Coming up on today's show: BMW uses fear of Tesla to motivate its employees, Waymo
launches public self-driving car trail in Phoenix, Arizona, and the Nissan LEAF that's
driving from the UK all the way to Mongolia.
No, Seriously.
These stories and more, coming next on TEN.
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It's Friday April Twenty-Eighth Twenty Seventeen, I'm Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield and this is
TEN, the automotive equivalent to This Week Tonight, but with less John Oliver, Donald
Trump, and Lolz.
As recently as a year ago, luxury German brands like BMW, Daimler and Audi were playing it
cool, telling anyone who would listen that they were far from scared of upstart Tesla
and its range of super-fast, all-electric cars.
But in recent weeks, Daimler, Audi and Porsche have all admitted that Tesla is a major threat
to their established market share -- and this week we learned that BMW is actually leveraging
fear of Tesla among its employees to encourage them to do everything they can to work hard
to help BMW catch up with Tesla's electric lead.
As Elisabeth Behrmann of Bloomberg reports, BMW has been holding regular "pep rally
/ horror film"showings, complete with images of rival luxury cars, and Elon Musk.
The message?
That the auto industry is in the midst of an electric assault which must be taken very
seriously, and that BMW needs to do everything it can to develop electric vehicles which
are better than Tesla's.
Following the slashing of Model S 60 and 60D battery unlock prices earlier this month,
Tesla has confirmed this week that it has slashed the battery capacity unlock price
for Tesla Model X 60D owners to just four thousand U.S. dollars.
Yes, it's still twice the unlock price for the Model S 60 and 60D, but this particular
upgrade is more attractive than ever before for Model X owners.
While I'm on the subject of Tesla unlocks, I should note here that Tesla has begun pushing
a new software update to all Tesla cars fitted with Autopilot 2.0 hardware which should activate
Automatic Emergency Braking on these cars and finally bring Tesla Autopilot 2.0 cars
in feature parity with Tesla Autopilot 1.0 cars
It's taken longer than Tesla had originally planned, but here's hoping the upgrade push
goes without a hitch, and finally makes Tesla Autopilot 2.0 owners a little happier.
Talking of fun, it seems owners of the Chevrolet Bolt EV -- all three and a half thousand of
them so far -- seem to be making plenty of use of the two hundred and thirty-eight miles
of EPA-approved range that each Bolt EV is capable of.
So much so that as of April second, the three thousand four hundred and ninety-two Bolt
EV owners in the U.S. who had their cars at that point had totalled more than four point
five million cumulative miles of zero tailpipe emission driving, with one owner managing
three hundred and ten miles on a single charge and on a continuous trip.
But it also admits that the average Bolt EV owner covers just 53 miles per day in their
car, something that will make hardened EV fans laugh, since they've been telling us
that 100-mile electric cars have been suitable for the needs of 95 percent of the population
for years.
Still, I guess that extra hundred and eighty-five miles is useful for long-distance trips right?
I mean, that's why I'd buy a longer-range car (and probably will at some point).
While most of us will likely stay buying plug-in cars for some time, Alphabet's self-driving
arm Waymo has just launched a new program in Phoenix, Arizona which not only previews
the day when we may not be owning our own cars but also not driving them.
The first-ever public trail of its fully-autonomous vehicle program, Waymo is inviting residents
in the greater Phoenix metro area, including Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe and Mesa, to sign
up to become "early riders" in its autonomous vehicle program.
With five hundred cars -- and five hundred trailed 'drivers' monitoring the vehicles
at all times, it's a great way to experience autonomous vehicles first hand -- and to get
a free ride, because there's no charge to take part.
Head to Waymo dot com to find out more.
Back to Tesla now with four quick updates regarding Model 3.
At the start of this week Tesla announced it would be doubling the number of Supercharger
stations around the world in preparation for Model 3's launch, expanding existing sites
and building new ones, with some sites primed to get several dozen stalls each.
It's been met with applause from most Tesla owners, but Roadster owners are begging Tesla
not to leave them behind as they still have to rely on the old 80-amp, 240-volt Tesla
charge stations that are becoming increasingly rare.
Along with expanding its Supercharger network, Tesla says sales and service will grow too,
and has just made the training and approval process to become an authorized Tesla repair
center cheaper and quicker, something which should help those Tesla owners who have found
themselves waiting weeks for accident repairs.
Finally, Tesla has taken delivery of the first batch of Model 3-destined robotic production
equipment, and has smoothed out threats of industrial action at its recently-acquired
Grohmann engineering in Germany, where a lot of the Tesla model 3 production equipment
will be made, by offering the 700-or so staff there a substantial pay rise.
Essentially, Tesla is oiling the wheels to make sure everything goes according to plan
when Model 3 launches this year, something that absolutely must go without a hitch.
All I can say is that I'm glad I don't' work at Tesla right now.
I'm sure there's more stress than a little…
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and in this case, Tesla should be
very flattered -- because Audi has just opened up reservations in Norway for the e-tron quattro
electric SUV, long before it's even announced official pricing.
To join the queue to buy one, customers have to put down twenty-thousand kroner (just under
three-thousand U.S. dollars), and then wait until next year for the car to actually enter
production.
Yes, this is very Tesla (right down to the not-announcing final specifications or pricing)
but actually, while people think of Tesla as pioneering that technique, I want to remind
everyone that Nissan and Chevy both offered online reservations way back in twenty ten
for the Nissan LEAF and Chevy Volt… so maybe it's just the EV thing.
*shrug*
On this show, you'll know I'll cover anything that's cleaner, greener, safer and smarter.
And while this next story certainly ticks two of the boxes, I'm not sure about the
other two.
Because this is the Flyer, a flying vehicle that's a cross between a water ski, a hoverboard
and well, a quad bike.
Powered by an all-electric drive system, this one-seat, propeller-driven flying bike is
the first vehicle to come from Kitty Hawk, a startup backed by Google's Larry Page
which has just come out of stealth.
Eventually, the company wants to build a fully-working flying car, but for now, it'll sell you
the Flyer from the end of this year.
It looks ...fun to fly, and I'm not sure about the learning curve, but as to its safety?
Well, if you've ever crashed a drone I think you'll get my concerns.
Still, it's cool… and I want a go.
What about you?
For some time now, it's been no secret that Tesla electric cars -- especially Model S
and Model X -- retain their value as they age, with very little depreciation compared
to other cars of any fuel type.
But this week we learned via Autolist that Tesla Model S cars sell far quicker than the
competition in the used car marketplace, with the average used Model S selling in 87 days
-- about five percent quicker than other competing vehicles.
What's more, the listing prices for Model S sedans were between three and five percent
more than their competitors in the used car marketplace.
And that's just helping to push Tesla shares even higher as investors grow in confidence
that Tesla -- and its cars -- are a good deal.
From cars now to how they're powered.
Or rather, how they're not powered.
You see, last Friday, for the first time since the Industrial revolution, not a single piece
of coal was used to power the UK for an entire twenty-four hours.
Over the past few years, burning coal for electricity generation has dramatically dwindled
in my home country, replaced by cleaner (although still emissions-producing) natural gas, increased
renewable energy, and increased nuclear power.
While it's a good shift toward cleaner power, the UK -- like the rest of the world -- needs
to make sure that it doesn't replace coal-powered electricity with other fossil-fueled electricity.
Instead, a continued investment in distributed renewable energy and products like the Tesla
powerwall will make the biggest impact.
Let's hope things go in the right way moving forward.
Back in the noughties, before cars like the Nissan LEAF even came to market, BMW's MINI
brand produced limited-numbers of the MINI-E, a two-seat, all-electric conversion of MINI
Cooper.
But despite this, BMW hasn't yet produced a production electric MINI that you can buy.
And while late last year MINI confirmed an all-electric production model was coming -- in
addition to the recently-launched MINI Countryman plug-in hybrid -- some question remained as
to what an all-electric MINi would be like.
Well this week, we've heard confirmation that MINI bosses want an all-electric MINI
to be one of its brand 'Superheros' -- a mainstream model that not only represents
the brand as a whole but entices new customers in.
Something that's not a compliance car but rather a fully-fledged, well-engineered electric
MINI that will sell just as well as the rest of the range.
Sadly there are no more details at present, but I for one can't wait to see what this
model will turn out like.
And finally,
If you've ever spent any time with the Nissan LEAF, you'll know it's a very competent
electric car which, with some help from a decent DC quick charging network, can be used
to make some pretty successful long-distance trips along major routes.
But the guys at Plug in Adventures are about to do something completely different with
a lightly modified Nissan LEAF.
Take part in the ten thousand mile Mongol Rally from the UK to Mongolia.
With the rear seats stripped out, the suspension raised, a special adventure light bar, heavy-duty
roof rack and the car wearing some chunkier rally tyres, the LEAF -- dubbed AT-EV -- will
be tackling some of the toughest rally conditions possible on this endurance event, just to
prove that electric vehicle travel is only as difficult as you make it.
Good luck guys, and here's to a successful completion!
Talking of completion, that's your lot for today.
As always, don't forget to like, comment and subscribe, visit transport evolved dot
com for more cleaner, greener, safer and smarter transportation news, or join in the conversation
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And if you liked what you saw today and want to help us make more shows like this, please
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Thanks again for joining me, I'll see you next week, I'm Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield,
That was TEN, have a great weekend, and until next time, keep Evolving!
For more infomation >> Honda Civic 2.2D COMFORT | NAVI | CLIMA | 18" LMV - Duration: 1:03. 
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