A third-party Tesla Cybertruck camper system has received over $50 million worth of orders even though the product doesn’t even exist yet.
It shows just how excited people are for the new electric pickup trucks and the kinds of adventures you can do with it.
The post Tesla Cybertruck camper system receives $50 million in orders, and it doesn’t even exist yet appeared first on Electrek.
Source: Charge Forward
When it is ready, it will deliver 1 million EVs and 100 GWh per year.
Source: Electric Vehicle News
EvoCharge, a provider of EVSE and cable management solutions, has entered into a preferred network partnership with charging platform provider Chargie and its affiliate PCS Energy to provide a complete EV charging service to property owners.
The service will provide EvoCharge’s charging equipment, Chargie’s networked software and PCS Energy’s installation and maintenance services to property owners who wish to offer EV charging to residents, customers and employees. Chargie software and EvoCharge hardware are tightly integrated and OCPP-certified to work together to maximize charging efficiency.
EvoCharge’s smart chargers use local load management (LLM) features to avoid peak utility demand charges. EvoCharge’s LLM capabilities allow significantly higher densities of EV charging stations to be installed using a building’s existing electrical capacity. Power can be distributed equally across all EVs being charged, or distributed on a first-in, first-served basis.
The Chargie management platform allows property owners to monitor usage, bill users and control maintenance from an online dashboard. Chargie’s mobile app allows drivers to manage charging sessions and review past charges.
Chargie provides turnkey services for property owners, handling everything from installation to network management and customer care, including applying for rebates and incentives from utilities. Chargie says that, in many cases, property owners pay zero upfront to get Chargie stations.
“Electric vehicle charging stations were once considered an optional amenity,” said EvoCharge founder and CEO Zach Jennings. “In many parts of the country, multifamily housing developments are now required to include EV charging spaces. Many existing businesses and residential complexes are opting to retrofit parking areas with EV charging stations to retain residents, reward employees and attract customers.”
“EvoCharge’s networked charging stations support true open protocol network standards, allowing us to work with open protocol network providers such as Chargie and provide a tightly integrated charging solution to benefit property owners and EV drivers,” said EvoCharge VP and General Manager Josh Kiewic.
Source: EvoCharge
Source: Electric Vehicles Magazine
Sales of EVs are growing—in some ahead-of-the-curve markets, plug-ins are outselling internal-combustion vehicles—and countries and regions around the world are announcing deadlines to phase out fossil-burners. However, as a recent New York Times article points out, it could take years, if not decades, before electrification leads to substantial reductions in emissions.
The problem, ironically, is that automotive technology has become so good. As every long-time auto owner knows, gas-powered cars and trucks have become quite reliable, and this means that fleet turnover is slow. According to economic forecasting firm IHS Markit, the average light-duty vehicle operating in the US today is 12 years old, up from an average age of 9.6 years in 2002.
“Engineering quality has gotten significantly better over time, in part because of competition from foreign automakers like Toyota,” IHS Markit Analyst Todd Campau told the Times.
Americans buy around 17 million gas-burners every year, and each of those cars and light trucks may be plying US roads for as long as 20 years, after which it’s likely to be shipped off for a second (and dirtier) life in a developing country.
According to IHS Markit’s projections, if EV sales ramp up to 60 percent over the next 30 years, only about 40 percent of cars on the road will be electric in 2050. If electrification is to have the desired effect on air pollution, it may not be enough to encourage the sale of EVs—policymakers need to consider strategies proactively scrap older vehicles, and/or to reduce Americans’ dependence on the automobile by expanding public transit options.
“There’s an enormous amount of inertia in the system to overcome,” said Abdullah Alarfaj, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University who led a recent study that explored ways to speed up the rate of turnover. The study suggested that policymakers focus on electrifying ride-sharing programs such as Uber and Lyft, and on programs aimed at removing older, polluting cars from the roads.
Senator Chuck Schumer recently proposed a $392-billion trade-in program that would give consumers vouchers to exchange gas-guzzlers for zero-emissions vehicles. A previous program of this kind, dubbed “Cash for Clunkers,” was implemented in 2009, and spent about $2.9 billion to help 700,000 car owners upgrade their vehicles. However, it was widely criticized for evolving into more of an auto-industry bailout—many of the rebates went to drivers who traded in SUVs for newer, slightly more efficient SUVs. “It’s a blunt tool, although there are likely ways to improve the program,” Dr. Christopher R. Knittel, an economist at MIT who has studied the policy, told the Times.
A carbon tax, or an emissions-based tax on new vehicles such as the one that Norway has used to great effect, would probably be a far more efficient way to incentivize drivers to upgrade to cleaner vehicles. However, any proposals with the word “tax” in its title is probably a non-starter in the US, and to be fair, unless it were carefully crafted, any such tax would be a regressive one, hitting low-income drivers harder.
Another, potentially powerful option would be for cities to redesign their housing and transportation systems to reduce dependency on cars, as many European cities have done. One example is the city of Heidelberg, Germany, which has made reducing car dependency a central priority.
Of course, many in the EV industry are predicting a much faster shift to EVs than the decades-long timeline discussed above. Author Tony Seba, among others, believes that once autonomous vehicles become the norm, owning a gas vehicle will quickly become uneconomical. Elon Musk has made similar predictions, saying that once Tesla’s fleet of Robotaxis is up and running, owning a gas-burner will be like owning a horse—something people do for recreation rather than for everyday transportation.
“It would not shock me if the transition eventually starts accelerating,” said Dr. Knittel of MIT. “Right now it can be inconvenient to own an electric vehicle if there are no charging stations around. But if we do get to a world where there are charging stations everywhere and few gas stations around, suddenly it’s less convenient to own a conventional vehicle.”
Source: New York Times
Source: Electric Vehicles Magazine
…and over 1,100 reservations so far.
Source: Electric Vehicle News
Elon Musk is still hyping the upcoming release of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta and now claims that Tesla Autopilot/Full Self-Driving Beta are already ‘superhuman’ on the highway and getting close on city streets.
The new FSD also comes with new visualizations.
The post Elon Musk hypes Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta driving visualizations with new update appeared first on Electrek.
Source: Charge Forward
Will it produce electric Chevrolet (and Honda) SUVs?
Source: Electric Vehicle News
A recent addition to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database has revealed a patent application from EV startup Canoo for its proprietary platform technology. The application provisionally filed in September of 2019 outlines all the components within the Canoo platform as well as an image. A more in-depth search has revealed that the Southern California-based automaker has been quite busy filing many other patents, too.
The post Canoo platform patent joins USPTO database; at least 50 more patents pending worldwide appeared first on Electrek.
Source: Charge Forward
The color you ordered and delivery location are also factors.
Source: Electric Vehicle News
The Barcelona-based EVSE supplier is scouting locations for US expansion.
Source: Electric Vehicle News
