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We've got 69 EV industry leaders, owners and geeks join us this week. I'm really happy you're here.

Teaser: I've got two stories in editing right now:

1. An interview with José Pontes, the EV data wizard from EV-Sales blog.
2. The Ioniq 5 test drive, a community review. It'll be the first video on our YouTube channel.

The competition of the Map of the EV Universe will be ending in about 24 hours. Last chance to win the 500 $DOGE, a Tesla battery bank, and a "everything we ever make" subscription to our EV Universe!

I hope you'll enjoy today's read.

- Jaan

Biden (wants to look like he) pushes e-America

*This article, contains a lot of what is my personal opinion, which is fine to disagree with. I'd love it if you did, even - let me know where I'm wrong.

Big announcement

President Biden wants 50% of all new cars sold in the United States in 2030 to be all-electric, plug-in hybrid, or hydrogen-powered. He will lay out the goal in an executive order. Which will by the way be nonbinding and entirely voluntary.

*Music stops*

Time to bring in the chart I made on March 24, when I wrote the article called "Come on, US, set a date already..."

This chart details the countries and automakers that have promised to go all-electric (not hybrids) by the dates shown. Now if you look at the commitments from all around the world...

How does the new agenda of the US look?

To me, the announcement looks similar to the compliance EVs some automakers have been making. We all know they aren't really what buyers want, and they're more like home assignments for the carmakers.

Promising 50% electrification by 2030 is a poor attempt at trying to look progressive, but staying safe and making a minimum effort. I expect this goal to be happening whether Biden announced anything or not. On my radar, this announcement is categorized as "weak".

That doesn't mean nothing good will come of it. The $ that comes along with this will make some impact. The now-confirmed $7.5B charging infrastructure bill (which we covered last time here) and a point-of-sale incentive will help the EV adoption. I hope they won't add hybrids to the scheme after this, though.

Lowballing this means that either the Biden administration isn't serious about achieving the climate goals or it's just afraid to make big enough of a change. He's playing it safe. Or just doesn't understand that we're moving way faster than "50% electrified (again, not zero-emission) by 2030".

You're not invited

Executives from the Big Three OEMs - Ford, GM, and Stellantis - as well as representatives from the United Automobile Workers union, were expected to attend an event on the new target at the White House.

Funnily enough - the one major forces leading the electrification of the US, like Tesla, weren't invited at all. Even Musk wondered about that on Twitter.

The Big Three announced a joint goal of achieving 40-50% of their sales electric by 2030. So juuuust about to fit the same agenda.

I'd get it if Biden or the White House would say out loud that the EV-makers aren't talked about or invited because they already lead in this world and it's the ICE makers that need to be converted. But they haven't. And Biden not mentioning Tesla (like, at all, anywhere) has made me wonder what's up for quite some time...

When will we see this, but with Biden?

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📺 What I'm watching

• Revel co-founder Paul Suhey discusses the rideshare program in New York and the goal of 100% electrification:

• Pininfarina Battista, the electric hypercar, debuts on the roads of California ahead of Monterey Car Week: *drooling* (video)
• Volkswagen ID.5 GTX pre-production model exterior and first drive by Autogefühl (video).
• Rich from Rich Rebuilds built the Mad Max version of the Tesla Model 3:

• How does it feel to drive a Rivian R1T? Preorder holders got to test it out:

⚡ Znippets

• IaaS, as in Infrastructure-as-a-Service: Xos Hub can power up to 20 EVs, carrying about 3.3 MWh of power on a 40-foot trailer (link):

• The Real Tesla Killer... seems to be this road in Yosemite. 5 Teslas have crashed in the same spot on Autopilot, here's #4 (link):

• Arrival completed a demonstration at a fully functioning parcel depot without a driver inside its autonomous Van (link). They'll be co-developing its digital fleet and vehicle capabilities with Microsoft (link).

• Arrival also said it's on track to start trial productions in the UK at the end of this year and start productions in the South Carolina microfactory by Q2 2022 (link). Great to see them being on schedule, it's one of the commercial EV companies I'm really rooting for.
• While we're talking of electric vans, Workhorse is about to revise the design of its C-1000 van to increase the payload capacity. The production started in Q1. (link) Adaption to customer needs can never be a bad thing.
• 🖊️ InsideEVs and Motor1 launched what they're hoping to be the "world's largest survey about electric vehicles" (link). It's a bit long and might get repetitive, but it's for a good cause so I'm in.
• Rivian said to be in the secret talks to build a factory in the UK, near Bristol. The same site, Gravity smart campus, has been connected with rumors of Tesla's Giga UK location. (link)
• Check out these EV wayfinding signs in Montgomery County (link):

• 😠 Victoria, Australia EV owners are pissed, and rightfully so. If you don't send in your odometer for the road tax, your car registration may be suspended. (link)
• 💰 Ford will spend more on EVs than on ICEs starting 2023 (link).
• Related: a rather wholesome EV ad from Ford.

• Looks like the first Stellantis brand to go fully electric will be DS Automobiles in 2024. (link) Or it might be that this is UK-specific.
• UK prime minister's climate spokesperson says she won't get an EV to replace her diesel because of the range anxiety visiting her relatives 250mi away. (link) Yes, the good old "what if I want to drive around the world every other day" problem.
• RUMOR: Tesla might have completed the prototype of the cheaper, $25k compact (Model unnamed) already and trial production is supposed to start at the end of 2021 (link). I'm a bit skeptical here, as the model requires the new 4680 battery cells, which are already in short supply and most likely delaying Semi and Cybertruck.

• Tesla Model S reservation holders aren't happy about the waiting game. The Letter of Support, signed by 15 buyers, details what's going on: (link). There's been more of these communication problems lately specific to the delayed deliveries. Seems that Tesla needs to up its game here.
• Five EV charging brands were found to have security vulnerabilities that might leave the user data exposed to simple hacks: Project EV, Wallbox, EVBox, EO Charging, and Hypervolt. Most of these are now already fixed (link).
• 🔋 LG Energy Solution (LGES) will host a global Battery Innovation Contest, awarding up to $150k annually for R&D (link):

• General Motors' released its Q2 results:

GM pumps its EV & AV (autonomous vehicle) investment plan by $8B to a total of $35B through 2025,

focusing on battery-electric vehicles instead of just electrified vehicles (link). Now that part makes me happy.

The warranty recall costs for Bolt EV (you know, explosions) were $800M (link).

The Q2 analyst deck can be found here (pdf).

🐦 Tweek (Tweet of the Week)

So Tesla released the 2024.24.1 software update, the version name of which caused some confusion, as the first four digits usually show the year. I just had to...

🗯️ Quote of the week:

“No toilet, no coffee, one charging post out of service/defective—a sad state of affairs. This is anything but a premium charging experience, IONITY!”

- Herbert Diess, the CEO of Volkswagen (comment in GER).

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