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Vehicles:

Toyota is apparently planning on rolling out their first dedicated EV platform in 2027 or 2028, "when demand will justify the investment".

Toyota has replaced its CEO, allegedly in order to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles.

• I'll believe it when I see it.

Hyundai is refreshing the Kona to be EV-first instead of a weird three-drivetrain thing, and they're changing the design to be more in-line with the Ioniq series.

The Hyundai Ioniq 6 has official EPA range numbers, getting up to 361 miles.

We have a small amount of info about the upcoming 2024 Ram 1500 electric truck, which will also have a plug-in hybrid version.

• Apparently one version will be called the "Range Electric Paradigm Breaker" which will have a lot of range or something. This was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show, so . . . Yeah
• And more info about interior and such here

The Chevy Bolt received a small-ish price increase of around $900.

The VW ID4 had a $1,500 price increase for the 2023 model, even for existing reservation-holders.

• They cite battery cost increases as the reason.

The Ford F-150 Lightning has increased in price by at least $15k to $55k starting.

The Porsche Taycan now has an upgrade available that upgrades the onboard charger to accept 19.2kW.

• For home charging, this would require a pretty beefy circuit capable of 100A, which is . . . a lot
• This is probably more relevant for public charging because of that current requirement
• The upgrade costs $1,850 in hardware, plus labor

General Motors is getting a $2.5b loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to build a battery plant in support of its electric vehicle production.

• GM claims it will be able to produce 1 million EVs per year by the middle of the decade

Rivian has increased the range of its vehicles a small amount through an over-the-air update and added a snow mode for better traction in snowy conditions as well as remote pre-conditioning.

The automotive supplier ZF revealed a heated seatbelt at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) meant to improve electric vehicle efficiency in cold weather.

• They say that the product is production-ready, though they do not have customers yet.
• The marginal cost is around that of heated steering wheels.
• They claim up to 15% range increase while using the seatbelt instead of traditional cabin heating.

Not terribly surprising, but a new report found that cold weather results in more charging of EVs, not less driving.

• Basically, people aren't driving less as a result of less range, they're just charging their vehicles more often.

Redwood Materials, the battery recycling company, is planning to build a $3.5b plant in South Carolina, which will employ 1,500 people.

• Redwood is making serious moves in the battery recycling world, this is awesome news.

The Environmental Protection Agency has released new, more stringent emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, but they're still less aggressive than California's.

• California still needs a waiver from the EPA to set its own standards for the more stringent standards.
• The EPA's are still fairly aggressive.
• These new standards take into effect in 2027.

Infrastructure:

Electrify America has increased its prices by $0.05/kWh across the board.

AAA is launching a pilot to provide free mobile charging to members who drive EVs in several cities across the country.

• The initial 14 cities are:

Sandia National Labs just published a paper looking into the issue of cybersecurity and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

• Link to the full paper.
• The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program places a lot of emphasis on cybersecurity and chargers, but there hasn't been much actual guidance about how security should be maintained with this infrastructure.
• The paper is a pretty thorough look at the whole issue.
• The paper does claim that more damaging types of attacks would be very difficult, but it's still an issue that needs to be addressed.

Nikola is planning to have a mobile fueling truck to deliver hydrogen to customers without a standalone hydrogen station.

• This sort of technology has been used for natural gas and propane vehicles in the past, so there is precedent, though it hasn't been very widely used in general.
• Hydrogen is already trucked to stations (they rarely, if ever, use pipeline hydrogen), so this isn't too large a leap.
• I think this is putting the cart before the horse.

Deployment:

Ford is going to deliver 2,000 electric delivery vans to shipper, DHL, by the end of 2023.

• This also comes with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to purchase more vehicles in the future.
• DHL will also use Ford's Ford Pro software to manage the vehicles.
• DHL operates a total of around 27,000 delivery vans, for context.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has, again, changed its EV plans.

• The current plan moves their EV targets up to over 50% of their new fleet.
• They now plan to only by EVs from 2026 on.
• $3b of the funding to make this happen will come from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.

Air Canada has purchased 30 electric-hybrid airplanes from Heart Aerospace.

• These are both battery electric and have more traditional powertrains to increase range, from what I can find online.
• Air Canada is also acquiring a $5m stake in the company.

Energy:

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that renewable energy will make up over 25% of the U.S. grid mix by 2024!

• This is an incredible milestone!