Solar Power Savings, EV Sales, Tesla Robotaxis — Top 7 Stories of the Week

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The cleantech revolution rolls on, and that, as always, includes some big news from Tesla, from legacy automakers, from the solar power sector, and from the two-wheeler industry. Let’s roll through some of the top cleantech stories from the past week.

1. Solar Power Savings

A recent report conducted by Payless Power looked at solar power stats across US states in a number of ways, from the biggest investments in solar, to the best subsidies, to the most installed solar power. But the highlights of the report had to be the state-by-state estimated solar power savings and solar ROI.

2. EV Sales & EV Market Share

Jose Pontes contributed his big monthly reports on EV sales in Europe and globally for the month of February.

Also, as always, Max Holland promptly rolled through EV sales and EV market share updates for a handful of countries. Here are those countries and their BEV market share (click through for much more detail and context):

• Norway: 89.3%
• Sweden: 34.9%
• France: 18.9%
• UK: 15.2%

In addition to those great regular reports from Jose and Max, we also now have Juan Diego Celemín Mojica providing regular EV sales reports for some Central and South American countries! Here’s his latest one for Colombia.

Last but not least, being the beginning of a new quarter, we had a few reports on standout EV sales growth from a few companies and a notable EV sales drop from one industry giant:

• Volvo’s pure EV sales were up 43% globally and reached 23% of the company’s sales worldwide last month! Walkin’ the walk.
• Audi’s US EV sales grew 29% in the first quarter.
• BMW’s US EV sales grew 63% in the first quarter.
• Tesla’s global EV sales, meanwhile, crashed.

3. Tesla Robotaxis & “Model 2”

Tesla gobbled up a lot of airtime and discussion time last week with news regarding FSD, robotaxis, and the “Model 2.” For one, with FSD version 12.3 rolling out widely and being a dramatic improvement over versions of FSD from the past few years, there’s been a lot of coverage and hype around this step forward (thanks, neural nets). We documented some of our experiences with 12.3.1 and 12.3.3 for you. Also, Elon Musk announced that a Tesla robotaxi reveal would come on August 8, 2024. That said, I thought it was important to explain that we are not going to be getting commercially operated Tesla robotaxis in 2024. Agree? Disagree? Join in the long discussion on that!

Possibly related, there was also a big Reuters report saying that Tesla’s cheaper consumer car project (widely known as the “Model 2,” a fake name I coined as a joke that would not be the actual name) was dead. Elon Musk denied the report and called Reuters liars, but then implicitly confirmed some key elements of the report in other tweets. It’s confusing.

4. Getting EV Chargers in Condos (Strata Title Buildings in Australia) — Getting Tougher

David Waterworth has a great piece featuring a few different people and cases showing that it’s actually been getting tougher to get EV chargers installed at strata title buildings (that would be condos, apartments, or townhouses in the US). Board members are increasingly hostile and opposed to adding EV chargers, in large part due to fear of fires. It’s a sobering report, but interesting and useful. And I do assume it’s a similar story in the US.

5. $2 Billion to Decarbonize American Homes

“Power Forward Communities is a coalition formed by Enterprise Community Partners, Rewiring America, Habitat for Humanity International, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and United Way Worldwide. Its purpose is to transform the housing sector, save homeowners and renters money, invest in stronger communities, and help meet national climate goals. On April 4, 2024, the group was awarded a $2 billion, seven-year National Clean Investment Fund (NCIF) grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to provide capital for affordable residential decarbonization throughout the country, with a specific focus on low income and disadvantaged communities.” This is a great effort to help people, help stop climate change, and boost communities.

6. Two Hot Two-Wheelers

We report on great electric bikes practically every day, and there’s a style for everyone these days. There’s also occasional news about electric scooters and motorcycles. A couple of recent electric two-wheelers really caught my eye, though. Those are the Ryvid Anthem and Tarform’s electric motorcycles.

7. Hertz Failz

Then there’s the story of how Hertz got so deep into electric cars, the issues it faced as a result, and how the whole plan came crashing down.

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