Article - Next year will be huge for EV Europe race catch up

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Next year will be huge forelectric car launches as Europeans race to catch up

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2 hoursago | Reuben Adams

Almostevery major European carmaker will launch one or more electric vehicle (EV)models over the next 18 months.

Next yearwill mark the start of a huge EV ramp-up for the world’s biggest carmakers —and that’s expected to have a serious impact on  demand for key batterymetals such as lithium, cobalt, manganese, HPA and nickel.

Eurocar-makers have a lot of ground to make up on EV leaders Tesla, Nissan andChinese manufacturers – who continue to break production and sales recordsevery month.

Teslasold an estimated 22,250 Model 3s in September in the US alone according to this report — the highest ever for sales of a single plug-in electric car in a month, and the first time an EV has beaten 20,000 sales a month in the US market.

French-ownedPSA Group — which sells the Peugeot, Citreon, DS, Opel and Vauxhallbrands —   is undergoing an self-described “electrification blitz”from next year, as it aims for 100 per cent EV core models by 2025.

This is acompany that made net profit of about $2.4 billion on car sale revenues of $50billion in the first half of 2018.

ItsPeugeot and Citreon brands showed off fully EV and hybrid versions of itspopular models — due for rollout next year — at the Paris Motor Show last week.

It alsounveiled its beautiful, fully electric concept Peugeot e-Legend car.

Inresponse to a change.org petition to get the e-Legend into production, Peugeotboss Jean-Phillipe Imparato says:

If we get to 500,000 we might really have to consider it… #PeugeotELegend @Autonews_frhttps://t.co/hNOzPlZn7w

—Jean-Philippe Imparato (@JPImparato) ">?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2018

Germany’sVolkswagen Group estimates it will sell 3 million EVs in 2025.

Of that,its I.D. models – which starts production next year – are expected tocontribute 1 million of those sales.

Audi, also part of the VolkswagenGroup has started production of its e-tron EV ahead of full production in 2019;it’s expected to produce about 20,000 a year.

And thefirst Mercedes-Benz vehicle under the fully electric EQ brand willbe launched by mid-2019 – part of a range that is expected to expand to include10 new models by 2022.