Trying to read a bunch of news without proper segues can be exhausting and really drain your battery.
Did somebody say battery? GM is beefing up its Ultium platform by launching GM Energy. The existing public charging unit, Ultium Charge 360, will be joined by Ultium Home and Ultium Commercial. (Ok, we are going to try not to repeat the word Ultium for the rest of this piece)
The company joins Tesla in the valuable energy management market with solar and hydrogen-based energy production and household or business-sized batteries.
Sales and installs will go live in late 2023, around the same time the first private customer Chevrolet Silverado EV trucks.
While we are talking energy. An energy crisis in Europe could cut auto production by 40%. About 1M vehicles per quarter through the end of 2023 are on the chopping block due to ongoing factors related to the pandemic, the Russian invasion, and now soaring energy costs.
Energy costs per car have increased from nearly $50 to about $700 in the region. As the winter makes oil and gas more expensive, smaller auto operations will be unable to operate.
Speaking of oil and gas. Israel and Lebanon have at long last agreed on a maritime border that historically kept both nations away from rich oil and gas fields in the Mediterranean. The US-brokered deal has been signed and will be announced soon.
Leadership in both nations has said the deal satisfies their unique needs for security and rightful access to natural wealth.
Israel says it will begin extracting oil and gas from its part of the 332 square miles for export to Europe as soon as possible.
And since you brought up exports. Chinese tech company shares are being pummeled by new US export control measures. Hoping to slow Beijing's military and technological advances, Biden issued rules to prevent chips made with US equipment from ending up in China.
While China's chip-making industry will be the first impacted by the instantly applied rules, any sector using supercomputers or high-end chips will take a hit.