In the wake of the recent hurricanes in Florida, we saw the usual flood of anti-EV articles claiming that it’s better to have a gas vehicle in a natural disaster. Your favorite correspondent also got an article out of the situation, and concluded that on balance, you’re better off in an EV (although a lifted… Read more »
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Enel X Way and Sunrun partner to offer smart home charging stations
EVs and solar panels are like beer and peanuts—consuming one creates an appetite for the other. Sunrun, a large (over 660,000 installations to date) US home solar energy provider, has recently announced partnerships with several companies in the EV space, including Ford, GM, and now charger manufacturer Enel X Way, a subsidiary of the Enel… Read more »
GM launches new business to sell home energy products
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 »
Colorado Teardrops camping trailer includes a battery pack to extend EV towing range
EVs have many advantages over legacy vehicles, but towing capacity is not (yet) one of them. When John Voelcker recently tested the new Ford Lightning F-150 for Charged, he confirmed that towing a sizable trailer can cut the vehicle’s range in half. Of course, a fossil fuel pickup will also take a huge range hit… Read more »
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 »
BrightDrop: GM’s silent push into electric commercial vehicles
Upcoming electric passenger vehicles and light trucks from GM get most of the attention, but its new commercial EV brand is a quiet and very serious push too. Many US drivers now have a vague idea that General Motors is doing something with electric vehicles. They’ve seen Super Bowl ads for the GMC Hummer EV,… 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 »