Federal Agencies

 

DOT Announces $6.4B To Slash Transportation Emissions. According to Politico, “The Transportation Department today is unlocking $6.4 billion to help states reduce transit-related carbon emissions, the largest source of climate pollution in the country. Alongside that funding, the Federal Highway Administration is releasing guidance on how the money should be spent. The $6.4 billion is being routed through a new Carbon Reduction Program, which was created through President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. While states will have access to the formula funding immediately, they will be required by next year to submit a formal carbon reduction strategy to the Transportation Department. Eligible projects include those that would boost nonmotorized forms of travel, such as bicycling. Programs that would support the electrification of the transportation sector also would qualify, as would those that would elevate bus rapid transit. ‘It’s designed to help states create cleaner transportation systems while also creating new jobs, giving the public new ways to get around that can help save people money on gas and creating healthier communities,’ Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on a call with reporters. … Key to that plan is boosting electric vehicles sales, building a national network of 500,000 charging stations, increasing fuel economy and expanding public transit options. ‘This new program provides states and local agencies in both urban and rural areas the flexibility and funding needed to reduce emissions and build a more sustainable transportation network that will benefit all travelers,’ said Stephanie Pollack, deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, in a statement.” [Politico, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Biden DOT Unveils Plan To Reduce Carbon, With No Way To Show If Those Efforts Work. According to Politico, “The Transportation Department Wednesday unveiled its guidance for a key climate initiative in the bipartisan infrastructure law that doles out money to states to use for climate-friendly projects like bicycle and pedestrian trails — while at the same time admitting the agency has no way to measure whether those efforts are working. The new Carbon Reduction Program would send $6.4 billion to states to use for green projects ranging from public transit to congestion pricing that might nudge people away from driving in busy city centers. To ensure states use the money for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, states must eventually submit and follow a carbon reduction strategy. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the program will help achieve Biden’s goal to cut U.S. emissions in half by 2030. But the administration has no way of tracking the impact of its investments, and won’t make states do it either. As an administration official acknowledged on a call announcing the guidance, ‘we don’t require it, but we do encourage it.’ The genesis of this structure comes from Capitol Hill — the law Congress enacted that created the program did not include any kind of assessment methodology or data collection to determine whether the program was meeting its goals. House Democrats had proposed language that would have required states to measure their progress every year. Low-performing states would have had to dedicate additional resources toward reducing carbon pollution. That provision was not adopted in the version that eventually became law.” [Politico, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

DOE Launches Research Partnership On Two-Way EV Charging. According to Politico, “The Department of Energy has joined with leading auto manufacturers and California’s regulators and largest utilities to develop electric vehicle charging technology that lets EV owners sell surplus power back to the grid. DOE announced a memorandum of understanding yesterday with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Nissan Motor Co., the California participants and EV system entrepreneurs to test technologies and the economic feasibility of bidirectional vehicle charging. The ‘Vehicle-to-Everything’ agreement includes access to DOE national laboratory research including cybersecurity defenses for charging equipment and software. ‘Integrating charging technology that powers vehicles and simultaneously pushes energy back into the electrical grid is a win-win for the future of clean transportation and our energy resilience overall,’ Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk said in a statement. Today, the Nissan Leaf is the only passenger EV in the U.S. equipped to deliver power back to the grid, but other major vehicle manufacturers are hurrying to adopt the capability, said David Slutzky, CEO of Fermata Energy, one of the organizers of the collaboration, whose company produces software systems to manage two-way power flows from EVs. ‘They understand it’s coming and they want on,’ he said.” [Politico, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: Ride Along With Secretary Pete Buttigieg & White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy. According to an op-ed by NRDC in Clean Technica, “Energy prices are in the news, including the price of oil, which we see reflected in what we pay at the pump. And it’s no surprise that this is a painful experience, with the Brent crude oil spot price at $117 a barrel in March, $20 higher than in February. As others have written, this high price is due to supply disruptions and market anxiety due to the war in Ukraine. However, this ignores what’s happening with the other determinant of price — demand for oil. And it’s unavoidably true that we remain addicted to oil. And that means, tragically, that we are funding both sides of this war. Just how much oil do we consume? The amount is staggering — nearly 20 million barrels of the stuff a day (a barrel is about 42 gallons), 1.6 million barrels higher than the level in 2020. That’s about 20 percent of global demand (by contrast the U.S. has about 4 percent of the world’s people). Russia is a petrostate that profits more when prices are up, whether we buy oil from it. While sanctions have cut into the amount of oil Russia is able to export — previously about 5 million barrels daily — there is evidence that it is still able to sell oil to willing buyers (see here and here). We must get ourselves out of the position of supporting petrostates by propping oil prices up with sky-high demand. We need to break our oil addiction once and for all.” [Clean Technica, 4/21/22 (+)]

 

Manufacturers & Fleets

 

Ford Motor Co.

 

Lincoln Debuts Star SUV Concept, Promises Four New Luxury EVs By 2026. According to Electrek, “Following a shadowy teaser video earlier this month, Lincoln has officially unveiled a new all-electric SUV concept called the Star. During the global debut event in Los Angeles this evening, Lincoln shared its future electrification plans, explaining the Star Concept represents the brand’s vision for three Lincoln EVs arriving by 2025 and a fourth in 2026. A source close to the matter also let us know some of the new EV models Lincoln has planned. Lincoln Motor Company is an American luxury automaker that has been wholly owned by Ford Motor Company since the 1920s. Originally recognized for luxury sedans like the Continental, Lincoln has more recently been associated with SUVs like the Aviator. In fact, the Aviator and Corsair SUVs are currently available as PHEVs, although Lincoln does not have any BEVs to its name … at least not yet. Earlier this month, Lincoln blasted out a short video to its social media channels teasing a new SUV Concept. Aside from a couple shadowy images of the EV’s silhouette, Lincoln didn’t share much else, other than that we would learn more on April 20. Well, here we are on 4/20, and Lincoln has unveiled the Star Concept alongside plans for multiple EVs that will see production in the next few years.” [Electrek, 4/20/22 (=)]

 

Geely

 

Lotus Adds An S.U.V., With Eyes On Mainstream Appeal. According to The New York Times, “It is not a lithe, analog sports car or racer, powered by gasoline — making it an outlier among nearly all the 131 Lotus vehicles that preceded it. Known internally at Lotus, the boutique British carmaker, as the Type 132 and to consumers as the Eletre, it also does not adhere to the company’s ethos, as stated by the founder Colin Chapman: ‘Simplify, then add lightness.’ Instead, it is a big, battery-powered sport utility vehicle, with a spacious back seat, ‘semiautonomous’ driver assistance technology and myriad LCD screens. Late last month, at the BBC Television Centre in London, Lotus unveiled what may be the most unconventional vehicle in its 74-year oddball history. … ‘We have six cars going into production in the next five years,’ Mr. Windle said. These vehicles include the Emira, a $77,000 sports coupe and the brand’s final gasoline-powered model, and the Evija, a $2 million-plus, all-electric supercar, both of which will commence production this spring in new facilities at the brand’s headquarters in Hethel, England. The Eletre will be built at a factory in China starting at the end of this year. A midsize electric sedan (Type 133) is poised to follow in 2023. A more compact electric S.U.V. (Type 134) is expected in 2024. And a fully electric sports car (Type 135) is planned for 2026. … This avidity leads to another challenge for the brand. Might this affection diminish with an all-electric lineup, since battery-powered cars have far fewer moving parts and require far less maintenance than gasoline-powered ones? Or might the notoriously finicky electrical systems in British vehicles bedevil these vehicles with compounded gremlins?” [The New York Times, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Rivian Automotive Inc.

 

AP | Rivian Electric Car Plant Blasted By Foes At Ga. Meeting. According to Politico, “Opponents trying to derail a $5 billion, 7,500-job electric truck plant in Georgia dominated a state meeting this week that was meant to gather suggestions on how to design the plant to mitigate any impact on the environment. The state assumed oversight over the Rivian Automotive project after opponents overwhelmed Morgan County planning and zoning officials. The plant was announced by the company and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in December, and is the biggest single industrial project in state history. The first meeting of one of the oversight committees was Monday in the city of Monroe. The Irvine, Calif.-based electric vehicle manufacturer announced last year that it would build the facility on a 2,000-acre site in Morgan and Walton counties about 45 miles east of Atlanta along Interstate 20. It plans to produce up to 400,000 vehicles a year there. Rivian, which also has a plant in Normal, Ill., said it hopes to break ground as early as this summer and begin production in 2024. The state panel, led by John Eunice, deputy director for the state Environmental Protection Division, did not get much cooperation from a hostile crowd that gathered at Athens Technical College in Monroe, news outlets reported. Opposition to the plant has been heavy from Rutledge-area residents who say the plant will spoil their rural quality of life. Residents criticized the meeting as a sham, saying that it’s impossible to make meaningful suggestions when there’s not yet a plant design and that the state is only working to get the plant built.” [Politico, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Tesla Inc.

 

Elon Musk's Tesla Races Ahead Of Rising Costs With Price Hikes. According to Reuters, “Tesla Inc results (TSLA.O) surged past Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, as higher prices helped insulate the electric vehicle maker from supply chain chaos and rising costs. The results also should trigger $23 billion in new payouts to CEO Elon Musk, already the world’s richest man. Tesla has been an outlier since the pandemic outbreak, posting record deliveries and earnings for several quarters when rivals wrestling with global supply chain snarls rolled out production halts. Shares of Tesla rose 5% after the close of regular trading. On an investor conference call, Musk said Tesla has a reasonable shot at achieving 60% vehicle delivery growth this year and remains confident of seeing 50% annual delivery growth for several years. Tesla raised its prices in China, the United States and other countries, after Musk said in March the U.S. electric carmaker was facing significant inflationary pressure in raw materials and logistics amid the crisis in Ukraine. ‘Our own factories have been running below capacity for several quarters as supply chain became the main limiting factor, which is likely to continue through the rest of 2022,’ Tesla said in a statement. The price increases are designed to cover higher costs for the next six to 12 months, which protects Tesla on orders for cars that it may not deliver for a year.” [Reuters, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Tesla’s Profits Jumped In The First Quarter, But Challenges Loom. According to The New York Times, “Tesla said on Wednesday that it made a $3.3 billion profit in the first three months of the year, up from $438 million a year earlier and the biggest quarterly profit since the company’s creation. But Tesla also said it expected its factories to run below capacity for the rest of 2022. The electric carmaker said its revenue in the first quarter totaled $18.8 billion, up from $10.4 billion a year earlier. The profit significantly exceeded investor expectations. Tesla was the fastest-growing major carmaker last year, nearly doubling sales to almost one million vehicles while the industry as a whole slumped. New factories near Austin, Texas, and Berlin position the company to repeat that growth this year — if it can overcome some serious challenges. These include a semiconductor shortage that has plagued automakers for more than a year. Tesla has also had to shut down its factory in Shanghai because of China’s draconian attempts to contain the coronavirus. China accounted for one-quarter of Tesla sales last year, and the plant in Shanghai also exports cars to other countries in Asia and Europe.” [The New York Times, 4/20/22 (=)]

 

Musk: Metal Shortages Threatening Tesla's Growth. According to Politico, “Even as it brings two huge new factories online, Tesla Inc.’s existing plants are running below capacity because of supply shortages that could hobble growth of electric vehicles for a long time to come, the company said yesterday. On an earnings call, CEO Elon Musk and other Tesla executives returned again and again to how supply shortages, particularly of metals, have become the biggest brake on growth. Musk said prices for some parts have increased by 20 or 30 percent in the last year. ‘That’s why we’ve raised our prices,’ he said. Tesla’s Model 3, envisioned as an affordable EV, has seen its price rise more than 30 percent over the last three years. A particular problem is lithium, the soft white metal that gives the lithium-ion battery its name. Musk said that some suppliers of raw lithium are charging a 90 percent premium on their costs. The availability and price of battery metals are a focus of intense interest as every global automaker is simultaneously demanding more material to power future lineups of EVs. The urgency of the issue moved the Biden administration last month to invoke the Defense Production Act, a legal relic of the Cold War, to spur industry to mine and refine metals. ‘It seems we’ve found a counterbalance to the cost-of-oil concerns that dogged traditional automakers for the past 50 years,’ said Karl Brauer, an auto analyst, in response to Tesla’s update. ‘Now it’s the cost of lithium, palladium and nickel, which is proving as much, or more, volatile than oil.’” [Politico, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Tesla Expects To Make 1.5 Million Vehicles In 2022. According to Inside EVs, “After a record-breaking 2021 with a production of more than 930,000 vehicles and deliveries exceeding 936,000, Tesla has even bigger ambitions for 2022. That’s not surprising given the huge demand for its models and the fact that Tesla has opened two brand-new vehicle assembly plans this spring: Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany and Gigafactory Texas in Austin, Texas. During the Q1 2022 earnings call on April 20, Tesla chief financial officer Zach Kirkhorn said the automaker still believes it can achieve production growth of 50% or higher by the end of this year. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was also on the call, backed Kirkhorn’s estimates in his opening remarks. ‘So, as Zach said, we remain confident of a 50% growth in vehicle production in 2022 versus ‘21. I think we actually have a reasonable shot at a 60% increase over last year.’ A 50% production increase would equate to an output of 1.4 million vehicles for the 2022 calendar year, with a 60% growth translating into almost 1.5 million vehicles. That would be an impressive result given that Tesla’s Shanghai factory has been closed for almost a month due to COVID-19 restrictions, while the Berlin and Austin plants are just starting to ramp production.” [Inside EVs, 4/20/22 (=)]

 

Tesla (TSLA) Confirms Its Order Rate Surged After The Super Bowl. According to Electrek, “Tesla has confirmed that its order rate surged following this year’s Super Bowl, which featured many electric vehicle ads. These numbers show that the long-standing idea of ‘Tesla killers’ doesn’t work and that the automaker actually benefits greatly from other automakers investing in electric vehicles. Over the last few years, several automakers started buying airtime during the Super Bowl, which is famous for its extravagant and expensive commercials, to promote their electric vehicles. This year’s Super Bowl was particularly popular for EV ads. BMW had an ad about the X1. GM promoted its Ultium electric platform, which powers a series of new electric vehicles starting with the GMC Hummer EV. Kia featured its new EV6 electric car. Hyundai, Kia’s partner, also bought a Super Bowl ad to promote the Ioniq 5. Polestar had an ad during the game. And, EV charging station maker Wallbox also had an ad. Several of those campaigns were successful in bringing attention to electric vehicles – and not just the ones featured in the ads. In the release of its Q1 2022 financial results, Tesla disclosed that its order rate surged the day after the Super Bowl 2022:” [Electrek, 4/20/22 (=)]

 

Elon Musk Releases More Details On Tesla’s Upcoming Robotaxi Electric Car: ‘Will Cost Less Per Mile Than Bus Ticket’. According to Electrek, “Elon Musk released more details on Tesla’s upcoming dedicated robotaxi electric car that he announced at Cyber Rodeo earlier this month. The vehicle will focus on cost per mile and Tesla is aiming to reach volume production of the new vehicle in 2024. Musk said that Tesla is going to provide ‘by far the lowest cost per that customers have ever experienced’. At Tesla’s Cyber Rodeo event last month, CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla is working on a new vehicle: a dedicated robotaxi. When talking about what is next for Tesla, the CEO said: There’s going to be a dedicated robotaxi that is going to look quite futuristic-looking. At the time, the CEO didn’t share any other detail about the new Tesla vehicle that he mentioned for the first time. However, we did speculate that it will be vehicle designed from the ground up with autonomy in mind, which allows for more design freedom – for example without steering wheels or pedals. Today, during the conference call following the release of Tesla’s Q1 2022 financial results, Musk elaborated on the vehicle: ‘We are also working on a new vehicle that I alluded to at the Giga Texas opening, which is a dedicated robotaxi. It is going to be highly optimized for autonomy – meaning it will not have steering wheel or pedals. There are a number of other innovations around it that I think are quite exciting, but it is fundamentally optimized to achieve the lowest fully considered cost per mile or km when counting everything.’” [Electrek, 4/20/22 (=)]

 

Judge Rejects 'Gag Order' For Elon Musk. According to Reuters, “Elon Musk will not be subjected to a ‘gag order’ preventing him from discussing a lawsuit claiming he defrauded Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) shareholders by tweeting in 2018 about taking his electric car company private, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco agreed with Musk and Tesla that the proposed temporary restraining order appeared overbroad because it prevented Musk from speaking to ‘anyone’ about the case. Chen also found no proof that letting Musk, the world’s richest person according to Forbes, talk publicly posed a ‘clear and present danger’ or ‘serious and imminent threat’ to a trial. But the judge also said he plans to tell jurors at the scheduled January 2023 trial he had already ruled that Musk’s tweets were false, and made with sufficient knowledge they were false. Shareholders sued over losses resulting from volatility in Tesla’s shares after Musk tweeted on Aug. 7, 2018, that he had ‘funding secured’ to potentially take Tesla private at $420 per share, and that ‘investor support is confirmed.’” [Reuters, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Volkswagen Group

 

Why Volkswagen Wants To Be Relevant In America Again. According to Bloomberg, “For years, Volkswagen’s poor performance in the U.S. fueled debate among the company’s managers about whether Europe’s biggest carmaker should simply pack up and leave. According to Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess, that’s no longer remotely an option. ‘We are going nowhere,’ Diess said in a recent interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes. ‘No, we have to come back in the U.S. We have to become relevant in the U.S. And we are in the right way.’ The right way, according to Diess, is to focus on the larger vehicles that appeal to U.S. drivers, instead of shipping over sedans designed for European consumers. This includes electric SUVs like the ID.4 and the ID. Buzz, a battery-powered iteration of the hippie-era minibus that still maintains a cult following. ‘We didn’t take the U.S. customer seriously enough,’ Diess said. The right way also means showing your face and shaking hands, especially after the company’s cataclysmic diesel-emissions scandal. Last month, Diess attended the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where he showed off the ID. Buzz, rubbed shoulders with startup CEOs and met with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. A few days later, he was in Chicago to chat with Jeff Bezos and attend the Amazon founder’s invite-only MARS technology conference.” [Bloomberg, 4/21/22 (=)]

 

Q&A: Volkswagen Is Coming For Tesla. Here’s How It Plans To Dominate The US Market. According to CNN, “Volkswagen is making a big push in North America, looking at the auto landscape here – where do you fit in? Keogh: Our competitors are Subaru, Toyota, and Honda– the mainstream imports. Historically, we’ve been there, but we got lost in the wilderness for a long time, but we’re back and that’s where we belong. What about in terms of your electric vehicles? Keogh: Electrification is our chance to skip the line a little bit. We invested early in electrification, we have factories set up, and we can accelerate now. This is the chance of a lifetime for us. I have always admired Elon Musk and Tesla, he said ‘make a cool car and good things happen.’ People don’t buy electric vehicles because they want to feel good or because they want to help society, most of them just want to buy a cool car. I think Elon Musk did that, and he executed, and you’ve got to admire that. We’re taking that cool car factor and scaling it up, the Volkswagen way. What are some of the problems Volkwagen is facing in the US? Keogh: We were irrelevant and unliked. … How do you find people to work on your battery technology? Are you having trouble staffing? Keogh: We’re working with Tennessee governor Bill Lee to introduce more technical training around our Chattanooga factory. I think some of the shortcomings of the American system revolve around college and debt, but there are other ways of looking at a career and we’ve had decent success on that front. A big challenge in America right now is we’ve moved into such a service economy. But if you want to look at your industrialization, we make maybe a half a million batteries in America right now, we’re gonna need to make nine million batteries. That’s hundreds of factories, and to get the talent in there, into the factories, will be transformational.” [CNN, 4/19/22 (=)]

 

States & Local

 

No Gas Tax? Here's What Electric Vehicle Owners Pay In North Carolina Instead. According to WCNC-TV, “According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, more than 21,000 electric vehicles were registered in the state last year. EV owners do not pay for gas, and therefore the state doesn’t receive money from those drivers that would come from the gas tax. That’s money the state is missing out on to repair and maintain roads. But, it turns out, electric vehicle owners pay in another way. North Carolina state law requires EV owners to pay an additional $140 vehicle registration fee. Hybrid owners don’t pay anything beyond normal registration fees. NCDOT said electric vehicle owners pay about $50 less per year than gas vehicle owners when it comes to total taxes and fees for their cars. A 2018 executive order from North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper pushes the number of zero-emission vehicles registered in North Carolina to at least 80,000 by 2025. If that happens, NCDOT estimates it could lose between $10.7 million and $18.4 million in revenue. ‘The highway use tax, which is you know, the larger of the fees goes into paying for building and maintaining roads and bridges,’ Marty Homan with NCDOT told WCNC Charlotte. ‘So that’s how we’re funded, along with the gas tax.’” [WCNC-TV, 4/20/22 (=)]

 

Push To Lure Electric Vehicle Companies To Oklahoma Continues As House Advances Incentive Bill. According to KFOR-TV, “The Oklahoma Governor is leading a strong push to work out an economic recruitment package to lure billions in electric car dollars to our state. Today, legislation to make that happen took a step forward. Debate lasted over an hour and half today on the Oklahoma House of Representatives floor. Supporters of bringing a huge car battery plant to Oklahoma say it’s time to diversify the state’s oil and gas-based economy. Opponents are worried about the massive price tag coming out of the pockets of taxpayers. ‘We are talking about the 2nd largest manufacturing plant in North America. We are talking about 4,000 jobs and putting Oklahoma on the map when it comes to tech companies,’ said Rep. Jon Echols, House Majority Leader. On Monday, Governor Kevin Stitt wouldn’t say company names on the record, but asked the state legislature for increased financial incentives to bring in businesses like Panasonic and Canoo. ‘We are going to go after that new technology,’ said Gov. Stitt. The new bill, not even a day old, isn’t exactly what the Governor outlined to the press on Monday. ‘It gives the same incentive that they were looking for, but it structures it in such a way that it protects the state,’ said Rep. Kyle Hilbert.” [KFOR-TV, 4/19/22 (=)]

 

 

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