EDITOR'S CHOICE

Thousands with Tesla Powerwalls Will Back Up the Grid In a Virtual Power Plant Experiment

10 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

Participating customers' Powerwalls will collectively form a "distributed" battery that can absorb excess energy during periods of low electricity demand, and discharge it back into the grid during periods of high demand...

"Using batteries in this manner can help balance the grid by avoiding sudden spikes in demand. A more balanced grid means outages are less likely, and it would also make EV charging more reliable."

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BMW Wants Half of Global Sales to be Electric by 2030

10 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"BMW Group wants 50-percent of the brand's global sales to be electric vehicles before 2030. The first part of that goal is to have more than two million EVs on the road by 2025. Most of those vehicles will come from existing EVs, such as the BMW i4 and iX, but also from upcoming models, such as the BMW i7, i5, iX1, and Mini Countryman EV. The BMW i5 and Mini Countryman will go into production next year."

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$26K Solar Car Now Has a Factory - And Will Roll Out This Year

10 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"Aptera announced that it would be relying on platform-like robots, built by equipment manufacturer RedViking, in its new factory to move its EVs from one station to another during the assembly process.

"This approach will make it easier to make changes to the manufacturing process in the future and also deal with any snags in production - if there's a problem with a car, Aptera can just instruct a robot to move it out of the way..."

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Ensuring Electric Vehicle Jobs Are Good Jobs

10 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"Without effective policies in place, however, the transition to electric vehicles could reduce the quality of jobs in the auto sector.

"One key step Congress needs to take is to create a new prevailing wage policy for electric vehicles to help high labor standards of the existing automotive industry to continue in the transition to new EV jobs."

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US Crosses the Electric-Car Tipping Point for Mass Adoption

09 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"Once 5% of new-car sales go fully electric, everything changes — according to a Bloomberg analysis of the 19 countries that have made the EV pivot."

"The US is the latest country to pass what's become a critical EV tipping point: 5% of new car sales powered only by electricity. This threshold signals the start of mass EV adoption, the period when technological preferences rapidly flip, according to the analysis..."

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The Top 10 Fastest-Charging EVs Currently Available

09 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"...the Porsche Taycan Plus is the fastest charging EV according to USwitch, with an indexed score of 8.8/10. This was led by the 650 miles of range the electric sports car can garner in one hour on a DC fast charger. If only its battery were large enough to hold that much energy!"

"The Kia EV6 and Mercedes EQS 580 4MATIC follow the Taycan, in second and third place respectively."

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Presbyterians Agree to Divest from Fossil Fuel Companies

09 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has opted to pull investments from five energy corporations, joining other faith-based groups in targeting fossil-fuel companies over what they say are failures to address climate change...

"..denomination's General Assembly, meeting online, voted overwhelmingly this week for a resolution targeting Chevron, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66, and Valero Energy for divestment."

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Someone Asked Dall-E 2 to Make Apple Car, the Results Are Stunning

09 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"Designer and Youtuber John Mauriello told Dall-E 2 to create an Apple Car concept, using the text prompt of a 'Minimalist Sportscar inspired by a MacBook and a Magic Mouse, built out of aluminum and glass' and inspiration from Apple's famed designer Jonny Ive...

"...concept has shades of Ferrari's 312p prototype from the late 60s, with a sprinkling Jaguar E-type..."

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North Carolina Republicans Want to Destroy EV Charging Stations - Unless They Come with Free Gas, Too

09 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"North Carolina state legislature this spring, the innocuously named 'Equitable Free Vehicle Fueling Stations' bill, if passed, would allot tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars for the destruction of existing public EV charging stations...

"So basically, forcing business to snitch on EV users by stoking resentment among their general clientele who otherwise wouldn’t care one way or another..."

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More Americans Would Buy an Electric Vehicle, and Some Consumers Would Use Low-Carbon Fuels, Survey Shows

08 Jul 2022 | Synopsis

"The survey of 8,027 U.S. adults found differences across racial/ethnic & income groups in terms of how people perceive EVs... Almost half of respondents also reported being unaware of existing federal and state incentives

CR found that 14% of "American drivers say they would 'definitely' buy or lease an electric-only vehicle if they were to buy a vehicle today. That’s up markedly from the 4 percent who said the same in a 2020..."

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