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ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE

ISSUE 48 | MARCH/APRIL 2020 | CHARGEDEVS.COM

THE LORDSTOWN

ENDURANCE

LORDSTOWN MOTORS SEVEN FUTURE ELECTRIC PICKUP TRUCKS. MAYBE. p. 46

A compelling story of the shuttered factory retooling to build electric pickup trucks

Q&A with CEO Steve Burns p. 56

SPECIALIZED MOTOR MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTIONS

SOLID-STATE BATTERIES: ARE WE CLOSE OR STILL YEARS AWAY?

IN-CHARGE ENERGY PREPARES FOR A TSUNAMI OF TRUCK CHARGING

p. 22

p. 30

p. 76

THE TECH CONTENTS

22 Specialized motor materials

22

and constructions

SOLID-STATE BATTERY

30 Solid-state battery tech CATHODE

ANODE

30

What’s close to commercialization, and what’s still years away?

CATHODE

current events

SOLID ELECTROLYTE

10 11 12

GM shows new Ultium battery system and 12 future EVs Odawara expands machine build capability for EV stator systems BorgWarner’s new high-voltage coolant heaters to appear in 2021 EVs New machine-learning method could supercharge EV battery development

14

10

Power Integrations’ SCALE-iDriver achieves AEC-Q100 qualification Royal introduces new battery connectors and conductors for EVs

15 16

Yamaha develops an electric motor prototype for EVs Nickel used in EV batteries increased 39% in 2019 BASF to build battery materials plant in Germany

18

Vishay releases thick film high-power resistors for auto applications Henkel and Covestro develop cell assembly adhesive solutions

12

19 20 21

Cree’s 650 V MOSFETs designed for onboard EV charging Lilac Solutions uses novel process to extract lithium from the Salton Sea BYD says its new Blade Battery offers far lower risk of fire

THE VEHICLES CONTENTS

46 Seven future electric

pickup trucks. Maybe.

46

56 Lordstown Motors Q&A with CEO Steve Burns

current events 36

Tesla curtails production, builds and distributes ventilators Polestar begins production of its EV in China

37 38

Trump administration guts clean air standards

56

New York State pledges $24 million for electric transit buses Case electric backhoe performs as well as a diesel at 10% of the cost

39 40

US Army plans for an EV future King County Metro to purchase up to 120 New Flyer electric buses New BYD sub-brand will produce components for clean energy vehicles

41 42

Wright Electric unveils design concepts for electric aircraft RAND Boats launches new propulsion package for its Leisure 28 Electric Washington set to become the 12th ZEV state

43 44

38

Colorado to allow direct sales model—good news for Tesla and Rivian Malmö, Sweden orders 60 Volvo high-capacity electric buses Bollinger Motors unveils E-Chassis for commercial vehicles

45

Bakery giant Bimbo to build 1,000 electric trucks per year

IDENTIFICATION STATEMENT CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine (ISSN: 24742341) March/April 2020, Issue #48 is published bi-monthly by Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC, 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259. Periodicals Postage Paid at Saint Petersburg, FL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CHARGED Electric Vehicles Magazine, Electric Vehicles Magazine LLC at 2260 5th Ave S, STE 10, Saint Petersburg, FL 33712-1259.

44

THE INFRASTRUCTURE 76

CONTENTS

72 EnergyHub

Giving utilities more flexibility to manage peaks, including direct control of EV charging

76 In-Charge Energy Preparing for the coming tsunami of commercial electric trucks

67

current events 66

ABB completes Chargedot acquisition Utility EDF acquires EV charging company Pod Point SAE publishes recommended practices for automated EV charging systems

68

67 68

Fermata receives UL certification for vehicle-to-grid EV charging system Greenlots partners with Ivy Charging Network in Ontario Tesla partners with New Jersey Turnpike to install 56 new fast chargers

70

Electrify America invests $2 million in Envision Solar infrastructure Porsche opens 7 MW rapid charging park in Germany

71

Share&Charge launches Open Charging Network for European market Blink deploys charging stations using local load management

70

Publisher Christian Ruoff Associate Publisher Laurel Zimmer Senior Editor Charles Morris

Contributing Writers Paul Beck Jeffrey Jenkins Michael Kent Tom Lombardo Charles Morris John Voelcker

For Letters to the Editor, Article Submissions, & Advertising Inquiries Contact: Info@ChargedEVs.com

Associate Editor Markkus Rovito Account Executives Jeremy Ewald Technology Editor Jeffrey Jenkins Graphic Designers Deon Rexroat Kelly Quigley Tomislav Vrdoljak

Contributing Photographers Nicolas Raymond Christian Ruoff Cover Images Courtesy of Lordstown Motors Special Thanks to Kelly Ruoff Sebastien Bourgeois

ETHICS STATEMENT AND COVERAGE POLICY AS THE LEADING EV INDUSTRY PUBLICATION, CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE OFTEN COVERS, AND ACCEPTS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM, COMPANIES THAT ADVERTISE IN OUR MEDIA PORTFOLIO. HOWEVER, THE CONTENT WE CHOOSE TO PUBLISH PASSES ONLY TWO TESTS: (1) TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE THE INFORMATION IS ACCURATE, AND (2) IT MEETS THE INTERESTS OF OUR READERSHIP. WE DO NOT ACCEPT PAYMENT FOR EDITORIAL CONTENT, AND THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY OUR EDITORS AND WRITERS ARE IN NO WAY AFFECTED BY A COMPANY’S PAST, CURRENT, OR POTENTIAL ADVERTISEMENTS. FURTHERMORE, WE OFTEN ACCEPT ARTICLES AUTHORED BY “INDUSTRY INSIDERS,” IN WHICH CASE THE AUTHOR’S CURRENT EMPLOYMENT, OR RELATIONSHIP TO THE EV INDUSTRY, IS CLEARLY CITED. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANY OPINION EXPRESSED IN THE CHARGED MEDIA PORTFOLIO AND/OR WISH TO WRITE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR VIEW OF THE INDUSTRY, PLEASE CONTACT US AT CONTENT@CHARGEDEVS. COM. REPRINTING IN WHOLE OR PART IS FORBIDDEN EXPECT BY PERMISSION OF CHARGED ELECTRIC VEHICLES MAGAZINE.

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We’re living through an unprecedented upheaval, and things are changing quickly. Between the time I write this and the time you read it, the situation may have changed considerably.

As of this writing, all major auto plants in North America and Europe have suspended the production of vehicles. Some are repurposing their lines to produce ventilators for hospitals. In China, where the worst of the crisis seems to have passed, Tesla continues to produce cars at its Gigafactory, and Geely’s Polestar brand has even begun production of a new EV. There’s no question that tough times are ahead for the auto industry, but at this point, it’s anybody’s guess how the EV industry will be affected.

Governments around the world will almost certainly intervene to support their domestic auto industries, but will bailout packages come with green strings attached? In 2008, the crisis in the automotive industry led to the bailout of GM and Chrysler under the US Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In exchange for the funds, the automakers told congress that they would build more high-mileage and energy-efficient vehicles and GM went on to produce the Chevy Volt. It’s conceivable that European governments will see electric opportunities in the crisis, but here in the US, the political situation makes anything of this kind seem less likely.

Will Tesla, which lacks the financial resources of the Big Three, be able to survive an extended shutdown at its factories? Fortunately, the company raised a big chunk of capital during the recent stock run-up, and it claims to be in good shape to weather a month or two of bad times. So far, Wall Street seems to agree.

Once production is restarted, will the legacy automakers continue expanding their electrification efforts, or will some of these fall victim to “belt-tightening?” Will governments relax emissions regulations and EV quotas in a misguided effort to stimulate auto sales?

These are some of the questions we’re asking, and, again, by the time you read this, some of the answers may be coming into focus.

Personally, in the past few weeks, I’ve found it difficult to concentrate on this industry’s typical mission: to engineer and manufacture a better transportation system. With so many lives turned upside down by the virus and global shutdown, new cars hardly seem important.

However, I’ve found it helpful to remind myself that the work of Charged readers has a significant impact on humanity. Innovation in the EV industry is and will continue to be a vibrant and critically important growth sector in the global economy. And, of course, there is the potential impact on the natural environment that we depend on for survival. That work must continue. Ultimately, transportation is an industry no less essential than medicine or food production, and all of these fields must continue to advance and adapt to the needs of a changing world.

Overall, it’s been a rewarding decade for the Charged team and we’re thankful for the opportunity to have a small role in the EV industry.

Thank you for reading. Stay safe.

Christian Ruoff | Publisher

EVs are here. Try to keep up.

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GM shows new Ultium battery system and 12 future EVs General Motors opened the doors of its Design Center to select reporters in early March to show off a lineup of future electric vehicles to be sold in North America by Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick—a dozen vehicles all told, part of the 20 new EVs by 2023 the company promised more than two years ago.

GM provided substantial detail on its upcoming Ultium modular battery architecture, to be manufactured in a joint venture with Korean cell maker LG Chem. The company also described the future electric-car platform, known as BEV3, that will underpin virtually all its future EVs over the next few years.

The Ultium cells themselves are long pouch cells that use a nickel-manganese-cobalt-aluminum (NMCA) chemistry. GM claims they will use the least cobalt and the most nickel of any large pouch cell (the format it has used for all cells from LG Chem since 2010). The pouch cells are to be used in North American batteries, but the Ultium architecture also accommodates prismatic cells, likely intended for vehicles produced in and for China.

The battery management system is built into the pack, eliminating 80 percent of the wiring needed for earlier battery designs like those of the Chevy Bolt EV. That’s just one of many design innovations designed to reduce the overall cost of the cells, modules and packs.

In fact, GM said the $2.3-billion joint venture with LG Chem it announced in December would bring cell costs below $100/kWh. “Ongoing technological and manufacturing breakthroughs,” it added, “will drive costs even lower”—presumably to $100/kWh or lower at the pack level, considered to be the point at which EVs can approach cost parity with ICE-driven vehicles.

The GM/LG Chem battery plant to be built in Ohio will have an ultimate production capacity of more than 30 gWh per year. The company says it expects to be selling 1 million battery-electric vehicles a year globally by 2025, a number that echoes the longstanding goal of

10

Image courtesy of General Motors

The Volkswagen Group’s electrification program. (The German company, however, recently moved that goal up to 2023.)

GM has designed the Ultium battery architecture in tandem with the BEV3 platform, enabling it to design vehicles of several sizes, across multiple segments, with widely varying pack capacities. It says the platform will support “affordable transportation, luxury vehicles, work trucks, and high-performance machines.”

The BEV3 platforms that underpin all the vehicles shown (except the two Chevy Bolts) come in several flavors. Battery modules can accommodate cells stacked horizontally or vertically, and modules can be stacked two high, giving greater capacity and a thicker floor for taller trucks. Or the modules can be quite slim—no dimensions were offered—to give a thin floor for a low vehicle.

BEV3 battery capacities will range from 50 to 200 kWh, enabling ranges of 400 miles or more. Motors designed in-house by GM can power the front wheels, the rear wheels, or all four. The company acknowledged 19 different battery and motor combinations, including cells stacked both vertically and horizontally—allowing vehicles of varying heights, from passenger cars to crossover utilities. That range of drivetrains compares with the more than 500 engine-transmission combinations GM offers globally today.

Perhaps most importantly, GM says every electrified vehicle using Ultium batteries and its BEV3 platforms will be profitable from day one. After more than 10 years of battery-powered cars, the company appears to have reverted to the traditional approach for auto technology innovation: start at the high end, where profits are richest.

Asked about less-expensive vehicles for the mass market, GM President Mark Reuss said, “There’s really no limit” to how low EV costs can go as battery costs continue to fall.

Images courtesy of Odawara

Odawara expands machine build capability for EV stator systems Odawara Automation, a manufacturer of motor winding and assembly systems, has increased its machine build capabilities to accommodate anticipated growth in the EV market.

OUR SiC SEMICONDUCTORS ARE PUTTING EV SYSTEMS DESIGNERS IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT.

/ / / /

In January, Odawara expanded its Matsuda, Japan headquarters, adding 58,000 square feet of assembly area. This investment of $16 million complements a $40-million expansion investment that was completed in 2014.

wolfspeed.com/charged

Image courtesy of BorgWarner

THE TECH

BorgWarner’s new highvoltage coolant heaters to appear in 2021 EVs BorgWarner´s latest coolant heaters are expected to appear in 2021 on the next generation of passenger electric cars produced by global OEMs. The company has been chosen as a supplier for cabin heating and battery conditioning solutions for several high-volume vehicle programs.

“Our Battery and Cabin Heater has become the technology of choice for some of the most important electric and hybrid vehicle manufacturers in Europe, North America and Asia, helping them to reduce battery consumption while increasing passenger comfort,” said Joe Fadool, President of BorgWarner Emissions, Thermal and Turbo Systems.

BorgWarner has engineered two different devices— single-plate and dual-plate. Single-plate devices are responsible for thermal management of either the battery or cabin heating, while dual-plate versions manage both tasks at the same time. Both are integrated into aluminum housings that provide electromagnetic shielding.

The designs include power electronics that prevent overheating. As soon as the system detects an error, it switches off automatically.

12

New machine-learning method could supercharge EV battery development For decades, advances in EV batteries have been limited by evaluation times. At every stage of the battery development process, new technologies must be tested for months or even years to determine how long they will last. A team led by Stanford Professors Stefano Ermon and William Chueh has developed a machine-learning algorithm that they say slashes these testing times by up to 98 percent. Although the group tested their method on battery charging speed, they said it can also be applied to numerous other parts of the battery development pipeline.

The study, published in Nature, was part of a larger collaboration among scientists from Stanford, MIT and the Toyota Research Institute that bridges foundational academic research and real-world industry applications.

The goal: finding the best method for charging an EV battery in 10 minutes that maximizes the battery’s overall lifetime. The researchers wrote a program that, based on only a few charging cycles, predicted how batteries would respond to different charging approaches. The software also decided in real time what charging approaches to focus on or ignore. By reducing both the length and number of trials, the researchers cut the testing process from almost 2 years to 16 days. In addition to dramatically speeding up the testing process, the computer’s solution was also better—and more unusual— than what a battery scientist would likely have devised.

The study’s machine learning and data collection system will be made available for future battery scientists to use freely.

Image courtesy of Royal Power Solutions

THE TECH

Image courtesy of Power Integrations

Power Integrations’ SCALEiDriver for SiC MOSFETs achieves AEC-Q100 automotive qualification Royal introduces new battery Power Integrations has announced that its SIC118xconnectors and conductors for KQ SCALE-iDriver, a single-channel gate driver EVs for silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs, is now certified to AEC-Q100 for automotive use. The drivers, which include safety and protection features, can be configured to support gate-drive voltage requirements of commonly used SiC MOSFETs. The SIC1182KQ (1,200 V) and SIC1181KQ (750 V) SCALE-iDriver devices are optimized for driving SiC MOSFETs in automotive applications, exhibiting railto-rail output, fast gate switching speed, unipolar supply voltage supporting positive and negative output voltages, integrated power and voltage management and reinforced isolation.

Critical safety features include Drain to Source Voltage (VDS) monitoring, SENSE readout, primary and secondary Undervoltage Lock-out (UVLO), current-limited gate drive and Advanced Active Clamping (AAC), which facilitates safe operation and soft turn-off under fault conditions. AAC, in combination with VDS monitoring, ensures safe turn-off in less than 2 µs during short-circuit conditions. Gate-drive control and AAC features allow gate resistance to be minimized; this reduces switching losses, maximizing inverter efficiency.

Michael Hornkamp, Power Integrations’ Director of Marketing, said, “Silicon carbide MOSFET technology opens the door for smaller, lighter automotive inverter systems. Switching speeds and operating frequencies are increasing; our low gate resistor values maintain switching efficiency, while our fast short-circuit response quickly protects the system in the event of a fault.”

14

Royal Power Solutions has introduced two new high-current products intended to improve efficiency and facilitate automated manufacturing. “While much of the auto industry is focused on developing EV software, we see unique opportunities to develop intellectual property that results in high-current connections able to withstand high-vibration and high-temperature mechanical stresses while delivering a full system solution with innovative hardware like High Power Lock Box [HPLB] and RigiFlex,” said Royal CEO Randy Ross.

The company describes the HPLB as a “plug-in” solution with a smaller footprint—less weight and reduced profile—that replaces current “bolt-on” connection systems using machined studs and round terminals or eyelets with anti-rotational features.

The self-aligning, quick-connect RigiFlex—with integrated HPLB terminals—is rigid in some areas, but flexible in areas that require elevation changes. Royal says the flexibility also works well across the battery pack in areas that require tolerance for expansion and contraction during charging and discharging cycles.

The HPLB meets USCAR2 T4 (150° C) and V4 (severe vibration) requirements while also satisfying S3 standards for sealing under pressure spray. The RigiFlex busbar with integrated HPLB terminals includes both rigid and flexible segments in one continuous seamless conductor that enables fully automated battery pack assembly. For HPLB and RigiFlex, Royal has achieved concept approval on 22 vehicles in development in both the US and Europe.

Yamaha Motor has begun accepting orders for a high-performance electric motor prototype capable of producing high power density for EVs. The company says the compact unit generates up to 200 kW thanks to a high-efficiency segment conductor and advanced casting and processing technologies.

Yamaha says the goal of the project is to deepen its knowledge of evolving market needs by adapting the motor to the requirements of individual customers.

The prototype is an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor featuring a maximum output of 35 to 200 kW with water or oil cooling.

Image courtesy of Yamaha Motor

Yamaha develops an electric motor prototype for EVs

Image courtesy of BASF SE

THE TECH

BASF to build battery materials plant in Germany, supplying up to 400,000 EVs per year Nickel used in EV batteries increased 39% in 2019 Nickel deployment in passenger EV batteries totaled 59,271 tons in 2019, according to Adamas Intelligence, representing an increase of 39% compared to 2018. BEVs were responsible for 76% of passenger battery nickel use globally in 2019, up from 71% in 2018. The sales-weighted average amount of nickel deployed per EV globally in 2019 was 12.9 kilograms, an increase of 28% from 2018.

China used the most nickel, at 22,297 tons (38% of global market share). The US (22%), Japan (9%), the Netherlands (4%) and Germany (4%) followed.

Although passenger EV sales increased by only 5% in China, the amount of nickel used in China’s passenger EVs increased by 56%. Adamas attributes the increase to China’s growing consumer preference for long-range BEVs with high-capacity batteries, and to automakers’ shift to battery chemistries containing higher concentrations of nickel.

16

Chemical company BASF announced a new battery materials production site in Schwarzheide, Germany, as part of its multi-step investment in Europe’s EV value chain.

The new plant will produce cathode active materials with an initial capacity enabling the supply of around 400,000 pure EVs per year with BASF battery materials.

The company says the Schwarzheide plant’s modular design and infrastructure allow for the rapid scale-up of manufacturing capacities, enabling it to meet increasing customer demand in the European EV market. The plant will use precursors from BASF’s previously announced plant in Harjavalta, Finland. Startup of the two plants is planned for 2022.

With these investments in Finland and Germany, BASF says it will be the first cathode active materials supplier with local production capacities in today’s three major markets—Asia, the US and Europe. BASF plans to become the leading supplier with a reliable European-based supply chain comprised of base metal supply, particularly nickel and cobalt, precursor production, and cathode material production within one region.

“The plants in Finland and Germany will offer our customers reliable access to tailored high-nickel cathode active materials in proximity to their European manufacturing facilities,” said Dr. Peter Schuhmacher, President of the Catalysts division at BASF.

Image courtesy of Vishay

THE TECH

Vishay releases AEC-Q200 thick film high-power resistors for auto applications Vishay Intertechnology recently introduced a line of high-power resistors that meet the AEC-Q200 automotive qualification. Designed for direct mounting on a heatsink, the Vishay Sfernice LPSA 300, LPSA 600, and LPSA 800 deliver high power dissipation and pulse handling capabilities intended to reduce component counts and lower costs in automotive applications.

With power ratings of 300 W, 600 W and 800 W, the devices can serve as precharge or discharge resistors for EV inverters. In addition, their pulse capability from 400 J to 1500 J for pulses from 0.05 s to 0.5 s allows them to replace larger wire-wound resistors.

The resistors offer high-temperature operation to 175° C and resistance values from 0.03 Ω to 900 kΩ.

They have dielectric strengths up to 12 kV RMS. The RoHS-compliant devices offer a non-inductive design and tolerances down to ±1%. Vishay’s testing includes temperature cycling at 1,000 cycles and 1,000 hours of operational life.

Samples and production quantities of the new resistors are available now, with lead times of 10 to 12 weeks.

18

Henkel and Covestro develop adhesive solutions for efficient Li-ion cell assembly With the aim of lowering the cost of battery manufacturing, Henkel and Covestro have developed a joint solution that enables the efficient fixation of cylindrical Li-ion battery cells inside a plastic cell holder. The design is based on a UV-curing adhesive from Henkel and a UV-transparent polycarbonate blend from Covestro.

Henkel’s Loctite AA 3963 battery assembly adhesives and Covestro’s UV transparent polycarbonate blend Bayblend were developed for compatibility with high-volume automated dispensing techniques. The acrylic adhesive was formulated for use with the cell holder, which is constructed of a special flame-retardant plastic. The developers say this combination provides strong adhesion to the substrate material and offers production adaptability through long open times and short cure cycles.

“High-volume manufacturing operations with short cycle times and process flexibility are essential,” explains Frank Kerstan, Head of e-Mobility Europe at Henkel.

“The Loctite OEM-approved adhesive designed to secure cylindrical Li-ion cells into a carrier is a one-part, cureon-demand formulation. After high-speed dispensing, the material’s long open time inherently builds adaptability into the process by allowing for any unexpected production interruption. Once all cells are placed into the adhesive and secured in the holder, curing is activated with UV light and takes place in less than five seconds.” Henkel describes this as an advantage over conventional manufacturing, in which curing times can range from several minutes to hours, thus requiring additional storage capacity for parts.

The cell holders are manufactured from Covestro’s PC+ABS blend Bayblend FR3040 EV, which meets category V-0 of Underwriters Laboratories’ UL94 flammability rating. “The material allows us to construct dimensionally stable parts that are necessary for automated mass assembly,” says Steven Daelemans, Market Development Manager at Covestro. “Together with the fast-curing capability of the Loctite adhesives, this material combination delivers an innovative approach to large-scale cylindrical Li-ion battery module production.”

Cree recently released the Wolfspeed 650 V silicon carbide MOSFET series, designed for the next generation of onboard EV chargers, data centers and renewable energy systems.

“Cree is leading the global transition from silicon to silicon carbide, and our new 650 V MOSFET family is the next step in delivering a high-powered solution to a broader application base, including industrial applications,” said Cengiz Balkas, Senior VP of Wolfspeed.

“The 650 V MOSFETs deliver power efficiencies that help today’s biggest technology leaders create the next generation of onboard EV chargers, data centers and energy storage solutions to reshape our cloud and renewable energy infrastructures.”

Image courtesy of Cree

Cree’s 650 V MOSFETs designed for onboard EV charging

Cree says its new 15 mΩ and 60 mΩ 650 V devices deliver up to 20 percent lower switching losses than competing silicon carbide MOSFETs, and provide the lowest on-state resistances for higher efficiency and power-dense solutions. Available in surface-mount and through-hole packages, the new MOSFETs enable bidirectional flow in onboard charging systems, and can also be used in general-purpose applications such as switching power supplies.

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Beneath California’s Salton Sea lies a vast pool of super-heated fluid that’s long been exploited as a source of geothermal power.

The underground reservoir is also rich in lithium, but over the years, so many companies have tried, and failed, to economically extract the light white stuff, that the area has been called a “graveyard for lithium-extraction technologies.” One famous failure was Simbol Materials, which attracted a buyout bid from Tesla before going belly-up in 2015.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, David Snydacker, a materials engineer and battery expert, believes he has found the magic formula. His Oakland-based startup, Lilac Solutions, recently announced a $20-million funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which counts famous names such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg among its investors.

Lilac’s technological secret sauce is an ion-exchange process that forces mineral-rich brine through a container filled with lithium-absorbing beads. Once the beads are saturated, acid is used to flush out the lithium.

Lilac has partnered with the Australian firm Controlled Thermal Resources to develop a geothermal power plant and lithium-extraction facility at the Salton Sea. The company is also working with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which wants to build a pilot lithium-extraction plant using Lilac’s technology.

Despite the clickbait scare stories, there’s no shortage of lithium on the global market. However, much battery-grade lithium comes from environmentally dodgy sites in South America, and there’s also pressure to develop sources for the strategic mineral here in the US. The Salton Sea could potentially produce loads of lithium, with the added benefit of more geothermal power.

Controlled Thermal plans to drill preliminary wells over the next three months. Lilac will then spend several weeks testing its technology, after which a full-scale facility will be built. Controlled Thermal hopes to produce over 17,000 tons of lithium carbonate by 2023, and double that amount by 2025. The California Energy Commission estimates that the Salton Sea geothermal area could someday supply up to 200,000 tons.

“You really want to compete in the global lithium market, which I think the Imperial Valley can,” said Controlled Thermal CEO Rod Colwell. “We firmly believe that the Imperial Valley is in the first quartile of production costs globally.”

Chinese EV giant BYD has introduced a new Blade Battery, which is designed to “bring battery safety back to the forefront.”

At an online launch event, BYD highlighted a video of the Blade Battery undergoing a nail penetration test, which is considered a rigorous way to test a battery pack’s resistance to the dreaded thermal runaway.

In BYD’s nail penetration tests, the Blade Battery emitted neither smoke nor fire after being penetrated, and its surface temperature reached only 30 to 60° C. Under the same conditions, a ternary lithium battery exceeded 500° C and burned violently. A conventional lithium iron phosphate block battery did not openly emit flames or smoke, but its surface temperature reached dangerous temperatures of 200 to 400° C. BYD also subjected the Blade Battery to other extreme test conditions, such as being crushed, bent, heated in a furnace to 300° C and

overcharged by 260%.

None of these resulted in a fire or explosion.

BYD says the safety advantages of the Blade Battery include a high starting temperature for exothermic reactions, slow heat release and low heat generation, and its ability not to release oxygen during breakdowns or easily catch fire.

The Blade Battery is not without advantages in terms of energy density. BYD says its optimized battery pack structure improves space utilization by over 50% compared to conventional lithium iron phosphate block batteries.

The Blade Battery will be featured in BYD’s new Han EV, a sedan slated for launch this June. The new model will lead the brand’s Dynasty Family, which boasts a cruising range of 605 km and acceleration of 0 to 100 km/h in just 3.9 seconds.

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SPECIALIZED

MOTOR MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTIONS

PART 1

By Jeffrey Jenkins

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hen demand drives innovation, the state of the art can progress quite rapidly, but if the demand is not there yet, the end result is often the proverbial “solution in search of a problem.” One of the most prominent examples of this is the lithium-ion battery, which was developed in the 1970s, but didn’t really achieve commercial success until the mid-90s, when laptop computers and mobile phones started demanding better batteries (now EVs are adding to that demand, of course). The same dynamic applies to the two most commonly used motors in EVs: the polyphase induction (ACIM) and permanent magnet synchronous (PMSM) types. Prior to the rise of the EV, pretty much every ACIM was used as a prime mover

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There’s been a veritable explosion of new materials and construction techniques for motors in the last 10 years that all but dwarfs the progress made in the first 100 years of the motor’s existence. industrially (that is, running other machines), while the PMSM type was only available in relatively small power ratings for use as servomotors (that is, to precisely and repeatably position things like milling machine tables, welding robots, etc). There was some call to make the PMSM as light and compact as possible—it often had to move itself along with whatever it was driving—but no industrial customer really cared if a 7.5 kW (10 hp) ACIM had a cast-iron frame and weighed a portly 80 kg (176 lb!). In fact, massive weight was usually considered a plus. Similarly, efficiency was more of a concern for the small PMSMs, only because that allowed more power to be delivered from a given size and/or weight of motor, and it wasn’t until 1992 (the EPA act) that the first efficiency standards for motors were enacted in the US (starting at a rather dismal 74% for a 1 hp/0.75 kW 2-pole motor)!

Electrified vehicles, however, do demand motors with high efficiency in a more compact form factor and, of course, much lower weight, than almost any other application (save aviation/aerospace), and the huge number of vehicles now being sold every year—16-17 million in the US alone—provides a tremendous incen-

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tive to motor manufacturers to meet those demands.

Consequently, there’s been a veritable explosion of new materials and construction techniques for motors in the last 10 years that all but dwarfs the progress made in the first 100 years of the motor’s existence. Since the state of the art is advancing so quickly, this twopart article series will concentrate on explaining why specialized materials (part 1) and different construction techniques (part 2) deliver improvements, rather than on what specific OEMs are up to.

Electrical steels Every motor uses a time-varying magnetic field to exert rotational force (that is, torque) on a shaft, and most rely on electrical steel to direct that magnetic flux to the right place. Electrical steels are low-carbon iron and silicon alloys with a much higher bulk resistivity than pure iron (about 20 times more) to reduce eddy current losses. The price paid is an increase in brittleness and a decrease in the allowable flux density before saturating—around 1.5 T for the typical silicon steel vs ~2.2T for pure iron. Despite the high bulk resistivity of silicon steel, transformers and motors invariably require additional steps to be taken to keep core losses (that is, eddy and hysteresis) under control. Losses from eddy currents are proportional to the area of the magnetic loops, and inversely proportional to resistance (this is why a higher bulk resistivity is good), so the core of a transformer and motor armature is broken up into a stack of laminations that are insulated from each

Most motors rely on electrical steel to direct magnetic flux to the right place. other. This minimizes the loop area (by breaking up one big loop into many smaller ones), but at the cost of losing some of the volume of active magnetic material to insulation—an issue we’ll also run into with wire shortly.

Amorphous metal Hysteresis losses arise from a material’s resistance to a change in the orientation of its magnetic domains—sort of like magnetic friction. The only good way to minimize hysteresis losses in a given material is to reduce the

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size of the crystals comprising it (that is, its grain size).

One processing technique that does just that is to cool the molten metal so rapidly that it doesn’t form any crystals in the first place—making it amorphous, or glass-like. These metal glasses—which go by various trade names, such as Metglas, FineMet (Hitachi), etc—have extremely low hysteresis losses, but due to the difficulty involved in making them, they only come as continuously-cast, relatively thin ribbons (50 um is typical). Turning that into a motor armature has so far proved uneconomical, but when the breakthrough occurs, the results should be impressive (keep an eye on Hitachi).

Wire and insulation Another critical component in a motor is the wire, and the real progress being made here is not with the actual conductor material—there are really only two choices: copper, or, if you’re feeling extra spendy, silver—rather, it’s with the insulation and cabling methods. Conventional copper magnet wire is the type most commonly used in EV traction motors, and there are a whole bunch of them in parallel (aka “in hand”) to handle the high currents— as much as 1,000 A during acceleration. Despite the fact that the wires are in parallel, they are still individually insulated to reduce losses from “skin effect,” which is the tendency for alternating current to increasingly avoid the

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The two key criteria for evaluating whether a new motor winding insulation is better are its dielectric strength and its dielectric loss coefficient. center of a conductor as frequency goes up. For example, for a motor to handle about 400 A continuous would require wire with a total cross-sectional area of around 100 square mm, which is about the same as 4/0 gauge, and a single wire of that size would start seeing increased AC resistance from skin effect at just 120 Hz. Insulation takes up valuable space in the motor, so there is considerable motivation to make it as thin as possible, but that leads to another problem (of course), which is that the fast switching of voltage by the inverter—which needs to be as fast as possible to minimize switching losses—hastens insulation breakdown and causes capacitively-coupled currents to flow across the bearings (more on that below). This has led to the development of so-called “inverter-rated” wire

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Bearings More on the mechanical end of things are advances in ball bearing technology. Much as motor manufacturers found out the hard way that conventional magnet wire insulation was failing notoriously quickly when supplied by an inverter, shaft bearings also started to see a precipitous rise in early failures, and with the same root cause (that is, the steep voltage waveforms generated by the inverter). Whenever two conductors are separated by insula-

Negative pressure electric brake pump

for motors, which was originally just a heavier application (or build) of the insulating coating.

Research these days—particularly for the far more demanding EV—is focused on advanced insulating materials rather than just slapping on a thicker coat of paint, so to speak. The two key criteria for evaluating whether a new motor winding insulation is better, then, are its dielectric strength—or the voltage per unit thickness the insulation can withstand—and its dielectric loss coefficient—or how much heating is caused by the flow of AC across it. Improvements in one or both qualities must not compromise the maximum allowed operating temperature or the flexibility of the coating (its elasticity). Towards that end, fluoropolymer coatings like PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) and FEP (fluorinated ethylenepropylene co-polymer) will likely be increasingly adopted; in fact, these insulation materials are already being used in state-of-the-art transformer and inductor designs.

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tion, a capacitor is formed, and the capacitor equation, I = C * (dV/dt), says that the flow of current across the insulation is proportional to the capacitance, C, and the rate of change in the voltage, dV/dt. The capacitance in a motor is between its stator windings and rotor, so capacitively-coupled currents will flow across the wire insulation—causing dielectric heating—and out through the motor bearings—causing arcing damage that leads to pitting of the bearing balls and, eventually, to total seizure. Bearing balls need to be very smooth for low friction, very tough to withstand shock and impact, and very hard to last a reasonably long time, so they are most commonly made of hardened and polished steel.

If the bearing balls were in continuous contact with the races, there wouldn’t be much of a problem from capacitatively-coupled currents, but they actually ride on a thin film of lubricating oil or grease, which minimizes metal-on-metal contact and breaks the pathway between rotor and stator. This leads to charge building up on the rotor until it is sufficient to punch through the oil film (or the bearing ball suddenly makes metal-onmetal contact); in either case an arc discharge occurs, which is exactly analogous to a machining process called Electrical-Discharge Machining, hence this failure mechanism is often referred to as “EDM damage.” Making the bearing balls out of a non-conductive material and grounding the rotor through a carbon brush slip-ring are the usual solutions, but keep in mind the criteria for bearing balls outlined above: they must

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If the bearing balls were in continuous contact with the races, there wouldn’t be much of a problem from capacitatively-coupled currents, but they actually ride on a thin film of lubricating oil or grease. be smooth, tough and hard. Glass, for example, can be made both smooth and hard enough to use as bearing balls, but it isn’t remotely tough enough. Most ceramics are grainy—so they can’t be made as smooth as steel— and while exceptionally hard, also aren’t very tough.

Advanced ceramic materials like silicon and aluminum nitrides, however, do appear very promising as they hit the trifecta of mechanical requirements while also being electrical insulators.

Magnets For those motors which use permanent magnets, much effort has gone into improving the maximum energy product (magnetic field strength, basically) without compromising mechanical strength, susceptibility to demagnetization and corrosion, and maximum operating temperature. As explained in a previous Charged article (“A closer look at rare earth permanent magnets,” from our July/August 2017 issue), the NdFeB (Neodymium Iron Boron) formulation is used most often in

The biggest impact is none at all.

EV traction motors because it has the highest field strength (which means the most torque per amp of phase current) and is very resistant to demagnetization—as long as the temperature doesn’t get too high, that is. Just a few years ago that limit was a mere 180° C (356° F), but continuing research and development has extended it to 230° C (446° F), albeit at a steep increase in material cost and a similar decrease in maximum energy product. Since an upper limit of 180° C is just barely good enough for a typical motor (because it matches the most commonly used temperature rating of the wire insulation), further development will likely concentrate on improving the energy product and/or corrosion resistance, the latter being another real problem with the NdFeB formulation. The really interesting stuff being done with magnets has more to do with how they are squeezed into the motors beyond the basic mounting on the surface of the rotor, but that—along with other advanced construction techniques—will have to wait until part two.

You barely hear it coming and it leaves virtually nothing behind.

The electric vehicle may just change everything – bringing with it the promise of smart, economical transportation while leaving virtually no impact on our environment. At BorgWarner, we’re proud to be part of this exciting movement, developing new technologies for electric vehicles along with other innovative automotive propulsion systems. We’re leading the way toward a cleaner, more energy-efficient world.

THE TECH

SOLID-STATE BATTERY TECH WHAT’S CLOSE TO COMMERCIALIZATION, AND WHAT’S STILL YEARS AWAY?

With a fresh round of funding, Wildcat Discovery Technologies is busy expanding its facilities, building up its battery team and doubling down on promising solid-state research projects.

We asked the energy storage experts to help clear up the hype around solidstate batteries.

By Christian Ruoff and Paul Beck

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henever Charged needs to better understand the complexities of the latest and greatest battery tech—or the nuances of the battery materials industry—our first call is to Wildcat Discovery Technologies. This group of energy storage scientists has a unique industry perspective, because they use their proprietary high-throughput research platform to help other companies improve their batteries by rapidly exploring new materials. Wildcat is at the forefront of the race to find better battery materials, and its combinatorial chemistry techniques can build and test prototype batteries up to 10 times faster than a standard lab—a process that’s ideally suited for optimizing materials with seemingly endless formulation possibilities.

The result is that Wildcat not only understands the deep technical details of all the top battery chemistries, but also has a great perspective on the commercialization timelines for what’s considered next-generation technology.

With the explosion of interest in battery tech in the past decade, the company has been busy. Wildcat recently closed a new investment round of over $20 million, upgraded its lab in a new facility, hired top battery experts, began discussions to license its R&D platform, and expanded its internal projects into key areas of solid-state battery tech.

We come across a lot of press release hyperbole and confusing terms/concepts surrounding solid-state battery technology. So Charged recently chatted with Wildcat to discuss the latest in its battery research, including the race for solid-state batteries and the quest for the top prize: a solid electrolyte cell with a lithium metal anode.

CONVENTIONAL BATTERY

ANODE

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The state of solid-state Most batteries used in EVs today have a liquid electrolyte, but researchers are seeking solid alternatives for two reasons. One: the liquid electrolytes are flammable, and replacing them would significantly improve battery safety. Two: solid electrolytes could enable much higher energy density with the use of novel anodes.

A lot of confusion arises in the media, because the term solid-state is commonly used to describe both batteries that represent an evolution of some currently available technology (such as using a solid electrolyte with a graphite anode) and the Holy Grail-type batteries that would represent a major leapfrog in performance (such as using a solid electrolyte in a lithium metal battery).

While evolutionary technologies like graphite-anode solid-state are generally approaching commercialization for use in EVs, the Holy Grail-type lithium metal solidstate batteries are still many years away.

“Solid electrolytes in batteries aren’t new,” explained Dee Strand, Chief Scientific Officer at Wildcat. “For example, there are micro-solid-state batteries that might be integrated on the circuit boards of your laptop or in other electronic applications. But of course, those aren’t appropriate for large-format automotive batteries.”

Most of these types of batteries fall into the solid-state standard-anode category. This is also true of the solidstate cells that some EV makers claim will be in their vehicles in a year or two. Those are likely some evolution of a design with a predominantly graphite anode.

To be clear, solid-state graphite-anode batteries do offer some great advantages, including improved safety benefits. However, the energy density improvements and cost savings are typically incremental.

The truly revolutionary advance will be made the day a solid electrolyte battery with a lithium metal anode is ready for commercial production.

ANODE

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SOLID ELECTROLYTE

A lot of confusion arises in the media, because the term solid-state is commonly used to describe both batteries that represent an evolution of some currently available technology and the Holy Grail-type batteries that would represent a major leapfrog.

Putting in the hard work Developing solid-state batteries for EV applications isn’t easy. The solid electrolyte material must have a high ionic conductivity in order to move lithium back and forth quickly. It must be stable with the electrodes. It needs to create a good interface with the anode and cathode. It must be manufacturable at high volumes. Finding a solid electrolyte material that combines all these properties has proven difficult.

Some interesting progress was made in 2011 when French transportation company Bolloré launched Bluecar, an EV designed for a carsharing service in Paris. The Bluecar used a lithium metal polymer (LMP) battery with a solid electrolyte. However, as Strand noted, Bluecar wasn’t a slam dunk for solid-state EV batteries.

“They use a solid polymer electrolyte, but the cell has to be heated to 60° C to make that electrolyte work, and their cars are used in a fleet application, so they’re very controlled,” Strand said.

Strand isn’t aware of any other mainstream automakers that have used solid-state batteries in production vehicles,

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THE TECH but many are keenly exploring the technology. Toyota, for instance, has conducted research into solid-state batteries using sulfide-based electrolytes. And this past October, Toyota Chief Technology Officer Shigeki Terashi told Autocar, “We will produce a car with solid-state batteries and unveil it to you in 2020, but mass production with solid-state batteries will be a little later.”

“The advantage of sulfide is that it has really high ionic conductivity,” Strand said. “The downside is that there are stability issues with the anode or cathode, so you have to have some protective coating. It’s also challenging from a manufacturing standpoint, because it can generate some toxic gases if it’s exposed to moisture, so there are some safety concerns with sulfides that need to be addressed.”

Other candidates for solid electrolyte materials include polymers and ceramics. However, none of those solutions have entered EV-scale production either, and in the near term, they will likely include some form of a graphite anode without the step-change improvements promised by lithium metal.

“The value proposition of a solid-state battery that uses a conventional graphite anode cell is more limited,” Jon Jacobs, VP of Business Development at Wildcat, told Charged. “It doesn’t really offer a huge improvement in energy over a regular lithium-ion battery, but it would presumably offer some safety benefits. It would mainly be a stepping stone to achieving the Holy Grail, where you replace the graphite anode with lithium metal, and you get the huge improvement that everybody wants.”

The challenges of lithium metal anodes Lithium metal anodes have a high theoretical specific capacity of 3,860 mAh/g (more than ten times graphite’s 372 mAh/g), and a low density of 0.59 g/cm3 (compared to graphite’s 2.26 g/cm3).

“However, using lithium metal with an all-solid electrolyte is really, really hard,” explained Jacobs. “To my knowledge, no one is really close to a commercial application using a lithium anode and a solid electrolyte battery that meets the demanding requirements of an EV.” “When you have a lithium metal anode, and you strip lithium off, and then you re-plate it over and over again, instead of ending up with a nice piece of lithium metal, you end up with something that looks like a pile of moss and needles and porosity,” Strand explained.

The unwanted growths are known as dendrites. These pointy, branch-like structures form on top of the lithium metal through repeated charge and discharge cycles.

“That causes a lot of problems,” Strand continued.

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value proposition of a solid-state “The battery that uses a conventional graphite anode cell is more limited...

It would mainly be a stepping stone to achieving the Holy Grail, where you replace the graphite anode with lithium metal.

”

“You’ve got a lot of surface area for a highly reactive material. You’ve got needle-like dendrites that poke through separators and short the cells and, in general, your cells just don’t last very long.”

The challenges of lithium anodes, combined with the challenges of solid electrolytes, make for a very challenging road to the Holy Grail. However, the problems may be easier to tackle one at a time, in Jacobs’s estimation.

“That’s why there are two basic paths researchers are taking to solve these issues incrementally.”

The first way is the solid electrolyte and graphite anode approach described above.

The second is to use a lithium metal anode, but find a stable non-solid electrolyte—either a conventional liquid or a semi-solid gel. However, neither option is ideal.

Liquid electrolytes see dendrite growth and result in low cycle life. Gel electrolytes are a step better, but just a step, according to Jacobs.

“Gel electrolytes are a solid electrolyte where you actually mix in some amount of volatile, more conventional liquid electrolyte—just a small quantity,” he said. “However, the instant you start to put that in, you’ve eliminated one of the benefits of an all-solid battery, which is the safety component where you eliminate these volatile things. This solution may find a niche market, but isn’t what the mainstream automakers are looking for.”

Wildcat’s research In 2019, Wildcat was awarded a DOE grant to pursue solid-state technology. Valued at just over $1.22 million, the grant will help fund Wildcat’s promising internal research project—which, due to several years of record numbers of projects with its partners, has taken a back seat to those commercial contracts.

“With the new funding, we have the luxury to be able to apply our high-throughput tools to a more sustained, larger internal effort,” Strand said.

“In addition, we are adding a significant amount of our own capital on top of the DOE grant,” Jacobs added. “Combined, this is now a major emphasis here at Wildcat. It’s a giant program for us.”

Wildcat’s internal research consists of three main thrusts, according to Strand. Two of those thrusts are the stepping stones to the Holy Grail: stabilizing lithium anodes and developing solid electrolyte materials.

The DOE grant, intended to further solid-state battery technology, will go towards these efforts.

“We’re trying to address both the energy and safety issues of lithium metal anodes,” Strand said. “Again, the challenge is being able to strip and plate lithium in a way that you don’t end up with a pile of twigs and moss and porous stuff. Towards that end, we’re trying to put protective layers onto the lithium that can hold that material in place and still let lithium strip and plate through the layer.”

As for solid electrolytes, Wildcat is taking a hybrid approach that combines polymers with ceramics.

“It’s hard to find a single material that does well on all of the properties of solid electrolytes. That’s why we’re choosing to go with a composite material that picks and chooses the best properties of polymers with the best properties of ceramics,” Strand said.

Wildcat’s third research thrust

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is to develop high-energy cobalt-free cathode materials known as disordered rocksalt cathodes.

“We’ve made a lot of really good progress on that cathode material, in terms of improving its overall conductivity or power performance,” Strand explained. “We’re now starting on improvements to cycle life by understanding the fundamental failure mechanisms of that material.”

Eventually, Wildcat would like to see all three thrusts come together in a solid-state battery with a lithium anode and a disordered rocksalt cathode. “But we also believe that each on its own is very valuable to the industry,” Strand said.

New facility, investors, hires and business models Wildcat’s research is powered by what the company calls its high-throughput platform, or HTP. “Our high-throughput platform is a combination of lots of different equipment that can take a researcher through the very beginning phase of synthesis of materials all the way through full battery assembly and cycle testing,” explained Wildcat CEO Mark Gresser. “It’s a whole suite of customized equipment that the Wildcat team has designed and built themselves. That’s what allows our scientists to do research in such a unique way.”

In 2018, Wildcat upgraded its HTP alongside a move to a bigger facility in San Diego. The new 23,000-squarefoot facility has 65 percent more space to accommodate several improvements to the HTP. “We’ve put in a new dry room and a prototype pouch cell line,” Gresser continued. “So we have the ability now to make single and multi-layer pouch cells, and this is a great way to validate discoveries coming from our high-throughput platform.”

The improved HTP also features greater automation.

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material that “It’sdoeshardwelltoonfindallaofsingle the properties of solid electrolytes. That’s why we’re choosing to go with a composite material that picks and chooses the best properties of polymers with the best properties of ceramics.

”

“We have a lot of automation, but we improved it all significantly and, most importantly, connected everything through a centralized database,” added Strand. “Now, the scientists can control and monitor equipment from their laptop. They can do all their experimental design and run equipment and execute experiments in a way that they just couldn’t do before.”

An expanded facility isn’t the only new thing at Wildcat. The company recently brought on new investors, including Flint Hills Resources, a Koch Industries subsidiary based in Wichita, Kansas; and InoBat, a Slovakian startup cell-maker.

Wildcat’s business model is to use its HTP to conduct research for its customers. An increasing number of customers, according to Jacobs, are engaging in longterm agreements that span two or three years. These types of new arrangements are ideal for the nature of Wildcat’s research, because the company’s material discovery process can lead to unexpected new opportunities. Long-term partnerships allow Wildcat’s research team to proceed naturally without the need to formalize a new plan at every fork in the road.

Images courtesy of Wildcat

Wildcat is considering a new business model: licensing its high-throughput platform.

“Historically, any questions from customers regarding whether they might be able to buy a Wildcat platform of their own, the answer was either no, or you’d have to buy the company,” Jacobs said. “We’re now open to the idea that we might sell a limited number of platforms into the market; this would basically be a license and sale of a complete high-throughput platform.”

To help manage all these new opportunities, Wildcat recently added two industry veterans to its team. The first is Dr. Odysseas Paschos, formerly of BMW’s battery research team, who is now heading up Wildcat’s European business development efforts. The second is Dr. Sun Ho Kang, whose prestigious career took him to Argonne National Labs, Samsung, and Apple before he came to Wildcat.

And Wildcat is still looking to hire. The company is seeking additional help to improve its HTP and meet its internal research goals. “Wildcat is hiring,” Jacobs emphasized. “We’re always looking for more talented scientists and engineers who want to work on cutting-edge battery discoveries.”

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THE VEHICLES

Tesla curtails North American auto production, builds and Polestar begins production of distributes ventilators its EV in China After several days of contradictory information, and what appears to have been a valiant attempt to keep the vehicle production lines open, Tesla announced the shutdown of its Fremont factory in late March.

Tesla also said it would drastically reduce staffing at its Nevada Gigafactory due to the coronavirus crisis, according to the local county manager. “Tesla has informed us that the Gigafactory in Storey County is reducing on-site staff by roughly 75% in the coming days,” Austin Osborne said in a post on the county’s web site.

Battery partner Panasonic has also pulled its 3,500 employees from the Gigafactory, ostensibly for 14 days.

Meanwhile, Tesla said it was speeding ahead with plans to manufacture medical ventilators at its solar roof tile factory in Buffalo, New York. “Giga New York will reopen for ventilator production as soon as humanly possible,” Elon Musk tweeted. “We will do anything in our power to help the citizens of New York.”

Tesla will make ventilators in partnership with medical device manufacturer Medtronic. “We’re opening up with other partners who’ve come forward,” Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak said in an interview with CNBC. “Tesla is one that I think people have heard about. One of our ventilators will be made by them, and they’re fast on track to try to make them.”

Tesla is also reportedly using repurposed Model 3 parts to build ventilators to a new design. The company also purchased a quantity of surplus ventilators in China, and has distributed them to various US locations.

Tesla’s Chinese Gigafactory resumed production in early February, and is reportedly building a record number of vehicles. The company’s stock soared after reporting a surprisingly high number of vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2020.

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As auto plants around the world shut down or shift to producing ventilators, Polestar, the performance EV brand owned by Volvo (which is in turned owned by Geely), has begun production of the Polestar 2 at its plant in Luqiao, China.

The company is taking stringent health precautions: at the factory, work spaces are disinfected frequently, and workers are required to wear masks and undergo regular temperature screenings. Polestar said in March that none of its workers in China had tested positive for COVID-19.

The global health crisis has forced Polestar to alter its timeline. The company now says it will sell its vehicles only online, and will offer customer subscriptions. It had planned to open 60 standalone showrooms in cities including Oslo, Los Angeles and Shanghai this year. That plan will be delayed, but Polestar told TechCrunch that it will open some pop-up stores as soon as the situation improves.

The Polestar 2 electric fastback features all-wheel drive, 408 hp, 487 lb-ft of torque, a 78 kWh battery pack and a range of 292 miles (WLTP). It also sports an Android-powered infotainment system. Deliveries are scheduled to begin this summer, starting in Europe and followed by China and North America.

Polestar told TechCrunch that production will be in the “tens of thousands” of cars per year.

“We start production now under these challenging circumstances with a strong focus on the health and safety of our people,” said Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath.

“This is a great achievement and the result of huge efforts from the staff in the factory and the team securing the supply chain.”

Trump administration guts clean air standards As expected, the Trump administration announced a rollback of federal fuel economy regulations, a move that some estimate will increase annual US carbon emissions by as much as 25 percent, as well as increasing fuel costs for consumers and putting the US auto industry at a competitive disadvantage.

The administration says weakening the standards will make new cars some $1,000 cheaper, encouraging Americans to buy newer, safer models and leading to fewer highway fatalities. “This country needs a sensible national program that strikes the right regulatory balance for the environment, the auto industry, the economy, safety, and American families,” said EPA chief Andrew Wheeler. The weakened rule “does all of those things by improving fuel economy, continuing to reduce air pollution, and making new vehicles more affordable for all Americans.”

Others do not agree. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have sued the administration over the changes. More lawsuits are in the offing, and the battle seems certain to end up in the US Supreme Court.

Legal experts say the rollback is vulnerable to a court challenge, as the administration’s own draft economic analysis showed that its economic costs would outweigh its benefits. A draft of the rule sent to the White House in January calculated that the new rules would lower the prices of new cars by about $1,000 as claimed, but would increase consumers’ fuel costs by $1,400. The total cost to the American economy, according to the administration’s own analysis: between $13 billion and $22 billion.

If the rule change does survive legal challenges, it will move the US from having one of the strongest fuel economy standards in the world to having one of the weakest, putting the country out of step with the global auto market—the EU, China, India, Japan and South Korea all have stronger standards. It’s not hard to imagine this posing a long-term headwind for US automakers and suppliers.

As the rest of the world develops innovative technologies to increase efficiency and reduce air pollution, American automakers will be encouraged to focus on gas guzzlers.

Automakers are split over the issue. Four companies— Ford, Honda, VW and BMW—struck a deal with California to abide by standards more stringent than those of the federal government. Three others—GM, Toyota and Fiat Chrysler—have sided with the Trump administration. In response, the state of California, along with several cities,

has said it will no longer buy vehicles from the three companies.

Most carmakers would probably welcome more lax regulation, but they also crave stability and a level playing field. “The auto industry has consistently called for year-over-year increases in fuel efficiency,” said John Bozzella, President of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry lobbying group. “We need a policy environment that drives improvements in fuel economy, and the infrastructure that supports a transformation to net-zero emissions.”

Upon Trump’s election in 2016, automakers were eager to see the standards watered down, but there’s a sense in the industry that the radical rollback the administration has delivered is more than they bargained for (or perhaps they were simply surprised at the strength of the support for the previous standards). “One thing we’ve learned from the Trump administration is be careful what you ask for,” David Victor, Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation at the University of California, San Diego, told the New York Times. “The auto industry wanted a smoother glide path to a more efficient future. Instead what they got was the populist politics of the far right, which is blowing up in their faces.”

Consumer advocates don’t seem convinced by the administration’s argument for gutting the standards.

“At a time when many Americans are going without a paycheck, it’s unconscionable to approve a plan that will have consumers paying more for gas for years to come,” said David Friedman, VP of Advocacy at Consumer Reports. “The rollback of these consumer protections was a bad idea when it was proposed two years ago. Finalizing it now, as we are on the brink of a recession, ignores the long-term financial hardships this moment will have on millions of Americans.”

The nonprofit sustainability organization Ceres analyzed the financial effects of the relaxed standards, and estimated that suppliers would lose $20 billion between 2021 and 2025 in sales of fuel efficiency technologies.

The evisceration of emissions standards will “undermine the ability of the US auto industry to recover from economic turmoil and compete in a clean vehicle future,” said Carol Lee Rawn, Senior Director of Transportation at Ceres.

MAR/APR 2020

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Image courtesy of Case

THE VEHICLES

New York State pledges $24 million in VW settlement funds for electric transit buses New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) have announced that over $24 million is available to replace diesel-powered transit buses with new all-electric buses.

As part of the state’s $128-million allocation from the federal Volkswagen Settlement, NYSERDA will invest $18.4 million to fund electric buses through the Truck Voucher Incentive Program, and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) will manage $6 million for associated charging infrastructure.

Funding is available to replace existing diesel buses with model year 2009 and older engines, which must be removed from service and scrapped. Replacements are targeted at state government-owned bus fleets that serve Environmental Justice communities—low-income communities that experience a disproportionate share of environmental harms such as air pollution.

The state’s Truck Voucher Incentive Program provides point-of-sale rebates. The rebate will initially reduce the incremental cost of purchasing all-electric transit buses by up to 100 percent.

“Supporting a statewide effort to increase the use of all-electric busses and ramping up electric vehicle charging stations gives fleet owners the confidence they need to go greener and cleaner with their vehicles and hastens our ability to ultimately eliminate New York State’s carbon footprint,” said NYSERDA CEO Alicia Barton.

“The greening of public buses, with their high mileage and extensive travel in populated urban areas, is a key element in New York State’s strategy for making significant air quality improvements and meeting established carbon reduction goals,” said NYPA CEO Gil C. Quiniones.

“NYPA’s expertise with the deployment of fast chargers, particularly under our EVolveNY program, directly applies to the electrification of heavy-duty fleets.”

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Case electric backhoe performs as well as a diesel at 10% of the operating cost Yellow-machine builder Case has unveiled a new all-electric backhoe, which it claims performs as well as a diesel while saving up to 90% in operating costs.

“The CASE 580 EV (electric vehicle) delivers backhoe power and performance equivalent to its diesel counterpart while also providing instant torque, lower jobsite noise, lower daily and lifetime operating costs, reduced maintenance demands and absolutely zero emissions,” says Case.

The 580 EV features a 90 kWh battery pack. According to Case, battery capacity is sufficient for “a typical 8-hour work day,” and the machine saves “as much as 90 percent in annual vehicle, fuel and maintenance costs.”

The battery separately powers the drivetrain and hydraulic motors, resulting in improved performance during simultaneous loader and drivetrain operation.

Case has not announced a price, but says it has it has already sold units to several US electric utilities.

“The backhoe loader is perfectly suited for electrification, as the varied use cycles, from heavy to light work, provide an excellent opportunity to convert wasted diesel engine hours into zero-consumption battery time—yet provide the operator with instantaneous torque response when needed,” said Eric Zieser, Director of Case’s Global Compact Equipment product line. “At low idle, a diesel engine has reduced torque and requires time for the engine to ramp up to meet the load demands. Electric motors, on the other hand, have instantaneous torque and peak torque available at every operating speed.”

US Army plans for an EV future The US Army has been tentatively testing EV technology for some time. Electrification offers opportunities to streamline the military’s logistics tail and to improve its mobility and reach, and the process needs to move faster, a general with Army Futures Command told Defense News in a recent interview.

“Let’s be clear. We’re behind. We’re late to meet on this thing,” said Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, the Director of the Army’s Futures and Concepts Center.

“All of the various nations that we work with, they’re all going to electric power with their automotive fleet, and right now, although…we’ve got some research and development going on and we can build prototypes, in terms of a transition plan, we are not there.”

For example, the Army tested a hybrid Chevy Colorado that was equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell and electric drive, but nothing came of the effort.

Buying a Tesla vehicle is easy, but “the Army has to think about it much bigger,” Wesley said. “What is the cost of replacing your entire fleet? We know we can’t do that. There’s got to be a steady transition.”

Wesley’s command is currently preparing a proposal that will address how the service might electrify its logistics and sustainment tails. The proposal will make a business case for electrification, discuss the technical feasibility and describe a transition process.

The entire automotive industry is going electric, Wesley told Defense News, so the Army will have to do the same or risk problems with resources and supply chains down the line.

Electrifying also offers several advantages. For one, it would make it easier to supply power to the array of high-tech devices that a modern army depends on. “We have to operate distributed, which means you have to have organic power that is readily available,” Wesley said. “A lot of technology is being distributed at lower and lower echelons, and the question is always: ‘How are we going to power these [highly technical] tools that we use in operations?’ Electrification allows you to have access to readily available power to distribute not only for the vehicle but for all those different systems.”

Dealing with fewer parts would also be a benefit. The general noted that a Tesla has only a few dozen moving parts, while an ICE vehicle may have thousands. He added that EVs’ silence and low heat signature could make them less likely to be detected by enemy forces.

Image courtesy of BYD

THE VEHICLES

Washington’s King County Metro to purchase up to 120 New Flyer electric buses Image courtesy of New Flyer

King County Metro has agreed to purchase up to 120 New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE electric buses for a total estimated cost of $130 million. The transport operator will begin with the purchase of 40 articulated 60-foot electric buses, and plans to buy an additional 80 e-buses (20 articulated 60-foot buses and 60 40-foot buses) in fall 2022. Each of the buses has a battery size of 466 kWh and a range of 140 miles.

King County Metro has received $20 million in grants to support the acquisition of electric buses, including $9.1 million from the Federal Transit Administration and $10.9 million from the Washington State Department of Ecology Volkswagen Settlement program. The operator currently has 11 short-range electric buses.

A phased approach is planned for the addition of bus base capacity and charging infrastructure, starting with the completion of a temporary bus base that will house a charging system for 100 buses. King County Metro will invest $41 million in this base, and electrification infrastructure is estimated to cost $50-$60 million.

After this initial procurement of 120 buses, King County Metro plans an additional procurement of 250 electric buses for delivery in 2025.

King County Executive Dow Constantine said, “These new buses will be able to serve routes all over King County, and especially in the southern part of the county, an area disproportionately affected by pollution. Working with New Flyer, we’ve procured 40 new buses that can handle anything we throw at them—quietly, efficiently, and fueled by clean power.”

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New BYD sub-brand will produce components for clean energy vehicles Chinese EV-maker BYD has launched a new sub-brand called FinDreams, which will produce core components for clean energy vehicles. FinDreams has five subsidiaries, which will specialize in different fields of auto manufacturing, including batteries and powertrains.

Industry experts say BYD’s move is part of its global expansion strategy. “For the overseas market, the independent system has more autonomy, greatly increasing the cooperation possibility and the degree of freedom,” said Shanghai-based auto industry media outlet MiVoGarage.

While industry experts expect EV sales to flatten in China and the US this year, some predict that a surge in Europe will drive overall growth in the global EV market. BYD is keeping a keen eye on opportunities in the European market. The company’s electric cars have reached consumers in over 100 cities across 20 European countries, including Amsterdam, London, Brussels and Oslo. (The company also manufactures electric buses in California.)

“The establishment of the independent brand benefits the company as the move makes it easier to reach more clients from both the domestic and overseas sectors,” said Shi Jinman, an auto analyst at Guotai Jun’an Securities.

“The overseas subsidiaries can work more efficiently on making decisions such as building local plants, and take advantage of BYD’s digital channels to boost global expansion.”

Wright Electric, a partner of European airline easyJet, recently unveiled design concepts for the Wright 1, a 186seat electric aircraft. Wright is building a 1.5 MW electric motor and 3 kV inverter. The company is in discussions with BAE Systems to develop flight controls and energy management systems. Wright plans to conduct ground tests in 2021, flight tests in 2023, and begin service in 2030.

Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said, “This is another crucial step for our partner Wright Electric to move towards the introduction of commercial electric aircraft and it is exciting to see their ambitious timeline for testing and entry into service. Battery technology is advancing at pace with numerous US government agencies now funding research into electric aviation—all of these

Image courtesy of Wright Electric

Wright Electric unveils design concepts for electric aircraft

developments help us to more clearly see a future of more sustainable operations.”

Jeffrey Engler, CEO of Wright Electric, said, “Wright Electric is dedicated to bringing low-emissions 186seat electric plane systems to market. Wright Electric’s mission is to make commercial aviation greener, and our megawatt engine program is the next step in making our mission a reality.”

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RAND Boats launches new propulsion package for its Leisure 28 Electric Electric boat manufacturer RAND Boats has launched a new propulsion package for its Leisure 28 Electric model. The new Leisure 28 Electric stern drive propulsion package features a 240 kW engine and modular battery pack with a capacity of 80-120 kWh, allowing for a top speed of more than 40 knots (72 km/h) and up to two hours of planing speed range, according to the company.

The first new Leisure 28 Electrics are scheduled for delivery in spring 2020.

The new propulsion system will also be available in the company’s other 24-foot and longer models, as well as the company’s pipeline models scheduled for launch in 2020 and 2021.

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Image courtesy of Nicolas Raymond

Image courtesy of RAND Boats

THE VEHICLES

Washington set to become the 12th ZEV state A bill making Washington the 12th state to adopt California’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate has been signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee.

Washington adopted California’s emissions standards in 2005, but did not sign on to the ZEV mandate. The mandate requires that automakers derive at least 5% of their sales from EVs. This figure gradually increases to 8% by 2025.

Several automakers offer their EVs only in ZEV states, so if Washington’s ZEV mandate becomes law, it is expected to result in a wider selection of EVs in the state, as well as expanding the national market for the so-called “compliance cars.”

Washington’s Department of Ecology reports that the transportation sector is the state’s biggest source of carbon pollution. The average EV in the state emits 1.3 metric tons of global warming emissions per year, compared to 4.9 metric tons for the average new gas car.

A couple of other pro-EV bills were considered by the state legislature, but now look unlikely to pass: E2SHB 1110 would establish rebates for EV purchasers, and encourage the use of biofuels; another proposal would implement a ban on gas vehicles by 2030.

Washington’s entry into the ZEV club deals another blow to the Trump administration’s campaign to eviscerate emissions regulations. It also sends a message to GM, Toyota and Fiat-Chrysler that they’re on the wrong side of the ongoing conflict between states and the federal government.

CALIENTÉ EV COLD PLATE BATTERY HEATER PADS

The tedious and complicated war between Tesla and the auto dealers continues to drag on. At present, the country is a patchwork—some states explicitly allow Tesla’s direct sales model, some explicitly prohibit it, and in others some sort of compromise has been reached.

Tesla recently won a legal battle in Michigan, allowing the company to sell cars directly to consumers through a subsidiary. and now it appears that another victory is at hand in Colorado.

The situation in Colorado is unusual. Unlike most other states, which have had long-standing prohibitions on automakers selling cars directly to the public, Colorado only implemented such a ban in 2010. Tesla already had one store in the state, so this was grandfathered in, but the company was not allowed to open other stores. (It does have several other locations in Colorado, but these are “galleries,” where customers can look at cars but not actually buy—nudge nudge, wink wink.)

Tesla was the only company to be grandfathered in, so as it stands, other EV-makers such as Rivian are banned from selling directly to buyers in the state.

State Senate Bill 20-167, which would allow companies that make “only electric motor vehicles” to sell directly to consumers, passed the Colorado Senate and House, and has been sent to Governor Jared Polis, who is expected to sign it.

The bill is the result of a compromise between proponents (Rivian and Tesla) and opponents (auto dealership lobby groups). An earlier version seemed to leave open the possibility that legacy automakers could also sell their EVs directly. Auto dealer groups agreed to drop their opposition to the bill after it was modified to make it clear that the direct-to-consumer model is allowed only for automakers that sell only EVs, and that have no existing dealerships in the state.

The new law is good news for Tesla, but it’s especially important for Rivian. Colorado is the #4 state in the US in per-capita EV sales, and it’s ground zero for the outdoorsy drivers Rivian is targeting with its electric SUV and pickup.

“A good compromise was reached, which brought the Colorado Auto Dealers to a neutral position,” lobbyist Mike Feeley told the Colorado Sun. “They are ready for the competition, they are ready to move this issue out into the marketplace as opposed to the legislature, and they look forward to competing vigorously in the marketplace as this market and industry evolves.”

Image courtesy of Nicolas Raymond

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Image courtesy of Volvo

Image courtesy of Bollinger Motors

THE VEHICLES

Malmö, Sweden orders 60 Volvo high-capacity electric buses Scandinavian transport operator Nobina, which services Malmö, Sweden, has ordered 60 of Volvo’s 7900 Electric Articulated buses. Propelled by dual electric motors with a two-speed transmission, each bus has maximum power output of 400 kW, maximum torque of 31 kN-m at the driven axle, and up to 396 kWh of battery capacity.

Each bus can carry up to 150 passengers. They can be quick-charged via OppCharge stations located on the bus route, or they can be charged when parked in a depot.

Volvo is scheduled to begin delivering the buses in January 2021.

Henrik Dagnäs, Managing Director at Nobina Sweden, said, “We are seeing a rapid change of public transport where the electric buses and technology are meeting the needs of society and passengers for efficient, comfortable, and sustainable public transport.”

Håkan Agnevall, President of Volvo Buses, said, “Electromobility creates entirely new opportunities for urban planning and improves flexibility for cities that want to bring public transport closer to where people actually live and work.”

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Bollinger Motors unveils E-Chassis for commercial vehicles Bollinger Motors has unveiled its patent-pending E-Chassis, a Class 3 electric platform designed for commercial applications. “When we first built our Class 3 B1, we knew there was a commercial aspect to the platform,” says CEO Robert Bollinger. “Not only cab-on-chassis, but entirely new truck bodies can fit on our E-Chassis, and help propel the world to all-electric that much faster.”

The E-Chassis is the same platform shared by the B1 Sport Utility Truck and the B2 Pickup, and will accommodate future Bollinger models. Among other features, the E-Chassis includes: • • • • • • •

120 kWh battery pack, expandable to 180 kWh All-wheel drive and all-terrain capabilities Dual motors Portal gear hubs 5,000 lb payload 5-15 kW onboard charger/inverter Integrated thermal management system

The E-Chassis can be configured for a variety of uses, including front- or rear-wheel drive, with or without portal gear hubs, and with a battery pack size of up to 180 kWh.

NEW PRODUCT EXRAD

Bakery giant Bimbo to build 1,000 electric trucks per year Image courtesy of Grupo Bimbo

The dynamics of the commercial vehicle market are very different from those of the fashion-driven passenger vehicle market. When it comes to electric trucks, it’s fleet buyers who have been taking the initiative, from Germany’s Deutsche Post to Amazon to UPS. Now the bakery giant Grupo Bimbo has announced plans to build its own EVs. Mexico City-based Grupo Bimbo is the world’s largest baking company, with more than 100 locations in 17 countries. Its brands include Sara Lee, Entenmann’s, Thomas’ English Muffins and Nature’s Harvest.

The new plan calls for Bimbo subsidiary Moldex to build around 1,000 electric trucks per year for the next 4 years for the company’s fleet, and possibly to sell vehicles to other companies as well.

“In 2012 we started planning and designing what would be Grupo Bimbo’s first electric vehicle. Today, thanks to the talent of Mexican engineers at our subsidiary Moldex, located in Lerma, State of Mexico, we have an electric distribution fleet of more than 400 vehicles, and we are ready to take this big step of expanding the fleet by 4,000 units,” said Executive VP Javier González Franco. “This will provide sustainable distribution to corner stores in Mexico using a fleet that will operate without leaving a trace on the planet.”

Energy for the electric distribution trucks will be generated by Grupo Bimbo’s Piedra Larga wind farm in Oaxaca.

José María-Aguilar, CEO of Moldex, said Grupo Bimbo has invested $146 million in its electric truck initiative. “These are the new generation of trucks, which have lithium batteries for greater load capacity and speed,” María-Aguilar said. “We have the ability to assemble up to 3,000 units per year, but we will make 1,000.”

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THE VEHICLES

SEVEN

FUTURE ELECTRIC PICKUP TRUCKS. MAYBE.

By John Voelcker

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Tesla Cybertruck

O

ver the first 10 years of their existence, most modern battery-electric cars have been compact hatchbacks or Teslas.

While a few are marketed as crossover utility vehicles, none have been the full-size pickup trucks that make up a huge and very profitable segment of US vehicle sales.

That’s about to change.

What follows is a list of battery-electric pickup models expected to go on sale in the US over the next two to three years. We’ve ranked them in rough order of prominence and the likelihood of production, starting with established makers that have produced hundreds of thousands of vehicles or more. The list ends with startup makers planning to launch their first-ever production vehicles.

Tesla Cybertruck By far the most jaw-dropping among EV pickup designs, the Cybertruck completely redefines the traditional notion of what a truck looks like. It’s hyperaggressive, entirely angular, wedge-shaped rather than three-box, and generally looks more like a dystopianmovie prop than a proper pickup truck.

But there’s method in Tesla’s madness. Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, who created the timeless lines of the Model S, set out to reinvent the idea of a pickup truck for a new electric era. It had to be as

Images courtesy of Tesla

NOTE: The information in this article was current as of early April 2020. Given the global economic slowdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect some of it to change—perhaps including launch delays or withdrawals by startup manufacturers.

MAR/APR 2020

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THE VEHICLES aerodynamic as possible, and sturdier than the toughest, existing “Built Ford Tough” or “Like a Rock” pickups, and it needed to garner enough attention to market itself.

If the company’s claims are to be believed, it accomplishes all that.

Tesla says its top-end Cybertruck, which was unveiled in November 2019, will have a range of 500 miles, use 3 motors and active suspension, and deliver 0-to-60-mph acceleration in less than 3 seconds. Tesla cites a payload of 3,500 pounds and towing capability up to 14,000 pounds.

The company says it has taken 250,000 reservations for the truck.

Unusually, the truck is a unibody design, using unpainted, ultra-hard 30x cold-rolled flat-plate stainless steel—the same stuff CEO Elon Musk’s other company, SpaceX, uses for its Starship rocket. Tesla will spend just $30 million on tooling, Musk says. Manufacturing experts suggest that at a volume of 50,000 trucks a year, the design will save the company $60 million on stamping presses, and $150 million or more on painting expenses.

Tesla says Cybertruck prices will start at $39,900, and it expects to start shipping the first production models in late 2021. Thus far, no manufacturing site has been chosen, though Musk has hinted the company would look in the Midwest for a plant site.

GMC Hummer EV SUT General Motors’ next wave of EVs, which was shown to automotive reporters in March (after their phone cameras were disabled), consists of medium- to full-size SUV and pickup truck models. These vehicles are to start rolling off the lines in an entirely rebuilt Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant late in 2021. The first of the new EVs is a pickup truck that will carry the revived Hummer name.

This time, Hummer is not its own brand, but a model line within the profitable GMC luxury truck brand. Reporters were shown two future electric Hummer prototypes. One corresponds to the old H2 SUV, the other is much like the H2 SUT, or Sport Utility Truck, with butch looks, four doors, and a very short open bed.

Only minimal specifications were given. GM President Mark Reuss said battery pack capacities for GM’s new global electric-car skateboard architecture would range from 50 to 200 kWh. An ad for the Hummer EV that was aired during the 2020 Super Bowl touted 0-60 acceleration of about 3 seconds, and total output of 1,000 hp (750 kW). For the rest, we’ll have to wait for the formal introduction, which is scheduled for Detroit this May. This one seems pretty likely to make its way to dealer-

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Manufacturing experts suggest that at a volume of 50,000 trucks a year, the design will save Tesla $60 million on stamping presses, and $150 million or more on painting expenses.

ships. GM is starting to discuss its future EV plans more openly, and while much of that has to do with boosting its stock price—and there are reasons to be openly skeptical—the company has committed $5 billion to electrification efforts. That will pay for retooling Hamtramck to produce only EVs, as well as GM’s share of a joint venture with cell-maker LG Chem to build an entire cell factory in Ohio to supply it.

The GMC Hummer EV SUT should be available at GMC dealers before the end of 2021. Pricing hasn’t been released, but it’s safe to assume it will be high. Reuss said confidently that every EV coming off the lines in Hamtramck would be profitable for GM. If you’re fitting a battery over 100 kWh, that means a high price—and, consequently, low volumes.

Tesla Cybertruck

Images courtesy of Tesla

Reporters were shown two future electric Hummer prototypes. One corresponds to the old H2 SUV, the other is much like the H2 SUT, or Sport Utility Truck, with butch looks, four doors, and a very short open bed.

GMC Hummer EV SUT a teaser image released by GM

Image courtesy of GM

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THE VEHICLES

Ford F-150 Electric prototype

Ford F-150 Electric The blue-oval company has lagged in battery-electric vehicles for a decade. Under new CEO Jim Hackett, that is changing fast. The company has multiple EV projects underway, including its well-received 2021 Mustang MachE, a future Lincoln built on larger Rivian underpinnings, and one or more models for Europe based on Volkswagen’s high-volume MEB battery-electric platform.

Ford is also developing an all-electric version of its highest-volume and most profitable vehicle, the F-150 full-size pickup. This lets the company “future-proof” its most important model, in the words of Jim Farley, who was then President of Global Markets and has since been promoted to COO, making him Hackett’s heir apparent.

In July 2019, Ford released a video that showed a prototype all-electric F-150 towing 10 double-decker train cars, which together weighed roughly a million pounds.

Just for good measure, 42 new F-150s were loaded into the train cars, and the electric truck towed the resulting 1.25-million-pound train just as easily. Students of physics will realize this isn’t all that hard, but the video garnered attention for the prodigious torque produced by electric motors.

Specs for the future electric F-150 have not been offered, and will likely remain MIA until after the Mach-E starts deliveries this fall. The vehicle in the video had visible battery packs hanging well below the doorsills.

We’d expect the final product to be much better integrated—and to provide the usual ground clearance of a conventional F-150. Deliveries may start in 2021 or 2022; prices have not been discussed.

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Students of physics will realize this isn’t all that hard, but Ford's video garnered attention for the prodigious torque produced by electric motors.

Images courtesy of Ford

Rivian R1T Startup carmaker Rivian gets a lot of credit in the industry for staying in stealth mode over the nine years it took to develop and refine its product plans. The company was the undisputed smash hit of the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, where it unveiled two battery-electric vehicles: the R1S full-size SUV and the R1T full-size pickup truck.

Rivian R1T

Images courtesy of Rivian

Rivian claims “tens of thousands” of depositors have put down $1,000 each to reserve electric trucks. The company has raised roughly $3 billion in capital, including investments from Amazon and Ford. It will use its large electric “skateboard” platform to build dedicated vehicles for each of those backers: 100,000 electric delivery vans over 10 years for Amazon, and a future luxury electric Lincoln model for Ford.

The R1T crew-cab pickup’s exterior dimensions are similar to those of mid-size pickups, but in width and wheelbase, it’s closer to a full-size model. The cab holds up to five passengers, though the bed length of 55 inches is short even for a mid-size truck. The R1T’s payload is 1,750 pounds, and Rivian says it will tow up to 7,700 pounds.

The R1T offers both a front trunk and a full-width tunnel located crosswise under the bed between the cabin and the rear wheels. Claimed battery capacities are 135 and 180 kWh, with projected ranges of 300 and 400 miles respectively. Rivian says four electric motors produce a total of 560 kw (750 hp) and 820 lb-ft of torque.

Rivian is predicting prices starting at $69,000, though we’ll be curious to see how the prices and specs align. It hopes to start production before the end of 2020. A year or so after the first two R1T models hit the market, Rivian plans to add a lower-spec version with a 105 kWh battery, a 230-mile range and 300 kW (402 hp) of power.

Rivian says battery capacities are 135 and 180 kWh, with projected ranges of 300 and 400 miles respectively.

MAR/APR 2020

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THE VEHICLES Images courtesy of Bollinger

Bollinger B2 Bollinger B2 As a kid, Robert Bollinger wanted to be a car designer.

His adult life took a detour, but left him with enough money (from selling his share of a hair-care products company) that he could realize that dream. With a farm in upstate New York, he wanted a tough farm truck that didn’t emit diesel fumes. He started doodling, and Bollinger Motors emerged.

The company unveiled its first battery-electric truck in 2017, and the design instantly struck a chord among truck aficionados. Part Land Rover Defender, part original Ford Bronco, part International Scout, the square-edged, slabsided electric truck offered clever features like opening front and rear hatches that let owners load 10- or 12-footlong lumber down the center of the vehicle—with no engine, transmission, or drive shafts to get in the way.

Startups are hard, though. Bollinger moved its engineering operations from upstate New York to Ferndale, Michigan, improving access to the thousands of knowledgeable engineers and parts suppliers around Detroit. It also refined its mission to focus on ultra-rugged, ultracapable, anti-style trucks that command sky-high prices from wealthy buyers. Think Mercedes-Benz G-Class, perhaps—but all-electric.

How rugged are these vehicles? The B2 offers a standard 15 inches of ground clearance, which can be raised to 20 inches if needed. It has 10 inches of wheel travel, high-

52

Its appeal comes from being blunter and more stripped-down. and low-range modes, front and rear locking differentials, and an old-school flat windshield—something even the Jeep Wrangler has dispensed with.

Bollingers are rated as Class 3 trucks, so the NHTSA views them as commercial rather than passenger vehicles. That greatly simplifies regulatory approvals, which is crucial for a low-volume startup.

The B2 pickup truck will start at $125,000 and go higher with options. Like the less-pricey Rivian R1T, it has four doors, can seat four, and offers a bed for hauling goods from pricey antiques to manure. Its appeal comes from being blunter and more stripped-down. A 120 kWh battery pack powers two drive motors that produce 458 kW (614 hp) and 686 lb-ft of torque.

Payload is 5,000 pounds, and tow rating is 7,500 pounds.

Range is expected to be around 200 miles, and Bollinger says production trucks will start rolling off the lines late this year, with first deliveries early in 2021.

Sales outside North America are planned, including right-handdrive markets—which suggests Britain’s new Land Rover Defender might soon see an all-American, all-electric rival.

THE VEHICLES Lordstown Endurance Like many automotive startups, Lordstown Motors has a complicated lineage. The company takes its name from the 53-year-old ex-GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, where it intends to build its Endurance electric pickup truck for commercial fleet customers. The 6.2-millionsquare-foot plant was shuttered in early 2019; Lordstown announced its purchase in November 2019 in a bargain deal.

So far, the company hasn’t shown a completed design for its truck—only drawings. The CEO of Lordstown, Steve Burns, also founded an earlier EV startup called Workhorse, which manufactures electric delivery vans.

(See images of the Endurance and our interview with Burns on page 56.)

In May 2017, Workhorse announced plans to launch a range-extended plug-in hybrid pickup called the W-15, and gathered 6,000 pre orders from electric utilities and other fleet operators. Those plans are now shelved— Workhorse will focus on building commercial vans, while Lordstown will focus on electric pickup trucks. Members of Lordstown’s executive team have worked for GM, Hyundai, Karma, Nissan, Tesla, Toyota and Volkswagen.

The company presently has 50 employees and more than 100 contract engineers.

The company has said the Endurance will provide all-wheel drive using an electric motor in each wheel hub. A power takeoff will allow electric equipment to run directly on battery current.

Lordstown says prices will start at $52,500, and it expects to launch the truck this summer. Production is planned for December 2020, with volumes of 20,000 trucks in 2021 and up to 200,000 four years later.

Nikola Badger Nikola’s proposed electric pickup truck is the odd man out in this list. The company was formed several years ago to bring hydrogen fuel cell power to long-haul heavy commercial trucks. It got decent attention for that goal, but more recently it has added “battery-electric vehicles” to its mission.

In February, Nikola released images of the Badger concept truck. Like most of the other electrically-driven trucks in this list, it has four doors, four or five seats, no tailpipe emissions, and electric motors powering the wheels.

Unlike the others, though, Nikola describes two versions of the Badger. The battery-electric version will have a range of 300 miles; that rises to 600 miles in the model

54

Nikola Badger

with a hydrogen fuel cell as a range extender. Claimed acceleration from 0 to 60 mph is just 2.9 seconds; few other specifications are available.

Nikola says reservations for the Badger will open late this year, after the truck debuts in September 2020. Neither prices nor production sites have been disclosed.

Images courtesy of Nikola

THE VEHICLES

By Charles Morris

WILL OHIO’S VOLTA ENERGIZE A NEW ERA FOR THE US

56

Images courtesy of Lordstown Motors

GE VALLEY AUTO INDUSTRY?

Q&A

WITH LORDSTOWN MOTORS CEO STEVE BURNS

MAR/APR 2020

57

THE VEHICLES

ig things are happening in the Mahoning Valley area of northeastern Ohio. The region, which centers on the city of Youngstown, was a booming center of steel production until the 1970s. Since then, like many other industrial hubs, the area has suffered from a long, gradual decline.

When the GM plant in Lordstown, at which some 5,000 workers had produced the Chevy Cruze, closed in early 2019, locals called it Black Monday.

Things soon started to look a bit sunnier, as GM sold the plant to Lordstown Motors, founded by Steve Burns, who previously founded Workhorse Group, an EV builder that’s been around since 1998, and has supplied electric vans to UPS, FedEx and other fleet operators (we ran a feature article on the company in our May/June 2017 issue). Lordstown plans to begin production of an electric pickup at the plant starting in late 2020. Meanwhile, Workhorse continues building electric vans, and GM and LG Chem have announced plans to invest up to $2.3 billion in a battery cell assembly plant in the area. As an ecosystem of EV-related industries begins to develop in the area, some are now calling it Voltage Valley.

Steve Burns was Workhorse’s CEO until late 2019,

B

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With the case for commercial EVs growing more compelling by the day, the future for Lordstown Motors looks bright. when he left the company to start the new Lordstown Motors. As you can imagine, he’s a busy man these days. Charged recently chatted with Burns to learn more about the company’s plans.

GM has not invested any cash in Lordstown Motors—it just sold the new company its plant. However, it’s undeniable that GM has invested a chunk of corporate prestige in the deal, and has a vested interest in seeing its former employees find new jobs. The compelling story of a shuttered plant being resurrected by the growing clean energy

Images courtesy of Lordstown Motors

economy has attracted a lot of press coverage. With the case for commercial EVs growing more compelling by the day, the future for Lordstown Motors looks bright.

Q Charged: The last time we spoke with you, Work-

horse was working on an electric pickup. Now that project has been transferred to Lordstown. What was the rationale for that?

A Steve Burns: Workhorse’s primary business is

building big electric delivery vans. We realized there’d be a good audience for an electric pickup truck. This was four years ago, and we originally planned on building a plug-in hybrid. We got a very good response—we got some pre-orders from fleets, big fleets, and we started to go down that road, but bringing a pickup truck to market is different than a large UPS van. There are a lot more regulatory issues around it—airbags, crash testing and that sort of thing. It’s a fairly expensive endeavor.

With all the attention they were getting around their

delivery vans and the post office bid [Workhorse is one of several companies in the running to provide a new delivery vehicle for the US Postal Service], and the explosion of Amazon and all the last mile delivery stuff, it just made all the sense in the world for Workhorse to focus on just delivery vans.

So, I left Workhorse and formed a new company, specifically to do electric pickup trucks. We purchased the still-warm Chevy Cruze plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and it took about a year to negotiate that. Now we’re retooling it.

We’ve been engineering hard for a year.

Our Endurance pickup truck is all electric, and it has a lot of advances. In the last four years, everything’s changed, and we wanted to use all the newer stuff. Our battery pack is very advanced and we’re really excited about it, but battery packs are kind of a given these days.

They’re not rocket science anymore, until the next generation [of solid-state batteries] comes out, and then there will be a new wave of innovation.

What really sets us apart is this hub motor configuration. Only four moving parts in the drive train—just the four wheels. It’s super simple—it’s the simplest car ever made. Simpler than a Model T, simpler than a Tesla.

There’s not a gear in the vehicle, there’s not a U-joint, a drive axle, a differential, none of that. If you fast forwarded and said, “What’s the simplest, most efficient vehicle?” The answer is: no moving parts except the four wheels. When you do that, you can start with a blank sheet of paper. If I don’t have anything down the middle of the vehicle, can I make it crash test better? Can I make it handle better? The battery pack’s low, but I also have this low weight of the motors, literally right on the ground. It is unsprung mass, and you’ve got to accommodate that. We had to build a suspension and a chassis from scratch that could accommodate a battery pack in between the rails and not just handle the unsprung mass, but make it handle better than

MAR/APR 2020

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THE VEHICLES

any other pickup truck. We started testing the premise of our chassis and our suspension and our software on a test track, and it handles like a sports car. It’s unbelievable.

Q Charged: Tell us about your current relationship

with Workhorse.

A Steve Burns: They own 10% of Lordstown. Also, we

have a royalty agreement for every vehicle—we pay them a royalty for some of the technology of theirs that we’re using in our trucks—and they have a board seat.

Q Charged: Is the Lordstown Endurance an evolution

of the Workhorse W-15 electric pickup truck design?

A Steve Burns: No, the W-15 was what started us

thinking about pickup trucks, but the W-15 [didn’t use] a hub motor, and the W-15 was a plug-in hybrid. So it’s pretty different.

Q Charged: Can you talk me through the purchasing of

the plant? You said that GM went above and beyond to sell the plant to a firm that would keep it running.

A Steve Burns: Automotive plants come up for sale

very infrequently. When we were one of the bidders for the plant, we requested that GM keep it intact, because we’re in a hurry, we want to be first to market with the

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first electric pickup truck, and if we had to retool it, [it would be tougher financially]. This recipe has been followed a few times. Tesla bought a shuttered plant from GM and Toyota, called the NUMMI plant, out in California [now the company’s Fremont factory]. Rivian bought a five-year-old shuttered plant from Mitsubishi [in Normal, Illinois].

Both of those plants were mostly gutted, because the parts in there can be used in other plants. The robots, paint booths, stamping presses, are all common components. These are very expensive to buy, so when a plant is shuttered, usually the OEM takes out the components to put in another place. Nobody’s ever seen a fully loaded, still-warm plant sold like this. For us, it was great. It really reduced the big capital expenditures, took out a lot of risk.

And even if you’ve got a squeaky-clean plant with a nice gray floor, there’s still execution risk. Did you buy the right equipment? Does it all dance together when you orchestrate a dance, all the robots? It’s a lot of expenditure and a lot of risk. It’s why there aren’t really small car companies.

That plant made somewhere around 427,000 Cruzes a year. It’s a very high volume, and to produce that many vehicles, you have to have a lot of high-end equipment—it all has to be good at that level. A lot of stamping, a lot of welding, a lot of robots, a lot of assembly. So, to get that was really a gem, and it is in a factory town or a factory region. Naturally, there’s a lot of great talent here. If we’re in a hurry, where else are you going to find thousands of

Images courtesy of Lordstown Motors

“

Nobody’s ever seen a fully loaded, still-warm plant sold like this. For us, it was great.

It really reduced the big capital expenditures, took out a lot of risk.

”

skilled workers that can put cars together? So, we’ve got a great plant and we’ve got a very excited workforce that wants to get back to work building cars. It’s really perfect.

Q Charged: How big of an engineering challenge is

it to specialize this manufacturing equipment for your needs?

A Steve Burns: Fortunately, there is a commonality of

robots. They’re not very specialized. They’re industrial, automotive-grade robots and it’s a known science how to program them. We’ve got a lot of high-end production engineers on our team who formerly worked for Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, Karma, and a lot of Tesla guys. We had to get the best of both worlds: old-school, because there’s 100 years of tribal knowledge that is super-valuable about how to make a car in volume at a profit; and then the idiosyncrasies of EVs has its own set of knowledge. That’s where Tesla, Karma and Workhorse come in.

There’s two big tasks we’re working on. The production team is racing to reconfigure a plant, and that’s a bit of a balance. We want to make 20,000 vehicles our first year, not 400,000, but we don’t want to shrink it down so much that when we’re at 400,000 we say to ourselves,

“Boy, I wish we didn’t take that line out.” We think we struck the right balance there. Then reconfiguring, retooling. We’re making our body panels and everything that we need for our vehicle, but at the same time, we have a Detroit office that is doing all the engineering, the regulatory, the crash testing, the airbags and everything it takes to bring a modern vehicle to fruition. Kind of two parallel efforts that hopefully meet up at the same time when we start making vehicles.

Q Charged: In terms of vehicle design, can you talk to

me about the stage that you’re at now? Are you still evaluating fundamental different designs, or is that locked down?

A Steve Burns: At this stage it’s locked down. Effectively,

what we decided early on was that a lot of the parts of a pickup truck have been refined over 100 years. Remember, these are top-selling vehicles, both to fleets and consumers. The bed, the cab, the ergonomics of how people sit in it, that has really been refined nicely. We decided not to change that, because it’s a known science.

We know how to build it. We’re trying not to reinvent anything we don’t have to reinvent.

As a polar opposite of that, for the Tesla Cybertruck, they decided to reinvent the body and the interior. That was a bridge too far for us, and since we sell to commercial fleets that tend to be rather conservative, we just wanted it to look like a cool new vehicle that you could differentiate from a gasoline pickup truck, but essentially when you looked at it you said, “That’s a pickup truck.” So the bed and ergonomics, and even inside, the armrests, cup holders and USB jacks and all that, we were riding on that known science. That really made it faster and less expensive to get to market.

We focused all our innovation on what’s different about us and hitting a price point. There are a lot of companies that are trying to out-Tesla Tesla, trying to build a very

MAR/APR 2020

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THE VEHICLES

fast, high-end sedan. Sure, new technology typically hits the luxury market first, but we decided the technology is mature enough, and, especially the way we’re doing it with a super-simple design, we can come out for the middle market right away. Fleets buy on total cost of ownership. It has to pencil out. Everybody wants to be green, everybody would like a safer vehicle, everybody would like all these things, but if it doesn’t pencil out, it’s really a hard sell. We had to hit a certain price point to make those curves.

If somebody leases our truck versus leasing the least expensive gasoline truck they can find, we are a lot less expensive when you add your monthly lease payment, your gas for the month and your maintenance for the month. Right out of the gate, first month, the fleet is making money. That’s pretty compelling. But to hit that price point and not start in luxury and move downstream, we said, “We’ve got to make this puppy light so that it can go 250 miles. We can have the minimal pack size, and we have to really minimize the parts in the vehicle.” Hub motors lend themselves to very quick assembly, there’s a lot fewer parts, and the fleets appreciate that out in the field—there’s less to break. You’re never going to have a U-joint or a drive axle, you don’t have to worry about any of that stuff. That’s a big reason for why we’re using these hub motors. They also turned out to be the best handling and the safest, but it all started with the price point.

Q Charged: You’re shooting for $52,500 as your initial

upfront cost?

62

“

Sure, new technology typically hits the luxury market first, but we decided the technology is mature enough, and, especially the way we’re doing it with a super-simple design, we can come out for the middle market right away.

”

A Steve Burns: Yes, and we’re making sure we qualify for

the $7,500 tax rebate, so most fleets will get it for $45,000.

Q Charged: Are you considering having more than one

model? Different-size battery packs or any other options?

A Steve Burns: Yeah, but in year one, we’re locked down

to one vehicle, one cab. We picked the most popular configuration of pickup trucks for fleets, and that is the crew cab. You got a big back seat and the appropriate size bed. There’s basically one trim package as well. We just

picked the sweet spot of what has been selling in fleet pickup trucks. We have to come out at the price point, and we’re racing to be first, because first mover advantage is strong and there’s a lot of pent-up demand. More options would make that more difficult, but we think there are plenty of people who will buy this initial model. And then we will come out with different cabs.

You can have no back seats, smaller backseat, different bed lengths. We will start the configurations after the first year, but the first year is just locked down to maniacally focus on this one vehicle. We’ve got to hit it out of the park with the first one.

Q Charged: When will you

unveil the production version?

A Steve Burns: We’re planning

to show the first vehicles in this summer. So, right now in the background, we’re building 30 vehicles for validation. That will

THE VEHICLES

“

We’re building the line inside of our plant for building the motors...windings and everything. And we have a lot of the robots already. We’re going to repurpose those.

”

all happen over the summer. Then we iterate, and we’re expecting to get through that cleanly, but there’ll be some changes. We’re starting production in December, pending final regulatory approval. If we have to, we can stockpile them for a few months while we’re waiting for regulators, but we’re planning to start production in December.

Q Charged: Are there any suppliers of the EV drive-

train components that you can talk about? Anyone that you’re partnering with on the motors or the batteries?

A Steve Burns: We’re going to announce our motors

partners soon. You can imagine, for hub motors, there’s just not a lot of suppliers. We worked with an existing hub motor company to tweak the design for our purposes, and we’re going to license that now that we’ve proved it out. We’re building the line inside of our plant for building the motor—we’re going to build the motors in America, in Lordstown.

Q Charged: You going to completely build them from

scratch? Assemble the rotors and the stators?

A Steve Burns: Yes, winding and everything. Just to

control supply and quality and price. And we have a lot of the robots already. We’re going to repurpose those.

64

Similarly, we’re buying our cells, but we’re building our own battery pack line. We’re designing our own battery packs. We worked with a third-party company on the BMS design and then licensed it, similar to the motors.

We’re going to announce all those partners soon.

Q Charged: The electric utility FirstEnergy has placed

the first order to buy 250 Endurance electric pickup trucks from Lordstown. There were also a lot of reservations for Workhorse’s pickup truck. Do you still see interest from those fleets?

A Steve Burns: Yes, Workhorse had 6,000 pre orders for

the W-15, and we’ve touched base with a few of those big order holders. That was across 19 fleets. We expect most of those to switch over to Endurance orders.

Q Charged: What you think is the best application for

the Endurance commercially? Who do you think will be the first customers?

A Steve Burns: Well of course the utility companies—

they have a lot of pickup trucks, and they make electricity for a living, so it seems like their vehicles should be electric. They are aggressive. We just got a letter of intent from Clean Fuels Ohio to help deploy 500 Lordstown Endurances. We expect orders from a lot of the Clean Cities, a lot of the municipalities. In California, municipalities are only allowed to buy electric. If they want a truck, we will be the only choice for a while. But we get a lot of landscapers with Ford trucks, and florists. Any fleet that stays local lends itself to this. We think it’s going to be a great police car. I treat a police force as a local fleet.

Police cars idle a lot, just to keep all their electronics

Images courtesy of Lordstown Motors

going—obviously there won’t be any idling with us.

There’s been a lot of startups that didn’t get to market in this space. A lot of them get to the point where they have a vehicle, but how are they going to make it? We’re starting with a plant already, which is really powerful. We have really been fortunate to attract so many high-end automotive production and design engineers. But if somebody said, “What’s the secret sauce?

Why is this different?” There’s no other hub motor vehicle in production.

A lot of people say, “What’s a hub motor?” and you say, “Well, you see all the electric bikes and electric scooters, those are all hubs.” People can kind of extrapolate that we’ve got four big ones of those in there. We tell fleets: buy it for the economics, but we also intend this to be the safest pickup truck you can put your people in. Best handling, lowest rollover rate, and of course, zero emissions. We’re really trying to make it the best truck they can buy, not just the most economical.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

ABB completes Chargedot acquisition

SAE publishes recommended practices for automated EV charging systems

Global industrial giant ABB has completed its acquisition of Chinese EV charging provider Chargedot.

Chargedot supplies AC and DC charging stations and software platforms to EV manufacturers, EV charging network operators and real estate developers. Chargedot has around 205 employees.

The acquisition was initially announced in October 2019.

Utility EDF acquires EV charging company Pod Point Image courtesy of Pod Point

Low-carbon energy provider EDF has acquired Pod Point, an EV charging company.

Pod Point has rolled out 62,000 charging points in the UK and 6,600 in Norway.

The acquisition follows EDF’s acquisition last year of Pivot Power, which specializes in grid-scale batteries and provides high-voltage power for EV charge points.

Simone Rossi, UK CEO of EDF, said, “With the addition of charge points, we can help our customers to reduce their carbon footprints and benefit from lower fuel costs by going electric. The additional electricity demand from EVs will require urgent investment in low-carbon generation from renewables and nuclear.”

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As the EV market expands, there’s a pressing need for more standardization of DC power distribution, especially for buses and heavy-duty vehicles. SAE International’s new standard, SAE J-3105: Electric Vehicle Power Transfer System Using Conductive Automated Connection Devices Recommended Practice, promotes the safe testing and performance of mechanized conductive power transfer systems, primarily for vehicles using a conductive automated-charging device (ACD).

SAE J-3105 addresses three interfaces required to ensure power delivery is consistent. It defines a conductive power transfer method, including the curbside electrical contact interface, the vehicle connection interface, the electrical characteristics of the DC supply, and the communication system. It also covers the functional and dimensional requirements for the vehicle-connection interface and supply-equipment interface.

In addition to the main document, there are three supplements, which address connection-interface requirements for power transfer systems based on cross-rail designs, conventional rail vehicle pantograph designs and enclosed pin-and-socket designs.

“SAE J-3105 will help industry ensure that each connection type is safe and interoperable among manufacturers,” said Task Force Committee Chair Mark Kosowski. “The industry has been waiting for this Recommended Practice”

St Petersburg, Florida transit authority deploys WAVE inductive charging station for e-buses The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), which serves Florida’s St Petersburg/Clearwater metro area with 40 bus routes and a fleet of 210 vehicles, recently began construction on a new electric bus charging station at a transfer hub.

The new wireless charging station, which PSTA claims will be the first on the US East Coast, uses 250 kW Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) technology from Utahbased WAVE (Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification).

PSTA added two BYD electric buses to its fleet in late 2018, and plans to add four more in the fall of 2020.

The e-buses currently charge by using a plug-in charger, which takes about four hours for a full charge. The new technology is expected to reduce charging time by more than half.

Buses are wirelessly charged by a plate embedded in the pavement, as WAVE demonstrates in a short video.

The only training drivers will need is how to properly align with the charging plate.

Florida-based A&K Energy Conservation will handle construction and installation. The project’s construction cost of $192,000 was funded by Pinellas County’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement.

“We are excited that this rapid charger will allow our all-electric buses to remain in continuous service throughout the work day,” said Joe Barkley, PSTA Board Chair. “As we add additional all-electric buses to our fleet, this charging system will add dramatically to our efficient, cost-saving electric bus service.”

“This innovative technology is one giant step forward for not only PSTA, but transit agencies across the nation.

Being the first electric charging station of its kind in Florida sets the standard of transportation agencies becoming more environmentally-friendly,” said Brad Miller, PSTA Chief Executive Officer. “At PSTA we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint while still providing the best service possible to our community.”

Fermata receives UL certification for vehicle-togrid EV charging system Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has announced that Fermata Energy’s bidirectional EV charging system is the first in the world to be certified to a new North American safety standard, UL 9741. The standard covers bidirectional equipment that charges EVs from an electric power system (EPS) and also allows the vehicle to export power to an EPS, potentially enabling EV owners to earn money by helping to stabilize the electric power grid when the vehicles are parked.

Fermata says its bidirectional chargers enable EV batteries to provide energy to reduce power loads during peak times. The company’s proprietary software system is designed to generate income from grid services for EV owners.

In November 2018, Fermata partnered with Nissan to launch a pilot program that uses LEAFs equipped with bidirectional charging capability to partially power the automaker’s North American headquarters in Tennessee and its design center in San Diego. In January 2019, Fermata scored a $2.5-million investment from TEPCO Ventures, the investment arm of Tokyo Electric Power.

In July, Nissan’s announcement that it was using vehicle-to-home (V2H) technology in Japan, and would soon offer it to customers in Australia, brought more attention to Fermata (although the company isn’t directly involved in either of these initiatives).

Fermata has several of its chargers running at demonstration sites. One of these is being used for behind-the-meter demand charge management. “Just last month, on a really hot day, we shaved $183 off the customer’s electric bill in about 15 minutes,” Slutzky told Charged in a 2019 interview. “And we can do the same thing at other customers’ sites very effectively. If this were a California location, and it had the 25 kW charger, it would have been able to earn about $9,000 a year doing what it was doing.”

That particular installation is doing localized peak shaving for a small facility, but such a system can also do utility-level peak shaving. “There are a series of what we call monetization pathways that we’ve developed over the years for this technology that we know how to do well...

So that’s what Fermata is focused on,” said Slutzky.

MAR/APR 2020

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Images courtesy of Greenlots

THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Greenlots partners with Ivy Charging Network in Ontario Greenlots, a provider of charging and energy management solutions that was acquired by Shell last year, has partnered with Ivy Charging Network, a fast charging network recently launched by utilities Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation. The new deal includes the installation of 100 DC fast chargers (DCFCs) at 43 sites along major highway corridors across Ontario. Greenlots will handle site acquisition, engineering, design, hardware sourcing, construction, network operation and maintenance of Ivy’s initial 100 DCFCs. Sites in Huntsville and Blind River are currently in operation, and the company expects to complete all 43 sites by fall 2020.

Natural Resources Canada provided financial support.

Henrik Holland, COO at Greenlots, said, “This project, which includes repayable investments from the Canadian government, is contributing to the establishment of a coast-to-coast EV fast charging network, and will remove barriers for EV adoption by increasing access to fast chargers across Ontario.”

Theresa Dekker, Co-president of Ivy Charging Network, said, “By the end of 2021, Ivy Charging Network will have 73 locations that will connect the province of Ontario from north to south and east to west.”

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Tesla partners with New Jersey Turnpike to install 56 new fast chargers The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has approved an agreement with Tesla that will bring new fast chargers to eight Turnpike service areas, increasing the total number of individual chargers on the Turnpike from 20 to 76.

Once the project is complete, there will be EV charging facilities at nine of the twelve New Jersey Turnpike service areas.

Tesla will install V3 Superchargers at each of six service areas, and double the number of Superchargers already in place at two other service areas. Tesla will also build the utility infrastructure necessary for other charging providers to install at least two dozen additional non-Tesla charging stations on the Turnpike.

Tesla currently has 223 Superchargers in New Jersey.

In January, Governor Phil Murphy signed an ambitious package of EV-friendly measures, including $300 million in funding for EV purchase rebates and major investment in charging infrastructure projects.

“Our ambitious goal to register 330,000 zero-emission vehicles by 2025 is only possible with a collaborative effort across state agencies and our private sector partners to further develop New Jersey’s electric vehicle ecosystem,” said Governor Murphy. “With this important addition to New Jersey’s renewable energy infrastructure, we are one step closer to achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2050.”

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

Electrify America invests $2 million in Envision Solar infrastructure Electrify America will invest $2 million in solar-powered EV charging stations from San Diego-based Envision Solar. Envision’s EV ARC 2020 charger is equipped with a 4.28 kW sun-tracking solar array, 32 kWh of on-board battery storage, and two Electrify America Level 2 chargers capable of charging speeds up to 6 kW. The EV ARC 2020 is designed to be installed within minutes, and to withstand winds up to 120 mph and floods up to 9.5 feet, according to Envision Solar. Electrify America will begin by installing 30 of the chargers in rural areas in California.

Desmond Wheatley, CEO of Envision Solar, said, “Electric vehicles accounted for about eight percent of car sales in California in 2019 but EV penetration is still less than half a percent in rural areas. Electrify America’s deployment of our solar-powered EV charging products will help the state get closer to its goal of 250,000 charging stations by 2025.”

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Porsche opens 7 MW rapid charging park in Germany Porsche Leipzig is expanding the charging infrastructure for EVs in central Germany with its new Porsche Turbo Charging park. Porsche claims that the 7 MW facility, which is supplied entirely by renewable energy sources, is Europe’s most powerful rapid charging park.

The facility includes four 22 kW AC charging points, twelve publicly-available CCS2 350 kW DC rapid charging points, and six 350 kW internal charging stations. During a month-long pilot phase, rapid charging will be free for all users. After that, payment will be made using the mobility providers’ standard charging cards.

Depending on the vehicle model, up to 100 km of range can be added in just five minutes.

“The new charging park between the number 9, 14 and 38 motorways will significantly enrich the charging infrastructure in central Germany. Electric and hybrid vehicles of all brands are welcome, says Porsche Leipzig Chairman Gerd Rupp. “We are pleased that with the new charging park we can offer an attractive charging option for electric vehicle owners in Leipzig and the surrounding area, as well as transit passengers.”

Image courtesy of Blink

Blink deploys charging stations using local load management Share&Charge launches Open Charging Network for European market The Share&Charge Foundation, a nonprofit whose purpose is to “enable open innovation for a better electric vehicle charging experience,” has launched its Open Charging Network (OCN), a decentralized e-roaming product for EV charging across different networks. OCN, which uses the e-roaming standard Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI v2.2) protocol, will begin by serving the European market, including the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

A key feature of the OCN is the OCN Registry, a smart contract deployed on the Energy Web Chain, a public, open-source blockchain platform. When an EV driver begins a charge session at a participating charge point, OCN checks the on-chain registry to route the e-roaming charge between the appropriate parties.

Christopher Burgahn, Product and Partner Management Lead at Share&Charge, said, “Our decentralized OCN solution can deliver e-roaming without the lock-in effects of the centralized intermediary approach, and it scales well, avoiding the hassle of setting up and managing ever more bilateral agreements.”

Blink Charging has announced the installation of four EV charging stations utilizing local load management, which the company says is the first deployment of its kind. The configuration allows up to 20 charging stations to be deployed on a single circuit.

The design provides equal output to each charger based on the number of stations being used at one time. When one EV is charging, the EV will receive the maximum output of nearly 20 kW. When others connect, the load will be equally shared among them. The system automatically redistributes the output when one vehicle completes its charge, even if it’s still plugged into the station. Future upgrades will allow up to 20 EVs to be plugged in and queued to charge overnight in sequence.

“We are incredibly excited to be deploying anywhere from two to 20 chargers with local load management,” stated Blink founder and CEO Michael D. Farkas. “It will change the conversation from ‘Can our community afford to install them?’ to ‘How soon can we have them?’

The future-proof design of the IQ 200 contemplated this advanced capability, and it was intentionally built into the initial product design. The advanced charger intelligence supports multiple charging ports while delivering the fastest Level 2 charge possible. When installed on a single electric circuit, it can help minimize installation costs.”

Blink expects its local load management feature to be especially useful for multifamily and residential locations. Using the local load management installation configuration, the company says it can maximize the number of charging stations available at any given time on a single 100-amp circuit.

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

BEYOND

By Charles Morris

he electrification of transport is proceeding in parallel with a major restructuring of the electrical grid, and these trends interact with each other in several ways. As the grid transforms from a centralized model to a decentralized model, utilities are facing an entirely different set of technical challenges than those that existed a century ago, when the existing grid was built out.

That’s where EnergyHub comes in. The company was founded 12 years ago, and started off building consumer-focused energy management tools, which earned a Time magazine best invention award in 2009. “These days, we’re an enterprise software company that has carved out a pretty useful niche in the utility world, helping utilities better integrate wind and solar into the grid through the use of DERs (distributed energy resources),” CEO Seth Frader Thompson told Charged.

Distributed energy resources include not only generators of electricity such as solar installations and wind farms, but also devices that store energy, such as batteries and pumped storage. In a larger sense, DERs also include various types of dynamic systems that allow utilities to manage the balance between the supply and consumption of energy. Some of these take the form of programs that involve a utility’s customers—for example, the familiar programs under which customers allow a utility to reduce power to certain power-hungry appliances during times of high demand. EV-related programs such as smart charging are a growing part of the mix.

Helping utilities design and manage these types of programs is EnergyHub’s specialty. “We sell a software

T

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TOU

package to utilities that lets them do useful things with DERs on the grid, and then we help them run programs,” Thompson told us.

“The company’s secret sauce is that we are deeply knowledgeable about all three stakeholders in any kind of utility engagement. There are the utilities themselves: we understand their business, their regulations, all that. There are the end customers: we’re good at understanding how people actually use various products, whether it’s car chargers or smart thermostats or batteries or whatever. And then there are the DER manufacturers, which can include anyone from Google, with its Nest smart thermostats, to Tesla to ChargePoint.

We’ve found ourselves in the middle of those three, and we think of ourselves as being the rising tide that lifts all boats, and drives better business outcomes and better customer experiences.

“Back in the early days—five or six years ago—the automakers were just starting to figure out how to even talk to utility companies, and it was like a merging of two industries that never really worked together before. There was a high-level business development problem, but also, all these cars had to plug into all these different systems in ways that they never interacted before, so there were interesting engineering problems as well. It was a good natural fit [for us] to cover both aspects of it.”

Beating the 6 pm power surge EnergyHub helps utilities avoid simplistic approaches to distribution challenges that may make the problems worse. “Utilities very much like the idea that they can be part of the solution to climate change by helping to electrify transportation,” said Thompson. “But they

EnergyHub gives utilities more flexibility to manage peaks, including direct control of EV charging obviously do not want, and the regulators do not want them, to have to overbuild the entire system so that everybody can charge their cars from 6 to 8 pm. Our data shows that the vast majority of customers will come home between 6 and 8, and they’ll plug in their cars. That is directly aligned with the existing usage peak that’s driven by that end-of-day air conditioning, lighting, etc, mix.”

Utilities want to shift that charging load, and there are three types of solutions to this peak problem, as Thompson explains. “One: you let people plug in the car and immediately begin charging , but then in a situation where you are actually overloading some component of the grid, you run a demand response event, and curtail or slow down that charging for some period of time. Two: you implement a time-of-use rate where you have some fixed window, for example, cars are going to charge from 10 pm to 6 am.”

“That solution certainly works today at relatively low levels of penetration. But there’s sort of an expiration date built into it—once you get to a certain level of EV penetration, you just create a new peak at the beginning of that charging window. And that brings me to the third category, which is true managed charging.”

When a utility has total flexibility in regards to the timing and rate of charging, several different solutions become possible. “You can charge everyone’s car at the same time more slowly, or you can stagger the charging of a couple of cars that are on the same block and then more broadly stagger the charging of cars across an urban area. Or it can be something that’s much more dynamic than that—you can let the whole charging fleet float and follow market conditions, charging when you’ve got clean power available in the middle of the

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE night coming from wind or when you’ve got low-cost power—whatever you’re solving for.”

“All of this stuff comes down to having some constraint on delivering power to the vehicle. That’s either an economic constraint or it’s a system-wide peak constraint, or it’s like a cluster of homes. They’re all on the same transformer and nobody imagined that there were five electric vehicles going to be charging at the same times. You have some constraints, and then you have one of these solutions for time-shifting the charging.

“We are enabling all three, and we structure our work with the utility to give them a path. So, for the utility that just wants to start with enabling time-ofuse charging, our engagement starts there, but then everything is flexible about the infrastructure of the program. It doesn’t really matter which of those three models we’re using—customer engagement pieces are flexible, so a utility can start with one model and then work their way through the others.”

Providing more options A growing number of utilities are offering time-ofuse (TOU) pricing schemes, which offer customers discounted rates for EV charging during non-peak times. However, Thompson tells us that many of these programs are not flexible enough. “Just imagine that you’re the communications director at one of these utilities, and you’ve announced that your electric vehicle charging program is 10 pm to 6 am, then 10% of your customers get electric vehicles, and it turns out that that doesn’t work. Now you have to run a new marketing campaign saying, ‘Actually, now we’d like you to charge from midnight to 6 am,’ or whatever.”

“The average customer is plugging in their car between 10 and 12 hours per night, but the car only charges for about two of those hours, so you have this tremendous flexibility so long as you do two things.

First, give the customer a full charge by the next time they need it. Second, be genuinely flexible about when that next time is that you need it. If it’s someone who’s coming home from work and then they’re not going to unplug the car until morning, you’re good as long as you’re charged by morning. But somebody who comes home at 6 pm and needs to leave the house again at 7 to go out to dinner needs to be able to say, ‘No, I need to charge the car right now.’

“Providing flexibility is important. Consumer behavior is crucial here, and everything we do is opt-in.

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A growing number of utilities are offering time-of-use pricing, offering discounted rates for EV charging during non-peak times. However, Thompson tells us that many of these programs are not flexible enough.

Utilities encourage customers to participate by offering a package of incentives, typically a cash gift for signing up, and then some ongoing incentive such as a lower charging rate.

“One of the most fascinating things is that customers’ impressions of their utilities tend to improve through these programs. A customer signing up to be flexible is committing themselves to being part of a solution, and the utility is now associated with this modern brand of EV infrastructure and with smart clean technology. So, what we see is that customers sign up, they stay signed up and they’re not superpicky about what they sign up for. Our role tends not to be public, but in general what we see is that between 20% and 40% of customers who receive an offer to join one of these programs will sign up for it.

That’s off the charts in terms of standard customer engagement.”

We have assumed control One existing application of EnergyHub’s system is a program that was launched a few months ago with Eversource, a Massachusetts utility that serves over three million residential customers. “It’s one of the first programs that managed EV charging programs with actual control of devices,” says Thompson. “The program is set up to be open to any charger or vehicle, so you can bring a ChargePoint charging station or you can bring an EV that’s got onboard telematics, and [the program will] let you control it remotely.”

“It is actual direct control, direct throttling of the charger. It’s pretty open-ended on what [Eversource] can do. Their intent is to start with demand response— essentially curtailing charging when there is an actual system emergency. But we’ve set up the program so

that they have a lot more capability than that—once you have the keys to adjust the charging level for a short block, you have the ability to do much more sophisticated things over a longer block of time.”

In this program, utility customers don’t specify the exact times charging will occur. Rather, the system learns their habits. “There is a lot of technical sophistication behind the scenes: machine-learning AI stuff that learns what the customer’s habits are. The customers understand that they are signing up to provide flexibility to the utility and how the charging occurs and there’s an implicit level of trust that that’s not going to screw up their lives in some way.”

“However, what we always keep in mind is that, when the customer leaves for work, the car needs to be charged. If the customer says, ‘I need the charge right now,’ you need to charge them right now.” Customers can always bypass the system if they absolutely need to charge their cars. “There is an override button, and they can use it no matter how often they want. That is the thing that gets customers comfortable that there’s nothing to lose.”

Utilities have been running similar programs that control heating or AC equipment for years, and EnergyHub has a lot of data about customer behavior. “We find that a small number of customers override on any given day, and those that do override on one day are very unlikely to override again the next day. We’re often asked by utilities, do people game the system, take the incentive and then always override? The data shows that people do not do that. And this is across hundreds of thousands of participating customers across the US.” “When you ask people, ‘Why are you participating in this program?’ the answer is usually, ‘I am always in control at the end of the day and this is good for the grid, good for the environment and good for me. So why would I not do it?’”

The invisible hand What will a future EV charging system look like? A clue might be the example of smart thermostats, which Seth says already represent “thousands of megawatts of aggregate load under management. Smart thermostats are the biggest, but we also do water heaters and batteries and solar, and each of those are effectively invisible unless you screw up.”

“Utilities tend to think of the aggregation as a program, which represents a resource of let’s say a hundred megawatts of flexible load. And depending

“

Once you have the keys to adjust the charging level for a short block, you have the ability to do much more sophisticated things over a longer block of time.

”

on what’s in that resource, they’ll use it for different things at varying frequency. A typical smart thermostat program might get called 10 to 20 times a year. A utility that’s gotten really comfortable using it or that has really tough operating conditions might call 20 to 30 events per year, and each time that happens the temperature goes up in your house.”

According to Seth, participation rates for such “invisible” DERs are over 90 percent, because most of the time customers don’t notice them. “Why would you ever know that anything is going on, unless the shower is cold or your car isn’t charged?”

EVs: the new frontier “One of the hardest things from a utility perspective, if you’re reaching very high levels of wind and solar, is that the grid is now much more dynamic,” says Thompson. “Utilities are looking for loads and uses of power that are equally dynamic, and EVs are really the perfect resource for that. What’s exciting about EVs is that, so long as the customer wakes up to a car that’s fully charged, you have this ability to flex the charging time every day or every time the car is plugged in.”

“Obviously residential charging is mostly at night, but when you do workplace charging, you’ve also got a daytime resource. And then when the utility has the ability to aggregate across DERs, you can mix in thermostats, solar-integrated batteries and EVs, and you have this 24/7 load resource that’s much more dynamic, and can respond to whatever kind of weird things are happening with your wind and solar on the grid.

“EVs are probably what we are most excited about as a business. The fact that you have a few dozen new electric vehicles about to come on the market, and all this new EV infrastructure being built out at the same time as you’re trying to decarbonize the grid, just makes it a very exciting time.”

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE Image courtesy of Ryder

IN-CHARGE

ENERGY

IS PREPARING FOR THE COMING TSUNAMI OF COMMERCIAL ELECTRIC TRUCKS

By Charles Morris

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Image courtesy of In-Charge

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idespread adoption of electric commercial vehicles has seemed to be just around the corner for several years now. This has been a puzzling and frustrating situation for EV advocates (and even more so for electric truck builders), because the economic case for electrification is strong. Several industry experts have told Charged that the slow progress is mainly due to fleet operators’ cautious timelines. Saving money on fuel is important, but reliability is missioncritical, and fleet buyers have insisted on extensive pilot programs before placing major orders.

Well, pilots have now been underway for several years, in several parts of the world, and the results are coming in. The giant fleets are placing giant orders, and shoals of smaller fish will surely follow. Two charging industry veterans decided that a massive tsunami of commercial EVs is on the way, and that when the wave hits, there will be a huge demand for fleet charging infrastructure services. Hoping to ride that wave, the two founded In-Charge Energy to provide turnkey commercial EV infrastructure solutions.

Cameron Funk, previously the CEO of international infrastructure provider innogy eMobility’s North American unit, is now the CEO of In-Charge Energy. Terry O’Day, who previously led North American strategy for innogy eMobility, is now In-Charge’s COO. The two founders have an ocean of experience in the EV infrastructure space, including stints at ABM, NRG, EVgo and Edison International. O’Day estimates that, between the two of them, they’ve managed the installation of over 30,000 charging stations.

In-Charge Energy recently concluded a Series A funding round led by Macquarie Capital and ABB Technology Ventures. As part of the deal, Greg Callman, a former Tesla exec who led the development of the Supercharger program, and is now Senior Managing Director of Macquarie Capital, joined In-Charge Energy’s Board of Directors.

In-Charge COO Terry O’Day chatted with Charged to explain how his company helps fleet operators get charging solutions in place.

Q Charged: You and Cameron Funk founded InCharge because you see a huge wave of commercial EVs coming. You’re already in position to catch that wave as a partner of Ryder Systems, one of the biggest commercial fleet management companies in the world.

A Terry O’Day: We are Ryder’s infrastructure partner.

When a customer expresses interest in an electric truck

“

We go to the facility and do the infrastructure planning, [including] management, operations, maintenance, and even the financing for that installation—everything they need in order to electrify their facility.

from Ryder, we go to the facility and do the infrastructure planning, [including] management, operations, maintenance, and even the financing for that installation—everything they need in order to electrify their facility.

There aren’t many trucks available right now in the market in the US; Europe and Asia are ahead of us. But you can see the interest and the volume growing, and in particular, fleet managers are waking up to the fact that there’s a lower total cost of ownership today for electric than diesel. And with other pressures to lower pollution, fleet managers are really starting to pay attention, but the trucks aren’t here yet.

Q Charged: What’s the low-hanging fruit in the truck

market? Where do you see a lot of initial growth?

A Terry O’Day: The package delivery firms are very interested in greening their services. That’s coming from the total cost of ownership because it’s a very competitive space, but also from the high levels of growth in that category due to online retail. And from a policy perspective, you need support from municipal and state or provincial governments, which are interested in removing diesel from communities. Package trucks get closest into our communities.

Amazingly, Class 8 trucks are coming along quite quickly as well. We’re seeing deliveries in the coming months from Daimler; we’re seeing Tesla later this year.

We’ve been working with all kinds of OEMs, including Navistar, on the truck side.

In terms of total numbers today however, school buses are making the most progress. We partner with the bus manufacturer and become the preferred partner for infrastructure services. And that’s important, because the vehicle-charger connection is a really critical one that often is unsuccessful. We want to make sure that the manufacturers have validated their products with the chargers that our customers are interested in using. Then we’ll provide a suite of validated chargers to a district that is beginning to electrify its fleet. We’ll work directly with

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THE INFRASTRUCTURE

“

Vehicle OEMs don’t want to bog down their sales by establishing new business units and revenue targets associated with installing charging. They just want a service partner who’s going to get it done.

that district on planning the infrastructure buildout— identifying the locations, the total load, finding other load on the site, whether that’s from energy efficiency or from utilizing renewables on-site. We end up working directly with the district or the private fleet operator for the buses in order to implement their electrification plan.

Q Charged: Why don’t the vehicle OEMs want to

handle infrastructure themselves?

A Terry O’Day: They’ve got their hands full building trucks and buses, and that’s the entry point for the customer. Purchase decisions are organized around vehicle features and capabilities, and the infrastructure question comes second. The smart manufacturers are focused on producing excellent vehicles and working with partners to assure that they’re integrated with the multitude of charging options that exist in the market. They don’t want to bog down their sales by establishing new business units and revenue targets associated with installing charging.

They just want a service partner who’s going to get it done.

Q Charged: Tell us about Ryder. What truck options do they have available now?

A Terry O’Day: We are open to either model, depending on what the needs are for the customer. What we have found is there’s a ton of variability in how fleets approach their buying, ownership, operation and maintenance, so we need to be very adaptable. Many folks are looking for a cookie-cutter business model in EV infrastructure, and it just doesn’t exist. The fact is that every facility is a snowflake, so you have to create a scalable model that addresses the needs of each of those fleets in an efficient way. And [you do that] not by standardizing the product and creating a one-size-fits-all product, [but] by standardizing your service processes.

Q Charged: Do you see a role for battery storage in your ecosystems?

A Terry O’Day: Definitely. A number of these facilities have demands that exceed the existing service capacity, and storage can be helpful to address that problem. It is also helpful for balancing loads to minimize demand charges. But storage today is still a pretty expensive proposition, so the ROI is longer than what most fleet managers are interested in. We want to be able to find ways to get them up and operating without having to bring in micro-grid strategies or utility service upgrades, because when you do that, you add a lot of schedule risk, and you burden the pilot with costs that may not be comparable to what they’ll experience in the long run for the full fleet electrification. Once the fleet is comfortable operating their pilot program, and they’ve demonstrated the metrics that will allow them to grow, then we’ll take a look at a microgrid solution that would include batteries and renewables as well as utility service upgrades where needed.

A Terry O’Day: They’ve got Class 8 trucks that are

Q Charged: How is it working with the utilities for these kinds of service upgrades?

Q Charged: Is your policy to own the EVSE, or do you sell it and then provide an ongoing service agreement?

A Terry O’Day: It’s pretty costly and time-consuming for their service planning groups. As an example, the California utilities are a bit of a mix. Southern California Edison has been great, and PG&E is very interested in bringing people into their approved program. But the reality is that they only have so many service planners, so eventually you end up in a queue for the service planning function, and that is a challenge. We need to figure out how to enable them to grow their capabilities in service planning as these fleets begin to come online and make purchases.

coming into the fleet this year. They have purchase orders out on electric vans, and have taken delivery of some of those already. All told, Ryder has 65,000 existing customers across the US and 800 facilities. They see [electrification] as disruptive to their existing business, so they are getting ahead of that by investing in understanding the business, and developing partnerships so that they can have access to new models when their customers all start to ask for electric.

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Apart from my work at In-Charge, I’m the Mayor Pro Tempore of Santa Monica, and we are electrifying the Big Blue Bus [municipal bus fleet]. That’s more than 200 buses.

We brought [Southern California Edison] out to the site and they said, ‘You’re going to need a new sub-station. It’s going to cost $5 million.’ And our bus manager said, ‘Okay, our council said we’re doing this, so get started.’ And Edison initially responded, ‘Oh, well, we’re going to need five years.’

So, the service planning function appears to be a real bottleneck. I think that the utilities generally are aware of it, at least. It’s impossible to paint the utility sector with a single brush, because there are more than 3,000 utilities in the United States. But the bigger ones are beginning to catch on that this is a great opportunity to create a really harmonious load and a flexible load, and they’re beginning to pay attention to the service planning function.

Q Charged: What about using demand management to

avoid utility demand charges?

A Terry O’Day: We have demand management solutions built into our strategies. In most cases, that’s going to require storage on site. Fleet operations are typically revenue-producing, or revenue-affecting anyway, so if they’re not working, then the fleet owner is experiencing real pain on their financials. So, they have a high need for reliable infrastructure and vehicles. Demand management would have to be used sparingly in that context. If you turn off those chargers, then they still need to make sure the vehicle is ready to perform its function when it gets called upon. Demand management can exist within that reality, but it can conflict with it for sure, so some real smart planning [is required] in order to pull that off.

A classic story that I witnessed firsthand was with Universal Studios. They were on a demand management service interruption rate from the utilities, so they enjoyed lower electricity costs. But when the rolling blackouts

“

The service planning function appears to be a real bottleneck. I think that the utilities generally are aware of it, at least...The bigger ones are beginning to catch on that this is a great opportunity to create a really harmonious load and a flexible load.

came and they got the call to reduce their demand, they had hundreds of people on rides and roller coasters. They can’t turn those off, so they ended up paying for incredibly expensive electricity as a result. So, high-reliability operations need to have other options if we put them on demand management.

Q Charged: Are you seeing mostly DC fast charging

in truck applications, or are fleets open to AC options as well?

A Terry O’Day: A lot of the delivery vehicles, from the vans to the package cars, are still talking about Level 2, and they think that’ll work for them overnight. It does for a portion of their fleet, but as we get into the projects, and as they begin to get their hands on vehicles, they find out that faster is just better. So if you can afford to get the capacity into your facility, you’re going to want DC fast charging.

It [also] goes to the reliability issue. I visited a school bus yard in New York last month, and it was 13 degrees outside in the middle of the day. The driver for the morning run came back, and she was at a 0% state of charge on a bus that was supposed to be able to handle two full days of activity. We investigated the problem, and all the charging and infrastructure was installed fine, but the bus was using 80% of the battery’s state of charge just to heat the cabin and keep the battery itself warm. In that case, a DC charger would have gotten her back on the road for the afternoon shift. DC gives you that added reliability factor that a lot of fleets are going to need.

Q Charged: Is there openness to a mixed solution? Like

DC when you need it?

A Terry O’Day: Yeah, because it gets expensive to do DC for every vehicle. At the low end of DC and the high end of AC, there’s a bit of an overlap—you can deliver about as much power on a high-end AC charger as on a low-end DC charger.

Q Charged: What are the next steps for your company?

A Terry O’Day: You’ll hear from us when we announce new partnerships. We have some pretty major installations that we’re currently engineering, so you’ll probably see some ribbon-cutting announcements soon for some major installations nationwide. As we just got funded, we’re also picking up really talented people to join our team and help us grow. You’ll recognize some of the names.

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Misinformation, disinformation and lack of information hat’s the biggest obstacle to greater EV adoption?

Mainstream journalists usually cite price, driving range and lack of infrastructure, but they might do better to look in a mirror—the main element that’s missing is awareness and accurate information. Most car buyers aren’t weighing up the pros and cons of EVs, because they have only a hazy idea of what the pros and cons are.

My wife and I have two plug-in vehicles in our driveway, which is in an area with a lot of pedestrian traffic. People often stop by and ask questions, and I usually end up shaking my head at how little they know about EVs. A nice Canadian couple were very interested in our LEAF, but our chat revealed that their knowledge was an odd mishmash of half-truths and outdated information.

They asked about battery swapping (which Tesla and others investigated and abandoned several years ago), and whether I had heard of the new miracle battery that was coming out, which used no lead (I pointed out that there are many promising new advances in the research pipeline, but didn’t bother trying to explain that Li-ion and lead-acid batteries are two different things).

I’ve spoken to dozens of people who fit this description—EVs pique their interest, but they have little accurate information about them. Several people have told me they were unaware that you could charge an EV at home (that’s kind of the whole point), and of course, the first question is almost always “What do you do if you run out of charge?”

(You won’t, unless you’re an extremely inattentive person, or your charge meter is malfunctioning.)

We all know there’s a lot of misinformation out there.

Articles about EVs in local newspapers and national magazines tend to be misleading, and it’s not because the writers are in the pay of evil oil barons (at least, not always).

Journalists are trained to play up conflict and disagreement, so every article about EVs has to mention the drawbacks, even if this requires citing facts out of context. For example, many articles point out the higher purchase prices of EVs, but fail to note the savings on gas and maintenance, or the possibility of buying a used EV. They harp on a supposed lack of infrastructure, unaware of the fact that most drivers charge at home, and will seldom or never need to visit a public charger. And of course, many writers still confuse EVs, PHEVs and hybrids.

Both journalists and their readers tend to see the new technology through the lens of the old. It will probably take years before people let go of the paradigm of stopping at a gas station to fuel up. This is why the second question is always “How long does it take to charge?” (I have trouble answering this one, because I don’t even know exactly how long my LEAF takes to charge.) It’s also one reason that the dead end of hydrogen passenger cars refuses to die.

Misleading information can come from the other direc-

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By Charles Morris tion, too. Some EV boosters tout the federal EV tax credit as if it were a cash discount, when in fact it’s a benefit that only a relatively few affluent buyers will be able to take full advantage of. Pro-EV articles often give an inflated impression of the selection of models available, listing vehicles that are not yet on the market, or that are on sale only in limited areas.

Yes, there is also disinformation (deliberately false or misleading statements) out there. The “long tailpipe” argument has been disproven by dozens of studies, but I see EV-bashers trotting it out every day in online forums. Lexus has become notorious for its disingenuous ads, some of which have been banned by media regulatory agencies. And of course, we’ve all heard the one about how the batteries are going to fail after a few years (rare, and a manageable expense if it happens), and can’t be recycled (absolutely false). The lies and half-truths have the ring of simplicity, but refuting them requires technical explanations that may strain Joe Sixpack’s attention span.

What car buyers really need is accurate, up-to-date answers to their questions, and that’s exactly what they’re not going to get from their local car dealer, or from their local newspaper. Nor are they getting any information from OEMs—the few EV ads they’ve run tend to be arty and abstract, like the three TV spots that appeared during the latest Superbowl (true, so are most car ads, but then, consumers don’t need to be educated about how gas cars work). If automakers really want to sell some EVs, they might try ditching the song and dance in favor of practical information about products that are available to buy today (a clear explanation of the differences among hybrids, PHEVs and EVs might be a good start).

Advocacy groups, charging providers and electric utilities are trying to fill the information vacuum. Electrify America is investing in brand-neutral education and outreach activities ($25 million in the current Cycle 2). Local EV owner clubs, and environmental groups such as the Sierra Club, organize events at which owners show off their vehicles to the EV-curious—the recent EVs and Tea meet-up in Miami featured over 700 EVs. Various pro-EV groups offer resources to consumers—PlugStar, a subsidiary of the non-profit Plug In America that we covered in our November/December 2018 issue, has a consumer web site, and also helps dealers get up to speed on EVs. As EV owners and industry members, we need to support events and efforts of this kind whenever we have the opportunity. And we can also help by always being ready to share information about EVs with anyone who asks, whether on the road or online.

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