Weekly-ish News - Episode 23 (July 21, 2021)

What's the Alternative?

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

**I apologize for the audio quality of this episode, I had a weird mic issue this week and was not able to get it fixed before this episode.**

Electric Vehicles:

Ford patents a method for charging EVs while they're being towed.

• Focus is on RVs, so it's not quite as bonkers as it sounds.
• The article also mention the idea of using the EV to provide extra power when needed, essentially making a weird sort of two-component hybrid, though the patent doesn't mention this.
• Engineering Explained video about charging a Tesla by towing it.

Rivian R1T (the truck) deliveries are delayed again until September from July.

Tesla will apparently open up its European Supercharger network by September 2022.

• This came out during a meeting with the government of Vestland, Norway.
• Similar is expected in Sweden, and potentially the rest of Europe.

Tesla is finally offering Full Self Driving as a subscription as an option instead of a single purchase.

• $199/mo if you currently have basic lane-keeping and such.
• $99/mo if you currently have Enhanced Autopilot
• You need to pay for Hardware 3.0 upgrade if you don't have it ($1500)

Nikola announced 51 new dealerships in 9 states.

• Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Delaware, Virginia, and Maryland.

GM has notified 50k Bolt owners that they should not charge their vehicles overnight due to fire risk.

• National Highway Transportation Safety Administration said this should be done regardless of whether owners received the recent software patch.
• This is the result of two battery fires from November 2020.

Electrify America intends to double its network by 2025.

• This would mean around 10k DC Fast Chargers across the country.

United Airlines and Mesa Air Group have invested in Heart Aerospace for their electric, 19-passenger airplanes.

• They expect commercial deliveries in 2026.

Honda is going all-electric by *2040*.

• This is deeply frustrating because they're going all-electric in Europe by 2022 (which includes hybrids, but still).