Monthly Archives: November 2020

Islington Council welcomes new Renault Zoe fleet

November 10, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Renault, ZOERepost

Islington Council has added six Renault Zoes to its fleet as part of a gradual transition towards zero-emission vehicles.

The new additions will be used by the council’s Voids Team, who inspect and assess council properties that become empty across the borough’s near six square mile area, within its Housing Proerty Services division.

The arrival of the Council’s first Renault Zoes coincides with the upgrade of its fleet charging infrastructure. The council aims to switch more vehicles within its 500-strong fleet – spanning cars and small vans through to street sweeping vehicles and 26-tonne refuse and recycling collection vehicles – to electric.

Cllr Rowena Champion, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Environment and Transport, said: “Islington Council is committed to making our fleet greener, as part of our continuing efforts to clean the air that local people breathe and to help achieve our goal of creating a net zero carbon Islington by 2030.

“The use of the Renault Zoe by our Voids Team will help to achieve this goal, ensuring that the team are able to travel around the borough in an environmentally-friendly way. The team visits all kinds of locations across the borough, and the convenient size of the Zoe has proved to be hugely beneficial, ensuring that operatives can park easily. The Voids Team have also been complimentary on the ride, range and navigation system within the vehicle.”

Islington Council opted for the Renault Zoe due to the value it represented, its real-world range of up to 245 miles and flexible charging options. The vehicles were procured via The Procurement Partnership Limited (TPPL) framework agreement, which from a choice of vehicles from up to 14 manufacturers identified the Renault Zoe as the best fit for the requirements of Islington Council.

Finished in Glacier White with the addition of Islington’s Council livery, the Renault Zoes were ordered in the Iconic level of trim.

Vincent Tourette, managing director, Groupe Renault UK, added: “Islington Council covers one of the most densely populated London boroughs and we are delighted that it has chosen the Renault Zoe to help in its quest to make the region a cleaner and healthier environment and also support one of its busiest divisions.

“With councils under increasing financial strain and facing the difficult task of needing to lower their environmental impact without affecting their productivity, the Renault ZE electric vehicle range is proving the perfect solution. With our electric vehicle expertise spanning almost 10 years and our EV offering being stronger than ever, local authorities enjoy the peace-of-mind that a Renault electric vehicle is amongst the very best of its kind and that there’s a version that will certainly meet their passenger car and light commercial vehicle needs.”

Available from £26,995, on the road after the Plug-in Car Grant, the Renault Zoe offers a range of up to 245 and, with the 50KW DC rapid charge option, 90 miles of charge can be restored in 30 minutes.

Demand for hybrid and electric cars outstrips diesels for first time

November 9, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

One in four new cars registered in September was a hybrid or electric vehicle.
Demand for new hybrid and electric cars in Europe outstripped demand for diesels for the first time ever in September, according to new figures. Data from Jato Dynamics shows one in four new cars registered last month was a hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle, while the diesel market slumped to a record low.

While the market across the 27 European nations saw growth of just 1.2 percent in September, with almost 1.3 million passenger cars registered, demand for electrified vehicles increased by 156 percent compared with the same month in 2019. It’s the first time more than 300,000 hybrid and electric cars have been registered in a single month, and only the second time they have made up more than 20 percent of European registrations.

At the same time, the diesel market slumped to a record low, with a market share of 24.8 percent in September. Exactly 10 years ago, diesel cars comprised 50 percent of registrations, while the market share for hybrids and electric cars was below one percent.

Hybrids and mild-hybrids took the lion’s share of electrified registrations, growing in volume by 124 percent. As usual, Toyota and sister firm Lexus boasted a 32-percent share of that market, while Ford, Suzuki and BMW also pitched in. The Ford Puma, of which 69 percent of registrations were mild-hybrid versions, was the continent’s third most popular SUV, while the Fiat 500 (59 percent mild-hybrid) was the top-selling city car.

Pure-electric car demand was led by Tesla, although the Californian company’s volume fell by five percent while rivals such as Volkswagen and Renault saw rises of 352 percent and 211 percent respectively. According to Jato, the Volkswagen Group, which includes Skoda, Seat, Audi and Volkswagen, is now Europe’s top-selling electric car manufacturer, while Mercedes-Benz was the plug-in hybrid market leader with a 22 percent market share.

The best-selling single electric car, however, was the Tesla Model 3, with 15,702 examples registered, while the top-selling plug-in hybrid was the Mercedes-Benz A-Class. The Toyota Corolla, meanwhile, spearheaded the mild-hybrid and hybrid charge.

“The shift from internal combustion engines to electrified vehicles is finally taking place,” said Felipe Munoz, global analyst at Jato Dynamics. “Although this is largely down to government policies and incentives, consumers are also now ready to adopt these new technologies.

“As with its SUVs, Volkswagen Group arrived late to the electric vehicle boom, but its competitive products are catching up quickly, and it is now becoming a leader.”

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Why EU Car Manufacturers Are Actually “Slow-Walking” 2020 EV Sales

November 8, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

This title may have caught you off-guard and made you do a double-take. After all, Europe is having a record, blowout, tremendously inspiring year for electric vehicle sales. It seems that every monthly report on European EV sales, including the one we just published, includes an exclamation mark and a ton of new sales records. So, what am I talking about with automakers “slow-walking” electric vehicle (EV) sales in the EU?

Full credit goes to Michael Liebreich, founder of what is now Bloomberg New Energy Finance*, for bringing this to my attention. Well, some credit should also go to the German journalists who mentioned this in a recent story, but here’s Michael’s summary highlight of one key part of the German article:

“Good article (in German) explaining why EU car manufacturers are slow-walking EV sales: 2020 will be taken as baseline for a 37.5% CO2 reduction by 2030. They don’t want to over-deliver this year and face a tougher target. Watch the numbers soar in 2021!”

If you’ve been following along, you know that EV market share has been soaring through the open roof of Camp Nou Allianz Arena the European auto market because: 1) automakers have to pay steep fines or buy expensive credits from Tesla if they don’t meet certain fleet emissions standards, 2) customers actually do want to buy good electric vehicles if automakers produce and try to sell them. In fact, last month, EV sales accounted for 12% of overall auto market sales, a 166% increase over September 2019.

While automakers are certainly working harder to sell EVs in order to not pay sharp fines, it appears that they are also holding back, essentially trying to keep EV sales within an ideal little box.

Let’s add a little nuance here to make sure we tease out the point Michael made briefly above:

Automakers have to have a fleet average of 95 gr/km CO2 emissions per car, with the requirement phasing in starting in 2020, or they have to pay steep fines.
The requirement gets stricter as time moves on.
Additionally, CO2 emissions probably need to be cut by 37.5% by 2030, based on 2020 emissions.
The lower emissions are in 2020, the lower they need to be in 2030, so automakers that really want to slow-walk the transition to electric cars are aiming to barely meet 2020 requirements rather than blow past them and set a more ambitious bar for 2030.

European EV sales have been exciting and exhilarating in 2020, one of the best things about 2020 and one of the biggest cleantech wins of the year. 10% plugin vehicle market share is several times higher than 2019’s market share in Europe, and it makes the USA’s 2.3% or so plugin vehicle market share look like a joke. However, José Pontes keeps previewing that 2020 is just the appetizer and 2021 will be #Disruption ’21. This quirk or mistake in EU policy that Michael Liebreich highlighted, combined with lack of ambition and lack of leadership among automakers, explains one reason why that’s the case. It also explains the importance of policy.

The US has a simple federal tax credit for people who buy a new electric vehicle. (Though, buyers of Tesla and GM electric vehicles no longer qualify for this, since they passed 200,000 US plugin vehicle sales and then went through the incentive phaseout period.) This federal tax credit is up to $7500, which is pretty substantial, but it’s a simple policy, one that many car buyers can’t take advantage of, and one that I’m sure most people don’t even know about. More comprehensive policies that essentially force automakers to electrify more vehicles go a lot further in hastening the industry transformation to an electric era. Automakers, like other companies, like and respond to very clear signals about where they should be headed. They will follow regulations, but they will also drag their feet and use delay tactics if there aren’t strong policies persuading them to change.

This is why we need good politicians in office who are capable of paying attention to detail, who can focus enough to determine and include critical nuance and context for new legislation, who will actually try to push industries and society forward instead of trying to drag them backward, and who are just, you know, not crazy sociopaths.

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I’ve Been An Anxious Driver My Whole Adult Life – Could This Be The Answer?

November 7, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

I’ve always hated driving, but with a small child and public transport out, I have no choice but to get behind the wheel. But could an electric car actually make me enjoy it?

When the government announced that London – where I live – was about to be placed under tier 2 restrictions my heart sunk. Primarily because it meant visiting friends and family was going to become increasingly difficult as the weather turned colder and any tentative socialising I’d tried to do since the summer was about to be curtailed. But as well as restricting mixing between households, tier 2 restrictions also you to avoid public transport where possible. One thing was clear: I was going to have to drive the bloody car again.

Much to most people’s surprise I passed my driving test first time when I was 19. By then I was already away at university, and occasionally drove short distances when I came home for the holidays. But as the gaps between the drives grew, my confidence shrank and after a few months I told my dad not to bother adding me to the insurance when it was up for renewal.

As an adult living in London, I never owned a car, even turning down the offer of a second-hand one, reasoning that I wouldn’t use it and vaguely aware that ‘car things’ (i.e. tax, insurance, petrol) were really expensive and would make quite a dent into my salary. When I met my husband he always drove, and apart from the time he developed a nasty stomach bug halfway through a driving holiday along the garden route in South Africa, this served us both fine.

Well it did until coronavirus hit, and with public transport off the cards, a small child and some refresher driving lessons under my belt, I decided to get back on the road. Unfortunately, I don’t like driving now any more than I did as a teenager – especially though the busy streets and junctions of North London where I live. The thought of a drive coming up utterly preoccupies me, so I can’t think about anything else, and nothing about the act of driving itself comes naturally to me – I’m constantly having to remind myself to check my mirrors, check my speed, remember which gear I’m in and avoid other cars. Ok a slight exaggeration, I’m not that bad, but I would do anything to make the whole experience less stressful and more enjoyable, even if I am driving to yet another soft play on the North Circular.

Something my husband and I have both been interested in for a while is investing in an electric car. It makes sense from an environmental perspective and we’d both heard good things about how nice, and surprisingly nippy, the newest models were to drive. The new Renault Zoe seemed to fit the bill. The third generation of Renault’s flagship electric vehicle boasts more power and range than ever before, while its compact size and fact that it comes with a new B Mode that’s specially designed for urban driving appeal to us city dwellers. With that in mind we took one out for a weekend test drive to put the car (and me) through our paces.

My husband went first, his enthusiasm for a new driving experience (he’s never driven an electric car before) was only matched by our 13-month-old son who appeared to be thrilled by the whole adventure. The car was small, but we were still able to fit in a car seat in the back, a buggy in the boot and various winter coats, jumpers and boots in the back without feeling like we were cramming stuff in – although a family larger than ours might struggle with anything more than a day out.

The iPad-sized display allows you to connect your phone or use the in-built sat nav without having to squint at what’s coming next, and as a passenger it felt incredibly smooth and slick. My husband was impressed by just how quickly the car picked up speed, and requested an extension on his turn behind the wheel so he could take it down a junction on the motorway and back through some country roads.

We then swapped over and once I’d relaxed, remembered I didn’t have a clutch and done a few miles, I was amazed at how quickly I was starting to enjoy myself. As I drove us home past all the spots that I normally dread – the awkward junctions, tight corners and massive roundabouts that normally put me off getting behind the wheel – I realised they were all significantly easier to negotiate. Without having to think about gears and clutch control, I was able to focus on the drive itself, and for the first time since I passed my test all those years ago, I started to see what other people enjoy about the whole experience. As we got to the smaller, busy roads near our house, I switched to B Mode, which increased engine braking and allowed me to drive with one pedal.

So am I a driving convert? Not quite, but I’m starting to see how I could become one, and it increasingly looks like going electric could be part of my conversion. And it it makes connecting with my friends and family easier while we negotiate this weird time, then I’m all for it.

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To Save the Planet, Get More EVs Into Used Car Lots

November 6, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

To reduce carbon emissions, electric vehicles need to stay on the road as long as possible. That means developing a robust trade in secondhand cars.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES ARE getting more popular. Now they’re getting flashy too: new electric pickup trucks, new electric semis, new electric sports cars, a new electric G-Wagen.

But all that zippy sexiness only matters to a small slice of the US. Seventy percent of the vehicles sold in the country last year were used, according to data from Edmunds. So when Americans go electric, most will do it in a used vehicle.

There’s more than thrift involved. “If we’re serious about meeting climate change goals, we need to get rid of every internal combustion engine in the next 15 to 20 years,” says Ryan Sclar, who researches electric mobility at the World Resources Institute. “We’re not going to get there without utilizing the used market.” It’s critical, he says, that electric vehicles stay on the road as long as possible—no matter how many times the keys change hands.

Until now, though, there hasn’t been much of a market for used electric vehicles. For one, there haven’t been many used electric vehicles to buy. EVs didn’t reach even 1 percent of US vehicle sales until 2017. If you’re looking for an older EV, the pickings can be slim.

But there wasn’t much demand for used electrics, either. Most new EVs were leased, and when the leases expired, dealerships complained that they languished on the lot. The anxiety about range that afflicts new-car shoppers affects used shoppers too—but worse, as prospective buyers fret that the expensive batteries inside the vehicles might degrade all at once. The first generation of electric vehicles had a reputation for poor performance. That stuck around for a while.

“The notion was that someday this battery—this giant, expensive battery—is going to die for good, and that the owner is going to be on the hook for the replacement,” says Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor at the online car marketplace Cars.com. “People were very afraid that a used car was much closer to the graveyard in ways internal combustion engine cars weren’t. But that was a false assumption on a lot of people’s parts.”

Now, more capable electric vehicles, with ranges exceeding 100 miles, are making their way to used car lots, like BMW i3s, Nissan Leafs, and Volkswagen E-Golfs from 2014 and later. As the market develops, some say it’s not too early to think about ways to support it.

The electric market may be like a flywheel: Get it spinning and you won’t have to worry about keeping it spinning. “Will a lot of the concerns and barriers to entry on electric vehicles erode in the next three to five years? Absolutely,” says Karl Brauer, an executive analyst at the vehicle research company iSeeCars.com. “It’s just kind of an inevitable trend.”

Ranges for new vehicles keep increasing, and batteries (which cost upwards of $5,000 to replace) have not degraded in the way some folks had feared. Some of the EV-curious also seem to be realizing that they don’t need an expensive car with a 300-mile range to get through their daily routines, especially if they have another car for longer trips.

Omar Islam got interested in electric vehicles because of Tesla, but he knew he couldn’t afford one. So he purchased a used 2013 Nissan Leaf two years ago. When the car was new—and cost $36,000—its range maxed out at 75 miles; by the time Islam bought it off Craigslist for $6,000, it got 69 to 71 miles per charge. That was more than enough for his daily driving around Marietta, Georgia, where he lives. He adored the car—until a collision took it out of service. “If I had the funds, I would buy that same car all over again,” he says.

Today, those like Islam interested in used EVs can generally find a good deal—in part, for the reason that makes some in the electric vehicle industry nervous. Thus far, electric vehicles have depreciated pretty quickly. (The exception is Tesla; its luxury cars tend to hold their value better.) If you don’t think you’ll be able to sell your car at a good price, you might not buy one to begin with. “The used car market is critical for the adoption of new cars,” says Gil Tal, who directs the Plug-in Hybrid & Electric Vehicle Research Center at UC Davis.

Tal has done research on buyers of used electrics in California, which suggests that they’re likelier to have lower incomes and rent their homes than the folks who are buying the cars new. Other research, led by University of Washington civil and environmental engineering professor Don MacKenzie, finds used EV buyers are likelier to be what they call “garage orphans”—people who park on the street or in a parking lot, making it harder to charge the car. That raises questions about the infrastructure needed to support them, such as public charging stations.

A federal program that for years handed out $7,500 in subsidies to battery electric buyers does not apply to used cars (it is now winding down), and many state subsidies only apply to new EVs. Now California, the nationwide leader in all things electric vehicle, has started to think about creative ways to help out the used car market, and potential used EV buyers. One two-year-old program offers grants and financing to low- and moderate-income drivers—for a family of four, those with annual incomes up to $105,000—to help them purchase or lease EVs, including used ones. Another, in the works but not yet funded, could finance battery or fuel cell replacements in cars that are past their prime.

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How Formula E Racing Is Driving the Electric Vehicle Revolution

November 5, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Early in October, shockwaves rocked the auto and racing communities when yet another large auto company—this time, Honda—announced it was leaving Formula One, the 800-pound gorilla of the international racing world. Why? As Honda explained, the auto industry is now facing a “once-in-one-hundred-years period of great transformation,” and it was joining the exodus, moving to ZEV.

Zero Emission Vehicles Racing is to the auto business as NASA’s Space Race was to electronics: a place to test innovations under the most competitive, challenging, and unpredictable conditions. This super-charged movement to ZEVs—and especially, electric vehicles (EVs)—goes hand in hand with the meteoric rise of upstart Formula E, an international racing series featuring only all-electric cars. After just four seasons, the series now boasts 12 teams, two more than the Formula One series, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“Formula E is our high-speed performance laboratory,” Tomasso Volpe, Nissan Global Motorsports Director, who oversees Nissan’s Formula E team, tells Observer. “We are pushing technologies at the maximum. There’s an obvious link between racing and innovations in EVs.”

Back in 2014, few experts took Formula E seriously when its teams began racing before sometimes puzzled crowds in Beijing, Buenos Aires, Long Beach, Monaco, Moscow, Berlin, London, and other cities. Each team fielded two drivers and four standardized electric race cars; drivers switched cars halfway through the race, hopefully before the first car ran out of juice. Those quirky rules changed, replaced with one car per driver and “open design,” meaning that each team had more freedom to engineer unique cars. This attracted more interest from auto manufacturers.

Still, Formula E seemed more like a glitzy, star-studded novelty, with team owners including Leonardo DiCaprio (who also produced the 2019 Formula E documentary And We Go Green) and Michael Andretti, one of the most successful drivers in Indy Car racing history.

Today, Formula E (now officially known as the ABB FIA Formula E Championship) has performed beyond even its founder Alejandro Agag’s expectations, with 12 teams competing. Those teams include racing legends Jaguar, BMW, Nissan, Audi, and, most recently, Porsche and Mercedes.

EV expert Eward Kjaer, who advises power utilities on EVs, says Formula E is a game-changer not only for its technological advances, but also because it helps consumers see electric vehicles as high-performance cars, not golf carts putt-putting around senior communities. “The progression of Formula E has been really impressive,” he says. “It’s exciting racing, and they’ve created state-of-the-art concepts involving the fans. They are so much further ahead than Formula One, which is stuck in the past.”

Though Formula One cars are technically hybrids, with a small electric engine boosting range, the series’ reliance on internal combustion engines now puts it at odds with car manufacturers, such as Honda, who are pledging to focus all their research on ZEVs. Future EVs will bear the fruits of this amped-up research. In past decades, racing teams jumpstarted inventions such as the rearview mirror (Indianapolis 1911), improved seat belt and safety designs, and carbon fiber, the strong-but-light composite now ubiquitous in luxury sports cars.

Already, Formula E teams are moving at warp speed on improvements, especially with efficiency and energy management, Volpe says. Nissan, a pioneer in electric vehicles, entered the series only two years ago, intrigued by the chance to compete against other EV manufacturers with the most cutting-edge technology. And though innovations typically flow from the race track to passenger auto production, the opposite was true for Nissan, which a decade ago began selling the first mass-market all-electric vehicle.

“We just produced our 500,000th Leaf,” says Volpe. “In the first season, we transferred our learnings from the Leaf road car to our Formula E car, and used some of our experts from our core business.”

Within two years, Nissan made it to the podium, earning a second place medal.

Though consumer EVs don’t reach the same 175-mph top speeds, EVs on the track and your local streets share many of the same goals. “It”s crucial to optimize the use of energy during the races,” says Volpe. “It’s always a balance: efficiency and performance. The way you meet that balance is the same in road cars and racing.”

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Electric Vehicle Market Hits Its Tipping Point

November 4, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

Electric vehicles have been the coming thing for quite some time now. Twelve years ago Tesla TSLA -5.5% debuted its first EV, the Roadster. Ever since, EV enthusiasts have been predicting that the U.S. market for electron-powered personal transportation would soon bloom.

In the intervening years a number of promising electric cars—some from major manufacturers not named Tesla—have arrived on the market with quite a bit of hype, yet left little impression in the collective memory. EV’s that notably offered such promise, yet failed to energize a transportation revolution include Nissan’s Leaf and BMW’s i3. In large part, the failure was due to their relatively modest driving range. The original Leaf was a practical mass-market design yet good for no more than 75 miles on a charge, inducing range anxiety on any drive more ambitious than the predictable daily commute. Predictably, BMW brought high style and a price to match, but also came up short on endurance.

Yet the EV market is now abruptly shedding its elite, early-adopter appeal. If the high stakes and recent, almost universal rush by manufacturers to bring fleets of wholly practical EVs to market is a meaningful indicator, we’re fast approaching the EV tipping point. What lies beyond is a future where electric cars are the default and gasoline powered cars are relics of a carbon intensive past. The thought is incredibly encouraging to anyone who sees electric vehicles for what they ultimately are, a key element in the larger effort to electrify as much of the economy as possible, and a vital step in lowering carbon emissions from the transportation sector.

If this all sounds too bullish, too “drinking of EV Kool-Aid,” then take a close look at the evidence of the EV market’s blooming.

The Big Three U.S. auto manufacturers have abandoned the traditional sedan market, and in turn bet their near term relevance on behemoth SUVs. Ironically, the big vehicles generate large profits that automakers are directing toward projects of existential importance, namely the development of clean, electric vehicle technologies upon which the manufacturers have staked their future survival.

Among domestic car makers, General Motors GM -1% is perhaps the most fully committed to such a transition plan. The company has abandoned the traditional sedan market and, in its place, will introduce 20 EVs over the next two years, led by its recent unveiling of the Hummer electric SUV. Meanwhile, the world’s largest automaker, Volkswagen, has announced that it will cease development of new, internal combustion-powered cars in the middle of this decade.

The automakers that have gone all in on EVs have received affirmation of their strategy from the largest U.S. car market. In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order outlawing the sale of gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035. Last week, New Jersey’s environmental regulator recommended that state do the same.

This momentum is reinforced internationally by China’s requirements that EV’s account for 25% of domestic car sales within five years. In Europe, the UK and France will outlaw the sale of new gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040. Holland will implement a similar ban in 2030, and Norway in 2025.

As an added bit of evidence that EVs are the hot thing in the automobile market, EV pioneer Tesla is, no secret, now the most highly valued auto manufacturer in the world. Tesla’s market capitalization of nearly $400 billion is four times the big U.S. auto majors’ combined stock market value. The company has turned a profit in each of the last 5 quarters after a history of losses. True, Tesla’s profits depend on the sale of zero-emissions vehicle credits, but the growing market for these credits only reinforces the fact that the EV maker is in the right market at the right time.

And, while Tesla may not reach its goal of selling 500,000 cars this year, it won’t be far off the target. Think about it: A single, upstart manufacturer is on the cusp of selling half a million electric cars in a single year, in the middle of a pandemic and a secular softening of automotive sales. EVs are no longer niche products, but a growing part of the automotive mainstream.

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‘No deal’ Brexit will increase price of electric vehicles

November 3, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

A ‘no deal’ Brexit will increase the price of electric vehicles in the UK, warns the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

The SMMT has warned that a no-deal Brexit would be the worst possible outcome for the UK’s automotive industry.

The UK and EU automotive industries are deeply integrated, with around two-thirds of all battery-electric cars on sale in the UK built in European factories.

According to the organisation, the immediate imposition of blanket tariffs under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would add billions to the cost of trade and, crucially, to the cost of building and buying electric vehicles.

The 10% no-deal WTO tariff would add at least £4.5bn to the annual cost of fully assembled cars traded between the UK and the EU, with an average increase of £1,900 per EU-built vehicle sold in the UK.

For electric vehicles the cost increase is even higher, at £2,800, effectively making the £3,000 plug-in car grant for these vehicles pointless.

The tariff would also add around £2,000 to the average cost of UK-built battery electric cars (BEV) exported to the EU, making the UK’s products less competitive and attractive.

The organisation has said this would further hamper the UK’s ambition to become a global leader in zero-emission vehicle development, production and deployment.

UK car buyers are expected to register 78,000 EVs this year, however, SMMT has estimated that the price shock caused by these tariff increases could reduce the increased demand next year by at least 20%.

Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive, said: ‘Just as the automotive industry is accelerating the introduction of the latest electrified vehicles, it faces the double whammy of a coronavirus second wave and the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal.

‘As these figures show, ‘no deal’ tariffs will put the brakes on the UK’s green recovery, hampering progress towards net zero and threatening the future of the UK industry.

‘To secure a truly sustainable future, we need our government to underpin industry’s investment in electric vehicle technology by pursuing an ambitious trade deal that is free from tariffs, recognises the importance of batteries in future vehicle production and ensures consumers have a choice in accessing the latest zero-emission models. We urge all parties to re-engage in talks and reach an agreement without delay.’

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Volkswagen ID 3 vs Nissan Leaf: Battle for the EV top spot

November 2, 2020Electric Cars, Leaf, Leaf 30kWh, News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, SalesRepost

Volkswagen hopes its new EV can become the new face of a brand scarred by Dieselgate – upending the Leaf in the process

Brave new world, meet same old world. Electric cars once stood alone (dear early adopter, here is a vehicle unlike any other), but they certainly don’t any more. At the launch of the new Volkswagen ID 3, potential buyers could make a shortlist of several similarly priced, similarly specified battery-powered cars. As it is, we’ve chosen just the one to pitch it against.

Volkswagen says its new zero-emissions family hatchback heralds a third generation for the company, after the eras of the Beetle and Golf.

Like the Golf, the ID 3 is joining an established class. A legend of Volkswagen history, the Golf arrived with a transverse-front-mounted petrol engine, driven front wheels and MacPherson-strut/torsion-beam suspension – specifications that were considered sufficiently ‘so what?’ that the Citroën CX beat it to the 1975 European Car of the Year award. So joining a game rather than changing it is clearly no barrier to success.

Changing it can work too, mind, as Nissan has found since launching the Leaf in 2010. Built in Sunderland and now in its second generation, it has become the world’s most successful electric car to date. It also looks like it has acted as a strong benchmark for the ID 3. Hence it’s here, as the Nissan Leaf e+ 3.Zero (but I will just stick with Leaf, if that’s okay).

The specification sheets of the new Volkswagen and the familiar Nissan exhibit the kind of closeness that you would find in any other family car twin test. Power is about 200bhp apiece; the front seats, back seats, boot space and equipment levels are competitive with each other; and the price is £35,215 (ID 3) versus £36,970 (Leaf). This test isn’t an ‘EV thing’. It’s just car meets car.

And that’s all we can decide for now, by the way. It will take 20 years for us to know for sure whether the ID 3 has firmly established its own piece of Volkswagen heritage.

It looks new, though, yes? Beetle, designed by Ferdinand Porsche, Mk1 Golf, lines by Giorgetto Guigiaro, meet Klaus Zyciora’s ID 3: attractive, slightly familiar yet also strangely not so, as if somebody has made a squeaky dog toy of a Golf in 1:1 scale. I’m told that it’s quite aerodynamic.

Underneath is the kind of EV architecture that’s becoming familiar and has tremendous flexibility (of purpose, not structure). There’s a relatively long wheelbase for this Golf-sized hatchback, with a phalanx of batteries mounted low and level between the front and rear axles.

This 1st Edition of the ID 3 has a single motor at its rear, driving its rear wheels, but the platform can host one at the front instead or as well, and fewer or more batteries.

If and when EV batteries become solid-state, want less cooling and can be packaged differently, maybe engineers will move them around a bit, but for now this is the go-to layout. It places the cells (and they’re the heaviest hardware in an EV) low, which is at least the best thing you can do with them dynamically.

There are different battery packs available on both of these cars, but this ID 3 has a usable array of 58kWh of cells (the total capacity is 62kWh). WLTP range works out at 260 miles.

The e+ version of the Leaf also arrives with a 62kWh battery pack, so the usable bit of it will be a similar amount to in the ID 3 – one reason why its WLTP range is 239 miles.

However, despite this seemingly significant disparity, we saw very little difference between the range of the two cars while they were on test; both will manage 200 miles and a bit, depending on the weather.

The range of any EV will dip in winter. Start your day with a tingly warm battery fresh from an overnight tickle and it will increase. Both of these cars have a Type 2 charger for slow charging; the ID 3 gets a CCS charger for fast charging and can accept a rate of up to 100kW. The Leaf can theoretically reach 100kW too, although it has a Chademo socket, for which most public chargers are still 50kW – and when you do find a 100kW unit, the Leaf’s air-cooled battery will stay at the fastest rate for only a short time in order that it doesn’t overheat. I think there’s a Betamax/VHS thing going on (ask your dad) with these systems and that CCS is winning. Nissan will move its future EVs to CCS in Europe.

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BMW Just Produced Its 200,000th i3

November 1, 2020BMW, Electric Cars, i3, i3 120Ah, i3 94Ah, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

The BMW i3 happens to be one of the top 10 best-selling electric cars globally.

BMW announced that the cumulative production of the i3 model just reached 200,000. The jubilee i3 was completed on October 15, 2020.

The i3 has been produced in Leipzig, Germany for almost seven years. It’s the first series-produced all-electric car from BMW Group (there is also the i3 REx version with a small emergency ICE generator).

The BMW i3 achieved a milestone of 150,000 in May 2019, so we can estimate that it needed one and a half years to add an additional 50,000.

As the Group so far sold well over 600,000 plug-in cars (mostly PHEVs), the i3 is responsible for close to one third and remains the best selling plug-in in the lineup (cumulatively).

According to the German manufacturer, the i3 “is still enjoying strong demand”, which is kinda cool after all those years and growing competition from a growing number of newer BEVs on the market.

Currently there are two versions of the i3 BEV: standard (125 kW/170 hp) and sporty i3s (135 kW/184 hp), both equipped with the 44.2 kWh battery pack (almost twice bigger than initial 22.6 kWh 7 years ago). The WLTP range varies between 285 and 310 km (177-193 miles).

The i3 is quite unique, as it utilizes carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) on an unprecedented scale for a series-produced cars:

Since 2019, parts from the i3s (like the drive unit) are used also in the all-electric MINI Cooper SE.

The next step for BMW is the fifth generation of BMW eDrive technology and the new wave of electric models, starting with the BMW iX3.

The Leipzig plant in particular will start production of new battery modules in 2021.

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