CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine - Issue 43 MAY/JUN 2019

ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

ISSUE 43 | MAY/JUNE 2019 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

2019 HYUNDAI

ELECTRIC

WIDE BAND-GAP SEMICONDUCTORS

NOVONIX SPINS OFF PUREGRAPHITE

WALLBOX COPPER PROVES EV CHARGERS CAN BE BEAUTIFUL TOO

MOBILE EV CHARGERS DELIVER POWER WHERE IT’S NEEDED

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THE TECH CONTENTS

28 Wide band-gap semiconductors The bleeding edge: SiC vs GaN

32 Novonix battery testing led it to new anode material

32

The battery testing start-up has spun off PUREgraphite to manufacture anode material in the US

current events 12 AI algorithm accurately predicts the life cycle of Li-ion batteries

14

Toyota provides nearly 24,000 licenses royalty-free for hybrid tech

13 93% of EVs sold in 2018 used permanent magnet traction motors 14 USABC awards $4.8-million battery tech contract to Zenlabs Energy

AxleTech launches new line of electric powertrain systems

16

ION Energy launches BMS for EVs and grid-scale storage Linear Labs raises $4.5 million to market its electric motor

17 LORD expands CoolTherm facility with â‚Ź14-million investment 18 VW and Northvolt form European Battery Union to advance research

16

Transphorm’s latest GaN transistor passes automotive qualification

20 OXIS Energy to build lithium-sulfur battery plant in Brazil

Williams Advanced Engineering creates cheaper carbon composites

22 DOE launches ReCell Center to improve battery recycling 23 Klaric releases high-voltage measurement module for EVs 24 Five NATO countries field-test Li-ion as lead-acid replacement

25

EU offers $4.5-million grant to UpScale project for AI in EV development

25 Motor maker YASA launches 200 kVA controller 26 Bel introduces 25 kW on-board charger for industrial and mining operations

Wieland Group and Wolverine Tube join forces on electronics cooling

THE VEHICLES CONTENTS

50 Hyundai Kona Electric

A viable EV competitor for the average car buyer

50

current events 38 Tesla Model Y electric crossover revealed 39 Lion launches Class 8 urban electric truck 40 NYC to expand zero-emission fleet with 15 New Flyer e-buses

XL produces plug-in hybrid Ford F-250 pickup

41 SF Motors changes name to SERES, opens pre-orders 42 Irizar develops electric truck with CNG range extender

38

Faraday Future signs $600-million agreement with game company The9

43 EV startup Canoo to build subscription-only mobility model 44 Complete Coach Works introduces a 466 kWh battery pack for buses

China slashes EV subsidies

45 Canada announces new $5,000 EV incentive – but no Teslas need apply 46 Volvo adds 415 hp PHEV versions of its XC60 SUV and V60 wagon

Maxwell Vehicles retrofits RAM ProMaster vans with plug-in powertrains

46

47 IKEA and delivery partners electrify last-mile delivery 48 BYD launches the “world’s longest” electric bus

Fiat Chrysler to pay Tesla hundreds of millions for emissions credits

49 Australian electric truck maker SEA Electric to launch two trucks in the US

IDENTIFICATION STATEMENT CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine (ISSN: 24742341) May/June 2019, Issue #43 is published bi-monthly by Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC, 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259. Periodicals Postage Paid at Saint Petersburg, FL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine, Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC at 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259.

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The Spanish charging station company Wallbox is growing quickly and winning awards

72 Mobile chargers deliver power where needed

72

A few companies have introduced mobile charging products to solve unique challenges

60 Energy Impact Partners invests $5.7 million in EV fleet telematics company

Tesla’s V3 Supercharging promises a typical charging time of 15 minutes

62 ubitricity raises â‚Ź20 million in Series C funding

60

Kia teams with Amazon to sell chargers and installation services

63 Tritium to provide DC fast chargers to Tata AutoComp for EVs in India

Switzerland rolls out highway DC fast charging stations

64 Sacramento County to award up to $15.5 million in EV charger rebates

Jaguar Land Rover installs 166 charging stations at Gaydon facility

65 Fortum to build wireless charging infrastructure for electric taxis in Oslo

Duke Energy proposes $76-million EV program in North Carolina

64

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EV batteries: Increasing quality and plunging costs

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At the International Battery Seminar in March, Jeff Dahn - the prominent battery expert and exclusive research partner of Tesla - presented some research on the longevity of EV batteries. He posed the question, if “electric vehicles today are expected to last 500,000 miles, and this is expected to increase to 1 million miles over the next decade...are Li-ion batteries equal to this challenge?”

This scenario envisions a world in which autonomous EVs are continuously shuttling passengers around town all day, spending little time parked, and racking up 100,000 miles or more per year.

Dahn shared the findings of a recently completed study that lasted for over two years testing a “relatively generic Li-ion chemistry to see how it performs.” After nearly 10 minutes of showing his work to a room full of battery scientists - including all the detailed testing methodology - he estimated that an EV with this particular generic cell could travel 870,000 kilometers (about 540,000 miles) in 8 years, or even more with optimized depth-of-discharge parameters.

“The reason that I did this was just to convince myself that this statement about a million-mile lifetime for an EV, it doesn’t really sound so outrageous at all,” said Dahn. He went on to explain the research methods being developed to create chemistries optimized for EV cells with high energy density that “are certainly going to last an incredibly long time and an incredibly large number of cycles.”

“I think using methods like these and, of course, the long-term validation testing, you can convince yourself pretty quickly that 1 million miles in an EV is not going to be that difficult.”

Meanwhile, the data crunchers at Bloomberg NEF recently released a report on the cost of purchasing an EV. Each year the research organization does a “bottom-up analysis of the cost of purchasing an electric vehicle and compares it to the cost of a combustion-engine vehicle of the same size.” Following the trend lines, the authors estimate the point at which the upfront cost of an EV will be the same as that of an equivalent ICE vehicle.

In 2017, the Bloomberg NEF analysis forecast that the crossover point would occur in 2026. In 2018, that point was adjusted to 2024. And, sure enough, this year the latest analysis reveals that the EV cost parity point will occur in 2020 for “large vehicles in the European Union.”

In other words, EV costs are dropping faster than predicted just two years ago, partially because “large-volume manufacturing is only now beginning for such parts,” writes Nikolas Soulopoulos, author of the research.

And, of course, it’s not just battery costs that are dropping - power electronics and electric motors are predicted to benefit from the economies of scale and cost minimization that only the auto industry can deliver...when it sets its mind to it.

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EVs are here. Try to keep up.

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Contributing Writers Paul Beck John Gartner Jeffrey Jenkins Charles Morris John Voelcker

Publisher Christian Ruoff Associate Publisher Laurel Zimmer Senior Editor Charles Morris Associate Editor Markkus Rovito

For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact: Info@ChargedEVs.com

Contributing Photographers Nicolas Raymond Christian Ruoff

Account Executives Jeremy Ewald Technology Editor Jeffrey Jenkins Graphic Designers Miroslav Ivanov Tomislav Vrdoljak

Cover Image Courtesy of Hyundai Kelly Ruoff Special Thanks to Sebastien Bourgeois

ETHICS STATEMENT AND COVERAGE POLICY AS THE LEADING EV INDUSTRY PUBLICATION, CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE OFTEN COVERS, AND ACCEPTS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM, COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE IN OUR MEDIA PORTFOLIO. HOWEVER, THE CONTENT WE CHOOSE TO PUBLISH PASSES ONLY TWO TESTS: (1) TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE THE INFORMATION IS ACCURATE, AND (2) IT MEETS THE INTERESTS OF OUR READERSHIP. WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR EDITORIAL CONTENT, AND THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OUR EDITORS AND WRITERS ARE IN NO WAY AFFECTED BY A COMPANY’S PAST, CURRENT, OR POTENTIAL ADVERTISEMENTS. FURTHERMORE, WE OFTEN ACCEPT ARTICLES AUTHORED BY “INDUSTRY INSIDERS,” IN WHICH CASE THE AUTHOR’S CURRENT EMPLOYMENT, OR RELATIONSHIP TO THE EV INDUSTRY, IS CLEARLY CITED. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANY OPINION EXPRESSED IN THE CHARGED MEDIA PORTFOLIO AND/OR WISH TO WRITE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR VIEW OF THE INDUSTRY, PLEASE CONTACT US AT CONTENT@CHARGEDEVS. COM. REPRINTING IN WHOLE OR PART IS FORBIDDEN EXPECT BY PERMISSION OF CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE.

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THE TECH

Toyota provides nearly 24,000 licenses royalty-free for hybrid AI algorithm accurately predicts the life cycle of Li-ion tech Toyota will grant royalty-free licenses batteries on 23,740 patents it

Scientists at MIT, Stanford and the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) have developed an AI algorithm that they say can accurately predict the useful life of Li-ion batteries. The algorithm analyzed factors such as voltage decline to make predictions as to how many more cycles a battery would last. The predictions turned out to be within 9 percent of the battery’s actual cycle life.

The algorithm also categorized batteries as having either a long or short life expectancy based on the first five charge/discharge cycles. These predictions proved to be accurate 95 percent of the time.

One aim of the project is to identify an efficient way to charge batteries in ten minutes. The researchers think the prediction model can be used to decrease the time it takes to validate batteries with new chemistries and to grade batteries with longer lifetimes. The algorithm may also help recyclers identify cells in used EV batteries that have sufficient remaining life for secondary uses.

The researchers have made the dataset used to train the algorithm publicly available.

“The standard way to test new battery designs is to charge and discharge the cells until they die. Since batteries have a long lifetime, this process can take many months and even years,” said Peter Attia, a Stanford engineering doctoral candidate who co-led the research. “It’s an expensive bottleneck in battery research.”

“For all of the time and money that gets spent on battery development, progress is still measured in decades,” said Patrick Herring, a TRI research scientist who contributed to the study. “In this work, we are reducing one of the most time-consuming steps – battery testing – by an order of magnitude.”

The work is described in the journal Nature Energy.

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holds for hybrid technologies. For a fee, the company will also provide technical support to manufacturers that use Toyota’s tech, including motors, batteries, power control units and system controls.

Since 2015, Toyota has released 5,680 patents related its fuel cell vehicles. The new batch of patents will include: • 2,590 related to electric motors • 2,020 related to PCUs • 7,550 related to system controls • 1,320 for engine transaxles • 2,200 for chargers • 2,380 for fuel cells

The grant period begins immediately and lasts through 2030.

“Based on the high volume of inquiries we receive about our vehicle electrification systems from companies that recognize a need to popularize hybrid and other electrified vehicle technologies, we believe that now is the time for cooperation,” said Toyota Executive VP Shigeki Terashi. “If the number of electrified vehicles accelerates significantly in the next 10 years, they will become standard, and we hope to play a role in supporting that process.”

Some industry observers are unconvinced that that role is a constructive one. As sales of the Prius are in free fall, other brands are announcing massive new investments in plug-in vehicles. Not only has Toyota taken no steps toward producing an all-electric vehicle, it has publicly scorned and ridiculed those who do - a recent TV ad for the Corolla Hybrid made highly misleading assertions to claim that hybrids are superior to EVs.

Attractive Mobility.

93 percent of EVs sold in 2018 used permanent magnet traction motors

Research firm Adamas Intelligence has reported that 93 percent of all passenger EVs sold in 2018 used permanent magnet (PM) traction motors, an increase of 1 percent from 2017.

PM traction motors use neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets in the rotor, which spin the rotor in response to a rotating magnet field produced in the stator. According to Adamas, PM traction motors can provide up to 15 percent more efficiency than induction motors, and are the most power-dense type of traction motor available. “Looking ahead, we expect demand for PM traction motors, and the rare earth magnets they contain, to continue on a path of explosive growth as EV demand soars and the sales-weighted average motor power (kW) per EV continues to rise,� stated Adamas.

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THE TECH

USABC awards $4.8-million battery tech contract to Zenlabs Energy Battery company Zenlabs Energy has received a $4.8-million contract from the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) to develop low-cost, fast-charging batteries. The goal of the contract is to develop optimized cell designs and a scalable pre-Li method for high-capacity silicon oxide anodes. The 50 percent share contract funds a 30-month project.

USABC is a subsidiary of the US Council for Automotive Research (USCAR), an organization that includes Fiat Chrysler, Ford and GM. “The low-cost/fast-charge technology development contract award with Zenlabs is part of USABC’s broad battery technology research and development program,” said Steve Zimmer, Executive Director of USCAR. “Programs like this are critical to advancing the technology needed to meet both near- and long-term goals that will enable broader scale vehicle electrification.”

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AxleTech launches new line of electric powertrain systems AxleTech exhibited a new line of electric powertrain systems for off-highway applications at the recent Bauma construction machinery trade show in Munich.

AxleTech’s new AFE Series eAxle integrates interchangeable water-glycol-cooled motors and a single-, 2-, or 4-speed gearbox. The eAxle also includes the company’s new modular eCarrier system.

The AFE Series eAxle is compatible with full battery EVs and fuel cell range-extender EVs, according to AxleTech. It is built to handle 100 percent regenerative braking, and offers continuous power of 268 hp (200 kW) and peak power of 389 hp (290 kW).

AxleTech CEO Bill Gryzenia said, “The commercial vehicle industry is becoming electric faster than any other, and AxleTech is proud to lead the electrification of powertrains with this off-highway and specialty vehicle series solution. The AFE Series eAxle is designed to withstand the heavy loads, extreme demands, and potential rough terrains that vehicles such as rail car movers, lift trucks, terminal tractors, and dump trucks encounter. This is the first of several electric powertrain solutions we are launching for the commercial vehicle industry.”

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ION Energy launches BMS for EVs and grid-scale storage ION Energy, a battery technology company that specializes in battery management and intelligence, has launched the FS-XT, a battery management system targeted at EVs and grid-scale storage systems.

To manage the high-voltage batteries needed in EVs, the FS-XT has a modular design based on a master-slave configuration. This allows manufacturers to use the BMS for any application between 100 and 1,000 volts. The master BMS contains 4 channels, each of which can be connected to 10 slave BMSs in a daisy chain formation, allowing manufacturers to scale the FS-XT to manage up to 720 cells in series. ION Energy says this versatility will allow the FS-XT to be used across a wide variety of nextgeneration EVs. By 2020, ION hopes to have 1 GWh of batteries under management, with the FS-XT accounting for 60% of that total.

ION Energy CEO Akhil Aryan said, “Battery power is finding all sorts of applications from forklifts and cars to grid-scale energy storage systems. To be ahead of the curve of this acceleration in adoption of Li-ion batteries, we’ve launched the FS-XT, our battery management system for high-power applications.”

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Image courtesy of Linear Labs

Image courtesy of ION Energy

THE TECH

Linear Labs raises $4.5 million to market its electric motor Electric motor manufacturer Linear Labs has closed a $4.5-million funding round to market its flagship motor, the Hunstable Electric Turbine.

The Hunstable Electric Turbine uses multiple rotors.

Compared to available permanent magnet motors, Linear Labs says its motor produces twice the torque, three times the power density, two times the output and 10 percent more range.

“This is a major accomplishment by an electric motor, which supersedes other commercially available electric propulsion units,” said Babak Fahimi, Founding Director of the Renewable Energy and Vehicular Technology Laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas. “I believe that the deployment and commercialization of the Hunstable Electric Turbine will result in substantial leaps in terms of energy savings, reliability enhancement and low-cost manufacturing.”

“The Hunstable Electric Turbine motor has variable speed and twice the torque while using less voltage, which means it can help electric cars have better range and reduced productions costs and switch ACs to singlestage motors that shut on and off to hold a temperature,” said Peter Pham, co-founder of Science Inc., which participated in the funding round.

Image courtesy of LORD

LORD expands CoolTherm facility with €14-million investment Automotive supplier LORD has announced plans to expand its facility in Hückelhoven, Germany, with a €14-million investment. The Hückelhoven facility produces thermal management products for EVs and other industries, including gap fillers, potting, encapsulants, and thermal adhesives, under the CoolTherm brand.

LORD expects the expansion to add over 20 employees to the 70 currently working at the Hückelhoven facility.

A new adjacent facility will add an extra 3,200 meters of production and office space, and is expected to be completed by mid-2020.

“We have a strong focus on the electric vehicle market and the trend toward electrification,” said LORD CEO Ed Auslander. “Currently LORD solutions are on nearly every vehicle in the world. This strategic investment in our Hückelhoven facility will further grow our presence in the EV market while supporting OEMs and enabling them to meet launch timelines.”

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VW and Northvolt form European Battery Union to advance EU battery research VW and Swedish battery maker Northvolt will lead a new consortium called the European Battery Union (EBU), which aims to push battery research forward in Europe.

Through the EBU, the partners plan to research the entire battery value stream, from raw materials through cell technology to recycling. The group’s prime objective is to accumulate broader know-how on battery cell production.

Research activities will also focus on the development and engineering of plant technologies that allow sustainable, climate-friendly and competitive battery cell production in the EU. VW says all consortium partners will step up investments for the planned research, and funding could also include support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

Partners will share all results of the consortium’s research work, which should start at the beginning of 2020.

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Transphorm’s latest GaN transistor passes automotive qualification Semiconductor provider Transphorm has announced that its third-generation high-voltage gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistor (FET) has passed AEC-Q101 stress tests for automotive-grade discrete semiconductors. The transistor targets EV applications including on-board chargers, DC-DC converters, and DC-AC inverter systems.

Transphorm’s new FET, the TP65H035WSQA, performed at 175° C during AEC-Q101 qualification testing, which the company says will give design engineers ample thermal headroom when developing power systems.

In addition to AEC-Q101 qualification, the FET is also JEDEC-certified.

“Proving device quality and reliability is perhaps the most critical factor influencing customer confidence in high-voltage GaN FETs – particularly in the automotive and electric vehicle markets,” said Transphorm’s Philip Zuk. “To that end, we ensure that our GaN maintains its performance and reliability even in real-world conditions that may be far harsher than what mission profiles call for. As shown by the published reliability data, our JEDEC-qualified Gen III platform has a Field Failure FIT rate of 3, which is in line with that of silicon carbide.

It’s this high reliability level that allowed Transphorm to release a Gen III automotive FET at 175° C.”

Image courtesy of Transphorm

Image courtesy of Northvolt

THE TECH

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THE TECH

OXIS Energy to build lithiumsulfur battery plant in Brazil Battery manufacturer OXIS Energy will establish a plant in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, for the mass production of its lithium-sulfur (Li-S) cells, which will be used for aviation, defense, and EV applications. The construction of the plant was funded by Codemge Participacoes, a public company in Belo Horizonte, for $60 million.

The plant will aim to produce 5 million Li-S cells per year by the mid-2020s. Phase 1 of the plant, to be completed in 2022, will aim for a capacity of 2 million cells per year. The cells have a theoretical specific energy of 2,600 Wh/kg, though so far OXIS has achieved only 400 Wh/kg. The company is targeting 500 Wh/kg for 2019.

OXIS will pursue two types of ultra-light Li-S cells, each with a nominal voltage of 2.1 V and capacity of 20 Ah. The first, a high-energy-density cell with over 500 Wh/kg, will be used for small electric aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and high-altitude pseudo-satellites. The second, a high-power cell with over 400 Wh/kg, will be used for EV applications and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

“The decision made by Codemge to invest alongside OXIS to develop and build the first ever lithium-sulfur cell technology manufacturing plant is of great significance to the widespread adoption of pure electric vehicles for worldwide consumption,” said OXIS CEO Huw Hampson-Jones.

20

Williams Advanced Engineering creates cheaper carbon composites Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), a UK-based tech and engineering firm, says it is working on new carbon composites that offer comparable performance to existing options, but at a cost that brings them within reach of mainstream applications.

WAE says carbon fiber reinforced polymer’s high strength-to-weight ratio, stiffness, and resistance to fatigue and its environment make it a good choice for a variety of industries and applications, especially the automotive industry, in which lightweighting is seen as a primary tool to meet increasingly stringent fuel economy targets, and to support the range required from EVs. Despite these benefits, WAE says, a number of factors have held back the mass adoption of CFRP – most notably cost.

These challenges have seen the application of CFRP largely confined to niche applications. In the automotive sector, for example, a body-in-white structure produced with traditional composite techniques is typically around 60% lighter than steel, yet around 20 times more expensive. The company says this has limited its application to low-volume/high-cost vehicles, or situations in which the vehicle manufacturer subsidizes the process as part of its learning around new technologies.

WAE hopes two of its new technologies, known as 223 and Racetrak, can usher in a major change in the affordability of composite materials.

WAE Technical Director Paul McNamara said, “We are focusing our expertise on energy management, aerodynamics, thermodynamics and lightweighting. As tools for efficiency improvement, these are all highly synergistic, so considering them as an integrated system allows us to increase significantly the total benefits.”

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The DOE has launched a lithium-ion battery recycling center, the ReCell Center, at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The ReCell Center’s goal is to develop profitable methods to dramatically improve battery recycling rates. DOE will fund the ReCell Center with $15 million over three years.

The ReCell Center will have four key focus areas: the development of direct cathode recycling, in which products can go directly into new batteries without reprocessing; the development of technologies to recycle additional battery materials, creating additional revenue streams; the development of new battery designs, optimized for easy recycling; and the development of modeling and analysis tools, to direct and validate the center’s research.

The ReCell Center will serve as a collaboration space for researchers from industry, academia, and other government laboratories. Collaborators include Argonne, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of California at San Diego, Michigan Technological University, and industry representatives including battery manufacturers, automotive OEMs, recycling centers, battery lifecycle management services, and material suppliers.

“The ReCell Center will help expedite the pursuit to profitable lithium-ion battery recycling,” said Jeff Spangenberger, Director of the ReCell Center. “It combines the nation’s leading experts and research tools from academia, industry and government laboratories to solve science challenges that have prevented the US from reaping the economic, environmental and security benefits that come with having a large commercial US-based lithium-ion recycling market.”

Klaric releases high-voltage measurement module for EVs Klaric, a provider of measurement and inspection technology, has announced the KLARI-QUAD2 measurement module for EVs and hybrids. The KLARI-QUAD2 provides galvanic isolation of 1,500 volts DC to enable current, voltage, and temperature measurements in EVs. The KLARI-QUAD2 includes an Auto-Range function to automatically use the best input range for a measured signal. It can also automatically switch the sampling rate when a threshold is exceeded or undershot. The KLARIQUAD2 includes functions for calculating the average, moving average, RMS, frequency, power, and work of AC and DC signals.

Image courtesy of Klaric

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Klaric’s HVI/U-COMBI-PROBE allows for current and voltage to be measured simultaneously on a single input. The KLARI-QUAD2 recognizes when a Klaric probe is plugged in and reads out the probe type and calibration values.

Five NATO countries field-test Epsilor 6T Li-ion battery as lead-acid replacement in military vehicles Epsilor, a developer and manufacturer of mobile energy products for defense and aerospace, showcased the latest version of its 6T NATO-standard Li-ion battery at the recent International Armoured Vehicles show in London.

Industrial clients and armed forces in five NATO nations are currently performing field tests on the 6T. The Israeli Defense Forces recently completed a 12-month evaluation of the Epsilor 6T in various climate and field conditions.

Epsilor’s Li-ion product line is intended to replace traditional lead-acid batteries. Designed as a drop-in replacement for next-generation armored vehicles, the 6T boasts four times the energy and half the weight of similarly sized lead-acid batteries.

Epsilor currently offers the 6T as a 4,300 Wh battery, and is developing a LiFePO4 2,000 Wh version.

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Image courtesy of UpScale

Image courtesy of Epsilor

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EU offers $4.5 million grant to UpScale Project for AI in EV development UpScale, an EU project aimed at using AI for more efficient EV production, has received a €4 million ($4.5 million) grant from the European Commission to develop computer simulations to aid in the development of EVs. UpScale (Upscaling Product development Simulation Capabilities exploiting Artificial intelligence for Electrified vehicles) consists of 11 companies and European entities representing the automobile, software, engineering, and research sectors.

Taking place over the next three and a half years, the project expects to reduce EV development time by 20 percent by applying AI to aerodynamic and crash simulations. Funding for UpScale is being offered through the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

AI has shown promise for increasing EV efficiency.

In March, researchers at MIT, Stanford, and Toyota published a paper detailing how a machine-learning algorithm can accurately predict the life cycle of Li-ion batteries (see page 12). And in February, the DOE announced plans to offer $30 million for new data science approaches, including AI and machine learning, to accelerate discoveries in energy-related chemistry and materials sciences.

Image courtesy of YASA

Motor maker YASA launches 200 kVA controller YASA, a UK manufacturer of axial-flux electric motors, has announced availability of the first in a new series of motor controllers for EVs and PHEVs. The Si400 controller delivers 200 kVA from a 5-liter package.

The 12.8 lb controller features thermal management, including dielectric oil cooling, and is compatible with induction, permanent magnet and axial-flux electric motors.

YASA CEO Chris Harris said, “With this new series of controllers, we’re responding to our customers’ demand for increased flexibility in powertrain design. The first release in the series, the Si400, is significantly smaller and lighter than competitive products, and when coupled with our axial-flux motors enables significant improvements in vehicle performance, range and cost.”

Image courtesy of Wieland Group

Image courtesy of Bel Power Solutions

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Bel introduces 25 kW on-board Wieland Group and Wolverine charger for off-grid industrial Tube join forces on highlyand mining operations efficient electronics cooling Bel Power Solutions, a manufacturer of power management devices, is now manufacturing a 25 kW on-board battery charger for industrial, construction, and mining applications. The charger, known as the BCN25-700-8, converts 3-phase AC voltage to DC voltage. It measures 20.63 x 13.39 x 3.31 inches and weighs 42.77 pounds.

The enclosure is made of aluminum alloy and is liquid-cooled.

The battery charger features 3-phase input voltage from 460 VAC to 575 VAC (line to line) and output voltage from 250 VDC to 800 VDC, 37.5 A, with galvanic isolation between the input and output. The product is compliant with SAE J1939 for CAN bus communication, and the case is IP65 and IP57 compliant. Bel says EV charging for industrial, construction, and mining applications doesn’t require a neutral. The company also emphasizes that the charger is designed for industrial environments and is not intended to connect to any public grid.

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The Wieland Group entered into a joint venture agreement with Wolverine Tube to form Wieland Microcool, a global technology provider for highly efficient electronics cooling applications.

The newly formed company operates facilities in the US and China to serve the rapidly growing global demand for liquid cooling solutions in power semiconductors in a variety of applications including EVs, autonomous vehicles, renewable energy and data centers. “With its proprietary Micro Deformation Technology, Wieland Microcool will be able to offer the market ultra-compact, high performance coldplate, heatsink and baseplate designs that offer excellent heat transfer coefficients coupled with homogeneous uniform cooling and low pressure drop. Wieland Microcool is perfectly positioned to meet the demanding and further increasing cooling requirements for high power densities in power electronics and semiconductors,� said Sy-Jenq Loong, General Manager of Wieland Microcool.

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THE (SOMETIMES PROFUSELY) BLEEDING EDGE:

SiC vs GaN

SEMICONDUCTORS TECH OPINION By Jeffrey Jenkins

J

ust as engineers are starting to get used to the advantages (and quirks) of silicon carbide (SiC ) devices, another semiconductor material joins the fray: gallium nitride, or GaN. Though there are some superficial similarities between these two materials, and even some overlap in their areas of best use, it is my opinion that only one of them is going to see widespread application in EV power converters such as chargers, inverters, etc.

SiC and GaN are both classified as wide band-gap and compound semiconductor materials. The latter classification just means they are comprised of different elements, and is all but irrelevant here, but the wide band-gap classification does have profound implications for device behavior and performance. This is because the term band gap basically describes how difficult it is to get a material to conduct electricity without having to ionize

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Band gap basically describes how difficult it is to get a material to conduct electricity without having to ionize it first (that is, turn it into plasma).

it first (that is, turn it into plasma). More specifically, it is a measure of the amount of energy (given in electronvolts, or eV) that it takes to promote an electron in the outermost valence of an atom to what is called the conduction band (hence the term band gap). The band-gap energy of metals is effectively 0 eV, so they are good conductors - electrons can easily pop out of the outer valence to the conduction band or vice versa - whereas materials with a band-gap energy of around 4 eV or higher are considered to be insulators.

Materials with a band-gap energy between those two extremes are, of course, considered semiconductors, with an approximate value of 1.14 eV for Si, 2.3 to 3.3 eV for SiC and 3.4 eV for GaN. It might appear, then, that wide band-gap materials like SiC and GaN are at a disadvantage compared to Si simply because they are much closer to being insulators than conductors. While it is true that a SiC or GaN device with a given die area and thickness will exhibit a higher bulk resistivity (and therefore on-resistance) than a comparable Si device, the wider band gap means their dice can be much thinner for the same voltage rating.

The thinner dice have lower on-resistance, and lower thermal resistance too. Another related advantage to a wide band gap is that leakage current starts off lower and increases much more slowly with a rise in temperature (in more technical terms, the spontaneous generation of charge carriers from heat is reduced). These materials can also withstand higher operating temperatures (even if their die attach solder or packaging can’t!), which, when combined with the lower leakage and thermal resistance, means they can handle a lot more power for a given device size.

While GaN really is a new material for any kind of

use, starting with blue LEDs in the late 1980s, SiC has been used as an abrasive for over a century (in this context, it’s also referred to as carborundum), and it even had a brief stint as the crystal detector in early radios, followed by use in yellow, then blue, LEDs (until GaN supplanted it). GaN is entirely man-made, but SiC can be found in nature as the mineral moissanite - but good luck finding any, as it only forms under the same extreme conditions that produce diamonds. GaN has roughly the same thermal conductivity as Si-based semiconductors, while SiC is over twice as good at conducting heat (slightly better than copper, in fact). SiC also has a relatively low thermal coefficient of expansion, which makes it less prone to damage from high temperatures and thermal cycling.

All in all, SiC seems like an ideal semiconductor material, but there is one catch: it can form a bewildering array of crystal structures (called polytypes), each of which has slightly different physical properties, including the all-important band-gap energy. Unsurprisingly, this can make producing SiC semiconductor devices a bit of a challenge, but as manufacturers gain more experience with the vagaries of this material, they should continue to improve yields and lower pricing.

That said, SiC still commands quite a premium over similarly-rated Si parts, so it is best deployed where there is no Si equivalent, such as 1,200 V MOSFETs with drainsource resistances under 200 milliOhms or 600 V to 1,200 V Schottky barrier rectifiers, especially in high-powerboost power factor correction converters, in which any time spent in reverse recovery by the output diode generates considerable losses, as well as increased stress on the boost switch. GaN is really too new to address on an economic basis - a perusal of Mouser’s website shows just

These materials can also withstand higher operating temperatures, which, when combined with the lower leakage and thermal resistance, means they can handle a lot more power for a given device size.

MAY/JUN 2019

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Whether a premium in price is worth it depends on the advantages a particular technology delivers, and the value proposition for SiC, at least, is very compelling.

14 parts in stock at the time of this writing - but switches made from it command an even higher premium than does SiC for the same voltage and current rating.

Whether a premium in price is worth it depends on the advantages a particular technology delivers, and the value proposition for SiC, at least, is very compelling, especially for devices rated 650 V or higher. Sure, there are the “SuperJunction” Si-MOSFETs that can achieve very respectable on-resistance values in the 600 V to 900 V range, but at 1,200 V there is simply no comparison anymore: SiC blows away Si, and manufacturers are even now rolling out 1,700 V rated parts, which Si doesn’t even try to compete with. GaN should be capable of a similar voltage rating vs conduction loss figure of merit, but the GaN switches available so far seem to be rated for 650 V or lower. GaN can switch much faster than SiC or Si - 10 ns rise/fall time, with minimal turn-on/turn-off delays, too - but this may be a problem masquerading as a solution, as switching 300 V or more this rapidly results in massive amounts of ringing, voltage overshoots and RFI/EMI. The RFI/EMI issue may very well be insurmountable when practical considerations such as, say, passing electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) testing is are factored in. The wise (or the battle-scarred) know that nothing ruins a development schedule and budget quite like failing EMC testing so badly that you have to do a total mechanical and electrical redesign.

There are other peculiarities of each of these new materials that can also trap the inexperienced (or unwary).

The first is the difference in behavior of the intrinsic (aka “body”) diode that is found in both Si and SiC MOSFETs (but not in GaN switches). This diode is a pn junction type formed as a consequence of the way these

30

GaN Transconductance Curves modern vertical-structure power/switching MOSFETs are constructed. The body diode is infamous for being slow in the Si-MOSFET - taking 300 ns or longer to turn off - so engineers learn to set up circuit conditions so that it either does not ever conduct, or at least, does not have to endure high dV/dt when reverse voltage is reapplied. The body diodes in SiC MOSFETs are considerably faster, however, with reverse recovery times that would give a hyperfast discrete pn diode a run for its money (60 ns or less). One might naively assume that there’s no need to worry about reverse recovery losses (or outright failure) from body diode conduction in the SiC MOSFET, but take a closer look at the forward voltage spec in the datasheet and you’ll likely rethink that assumption: 2.5 V to 3.5 V (or more)! As a result, overall losses might be higher than expected when using SiC MOSFETs in circuits in which body diode conduction is inevitable (such as bridge and two-switch forward or flyback converters). Other than that one caveat, SiC MOSFETs (and Schottky diodes) are compelling choices, especially when operating at high bus voltages (>600 V) and/or temperatures (>100° C).

In contrast, GaN definitely has some gotchas to watch out for, and this technology is just too new for most engineers to have had any experience with it. Complicating matters is the fact that different structures have been employed to make GaN switches with equally different functional (and pathological) behaviors. The first thing to note, though, is that GaN switches are not MOSFETs,

GaN Switch Structure even though they use the same terminal names and behave similarly (though not exactly the same, as we’ll soon see). In fact, the first GaN switches (formally referred to as HEMTs, for High Electron Mobility Transistors) had more in common with JFETs as they operated in depletion mode - that is, they were normally on with 0 V applied to the gate - and the gate would conduct significant current if forward-biased too much, leading to device destruction. Depletion mode operation is intrinsically unsafe in most power converter circuits for the obvious reason that one generally doesn’t want their switches to be turned on by default, but to enable enhancement mode operation requires building the GaN switch on top of a silicon substrate (to incorporate a control MOSFET). This complicates the manufacturing process, but it results in a switch that power electronics engineers will at least consider using.

Although GaN switches don’t have a body diode, they will still conduct current in the reverse direction when off, and with a diode-like characteristic, except that the voltage drop is the sum of the gate threshold voltage and the voltage biasing the gate. Note, then, that biasing the gate with a negative voltage will increase the voltage drop during reverse conduction! Since negative gate bias is practically a requirement for reliable operation of IGBTs and MOSFETs at high power, in order to counteract spurious turn-on via the “Miller” capacitance (that is, the parasitic capacitance between the gate and drain terminals), this can be quite a gotcha, indeed. GaN switches do exhibit much lower parasitic capacitances overall - a major reason they are so fast - but they also

have a relatively low gate threshold voltage compared to Si or Si-C MOSFETs (and IGBTs have higher thresholds still). Whether the reduction in Miller capacitance is sufficient to counteract the lower threshold (and faster switching speed) will likely have to be evaluated on a device-by-device basis, and, while slowing the switching speed down will also help, that sort of eliminates the primary reason for choosing GaN over any other technology.

Finally, GaN switches are very particular about how their gates are driven, though the current generation is much improved in this respect compared to the first devices that were made commercially available in 2010.

The biggest issue is that there isn’t much margin between the threshold and maximum allowed voltages for the gate, the latter being 6 to 10 V, depending on the manufacturer. Also, the current through the drainsource channel is strongly dependent on gate voltage - much more so even than in IGBTs, and also way more so than in MOSFETs. This could be a plus or a minus in that deliberately under-driving the gate will limit fault current - much as the desaturation mechanism in IGBTs does - but this results in higher conduction losses overall, which, again, defeats one of the reasons for selecting GaN in the first place. In the end, SiC is plenty fast enough for any power conversion application in an EV, and its overall higher ruggedness is a real plus, too. GaN is really too fast for its own good here, and seems better positioned to applications in which space is at a premium, and where MHz switching speeds can actually be used, for example in low-voltage DC-DC converters.

MAY/JUN 2019

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EVS ARE DRIVING BATTERY TECHNOLOGY, AND

NOVONIX IS PAVING THE ROAD B

atteries are ubiquitous in our modern lives.

Take a look around you and count how many items need be plugged in and recharged. If you’re at your desk, the answer might be four or five. If you’re out for a run, perhaps two or three. If you’re in a garage, there may only be one, but it’s a big one: your electric vehicle.

In fact, despite the ubiquity of battery technology, it’s EVs that are driving the industry forward because of the sizeable batteries required. When battery makers consider this growth, along with the capacity requirements of EVs compared to consumer devices like laptops, they see a clear direction in which to turn their efforts.

“The primary growth in batteries is being driven by EVs, there’s no question about that,” said Phillip St Baker, Managing Director of battery company Novonix.

Novonix was founded in Canada in 2013 to bring high-performance battery testing equipment out of the lab and into the hands of battery manufacturers. The company’s founders, Chris Burns and David Stevens, were part of a battery research group at the Dalhousie University in Halifax that was led by the renowned bat-

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Battery testing start-up Novonix has spun off PUREgraphite to manufacture anode material in the US

By Paul Beck

Image courtesy of Novonix

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How are we going to...do research on materials and cell designs that are going to impact batteries that need to last 10+ years?

tery expert Jeff Dahn. There, they helped develop testing technology to respond to the changing needs of the battery industry. The battery requirements of EVs are different from those of other industries, so with EVs on the rise, battery manufacturers had to adapt.

A primary requirement of EV batteries is long life, St Baker explained. “Historical battery production was centered around your personal devices: laptops, cordless equipment, which doesn’t require as long a life as EV and grid storage.”

“The big question that we asked ourselves at the time was: How are we going to...do research on materials and cell designs that are going to impact batteries that need to last 10+ years?” said Burns, now the CEO of Novonix. “As the market was changing from consumer electronic cells to electric vehicle and energy storage cells, this was the big question.”

MAY/JUN 2019

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The answer to that question lay in what is Novonix’s flagship product today: high-precision coulometry technology.

Novonix equipment was designed to minimize the sources of error in these coulometry measurements.

HPC technology The technology Burns and Stevens helped develop at Dalhousie was called high-precision coulometry, or HPC. Coulometry is a measurement technique that can be used to determine the performance of battery cells, but at the time, there were no coulometry systems that could compare the high-performance cells needed for EV applications. The testing methods that were available were both imprecise and slow.

“We developed equipment that could measure the efficiency of the battery in the early cycles much more accurately than traditional equipment,” Burns explained. “And what that allowed us to do was measure the stability of the chemistry and the rate of degradation of the chemistry in only a matter of a few weeks, whereas [with] traditional testing you’d have to run the battery for six months or a year or longer.”

Novonix says the improvement in equipment performance comes from both the hardware design with turn-key systems and in the analysis software. The company offers equipment that was designed to minimize the sources of error in these coulometry measurements as well as different thermal chambers that can be integrated into the systems for precise temperature control of the batteries on test.

This technology made it possible to accelerate the development of new battery designs, allowing manufacturers to iterate more quickly to find longer-lasting designs.

“When scientists around the world are changing chemistries, trying

Autonomous vehicles require batteries with lasting power.

Chris Burns, Novonix CEO

to select better materials to go in their batteries, or making tweaks to the design of their batteries, our technology helps them get verification about the effectiveness of those changes...in weeks, rather than waiting for up to a year or more,” said St Baker.

Novonix was born out of the clear market value that Burns and Stevens saw in their HPC technology.

“Enough big companies came knocking on the door that we decided to start the company and build this technology,” Burns said.

Starting the company turned out to be a smart move. Novonix currently sells its HPC technology to high-profile customers around the globe, including the top five battery manufacturers in the world: Panasonic, CATL, LG, Samsung, and SK Innovation.

Visualization of the temperature profile in a liquidcooled Li-ion battery pack.

The stage of the load cycle, potential, local concentration, temperature, and direction of the current all affect the aging and degradation of a battery cell. This is important to consider when developing autonomous vehicles (AVs), which rely on a large number of electronic components to function.

When designing long-lasting batteries that are powerful enough to keep up with energy demands, engineers can turn to simulation.

The COMSOL Multiphysics® software is used for simulating designs, devices, and processes in all fields of engineering, manufacturing, and scientific research. See how you can apply it to optimizing battery designs for self-driving cars. comsol.blog/autonomous-vehicle-batteries

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We expect to be the first significant player outside of Asia providing an alternative supply of premium end graphite anode material for the battery market.

Other batter manufacturers are “lining up,” according to St Baker. But it’s not just battery makers buying Novonix’s testing equipment. Automakers and electronics manufacturers also buy Novonix technology to help them evaluate the best batteries for their products.

“All major battery makers and all companies starting to spend time heavily on battery R&D are buying Novonix’s flagship HPC technology,” St Baker said.

PUREgraphite Novonix’s success in selling its HPC technology prompted the company to dive even further into the battery industry. In a joint venture with the battery consulting company Coulometrics, Novonix established a company called PUREgraphite to develop and manufacture anode materials for the EV battery market.

“We expect to be the first significant player outside of Asia providing an alternative supply of premium end graphite anode material for the battery market,” St Baker said.

PUREgraphite says that its material is easily processed from powder into battery electrodes which result in cells with high capacity and long life, both of which are critical requirements to the growing EV and ESS markets. With proprietary manufacturing processes, PUREgraphite can deliver this material to customers cheaper than the current price of competitive materials coming from Asia.

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Based in Tennessee, the company is in the midst of building its first manufacturing plant, which it expects to be operating at commercial levels by this summer. According to St Baker, PUREgraphite’s anode material has been tested both internally and externally to be up to EV standards.

“We’ve confirmed...that this material is as good as any other material in the market or better. So it performs very well,” he said.

That material may soon be even better, thanks to Novonix’s recent return to its research roots. In October 2018, the company signed a partnership with Dalhousie University to sponsor one of its battery research groups.

That sponsorship has already begun to pay off, as Novonix has filed its first patent for silicon-infused graphite developed by the Dalhousie team.

“For years and years, companies have been trying to put silicon into graphite to give the battery more capacity,” explained St Baker. “But the problem is the silicon expands and contracts and damages the graphite and [shortens] battery life. So this has been an ongoing problem that the industry has been dealing with. The guys working for us in Dalhousie have managed to get the silicon inside the graphite particles. Not only do they get the silicon inside the particles, but they do it in a manner which is very cheap.”

The results of that research should come to light within the next few months. In the meantime, Novonix is in the process of filing a second patent that’s focused on battery cathodes rather than anodes.

Images courtesy of Novonix

Long live batteries Today, Novonix is divided into two main parts: battery technology and battery materials. The original HPC technology that spawned the company has found its way into the hands of key players around the globe, and Novonix can only hope the same will happen for its forthcoming graphite anode materials. The company plans to have production capability of a thousand tons of material this year, and someday it hopes to hit one hundred thousand tons per year.

After all, if the EV industry continues at its current pace, we’re going to need as many batteries as we can get.

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Electric cars are now officially S3XY. Tesla revealed the final component of Elon Musk’s suggestive orthographic adventure with the usual sound-and-light show at the Hawthorne Design Studio.

There were few surprises, other than the fact that Tesla will offer an optional 7-seat configuration. The Y’s form factor is both practical (it’s smaller than the X, but apparently offers more usable cargo capacity than the 3) and stylish (don’t call it a hatchback – according to Tesla, it’s a mid-sized SUV – and whatever you do, do not mention that it looks just like a Prius).

Tesla has said that Model Y shares about 75 percent of its components with Model 3, which should allow a cheaper and faster production ramp, and that the new vehicle will “most likely” be manufactured at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.

Model Y boasts a 0.23 drag coefficient and 66 cubic feet of cargo space. It will offer up to 300 miles of range, a 0-60 time as low as 3.5 seconds and a top speed of up to 150 mph.

“It has the functionality of an SUV, but it will ride like

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Photos courtesy of Tesla

Tesla Model Y electric crossover revealed – deliveries to begin in fall 2020

a sports car, so this thing will be really tight on corners,” said Elon Musk. “This will be the safest mid-sized SUV by far.”

Musk also implied that Model Y will have all the hardware required for full self-driving functionality: “The cool thing is, it’s ‘feature complete’…It will be able to do basically anything just with software upgrades.”

Deliveries of the $47,000 Long Range version, with 300 miles of range, along with the $60,000 Performance version, are expected to begin in fall 2020. The $39,000 Standard Range variant, with 230 miles of range, is promised for spring 2021.

The Model Y online design studio is now open, and buyers can place an order with a $2,500 deposit.

THE VEHICLES

Québec-based EV manufacturer The Lion Electric Company has launched an electric Class 8 urban truck, the Lion8. The truck, funded in part by the Québec government’s Climate Change Action Plan, will be commercialized this fall.

The Lion8 will have a range of 250 miles, and was designed for North American weather and road conditions.

The truck has pre-orders from buyers including Société des Alcools du Québec, which is set to receive the first truck.

“The government is pleased to have contributed $8.6 million to the success of this promising initiative and to have contributed to the electrification of transportation in Québec,” said Pierre Fitzgibbon, Québec’s Minister of

Image courtesy of Lion Electric

Lion launches Class 8 urban electric truck

Economy and Innovation. “The Lion Electric Company and its partners TM4, AddÉnergie Technologies, and Solution Centum Adetel Transportation have combined their efforts and expertise to develop a zero-emission heavy-duty truck that demonstrates Québec’s leadership in innovation and sustainable development.”

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NYC to expand zero-emission fleet with 15 New Flyer e-buses New York City Transit has announced it will add 15 New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE low-floor, sixty-foot electric heavy-duty transit buses to its transportation fleet. Each bus will include New Flyer’s CONNECT 360 business analytics and reporting tool, which is designed to optimize performance and operations.

The order supports NYCT’s efforts to develop a cleaner public transportation footprint, and follows previously-announced plans to fully electrify its entire fleet by 2040.

As part of the contract, New Flyer will also provide installation, testing and commissioning of 16 Siemens 150 kW interoperable chargers through its recently-formed Infrastructure Solutions service.

Chris Stoddart, President of New Flyer, said, “Across NFI Group, we’ve delivered more than 2,500 buses to NYCT, with over 1,100 MCI coaches and 1,400 New Flyer transit buses connecting New York City and its surrounding boroughs and communities.”

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XL produces plug-in hybrid Ford F-250 pickup XL, a Boston-based manufacturer of electric fleet vehicles, unveiled a plug-in hybrid Ford Super Duty F-250 pickup truck at the NTEA Work Truck Show in Indianapolis. This hybrid F-250 joins XL’s XLP Ford F-150, which the company began shipping in 2018.

XL reports that, on initial assessment, the XLP F-250 truck provides up to a 50% improvement in fuel economy over conventional factory F-250s and reduces GHG emissions by 33% during normal operation. XL notes these numbers are consistent with what the PHEV F-150 has achieved at EPA-certified testing facilities.

The XLP F-250 features a 15 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. The entire hybrid powertrain system weighs 750 pounds, and is mounted onto existing factory components. XL notes that the XLP F-250 has no effect on Ford factory warranties, and requires no special maintenance procedures or charging infrastructure enhancements.

XL says the truck is scheduled to begin shipping to customers before the end of 2019.

XL CEO Tod Hynes said, “The fleet industry is looking for ways to electrify their trucks now, without adding significant infrastructure costs or range concerns for their drivers.”

Image courtesy of SERES

SF Motors changes name to SERES, opens pre-orders for EV crossover SF Motors is now SERES. The rechristened EV-maker began taking pre-orders for its crossover EV, the SF5, in April.

The crossover will be available in two variants. The SF5 EV will feature 510 kW of maximum power, 1,040 Nm of torque, a top speed of 155 mph, and a 3.5-second 0-to-60 time. The SF5 EVR includes a range-extending engine, and will offer a top speed of 143 mph, and a 4.8-second 0-to-60 time.

The SF5 is being produced at the Jinkang SERES Intelligent Factory in China. Customers will be able to order the SF5 and track delivery progress via the SERES web site.

Image courtesy of Irizar

Image courtesy of Faraday Future

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Irizar develops electric truck with CNG range extender for waste collection Spanish bus manufacturer Irizar introduced its new Irizar ie electric truck at the recent Sustainable Urban Mobility Congress in Bilbao, Spain. The showcased model is 8 meters (26 feet) long, and has a carrying capacity of 18 tons.

Irizar designed the ie truck for industrial use in urban and inter-urban settings. It says varying body styles can be installed with little adaptation.

Irizar partnered on the R&D with the FCC Group, a Spanish construction and environmental services company. Together, the two firms produced a prototype vehicle equipped with side-loading bodywork for waste collection, which Irizar hopes to introduce into the market in the coming months. Irizar says it’s currently developing more variations of the electric model.

The ie truck features regenerative braking and a CNG range extender. It also includes a lane departure warning system (LDWS) and emergency assisted braking (AEBS).

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Faraday Future signs $600-million agreement with Chinese game company The9 The9, a Chinese online game company, has signed a joint venture agreement with California EV startup Faraday Future to manufacture and sell the company’s EVs in China.

The immediate goal of the agreement is to manufacture and sell Faraday Future’s V9 model, a luxury vehicle to be based on Faraday’s first production vehicle.

Under the agreement, The9 will provide $600 million of funding in three equal installments. Faraday will provide use rights to its land in China for manufacturing, and will grant The9 an exclusive license to manufacture, market, distribute and sell the V9, and potentially other models in China.

The9 and Faraday will each have 50% ownership of the venture, and The9 will control the business operations.

Faraday Future CEO YT Jia commented, “This is only the beginning of a series of strategic actions for Faraday, all designed to support the completion and launch of its ‘new species’ FF 91 EV in 2019, and continue development of the mass-market premium model FF 81 in both China and the United States.”

EV startup Canoo to build subscription-only mobility model

Los Angeles-based Canoo (formerly Evelozcity), plans to make EVs available via a subscription-based model.

Canoo hopes to offer four EVs in select cities by subscription only. In an effort to reduce design and production costs, it plans to use a single standardized EV platform. The company also says it will replace the traditional three-box car design, which has separate compartments for the engine, passengers and luggage, with a design that maximizes interior space.

Canoo also announced a handful of new hires, including Clemens Schmitz-Justen, former President of BMW Manufacturing, and Olivier Belllin, formerly of STMicroelectronics, a Swiss manufacturer of semiconductors.

The company plans to launch its first vehicle in the US in 2021, followed by a model for China.

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THE VEHICLES

Image courtesy of Complete Coach Works

China slashes EV subsidies

Complete Coach Works introduces a 466 kWh battery pack for transit buses Complete Coach Works (CCW), a California company that offers repairs and upgrades for both fossil-fueled and electric transit buses and coaches, has announced an optional, larger 466 kWh onboard energy storage system for its Zero Emission Propulsion System (ZEPS).

The larger battery pack is paired with a liquid-cooled all-electric drive system and a permanent magnet synchronous motor.

CCW says there are more than 50 ZEPS buses deployed in service in the US. Operators can opt to purchase newly refurbished buses from CCW’s inventory or have their existing fleets converted to all-electric.

CCW Director Brad Carson said, “We were able to keep the battery pack light, which improves vehicle reliability and efficiency. This upgrade will give agencies the extended range they need on a single charge.”

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China has announced substantial cuts to existing subsidies for EV purchases. The subsidy for pure EVs with ranges of 400 kilometers (250 miles) and above will be halved, to 25,000 yuan ($3,700) per vehicle, the Chinese Ministry of Finance said (via Bloomberg). The minimum range to qualify for any subsidy will also be raised from 150 km to 250 km.

The government warned late last year that it would reduce the subsidies in 2019, and phase them out completely after 2020, citing concerns that automakers’ reliance on subsidies has made them slow to develop new technologies and better vehicles. However, the recently announced cuts were deeper than expected, which caused share prices of Chinese EV manufacturers to falter.

In response to the news, BAIC BluePark said that it may raise vehicle prices. BYD, however, says it’s prepared to adapt to the new market conditions, and that manufacturing scale and an edge in technology make it resistant to risk.

US-listed ADRs for EV startup NIO, one of the few Chinese EV firms that US investors can easily invest in, slid on the news, continuing a decline that began earlier in March when the company reported disappointing earnings.

“While the incumbent OEMs will see some earnings damage, we consider NIO the most vulnerable of all,” wrote Bernstein Analyst Robin Zhu. “Despite struggling for demand, the company recently indicated it won’t reduce prices to offset lower EV subsidies. Today’s subsidy cuts mean NIO’s cars just got meaningfully more expensive for consumers.”

The finance ministry is also encouraging Chinese cities and provinces to abolish subsidies on purchases of EVs, including buses and trucks, after a three-month grace period. The elimination of incentives from local governments, combined with the announced cuts in federal subsidies, will result in a total reduction of about 67 percent, Jefferies Analyst Patrick Yuan told Bloomberg – a far more drastic cut than the 40 or 50 percent the stock market was expecting.

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The Canadian government has released a new budget that includes a $5,000 incentive for EV purchases (the provinces of Québec and British Columbia already offer incentive programs, and so did Ontario until a recently elected provincial government canceled them). However, the price of eligible vehicles is limited to $45,000, which excludes all currently available Tesla models.

The proposed budget reads (as reported by Electrek): “To encourage more Canadians to buy zero-emission vehicles, Budget 2019 proposes to provide $300 million over three years, starting in 2019-20, to Transport Canada to introduce a new federal purchase incentive of up to $5,000 for electric battery or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of less than $45,000. Program details to follow.”

The proposal would also make EVs “eligible for a full tax write-off in the year they are put in use,” a measure designed to encourage commercial fleet operators to hasten the transition to zero-emission vehicles.

The budget also includes new EVSE investment of $130 million over five years, as well as a program to encourage automakers to meet “voluntary zero-emission vehicle sales targets.”

As Electrek and many others have noted, purchase incentives are a blunt instrument – a carbon tax would be a much more efficient way to reduce emissions, and would allow the market to decide on the best ways to do so. Furthermore, the wisdom of the price limit is highly doubtful (Tesla recently played a round of cat-and-mouse with the German government over this issue). The self-evident argument that Tesla buyers don’t need tax breaks misses the point. Purchase incentives don’t just reward people who buy EVs – they also encourage automakers to build them. And, whereas middle-income buyers may see a LEAF as an alternative to a fuel-efficient Camry or Accord, high earners are more likely to be weighing a Tesla against a carbon-spewing BMW or Mercedes SUV. Be that as it may, political realities are much the same in Canada as in the US: politicians (and most voters) shun anything that’s called a tax, but usually welcome anything that’s called a tax break. And the evidence from around the world is clear: purchase incentives do tend to increase EV sales. So, we’ll take it, eh?

Image courtesy of Nicolas Raymond

Canada announces new $5,000 EV incentive – but no Teslas need apply

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Images courtesy of Maxwell Vehicles

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THE VEHICLES

Volvo adds 415 hp PHEV versions of its XC60 SUV and V60 wagon to 2020 lineup Volvo, which previously announced plans to offer electric powertrains across its entire model range, now says it will add PHEV variants of the XC60 SUV and new V60 wagon to its 2020 line-up. Both vehicles will be available in summer 2019 and will feature Volvo’s sporty Polestar Engineered trim.

The vehicles’ powertrain software has been optimized to provide faster access to torque and to focus additional power to the rear wheels. This optimization allows the T8 Twin Engine PHEV to produce 415 hp and 494 lb-ft of torque.

Vehicles with the Polestar Engineered trim, which includes both PHEVs, will also feature enhanced suspension from Swedish company Öhlins, as well as six-piston brake calipers and alloy wheels.

Volvo USA CEO Anders Gustafsson said, “Polestar Engineered modifications to the XC60 and V60 offer an additional dose of performance to an already powerful, responsive and efficient vehicle.”

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Maxwell Vehicles retrofits RAM ProMaster vans with plug-in powertrains What does a PHEV become when it grows up? And do we need yet another electrified-vehicle acronym? Technically, a hybrid with a plug is a PHEV, but some argue that a vehicle with a substantial electric range is a different animal. Chevy called its Volt an EREV, and Seattle-based startup Maxwell Vehicles is calling its plug-in cargo van conversion an RHEV (range-extended hybrid electric van).

Maxwell’s RHEV is a Dodge RAM ProMaster upfitted with a PHEV powertrain manufactured by GM (thus it’s a hybrid in more ways than one). It sports an 18 kWh battery pack and a 120 kW electric transaxle, and delivers 40 miles of electric range.

Maxwell sells built-to-order RHEVs, which can be made from new or refurbished ProMasters. The company also converts customers’ existing vans. Conversions start at $32,990, and new RHEVs start at $46,990.

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In 2018, at California’s Global Climate Action Summit, IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin announced a commitment to using EVs for the last-mile portion of all of its product shipments by 2025.

Now the Swedish retailer says it has already electrified all its local delivery vehicles in Shanghai, and plans to do the same in Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Amsterdam by 2020.

Collaboration is the key to making the transition so quickly, IKEA’s Head of Sustainable Mobility Angela Hultberg told GreenBiz’s Katie Fehrenbacher. “I think collaboration is one of the biggest lessons learned. We can’t do this by ourselves, and this can’t happen in isolation.”

IKEA doesn’t own its own delivery fleet – it relies on around 10,000 vehicles operated by delivery partners that include DHL, UPS and the Swedish and Danish postal service PostNord. For IKEA to realize its ambitious electrification plans, it needs to bring its fleet partners on board.

It’s not such a tough sell, because delivery firms around the world have been testing EVs for some years now, and the savings on fuel and maintenance costs are well documented. A 2018 report from the North American Council for Freight Efficiency found that medium-duty urban delivery vans are excellent candidates for electrification. “What is available today is good enough to start,” Hultberg said. “It’s already here.”

Delivery-industry heavyweights DHL, UPS and FedEx have been buying electric delivery vans for some time. DHL recently announced plans to roll out 63 NGEN-1000 electric delivery vans made by US manufacturer Workhorse. UPS ordered 950 N-GEN vans from Workhorse last June.

FedEx ordered 1,000 electric vans from California EV startup Chanje in November.

In Shanghai, IKEA worked with distribution partner Beiye New Brother Logistics and EV leasing company DST to develop an EV and charging platform. “It changed our ways of working a bit, but they were open to it,” said Hultberg. Beiye “was eager to go on this journey with us” and “wasn’t afraid of trying new ways.”

IKEA will continue to collaborate with partners as it electrifies the next four cities on the list, although it may not do things the same way it did in Shanghai. “There are four ways at least to solve this,” said Hultberg.

“There’s no blueprint solution.”

Fehrenbacher predicts that other large retailers will soon be getting charged. Etsy and Amazon are also exploring ways to reduce the carbon footprints of their shipping operations.

Images courtesy of IKEA

IKEA and delivery partners electrify last-mile delivery around the world

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THE VEHICLES

Image courtesy of BYD

Fiat Chrysler to pay Tesla hundreds of millions for European emissions credits

BYD launches the “world’s longest” electric bus Chinese automobile manufacturer BYD is launching the K12A, an 88.5-foot-long electric bus. The K12A has a passenger capacity of 250 and a top speed of about 43 mph. According to BYD, the K12A is the world’s longest battery-electric bus, and the first with a distributed 4WD system that can switch between 2WD and 4WD. The bus features DC and AC charging ports and a range of over 185 miles per charge. Each K12A can save the equivalent of 80 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually and 95,000 gallons of fuel over its lifetime, according to BYD. BYD has delivered more than 50,000 of its shorter electric buses.

Luis Carlos Moreno, CEO of Colombia’s Express, said, “I’m confident that BYD’s super-long pure electric buses are the future of bus rapid transit systems. On a trip to Shenzhen, I’ve seen that the city’s public buses are already 100% electrified, and I firmly believe that electrification is a future global trend.”

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Fiat Chrysler (FCA) has reached a deal with Tesla to count the California carmaker’s EVs as part of the FCA fleet in order to avoid paying fines for violating new European Union emissions rules. The Financial Times reported that the deal is worth “hundreds of millions of euros.”

More stringent emissions standards will take effect next year in the EU, reducing the average emissions limit to 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer. Automakers whose vehicles don’t meet the target (which will probably be all of them, with the possible exception of Renault/Nissan) are permitted to form “open pools” with other companies to reduce their fleet-wide average figures. The arrangement is similar to the system of trading ZEV credits used in California. Tesla has made over $1 billion in the last three years by selling excess emissions credits in the US. “FCA is committed to reducing the emissions of all our products,” said the company. “The purchase pool provides flexibility to deliver products our customers are willing to buy while managing compliance with the lowest cost approach.”

FCA has long been at the rear of the pack in the electrification race, and like all the legacy automakers, it’s caught between European governments’ goal of reducing emissions and European drivers’ growing appetite for gas-guzzling SUVs. The company is obviously calculating that paying to “manage compliance” is cheaper than bringing its own EVs to market (and as always, talking about reducing emissions is free).

Electrek’s Fred Lambert noted that the deal is a welltimed windfall for Tesla, which appears to be going through a cash crunch, but that the extra income may not last for more than a few years. To its credit, Fiat Chrysler does have its own electrified vehicles in the pipeline – last year the company announced plans to invest 9 billion euros ($10.1 billion) in electrification over four years.

Australian electric commercial vehicle maker SEA Electric is set to launch two trucks in the US, based on Ford and Isuzu platforms. The company has established a Los Angeles office with its first US-based employees, and plans to begin in-service trials for both trucks.

SEA Electric also has a Ford Transit van program underway, which it plans to begin trialing in April. The manufacturer says that batteries for all three vehicles can be fully charged overnight in 4-6 hours using a 20 kW on-board charger, which allows drivers to charge using any three-phase power source.

SEA Electric Director Tony Fairweather sees the SEADrive-powered vehicles as ideal options for urban and metropolitan back-to-base distribution applications.

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tremely attractive, because at the end of the working day, these vehicles are conveniently charged overnight and ready to go again the next morning,” he said. “Operators can expect a payback period of less than four years on their SEA-Drive-powered truck or van, so with a battery lifecycle of approximately 10 years, there are great efficiencies to be gained over the whole life of the vehicle.”

The company is also expanding local assembly operations in Victoria, Australia, to increase production capacity up to 2,400 van, light commuter bus and truck units annually.

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2019 HYUNDAI KONA ELECTRIC A viable EV competitor for the average car buyer

By John Voelcker

A

s a company, Hyundai often sets goals that slightly exceed those set by competing automakers. The engineers who designed the Ioniq Hybrid and Plug-In hatchbacks were told that the new vehicles had to beat the fuel-efficiency ratings of the Prius hybrid and Prius Prime plug-in hybrid.

So it is with the Hyundai Kona Electric. We strongly suspect one of the design criteria was “more EPA range than the Chevrolet Bolt EV.” Lo and behold, that’s what it has. The 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric is rated at 258 miles, versus the Bolt’s 238 miles. (The two are neck and neck on efficiency, at 120 MPGe for the Korean car versus 119 MPGe for the Chevy.)

MAY/JUN 2019

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THE VEHICLES

In other words, the only electric cars with more rated range all come from Tesla. Even the long-awaited 2019 Nissan LEAF Plus comes in at only 215 or 226 miles.

We spent 10 days and more than 500 miles with a Kona Electric in the San Francisco Bay Area during March. Our residence had no provisions for charging, making this a good test of a long-range electric car. We used the Kona just as we would any other car: we drove it wherever needed, at prevailing speeds, and charged opportunistically at public stations. Overall, we paid for two fast charging sessions and one Level 2 session, and used a free Level 2 station in a suburban office park while there on business.

We concluded that the Kona Electric is an entirely viable competitor to the Chevy Bolt EV. The big question, as with any new EV, will be to what extent Hyundai makes the cars available outside California and a small handful of other states.

The pros We’ve never been fans of the gasoline Kona’s design. The busy accents, scoops, vents, plastic wheel-arch outlines and so forth all add up to a small SUV that looks like it’s trying way too hard.

The Kona EV has a smoother, calmer front end with a fetching dimple pattern over the blanking plate where the grille would have been. While we still aren’t fond of the grey plastic body add-ons, our test car’s maroon color (Pulse Red) made them somewhat less obvious.

The electric Kona has a quieter, more adult range of available colors than the louder, often neon tones used on the gas version. But while the Kona Electric is less upright than the Bolt EV, we’re not convinced either one

52

In other words, the only electric cars with more rated range all come from Tesla. has striking visual appeal.

In that respect, the latest LEAF probably pulls ahead - and Tesla’s Model 3 is in an entirely different race.

However, the Kona shines with a well-executed and reassuringly “normal” interior.

For several years, Hyundai has provided interiors that require little instruction, and central touchscreens intuitive enough to use without training. The quality of the knobs and switches is a bit better than those of the latest LEAF, and the design

Images courtesy of Hyundai

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THE VEHICLES

Some EV fans find the Bolt’s futurism appealing, but we think your average buyer will be reassured by the electric Kona’s predictability. is not nearly as futuristic as that of the Bolt EV. Some EV fans find the Bolt’s futurism appealing, but we think your average buyer will be reassured by the electric Kona’s predictability. Most of the controls work just as the ones in the gasoline version do, with adaptations as needed, which seems both practical and a smart way to appeal to mass-market shoppers.

One area in which the Kona definitely beats the Bolt is its front seats. The thin, narrow seats of the Bolt EV suit some people fine - us included - but they’re a huge sore point with enough owners and buyers that we urge shoppers to test-drive a Bolt for an hour or so to make sure they’re tolerable. The Kona and LEAF, on the other hand, have conventional seats that should fit conventional people just fine.

As we were facing a highway journey of more than 100 miles in our first 24 hours with the car, we started out in Eco mode to preserve range. While the car wasn’t snappy in this mode, it proved fine for the majority of our running around. Normal mode was peppier, at a slight cost in range, and Sport mode was downright fun and speedy - at a rather greater hit to the range estimate.

For highway driving, we left the Kona in Eco mode, used the adaptive cruise control wherever possible, and enjoyed a calm ride. On twisty roads, handling was confident and sure-footed, owing something to the more sophisticated trailing-arm rear suspension that the EV uses in place of the gasoline version’s twist beam.

We noticed that the electric Kona had a remarkably loud whine at low travel speeds. Finally, we realized it was the car’s low-speed pedestrian alert, issuing a sound unlike any others we’ve heard. It could be described as a sort of spaceship noise - if your local spaceship made

54

Images courtesy of Hyundai

A driver who wants the strongest regen either has to use the least-efficient mode (Sport) plus the left paddle, or remember to click the left paddle three times after every stop to boost the regen level to 3.

Images courtesy of Hyundai

THE VEHICLES

a low howling whine - that we found distinctive and amusing. (Your experience may vary.)

The cons The Kona Electric had a few distinct disadvantages compared to the Chevy Bolt. One is rear-seat legroom: there was very little. I wasn’t able to sit comfortably behind myself, and fitting four US-size adults in the car proved to be an exercise in minimizing harm. Riders sit more upright in the taller Bolt, but its quarters are less cramped. The Kona’s rear cargo space is generous, however.

As is the case with most EVs, when the Kona Electric is driven predominantly on highways, the combined range estimates don’t measure up to the advertised number. The Kona Electric is rated at 108 MPGe on the highway, 10 percent lower than the combined figure, but we’d estimate the reduction at closer to 15 percent when traveling on hilly California highways at prevailing speeds - even in the Eco mode that we used for the majority of our travels. However, that still left the car with 200-plus miles of range, which worked fine for us.

The lack of all-wheel drive in what’s billed as a crossover is a drawback that this car sadly has in common with the Bolt. Where we come from, any SUV or “crossover utility” has to have AWD available - but if you want an AWD Kona, you have to get a gasoline engine.

Experienced EV drivers may find the electric Kona’s oddest feature to be its regenerative braking control.

Unlike the BMW i3, Chevy Bolt, Nissan LEAF and other

56

electrics, it’s impossible to set the Kona Electric to continuous one-pedal driving.

The paddles behind the steering wheel increase (left) or decrease (right) the level of regeneration, and holding in the left paddle steadily dials up regen until the car stops. To bring the car to a standstill without touching the brake, a driver must use the paddle at every intersection.

Also, each of the three power modes (Eco, Normal, Sport) sets a different level of regen (1, 2, and 3, respectively). That means a driver who wants the strongest regen either has to use the least-efficient mode (Sport) plus the left paddle, remember to click the left paddle three times after every stop to boost the regen level to 3, or spend an inordinate amount of time clicking the paddle to slow down at every intersection.

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The company has lowered its development costs by creating Kona underpinnings designed from the start to accommodate either a larger underfloor battery pack or a gasoline drivetrain.

It’s a baffling system, and Hyundai engineers and product managers couldn’t provide a simple, coherent answer as to why they hadn’t included an optional one-pedal driving mode, like Nissan’s ePedal on the LEAF. What Hyundai has built may be less unfamiliar to electric-car novices, but that shouldn’t preclude also giving experienced drivers what they want. The lack of seamless one-pedal driving was our biggest gripe with the Kona Electric.

How will it do?

The company says officially that the electric Kona can be ordered by any dealer, but field reports on earlier plug-in Hyundai models last year contradicted that. If you’re not in California or a few other states, you may have to work to find a Hyundai dealer willing to order you a Kona Electric.

Reports in early 2019 indicated that Hyundai dealers, even in California, knew little about the car, couldn’t tell shoppers when it would arrive or how many they would receive, and sometimes tried to steer them from electric to gasoline Konas. Other reports detailed price-gouging, from $5,000 to $8,000 over sticker, at a few dealerships.

That too is hardly unique to Hyundai, but we hope it will get worked out over time - especially since Hyundai almost certainly loses money on every Kona Electric it sells. The company has lowered its development costs by creating Kona underpinnings designed from the start to accommodate either a larger underfloor battery pack or a gasoline drivetrain.

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The specs For the record, that pack has a listed energy capacity of 64.0 kWh, and the motor driving the front wheels has a peak output of 150 kW (201 hp). The Kona Electric is also said to be able to fast charge at “up to 100 kW.” Although almost no CCS stations that can deliver that exist today in the US, they’ll arrive steadily over the car’s lifetime. In practice, the rate appears to be about 80 kW, and that only for a portion of the charging curve.

Every Hyundai Kona Electric comes with a variety of active safety and equipment features as standard equipment: blind-spot alert, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, active lane control and a driverattention monitor. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are also standard. There are three trim levels: SEL, Limited, and Ultimate. The Limited version adds a power driver’s seat, premium audio system, leather seats, and LED lights. The top-of-the-line Ultimate adds a built-in navigation system, parking sensors and the addition of stop-and-go capability to the adaptive cruise control.

Our top-of-the-line 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate carried a total sticker price of $45,830. The base price of the Ultimate was $44,650, a whopping $8,200 more than the standard SEL version. Aside from $135 for carpeted floor mats - plus a mandatory $1,045 delivery charge - it had no further options. The Kona Electric is eligible for a $7,500 federal income tax credit and a $2,500 California purchase rebate, among other incentives.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Tesla’s new V3 Supercharging promises a typical charging time of 15 minutes

Energy Impact Partners invests $5.7 million in EV fleet telematics company ViriCiti Energy investment firm Energy Impact Partners has invested $5.7 million in ViriCiti, developer of a telematics platform for monitoring and managing electric bus and truck fleets.

“Mid- and heavy-duty vehicles present an enormous near-term opportunity for electrification, but fleet operators need the tools to leverage the unique characteristics of battery-powered vehicles,” said Shayle Kann, EIP’s Senior VP of Research and Strategy. “ViriCiti provides them capabilities that will accelerate electrification, lower operating costs and minimize impacts on the grid.”

“We will use this investment to open our first North American headquarters on the East Coast, grow our team and offices to ensure great customer service, and build up our sales network,” said Freek Dielissen, CEO of ViriCiti.

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Tesla has announced the advent of V3 Supercharging, a new generation of fast charging tech.

“V3 is a completely new architecture for Supercharging,” reads the company’s announcement. “A new 1 MW power cabinet with a similar design to our utility-scale products supports peak rates of up to 250 kW per car.

At this rate, a Model 3 Long Range operating at peak efficiency can recover up to 75 miles of charge in 5 minutes and charge at rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour.

Combined with other improvements we’re announcing today, V3 Supercharging will ultimately cut the amount of time customers spend charging by an average of 50%, as modeled on our fleet data.”

“Supercharger stations with V3’s new power electronics are designed to enable any owner to charge at the full power their battery can take – no more splitting power with a vehicle in the stall next to you. With these significant technical improvements, we anticipate the typical charging time at a V3 Supercharger will drop to around 15 minutes.”

A new feature called On-Route Battery Warmup will further streamline the charging process. “Now, whenever you navigate to a Supercharger station, your vehicle will intelligently heat the battery to ensure you arrive at the optimal temperature to charge, reducing average charge times for owners by 25%.”

“This combination of higher peak power with V3, dedicated vehicle power allocation across Supercharger sites, and On-Route Battery Warmup enables customers to charge in half the time and Tesla to serve more than twice the number of customers per hour,” says Tesla. “We are also unlocking 145 kW charge rates for our 12,000+ V2 Superchargers over the coming weeks.”

Tesla has opened a public V3 beta site in the Bay Area.

Participants in Tesla’s Early Access Program will be the first to test the new system. At first, V3 Supercharging will be available only for Model 3, but Tesla will continue to expand access as it reviews and assesses the results of millions of charging events.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Image courtesy of Kia/Amazon

Kia teams with Amazon to sell chargers and installation services

ubitricity raises €20 million in Series C funding EV charging provider ubitricity has raised €20 million in Series C funding to expand its mobile metering technology for EV charging. A new shareholder, automaker Honda, joined existing shareholders EDF and Next47 in the investment.

The funding will be used to accelerate the deployment of ubitricity’s charge points, including retrofitted lamp posts and real-estate installations, across the UK, Germany, France and the US. Nidec says its mobile metering technology reduces charging infrastructure costs and removes the need for dedicated parking bays.

“We are now putting charging stations right outside people’s front doors, where millions of Europeans park their vehicles today, and at a time when more electric vehicles than ever are being sold,” said co-founder Knut Hechtfischer.

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Kia has partnered with Amazon to provide EV and PHEV customers with a one-stop shop for home chargers and installation services. On its web site, Amazon will highlight Level 2 chargers selected by Kia, and provide pricing for electrical services. Customers will be able to schedule installations directly via Amazon.

Kia Executive Director Orth Hedrick said, “Being able to order a Level 2 charger and installation through Amazon further demystifies and simplifies the experience for new Kia EV owners.”

Image courtesy of Nicolas Raymond

Switzerland rolls out highway DC fast charging stations

Indian automotive supplier Tata AutoComp Systems has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Tritium, an Australian provider of EV chargers. Tritium’s DC fast chargers will soon be available for Indian EVs. “The MoU ensures Tata AutoComp remains at the forefront of innovation in India, as the nation adopts the FAME India [Faster Adoption and Manufacture of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles] Scheme,” said Tritium CEO David Finn. “The FAME policy is among the most progressive initiatives in the world, and Tata AutoComp’s commitment to rolling out DC fast chargers for vehicles of all sizes is helping to put India ahead of the world in its drive towards a cleaner future.”

“With the [advent] of electric vehicles, the need for chargers capable of powering them is significant and we see a huge opportunity in this market,” said Tata AutoComp CEO Arvind Goel.

Image courtesy of Tritium

Tritium to provide DC fast chargers to Tata AutoComp for EVs in India

Compared to other countries of Western Europe, Switzerland is something of an EV laggard. The government has set an aspirational goal of electrifying a third of the auto fleet by 2030, but every proposal to establish purchase incentives has been nixed by the powerful auto importers’ lobby. While a few of the Swiss cantons (the equivalent of US states) offer tax incentives for EV purchases, the federal government does not.

The Swiss smart-shopper magazine Ktipp recently drew an unfavorable comparison between Norway, which has the best average carbon emissions figure for new cars of any European country, and Switzerland, which has the worst.

The Swiss are, however, investing in public charging infrastructure. More and more of the park-and-ride lots at train stations feature Level 2 charging stations, and highway rest stops are steadily being equipped with DC fast charging facilities. 24 rest stops already have fast chargers, and the federal highway authority plans to install 100 more over the next 10 years.

The Federal Roads Office has chosen five companies to deploy the new chargers: Gotttardo Fastcharge, Groupe E, Primeo Energie, Socar and the Dutch-based firm Fastned. Each will be responsible for 20 sites. The government will advance an estimated half million francs (about $500,000) per site, which the operating firms will pay back over 30 years.

Groupe E, which will install stations in the Zurich, Basel and Ticino regions, says its stations will offer power levels up to 350 kW. Some locations may incorporate solar panels and/or hydrogen fueling stations. Groupe E’s chargers will be integrated into the MOVE network, which includes over 820 charging points in Switzerland.

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Sacramento County to award up to $15.5 million in EV charger rebates Sacramento County, California will award up to $15.5 million for businesses and nonprofits to install commercial-grade Level 2 chargers and high-powered DC fast chargers. The Sacramento County Incentive Project is led by the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP).

CALeVIP is accepting applications for DC fast charger installation rebates of up to $70,000 per charger, or 75 percent of the cost of installation, and Level 2 charger rebates of up to $6,000 per connector. Rebates of up to $80,000 for DC fast chargers and up to $6,500 for Level 2 chargers have been set aside for disadvantaged communities.

Sacramento County has nearly 700 public chargers and more than 10,000 EVs, according to Sacramento Municipal Utility District officials. California aims to have 250,000 chargers and 5 million EVs on its roads by 2030.

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Image courtesy of University of Michigan

Image courtesy of Chargeway

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Jaguar Land Rover installs 166 charging stations at Gaydon facility Jaguar Land Rover has installed 166 EV charging stations at its engineering facility in Gaydon, UK, for use by employees. The automaker claims the charging installation is the largest of its kind in the UK. It also plans to install charging stations in the visitor parking lot.

The 7 kW AC charging stations were supplied by NewMotion, and are cloud-connected to the NewMotion public network. Employees can monitor their EVs’ charging progress with a smartphone app.

“Our data shows when EV drivers are charging their car, 40 percent of the time this happens at work,” said NewMotion CEO Sytse Zuidema.

“Every new Jaguar and Land Rover model line will be electrified from 2020,” said Jaguar Land Rover’s Mick Cameron. “We hope that by providing a network of electric charging points to staff and visitors at our Gaydon engineering centre we can help encourage the uptake of alternative fuels amongst our employees.”

Finnish utility company Fortum is working with the city of Oslo and US-based Momentum Dynamics to build a wireless fast-charging infrastructure for taxis in the Norwegian capital.

The project aims to install wireless charging using induction technology that can handle power levels up to 75 kW. The company plans to install charging plates in the ground where taxis routinely park.

As part of its EV charging program, Charge & Drive, Fortum has worked with the taxi industry to spur electrification of taxis. The company says that, for taxi drivers, finding a charger, plugging in, and waiting is simply too time-consuming. Fortum hopes the wireless fastcharging project will solve this issue.

Annika Hoffner, Head of Fortum Charge & Drive, said, “We will install the wireless chargers at taxi stands, such as the one at the Oslo Central Station. Taxis will be able to drive up to the charger and a wireless charging session will automatically start. This allows the taxis to charge in a place where they would anyway be waiting for new customers. The difference is that they won’t be emitting exhaust while waiting, instead they will be receiving renewable energy to charge the taxi’s battery.”

Duke Energy has proposed a three-year, $76-million program to support EV adoption in North Carolina.

The proposal includes funding for the adoption of electric school buses, electric public transportation, and almost 2,500 new charging stations.

The company is awaiting approval from the North Carolina Utilities Commission. If approved, the program will provide the following: • Residential EV Charging - $1,000 rebates for Level 2 charging stations for up to 800 residential customers • Public Charging - installation of more than 800 public charging stations, including DC fast charging, public Level 2 and multifamily locations • Fleet EV Charging - $2,500 rebates for 900 qualifying charging stations • EV School Buses - financial support to procure up to 85 electric school buses. Duke will install the charging infrastructure.

• EV Transit Bus Charging Stations - installation of more than 100 electric transit bus charging stations for transit agencies Duke proposed a $10.4-million EV program in South Carolina last year.

Lang Reynolds, Director of Duke’s electrification strategy, said, “North Carolina deserves a cleaner and smarter energy future, and supporting the use of electric transportation is a Duke Energy priority that will benefit our communities, customers, and our state’s future. This initiative will help accelerate public and private EV use while also reducing carbon emissions.”

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Image courtesy of Duke Energy

Image courtesy of Fortum

Fortum to build wireless charging infrastructure for electric taxis in Oslo

Duke Energy proposes $76-million EV program in North Carolina

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

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WALLBOX COPPER PROVES

THE

EV CHARGERS CAN BE BEAUTIFUL TOO

By Paul Beck

The Spanish charging station company Wallbox is growing quickly and winning awards.

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he Red Dot Product Design award is given every year to consumer products with exceptional design, from luxury watches to elegant furniture to stunning sports cars. You might not expect an EV charger to share that stage, but among the 2019 Red Dot winners was the Copper, an EV charger designed by Spanish company Wallbox.

Where did Wallbox come from, and what makes the Copper so special? Charged spoke with Wallbox co-founder Eduard CastaĂąeda to learn more about the company and its inspired EV charger designs.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Images courtesy of Wallbox

The founding of Wallbox Eduard Castañeda and Enric Asunción met on their first day of university at UPC in Catalonia, and they’ve been inseparable ever since. The pair spent their undergraduate years focused on fuel cells, electronics, and renewable energy solutions, at one point designing the propulsion and powertrain of a robot for public spaces to help people move around more easily. They didn’t know it at the time, but the two best friends were priming themselves for the company they would eventually start together: Wallbox.

Asunción’s work was gaining recognition in the EV industry, and he was offered a spot working for an EV certification lab. Soon after, Asunción attracted the notice of Tesla, and he moved on to a position as Program Manager for Tesla in the Netherlands. His best friend Castañeda recalled Asunción’s early success: “Enric was the man at that point.”

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Meanwhile, Castañeda maintained his own interest in the EV market, with a particular focus on the design and technology of motorsport. He remained close friends with Asunción, and even served as the best man at his wedding. In April 2015, Castañeda was attending a different wedding when he received an unexpected phone call from his best friend.

“Do you want to quit your job and start something that can be interesting?” Asunción asked Castañeda.

Asunción’s experience working for Tesla had given him insight into the issues of EV charging. He saw customers become frustrated with charging problems like billing, use times, and their EVs failing to charge overnight, leaving them stranded in the morning. Asunción saw an opportunity to create a smarter, better charging solution, and he wanted his best friend along for the ride.

“Ok, why not?” Castañeda replied, confident in his

Wallbox chargers should be as easy and friendly to use as a modern smartphone, and not merely electrified versions of a gas pump.

friend’s vision. “Why is it not possible to make new things in the market?”

A few months later, in July 2015, Asunción and Castañeda had officially established Wallbox, and kicked off their quest to create a better charger.

The early days The founding friends needed to establish a vision for their new company. They knew they wanted to create smarter, more user-friendly charging products, and they codified that desire into a set of three core company values. The first value was user experience: Wallbox chargers should be as

easy and friendly to use as a modern smartphone, and not merely electrified versions of a gas pump. The second value was innovation: Wallbox chargers should incorporate novel technology, and not just tread on the heels of pre-existing products. The final value was that design should not be a luxury: all Wallbox products should look and feel as premium as the EVs they’d be designed to charge.

“We strongly believe in these, and all our products since then have this DNA inside,” said Castañeda.

Soon Wallbox had developed a prototype for its first charger, the Commander, which it launched in March of 2016. By July, the company had launched its second charger, the Pulsar. These first two products were both compact and easy to use, and they started to attract attention. It wasn’t long before a prominent utility company signed a contract with Wallbox to use its EV chargers, all without any marketing on Wallbox’s part.

Wallbox had started to find success, but Asunción and Castañeda were just getting started. Though they were proud of their company’s product line, the two friends wanted to make an even bigger splash in the EV market.

“The Pulsar and the Commander already had good design, and provided good functionality. But we wanted to push a little bit more,” said Castañeda. “At that point we were looking for a product that could not only be suc-

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

cessful in sales, but also put the company in the position of saying, ‘Hey, we’re capable of doing these things.’”

With that goal in mind, Wallbox began work on its next charger: the Copper.

The Copper Wallbox wanted its next charger to be something special, and it kicked things off with a novel design feature: a camera. Why put a camera in an EV charger?

Wallbox wanted to try out an innovative approach to user authentication: face recognition. Though it’s more widespread today, face recognition was still an emerging technology when Wallbox was developing the Copper.

In fact, according to Castañeda, Wallbox’s face recognition technology was ready even before Apple’s FaceID, which launched the same year.

As does FaceID, the Copper charger uses face recognition to authenticate users. Users upload pictures of themselves on the myWallbox app, and the Copper checks in with the Wallbox cloud to perform the face recognition.

The feature targets users in condominiums or businesses where only authorized users are permitted to charge, eliminating the need for access codes, RFID cards, or other credentials. Just flash a smile at the Copper, and you’re in.

But face recognition isn’t the only smart feature of the Copper. The camera also enables gesture recognition, allowing users to interact with the charger with the wave of a hand. The myWallbox app allows users to

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Wallbox wanted to try out an innovative approach to user authentication: face recognition. monitor their charging status remotely, search through their charging history, and program their own charging schedules. The Copper also adapts the amount of power it provides while charging to avoid tripping the supply, up to a maximum of 22 kW. “The Copper has a lot of intelligence inside,” said Castañeda. “It’s a really smart charger.”

According to Castañeda, the Copper will only continue to get smarter. Wallbox will soon launch voice controls for the Copper through Google Home and Amazon Alexa. Also on the roadmap is more adaptive AI that can learn and predict a user’s charging needs.

“We believe in smart chargers and a smart solution behind them,” Castañeda explained. “With artificial intelligence, the charger can know when you will leave or make a long trip. So it will take care of that - you’ll

Images courtesy of Wallbox

have the car fully charged when it’s needed. It can also understand your use time, so it can take care to reduce your billing. All of this is what we’re focusing on.”

The Copper isn’t just designed to be intelligent - it’s also designed to look good. The Copper is a compact charger, at just 167 x 167 x 54.5 mm. The front face is a glossy black screen that hides the face and gesture

recognition camera, while the edges of the device are ringed in sleek copper to reflect the charger’s namesake.

Wallbox partnered with the ESNE University School of Design in Madrid to create the Copper’s signature look, a gambit which clearly paid off with the Red Dot Product Design award.

Asunción and Castañeda’s vision of a smart, userfriendly and well-designed charger has been validated both by the Red Dot award and the company’s early success. But the two friends won’t rest yet, and plan to bring Wallbox to North America and China later this year. As Castañeda reflected on the company and its growth, he emphasized that a big part of Wallbox’s success lies in the strong bonds between employees.

“From a company that started with focusing on user values, nearly four years later we have a company that has more than 120 people,” said Castañeda. “But we still have a very strong relationship with each other, and we still have the same way of working. And I think that makes us very strong.”

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE Image courtesy of Freewire

A few companies have introduced mobile charging products to solve unique challenges.

By John Gartner, Transportation Director at Navigant Research

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MOBILE EV CHARGERS DELIVER POWER WHERE IT’S NEEDED MAY/JUN 2019

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

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he perceived lack of ready access to charging stations is one factor that has limited consumers’ interest in buying electric vehicles.

While the number and diversity of locations of EV charging stations are growing, thanks to networks such as Electrify America, chargers can be hard to find in urban centers, or on the outskirts of cities.

The most suitable locations to meet drivers’ charging needs can sometimes be too expensive to operate due to installation and energy costs, or too far from available power to be tenable. Both established and startup companies are addressing this conundrum by developing variations on mobile charging solutions to address specific needs. There’s a spate of new products aimed at making EV charging more flexible by simplifying installation and bringing chargers closer to the vehicles.

For charging network operators and would-be site hosts, determining the best new locations to satisfy the expanding fleet of EVs has been challenging, due to the need to know where the vehicles reside and where they are most frequently driven. However, the necessary data to answer these questions is not freely available, which

The necessary data to answer these questions is not freely available, which makes the ability to relocate charging stations if stations become underutilized an attractive option. makes the ability to relocate charging stations if stations become underutilized an attractive option.

Los Angeles-based charging infrastructure developer EVgo has been at the forefront of DC fast charging since its inception in 2010. In September 2018, the company unveiled its EVgo FastStart modular units, which can include a combination of Level 2 and DC fast charging connections.

Image courtesy of EVgo

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Images courtesy of Freewire

Utilities are looking at (mobile charging) as a non-wires solution.

Installing charging stations, especially those featuring higher power levels, can take months to a year or more, due to permitting requirements and any capacity upgrades that must be negotiated with the utility. According to Ivo Steklac, CTO at EVgo, FastStart units are prefabricated and can cut the time for installation down to just a few days, as they are attached to a pad that alleviates the need to pour a concrete foundation. The portability of the units is beneficial to customers who may have shorter-term leases at the locations, and where additional value can be received by moving the chargers to another location, according to Steklac.

FreeWire Technologies is focusing on the portability of EV chargers with its Mobi EV Charger products, which sit atop wheels for easy relocation. The company, which is based in San Leandro, California, currently has chargers delivering power to 300 Volkswagen EVs in London, in partnership with the local utility Centrica and shared fleet operator Zipcar. FreeWire’s mobile DC chargers can deliver up to 120 kW of power, and the

company also offers Level 2 charging. According to Arcady Sosinov, CEO of FreeWire, if more than 20 vehicles per day need to be charged, FreeWire’s service is less costly than a stationary solution, even when factoring in the additional labor cost of moving the chargers. The Mobi EV Charger features battery storage, so it draws power at a rate of 20 kW or less, which allows station operators to avoid incurring utility demand charges, which can add thousands of dollars per month in energy costs.

In addition to working with automakers and ridesharing fleets, FreeWire is partnering with utilities such as the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), which is leasing out the FreeWire chargers to fleet customers. “Utilities are looking at (mobile charging) as a non-wires solution,” said Sosinov. He added that multi-unit dwellings can also benefit from mobile

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

charging, because of the challenges of getting access to parking spots near power and the difficulties of negotiating with homeowners’ associations that don’t want to give preferential treatment to specific tenants. FreeWire has received funding from BP Ventures and the Volvo Tech Fund.

Event organizers at remote locations that need to accommodate EVs on a short-term basis require portable solutions that can be brought in on trucks and taken away the same day. One company addressing this need is EV Safe Charge, which is based in Los Angeles. The company’s EV Charge Mobile stations can deliver up to 50 kW of DC power, and are not grid-connected. CEO and founder Caradoc Ehrenhalt says the company is using diesel generators to provide the electricity, because “battery-based solutions discharge too fast” and have insufficient capacity for the volumes of energy needed

by EV Safe Charge’s customers. To make the use of its products more sustainable, Ehrenhalt claims that EV

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Images courtesy of EV Safe Charge

Event organizers at remote locations that need to accommodate EVs on a short-term basis require portable solutions that can be brought in on trucks and taken away the same day.

Safe Charge offsets the greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees.

EV Safe Charge rents equipment for short-term events including festivals, sporting events and EV launch events that last only a few days. The company first put

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The startup uses bicycles to tow a small trailer containing a 24 kWh battery to deliver charging to vehicles parked in urban areas.

its technology in the field when it provided charging stations to Jaguar, which needed power to support rideand-drive events to promote the launch of its I-PACE electric SUV. Taking a more simplistic and localized approach is Berlin-based Chargery, which focuses on vehicles dispersed in cities where the available charging is insufficient or too inconvenient. The startup uses bicycles to tow a small trailer containing a 24 kWh battery to deliver charging to vehicles parked in urban areas. Power delivery is limited to 3.7 kW, and the company claims to be using 100% renewable energy to charge the batteries.

Chargery lists as clients BMW, Daimler and Skoda, and has received investment from mobility services company Sixt.

Predating these efforts to make charging easier to de-

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ploy and free from grid connections are solar EV chargers, which debuted nearly a decade ago. Envision Solar, of San Diego, produces charging equipment that combines solar power with battery storage to enable vehicles to be plugged in without the need for a grid connection.

These portable stations, such as Envision’s EV ARC, can provide power temporarily or permanently at a lower cost in locations that are far from power, by alleviating the need for costly trenching or capacity upgrades.

When EV charging stations were first rolled out, many thought of them as destinations for refueling that would be worth the trip. However, EV owners want to charge wherever they normally go, which is often in crowded areas where parking is challenging, or far away from power sources. It may be that not all of the above approaches to mobile charging will establish a successful niche, but they are making valuable progress towards the goal of bringing convenience to the expanding EV audience.

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Will the global auto industry migrate to China? he auto industry’s center of innovation is California, where scores of startups work to duplicate Tesla’s success, and most major automakers now maintain development facilities. The prototype of the future electrified transport system is to be found in Norway, where over half of all new cars sold now sport plugs. However, if volume counts for anything, the future of EVs, and thus the future of the global auto industry, may lie in China.

For better or for worse, the EV industry continues to be driven by government policies, and it’s quickly gravitating to China, where the government is mandating a swift transition to electrification, not only in order to address the country’s acrid air pollution, but also as a ticket to the global auto industry’s top table.

“Without government regulation, there would be no electric car industry [in China],” auto consultant and old China hand Michael Dunne told 60 Minutes in a recent segment on China’s growing domination of the EV world.

In the US, the regime of emissions and fuel economy standards that has forced OEMs to grudgingly produce EVs is in the process of being dismantled (although that process will take months or years to play out, and could yet be reversed). In Europe, official support for electrification is on firmer ground, but the changing political landscape could cause things to stall there as well.

Toyota Executive VP Bob Carter recently underlined the defining role of governments, saying, “This is going to be a slow evolution in the US market, unlike in China and Europe where there are government regulations hastening electrification.”

In authoritarian China, automakers worry less about changing political winds, but the opacity of government decision-making creates a different kind of uncertainty.

China-watchers recently got a surprise when the government slashed EV subsidies (the market was expecting smaller cuts). However, the reductions are widely seen not as a reversal of the pro-EV policy, but rather as a way to cull the ranks of EV-makers, which a government spokesperson said had become dependent on subsidies at the expense of innovation.

Under the new rules, NEVs (new energy vehicles, aka plug-ins) with an electric range below 250 km will no longer qualify for subsidies at all. Roland Irle of EV-volumes. com, among others, believes that the government’s goal is to winnow the industry to fewer and more competitive players. “Times will get tougher for makers of sub-standard models,” Irle writes. “2019 will see the production of several low-range EVs halted.”

There certainly seems to be room for consolidation.

Bloomberg reports that there are now 486 EV manufactur-

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By Charles Morris

ers registered in China. At least two dozen brands exhibited NEVs at the recent Shanghai auto show, from US-traded startup NIO to long-established BYD (which also builds electric buses in California). Dozens of EV startups have raised a collective $18 billion since 2011, according to Bloomberg NEF. And it’s not just automakers - electronics assembler Foxconn, internet retailer Alibaba, real estate developer Evergrande and even video game company The9 are all getting into the EV racket.

While the overall Chinese car market has been cratering for several months, NEV sales grew by 79% in 2018, as China’s fleet grew to 1.1 million plug-in passenger cars. By 2025, China’s leaders want to see annual sales of 7 million NEVs - about 20 percent of China’s total auto market.

China is not only building its own massive EV industry - it seems to be laying claim to the EV efforts of the rest of the world as well. Global automakers have announced plans to invest over $300 billion in electrification-related projects.

Some $136 billion of that is destined for the Chinese market, $72 billion for Germany, and a measly $34 billion for the US. Major automakers including Daimler, BMW, VW, Renault-Nissan, Toyota, GM and Ford all have plans to produce EVs in China, but many of these models won’t be for sale in the automakers’ home countries. In the Chinese market, they’ll be competing not only with local brands, which have an unfortunate reputation for poor quality, but also with Tesla, which is miles ahead of the pack in EV tech, and is building a new Gigafactory near Shanghai at a breakneck pace.

Red-blooded American EVangelists are feeling frustrated these days. To give just one example: we were excited to see VW’s I.D. Roomzz, a full-size electric SUV concept that was presented at the Shanghai auto show, because if there’s one thing the EV world badly needs, it’s more electrified SUV models. However, the ardor cooled when we learned that - you guessed it - the new wonder vehicle, along with at least four other upcoming VW EVs, is aimed squarely at the Chinese market. VW is investing more than 4 billion euros in China this year, and hopes to deliver 1.5 million NEVs in China in 2025.

Resistance is futile. “The size of the market alone makes China the irresistible place to be for any global automaker,” says Michael Dunne. “If you’re not in China, you’re not playing.”

Has the US already ceded leadership of the industry?

60 Minutes’ Holly Williams asked Dunne. “No, it’s not too late,” he said firmly. However, “if we wait until 2025, China will be making 5 million EVs a year, and if we’re still making half a million, now all of the technology and design engineering [will be] concentrated in China. How do you catch up with that?”

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