13 June 2018 | 9% Layoffs At Tesla, Porsche Launches Digital Charging App and Kia Soul Goes Electric Only In Europe
Tesla Lays Off 9% Of Employees | Daimler Recall Nearly 774,000 Diesels | 7% Of BMW Sales Are Electrified | Porsche Launches Digital Charging Service | New Jersey Invests $400 Million In EV Infrastructure And Storage | China May Sales | Vauxhall eCorsa | Kia Soul Goes Electric For Europe | New LG Chem On-Board Chargers Up To 11kW | Switzerland To Get Europe’s Largest Electric Vehicle Charging Hub | UK Government Invests In EV Charging | City Of London Trials UK’s First All-Electric Refuse Collection Veh
It’s Wednesday 13th June 2018 and this is your EV News Daily. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening! Wherever you're listening around the world, a very warm welcome from London, UK. Here is today’s news about electric cars and the future of transport. My name is Martyn Lee and I go through every EV article online so you don’t have to.
TESLA LAYS OFF 9% OF EMPLOYEES
Edited Highlights…
We are conducting a comprehensive organizational restructuring across our whole company. Tesla has grown and evolved rapidly over the past several years, which has resulted in some duplication of roles.
We have made the difficult decision to let go of approximately 9% of our colleagues across the company. No production associates were included, so this will not … Model 3 production.
This week, we are informing those whose roles are impacted by this action. We made these decisions by evaluating the criticality of each position, whether certain jobs could be done more efficiently and productively, and by assessing the specific skills and abilities of each individual in the company.
We have decided not to renew our residential sales agreement with Home Depot in order to focus our efforts on selling solar power in Tesla stores and online.
I would like to thank everyone who is departing Tesla for their hard work over the years. Tesla is providing significant salary and stock vesting (proportionate to length of service) to those we are letting go.
Tesla will still continue to hire outstanding talent in critical roles…there is still a significant need for additional production personnel.
We are a small company in one of the toughest and most competitive industries on Earth. Yet, despite our tiny size, Tesla has already played a major role in moving the auto industry towards sustainable electric transport and moving the energy industry towards sustainable power generation and storage. We must continue to drive that forward for the good of the world.
Thoughts –
Spare a thought for those involved, less of the ‘trim the fat’ comments online please!
Tesla has grown significantly with the acquisition of SolarCity
In the last year has grown by 10% too.
Some say, when you hire quickly you have to fire quickly.
Hard on morale and remaining employees
DAIMLER ORDERED TO RECALL NEARLY 774,000 DIESELS
- Here's a short follow up to yesterday’s story on the show about a potential Daimler recall. I was careful to say let's give them the benefit of the doubt. That didn't last long!
- Mercedes-Benz Vito commercial van, C220d sedan, and GLC220d vehicles sold in Europe are all affected by a diesel recall involving 774,000 vehicles in total.
- Up to five control devices were reportedly found but there's an interesting case of them being legal. Something my U.S. listeners find interesting, VW were fined for using so-called 'cheat devices' and there have been criminal trials. But here in Europe, legally, they did nothing wrong. And i should point out Daimler have probably done nothing wrong. You see, because we didn't think anyone would actually do what they've done, Europe doesn't have a specific law to break. I guess we assumed no company would be as brazen to try and game the system, bend the moral rules if you like, rather than break them.
- Whatever the situation, it creates more bad headlines for diesel, and accelerates the adoption of EVs. In many ways we should look for a silver lining in all this and be grateful for how #dieselgate moved EVs up the priorities of lawmakers.
ALMOST 7% OF BMW SALES ARE ELECTRIFIED
- Staying in Germany but good news for their rival, BMW, where almost 7% of all their sales are now electrified. "Electrified vehicles accounted for nearly 7% of all BMW and MINI models sold in the US in the first five months of the year and more than 7% of BMW and MINI sales in the UK" according to Green Car Congress: "In some markets, electrified vehicles already account for more than half of all BMW and MINI sales. Examples here are Norway (4,125 / +5.8%) and Malaysia (2,313 / +37.9%). The BMW Group said that it remains well on target to achieve its stated aim of selling more than 140,000 electrified vehicles in 2018."
- I mentioned on the show recently that BMW was investing in its Leipzeig plant, where the i3 and new i3s are made, to increase production by more than 50% by the end of this year.
PORSCHE LAUNCHES DIGITAL CHARGING SERVICE
- Porsche want to make different logins for your various charge providers a thing of the past with one unified app.
- The service searches for suitable charging stations and uses centrally stored data to handle the payment process – across multiple countries and currencies.
- Information about the location and availability of charging stations, as well as the cost of charging a vehicle, are available in real time via the app. At the charging pedestal, the user identifies themselves either using a QR code via the app or with their “Porsche ID card”, which the user receives free of charge after registering for the service. The charging service is currently available in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland. The service will gradually expand to include other countries from the end of 2018.
- The app is available on all mobile devices with iOS or Android operating systems and can be downloaded now. The service is in principle open to all drivers of hybrid or electric vehicles; its use is not limited to Porsche vehicles.
NEW JERSEY INVESTS $400 MILLION IN EV INFRASTRUCTURE AND STORAGE
- Charged EV's has more good news for those who think EV infrastructure is lacking: "New Jersey’s Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), the state’s largest utility, has revealed plans to invest $300 million in smart EV infrastructure, along with $100 million in utility-scale energy storage projects and $2.5 billion in energy efficiency measures. The company will file the plan with the state Board of Public Utilities later this year."
CHINA MAY SALES
- Last year, Chinese customers purchased nearly 600,000 EVs out of a total EV's sold of just over a million worldwide. That took the total number over 3 million of EV's on the road.
- And last month in May, China showed no appetite for slowing down. Sales of electric and gasoline-electric hybrids rose 126 percent over a year earlier. Through May, sales of electrics and hybrids rose 142 percent to 328,000.
- At this rate, Chinese buyers will purchase over one million EV's this year.
VAUXHALL ECORSA
- Vauxhall, or Opel depending on where you're listening to this, have a new electric car release date and design revealed in a leaked picture.
- "Vauxhall has confirmed that it will be building a new electric car called eCorsa. The car manufacturer announced the name for the new EV today alongside plans to introduce a new version of the standard combustion-engine Corsa." reports the Express: "From an image leaked of what appears to be the new electric Corsa, the car will launch with a bold new design It retains the overall shape of the standard car and looks about the same size but has an extensively updated front end. This includes a completely reimagined bumper, shorter but taller bonnet, and redesigned grille. As the car does not need a traditional grille to cool the engine it features a smooth curve with the Vauxhall badge fixed in the centre of it instead." No word yet on battery or motor specs, or indeed pricing.
KIA SOUL GOES ELECTRIC FOR EUROPE
- Matthias Schmidt tweeted that #Kia's Soul will become a BEV only model in Europe. According to @AIDNewsletter data, 5.4k of the 12.1k sold in the region last year were pure electric. Of which 3k were registered in Germany and then likely exported to Norway as part of 3k Soul EV Norwegian used imports last year.
NEW LG CHEM ON-BOARD CHARGERS UP TO 11 KW
- I've said before I'm a big fan of Pedro Lima at Push EV's, who doesn't blog a lot but always writes insightful articles. Now he's turned his attention to LG Chem which makes batteries, motors, inverters and now on-board chargers.
- "In Europe, 3-phase on-board chargers will soon become standard and LG Chem acknowledges it by making the 11 kW variant available from the start."
SWITZERLAND TO GET EUROPE’S LARGEST ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING HUB
- As for where you can charge your car, if you've ever been frustrated by turning up to find all the bays full, maybe you need a trip to Switzerland.
- A new innovation centre will feature 280 charging points for electric vehicles including 60 superchargers. Energy requirements for the hub were expected to hit 20,000 megawatt hours a year within 10 years, equivalent to the power needs of some 5,000 households. This energy will be fully supplied by local power sources including solar energy, hydropower and wood fuel.
UK GOVERNMENT INVESTS IN EV CHARGING
- A new pioneering technology to ensure a next generation of safer, high-powered electric car batteries can be charged by drivers in ultra-fast time is just one of 12 innovation projects to receive the green light from the government’s Faraday Battery Challenge.
- The PowerDrive Line project being led by Southampton-based company Ilika is focusing on sold state battery cell development, in particular how to manufacture at scale in the UK and how to build in ultra-fast charging technology of less than 25 minutes for a vehicle as is seen in some current battery systems.
- In total £22 million grants are being rewarded to consortia across the UK as part of the latest round of funding through the Faraday Battery Challenge, part of the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
CITY OF LONDON TRIALS UK’S FIRST ALL-ELECTRIC REFUSE COLLECTION VEHICLE
- The final story comes via Waste Management World, my favourite Waste Management website. I used to have prefer Waste Management Digest but it was rubbish. A trial of the UK’s first fully-electric waste collection truck has begun. The City of London explained that the trial will last for two months in the Smithfield area, and that the vehicle will also be trialled in two other UK cities later this year.
I’d love to spread the word about electric cars so, if you can, share this somebody who might be interested.
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