EV News – 2022 Reveiw and 2023 Coming Soon!

I had a short conversation with someone about EV’s (electric vehicles) who admitted that they didn’t know much about the current adoption/industry. I took it upon myself to gather a few highlights from 2022 as well as some info about exciting near term developments for 2023. Below are those articles!

A short deviation from all the EV stuff that will follow.

Porsche begins production of ‘e-fuel’ that could provide gas alternative amid EV push. Porsche said Tuesday that a pilot plant in Chile started production of the alternative fuel, as it aims to produce millions of gallons by mid-decade.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/20/porsche-starts-production-of-e-fuel-that-could-provide-gas-alternative.html

 A big deal for 2023 is that most EV’s are again open to the $7,500 tax credit, depending on where the batteries are made and some other rules.

Previously after any specific manufacturer had sold 200k EV’s that company’s cars would lose a tax credit.

So GM and Tesla EV’s were not getting a $7,500 tax credit at the end of 2022 while Ford’s were.

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/credits-for-new-clean-vehicles-purchased-in-2023-or-after

Tesla Cybertruck – Many Tesla fans are closely watching as tooling rolls into the Texas production plant, getting ready for Cybertruck production later in 2023!

Tesla takes delivery of army of robots to build Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck Coming, Giga Press Shipments Arrive At Giga Texas

https://insideevs.com/news/630127/tesla-cybertruck-coming-giga-press-shipments-arrive/

TeslaSsemi – Initially 36 delivered to Pepsi. More being delivered in 2023

500 mile range on the Tesla Semi, pulling a load.

Tesla expanding Texas plant – $700 million capital expenditure https://electrek.co/2023/01/10/tesla-applies-massive-million-expansion-gigafactory-texas/

Vinfast – Vietnamese car company. Up and coming! Sounds like a bit of a rough start though.

Part of a huge company – Vingroup that seems to own everything in Vietnam.

https://jalopnik.com/vinfast-vf8-electric-car-first-drive-not-ready-for-u-s-1849892217

 Vingroup Joint Stock Company is the largest conglomerate of Vietnam,focusing on technology, industry, real estate development, retail, and services ranging from healthcare to hospitality. The company was founded by property developer and entrepreneur Phạm Nhật Vượng.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vingroup

It’s hard to tell how many cars Vinfast has sold in 2022. It sounds like only a few thousand. But hopefully they will start producing more in 2023! More EV companies the better.

https://www.marklines.com/en/news/274025

 Ford

The company said it sold 15,617 F150 Lightning EV pickups in 2022. Plans to sell many more in 2023. 

 Rivian

On a full-year 2022 basis, Rivian produced 24,337 electric vehicles and delivered 20,332 to customers. Rivian is a new EV only car (currently only making Trucks and SUV’s) company.

https://insideevs.com/news/629288/rivian-ev-production-deliveries-2022q4

VW bus -ID.Buzz –

saw the start of production of the ID.Buzz electric van after it was officially unveiled last March.

6,000 Buzz deliveries alone by the end of 2022

 In 2022, 20,511 Volkswagen ID.4 (small electric sedan) were sold in the US, which is 22.5 percent more than in 2021 (16,742) and 6.8 percent of the brand’s total volume. Cumulatively, more than 37,000 ID.4 were delivered to customers

https://insideevs.com/news/629719/us-volkswagen-id4-sales-record-2022q4/

2023 Chevy Bolt EV and EUV get $6,000 price cut, start at $25,600 –. Probably cheapest/best value EV for sale in USA.

Canoo – New EV company. Has multiple sale agreements with Walmart, US military, others.

https://www.press.canoo.com/press-release/walmart-purchases-canoo-electric-delivery-vehicles

United states post office – Personally I think this is a great application for EV’s. standard daily route length. Can recharge at night. Should save USPS a lot of money. 

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2022/1220-usps-intends-to-deploy-over-66000-electric-vehicles-by-2028.htm

 o Postal Service anticipates increasing the quantity of purpose-built Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) to a minimum of 60,000 of which at least 45,000 will be battery electric by 2028. NGDV acquisitions delivered in 2026 and thereafter expected to be 100% electric.

o Postal Service expects to purchase an additional 21,000 battery electric delivery vehicles through 2028, representing a mix of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) vehicles. Acquisitions delivered in 2026 through 2028 expected to be 100% electric.

 Chinese EV companies – NIO, Xpeng, Li auto – are the 3 new big upcoming Chinese EV companies.

NIO – . NIO delivered 122,486 vehicles in 2022 in total, increasing by 34.0% year-over-year. Cumulative deliveries of NIO vehicles reached 289,556 as of December 31, 2022.

https://www.nio.com/news/nio-inc-provides-december-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2022-delivery-update

Nio is also working on battery swap stations, not just charging like most other EV companies are doing.

https://insideevs.com/news/622519/nio-1200-battery-swapping-stations-china-2022/

Xpeng – Xpeng ranked third, delivering 11,292 vehicles in December, down from 16,000 last year, for a total of 120,757 in 2022.

Li Auto – They are the 3rd hot Chinese EV car company. Honestly I don’t know much about them but apparently they delivered just slightly more EV’s than Nio or Xpeng in 2022 (Li Auto – 133,000 deliveries in 2022. See above link.

BYD – BYD auto is a legacy car company that has delivered a lot of hybrids in china.They sell more plug in hybrids than pure EV’s. but still a good company/force in EV world.

https://insideevs.com/news/629273/byd-plugin-car-sales-december2022/

In 2022, BYD sold more than 1.85 million plug-in electric cars, more than tripling its 2021 result of 593,745. This makes the company the world’s largest manufacturer of rechargeable cars, although, in the case of all-electric cars, Tesla still has a significant edge (over 1.3 million deliveries).

BYD plug-in sales year-to-date:

BEVs: 911,141 (up 184% year-over-year)

PHEVs: 946,238 (up 247% year-over-year)

Total: 1,857,379 (up 213% year-over-year)

Can I buy a Tesla in Iowa? – No

Iowa has a Republican governor who claims (like all Republicans) to be pro business. We also have a strong clean energy economy both through our adoption of ethanol as well as windmills for electricity. Because of all these things it is egregious that the best selling electric car in the world is not able to be purchased in Iowa. Tesla cars are unable to be purchased in Iowa due to a law related to dealership franchises, which Tesla does not have.
No one likes going to dealers. They are awful to deal with. They jerk you around on vehicle sale price. They try to talk you into buying something more than you need or can afford. I can’t say I have ever met someone who is genuinely excited about going to a car dealer.
Alternatively, Tesla, which makes the most efficient and best selling EV’s in the world, and which are made in the USA, are unable to be purchased in Iowa, the state with the highest amount of green wind energy per capita.
Tesla vehicle pricing is also clear on their website. Everyone pays the same for a Tesla. 

I have personally written multiple of my state representatives and senators to try to get them to make a move on this to remove this law from the books.
Here was my interaction with the state representative (I will tell you which one if you ask me directly). 

Dear Rep.

Iowa is a state that has approximately 40% of it’s energy supplied by windmills. We say we are a green state. But residents are unable to purchase a Tesla, the best selling electric car ever, in our state. This is due to archaic laws and crony capitalism. I urge you to help change these laws. – Axel Hoogland

Reply – 

Dear Axel Hoogland,

Thank you for your email.  I had no idea it was such a problem to buy a Tesla in Iowa. I spoke with another legislator who owns a Tesla and she said it was because of franchisees code. You are able to buy a Tesla in Iowa but it remains difficult to pick one up anywhere nearby. Unfortunately there is not a coalition nor political will to move language forward. I will watch this…it doesn’t seem to be fair nor help us reach our sustainability goals. Please email me anytime.

Yours, Rep.

This is representative of every email I have sent to a politician, regardless of the policy I am addressing. Admitting that it is bad, backpedaling that “there is no will to do anything about it.”


That is why I am sharing my views with the internet. I would ask anyone who thinks that you should be able to buy a Tesla in Iowa to just send your state representative or state senator a short email. You could even copy mine.  (below) 

Here is where you can find the list of Iowa State Representatives. Email any one of them, or all of them!  https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/house

Dear Rep.

Iowa is a state that has approximately 40% of it’s energy supplied by windmills. We say we are a green state. But residents are unable to purchase a Tesla, the best selling electric car ever, in our state. This is due to archaic laws and crony capitalism. I urge you to help change these laws. – Your Name

It seems like a very simple law to erase. The only people who it seems to benefit are the car dealerships, not individuals. So why won’t state politicians change this law?

There was even an 80 pager report in 2016 from the Iowa Economic Development Authority titled “Advancing Iowa’s Electric Vehicle Market” which specifically mentioned the issue that Tesla’s are unable to be sold in Iowa. If they truly wanted to “Advance the Electric Vehicle Market” in Iowa the easiest and best thing they could do would be to allow the cars to be sold here.That report can be found here.

https://www.iowaeconomicdevelopment.com/userdocs/programs/AdvancingIowasElectricVehicleMarketReport.pdf

Page 55 (pdf page 62) shared the information about Tesla/dealership laws in Iowa.

Like all progress that is inevitable, sometime in the next 10 years it is very likely that Iowa citizens will be able to purchase a Tesla in the state of Iowa. I am giving state politicians an easy win here by asking them to overturn an arcane law that is hurting a progressive American Business and hurting Iowans, making them drive out of state to make a large purchase.