Weekly-ish News - Episode 17 (May 31, 2021)

What's the Alternative?

If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to find me on Twitter @archduketyler

CORRECTION: In the section about the federal EV tax credit, the quoted article was incorrect. The sunset period is triggered (as I suggested would be better) by the percentage of EVs sold in the nation, not per automaker. I initially read that in an Elektrek article, but other articles (including the CNET article linked) apparently got the sunset incorrect. The bill will not pass, but I wanted to add this correction here.

Link to bill text: JCT Bluebook Template (senate.gov)

Headlines from this episode:

Electric Vehicles:

U.S. Tesla Model 3 and Y will no longer have radar for forward-collision avoidance.

Volvo Lights (Volvo's heavy-duty EV brand) delivered a vehicle to Albertson's, which is now in service in California.

Ford is doubling down harder on electrification!

• $30b investment in electrification by 2030 (including battery development)
• 40% of sales expected to be electric by 2030 (around 1.5m vehicles based on current numbers)
• They hope to cut battery costs by 40% by 2025
• They also have well over 70k reservations for the F-150 Lightning!

MKBHD did a great video about the F-150 Lightning with a piece of information that was not reported anywhere else.

• The range figures quoted by Ford assume a truck loaded with 1,000lb of cargo.
• Unladen range may be well over 400!

Florø, Norway now has a charging station for boats and electric cars!

• The 150kW charging is the first in a planned series of installations across the coast.

Not much detail here, but Hyundai will unveil a "subscription" model for their EVs later this year.

Energy:

A 250MW solar project is being protested by a neighboring small town in Ohio.

Venture Global LNG is planning a 1m ton per year Carbon Capture project in Louisiana.

• They do not have permits yet, so this is early-days right now.
• The carbon would be injected into saline aquifers.
• This particular project is going to be in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana

The Biden Administration wants to open up a significant portion of California's coast to offshore wind.

A new wind turbine design by GE and Glosten may make it easier to build very large offshore wind projects.

• The turbines could produce 12-14MW each.
• They will utilize a floating platform anchored by "tendons" that actively control the position of the turbine.
• This may reduce the platform's mass by 35% overall.

Policy:

A bill has been introduced to provide support for existing nuclear plants to prevent them from being retired.

Legislation that probably won't pass was introduced to revamp the federal EV tax credit. (PLEASE SEE CORRECTION ABOVE)

• It would add $2,500 in credit for vehicles that are produced in America, and another $2,500 for vehicles produced by a unionized workforce.
• There would be a price cap of $80k for the vehicles, so more expensive vehicles wouldn't qualify.
• It would also make it a refundable tax credit!
• INCORRECT: The sunset period based on an automaker's EV sales will be removed and replaced by a sunset when a given automaker's sales top 50% being electric.
• CORRECT: The sunset period is based on US EV sales as a percentage of total sales, phasing out after 50%.
• There is also a 30% tax credit for automakers retooling their manufacturing to build EVs.

California Air Resources Board is considering ruling that would put a cap on battery degradation from automakers.

• Starts with Model Year 2026
• 80% battery life for 15 years or 150k miles
• Battery warranties also need to cover 10 years or 150k miles
• There are also proposed labeling requirements to help with recycling/repurposing batteries