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Biden Administration details $700m in investments to boost EV charging infrastructure

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The Biden Administration announced Tuesday that a few private companies had committed more than $700 million in investments to boost domestic production of more than 250,000 new electric vehicle chargers annually. According to the White House, this investment will create at least 2,000 well-paying jobs and make EV charging more accessible, affordable, and fair.

The $700 in private investments will follow the $7.5 billion from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which aims to help the EV sector by adding more charging infrastructure throughout the country among many other things.

The White House said that the most key investments come from Electrify America and Siemens, who announced an additional $450 million in investments today to help grow the infrastructure of ultra-fast chargers for EVs. While Electrify America’s investments will “support the rapid deployment of up to 10,000 ultra-fast chargers at 1,800 charging stations,” Siemens is currently on track to build one million EV chargers over the next four years.

Additional industry actions include ABB E-Mobility with 125 new jobs in two new facilities, ChargePoint, which will establish new production lines for Level 2 chargers at their Milpitas, CA, facility, and create approximately 250 new manufacturing jobs, and FLO, who will invest $3 million to build 30,000 charging stations annually.

Tesla is also mentioned by the White House for its dedication to deploying fast-charging stations and adding to its already industry-leading infrastructure. “More than 1,600 employees work at Giga New York producing the Tesla Solar Roof and Supercharger stations, which are capable of charging vehicles up to 250 kW. Tesla is expanding production capacity of power electronics components that convert alternating current to direct current, charging cabinets, posts, and cables. Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers,” the White House said.

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Biden Administration turns to Tesla for help on renewable fuel policy reform

After Biden’s Build Back Better plan stagnated due to a lack of support from some, including vocal opposition Joe Manchin, the White House has been forced to push the boundaries on what it can do to help create more EV adoption in the United States. One of the most recent pushes the Biden Administration has made is new guidelines for 500,000 additional EV chargers with a $5 billion federal initiative.

The White House’s press release can be read in its entirety here.

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Tesla offers tasty Supercharging incentive as Q3 push continues

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is offering a tasty Supercharging incentive on inventory Model 3 units in Canada as it continues to push sales in the third quarter.

In the United States, Tesla is preparing for the end of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. While it is offering a multitude of incentives in the U.S. to help push sales of its vehicles before the credit goes away, it is not saving the deals for Americans exclusively.

Yesterday, the company announced it is now offering Free Supercharging for life on all Model 3 inventory in Canada, a massive incentive for those who would use the vehicle as a daily driver:

The deal would normally only apply to Superchargers located in Canada, meaning if a Canadian drove over the border into the United States and Supercharged, they would have to pay for it.

However, Tesla also confirmed that the charging deal would extend to the U.S. Canadians will be able to drive across the U.S. and Supercharge for free for the life of the vehicle.

Free Supercharging is such a great perk because the money an owner saves on charging factors directly into what they are saving if they were to own a gas car. While Supercharging and home charging are, on average, cheaper than filling up with gas, the savings are not massive.

When Supercharging is free, it can save consumers hundreds of dollars per month, especially if they plan to use the Tesla for their daily commute. Some people could fill their gas cars up two times a week to get to work, spending $80-$100 every five days on gas.

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Tesla has been using incentives like this to push vehicles into customers’ hands. Q3 could be one of the best three-month spans in recent memory with the push it is making.

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Tesla is preparing to take on autonomy’s final boss

India’s city streets are notorious for their complexity and congestion.

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Credit: Whole Mars Catalog/YouTube

If there is any sign that Tesla is now confident about its self-driving program, it would be this. As could be seen on Tesla’s Careers page, the company is now hiring Autopilot Vehicle Operators in Delhi and Mumbai, India. 

As far as real-world traffic is concerned, one could argue that India’s city streets are the final boss of autonomous driving systems due to their complexity and congestion.

Tesla job openings

As per Tesla in its recent job openings, Prototype Vehicle Operators will be responsible for driving an engineering vehicle for extended periods and conducting dynamic audio and camera data collection for testing and training purposes. In both its job listings for Mumbai and Delhi, Tesla noted that successful applicants will be gathering real-world data on the weekends and around the clock. 

Considering the job openings in India, Tesla seems to be intent on rolling out its advanced driver-assist systems like FSD in the country. This is quite interesting, as Tesla is not hiring Prototype Vehicle Operators in other territories that recently launched, such as the Philippines. Perhaps Tesla intends to tackle FSD’s final boss of sorts before rolling out FSD in other territories.

FSD’s rollout

Tesla’s autonomous driving program uses the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which is currently available on vehicles in North America and China. Tesla, however, has a more advanced version of FSD called Unsupervised FSD, which is currently being used in vehicles that are part of the Robotaxi pilot in Austin and the Bay Area.

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Elon Musk has also recently announced on X that Tesla will be releasing FSD V14 in the coming weeks. He also shared a number of improvements that can be expected from FSD V14. “The FSD release in about 6 weeks will be a dramatic gain with a 10X higher parameter count and many other improvements. It’s going through training & testing now. Once we confirm real-world safety of FSD 14, which we think will be amazing, the car will nag you much less,” Musk wrote in his post. 

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Tesla Sweden finally makes IF Metall union give up 600-day strike

Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement.

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(Credit: NicklasNilsso14)

After nearly two years of industrial action and sympathy strikes, Swedish labor union IF Metall has stated that it is softening its stance in its dispute with Tesla. With this, Tesla and the union have opened the door to resolutions that do not involve a collective agreement. 

Union chair Marie Nilsson told Sveriges Radio’s Ekot that while the preferred outcome remains a signed agreement, “other alternative solutions” are now on the table.

Union reconsiders rigid demands

The strike, which began over 600 days ago, has been marked by a series of strategic moves from both sides. IF Metall blocked Tesla’s access to license plates by targeting mail delivery, while Tesla bypassed the restrictions by importing vehicles in bulk through German ferries to Trelleborg, among other strategies. 

Despite the high-profile tactics, the number of active strikers has been relatively small, just about 60 in total, as noted in a CarUp report. Tesla Sweden has also maintained that it does not intend to bow down to the union’s demands. Over the 600-day strike, Tesla Sweden has adapted its operations to get around the union and its allies’ strikes.

Possible paths to ultimate resolution

Nilsson, for her part, noted that IF Metall is now willing to explore alternatives, such as embedding industry-standard terms directly into Tesla’s employment contracts or shifting Tesla’s Swedish operations to a company that already has a collective agreement.

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“You can do it in different ways. The easiest thing would be to sign a collective agreement. But when that is not possible, we have to find other alternative solutions as well, so we are open to discussion,” Nilsson stated.

IF Metall, if any, has acknowledged that Tesla has already improved working conditions in Sweden since the dispute began. Tesla Sweden has argued that its working conditions are already better than union standards, which is reportedly one of the reasons why very few company employees actually participated in IF Metall’s strike.

“There have been conversations throughout the journey where we compared our conditions. Tesla has adjusted details without going into details, they want to be a good employer, it’s about wages and conditions,” Nilsson stated.

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