#ev battery stock

[asiafundmanagers27]

EV stock: Did You Check Out Chinese Ev Makers?

EV stock, especially China’s, are capturing investor attention as the nation leads the charge in the electric vehicle revolution. Innovative technologies and robust market demand are driving exponential growth. Backed by favourable government policies and expanding charging infrastructure, these stocks offer enticing investment prospects. Visit: https://bit.ly/3IWzzrv

[rfantennaindia]

[petechecchiaphotography]

These 25 stocks & ETFs are poised to take advantage of the revolution & transition into green energy in the coming years. #solar #EV #AI #energy #greenenergy #electriccars #battery #tritium #silver #copper #lithium #Commodities #stocks #ETFs Do your due diligence. (at Wall Street, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/CniTKxfpgXo/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[iww-gnv]

New York CNN — Tesla has beaten back previous efforts by workers to unionize – but the United Auto Workers hopes a successful strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis could help it organize at Tesla. UAW membership has declined in recent decades, and the auto industry is moving to electric vehicles. EV battery and production plants thus far in the United States are mostly non-union. To grow, the UAW will have to make inroads at EV plants. “Tesla is the biggest threat in the long term to UAW wages and benefits. UAW doesn’t have any choice but to take on [Tesla],” said John Logan, a professor of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University. Tesla controls around 60% of the electric vehicle market in the United States, and Detroit and foreign automakers in the South are racing to catch up. Tesla workers earn on average about $55 an hour in wages and benefits, compared to $66 to $71 an hour at Detroit’s Big Three, according to industry estimates. Workers have attempted to organize at Tesla at least three different times. But the company, led by Elon Musk, has been difficult for unions to break into because of weak protections for labor organizing in the United States; Tesla’s aggressive tactics; and Tesla’s strategy of granting factory workers stock options, a rarity in the auto industry. “Tesla will go to extraordinary lengths to prevent unions,” Logan said. Tesla did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

[mightyflamethrower]

Biden’s ironically named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was supposed to create millions of green jobs and launch the “sustainable power” industry.

Subsidies flowed to support electric vehicles, wind farms, and solar energy.  We have been covering the slowdown in the EV market, and residents of the East Coast are questioning all the promises made by the wind energy companies after the Vineyard Wind blade failure.

Now, it’s time to turn our attention to solar power. SunPower, the company that provides solar panels to many Californian homes in the sunny Coachella Valley area, filed for bankruptcy this week.

It is the latest development in a saga that has seen the company facing numerous serious and seemingly escalating challenges over the past several months, including allegations about executives’ misconduct related to the company’s financial statements and a recent decision that SunPower would no longer offer new solar leases. Days after the latter announcement, Coachella Valley-based Renova Energy, which markets and installs SunPower systems, said it was ending its partnership with SunPower and temporarily pausing operations after not receiving required payments from SunPower. SunPower’s executive chairman wrote in a letter posted on the company’s website on Monday that the company had reached an agreement to sell certain divisions of its business and suggested it was looking for one or more buyers to take on the rest, including the company’s responsibilities to maintain solar systems it has previously sold or leased.

It is important to note that SunPower was the industry’s “darling” to understand the magnitude of this development.

Founded in 1985 by a Stanford professor, SunPower was, for the past two decades, a darling of the solar industry. The company helped build America’s biggest solar plant, called Solar Star and located near Rosamond, California, and has installed solar panels on more than 100,000 homes. The company’s stock price has fluctuated dramatically, peaking during the solar stock frenzy of late 2007. As recently as January 2021, SunPower’s valuation momentarily reached $10 billion, buoyed by the expansion of its residential solar panels program. But since then, the company’s value has cratered — and this year, its situation became particularly dire.

It is also important to note that earlier this month, the bankruptcy of a solar-powered company in South Florida created an array of problems on the South Coast of California. Subcontractors are scrambling to find ways to guarantee payment for work on homes with equipment from the firm.

Meanwhile, homeowners are regretting their misplaced trust in eco-activists and city officials.

The business — Electriq Power Inc. — was putting solar panels and batteries on Santa Barbara rooftops at no expense to homeowners and with the blessings of the cities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria. But then Electriq filed Chapter 7 on May 3, freezing all its operations. This prompted one of its subcontractors, Axiom 360 of Grover Beach, to place mechanics liens on homes for which it had yet to be paid. This preserves Axiom’s options for full payment of its installation work and is not unusual among contractors. But for homeowners who didn’t expect any financial outlay, it came as a shock, especially as the recording notice lists foreclosure in 90 days among the penalties. “You’re helping the environment. You’re not paying high rates to Southern California Edison,” said homeowner Randy Freed, explaining why he signed on to Electriq’s PoweredUp Goleta program. He was pleased with the savings in the solar array and storage batteries, but then he received the mechanics lien in June. The possibility of foreclosure was unanticipated, Freed said, and he’d relied on the cities’ endorsements. “It’s a great program; we’ve checked them out,” he recalled the cities saying on a postcard he received.

Hot Air's Beege Welborne takes an in-depth look at the cascade of warnings that indicate SunPower and the residential solar market are in serious trouble. She also hits on a point that is true for all green energy schemes: Today’s technology cannot keep up with the promises being made about tomorrow.

The technology side still hasn’t ironed itself out and may never with as saturated as the market is. With interest rates as high as they are and home prices through the roof, no one wants to pay a fortune for something that’s not rock solid. …That “sustainable” growth is only possible once all the artificial supports are knocked away and the technology proves viable and worth the cost once and for all.

Of course, the solar industry isn’t helped by the fact that the cost savings for customers aren’t quite as lavish as originally promised.

[e-carlease]

The new Model 3 EV will be well-stocked in specification with Performance design, sports seats, adaptive suspension, adaptive damping, ventilated seats, 20” Warp alloys, performance brakes, 15.4” centre touchscreen, 8” second row display in the back, studio sound quality with the 17-sepaker system (including dual subwoofers and amplifiers), phone key integration, wireless phone charging, glass roof, carbon fibre details inside, navigation and Track Mode. The Enhanced Autopilot (at £3,400) adds navigation on Autopilot and auto lane change with the Full Self-driving Capability (at £6,800) adding more autonomous driving including traffic light and stop control.

On colours, select from Pearl White, Deep Blue, Solid Black, Ultra Red and the new Stealth Grey. Only the 20” alloys are available. But you can select your own interior choice with the standard black or the chargeable white available. Other than your dedicated charge point, you are good to go.

But how does the Model 3 Performance perform? This AWD Saloon will have a 75 kWh usable battery which will offer 0 – 62 times of 3.3 seconds, 163 mph top speeds and 461 kW (or 618hp). Expect a combined winter range of 235 miles with warmer weather allowing for 325 miles – a 285 mile combined. On charging, the 11 kW AC max will allow 8 hour and 15 mins 0 – 100% charging times with the 250 kW DC maximum allowing 27 minute 10 – 80% times. A cargo volume of 594L is available with this car. It has a vehicle fuel equivalent of 152 mpg. It also no confirmed Bidirectional capabilities yet. The Heat Pump is standard.

[warningsine]

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-lay-off-more-than-10-its-staff-electrek-reports-2024-04-15/

BERLIN, April 15 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab is laying off more than 10% of its global workforce, an internal memo seen by Reuters on Monday shows, as it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for electric vehicles (EVs).

"About every five years, we need to reorganize and streamline the company for the next phase of growth," CEO Elon Musk commented in a post on X. Two senior leaders, battery development chief Drew Baglino and vice president for public policy Rohan Patel, also announced their departures, drawing posts of thanks from Musk although some investors were concerned.

Musk last announced a round of job cuts in 2022, after telling executives he had a "super bad feeling" about the economy. Still, Tesla headcount has risen from around 100,000 in late 2021 to over 140,000 in late 2023, according to filings with U.S. regulators.

Baglino was a Tesla veteran and one of four members, along with Musk, of the leadership team listed on the company's investor relations website.

Scott Acheychek, CEO of Rex Shares - which manages ETFs with high exposure to Tesla stock - described the headcount reductions as strategic, but Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investment officer at Running Point Capital Advisors, deemed the departures of the senior executives as "the larger negative signal today" that Tesla's growth was in trouble.

Less than a year ago, Tesla's chief financial officer, Zach Kirkhorn, left the company, fueling concerns about succession planning.

Tesla shares closed 5.6% lower at $161.48 on Monday. Shares of EV makers Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O), opens new tab, Lucid Group (LCID.O), opens new tab and VinFast Auto also dropped between 2.4% and 9.4%.

"As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity," Musk said in the memo sent to all staff.

"As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10% globally," it said.

Reuters saw an email sent to at least three U.S. employees notifying them their dismissal was effective immediately.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MASS MARKET

The layoffs follow an exclusive Reuters report on April 5 that Tesla had cancelled a long-promised inexpensive car, expected to cost $25,000, that investors have been counting on to drive mass-market growth. Musk had said the car, known as the Model 2, would start production in late 2025.

Shortly after the story published, Musk posted "Reuters is lying" on his social media site X, without detailing any inaccuracies. He has not commented on the car since, leaving investors and analysts to speculate on its future.

Tech publication Electrek, which first reported, opens new tab the latest job cuts, said on Monday that the inexpensive car project had been defunded and that many people working on it had been laid off.

Reuters also reported on April 5 that Tesla would shift its focus to self-driving robotaxis built on the same small-car platform. Musk posted on X that evening: "Tesla Robotaxi unveil on 8/8," with no further details.

Tesla could be years away from releasing a fully autonomous vehicle with regulatory approval, according to experts in self-driving cars and regulation.

Tesla shares have fallen about 33% so far this year, underperforming legacy automakers such as Toyota Motor (7203.T), opens new tab and General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, whose shares have rallied 45% and about 20% respectively.

Energy major BP (BP.L), opens new tab has also cut more than a tenth of the workforce in its EV charging business after a bet on rapid growth in commercial EV fleets did not pay off, Reuters reported on Monday, underscoring the broader impact of slowing EV demand.

WORKS COUNCIL

A newly elected works council of labour representatives at Tesla's German plant was not informed or consulted ahead of the announcement to staff, said Dirk Schulze, head of the IG Metall union in the region.

"It is the legal obligation of management not only to inform the works council but to consult with it on how jobs can be secured," Schulze said.

Analysts from Gartner and Hargreaves Lansdown said the cuts were a sign of cost pressures as the carmaker invests in new models and artificial intelligence.

Tesla reported this month that its global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell for the first time in nearly four years, as price cuts failed to stir demand.

The EV maker has been slow to refresh its aging models as high interest rates have sapped consumer appetite for big-ticket items, while rivals in China, the world's largest auto market, are rolling out cheaper models.

China's BYD (002594.SZ), opens new tab briefly overtook the U.S. company as the world's largest EV maker in the fourth quarter, and new entrant Xiaomi (1810.HK), opens new tab has garnered substantial positive press.

Tesla is gearing up to start sales in India, the world's third-largest auto market, this year, producing cars in Germany for export to India and scouting locations for showrooms and service hubs in major cities.

Tesla recorded a gross profit margin of 17.6% in the fourth quarter, the lowest in more than four years.

[brookston]

Holidays 6.12

Holidays

Anne Frank Day

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Premieres

Admission Free (Betty Boop Cartoon; 1932)

All About Dogs (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

Andy Warhol’s Blue Movie (a.k.a. Fuck; Adult Film; 1969)

Are You My Mother?, by P.D. Eastman (Children’s Book; 1960)

The Brighter Buccaneer, by Leslie Charteris (Short Stories; 1933) [Saint #12]

Bullet Park, by John Cheever (Novel; 1969)

Can’t Hardly Wait (Film; 1998)

Chesapeake, by James A. Michener (Historical Novel; 1978)

Chuck Berry Is On Top, by Chuck Berry (Album; 1959)

Clash of the Titans (Film; 1981)

Cleopatra (Film; 1963)

Clockwork Angels, by Rush (Album; 2012)

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Deep Throat (Adult Film; 1972)

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Farmer Al Falfa’s Bedtime Story (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1932)

Food, Inc. (Documentary Film; 2009)

Foundation and Empire, by Isaac Asimov (Novel; 1952) [Foundation #2]

Go Bo Diddly, by Bo Diddly (Album; 1959)

History of the World: Part 1 (Film; 1981)

The Horse Soldiers (Film; 1959)

I’ll Chase the Blues Away, recorded by Ella Fitzgerald (Song; 1935)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot (Science Book; 2010)

Jurassic World (Film; 2015)

Line of Duty (BBC TV Series; 2012)

Love and Kisses, recorded by Ella Fitzgerald (Song; 1935)

Mariah Carey, by Mariah Carey (Album; 1990)

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Film; 2015)

Moon (Film; 2009)

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Predator (Film; 1987)

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film; 1981)

Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin (Orchestral Jazz; 1924)

The Sailor’s Home (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

She’s Not There, recorded by The Zombies (Song; 1964)

Some Time in New York City, by John Lennon (Album; 1972)

Speedway (Film; 1968)

Superman vs. The Elite (Animated WB Film; 2012)

Surfer Girl, recorded by The Beach Boys (Song; 1963)

Swingers (Film; 1997)

Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, by Blink-182 (Album; 2001)

Testimony of Two Men, by Taylor Caldwell (Novel; 1968)

Toreadorable (Fleischer/Famous Popeye Cartoon; 1953)

2 Cool 4 Skool, by BTS (Album; 2013)

The Witches of Eastwick (Film; 1987)

Today’s Name Days

Florinda, Guido, Leo (Austria)

Bazilid, Gašpar, Leon (Croatia)

Antonie (Czech Republic)

Balisius (Denmark)

Eskel, Esko (Estonia)

Esko (Finland)

Guy (France)

Florinda, Guido, Leo (Germany)

Onoufrios (Greece)

Villő (Hungary)

Basilide, Guido, Onofrio (Italy)

Ija, Narda, Nora (Latvia)

Anupras, Dovė, Kristijonas, Kristis, Ramūnas (Lithuania)

Sigfrid, Sigrid, Siri (Norway)

Antonina, Bazyli, Jan, Leon, Onufry, Wyszemir (Poland)

Onufrie, Pavel, Petru (România)

Zlatko (Slovakia)

Juan, Onofre (Spain)

Eskil (Sweden)

Onopriy (Ukraine)

Ahmad, Ahmed, Aisha, Asia, Mohamed, Mohammad, Mohammed (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 164 of 2024; 202 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of week 24 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Duir (Oak) [Day 4 of 28]

Chinese: Month 5 (Geng-Wu), Day 7 (Ding-Wei)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 6 Sivan 5784

Islamic: 5 Dhu al-Hijjah 1445

J Cal: 14 Blue; Sevenday [14 of 30]

Julian: 30 May 2024

Moon: 36%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 23 St. Paul (6th Month) [St. Charles Borromeo]

Runic Half Month: Dag (Day) [Day 4 of 15]

Season: Spring (Day 86 of 92)

Week: 2nd Full Week of June)

Zodiac: Gemini (Day 23 of 31)

[asiafundmanagers27]

China's Electric Vehicle Market: Powering the Future with Cleaner Energy

China's EV stocks are revolutionising the automotive industry. With a booming market and strong government support, companies are driving innovation and sustainable mobility. From advanced technologies to expanding charging infrastructure, China is leading the global transition towards electric vehicles.

[mariacallous]

Editor's Note: This piece was originally published by The American Prospect.

Thanks to the clean energy revolution, batteries are no longer in the public eye just in the form of that unstoppable bunny in TV ads. Batteries—like computer chips, electric vehicles, solar panels, and other hardware—are having a moment.

Last fall, with funding from 2021’s mammoth bipartisan infrastructure law, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded nearly $3 billion in grants to 20 manufacturers of electric vehicle (EV) battery components in 20 states. That’s just a portion of the taxpayer money appropriated to dramatically expand battery production and enlarge the EV supply chain in the U.S., which is, in turn, a small part of the trillion-dollar surge in federal investment.

In February, the Commerce Department announced the terms of competition for $39 billion in federal subsidies for manufacturers to expand domestic production of semiconductors. Among other conditions, the CHIPS Incentives Program limits stock buybacks and requires applicants to provide the child care that’s so crucial to enabling more women to work in manufacturing.

The question now is how these big bets to expand advanced manufacturing and boost research and development in America��taken together, what the Biden administration calls our country’s “new industrial strategy”—will create broadly shared economic gains, including good jobs, for workers and communities across the country.

This “how” is not without controversy, to put it mildly. Beyond the conservative critics who have lambasted the child care requirement and other conditions, influential liberal voices have aired serious skepticism as well. In a recent column (and clever pop culture mash-up), Ezra Klein of The New York Times decried “everything-bagel liberalism” that pursues “everything everywhere all at once.” But he, too, lumps everything together—from permitting requirements confronting nonprofit housing developers to these new, conditional industrial-policy incentives meant to embed meaningful economic opportunity for workers and communities into the DNA of some of the world’s most important and massively subsidized growth industries. Klein—whom we agree with on many things—gets it wrong when it comes to CHIPS and other promising government efforts to chart a new course.

Advocates have worked for decades in many parts of the country on how to make the economy work for all, on a foundation of good jobs and racial and gender equity. From that work, one essential lesson emerges: Attaching clear, consistently enforced expectations to public investment is indispensable. And with the enactment of last year’s landmark legislation, public officials now have a once-in-a-generation set of tools and resources to do this. The “how,” however, remains an open question, especially for jobs outside of construction.

For much of the past half-century, America’s dominant economic paradigm held that free markets and freewheeling capital alone have created the nation’s critical industries and enabled them to flourish. That paradigm denied the important role that government plays in shaping the nation’s economy. Indeed, innovation has long required and received government-backed R&D, contracts, and other investments in discovery and commercialization. Today, that investment is also focused on the making of a lot of stuff: batteries, electric vehicles, charging stations, computer chips that put the brains in all that hardware, and more. So how did we approach that challenge for the past few decades, given that influential economists and political leaders across the political spectrum often questioned whether America needed manufacturing at all?

Consider the evolution of the DOE and how it impacts our economy and communities. Created with a wartime sense of urgency—to address the energy crisis of the 1970s—the DOE quickly found itself in the crosshairs of American politics, especially as high gas prices receded and renewable energy seemed a pipe dream. For years, the DOE was a favorite target for those keen to attack public investment and many of the other tools of entrepreneurial government. By that we mean, as economist Mariana Mazzucato argues in her book “Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism,” a government that is both equipped and directed to help solve national challenges—not just address market failures and economic calamities.

Despite the lack of broader political support, the DOE quietly became a vital source of the R&D dollars that helped develop new technologies. Thanks to the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2008, the agency also became an important supplier of the financing that, in principle, could have helped turn great ideas into great companies that committed to good jobs in addition to great products.

Famously, the DOE bet $465 million in taxpayer dollars, in the form of a direct loan, on the ambitious domestic production plans of Tesla, now the world’s most valuable car company. That was well before the private capital markets were ready to make that bet on a largely unproven company and its first major factory in Fremont, Calif.

The DOE’s investment in Tesla paid off in terms of demonstrating the viability of mass-produced electric vehicles. But in terms of generating good jobs and racial and gender equity in this critically important new industry, the investment proved to be a bust. The company leads all carmakers in the U.S. in workplace safety violations—as Forbes put it, “racking up more infractions and fines in the last three years than all other automakers in the U.S. combined.” CEO Elon Musk has fought workers’ attempts to unionize by spying on them, firing organizers, and refusing to stop anti-union social media attacks. The company is also being sued by the state of California for alleged widespread anti-Black racism, and by several women for alleged sexual harassment.

There’s a moral to this story: Tesla may be the world’s biggest example of how much harder it is for government to push for high-road labor standards after a company has grown with the help of taxpayer financing. If something important is not part of the deal up front, it tends not to happen.

Tesla is not alone. Particularly in the South and many rural areas around the country, even in ostensibly pro-labor states such as California, innovative manufacturers are mass-producing low-quality jobs. The good manufacturing job is mostly gone, outside of the less than 10% that are unionized. There is, therefore, no guarantee that a significant chunk of the publicly supported clean and high-tech production jobs will pay much more than minimum wage or that they will provide opportunity for training and advancement.

That is, unless certain choices are made to incentivize and embed good jobs and equity into the deals.

[kcaustcrimefiction]

EV Range Anxiety for Rural Dwellers doesn't need to be a thing

In December 2022 we picked up our first EV - SUV style, maximum range is 435 kilometres on a single charge. Granted that's not a long period of ownership, but we didn't go into this eyes clamped shut. A bit of plotting was undertaken and a bit of "it won't work / you're mad advice" considered.

We don't "tour" much because we've got stock to be cared for, but we do a fair amount of driving around - to the nearest large rural town (91ks one way) at least monthly, sometimes more frequently as that's where the doctors, hospitals (particularly if transport for somebody local is required), the greengrocers, and the "shops" are.

Other than that there's the regular 42k trip to the nearest minor rural town for vet visits (we really should have priority parking there by now!) and various bits and pieces, the run to the nearby tiny town which is 20ks - post office / library / pub / take the dog's for a stroll along the river in summer when the snake situation in the paddocks is a bit too fraught, and a bit of wandering about the neighbourhood.

So not a lot of driving, and it is often reasonably spaced out (although there's always "those weeks" where you never seem to get out of the car).

We're in central west Victoria, in the middle of nothing much in the way of public infrastructure. Nearest chargers (super or not) are at the end of the 42k trip, with the 91k trip taking us to a supercharger and a heap of other choices if we need them. We have our own solar system and battery on the house, which is grid interactive by choice - long story / lots of reasons. There are very few days in the year when we're not pushing some power back to the grid - so we trickle charge the car at home, using an extension cord at the moment. We've got a solar interactive charging station coming at the end of February.

Mostly the car is fully charged when it heads out the door (takes about 30 hours from dead empty, but if we're doing a couple of runs on consecutive days we can charge it overnight off the battery, otherwise we just trickle it over the day, turning on and off automatically based on the solar collectors efficiency). On the rare occasion we've charged at one of the charging stations, we've found that in the main we're waiting for long enough to grab a coffee or do a bit of browsing in a nearby shop before it's charged and ready to go, and the cost is NOTHING compared to what we were coughing up in diesel for the last car. (Our only complaint there is that it would be very very nice to have some chargers nearer to the aforementioned coffee shops and/or cover from the sun - it's bloody hot out here in summer.)

Anyway, my point is anxiety about range. We just don't get it. We have all the apps and the car points out the location of chargers. We top up if we're near a charger and think it's worth the wait to be 100% sure, or if it's a bit cloudy / overcast at home (ask anyone out here - it doesn't rain / lack of solar is the least of our problems), and we keep an eye on the levels. Just the same as we did with fuel. The number of times we had to top up from the diesel tank on the farm (for the tractor etc) because we'd stuffed up and the warning light came on after the last fuel station I can't begin to remember. The number of times that we just topped up on the road because you don't know a) where the next fuel station is and b) the price of diesel varies like nobody's noticing when you live in the bush. So we used EXACTLY the same behaviour then as we're using now - we keep an eye on things, we do a lot of "topping up" if we're around somewhere convenient. We keep an eye on the options at home and we rarely leave home without 435ks range in the "tank".

So anyway - no more thinking or planning than we needed to do when we were driving a diesel - in the land outside the world of frequent fuel stations (ask us about the people we've had to top up with fuel because distance between fuel stations isn't something taken into account it seems). A lot more convenience in some ways because now we have apps like PlugShare that has brilliant trip planning and Evie, ChargeFox and everything else that we can happily peer at and dream / one day we will "tour".

Interestingly we had a look at the Western Highway over Christmas - there's charging options every 100 or so kilometres, with fast chargers every 200 or so kilometres - all the way to Adelaide. We've joked it would be worth a Costco run there one day, probably an easier drive than battling with Melbourne's interminable roadworks.

[brittababbles]

No seriously. I can prep a patient for surgery all I want but if his sheets aren’t clean or the OR isn’t sterile (also shoutout to the sterile processing folks because I have only the loosest idea how to use an autoclave), any surgical prep is meaningless.

The EVS folks, the maintenance guys (our maintenance guy at the hospital I worked at was one of the coolest people I’ve ever met), the orderlies and patient transport folks, the dietary techs, the unit coordinators and registration specialists and security personnel, the people who stock the supply rooms and change the batteries in the EKG machines, the wonderfully sweet woman who ran the supply department at night and somehow could find a very specific hemostat in a massive warehouse, everyone who doesn’t get to fall under “doctors and nurses hashtag heroes!!!” is amazing and we wouldn’t last a day in medicine without you.

Sincerely, a former ER nurse who never knew where to find a mop.

Housekeepers and Janitors Need Praise As Unsung but Very Much Important

[unitedventurez]

Honda and Nissan Explore Potential Merger Amid EV Competition

Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan are reportedly engaging in early-stage discussions about a potential merger, aiming to strengthen their position in the fast-evolving electric vehicle (EV) market, particularly in China.

The talks follow an agreement in March where the two companies decided to collaborate on EV strategies. In August, they deepened their partnership, focusing on battery technology and advanced electrification systems, while also including Mitsubishi Motors in broader discussions.

In a joint statement to the media, both firms said: "As announced earlier this year, Honda and Nissan are exploring possibilities for collaboration, leveraging each other’s strengths." However, neither company has officially confirmed the merger discussions reported by Japanese business outlet Nikkei.

Challenges in a Competitive Landscape Honda and Nissan have faced increasing pressure as the global auto industry shifts from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric. The booming EV production in China, where brands like BYD and Tesla dominate, has intensified the challenges for Japanese manufacturers. Combined, Honda and Nissan sold 7.4 million vehicles globally in 2023 but continue to lose market share in China, which accounted for nearly 70% of global EV sales last year.

With fierce competition from lower-cost EV producers, Nissan and Honda are exploring ways to remain viable. Edmunds analyst Jessica Caldwell highlighted the growing difficulty for mid-sized players in the market. "Collaboration has become essential, not just for survival but to remain competitive in a rapidly changing industry," she noted.

Political and Structural Hurdles A merger of this scale would face intense political and regulatory scrutiny in Japan, given the potential impact on jobs. Additionally, Nissan's existing alliance with French automaker Renault may add complexity to any deal.

Jesper Koll, an expert from Japanese online trading platform Monex Group, questioned whether a merger could significantly enhance competitiveness. "It feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic," he remarked, suggesting neither company currently has groundbreaking products or technologies to reshape their market standing.

Market Reaction The news has had mixed effects on the stock market. Following the reports, Nissan shares surged over 20% in Tokyo, while Honda shares dipped by 2%. Mitsubishi Motors, a potential partner in the discussions, saw its shares jump 13%.

Future Uncertain While the companies are expected to provide updates soon, it remains unclear if a formal merger will materialize. Both Honda and Nissan have emphasized that any developments will be shared with stakeholders "at the appropriate time."

The potential partnership underscores the urgent need for traditional automakers to adapt to a market increasingly dominated by EVs and Chinese competitors. Whether the merger leads to a revitalized strategy or merely serves as a stopgap remains to be seen.

[mightyflamethrower]

Jul122024

Fire Blankets Required at EV Charging Stations

Electric vehicles are such a good idea, they require massive (strategically targeted) subsidies and strongarming from the government to get anyone to buy them. They are so safe that fire blankets are needed at EV charging stations:

The city of Milton [Georgia] will now place fire blankets at its non-residential electric vehicle charging stations. … Deputy Fire Chief and Fire Marshall Alex Fortner told the council the measure was a “proactive attempt” to limit the damage if an electric vehicle catches on fire. According to Fortner, cars with lithium-ion batteries can need up to 30,000 gallons of water if they catch fire. That’s 60 times as many as the average vehicle with a combustion engine.

What a great time to buy stock in whatever company makes fire blankets. The Biden Regime is building 500,000 mostly unwanted charging stations at an estimated cost to us of $400,000,000,000.00.

Some might worry that forcing everyone into EVs will burden a destabilized electrical grid that will be under increasing stress as Democrats incrementally impose inefficient green energy. Actually, the reverse is true; the government can use EVs to take energy out of our cars. Naturally, California has been out front on this.