Polestar Offering Two Years of Free Electrify America | 22 Oct 2021

Show #1251

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Friday 22nd October. 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.

Drew Baglino, Tesla’s senior vice president of powertrain and battery engineering: "On the Supercharger side, the supercharging team monitors congestion and plans expansion to ensure customer experience with minimal wait times alongside the growth in our vehicle fleet. While we certainly have work to do in expanding capacity in some congested areas, average congestion on the network has decreased over the past 18 months. Nonetheless, we’re not standing still. We are executing on accelerating expansion plans globally. The network has doubled in the last 18 months, and we are planning to triple it over the next two years. And even so on an individual-site basis to combat existing congestion more quickly where it is isolated and problematic, we expedite local relief sites, deploy mobile Superchargers, and we try to introduce pricing strategies that encourage more off-peak usage to avoid the waiting."

There are 29,281 Superchargers and 3,254 locations worldwide.

"A team of Dutch forensic researchers have decrypted Tesla’s data storage system, providing access to a trove of information that could be useful in crash investigations. (The news was first reported by Reuters.) It’s no secret that Tesla records information about its customers’ driving behavior, both to improve its advanced driver assistance system, Autopilot, and also in the event of a crash, to provide to investigators." says The Verge: "Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) discovered that Tesla’s vehicles store far more detailed data than previously known, including speed, accelerator pedal position, steering wheel angle, and brake usage. Some of this data can be stored for up to a year, the institute said. The team was investigating a crash involving a Tesla with Autopilot in use that had rear-ended another vehicle after it braked unexpectedly. Rather than seek the data from Tesla, the Dutch investigators chose to “reverse engineer” the company’s data logs in order to “objectively” assess them. The NFI said that even though Tesla has complied with data requests from the government in the past, the company also left out a lot of data that could have proven useful."

Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/21/22738747/tesla-driving-data-hack-dutch-investigators-autopilot

"A regional environmental ministry in Germany will conduct a repeat online consultation with local citizens to review objections to Tesla's Berlin manufacturing facility, Reuters reported on Thursday." says Benzinga: "The repeat consultation will run from Nov. 2 to Nov. 22 and is open to those who expressed an objection in previous public consultation rounds but were not satisfied with the response from Tesla or the environmental ministry, as per Reuters. The agency is carrying out some consultations again to address concerns that the earlier process did not comply with regulations. There were also concerns that citizens were not given enough information that the consultation would be digital. Objections submitted in the previous round will still be valid. The fresh consultation could further delay the production start at the Gigafactory Berlin."

Read more: https://www.benzinga.com/government/21/10/23500299/tesla-giga-berlin-faces-further-delay-owing-to-regulatory-procedures

"With the potential that hydrogen-produced steel has in decarbonising the supply chain for car manufacturing, BMW Group has revealed that it will source green, hydrogen-produced steel from Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel." writes h2-view.com: "With the steel production facility set to be constructed in the province of Norrbotten, Northern Sweden and close to the Arctic Circle, H2 Green Steel employs hydrogen produced using green power to remove oxygen from the iron oxide. The direct reduction of the iron ore produces almost no carbon with water the emission and will be used in BMW’s manufacturing operations from 2025. In addition to this, BMW and H2 Green Steel have also agreed to create a closed-loop material cycle. Raw materials can then be used multiple times in a circular economy to protect natural resources."

Read more: https://www.h2-view.com/story/bmw-to-source-hydrogen-produced-steel-from-h2-green-steel/

"Many people are passionate about climate change, but not everybody should drive a battery electric vehicle as a means to combat climate change, Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) Chief Scientist Gill Pratt said on Thursday at the Reuters Events Automotive Summit. Pratt's comments, during a discussion on electric vehicles, appeared to amplify remarks made over the past year by Toyota President Akio Toyoda." reports Reuters: "Toyoda and other company officials have said that electric vehicles will play a greater role in reducing emissions, but other solutions should be used, Toyota's gasoline-electric hybrid models or hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles."

Reuters adds: "Toyota was among major automakers that supported the Trump administration in its attempt to bar California from setting its own zero-emission requirements"

Gill Pratt said: "It's not for us to predict which solution is the best."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toyota-exec-not-everyone-should-drive-battery-electric-vehicle-2021-10-21/

*AD BREAK*

"A few weeks after launching a marketing campaign for the Ultium platform in China, General Motors has just inaugurated the new Ultium Center factory in the city of Shanghai. The Ultium Center is qualified as a “super factory” that will produce entire battery systems and state-of-the-art motors for the automaker’s upcoming fully electric vehicles in the Asian country." says GM Authority: "SAIC-GM, the US automaker’s main joint venture in China, announced the start of operations at the new Ultium Center factory as a milestone for mass production of next-generation Buick, Cadillac and Chevrolet electric vehicles. As such, it will become the main supplier of powertrains and battery packs for Ultium EV platform-based electric vehicles built in China."

Read more: https://gmauthority.com/blog/2021/10/gm-inaugurates-new-ultium-center-factory-in-china/

"Electric vehicle conversion company Voltia has announced the launch of five new electric XL van models. The new 11-cubic metre vans are based on the Stellantis platform for Peugeot, Citroën, Opel, Vauxhall and Toyota vehicles." reports electrive: "As with the well-known Voltia models based on the Nissan e-NV 200, the Slovakian specialist’s conversions only affect the body, specifically the load compartment. While the Stellantis models and the Toyota are offered in three vehicle lengths (4.60 metres, 4.95 metres and 5.30 metres), Voltia uses only the 5.30-metre version. Voltia specifies a range of 280 kilometres for the large and 190 kilometres for the small battery. For the intended use, which is mainly in last-mile delivery, these values are sufficient. For AC charging, Voltia will offer both the 7.4 kW charger and the three-phase onboard charger with 11 kW."

Read more: https://www.electrive.com/2021/10/21/voltia-to-produce-electric-vans-in-2022-based-on-stellantis-platform/

"The free charging offer is being provided to all Polestar 2 owners, even those that have already purchased their vehicles or are still waiting to take delivery. Each free charging session will be good for 30 minutes, which is enough to provide a Polestar 2 with an optimal amount of charge when stopping on a long journey, according to Polestar. " reports FutureCar: "Drivers will be able to access the free charging offer through Electrify America's smartphone app using a unique enrollment code, from late October.  Existing Polestar 2 owners will receive a communication from the company containing their enrollment codes or can visit their local Polestar Space retail showroom to get one. New customers will begin their two-year free charging period upon delivery."

Read more: https://www.futurecar.com/4945/Polestar-is-Offering-Two-Years-of-Free-DC-Fast-Charging-From-Electrify-America-to-Polestar-2-Drivers

"A new study by Professor Yan Wang and a research team from the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC), in partnership with battery company A123 Systems, has found that batteries with recycled cathodes are as good as, or even better than brand new ones." says The NExt Web: "The recycled material ended up having a more microscopic porous structure, which makes it easier for lithium ions to slip in and out. According to the research, the new structure produced some amazing results: the batteries displayed the same energy density to those made with commercial cathodes, and showed a longer life by a whopping 53%. This makes it difficult to argue that batteries with recycled cathodes will leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere, calling for road assistance."

Read more: https://thenextweb.com/news/are-recycled-ev-batteries-as-good-a-new-yes-thousand-times-yes

When buying a used electric car, how do you feel about servicing? Do you want the previous person to have been back to a dealer every year? Do you care? Some manufacturers like Tesla don’t even have a service schedule so how do you feel about buying a used EV and it’s service history, or lack of.

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

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