Weekly-ish News - Episode 44 (May 4, 2022)

What's the Alternative?

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Electric Vehicles:

Tesla will no longer allow for the purchase of their vehicles at the end of lease.

Green Car Reports has a preview of the Mercedes EQS if you're interested in such things.

We now have a price for the 2023 Subaru Solterra, Subaru's first EV at $46,220.

• It will allegedly be available in all 50 states.
• Not much other info is available.

Kia has updated its specs for the Niro hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric models for 2023, with decent spec upgrades across the board.

The 2023 Nissan Leaf has also been updated with some slight changes, though it still uses CHadEMO charging.

Ford has officially launched "full production" of its F-150 Lightning!

• Ford will also apparently have another electric truck launch in 2024, not based on the F-150.
• Ford said they will not have any dealer stock until later model years, since they have such a long backlog of reservations.

Honda has released a bit of a roadmap towards electrification, including a promise of devoting around $40b over the next 10 years to the effort.

• They mention swappable batteries as a tech option.
• 2 EVs in the US in 2024.
• There's a lot in the press release, but it's kinda a lot of big words and no real substance of interest.

CATL, the battery manufacturer, is launching a battery-swapping service in China.

• The service is focused on folks who can't charge their EVs at home.
• 30 stations are planned in Xiamen by the end of 2022.
• In that city, drivers will never by more than 1.8mi (2.9km) from a station.
• The service will be called Evogo.
• They claim the service is compatible with 80% of EVs on the road.
• They expect to charge around $61/mo for the service.

GM has confirmed they'll use heat pumps in all of their electric vehicles.

Mack now has a Range Calculator for their electric vehicles so that fleets can determine whether electrification will work for them on a particular route.

GM has signed a deal with MP Materials to provide rare earth materials for GM's battery production, and those materials will be mined and manufactured in Texas.

The battery recycling company, Lithion, has received $22.5m from the Canadian government to help build out their facilities to begin dismantling and recycling used EV batteries.

Japanese manufacturer, Envision AESC, will invest $2b to build a 30GWh battery factory in Kentucky.

• They will receive $116.8m in state incentives, as well as a $5m grant for skills training.
• This is expected to create 2,000 jobs.
• They will power the factory by 100% renewable energy through both on-site generation and a partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
• Full production is expected by 2027.

Wallbox, a charging station manufacturer, has begun construction of a facility to build chargers in Texas.

• This is an initial investment of $11m for the construction.
• They plan to begin production by October, 2022.
• They intend to initially have 250k units of annual production, and 500k by 2025.
• They will produce by bi-directional Level 2 chargers and DC Fast Chargers.

Deployment:

WattEV, a "Truck-as-a-Service" company, has ordered 50 Volvo VNR Class 8 electric trucks for operation in California.

• This basically seems like a leasing model.

4 Gen Logistics, a drayage operator in California, has ordered 20 Kenworth T680E electric trucks.

• These have a 150mi (240km) range.

Penske has ordered 750 Ford E-Transit cargo vans which will be available for rental and leasing.

Maersk will add 300 electric trucks to its North American network between 2023 and 2025.

• The initial vehicles will be built by BYD.

Frito-Lay will deploy 40 Ford E-Transit trucks in Texas.

• They have already taken delivery of one truck, and the remaining trucks will be delivered by Summer 2022.

Hertz will purchase up to 65k Polestar electric vehicles.

• This purchase will be done over the next 5 years.

The Swiss transport company, Galliker, has deployed an all-electric truck for transporting EVs.

The Saudi Arabian government will purchase 50k Lucid EVs with the option to purchase 50k more.

• Deliveries start Q2 2023 and will happen over a 10 year period.

Pace Suburban Bus in Chicagoland has awarded $26.5m to Proterra for the purchase of 20 electric transit buses and 2 megawatt-scale chargers.

VW and BP will install up to 8k 150kW fast chargers across Europe using VW's Flexpole chargers, which can be installed on light poles.

• They expect to have the first 4k installed by 2024.
• These stations will include 2 chargers and a battery storage system.
• The VW Flexpole platform apparently doesn't require any voltage (transformer) upgrades at the site.

The UK energy company, Gridserve, has finished its overhaul of the 300 chargers that make up the Electric Highway in the UK.

• This replaced existing, slower chargers with 350kW chargers.
• These 300 chargers are at 130 sites.
• They were previously very unreliable, and were taken over by Gridserve around a year ago.

Tesco, a UK grocery chain, is installing free public chargers at 500 sites.

• This is a partnership between VW, Tesco, and Pod Point (the charger manufacturer).
• They are a mix of level 2 and DC Fast Chargers.
• They will use 100% renewable energy.

Rivian is funding 1MW of solar power to be built out in Tennessee to power its Waypoint chargers in the state.

Energy:

Burns and McDonnell has completed construction of 65MW of solar power in Texas.

Duke Energy just started operations at a new 22.6MW solar farm in North Carolina.

Duke Energy has announced that it will launch two landfill renewable natural gas projects in North Carolina.

• They will be operational in late 2022.
• They will produce enough gas to offset the natural gas usage of approximately 34k houses.

CLECO, a utility in Louisiana, has announced a $900m project to capture 95% of the CO2 from their largest coal plant and sequester it.

• The plant emits 4m tons of CO2 per year.

Georgia Power Co. has announced that it will shut down 9 coal plants and 3 oil-burning plants by 2028 (ahead of schedule), and add more natural gas and renewables.

• This shutdown would leave only two coal plants in their fleet, which would shut down by 2035.
• They will offset the lost generation with the purchase of 2.4GW of natural gas and 2.3GW of solar generation by 2029.
• They plan to hit 6GW of renewables by 2035.
• They also intend to add energy storage to the mix.

Origin Materials is building a facility that will manufacture plastic from wood residue in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.

• They claim this is a carbon-negative process.
• It will be a $750m project.
• Production will begin in 2025.
• They'll produce polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from wood residue sourced from timber mills and managed forests.
• The process will also result in "hydrothermal carbon", which can be used in fuel pellets.

Policy:

Louisiana's Governor, John Bel Edwards, has a press release about Louisiana's use of the Infrastructure Bill funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

• This press release specifically mentions Louisiana Clean Fuels!
• The event he spoke at is a major expo that Louisiana Clean Fuels held in partnership with Louisiana's Department of Transportation and Development.