⚔️ The EV Charger Wars have Begun

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In Today's Email:

• ⚔️ The EV Charger Wars Have Begun

• 🔋Your Next Uber Could be an EV

• ✋Lucid Pumps the Brakes on Production

• 🗒️ Five Nuggets

—Riz Nwosu

The EV Charger Wars Have Begun

As more people buy EVs and start utilizing the limited public charging infrastructure, there are bound to be conflicts and misunderstandings. Electric car etiquette is something all EV owners – and combustion car owners for that matter – should learn.

Andrew Till, the owner of a Nissan Leaf and a Hyundai IONIQ 5 (baller alert 💸), who goes by the Twitter handle "Mr. EV," recently turned to the social media to solicit opinions after upsetting the owner of an EV he unplugged so he could use the sole public quick charger in Canterbury, south-east England. And as you can imagine, he proceeded to get dragged by Twitter.

Here's the full play by play:

“I’m at a Geniepoint charger,” says Till in the posted video (see below). “When I got there I could see another Leaf using it, so I pulled in and there was no whirring sound.”

As a whirring sound is not always audible while charging, he says he also checked to see if there were any flashing lights in the Leaf and didn’t see anything. “So I unplugged the (Leaf) and plugged in my (car),” he says. That's a big no-no for many obvious reasons which I pointed out in a previous article.

After returning from the local shop, which was about to close, he says he found the other Leaf owner there pacing back and forth, the universal sign that shits about to hit the fan!

“He didn’t look happy at all,” says Till. Asking the person if it was their Leaf, he says they replied, “No, not cool, piss off.”

He claims he tried to explain to the other man that the car cannot be disconnected if it is charging, but the other man refused to listen. "At one point, he appeared like he was about to punch me," Till adds. "Of course, if he had been in the car when I plugged in, I would have questioned... But, for safety concerns, you simply cannot unhook the automobile if it is on a quick recharge."

"Though there's a charger and it's not being used, even if it's occupied and plugged in, surely it's fine to disconnect the other car?" he says. "What are your thoughts?"

Mr. Till, here are my thoughts in one gif:

The unspoken and unwritten rule is that you should never disconnect another man's (or woman's) automobile while it is charging. In this situation, there were no lights on the vehicle. However, even if nothing appears on the vehicle's screen and there are no visible pulsing or flashing lights, or the connector was unlocked, you should still leave it be.

This is why Tesla locks the charging connector to the charging port and only the owner can unlock it. It is for good reason because the aftermath of doing otherwise might be something you are not prepared to handle, especially if you are a middle-of-nowhere charging station.

Here's the full video from Mr. Till:

Another EV owner reacted, claiming they were threatened with death after unplugging their BMW i3! While the threat was most likely fictitious, the sentiment was, to say the least, exaggerated.

"That's extremely terrible," Till resp.

I do understand that it is in total bad form to leave your vehicle charging well beyond its charging limit and deprive other EV owners from using the charger. However, in such a case, I think it should be up to the charger operator to build in systems that penalize users from overstaying their charge sessions.

Tesla has done it the right way with a $5/minute charge for every minute your vehicle is plugged in after it has been fully charged. This helps keep the human conflict to a minimum especially in a country like the US where guns outnumber human beings and everyone is strapped😱 .

Your Next Uber Could be an EV

As we look towards a future where every garage has an EV, it's only right that we also work towards electrifying rideshare vehicles, as this will help drastically reduce emissions even more than electrifying personal passenger cars. Therefore it is heartening to see Uber taking serious measures to get more of its drivers into electric vehicles.

Following the success of its EV trial initiative, Uber has decided to expand its partnership with home EV charger maker Wallbox. The statewide alliance will provide Uber drivers with a subsidized package that includes a Wallbox Pulsar Plus charger, as well as installation and financing options.

The EV charging bundle will be pushed out in four regional regions, with national coverage (except Alaska) expected by the end of April 2022. Uber and Wallbox are also negotiating the program's global launch, which would begin in Europe where Wallbox is headquartered and in Canada.

Uber also provides its EV drivers with a Zero Emissions Incentive, which pays them cold hard cash for every Uber ride conducted with an EV, to the tune $1 on every Uber journey (up to $4,000 per year).

If you do the math, that about covers any initial downpayment that would be required in order to purchase or lease a new standard or mid-range EV, allowing for drivers to further save on their biggest expense which is gas.

We reached out to Uber drivers for comment and they sent us this gif 🤣:

It's about time that the perception of switching to an EV correlated with more cold hard cash in your hands. Sometimes it's hard to relay to ICE owners the long-term future benefits of owning an EV. Money talks and expect to see a lot of Uber drivers pulling up in Model 3s.

“Expanding this pilot program across the US is a natural next step as we work together to build more sustainable transportation,” said Douglas Alfaro, General Manager of Wallbox North America. “Our charger plus installation package has simplified EV usage for Uber drivers in the Bay Area, and we are thrilled to be able to offer the same support to drivers all over the country.”

“Helping drivers go electric is a crucial part of our plan to get to zero-emissions by 2030 in the US,” said Andrew Macdonald, Uber’s Senior VP of Mobility and Business Operations. “This partnership with Wallbox helps drivers by making it more affordable and accessible to charge their EVs.”

Lucid Pumps the Brakes on Production

The fourth-quarter earnings report from Lucid Motors was released yesterday, kicking off the earnings season. The EV startup, like other electric vehicles (EV) startups, is in its early stages in terms of growth and revenue, albeit further ahead than most.

After combining with Churchill Capital IV, the startup made its public debut as a SPAC in July of last year, sending the stock price soaring. Similar to the feeling you will get sitting in the "Private Jet Seating" that comes with the Lucid Air.

Yesterday Lucid has plummeted. During regular trading, Lucid's stock gained over 10%, adding $2.63 to its per-share value. However, once the firm released its findings, its shares tanked, wiping out 10.8 percent of Lucid's worth or about $3.14 per share, although at the time of writing the stock had clawed back $2.63.

The news that sent the stock into a tailspin was that production in 2022 should see a range of 12,000 to 14,000 Lucid Air vehicles being delivered, which is down from the 20,000 units Lucid had promised during its Q3 earnings.

Like everyone else and their mother, the company also blames supply chain issues for the setback, and expects those issues to lessen in the second half of the year. We as investors and consumers are pretty tired of hearing the "Supply Chain Constraints" excuse anytime a company falls short of its projected goals.

However, I am still very bullish on Lucid and you only have to take a test drive in the Lucid Air to understand why. The Lucid Air is perfection on wheels and my hope is that they can figure out the supply chain issues faster.

5 Nuggets

• Kia Niro EV prototype spotted in Lapland - [Read more here]

• Three behavioral barriers the EV market should overcome in 2022 - [Read more here]

• Tesla Model 3 tops worldwide EV Google searches, Audi e-Tron in top five - [Read more here]

• New wireless power transfer technology could charge electric vehicles on the go - [Read more here]

• Expect an Electric Variant for All Jeep SUVs by 2025 - [Read more here]

Consider yourself 80% charged. Why 80%? Well, according to legend, charging your battery to 100% repeatedly will damage it faster than you can say...[Insert clever saying here]. See ya tomorrow!

What'd you think about today's email?

• ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ Fully charged

• ⚡⚡ Meh - was ok

• ⚡ Not even close

Written by Riz Nwosu

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