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Australia's Nexport enters deal with Splend to supply 3000 BYD electric vehicles from 2022 [updated]
Following the signing of an historic distribution agreement to allow Nexport to sell right-hand-drive BYD vehicles globally, Nexport has announced its own historic deal to provide 3000 BYD electric vehicles to ride-share leasing business Splend
The BYD Han will form part of Nexport’s Australian line-up in 2022. Images: BYD
[updated] Speaking with Luke Todd, CEO of Nexport and TrueGreen this afternoon, he confirmed to EV Brief that of the 3,000 BYD units in the MOU, 2,000 would be making their way to Australia. This is a significant figure, given around 5,000 battery electric vehicles were sold in Australia in 2020. He also confirmed on-demand drivers would be trained and educated in the BYD model range to provide demonstration drives to potential customers.
We're hoping to speak with Todd this week on the podcast, covering all things BYD.
Following the signing of a historic distribution agreement to allow Nexport to sell right-hand-drive BYD vehicles globally, Nexport has announced its own historic deal — a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Splend — to purchase 3,000 BYD electric vehicles.
We hadn’t heard of Splend until this media release hit our inbox, but the Australian and United Kingdom-based company provides flexible vehicle subscription and ownership plans specifically for rideshare and delivery drivers on platforms such as Uber, DiDi and AmazonFlex. Splend provides rental or rent-to-own plans for drivers, inclusive of servicing and maintenence, roadside assistance and driver training.
The MOU between Nexport and Splend will see the 3,000 BYD vehicles delivered across the UK and Australia from early 2022; in addition, it also includes a deal that will see Splend provide demonstrator vehicles for new BYD buyers, as part of Nexports direct to consumer sales model through EV Direct.
As commuters are slow to return to public transport in COVID-19 affected areas, demand for rideshare services across the globe is increasing, and the electrification of these trips is key to reducing emissions in our cities. reducing costs and improving profits and reliability for drivers.
Splend is already advertising that they will be offering electric vehicle options soon for drivers, and Uber will be reducing their commission by 50% for every EV ride until 30 June 2022.
At the time of publishing, we don’t have a figure on the proportion of units allocated to Australia and the UK, but will update this article with a comment from Nexport when we can.
Source: Nexport
Tesla Closes 2020 with a Record Q4 and 500,000 Vehicles Delivered
Tesla delivered 499,500 vehicles for the 2020 calendar year, and produced 509,737 vehicles. That’s almost 10x the production output from 2015. Many Wall Street analysts dismissed Tesla’s 500,000 unit goal for the year, as the onset of COVID-19 impacted the automaker’s production facilities around the globe…
Freemont Outbound Delivery Lot - Image: Tesla
Tesla delivered 499,500 vehicles for the 2020 calendar year, and produced 509,737 vehicles. That’s almost 10x the production output from 2015. Many Wall Street analysts dismissed Tesla’s 500,000 unit goal for the year, as the onset of COVID-19 impacted the automaker’s production facilities around the globe, and negatively affected sales across the broader passenger car market.
Image: Tesla
Five years ago, the company’s CEO Elon Musk emphasised a plan to reach a delivery target of 500,000 vehicles per year by 2020. At the time, this number seemed overly ambitious, as production difficulties, cashflow troubles and quality concerns seemed to be the most interesting stories to the media.
After a string of profitable quarters, successful launch of the Model Y and massive capital expansion, 2020 culminated in Tesla’s listing on the S&P 500 index, and a massive push to increase production by year end.
Tesla produced 179,757 vehicles and delivered 180,570 vehicles in Q4, up 42 per cent and 36 per cent respectively on Q4 2019 numbers. In Q3 2020, Tesla produced 145,036 vehicles and delivered 139,300 vehicles.
Elon Musk took to Twitter to mention the thousands of employees who contribute to Tesla’s continued success:
Investors and the majority of analysts have been very bullish on Tesla at the end of 2020, and the stock has surged past $705 US per share as at market close on December 31. Despite this, The New York Times, amongst other media outlets still falls into the trap of labelling Tesla as an “upstart automaker [that] will probably face stiffer competition in 2021.”
While its true Tesla has ongoing customer service and quality issues to address, and a huge amount of work ahead to continue to scale to meet future production and delivery targets, it’s dangerous to not see Tesla for what it now is; an energy company with the best automotive software on the market, and likely the best electric vehicles available today.
We can expect the full Q4 and calendar year 2020 earnings to be reported in late January or early February.
