Tag: Electric vehicles

Ford’s CEO says a ‘big surprise’ is coming next year with electric vehicles

Ford CEO Jim Hackett on restructuring, going electric and China's slowdown
2 Hours Ago | 10:00

Ford Motor is gearing up to launch new electric cars as soon as next year, CEO Jim Hackett told CNBC on Sunday.

Ford has previously announced its plans to invest $11 billion in electric vehicles by 2022 and produce 40 hybrid and fully electric cars, in a plan to revive its slowing business. However, the company's chief told CNBC that drivers should be prepared for 'a big surprise' from Ford.

“We talked about a huge investment in electric vehicles. We have 16 models that are in design and development. We have a pretty big surprise coming next year,” Hackett told CNBC's Phil LeBeau on the sidelines of the Detroit Auto Show, which kicks off this week.

During the first nine months in 2018, Ford's profit dropped a whooping 27 percent from the same period in 2017. Shares of Ford, which tumbled 39 percent in 2018, are hunkered under $10 a share for the first time since 2012.

“Some of the pain in the margins additionally [is] because the vehicles are old. We have on average the oldest fleet in the industry and we are going to have average the newest fleet. 75 percent of the portfolio is being turned over,” the CEO said.

The company is also in the middle of a massive restructuring with an aim to slash costs by $14 billion over the next five years. Ford recently announced plans to cut thousands of jobs in Europe as well as discontinuing some unprofitable lines there.

Yet in the face of a skeptical market Hackett defended Ford's moves to right its ship. He told CNBC that investors “needed to be a little patient with some of the long-lived problems that haven't been addressed that I'm going to represent. In less than 19 months, I've addressed every one of them.”

Many companies have expressed concerns about American brands potentially falling out of favor in China. For example, tech giant Apple cut its forecast in January, sounding alarms that an economic slowdown will weigh on its business. However, Hackett is not so worried.

“China's optimism is still high with us,” he told CNBC. “The brand is one of the highest-ranking brands in the country. Even at the highest levels of the government they see it as a family-owned business that middle America loves. The Chinese want to relate to American businesses like that,” Hackett added.

BYTON Unveils a Closer Look at the M-Byte SUV Production Model at 2019 CES Las Vegas – PRNewswire

“BYTON’s M-Byte represents the transformation of the traditional car into a next-generation smart device for every user,” said Dr. Carsten Breitfeld, CEO and Co-founder of BYTON. “We achieve this through the combination our state-of-the-art EV platform and our proprietary BYTON Life digital ecosystem.” A Digital Cockpit That Improves The Driver ExperienceBYTON’s Shared Experience Display (SED)… Continue reading BYTON Unveils a Closer Look at the M-Byte SUV Production Model at 2019 CES Las Vegas – PRNewswire

GM will make Cadillac its ‘lead’ electric vehicle brand

Mark Adams, Executive Director of Cadillac Global Design stands next to the Cadillac ELR after its unveiling during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) ASSOCIATED PRESS While Chevrolet launched the Volt plug-in hybrid and pure-electric Bolt, Cadillac has taken a backseat in GM’s electric vehicle push.… Continue reading GM will make Cadillac its ‘lead’ electric vehicle brand

Seamless EV Charging Is Catching On In North America

NORTH AMERICAN CHARGING NETWORKS MOVE TO ENABLE SEAMLESS ROAMING FOR EV CHARGING Electric vehicles are often compared to mobile phones. Among other similarities, both devices depend on a stack of interdependent hardware, software and services, and both need to be plugged in and charged after use, normally in the evening. *This article comes to us courtesy of EVANNEX (which… Continue reading Seamless EV Charging Is Catching On In North America

Let’s Look At CATL’s Numerous Battery Deals

Mega-player in the battery biz. Chinese power battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL) and Zhejiang Jirun Automobile Company Limited (Zhejiang Jirun), a subsidiary held by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, struck a deal on December 20, 2018 to fund a joint venture (JV) that works on the R&D, manufacture and sale of battery cells and… Continue reading Let’s Look At CATL’s Numerous Battery Deals

Nissan aims to take on Tesla by giving its electric vehicle Leaf major range, performance boost

Photo: Paul Eisenstein
2019 Nissan Leaf

With a growing number of long-range battery-cars coming to market, Nissan's own electric vehicle, the Leaf, has been in danger of coming unplugged.

But the Japanese automaker is hoping to attract potential buyers with the launch of a new model that gives a 50 percent boost to both range and performance.

The new Nissan Leaf Plus will go on sale in early spring and will deliver an estimated 226 miles per charge of its lithium-ion battery. That's more than triple the range of the original Leaf which, when launched in 2010, was the world's first mainstream battery-electric vehicle, or BEV. The second-generation Leaf, launched two years ago, yielded 150 miles per charge. The latest model, which will be known as the Leaf e+ outside the U.S. and Canada, will now fall in line with a surge of long-range competitors, such as the Tesla Model S, Chevrolet Bolt EV and Hyundai Kona EV.

“This deserves to be called a big bang,” Denis LeVot, the CEO of Nissan North America, said during a conversation with CNBC following the debut of the 2020 Leaf Plus at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Tuesday night.

A long with the boost in range, the updated battery car will also deliver better acceleration, Nissan promised. While it didn't offer specific performance figures, Japan's second-largest automaker said the updated hatchback's single electric motor will now punch out 217 horsepower, up from 147 when the second-generation Leaf launched, with torque climbing from 174 to 250 pound-feet.

The Leaf Plus relies on a 62 kilowatt-hour battery pack, about 50 percent bigger than the 2017 model and the mere 24 kWh pack in the original, 2010 Leaf. Like the earlier versions, however, the latest battery-electric vehicle will remain air-cooled, rather than the more advanced liquid cooling found in its key competitors. Nissan claims the approach requires few compromises but means a less complex — and thus less expensive — product.

The automaker won't release final pricing until the Leaf Plus goes on sale in early spring. But at a starting price of $29,990, the current model is one of the least expensive all-electric models on the market.

Since the debut of the original Leaf, Nissan has sold about 365,000 to customers around the world, LeVot pointed out, making it the best-selling BEV on the market. But it has been losing momentum as new competitors have come to market. The Tesla Model 3 is now the best-seller on a monthly basis and likely to pass Leaf's overall record this year if current demand holds, according to industry analysts.

“Ideally, Nissan should have had this long-range model at (the) launch” of the second-generation Leaf in 2017, said Sam Abuelsamid, a senior analyst with Navigant Research. “They absolutely needed to bring this out to remain competitive.”

For his part, LeVot said he is confident the long-range Leaf will help rebuild demand for Leaf in a market just beginning to embrace electrification in all its various forms. And, if anything, he added, “competition growing is not a bad thing. It is converting (more) people to electrification.”

By various estimates there will be as many as 100 all-electric vehicles on the market by the end of 2020, along with scores of hybrids and plug-in hybrids, the latter extending range by blending gas and electric powertrains on the same platform.

Nissan was an early proponent of electrification, along with French alliance partner Renault, but it has been slow to expand its line-up – at least until now. The automaker is expected to signal an acceleration of its battery strategy at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week. It is expected to reveal a concept vehicle that will signal the future direction of the Nissan brand. While LeVot would not discuss what's coming in Detroit, Nissan has already confirmed it's upscale Infiniti brand will also signal its battery-car plans during the auto show with its QX Inspiration concept.

Nissan's global CEO Hiroto Saikawa last year announced that Infiniti will electrify virtually its entire line-up starting in 2021.

During his presentation at CES, North American chief executive LeVot did confirm that there will be “eight models electrified or fully electric” available through the two brands by 2020, with the parent company expecting to sell 1 million battery cars worldwide in 2022.

If anything, the increase in range with the Nissan Leaf Plus will be just the beginning, he told CNBC, suggesting that “in three to four years, we could have 300-mile” ranges on some models. That would be in line with the top products from Tesla, though some manufacturers are now looking at pushing up into 400-mile territory as lithium-ion technology improves.

A number of manufacturers are using this week's CES to discuss their electrification strategies, including some new brands such as Chinese-owned Byton. It showed off a long-range model dubbed the M-byte it expects to put into production by the end of this year at a new plant in China, with U.S. sales set to begin by the third quarter of 2020.

Mercedes-Benz also showed off its first long-range electric vehicle in Las Vegas, the EQC set to launch later this year.

Disclosure:
Paul Eisenstein
is a freelancer for CNBC. His travel and accommodations for this article were paid by an automaker.

A Conversation With Workhorse CEO Steve Burns

Something popped up recently in my news feed about Workhorse — the electric van and pickup truck manufacturer — arranging for $35 million in new financing. Not only does the new money pay off some existing indebtedness, it also puts money in the till to pay for the supplies and materials needed to ramp up… Continue reading A Conversation With Workhorse CEO Steve Burns

Elon Musk Boasts That The Tesla Roadster May One Day Fly And Posts Picture Of ‘Back To The Future’ DeLorean

Elon Musk has just made the rather exciting claim that the new Tesla Roadster will have the capability of flying.

Elon Musk has made the news once again after tweeting a photograph of the DeLorean from the hit film Back to the Future, boasting that one day, the $200,000 Tesla Roadster may be able to fly as well, if customers make sure that they opt for the “SpaceX add-on package.”

As the Daily Mail has reported, beside the shot of the Back to the Future DeLorean, Musk made the tantalizing claim that “the new Roadster will actually do something like this,” which led tech YouTuber and Twitter user Marques Brownlee to post, “The thing is I feel like you’re not joking,” to which Elon Musk replied that he was not joking at all.

Musk further stated that the Tesla Roadster would be using a special cold gas thruster system as part of its flying design, which is an idea that has gripped Tesla customers everywhere.

“Will use SpaceX cold gas thruster system with ultra high pressure air in a composite over-wrapped pressure vessel in place of the 2 rear seats.”

With such an exciting prospect as a flying Roadster, it was later asked whether this vehicle would be able to traverse a quarter of a mile in no fewer than eight seconds, which Elon Musk believes is absolutely “no problem.” Musk then replied, “Vertically or horizontally?” to the original question.

In 2018, Musk stated on Twitter that Tesla’s brand new Roadster will allow customers the special option of adding rocket thrusters to the vehicle, which he said would “dramatically” boost its acceleration. This upgrade, he has also said, may even possibly “allow a Tesla to fly.”

This unique “SpaceX option package” may sound so extravagantly surreal that many may believe that it simply isn’t possible. Still, as Elon Musk has demonstrated to time and time again, what people may oftentimes believe can’t happen does actually happen under Musk’s leadership, which means that yes, with Tesla at the helm, flying Roadsters might be coming in the future.

With the new option package for the Roadster, 10 extremely small rocket thrusters will be built at different points along the vehicle’s body, which will give the car many new and improved effects, which include better braking, fantastic cornering, and of course, faster acceleration.

As might be expected, the rockets on the new Roadster will be “pure electric,” according to Musk, with compressed air being stored inside the rocket boosters.

“Using the config you describe, plus an electric pump to replenish air in COPV, when car power draw drops below max pack power output, makes sense. But we are going to go a lot further.”

Whether these cars will actually end up flying is anybody’s guess, but the special package certainly looks tantalizing. The new model of Tesla Roadsters will begin shipping in 2020.

The Tesla Story Through The Eyes Of Tesla Shorts & Obsessive Critics

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Published on January 4th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

The Tesla Story Through The Eyes Of Tesla Shorts & Obsessive Critics

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January 4th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

I started covering Tesla in 2012, coming to the company as someone who had been car-free for over a decade and loving it. I had previously worked to promote human-powered transport (bicycling and walking), mass transit, and sustainable development. In other words, I was not a car guy.

Nonetheless, there was much to appreciate about electric cars, the beautiful Model S Tesla had developed, and the technological innovations Elon Musk and team had employed.

Furthermore, from my previous work, I had to come to grips with one obvious fact of modern life: even many people who would benefit tremendously from bicycle commuting and would surely enjoy it (who biked for recreation, for example) would never stop driving on a daily basis. If we were going to cut emissions, we needed an electric car revolution. Tesla was clearly leading the way on that front. It was offering an award-winning electric car that demolished the gas & diesel competition in its vehicle class, the first mass-produced electric car that was completely competitive with similarly priced conventional cars.

Nevertheless, critics and skeptics were around every corner. I thought it was crazy back then, but now, after 6½ years of tremendous Tesla successes, it’s downright hilarious. So, in honor of another wicked cool quarter, here’s a view of Tesla history that you might have missed if you only read CleanTechnica:

In bold: what happened

Not bold: Tesla shorts’ & obsessive critics’ take on the news.

Tesla Model S unveiled

It’s doomed. Tesla is doomed. Tesla can’t produce the car. No one will buy it. Sales of 10,000–15,000 a year? Pfff. For whom?

Tesla Model S wins top awards from Consumer Reports, owners, and big auto magazines.

It doesn’t matter — there are panel gaps and demand is drying up. They’ve worked through interested customers and demand is falling.

Tesla Model S demand grows, Tesla creates more production capacity and sales grow.

It’s just a phase, a trend, because Tesla is a novelty with far too much hype. Anyway, that demand growth was all an illusion and is fading now. Demand is falling now. Really.

Tesla Model X approaching production.

Hahaha, no way in hell Tesla is producing that vehicle. It’s impossible to mass produce. Tesla is going to collapse trying to produce this vehicle. It’s a dead company walking.

And anyway, demand for this “SUV” is far lower than Tesla says.

Tesla struggles through first few months of Model X production.

See, we told you. This vehicles can’t be mass produced. It’s completely impossible. Tesla is dead any day, can’t produce the Model X and there’s no demand and Model S demand is falling.

Tesla gets through early hurdles and starts mass producing the Model X.

Crickets.

Tesla reaches annual production and sales of 100,000 Model S and Model X vehicles a year (combined), far more than the 30,000–35,000 the company initially forecasted for these models.

It’s all nonsensical hype. It’s just gone too far. Anyway, Tesla is going to crash financially because it can’t turn a profit and definitely can’t build this ridiculous “Gigafactory” marketing scam. (Never mind that Tesla could be making great profits — has extremely high gross margins — and isn’t doing so just because it is aiming for insanely fast growth.)

Progress keeps truckin’ on Tesla Gigafactory.

It doesn’t matter — Tesla won’t have demand for enough vehicles to make the Gigafactory sensible. It’s a giant, empty house of cards and Ponzi scheme that’s going to take Tesla down. Don’t worry — Tesla’s won’t even be here in 2016 — it’ll be out of business.

Tesla forecasts a doubling of Model S and Model X sales in 2016.

Hahaha — what are you, crazy? Who is going to want to buy all of these vehicles? Demand is going in the other direction! The Tesla fad is getting old and consumers are moving in other directions now. Building up this much production capacity is just hastening Tesla’s collapse.

Tesla unveils Model 3. Reservations surpass 100,000 before the car is even shown, and then soar after it is shown.

This is all a Ponzi scheme [this is a frequent claim] and Tesla will run out of money before it ever builds a single Model 3 for consumers. Plus, the company can’t produce the car as specced without losing money and customers aren’t going to wait till 2020 for their cars. Other automakers — real automakers — will have much better cars out before then and Tesla will still be struggling to get the Model 3 into production if the company isn’t dead by then. But yeah, it will be dead long before then.

Elon Musk indicates that the company’s official target date for start of production is July 1, 2017 — but that it’s sort of just a fake target to push suppliers to be ready and it’s more or less impossible production would start then … but suppliers need to be ready by then.

Hahaha, you’ve got to be kidding me! July 2017? More like July 2020 … or never!

It’s all a scam. The market will figure this out sooner or later.

Tesla actually starts delivering consumer vehicles in July 2017 — blowing basically everyone’s mind.

These are not real cars. It’s all a trick. Tesla’s delivering fake, hand-built cars to Tesla and SpaceX employees. Elon Musk is more like David Copperfield than an auto industry master. The company will never mass produce the Model 3. It will go bankrupt soon enough. Short the stock now!

Tesla struggles for a few quarters trying to get Model 3 production up to the targeted level. One production hiccup after another slows down the progress and essentially puts Model 3 production back on its original schedule.

Told you so. The sky is falling, and Tesla is running out of money and will self-destruct any day now. Don’t wait too long — short the stock now! See? We were right all these years.

Tesla keeps making progress increasing its Model 3 production capacity.

It’s all a scam. They’re shifting cars around from parking lot to parking lot. They have hard limits they can never pass to get to 5,000 units per week. #PaintShop

And demand is already starting to fall off. The cars aren’t even fully produced and customers will start revolting soon. Plus, Tesla could never service these cars and Superchargers are going to be completely clogged soon.

Tesla reaches 5,000 vehicle/week milestone.

#Tentgate

Elon Musk says the company will show a profit in the 3rd quarter and should be sustainably profitable from then on.

WHAT?!?!? Are you crazy? This is crazy talk. Tesla is on the verge of collapsing. There’s no way in hell this is accurate. This is a joke. This is a total scam. Elon Musk is losing his mind. All signs point to the house of cards collapsing any day. It will all be over soon, folks — hold on tight. (And don’t forget to get your anti-Tesla bets in.)

Tesla production grows, sales surge, and Tesla shows a profit in the 3rd quarter. Side note: Tesla Model 3 becomes one of the top selling cars in the country in terms of units sold and the #1 best selling car in terms of revenue. Tesla absolutely dominates the luxury car market and presumably starts sucking sales away from Honda, Toyota, and others as well.

This is all a blip. It’s an accounting trick multiplied by years of demand for the car. Demand is going to collapse now. This strong quarter of sales is the surest sign yet that Tesla is about to crash, as demand cannot be sustained and bills be due.

Tesla has record 4th quarter, massively defying the critics and achieving unprecedented growth in the auto industry. In one year, the company nearly tripled its automobile production and delivery capacity. It sold 33% more cars in the 4th quarter than in all of 2017 combined. The Tesla Model 3 becomes the best selling car in the US from an American car company and the #11 best selling car overall in all of 2018. On the back of the strong 4th quarter numbers, it turned out Tesla sold 1 out of every 5 luxury cars in the country in 2018 and the Model 3 accounted for 1 out of every 3 small & midsize luxury cars in the year.

Now it’s really clear: Tesla demand is dropping. All of the above is history and now we know for sure that Model 3 demand is drying up and Tesla will soon run out of cash as a result. The stock will drop 70% in value in 2019. Forget our previous predictions and criticisms. Forget that we have been consistently wrong for years and have claimed the sky was falling 1,000+ times and it has never yet fallen. We are right this time. Really. You will see.

Is there any wonder why people don’t take Tesla short sellers and über critics seriously?

By the way, if you would like to buy a Tesla and want the benefits that come with a referral, feel free to use my referral code — http://ts.la/tomasz7234 — or not.

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

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See Where Automaker’s Electric Car Investments Are Going

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