Own an electric bike and prepping for a hurricane? Do this right away
As Hurricane Milton heads towards Florida’s Gulf Coast threatening a lethal combination of high winds, storm surge, and heavy downpouring rain, here’s a reminder of what to do if you own an electric bike and expect to be in the path of a powerful hurricane.
First things first: electric bikes can be both a benefit and a liability in a storm situation. E-bikes can be an important form of transportation and their large lithium-ion batteries store critical electricity that can keep your phone and other electronics charged for days or weeks, but that battery may be prone to water damage and should be protected from potential flooding.
As we’ve already covered, electric vehicles of all types have a unique risk in flooding scenarios, especially when the flooding is caused by sea water from storm surge. That salty water can wreak havoc with electrical connections in submerged batteries.
If you have an e-bike and live in an area expected to see flooding, it is best to park the bike indoors and somewhere elevated. Bring the entire bike upstairs if you can. Even though e-bikes are often waterproof these days, flying debris can damage an e-bike locked outdoors during a storm.
If the bike is too heavy to carry upstairs, remove the battery and bring it to a higher floor. If you live on the ground floor and don’t have an attic or upper floor, put the battery as high as you can, such as on an upper shelf or in a tall kitchen cabinet.
As part of pre-storm preparations, it’s a good idea to check your tire pressure and perform any other maintenance that you’ve been putting off.
Electric bikes can be critical forms of transportation after a hurricane. When roads are blocked by downed trees, e-bikes can simply be lifted over or slide under the obstacle, allowing them to overcome obstacless that cars can’t. A ride of just a few miles to a water distribution center or medical facility can save hours of walking and conserve critical energy.
Caution should be taken for hazards such as downed power lines and other debris, but the ability to navigate roadways that are temporarily impassable by car or motorcycle can prove invaluable when obtaining supplies, reaching medical help, or evacuating from a disaster zone.
Many e-bikes have a USB charging port built directly into their e-bike batteries. If yours doesn’t, your e-bike may still have a USB port on it, often somewhere near the display on the handlebars. During normal rides, this can be useful for keeping your phone charged. When power is lost after a heavy storm, this can be a critical lifeline to charge electronics like phones, flashlights, and radios.
Before the storm hits, be sure to charge your battery up all the way since you likely won’t have access to electricity in the immediate aftermath of the storm, then store the battery in a safe location. If you lose power and your battery and/or e-bike are still accessible, you can use the USB outlet to keep your devices charged. The LED headlight on your e-bike can also be used for emergency lighting when the power goes out. The headlight uses very minimal electricity and can likely run for many days from the e-bike battery. To conserve battery further, the tail light may be able to be unplugged when using the headlight for nighttime lighting.
If you are handy with electronics, you may be able to power other devices with an e-bike battery. While visiting my parents in Florida during Hurricane Irma several years ago, I was able to combine a 48V golf cart inverter with several e-bike batteries to power fans and other 120VAC devices in their home while we waited five days for power to be restored.
Solar chargers for e-bikes are also available, though they are still fairly rare their higher prices mean most owners don’t own one. If you do have a solar e-bike charger, it can come in very handy when using your e-bike for emergency power.
If you have a portable power station, it can be a great way to recharge your e-bike even when the power is out.
Combining a portable power station with a set of solar panels can turn it into a solar generator, which can keep your e-bike and other devices charged up and ready to go. Compared to gasoline or diesel generators, you won’t need to keep a supply of fuel around or worry about whether the fuel cans were flooded in the garage.
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Saudi Aramco’s Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal
Ahmed Jadallah | Reuters
Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a 15.4% drop in net profit in the third-quarter on the back of “lower crude oil prices and weakening refining margins,” but maintained a 31.05 billion dividend.
The company reported net income of $27.56 billion in the July-September period, topping a company-provided estimate of $26.9 billion. The print is also a 5% drop from the previous quarter, which came in at $29.1 billion, as lower global oil prices, weaker demand and prolonged OPEC+ production cuts led by Saudi Arabia continue to impact crude prices.
The average selling price of oil for the second quarter of 2024 stood at $85 per barrel, but dropped to $78.7 per barrel during the third quarter, according to Saudi-based bank Al Rajhi capital, as non-OPEC supply volumes grew.
The oil firm said its year-on-year decline was partly offset by a “reduction in selling, administrative and general expenses primarily driven by a gain from derivative instruments, and a decrease in production royalties largely reflecting lower crude oil prices and a lower average effective royalty rate compared to the same quarter last year.”
Aramco’s dividend includes a base payout of $20.3 billion and an atypical performance-linked one of $10.8 billion. The Saudi government and the kingdom’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund, are the main beneficiaries of the dividend, holding stakes of roughly 81.5% and 16% in the company.
The remaining shareholding trades freely on Saudi Arabia’s Tadāwul stock exchange, with the company having finalized its second public share offering back in June.
Aramco’s earnings before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) came in at $51.45 billion in the third quarter, down 17% year-on-year. Aramco’s capital expenditure guidance was brought up 20% to $13.23 billion.
The company was trading at 27.45 riyals following the announcement, down 0.18% on the previous day.
The earnings align with a broader trend across oil majors, whose third-quarter profits have also suffered from declines in crude prices and refining margins. Aramco said it achieved average realized crude price of $79.3 per barrel in the third quarter, compared with $89.3 per barrel in the same period of last year.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter who produces roughly 9 million barrels per day of crude at present, serves as the de facto leader of the OPEC+ oil producers’ alliance, a subset of whom agreed over the weekend to delay a planned December output hike by one month.
“Aramco delivered robust net income and generated strong free cash flow during the third quarter, despite a lower oil price environment,” CEO Amin Nasser said in a statement. “We also progressed our upstream developments, strengthened our downstream value chain, and advanced our new energies program as we continue to invest through cycles.”
The revenues will be a boon to the Saudi economy, which is currently undergoing a diversification process under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s legacy Vision 2030 scheme spanning a slew of high-cost infrastructure “gigaprojects.”
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance cut the kingdom’s growth forecast to 0.8% in 2024, in a steep decline from a previous projection of 4.4%, and raised the outlook for the national budgetary shortfall to roughly 2.9% of GDP, from a prior indication of 1.9%.
On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Tesla’s Cybertruck is now available in Canada – and, like in the US, there’s no waiting! Plus, we’ve got an “actually” smart summon Tesla that’s actually stuck, GM reaches a sales milestone, and we get a brand-new title sponsor!
Today’s episode is the first with our new title sponsor, BLUETTI – a leading provider of portable power stations, solar generators, and energy storage systems.
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Read more: Renewables now make up 30% of US utility-scale generating capacity
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![This 'supercharger on wheels' brings fast charging to you [update]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/05/EV-mobile-charging-with-Yoshi-Mobility-3.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Mobile car care company Yoshi Mobility launched a DC fast charging EV mobile unit that it likens to “a supercharger on wheels.”
November 4, 2024 update: Yoshi Mobility will only be charging EVs on the side of the road now – it announced today that it’s selling its fleet fueling operation to EZFill Holdings (Nasdaq: EZFL).
It was originally founded as a direct-to-consumer, mobile fueling business in 2016, but now it’s going to focus on mobile EV charging, virtual vehicle inspections for partners like Uber and Turo, and onsite preventative maintenance.
Bryan Frist, Yoshi Mobility’s CEO & cofounder, said, “By spinning off our fuel business and focusing all of our energy on solving hair-on-fire problems that fleet owners face, we are meeting the changing needs of enterprise customers while making the future of transportation safer, cleaner, and more sustainable.”
May 22, 2024: Yoshi Mobility saw that its existing customers needed mobile EV charging in places where infrastructure has yet to be installed, so the Nashville-based company decided to bring the mountain to Moses.
“We recognized a demand among our customers for convenient daily charging, reliable private charging networks, and proper charging infrastructure to support their fleet vehicles as they transition to electric,” said Dan Hunter, Yoshi Mobility’s chief EV officer and cofounder.
The company says its 240 kW mobile DC fast charger, which can turn “any EV” into a mobile charging unit, is the first fully electric mobile charger available. It can provide multiple charges in a single trip but doesn’t detail how they charge the DC fast charger or who manufactured it. (I asked for more details, and they replied that they won’t disclose client names or the manufacturer of its DC fast charger yet.)
Yoshi is launching its mobile charger on two GM BrightDrop Zevo 600s and will introduce additional vehicles throughout 2024. It aims for full commercialization by Q1 2025. (I wonder if the Zevo 600 ever charges itself? Yes, I asked that too.)
Yoshi Mobility says it’s already deployed its EV charging solutions to service “major OEMs, autonomous vehicle companies, and rideshare operators” across the US. Its initial customers are made up of large EV operators managing “hundreds” of light-duty vehicles requiring up to 1 megawatt of energy per day that don’t yet have grid-connected EV chargers. I’ve asked Yoshi for details of who it’s working with, and will update if they share that info.
The company says pricing is based on location and enterprise charging needs. Once under contract for service, the service will be deployed to US-based customers within 10 days.
To date, Yoshi Mobility has raised more than $60 million, with investments from GM Ventures, Bridgestone, ExxonMobil, and Y-Combinator in Silicon Valley.
Read more: Mercedes-Benz just opened more DC fast chargers at Buc-ee’s in Texas
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