The EV is much more than just a replacement for the legacy petroleum-fueled vehicle—it reaches its true potential as part of an ecosystem that also includes charging infrastructure, stationary battery storage, distributed renewable energy generation, and software to make it all work together. GM aims to bring all of these elements together under a new… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "F-150 Lightning"
New Hampshire utility to offer EV owners special rates in V2G program
Utilities around the country are experimenting with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems. Now the New Hampshire Electric Co-op plans to offer its members real-time energy rates that will allow them to earn revenue from their EVs and battery storage devices. The co-op plans to offer members a “transactive energy rate” as soon as the end of this… Read more »
Duke Energy tests EV batteries as grid resource in Florida lab
Florida utility Duke Energy is testing the V2G features of the new Ford F-150 Lightning at the company’s Energy Wise Lab in St Petersburg, Florida (the home of Charged). The R&D pilot will evaluate the viability of the Lightning’s high-capacity batteries and two-way charging capability as a way to power Florida homes during outages and… Read more »
Startup led by Tesla alums aims to build electric RVs
As is the case with a legacy vehicle, towing a trailer with an EV greatly reduces range—as John Voelcker found in his recent test of a Ford F-150 Lightning (see the latest issue of Charged), towing can reduce range by 40% or even more. But what if the trailer had its own electric powertrain? That’s… Read more »
CEO Mary Barra: GM is playing a long EV game, and intends to win
GM hasn’t been getting much respect in the EV press lately. Industry bad boy Tesla continues to dominate the market, racking up global sales of more than 310,000 units in the first quarter of this year. Ford’s still a startup as far as EVs are concerned, but its F-150 Lightning has been getting a lot… Read more »
Ford and GM test bidirectional charging with PG&E
Some may toss the term “game-changing” around a little too casually, but bidirectional charging, and the V2X applications it enables, truly have the potential to change the automotive game, by transforming vehicles from wasting assets (aka money pits) into sources of revenue. Both GM and Ford have recently announced collaborations with California utility Pacific Gas… Read more »
Ford announces pricing for its bidirectional home charger
Ford has launched its new Ford Charge Station Pro, a bidirectional home charging station designed to work with the upcoming F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. Ford designed the system in collaboration with Siemens. The system enables an F-150 Lightning to be used for backup power and other V2G applications. (It isn’t clear whether it would… Read more »
New report from Motor Intelligence details monthly US EV sales
Back in the early days of the rEVolution, we used to get a detailed monthly report on EV sales, courtesy of InsideEVs, which painstakingly combed through sales figures provided by automakers, and used some educated guessing to make estimates for brands that refused to provide any data (ahem…Tesla). However, for whatever reason, many automakers stopped… Read more »
Ford to spin off its EVs into separate “Model e” business unit
Ford has announced plans to spin off its EV efforts as a separate business unit called Model e. Automakers often seem to choose names that we pundits dislike (see Stellantis and the Chevy Bolt), and this one is doubly daffy because of a historical association with a certain California-born carmaker. Tesla originally wanted to call… Read more »
Should Ford spin off its EVs into a separate brand?
There’s a good argument to be made that legacy automakers that are serious about electrification might do well to spin off their EVs as separate brands. Christiaan Hetzner writes in Fortune that Ford CEO Jim Farley—intentionally or not—made a case for doing just that in a recent earnings call. When asked whether Ford should separate… Read more »