Less than a year after launching as a company, tech startup JUXTA looks to revolutionize convenient retail with the official launch of its offering – a portable mini mart called the Nomad designed as an autonomous, turnkey solution for EV charging stations in the US and Europe. Following the Nomad’s recent launch, JUXTA has announced multiple partners, and you may see one of these unstaffed stores near you soon.
JUXTA describes itself as a global technology and micro convenience company founded in North Carolina in 2022. As a subsidiary of industrial tech company Vontier operating within fueling and convenience store equipment provider Gilbarco Veeder-Root, JUXTA’s immediate focus is on the b2b sector – more specifically, providing accessible retail to the EV charging segment.
That journey begins with the Nomad mini mart, portable, easy to install, and completely unstaffed – perfect for the growing number of EV charging stations in the US and beyond. JUXTA made its official launch in the US in August, showcasing the Nomad for the first time at the Renewal 2023 festival in Colorado in September.
During the event, JUXTA’s 24-hour autonomous convenience store served thousands festival goers looking for cold drinks or snacks. As you’ll see in the video below, customers simply swipe or tap a card to enter, grab what they want, and exit. Or, they can stop at a touchscreen and recap their order before exiting. JUXTA explains it best:
Inside the Nomad, shelf and cabinet sensors instantly detect when an item is picked up, and an array of cameras will anonymously identify by whom. The information is combined in the cloud to create a digital basket for each customer. If a family or group of shoppers enter the store, JUXTA’s AI-driven technology will collate their purchases.
An autonomous mini mart feels like a perfect option for the EV world as those drivers spend 15 to 35 minutes at charging stations and could probably use a snack sometimes. According to JUXTA, that’s the plan and your local chargers may soon have a portable convenience store dropped off nearby.
Credit: JUXTA
JUXTA in discussions to bring marts to charging stations
According to news from JUXTA this morning, the young startup has already secured multiple retail partners to provide provisions to its Nomad mini markets. The first is Choice Market in Denver, which will be home to the state’s first portable, autonomous convenience store.
Another retailer onboard is Golden Pantry out of Georgia, which has also signed on for a mini mart installation in Watkinsville. Okay, but what about EV charging stations? Isn’t that why JUXTA designed the Nomad mini markets in the first place?
A representative for the company told Electrek that JUXTA is in discussions with several EV charging networks about implementing the Nomad marts at stations, but there’s nothing more it can share at this time. JUXTA co-founder Om Shankar shared similar sentiment mentioning interest from EV automakers when discussing the Nomad’s rapid uptake after a mere month since launch:
To be signing retail partners and fielding enquiries from some of the largest EV OEMs in the world is validation of JUXTA’s vision for the Nomad solution. Our proprietary technology and store format combination, working in partnership with renowned brands, has the power to redefine the industry. Our solution mitigates multitude challenges in the retail segment, from real estate cost and utilization, squeezed profit margins, access to 24-hr service, labor shortages and staffing issues, including instant, simple and contactless pay, and quick set up, in any location, no matter how remote. The Nomad offers an all ‘round seamless solution to these challenges and at the same time, we believe it to be the most profitable per square foot convenience retail format in the world.
While the EV OEMs and charging networks inquiring about JUXTA’s mini marts at local stations remains a mystery for now, there appears to be interest and for good reason. We’ve seen fellow US company Tesla roll out automated, cube-shaped stores near Superchargers in Germany and more permanent lounges from Audi in its native land with great success.
Providing a less permanent, turnkey solution could be a home run for charging stations looking to add a snack mart but have less of a footprint available to support it (the Nomad’s interior is only 264 square-feet). This will be a startup to keep an eye on as it publicly confirms more partners in the EV charging and OEM spaces.
The JUXTA Nomads are expected to begin rolling out in the US in 2023 and Europe in 2024. For now, check out this video explaining how the Nomad mini mart works:
Credit: JUXTA
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This week on Electrek’s Wheel-E podcast, we discuss the most popular news stories from the world of electric bikes and other nontraditional electric vehicles. This time, that includes the launch of the Lectric XP4 e-bike, a new set of RadRunners from Rad Power Bikes, California’s e-bike voucher program hits more hurdles, the effect of Trump tariffs on several e-bike and e-moto companies, and more.
The Wheel-E podcast returns every two weeks on Electrek’s YouTube channel, Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the Wheel-E podcast today:
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Last month’s bauma event in Germany was so big that the industry hive mind is still trying to digest everything it saw – and that includes these new, rough terrain electric material handlers from Spanish equipment brand AUSA!
AUSA calls itself, “the global manufacturer of compact all-terrain machines for the transportation and handling of material,” and backs that claim up by delivering more than 12,000 units to customers each year. Now, the company hopes to add to that number with the launch of the C151E rough-terrain electric forklift, which takes its rightful place alongside AUSA’s electric telehandler and 101/151 lines of mini dumpers.
The C151 features a 15.5 kWh li-ion battery pack good for “one intense shift” worth of work, sending electrons to a 19.5 kW (approx. 25 hp) electric motor and the associated forks, tilt cylinders, etc. Charging is through a “standard” CCS L1/2 AC port, which can recharge the big electric forklift to 80% in about 2.5 hours.
Looked at another way: even if you drive the battery to nearly nothing, the AUSA can be charged up during a lunch break or shift change and ready to work again as soon as you reach for it.
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AUSA electric forklift charging
The 6,040 lb. (empty) AUSA C151E has a 3,000-pound maximum load capacity and a maximum lift height just over 13 feet.
“It is an ideal tool for working in emission-free spaces such as greenhouses, municipal night works, enclosed spaces, etc.,” reads AUSA’s press material. “It can be used in more applications than a traditional rough terrain forklift, offering greater performance as a result.”
Electrek’s Take
AUSA C151E electric rough terrain forklift; via AUSA.
AUSA’s messaging is spot-on here: because you can use the C151E – in fact, any electric equipment asset – is a broader set of environments and circumstances than a diesel asset, you can earn more work, get a higher utilization rate, and maximize not only your fuel savings, but generate income you couldn’t generate without it.
“More, more, and more” is how a smart fleet operator is looking at battery power right now, and that’s the angle, not the “messy middle,” that the industry needs to be talking about.
Plant workers drive along an aluminum potline at Century Aluminum Company’s Hawesville plant in Hawesville, Ky. on Wednesday, May 10, 2017. (Photo by Luke Sharrett /For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Aluminum
The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Sweeping tariffs on imported aluminum imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are succeeding in reshaping global trade flows and inflating costs for American consumers, but are falling short of their primary goal: to revive domestic aluminum production.
Instead, rising costs, particularly skyrocketing electricity prices in the U.S. relative to global competitors, are leading to smelter closures rather than restarts.
The impact of aluminum tariffs at 25% is starkly visible in the physical aluminum market. While benchmark aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange provide a global reference, the actual cost of acquiring the metal involves regional delivery premiums.
This premium now largely reflects the tariff cost itself.
In stark contrast, European premiums were noted by JPMorgan analysts as being over 30% lower year-to-date, creating a significant divergence driven directly by U.S. trade policy.
This cost will ultimately be borne by downstream users, according to Trond Olaf Christophersen, the chief financial officer of Norway-based Hydro, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers. The company was formerly known as Norsk Hydro.
“It’s very likely that this will end up as higher prices for U.S. consumers,” Christophersen told CNBC, noting the tariff cost is a “pass-through.” Shares of Hydro have collapsed by around 17% since tariffs were imposed.
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The downstream impact of the tariffs is already being felt by Thule Group, a Hydro customer that makes cargo boxes fitted atop cars. The company said it’ll raise prices by about 10% even though it manufactures the majority of the goods sold in the U.S locally, as prices of raw materials, such as steel and aluminum, have shot up.
But while tariffs are effectively leading to prices rise in the U.S., they haven’t spurred a revival in domestic smelting, the energy-intensive process of producing primary aluminum.
The primary barrier remains the lack of access to competitively priced, long-term power, according to the industry.
“Energy costs are a significant factor in the overall production cost of a smelter,” said Ami Shivkar, principal analyst of aluminum markets at analytics firm Wood Mackenzie. “High energy costs plague the US aluminium industry, forcing cutbacks and closures.”
“Canadian, Norwegian, and Middle Eastern aluminium smelters typically secure long-term energy contracts or operate captive power generation facilities. US smelter capacity, however, largely relies on short-term power contracts, placing it at a disadvantage,” Shivkar added, noting that energy costs for U.S. aluminum smelters were about $550 per tonne compared to $290 per tonne for Canadian smelters.
Recent events involving major U.S. producers underscore this power vulnerability.
In March 2023, Alcoa Corp announced the permanent closure of its 279,000 metric ton Intalco smelter, which had been idle since 2020. Alcoa said that the facility “cannot be competitive for the long-term,” partly because it “lacks access to competitively priced power.”
Century stated the power cost required to run the facility had “more than tripled the historical average in a very short period,” necessitating a curtailment expected to last nine to twelve months until prices normalized.
The industry has also not had a respite as demand for electricity from non-industrial sources has risen in recent years.
Hydro’s Christophersen pointed to the artificial intelligence boom and the proliferation of data centers as new competitors for power. He suggested that new energy production capacity in the U.S., from nuclear, wind or solar, is being rapidly consumed by the tech sector.
“The tech sector, they have a much higher ability to pay than the aluminium industry,” he said, noting the high double-digit margins of the tech sector compared to the often low single-digit margins at aluminum producers. Hydro reported an 8.3% profit margin in the first quarter of 2025, an increase from the 3.5% it reported for the previous quarter, according to Factset data.
“Our view, and for us to build a smelter [in the U.S.], we would need cheap power. We don’t see the possibility in the current market to get that,” the CFO added. “The lack of competitive power is the reason why we don’t think that would be interesting for us.”
While failing to ignite domestic primary production, the tariffs are undeniably causing what Christophersen termed a “reshuffling of trade flows.”
When U.S. market access becomes more costly or restricted, metal flows to other destinations.
Christophersen described a brief period when exceptionally high U.S. tariffs on Canadian aluminum — 25% additional tariffs on top of the aluminum-specific tariffs — made exporting to Europe temporarily more attractive for Canadian producers. Consequently, more European metals would have made their way into the U.S. market to make up for the demand gap vacated by Canadian aluminum.
The price impact has even extended to domestic scrap metal prices, which have adjusted upwards in line with the tariff-inflated Midwest premium.
Hydro, also the world’s largest aluminum extruder, utilizes both domestic scrap and imported Canadian primary metal in its U.S. operations. The company makes products such as window frames and facades in the country through extrusion, which is the process of pushing aluminum through a die to create a specific shape.
“We are buying U.S. scrap [aluminium]. A local raw material. But still, the scrap prices now include, indirectly, the tariff cost,” Christophersen explained. “We pay the tariff cost in reality, because the scrap price adjusts to the Midwest premium.”
“We are paying the tariff cost, but we quickly pass it on, so it’s exactly the same [for us],” he added.
RBC Capital Markets analysts confirmed this pass-through mechanism for Hydro’s extrusions business, saying “typically higher LME prices and premiums will be passed onto the customer.”
This pass-through has occurred amid broader market headwinds, particularly downstream among Hydro’s customers.
RBC highlighted the “weak spot remains the extrusion divisions” in Hydro’s recent results and noted a guidance downgrade, reflecting sluggish demand in sectors like building and construction.