Check out the full newsletter for the week, which includes more Electric Vehicle News, and also news about Autonomous Vehicles. You'll find news about compelling EV reveals, an electric Rolls Royce on the streets, and other interesting stories.
Bio: John Rooney 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 that is now named Mobility EVo. You can sign up for the newsletter here.
A Better Battery
One of, if not the biggest areas for improvements in EVs, is batteries. How can they charge faster, degrade less, and have a longer range? Toyota thinks it has the answer with a special coolant that doesn’t conduct electricity easily. According to Toyota’s project manager, the company is focusing on balancing three factors: cruising range, battery degradation, and charging speed. This new battery system will be found in the new bZ4X, which will start selling in mid-2022.
Guts. Glory …
We talked about trucks last week, so why not talk about more electric trucks. The new Ram 1500 has been teased. It's a full-size electric pickup and should arrive in 2024. Ram also has plans for an electric heavy-duty truck that will also be offered with a fuel cell. Eventually, Ram plans on a midsize electric truck. We look forward to seeing images of the actual all-electric Ram.
Oil Country
Lucid recently finalized agreements in Saudi Arabia to build a full production factory. Lucid’s motivation for the plant is the global demand for its EVs. This plant will allow it to scale better and also combat climate change in one of the world’s leading producers of oil. Lucid believes the new plant could generate up to $3.4 billion in value for the company over a span of fifteen years. The plant will be located in King Abdullah Economic City and Lucid expects to produce up to 150,000 vehicles per year at its peak.
A New World Record
Rainer Zietlow and Derek Collins took a 97-day, 35,700-mile journey across the United States in a VW ID.4, setting a new Guinness World Record for the longest journey by an EV in a single country. The pair began their journey on July 13, 2021, and made more than 200 stops to charge the car.
Zietlow and Collins started the adventure at VW’s HQ in VA, drove through 49 states, and ended up back at the HQ in VA. My wife, brother, and I once drove 1,600 miles from Columbia, SC to Denver, CO. That was a lot of work and I can’t imagine driving nearly 36,000 miles. It probably helps that Rainer Zietlow is a professional long-distance driver. Congrats to Rainer and Derek!
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