Electric Vehicles News & Discussions

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The Downside to Biden’s Electric Vehicle Charging Plan
by Neel Dhanesha
December 15, 2021

https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/12/15/2 ... ger-rivian

Introduction:

(Vox) Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris publicly plugged in a Chevy Bolt at a charging station in Maryland. “There’s no sound or fumes!” she said at the demo, which served as the formal announcement of the Biden administration’s ambitious $7.5 billion plan to build half a million EV-charging stations across the United States. This investment represents the latest iteration of a proposal that started out with a budget of $15 billion for the same number of chargers. If you do the math — or even if you don’t, really — something doesn’t quite add up.

Simply put, to build 500,000 chargers with half the budget, the Biden administration will have to opt for slower chargers. (The faster the charger, the more expensive it is to install.) The Biden administration’s plan, which draws on funds from the recently passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, prioritizes chargers that take hours to fully charge an electric car — a potentially hard sell for Americans who are used to filling gas tanks from empty to full in minutes.

[caltrek]

Ford Mustang Mach-E Joins New York City's Yellow Taxi Fleet
by Andrew J. Hawkins
December 20, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/20/228 ... yc-gravity

Introduction:

(TechCrunch) The Ford Mustang Mach-E is hitting the streets of New York City as the latest electric vehicle to join the ranks of the city’s iconic yellow taxi fleet.

The Mustang Mach-E, with its fresh coat of Rally Yellow paint and classic taxi iconography, is being operated by Gravity Technologies, a startup focused on EV fleets and charging infrastructure. This is the first time that Ford’s new, mass-market EV is being deployed as a taxi. But it won’t be the last — Gravity says it hopes to eventually operate a fleet of 50 electric vehicles comprised of both Mustang Mach-Es and Tesla Model Ys.

“I think the Mustang and the Model Y are kind of like the ideal taxi vehicles that are available today,” Moshe Cohen, founder and CEO of Gravity, told The Verge.

Gravity isn’t the first company to deploy EVs as taxis. Back in 2019, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission approved the Tesla Model 3 as the first EV eligible to become a yellow taxi. A year later, the first Model 3 was spotted in the city. (The Verge alum Sam Sheffer took a ride late last year.) And earlier this year, moped sharing company Revel announced a plan to launch 50 Tesla Model Ys as a for-hire vehicle fleet in Manhattan — though the city later blocked that plan. (The company eventually won approval.)

Gravity is going a different route by integrating its vehicles into the city’s regulated fleet of yellow cabs. The vehicles are authorized for use as taxis under an EV pilot program adopted by the TLC earlier this year. But to do so, Gravity will need to lease a taxi medallion, which is a permit issued by the city to allow people to own and operate cabs. The company is certified as a taxi agent, meaning it’s authorized to lease medallions. The Mustang Mach-E has gone through TLC approvals and inspections, but Cohen said there will likely be additional features to roll out that will require future approval.

[Yuli Ban]

FedEx has just received the first delivery of its new emission-free electric delivery trucks from BrightDrop, marking a major milestone in the broader move to electric vehicles around the world.

FedEx announced that the first five EV delivery trucks out of an order of 500 electric Light Commercial Vehicles (eLCVs) were delivered by BrightDrop, a subsidiary of General Motors (GM), that is pioneering the company's electric delivery and logistics business.

“The delivery of the first BrightDrop EV600s is a historic moment, born out of a spirit of collaboration between two leading American companies,” Mitch Jackson, Chief Sustainability Officer, FedEx, said in a statement. “At FedEx, transforming our pickup and delivery fleet to electric vehicles is integral to achieving our ambitious sustainability goals announced earlier this year. This collaborative effort shows how businesses can take action to help usher in a lower-emissions future for all.”

[weatheriscool]

Tesla recalls almost half a million electric cars over safety issues

By Hyunjoo Jin

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is recalling more than 475,000 of its Model 3 and Model S electric cars to address rearview camera and trunk issues that increase the risk of crashing, the U.S. road safety regulator said on Thursday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has been discussing another camera issue with the automaker, while probing the company's driver assistant system.

The model years affected in the recall range from 2014 to 2021, and the total number of recalled vehicles is almost equivalent to the half a million vehicles Tesla delivered last year.

The U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer is recalling 356,309 2017-2020 Model 3 vehicles to address rearview camera issues and 119,009 Model S vehicles due to front hood problems, the federal regulator said.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos- ... 021-12-30/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Tesla China Delivered 70600 EVs in December
January 11, 2022 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/01/t ... ember.html

Tesla China delivered 70,847 Vehicles in Dec 2021. The total 2021 Tesla China production was 484,130 and about 160,000 were exported. 320,000 were delivered to domestic China buyers. Tesla sold 120,000 EVs globally in December 2021. Tesla made 936000 EVs in 2021.

BYD sold 48317 EVs in December. BYD made 322,000 EVs in 2021.

Tesla China is 50% bigger than BYD in unit sales. Tesla is 2.9 times bigger than BYD in unit sales.

[caltrek]

Analysts: Electric Vehicle Sales Slated for 2022 Surge
by Bob Geman
January 19, 2022

https://www.axios.com/electric-vehicle- ... f17a4.html

Introduction:

(Axios) Global sales of electric passenger vehicles are projected to surpass 10.5 million this year, about 4 million above 2021 levels, as the tech grows more mainstream, the research firm BloombergNEF said in a new report.

Driving the news: Its 2022 outlook for battery-electric and plug-in hybrids sees a number of forces rowing in the same direction.

• There are more models on the market, tougher climate policies, fleet purchases, automakers pushing cars with a plug, and other factors.

Why it matters: While noting policy is important, the analysis also states, "the passenger EV market is shifting from one driven by policy to one driven by organic consumer demand."

[caltrek]

Plugin Electric Vehicles Get 21% Share of Auto Market in Another Record Month in China
by Jose Pontes
January 23, 2022

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/22/pl ... -in-china/

Introduction:

(Clean Technica) Plugin vehicles in China once again ended the year with a record month, growing by 125% year over year (YoY) in the last month of the year, to a record 502,000 units. Full electric vehicles (BEVs) were responsible for 83% of the plugin market in December, slightly above the 81% average in 2021.

Last month, plugin share reached a record 21% (17% BEV), pulling the 2021 share to 15% (12% BEV). That more than doubled the 2020 result of 6.3% (5.1% BEV).

Looking at 2022, with low subsidies in a strong, dynamic market, organic demand is what is pulling the market up, so expect disruption to fully unfold in 2022 … in the largest automotive market in the world.

Local analysts expect this year to end at over 20% share, with the overall market merging further with the plugin segment. The plugin market actually brought some of its trends to the mainstream market in 2021, like the rise of domestic automakers in the overall market. Chinese automakers rose from 38% in 2020 to 44% in 2021, while in December, the two automakers with the highest growth rates among the 20 biggest brands were BYD (+78% YoY) and Tesla (+198%). Expect these two automakers to continue rising in the overall brand ranking in 2022.

Looking at December’s best sellers, there were no real surprises in the top 5, with the Wuling Mini EV winning another best seller title, followed by both Tesla midsizers and their BYD nemesis.

[caltrek]

Plugin Vehicle Sales in Germany in 2021
by Jose Pontes
January 20, 2022

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/20/26 ... y-in-2021/

Introduction:

(Clean Technica) The German automotive market has opened the gates to plugin vehicles, with December close to setting a record month, ending some 1,000 units below December 2020 with 81,188 registrations. Plugin vehicles (PEVs) scored an amazing 36% share (21% BEV) in December, with the full 2021 numbers ending at over 681,000 units and 26% share (14% BEV). That makes Germany the largest PEV market outside of China, beating even the USA (681,000 vs. 656,000) despite the USA’s much larger population and overall auto sales.

In a completely disrupted market, while diesel (-36% YoY) and petrol (-29% YoY) were down again in 2021, all electrified categories were shooting up. Conventional plug-less hybrids (HEVs) were up 31% YoY, while PHEVs jumped 62%, and BEVs did even better, surging 83%. The stampede into electrified vehicles is set to continue throughout 2022.

Speaking of the current year, expect the plugin share to rise well above 30% for plugins, and expect BEVs to hover above 20%. As the plugin market continues to rise moderately (50% growth being moderate), expect to see the overall market possibly shrink even further from its current size.

Here is the report for the Netherlands: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/19/65 ... -3-shines/

For France: https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/17/te ... -32-share/

[Yuli Ban]

Remember when electric vehicles could barely muster 50,000 sales a year worldwide and they all looked like dorkmagnets and no one wanted anything to do with them? That was a single decade ago.

Ford will spend as much as $20 billion to reorganize its business for the electric future, according to Bloomberg. The automaker is also mulling whether to spin off some of its EV business as a special acquisition company (SPAC) in order to attract more investment. Ford has previously stated that it would spend $30 billion on electric and autonomous vehicle development by 2025.

Ford is reportedly putting former Apple and Tesla executive Doug Field in charge of the reorganization, which will include converting its factories from gas-powered to electric vehicle production and hiring more engineers. (General Motors, which is reporting its fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday evening, recently announced an initiative to hire 8,000 people to help staff up its EV efforts.)

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

About five years from now, a common complaint about electric vehicles—range anxiety—will be a thing of the past across much of the US.

Starting this year, the federal government will begin doling out $5 billion to states over five years to build a nationwide network of fast chargers. The plan initially focuses on the Interstate Highway System, directing states to build one charging station every 50 miles. Those stations must be capable of charging at least four EVs simultaneously at 150 kW.

Once states have completed the Interstate charging network, they’ll be able to apply for grants to fill in gaps elsewhere. The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, a new agency formed to help the Transportation and Energy Departments administer the program, will allow case-by-case exceptions to the 50-mile requirement if, for example, no grid connection is available nearby.

[caltrek]

Electric Vehicles Drive Up Demand for ‘Green Metals’
by Jonathan Thompson
January 28, 2022

https://grist.org/accountability/electr ... en-metals/

Introduction:

(Grist) In December 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring the 600,000-vehicle federal fleet to shift to zero-emissions by 2035 as part of an effort to leverage government buying power to “catalyze America’s clean energy economy.” The massive federal purchase is meant to help manufacturers move away from internal combustion engines and toward electric vehicle production.

If Biden has his way, half of the 17 million cars and trucks sold in the United States in 2030 will be electric. And even if his order is overturned by a later administration, the International Energy Agency predicts that market-driven demand will lead to similar numbers of new electric vehicles on the road, substantially decreasing tailpipe emissions, urban pollution and overall greenhouse gas emissions — as long as fossil fuels don’t dominate the grids charging the cars.

But it will also substantially increase the demand for the so-called energy transition minerals that go into electric vehicles, their batteries and the charging infrastructure — lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel and rare earth elements. Currently, these minerals are largely mined outside of the U.S., in China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and so on. But with the expected electric vehicle-manufacturing surge on its way, officials from both the auto and mining industries are calling on the federal government to streamline mine permitting in order to bring the supply chain closer to home. The projected demand and the rise in metal prices are breathing new life into Western copper mines and spurring dozens of proposals for new mines from Wyoming to Oregon and Nevada to Arizona.

…Copper ore is gouged from vast open pits, visible from space as intricate scars on the landscape. All metal mining tends to facilitate a chemical reaction that causes acid mine drainage, which can sully rivers and harm fish and other aquatic life. Cobalt mining can release radioactive and carcinogenic particles, while lithium extraction sucks billions of gallons of water from the ground and the wastewater disposal can contaminate drinking water aquifers.

Planned or potential mining sites in the United States for the following locations are briefly described in the article:

California’s Salton Sea (Lithium)
California’s Clark Mountain (Rare Earth Elements)
California desert (Boron)
Idaho (Antimony & Cobalt)
Nevada’ Thacker Pass (Lithium)
Oregon (Nickel)
Arizona’s Santa Rita Mountains (Copper)
Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island (Rare Earth Elements)
Wyoming (Rare Earth Elements)
Utah’s White Mesa Mill (Rare Earth Elements)

[caltrek]

The EV Boom is Being Made Possible by Underpaid, Underfed Cobalt Mine Workers
by Maddie Stone
February 15, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/15/2293 ... ions-congo

Introduction:

(The Verge) Andre clocks into his job at the Kamoto Copper Company (KCC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo at 7 in the morning, and he leaves at 6 at night. The work is physically demanding, and while KCC provides Andre with lunch, he says the food quality is poor, and he’s often hungry afterward. He is also thirsty, with only a little over a liter of water provided to him a day, despite toiling deep underground in a mine that gets swelteringly hot.

“We asked KCC for more water, but they haven’t done anything,” Andre, whose real name is being withheld to protect his identity, said in an interview with human rights watchdog group Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), a transcript of which was shared with The Verge. “I am often thirsty, but I have to endure.”

KCC is the largest cobalt-producing mine in the world. Located in the heart of the DRC’s Katangan Copperbelt, each year, the mine churns out over 20,000 tons of the silvery metal used in cell phone, laptop, and electric car batteries. Largely owned and operated by multinational mining company Glencore, KCC prides itself on supporting the local economy and upholding high labor standards. In 2020, Reuters reported that Tesla inked a deal with Glencore to purchase a quarter of the mine’s cobalt for its EV batteries, a move seen as an attempt to insulate it from allegations of human rights abuses in its supply chain.

The DRC produces roughly 70 percent of the world’s cobalt supply. For years, human rights watchdogs have been raising the alarm about dangerous working conditions and the use of child labor in the artisanal mining sector, where informal workers (workers not employed by a company) mine cobalt by hand using their own resources.

Historically, large, industrial, company-run cobalt mines like KCC have received less scrutiny. But working conditions there are far from ideal, according to interviews with nearly a dozen current KCC employees and contractors conducted by RAID and The Verge. The employees, all of whom requested anonymity due to concerns over company retaliation, described working long hours with limited food and water for pay that often does not cover living expenses. That’s especially true for workers employed through subcontractors, who make up 44 percent of KCC’s 11,000-strong workforce.

[caltrek]

Sweden's Volta Raises $260 Million to Get Its All-Electric Trucks into Production by the End of this Year
by Ingrid Lunden
February 21, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/21/volta ... this-year/

Introduction:

(TechCrunch) Volta Trucks — the Swedish electric vehicle startup that believes it can build better urban delivery vehicles and other trucks that are safer and take up a smaller carbon footprint than their gas-guzzling, more clumsy, existing counterparts — has closed a big round of funding to help it through that last mile of work before its Volta Zero trucks go into commercial production later this year.

The company has raised €230 million (around $260 million), a Series C round of funding that appears to value the company at just over $490 million (€433 million). Volta will be using the money to fund engineering and business operations ahead of its first trucks rolling off the assembly line, on the back of what looks like a healthy list of customers: Volta said that its pre-order book for its all-electric Volta Zero — said to be the first fully electric, purpose-built commercial freight vehicle designed for urban freight distribution — is currently totaling over €1.2 billion, covering more than 5,000 vehicles. Volta’s wider business strategy will be based both on selling trucks as well as offering its vehicles on a trucking-as-a-service model.

[caltrek]

Volkswagen's Futuristic Electric Bus is Coming Soon
by Kirsten Korosec
March 9, 2022

https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/09/volks ... e-in-2024/

Introduction:

(TechCrunch) More than five years ago, Volkswagen showed off its vision for its next generation of vehicles — a cheerful two-tone lime yellow and white microbus concept that gave a nod to its T1 van life past and embraced an electric and connected future.

That electric microbus future has finally arrived. At least, for Europe.

Volkswagen introduced Wednesday two versions of an electric microbus — the ID. Buzz and ID. Buzz Cargo — that will go on sale in Europe in the third quarter of this year as part of the automaker’s plan to sell more than 1 million EVs annually by 2025. Notably absent was pricing and the estimated range of the microbus.

U.S. consumers keen to buy the EV will have to wait another year or more. A long-wheelbase passenger model will debut for the North America market in 2023 and go on sale in 2024, according to the German automaker.

[caltrek]

EVs and High Gas Prices
by Andrew J. Hawkins

https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/11/2297 ... ory-russia

Introduction:

(The Verge) With gas prices soaring above $4 a gallon, electric vehicles are starting to look a lot more attractive to car buyers. But a combination of supply chain constraints, the global chip shortage, higher-than-average prices, and low inventory at dealerships will conspire to keep EVs out of reach for most people.

Interest in switching from gas to electric is at an all-time high. Car shopping site Edmunds reports the number of people searching for hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or electric vehicles jumped 39 percent from February to March and 18 percent over the last week.

Following through on that purchase is going to be tough for most people, given the scarcity of new EVs on the market. The EVs that are available are more expensive than their gas equivalent, and inventory is extremely low. The same goes for hybrids and small to midsize cars, which generally fall near the bottom in terms of supply. So for anyone looking for relief from high gas prices, the solution is either patience — more EVs are coming! — or less driving.

EV sales have increased exponentially year-over-year, but they still account for only 4.5 percent of new cars sold in the US. The average sale price of a new EV is still about $10,000 more than the overall industry average that includes gas and electric cars. In terms of pricing, an EV is the equivalent of an entry level luxury vehicle.

Even if you can afford a new EV, good luck finding one. US vehicle inventory levels — the number of cars that are available to buy at any given time — are down about 60 percent from a year ago and 70 percent from 2020 to roughly 1.1 million vehicles, according to Cox Automotive. EVs and hybrids only represent about 25,100 units, or 2.4 percent of that total supply, as of February 21st, according to the company.