Black Cabs Become Vans, Electric Koenigsegg and DAMN YOU AUSTRALIA! | 21 Feb 2018
New London Electric Cabs Become Vans | Electrifying A Koenigsegg | Mitsubishi Outlander Gets A Moderate Battery Bump | 20 New EVs From Geely | BP Report Shows EVs Driven Twice As Much As ICE Cars | German Diesel Ban Decision | Australia Is Dirrrrty
Wednesday 21st February 2018. On the podcast today… coming up we’ll talk about electric hyper cars and we’ll pick on Australians, but just a little.
We’ll start with news about a possible new commercial vehicle, now stay with me because this isn’t a sexy way to start. I promise the next story will be all speed and smoke and wheel spin. I think commercial vehicles are really important to electrify because they do a lot of miles in places where pollution is high.
Your own car might sit on the driveway or outside work for most of the day, whereas a working vehicle is always on the go. This is also really important for last mile situations, around cities, where pollution levels are so high they cause respiratory disease. Now, have you seen the new London black cab?
If not, pause this and go and watch the Fully Charged episode recently. And I know I keep talking about Jonny Smith – I promise I don’t want to kiss him. Much.
However Chinese EV owner Geely have ploughed hundreds of millions into the range-extended new Black Cab, which costs just £10 more a week to lease but saves you £100 in fuel. No brainer. Now Geely want to use the platform and powertrain to change the taxi dimensions into a van, add a passenger seat up front, and bring it to market.
Spy spots featured on Motor1.com show it heavily camouflaged but with the unmistakeable front end. According to them the conversion is costing $42million which is small change in terms of bringing releasing a new vehicle.
https://www.motor1.com/news/233531/london-taxi-testing-commercial-vehicle/
Next I promised something faster than a van. What about a Koenigsegg? Maker of insane sport cars from the mad hypercar brain of Christian von Koenigsegg. They have a new plug-in hybrid called the Regera which he says is “on the bleeding edge of EV technology”.
According to leftlanenews he was so impressed by the instant torque of a Model S, he incorporated batteries into the drivetrain of his next hypercar. Yes it comes with a dirty 5.0 liter V8 but also three motors, and electric acceleration up to 30mph. He says it’s probably the most advanced EV in the world, but doesn’t get the headlines for being so because of the ICE. The battery pack is only 70 kilos but helps generate 700bhp. As for a full electric version, he says “that technology is getting better and better very rapidly”.
https://www.leftlanenews.com/koenigsegg-expects-to-build-all-electric-car-eventually-99943.html
Mitsubishi are making a moderate upgrade to a very important car. The new Outlander PHEV will be available from autumn and it has been a huge success for those wanting to add electrons to dino juice.
They’ve sold 100,000 of them in Europe, and 140,000 worldwide. For the new model they’re increasing battery performance by 15%. But there’s not need to brace yourself, in real numbers, that’s a battery pack going from 12kWh to a dizzy 13.8kWh. However it’s welcome, it’s a popular car, and it’s very handy to plug in to the growing CHAdeMO fast chargers. Although suggesting a PHEV using one might get me hate mail.
https://www.electrive.com/2018/02/20/mitsubishi-presents-new-outlander-phev-suv-concept/
However Mitsubishi want to show they’re serious about full electric cars, so fresh from the Tokyo Motor Show they’re heading to Geneva Motor Show with the e-EVOLUTION concept which will lay out their direction and thinking. 4 wheel drive, three motors, and electronically controlled torque vectoring – which I’ve no idea what that is, but I definitely need it in my life.
https://insideevs.com/new-2019-mitsubishi-outlander-phev-with-15-more-battery-capacity/
Talking of Geely earlier, according to GasGoo.com they’re introducing 20 new energy vehicles by 2020. Just to put that in perspective, that’s 22 months away. They’ll practically release a new model a month and everyone is so used to the pace of EV news lately, it’s not even front page news. In fact it got trumped today by a VAN to be top story! In 2018 watch out for the Emgrand EV 450 and the Emgrand PHEV, as long as you’re in China of course. They say two thirds of their range in the future will he plug ins or hybrids, and around a third will be pure electric cars.
http://autonews.gasgoo.com/new_energy/70013721.html
The first of two stories about oil now, and tomorrow in Germany, their top court could hand down a landmark ruling on Diesels, which will accelerate EV growth there. The environmental group DUH sued Stuttgart and Dusseldorf over levels of particulates.
Local courts ruled the worst diesels could be used on heavy pollution days, which the German states appealed against. So tomorrow we’ll hear if the ban stands, and if so, could wipe huge values off diesel cars, the diesel makers and inspire more people to drive electric.
https://www.autoblog.com/2018/02/19/german-court-diesel-bans-car-value/
Secondly BP (British Petroleum) have released their annual Energy Outlook report. They say travel demand will double by 2040 mainly due to increases in personal mobility in China and India. BP predict todays 3million EV’s will grow to 320million by 2040, which would be 15% of the worldwide fleet of cars. And shared mobility will accelerate that, because self-driving cars will be electric thanks to lower cost of maintenance and ability to recharge themselves via wireless charging. In 2016 the total fuel demand from cars was 18.7million barrels of oil per day which is one fifth of total oil demand. BP also predict electric cars will be driven 2.5x more than ICE cars.
Finally, if you listen to an EV podcast I’m guessing you’re a fan. But so this isn’t a little echo chamber with you and me banging battery drum, let’s take a look at today’s Sydney Morning Herald. They point out that all is not well with EV’s because they’ve done some maths.
Charging your electric car from the grid in Australia means a Tesla (the paper doesn’t say which model, does it matter? Maybe not) would emit 168 grams of CO2 per km, versus a Toyota Corolla at 178 grams, a Renault Zoe at 121 grams and a Toyota Prius at 84 grams per km. But let’s look at that – charging from the grid. Because those numbers seem way too high. And you what? They are. Because your grid, and I’m talking to any Aussies listening, is disgusting.
The average greenhouse gas intensity is 910kg of CO2 per MWh. That’s insanely high. Are you literally just burning whatever you can lay your hands on? Australia is one of the sunniest countries on the planet why don’t you all have solar panels? You see them everywhere where in the UK, a country that officially has 5 sunny days per year. Every other day it’s cloudy and it rains. And we still have solar. The UK grid intensity for Summer 2017 was 216 kg CO2/MWh.
Get some solar Australia! It’s what you’re good at. Take Norway, or Iceland, or Paraguay, they all have grid intensity