With 2017 being such a huge breakthrough year in the transition to electric vehicles, it raises the question: “What major news, milestones, and developments related to electric vehicles will occur in 2018?”
Qualcomm is not sitting idly as the electric vehicle (EV) and autonomous vehicle (AV) revolution marches onward. The company has been active with inductive wireless charging and is also present in the AV field, with the Californian Department of Motor Vehicle recently giving it a go-ahead to test self-driving cars.
As part of our new “What Changed … ?” series, here’s a rundown of what changed in November in the EV market. Since this is a new series, I’ll reiterate what I wrote in the solar update (changing a few words): “To further clarify, this article doesn’t include interesting op-eds about solar and it doesn’t include news that we thought was worth covering but wasn’t really a change in the industry (like specific projects or reports — well, for the most part). It covers significant shifts, trends, and new opportunities in the solar market.”
Also, this update excludes battery stories since I covered EV batteries this month in “What Changed In The EV Battery Market In November?“
For decades, electric cars have been a dream of the future. Magazines showed show cars and experiments, but fielded few or no production examples. During periods of high oil prices, their prospects rose, but as oil prices declined, they faded. Tinkerers and DIY mechanics made home-built lead-acid gas car conversions. There were tantalizing forays stimulated by California’s CARB ZEV (zero emission vehicle) mandates, like the GM EV1, Toyota RAV4 EV, and Honda EV Plus, but they were in limited numbers and more often offered for lease but not for sale.
Ford is a different kind of carmaker. Part of the Big Three, it sometimes looks content to be away from the GM and Chrysler fight and sometimes surprises us with innovations. Although it gave us a great little electric vehicle (EV) and pushed its plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Energi platform seriously for a few years, the recent auto event shows the company’s still focused on gasoline engines, SUVs, and pickup.
Ford will begin testing the latest iteration of its self-driving vehicle tech in at least one city in the US in 2018, but the company has not accelerated its plan for the first commercial production of such vehicles to begin around 2021, company reps have revealed.
The big electric car sales story again in November was that Chevy Bolt sales rose again, and took the #1 spot again.
The next tier was Tesla’s showroom — the Model S and Model X — based on my estimates for the month*.
As part of a broader push to curtail falling sales figures in China, Ford will be launching 15 new electrified models there by 2025, company execs have revealed. Altogether, though, it should be noted that Ford is planning to launch 50 new vehicles in China by 2025 — so the planned electrified models comprise less than a third of the new models.
A new coalition of top auto manufacturers has publicly pledged to maintain a high degree of adherence to ethical standards when sourcing the minerals and raw materials that will be needed to fuel a surge in electric vehicle production figures, according to reports.
Lyft has finally been approved to test its self-driving technology on California state public roads. Have you noticed how an industry moves uniformly with the news?
