EV Batteries Continue Their Price Decline | 06 Oct 2021

Show #1236

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Wednesday 6th October. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

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Welcome to new PATREON PRODUCER JOHN E AVENSON

"Passenger car manufacturers, being offered just a proportion of the critical semiconductors used in their highly modern vehicles – mainly originating from Asia – are having to ration these and are choosing to fit them to their most profitable models." writes Matthias Schmidt: "With tough fleet average EU CO2 emissions targets on the table, car manufacturers are having to balance their 'carbon books' and are increasing PEV sales mixes, with Germany and France both recording new penetration highs in August in order to compensate for those overweight luxobarges, that are as quick to turn heads as they are profits. Volkswagen's multi-brand MEB dedicated fully-electric production line in Zwickau, where CUPRA's Born was the latest model to join the line last month, and the daily production rate trend – presented in an investor relations presentation earlier in September – shows BEVs were not impacted by the chip shortage. This is causing a rising sales mix for their premium-end models and consequently is reflected in the profit margins."

On the actual volumes, Matthias reports: "BEVs are now expected to soak up 10.2% (1.132M units) of the total market while with PHEVs added to the equation – a route mostly exploited by premium OEMs – soaking up 9.8% of the total market (1.088M), the report now expects every fifth new passenger car this year to be a plug-in, translating to 2.22 million new vehicles"

Read more: https://www.schmidtmatthias.de/post/semiconductor-crisis-accelerates-the-ev-transition

"GM plans to position itself as a technology platform company that is as focused on software as it is on making electric vehicles when it meets with investors next week, including revealing a scheduled rollout for at least 20 EVs in the United States over the next several years." reports Autoblog: "GM executives will provide a more detailed look at the company's plans to spend $35 billion through 2025 on EVs and autonomous vehicles, and will give revenue and profit margin growth targets for the five-year period after that, according to people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified. GM will reveal greater detail around its planned EV product launches beyond the upcoming GMC Hummer pickup, EV600 delivery van and Cadillac Lyriq crossover. That includes plans for electric versions of GM's Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups in late 2022 and late 2023, respectively, according to the sources as well as an industry forecast provided by AutoForecast Solutions (AFS)."

Reuters also said: "When it comes to software, GM will discuss what its offerings allow it to do financially and how that will make the Detroit company's business less cyclical than auto companies have been historically, the sources said. Last week, GM introduced the branding for its software platform, Ultifi - coming in 2023 - and discussed building an App store-like approach to making the platform open for developers. Software-oriented products and services are key to GM and other automakers sustaining profit margins during the transition to connected and electric vehicles, but that will compel companies to build skills and workforces they have lacked in the past.

Read more: https://www.autoblog.com/2021/10/03/gm-software-platform-ev/

"Even though for electric vehicles manufacturers have more freedom in regard to where they can put the motor (because it is smaller and lighter than an ICE lump), Porsche apparently wants to stick with a midship design for its upcoming 718 EV replacement. So even though the sports car will be electric, Porsche want the motor to be roughly in the same place where the engine sits in the current Cayman and Boxster models." says InsideEVs: "The goal is to have as much of the vehicle’s mass concentrated as close to its center as possible, in order to preserve its handling and agility. They want to make it feel as close to the current model as possible and Autocar points out that the platform that underpins it may also be used in future Audi or Lamborghini sports cars. With the recent Mission R concept shown at IAA 2021, Porsche apparently used a 718 Cayman platform as the base. They then electrified it and gave it the racy, futuristic body that really drew a lot of looks at its debut."

CEO Oliver Blume: "When we electrify a model, we won’t do a carry-over of the combustion engine [platform] because there are too many compromises. When we are looking to future sports cars, we would develop its own platform but connected with some modules coming from other cars. But the platform will be unique."

Read more: https://insideevs.com/news/538370/porsche-ev-sportscar-mid-engined/

 WiTricity, the pioneer in wireless charging, today announced that its patented technology is seeing its first availability as factory-installed equipment in a fully electric vehicle (BEV). Hyundai unveiled the Genesis GV60 in a series of videos and announcements featuring wireless charging.

In the future, in addition to simplicity and reliability, wireless charging also has the potential to provide Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) power and dynamic charging to power vehicles in motion. And it will be indispensable for autonomous vehicles, providing the ability to refuel without human intervention.

Read more: https://witricity.com/

Research by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office estimates the cost of an electric vehicle lithium-ion battery pack declined 87% between 2008 and 2021 (using 2021 constant dollars). The 2021 estimate is $157/kWh on a usable-energy basis (the equivalent of $143/kWh on a rated-energy basis) for production at scale, i.e.,100,000 units per year. That compares to $1,237/kWh on a usable-energy basis in 2008. The decline in cost is a combination of improvements in battery technologies and chemistries, and an increase in manufacturing volume. 

Read more: https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1206-oct-4-2021-doe-estimates-electric-vehicle-battery-pack-costs-2021

TESLA CHIP SHORTAGE: NOT A PROBLEM THIS Q3, Engineering Team Found a Way Says Elon Musk

"Tesla has also experienced the chip shortage issue but was not a problem for the clean energy company as the engineering team has found a way around it, which focused on its manufacturing." reports Tech Times: "According to Morgan Stanley's investor notes (as analyzed by Adam Jonas), the clean energy company had no problems concerning chip shortages because it sourced it in-house. That being said, Tesla has focused on its microcontrollers which it can produce, something that they have assembled and combined for its vehicles. With these, the company need not source the chips from an external source, and this was something that the vehicle manufacturer has focused on for a long time now."

Read more: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/266198/20211004/tesla-chip-shortage-problem-q3-engineering-team-found-way-elon.htm

"Tesla (TSLA) was once the most shorted stock in the NASDAQ as people were heavily betting against the electric automaker, but now it looks like most of them have given up as the short interest on Tesla hits an all-time low." reports Electrek: "Over the years, Tesla has been the target of some high-profile short-sellers like Jim Chanos, who made his name on shorting Enron, and David Einhorn, who made his name shorting Lehman Brothers before its 2008 collapse. They have lost millions on their bets against Tesla, but until recently, they seemed to be holding on. Now it appears to have changed, as the short interest on Tesla’s stock has crumbled to an all-time low. It’s a massive change since up to 20% of Tesla’s entire float was shorted at some point last year – when it was the most shorted stock on the market – but the short percentage steadily fell over the last 12 months."

Bloomberg reports: “The percentage of stock borrowed by traders, a standard measure of short interest, has slumped to 1.1% of Tesla’s shares available for trading, according to IHS Markit Ltd. as of last Thursday. That’s the lowest since 2010, when the carmaker went public.”

Read more: https://electrek.co/2021/10/04/people-are-not-betting-against-tesla-tsla-anymore-short-interest-all-time-low/

"Tesla, the electric car company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has been ordered by a court to pay a black former employee $137 million in damages over racist abuse by colleagues." writes the Daily Telegraph "In a legal claim against Tesla he said: "Tesla's progressive image was a facade papering over its regressive, demeaning treatment of African-American employees." Mr Diaz alleged that despite his complaints to supervisors Tesla took no action over the regular racist abuse. A jury in San Francisco awarded $130 million in punitive damages and $6.9 million for emotional distress."

Tesla posted a blog, here is an excerpt:

"The Tesla of 2015 and 2016 (when Mr. Diaz worked in the Fremont factory) is not the same as the Tesla of today. Since then, Tesla has added an Employee Relations team, dedicated to investigating employee complaints. Tesla has added a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion team dedicated to ensuring that employees have the equal opportunity to excel at Tesla. And Tesla now has a comprehensive Employee Handbook (replacing the Anti-Handbook Handbook) where all of our HR policies, employee protections, and ways to report issues are published in one easy-to-find online document.

We acknowledge that we still have work to do to ensure that every employee feels that they can bring their whole self to work at Tesla. And as I posted in July, we will continue to remind everyone who enters the Tesla workplace that any discriminatory slurs – no matter the intent or who is using them – will not be tolerated.

Thank You For All You Do For Tesla

Valerie

VP, People"

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