It has been a turbulent couple of months since Fisker Inc. posted its Q4 2023 financial report and relayed concerns it could continue business in EVs. Fisker’s Austrian arm has reportedly filed for reorganization and court protection from creditors – the equivalent to Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the US.

Today’s news is merely the latest chapter in a rough saga for Fisker Inc., the American EV startup hanging by a financial thread in its second attempt to mass-produce passenger EVs. The potential bankruptcy news is not all that shocking, as Fisker has been slowly sinking toward this point for over a year now.

Although Fisker successfully launched its flagship Ocean SUV, it was quickly hit with several software issues and lower-than-anticipated sales. As a result, the automaker lowered its production targets several times throughout 2023 while pulling any demand levers to maintain liquidity.

This past March, Fisker’s 2023 numbers painted a grim image of “substantial doubt” it could continue… at least not without the financial backing of a new OEM partner. However, those talks came and went, and Fisker has been fighting for its life to avoid bankruptcy since.

Its stock tanked after Fisker halted Ocean production at Magna-Steyr in Austria, which was quickly followed by the automaker slashing tens of thousands off Ocean MSRPs to liquidate its existing stockpile of assembled vehicles.

Despite such great discounts, the public grew weary of buying an EV from an automaker on the cusp of bankruptcy and no guarantees Fisker will be in business a year from now. As such, over 40,000 reservation holders canceled their Ocean orders.

Not one to ever give up, Fisker Inc. says the restructuring in Austria will offer the business a little more time to woo a new investor.

Magna Steyr takes financial hit as Fisker bankruptcy looms

Per an initial report from Automobilwoche, Fisker GmbH, the Austrian arm of Fisker Inc., has filed for reorganization and court protection from creditors overseas—a filing similar to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. Fisker responded with an official statement on the matter posted on Tuesday:

Fisker GmbH (“Fisker Austria”), the Austria entity of Fisker Inc. (“Fisker”), today announced that it has voluntarily filed to open a restructuring proceeding via self-administration under the Austrian Insolvency Code. The proceeding will enable Fisker Austria to ensure its operations are able to continue under court protection, including paying employees and selling vehicles. Fisker Austria intends to continue delivering its vehicles to customers to the extent possible, providing service, and updating its over-the-air software as it moves through the restructuring proceedings.

Fisker continued by stating the bankruptcy-filing-equivalent will give the automaker more time to acquire a “value-maximizing strategic transaction or other sale of assets.” The American automaker also made a point to say the restructuring filing in Austria remains separate from Fisker’s other entities, which will continue operations. For example, Fisker continues to add dealers to its network in the US and Europe to help boost sales of the Ocean EVs that have already been built.

Meanwhile, however, Magna-Steyr has been left with its pants down. With Ocean assembly lines now halted, the Austrian arm of Magna International says it will lay off at least 500 employees in Graz before the end of the year. Furthermore, Magna had to adjust its projected sales and earnings for the fiscal year and expects to take a $400 million revenue hit.

Magna will be fine in the long run, but it will take time before it can segue into a new manufacturing contract and start building vehicles again should Fisker officially sink into bankruptcy. Magna Steyr CEO Roland Prettner told local media the factory will have fresh orders again, but “The next three years will be very difficult in Graz.”

Bankruptcy feels imminent at this point, but Fisker could sway an angel investor to bail it out and keep going. We will report back as this ongoing tale of the EV startup continues… or doesn’t.

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Battery tech firms South 8 Technologies and NanoGraf are collaborating to develop higher-capacity, safer and lighter batteries for the US Army. Under a $6.4-million subcontract with NanoGraf, South 8 will develop a high-rate injection system for its LiGas electrolyte to bolster domestic production of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries.

Today’s soldiers lug around massive amounts of Li-ion batteries—sometimes more than 20 pounds worth—to power all their high-tech gadgets. The risk of poor performance due to extreme weather or physical damage forces them to schlep multiple batteries as backups. South 8 and NanoGraf aim to alleviate these issues by producing a more reliable and lighter battery.

South 8’s LiGas is “a liquefied gas electrolyte that dramatically improves the energy performance, safety, charging speed and cost of lithium-ion batteries.” Applications include defense, aerospace, stationary storage and electric vehicles. Using South 8’s LiGas technology, NanoGraf plans to prototype a high-energy, rugged and scalable 18650 cell design that promises to lighten the load for soldiers in the field and reduce supply chain risks by establishing North American production.

“Our goal is to improve soldier safety, military capabilities, and the domestic lithium-ion battery supply chain,” said Tom Stepien, CEO of South 8. “While today’s lithium-ion batteries struggle with poor capacity in difficult climates, our LiGas electrolyte directly addresses significant pain points by enhancing range and performance in extreme environments, while minimizing fire risk during critical missions.”

“Adding the safety and extreme temperature capabilities of South 8’s LiGas electrolyte to our silicon anode 18650 cells has the potential to yield a powerful product with unique benefits compared to other commercial cells,” said Dr. Francis Wang, CEO of NanoGraf.

“Today’s successful and safe military operations require long-lasting, versatile battery technology,” said José Collazo-Castillo of the Army’s DEVCOM C5ISR Center. “We look forward to seeing how the combination of South 8 and NanoGraf’s technologies can help the US build and produce higher performing, cross-compatible battery cell technology and help fortify the supply chain for the future of national security.”

Source: South 8 Technologies

Just after the reveal of its more affordable R2, R3, and R3X models in March, Rivian announced plans to rejigger its production capacity at its existing plant in Illinois, to accommodate the R2 electric SUV at that plant instead of an even larger one in Georgia that remains on the drawing board.

Recognizing that the R2 is critical to the company’s survival, it included the following: “We believe launching R2 in Normal will create long-term value by driving greater capital efficiency and reducing risk to the R2 launch and associated ramp.”

On Tuesday, with the release of its Q1 financial report, Rivian revealed exactly what that means in intended production numbers. It now intends to make 155,000 of its R2 electric SUV at the Illinois plant annually, with a total of 215,000 units including its other vehicles (consisting of the R1S, R1T, and EDV. 

That’s more R2s in a year than Rivian has delivered cumulatively—all models combined—since it started making deliveries in fall 2021. And it will take an expansion for Normal, which Rivian had previously said was limited to a plant capacity of about 150,000 vehicles per year. 

Rivian R2

In the meantime, it says that it’s aiming to improve R1 production efficiency by about 30%. 

The shift represents a huge boost in production versus Rivian’s current levels. The company made 57,232 vehicles in all of 2023, while it made 13,980 vehicles in Q1 2024.

In Rivian’s Q1 investor call accompanying the announcement, Rivian’s CFO Claire McDonough said that the maximum capacity has some flexibility and will break out as up to 85,000 R1 models and up to 65,000 EDVs.

Rivian pointed out that the R1S was the fourth bestselling EV in the U.S. over the first quarter of 2024—after only the Tesla Model Y and Model 3, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E.

Rivian R2

The new midsize platform, called MSP, will be the basis for the R2, R3, and R3X, which Rivian underscored “are expected to deliver amazing performance, utility, and range at a significantly lower price point than our flagship R1.” 

Rivian pointed to cost efficiencies at the core of the MSP vehicles, which will include the use of high-pressure die castings, a structural battery pack, and “simplified closures.” It’s also teased that it sees the potential for a model with half the carbon footprint of the R1S by 2030. 

The R2 is expected to start around $45,000, with production set to start in the first half of 2026, according to Rivian.

Rivian R3

And then, potentially come the R3 and R3X. Rivian didn’t specify where those models would be built, but it again said that the R3 “has been designed with a high level of commonality with the R2,” and would be available internationally following a North American launch. 

Whether that means confirming those models for the now-paused Georgia plant, remains to be seen. Either way, Rivian would need another serious expansion to make room for R3 and, perhaps, more production space for R2. It’s potentially a predicament Rivian might be happy to face. 

Two weeks after signing a similar strategic cooperation agreement with Lotus Technology, NIO has announced an additional agreement with China’s GAC Group to collaborate on charging and swapping and implementing a new unified battery standard.

Many readers know NIO Inc. ($NIO) for its growing portfolio of premium EVs and sub-brands, but the Chinese automaker is also the global leader in EV battery swap stations. As of October 2023, NIO has successfully completed over 30 million battery swaps around the world, proving the technology is a viable alternative to standard plug-in and charge EV practices.

To help expand battery technology, especially as it pertains to infrastructure, NIO has begun enlisting the help of some of its competitors with the goal of establishing EV battery standards in China and possibly beyond.

In late April, during the Beijing Auto Show, CEOs from NIO and Lotus Technology announced a new strategic cooperation, detailing plans to co-develop charging and battery swap technologies. Some items on their to-do list include charging and swap technologies, battery asset management and operations, service network operations, vehicle R&D and customization, and, of course, a unified battery standard system.

Just a couple of weeks later, NIO announced a similar agreement with a heavy hitter in Chinese automotive—Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd., or GAC Group for short.

GAC Group joins NIO in quest for unified battery standard

Earlier today, executives from NIO and GAC Group met in Guangzhou, China, where their new strategic cooperation will take place. NIO founder, chairman, and CEO William LI shook hands with GAC Group president Feng Xingya, while NIO Power senior vice president Fei SHEN and GAC Group vice president Xia Xianqing signed the agreement on behalf of the companies.

Similar to the previously mentioned agreement with Lotus, NIO and GAC have presented a list of targeted goals to cooperate on, many of which are similar:

• Build a unified battery standard
• Jointly develop passenger vehicles with battery swap capabilities
• Develop battery swap stations compatible with EV models from both brands
• Launch vehicles with swappable batteries designed under the standards established by both
• Advance the implementation of the swap stations catering to both NIO and GAC vehicles
• Open an interconnection of battery-swapping networks that runs on a unified operational and management system
• Establish a larger, standardized, and unified power infrastructure network to achieve economies of scale

As we mentioned before, NIO has successfully proven that a large-scale battery swap network is not only plausible, but an effective solution in quick EV charging processes. Now, it appears NIO is looking to recruit others to help standardize the technology to further streamline the swap process for consumers, no matter what make or EV model they are driving. GAC Group president Feng Xingya shared a similar sentiment:

Going forward, with the growing NEV population, battery swapping will unleash unlimited market opportunities, especially in cities. Because it actually solves a pain point for many users who don’t have dedicated parking spots. I’m glad to see that NIO and GAC can partner in this area. The strategic cooperation agreement that we signed today is also a foundation and guidance for our future cooperation. With it as a starting point, we hope to build more battery swap stations with which our GAC Aion users will have a better swapping experience.

In addition to the laundry list of items to collaborate on going forward, NIO and GAC state they will still promote the opening of their respective charging platforms to one another. So, the companies will remain collaborative in many ways while keeping some technologies close to their chests. These are still competitors in China, after all.

Still, the collaborative spirit NIO is putting out into the ether in China is inspiring and appears to be working. With GAC Group now onboard, NIO has assembled an impressive lineup of Chinese OEMs committed to developing a unified battery standard. That list currently includes Chang’an Automobile, Geely Holding Group, Chery Automobile, JAC Group, and Lotus.

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Today Matter, the Internet of Things (IoT) standard developed by major players like Apple, Google, and Amazon, has been updated to version 1.3.

This release introduces support for a host of new device types, such as EV chargers and kitchen and laundry appliances, while also adding enhancements like energy tracking, upgraded TV features, and more.

New device categories supported

Since launching in late 2022, Matter’s focus with its biannual updates has largely been on adding new supported device types to the standard. This enables device makers to implement Matter into new and existing products. Matter 1.3 continues the release trend, expanding the list of supported devices to include the following:

• Electric vehicle chargers
• Laundry dryers
• Microwave ovens
• Ovens
• Cooktops
• Extractor hoods
• Leak and freeze detectors
• Rain sensors
• Water valves

With these additions complementing the significant device expansions that came in version 1.2, Matter is getting closer and closer to covering the full range of device types that are available with a standard HomeKit certification.

Beyond new device categories, Matter 1.3 also enables energy tracking, so you can better understand your energy use throughout the day and night using your supported Matter devices.

Scenes are also now supported in Matter, so your devices can be configured for different scenes that batch actions together and simplify the act of controlling your home.

Finally, this release expands what’s possible with connected TV devices. Push notifications can be configured to update you on the actions of other Matter devices, such as to tell you when the laundry is done drying. There are new interactivity options for TV apps, improved search, casting initialization, and more.

It’s good to see Apple and the other alliance members continue to grow what Matter is capable of. An open standard for the future needs constant expansion to truly succeed, and Matter seems well on its way to doing that.

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Eli Electric Vehicles on Tuesday opened U.S. reservations for its Eli Zero, a tiny urban EV with a starting price of $11,900.

Launched with help from crowdfunding, the Zero was first shown in 2017 and began shipping to European dealers in 2021. At the time, Eli said it was targeting a 2022 launch for the U.S. That date has slipped significantly, but Eli claims to have delivered hundreds of vehicles in both Europe and French Polynesia in the interim.

Eli Zero

The company now plans to start U.S. sales in the third quarter of this year, with deliveries after that. It’s taking $200 refundable deposits to secure a build slot; sales for 2024 will be limited to these reservation-holders. Eli plans to sell vehicles “through local distributors and dealer partners” and claims to have an assembly plant capable of producing 4,000 vehicles per year.

Measuring just 4.5 feet wide and 7.4 feet long, the aluminum two-seat Eli Zero is classified as a neighborhood electric vehicle (NEV) in the U.S. As such, it has a top speed of just 25 mph. The price is a bit higher than Eli previously quoted, but the battery pack is larger as well, affording more range. It’s now 8 or 12 kwh, enough for 60 or 90 miles of range, respectively, compared to 5.8 kwh and 50 miles.

Eli Zero

The Zero also has some convenience features like soft-close doors and a Sony infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. We have a feeling it’s not quite going to be of the caliber of that in upcoming Afeela EVs from Sony and Honda, though.

The low-speed Zero is a completely different take on a light-and-lean EV versus the Aptera 3-wheeler, which aims for 400 miles of range in its launch spec and performance more like that of conventional cars, or Arcimoto, which classified its 3-wheelers as “autocycles,” putting them in the motorcycle family and again allowing for higher speeds.

• EcoG offers an operating system for EV chargers, as well as a suite of hardware and software tools for designing chargers. It’s all part of a system that’s designed to enable manufacturers to quickly scale up production of charging infrastructure products.

• As the EVSE market matures, EcoG CEO Joerg Heuer believes we’ll see a move away from extreme vertical integration, towards more of an ecosystem approach.

• EcoG is deeply involved in ensuring the interoperability of Tesla’s NACS with a growing number of current EV models.

Enabling the next phase of EV charging station manufacturing.

We tech writers often refer to “ecosystems,” and biologists may shake their heads at our appropriation of the term, but the analogy is an apt one in many ways. A biological ecosystem has its charismatic megafauna (elephants, lions, whales), but it couldn’t function without its less-glamorous denizens (ants, fungi, bacteria). Likewise, a technological ecosystem has its headline firms (Apple, Microsoft, Tesla), but these rely on interrelated networks of companies that are little-known to the general public (FoxConn, Panasonic, ABB), but that provide indispensable services (and sometimes substantial profits).

EcoG is an example of the latter kind of company—its logo doesn’t appear on a lot of EV charging stations, and you’re unlikely to see its name in a headline outside of the trade press. In fact, most of the journalists working for newspapers and consumer mags, who so often write about the Teslas and ChargePoints of the world, might be hard-pressed to figure out what EcoG actually does (we’ll do our best to explain it).

Like the ant, which makes up some 20% of the world’s biomass, Munich-based EcoG has a surprisingly large footprint in the EV charging infrastructure market. The company was founded by three former Siemens professionals in 2017. By 2022, its software was being used in 15% of the DC EV chargers sold within the EU. At the 2022 CharIN Testival, 30% of the new DC chargers being tested were running EcoG’s OS.

The tech behind the chargers

Like every other digital device, from a mainframe to a hearing aid, an EV charging station runs on software. EcoG’s Universal Core is a universal operating system designed to give charger manufacturers maximum flexibility. According to the company, the OS supports 6 architectures that are used by more than 40 types of chargers, and it integrates over 15 different power converters, and all chipsets on the market. It can be delivered integrated in a charge controller device or as a firmware release for a customer’s own control hardware. The software features Open APIs and a customizable web platform to help customers build their own application layers.

EcoG also offers a suite of hardware and software tools to help companies develop and manufacture charging stations as quickly and efficiently as possible. The EcoG Starter Kit prototyping environment is a fully-functional DC and AC charger that allows customers to modify components, develop their own applications, and verify charging functionality.

Three hardware tools provide additional functionality. The EcoG Charge Controller handles circuit control and charging status, and ensures vehicle interoperability. It works with multiple I/Os and interfaces. The CPPP Monitor provides a redundant monitor of the charging status between the vehicle and the charger, and can shut down down the charging process if an irregular state is detected. The Application Board provides an application layer that interfaces with the user and with systems running in the cloud, allowing the EV charger to be upgraded with new features, and to use third-party services to run custom applications.

Of smart phones, mainframes and EV chargers

EcoG CEO Joerg Heuer has helped to shepherd several developing technologies from birth to maturity, and he sees parallels between the progression of the EV industry and the development of mobile telephony. As he sees it, 15 years or so into the EV industry’s development, it’s at a stage where companies need to “professionalize”—that is, to be able to quickly ramp up manufacturing of standards-based, interoperable vehicles and infrastructure.

EcoG offers an architecture that’s designed to enable manufacturers to build EV chargers at scale. Returning to the mobile phone analogy, Heuer says, “We are not targeting the Nokias, but the Foxconns. Those who really professionalize how to build chargers and make that a reliable, robust thing in the market, that’s where we focus.”

Heuer expects that there will be a few different operating systems in the EVSE market, and his company provides the reference architecture that allows manufacturers to build an ecosystem that can incorporate a wide variety of hardware. “We have 50 ecosystem partners on the component level—converters, isolation monitors and so on.”

Some of EcoG’s customers are charging network operators (aka charge point operators or CPOs) and some are site hosts or integrators, but most are manufacturers—two prominent customers are Siemens and i-charging. “We are very much focused at this stage of the market on the manufacturing side,” Heuer tells us. “In Europe, we now have a 15% market share, so more than every tenth charger is produced with our architecture and operating system.” EcoG is also well-established in India, and is quickly moving into North America.

Heuer sees EcoG’s OS and its design tools not as separate products, but as integrated parts of a whole. “We are an IP tech company, something like a Qualcomm in the mobile phone industry,” he told Charged. “If you contract with Qualcomm, you not only get their chip, you get the whole ecosystem around it, so it makes you fast at building smart phones. That’s what we want to do in the EVSE market. We want to enable those who have manufacturing capability to be fast to build professional products. This wave of electric mobility is running, and the question is, are you fast enough to catch the wave? We address those who are really thinking not about how to design the product, but about how to scale the manufacturing.”

Walled garden or open ecosystem?

EcoG has called “infrastructure segmentation” one of the biggest obstacles to EV adoption at this stage of market development. But what is meant by segmentation in this case?

When Heuer started working in the EVSE market back in 2008, he was struck by the irony that one of the most global industries—automotive—is having to learn to work with one of the most regional industries—electric utilities, which operate differently in different countries, and indeed in different US states. “What we saw then was that, especially in North America, the market started with very vertical offerings like ChargePoint and others. And this is good for a kickstart, but in the medium term, it often results in user fragmentation. It’s good to get started fast, but to scale up the market it’s good to think of how you collaborate and integrate stuff together.”

“Think of roaming and the mobile phone networks—it increases reliability if you make it the right way. And that’s what we believe is going to happen. I think getting away from these vertical networks is important because electric mobility is really a cool opportunity to get more renewables into the electric grid. But this needs different business process integrations, and a monolithic company will not have the expertise in how to integrate into the energy system. We are an enabler of that.”

Enabling V2X

EcoG’s system supports bidirectional charging, which is widely expected to be a key technology enabling a variety of useful applications (V2X). Obviously, ensuring interoperability among V2X-capable chargers and EVs will be critical—and interoperability testing is one of EcoG’s specialties.

Last July, EcoG presented an ISO-compliant bidirectional charging solution that follows charging standards association CharIN’s guidelines. EcoG’s software is designed to support all V2G-capable vehicles—including those still under development. The company has tested its bidirectional solution with multiple vehicle manufacturers in accordance with the new ISO 15118-20 bidirectional power transfer (BPT) standard, as well as the BPT Application Guide from CharIN.

The company has partnered with power semiconductor manufacturer Infineon to develop a starter kit with an integrated 22 kW bidirectional converter and controller.

“The fact that bidirectional charging actually works according to ISO 15118-20 BPT is a major step forward,” said Xi Zhang, EcoG’s Director of E-mobility. “This allows the technology to be applied to the mass market, as customers can now be sure that their wallbox can communicate with any V2G-enabled vehicle in the field.”

“V2G as a standardized feature is essential for broad adoption of this technology,” said Heuer. “EcoG provides the V2G technology in the form of a starter kit to charger manufacturers to enable products with short lead time to market, and to OEMs for interoperability testing.”

Heuer told Charged that the key to enabling wider V2X tech is to make it available on a low-cost product. “When we look at chargers today, they’re built like photovoltaic inverters 20 years ago—they include something like 100 components. Today, if you look at PV inverters, we have maybe 10 components—and in the last 20 years, the price has declined by something like a factor of 10 to 20.”

Where does vehicle-to-grid stand today from a commercialization standpoint? Like most of the EVSE industry folks we talk to, Heuer concedes that V2G is still mostly a pilot-level technology, but he expects more commercial applications to start appearing soon. “We have several pilots, but Volkswagen recently announced that every Volkswagen is supporting V2G— it’s already in the menus of the vehicles.”

Ford, Hyundai and Tesla are also now selling EVs with power export capabilities, and the market for bidirectional-capable charging hardware could expand quickly. “With partners like Infineon, we are targeting this market, because then you are talking about 10,000 units per year [as a conservative estimate].”

Reliability, reliability, reliability

The poor reliability of public chargers is an industry-wide scandal. Some casual observers seem to assume that adopting Tesla’s NACS charging system will solve all the problems. However, like many industry players we’ve spoken to, Heuer believes that one of the main reasons Tesla’s Superchargers are so reliable is that the system is controlled by a single company—which will no longer be the case once large numbers of EVs from other brands start using the Superchargers.

“We have been working a long, long time in standardization, and I remember the days when we had the discussion of Microsoft versus Apple. Here we see basically the same. We see probably 20 or 30 implementations out there on the vehicle side and on the infrastructure side. With Tesla, you have both in one, and with their automation they can do testing to ensure that things are working with each other.

Right now, we’re looking at a landscape with about 100 charging station manufacturers and a growing number of EV manufacturers. Tesla might test its EVs with 5 to 10 charger types, but the broader challenge is much more complex. To achieve a truly seamless charging experience for any EV driver, we’re tasked with ensuring that every electric car can use any charging station. Achieving this interoperability means testing over 500 different combinations of cars and chargers.

One thing that will hopefully facilitate interoperability over the coming years is the fact that Tesla’s NACS is not radically different from CCS. “The plug is quite different, but all the processing behind it is quite similar,” Heuer explains. “That’s also the reason why in Europe they can easily use a CCS plug, and in US they have these adapters. Of course, in the foreground, it looks very different because the plug looks different. But in the background, the automation, the really complex stuff, that’s quite similar.”

“About two weeks after the announcement that Ford would adopt NACS, a customer of ours just added a Tesla cable to their CCS station, and the thing worked with a Tesla vehicle. That’s the nice thing. It’s no longer this competition between CHAdeMO and CCS, which were really totally different systems. Compared to CHAdeMO, I would say 90% or 95% is really the same between CCS and NACS.”

Some find it ironic that in Europe, Tesla adopted the CCS plug, whereas in the US, vehicle OEMs and EVSE manufacturers are adopting the Tesla plug. Heuer explains that there are several reasons for that. “One reason is that in Europe we have a three-phase AC system, so this would be a shortcoming of the Tesla plug because then they would be only be able to charge one phase. In Europe, we would then be limited to three kilowatts in most countries, maybe maximum seven. That’s one physical aspect.”

A second difference between the North American and European markets is that the latter has developed in a less vertically-integrated way. “The networks started quite early with roaming and so on—it was not so dependent on what network or mobility service provider you contracted with. So the advantage Tesla had compared to the rest of the networks was not so significant.”

The North American market could benefit by learning from some mistakes that were made in Europe. “There’s obviously a different development in markets and there are learnings out of that, which I think are beneficial for all. I think what’s interesting in North America to see is, how to integrate vertically like a ChargePoint, for example how to integrate direct payment via app or credit card, conveniently including all the processing behind it with logistics and so on.”

“On the other hand, I think Europe is doing quite well to think about this more collaborative role, how you create ecosystems. What we see right now in the market in US is really more the speed and integration, where we see more of an ecosystem approach in Europe. And now that things become more integrated with Tesla as a crystallization point, we have the opportunity to combine networks and to really move forward.”

This article first appeared in Issue 67: January-March 2024 – Subscribe now.

GAF Energy’s new nailable solar shingle factory in Texas is about to make the company the world’s largest solar roofing producer.

The San Jose, California-based company is the sister company of GAF, the largest roofing and waterproofing company in North America. Its 450,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Georgetown, north of Austin, was officially opened last week in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

GAF Energy built the nailable solar shingle factory in Texas to meet the growing demand for its “world’s first” Timberline Solar Energy Shingle that debuted in January 2022.

The new Texas factory, the company’s second, will bump up its capacity by 500% and bring the total production of its solar shingle to 300 megawatts (MW) annually. It’s expected to employ more than 240 people. GAF Energy’s first factory, in San Jose, California, came online in 2021.

The best time to install solar shingles is when it’s time for a new roof, and GAF’s are warranted to withstand winds up to 130 mph. In April, Timberline Solar was approved by Miami-Dade County’s Product Control Sector as meeting or exceeding the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone requirements of the Florida Building Code standards for safety, wind resistance, and waterproofing.

GAF Energy told Electrek in 2022 that Timberline Solar is about half the cost of a Tesla solar roof and is cost-competitive with rack-mounted solar systems.

In July 2023, GAF Energy conducted a voluntary recall for some solar shingles and related equipment installed from November 2021 to April 2023 due to a fire risk. By early August, the company said that 80% of the affected installations had already been fixed.

Read more: These new nailable solar shingles are installed like a traditional roof

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