Tesla’s Cybertruck was predicted to come into production in 2022 however it now appears it will be delayed again until 2023. Tesla has been somewhat guarded in regard to the Cybertruck. However, sightings of the truck have recently been spotted at the Fremont factory test track, with new updated features have been discovered. 

Besides a few small design changes, the Cybertruck prototype was seen with some tape that likely includes hiddes sensors, this suggests that Tesla could have been carrying out calibration testing. 

The most notable change of the Tesla Cybertruck prototype was a large single windshield wiper installed on the driver’s side. This is the first time that the Cybertruck has been spotted with a windshield wiper since it’s unveiling back in 2019. 

Looking at the dashboard of the truck the marble design of the dash is not going to make it to production. Another significant change looks to be the addition of daytime running lamps. Previously there was a horizontal light bar installed on the roof. The roof light bar doesn’t appear to be making it to production anymore.

Read more here: https://insideevs.com/news/560811/tesla-cybertruck-tweaks-updates/ 

According to the figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) the UK light commercial vehicle registrations have seen to have bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic, growing by 21.4% in 2021 when compared to 2020. 

By the end of 2021, 355,380 new light commercial vehicles were registered along with the best December for the sector since 2015. 

The strength of the LCV market is heavily supported by the underlying demand from key sectors, with significant fleet investments resulting in 62,723 more units being registered in the last year. 

The industry also saw a positive result as BEV uptake soared by 142.3% this equated to 12,759 zero emission vans and a total market share of 3.6%. With both petrol and diesel vans facing the same end of sale date as passenger cars, this demonstrates how far the LCV BEV market needs to grow to mirror the shift taking place within the car market. 

There was also a significant increase for both 4x4s and the heaviest vans weighing greater than 2.5-3.5 tonnes of 183% and 27.8%. 

The LVC market is predicted to grow even further in 2022 to 363,700 units, bringing registrations in line with 2019’s 365,778 units.

Read more here: https://www.smmt.co.uk/2022/01/new-van-market-grows-by-a-fifth-as-battery-electric-demand-more-than-doubles/ 

2021 new car registrations grew by 1%, as 1.65 million new cars entered the UK market according to new figures released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. 

The market is still down 28.7% on pre-pandemic 2019, representing the second worst year since 1992. Some good news on the other hand. 2021 was the most successful year in history for electric vehicle uptake as more battery electric vehicles were registered than over the previous 5 years combined.

The UK finished 2021 as the third largest European market for new car registrations but the second largest by volume for plug-in vehicles and the second largest for BEVs. It is only in ninth position overall, however, in Europe for BEVs by market share, underlining the progress still to be made, despite the UK having among the most ambitious targets of all major markets with the end of sale of new petrol and diesel cars scheduled for 2030.

Read more here: https://www.smmt.co.uk/2022/01/covid-stalls-2021-uk-new-car-market-but-record-ev-sales-show-future-direction/

The World Rally Championship, Formula One, and Formula E are among the top forms of motorsport in the world. Top Gear was able to collect a vehicle from each of these series for a drag race to see which one was the quickest in a drag race. 

Specifically, the WRC machine is a Ford Fiesta. The Formula E car is from the DS squad. Finally, the F1 racer comes from Mercedes-AMG, so this isn’t a vehicle that would be running at the back of the pack in a grand prix.

The runway is wet for this drag race so the Ford Fiesta WRC’s all-wheel-drive system has a distinct advantage in these conditions. 

The DS Formula E machine finishes last. The EV is never a real challenger in the drag race. It sort of looks like the vehicle is gaining on the Fiesta WRC, but there would need to be a lot more track to make the pass. 

On a dry track, we’d expect the results to be very similar. The F1 car might win by a larger margin, but the all-wheel-drive WRC machine would still probably beat the Formula E racer.

Read more here: https://www.motor1.com/news/557675/wrc-formula-one-ev-race/

Battery EV uptake doubles, but the new car market remains well adrift of pre COVID pandemic levels.

New car registrations grew 1.7% in November, bringing an end to four months of consecutive decline. Compared to the pre-pandemic average, the market remains down significantly, with -31.3% fewer vehicles registered during the month.

Plug-in vehicle demand continued to grow, however with battery electric vehicles equating to 18.8% of the market, while plug-in hybrid vehicles’

 share grew to 9.3%. In 2021 to date, 1,538,585 new cars have been registered, 17.5% have been BEVs or PHEVs.

Britain’s ratio of plug-in vehicles on the road to standard public chargers (16:1) was one of the worst among the top 10 global electric vehicle markets at the end of 2020.

Read more here – https://www.smmt.co.uk/2021/12/battery-ev-uptake-doubles-but-new-car-market-remains-well-adrift-of-pre-pandemic-levels/ 

Electric Car manufacturer Build Your Dreams (BYD) has launched the latest Tang Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) in Norway. This marks a significant step for the company with Norway being the first European country to have their vehicles sold. The arrival of the Tang in Europe is the first step into the Chinese electric brand expanding their audience. 

Globally, BYD was one of the first companies to produce one million electric passenger cars. Since then it has become a well established world leading new energy vehicle manufacturer across an array of industries. 

With 26 years of experience BYD are experts in battery research, de

velopment, and production and place electrification and battery technology at the heart of the business. 

The new Tang vehicle is an all-wheel-drive crossover batter

y electric vehicle. It comes fully equipped with BYD’s 86.4kWh Blade Battery which can charge up to 80% in only 30 minutes. The battery offers a range of 328 miles and an acceleration of 0-62mph in just 4.6 seconds.

As distribution of BYD starts to expand across Europe it is expected that their great value cars will become a lot more familiar on the roads. 

Read more here – https://www.electricdrives.tv/post/build-your-dreams-byd-launches-electric-cars-in-europe 

Sandy Munro has released a two-part presentation about the engineering philosphoies of Munro & associates in comparison to real world examples as well as comparing them to Elon Musk’s 5 step approach at Tesla. 

According to Sandy Munro the design innovations should be primarily focused on value, quality, and profitability. 

One of the main factors to improve on is reducing the number of parts for virtually all products. This will result in lower costs, increase in quality and additionally, investments to launch and maintain the product will be a lot lower. 

Elon Musk’s approach to the production of Tesla consists of five main points:

1. 1. Enhance basic requirements

1. 1. Try and delete part of the process

1. 1. Simplify or optimise

1. 1. Accelerate cycle time 

1. Automate

The extreme progress at Tesla in correlation to the general shift to battery electric vehicles, is a catalyst of change within the industry. In today’s world, such methods need to be applied and competitors who apply them will quickly gain greater advantages. 

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Elon Musk was recently asked about the Tesla Semi which is delayed according to the official announcement, but at the same time expected to be delivered to PepsiCo this quarter. 

His response is to not put too much emphasis on that and that Tesla cannot produce additional vehicles in volume. This indicates that there really will be some deliveries of the Tesla Semi, those will be small numbers. 

The reason behind that is chip supply short-term and cell supply long-term, both of which have to be addressed to produce additional vehicles in volume.

The chip supply short-term issue will likely ease with each quarter so this appears to be the least of our problems. However the problem with the cell supply is one that will remain long-term. This will limit all-electric car expansion in general for many brands.

This explains why Tesla has extended the list of its battery supplier from solely Panasonic to also LG Chem’s LG Energy Solution and CATL, as well as has started its own in-house battery cell development (4680-type).

To find out more click here