Electric Vehicles

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Tuesday evening, the Fort Wayne City Council voted 3:4 against an ordinance for the Volkswagen Electric Vehicle Project Funding Grant Program.

The ordinance was for a $90 thousand grant from the Volkswagen Diesel Emissions Environmental Mitigation Trust for State Beneficiaries for the State of Indiana to bring 27 electric vehicle charging stations to the city. The city’s share of the project would have been just over $250 thousand.

The grant would have helped provide 24/7 charging stations in multiple, well lit, areas around the city:

• Meijer located on: Dupont Road, Diebold Road, Lima Road and Maysville Road
• Memorial Coliseum
• Berry Street
• Wayne Street
• Downtown location of Allen County Public Library
• Ash Brokerage Parking Garage
• Foster Park
• Jefferson Pointe Shopping Center

According to Kyle Winling with the Public Works Department, there are currently 40 electric vehicle chargers in the Fort Wayne area.

The world’s lithium is either mined in Australia or from salt flats in the Andean regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, operations that use large amounts of groundwater to pump out the brines, drawing down the water available to Indigenous farmers and herders. The water required for producing batteries has meant that manufacturing electric vehicles is about 50 percent more water intensive than traditional internal combustion engines. Deposits of rare earths, concentrated in China, often contain radioactive substances that can emit radioactive water and dust.

Focusing first on cobalt, automakers and other manufacturers have committed to eliminating “artisanal” cobalt from their supply chains, and have also said they will develop batteries that decrease, or do away with, cobalt altogether. But that technology is still in development, and the prevalence of these mines means these commitments “aren’t realistic,” said Mickaël Daudin of Pact, a nonprofit organization that works with mining communities in Africa.

Instead, Mr. Daudin said, manufacturers need to work with these mines to lessen their environmental footprint and make sure miners are working in safe conditions. If companies acted responsibly, the rise of electric vehicles would be a great opportunity for countries like Congo, he said. But if they don’t, “they will put the environment, and many, many miners’ lives at risk.”

Recycling could be better

As earlier generations of electric vehicles start to reach the end of their lives, preventing a pileup of spent batteries looms as a challenge.

Most of today’s electric vehicles use lithium-ion batteries, which can store more energy in the same space than older, more commonly-used lead-acid battery technology. But while 99 percent of lead-acid batteries are recycled in the United States, estimated recycling rates for lithium-ion batteries are about 5 percent.

Experts point out that spent batteries contain valuable metals and other materials that can be recovered and reused. Depending on the process used, battery recycling can also use large amounts of water, or emit air pollutants.

“The percentage of lithium batteries being recycled is very low, but with time and innovation, that’s going to increase,” said Radenka Maric, a professor at the University of Connecticut’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Thane city is set to become a model town for the adoption of Electric Vehicles (EVs), both in public transportation and private vehicles.

In a town hall on air pollution organised by Climate Voices — a collective of three organisations — along with the Maharashtra Environment and Climate Change Department’s Majhi Vasundhara initiative, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) announced that a pilot project will be launched in Thane.

Dr V M Motghare, Joint director (air quality), Maharashtra Pollution Control Board stated that given the rising air pollution from vehicles, the state government is pushing for EVs. “We will soon have a detailed electric vehicle policy for the entire state. Also, currently, we have nominated Thane as a model city across Maharashtra for implementing electric vehicles.”

An updated e-vehicles policy will be launched this year, which will include incentives and create infrastructure for private and public vehicles to make the transition to e-vehicles, said MPCB chairman Sudhir Srivastava in the town hall. Thane will be the first city in the state where private vehicle owners will be encouraged to make the transition to e-vehicles.

At present, the state government has shortlisted Thane, Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Nashik to promote electric vehicles in public transport. To encourage EVs to reduce air pollution, the Maharashtra government has also formed a seven-member committee to decide policies for their purchase in various departments and for charging facilities.

With the Centre giving a push for faster adoption of EVs, the state government had launched an ambitious project of setting up 500 EV charging stations across Maharashtra in a phase-wise manner.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is also planning to set up charging stations across the city. The BMC has been pushing the use of EVs by planning to start a rental service for electric bikes. India plans to turn about 30 per cent of its vehicles battery-powered by 2030.

Rumours of a Tesla gigafactory in Somerset have strengthened as the UK business secretary backed the ability of the county to “sustain an excellent gigafactory” and confirmed the Government is “considering” the site.

Speculation that US billionaire Elon Musk and his electric vehicle company are considering a move to build a new site at a currently under construction “smart campus” near Bridgwater, called Gravity, surfaced in the summer of 2020.

PropertyWeek, a trade publication, revealed the UK government was urgently seeking a 4 million sq ft site to accommodate a new Tesla gigafactory and that Gravity was one of the sites “trying to secure the enormous letting”.

The speculation was revived last month after a letter addressed to Elon Musk was sent to the Gravity site.

And this week, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng revealed he believes Somerset “has the manufacturing skill and competence to be able to sustain an excellent gigafactory”, adding that the Government is “considering and looking” at the site.

The minister was replying in the House of Commons to Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, who labelled the “remarkable” Gravity site “one of the best sites in the United Kingdom” and one which “should be considered for the very important future of car manufacturing and battery manufacturing”.

Mr Kwarteng also outlined the Government’s pledge to support battery and electric vehicle manufacturing in the UK over the coming years.

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Gravity has previously stated its aim to attract “world-leaders in advanced manufacturing, robotics, artificial intelligence and electric vehicles” to the site.

Somerset Live understands the Bridgwater site is one of only a handful of locations in Britain capable of housing a gigafactory and the large 635 acre location would appear to be an attractive potential base for Tesla.

Plans for the site include a direct link road to junction 23 of the M5, as well as purpose built on-site freight and passenger rail terminals.

Experts have noted a Tesla plant located in a country operating a right-hand drive system would be a “smart move” for the company as it continues its rapid global expansion.

The Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent institute for electrochemical energy storage research and skills development, estimates that Britain will need one gigafactory by 2022, two gigafactories by 2025 and eight gigafactories by 2040 to meet demand for electric vehicles and batteries.

Gravity hopes to begin announcing the companies that will be moving to the smart campus later this year, Somerset Live understands.

‘Remarkable’ Gravity ‘able to sustain an excellent gigafactory’

In a debate on battery manufacturing strategy in the UK in the House of Commons on Monday (March 1), Ian Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, said: “The secretary of state is fully aware of the remarkable site we have down here in Somerset at Gravity, where we could put not only a megafactory but a battery factory.

“We would welcome his support for the Gravity site, because it is one of the best sites in the United Kingdom.

“We have just applied for freeport status as well, to help the situation with Bristol port.

“Will the secretary of state stand up and say that this is one of the sites in Britain that should be considered for the very important future of car manufacturing and battery manufacturing in the United Kingdom?”

Kwasi Kwarteng, business secretary, replied: “I would be delighted to make a statement that we are considering and looking at these sites.

“My Honorable Friend will know that I have visited Hinkley Point in his constituency and seen the great work there.

“I have no doubt that the manufacturing skill and competence of his constituents and his area will be able to sustain an excellent gigafactory.”

Earlier in the debate, Mr Kwarteng said: “It is my priority as business secretary to ensure that the UK continues to enjoy the benefits from our transition to ultra low and zero emission vehicles by continuing to build an agile, innovative and cost-competitive supply chain, which we need to secure vital international investment.

“With that in mind, we remain dedicated and absolutely committed to securing UK battery manufacturing. As part of the prime minister’s 10-point plan, we have already announced £500 million to support the electrification of vehicles and their supply chains, and other strategically important technologies, through the automotive transformation fund over the next four years.

“We continue to work with investors through the automotive transformation fund, and to progress plans for manufacturing the batteries that we will need for the next generation of electric vehicles here in the UK.”

He added: “I repeat: we are 100% committed to making sure that the UK continues to be one of the best locations in the world for automotive manufacturing, and we are doing all we can to protect and create jobs while securing a competitive future for the sector here in the UK.”

What we know so far

UK government hunts for suitable Tesla factory site in UK

An article published in Property Week stated the Department for International Trade (DIT) was searching for a 4 million sq ft site to accommodate an electric vehicle research, development and manufacturing plant for Tesla.

A spokesman for DIT told Property Week: “The government is working with industry to help make the UK the location of choice to develop world-class electric vehicle technologies.

“DIT is working closely with partners to scope out sites for new investment into electric vehicle research, development, and manufacturing across the UK.”

Four million sq ft is around 90 acres – which is roughly the same size as phase one of another planned Tesla gigafactory in Berlin.

Mr Musk has previously said Tesla considered the UK before choosing Germany as a location for a gigafactory.

“Brexit made it too risky to put a gigafactory in the UK” he said in an interview published in Auto Express, a motoring magazine, in November 2019.

Tesla currently has three operational gigafactories in Nevada, New York and Shanghai.

Huge Somerset site was ‘trying to secure’ Tesla deal

Property Week stated in its report that one of the business parks attempting to attract Tesla was Somerset’s 650-acre Gravity industrial estate.

The Bridgwater site was the only potential base named in the report.

The proposed gigantic 635 acre “smart campus” aims to attract “some of the world’s most innovative and forward-thinking companies” to the county, according to a boss leading the scheme.

The site has fast transport links for road and rail, and benefits from close proximity to Exeter Airport and Bristol Airport, as well as Bristol sea port.

The business park will also feature dark fibre internet connectivity, low carbon on-site energy solutions and water abstraction facilities from the adjacent River Huntspill.

Tesla submitted energy documents to UK authorities in 2020

Tesla’s potential foray into Britain may also be in connection with the company’s energy supply ambitions.

In early May, Tesla submitted a document to the relevant authorities in order to become an energy supplier in the UK, according to The Telegraph.

In its application to the UK’s Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, Tesla requested for a license that would allow it to generate electricity to supply “any premises” in Great Britain.

Elon Musk previously stated that Tesla Energy could be as large or even larger than the car sector of the company.

The Telegraph reports: “In a move that analysts predict could shake up the country’s power landscape, the electric car company has applied to the UK’s energy regulator for a licence to generate electricity.

“The application does not make clear why Tesla has applied for the licence.

“Having built a significant battery business in recent years, industry sources say that Tesla is now preparing to enter the British market with its technology.”

New Delhi: The automobile industry of India has been buzzing with new advancements, innovation and trends lately. The mention of electric vehicles, which only used to make a few heads turn till about a few years back, is gradually catching the attention of a growing number of population. Yes, it is true that electric vehicles are on their way to soon become a bright reality in India, paving way for a positive change. The manufacturing landscape of EVs, which solely used to be dominated by the global automakers earlier, is also now seeing a rejig, as numerous Indian automakers now take a deep dive into the electric vehicle space, tapping the growing potential that the country has in store.

What is even more interesting is that the mindset of the Indian population is also slowly evolving, with many now willing to make a switch to EVs soon. A recent study has highlighted that by 2022, most consumers in India would consider buying an electric vehicle. This in itself is a key trend which is likely to trigger the growth of the EV segment in the country.

Definitely, government intervention and policy have a key role to play in promoting electric mobility in the country. Indian policymakers have been actively pushing EV adoption over the recent years, and multiple initiatives have also been introduced to develop domestic capabilities across the entire EV value chain. Besides strengthening the EV manufacturing capabilities, renewable energy targets are also being revisited and various measures are being adopted towards effective recycling of raw materials. The battery price also has been expected to fall by more than 30% between 2018 and 2025, which will make electric vehicles (EVs) more affordable over the period of time. Besides this, the government of India has announced various tax cuts and subsidies to further encourage more and more people to buy EVs.

Delving deep into the EV space, experts suggest that the biggest and the most lucrative market in the EV segment is that of two-wheelers, as they play a significant role in the country’s overall mobility. In India, more than 25% of people commute to work either on bicycles or two-wheelers, as they are an affordable and reliable means of transport for people across urban and rural areas of the country. The total number of electric vehicles (EVs) sold in 2019 was 1.56 lakh, of which 1.52 lakh were two-wheelers, 3,400 were electric cars, and 600 were electric buses. Clearly, the two-wheeler market for EVs is likely to catch greater momentum in the times to come.

Looking at the road ahead, India aspires to reach its vision of 100% Electric Vehicles by 2030. Surely, factors such as increasing government support, decreasing cost of technology, growing interest of the country in EVs, distressing pollution levels, etc would collectively fuel and accelerate India’s transition to electric vehicles and enable the government to near its vision. However, there is still a long way to go. India’s progress on electric mobility has been commendable, but the transition will certainly take place at a steady pace. What is important is that the right path has been laid and the shift has started to happen.

Innovations in the EV space would continue to take place and we expect the policy environment to become more favourable over the years. It is a wait and watch period!

[This piece was authored by Jeetender Sharma, Founder & Managing Director, Okinawa Autotech]

In an exclusive interaction with ETEnergyworld, Sohinder Gill, CEO of Hero Electric, India’s largest EV player in the two-wheeler segment says the FAME 2 policy needs modification for the growth in the EV space to accelerate. He also shares a perspective on how the Covid pandemic impacted business in the past year. Edited excderpts..

What is your larger view on the growth prospects and the current state of affairs in India’s electric vehicle landscape?

The EV industry is on track but we need some acceleration, certainly. Electric mobility will happen in the country for sure but it depends on how quickly we want it to happen. Currently, the EV sector constitutes less than 1 per cent to the total vehicle sales in the country. We expect the electric two wheelers market to be 10-20 per cent of the ICE market in the next five years. As an industry, we have been working with the policy makers to further make a conducive environment for electric
vehicle OEMs in the country.

There is a view that India’s progress on e-mobility has been rather slow over the past few years. Do you agree? If yes, what is your opinion and what are the steps the government can take to ramp up this space?

The e-mobility sector in India will steadily take off but not at the rate that government considers it to be with current FAME 2 policy. On the other hand, state governments with their respective EV policies have made up for the shortcomings of FAME 2. The central government can boost the EV adoption rate in the country and get the first million EVs on the roads with required policy amendments, incentives for supply chain vendors and easy financing for customers etc.

What is your general view on the FAME 2 policy of the government? How optimistic are you about the country meeting the FAME 2 targets?

FAME 2 policy has good intent and direction to assist the EV industry but in some ways it has acted as a dampener. Electric scooters need to have 80 km per charge and minimum top speed of 40 kmph to be eligible to qualify for FAME II benefits. This has excluded 90 per cent of the remaining lithium ion battery-driven e-scooters from the subsidy option. E-scooters with these specifications mean that EV makers have to increase the size of the batteries for high range and speed, as well as they will also have to invest more to improve the existing battery technology. This is an uphill task for an industry that is still in the nascent stage. Businesses cannot depend on subsidies forever and the industry has to work upon its strategies to thrive.

To what extent, has the pandemic impacted Hero Electric’s business plans — capacity expansion, market expansion, new product launches, capital expenditure, etc?

The year 2020 for the EV Two-wheeler industry has seen its fair share of ups and downs due to the pandemic. While the outlook was great at the start, the pandemic brought slowdown across sectors. Post un-lockdown, the growth has been excellent seeing a steady rise in sales month-on-month. At Hero Electric, we were able to drive a significant chunk of business through online channels and keep the momentum going. Our dealers were able to sell bikes through our portals and the consumers too could book bikes including getting a test ride. The company is using several other innovative ways to increase the footfalls at our dealerships, including training of the dealership staff to better use the technology in communicating with the customers. We are doubling up our capacity every year and have aligned our manufacturing plants, vendors and dealership network to achieve the feat. Our product launches are happening as planned, we recently launched the ‘City Speed’ variant of our popular Optima and Nyx electric scooters.

What have been the key learnings for you arising out of the pandemic era?

Dynamic organizations have used Covid as an opportunity compared to organizations that have a rigid structure. We have reinvented ourselves in terms of products and customer engagement initiatives. We came up with attractive products that offer great features and bring value to the customers. We are largely communicating with the customers digitally and as mentioned earlier got a significant chunk of business through online channels. We are expecting to register double sales figures as compared to last year.

(Adds details on the quarter)

March 1 (Reuters) – China’s electric-car maker Nio Inc on Monday forecast an up to 18% jump in current-quarter deliveries from the fourth quarter, after its quarterly revenue more than doubled helped by rising demand for battery-operated vehicles.

Nio has emerged as a strong challenger to Tesla in China after it received government funding worth $1 billion last year that saved its from the brink of bankruptcy and helped soothe its cash woes as it struggled with recalls and falling sales.

While Tesla continues to dominate the electric vehicle market in China, Nio also faces competition from homegrown rivals such as Xpeng Inc, which in January secured a credit line of 12.8 billion yuan from Chinese banks.

Nio, which makes ES8 and ES6 electric sport-utility vehicles, saw its U.S.-listed shares soar over 10 times last year, as China led the global automobile industry’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company’s stock has, however, changed little this year due to concerns of slowing economic growth from fresh lockdowns as a result of rising coronavirus cases.

Nio forecast deliveries of 20,000 and 20,500 vehicles in the first quarter, compared with 17,353 vehicles in the fourth quarter, but said its deliveries slowed to 5,578 vehicles in February, from 7,225 vehicles in January.

The company’s fourth-quarter revenue jumped 133% to 6.64 billion Chinese yuan ($1.03 billion) from a year earlier. ($1 = 6.4648 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Akanksha Rana and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)

A company that makes charging stations for the blossoming electric vehicle industry began trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange with financial backing from a Dallas investment firm.

ChargePoint Inc. is combining its EV charging business with Dallas-based Switchback Energy Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company formed to seek out investments in energy-related firms. The combined company, renamed ChargePoint Holdings Inc., trades under the ticker symbol CHPT.

Shares opened at $32.30 and fell slightly in early trading.

SPACs are formed to raise money through an initial public stock offering and that cash is then used to acquire a private company and take it public. Formed in May 2019, Switchback went public two months later and raised about $300 million to search for energy deals.

The mechanism for taking companies public exploded in popularity last year, when 255 SPACs were formed. This year has already seen 364 SPACs seeking investments or taking companies public, according to SPAC Insider.

Headquartered in Campbell, Calif., ChargePoint has been building its EV network since 2007. Its cloud subscription platform and hardware include options for every charging scenario, from home and multifamily to workplace, parking, hospitality, retail and transport fleets.

EV adoption by automakers and buyers is expected to lead to an estimated $190 billion investment in charging infrastructure by 2030, Switchback CEO Scott McNeill said when the SPAC deal was originally announced in September. EVs are projected to grow to 29% of all vehicle sales by then.

The deal to take ChargePoint public gives it access to $480 million in cash, putting an enterprise value of $2.4 billion on the new company, according to the company and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. ChargePoint plans to use the cash to further expand its business in Europe. German automakers Daimler and BMW are investors in the company.

ChargePoint is one of the largest EV charging service providers in the world, with 115,000 charging points offered through 4,000 partner businesses and organizations. Customers include Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway, PepsiCo, Target, United Airlines, GM and Ikea.

ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano said his company’s growth isn’t tied to a single brand.

“With ChargePoint, you don’t have to bet on choosing the next winning EV brand because we charge it all, both passenger cars and fleet vehicles,” he said in September. “We’re an index for the basket of all the auto brands in the markets that are adopting electrification.”

And because vehicles spend most of their time parked, “every business that has parking places is a potential customer,” he said.

ChargePoint’s revenue fell from $147 million in 2019 to $135 million last year due to reduced driving during COVID-19. In an investor presentation, ChargePoint estimated its revenue will climb to $198 million this year and projects annual revenue growth of 60%, powering it to $2 billion in revenue by 2026.

Switchback CEO McNeill and chief commercial officer Jim Mutrie began talking with ChargePoint early last year about going public, according to a transcript of their recent fireside conversation with IPO Edge. They had backing from a private investment fund advised by NGP Energy Capital Management.

McNeill and Mutrie were formerly executives at RSP Permian, a Dallas oil producer that sold to Concho Resources in 2018 for $9.5 billion. RSP Permian was backed by a $200 million investment from NGP, McNeill said.

After RSP Permian was sold, McNeill and Mutrie said they decided to partner with NGP again and that led them to ChargePoint.

“Electric vehicle adoption in the U.S. and worldwide is going to ramp significantly,” Mutrie said at the IPO Edge event. “You can’t have more EVs unless you have the charging infrastructure to support that.”

The EV market is at an inflection point. Now is the moment to implement supportive public policies to get more electric cars, trucks, and buses on the road to reduce climate emissions, clean the air, enhance energy security, and spur economic development.

Stan Cross | March 1, 2021 | Clean Transportation, Electric Vehicles, North Carolina

The electric vehicle (EV) market is rapidly expanding:

• Over 60 new EV models are heading to showroom floors with prices falling and range increasing to an average of 286 miles per charge.
• $480 billion has been invested globally to electrify transportation, with approximately $96 billion coming to the U.S. to spur manufacturing and job growth.
• North Carolina currently ranks 17th nationally in EV sales and 14th in clean vehicle employment and is home to several EV manufacturers and supply chain companies.
• In Q3/Q4 of 2020, the EV share of total passenger car sales in North Carolina, excluding light-duty pickup trucks, reached beyond 10% for the first time.

EV sales and market share in North Carolina through 2020

States are seizing the opportunity to increase EVs’ share of vehicles on the road. To explore how North Carolina stacks up against other states in the region, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) and Atlas Public Policy have collaborated on a new brief, “Transportation Electrification in North Carolina.” The new brief follows the recent “Transportation Electrification in the Southeast” brief, also a collaboration between SACE and Atlas, which examined state policy and regulatory, economic development, and investment activity across the Southeast. The North Carolina-specific brief provides a snapshot of the state’s EV market, transportation patterns, policy environment, and opportunities to improve public health, meet climate change goals, and spur economic growth.

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This blog post, the second in a series examining the study’s findings, highlights public policies that can work together to accelerate the EV market and provide all North Carolinians access to electric transportation’s economic, public health, and climate benefits.

EV Policy Priorities

Supporting EV market growth requires a mix of policy approaches. Though North Carolina is a leader in transportation electrification planning, it lags in policy implementation, which slows market growth. The brief explores the many policies the state could adopt and highlights implementation success in other states.

No one EV policy can spur the market alone. What’s needed is a combination of policies that address consumer access, create investment capital, and support market transitions while ensuring equitable and just implementation. The following are three examples of potentially impactful policies North Carolina could adopt to enable cleaner, more energy secure, and lower-cost electric transportation options for consumers and support the state’s growing EV manufacturing and supply chain companies.

(1) Consumer Access: consider adopting Section 177 clean air standards

Not every state is equal. Section 177 of the Clean Air Act permitted California to develop its own more stringent emissions standards. It also authorizes other states to choose to adopt California’s standards instead of federal requirements. So far, 13 states have adopted California’s standards, with Virginia’s legislature voting to become the 14th state last week with strong backing from businesses. Adoption is also under consideration by policymakers in Minnesota, New Mexico, and Nevada.

States that adopt Section 177 rules commit to aggressive passenger vehicle tailpipe emissions reduction. To comply with this regulation, automakers need to sell low- and zero-emission vehicles to balance emissions across their entire product offering. As a result, automakers prioritize EV inventory to Section 177 states, which make up over 30% of the nation’s new car market.

North Carolina is not currently a Section 177 state, which impacts the market; only 34 of the currently available 52 EV models are available for purchase in North Carolina. What is available is often in short supply. This issue will only become more problematic as more states adopt Section 177 standards pulling even more exciting, new longer-range EVs away from North Carolina.

(2) Investment Capital: consider joining the Transportation Climate Initiative

You can’t achieve what you can’t afford. Governor Cooper’s Executive Order 80 sets in motion the processes to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 2005 levels and increase the number of zero-emission vehicles to at least 80,000 by 2025. Achieving these goals requires capital investments.

The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) is a bi-partisan regional collaboration that seeks to improve transportation, develop the clean energy economy, and reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector. The collaboration began in the Northeast and now engages states along the eastern seaboard from North Carolina to Vermont. At the center of TCI is a market-driven, carbon cap-and-invest strategy. The “cap” in cap-and-invest puts a price on carbon and leverages market dynamics to achieve guaranteed emissions reductions at relatively low cost for consumers and businesses. Joining TCI could generate upwards of $300M per year for North Carolina to fund transportation climate initiatives.

In December, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia signed the TCI MOU and became the first four participants in the TCI Program. Eight other states, including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, signed a statement of support and continued collaboration but did not sign the final MOU.

(3) Market Support: Consider Adopting the Advanced Clean Truck Rule

Firstly, despite making up only around 10% of the nation’s vehicles, medium, and heavy-duty trucks are responsible for 28% of carbon emissions from the transportation sector, 45% of on-road NOx emissions, and 57% of direct fine particulate. These vehicles are a climate problem and negatively impact public health, especially for frontline communities impacted first and worst by air pollution. The Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) will ensure more zero-emission trucks are available for sale by requiring truck manufacturers to produce an increasing percentage of zero-emission vehicles over time.

Today, on a total cost of ownership basis and without incentives, certain zero-emission trucks are cost-competitive if not less expensive than their fossil fuel counterparts. Most classes of vehicles are expected to achieve total cost of ownership parity by 2030. ACT will accelerate this transition.

Adopting ACT will support the Multi-State Medium and Heavy-Duty Zero Emission Vehicle MOU that Governor Cooper signed onto in 2020 and is good for business. North Carolina is home to several medium and heavy-duty EV-related businesses, including auto manufactures like Daimler’s Thomas Built Buses, Volvo North America (makers of Mack trucks), Freightliner trucks, and delivery van manufacturer Arrival, EV charging infrastructure companies like ABB and Siemens, and supply chain businesses like Eaton.

Implementation Matters

The implementation of EV policies must ensure equitable access to the benefits of electric transportation for all North Carolinians across racial, rural-urban, and economic divides. Policies and implementation need to move the market and confront transportation inequities and injustices. To achieve equitable access, representatives from traditionally overburdened and underserved communities need to have seats at the policy table to ensure the needs and opportunities of their communities are foundational to the discussions, not afterthoughts.

As seen in the graphic below, North Carolinians do not currently have equal access to EV ownership and EV charger deployment.

EV REGISTRATION DISTRIBUTION BY COUNTY IN NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH DECEMBER 2020

Given the urgency of addressing climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening the state’s energy security by moving away from transportation dependency on imported gas and diesel, policy action is needed. Electrifying transportation is a viable and impactful means of achieving climate and energy security goals. If the right combination of policies is put in place in parallel, the additional economic development, and public health benefits will be maximized. And if implemented with equity and access prioritized, the benefits will extend to all.

UTILITY ENGAGEMENT MATTERS (PART 3 TEASER)

As more light, medium, and heavy-duty EVs displace gas and diesel vehicles, the energy that powers transportation shifts from petroleum to electricity. Strategic utility engagement to advance the EV market has proven to generate consumer, electric grid, and climate benefits. The third installment in this blog series will explore EV actions being taken in North Carolina by Duke Energy, the state’s electric member cooperatives, and municipal utilities, including highway corridor fast-charging, EV rebates, school bus electrification, vehicle-to-grid charging studies, and multi-unit dwelling charging programs. The third blog post will also explore national examples highlighted in the brief.

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Electrify the South​ is a program of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy that​ leverages research, advocacy, and outreach to promote renewable energy and accelerate ​the ​equitable ​transition to ​electric ​transportation throughout the Southeast. Visit ElectrifytheSouth.org to learn more and connect with us.

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