Tag Archives: EVs

Tesla, GM May Get Eligibility for Federal EV Tax Credits Again

2021 Tesla Model S

Buyers the new Tesla Model S may be eligible for a $7,000 tax credit not previously offered.

Tesla and General Motors may be considered polar opposites in many ways, but in one very big way they’re going to be almost bosom buddies: tax credits for EVs.

The market leader in the segment and the hopes-to-be-leader in the segment are soon able to once again access federal tax credits for the next 400,000 electric vehicles each automaker sells, if a new bill from Democrats makes it into law.

The Growing Renewable Energy and Efficiency Now Act (yup, GREEN) provides a new set of tax incentives aimed at renewable energy technologies, or in this case, vehicles. GM and Tesla buyers could get $7,000 tax credits for new EVs, if it passes.

Government getting involved

Chevy Bolt buyers may get to claim a federal tax credit that had been previously unavailable.

President Joe Biden is a proponent for the growth of electric vehicles, pledging to add 1 million new automotive jobs related to EVs and growing the nation’s underwhelming EV charging network by 500,000 by the end of the decade.

The new bill submitted by Representative Mike Thompson (D-California), who is Chairman of U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Select Revenue, all the other Democratic leaders on the subcommittee signed onto the bill, hoping Congress will take it up under a Democratic-controlled Senate and the Biden administration.

A similar bill was introduced in June 2020, then controlled by Republicans, and it failed. It was the latest of several attempts to reinstate the previous $7,500 tax credit. Democrats have attempted to resurrect the credit several times, each effort shut down by Senate Republicans. Now that Democrats have the final vote in any deadlock, it seems likely to make it through.

How the tax credit used to work and the new version

The original credit, passed during the Obama administration, limited the number of vehicles eligible for the credit to 200,000 vehicles. Tesla hit the mark first in 2018, followed by GM shortly after. Tesla CEO Elon Musk cut the price on vehicles in the U.S. after to help partially offset the loss of the credit.

Used EVs, if they qualify, can fetch a $2,500 tax credit through the GREEN Act.

The new version cuts the credit by $500, but it also changes the structure of the credit phase out after an automaker hits 600,000 vehicles. The first plan reduced the size of the credit in stages over the course of 12 months following hitting the end number. Now it drops to $3,500 for one quarter and then disappears. Owners who bought vehicles in the interim are not eligible to claim the credit retroactively – at this point.

Additionally, the GREEN Act allows used buyers to claim up to a $2,500 tax credit when purchasing a qualifying preowned electric car. The EV must be at least two years old and the sale price cannot exceed $25,000. Income caps for individuals and spouses filing taxes jointly may result in smaller credits, however.

Businesses aren’t being ignored as the bill creates tax breaks for companies and municipalities purchasing electric heavy-duty vehicles, including zero-emissions buses. Twenty percent of the sales price would be eligible for sales over $100,000.

/**/

/**/

Is Ford Making an All-Electric Mustang? Maybe

Could the next-gen Ford Mustang coupe come only as a battery-electric model?

Ford Motor Co.’s gotten such an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the all-electric Mustang Mach-E, it’s rumored to be making the next-generation of the sports car a fully electric offering as well.

According to AutoForecast Solutions, the automaker will not build the next version of the pony car until 2028. The reason for the delay? It needs to be redesigned on a battery-electric platform. Further, it’s expected to be the only powertrain for the new Mustang.

“… the gas-fueled burble of the V-8 is replaced with the shocking acceleration of an electric motor when the standard Mustang becomes an EV in just a few years,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasts, in the company’s podcast on Jan. 18.

(New Mustang Mach-E is just the first step in “electrification” for Ford.)

The early success of the Mustang Mach-E suggests that an all-electric version of the sports car could be well received by aficionados.

Fiorani’s podcast was followed by a report by Autoline Detroit Tuesday, recounting the AFS report about the next version of the Mustang. Although it isn’t out of the question for the Mustang to get an electric powertrain, for it to be the only offering is a bit surprising.

Many have suggested some form of electrification, such as a small electric motor to add some more power and torque has certainly been bandied about. Several other sports cars have move to the hybrid set up to boost performance.

It should be noted that in 2017 the automaker killed a $1.6 billion investment in Mexico, redirecting $700 million of that to expand the Flat Rock plant. Ford would add a new body shop at the site to handle two unnamed battery-electric vehicles, officials said at the time, although it was suggested that one would be a hybrid.

The site currently produces just the Mustang, which until recently included the Shelby GT350 and GT350R models. Those two vehicles have been discontinued, with the GT500 living on and now the Mach 1 making a comeback later this year. Ford officials have not responded to TheDetroitBureau.com at the time of publication.

Ford officials have long maintained that electrification was part of the company’s future, not its sole focus, unlike its rival, General Motors, which has been dealing with some electrification rumors lately too. Last week, reports resurfaced that an all-electric Chevrolet Corvette was in the works, but following in Ford’s footsteps.

Ford announced plans in 2017 to invest $700 million in its Flat Rock, Michigan, plant, which currently builds only the Mustang, to build electric vehicles.

(Ford axes $1.6B Mexico plant for $700M Michigan upgrade.)

While General Motors insiders never really downplayed reports about the potential electrification of the ‘Vette, including a fully electric model. However, last week there were reports that the bowtie brand was considering an electric Corvette crossover like the Mustang Mach-E because of the warm reception it’s getting.

The flames were fanned during CES2021 when GM officials talked about offering a variety of new electric vehicles between now and 2030. Earlier reports centered on a 1,000-horsepower monster dubbed the Corvette Zora, named after the creator of the original car. The move to create an all-electric crossover would check off two “rumor” boxes, if you will: an all-electric model and the creation of a separate Corvette sub-brand.

The downside, of course, is that Corvette loyalists would shun it immediately. It’s been barely a year since the eighth-generation Corvette – the C8 to fans – made its debut, marking the switch to a mid-engine layout, the most radical shift for the sports car in its nearly seven decades on the market.

Several senior members of the Corvette team have hinted at plans in conversations with TheDetroitBureau.com, among other things indicating the new car’s platform could allow space for a battery pack.

(Could an all-electric Corvette crossover be in the works?)

Several purported timetables have emerged indicating Chevrolet is working on hybrid or plug-in versions of the sports car. But when directly asked about the opportunity of a hybrid model, GM President Mark Reuss has responded on several occasions with the company’s new mantra, that it is “on a path to an all-electric future.

/**/

/**/

Tesla Chief Musk Now World’s Wealthiest Person due to Record-Setting Stock Price

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ridden the EV maker’s skyrocketing stock to the worlds richest person title.

The ongoing run up of Tesla Inc.’s stock price has made the EV maker the world’s most value automotive company several times over. However, it’s not just the company that’s sitting atop the money list now.

CEO Elon Musk, who owns a massive amount of the company’s stock, has ridden the company’s rising share prices to the title world’s richest man, passing Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos.

With the company’s gains Thursday, the 49-year-old Musk saw his net worth soar to more than $188.5 billion, $1.5 billion more than Bezos, Bloomberg reported. The brash and oft-impatient, which has worked in his favor many times, Musk has seen his personal wealth skyrocket as the value of Tesla shares has leapt eightfold.

(Tesla narrowly misses 500K delivery target for 2020.)

He has a 20% stake in the carmaker and about $42 billion of unrealized paper gains on vested stock options, according to the Bloomberg report.

The battle of the richest currently mirrors the boxing world where are multiple champions in the same weight class. In this case, the Forbes Billionaire’s list still listed Bezos as the top dog with a $7.8 billion bigger balance sheet. Forbes dings the EV maker because some of the stock he owns has been pledged as collateral for personal loans, the company said.

Tesla isn’t Musk’s only venture, with the serial entrepreneur owning controlling stakes in the Boring Company, which builds tunnels designed to alleviate urban traffic; Neuralink, a startup company developing brain-machine interfaces; and SpaceX, which produces rockets that launch payloads into space while landing back on Earth so they can be reused.

(Tesla’s latest system update sounds like real gas.)

The passion for rockets and space is something he shares with Bezos, who created Blue Origin. Much like SpaceX, the company is focused on the development of reusable rockets. The company’s mission calls for those multi-use boosters to take people into space.

Musk was rather blasé about the milestone, tweeting out “How strange” and then “Well, back to work,” He later pinning an earlier tweet about his fortune to the top of his feed.

“About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves,” he tweeted Oct. 12, 2018.

(Tesla gets green light to sell Shanghai-built Model Y in China.)

The new title is just the latest bit of good news for Musk, who was Tesla fall only just short of his stated goal of delivering 500,000 vehicles worldwide, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The EV maker, which has enjoyed four consecutive profitable quarters to be placed on the S&P 500 index, sold 499,550 vehicles in 2020, falling just 450 short of the goal.

/**/

/**/

Japan Joins Growing List of Countries Set to Ban Sales of Gas-Powered Vehicles

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga supports the move to ban the sale of non-electric new vehicles staring in 2035.

Despite strong pushback from the country’s largest automaker, Japan has announced plans to halt the sale of vehicles relying solely on internal combustion engines after 2035.

The move means the Asian nation will join a growing list of countries planning to phase out vehicles powered by gas or diesel, including both the United Kingdom and Norway. A number of other countries, including France and Germany, are considering similar bans.

Vehicles with internal combustion engines won’t be banned entirely. Automakers will still be able to market hybrids in Japan, regulators ruled. Even so, the plan released on Christmas Day was a significant victory for Japanese environmentalists considering it was strongly opposed by key industry leaders, including Toyota President Akio Toyoda who warned earlier this month that a broad shift to electric vehicles could cause the auto industry’s traditional business model “to collapse.”

(Toyota boss Akio Toyoda remains EV skeptic.)

Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s top officer, is against the ban.

As the head of Japan’s largest and most powerful company – and in his role as the head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association – Toyoda hoped to convince regulators to back off on the proposed ban. But it had widespread backing from other quarters, including Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

In October, shortly after assuming his post, Suga had pledged to cut Japan’s carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 while indicating he supported a shift to battery-powered vehicles.

Global sales of electrified vehicles remain modest, running in single digits in all but a handful of markets, even when including hybrids, PHEVs and fuel-cell vehicles, as well as pure battery-electric vehicles. But demand is expected to increase sharply as key obstacles, such as range, cost and public charging, are addressed. It also will help that scores of new BEVs are scheduled to go into production in the coming years, proponents say.

While Japanese automakers were pioneers with their early push to bring hybrids to market, “Japan is very far behind” in terms of developing more advanced products relying solely on battery power, Masayoshi Arai, an official with the country’s

Nissan is one of a few Japanese automakers dedicating resources to a move to EVs.

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said last week.

Toyota only recently introduced a BEV model in Europe, though it has announced plans to add two more – one through the flagship Toyota division, a second under the Lexus badge. It also this month revealed an all-electric microcar targeting the Japanese home market. Only the Nissan and Mitsubishi brands, among Japanese automakers, have committed significant resources to the development of pure battery-electric vehicles and, even then, they have fallen behind key foreign rivals in terms of bringing new products to market.

(Toyota hopes to boost interest in hydrogen tech with second-generation Mirai.)

Toyota officials have, throughout the years, pointed to numerous concerns about BEVs, including their cost, limited range and other obstacles to widespread consumer acceptance. For his part, company chief Toyoda said this month that he feared a switch to all-electric models would seriously disrupt the classic automotive industry business model. He also raised questions about whether Japan’s electric grid could supply the needed energy — and, if it did add the generating capacity, he warned, that could actually increase the country’s reliance on fossil fuels.

With the debut of the 2021 Mirai fuel-cell vehicle, Toyota’s hoping to spur interest in the tech again.

For his part, Japan’s new prime minister is downplaying such concerns and said that efforts to address greenhouse gas production “should be tackled as a strategy for growth, not as a limitation on growth.”

Downplaying the need for new coal or natural gas plants, the plan released by the Japanese government would add up to 45 gigawatts of new offshore wind generating capacity by 2040.

With the Christmas Day announcement, Japan becomes the second member of the Group of Seven, or G7, to lay out specific plans to ban non-electrified vehicles.

The UK originally had planned to do so by 2040 but now has pushed that target date up to 2030. Like Japan, its ban will continue to permit the sale of hybrids – but only through 2035, at which point only pure, zero-emissions vehicles will be able to be sold in Great Britain. That will include both BEVs and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Despite its reticence about EVs, Toyota rolled out a new battery-electric car Dec. 25: the C+pod.

A handful of other countries, including Norway, have also laid out ZEV transition plans. So have some states and regions – including California and the Canadian province of British Columbia. A number of cities, such as London, Paris, Berlin and Mexico City, plan to bar vehicles not running in zero-emissions mode, meanwhile. China, meanwhile, has laid out plans to have “New Energy Vehicles,” plug-based models, reach 20% of the market by 2025. It is considering a total ban at a later date.

(Britain to ban sale of all new gas and diesel cars by 2030.)

With most of the country’s automakers reluctant to bring plug-based models to market, demand has grown far more slowly than in many other major regions. The Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade noted that consumers purchased only 6,000 PHEVs and BEVs during the third quarter of 2020. By comparison, demand tripled in Europe to 270,000 – all-electric models accounting for roughly three-quarters of Norwegian sales. China, meanwhile, is expected to again top 1 million plug-based models for all of 2020.

Apple Readying to Bring a New Vehicle to Market in 2024, Report Claims

Apple appears to be back in the “building a car” game with an EV said to be coming in 2024.

Tech behemoth Apple Inc. is apparently on again when it comes to its on-again, off-again oft-speculated about Project Titan, after media reports say the company will bring out a vehicle potentially using a cutting-edge battery technology in 2024.

Apple’s been walking the line of potentially building an electric vehicle for most of the last decade, scooping up top tech minds from potential competitors, like Tesla, during that time. However, the company would never officially confirm Project Titan or its plans to build its own car.

However, a few years back, CEO Tim Cook decided to put the rumors to rest, saying the company was working on the development of autonomous technology that could be used by automakers. However, a new report from Reuters, which cites multiple sources familiar with the project, claims that an actual car is coming in three years, separate from the self-driving technology.

(Apple cuts over 200 jobs at autonomous vehicle project.)

Apple CEO Tim Cook has called self-driving vehicles “the mother of all AI projects.”

The tech giant’s been close before, hiring Doug Field, an Apple veteran who had worked at Tesla Inc., to oversee the project in 2018 and laid off 190 people from the team in 2019, according to Reuters. However, since then, the company’s been plugging along and now believes it’s made enough progress to build a vehicle, Reuters reported.

In an age where electric vehicle startups are seemingly commonplace, Apple’s return to the game doesn’t seem all that big a deal, until the report of the new battery design comes into play. Automakers are looking to improve batteries significantly so the costs will be on par with a vehicle with a gasoline- or diesel-powered engine.

The sources told Reuters that the new design could “radically” cut the battery cost while increasing the vehicle’s range. Current range for the top EVs exceeds 300 miles on a single charge, but Tesla, Lucid, General Motors and others are proclaiming that they’re pushing beyond 400 miles with their current vehicles. By the time an Apple EV shows up in 2024, the range could be double that, if not more.

(Apple files patent linked to AV driving.)

According to the story, the iPhone maker plans to use a “monocell” design. It bulks up the individual cells in the battery, freeing up space inside the battery pack by eliminating pouches and modules holding battery materials. The design allows for more battery material to be stuffed in the battery, extending its range.

Apple’s autonomous vehicle — a T6 Transporter van from Volkswagen.

Additionally, Reuters reported that Apple is researching a new battery chemistry: lithium iron phosphate, also known as LFP. Its primary advantage is that it’s less likely to overheat, making it safter than other batteries.

Apple’s big checkbook instantly makes it a player in any market it chooses to compete, but building a car isn’t the same as building a phone or a laptop. Tesla has struggled with its production issues and quality problems plague each of their vehicles when they roll off the assembly line during the early launch and even well beyond that time frame.

(Apple’s autonomous vehicle involved in California crash.)

First Look: 2021 Nissan Ariya

The 2021 Nissan Ariya is about the size of a Rogue SUV – but features the interior space of the bigger Murano.

Nissan is singing a new tune. With the arrival of the 2021 Ariya, Japan’s second-largest carmaker hopes to rebuild its once-lofty position as an innovator in the emerging market for battery-electric vehicles.

The automaker was, in fact, the first to mass market a BEV, but a decade after the launch of the original Leaf model, Nissan has not only been eclipsed by Tesla, but is being challenged by more conventional competitors, such as Volkswagen, Ford and General Motors,  each rolling out waves of new long-range battery-cars.

The 2021 Nissan Ariya is the long-overdue battery-SUV meant to keep Nissan in the game. It’s a ground-up offering, not just a redesigned Leaf, with a brand-new platform and electric drive system that is more powerful and able to deliver longer range. Ariya also debuts Nissan’s first hands-free driving system.

(A week with the 2020 Nissan Leaf SL Plus.)

The Nissan Ariya will be offered in either front- or all-wheel-drive configurations.

The new model “is the spearhead, showing our vision of the future,” said Ivan Espinosa, the carmaker’s senior vice president of global product planning, during a media roundtable ahead of the battery car’s Wednesday debut. “Ariya is not just an EV,” he emphasized. “It is showing the technical prowess of Nissan…what Nissan stands for.”

Pronounced like the song an opera diva sings, a concept version of the Ariya made its first appearance at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show last autumn, followed by a U.S. debut at January’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Though there were some design details unique to exotic concepts, like the oversized wheels, the show car will go into production with only minor changes.

The 2021 Ariya rides on a flexible new architecture, Espinosa explained during the online meeting. It eventually will be used for a variety of battery-cars to be produced not only by Nissan but also by its two alliance partners, Japan’s Mitsubishi and France’s Renault.

(Nissan lifts the covers on the next-gen Rogue.)

Features like the grille-less nose help reduce aero drag.

“The beauty of this platform is it’s modular (which) allows us to accommodate different possibilities,” he said, adding that the three partners have “a lot of questions about what new areas of the market we can explore.”

As with key competitors like Tesla, Ford, GM and VW, the platform positions its batteries, motors and other key components below the load floor. That reduces the size of the traditional engine compartment, allowing significantly more freedom, said Nissan’s global styling chief Alfonso Albaisa. And the development team found other breakthrough strategies. Rather than mounting the climate control, or HVAC, system within the instrument panel, it was moved into the modest space left where an engine would normal go, freeing up more space for the passenger compartment.

“You get inside and you’re really shocked,” suggested Albaisa, pointing out that the exterior footprint of the Nissan Ariya is about as big as the subcompact Rogue SUV, but the cabin has the roominess of the much larger Murano.

(Nissan among automakers taking big sales hit in Q2.))

The interior borrows heavily from the Ariya concept.

From an exterior design perspective, the Ariya is far less geeky than the Leaf which was designed during an era when green machines were expected to look like something from a sci-fi flick. That said, there are some obvious cues that tell you it’s a BEV, starting with absence of a conventional grille – electric vehicles needing far less disruptive airflow under the hood. Slit headlamps each feature four distinct LED bulbs. From the side, the crossover adapts a curvaceous, coupe-like shape, with plenty of subtle details designed to cheat the range-stealing wind – including twin rear spoilers.

Inside, Albaisa’s team adopted a minimalist approach, with a floating, horizontally oriented instrument panel featuring side-by-side video screens, each measuring 12.3 inches. One of the neat tricks is the ability to swipe across the infotainment display and move elements to the primary gauge display. The lack of a center tunnel creates a flat floor that makes it possible to sit five inside with reasonable comfort.

The new modular architecture is, fundamentally, front-wheel-drive, though buyers also will have the option of ordering an all-wheel-drive, twin-motor package. Nissan started all but from scratch, developing a new electric drive system it has dubbed e-4ORCE. The system has been described as the “spiritual offspring” of the automaker’s GT-R sports car, and that underscores a fundamental shift in thinking. No longer does Nissan believe BEV buyers will sacrifice that fun-to-drive quality just to go green.

Ariya will offer a standard battery or a 300-mile option.

The front-drive system delivers 160 kilowatts, or about 214 horsepower, and 221 pound-feet of torque. The twin-motor AWD system bumps that up to 290 kW, or 389 hp, and 443 lb-ft. The e-4ORCE system can direct power to individual wheels, using torque to assist driver input, among other things, when tracking through a corner.

That also pays off when using the next-generation ProPilot Assist 2.0, Nissan’s semi-autonomous driving system. The original version could help center the vehicle in its lane, among other things, but required drivers to keep hands on the wheel at all times. The new system, Nissan explained, allows “attentive drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel under certain conditions.”

Specific details have yet to be released but it appears to follow the format of GM’s Super Cruise and Ford’s new version of CoPilot 360, operating on limited-access roads mapped in high-resolution. A monitoring system makes sure a driver remains alert and ready to take control in an emergency.

In terms of batteries, Nissan has continued tinkering with the chemistry of its lithium-ion cells and has both cut their cost and increased their energy density, storing more power in less space. The base 2021 Ariya stores 63 kilowatt-hours. That’s within a kWh of the current, longest-range version of the gen-2 Nissan Leaf Plus. The Ariya offers an extended-range 87 kWh battery expected to get around 300 miles per charge, according to the EPA.

Ariya’s 2nd row folds to create a flat load floor.

As for charging, Nissan officials weren’t ready to offer details beyond noting Ariya can handle up to 137 kilowatts of power, a big jump up from the roughly 50 kW limit for Leaf. That would suggest an 80% recharge for the smaller pack in perhaps a bit over an hour at a CCS charger.

And that signals another big shift by the automaker which had been the only key player in the U.S. market committed to the older, slower CHAdeMO system. Nissan’s policy “is to have happy customers,” said Espinosa,” and with more – and faster — CCS chargers now available, the switch was overdue, according to EV analysts.

As for pricing, the base version of the 2021 Nissan Ariya will start at $40,000, said Espinosa. It is set to go on sale in Japan in the coming weeks, with U.S. dealers beginning deliveries “later in 2021.”

For the first half of the past decade, Nissan dominated EV sales charts. It has lost its lead to Tesla and is facing plenty of other competition going forward. Whether it can come close to being a significant player with Ariya is far from certain. But Nissan officials are betting that the new BEV has enough going for it to make Ariya a serious contender.

(Ford’s Bronco is back…and it’s now part of a new family of SUVs.)