Honda Go Driverless and Wireless, LEAF Sales In Japan and McLaren On Batteries | 7 April 2018
Record Sales For LEAF In Japan | Honda Go Driverless And Wireless | McLaren Rule Out EV On Technical Grounds | Tesla Shuttle Service In Australia Passes One Million Miles | Tesla Batteries Makes Renewables More Useful
Saturday 7th April 2018.
LEAF SALES IN JAPAN
- Last month in Japan it was a fantastic time for Nissan LEAF sales. And by fantastic I mean up 91%. Over 10,000 have been sold in Q1 in Japan and a total of over 18,000.
- And since they first went in same in January 2011, 100,000 LEAFs have been sold over the three variations.
- Add on top over 2,000 in Norway, 1,500 in the U.S., there heading towards selling 10,000 per month of the new model.
HONDA GO DRIVERLESS AND WIRELESS
- There’s a full BEV version of the new Honda Clarity coming soon and Honda, whilst they’re not giving up on fuel cells, are moving forward with EVs. Two stories coming via Clean Technica. Firstly they say Waymo: “may be working with Honda on an entirely new kind of delivery vehicle that drives itself. It bases its information on a recent profile of Waymo CEO John Krafcik by In his interview with Bloomberg, Krafcik said not to expect the new service to take the form of a “traditional car driven on roads.” Engadge tbelieves that comment means Waymo is ready to create a vehicle from scratch with an automaker like Honda rather than modifying existing models. Krafcik hinted the new self-driving vehicle from Honda might be smaller than a truck but larger than a car and would come without a steering wheel.
- Secondly, how to charge a vehicle which doesn’t have a driver, apart from when it returns to base or depot. What about when it needs a midday top up. Well the same article continues: “WiTricity and Honda will make a joint presentation about wireless charging technology to the Society of Automotive Engineers World Conference Experienceon April 11. Kosuke Tachikawa, head of Honda R&D Americas, will discuss how EVs — and particularly those powered by wireless charging — will connect to the grid and enable bi-directional energy flow that will stabilize the grid and create a truly seamless, renewable energy source.”
MCLAREN RULING OUT ELECTRIC CAR…FOR NOW
- Jens Ludmann, chief operating officer at McLaren Automotive, talking to Wheels about the ideal specs for a supercar EV, “We are investigating the pure electric technology for our products,” said Ludmann, speaking to Wheelsat the Geneva motor show.
- “We very closely look at what the technology can deliver, however we think for a pure electric vehicle the technology is not yet mature enough – and that has to do with the battery performance.”
- Energy density is the issue. According to Ludmann, current battery technology is more than sufficient for everyday driving, but can’t manage the extreme charge/discharge e requirement of racetrack use while also remaining light enough to preserve chassis agility.
- “To talk in numbers, the battery technology should achieve 500 watt-hours per kilogram. That is a level where it really makes sense. Today we are around 180 watt-hours per kilogram. So there is significant improvement required to get it where we want it to be.”
CONGRATULATIONS TO EVOKE
- com.au say that: “Australia’s first chauffeur-driven Tesla service, Evoke, has surpassed more than one million kilometres of zero-emission motoring by transporting passengers in its electric vehicles.
- In reaching this milestone, the Sydney-based company, founded by Pia Peterson in 2015, has offset more than 325,000 kilograms of carbon emissions and avoided burning 130,000 litres of petrol.
- As well as keeping the air cleaner, Evoke’s achievement enables many of its corporate customers to claim emission reductions delivered by the sustainable transport service as Scope 3 carbon offsets.”
RENEWABLES PLUS TESLA BATTERIES
- And finally, Energy Matters have been talking about using batteries alongside renewables: “Danish company Vestas hopes to solve the problem of creating reliable energy from intermittent sun and wind sources by using commercial energy storage in new ways. The company has invested €10 million ($16m) to help its partner Northvolt build Europe’s biggest battery cell plant backed by major car investors. Northvolt is headed by former Tesla executive Peter Carlsson. The companies plan to develop industry energy storage based on the latest car battery technology. Vestas will use Tesla batteries in a utility-scale project harnessing wind and solar energy for dispatchable power.
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