EV Hub Live

The Michigan economy depends on a vibrant automotive sector. With the industry moving closer to electrification and foreign competition, particularly from China, intensifying, the race for the future is well underway. In this episode of EV Hub Live, Tom Taylor from Atlas Public Policy will be joined by Sophia Schuster from the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council and Glenn Stevens from MichAuto. They'll pinpoint critical issues, evaluate the state of play in Michigan, and outline urgent actions needed to secure the state's future.

Hosting capacity maps for electricity distribution grid are becoming increasingly critical as electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure rapidly expands across the United States. These maps help project developers make informed decisions on where to optimally deploy EV chargers, ultimately lowering infrastructure costs and accelerating project timelines. In this episode of EV Hub Live, Lucy McKenzie from Atlas Public Policy will be joined by Cristina Botero and Shikhar Pandey from Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), along with Midhat Mafazy from the Interstate Energy Renewable Council (IREC), to explore the benefits and challenges of hosting capacity maps. As organizations actively involved in researching and implementing these maps, ComEd and IREC bring valuable perspectives to the discussion. The episode streamed live on Tuesday, April 15th at 2:30pm EST. 

Join Atlas Public Policy for this episode of EV Hub Live. We are joined by Cassie Powers, Chief of Staff of the National Association of State Energy Officials and Phil Jones, Executive Director of the Alliance for Transportation Electrification. Our guests discuss what we can expect to happen in the year ahead and offer some reflections on developments from 2024. Their perspectives as leaders in the EV industry are especially relevant now, as changes in Washington following November's election will likely result in changes to federal EV policy.  

Last week, Donald Trump won the presidential election and Republicans took control of the Senate. Republicans are also likely to take control of the House of Representatives. Atlas Public Policy's founder, Nick Nigro, will sit down with Mike Murphy, CEO of the EV Politics Project, to discuss what the results mean for electric vehicles. The incoming President and Congress will significantly influence the outcomes of the substantial investments in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing made in recent years. Nick and Mike will unpack these issues and more.

In August, the Oakland Unified School District in California became the first major school district in the United States to fully electrify its school bus fleet. Each of the 74 electric school buses in the fleet has its own bi-directional charger, allowing the bus batteries to return energy to the grid when they are not being used. The fleet was made possible by Zum (www.ridezum.com), the leading provider of turnkey electric school bus solutions, and Pacific Gas and Electric, the electric utility which provides 2.7 MW to the site.  On this episode, Ritu Narayan, Founder and CEO of Zum, and Sarah Swickard, Vehicle Grid Integration Manager at PG&E, talk about the Oakland fleet as well as opportunities and challenges related to electric school buses.

At-home charging is the most common charging method among current EV drivers in the United States. It is convenient and reliable and less expensive than buying gasoline. However, people who live in apartments or condos often do not have access to a home charger, making EV ownership significantly more challenging. In order to achieve an equitable transition to EVs, these residents need convenient, reliable, and affordable charging options. In this episode, Malcolm Johnson from UC Berkeley and Ellen Kennedy from RMI discuss recent research their organizations published on EV charging at multifamily housing, including barriers, equitable solutions, and examples. 

As electric vehicle adoption increases, the demand for critical minerals for batteries will also increase. There is an opportunity to create a closed loop minerals system through battery chemistry changes, energy density improvements, recycling, and other solutions. Already, chemistry changes and energy density improvements have significantly reduced virgin mineral demand. In this episode, E.J. Klock-McCook, principal of carbon-free transportation at RMI, and Daan Walter, principal of RMI's strategy team, discuss recent research on this topic, including an RMI report released last month called “The Battery Mineral Loop: The path from extraction to circularity,” which explores what it would take to create a closed loop minerals system as we rapidly electrify transportation. 

Electric vehicle sales continue to grow globally. Segments such as commercial vehicles and two- and three-wheelers have already reached very high levels of electrification—at 26 percent and 47 percent, respectively. However, electric vehicle growth is not consistent globally, and some markets have seen a decrease in the pace of electrification including in the United States. Bloomberg New Energy Finance's recently-released 2024 Electric Vehicle Outlook covers these trends and others, including the pace of public charging deployment, the breakdown of EV sales by battery-electric vehicles vs. plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and EV investment and market opportunities. We are joined in this episode by Corey Cantor from BNEF to discuss key takeaways from the report. 

The biggest barrier to a full zero-emission transportation future is infrastructure. Just like a national gas-powered transportation system needed coast-to-coast gas stations to be built and complex supply chain logistics to transport fuel across the country, EVs need charging infrastructure with ready access to grid-provided energy in order to power EVs for daily commute and long-distance travel alike. For that to happen, EV charging providers must work closely with utility providers to build that infrastructure together. Our guests Nadia El Mallakh and Brian Wilkie will discuss how utilities, charging providers, and the government can work together to accelerate our clean transportation transition. 

With the anticipated announcement by EPA this week of the final version for its light-duty and medium-duty vehicle regulation, the transportation world is abuzz about the potential for two thirds of new passenger vehicles sold in 2032 to be EVs. To help you understand the implications of this rule, EV Hub Live is hosting experts Audrey LaForest from Automotive News and Chris Harto from Consumer Reports to discuss the details of the regulation, the response from the transportation industry, and the long-term impacts that this rule will have.

The Inflation Reduction Act aims to create nine million good jobs over the next decade, with ten percent of those jobs in clean manufacturing. This echoes the manufacturing boom that created the Steel Belt, bringing life to communities across the heartland of America. But that boom eventually led to the Rust Belt and a sense among manufacturing workers that they had been left behind. With labor movements on the rise, workers are becoming more optimistic for another growth of sustainable communities built around these good jobs. But with persistent supply chain challenges on the horizon and neighboring countries with lower labor costs developing advanced manufacturing capabilities, how can the U.S. keep new, clean, good jobs here at home? Our guests Anna Waldman-Brown from the DOE Office of Energy Jobs and Reem Rayef from BlueGreen Alliance will discuss the vision behind the IRA, how the labor movement can build good jobs, and how the U.S. can keep those good jobs and build sustainable communities.

Atlas Public Policy rings in the new year with Gabe Klein, Executive Director of the U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. In this episode, we'll hear about what impacts the Joint Office has made thus far, what they hope to accomplish in 2024, and how those efforts will affect the wider EV and charging markets in the United States to drive us toward a zero-emission transportation future.

When we think about EVs, many people immediately imagine electric cars quickly and quietly zipping down the highway. But for our guests today, the EV future includes alternative forms of transportation—like electric bicycles and scooters, or electric buses and rail. Our guests Stephanie Lotshaw from TransitCenter and Mike Salisbury from the City and County of Denver will discuss the importance of developing and providing alternatives to electric cars in an EV future, particularly in metropolitan areas around the United States. We'll hear about challenges to implementation and adoption, as well as opportunities to reimagine navigable and clean city centers built for pedestrians, public transit, and micro-mobility. 

As EV adoption continues to grow, drivers will need ready access to charging infrastructure that can power their ride. States need to ensure that both commercial and residential property developers are thinking ahead and building for an EV-driven future. On this episode of EV Hub Live, special guest host Zack Strauss—the host of Atlas's Buildings Hub Live—will interview Vanessa Warheit from the EV Charing for All Coalition and Adam Berry from the Colorado Energy Office about how states are approaching not only how to ensure there are enough chargers out there for future drivers, but crucially how they states can ensure new development is equitable for all EV drivers. The coalition recently released the EV Building Codes Toolkit, which helps state offices and community organizers to encourage implementation of equitable policies for EV charging building codes. This is a unique convergence of Atlas's EV and Buildings live shows that you won't want to miss!

With the federal fiscal year coming to a close this month and the race for 2024 beginning in earnest, Atlas Public Policy's founder, Nick Nigro, sits down with Politico's Tanya Snyder and Automotive News' Audrey LaForest to chat about the latest EV policy and funding issues at the federal level. They'll cover the budget debate in Washington, pending EPA/NHTSA rules, and the implementation of IIJA/IRA. They'll also discuss how EVs are factoring into campaigns for 2024.

For this episode of EV Hub Live, we hear from Jordan Brinn from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on building a sustainable EV battery market through policy, funding, and research. Brinn recently authored “Building Batteries Better: Doing the Best With Less” and is a transportation electrification policy expert. The conversation will be facilitated by Atlas Public Policy founder, Nick Nigro. Join us today at 3PM EST. 

Widespread EV charging deployment is in the works, and funding through programs like NEVI is beginning to take shape. As we work to build a nationwide charging network, robust relationships between utilities, charging installers, and site hosts will need to form for seamless deployment. In this episode, we'll hear perspectives from Rachael Nealer from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, Lang Reynolds from Circle K and Brian Wilke from National Grid on key challenges such as permitting, installation, and charger reliability, and ways to foster opportunities among the parties involved in charger deployment.

NEVI is one of the first Justice40-covered programs to be implemented nationally, and we now have a chance to avoid repeating harmful transportation investments in underserved communities. Through conversations with stakeholders and a comprehensive review of initial state NEVI plans, we'll hear from EV equity advocates Rachel Patterson from Evergreen and Moe Khatib from Atlas Public Policy on how states can lead on equitable charging deployment centering disadvantaged communities.

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro, Atlas Public Policy analyst Zachary Strauss and Virginia Smith Reeder from The Eastern Transportation Coalition.

Companies working on EVs are doing really tough stuff. In order to build something special, you often need a team that stays together through thick and thin. In this episode, we'll talk with two EV experts who've been with their companies for more than 15 years. We'll find out what it is about working at their companies that makes them stick around. 

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro, Michael Tubman from Lucid Motors, and Jeff Werner from Panasonic to discuss the rise of a domestic EV battery industry, and how battery technology is changing. 

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro, Tanya Snyder from Politico, and Rebecca Leber from Vox to discuss the key climate outcomes from the election and what it means for climate action moving forward. The conversation will cover both the places where EVs and other climate measures were specifically on the ballot and climate action in the wake of the midterms.

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro, Dr Shawn Wilson, Secretary, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and Kay Kelly, Chief, Office of Innovative Mobility, Colorado Department of Transportation to discuss the next steps for Colorado and Louisiana in implementing NEVI funding.

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro, Katherine Stainken of the Electrification Coalition and Robbie Orvis of Energy Innovation to discuss the EV elements in the recently released draft of the Inflation Reduction Act.

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro, Ethan Elkind, Director, Climate Program, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley and Abigail Wulf, Director, Critical Minerals Strategy at SAFE, to discuss critical minerals and how to ensure our supply chains can meet future EV demand.

In this episode of EV Hub Live, we sit down with Kameale Terry, CEO of ChargerHelp! and Cory Bullis, Senior Public Affairs Specialist at FLO to talk about the nuts and bolts of reliable EV charging.

In this episode of EV Hub Live, we sit down with Arianna Skibell of Politico and Jennifer Hiller of the Wall Street Journal to talk about their experience covering the EV transition. Jennifer is an energy reporter and wrote a strong and data filled story about EVs and the cost of charging. Arianna is a climate and transportation reporter and wrote a fascinating and winding history of the Postal Service's transition to EVs.We will talk about the EV stories that both journalists have covered, how covering transportation electrification differs from other beats and covering the EV transition in 2022. 

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro and two leaders in the mobility, equity, and transportation electrification space from the Greenlining Institute: Hana Creger, Senior Program Manager, Climate Equity and Román Partida-López, Legal Counsel, Environmental Equity. Hana and Román bring years of experience and expertise on equity and EVs and will discuss how investments can better incorporate equity.

This episode of EV Hub Live brings together Atlas founder Nick Nigro, Deputy National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi and Adam Ruder from NYSERDA to talk about the signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the proposed Build Back Better legislation and what these developments mean for the electric vehicle market and for EV-related state programs.

The report, Transportation Electrification in the Southeast (2021) prepared by Atlas and SACE, found that the Southeast (including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee), saw significant growth in transportation electrification over the past 12 months. The Southeast for instance makes up 18 percent of national population, but 37 percent of all manufacturing investment and saw large increases in EV sales, approved utility investment and charging infrastructure. That said, the Southeast continues to lag other regions. Nick, Stan, and Susan will discuss progress and the areas for future growth in the region.As Chief Economic Development Liaison at the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Susan Fleetwood has experience in supporting industry and will offer up insights about the ways that Government in North Carolina has supported the EV industry and what else government, and the private sector is able to do. Stan Cross, the Electric Transportation Policy Director at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), will offer his insights both as a partner in the development of the Report as well as from his experience in tracking transportation electrification in the Southeast.

School buses constitute 80 percent of buses around the country – but only one percent of school buses are electrified. Sue Gander of WRI and Matt Stanberry of Highland Electric are leading the school bus electrification transition from two complementary standpoints. WRI have laid out their ambition to create “unstoppable momentum” to electrify all 480,000 school buses in the United States by 2030, centering equity in the process. Meanwhile, Highland Electric is behind the largest electric school bus order in history earlier this year in Maryland. Through Highland's innovative funding model, a school district leases the buses from the company but pays the same as it would with its existing diesel fleet.In this episode of EV Hub Live , Sue and Matt will discuss how to translate ambitious plans into reality. The conversation will cover innovative financing models for electrification, what it means to center equity considerations in school bus transport, and priorities for the near term.

California announced in May a mandate that 90 percent of miles logged by Uber and Lyft drivers must be electric by the end of the decade. The aggressive timeline could make ride-hailing one of the first transportation modes to go all electric. Meanwhile, research by RMI shows that electrifying these services could help build a bridge to a more equitable future.In this episode of EV Hub Live, Nick Nigro will sit down with EJ Klock-McCook of RMI and Adam Gromis of Uber to talk through the ups and downs of getting more ride-hail drivers in EVs and what policymakers need to be aware of in the near term.

Forth's Roadmap Conference is one of the premiere EV conferences in the world. Every year, the EV community convenes in Portland, Oregon to explore emerging trends, share best practices and lessons learned, and build the road ahead. Like last year, this year's conference will be virtual but the event promises to be full of valuable information for all who can attend. In this episode of EV Hub Live, Nick Nigro will be joined by Jeff Allen, the Executive Director of Forth, the organizer of the Roadmap Conference. Jeff and Nick will discuss the key takeaways from this year's conference and what lies ahead for EVs in the near term.

Research is starting to pile up on what the United States could look like with widescale transportation electrification. On April 8th, Atlas released findings from a deep dive on charging infrastructure investment needs to achieve 100 percent passenger EV sales by 2035. The research concluded over $87 billion in investments in charging infrastructure will be needed over the next decade, including $39 billion for public charging to put the United States on a path to full electrification. Just a week later, on April 15th, the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC-Berkeley, Energy Innovation, and Grid Lab released two landmark reports showing the tremendous benefits of achieving a highly electrified transportation future supported by a clean grid. The studies evaluated the economic, human health, environmental, and electrical grid impacts of an all-electric future and the policy necessary to realize that ambition.  In this episode of EV Hub Live, Nick Nigro will be joined by Sara Baldwin of Energy Innovation, Nikit Abhyankar of the Goldman School of Public Policy, and Lucy McKenzie of Atlas Public Policy to discuss the benefits of widescale electric transportation, along with the infrastructure investments needs and the policy to get us there.

The U.S. Postal Service recently announced the awardee of a 10-year contract to build the USPS’s next generation postal delivery vehicle. The winner, Oshkosh Defense is known for building tactical vehicles for the U.S. military and has no known experience manufacturing an EV. In fact, the company expressed concerns to investors last year about its lack of experience with EVs, saying they “may not have the expertise or resources to successfully address these pressures on a cost-effective basis or at all.”Given the long-term nature of the contract, the amount of money at stake, and the trends in vehicle technology, the policy community immediately raised concerns about the environmental impact of this decision and how this contract will play out.In this episode of EV Hub Live, Nick Nigro will be joined by Dorothy Robyn of the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy and Gina Coplon-Newfield of the Sierra Club to discuss the contract awarded by USPS, the response from Congress, the role of EVs, and where we go from here.

The National Association of State Energy Officials and Cadmus released a new PEV Policy Impact Rubric on March 1st which updates their 2018 rubric. The new Rubric can be used by state and local officials to evaluate the strength of their PEV-related policies. To develop the rubric, the study team reviewed the literature to see what the experts had to say on policy effectiveness and convened a committee of advisors to fill in gaps in the literature. Electrify America – one of the largest charging infrastructure providers in the United States – used the new rubric to evaluate the policy environment of metro regions throughout the country for its $500 million Cycle 3 investment plan. In this episode of EV Hub Live, Cassie Powers from NASEO and Geoff Morrison from Cadmus will join Nick Nigro to discuss findings from their work and how the policy community can answer that critical, ever-changing question: what’s working?

A new paper from the Alliance for Transportation Electrification and Plug In America calls consumer education and outreach by electric utilities the “missing piece” for transportation electrification. The paper shares eight reasons why utilities should be enabled to invest in education and outreach programs and how these programs can help close the awareness gap and spur more electric vehicle adoption.In this episode of EV Hub Live, Nick Nigro will sit down with Katherine Stainken of Plug In America and Kellen Schefter of the Edison Electric Institute to discuss this new research and what we should expect from utilities and other stakeholders on education and outreach in the near term.

Next year could mark a turning point for EVs in a number of ways. The most valuable automaker in the world is now an electric vehicle manufacturer and the amount of approved investment by electric utilities has surpassed $2.6 billion.In this episode of EV Hub Live, Nick Nigro will sit down with Michael Berube, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation at the U.S. Department of Energy and Joe Britton, the Executive Director of the newly formed Zero Emission Transportation Alliance. We’ll discuss the vehicle and charging technology progress we can expect in the near term and the importance of U.S. leadership in electric transportation.

A Special One-On-One Conversation about the 2020 U.S. Election with Dan Sperling of the University of California, DavisAs President-elect Biden prepares to take office, where things will end up in Washington next year are coming into focus following the most unusual election in many decades. Two Senate seats in Georgia will be filled via a run-off election in January and will determine control of the U.S. Senate. With a strong advocate in the White House, transportation electrification is poised to gain more support in Washington.While the extent to which the issue will be greeted by a more generous U.S. Congress is still to be determined, the change in leadership at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will undoubtedly cause many to alter their near-term priorities.In this episode of EV Hub Live, Nick Nigro will sit down with transportation policy guru, Dan Sperling, the founding Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis and member of the California Air Resources Board. We’ll discuss the implications of the election on state ZEV programs, federal policy, and other key policies and programs related to EVs. We’ll hear where Dan thinks things will go over the next year as the state legislatures and governors get going, Washington receives a new Congress, and a new President is sworn in.

Electric utility engagement in transportation electrification has been rapidly expanding in recent years. As the role of the utility in advancing EVs comes into focus, the extent to which they will accelerate EV deployment is a hot topic. Investments alone are up more than three times compared to 2019 with two recent approvals in New York and California. On July 16, 2020, six utilities across New York were approved to invest $700 million in EV charging throughout the state. This could support more than 53,000 Level 2 and 1,500 DC fast charging stations. On the other side of the country, Southern California Edison got the green light to invest $436 million in their Charge Ready 2 program on August 27, 2020. This approval clears the way for an additional 40,000 Level 2 and 200 DC fast charging stations to their service territory. In this episode of EV Hub Live, we’ll talk with Patty Monahan from the California Energy Commission and Phil Jones from the Alliance for Transportation Electrification about the role of the utility in advancing transportation electrification and where they see things headed in the near term. This episode will be co-hosted by our founder, Nick Nigro, and Kellen Schefter of the Edison Electric Institute.

U.S. passenger EV sales were down 44 percent in Q2 compared to 2019. COVID-19 was part of the problem as many automakers remained shuttered in April and face delayed production timelines for existing and upcoming EV models. It was not all doom and gloom for the EV sector, however, and government and utility funding for EVs is up in 2020. In addition to this, automakers, startups, and charging companies continue to raise investment for transportation electrification and EV stocks have been among the hottest on the market through the summer. In this episode of EV Hub Live, we’ll talk with Britta Gross from the Rocky Mountain Institute and David Ferris from E&E News about recent developments in the EV market, namely passenger vehicle sales, policy developments, and electric utility activity, as well as how COVID is effecting the EV Market.

The Golden State continues to lead the nation in their pursuit of rapid transportation electrification. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) unanimously passed the Advanced Clean Trucks Rule on June 25th, the first-of-its-kind regulation requiring manufacturers to ramp up sales of electric vans and trucks. Shortly afterwards, 15 states and Washington, DC came together in support of rapid electrification of the medium-and heavy-duty vehicle sector. The MOU signed by participating states calls for all new truck and bus sales to be zero emission by 2050. States partnering on the MOU include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.In this episode of EV Hub Live, we’ll talk with Jimmy O’Dea from the Union of Concerned Scientists and Kathy Kinsey from the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) about the significance of these policy developments and their impacts on the electric truck market.