Tesla Powerwall
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has increased its Powerwall price by $500. The home battery system now costs $7,500. With few ready-to-install competitors and increasing government incentive credits, the unit is in high demand.
High demand:
- Tesla launched the Powerwall and its associated Powerpack in 2015.
- The company has installed over 100,000 home battery packs.
- Tesla increased the price of the Powerwall from $6,500 to $7,000 in October last year.
- Tesla also charges $1,000 for the Gateway and $3,500 installation cost.
Electrek
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FAW Jumpal D80 (China)
Audi (NSU.DE) has revealed more details about its EV joint venture with FAW in China.
- In October 2020, Audi and FAW signed a memorandum of understanding during the German-Chinese Automotive Conference in Changchun, China.
- Audi AG and Volkswagen Group China will acquire a 60% stake in the company, with FAW controlling the remaining 40%.
- The German automaker produces EVs in four Chinese jurisdictions: Changchun, Foshan, Tianjin, and Qingdao.
- The joint venture's new sales arm, FAW-Audi Sales Co. Ltd, will sell the locally produced Audi EVs.
- Audi aims for EVs to account for one-third of all of its sales to China.
Electrive
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Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA
Microsoft invested in General Motors' (NYSE:GM) autonomous vehicle startup Cruise during its latest $2B funding round. According to the partnership deal, Cruise will use Microsoft Azure for its cloud-computing services.
- Note: General Motors acquired Cruise in 2016 for $1B. The company subsequently raised about $7B in funding during 2018 and 2019. This month's raise lifts Cruise's valuation to $30B (up from $19B in 2019).
Competitors:
- Google raised funds for its autonomous vehicle unit Waymo at a valuation of $30B last year.
- Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) acquired autonomous driving technology startup Zoox in a $1.2B deal last June.
- This month, Hyundai (005380.KS) announced that the company is in talks with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to manufacture autonomous electric cars.
GM has been testing its Ultium battery system within its Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle.
- In January, Cruise showed off its new vehicle, intended for ride-hailing usage.
- GM said the vehicle's battery packs would power five interchangeable drive units and three motors.
- The Ultium battery within the Cruise Origin has been tested in a fleet of autonomous Chevrolet Bolts used by Cruise Automation.
- Ultium is a joint venture between GM and battery manufacturer LG Chem.
- Ultium will power a series of vehicles from competing automakers, including Honda (7267.T).
A version of this story first appeared in Inside Business.
Wall Street Journal
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Buenos Aires-based e-commerce retailer MercadoLibre (MELI.BA) has announced plans to increase its EV fleet from 70 to 1,000. The company announced $1.1B of bonds to fund the expansion.
- MercadoLibre currently has an estimated 10,000 standard delivery vans operating in Brazil alone.
- The company's bonds worth $700M began trading on Jan. 7 and will be callable in 2031.
- According to Andre Chaves, senior VP at MercadoLibre, the company aims to increase its electric fleet by at least 14 times to 980 vehicles.
Bloomberg
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South Korean automaker KIA teased seven new EV models that will launch by 2027.
- KIA changed its logo and dropped "Motors" from its name earlier this month.
- The company is focusing on EV growth, mobility solutions, "lifestyle branding," and purpose-built vehicles.
- The models will be named simply Kia EV1 through Kia EV7.
CNET
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SPI Energy (NASDAQ:SPI) subsidiary EdisonFuture and automotive design company Icona Design announced the beginning of a collaboration to design a range of EVs. Shares of SPI rallied 15% immediately following the announcement.
New vehicles:
- SPI's all-electric vehicles for both passenger and commercial applications will be manufactured and sold by EdisonFuture and its Phoenix Motorcars subsidiary.
- Under the collaboration, Icona will design new products, including pickup trucks and last-mile delivery vans. Icona has released a prototype image of an autonomous minibus.
- The prototypes will use an all-electric crossover platform. New materials will include solar-paneled surfaces, lightweight materials, and a new electric drivetrain architecture.
- SPI Energy's Phoenix Motorcars also appointed an early Tesla employee, Edmund Shen, as its new VP of Product Management.
SPI Energy
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Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) renewed its contract with Canada-based Advanced Battery Research group.
- Tesla also appointed a new head of the group: Jeff Dahn, a pioneer of lithium-ion battery cells.
- Dahn's R&D team has been filing patents covering battery technology for Tesla over the last few years.
- Dahn has been working on a new battery cell pack that he hopes could reach 1M miles of range.
Electrek
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General Motors (NYSE:GM) will produce its BrightDrop EV600 in its CAMI manufacturing plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. The $800M investment to begin production is subject to ratification of a tentative 2021 agreement between Unifor and the government. Note: We covered General Motors' (NYSE:GM) launch of BrightDrop from CES 2021 earlier this week.
Canada's largest EV factory:
- If ratified, General Motors' $800M investment will convert CAMI into Canada's first large-scale EV manufacturing plant.
- GM hopes to deliver the EV600 in late 2021.
- GM introduced BrightDrop to focus on enterprise and delivery customers.
- Initial products from the BrigthDrop program include the EP1 Electric e-pallet software and the EV600 light commercial vehicle.
- GM Canada is currently engaged in talks with the Ontario and federal governments regarding its new investment.
Green Car Congress
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QUICK HITS:
- How are companies deciding on privacy management solutions in 2021? This eGuide breaks it down.*
- Johnson Matthey signed a multi-million dollar, three-year contract to produce membrane electrode assemblies for SFC Energy AG, a provider of hydrogen and direct methanol fuel cells.
- India-based Hero Motors Company acquired a strategic stake in Hewland Engineering, a U.K. EV transmission specialist.
- Samsung SDI appointed Park Zin as the new head of its electric car battery business, replacing Ahn Tae-hyuk.
- General Motors (NYSE:GM) is reportedly working on building a new Corvette-inspired EV.
- Werner (NYSE:WERN) announced an equity investment in autonomous trucking company TuSimple.
- Oppenheimer raised its price target for Tesla from $486 to $1,036 per share.
- Bullish on Bitcoin? Start earning daily interest on it with Nexo's Crypto Savings Account.*
*This is sponsored content.
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Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia.
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Editor
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Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on.
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