⚡ Ford Midsize EV platform launches with $30k electric Pickup 🛻

Happy Wednesday! Welcome to Electric Avenue, the only EV newsletter that has a buttery, flakey crust - absolutely delicious!

Here’s what we have for you today:

• Deluxe Urban EV Fast Charging 🌇

• Ford Midsize EV platform launches with $30k electric Pickup 🛻

• 3 Links 🔗

• Charging Station of the Week 🔌

• Meme of the week 🤡

Not subscribed yet? Sign up here 👇🏼

Let's dive in!

Deluxe Urban EV Fast Charging 🌇

Fastned has submitted a planning application to Aberdeen City Council for its first indoor EV charging hub, which will be located inside one of the city’s warehouses. The company plans to reuse the existing warehouse structure for the new hub and install the necessary infrastructure, including 12 charge points with up to 400 kW, a drive-through layout, a shop, toilets and a seating area.

This concept is similar to Electrify America’s flagship in San Francisco, which offers 20 DC fast charging stations (as reported by us). Similarly, Electrify America operates out of a former warehouse, which reduces its environmental footprint and speeds up the construction process.

Ford Midsize EV platform launches with $30k electric Pickup 🛻

On Monday, Ford introduced its exciting new Ford Universal EV Platform, representing a fresh approach to crafting their electric vehicles. The first vehicle to be produced using this new platform is a four-door, mid-size electric pickup truck, priced at $30,000, which will be manufactured at the Louisville Assembly Plant in 2027.

This innovation stems from the creative minds at the "skunkworks" EV design center in Long Beach, California, where they have been working hard to crack the code for Ford's next generation of EVs.

While specific details about the vehicles are still under wraps, it seems there’s at least one prototype that has been shown to a select group of employees.

Here’s Ford’s California-based “skunkworks” team explaining the new platform in a video:

And here are some additional details on the vehicles and what the new platform brings system:

• Launching with 4-door midsize pickup in 2027, starting at $30k, assembled in Louisville, KY

• Using prismatic LFP cells, made in Michigan

• New zonal E/E architecture (similar to Rivian/Tesla) saves >4,000 feet (1.3km) of wiring harness and 22 pounds (10kg) of associated weight

• New midsize truck is projected to have more passenger room than the latest Toyota RAV4, even before you include the frunk and the truck bed

• The vehicle will feature the new Ford Digital Experience based on Google Built-In. If you want to get idea what that looks like, at least on a gas vehicle, it has already launched with the MY2025 Explorer and Expedition SUV’s in the US: https://www.ford.com/technology/ford-digital-experience/

Ford also released a short video on the new Digital Experience as part of the new Ford EV platform announcement today:

3 Links 🔗

• Alpitronics conquers the US DCFC market 🇺🇸: Alpitronic, a charging station manufacturer and already a backbone of Europe’s network, is set to surge to a projected 12% share of US public fast chargers deployments by 2025. The company is partnering with major networks such as Ionna, Walmart, and Electrify America to deploy DC fast charging stations. The company opened its US headquarters in September 2023 and, according to data provided by Paren to InsideEVs, ranks second after Tesla (36%) for this year. (link)

• Porsche Opens 8th exclusive charging lounge in Europe🇪🇺: The Porsche-exclusive charging lounges offer a comfortable seating area with refreshments, snacks and coffee, as well as bathrooms and free Wi-Fi. There are also covered seating areas outside with built-in speakers. The eighth site has recently opened near Freiburg, Germany. (Link)

• Revel ends rideshare in NYC to focus on EV charging🔋: Revel was a fully-electric rideshare company that operated a fleet of Tesla and KIA EV’s in New York City. To support its fleet operations, Revel built several urban fast charging hubs that were open to other fleets like local Uber/Lyft drivers and even the general public. Now the company announced that it will focus entirely on EV charging infrastructure going forward. Revel currently has 100 fast chargers across five stations in New York City and one in San Francisco. It aims to have more than 400 stalls across Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York by the end of next year. One nudge to go down this route was that Uber agreed to guarantee usage by its drivers at Revel charging stations in New York. In return, Revel provides discounts to those drivers. That’s helped boost the utilization of its chargers to 45% in the first quarter, up from 18% a year ago. Utilization was at 33% excluding usage from its own fleet.(Link)

Most-clicked link last post: Was the link to Electra’s press release about its latest debt financing round. (Link).

Charging Station of the Week 🔌 

bp pulse openend its urban fast charging hub close to Los Angeles Airport (LAX) to support EV rental customers and ride-hailing drivers:

• 📍 two miles of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) (maps)

• 🔌 48 charge points with a mix of 400kW and 150kW DC fast chargers and CCS and NACS connectors

• 🛍️🚻 lounge, vending machine, restrooms and free WiFi

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 ✍️

5 star reviews ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ but no comment this week… ☹️ 

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.