Canoo's weird bubble-shaped truck is back in the news. This time just trying to keep the lights on. The company had back-to-back down quarters in early 2022, even though they landed deals with Walmart, NASA, and The US Army. The deals may have been too little, too late as the company just sold off $52.5M in discounted stock. The stock sale drove the company's market value further down (down over 80% in the last year).
We aren't sure how playing the ponies goes, but we know it's never a bad idea to bet on the horse with 200 patents the US Army or NASA may want to pay big money for.
Nissan will be the first OEM to crack the solid-state battery mystery. The company says it is on track for its solid-state battery plant to begin production by 2025, with vehicles to follow in 2028. The planned liquid-free, cobalt-free batteries will reduce the cost per unit by as much as 65%. This development is projected to eventually make EVs lighter, have longer ranges, charge more quickly, and cost less.
Based on the last year's powertrain development and conversation, we expect batteries to be replaced by big sand hourglass-powered vehicles well before 2028.
Google Maps is becoming a standard built-in feature for some EVs. The app will make finding charging stops easier based on the speed of charging (fast, slow, indifferent) a driver needs. The feature is only in a select set of EVs for now, which shouldn't be a problem since Google Maps is also on our phones, but the feature does not exist on the mobile app version. Weird, right?
Instead of teaching the car how to find the charging station, teach the charging station how to project a beacon into the sky for people looking. A light signal for battery charging. A Bat-Signal, if you will.