Aston Martin delays the launch of its all electric vehicle

(January 30) Aston Martin has officially delayed the launch of all of its planned electric vehicles as it attempts to get back on a solid financial basis.

Company to receive emergency funding

On Friday the company said that it would accept about $659 million in emergency funding from a group of investors led by the Lawrence Stroll the Canadian billionaire. Stroll will get about 20 percent of the company in return for the funding. As part of its plan to become financially stable, Aston Martin will focus on gasoline cars before it manufactures any electric vehicles.

The emergency funding comes after what Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andy Palmer claimed was a very bad 2019 during which the company lost more than 100 million pounds or over $132 million US in spite of increased sales.

EV production delayed

The Rapid E supposed to be Aston Martin's first EV has had its production delayed indefinitely. The relaunch of the all-electric Lagonda sub-brand has been delayed until some time after 2025.

The Rapide E was first announced back in 2015. After setbacks it was announced that 155 Rapide E's would be available by 2019. However, earlier this month a report claimed that the company had decided to turn the car into a research project.

Aston Martin accepted Stroll's offer over that of Chinese auto group Geely

The Financial Times claimed that the Geeley offer would actually have accelerated the production of EVs as Geeley has developed EV technology with Volvo that Geeley had bought in 2010. Nevertheless Palmer insisted that he was a great advocate of electric cars and it committed to them going forward. However, at present, he seems to be concentrating on gas models. However, he said he was also focusing on the company's V6 hybrid engine for now.

Palmer noted that the electric vehicle market was developing slowly: “You also have to remember that none of our competitors, bar Porsche, will have an electric car on sale before 2025. So we are on a pretty similar timeline to them, and at the vanguard of the luxury market still."

Aston Martin needs to improve financial results

Aston Martin has been around for over a hundred years. In that time it has faced bankruptcy seven times. One again it is fighting for near-term survival. CEO Palmer said that auto manufacturing was a tough industry that he had been in for 40 years. He claimed to be good at bringing innovations to market with success. 2019 he said was a bad year but that his job now was to navigate that and he believed with the new emergency funding he had what he needed to do so

Previously published in the Digital Journal

Sony introduces new electric concept car the Vision-S at recent Consumer Electronics Show

(January 6) At the CES show this year Sony announced the Sony Vision-S a concept all electric sedan that is intended to show the company's many different technological strengths. Sony products range from entertainment products to camera sensors and much more.

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The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is described by Wikipedia: "CES (formerly an acronym for Consumer Electronics Show[1]) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, the event typically hosts presentations of new products and technologies in the consumer electronics industry." This year the Las Vegas show will be held January 7th to the 10th. There is an Asian version later on in the year June 10 to 12 in Shanghai China.

Endgadget reports on the new vehicle announcement: "Sony has unveiled an electric car -- yes, an actual car -- at CES today. It's the first prototype vehicle under Sony's mobility efforts called the Vision-S initiative, and based on what the tech giant said during its press event, it was built to showcase the automotive technologies it developed and can offer. Sony teamed up with a number of companies such as Bosch, Continental, NVIDIA and Qualcomm, to create the prototype sedan."

The Vision-S is packed with new technology

A recent Verge article notes: "In fact, the Vision-S features 33 different sensors inside and outside of the car, multiple widescreen displays, 360 audio, and always-on connectivity, with some pieces coming from industry players like BlackBerry and Bosch. It’s also powered by a “newly-designed EV platform” — which appears to have been engineered by automotive supplier Magna — that Sony says will be able to power other vehicle types, like SUVs."

The outside of the car looks similar to some aspects of Porsche vehicles especially around the headlights. A side profile shows some resemblance to the Air of Lucid Motors. Inside the dashboard spanning screen is much like that of the Chinese EV startup Byton has in its cars with screens for rear seat passengers built into the front headrests. Many photos of the vehicle are available here.

Brief Sony announcement leaves many questions unanswered

Sony announced the new car at the tail end of its CES press conference. Sony spent at most a couple of minutes discussing the new vehicles before ending their conference. Does Sony or perhaps Magna intend to put this concept car into production or is it just a reference car. Will Magna let other companies companies build their own prototypes on the platform?

The appended video is of Sony's press conference. Most of it is about the Sony PlayStation but discussion of the new car starts at minute 4.

Previously published in the Digital Journal

Jaguar Land Rover announces new all electric car XJ model

Jaguar Land Rover's second electric car will be a new version of its existing XJ sedan. The plan to make the car was announced as part of a one billion pound ($1.25 billion) investment the company will make to retool its plant in Castle Bromwich UK.

The company will develop more electric vehicles

The new electric XJ model will be developed by the same team that created the I-Pace the company's first electric car released back in 2018. At present, the I-Pace is being built on contract by a company in Austria. Jaguar Land Rover says that it will make a new range of electrical cars at the newly revamped UK plant.

The company claims that all models from 2020 onward will have either electric or hybrid option. However, the company gave no further information on what specific models it will release or even a timeline for the release of the new XJ.

Tata

Wikipedia describes Tata as follows: "Tata Motors Limited, formerly Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a part of Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate. Its products include passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, sports cars, construction equipment and military vehicles."

Jaguar Land Rover has been wholly owned by Tata since June of 2008.

The company claims to be saving UK jobs

Tata claims the investment will safeguard thousands of jobs in the UK. This may be true but the company laid off 4,500 workers earlier in the year with most of them being in the UK. Last year the company also cut 1,500 jobs. The company says the cuts had to be made because of declining demand for diesel cars, the cooling Chinese market, and fears from Brexit.

UK auto industry will be tough to turn around

Both Honda and Ford have announced they are closing plants in the UK. Even the UK vacuum magnate Dyson has decided he will build his electric car in Singapore not the UK.

The Friday announcement is a rare vote of confidence in the UK auto industry. Jaguar Land Rover posted a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars during 2018. This loss was compounded by some $3 billion spent to help the company's restructuring efforts.

Jaguar Land Rover hopes to have an EV supply chain in the UK

The company is hoping its investment will lead to building up an EV supply chain in the UK, and it is already committed to moving it battery pack and electric drive units to the UK. It has also called for a "giga-scale battery production plant" to be built in the UK. Raif Speth, CEO of the company, said: “The UK has the raw materials, scientific research in our universities and an existing supplier base to put the UK at the leading edge of mobility and job creation."

Previously published in the Digital Journal

Electric cars and floods

After Hurricane Florence dumped more than two feet of rain in parts of North Carolina people may be wondering what happens to electric cars (EV) in floods and afterwards. This is of particular concern to EV owners.

Flood damage to an electric car depends upon conditions

Different people gave different answers.

You Tube user Rich Rebuilds, rebuilt a Tesla Model S he bought for $14,000 that had been flooded by Hurricane Sandy in New Jersey back in 2012. The entire battery, motor, and all the drive electronics had been sitting in salt water in the bottom 14 inches of the car. The model S was a total insurance loss.

Rich has a multi-part series of his trials and tribulations rebuilding the car. He found he could not buy parts from Tesla and he also discovered that the car was in salt water that would cause much more damage than fresh water. Below I have appended the first part of his series.

When dismantling the car Rich found that after sitting in the salt water, the battery pack was waterlogged. 12 of 16 modules in the pack were OK. However, one of the four that were not, was so corroded that it began exploding as Rich took it apart.

Rich did manage to finally rebuild the Tesla. A bear for punishment, he undertook to repair another one but this one from fresh water and he had less trouble as shown on the appended video. He made sure the fuse was removed so that he would not be exposed to high voltage. Rich has a warning on his videos not to try this at home but leave it to the experts. Do as he says not as he does!

Jeff Wandell, the EV spokesperson for Nissan said that in their EV's the high-voltage components such as the battery, traction motor, and inverter are all waterproof claiming :"So no need to rebuild or replace the battery pack."

One expert said that lithium is highly flammable. When it does catch fire it produces great heat when exposed to water. However, battery cells are usually sealed and water tight. However, it is larger packs and wiring that can become waterlogged and damaged in some cars. Wiring harnesses and electronic circuit boards can be corroded. Even if they work at first, their lifespan can be significantly shortened. Beyond this, electric cars suffer the same sorts of damages from a flood and water than any other car.

How to tell if a car is water damaged

If there has been water in the carpets, seats, seat belts, or other soft parts, mold can develop. This can become a breathing hazard. Damage to cars that have been in salt water is often much greater than in fresh water but both are damaging.

When buying an EV that may have been subject to flood damage check the seat tracks, also the head of hidden screws under the dash to see if there is corrosion. Look under the carpets, and behind taillights for muddy residue which are sure signs that the car has been submerged.

Special arrangements for EV's during hurricane Florence

The mass evacuations caused by Florence create special difficulties for those with EVs, especially older models that have a relatively short range. These may require several charges before they are out of danger of the huge hurricane. Chargers on the way out of the area may become crowded and the hurricane force winds and rains may make some of them inoperable.

Lanny Hartmann a Baltimore Maryland EV enthusiast devoted part of his EV website, PluginSites.org to helping evacuees with EVs while the storm lasted. His site included storm advisories, news reports, and reports of places where evacuees could stay, as well as special information to help EV owners evacuating.

One such piece of information was a notice from Tesla that said: "We are temporarily enabling your car to access additional battery capacity, as well as free Supercharging, in preparation for Hurricane Florence. We hope that this gives you the peace of mind to get to a safe location, and will notify you before returning your car to its original configuration in mid-October. Badging on your display may adjust during this period. Safe travels!"

Previously published in Digital Journal

Drop in battery prices may increase production of electric vehicles (EVs)

Thanks to a global increase in production of lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles (EVs) their price has dropped significantly. This may encourage the manufacture of more EVs.

Price of lithium-ion battery packs has been declining

The average price of a lithium-ion battery pack is now $209/kilowatt-hour. A Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) survey shows the price dropping to below $100/kWh by 2025.

Analyst James Frith of BNEF claims that the $100/kWh is widely seen as a tipping point that would result in greater adoption of EVs.

The price estimates result from a BNEF survey of more than 50 companies. The rise in numbers of batteries being manufactured have resulted in economies of scale. The larger order volumes for EVs will actually increase prices considerably for batteries of the kind that back-up solar panels since their order volumes will be much lower.

Mitsubishi Electric President also predicts EV batteries to be cheaper

Masaki Sakuyama, president and CEO of Mitsubishi Electric also predicts that prices for the battery-packs that power EVs will become cheaper. He said this will make EV's more competitive with fossil-fuel powered vehicles.

Market watchers say stricter fuel efficiency requirements make gasoline-powered cars more expensive. Some countries are not only imposing stricter fuel efficiency standards but plan to phase out fossil-fueled cars.

Most of the cost of EV's is in the batteries. Sakuyama said: "The cost of battery is now dropping very rapidly, so in the near future, the cost of the electric vehicle will be comparable to the conventional cars."

EV market becomes more competitive

Mitsubishi Motors, partly owned by Nissan and part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitusbishi alliance already produces a hatchback EV called the i-MiEV that runs on a 330 volt, 16kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

While Elon Musk's Tesla remains the leader in EVs both Toyota and Nissan now have purely battery-powered EVs in their lineups. Toyota recently issued an EV with an improved driving range plus autonomous driving features that starts off at $5,000 less than Tesla's new mass market Model 3 whose prices starts at about $35,000.

Major auto producers such as GM, Ford, and Volkswagen are introducing electric models with some making major investments in EV. China is fast becoming a huge market for EVs and is encouraging their use to help solve pollution problems.

Many problems with EV's remain

There needs to be a huge development in a charging infrastructure as well as lessening the length of time taken to charge an EV.

The types of promises made by Elon Musk about his new semi-truck and roadster require enormous advances in battery technology as well as reduction in price as discussed in a recent Digital Journal article.

Bloomberg itself notes that the price of batteries needs to drop by more than half before they will be competitive with cars powered by internal combustion engines. However they expect this to happen by around 2026.

As shown in the appended video Toyota intends to produce an EV using only solid-state batteries.

Previously published in Digital Journal