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SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information

Elon Musk is hyping Tesla’s upcoming Battery Day – saying that it will be “one of the most exciting days in Tesla history” and hinting at a ‘Terafactory’ announcement.

Last year, Musk said that Cybertruck is Tesla’s last product unveil for “a while,” but he teased some upcoming tech announcements.

Those announcements were expected to happen at what Tesla has been referring to as “Powertrain and Battery Investor Day.”

Much like the “Autonomy Day” that happened last year, Tesla said that it is planning to give presentations to investors, which are livestreamed, about the automaker’s latest development in powertrains and battery technology.

Later, Musk referred to the event as â€œTesla April company talk” and said that it will be held at Gigafactory New York, where Tesla plans to offer media and investors tours of the facility.

Earlier this month, Musk updated Tesla’s upcoming event to add that it will focus just on batteries and not powertrain.

During a conference call following Tesla’s Q1 2020 results yesterday, Musk was asked about the Battery Day.

The CEO said:

“Yes. Actually, we don’t want to preempt Battery Day. We want to leave the exciting news for that day, but there will be a lot of exciting news to tell. And I think it would be one of the most exciting days in Tesla’s history and we’re just trying to figure out the right timing for that.”

Musk gave a hint later in the call when he talked about Tesla’s next factories becoming “Terafactories”.

When announcing the first Gigafactory, Tesla decided to call it that because it was going to produce ‘gigawatt-hours’ (GWh) in battery capacity.

A ‘Terafactory’ could be producing over a terawatt-hour of battery capacity, which is 1,000 GWh or about 20 times the current capacity of Panasonic’s production at Gigafactory Nevada and several times the world’s production for EV batteries.

As we previously reported, Electrek revealed that Tesla will present the result of its internal secret Roadrunner project at the battery event.

The goal is for Tesla to produce its own battery cells using technologies developed by Tesla’s internal teams, including work from its research lab in Canada led by Jeff Dahn, and new technologies recently acquired through the acquisition of Maxwell, on a massive scale and at a cost below $100 per kWh.

Musk said that Tesla is aiming for the event to be held the third week of May:

“We think probably the right timing will be probably the third week of May. Not giving a firm date, but we think that probably that’s the right timing. And depending upon what we’re allowed to do, it will either be in California or Texas.”

It will put the event between May 17-23.

Electrek’s Take

On top of the actual new cells and production system developed under Roadrunner, I think Tesla is going to announce a location to produce over 1 terawatt-hour of battery cells.

The fact that Elon mentioned California or Texas might lead people to think that the factory is going to be at one of those locations, but I wouldn’t be so quick to jump to that conclusion.

The event was first supposed to happen in Gigafactory New York, but I think he doesn’t believe any event is going to be able to be held in NY next month.

California is where Tesla is based and where the automaker is running its pilot production line for the Roadrunner battery cells and Texas is where Elon is based right now for SpaceX work and also where restrictions are being relaxed.

I am not saying that it’s not possible Tesla might announce a deal for a factory in Texas at the event, but I am just saying that it’s not a done deal just because he mentioned the state.

Source: https://electrek.co/2020/04/30/elon-musk-tesla-battery-day-terafactory/

SPONSOR: Lomiko Metals is focused on the exploration and development of minerals for the new green economy such as lithium and graphite. Lomiko owns 80% of the high-grade La Loutre graphite Property, Lac Des Iles Graphite Property and the 100% owned Quatre Milles Graphite Property. Lomiko is uniquely poised to supply the growing EV battery market. Click Here For More Information

• A country fuelled by hydropower has become the world’s electric vehicle leader

In 1995, the lead singer of the 1980s band A-ha and the head of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona climbed improbably into a converted electric Fiat Panda they had imported from Switzerland and set off on a road trip.

They drove around Oslo refusing to pay the city’s sky-high road tolls, parking illegally wherever they could, and ignoring every penalty notice they were given. Eventually, the authorities impounded their car and auctioned it off to cover the fines.

But the stunt attracted massive media attention, and the point was made. Soon after, electric vehicles were exempted from road tolls, one of a large raft of incentives that have, over the years, helped make Norway the country with the world’s highest per capita electric vehicle ownership.

Last month, in an economy hit by the coronavirus crisis, fully electric cars accounted for just under 60% of Norway’s new car market, and plug-in hybrids just over 15% – meaning three in four of all new cars sold were either wholly or partly electric.

It still has some way to go, but the country looks on course to meet a government target – set in 2016, with full cross-party parliamentary support – of phasing out the sale of all new fossil-fuel based cars and light commercial vehicles by 2025.

“It’s actually quite amazing how fast the mindset’s changed,” said Christina Bu of the Norwegian EV Electric Vehicle Association. “Even in 2013 or 2014, people were sceptical. Now, a majority of Norwegians will say: my next car will be electric.”

The story of how and why that has happened has a straightforward, if unexpected logic. First, despite being a major oil and gas producer, almost all of Norway’s domestic energy comes from a single, and renewable, source: hydropower.

That means switching to EVs is a much greener option for Norway than for countries whose power is generated mostly by coal plants – and that if it wants to significantly reduce its emission levels, it has little choice but to green its transport sector.

Driven by the environmental imperative, the government began offering incentives to buy and run electric cars as far back as 1990, first by introducing a temporary exemption from Norway’s exorbitant vehicle purchase tax, which became permanent six years later.

“This was an important step,” Bu said. “Norway was a very poor country before we discovered oil; cars were a luxury item. They’ve always been taxed very highly. Cars in Norway are a lot more expensive than elsewhere. Without the purchase tax, the cost of an electric car basically fell to that of an ordinary car.”

Since then, electric car drivers have been given the right to park for free in some municipal car parks, drive in bus lanes, take ferries without a ticket and, thanks to A-ha, drive toll-free. They are not required to pay VAT on their cars, or road tax, and company electric cars are taxed at a lower rate than petrol or diesel vehicles.

Some measures have changed over the years: to be allowed to drive in a bus lane, for example, you now need to be carrying a passenger. A so-called 50% rule was introduced in 2017, allowing local authorities to charge EV drivers up to 50% of the parking fees, road tolls and ferry rates applicable to fossil-fuel vehicles.

But overall, said Bu, the “combination of a big one-off saving when you buy the car, plus the substantially lower costs – fuel, tolls, parking, maintenance – of actually driving it, still adds up to a very powerful financial argument. Over its lifetime, you really save a lot of money with an electric car in Norway.”

That was certainly what persuaded Wenche Charlotte Egelund, 57, who bought a VW Golf Electric with her partner two years ago when they moved out of central Oslo. “The incentives were crucial,” she said. “The tax and VAT exemptions, free municipal parking, free toll roads that mean we avoid the rush-hour traffic jams.”

In fact, Egelund said, the incentives were so significant that she almost “felt the decision was imposed on me. Financially, it was like there was no other sensible option. I do wonder whether it really is as green as we are told. Is a car running on clean diesel really worse than the environmental impact of producing an EV battery?”

Rachel Ritman, 56, a postwoman living on the outskirts of Fredrikstad, bought her Opel Ampera two years ago and said she has not regretted her choice, even if she was “not sure we would have gone electric without the incentives”. The car’s range was good, she said: 250 miles (400km) in summer, 200 miles (320km) in winter and because she charges at home she does not suffer from “lade-angst”, or the fear of running out of juice.

Both Ritman and Egelund have a second, diesel-powered car for extra-long journeys, to country cabins or holidays. Sten Bråthen, 55, a media consultant, bought his Nissan Leaf as a second car “for taking the children around and driving to work. But there were so many advantages that when we were getting a new main car last year we didn’t think twice about going electric.”

Government incentives were vital in the decision to buy, Bråthen said: “I think we would have managed without the other incentives – free toll roads and parking – but the actual cost of buying was so much lower than ordinary cars here in Norway.” He warned, though, that Norway was going to need more charging stations.

Despite the incentives, EV sales in Norway remained low until about 2010, when a number of smaller, more affordable electric cars from makers such as Mitsubishi and Nissan came to market, and improved technology meant larger electric cars began to offer both the space and range to make them a sensible choice for families.

Bu said the incentives were so significant that “many people say they’ve bought the most expensive car they’ve ever had when they buy electric – Teslas, Jaguars, that kind of model – simply because they’ve calculated what kind of saving they’re going to be making over the coming years, and feel it makes sense”.

That has led to accusations that Norway’s encouragement of electric vehicles amounts to little more than tax cuts for the rich, or a cut-price second car. Many Norwegians on lower incomes can only dream of owning an electric car, and three out of four car purchases are on the secondhand market.

Bu – whose organisation represents consumers rather than producers – rejected this, arguing that “we have to change the cars we drive, and the only way to do that is to change the new cars. We can’t change used ones”. EVs will soon make up 10% of Norway’s passenger fleet, she said, and are slowly coming on to the used market. Advertisement

She said she was confident for the future of electric vehicles, even in countries without a big renewable power sector, and studies show that EVs running on power generated from fossil fuel are responsible for roughly the same level of overall CO2 emissions as petrol cars.

“As a society, we clearly have to do two things,” she said. “Produce more renewable energy and products – like cars – that can run on it,” she said. “We have to do both, as fast as possible. We can’t hang around until we’re producing 100% renewable energy.”

Electric cars are “never going to be truly environmentally friendly”, Bu said. “The main problem is making the batteries. We need clean battery producers in Europe. But look, we need transport. We need cars and vans, particularly outside our cities. And for us, electric is the answer.”

This story is a part of Covering Climate Now’s week of coverage focused on Climate Solutions, to mark the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The Guardian is the lead partner in Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration committed to strengthening coverage of the climate story.

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/19/norway-and-the-a-ha-moment-that-made-electric-cars-the-answer

• Lomiko Views Tesla at $750 per share as a bellwether for Electric Vehicle Industry

Vancouver, B.C. and Montreal, QC, April 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Lomiko Metals Inc. (“Lomiko”) (TSX-V: LMR, OTC: LMRMF, FSE: DH8C) and Quebec Precious Metals (“QPM”) (TSX-V: QPM, OTC: CJCFD, FSE: YXEP)  announce that pursuant to the option agreement between Lomiko and QPM, the agreement regarding the La Loutre Flake Graphite Project has been amended as follows:

Lomiko will issue to QPM, within a period of five business days following the receipt of the required approval by the TSX Venture Exchange, 1,000,000 common shares of Lomiko.  Further, Lomiko will fund additional exploration expenditures totaling $1,125,000 on the La Loutre project, the Lac des ÃŽles project and/or other designated properties as mutually agreed to by the Lomiko and QPM by December 31, 2021.

The Project consists of contiguous claim blocks totaling 29 km2 situated approximately 53 km SE of the Lac-des-Îles mine, formerly known as the Timcal mine, North America’s only operating graphite mine currently owned by Imerys Carbon and Graphite. It is accessible by driving NW from Montreal for a distance of approximately 170 kilometres.

For more information on Lomiko Metals, review the website at www.lomiko.com, contact A. Paul Gill at 604-729-5312 or email: [email protected].

On Behalf of the Board,

“A. Paul Gill”

Chief Executive Officer 

• Picture1

A. Paul Gill
Lomiko Metals Inc. (TSX-V: LMR)
6047295312
[email protected]