Eversource and UI electricity price drop in CT less than expected - CT Insider

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Electricity customers of Eversource and United Illuminating have good news and bad news this summer, with an overall decline in prices but not as large as we might have expected.

You can check out where your bill is headed here, and below in this column, with our handy-dandy electric rate calculator. 

The widely discussed and keenly felt spike in supply rates we saw on Jan. 1 is coming down as of July 1, as we knew would happen. That’s the portion of the bill that reflects the power the utilities buy from outside generators, to be delivered to us. 

Supply rates, aka generation rates, which the utilities set every six months, roughly doubled in the January-to-June period for UI and Eversource. That shock was brought on by the usual wintertime shortage of natural gas to fire up power plants; the war in Ukraine, which upset global markets; and not least, global energy companies using inflation as an excuse to grab huge profits at our expense. 

The bad news: Supply rates in the July-to-December period are still not back where they were a year ago for customers of either company.

And there’s other bad news, too. Delivery rates, the portion of the bill that covers operations at the utilities plus special charges, are rising as of July 1. The result:  All costs included, the decline from what we’re paying in the spring is not so big – about 22 percent for Eversource customers and about 11 percent for folks in the UI territory.

It’s a disappointment considering we had reason to hope the spike for the first half of 2023 was just that, a spike that would come back down. Overall rates shot up on Jan. 1 by about 29 percent for a typical UI customer and 41 percent at Eversource. 

Why the increase in delivery charges? It’s related to a credit we had coming, and when we received it.

Back in December, state officials decided to move up a credit due to customers, related to the Millstone nuclear power station. That move lowered delivery rates, easing the crunch of the January price shock.

But now the credit has been spent and we don’t have it, exactly at the time of year when we’re likely to use more juice to air condition our houses and apartments.

Let’s forget the spike for a minute and compare prices to what we were paying a year ago. As of July 1, UI customers will pay about 15 percent more than they did in the second half of 2022 and Eversource bills are up by about 9.5 percent.  Prices in the second half of 2023 could fall slightly further, based on one more adjustment that’s coming this summer, retroactive to July 1.

These rates apply to the majority of households that subscribe to the “standard offer” rates from the utilities. If you use a third-party supplier for generation, you might pay more or less – but you will still have to pay the higher delivery charges because there’s no opting out of those.

Summertime usage rises by an average of 35 percent for air conditioning, said Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman, head of the state office that advocates for customers.  “As a result, some consumers could even see a potential increase over the amount they are currently paying. We encourage consumers to continue to make every effort to reduce bills through energy conservation and efficiency measures,” she said.

The long-term view

Looking ahead, Eversource and UI both issued statements saying they’re pleased customers will see lower generation rates starting in July; the utilities don’t make or lose money on generation, they only pass it along. But upward price pressures aren’t going away, both utilities said.

“Unfortunately, the energy market is still volatile and international factors continue to affect the cost of natural gas, so our customers should expect energy costs to go up again in the winter. Beyond that, we don’t know what future energy markets will look like,” Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said.

“Our region continues to be at the mercy of a New England energy market that faces significant issues, including a lack of sufficient resources and an over-reliance on natural gas and global fossil fuel markets,” Frank Reynolds, CEO of UI, a unit of Avangrid, which is based in Orange.

“The underlying issues that drove this winter’s exorbitant price increases remain unaddressed, and we will continue to call for accountability and reform until the market delivers the stable, affordable pricing and reliability our customers deserve,” Reynolds added.

UI has a rate case underway now before the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, in which the company is seeking an increase that would amount to about $10 a month for average household customers – but that won’t affect bills this summer. “It is critical that we continue to invest in the grid and update the system so that we can continue to deliver power on blue-sky days and in times of emergency,” Reynolds said.

On the policy front, Connecticut is moving toward delivery rates that are partly tied to performance by the utilities, driven by Marissa Gillett, the PURA chair, along with Gov. Ned Lamont and lawmakers. We’re at least a year away from seeing how that might affect bills.

Eversource profits topped $1.4 billion in 2022 across its electricity, natural gas and water businesses in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Electric rates for generation, based on contracts the utilities buy from outside suppliers, spiked in January, 2023 but are coming down in July, 2023. 

Brian A. Pounds/Hearst Connecticut Media

“I’d like to think we’re going to make some progress on managing the actual underlying distribution rates that both utilities charge,” said Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee in the legislature. “It will certainly make ratemaking more transparent, that’s the hope.”

UI and Eversource both offer plans with varying rates by time of day, a little-known program that can help customers who use most of their juice at night.

And everyone in the business urges customers to look for ways to save energy and money by perusing www.EnergizeCT.com website.

dhaar@hearstmediact.com

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Xcel Energys $145 million bid to build electric vehicle chargers sparks opposition from private sector - The Denver Post

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Supporters of speeding up the move to electric vehicles see investment by utilities as essential, but business groups say it will be hard for them to compete with utilities on providing charging stations for the public.

In its second plan on electric vehicles filed with regulators, Xcel Energy proposes spending $145 million to build a public charging network over the next three years in addition to offering rebates and other programs. Charge Ahead Partnership, a national coalition that includes retailers that want to build EV charging stations, opposes proposals by Xcel and other utilities to install and operate chargers.

Coalition spokesman Ryan McKinnon said regulated utilities like Xcel Energy would have an unfair advantage in the emerging market because they can use ratepayers’ money to invest in the infrastructure and they get a certain rate of return on their investments.

“We’re advocating for policies that will make it more of a level playing field for private business retailers, basically just letting the free market come in and be able to provide this service without having to compete with a monopoly,” McKinnon said.

The coalition also objects to utilities owning and operating chargers because the money will come from ratepayers, including low-income customers and people who don’t have EVs.

Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said there’s plenty of room for investors who want to build the thousands of charging stations that will be needed to meet the state’s goals for electrifying transportation.

“I’m more concerned that between state, federal, utility and private sector investment, can we get enough investment to meet that need,” Toor said.

An updated EV plan released earlier this year by the Polis administration calls for 2.1 million cars and SUVs on Colorado roads by 2035 and 1,700 fast chargers and 5,800 slower public chargers.

An analysis by the International Council on Clean Transportation said that nearly $1 billion will have to be spent on charging infrastructure through this decade if Colorado wants to meet its goals.

The analysis suggested that Colorado will need nearly 5,000 fast-charging EV ports by the end of 2030, said Christian Williss, managing director for transportation at the energy office.

“Right now we’re at a little over 800,”  Williss said. “It kind of takes an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

Not the right vehicle?

Ray Huff doesn’t think Xcel Energy and other investor-owned, regulated utilities are the right vehicles to build EV-charging networks. Huff is president of HJB Convenience Corp., a Lakewood-based convenience store operator. He said private businesses nationwide want to take advantage of state and federal incentives to start installing chargers but worry about competing with utilities.

“They want to charge me as a ratepayer for their buildout of the network and then get their 10% or 9% return on the money that they took from us,” Huff said. “I can’t do that as a private business person, why can they? Well, it’s because they have a monopoly.”

Public utilities are regulated but essentially operate as monopolies, providing service in certain geographical areas. In return, they get to recover the costs of building power plants, transmission lines and other expenses while making a certain amount of profit.

Both Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy have submitted plans to the PUC for supporting the use of electric vehicles. Business and trade groups that object to utilities getting into the EV charging business have focused on Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electric utility.

Xcel has proposed building and operating up to 460 public fast chargers in its service territory from 2024-2026. That number is less than 10% of the more than 6,000 additional chargers needed to support the state’s goal of having 940,000 EVs on the road by 2030, Jack Ihle, Xcel’s regional vice president for regulatory policy, said in testimony to the PUC.

Ihle said that leaves more than 90% of the additional charging needed to be met by others. Xcel’s plan includes offering rebates for installing home EV chargers; rebates for vehicles; support for the electrification of commercial fleets; rates that encourage charging when demand on the grid is low; and public outreach.

“Transportation is the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States and our EV vision complements our net-zero carbon emissions goal for 2050,” Xcel spokeswoman Michelle Aguayo said in an email.

The goal is to provide everyone in communities served by Xcel “the benefits of electric transportation, whether they own an EV, use public transit or benefit from improved air quality,” Aguayo added.

Xcel Energy recovers its costs of electrification through a rider on customers’ bills. Aguayo said the new plan will increase the average residential electric bill by 77 cents a month.

However, Xcel’s large commercial and industrial customers will see average monthly increases of $15.

In the long run, Xcel customers will benefit from more electric vehicles tapping into the grid, said Travis Madsen, transportation program director for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. People charging at home usually plug in their cars at night or when demand is low and there’s excess capacity on the system.

“In effect, we’re using our electric system more efficiently. We’ve already invested in these power plants, the wires and the transformers and whatnot,” Madsen said.

Electric vehicle drivers are putting more money into the electric system, which will help lower everyone’s rates, Madsen said.

A study by Synapse Energy Economics said customers with EVs in three of the utility service areas with the most electric vehicles in the U.S. contributed more than $1.7 billion in net revenue between 2012 and 2021. The result has been “downward pressure” on electric rates, the study said.

Fueling competition or not?

Bill Levis, an AARP Colorado volunteer, has a different viewpoint. He testified against a 2019 law in part because it allowed utilities to cover the costs of building chargers by increasing the rate base, the basic rate customers pay. The law cleared the way for electric utilities to supply public charging stations and, with approval of the PUC, recover their costs.

Levis, the former head of what is now the Colorado Office of the Utility Consumer Advocate, said AARP Colorado remains opposed to utilities adding the expense to the rate base.

“Putting it in the rate base means that those on fixed incomes and lower income people who can’t afford EVs would end up paying for subsidized charging stations,” Levis said in an email.

In addition, because regulators authorize set rates of return for the investments that utilities make, it gives them an unfair advantage in the marketplace, Levis said.

“If Xcel is looking to get ratepayers to subsidize their own investment, it will distort markets to such a degree that retailers who today are strongly considering installing EV charger stations would abandon that effort,” said David Fialkov with the National Association of Truck Stop Operators.

The association has weighed in on utilities proposing to build and run EV chargers in other states. One of those states is Minnesota, where Xcel Energy is based and where it recently withdrew a transportation electrification plan.

Xcel withdrew a clean transportation plan in early June after it got a lower rate increase than it sought from the Minnesota Public Utility Commission. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported that Xcel had proposed building and owning 730 EV fast chargers in the state.

Xcel Energy spokeswoman Aguayo said the company is evaluating its next steps and will submit another transportation plan to Minnesota regulators in November.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce said in a document to the utilities commission that it’s encouraging Xcel to review how it can help develop the state’s EV infrastructure. The department said Xcel “has not shown that it can build, operate, and maintain even the limited number” of the fast-charging stations it has been approved to build.

Fialkov said his organization and businesses don’t oppose Xcel Energy and utilities building EV chargers “on their own dime” or in areas where private businesses might not be willing to build.

“A lot of companies are looking at applying for federal grants to install EV chargers and if Xcel continues down the path it’s intending to go on, those plans will be abandoned and Colorado will be left behind,” Fialkov said.

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Tesla May Have Already Won the Charging Wars - The New York Times

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Deals with Ford and G.M. will make it easier to find a charger but could give Elon Musk control of critical infrastructure.

Mary Barra and Elon Musk may be intense business rivals, but they sounded like old pals as they chatted on Twitter this month about a deal that could help remove one of the biggest barriers to electric vehicle ownership: not enough chargers.

Ms. Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, had just agreed to follow Ford Motor in adopting the charging technology developed by Tesla, the carmaker led by Mr. Musk. The deals will allow G.M. and Ford customers to use some of Tesla’s fast chargers. Fear of not finding a charger is a main reason some people hesitate to buy electric cars, surveys show.

Ms. Barra gushed about the “fantastic” team at Tesla. Mr. Musk said it was an “honor” to work with her.

Beneath the surface of those pleasantries were probably some tough corporate calculations. G.M., Ford and numerous charging companies and equipment suppliers have agreed to work with Tesla because they desperately need the company’s help. In addition to selling more electric cars in the United States than all other automakers put together, Tesla operates the country’s largest fast-charging network.

But the decision to work with Tesla comes with big risks for the rest of the auto industry, which will be relying on Mr. Musk, a mercurial leader, for an essential technology. Tesla’s proprietary charging system, which it recently began calling the North American Charging Standard, is not overseen by an independent organization as other technical standards are. The company has said it intends to hand off control to such a body, though some competitors are skeptical of how much control Tesla will surrender.

The deal also comes with risks for Tesla. Exclusive access to the company’s charging stations, some of which already had long lines during busy travel times, has helped the company sell cars to customers who might chafe at having to wait behind Fords and Chevrolets.

Battles over technical standards are common with any new technology. The outcomes can be painful for companies or consumers who bet on the wrong horse. Just ask anyone who bought or invested in a video recorder, cellphone or digital music player that later became obsolete.

The stakes with automobiles are much higher: They cost tens of thousands of dollars, and replacing gasoline vehicles with electric models is key to addressing climate change.

Some industry officials fear that the messy corporate jockeying over charging technology could discourage people from buying electric cars.

“It creates confusion,” said Oleg Logvinov, chair for North America of the Charging Interface Initiative. The organization is a forum for manufacturers, equipment suppliers and charging companies using the main rival to Tesla’s standard, known as the Combined Charging System.

Buyers, Mr. Logvinov added, “will probably wait until you can figure out which one wins.”

Ford, G.M. and most manufacturers other than Tesla have been building cars with C.C.S. plugs, which are the standard in Europe. Charging networks operated by companies like Electrify America and EVgo primarily offer C.C.S. plugs.

Tesla’s plug is lighter and easier to handle but fits only the company’s cars. Under the agreements with Ford and G.M., Tesla will offer an adapter early next year enabling cars from those manufacturers to connect to about 12,000 of its fast chargers in the United States. In 2025, Ford and G.M. plan to make models designed to take the Tesla plug without an adapter.

The combined clout of Tesla, G.M. and Ford effectively compels operators of charging networks to install Tesla plugs and may effectively render the C.C.S. plug obsolete — at least in North America — in years to come. Rivian, a smaller electric vehicle company, said last week that it would also switch to the Tesla plug, and Volvo made the same commitment on Tuesday for cars the automaker sells in North America. Other manufacturers are considering doing so, too.

“For us, it’s important to make sure charging is really accessible and easy for customers,” R.J. Scaringe, the chief executive of Rivian, said in an interview.

As the Tesla plug becomes dominant, people with cars designed to use the C.C.S. plug will become increasingly dependent on adapters that, for safety, are limited in how much voltage they can handle and will charge more slowly.

Tesla’s system is known for being easy to use and reliable, while C.C.S. chargers can be finicky. Frustration with the existing charging network is clearly one reason Ford and G.M. decided to throw in their lot with Tesla.

“I absolutely do not think this would be happening if the other networks were more reliable,” said Ben Rose, president of Battle Road Research, who follows the electric vehicle industry.

But one reason Tesla’s system performs well is that the company designs and manufactures the whole system — the car, the software and the charging hardware. Tesla will lose absolute control once other automakers join its network.

Operating chargers that can fuel dozens of vehicles from many different manufacturers is extremely difficult.

“We charge 50 different models,” Cathy Zoi, the chief executive of charging company EVgo, told an audience in New York this month. Manufacturers sometimes fail to inform EVgo about changes to vehicle software, she said, leading to connection problems. “And the charger gets blamed,” she said.

EVgo’s chief executive said the company’s chargers had to work with many different models that had constantly changing software.Cayce Clifford for The New York Times

Tesla built a charging network because there were few places to charge in 2012 when it began selling the Model S, its first full-size passenger car. Tesla does not disclose financial information about the network, but analysts say the company probably loses money on charging in order to get people to buy its cars. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Tesla has 19,700 charging ports across the United States at about 1,800 stations, according to the Energy Department, while there are 10,500 C.C.S. ports at 5,300 stations. Only 12,000 Tesla chargers will be open to Ford, G.M. and Rivian vehicles.

The decision by other automakers to ally with Tesla, and generate revenue for a competitor, is an acknowledgment that Mr. Musk’s company has the most experience operating a charging network.

Mr. Musk promised not to put G.M. and Ford customers at a disadvantage, and the other car companies say they believe him. “A G.M. customer will get treated like a Tesla customer, and that’s part of the arrangement,” Alan Wexler, a General Motors executive who handled the negotiations with Tesla, told reporters in New York this month.

But it’s not clear who will ensure that the charging equipment is safe and works as well with Tesla rivals as it does with Tesla itself, and referee any disputes between the company and other automakers.

Tesla is in talks with the Charging Interface Initiative about designating it to play the same role for the company’s technology as it already does for C.C.S. But Mr. Musk has previously disparaged C.C.S. as the flawed product of a committee, suggesting he may prefer another venue.

Competitors are betting that government regulators would step in if Tesla tried to create a charging monopoly. Some are glad that someone is taking the lead to remove a major impediment to sales of electric vehicles.

“We’re really in this accelerated growth curve,” said Brendan Jones, the chief executive of Blink Charging, which plans to install Tesla plugs in its network. “This is really going to drive the industry forward.”

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Here come the electric buses - The Verge

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The US Department of Transportation is handing out $1.7 billion to 46 states and territories to fund the acquisition of 1,700 buses, over half of which will be zero-emission models.

By Andrew J. Hawkins, transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Make way for the electric buses.

The US Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Administration is sending out $1.7 billion from President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 46 states and territories to fund the acquisition of 1,700 buses — over half of which will be zero-emission models.

The new awards will bring the total number of zero-emission buses funded by the infrastructure law up to 1,800, which is more than double the number of clean buses on the roads today. That still only represents a fraction of the roughly 60,000 buses that are currently in operation in the US, but officials hailed it as an important step toward updating the nation’s aging transit fleet with an eye toward fighting climate change.

“These are unprecedented levels of investment when it comes to putting modern cleaner buses on the road,” US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in a briefing with reporters. “These projects will improve and increase bus service and bus reliability, so more people can get to where they need to affordably on time. And it’ll lower costs for local taxpayers. It’s simply a better commute when you’re on one of these cleaner buses.”

Each awardee is set to receive millions of dollars to fund the purchase of new buses, update garage facilities to install charging infrastructure, and retrain drivers and mechanics to support their maintenance and upkeep. The funds, which will go to urban and rural communities, as well as Indian reservations, are being distributed from the FTA’s Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities and Low- and No-Emission (Low-No) Vehicle programs.

Examples include $104 million to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to convert its Lorton, Virginia, bus garage into an EV-supporting facility; $33.5 million to King County Metro Transit in Seattle, Washington, to buy approximately 30 battery-electric buses; and $23.3 million to Iowa City to replace four diesel buses with electric models.

The Biden administration was quick to tout the economic development advantages of its clean bus investments. According to Buttigieg, all of the acquired buses will be manufactured in America, and the funds will also be put toward workforce development to ensure that transit employees have the skills to operate and maintain this new generation of vehicles.

But not all of the new models will be zero-emission. At least half of the buses will be powered by natural gas or “another fuel source that makes our air far less toxic,” Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA, said.

“We know for some agencies zero emission isn’t the answer yet,” Vanterpool added. “But they want to replace their older diesel or gasoline buses with something better for their community.”

Combined with last year’s announcement, there are now 3,300 new vehicles on the road that are either zero-emission or powered by less polluting forms of fuel. Today’s announcement accounts for an additional 700 zero-emission buses, including battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

Transit agencies continue to struggle to recover ridership in the years since the pandemic. Challenges like changing commuter habits, staffing shortages, and declining revenue continue to plague most transit systems in the US. Experts continue to worry about the possibility of a transit “death spiral” — a cycle of terrible service leading to even fewer riders, leading to even more terrible service, and so on.

It’s unclear whether cleaner buses will necessarily improve transit’s future, though few would dispute it’s better for the environment and for the health of people who live in the communities serviced by transit. Some critics have argued that the money would be better spent on improving service rather than on acquiring an expensive new fleet — especially when the production of these new buses remains very much a work in progress.

For example, Nova Bus, a Canadian manufacturer that makes zero-emission models, announced recently that it would be closing its facility in upstate New York to refocus on its locations in Quebec.

But Buttigieg said cleaner buses go hand in hand with improved service and reliability. “We’re putting historic funding into making public transit cleaner, safer, more reliable and more resilient,” he said, “because it is absolutely essential to our daily lives.”

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The US government is awarding $1.7 billion to buy electric and low-emission buses - ABC News

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The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding $1.7 billion in grants for buying zero- and low-emission buses

ByJOSH BOAK Associated Press

June 26, 2023, 5:36 AM

FILE - A Chicago Transit Authority electric bus charges at Navy Pier Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, in Chicago. The Transportation Department is awarding almost $1.7 billion in grants for buying zero and low emission buses, with the money going to transit projects in 46 states and territories. The grants will enable transit agencies and state and local governments to buy 1,700 U.S.-built buses, nearly half of which will have zero carbon emissions. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding almost $1.7 billion in grants for buying zero- and low-emission buses, with the money going to transit projects in 46 states and territories.

The grants will enable transit agencies and state and local governments to buy 1,700 U.S.-built buses, nearly half of which will have zero carbon emissions. Funding for the grants comes from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law by President Joe Biden. The Democratic president has made it a priority to put more electric vehicles on the road — especially for schools and public transit — in an effort to contain the damage from climate change.

“Every day, millions of Americans climb aboard over 60,000 buses to get to work, to school, doctor’s appointments, everywhere they need to be,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a call with reporters. “These are unprecedented levels of investment when it comes to putting modern cleaner buses on the road.”

Monday's announcement covers the second round of grants for buses and supporting infrastructure. All told, the U.S. has invested a total of $3.3 billion in the projects so far. Government officials expect to award roughly $5 billion more over the next three years.

The Biden administration said that the new buses will improve public health as diesel exhaust will no longer be going into the air and that the new buses will be easier to maintain.

The government received 475 project proposals for the grants that totaled roughly $8.7 billion, a sign of the demand for the funding.

The Seattle area will be getting $33.5 million to purchase 30 electric battery buses and chargers. The Washington, D.C., transit authority will use $104 million to make a bus garage an electric facility and buy roughly 100 electric battery buses. But money also is going outside of major U.S. cities, with Iowa City, Iowa, and the Seneca Nation in Western New York also receiving grants.

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Making electric bills fairer in California will be a battle - Sacramento Bee

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Making electric bills fairer in California will be a battle  Sacramento Bee

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Facing Brutal Heat the Texas Electric Grid Has a New Ally: Solar Power - The New York Times

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The amount of solar energy generated in Texas has grown exponentially. Some Republicans question the state’s increasing reliance on renewable power.

Strafed by powerful storms and superheated by a dome of hot air, Texas has been enduring a dangerous early heat wave this week that has broken temperature records and strained the state’s independent power grid.

But the lights and air conditioning have stayed on across the state, in large part because of an unlikely new reality in the nation’s premier oil and gas state: Texas is fast becoming a leader in solar power.

The amount of solar energy generated in Texas has doubled since the start of last year. And it is set to roughly double again by the end of next year, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Already, the state rivals California in how much power it gets from commercial solar farms, which are sprouting across Texas at a rapid pace, from the baked-dry ranches of West Texas to the booming suburbs southwest of Houston.

“Solar is producing 15 percent of total energy right now,” Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said on a sweltering day in the state capital last week, when a larger-than-usual share of power was coming from the sun.

So far this year, about 7 percent of the electric power used in Texas has come from solar, and 31 percent from wind.

The state’s increasing reliance on renewable energy has caused some Texas lawmakers, mindful of the reliable production and revenues from oil and gas, to worry. “It’s definitely ruffling some feathers,” Dr. Rhodes said.

Amid the heat wave, strong storms have knocked out power for more than 100,000 customers in Texas and spawned at least two deadly tornadoes, including one that killed at least four on Wednesday in the central Texas town of Matador.Annie Rice/Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, via Associated Press

Several bills passed by the Republican-dominated State Senate in the spring contained provisions that would add new costs and regulations to the solar and wind industries and severely limit the number of new projects in the state, energy experts said. The bills failed to pass before the legislative session ended last month, but the desire among many Republicans in the state to take similar action, and their skepticism about renewable power, remains strong.

“Wind power was the biggest infrastructure mistake in TX history,” State Representative Jared Patterson, a conservative Dallas-area Republican, said on Twitter Wednesday. “It’s hot and will get hotter,” he wrote in an earlier tweet. “Solar is helping, but make no mistake, the 9th largest economy in the world runs on natural gas.”

The politics around electricity generation in Texas have undergone a rapid shift in recent years, punctuated by the failure of the power grid during a deadly winter storm in February 2021. The immediate response of many Republicans, including Gov. Greg Abbott, was to blame frozen wind turbines, though subsequent reviews found that the persistent cold caused widespread outages at power plants fueled by natural gas.

The June heat wave has renewed debate over the grid as temperatures climb to dangerous levels. The border town of Del Rio reached 113 degrees on Tuesday, the highest temperature since records began over a century ago, according to the National Weather Service. Then, on Wednesday, it was 115 degrees.

It was not an isolated event. The heat dome perched over Texas followed one that broke records in Puerto Rico at the beginning of the month, and another one that dried out central Canada, sparking disastrous wildfires. Scientists have warned that the steady warming of the planet is leading to an increase in the intensity and duration of heat waves.

Many Texans have become expert at following the ebb and flow of the state’s energy market, whose curves of supply and demand are posted in close to real time by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT. If demand for energy threatens to exceed supply, rolling blackouts could be a last resort.

State leaders have taken few steps to address surging demand in the fast-growing state. On Sunday, Mr. Abbott vetoed a bill aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of new Texas homes, saying the measure was “not as important as cutting property taxes.”

The state has endured a dangerous early heat wave that has broken temperature records and strained the state’s independent power grid.Go Nakamura for The New York Times

The supply and demand curves briefly approached each other earlier in the week, prompting a call from ERCOT for customers to voluntarily use less electricity.

Paul Rasbury, who owns a flower shop outside Fort Worth, said he had already made a practice of reducing his energy use. “We’re running our temperatures up, putting foil on the windows, closing up certain rooms and praying,” he said. “Lots of prayers.”

The heat has been punishing across the state, even for those accustomed to high temperatures. “It’s the humidity that gets me,” said Kristen Triplett, standing in the sun in the Dallas suburbs on a day when the dense air felt like 114 degrees. “It’s like breathing in water.”

Amid the heat wave, strong storms have knocked out power for more than 100,000 customers in Texas and spawned at least two deadly tornadoes, killing three last week in Perryton, in the northern Panhandle, and at least four on Wednesday in the central Texas town of Matador.

But for much of the last week, the same beating-down sun that endangered the lives of Texans also helped to power the state.

“Renewables are definitely saving the grid and saving our wallets,” said Alison Silverstein, an independent energy consultant based in Austin, referring to the impact on electricity prices.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick at the Texas State Capitol in Austin this week. “We don’t have enough dispatchable energy,” he said last month, referring to energy sources that can be quickly turned on in an emergency.Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press

Another test is set to come early next week, when more excessive heat is expected to push energy demand beyond previous record levels.

For many years, the state’s Republican leadership embraced renewable power. Former Gov. Rick Perry helped establish Texas as the leading state for wind power, backing a multibillion-dollar effort in 2005 to create transmission lines to bring power from the windy western part of the state to the major population centers.

And the competitive Texas energy market, long supported by state leaders, has allowed renewable energy to develop faster than in many other states, first with wind farms and now, as the cost of solar technology has declined, with vast fields of solar arrays.

“As a state, we welcomed this, we worked hard to make it happen,” State Senator Nathan Johnson, a Democrat from Dallas, said in his office at the Texas Capitol. “Now, renewable energy has become a convenient scapegoat for the lack of reliability in our energy grid.”

Republican lawmakers have increasingly questioned the dependability of wind and solar power — with some referring to renewables as “unreliables” — as well as the level of subsidies offered to wind and solar projects.

“It just seems like there’s a really unlevel playing field in the market,” State Senator Phil King said in a hearing this year. “If we level up that playing field, are people going to start going out and building gas plants?”

The concern about reliability has been echoed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who worried that Texas did not have sufficient available capacity in reserve to make up for a situation in which wind and solar underperform on a given day.

“We don’t have enough dispatchable energy,” Mr. Patrick said last month, referring to energy sources that can be quickly turned on in an emergency. Those sources can be batteries, but their capacity is still small. Usually, utilities turn to natural gas-fueled power plants.

Last month, the Texas Legislature passed a new $10 billion program mostly to incentivize the construction of new natural gas power plants. The sum includes $1.8 billion for local hospitals and other critical services to purchase backup power generators, a provision originally proposed by Mr. Johnson.

Republicans also advanced legislation that would have increased costs and regulation for renewable energy producers, including new fees for transmission and ancillary services as well as new permitting requirements and rules about where projects could be located.

The legislation failed — but only at the last minute, and not before raising concerns within the industry.

“It’s a huge irony,” said John Berger, the chief executive of Sunnova Energy, a residential solar power and battery company based in Houston. “The growth of wind and solar is because Texas is more capitalistic than many other states,” he said, “so the response from the so-called capitalists in Austin was socialism — having the state invest $10 billion” in natural gas.

“It’s blatant protectionism and it’s not what made Texas great,” he added.

Texas still trails California in the amount of solar power on the roofs of homes. But in the growth of solar farms, it has been rapidly outstripping the Golden State.

Outside Houston, in Fort Bend County, there are now six large solar farms, up from one in 2020.

“It’s being commissioned as we speak,” Joaquin Castillo, the chief executive of Acciona Energy North America, said of the company’s new 1,500-acre solar farm in Fort Bend, which is set to switch on this summer. “Texas historically has shown a strong commitment to a free market,” Mr. Castillo said. “And it’s a fast-growing market in terms of demand.”

The change has been rapid and notable, particularly in rural West Texas, where voters are often conservative, usually supportive of oil and gas development — and increasingly benefiting from the spread of solar power.

“We’re better off financially for it,” said Joe Shuster, the Democratic county judge in Pecos County, north of Big Bend National Park. “I don’t know what the megawatts we put out are, but it’s a bunch.”

He said the sprawling county has long had oil and gas development. Then came wind. Now solar. Mr. Shuster said he invited President Biden to visit the county and see how fossil fuel and renewable energy sources can be developed in tandem.

“Everybody throws these stones at green energy,” Mr. Shuster said. “They can coexist together. I’m a firm believer in that.”

The president never did respond to his invitation.

Mary Beth Gahan contributed reporting from Dallas.

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Tenant may be forced to pay thousands in electricity bills because of landlords neglect: Contact a lawyer and discuss a suit - Yahoo News

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With the cost of living continuing to rise, it comes as no surprise that 67% of Americans are worried about how to afford expenses such as food, housing, bills, and health care.

In the past few years, most of us have been trying to find ways to cut back on general costs and save a few dollars here and there to make life a little easier and a little less wasteful.

TikToker CJ (@calihollywood) recently shared a video on the platform about how her electric bill is suspiciously high.

Speaking to the camera in a classic TikTok “story time” video, she explained that she was initially shocked after finding out her electric bill was costing approximately $4,000 a month. After ringing the electric company to find out why, she was told that her apartment was being charged as a commercial building.

She then goes on to explain that the company came to check her apartment out and, the following month, her bill dropped to $0. But the problem wasn’t actually solved. Continuing the story, CJ explained that the next month her bill totaled $9,000.

“That’s f***ing crazy. That doesn’t seem right,” she said when recounting what she thought when she opened the shocking bill.

Unfortunately, it was right — and it all came down to the outdated building.

“We’re using about five times the amount of electric that we should be using,” she explains, adding that the high usage was a result of bad wiring and the apartment not being weatherized properly.

Faulty electrical wiring and excessive energy consumption is an easy fix — after all, the wiring just needs to be updated by a professional electrician. But in this case, the landlord hasn’t bothered to make the fix, according to the TikToker.

Excessive electricity use puts pressure on our Earth’s resources. According to The Global Footprint Network, humans currently use 74% more resources than what our planet can remake, which is greatly contributing to the overheating of our planet and harming our communities.

Not only that, but it’s a drain on tenants’ money. Spending $9,000 on electricity is not an option for most people, including this TikTok user.

“I have to either file for bankruptcy or cough up $9,000”, said @calihollywood.

Other TikTok users were also shocked to see the bill and encouraged the original poster to act.

“I’d be sending that bill straight to my landlord via certified mail,” said one.

Another added: “Contact a lawyer and discuss a suit against your landlord if they don’t want to work with you on this.”

Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more, waste less, and help yourself while helping the planet.

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Republicans push to strike down California's electric vehicle mandates - Fox News

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FIRST ON FOX: A group of Senate Republicans introduced legislation Wednesday that would disallow regulations targeting traditional gas-powered vehicles.

The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act — introduced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., along with Sens. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D, Ted Cruz, R-Texas, John Hoeven, R-N.D., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Roger Wicker, R-Miss. — would block the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing waivers to states seeking to ban or limit internal combustion engine vehicles. 

The Clean Air Act currently empowers the EPA to grant California a waiver to implement stricter emissions standards than the federal government.

"California’s waivers are not about clean energy, they are about control," Mullin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Democrats want to control every aspect of Americans’ lives – including what car they drive. If it were about clean energy, banning tailpipe emissions in favor of electric vehicles that strain an unstable grid is not the solution."

"This bill will ensure Americans can choose what vehicle is best for themselves and their families, and allow that choice to dictate the market," he continued.

MORE THAN 150 REPUBLICANS UNITE TO CONDEMN BIDEN'S 'ILL-CONSIDERED' ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks during a hearing in 2020. (Greg Nash/Pool via REUTERS)

In March 2022, the EPA reinstated California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to implement its own emission standards and electric vehicle sales mandates, and allowed other states to adopt California's rules. The move came after the Trump administration revoked the state's authority to pursue its own standards countering federal rules.

Months later, in August, the California Air Resources Board, a leading state environmental agency, approved regulations mandating that all car purchases in the state — which leads the country in annual car sales — are zero emissions by 2035. California Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated the regulations, saying the state would continue to "lead the revolution towards our zero-emission transportation future."

CALIFORNIA'S GRID FACES COLLAPSE AS LEADERS PUSH RENEWABLES, ELECTRIC VEHICLES, EXPERTS SAY

In addition, 17 states have laws in place that tether their vehicle emissions standards to those set in California, meaning the electric vehicle mandate would impact Americans nationwide. Overall, it is estimated that the states adopting California's 2035 rule represent more than 40% of total U.S. car purchases.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom holds a power cable before test-driving a hybrid Toyota Prius when he was mayor of San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

"Capitalism has already proven that internal combustion engine vehicles continue to contribute to the overwhelming majority of vehicle purchases in America," Mullin added. "Not to mention, America is less secure when we are dependent on foreign adversaries for critical mineral supply." 

"I will not sit back and allow the federal government to make purchasing choices for consumers in Oklahoma, especially when our national security is at stake."

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Mullin's bill is companion legislation to one introduced by Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., and three fellow House Republicans earlier this year.

"California’s discriminatory waiver request would set a costly and dangerous precedent," Joyce said in a statement. "One state should not be able to set national policy and Americans should not be coerced into making purchases they cannot afford." 

"Congress must immediately pass the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act to stop this heavy-handed proposal that only takes away choices from American consumers."

Thomas Catenacci is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

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How Long Does It Take to Break Even on an Electric Car? - CNET

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If you've spent any amount of time weighing the pros and cons of electric cars, you've no doubt noticed that their sticker prices tend to be higher than their combustion-powered counterparts. Look beyond the point of purchase, however, and an EV's reduced operating costs could end up saving you money over the long term. 

But how long of a term are we talking? How long does it take to break even on an electric car? The answer is, perhaps unsatisfyingly, "it depends." It depends on the class of vehicle you're comparing, how much you drive and a variety of other factors. This guide will help you learn how to estimate for yourself and provide a few examples.

EV premium, tax credits

The first thing to calculate is the price premium an electric car commands over a gas-powered (or hybrid) alternative. You'll be subtracting any long-term savings from this number later. If that EV premium pill is too tough to swallow, you could also consider shopping for a used example to minimize the initial cost -- especially if you're shopping for a second car or your range needs are on the more conservative side.

Also consider whether the EV qualifies for any state or federal tax credits that can give you a nice jumpstart towards that break-even point. The roster of qualifying EVs got quite a bit shorter when new battery regulations were announced earlier this year, but many familiar favorites are already returning to the list.

Read: 33 States Charge Electric Vehicle Drivers for Not Pumping Gas

Estimating basic operating costs

Now comes the tricky part: figuring out and comparing operating costs. This will come down to a number of factors, including the efficiency of the vehicles in question, the gasoline and electricity prices in your region, how many miles you drive per year and your driving habits. Here in the US, a great resource to get you in the ballpark is fueleconomy.gov, the Environmental Protection Agency's official database of efficiency estimates.

Enlarge Image

Generally speaking, electricity is cheaper than gas, and charging at home is less expensive than a DC fast charging station.

Antuan Goodwin/CNET

Here, you'll be able to search and compare the range, fuel efficiency and estimated fuel cost per year for almost any car sold in America dating as far back as 1984. The EPA assumes a 55% stop-and-go driving mix, 15,000 annual miles and the current fuel prices to calculate its fuel cost estimate, but you can (and should) personalize the formula with your own prices and mileage.

Armed with the EPA's estimates, divide the EV's price premium by the annual energy cost savings to come to the most basic estimate, in years, until your electric car would break even.

For example…

Let's compare, for example, the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV ($28,795) with the similarly sized Chevrolet Trailblazer ($23,395) and we find the EV is $5,400 more expensive at the outset. The EPA estimates that Bolt owners will spend $1,200 less charging every year versus gas based on average fuel and electricity at the time of publication. That works out to 4.5 years until the break-even point. However, the Bolt also qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit which, once claimed, works out to a savings of $8,100 over the first five years.

Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y have also recently undergone multiple aggressive price cuts which, when combined with their newly reinstated federal tax credit qualification, means they could break even within the first year, if you're cross-shopping against competitors from premium or luxury brands.

Enlarge Image

Using the EPA's calculator, you can quickly get a custom estimate of how much switching to a more efficient car could save you.

FuelEconomy.gov

Without the federal incentive, however, it can be significantly longer before reduced cost makes up for the battery premium. The 2023 Hyundai Kona Electric, for example, is $11,410 more expensive than the contemporary gasoline-powered Kona. With an expected $1,050 in energy savings per year, but no tax credit, the EV driver would expect to break even in just under 11 years unless other variables, such as higher than average gas prices, dealer incentives or qualifying for state-level tax credits, come into play.

Other things to consider

There's more to owning a car than how much you spend on gas or electrons. If you plan on installing a home charger, you'll want to account for that in your estimates. Electric vehicles, without oil to change or complex emissions systems to break, often have significantly lower recurring maintenance costs than combustion cars. However, due to the newness and scarcity of specialized parts, when things do go wrong, unexpected EV repairs can end up being more expensive. That can feed into higher insurance premiums for electric cars, as well.

Read: The Total Cost of Owning an Electric Car Is Its Secret Weapon

Enlarge Image

Holding off on buying an EV until more affordable models like the Volvo EX30 arrive is also a viable option.

Volvo

Finally, consider whether you need a new car in the first place. If your current vehicle is in good working order and gets decent fuel economy, sticking with it for a few more years until EV costs come down may be the more frugal choice -- especially if buying a new car would strain your budget. The most cost-effective car is often one that's already paid for.

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Sweltering heat tests Texas' power grid and patience as thousands in South still without electricity - ABC News

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AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas' power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept large swaths of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures.

On the last day of spring, the sweltering heat felt more like the middle of summer across the South, where patience was growing thin over outages that have persisted since weekend storms and tornadoes caused widespread damage.

In the Mississippi capital, some residents said Tuesday that they had been without power and air conditioning for almost 100 hours, which is longer than the outages caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Entergy Mississippi, the state’s largest electric utility, said its crews had worked 16-hour shifts since Friday, but some officials expressed doubts about its preparedness.

High temperatures in the state were expected to reach 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.

“The delay in restoring power has caused significant hardship for their customers and it is unacceptable,” said Brent Bailey, a member on the Mississippi Public Service Commission, the state's energy regulator.

The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which serves most of that state's nearly 30 million residents, was its first of the year to cut energy consumption. ERCOT said it was “not experiencing emergency conditions," but it noted that the state set an unofficial June record on Monday for energy demand.

In the oil patch of West Texas, temperatures in San Angelo soared to an all-time high of 114 degrees (46 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

Many Texans have been skeptical of the state's grid since a deadly 2021 ice storm knocked out power to millions of customers for days. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said improvements since then have made the grid more stable, but those improvement efforts continue to draw scrutiny.

In neighboring Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers were eagerly awaiting the restoration of power and air conditioning following weekend storms that downed trees and snapped hundreds of utility poles. Officials say at least one person in Oklahoma has died because of the prolonged outages, which could last into the weekend for some residents.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday declared a state of emergency because of the weekend’s storms, citing damage from the weather and “numerous" downed power lines.

In Louisiana, more than 51,000 electricity customers were still without power Tuesday because of the storms that damaged more than 800 structures around Shreveport alone, according to Mayor Tom Arceneaux. Officials said more than a dozen major transmission lines were still awaiting repairs.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.

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Sweltering heat tests Texas' power grid and patience as thousands in South still without electricity - The Associated Press

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept large swaths of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures.

On the last day of spring, the sweltering heat felt more like the middle of summer across the South, where patience was growing thin over outages that have persisted since weekend storms and tornadoes caused widespread damage.

In the Mississippi capital, some residents said Tuesday that they had been without power and air conditioning for almost 100 hours, which is longer than the outages caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Entergy Mississippi, the state’s largest electric utility, said its crews had worked 16-hour shifts since Friday, but some officials expressed doubts about its preparedness.

High temperatures in the state were expected to reach 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.

“The delay in restoring power has caused significant hardship for their customers and it is unacceptable,” said Brent Bailey, a member on the Mississippi Public Service Commission, the state’s energy regulator.

The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which serves most of that state’s nearly 30 million residents, was its first of the year to cut energy consumption. ERCOT said it was “not experiencing emergency conditions,” but it noted that the state set an unofficial June record on Monday for energy demand.

Much of Texas was under excessive heat warnings Tuesday that were set to stay in place until Wednesday, with forecasted heat indexes surpassing 110 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Many Texans have been skeptical of the state’s grid since a deadly 2021 ice storm knocked out power to millions of customers for days. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said improvements since then have made the grid more stable, but those improvement efforts continue to draw scrutiny.

In neighboring Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers were eagerly awaiting the restoration of power and air conditioning following weekend storms that downed trees and snapped hundreds of utility poles. Officials say at least one person in Oklahoma has died because of the prolonged outages, which could last into the weekend for some residents.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday declared a state of emergency because of the weekend’s storms, citing damage from the weather and “numerous” downed power lines.

In Louisiana, the Southwestern Electric Power Company said more than 93,000 of its customers remained without power Tuesday morning. Nearly half them were around Shreveport, where the utility has estimated power would be restored by Saturday night.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Goldberg in Jackson, Mississippi, and Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.

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Kia plans new entry-level EV and electric crossover to expand lineup - Electrek

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Kia plans to expand its lineup of all-electric vehicles over the next few years as it pushes toward becoming a sustainable mobility leader. Despite releasing its first three-row electric SUV, Kia plans to downsize with smaller models, including an entry-level EV and an electric crossover.

Kia steps into the electric era

After what many consider a successful introduction to the EV market with its first dedicated electric car, the EV6, Kia recently revealed it was planning to accelerate its strategy.

Kia revealed the EV6 crossover, based on the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP architecture (the same used for the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6), last May and has continued to receive praise from buyers and auto journalists. Steven Center, COO and EVP of Kia America, said:

The all-electric EV6 delivers on the matters that make an EV rise to the top of the class, such as a starting MSRP under $50,000, an EPA estimated range of 310 miles of all electric range, in its Wind and GT-Line RWD trims as well as numerous other characteristics that make it desirable to own.

The South Korean automaker unveiled its flagship EV9, its first three-row electric SUV, in March in a push to grab its share of the booming premium SUV market.

Kia EV9 electric SUV (Source: Kia)

Kia began deliveries of the new electric SUV Monday in South Korea with plans for it to go on sale in the US by the end of the year.

However, this is just the beginning for Kia. David Hilbert, marketing director for Kia Europe, told Autocar the brand would “have coverage in all major segments,” hinting at models between the EV1 and EV9.

Kia EV6 GT (Source: Kia)

Kia plans new entry-level EV and electric crossover

We have already seen a glimpse of some of the smaller electric models Kia plans to offer. Earlier this year, Kia revealed its EV5 SUV concept, which will sit between the Niro EV and EV6 in the automaker’s lineup.

Kia EV5 concept (Source: Kia)

Kia says the production version will be launched later this year in China and will later be available in Europe. It’s expected to play a key role alongside the EV6 to drive market share in China.

Meanwhile, Kia is looking even smaller, something such as a Jeep Avenger rival that could be called the EV3. Hilbert mentioned the B-segment SUV market is “the largest segment in Europe,” making it a key area of focus.

Jeep Avenger (Source: Stellantis)

The Hyundai Motor Group, Kia’s parent company, is already developing a successor for the E-GMP platform, which could house smaller EV models.

The first EV to ride on Hyundai’s next-gen “eM” platform is reportedly a Kia electric sports car, codenamed GT1. Hyundai has previously said the platform is being “specifically developed for EVs across all segments” while enhancing range by up to 50%.

With plans to build “small and mid-size EVs” from 2025 at its Slovakia factory (where the Kia Creed and Sportage are made), the EV5 could be a match.

Hilbert claims the brand plans to offer hatches and sedans in the future, claiming “all the major segments will be covered in some form [by 2027].” Kia is also committed to the A-segment, suggesting an entry-level EV is in the works that could rival Volkswagen’s upcoming ID 2all affordable EV.

Volkswagen ID 2all concept (Source: VW)

Electrek’s Take

There’s been a wave of automakers targeting the entry-level affordable EV segment. Volkswagen teased the idea, releasing the ID2 all-concept earlier this year with nearly 300 miles (450 km) of range.

CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Thomas Shafer, explained, “The ID 2all shows where we want to take the brand,” adding, “We are implementing the transformation at pace to bring electric mobility to the masses.”

Stellantis also recently revealed it would release an entry-level EV starting at around $27,000 (€25,000), the Citroën e-C3 city car.

Kia seems to be the next in line as the need for affordable EV options continues rising in key markets globally.

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