Battery Day Preview: Christmas Day Arrives for Tesla Fans | 22 Sep 2020
Elon Tweets To Calm Expectations | What To Expect At Tesla’s Battery Day | Elon Musk says ‘record deliveries possible’ in leaked employee email | SK Innovation Accelerates Hiring at Battery Site in Georgia | Nikola founder resigns as chairman amid allegations, SEC probe | UK plans to bring forward ban on fossil fuel vehicles to 2030 | VW races to meet EU target with new pooling deal | BYD D1 comes with a cobalt-free BYD Blade Battery
On today’s podcast:
- Elon Tweets To Calm Expectations
- 7 Things To Expect From Battery Day
- What To Expect At Tesla’s Battery Day Event
- Elon Musk says ‘record deliveries possible’ in leaked employee email
- SK Innovation Accelerates Hiring at Battery Site in Georgia
- Nikola founder resigns as chairman amid allegations, SEC probe
- UK plans to bring forward ban on fossil fuel vehicles to 2030
- VW races to meet EU target with new pooling deal
- BYD D1 comes with a cobalt-free BYD Blade Battery
Show #896
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Tuesday 22nd September 2020. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.
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ELON TWEETS TO CALM EXPECTATIONS
"Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow. This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022."
"We intend to increase, not reduce battery cell purchases from Panasonic, LG & CATL (possibly other partners too). However, even with our cell suppliers going at maximum speed, we still foresee significant shortages in 2022 & beyond unless we also take action ourselves."
7 THINGS TO EXPECT FROM BATTERY DAY
- Cost Parity? - Tesla is likely to announce its battery costs have dropped to less than $100 per kilowatt-hour
- Destination Density - Currently, the most advanced batteries found in a Tesla Model 3 have an energy density of about 250 kilowatt-hours per kilogram, according to BloombergNEF, by 2025, that could rise to as much as 400 kilowatt-hours per kg
- Electrode Innovation - there’s a small chance Musk may announce that Tesla is making its own batteries
- Cobalt-Free? - CATL provides Tesla with lower-cost lithium-ion-phosphate batteries that don’t contain any cobalt but are less energy-dense than NCA batteries.
- Spiked With Silicon - the more silicon there is in the anode, the higher the energy density of the battery. It’s possible Musk will announce Tesla has found a way to increase the amount of silicon loading in graphite anodes
- Million-Mile Battery - this could allow Tesla cars to connect with the electric grid and provide services to utilities, such as absorbing excess renewable energy or reducing demands on transmission infrastructure. Autobidder software.
- Partnership Shift? - Will one supplier emerge as dominant for Tesla’s auto business, while another focuses on the utility market?
WHAT TO EXPECT AT TESLA’S BATTERY DAY EVENT
"Biscuit Tins Cells - batteries, which are rumored to be from Tesla’s secretive “Roadrunner” project, appear to be twice the size of Panasonic’s 2170 cells. They also may be higher capacity while being lower cost for the company to produce by removing the tab, a part of the battery that forms a connection between the cell and what it is powering. The company posted job listings earlier this year seeking workers for “line cell manufacturing” engineers at its factory in Fremont, California. Tesla also struck a deal with South Korean company Hanwha Corporation to purchase battery formation equipment, with the equipment headed to Fremont first and then to Gigafactories in Nevada, Shanghai, and Berlin."
https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/21/21443806/tesla-battery-day-rumors-specs-what-to-expect-elon-musk
ELON MUSK SAYS ‘RECORD DELIVERIES POSSIBLE’ IN LEAKED EMPLOYEE EMAIL
"Tesla (TSLA) has “a shot” at a “record quarter for vehicle deliveries,” according to CEO Elon Musk in a leaked email to employees. Unlike other automakers, Tesla owns its entire distribution system, meaning that it owns every vehicle until it is delivered to customers. This has a big effect on the automaker’s financials since it can’t recognize revenue until vehicles are delivered and it spent the money upfront to make those vehicles." according to electrek: "We have a shot at record quarter for deliveries, but we’ll have to rally hard to achieve it. This is the most number of vehicles per day that we’ would ever had to deliver. Please consider vehicle deliveries to be the absolute top priority. It’s also extremely important that we keep factory output as high as possible over the remaining 10 days. This is vital for the California market."
"Tesla’s last record deliveries were 112,000 vehicles delivered during the fourth quarter of 2019."
SK INNOVATION ACCELERATES HIRING AT BATTERY SITE IN GEORGIA
SK Innovation today announced it plans to hire more than 1,000 skilled American workers by the end of 2021 as it prepares for initial production at the first of two electric vehicle battery plants being built in Commerce, about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta. In one of the largest economic projects in Georgia's history, SK Innovation affirmed its long-range investment plans for the facility that would make Georgia one of the largest hubs of EV battery manufacturing in the world.
SK Innovation, South Korea's largest energy company, is building two EV battery plants at the Georgia site as part of a $2.6 billion investment in its U.S. battery business that will directly create more than 2,600 permanent jobs in the Jackson County area by 2024. The first SK Battery America plant is scheduled to begin initial operations in 2021 with mass production in 2022. A second plant at the same site is expected to begin mass production in 2023. As the market for electric vehicles continues to grow, SK Innovation is committed to making Georgia a world leader in EV battery manufacturing."
NIKOLA FOUNDER RESIGNS AS CHAIRMAN AMID ALLEGATIONS, SEC PROBE
"Nikola, the embattled electric-vehicle startup that recently partnered with General Motors, said its founder stepped down as executive chairman effective immediately, removing a target of critics but clouding Nikola’s future direction." writes Automotive News Europe: "The stock tumbled after short seller Hindenburg Research questioned the validity of Nikola’s claims about its electric-vehicle technology, accusing Nikola of being “an intricate fraud built on dozens of lies.” That drew the attention of financial regulators."
https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/nikola-founder-resigns-chairman-amid-allegations-sec-probe
UK PLANS TO BRING FORWARD BAN ON FOSSIL FUEL VEHICLES TO 2030
"The UK is poised to bring forward its ban on new fossil fuel vehicles from 2040 to 2030 to help speed up the rollout of electric vehicles across British roads. Boris Johnson is expected to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles this autumn with the announcement, one of a string of new clean energy policies to help trigger a green economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic." says The Guardian: "The decision to end the sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030 would put the UK ahead of France, which has a 2040 ban in the pipeline, and in line with Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. Norway will bring in a ban in 2025.n Graeme Cooper, the director in charge of National Grid’s electric vehicle project, told the Guardian that fears over the UK electricity grid’s ability to cope with a boom in electric vehicle charging were unfounded. He said the grid operator was “confident that a faster transition is possible” and that it is “suitably robust” to cope with a rise in electricity demand."
VW RACES TO MEET EU TARGET WITH NEW POOLING DEAL
"Volkswagen has brokered an “insurance policy” agreement with MG Motor that will allow the German carmaker to count the firm’s electric car sales alongside its own, in what is seen as a last ditch effort to comply with the EU’s 2020 CO2 emissions target." reportd Euractiv: "VW has entered into a so-called pooling deal with MG, which is owned by China’s SAIC Motor, that will reduce the German company’s average emissions and bring it in line with European legislation, EU documents reveal. According to the 2020 regulation, carmakers have to slash their fleet emissions down to an EU-wide average of 95g of CO2 per kilometre. Each firm has its own goal and while some are on track to meet their benchmarks, others are struggling. VW was expected to hit its target without any outside help and has timed sales of its new ID:3 electric car to fall within the 2020 window, meaning the MG deal is an unexpected development. MG Motor makes the all-electric ZS EV, will add a second model this year and is popular in the UK, Norway and France, meaning it is well-placed to join the VW pool for 2020-2022. The agreement remains open to other companies to join. Car pools have to be registered by the end of 2020 with the European Commission and manufacturers may now scramble to secure the best deals if non-compliance with the rules and the large fines that it entails becomes more likely."
And electrive has a take on Brexit: "Plus there is the Brexit looming. The UK is likely to keep the EU emission targets but would trade these internally. Here the pool with SAIC/MG is making sense for Volkswagen. Most of the Group’s sales in Britain are through Bentley, meaning CO2 intensive cars. The MG ZS EV on the other hand, was the fourth most registered BEV model in the UK, with more EV models on the horizon, according to the August edition of the European Electric Car Report."
https://www.euractiv.com/section/transport/news/vw-races-to-meet-eu-target-with-new-pooling-deal/
https://www.electrive.com/2020/09/20/co2-pooling-vw-merges-fleets-with-saic-and-ford/
BYD D1 COMES WITH A COBALT-FREE BYD BLADE BATTERY
"BYD D1 is a very interesting electric MPV (Multi-Purpose Vehicle) that gets a cobalt-free LFP battery. With a sliding door on the right and two normal doors on the left this is an electric vehicle especially made for families with kids and ride-hailing services." reports Pedro for PushEVs: "Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, the company that bought Uber’s China business in 2016 will use this model. According to Moneyball, Didi plans to put 10.000 D1 units in service already this year – between October and December – and 100.000 units in 2021."
Battery energy density: 140 Wh/kg
Battery type: LFP BYD Blade Battery
Motor: 100 kW
"In a more realistic test cycle such as the WLTP, the range would be around 310 km (193 miles) and the consumption around 17 kWh/100 km. BYD can switch to cobalt-free CTP battery packs much faster than most automakers. Mainly because it produces its own battery cells and battery packs, therefore it doesn’t have any contracts to honor with external suppliers. Currently BYD is putting its Blade Battery packs in models that have bigger batteries, where replacing NCM with cobalt-free LFP represents more savings, but I expect that these packs will eventually come to more affordable models such as the e1 and e2 that have smaller batteries."
https://pushevs.com/2020/09/21/byd-d1-comes-with-a-cobalt-free-byd-blade-battery/
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