It seems like a lot of folks have a bone to pick with Rep. Joe Manchin [D-WV] who has just this week single-handedly “torpedoed” the Build Back Better bill. The BBB could have been the “the most significant climate legislation in US history,” Megan Mahajan, the manager of energy policy design at the think tank Energy Innovation, told PopSci in October. The plan would put billions of money into developing low-carbon energy technologies and building a national network for electric vehicles.
When this bill dies, so do the chances for the country to reach its lofty and aggressive climate change goals. “There’s still a yawning gap between where we are today and where we need to be to hit President Biden’s climate targets,” Jesse Jenkins, an energy systems engineer at Princeton University who has led an effort to model the effects of the bill on US-wide emissions, told the New York Times. “Without either this bill or a climate bill that’s similar in scope, it’s really hard to see how those goals will be met.”
Unsurprisingly, left-leaning members of the Democratic party and the president himself have voiced frustration with Manchin’s choice. But a more surprising group is speaking out against Manchin’s decision, too—coal miners, including some he represents.
The BBB, along with all of its proposed clean energy benefits, provides a significant boost to coal workers by extending fees paid by coal companies to fund treatments and benefits of workers suffering pneumoconiosis, or Black Lung, which affects thousands of miners across the country. According to the statement, without BBB, that fee will be chopped in half and put the burden of healthcare payments back on individuals and taxpayers. Further, the bill provides tax incentives for companies to build new business on coalfields to employ out-of-work miners.
Additionally, the BBB provides language that would help workers unionize. “This language is critical to any long-term ability to restore the right to organize in America in the face of ramped-up union-busting by employers,” Cecil Roberts, the union’s president, said in a statement. “But now there is no path forward for millions of workers to exercise their rights at work.”
UMWA already released a plan for the energy transition earlier this year stating that “change is coming, whether we seek it or not.” The coal industry saw employment losses of around 50 percent between 2011 and 2020, which will likely continue as the country moves toward a cleaner energy mix. Proposals that include supporting miners and their families by incentivizing alternative jobs in coal country are crucial in protecting these already vulnerable communities.
“We’re likely to lose coal jobs whether or not this bill passes,” Phil Smith, the chief lobbyist for UMWA, told the Washington Post. “If that’s the case, let’s figure out a way to provide as many jobs as possible for those who are going to lose.”
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This story originally featured on Nexus Media News, a nonprofit climate change news service.
On a sweltering morning in July of 2021, thousands of dead fish washed onto the northeastern shores of Pokegama Lake, 140 miles north of Minneapolis.
Deb Vermeersch, an official with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, was called in to investigate.
When she arrived, she saw a quarter-mile stretch of sand covered with the rotting carcass of walleye and Northern pike, which thrive in deep, cool waters, as well as crappies, sunfish and suckers—all warm water dwellers. “They were already pretty decomposed because of the warm water,” Vermeersch recalls.
Because so many different types of fish had died, Vermeersch and her colleagues knew it wasn’t a species-specific parasite, a common cause of fish kills. They zeroed in on the culprit: dangerously low oxygen levels.
Oxygen is disappearing in freshwater lakes at a rate nine times that of oceans due to a combination of pollution and warming waters, according to a study published in Natureearlier this year. Lakes like Pokegama are warming earlier in the spring and staying warm into autumn, fueling algae blooms, which thrive in warm waters, and threaten native fish.
Minnesota, with its 14,380 lakes and temperatures that have risen faster than the national average, is a unique laboratory for studying how climate change is affecting temperate-zone lakes around the world. The state sits at the intersection of four biomes––two distinct prairie ecosystems and two ecologically different forest systems. This means scientists here are able to study how lakes in different ecosystems fare on a warming planet, and look for ways to stave off the worst effects of climate change.
“If you start losing oxygen, you start losing species.“
“What’s going on at the surface is that warmer water holds less oxygen than cool water,” says Lesley Knoll, a University of Minnesota limnologist and one of the authors of the Nature report. She says that longer, hotter summers are interfering with two key processes that have historically kept lakes’ oxygen levels in check: mixing and stratification. In temperate climates, water at the surface of lakes mixes with deep waters in the spring and the fall, when both layers are similar in temperature. As the surface water warms during the summer, the water forms distinct layers based on temperature––cool water at the bottom, warm at the top. This is known as stratification. In the fall, when the surface waters cool again, the water mixes for a second time, replenishing oxygen in deeper waters. But as climate change makes surface water warmer, and keeps it warmer for longer, that mixing doesn’t happen when it should.
“As you have that stronger stratification, the water in the deep part of the lake is cut off from the oxygen at the top part of the lake. If you start losing oxygen, you start losing species,” says Kevin Rose, a biologist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and a coauthor of the Nature study.
Knoll, Rose and a team of 43 other researchers studied 400 temperate lakes from around the world. They found that, on average, surface waters warmed by 7 degrees Fahrenheit and have lost roughly 5 percent of oxygen since 1980; deep waters, which haven’t warmed much, have still lost an average of almost 20 percent of their oxygen. (Thanks to the state’s long-held lake monitoring programs, almost a quarter the lakes in the study were in Minnesota.)
Warming lakes emit methane
Fish kills aren’t the only reason scientists are concerned about lakes losing oxygen. In extreme cases, when deep waters go completely void of oxygen, something else happens: Methane-emitting bacteria begin to thrive.
“As lakes warm, they will produce more methane and most of that has to do with stratification,” says James Cotner, a limnologist at the University of Minnesota.
Lakes normally emit carbon dioxide as a natural part of breaking down the trees, plants and animals that decay in them, but plants in and around fresh water also absorb it, making healthy lakes carbon sinks.
Lakes have historically emitted methane, too––about 10 to 20 percent of the world’s emissions––but the prospect of them releasing more of the greenhouse gas has Cotner and his colleagues alarmed. Methane is about 25 times more potent than CO2 when it comes to trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
Cotner is leading a team of researchers who are studying what conditions allow methane-emitting bacteria to prosper in lakes and how conservationists can respond.
“The key questions are understanding how much and when carbon dioxide and methane are emitted from lakes, and what are the key variables that can tell how much will be emitted. Certainly, oxygen is a big part of that, but stratification and warming also plays a role,” says Cotner.
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Pollution plays a big role
It’s not just longer, hotter summers that are causing lakes to lose their oxygen. Polluted agricultural runoff (pesticides and fertilizers) and logging have long plagued Minnesota’s lakes. It’s a problem that’s getting worse worldwide as climate change pushes agriculture further away from the equator and into new territory, says Heather Baird, an official with Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources.
In northern Minnesota, potatoes now grow where pine forests have thrived for years. Phosphorus, a common fertilizer, now runs off from the soil into the region’s lakes, Baird says. Though small amounts of phosphorus occur naturally in lake ecosystems, too much of it feeds harmful algae blooms.
Those blooms, which thrive in warm, nutrient-rich water, set off a chain of events that remove oxygen from deep lake waters.
“When phosphorus builds in lakes and creates algae blooms, those blooms eventually die. As they do, they sink. Deeper down, bacteria break down the algae, using up the remaining oxygen at those lower depths,” said Baird.
A quarter of Minnesota lakes now have phosphorus levels that are so high that the state advises against swimming, fishing or boating in them. Fueled by these nutrients, algae blooms take over, covering the lake in sometimes toxic residue that thrives in warm, nutrient-rich water, as was the case in Pokegama Lake earlier this year. The protists choke out aquatic life, especially fish that thrive in cold, deep waters. This is all exacerbated by warming air temperatures.
The 75 percent rule
Researchers and conservationists in Minnesota are now studying the best ways to protect temperate-climate lakes from the worst effects of climate change. They have found that preserving 75 percent of deep-water lakes’ watersheds appear to keep fish stocks healthy.
“Having a forested watershed helps keep better water quality by filtering out nutrients, which in turn can buffer against the impacts of climate change, to a point,” Knoll said. However, she added, as temperatures continue to rise, “that 75 percent may not be high enough anymore.”
Knoll and state conservationists are focusing their research and efforts on deep, cool lakes that have a better chance of staying oxygenated than warmer, shallower lakes, like Pokegama.
Vermeersch, the Minnesota fisheries supervisor, said it’s unclear what this will mean for the future of lakes like Pokegama. “Hopefully it’s not going to be a linear thing,” she said, adding that fish kills are “probably going to happen more often,” depending on a combination of factors. “When you get lakes like Pokegama that are shallow and already impaired, I think we are going to see more and more conditions like this
As part of a $37 billion program, General Motors plans to bring at least 30 battery-electric vehicles to market by mid-decade — but it is expanding its electrification strategy to power up pretty much anything “already on the road,” as well as on the water, it announced on Wednesday.
GM looking to electrify “everything,” including offering conversion kits as well as packages for vehicles like this jet tug.
The largest of the Detroit automakers’ Electric Connect and Cruise eCrate systems will allow owners to swap out their conventional gas engines in classic vehicles like the Camaro and E-10 pickup for battery-drive technology. GM also is looking to power up cargo tractors and other airport gear, while also working up ways to bring electric propulsion to the marine industry.
“GM has an established strategy, network of integrators and co-development agreements to apply an extensive array of components and solutions to a broad range of customers and use cases,” said Travis Hester, GM vice president of Electric Vehicle Growth Operations, in a statement Wednesday.
The carmaker estimates there’s a “total addressable market” for swapping conventional drive systems for battery power that could approach $20 billion by 2030.
“As companies across many industries look to reduce their environmental impact, GM is uniquely positioned to serve as a leader not only through exciting new EVs across our brands, but through additional technology applications,” said Hester, “and we look forward to bringing customers — existing and new — along with us on our zero-emissions journey.”
Chevrolet showcased a 1977 K5 Blazer converted to all-electric propulsion at SEMA360 in 2020.
Converting to electric
Demand for conversion technology is already on the rise. There’s been a flood of startups converting classic vehicles, including vintage Camaros, Porsches, Volkswagens and Land Rovers, to run on battery power.
GM targeted the conversion market with the launch of the eCOPO Camaro project car at the SEMA Show several years back, and has revealed other project cars like Project X and the 1977 K-5 Blazer. It is getting ready to provide what are essentially plug-and-play packages, like the Cruise eCrate and Electric Connect, to simplify the process. The goal is to allow owners and conversion companies to make a swap with a minimum of effort.
The Detroit automaker isn’t the only one sensing an opportunity here, however. Ford recently demonstrated the potential for its own Mach-E crate motors, which, as the name implies, uses hardware and software borrowed from its Mustang Mach-E battery-electric SUV. The conversion package can be plugged into classic products such as a 1978 Ford F-100 pickup. Volkswagen and Tesla have also gotten into the game, the latter automaker’s electric drive technology used by one conversion fan on a Rolls-Royce once owned by Johnny Cash.
Multiple applications for electric motors
But GM’s strategy isn’t limited to road-going vehicles.
It’s teaming up with Textron Ground Support Equipment Inc., a Textron subsidiary, to power up ground support equipment like the cargo and baggage tractors, belt loaders and Tug equipment found at commercial airports. Electrifying those vehicles promises to reduce emissions, as well as operating costs, while improving reliability, experts claim.
Commercial fleets, in general are showing strong interest in making the switch to battery power. GM this month began delivering the first of its BrightDrop delivery vans, joining competitors like Ford and Rivian in a market that could rapidly grow this decade, according to industry forecasts.
The opportunity to electrify isn’t limited to ground vehicles, however. A number of manufacturers are looking at ways to harness battery and hydrogen fuel-cell technology for other transportation and cargo applications. Rolls-Royce recently set a speed record with an aircraft outfitted with one of its drive systems. Airbus just released plans for a hydrogen turbofan system.
GM sees big opportunities coming in the marine world. It recently announced a strategic investment in the Seattle-based Pure Watercraft. The move, the automaker said, “represents an opportunity to bring EV technology to the marine industry and help preserve enjoyment of the outdoors for future generations. Together, the two companies will develop and commercialize battery electric watercraft, to accelerate the transition to electric mobility.”
GM also has been exploring ways to electrify the rails. Last June it announced another partnership with Wabtec, one of the largest providers of freight locomotives. Under a non-binding agreement, the automaker will provide both battery and hydrogen fuel-cell systems for prototypes like the Wabtec FLXdrive. Eventually, the technology could replace the conventional diesel-hybrid systems that dominate the rails today.
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Charging is key to the transition to electric vehicles and while more chargers are one the way, Ford Motor Co. is launching a new program to ensure the juice needed to run an EV does not contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases.
Ford’s program can be used by current owners of the Mustang Mach-E, E-Transit and Escape PHEV.
With help of one auto industry’s traditional foes, the California Air Resource Board, Ford is beginning what it describes as a “sustainable charging program,” which allows owners of plug-in electric vehicles in California to opt for only carbon-neutral charging at home.
“Ford’s electric vehicle customers are beginning to realize all the possibilities associated with their vehicles and sustainable energy management,” said Matt Stover, director of charging and energy services, Ford Motor Co.
“By working with regulators, utilities and customers for home integration services, we’re enabling EV drivers to lower their carbon footprints, potentially save money and help protect the grid, all through their smartphones.”
California-based owners of all current Ford all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, including the Mustang Mach-E, the E-Transit and the Escape PHEV, plus the F-150 Lightning coming in 2022, are eligible for the program.
Only green energy wanted
The idea is to only use electricity made with renewable sources rather than oil, gas or coal, reducing the carbon footprint of the energy used to power the vehicles.
Ford plans to participate in CARB’s “Low Carbon Fuel Standard,” which will offer customers a new way to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change by matching the use of electricity used to charge plug-in electric vehicles at home with 100% local renewable energy, the automaker said.
CARB, which has control of air quality standards throughout California, has long warred with automakers about emissions. Significant health concerns, created by automotive-related air pollution in Southern California, have given CARB enormous influence over emission standards not only across California but also across the United States.
Once enrolled, the FordPass app automatically tracks the amount of electricity used while charging at home. Ford generates, or buys, an equivalent amount of California-sourced Renewable Energy Certificates, an EPA-recognized program that records the generation and usage of green energy.
Ford then sends evidence of the matching amounts to CARB, ensuring that all home plug-in charging activity is matched with zero-carbon electricity.
Ford is investing more than $30 billion in electric vehicles and batteries through 2025. The push supports the company’s longer-term goal of creating a sustainable American manufacturing ecosystem, and to accelerate its progress towards achieving carbon neutrality no later than 2050. Overall, Ford expects 40% to 50% of its global vehicle volume to be fully electric by 2030.
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Attendees at CES 2022 in Las Vegas will get their first in-person look at the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe as well as a concept car called the Chrysler Airflow as Stellantis looks make an impact on the highly influential show.
The Stellantis booth diagram at CES 2022 seems to lack vehicles from some of their brands, including Dodge and Ram.
Stellantis will showcase its salvo in electrification with more than just the Grand Cherokee 4xe, displaying vehicles spanning all of the company’s 14 brands, and featuring not just electrification, but autonomy and connectivity — technology that has been largely absent from its portfolios.
“The future of mobility is fueled by technology,” said Carlos Tavares, Stellantis CEO, in a statement. “Electrification, with our 30 electrified models available including fuel cell vans, connectivity and autonomy are all important facets of that future.”
Four platforms underpin Stellantis’s future
In July, Stellantis announced over €30 billion of investments in electrification and software through 2025 to execute its ambitious transformation.
The company’s show of force at CES is proof of the company’s massive product makeover. Going forward, battery-electric vehicles will use one of four platforms: STLA Small, STLA Medium, STLA large, and STLA Frame. The platforms are designed to accept a variety of drivelines.
Of 14 brands, Jeep’s the star
Despite its wide array of brands, the company appears to be focusing most on Jeep.
Stellantis is showing the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, shown here in Summit trim charging, at CES 2022 in Las Vegas.
Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe: Given that Jeep has already announced “Zero Emission Freedom,” its plan to offer a fully electric Jeep vehicle in every SUV segment by 2025, the arrival of the first Grand Cherokee plug-in hybrid electric model is no surprise. It’s expected to deliver 25 miles of all-electric range, while returning 57 MPGe. That’s impressive for an SUV with 375 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque.
When it comes to technology performance, the 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee is equipped with a 10.1-inch display, Uconnect 5, an operating speed that’s five times faster than its predecessor, and equipped to handle over-the-air updates. Front passengers get a 10.25-inch touchscreen, while those in back can have 10.1-inch displays. And Amazon Fire TV streaming is built-in. Jeep will offer the Grand Cherokee 4xe in four trim levels: Limited, Trailhawk, Overland and Summit. The 4xe will not be offered on base Laredo models.
Stellantis will emphasize its new Wagoneer luxury sub-brand at CES, with a display that fills a quarter if the booth.
Jeep Wrangler 4xe: Adding an exclamation point to the Grand Cherokee 4xe is the Wrangler 4xe, which provides 21 miles of pure electric driving, not bad for a vehicle that will take you to the edge of civilization. Power comes from a 2.0-liter inline-4 and two electric motors that generate 375 hp and 470 lb-ft of torque, enough to tow 3,500 pounds.
There’s also a conventional hybrid mode that blends power from both the gas engine and electric motors. A third, “e-Save” mode puts a priority on recapturing energy normally lost during braking and coasting to build up the battery pack’s charge.
Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer: Jeep’s new luxury sub-brand is not expected to be shown in 4xe trim. But the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer is loaded with cutting-edge technology, with up to seven screens, including a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, a 12.1-inch infotainment touchscreen, a third screen for the front seat passenger, two video screens for the second row and another for the third row.
Integrated Amazon Fire TV, and a 1,375 watt, 23-speaker McIntosh sound system rounds out its tech package. Opting for the less-flashy Wagoneer nets an SUV powered by a 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 with a 48-volt hybrid system, delivering 392 hp and 404 lb-ft of torque, and returns an EPA fuel economy rating of up to 16 mpg city and 22 mpg highway.
Is a reimagined Chrysler on the way?
Stellantis is looking to make a splash at CES with the Chrysler Airflow Concept. The company only released this computerized image of the vehicle.
Chrysler Airflow: Details are sparse on this concept, which we reported on a year ago. Bravely resurrecting the name of the failed, but innovative, 1934 model, Stellantis is saying little about the Airflow concept, other than it is “leading the brand’s transformation to clean mobility and seamlessly connected customer experiences.”
We do know that it uses the underpinnings of the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan suggests it could readily be brought to market. Currently Chrysler has two models: the Pacifica and the aging 300. Certainly, the brand’s lack of a clear image and its meager product line-up are ripe for a radical revision, and whatever the Airflow has to offer could be the first step in a reimagining of the brand. More is expected to be revealed at CES, but initial images reveal a concept with has a steeply raked windshield linked to an equally aggressive back end by a coupe-like roofline.
A possible lifeline for Fiat
The auto company plans to show the new Fiat 500, left, as well as the Chrysler Airflow Concept at the show.
New Fiat 500: While no longer sold in the U.S., despite the presence of Fiat dealers. Unlike the previous electrified 500, dubbed the 500e and sold only in California, the New 500 has a range of up to 199 miles, not the 87-mile range that proved so impractical on the 500e, and comes equipped with an 85-kW fast charge.
Whether it will be brought to the U.S. remains unknown. Fiat dealers have one model in their current U.S. line-up, the 500X, which might explain why they’ve only sold 2,107 vehicles in the first 9 months of 2021. Given its meager line-up, the future of this brand in the U.S. remains questionable. Without new models, such as the New Fiat 500, the risk of consumers being stuck with an orphan will continue to smother sales.
A strong French presence
Stellantis will also display three vehicles by brands not currently sold in the U.S. Perhaps the most intriguing is the Citroën Ami, a diminutive two-seat urban EV that uses symmetrical parts to keep costs down. Its cube-like shape maximizes its interior shape, and its tiny footprint allows it to recharge in three hours. There’s also the Citroën Skate Mobility Concept, a skateboard platform that can be used as a base for different pods that go on top of it. The company sees this as an autonomous mobility solution in urban centers.
A bit more excitement comes in the form of DS, a Citroën luxury sub-brand that was spun off as a standalone brand in 2015. They are showing the DS E-Tense FE21, a two-time defending champion in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Weighing a mere 1,984 pounds, its 52-kWh battery helps generate 338-hp, resulting in a 2.8-second 0-60 mph time. Sacrebleu!
Other brands MIA — so far
Curiously, Stellantis said nothing about Ram, Dodge, Alfa Romeo, Maserati or others under the Stellantis umbrella. What those brands will display remains to be seen — or not. It is possible that Stellantis is seeking to emphasize Chrysler, so the absence of those brands leaves bandwidth for the Airflow to garner significant press.
The new Mitsubishi Outlander already has proven to be one of the most important products the long-struggling automaker has launched in its bid to become relevant to U.S. motorists again. Now, Mitsubishi is hoping to gain even more traction with the upcoming launch of a plug-in hybrid version.
The gas-powered 2022 Mitsubishi Outlander made its debut in February.
The Japanese automaker claims it will yield more range than the old Outlander PHEV, at an estimated 87 km, or nearly 55 miles, per charge — though that’s using the global WLTP test cycle and will likely come down once the American version is tested by the EPA.
“With low (carbon dioxide) emissions and environmental impact from manufacturing and use,” said Takao Kato, MMC’s president and CEO, “the all-new Outlander PHEV model can be considered the best solution for carbon neutrality today.”
Updated, upgraded drivetrain
The Outlander was first introduced in 2001 and, with the fourth generation, it has become a core part of the brand, accounting for about 20% of its global volume. The first plug-in hybrid version was unveiled at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. It produced a combined 197 horsepower by pairing a 2.0-liter inline-4 gas engine with twin 60-kilowatt electric motors drawing power from a 12 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack.
The new Outlander PHEV gets numerous powertrain upgrades, though the automaker isn’t releasing hard specs yet. In a statement announcing the new vehicle it said the plug-in gets “an increase of around 40% in the output of the front and rear motors and drive battery.” The lithium-ion pack, it did note, jumps to 20 kWh. The gas engine, added a spokesman, is a “slightly updated” version of the old PHEV’s 2.4-liter package.
The new Outlander plug-in hybrid will arrive in the U.S. in the second half of 2022.
Mitsubishi also revealed, “The power drive unit for the front motor is newly equipped with a booster function which bolsters driving force by raising the supply of voltage to the front motor while simultaneously improving electricity consumption by raising the efficiency of the generator.”
Third row added
The automaker also took steps to downsize some of the hardware, notably the rear motor and control unit. As a result, the new plug-in will gain room for a third row yielding space for seven occupants.
The drive system now will allow One-Pedal Driving, as well, a feature that effectively allows motorists to minimize the need to jump from throttle to brake when driving in light to moderate traffic. That feature was found to be extremely popular with EV owners, according to the recent J.D. Power Technology Experience Index.
With only modest tweaks, the plug-in adopts the same exterior and interior design as the gas-powered Outlander. The overall strategy is based on a concept dubbed “I-Fu-Do-Do,” which means “authentic” and “majestic” in Japanese.
New design
The new Outlander PHEV is expected to travel more than 55 miles in electric-only mode.
The fourth-generation Mitsubishi Outlander adopted a new styling language called “Dynamic Shield.” Up front, it features a more upright nose with a pinched, dual-level grille and stacked headlamps. From the side, the SUV features a more deeply sculpted silhouette with a bit of a floating roof element.
The automaker clearly wanted to give the new Outlander a more solid and robust look, with such touches as 20-inch wheels and tires and what it calls the Hexagon Guard rear end.
The new SUV grew larger in virtually all dimensions, the width expanding by 2 inches. That means the cabin of the new Outlander is both wider and more spacious than the outgoing model, Mitsubishi adopting more upscale materials and features like tri-zone climate controls, real aluminum panels and a 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment display.
The gas-powered Outlander is powered by a 2.5-liter inline-4 that bumped up power by 8.9 percent. At the same time, it reduced fuel consumption by 2.6 percent.
Pricing TBD
Many of the features from the current model are expected to carry over into the PHEV, though Mitsubishi hasn’t provided specific details. The gas model offers Hill Descent Control and Trailer Stability Assist. A Multiview camera system helps drivers see what’s around the vehicle, whether on-road or off. Other features for the new Mitsubishi Outlander include a power-operated panoramic roof and an electrically operated tailgate that can be opened with a kick of the foot under the rear bumper.
Pricing for the gas model starts at $25,795 — plus $1,195 in delivery fees. Pricing for the PHEV is expected to run higher, though the numbers won’t be released until closer to sales launch. That holds for a variety of other specs, including U.S. range, power and performance.
“Sales will commence in Japan on Dec. 16, followed by Australia and New Zealand in the first half of 2022 and North America in the second half of 2022,” Mitsubishi said in a statement. While it did not offer specifics, that would suggest that the Outlander PHEV will be marketed as a 2023 model in the U.S.
While most British service stations now have all the petrol — gasoline — they need again, the country’s fuel crisis could have long-term impacts, the scare convincing many UK motorists it is time to switch to battery-electric vehicles.
The petrol shortage in the UK last month drove the Tesla Model 3 to the top sales spot overall in the UK for September.
For the first time ever, a BEV was the best-selling vehicle in Britain last month, and motorists registered nearly as many all-electric vehicles in September as they did in all of 2019, according to industry data. The Tesla Model 3 was the big winner, but other BEVs also gained momentum.
“The petrol crisis was temporary but the impact on consumer attitudes is not,” said Ian Plummer, commercial director for the British arm of Auto Trader. “The idea that you’ll always be able to fill your tank has gone out the window.”
But this crisis wasn’t due to shortages of petroleum, but rather the inability to get refined fuel to service stations, experts noted. That was due to an ongoing lack of carrier truck drivers that has grown worse since Britain exited the European Union and enacted new restrictions on workers from the continent. (The U.S. currently faces a similar shortage of drivers resulting in spot shortage of fuel this year.)
As pumps — and fuel tanks — ran dry, British motorists began looking for alternatives. At one point, Google recorded a 1,600% increase in online searches related to electric vehicles, and automotive shopping website Carwow saw its own traffic nearly double.
The inability to just run out and get petrol/gas anytime Britons desired impacted their buying habits.
Now, British auto industry data indicate this translated into actual sales.
UK’s EV sales explode
Demand for electrified vehicles was already rising before the fuel crisis. But sales of all plug-based models surged at a record pace in September. Pure battery-electric vehicles recorded the biggest gain, automakers reporting a 49.4% increase in BEV registrations for the month. That jump came despite the fact that overall passenger car sales in the UK actually dipped by 34.4% in September.
Of the 215,312 vehicles registered in Britain, BEVs totaled 32,721, or 15.2 percent. That was 5,000 short of the number of all-electric models sold in the UK during all of 2019.
Plug-in hybrids generated 13,884 sales, or 11.5%, and conventional hybrids accounted for 12% of September registrations, or 24,961. In other words, vehicles using some form of electric propulsion made up nearly four in 10 of the vehicles British drivers registered.
The Tesla Model 3 was the big winner, becoming the best-selling new vehicle in the country, British motorists purchasing 6,879.
Electric vehicle sales are expected to continue to rise in the UK in the wake of the current shortage.
The all-electric sedan was the only exclusive BEV model among Britain’s top 10 in September, but five others on that list are available with various battery-based propulsion systems. The Vauxhall Corsa was second on the September list, the BMW 3 Series the third, Toyota Yaris came in fourth, while the Kia Niro was ninth. Rounding out the top 10 was the Volkswagen Golf.
Not an anomaly
While sales of electrified vehicles have surged, demand for diesels has plummeted in the UK, registrations falling 55% last year and continuing to spiral downward in 2021.
While some analysts have questioned whether last month’s sales numbers were an anomaly, Brent Gruber, senior director of Global Automotive at J.D. Power, told TheDetroitBureau.com the shift is only likely to continue, if not accelerate.
The fuel shortages proved part of a “microcosm of all the different factors that are aligning to help drive EV adoption,” according to Gruber.
British consumers, like those in the U.S. and other markets, Gruber added, are getting a steadily widening range of BEVs to choose from, vehicles targeting a broader array of price and product segments, while offering improved range and more appealing features.
Since its formation in 1983, Kīlauea’s Pu‘u‘ō‘ō cone had risen and fallen as magma fluctuated throughout the volcano’s vibrant East Rift Zone. But on April 30, 2018, Pu‘u‘ō‘ō announced its retirement with a rumble. The once-brimming basin drained down into the earth like an unclogged sink. Newly liberated lava crept from the summit toward the Big Island’s eastern tip. Soon Leilani Estates, a community of around 2,000, would confront the eruption firsthand. Fissures exploded with ash, noxious gas, and molten lava across roads and into backyards. Pu‘u‘ō‘ō’s swan song ultimately destroyed some 700 homes.
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Then the foundation of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO)—established by the US Geological Survey (USGS) in 1912—began to crack. On May 16 the staff was forced to evacuate. “We scattered to the winds and took what we could carry,” recalls Brian Shiro, who was then a geophysicist at the site. Shiro has always had a front-row seat in the rapidly changing field of hazard monitoring, but Kilauea presented the unique challenge of extracting real-time data from an uncontrollable force of nature. It taught him lessons he now applies to monitoring earthquakes as deputy director of the USGS Geologic Hazards Science Center in Golden, Colorado.
Shiro, who began his career as a tsunami researcher, settled in Hawaii in 2005. After a stint with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, he joined HVO in 2016 to apply his knowledge of seismic hazard monitoring to the complex world of volcanology. “These volcanoes are living, breathing things, and it’s exciting to have your finger on the pulse of the Earth,” he says.
As the 2018 cataclysm shook their facilities, Shiro and his colleagues engaged a remote monitoring system of GPS and seismic stations, cameras, drones, and other sensors to gather info. Dozens of devices were lost, damaged, or destroyed. Ash blanketed the solar charging panels of UV spectrometers meant to measure gas, rendering them inoperable for months.
Thankfully, the observatory had prepared for such obstacles years prior. “All of our stations talked to each other in a way that was easily configurable, allowing us to reroute a signal from one site to another without having to go there,” Shiro says. Throughout the eruption—which officially ended on September 5, 2018—he and USGS colleagues collaborated with emergency managers and public safety authorities and worked around the clock, publishing updates that empowered residents to plan their lives around a volcano’s whims.
Despite their efforts, the effects of the eruption were widespread. Federal and county officials found that road repair costs would reach $82 million; local farmers suffered some $28 million in collective damages; and communities lost up to $94 million in tourism that year. Still, the work of HVO staff and other responders meant that no one died.
The event taught the USGS team how to handle a rapidly evolving crisis while simultaneously disseminating critical information to those affected, which Shiro believes will assist them in future eruption response efforts. Now, at the Geologic Hazards Science Center, he manages a group of scientists who keep tabs on earthquake hazards. Their work is central to populating the USGS website earthquake.gov, which publishes current data to, in part, educate the public and reduce the potential for harm when the ground trembles. “It’s a new hazard for me, having come from tsunamis and then volcanoes,” says Shiro. “I’m checking off different hazards here.”
Ford Motor Co. and its partner SK Innovation will invest a combined $11.4 billion to set up pair of battery plants in Kentucky, as well as a new EV assembly plant outside Memphis, the automaker announced Monday evening.
Ford announced plans to invest $11.4 billion into building two new battery plants in Kentucky and an EV assembly plant near Memphis.
The Tennessee complex, which Ford dubbed “Blue Oval City,” will produce a new generation of all-electric F-Series pickups, from base models like the F-150 up to heavy-duty versions, said Lisa Drake, the automaker’s North American chief operating officer. The BlueOvalSK Battery Park, meanwhile, will handle everything from the processing of raw materials to the recycling of used batteries, which will provide basic components like lithium for the new batteries. All told, 11,000 jobs will be created.
The new facilities will become a cornerstone of Ford’s rapidly expanding shift from gas and diesel to battery-electric powertrains. CEO Jim Farley earlier this year announced a total of $30 billion in EV investments by 2025, with a goal of having all-electric models account for 40% of the carmaker’s total U.S. sales by the end of the decade.
A “pivotal moment”
If anything, the three new facilities provide “more upside” to go beyond the 40% EV target, said Drake, during a conference call with reporters Monday. She expects at least a third of all pickup buyers will go electric, noting a large share of those will be commercial users, such as fleets and contractors.
Lisa Drake, Ford’s Chief Operating Officer, North America, said the investment was a “pivotal moment” in the company’s EV plans.
“This is a really pivotal moment for us,” said Drake, as Ford rapidly shifts its attention away from internal combustion technology. The automaker was an early pioneer in the use of “electrified” drivetrains, but fell behind key rivals, including not only General Motors but also upstart Tesla, in bringing out long-range battery-electric models. It launched its first direct Tesla rival, the Mustang Mach-E, late last year, and will start production of the F-150 Lightning next June. Initial demand for the battery pickup has been so strong Ford this month announced a $250 million investment to double its initial production capacity.
Blue Oval City will become Ford’s fourth U.S. plant building full-size pickups. At nearly six square miles, the facility will be fully three times larger than the Rouge complex in suburban Detroit which today focuses on the mainstream F-150 family — and will add the Lightning next year.
The Tennessee manufacturing facility will contain not only an assembly plant but numerous supplier operations. Many of those will focus on battery manufacturing. Ford has tied its EV future to SK Innovation, the South Korean battery company set to contribute about $4 billion of the total $11.4 billion in new investments announced Monday.
Billions and billions of watts
This rendering of the exterior of Ford’s Blue Oval City complex only hints at the true size of the massive facility.
The Memphis complex will go into operation in calendar year 2025. That same year, the first of the two new battery plants in Kentucky will come in line. The second will follow a year later. Each of the three new battery factories — including the one at Blue Oval City — will have capacity to produce 43 gigawatt-hours of batteries annually. That’s enough to power about 1 million long-range BEVs like the Ford F-150 Lightning, said Drake.
That’s on top of two plants the partners announced over the summer with a combined output of 60 GWh. All told, that would give Ford enough batteries to power the roughly 1.5 million BEVs it expects to produce annually by decade’s end, noted Drake.
A key element of the new plan will see Ford and SK handle operations ranging from the processing of raw materials through to recycling. The end-of-life process will be handled by Nevada-based Redwood Materials. Eventually, Ford officials explained, they hope to create “zero waste” at the new EV operations. Old batteries will be dismantled, ground up and their raw materials used in new cells.
That, stressed Drake, will help reduce the cost of future batteries. Today, automakers spend about $150 per kilowatt-hour for individual cells, a figure that jumps to nearly $200 when the cost of the entire battery pack is considered. Ford and SK are targeting a pack price of around $80. For a vehicle like the Mustang Mach-E with a 300-mile, 98 kWh pack, that would reduce costs by well over $10,000 — putting it on a price par with a comparable, gas-powered vehicle.
Ford plans to build another plant near Memphis to build all-electric F-Series pickups.
Blue Oval City to use new EV truck platform
Ford and SK officials offered few technical details about the vehicles that will be built at Blue Oval City. But the F-Series models built there — along with the next-generation model assembled in Michigan — will get an all-new, skateboard-like BEV platform specifically designed for truck applications. Insiders suggest it will be lighter, offer better range and offer other advantages based on relocating its motors and batteries underneath the load floor.
Blue Oval City will become the first completely new assembly plant Ford has set up in the U.S. since it made over the Rouge complex nearly 30 years ago. The new Electric Vehicle Center at the Rouge will only handle final assembly after bodies and chasses are put together and painted at the existing pickup plant.
Ford has broadly hinted that it plans to roll out all-electric versions of other “icon” models. That will include a battery-powered Explorer SUV which, according to Sam Fiorani, chief analyst with AutoForecast Solutions, should go into production around 2023.
The second-largest U.S. automaker also is developing an electric version of its Transit van. And, as TheDetroitBureau.com recently reported, new, all-electric replacements for the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus SUVs are in development, as well. Those models are expected to go into the Ford plant in Oakville, Ontario.
“We are moving now to deliver breakthrough electric vehicles for the many rather than the few,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. “It’s about creating good jobs that support American families, an ultra-efficient, carbon-neutral manufacturing system, and a growing business that delivers value for communities, dealers and shareholders.”
For years, Ford Motor Co. the development and production police cars formed one of the pillars of the company’s plans bolster its sales of vehicles to commercial fleets, including those belonging to municipal governments.
Ford submitted an all-electric police Mach-E pilot vehicle for testing as part of the Michigan State Police.
Now Ford, which caught some flak from its own employees about its close relations with police departments during the protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, are beginning a campaign to get the local departments to think about the possibility of using electric vehicles on for patrolling the nation’s streets.
The automaker confirmed through a press release, which says as part of its more than $30 billion investment in electrification through 2025, “Ford is exploring all-electric, purpose-built law enforcement vehicle.”
Police, however, tend to be rather conservative in their vehicle choices and over the years they have resisted new technology such as anti-lock brakes.
Demand for electric police vehicles expected to grow
As part of the effort to show “an electric powertrain can deliver strong performance and stand up to demanding police duty cycles, Ford is submitting an all-electric police pilot vehicle based on the 2021 Mustang Mach-E SUV for testing done by Michigan State Police.”
The Michigan State Police evaluations are used by many other police departments to guide their purchasing decisions. Ford will use evaluations of the pilot vehicles built from the battery-electric Mach-Es as a benchmark for the development of future police vehicles.
Ford believes its Mach-E can handle the rigors of police usage.
The demand for purpose-built electric police vehicles in the future is expected to grow worldwide and last week Ford introduced a new Mustang Mach-E concept police car in the United Kingdom, where major cities are moving forward with restrictions on vehicles with internal combustion engines. Several police departments across the United Kingdom are eager to try out the Mach-E, Ford said.
Mach-E police vehicle
Selling a police car based on the Ford Mustang Mach-E in the United States, however, could be problematic. Many large municipalities, urban counties and even state governments have adopted “Buy American” ordinances as part their procurement requirements, which are relatively stringent.
The Ford Mach-E is made in Hermosillo, Mexico, which would appear to limit its appeal to local governments in the United States. They could face expensive litigation for going around the ordinances even under provisions of the current United States Mexico Canada Agreement, which replaced North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020.
