From Tesla Summon to Nissan drama to New York EV support, here’s a rundown of notable electric vehicle news — notable changes or findings in the EV industry — during the month of November. It’s the latest edition of our regular What Changed…? feature.
The Tesla Model 3 hit Tesla showrooms in Europe for the first time for show & tell events.
It was revealed that Tesla Model 3 deliveries would start in China in March 2019, or April at the latest. The Model 3 configurator also opened there for people with a reservation.
Tesla bought some trucking companies to help with Q4 Model 3 deliveries and beyond.
This is not new, but we finally caught wind that Tesla revealed it would spend $3 billion a year over the next two years on gigafactories.
Tesla also reportedly added warehouse space in Lathrop, California, to relieve pressure on its Fremont factory.
Instead of selling used cars all by itself, Tesla started partnering with auction companies to manage its used car sales.
Tesla Autopilot hit a milestone of 1 billion miles of operation in customer vehicles.
Tesla Shuttle (not an arm of Tesla, but a city-to-city shuttle network I co-founded that uses Tesla vehicles) opened up over 100 routes in and from Southeast Florida.
A Tesla sales side notes from CleanTechnica: the Tesla Model 3 has seen 1.5× more sales than the Ford Mustang this year, and also 1.5× more sales than the BMW 3/4 Series.
Electric Vehicles
Carlos Ghosn seemingly got pushed out of Nissan via a head-scratching fandango that doesn’t seem to make much sense.
Nissan started using vehicle-to-grid tech to help power US operations.
The VW e-Up! (only available in Europe) got a “£3,250 value boost.”
Volkswagen started converting the Zwickau automotive plant to produce electric vehicles.
BMW unveiled its iNext … thing.
Mahindra Electric Mobility, which is a subsidiary of the Mahindra Group, “inaugurated its first Electric Technology Manufacturing Hub in Karnataka, India.”
Numerous electric cars were introduced at the Guangzhou Auto Show in China.
Ford acquired dockless electric scooter startup Spin.
Ford also started production of DHL StreetScooter Work XL electric delivery vans in Germany.
GM announced it would close 5 assembly plants in North America, including one that produces the Chevy Volt, and also eliminate 15,000 jobs … but the move may be part of a decision to get more serious about EVs.
Rivian unveiled new electric SUV & pickup truck concepts that have excited quite a few consumers. Production is supposed to start in 2020, and you can put down $1,000 reservations today.
NIO announced it was building battery swap stations for NIO drivers in China.
Hyundai & Kia invested $250 million into Southeast Asia’s Grab and are working together to maximize cost efficiencies for Grab’s driver-partners … via EVs.
Jaguar Land Rover invested in startup Arc, which sells $100,000 electric motorcycles.
Proterra & Daimler teamed up to manufacture electric school buses together.
The electric bike market has reached $1.5 billion in annual revenue.
California has reached 10% EV market share.
EV Policies
CleanTechnica launched a new Clean Revolution political campaign to help get cleantech leaders elected to political office.
New York State “announced initiatives to encourage the purchase and increase the convenience and accessibility of electric vehicles (EVs).”
Santa Monica took a unique approach to support little EVs by creating in-street e-scooter drop zones.
Paris launched the world’s largest electric bike fleet.
Colorado passed a new low-emission vehicle standard, and we got more info via an exclusive interview.
Austria rolled out an interesting incentive for EVs — higher speed limits.
The UK decided to cut incentives for fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
Republican Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) proposed killing the US EV tax credit.
A coalition of Tesla, GM, Nissan, and others formed to push to improve the US EV tax credit.
EV Charging
Greenlots and Volvo Trucks started collaborating on charging infrastructure for heavy-duty electric trucks in California.
Telekom, a German telecommunications corporation, launched an EV charging initiative that is supposed to grow to 12,000 public EV charging stations!
eMotorWerks announced that it is “bringing its JuiceNet intelligent EV charging software platform to EO Charging as part of a partnership to develop the new EO Mini Pro EVSE for the UK and European customers.”
EV Safe Charge introduced the first portable EV fast charger we’ve ever read about.
