Category Archives: Sales

Electric milestone reached as trail-blazing Nissan Leaf turns 10

November 21, 2020Electric Cars, Leaf, Leaf 30kWh, News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, SalesRepost

Nissan is celebrating a decade-long history of the all-electric Leaf, which hit the streets in late 2010 becoming the world’s first mass-market electric vehicle.

The milestone anniversary has caused the company to take a moment to reflect upon the impact that the modest electric hatch has had upon the transition to zero emissions transport, as well as the upgrades the Japanese car makers has made to the Leaf during its 10 years.

“Over the past decade the journey of transformation with the Nissan Leaf represents the true innovation and advancements of EV development at Nissan,” said Helen Perry, head of electric vehicles at Nissan Europe.

With 500,000 Leafs now sold worldwide as of September, the unassuming electric hatch became a “debunker of myths and conceptions” that “kick-started” electric mobility, said Nissan.

Nissan has highlighted the increase in battery size and driving range, now up 160% and 120% respectively from the first year of release.

When the Leaf was first introduced in 2010, its 24kWh was rated for 117km driving range by the US-based EPA. Known as “ZE0”, the first generation Leaf had various system upgrades in 2014-2015 to achieve a slightly higher 135km driving range.

Nissan has since then greatly improved the battery size and hence also driving range. The “ZE1” second generation Leaf was the first to upgrade to a 40kWh battery with up to 240km driving range in 2018.

In 2019, Nissan announced it would also release a “long range” Leaf with 62kWh battery that could drive up to 364km on a single charge according to EPA “real world” figures.

“These increases have ultimately boosted customers’ confidence on the road,” says Nissan.

The company is also celebrating the Leaf’s claim as the first all-electric vehicle to win “World Car of the Year” title in the 47-year history of the prestigious awards.

In Australia, the Leaf made a return in 2019 after being pulled from the market in 2015, with then Nissan Australia managing director Richard Emery lamenting the lack of federal government support for EVs in Australia to help make electric vehicles more affordable.

While Australia is still waiting for a federal strategy on the adoption of electric vehicles, Nissan decided to re-introduce the new 40kWh Leaf in mid-2019 when it became one of few EVs on the local market priced under $50,000 before on-roads.

More recently, Nissan finally promised the long-range 62kWh Leaf e+ would be introduced locally in 2021 – but not before one couple imported their own privately under new grey import rules.

The Leaf is singular on the market in that it has bidirectional charging capabilities, and 51 Leafs are now being used in an ANU trial to assess their potential as mobile batteries to help smooth grid peaks and troughs.

It has been used in Japan to help provide power after natural disasters, and was recently re-imagined as an emergency vehicle by Nissan.

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Battery electric vehicles continue streak of strong sales with almost 200% rise

November 15, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

Sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) continued to outperform 2019 in October, jumping 195% year-on-year.

This is despite overall sales of cars dropping 1.6% in the month, according to figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The SMMT attributed this largely to the Welsh firebreak lockdown, which it said subdued demand.

However, this seems to have had little to no impact on BEVs, with 9,335 sold in the month and a continued increase in sales compared to 2019’s figures.

In fact, so far this year, BEVs have seen an increase of 168.7% compared to 2019, with sales rising from 28,259 to 75,946.

April was a particularly strong month, with BEVs scooping up 31.8% of the market, outselling all fuel types except petrol as overall sales dropped 97.3%. This drop was largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of the lockdown, with BEV sales also dropping 9.7% despite its market share.

July also saw strong sales, with an increase of 259.4% compared to 2019, and in September sales broke the 20,000 mark, representing a third of all new car sales that year and a 184.39% increase on 2019.

Commenting on the figures, Centrica’s sustainable transport editor, Amanda Stretton, said that it’s “encouraging to see that there is still an appetite for EV adoption despite the current climate” but that there is still a need for a “greater commitment to rolling out charging infrastructure in public places and the continuation of grants available for home charging”.

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Europe: Massive Record For Plug-In Electric Car Sales In September 2020

November 12, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

With record sales of multiple models, and strong general demand for plug-ins, the market is booming.
September was an exceptional month for passenger plug-in electric car sales in Europe, even taking into consideration the strong growth in previous months.

Sales went through the roof, reaching a new all-time record number of registrations – 160,059 (up 166% year-over-year)! The market share hit an outstanding 12%!

Most of the sales were BEVs, but PHEVs are growing quicker:

BEVs: 91,615 (up 120% year-over-year) and 7.1% of the market
PHEVs: 68,444 (up 268% year-over-year) and 4.9% of the market

After nine months, more than 772,000 new plug-in passenger cars were registered in Europe, which is 9% of the total volume (4.9% falls on BEVs)!

With three months to go, we should see a million for the very first time in a calendar year! Actually, it will be much more than a million.

The most popular models
Volume deliveries of the Tesla Model 3 (16,125) allowed it to take the first place for the month and set the best result so far this year.

The second best was Renault ZOE (11,026), which is also the best selling so far this year (63,504) with a noticeable advantage over Model 3.

The long-awaited Volkswagen ID.3 was third (8,571) with a very good result in its first month of customer deliveries, although the 10,000 mark was not crossed.

A pretty strong result was record by Hyundai Kona Electric (6,143), while the Mercedes-Benz A-Class 250e turned to be the top plug-in hybrid (4,772).

There are tons of other plug-in models that set their own personal best/or the best this year results in September, as everything rechargeable seems to be selling pretty well.

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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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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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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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A BRIGHT FUTURE AWAITS ELECTRIC VEHICLES

October 27, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

Due to the unique challenges that have arisen from the pandemic-induced lockdowns, 2020 has been a tough year for many industries around the world—not least for the auto industry. As COVID-19 cases continue to emerge in earnest, government restrictions that remain in place to this day throughout much of the world have ensured that consumer confidence has remained almost continuously subdued since March. And as such, demand for cars worldwide has taken a spectacular nosedive.

Among the gloomiest stories that have emerged from the industry include Nissan deciding in the second quarter to comprehensively slash global vehicle production by 20 percent by the end of its 2023-24 fiscal year and crude-steel production in North America during the first half of the year being recorded at just 50.2 million metric tonnes, a hefty 17.6 percent lower than that of the same six-month period in 2019.

But despite the overwhelmingly bearish sentiment that has pervaded the global auto industry during this time, electric vehicles (EVs) have remained a distinct silver lining, extending an already impressive growth trajectory spanning much of the 2010s.

Indeed, electric cars experienced phenomenal adoption over the last decade, expanding every year by at least 60 percent—except in 2019, when China introduced regulations that significantly hindered new start-up manufacturers from entering the market and cut electric-car purchase subsidies by about half. Nonetheless, global sales of electric vehicles still managed to reach almost 2.2 million last year, which at 2.6 percent represents its highest ever share of the global car market. The total stock of electric cars sat at 7.2 million at the start of the year, 47 percent of which were in China. As such, the stock of electric cars registered a 40-percent annual increase last year.

Leading the way, of course, is Tesla, which has garnered most of the attention as the leader for the transportation industry’s transition to zero emissions. Its Roadster was the first approved lithium-powered EV on the roads back in 2008. And led by the enigmatic Elon Musk, it has been at the forefront of the industry ever since, with the last year or so experiencing significant breakthroughs. Indeed, the first nine months of the year saw Tesla stock surge by a staggering 450 percent, and today the company’s market capitalisation is even bigger than that of Toyota. Other prominent players in the space, meanwhile, include the likes of NIO and Nikola Corp.

But it would not be entirely honest to assert that the electric-vehicle market has been completely immune from COVID-19 this year, as the pandemic did clearly trigger a major decline in electric-car sales in some markets, especially earlier in the year. In April, sales in the United States, for instance, were just half of where they were a year earlier. And sales in China fell to some 16,000 vehicles in February, which was around 60 percent less than a year previously. But by April, a strong recovery had set in, with Chinese electric-car sales around 80 percent of April 2019 levels.

Nonetheless, EV markets have shown significant resilience in the face of tough operating conditions, especially in Europe, where 2020 is the target year for the European Union’s (EU’s) carbon-emissions standards, which limit average carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions per kilometre driven of new car sales. As the International Energy Agency (IEA) observed, in the largest European car markets combined (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), “sales of electric cars in the first four months of 2020 reached more than 145 000 electric cars, about 90 percent higher than in the same period last year”.

The second quarter of 2020 saw the market share of electrically chargeable vehicles increase to 7.2 percent of total EU car sales, compared to a 2.4-percent share during the same period last year, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA). “From April to June 2020, registrations of electrically-chargeable vehicles (ECV) rose by 53.3% to 129,344 new cars across the EU,” the industry association observed. “This resulted in the overall market share of ECVs going from 2.4% in 2019 to 7.2% in the second quarter of 2020. Sales of plug-in hybrids (PHEV) provided a strong boost to this growth (+133.9%) with 66,128 new cars. The increase in registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEV) was more modest (+12.7%), totalling 63,216 units.”

The pandemic has not been as kind to the auto industry’s diesel and petrol segments, the ACEA found, although they accounted for more than 80 percent of car sales.

As such, many believe the resilience shown by the electric-vehicles segment demonstrates significant promise for the coming decade and beyond. But what underpins this resilience? A combination of factors, it would seem. Market intelligence and analytics firm CB Insights highlights three of the most important factors:

Environmental: Electric vehicles are seen as playing a crucial role in helping to mitigate climate change. A 2018 Consumer Reports survey found that 80 percent of those intending to purchase an EV were doing so primarily for environmental concerns.
Socio-political reasons: Passenger vehicles account for some 23 percent of global oil demand, according to the IEA’s 2018 World Energy Outlook. By lowering oil dependence, including for importation, and by diversifying energy usage, countries could have more power with regards to geopolitics and foreign policy.
Economics: The IEA sees the shift to more sustainable transport saving governments, companies and individuals up to $70 trillion by 2050, while the US Department of Labor estimates that electric-vehicle manufacturing will add a net of 350,000 US jobs by 2030.

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