EVs

good to study the EVs industry

• 11/21/2021 – Chip makers (NVDA, QCOM, GFS, INTC) are good for EV stocks

Apple sparks a chip-car blaze

1. Reports that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has set a goal of producing a fully autonomous electric car by 2025 would have been enough to set the tech sector and Wall Street on fire with speculation about what an “iCar” might look like. But, when those reports from last week said the key to Apple’s car plans is a breakthrough semiconductor platform, that fire of speculation turned into an almost uncontrollable blaze.
2. Apple (AAPL) as it historically does, is keeping its mouth shut about anything it might be doing on the car front. However, the potential for a new chip technology unlike any other in the auto sector illustrates the role that chip developers are playing in advancing changes in the auto industry. And recent comments from many bellwether chip company executives show how much automobiles are playing a role in their plans for new areas of diversification and growth.
3. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) reported strong quarterly results on Nov. 17, and not surprisingly, the company’s performance was largely driven by its gaming and data-center businesses. Revenue from automotive products was only $135 million, but that was an increase of 8% from a year ago. Nvidia (NVDA) also said that during the quarter, it lined up self-driving truck start-up Kodiak Robotics, British automaker Lotus, autonomous bus manufacturer QCraft, and EV startup WM Motor as customers to use Nvidia’s Drive Orin platform for their next-generation vehicles.
4. In talking about Nvidia’s (NVDA) results, Chief Executive Jensen Huang said that the automotive industry also provides an outlet for use of the company’s Omniverse virtual technology platform.
5. “There are 100 million cars. We’ve heard that the new cars will all have — will all be — have the capability to have something like an Omniverse Avatar. And so there’s 100 million cars to be $1,000 per car per year,” Huang said.
6. Of course, Nvidia (NVDA) isn’t alone among chip companies with plans of building big automotive businesses.
7. Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) has made autos one its primary areas of focus, and on Nov. 3, it reported $270 million in fourth-quarter revenue from automotive sales, a 44% increase from a year ago. At that time, Chief Executive Cristiano Amon said Qualcomm (QCOM) was working with automakers to create “a joint roadmap to build multi-tier, multi-generation, scalable and upgradable platforms for a long-term sustainable business.”
8. Qualcomm (QCOM) wasted little time putting some meat on those auto-plan bones when, on Nov. 17, the company announced a deal to provide its Snapdragon system-on-a-chip technology to BMW for the German automaker’s next generation of autonomously driven cars. At its investor day meeting that same day, Qualcomm said such deals should help it boost its automotive-chip revenue from $1 billion this year, to $3.5 billion in 2026.
9. “This is just the beginning,” Amon said of the BMW deal. “It’s an incredible opportunity to scale very fast in our auto pipeline.”
10. Other automakers are building closer ties with many large chipmakers. Last week, General Motors (NYSE:GM) said it will work with Qualcomm and other chip companies on semiconductors for its cars, and Ford (NYSE:F) announced a new partnership with GlobalFoundries (NASDAQ:GFS) centered around jointly developing chip technologies for Ford (F) vehicles.
11. Tom Caulfied, GlobalFoundries CEO, called the deal with Ford “a key step forward in strengthening our cooperation and partnership with automakers to spur innovation, bring new features to market faster, and ensure long-term, supply-demand balance.”
12. At Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), the semiconductor giant’s Mobileye self-driving car business reported its best-ever quarter in October, with sales of $326 million, or 39% higher than in the same period a year ago. On Intel’s (INTC) earnings call, Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger said that with Mobileye, Intel will soon deliver driverless robo-taxi service in conjunction with rental car company Sixt SE. Gelsinger added that Intel (INTC) expects the market for “automotive silicon” will reach $115 billion by the end of the decade “as AVs [autonomous vehicles] begin to move from the garage to the streets.”
13. At the IAA Mobility Conference in September, Gelsinger said that the advancements in chip technology are turning the automobile into “a computer with tires,” and left no doubt about how close chip companies and carmakers will work together in the coming years.

• 11/19/2021 – Apple is aiming for FSD car by 2025, can they achieve it?

Apple shares hit record after report says the company wants to build self-driving car as soon as 2025

1. Apple shares hit a record on Friday following a Bloomberg report that the company is accelerating efforts to launch a vehicle.
2. As of early afternoon Friday, its stock was up more than 1% and trading at over $160.
3. Apple’s track record in new markets could foreshadow success, wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, in a report following Bloomberg’s story.

Apple shares hit a record on Friday following a report that the company is accelerating efforts to launch a self-driving vehicle. As of early afternoon on Friday, Apple’s stock was up more than 1% to above $160.

According to the full report from Bloomberg News, the company is pushing internally for a 2025 deadline for an autonomous vehicle.

Apple Accelerates Work on Car Project, Aiming for Fully Autonomous Vehicle

Apple Inc. is pushing to accelerate development of its electric car and is refocusing the project around full self-driving capabilities, according to people familiar with the matter, aiming to solve a technical challenge that has bedeviled the auto industry.

For the past several years, Apple’s car team had explored two simultaneous paths: creating a model with limited self-driving capabilities focused on steering and acceleration — similar to many current cars — or a version with full self-driving ability that doesn’t require human intervention.

Under the effort’s new leader — Apple Watch software executive Kevin Lynch — engineers are now concentrating on the second option. Lynch is pushing for a car with a full self-driving system in the first version, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

Apple is internally targeting a launch of its self-driving car in four years, faster than the five- to seven-year timeline that some engineers had been planning for earlier this year.

• 11/16/2021 – Tilson’s great commentary on TaaS (Transportation as a Service)

How “TaaS” will change your life

The technology I want to tell you about today is known in Silicon Valley and Manhattan as “TaaS,” and if you’ve never heard of it, you soon will!

TaaS stands for “Transportation as a Service.”

And while it might not sound like a very high-tech name, it’s possible only because of the convergence of dozens of new incredible technologies, including two big new technologies in particular. I believe it could completely transform our daily lives.

Just for starters…

• It will dramatically change the value of homes and real estate all over the country.
• It will eventually put an estimated $5,600 back into the hands of 93% of U.S. families every year.
• It will dramatically change the value of your car. For most people, this is a big deal because cars are most people’s second-biggest purchase (after housing).
• TaaS will also likely result in the collapse of oil prices.
• It will radically change the tax structure of almost every city and small town in America. That’s because estimates show that Chicago, for example, will lose at least $250 million in revenue because of TaaS. Los Angeles will lose more than $140 million. New York will lose a half-billion dollars… every single year!
• TaaS will also radically change the insurance industry and the health care industry, saving millions of lives. In fact, at the end of the day, TaaS might be the biggest medical innovation in decades, even though it has nothing to do with pills or new equipment.

Two technologies – EV and Autonomous driving

Tilson identified a massive investing megatrend beginning to emerge in the markets. Less than a year later, his five “TaaS”-related recommendations were up an average of 66%, including two 100%-plus winners.

the new technologies are all about great advantage on economics, not on environmental green

“Things will go slow, until they go fast” – the early stage of new disruptive technologies

Investment #1: Buy Waymo

Investment #2: Own the Most Important Technology in the Electric Car Space

Electric car maker NIO soared 1,519% over the past year. Blink Charging, a leading provider of EV charging stations, soared 2,492% in the past year. CBAK Energy Technology, which produces batteries for electric cars and busses, soared 727% in the past year.

Also, one thing you have to realize is that the key to the possibility of making substantial gains in this space in the coming years is NOT to try to guess which company will win. Remember, in addition to Tesla, GM, Ford, and other U.S. manufacturers… there are some 400 electric car makers in China!

Plus, remember that by next year, there will be 500 different EV models available worldwide.

That’s why, the absolute best thing you can do is to simply take a stake in the best technology and the critical components EVERY electric car uses.

Investment #3: Own the Two Key Technologies for Autonomous Vehicles

Driverless vehicles are becoming a reality today because of a dramatic confluence of many technologies: computing power, cameras, sensors, laser range finders (called LiDAR), GPS, and artificial intelligence software, just to name a few.

But my team and I believe there are two companies responsible for by far the most “critical components” for the best self-driving cars.

The first company makes the most technologically advanced “brain” and “nervous system” for autonomous vehicles. This firm has already partnered with many of the leading companies in this space, including BMW, Hyundai, Audi, Intel, and Lyft, just to name a few.

The other key technology you want to own in the driverless technology space is the company that provides the computing power for many of today’s driverless vehicles.

This is critical for EVERY autonomous vehicle.

Already, this company has partnered with many of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers, like Toyota, Volkswagen, Mercedes, and Volvo…

Investment #4: The Small Speculation

There’s one more TaaS investment my team uncovered recently, which we strongly recommend you make right away…

It’s a small company you’ve almost certainly never heard of.

You’ll have to take an extra step or two to buy it, but we think it will be well worth it.

In short: This company’s technology is needed in ALL self-driving and autonomous cars… and right now this small company’s materials are used in 20% of the entire global market.

If we’re right about our projections, this company’s revenue could quadruple over the next five years… and if that plays out as we expect, you will likely see a great return on your investment.

In recent months, the stock is up as high as 50%, but we think it has much higher to go.

• 10/29/2021 –

https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-ford-gm-betting-big-ev-batteries-stocks-51635472423?mod=hp_HERO

• 10/20/2021 – great documentary movie about Tesla, very inspirational. Musk is genus. It is not wise to short Musk, instead, I need to find chance to long his companies

In Their Own Words Elon Musk, PBS

• 08/29/2021 – Technical and huge cost challenge for EVs

GM’s Chevy Bolt Recall Casts Shadow Over EV Push – WSJ
The $1.8 billion recall, among GM’s costliest ever, underscores the difficulty, expense of fixing defective electric-vehicle batteries

GM this month expanded the Bolt safety recall for the second time, calling back the roughly 142,000 models built since it went on sale five years ago. The Detroit auto maker also paused production of all new Bolts. The safety action on its lone U.S. electric car will cost GM an estimated $1.8 billion, or around $12,700 per car, among its costliest recalls.

The safety problems underscore the risks for traditional auto makers as many take a sharp turn toward electric vehicles. The high cost of energy-dense lithium-ion battery cells means replacement expenses can spiral when defects occur. Ford Motor Co. , Hyundai Motor Co. and other car companies have been hit with huge costs to fix relatively small numbers of electric cars.

• 06/07/2021 – real in-depth discussion on the technologies of EVs and AVs. especially Tesla. Watch out two real competitors of Tesla: Mobileeye, comma.ai

• 06/01/2021 – The car subscription EV market is set to top $12 billion by 2027, and many of the big car makers are making moves on it, from Porsche to Volvo… and even to Hertz itself, since there is a big opportunity here. – good stocks: Facedrive’s Steer (TSX.V:FD; OTCMKTS:FDVRF) , TSLA, AAPL, TM, BLNK, Celestica (TSX:CLS) , Teck Resources Limited (TSX:TECK.B), Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX:LAC), Maxar Technologies (TSX:MAXR) , Westport Fuel Systems (TSX:WRPT).

Is This One Of The Best Ways To Play The Electric Vehicle Boom?

Electric vehicle sales jumped 43% in 2020 while overall car sales decreased by 20%, and there’s still plenty of room to run on the electric playing field, according to some of the biggest wealth managers, but there’s a potential big industry disruptor here …

One of the next big shake-ups in the auto industry – and one that will help, not hinder the adoption of EVs – is the burgeoning car subscription business.

The car subscription market is set to top $12 billion by 2027, and many of the big car makers are making moves on it, from Porsche to Volvo… and even to Hertz itself, since there is a big opportunity here.

But Washington, D.C.-based Steer combines two big trends: subscriptions and EVs, making it one to watch in this sector.

Acquired by Canadian Facedrive in Q3 2020, Steer – like Facedrive itself – is all about getting out in front of the newest trends, first…

And turning carbon-offset offerings into profitable tech-driven verticals.

There’s an important shift happening in consumer behavior, and Facedrive (TSX.V:FD; OTCMKTS:FDVRF) intends to be out in front of it all the way. In our view, this is definitely one stock to watch closely.

• 06/01/2021 – EV is all about software, not hardware any more like that of  gasoline car. Need to pay attention to this. and also need to pay attention to Aptiv and Lear called auto supplier stocks

Tesla Is Turning Cars Into Phones. Other Car Makers Better Catch On.

Cars are slowly becoming less about hardware and more about software. That shift has the power to change the automotive industry as much as any other trend, including vehicle electrification and autonomous driving. Automotive investors should start paying more attention to software.

Cars are still in the rotary phone stage—or perhaps the flip phone stage. But that is changing. Tesla (TSLA) pioneered over-the-air updates, and now more auto makers are doing the same, connecting their vehicles to the web. Ford Motor (F) announced this past week a plan to set up a new business around connecting its commercial vehicles.

“Tesla has never really focused on model years,” Tesla power electronics supplier Aptiv (APTV) CEO Kevin Clark tells Barron’s. Tesla can improve power output with software. EV range enhancements can be made with software. In-car entertainment enhancements? Yes, software.

That approach has yielded real benefits. Tesla’s gross profit margins are better than BMW ‘s ( BMW. Germany), despite being about 30% of BMW’s size. Tesla also saves on tooling. Tesla spends less on capital, adjusted for size, than does BMW.

The software-defined vehicle trend is still in the early innings, Clark says. It has a long way to run, but the end of the game for cars might not look exactly like the phone business.

There are a couple of key differences between the industries. Manufacturing cars so teenagers can use them without injuring pedestrians isn’t a trivial matter. Also, the regulatory complex, including crash testing and emissions regulations for automobiles, isn’t comparable to phones either. And a new car costs, on average, $40,000 and is expected to last a decade or more. A phone costs $1,000 and lasts until it is dropped one too many times.

Still, attention needs to be paid. At minimum, investors can start tracking how many software engineers auto makers and suppliers have. (Clark says Aptiv has thousands). The winning automotive maker of the future won’t be those with the coolest looking car. It will be the ones with the best software for entertainment, safety, and reliability.

• 05/28/2021 – EV bubble in China: China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd., or Evergrande Auto

What a crock! Embattled Chinese Property Tycoon Turns to Electric Cars. Cue $87 Billion Valuation. Excerpt:

Guests at a private August dinner hosted by billionaire entrepreneur Jack Ma were intrigued by a fellow diner who introduced himself as a humble car salesman.

It was Xu Jiayin, better known as the chairman of China Evergrande Group, the country’s biggest real-estate developer and one of China’s most indebted companies. At the time of the dinner Evergrande was just weeks away from a potentially devastating showdown with its creditors.

If he was feeling desperate, Mr. Xu didn’t show it, according to one of the people present at the meal at one of Mr. Ma’s houses in Hangzhou, where Mr. Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is based. He was pitching his most audacious venture to date: a new electric-vehicle company that aims, according to its own public statements, to surpass Tesla Inc. and others in becoming the world’s “largest and most powerful” EV maker by 2025.

The Chinese government’s drive to make the country a world leader in electric vehicles has spawned dozens of startups jockeying for position in its small but fast-growing market. Mr. Xu’s unlikely fusion of car-making and property development, which he’s building from scratch, is the wildest of them all.

Evergrande’s Hong Kong-listed EV unit, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd., or Evergrande Auto, saw its market capitalization soar last month to roughly $87 billion, more than most global auto makers, including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co., and four times the value of its own parent company—all without having sold a single vehicle.

Other electric-car makers burn billions of dollars developing one production model. Evergrande says it is developing 14 at once. It is also building multiple factories even though the company has no industrial or technical background.

Evergrande’s debut at the Auto Shanghai expo in April raised more questions than it answered about the company’s progress. Its huge stand was roughly as large as the nearby BMW AG booth. It showcased nine of Evergrande’s first production EVs, all eye-catching cars designed by internationally renowned figures including Anders Warming, formerly of BMW and Mini. The cars were mock-ups with foggy plastic windows, not working vehicles.

• 05/28/2021 – F150 Lighting is an impressive EV truck. original F150 is the best selling vehicle in US for the past 40 years!

Ford F150 Lightning Impressions: Better Than I Thought!

• 05/21/2021 – the car is evolving into essentially a smartphone on wheels

Apple and the End of the Car as We Know It – WSJ
As cars become computers with wheels, Apple is joining other tech companies in eyeing the $5 trillion auto market

Driverless Hype Collides With Merciless Reality – WSJ

Artificial UnIntelligence | Kevin Grems | TEDxOkoboji – Bing video

1. algorithm is just computer programming, not magic. And human programmers are biased
2. computer might never solve the real world problem which computing can be exponential and the answer can be philosophical (e.g. decide which people can be crashed if the car has to crash on one person). Human do not have the absolute answer yet. How do you expect computer to have
3. self-driving real world problem might never get resolved even media says otherwise
4. human is prone to make error in programming, a little error inside can easily crash the program
5. our collective enthusiasm for applying computer technology to every aspect of life has resulted in a tremendous amount of poorly designed systems. We are so eager to do everything digitally—hiring, driving, paying bills, even choosing romantic partners—that we have stopped demanding that our technology actually work.
6. it’s just not true that social problems would inevitably retreat before a digitally enabled Utopia.

• 04/30/2021 – the biggest hurdle of EVs is lack if charge station and charge too slow in public charging

1 in 5 electric vehicle owners in California switched back to gas because charging their cars is a hassle, new research shows

1. Roughly 20% of electric vehicle owners in California replaced their cars with gas ones, a new study shows.
2. The main reason drivers made the switch was the inconvenience of charging.
3. The findings suggest new challenges facing the growth of the nascent electric vehicle market.

Standard home outlets generally put out about 120 volts of power at what electric vehicle aficionados call “Level 1” charging, while the high-powered specialty connections offer 240 volts of power and are known as “Level 2.” By comparison, Tesla’s “Superchargers,” which can fully charge its cars in a little over an hour, offer 480 volts of direct current.

Of those who switched, over 70% lacked access to Level 2 charging at home, and slightly fewer than that lacked Level 2 connections at their workplace.

“If you don’t have a Level 2, it’s almost impossible,” said Tynan, who has tested a wide range of makes and models of PEVs over the years for his research.

Even with the faster charging, a Chevy Volt he tested still needed nearly six hours to top its range back up to 300 miles from nearly empty — something that takes him just minutes at the pump with his family SUV.

Public charging stations may look like the electric version of the gas station, but nearly two-thirds of PEV drivers in the survey said they didn’t use them. Exactly why they didn’t use the public stalls was not specified.

EVs have come a long way in recent years in terms of range, safety, comfort, and tech features, but Hardman and Tal note that very little has changed in terms of how they are recharged.

• 03/28/2021 – I’m super bullish on electric vehicles (“EVs”) and autonomous vehicles (“AVs”), for reasons I lay out in this video. This future is coming sooner than almost anyone expects… and is already minting many new millionaires in the process. According to Bank of America (BAC), TaaS could attract $2.5 trillion in investments over the next decade. Ford, GM, and Volkswagen Shares Are Hot. Thank EV Mania. Electric-Vehicle Fever Spreads to Europe. However, the major EV companies, as a group, can’t possibly grow into their enormous combined valuation, so investors will need to be smart and selective: Rob Arnott Warns of ‘Big Market Delusion’ in Electric Vehicles

‘TaaS 2.0’ event on Thursday; My Tesla e-mail list; Ford, GM, and Volkswagen Shares Are Hot. Thank EV Mania; EV Fever Spreads to Europe; Rob Arnott Warns of ‘Big Market Delusion’ in EVs; ARK’s Tesla model; Tesla Crash Probed; Musk: ‘I don’t ever give up’; Lordstown Motors – Whitney Tilson’s Daily – Empire Financial Research

In it, I share our biggest idea here at Empire Financial Research: The rapid development of EVs and AVs will lead to an entirely new industry called “TaaS” – “Transportation as a Service.”

I think TaaS will transform life as we know it – from the way we eat to the way we shop, work, and travel. This future is coming sooner than almost anyone expects… and is already minting many new millionaires in the process. According to Bank of America (BAC), TaaS could attract $2.5 trillion in investments over the next decade.

Empire Financial Research

• 03/22/2021 – consumers are unsure about the availability of public charging stations, dealers are skeptical about the consumers’ willingness to purchase, so they have  bit of ‘boy who cried wolf’ syndrome. In addition, dealers will lose big profit from mechanical services with EVs

Electric Vehicles Are the U.S. Auto Industry’s Future—if Dealers Can Figure Out How to Sell Them – WSJ

Dealer electric-vehicle inventory will remain light because he is uncertain about longer-term demand. “It’s still very early days,” Mr. Sowers said.

• 03/22/2021 – EV is more environmental friendly in the long run. But need more energy and has more CO2 emission when building EVs.

Are Electric Cars Really Better for the Environment? (wsj.com)

Building both a Tesla Model 3 and a Toyota RAV4 generates several tons of greenhouse gas emissions to smelt the aluminum, manufacture the components and assemble the vehicle. But building a Tesla actually generates more emissions because of the metals needed for its lithium-ion battery. Before it rolls off the assembly line, the Tesla has generated 65% more emissions than the RAV4.

building an EV has more CO2 emissions than building a ICE car, however, the longer timethe car is used, the less emission in EV. Overall, the lifetime emissions of the RAV4 are 77% more than the Model 3. So it is significant.

if states push aggressive mandates similar to California, which said last fall that it wanted all new cars sold in the state to be EVs by 2035. Emissions would drop to 35.4 gigatons—below the two-degree threshold. Electricity use would grow astronomically, as would demand for minerals, but gasoline would shrink to 8% of 2020 levels.

• 03/14/2021 – the new tax bill could include technology-neutral incentives rather than wind- and solar-specific credits, and would aim to move beyond the current cycle of short-term incentive extensions to a more permanent approach – good to have technology-neutral incentives?

Senate Democrats plan to reintroduce energy tax reform bill, focus on long-term incentives

1. Senate Democrats are retooling energy tax reform legislation that was first proposed two years ago but which failed to advance in a Republican-led Congress.
2. The Clean Energy for America Act could include technology-neutral incentives rather than wind- and solar-specific credits, and would aim to move beyond the current cycle of short-term incentive extensions to a more permanent approach, according to Bobby Andres, senior policy adviser to Democrats on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.
3. “We’re actively working on updating that bill for reintroduction and very much view it as a cornerstone of the efforts on energy tax this Congress,” Andres said Wednesday at the virtual American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) Policy Forum.

• 03/14/2021 – DOJ plans to invest billions of dollars over the next few years in the technologies that are going to make the EV future a reality

DOE will spend billions on electric vehicle R&D in jobs fight with China, Granholm says

1. President Joe Biden’s administration is aggressively pursuing transportation electrification not just because of its potential to curb greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change, but also to prevent China from cornering a bourgeoning $23 trillion market in carbon-reducing technologies, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday.
2. The U.S. Department of Energy plans to “double down” on research and development through its loan programs office, in order to make electric vehicles (EVs) easier to produce and deploy, Granholm said at a virtual event hosted by Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE).
3. “DOE is going to invest billions of dollars over the next few years in the technologies that are going to make the EV future a reality,” Granholm said. “To reduce costs, and reliance on China.”

SAFE has estimated China controls nearly 70% of global EV battery manufacturing capacity, and North America has less than 10%. The group advocates for emissions-free transportation policies, and has published research showing the United States could create 647,000 jobs within the next five years by aggressively growing the EV market and securing the electric transportation supply chain.

According to SAFE, 142 lithium-ion battery megafactories were under construction worldwide as of 2020; 107 were located in China — with just nine in the United States.

“This could be a big problem. Because the auto and truck manufacturing sectors in the United States have been the key to our industrial base,” SAFE CEO Robbie Diamond said during the webinar.

• 03/12/2021 – great documentary on EV history

Who Killed The Electric Car?

It ran on electricity, produced no emissions, and was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert? Launched by GM in 1996 in response to California’s pollution crisis and resulting Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, the EV1 electric vehicle was a revolutionary modern car, requiring no gas, no oil changes and no muffler. But the fanfare surrounding the EV1’s launch disappeared and the cars followed. Was it lack of consumer demand, as carmakers claimed, or were other forces at work? Those questions and more are answered in this compelling documentary that shines a light into the dark corners of the U.S. economy and government. 2006 EV Confidential LLC.

1. the US consumers who, apart from a few zealous fans, was either unaware or uninterest. most of them only care whether the car drives well or not, affordable or not, they do not care much about environmental effects.
2. the batteries, with their very limited range and lack of recharging infrastructure. In addition, automotive and oil industries bought innovative battery companies and buried them.- conspiracy story
3. the oil companies, whose very business was threatened and who tried to obstruct the building of public battery-charging stations. OPEC flooded the market with lots of oil to suppress oil price and make EV relatively costly
4. the car companies who did not want to disturb their existing business models. e.g. internal combustion engine business is very profitable, even though it is very dirty compared with those of EV services. e.g. GM killed EV1
5. the us government, with the powerful influence of the oil and automotive industries at work inside Bush admin
6. CARB (California Air Resources Board)- the chairman of CARB gave car industry lots of time to present, while little time for environmentalists. In addition, this chairman if the head of  hydrogen fuel cell association who promotes hydrogen fuel cell which is a very costly and far far futurist technology
7. hydrogen fuel cell – Bush admin promotes hydrogen fuel cell, rather than EV, as a bait and switch to kill EV and hydrogen fuel cars

• 02/14/2021 – $TSLA below $100/share by later this year will not crash the system. There is no reflexivity in such a fall. But it would trigger the end of an era for a certain type of investing. – Michael Burry

If Tesla Bubble Bursts, Catastrophe Won’t Follow
Not all bubbles are equal. Britain’s bicycle-stock bubble of the 1890s holds lessons for today’s electric-vehicle mania.

None of this is an issue for the obvious bubbles under way in the fashionable stocks of the moment. Tesla TSLA 0.55% is valued so highly it is now the U.S.’s fifth-biggest company by market capitalization. Even if the electric-car maker vanished tomorrow, it would have an insignificant effect on the economy, as Tesla’s operations are tiny. It is mostly equity-financed, so its failure wouldn’t start a domino line of bank failures. And while shareholders would be hurt, there’s no reason to think that would lead to a collapse in spending across the country.

• 02/14/2021 – Electric cars might once again be mainstream, but it’s been a long road to get here.

Before Tesla: Why everyone wanted an electric car in 1905
What’s old is new again

An electric car buzzes along the road of a downtown street, with pedestrians and fellow drivers alike stopping to stare at the wealthy owners inside. The car costs roughly 7 times more than a normal Ford, and its reputation and design has helped to fuel long wait lists and pent-up demand.

The scene could be straight out of Silicon Valley in 2013, but it’s not. For a brief period in the early 20th century in the United States, the electric car was high society’s hottest commodity, sought after by socialites and businessmen alike.

By 1900, electric cars were so popular that New York City had a fleet of electric taxis, and electric cars accounted for a third of all vehicles on the road.

• 01/15/2021 – The critical breakthrough or innovation that you need is the solid-state separator that prevents lithium-metal dendrites from forming. QS has a raft of well-funded competitors racing to produce a commercially viable solid-state battery

The Leaders in the Race to Build a Better EV Battery
Investors are swarming around one of the few publicly traded competitors working on a new technology that promises faster charges and a longer lifespan

The two biggest drawbacks of electric cars—limited range and slow charging—will likely persist until battery makers can solve the dendrite problem.

In the human body, dendrites are extensions of nerves that transmit signals among cells. In lithium-ion batteries, they are tiny, needlelike deposits of lithium resembling microscopic tree branches. They can grow within the batteries, leading to short circuits or even fires.

Batteries that are in use in cars today require a slower charge, in part because of the risk of dendrite formation. A too-fast charge can cause dendrites to build up. Because QuantumScape’s batteries appear to have solved the dendrite problem, they can be charged faster.

“The critical breakthrough or innovation that you need is the solid-state separator that prevents lithium-metal dendrites from forming,” Mr. Singh said in an interview. He said test data on QuantumScape’s batteries show no dendrites have formed.

Another risk: A raft of well-funded competitors racing to produce a commercially viable solid-state battery.

French company Bolloré SA BOL -0.73% uses a polymer electrolyte in its commercially-available solid-state batteries, which are now being produced for some large buses made by Daimler AG DMLRY -3.41% and others. Those batteries require being kept at brutally hot temperatures of 50 to 80 degrees Celsius, or 122 to 175 degrees Fahrenheit, limiting their utility for personal vehicles. Bolloré’s researchers are working on lowering that threshold and hope to have batteries for autos by 2026, said Fabricio Protti, the company’s deputy chief executive.

• 01/06/2021 –

Warren Buffett-backed Chinese electric car company outsells its start-up rivals

1. Automaker BYD, backed by billionaire Warren Buffett, said its new electric luxury sedan “Han” has seen sales increase every month to surpass 10,000 units in November.
2. At these levels, the “Han” model alone is selling just as well, or better, than vehicles from China’s electric car start-ups Nio, Li Auto and Xpeng.
3. BYD’s overall sales of battery-powered electric passenger cars fell 11% in 2020.

• 01/06/2021 – NIO’s battery swap technology platform is very competitive than TSLA’s supercharge, great idea too! NIO also standardize battery for all its vehicles, great idea. NIO also allow customers to buy vehicle without buying battery. In addition, Chinese government is using subsidiary to promote NIO’s technology. Tesla has to cut sale price significantly in order to get Chinese government’s subsidiary.

Tesla vs. NIO: Battle for the World’s Largest EV Market

Gone are the long waits at charging stations: Chinese electric-vehicle startup NIO is pioneering battery-swap systems, challenging Tesla and other rival car makers.

• 12/27/2020 – good ideas on “Apple car investment”

Apple Car developments could kickstart big auto-tech partnerships in 2021

• What will Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) car development program look like if the company moves forward with a dramatic move into the automobile industry?
• “Initially, the most likely rollout would involve several hundred Apple Cars driving in US cities for a year or two before becoming more widely available. Apple could either sell cars directly to consumers or offer a subscription-like transportation service similar to Zoox or Tesla robotaxi. It’s highly unlikely Apple will build cars, and more likely they outsource manufacturing to an OEM partner,” predict Loup Ventures’ Gene Munster and team.
• As for manufacturing partners, Wedbush Securities pointed to Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), Volkswagen (OTCPK:VWAGY), Nio (NYSE:NIO) and XPeng (NYSE:XPEV) as potential strategic partners for Apple. If it looks to find an OEM partner, Apple could be competing with Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), Zoox (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Waymo (NASDAQ:GOOG) on the expectation that those companies and others will be hunting around for expanded auto partnerships.
• A major investing theme in 2021 may be how tech-auto partnerships shake out for commercial and retail vehicles, and the implications for upstarts like Fisker (NYSE:FSR), Lordstown Motors (NASDAQ:RIDE), GreenPower Motors (NASDAQ:GP), Ayro (NASDAQ:AYRO), Workhorse Group (NASDAQ:WKHS) and others.
• With Apple several years away from having a car on the roads, Seeking Alpha author D.M. Martins Research warns to be careful with irrational exuberance on the Apple Car, grounding its bullish Apple thesis instead on the 5G cycle and AAPL’s expanded services portfolio. For investors, the most juicy Apple Car trades so far have been in Lidar names.

• 12/17/2020 – finish read this tomorrow

Tesla’s 1,000% Stock Price Explosion Isn’t About Electric Cars

The list of things that are gearing up because of the EV boom is a long and lucrative one. It’s not just about EVs anymore. EVs are simply one delivery mechanism in a massive worldwide energy transition.

Sure, September saw record EV sales up 91% year-on-year, with UBS forecasting that EV market share will reach 40% by 2030, and Tesla planning to rapidly accelerate production with 3 new factories in 3 countries and 20 million EVs coming off the line by 2030, for a 40x increase over this year.

But there are major money-making opportunities in the tie-ins to this sector.

• 12/14/2020 – mining of lithium is detrimental to environment. Recycling business of lithium will boom in the coming years. Green hydrogen will help carbon emission. Until the electricity in national grids is entirely renewable, recharging the battery will involve a degree of dependence on coal or gas-fired power stations.

The curse of ‘white oil’: electric vehicles’ dirty secret

The race is on to find a steady source of lithium, a key component in rechargeable electric car batteries. But while the EU focuses on emissions, the lithium gold rush threatens environmental damage on an industrial scale

Electrifying transport has become a top priority in the move to a lower-carbon future. In Europe, car travel accounts for around 12% of all the continent’s carbon emissions. To keep in line with the Paris agreement, emissions from cars and vans will need to drop by more than a third (37.5%) by 2030. The EU has set an ambitious goal of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the same date. To that end, Brussels and individual member states are pouring millions of euros into incentivising car owners to switch to electric. Some countries are going even further, proposing to ban sales of diesel and petrol vehicles in the near future (as early as 2025 in the case of Norway). If all goes to plan, European electric vehicle ownership could jump from around 2m today to 40m by 2030.

Lithium is key to this energy transition. Lithium-ion batteries are used to power electric cars, as well as to store grid-scale electricity. (They are also used in smartphones and laptops.) But Europe has a problem. At present, almost every ounce of battery-grade lithium is imported. More than half (55%) of global lithium production last year originated in just one country: Australia. Other principal suppliers, such as Chile (23%), China (10%) and Argentina (8%), are equally far-flung.

Lithium deposits have been discovered in Austria, Serbia and Finland, but it is in Portugal that Europe’s largest lithium hopes lie. The Portuguese government is preparing to offer licences for lithium mining to international companies in a bid to exploit its “white oil” reserves. Sourcing lithium in its own back yard not only offers Europe simpler logistics and lower prices, but fewer transport-related emissions. It also promises Europe security of supply – an issue given greater urgency by the coronavirus pandemic’s disruption of global trade.

The urgency in getting a lithium supply has unleashed a mining boom, and the race for “white oil” threatens to cause damage to the natural environment wherever it is found.

With market analysts predicting a potential 12-fold increase in the value of the global lithium recycling industry over next decade, to more than $18bn by 2030, competition among recycling innovators is hotting up. In Germany alone, Duesenfeld faces competition from at least three other early-stage lithium recyclers. Across the border in Belgium, a former smelting firm turned urban waste recycler, Umicore, is developing its own technology, but releasing no details. Another significant European player is Snam, in France.

Shifting away from petrol and diesel is not the only concern. Manufacturing any car, electric or otherwise, causes carbon emissions, be it from the coal used to smelt the steel for its body work or the diesel oil burned when shipping its electronic components across oceans. The extra materials and energy involved in manufacturing a lithium-ion battery mean that, at present, the carbon emissions associated with producing an electric car are higher than those for a vehicle running on petrol or diesel – by as much as 38%, according to some calculations. Until the electricity in national grids is entirely renewable, recharging the battery will involve a degree of dependence on coal or gas-fired power stations.

Lithium accounts for a small part of the battery’s cost, which means there is less incentive for manufacturers to find an alternative. As it is, recycling lithium costs more than digging it out of the ground.

As with wind turbines and solar panels, the price of recycled lithium will very likely come down as battery manufacturers scale up. Supposing this proves true, there’s a huge supply-demand imbalance to get over. Before the pandemic, total sales of electric vehicles were projected to more than quadruple in the next five years, to more than 11m units. Demand for lithium will rise accordingly, with one industry estimate suggesting annual consumption could easily reach 700,000 tonnes by the middle of this decade. So, even if Duesenfeld and its competitors were able to recycle every last ounce of lithium produced in the last decade, come 2025, it would only be enough to power new electric vehicle batteries for nine months.

Digging up Portugal’s mountains in the name of green technology may still be avoidable. An alternative, less controversial technology could break on to the scene. Green hydrogen, for instance, could help offset up to 10% of Europe’s emissions. A more immediate solution would be to rethink how we get around. As Thea Riofrancos at Providence College pointed out, if everyone were to adopt “rational forms of transport” – such as trains, trams, e-buses, cycling and car-sharing – then demand for passenger vehicles of all kinds would shrink overnight.

• 12/03/2020 – look for the dip in EVs stocks and find buying opportunity

Electric vehicle sector is under pressure following dizzying rally

1. The wild ride for electric vehicle stocks could be calming down as investors finally pull back on the multi-month buying spree tied to the U.S. election, strong sales reports out of China and a general FOMO (fear of missing out) wave.
2. Electrameccanica Vehicles (NASDAQ:SOLO) is down 5.95% in premarket action. Shares are +292% YTD
3. Ayro (NASDAQ:AYRO) is 7.47% lower. Shares are +98% YTD
4. GreenPower Motor Company (NASDAQ:GP) is off 4.95%. Shares are +1618% YTD
5. Arcimoto (NASDAQ:FUV) is down 5.85%. Shares are +790% YTD
6. Lordstown Motors (NASDAQ:RIDE) is 3.29% lower Shares are up 175% YTD.
7. Workhorse Group (NASDAQ:WKHS) is showing a 6.71% drop. Shares are +800% YTD.
8. Most of those names fell yesterday.
9. Meanwhile, the China EV sector is being hit by reports that Beijing is looking to regulate the land purchases of some EV companies. China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group (OTCPK:EGRNF) fell 11% in Hong Kong earlier in the day. Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) -11.26%, Nio (NYSE:NIO) -8.33%, Kandi Technologies (NASDAQ:KNDI) -9.21% and Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) -9.35% are also showing early losses.
10. Green energy names Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG) -3.75% and FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ:FCEL) -5.48% are also in reverse.
11. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) isn’t totally unscathed, showing a 1.29% decline in the premarket session after a strong week for the EV Mother Ship.

• 12/02/2020 – 5X more EV charging cords by 2030 mean 25 millions EVs, huge increase

Biden’s Charging Plan Could Sell 25 Million EVs

In a bid to fight climate change and build a stronger, greener economy, Joe Biden is starting with plugs.

Specifically, Biden has a plan to install 500,000 electric vehicle charging cords by 2030, roughly a five-fold increase in the nation’s EV infrastructure that could cost more than $5 billion.

The 500,000-unit pledge was part of Biden’s platform when he was running for the job but largely overlooked in a grinding campaign dominated by the pandemic. Now, the industry hopes he’ll stick with it. But it is a wildly ambitious strategy to overcome one of the biggest hurdles facing EVs: Would-be drivers fear they won’t have enough places to charge up. The infrastructure milestone would cover 57% of the charging that U.S. vehicles will need by 2030 and could spark the sale of some 25 million electric cars and trucks, according to forecasts by BloombergNEF.

“It’s spot-on with what the market needs,” said Cathy Zoi, chief executive officer of EVgo, one of the country’s largest charging networks. “The sweet spot is to actually accelerate the electrification of our transportation, and this can bring that forward by three to five years.” Biden’s transition team declined to comment on his stated plans.