01 Sep 2019 | Ford EVs Will Be Affordably Electric, Renault Zoe Wins In July and New 77kWh Seat Concept Car
Escaping Hurricane Dorian In An EV | New From Audi In Europe In 2020 | Ford Exec: Iconic Models To Go Affordably Electric: F-150, Mustang | Renault Zoe Wins In Europe July | VW’s Seat Unveils Sleek New MEB-Based Electric SUV With 77 kWh Battery Pack | Volkswagen ID.R Sets Record On Tianmen Mountain | Question Of The Week
Show #567
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Sunday 1st September 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story to save you time.
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Finally – took a nail to the new Zoe tyre! Oh no!
ESCAPING HURRICANE DORIAN IN AN EV
From Joshua Pritt: "With Dorian pressing in to Florida everyone keeps asking how will I evacuate with my 2018 Nissan Leaf. I have to explain to them that I just don't wait until the day of the storm. As long as you leave a day early and use abetterrouteplanner.com to plan the charging stops I should be fine. I also explain that I could use my 2017 Volt and just drive like a normal gas car and wait in line at the gas stations like everyone else!"
NEW FROM AUDI IN EUROPE IN 2020
e-tron S in May, e--tron S Sportback in May and e-tron GT in November 2020.
FORD EXEC: ICONIC MODELS TO GO AFFORDABLY ELECTRIC: F-150, MUSTANG
"Autocar recently traveled to Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. It gleaned exclusive information about the future of Ford, directly from some of its top executives. The article is packed with insight, information, and many direct quotes." says InsideEVs of Ford's Global Product Development Director for Battery Electric Vehicles, Darren Palmer: "I was unsure at first. For me, electric cars were more about sensible buying than the exciting cars I knew. Then Sherif Marakby, our autonomous vehicle CEO, said, ‘trust me this is going to be the next big development in cars’. When you know them, you’ll love them. And he was right. I just couldn’t believe how good these new cars were. They could do things you’d never do in an ICE [internal combustion-engined] car. They were just better. We’re hitting our biggest icons first, but we have more. And we’ll keep working through them. We decided very carefully where we’d play in the electric car market, and that every one would amplify the characteristics of the model it was based on. Each one had to be extremely desirable, but at an attainable price."“It’s the greatest change and opportunity in the auto industry in 30 years, and probably a lot longer. Today’s performance BEV isn’t just about the electric motor. It’s about software, surprises, over-the-air updates, cleverness, the fact it can learn and anticipate what you want, and makes your life better. It’s an entirely new kind of product. Those who try it will never go back."
https://insideevs.com/news/367357/ford-executive-spills-ev-future-details/
RENAULT ZOE WINS IN JULY
In Europe: "The big news in July was that the Renault Zoe profited from the expected Tesla off-peak month, winning another monthly trophy, its 4th this year. The French hatchback and Tesla Model 3 have divided all the monthly wins this year (January, April, May, July for Renault, and February, March, June for Tesla)." says CleanTechnica: "With Tesla starting to deliver the Model 3 SR/SR+ versions by now and Renault expected to double the Zoe’s output with the upcoming restyling, do not expect the current status quo to change much, or at least until the VW ID.3 starts to deliver in large volumes, expected by Q2 2020."
https://cleantechnica.com/2019/08/30/renault-zoe-wins-in-july-but-tesla-model-3-remains-2019-leader/
VW’S SEAT UNVEILS SLEEK NEW MEB-BASED ELECTRIC SUV WITH 77 KWH BATTERY PACK
"Seat, a Spanish automaker owned by Volkswagen, has unveiled a new electric SUV concept with a 77 kWh battery pack based on VW’s new MEB platform under its Cupra brand." says Electrek: "The concept is equipped with “a 77kWh lithium-ion battery pack”, which Seat claims is good for up to 450 km (280 miles), but the figure is based on the WLTP test cycle. It’s not as stringent as the EPA standard. The battery pack is powering 2 electric motors with a combined 225kW (306PS) output. Inside the vehicle, there are 4 sculptural bucket seats and 2 large screens. The prototype of the Tavascan concept is going to debut at this year’s IAA Frankfurt International Motor Show."
https://electrek.co/2019/09/02/vw-seat-cupra-meb-electric-suv-battery/
VOLKSWAGEN ID.R SETS RECORD ON TIANMEN MOUNTAIN
The ID.R currently holds the records on Pikes Peak (USA) and at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (GB), the electric lap record on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife (D), and now the fastest time for an ascent of Tianmen Mountain in China. The car is the motorsport ambassador for the new, fully-electric range of vehicles from Volkswagen, the ID. family, the first of which – the ID.3 – will have its world premiere on 10 September at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Romain Dumas (F) completed the 99 tight corners on the Tianmen Mountain road in 7:38.585 minutes – faster than ever before.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
SHAHAD
I live in an apartment with no charging access, so I primarily charge at work. I plug in for the last few hours of the day after people start going home and chargers open up. I only need to do this a few days a week to top off. My work offers free charging so this works very well and I've had to stop at a paid charger once in the past 2 months of owning my EV. This includes the extra miles I spend driving for Lyft to make the payments, since I hadn't financially been planning on upgrading until my old car unexpectedly died. I was already EV curious, but your podcast was one of the things that pushed me over the edge on the decision to upgrade, keep up the good work!
KARL CRAMER
As a renter I can't charge at home. Luckily work offers free charging, from solar power, and my gym has a nearby parking lot with free charging too. That's my morning and evening charging routine.
DOUG VOWLES
Too often parameters and criteria from the gas/petrol world are overlaid on the EV world by non-EV owners, and those wishing to become EV owners. Hence the “How far can you go?” types of questions. The reality of timely e-sips and the occasional full charge needs to be put out there. If the new model is understood and internalized by the buying public then perhaps the need for “big range” can take a back seat to every day practicality.
JOHN CHRISTENSEN
My wife and I have had our Chevy Bolt for a year in Chicago, Illinois, USA. We have a level 2 EVSE in our garage. Our charging routine changes with the season. In the spring and fall we leave our car unplugged and charge only every other week, because at that time of year the Bolt is much more efficient. But in the summer and winter we leave it plugged in. This is because in the summer our garage gets pretty hot and the Bolt needs to cool the battery and it’s best to leave it plugged in to keep the battery conditioned. Then in the winter it’s the other extreme; it gets super cold and the car then needs to be plugged in to heat the battery. Plus the range drops significantly and we want to get the most range we can then. So it changes season to season.
JONATHAN PRICE
As the Zoe became our primary car 4 KW solar was not sufficient to fully power the Zoe along with household consumption, particularly in winter of course.
This summer I upgraded to 8KW solar and a single Powerwall 2 battery ... a large part of which is funded by cumulative FIT payments since 2011.
I’ve added a Zappi hub and extra sensors to tune the battery and car charging and consumption.
With the extra solar I can run my Zoe on sunshine for much more of the year, sometimes dumping excess from the Powerwall too ... 3.5KW from Powerwall plus 3.5KW from Solar even on partly sunny days allows me to charge for free at 7KW on many days ... giving a fast - not rapid - charge boost during the day when needed. Zappi now varies charge rate automatically between about 1.4 and 7KW to avoid any unnecessary consumption from the grid.
Since I had a PW2 installed in mid May my Zoe has been about 85%+ solar power
DAVID NYE
Our PHEV has only around 40-45 kilometres of range on battery, so it’s pretty important to top up every night. I use off peak power and charge it after midnight.
We can and sometimes do top up a little at the local shopping centre, though it’s only 3.6kW.
SACHA
I’m a city dweller so no home charging like in suburbia ..
- charging once a week or so at supercharger (I got parking at a location with supercharging which happens to be at a transit station).
- SOC 65-85% is normally where I stop
- When traveling I use superchargers only (900 mile trip every 2 weeks , L2 would make a 8h a much longer trip otherwise)
ALEX BANAHENE
I started of doing full charge at home every time it got down to about 50 miles but after a year of use I’m happier now to go down to 20 miles or so. Generally this meant charging about once a week which I normally did on a Sunday.
EDUARD PERTINEZ
We plug the car (a Kona EV 64kWh) almost every night. It is configured to charge from 1am to 7am and fill up to 80%.
Here in Catalonia you can opt for special night tariffs that are only 8cents of Euro for kWh.
Night tariffs are so cheap because nuclear fussion and wind generation at night surpasses demand. So in fact I am charging my car with recicled energy. It cannot be greener than that!
RICHARD
I have a new Zoe that gets 280km between charges. I charge often as I like to park at an EV station when I shop. Tops the car off and I like the designated spot. Never abuse my stay. Win win.
JERRY ALLISON
I have owned a model 3 for a year now and I charge the car whenever I can. This is mostly at Chargepoint stations for an hour or so at a time (equates to 19MPH FREE charge). I tend to charge if possible when I go out for dinner or lunch. Some stations provide faster 26MPH charges and are also FREE, mostly because they are city owned and free to the public. I charge at home about once or twice a month. There are 12 solar panels on my roof and they produce approx. 1400 plus watts of electricity. And if I need to charge at home, I tend to wait for a sunny day.
MARK WESTON
When I took delivery of my Hyundai kona electric Premium SE 64kwh I asked that exact question. I was told only to charge to 100% when going on long journeys at home and on the road to 80%. At home I charge to 80% run it down to between 20 -10% then recharge back-up. On occasions back-up to 90%. I'm currently charging around every 7-8days. Great show as all ways. Thank you for what you do.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
The MYEV.com Question Of The Week.
What’s your favourite EV experience, or experience you’d like to have?
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