A rather meaningful piece of energy news went almost unnoticed in recent weeks. The Abu Dhabi Power Corporation announced the lowest tariff for solar energy in the world. The new record came as the winning bid for the upcoming 2 GW solar power plant, the Al Dhafra Solar PV project, set the world’s most cost-competitive tariff for solar PV energy, at USD 1.35 cents/kWh (AED 4.97 fils/kWh in local currency). This is approximately 44% lower than the tariff set just three years ago for the ‘Noor Abu Dhabi’ project – Abu Dhabi’s first large-scale solar 1.2GW PV project and a world record tariff-setter at the time – which commenced its commercial operation back in April 2019.
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As the worldwide coronavirus lockdown stormed all nations’ economies throughout the month of April, the car industry witnessed a near complete shutdown of unprecedented proportions. The extent of it is clearly shown in Italy’s car sales for the month, which were down a jaw-dropping 97.5% year over year. This was widely anticipated since a severe lockdown began in March and the market started its precipitous descent, but it is dramatic nonetheless.
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A matter of weeks. That’s all it took for the Coronavirus pandemic to change the face of the world and wreak havoc at an unprecedented scale on all aspects of human life. The economic fallout of this health emergency has proved particularly quick and devastating on the transport sector, as entire continents try to slow the spread by adopting strict lockdowns. It won’t come as a surprise then, to see the car industry’s March sales numbers already showing the full effect of this crisis.
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February sales figures for the Italian EV market were awaited with interest, following a great start of the year last month. Would earlier trends be confirmed? Stats released by Unrae are now out and the numbers don’t disappoint, in fact new record sales mean that exactly 10 times as many full electric cars were sold in February 2020, compared to the same month last year.
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January sales are out for the Italian car market, and electric cars are up by nearly 600% (!) over the same month last year. 1943 BEVs were sold in the country, an epic surge over last year’s 283 units during the same period. Surprised? 2020 was awaited with great anticipation in the EV community, with many new electric models entering the market and stricter emission regulations by the European Union forcing automakers to sell cleaner cars. A surge in popularity for EVs was expected, but the first month of the new year goes beyond expectations.
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Can 2020 be yet another year of spectacular growth for Tesla? Just ahead of the company’s quarterly call, we can try to predict production figures for what promises to be another banner year for Musk’s company, as electric mobility picks up share in the global car market and the Californian startup expands its footprint on many fronts.
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It was a favourite term by skeptics and detractors for years: the “Tesla killer”. The theory was that, as soon as premium car makers would start producing their own full electric models, that would be the end for the fragile Californian startup. After all, how could Musk’s company even dream of competing with the century-old, giant automakers’ well-oiled machine?
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It’s taken a long time, but Italy’s electric car market is finally starting to take off. Official figures released by Unrae (the association of foreign car makers in Italy) confirm 10,566 battery electric cars were sold in the Bel Paese in the twelve months of 2019, doubling 2018 sales and consolidating a trend of exponential growth started two years ago. But why should we care, when a much smaller car market such as Netherlands’ saw over 12,000 Tesla Model 3s being sold in the single month of December?
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This year’s hotly anticipated Geneva Motor Show offered the best proof of the relentless progress electric mobility continues to make in the auto industry. One wouldn’t need to dig too deep into the news from Geneva to understand the impact that EVs – production models and concepts alike – have made on most brands that attended the event. Electric cars quite literally stole the show. But in all this display of electric goodness, which car surprised the most?
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Tesla shorts may be in for a treat, as Elon Musk has just set the stage for an unprecedented “burn of the century”. By now, everybody knows Tesla’s CEO set Twitter and financial media on fire last Tuesday as he revealed his plan to make Tesla private, withdrawing it from the stock market at a guaranteed $420 per share, or 20% over the price at the time of the announcement. Importantly, Musk also clarified that funding for the buyout is already “secured”: a crucial, jaw-dropping detail which implies tens of billions of dollars would be ready to change hands should the deal go ahead. Continue reading →
