Electric Vehicles News & Discussions

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wjfox
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The Electric Revolution: EV Sales Doubled in 2021 and Are Surging This Year Too

Mar 15, 2022

Electric vehicles (EVs) will play a crucial role in decarbonizing our transport systems and helping us avoid the worst effects of climate change. The latest figures suggest they are making major inroads into the automotive industry after sales of plug-in electric vehicles nearly doubled in 2021.

While battery-powered cars broke into the mainstream almost a decade ago, they’ve taken some time to catch the imagination of the average driver. Concerns over range and charging time, coupled with generally higher prices, have meant their adoption has been slower than some might hope.

But that seems to be changing rapidly. According to the Department of Energy, sales of new EVs in the US hit 608,000 last year, nearly double the total for 2020. Of that, more than 73 percent were all-electric vehicles, with the remainder coming from hybrid vehicles that combine batteries with conventional gas-powered engines. Those figures are particularly impressive considering that overall sales of passenger vehicles only increased by three percent over the same period.

The trend is mirrored globally, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), with sales of electric cars more than doubling to 6.6 million to reach a market share of 9 percent—more than triple what it was just two years ago. This is despite major chip shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused production to slump by 7.7 million vehicles in 2021.

While the uptick in sales in the US is impressive, China is leading this surge in adoption. According to market research firm Canalys, mainland China saw 3.2 million sales of EVs in 2021, which is roughly half of worldwide sales and a jump of more than two million compared to 2020. EVs accounted for roughly 15 percent of all Chinese vehicle sales.

Read more: https://singularityhub.com/2022/03/15/e ... -going-up/


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The U.S. Just Announced that Cars will Have to be More Fuel Efficient by 2026
by Jaclyn Trop
April 1, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/01/the-u ... t-by-2026/

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a dramatic change to domestic fuel economy standards, a crucial step toward putting more electric vehicles on the road while reducing dependence on other countries.

The standards, which go into effect in 2024, aim to deliver on President Joe Biden’s ambitious goal for half of the vehicles sold in the U.S. to be battery-electric by 2030. They could also accelerate domestic development of battery packs and electric vehicles.

The federal mandate to cut emissions supports “the freedom of our country to chart its future without being subject to other countries and to the decisions that are being made in the boardrooms of energy companies,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said on Friday at a press conference livestreamed from U.S. DOT headquarters.

The new standards mean that automakers in the U.S. will be required to raise the corporate average fuel economy (known as CAFE) of their fleets to 49 mpg by the 2026 model year. The current standard is 37 mpg, compared with roughly 13 mpg when the first regulations went into effect in 1975.
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Tesla's Sales Jumped in the First Quarter, Bucking Industry Trend Again
Source: New York Times

The electric carmaker maintained its momentum from last year even as larger automakers continue to struggle with parts shortages.

Tesla, the world’s leading electric car company, on Saturday reported a steep increase in worldwide sales in the first three months of the year as it overcame supply chain problems and moved closer to production levels on a par with established luxury carmakers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Tesla said it delivered 310,000 vehicles from January through March, up from 185,000 cars during the same period in 2021, roughly in line with Wall Street’s expectations. The nearly 70 percent increase was in contrast with major carmakers like General Motors and Toyota, which reported big sales declines on Friday because of shortages of key components.

The increase in the first quarter builds on Tesla’s momentum from last year, when it nearly doubled sales, to just short of 1 million cars, and overtook Volvo and Subaru. Tesla has coped better with an industrywide shortage of computer chips because its mastery of software allowed it to substitute chips that were available for ones that are scarce.

The first-quarter sales were “a positive step in the right direction for the next step of the Tesla growth,” Daniel Ives and John Katsingris of Wedbush Securities said in a note on Saturday, though they acknowledged that some analysts had expected more.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/busi ... icles.html
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The world is about to pass another important milestone in electric vehicle adoption: 20 million plug-in vehicles on the road globally, come June, according to BNEF estimates. That’s remarkable growth from only 1 million EVs on roads in 2016.
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Tesla Extends Peak Charging Hours at California Superchargers Amid EV Sales Boom
by Jaclyn Trop
April 13, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/13/tesla ... -ev-sales/

Introduction:
(TechCrunch) Tesla owners in California who want to save money at the company’s branded Superchargers will have to wait until 9 p.m. to power up their battery. The company pushed its off-peak charging hours from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in California, according to an email from Tesla that was shared on Reddit.

Tesla peak hours, which are now from 11 am to 9 p.m., is about twice the cost, on a per kilowatt-hour basis, than off peak hours.

The later start time for the automaker’s largest market is expected to help Tesla manage costs of maintaining the network as it continues to ramp up sales on a large scale. Encouraging owners to charge their cars later in the day could help manage the long lines and wait times for California’s Superchargers.
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Electric car cost advantage over petrol grows amid energy market turmoil

Sun 24 Apr 2022 11.27 BST

Driving an electric car for a year costs almost £600 less than its petrol equivalent after fuel prices surged more than electricity costs, research by the comparison website Compare the Market has found.

Electric vehicles were already cheaper to run, according to figures shared with the Guardian, but the gap has widened significantly amid turmoil in global energy markets caused by the war in Ukraine.

The average annual cost of driving an electric vehicle is £1,264, Compare the Market found, compared with £1,834 for a petrol car.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... il-ukraine
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Rivian Announces Another Shipping Delay but also Some Cool New Software Features
by Umar Shakir
April 27, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/27/2304 ... et-dashcam

Introduction:
(The Verge) Rivian is experiencing a production issue with an interior trim option for its electric vehicles. Some reservation holders of the company’s R1T electric truck and R1S SUV received emails this week saying that the Ocean Coast trim is “more challenging to produce” and will be delayed to later this fall (via Electrek - https://electrek.co/2022/04/26/rivian-d ... ean-coast/ ).

It’s not the best look given the email came the same day as rival Ford’s launch event of its electric Lightning truck, but Rivian does have some cool new software updates to share as well. The company announced that it’s working on OTA updates that will enable a dashcam feature, which will go nicely with its Gear Guard video security feature. There’s also an upcoming “pet mode” that keeps HVAC running for your dog while you grocery shop and a new sand mode that should let you drive on dunes and will be pushed as a standard feature.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe highlighted the new sand mode feature on Twitter, posting a new video of the R1S electric SUV riding around the desert. It showcases a slow-motion clip that lets you see the quad motors in action, spinning faster in the rear to keep the truck in motion.

The delay of the Ocean Coast trim, however, highlights early production realities where streamlining production must be prioritized. In this case, Rivian is focusing on building Launch Edition and Adventure Package trucks with Black Mountain and Forest Edge interior trims. Reservation holders who chose Ocean Coast trim will be contacted in late May if their delivery was estimated for 2022, giving them a chance to make changes that could prioritize delivery time.
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The F-150 Lightning is Finally Shipping - Is Ford Ready?
by Nilay Patel
April 26, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/26/2304 ... jim-farley

Introduction:
(The Verge) The first Ford F-150 Lightnings are rolling off assembly lines and heading to customers today after almost a year of anticipation. The company’s second EV after the successful Mustang Mach-E is in a category of one for the moment: the only full-size electric pickup truck available right now. (Rivian has sold around 2,000 of the well-reviewed R1T, but it slots somewhere between the compact Toyota Tacoma and full-size trucks like the F-150.) Full-size competitors from GM, Ram, and Tesla are all forthcoming, but the Lightning will have the market to itself for at least a year, and Ford CEO Jim Farley intends to take full advantage of that lead to steal customers away from his competitors.

“We should send every one to a customer who’s never bought a Ford before,” Farley tells me in a short interview last week. “My opinion is we should go for it.”

After he ships out all 200,000 preorders, of course. Demand for the Lightning has been so strong that Ford’s invested $950 million into factory expansion, added 750 jobs, and doubled production, but some preorder customers will still be waiting until 2023 to get their trucks, and Ford’s website says no more 2022 Lightnings are available.

The plant had built about 1,800 Lightnings when we spoke, and Farley says that while Ford will be “on plan” with its capacity goals, he simply laughed and said “no” when asked if production would meet demand anytime soon. There simply aren’t enough batteries to build Ford’s goal of 150,000 Lightnings a year. But even then, Farley says he’s confident that the battery plant in Georgia Ford operates in partnership with SK Battery will be able to scale up. “I think we’re in good shape for batteries, and that seems to be the biggest gating issue to get to 150,000 units,” he says.

As for the rest, well, the Lightning is heavily based on the existing F-150, so there’s a lot of existing manufacturing capacity.
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