International developments point to an electric future.
The UK government has brought forward the ban on the sale of cars with combustion engines by five years to 2030. New cars with a combustion engine may no longer be registered in ten years. Financial support for the transition includes an investment of £1.3bn to expand the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and £582m in purchase premiums. The government also plans to support the series production of electric car batteries in the UK with £500m.
Hoping to match the same 2030 target is The Zero Emission Transportation Association (ZETA) in the USA. ZETA aims to lobby for outcome-driven consumer EV incentives; emissions /performance standards enabling full electrification by 2030; infrastructure investments; domestic manufacturing; and federal leadership and cooperation with sub-national entities.
Meanwhile Germany has extended the incentives for electric mobility to 2025. These include the extension of the innovation premium and subsidies and requirements for the expansion of charging infrastructure.
Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said, “We want to link the way out of the economic crisis with the way out of the climate crisis,” adding that “this boost will do the automotive industry good in the long term.”
Charging developments continue with Tritium unveiling modular scalable charging which will allow its customers to increase the power level of their charger in 25kW increments, starting at 25kW and increasing to 350kW and beyond. Its next-gen RTM75 DC Fast Charger allows drivers to add 75 km (46 mi) of range to an electric vehicle in 10 minutes of charging. The slim charger also allows for simultaneous charging of two vehicles at once.
While OEMs are moving apace to launch new EVs, the risk of a battery fire has led to Chevrolet recalling 68,667 MY 2017-2019 Bolt EVs worldwide after five confirmed vehicle fires that could relate to the Bolt high voltage battery. According to Jesse Ortega, Executive Chief Engineer for the Bolt EV, all of the vehicles with fires were equipped with cells manufactured by LG Chem in its Ochang, Korea plant between May 2016 and May 2019 and were at or near their maximum State of Charge (SoC).