VW Workers Push For Faster EV Rollout | 04 Oct 2021

Show #1234

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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Monday 4th October. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

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"Volkswagen's (VW) main plant in Wolfsburg might face historically low output this year and needs a faster shift toward electric vehicles to remain competitive, according to the German automaker's top labour officials." reports News24.com: "The rollout of electric car, Trinity, due in 2026 may be too late, according to VW officials. Furthermore, a global chip shortage also happens manufacturing at Wolfsburg. Due to the persistent scarcity of semiconductor chips, the output at Wolfsburg this year could even fall below the level of 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic pushed production to just below 500 000 cars, according to VW's works council. VW's initial goal agreed in a labour pact five years ago was to make at least 820 000 vehicles in Wolfsburg last year."

"The Mercedes-Benz eVito Tourer (the all-electric variant of the Metris Passenger Van sold in the US) and the more luxurious EQV are getting a new battery pack option. Up until now, both models came with a 100 kWh battery (90 kWh usable), so is Mercedes-Benz giving them an even bigger pack for more range? Well, no. Actually, the new battery option has a 60 kWh net capacity, enabling a range of 217–239 kilometers (135-148 miles) on the eVito Tourer." says InsideEVs: "The standard fast charging function has an output of 50 kW, but an 80 kW option is also possible, in which case the battery can be charged from 10% to 80% in around 35 minutes. Mercedes-Benz argues that the smaller battery will appeal to customers “who cover easy-to-plan routes or who only drive short distances, such as in school transport operations.” Furthermore, it should also be interesting for those buyers looking for a weight saving of 150 kg (330 lbs) and a corresponding payload increase. Last but not least, the 60 kWh battery drives the eVito Tourer’s price down by approximately €3,600 ($4,175) compared to the equivalent 90 kWh model (€60,678 versus €64,248)."

Read more: Read more: https://insideevs.com/news/537885/mercedes-evito-eqv-60kwh-battery

Two near-series battery powered eActros trucks have crossed the Alps as part of a series of tests in Italy’s South Tyrol region. During the tests, the electric trucks tackled a total of 54,000 metres of altitude. The highest point of the trip was reached during measurement runs at the Kaunertal Glacier, at a height of 2,750 metres. In order to validate the trucks’ performance and durability, the testing engineers at Mercedes-Benz Trucks then subjected the electric vehicles, which were loaded to their gross vehicle weight of 27 tonnes, to an extremely gruelling series of tests in the area surrounding Bolzano, South Tyrol.

The Alpine terrain enabled the engineers to make particularly extensive use of the vehicles’ energy recovery feature, which can be exploited by driving with foresight. Series production of the eActros will start at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Wörth at the beginning of October 2021.

Read more: https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/ko/All-electric-mountain-climbers-Mercedes-Benz-eActros-trucks-on-test-in-South-Tyrol.xhtml?oid=51462413

"SK Innovation officially completed the spin-off of its battery business on 1 October. The now independent battery division of the South Korean company is called SK On. With the announced spin-off, the Korean company wants to enable the battery division to better focus on the fast-growing market for electric cars and their batteries – independently of the other business lines of the listed company." writes electrive: "The plan is to expand global battery production capacity from the current 40 GWh per year to 85 GWh by 2023, to 220 GWh by 2025 and to over 500 GWh by 2030. In addition, it was announced a few days ago that SK Innovation, together with Ford, will invest in the construction of two new sites with assembly and battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky – with a total capacity of 129 GWh per year."

Read more: https://www.electrive.com/2021/10/01/sk-innovation-spins-off-battery-division

"Tesco is the UK supermarket chain with the greatest proportion of stores that offer customers electric vehicle (EV) charging facilities. That’s according to new research from electric car website Electriying.com, which has ranked the UK’s biggest supermarkets in order of EV-friendliness." reports UK Motor1.coM: "Tesco topped the list, with almost half (45 percent) of its UK superstores boasting charging facilities, while Morrisons came second with four in 10 (40 percent) of stores offering EV charging. At the opposite end of the scale, just seven percent of Sainsbury’s stores offer at least one EV charging point."

Read more: https://uk.motor1.com/news/537265/tesco-top-uk-supermarket-charging/

"Former Vice President Al Gore has invested $600 million of equity into U.K. energy startup Octopus Energy Group via his Generation Investment Management vehicle, taking a stake of approximately 13% in the business. The investment means Octopus has attained a valuation of around $4.6 billion."£ says TechCrunch: "Octopus has made a name for itself in energy circles largely because of its “Kraken” technology platform, which it claims is able to reroute energy from renewable sources around a network far more efficiently than competitors. Octopus is now managing 17 million energy accounts in 12 countries in this manner. Octopus has also earlier launched Electric Juice, an electric vehicle “roaming network” of 100,000 charge points across Europe that allows users to charge their personal Octopus Energy account when they charge their EVs. It’s also partnered with Tesla to launch Tesla Power in the U.K. and Germany."

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/01/al-gore-puts-600m-into-uk-green-energy-tech-startup-octopus-energy-group

"With plenty of older EVs on the roads today, the issue of residual battery life and recycling is more pressing than ever when it comes to shopping for vehicles or making decisions about what to do with EVs whose batteries are just about spent." reports Autoweek: "VW Group Components has developed a system dubbed BattMan ReLife (Battery Monitoring Analysis Necessity) that can check the health of a battery in just minutes, taking the guesswork and hours of charging out of the process. The first version of the software was created by the Audi Brussels quality management department for testing the Audi e-tron's battery, and then received further work from VW Group Components at Salzgitter, which is the site of VW's new battery laboratories. The device first checks whether a given battery is able to communicate, after plugging in the low-voltage connectors. BattMan then detects and brings up any error messages present, in addition to the insulation resistance, temperatures, cell voltages, and capacity."

Read more: https://www.autoweek.com/news/green-cars/a37824638/battman-ev-battery-health

"China’s NIO Inc. (NIO) reported record monthly and quarterly deliveries for the company’s fleet of electric vehicles. The auto manufacturer, founded in 2014, has provided investors with news regarding the firm's positive September 2021 delivery results" says Investors Observer: "NIO announced that its deliveries for its top-selling eclectic vehicles (EC6, ES6 and ES8) have now hit 142,036 units in total. In further news, NIO also revealed that it has recently opened NIO House in Oslo, Norway and that the company has “completed its first batch of vehicle deliveries in Norway.”"

Read more: https://www.investorsobserver.com/news/stock-update/chinas-nio-inc-nio-reports-record-monthly-and-quarterly-electric-vehicle-deliveries

"XPeng had a huge month, with deliveries of 10,412 vehicles in September topping the 10,000 milestone and tripling from year-ago levels. The numbers included more than 7,500 P7 sports sedans and more than 2,650 G3 and G3i SUVs. XPeng also got a solid start with its P5 family sedans, which launched mid-month and accounted for 244 vehicle deliveries. For the quarter, 25,666 deliveries was a record, also tripling year over year. Year to date, XPeng has delivered more than 56,400 cars and SUVs, more than 300% higher than at the same time in 2020." says Nasdaq.com: "Li Auto had promising numbers compared to last year's results, but the company noted some pressures that weighed on its sequential performance. Monthly deliveries of 7,094 vehicles were more than double what Li delivered in September 2020. "

Read more: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/chinas-ev-makers-saw-monster-deliveries.-will-tesla-follow-suit-2021-10-01

"In issue one of T3, we reported on the release of the EV1, a fully electric car from General Motors, one of America largest automobile manufacturers. The sleek two-door, two-seater is generally regarded as the first mass-produced EV available to the public. It had a 0-60 time of around 8.4 seconds and a range of between 70 and 100 miles – and up to 140 miles for the second generation model. (BMW’s i3 will only do around 150 and that was released in 2013.)" says T3: "The EV1 launched in 1996, with the improved model II appearing in 1999. But instead of losing interest – or being pressured out of the market – let’s imagine GM stuck with it…"

Read more: https://www.t3.com/us/news/what-if-the-gm-ev1-electric-car-had-been-a-success

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