Tag: Renault

Fiat Ducato Electric debuts in Europe, first electric commercial van from brand

In the U.S., pickups reign supreme for most work detail. Abroad? That duty often falls to slab-sided commercial vans like the Fiat Ducato. In the U.S. the Ducato is offered as the Ram ProMaster, but is largely identical.

Earlier this month, Fiat Professional rolled out its 2020 Ducato van with slight updates inside and out, but the brand offered for the first time an electric powertrain that could make it into wider production soon.

Fiat didn't offer many details about the electric powertrain such as range, power, wheels driven, or batteries, but the automaker said the vans would be available for pre-order soon and would be offered to select buyers first to test and study how owners will use the vans.

A spokesman for Ram didn't immediately comment on whether the vans would be offered in the U.S.

Although hardly sexy, electric commercial vans on the roads would reduce emissions significantly in dense cities. The vans are often used for myriad jobs and constantly run. Any emissions improvements in commercial vehicles can have wide-reaching impact in carbon reductions in cities all over the globe.

Although this is Fiat's first foray into electric vans, they're not alone. For instance, Mercedes-Benz has announced an electric version of its Sprinter van, the eSprinter; Ford has a range-extended version of its Transit Connect commercial van; and Nissan offers in the U.K an electric e-NV200.

That's a boon to businesses across Europe, who have significantly higher running costs for gasoline-powered vehicles than they would with electric vehicles. EVTrader found last year that light-commercial vehicles in Europe cost roughly 23-28 cents per mile to run versus 6-7 cents per mile for an electric van.

Toyota snub dents Saudi Arabia’s manufacturing drive

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia began courting Toyota two years ago to build a large car plant as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s grand plan to wean the kingdom off oil revenues and create jobs for young Saudis. A car passes in front of Toyota dealer in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia June 15, 2019.… Continue reading Toyota snub dents Saudi Arabia’s manufacturing drive

Nissan considers seats for Renault chairman, CEO in new committees: Nikkei

FILE PHOTO : The Nissan logo is seen at Nissan Motor Co.’s global headquarters building in Yokohama, Japan, December 17, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co Ltd plans to give seats in its four proposed committees to alliance partner Renault SA’s chief executive and chairman, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing… Continue reading Nissan considers seats for Renault chairman, CEO in new committees: Nikkei

Eviation unveils electric airplane and plans flight tests in central Washington state

Eviation’s Alice electric airplane makes its debut at the Paris Air Show. (Eviation Photo) An Israeli startup called Eviation Aircraft unveiled its first prototype electric airplane today at the International Paris Air Show, with flight testing planned at Moses Lake in central Washington state. Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay told reporters that his company hopes to… Continue reading Eviation unveils electric airplane and plans flight tests in central Washington state

Nissan Leaf batteries are lasting a very long time

Since even before the first market deliveries of its Leaf electric car in late 2010, Nissan has made frequent mention about the need to create second-use demand for the Leaf's battery packs.

It turns out, they may need to see many of those ideas put into place. According to comments made last month by a Nissan-Renault executive, citing charging and battery degradation data from Nissan on the 400,000+ Leafs sold globally, the battery packs are going to easily outlast the life of the vehicles—not just the ones that are in accidents.

“We are going to have to recover those batteries,” said Francisco Carranza, the managing director of Renault-Nissan Energy Services, at the Automotive News Europe Congress.

Nissan Energy Solar

In the UK, the company is currently offering Nissan Energy Solar solutions, combining solar panels with battery storage and an app-based control system. In some other places within Europe the Leaf is allowed to be grid-connected, and globally the 4R Energy Corporation, a company founded by Nissan and Sumitomo, is testing a scheme that would use second-use EV batteries to take street lights completely off the grid. And there have been some novel solutions along the way, such as using them for pop-up travel trailers.

Nissan x Opus camper with reused Leaf batteries in Britain with Nissan Qashqai

Other larger-scale uses include megawatt energy-storage systems good for smoothing peak demand at commercial venues, industrial plants, or smaller buffers used for electric-vehicle charging stations. But some big-picture fundamental questions remain: Like whether recycling existing less-efficient batteries for their raw materials might be better.

Some months ago Nissan in the U.S. said that it’s examining a wide range of uses but hasn’t committed to any on a larger scale. We’ve reached out to Nissan once again for comment to see if that remains a fair characterization—and to see if the company’s experience with degradation and projected life mirrors that in Europe.

Volkswagen last month said that it expects the battery packs in upcoming ID models, built on its mainstream modular electric platform (MEB) to last “the life of the cars.”

VW MEB platform

Specifically, VW says that its batteries will keep 70 percent of their original capacity for 8 years or 100,000 miles.

That’s close to Nissan’s goal at the original rollout of the Leaf—that they then expected its battery to keep 70 percent or more of its original capacity after 10 years—although its original warranty was also for 8 years or 100,000 miles.

But even when their capacity degrades far lower than that, they'll be fine for second uses. Nissan R&D staff, for example, projected that at 20 years the typical cells might store less than 40 percent of their original energy capacity. That would still make them a productive piece of larger-scale energy storage.

With VW planning 22 million electric vehicles in 10 years, all with active thermal conditioning that could give those battery packs an even longer life, let’s hope more companies get together on solutions that can truly scale up.

Groupe Renault: Communication about availability – Renault sales for May 2019

Communication about availability – Renault sales figures for May 2019Boulogne, June 18, 2019Renault announces that its sales figures report for May 2019 is now available on Renault website www.group.renault.com, tab Finance, in the ‘Regulated information’, ‘Monthly sales’.As of May 2019, please note that the scope of the Regions has changed: the Africa Middle-East India Region… Continue reading Groupe Renault: Communication about availability – Renault sales for May 2019

Fiat and Renault resume negotiations for the merger

As pointed out by an Italian economic newspaper, the top authorities of both automotive brands have resumed contacts on the merger. Undoubtedly, the merger between the Italian and French brands is being the summer soap opera in the automotive world. After Fiat’s tough statement announcing that it was withdrawing its merger offer with Renault for… Continue reading Fiat and Renault resume negotiations for the merger

Beyond Tesla, electric cars lose value faster than other vehicles

Lower maintenance and repair needs plus lower energy costs can make a very convincing case for electric car ownership.

The same isn’t always true for those who own vehicles the old-fashioned way, going with what’s new and fresh every three years or so, before trading it in for the next. Then, electric vehicles have an issue that can turn the math on its side: appalling resale value.

The average new electric vehicle loses 56.6 percent of its original value in three years, according to the car-deal search engine iSeeCars. The average among all kinds of vehicles is 38.2 percent of depreciation over three years.

The depreciation is from its sticker price, so it doesn’t include things like a potential EV tax credit of up to $7,500—which not every buyer may be able to claim.

In a recent analysis, iSeeCars found that the Fiat 500e had the steepest value plunge among EVs. Its average three-year-old used price was just $10,358—a depreciation of nearly 70 percent from its original price. The BMW i3 after three years cost just $19,784, which was a 63-percent cut from its original price. The Nissan Leaf (despite hints of an uptick last year) and Volkswagen e-Golf also posted steep value losses of nearly 60 percent over three years.

2018 BMW i3s

The Ford Fusion Energi was also called out by iSeeCars a plunge in value that was nearly as steep as that of those EVs. The Fusion Energi is worth just $15,983 after three years.

The new trends come from an analysis of more than 4.8 million car sales, comparing average price weighted by sales volume for vehicles sold between January and May 2019 with those of the same model sold between January and May 2019, adjusting for inflation via the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

2019 Tesla Model S

Tesla is an exception to the rule, though—and proof that EVs don’t have to be resale-value money pits. After three years, the average Tesla Model S remains worth a strong $57,517, according to iSeeCars, which is just a 17.1-percent reduction from its price when new.

For nearly all the other non-Tesla models, these losses help enforce the value of leasing (under what are in many case highly subsidized offers), while purchasing may only make sense when planning to keep an EV over a longer timeline.

All of the electric models that lost the largest chunk of their original value are short-range models. One of the keys to success (and a signal of success) for the new long-range fully electric vehicles is that they escape the pull of strong depreciation. With the first Chevrolet Bolt EVs due to near that three-year mark early next year—and the new ones in their tax-credit phaseout—we’ll start getting some answers on whether that's the case in a matter of months.