Can Aston Martin Survive in the Electric Vehicle Era?

[Simpo Two]

quench said:

Jon, you can count on your roads getting degraded at even higher rates in the future, thanks to government mandates increasing the number of heavy electric cars using said roads. Perhaps at least the UK authorities will maintain them and (heaven forbid) even build a new one, occasionally?

British roads are falling apart faster than they're being repaired, and when they do repair them they use tarmac with the durability of flapjack, so it lasts about two years before falling apart again.

[BiggaJ]

Simpo Two said:

quench said:

Jon, you can count on your roads getting degraded at even higher rates in the future, thanks to government mandates increasing the number of heavy electric cars using said roads. Perhaps at least the UK authorities will maintain them and (heaven forbid) even build a new one, occasionally?

British roads are falling apart faster than they're being repaired, and when they do repair them they use tarmac with the durability of flapjack, so it lasts about two years before falling apart again.

They would be better using the Flapjack my mother used to make in all honesty. Much harder wearing than the stuff they seem to be using. They could use her scones as small bollards for marking cycle lanes as they were always very heavy and hard as rock. Even the local ducks used to be wary after a few of them sunk when being fed with the crumbs.

[Agent57]

BiggaJ said:

They would be better using the Flapjack my mother used to make in all honesty. Much harder wearing than the stuff they seem to be using. They could use her scones as small bollards for marking cycle lanes as they were always very heavy and hard as rock. Even the local ducks used to be wary after a few of them sunk when being fed with the crumbs.

Maybe some Weetabix and Readybrek too.

[AstonV]

Nothing we didn't already know.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13...

[AstonV]

Aston Martin along with others scaling back EV plans.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/13/ev-euphoria-is-dea...

[Jon39]

AstonV said:

Aston Martin along with others scaling back EV plans.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/13/ev-euphoria-is-dea...

Many traditional motor manufacturers must have spent huge sums of money, under pressure from governments, to develop their new EV ranges. They now appear to be wondering, whether that R &D expenditure will ever achieve a return.

My understanding is that there were various different groups of early EV buyers;
Business customers; who bought EVs because (here in the UK) 100% of the cost can be written off against tax in year one.
Employee cars; EVs are popular due to very low, 'Benefit in Kind' tax.
Wealthy private owners, keen to try something new.

Here is an article providing a consumers viewpoint.

https://archive.li/ahRD2

I recently came across yet another new aspect. Some British insurers are refusing to offer cover for the newly arrived Chinese EVs.
Apparently the cars are arriving in the UK, but there is no spares support, or any manufacturers' repair guidance instructions. When faced with a damaged car, the insurers imagine provision of a hire car could go on indefinitely.

Edited by Jon39 on Wednesday 13th March 16:59

[AstonV]

Jon39 said:

Many traditional motor manufacturers must have spent huge sums of money, under pressure from governments, to develop their new EV ranges. They now appear to be wondering, whether that R &D expenditure will ever achieve a return.

My understanding is that there were various different groups of early EV buyers;
Business customers; who bought EVs because (here in the UK) 100% of the cost can be written off against tax in year one.
Employee cars; EVs are popular due to very low, 'Benefit in Kind' tax.
Wealthy private owners, keen to try something new.

Here is an article providing a consumers viewpoint.

https://archive.li/ahRD2

I recently came across yet another new aspect. Some British insurers are refusing to offer cover for the newly arrived Chinese EVs.
Apparently the cars are arriving in the UK, but there is no spares support, or any manufacturers' repair guidance instructions. When faced with a damaged car, the insurers imagine provision of a hire car could go on indefinitely.

Edited by Jon39 on Wednesday 13th March 16:59

Yes the governments are trying to force something on the public that is basically not ready for prime time. Possibly someday if there is a great advancement in battery technology, but that day is not here yet.

[Jon39]

There are now a few videos, showing internal combustion engines fitted into defunct Teslas.

One funny one, where a V8 engined Tesla S, was taken to a garage by someone playing the part of a car ignoramus, asking for an engine oil change.
On the journey to that garage, they made oil smoke emit from the exhaust, that was observed by puzzled bystanders.

[Jon39]

A look back at what was being said 9 months ago.
We now know that there have been quite a few changes since the article was written, including the Lucid agreement, announced just a few days later.

.............................................................................

Aston Martin electric car plans

On sale now - None
Coming soon - Pure-electric sports car in 2025; electric SUV in 2025, or 2026.

Aston Martin had planned the development of the Rapide-E, an all-electric GT, but that project was sunk with the ousting of former boss Andy Palmer in May 2020, whose brainchild it was, following the brand’s disastrous stock market flotation and financial losses. At the same time, the company also put on hold (or likely cancelled) a reboot of the Lagonda badge as a luxury electric sub-brand.

That allowed Aston to focus on its first SUV, the DBX, which has unsurprisingly proved to be the firm’s most popular and profitable model. Then Aston was able to finalise its hybrid hypercar, the Valkyrie, deliveries of which began in early 2022 (somewhat later than planned and, reportedly, at great expense to the company).

Now the focus can shift to its electrification strategy proper. It no longer has to worry about developing its own electric powertrains, now that Mercedes-Benz has agreed to lend its considerable expertise, as well as its electric chassis underpinnings, in return for a larger slice of Aston Martin shares. More recently, Chinese behemoth Geely, which also owns Volvo and Lotus, has doubled its stake in Aston after owner Lawrence Stroll sold 35m shares, worth £117m. It’s a harmonious agreement as Geely and Mercedes jointly own and develop Smart’s new range of EVs..

Aston’s first plug-in hybrid model, the Valhalla supercar, is due to begin deliveries in 2024 with, according to the firm’s latest boss Tobias Moers, an electrified powertrain option across all product lines by 2026. The company intends that all of its core models will be fully electric by 2030.

[Hedged]

Almost 90,000 EV cars ordered the first day.... to be made by Xiaomi, a Chinese consumer electronics company.

https://insideevs.com/news/714595/xiaomi-su7-ev-so...

[Simpo Two]

Hedged said:

Almost 90,000 EV cars ordered the first day.... to be made by Xiaomi, a Chinese consumer electronics company.

https://insideevs.com/news/714595/xiaomi-su7-ev-so...

Fark. How many coal-fired powered station will it take to keep that lot going?



Imagine AM getting orders for 90,000 DB12s in a day.... they'd have to sub them out to China...!

[Hedged]

Coal-fired electricity generation you say? Why yes that is the conundrum, but count on the Western press to remain doggedly delusional.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-ene...

[Simpo Two]

Hedged said:

Coal-fired electricity generation you say? Why yes that is the conundrum, but count on the Western press to remain doggedly delusional.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-ene...

Sorry my adblocker won't let that page load. Is it not based on fact? Reuters are hardly the Daily Mail....

[LTP]

Simpo Two said:

Sorry my adblocker won't let that page load. Is it not based on fact? Reuters are hardly the Daily Mail....

Just click on the “Continue without supporting us” link.

I’m not sure why the article would be classed as “delusional”; it does point out that China is building coal-powered capacity like crazy after shortages last year, that they wouldn’t really need it if their network was more efficient, that this action will make it more difficult for China to meet its declared targets and there will be pressure from the operators of the power stations not to close them. The latter will not pose a problem to the CCP.

[Jon39]

Simpo Two said:

Sorry my adblocker won't let that page load. Is it not based on fact? Reuters are hardly the Daily Mail....

At your service.
See if this works for you John.
https://archive.li/CC2jH

Remember, the UK is leading the world with NetZero.
When the wind blows and the sun shines brightly, around 50% of the UK electricity demand is supplied by low carbon renewable generation.

All this has been achieved by spending £ billions, some of which is craftily concealed within all our electricity bills.
Such a splendid achievement, gives the whole population a warm and congratulatory feeling. [ I might have made that bit up. ]

Unfortunately however, all our efforts do not make one jot of difference, to reducing the total amount of carbon dioxide in the world.

[cptsideways]

Hedged said:

Almost 90,000 EV cars ordered the first day.... to be made by Xiaomi, a Chinese consumer electronics company.

https://insideevs.com/news/714595/xiaomi-su7-ev-so...

Just gives you some idea how big the Chinese car market really is.

[dbs2000]

Jon39 said:

At your service.
See if this works for you John.
https://archive.li/CC2jH

Remember, the UK is leading the world with NetZero.
When the wind blows and the sun shines brightly, around 50% of the UK electricity demand is supplied by low carbon renewable generation.

All this has been achieved by spending £ billions, some of which is craftily concealed within all our electricity bills.
Such a splendid achievement, gives the whole population a warm and congratulatory feeling. [ I might have made that bit up. ]

Unfortunately however, all our efforts do not make one jot of difference, to reducing the total amount of carbon dioxide in the world.

Its all very true sadly, but I would say, some of the Chinese "good" news, never gets mentioned:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/daily-brief/china-adde...

This is a site some of you may like https://app.electricitymaps.com/map - its pretty cool when the sun shines and you can see countries going to 100% renewables.

The Nordics are absolutely flying in fairness to them.

Edited by dbs2000 on Thursday 4th April 09:48

[Jon39]

dbs2000 said:

The Nordics are absolutely flying in fairness to them.

On days with strong wind and sun, the UK can generate 50% renewables, for its population of 67 million.
Therefore having the present wind and sun generating capacity, the UK would be more than 'absolutely flying', if we had the Nordic population numbers.

Norway 5 million
Sweden 10 million
Finland 5 million

Out of interest, does Norway have much hydro power generation? They have some mountainous areas.
Wonder if they have their own version of this, for us to see.

https://grid.iamkate.com/?fbclid=IwAR3OhtYtg8DXWCH...





(Battery Storage shows Nil, because the same generation would be counted twice.)

Edited by Jon39 on Thursday 4th April 10:22

[Hedged]

Just to clarify, given that coal is a pillar of modern Chinese society, journalistic "delusion" in the sense of implying, a) that China is overly concerned about climate targets, b) that China will ever sacrifice internal social order to burnish its external reputation, and c) that China views EV proliferation as anything more than an economic opportunity, and perhaps an additional path to governing individual movement. Sure, the urban density of China has resulted in serious environmental pollution, but the CCP will determine the timeline and any official reaction to the problem.

As to the stunning first day numbers from Xiaomi, any info on the Chinese charging infrastructure? Tesla involvement perhaps?

[Jon39]

Hedged said:

As to the stunning first day numbers from Xiaomi, any info on the Chinese charging infrastructure? Tesla involvement perhaps?

I hope that they did not announce, "We are sold out for the next 24 months".
That phrase is trade marked, for the sole use by a well known company.