Author: Green Car Online News

One-step Plug&Charge coming to Greenlots stations

2018 Nissan Leaf with Greenlots fast charger by Dumpster at I-87 Modena travel plaza, Feb 2018
No more RFID tags!

A new “interoperability” standard is sweeping across the electric-car charging landscape in the U.S.

After reaching the largest ChargePoint network last month, Hubject's Plug&Charge is now coming to Greenlots chargers, the companies announced last week.

The technology will rely on a new standard, ISO 15118, that will store drivers' payment and account data in the car and automatically communicate it to the charging station as soon as the driver plugs in his or her car so that it can start charging in a single step.

READ MORE: One-step Plug&Charge coming to (Electrify) America

Not all electric cars can currently work with the standard, but most of the new models coming out now will be able to.

The technology is being promoted by Hubject, a European collaboration between German automakers, charging-station manufacturer Siemens, and European charging network Innogy, and is now spreading to North American networks. Eventual goals include allowing drivers to charge easily at chargers from any network as well as to see all available electric-car chargers in all network apps.

The proliferation of different charging networks, with different payment systems (often each requiring their own RFID key tags), and with different procedures has been a regular source of frustration for electric-car drivers.

CHECK OUT: ChargePoint partners with Greenlots to expand access for drivers

“We’re very proud that we will be one of the first EV charging platforms in the U.S. to offer the most convenient charging experience,” said Greenlots' chief technology officer Harmeet Singh, in a statement. “Making charging as simple as pumping gas is essential now that more and more drivers are switching to electric vehicles.”

Paul Glenney, North American CEO of Hubject added, “Through partnerships with industry leaders like Greenlots, we’re able to make charging more convenient than ever, a key factor in increasing EV adoption and reducing carbon emissions.”

Greenlots operates DC fast charge stations across the U.S. primarily in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. Last month, Greenlots announced that it had been bought by Shell.

Rumor: GM electric pickup could come from Tesla

2019 GMC Sierra
Last month, the president of General Motors' GMC truck division said the brand was considering building an electric pickup.

Now, according to a CleanTechnica report, that pickup could come from Tesla.

Even the CleanTechnica reporter says to file this in the category of an enticing rumor, rather than fact, because there are no pictures, and a single, anonymous source inside GM. Still, he reports confidence in the source and says the person has been reliable about other findings.

DON'T MISS: GMC could join electric-pickup tailgate party

Tesla's own CEO Elon Musk has been talking for years about building a Tesla pickup. In his most recent interviews about the Tesla truck, he has described it as “a really futuristic-like cyberpunk, Blade Runner pickup truck,” and said that it will have a massive towing capacity of 300,000 pounds and be made with lots of expensive titanium.

Musk has even alluded to a second, more attainable and mainstream pickup. Now it looks possible that latter pickup could come from GM. GM CEO Mary Barra has announced that the company plans to convert to an all-electric lineup, and is revamping the automaker's electric strategy with a move to make Cadillac its primary electric-car division.

CleanTechnica reports that the General Motors pickup—either a GMC or a Chevrolet Silverado—could get its entire powertrain from Tesla, including batteries and motors. That would hardly be an unprecedented step, after GM leaned on supplier LG to develop most of the powertrain for the Chevrolet Bolt EV.

It wouldn't be the first time a company has leaned on Tesla for powertrain components either—Toyota with the 2012-2014 RAV4 EV, for instance.

MUST READ: Rivian R1T all-electric pickup revealed: 400-mile range, 160-kw DC fast charging

GM regularly partners with other automakers to provide specialized engineering expertise or manufacturing.

The rest of the truck could would come from GM's practiced truck development team.

If such an agreement pans out, it could also be a way for GM to access Tesla's battery production from its Nevada Gigafactory, the largest producer of lithium-ion batteries in the world. Thus far, GM has bought batteries from South Korean supplier LG Chem.

CHECK OUT: Ford confirms future all-electric F-Series truck, holds details close

Pickups are the second-largest selling segment of the car market, and many electric-car buyers have been clamoring to be able to buy a pickup with battery power.

Last month, Ford said it is developing an electric version of its upcoming F-Series, along with a plug-in hybrid version.

The automakers seem to be racing startup electric-automaker Rivian, which got a glowing reception for its R1T electric pickup concept when it revealed the truck at the LA auto show last November.

It's not clear how seriously to take this report, but we'll be watching for any confirmation.

Lyft plans to give riders and drivers an electric lift

Lyft car picking up a rider
Lyft is the latest car-sharing company to sign onto an effort to make ride sharing cars more efficient.

The post-millennial taxi service announced that it plans to introduce “thousands” of electric cars onto its platform and make it easy for riders to choose them using a new “Green Mode” in the Lyft app.

“These efforts will provide cleaner transportation options for Lyft riders, and increase net earnings for our driver community. Once adopted widely, EVs hold the promise of making cities more livable by dramatically reducing air pollution,” the company said in a blog post Wednesday.

READ MORE: Uber starts paying drivers to buy electric

The company, which already bills itself as the only ride-sharing service to become carbon neutral after purchasing carbon credits to offset the emissions from its drivers' vehicles, says all the electric cars will be charged using renewable energy.

The Green Mode launched in Seattle on Wednesday and is expected to roll out in other parts of the country later. Riders just select Green Mode in their Lyft app, and only electric Lyfts will show up.

Lyft says that 80 percent of its drivers favor eco-friendly vehicle options, and consistently tell the service they want to increase their profits by lowering fuel costs.

Green Mode on Lyft app

Drivers will be able to rent electric ride-sharing cars through Lyft's Express Drive service. For drivers who choose electric cars, unlimited charging will be included in the weekly rental charge.

Electric cars will be available to drivers through Express Drive immediately in Seattle and Atlanta, and the service plans to roll out electric Lyfts more widely throughout 2019.

CHECK OUT: Uber to bank London surcharge toward electric vehicles for its drivers

Some taxi and ride-sharing drivers have struggled with electric cars when they've found inadequate places to charge or had to spend too long off the road waiting for a charge.

From the standpoint of cities, though, converting taxis and ride-sharing cars to electric power could offer clean-air benefits that are too good to ignore.

Tesla Model 3 could charge faster in Europe, charging network results suggest

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2018 Tesla Model 3
Deliveries of the Tesla Model 3 in Europe have just started. So too have some accounts of the most significant difference included in European-market versions of the electric sedan: their CCS Combo DC fast charging port.

One of those first accounts has come from the European charging network Fastned, which already operates many stations with 175-kw CCS hardware.

On that 175-kw hardware, Fastned showed that the Model S charged at a peak just above 125 kw. What’s especially of note, based on this graph, is that it stays at that maximum from around 10 percent state of charge all the way past 45 percent.

Fastned CCS charge curve for Tesla Model 3

Compared to what users have recorded with their Model 3 sedans on Tesla’s own Supercharger network, that’s both a higher peak power and a longer time near that peak. In order to be seen as a formidable alternative to Supercharging, it’s an important assertion for Fastned to make—that it’s quite certainly not slower with the CCS port. It may take many more examples and a deeper understanding to prove whether the Model 3 always charges faster on CCS, however.

DON’T MISS: What electric-car charging will satisfy a mass market? Twitter poll results

Some of Tesla’s Supercharger hardware is capable of delivering up to 145 kw; Tesla lists 120 kw as the peak charging rate for the Model 3.
That ceiling of around 125 kw that Fastned reports is, perhaps not coincidentally, the same peak charge rate that Volkswagen is planning to accommodate with the vehicles built on its MEB architecture—to arrive in Europe late this year with a model so far known as the ID Neo.

VW MEB platform

Volkswagen is aiming to build 15 million MEB vehicles globally by the end of its product cycle, later in the next decade, with the U.S. an important part of the plan (we get our first ID product around mid-2020).

So it’s likely that if VW’s electric vehicles arrive as promised and Tesla’s momentum continues to build with the Model 3 and Model Y (expected to share its battery and charging tech) we’ll have millions of vehicles that can take advantage of 125 kw.

CHECK OUT: Tesla will soon be compatible with all DC fast charging—in Europe

The Kia Niro EV that we covered in a first drive review on earlier this month offers a peak 100 kw, according to Kia, but officials confessed that it hits that peak for a very brief time—part of the reason why that model’s 64-kwh pack takes only 15 minutes less to get from 0 to 80 percent versus the Hyundai Kona with the same size pack (about 60 minutes versus 75 minutes, respectively).

2019 Audi e-tron first drive – Abu Dhabi UAE, December 2018

Several more vehicles are expected to hit the market yet this year in Europe with the capability to charge at 150 kw on CCS. The next vehicle due for widespread delivery and capable of even higher-power fast charging is the Audi e-tron SUV, which will arrive in Europe next month and in the U.S. by late spring. It will be able to sustain its peak 150 kw for a significant portion of the charge session, allowing it to regain 80 percent of the charge on its 95-kwh battery pack in about 30 minutes.

Electrify America adds city charging, fills in highways in second cycle

Electrify America DC fast chargers at San Francisco Premium Outlets, Livermore, California
Over the next 2-1/2 years, Electrify America plans to expand its network of DC fast chargers for electric cars to include more cities, as well as to finish more of its build-out along highways across the U.S.

Electrify America is a division of VW founded to use money from Volkswagen's diesel emissions settlement to build out a network of fast chargers to make it easier for consumers to own and get where they want to go in an electric car.

MUST READ: Electrify America maps out charging network to rival Tesla Superchargers

Under terms of the court-decreed settlement, Electrify America is required to spend $2 billion by 2026 to build a network of fast-chargers that will charge any type of electric car—not just Volkswagens or Teslas—including in areas where other commercial networks might struggle to profit on installing chargers. That is scheduled to include at least two coast-to-coast highway routes with charging stations no more than 80 miles apart to make it possible to drive cross-country in any type of modern electric car.

EA's investments are scheduled in four cycles, the first of which is due to be completed by June 30, and the second cycle to start July 1.

READ MORE: California approves next Electrify America fast-charge rollout

Much of the first cycle was spent planning and hiring to get the necessary resources in place to build the network. Last summer, EA sketched out its overall network plan, which includes charging stations along highways that include 150-kilowatt and 350-kw chargers at those 80-mile intervals; 50- and 150-kw Metro stations, which are designed to help give urban apartment and condominium dwellers access to electric cars and serve those coming in the city; and Metro Hub stations along major commuting routes in and out of cities and in major suburbs. Many of these are at shopping malls or near subway or commuter-rail stations.

Electrify America Cycle 2 charger map plan

The first cycle dealt mainly with installing the highway and metro hub stations. The second cycle, which EA just announced on Thursday, continues those efforts but puts more focus on building inner-city metro stations near existing apartment and condominium neighborhoods, to give residents there a way to charge if they want to buy electric cars.

READ THIS: Electrify America switches on the first 350-kw Fast Charging station in Chicopee, Mass.

It will also add nine new cities to the list for installation of metro stations and metro hubs. The new cities include Atlanta; Baltimore; Boulder, Colorado; Bremerton and Olympia, Washington; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Phoenix; Las Vegas; and Honolulu.

EA will also expand the number of chargers it installed in Cycle 1 in Boston; Chicago; Denver; Miami; New York City; Philadelphia; Portland, Oregon; Seattle; and Washington, DC.

CHECK OUT: Electrify America launches “Jetstones” ad campaign

The effort mirrors one that EA proposed for its Cycle 2 buildout in California, which also focused on installing home and public chargers in low-income areas.

The second cycle will also include two pilot sites for charging autonomous vehicle fleets and will include renewable electricity generation at some stations to help reduce carbon emissions and reduce the cost of charging.

USPS tests electric delivery trucks in California: “I didn’t hear the mail come!”

USPS Motiv Power e450 delivery truck for Fresno, California
The U.S. Postal Service is adding 10 electric delivery trucks to its fleet in Fresno and Stockton, California, a region in the state's central valley known for its poor air quality.

The 1.5-ton delivery trucks converted to electric power by Motiv Power, a Silicon Valley conversion company.

USPS says it expects to save between $4,000 and $6,000 a year on fuel costs with the electric trucks, and expects them to save more than 37 tons of greenhouse gas emissions in the truck's one-year trial.

READ THIS: FedEx and UPS burn less gas to deliver boxes

The first Motiv Power mail truck began deliveries in Fresno on Tuesday. The remaining nine are scheduled to roll into service in Fresno and Stockton in coming weeks.

They're based on a Ford E-450 chassis and have a range of up to about 90 miles—plenty for a daily mail delivery route—and a top speed of 60 mph. It's likely the electric powertrain is much, much quieter than the diesels that are otherwise common on these trucks.

California's electric mail trucks aren't the USPS's first foray into electric deliveries. In New York City, it uses 30 electric trucks, along with two 2-ton hybrid trucks on Long Island.

CHECK OUT: UPS says 50 Workhorse plug-in hybrid trucks cost no more than regular delivery vans

The Postal Service is also in the midst of reviewing new vehicles to replace its aging fleet of more than 160,000 Grumman Long-Life Vehicle mail trucks that first went into service in 1987.

Among the four finalists are two fully electric models and one gas truck with a start-stop system.

The Postal Service first used an electric mail truck to make collections in Buffalo, New York, in 1899.

GM electric vehicles could be profitable early next decade, says CEO

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Cadillac electric crossover SUV based on GM BEV3 modular platform
Incentives, credits, and compliance schemes can only get the electric vehicle market so far. The real test of its success will be when large, established automakers can get to a point when they can call them profitable.

On Wednesday, on a call with analysts to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter 2018 financial results, GM CEO Mary Barra said that’s a distinction could come in the early 2020s.

DON'T MISS: GM to launch two new electric vehicles within 18 months, 20 by 2023

While Barra deflected a question about GM’s potential electric-pickup project, she pointed to GM’s battery-development partnership with Honda and its strong position in China. “So I think we’re in a good position, driving our cell costs down,” she said.

Cadillac electric crossover SUV based on GM BEV3 modular platform

Although other vehicles are still due to take advantage of the platform used for the Chevrolet Bolt EV, the first profitable electric vehicle from GM may have a Cadillac badge. GM revealed earlier this year that, with a vehicle to launch around 2022, Cadillac will be the “vanguard” brand for a completely new electric-vehicle architecture termed BEV3.

CHECK OUT: GM, Honda partner on next-generation electric-car batteries

In 2017, Barra called GM’s pivot toward EVs, autonomous-vehicle tech, and changing ideas about mobility “the biggest business opportunity since the creation of the internet.” At that time, Barra’s comments signaled a goal of profitability by 2021.

The company, which reported positive financial results for 2018 and for the most recent quarter, announced a massive restructuring in November, affecting thousands of manufacturing related cuts and five assembly plants at least temporarily shut down. It this week confirmed that 4,000 white-collar jobs are affected by this.

READ MORE: GM promises it can make money on all-electric cars by 2021

Barra reiterated yesterday that GM believes in an all-EV future, and noted that the company is being repositioned “from one that was trying to be all things to all people in all markets to a very strategic, agile, and profitable company.”
“We are intent on reinventing personal transportation, capitalizing on a trillion-dollar opportunity, while making the world safer, better, and more sustainable,” said Barra.

Tesla batteries, EPA comments, Hyundai and Kia plug-in availability: Today’s Car News

2020 Kia Soul EV
Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said electric cars are “not grounds for concern” at the EPA—yet highway safety and car prices are. Tesla buys a company that builds ultracapacitors. Hyundai and Kia aim to avoid the dreaded “compliance car” label with their EV sales—barely. We investigate the hesitation. In our latest Twitter poll, readers tell us how important it is to them that their electric car be American-made. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

At a Bloomberg conference on the future of mobility in California, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler sat down with California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols to try and iron out their differences over emissions and fuel-economy standards. Wheeler also told the Bloomberg conference, that whether cars run on electricity or some other fuel “is not grounds for concern” at the EPA. Or at least it isn't if the agency doesn't concern itself with air quality.

On Monday, Tesla bought San Diego-based ultracapacitor manufacturer Maxwell Technologies, in what looks like an effort to develop more energy-dense batteries and possibly even acquire solid-state technology.

Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia are cranking out new electric and plug-in cars right and left, with four electrics and four plug-in hybrids among their lineups. Yet the cars are not widely available and many buyers complain of not being able to get one. We look at what's going on.

In our latest Twitter poll results, our readers weigh in on how important it is to them to buy American with their next electric car, if the purchase supports building an innovative economy in the U.S.

Aston Martin's uber-exclusive luxury brand Lagonda plans to show its first electric SUV at the Geneva auto show next month.

Finally, the National Transportation Safety Board released its “most wanted” list of new laws to make roads safer. On top of the list: mandatory automatic emergency braking for cars, trucks, and RVs that will stop for motorcycles, too; and a lower 0.05 blood-alcohol threshold for drunk driving arrests.

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Diesel lawsuit proceeds against Mercedes-Benz

2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec 4Matic
While Volkswagen has reached a historic settlement and had to buy back hundreds of thousands of its diesel cars in the U.S., it isn’t the only automaker to be investigated for cheating on diesel emissions.

Fiat Chrysler recently agreed to recall its Ram and Jeep EcoDiesels and pay owners for misleading advertising claims.

A third case, against Mercedes-Benz Bluetec diesels, just won approval by a court in New Jersey and can now proceed.

Previously dismissed for lack of plaintiffs' standing, on Friday chief judge Jose Linares of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey ruled that a class-action suit can move forward against Mercedes-Benz. It alleges that Mercedes used an emissions-cheating device in its Bluetec diesels similar to those Volkswagen admitted to using in its diesel settlement.

The suit involves perhaps 100,000 Mercedes-Benz Bluetec diesel luxury cars and SUVs and Sprinter commercial vans from model years 2009 to 2016.

READ MORE: Mercedes-Benz gets its own diesel emission cheating questions now

The legal complaint alleges that the cars emit as much as 83 times as many oxides of nitrogen in highway testing as the legal limit allows. Nitrogen oxides are linked to smog, which in turn is linked to respiratory illnesses such as asthma.

It also claims that the cars exceed federal limits on particulate emissions which have been linked to cancer, and most recently to dementia, according to a report in the Washington Post.

According to the complaint against Mercedes, the company’s diesels exhibit essentially the same behavior as VWs did, detecting when the cars were undergoing emissions testing, and only operating emissions controls to their fullest effect during the tests.

2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK 250 BlueTEC, upstate New York, April 2013

Mercedes may have used different strategies to detect when the cars were undergoing emissions testing as well, such as only operating the emissions systems when the engine was at certain temperatures and disabling them when the car was on either a steep up or down hill, for example.

With the emissions controls disabled, the complaint alleges, the cars gained more power and got better fuel economy.

Such software strategies are considered “defeat devices” under EPA emissions regulations.

DON'T MISS: No buybacks: FCA settlement for Ram pickup, Jeep Grand Cherokee Ecodiesel owners

As with Volkswagen, the complaint alleges that Mercedes worked with German supplier Bosch, which supplied the hardware and software for the emissions control systems in the diesel cars.

Bosch also provided hardware and software in the recalled Jeep and Ram, and settled that case. Chrysler had to take its diesel vehicles off the market in 2017, though they were later recertified and sold in 2018. In separate cases, Chrysler and diesel-engine supplier Cummins recalled five years' worth of heavy duty Ram trucks, and the Justice department allowed Chrysler to settle a criminal complaint over its light-duty Ram and Jeep EcoDiesel models.

CHECK OUT: New emails show FCA knew of diesel cheats as early as 2010: report

The affected Mercedes cars include the GLK, GL, and GLS SUVs, and C-Class, E-Class, and S-Class sedans from 2009 to 2016. Daimler, Mercedes' German parent, which sells Mercedes-Benz cars and Sprinter vans, showed in its annual report for 2017 that it was under investigation by both the EPA and the DOJ in the U.S.

2014 Mercedes-Benz E250 BlueTec – First Drive, August 2013

When contacted for comment by Green Car Reports, Mercedes-Benz spokesman Robert Moran said in an emailed statement: “We believe that these claims are without merit, and we are pleased that the court recognized the deficiencies in some of plaintiffs’ claims. We intend to continue vigorously defending against the remaining claims. The court’s decision today merely addressed certain legal aspects of plaintiffs’ claims and did not decide whether the plaintiffs’ can ultimately prove their claims, whether the plaintiffs’ allegations are true, or whether their claims have merit.”

The court found that certain state-level legal arguments don’t apply, but allowed most of the plaintiffs' arguments to proceed.

Kia Niro EV drive, Tesla service, electric car ads: Today’s Car News

2019 Kia Niro EV first drive – Santa Cruz, CA – February 2019
Tesla plans to make service quicker, easier, and automatic. National Electric Vehicles Sweden bought a stake in Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg. And our latest Twitter poll asks for readers' opinions about electric-car ads. All this and more on Green Car Reports.

In our first chance to drive the 2019 Kia Niro EV, we found a lot to like—along with a few missed opportunities.

In Tesla's quarterly update to investors last Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said one of the company's priorities for 2019 is to speed up service. He plans to make it so fast that a tow truck will automatically arrive with a loaner whenever a Tesla breaks down—even before the driver calls for help.

Chinese owned National Electric Vehicles Sweden—the company that owns the remnants of Saab and builds electric versions of the last Saab 9-3, bought Swedish exotic car-maker Koenigsegg, in a move that could presage yet another very fast electric car.

Our Twitter poll for this week—in honor of Audi's Superbowl ad for electric cars yesterday—asks, “What EV advantages should ads emphasize for the masses in 2019?”

Following Audi's Superbowl ad for its upcoming electric-car lineup, Canadian labor union Unifor blasted automakers for sending production to Mexico in an ad of its own, which called for a boycott of models GM builds in Mexico.

Finally, a spy photographer caught a test mule for VW's upcoming ID Crozz on the road. Although it doesn't show the car's final body, the photos do give some hints about its layout. The ID Crozz is expected to be the first of a new range of electric cars that VW plans to sell in the U.S.

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