I like the design. I wish car designers were more adventurous.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42352413 >

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42345921

The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest. They’re tall and ungainly. The windshields are vast. Their hoods resemble a duck bill. Their bumpers are enormous.

“You can tell that (the designers) didn’t have appearance in mind,” postal worker Avis Stonum said.

Odd appearance aside, the first handful of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that rolled onto postal routes in August in Athens are getting rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to cantankerous older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire.

Within a few years of the initial rollout, the fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.

Once fully deployed, they’ll represent one of the most visible signs of the agency’s 10-year, $40 billion transformation led by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who’s also renovating aging facilities, overhauling the processing and transportation network, and instituting other changes.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42265165

General Motors is joining forces with EVgo, one of the biggest electric vehicle charging operators in the United States, to build 400 ultra-fast DC chargers nationwide to support the growing number of battery-powered cars hitting U.S. roads.

To be clear, these are individual stalls, not charging stations. However, the two companies describe the new locations as “flagship destinations” which will feature 350-kilowatt DC chargers, ample lighting, canopies, pull-through spots and security cameras.

Most locations will feature up to 20 ultra-fast charging stalls, but some will have even more–good news for those crowded holiday road trips. GM and EVgo said the fancy new stations would be located near shopping areas offering dining, coffee shops and other amenities.

Any of our readers who have been following my reports know that Latin America’s EV sales are rising. In some countries, they may not be growing as fast as we would wish; in others, they’re faster than we ever expected; but the trend remains clear regardless.

Latin America’s* market amounts to some 5 million vehicles a year, 70% of which corresponds to only two countries (Brazil and Mexico), with another 20% belonging to four countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru). The remaining 10% is left to another dozen countries or so. (*Minus the Caribbean, which isn’t a big market in any case.)

The region is also known for being highly protectionist, with tariffs to promote local industry, be it by pressure from the US (as is the case of Mexico) or because of a regional interest (as is the case in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru). This means that local production is imperative if the EV revolution is to succeed. So, how are things going on that front?

It should come as no surprise that the two largest markets, and two largest producers, are also the two pioneers in EV production in Latin America: Mexico and Brazil. Together, these two countries account for at least five plants already producing EVs, and at least six coming up with production planned prior to 2027.

Tesla’s rollout of Full Self-Driving v12.5 has failed so far, and owners want to know what happens next?

In 2016, Elon Musk announced that all future Tesla vehicles would come equipped with the necessary hardware for self-driving capabilities, even specifying “level 5 self-driving,” which implies the ability to operate autonomously under any conditions. However, shortly after, Musk acknowledged that Tesla might require more onboard computing power than initially thought, leading to the introduction of Hardware 3 (HW3).

Musk assured that HW3 would enable full self-driving (FSD) capabilities, promising retrofits for earlier models that had purchased the FSD package. Following this, Tesla introduced Hardware 4 (HW4), a more advanced onboard computer system, but did not offer retrofits for older models with HW3, maintaining that HW3 was sufficient for achieving self-driving through software updates.

Initially, Musk claimed that FSD improvements would first be optimized for HW3, suggesting that HW4 might lag behind by at least six months. However, Tesla reversed this approach with the release of FSD version 12.5, which was first deployed to HW4 vehicles. Musk explained that optimizing the software for the less powerful HW3 would take additional time, hinting at the limitations of HW3 in handling the latest software advancements towards unsupervised self-driving, a capability Tesla promised to HW3 owners since 2016.

This rewrite aims to streamline the narrative, focusing on the evolution of Tesla’s self-driving hardware and software, and the strategic shifts in deployment and optimization of FSD capabilities between HW3 and HW4.

Musk said that it would take ten days to adapt v12.5 to HW3.

In late August, about two weeks after Musk’s “10 days” had passed, we reported that Tesla started to push v12.5 to HW3 vehicles.

Not only was the update to HW3 late, but Tesla also confirmed that it was running a smaller model than on HW4.

On top of all that, now three weeks later, Tesla has yet to push v12.5 to the vast majority of FSD vehicles with HW3. Tesla appears to only have pushed v12.5.1.5 to some Tesla HW3 owners and it is now moving HW4 cars to v12.5.2.

EV sales continue to rise, but the last year of headlines falsely stating otherwise would leave you thinking they haven’t. After about full year of these lies, it would be nice for journalists to stop pushing this false narrative that they could find the truth behind by simply looking up a single number for once.

Here’s what’s actually happening: Over the course of the last year or so, sales of battery electric vehicles, while continuing to grow, have posted lower year-over-year percentage growth rates than they had in previous years.

This alone is not particularly remarkable – it is inevitable that any growing product or category will show slower percentage growth rates as sales rise, particularly one that has been growing at such a fast rate for so long.

In some recent years, we’ve even seen year-over-year doublings in EV market share (though one of those was 2020->2021, which was anomalous). To expect improvement at that level perpetually would be close to impossible – after 3 years of doubling market share from 2023’s 18% number, EVs would account for more than 100% of the global automotive market, which cannot happen.

Instead of the perpetual 50% CAGR that had been optimistically expected, we are seeing growth rates this year of ~10% in advanced economies, and higher in economies with lower EV penetration (+40% in “rest of world” beyond US/EU/China). Notably, this ~10% growth rate is higher than the above Norway example, which nobody would consider a “slump” at 94% market share.

It’s also clear that EV sales growth rates are being held back in the short term by Tesla, which has heretofore been the global leader in EV sales. Tesla actually has seen a year-over-year reduction in sales in recent quarters – likely at least partially due to chaotic leadership at the wayward EV leader – as buyers have been drawn to other brands, while most of which have seen significant increases in EV sales.

Two of the world's largest automakers are becoming closer friends, we learned this morning. Hyundai Motor Group and General Motors, which together sold 13.5 million cars last year, have decided to try and collaborate in a range of areas in the coming years, including vehicle design, technology development, and even supply chain sourcing.

GM is one of the world's oldest and most established automakers and has a long legacy of clever engineering solutions, albeit one often hamstrung by corporate decision-making.

Meanwhile, GM was just a year from its 60th birthday when HMG got going, and while the Korean automaker was not taken particularly seriously in the US as a budget brand at launch, over the last 15 years its products have been class-leading, especially its electric vehicles.

With the agreement signed, the two companies say they will immediately start looking for opportunities to work together, including jointly developing and producing new passenger and commercial vehicles, new internal combustion engines, and also new electric powertrains, whether those be battery- or hydrogen-powered.

In a bit of a leak, we’ve caught word that Hyundai and IVECO Group are aiming to feature a “revolutionary electric commercial vehicle” at the coming IAA 2024 show in Hannover, Germany.

We don’t have details yet, but we’ve got these summary points:

Hyundai Motor Company leverages its global eLCV platform for IVECO-badged ‘eMoovy’ debut in Europe Hyundai’s advanced EV technology includes proven PE system for ultra-fast charging and smart battery management Hyundai’s eLCV platform features a low-floor access for increased cargo capacity and improved operator mobility Hyundai and IVECO partnership aims to accelerate eco-friendly commercial vehicle transition and expand sustainable mobility future across Europe

In March, Hyundai and IVECO noted that they’d be partnering up for commercial vehicle development. They noted that they’d be working on “electric heavy-duty truck solutions, including both battery electric trucks and fuel cell electric trucks,” together. These are targeted for the European market, where regulations on trucking are strengthening.

We’ll have to wait a week or so to find out what this new “revolutionary electric commercial vehicle” is. Stay tuned.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42160538 >

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42120927 >

Automotive research firm iSeeCars published a study this week explaining the dynamics of the used EV market in the U.S. The study said that prices of cars like the Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Kona Electric and the Kia Niro EV have dropped six times faster than gas cars over the past 12 months.

For starters, used EVs have lost 24.7% of their value since September 2023, compared to 6% for used hybrids and 4.4% for used gas cars. That’s according to a dataset that included 1.6 million one to five-year-old used cars sold between August 2023 and 2024. “The substantial drop in EV prices over the past year appears to have brought them in line with demand, with used EV days-on-market much lower today, reflecting a faster selling rate compared to a year ago,” Karl Brauer, iSeeCars Executive Analyst said. In short, affordability is driving sales.

Brauer added that the price drops we're seeing now aren't quite as drastic as before. Used EV prices were dropping by 30-40% at the end of 2023 and the start of 2024. The 25% indicates things are leveling off a bit. The average cost of a used EV is now $27,000. It’s expected to stabilize at around $25,000—a price tag many automakers are attempting to hit with their next-generation models.

This has led to used EVs being on the market for an average of 55.3 days in September 2023 to just 38.6 days now. That means used gas cars, hybrids and EVs now take the same amount of time to sell.

So which models are headlining this trend? The average price of a Tesla Model 3 is now about $26,000, over $8,500 less than a year before. The average price of a Kia Niro EV is roughly $22,000, about $6,000 less than last year. The humble Nissan Leaf now costs $16,000, about $4,000 less than 12 months ago. Other notable low-cost used options include the Chevy Bolt EV and the Jaguar E-Pace.

Reading through Scott’s long exchange with an Extinction Rebellion activist, and especially seeing the activist repeat clear misinformation regarding wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles, I got to thinking about how people end up consuming and believing such misinformation. I’ve known people of all sorts who have fallen for these myths, and I actually did so a bit myself before I worked in this business/industry (~15 years ago). But how does it actually happen?

Before I get into that, I think it’s important to make a couple of points very clearly:

1. With widespread adoption of clean technologies (most notably, solar power, wind power, and electric vehicles) as well as a few other core solutions, we can stop the climate crisis.
2. There is no realistic plan to stop the climate crisis that doesn’t involve widespread adoption of solar energy, wind energy, and electric vehicles. The idea that you can solve the climate crisis without solar, wind, or EVs is looney at best, or manufactured disinformation at worst.

While I think most misinformation on these clean technologies is spread by people who don’t know better, I do think it typically stems from purposeful disinformation created by special interests, most notably fossil fuel industries. So, let’s explore how this misinformation probably spreads.

1. Fossil fuel industries or companies fund “information sources.” Those could be think tanks, they could be accounts on X or Facebook, or they could be somewhere in between (they could be political consultants and messengers, politicians, YouTubers, etc.).

2. Those sources put out misleading arguments and misinformation. I hesitate to repeat some of the common misinformation, but it relates to things like the energy needed to produce wind turbines and solar panels, the capability and cost of batteries, how the grid works and what it can handle, and how good or not these technologies are for the environment.

3. Then a variety of sources — paid and unpaid — spread that misinformation/disinformation, and spread it, and spread it, and spread it. When you repeat something enough — for years, for example — it starts to sink into the cultural consciousness. People start to believe the lies, the myths, the misinformation. To some extent, the misinformation is spread by people who know better initially, but over time, it is spread more and more by people who 100% think it’s true, “useful idiots” you might say. This has happened with solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles for years. It continues to lead to fear and inaction on the most important technologies for cutting air pollution and stopping climate change.

Before covering cleantech as a career, I remember seeing some of this misinformation about wind turbines. I saw it enough that I just assumed it was true. As I got into the media industry more deeply, I realized how much misinformation was spread widely and consistently, and how easily people assume things are true which are not. It became a clear mission of ours to debunk misinformation. But the way media works today, with the bubbles and huge echo chambers that exist today, you can’t stop the constant spreading of misinformation. So, at this point, it’s very hard to stop widespread myths from taking hold and convincing people — including strongly caring activists like the Extinction Rebellion guy — from acting against their own interests and spreading the misinformation further.

Returning to the “how it happens” list, we can’t completely stop this funnel of misinformation, but the more we can respond in simple and clear ways to people who have fallen under its spell, the better. Some people are disingenuous, some are unwilling to change their mind even when it’s obvious they are wrong, but some people are willing to learn and grow. So, while it may seem useless at times, it’s not. If we can help people understand the truth and can even help some people understand how this funnel of misinformation works, we can make a difference. I do think it’s important to not expect the worst from people. I think it’s better to assume people are misinformed rather than paid agents of disinformation. I think it’s better to be understanding and work from where the person is to get to the truth. That may not work most of the time, but it will work some of the time.

GM and EVgo are collaborating to build “flagship” EV charging stations at urban sites with a total of 400 EV charging stalls.

The flagship stations are cobranded by GM Energy, the automaker’s battery and charging division, and EVgo. The stations will be located in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New York, and Texas at places with shopping, food, coffee shops, and other amenities.

Each station will include 20 fast charging stalls with units supporting up to 350kW speeds, pull-through stations, security cameras, and gas station-style canopies with ample lighting. The first locations featuring EVgo’s latest easy-deploying and modular prefabricated charging stations will open in 2025.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42121053 >

Jeep said the Wagoneer S will arrive at dealerships this fall with a starting price of $71,995. However, that may not be the case.

Filosa said the electric Wagoneer is almost ready, but if its quality is not up to par, it may not launch on time. Speaking with Automotive News, Filosa made clear, “No launch if the quality isn’t perfect.”

As Jeep’s first electric SUV for North America, its most important market, the Wagoneer S, is crucial as it looks to revamp the brand.

This is just stupid expensive. They can just skip the release in my opinion.

Honda is sticking with its electric vehicle push and is turning Ohio into its home base for EV manufacturing. The company is updating its long-standing Marysville, Ohio, manufacturing facility to accommodate EV and hybrid production, in addition to its internal-combustion unit.

Joining this updated production facility is a series of similarly upgraded sites in Ohio to better handle battery-electric production under the banner of Honda’s EV Hub. Honda will use these facilities to build the production version of its Performance EV Concept before the end of 2025.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/42053441

Stellantis announced it is investing $406 million in three Michigan facilities and said that one of those facilities will be the company's first U.S. plant to build a fully electric vehicle.

The investments are going to the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, the Warren Truck Assembly Plant and the Dundee Engine Plant, according to a release.

The Sterling Height Assembly Plant is getting $235.5 million and will produce Stellantis' first battery electric 2025 Ram 1500 REV light-duty truck, which was unveiled at the 2023 New York Auto Show. Stellantis says the vehicle is expected to launch in late 2024.

This plant will also building the range-extended 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger.

"Sterling Heights Assembly has performed an incredible transformation in record time and I want to thank our colleagues for this great achievement," said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. "Gearing up to build our first-ever Ram electric truck and the range-extended version in Michigan is a meaningful moment of pride for our teams. With these investments supporting both Jeep and Ram, we're adding innovations to our Michigan manufacturing footprint to support a multi-energy approach that is laser-focused on customer demand."

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41941376 >

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41820425 >

CEO Peter Rawlinson revealed Lucid was planning to launch an EV priced around $50,000. The new midsize electric models are aimed “right in the heart of Tesla Model 3, Model Y territory.”

Although we knew a midsize electric crossover would be one of the new models, Lucid told Electrek last month that three will actually hit the market.

Based on its new midsize platform, one will be a crossover SUV, the other an electric sedan, and the third is yet to be confirmed. However, it could be a possible off-road-focused model as Lucid expands into new segments.

During Tuesday’s tech event, Lucid revealed a new teaser (shown above), giving us a glimpse at the upcoming electric SUV.

The company said the new crossover will utilize its new tech “to deliver the same range as competitors while using a smaller battery.”

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41950790

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41875848 >

Electric vehicle (EV) registrations surged 18% in July compared to the same month last year, driven by the success of newer models like the Tesla Cybertruck and the Honda Prologue, according to the latest data from S&P Global Mobility. Tesla, the EV market leader, ended a five-month slump with a 1.2% increase in registrations, bolstered by 5,175 deliveries of the highly anticipated Cybertruck launched in November. Other EV pickups combined sold just 5,546 units during the same period.

The surge in registrations reflects the growing appeal of EVs, aided by substantial incentives. For example, according to Motor Intelligence, consumers received $19,703 in discounts on the Kia EV9, $13,015 on the Volkswagen ID.4, and $7,035 on the Honda Prologue. Despite their typically higher retail prices, these factory and government incentives have helped make electric vehicles more competitive with their gasoline and hybrid counterparts.

However, analyst Tom Libby of S&P Global Mobility cautioned that the current sales boom heavily relies on these incentives. “At full MSRP, these EV products would not sell. They are being heavily incentivized to compete with internal combustion vehicles, and if these incentives were pulled, sales would drop dramatically,” Libby said.

Tesla maintained its dominance in the electric vehicle (EV) market, but its Model 3 sedan experienced a significant 31% drop in registrations. This decline was primarily attributed to the base model being ineligible for federal EV tax credits due to stricter battery-sourcing regulations implemented earlier in the year.

Despite Tesla’s dominance, non-Tesla EV registrations surged 38% year-over-year as competitors gained momentum. Hyundai Motor Group, which includes the Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis brands, secured second place with 10,846 EV registrations. General Motors followed in third with 9,767 registrations across its Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and BrightDrop brands, while Ford Motor Co. ranked fourth with 9,504 registrations.

“This is the second wave of competitor vehicles,” Libby said. “These are very solid and competitive products affecting Tesla’s position.”

Nonetheless, total EV registrations for July reached 118,273, up from 100,620 in the previous year. EVs now represent 8.5% of the overall U.S. light-vehicle market, an increase from 7.6% a year earlier. In the first seven months of 2024, EV registrations grew by 8.7%, capturing a 7.6% market share, compared to 7.2% in the same period last year.

Despite the positive trend, there were signs of weakness in the broader EV market. Rivian, a major player in the EV space, saw a 0.3% decline in combined registrations for its R1S and R1T models in July. Rivian’s R1S crossover, the brand’s top-selling vehicle, saw an 18% drop in registrations as it faced competition from Kia’s EV9, which registered 1,960 units in July, surpassing the R1S.

Amid these challenges, Tesla’s overall growth and the strong performance of new entrants like the Honda Prologue and Kia EV9 suggest that the EV market continues to evolve, with fierce competition ahead as more automakers vie for leadership in this rapidly expanding segment.

Nearly 900 Chinese auto suppliers and a handful of electric vehicle makers are taking part in a trade fair in Frankfurt as the country's car sector defies looming trading barriers to expand its global presence and counter sinking profits at home. Chinese carmakers including BYD (002594.SZ) , opens new tab, Geely(GEELY.UL), Hongqi and GAC International were set to display their vehicles at the fair, called Automechanika, as an added feature to the event which normally focuses on suppliers.

"Even if some in Europe turn against us, we will never turn against the European market," said Victor Yang, senior vice-president at Geely, the only carmaker to host a press conference at the fair. Geely, which according to Yang sold around 200,000 cars in Europe in the first half of this year, will face tariffs of up to 19.3% on its China-made EVs under current plans by the European Commission, which the company has previously described as "disappointing".

"Our industry can only be stronger when we work together and cooperate," Yang said. China's auto sector is investing heavily in overseas expansion even as Europe and North America erect trade barriers to stem the inflow of China-made EVs they say benefit from unfair subsidies. The so-called "EV Expo", which opens on Tuesday, was set up in partnership with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, an added feature to the event usually focused on suppliers.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41875740 >

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41906934 >

The fleet officially launched on September 4, and it represents another step along the decarbonization pathway. Before the year 2000, cars were the main mode of transportation into the park. The shuttle service was introduced in 2000 to help cut down on congestion, deploying propane instead of diesel fuel to reduce pollution.

“More than 4 million people visited Zion National Park in 2023,” the National Parks Service observed in a press statement. “Zero-emission buses improve the visitor experience with higher total capacity on board and quieter operations as the vehicles move through the park, and modernize a fleet of propane-powered vehicles that were in service for over 20 years.”

As an illustration of the all-hands-on-deck approach to vehicle decarbonization, the new electric buses were acquired through a $33 million grant from the US Department of Transportation, and the unveiling event was attended by National Park Service Director Chuck Sams, US General Services Administration Administrator Robin Carnahan, and Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians Chairman Roland Maldonado along with local officials and representatives from the nonprofit organization Zion National Park Forever Project, which is credited with advocating for shuttle buses to manage traffic.

“The National Park Service began providing free shuttle service in the park’s Zion Canyon and the Town of Springdale in 2000,” the National Park Service explains, adding that the system evolved in collaboration with Springdale, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Utah Department of Transportation along with input from other state, county, and municipal stakeholders.

Subaru's EV game plan.

Subaru's goal is ambitious. They aim to have 50 percent of their 1.2 million global sales in 2030 be battery electric vehicles. This, in conjunction with Panasonic Energy, will address the expanding demand for BEVs and automotive batteries.

A report from Automotive News (by subscription) says Subaru and Panasonic will build a new battery factory near the automaker's Japanese production hub north of Tokyo. This factory, which is expected to be operational by the end of the decade, will be a key part of Subaru's EV manufacturing strategy.

The plant will manufacture cylindrical lithium-ion batteries for a lineup of EVs that Subaru plans to produce in the late 2020s. Battery capacity at the new plant will be on top of batteries already slated for delivery from a separate Panasonic plant in 2027.

The annual production capacity for battery cells at the two Japanese plants for this project will reach 20GWh by 2030, significantly increasing Panasonic Energy's domestic production capacity.

It's official: Tesla has put a clock on launching its Full Self-Driving software in Europe and China.

The automaker included the details of the launch in a post on Tesla CEO Elon Musk's social media platform, X. Tesla notes that it plans to launch the software during the first quarter of 2025, and as always, notes that its timeline and launch of the partial-autonomy feature would be contingent on regulatory approval.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17181927

> > Chinese car giant Chery is weighing up the possibility of building cars in the UK, according to a senior executive. > > > >Its UK head Victor Zhang told the BBC it was a "matter of time" before the company made a final decision. > > > >He said Chery, which is already preparing to build cars in Spain, was determined to take a "localised" approach to the European market. > > > > ... > > > > Chery, which was set up in 1997, is one of China’s largest car companies. It is already the country’s biggest exporter of vehicles, but has ambitious plans to expand further. > > > >To help take that plan forward, it has set up two new brands focused entirely on the international market, Omoda and Jaecoo. > > > >Last month, Omoda was officially launched in the UK. It has begun selling a mainstream SUV, the Omoda 5, in both electric and petrol-powered versions. > > > >It has built a network of 60 dealerships, and hopes to have more than 100 here by the end of the year. > > > >But it is far from the only Chinese manufacturer to see the British market as potentially lucrative. > > > >BYD, which has been vying with Tesla for the title of the world's biggest manufacturer of electric cars, has also opened dozens of dealerships here. > > > >SAIC is already well-established in the UK, selling cars under the classic British MG marque.

Gone are the days when an EV in the driveway marked you as the neighborhood eccentric. And although early sales projections have revealed themselves to be more than a tad optimistic, electric vehicles continue to roll off the line and into the garages of everyday consumers.

Which brings us to the 2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV LT AWD and the 2024 Volkswagen ID.4 Pro S AWD, a pair of family-friendly EVs aimed right down the center of Main Street, U.S.A. In addition to all-wheel drive, both feature EPA range estimates of over 250 miles and the crossover body style that has all but eliminated the sedan as the vehicle of choice for suburbanites. While neither had the fun factor to win EV of the Year, the competition revealed one of them to have an edge for mainstream SUV shoppers considering going electric.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41666485

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41661664 > https://archive.is/1bluH

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41638508 > https://archive.is/I3ZdW

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41496113 >