To say that it has been a busy week for electric vehicle (EV) news would be an understatement.

On Monday, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) announced a new business strategy headlined by a commitment to stop producing petrol and diesel vehicles under its Jaguar brand by 2025 and switch to electric-only models. Given that Jaguar only produces one pure-electric model at present and outsources production, the commitment marks a major shift for the firm.

New plans for Land Rover, meanwhile, will see the brand stop producing ICE vehicles for sale in the UK by 2030, in line with the Government’s ban on new petrol and diesel cars. Global production will then stop by 2036.

Then, on Wednesday, Ford announced plans to only sell pure electric passenger cars in Europe from 2030. It will stop selling pure petrol and pure diesel by 2026, then work to phase out hybrids.

The news from Ford came on the same day that The Climate Group provided the second annual progress update on its EV100 initiative. The report revealed that 101 businesses have joined the commitment and that this cohort has rolled out 169,000 EVs to date, with more than half having hit the road in 2020. But it also highlighted a number of challenges around business EV integration, including concerns around charging infrastructure and a lack of suitable models – particularly in the heavy goods vehicle space.  

With all of this in mind, edie looks at the commitments that some of the world’s biggest carmakers have made on transitioning their portfolios to EVs – from A to Z.

BMW

Summer 2020 saw BMW unveiling a new climate plan, including a commitment to cut emissions from vehicle use by one-third by the end of the decade.

To meet this target, BMW is aiming to have more than seven million EVs on roads by the end of the decade – two-thirds of them being pure-electric. It will launch five pure-electric vehicles by the end of 2021 and additional models in the coming years, resulting in a portfolio of 25 EV models by the end of 2023.

Ferrari

Ferrari is launching a new hybrid, the SF90 Stradale, in late 2021, after debuting its first hybrid in 2013.

But plans for Ferrari’s first pure electric vehicle are yet to be confirmed. Former chief executive Sergio Marchionne teased plans shortly before his death and current boss Louis Camilleri has continued to do so.

In an exclusive interview with Jalopnik late last year, Camilleri said the brand would not commit to full electrification within his lifetime.

Ford

As mentioned in the introduction to this piece, Ford will only sell pure electric vehicles in Europe from 2030. Globally, it is expecting for pure EVs to account for two-thirds of sales by this point.

Ford has earmarked at least $22bn of investment, to be allocated through to 2025, to achieve this business model transition.

General Motors (GM)

GM made headlines last month with a commitment to become carbon neutral in operations and products by 2040. The business owns Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC and Wuling.

Emissions from products accounted for 75% of GM’s absolute carbon footprint in 2019. So, to meet the new long-term target, the firm is planning to offer will offer 30 all-electric models globally by 2030. It has been eyeing a fully electric portfolio since 2017.

GM has forecast that EVs will account for 40% of market entries in its largest market – the US – by the end of 2025.

Suzuki

Suzuki does not yet offer any fully electric models and has not outlined a timeline for its plans to do so. Around one-fifth of the Japanese multinational’s annual sales are accounted for by hybrids. Building on this trend, it recently updated its hybrid Swift and Ignis models.

Tesla

Tesla is the largest publicly traded automotive company in the world. It goes without saying that it only produces pure electric vehicles. Co-founder Martin Eberhard argued in 2006 that hybrids are “no more electric than a 1942 Jeep” and has maintained that stance.

For all its work to avoid in-use emissions, however, Tesla has been criticised for its wider environmental disclosures. The company scored badly in the World Benchmarking Alliance’s most recent auto industry index and it has only been producing sustainability reports since 2019.

Toyota

In 2015, Toyota unveiled a series of ambitious new environmental targets with an overall aim to eliminate the use of gasoline cars and cut average carbon emissions from all of its vehicles and products by more than 90% by 2050.

However, its EV plans hit a new challenge in 2020. The business had been planning to showcase new electric taxis, minibuses and buses at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but the event was postponed due to Covid-19 and there are still uncertainties as to whether it will go ahead this year.

Toyota’s subsidiaries include Lexus, Dihatsu and Subaru.

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China's Huawei plans to make electric vehicles under its own brand and could launch some models this year, four sources said, as the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker, battered by U.S. sanctions, explores a strategic shift.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is in talks with state-owned Changan Automobile and other automakers to use their car plants to make its electric vehicles (EVs), according to two of the people familiar with the matter.

Huawei is also in discussions with Beijing-backed BAIC Group's BluePark New Energy Technology to manufacture its EVs, said one of the two and a separate person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The plan heralds a potentially major shift in direction for Huawei after nearly two-years of U.S. sanctions that have cut its access to key supply chains, forcing it to sell a part of its smartphone business to keep the brand alive.

Huawei was placed on a trade blacklist by the Trump administration over national security concerns. Many industry executives see little chance that blocks on the sale of billions of dollars of U.S. technology and chips to the Chinese company, which has denied wrongdoing, will be reversed by his successor.

A Huawei spokesman denied the company plans to design EVs or produce Huawei branded vehicles.

"Huawei is not a car manufacturer. However, through ICT (information and communications technology), we aim to be a digital car-oriented and new-added components provider, enabling car OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to build better vehicles."

Huawei has started internally designing the EVs and approaching suppliers at home, with the aim of officially launching the project as early as this year, three of the sources said.

GROWING EV MARKET

Sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs), including pure battery electric vehicles as well as plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, are expected to make up 20% of China's overall annual auto sales by 2025.

In the United States, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc are also developing auto-related technology or investing in smart-car startups.

Huawei has been developing a swathe of technologies for EVs for years including in-car software systems, sensors for automobiles, and 5G communications hardware.

The company has also formed partnerships with automakers such as Daimler AG, General Motors Co, and SAIC Motor to jointly develop smart auto technologies.

Source: Reuters

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Australia is bucking the worldwide development of sharply elevated demand for electrical automobiles, with lackluster gross sales of Teslas and different fashions regardless of the nation’s vital function within the world provide chain.

Simply 7,000 electrical automobiles had been bought within the nation in 2020, a rise of about 250, or beneath 4% over the earlier year, in response to figures from the nation’s Electrical Car Council, which represents the trade. That compares with a 43% surge in electrical automobile (gross sales globally to three.2 million whilst total automotive gross sales slid by a fifth.

EVs make up 4.2%, or 134,400, of all automobiles bought worldwide. In Australia, they account for a mere 0.7% of the 1 million automobiles bought yearly, making it one of many slowest adopters of fresh vehicle expertise.

Useful resource-rich Australia is a number one provider of key battery minerals to the electrical automobile section. However its economic system can be closely reliant on fossil fuels — one thing that advocates of extra EVs say is holding again the sector.

Business specialists blame an absence of a transparent coverage to advertise EVs, with the nation’s conservative authorities seen as a significant supporter of coal.

“As a result of we have now a retarded nationwide local weather change coverage, and a reluctance to acknowledge the urgency of local weather change, our nationwide transport sector coverage is laughable. Actually, it is a go-slow coverage on electrical automobiles,” says James Prest, a lecturer in environmental and vitality legislation on the Australian Nationwide College.

A nationwide EV coverage was really helpful by Australia’s Parliament in January 2019, however there was no motion on it. A whittled down dialogue paper on a ‘future fuels technique’ was launched in February however ignored earlier skilled suggestions and dominated out any monetary incentives from federal authorities to assist motorists change to electrical automobiles. Nor did the paper recommend any clear goal for brand new EV gross sales.

“Basically, the entire array of coverage and financial incentives that could possibly be marshaled in the direction of encouraging individuals to decide on electrical automobiles has not been engaged with by the nationwide authorities,” Prest added.

Advocates of extra motion look to international locations similar to Norway, which final year turned the primary the place electrical automobile gross sales overtook petrol and diesel-engined automobiles. EV patrons obtain quite a lot of incentives similar to zero import taxes, gross sales tax exemption and free use of toll roads.

The most well-liked electrical automotive within the Scandinavian nation — Volkswagen’s Audi e-tron — retails for the equal of $92,000 Australian {dollars} and bought greater than 9,000 models final year.

Against this solely 64 e-tron automobiles had been bought in Australia, the place the mannequin retails for almost AU$150,000, largely resulting from import duties, a luxurious automotive tax and no monetary subsidy for the customer.

Behyad Jafari, chief government of the Electrical Car Council, says the shortage of any purchaser incentives and gasoline effectivity requirements in Australia has made it troublesome for carmakers. “New expertise carries a worth premium and since there is no such thing as a incentive in place it turns into troublesome for purchasers to beat the excessive ticket costs,” he mentioned.

International automakers steadily trial new fashions beneath troublesome circumstances in Australia’s huge outback, however provide solely about 28 electrical automotive fashions within the nation, of which solely two retail under AU$50,000. By comparability.

Shopper unfamiliarity with electrical automobiles, mixed with comparatively larger costs and restricted charging infrastructure have contributed to a snail-paced rollout of absolutely electrical automobiles in Australia. The nation has greater than 2,300 EV charging factors however solely 357 of these are fast-charging — able to recharging a automobile’s battery in beneath two hours. By comparability, the U.S. state of California alone has round 22,000 charging factors.

Some client shrink back from buying EVs, believing that will require a supercharger of their storage when all they really want is an abnormal energy level, ANU’s Prest mentioned.

The trade says Australia must set a sensible timeframe for phasing out petrol- and diesel-powered automobiles.

Based on official estimates, solely a couple of quarter of all automobiles bought in Australia can be electrical by 2030. Nonetheless, that contradicts the targets of Australian states to attain web zero emissions by 2050. The EV Council’s Jafari factors out that every one new automobiles will have to be electrical between 2030 to 2035 to have the ability to hit that focus on.

Proponents of extra EVs see grounds for optimism in Australia’s rising demand for brand new hybrid automobiles, which mix an electrical motor with a petroleum or diesel powered engine. Gross sales ballooned to about 60,000 models in 2020, up 50% from a year in the past. Some within the trade see this as suggesting that there’s latent demand amongst Australian patrons for greener automobiles.

The nation can be seeing a small but quickly rising marketplace for used electrical automobiles from Japan, prompting state and native governments to fill some coverage gaps.

Most states now incorporate some extent of EV planning. They’re setting targets for electrification of their very own public automobile fleets and offering funding for charging infrastructure. However requirements fluctuate considerably.

As an example, the Australian Capital Territory exempts stamp obligation and registration charges and supplies AU$15,000 interest-free loans for electrical automobile purchases. Bigger New South Wales doesn’t present any monetary incentives whereas Victoria and South Australia have some rebates but in addition name for EV homeowners to pay street person prices.

For carmakers, having a constant coverage or transition technique throughout the nation is vital.

“No matter what the state or federal governments are doing, the automobiles can be arriving within the coming years due to client decisions,” mentioned Scott Nargar, who works on authorities relations for the Australian arm of South Korean carmaker Hyundai. “Now we have to make sure the transition is clean by ensuring we have now the infrastructure in place in Australia.”

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