Apple Self-Driving EV Gets A Chip Supplier

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On today’s podcast:

• Porsche Taycan Is UK #1
• Audi e-tron GT Starts Production
• Apple Self-Driving EV Back In The News
• VW's Chinese R&D Centre
• More V3 Supercharging Stations For China
• Volkswagen ID 4 1st Max 2021 review
• Fisker To Enter UK In 2023
• BMW iX Cold Weather Testing

 

Show #946

 

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Wednesday 9th December. It’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

 

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PORSCHE TAYCAN IS UK #1

Porsche sales for the UK were up over 15% compared to the same time last year. And the top model? The all electric Taycan. There is an all electric Macan coming too, and Porsche recently updated their roadmap to be 50% plug in, in 2025. As more EVs top the sales charts it will put pressure on the ICE cars.

Globally they're on track to produce over 20,000 this year. Next year we get the Taycan Cross Turismo also.

 

AUDI E-TRON GT STARTS PRODUCTION

And whilst we're on the Taycan/e-tron GT, the Audi has now entered production.

Made in Germany, it's made alongside teh Audi R8. It's not a sister car to the Taycan more a cousin, both on the J1 platform. Order books open in Spring 2021. This could be slightly cheaper, but if it's less than 100k I'll be surprised. If the Taycan are aiming for 20,000 cars this  year, how many can the Audi sell?

 

Interesting the e-tron can regen at 265 kW, 4 wheel teering, and charges at 270kW.

 

SPECS:

more than 90 kWh battery

over 400 km (248.5 miles) of range (WLTP)

dual motor (PMSM) all-wheel drive with torque vectoring

system output: 434 kW (590 hp)

0-100 km/h (62 mph) in about 3.5 seconds

0-200 km/h (124 mph) in over 12 seconds

top speed of 240 km/h (149 mph)

800 V battery system voltage

fast charging: 0-80% in 20-minutes

 

APPLE SELF-DRIVING EV BACK IN THE NEWS

A report that seems to track back to Digitimes today has once again raised the prospect of Apples self-driving electric car - the long awaited Project Titan. TSMC has been chosen as the manufacturer of teh self-driving chips.

Whether Apple ever build a car is debatable. The last couple of years have pointed towards them developing the hardware and software to sell to other car makers. And another piece of news yesterday said that Project Titan was moving into the AI and machine learning responsibility.

Apple recently moved into making their own M1 chip for the new Macbook Air, Macbook Pro 13" and Mac mini, which they say incorporates the latest Machine Learning. The Neural Engine helps learn what you are trying to do with your apps.

And if TSMC sounds familiar it's not only because they're one of the worlds large chip makers, but also because Tesla is working with them for Hardware 4. It should be going into mass production from the end of 2021 or Q1 2022. Sounds a lot like Cybertruck timeline.

Where is the margin for car companies of the future? It might not be in manufacturing but in licencing the tools for self-driving.

What I don't like from this report is that is says the Apple Car is similar to Tesla. That's unclear what it could mean.

 

VW'S CHINESE R&D CENTRE

As a demonstration of how important China is to the future of electric mobility, VW has just opened their new R&D centre in Hefei. The newly built facility puts VWs Research and Development, plus testing and quality assurance at the heart of the worlds biggest market for EVs.

Much like Elon Musk talking at the Model 3 customer handover event in Shanghai about his desire to have a Chinese design team, this shows how China should be taken seriously as a country which can drive innovation in the EV industry.

In a related story VW has increased their stake in the joint venture project JAC Volkswagen and renamed it to the Volkswagen (Anhui) Automotive Company, also assuming management control. In the new year it will see VW invest in the project to make more EVs for the local market with factories and general assembly lines being upgraded.

The final annualized capacity will be 350,000 EVs a year.

 

MORE V3 SUPERCHARGING STATIONS FOR CHINA

As an update the story last week about Tesla China's largest V3 Supercharging station, it's adding many more, in fact plenty more in the lat 24 hours.

That includes 27 newly-built Supercharging stations with 23 sites being the latest V3 technology with a peak charge speed of 250kW. And whilst that's impressive, remember than faster charging is also enabling a greater hourly throughput of vehicles. So whilst we all like to spend less time waiting on a charge, without the throughput Tela would have to build more infrastructure for the same result.

The highly dense population areas are those which are embracing Tesla's in China, and the kind of areas where fast charging is essential for those without access to home or workplace charger. By the end of this year Tesla estimates 7,000 charging stalls, 5,000 of those for DCFC and another 2,000 AC destination chargers.

Superchagers in China are more likely to be in dense population areas whereas in other countries they're more likely to be out of town on main transport routes.  Chinese citizens are more likely to use fast public transport to cover long distances, in a cultural shift to the West.

 

FISKER TO ENTER UK IN 2023

Selling a car in a new market is one thing, providing for service is another. IN the UK Fisker has signed deals with Cox Autmotive and Rivus to provide after-sales service.

Rather than building their own network of service centres, they will outsource vehicle delivery, service / maintenance, fleet management, mobile fleet servicing, valuation, trade-in, refurbishment and remarketing.

Fisker are going about business in a way which keeps them light on assets. Magna in Austria will build and even co-develop the Ocean SUV. Fisker will have consumer experience centers opening from 2021, they're targeting large global cities.

The UK has had more attention recently given our 2030 deadline for banning gasoline and diesel, although there is a clause for PHEV's which go a "significant distance" emission free.

EVs require specialist training to work on, and these service providers say they're already equipped.

The Ocean SUV goes on sale in the U.S. in 2022 so to come to the UK in 2023 puts us ahead of many.

 

VOLKSWAGEN ID 4 1ST MAX 2021 REVIEW

Autocar magazine has taken the VW ID.4 for it's first test drive and review. The ID.4 is the first global ID model whereas the gold-sized ID.3 is not coming to the U.S. ID.4 is made in Germany for now but will be made in Europe, China and Chattanooga USA.

Here the first customers get it from February 2021. US customers should have had it before Xmas but I'm hearing of a short delay.

The first ID.4;s are RWD but next Summer we get AWD GTX models. They say the car is the size of a Tiguan on the outside but give you the room of a Touareg - it's really a Tardis.

Autocar drove the 1st MAX version with 201hp and a 77kWH usable pack. WLTP range is 324 miles and 125kW charging - which you have to pick from the options list. Talking of that options list if it's like the ID.3 it will be extensive.

I still can't order one, it's jsut an email signup page.

 

BMW IX COLD WEATHER TESTING

One of the rivals of the ID.4 is the BMW iX. And now it has been seen doing winter testing.

We're about a year away from the car being on sale and prototype are in Scandinavia testing the cold weather abilities.

They're driving beyond the arctic circle to find extreme conditions to test the drive and suspension systems.

electric motors, four-wheel drive system as well as charging technology, high-voltage batteries and heat management are put to the demanding acid test under sub-zero temperatures.

A reminder the iX using the 5th Gen eDrive technology as found in the BMW iX3 and the forthcoming iNEXT.  It's AWD, 500hp and they're aiming for 210Wh / km, with a range of 600km / 373 miles.

 

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