentives toward nearly 9,000 EVs over two years,

The incentives amount to $25 per mile of a vehicle’s all-electric range, as rated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Cars with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price under $45,000 can receive up to $5,000 in incentives.Vehicles with an MSRP between $45,000 and $55,000 can receive up to $2,000.

Electric vehicle fleet and infrastructure startup Gravity thinks it has cracked the code for urban EV charging infrastructure.

The company, which was founded in February this year, announced its construction project to convert an indoor parking garage in the middle of Manhattan into a public EV fast charging hub.

When the 29-space garage on 42nd Street, which Gravity is leasing from real estate firm Related Companies, opens within a few weeks, it will be the island’s first dedicated EV charging space

Finding a place to park your car in New York City is a nightmare in and of itself. Finding a park and a charge for your EV is like finding a unicorn, and probably an expensive unicorn at that. Most of NYC’s EV charge points are behind the literal paywalls of parking garages, where you might find one or two Blink or EV Connect chargers nestled into a sea of ICE vehicle parking spaces. With Gravity’s hub, parking is free while cars are being charged. The only cost is that of electricity.

Gravity’s first site will accommodate about 22 fast chargers, three intermediate chargers and a few slow chargers. All of the fast chargers are up to 180 kW, which means that even when two vehicles are plugged into one installation, each plug can do 90 kW of energy.

Many of the parking spots will be taken up by Gravity’s fleet of Tesla Model Y Yellow Cabs, which will charge overnight.

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