Another week, another selection of exciting EV news to share with family and friends.
Are you done with all of your holiday shopping? I haven’t started. I have more important things like EV news. Don’t tell my wife or son. Check out some of this week’s top EV headlines below or get the full scoop here. At the very least, you’ll be the smartest person at the water cooler when it comes to major headlines in the industry and at best, you’ll win one of our free prizes!
Truck of the Year
Can you guess MotorTrend’s Truck of the Year? I’ll give you a hint, it doesn’t run on gas? It’s the Rivian R1T. Check out MotorTrends’ video above for their truck comparison. In other Rivian news, Rivian plans to open a plant in Georgia near Walton and Morgan counties, about an hour from Atlanta and along I-20.
The facility will be Rivian’s second U.S. manufacturing site and Georgia’s largest economic development project ever. The multibillion-dollar factory will produce 200,000 vehicles a year with around 8,000 employees by 2030. Congrats to Rivian for continuing to build on its successes.
The Plan
The Biden administration released details for its EV charging plan earlier this week. To achieve these bold efforts, the current administration will establish a joint Office of Energy and Transportation in order to ease the transition from gas-powered vehicles to EVs. The goal is 500,000 chargers and to dedicate $5 billion to get this done. There is also an additional $2 billion planned for a grant program for charger development in communities and corridors.
In addition, the plan requires gathering diverse stakeholder input and preparation to issue guidance and standards for states and cities. In order to properly prepare cities, the plan also requests information from domestic manufacturers and promotes new solicitation for Alternative Fuel Corridors. I like big goals. Leave a comment below if you think this is too ambitious or if it’s the right goal.
Toyota’s Plan
What car manufacturer do you think of when I say the word ‘reliability’? When I think of reliability, I think of Toyota. Just this week, the reliable Toyota announced a massive plan for 30 BEV models by 2030 and teased 15 upcoming EVs. The company has broadcasted 3.5 million BEVs globally by the end of the decade and believes the Lexus brand will be fully electric in Europe, North America and China by that time. Give me an electric Tacoma and an LFA-inspired EV and I am good to go. What else do you need?
Source: ElectricFish
It’s Not a Fish
We’ve all heard about the rolling blackouts in different markets around the country and the concerns about adding more to the grid. ElectricFish has a solution. ElectricFish EV chargers use large batteries that obtain excess renewable energy throughout the day when available. Instead of you plugging your EV into the grid, you are plugging into the ElectricFish battery. It’s able to store energy, then detach the EV charging load from the grid.
Each charger can be used for up to 10 minutes for a charge of up to 100 miles of range, depending on your vehicle. The intent is to make the charging process fast and simple, similar to filling your car with gas. ElectricFish is working with gas stations initially as the install is much more cost-effective and timely compared to installing traditional charging stations. Brilliant!
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Keyword: Rivian’s TOTY, Toyota’s BEVs, Biden, Charging: EV News Dec. 16