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If you’re planning to head on a road trip in your Tesla anytime soon, it’s important to make sure you’re prepared with both the hardware you need and the tricks you might want to help you out in a bind. These two features can help you avoid unexpected mishaps, and one new video has surfaced offering both of these factors that can come in handy for any Tesla owner. Above: Kim with her Tesla Model X. Photo: Kim Java Kim Java recently shared an excellent charging guide for Tesla road trips, and the video also happens to feature the Evannex road trip charging kit. On a family trip to North Carolina with her friend Latoya (whose channel can be found here), Kim shared a handful of useful tips for staying charged along the way, and how the charging bundle can help you when public options aren’t available. In the video, Kim talks about how to keep your Tesla charged no matter where a road trip takes you — whether to an actual charging station, a restaurant or hotel with charging hardware, or to an Airbnb or VRBO, where you’ll be forced to make the best of the space for your charging needs. The first stop on Kim and her friend Latoya’s family trip to the mountains of North Carolina is, in fact, a restaurant with charging stalls outside. Although the families can both make it to their destinations without charging, Kim explains, they go ahead and charge at the restaurant to keep the battery as full as possible. Additionally, this particular restaurant offers completely free charging with the purchase of the meal, which is something worth looking out for. Above: Kim in front of a Tesla Model X and 3. Photo: Kim Java Kim’s trip also relies heavily on another tool, Plugshare, which is a super helpful map of charging stations. If you aren’t already familiar with Plugshare, you’re about to wonder how you went on so many road trips without it. As Kim explains, Plugshare has the most extensive list of charging stations in the world, and it includes info such as when a station was used last, even detailing underrated sites like RV parks that have charging equipment. Kim notes that the latter example is where the Evannex charging bundle can come in clutch, since all you would need is access to a washer and dryer outlet and enough length in the cable to reach your vehicle. Having Latoya along for the ride also offers a great guide for new EV drivers, many of whom will have the same questions and discoveries about charging she makes throughout the trip. You can watch Kim’s full video breaking down how to keep your Tesla charged below, and you can find the Evannex Charging Bundle here. Above: The Complete Charging Guide For Tesla Roadtrips, featuring the Evannex Charging Bundle. Video: Kim Java / YouTube The road trip charging bundle features various useful tools for staying charged on the go, including a 30- or 50-foot charging cable that comes in handy when the charging source is a long way from your Tesla. The bundle also includes four adapters: a NEMA 14-30P to NEMA 14-50R adapter, NEMA 6-30P to NEMA 14-50R adapter, a NEMA 10-30P to NEMA 14-50R adapter and a NEMA TT-30P to NEMA 14-50R adapter. Between these four, drivers should be able to access almost any power outlet located in North America. === Source: Kim Java / YouTube

California’s ban on gas car sales is just under a decade and a half away, but most automakers still have a ways to go in the transition to electric vehicles. With Tesla remaining the industry’s current pace-setter, some analysts think the Elon Musk-led company could be poised to win big in the state if others don’t act fast. Above: Elon Musk at the Colorado Air Force Academy earlier this year. Photo: Trevor Cokley / U.S. Air Force CNBC’s Jim Cramer told fellow anchors on a segment of Squawk on the Street that he expects Musk to “own” California after 2035 if the state’s new gas vehicle sales ban takes effect. And with Tesla’s current positioning against legacy automakers that are just starting to release EVs, the idea certainly isn’t out of the question. Cramer noted Ford CEO Jim Farley, who has been guiding the company toward a business model emphasizing EVs, with less reliance on the dealership model. Additionally, Cramer and Ford’s speed in getting the electric F-150 Lightning out to customers in California could determine how competitive the automaker becomes in a decade, especially with Tesla’s current positioning in the state. Above: Elon Musk to ‘own’ California after the 2035 gas car ban. Video: CNBC / YouTube “It will be a state of Teslas, unless Jim Farley can get that F-150 Lightning out,” said Farley on the show. “Right now, although he thinks he can do a 600,000 run rate by the end of next year, this guy’s gonna own California given this new mission.” Cramer also added that California is one of the largest auto markets in the world, and Tesla’s founding in the state appears properly strategic at this point. Additionally, Tesla’s Fremont factory will remain operational even with the addition of new Gigafactories, and it currently produces the majority of the automaker’s vehicles. The quotes came after a quick appearance from Baron Capital Head Ron Baron, who predicts that Tesla would become the world’s largest company — a prediction stated by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at this year’s annual stockholder’s meeting. Baron also stated that one of Musk’s other companies will likely follow Tesla into the world’s spotlight, just another decade down the road. “Tesla is going to be the largest company in the world, and then ten years after that, it’ll be challenged by SpaceX,” said Baron. Tesla is polarizing for many investors, as an array of Wall Street analysts fall under both the bullish and bearish categories. As it floats around a trillion dollar market cap, however, it’s hard for even the most bullish to deny the company’s ambitions as it expands its production with new factories around the world. Another huge auto market is in China, where Tesla has also shown its worth. After a capacity upgrade in July and August, the automaker’s Gigafactory Shanghai has been able to produce almost as much as it delivers. As a result, Tesla’s wait times dropped in China in recent weeks, thought by some to be a show of increasing supply without affecting demand. In any case, Tesla is well-poised for the EV revolution, having been the one to stir it on. And while legacy automakers such as Ford have a wider factory reach going in, Tesla has new Gigafactories in Germany and Texas, and Musk says the company could announce a new location by the end of the year. === Source: CNBC

Tesla’s vehicles have faced an interesting dilemma in the public narrative as of late, with the company’s Full Self-Driving and Autopilot systems recently coming under fire in the media. Still, the automaker’s vehicle safety standards speak for themselves, especially in a European study that surfaced. Above: A black Tesla Model Y. Photo: Screen Post / Unsplash The Tesla Model Y received the highest safety score in history in recent testing by the European New Car Assessment Program, as detailed in a report from Forbes. The study also noted that Tesla’s camera-only Autopilot was a key factor in helping the Model Y prevent collisions with other cars, pedestrians and cyclists. The electric SUV earned a 92 percent overall to top the Euro NCAP, which is considered the organization’s most rigorous and recently developed safety test. The next highest score in this year’s study was a tie between the Lexus NX and the Subaru Outback at 89 percent. The Euro NCAP index was originally started by the United Kingdom, though it now includes several countries within the European Union. In the index, Euro NCAP tests for several angles, including front, lateral and rear impacts. It also tests for the severity of impacts to passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. Other significant tests included those for safety assistance systems, like Tesla’s Autopilot, and their responses to lane keeping, speed assistance, driver attention and collision avoidance. The Model Y scored well in four different categories in Euro NCAP’s study: adult occupant protection, safety assist, child occupant protection and vulnerable road users (AKA pedestrians). Tesla’s electric SUV scored a 97 percent in adult occupant protection, a 98 percent in safety assist, an 87 percent in child occupant protection and an 82 percent in protection against vulnerable road users. The pedestrian avoidance metric is a particularly vulnerable score in the test system, based purely on if vehicles hit a pedestrian or cyclist in testing. Euro NCAP noted that the Model Y avoided pedestrians very well using its camera-only Autopilot system. “The Model Y camera-only Vision system performs remarkably well in preventing collisions with other cars, cyclists and pedestrians,” said Euro NCAP. Behind the Model Y, the Lexus NX and the Subaru Outback were the Genesis G80 (88 percent) and the Wey Coffee 01 (88 percent), making up the top five. The rest of the top 10 was comprised of the Mercedes EQ EQS, the Nissan Qashqai, the Polestar 2, the Mercedes T-Class and the Mercedes C-Class. Tesla was quick to point out what makes its vehicles so safe, which can largely be boiled down to the automaker’s engineering. In response to the news, Tesla highlighted its mid-cabin airbags, its casting techniques, which create a single underbody piece, and its improved battery packs. The battery pack, according to Tesla, “provides immense crash strength to the safety cell, helping to maintain compartment integrity.” “Our team is dedicated to improving driving safety,” Tesla said in a post noting the victory. “Achieving some of the highest safety scores ever awarded doesn’t give us pause—it motivates us to make some of the world’s safest vehicles even safer.” === Source: Forbes

Tesla’s AI Day 2022 is coming up quickly, and investors and fans alike are wondering what the event may hold. From the latest technology in its cars to upcoming projects — such as the Optimus robot, expected to be debuted this year — Tesla’s second AI Day event is likely to be full of pleasant surprises. Above: An promo banner for Tesla’s AI Day 2022. Photo: Tesla When considering what to look out for at Tesla’s 2022 AI Day, the Optimus robot is expected to be shown off in full view, according to statements from Musk at the automaker’s annual stockholder’s meeting last month (via Forbes). The project, announced at AI Day 2021, gained a massive press audience, and this year’s debut is likely to garner several onlookers. Last year, Tesla discussed the Optimus robot and unveiled its in-house D1 chip, which powered the company’s Dojo Supercomputer, along with other updates about its FSD beta, Autopilot, and other AI-related programs. While this year’s AI Day may be quite similar to last year’s, it also may include some important updates and, according to Tesla’s CEO, will feature a live-working Optimus robot. The Optimus robot from Tesla is a humanoid, AI-driven bot meant to help users perform basic, repetitive or dangerous tasks in daily life. CEO Elon Musk has previously suggested that the development could be a game-changer for the world, with some of Tesla’s first robots set to work in the company’s car factories. Additionally, Tesla is likely to provide updates on the Dojo Chip, which the company built on its own for the purpose of “pure machine learning.” It’s set to power Tesla’s next generation of AI technology, making it a huge development in general. Tesla will also talk about the future of robotaxis at the company, which has long been considered a link to future increases in valuation by bullish investors. The concept of Tesla’s robotaxis will require the use of Full Self-Driving, and is expected to let owners of the company’s cars to rent out their vehicles as self-driving taxis — though it’s unclear whether or not this is how it’ll turn out, since it’s at least a few years away. Above: A 19-minute supercut of Tesla’s AI Day 2021. Video: Tesla Daily / YouTube Among other things still, we’re also likely to hear more specific updates about Tesla’s FSD beta, which a select number of customers are testing already. With Musk previously stating a wider release of FSD as one of his two main goals for the end of this year, the FSD beta could also be slated to play a huge role in Tesla’s upcoming AI Day event. Tesla’s AI Day 2022 is scheduled for September 30 in Palo Alto, California. The event will be live-streamed, and those who were invited to attend must respond via email by September 28. === Source: Forbes

For new Tesla owners, it can be intimidating to head out to a Supercharger for the first time, though users report that it’s pretty straightforward. Even those who have driven other electric vehicles have shared positive things about the Tesla Supercharger experience, including one reporter who shared his experience in recent weeks. Above: A Tesla Supercharger. Photo: Prometheus / Unsplash Business Insider’s Tim Levin called his first Tesla Supercharger experience “super easy,” in a recent write-up about it. Driving a Model Y, Levin said the charging experience — a major concern for those considering going electric — is “remarkably seamless” for Tesla owners and “often frustrating for everyone else.” “In the past, I’ve had to activate charging in an app, swipe my credit card multiple times, or unplug a car and start all over again because of some glitch,” said Levin. “The experience isn’t always bad, and sometimes everything works. But the well-documented clunkiness of public charging plugs can present a real hassle — and it’s consistently cited as one of the biggest barriers to more widespread EV adoption.” In the report, Levin noted two crucial elements for any EV charging experience: finding a charging station and the charging experience itself. Making it easy to find an EV charger when you need one is stress-reducing on its own, and apparently, finding a Tesla Supercharger wasn’t very difficult. Levin described the Supercharger search process in a Tesla as taking “just a few taps of its iPad-like screen.” The process was as simple as clicking a lightning bolt icon on the map to open nearby Supercharger locations, then filtering for the fastest-charging options and finally navigating to a station with available charging stalls. Even upon Levin’s fresh eyes to the process, it was a notably user-friendly interface. Next, the charging experience began with the Model Y’s battery pre-heating on the way to the Supercharger. Upon arrival, Levin plugged in the Supercharger cable, taking just around five seconds. Then, Tesla simply billed the pre-loaded credit card on file for the Model Y, and Levin’s work was effectively done. While many EV owners may be able to share the experience of clunky charging and inconvenient interfaces, Tesla’s Superchargers shine. With U.S. President Joe Biden set to divy out $5 billion for a national infrastructure, and Tesla to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla EVs, U.S. charging is becoming more and more convenient with each passing year. And, hopefully, this will continue to lead to more consumers going electric than ever before. === Source: Business Insider

As electric vehicle sales soar, the industry is facing a host of bottlenecks: scaling up production of batteries and the raw materials that go into them takes time; global battery production is currently dominated by Asian firms; much of the necessary raw material is mined in unstable countries, and/or ones with poor environmental and human rights records; and mining and processing of raw materials present environmental challenges that make it challenging to ramp up domestic production. Above: An electric vehicle notice painted on the ground. Photo: John K. Thorne / Flickr Commons The ongoing flood of anti-EV articles and social media posts constantly reminds us of all these issues, while insisting that the industry has ignored them, or deliberately concealed them for some nefarious reason. In fact, automakers and suppliers have been keenly aware of these supply chain challenges for years—however, it’s only recently, as EVs have begun to break into the mainstream, that they have started to receive coverage in popular media. The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains measures to encourage domestic production of batteries and raw materials, has really brought these issues to the forefront. Some industry experts (among others) are making dire predictions of looming shortages of critical minerals. One exec at a battery manufacturer recently told me that, while it might only take two years to build a battery gigafactory, it takes at least eight years, and sometimes much more, to bring a new lithium mine into production. Commodities analysts have also been sounding warnings about supplies of graphite, nickel, cobalt and a long list of specialty materials that are needed for batteries. While the bottlenecks are real, and call for bold action from automakers, suppliers and governments, those making the most pessimistic predictions are surely undervaluing the importance of human ingenuity (and the human desire for profit). A recent Bloomberg article highlights a recent example of how a predicted shortage failed to materialize, due to efforts on both the supply and demand sides. A few years ago, prophets were predicting a crippling cobalt crunch, just as they’re now forecasting a looming lack of lithium. However, in the event, prices for cobalt have fallen about 40% from their highs earlier this year. As Colin McKerracher reports, much of this is due to supply-side measures. Mining giant Glencore increased output at its Mutanda mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo by about 40% in the first half of the year. (Glencore has been accused of a long list of human rights, environmental and bribery abuses in the DRC and elsewhere, but that’s a subject for another article.) Obviously, higher prices motivate mining firms to increase supply. But the cobalt market has also been affected by measures on the demand side, as battery manufacturers and automakers strive to use less of the problematic element. In 2018, according to Bloomberg, 86% of all EVs sold used cobalt-based battery chemistries. By 2020, that proportion had fallen to 83%, and it’s expected to drop to 60% this year. Automakers are increasingly choosing lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistries, which contain no cobalt, for several reasons in addition to the desire to avoid controversy—LFP batteries are cheaper, and have some other technical advantages that make them a good choice for some types of vehicles. Chinese automakers led the way to LFP adoption—BYD and CATL have been using the chemistry for some time—and Tesla started offering buyers a choice between two alternative battery chemistries in late 2021. Tesla is now using LFP batteries for Standard Range Model 3s and Model Ys produced in China. According to Bloomberg, almost half of the vehicles Tesla produced in the first quarter of this year used LFP. Other automakers are starting to phase in LFP batteries, in order to reduce costs and to provide a hedge against supply bottlenecks. Volkswagen plans to include LFP batteries in entry-level EVs starting next year; Ford plans to offer an LFP option for its Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning in 2023 and 2024; and Hyundai is reportedly also developing LFP packs. Meanwhile, battery-makers are reducing the amount of cobalt they use in nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries. Bloomberg’s McKerracher explains that early NMC formulations contained equal parts nickel, manganese and cobalt, and thus were denoted NMC-111, but that these were later replaced by NMC-532, NMC 622, and lately by NMC 811, which contains 8 parts Ni, 1 part Mn, and 1 part Co (nickel is another metal that’s widely expected to face supply issues, but like cobalt, its price has plummeted from the heights it reached earlier this year). The story here is actually an old one: high prices for a particular material drive more production, which increases supply, and various innovations that reduce demand. This is the invisible hand of capitalism at work, and it’s reasonable to expect that similar stories will play out over time when it comes to other critical minerals. It’s worth noting that there are two kinds of innovations that come into play to attack shortages. Companies that rely on a material that’s in short supply look for workarounds that enable them to use less, in order to save money. At the same time, entrepreneurs try to dream up new products and/or processes that can minimize or eliminate the need for scarce materials—products they hope to sell to existing companies in order to make money. In the long run, this may be a more potent force, as such innovations often come from young startups that think outside the box. For example, how much demand for lithium, cobalt, et al could we reduce by making it possible for heavy-duty EVs to operate with smaller batteries? That’s what Momentum Dynamics claims to offer, and although the company’s wireless charging tech has nothing to do with raw materials per se, if it fulfills its claims, it could have  a large impact. What if we had batteries that used no lithium at all? Companies are out there working on it. “Whenever there’s a boom in a particular material, there are always groups claiming this time things are fundamentally different, that this time the supply curve really is inelastic, or that this time there are no substitutes,” Mr. McKerracher writes. “Those claims usually get proven wrong by the combined effect of price signals and ingenuity.” === Source: Bloomberg

Tesla Owners Florida, in partnership with Tesla and The Electrified Garage, invites the Tesla community to attend TeslaCon Florida 2022. A weekend of fun on the Florida Space Coast with celebrity guests, education sessions, exhibitors (including EVANNEX), great food, and friends, this exciting event is open to members of Tesla Owners Florida (join here) and other sanctioned Tesla Owners clubs.  Above: A look at TeslaCon’s featured speakers (Source: Tesla Owners Florida) TeslaCon Florida 2022 takes place on the weekend of October 21st. Attendance, however, will be limited to 350 individuals. There’s a $125 registration fee that covers TeslaCon membership and includes meals on Friday and Saturday, full access to TeslaCon along with cool raffle prizes and free giveaways.  This event will take place at the Radisson Resort at the Port in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The resort is near both the Kennedy Space Center and Port Canaveral. Following these events, optional activities may be offered for anyone wishing to extend their stay. The Radisson Resort at the Port is a great facility with plenty of parking and a stunning pool to hang out with fellow TeslaCon attendees. Attendees can get a discounted room rate and the conference will take place directly inside the hotel.  Above: The pool at the Radisson Resort at the Port (Source: Tesla Owners Florida) On Friday, starting at 5:00pm, attendees can pick up their badge and meet the speakers, club members, and club leadership. Food will be provided, along with a cash bar. You can grab a selfie with the presenters and pick their brains! Then, the Tesla convention will take place all day on Saturday. It will include presentations panels with Tesla celebrities, experts, and influencers. Breakfast and lunch will be provided (and is included in the TeslaCon fee). Speakers being featured at TeslaCon include Sandy Munro of Munro and Associates, Ryan McCaffrey of the Ride the Lightning Podcast, Blake Fuller a Pikes Peak Winner, Brian Jenkins from the i1 Tesla YouTube channel, and Brooks Weisblatt from DragTimes. Above: The new logo for the first-ever ‘TeslaCon’ event coming up in Florida this fall (Source: Tesla Owners Florida) Some of the other speakers will include Cory Steuben, President of Munro and Associates; Andrew Lutz from the Tesla Plaid Channel on YouTube, Chris Salvo of Electrified Garage, Warren Redlich, Chuck Cook, John Gibbs (Dr Know-it-all Knows It All), Zach Shahan from CleanTechnica, Carl Driver from Michelin and David Dunn, Fleet and Facilities manager for the City of Orlando.  Other exciting speakers will be confirmed shortly. Key Tesla executives may attend via a live video feed, subject to availability. The agenda is still being developed, but Saturday activities will start with breakfast in the hotel (free to TeslaCon attendees) starting at 7:30am. Main stage events start around 9:00am. Presentations will happen all morning and afternoon, and the expo will run all day. Lunch will also be provided for attendees, and the event will wrap up around 5:00pm. There will be an informal gathering at a local brewery a few minutes walk from the Radisson for those who want to hang out during the evening. On Sunday, optional activities will be offered including a trip to Kennedy Space Center and there could be (if we’re lucky) a SpaceX launch that weekend. In addition, the annual meeting of the presidents (and leadership) of the Tesla Owners Clubs of North America will happen at the hotel on Sunday, October 23rd. However, this remains a private meeting. TeslaCon attendees are not invited to this portion of the weekend but may have an opportunity to network and connect with Tesla club presidents from all over the country throughout the weekend activities.  === Source: Tesla Owners Florida

As Tesla continues to prioritize production output at its Gigafactory Shanghai, the automaker’s wait times have been dropping in China as it begins catching back up to demand. Most investors know that China is an important market, and the shift to reduced wait times on electric vehicles may or may not be significant when considering the company’s share price. Above: A Tesla Model 3. Photo: Bram Van Oost / Unsplash Tesla’s wait times in China have dropped significantly in recent weeks, as reported by Barron’s, leaving some investors wondering how the automaker’s stock could be affected. Some of Tesla’s wait times in China were dropped by more than a month, with all models now bearing a minimum estimated delivery of just one week and a maximum of 10 weeks. Before, the shortest wait time for a Tesla in China is with the entry-level Model Y, which estimated a delivery time ranging from one to four weeks. Now, all Model Y and Model 3 variants have estimated delivery times as low as one week. The longest wait times for its models are the Model Y AWD Long Range and Model Y Performance, each with an estimated delivery ranging from 1 to 10 weeks — down from as much as 14 weeks earlier this week. Tesla has dropped delivery estimates in China three separate times since completing its production upgrades. Additionally, 14 weeks is quite the improvement considering some of Tesla’s models were expected to take 20 weeks just last month. The drop in wait times could indicate multiple different things for Tesla’s stock, and bulls and bears are likely to argue one way or the other. For one, many investors are looking at demand to help predict the market’s future, and falling wait times could point to a decrease in demand overall. Still, the wait times began decreasing within a month of Tesla’s production upgrades at Giga Shanghai, and bulls are likely to debate that the drop represents this production increase and not a drop in demand — especially with Tesla’s impressive August delivery numbers. Additionally, Tesla’s Giga Shanghai became less strained with the ramp-up of production at Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, since that factory can now accommodate European orders. No matter which way you spin it, however, delivery expectations for much of the Chinese auto market — including EV startups and Tesla rivals Li Auto, NIO and Xpeng Motors — significantly underperformed. Meanwhile, Tesla nearly doubled its total manufacturing potential worldwide between Gigafactories Shanghai and Berlin. Only time will tell how Tesla’s reduced wait times will affect its stock, but consumers could also be incentivized to buy EVs with wait times that decreased by more than a month. According to statements made during Tesla’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Elon Musk also seems to think that the drop in lead times is crucial, calling the automaker’s long backlog of orders “annoying” for customers. “That’s annoying. It’d be like go to a restaurant and you order a burger and you have to wait 3 hours and like,” said Musk. “You want to get your burger right away. Same with the car. So we want that lead times to reduce.” === Source: Barron’s

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s leadership is known for being quite unique, and the billionaire’s stances on meetings are no less innovative than many of his other practices. Those who participate in meetings for work may be taken aback by what Musk says makes for an efficient meeting, and his suggestions to Tesla employees on the subject may even be a polarizing topic. Above: Photo: Tesla Owners Club Belgium / Wikimedia Commons In 2018, Musk sent an email to Tesla employees detailing three of his most essential tips on how to run efficient meetings, as reported by Inc.com. The email included a handful of useful notes for employees, much of which could be summarized by saying that meetings are overrated. Still, Musk’s clear directives and rules on meetings are meant to increase efficiency — a practice Tesla has proven itself at time and time again. In his first instruction, Musk notes that larger meetings need to offer something for everyone, in addition to not lasting long. “Please get [rid] of all large meetings, unless you’re certain they are providing value to the whole audience, in which case keep them very short,” wrote Musk in the email. It stands to reason that larger meetings immediately take everyone involved away from their regular daily work. For that reason, Musk recommends avoiding them altogether when possible. In addition to a meeting’s size, however, Musk explains that the frequency of meetings can also get in the way of efficiency. “Also get rid of frequent meetings, unless you are dealing with an extremely urgent matter. Meeting frequency should drop rapidly once the urgent matter is resolved,” writes Musk. Similarly, regular meetings can take employees away from their regular tasks and should be avoided except in matters of extreme urgency, according to the Tesla CEO. However, Musk goes on to put his disdain for meeting culture on full display with a message that’s even more surprising to some professionals. “Walk out of a meeting or drop off a call as soon as it is obvious you aren’t adding value. It is not rude to leave, it is rude to make someone stay and waste their time,” said Musk. To walk out of a meeting or drop off a call may seem rude, but Musk says it’s actually rude of the meeting holder to waste the time of the meeting attendants. And coming from Musk, whose average day is filled to the brim with work duties, the statement seems to ring even more true than on its own. Meetings are tricky, and if you aren’t careful, they can become a huge waste of time and money. Part of Tesla’s efficiency relies on Musk’s view and practices surrounding meetings — and it’s hard to fathom how much time and money may have been saved simply by cutting back on meeting time. === Source: Inc.com

Among the never-ending flood of “Don’t get me wrong—I love electric vehicles, but…” articles and posts, we read dire warnings that EV batteries will wear out in a few years, making the cars worthless, and that they can’t be recycled. Above: A Nissan Leaf at a home charging station. Photo: dcbel / Unsplash Oddly enough, the citizen journalists who write these pieces never seem to cite any sources for their helpful information about battery life. What do the people who work for automakers who’ve actually been selling EVs have to say about the issue? Well, as Nissan’s UK Marketing Director Nic Thomas recently told Forbes, “Almost all of the [EV] batteries we’ve ever made are still in cars, and we’ve been selling electric cars for 12 years.” The much-predicted glut of obsolete EV batteries has not materialized, despite the fervent hopes of the anti-EV crowd. As Carlton Reid explains in a recent Forbes article, unlike phones or laptops, EVs have sophisticated battery management systems (BMS) that are designed to maximize battery life. In the US, automotive battery packs are warranted against failure for 8 years or 100,000 miles by federal law, and industry experts expect most battery packs to last much longer than that. (Battery failure and battery degradation are two different things—all batteries lose capacity over time, and some drivers may find the gradual reduction in range unsatisfactory.) “We haven’t got a great big stock of batteries that we can convert into something else,” said Thomas. “It’s the complete opposite of what people feared when we first launched EVs—that the batteries would only last a short time.” Many EV batteries may outlast their vehicles, then enjoy a second life in a stationary storage application before finally being recycled. “At the end of the vehicle’s life—15 or 20 years down the road—you take the battery out of the car, and it’s still healthy, with perhaps 60 or 70% of usable charge.” “Taking the battery out [of an electric car] and putting a new battery in is not a viable proposition,” he adds. “It’s more sustainable to take the battery pack out of the car after 20 years, recycle the car, and reuse the battery. By far the easiest thing to do take the complete battery out of the vehicle, put it in a shipping container in a rack and plug that into a solar farm.” To date, Nissan has collected only a small number of Leaf batteries—from crashed vehicles or warranty issues—and it has supplied some of these to providers of stationary storage. Thomas says that Nissan’s new factory currently under construction in Sunderland, England will use EV batteries to store energy from solar panels and wind turbines. As for recycling, battery manufacturers, automakers and startup companies are working to develop what could someday be a major new industry. The European Union already regulates EV battery disposal, and is expected to update its regulations soon to establish targets for the recovery of specific minerals. “There is already a very strong recycling industry for batteries in China,” said Thomas. “I’ve visited lots of plants in China where they grind the battery down to what they call black mass, which then enables them to extract all of the precious metals.” The Volkswagen Group recently opened a battery R&D facility in Salzgitter, Germany, which will eventually recycle EV batteries. Redwood Materials, a battery recycling firm led by Tesla cofounder JB Straubel, recently raised $700 million from investors to expand its Carson City, Nevada, operations. Straubel recently told Forbes that his company can already recapture usable quantities of metals at a lower cost than mining. Demand for large-scale recycling probably lies some years in the future. “I’ll be very old and very retired by the time we actually need to do a lot of these things,” Nic Thomas told Forbes. However, building a circular supply chain for batteries is a project that needs to proceed with all deliberate speed. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates current global recycling capacity at around 180,000 metric tons of batteries per year. Recycling experts told Forbes that the EVs sold in 2019 alone will eventually generate 500,000 metric tons of battery waste. The IEA says that by 2040, there could be 1,300 GWh worth of spent batteries in need of recycling. === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Forbes

For an electric vehicle enthusiast, going to Norway is like going to Costa Rica for a birder. Every time I visit this beautiful and ultra-modern country, I add more EV models to my life list, and my recent visit over the summer was no exception. Above: Electric vehicles charging on the street in Norway. Photo: Charlie Morris On the streets of Oslo and Bergen, I saw tons of Teslas, loads of LEAFs and many Mustang Mach-Es (all three of these models can be seen in service as taxis, alongside every version of the Prius). I saw Audi e-trons, Jaguar I-Paces, Porsche Taycans, VWs both old (e-Golf) and new (ID.3 and ID.4), BMW i3s, electric Hyundais and Kias. I saw European models that aren’t sold in the states, including the popular Renault Zoe and fairly new models from Peugeot and Skoda. I saw older EVs that are mostly extinct elsewhere (the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and its Peugeot and Citroën counterparts), and a few new models that are just starting to appear on US shores, such as the Mercedes EQB, the Polestar and—grab the binoculars!—an Xpeng, one of several Chinese cars now on sale in Norway (including models from MG BYD, NIO and Golden Dragon). Electric buses are everywhere, and so are electric delivery vans such as the Nissan e-NV200. EVs aren’t just seen on the streets. At Oslo airport, a substantial portion of the ground support equipment appeared to be electric. Electric pleasure boats plied the waters of Oslo’s beautiful fjord. Above: Electric ground support at the Oslo airport. Photo: Charlie Morris Reaching the remote island of Smøla required taking not one but two car ferries. Both were electric (with backup diesel engines that apparently didn’t need to be switched on for our voyages), but each used a different charging setup. Each of these systems had a sort of charging tower on the dock that automatically connected to a receptacle on the vessel, but one was on the side of the ship and one was mounted at the end near where the cars drove on. In both cases, the height of the charging plug can be adjusted to account for the tide. Larger vessels are electrifying too. We took a cruise ship of the famous Hurtigruten line from Kristiansund to Bergen, and one of the officers explained to me that it is a plug-in hybrid—enormous batteries take some of the strain off the diesel engines. He said that the retrofitted system, combined with various efficiency improvements to the propellors and other components, reduces CO2 and nitrous emissions by up to 90%. I didn’t take any air samples, but I certainly noticed that, like an electric passenger car, an electrified ship delivers a more pleasant ride. Earlier in this trip, I took an old-fashioned car ferry to Corsica (see my account of our Tesla road trip), and it belched clouds of black smoke at all times (as well as generating deafening noise and bone-shaking vibration). Aboard Hurtigruten’s hybrid Kong Harald, the only evidence that the diesels were running was a subdued hum and a shimmer of hot air escaping from the stacks. Above: An electric ferry charging. Photo: Charlie Morris These ships make fairly frequent stops at ports along the coastal route, and they generally plug into shore power when they dock. Some may be surprised to learn that very few of the world’s passenger ships do so. Most run their diesel engines the whole time they’re in port, like an inconsiderate delivery driver idling his engine, and spew massive amounts of pollution into nearby neighborhoods. There’s much angst in the EV world over the Plight of the Drivewayless—the baleful bane of city dwellers who aren’t able to install EV charging at their homes. The example of Oslo may indicate that this isn’t as big a problem as many fear. Like most cities, Oslo has block after block of medium-density apartment buildings, most of which have no garages or assigned parking spaces. In recent years, the amount of on-street parking in the city center has been reduced, and the result is that central Oslo is a walker’s delight, with the quietest and most pleasant streets of any city I’ve visited. Where there is on-street parking, there’s a generous number of public chargers. Large parking garages, also well-equipped with chargers, are located around the city. For all I know, Oslo residents may complain about the charging situation, but it certainly hasn’t dampened their enthusiasm for driving electric. By my informal, unscientific count, around half the cars driving around Oslo were pure EVs (as for PHEVs and hybrids, I didn’t even bother counting them). Naturally, the ration was lower in rural regions. The official stats tell us that 71 percent of cars sold in Norway in July were pure EVs, and 12 percent were PHEVs. The most popular model was the Skoda Enyaq. === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris.

As Tesla and other brands race to capitalize on the emerging zero-emission vehicle industry, a new study has evaluated which states are best for owners of plugin vehicles. And although there are a few names on the list that may not surprise you, some of the top states for electric cars will surprise you, as well as some of the least accessible states for the new technology. Above: A Nissan Leaf and a Tesla Model 3. Photo: Casey Murphy / EVANNEX A recent study by Forbes Advisor looked at the ratio of registered electric vehicles to charging stations to determine the best states for plugin vehicles (via USA Today). The results of the study may come as a surprise to some, but the number one state for EVs by this metric is North Dakota with a ratio of 3.18 electric cars to 1 charging station. To be sure, the metric isn’t a perfect one. Most of those that top the list simply have few enough EVs to accommodate them with a small amount of charging stations. Still, with 69 charging stations and 220 registered EVs, North Dakota lands at the top of the list just ahead of Wyoming and the tiny state of Rhode Island, and it’s a well-earned spot. The study showed that Wyoming had a ratio of 5.40 EVs per charging station, with 330 registered EVs and 61 charging stations across the state. In third was Rhode Island, with 6.24 EVs per charging station — but with a whopping 1,580 registered EVs and 253 charging stations. Other medium-sized, lightly populated states such as Maine, West Virginia, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, Vermont and Mississippi all ranked well, while many more well-populated states ranked far worse. The ten worst-ranking states included New Jersey, Arizona, Washington, California, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Texas and Nevada. Interestingly enough, California ranked poorly despite being a hotspot for EVs, being Tesla’s birthplace and being the country’s most populous state — with around 40 million residents total. In this index, California ranked the fourth least accessible state for EV owners, with a ratio of 31.20 EVs to 1 charging station. EVs are growing in popularity in the U.S. and around the world. Currently, EVs account for 4.6 percent of all passenger vehicle sales in the U.S., according to data from Experian. Additionally, EVs just surpassed 10 percent of market share worldwide, with Chinese brand BYD and U.S. brand Tesla at the front of the pack. === Source: USA Today

Is there some sort of affinity between coffee lovers and EV drivers? Does charging up your car somehow go along with charging up your body with caffeine? I don’t know folks, but I do know this: Starbucks has long offered EV charging at some of its stores, and now the chain, in partnership with Volvo Cars, is planning to install chargers along a 1,350-mile route between the hypercaffeinated cities of Denver and Seattle. A Volvo charging at a ChargePoint stall in front of a Starbucks. Photo: ChargePoint By the end of the year, up to 60 DC fast chargers, powered by ChargePoint (NYSE: CHPT), will be installed at some 15 Starbucks stores approximately every 100 miles along the route. Four charging stations have been installed at a Starbucks location in Provo, Utah, and future stations will be located in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The public chargers will be open to all EV drivers for a fee. Owners of Volvo Cars will get access at no charge or at preferential rates. “Access to EV charging should be as easy as getting a great cup of coffee—and now, it can be,” said Michael Kobori, Starbucks Chief Sustainability Officer. “With Volvo and Starbucks, we’re creating a premium EV driving experience between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest,” said Pasquale Romano, CEO of ChargePoint. “EV drivers will have the opportunity to quickly fuel their vehicles at Starbucks locations along one of America’s most scenic byways.” === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: ChargePoint

Tesla remains the world’s most valuable automaker, and the company is paving the way for the worldwide shift to EVs. As the auto industry at large continues moving in Tesla’s direction, the EV sector has just surpassed an important milestone on its way to mainstream appeal. Above: A white Tesla Model 3 in a parking garage. Photo: Charlie Deets / Unsplash Battery-electric vehicles reached 10 percent of the worldwide auto market in July, according to data compiled by CleanTechnica. The publication’s José Pontes has also said he expects September to be the first time plugin vehicle registrations will reach one million units. Worldwide plugin vehicle registrations jumped 61 percent year over year in July, totaling 778,000 units and representing the best first month of any quarter yet. Additionally, plugins made up 14 percent of the overall market share, with plugless hybrids down for the fourth month in a row — likely signifying a shift at large in the industry toward plugin EVs. Between January and July of this year, the Tesla Model Y had 344,928 global sales to remain the top-selling EV model of any category. Closely followed by the affordable Wuling HongGuang Mini EV (244,961) in second and the Tesla Model 3 (236,518) in third, the U.S. automaker’s reach has been no small feat. The competition for China’s auto market plays a huge role in the worldwide auto market, and Tesla and BYD are neck and neck as most other automakers rank far behind the two. As for overall brands in July, BYD dominated world plugin vehicle sales overall with 160,061 total sold, while Tesla was in second place with 52,084. Still, Pontes expects Tesla’s September to be huge, meaning it could still overtake BYD in the final month of Q3. In third for top world plugin vehicle sales by brand was European automaker Volkswagen with 46,400 units sold, surpassing SMGW in recent months. Between January and July, BYD has sold 800,745 plugin vehicles, for a total of 16.2 percent of the overall global market share. Tesla has sold 617,309 units for 12.5 percent of the market share in that time, though Pontes thinks the automaker could take back the crown by the end of this quarter. Behind the two are several automakers with significantly lower sales, with SGMW (273,292), Volkswagen (204,510) and BMW (181,585) filling out the rest of the top five. It’s tough to say what the market will look like in the coming months, but for the first time ever, Tesla’s dominant position in the EV market is being challenged. As competition increases, more EVs are out on the road than ever, and most EV enthusiasts will be able to appreciate the reduction in carbon emissions, no matter which company is on top. === Source: CleanTechnica

Will the shift to EVs lead to substantial job losses in the automotive industries? EVs are simpler to assemble than legacy vehicles, and key components that support whole sub-industries, such as engines, transmissions and exhaust systems, will no longer be necessary, so a shrinking demand for labor would appear to be an inconvenient truth. Above: Ford’s F-150 Lightning Units. Photo: Ford The latest news from Ford seems to bear this out—the automaker has announced that it will cut a total of 3,000 salaried and contract jobs, mostly in North America and India. (Ford had an estimated 186,000 global employees as of 2020.) Reuters reports that Ford Chief Executive Jim Farley has been saying for some time that the company has too many people, and that not enough of its workforce had the skills required for the transition to EVs and digital services. “We are eliminating work, as well as reorganizing and simplifying functions throughout the business,” Farley and Ford Chairman Bill Ford wrote in a recent joint email to employees. “You will hear more specifics from the leaders of your area of the business later this week.” Farley and Ford also wrote that the company’s cost structure “is uncompetitive versus traditional and new competitors.” This echoes language used by former VW CEO Herbert Diess some months ago, when he noted that Tesla’s cost to assemble a Model 3 at its German Gigafactory was a fraction of what it cost VW to produce an ID.3. (Hopefully Mr. Farley will not also meet the fate Mr. Diess suffered for speaking truth to power.) === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Reuters

Elon Musk is headed to trial with Twitter next month, and a lot has happened since the $44 billion merger agreement was initiated in April. As Musk attempts to back out of the deal, a few key events may help predict what’s to come — including a recent whistleblower’s reports from behind closed doors at Twitter. Above: Elon Musk discussing Twitter in a TED talk earlier this year. Photo: Steve Jurvetson / Flickr Commons In a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission this month, Musk’s legal team highlighted recent allegations from a former security head at Twitter, saying they show that the company breached the merger agreement (via NPR). The response is just the latest as Musk and his legal team continue to request the trial be delayed. Earlier this month, former Twitter security head and hacker Peiter “Mudge” Zatko claimed the company led federal regulators astray regarding bot account data earlier this month. Zatko also alleged that the company didn’t actually have resources to find out how many bot accounts there were on the platform, which was part of Musk’s originally-stated reason for backing out of the purchase. To be sure, the fact that Zatko’s claims are directly related to Musk’s initial concerns with Twitter could prove helpful. However, they don’t necessarily make it more likely that the trial would be delayed, though these complaints and the company’s other related violations could give Musk the right to walk away, according to his lawyers. “The Zatko Complaint alleges that Twitter has been violating a consent decree it entered into with the FTC in 2011. That consent decree required Twitter to establish and maintain ‘a comprehensive information security plan’ to ensure that its users’ personal data was sufficiently protected from disclosure” writes Musk’s legal team in the letter. “Mr. Zatko’s statements purport to reveal that Twitter has not been, and perhaps never will be, in compliance with that decree. Twitter has already paid a fine of $150 million for violating an aspect of that decree, and Facebook recently paid $5 billion for similar user data violations,” the letter continues. Above: Elon Musk files another notice to terminate the Twitter deal after whistleblower claims. Video: CNBC / YouTube After Zatko is deposed by Musk’s lawyers, he’ll testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Heads of the committee Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin and Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley released a joint statement saying that, if accurate, Zatko’s allegations “may show dangerous data privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world.” The statement continued, adding that the committee would “get to the bottom of these alarming allegations.” The news comes just a few weeks after a Delaware judge demanded Twitter hand over data on bot accounts requested by Musk, as reported by Financial Times. While Musk asked the trial’s presiding Judge Kathaleen McCormick to offer information on all of the platform’s users, McCormick limited the number of accounts to 9,000, calling the initial request “absurdly broad.” “[Musk’s] documents request would require plaintiff to produce trillions upon trillions of data points,” McCormick wrote. “[Twitter] has difficulty quantifying the burden of responding to that request because no one in their right mind has ever tried to undertake such an effort.” It’s tough to say what could happen at the trial in October, but Musk and his legal team certainly want to see him walk away without paying for the company, or the $1 billion termination fee. Alternatively, Musk could be forced to officially purchase Twitter at a price of $54.20 per share, though these developments could significantly influence the trial’s outcome. === Source: SEC / NPR / Financial Times

Many electric utilities around the world now offer time-of-use (TOU) rate plans, which incentivize EV owners to schedule charging at off-peak times. However, as Canary Media reports, some utilities require customers to install redundant separate electrical meters at their own expense in order to take part in TOU programs, even though many EV charging stations can perform the required submetering function. Above: Tesla’s Powerwall energy storage system. Photo: Tesla The California Public Utilities Commission, which has been concerned about this issue for many years, has now approved a new rule that will require the state’s three biggest utilities to allow TOU customers to use their EV chargers to measure the amount of energy delivered. As CPUC Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen explains, installing a separate meter can cost up to $2,000, and this has discouraged many customers from signing up for utility TOU rate programs. “Quite a large number have not been taking advantage of these EV rates,” he said. ​“The result is that they forgo very, very significant cost savings.” “Most EV chargers right now come with the capability of submetering,” Rechtschaffen added.   Some utilities offer programs that enable managed EV charging without extra meters, says Edward Burgess, Senior Policy Director with the Vehicle-Grid Integration Council. One example is Baltimore Gas & Electric, which uses the metering capabilities within EV chargers for a time-of-use-based rebate program similar to California’s. Baltimore Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy in Minnesota, Florida Power & Light and several other utilities have partnered with Enel X Way to offer customers EV-only billing through Enel X Way’s JuiceBox residential chargers, said Marc Monbouquette, Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs for Enel North America. He noted that 13 EVSE manufacturers have been certified under California standards, so there are plenty of compliant home chargers available. Rechtschaffen says the CPUC did a lot of real-world testing to ensure that the metering capabilities of EV chargers were up to utility and state standards. ​“We did pilots for a number of years before this decision. We didn’t want to mandate it or roll it out until we were sure people were billed accurately for the electricity they used, no more and no less—and utilities want to be sure of that as well.” The CPUC decision also sets communications protocols for charger submetering that are meant to ensure smooth communication between the chargers and utilities, Rechtschaffen said. This will allow utilities to gather usage data from drivers who are signed up for EV rates, and will “enable the kind of communication we need to promote vehicle-to-grid integration and the benefits that result from it.” === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Canary Media

EV designers and component suppliers need to test a wide range of devices to see how they function in a vehicle. However, testing devices with an actual battery can be both cost- and time-prohibitive. Now Chroma Systems Solutions, a provider of automated test equipment, has released battery simulation software that can validate device functions during testing without the need for an actual battery. Above: Chroma battery test equipment. Photo: Chroma Systems Solutions Chroma offers a wide range of EV and battery testing solutions. Its new battery simulator is designed for testing battery-connected devices. When integrated with any Chroma regenerative battery cycler or bidirectional DC power supply, the software simulates the battery state, eliminating the wait time for the charge/discharge of an actual battery.  The A170202 Battery Simulation Software is designed to seamlessly integrate with any of the company’s regenerative battery cyclers or bidirectional DC power supplies.  Real-time test results include voltage, current, power, SOC percentage, charge/discharge state and capacity. When battery charge/discharge testing is needed, users can switch from battery simulation to battery cycling. The operation of the cycler and A170202 simulator allows the values of internal resistance, energy capacity, and output voltage to be changed in real time.  Users can also take advantage of regenerative functions that enable the energy discharged to be recycled, reducing the cost of treating waste heat.  Also included are safety features such as real-time monitoring and automatic protection. “For testing battery-connected devices like electric vehicles, on-board chargers, DC-DC converters and motor drivers, high-power battery emulation is a great solution to confirm if the device under test is performing as intended.  For example, most DC fast charging devices on the market have a power range of up to 50-350 kW.  Because of that high output voltage and power, it’s easier, faster and safer to replace the actual battery pack with a scalable solution like our battery simulation software and new regenerative 17040E battery cycler,” said Luis Veliz, Director of Automated Systems for Chroma. === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Chroma Systems Solutions

With Tesla’s 3-for-1 stock split hitting the market, many are wondering what impact it could have on the company’s shares. Following an unprecedented few years for Tesla’s stock, and an array of external political and social factors affecting the market, it’s worth questioning the split’s impact from the perspective of old and prospective new investors alike. Above: A Tesla vehicle’s cockpit from the front driver-side window. Photo: David von Diemar / Unsplash Tesla’s 3-for-1 stock split recently went into effect, representing the automaker’s second time splitting shares for its investors. In a report, Forbes detailed what the split could mean for investors, evaluating whether it changes Tesla’s value or not. While many experts argue that a stock split doesn’t influence too much, it can make shares look more attainable for retail investors. A company’s value still depends primarily on cash flow and revenue, in addition to a handful of other macroeconomic factors. For investors, the stock split immediately increases the number of shares held, but it doesn’t change the value of your holdings. For example, if you owned one share at $900 before the split, you now own three shares, each worth $300. Amazon, Alphabet and Shopify are among the other companies that approved a stock split this year, showing the strategy’s popularity. Like with any stock, there’s no guarantee that shares will go up. However, the vote to approve Tesla’s stock split marks a vote of confidence from the board of directors that the stock could go up in the future if it can attract new investors. In August 2020, Tesla voted to approve a 5-for-1 stock split. Tesla will also reset the stock’s market price and offer employees new equity options, as detailed in a proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This could lead to old investors and employees adding to their previously held shares in Tesla. In the filing, Tesla wrote, “Since our stock split in August 2020 to June 6, 2022, our stock price has risen 43.5 percent. While this value appreciation has led to our employees benefiting enormously through the years, we want to make sure all employees, no matter when they join, have access to the same advantages.” Tesla’s stock split went into effect immediately after the market closed on August 24, with pre-split shares worth $891.29 and post-split shares trading around $302. Tesla’s stock closed at $288.98 on August 26. Tesla is currently the world’s sixth-largest company and is the largest EV automaker, though bulls and bears still disagree about the stock’s long-term value. At the time of writing, Tesla’s shares were trading at $278.52 (+$4.10), up 1.49 percent from the day’s market open. === Source: Forbes / SEC

Seen amid the usual fire hose of anti-EV FUD this week: a host of articles with headlines like “A day after announcing a ban on gas cars, California tells drivers not to charge EVs.” Above: A Tesla Model Y unit’s headlight. Photo: James Kashcuk / Unsplash California, like many regions, is dealing with energy shortages, so residents are being told to conserve electricity, and of course that means not driving their cars, right? Of course it doesn’t. In fact, California utilities have been telling customers to avoid charging their EVs during the peak usage hours of 4-9 pm. This is something that every utility in the world recommends, that every conscientious EV driver already does, and that any EV can easily be programmed to do. This enormous leap of illogic from “remember to save energy” to “they’re coming for your cars” is a classic example of one of the anti-EV troll’s most useful tools: the Misleading Headline. This isn’t the same as the shockbait headline that leads to an entire article full of misleading or false information. What we’re talking about here is a headline that doesn’t truly represent (and may even contradict) what the article actually says. Sometimes the Misleading Headline (MH) is added by an editor who’s more concerned about generating clicks than about what his or her writer actually has to say (conflict = clicks). Other times it’s grafted onto an article by a social media FUD-peddler who probably doesn’t care whether you click or not. More examples are as close as your LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter feed. Often, an article that has nothing negative to say about EVs can be made to sound like an anti-EV warning by punching up the headline. A 2019 article about EU hazardous-waste regulations appeared under this headline: “Hazards ahead: Electric cars face battery recycling hurdles in Europe.” Wow, sounds like battery recycling may be harder than we thought, right? Actually, the article asserts nothing of the kind—it discusses the fact that, because battery supply chains stretch across national borders, EU regulations need to be updated to allow recycled materials to be transported around Europe with a minimum of paperwork. The real story here is about how rapidly the battery recycling industry is developing. Another example of headline-based scare-mongering: a piece in The New Republic, entitled “Climate Change’s Great Lithium Problem.” Anti-EV posters eagerly shared links to the article, citing it as evidence that electromobility is doomed by a looming shortage of lithium. Again, the article itself makes no such claim. Its main topic is lithium mining in Bolivia, and the questionable role of Western corporations, which have a long history of maximizing profits while ignoring the environmental and economic concerns of the locals. Certainly, this is an injustice that needs to be brought to light, but it’s hardly a justification for abandoning vehicle electrification and continuing to extract fossil fuels. Different media often use headlines to spin the same story in opposite directions, sometimes to ludicrous extremes. A 2018 New York Times interview with Elon Musk provides one example—the headline in an EV-friendly mag quoted Elon saying, “the worst is over,” while the headline on an EV-bashing site quoted him saying, “the worst is yet to come.” (In fact, what he said was, “The worst is over from a Tesla operational standpoint…but from a personal pain standpoint, the worst is yet to come.”) The Misleading Headline is not the same as a false headline. There are plenty of those out there too, but they tend to target a less sophisticated, more pliable audience. The classic anti-EV MH is not aimed at the flat-earthers, but at educated, environmentally aware people who might be logical candidates for EV ownership. The anti-EV warriors want to convince prospective purchasers that EVs are “not as green as they claim,” and many of their arguments are constructed around a grain of truth. Any article that describes any difficulty, constraint or concern having to do with EVs, no matter how slight, will soon appear under a headline citing it as evidence that EVs are not green, not woke, not socially just…and gently insinuating that car buyers of a liberal bent would be much better off buying gas-burners. Note also that a provocative headline is not necessarily meant to be a misleading one. One of the differences between a journalist and a troll is that we journalists want people to click on our headlines and read our articles (trolls are usually happy for you to just keep the headline in your memory, a little seed of doubt waiting to germinate). We often craft headlines that ask rhetorical questions, in hopes that readers will click to find (what we think is) the answer. For example, I recently published an article headlined “Will the Buy American provisions of the revamped EV tax credit do more harm than good?” This is in fact a question that’s been posed by several environmentalists and EV-industry observers. If you read the article (please do), you’ll find that, in my opinion, the answer is no. The Inflation Reduction Act adds eligibility conditions to the EV tax credit that are intended to force automakers to offer cheaper EVs and to bring more of their supply chains to the US. Assuming that the IRA survives the inevitable political attacks intact, I (and several industry experts that I cited) believe that the law will do much to achieve these goals. The line between provocative and misleading is not always a bright one. Among the thousands of articles out there with headlines like “Are EVs as green as you think?” quite a lot of them conclude that the answer is an emphatic Yes. National Geographic once published an article under the headline “Was Darwin Wrong?” The first page of the article (in the print version) contained an enormous “No” in red letters, and the author went on to explain that the evidence for evolution is overwhelming. But I’d be willing to bet that more than a few creationists crowed that National Geo had gone over to their side. The moral of the story is simple: Read the articles, folks, not just the headlines (says every journalist in the world in a pleading tone, but without much hope). === More about the infamous Misleading Headline:Debunking electric car myths—again More about common tactics used by the troll hordes:Favorite rhetorical tools used to spread anti-EV misinformation See also:Handy links to debunk common anti-EV mythsDebunking common anti-EV myths, Part Two

Will electric vehicles someday be charged as they roll down the highway? Dynamic wireless charging—charging a vehicle as it travels down a specially-equipped road—is still in the research stage, but it seems technologically feasible. A new paper by Cornell researchers examines the possibilities of wireless charging roads equipped with energy storage systems.  Above: A Tesla driving down a two-lane highway, which could be used to wirelessly charge EVs in the future. Photo: Jonathan Varghese / Unsplash The new work, “Efficient energy management of wireless charging roads with energy storage for coupled transportation–power systems,” was published this month in Applied Energy. Co-authors H. Oliver Gao and Jie Shi argue that integration of wireless charging roads into the existing electricity market and efficient management of the corresponding energy storage system are crucial for successful implementation of dynamic charging. “In this work, we develop a coupled transportation-power system framework for incorporation of a wireless charging road system into the real-time electricity market,” said Gao, Director of Cornell’s Systems Engineering Program. The simulation study demonstrates that efficient control of the energy storage system not only reduces the energy costs of the entire wireless charging road system but also alleviates the pressure produced by the wireless charging load on the existing power grid. In two numerical examples, the energy costs are reduced by 2.61% and 15.34%, respectively. “We designed a Lyapunov optimization-based control strategy to manage the energy flow between the wireless charging roads and the energy storage system in a cost-efficient way,” Gao said. “The proposed framework is composed of three major modules: the hybrid traffic assignment, the extended DCOPF, and the controller,” Gao explains. The hybrid traffic assignment calculates the traffic flow given specific trips across a road network composed of wireless charging lanes and normal traffic lanes. The extended direct current optimal power flow (DCOPF) determines the optimal electric energy flows between the generation resources, load centers and wireless charging roads in the given power grid. The control approach seeks to minimize the energy costs of wireless charging roads by efficiently managing the output of the energy storage system. ===  This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Cornell University

Tesla continues to rapidly expand throughout the world, and despite two new Gigafactories having opened earlier this year, the automaker’s already looking at where to build next. In the long term, it’s difficult to predict how many production facilities Tesla could build, but CEO Elon Musk has his sights set on a high target — as usual.  Above: A rendering of Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg in Grünheide, Germany. Photo: Tesla At Tesla’s annual stockholder’s meeting, Musk said he thinks the automaker could eventually build as many as 10-12 Gigafactories throughout the world, as reported by Business Insider. The CEO also mentioned that Tesla could produce up to 20 million electric cars per year by 2030, with each factory outputting between one and a half and two million units per year. “Ultimately we will end up building, I don’t know, probably at least 10 or 12 Gigafactories,” Musk said at the shareholder’s meeting, located at Gigafactory Texas. The locations would “really be Gigafactories,” according to Musk, who has been met with skepticism about his ambitious figures. Despite the skepticism, Tesla is already looking to establish its next Gigafactory and Musk says the location could be announced this year. The news also comes after Tesla made Giga Texas and Giga Berlin fully operational this year, so the move to establish its next factory comes fairly quickly on the heels of those. At the meeting, Musk also asked stockholders to guess where the next Gigafactory would be located. While it’s unclear where the factory will be built as of yet, Musk did give a special note to those who answered Canada. “I’m getting a lot of Canadas,” Musk said in response. Above: Tesla eyes Canada for next factory. Video: Reuters / YouTube Tesla also reached three million cars produced just before the stockholder’s meeting, announced Musk. He added that Tesla had only produced 3,000 cars a decade ago, adding that the company may be able to reach 100 million cars produced in the next decade. Currently, Tesla has U.S. Gigafactories in Fremont, California, Sparks, Nevada, Buffalo, New York, Austin, Texas, and now others outside the U.S. in China and Germany. To achieve 10-12 Gigafactories, Tesla would need to build at least three to five new Gigafactories, in addition to the one Musk says the automaker could announce this year. Compared to legacy automakers, Musk says that Tesla’s manufacturing has a “long-term sustainable advantage” over rivals as the EV industry begins to emerge. Whether Tesla can reach goals of 10-12 Gigafactories is yet to be seen, but if the last few years are any indication of the automaker’s future, it’s certainly not out of the question. === Source: Business Insider

Elon Musk may be the world’s richest person, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s living large all the time. While he does have some modern amenities with high price tags, like his private jet, for example, Musk made a life-changing decision to live more simply last year that has come as a surprise to many ever since.  Above: Elon Musk at the 2013 Web Summit. Photo: Conor McCabe and Web Summit / Flickr Creative Commons Musk downsized his life last summer to move into a $50,000 house located near SpaceX’s Starbase in Texas, a move that Inc.com’s Bill Murphy Jr. called life-changing at the time. It’s a story Murphy Jr. has covered since the beginning, and it begins with the modular tiny house startup Boxabl. In November 2020, Boxabl co-founder Galiano Tiramani announced the company had constructed and delivered a tiny house for a “top-secret customer.” The location of the customer? Boca Chica, Texas — or the town in which SpaceX’s Starbase is located. It was quite the reveal on its own, but if that wasn’t enough, Tiramani was seated beside a poster with a SpaceX rocket. Still, the news didn’t exactly confirm suspicions that Musk lived at the location. However, a tweet from Musk six months later would further pique that interest. “My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though,” said Musk in a tweet in June 2021.  My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though.Only house I own is the events house in the Bay Area. If I sold it, the house would see less use, unless bought by a big family, which might happen some day. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2021 As onlookers attempted to connect the dots, it only took a few months for one Texas resident to note Musk’s life-changing move to downsize once again, noting the Boxabl rumor almost as if it were fact. And this time, Musk responded. “I’ve actually been living in a ~$50k house in south Texas for past 2 years, not Boxabl (cool product tho). Feels more homey to live in a small house,” wrote Musk. I’ve actually been living in a ~$50k house in south Texas for past 2 years, not Boxabl (cool product tho). Feels more homey to live in a small house. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2021 So if he didn’t live in the Boca Chica Boxabl, who did? The case would go cold for over a year and a half, before Musk shared more details about his living situation on the Full Send Podcast in recent weeks. “I don’t actually stay in the Boxabl. The house that I bought actually costs less a Boxabl. It was like $45k or something,” Musk said on the podcast. “But, I’ve done a lot with the place. … It’s right next to the rocket factory. I can just literally walk to the rocket factory. … Friends of mine can’t believe I’m staying in this house.” Musk simply uses the Boxabl unit as a guest house (likely making him the “secret customer” after all), and stays in an even cheaper modular tiny home when he’s not busy traveling. And while he wouldn’t reveal any more detail about his own space — likely for his own security and safety — his notes about how much downgrading changed his life are, perhaps, even more telling. === Source: Inc.com / Full Send Podcast

There’s no way to sugar-coat it: the public charging experience stinks. In survey after survey, EV drivers report that many charging stations are inconveniently located, and lack amenities such as rest rooms, lighting, restaurants and stores. The charging process is often unnecessarily complicated and confusing. However, by far the biggest complaint is that the uptime performance of public chargers is abysmal. In January, one study found that a quarter of public chargers tested in the Bay Area were non-functional (via electrek). Other surveys have found similar, or even worse, downtime ratios. Above: A Tesla Supercharger stall. Photo: Neo Tan / Unsplash The only bright spot in this dismal picture is the Tesla Supercharger network, which is consistently rated as the best (or at least the least bad) of the public networks. In a recent J.D. Power survey, respondents rated the Tesla Supercharger network the best among national fast charging networks, and rated Tesla Destination chargers the best among Level 2 networks. In the Charged/umlaut 2021 EV Charging Infrastructure Benchmark, testers found Tesla Superchargers to have the best location experience of the national fast charging networks. While consumers’ preferences are clear, it’s hard to pin down the details as to why the Superchargers are superior. However, there are several reasonable surmises. For one thing, at a Supercharger, there’s no fiddling around with RFID cards or apps (some networks require you to go through a complicated process involving user names, passwords and credit card numbers, before you can even find out if a charger is working or not). You simply plug it in, and it starts charging. The system recognizes your vehicle and bills you (or not, if you’re one of the elite who still enjoy free charging) automatically. In this department at least, help is on the way for non-Tesla drivers. A new standard called Plug and Charge, which automatically handles authentication and billing, is supported by most new EVs, and is rapidly being adopted by all the major charging networks. When it comes to the location of charging stations, Tesla has enjoyed a significant first-mover advantage. The company started building out its charging network a decade ago, before most of the legacy automakers had given a thought to public charging—as one writer put it a few years ago, there was a land rush on, and Tesla quickly grabbed most of the prime real estate around highway junctions and other strategic locations. Siting Superchargers near amenities such as hotels, restaurants and shopping was a priority from the beginning. What about reliability? We’re not aware of any actual statistics about Supercharger uptime, but we do know that most Supercharger sites feature multiple charging points, and some have dozens. We’ve heard from more than one user who says that, if they encounter a Supercharger that’s down, or that isn’t delivering the desired power level, they just move to another space. I’d like to present a reasonable surmise as to why the Superchargers’ level of satisfaction is so much higher. Older readers will remember the early days of personal computing, when Apple machines were consistently rated easier to use than PCs. The obvious reason was that the same company was making the entire system, and it was a company that was highly sensitive to the user experience. We PC users had to deal with a computer from one company, an OS from another, applications software from others, and peripheral hardware from dozens more. Remember when you had to take your PC apart to plug in a sound card, then adjust tiny little dip switches to set the IRQ and DMA? Apple users just plugged in a set of speakers, and it worked. I’m convinced that one of the main reasons public chargers are so unreliable is that they are often the product of as many as half a dozen different companies—hardware manufacturer, site owner, installer, utility, network operator, payment processor and more. Yes, Tesla uses contractors to install Superchargers, but it makes the vehicles and the hardware that charges them, it operates the network, and it oversees the whole process with an Apple-inspired focus on usability. Again, hard statistics are lacking, but it seems common-sensical that this is likely to result in a better user experience. Be all that as it may, the public charging scene in the US is about to change dramatically. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is going to unlock up to $7.5 billion in federal funding for charging infrastructure over the next five years. Tesla stands to benefit from some of that investment, but only if it opens up its network to drivers of other automakers’ EVs, which it is expected to do soon. (Tesla currently offers access to non-Tesla drivers in several European countries, and will reportedly begin opening up its network in the US later this year.) Will Tesla be able to maintain its reputation as the gold standard of charging once the unwashed hordes storm the gates? Overcrowding and long waits are already a problem at some busy Supercharger sites. And is the Supercharger experience really as superior as the surveys imply, or could it be a case of comparing apples to oranges? After all, many Tesla drivers have probably never used a non-Supercharger fast charger, and until recently, no non-Tesla driver had ever used a Supercharger. Within a few months, Tesla will be in direct competition with Electrify America, ChargePoint, EVgo, EVconnect, Shell and the rest. These companies will also be taking their share of the federal infrastructure money—and dealing with the compliance and oversight issues that always come with government funding. These companies know they need to raise their games and improve their uptime performance. Healthy competition is a good thing, so let’s hope that the opening of the Superchargers helps lead to a better and faster charging experience for everyone. === Sources: electrek, J.D. Power

IKEA plans to expand the number ultra-fast public charging stations and delivery fleet vehicle chargers at its US stores. The furniture retailer has announced a collaboration with Electrify America and Electrify Commercial to bring new charging stations to over 25 IKEA locations. Above: A look at Electrify America chargers at night (Source: Electrify America)  The new project will add more than 200 public chargers, offering charging speeds of 150 kW to 350 kW, at IKEA retail locations in 18 states including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. The first locations are to open in late 2022, and the project is to be completed by the end of 2023. Electrify Commercial, Electrify America’s business unit, will deliver turnkey charging solutions for IKEA’s EV delivery fleet, providing more than 225 individual chargers across the sites. Above: An IKEA parking lot with EV charging stations in front. Photo: IKEA IKEA US aims to achieve zero-emission home deliveries by 2025, and to halve tailpipe emissions from customer and co-worker travel by 2030. “This collaboration with Electrify America will not only bring ultra-fast public chargers to our stores for the first time but it will also help us take a big leap as we work towards our targets to become circular and climate-positive,” said Javier Quiñones, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA US. === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Sources: Electrify America, IKEA