Chattanooga Electrical Engineering News Blog
Topics Related to Electronics and Electrical Engineering
From NPR News – Due to the arctic blast and frigid temperatures well below zero degrees, many electric vehicles (EV’s) were sadly affected. Since the frigid temperatures in the northern part of the U.S. reached levels below the EV’s normal operating temperature ranges for their batteries, the vehicles could not be re-charged or maintain a constant charge. This presented major obstacles for many Tesla owners in Chicago along with longer than expected lines for Supercharger stations.
Tesla has announced they will recall over 2-million electric vehicles that affect multiple Tesla models, like models S, X, Y, 3, and semi-trucks. The recall is due to its “full self-driving beta” software causing some life-threatening and unsafe conditions.
The recalls will include a free software update to patch any software bugs in the coding to improve driver safety.
Pilot is adding a competitive advantage in the race with other retailers on their plans to add electric vehicle charging stations. Pilot wants to create the “right experience” for its customers.
Pilot plans to add a total of 2,000 fast EV charging stations with protective canopies at 500 locations within the states as early as 2023. Pilot expects users to utilize their quick EV chargers between 15 to 45 minutes.
By Utility Dive: “Honda and battery maker LG Energy Solution picked Fayette County, Ohio, as the site of their planned battery plant to support Honda and Acura electric vehicle production, the companies announced Tuesday.
The companies will initially commit to investing $3.5 billion in the facility but project total investment to reach $4.4 billion, according to the release. Construction is slated to begin in early 2023, in an effort to mass produce lithium-ion batteries by the end of 2025.
The investment is part of a joint venture with LG Energy Solution, which is pending regulatory approval. Honda partnered with the battery maker after announcing in April it was looking to establish a battery plant near a planned EV production line in North America.”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Monday vowed to replace the U.S. government’s fleet of roughly 650,000 vehicles with electric models as the new administration shifts its focus toward clean-energy.
“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America made by American workers,” Biden said Monday
Biden criticized existing rules that allow vehicles to be considered U.S. made when purchased by the U.S. government even if they have significant non-American made components.
Biden said he would close “loopholes” that allow key parts like engines, steel and glass to be manufactured abroad for vehicles considered U.S. made.
T&D World – Will utilities lead, follow, or get out of the way?
The electric vehicle (EV) wave has come ashore. EV penetration is transitioning from its embryonic stage to the market growth stage across many transportation industry segments: cars, light trucks, buses, light commercial vehicles (LCVs), even Class-8 trucks (those more than 33,000 pounds). Although some segments are electrifying faster than others in terms of market penetration, overall this change will be the single most transformative event in the transportation sector since Henry Ford invented automobile assembly-line manufacturing. This change impacts everything — how far vehicles travel before requiring refueling (recharging in this case), the time recharging takes, where and when vehicles recharge — the very nature of replenishing the vehicle’s energy reserves. With this change comes opportunities for a new set of players to enter the marketplace, with the most impacted entity, the electric utility. These new market entrants will also bring new business models into a marketplace that is still evolving and will take some time to mature.
Over the past decade, following significant advances by the European Union (EU), upwards of two dozen investor-owned and municipal utilities in the United States have launched significant EV charging network infrastructure pilots. Initially, state governments drove these initiatives to achieve aggressive carbon reduction targets, but now EV charging capability is rapidly expanding into a national priority.