Photo by Raul Popadineți on Unsplash

Hi Again,

Welcome back to the State of Charge. Besides being the final edition of 2020, this edition marks our second birthday! 🎉🎂🎈

This month, we read about new energy giants, and how innovative companies in the electric mobility sector are going public via SPACs. Also, don’t miss our selected podcast about the social life of plants!

Photo by My Foto Canva on Unsplash

In the year where oil production and consumption has plummeted, clean energy soared. Bloomberg examined four utilities paving the road to electrification, thanks to massive investments in renewable energy.

Enel, Iberdrola, NextEra Energy, and Orsted — are now worth more than comparable ‘supermajors’ in the fossil fuel industry.

Click Read More to learn about their commitments for a greener future.
 

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 Aditya Vyas on Unsplash

This has been a great year for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). After Chargepoint, Arrival, and Nikola, now EVBox and Lion close out the year. It's safe to say 2020 was the year that electric mobility SPACs boomed — floating €30 Billion in potential value on the market.
 

SoC Good Reads

As we wrap up a tumultuous year, it's time to reflect on what 2020 meant for the EV market. In this Forbes article, James Morris writes a post-match analysis on Volkswagen, Tesla, and Polestar in 2020. He also reports on the changing infrastructure and political situation. 

Over 600,000 EVs have been sold in Europe this year, mostly in Germany. This already dwarfs the total figures from last year: 354,000.

The progress on climate action has not been fast enough. Nevertheless, both the private and public sectors have begun important initiatives to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Want a feel-good read? Here are six signs of progress.

The European Commission has proposed mandatory requirements for all batteries in the EU market. These will allow EU member states to scale up the use and production of batteries in a safe, circular, and sustainable way.
 

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

Emerging markets like China and India still spend more than 2% of their GDP on importing oil. With thousands of premature deaths due to pollution every year, their dependency on fossil fuels must decrease. 

Carbon Trackers predicts that as battery prices fall, emerging markets will electrify their transport systems. This will end oil import dependency, helping to bring the oil era to an end. Read the full report to learn how the electrification of transport will affect change. 

Please note that you do need to create a free account to download the report.
 

SoC Other News

Remember those monoliths that have been appearing around the world? Jeep photoshopped them into charging stations for their new electric wrangler.

Audi will compete in the 2022 Dakar Rally with a new electric vehicle. We look forward to seeing how it will perform in extreme conditions.
 

• Second-hand EV sales are growing in the UK
• How a broken transport system could lead to a broken city
• Denmark will stop producing oil by 2050
• LG Chem is going all-in for Tesla

Photo by Maria Labanda on Unsplash

This month, we've selected an episode from The Daily, a podcast by the New York Times. The episode explains the work of Suzanne Simard, a professor at the University of British Columbia. 
 

Simard discovered that plants exchange resources and communicate. They have evolved to reciprocate, and can even be selfless.
 

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