Photo by WrongTog on Unsplash

Hi again,

Welcome to a new edition of the State of Charge newsletter — a concise monthly overview of the renewable energy and e-mobility transition.
Today, we’ll read about towns that are slowly being abandoned due to extreme weather events, a hacker's research into EV chargers, and how a country’s GDP is correlated to the adoption of EVs. 🙌

Photo by David von Diemar on Unsplash

The New York Times narrates the stories of communities impacted by hurricanes, tornados, and floods in North Carolina. Such weather phenomena set in motion a dire chain of events. Numerous residents chose to move away, and consequently, the municipality collected fewer taxes. Due to the lost funds, some towns can’t afford to tear partially collapsed buildings down and clear the debris. Will impacted thorps slowly become ghost towns?
 

These statistics only include 100% Electric Vehicles, no hybrids. Statistics are provided by our partner
 ev-volumes.com. The Electric Vehicle World Sales Database.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

Security consulting and testing company, Pen Test Partners researched for 18 months on security gaps in the EV charging space. Their white-hat hackers tested the APIs of six brands and found vulnerabilities in five of them(!). The firm disclosed all API and hardware vulnerabilities to the vendors involved, who in most cases promptly remediated. While it's remarkable that major chargers’ vendors presented hardware and software security issues, we hope the research will also help other brands assess their safety gaps.
 

SoC Good Reads
 

Livestock companies are still receiving billion dollars of financial support from investment firms, banks, and pension funds, despite being responsible for ammonia and methane emissions. It’s a hot topic in the Netherlands, Europe’s largest meat exporter. However, some small groups are taking action. In Berlin, for example, most meals at universities will be meat-free. 

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company published their annual report on the automotive industry. According to the authors, the tipping point in passenger EV adoption occurred in the second half of 2020, when EV sales and penetration accelerated in major markets despite the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the report states that the transport sector is on the right track towards decarbonizing. 

In less than 4 years, Norway will phase out all the new ICE vehicles, and it will be the first country in the world to do so. However, Motor, Norwegian Automobile Federation’s magazine, forecasts that the complete switch could occur as soon as April 2022. Even though that may be too optimistic, Norwegian consumers may move faster than regulators expect. 

Photo by Clemens Kreuer on Unsplash

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) produced an interactive map showing how a country’s average GDP per capita is correlated with the uptake of electric vehicles. ACEA highlights how countries with an electric car share of less than 3% have an average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita below €17,000. Click the link below to play with the map.
 

SoC Other News

Yale Climate Connections and Shutterstock, a popular provider of stock photos, published the results of a research carried out by Climate Visuals that explains to communicators how to portray climate change. For example, to avoid creating feelings of hopelessness, Climate Visuals recommends coupling emotional or disturbing images with something positive, like a concrete behavioral action people can take or images of survivors.

Image via Ringo H. W. Chiu/AP/Shutterstock 

It’s not news that Toyota is lagging when it comes to vehicle electrification. However, instead of joining the EV party, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda complained at a Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association meeting that should Japan set strict gas emission standards, Toyota would go out of business and the country would lose millions of jobs". 

Coral reefs cover 1% of the ocean floor but host 25% of the marine species. Researchers spent three years on the coral reef maps that are part of the Allen Coral Atlas. Maps will provide the foundational data on which proposals for marine protected areas and marine spatial plans can be built.

• Porsche is overwhelmed by 'huge' Taycan demand
• Lightyear solar car has raised more than $110m this year
• Volkswagen reveals their entry-level ID. LIFE electric car
• This vintage electric motorcycle is actually… an ebike

Photo by Pétrin Express on Unsplash

This month we listened to an episode of The Energy Gang co-hosted by Katherine Hamilton, Ed Crooks, and Stephen Lacey. Last August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its first report on climate change since 2013. This podcast gives more context to the work of IPCC. A large part of the episode is also spent on discussing blue/green/gray hydrogen and how its emissions compare to the emissions of coal and natural gas.
 

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