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Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Wednesday 4th July edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.   Before we start The Fourth Of July. In the USA I hope you’re enjoying some well-deserved time off, an Independence Day holiday with family, friends and fireworks. Can I just say on behalf of everyone over here 242 years ago, sorry about all that, we had a habit of taking things. And by things I mean countries.   TESLA IS OFFICIALLY BRINGING MODEL 3 IN EUROPE FOR FIRST TIME AT THE GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED Fred at Electrek has AWESOME news for my UK listeners: "Tesla Model 3 has shown up in Europe in several unofficial events, but Tesla is now officially bringing the new electric car on the old continent for the first time this month." Early M3 are also being invited too join them. I'll see you there!   https://electrek.co/2018/07/03/tesla-model-3-official-europe-goodwood-festival-of-speed/     A SHOUTING ELON MUSK AND CHANGING RULES: INSIDE TELSA'S MODEL 3 SPRINT The reaction to Tesla's 5k model 3 achievement are coming in and CNBC goes for full drama: "A tense and short-tempered Chief Executive Elon Musk barked at engineers on the Fremont, California assembly line. Tesla pulled workers from other departments to keep pumping out the Model 3 electric sedans, disrupting production of the Model S and X lines. And weekend shifts were mandatory." They have a little more insight into those last few hours: "Leading up to Sunday morning's production milestone, Musk paced the Model 3 line, snapping at his engineers when the around-the-clock production slowed or stopped due to problems with robots, one worker said. Tesla built a new line in just two weeks in a huge tent outside the main factory, an unprecedented move in an industry that takes years to plan out its assembly lines, and said the tented production area accounted for 20 percent of the Model 3s produced last week." Tesla have made just shy of 50,000 Model S and X's in the first 6 months of a year they planned to produce 100,000. So all things being equal, no more no less, they'll do that too. "In the morning of Sunday, July 1, about five hours after the self-imposed second-quarter deadline had passed, the number 5,000 flashed on a countdown screen viewed by Tesla's Model 3 assembly-line workers. The Model 3 itself bore a "5,000" sign in its front window."   https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/03/shouting-elon-musk-changing-rules-inside-teslas-model-3-building-spr.html   HYUNDAI CONFIRMS HYBRID AND PHEV FOR NEW SANTA FE The Hyundai Santa Fe looks like it's electrifying for the next model. "Likely to arrive in 2020, the company confirmed their flagship SUV will receive a full array of hybrid powertrains, ranging from 48V mild hybrid, to hybrid and plug-in hybrid." says Jonathan Musk for fleetworld.co.uk: "Although there is little detail to go on for the hybrid and plug-in hybrid Santa Fe models, the mild hybrid variant will be the first to market, joining a powerful 48V system to a 2.0-litre diesel that can add torque to the engine thus improving efficiency."   https://fleetworld.co.uk/hyundai-confirms-hybrid-and-phev-for-new-santa-fe/   NISSAN'S E-POWER TECHNOLOGY IS ANNIHILATING THE TOYOTA PRIUS IN JAPAN There's a hybrid technology not so populate in USA and Europe but doing big business in Japan. There's an ICE but it's there as a generator and the battery always drives the wheels, but on the downside there's no plug socket, so you rely on gas to charge the battery. Is that an EV as fossils are the only fuel? Nissan call it an electrified vehicle because it's the same experience as an EV but with a much smaller 1.8kWh, and therefore lighter, plus cheaper battery. It's in the Nissan Note and soon the Serena family van. It can do just 1.7 miles before the battery expires. Seeking Alpha says: "Given its hybrid nature, environmental consciousness may somewhat hinder adoption of the e-Power technology in Europe and China but it's unclear how European and Chinese governments will react to Nissan's technology. we are taking for granted that California's ZEV Mandate provides a loophole for e-Power technology just as it does in the case of the range-extended version of the BMW i3." The note is already Japan's best-selling car with more buyers wanting e-power it's soon to dethrone the mighty Toyota Prius. Would you buy one? You'd still have to fill it up all the time. You do get more miles as it's technically more efficient to run the ICE as generator. Is this technology which is going to be outdated by the time battery prices drop?   https://seekingalpha.com/article/4185100-nissans-e-power-technology-annihilating-toyota-prius-japan-can-also-threat-tesla-lithium   VW ENDS GERMAN DIESEL FLEET RENEWAL SUBSIDIES "Volkswagen Group let its diesel fleet renewal program in Germany expire at the end of June, a company source said, deciding against extending it for a third time" reports AutoNews.com: "While some of the highest discounts were initially offered on cars equipped with alternative drivetrains such as full-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, over time VW Group focused its incentive more on replacing old diesels with new ones."   http://europe.autonews.com/article/20180703/ANE/180709926/vw-ends-german-diesel-fleet-renewal-subsidies   TOLL DISCOUNTS OFFER ONE MORE REASON TO GO ELECTRIC In Ireland, "Drivers of electric and plug-in hybrid cars will pay a reduced fee on toll roads across the country from today" says Michael Cogley for The Times: "Those driving full electric vehicles will only pay half the toll rate while those using plug-in hybrids will get a reduction of 25 per cent. Drivers of fully hybrid cars, which rely on petrol or diesel to generate their initial energy, will receive no saving under the scheme."   https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/toll-discounts-offer-one-more-reason-to-go-electric-vwfcc8p2n     AUSTRALIAN FAST-CHARGERS SMASH EV “RANGE ANXIETY” ON AUTOBAHN Yesterday I was bashing Australia a bit for not having more solar and using that to power EV's considering they have all the sunshine. So let me redress that with some praise. Sophie Vorrath at RenewEconomy: "Electric vehicle drivers on Germany’s Autobahn can now recharge their car batteries almost as fast as filling up a petrol tank, using Australian made technology. Brisbane based EV infrastructure company Tritium said on Tuesday it had exported and installed 12 of the most powerful electric car chargers on the market to a site in Germany" The IONITY project is installing 350kW charging goodness.   https://reneweconomy.com.au/australian-fast-chargers-smash-ev-range-anxiety-autobahn-38364/   SWEDENS JULY 1 STEEP VEHICLE TAX HIKE SPARKS LAST MINUTE JUNE CAR SALES FRENZY "Significant increases in annual vehicle taxes, particularly for vehicles with high CO2 emission came into effect July 1 this year. These tax hikes for higher polluting cars in particular were at the root of Junes car sales bonanza" says AID with a view to how it will affect EVs: "Perhaps most significant, the one-off subsidies for low-emission electric (BEV) and plug-in-hybrid cars have changed. In short, starting July 1 this year, buyers of new zero-emission BEVs will get a SEK60,000 (5,800) purchase bonus. The bonus is paid six months after first registrations."   http://www.eagleaid.com/AID-Newsletter-preorder-1813preview-a-Swedens-steep-vehicle-tax-hike-sparks-last-minute-June-car-sales-frenzy.htm   TOURIST TAX TO FUND ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS Mallorca is a beautiful island off the coast of Spain which Mrs Lee and I love to visit because of the sunshine and a chance to practice our terrible Spanish. But I never many see EVs. Now it turns out I may be helping pay for them! 500 rapid chargers will be installed using 10 million Euros of funds from tourists. A new policy will halt the sale of new diesel vehicles from 2025 and petrol fuelled cars from 2035 as the island moves to electric.   GRIDSERVE® ANNOUNCE UK-WIDE NETWORK OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE “FORECOURTS OF THE FUTURE” Here in the UK: "GRIDSERVE’s national network of Electric Forecourts™ will offer significantly more high power charging points than are currently available at most UK petrol stations, and a totally new customer-focused charging, retail and services offering". Toddington Harper, chief executive of GRIDSERVE, said: “Our plan is to deliver for electric vehicle charging what Amazon has done for shopping online – make it simple, price competitive, and a great customer experience”. The team is currently exploring relationships with landowners, developers, investors, EV manufacturers, fleet managers and retailers.   WHAT’S DRIVING OIL COMPANIES TO BUY ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING FIRMS? org has more thoughts on the recent purchase of Chargemaster by BP: "News of the Chargemaster acquisition comes less than a year after rival Shell shared plans to acquire NewMotion, a charging station company with more than 30,000 installations across 25 European countries. Other big oil and gas firms exploring alternative energy technologies include ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Saudi Aramco. Saudi Arabia’s largest commissioned solar power plant sits today in a parking lot at Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran. And last year, it was reported that the national oil company was considering an investment of up to $5 billion in the renewable energy sector."     COMMUNITY New members of the EV gang on YouTube   You can listen to all previous 169 episodes of this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, TuneIn, Stitcher, and the blog https://www.evnewsdaily.com/ – remember to subscribe, which means you don’t have to think about downloading the show each day, plus you get it first and free and automatically. It would mean a lot if you could take 2mins to leave a quick review on whichever platform you download the podcast. And if you have an Amazon Echo, download our Alexa Skill, search for EV News Daily and add it as a flash briefing. Come and say hi on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter just search EV News Daily, have a wonderful day, and I'll catch you tomorrow.   CONNECT WITH ME! evne.ws/itunes evne.ws/tunein evne.ws/googleplay evne.ws/stitcher evne.ws/youtube evne.ws/blog

Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Monday 2nd July edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.   "I THINK WE JUST BECAME A REAL CAR COMPANY" The latest numbers for Quarter 2 have been confirmed from the investor relations portal at ir.tesla.com so let's dive into them, and have a think about what it means. Plus in a minute or two, I'll reveal the exact number of Model 3 reservation holders still on the list - and I'll tell you why I has to ask Ride The Lightning’s Ryan McCaffery first - but more on that in a mo. Stay with me. The first clarification I wanted to make today was just to counter all those articles today which said the 5k Model 3 achievement was simply a burst rate and couldn't be replicated. Whilst you might understand if this week staff took a day or two R&R, and maybe that went down to 4.5k, the hardware is there to hit that number. Maybe a supplier is late with something and that slows you down, but General Assembly is built. So that argument doesn't make sense. And it's fair to say that in the past Tesla has taken a one day rate of production and multiplied by 7 to get a theoretical week, but I don't think that point was made very clear by many websites today. So a reminder the 5k figure is how many Model 3's they made last week. Reuters have a couple of quotes: "“It was pretty hectic,” said one worker who described the atmosphere as “all hands on deck.” Another worker speaking after the 5,000th car was made described the factory as a “mass celebration". One worker told Reuters that, to meet the goal, employees from other departments were dispatched to parts of the Model 3 assembly line to keep it running constantly, and breaks were staggered “so the line didn’t stop moving.” On Twitter I asked Domenick at InsideEVs how many the final number was, because their monthly sales scorecard is the best out there in terms of accuracy. The answer is 5,031 Model 3's and 1,913 Model S and X vehicles. So Domenick that you for your reply. According to Tesla: "Q2 production totalled 53,339 vehicles, a 55% increase from Q1, making it the most productive quarter in Tesla history by far. For the first time, Model 3 production (28,578) exceeded combined Model S and X production (24,761), and we produced almost three times the amount of Model 3s than we did in Q1. Our Model 3 weekly production rate also more than doubled during the quarter, and we did so without compromising quality." "GA4, our new General Assembly line for Model 3, was responsible for roughly 20% of Model 3s produced last week, with quality from that line being as good as our regular GA3 line. We expect that GA3 alone can reach a production rate of 5,000 Model 3s per week soon, but GA4 helped to get us there faster and will also help to exceed that rate." "Tesla expects to increase production to 6,000 Model 3s per week by late next month. We also reaffirm our guidance for positive GAAP net income and cash flow in Q3 and Q4, despite negative pressures from a weaker USD and likely higher tariffs for vehicles imported into China as well as components procured from China." And now onto how many Model 3 reservations there are outstanding. I'm no Tesla expert, because this podcast covers all markets and all car makers, so when you want really in depth knowledge I'd always say your go-to shows are Ryan McCaffery's Ride The Lightning coming up on it's 3rd birthday, and Trevor from Model 3 Owners Club, and Rob from Tesla Daily for things like the financial side. So Tesla revealed the exact number of outstanding Model 3 reservation holders, and it's something I’ve only ever heard in vague numbers before. So I asked the expert and Ryan for whether Tesla have done this before? "Hey Martyn. Not quite the first time, but you're right that they've kept it close to the vest, mostly. I believe last quarter they had mentioned that they still had ~450k reservations. The reduction now is obviously because they've delivered a bunch of cars. Cheers!" "The remaining net Model 3 reservations count at the end of Q2 still stood at roughly 420,000 even though we have now delivered 28,386 Model 3 vehicles to date."   MAGNA CEO SEE EV FUTURE I'm a huge fan of the Jaguar I-PACE and it's being made by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. Don Walker is CEO of Magna International, the largest North American auto parts supplier, and has been talking to News Editor of Autonews.com Lindsay Chappell: "We've been working on electric vehicles for at least 10 years now. We proposed the electric Focus to Ford 10 years ago and worked with them to develop it. It wasn't a ground-up electric vehicle, but we took out the internal combustion engine componentry and made it a pure electric vehicle. We took the lead on bringing that vehicle to market. We also worked with Volvo about eight years ago to create an electric rear-axle drive. And we've also signed a contract to develop an electric vehicle for Volkswagen in China. We bring that project the motors, the software, the electronics, the controller, the gearbox. So we have many years of expertise.   http://canada.autonews.com/article/20180702/CANADA01/307029993/walker-guides-magna-deeper-into-ev-tech   FORD TAPS EV EXPERT TO BE NEW BOSS FOR AUSTRALIA, NZ "US auto giant Ford Motor Company has signalled the start of a new chapter for its business in Australia, with the appointment of a global electric vehicle executive, Kay Hart, to head up operations Down Under." according to Aussie website reneweconomy.com.au: "In what could only be good news for Australia’s flagging EV market, Ford announced on Monday that Hart – who was most recently the auto-maker’s global BEV (battery electric vehicle) manager, distribution & digital experience – had been named president and CEO, Ford Australia and New Zealand."   NISSAN SCRAPS POTENTIAL $1 BLN SALE OF BATTERY UNIT TO CHINA'S GSR "Nissan Motor has cancelled a potential $1 billion sale of its electric car battery unit to China's GSR Capital. Japan's second-biggest automaker said the Chinese investment firm lacked the funds to make the purchase. The deal could not be closed by the June 29 deadline, Nissan said, ending a process which had faced several delays since its announcement almost a year ago." according to Nasdaq.com: "In August, Nissan had announced its plan to sell Automotive Energy Supply Corp, which includes battery plants in the United States, England and Japan, for an undisclosed sum. A source told Reuters at the time that GSR had agreed to pay Nissan a total of $1 billion for the deal. A Nissan spokesman said that the company still intends to sell the subsidiary, but declined to comment on whether GSR could still be a prospective buyer."   https://www.nasdaq.com/article/nissan-scraps-potential-1-bln-sale-of-battery-unit-to-chinas-gsr-20180702-00005   NEXT-GEN VW BEETLE COULD TRANSFORM INTO FOUR-DOOR EV "A revolutionary new Volkswagen Beetle is under consideration and, if given the green light by VW chiefs, it will adopt a battery-powered electric powertrain." reports Rachel Burgess at Autocar.com "The British magazine claims Bischoff has already sketched a possible look for the four-door Beetle successor, but it will take the automaker between two and three years to make a final decision on its production. Before that, Volkswagen will remain focused on launching a series of mainstream electric vehicles." says Motor1.com   EV MYTH BUSTING According to Go Ultra Low, as many as 42% of Brits wouldn’t be sure if they could run a battery-powered car through a car wash. EVs are slower than petrol and diesel cars EVs are more expensive to own EVs aren’t readily available The infrastructure isn’t there   COMMUNITY New members of the EV gang on YouTube   You can listen to all previous 164 episodes of this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, TuneIn, Stitcher, and the blog https://www.evnewsdaily.com/ – remember to subscribe, which means you don’t have to think about downloading the show each day, plus you get it first and free and automatically. It would mean a lot if you could take 2mins to leave a quick review on whichever platform you download the podcast. And if you have an Amazon Echo, download our Alexa Skill, search for EV News Daily and add it as a flash briefing. Come and say hi on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter just search EV News Daily, have a wonderful day, and I'll catch you tomorrow.   CONNECT WITH ME! evne.ws/itunes evne.ws/tunein evne.ws/googleplay evne.ws/stitcher evne.ws/youtube evne.ws/soundcloud evne.ws/blog

Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Monday 25th June edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.   TESLA EMPLOYEE TWEETS ABOUT PRODUCTION RATES Elon Musk tweets about Tesla's production rates, the challenges, the successes. Dave from accounts does NOT. Linda from HR does NOT. John from the Gigafactory does NOT. Except, John Totah did exactly that yesterday. John Totah is the Lead Material Flow for Model 3 at Gigafactory 1 and a Twitter account using his name, so we're assuming it is really him, make some bold claims before they were swiftly deleted. John said: "Our original goal was 2,500/wk and we didn't hit it. Now we just hit 5,000/wk throughput in June. Insanely hard work by @Tesla team." If you didn't know that’s exactly the kind of language and tweet we would get from Elon. You know, the CEO. One of a handful of people on the planet who can comment publicly on Tesla. And not just because they're being precious but because the Q2 production and deliveries, whether batteries or completed cars, is potentially the most important announcement in the history of the company. This is the last week of the quarter. On the bright side that's a doubling in two months so understandably he's proud. He even had time to send a follow up, before he found the delete button: "We want to sustain over 5k/wk since current capacity of the lines are built for a max 6k/wk. It was incredibly difficult to hit 2500 in March. We revised many processes and built new systems that worked better. Incredible work and brain power." As you may have heard before on the podcast, when I was talking about the production lines heading from Tesla Grohmann Engineering in Germany to Nevada, to fix one of the four zones, that was when Elon replied directly to me to confirm it. Super exciting, so we knew they had a shutdown to speed up Gigafactory. And once JB Straubel was tasked with sorting out Zone 4 at Giga, and it would amazing new if true before batteries were a bottleneck at one point. He wasn't clear on his tweet whether the throughput was specifically about his area of responsibility, or overall Model 3 production rates at Giga. And remember none of this means Freemont is on target for 5,000 Model 3's week. The twitter account has now been protected. The news was reported on Reddit, Electrek etc, so I feel it can be reported on.   ANOTHER TESLA INTERIOR UPDATE InternetDude: "So I finally got my 2018 Tesla Model S P100D. I ordered it with cream interior but it was supposed to have figured ash dark wood. Tesla made a production change just about 10 days after I ordered and changed almost all of the aluminium accents to dark graphite colour instead. They also changed to the wood to a natural oak decor finish, more like the Model 3."   MAD MAX MODE FOR AUTOPILOT LANE CHANGE Elon has tweeted a picture of the centre display with the car running in 'development mode'. Within Feature Settings you can now enable Mad Max mode in the 'Blind Spot Threshold'. He also joked: "We considered going beyond Mad Max to “LA Freeway” level, but that’s too loco". It follows his retweeting of an old post from 2017 from a twitter user which photoshopped a Tesla Semi into a Mad Max type future. The current options you can see in Dev Mode are Standard, Aggressive and Mad Max. He also talked about how a self-driving car is programmed to yield in the event of a conflict: "It’s a tough call. Reality is that it will be pretty easy to bully a self-driving car, as it will always yield. Will prob have a manual override that requires continuous press for hardcore lane changes." Surely this will be part of Version 9 software coming this Autumn with self-driving features. So whereas currently you initiate a lane change with the blinker, it's your call to ensure the road is clear, this is a hint towards more autonomy. The other options you can see now are “Follow Nav,” “Blinker to Fork,” “Enable ULC,” and “Vision Stops."   CAR MAGAZINE - MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER PHEV REVIEW: A STRONG CASE FOR HYBRIDS CAR Magazine UK: "we headed out to Provence, France, for a spin to see how the changes stack up. This engine revision plus work on the battery – which gets 10% more power output and total capacity of 13.8kWh thanks to new cells and better management - has allowed Mitsubishi to recalculate maximum electric range, fuel economy and CO2 emissions for new-age, more realistic WLTP testing, and the results are more impressive for that reason. We’re talking 30 miles on electric power, 141mpg and 46g/km. You’re also able to drive faster on electric power – now 84 rather than 78mph. ts PHEV tech is so effective, in fact, that it’s set to be rolled out to larger Renault and Nissan models in the coming years as that new alliance comes to fruition. In return, pure EV bits from the Leaf will go the other way and be used on smaller Mitsubishis."   https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/mitsubishi/outlander-phev/   FIRST 350KW CHARGER OPENS IN GERMANY Fastned are a charging network here in Europe with 73 stations in and they just posted a Twitter video of their first station opening in Germany. That's the first of 18 in Germany this year but goal is in the hundreds. They say it's in the A3 at Limburg an der Lahn and if you have a car which can take advantage of slightly faster speeds like a Hyundai IONIQ or Jaguar I-PACE you'll be pleased to hear they're 350 kW DC chargers. The charging station is covered in solar panels too, and all of the energy they source is renewable. Bart Lubbers is the co-founder of Fastned and said: "In the next few years, German car manufacturers such as Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes will introduce fully electric models that can charge at high power. This is a great challenge and opportunity for the automotive industry and charging companies like Fastned.” We heard recently Fastned also have plans for the UK and Belgium.   ITALY AIMS TO PASS NORWAY AS EUROPE'S NO. 1 EV MARKET Bloomberg broke the news yesterday: "The populist government in Italy, Europe’s most sluggish market for electric cars, has a big-bang plan to put 1 million of the vehicles on the nation’s roads. Getting anywhere near that target could cost the state $10 billion in incentives." com: "Italy’s new populist government has a plan to put 1 million electric vehicles on the nation's roads by 2022 in an effort to go from being the region's weakest EV market to replacing Norway as its strongest. Italians last year bought just some 2,600 full-electric cars, out of a total of about 2 million vehicles sold, and the number rises only to around 4,800 if plug-in hybrid models are included, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Fewer than 5,000 full-electric models are estimated to be on the country's roads today. And that's the problem, critics say. To go from being an EV backwater to Europe's biggest market, the Italian government would need to roll out incentives at least at the level of Norway's, which could cost several billion euros, analysts say. Even that might not be enough."   JAGUAR LAND ROVER'S £13.5BN INVESTMENT Times Of India report: "Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover has lined up investment worth 13.5 billion pounds in the next three years on new models, technology development and capacity addition. The investments will be on new models, technology, capacity with significant amount of it on electrification and on a new platform" JLR said: "Our roll out to MLA will be fully complete by 2025, at which point every product can cater for an ICE (internal combustion engine), BEV (battery electric vehicle) or PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) derivative."   NEW PEUGEOT 308 PHEV COMING IN GTI FORM French motoring site Caradisiac says the next gen Peugeot 308, which you'll be able to buy in 2020, will rely on electric power for GT and GTi status. The GT model most likely to couple up a gas engine with electric motor both driving 220 hp to the front wheels. Whilst the GTi will add an electric motor to the rear axle for AWD and 300hp.   ELECTRA MECCANICA CONTINUES COMPLIANCE TESTING FOR SOLO EV The SOLO is priced at $15,500 USD, and interested consumers can place a fully-refundable $250 deposit by visiting EMVauto.com. The global compliance testing is a multi-faceted series of tests, performed in several facilities, assessing the car's structural and functional integrity over numerous categories. Electra Meccanica has partnered with the most state-of-the-art organizations and facilities to ensure that the SOLO passes the most stringent safety requirements.   COMMUNITY New subscribers   You can listen to all previous 161 episodes of this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, TuneIn, Stitcher, and the blog https://www.evnewsdaily.com/ – remember to subscribe, which means you don’t have to think about downloading the show each day, plus you get it first and free and automatically. It would mean a lot if you could take 2mins to leave a quick review on whichever platform you download the podcast. And if you have an Amazon Echo, download our Alexa Skill, search for EV News Daily and add it as a flash briefing. Come and say hi on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter just search EV News Daily, have a wonderful day, and I'll catch you tomorrow.   CONNECT WITH ME! evne.ws/itunes evne.ws/tunein evne.ws/googleplay evne.ws/stitcher evne.ws/youtube evne.ws/soundcloud evne.ws/blog

Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Thursday 21st June edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.   VOLVO'S NEW HYBRID S60 HYBRID TO BE MADE IN U.S. The first major auto maker to publicly say they would electrify their entire range was Volvo, and now they've revealed one of those models to drive the company into an electric future. If you're in the market for a BMW 3-series, hold on to our wallet and check out the Volvo first. The new S60, which US listeners would call a mid-size Sedan or compact executive, is being built at their first plant in North American in South Carolina. It's a plant which will never see a diesel engine because they've been phased out by Volvo. In fact it was double bubble because they launched the new car and also inaugurated the factory. So what can we expect from a US built hybrid? There are four engine choices but two of them are electrified. The engines are gas (aka petrol) and include PHEV power. You can choose a Plug In T6 Twin Engine or the 400hp Plug In T8 Twin Engine AWD PHEV. We recently told you about the Polestar option too which, which sprinkles Swedish performance fairy dust over your car, which beefed up brakes, suspension and tuning. As for safety, there's Autobraking for collision avoidance with pedestrians or an elk on Swedish roads, Run-off Road Mitigation and Oncoming Lane Mitigation. Plus Volvo have their Pilot Assist which keeps you at Level 2 autonomous driving, so a bit steery and a bit brake-y, but not too much. It can do 28 miles of pure EV range. Can I add...my goodness it looks good. Prices start at $41,295 for anything with a battery and Volvo are pushing their Care By Volvo subscription plans, over two years with 24/7 customer care and breakdown assistance, plus all your maintenance and the bits which wear out like wipers and brakes. Of course if it's really a turnkey solution you'd need insurance, and that's sorted too, with Liberty Mutual.   PORSCHE BUY INTO RIMAC "Porsche AG is taking a 10% stake in Rimac Automobili, the Croatian hypercar and electric vehicle components company behind the world’s fastest electric car" according to TechCrunch. It's interesting this is happening since the Rimac C_Two is being designed with specs to make your eyes water and most big legacy makers have either been scrating their heads about how Rimac are doing it, or plain old dismissing the outrageous specs of 1,914hp and 0-60mph in 1.85sec, as not possible with an electric car. According to TechCrunch: "the company, which was founded by Mate Rimac in 2009, also engineers and manufactures high-performance electric vehicle powertrain systems and battery systems. The company has already worked with Renault, Jaguar, and Aston Martin. The company’s tech was even used in the E-Type Zero Jaguar driven by Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex at their wedding last month." Do you think it means things were going OK with Taycan, formerly the Mission-E, but they wanted to buy into more knowledge and expertise? TopGear says: "CEO and namesake Mate Rimac, who remains the majority shareholder, says entering into this partnership with Porsche “is an important step in [Rimac’s] strategy to become a leading EV technology supplier to global OEMs”. Porsche's Lutz Meschke said: "We feel that Rimac's ideas and approaches are extremely promising, which is why we hope to enter into close collaboration with the company in the form of a development partnership"   MEANWHILE FORD SAYS BATTERY TECHNOLOGY ISN'T READY   I hate to juxtapose that story of performance EVs to this one, but here goes. You know how Tesla announced the Semi Truck specs, and then the head of Daimler Trucks said they've be buying two, one to test and one to take apart, because the technology to make one doesn't exist? And that the same rules of chemistry applied in Fremont to Germany? Well now Ford are having their say. "The boss of Ford Performance in Europe told Whichcar.com.au that battery technology isn’t yet suitable for sports car duty" Leo Roeks, European director of Ford Performance: “I have to stay very high-level and very neutral, as I don’t want to make any hints about future products. We need to keep looking at the technology at this point in time. The expectation that we have on performance vehicles right now, it’s very difficult to fulfil that with a fully-electric vehicle. If we look at the battery at the moment, you can have an energy or a power battery – the energy battery is kind of like a big water tank, but it’s got a small pipe. You can leave the tap running for a fairly long time, not a lot of water comes out of it, but it takes ages to get the tank empty. Then again, it also takes a long time to fill it up. A power battery is like a very small tank of water with big pipes, which is relatively easy to drain but also very easy to fill it. I’m looking for something in between. At the moment, that technology is not yet there – that’s something we need to look at. The question is: how close we can get between power and energy.”   GERMANY COULD WIN THE BATTLE FOR EUROPEAN GIGAFACTORY LOCATION Elon Tweets! "“Germany is a leading choice for Europe. Perhaps on the German-French border makes sense, near the Benelux countries.” Investopedia reports: "[One] European location where Tesla has ongoing operations is in Pruem, Germany, about 20 miles from the Belgian border and around 60 miles from France. It hosts the Grohmann Engineering division of Tesla, which specializes in automated manufacturing systems for battery-manufacturing facilities. In recent times, Grohmann has successfully built a production line for Tesla’s U.S. battery factory in Reno, Nevada, which is aimed at supporting the production of its newest mass-market Model 3 car." A reminder of what Elon has said at both the recent Shareholder meeting and on the Q1 2018 earnings Call, all future Gigafactories will produce batteries and assemble cars. All continents will need a Gigafactory soon, to produce cars at lower costs, but the goal is to have 12.   WHY YOUR NEXT UBER COULD BE AN EV Uber told us: "We’re excited to launch the EV Champions Initiative, a pilot program for driver-partners to deliver at least 5 million EV rides over the next year. This program kicks off today in seven cities — Austin, Los Angeles, Montreal, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle — in partnership with leading electric vehicle (EV) adoption experts. This program builds off the success of existing pilots in Pittsburgh and Portland and we’re proud to team up with experts who have decades of experience in EV adoption. Together, we hope to better equip both plug-in electric and full battery electric vehicle drivers for success. Adam Gromis, Uber’s global lead on sustainability and environmental impact: "What we’ve learned from drivers is that they love not paying for gas and giving their riders a quiet, smooth, efficient, high-tech ride. But any EV driver is trying to operate this technology in a world that’s not built for them.” "Starting today, riders will get a push notification alerting them when they’re matched with an EV driver. But passengers won’t be able to choose to ride in an EV" says curbed.com: "Currently, Uber offers the option for riders to choose an electric vehicle in some European cities (where it’s called Uber Green), but this is only offered in cities which already have the number of EVs and density of charging infrastructure to support the feature."   PORTABLE BATTERY PACKS TO RESCUE YOU FROM FLAT BATTERY "A recently developed totally portable Electric Vehicle (EV) recharge system designed to enable a stranded EV driver who has a depleted high voltage battery to receive a charge at roadside for a short period of time and thus allowing the EV "self-recover" from a roadside breakdown flat battery incident" reports ElectricVehicle Research.com: " a roadside attending rescue patrol can simply plug in the battery EV, wait for around 10-15 minutes and effectively the EV can then drive off to the nearest fixed location EV charge station.The great feature of the Mobile Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (MEVSE) design is in the capability of the Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) 48 volt battery pack to be re-charged from the standard rescue vehicle on-board existing 12 volt charging system."   https://www.electricvehiclesresearch.com/articles/14549/mobile-ev-charger-that-self-charges-as-recovery-vehicle-is-driving   SOLAREDGE UNVEILS EV CHARGING STATION AT INTERSOLAR EUROPE SolarEdge Technologies is unveiling its residential electric vehicle [EV] charging station this week at Intersolar Europe, in Munich. Following the recent debut of its EV-charging, single-phase inverter, SolarEdge will now also provide a standalone EV charger. Check out PV Magazine for more details. They say: "The new EV charger will be integrated into SolarEdge’s smart energy suite, to support increased energy independence. With the EV charger offering management in SolarEdge’s monitoring platform, EV charging can be easily controlled and programmed."   SP GROUP TO BUILD SINGAPORE'S LARGEST PUBLIC EV CHARGING NETWORK SP Group (SP) has today announced its plans to build Singapore's largest public Electric Vehicle (EV) charging network, in its bid to accelerate EV adoption in Singapore" as per SGCarMart: "By 2020, SP will build 500 charging points islandwide, located at shopping malls, residential areas, business parks and industrial sites, accessible by all members of the public. These charging points will also be compatible with all EV models. The first batch of 30 charging points will be in operation by the end of 2018. The islandwide network will be fully compliant with Singapore's national charging standards and comprise both AC and DC chargers, with power ratings ranging from 22kW to 50kW." Access will be via an app to initiate a charge and receive updates on its status, as well as to make payment.   COMMUNITY New followers. Hope to speak to Phil Roberts from Electric Future tomorrow. Ask questions for Tevva Motors.   You can listen to all previous 156 episodes of this podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, TuneIn, Stitcher, and the blog https://www.evnewsdaily.com/ – remember to subscribe, which means you don’t have to think about downloading the show each day, plus you get it first and free and automatically. It would mean a lot if you could take 2mins to leave a quick review on whichever platform you download the podcast. 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