PSE&G is New Jersey's largest utility and is over a century old, but under Dawn Neville's team they're doing an agile and decent job of adapting to EVs with programs that subsidize home charging and forecast load for necessary grid uprades. Max speaks with Dawn to learn more about the challenges a utility faces with EVs, as well as some of the opportunities that come about from peak shaving and distributed energy storage from EV batteries.

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PSE&G's EV Programs

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John Voelcker has been reporting on EVs and hybrids for longer than almost anyone. The editor in chief of Green Car Reports for almost a decade, and now a frequent freelancer for magazines like Car and Driver and websites like InsideEVs, John is an engineer by training who has reported on major developments like General Motor's turnaround on producing batteries as well as the formation of the IONNA national charging network.

Max and John go over

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John's Side Project: Tempting Fate Tours

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It's time for a news roundup on Directly Current, and Max is joined by Republican strategist and EVs for All America boss Mike Murphy to discuss the positive market developments in German and American EV manufacturing, as well as some bad news with an ICE raid at Hyundai and LG Energy Solutions' battery plant in Georgia which went about as well as an episode of Keystone Cops.

Max and Mike go over

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Electric for All at the MAGNET Conference

IRS Guidance on EV tax credits phaseout (Act before September 30th!)

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Veloz is a nonprofit leading the charge with a national messaging campaign to sell the public on EVs—not for environmental advocacy but for practical cost of ownership and tangible benefits. Josh Boone, their executive director, joins Max for a chat on their new Electric for All campaign we've partnered with them on—featuring the iconic voice of Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation).

Max and Josh go over

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Electric for All

IRS Guidance on EV tax credits phaseout

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Our Next Energy (ONE) is developing LFP battery cells in Michigan. If you're an EV nerd, you know how big of a deal that is. These kinds of chemistries are what are going to enable durable, long lasting, and most importantly, affordable EVs and China already specializes in them and currently basically chokes the world's supply, not just in terms of minerals, but also IP know-how and manufacturing for this super valuable battery chemistry.

But ONE came to the market at a time a few years ago with a promise to make a hybrid battery, called Gemini, utilizing some LFP and an anode-free manganese-rich chemistry to give you the best of all worlds—performance and long range. They demonstrated this in a BMW iX chassis showing that vehicle to double its factory range at the time.

The Gemini battery never came to market in production cars.  However, ONE has been toiling away quietly—working on continuing LFP chemistries for not only the automotive industry, but also battery energy storage systems, which are crucially important in the age of AI and data center where we can't make our grid resilient quickly enough.

Max speaks with the Chief Strategist at One, Deeana Ijaz. , She's the daughter of the founder and CEO Mijeeb Ijaz. Deanna  come from a neuroscience and public health policy background but is leading the charge at ONE in turbulent times for the automotive industry to survive and thrive.

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You've probably heard that the electric grid is under severe strain and that electric cars are of no help. And this is in some ways a little bit overblown, but it's also true, particularly in the era of large data centers and AI. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Electric vehicles can be part of the solution. We've spoken on this show briefly before about concepts like vehicle to grid and vehicles like the Ford F-150 lightning being used as a home backup power source but to do grid solutions at scale. That's going to take a lot of smart software and coordination, enter WeaveGrid.

WeaveGrid CEO Apoorv Bhargava speaks with Max Patten on how they work with utilities, OEMs, and customers to enable a new kind of smarter power grid. The upshot for ratepayers, aka customers? You pay less and maybe even realize incentives for letting your EV flexibly charge (and one day, discharge) while you sleep.

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https://youtu.be/-uyEtDhQVT8

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WeaveGrid Incentive Finder

WeaveGrid's Active Programs for Drivers/Consumers

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One of the biggest sources of electrification isn't your home or your neighbors', but the commercial fleets and trucks that power American business. Wex is a company doing fuel card services, but their EV charging solutions have taken off and they're continuing to invest in it despite federal headwinds. 

In this episode of Directly Current, host Max Patten speaks to Libby Bittman, the Business Development Director for EVs and Mobility at Wex. Previously, she's worked at companies like ChargePoint, ChargeLab, and Tesla. Libby also has an EV car, truck, and motorcycle in her household, so she's no stranger to the electric liffetyle. Max and Libby discuss how EV adoption continues to prove itself on cost of ownership merits in the commercial sector even without the White House's support. Regardless of politics, businesses love margins!

Some of the ground Max and Libby cover;

Libby is a great speaker, advocate for EVs, and a pragmatic and seasoned participant in the business world. Enjoy!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VeV_AXRb88

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Wex for EVs

Sawatch Labs Fleet Electrification/Emissions Software

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Max speaks to Quincy Lee, founder and CEO of Electric Era, a charging business that's integrating high-quality hardware with smart software and batteries to deploy rapidly at retailers like Costco for low cost. It's a story of entrepreneurship, quality-obsession, and paving the infrastructure for the future.

Electric Era's Site

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Electric towing is hard, particularly when you're hauling a big family-sized camper that can halve a Rivian's range. Lightship is a startup that's laser-focused on solving that pickle by engineering a smart trailer that not only makes itself more aerodynamic in motion, but also pulls its own weight with an e-axle and independent battery system. It's a clever piece of tech but it also costs a pretty penny.

Max speaks with Toby Kraus, the CEO of Lightship, on what it's like building EV hardware in Colorado and how he and the team are dealing with challenges like unpredictable tariff policy. He also hints at some future developments that might drive down the price tag much as EVs themselves have gotten cheaper and more accessible.

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Long before the Tesla Roadster or GM EV.1 were a twinkle in engineers' eyes, there were people hard at work making whacky electric cars in their garages. Declan Kavanaugh, a college student and budding engineer interning at startup Telo Trucks, is one such enthusiast, taking pride in buying cheap EV curiosity projects from the 1970s and restoring them with modern-day battery technology and upgrades. He documents his efforts in entertaining fashion on YouTube.

This episode is a fun one for the nerds among you, and if you're still unsure what a kilowatt is worry not, Max and Declan break down some of the jargon as they dive down the messy history of electric cars into our present day. In the present, they discuss the buzz around Telo as well as Slate Auto's cheap mini electric pickup, examining how new niches are starting to become possible with better commoditized technology that can (hopefully) be built for affordable prices in America.

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