Places for London, TfL’s new commercial property company, has announced it is looking for a single JV partner to help deliver ultra-rapid EV charging hubs across the city. Each site/hub will have a minimum of 6 ultra-rapid charging bays, including at least 1 bay for those with accessibility needs. Currently, London has 300 ultra-rapid charging points however TfL states there needs to be 4,000 of these charging points by 2030, based on current demand. The key skills the JV partner has to have are expertise in designing & building EV charging hubs and operating a portfolio of charging points. We champion this because TfL is utilizing its own land to scale up EV charging infrastructure and this will materially help the Mayor of London achieve net zero carbon by 2030.
Indian Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi has announced India has begun the process of auctioning the first tranche of 20 blocks of lithium, nickel, graphite, molybdenum, and rare earth elements among other minerals. In total, these blocks are valued at c$5.4bn and the auction will finish by Feb 20th (2024). The aim is to drive demand for these critical (EV) minerals and shift away from fossil fuels. The auction is predicted to be competitive, as Ola Electric Mobility, Reliance Industries and Rajesh Exports are expected to battle it out.
Daimler Buses has announced it has delivered the first 3 (of 48) new electric buses to Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr. The rest of the order will be delivered in stages, with H1 2025 pencilled in to fully complete the order. These buses will be equipped with the NMC3 high-performance batteries and a 60-kW fuel cell as a range extender, thus meaning these buses can travel up to 400km on a single charge.
The UK Automotive industry has been given a boost, as Nissan has announced it will be investing $1.4bn at its Sunderland plant so that it can produce 2 of its EVs, the Qashqai and Juke, there. Although there has been no official statement regarding governmental subsidies or guarantees, we believe there will be such incentives and an announcement will be made soon to corroborate this. This is a positive announcement and along with JLR and Tata Motors, earlier this year announcing investment in the British (EV) automotive sector, there is momentum building. Nissan has been active in the UK, as in 2021 it announced it was investing £1bn in an EV hub with its battery partner AESC. We hope, believe and champion this will inspire other OEMs to invest in the UK (EV) Automotive sector.
Nio and Geely have announced they have signed a strategic partnership agreement on battery swapping. This would see both parties working on an efficient battery asset management mechanism, building a unified battery swap operation and developing battery-swappable EVs compatible with each other's battery swap systems. Battery swapping is seen as a way to prolong an EV, as battery technology improves an EV will have a longer lifecycle because it's not stuck with one pack that is degrading. Nio benefits from this arrangement, as it has been implementing a cost-cutting strategy for a few months now and this should help drive the profit line in years to come.
Abellio London Bus has been crowned the winner of the Fleet Electrification Strategy of the Year Award, over 100 vehicles, at the Electric Vehicle Innovation and Excellence Awards. The bus operator won this award due to its injection of 30 Wrightbus Electroliners on route 111 (running from Heathrow Central bus station and Kingston upon Thames) and electrifying its Twickenham depot. This is an impressive win and illustrates the experience of the management, considering it completed its MBO in March this year. Abellio currently has c15% (157 buses) of its fleet electric and has set itself the target of increasing this to 30% in 2024 alongside electrifying the rest of its depots. Bear in mind, bus operators in London cannot win/retain/extend (new) route contracts without (being able to introduce (new)) electric buses.
According to the SMMT, the UK automotive manufacturing sector has secured c£20bn of investment this year, compared with a total of £16.2bn in the previous 7 years combined. This is a great sign of confidence in the aforementioned sector, however, SMMT is calling for greater consumer incentives by the government and OEMs. These consumer-focused incentives will help drivers switch to an EV and further drive the supply side of the equation. Next year will be an election year (or latest by the 28th of January 2025) and we believe the uptake of EVs, and EV infrastructure will be high on the green agenda for all parties, which should help drive these consumer incentive policies.
Deals
HumanForest, a UK-based sustainable eBike startup, has announced it raised a £5m extension to its Series A funding round, thus bringing its total Series A funding to £17 million. New investors, such as Güil Mobility Ventures, Fen Ventures, multiple Cabify executives, and Triodos Bank participated in the extension raise. The capital will be used to enhance and strengthen its advertising technology platform and parking compliance software.
EMotorad, an Indian-based manufacturer of electric bikes, has announced it has raised $20m in a Series B funding round. Panthera Growth Partners lead this round, with Alteria Capital, xto10x Technologies and Green Frontier Capital also participating. This impressive startup intends to use a significant portion of the capital raised to establish its manufacturing operations in India, thus being less reliant on Chinese manufacturers.
OVO has announced it is acquiring Bonnet, the public EV charging consumer app, for an undisclosed amount. Bear in mind Bonnet has over 27,000 chargers at 7,000 locations available on its app for UK drivers, thus making it one of the largest public charging consumer apps. Furthermore, Bonnet allows EV drivers to locate, use and pay for this (public) charging without having to have different cards or logins.