EVU Pro Report: Hyundai EV plans in India — 10 new EV Models — NIO launches 4th gen swapper

Hey, Pro!

Jaan here.

This week's EV model section got especially colorful, but I think we’ve gathered plenty of interesting all around this Pro Report today. 2,466 words. Oh and there’s the wider (free) report coming in hot in exactly 30 minutes, too. Dig in!

PRO COMMUNITY

Here’s a warm welcome to our newest members, “T”, Kaido, Todd, Jieyi, Dmitrii and Henrik!

Relationships run the world. And we have so many great like-minded EV geeks gathered in our EV Universe Pro side already. That’s why I’m running an intro series here, before the news, every week.

Today, I want to introduce to you our long-time member — Liz, from Brooklyn, NY:

Here’s what she just posted in our Say Hello section (you can join the discussion on her post here):

Socials: LinkedIn

I’ve personally been a fan of her research at Recurrent on the used EV market and battery health from the start.

Great to have you with us, Liz!

PS — every week I’m introducing our Pro members who have filled in their profile (you can do that here) or written a post in our Say Hello section.

PS² — If you’re looking for expertise in a specific area, let me know and we’ll shout it out to our members here.

AUTO & POLICY NEWS

🇪🇺 x 🇨🇳 tariffs: Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, is said to have intervened in the dispute between the EU and China over raising tariffs for Chinese EVs with a compromise offer — for both sides to charge 15 tariffs. (link)

Watch Secretary Pete Buttigieg wonderfully dispel the EV myths from Congressman Scott Perry live (2-min video).

Polestar plans to expand to 7 new markets in 2025: France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Thailand and Brazil. (link) It’s currently in 27 markets.

Honda and Mitsubishi are forming a joint venture called ALTNA to develop new electric vehicle mobility services and extend battery life cycles. (link)

🇮🇳 Hyundai plans to launch 4 EV models in India early next year. These would be locally-produced Creta EV (launches production in January), 2^nd -gen Kona Electric, and most likely the Ioniq 6 and upcoming Exter EV. Hyundai also plans to IPO the Hyundai Motor India there — per prospectus floating a 17.5% stake for $2.5B (link). Context: Hyundai is the 2nd-largest automaker in India.

Frank Voss, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, says that “automakers in Canada say it’s doubtful there will be enough consumer demand for EVs to reach the government’s target of phasing out new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.” Of course that’s coming from Toyota, so I’d take it with a grain of bias.

JLR is bringing back Freelander brand… as a subsidiary to build EVs with the Chinese EV maker Chery (link). The EVs will use Chery’s platform and will be built and sold in China for now.

NIO announced a “competition” of sorts for its NIO Day 2024 event — candidate cities need to have venues available for 10 consecutive days from December 1, 2024, to January 15, 2025, that can accommodate at least 8,000 people. It’s users will then vote for the city where the event will be held. (link) Thanks to the MIIT filing, we also got more specs about the upcoming Onvo L60 (link).

Audi plans to invest $1.08B in EV projects in the Puebla state, Mexico. (link)

Rivian patent filing shows a potential drone to replace human spotters for off-roading. (link) The drone will guide drivers over obstacles using sensors like radar, lidar, and sonar. It will communicate with the vehicle and provide directions through lights or an in-vehicle display.

Ford has officially chosen Long Beach, California, for its new “Advanced Electric Vehicle Development Centre,” aka where its ‘secret’ team works on low-cost next-gen EVs. (link)

Funding

RBW EV, a London-based EV manufacturer of new, hand-crafted classic British sports cars, raised £10 million from Meson Capital Partners. (link) Currently, RBW offers its Roadster model, with a starting price of $135,000. In late 2024, the company will debut its $151,000 GT model. Here’s the configurator for the Roadster.

Cardino an used EV startup in Germany, raises $4M, led by Rosberg Ventures. (link) By the way, Rosberg Ventures is founded by the Nico Rosberg, and I’ve seen him involved in all sorts of EV-related companies.

EV MODELS

Hyundai launched the Inster (which we saw a teaser of last week) as Hyundai Casper in South Korea. (link, specs) Will initially launch in South Korea this summer, then Europe. 355km (220mi) WLTP range on the 49kWh NMC battery pack, 0-60mph in 10.6s.

Fiat Grande Panda design has been unveiled (no specs yet).

It runs on the same platform as Citroën ë-C3, so likely 44 kWh and ~320km (199 mi) range, 100kW DC charging and 11kW AC. Probably safe to assume it'll start a similar €23,000 range as the ë-C3 too.

Speaking of, Citroën has presented its new ë-C3 Aircross (five-seater version) in detail after the Stellantis brand showed the first images of the model in April, stars at €26,490 (link). Specs include 83kW motor, 44kWh LFP battery, 320km range. Surprisingly, it can tow 350kg (770lbs).

BMW i1 hatchback and BMW i2 compact crossover EVs are now reportedly approved by the board for development, likely coming to market in 2027 and 2028 respectively and run on Neue Klasse platform. (link)

TELO Trucks 🤝 Aria Group (California based) to hand-build TELO’s first fully functional prototypes. (link) TELO Trucks says it has so far received 3,000 pre-orders to its small-but-mighty electric truck. They say the 350-mile TELO Truck “merges the compact size of a MINI Cooper with the utility of a Toyota Tacoma”. The company recently raised a $5.4M funding round led by Neo. I am closely watching this startup.

Lynk & Co Z10 is the brand’s first EV, an E-segment sedan based on its parent Geely’s SEA platform. 800V architecture, 800km CLTC range, 3.5s 0-100km/h, top speed 250km/h, with 310kW+270kW motors. (link) Available to preorders in China from July and expected price between 200k-300k yuan ($27.5k-$41.3k).

 I would assume Lynk & Co wants to enter Europe with the vehicle too… if they can handle the 30% total tariff hit from EU.

Voyah Zhiyin (DongFeng brand) mid-size electric SUV has 901km (560 mi) of range per CLTC, starts at ~200,000 yuan ($27.5k), goes on sale in China in Q4 and plays in the Model Y category. It is also likely to be inbound for Europe soon (though nothing is sure with the new tariffs these days). 

As I wrote to you in our Pro Report last week, Voyah brand will also be expanded to Germany in Q4 and has plans for Italy, Spain and Switzerland. In addition to markets like Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Finland where it already operates.

Luxeed S9 is a Chery and Huawei electric SUV coupé, set to launch in China in second half of 2024, in the Tesla MY price range (300k-400k yuan, $32k-$55k). In the joint project, Huawei acts as a parts and software supplier and sells in its stores, while Chery provides the modular architecture and handles the production.

BYD’s Fang Cheng Bao 3 official images now released, after some specs came through MIIT filing. (link) Powered by 110kW+200kW motors, runs on BYD’s batteries, has top speed 201 km/h (125 mph). Slightly smaller than a Jeep Wrangler. Expected to launch at 220k yuan ($30,300) later this year.

Jeep wrapped its North American HQ to celebrate the electric Jeep Wagoneer S launch:

Faraday Future resumes FF 91 2.0 deliveries (link) and names Matthias Aydt its new global CEO (link).

Porsche recalls 31,689 Taycans in US, MY 2020-2025, for a potential of front brake hoses cracking, which can lead to the complete failure of the front brakes. (link)

PRODUCTION & SALES

Leapmotor T03’s European production has started in the Stellantis' Tychy plant in Poland. (link) So it looks like the Stellantis joint venture cars about to hit its showrooms in September are produced in Europe. The venture plans to introduce a second model, the A12 SUV, in 2025.

XPeng’s 16,000-ton gigacasting machine has been delivered a tier 1 supplier Guangdong Hongtu in China, which will supply Xpeng with “ultra large die casted parts” and battery packs. X9 underbody is already gigacast’ (…gigacasted?) by a 12,000-ton Giga Press. (link)

Ferrari gives us a glance at its new e-building on video, the factory in Maranello, Italy, where the first electric Ferrari will be produced in late 2025, (alongside hybrid and ICE cars that is).

Vitesco Technologies introduces the Rotor Lock Actuator, a module that combines park lock, rotor position sensing, and an optional brush system for electric axles. (link)

Torev Motors, an US-based axial flux electric motors maker, raised $1.075M in pre-seed funding led by BetterWay. (link)

Hyundai Europe plans for 14% of its sales in Europe this year (“or a bit more”) to be EV. (link)

China sold 583,000 BEVs in May (up 12.5% year-on-year), of which 77,000 units were exported. (link)

BATTERY, MINING & ♻️ 

Ascend Elements makes its first shipment of recycled battery metals turned into → cathode materials for commercial battery applications, to Freudenberg e-Power Systems.

NIO co-founder and president Qin Lihong called on more companies, including Huawei, to join the battery swap alliance it leads to better address battery life issues with EVs (link):

Nio also just launched its Power Swap Station 4.0, which is 22% faster than the previous generation, completing swaps in 144 seconds. It can accommodate 23 batteries and perform 480 swaps per day. (link) The swapstation also now uses six ultrawide-FOV LiDARs and four Orin X chips, ensuring a total computing power of 1,016TOPS for the automatic swap process.

Launched alongside the new station, was the 640kW Liquid-Cooled Power Charger features a maximum current of 765A and a voltage of 1,000V.

Lion Electric Company has announced the successful final certification of its LionBattery HD, a heavy-duty 105kWh battery pack designed for its Class 8 Lion8 truck. (link) Lion’s facility produces batteries with a capacity of 1.7 GWh/year (so 5,000 trucks worth)

SQM 🤝 Hyundai and Kia for a long-term purchase agreement of lithium hydroxide. (link)

BASF 🤝 WHW for ♻️ to create new raw materials in Germany. (link)

Unigrid raised a $12M Series A led by Transition VC and Ritz VC to make sodium-ion batteries in the US (link).

Echion Technologies, an UK-based fast charging battery anode materials developer, raised $31M in Series B funding from BGF, CBMM, Cambridge Enterprise, and Volta Energy Technologies.

CHARGING

Congrats to our member Nicole, for having her new venture Better Together Brain Trust (or BT2), selected as a vendor by City of Boston to install and maintain the City-owned stations. (link) Meanwhile, itselectric and Greenspot are to operate the privately owned stations.

I also found this read on the analysis Boston did to choose its charging station locations interesting.

Revel confirmed three recent hires from laid off Tesla Supercharging team (link):

• Ed Noseworthy to be its new Director of Design & Construction. Prior to joining Revel, Noseworthy spent almost 7 years at Tesla where he was senior design lead for Superchargers in the Northeast.

• Henry Misas, who was Senior Design Manager at Tesla and was behind the installation of over 1,000 Superchargers in the Northeast.

• Tedy Filis, who was Regional Construction Lead – Charging Infrastructure at Tesla.

New Products

PowerGo launched a 240kW charger buffered with a 600kWh battery. (link)

Sungrow Charging Europe unveiled its 480kW charger. (link) Also marking an increased China→Europe movement in EV fast charging equipment, something that other than Autel no larger makers have actually done so far.

Qmerit introduces PowerHouse, which “simplifies vehicle-to-home (V2H) backup power in addition to whole-home electrification packages that combine EV charging with solar, battery, and other technologies” (link).

Deployment and Plans

🇩🇪 German Federal Ministry of Transport has confirmed it will launch a nationwide tender for an 350-location electric truck charging network this summer (link)

Milence opens its truck charging park in the port of Antwerp-Bruges, 10×400kW chargers (looks to be Alpitronic’s). (link) This is Milence’s third opening after Venlo in the Netherlands and Heudebouville in France.

Maryland, US: Toyota Motor North America and energy utility Pepco are working together on V2G research for EVs using a Toyota bZ4X. (link)

🇦🇺🇳🇿 Tesla has deployed 673 Superchargers down under (link).

🇬🇧 At the end of May 2024, there were 62,536 EV charging points across the UK, across 32,992 charging locations, up 43% year over year. (link) There are 5,191 150kW+ charging points and 7,058 of 50-149kW charging points, both together spread across 5,336 locations. Here’s how the deployment has progressed over time:

Here’s a look at the top 8 CPOs with 50+kW chargers deployed:

Partnerships

WeaveGrid 🤝 Emporia Energy to integrate WeaveGrid’s software into Emporia chargers.

Bluedot partners with Verra Mobility to offer fleet customers its ability to find, charge, and automatically pay for charging at over 80% of public charging stations in the US. (link)

Li Auto has signed an agreement with China’s largest oil company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), to roll out charging infrastucture at its stations.

As of June 17th, Li Auto has constructed 448 “supercharging stations” with a total of 2,016 charging piles nationwide. By the end of 2024, the company plans to install over 2,000 Li’s charging stations and 10,000 charging piles at CNPC service stations. (link)

Funding

Char.gy secures a £100m ($126M) funding commitment from Zouk Capital to expand its on-street EV chargers across UK (link).

Voltpost secures a $100K grant to deploy its lamppost chargers in Detroit and across Michigan. (link) In our Pro Report just a month ago, we wrote about the company debuting its charger. Voltpost retrofits lampposts into a modular and upgradable Level 2 EV charging platform powered by a mobile app, and says the installation only takes one to two hours. I also find the name of the company incredibly clever.

That’s it for this week(end)’s Pro report!

See you next week,

— Jaan