Electric Vehicles

The Peterborough Select Board approved a plan for four Level-2 electric vehicle chargers in the downtown Riverwalk parking lot Tuesday night. They could be installed as soon as early October, Assistant Town Administrator Seth MacLean told the Board.

Voters approved the charge station via a 2020 warrant article that set aside $35,000 in Greater Downtown Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) funds for the installation, operation, and maintenance of up to four chargers.

Implementing that has been far more complicated than just putting up a charge station, MacLean said, and not just because of the global pandemic. MacLean and the Peterborough Energy Committee had to find out how much it would cost to purchase, operate, and maintain the chargers, how to collect payments from users (Peterborough’s legal counsel determined the town could not give away electricity for free, MacLean said), and how to set a rate that would recoup as much of the charge station’s costs as possible while still encouraging their use.

The Select Board approved the committee’s recommendation to enter a five-year lease with ChargeLab, an electric vehicle charging software company that will rent the charging stations to the town and handle all payment collections. “We are not experts,” MacLean said, “so this makes a lot of sense.” It’s an option that gives the town flexibility and an exit strategy in case it doesn’t work out, he said. After five years, Peterborough can buy the company’s equipment, upgrade with a new agreement, or remove it, he said.

It will cost $16,198 to get the chargers up and running the first year, then $4,440 a year for operation and maintenance, MacLean said. Then there’s the electricity cost: PEC members estimated the monthly energy bill at a little under $500 a month if the chargers were used 20% of the time, for a total of about $10,000 a year for the chargers’ operation, maintenance, and electricity. The TIF funds could go farther if high charger demand winds up covering all electricity costs, MacLean said.

It’s still up to Peterborough to determine the billing rate for EV station users, MacLean said, a decision that will require a public hearing prior to the chargers going online. Although Peterborough intends to bill at a fair and equitable rate that covers all electricity costs, it’s somewhat difficult to set a break-even point considering nobody knows yet how frequently the chargers will be used, he said. ChargeLab’s agreement only takes eight percent of every transaction, leaving the other 92% for recouping the town’s costs, he said.

Select Board member Bill Kennedy reminded other Board members that one of the initial reasons Peterborough wanted to pursue municipal EV chargers was to attract tourists and travelers downtown.

The town plans to sign the contract by the end of the week and start planning the installation, which will be a collaboration between the Peterborough DPW and ChargeLab, Abacus Smartcharge, and KA Electric, MacLean said on Wednesday. Work’s anticipated to start later this summer but it depends on whether certain hardware is backordered, he said.

Star EV, an electric golf cart manufacturer, plans to expand operations in Greenville County through an $8.7 million investment slated to create 50 jobs.

The company also manufactures and distributes off-road carts and other recreational vehicles from more than 200 locations worldwide. The company offers a line of accessories such as flip sets, tires, brush guards and stereos.

“We are ecstatic to be expanding our manufacturing operations to better serve our customers,” Star EV CEO Jane Zhang said in a news release. “This expansion will raise our Star EV brand recognition to a new level in the global market. We’d like to thank Greenville County and the state for their outstanding support, and we look forward to this continued partnership for years to come.”

Headquartered at 378 Neely Ferry Road in Simpsonville, Star EV’s expansion follows a growth in demand for its street legal, low-speed vehicles including 48-volt cars able to reach 60 miles per hour on full charge.

The company was formerly called JH Global Services Inc. when founded in 2009 and has since received $8.1 million in federal contract and grand funding, according to data from GovTribe.

“South Carolina’s electric vehicle industry is booming, and we’re thrilled to see Star EV advancing this sector and growing within our state,” Gov. Henry McMaster said in the release. “We celebrate Star EV’s more than $8.7 million investment in Greenville County and the 50 new jobs the company will create.”

The expansion is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2025. 

“Golf and other outdoor recreational activities are such an important part of South Carolina’s tourism industry, and we are excited when companies that support quality of life for residents and visitors continue to invest within our borders,” Commerce Secretary Harry M. Lightsey III said in the release.  “We appreciate Star EV’s ongoing commitment to Greenville and to South Carolina.”  

“Star EV’s growth is due in large part to the organization’s focus on the booming future of electric vehicles and their superior manufacturing capabilities and team, Greenville County Council Chairman Willis Meadows said in the release. “As a highly respected and innovative manufacturer, we welcome their latest expansion here in Greenville County.” 

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved job development credits related to this project.

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Ford Mustang Mach E (NACTOY)

DEARBORN, Mich. – Ford’s electric Mustang model the Mach-E scored a few bragging rights after it was named Electric Vehicle of the Year by Car and Driver.

It’s a big win for the company as it dives head-first into the EV world. It’s also the first time the magazine is awarding an Electric Vehicle of the Year award.

The Mustang Mach-E beat out 11 other electric vehicles over a three-week period, the magazine said. Among the testing that each car is put through is a thousand-mile road trip.

“If an automaker wanted to convert people from EV skeptics to EV evangelists, it’s hard to imagine a better vehicle for the job than the Ford Mustang Mach-E,” read the announcing article.

“We felt that if a carmaker was looking to convert people from EV skeptics to EV evangelists, there’s not a better vehicle out there than the Mustang Mach-E,” said Sharon Carty, Car and Driver editor-in-chief. “It’s a familiar shape and size of crossover. It’s in the sweet spot of what Americans love. It’s beautiful. It’s a design that gets noticed. It has a range and charging speed that is very competitive.”

To rank in the upper echelons of automotive rankings, vehicles must meet criteria akin to the magazine’s other 10Best Awards: excelling at driving engagement, value or practicality, fulfill the mission better than its competitors, and be fun to drive.

The Mach-E beat out the Nissan Leaf, the Audi e-tron, and three different Tesla models. 

RELATED: The Ford F-150 Lightning revealed

Accolades aside, Ford crown EV already on the market is also winning over the hearts of customers, and eating into the profits America’s best-known electric vehicle maker Tesla.

It was the third-highest selling electric car model in its first full month of sales in February – behind Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y.

Tesla’s share of the EV market fell as a result from 81% to 69%. According to Morgan Stanley, the Mach-E was behind all of Tesla’s market-share losses.

The future of electric vehicles is a hot topic, even in the Army.

That was evident by the House Armed Services Committee Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee’s recent request to hear testimony from Timothy Goddette, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition Policy and Logistics and Michael Cadieux, director of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren on the status of the army’s fleet of tactical wheeled vehicles (TWV) and its electric vehicle (EV) readiness.

The Army has more than 200,000 light, medium and heavy trucks in its fleet of TWVs.

During his testimony, Goddette brought Congress up to speed on the army’s current fleet and immediate priorities. Then he and Cadieux gave the subcommittee their perspectives on the possibility of introducing EV into the Army’s TWV fleet.

One area that will be a particular challenge for the military fielding a full EV fleet on the battlefield is the weight of the batteries and the lack of mobile recharging capabilities.

As a result, Goddette maintains the initial EV solution is likely to be a hybrid drive due to range requirements and payload.

Then there is the question of how many miles per charge.

“It has to go a lot further for us,” said Cadieux, during an interview at the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) at Oakland University in Rochester Hills. Cadieux and several other members from DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center, who were on hand not only to observe but to judge the event that challenges college engineering student teams to design autonomous vehicles and compete in a variety of unmanned mobility competitions.

“It also has to meet extreme operational conditions – from the heat of the desert to the arctic cold,” Cadieux added.

Even so, there is technology in existence that could be used for the advancement of partial electrification solutions required by the army, said Cadieux, including anti-idle technology, powertrain modernization, and the ability to off-board power to reduce the need for tactical generators.

Cadieux told the committee that electrification-related technologies applied to the military’s fleet of light, medium, and heavy tactical wheeled vehicles have the potential to provide the ability to operate at longer distances without refueling, extended silent watch, and silent mobility through reduced acoustic and thermal signatures and improved dash speeds, additional onboard electrical power, and energy storage required for advanced sensors, integrated tactical network, and other future mission payloads, and exportable power generation and distribution.

“We certainly see operational capabilities that EV can provide as the technology in existence matures over time,” Cadieux said, while watching the engineering students demonstrate to the judges the maneuvering capabilities of the autonomous vehicles that they designed and built not only for the competition but for the future of intelligent mobility. For military systems, autonomous mobility will enable unmanned combat vehicles to perform high-risk operations and multiply the force effectiveness of many systems.

The competition, which sets goals that align with the objectives established by the Department of Defense, is supported and sponsored by the DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, which is the nation’s laboratory for advanced military automotive technology.

The DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center is one of eight science and technology domains within the command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter, and the nation.

The center’s mission is to research, develop, engineer, leverage, and integrate advanced technology into ground systems and support equipment throughout the lifecycle.

More than 1,000 engineers, scientists, project and program managers, and technical experts at the DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center develop and maintain vehicles for all U.S. Armed Forces, many federal agencies, and more than 60 foreign countries.

The organization drives state-of-the-art in-ground vehicle robotics and autonomy, survivability, power and mobility, intelligent systems, maneuver support, and sustainment. GVSC researches develops, engineers and integrates advanced technology into ground systems and support equipment, from smaller, lighter, more mobile platforms to the largest of the Army’s ground vehicles, while developing enhanced lightweight armor for better ballistics protection, enhanced fuels and lubricants, and water supply and wastewater treatment capabilities.

Much of what has been accomplished by the GVSC has been done through corporate partnerships with various businesses in Macomb County and other areas of Southeast Michigan, that have the technology to help the Army in its pursuit of an EV fleet: Once such agreement with General Motors recently resulted in the development of the fuel-celled Chevrolet Colorado ZH2.

The GVSC also has an ongoing relationship with the University of Michigan’s Automotive Research Center, which helps the military with earlier phases of technological research.

“It’s our flagship academic partner,” Cadieux said. “We see our academic and industry investments as significant.”

Vancouver City Council has approved today a policy that significantly increases the proportion of parking stalls in non-residential buildings that must be outfitted with electric-battery vehicle charging infrastructure.

Previously, a policy adopted in 2013 required 10% of parking stalls in new commercial buildings — such as office and retail — and the commercial component of mixed-use buildings to have Level 2 charging infrastructure.

But starting in June 2022, developers of most types of non-residential buildings will be required to install charging infrastructure on 45% of the parking stalls, as well as 100% of car share stalls. The policy applies to 100% of the parking stalls in new hotels.

The municipal government says these changes align with recent updates made by the City of North Vancouver.

According to a city staff report, installing charging infrastructure into the parking stalls of a new building is less costly and complex compared to retrofitting existing parkades. The cost difference for an old building can be up to 10 times more expensive than a new building.

It is estimated that the cost of construction for each energized parking stall in a new building is between $1,200 and $2,500.

The municipal government states there is a heightened demand for charging infrastructure over the long term, given that current market trends have made Vancouver the electric vehicle adoption leader in North America.

The rate of electric vehicle adoption continues to grow, ahead of the provincial government’s mandate of requiring all new light-duty vehicles sold in the province to be electric by 2040. The federal government is also proposing its own mandate for a similar policy by 2035.

City staff cite research that estimates the need for workplace charging in Metro Vancouver could peak at just over 40% of residents by the early 2040s.

The municipal government implemented its first partial charging infrastructure requirements on the parking vehicle stalls of new buildings in 2011. These policies saw a major revision in March 2018, when city council approved changes requiring that 100% of parking stalls — excluding visitor stalls — in new multi-family residential buildings must include charging infrastructure. This was again expanded in 2020 to residential parking stalls in one- and two-family dwellings.

Bentley Motors, the 102-year-old ultraluxury automaker under Volkswagen Group, revealed its newest hybrid model on Tuesday. The company says this latest iteration of the Flying Spur Hybrid is its most environmentally friendly vehicle yet.

This new model is part of Bentley’s Beyond100 plan to become a carbon-neutral organization with an entirely electrified range by 2023 and a totally electric lineup by 2030. That’s a tall order given the fact that the British company’s first all-electric vehicle is expected to come to market in 2025. So far, Bentley only has this hybrid and another, the Bentayga SUV.

Most major OEMs have made such commitments, with Ford, GM, Mercedes, Kia and Nissan already producing electric models. If automakers like Bentley want to reach their goals, their production of electric vehicles will need to increase exponentially, especially if they want to keep up with Tesla, which is currently owning the luxury EV market.

According to a statement released by the company, the new powertrain of the hybrid Flying Spur combines a 2.9 liter V6 engine with an electric motor. The engine achieves 410 HP and 550 Nm of torque up to 5,650 rpm, and the motor, which is located between the transmission and the engine, provides up to 134 HP and 400 Nm of torque. When combined, the Flying Spur delivers an additional 95 HP in comparison to the Bentayga hybrid.

The 14.1 kWh lithium ion battery charges in about two and a half hours. The Flying Spur can cover over 435 miles when fully fueled, and it can go from 0 to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, which is nearly the same as the V8 version of the vehicle, at a top speed of 177 mph.

When in the drivers seat, customers can choose between three E modes to manage battery usage. The EV Drive mode is the default when the car is turned on. The hybrid mode relies on data from the car’s intelligent navigation system when the driver is following directions somewhere to predict usage of the different E-modes and engine coasting. The vehicle automatically switches to the right mode for each part of the journey depending on what’s more fuel efficient. For example, EV driving is best when in the city, but the car might engage the V6 engine more on the highway. The third E-mode, hold, balances power between the engine and the battery to conserve electric energy, holding onto it for later use. This mode is usually put in place when the driver selects Sport mode.

The Flying Spur’s infotainment screen shows energy flow, range, battery level and charging information. Bentley will deliver the hybrid with all the necessary charging cables and provides customers with a Bentley-branded wall box at no extra cost to store the at-home charge unit and cables.

Flying Spur Hybrid is available to order in most markets, but is currently not available in the E.U., U.K., Switzerland, Israel, Ukraine, Norway, Turkey and Vietnam, according to Bentley.

On the same day, Bentley also announced a partnership with single malt Scotch whisky manufacturer Macallan to “develop distinctive collaborations and further their vision of a more sustainable future,” according to a statement released by the company. The point of the partnership was unclear (encourage high-end drinking and driving?), and Bentley did not respond in time to requests for more information, but one somewhat clear outcome of the announcement is a commitment from the Macallan Estate to have a fully electric passenger vehicle fleet by 2025. In addition, this year, Macallan will order two hybrid Bentleys for the estate.

Electric vehicle (EV) company Workhorse Group (NASDAQ:WKHS) recovered some lost stock value last month as it prepares a lawsuit to win back a $482 million U.S. Postal Service (USPS) contract that slipped through its fingers earlier this year. Its stock price also surged in early June when it briefly achieved “meme stock” status on the Reddit WallStreetBets online discussion board, though it failed to gain the lasting traction of the bigger meme stocks.

While Workhorse could triumph in the Postal Service legal contest eventually, another sector company looks bullish for EV investors based on its current merits rather than on its hypothetical future successes: Magna International (NYSE:MGA).

Workhorse: Burning cash, making few vehicles

On paper, Workhorse has several sources of future income lined up. It has a private sector order for 6,320 electric delivery trucks from Pride Group Enterprises. If its June 16 legal complaint to capture an initial $482 million production design contract awarded to Oshkosh Corp. (NYSE:OSK) succeeds, it would also have an inside track to a broader $6 billion in total purchases of electric USPS delivery vehicles over 10 years. However, while either of these could yield profits in the future, Workhorse has delivered very few vehicles to date.

Workhorse shipped just six of its C-Series electric commercial vans in the first quarter of 2021. Image source: Workhorse Group.

The company’s own first quarter (Q1) 2021 earnings report says it built a total of 38 vehicles during the first four months of the year. Workhorse notes this production is “more than doubling the number produced in comparison to the combined previous three quarters,” meaning it built fewer than 19 vehicles in total during the last nine months of 2020, or less than one vehicle every two weeks.

Besides its current minuscule production capacity, Workhorse’s 13 years in business have been mostly sustained by periodic investments, not revenue. Workhorse has secured multiple rounds of funding adding up to over $300 million, including a $70 million cash infusion from an institutional investor announced on July 20, 2020, and $200 million through an Oct. 12, 2020, bond issue to several institutions.

The company’s revenue, meanwhile, remains well below $1 million per quarter. During Q1 2021, its revenue totaled $521,000, a 520% year-over-year increase resulting from “a total of six trucks delivered in the first quarter.”

Operational expenses in the millions combined with revenue in the thousands lead to ongoing cash burn. Workhorse reported negative cash flow of $36.2 million during Q1 2021, reducing its available cash from $241.2 million at the quarter’s start to approximately $205.1 million at its end. With current cash burn rates, Workhorse has reserves for just over five more quarters of operation, a number possibly lowered by accelerating cash burn if it pushes production up to a dozen trucks per quarter.

Magna International: The value of market positioning

Like a merchant selling picks, shovels, and sluices to Gold Rush miners, Magna International is a company supplying parts to other electric vehicle makers, enabling it to potentially profit from the whole booming market rather than relying on direct consumer sales. While the company noted semiconductor chip shortages and the lingering effects of pandemic lockdowns affected its sales, its revenue still rose 18% year over year to $10.18 billion in Q1 2021.

Light vehicle sales are rebounding worldwide, with China’s production seeing the biggest gain with an 87% positive surge. That drove Magna’s sales of body structures, transmissions, control modules, seats, and power and vision components.

Image source: Getty Images.

The success of Magna’s recent restructuring and streamlining initiatives is highlighted by its cost of goods sold — $8.66 billion — which rose 14.5% year over year and produced an 18% sales increase. This is despite the semiconductor shortage, higher raw material costs, and increased labor costs. Magna’s efficiency measures are reflected in the difference, showing effective leadership and foreshadowing even lower costs once shortages recede.

At the bottom line, adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are also showing strong growth. First quarter 2021’s $2.03 EPS increased slightly more than 136% year over year. According to its June 2021 investor presentation, Magna currently sells its vehicle parts to more than 50 companies in 28 different countries.

The company is directing internal investment toward building the high-growth sector of electrification, including e-drives, battery enclosures, ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems), and contract vehicle manufacturing. Its current guidance calls for its electric vehicle parts business to grow to more than $2 billion by 2023 and to over $4 billion by 2027. Several of its product lines, such as ADAS and battery enclosures, are crucial, high-cost parts of electric vehicles, and its advantage here gives Magna strong potential for ongoing profit.

Magna claims it is growing at 6% above the market over the past half-decade and has invested $12.5 billion in its own business. It also has $3.5 billion in cash and a similar amount in undrawn loan facilities, giving it the means to respond to opportunities as needed.

Given the nature of its business, it’s vital that Magna stay abreast of the latest technology developments in the electric vehicle field, and strong cash flow and cash availability at least gives it the needed foundation to do so. Fast-growing current sales demonstrate the company is offering cutting-edge EV components matching manufacturers’ needs at the present time.

The company’s executives don’t talk much about research and development, but the investor presentation mentions the expansion of the software engineering team as a priority while hinting at a focus on engineering in general. It’s impossible to predict how well a company’s future research will keep up with changing conditions, but Magna appears to have the cash and expertise to keep operating as an advanced component supplier, assuming good management also continues.

Shareholders receive a dividend from Magna, too, providing an extra benefit. It has paid regular quarterly dividends since the 1990s, with the exception of 2009 when only one dividend was paid and a handful of years when three dividends were paid. The amount of the dividend has grown yearly since 2010, continuing through two stock splits.

Image source: Getty Images.

Choosing between the two EV stocks

In a straight-up contest between investment in Workhorse and Magna, Workhorse appears to come up short. It has relied on cash infusions from hopeful investors to remain operational for its entire history. Filling its private-sector orders depends on starting actual mass production in the future, while winning any part of the USPS delivery vehicle contract is a roll of the dice at best, and could require years of litigation even if successful.

Meanwhile, its cash is running out fast, and at current burn rates it will be forced to either issue additional stock (diluting existing share value), borrow large sums, or both, unless it can begin producing and selling large numbers of vehicles very quickly.

Magna, on the other hand, has thriving sales, earnings, and cash flow, along with direct proof its reorganization for greater efficiency is working. As a supplier of critical parts to companies building electric vehicles, it stands to benefit from the powerfully growing EV trend without the risks of direct competition against successful commercial vehicle producers like Oshkosh, or the dominant force in passenger EVs, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA). If it continues innovation in step with the EV market’s needs, as currently appears likely, the future looks favorable for Magna into the long term.

For Fools investing in electric car stocks or industrial stocks, Workhorse could be a winner someday, while Magna is a winner right now. The growth in EV use creates a much stronger bullish tailwind for today’s Magna than for Workhorse, making it a better choice for your portfolio in 2021.