Can You Help Me Fight The Fossils? Read More About Patreon here EVne.ws/patreon   Read today’s show notes on https://www.evnewsdaily.com   Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily for Thursday 7th February 2019. It’s Martyn Lee here and I’ve been through every EV story I can find today, and picked out the ones I think you need to know about.   Thank you to MYEV.com for helping make this show, they’ve built the first marketplace specifically for Electric Vehicles. It’s a totally free marketplace that simplifies the buying and selling process, and help you learn about EVs along the way too.   Trevor in Washington asked me about future shipments of the Model 3's after i reported on the first load to be delivered yesterday. As far as I know, there is a car carrier leaving California around once every 5 days - Glovis Captain (arrived yesterday), Glovis Cosmos, Grand Aurora, CsCC Europ , Glovis Courage. The Morning Cindy is on her on way to Shanghai. If you know more, email me and I’ll pass it on, hello@evnewsdaily.com   MERCEDES-BENZ COULD BE SUPPLYING TESLA WITH ELECTRIC VANS It's always nice when the listeners do the work for me, it means I can kick back and put my feet up! I wish. And Partner of the Podcast Sascha Pallenberg was tweeting this morning about the Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche and something he said about a potential partnership with Tesla. Now it may have been in German but Sascha kindly translated: "Our CEO Dieter Zetsche just confirmed during the annual #Daimler pressconference that #Tesla is interested in our #MercedesBenz eSprinter for their service fleet. Ongoing talks..." @sascha_p   So we're talking about the eSprinter here. Jerome Guillen, Tesla’s President of Automotive, is also former Daimler. On the Tesla earnings call Elon Musk said his focus was ono improving service including Tesla Ranger Service. Most recently I've seen pics of them using Model S's, but this would be a proper electric van. This sounds like a supply deal for Tesla to use Mercedes-Benz vans rather than some sort of collaboration project. The eSprinter has a 55kWh hour pack and 93 miles (150km) of range which might not be enough. Let me remind of you an Elon Musk tweet from 19th November 2018: "Lot on our plate, so it’s either get van gliders (no battery, powertrain or compute tech) from Daimler & produce sooner or do all & produce later. Not a big difference to total vehicles produced either way. Priority list is Model Y, solar roof tiles, pickup, semi, Roadster."   And: "Maybe interesting to work with Daimler/Mercedes on an electric Sprinter. That’s a great van. We will inquire."   TESLA MODEL 3 GETS ANOTHER PRICE REDUCTION "Not long ago, Tesla reduced its prices by $2,000 in an attempt to assist buyers after the U.S. federal tax credit entered its initial sunset phase" reports InsideEVs, and now: "When the Model 3 Mid Range first arrived, it was priced at $46,000. The price dropped recently to $44,000, and now it’s down to $42,900. Tesla is moving closer and closer to that $35,000 price point, and the base model has yet to arrive. As for the rest of the Model 3 lineup, the Long Range Dual Motor is priced at $49,900 and the Performance model now comes in at $60,900. In reply to a question on the above Twitter thread, Musk said Tesla is doing everything it can to get to the $35,000 base Model 3. Elon Musk tweeted that the car starts at “~$35k (after ~$8k of credits & fuel savings).”"   https://insideevs.com/tesla-model-3-price-reduction/   2019 VW PASSAT FACELIFT DEBUTS IN EUROPE WITH PLENTY OF TECH "After Volkswagen gave China an all-new Passat last year and the United States a not-so-new Passat last month, it’s now Europe’s turn to meet the refreshed midsize sedan. The plug-in hybrid Passat GTE (pictured below, on the left) has been updated as well and can now do up to 34 miles (55 kilometers) in pure electric mode per the more realistic WLTP cycle" reports Adrian Pade