Thursday 22nd February 2018. On the podcast today… you’ll hear about Mercedes Trucks doubting Tesla claims, and what about a drone coming to your rescue if you run out of energy…   UK HIGH COURT RULES ON ILLEGAL POLLUTION, ELECTRIC CARS THE ANSWER?   We’ll start with breaking news about air quality and what that means for EV adoption, not just here in the UK. In some ways this is similar to how California, because it’s such a huge car market, when they imposed strict emission limits the car makers made changes which benefited everything. Yesterday in London the high court told the UK government it must do more to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution.   For the last 8 years the UK has been in breach of the legal limits on pollution, and twice now have lost a court battle. Those we should thank are environmental lawyers Client Earth. Following previous defeats in court, the UK government had to promise to ban new petrol and diesel cars from 2040. Well specifically, all new cars from 2040 had to have a degree of electrification, it’s not a BAN on selling fossil fuels. That means hybrids would be acceptable.   Mr Justice Garnham, the judge, said the current plan by UK Gov was “seriously flawed”.  So what does that mean and what are the implications of this ruling? The government will have to go further and faster in their plans to adopt EVs. So that could mean bringing the date of the ban forward, say, to 2030. Or it could keep the 2040 ban and push it further, saying all new cars had to be full electric. That’s doubtful.   However there are strict limits which must be reached by 2021 so it’s more likely the 45 local authorities will have to introduce emissions free zones, or Ultra Low Emission Zones, following the lead of London. That will lead to more negative publicity for diesel, further hurting sales, and inevitably increasing the adoption of electric cars.   On the whole this is good news, but policy needs to be clearer and more concrete. Diesel sales will continue to fall off the cliff edge they’re on, however buyers aren’t moving to EVs quick enough, meaning an older fleet of dirty diesels is staying on the roads. With clear policy, companies can make the investments they need to in electrified transport.   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/21/high-court-rules-uk-air-pollution-plans-unlawful   DAIMLER AG DOUBT TESLA CLAIM ON TESLA SEMI TRUCK TECH   Next, the World’s biggest truck maker, Mercedes, has cast doubt on Tesla’s plans for their semi truck. Daimler plans to release their electric truck in 2021 called the e-Actros, following initial trials later this year.   They will have a maximum range of 200kms, or around 120-130 miles, and will be investing over 500 million euros per year, starting this year.  However the claims of Tesla seems to have ruffled feathers. According to Bloomberg.com, the head of trucks Martin Daum, is reported to have made comments yesterday to reporters including: “If Tesla really delivers on this promise, we’ll obviously buy two trucks -- one to take apart and one to test because if that happens, something has passed us by,” Daum said. “But for now, the same laws of physics apply in Germany and in California".   If Tesla do manage to release a semi truck in 2019 with all the promised specs, there will be many difficult conversation at large truck makers all around the world, because they will have made an expensive miscalculation.   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-21/daimler-throws-shade-at-tesla-e-trucks-plan-as-rivalry-heats-up   APPLE BUY COBALT DIRECT AS EV BATTERY DEMAND GROWS   Apple, the world’s largest company, is being affected by the EV rush according to a report by Inverse.com. They are looking at buying cobalt direct from the source to ensure their devices aren’t affected and the lithium-ion batteries in them.   EVs use around 1,000 times as much cobalt as a mobile phone battery, and with 320 million EVs predicted to be on the road by 2