Car News-Global and Domestic

[white exec]

Following on from Honda's Chief Exec firmly putting his eggs in the hybrid basket, on follows NISSAN's Ivan Espinosa, global product strategist, reported on ELEKTREK as promoting possibly the worst of all forms of hybrid, the one that doesn't need plugging in to charge, but recharges itself from its ICE engine.

I have been saying this for months, longer.

The non-plug-in hybrids which Toyota (Prius onwards) and Mitsubishi have heavily promoted are essentially petrol vehicles, with laughable battery range. They were promoted for several quite cynical reasons:
1 - to get round urban ICE restrictions
2 - to persuade buyers into thinking they were going for something 'electric' and green, while offering them "range"
3 - to prolong the profitability of their massive ICE manufacturing plants.

The Chinese told Toyota they were not interested in more petrol vehicles for their cities, and have commendably gone on to push BEV technology a long way ahead of Toyota, and others.

[NewcastleFalcon]

I have been saying this for months, longer.

The archives back that up Chris!

Hybrid cars finally rumbled?

For some time now I've been asking the question 'How much of their driving time do Toyota hybrids - particularly the Prius - actually spend running on battery, as opposed to their petrol engine?' Toyota continue to be silent on this, for reasons (I think) that were obvious from Day 1, given the size of the vehicle's battery pack.

Well, the hybrid cat is at last coming out of the bag, and Toyota in particular are not happy about it...

BBC reports today that numerous PHEV (petrol-hybrid plug-in vehicles) have never had their batteries electrically recharged from the grid. It appears that, for tax-advantage reasons, companies (in particular) have been acquiring these vehicles, even though they know much of their mileage will be non-urban.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46152853

And, essentially applying the logic (and the physics) of what petrol hybrids are doing, when it comes to Toll charge reductions, it's good to see some commonsense being rolled out in Ireland...
https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/motors/201 ... ns-scheme/.

Hopefully, TfL will come to its senses as well over the exemptions currently being given to PHEV cars in London Congestion Zone.

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

A light-hearted assessment of TESLA's rivals



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Heres another headline about Honda......hopefully by complying and selling their single little 100%EV offering hand over fist.

Honda Has No Intention Of Paying The New European Emission Fines — CleanTechnica Exclusive

There is no doubt that left to their own devices, legacy/traditional automakers would do absolutely nothing to move away from petrol/diesel and their SUV obsession. The tough rules are having an effect, rather than hoping the move to electrification is going to go away, if they dont start producing and selling zero emissions vehicles (and the selling side has to date been totally lukewarm for some time with ICE stock to shift) their bottom line is going to take a serious bashing in fines as their Company Average Fleet Emissions (yes CAFE) fail to meet tough European targets.

So interesting that Tesla's 100% electric fleet is being courted in "open pooling" arrangements with non compliant car makers buying CO2 Emissions credits. Effectively they pay Tesla large sums of money for "nothing", but presumably less than the fines they otherwise would have paid.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47845971

Regards Neil

[white exec]

Unsure why 'open pooling' was ever created by EU. Seems to nullify the incentive for mfrs to move to ZE models. Unless part of a hyper-devious plan to get ICE mfrs to feed money into EV mfrs . . . I don't really understand the thinking.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Unsure why 'open pooling' was ever created by EU. Seems to nullify the incentive for mfrs to move to ZE models. Unless part of a hyper-devious plan to get ICE mfrs to feed money into EV mfrs . . . I don't really understand the thinking.

This puts a nice slant on the FCA deal with TESLA.

Fiat Chrysler Will Basically Fund Tesla’s Gigafactory 4 (The one near Berlin)

TESLA aren't the only ones with credits to sell, but obviously the major player. Will the EU welcome pooling with the Chinese/South Korean emerging EV industry as one of the comments pointed out

"Now the real test is, would the EU be comfortable with 3 or 4 big Chinese EV manufacturers signing their own CO2-offset deals with Peugeot, BMW, Mercedes, and German Ford to show up and flood the market with cheaper EVs? (yes please!) That gets into much tougher political territory."

It is an interesting time in the change to electrification. The emissions rules will get stricter and the car industry has been given notice in Europe at least of the impending ban on new petrol and diesel powered cars.
Planning to pay the fines either directly or via C02-offset deals is a head in the sand short-term strategy.
By the time they gear up to realigning their Company Average Fleet Emissions to avoid the current fines, the targets will have moved on, and they will still be years behind and have probably funded GIGAFACTORY 10 on the old NISSAN factory site at Sunderland (yes I am losing confidence that NISSAN have any sort of strategy to move forward and appear to be in retreat, from what should have been a flying start), and be buying their battery tech from TESLA.

Regards Neil

[white exec]

Gosh. Tesla must have a big smile on their faces...

[NewcastleFalcon]

There can be few things as mind-numbingly boring as a Business slide presentation. If you want the whole lot from Herbert Diess its here in a glorious PDF.

Levers to unleash value Dr. Herbert DiessChairman of the Board of Management Volkswagen AG09/12/2019 -London

If you can stand it here's a slide which shows an exponential explosion in software requirements for vehicles, from an already staggering base. Shame there isnt a company making a simpler product, which goes stops, and is economic and comfortable and is safe, and maybe even has a nice appearance, and doesnt have this massive software overhead.

screenshot

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

As mentioned earlier bit ironic that the VW Id3 is becalmed waiting for a software upgrade to be written, as the VW Chairman of the Board outlines VW's strategy to massively beef up their in house software capability as this additional boring slide indicates.

screenshot

1 Billion lines of code, Increase in-house share software development from 10% to 60%, All new cars on VW.OS from 2025.

Any comments from members who know about this sort of stuff?

From my own blissful ignorance point of view, looks like a recipe for an absolute dog's breakfast.

REgards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Not to mention that after the VW emissions software farce who would trust any software they produce. I'm definitely going down the convert my own classic to electric route. There is absolutely no knowing what other features the major companies may build into their software for future use re tracking, guidance, etc etc and I believe in personal freedom of choice!!!

[Hell Razor5543]

I sincerely hope that VW do not use the old IBM model for paying programmers. IBM used to pay them depending on the number of lines of code they wrote. This meant that, if a programmer wrote a program that ran in 6,000 lines of code, and another version of the program (that did the same job) in 10,000 lines of code, it was the latter program that was submitted.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Interesting little article on prestige little German automaker BMW from the lips of Klaus Froehlich, BMW’s R&D boss.

BMW R&D Chief: ‘Most of the US does not need BEVs’

Lobs in a bit of negative EV propaganda along the way

"However, Froehlich lists the obstacles to EVs, including a potential rise in the cost of raw materials needed for batteries – and the negative impact on cells from fast charging that “could wear out the battery in just two to three years.”

Now thats a quote which wouldn't be out of place in the BMW Sales Training Manual, to scare potential customers away from considering a TESLA instead.

While Electrek is unashamedly pro-Tesla, pro-EV I think their interpretation is not far off the mark

"Are we witnessing a retreat on EVs by legacy automakers that previously advocated for battery-electric vehicles? It appears so. Mr. Freohlich’s stance is clear. And then there’s GM and Ford, which have big EV plans but continue to rely on gas-guzzlers and diesels. The decline in Chevy Bolt sales over the past two years is a bad sign. (It’s too early to know if Ford will execute on its EV goals.) Nissan, also formerly a leader, says it remains committed to EVs but is increasing its push for gas-powered hybrids.

Although Volkswagen continues to sell diesels in big numbers in Europe, it could be the only legacy automaker currently staying the course on EVs.

If the current trend continues, there will be a sharp division between two types of automakers: dedicated EV producers and everybody else.

Regards Neil

[white exec]

The market will surely decide.

It'll only take a few really good BEV offerings - whether affordable from China, or upmarket Teslas, or high-performance Rivians - to grab the attention of both private buyers and fleet operators. The pressure is on to clean up city air, and 200-300 mile range from some is already turning heads.

As we always said, the ICE manufacturers will fight to the bitter end to prolong their sales. Ford is allegedly investing massively in Rivian, and that sort of thing has to be for one of two reasons: either they want their technology for their own vehicles, or they want to control them to slow up a threatening competitor. If they buy them outright, at that point maybe we should start worrying...

[NewcastleFalcon]

What are Hyundai and KIA up to? Well part of it is an investment in UK-Based EV start-up Arrival.

Hyundai invests $100 million in electric vehicle startup Arrival, will develop EVs together

In contrast to recent, less than inspiring announcements from top Automotive Executives, CEO of KIA Han-woo Park presented the brand’s EV plans for the next five years or so.

Kia sets target of 11 EVs by 2025, with 500k electric sales per year soon after

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

How do you read this headline?


Jaguar I-Pace to join nationwide NHS fleet
Jaguar Land Rover will lease 700 electric SUVs to healthcare provider as part of its plan to reduce emissions


Good news for the Austrian Car Industry?
Good news For the UK car Industry?
Good news for NHS "fat cats" (the Jaguar I-Pace is surely not an NHS frontline vehicle)

Havent read the article yet....maybe it tells us....

Regards Neil