The latest problem with EV charging stations: Power supply



The transition from gas-powered automobiles to electric vehicles has been a gong show, even though Democrat bans on new gas cars have not yet gone into effect. The trouble is not simply that EVs — which require the mining of many times more minerals than required for a conventional vehicle — are less environmentally friendly than promised or that they are both expensive and unreliable.

Electric vehicles require charging stations. Unless Americans are to be confined to 15-minute cities, there needs to be a juiced network of such stations.

The infrastructure is not in place, however, thanks in part to the Biden administration's bungling of its promised national rollout of EV charging stations. The Democratic administration has established fewer than a dozen of the promised 500,000 charging stations across the country.

Even if there was a satisfactory number of active stations, there is no guarantee they would be useful on account of power supply issues.

Last month, the California-based software company Xendee released the results of its survey of leaders "involved in the development, operation, and commercial use of EV charging infrastructure."

75% of respondents said electric grid limitations were a "significant roadblock to the rollout of EV charging infrastructure for commercial EV usage." Despite uncertainty about whether the charging stations will have the power to charge the cars, 84% of fleet owners indicated they expect to draw grid power from the utility.

A new report from ISO New England Inc., the transmission organization that oversees New England's bulk electric power system and corresponding transmission lines, revealed that EV vehicle adoption over the next decade would significantly drive up electricity demand — demand satisfied mostly with natural gas, reported the VTDigger.

Vermont is hardly an exception. Princeton University recently projected that the U.S. will need 3,360% more electricity on hand to satisfy the Biden administration's EV goals, reported the Daily Mail.

"Right now, our infrastructure is likely 'OK' for the slow trickle of EV adoption," Robby DeGraff, the manager of product and consumer insights at AutoPacific, told the Mail. Increased demand shaped by government mandates will, however, mean that "the grid will certainly need to be revamped."

Already states like Georgia, Arizona, and California are buzzing their way toward capacity, and the costly infrastructure needed is far from established.

Michael Stadler, chief technology and marketing officer at Xendee, told Utility Drive that not only have numerous prospective EV charging station developers acknowledged they would be unable to acquire adequate electricity from utilities, electricity prices in some regions make it uneconomic to link up.

"Time of use rates and power charges are a really big problem," said Stadler. "If you end up paying more for electricity than gas, then something is wrong."

Many of Xendee's clients have apparently opted to install fossil-fuel-powered generators to power their charging stations. So in effect, there's a good chance that EVs whose drivers manage to find charging stations are powered by the same energy source EV is supposed to have made redundant — if not by a generator on-site, then by a predominantly gas-powered grid.

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'Lucky to be alive': Tesla charger sets home of NFL player Randall Cobb ablaze as his wife, 3 children, and dog escape



Pro Bowl wide receiver Randall Cobb posted images of his home online showing the aftermath of a fire caused by a Tesla charger in his garage that caught on fire.

The blaze happened at the 33-year-old's Nashville, Tennessee, home where he lives with his wife and three children. Wife, Aiyda Cobb, was the first to make comments about the incident online: "We are lucky to be alive. The telsa charger caught on fire in the garage late last night and quickly spread," she reportedly said in an Instagram story.

"We got out of the house with nothing but the clothes on our back and no shoes on our feet," a screenshot of her post showed.

'I can't get the image of the brave firefighter getting into position out of my head.'

Cobb himself posted a message the next day thanking firefighters and the community for their actions.

"Thank you for all the love and positive messages," Cobb said in a joint Instagram post with his wife. "First and foremost, we are all safe and healthy. We got out of the house and I was able to get back in and get our dog, Louie. We can't thank Chief Caruthers, Captain Irvin and the Nashville Fire Department enough for their swift action."

Cobb seemed particularly affected by the thought of the firefighters risking their lives to save his possessions.

"I can't get the image of the brave firefighter getting into position out of my head; he didn't even have water to shoot yet. I truly thought the cars were going to explode and that we would lose him in this tragedy. He is a true hero," Cobb continued.

"Unfortunately we don't know how much, if anything, will be salvageable, but this has been a reminder that nothing is more important than the health of our family."

The athlete finished by thanking the community of Nashville and the support his family has received from close friends who have provided a "temporary roof" over the family's heads.

After that, Cobb showed a video of the ash-covered interior of his garage, which included the Tesla. The walls were black from smoke and fire damage. Another video showed a damaged Mercedes SUV as the football player continued to examine the wreckage with a fire official.

The Nashville Fire Department confirmed to CNN that the fire was caused by an electric vehicle in the garage. The department clarified that the fire was contained to the garage, but "heavy smoke damage" happened in different parts of the home.

"There were no injuries reported to civilians or [fire] personnel," the department reportedly said. "The investigation is ongoing and some details are unavailable, as part of the investigation."

The news comes after a recent three-year study revealed that almost half of EV owners in the United States said they are very likely to switch back to gas-powered cars. At 49%, only Australians had a stronger response in terms of switching back to gasoline, with American consumers saying the same at a rate of 46%.

Cobb is currently a free agent in the NFL after spending the 2023-24 season with the New York Jets. He's been in the NFL since 2011.

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Luxury electric vehicle manufacturer losing $227,000 per car with stunning $630 million net loss last quarter



Luxury electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors has posted massive losses while reportedly losing over $225,000 per sold car.

According to the company's latest quarterly earnings release, the market has not responded well to its products. Lucid listed a $630.9 million net less for the quarter, stemming from remarkable overhead costs.

The $137.8 million in revenue was dwarfed by a $469.7 million lost from "Cost of Revenue." Additionally, "R&D Operating Expenditures" cost another $230.8 million, while "SG&A Operating Expenditures" provided another $189.7 million in losses.

In total, the company's "Free Cash Flow" was a whopping negative $706.1 million. These numbers are actually an upgrade from 2022, when the company lost $530 million and was in the hole for $860 million.

Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company is losing $227,802 per car sold in the last quarter.

When it went public, Lucid Motors had a market value of $91 billion in November 2021 despite only having produced 125 cars. Stock prices at the time peaked around $53 per share but have since plummeted to approximately $4 per share at the time of this publication.

Lucid still has a reported $5.5 billion to spend however, thanks to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. The fund, directly from the Saudi government, has already firmly backed the company and has pledged to buy 100,000 of the manufacturer's vehicles.

This should come as no surprise after Lucid became the first company to open a car manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia in September 2023.

The company, which is headquartered in California, sells four different electric vehicle models listed on its website. Prices range from the cheapest model at approximately $75,000, all the way up to almost $250,000.

These costs reflect a recent price cut on Lucid cars, which are still too expensive to qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles; the credit caps at a $55,000 price tag for cars.

While electric vehicle are seeing manufacturer's discounts of up to 10%, many companies are scaling back EV production or shutting down projects altogether. Ford, Honda, and GM recently announced rollbacks of electric vehicle production after slow sales and an overall reduction in consumer purchases.

Honda also ditched plans to co-develop electric vehicles with GM. The goal was to produce a brand that could be sold for under $30,000, but Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said the market was too unpredictable, so the plans were canceled.

Additionally, Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Akio Toyoda said that "people are finally seeing reality."

"There are many ways to climb the mountain that is achieving carbon neutrality," he added, while noting that there isn't one, single answer to reduce carbon emissions.

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