As Grid Evolves, EV’s Just Keep Getting Cleaner, More Competitive

Disruptive technology.
Practice using this phrase in a sentence.
Just trust me on this.

A Perennial climate denier distortion is to claim that Electric vehicles do not run cleaner, because they are charged from a dirty grid (which deniers want to keep dirty).

Truth: Even charging on a coal-dominated grid, EVs are so efficient, that they are a gain for most drivers, in every state (unless you only rode a motor scooter before..).
AND, the grid keeps getting cleaner as more renewable energy comes on board.

Inside EVs:

It’s never been better than today, as electric cars are now cleaner than the average new gasoline car everywhere in the country – the report states – even where plug-ins are recharged from the dirtiest coal-dominated electric grid.

“The analysis, which looked at the latest data on power plant emissions, revealed the average electric vehicle on the road today emits so little in the way of global warming pollution that it’s like driving a conventional car that gets 80 miles to the gallon.

The gap between gasoline vehicles and electric vehicles has grown over time. In 2012, only 45 percent of Americans lived in parts of the country where driving electric produced lower emissions than driving a 50 mile per gallon (mpg) car would. Today, 75 percent of Americans get their electricity from regional grids this clean.

Electric vehicles will continue to get even cleaner as more coal-fired power plants close in favor of wind and solar power, whose prices continue to drop. Coal already has fallen from providing 50 percent of the power on the grid to 30 percent. Renewables now provide 10 percent of America’s electricity.

Electric car technology is improving, too. Looking at the most efficient electric models, 99 percent of Americans could drive cleaner on electricity than they would in a 50 mpg gasoline car.”

Below, Stanford lecturer Tony Seba is extravagantly optimistic about EVs in this 2016 talk.
Nothing that’s happened since makes him look wrong – quite the opposite.

“Driving electric isn’t just cleaner—it’s cheaper, too. In another recent analysis, the Union of Concerned Scientists looked at electricity rates and gasoline prices in fifty of the biggest U.S. cities, and found that charging an electric vehicle can be cheaper than fueling a car with gasoline in each of the cities. The average driver can save nearly $800a year by driving electric instead of on gasoline. With fewer moving parts, battery electric vehicles require less scheduled maintenance than gasoline cars, saving drivers even more.

American motorists have only just begun to see the advantages of electric vehicles, as the industry is less than a decade old. While electric vehicles are still a small part of the auto market, there are now 40 models available in the U.S., with automakers planning to introduce more. The trend is clear: the future is electric. As a greater segment of the public recognizes the advantages of these vehicles, more drivers will save at the pump as they reduce the risk of climate change.”

Industry Week:

Everywhere automotive manufacturers turn, there are signs suggesting the business models on which they have long relied are going the way of the 1970s-era classic Ford Pinto.

Consider the following:

• Ride-hailing company Lyft is partnering with Magna, North America’s largest Tier 1 auto parts supplier, to build self-driving vehicles.

• Chinese manufacturers, many virtually unknown outside their home country, are leading the global electric vehicle movement, unencumbered by legacy commitments to traditional internal-combustion vehicles.

• High-end vacuum cleaner manufacturer Dyson, a company with no automotive background, reportedly plans to roll out not one but three electric vehicle models starting in 2020 or 2021.

• 16.5% of car-owning Millennials are rethinking car ownership because services such as Lyft are available, according to a survey by lendedu.com; 42.5% would give up manually driving themselves in favor of a self-driving vehicle; half would prefer to buy a “green” car over a traditional vehicle.
–

Connected. Telecom giant AT&T says it has added at least one million connected cars to its network during each of the last 11 quarters, bringing the total number of connected cars in its network to 17.8 million.

The emerging generation of networked, sensor-laden vehicles gives manufacturers the means to establish and deepen relationships with customers. They now can connect directly to drivers with apps to offer vehicle-centric services that can build customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. Meanwhile, the massive amounts of sensor-generated data on the car itself, its surroundings and driver behavior can be harvested and analyzed, not only to provide an intelligent, automated experience for consumers, but also to identify new revenue-generating areas.

Maintenance is one of those areas. A connected car can alert a driver and nearby repair facilities to a mechanical problem and identify whether the vehicle needs immediate attention or regular maintenance. A service appointment can be automatically scheduled, and related offers, such as a replacement rental car while a customer’s vehicle is in the shop, can be sent to the driver. Then the cost for maintenance or repair can automatically be added to a lease or loan payment.
–

Autonomous. A relative latecomer to the Race for CASE among automakers, Toyota jumped in by investing $1 billion to launch a research institute to focus on automotive applications of AI. It also has been busy with strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions. In March 2018, through its new Toyota AI Ventures venture capital unit, it acquired Blackmore Sensors & Analytics, a Montana company that makes compact LiDAR sensors and analytic tools to help autonomous vehicles “see” their surroundings. A month prior that same unit acquired May Mobility, a Michigan startup that is looking to take its self-driving microtransit shuttle service national following a successful pilot in 2017 with low-speed, electric Polaris GEM vehicles.
–
Shared mobility and services. A wide range of transportation-focused, digitally enabled product and service bundles are stoking consumer imaginations—and buying behaviors—by making it easy for connected car drivers and passengers to get what they need: fuel (or for electric vehicle drivers, a charge); a parking space, convenience items, perhaps even a hotel room right off the highway for a weary road-tripper.
–

Electric. Less than one year on from Volvo’s announcement in mid-2017 that it would stop making internal-combustion-only vehicles and equip all its units with electric motors starting in 2019, the ascendance of the electric drivetrain continues, as traditional ICE-focused manufacturers seek to gain a foothold in the burgeoning EV marketplace alongside upstart vehicle and parts manufacturers that are focused exclusively on EV products. Newly invigorated by a partnership with one of China’s foremost traditional automakers, FAW, the Chinese EV startup Byton is poised to enter global markets with a vehicle it says will cost 40% less than Tesla’s Model X EV. The concept SUV that Byton unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year features facial recognition access, assistive driving technologies and hand gesture controls. It’s expected to debut in China next year, and in the U.S. and Europe in 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ugt9DbNVPk