EV Universe #143: Fully Flooded Rivian still ready to go — Charging gloves — Noisy chargers?

AUTOMAKERS & GLOBAL NEWS

TODAY: Tesla is holding its “We, Robot” Robotaxi event today 10/10 at 7pm in the Warner Bros grounds in Los Angeles. Here is a link to the livestream on X.

Robotaxis aren’t exactly new, especially if you’ve kept an eye on the progress in China recently. Or perhaps the upcoming Verne robotaxi from Rimac (our deep dive here).

A vision-only fully autonomous taxi, however, certainly is, and we don’t know what else we might see Tesla has innovated on so far. What I’m most curious on is what Tesla decided to delete, not add on the vehicle(s).

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I’ve speculated on the event enough by now, but in addition to showing the actual robotaxis roaming the streets (“hundreds” of Tesla’s spotted testing on WB lot), I’m hoping for a wireless charging showcase, and potentially showcase of any new models. Visitors will have a whole experience on it’s own, including a drone show we've already spotted.

If you don’t watch the livestream, I’ll be recapping the event and the participant’s insights first on Monday’s Pro Report (so sign up will ya), and then later in the week in our regular report.

Here’s what I found Elon himself said about the event in an interview back in July (video):

The Story of a Flooded Rivian

Wow, what a testament to Rivian R1T capabilities:

A flooded R1T swept by the river not only survives, but goes on to work like nothing happened — Michael kept using it after for clearing roads, delivering supplies, and operating as a generator to run the food truck they were giving out free hot meals from, in Asheville, NC. He went on to say:

“Not a spec of mud on the interior or Frunk. When I first approached the vehicle there wasn't a doubt in my mind she was totaled. Door handles propped open, hopped in, put my foot on the brake. She booted right up! Unbelievable."

Here’s his video of the interior, gear tunnel, and frunk, which didn’t get any of the mud in whatsoever, couldn’t even tell it went through a hurricane. And here’s a video of it going through roads of Asheville afterwards, doing water delivery into the mountains.

Now, not only has the Rivian team obviously engineered a great EV, Michael says he had to get the truck (named Vivian) to the Rivian service in Atlanta GA for insurance to check if there’s no unseen damage to the battery. Since Michael didn’t want to leave his community that needed help, Rivian team acted:

THESE are the stories we’re here for.

And thank you, Michael, for all you do over there.

PS! If you’re looking for a way to support the recovery effort in Asheville, please consider donating to Crisis Response International. Or if any reader here wants to contact Michael, let me know and I’ll put you in touch.

Quick takes:

• Uber now has 182,000 EVs on it’s platform today. In London, nearly 30% of all miles driven on Uber are now electric. Now they launch a few new moves (link):

  • All-electric Uber green: used to have hybrids, now only all-electrics.

  • EV Preference: set the preference to get an EV every time,

  • EV Pop-Ups: you might end up riding in a Lotus Eletre in London or a Rivian R1 in LA, Miami and Dallas.

  • Drivers get an AI Assistant for EV questions;

  • EV mentorship program connecting experienced EV drivers to drivers new to EVs;

  • Free Octopus chargers (worth ~£1,000 each), cofunded by BYD and Octopus Energy, for 1,000 Uber drivers in the UK.

• XPeng launches in Spain and Portugal (link).

• Honda’s slides from the next-gen EV “0 Tech Meeting” look like they’re made in 1999. Would I trust them to build a great user interface and a truly digital car? (link), (link to a press release full of these)

DEEP DIVE: ACEA’s dance around CO₂ targets

I created a deeper look (1,780 words) into how ACEA tries to lobby for easier 2025 CO₂ targets, wrote out some carmakers that are pro and against this, and updated the stats on actual January-August 2024 EV sales across Europe for maximum context.

Did I go too far with the headline? Maybe.

Luckily I’m still an independent wannabe-journalist-or-something thanks to your support here in the EVU Pro, so… thank you for enabling me to call out bullsh*t 🤣

I just can’t stand it if some in the industry try to bend the numbers their way, yet leave out important pieces of the context at their disposal.

Here’s the deep dive, only for our Pro members (that’s you):

PS — our Pro members got to read this already last week. Join EVU Pro for early access to select deep dives like this and more.

EV POLICY

European Union member states voted on the Chinese EV import tariffs, reportedly 10 countries FOR; 12 abstentions, 5 countries AGAINST.

To block the proposal, representation of 65% of EU population votes against would’ve been needed, but this didn’t happen — the tariffs go into effect (should enter into force early November and last for at least five years). Here are the countries’ votes: (link).

Most notably, Germany voted against these tariffs.

China and EU continue their negotiations, with most recent news saying EU side rejected China’s proposal for a minimum €30,000 price to be set on Chinese EVs instead of the tariffs. (link)

EV SPOTLIGHT: Chevy Silverado EV (LT trim)

Since I think we didn’t do an EV spotlight on the Silverado EV when it was announced, their recent less expensive trim called LT gave us some reason to — it seems pretty competitive, and a good time to compare to the Cybertruck news next to it.

• Price: $65,500 (including $7,500 Fed EV credit)

• Range: 408 miles EPA (656 km)

• Battery: 200kWh (yikes)

• Performance: 645hp, 765 lb-ft torque with “Wide Open Watts mode”

• Charging: up to 300 kW

• Towing: 12,500 lb towing capacity, 1,800 lb payload

• Interior: 17.7" center infotainment screen paired with 11" “driver informational center”

• Standard Multi-Flex Tailgate

Although the battery seems oversized, this does seem like a good deal from a customer stand-point. Now, once GM drops its Ultium plans and goes deep on its SAIC-CATL partnership for 6C batteries (read about it in our latest Pro Report), they’ll hopefully be able to get to that range with a significantly smaller pack.

The other question that comes to mind with a 200kWh battery pack here is… how much is GM losing per one of these sold?

Meanwhile, Tesla starts selling the $79,990 non-Foundation-Series Cybertrucks. (link) It goes 325 miles on its ~123kWh battery pack (340mi in Foundation Series), and is stripped of most accessories (including bed rings?). The $99,990 tri-motor Cyberbeast is also now available to order.

So far, there’s no info on the US federal tax credit ($7,500), which the Cybertruck would now be eligible for considering its <$80k starting price. I would assume Tesla is in the process of certifying that.

Quick takes:

• Škoda Elroq launches (link). We’ll probably give it a spotlight next week.

• 27,527 Porsche Taycans are recalled because “Certain Taycan high-voltage batteries might experience short circuits within the battery modules, which can lead to thermal events and in some cases fires.” (link)
  Porsche said dealers will install advanced diagnostic software, but that software isn't expected to be available until the first quarter of 2025. Owners are suggested to only charge their Taycans to 80%.

• Watch tip: fish in frunk.

• Jeep teases Compass EV (link):

That's it, I'm buying a Renault EV. Why, you ask?

Well, do you know anyone else offering “electric charging gloves” as an accessory?

Now I just need to figure out if I have to buy two EVs to get a pair?

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EV SALES & PRODUCTION 📊 

We spoke about Norway’s EV fleet overcoming petrol and soon diesel fleets last week, including how the pop band A-ha created Norway’s EV revolution in 1989 through “a campaign of civil disobedience” (now shareable as X article here, or LinkedIn here).

Now, you see the overview of the progress towards EVs in Norway from 2011 to today per powertrain above. (link) In September, Norway’s EV market share broke a new record of 94.3% all sales becoming fully electric.

Hyundai has started production at its new $7.5B electric car plant in Georgia, currently with the refreshed Ioniq 5 (link). They broke ground in October 2022 in Bryan County, GA, so the first car has rolled off the line quite quick.

Rivian lowers its production forecast to 47,000-49,000 EVs for this year. Says it’s due to a production interruption over a missing component for their in-house motors for the R1 vehicles and vans. Still plans to deliver between 50,500-52,000 EVs this year. In Q3, Rivian made 13,157 and delivered 10,018 vehicles. (link)

Tesla, in the third quarter, delivered 439,975 Model 3/Ys and 22,915 “other models”, for a total of produced 469,796 and delivered 462,890 (up 6% year-over-year). (link)

CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Above is a great top-10 from BNEF on the fast (43-100kW) and ultra-fast (100kW+) chargers in the US and Europe. (link) Tesla’s lead still today is impressive, especially in the US.

Speaking of which, in Q3, Tesla said they' opened 2.8K new Supercharger stalls (+23% year-over-year) and delivered 1.4 TWh of energy (+27% YoY). By my count, they should now have 62,396 Supercharger stalls deployed at around 6,800 locations globally.

Doesn’t look like the sky really fell after Elon cut that Supercharging team after all? As common with Musk, they rehired a part of the team back, and are now likely operating with a significantly smaller force?

Something I was surprised to see on the European side — Lidl, the retail store chain, has risen to the 7th largest charging network in Europe.

IONNA announces its first site, near its HQ in Apex, NC. (link) They call it "Rechargery". Above is IONNA's render (top) vs what was there before (bottom).

It’ll have 10 charging bays with 400kW chargers capable of both CCS and NACS (render images look like Alpitronic’s HYC400 btw).

The site will host an indoor driver's lounge, offering secure access to bathrooms, coffee service, food/beverage, and WIFI.

In case you’ve missed it, IONNA is the joint charging venture of BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Stellantis and Toyota; with plans to deploy 30,000 ultra-fast charging points in North America by 2030.

See some hot takes about IONNA (and its fresh COO pick) in our last week’s Pro Report (link).

Now this is not, I repeat not, the EV future I subscribed for.

The evpoint chargers in the UK (supplied by BYD) are not only showing BYD’s own advertisements on the screens — that’s okay I guess — but they are also blasting the sound from added speakers. Alex here said he heard the noise from 40m away, and in the car while the radio was on. (video, h/t electricfelix)

If you are from a CPO reading this here (we have many of you good folk here) I’ll just come out and say that this is not okay and don’t you dare to the same. The EV future is supposed to be quiet.

Quick ⚡️ takes:

• Florida Dept of EM is installing up to 10 temporary free EV chargers along the I-75 evacuation corridor, and one off of I-4, as the Hurricane Milton is making landfall right now. Each is a single port, fast charger with adapters capable of charging all EVs, with a 50 kW power output. Find them here (link) and send to your EV owner folks in the area.

• Chinese companies have registered 62,655 EV charging technology patents; Japan has 5,568 applications; USA 4,306; Germany 3,973 and South Korea 3,942. (link)

• Tesla Giga Berlin built a 5,000m2 solar canopy with 2,639 solar panels (~1MW) on top of the part of its parking lot that houses chargers. Free for all to use. (video)

• Watch tip(s): Here are all the keynote presentations, both slides and videos, of the intercharge network conference that took place in September in Berlin. (link)