Rivian CEO issues urgent memo to confront existential threat of climate change
It’s time to open a new chapter in the history books. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said now is the time to act on climate change to protect the planet for our kids and their kids’ kids’ kids’.
Rivian is more than just another automaker. It’s not even your average EV maker. The company’s entire purpose is to “create products and services that help our planet transition to carbon neutral energy and transportation.”
It also happens to build some of the most unique EVs on the road today. Rivian’s “Electric Adventure Vehicles,” the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, are built for more than just getting from point A to point B.
They can also plow through over 3 feet of water, rock climb a 100% grade, and take off quicker than your average sports car.
However, Rivian is doing much more in the background, other than just selling EVs, to “build the kind of future our kids and our kids’ kids’ deserve.”
Every aspect of the company is designed for a sustainable future. Rivian’s battery packs can easily be removed for recycling or other uses. Its interiors include 100% animal-free materials, and Rivian’s charging network (Rivian Adventure Network) is powered entirely by renewable energy.
Rivian is also quickly adding to its portfolio of clean energy projects, expanding wind, solar, and hydroelectric options across the US.
The company’s utility-scale solar project in Tennesee and Starfire Solar project on a former coal mining site in Kentucky are already bringing renewable energy to local businesses and communities.
Rivian CEO says now is the time to act on climate change
Rivian knows building EVs is not enough. On Tuesday, Scaringe issued an urgent call to action, saying now must be the time to make history.
Scaringe says we are alive during one of “the most significant moments in recorded human history.”
Society has advanced greatly over the past few hundred years due to new technology and industrial capabilities, producing capabilities that were previously unimaginable. However, the same technology is destroying the only home we have, slowly but surely.
Growing up a car enthusiast, Scaringe loved every aspect of them, from the idea of driving to the freedom they could provide.
As he got older, he realized that cars, as important as they were for the progress of society, were “simultaneously the root of the impact they’re having on our climate.”
The same vehicles he loved played a big role in the re-carbonization of our atmosphere. In just a few generations, we have taken what accumulated over hundreds of millions of years and re-distributed the CO2 back into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels in just over 150 years.
According to Scaringe, we are “at the very beginning of seeing the impacts” of that. You may have noticed it on those extremely hot days or heard about the increasingly aggressive storms and weather on the news.
Although it’s still in its early stages, these changes will, little by little, “make the planet less inhabitable.”
Not only for humans, but we are already seeing a rate of extinction on Earth that’s never been seen before.
Scaringe said this is the moment we have a choice. In a perfect world, when we look back in another few thousand years, there will be a little blip called the fossil fuel era. It will cover how humans rapidly industrialized with advanced new technology but also developed a deep dependency on fossil fuels.
The next chapter will hopefully explain how we developed new technologies to wean off fossil fuels before we put all the carbon back into the atmosphere.
Rivian’s leader explained these changes must begin now. We need to continue expanding renewable energy on our grid while replacing the 1.5 billion gas-powered cars on the road with EVs.
The road may not be perfect, but we need to start somewhere. The best part of EVs is that they get cleaner and more efficient over time. It’s time to protect our only home for our kids and their kids’ kids’ kids.’
Source: Rivian
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National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.
Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.
“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”
Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
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Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.
The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.
Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.
Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.
For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although
Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”
Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:
- Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
- Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
- Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.
Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.
We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.
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Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.
With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.
A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”
In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.
With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.
Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.
Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China
Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.
Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.
BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.
Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).
Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.
Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.
According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs
With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.
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