+++ A Sydney startup putting electric car owners in touch with charging points aims to revolutionise green travel in the same way that AIRBNB changed accommodation forever. Coogee sustainability consultant Carola Jonas started Everty because her desire to drive an environmentally friendly car was shut down by the reality of living in Sydney. “I have street parking and can’t charge a car at home”, Jonas says. “No one would buy a Tesla and park it on the street. Current electric owners, being Tesla or BMW owners, can afford luxury cars and off street parking”. Jonas plans to change that through Everty, a booking service for car charging that allows people with electric car charging points to make money from their parking and charging spaces through other electric car owners. It gives those without off-street parking a suburban charging option away from public power points. Jonas said Australian charging infrastructure is not ready for a coming wave of electric cars set to range from affordable hatchbacks to luxury machines. While electric vehicles have been a fringe element of the car market in recent years, new models have the potential to shift that. Industry figures show that electric cars represented just 548 of the 599,522 new vehicles sold in Australia from January to June. Jonas said Australia’s approach to electric vehicles was a “classic chicken and egg situation”. “We want to bridge the gap until someone invests proper money in the infrastructure”, she says. “No one is going to build infrastructure until people buy electric cars and no one is going to buy electric cars until there is infrastructure”. Everty is launched with just 9 charging points in Sydney, but it plans to roll out further coverage in coming weeks. +++
+++ The head of BMW ’s ‘i’ electric vehicle (EV) team has joined start-up company Faraday Future this week. Ulrich Kranz, now the chief technology officer at Faraday Future, was with the Bavarian luxury marque for over 30 years. At Faraday Future, he will be tasked with turning the start-up’s FF 91 concept into a production car. Revealed in January, the FF 91 concept features a 130 kWh battery pack which is capable of offering a little over 600 kilometres of range per charge. The concept’s electric drivetrain (which hasn’t been fully detailed) is claimed to develop a whopping 780 kW of power, and capable of propelling the crossover-styled EV from 0-60mph (0-96km/h) in just 2.39 seconds. Kranz told that while his move may be surprising, he’s “not a job hopper”. “Some people will probably raise eyebrows”, he said. “But people who know me well know that I can take risks. I’ve always jumped into projects”. However, it appears Faraday Future has a steep hill to climb before it can release its first model, with numerous reports of financial issues, largely due to a cloud of doubt cast over major investor Jia Yueting (who is also the founder and CEO of LeEco) after his company ran into a serious cash crunch. To date, Yueting has contributed around US$300 million to Faraday Future to get it up and running. As a result of LeEco’s issues, Faraday Future has been forced to halt the construction of its US$1 billion EV factory in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is now reportedly seeking the funds from external investors. Despite the potential financial issues with the electric start-up, Kranz will join a team of top executives at Faraday Future, including Stefan Krause (a former CFO at Deutsche Bank) and Nick Sampson, who was instrumental in the development of the Tesla Model S and Model X. +++
+++ An OPEC study expects a third of cars to be ELECTRIC Vehicles by 2040. The long-term EV forecast has jumped by 500 percent since last year. Oil producing countries appear to be revising their long-term forecasts for electric vehicles. OPEC now expects EVs to account for a third of all cars by 2040 with 266 million battery-powered vehicles on the road, according to a study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Just one year prior to the 2016 forecast, OPEC had anticipated just 46 million units by 2040. BNEF is even more optimistic, expecting more than a half billion plug-in vehicles by 2040. The analysis centers around the ever-decreasing price of lithium-ion battery units. If costs of batteries continue to decline at current rates, long-range electric powertrains will be more affordable than traditional gasoline or diesel powerplants in coming years. Consistent with OPEC and BENF’s predictions, the Interntaional Energy Agency has increased its 2030 EV fleet estimate from 23 million to 58 million. Exxon mobile also nearly doubled its forecast to 100 million for 2040, while BM expects the same benchmark to be hit by 2035. “The number of EVs on the road will have major implications for automakers, oil companies, electric utilities and others”, says BENF ehad of advanced transport analysis Colin McKerracher. +++
+++ HONDA will launch a new dedicated hybrid vehicle in 2018, and re-enter the space still dominated by the Toyota Prius. Honda forecasts 65 percent of its sales by 2030 will have an electric drivetrain of some sort, whether it be a pure electric, plug-in hybrid or hybrid setup. Takahiro Hachigo, Honda’s CEO, gave a few more clues as to how the automaker will achieve its ambitious target. In addition to the 2 electric cars it is currently developing, as well as the plug-in hybrid and pure electric versions of the Clarity, the company is reportedly also preparing a new standalone hybrid model. Said to be a small car, the new model will have its own unique exterior. It’s not entirely clear what shape the vehicle will take. One is possibility is that it could be another hatchback in the mould of the Toyota Prius and second-generation Insight. It’s also possible the new Honda hybrid could be an SUV. This would make sense given the continued growth in SUV sales, and how the Kia Niro (12,676) has comfortably outsold the Hyundai Ioniq (4,881) so far this year in the USA. When the new dedicated hybrid model is launched, it will be Honda’s flagship hybrid car, and will join hybrid variants of regular models in its range, including the Jazz/Fit, City/Grace, Accord and, soon, CR-V. Although Honda helped to pioneer the petrol-electric hybrid as we know it today with the original Insight, it is Toyota, initially with the Prius and more recently with its hybrid variants, which gained the majority of the sales and mind share. Focussing on maximum efficiency, the first-generation Insight had an aerodynamic, but impractical three-door hatchback. Needless to say it wasn’t a big seller, especially after the Prius was launched. The second-generation Insight, launched in 2009, had a Prius-like Kamm-back body, but, outside of Japan, never really set the sales charts alight. Although it had sharp pricing, its less complex and less efficient mild hybrid setup resulted in higher fuel consumption than the Prius it was often compared against. +++
+++ According to the latest figures from America, SUV buyers are the most loyal with over 66% purchasing another. SUV buyers are the most loyal when it comes to replacing their cars, according to the latest figures from America. Sales soft-roaders are booming and it would appear that people are sticking by their choice when it comes to buying another car: on average 52% of people buy the same type of car again, putting into perspective how desirable SUVs currently are. Coupe and convertible owners are the most fickle with 79% deciding to jump ship when it comes to replacing their pride and joy. This could be due to the midlife crisis purchase of a bright yellow sports car inevitably moving into something more sensible. Whilst SUV sales are strong, UK buyers still favour the more compact hatchback. The Ford Fiesta and Focus are comfortably the UK’s best selling cars. In fact, 8 of the top 10 sellers are from the hatchback segment. Nissan’s Qashqai is the best performing SUV taking the number four spot so far this year. Will the SUV eventually reign supreme? Quite possibly: traditional saloon sales continue to decline as the SUV grows in stature: last year 29% of global car sales were SUVs. +++
+++ TESLA CEO Elon Musk says the U.S. will get “2 or 3” more Gigafactories within the next few years, teasing that the new locations will be announced at the end of 2017. The comments were made at the National Governors Association summer meeting. 3 new Tesla Gigafactories were confirmed at a shareholder meeting last month, but up until now it was unclear where they would be built. Musk has hinted at the need to build Gigafactories abroad, with Asia and Europe being the most likely candidates, but now we know at least 2 will be in the U.S. The new factories will be capable of building complete cars, not just battery packs like the Gigafactory still under construction in Nevada. Making the announcement in a room full of governors was no accident. The move was likely an attempt to initiate a bidding war for the massive plants. The first Gigafactory took a $5 billion investment to get off the ground and could eventually create 10,000 jobs. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval said in 2014 that he expects the Gigafactory to generate $100 billion in economic impact to the region over the next 20 years. Tax abatements helped lure Tesla to Nevada, but Musk said that wasn’t the only reason it chose the Silver State for its first Gigafactory site. The CEO said he liked Nevada for its progressive stance on manufacturing, which allows factories to get up and running quickly. We won’t know where the new plants will be built until the end of the year, but until then expect governors to be jockeying to get Gigafactories for their own states. +++
+++ VOLKSWAGEN is racing to enter the electric revolution with its new EV family of models belonging to the ID range, but new reports are emerging new to see it grow with another member. Volkswagen’s design chief, Klaus Bischoff, hinted about a “surprise” party attender at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, and he was talking about 1 of the 2 electric sedans. It’s a logical step, the first ID was a hatchback, the Buzz was a van successor for the iconic Microbus while the Crozz was touching the popular crossover segment. That left the traditional sedan segment uncovered; which is going to be remedied this fall, first in the form of a concept, naturally. Greg Lucia, Director Experiential Marketing at VW Group of America, has now revealed a second sedan is actually being prepared for the ID line. The reference would come from a recent summit organized in Berlin and describing VW’s model strategy that will focus heavily on SUVs and electric cars. The new age electric VW models will all use the same MEB modular architecture: the 3 concepts unveiled so far were also based around it. The I.D. hatchback will be the first to enter series production, with the size of a Golf but the interior space of a Passat, around 2020. +++