Stellantis joins the Tesla-plug club

On February 12, 2024, Stellantis announced that Real Soon Now, all of its newly manufactured electric vehicles for the US will have a Tesla-style charging port located at the left rear corner of the vehicle.  Stellantis is the maker of Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Maserati, and Ram cars.

This adds another entry to the canonical list.

The seven car makers pick a name for their charging network

It will be recalled that seven car makers, desperately hoping to somehow not be completely dependent upon Tesla’s supercharging network, announced (blog article) on July 26, 2023 that Real Soon Now they would provide 30000 high-speed EV chargers across North America.

Now on February 9, 2024, a first big step has been taken toward the installation of the 30000 high-speed EV chargers.  Continue reading “The seven car makers pick a name for their charging network”

Will the $5 billion federal firehose of EV charger money become available for Tesla plugs?

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(Update:  Comments have been filed in response to a Request For Information – see blog article.)

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, enacted on November 15, 2021, established a $5 billion firehose of federal money to help pay for high-speed electric vehicle chargers across the United States.  This Act charged the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) with figuring out how to decide what kinds of electric vehicle (“EV”) chargers would be eligible to receive money from this $5B firehose of money.  To do this, the FHWA took a mere two weeks to publish a Request for Information (RFI) in the Federal Register on November 29, 2021.   Public comments were due within two months of the Federal Register (“FR”) notice, that is, by January 28, 2022.  Continue reading “Will the $5 billion federal firehose of EV charger money become available for Tesla plugs?”

How risky are automobile driver assist systems (for example Tesla Full Self Driving)?

If one defines a relevant metric like deaths per passenger mile, and if one applies the metric while avoiding giving undue weight to things like “magnitude of headline splashing”, then much insight can be gained about relative safety or riskiness of various transportation choices.   And there are many reminders that lots of people are not very good at assessing risks when left to their own devices about it.  Continue reading “How risky are automobile driver assist systems (for example Tesla Full Self Driving)?”

First-ever NEVI-funded EV charger placed into service

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The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was enacted on November 15, 2021, promising that $5 billion would be spent installing electric vehicle chargers across the United States.  Now, after more than two years, the first four EV chargers have been placed into service.  Where are these EV chargers?  What kind of charging plugs do these first four EV chargers have? What does it cost to use the chargers? Continue reading “First-ever NEVI-funded EV charger placed into service”