Diversification in the EV industry

Issue #36, Dec 7th 2020

The electric and autonomous vehicle business is not just about selling cars. It is developing its own ecosystem of new systems and suppliers as the scale of adoption grows gradually. Clean or renewable energy is used to charge the EV batteries. EVs can become sources of power as they store solar energy generated at consumer locations and feed surplus energy to the grid. Charging stations are an opportunity to be tapped. Below are some interesting developments in EVs diversifying into adjoining areas of business.

EVs to fuel power grids

Nissan wants to get more than just miles out of its electric vehicles. The Japanese automaker also wants to plug its cars into the power grid, making use of vehicle batteries to provide clean electricity to towns when not on the road. Electricity from parked Nissan EVs helped power facilities at the 2020 Sanriku Fireworks Festival in Iwate Prefecture. - Nikkei Asia

All electric charging stations

Britain’s first all-electric car charging forecourt is set to open for business to charge electric vehicles with 100% renewable energy. The super-fast electric forecourt will deliver 350KW of charging power, or enough to add 200 miles of driving range, within 20 minutes, to up to 36 cars at a time. It will use clean energy sourced from one of the UK’s first subsidy-free solar farms, overhead solar canopies, and a battery capable of storing enough energy to drive 24,000 miles. It is the first of more than 100 electric forecourts that Gridserve, a clean energy company, plans to roll out across the country over the next five years as part of a billion-pound “sun-to-wheel” infrastructure. - The Guardian

Thermal camera - the next air bag

The Adasky thermal camera uses what’s known as far infrared light waves to detect differences in heat naturally emitted by objects and converts the data into images. The camera can detect heat differences as small as 0.05 Celsius and can detect objects as far as 300 meters at night and in harsh weather conditions. The usual array of sensors in autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles that may include radar, Lidar and cameras simply cannot detect obstacles such as pedestrians, cyclists and some other vehicles in snowy, rainy night and foggy conditions, but, the thermal cameras can. - Forbes

Flying cars in the near future

Flying like a bird may no longer be as futuristic as it sounds. Japan-based teTra Aviation is the only startup that won an award at a Boeing-sponsored air mobility contest earlier this year. teTra Aviation has developed a single-seater flying car and won the $100,000 Pratt & Whitney Disruptor Award in the Inaugural GoFly Prize Final Fly-Off, the world’s first global competition to create personal human flyers. 

Testing an autonomous fleet of cars in China

Self-driving cars without human drivers as a back-up are now being tested in China’s Shenzhen city, according to AutoX, a Chinese autonomous car technology firm. The Alibaba-backed company said Thursday that this is the first time a “completely autonomous fleet,” that has no accompanying human drivers or remote operators, is on the roads in China. - CNBC

"School streets" to promote walking and cycling

Jessop Primary School is home to a “School Street,” one of the latest interventions in the U.K. to promote walking and cycling among both kids and adults. In the morning and afternoon rush, through-traffic on roads in front of participating schools is effectively halted through the use of either cameras or barriers staffed by volunteers. Access is allowed to residents, delivery and emergency vehicles, buses and those with mobility issues. The idea is to give children and parents the space to safely get to and from school — which, in the Covid-19 era, has taken on a whole new meaning. School Streets predate the pandemic — the first came to London in 2017. But they’ve proliferated dramatically nationwide in recent London alone is seeing well over 400 new School Streets go in. - Bloomberg