⚡️ Who`s afraid of power outages?

Happy Monday Folks. This is Electric Avenue, the newsletter that`s the Salsa to your Tortilla Chips on Super Bowl Sunday: Slightly sweet, savory, and zesty, with just the right amount of spicy 🍅🔥

Here's what we have for you today:

• Enphase wants to tap your EV battery ⚡️

• 3 Links 🔗

• Meme of the week 🤡

Friendly reminder: We recently created the Electric Avenue Glossary. This is a living post where we'll add new acronyms (e.g. V2X) anytime we define or use them.

Who`s afraid of power outages? ⚡️

A home without electricity - that`s a nightmare for people living in areas of the world where natural disasters occur.

Electricity is not just necessary for food refrigeration and lighting. As our society transitions away from fossil fuels, we increasingly prepare food on electric appliances and even heat our homes with electricity in winter months.

Based on US government data, the average American experienced just over 8 hours of power outages in 2020. 6 out of those 8 hours (=75%) were due to major events, such as hurricanes, earth quakes, floods and blizzards.

Customers in Alabama, Iowa, Connecticut, Oklahoma, and Louisiana experienced the most time with interrupted power in 2020, ranging from almost 29 hours in Alabama to 60 hours in Louisiana (across 3 separate events).

Traditionally consumers and businesses relied on gas or diesel generators for their emergency backup power needs. But the transition to electric cars brings a massive opportunity - the vehicle battery can act as an additional energy resource!

As we reported, several automakers are working on making this a reality. If you haven`t yet, check out this video on the Ford F150 Lightning home backup system - which you can buy today!

However, we need competition to drive the overall cost of these Vehicle-to-home (V2H) systems down. We need multiple vehicles and multiple chargers that are fully interoperable and compete on price and customer value. And that`s where independent companies like Enphase come in:

Enphase wants to tap your EV battery ⚡️

Solar company Enphase just launched its own bi-directional DC wallbox for V2H and V2G! We checked out the company`s white paper and pulled the highlights for y`all:

• Enphase charger will "Turn any EV into a power source" and supports both CCS and CHAdeMO connectors.

• Coming to market in 2024.

• Pricing still tbd.

• Will support V2G+V2H through Enphase`s grid-forming micro inverters.

• Will be compatible with Enphase solar + stationary battery products.

The company says it is working with EV manufacturers and power utilities to bring this revolutionary technology to market. We expect a lot more companies to enter this space over the next few years. And as always - we`ll keep you posted!

3 Links 🔗

• Sales Ban for Easee Wallbox?: During a product safety test of six common wall box models in the EU, Swedish Electrical Safety Authority "Elsäkerhetsverket" revealed numerous safety deficits of Norwegian wall box manufacturer Easee. The preliminary report includes serious allegations like a missing residual current device (RCD).

• Google's Product Velocity: Last week we reported that Google could potentially release E-Routing functionality for Google Maps on its mobile app soon. Let`s take a quick look at the history of EV features coming to Maps:

  • 10/2018: Google adds "charging stations" as a dedicated search category

  • 04/2019: Dynamic availability for chargers is added

  • 12/2019: Filtering stations now possible by connector type (e.g. CHAdeMO or CCS)

  • 11/2022: New "fast charging" filter shows only DC chargers >=50kW

  • 02/2023: In Google Maps' latest product release blog, the company proudly announced the addition of a 'very fast’ charging filter to search for charging stations with power >= 150 kilowatts (a pretty common filter in other EV routing apps)

Hmm, 4 years to realize that EV drivers may want to filter their charging stations by 150kW+ when going on intercity trips? Maybe Google's product velocity is lower than expected and EV drivers will want to rely on 3rd party E-routing apps like ABRP, Pump, and Chargetrip for a little longer 😃

• EV Charging Stations 'Made In USA': After ABB e-mobility, SK Signet, Wallbox, and Tritium, Kempower is the latest charger manufacturer to announce the opening of a production facility in the USA. The companies are incentivized to operate manufacturing sites in the USA by the Federal Highway Administration's proposed 'Buy America Act' and the 'National Electic Vehicle Infrastructure' program's requirements.

Meme of the Week 🤡

A Reader´s review

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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 the companies discussed.