Škoda Elroq launches in Australia, how will it stack up? Plus, we discuss Nio’s Firefly and its ambitious battery-swapping tech, break down the latest EV speed records, and other news of the week.
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Sam is Chief Operating Officer for Renew Economy and EV Media. Sam has been working with Renew Economy and One Step Off The Grid since 2014 and with The Driven since its inception in 2017. Sam is an occasional contributor to both websites with particular interest in electric vehicles and social policy.
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A few points re: battery swap. In Germany Nio sold less cars than they had battery swap stations. I think there are a opposing few issues. Nio is virtually bankrupt and you have to wonder about the cost of all those swap stations loaded with batteries. 100kw and other sizes. On top of this newer batteries can now charge very fast negaiting
A few points re: battery swap. In Germany Nio sold less cars than they had battery swap stations. I think there are a opposing few issues. Nio is virtually bankrupt and you have to wonder about the cost of all those swap stations loaded with batteries. 100kw and other sizes. On top of this newer batteries can now charge very fast negating the need for swapping.
However, as Riz said CATL has gone into a partnership with Nio on swapping and a bunch of big EV manufacturers in China said they will use the CATL swap batteries. They did this at the same time they announced super fast charging batteries so what is going on?
My view is they are thinking of the future where batteries last almost forever so in effect their technical improvements are killing their business sales model. So they are going to try to change the consumer use model to BAAS ( battery as a service) so they will have a continuous income stream and customers will end up paying for the batteries many times over and the longer they last the better for CATL and Nio rather than the customer.
I think Riz has it right. CATL is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited.
After all we say AMP not Amp and SGIO and CBA etc. Although I suppose there is NAB which due to the Ad campaign is often referred to as Nab but maybe that is from the verb , to nab ( to steal) :-)
Nio swap stations will not happen here. Imagine service stations just for Subaru cars. We can't even get over 10% new EV sales after 15 years. With 21 million cars on our roads 98% of people still drive fossil cars and 9 out of ten people buying a new car this week will buy a diesel or a petrol car.
That’s deeply depressing. Like going to the cinema or a restaurant and virtually everyone is smoking. In 2025 that is insanity. Now to add insult to injury they want to tax the non smoker in the room because they aren’t paying tobacco tax.