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This Week’s Top 10: Nissan Leaf joining 200 mile EV club, EV incentives put on hold in California

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

Nissan Leaf will go over 200: The next-generation Nissan Leaf will be able to travel more than 200 miles per charge from its 60-kWh battery, said Kazuo Yajima, Nissan’s global director of EV and HEV engineering. Yajima spoke to AutoblogGreen at the Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS29) in Montreal. It’s coming, but he couldn’t say when. Yajima said the 60-kWh pack will more drive the car 210-220 miles per charge, which is more than double the range from the current Leaf’s 24 kWh battery. Nissan had placed the 60-kWh pack in the IDS concept car revealed last November. Watch AutoblogGreen’s Sebastian Blanco doing a video report on what it’s like this week in the expo hall at EVS29. You can hear Yajima talk about Nissan’s new battery pack during the video.
EV incentives on hold in California: The California legislature has passed a new budget, awaiting Governor Jerry Brown’s signature, which cuts off funds for the state’s clean vehicle subsidies. EV advocates are waiting to see if a compromise will be made before the governor signs the bill, or if a new measure will be introduced. If the governor does sign this bill, subsidies will be cut including consumer rebates for electrified vehicles, “environmentally friendly” heavy trucks, and other clean vehicle programs. Car buyers seeking incentive funds are on a waiting list for now. A Los Angeles Times article says it may have to do with how the state is spending funds generated by its cap-and-trade program. California’s cap-and-trade auction credit system requires businesses like oil refineries and manufacturers to buy permits based on how much they pollute. The governor may be holding onto the funds to get lawmakers to reach a deal this summer on extending the life of the cap-and-trade program. That state program is facing legal questions over whether it can keep operating past 2020.
SCAQMD webinar on $50M funding: Join the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) for a complimentary one-hour webinar to learn about the $50 million in California’s new Proposition 1B funding for: heavy-duty truck replacements; truck stop electrification; electric charging stations; hydrogen fueling stations, and other topics. With this free webinar, SCAQMD is aiming to ensure all the relevant fleets that operate Class 6, 7 or 8 trucks are well aware of the funding that could be available to them. The program is presented by Vicki White, Program Supervisor, SCAQMD. It will take place Thursday, June 23, at 2:00 p.m. PDT. Click here to register.
Attacking Uber’s surge pricing: Gett is taking swipes at competitor Uber in a New York City ad campaign aimed at resentments over surge pricing. The campaign targets Uber’s surge pricing, which takes hold when rider demand is high. Gett, an on-demand black-car app that’s available in more than 60 cities worldwide, is placing its ads on 570 subway cars, phone kiosks, digital street-level billboards, and bus shelters around the city. Gett, which received a $300 million strategic investment from Volkswagen Group last month, is tapping into riders’ annoyance with having their fares increased 1.5 times the usual fare – and sometimes up to two or three times the fare. Gett emphasizes that it doesn’t have surge pricing in the ads.
EVgo brings in new investor: Charging networking supplier EVgo, which was started years ago by electric utility NRG Energy, has become an independent company. Vision Ridge Partners, a climate action-oriented investment firm, has closed on its major investment in EVgo. This move supports EVgo’s mission of expanding its charging network, including its commitment to deploying public fast charging stations. EVgo has worked closely with automakers like Nissan, BMW, and Ford to develop a vehicle-centric customer experience. EVgo operates 665 fast chargers in more than 50 top metro markets across the country.
New EV telematics service: FleetCarma, a provider of telematics systems for electric vehicles, announced at EVS29 the launch of a new product for fleets seeking to increase the number of electric vehicles they operate. Fleets connecting the new telematics device, named the C2, to gasoline, diesel, and hybrid vehicles in their fleet receive the immediate benefits of standard telematics, while the system also uses the operational data to identify optimal vehicles for replacement with electric vehicles. The single telematics system provides immediate telematics benefits on the gasoline and diesel vehicles while providing the long term benefits of optimized electric vehicle deployment.
Didi investment grows: Didi Chuxing Technology Co., China’s leading ridesharing company and Uber competitor, has raised $7.3 billion in its latest fundraising effort, giving it a host of powerful allies including Apple Inc., to establish its strong market presence. A recent funding round attracted Apple’s recent $1 billion investment, China Life Insurance Co., and the financial affiliate of online shopping firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The round valued the company at nearly $28 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
CEC grant: The California Energy Commission has approved $13.5 million to showcase low- and zero-emission vehicles at two of the state’s busiest seaports, to identify and install electric vehicle charging sites at California’s national parks, and to complete hydrogen refueling station evaluations. Project funds are from the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP). According to the CEC, the ARFVTP has invested more than $606 million to date and funded more than 543 clean transportation projects.
Uber and Hyundai alliance: Uber wants to partner with Hyundai on the development of self-driving technology in the automaker’s home country, according to Maeil Business News Korea. Uber is also poised to place an order for a huge number of Hyundai vehicles. In April, automakers Ford and Volvo, ride-sharing rivals Lyft and Uber and tech giant Google joined forces to form the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets.
NASA electric planes: NASA has unveiled plans to spend the next decade working on electric planes under the ‘X-57’ moniker. One plane will be based on the Italian Tecnam P2006T, a very efficient 4 seat light aircraft. Its smaller 12 motors will only be used for takeoffs. The larger two engines on the end of the wings will propel the plane during cruising which is expected to be a solid 175 mph.

German automakers lay out electrified vehicle strategy, and what’s behind it

Electric cars charging in German Volkswagen Group just made a commitment to change its business strategy in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal that started last September. The German automaker will be introducing more than “30 new pure electric vehicles” by 2025, while also establishing a mobility solutions division. Two other German automakers are heading down a similar path. Daimler will be introducing a long-range electric vehicle this fall at the Paris auto show, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg for its electrification strategy, according to Mercedes-Benz USA’s chief executive. BMW will be adding to the i Series with the “i Next” as the automaker combines autonomous mobility with electrification in the BMW and Mini brands.

Here’s a look at each company’s upcoming product launches and what’s behind all of it……….

VW’s STrategy: On Thursday, Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Mueller laid out the company’s long-awaited “STrategy 2025″ at a press briefing in Wolfsburg. These 30 new EVs are expected to account for up to one-quarter of its sales – two to three million pure-electric cars a year by 2025. VW’s $300 million investment last month in ride-hailing app Gett was part of something much larger. The company says that its plans to establish a mobility solutions division that will develop its own services as well as acquiring businesses in areas such as ride-hailing, robo-taxis, and carsharing.
Daimler’s long-range EV and long-range strategy: Mercedes-Benz will display a prototype of an electric-powered Mercedes car with a 310-mile range in October at the Paris motor show, development chief Thomas Weber recently said. Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dietmar Exler just told Automotive News that the long-range EV to be introduced at the Paris show is just the tip of the iceberg for the brand’s electrification strategy. It will be way more than one EV, he said, and the company plans to sell more than 100,000 electric cars a year by the end of the decade. The electric car launch will compete with Tesla for leadership in luxury EVs. Weber said Daimler would launch its fourth-generation electric Smart car at year end in two- and four-seat variants. Daimler currently offers two all-electric cars as Smart and B-class models, and several plug-in hybrid variations. More hybrid models are in the pipeline, the company says.
BMW focusing on urban mobility: BMW won’t be launching the next i Series car until 2021, as the German automaker focuses first and foremost on autonomous vehicle technologies. Sales of the i3 and i8 haven’t been strong enough yet, which is likely behind the delay. Called the “i Next,” for now it’s expected to be priced between the i3 and i8, it will be similar in size to the 5-Series, and will probably have its own number. Another factor for changing its focus to mobility from EVs has been BMW investing in recent years in urban mobility test projects and R&D efforts in Europe and North America. Like other automakers, BMW sees electrified vehicles tied intimately into mobile and autonomous cars of the future, as illustrated by plans for its next EV. “The i Next will be our new spearhead for innovation and technology,” said BMW’s sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson. “Planned for 2021, it will offer autonomous driving, digital connectivity, intelligent lightweight design, a totally new interior. And ultimately it will bring the next generation of electro-mobility to the road.”
Facing diesel car emissions disaster: Volkswagen, Opel, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche were told they will be recalling 630,000 vehicles to fix diesel emissions management software, a German government official announced in April. Fiat may be pulled into it, with German media reporting on regulators investigating the emissions of a Fiat model equipped with a diesel engine that may be evading emissions tests. The recall number has increased for VW, which gained approval earlier this month from Germany’s KBA motor vehicle authority to recall 800,000 of its diesel cars fitted with emissions cheat software. KBA has approved software fixes on Passat, CC, and Eos models with two-liter diesel en Last week, the company addressed that issue as part of its global strategy. “Volkswagen has always enriched the lives of millions of people all over the world with its brands and products,” VW’s Mueller said. “Our aspiration is to continue that success story and play a leading role in shaping auto-mobility for future generations, too. This will require us – following the serious setback as a result of the diesel issue – to learn from mistakes made, rectify shortcomings and establish a corporate culture that is open, value-driven and rooted in integrity.”
Catching up with other countries: A statement made by a German government official last week illustrates the country’s ambitious goals for carbon emissions reductions – and for making its EV market stronger as it lags behind several other countries. Deputy Economy Minister Rainer Baake wants to make all new cars sold and registered in Germany to be emissions free by 2030 to assist in meeting pollution reduction goals. Germany’s pledge to cut carbon dioxide output by 80% to 95% by 2050 requires transportation pollution to be cut radically, Baake said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been pushing for more EV incentives to boost sluggish electric-car sales. Germany has been behind China, US, UK, Norway, Japan, and Netherlands in annual EV sales. In late April, the German government reached a deal with automakers to jointly spend 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion) on incentives to boost EV sales and support emissions reduction targets.
Global competition: While Tesla Motors catches much of the flak for changing the EV game globally, it’s not just Tesla. In December, Ford announced that it’s investing an additional $4.5 billion in electrified vehicle solutions by 2020. The automaker will be adding 13 new electrified vehicles to its portfolio by 2020, when more than 40% of the company’s global nameplates will come in electrified versions. Nissan continues to expand its presence in markets around the world with the Nissan Leaf and the e-NV200 electric van. Honda has been adding plug-in versions of its models and remains committed to the technology along with fuel-cell cars. GM’s chief executive Mary Barra popularized the 200-mile EV debate earlier this year while championing the upcoming Chevy Bolt that will be launched prior to the Tesla Model 3. “This is truly the first EV that cracks the code because of long range at an affordable price,” Barra said in a keynote speech at the CES convention in Las Vegas.
Mobility strategies: For these three German automakers, electrification is part of a much larger strategy to face an historic shift over to another business model. As said several times in Green Auto Market and other sources, carmakers are changing their identity from vehicle manufacturers with dealer networks to providers of mobility services for the cities of the future. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche denied rumors last week during a conference panel that Uber will be buying 100,000 vehicles from Daimler or that that two companies will merge. Daimler has been making headways into mobility on its own, starting a U.S. division of its Moovel mobility-services in April through acquiring Texas-based ride-sourcing company RideScout and Portland, Oregon-based mobile-ticketing service GlobeSherpa in April. Daimler’s Car2Go has been one of the leading carsharing services in Europe and North America for several years. VW recently made a $300 million investment in ride-hailing mobile app Gett. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will be testing out 100 driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans with partner Google. Uber will continue to partner with automakers including Toyota and possibly with FCA. Retail giant Walmart is testing out grocery delivery services with Uber and Lyft. General Motors is planning on following up its $500 million investment in Lyft with a test project involving self-driving Chevy Bolts. Last week, the Mini Vision Next 100 electric concept car was shown to media in London. The autonomous electric car concept is based on a prediction that traditional car ownership will become optional. Mini and parent company BMW AG are investing more into the urban mobility market, which is expected to grow substantially in the coming decades.
All three German automakers have research centers in California’s Silicon Valley, as automakers believe that advanced vehicle technologies – including connected cars, mobility services, autonomous vehicles, and vehicle electrification – shape the industry’s future. Silicon Valley neighbors Google, Apple, Uber, Lyft, and Tesla seem to be thinking the same way.

This Week’s Top 10: Daimler releases comprehensive green powertrain lineup, Argonne publishes lifecycle analysis study

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

Daimler green powertrain plan: Daimler will be spending $8 billion, half its R&D budget, on green powertrains over the next two years. Daimler says that all its vehicles will be “electrified” by 2020, and a next-generation electric car platform will be coming out at production level by the end of the decade. The green powertrains will include a mix of technologies including electric, fuel-cell vehicles, and BlueTec diesels. During a tech briefing yesterday at its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, Mercedes-Benz announced that its upcoming GLC F-Cell hydrogen fuel-cell SUV will also include a battery pack that plugs in to recharge. It will be the first production vehicle to combine these two powertrains. Mercedes also gave details about it next-gen electric car platform. This “multi-model vehicle architecture” will be previewed as a concept vehicle at the Paris Auto Show in late September. It’s not scheduled to roll out as a production vehicle until later in the decade. It may come out first as an SUV similar to the GLC, and there’s also talk it could be a sporty sedan.
Lifecycle analysis study: A new study by Argonne National Laboratory provides a comprehensive lifecycle analysis, or cradle-to-grave analysis, of the cost and greenhouse gas emissions of a variety of vehicle-fuel pathways, as well as the levelized cost of driving and cost of avoided GHG emissions. The analysis spans a full portfolio of midsize light-duty vehicles, including conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs), and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). The study finds that battery electric vehicles with 90 to 210 miles of range, and hydrogen fuel cell cars, can lower GHG emissions to 50g CO2/mile, if the electricity will be from 100% renewable energy. The report concludes that most of the advanced vehicle technologies with the greatest potential are also the most costly, while conventional gasoline engine cars can go below 150 g CO2/mile.
More EVS29 keynote speakers: Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS29) organizers announced more keynote speakers for the plenary discussions. At the opening plenary on June 20, the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) will welcome delegates from around the world. Event co-hosts from Electric Mobility Canada (EMC) will be featured, and prominent policy and industry leaders from Canada and the U.S. will deliver keynote remarks on the future of electric drive. Including: Philippe Couillard, Premier of Québec; Denis Coderre, Mayor of Montréal; Kim Rudd, Parliamentary Secretary to Jim Carr, Minister of Natural Resources; Éric Martel, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hydro-Québec; and Reuben Sarkar, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation, U.S. Department of Energy. A mobile app is available now for PC, Apple, and Android devices. Features include the ability to message other attendees, view the schedule, and more. Click here to register for the conference.
Ferrari executive Marco Mattiacci has been appointed Faraday Future’s global chief brand and commercial officer. Mattiacci was president and CEO of Ferrari North America from 2010 to 2014, and helped launch Ferrari in China. At Faraday Future, he will oversee branding, marketing, communications, distribution, sales and user experience. He will also serve on the company’s key strategy, product, design, and human resources committees.
Which stock to buy? Executives at Ford and General Motors are frustrated that their impressive financial results haven’t surged their share prices, says Automotive News columnist and news editor Dave Guilford. Ford has been trading in the low $13 range in the middle of its 52-week average. GM has been around $30, also mid-range over the past year. Tesla traded below $25 in the first month after it went public on June 29, 2010. Tesla closed at $229.34 on June 9. For Guilford, it’s all about the perceptions of the market and how the financial institutions work. “Despite vastly improved operations, GM and Ford look like buy-and-hold stocks, great if you want to collect dividends over the years,” he wrote. For Nick Bunkley, staff reporter – Ford at Automotive News, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been as good as presidential candidate Donald Trump at shaking off bad publicity. “Almost every time Tesla Motors reports another quarterly loss, its stock price actually goes up, to the irritation and total bewilderment of Detroit auto executives who watch their shares stagnate amid record earnings,” Bunkley wrote.
LAPD contract: BMW won a contract to supply the Los Angeles Police Department with 100 electric cars, beating Tesla Motors on the bid. BMW is leasing 100 of its i3 battery electric plug-in vehicles for $387 per car, per month. The LAPD plans to use these vehicles for community outreach and other police business, but not patrols or car chases. That will bring the city’s fleet up to nearly 200 electric vehicles in various departments.
Green HQ: Toyota will be powering 25% of its electricity with a 7.7-megawatt solar array at its new North American headquarters in Plano, Texas. The automaker will have to capacity to go to 100% renewable energy in the long run. Toyota is seeking LEED platinum certification, the US Green Building Council’s highest level, at its new corporate campus. The new facility is slated to open in May 2017.
Electric cargo trucks: BYD Motors will be providing 27 battery electric trucks to San Bernardino County’s regional government association in California. The electric trucks will serve three communities heavily impacted by truck emissions. A state grant of $9.1 million was awarded. “This project will help put the very cleanest trucks to work where they are heavily utilized, moving cargo within freight yards,” said Mary D. Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board. “Cleaner trucks mean cleaner air for all Californians, but especially for those who live in neighborhoods next to these freight transfer facilities.”
Carsharing VW plug-ins: Zipcar’s London fleet will now include 50 brand-new Volkswagen Golf GTE plug-in hybrids. It’s part of a new partnership with Westminster City Council and Volkswagen UK. The new Volkswagen PHEVs can be rented for £7 ($9.93) an hour — the same rate that the gas-powered Volkswagen Golf can be rented from Zipcar in London.
UberMan blog: My new book, Tales of UberMan: An auto journalist shares his Prius with savvy riders, now has a blog with content from the book and news developments in the field – including more details on the class-action lawsuit settlement by Uber drivers. You can also read one of the book’s chapters, “Taking drinkers off the roads and listening to their sad tales.” The chapter features a few interesting tales and digs into the social and safety issues Uber and Lyft drivers face driving drunk riders.

Flying cars grabbing attention and funding right up there with autonomous vehicles

Terrafugia If you’re a fan of science fiction author Philip K. Dick, and movies made from his writings, you’ve probably been thinking about flying cars for years. Featured in the Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? novel and Blade Runner film – and “The Electric Ant” and “Minority Report” short stories (along with the Steven Spielberg film Minority Report) – flying cars will be one of the mobility options we use daily, according to the author.

Flying cars, and similar technologies such as aerial delivery drones, are on a similar track as autonomous vehicles. They’re still in the early testing and development phase, but it looks like we will see them on our roads and skyways much sooner than expected. Google co-founder Larry Page seems to think so.

Page, CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., is spending his own money on two startups developing flying cars. He’s funded one of them, Zee.Aero, more than $100 million since it started in 2010. Since last year, Page has also been backing another startup, Kitty Hawk, which is making another flying car that could compete with Zee.Aero.

Zee.Aero conducts test flights of its prototype at an airport hangar in Hollister, Calif. The startup firm also has a manufacturing facility on NASA’s research center at the edge of Mountain View, Calif. Zee.Aero employees call Page the guy upstairs (‘GUS’). Page had demanded his involvement in the startup should stay hidden, according to an article last week in Bloomberg.

Kitty Hawk has headquarters about half a mile away from Zee.Aero, The startup is working on “something that resembles a giant version of a quadcopter drone,” according to Bloomberg.

Larry Page isn’t the only investor passionate about flying cars……..

Terrafugia TF-X received Federal Aviation Administration approval for test flights in late 2015. The hybrid-electric flying car will have fold out wings with twin electric motor pods attached to it, and is capable of recharging its batteries either from its engine or by plugging in to electric car charging stations. This mid-size car has twin helicopter-style rotors at the tips of its wings that fold out of the car and lift the TF-X into the sky. Once it’s up in the air, electric engines teamed with a 300-horsepower engine provide power. The rotors fold back, and a ducted fan pushes the TF-X along. It has a cruising speed of about 200 mph, with a range of about 500 miles.

The company says that development of the TF-X hybrid-electric flying car is expected to last 8-12 years. Once developed it will be tested in a wind tunnel at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It could go on sale for $120,000 and seat four people. You can watch the video here; and the image was taken from the video for the photo shown at the beginning of this article.

Google is working with NASA and 13 other companies, including Amazon and Verizon, to create an air-traffic control system for drones, called Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Traffic Management. With safety being a key concern, the federal government is seeking to work with the private sector to create rules of the aerial highways. Recent crashes of drones, including at national parks and on the White House grounds, have brought concern to watching over the new technologies being tested. The economic opportunities are part of gaining support from corporate backers.

“They definitely see it as an economic opportunity and as something that they want to participate in,” said Brian Wynne, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. “This is real magic.”

NASA is researching prototype technologies for a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system that could develop airspace integration requirements for enabling safe, efficient low-altitude operations. Currently, there is no established infrastructure to enable and safely manage the widespread use of low-altitude airspace and UAS operations. A UTM system for low-altitude airspace may be needed, perhaps leveraging concepts from the system of roads, lanes, stop signs, rules, and lights that govern vehicles on the ground today, whether the vehicles are driven by humans or are automated, NASA says.

Amazon has gained a lot of attention with its Prime Air automated delivery drones. In December, Amazon released a video showing a prototype of one of its delivery drones, which shares features of both helicopters and airplanes. Prime Air will get packages to customers within 30 minutes of them ordering it online at Amazon.com, according to Amazon’s Paul Misener. The range has to be over 10 miles and the carried weight will be less than five pounds for typical Amazon orders and up to 55 pounds, he said.

During a presentation at ACT Expo 2016, Steve Burns, CEO of Workhorse Group Inc., talked about the company’s truck-based HorseFly Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) delivery system, which is currently undergoing testing by Workhorse under a Section 333 exception granted by the Federal Aviation Administration. At its booth, the company showed a video featuring a small drone launching from the top of a delivery truck, flying a package to a nearby house and returning to the vehicle. Burns focused on the economic efficiencies and state-of-the-art technology in the HorseFly during his presentation.

A Chinese company’s EHang 184 has been cleared for testing in Nevada. The approval was given by the Nevada governor’s office to develop and test the vehicle at the state’s Federal Aviation Administration-approved drone test site. The electric passenger drone created by EHang was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas in January. The company says that it’s the world’s first passenger drone and is capable of autonomously carrying a person in the air for 23 minutes. It’s a 142-horsepower “personal flying vehicle” that can transport a single person at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet, China’s People’s Daily Online reported.

Other flying car projects in development described in a lengthy Bloomberg feature include:

Volocopter made by E-volo with a price tag of $280,000 and seating for two. The prototype all-electric vehicle will be sold as a hybrid to increase flight times. It will have 18 propellers in a circular structure placed above the cockpit.
AeroMobil 3.0 will cost $400,000 and seat four. It will be gasoline powered, can take off from driving down a road and soaring to the air quickly, and can cover a flight distance from, say, New York to Toronto. The company, AeroMobil, says it will start taking orders for it this year.
Moller Skycar is being built at Moller’s workshop in Davis, Calif. Moller International says it will cost $500,000 to $1 million and will seat four. It will have a range of 805 miles at 131 mpg, and a maximum speed of 308 mph. Founder Paul Moller has been trying to build a flying car for about 50 years; this is the fifth-generation flying car Moller has built. Investors have put in more than $100 million in his test projects over the years.
Lilium Jet, from German startup Lilium Aviation, is the world’s first all-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane, according to the company. The price has yet to be determined and will seat two people. It has a range of 300 miles and a maximum speed of 250 mpg. The company says it will be easy to fly with software doing much of the work. Lilium Aviation has received funding form the European Union.
Joby Aviation says that customers will be able to call over its Joby flying car similar to getting an Uber ride. The all-electric plane, which seats two, will have a 100-to-200 mile range after being charged. The company expects to begin flying prototypes by this year’s end. It’s being built at a 500-acre compound in Santa Cruz, Calif. Future flying cars will seat four and look more like airplanes with six propellers positioned around the aircraft.

This Week’s Top 10: Tesla Model X has a big month in sales, BMW shifting from electric to autonomous

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

May EV and hybrid sales: The Tesla Model X has seen a huge sales increase – up a third from the previous month. Consumer Reports did feature a critical review in print and video, focused mainly on concerns with the falcon doors and too many bells and whistles versus practical features. That was released last week, so we’ll have to check on June sales to see if it’s having an impact. The Model S is seeing some decline in sales month-over-month and year-over-year. The Ford Fusion Energi is doing well in sales, and is getting closer to the Fusion Hybrid in overall sales numbers. The Ford C-Max Energi continues to soften in sales. Overall battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle sales were flat from April, and were up 5.5% over May 2015. Hybrid sales as a share of total U.S. new vehicle sales increased slightly – up to 2% of the total share after it had been hovering below the 2% mark for several months. Since it was debuted in January 2015, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid has become a hot seller. Now at No. 2 in the rankings, it came in at No. 9 during the month of December 2015 with 1,430 units sold that month. The hybrid version was debuted a few months after Toyota halted production of the low-selling all-electric RAV4.
BMW switching to autonomous cars: BMW announced that it’s slowing down in its EV development and wouldn’t be developing another fully-electric i model until 2021. BMW is moving over to development of autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence. While being a “fantastic car,” the BMW i3 isn’t as popular as BMW had hoped, so the automaker is switching some of its focus over to self-driving vehicles – which is becoming the next “technological race,” according to the BMW blog.
Building EV market: The 29th International Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS29) & Exposition has announced new forums dedicated to market building discussion. The Market Builders’ Forums will gather public and private industry innovators to discuss their strategies for growing the electric drive market and will include an opportunity for audience Q&A. Forum 1 will be moderated by Robert Graham, Director, EV Everywhere Challenge for the U.S. Dept. of Energy; panelists will include Britta Gross, Director, Adv. Vehicle Commercialization Policy at General Motors; Robert Langford, Manager, Electric Vehicle Sales at American Honda Motor Company; Brendan Jones, Vice President, East Region at NRG EVgo; and Laura Renger, Principal Manager, Air & Climate at Southern California Edison. Forum 2 will be moderated by Lisa Jerram, Senior Research Analyst at Navigant Consulting; panelists will include Aaron Cohen, General Manager, Electric Vehicle Strategy at Audi of America; Colleen Quinn, Vice President, Gov’t Market Development and Public Policy at ChargePoint; Marco Vivivani, Director, Development and Public Relations at Communauto; and CC Chan, Professor, Academician, Fellow at University of Hong Kong, EVAAP, WEVA and others. Register now and gain access to the entire electric drive value chain under one roof.
Uber, Lyft, and Walmart: Ridesharing firms Uber and Lyft are adding to their list of services by working with Walmart for grocery shopping and delivery. Walmart will start with delivery tests through Uber in Phoenix and Lyft in Denver, which should start within the next two weeks. Walmart is testing another grocery service through its Sam’s Club stores. The pilot project started in March with delivery of general merchandise and grocery for business members in Miami.
DOE funding: The S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) announced that $22 million is now available to support research, development, and demonstration of innovative plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) and direct injection propane engine technologies; as well as community-based projects to accelerate the adoption of light, medium, and heavy duty vehicles that operate on fuels such as biodiesel, electricity, E85, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane.
EV charging in San Diego: San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) is supporting development of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure through a $45 million pilot program for the installation of electric-car charging stations; and through investing $7.5 million over the next five years in an education campaign to promote electric cars. The project will include installation of 3,500 charging stations at 350 locations, including businesses and apartment complexes. Of that total, 10% will be installed in disadvantaged communities, SDG&E said.
Winner of EcoCAR3: Ohio State University has won EcoCAR3 once again. Along with winning the latest round, OSU won EcoCAR3 last year and won the final EcoCAR2 the previous year. OSU’s Series Parallel PHEV 2016 Chevrolet Camaro was the first to officially meet all safety protocols. The team of students achieved the goals in just a few short months after receiving the car, to winning the competition. Sixteen university teams each reworked a 2016 Camaro for the competition. EcoCAR3, run by the U.S. Department of Energy and sponsored by General Motors, works to further the reality of the vision and development of eco-friendly vehicles while maintaining power and performance.
Santa Monica buses running on RNG: Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced that the City of Santa Monica has awarded Clean Energy a multiyear liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract to fuel its Big Blue Bus (BBB) fleet of vehicles. The 5-year deal, worth an estimated $3 million per year, will enable BBB to continue using Clean Energy’s Redeem™ brand of renewable natural gas (RNG), rated up to 90% cleaner than diesel and considered the cleanest transportation fuel available. BBB began using Redeem by Clean Energy in January 2015.
VW settlement in Germany: Germany’s motor vehicle authority KBA on June 3 approved proposed fixes for the three models with 2.0-liter diesel engines from the EA 189 diesel engine family, VW said. The automaker received regulatory approval for technical fixes to its Passat, CC, and Eos models. VW can now recall more than 800,000 of the 8.5 million cars in Europe affected by its emissions scandal.
Smart city mobility: Navigant Research is presenting a webinar on June 14 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, “Changing Models for Urban Mobility – Examining New Transportation Options in the Smart City.” Vehicles are becoming more connected and autonomous, and more reliant on digital technologies. Electric vehicles are also becoming more widely available and affordable. At the same time, governments are pushing for increasing emissions reductions and cities are increasingly regulating private car usage. All these factors will work together to change how people move around in the smart city. In this webinar, Lisa Jerram, principal research analyst at Navigant Research, Eric Woods, research director at Navigant Research, and David Alexander, senior research analyst at Navigant Research, will discuss the dynamics surrounding this shift in transportation strategy.

The state of clean advanced vehicle technologies on World Environment Day 2016

World Environment Day 2016, a global outreach campaign organized by United Nations, celebrated its 42^nd anniversary on June 5. It’s a global platform for raising awareness and taking action on what it considers to be increasingly urgent issues. About 25% of the world’s CO2 emissions are tied to transportation globally, according to the International Energy Agency; and about 30% in the U.S., according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Here are the latest developments on clean, advanced vehicles around the world.

US-China electric bus competition: On Friday in Los Angeles, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and Chinese Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang signed an agreement officially announcing the US-China “Race to Zero Emissions.” One city from each of the two countries will be competing to determine which one will deploy the highest percentage of emission free buses by 2025. The race is designed to improve air quality in urban areas and prevent climate change. For each of the cities entering the competition, the minimum size of the fleet must be 200 or more buses. Two smaller transit properties can form a team and compete in the race if their combined fleet size is 200 buses or more. Potential participants can learn more at https://www.transportation.gov/r2ze. “This challenge will hasten the development of new and emerging technologies that will move us away from fossil fuels and race us closer to our ultimate goal of zero emissions, while creating good jobs and economic growth in both the United States and China,” said Secretary Foxx.

In large part inspired by the successful federal “Race to the Top” education program in the U.S., CALSTART developed the Race to Zero concept in 2014. In June 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Race to Zero had been endorsed in concept by the U.S.-China Climate Change Working Group. A five-year federal transportation bill came through in December dedicating $55 million annually for the purchase of zero or near-zero emission buses; and the Chinese government has made attractive incentives available through the national government and many of the larger cities.

CALSTART is working under contract with the U.S. DOT to support the Race to Zero Emissions. Entrants in the competition will be able to take part in annual meetings and able to learn about the latest developments in electric bus and charging technology in both the United States and China. “CALSTART is eager to begin working with cities and transit properties that not only want to take full advantage of the advances in zero emission bus technology, but also wanted to become part of a larger global effort to prevent climate change,” said CALSTART President and CEO, John Boesel.

Mahindra launches 2^nd EV: In commemoration of World Environment Day, Mahindra Electric launched the e-Verito, its second all-electric car in the country; it’s another step in the Indian automaker’s efforts to offer the most affordable electric vehicles in the world. The e-Verito’s base price starts at 950,000 rupees (about $14,225). Mahindra is already selling the e2o electric hatchback in India. The e-Verito will come with a 72V 3-phase AC induction motor producing maximum gross power of 41 hp @3500 rpm and maximum torque of 91 Nm @3000 rpm, mated to an automatic transmission. It can be quick charged in two hours through fast charging at the top-end option and price for the e-Verito.

The Mahindra e-Verito and e20 are tied to the discontinued Reva, with the e20’s exterior styling very similar to the Reva. The Mahindra e20 may be the most affordable electric car in the world with a starting price of 592,000 rupees (about $8,865). The e20 can travel 120 kilometers (74.5 miles) on a single charge.

Norway may ban fossil fuels: Norway’s political system may soon adopt the world’s fastest fossil fuel ban. Politicians from both sides of the political spectrum have reportedly reached some concrete conclusions about 100% of Norwegian new vehicles sold running on clean fuel by 2025. Norway may ban the sale of all fossil fuel-based cars by that year, continuing its trend towards becoming one of the most ecologically progressive countries on the planet, according to reports.

There has been some denial from opponents of the measure that the move has been confirmed. If passed, it would be particularly significant because a large proportion of Norway’s funds rely on the country’s petroleum industry. The government has offered attractive incentives for electric vehicle purchases in the country. That helped the nation experience the highest percentage of EV sales ever recorded – with EVs making up 23% of new vehicle sales in the country last year.

South Korea emissions tests and green car sales: The South Korean government will be enacting real-world emissions tests of diesel vehicles in 2017, and unveiled ambitious new targets for environmentally-friendly vehicle sales. South Korea’s cities have become choked by smog, similar to what China has been seeing. The South Korean government wants to bring air quality up to western European levels within a decade. The government would like to raise its green vehicle target to 30% of new vehicles sales by 2020 – up from 2.6 percent currently. The government also promised to support growth in plug-in electrified vehicle sales by increasing new charging stations to 10 times their current level.

Israel base for advanced vehicle technologies: While Israel had been the home to the now-defunct Better Place electric vehicle battery-swapping company, that company’s presence and other local innovators have brought investors to the country. Mobileye, a technology company that develops vision-based advanced driver assistance systems providing warnings for collision prevention and mitigation, has been gaining attention globally and seems to symbolize advance technology innovations in the country. Waze, the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation mobile app, started up in Israel before being acquired by Google for over $1 billion. Analysts say these two companies were part of a big wave of auto sector startups. Better Place is considered to have served as an “incubator” in Israel for talented developers and professionals who later moved on to new startups or established vehicle technology companies. Israel has been a vital space for General Motors, which a few years ago invested in an R&D center there. The technologies developed in Israel, including those developed in the Global Connected Consumer project led by the Israeli R&D division, will be integrated into millions of GM vehicles worldwide in the coming years.

This Week’s Top 10: VW aiming for high EV sales, Automakers make more mobility alliances

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

VW EV 2025 target: As Volkswagen Group emerges from its diesel emissions scandal and faces increasingly strict government mandates on reducing vehicle carbon emissions, the German automaker expects electric vehicle sales to increase substantially by 2025. VW says it will have to sell about one million battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle per year by that year. VW projected that volume by analyzing regulatory environments in key markets, including draft legislation in China. That will require a huge leap from where VW stands right now in EV sales. Total cumulative volumes of all VW brand electrified cars (including VW, Audi, and Porsche) sold since the start is expected to be about 103,000 by the end of this year. For the first four months of 2016, the company sold just shy of 3,000 EV units in the U.S. with the Audi A3 Plug In, VW e-Golf, and Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid, according to HybridCar’s Dashboard.
Automakers going mobile: Mobility services continue to expand through investments by major automakers. Not long after Apple announced its $1 billion investment in Chinese ridesharing service Didi, Toyota, Volkswagen, and BMW made similar deals. Toyota is investing an undisclosed amount in Uber and is offering lease deals to Uber drivers. Volkswagen said on the same day it would invest $300 million in Gett, a smaller ride-hailing company. BMW is investing an undisclosed amount in a smartphone-powered carpooling service called Scoop. (Read more about it in the UberMan )
Green bonds: Automakers are taking the green bond market very seriously with $2.5 billion raised in 2016 to finance electric and hybrid vehicles. In May, Toyota’s financial arm sold a $1.6 billion green bond to fund consumer purchases and leases of energy-efficient Toyota and Lexus vehicles; that was upsized from an earlier plan to sell $1.2 billion in green bonds. Chinese automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group raised $400 million this month in a green bond sale to finance development of zero-emission black cabs in the U.K. The bond was close to six times oversubscribed. Other automakers are likely to come to market with green bonds, said Stephen Liberatore, a portfolio manager at TIAA. Libatore’s TIAA-CREF Social Choice Bond Fund holds about $75 million of Toyota’s green bonds.
Gigafactory tour: Tesla Motors will be opening the doors on its “Gigafactory” to the general public on July 29. The 130-acre battery-making plant isn’t due to start production on lithium ion cells until 2017. The date was revealed in email sent to customers, who won invitations to the customer-focused event by referring customers via Tesla’s referral program. Although only about 15% finished as of early May, the factory is already producing Tesla’s Powerpacks and Powerwalls.
2017 Fusion Energi mpg: Ford has been promoting its Fusion Energi as the plug-in hybrid with the longest range out there on battery and gasoline engine. The 2017 Fusion Energi does get a few improvements including getting 42 mpg over 38 the previous year; 97 MPGe over 88 last year; and 22 miles “Elec+Gas” range, over 20 miles for 2016. Its total driving range extended from 550 miles to 610.
Hydrogen stations: Leading hydrogen station supplier FirstElement has 13 True Zero stations in operation now, mostly in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas. The company hopes to have the rest of the 19 done by early next year. That would give True Zero a dominant share of the market in California; there are just six other retail hydrogen stations not owned by the company.
Lithium ion batteries: Popular Mechanics just published an educational article titled, “5 Things To Know About Making Electric Car Batteries Better.” Having tried out a radio-controlled Yeti Trophy Truck with a lithium battery, writer Ezra Dyer researched and answered a few questions. For one thing, the term lithium-polymer “is a reference to the packaging material, which is a polymer aluminum laminate. The inside is still lithium-ion, but the complete battery is dramatically different compared with a production electric car’s lithium-ion battery.” As far as all the advanced batteries being tested out in r&d centers, Dyer thinks that lithium-ion is the winner for now.
Carsharing report: According to Navigant Research, global carsharing services revenue is expected to grow from $1.1 billion in 2015 to $6.5 billion in 2024. Growth in one-way carsharing services is prompting more companies to consider offering this service model. Utilization of the vehicles has improved as carsharing members can use one-way carsharing for shorter, spur of the moment trips. Adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in carsharing services is expected to increase as automakers promote this technology.
Trump on biofuels and oil: Donald Trump has a plan for “complete American energy independence” in his campaign for president. In a recent speech, Trump said that he endorses repealing President Obama’s climate regulations, gaining independence from OPEC oil, and “canceling” the COP21 agreement. Trump would also like to “remove obstacles” to increased oil and gas development in the US. He does support the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and ethanol production. Biofuel group Growth Energy says that both Trump and Hilary Clinton support the RFS.
Start-stop: General Motors will be offering start-stop systems on at least one powertrain in every model it manufactures and sells by 2020. It comes from pressure to increase fuel efficiency in its fleets and because of advances in hardware. Starting with the 2017 model year, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency will award credits toward compliance with fuel economy standards to automakers who equip vehicles with start-stop systems.

UberMan learns firsthand about the new age of mobility, ridesharing, and the on-demand sharing economy

Uber driver movie Have you ever taken an Uber ride to the airport, work, concert, or out on a date? Not only have I taken a few Uber rides, I’ve put in quite a few hours and miles on the road as an Uber driver. I’ve also written a non-fiction book about it that was published Friday on Kindle, Tales of UberMan: An auto journalist shares his Prius with savvy riders.

As some of you reading this newsletter may remember from five years ago, I wrote a feature about another driving gig I was doing for side income. I’d been a chauffeur on weekends for a company called Econation, taking people to LAX in a Toyota Prius or a natural-gas powered Town Car. In Tales of UberMan, I bring a broad perspective on the battle between the taxi and limo industry versus Uber and other ridesharing companies. Uber is taking business away from traditional vehicle-for-hire services – and bringing confrontation and debate to court rooms, city councils, airports, and state governments. Uber is becoming a bad word for taxi drivers and other businesses losing ridership. It’s also raising the flag on whether Uber should be doing more extensive background checks to avoid catastrophes like the Uber driver, in February 2016, killing six people in Kalamazoo, Mich., in between Uber rides.

The word “Uber” is becoming pervasive and omnipresent all over the media and internet – similar to “Elon Musk” and “Tesla” in cleantech and automotive. Riders might say they’re going to be “Ubering” across town to hang out with friends on a Saturday night. This month, a parody trailer has been streaming on the internet suggesting that a sequel to the 2011 film, “Drive” starring Ryan Gosling had been released. In the humorous video, a look-alike comedian portrays Gosling driving for Uber in the sequel, “Drive 2: The Uber Years.” He has to deal with working for less than minimum wage and cleaning up after vomiting passengers. (The photo used in this article comes from the trailer on YouTube.) My experience has been making a bit more than minimum wage, and having a near-miss with a drunk passenger nearly vomiting in my Prius. Uber is becoming so pervasive as to inspire this parody video – and to be commonly mentioned by stand-up comedians, on TV shows, and in conversations people are having with friends and colleagues.

Automakers predict that within the next 10-to-20 years, the auto industry will look completely different as OEMs become mobility service providers. General Motors has made some big moves in the direction this year, and has nudged competitors in that direction. In January 2016, GM announced a $500 million investment in Lyft and acquisition of the technology and most of the assets of Sidecar Technologies Inc. Sidecar had been the third largest ridesharing firm after Uber and Lyft. Before the end of that month, GM announced the launch of Maven, a “personal mobility” brand. Within months, other automakers moved forward to break into the mobility marketplace. In late May 2016, Toyota and Uber announced a funding program for drivers. The Japanese automaker began offering new leasing options in which car purchasers could lease their vehicles from Toyota Financial Services and cover their payments through earnings generated as Uber drivers. At that same time, German carmaker Volkswagen announced a $300-million investment in Uber rival Gett, a service that is available in 60 cities and connects passengers with taxis and black town cars. In another move, BMW AG said its BMW iVentures venture capital arm had invested in California-based Scoop Technologies, which offers a smartphone-powered carpooling service called Scoop.

Automakers typically announce new investments in the future of mobility, eventually integrating autonomous vehicles into their new vehicle lineups. GM and Lyft will be testing out autonomous vehicles soon utilizing the all-electric Chevy Bolt. Tech giants Apple and Google are investing in these new technologies as well. I typically see a strong correlation between autonomous, electrified vehicles and mobility services like ridesharing, carpooling, and carsharing shaping the future of transportation.

In my new book, I wrote about being 52 years old and typically driving Millennials (18 to 35) around L.A. and Orange counties. Uber is cool for Millennials, who enjoy paying only about half as much for an Uber ride as they would for a cab ride; they also like that they can do everything on their smart phone and have the driver show up within five minutes once the trip is started. This book explores the revolutionary impact that Uber (and other ridesharing companies such as Lyft) will likely have on transportation in the future – where young consumers are putting off getting their drivers licenses and buying a car and would prefer to take Uber, ride their bike, take bus or rail, or to try out Airbnb, Zipcar, and other mobile services in the “sharing economy.” As cities become more popular to live in, and increasingly more crowded and congested with traffic, Uber is rapidly growing in ridership and its ubiquitous brand name. Many Uber riders and drivers are proud to be part of it, and think it’s critical for reducing traffic congestion and air pollution.

The title of the book came from the “UberMan” nickname that my girlfriend, Susan, started calling me last year after me sharing yet another colorful story from an Uber ride; and that I should write a book about it. A few days later while telling a passenger about it during a ride from an airport, the title Tales of UberMan was suggested. I started driving for Uber in early May 2015, and since then have put in a few hours also driving for Lyft and on-demand food delivery company, Postmates.

Here are some of the chapters in the book:

Top 5 worst and best Uber experiences
Ridesharing might be the buzzword, but it has a long way to go
What Uber means to urban mobility
Employees or independent contractors?
Dealing with stress and safety
Taking drinkers off the roads and listening to their sad tales
San Francisco startups race for worldwide No. 1
Driving for UberEats didn’t go so well
My suggestions to Uber
Theatre of the Absurd
What I love/hate about Uber, Lyft, and Postmates
The future of mobility, Uber et al

The book was written from my own experience, and perspectives gained through interviews with Uber drivers and passengers. It’s challenging to be an Uber driver and use your own car as it builds up wear and tear, and the driver pays for everything. Drivers, also known as Uber Partners, need to put in several hours each week for the payback to show up – at least 15 hours and usually much more. Than can mean working late into the evening and early morning hours on weekends, as passengers leave bars and parties and don’t want to get a DUI. There’s always the threat of having to pay for traffic citations, increased insurance, parking, toll roads, and damage to their car. Uber prides itself on a partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to take a few drinkers out of driver’s seats – and for alleviating some of the traffic congestion and air pollution in fast-growing cities around the world. Through UberPool, the company strives to make ridesharing a common experience.

Uber drivers tend to take pride in bringing cost effective, convenient transportation to riders – and for having flexibility and decision making in their work. They decide when they’re ready to go online and start driving, and when it’s time to turn it off and go home.

Tales of UberMan offers a mix of colorful stories on what happened during trips, blended with a look at the global issues behind Uber becoming the buzzword for ridesharing services. One of the book’s chapters contemplates whether Uber and one of its major investors, Google, will partner on creating a fleet of self-driving cars in the near future. It seems like every day, there’s media coverage of a controversy, victory, or business deal with Uber at the very center of it.

For now, Tales of UberMan is available as a Kindle e-book. Later on, I will release a print-on-demand version through Amazon’s CreateSpace, and an audio version through Amazon’s Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).

This Week’s Top 10: Reality check for Tesla Motors on manufacturing vehicles, Bill Ford says company looking for partners to expand beyond building and selling cars and trucks

by Jon LeSage, editor and publisher, Green Auto Market

Here’s my take on the 10 most significant and interesting occurrences during the past week…….

Tesla taking heat over immigrant worker and supplier relations: Tesla Motors has been facing challenges lately on the vehicle manufacturing front; one of these controversies comes from a Slovenian electrician named Gregor Lesnik working at the Tesla plant in Fremont, Calif., falling through the roof in May 2015 and suffering broken bones in his legs and ribs and head injuries, including a concussion. Lesnik survived and sued his employers, as reported last week in a San Jose Mercury News’ watchdog report. He’d entered the U.S. in March 2015 with a B1/B2 visa on behalf of his employer, ISM Vuzem, as a supervisor of electrical and mechanical installation. He was going to work in a paint shop at a South Carolina BMW plant but instead was diverted to the Tesla plant to install an industrial heating and cooling system, something his visa did not allow him to do. The lawsuit and media report raised the flag on exploiting immigrant workers and committing fraud; and if the federal government should be watching more carefully. Lesnik alleged in his suit that although his hourly rate was over $10 an hour, it averaged out to a little over $5 an hour, far below minimum wage, because he wasn’t paid overtime for weeks that often reached 80 hours. The same work by a local employee would have cost more than $50 an hour. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied wrongdoing and said his company is auditing the contracts to see if its contractors met wage obligations……. That news story came days after Reuters reported on concerns raised by analysts and supplier executives who asked not to be identified that Tesla’s plan to manufacture 500,000 electric vehicles per year by 2018 has been called into question by several sources close to the issues. Tesla’s ambitious plan has called for moving up high-volume Model 3 production two years earlier than originally projected, which they claim will be very difficult and costly. Larger automakers have had to adjust production volumes to lower levels per year at assembly plants to realistically hit their targets. Tesla continues to have delivery delays for its Model X crossover, and its Model S also missed delivery targets when launched and that’s likely to continue with the Model 3, they say. Tesla says that orders and deposits for the Model 3 have been reduced to 373,000 following cancellations of about 8,000 cars and 4,200 duplicates canceled by the company. As capital intensive as auto manufacturing can be, Tesla also announced last week plans to sell about $2 billion in stock to help finance the accelerated launch of the Model 3.
Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford said the company is looking into more partnerships with other companies as it moves to expand beyond manufacturing and selling cars and trucks. The game is changing for automakers this year following General Motors’ moves with Lyft, Sidecar, Cruise Automation, and Maven; and Fiat Chrysler’s deal with Google on self-driving cars. Ford has been investing heavily in electric cars, self-driving vehicle technology, and other initiatives, Ford said. Earlier this year, the company launched Ford Smart Mobility LLC, as part of its efforts to delve into carsharing and other mobility services. Asked about a potential alliance with Google, Ford said, “Anything’s possible with anybody. We have a good relationship with Google” but no alliance to disclose. (Editor’s note: Read the clean mobility feature in this week’s Green Auto Market that includes Volkswagen’s upcoming announcement on mobility services it will be launching during its diesel emissions scandal.)
The 29th World Electric Vehicle Symposium and Exhibition (EVS29) event organizers have announced more keynote plenary speakers for day two of the event. Dan Neil, Pulitzer Prize winning auto columnist from the Wall Street Journal, will sit down with industry leaders to talk electric drive innovation and automaker strategies for scaling success during a robust roundtable discussion. Roundtable participants include: Christoph Huss, Vice President Engineering, BMW of North America; Kazuo Yajima, Alliance Global Director, EV and Engineering Division, Nissan and Renault; Kevin Layden, Electrification Programs and Engineering Director, Ford Motor Company; and Michael Lord, Executive Engineer, Toyota Motor Engineer & Manufacturing. The EVS29 conference takes place June 19-22, 2016 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Register now and gain access to the entire electric drive value chain under one roof.
SAE International approved for publishing “SAE TIR J2954 Wireless Power Transfer for Light-Duty Plug-In/ Electric Vehicles and Alignment Methodology,” a guideline to establish wireless power transfer between infrastructure, vehicle suppliers and OEMs for plug-in electric and electric vehicles (PH/EV). The document will be available from the SAE website on May 31st. SAE TIR J2954 is the first step in standardization and was developed by SAE International’s PH/EV Wireless Power Transfer committee, established in 2010. Jesse Schneider serves as the Chair of SAE International’s Wireless Power Transfer committee and is the Fuel Cell, Electric Vehicle and Standards Development Manager at BMW North America.
AltCar Expo: Oakland hosted the third annual Northern California AltCar Expo on May 20-21. Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors and Nissan showcased hydrogen fuel cell cars, electric vehicles, hybrids, and natural gas vehicles, and renewable diesel vehicles. Attendees were able to test drive the vehicles for free both days. Keynote speakers included Richard Battersby, Equipment Manager and Director, City of Oakland and East Bay Clean Cities Coalition; Peter Van Deventer, Program Director & Diplomatic Liaison, Coast to Coast EV Connection and Consulate General of the Netherlands; John Kato, Deputy Director, Fuels and Transportation Division, California Energy Commission; David Meisel, Senior Director, Transportation & Aviation Services, Pacific Gas & Electric Company; Tim Lipman, Ph.D, Co-Director, Transportation Sustainability Research Center, UC Berkeley; and Rick Sikes, Chief Operations Officer, carbonBLU.
Mercedes-Benz will likely be launching two electric sedans and two SUVs by 2020. They may be plug-in hybrid, battery electric or both, and are being built with minimal changes from the internal combustion engine models. The electric SUVs may be built on the Mercedes GLA and GLC platforms, and the electric sedans could come from the C-Class and S-Class platforms. Going this route could give the company the opportunity of pricing these EVs lower than the Tesla Model S and Model X.
Volvo will be rolling out its new 40 series compact cars and SUVs, including a plug-in hybrid and an electric car, starting in spring 2018 in the U.S. Details on plug-in hybrid and all-electric variants of the 40 series haven’t been released yet.Last year, Volvo released its new “global electrification strategy,” which will include new plug-in versions of its cars, SUVs, and wagons.
xStorage battery packs: Nissan, through its U.K. division, is following Tesla’s lead by entering the energy storage market. Available for pre-order in September, the xStorage line of battery packs was developed with power-management company Eaton. The partnership between Nissan and Enel SpA, Italy’s largest utility, will let Nissan Leaf and e-NV200 owners sell excess energy back to the grid. Owners can sell energy from their lithium-ion batteries during periods of peak demand to the utility.
Self-driving car survey: The University of Michigan Sustainable Worldwide Transportation conducted its second annual survey on self-driving vehicles – and found that Americans might tend to agree more with the California DMV’s suggested policy than with Google’s argument for owning completely autonomous vehicles. The survey yielded completed responses from 618 licensed drivers in the U.S. and found that the most frequent preference for vehicle automation continues to be for no self-driving capability, followed by partially self-driving vehicles, with completely self-driving vehicles being the least preferred choice. Respondents still overwhelmingly want to be able to manually control completely self-driving vehicles when desired.
ACT Expo highlights: Check out the photo gallery, conference program, and event summary for ACT Expo 2016, which just took place in Long Beach, Calif. Set for May 1-4, ACT Expo 2017 will return to the Long Beach Convention Center. Event organizer Gladstein Neandross & Associates will be presenting Rethink Methane Symposium 2016 in Sacramento, Calif., on June 29-30, 2016.

Clean Mobility: The latest on VW, Maven, Lyft, Uber, and Google

Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller will be speaking to the company’s senior management in mid-June on how VW will emerge from the diesel emissions scandal more as a “mobility provider” than as an automaker. Based on comments Mueller and other VW executives have made recently, it might look something like this:

Developing a strategy to handle the demands of increasingly connected vehicles, driver assistance systems, and the need to develop autonomous technology.
Last October after reorganizing management, VW announced its Modular Electrification Toolkit, a standardized technical model for developing plug-in electric vehicles within the Volkswagen Group. The focus is on plug-in hybrids with an even greater range, high-volume electric vehicles with a range of up to 300 kilometers (186.4 miles) and eventually to 500 kilometers (310.7 miles), a 48-volt power supply system (mild hybrid), along with more efficient diesel, gasoline, and CNG concepts. It’s all part of what VW earlier announced as its Modular Transverse Toolkit.
In late April, Mueller gave a presentation on the company’s 2015 annual financial statements. He reiterated plans to launch over 20 additional ‘e-vehicles’ by 2020, as VW pushes ahead with developing its bespoke architecture in the form of its Modular Electrification Toolkit. The first vehicles produced on the MEB module are slated to hit the streets at the end of the decade. “We plan to make electric cars one of Volkswagen’s new hallmarks,” Mueller said.
VW will be shifting its strategy to profitability, not sales volume. Being No. 1 in global sales won’t be its top priority anymore. It will mean limiting the number of volumes its builds and sales, and using its own resources more efficiently. It will also ties into what other automakers like BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, and Toyota have been experimenting with lately: testing out business ventures focused on mobility services and new technologies: carsharing, ridesharing and ride-hailing, delivery services, autonomous vehicles, vehicle electrification, and urban commuter cars.
VW’s investment resources for mobility and electrification will be limited by the vehicle recall. The company said that it lost 16.2 billion euros ($18.2 billion) for 2015 alone once the diesel scandal was revealed last September, and that’s likely only a part of the total cost.

Maven is rolling out to cities as GM’s hourly carsharing/car rental service expands its Ann Arbor, Mich., operations and moves over to Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

In its Ann Arbor office, prices for renters range from $6 an hour for the Chevrolet Spark and Volt, to $12 an hour for the Tahoe; and $42 per day for the Spark and Volt, to $84 a day for the Tahoe.
As part of the Maven brand expansion, certain residential buildings in Chicago, Washington, and Boston will be equipped with Maven cars for tenants to use for an hourly rate. Other Maven vehicles will be parked throughout the cities for anyone to reserve using a smartphone app developed by GM.
Speaking recently at a women’s technology conference in Detroit, GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said carsharing services like Maven can help eliminate the headaches of car ownership in cities where congestion and parking costs are challenging.
The automaker sees Maven as critical for its mobility strategy as it competes with carsharing companies like Avis Budget Group’s Zipcar and Daimler’s Car2Go and ridesharing giant Uber through its Lyft alliance. Earlier this year, GM bought a 9% stake in ride-hailing/ridesharing company Lyft Inc. for $500 million.
GM working to develop a fleet of self-driving Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles. GM and Cruise Automation, another mobility company GM recently invested in, have begun testing autonomous prototypes of the Bolt in San Francisco. Cruise Automation is providing technology for the test cars. One of GM’s goals is to launch of a fleet of autonomous self-driving taxis with Lyft within a year.
About a year ago, GM hired a Silicon Valley engineer, Zafar Razzacki, to lead the marketing and user experience for Maven. Razzacki, who worked for Google and a few tech startups, was profiled by Automotive News as leading the way for shaping the Maven “personal mobility” brand. GM’s objective is to get young drivers in its cars, even if they don’t own them. Assembling a team of outsiders is necessary to get there. “We literally view ourselves and are treated by the company as a small startup within GM,” he said. “We’ve got this crazy assortment of engineers and creatives and technologists and business people all working together. We are breaking a lot of rules. We are trying a lot of new things.”

Uber showed off its latest self-driving test car – a hybrid Ford Fusion outfitted with a variety of sensors and high-resolution cameras to gather mapping data and refine the vehicle’s autonomous driving capabilities. It’s being driven through Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. Uber had previously been involved with Carnegie Mellon University and its group of experienced experts in autonomous vehicle technologies, enough to have donated $5.5 million to the department; and to hire over some of its staff for the Uber project. As of March, CMU had not worked with Uber on its self-driving car test project, according to CMU faculty and administrators. Uber recently joined a coalition that includes Google and to advocate for safety regulations for self-driving cars and help bring them to American roads.

Google recently received a patent for enhancing safety features on its self-driving cars. Google’s approved patent involves coating the front of a car with adhesive for pedestrian safety. It focuses on what would happen if that self-driving car were to hit a pedestrian. Google says coating the front of a car with adhesive could prevent someone from bouncing onto the windshield, sliding under the wheels, or flying into the air and landing in the road. “The adhesion of the pedestrian to the vehicle may prevent the pedestrian from bouncing off the vehicle after the pedestrian impacts the hood,” the patent says.