Tesla Tidbits ….. Honda’s baby step first full-electric ….. Gigundo EV Batteries and Chargers ….. E-Bus Sales Progress
**** Tesla’s Model Y, introduced in late Q1, 2020, was the first Tesla to use a heat pump rather than a conventional resistance heater and A/C compressor for its HVAC. Other electric vehicles such as Nissan’s Leaf, Renault’s Zoe, Kia’s Soul and Niro EV, Hyundai’s Kona EV, and Mini Cooper’s SE also feature range-extending heat pump HVAC technology.
In Tesla’s case, its self-developed heat pump system used a unique in-house designed “Octovalve” to control a “pre-heat” loop for the system in cold weather. Sandy Munro of Munro Associates had many complimentary things to say about Tesla’s heat pump design in his initial Model Y teardown in May of this year.
In previous blogs, I have written extensively about Tesla’s kaizen culture of continuous innovation and improvement. Kaizen originated at Toyota in the early 1950s. The Model Y’s single piece rear body structure that I described most recently is one example of Tesla’s kaizen culture. In a recent Tesla Daily video, Sandy Munro commented on another such example, applied to Tesla’s Octovalve that had only been in production some three months. Munro found that in those three months Tesla had made thirteen design improvements to its Octovalve. This was not a case where customers were having problems with the Model Y’s Octovalve. These were Tesla initiated changes to make the Octovalve’s operation even better, to perhaps simplify its manufacturing process, and/or to take cost out of the product.
These kind of running engineering and production changes, at this scale and speed, are symbolic of why Tesla continues to enjoy such customer satisfaction and increased profitability. As Munro points out such running design changes are an anathema for conventional Detroit and European manufacturers unless they have a severe quality or safety emergency. Instead they batch all such changes annually. In addition, Detroit manufacturers — particularly their bean counter watchdogs – restrict such changes to a minimum to avoid new tooling costs. The Japanese auto manufacturers, notably Toyota with its Kaizen system, were more amenable to such running design and production engineering changes. Note that especially with a kaizen program you need a very accurate real-time engineering change control system for legal and service/parts information.
At Tesla, such running changes are not only routine but expected! It should be noted that such frequent and rapid changes are made easier by Tesla’s high degree of vertical integration. Changes can be carried out within an organization and a kaizen-focused (single) culture much more quickly and accurately than across multiple organizations that may not share the same values and systems.
**** From a recent article in CleanTechnica comes news of Tesla Model Y orders. There are two areas of interest cited. The first is the options selected by a sample of almost a thousand Model Y buyers. The long range AWD ($45,690) was ordered 82.5% of the time, with the Performance version (+$10,000) accounting for the rest. The color breakdown was also interesting – only 37.5% getting the standard Pearl White Multi-Coat, 22.1% getting the Deep Blue Metallic (+$1,000), 20.7% getting the Midnight Silver Metallic (+$1,000), 10.2% getting the Red Multi-Coat (+$2,000), and only 9.5% getting the Solid Black (+$1,000). One knowledgeable Tesla YouTube video expert has noted that the two multi-coat colors have far better paint quality. With regard to wheels, 54.8% got the standard 19 inch diameter, 31.2% got the 20 inch (+$2,000), and 14.0% got the 21 inch (standard on the Performance Upgrade model). YouTube commenters have noted that the 21 inch diameter wheels, because of their extremely low section tires (35 aspect ratio), are subject to more flat tires from road potholes. Interiors – 70.9% all black (standard), and 29.1% black and white (+$1,000).
Equally interesting in this survey were the cars being traded for the new Model Y’s. Contrary to initial thoughts that the Y would cannibalize Model 3 sales, only 11.4% of Y buyers were former Model 3 owners. No doubt many of these were parents — with one or more kids — needing more room in their Tesla. The Model Y was a first car for 3% of buyers.
The main finding of this survey is that almost 80% of Model Y buyers are replacing their ICE powered cars! This is just what Musk and Tesla want – a move toward a more sustainable energy environment. Interestingly, the top car traded on a Y was the Toyota Prius! Apparently those owners were already familiar and enthusiastic about electric vehicles (or a hybrid, to be more specific) and wanted something all electric and better. BMW 3 Series cars were the second highest other brand and model traded for the Model Y.
**** Late to the EV party, Honda was recently forced to partner with GM (say what? And why?) to design and produce its two first electric vehicles for the US market. But recently Honda announced its first self-designed and produced very small fully electric powered vehicle – the not very originally named Honda e. This car is designed specifically for the European market and city driving. With only a 35.5 kWh battery, the Honda e has a WLTP-rated range of some 220 km or 137 miles, or about 120 miles if EPA rated. This translates to about 4.1 miles per kWh. Why build such a small car for such a competitive market where so many other small cars both ICE and electric powered already exist?
It strikes me that Honda is both late and not very aggressive in its market aspirations. In addition, picking GM as a partner? GM has all it can do to be a viable electric vehicle market entrant on its own. Could it be that Honda is starting with such a small car and battery because, due to its tardiness, it can’t secure enough battery capacity from the world’s battery suppliers? Soichiro Honda must be turning over in his grave!
**** From small batteries we go to wallopoloozas! EV car and CUV/SUV batteries currently range in size from some 30 kWh to the Porsche Taycan’s 93.4 kWh, and the Lucid Air’s 113 kWh, with Tesla’s Models 3 and Y being 75 kWh and Tesla’s S and X having 100 kWh batteries. These capacities are child’s play compared to current marine ferry and ship batteries. Here’s a sampling from a recent article from IDTechEx Research.
First, note that electric bus battery sizes run some 200 to at least 660 kWh (Proterra). The expected battery capacity of Tesla’s Semi truck (long range) will be about 1,000 kWh, or 1 MWh.
Now, shocking news about ferry and ship batteries! Consider the following:
- The Danish ferry “Ellen” – 4,300 kWh
- The Danish ferry Stena Jutlandica – 50,000 kWh (Phase 2)
- Dutch barges from Port-Liner – 6,720 kWh
- Asahi Tankers e5 – 4,000 kWh
- Guangzhou Tanker’s inland river coal transport (irony here!) – 2,400 kWh
- AIDAperla hybrid cruise ship, Italy – 10,000 kWh
Needless to say, these giant batteries will need correspondingly large battery chargers. The two charging systems mentioned in this article range from 1.2 to 4 Megawatts in power. Elon Musk has hinted that Tesla’s Semis will require much higher powered chargers than Tesla’s current V3 Superchargers rated at 250 kW (0.25 MW) now offer. Electrify America now has a 350 kW charger available at some sites. Today’s electric vehicles (cars and CUVs/SUVs) are limited by each vehicles’ software regarding the rate at which their batteries can be charged to avoid heat buildup and battery degradation.
**** One of the most encouraging signs that the movement away from ICE powered vehicles toward electric vehicles of all types is rapidly progressing is to look at orders for various fleet operations. City and regional busses are one of the most visible aspects of this movement. Fleet managers of city and state governments are particularly driven to lower the cost of their bus operations and maintenance. Electric busses also provide benefits for the busses’ drivers and are quieter and more pleasant for passengers as well.
Here’s a recent sample of electric bus orders:
- Israeli firm Egged orders 120 Solaris electric busses
- Hamburg Germany will buy 530 electric busses before 2025
- Chile ordered 150 electric busses from BYD in China
- Panama cancels their order for diesel-powered busses, will order 195 electric busses instead
The electric vehicle movement will only accelerate (smoothly and silently!) in the next couple of years. The companies operating fleets of electric vehicles will be only too proud to present the results of their transition to electric vehicles at global industry conferences! And ridership just might increase as passengers have a fresh opportunity to ride in quiet clean modern busses!
Image courtesy of Pixabay
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