Electric Vehicles

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s deployment of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles is not quick enough to meet the bloc’s targets, EU auditors said on Tuesday.

The European Court of Auditors (ECA) looked at how the European Commission supports member states in expanding electrical charging infrastructure as well as how it manages EU funding.

It found that availability of public charging stations varies significantly between member states and that payment systems are not harmonised, forcing drivers to use multiple subscriptions or payment methods to charge their cars if they travel in different EU countries.

“Last year, one in every 10 cars sold in the EU was electrically chargeable, but charging infrastructure is unevenly accessible across the EU,” said Ladislav Balko, the ECA member responsible for the report.

The Commission has set a target to have 1 million charging points by 2025 and is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90% from 1990 levels by 2050.

The number of charging points in the 27 EU nations and the UK increased by roughly 36,000 a year from about 34,000 in 2014 to 250,000 in September 2020.

There is a significant risk that the target of 1 million public charging points by 2025 would be missed if deployment continues to follow current trends, the auditors said.

About 150,000 new points would be needed each year – almost 3,000 a week – to close the gap.

Carmakers forecast a sixfold increase in production of electric vehicles in Europe between 2019 and 2025, reaching more than 4 million cars and vans a year, representing more than a fifth of EU car production volumes.

The European Commission, meanwhile, has set a target of at least 30 million zero-emission vehicles by 2030 and a largely zero-emission vehicle fleet by 2050. That compares with roughly two million currently registered in the EU.

Auditors drove more than 2,000km in an electric vehicle between Germany, France and Italy to test EU co-funded charging infrastructure. Overall, they said their experience was positive and they managed to charge their cars in all the stations.

But their report warned that drivers lack real-time data, such as information on which chargers on their route are faulty or have long queues.

About a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU come from transport, predominantly (72%) through road transport.

Press release from Eversource:

April 12, 2021

In an effort to provide drivers with effective and convenient charging options that enable long-distance electric vehicle (EV) travel, Eversource is joining the Electric Highway Coalition. Comprised of seven of the nation’s leading utility companies, the coalition will advance clean energy by helping to enable EV drivers’ access to uninterrupted travel across major regions of the country.

“This coalition makes range anxiety a thing of the past by creating an organized network of chargers along major highways,” said Eversource Vice President of Strategy & Policy Roger Kranenburg. “As a catalyst for clean energy, we are deploying one of the largest EV charging programs in the nation. We’re rapidly advancing to our goal of providing 3,500 charging ports across Massachusetts, and we’re seeking regulatory and state approval in both Connecticut and New Hampshire for EV programs in those states. Our program and this coalition will play vital roles in reducing carbon emissions across the region and realizing our clean energy future.”

Each utility will provide EV charging solutions within its service territory through a network of DC fast chargers, coordinating with neighboring utilities, and will connect major highway systems from the Atlantic Coast, through the Midwest and South and into the Gulf and Central Plains regions. Other participating utilities include American Electric Power, Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Entergy Corporation, Southern Co., and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The Edison Electric Institute estimates 18 million EVs will be on U.S. roads by 2030, and while some drivers recognize the benefits of owning an EV, like low-cost home charging, many others are concerned with the availability of charging stations during long trips. Eversource and its partner utilities are demonstrating to customers that EVs can be a choice for both in-town driving and long road trips. Sites along major highways with easy access and amenities for travelers are being considered as coalition members work to determine final charging station locations. Charging stations will provide universal DC fast chargers that are capable of getting drivers back on the road in approximately 20-30 minutes.

This effort could help drivers realize the benefits of how EVs fit both their lifestyle and travel plans, especially if those plans cross state lines.

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This press release was produced by Eversource. The views expressed here are the author’s own.

Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices awards seek to recognize individuals or companies that have accomplished an innovative or disruptive breakthrough in their field. StoreDot received the award for its ground-breaking FlashBattery XFC technology that can charge an EV in just five minutes, the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle, and delivers a driving range of up to 300 miles. This breakthrough is achieved by replacing graphite in the cell’s anode with metalloid nano-particles and proprietary organic compounds to overcome major safety issues, battery cycle life, and swelling during the charging process. In particular, Frost & Sullivan analysts noted FlashBattery’s unique ability to eliminate issues such as plating, thermal fluctuations, and unstable charging.

StoreDot’s XFC battery was benchmarked against competing products on several attributes (match to market needs, reliability, quality, positioning, and design) and its customer impact (brand equity). StoreDot achieved close to full marks in both categories, which was accredited to FlashBattery being a “one-stop-shop solution that offers a safe fast charging

solution at a competitive price, and has the backing of their strong industry partnerships with OEMs, manufacturers, and energy providers”.

Vijay Wilfred, Senior Research Analyst, TechVision, at Frost & Sullivan, says: “Batteries are one of the primary technologies when it comes to EV integration, and although lithium-ion batteries have substantially transformed the industry, these systems require long charging times and are unable to keep that charge. StoreDot’s technology is a significant step up, and with its outstanding performance in both categories, the company was a step ahead of its competition. With its strong R&D team, we can see that it will be able to achieve rapid commercialization through mass production.”

StoreDot’s R&D team consists of more than 100 scientists, including 34 PHDs, who “continuously strive to achieve disruptive developments in FlashBattery technology”, says Frost & Sullivan. In addition, it states that StoreDot’s strong and diverse patent portfolio, consisting of 82 global patents, provides a significant competitive advantage in the fast-growing rapid charging battery market.

In January of this year, StoreDot achieved a world first when it launched engineering samples of its first-generation battery technology manufactured on standard lithium-ion production lines. This removes a significant barrier to achieving full commercialization of StoreDot’s XFC technology by eliminating the need for manufacturing partners to invest in costly bespoke manufacturing equipment.

Frost & Sullivan noted that another indicator of StoreDot’s ability to flourish commercially is its focus on meeting the needs of the future EV industry with its second- and third-generation technologies. StoreDot’s second-generation battery, which will be launched as a prototype later in 2021, comprises a silicon-dominant anode and will bring the price of XFC technology much closer to that of standard lithium-ion batteries. Looking further ahead, its third-generation cells will use a hybrid form of solid-state technologies to deliver extreme energy density (XED) as an evolution to XFC, thus continuously improving the EV driving experience by delivering more miles per minute of charging.

Dr. Doron Myersdorf, CEO and Cofounder of StoreDot, says: “We are delighted to receive this award, which is testament to the vision and hard work of StoreDot’s qualified team of scientists together with our partners. The world is facing a mounting environmental crisis and making a rapid transition to EVs will play a crucial role in helping our planet. However, achieving that goal is only possible with the availability of a true and proven new battery technology.”

Myersdorf continues: “Today, there are still cynics that believe that XFC is not possible. Yet, we proved time and again that it is very real. First in 2019, when we partnered with BP to demonstrate the world’s first live charge of a two-wheeled EV, and more recently with the launch of our first-generation engineering samples. This award from industry experts provides a further proof point that not only is XFC possible, it is also commercially viable and ready to scale for mass production.”

About StoreDot:
StoreDot is a pioneer of extreme fast charging (XFC) batteries that overcome the critical barrier to mainstream EV adoption – range and charging anxiety. The company has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by designing and synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, making it possible to fully charge an EV in just five minutes – the same time it takes to refuel a conventional combustion engine vehicle. StoreDot’s battery technology is optimized for best driver experience with XFC in Li-ion batteries, as well as future generations delivering extreme energy density (XED).

StoreDot’s strategic investors include bp, Daimler, Samsung Ventures and TDK. In 2019, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating the live full charge of a two-wheeled EV in just five minutes. Moving XFC battery technology from the lab to a commercially viable product for the first time, StoreDot has launched engineering samples of its first-generation batteries, designed to be manufactured at scale on traditional Li-lion production lines.

For more information see: www.store-dot.com.

SOURCE StoreDot

Related Links

http://www.store-dot.com

Originally published on EV Annex.

Doesn’t it feel like the news is always so negative nowadays? Well, there is a bright spot out there. And it happen to be in the auto industry. Once considered a tiny niche, the electric vehicle sector is surging. With a looming climate crisis on the horizon, the ongoing adoption of electric cars is something to celebrate.

Top selling Tesla Model Y and Tesla Model 3 in front of a row of other Teslas.

Ben Gorman relates the good news in Axios. Gorman spoke with iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer who announced, “It’s clear EV sales, both in the U.S. and globally, are increasing on a percentage basis faster than traditional internal combustion vehicles.”

And that’s not all. “Multiple automakers have introduced high-volume models in the past 12 months, with Tesla’s Model Y and Ford’s Mach-E being two prime examples,” Brauer explained.

“The full EV sector’s Q1 tallies are still emerging, though Tesla is the leading player … beat[ing] analysts’ expectations with 184,800 deliveries,” reports Groman.

And it’s not just Tesla. Although still small, Ford did announce sales of 6,614 of its Mach-E in the U.S. And GM reported that U.S. Q1 sales of its Bolt EV are up over 50% compared to last year.

Old-school Ford Mustang, Ford Mustang Mach-E, and Tesla Model 3.

After viewing a recent Morgan Stanley research note, Gorman reports that EV sector sales are rising with “over 181,000 fully electric vehicles sold worldwide in February, which is up 138% compared to February 2020, per Morgan Stanley and data partner EV-Volumes. And January’s numbers were even higher.”

That said, it’s still important to keep things in perspective. The EV sector may be gaining momentum on Wall Street but its still quite small in relative terms. And, the U.S. market continues to lag behind. It’s reported that “per Morgan Stanley, fully electric cars were [only] 2.3% of U.S. sales in February, compared to 6.3% in Europe and 7.9% in China.”

 

 

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden told lawmakers at a White House meeting on Monday he was open to raising the gas tax by 5 cents to pay for his infrastructure bill, an ABC News reporter said on Twitter, citing comments by Democratic U.S. Representative Donald Payne.

Payne, who attended the meeting, also said Biden is open to instituting a user fee on electric vehicles, the ABC News reporter said.

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While much of the corporate world is rushing toward electric vehicles, industrial conglomerate

Ingersoll Rand

is selling its golf cart business–Club Car–to a private equity player.

Ingersoll (ticker: IR) announced the plans on Monday. Private equity company Platinum Equity will pay almost $1.7 billion for Club Car, which makes golf cars along with recreational and utility vehicles. Those vehicles can be powered with gas, but these days are often powered with rechargeable batteries.

“Demand for electric vehicles across many product platforms and geographies is at an all-time high,” Mark Wagner, Club Car’s president, said in the news release. “Golf remains a very stable, healthy business while our consumer and commercial markets are rapidly growing around the world.”

In its fourth-quarter earnings presentation, Ingersoll recognized the importance of a transition to zero-emissions vehicles calling it a key market driving “across industrial, commercial and low-speed consumer markets.”

The price paid works out to about 12 times 2020 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda.

Investors, frankly, never thought of Ingersoll as an electric-vehicle maker. The Club Car business amounts to roughly 15% of total sales for Ingersoll.   

The electric-vehicle connection isn’t a stretch though.

Polaris

(PII), for instance, is pushing further into electric vehicles, recently announcing separate partnerships with Zero Motorcycles and Optimus Ride to bring both electric as well as autonomous vehicles to niche end markets. Polaris makes utility vehicles, as well as snowmobiles and Indian-branded motorcycles.

Ingersoll stock was down about 0.8% on the news. The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

and

S&P 500

were effectively flat. Year to date, Ingersoll shares are up about 10%.

Ingersoll has plans other than electric vehicles. “Today’s announcement to divest Club Car demonstrates swift progression on our transformation journey,” said Ingersoll CEO
Vicente Reynal
in the company’s news release. “We are excited about future opportunities to create long-term value for stockholders with the cash from the transaction, including significant organic and inorganic investment into our core business segments as we advance our growth strategies and expand our addressable market.”

Ingersoll has been busy in recent months. The company merged with industrial flow controls company Gardner Denver and spun off air-conditioning player

Trane Technologies

(TT).

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This deal helps pay down debt and positions the company to make acquisitions in the future. “The deal should be viewed fairly positively, as it accelerates this portfolio simplification, and IR is selling the asset after it has performed extremely well,” wrote Barclays analyst Julian Mitchell in a Monday report.

This could be a case of Ingersoll selling high. “Next, we would expect [the company] IR to undertake M&A activity following the recent acquisition of the Tuthill vacuum and blowers business, and in light of its un-levered balance sheet.”  

When the deal closes, Ingersoll’s debt to Ebitda will be less than one. That’s roughly half of the debt load carried by the average industrial company.

Future M&A is one reason Mitchell likes Ingersoll stock. He rates shares Buy and has a $56 price target for shares. Overall, his peers like–but don’t love–Ingersoll stock. About 53% of analysts covering the company rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the Dow is about 60%.

Write to editors@barrons.com

(Reuters) – Electric vehicle startup Rivian, backed by Amazon.com Inc and Ford Motor Co, said on Monday that South Korean manufacturer Samsung SDI Co Limited would supply battery cells for its vehicles.

Rivian, which aims to put an electric pickup and SUV in production this year, said it had been working with Samsung throughout the process of developing the battery cells.

“We’re excited about the performance and reliability of Samsung SDI battery cells combined with our energy-dense module and pack design,” said RJ Scaringe, chief executive officer of Rivian.

The U.S.-based startup has raised $8 billion since the start of 2019 and added $2.65 billion funding in an investment round led by T. Rowe Price in January.

The Tesla Inc rival has been in talks with bankers about its plans to go public and is aiming for an initial public offering in September at a valuation of about $50 billion or more, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.