The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s actions around its enforcement of a $1,000/MWh soft offer cap across most of the West may lead power suppliers to withhold electricity when the grid is most strained, according to the Western Power Trading Forum, or WPTF, and the Electric Power Supply Association, known as EPSA.
The trade groups urged FERC in a Wednesday filing to harmonize the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, or WECC, soft offer cap with the California Independent System Operator’s $2,000/MWh offer cap to reduce uncertainty for market sellers.
The Supreme Court on Thursday curbed the Environmental Protection Agency’s options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, one of the most important environmental decisions in years.
In a setback for the Biden administration’s efforts to combat climate change, the court said in a 6-3 ruling the EPA does not have broad authority to shift the nation’s energy production away from coal-burning power plants toward cleaner sources, including solar and wind power.
As consumers begin to transition from gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs), the price of electricity is becoming a new area of focus for motorists. Although the emphasis is often put on those states with the highest electricity prices, most states (38 states plus the District of Columbia) had average residential electricity prices of less than 15 cents/kWh in 2021.
The United States has around 150,000 fuel stations to refill its fleet of fossil-fuel-burning vehicles. Despite the rapid growth of all-electric vehicles in America—400,000 of them were sold in 2021, up from barely 10,000 in 2012—the country has only 6,000 DC fast electric charging stations, the kind that can rapidly juice up a battery-powered car. (It has more than 48,000 charging stations of all kinds.)
The economic resurgence in the wake of the COVID pandemic lockdowns helped drive an increase in electricity generation worldwide last year, according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy, The trends in the report show several positive and negative climate change-related storylines.
For example, wind and solar energy, which are now the cheapest forms of energy in many parts of the world, reached a 10.2% share of power generation, the first time they have exceeded 10%.
Renewable primary energy, which includes biofuels but not hydroelectric plants, saw an annual growth rate of 15% in 2021, higher than any other fuel category.
The auto industry is banking on electric vehicles to slash planet-cooking emissions, but EVs are still too expensive to knock gas-guzzlers out of the game. For now, at least.
Sure, EV sales are up, maintenance costs are low and gas prices are high, making combustion engines look all the worse. But on the flip side, EV supply is still limited relative to demand, automakers are busy prioritizing luxury models and even home charging is costlier lately.
As we wait around for enhanced tax credits to make EVs more accessible in the U.S., a fintech startup called Tenet is launching with claims that it can soften the upfront blow of EV ownership.
A key indicator seen by trucking industry analyst and forecaster ACT Research shows trouble in the Class 8 tractor market that ACT predicts will last through the end of this year.
Released recently as part of ACT’s Transportation Digest, the top line on the report’s Class 8 Tractor Dashboard dropped again in April. The report, which combines proprietary ACT data and analysis from a variety of sources, paints a comprehensive picture of trends impacting transportation and commercial vehicle markets, according to a release from ACT.
Four years after kicking off a task force on heavy-duty charging for commercial vehicles, CharIN E.V. has developed and demonstrated a new global solution for heavy-duty trucks and other heavy-duty modes of transportation: a Megawatt Charging System.
More than 300 visitors attended the unveiling of the protype Megawatt Charging System (MCS), which included a demonstration on an Alpitronic charger and a Scania electric truck, at the International Electric Vehicle Symposium in Oslo, Norway.
The charging system addresses a key stumbling block for heavy-duty truck electrification, which is being able to quickly charge a truck and get back on the road.
A new rule from the California Public Utilities Commission is expected to simplify the interconnection process for distributed energy resources (DERs) like solar and battery storage systems.
Under the new rule, DER interconnection requests will be reviewed based on a hosting capacity analysis, which models conditions on the distribution grid. In California, the process is called an integration capacity analysis.
As the risks from extreme weather events and cyberthreats continue to grow, U.S. utilities are investing billions to enhance grid resilience. From the increased deployment of microgrids to under-grounding power lines, the energy sector is deploying a variety of measures to address the growing threats.
Mobility services including car rentals, ride hailing and bike-sharing apps are expected to generate annual revenue of $660 billion in 2030, according to a just-released study by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the Institute of Transportation studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The figure represents a nearly 40% increase from the $260 billion in revenue generated in 2020.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has rolled out a draft plan to install more than 200 electric vehicle charging stations across the state as part of a multi-year project to bolster infrastructure for current and future EV drivers.
The Texas Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan unveiled by TxDOT earlier this month was driven by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Biden in November, which created funding programs for EV charging infrastructure for states.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose new, more stringent vehicle emissions rules through at least the 2030 model year by March, according to a regulatory update released on Tuesday.
In December, the EPA finalized new light-duty tailpipe emissions requirements through the 2026 model year that reversed then-President Donald Trump’s rollback of car pollution cuts and will speed a U.S. shift to more electric vehicles. The EPA said on Tuesday it plans to finalize by March 2024 the latest round of requirements, covering at least 2027 through 2030. The agency also plans to propose and finalize new rules covering larger medium-duty vehicles in the same time frame.
Nominations of truckers, local officials, regulators, labor union members and vehicle manufacturers are being sought by July 15 to serve on a new electric vehicle federal advisory group under the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.
The Electric Vehicle Working Group was established June 8, under provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, to report to both Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
A solicitation for members was published June 14 in the Federal Register by the Department of Energy’s office of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
For urban last-mile delivery, micromobility vehicles offer advantages over cars, vans or trucks, such as lower costs, fewer dangers, and less pollution and congestion. Those potential benefits are highlighted in a whitepaper Uber commissioned from WSP, a Sydney-based engineering consulting firm, this spring.
Without intervention, an expected 78% growth in urban deliveries by 2030 will result in 36% more delivery vehicles in the world’s top 100 cities, nearly one-third more emissions, 21% more congestion and 11-minute-longer commutes, it states, citing a World Economic Forum report from 2020.
General Motors said Wednesday it will join a growing list of automakers focused on streamlining the EV charging process by equipping its models with “Plug and Charge” capability — aka the ability to easily plug in and automate payment at a range of different charging stations.
Though Plug and Charge technology has been available since 2014, the industry has been slow to agree on standards to authenticate payment, as well as the hardware and software required. That has allowed Tesla for the better part of a decade to stand out for its no-fuss charging network that allows drivers to drive up, plug in and charge.
Courtney represented Panasonic SMO at this event!
A new taskforce to help shape federal policy and guidance for states on electric vehicle charging networks was touted by DOT and DOE leaders as they promoted President Joe Biden’s clean energy plans.
GM’s Brightdrop division, a unit focused on electric work vans, recently bought a company that could give it an edge in artificial intelligence and other software capabilities.
A total of 181 open public DCFC EV charging stations and 678 EVSEs with CCS connectors were identified in the 9 counties of the Greater Bay Area and visited between February 12, 2022 and March 7, 2022.
The recently introduced EV Grid Act would direct the Department Of Energy to facilitate a $4M study and resulting plan about the ability of the grid to sustain increased electrical demand from EV charging infrastructure.
This study may over-emphasize the electrification of LDVs like similar legislation in the past. But overall, the bill would help reduce uncertainty around fleet electrification resulting from a lack of data and information. For this reason, it seems to generally support PEFSA/Panasonic’s goals.
In the past, proprietary electric-vehicle charging technologies competed for market share. But in the future, the winners in the sector will be the equipment manufacturers, network operators and software providers that can provide the most open and interoperable EV-charging environment possible.
On Tuesday, the El Segundo, California–based startup EV Connect was acquired by global electric equipment and services giant Schneider Electric, giving it financial backing to expand its open-standards-based charging platform.Public transit agencies are struggling to come to grips with the possibility that daily commuters may never come back.
Authorities across the country are leaning on promotions and price cuts in an attempt to recover lost ridership with the rise of remote work during the pandemic. But long term, budgets may need to be adjusted to account for fewer ticket sales — a tough reality for systems already struggling to fund improvements and general upkeep.
Raw material costs for electric vehicles more than doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report Wednesday by AlixPartners, forcing automakers from General Motors and Tesla to start-ups like Lucid and Rivian to significantly raise prices on new vehicles.
Average raw material costs for an EV totaled $8,255 per vehicle as of May, up 144% from $3,381 per vehicle in March 2020, led by materials such as cobalt, nickel and lithium – all essential for the production of batteries used to power electric cars and trucks. EV-specific costs have increased to $4,500 from roughly $2,000 in the past two years, according to AlixPartners.
The cost increases aren’t limited to EVs: Raw material costs for traditional vehicles with internal combustion engines have also more than doubled during that time period to $3,662 per vehicle, up 106% from an average of $1,779 per vehicle in March 2020. That uptick is being led by increases in steel and aluminum.
Grid-scale energy storage installations quadrupled in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period in 2021, but geopolitical and domestic conflicts kept figures from being higher, according to the U.S. Storage Monitor report published by Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association on June 15.
Overall storage installations rose 955 MW and 2,875 MWh during the first quarter, outpacing last year’s results. Large-scale storage is expected to reach 41 GWh by 2026, and residential battery installations are projected to reach 2.3 GWh by that same time year.
California has the most large and small scale storage installations of any state, while Texas has the next highest level of grid storage and Puerto Rico has the second highest level of behind-the-meter storage.
President Joe Biden urged Congress on Wednesday to suspend the federal gas tax until the end of September in a bid to lower soaring prices at the pump, which reached $5 per gallon nationwide earlier this month.
Lifting the federal 18-cent tax per gallon of gas and 24-cent tax per gallon of diesel for three months would “give Americans a little extra breathing room as they deal with the effects of Putin’s war in Ukraine,” the White House said in a fact sheet.
Six customer and conservation groups have asked the New York Public Service Commission to tackle issues surrounding the electrification of medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, a sector broadly referred to as MHDV.
Passenger cars and trucks have been the focus of New York's transportation electrification efforts so far, but the groups say more must be done for the state to achieve its clean transportation goals. Incentives for MHDV infrastructure are needed, they say, and existing programs need to be redesigned.
The sector "cannot be ignored, even in the short term," the groups wrote in their request.
This marks an increase of 4.2 percent over the previous quarter and a 54 percent jump over the same period in 2021, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation’s latest quarterly report on electric vehicle sales released today.
Despite the growth, EVs still account for less than 1 percent of all registered light-duty vehicles on U.S. roads. Meanwhile, public EV charging locations have increased 20 percent since Jan. 1, 2021
The two companies announced a partnership to create a battery ecosystem across Toyota's lineup of electrified vehicles that encompasses all steps for full circularity.
Redwood Materials aims to create a closed-loop supply chain for electric vehicles that extends beyond recycling to encompass collection, refurbishment and remanufacturing of large-scale sources of anode and cathode battery materials.
In an inefficient, costly and yet vital piece of the supply chain, Google saw an opportunity to capitalize on the capabilities of its Maps platform and jump into last mile services.
The technology giant staked its claim in the home delivery sphere in March with the launch of two tools — Last Mile Fleet Solution and Cloud Fleet Routing API — focused on last mile execution and route planning, respectively.
Toyota is launching a residential 5.5 kWh battery storage system, which uses the company’s electric vehicle battery technology, the company announced on June 2. The small system can power a home day and night when connected to a photovoltaic rooftop system, encouraging solar installations, according to Toyota.
Homeowners with EVs capable of bidirectional electricity flows can provide supplemental power to their homes, including during outages. The storage system’s vehicle-to-grid capabilities also will provide “balancing in places where the grid system allows bidirectional charging,” providing power at “times of high energy use,” Toyota said in a press release.
On Thursday, the Biden Administration published a series of new rules guiding federal funding of EV charging infrastructure. The rules propose that charging stations should be positioned along interstates every 50 miles, be able to recharge cars quickly, and not be more than a mile from a major highway.
The announcement is part of a larger effort by the Administration to build 500,000 charging stations across the country and have half of all new vehicles sold in the US be electric by 2030. Officials from the Administration have touted EVs as a solution to climbing gas prices, a tool to combat climate change, and a way to reduce foreign energy dependence.
“EV drivers should be able to count on finding a place to recharge easily wherever they go,” Transportation Secretary Buttigieg said on Wednesday. He argued that this notice of proposed rule-making would send a "market signal" to companies about the importance of building charging stations that can accommodate all types of EVs and ZEVs.
“If we’re going to build out infrastructure like we haven’t done since the Eisenhower era, we have to do it right,” Energy Secretary Granholm said. She added that sales of EVs doubled last year and are on pace to double again in 2022.
Delta Electronics, a Taiwanese technology company, has announced an assortment of electric charging solutions which includes a bidirectional V2X charger they partnered with Australian EV charging software company Everty on. The charger is a 50kW DC wallbox with with a solar-off grid solution that is designed for rural electrification. The charger has 95% peak efficiency and a max 115kW output.
Penske Truck Leasing will be adding Orange EV electric terminal trucks as a fleet offering in the U.S. Orange EV Terminal Trucks are designed for short distance moves like warehousing, distribution centers, terminals, and truck yards. The trucks will be leased/maintained by PENSKE, features include zero tailpipe emissions, 24 hour operation on a single charge, and remote diagnostics.
First look: Auto giants are joining with battery companies, EV startups and lithium producers in a new coalition seeking stronger federal support for building a large U.S. battery supply chain, Ben writes.
Electric vehicle sales are growing at a high-speed pace, according to the latest report from the International Energy Agency. More EVs are now sold each week than in all of 2012 combined. Sales, which topped 6.6 million in total in 2021, have already crossed the 2 million mark in the first quarter of 2022 despite supply chain restrictions and shortages.
Tesla, along with other electric vehicle companies and environmental groups, asked the Biden administration to invest in charging infrastructure for electric buses, trucks, and other medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
U.S. policymakers are going all-in on electric vehicles (EVs), but the supporting infrastructure will require vast upgrades to be ready for the giant changeover.
| Funding amount | $150 million |
| Funding round | series F |
| Lead investors | Insight Partners and Kleiner Perkins |
| Goal for the round | Invest in more AI and expand its product suite |
| Total funding | $567.3 million |
| Valuation | $2.85 billion |
A joint venture between Stellantis and Samsung plans to build an electric vehicle battery factory in Indiana that will employ up to 1,400 workers and become the company’s second such factory in North America.
The venture announced Tuesday plans to spend more than $2.5 billion on the plant in Kokomo that will supply electric battery modules for a range of vehicles produced at Stellantis’ North American assembly plants.
Construction of the plant is expected to start later this year, with the facility expected to open in early 2025 in the city about 60 miles (97 kilometers) north of Indianapolis.
