“Industrial heat accounts for one-quarter of the global energy consumption and is a massive, $450 billion market,” Juha Lindfors, a partner at Lifeline Ventures, said on Monday in a statement. “Decarbonizing industrial heat presents a huge opportunity.”
Meskanen, a Finnish entrepreneur, said she first met her co-founder, Nate Weger, in 2023 through a DOE-funded program called Cradle to Commerce, which aims to accelerate climate technologies developed in U.S. national laboratories. At the time, Weger was finishing his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley and conducting research on thermal energy storage at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Meskanen moved to the San Francisco Bay Area late last year to launch Calectra with Weger, who is also the company’s chief technology officer. Since then, the duo have been developing their thermal storage system at both Berkeley Lab and the Port Labs coworking space in Oakland, where they keep a high-temperature furnace downstairs and test brick materials, including a graphite-and-ceramic composite.
Calectra co-founders Pauliina Meskanen and Nate Weger in Oakland, California (Calectra)
Calectra’s approach is somewhat similar to that of Brenmiller Energy, Rondo Energy, and other thermal storage companies. Electrical currents bring bricks or crushed rocks to red-hot temperatures. Ideally, the systems can use the excess electricity generated by wind and solar projects during off-peak hours — similar to what conventional battery systems do — helping balance the grid and reduce electricity costs. Later, the bricks transfer that heat to things like cement kilns or, as in Rondo’s case, whiskey distilleries.
But there’s a key difference in Calectra’s system. Whereas most other firms use heat exchangers or other equipment to transfer heat to and from bricks, Calectra aims to make its bricks electrically conductive themselves, which Meskanen said is more energy-efficient. Electric currents would pass directly through the brick material to generate heat, similar to how currents flow through the metal filaments in incandescent lightbulbs to make heat and light. Pipes carrying hot air would then feed into the industrial processes.
Calectra is only just starting to put this concept to the test. With the pre-seed and grant funding in hand, Meskanen and Weger are working to grow their team by hiring a materials scientist and hardware engineers to help nail down the brick-material combinations and build a larger prototype of the system, in preparation for raising a round of seed funding.
“We’re laser-focused on building a solution for high-temperature heat at low cost and zero carbon,” Meskanen said. “It’s risky, but it’s worth giving it a shot for the sake of the climate.”
The automaker explored the idea of fake shift points
Porsche has two EVs in its lineup and a third en route
Porsche seemingly won’t follow Hyundai’s lead.
Porsche development driver Lars Kern told Drive that the automaker doesn’t see a need to put fake shift points in EVs.
“Our perspective on this is always why should we make something worse,” Kern said.
The driver acknowledged the automaker’s watching what others, including Hyundai, are doing to simulate sporty characteristics in EVs, but features like fake shift points are viewed as counter-intuitive to driving as fast as possible.
Kern noted “there’s no reason to simulate what has been in the past.”
Porsche still makes combustion engines for those that want that feeling.
Porsche explored the technology to simulate shit points and gear changes, but the automaker stopped at the idea stage. A prototype was never created, according to Kern.
Hyundai developed shift points, power cutoff and transfer, and even sound generators (speakers) at various points around the vehicle in the Ioniq 5 N. All were done in an effort to simulate a gas-powered car’s driving experience in an EV.
The effort was all in the name of fun rather than lap times. Hyundai execs and spokespeople told Green Car Reports at the launch of the Ioniq 5 N that the shift points and sound help drivers have more fun and provide a better sense of speed on the track.
The 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N was worth the wait, and both the fake shit points, power curves, and sound generators work to create a different experience in an EV. An experience that’s closer to that of a gas-powered car than a BEV, but while fun, it was clear on a race track these things don’t make the car lap the course quicker. If anything, they might slow the car down due to the fake power curves being implemented for the fake gearing.
Kern said that’s not what Porsche is looking for. “We don’t try to make the electric car feel like a combustion engine, so that’s why we just didn’t follow up on that.”
The Porsche Taycan has been on sale since 2020, and the automaker’s second EV, the Macan, is launching now. A successor to the 718 Boxster and Cayman is in the wings and will bring Porsche’s sports cars into the electric era.
CHP systems, also known as cogeneration systems, are fairly common at university and corporate campuses, hospitals, and other sites that need both electricity and heat. By burning fossil fuels to generate power and capturing the excess heat that would otherwise be wasted, CHP systems can do both tasks at a lower cost than doing them separately.
But the demand for heat and for power from CHP systems doesn’t always match up exactly, said Steve Wilkie, director of research and development at NYPA. That’s the case at SUNY Purchase’s gym, which needs heat during the day when the building is occupied but doesn’t need it overnight.
“If we can’t use the heat because we have no use for the heat, we truly waste the heat,” he said. With the bGen system, “I’m storing heat in the middle of the night, when I don’t necessarily need to use it, and I’m shifting it to the middle of the day, when I do need it.”
The heat stored in the bGen system can also augment heat from the CHP system on particularly cold days, when “the demands for heat become greater than what we can recover from the exhaust itself,” he said.
Not all thermal energy storage systems are built to take in waste heat, Brenmiller noted. Some are designed to heat their storage media directly via electricity. Others rely on external electric heaters that blow superheated air through storage media, which tends to lead to greater energy loss than bGen’s integrated system, he said.
Determining whether the benefits thermal storage delivers to SUNY Purchase make up for the installation cost remains a work in progress, Wilkie said. Changing prices for fuel and grid electricity factor into that equation, as do the efficiency gains realized from being able to run the CHP system at a more stable and constant rate. What’s more, “new developments are always more expensive than they’d cost you two or three years down the road,” he said.
“Heat to power” — making power plants more efficient
Another intriguing use case for thermal storage systems is on the power generation front — specifically, storing excess heat to boost electricity generation later.
Italian energy developer Enel Green Power is testing this use case with Brenmiller’s technology at a fossil-gas-fired power plant in Tuscany owned by its parent company, Enel. That project will pipe steam for the power plant’s turbines through a complex of bGen systems that can store up to about 24 megawatt-hours of heat at a temperature of about 550 degrees Celsius for at least five hours, and then discharge that stored heat to make steam to generate electricity later.
That stored-up energy can allow the plant to reduce how often it must ramp up or ramp down its own steam-generating capacity, which erodes the efficiency of the plant’s operations. It can also allow the plant to start up faster and alter its generation output more quickly than would otherwise be economically viable, which is useful to react to the ups and downs of renewable power generation.
“Flexibility and adequacy are two essential components of an efficient and reliable electricity system and they can be provided in an increasingly efficient way by storage systems,” Salvatore Bernabei, CEO of Enel Green Power, said in a 2022 statement marking the start of the project.
The same imperatives have led turbine manufacturers to improve the flexibility of their systems, as well as to integrate lithium-ion batteries with gas turbines in so-called hybrid power plants. These systems can significantly reduce fuel consumption, and thus carbon and air pollutant emissions, for the fast-ramping services that power plants are asked to provide at times when the balance of supply and demand on power grids is changing rapidly.
To be clear, conventional grid batteries are increasingly cost effective alternatives to gas-fired power plants on their own — and from a climate perspective, the direction the grid needs to move toward, along with adding more solar and wind. But in the near term, some amount of gas generation is here to stay, and making it more efficient by tacking on storage can have a meaningful impact on emissions.
And for larger gas plants, thermal energy storage may be a better option than lithium-ion batteries, Brenmiller said. Thermal storage systems take up less space per unit of energy stored than lithium-ion batteries do, he said. They can also deliver their stored energy without the efficiency losses that occur in converting electricity from the alternating current generated by power plants to the direct current that goes into batteries, and then back again to alternating current to flow to the grid.
NYPA has also explored adding a bGen system to one of its gas-fired power plants. That project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, didn’t receive follow-on funding, which led to its cancellation. But the early-stage research indicated that the concept was sound, Wilkie said.
That’s because the plant in question often has to shut down when demand for electricity on the grid wanes, he said. “There’s a cost associated with shutting it down — you’re adding wear and tear you wouldn’t have if you continue to operate consistently at a steady power rate,” he noted. “The thought was that that plant could continue to operate in those periods of time to generate and store heat that could be deployed” when electricity demand was higher.
Whether or not that would be cost-effective at commercial scale remains an open question, Wilkie said. “We felt encouraged by what we saw, but some of that information we just could not complete.”
Other ways to generate electricity from thermal batteries exist. Startup Antora Energy, which is targeting many of the same industrial heat and renewable energy storage targets as Brenmiller, Rondo, and other companies in the space, is also working on using specialized thermophotovoltaic (TPV) panels to convert thermal energy to electricity. Startup Fourth Power has set its sights explicitly on heat-to-electricity TPV, and boasts heat batteries made from advanced materials and using liquid metal to move heat.
These are more technologically complex approaches to turning heat to power, however, and may take longer to prove themselves at scale. Using thermal storage to reduce the emissions of gas power plants serving grids with rising amounts of wind and solar power could be a shorter-term solution.
The Enel project is still in its test stages, Brenmiller noted, which means it’s too early to calculate the benefits. But the experiment is in keeping with a much broader push by the energy industry to find ways to allow their power plants to “become more and more flexible to become more competitive with renewables.”
It’s official – Isuzu has announced the official start of production for its highly anticipated new electric cab and chassis, the Isuzu NRR-EV (and I’m super excited about it).
I’ve been a fan of Isuzu’s medium duty cabover trucks for more than two decades, and often try to dream up reasons to weasel one into the Borrás fleet. Based on the company’s sales figures, I’m not alone – they’re best-selling low cab forward trucks in America.
As Isuzu’s first electric truck, its production start is being called “a significant milestone in Isuzu’s storied history,” and underscores the brand’s commitment to sustainable transportation solutions that will provide viable zero-emission offerings for North America’s commercial fleets. And, just like Isuzu’s diesel NRR, the truck can be up-fitted as a box van for middle and final mile deliveries, a dump body for landscaping, or even as a sweeper (below) or garbage truck.
In other words, the new Isuzu NRR-EV electric is designed to be just as versatile as its previous gas and diesel models. Maybe more versatile, in fact, when you consider that Isuzu’s clever modular battery design makes it possible to custom tailor the trucks’ range to perfectly suit the needs of a given fleet.
“Isuzu teams overseas and here in North America have worked tirelessly to bring the NRR-EV from concept to reality,” says Shaun Skinner, President of ICTA and ICTC. “Start of production marks a pivotal moment for us. This vehicle not only showcases our technological prowess but also our dedication to sustainability and innovation. We are incredibly excited to start seeing our EV on the road and in the hands of our customers.”
Electrek’s Take
Isuzu NRR diesel with sweeper body; via TEC Equipment.
Isuzu’s N-series trucks are everywhere – and for good reason. Their diesel trucks have been dependable for decades. They’re affordable, and they have a nationwide network of GM dealers supporting them. Inside, they’re uncluttered, and offer superior visibility. Add in the flexibility of modular battery construction, the ability to use most of the industry’s existing Isuzu upfit options, and a “Made in the USA” label, and you’ve got a truck that no fleet manager will ignore.
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Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries are cheaper to produce and more stable than traditional nickel-based chemistries.
A new study from a Tesla-funded lab found that LFP batteries degrade faster when fully charged.
Repeated charging at a higher state of charge increases negative reactions within a pack.
Electric vehicles powered by lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries are gaining popularity worldwide. Compared to traditional nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries, LFP packs are cheaper to produce, pose a lower fire risk and offer greater longevity. However, they’re less energy-dense, which is why automakers typically use LFP batteries in entry-level models like the rear-wheel-drive Tesla Model 3, the base Ford Mustang Mach-E and the Dual Standard second-gen Rivian R1S among others.
Automakers say it’s best to charge your vehicle’s LFP battery to a 100% periodically, at least once a week in case of Tesla or once a month as per Ford. This helps with pack calibration, allowing you to have a more accurate range reading on your gauge cluster every time you get behind the wheel. They also recommend doing this to preserve battery health and avoid reduced performance.
CATL’s new Shenxing Plus LFP battery claims to add 372 miles of range in just 10 minutes.
That’s the exact opposite for NMC packs—offered on most EVs like Long Range Teslas—where manufacturers suggest setting a limit of 80-90% for daily charging. Charging them to a 100% can reduce the pack’s capacity to hold energy over time. This mainly happens because battery longevity is negatively associated with heat and voltage. The higher the state of charge, the more the voltage and heat in the pack which accelerates degradation.
However, a new study published this week in the Journal Of Electrochemical Society contradicts what automakers have been saying about LFP charging patterns. The study states that repeated charging cycles at a higher state of charge can harm LFP cells over time. The study specifies how this happens on the most granular level. But kudos to YouTuber Jason Fenske of Engineering Explained for breaking it down for us.
Researchers found that keeping LFP batteries fully charged creates harmful compounds in the pack from high voltage and heat. As you cycle the pack frequently—meaning discharging and charging fully—these harmful compounds deposit onto the negative electrode, consuming lithium, causing degradation. “At higher SoC, there’s higher voltage, negative reactions recurring within the electrolyte get accelerated, consuming the lithium inventory,” authors said.
Ford and CATL are partnering to produce LFP battery cells in Michigan.
If you’re not driving your EV for extended periods, leaving the battery in a lower state of charge can help, as reduced voltage doesn’t harm in the long run. “Cycling near the top of charge (75–100% SoC) is detrimental to LFP/graphite cells. Our results show a correlation between the average SoC of battery operation and capacity fade rate, meaning that the lower the average SoC, the longer the lifetime…,” the study stated. “Therefore, the time spent cycling at high states of charge is critical to minimize.”
Among the study’s authors was Dr. Jeff Dahn, an award-winning battery researcher who runs the Tesla-funded Jeff Dahn Research Group. Dahn’s lab is one of Tesla’s lesser known weapons. It helped the brand master the NMC chemistry. Electric Autonomy Canada toured the Tesla-funded lab in Dalhousie University in Canada last year. The outlet described the relationship between Tesla and the Dahn Research Group as “a yin and yang dynamic. One is a fast-moving, ever-hungry business. The other a slow-moving, diligent academic lab.”
The entry-level 2024 Rivian R1S uses an LFP battery pack for the first time ever.
Still, it has some flaws. The study states that a 0-25% charging cycle elongates battery life. That seems pointless in terms of convenience for everyday users, especially if you don’t have a home or office charger and rely on public charging. The study focuses solely on battery longevity, not overall best charging practices. It leaves out what’s best for the broader EV-buying audience, like specific use cases, convenience, charging times and more. So it’s still advisable to follow your automaker’s recommendations.
A higher charge is beneficial in most cases, like road-tripping, during power outages if you need vehicle-to-home charging, during winter when range loss is accelerated or simply for the peace of mind. Plus, modern batteries last hundreds of thousands of miles even with bad charging practices. It’s one of the reasons brands offer long warranties on them. That’s not to diminish the study, which still accomplishes the all-important task of discovering more facets of what is still a relatively new technology.
Above all, the authors don’t recommend changing your charging habits. “How practical is it to cycle a battery cell in only low SoC ranges? There is clearly a tradeoff between useful capacity and capacity retention… It is not realistic to recommend cycling LFP cells between 0%–25% SoC only, because that is a waste of capacity.”
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Can you travel around Australia (a distance of about 10,000 miles) in an electric vehicle, towing a 2-ton caravan without stinting on any of the luxuries? Despite many naysayers (including our illustrious ex-prime minister Scott Morrison), you can! It will tow your van, it will tow your boat, it won’t ruin your weekend.
Last night, I got to catch up with Tim McLennan, who generously shared the highlights of his trip around Australia (the big lap) with me over the phone. His aim was to recreate a childhood family trip around the big lap (done in a diesel-powered car in 1993). This time he was hoping to go all electric. He and his wife Renee decided it would be a family holiday with a preference to being environmentally sensitive where possible, and thus, all electric.
Tim is an electrical engineer and likes the concept of EVs. “I thought it would be good to check out the amazing natural places while they still exist. Hopefully my kids can do the same with their kids. I asked myself: ‘Can it be done all electric?’ A whole bunch of people said it couldn’t be done. I didn’t want to just do a tour of charging stations, with attendant range anxiety in between. I didn’t want to rush.” He proposed a family holiday around Australia in an EV. Holiday first, EV second. Nine months of environmentally friendly glamping.
His van is a second-hand New Age Way Finder with off-road capability, modified to be all electric and more aerodynamic — net weight 2000 kg. With his background as not only an electrical engineer, but also in aviation, Tim was able to design and do most of the work himself. The Kia EV9’s 2500 kg towing limit gave him some wriggle room to increase the original weight of the caravan. The extra weight came from the addition of aerodynamic features, 2.5 kW of solar panels, and a 10-kWh battery.
He explained to me that the issue was not so much the weight as the aerodynamics. “If you can reduce the drag, you can reduce the range loss associated with towing.” Tim took the square back end off the camper and built in a triangular wedge boot (trunk). “It mimics the trailing edge of an airplane wing,” he explains, “The air goes over and under the van and joins up smoothly at the rear. This reduces drag by reducing turbulence. Much more energy efficient.”
Tim with his glamping rig. Photo courtesy of Arthur Hunt.
“What about the air currents between the van and the camper,” I asked, pretending to know more than I actually did. “Between the car and the van? Well, the original plan was to have it enclosed by stretch canvas (similar to the canvas on trucks). Car and van would then become one body for wind resistance. But we didn’t need to go to that trouble and ended up with an adjustable roof deflector to keep the air going over the top of the van. The Kia EV9 is the same height as the van so helps keeps the upper air flow smooth.”
Hills are not a problem for the Kia EV9. Photo courtesy Tim McLennan
I commented that the “rig” is similar in looks to the diesel ones I see driven by Australia’s grey nomads. He agreed. That’s why he put the personalised plates on it “ElecTrek.” Though, there are still people who cannot believe it. “That’s not electric, is it?” is the frequent comment. An EV is unexpected out in the middle of nowhere. “How did you get out here?” He said he found that Outback stations frequented along the big lap are realising they can generate power through solar or wind and sell it to travellers in EVs. “It is much easier than shipping in fuel, storing it, and then selling it on. EVs will find it easier to refuel ‘off the beaten track.’”
A solar farm is the ideal backdrop for the glamping Kia EV9. Photo courtesy Tim McLennan.
Glamping and keeping the family happy means Tim wanted to do the trip as electric as possible without too many compromises. He wanted people to be able to relate to this form of electric holiday travelling. “It’s not a huge step out of the travellers’ comfort zone to go electric. In fact, there are significant advantages. We fuel up when we are sleeping at a caravan park. If we stay 2 days in a caravan park, we are full. We didn’t need to use fast chargers as much as we thought we would. We do some local sight-seeing then fill up overnight. I think we spent less time at chargers than we would have done at petrol stations, just because the car fills up when we are sleeping. And we weren’t breathing in the fumes from idling when hitching and unhitching the vehicle.”
High-speed charging when necessary. Photo courtesy Tim McLennan.
Tim commented on the behaviour of some of the diesel-powered grey nomads. “Some like to leave early in the morning from the campsite or park, in order to get a good site at the next one, and they wake everyone up with their clattering diesel. While camping in non-powered areas, they are running diesel generators. They put these away from their vans and connect with a long extension cord because even they don’t like them. But you can still hear them in the silence of the bush. We didn’t need a generator because the Kia EV9 has plenty of battery power and V2L.”
Camping set up in Cairns. Photo courtesy Tim McLennan
For added power, Tim had fitted flexible fibre glass solar panels on the roof of the car and the caravan. Five were fitted on the van and one on the car. These are permanently installed. While driving, he got 2.5 kW from both sets. If he left the van and went sightseeing in the car, the van collected 2.1 kW to feed into the 10-kW battery powering the appliances.
Any excess power left at the end of the day (usually more than 80% of that) can trickle charge the car, ready to collect more sun the next day.
Part of the modification process was the removal of all gas appliances from the van and replacement with electric — induction stove, microwave, hot water, aircon, electric blankets, and entertainment (got to keep the kids happy). Glamping it certainly is. I enquired about the costs of setting up the rig. Tim tells me that the camper was bought second hand for AU$32,000. The modifications cost about AU$8,000. Apparently, Walkinshaw now makes a special edition of this camper. Tim kept costs low by doing most of the work himself. The Kia EV9 was AU$125,000. This is the “Earth” variant. It is the lowest spec of 4 wheel drive with necessary tow rating. Check it out here if you want to follow Tim’s example.
Spending AU$160,000 for this setup compares favourably to amounts spent on the rigs grey nomads are using for similar trips. Then they have to spend lots more, as diesel is not cheap once you leave the capital cities — but solar power is free! Tim estimates that halfway through his trip, he has spent about AU$1,128 to cover almost 19,000 km (that’s almost 12,000 miles for my American readers). The Kia EV9 has more power and torque than a V8 Land Cruiser, yet has cost approximately 20% of what it would have cost to do the trip with a diesel.
Tim tells me “We make 5 days’ worth of van power every day. So, we can weather 4 shady days if we have to. On the whole trip we never ran out. We had indefinite off-grid power. We would run out of water and food before we ran out of power. Other campers were making multiple trips into town with Gerry cans to fill up for their generators.”
Kangaroos on the beach — amazing sights on the big lap. Photo courtesy Tim McLennan.
I asked him about advice for those who want to emulate his example. “Once you get going, it is less stressful than you might think. Start small with trips closer to home. There are lots more options for charging — especially caravan parks. That gets rid of the range anxiety.”
“Easy for you,” I interjected, “you had backup solar panels on the roof.”
“Ninety per cent of the trip we didn’t have to depend on the power coming from the solar panels on the car and van. That was plan B or C. The trip would have turned out exactly the same without the panels — maybe with a little more anxiety at the beginning. Because the Kia EV9 has so much power available, we haven’t had to skimp. We were truly glamping in the van with an induction stove, electric blankets, microwave, electric hot water, air conditioner, and the ability to charge all the electronic devices.”
Tim recounts some of the funny conversations he had when parked up. His children got chatting with the other kids who were travelling, as they do. “Why aren’t you doing it in an electric?” led to “Wish we were doing it in an electric.” Some parents sheepishly confessed that their children wanted to try and do the big lap in an EV but the parents didn’t think it could be done, so they bought a new diesel before the trip. “You said we couldn’t do it in an electric!” the kids teased Dad. The Kia EV9 with a two-ton van showing up in the middle of nowhere was an eye opener.
The Kia EV9 gives Tim a 550–600 km range around the city. Highway cruising without the van, he gets ~480km. With the van on the back, the range reduces to 280–300 km range. “That’s more than enough driving in a day. If you really want to do more and you are travelling between high-speed chargers on the coast, you can do 280 km in the morning, fast charge during lunch, and then repeat in the afternoon.” The Kia EV9 is a high-tech car but doesn’t yet have the mature software offered by Tesla. “Kia hasn’t had the years of development. But is catching up quickly.” He gave the example of the range indicator which doesn’t take into account meandering roads, headwinds, or elevation. Renee ended up doing those calculations while Tim drove on the few occasions when range was going to be tight.
You can follow Tim and Renee’s adventures on Facebook. And read Renee’s excellent first-hand account of their adventures at Caravan world.
Renee tells us: “Over the past decade, our family has made the transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to hybrids, to plug-in hybrids and finally to battery electric vehicles.”
Tim and Renee are building lifetime memories for themselves and their children without sacrificing comfort nor adding to GHG emissions. I am sure that their example will get many more people to try the Big Lap (and other shorter tourism drives) in fully electric mode.
Only halfway round! Photo courtesy Tim McLennan.
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Honda’s CEO doesn’t believe consumers can be incentivized to change to EVs
Honda’s spending $700M to retool plants and $3.5B to built a battery plant for mass EV production
The exec believes the future is electric, but it’ll take time
Electric cars and hybrids are currently having an inverted moment.
Speaking with The Drive at the 2024 Monterey Car Week, President and CEO of American Honda Kazuhiro Takizawa talked about EVs, ecosystems, and consumers.
Takizawa said, “You can’t force the customer to change their mind, really, and to some degree [you can incentivize] them but we just can’t force the people living in, say, the midwest, with no charging stations.”
The issue, Takizawa believes, is consumers won’t just make the change from ICE vehicles to EVs rapidly, even with incentives. It’s going to be a gradual changeover, according to the executive.
At the event Acura revealed a Performance EV concept that previews one of the first EVs to come from the luxury automaker on the in-house developed Honda 0 platform. The production version will roll off the assembly line at the automaker’s Marysville Auto Plant in Ohio in 2025.
Honda’s currently underway with a $700 million retooling effort at three of its plants along with a $3.5 billion battery plant all for U.S. EV mass production. The moves could position Honda to outpace all but Tesla in U.S. EV production.
Takizawa’s comments came days before Ford shifted its electrification strategy, killed its three-row EV, and doubled down on hybrids.
Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson noted at the 2024 Monterey Car Week that the softening of the EV market is a “temporary blip,” and that “retrenchment Into hybrids is a blind alley.” Both Rawlinson and Lucid’s president of design and brand, Derek Jenkins, commented that consumers have more EV options than ever, yet, the options are underwhelming.
Battery EVs are the best way to reach carbon neutrality, according to Takizawa. But today’s ecosystem is lacking for charging. Societal changes and societal issues take time, he noted.
Honda’s current EV, the Prologue, is a reskinned Chevrolet Blazer EV based on GM’s Ultium platform. Green Car Reports noted in February at the crossover SUV’s launch it gets to something greater as an effort that registers as “normal.” No niche effort like the Toyota bZ4x, the Prologue aimed for capturing EV-curious Accord, CR-V, and Passport drivers.
Located in Perth, Western Australia, EPCA became famous for its “Green Machine,” a CAT 777 100-ton haul truck it converted to electric power. Now, the company says it has plans to produce 50-70 more of the battery electric mining trucks … each year.
After showcasing its Green Machine at two major mining events in Australia recently, EPCA (an acronym that stands for Electric Power Conversion Australia) a recent case study commissioned by one of the company’s key suppliers says it has plans to produce 50-70 of its 100-ton battery electric mining trucks annually.
There might be demand, too. Switching the CAT from diesel to battery electric power boosts the haul truck’s horsepower from 1,000 hp to 1,120 hp, and bumps torque from 4,700 Nm (3,400 lb ft) to 5,200 Nm (3,835 lb ft), and that torque increase comes at 0 rpm.
The electrons powering those motors are provided courtesy of six 290 kWh Xerotech batteries running in parallel. The combined battery pack is good for some 1740 kWh of energy storage, which makes it one of the biggest vehicle batteries we’ve ever heard of.
For their part, the EPCA team seem pretty proud of their new truck. Clayton Franklin, Chief Engineer and Founder of EPCA, said, “We’ve now got the world’s highest energy density, full battery-electric mining truck … our mining clients here in Australia are ecstatic that this truck is being built and manufactured right here in Western Australia.”
With 5,500 mining trucks currently operating in Australia (and more than 55,000 operating globally), finding buyers for 50-70 trucks per year seems pretty doable. The only question now is whether EPCA – or, more accurately, Xerotech – can get them built.
Electrek’s Take
EPCA Green Machine, with dump body by Austin Engineering; via Austin Engineering.
As we discussed in our special mining episode of Quick Charge, mines are great applications for battery-electric vehicles, and massive electric vehicles like this one from EPCA and similar models from Caterpillar and Liebherr are filling out the market nicely. That said, I think I made these points well enough there to repost the video, below, and argue out the details in the comments. Enjoy!
Global logistics firm DSV placed an order for 300 fully electric semi trucks from Volvo Trucks. The deal is one of the largest such orders placed so far, and gives DSV one of the largest electric trucking fleets in Europe.
Every day, more than 20,000 DSV trucks are on the road, moving goods for the company’s customers around the world. And now – thanks to DSV’s commitment to its ESG goals – a growing number of those trucks will be running on electric power.
“I’m very proud to deepen the partnership we have with DSV. Collaboration and a strong commitment to really make a difference is essential for making sustainable transport and big CO2 reductions a reality,” says Roger Alm, President Volvo Trucks. “This order is proof of their trust in our company and shows that zero-exhaust emissions transport is a viable solution here and now.”
DSV’s order for 300 Volvo FH Aero Electric models, which have improved aerodynamics compared to previous models, are among the company’s most efficient EVs. They’ll be deployed throughout DSV’s European operations as part of a larger order that includes 500 Volvo Trucks powered by the brand’s high efficiency Penta diesel and gas powerplants.
“Collaboration across sectors is key to battle climate change, and we are happy to extend our partnership with Volvo in our joint effort to reduce emissions in the transport industry,” says Søren Schmidt, CEO DSV Road. “As a global leader in logistics, we must try to stay at the forefront of the green transition and this agreement is a fantastic example of how new technologies can be brought to market at scale to make them more accessible for our customers. The deal with Volvo is an important step towards enabling a more sustainable future in trucking.”
DSV plans to take delivery of the trucks between Q4 of 2024 and the end of 2025. The company plans to deploy 2,000 electric trucks by 2030.
Electrek’s Take
Source image via Volvo Trucks; expanded using Fotor AI.
Since 2019, Volvo Trucks’ global deliveries of electric trucks have grown to 1,977 Class 8 trucks in 2023 (up 256% from the year before, and still growing, as the company sees continued interest from customers in 2024). In addition to sheer numbers, Volvo has market share. In Europe, more than 50% of electric truck buyers chose a Volvo during Q1 of ’24 – fully 56%, in fact, with a 44% share of electric trucks sold in the US, as well.
Once DSV’s order is filled, Volvo Trucks will have more than 4,000 fully electric semi trucks on the road, racking up even more millions of zero emission travel.
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Source link by Electrek
Author Jo Borrás
#DSV #orders #electric #semi #trucks #Volvo #plans #buy
Inflation Reduction Act’s 45W, intended for commercial fleets, subsidizes EV leasing
Up to $7,500 of federal money applies to EV leases regardless of their price or where they’re built
That’s stoked a leasing boom that undercuts some of the original intent of the IRA
If you seek a new luxury EV, or an EV made overseas, the payment math may point toward some very attractive lease terms—even when compared versus sensibly financed purchase terms.
Why? Thank the government—and the U.S. Treasury Department, which opted to interpret and implement subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act in a way that some lawmakers argue doesn’t keep to the original intent of the law.
The funds sweetening consumer leases come from the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit, or IRS 45W, which was enabled by the IRA. Originally intended to allow operators of commercial fleets a subsidy for adopting EVs, its final language was tweaked to allow automakers’ captive finance partners to apply the credit to EVs leased to consumers.
Nearly every EV can qualify for such a credit toward leasing, while credits on EV purchase only apply to a small subset of EVs. So it’s not surprising that as a result, leasing is surging relative to sales—and it’s the EV segment that’s pulling more weight in this surge than non-EVs.
TransUnion EV lease rates by year
Federal funds partly behind an EV leasing surge
In a report from the credit giant TransUnion out earlier this month, EV leasing has helped push overall lease volumes from 539,000 in Q1 2023 to 714,000 in Q3 2024. That’s approaching the leasing levels seen in 2020, when interest rates were much lower.
According to Merchant, the number of lower-priced EVs arriving on the market had a role, as well as the arrival of leasing incentives—in the form of federal tax credits resulting in subsidized EV leases that applied starting in January 2023.
What IRS 45W has meant in the context of passenger vehicles is that, indirectly, automakers have been able to count on up to $7,500 per EV they lease—regardless of the vehicle’s assembly location, the origin of its battery pack or materials, or the sticker price of the vehicle, and regardless of the lessee’s household income. There’s also no limit to the number of credits an automaker—nee leasing company—can claim toward leasing, or to the number of federally subsidized EV leases a customer can commit to.
That’s made leasing a more preferred mode of moving luxury and imported EVs—because IRS 30D, the Clean Vehicle Credit that applies to the purchase of EVs or plug-in hybrids, emphasizes affordable American-made EVs built with the support of battery materials from North America or trade partners. To claim that EV tax credit of up to $7,500, buyers must meet household-income requirements and the vehicles meet a set of criteria for American assembly, EV battery sourcing, and a price ceiling of $55,000 or $80,000 depending on the vehicle type.
2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E GT
For EVs, leasing surpasses financing
“Auto leasing has certainly been up overall in recent quarters, but nowhere has it been more pronounced than in the EV market, where leasing has now surpassed financing as the preferred option among consumers acquiring a new EV,” said Satyan Merchant, senior vice president for auto and mortgage at TransUnion.
The TransUnion observation is the latest piece of broad leasing-industry data to see that the dynamics around leasing are changing, with EVs front and center. Last year, fellow credit giant Experian noted a market shift toward EV leasing, with the shift easy to see starting around April 2023—just as those a few months.
That in itself leads to a paradox of sorts. The boom in leasing, spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act itself, arguably softens the intended incentives for industry to build out the EV supply chain and build more EVs in America—just before that IRA buildout really starts to pay off in more American-made and American-sourced EVs.
UAW-made sticker on 2022 Chevy Bolt EV
Biden EV policy working against itself?
“If consumers choose to take up the tax credit primarily via leasing under Section 45W, automakers will not face financial pressure to use battery components sourced from the United States, use recycled batteries, or source critical minerals from the United States or free trade agreement partners,” summed the Peterson Institute for International Economics in a May 2023 working paper on the IRA, pointing out that U.S. imports of EVs from the EU and South Korea have increased since the IRA. “Section 45W thus reduces the incentive to create a separate redundant EV battery input supply chain outside of China.”
The policy has, however, led to greater lease popularity for U.S.-made, affordable EVs, too. Last year Experian noted that the Tesla Model 3 is one of the top-ten most-leased models in the U.S.
Tesla Model 3 (Europe-market refresh)
Last year, Green Car Reports reached out to the majority of automaker finance firms and the IRS regarding the frequency of 45W claims in EV lease financing, and those captive finance companies that responded stated that they were choosing to keep that information private. We reached out again to the IRS, and to the Treasury Department, for an update on how many 45W claims there have been, and what proportion of those are estimated to be linked to passenger-vehicle leases versus than commercial vehicle fleets.
The Treasury Department confirmed to Green Car Reports Friday that it doesn’t yet have top-level data for 2023 regarding the amount claimed under 45W, how many vehicles it applies to, or the end use of vehicles for which the claims are made.
In the meantime, the consumer EV leasing market will likely continue to be subsidized with federal funds until Congress steps in and sets some ground rules. That means subsidized EV leases will continue until next year’s session at the earliest. As with so much about current EV policy and election season, it’s all subject to change.
Source link by Green Car Reports
Author news@greencarreports.com (Bengt Halvorson)
#loophole #subsidizes #imports #fueled #leasing #boom
