Podcasts about grohmann engineering

Tesla   Most early stage startups have, and so seemingly need, heroic efforts from brilliant innovators working long hours to accomplish impossible goals. Tesla certainly had plenty of these as an early stage startup and continues to - as do the other Elon Musk startups. He seems to truly understand and embrace that early stage startup world and those around him seem to as well.   As a company grows we have to trade those sprints of heroic output for steady streams of ideas and quality. We have to put development on an assembly line. Toyota famously put the ideas of Deming and other post-World War II process experts into their production lines and reaped big rewards - becoming the top car manufacturer in the process.    Not since the Ford Model T birthed the assembly line had auto makers seen as large an increase in productivity. And make no mistake, technology innovation is about productivity increases. We forget this sometimes when young, innovative startups come along claiming to disrupt industries. Many of those do, backed by seemingly endless amounts of cash to get them to the next level in growth. And the story of Tesla is as much about productivity in production as it is about innovative and disruptive ideas. And the story is as much about a cult of personality as it is about massive valuations and quality manufacturing.    The reason we're covering Tesla in a podcast about the history of computers is at the heart of it, it's a story about the startup culture clashing head-on with decades-old know-how in an established industry. This happens with nearly every new company: there are new ideas, an organization is formed to support the new ideas, and as the organization grows, the innovators are forced to come to terms with the fact that they have greatly oversimplified the world.  Tesla realized this. Just as Paypal had realized it before. But it took a long time to get there. The journey began much further back. Rather than start with the discovery of the battery or the electric motor, let's start with the GM Impact. It was initially shown off at the 1990 LA Auto Show. It's important because Alan Cocconi was able to help take some of what GM learned from the 1987 World Solar Challenge race using the Sunraycer and start putting it into a car that they could roll off the assembly lines in the thousands.  They needed to do this because the California Air Resources Board, or CARB, was about to require fleets to go 2% zero-emission, or powered by something other than fossil fuels, by 1998 with rates increasing every few years after that. And suddenly there was a rush to develop electric vehicles. GM may have decided that the Impact, later called the EV1, proved that the electric car just wasn't ready for prime time, but the R&D was accelerating faster than it ever had before then.  That was the same year that NuvoMedia was purchased by Gemstar-TVGuide International for $187 million. They'd made the Rocket eBook e-reader. That's important because the co-founders of that company were Martin Eberhard, a University of Illinois Champaign Urbana grad, and Marc Tarpenning. Alan Cocconi was able to take what he'd learned and form a new company, called AC Propulsion. He was able to put together a talented group and they built a couple of different cars, including the tZero. Many of the ideas that went into the first Tesla car came from the tZero, and Eberhard and Tarpenning tried to get Tom Gage and Cocconi to take their tZero into production. The tZero was a sleek sportscar that began life powered by lead-acid batteries that could get from zero to 60 in just over four seconds and run for 80-100 miles. They used similar regenerative braking that can be found in the Prius (to oversimplify it) and the car took about an hour to charge. The cars were made by hand and cost about $80,000 each. They had other projects so couldn't focus on trying to mass produce the car. As Tesla would learn later, that takes a long time, focus, and a quality manufacturing process.  While we think of Elon Musk as synonymous with Tesla Motors, it didn't start that way. Tesla Motors was started in 2003 by Eberhard, who would serve as Tesla's first chief executive officer (CEO) and Tarpenning, who would become the first chief financial officer (CFO), when AC Propulsion declined to take that tZero to market. Funding for the company was obtained from Elon Musk and others, but they weren't that involved at first. Other than the instigation and support. It was a small shop, with a mission - to develop an electric car that could be mass produced.  The good folks at AC Propulsion gave Eberhard and Tarpenning test drives in the tZero, and even agreed to license their EV Power System and reductive charging patents. And so Tesla would develop a motor and work on their own power train so as not to rely on the patents from AC Propulsion over time. But the opening Eberhard saw was in those batteries. The idea was to power a car with battery packs made of lithium ion cells, similar to those used in laptops and of course the Rocket eBooks that NuvoMedia had made before they sold the company. They would need funding though. So Gage was kind enough to put them in touch with a guy who'd just made a boatload of money and had also recommended commercializing the car - Elon Musk.  This guy Musk, he'd started a space company in 2002. Not many people do that. And they'd been trying to buy ICBMs in Russia and recruiting rocket scientists. Wild. But hey, everyone used PayPal, where he'd made his money. So cool. Especially since Eberhard and Tarpenning had their own successful exit. Musk signed on to provide $6.5 million in the Tesla Series A and they brought in another $1m to bring it to $7.5 million. Musk became the chairman of the board and they expanded to include Ian Wright during the fundraising and J.B. Straubel in 2004. Those five are considered the founding team of Tesla.  They got to work building up a team to build a high-end electric sports car. Why? Because that's one part of the Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan. That's the title of a blog post Musk wrote in 2006.  You see, they were going to build a high-end hundred thousand dollar plus car. But the goal was to develop mass market electric vehicles that anyone could afford. They unveiled the prototype in 2006, selling out the first hundred in three weeks. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's cousins, Peter and Lyndon Rive started a company called SolarCity in 2006, which Musk also funded. They merged with Tesla in 2016 to provide solar roofs and other solar options for Tesla cars and charging stations. SolarCity, as with Tesla, was able to capitalize on government subsidies and growing to become the third most solar installations in homes with just a little over 6 percent of the market share.  But we're still in 2006. You see, they won a bunch of awards, got a lot of attention - now it was time to switch to general production. They worked with Lotus, a maker of beautiful cars that make up for issues with quality production in status, beauty, and luxury. They started with the Lotus Elise, increased the wheelbase and bolstered the chassis so it could hold the weight of the batteries. And they used a carbon fiber composite for the body to bring the weight back down.  The process was slower than it seems anyone thought it would be. Everyone was working long hours, and they were burning through cash. By 2007, Eberhard stepped down as CEO. Michael Marks came in to run the company and later that year Ze'ev Drori was made CEO - he has been given the credit by many for tighting things up so they could get to the point that they could ship the Roadster. Tarpenning left in 2008. As did others, but the brain drain didn't seem all that bad as they were able to ship their first car in 2008, after ten engineering prototypes. The Roadster finally shipped in 2008, with the first car going to Musk. It could go for 245 miles a charge. 0 to 60 in less than 4 seconds. A sleek design language. But it was over $100,000. They were in inspiration and there was a buzz everywhere. The showmanship of Musk paired with the beautiful cars and the elites that bought them drew a lot of attention. As did the $1 million in revenue profit they earned in July of 2009, off 109 cars shipped.  But again, burning through cash. They sold 10% of the company to Daimler AG and took a $465 million loan from the US Department of Energy. They were now almost too big to fail.  They hit 1,000 cars sold in early 2010. They opened up to orders in Canada. They were growing. But they were still burning through cash. It was time to raise some serious capital. So Elon Musk took over as CEO, cut a quarter of the staff, and Tesla filed for an IPO in 2010, raising over $200 million. But there was something special in that S-1 (as there often is when a company opens the books to go public): They would cease production of the Roadster making way for the next big product. Tesla cancelled the Roadster in 2012. By then they'd sold just shy of 2,500 Roadsters and been thinking through and developing the next thing, which they'd shown a prototype of in 2011. The Model S started at $76,000 and went into production in 2012. It could go 300 miles, was a beautiful car, came with a flashy tablet-inspired 17 inch display screen on the inside to replace buttons. It was like driving an iPad. Every time I've seen another GPS since using the one in a Model S, I feel like I've gotten in a time machine and gone back a decade.  But it had been announced in 2007to ship in 2009. And then the ship date dropped back to 2011 and 2012. Let's call that optimism and scope creep. But Tesla has always eventually gotten there. Even if the price goes up. Such is the lifecycle of all technology. More features, more cost. There are multiple embedded Ubuntu operating systems controlling various parts of car, connected on a network in the car. It's a modern marvel and Tesla was rewarded with tons of awards and, well, sales. Charging a car that runs on batteries is a thing. So Tesla released the Superchargers in 2012, shipping 7 that year and growing slowly until now shipping over 2,500 per quarter. Musk took some hits because it took longer than anticipated to ship them, then to increase production, then to add solar. But at this point, many are solar and I keep seeing panels popping up above the cars to provide shade and offset other forms of powering the chargers. The more ubiquitous chargers become, the more accepting people will be of the cars. Tesla needed to produce products faster. The Nevada Gigafactory was begun in 2013, to mass produce battery packs and components. Here's one of the many reason for the high-flying valuation Tesla enjoys: it would take dozens if not a hundred factories like this to transition to sustanable energy sources. But it started with a co-investment between Tesla and Panasonic, with the two dumping billions into building a truly modern factory that's now pumping out close tot he goal set back in 2014. As need increased, Gigafactories started to crop up with Gigafactory 5 being built to supposedly go into production in 2021 to build the Semi, Cybertruck (which should begin production in 2021) and Model Y. Musk first mentioned the truck in 2012 and projected a 2018 or 2019 start time for production. Close enough.  Another aspect of all that software is that they can get updates over the air. Tesla released Autopilot in 2014. Similar to other attempts to slowly push towards self-driving cars, Autopilot requires the driver to stay alert, but can take on a lot of the driving - staying within the lines on the freeway, parking itself, traffic-aware cruise control, and navigation. But it's still the early days for self-driving cars and while we make think that because the number of integrated circuits doubles every year that it paves the way to pretty much anything, no machine learning project I've ever seen has gone as fast as we want because it takes years to build the appropriate algorithms and then rethink industries based on the impact of those. But Tesla, Google through Waymo, and  many others have been working on it for a long time (hundreds of years in startup-land) and it continues to evolve. By 2015, Tesla had sold over 100,000 cars in the life of the company. They released the Model X that year, also in 2015. This was their first chance to harness the power of the platform - which in the auto industry is when there are multiple cars of similar size and build. Franz von Holzhausen designed it and it is a beautiful car, with falcon-wing doors, up to a 370 mile range on the battery and again with the Autopilot. But harnessing the power of the platform was a challenge. You see, with a platform of cars you want most of the parts to be shared - the differences are often mostly cosmetic. But the Model X only shared a little less than a third of the parts of the Model S.  But it's yet another technological marvel, with All Wheel Drive as an option, that beautiful screen, and check this out - a towing capacity of 5,000 pounds - for an electric automobile! By the end of 2016, they'd sold over 25,000. To a larger automaker that might seem like nothing, but they'd sell over 10,000 in every quarter after that. And it would also become the platform for a mini-bus. Because why not. So they'd gone lateral in the secret plan but it was time to get back at it. This is where the Model 3 comes in.  The Model 3 was released in 2017 and is now the best-selling electric car in the history of the electric car. The Model 3 was first shown off in 2016 and within a week, Tesla had taken over 300,000 reservations. Everyone I talked to seemed to want in on an electric car that came in at $35,000. This was the secret plan. That $35,000 model wouldn't be available until 2019 but they started cranking them out. Production was a challenge with Musk famously claiming Tesla was in “Production Hell” and sleeping on an air mattress at the factory to oversee the many bottlenecks that came. Musk thought they could introduce more robotics than they could and so they' slowly increased production to first a few hundred per week then a few thousand until finally almost hitting that half a million mark in 2020. This required buying Grohmann Engineering in 2017, now called Tesla Advanced Automation Germany - pumping billions into production. But Tesla added the Model Y in 2020, launching a crossover on the Model 3 platform, producing over 450,000 of them. And then of course they decided to the Tesla Semi, selling for between $150,000 and $200,000. And what's better than a Supercharger to charge those things? A Megacharger. As is often the case with ambitious projects at Tesla, it didn't ship in 2020 as projected but is now supposed to ship, um, later. Tesla also changed their name from Tesla Motors to Tesla, Inc. And if you check out their website today, solar roofs and solar panels share the top bar with the Models S, 3, X, and Y. SolarCity and batteries, right? Big money brings big attention. Some good. Some bad. Some warranted. Some not. Musk's online and sometimes nerd-rockstar persona was one of the most valuable assets at Tesla - at least in the fundraising, stock pumping popularity contest that is the startup world. But on August 7, 2018, he tweeted “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.” The SEC would sue him for that, causing him to step down as chairman for a time and limit his Twitter account. But hey, the stock jumped up for a bit.  But Tesla kept keeping on, slowly improving things and finally hit about the half million cars per year mark in 2020. Producing cars has been about quality for a long time. And it needs to be with people zipping around as fast as we drive - especially on modern freeways. Small batches of cars are fairly straight-forward. Although I could never build one.  The electric car is good for the environment, but the cost to offset carbon for Tesla is still far greater than, I don't know, making a home more energy efficient. But the improvements in the technology continue to increase rapidly with all this money and focus being put on them. And the innovative designs that Tesla has deployed has inspired others, which often coincides with the rethinking of entire industries.  But there are tons of other reasons to want electric cars. The average automobile manufactured these days has about 30,000 parts. Teslas have less than a third of that. One hopes that will some day be seen in faster and higher quality production.  They managed to go from producing just over 18,000 cars in 2015 to over 26,000 in 2016 to over 50,000 in 2017 to the 190,000s in 2018 and 2019 to a whopping 293,000 in 2020. But they sold nearly 500,000 cars in 2020 and seem to be growing at a fantastic clip. Here's the thing, though. Ford exceeded half a million cars in 1916. It took Henry Ford from 1901 to 1911 to get to producing 34,000 cars a year but only 5 more years to hit half a million. I read a lot of good and a lot of bad things about Tesla. Ford currently has a little over a 46 and a half billion dollar market cap. Tesla's crested at nearly $850 billion and has since dropped to just shy of 600. Around 64 million cars are sold each year. Volkswagen is the top, followed by Toyota. Combined, they are worth less than Tesla on paper despite selling over 20 times the number of cars. If Tesla was moving faster, that might make more sense. But here's the thing. Tesla is about to get besieged by competitors at every side. Nearly every category of car has an electric alternative with Audi, BMW, Volvo, and Mercedes releasing cars at the higher ends and on multiple platforms. Other manufacturers are releasing cars to compete with the upper and lower tiers of each model Tesla has made available. And miniature cars, scooters, bikes, air taxis, and other modes of transportation are causing us to rethink the car. And multi-tenancy of automobiles using ride sharing apps and the potential that self driving cars can have on that are causing us to rethink automobile ownership.  All of this will lead some to rethink that valuation Tesla enjoyed. But watching the moves Tesla makes and scratching my head over some certainly makes me think to never under, or over-estimate Tesla or Musk. I don't want anything to do with Tesla Stock. Far too weird for me to grok. But I do wish them the best. I highly doubt the state of electric vehicles and the coming generational shifts in transportation in general would be where they are today if Tesla hadn't done all the good and bad that they've done. They deserve a place in the history books when we start looking back at the massive shifts to come. In the meantime, I'l' just call this episode part 1 and wait to see if Tesla matches Ford production levels some day, crashes and burns, gets acquired by another company, or who knows, packs up and heads to Mars. 

Show #676   Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Friday 24th January 2020. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story to save you time.   Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.   VW CEO SAYS RACE IS ON WITH TESLA "Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess is sending a message to Elon Musk: We are coming for Tesla." repotrs Automotive News Europe: "VW is buying software companies and ramping up investments in sustainable vehicles and battery cells, Diess said Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Tesla's market value surpassed VW's for the first time this week, even as the U.S. company sells a fraction of the cars VW produces and has yet to record an annual profit.Diess last week called on his top managers to speed up overhaul efforts to make the company more agile or risk being pushed aside."   He said: ""It's an open race. The company which adopts fastest and is most innovative but also which has enough scale in the new world will make the race. 2020 for the auto industry will be a very difficult year, But we're doing the right things to be competitive."   https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/vw-ceo-says-race-tesla   THE UK NOW HAS 30,000 EV CHARGING CONNECTORS "The United Kingdom‘s electric vehicle charging network continues to grow. There are now more than 30,000 EV charging connectors located across the nation, according to a tweet from UK-based online vehicle charging point locator Zap-Map." says The Next Web: "As of today, there are now 30,140 connectors spread across 10,753 locations, listed on Zap-Map. Trends show the recent growth in the UK EV charging network, particularly over the past 3 years, is a result of fast, rapid, and ultra-rapid charge points being installed."           https://thenextweb.com/cars/2020/01/24/electric-vehicle-charging-connectors-uk-30000-zap-map-ev/   CHARGING NETWORKS FINANCE GROWTH AS EV SALES BOOM "Fastned, the charging company which is building a European network of fast charging stations for electric vehicles, has exceeded its fundraising target as it expands the number of sites it operates." reports Asset Finance Intl: "Around €12 million has been raised from 1,000 subscribers in a bond issue, four times the minimum of €3 million that Fastned wanted to raise. Fastned currently has around 114 stations operational in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK and wants to expand to the rest of Europe, with an initial focus on Belgium, Switzerland and France. It recently received approval for 13 motorway locations in Belgium, which are part of a collaboration with the Highway and Traffic Agency to provide motorway parking in Flanders with fast charging stations."   https://www.assetfinanceinternational.com/index.php/auto-finance/auto-emea/auto-emea-articles/19074-charging-networks-finance-growth-as-ev-sales-boom   MG ZS EV GARNERS 2,800 BOOKINGS IN 27 DAYS "MG (Morris Garages) Motor India garnered 2,800 bookings for the new ZS electric vehicle in 27 days during the first round of bookings. The carmaker claims that the number of bookings received for the ZS EV outpaced the total number of electric vehicles sold in India in 2019." reports IndiaToday.in: "The deliveries of MG ZS electric vehicle will start on January 27 across Delhi/NCR, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad."   https://www.indiatoday.in/auto/latest-auto-news/story/mg-zs-ev-garners-2800-bookings-in-27-days-check-out-all-the-details-here-1639514-2020-01-23   TESLA FINALLY DECLARES VICTORY OVER TERRIBLE LAW "According to the Associated Press, a deal has just been made between Tesla and the state of Michigan." says CarBuzz: "The agreement will allow Tesla to deliver vehicles in Michigan. There does appear to be a catch: Tesla buyers will have to have their vehicles titled in another state and then transferred to Michigan. Furthermore, the vehicles will be serviced and sold by a Tesla subsidiary. Tesla hasn't been completely absent from Michigan, home to America's Big Three automakers. In the Detroit suburb of Troy, there's a so-called "gallery" Tesla store at a local mall. Anyone can walk in and look around, but employees are forbidden from discussing pricing, leasing, or any other sales-related topics."   https://carbuzz.com/news/tesla-finally-declares-victory-over-terrible-law   AUDI SHOWCASES MOBILE EV CHARGING FACILITY AT WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM "Audi has provided the mobility and charging stations solutions at the World Economic Forum in Davos and 90 per cent of the shuttle fleet were electrified models, claims the company." reported by Economic Times: "The auto company used mobile charging containers made with used Audi e-tron batteries, specially developed for the purpose. It claims using roughly 100 electrified Audi models in combination with the shipping containers for charging allowed the company to operate a virtually CO2-neutral shuttle fleet for the Davos event. Audi claims that it has plans to use the mobile charging stations in 20 further cases in 2020 alone, with one being the Formula E in Rome."   https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/passenger-vehicle/cars/audi-showcases-mobile-ev-charging-facility-at-world-economic-forum/73581670   UBER LANDS ELECTRIC CAR DEAL WITH NISSAN "Uber will offer drivers in the U.K. electric cars from Nissan at a discount, the company said Friday, as it faces a potential ban in London."n according to CNBC: "The ride-hailing operator has signed an agreement with Nissan to introduce a fleet of 2,000 of the Japanese automaker's Leaf hatchbacks for drivers using its app in Britain. While the deal is technically open to all U.K. drivers, it's primarily targeted at those working in London.The deal with Nissan arrives at a difficult time for the company, which faces being blocked in the U.K.'s capital after Transport for London (TfL) stripped it of its license. Uber has since appealed the move, and can continue operating in the city while it fights the ban in the courts."   https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/01/23/uber-signs-electric-car-deal-with-nissan-in-uk-as-it-fights-london-ban.html   DAIMLER TO BUILD 50,000 MERCEDES EQC MODELS THIS YEAR "Daimler on Thursday said it plans to build 50,000 Mercedes EQC electric cars this year, denying a report in Manager Magazin which claimed it had been forced to pare back its 2020 production targets due to battery supply problems." says Reuters today: "Manager Magazin said Mercedes had slashed its production target to 30,000 from about 60,000 because of a shortage of battery cells from LG Chem. A Daimler spokesman said its production plans for 2020 had not been amended. Daimler’s works council chief Michael Brecht told Manager Magazin that one of the reasons the company is struggling to meet battery demand is because Tesla bought Grohmann Engineering, a battery automation specialist hired by Mercedes-Benz to build up its own battery manufacturing capacity. This caused problems for Daimler which was in the midst of ramping up production at its electric vehicle battery production unit Deutsche Accumotive."   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-daimler-electric-eqc/mercedes-halves-ev-production-target-due-to-battery-shortage-manager-magazin-idUSKBN1ZM1SA     NEW QUESTION OF THE WEEK The MYEV.com Question Of The Week…   With increasing attacks on EVs and vandalism caught on camera, why do some people have a problem with EVs?     I want to say a heartfelt thank you to the 230 patrons of this podcast whose generosity means I get to keep making this show, which aims to entertain and inform thousands of listeners every day about a brighter future. By no means do you have to check out Patreon but if it’s something you’ve been thinking about, by all means look at patreon.com/evnewsdaily   You can listen to all 675 previous episodes of this this for free, where you get your podcasts from, plus 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, I’ll catch you tomorrow and remember…there’s no such thing as a self-charging hybrid.     PHIL ROBERTS / ELECTRIC FUTURE (PREMIUM PARTNER) BRAD CROSBY (PREMIUM PARTNER) AVID TECHNOLOGY (PREMIUM PARTNER)   DAVID ALLEN (PARTNER) OEM AUDIO OF NEW ZEALAND AND EVPOWER.CO.NZ (PARTNER) PAUL O’CONNOR (PARTNER) TRYEV.COM (PARTNER) GARETH HAMER eMOBILITY NORWAY HTTPS://WWW.EMOBILITYNORWAY.COM/  (PARTNER) ALAN ROBSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ALAN SHEDD (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ALEX BANAHENE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ALEXANDER FRANK @ https://www.youtube.com/c/alexsuniverse42 ANDERS HOVE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ANDREA JEFFERSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ASEER KHALID (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ASHLEY HILL (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) BÅRD FJUKSTAD (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) BARRY PENISTON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) BRENT KINGSFORD (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) BRIAN THOMPSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) BRIAN WEATHERALL (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) BRUCE BOHANNAN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) CHARLES HALL (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) CHRIS HOPKINS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) COLIN HENNESSY (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) CRAIG COLES (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) CRAIG COOPER (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) CRAIG ROGERS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DAMIEN DAVIS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DAN FAIRS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DARREN BYRD (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DARREN FEATCH (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DARREN SANT FROM YORKSHIRE EV CLUB (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DAVE DEWSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DAVID BARKMAN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DAVID FINCH (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DAVID PARTINGTON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DAVID PRESCOTT (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DEREK REILLY FROM THEEFFECT.NET (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) DON MCALLISTER / SCREENCASTSONLINE.COM (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ENRICO STEPHAN-SCHILOW (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) FREDRIK ROVIK (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) FREEJOULE AKA JAMES (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) GENE RUBIN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) GEOFF LOWE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) IAN GRIFFITHS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) IAN SEAR (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JACK OAKLEY (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JAMES STORR (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JERRY ALLISON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JIM MORRIS (EXECUTIVE PRODICERS) JOHN BAILEY (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JOHN LACEY FROM CLICK CLACK VIDEO NZ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JON AKA BEARDY MCBEARDFACE FROM KENT EVS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JON KNODEL (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) JUAN GONZALEZ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) KEN MORRIS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) KEVIN MEYERSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) KYLE MAHAN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) LARS DAHLAGER (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) LAURENCE D ALLEN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) LEE BROWN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) LUKE CULLEY (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MARCEL LOHMANN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MARCEL WARD (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MARK BOSSERT (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MARLIN SCHELL (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MATT PISCIONE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MATTHEW ELLIS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MAZ SHAR (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MIA OPPELSTRUP (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MICHAEL PASTRONE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MICHEAEL KYFFIN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MIKE ROGERS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) MIKE WINTER (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) NATHAN GORE-BROWN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) NEIL E ROBERTS FROM SUSSEX EVS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) NORTHERN EXPLORERS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) OHAD ASTON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PAUL RIDINGS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PAUL SHELLEY ((EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PAUL STEPHENSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PERRY SIMPKINS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PETE GLASS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PETE GORTON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PETER & DEE ROBERTS FROM OXON EVS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)  PHIL MOUCHET (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) PONTUS KINDBLAD (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) RAJEEV NARAYAN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) RALPH JENSON (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) RENÉ SCHNEIDER (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ROB COOLING / HTTP://WWW.APPLEDRIVING.CO.UK/ (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ROB HERMANS (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ROBERT GRACE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ROBIN TANNER (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) RUPERT MITCHELL (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) SABBY THE CAT (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) SARI KANGASOJA (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) SEIKI PAYNE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) STEVE JOHN (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) STUART HANNAH (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) THOMAS J. THIAS  (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) THE PLUGSEEKER – EV YOUTUBE CHANNEL (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) TIM GUTTERIDGE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) WILLIAM LANGHORNE (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER) ZACK HURST (EXECUTIVE PRODUCER)     CONNECT WITH ME! EVne.ws/itunes EVne.ws/tunein EVne.ws/googleplay EVne.ws/stitcher EVne.ws/youtube EVne.ws/iheart EVne.ws/blog EVne.ws/patreon   Check out MYEV.com for more details: https://www.myev.com

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. 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

Today on Kilowatt we talk about the Gigafactory, Stop Elon, Grohmann Engineering, Solar Roof, Tesla Easter Eggs, and Connecticut. Videos: Gigafactory Supply Chain So much good news: Stop Tesla Grohmann Aquisition Solar Roof Martin Eberhard and InEVit Tesla Bill and Connecticut Tesla Easter Egg Menu Check out Other Podcasts [Snap][21] iMessage Stickers: Christmas Ornaments - http://apple.co/2ipEu5e Miss Kawaii Sticker Pack - http://apple.co/2dgcA9T Thanksgiving Sticker Pack 1 - http://bit.ly/918thanks Faces Sticker Pack - http://bit.ly/facespack1 Contact Info: Email - bodie @ 918Digital .com Voicemail - 918-401-0071 Twitter - @918Digital Website - https://www.kilowatt.bz

We discuss Tesla's recent acquisition of Grohmann Engineering and what it means for Tesla's manufacturing ambitions, their need for a new type of talent in the company, and the upcoming Gigafactory 2.

Today on Kilowatt: Vespa enters the electric scooter market - http://engt.co/2flawRN Tesla buys Grohmann Engineering - http://bit.ly/2fl8uRA No more free unlimited charging - http://bit.ly/2fFLuLe Tesla owners understand what Autopilot is - http://bit.ly/2fFMbUW Personal Links: Oblivious - http://apple.co/2dIPWdO Miss Kawaii Sticker Pack - http://apple.co/2dgcA9T Faces Sticker Pack - http://bit.ly/facespack1 Email - bodie @ 918Digital .com Voicemail - 918-401-0071 Twitter - @918Digital