⚡ How long is your charging cable?

Happy Monday. Welcome to Electric Avenue, the EV newsletter that hits harder than a bucket of ice-cold Gatorade after the super bowl.

Here’s what we have for you today:

• 1 Pic: Fiat Grande Panda’s integrated charging cable 🌠

• Tesla Cybertruck ready to order with range extender ⚡️

• 3 Links 🔗

• Meme of the week 🤡

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Let's dive in!

URGENT: EV Record - Sponsors wanted! 🏆

Hey EVeryone 👋,

Julius and Janek from Electric Avenue here. We have something special planned and we need your help.

We are planning an EV-related world record attempt - and we’re looking for sponsors!

We’re looking for sponsors willing to cover a ~$5k budget for an EV rental, charging costs, flights and hotels. This will take place in North America. 🇺🇸

What’s in it for the sponsor?

• 2 main sponsor ad slots in the Electric Avenue newsletter (est. $2500+ value!)

• Opening ad read & several shoutouts in videos documenting the record attempt (est. $10k+ media value)

In addition to our channels, we also expect this world-record attempt to get coverage in several other major EV media outlets.

So if you’re a bold, EV-forward brand looking to engage with thousands of EV experts, enthusiasts and industry professionals from major EV charger manufacturers, automotive OEMs, CPOs and MSPs - hit reply or message [email protected] and let us know!

IMPORTANT: This record attempt is set to happen very soon, so time is of the essence! ⏱️

Cheers,

Janek and Julius

1 Pic: Fiat Grande Panda’s integrated charging cable 🌠

Fiat launched the electric Grande Panda and developed an innovative approach for cable handling. The EV comes with a fixed, tethered AC cable that is accessible in the front of the vehicle. If you want to see Fiat’s integrated cable management in action, check out the video review of Electrifying (time-stamp in the link).

In addition, the Grande Panda has a second charging port for a standard CCS combo (AC + CCS2). So it can be charged with DC or with an (external) AC charging cable.

Tesla Cybertruck ready to order with range extender ⚡️

We usually don’t report too much about electric vehicles, but we feel that the Tesla Cybertruck is a special EV. Based on its vast experience, Tesla pushed some technical boundaries for the Cybertruck, which we want keep an eye on.

Range Extender: Tesla confirmed that it aims to start production of the range extender “early 2025” and gave the following details on its website:

• Est. $16,000

• 470+ total mi. range (est.) total range

• Requires installation at a Tesla service center

• Production is planned to begin in early 2025

• Reservation comes with a $500 non-refundable reservation deposit

The optional battery package takes about 30% of the truck’s bed. The main use case is to enable very long trips with a lack of charging infrastructure or towing heavy things (up mountains).

💭 One Thought: The concept of an optional, retrofittable battery extension is quite appealing. Nio has a different concept with its battery swapping system, where EV drivers can rent a large battery for long-distance trips and use a much smaller, lighter, and less expensive battery for everyday use. The need to visit a service center reduces the practicality of the Tesla range extender concept. We are curious to see if there are lessons that can be applied to vans and trucks (e.g. the Tesla Semi) to electrify long-haul and heavy-duty transportation.

Want to get your hands on the Tesla's Cybertruck?

Despite over 1 million reservations, it is now available to anyone in the US with $100,000 (see screenshot above - estimated delivery Aug-Sept 2024), even though only about 25,000 have been delivered to reservation holders. Recently, Tesla opened orders to the general public, bypassing the reservation process, and started inviting Canadian buyers. The expected next step is the release of non-Foundation Series models to broaden the market. Tesla hasn't confirmed international launches yet, as adjustments are needed for compliance outside North America.

3 Links 🔗

• Numbat runs out of juice🪫 : German startup Numbat was founded in 2021 and promised to become a major CPO for battery-buffered DC fast charging at hundreds of charging sites across Germany. As recently as October 2023 the company announced a 140m EUR funding round to realize this goal. Now Numbat surprisingly went insolvent and the future of the company with its 130 employees is in question. Could German ADS-Tec, which supplied the charger and battery hardware to Numbat, see its stock price affected by the news? (Link)

• Tesla expands Chargemap collaboration in 🇪🇺: Back in March 2023 Tesla had just opened ~50% of all Supercharger sites in Europe for 3rd party vehicles. At the time we reported that Chargemap, a French MSP, was the first external payment method integrated into Tesla’s supercharger billing system. This was a limited pilot that only worked for Tesla’s charging locations within France. Now Chargemap has announced that the collaboration has expanded to the rest of Europe (Link). Most interestingly, with the expansion of the collaboration, all opened Tesla station’s dynamic status and pricing are accessible via Chargemap's website map. Meanwhile, major mapping services (e.g. Google and Apple Maps) do not provide this information.

• On to the next one for Ford’s V2X roadmap↔️: Back on January of we reported on the launch of Ford’s first bi-directional charging system (Link to article + video). So far, this was a pure DC V2H sytem - meaning discharging was only possible during grid outages as emergency backup power. Now Ford, together with it’s partners Sunrun and Baltimore-based utility BGE, have announced that they are piloting DC V2G functionality for the first time. They have enrolled three customers which own the Ford F150 Lightning EV into the V2G pilot, where the vehicles are schedule to discharge power to support the grid during peak times (~5pm-9pm local time). In exchange, vehicle owners receive up to $800 in incentives during the 4 month pilot period. (Link)

Most-clicked link last week: Was the press release on emabler’s fundraising (Link).

Meme of the Week 🤡

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Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Freakin’ awesome on ⚡ EV Roadtrip: Charging in the USA from a European Perspective and wrote:

“I enjoyed the topic - Real life experience of renting an EV in the US (in the north east) documenting the costs and wait times, availability, Apps, ins and outs - at the right level that I would want to know. And the hopeful interpretation of what this means - They are on the right path. Also interesting industry news. Thanks!”

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

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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.