The Amped EV Podcast

Here's the definitive truth: As the technology stands today, electric vehicles are a fantastic fit for some applications and not so great for others. Last-mile delivery, those routes that bring a product from the warehouse shelf to the customer’s doorstep, happens to fall into that first category. EVs fit in so well here because last-mile offers defined routes that can be planned to maximize the electric vehicle’s range and recharging opportunities.

We've already seen a few big names – including Walmart, FedEx and Amazon – jump into electrification with this application. So, now that electrification has had some time to mingle with last-mile, how are things going, and where do we see them headed? On today's episode, we find out.

For electric vehicles to ultimately work – I mean really work, at scale – it's going to take so much more than a fancy-looking new car or truck with a fancy new integrated electric powertrain parked in every driveway across the nation.

There's an underground component to this whole thing too, both metaphorically and literally. It takes groups of dedicated men and women willing to the often-thankless work involved with installing EV infrastructure, and that ecosystem is larger than simply erecting charging beacons as far as the eye can see. Trenches need to be dug, and, ideally, fiber needs to be run. There's a whole approval process that needs to be taken care of. Permits need to be pulled, and someone probably needs to install a new transformer.

[Excuse me a moment, the room is spinning.]

Whew! OK.

Thankfully, there are businesses out there that are designed to help with all of this. MD7, a telecoms tower & data center consultancy company, is one of those. On today's episode of The Amped EV Podcast, we invite Lew Cox, MD7's director of business development to dig into the EV infrastructure details. He explains the connection between EV charging and fiber deployment, the EV charger installation approval process and why the federal government's funding allocated to EV charging installation projects might not be enough.

There’s a moment when you’ve been working toward something where that “something” becomes very real and all the excitement you used to feel about it takes a back seat to the challenges that lie ahead. Moving forward means taking a deep breath, swallowing hard and remembering why you started down this path in the first place. Then you plow ahead.

That moment for commercial decarbonization efforts within the trucking industry happened at this year’s ACT Expo. Sure there was plenty of excitement with a bevy of new EV announcements from new players and established OEMs, alike, as well as a few teases of what’s to come. But there was also a very clear message that trucking industry decarbonization efforts need to happen faster to gain ground on transportation’s impact on climate change.

Of course, it's easy to point fingers at the logistics industry, but the fact is that there's a role for everyone to play, if they chose to accept it. On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast we discuss some of the automotive industry's latest decarbonization efforts on both the trucking and consumer sides; the latest infrastructure happenings, and what the open job market tells us about the future of electrification and fossil fuels.

Sono Motors might be on to something. The idea is that if a solar-powered electric vehicle can recharge its battery via the sun equal to a driver's average commute time, the driver will never have to worry about range anxiety creeping into their consciousness ever again. And that's the goal of the Sono Sion, the company's solar-powered consumer vehicle with production beginning in 2023.

"The purpose of this car is to cover the daily average distance driven by a commuter because it's actually not a lot. I believe in the U.S. it's about 24 km (approx. 15 miles) and in Europe, it's 16 km (approx. 10 miles) per day, and that's actually what we recharge by the sun," says Laurin Hahn, co-founder and CEO of Sono Motors. "It's four times more range on a single charge than with any other electric vehicle without solar with the same battery change."

It sounds like a good idea, but does it actually work in practice?

To find out the nitty-gritty details, we brought Hahn onto the show, who provided no shortage of insight into how this technology works, the benefits for drivers, and even where the potential lies for combining solar with other technologies to create what is essentially a sustainable power plant on wheels.

Hey, EVs need maintenance and repairs too. But working on an EV shouldn't be done by just anyone – it takes a very particular set of skills (perhaps even skills acquired over a very long career). These vehicles aren't your grandfather's, working via internal combustion engines, and it takes a skilled technician to know how to safely maintain these relatively new components.

This poses a problem. Today's job market is already facing a general worker shortage. A layer below that lies the technician shortage that's lasted for decades. Drill down a little deeper and you encounter the EV technician shortage. These EV technicians today are quite rare, and typically expect to be paid a premium for their services.

So, where does this leave us? Is there an answer to finding more EV shop help? To find out, I invited Nadine Battah, multimedia senior editor for Tomorrow's Technician, onto the show to talk topics like:

• Are instructors pushing EVs onto technicians?
• Are today’s students interested in working on EVs?
• Why would a tech want to be trained to work on EVs?
• Where should a tech seek out training for EVs if they’re interested?
• What are some of the barriers to entry for being a technician qualified to work on EVs?
• Should consumers be prepared to pay more for EV maintenance?
• And more!

As soon as Amped co-host and Fleet Equipment Director of Content Jason Morgan stamped his ticket to the 2022 ACT Expo in Long Beach, Calif., I knew we weren't going to be able to let him go at it alone. So I crawled into his backpack and stowed away across the country to join him in witnessing the reveal of all the latest mind-bending decarbonization technologies and sustainability-driving services the trucking world has to offer.

Well, it wasn't me personally in that backpack, it was a camera. But while Jason was there he was kind enough to show me around the show floor – and now, you too! Check out the video above to see get a sneak peek of some of the cool electrified technologies coming soon to the trucking world.

Editor's Note: During the show, I stumped Jason with a question on Xos's new medium-duty and heavy-duty truck availability. Here's the answer: The new chassis cab product will be hitting production in Q1 of next year, and then the tractor product will be later in 2023, according to Dakota Semler, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Xos.

Here on The Amped EV Podcast, we talk all the time about what it's like to drive a vehicle with an electric powertrain, but driving an electric Class 7 truck is a bit more intimidating... or is it? To show off all the nifty features of the Volvo VNR electric truck, Jason Morgan, co-host of The Amped EV Podcast and content director for Fleet Equipment was recently invited out to Greensboro, N.C. to have a chance to ride along and see what the drive is like. And, as a bonus, he also spills the tea on some of the features of the next iteration of this truck (more range and a faster charge time being a few of the big ones).

About a year ago, Daimler Trucks North America opened what it refers to as a "heavy-duty electric truck charging site, called 'Electric Island'" in Portland, Ore. The goal of Electric Island is to help accelerate the development, testing and deployment of zero-emissions commercial vehicles. A year later, that hasn't changed, but the team has learned an awful lot about what it takes to successfully run electric vehicles, as well as the necessary EV environment surrounding them.

Located across the street from DTNA headquarters, Electric Island opened with eight vehicle charging stations, the majority of which are now available for public use for the charging of electric cars, buses, box vans and semi-trucks. These charging stations aren't simply DTNA's own Detroit-branded chargers, mind you; the company consciously made the decision to feature chargers from a variety of companies in this space. The site is built to immediately provide charging for EVs of all shapes and sizes, and has allowed DTNA to study energy management, charger use and performance, and, in the case of DTNA, its own vehicles’ charging performance. It's a true proving ground for both the variety of charging stations and the physical space laid out to supply them.

On this episode of The Amped EV Podcast, we wanted to see this island for ourselves. So, we tracked down Nate Hill, DTNA director of zero-emission vehicle infrastructure & econsulting, who we've dubbed our "first on-location correspondent," to give us a little tour and tell us a bit more about what the company has learned with a year of electric island living under its belt.

Bi-directional charging has massive potential to be a game-changer in the EV world. It provides consumers an affordable way to store excess energy generation and reuse it on demand whenever they want. A driver can fill his or her car battery during the day when the sun is out and reuse it in the evening during peak hours, when electricity is more expensive. Or, the driver can fill up the car battery in the middle of the night when electricity demand is low and energy is cheap.

The problem is that today bi-directional charging technology is typically expensive and not easy for consumers to install – but this is where companies like Emporia Energy come in, working to develop a simple, affordable option for consumers and fleets alike.

Look, we just saw a charging station at a bank in Akron, Ohio! That must be a sign that these things have got to be darn near popping up everywhere at this point, right?

Not quite. Honestly, though, the numbers aren't terrible. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are 46,286 locations in the U.S. where you can charge your EV at a public charging station. But is this enough? On this episode, we dig into the EV charging infrastructure details.