Mitsubishi revise Outlander PHEV range

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV range has been extensively revised with a new six-variant line up comprised of Verve, Design, Dynamic, Dynamic Safety, Exceed and Exceed Safety trim levels replacing the previous confusing range on 3, 4 Juro, H and HS.

All new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV models feature revised seating with electronic lumbar support as standard on all models and re-contoured rear seats for more comfort and support. The dashboard has also been revised to accommodate new climate controls and a larger infotainment systems.

The new, entry-level Verve trim offers many luxury features including DAB radio, heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, keyless operation, rear parking sensors, a rear spoiler, cruise control, electric folding door mirrors, LED DRLs, headlamps washers, automatic headlamps, rains sensing wipers, auto-dimming rear view mirror and a programmable climate control system which can warm or cool the car in advance of a journey. Prices for the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Verve start at £35,455 OTR. 

The new Design trim, priced from £36,455 OTR, adds 18-inch alloy wheels, Mitsubishi’s new eight-inch Smartphone Line Display Audio (SDA) system with smartphone integration (Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), a more intuitive interface than the outgoing version and integrated reversing camera display.

The Dynamic, priced from £38,555 OTR, adds leather upholstery with an eight-way adjustable electric driver’s seat, black headlining, blind spot warning and rear cross traffic alert, while the top Exceed variant, priced from £40,955 OTR, adds integrated TomTom satellite navigation, diamond quilted leather upholstery, LED headlights with LED high beam, LED front fog lights, 360-degree camera, heated steering wheel, power tailgate and twin rear USB sockets.

The Dynamic Safety (£41,055 0TR) and Exceed Safety (£43,455 OTR) add Forward Collision Mitigation, Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Warning, Ultrasonic Misacceleration mitigation System, automatic high-beam and front and rear parking sensors to their respective specifications.

With close to 50,000 registered in the UK since 2014, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV remains the UK’s most popular plug-in vehicle with a real-world EV range of 28 miles, emissions of 46g/km and an official fuel economy figure of 139.7 mpg (WLTP).

This are strong sales and some what surprising as the tax benefit of the Outlander has been clobbered by our Government and criticised by Mitsubishi as being incomprehensible.

For example The Outlander PHEV (at least those optioned to more than £40,000 before incentives) is taxed like the Range Rover SDV8, a vehicle which has five times higher CO2 emission.

After Plug-In Car grant was lowered from £5,000 to £4,500 (BEVs) and £2,500 (PHEV with prce tag below £60,000), the new VED taxes deteriorate the environment for plug-in hybrid vehicle adoption.

From April 1, 2017 only BEVs (and other zero emission cars) keep the current tax relief at £0.

The plug-in hybrids (emissions: 1-50 g/km of CO2) are counted at £130 annual, but if their price exceeds £40,000 there is £310 annual supplement for five years from the second year of registration.

“The Mitsubishi had a VED rate of £10 in the first year of ownership, compared with the Range Rover’s £1200. However, for the ensuing five years, both vehicles will attract a £310 supplement on top of their VED rates because they cost more than £40,000.

An Outlander PHEV owner will pay £130 in VED, plus the £310 supplement, making £440 per year. The Range Rover will attract £140 in VED, making £450 when the £310 supplement is added.”

A recent survey of Outlander PHEV customers reveals that half their average weekly mileage is driven in electric mode, with 68% charging at least once per day and 90% charging several times (2-3 times or more) per week. 83% would recommend an Outlander PHEV to family and friends and 25% say they are considering a pure electric vehicle for the next vehicle, making it a true gateway vehicle towards an all-EV future and an important step on the road to zero carbon.

Are we at peak ICE?

Fewer and fewer ICE-powered cars will be sold in the coming years.

After speaking to specialists from the auto industry, The Financial Times published a comprehensive report about the fossil-burning engine. Interestingly, several experts told the publication sales of ICE-powered vehicles peaked in 2018 which basically means it’s unlikely that more cars with ICEs will be sold within a year in the future.

Most of the large automotive manufacturers are already adopting electrification as a way to improve the efficiency of their cars. Still, the internal combustion engine will continue to play a major role in the industry within the next at least two decades but, looking at what experts say, it’s probably safe to assume the ICE’s peak is now a thing of the past.

“We will probably see the peak of combustion engine car sales in 2018 based on global sales through October, plus estimates for November and December,”

Felipe Munoz, global automotive analyst for Jato Dynamics, told Financial Times.

As of January 2018, predictions were that the demand for ICE-powered cars will continue to grow until its peak in 2022. It turns out that the major drop in overall new car deliveries in the three largest regions in terms of sales, Europe, the U.S., and China, might have significantly changed the forecast.

UK Car sales fall 7% Y on Y

We know from the SMMT that UK new car sales are dismal for 2018 and follow a grim 2017. The SMMT said new and more rigorous emissions testing rules created supply problems and a backlog of deliveries as car manufacturers suffered delays in getting their cars approved.

From 1 September 2018, all cars sold in the EU are subject to the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), measuring all regulated emissions, as well as CO₂ and fuel economy. These test are both more rigorous and should give real world data and need to be conducted for every model variant rather than a single example as previous test required. If you are BMW and need to test the new BMW 3 series you need to test every model with every engine configuration. So thats the Saloon in SE, Sport and M Sport with Plug In coming in July with a range of Petrol and Diesel engines. Grim work.

Last year, 2018 saw total UK sales of 2.37 million units a fall of 6.8%. The largest decline was in the diesel sector that fell 30% for the year. Anti-diesel rhetoric and negative fiscal measures took their toll, with December marking the 21st consecutive month of decline for the fuel type – despite new emissions tests showing diesels deliver in the real world. Growth in registrations of petrol (+8.7%) and alternatively fuelled vehicles (+20.9%) replaced some of the loss but not enough to offset the full shortfall as many diesel owners adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach, keeping hold of their older, more polluting vehicles for longer.

In the AFV sector, petrol electric hybrids remained the most popular choice, up +21.3% to 81,156 units. Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) also recorded a strong uplift (+24.9%) over the year, though the figures suggest growth is slowing following the removal of the Government’s plug-in car grant for these vehicles in October.

Demand for PHEVs grew almost 30% in the first 10 months, but year on year increases fell to 3.1% and 8.7% in November and December respectively.

Pure electric cars, meanwhile, grew 13.8% in the year but, with just 15,474 registered, they still make up only 0.7% of the market. Given the reduction in government incentives, the pace of growth of plug-in cars is now falling significantly behind the EU average.

“When you look at 2018 since the summer, new car sales in all of the important markets are going down. Selling combustion engine cars to customers – this will not grow in the future,”

Axel Schmidt, global automotive lead for Accenture.

In 2019, global vehicle sales aren’t expected to decline as electric vehicles are expected to quadruple their market share to about 1.6 percent. Even if overall sales increase through the next 12 months, deliveries of ICE-powered vehicles will likely fall, say specialists.

GM hurting

The impact of falling unit sales can been seen in the response from the largest global players such as GM who recently announced it’s shuttering five production facilities and killing six vehicle platforms by the end of 2019 as it reallocates resources towards self-driving technologies and electric vehicles.

The announcements should come as a surprise to no one, as they echo a similar announcement made by Ford earlier this year that it will exit all car production other than Mustang within two years. EXIT ALL CARS – FORD!

Why the sudden attitude adjustment toward cars? Well, both firms cite a focus on trucks, SUVs, and crossovers.

North American car production hit 17.5 million vehicles in 2016 and dropped marginally to 17.2 million in 2017. Interesting, but perhaps not significant.

More telling are changes in driver behaviour. In North America, for example, fewer teens are getting driver’s licences. In 1983, 92 per cent of teens were licensed, while by 2014, that number had dropped to 77 per cent. In Germany, the number of new licences issued to drivers aged 17 to 25 has dropped by 300,000 over the last 10 years.

Fewer ICE cars on the road within a decade

We are moving from a do-it-yourself (DIY) transportation economy to a sharing, or do-it-for-me (DIFM), economy. Many of us won’t like it — I honestly like to drive — but the numbers and the technology are there.

As safety technologies improve and societal paradigms shift, this evolution will gather momentum. Based on the young driver statistics above, it seems reasonable to anticipate a reduction in cars per capita of 20 to 30 per cent in the next decade.

Unions at GM and Ford are justifiably unhappy, but they shouldn’t be surprised. It is quite possible that we have reached peak car in North America and Europe.

Companies that want to succeed in this new environment will need to be different and better in some way. If car volumes drop by 30 per cent over the next 10 years, there’d better be something special about the car company that hopes to survive, let alone prosper — like better technology, better comfort, or better service.

If current trends continue, we can anticipate more shutdown announcements — like GM’s — from car companies and parts suppliers, as there won’t be room for all of them.

EV bus outlook seems rosy

New Bloomberg report on the use and deployment of Electric Buses makes interesting reading.

Produced by the @BloombergNEF and partners @c40cities  the report paints a positive picture on the rapid adoption of electric buses especially in China.

See the full report

No more petrol or diesel cars after 2040

The UK Government has announced a ban on all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040.

Yes our team from theDepartment for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and the Department for Transport  have jointly announced that from 2040 the UK will end the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans. This is another component of the plan to tackle air pollution due to the environmental risk from rising levels of nitrogen dioxide.

This is one part of the programme to deliver clean air – next year the Government will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy which will address other sources of air pollution.

Air quality in the UK has been improving significantly in recent decades, with reductions in emissions of all of the key pollutants, and NO2 levels down by half in the last 15 years.

Despite this, an analysis of over 1,800 of Britain’s major roads show that a small number of these – 81 or 4% – are due to breach legal pollution limits for NO2, with 33 of these outside of London.

To accelerate action local areas will be asked to produce initial plans within eight months and final plans by the end of next year.

The Government will help towns and cities by providing £255 million to implement their plans, in addition to the £2.7 billion we are already investing.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said:

We are taking bold action and want nearly every car and van on UK roads to be zero emission by 2050 which is why we’ve committed to investing more than £600m in the development, manufacture and use of ultra-low emission vehicles by 2020.

Read the full report at Gov.uk site.

London blows past 2016 EU Pollution Limits in first 7 days of year

London needed only seven days to exceed EC pollution limits for all of 2016. By the end of the week, levels of NO2 (Nitrogen dioxide)  had already exceeded the limit of 200 milligrams per cubic meter more than 18 times in Putney High Street since, as much as EU regulations will allow for an entire 12 months. Damning a whole city for a single site’s breach might seem extreme, but the pollution spike was most likely repeated elsewhere, too.

Oxford Street, London’s main shopping street, is notorious for having the highest recorded levels of NO2 anywhere in the world. It has probably exceeded its annual limit already as well—in 2015 this took just four days—but measuring equipment has malfunctioned, so this year at least it’s been spared a headline. In fact, 181 square miles of Greater London currently exceeds yearly NO2 limits according to a Policy Exchange new report, leaving London at an NO2 pollution level similar to that of Beijing or Shanghai. These huge overages might come as a shock for a city that has shown some leadership in pioneering congestion charging, adopting bikeshare fairly early, and in fact adopting strict air quality controls as early as the 1950s. What on earth is going on?

The recent Policy Exchange report has answers—some predictable, some unexpected. First off, it’s fair to note that London has made headway in cutting some emissions. The city’s particulate matter pollution has dropped below EU safe levels, and sulfur dioxide levels have plummeted. With NO2, however, there’s been little or no progress. Culprit No. 1 is the huge uptick in the number of diesel-fuelled vehicles on UK roads. As the report notes, in 1994 they made up just seven percent of the entire UK fleet. Today, they represent 36 percent of that fleet. See chart below.

Breakdown of NOx Emissions in Greater London in 2010, by Source

Ironically, environmental concerns have in part caused this spike. Included in a lower car-tax band, diesel vehicles have been favored by the UK government due to their lower CO2 emissions and greater fuel efficiency. This favoritism unfortunately overlooked their considerably higher NO2 and PM emissions. Diesel cars have also lagged behind gas-run cars in emission improvements and, the report states, performed worse on the roads than they have in tests:

Breakdown of PM Emissions in Central London in 2010, by Source

The tests are currently performed in laboratory conditions, and it has been argued that they do not adequately represent real world driving conditions—particularly urban driving conditions. The test cycle is “unrealistic and undemanding”, with cars able to accelerate slowly under relatively low engine loads, and therefore fails to represent real-world driving. Ask VW for clarification.

The pollution such vehicles create can be clearly linked to London’s high NO2 levels, 45 percent of which come from vehicles. Gas combustion (separated into domestic and non-domestic categories), non-road mobile machinery, industry, rail, and aviation also play a role, but none of these sectors’ pollution portions exceed 13 percent of the total. If London is going to clean up its air, it’s going to have to push for a root-and-branch low-emissions overhaul of its vehicle fleet.

London has a plan to do just that, at least in its most polluted sections, and albeit quite far into the future. In September 2020, London’s congestion-charge zone will also become an Ultra Low Emissions Zone where high-emissions vehicles will have to pay a charge to enter. The scheme is expected to cut central London’s NOx (the combined term for the pollutants nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide) and PM levels by half. If London’s current pollution problem seems bleak, its pall should lighten considerably in the future.

Within this proposed zone, however, the pollution picture is a little more complex than in the city as a whole. At 48 percent of the total, NO2 emissions from vehicles here are even higher than elsewhere, but there’s also another major player in the pollution problem: Non-domestic gas combustion now contributes a hardly inconsiderable 33 percent of Central London’s NO2 emissions.

This is a pollution source that is only likely to grow—Policy Exchange estimates that it will create 48 percent of Central London’s NOx pollution by 2025. This is because the frequency of localized gas burning is likely to grow. Currently the UK is promoting decentralized power generation, including combined heat and power plants, as a more efficient way of delivery energy. This is essentially a good thing, but when it comes to emissions it seems that not all forms of decentralized generation are equal. The Greater London Authority’s rules, for example, still allow emissions of up to 300mg per kilowatt hour for gas CHP turbines, a considerably higher level than those typical of current heat only condensing boilers.

If gas CHP is rolled out across London in the future without stricter controls on their emissions, they could gobble up much of the reduction gained from better vehicle emission control. If there’s something to be learned from the UK’s past promotion of diesel, it’s that if you don’t look at all sides of a potential environmental improvement, you risk shooting yourself in the foot.

VW European owners no compensation offered

It seem that the VW Group will not offer compensation to European customers who bought a diesel car with “cheat” software, taking a different tack from in the U.S. where the automaker will provide a goodwill package worth $1,000 to affected owners.

California pushes EV while Whitehall does nought

National Plug in day was a large event in some part of the world – especially the US. 

It was pretty much ignored in th UK. While in California Governor Jerry Brown marked National Plug-In Day by signing six bills to promote electric cars.

The new laws created by these bills will enact or extend a variety of programs that promote the use of electric cars and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Assembly Bill 8 (AB 8) will provide $2 billion in funding for several green initiatives.

Those include the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program, a “Cash For Clunkers”-style program that incentives scrapping the dirtiest cars, and $20 million in funding for 100 hydrogen fueling stations.

Senate Bill 359 (SB 359) will fund four programs that encourage the purchase of cleaner vehicles.

That bill includes: $20 million for the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, $10 million for the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, $10 million for the Heavy-Duty Vehicle Air Quality Loan Program, and $8 million for the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program.

Two bills will extend High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane access for low-emission and zero-emission vehicles until 2019.

Bills AB 266 and SB 286 extend the white HOV lane sticker program for battery electric cars and the green sticker program for plug-in hybrids, respectively.

Also helping to make plug-in drivers’ lives easier is SB 454, which establishes the Electric Vehicle Charging Stations Open Access Act.

The Act calls for the creation of an open system for electric car charging payments, where drivers could simply drive up to a charging station and pay with a credit card–regardless of which charging station company they have an account with.

The final bill was also related to electric-car charging.

AB 1092 requires the California Building Standards Commission and the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop standards for charging infrastructure in multi-family housing and non-residential developments.

Taken together, the package of legislation keeps California among the front-runners in states working to promote electric cars and zero-emission vehicles. Come on UK we need these type of incentives to kick-start our EV industry.

Commuter Cars lobby EC for Tango

Rick Woodbury CEO of Commuter Cars shared with us a report that is currently being distributed to members of the EC.

The report details the growing congestion in Cities around the globe and especially in Europe. The Tango car from Commuter Cars of Spokane Washington fits two to a lane providing a unique solution to adding more cars on the roads, without building more roads. As Commuter Cars points out roads are expensive to construct and maintain. By making them more efficient the users reap the benefits.

Read more in the report: 

Gov7 Commuter Cars_11179 Pro

Algae powered VW TDI

Some of the very first car ran on fuel derived from peanuts.

Since then the vast majority of our fuel has been derived from nasty petrochemicals.

Now Silicon Valley startup Solazyme [NSDQ:SZYM] is testing diesel fuel derived from refining renewable oils–produced by specialized algae–in two Volkswagen turbo diesel models.

Since July 2012, then a VW Passat TDI and a Jetta TDI have covered about 20,000 miles together running exclusively on algae-derived diesel fuel.

The results of the year-long test, a joint effort of Volkswagen and Solazyme, will be issued later this year.

VW engineers and Solazyme will pay particular attention to the TDI injectors, high-pressure pumps, sensors, and hoses, to ensure they are aging and wearing no differently than those in conventionally fueled TDI cars.

Meets all diesel standards

Over the last several years, a huge amount of R&D funds have gone into the field of sustainable and renewable fuels derived from plants and other carbohydrates–including the increasingly controversial production of corn-based ethanol.

Conceptually, Solazyme’s process is simple. It uses industrial-scale fermentation processes to grow algae that turn carbohydrate feed stocks into oils, made of custom carbon chains that vary with the end use.

Dan Philips, Solazyme’s director of fuels, points out that the company’s Soladiesel fuel derived from these oils meets all ASTM standards for modern ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, in particular the D975 specification.

Hence, the algae-derived diesel should run properly in any current diesel car. That sets it apart from some other fuels lumped in the broad and ill-defined category of biodiesel, including after-market conversions of older diesels that run on recycled cooking grease.

Algae and biofuel

The testing of the two Volkswagen TDI diesels is part of an effort to show automakers that renewable diesel that meets all relevant diesel-fuel specifications is safe to run in new vehicles.

The Soladiesel fuel is now sold in about 1,200 locations globally.

Diesel drivers like it

Solazyme recently conducted a 30-day market test of a B20 Soladiesel fuel–which blends 20 percent of its algae-derived diesel with 80 percent conventional diesel–

That test, at four Propel Clean Fuel Points fueling stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, showed that 70 percent of buyers said they would buy an algae-derived diesel fuel more often.

Four in 10 drivers buying the fuel said they would even pay a premium for renewable diesel fuel. The four Propel stations offering the fuel had sales during one-third higher than non-participating stations during that month-long trial.

Independent testing of the B20 blend by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) showed reductions of 10 percent in total hydrocarbon emissions, 20 percent for carbon monoxides, and fully 30 percent fewer tailpipe particulates.

Separately, Life Cycle Associates indicates that 100-percent Soladiesel reduces greenhouse gases by 85 to 93 percent compared to diesel derived from conventional petroleum.

2014 Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel, 2013 Chicago Auto Show 

From sugars to fuels

The Soladiesel B20 fuel can be used in most new US diesel vehicles, including the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze Diesel that will arrive at Chevy dealers later this year.

Solazyme defines its mission as transforming “a range of low-cost plant-based sugars into high-value oils,” using custom algae that end their life with about 85 percent of their body weight as oils.

The company is focusing on three markets: fuels and chemicals, nutrition, and skin and personal care.

Its Soladiesel fuel has also been tested by the Maersk shipping company and the U.S. Navy in ships, and its Solajet for aircraft by both the U.S. Air Force and United Airlines.

A Solazyme plant is now running in Peoria, Ilinois; two others in Clinton, Iowa, and Sao Paolo, Brazil, will come online early and late this year, respectively.

Solazyme’s Philips spoke on Tuesday at “Silicon Valley Reinvents the Automobile,” a presentation of the Western Automotive Journalists association and SAE International.