Concept of the Day: NIO EP9

Turned down the chance to go to the Saatchi Gallery today for the unveiling of this one – preparing research presentation more important than champagne, canapes and schmoozing, ah well – but here’s the basic lowdown. The NIO brand is the first offspring of NextEV, it’s just set a lap record for EVs around the Nürburgring Nordschliefe and also round the Circuit Paul Ricard, so it’s quick, and it delivers an equivalent 1360hp or 1MW of power (whew). Range? 427km, and it can be charged in 45min or have its batteries swapped. Much as it certainly ain’t a mainstream solution, if it contributes to making EVs desirable and there’s some tech trickledown, surely no bad thing.

• Further good news from Volkswagen: it’s going to re-start car production at the ‘Transparent Factory’ in Dresden (a really lovely piece of industrial architecture/design), and the second-generation e-Golf it’s going to make there will have a claimed battery range of 200km or so. This can be charged to 80% within an hour on the CCS system; the new e-Golf also now develops 100kW, and comes with the standard new-Golf smartphone interface/app connect plus e-Remote for starting/stopping charging, pre-conditioning, etc.

• Nice description here of research into the synergies between micro smartgrids, energy storage and electromobility: the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering is developing a model scalable solution, being tested out in Stuttgart at a 30-EV, solar-panelled parking garage.

• Car ownership is declining slightly in London, although 54% of households still own a car, and there are 2.56million cars registered in London, according to a new paper from TfL… Variations by borough (only 25% car ownership in Islington, 75% in Richmond), access to public transport, income, parenthood and nationality – wealthier Western Europeans with children more likely to have a car, unsurprisingly – as well as age, car ownership peaking at 55-59 years old. Detailed breakdown, some useful stats (thanks for tweeting this one go to @RachelAldred).

• …and further to the above, yet again traffic levels in GB have reached an all-time high, surpassing their pre-recession peak: YTD September 2016 saw 320billion vehicle miles travelled (VMT), up 1.4% on 2015 and up 1.8% on the first three-quarters of 2007. It’s the 15th quarterly successive rise. Of that 320, 250billion VMT was done by cars (up 0.9% on last year) with van traffic up 3.8% and heavy goods up 3.4%; other traffic rises to new highs were noted on motorways and rural A-roads. #peakcar is [was], I think, something of a blip.

• Some US stats and demographic data on EV consumer interest reported here (thanks, @keith_johnston). Hitwise is reporting – over past three years – that “today’s electric vehicle consumer is predominantly affluent, educated and married without children”, and reckons that the most promising demographic for ownership is aged 35-44 (older Gen Y/Gen X prefer to lease), but families with children aren’t convinced yet (except when it comes to Tesla Model S owners, significantly more affluent than the rest and buying a bigger vehicle, obv). Environmental concern expressed, too. Lots of interest – suggesting mainstream breakthrough – in Tesla Model 3, apparently.

• BMW is expanding its ReachNow on-demand car-sharing service to Brooklyn, in addition to Seattle and Portland; the upmarket US alt to DriveNow is offering delivery of vehicles, rentals of up to five days, an ‘exclusive’ residential service [i.e. a private fleet shared between residents of an apartment block] and also, for existing Mini owners, a peer-to-peer rental service. Interesting footnote: all this is enabled by the RideCell ‘white label’ platform – more detail on that here.

• Japanese-American tie-up to create a ‘corridor’ of 50 EV fast-chargers from Monterey, California, to Lake Tahoe, Nevada: the Japan-funded Drivethearc project “will also study EV usage and driving patterns” through its charging app, reports Green Car Congress. Basically, use its facilities, contribute your data…The app will give real-time info on charger vacancy and navigation to points within range, and the stakeholders – Nissan, Kanematsu, EVgo and NEDO – “will analyse and measure charger use patterns to better inform EV charging projects globally”.

• Report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance and McKinsey identifies three distinct outcomes in a move to urban electromobility and autonomous driving during the 2020s. First up – for cities like Delhi, Mexico City, Mumbai with poor infrastructure, there will be a move towards electrification and sharing, but not AVs; sprawling cities like Los Angeles will see elements of autonomy plus electrification, but private cars will remain the primary source of transport; but dense, wealthy cities like London, Hong Kong and Singapore will see much more use of on-demand AVs and a move away from private ownership, they reckon. Handy rundown here.

• Hyundai is offering US customers a series of options with the Ioniq Electric: trad purchase, ‘Ioniq Unlimited’ all-in subscription – or membership of WaiveCar, an all-electric on-demand scheme which gives up to two hours’ use free (and then extra hours at $5.99 an hour). The snag with the latter is that the ‘free’ cars have roof-mounted digital advertising displays… 150 Ioniqs will go on the WaiveCar fleet in LA next year, with the plan for 250 more to go to three further cities by the end of 2017. Unappealing as it sounds, t’will be interesting to see whether this has an impact in the car-share sector, attracts more people to on-demand services, has any impact on local car ownership (or public transport use), etc…

Latest Euro EV sales stats & other electromobility news…

Around 145,000 new EVs were sold in Europe last year, according to number-crunching by Transport & Environment, reaching the milestone of a 1% market share, and bringing us up to around the total 600,000 mark for EVs on the road in the EFTA area (incl Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). However, though doubled over 2014’s figures, that number includes PHEVs and range-extended EVs as well as all-electric cars and vans – which goes to show that there’s a long way to go yet before mass-market acceptance. Full report, with lots of useful references, here. Picture: updated Volkswagen Golf GTE (plug-in hybrid), unveiled late last week, complete with requisite blue styling details to distinguish it; new all-electric e-Golf to be revealed this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

• More good [redemptive] news from Volkswagen: all-EV and PHEV versions of the upcoming T-Roc compact crossover, reports Autocar…

• Finally, finally, the Bollore Group’s Blue City on-demand EV-hire is going into operation in London: first up for the scheme, as seen and well-proven in Paris, will be the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, where an initial batch of five cars will grow to 25 by next spring. The Pininfarina-built Bluecars can be hired for 30 minutes at a time and then left in any Source London EV charging bay, reports the local newspaper.

• And some interesting data from Scotland, analysed by the RAC Foundation: the country’s 870 public EV-charging points, with 1772 sockets/connectors between them (as of August 2016) were used 26,119 times in that month, suggesting charger use has doubled over the year. However, 25% were still not used at all (probably due to incompatibility with vehicles, poorly thought-out locations, and unsuitability of charger type/speed for their location, if the feedback I’ve collected from Scottish EV drivers is any indication; reliability is also an issue). 18% of the chargers available now are rapid-chargers, and these were used 42% of the time. ChargePlace Scotland is also listing 3,575 electric cars and vans licensed in Scotland (to end of June 2016).

• Nissan is launching a car-share service with a social twist: users will be ‘profile-matched’ via data from their social media accounts into local communities to share or ‘part-own’ a Micra. The idea is that the users will have compatible, complementary needs; they will be invoiced monthly for their usage of the car, with rates all-in to encompass servicing and insurance, and have “a financial stake” in the vehicle – part-ownership, rather than on-demand hire. Initial trials of Nissan Intelligent Get & Go Micra will take place in Paris from next spring.

• And something slightly different from Daimler/Mercedes-Benz: its peer-to-peer car-sharing service, Croove, goes on trial in Munich early next month. Any car from any brand, up to 15 years old, can be shared via the smartphone app-based platform: more here.

• And US truck-maker Workhorse, formerly part of Navistar and, before that, known as International (so it has pedigree), is to make an electric pick-up: the four-seater-plus-flatbed W-15 will have a motor driving each axle plus a small petrol engine acting as a range-extender, giving it an all-electric range of a claimed 80 miles and 310 miles all-in. Workhorse has already delivered 125 electric parcel vans to UPS, apparently, and the W-15 is said to be scheduled for production in 2018.

Smart electrifies all round

Hooray! Here’s the ideal iteration of the Smart city cars: all fourth-generation models, including the four-seater ForFour, are now offered in electric-drive form, with European sales from early next year. Motive power is 60 kW/160Nm, giving a claimed range of up to 160km, and 22kW fast-charging capacity can give a full charge (three-phase) in less than 45 minutes, depending on local supply [2.5 hours in UK/Euro spec, however]. Two-seater Smarts are built in Hambach, Germany, and the four-seater in Novo Mesto, Slovenia; they feature batteries from Daimler subsidiary Accumotive (Saxony), and drive systems from Renault in Clèon, Northern France. There’s an eco mode with max energy recuperation, boosted by a radar sensor to predict oncoming traffic slowdowns and suchlike, as well as pre-heating/cooling and remote-monitoring apps. More details and spec here.

Another ride-share service with a purpose-designed vehicle: Amber Mobility plans to offer a 33-euro weekly subscription to use the Amber One, a  650kg EV said to have a 250-mile range, a top speed of 93mph, 0-60mph in around seven seconds, ‘modularity’ for easy updates and upgrades and potential autonomous-driving capabilities. Prototyping next year, a small production run in 2018, apparently. Amber’s Corporate Mobility trial programme [using BMW i3s, to start with] is set to begin next month in the Netherlands, based around a hub in Eindhoven. More at Electrek.

• The latest BMW-Bosch-Vattenfall second-life battery energy storage project is now being tested in Hamburg: this has 2MW, 2800 kWhr capacity in 2,600 battery modules from over 100 EVs, and is being evaluated for its role in achieving grid stability. It’s delivering ‘primary control reserve power’ on demand, but could, theoretically, supply enough energy to power a two-person household for seven months.

• An oft-requested service/function: ChargePoint [US] has introduced Waitlist, which enables EV drivers to ‘line up’ for a public charging point which is in use. Drivers can use a phone app or RFID card to indicate that they want to charge, and reminders will be sent to drivers when their car has finished charging or reached a time/energy limit to make the point available [like ChargeBump]. It’s been tested with 30 point providers serving 14,000 drivers, and ChargePoint reports that it increased point utilisation by 20% on average, and by 45% at busy stations – efficiencies are being achieved. More here.

•  Looking forward to seeing this Volkswagen EV concept next week at the Paris motor show; it’s said to promise a 250-300 mile range and 15-minute fast-charging, and will go into production in 2019. Though having a conventional steel body, it’s said to pack Passat-like interior space into a Golf-sized hatchback body, easily accessed via sliding rear doors. To be fully-connected with a transferable Volkswagen ID app for settings and preferences, too.

• But on an even more practical – and here-and-now – note, Volkswagen is continuing to try and redeem itself post-#dieselgate by selling the e-Crafter van from next year. This commercial vehicle can shift over 1700kg, has a range of over 200km, and has unimpaired cargo capacity.

Concept of the Day: Spiri v0.1

Danish start-up Spiri has produced a “lab on wheels” purpose-designed prototype EV for its on-demand car-sharing/car-pooling service: this ultra-light (750kg) carbonfibre urban runaround has no interior panels, no paint, and around a quarter of the components (700) of a conventional passenger car, reports TechCrunch, helping it to a claimed 200-mile range between recharges. Most impressively, Spiri is aiming for passenger journey pricing on a par with bus tickets in the selected cities it aims to launch in – and free travel for drivers who pick up passengers along their way, in a neat twist/extension to the usual on-demand offering. The system is based around ‘virtual bus stops’ and pick-up points, with ‘Spiri hubs’ for parking and recharging. Design-wise, it’s an interesting thing with closely-placed front wheels (Spiri also experimented with a three-wheel layout, it appears) for a max-capacity interior, seating four plus luggage with wide-opening doors for easy access.

Nice mobility concept from the Lohr Group (Strasbourg) unveiled at InnoTrans show this week: the Cristal is an all-electric shuttle bus for ‘last mile’ connections which can be operated by a driver, or by a service user on an on-demand basis. Up to four Cristals can be coupled together, and the boxy interior can be configured in various ways, i.e. for wheelchair access, seating, or accommodating up to 20 standing passengers. More here.

And the Siemens-RWTH Aachen Future Train: concept designed by BMW DesignWorks, modular, supporting different cabin structures for different purposes, flexible, highly-connected and -automated, with an eye to multi-modal transport link-ups, i.e. by ‘robo-taxi’ home pick-ups to connect with train stops. More here…

• A new research project, Electric Nation, launched last week at the LCV2016 show: it’s aiming to recruit 500-700 EV drivers to test the capabilities of local electricity networks and trial a smart-charging solution to even out grid load. Participants will get a free charger installed; initially, drivers are being recruited in the South West, South Wales and the Midlands, in the Western Power Distribution (WPD) area. The project will look at the energy demands of EVs in ‘clusters’, and builds on the My Electric Avenue research by looking at different types of EV and people using different substation feeders. More details here.

• And Tesla execs are talking about bi-directional charging and vehicle-to-grid, enabled by the next-gen inverter, reports Electrek…

• Nissan has unveiled a concept pick-up truck: the Navara EnGuard (Double Cab) is proposed as a rescue/emergency services vehicle, and besides kit for emergency/disaster relief, it shows off a prototype portable battery pack for emergency generation. This features seven Nissan battery modules, charged from the engine, to power specialist equipment; Nissan describes it as exploring how battery tech “can be integrated further into society” and “a real-world example of how it could be applied to new sectors, to provide cleaner, more sustainable power solutions.” Which can only be good.

• Some ‘peak car’ research (in Transport Policy, January 2017): US Millennials (born 1980s/90s) own fewer cars than earlier generations did at their age – unless they have moved out of their parental home, in which case they actually own slightly more cars than expected, given their relatively low incomes. “We caution planners to temper their enthusiasm about ‘peak car’, as this may largely be a manifestation of economic factors that could reverse in coming years,” say Klein & Smart. [thanks to @scottericlevine for that heads-up, & to more on peak car here…]

Design Concept of the Day: Mercedes-Benz Vision Van

Mercedes-Benz Vans has a Vision: this concept is integrated into a digitally-connected supply chain and logistics network, with fully-automated cargo space, drones for deliveries and operational efficiency improvements of up to 50%. Its 75kW electric-drive powertrain gives an emissions-free, silent range of up to 270km, good for inner-city use and overnight deliveries. Inside, it has drive-by-wire with a joystick, enabling greater interior capacity and a large display surface – full-width across the dash in a textile-covered arc. Full details here.

• More Mercedes news: 1000 battery systems from defunct Smart Fortwo electric-drive cars have been fitted as static storage in Lünen, Westphalia, giving a claimed 13 MWh facility and the world’s largest second-life installation yet. It will store and release energy for network operators to balance the grid and integrate renewable generation.

• Good news for British EV drivers? Shell is in “advanced preparations” for installing charging points on its forecourts, reports The Guardian, with an interest in wireless induction charging as well…

• News from the Zap-Map team: its parent company Next Green Car has set up a new firm, Zap Digital Ltd, to develop “new smart tools for EV drivers and B2B products to help companies deliver electric mobility solutions.” Upcoming products will include Zap-Pay, a cross-network “payment and access interface”. It’s currently estimating that there are 80,000 EVs on the UK’s roads, and says there were over 40,000 users of the Zap-Map platform in August.

• There’ll be a convergence of EVs and autonomous vehicles, according to a report from Lux Research, detailed here, identifying six reasons (I paraphrase): 1. tech-focused early-adopters want both innovations; 2. it’s easier to integrate autonomous features into an EV; 3. there’s a good synergy between wireless charging and autonomy; 4. more efficient self-driving optimises battery range; 5. both techs will mature around the same time (2030-ish); 6. both techs will be government-mandated. I’d agree with 3 of the 6 statements; am less sure about the last, would suggest that EVs have a much greater chance of reaching market maturity by 2030 than autonomy (given the right market conditions and support), and would point out that tech-focused early-adopter types only make up a v small proportion of vehicle buyers.

• Study of 30 Californian cities for the ICCT found that EV sales correlated significantly with model availability (obv), public charging networks, local promotional activities, EV-sharing services, government/fleet programmes and median income – but not the Clean Vehicle Rebate scheme or prevalance of single-family homes (indicating home charging suitability).  Conclusion was that comprehensive policy support was important; promotional activities and incentives including parking and workplace charging encouraged uptake; and that the EV market grows with its charging infrastructure. More here.

• But underlining how far we yet have to go, latest DfT stats on new vehicle registration [download here]: April-June saw a 2% rise on the same time last year, the highest level of registrations [805,000 new vehicles sold in the quarter] since summer 2003 – and an all-time high for the number of cars and vans on the UK’s roads [30.7million cars]. In this context, ULEV (ultra-low emissions vehicle, including EV) sales look pretty paltry: 9,657 in the quarter April-June, 49% up on this time last year but still representing a meagre 1.1%. And of that, the best-sellers were all PHEVs: Mitsubishi Outlander (1,854), Mercedes-Benz C350 (1,480) and BMW 330 (1,143). Traditional [ICE] car ownership ain’t exactly dead yet.

• …and nor is driving, though there are some notable developments in the just-released 2015 National Travel Survey. Last year, Brits made an average 914 trips (the lowest recorded) and travelled over 6,600 miles, spending an average hour a day travelling. Car use – 64% of trips, 78% of distance – and walking (combined 86% of trips) decreased, largely due to lower walking rates; cycling still accounts for only 2% of trips; trips by rail and bus in London increased; trips for shopping, commuting and visiting friends continued to fall. Women made more trips, but men travelled 20% further; highest-income households travelled more than 2x as as lowest-income; rural-dwellers went 44% further than urban residents, and nearly 2x as far as Londoners. Car ownership has continued to increase long-term, is now flattening out but with different regional patterns: 25% of households don’t have a car (down from 38% in 2005) but households with more than one car have increased from 17% to 35% 2005-2015; carless households have fallen 2002/03-2014/15 from 37% to 29% in the NE, but remain unchanged at 41% in London. As for licence-holding, 74% of adults 17+ in England have a full licence (32million of them), with the highest increase in women driving (now 68% having licences, compared to 80% of men); fewer young adults have a licence since the 1990s, but more older people, especially women. “Overall, the Department’s work concludes there is little evidence to confirm that car ownership levels or distance travelled per person have reached saturation.”

• Ford is buying out San Francisco’s Chariot Shuttle, a crowd-sourced ride-sharing service, partnering with bike-share scheme Motivate in SF and the Bay Area, and establishing a new team called City Solutions.  Chariot currently operates nearly 100 Ford Transit minibuses along 28 routes in SF, based on rider demand, and will develop dynamic real-time data to map efficient routes: Ford describes it as “filling the gap between taxi and bus services”, and aims to launch it in at least five new cities in the next 18 months. Research for Ford by KPMG reckoned that each shuttle bus could take 25 private cars off the road. Motivate, meanwhile, will work with Ford to launch Ford GoBike, giving 7000 shared bikes by the end of 2018 and access via the FordPass app; Ford is also to collect data from the bikes “to build an interconnected mobility network”. More here.

• PSA Group, meanwhile, is partnering with Bollore on car-sharing in cities including Los Angeles, as part of a push into mobility services – probably as part of a test for a potential return of Peugeot sales to the USA, reports Automotive News.

Concept of the Day: Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck

And it’s another heavy-duty Mercedes-Benz: following last week’s Future Bus, the Urban eTruck makes its debut in Stuttgart this week. It’s a 26-tonne three-axle, short-radius distribution truck, based on an existing Mercedes model but with new drive system: the rear axle is rear-driven by motors adjacent to the wheel hubs, as in the Citaro hybrid bus, giving 2x 125kW and 2x 500Nm of torque. Range is said to be up to 200km (“enough for a typical daily delivery tour”) thanks to three lithium-ion battery modules mounted within the frame; using the CCS charging system at 100kW it can be recharged to 100% in two to three hours.

Series production is “already conceivable at the beginning of the next decade”, apparently. M-B continues with its trials of the smaller Fuso Canter E-Cell, which have informed the development of this model, and an ongoing five-vehicle trial with parcel service provider Hermes in Stuttgart is looking at issues including topography and logistical deployment. Full suite of material on the eTruck here.

• And more Daimler: the launch of ‘smart ready to drop’, a service in partnership with DHL enabling parcel delivery to – or collection from – your (Smart) car [so small parcels only…]. This is via a ‘connectivity box’ which can be retro-fitted to existing Smart Fortwos, allowing the DHL driver to gain access to the boot via a one-time keyless access app (as in Car2Go vehicles). Beta-testing starts in Stuttgart, with Cologne, Bonn and Berlin to follow. More here. [Daimler is also looking at swarm intelligence in relation to digitalisation of mobility services and e-mobility, it emerges.]

• Yet more Daimler: Car2go has had a positive impact on emissions, traffic and parking in Calgary, San Diego, Seattle, Vancouver and Washington DC, according to a study from UC Berkeley. The Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) concluded that the one way/on-demand service – used by nearly 9,500 members in these N American cities – resulted in fewer privately-owned cars on the road, fewer vehicle miles travelled and lower GHG emissions over a three-year period.  Between 2-5% of members sold a vehicle and 7-10% did not buy a car thanks to their membership; each car2go car meant 7-11 cars were sold or not acquired (to a total of 28,000); mileage reductions were 6-16% in the cities (average 11%), GHG emissions were down 4-18% (average 10%). Further breakdown here.

• Meanwhile in the UK, we have a report linking poor suburban transport links with car-dependency and poverty: digest at the Guardian. Lengthy and expensive commutes, poor planning, poor public transport links and a lack of cycling infrastructure all get a mention…

• …but for those who can afford an electric car, some interesting news: former tennis player/gym chain entrepreneur David Lloyd has launched a new company called EV Hub. Idea is, reports the Mail on Sunday, that EV owners can roll up to the facilities and use office space or coffee shops (or gyms?) while their car is recharging. He’s planning a crowdsourcing campaign for five hubs in London initially, with later roll-out in other areas. Wonder what the cost-per-charge and/or membership demands are going to be for this, though?

• And another business model, albeit a somewhat grander vision: Elon Musk’s Master Plan, Part Deux. From the merger of SolarCity and Tesla will come a scaling-up and complete integration of home solar, energy storage and car charging; a compact SUV and a pick-up truck are on the drawing board; Tesla engineers are working on radical developments to its factory system; the Tesla Semi [heavy-duty truck; insert crude joke here] and a ‘high-density passenger urban transport’ proposal will be unveiled next year [he hints at a small, autonomously-driven bus]; advancing autonomy’; and, possibly most contentiously, adding your self-driving, on-demand Tesla to a shared fleet, ostensibly earning you money when it’s not in use. Can’t say I’m convinced that Tesla owners want to share, I have to say, but perhaps future customers for the Model 3 and other ‘lower-end’ vehicles may behave differently to Roadster and Model S owners…

Friday news round-up

Year-end totals for plug-in car sales in the UK: 28,188 registered in 2015 (of 2.6million overall, but a significant growth in market share nonetheless). Of these, 18,254 were plug-in hybrids and 9,934 (48%) all-electric. 9,186 of the total were registered in south-east England, but 4,420 went to the south-west and 3,371 to the West Midlands. Top-seller was, inevitably, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (11,681; latest version pictured), followed by the Nissan Leaf (5,236) and then the BMW i3 (2,213). Estimates from the government currently put plug-in cars as taking a 5% market share (around 100,000 a year) by 2020.

And estimates of electrified vehicle sales (incl. hybrids) cross-Europe stand at 2.2million a year by 2021, says PwC Autofacts; that’s a growing share, but still, let’s face it, pretty damn tiny in the great scheme of things. It’s also forecasting a dip in PHEV sales in Europe as government subsidies and tax breaks are being canned, i.e. in the Netherlands, although all-electric vehicle production is expected to rise. More here.

• The Fraunhofer IKTS research institute, Thyssenkrupp and IAV are working on an EV battery project: EMBATT aims to develop a more compact, more affordable and longer-range concept with cells integrated into the car’s chassis. A 1000-km range is targeted. More here.

• And BMW is working with the Viessmann Group on ‘digital energy solutions’ to optimise energy use, including static storage systems, for decentralised and flexible electricity supply. Better-integrating electromobility and its demands into (renewable) energy supply, I think is the gist of it.. more here.

• The Ubeeqo ‘mobility platform’ (majority-owned by Europcar) has launched in London and Paris, with other cities to follow: this gives access to cars on-demand via a service called Matcha (from £6 an hour, incl. fuel for the first 50 miles); conventional rental from Europcar, and taxi-booking. A range of public transport options are to be added. Effectively, it’s streamlining/aggregating access from different service providers; this is part of the start-up’s portfolio of corporate solutions, but now extended to private individuals. Not quite the ‘super app’ talked about by Bosch here, but a step in the right direction… (and meanwhile, the car-makers are all circling to negotiate their position in all of this; some detail on Audi’s current thinking here).

• On a further note of consolidation, the Uber API has been integrated into a (US) app called TransLoc Rider, which combines private and public transport options to facilitate multi-modal journeys and commutes. This will debut in Memphis and Raleigh/Durham next month. More here.

• And a different business model for car-sharing/on-demand: WaiveCar, just launched in California (Santa Monica and Venice Beach, says electrive.com) gives the first two hours free and then charges $5.99 an hour thereafter. But… the cars are rolling advertising billboards, funding the service.

• Amsterdam’s aiming for 4000 EV charging points, using wind-generated electricity, by 2018, with 1500 already; partner in the expansion is EV-Box, also aiming to kit out the Benelux countries.

• The biggest auto industry trend to 2025? Connectivity and digitalisation, says this year’s KPMG International Global Automotive Executive Survey (800 executives in 38 countries, plus 2100 consumers). Major business model disruption is also thought to be likely in the next five years. Leverage data from car and driver, says KPMG, to become a customer-oriented service provider. BMW and Toyota are expected to lead in e-mobility and autonomous driving – not least due to their strong brands and breadth of product portfolios compared to the upstart start-ups like Tesla.

 

 

Detroit show snippets, more on mobility…

Snippets from the Detroit motor show this week (no, no Panic in Detroit… aaaah): first up, some satellite tech from Kymeta, maker of flat-panel antennae, fitted to the roof of a Toyota Mirai. Liquid-crystal chemistry plus software means no mechanical componentry and easy integration, plus “much higher data transfer rates than conventional satellite technologies”, says Toyota. It’s said to be stable, giving broad global coverage and common standards – and could just be the enabler for next-gen connected-car, autonomous and vehicle networking systems. Ground control to… no, stop it.

• Volkswagen’s Tiguan GTE Active concept – toughened-up version of its smaller SUV – is a hybrid with an all-electric range of up to 20 miles. Squeezes out a claimed 75mpg (US) from the 1.4 TSI petrol engine with an electric motor driving each axle; more here. Not a gamechanger but, well, better than a diesel SUV, I suppose.

• Audi, meanwhile, has turned its e-tron quattro into a fuel cell-driven SUV, now h-tron; 124mph, a 373-mile range and a four-minute hydrogen refuelling time, apparently, with production on course for 2020.

• Interesting in that this takes electrification to a different sector: there will be a PHEV version of the new Chrysler Pacifica (replacement for the Town & Country/Grand Voyager big MPV), giving a claimed all-e range of 30 miles. Given the short daily-drive routines of people-carriers like this, appropriate. Also, lowdown on Ford Fusion (US-market Mondeo) hybrid and Energi (PHEV) versions here: Fusion Energi does 19 miles in all-e mode, they say.

• And in terms of non-metal product, Ford is launching a service called FordPass in February: free membership, open to non-Ford owners, with reward/loyalty scheme, parking space location/reservations app, FlightCar (borrowing/sharing cars), mobility/transport advice, FordPay mobile payments and more to come, all linked up to FordHubs (‘innovation centres’ rather than trad dealerships, one coming to London). More here.

• Survey from IBM presented in Detroit: A New Relationship – People and Cars; notes that consumers are interested in autonomous, self-driving and adaptive, preference-learning vehicles, but don’t necessarily want to own one. The study – 16,494 consumers in 16 countries interviewed – looks at expectations of vehicle use in the next ten years, and concludes that the private car will continue to be a primary mode of transportation nonetheless. However, there is interest in part/shared ownership of cars, access by subscription and on-demand ride-sharing, and automakers need to develop new revenue-streams, buyer experiences and customer models. More in handy digest here.

• In non-Detroit news: research for BMW at MIT has developed a photovoltaic polymer film to capture and store solar energy to de-ice windscreens. Implication is that this could mitigate against the estimated 30% range reduction in an electric vehicle due to heating, cooling and de-icing. More here.

• Pipping the Bollore cars to the (charging) post, E-Car Club has launched in East London: £5.50 per hour, Renaults Zoe and Fluence in Poplar and Bow. More here.

• Though incidentally, some research from Erasmus University is suggesting that car-sharing and car clubs don’t lead to mileage reductions, and that displacement from public or active transport can actually mean more car use. Reductions are seen only in specific scenarios when club car use replaces a single high-mileage private car, or when drivers are truly convinced of the benefits, apparently. Original paper – in Dutch – here (I think)…

• …but more significant benefits can be seen in wider Mobility as a Service (MaaS) trials, such as one in Gothenburg, which involve modal shift and a wider range of transport choices/incentives. More on the UbiGo project here, too.

• Report on London’s air quality issues (NOx, primarily, these days) from The Policy Exchange; concludes that diesel cars remain main culprits and the ‘improvements’ from Euro 6 compliance may be overstated, with gas-fired CHP (combined heat and power) systems a further concern. Some handy references involved.

 

Concept of the Day: Frauenhofer IISB-ONE

It’s a rolling platform for developing EV power electronics, built by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology (IISB), Erlanger, and it has hit the road for testing. IISB-ONE is said to be a modular concept capable of integrating future technologies, and it showcases Fraunhofer IISB’s portfolio of e-drive systems, converters, chargers and battery storage systems. Interesting note: this is (I think) a second-life application for a rare Artega GT (putative Porsche Cayman rival, designed by Henrik Fisker, originally meant to be Volkswagen-engined, around 150 built before obsoletion/company collapse). Tech spec includes two individually-controlled e-motors delivering 80kW/peak torque of 2000Nm to each driven wheel, a rated 355v lithium-ion battery pack, a high-performance DC-DC converter, flexible AC or DC charging, and wireless inductive-charging capability. Its drivetrain could also accommodate additional batteries or even a fuel cell. (Found via electrive.com)

• Some detail on BMW’s ChargeForward trial at Citylab: 100 i3 drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area are testing an app to report to the utility firm (Pacific Gas and Electric Company) when they want to use their car each day, and for it to then be charged (remotely scheduled) at times to smooth out demand peaks. An early step towards EVs as grid-balancers and in reducing fossil-dependence at peak demand-times.

• A UK survey of 203 EV-drivers by KiWi Power, Carbon Trust and HSSMI (respondents recruited via Zap-Map and Next Green Car) found that: 81% had a dedicated home charging point; 19% had access to charging at work (but only 14% used it); 90% regularly use public charging points – 68% at least once a week, 22% around once a month and 9% less than once a month; 67% use all charger types; 31% use rapid-chargers only; 50% charge on public facilities for less than 2 hours, 37% for 4-6 hours, 5% for 6-8 hours, remainder 8 hrs+ or ‘don’t know’; most plug in with less than 60% battery charge remaining – 24% at 0-20%, 35% at 21-40%, 25% at 41-60%; 95% select a public parking location based on availability of a charger (52% always, 43% sometimes, only 5% saying it’s not a deciding factor); 67% regularly use a particular point; points regularly used are 32% in retail car parks, 25% in public car parks, 21% in local authority car parks, 10% on-street and 6% at workplace locations. Handy infographic, rundown with comments, here.

• Qualcomm has done a deal with Swiss parts-maker Brusa for manufacturing/supply of its induction-charging tech, moving wireless charging a stage closer; its Halo system has been licensed, reports Green Car Congress.

• Report from the Innovative Mobility Research unit at TSRC, UC Berkeley, surveying responses from 23,774 active Zipcar members incl. 523 corporate members (Zipcar for Business accounts for around a quarter of membership in the US). Of the corporate members, two in five sold a vehicle or postponed the purchase of a new one due to their joining Zipcar, equating to a claimed 33,000 fewer cars across N. America. Some interesting stats: of those who had sold/postponed purchase of a private vehicle, 41% said they took public transit or walked more often now, and 22% were more likely to cycle – but 19% were less likely to cycle, 13% were less likely to take public transit, and 7% less likely to walk – Shaheen et al point to a 13% induced-demand effect. 49% said that their likelihood of buying a new car in the future was reduced, and this was unchanged for 41%. Full report here.

• Nice report from TransitCenter (New York), A People’s History of Recent Urban Transportation Innovation, looks at citizen activism and resident- or people-driven innovations. The examples used include introduction of bike lanes, bike-shares, public plazas, mini-parks and pedestrian spaces, but well, same principles for energy transitions or a switch to alt-fuels and installation of infrastructure? It discusses the scaling-up of local initiatives, and identifies three key prerequisites for success: an independent but persuasive citizen-led civic sector; bold mayors and transportation chiefs with a vision and mandate from top-level government; and agency adoption/new practices within city government to ‘perpetuate new norms’. Full report available to download here.

• And (yet) more on Millennials, (via NextCity)… Survey of 3000 18-34-year-old Americans in the country’s 50 biggest cities, by Portland State University, found that they use public transport more than any other age-group, are more likely to walk or cycle, and prefer ‘attached’ housing (apartments) and living in walkable urban environments with short commutes (surprise!).  83% like walking, 71% driving (still high, but there’s a larger gap between the two figures for this age-group).

• Yet Americans (cross-agegroups) are actually driving more and more – VMT (vehicle mileage travelled) has just risen for the 14th month in a row, the most since April 2007, and 2015’s set to be a record year for mileage, reports AutoblogGreen. Low oil/fuel prices are fingered as the culprits. So though Millennials may be driving less, we can’t assume a downward trend…
• …which is why we need to get people into cleaner cars. A white paper from the ICCT looks at metro markets (USA) for EVs and concludes that they’re breaking through successfully in cities where there is progressive city policy, effective promotion and incentives, investment in infrastructure, and a broad range of vehicles available.

• Criticising EVs as being only as green as the source of their electricity is not constructive (agreed), takes only a very short-term view (double agreed) and electromobility needs to be looked at as one element in a wider system (agreed again), says Tali Trigg at Scientific American.

Concept of the Day: Morgan EV3

Never let it be said that Morgan lives entirely in the past: its EV3 – to be revealed shortly at the Goodwood Festival of Speed – is a zero-emissions sport roadster. Based on the 3 Wheeler “reintroduced” in 2011, it has a rear-mounted 45kW motor surely sufficiently powerful to propel a 450kg lightweight, and giving a promised range of around 150 miles. It’s undergoing formal testing and development, presumably including the Euro-homologation procedures, and production (the usual Morgan hand-build process) is expected towards the end of 2016. It builds on the firm’s experience with the Plus E prototypes (four wheels), I guess.

• Another idea from Paris which could come to London: operators of the CityScoot electric scooter hire scheme want to bring it over here next, reports the Standard. And incidentally, in central Montreal, proximity to a Bixi (bike-hire, as per Boris bikes) station is increasing property prices…

• BMW is expanding its DriveNow car-share and app to allow Mini owners to hire out their cars, adding a peer-to-peer element as well as the on-demand service using cars on-street. More here. Oh, and Ford, too – Ford Credit customers in six US cities plus London can now lend out their vehicles. Both companies are citing the chance for owners to offset the purchase/lease costs of their new vehicle. Ford’s also unveiled its MoDe:Flex electrically-assisted fold-up bike, for further multi-modal/last-mile solutions, complete with MoDe:Link app for maps, routing, info including weather, congestion, public transport and various health/fitness functions. Full Fordext on both announcements here.

• Shared mobility and autonomous tech could help EVs “stage a comeback” (in shareholding/business terms), according to an analyst at Morgan Stanley (no relation to the above). Car-share schemes will help OEMs achieve economies of scale, says Adam Jonas, and autonomous tech – in an on-demand shared context – helps overcome short range, charging downtime and low charging station density. He also suggests that if Apple were to make an EV, they would effectively ‘sponsor’ the industry and transform the market.

• Norwegian start-up Meshcrafts AS is launching a trading platform for energy with charging app and secure payment system – and is looking for beta-testers. The Smart Charge system enables charging point owners and EV drivers to interact, with automatic metering, load management and billing; they have hardware for data monitoring at charge points; and ‘Ergo’, an automatic identification system for EVs including their charging preferences.

• Further to all the above, the global market for smart urban mobility infrastructure/services is expected to grow from 2015’s $5.1billion to $25.1billion in 2024, says the latest report from Navigant Research. Growth is expected in ITS, public EV charging, smart parking, car- and bike-sharing, ride-sharing and congestion charging schemes, with connectivity a focus; both public investment and private enterprise will play a role, with different solutions predominating in different regions. Report handily summarised here.

• Research at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has found that end-of-life lithium-ion EV batteries retain 70% of their charge capacity, and is modelling cost-savings of redeploying them in static energy storage; it identifies suitable applications and reckons that batteries could have a 10-year ‘second-life’ application. More detail here.

• Confirmation of the ending of the UK Plug-In Car grant at the end of the year: grants will be honoured for nine months now if orders have been taken and cars allocated to customers. Scheme to be changed but will run – in some form, with graduated bandings in three categories, though grant sums yet to be confirmed – till 2020. More at Fleet News.

• Most households with second cars in the UK could run an EV as their second car, according to research by the AA, which looks at typical mileage and access to off-street parking; more here.  And nearly half of “EV stakeholders” – people working for/with the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, so not ‘real’ consumers, then – expect their next car to be an EV or PHEV, apparently (14% already have one). Lowdown at EV Fleet World.