Let's hope it's still a Happy New Year! This week, we have news on Harley-Davidson, Tons of Tesla, ABB, and Accountability in California: This is our Top EV News for the week of Jan 27, 2023.
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Bio: John is the COO at EPG, a company focused on helping electric and autonomous vehicle companies hire the best talent. In addition to these services, EPG puts out an informative weekly newsletter dubbed Mobility EVo. You can sign up for the newsletter here.
Harley Goes Electric
Harley-Davidson CEO, Jochen Zeitz, has announced that the company is planning to phase out ICE-powered motorcycles and will slowly transform into an all-electric brand. The transition is expected to take decades and will not happen overnight. The company is focusing on different consumer profiles and targeting people who may not typically ride large motorcycles and even those who don't ride at all. The move is part of a long-term strategy, and the company is also preparing for the transition by launching the LiveWire brand.
Tesla- Too Much News
According to Edmunds, American car shoppers are researching Tesla vehicles more frequently following Tesla's recent price cut announcement. Edmunds' data shows that on-site shopper consideration of Tesla vehicle pages jumped to 4% of all researched brands, compared to 1.9% the week prior. Additionally, the prices of 2020 model year or newer used Teslas dropped 24.5% since their peak in June 2022.
Tesla reported its 4th quarter earnings for 2022 which included revenue of $24.32 billion, and earnings per share of $1.19, beating expectations on both earnings and revenue.
Tesla is investing an additional $3.6 billion to continue growing its Gigafactory in Nevada on top of the $6.2 billion already invested in the state. This will add 3,000 new team members and two new factories.
Charger Production
ABB E-mobility, a leader in EV charging infrastructure, has announced that production of EV chargers has started at its recently opened manufacturing operations in Columbia, SC (Go Gamecocks). This is expected to significantly reduce delivery and lead times for DC fast chargers in the US, allowing charging developers, owners, and operators to deploy reliable chargers more quickly.
A recent study estimated that the US needs to quadruple its charging infrastructure by 2025 and grow it more than eight times by 2030 to meet the demand from rising EV adoption. ABB E-mobility's EV chargers produced in SC satisfy a variety of Buy America Act programs and include the Terra 184, which provides up to 180 kW of power in a compact footprint, ideal for highway and heavy-duty vehicle applications.
Accountability
Infrastructure is a critical piece to the mass adoption of EVs, and we often hear about challenges related to EV charging. California wants accountability. The California Energy Commission plans to set rules on the reliability and availability of public EV charging stations and to hold charging companies accountable for charging infrastructure.
The commission plans to open a public feedback process that will lead to a definition of station "uptime" that does not "allow excessive exclusions" of the sort that can often be used by charging networks. They will no longer rely on the networks' self-reported claims …
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