Weekly-ish News - Episode 9 (March 20, 2021)

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Headlines from this episode:

Did Tesla change their prices this week? No.

Electric Vehicles:

BMW announced their next EVs for the U.S. and they're exactly what you'd expect:

iX SUV

i4 Sedan

VW held their own Battery Day presentation, called Power Day:

Full presentation (2hr).

Overview.

Battery focus.

GM is also eyeing "radical new battery tech" with their Ultium battery system.

Lordstown Motors is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after Hindenburg accuses them of lying to investors.

Rivian is building their own charging network and it's proprietary.

Porsche is looking at building its own charging network, currently Europe-only.

Volvo and Polestar filed a recall due to bad behavior of a microprocessor, and it is being solved with an over-the-air update.

Biofuels:

Minneapolis is purchasing biodiesel transit buses, which is upsetting people:

• This is saving them approximately $100m over 143 buses.
• I did some emissions analysis comparing electric to biodiesel:
  • Electric buses would produce 35.5% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a B20 bus (20% biodiesel, 80% diesel).
  • Electric buses would produce 46.8% more greenhouse gas emissions than a B100 bus (100% biodiesel)
  • Mid-range blends are possible with biodiesel.
  • B20 is 12% better than petroleum diesel, and B100 is 61% better than petroleum diesel.
• Met Council's current electric buses are giving them significant trouble.

Generation/Renewables:

A recent report estimates that the U.S. can produce twice its electricity demand purely using offshore wind.

A nonprofit is offering Renewable Energy Credits that match production to use on a time-basis, Google is using this to reach carbon neutrality at their data centers.

In 2020, coal produced less electricity than nuclear power for the first time in U.S. history!

Policy:

Colorado is looking at a gas tax and EV fee to fund infrastructure projects (largely EV infrastructure).

The U.S. Department of Commerce held a closed-door meeting to discuss developing an EV battery supply chain in North America, focusing on mining in the U.S. and Canada.

Tesla lobbied for the U.K. to increase gas/diesel tax and subsidize EVs more.

For lobbied the U.S. government to incentivize EV adoption more.

NOT DISCUSSED IN THE EPISODE:

Lucid is appraising their final pre-production vehicle (the Lucid Air) in advance of selling to customers.

Alpha Motors announces a new electric truck and it's smol.

Ohio researchers say that a carbon tax is the most efficient way to reduce carbon emissions.

Kia announced a new electric vehicle.

Engineering Explained made a great video comparing the emissions of a plug-in hybrid to a fully electric vehicle. Spoiler: the full EV is generally better, but it's closer than you might think.