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These states will dominate EV battery manufacturing in 2030

January 5, 2023 Published by Cat Clifford

US Top News and Analysis

Planned electric vehicle battery plant capacity in North America by 2030. Data updated through November.

U.S. Department of Energy, Argonne National Lab

Georgia, Kentucky and Michigan are going to dominate electric vehicle battery manufacturing in the United States by 2030.

Each of those three states will be able to manufacture between 97 and 136 gigawatt hours’ worth of EV batteries per year by 2030, according to plans they have laid out.

Kansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee will also be key players, with planned capacity for between 46 and 97 gigawatt hours’ of EV battery production per year by 2030.

This planned manufacturing capacity was highlighted by the U.S. Department of Energy on Monday, based on a November 2022 report from the Argonne National Laboratory in November.

To keep up with increasing demand for EVs, the total build out of EV battery manufacturing capacity in North America will go from from 55 gigawatt-hours per year in 2021 to almost 1,000 gigawatt-hours per year by 2030. So far, the planned investment in these factories is more than $40 billion, according to an October report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

The Ford Motor Co. and SK Innovation Co. electric vehicle and battery manufacturing complex under construction near Stanton, Tennessee, on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022.

Houston Cofield | Bloomberg | Getty Images

By 2030, this EV battery manufacturing capacity will support the manufacturing of between 10 million and 13 million all-electric vehicles per year, putting the U.S. in position to be a global EV competitor.

“Growing battery manufacturing capacity by more than 15x by 2030 will put the U.S. in the leadership circle of the EV market,” Nick Nigro, founder of the public policy shop, Atlas Public Policy, told CNBC.

“This capacity will provide more than enough batteries for the U.S. to reach the Biden Administration’s goal of 50% EV sales by 2030,” Nigro told CNBC. The work Atlas does includes both transportation and climate policy.

The planned wave of EV battery manufacturing plants will be close to EV assembly facilities in North America, identified by red dots in the graphic.

“It really appears that they are trying to reduce their overall manufacturing costs here,” David Gohlke, one of the authors on the paper from Argonne, told CNBC. “They have these relatively heavy batteries that they need to ship from the assembled battery assembly location to their automotive assembly plant, and they need to make sure that they have the infrastructure around to do that.”

Virtually all of the planned plants in Argonne’s report will make lithium ion batteries and will be joint ventures between automakers and battery manufacturers like Panasonic, Samsung, LG Chem or SK Innovation, Gohlke told CNBC.

Going forward, it will also be important to train workers and ramp up the supply chains of necessary minerals, Nigro told CNBC.

“The big challenge for the industry will be establishing a reliable supply chain and building the human capacity to make these factories hum,” Nigro told CNBC.

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Biden to award Presidential Citizens Medal to several Jan. 6 heroes

January 5, 2023 Published by Kelly Hooper

Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories

President Joe Biden is set to award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 12 individuals who “demonstrated courage and selflessness” in the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Biden will present the awards on Friday, according to a White House official, to mark the two-year anniversary of the deadly riots — where a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt certification of Biden’s win in the 2020 election. Friday’s event will mark the first time Biden awards a Presidential Citizens Medal — the nation’s second-highest civilian honor — which is given to individuals who have “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,” said the White House.

Among the 12 recipients Biden will award the medal to are several state officials who resisted pressure from Trump to overturn the election results, law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, and election workers who continued doing their jobs despite receiving harassment and threats during the 2020 election.

The Arizona House speaker during the 2020 election, Rusty Bowers, and the Michigan secretary of state during the election, Jocelyn Benson, will both receive the medal for resisting pressure to overturn the election results. Both officials were also recipients of the 2022 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage award, a recognition given to public servants whose actions demonstrate qualities of politically courageous leadership.

Seven law enforcement officials will be presented with the medal, including members of the U.S. Capitol Police force and the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, all of whom defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and some of whom sustained injuries from the attack. One of the seven officers receiving the medal is the late Brian Sicknick, who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and died a day later of natural causes, according to the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The other recipients of the medal include Fulton County, Ga., election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, who have repeatedly been the target of harassment as Trump and his allies accused the pair of including fake ballots in Georgia’s election tally. Al Schmidt, a former civil servant, will also receive the award for keeping the vote tally going while serving as a city commissioner on the Philadelphia County Board of Elections despite pressure and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Tesla extends discounts amid warnings of a monthslong ‘pain period’ in China

January 5, 2023 Published by [email protected] (Tim Levin)

Business Insider

Tesla’s sales in China dropped in December despite discounts.

STR/AFP via Getty Images

Tesla is keeping the discounts rolling in China.
The carmaker sold far fewer cars to Chinese customers in December than the previous month.
China is facing a COVID-19 outbreak that will hurt car production and sales, JPMorgan analysts warn.

Tesla made the rare move of discounting its cars in China and the US toward the end of 2022 in an apparent effort to boost sales amid sluggish demand. They came as a surprise, as Tesla has seemingly had no trouble selling every single car it’s produced in recent years.

Now the electric-car maker is keeping the discounts rolling — in China, at least — to energize sales in the world’s biggest auto market, which is crucial to the company’s continued growth.

Through the end of February, Tesla is offering Chinese buyers of its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV an incentive of up to 10,000 yuan, roughly $1,500 at current exchange rates. Tesla also didn’t raise its prices to reflect the end of the Chinese government’s subsidy program for electric vehicle sales on January 1, meaning it’s absorbing the hit.

Slowing sales in China — a huge market for electric vehicles filled with competition — could explain the aggressive price cuts. Despite the new strategy, Tesla’s domestic sales there dropped roughly 30% between November and December 2022, according to JPMorgan. The situation in China may get worse before it gets better, the bank’s analysts said in a note to investors in January.

“Into the next few months, we will likely experience a transitional pain period (with surging cases which may impact both auto production and consumption) before we likely return to a stronger recovery phase,” they said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Stitch Fix plans 20% job cuts as CEO steps down, founder Katrina Lake to reassume post

January 5, 2023 Published by Gabrielle Fonrouge

US Top News and Analysis

In this article

SFIX

Katrina Lake, CEO of Stitch Fix

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Stitch Fix founder Katrina Lake on Thursday told employees the company will be cutting 20% of its salaried workforce and she will reassume her post as CEO as the fledgling apparel company continues to grapple with low sales, a dwindling customer base and a reduced market cap.

The brand’s current CEO Elizabeth Spaulding, who joined the company as president in 2020 and took over as CEO in Aug. 2021, will be stepping down effective immediately, Lake said.

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“I will be stepping in as interim CEO and leading the search process for our next CEO,” Lake said in a news release. “Despite the challenging moment we are in right now, the board and I still deeply believe in the Stitch Fix business, mission and vision.”

Shares of the company were up roughly 4% in midday trading after the announcements.

Stitch Fix, which sells curated boxes of clothing on a subscription basis, won big during the pandemic after stuck-at-home consumers, newly flush with cash, took advantage of the subscription service to update their wardrobes. But as shoppers ventured back out into the world, sales dropped and new strategies led by Spaulding failed.

Shortly after taking over as CEO, Spaulding led the rollout of a direct-buy option, called Freestyle, that allowed customers to purchase items directly from the company with the hopes they’d be won over as regular subscribers. But the initiative stalled and in June, the company announced it’d be laying off about 15% of salaried workers, or about 330 people.

The cuts left Stitch Fix with about 1,700 salaried employees, as of June.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData and a retail analyst, said in a statement Thursday the company looks to have “lost its way” and the issues its facing are neither temporary or immediately solvable.

“This is one of the reasons why the company has announced the termination of around 20% of its salaried positions – an action it hopes will help to stem losses and put the company on a better financial footing,” Saunders said.

Stitch Fix employees learned about the job cuts Thursday morning and were told the brand’s Salt Lake City distribution center will also be shuttering.

Impacted employees will receive at least 12 weeks of pay, which increases with tenure, and healthcare and mental wellness support will continue through April 2023, Lake said.

Lake told staffers she was “truly sorry” for the cuts and thanked them for their “hard work” and “dedication.”

As founder, Lake has a unique perspective on the company and its potential, but she will have to contend with a consumer environment that has significantly shifted over the last year and a looming recession that’ll see shoppers reduce their spending on discretionary items like new clothes.

House Speaker election coverage: House gavels in for seventh vote without McCarthy deal

January 5, 2023 Published by The Hill staff

Just In | The Hill

The House gaveled in for its third day without a Speaker, but Republicans say negotiations are progressing.

Despite the progress, however, there remains no deal between Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and his GOP detractors, and some of his opponents are signaling they are dug in.

The House reconvened at noon for a historic seventh Speaker vote. McCarthy fell short on the first six, losing 20 Republicans in all three votes on Wednesday.

Follow along with live updates from The Hill below:

House, News, Speaker of the House, speaker race, Speakership race Read More

Try These Cures for a Holiday-Spending Hangover

January 5, 2023 Published by The Street

Americans have largely bid good riddance to the holiday season and seem focused on a clean slate in 2023.

There’s one problem with that outlook: That slate isn’t really clean until holiday debts are paid off, and for many households those debts aren’t going away anytime soon.

Exhibit A is new data showing more than a third (35%) of U.S. adults took on an average of $1,549 in credit-card debt in the last few months of 2022. Those data, included in Lending Tree’s latest holiday debt survey, are expected to take an average of five months to pay off.

“There’s never a good time to carry debt, but this is a particularly bad time with interest rates at record highs,” the Lending Tree study noted.

Cutting the Holiday-Debt Burden Down to Size

All is not lost for people who’ve accumulated holiday-spending debt. With some budget discipline and household-income creativity, there’s no reason consumers can’t chop that debt to the nub well before five months are up.

Use these tips from personal-finance experts to get your holiday debt paid off sooner rather than later.

Calculate and plan. Start by calculating how much you owe across all your household finance accounts, noting minimum payments due and interest rates to determine the best repayment plan.

“Choose between the “Avalanche Method,” in which you pay off the card with the highest interest rate first to save on fees; or the “Snowball Method,” which focuses on paying off the smallest balance first to build momentum and keep you motivated,” said Andrea Woroch, a nationally recognized consumer-finance expert. “A debt-repayment app like Debt Free can guide you through this process.”

Rebalance your budget. Slash useless spending from your budget so you can make bigger debt payments each month.

“Begin by scrutinizing monthly bills for services you don’t need or use and compare rates with competitors to see if switching would provide savings,” Woroch advised.

“For instance, a recent study found that 90% of mobile users waste money on unnecessary unlimited data plans. You could save big by switching to a lower-tiered plan or move to a cheaper online-only carrier like Mint Mobile that has plans for as little as $15 a month.”

Canceling unused subscriptions, bundling insurance policies and increasing deductibles, and unplugging unused gadgets are other ways to reduce monthly spending, Woroch added.

Call your credit card company and ask for an APR reduction. Believe it or not, if you do this, there’s a good chance that you’ll be approved.

“That way, you can save money on interest, and more of your monthly payment will go toward the principal balance,” said Leslie Tayne, founder and personal-finance expert at Tayne Law Group.

Go zero balance. If your credit is in good shape, consider taking advantage of a 0% APR balance-transfer offer.

“This allows you to consolidate your high-interest credit card debt by transferring it to a new card with a temporary 0% APR,” Tayne said. “That way, 100% of your payments go toward the principal balance during this introductory period, which may last anywhere from six to 18 months.”

The key is to pay off the balance before the intro period is up. “You want to avoid taking on any new debt,” Tayne added. “It requires some discipline, but can help you pay off your debt more aggressively.”

Leverage your tax refund. If you’ve racked up debt during the holidays and you’re expecting a refund this tax season, consider putting a portion, or all, of your refund toward paying down debt.

“That will help you jump-start your debt-repayment strategy and could help limit the amount of interest you accrue,” said Courtney Alev, a Credit Karma consumer financial advocate.

Don’t forget to make your holiday returns. Making returns often falls to the bottom of most people’s to-do lists.

“Don’t let that happen this holiday season,” Alev said. “Instead, make sure to return any gifts you don’t end up giving or no longer want and put that extra cash toward saving and/or paying down debt. Remember: If you wait too long, you may miss the return window, which could result in a loss of savings.”

Contact your lender. If you’re unable to make payments toward your bills, reach out to your lender to see about making a repayment plan that works for you.

source

Damar Hamlin ‘awake and showing improvement,’ teammate says

January 5, 2023 Published by Olafimihan Oshin

Just In | The Hill

Buffalo Bills cornerback Kaiir Elam, a teammate of Bills safety Damar Hamlin, said on Thursday that Hamlin is “awake and showing improvement” as he continues to recover from a cardiac arrest episode suffered during his team’s Monday Night Football contest against the Cincinnati Bengals.

“Our boy is doing better, awake and showing more signs of improvement,” Elam, a former University of Florida standout who’s in his rookie season with the Bills, wrote in a tweet. “Thank you God. Keep the prayers coming please. All love 3!”

In a separate statement, the team said that Hamlin, while still in critical condition, has shown “remarkable improvement” within the past day, as medical officials at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center still continue to tend to the injured player.

“While still critically ill, he has demonstrated that he appears to be neurologically intact,” the team said in a statement. “His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress. We are grateful for the love and support we have received.”

The update comes three days after Hamlin, a former standout at the University of Pittsburgh, suffered cardiac arrest when he completed his tackle of Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins during the first quarter of Monday’s game.

Hamlin, who was drafted in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, stood up after the play was over, only to collapse onto the ground a few seconds later. The game was suspended and medical authorities administrated CPR on the field before he was taken to a local medical facility by ambulance.

Hamlin’s uncle, Dorrian Glenn, told CNN in an interview that Hamlin had to be resuscitated twice by medical officials after the episode, saying it was heartbreaking to see.

The Bills-Bengals MNF contest has been postponed due to Hamlin’s injury, as players and coaches on both teams were visibly shaken by the incident involving the 24-year-old safety. The NFL has announced that the game will not resume this week, as they have made no decision on resuming the contest at a later date, according to ESPN.

In response to the incident, fans have raised more than $7.1 million for Hamlin’s charitable foundation, the Chasing M’s Foundation Community Toy Drive, through the foundation’s GoFundMe page, surpassing its initial $2,500 goal.

Blog Briefing Room, News, damar hamlin, Kaiir Elam Read More

A silver lining for House Speaker election: Freedom for C-SPAN

January 5, 2023 Published by Niall Stanage

Just In | The Hill

The failure to elect a Speaker so far in the House has one silver lining, at least for TV viewers.

C-SPAN, the public service network that televises congressional proceedings and other matters, has full freedom to focus on whatever its camera operators find interesting — for the moment.

Under normal circumstances, the majority party imposes strictures on the kind of shots that can be filmed. The limits have held during periods of both Republican and Democratic control.

But on Tuesday and Wednesday, with everything in flux, C-SPAN camera operators have been able to pick up far more interesting details. Viewers have seen ideological opposites Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in conversation Tuesday, and anti-McCarthy hardliner Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in a series of animated exchanges Wednesday.

Explaining the situation online, CSPAN Capitol Hill producer Craig Caplan tweeted Wednesday:

“C-SPAN was given permission to be in the House chamber for opening day of 118th Congress including the Speaker election last yr by Speaker Pelosi. Our live coverage resumes today with our own cameras until members are sworn in & then continues through the gov’t-controlled cameras.”

The new — and presumably temporary — freedom has been greeted with enthusiasm by CNN’s Jake Tapper on-air and by a number of other journalists and politics-watchers on Twitter:

“The added camera angles allowed on C-SPAN due to lack of House rules were great,” tweeted Erik Wasson, Congressional reporter for Bloomberg. “Lawmakers would be wise to allow them permanently if they want better ratings.”

“It is such a shame that [C-SPAN] does not ALWAYS control the cameras in the House chamber. Such an important and revealing POV,” Politico reporter Anthony Adragna tweeted.

House, House Republicans, House Speaker vote, Kevin McCarthy Read More

1 In 3 BMWs Sold In The UK Last Year Came With A Plug

January 5, 2023 Published by Chris Chilton

Carscoops

BMW is keeping its options open when it comes to electric power by continuing to develop combustion cars and hydrogen-powered vehicles alongside its electric saloons, coupes, and SUVs. But British BMW buyers are so taken with the brand’s EVs and PHEVs that one in three BMWs sold in the UK last year came with a plug.

The company tripled its UK electric sales in 2022 to 21,480, meaning one in every five BMWs sold in the UK during the last 12 months was a full EV. Factor in the success of the firm’s plug-in hybrid models and you get to a total of 38,045 chargeable cars and that 33 percent figure for plug-in vehicle sales.

BMW GB puts much of the credit for its growth in the electrified sector down to the newly introduced i4 and iX, which joined the iX3 SUV and helped make up for the demise of the i3 part of the way through the year.

And that’s just the BMW brand. The BMW Group also includes Mini, whose Mini Electric EV accounted for a quarter of all Mini hatch models, while the popularity of the Mini Countryman PHEV resulted in one in every five Minis sold being equipped with a charging port.

Overall, BMW Group cars accounted for 11 percent of the UK EV market, up from 7.2 percent last year. And the arrival of the i7 and iX1 could further strengthen BMW’s grip on the market during 2023, while the i5 scheduled for launch later this year will give the company’s electric portfolio a boost the following year.

The figures also show that while BMW’s EV sales grew 199 percent in 2022, the company’s overall sales numbers fell by 7 percent to 116,577 units. But there’s certainly no shortage of demand for at least two combustion-powered BMW products: the M2 and M3 Touring have both amassed a six-month order bank.

Here are the best states for work-life balance

January 5, 2023 Published by Gianna Melillo

Just In | The Hill

Story at a glance

Washington, New York, California and Rhode Island rounded out the top five spots.

Rankings focused on how each state’s businesses value employees’ work-life balance and included factors like paid sick leave, maternity leave and minimum wage.

Louisiana, Tennessee and South Dakota took the bottom three spots.

Connecticut is the best state in the country for workers looking to achieve an optimal work-life balance, according to results of a new ranking. The northeastern state was joined by Washington, New York, California, and Rhode Island, respectively, in the top five spots.

Global employment experts at Remote ranked the states for work-life balance, based on a range of metrics including minimum wage, sick leave, overall public happiness and LGBTQ+ inclusivity.

Findings focused on how businesses in each state look after the lives of their employees and put “life” before work, report authors wrote. They defined “work-life balance” as a harmonious relationship between careers and personal lives, enabling workers to excel at their jobs while preserving overall wellbeing.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

Connecticut was propelled to the top spot thanks to its higher-than-average minimum wage and 12 weeks of statutory maternity leave. The state also received full marks for LGBTQ+ inclusivity and is the only one to offer a 95 percent maternity payment rate, researchers found.

In second place, Washington state boasts the second-highest minimum wage in the country behind California, and is one of only seven states that does not levy a personal income tax.

A high minimum wage, 12 weeks of statutory maternity leave and high LGBTQ+ rights scores also helped push New York to third place.

The COVID-19 pandemic led many American workers to re-evaluate their priorities, evidenced by reports of high workplace burnout and subsequent quiet quitting.

Researchers ranked each state out of 100 to determine which has the most balanced combination of job demands and wellbeing. Maternity leave, health care availability and average working hours per week were also taken into account.

New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts rounded out the top 10 on the list.

Louisiana ranked worst for overall work-life balance and was joined by Tennessee, South Dakota, Alabama and Georgia in the bottom five.

“Healthy life-work balance means people are able to thrive in their careers while feeling rested and able to excel in their personal life just as well,” said Remote CEO Job van der Voort in a statement.

“We’re pleased to see some of the positive results from our study and showcase that balance is being worked on across the United States despite concerns about it being the world’s most overworked nation,” he added.

Compared with other developed nations, workers in the United States are the most overworked, clocking in an average of 1,767 hours per year.

Infrastructure, Changing America, Mental Health, Sustainability, Well-Being, burnout, California, Connecticut, COVID-19, Job van der Voort, New York, Quiet quitting, Remote, Rhode Islant, Washington Read More