Coming up on today’s show: Tesla Q1 Earnings,
Nissan starts making its answer to the PowerWall,
and Why The Boring Company Isn’t…
These stories and more, coming next on TEN.
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It’s Friday May Fifth, Twenty Seventeen,
I’m Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield and this is
TEN, the show which makes boring more fun
than just digging for dirt.
Especially if you get to play with big machines
in the process.
As it’s the start of the month it’s time
for our usual monthly plug-in sales round
up from the U.S., which this month shows that
GM had an incredibly strong April, selling
one thousand eight hundred and seven Chevy
Volts and one thousand two hundred and ninety-two
Bolt EVs -- as well as nine other plug-in
GM models, outselling the one thousand and
sixty-three Nissan LEAFs sold during the same
period.
The Toyota Prius Prime sold well too, selling
one thousand eight hundred and nineteen cars
during the month, with Ford’s Fusion and
C-Max Energi plug-in hybrids selling nine
hundred and five and seven hundred and twenty
examples respectively.
Other automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen
and Audi, experienced very low sales for the
month, with BMW managing just five hundred
and sixteen sales and both the Volkswagen
e-Golf and Audi e-tron Sportback plug-in hybrid
selling around three hundred cars each.
With longer-range BMW i3 and Volkswagen e-Golf,
not to mention next-gen LEAF due to go on
sale this year, it’s going to be interesting
to see how these figures change -- but for
now, GM leads the non-Tesla plug-in sales
very confidently.
Despite those sales figures however, GM has
admitted that it isn’t making a profit on
the Bolt EV, and is doubling down its efforts
to ensure that its next generation of plug-in
cars are.
Its goal?
To become the first automaker to make a profit
selling electric cars that everyone can afford.
It’s not clear how GM intends to go about
this, but if I had to guess, it’s got a
lot to do with bringing as much of its vehicle,
drivetrain, and battery manufacturing in-house
because right now, it’s relying on LG for
a large amount of the components in the Bolt
EV.
And that means LG gets to set prices, which
means smaller profits.
Talking of breaking even, that’s still a
goal for Tesla, which showed in its just-released
Q1 twenty-seventeen earnings this week that
it’s got some way to achieve that.
Despite making and selling a record number
of cars, the California company found its
Q1 losses widening to one dollar thirty-three
loss per share, caused in part by its recent
acquisition of SolarCity and Grohmann Engineering,
not to mention costs associated with continued
Gigafactory development, Model 3 pre-production
preparation, and work on the Tesla Semi.
Talking of which, Tesla confirmed this week
that it will be holding a special reveal event
exclusively for winners of its Tesla referral
program on June second and June third.
At the same time, Elon Musk shared the first
teaser image of the Tesla Semi this week too
-- which he says will be powered by many Tesla
Model 3 motors.
The other thing of note from the Q1 earning
call is the news that Tesla plans to double
the number of Supercharger Stations in the
world this year to ten thousand stalls, and
double the number of destination chargers
to fifteen thousand stations, all of course
in the interests of getting ready for Model
3.
Tesla may not have said any more about its
plans for an electric pickup, but this week
we did get the launch of a new range-extended
pickup from Workhorse called the W-15.
The Boxy pickup boasts twin one hundred and
seventy-two kilowatt electric motors to give
all-wheel drive, powered by a sixty-kilowatt
hour battery pack made of the same 18650 cells
found in many a Tesla.
When the battery pack -- which it says is
good for 80 miles of range -- is depleted,
it then turns on its three-cylinder gasoline
engine to further extend the range.
Pricing has yet to be announced, but Workhorse
says the W-15 also provides off-grid power
for tools, and can tow five thousand pounds
and a GVR of seven thousand two hundred pounds.
That’s far more than the Via Motors Truck
that form GM CEO Bob Lutz has been supporting
for years, so if this beast can make it to
market at the right price -- it might stand
a chance -- at least in the fleet market.
Last week, I shared with you BMW’s plans
to try and use Tesla to scare its employees
into working hard on electric vehicle technology.
This week, I’m bringing you the news that
BMW is pushing hard along that goal to zero
emission technology, increasing the number
of factories where its battery electric vehicles
will be made while simultaneously striving
to design a cheap, renewable way to produce
hydrogen fuel.
Of its electric cars, this week saw BMW commit
to building its all-electric MINI and future
all-electric BMW X3 SUV at the same Leipzig
factory where the BMW i3 is made, while a
production version of its BMW Vision Next
will be made at another one of its facilities.
As to the Hydrogen?
Well, unlike some of its competitors, BMW
is still exploring hydrogen as a possibility,
developing its own in-house electrolysis system
so that it can provide true zero-carbon refuelling
options for its future customers.
That home-fuelling system is something that
Nissan is also expanding into -- but rather
than hydrogen fuel cell tech, it’s been
busy launching its own answer to Tesla’s
powerwall -- a Nissan-branded home battery
system that uses the same lithium-ion battery
cells found in the Nissan LEAF and e-NV200
electric cars.
The batteries, which entered into production
at Nissan’s Sunderland plant in the UK this
week, will be offered to customers as of July
this year, and will start at five thousand
british pounds for a unit made of recycled
LEAF batteries complete with five year warranty.
Those wanting new batteries will pay more,
but get the benefit of a ten-year warranty
instead.
Developed in conjunction with U.S. firm Eaton,
the hope is that LEAF customers will buy a
Nissan battery pack to go with their Nissan
electric car.
But with tough competition from Tesla, it’s
going to be interesting to see if Nissan can
wedge itself into that particular marketplace.
When Tesla acquired German-based Grohmann
engineering last year, it said it would honor
the equipment manufacturing facilities existing
contracts with other automotive companies,
including Bosch, BMW and Volkswagen.
But in recent weeks, it has gone back on that
promise, cancelling all of its non-Tesla work
in preparation for increased Model 3 workload.
Now it seems both BMW and Volkswagen are fighting
back against Tesla Advanced Automation, telling
at least one German-language publication that
they were not warned about the change of policy
quickly enough.
Tesla meanwhile, has fought back, saying that
it has been in contact with every client for
weeks and is working with each client individually
to resolve the issue.
Will it lead to court proceedings?
It’s too early to say, but here’s hoping
a solution is found that makes all parties
happy.
Staying with Tesla a little longer, we heard
news this week that one of its research partners
-- a spin off from the Dalhousie University
in Nova Scotia -- has developed a new nickel
manganese cobalt oxide lithium-ion battery
chemistry which could not only increase the
lithium-ion battery cells longevity but also
reduce the wear that cells are subject to
when operating at higher voltages.
I don’t have time to go into the details
here, but I’ll try and do a video on it
next week when I’ve had some more time to
digest the specifics.
On this show, I’m often talking about future
self-driving vehicles, but those vehicles
are usually some form of car or personal transport.
But this week, electric bus manufacturer Proterra
announced it has begun its own autonomous
vehicle project, working in collaboration
with the University of Nevada, Reno, and its
living Lab Coalition partners.
The idea?
To bring autonomous vehicle operation to the
world of public transport, a challenge which
not only includes dealing with other traffic
on the road but also tackling the usual unpredictability
of bus operation, including customers requesting
to get on and off the bus, negotiating bus
stops, and of course, safety dipping and out
of the flow of traffic.
Given Proterra’s busses are all electric,
it should be easy to integrate autonomous
vehicle tech into its existing vehicles, but
it’s going to be some time until we see
this technology become commercially available.
I’ve already dealt with a lot of Elon Musk
this week, but this next story tackles the
Boring Company, a firm that Musk started last
year in order to develop a new autonomous
underground transit system that could zip
you and your car across major cities without
worrying about massive traffic jams.
You see this week, during a TED interview,
Musk showcased the first video of what it
might be like to travel by one of the tunnels
that The Boring Company hopes to build across
major cities around the world.
Drive onto a little autonomous vehicle transporter
on the surface, descend into the tunnel (while
still in your car) and then zip along at high
speeds to your destination.
I won’t go into the details here because
I’ve already made a video on this channel
explaining how it works, so when you’re
done with this one, follow the link at the
end to the week’s in-depth analysis of this
particular story.
With the next-generation Nissan LEAF due to
debut this year with a range in excess of
two hundred miles per charge, quite a bit
has been said about the charging standard
that’s expected to ship with the car -- CHAdeMO
-- and how long it’ll take to charge the
massive 60 kilowatt-hour battery pack that
the LEAF is expected to ship with.
Well this week, the CHAdeMO association confirmed
that its next-generation 150 kilowatt CHAdeMO
standard had been validated, and Nissan is
already testing that 150-kilowatt charging
with a series of special ‘high power’
Nissan LEAF autonomous vehicle prototypes.
Does this mean we’ll see 150 kilowatts on
the new LEAF?
I think it probably does.
Watch this space.
And finally,
One hundred years ago, Mitsubishi -- then
known as the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Company
-- made its first ever vehicle, the Model
A. Fitted with a 2.8-liter straight-four engine
driving the rear wheels, a total of twenty-two
vehicles were built during its production.
But to celebrate the company’s 100-th anniversary,
Mitsubishi is working with West Coast Customs
in Los Angeles to build a Model A replica
based on the Outlander Plug-in Hybrid.
Yeah, it’s a little weird, but It’s certainly
an interesting way to celebrate the past and
future of the company in one vehicle.
The only thing to celebrate right now is that
it’s the end of the show.
As always, don’t forget to like, comment
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Thanks again for joining me, I’ll see you
next week, I’m Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield,
That was TEN, have a great weekend, and until
next time, keep Evolving!
