11589 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

General Motors’ autonomous driving technology unit, Cruise, has been allowed to provide robotaxi services in San Francisco without human drivers. And on February 2022, Cruise revealed that it had submitted a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) so it could get permission to deploy 2,500 autonomous cars per year. These vehicles would have no steering wheels, mirrors, turn signals, or windshield wipers.

https://www.teslarat...s-vehicles/amp/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 March 2023 - 04:37 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Honda and Volkswagen this week announced plans to ramp up their conversion to electric vehicles. Honda is moving production around to clear factory space for its forthcoming EVs, while Volkswagen says it is committed to investing more than $193 billion worldwide over the next several years.

https://cleantechnic...e-ev-plans/amp/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 March 2023 - 04:53 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Electrification of cars in the United States significantly accelerated in early 2023, according to the latest reports for the month of January.

 

According to the registration data from Experian (via Automotive News), out of 1.24 million new light vehicles registered in January, some 87,708, or 7.1 percent were all-electric. That's a 74 percent increase year-over-year and a noticeable change, compared to a 4.3 percent share in January 2022. The 7.1 percent share is also a step change from 5.6 percent in the 12 months of 2022.

 

https://insideevs.co...es-january2023/

[Victoria Watcher]

7-Eleven launches its EV charging network, 7Charge

https://driveteslaca...etwork-7charge/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 March 2023 - 07:45 AM.

[Mike K.]

Ah, perfect. 7-Eleven parking lots are among the most vulnerable places to be, and now they want people lingering there for 30 minutes, in $100k cars. What could go wrong?

[Victoria Watcher]

It’ll just be $20,000 Bolts.

[Victoria Watcher]

Chinese electric-vehicle maker Xpeng Inc. reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and said deliveries could drop as much as 48% in the first three months of this year versus the same period in 2022.

 

Xpeng posted a net loss of 2.36 billion yuan ($342 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, according to a statement Friday. That was worse than the 2.1 billion yuan deficit forecast by analysts, and compared with a 1.29 billion yuan loss the year before. Revenue slumped 40% to 5.14 billion yuan, missing the 5.7 billion yuan forecast.

 

https://www.bnnbloom...-seen-1.1896875

 

 

 

 

 

Toyota To Continue Hydrogen Development Despite Shifting Main Focus To EVs

 

Toyota is continuing to pursue a multipronged carbon neutrality future

 

While Toyota is increasing its focus on battery-electric vehicles under the leadership of new chief executive Kohi Sato, it still considers hydrogen an important alternative and will continue to invest in it.

 

While recently speaking at an endurance race last week, Sato said that Toyota will expand hydrogen infrastructure in the coming years. His comments came during the race when the carmaker had planned to compete in a hydrogen-fueled combustion variant of the Corolla before its plans were dashed because of a fuel leak during testing on March 8.

 

“We want to ensure that hydrogen stays a viable option,” Sato said. “We need a production and transport supply chain. Unless we see evolution there, we cannot expect a volume increase in the energy’s use.”

 

 

https://www.carscoop...n-focus-to-evs/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 March 2023 - 09:22 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Canada Post's first all-electric delivery fleet rolls out on Vancouver Island

 

14 cargo vans in Nanaimo, B.C., first step toward electrifying 14,000-vehicle fleet by 2040, service says

 

 

Canada Post unveiled its first fleet of battery-electric delivery vehicles in Nanaimo, B.C., on Thursday.

 

The rollout of the 14 cargo vans is part of the Crown corporation's commitment to electrify its national fleet of 14,000 vehicles by 2040. 

 

"Last year, the corporation set aside more than $1 billion to cut emissions and move forward on the electrification of its last-mile fleet," said Suromitra Sanatani, chair of Canada Post's board of directors. 

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...fleet-1.6775357

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 March 2023 - 01:24 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Almost at your exit point, Mike? 

 

Time to rid yourself of this nightmare?

 

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 March 2023 - 02:26 PM.

[Matt R.]

Oh nice. I’m up $20!

[dasmo]

Sell sell!

[Mike K.]

Today:

Moody's Investors Service has upgraded Tesla bonds to investment-grade status for the first time, saying the Elon Musk-run carmaker's dominance of the EV market and its efforts to keep costs low have boosted its ability to repay its debts.
The agency, which judges companies' ability to pay back bondholders, lifted the company's rating by one notch Monday.
It now gives Tesla a "Baa3" rating, meaning it's no longer labeling its bonds as "junk" or purely speculative —the outlook used for companies that might struggle to repay their debts. 

[LJ]

Scratched EV battery? Your insurer may have to junk the whole car

Story by By Nick Carey, Paul Lienert and Sarah McFarlane • Yesterday 11:13 p.m.

By Nick Carey, Paul Lienert and Sarah McFarlane

 

UK salvage company Synetiq's yard in Doncaster© Thomson Reuters

LONDON/DETROIT (Reuters) - For many electric vehicles, there is no way to repair or assess even slightly damaged battery packs after accidents, forcing insurance companies to write off cars with few miles - leading to higher premiums and undercutting gains from going electric.

And now those battery packs are piling up in scrapyards in some countries, a previously unreported and expensive gap in what was supposed to be a "circular economy."

"We're buying electric cars for sustainability reasons," said Matthew Avery, research director at automotive risk intelligence company Thatcham Research. "But an EV isn't very sustainable if you've got to throw the battery away after a minor collision."

Battery packs can cost tens of thousands of dollars and represent up to 50% of an EV's price tag, often making it uneconomical to replace them.

While some automakers like Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co said they have made battery packs easier to repair, Tesla Inc has taken the opposite tack with its Texas-built Model Y, whose new structural battery pack has been described by experts as having "zero repairability."

 

 

A partially disassembled 4680 battery pack from a Tesla 2022 Model Y© Thomson Reuters

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

A Reuters search of EV salvage sales in the U.S. and Europe shows a large portion of low-mileage Teslas, but also models from Nissan Motor Co, Hyundai Motor Co, Stellantis, BMW, Renault and others.

EVs constitute only a fraction of vehicles on the road, making industry-wide data hard to come by, but the trend of low-mileage zero-emission cars being written off with minor damage is growing. Tesla's decision to make battery packs "structural" - part of the car's body - has allowed it to cut production costs but risks pushing those costs back to consumers and insurers.

 

 

A partially disassembled 4680 battery pack from a Tesla 2022 Model Y© Thomson Reuters

Tesla has not referred to any problems with insurers writing off its vehicles. But in January CEO Elon Musk said premiums from third-party insurance companies "in some cases were unreasonably high."

 

Unless Tesla and other carmakers produce more easily repairable battery packs and provide third-party access to battery cell data, already-high insurance premiums will keep rising as EV sales grow and more low-mileage cars get scrapped after collisions, insurers and industry experts said.

"The number of cases is going to increase, so the handling of batteries is a crucial point," said Christoph Lauterwasser, managing director of the Allianz Center for Technology, a research institute owned by Allianz.

Lauterwasser noted EV battery production emits far more CO2 than fossil-fuel models, meaning EVs must be driven for thousands of miles before they offset those extra emissions.

"If you throw away the vehicle at an early stage, you've lost pretty much all advantage in terms of CO2 emissions," he said.

Most carmakers said their battery packs are repairable, though few seem willing to share access to battery data. Insurers, leasing companies and car repair shops are already fighting with carmakers in the EU over access to lucrative connected-car data.

Lauterwasser said access to EV battery data is part of that fight. Allianz has seen scratched battery packs where the cells inside are likely undamaged, but without diagnostic data it has to write off those vehicles.

Ford and GM tout their newer, more repairable packs. But the new, large 4680 cells in the Model Y made at Tesla's Austin, Texas, plant, are glued into a pack that forms part of the car's structure and cannot be easily removed or replaced, experts said.

 

In January, Tesla's Musk said the carmaker has been making design and software changes to its vehicles to lower repair costs and insurance premiums.

The company also offers its own insurance product in a dozen U.S. states to Tesla owners at lower rates.

Insurers and industry experts also note that EVs, because they are loaded with all the latest safety features, so far have had fewer accidents than traditional cars.

'STRAIGHT TO THE GRINDER'

Sandy Munro, head of Michigan-based Munro & Associates, which tears down vehicles and advises automakers on how to improve them, said the Model Y battery pack has "zero repairability."

"A Tesla structural battery pack is going straight to the grinder," Munro said.

EV battery problems also expose a hole in the green "circular economy" touted by carmakers.

At Synetiq, the UK's largest salvage company, head of operations Michael Hill said over the last 12 months the number of EVs in the isolation bay – where they must be checked to avoid fire risk - at the firm's Doncaster yard has soared, from perhaps a dozen every three days to up to 20 per day.

"We've seen a really big shift and it's across all manufacturers," Hill said.

The UK currently has no EV battery recycling facilities, so Synetiq has to remove the batteries from written-off cars and store them in containers. Hill estimated at least 95% of the cells in the hundreds of EV battery packs - and thousands of hybrid battery packs - Synetiq has stored at Doncaster are undamaged and should be reused.

It already costs more to insure most EVs than traditional cars.

According to online brokerage Policygenius, the average U.S. monthly EV insurance payment in 2023 is $206, 27% more than for a combustion-engine model.

According to Bankrate, an online publisher of financial content, U.S. insurers know that "if even a minor accident results in damage to the battery pack ... the cost to replace this key component may exceed $15,000."

A replacement battery for a Tesla Model 3 can cost up to $20,000, for a vehicle that retails at around $43,000 but depreciates quickly over time.

Andy Keane, UK commercial motor product manager at French insurer AXA, said expensive replacement batteries "may sometimes make replacing a battery unfeasible."

There are a growing number of repair shops specializing in repairing EVs and replacing batteries. In Phoenix, Arizona, Gruber Motor Co has mostly focused on replacing batteries in older Tesla models.

But insurers cannot access Tesla's battery data, so they have taken a cautious approach, owner Peter Gruber said.

"An insurance company is not going to take that risk because they're facing a lawsuit later on if something happens with that vehicle and they did not total it," he said.

'PAIN POINTS'

The British government is funding research into EV insurance "pain points" led by Thatcham, Synetiq and insurer LV=.

Recently adopted EU battery regulations do not specifically address battery repairs, but they did ask the European Commission to encourage standards to "facilitate maintenance, repair and repurposing," a commission source said.

Insurers said they know how to fix the problem - make batteries in smaller sections, or modules, that are simpler to fix, and open diagnostics data to third parties to determine battery cell health.

Individual U.S. insurers declined to comment.

But Tony Cotto, director of auto and underwriting policy at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said "consumer access to vehicle-generated data will further enhance driver safety and policyholders' satisfaction ... by facilitating the entire repair process."

Lack of access to critical diagnostic data was raised in mid-March in a class action filed against Tesla in U.S. District Court in California. 

Insurers said failure to act will cost consumers.

EV battery damage makes up just a few percent of Allianz's motor insurance claims, but 8% of claims costs in Germany, Lauterwasser said. Germany's insurers pool data on vehicle claims data and adjust premium rates annually.

"If the cost for a certain model gets higher it will raise premium levels because the rating goes up," Lauterwasser said.

(Reporting by Nick Carey and Sarah McFarlane in London, Paul Lienert in Detroit, Gilles Guillaume in Paris and Giulio Piovaccari in Milan; Additional reporting by Victoria Waldersee in Berlin; Editing by Ben Klayman and Matthew Lewis)

[Victoria Watcher]

Lithium Prices Slide As A Surplus Of The Key EV Battery Material Looms

 

https://www.investor...m-stocks-mixed/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Electric Vehicles Tantalizingly Close To Price Parity With Gas Burners

 

https://cleantechnic...th-gas-burners/

 

Section 45X authorizes 10 years’ worth of funding for battery production credits that could reimburse a manufacturer for a big chunk of the cost of building a battery. One EV battery production expert told Car and Driver that Section 45X could cut one-third to one-half off the total cost of a US-made battery pack. And here’s the kicker: Because the subsidy is based on a fixed dollar amount, if the actual cost of producing a battery pack continues to drop, the cost to the manufacturer after the subsidy could theoretically fall to zero.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 March 2023 - 02:23 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

When are you leaving, Mike? Have you sold all your stock.

Attached Images

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Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 March 2023 - 12:59 PM.

[Mike K.]

Nope. I have to clear my losses first. It’s been a waste of time, and money for months, though.

[Ismo07]

Nope. I have to clear my losses first. It’s been a waste of time, and money for months, though.

 

You gotta be dollar cost averaging...  Most everything has been down...

[Mike K.]

Eventually you run out of dollars. Don’t forget Tesla was up at above $400 a year and a little bit ago.

Now I’m not in dire straits here, and am in the green, but I need it to clear at least a little more than a GIC interest rate to have made it worth all the effort.

[Sparky]

^ If I had your money....I would burn mine.

[Victoria Watcher]

Tesla Gigafactory Berlin finally reaches goal of 5,000 electric cars a week

 

 

 

At the end of February, the factory reached a new milestone of 4,000 units per week.

 

Now just a month later, Tesla Gigafactory Berlin has managed to produce 5,000 Model Y vehicles in a single week.

_______________________

 

If it can maintain this newly achieved production rate, it would mean Gigafactory Berlin can produce over 250,000 vehicles per year.

 

 

 

https://electrek.co/...tric-cars-week/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More than half of the 1.37 million EVs that Tesla built globally last year were made at its Shanghai factory, where cars first rolled off production lines in December 2019. After several upgrades, the facility — Tesla’s first outside the US — has the capacity to produce about one million vehicles a year, more than double its original plan of 450,000. 

 

https://www.bloomber...ce=uverify wall

 

 

 

 

 

In Austin, which has an annual production capacity of 250,000 vehicles , Tesla manufactures the Model Y and soon the Cybertruck, its very first pickup truck. Fremont produces all Tesla car models with an annual production capacity of 650,000 vehicles.

 

https://www.thestree...ases-production

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 March 2023 - 01:40 AM.