Electric Vehicles

Honda says it is accelerating research at its new 27,000 square-meter demo facility set up in Sakura City, Japan, and is shortening the time required to make a single unit. The site has full-scale equipment that is split between three buildings: the first for cathode formation and cell assembly; the second for anode formation; and the third for electrolyte activation and module assembly.

The plan includes using a continuous inline mixer that Honda says is “three times faster” than typical cell batch processing. Honda plans to make batteries on this line in January.

Honda is readying its solid-state tech for mass production in the second half of the 2020s. The company’s CEO Toshihiro Mibe has eluded that solid-state batteries will also be the key to unlocking cheaper EVs.

Now that we have combined the EV groups. It would be nice if we could update the graphics for this community. It is a bit plain right now. Not sure if we have any artist that would like to help out.

Is it over for the American Auto industry?

It would seem that Renault has some of its va-va-voom back, that early investment in EVs with Zoes and the like really paying dividends now people are more interested. The battery-powered Megane and Scenic have been well received, the reborn 4 looks cool, and now it’s been confirmed how much the most interesting car of the Renaulution - the 5 E-Tech - will cost when orders open in January.

£22,995 is the headline figure, or ‘lower than many people imagine’ according to Renault. That buys a 5 with 120hp, the urban range 40kWh battery (provisionally rated at 190 miles), and evolution spec. That means standard kit like 18–inch wheels, the 10.1-inch OpenR Link infotainment screen, rear parking sensors, LED lights all round and wireless smartphone mirroring. Most of the stuff you need, basically. And £23k compares pretty favourably with the £30k asked for an Allure-spec of Peugeot e-208, which boasts 136hp and a 50kWh battery. Probably the Citroen e-C3 will line up as the closest rival to an evolution-spec 5, with prices from £21,900 for a 44kWh, 199 WLTP miles Plus model.

The next step up for the Renault is to £24,995 and the techno model, still with the 40kWh battery and 120hp. That gets Google built into the infotainment (including DC charge preconditioning), a larger digital dash, the funky ‘5’ bonnet charging indicator, a rear-view camera and ambient lighting, plus it opens up the option to have two-tone paint. Easy to imagine a lot of customers skipping straight to techno, however appealing that entry price looks.

That's because the more powerful 150hp motor is only available from techno spec, and exclusively with the 52kWh ‘comfort range’ battery expected to return 248 miles on the WLTP test. That’s £26,995, or the kick-off point for the MG 4 range in fact, for some idea of the current breadth of the sub-£30k EV space.

Top of the 5 E-Tech 100% electric range (good job it doesn’t need a boot badge) are the iconic models. Over techno they get the ‘chrono’ 18-inch wheels, heated wheel, heated seats, then lots of stuff that seems a bit much for a car of the 5’s ilk: hands-free parking, blind-spot warning, active driver assist and so on. The iconic costs £26,995 for a 120hp car with the 40kWh battery, or £28,995 as a 150hp, 52kWh variant. While options are likely to be a big deal when it comes to speccing a 5, what with the jazzy paint colours and two-tone possibilities, no prices for extras have yet been confirmed.

What has been formally announced, however, is availability: orders for the 5 E-Tech will be open from January, with demonstrators expected at Renault dealers from March, and first deliveries ‘expected shortly afterwards’. So don’t go getting that electric Mini just yet.

China’s BYD just topped another major milestone. The EV giant produced its ten millionth new energy vehicle (NEV) this week, becoming the first automaker to accomplish the feat. BYD’s accomplishment comes just three years after its one-millionth NEV rolled off the assembly line. After its fifth straight record sales month, BYD is now closing in on top global automakers like Ford.

BYD continued its dominant run after selling over 500,000 vehicles for the first time in a single month in October.

DETROIT, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Stellantis (STLAM.MI) , opens new tab said on Tuesday it will deploy a new vehicle system that will support assembly of gasoline, hybrid and electric models, but in a sign of how turbulent the electric-vehicle transition is, the automaker also delayed production of Ram electric pickup trucks. The Franco-Italian company revealed details about its STLA Frame platform, which will support full-size trucks and SUVs. Platforms are thought of as a skateboard on which many different types of vehicles can be built, and include important electrical and mechanical components of the car.

"We are very focused on the execution of our plan, despite all the difficult challenges that the industry is facing," said CEO Carlos Tavares on a call with reporters. Tavares said the automaker is delaying production of its electric Ram pickups until the first half of 2025 from this year, citing the need to ensure quality. "We are just facing a very significant amount of workload," he said. Automakers in Detroit and elsewhere rushed into building EV-manufacturing capacity over the last two years, only for demand to grow more slowly than anticipated.

The decision of whether to focus on platforms that support EVs versus those that include flexibility for hybrids or gasoline-powered vehicles has split automakers. Ford Motor (F.N), opens new tab has leaned into selling hybrid vehicles, while General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab has focused on battery-powered models after investing more up front into building its own EV platform. GM will start offering plug-in hybrids in 2027, it said.

Considering Trump is threatening to pull EV subsidies, the time to take advantage is in the next three months, at minimum. Considering the fact that Elon is going to do everything he can to favor Tesla, the fact that the US tariffs prohibit any cars coming in from China, and the very real possibility that the US might take a step back from broad BEV adoption.... it feels like the safest bet is to get a PHEV for now. Especially considering it would be my only vehicle, and I need to occasionally take longer 5+hr trips, and charging infrastructure is dodgy at best still.

I want to avoid Teslas, and I want to avoid the Prius (had the Prime, too many issues with the air conditioning smelling like socks), what are good options that are actually available in the US? Does anyone have any first-hand experience to share?

Regarding a $20K or $25K EV, the company’s advanced tech will “enable that tomorrow,” Rawlinson said, but it will not be a Lucid vehicle. When asked, “Are you going to build that $20,000 vehicle?” Lucid’s CEO responded, “No, because that market sucks.”

The mass market segment has “terrible low margins,” and that’s not where the company is trying to compete.

Lucid is focused on efficiency or enabling more range with fewer batteries. To promote widespread adoption, Rawlinson said we must hit the core issue: the cost of batteries as a function of their size.

Rawlinson explained that Lucid is “commercially viable in the future.” He believes that is where Lucid could have an opportunity to license its tech.

Rawlinson said other OEMs already have the manufacturing network and could put such a vehicle in place.

Those who thought California’s love affair with cars wouldn’t extend to electric vehicles thought wrong. Now the state leads the nation in EV ownership, both in sheer numbers and number per capita by an ever-widening margin. With a mandate to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 here, one question remains: Is there an infrastructure in place to charge up these power suckers?

The answer: It’s a work in progress, according to both state agencies and actual drivers. One thing is for certain, however, for California’s EV converts — the trend is now the norm, and it’s not going away.

On an early November morning, Daeho Hwang sat patiently in the cockpit of his new Lucid Air. The super sleek luxury sedan looks like a bullet even when it’s not moving. Appointed with leather seats, wood on the center console and dash and screens that seem to blend seamlessly, this car — one the manufacturer says takes only 12 minutes to charge up 200 miles and goes 0 to 60 in 1.89 seconds — is among the most enviable of rides on Interstate 5.

Hwang, traveling to Los Angeles from his home in San Francisco on the front end of a three-day weekend, was busy checking his phone behind the Chalio’s, a road stop in Kettleman City known for its 24-hour service of Mexican cuisine and hearty portions.

There, behind the restaurant, are about a half dozen individual non-Tesla EV chargers. It’s a slightly hidden spot that Hwang said he discovered about a year and a half ago.

“I usually charge it at my home. It’s a little tough [on the road],” he said as he exited the cockpit of the Lucid, explaining that finding a working non-Tesla EV charger out on the interstate can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. “It’s not because of the car, but because of the chargers. There are a lot of broken chargers.”

A self-proclaimed EV evangelist, he said he was one of the first to buy a Tesla and still owns one, along with a Rivian truck, his current favorite. He sees virtues in all of his electric motor pool. “The Tesla’s too bumpy to be honest, like a kid’s car. I’m 50 years old, so I like the smoother ride a lot better,” he laughed, while explaining that the Lucid also only needs one quick charge, max, to get from SF to LA whereas with his Tesla, it can take up to three stops.

Hwang feels the state’s getting better about installing chargers, both Tesla and non-Tesla, but at the same time, there’s still a way to go with the latter. “It’s OK,” he said of finding a place to charge his non-Tesla EV. “It’s getting a lot better now. They’re popping up here and there.”

When asked whether he thinks the state is delivering on its promise to create the comprehensive EV infrastructure needed to power his three different makes of cars now and into the future, Hwang paused for a moment. “Yeah, I think so,” he said. “I’m committed to EVs, so part of it has always been waiting for everything else to catch up.”

We’ve written a couple of articles now about the US EV tax credit probably being killed by the Trump administration, and also other elements of the Inflation Reduction Act. In those articles, we’ve noted that this is bad for future US economic competitiveness. Some people don’t know the reason for that, so we’re going to tease it out more her with the help of some CleanTechnica commenters.

Let’s start with this extended comment from Username Taycan:

“If you are looking predominantly at the US market then you will have an unduly negative view of BEV’s future.

“China is the biggest car market on the planet and has no substantial oil interests, they are going electric come hell or high water.

“The EU is petrified of a thing called climate change and is also going electric.

“That’s over half the world market on it’s own, and China is developing a significant sphere of economic influence.

“The scale advantage is going to flip in favour of electric, and consumer electric cars aren’t at the end of over a century of continuous improvement unlike ff vehicles.

“90% of US consumers may not be idiots, but they aren’t going to get to decide BEV’s viability either.”

China is going electric. Europe is going electric. More and more small to midsize countries are going electric. If you want to be a notable player in the rest of the world auto market, you need to have highly compelling, competitive electric options soon.

Of course, as you build up sales and production capacity, you drive down costs and build up competencies that can make you competitive with or better than other automakers.

For US-based companies, companies where the US is their biggest market, the opportunity for those economies of scale, manufacturing and product innovations, and improvements in cost competitiveness is biggest in the US. If they can develop and sell more popular EVs in the US, their ability to sell high volumes of them in other markets around the world increases.

Here’s commenter super390 explaining it well:

“Because he who subsidizes today, creates the infrastructure to lower prices in the future. “Economies of scale are wonderful, but they face a paradox; you need them before you can have them. So China created those economies of scale by not waiting for private investors (who don’t give a damn about the big picture) to pay for the infrastructure. Jumping the roadblock.

“Maybe the time has passed when private investors anywhere can be relied on to pay for big engineering projects. Because they’ve spent the last generation learning how to engage in financial engineering instead, and that’s where they’re more comfortable.

“It’s like saying in 1800 that the Midwest was the ‘future’, or in 1945 that freeways were the ‘future’. The government stepped in to pay for the infrastructure required for that to actually happen. Investors were already too obsessed with short-term gain to pay for those.”

Well said! But super390 always says stuff well and has a deep, detailed view of matters. (And, yes, I do wish I knew his/her real name.)

Mike Shurtleff puts it even more succinctly and cuts to the chase: “Incentives help new industries build faster. Very much needed in this case to allow USA companies compete with heavily subsidized Chinese companies … and to allow USA battery and EV companies to catchup to China where our oil/ICEV bias has put us too far behind.”

That’s the essence of it. You stimulate R&D, production, and sales of a “technology of the future” so that companies from your country lead in the economy of the future. Or you wait, sit back, let others lead, and buy more and more of their products as your country and economy fall more and more behind. Well, if we’re dumb enough to elect a career con man who was extremely talented at bankrupting companies while committing crimes, maybe that’s what we deserve. (Not to mention whether or not we’re forward-thinking enough to work on stopping climate catastrophe.)

I just saw the headline on Google News: “Tesla Has the Highest Fatal Accident Rate of All Auto Brands, Study Finds.” Yikes. I’ve covered how safe Tesla vehicles are for many years. In fact, it was the #1 reason why I bought a Tesla Model 3 in 2019. So, on the one hand, it was surprising to see that headline. But not really.

We already saw last year that one of the reasons Hertz was selling off its Tesla vehicles and not buying more was because they were more likely to get into accidents, and then waiting for repairs/service/parts took longer than average as well. Those kinds of things add up a great deal when you’re managing a big fleet of vehicles.

Are Tesla vehicles actually designed to be unsafe? No, that’s not the issue. The issue is that while Tesla was designing its cars to be extra safe, it was also constantly focusing on making the cars super quick (insanely quick, ludicrously quick, plaid quick) and regularly hyping up how quick its cars were in order to stimulate consumer demand.

Believe it or not, when you’ve consumed all that hype around how quick a Tesla is, it’s easy to be influenced and want to smoke cars off the line at a red light, or just drive like a bat out of hell. The problem is: that leads to accidents, and fast accidents lead to deaths. Let’s get to the shocking stats:

“Tesla’s vehicles have the highest fatal accident rate among all car brands in America, according to a recent iSeeCars study that analyzed data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).”