Public EV chargers are becoming more commonplace than ever. It's becoming normal to plug in while shopping at your favorite mall or grocery store, and road trips are becoming a breeze for EVs as many popular highway corridors are sporting flashy new DC Fast Chargers. If you're wondering why, it's because EV charger deployment has doubled in the past four years—and you've got grant money to thank for that.
Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily roundup for all things EV and automotive tech. Today, we're chatting about the uptick in EV charger deployment, Canada's new Chinese EV tariffs, and Canoo's shift to Texas. Let's jump in.
30%: The U.S. Is Adding 1,000 New EV Chargers Every Week
The latest count of public EV chargers has swelled to 192,000. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this number has doubled since the Biden administration took office and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate of 1,000 new chargers every week.
Along with the announcement comes the awarding of $521 million in grants to further expand charging access across the U.S. highway system. This includes 29 states, the District of Columbia, and two Federally Recognized Tribes—a total of 9,200 new EV charging ports.
"The Biden-Harris Administration has been clear about America leading the EV revolution, and thanks to the historic infrastructure package, we’re building a nationwide EV charger network to make sure all drivers have an accessible, reliable, and convenient way to charge their vehicles," said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. "The awards that we’re announcing today will build on this important work and will help ensure that the cost savings, health and climate benefits, and jobs of the EV future are secured for Americans across the country."
The growth rate is rather impressive, actually. In mid-January, the U.S. government reported more than 169,000 chargers were deployed and online, meaning a 14% growth in just seven months. The number of chargers deployed weekly has also grown by 11%—from 900 to 1,000—during the same period.
The DOE's Alternative Fuel Data Center hasn't been updated to reflect all the new locations, but comparing the numbers to January shows us that the U.S. is prioritizing the deployment of DC Fast Chargers over Level 2 chargers. In January, 23% of online chargers were DCFC compared to 25% today. This could be explained by the grant throwing gobs of money at fast-charging "corridor" projects along the nation's highways, a goal to make traversing the States easier while in an EV.
Ultimately, the U.S. government aims to deploy 500,000 public chargers nationwide by 2030. With five years left to go, it's about a third of the way there. However, officials believe this number won't be met; it will be eclipsed. Earlier this year, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that figures pointed at the U.S. reaching 1.2 million chargers by the top of the decade.
60%: Canada Will Tax Chinese EVs At 100% Too
As inexpensive electric cars begin flowing out of China, countries around the world are implementing protectionist tariffs to prevent a surge of cars built from "unfair subsidization" from flooding the market. Canada is the latest country to announce that it will implement a similar duty fee.
Officials from the Great White North announced this week that it will follow America's lead and impose a staggering 100% tariff on Chinese-built EVs. The tariffs will be placed on top of the country's current 6.1% duty fees and also target certain hybrids and commercial vehicles.
Automotive News explains:
The government announced a 100 percent levy on electric cars and 25 percent on steel and aluminum. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled the policy in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he’s gathered with the rest of his cabinet for a series of meetings about the economy and foreign relations.
The tariffs come a little over a month after Ottawa opened a 30-day public consultation on Chinese EVs and related products, bringing it in line with the United States and the European Union.
"I think we all know that China is not playing by the same rules," Trudeau said.
The news comes just as Chinese automaker BYD reportedly plans to expand into the country. In July, BYD announced plans to bring 100,000 new BYD EVs onto the Uber network globally—according to a regulatory filing, that could include Canada. The automaker is also working to solidify a new plant location in Mexico. However, it claims that this new location is only planned to be used for the production of vehicles sold in Mexico.
Ford, General Motors, Honda, Stellantis, and Toyota all have plants in Ontario, Canada. According to the Canadian government, auto workers produce more than 1.4 million vehicles annually, and the auto industry is considered to be one of the country's largest manufacturing sectors, directly employing 117,200 people.
"We are transforming Canada’s automotive sector to be a global leader in building the vehicles of tomorrow," said Trudeau. "But actors like China have chosen to give themselves an unfair advantage in the global marketplace, compromising the security of our critical industries and displacing dedicated Canadian autos and metal workers."
Canada's new EV tariffs will be imposed beginning on October 1st.
90%: Canoo Follows Tesla To Texas As CTO Departs
Canoo, the boxy electric automaker startup, is following in Tesla's footsteps by abandoning its California headquarters and moving to Texas.
The company has been rumored to be looking to close down its California location for at least a year, partly due to increased costs and high-level departures. Canoo is finally moving forward and will set up shop in the town of Justin, Texas, on the outskirts of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
As initially reported by TechCrunch:
Canoo quietly tucked into its quarterly SEC filing last week that it is offering "relocation to approximately 137 employees out of the 194 employees located at the Torrance Facility." The relocations will either be in Texas or Oklahoma—the latter is where Canoo has been trying for years to stand up a manufacturing facility. The remaining staff will be laid off.
Following the announcement of the relocation, news broke that the company's CTO, Sohel Merchant, was also departing.
Merchant was one of Canoo's founding members and has been with the company since 2017. With his exit, the only founding member of the team left at the company is chief engineer Christoph Kuttner.
The automaker has been in a spiral since it first went public in 2020. Tony Aquila, the chairman of Canoo's board, eventually became CEO and pivoted the automaker from selling its uniquely styled EVs from consumers to commercial industries.
This led to potential deals with retailers like WalMart, which prompted a failed headquarters relocation to Bentonville, Arkansas (where WalMart is based). Eventually, Canoo would also court government contracts and pilot its vehicles with agencies like the Department of Defense, NASA, the U.S. Postal Service, and the State of Oklahoma.
To make things even more complicated, Canoo has had very few deliveries and layoffs continue to rid the company of employees. Couple that with news that it spent double its annual revenue on the CEO's private jet, and investors have started to question the startup's future.
The Wall Street Journal previously identified Canoo as at risk of running out of cash by the end of 2024. At the time of the report, WSJ believed that Canoo had just weeks of cash on hand left, though the brand appears to have stashed away $19.1 million as of the end of June.
100%: Would You Have Bought A Canoo?
Canoo isn't dead—at least not yet—but the potential to own one of these cool kei truck-looking vans seems to be more of a pipe dream than a reality at this point.
Promises of a uniquely styled utility vehicle brought smiles to people's faces. No other automaker was bringing what Canoo had to market, which seemed like a promising chance for buyers. But that's not the direction that Canoo went in, and its window of opportunity in the consumer market has seemingly closed as it focuses on corporate and government buyers.
That being said, would you have considered buying one of Canoo's unique vehicles? If so, what appealed to you most about it? Let me know in the comments.
