"I smell FIRB approval on the near horizon and money from Yibin...

"I smell FIRB approval on the near horizon and money from Yibin coming in"

Tesla rolls out one-millionth electric car and it’s a Model Y

Californian car maker Tesla has rolled out its one millionth electric car, and it is a Model Y.

In 2018, Musk said at the company’s second-quarter earnings call that he expected the Californian carmaker would make its one-millionth car in 2020 – and he can now tick that off before the first quarter of 2020 has finished.

The milestone achievement was announced by CEO and co-founder Elon Musk via his favoured communication channel, Twitter on Tuesday.

“Congratulations Tesla team on making our 1,000,000th car!!” said the transport and energy entrepreneur, posting two images – one, a shiny red example of one of the EV maker’s “mass-market” electric crossover, and a second of the Fremont team surrounding said vehicle.

Let’s repeat that again – one million cars, all with zero tailpipe emissions.

While the current global mood (and Tesla stocks) thanks to coronavirus and plunging oil prices due to a Saudi/Russian stand off is to say the least, low, it would appear that Musk at least is keeping a positive attitude.

And rightly so. It has taken the EV maker eight years to reach the impressive milestone, along with a lot of sweat, determination and learning the hard way along the way.

In terms of output of legacy carmakers it may not seem like much – worldwide, almost 100 times that many vehicles are made in one year alone according to Statista.

It doesn’t even sound that impressive compared to US car giant Ford, which went from zero to one million cars in 12 years from its founding in 1903, with a tiny fraction of the demand for cars that there is today.

But in light of the ground-breaking technology that is included in Tesla vehicles, from efficient electric drivetrains, high level driver assist capabilities including navigating lanes and exits at high speed on motorways, to being able to be summoned to its driver in a car park, it’s quite an achievement.

From releasing its first mass production vehicle, the Model S premium electric sedan in 2012, then the Model X premium electric SUV in 2015; to becoming to the most successful maker and seller of electric vehicles surpassing the Nissan Leaf with its “mass-market” Model 3, Tesla has defied naysayers and short-sellers determined to see its downfall.

In 2018 it overcame numerous production hurdles to ramp output of the Model 3 to 7,000 vehicles a week at Fremont, and in 2019 it opened its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai with expectation of finally meeting its goal of making 500,000 electric cars a year.

Legacy car makers, forced by tightening vehicles emissions regulations and the threat of being left behind in a rapidly transitioning market, are now announcing plans to make their own electric vehicles by the droves, despite or because of the realisation of the mammoth task ahead.

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The Model 3 can now claim the title of best selling electric car in Europe, is increasing its dominance in the US, and has played a major role in spearheading the laggard Australian electric car market with an estimated 80% of electric car sales to date in 2020 bringing the total of EVs to nearly 18,000.

In China, the world’s largest electric car market by volume, Tesla sold one-third of all electric cars in February despite the country being paralysed by coronavirus.

Tesla is now on the cusp of releasing its fourth production vehicle, the Model Y, in the US, which Musk has said he believes could be more successful than the Model 3 given the segment’s popularity.

https://thedriven.io/2020/03/10/tes...del-y-produced-nine-months-ahead-of-schedule/


ASX ANNOUNCEMENT - 11November 2019


Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry Co., Ltd to invest in AVZ Minerals through a placement of A$14.1 million.

Yibin Tianyi is an emerging lithium chemical producer in China backed by China’s largest EV battery manufacturer CATL and Shenzhen listed company, Suzhou TA&A Ultra Clean Technology Co., Ltd.

Parties to negotiate in good faith to agree and execute a binding offtake arrangement.

https://avzminerals.com.au/asx-announcements


Tesla China Battery Supplier CATL Plans To Largely Increase Cell Production Capacity

In early February 2020, CATL announced a partnership with Tesla and officially entered its supply chain, and recently the company also announced that it plans to raise 20 billion yuan ($2.86 billion) to build lithium battery projects and promote capacity expansion plans.

www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/tesla-china-battery-supplier-catl-plans-to-largely-increase-cell-production-capacity


Tesla in talks to use CATL's cobalt-free batteries in China-made cars - sources

Beijing - Tesla Is in advanced stages of talks to use batteries from CATL that contain no cobalt - one of the most expensive metals in electric vehicle (EV) batteries - in cars made at its China plant, people familiar with the matter said.

www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-china-electric-exclusive/exclusive-tesla-in-talks-to-use-catls-cobalt-free-batteries-in-china-made-cars-sources-idUSKBN20C0RP


China's CATL revs up EV battery production following Tesla deal

Company to spend up to $3.7bn to quadruple output capacity

GUANGZHOU -- China's biggest electric vehicle battery maker, CATL, will invest up to 26 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) to quadruple its production capacity for lithium-ion batteries used in cars and storage systems.

Annual production capacity at a plant in Ningde, Fujian Province, where the company is headquartered, will be increased by 16 gigawatt-hours, the battery maker said Wednesday.

Capacity at a factory in Jiangsu Province will go up by 24 gigawatt-hours. And a new plant with a capacity of 12 gigawatt-hours will open in Sichuan Province.

The new equipment at these facilities will go online in two to three years.


https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/En...up-EV-battery-production-following-Tesla-deal


Italy’s EV sales up tenfold from February 2019 amidst wider market crisis


February sales figures for the Italian EV market were awaited with interest, following a great start to the year last month. Would earlier trends be confirmed?

Stats released by Unrae are now out and the numbers don’t disappoint, in fact new record sales mean that exactly 10 times as many full electric cars were sold in February 2020, compared to the same month last year.

2530 fully electric cars were sold in February (they were just 253 this month last year), a new all-time high that also tops by 30% the previous record of 1943 units sold in January.

In a domestic car market that is down 8.4% year over year for the month – less than 164,000 cars sold compared to almost 179,000 in February 2019 – electric mobility shows no sign of stopping its march to mainstream, reaching 1.5% share of BEVs, an unthinkable figure for Italy’s car market only months ago.

Plug-in hybrids also achieved good numbers with 1219 units (up from 269 a year ago) for a 0.7% share of the market, but it’s increasingly clear that interest for PHEVs is not as strong as that for BEVs despite the growing number of available models.

Meanwhile, diesel cars continued their downward trend, losing almost 30% monthly registrations year over year, while retaining a 34.8% market share (45.1% a year ago).

It is clearly a tough moment for traditional models, as petrol and non plug-in hybrid cars are unable to offset declining diesel sales.

On the flip side, this reality is set to proportionally benefit electric cars, now heavily advertised by all brands as they push their own new electric models to comply with tough 2020 EU standards.

The 30% increase in BEV sales in one month alone shows there is still a lot of untapped potential, with consumer awareness steadily shifting from old to new in exponential fashion, building on the trend of the past three years.

As recent dynamics seem to be consolidating (net of any Coronavirus considerations that will likely affect all markets going forward), it is also great to see a growing number of BEV models competing for top spots, as well as new models making their Top 10 debut.





The February podium remains almost unchanged from a month ago, with the Renault Zoe firmly on top with 387 units but now followed closely by the updated VW e-up!, which overtakes the brand new Peugeot e-208 now in third place. Growing success of the new e-up! does not surprise and it can be expected to gain further momentum.

A very close fourth is again the Smart ForTwo. Could these be the models that will battle for 2020′s first position? It may be too early to say, as Tesla Model 3 and Nissan Leaf sprung back up with solid numbers following underwhelming January figures, while the Mini Cooper SE and Opel Corsa-e finally debuted in the Top 10 chart.

We should expect more newcomers to climb their way through the charts in the next months, as European manufacturers fight for their share of the EV market with new models and aggressive pricing.

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The VW e-up! siblings (Seat Mii electric and Skoda Citigoe iV) should do really well in this market, and so will models expected in the second half of the year – the new Fiat 500e being a prime example.

It’s interesting to note how the electric versions of the VW up! and Peugeot 208 already account for sizable shares of those models’ overall sales in the country: 8.5% for the e-208 and a surprising 22.5% for the baby VW, which goes to show how EV technology is now ready for mainstream, from city cars to luxury SUVs.

The first two months of the new year are marking the beginning of a quiet revolution for the Italian EV market, which is quickly catching up to more mature European regions thanks to the debut of a slew of city e-cars that are perfectly suited for local mobility.

A trend that is all the more significant in a car market showing clear signs of ICE crisis.

https://thedriven.io/2020/03/09/ita...rom-february-2019-amidst-wider-market-crisis/