It's 2022

Well, does it feel like 2022?  It’s been a tough start to the year for our neighbors an hour to the North.  If you haven’t heard, we had some horrible weather which included high winds, dry conditions, and multiple fires around Boulder, CO.  Nearly 1,000 homes have been lost and it has been devastating.  For every item purchased in our Merch Store in the month of January, we’ll make a donation to the verified GoFundme Wildfire Relief Fund.  If you can’t make a purchase, please help out in any way you can.  

In other news, we have officially changed the newsletter name to Mobility Evo and have launched a new website for old newsletters and our store.  This month, if you make a referral through the newsletter with the link below, you’ll automatically be entered to win a hoodie from our store!  Please share, it allows us to grow the newsletter and bring you more content.

Have an amazing Thursday and Happy New Year.

Electric Vehicles 

Everyone has heard about the EQXX this week.  The car has been designed to be able to deliver more than 620 miles on a single charge or 10kms per kWh out of its 100 kWh battery.  That’s not it though.  The EQXX is filled with amazing features like the retractable rear diffuser, glass-fiber-reinforced springs for the suspension, web-like structural components to save weight, and aerodynamics to achieve a .17 coefficient of drag.  The interior boasts a 47.5 inch LED screen that runs the length of the dashboard, vegan leather seats ( leather made from the root structures of mushrooms and cactus fibers), carpets made from bamboo, and other interior pieces made from recycled plastic.  Everywhere you look, there is something unique and it’s impossible to summarize everything.

In other EV News

• CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is this week and the EV news is coming in.  BMW and GM chose to not have a physical presence this year, which opened up opportunities for smaller manufacturers to be featured on the big stage. Sony announced the launch of their new division, Sony Mobility Inc., with the sole purpose of commercializing EVs. The company displayed the Sony Vision-S Sedan and a new SUV prototype called the Sony Vision-S SUV.
• Chrysler’s Air Flow EV concept car has begun the company’s goal to go all-electric by 2028. The crossover vehicle will possibly launch in 2025. Chevy announced the $30,000 Equinox, which will be launched in the U.S. in Fall 2023, and also revealed the electric Silverado.  The Silverado will start at $39,900 and the version with the largest battery back is expected to have 400 miles of range. 
• Ford has announced a doubling of production capacity on the new F-150 Lightning pickup to 150,000 Lightning EVs by mid-2023. In May 2021, the vehicle received 44,000 reservations within 48 hours of the initial launch. Demand remained steady all year, reaching 200,000 before the holidays.
• VinFast has started to deliver its first battery-electric SUV to customers in Southeast Asia. The VF-34, a C segment car, offers a subscription battery rental to customers. VinFast will also replace batteries that degrade below 70%.
• Tesla had a great fourth quarter by beating Wall Street's expectations. Tesla deliveries reached 308,600 and full year totals amounted to 936,172 vehicles. The Model S and the Model X represented only 3% of Tesla’s total deliveries in 2021. The Model 3 and Model Y made up the rest of sales.
• China’s Finance Ministry has announced that starting January 1st, incentives for electric vehicles will be cut by 30%. By the end of 2022, all incentives will be cut completely. 
• The city of Pittsburgh unveiled a new charging depot, one of the largest in Western Pennsylvania. The depot is able to charge the city’s fleet of EVs with 15 dual-hose chargers. These chargers are able to fully charge an EV in 6-8 hours. In addition to the new charging station, Pittsburgh also plans to buy new electric recycling trucks.
• After announcing its 2021 total U.S. sales, Toyota has outsold GM for the first time since 1931, reaching the top seller in the United States with 2,218,228 vehicles sold.. General Motors saw a 13% decline in sales, while Toyota reported a 10% sales increase for 2021. 
• Tesla took the polar plunge and became the best-selling car brand in Norway for 2021. Norway has been reported to be the leading market for electric vehicles in adoption per capita, and the country plans for each new car on the road to be all-electric by 2025.

Autonomous Snapshots

Source: John Deere

John Deere is ahead in farming technology with the unveiling of its fully autonomous 8R tractor at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show. The machine features a TruSet-enabled chisel plow, a GPS guidance system, and 6 pairs of stereo cameras that enable 360 degrees obstacle detection and distance calculation.

• LG Electronics plans to unveil an in-car infotainment package for AVs at CES 2022. The cabin will feature a place for passengers to work, watch TV, exercise, or experience virtual camping. It’s unclear when this package will be manufactured for commercial use, but we’re excited to hear about more ideas from LG!

• At CES this week, GM unveiled a new self-driving two door Cadillac concept. GM and majority owned subsidiary, Cruise, are targeting a mid-decade to deliver these self-driving vehicles to consumers.   

• Toyota’s plans in 2025 include launching autonomous driving software that will monitor safety systems and road conditions while operating vehicle functions. The company is considering making the software available to other manufacturers.

• Nvidia has unveiled its platform for autonomous vehicles with backup safety features: The Drive Hyperion 8. Nvidia’s platform uses Nvidia Drive Orn systems-on-a-chip, 12 surround cameras, nine radars, 12 ultrasonics, one front-facing LiDAR, and three interior cameras.