⚡️Tesla Semi Truck gets >1MW charging

Happy Monday. This is Electric Avenue, the newsletter that feels like a free flight upgrade to first class 🛩️. But unlike airlines, we don`t even charge you for the economy ticket.

Here's what we have for you today:

• EV & Charging stock performance

• 1 Pic

• 4 Links

• Electric Meme of the week

Chinese EV startups, represented by NIO and XPENG, are the big winners of this week. While NIO gained close to 30%, XPENG jumped a whole 62%. At the same time Polestar lost some of its recent gains with a 17% drop.

1 Pic 🖼

This week Tesla held it`s Tesla Semi delivery event. Three announcements by Elon & team stood out:

• A new "V4" Supercharger Charging cable with "1MW +" DC charging power

• In addition to the Semi, the Tesla Cybertruck will make use of the same V4 technology

• Rollout of v4 Supercharger sites is set to start in 2023

This could be another indication, that both the Tesla Semi as well as the Cybertruck vehicle platforms will be using a new 800V battery architecture. The current model S,3,X,Y vehicle lineup has a 400-500V battery voltage, which limits the maximum DC charging power to ~250kW.

4 Links

• Tesla@Best Buy: Following our last post about Tesla`s ambition to establish its charging connector as the "North American Charging Standard" (NACS), the OEM's home charger is now available for purchase at electronics retailer Best Buy. This marks a strong departure from Tesla`s strategy of exclusively doing direct sales through it`s own ecommerce channel.

• CharIn reaction to NACS: Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN e.V.), an association promoting the CCS standard, responded to Tesla`s proposal with a public announcement. While the response applauded Tesla for including the existing charging protocols used by CCS vehicles like DIN7021 and ISO15118, Tesla was also criticized. CharIN warned that the step may create further confusion for consumers and uncertainty for infrastructure funding and rollout. The association encourages the industry to focus on CCS, which has gone through the lengthy standardization process via standards bodies, such as ISO, IEC and SAE. It also warns that any newly introduced idea, including a mechanical improvement to the existing CCS connector design, would have to follow the same process before the industry can safely adopt it.

• Aftermarket V2L: Beside strong fast charging capabilities, the E-GMP platform from Hyundai/Kia is also known for it`s vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality. Up until now an official V2L Adapter from Hyundai/Kia was required, which is only available through dealerships at a price of about $550. Interestingly, the functionality can also be utilized with a third party adapter like this one just launched by Lectron, which is only about $150. Presumably Lectron was able to reverse engineer the original V2L adapter. Hyundai/Kia seemingly did not protect the V2L functionality from aftermarket adapter competition. Other OEMs could take a page out of Apple`s playbook here and launch a 3rd party certification program similar to "Made for iPhone" (MFi). For MFi accessories to work seamlessly with Apple products, the 3rd party manufacturer gets Apple`s permission to embed small authentication chips in its accessories - in exchange they have to pay an "Apple tax" on those products.

• Solar & EV charging - by IKEA?: Swedish furniture manufacturer Ikea recently launched SOLSTRÅLE, a solar system for private homes offered in cooperation with Svea Solar - a Swedish startup. Svea Solar will be responsible for the installation of the solar system and optional home charging station. For charging, Svea Solar relies on the Pulsar Plus 22kW model by Wallbox.

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Meme of the Week

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.