How to Stay Ahead on Transportation Decarbonization

Challenging EV Orthodoxy

Most of the policy debates over electric vehicles concern taxpayer subsidies, domestic content rules and utilities’ role in charging networks. But NetZero Insider’s EVs & Transportation Intelligence Report this week highlights a Toronto Star article that asked a much more basic question: Are electric vehicles the best bet for the environment given their appetite for scarce resources? Or would we be better off buying hybrids, which use far less rare earth metals and can recharge using a normal 110-volt household receptacle?

Another concern: As EVs get bigger and heavier — 40% of EV models available worldwide in 2022 were sports utility vehicles — they are generating more CO₂ emissions in their production.

But there is also some good news in this week’s roundup: EVs’ green credentials could improve with new technology, such as a low-carbon, sustainable battery-manufacturing process being pioneered by a European manufacturer Northvolt. And Goldman Sachs expects EV adoption will spike, predicting that battery prices will drop 40% by 2025 due to falling prices of critical minerals.

State News

The NRDC released a scorecard ranking the states on their transportation policies and not surprisingly, California was at the top of the list, followed by states in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. The laggards? The South and some Plains and Western states.

In the states:

· A Maryland transportation panel is poised to recommend new EV fees and increased tolls to solve a revenue shortage in the state’s Transportation Trust Fund.

· Minnesotans hoping to obtain a state subsidy of up to $2,500 to buy or lease an EV are finding the new rebate program is still a work in progress: The website tells them to try again later.

· Xcel Energy has a new $44.5 million plan to boost EV adoption in Minnesota that includes rebates for home-wiring upgrades but a much smaller foray into charging infrastructure than its original plan.

· New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s push to get more EVs on car lots stirred heated debate among lawmakers about how far government should go to reduce air pollution. Grisham outlined new EV priorities to aid low-income residents as well as small businesses.

· North Dakota just got its first Electrify America charging station. As of December 2022, the state had only 600 registered EVs, last in the U.S. But the state placed 22d in the NRDC’s rankings, buoyed by good scores on bicycle and pedestrian safety and funding for road repairs and maintenance.

Volvo Goes its Own Way

Another week, another Tesla convert: This week it was Lucid announcing an agreement that will give owners of its luxury EVs access to Tesla’s network of superchargers.

But Volvo plans to challenge Tesla with its own charging hardware and energy storage for homes. The Swedish automaker announced a new business unit focused on charging solutions as well as home energy storage and transfer, which will take advantage of V2G (vehicle-to-grid), V2H (vehicle-to-home), and V2L (vehicle-to-load) tech that upcoming Volvo EVs will offer. Volvo says the average daily drive in European countries uses less than 10 kWh, and 90% of all drives consume less than 20 kWh. “In theory, this means there is a lot of battery capacity that could be put to use,” writes Autoweek’s Jay Ramey.

Electric Air Travel

EVs weren’t the only technology in the news last week. The New York Times reports that billions of dollars of investments have helped make short-distance electric air travel feasible. Early on, electric aircraft are expected to compete mainly with helicopters, cars and trucks.

Those are just a few of the stories we’ve collected for this week’s EVs & Transportation Intelligence Report, available exclusively to NetZero Insider subscribers. Check it out for yourself