Happy Wednesday. This is Electric Avenue. We bring you e-mobility news and immaculate vibes all in one enticing package📦. We’re the Strawberry Lemonade of electric vehicle newsletters. So come on over and vibe with us ✌️🍹.

Here’s what we have for you today:

• 1 Video🎥

• The Power Rangers conquering 🇺🇸 🇨🇦

• 3 Links 🔗

• E-mobility Hot Jobs 🌶️

• Meme of the week 🤡

Let's get into it!

1 Video 🎥

Here at Electric Avenue, we’re pretty interested in IONITY. Why is that?

• IONITY is the largest Pan-European fast charging network which is completely open to all vehicles (looking at you Tesla 🙄).

• IONITY is very innovative in terms of the user experience during fast charging. It was the first network to implement Plug&Charge technology and introduced a custom charging dispenser design with an LED halo lighting scheme.

• IONITY is owned by five automakers (VW/Porsche/Audi + Mercedes + BMW + Ford + Hyundai/KIA) and therefore has great insights into which charging technology innovations will complement future electric vehicles.

In May, we featured an interview with IONITY’s COO in which he shared info on ⚡ What are the costs of building a fast charging hub?

Now the COO sat down for another interview with Norwegian Youtuber Bjorn Nyland. Of course, we’ll save you some time and bring you the highlights from the 32min interview:

• Expansion:

  • IONITY plans to double the network from 480 to 1000 sites by the end of 2025

  • Charging points will quadruple from ~2400 to 10,000 chargers by the end of 2025

• Operations:

  • Network uptime currently at 96%, trying to get to 97-98%

  • IONITY’s Operations team stands at ~45 headcounts now

  • Started own spare parts stockpile (displays, cables, etc.), separate from the charger manufacturers (ABB, Tritium)

• Profitability:

  • Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) + UK are operationally profitable already, thanks to high utilization

• Power sharing/Load management:

  • IONITY already does site-level load management (e.g. the IONITY site in Dal, Norway has a 2.4MW grid connection for 12 chargers → at full capacity each charger can only get 200kW, not the full 350kW)

  • IONITY is considering DC bus power sharing between power cabinets for the future (see Tesla v3 Supercharger architecture)

  • Considering iterations on dispenser enclosure design to make power-shared chargers distinguishable from dedicated 350kW chargers

The Power Rangers conquering 🇺🇸🇨🇦

The most electrifying news for North American EV Drivers this week was the announcement that seven major automakers have formed a joint venture to build thousands of fast chargers for electric vehicles across North America!

The joint venture, includes General Motors (GM), Stellantis (Fiat/Chrysler/Jeep/RAM etc), BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Honda, and Mercedes-Benz. The companies announced plans to install at least 30,000 chargers by 2026, supporting both Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector and the Combined Charging System (CCS1). The first stations will open in the US in summer 2024, followed by Canada at a later stage. Each site will have multiple chargers with up to 350 kW. The joint venture is expected to be established this year, subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions. The name and logo of the network will be revealed at a later date. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting project!

3 Thoughts

Reliability is a key concern to selling EVs in 🇺🇸: Today, Tesla and Electrify America are dominating the US public fast-charging market. Before the network opening by Tesla, the all remaining auto makers were left with Electrify America as the only nationwide public fast charging network. As reported in our previous article ⚡ Why charging sucks - and what to do about it 😲 customer satisfaction with public charging is below average at the major US charging networks. The new Joint Venture will allow the seven car companies to influence the charging industry and provide charging offerings deeply integrated with their respective digital ecosystems. While also not becoming too dependent on Tesla’s network for reliable fast charging.

High-power charging as a stand-alone infrastructure business is attractive: The joint venture is a solid basis for launching and expanding a competitive network that will be well-funded by corporate car company money. Additionally, the available public funding (especially NEVI) will help to finance the network. As we learned from the success of IONITY and other CPOs in Europe (e.g. Fastned), public fast charging is becoming an attractive business to invest in (see Blackrock investment in IONITY). From electric vehicle adoption numbers we can see the US (7% market share Q1 2023) is 2-3 years behind the EU (18% market share Q1 2023). Notably, charging is one of the only technologies where adoption in Europe is faster and higher than in the US. This might have given car companies the confidence that now is a good time co-invest and to copy-cat the IONITY joint-venture strategy from Europe.

What is Ford doing? Clearly, the joint initiative is aimed at competing with Tesla’s Supercharging network. At the beginning 2023 we asked ourselves the question if EV OEMs should own charging stations. Looking back at our analysis, we can see that most automakers that previously did not invest in US public fast-charging infrastructure are now part of the new joint venture, with the exception of Ford (which is an investor in IONITY). Ford was the first company to publicly announce the adoption of NACS and native integration of the Supercharging network into the Ford Pass charging service and their cars. Will we see an exclusive network from Ford or might Ford even join as an investor into Tesla’s network? We will certainly keep an eye on Ford and their public charging plans.

3 Links 🔗

• Porsche Charging Lounge 😎: Porsche drivers can now enjoy a coffee in the first Porsche Charging Lounge in Bingen, Germany. The lounge and its charging stations will only be accessible through the Porsche Charging service and therefore be an exclusive experience for drivers of the brand.

• Tesla Megacharger for Semi 🚛 : The first mega charger was spotted at Baker, California, charging a Tesla Semi. In its final version, the V4 stations shall be able to charge the Semi with up to 1 MW.

• VW invests 4,99% in Xpeng 💲: German auto maker Volkswagen signed a strategic agreement to purchase a stake in Chinese EV startup Xpeng. The two companies intend to jointly develop new intelligent and connected electric vehicles based on a local platform for China. The agreement comes with an investment by VW of around $700 million in Xpeng that includes a seat on the supervisory board.

E-mobility Hot Jobs 🌶️

By now y’all are used to our monthly EV startup funding roundup - Money Monday 🤑 - but this week we’re doing something special. We’ve gathered the hottest EV, charging & energy jobs we could find. These can be at corporates or startups, but they all have one thing in common: they’re so🔥that we’re almost tempted to apply ourselves…

Here ya go:

• Technical Project Lead DC Bidi Wallbox Mercedes-Benz - Stuttgart, Germany

• Technical Product Manager Hardware - Bidirectional Charging,Elli (VW Group) - Munich/Berlin/Wolfsburg, Germany

• Grid Services Manager, Toyota USA - Irvine, California

• Business Development Manager, Fleets, Chargetrip - Amsterdam, Netherlands

• Business Development Manager - Europe, Ampcontrol.io - Remote/Europe

• + check out last month’s post for even more job listings.

Take-away: The e-mobility job market is hot and talent is tight. We can see all major automakers work their way towards vehicle-grid integration services through bi-directional charging. Experience in V2X/V2G is highly valuable as the next frontier for EV charging products & services.

P.S. - Are you trying to hire in E-mobility? If you wanna get your hot job🌶️ in front of >1,000+ e-mobility experts -> Send us a note to [email protected]!

Memes of the Week 🤡

That's a wrap for this week! Let us know how you feel:

Reader Review of the Week

Selected ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ Freakin´ awesome on ⚡ Card payment mandates @ public charging stations and wrote:

"just had a looooong conversation w/ researchers at a UC about payments and NFC and all - in tune and on my mind! thanks"

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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.