EV Universe #149:

EV NEWS GLOBALLY

A new study from the Global EV Alliance — which combines EV alliances representing 336k EV drivers — collected data from over 23,000 EV drivers across 18 countries, including the US, Canada, France, India, Brazil, etc. (pdf)

They found 92% of the 23k EV drivers surveyed plan to buy another EV if they had to replace it, and only 1% of them would return to an ICE car. 4% would choose a PHEV.

Now why is there such a contrast a contrast with some McKinsey studies we’ve seen? Beats me. Perhaps the respondents here are already ‘EV activists’ rather than a random sample? As you know, I’m often skeptical of these surveys, even if they have results that I like

We did also get a lot of other data from the considerations and use cases from those 23k EV drivers, like — why did they go with EV in the first place?

Of all charging, 72% is done at home, 13% public fast charging, 7% public parking with charging, 7% at work and 1% ‘other private’.

India, Brazil and Costa Rica feel range anxiety most… but that “most” is also more “kind of”:

General Motors kills Cruise.

GM will “refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles.” The self-driving car company will be absorbed into parent company GM and combined with its own efforts to develop driver assistance features, although there’s no clear info yet on whether jobs are cut or not.

GM's decision to end its robotaxi efforts came not with a bang, but with a Slack message from the CEO: several Cruise employees said they were “surprised” and “blindsided” by the decision, learning about the news at the same time the media did. (link)

I found that Kyle Vogt, former CEO, co-founder and soul of Cruise, had a comment on all this:

Nissan & Honda to merge?

Nissan and Honda are reportedly working toward a merger and likely include Mitsubishi too. There seems to be some basis behind the reports, as Carlos Ghosn, former head of Nissan, commented for Bloomberg on the “why” it makes sense (link):

“From one side, Nissan, it’s a desperate move to try to find a future. And from the other side, Honda — if I understand well, they were not very excited about this move, but you know, you have to count with METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) in Japan.

They’re trying to figure out something that could marry the short-term problems of Nissan, and the long-term vision of Honda.

[…] There is panic mode inside Nissan.”

Trillions

Tesla’s market cap hit all time high, closing the week at ~$1.32 TRILLION. Elon’s “Muskonomy” — aka all his ventures — are now valued at around $1.8T total. (video)

Here’s a good visual from Visual Capitalist: Tesla’s valuation is more than the next 29 automakers combined!

Quick takes:

• Waymo, in 2024, served 4 million fully autonomous electric rides, an average of 10,958 paid trips per day. The service is currently performing 150,000 paid trips every week (that’d be 7.8M trips a year). Waymo now serves 500 square miles in four major metropolitan areas. (link)

• Nikola says it does not have enough money to survive the next quarter, in a mandatory notification to the US’ SEC: “We currently estimate that our existing financial resources are only adequate to fund our forecasted operating costs and meet our obligations into, but not through, the first quarter of 2025.” (link)

• Volkswagen got to an agreement with the unions:
  VW will reduce production by 734k units (!), cuts labor costs by €1.5B and lowering development costs. (link) With this, however VW promises the brand's 10 German factories will remain operational.

• Amazon has officially reached more than 20,000 Rivian electric delivery vans in its fleet. (link)

• 🇬🇧 Our friend Tom from the Fast Charge obtained, via a freedom of information request, the full letter from the Vice President of Tesla EMEA to Lilian Greenwood, MP of the UK government, on the need for zero-emission heavy-duty vehicle mandate and other EV policies. (link)

• 🇦🇺 Reading tip: Australia’s Electric Vehicle Council launched the State of EVs 2024 report (72-page pdf)

EV SPOTLIGHT:

Ford unveiled the Puma Gen-E (link).

The Ford Puma is Ford’s best-selling model in Europe and 11-th in Europe overall (159,704 sold in 2023). Now, we’ve got a fully electric version of it… and I guess the ICE version being their best-seller might be the reason why the electric version looks exactly like it, exception being the closed grille…

Specifications:

• Price: 36,900€ (which is ~8k€ more than a comparable combustion model)

• Range: 347-376 km WLTP (up to 233mi)

• Battery: 43kWh net, NMC chemistry, 13.1kWh/100km efficiency.

• Charging: 100kW peak and 78kW average, 10-80% in 23.2 minutes.

• Performance: 123kW output, e-motor at the front (so FWD);
  0-100km/h 8s; V_max 160km/h

• Interior: 12.8’’ driver display; 12’’ infotainment; compatible with CarPlay and Android Auto.

• Dimensions: Curb weight 1,563 kg; L: 4241mm; W: 1805mm; H: 1555mm; wheelbase 2588mm; turning radius 10.5m

• Trunk: 523l-574l (surprisingly spacious for a 4.21m long car); 43l frunk.

• Tows: 750kg

• Made in: Craiova, Romania.

Here’s a walkaround video from Autogefühl (video).

Marketers at Ford also seem to think that when I consider buying a new EV — in this case, a Puma Gen-E — my key consideration is whether my miniature drum set fits:

Watch tips:

• Out of Spec guys break a new EV Cannonball record with a Porsche Taycan, <40 hours (video)

• Benefits of an outlet in the pickup’s bed? You can cover your Cybertruck in Christmas lights and light ‘em up while driving. (video)

• Carwow drives six electric SUVs — Audi Q4 e-tron, Kia EV6, Polestar 4, Ford Explorer EV, Porsche Macan, and Tesla Model Y — in the UK until they die. (video)

• A great moving Tesla mini-Robovan made out of wood (video).

• Munro Live’s 40-minute video on Grounded RV, the electric camper van founded by a former Starlink developer. (video)

• While we’re at e-RV topic, Lightship, the all-electric RV company, has unveiled the production version of their Aero-Electric travel trailer AE.1 Cosmos (link).

BATTERIES & RECYCLING

I already reported this in last week’s Pro Report, but it’s so important for our industry that I’ll have to show it to everyone:

The largest battery price survey in the industry from BloombergNEF is in, with 343 data points from EV, e-bus and commercial vehicles. (link) Results:

The cost of battery packs has dropped by 20% to $115 per kWh in 2024. More importantly for us, prices of battery electric vehicles came in at $97/kWh, crossing below the $100/kWh threshold for the first time.

“An overcapacity in cell production, lower metal and component prices and the continued shift to using cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries drove the decline,” the survey said.

BNEF calculates the overcapacity is rife, with 3.1 TWh hours of fully commissioned battery-cell manufacturing capacity globally, while current annual demand in 2024 is 2.5x less. Here’s the breakdown on the pack/cell level:

On a regional basis, average battery pack prices were lowest in China, at $94/kWh. Packs in the US and Europe were 31% and 48% higher. BNEF expects pack prices to decrease by $3/kWh in 2025.

CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Loving this — GRIDSERVE published the usual busy and quieter times they anticipate for their network in the UK through the holidays. (link)

All charging networks will be put to the test through these holiday travels. And networks that think of the EV drivers first, will win.

Tesla's Supercharger network in North America reached a record-high single-day energy consumption of 12 GWh on Saturday November 30th, two days after Thanksgiving. Now, Tesla says they are forecasting 20+ GWh/day for the holidays across North American, Asia Pacific and European Superchargers.

Here’s what Tesla does to keep the drivers happy through it all (link).
Oh, and btw Tesla now offers Supercharging gift cards in its merch shop.

Meanwhile, Tesla is ready to turn 72 Superchargers on in Sweden, but they can’t since the unions are still blocking the grid connection. (link) 🤦‍♂️ 

Watch tip: Out of Spec at the “soft launch" of the first IONNA Rechargery (video).