Electric Vehicles News & Discussions

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Ford, SK to invest $11.4 billion to add electric F-150 plant, three battery factories

By Ben Klayman

5 MIN READ

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co and its Korean battery partner SK Innovation will invest $11.4 billion to build an electric F-150 assembly plant, and three battery plants in the United States, accelerating the No. 2 U.S. automaker’s push into electric vehicles.

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A battery manufacturing complex U.S automaker Ford Motor Co and its South Korean battery partner SK Innovation plan to build in Kentucky, opening in 2025, is seen in an artist's renditon released September 27, 2021. Ford Motor Co/Handout via REUTERS

Ford also said on Monday it now expects to have 40% to 50% of its global vehicle volume to be all-electric by 2030, up from its prior forecast of 40%.

The companies intend to create nearly 11,000 jobs by opening assembly and battery plants in Stanton, Tennessee, and two additional battery factories in Glendale, Kentucky, as part of Ford’s previously announced plan to spend more than $30 billion through 2030 on electrification, Ford said. Plants on both sites will open in 2025.

Monday’s announcement is the single largest manufacturing investment in Ford’s 118-year history. The Tennessee assembly and battery complex will be about three times the size of Ford’s sprawling, century-old Rouge manufacturing complex in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford North American Chief Operating Officer Lisa Drake told Reuters in an interview. She emphasized there will be room to expand on that site.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/ford-mo ... SL1N2QQ1G3

[wjfox]

5 Midwestern governors agree to create a network to charge electric vehicles

October 1, 2021

The governors of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin are joining forces to build a new network for charging electric vehicles. The bipartisan plan aims to improve the region's economy while also reducing toxic emissions from cars and trucks.

The new plan is called REV Midwest — the Regional Electric Vehicle Midwest Coalition. In addition to creating jobs and improving public health, its backers say it will help the Midwest compete for both private investment and federal funding.

Along with those broad goals, the plan promises to make it easier to find charging stations, which could boost adoption of electric vehicles if it eases drivers' concerns about the range of their batteries.

"Today's REV Midwest partnership is a bipartisan effort to build the future of mobility and electrification and connect our communities," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said. "Our partnership will enable the Midwest to lead on electric vehicle adoption, reduce carbon emissions, spur innovation, and create good-paying jobs."

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb emphasized transportation's vital role in the U.S. economy, saying that new electric charging infrastructure is "needed to futureproof our transportation network and meet the demand as rapid adoption of electric vehicles continues."

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/10419871 ... g-evs-cars

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TVS Motor Company Join Hands With Tata Power To Expand Electric Charging Eco-System In India
by Anusha Ramesh
October 6, 2021

https://thelogicalindian.com/technology/tvsmotors-31095

Introduction:

(The Logical Indian) The world is no stranger to climate change and global warming. Brands around the world have been turning towards sustainable options. As for the mobility sector, electric vehicles are now the future.

TVS Motor Company, in a press release on October 5, said that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Tata Power. The Companies partnership will take India one step forward in the electric mobility sector.

The companies aim to expand India's Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI) by installing dedicated electric two-wheeler charging infrastructures and deploying solar power technologies at TVS Motor locations. The companies believe that expanding technologies in solar energies would play a vital role in the shift towards clean energy adoption by consumers.

The partnership will also give the customers of TVS iQube Electric access to the existing charging infrastructure by Tata Power across the country and help them further their commitment to expanding the presence of TVS iQube Electric in over 25 cities within the next few months. The electric scooter is currently available in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kochi, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Surat, Vizag, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad.

[weatheriscool]

his New Technology Can Fully Charge an Electric Car in Just 10 Minutes
Admin October 09, 2021 0

It's called 'range anxiety', and it's often pointed to as one of the key reasons why consumer uptake of battery-powered electric vehicles still hasn't really taken off.
In a nutshell, range anxiety is the fear that an electric car's battery won't hold enough juice to get you where you need to be going – and today's ultra-slow charging speeds (up to an hour or potentially much longer) don't really help the problem.
What might alleviate the issue though is a new kind of battery technology developed by scientists at Penn State University, which overcomes existing bottlenecks to offer an EV battery that takes only minutes to get back to 100 percent charge.
"We demonstrated that we can charge an electrical vehicle in 10 minutes for a 200 to 300 mile range," says chemical engineer Chao-Yang Wang.
"And we can do this maintaining 2,500 charging cycles, or the equivalent of half a million miles of travel."

https://www.physics-astronomy.org/2021/ ... 8A7YTiZYNk

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Vanmoof's New V E-Bike is Its Fastest Ever
by Thomas Ricker
October 12, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/22722099/vanmo ... e-preorder

Introduction:

(The Verge) VanMoofVanMoof just announced the VanMoof V, the company’s first high-speed electric bike capable of hitting a top speed of 60km/h (37mph). That’s much faster than VanMoof’s current e-bikes, which are capped at 25km/h in Europe and 20mph in the US, and well beyond what local laws currently allow.

Vanmoof is launching the pedal-assisted V today as a challenge to lawmakers and city planners to rethink outmoded regulations and start putting the needs of people ahead of cars.

[Yuli Ban]

Is the Apple Car happening at last?

[raklian]

[weatheriscool]

Alaska Air and ZeroAvia are developing a 500-mile range hydrogen-electric plane
Source: electrek

Alaska Air Group, the parent company of Alaska Airlines, is collaborating with ZeroAvia to develop a hydrogen-electric powertrain that will be implemented on a 76 passenger plane. When completed, the ZA2000 hydrogen-electric powertrain should boast 2,000-5,000 kW of power with a 500-mile range. As a new investor in ZeroAvia, Alaska Air plans to electrify its aviation to meet its goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2040.

Alaska Air Group is an aviation parent company with Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air Industries under its umbrella. This past April, the company signed The Climate Pledge, outlining a plan to reduce its carbon emissions to net-zero by 2040. This timeline was also led by commitments to improvements of company-wide carbon, waste, and water impacts by 2025.

The company is working toward commercial electric plane operations with its 600kW powertrain in 2024 as well as the aforementioned 2,000-5,000 kW version after that. With today’s announcement, Alaska Air hopes to help aid in developing ZeroAvia’s hydrogen-electric technology and implement it in passenger planes.

In a recent press release, ZeroAvia announced that Alaska Air Group has signed on as an investor. The two companies will collaborate to scale ZeroAvia’s existing powertrain platform technology to support electric planes that can carry more passengers longer distances.

Read more: https://electrek.co/2021/10/26/alaska-a ... ric-plane/

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Tesla is Opening Its Supercharger Network to Other EVs for the First Time
by Aria Alamalhodaei
November 1, 2021

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/01/tesla ... irst-time/

Introduction:

(TechCrunch) Tesla is rolling out a pilot program in the Netherlands that opens 10 Supercharger locations to non-Tesla electric vehicles for the first time.

Non-Tesla drivers that want to use a Supercharger location will first need to download the Tesla app and create an account with the company. From there, they can select “Charge Your Non-Tesla,” search for a location, add a payment method and start charging, according to information on Tesla’s Netherlands website.

Drivers operating non-Tesla EVs will not have a totally seamless charging experience; while Tesla users can simply plug in and out, these drivers will have to indicate on the app when to start and stop the charging session. And while the price of electricity will stay the same for Tesla owners, non-Teslas will incur additional costs, including those “associated with charging a large number of different cars and made to make the locations suitable for cars from other brands,” the company said.

Only EVs with a CCS standard connection will be eligible to participate in the pilot. Here in the U.S., Tesla Superchargers use a proprietary connector, but CEO Elon Musk indicated in a second-quarter earnings call in July that an adapter could be sold or offered at the company’s North America charging locations, should the network open in the U.S. He also suggested that the company could implement dynamic pricing during busy periods.

The pilot will let Tesla “gain experience, monitor flow at the loaders and collect user feedback,” the company said on its website. Tesla is encouraging its drivers to continue using the 10 locations as normal, likely to ensure that it is getting good data on how its flagship users are affected. In the case of non-Teslas charging slower than Tesla vehicles, the pilot will also likely measure the impact of slower charging times on other users.

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Electric Air Taxis Prepare for Takeoff
November 2, 2021
by Joann Muller

https://www.axios.com/electric-air-taxi ... 330b3.html

Introduction:

(Axios) Electric air taxis might someday leap from rooftop to rooftop, delivering cargo or ferrying passengers above congested roadways — but not until they can solve a host of technical and regulatory hurdles.

• A less complex e-plane under development could bring many of the same benefits by hopping among underused airports.

Why it matters: Aviation is on the cusp of a revolution as significant as the jet age, with advanced air mobility — i.e., flying vehicles — promising a cheaper, faster and cleaner mode of transportation, according to Morgan Stanley. It pegs the potential value of the market at $9 trillion by 2050.

Where it stands: Investors have pumped $5 billion into electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLs) in the past two years, per data compiled by Phystech Ventures, an early-stage VC firm.

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[wjfox]

Electric truck maker Rivian raises almost $12bn from share sale

4 hours ago

Shares in electric vehicle firm Rivian are set to start trading in New York on Wednesday, after raising more than $11.9bn (£8.8bn) from investors.

That's as the shares were priced at $78 each, well above the company's target range.

That flotation ranks among the top 10 initial public offerings (IPOs) of all time in the US.

Yet Rivian only started delivering its first electric pick-up trucks to customers in September.

And the California-based start-up has made losses of over $2bn over the last two years.

But the van and truck maker has drawn significant investor interest, in part because it already has the backing of online giant Amazon.

And it is has beaten rivals including Ford and General Motors to a segment of the market - small trucks, pick-ups and SUVs - which is popular with American drivers.

The shares were priced at $78 each, which is above the target range of $72 to $74.

Rivian is already being compared to Elon Musk's Tesla, which transformed the market for electric cars.

Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59215474

[wjfox]

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Pity the "Green" Car Buyer
by Joann Muller
November 27, 2021

https://www.axios.com/pity-the-green-ca ... b230f.html

Introduction:

(Axios) Americans are more open than ever to trading in their gas cars for electrified vehicles — but they're flummoxed by the confusing array of green options arriving in showrooms.

Why it matters: Getting up to speed on the differences among hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles will be a challenge for car buyers — and salespeople, too — as we transition away from gas-powered vehicles over the next decade.

What's happening: Overall car sales are down, but sales of electrified vehicles — hybrid, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs) — nearly doubled in the third quarter, to 10.4% of total sales from 5.5%, according to Kelley Blue Book.

• Pure EVs, which have no combustion engine, were still just 3% of the total, partly because of their price tag: nearly $60,000 on average, before rebates, says KBB parent, Cox Automotive.

• Until EV prices come down, hybrids and plug-in hybrids are a more affordable option for many car buyers.

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Nissan to Invest $17.6 Billion in Electric Vehicle Development Over the Next Five Years
by Steve Dent
November 29, 2021

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/29/nissa ... ive-years/

Introduction:

(TechCrunch) Nissan will invest 2 trillion yen ($17.6 billion) over the next five years developing new EVs and battery technology as part of a grand plan it calls “Ambition 2030,” the company announced. It aims to release 15 new EVs total by 2030, with electrified vehicles making up half its vehicle lineup at that point.

The automaker said it will develop 23 electrified vehicles in total over the next eight years, with 20 of those coming in the next five years alone. It’s shooting for a market mix of 75 percent electrified (EV and e-Power PHEV/hybrids) in Europe, 55 percent in Japan and 40 percent in the US and China by 2030.

The other part of that mix, would presumably be internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. It’s worth noting that in early 2021, Nissan said that it planned to electrify every all-new car it launches by the early 2030s. Presumably, then, any ICE vehicles still available would be legacy models.

Nissan will launch EVs with all-solid-state batteries (ASSB) by 2028 and ready a pilot plant in Yokohama as early as 2024, it said. That technology promises benefits like reduced charging times, but has yet to arrive to market as expected. The company also wants to bring the cost of battery packs down to $75 per kWh by 2028 with a reduction to $65 kWh further down the road. That would be about half of what EV batteries cost last year, according to Bloomberg. By 2030, Nissan hopes to be producing 130 GWh of batteries.

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Electric Car Prices Could Go Up Before They Come Down
by Joann Muller
December 1, 2021

https://www.axios.com/electric-car-pric ... fbe43.html

Introduction:

(Axios) The secret to affordable electric vehicles is cheaper batteries. But after years of falling prices, battery costs are now headed in the wrong direction.

Why it matters: Costlier batteries could drive up the price of electric vehicles — threatening the auto industry's transition away from fossil fuels, and, in turn, society's fight against climate change.

Driving the news: Soaring costs for minerals and other raw materials could push the average price of a lithium-ion battery pack to $135 per kilowatt-hour in 2022, according to researchers at BloombergNEF who specialize in studying the energy transition.

• The projected 2.3% hike would mark the first price increase in a decade.

What they're saying: "This creates a tough environment for automakers, particularly those in Europe, which have to increase EV sales in order to meet average fleet emissions standards," says James Frith, BNEF's head of energy storage research, per Bloomberg.

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Crossing 10% Global Electric Vehicle Adoption is Huge
by Brian Wang
December 2, 2021

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2021/12/173925.html

Introduction:

(Next Big Future) Past technology adoption S curves all point to rapid accelerated adoption after 10% adoption is crossed. Battery electric car adoption has reach 13% in Europe and China. Norway’s electric car adoption is the most relevant data point for how fast the adoption will move. Norway went from 10% battery electric market share to over 70% in six years.

Global electric car demand should shoot up by over 5 million cars per year for the next 6 years. 2024, 2025, 2026 should see electric car demand grow by about ten million cars per year.

Factories and battery supply that is ready to ramp now will capture this demand.

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The Polestar Precept is a Cipher for the EV Automaker's Future
by Alex Kalogiannis
December 4, 2021

https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/04/the-p ... rs-future/

Introduction:

(TechCrunch) Polestar will spend the next three years executing a lofty electric vehicle launch schedule that will culminate with the Precept concept, a “Rosetta Stone” of sorts that provides a physical representation of the company’s future.

Polestar, the former Volvo company that spun out to become its own brand, refers to the concept as its “manifesto.” In other words, the Precept, which will go into production as the Polestar 5, tells consumers and eventual shareholders what the EV automaker intends to become.

The next several years will be spent moving further away from its Volvo roots and closer to its own brand, Greg Hembrough, head of Polestar USA, told TechCrunch in an interview at a company presentation in New York. During the presentation, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath, along with other members of the automaker’s leadership team, laid out a plan to expand to new markets, increase sales volume ten-fold and launch three new cars in the process. This ambitious plan is predicated on the company’s core values of design, sustainability and innovation.

The road so far

In 1996, Polestar was introduced to the world as a racing company that sold and developed performance software for Volvo Cars. Intertwined from the start, the union became official in 2011 when Polestar became a Performance partner, imbuing Volvo vehicles with enhanced sport characteristics. It was fully acquired by Volvo Car Group in 2015. It spun off shortly thereafter as its own brand, birthing its first car, the first-and-only hybrid Polestar 1 in 2017 and full EV Polestar 2 in 2019.

Between the two models, Polestar has sold roughly 29,000 vehicles, with the four-door EV Polestar 2 dominating the bulk of those sales.