The Amped EV Podcast

Car dealers know that being pro-sustainability is good for business, but increasing sustainability efforts in the showroom doesn't have to be just about what powertrain you're selling. Instead of pushing EV sales, some dealers have found success with their sustainable-conscious clientele by promising to offset the carbon emissions offset by the vehicle being sold – no matter what energy source the vehicle uses to move.

"Our partners in automotive do the drive carbon neutral program. So essentially, what we're looking to do is obviously offset carbon emissions, and that's by planting 75 trees per vehicle that they sell, or for enrollment that they get in the program," says Matt Kallstrom, founder and CEO of the Carbon Offset Company. "Why 75 trees? When you take the averages of how far someone drives in a year, how many years someone owns their vehicle, and the average miles per gallon that a vehicle has, that completely offsets the entire ownership of the vehicle. So in a sense, it's like the dealer's cars aren't even hitting the road from an emission standpoint."

On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Kallstrom explains how carbon offsetting works, why he believes car dealers are the perfect partners to help plant trees and how his mission connects with EV drivers.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

Like most ICE vehicle components out there, EV components – everything from batteries to inverters – have a shelf life. When the end of life arrives, in some cases the best thing to do might be to recycle that component down to its raw materials. However, many of these EV components that are failing or degrading over time can be sustainably remanufactured to either extend their life or give them an entirely new life.

TerrePower, a division of BBB Industries, takes this approach, with the goal of keeping EVs on the road as long as possible by taking a used EV part and sustainably manufacturing it for a new life, thereby avoiding recycling and disposal.

"When you think of sustainable manufacturing – we'll use an EV battery for example – your goal is to use as much of that part as possible. So if you look at a battery, you've got the battery pack. Within that pack are modules, and within those modules are cells. If a cell has an issue, we can look at the cell level and identify what that component failure is, fix it, we identify that issue," says Stephen Albert, director of business development and global EV product strategy for TerrePower at BBB Industries. "From there, we can increase the performance for the module that goes back into the pack that goes into the vehicle."

On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Albert helps us understand the perks of sustainable manufacturing, and explains how the process can bring a failing EV battery back into the market so it's functioning a full power again, or in some cases, functioning even better than when it was new.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

Renting a car can be tricky for reasons you might not expect. If you don't own a car, it can be hard getting used to remembering your keys or being mindful of where you parked. Even if you do own a car, you don't own THIS car, and working all the new gizmos and gadgets can be just as challenging as navigating the open road.

UFODrive, a car rental company that began in Europe in 2018, saw these challenges and found a way to turn them into advantages in the marketplace. The key, according to the company's Chief Commercial Officer Edmund Read, was to turn to EVs. Today, the company has an established presence in Europe and is growing steadily in the U.S., and nearly exclusively rents EVs to its customers.

"What we are able to do for customers today using modern EV platforms is way beyond what you can do with a normal ICE vehicle," Read says. "We monitor people's charge level. If you go below a certain level, we will engage to make sure you're aware of that. We'll also help book you into the nearest charge point. And then my favorite one, which happens nearly every day is, somebody returns the car, they plug it back in, they close their contract, the car locks and they walk away, but an hour later they're having lunch and they think, 'Ah, I've left my wallet or my shades or my passport or my shoes in the car.' They can text us and we can pop the trunk and let them back into the car to find the bits that they need."

On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Read joins us to walk us through how electrification is allowing the rental industry to turn expectations on its head. We discuss the perks EVs have unlocked in the car rental industry, how partnerships with rideshare companies like Uber are driving overall EV adoption, and the most promising EV technologies coming down the pike.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

Hearing a lot about electric school buses lately? That's no coincidence. Last year, the EPA announced the Clean School Bus Program, offering a $5 billion investment for low-emission school buses over the next five years, and the EPA says it will make another $1 billion available for clean school buses in the 2023 fiscal year. Yes, electric school buses and the infrastructure to support them are a massive investment, but school districts around the country with an appetite for electrification know there may be no better time to take the plunge.

Many of those school districts are relying on their OEM partnerships to make the transition from diesel to electric. According to Arjun Nair, manager of electric vehicle programs at Thomas Built Buses, a successful electric bus roll-out takes much more than district stakeholders being knowledgeable about just the vehicles themselves.

"For a customer to go through this transition, we definitely want to help the customer understand what they have to consider before they get along on this journey. We try to educate the customer about the product and about what are the other factors they need to be successful, then we have our resources, our experts within the company, who would help them evaluate their needs more specifically and suggest the options that they have to mitigate any of the challenges that they see," Nair says.

On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Nair joins us to explain more of the reasons electric buses are catching on, the advantages of electric school bus adoption, identifying the best routes for school bus electrification and why designing an electric school bus is a challenge like no other.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

For new players in the EV manufacturing space, success depends on finding ways to stand out. That means designing your charging stations with aesthetics top of mind and including software out of the box to integrate with future EV innovations. It also means doubling down on using high-quality, automotive-grade hardware to ensure the reliability of the product is as close to 100% as possible. This is exactly the strategy Autel Energy took when Autel entered the EV charging market, according to John Thomas, COO of Autel Energy North America – and he says it's working.

Of course, Thomas says, Autel Energy began manufacturing EV chargers with a leg up in the marketplace thanks to its pedigree of creating diagnostic tools to connect and communicate with vehicles on a deeply critical level. As a result, Thomas says he knows better than anyone how important reliability is when it comes to the automotive industry.

"We build our own software and we build our own hardware, which includes all the way down to the board level. Those green boards with all the connectivity and the wires and the microchips on them? We actually do that ourselves and we do that to OEM standards," Thomas says. "That helps position ourselves strongly in the marketplace. Now, in the EV charging market people are talking about 97% [reliability] and how great that would be, but if your phone doesn't work 3% of the time, you're not a happy camper at the end of the day. We believe the charging event has to be similar. When we go to a gas pump, the gas pump works all the time, and a charger also has to do the same. So, that's our target. We're going for 100%."

On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Thomas joins us to explain what it takes to stand out in a crowded market, what EV charging station customers really want, and why Autel Energy is investing so much in futureproofing technology integration like Plug and Charge and bi-directional charging.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

Tires wear faster on EVs as a result of the added weight of the vehicle and the near-instant torque provided by the all-electric drivetrain. Can tiremakers really combat this by tweaking the compounding or materials and putting an EV stamp on the sidewall of the tire?

The short answer: Yes! The long answer: Yes... but maybe we're asking the wrong question.

Tires are complicated and offer endless varieties of combinations of cost, performance and longevity for all styles of vehicles and applications. On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Tire Review Editor Maddie Winer explains the attributes of a good EV tire, how much training tire shops need to handle EVs, and if the EV tire stamp is all marketing or if there's more to it.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

It's easy to read the headlines on social media and pontificate on where the market is headed in the comment sections of all your best friends' posts, but if you really want to develop a solid understanding it's best to talk directly with those making waves in the industry. There's no better place to do that than on the tradeshow floor.

Sustainability and electrification seem to be all the rage in the trucking industry today, but it isn't always about swapping a diesel truck for an electric one. Instead, for America's truck fleets it's oftentimes more about a reduction in emissions and the journey to eventually hitting zero. Companies focusing on truck maintenance are approaching zero-emissions differently than OEMs designing new EV offerings, and telematics offerers have their own focus.

In this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Fleet Equipment Editor Jason Morgan talks us through his electric truck market expectations based on what he's seen at this year's heavy- and medium-duty truck-centric tradeshows.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

Ponder this, non-EV owners: Would you accept an EV as your next vehicle if, no matter your budget, you knew you'd always have the range you needed without ever having to plug in to charge up?

If you ask Jeremy McCool, founder and CEO of HEVO, this promise will be the catalyst that will convert the masses to EV owners.

"The one thing that wireless does better than anything else in terms of accelerating EV adoption is that it can provide the ability for drivers to drive and charge at the same time. And this year... we will be demonstrating in the Detroit area highway speed tests with 200-kilowatt wireless dynamic charging. So an [electric] vehicle will be driving at highway speeds, collecting charge as it goes," McCool says.

In this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, McCool talks us through reasons why fleets are switching to wireless EV charging, how wireless charging works and why tollways that charge your car while you're driving might be the next evolution of U.S. driveable infrastructure.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

If you're an EV owner, you're going to want to own a home charging station too. However, about a third of the U.S. population rented the space where they lived in 2021. That complicates things and slows EV adoption rates across the board.

But where there are problems, so too are opportunities. On this week's show, we speak with the CEO of Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions, a company that is helping the multifamily sector navigate the ins and outs of EV infrastructure and the advantages that can come with installing even just one charger.

"If you figure on average, even if the rent is $1,500 a month, that's $18,000 a year in rent that that one tenant brings you because they came to your apartment property. They pay you $18,000 a year because you have a charging station," says David Aaronson, the CEO of Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions. "Now, the value of that $18,000 at a 5% cap rate is $300,000, $350,000. So you've created that much value with that one tenant."

In this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Aaronson talks us through reasons why it might be a good idea to have charging available for tenants, how to know if your property is ready to install EV charging, how far in advance to start the project and how to future-proof your charging infrastructure.


The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com
Autel Energy: www.autelenergy.com

As EV adoption grows, so too does the basic understanding of how these vehicles function. While it may still seem bonkers, EVs are managing to take us from Point A to Point B using only a few dozen moving parts, in stark contrast to the tens of thousands you may find in vehicles with internal combustion engines. As you could imagine, this ultimately leads to fewer opportunities for something to go wrong, thus saving the owner a few dollars on repairs and maintenance over the lifetime of the vehicle.

However, throwing a wrench into this penny-pinching dream is the fact that the technology found in today's EVs is fairly new and generally more expensive to repair.

"In your typical ICE vehicle, you may have 20,000 individual and moving parts. In an EV vehicle, you may have 20 to 50 moving parts. The failure rate for those parts may be much smaller, but the cost to repair those parts is much, much higher right now," says Joshua Sonnier, vice president of product and strategy realization at insurance provider Assurant. "As with any new technology in its infancy, the cost to repair is much higher. So, from our standpoint, it actually gets you or the consumer to about the same risk profile."

In this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, Sonnier talks us through reasons why an EV might find themselves at their local auto repair shop, as well as how often, and also discusses factors that drivers have to weigh beyond the sticker price when it comes to overall vehicle value.

The Buzz: www.thebuzzevnews.com