Well good morning, good afternoon and good evening, wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to the Thursday 21st June edition of EV News Daily. It’s Martyn Lee here with the news you need to know about electric cars and the move towards sustainable transport.   SECURITY AT GIGA BEEFED UP A Tesla spokesperson said: ""Yesterday afternoon, we received a phone call from a friend of Mr. Tripp telling us that Mr. Tripp would be coming to the Gigafactory to 'shoot the place up.' Police have been notified and actions are being taken to enhance security at the Gigafactory."   FIA CHIEF: BUY ELECTRIC Jean Todt, head of Motorsports FIA, which governs Formula E as well as things like Formula 1: "We are trying to make electric cars more user friendly in order to encourage more people to buy electric cars, especially in cities. You know, one problem that we have with electric cars at the moment is limited autonomy. Recharging times is another as it takes quite long. On top of that, each recharge is only good for a relatively short distance. That is why we strive to give a fresh perception or feeling to consumers. When you think about mobility, climate change, and the environment, the electric car is obviously better suited. We also need to address pollution. The electric car is a way to reduce pollution in cities. Another aspect that is not directly linked with what we do now but also high on our list of priorities is traffic congestion because citizens living in cities really feel the traffic and congestion everyday. In a way, they get used to that but it is time consuming, it is expensive, and again it causes pollution."   VOLVO XC40 TO BE FIRM'S FIRST FULLY ELECTRIC VEHICLE The Volvo XC40 will be the first battery electric car from Volvo and will arrive in 2019 after the Polestar 2. It will be followed by an electric XC90. Thomas Ingeleth has been quoted by Autocar at the launch of the S60: "“It’s not a secret any more that the first full electric Volvo is on its way with the XC40 coming. It will arrive very soon after the Polestar 2. That is the first to come that’s not exotic. We’ll start with XC40 and then on it will come step after step into our model range. The next car will be the next-generation XC90. That will be the masterplan of how electrification will come to the Volvo product range. We will not establish products beside our hybrids, we will introduce electrification as a powertrain variant within the existing portfolio. You could say that is different to a lot of the mass-production brands. But I have a hard time to understand how their plan will work in the long run. Electrification is the future of the automotive industry, so how do you handle that as soon as you come to the majority of electric cars? How do you handle it in your portfolio? I think it’s much more natural to say it’s a powertrain variant that over time will take up the majority of the sold vehicles."   EV BATTERIES TO BALANCE GERMAN GRID There's a new project to balance the German power grid, and Germany is a leader in renewables. But we know sometime the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. "Mercedes-Benz Energy, is revitalizing an old coal power plant in Germany by turning it into a big energy storage facility. The company unveiled the new project on yesterday, June 21st, at the Elverlingsen power station, which makes use of more than a thousand modules from the battery packs of its Mercedes electric vehicles." says BenzInsider.com Although they've pulled out of the consumer market they're still moving forward with energy storage for commercial applications. "The new project of Daimler stacks 1,920 battery modules in the facility that can hold 9.8 MWh" from an installed capacity of 8.96MW Daimler said: "“The large storage plant is, therefore, a symbol for the transformation in the storage and use of energy—away from fossil electricity grid supply and towards a sustainable extension of the e-mobility value chain that reduces CO2"