⚡Getting technical - Electrify America’s 2023 Wrapped 👨‍💻

Happy Wednesday. This is Electric Avenue - the newsletter that's your trusted sidekick in navigating the EV industry and protecting Gotham City. We're the Robin to your Batman 🦇.

Here’s what we have for you today:

• Getting technical - Electrify America’s 2023 Wrapped👨‍💻

• 3 Links 🔗

• Meme of the week 🤡

Not subscribed yet? Sign up here 👇🏼

Let's dive in!

Getting technical - Electrify America’s 2023 Wrapped 👨‍💻

US charging network Electrify America (EA) just sent out its official “2023 Wrapped” email to its newsletter subscribers. The company announced that it experienced a 110% increase in charging sessions over the year 2022, which is solid growth!

Interestingly, the Communications team at EA chose to get quite technical in this update, pointing out very detailed improvements to network technology completed in 2023 (Link).

Join us in nerding out a little:

• Implemented idle fees at more locations across the country to minimize wait times

• Increased number of Plug&Charge activation attempts for certain automotive brand customers to improve the automated enrollment process

• Replaced power delivery components on chargers affected by low-power delivery

• Pushed software updates to help address issues such as power fluctuations on certain chargers

• Implemented more automated alerts in the Network Operations Center to improve response time for out of service chargers

• Updated thermal management logic on the liquid-cooled cables to improve charging speed

We like all the nerdy little details in here. Why? It shows us that the company is doing continuous improvement in coordination with its many stakeholders.

EA’s Network Operations Center, Cable and component suppliers, Auto brands and Charger manufacturers all have to work together to improve the charging experience for drivers.

Sharing some insights into the process builds trust in the EV community - keep ‘em coming EA!

3 Links 🔗

• License to charge⚡: Back in July we reported that EV maker Lucid Motors had reached an agreement to license its powertrain technology to British sports car maker Aston Martin. Now Lucid’s CEO Peter Rawlinson cheekily reminded folks at Lucid’s latest media event that James Bond traditionally drives Aston Martin. And hence, we can probably expect to see a Lucid-powered Aston Martin EV driven by the famous British spy in a future movie. (Link)

• Show us your curves! 📈: US-based standards body SAE just published a step towards standardizing charging curve testing and reporting for electric vehicles. The document is titled J2953/4 (Link) and focuses on clear and consistent comparisons of realistic charging capabilities of passenger vehicles. Note that this document does not attempt to address performance variations of vehicle-charger interactions outside of nominal conditions (e.g. extreme temperatures, variable battery SOCs, etc).

• No NEVI, No Cry 😢: Remember our article on NEVI vs AFIR - comparing these two massive charging infrastructure programs? Well if you do, you will recall that NEVI has an average uptime requirement of 97% as a condition for funding. The folks at GreenBiz recently visited a NEVI-funded station in New York state and what they found was a little embarrassing: Malfunctioning credit card readers, black screens, and inoperable stations after just one month of operation. Meanwhile, the closest Tesla Supercharger site was open to all vehicles via MagicDock, worked flawlessly and the price was cheaper too. We’ll be curious to see if and how states control and enforce the 97% uptime requirements for NEVI-funded stations over the coming 12-18 months.

Most-clicked link last week: was the Bloomberg story on the growth of US charging networks featured in our main story (Link)

Meme of the Week 🤡

🤣🤣🤣

That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel and leave some feedback (We read every single one of these 🙂 ):

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Freakin´ awesome on⚡From 3 to 300 - the growth of US charging networks 📊 and wrote:

“Management team asked me to share industry news articles weekly to the company… instead I pointed them to subscribe to Electric Avenue”

Someone forwarded this to you? Subscribe now - it's free!

DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. The Electric Avenue team may hold investments in or may otherwise be affiliated with the companies discussed.