Connected cars are great—at least until some company leaves unencrypted location data on the Internet for anyone to find. That’s what happened with over 800,000 EVs manufactured by the Volkswagen Group, after Cariad, an automative software company that handles much of the development tasks for VW, left several terabytes of data unprotected on Amazon’s cloud.
According to Motor1, a whistleblower gave German publication Der Spiegel and hacking collective Chaos Computer Club a heads-up about the misconfiguration. Der Spiegel and CCC then spent some time sifting through the data, with which allowed them to tie individual cars to their owners.
“The security hole allowed the publication to track the location of two German politicians with alarming precision, with the data placing a member of the German Defense Committee at his father’s retirement home and at the country’s military barracks,” wrote Motor1.
Cariad has since patched the vulnerability, which had revealed data about the usage of Skodas, Audis, and Seats, as well as what Motor1 calls “incredibly detailed data” for VW ID.3 and ID.4 owners. The data set also included pinpoint location data for 460,000 of the vehicles, which Der Spiegel said could be used to paint a picture of their owners’ lives and daily activities.
Cariad ascribed the vulnerability to a “misconfiguration,” according to Der Spiegel, and said there is no indication that anyone aside from the publication and CCC accessed the unprotected data.
Apparently Hertz’s purging of electric vehicles from its fleet isn’t going fast enough for the car rental giant. A Reddit user posted an offer they received from Hertz to buy the 2023 Tesla Model 3 they had been renting for $17,913.
Hertz originally went strong into EVs, announcing a plan to buy 100,000 Model 3s for its fleet by the end of 2021, but 16 months later had acquired only half that amount. The company found that repair costs—especially for Teslas, which averaged 20 percent more than other EVs—were cutting into its profit margins. Customer demand was also not what Hertz had hoped for; last January, it announced plans to sell off 20,000 EVs.
Asking its customers if they want to purchase their rentals isn’t a new strategy for Hertz. “By connecting our rental customers who opt into our emails to our sales channels, we’re not only building awareness of the fact that we sell arsenal but also offering a unique opportunity to someone who may be in the market for the same car they have on rent,” Hertz communications director Jamie Line told The Verge.
Hertz is advertising a limited 12-month, 12,000-mile powertrain warranty for each EV, and customers will have seven days to return the car in case of profound buyer’s regret.
According to The Verge, offers have ranged from $18,422 for a 2023 Chevy Bolt to $28,500 for a Polestar 2. We spotted some good deals from Hertz when we last checked, with some still eligible for a federal tax credit.
Hertz’s EV sell off may be winding down, however. Last March we saw more than 2,100 BEVs for sale on the company’s used car site. When we checked this morning, there were just 175 left.
California’s electric grid, with its massive solar production and booming battery installations, is already on the cutting edge of the US’s energy transition. And it’s likely to stay there, as the state will require that all passenger vehicles be electric by 2035. Obviously, that will require a grid that’s able to send a lot more electrons down its wiring and a likely shift in the time of day that demand peaks.
Is the grid ready? And if not, how much will it cost to get it there? Two researchers at the University of California, Davis—Yanning Li and Alan Jenn—have determined that nearly two-thirds of its feeder lines don’t have the capacity that will likely be needed for car charging. Updating to handle the rising demand might set its utilities back as much as 40 percent of the existing grid’s capital cost.
The lithium state
Li and Jenn aren’t the first to look at how well existing grids can handle growing electric vehicle sales; other research has found various ways that different grids fall short. However, they have access to uniquely detailed data relevant to California’s ability to distribute electricity (they do not concern themselves with generation). They have information on every substation, feeder line, and transformer that delivers electrons to customers of the state’s three largest utilities, which collectively cover nearly 90 percent of the state’s population. In total, they know the capacity that can be delivered through over 1,600 substations and 5,000 feeders.
California has clear goals for its electric vehicles, and those are matched with usage based on the California statewide travel demand model, which accounts for both trips and the purpose of those trips. These are used to determine how much charging will need to be done, as well as where that charging will take place (home or a charging station). Details on that charging comes from the utilities, charging station providers, and data logs.
They also project which households will purchase EVs based on socioeconomic factors, scaled so that adoption matches the state’s goals.
Combined, all of this means that Li and Jenn can estimate where charging is taking place and how much electricity will be needed per charge. They can then compare that need to what the existing grid has the capacity to deliver.
It falls short, and things get worse very quickly. By 2025, only about 7 percent of the feeders will experience periods of overload. By 2030, that figure will grow to 27 percent, and by 2035—only about a decade away—about half of the feeders will be overloaded. Problems grow a bit more slowly after that, with two-thirds of the feeders overloaded by 2045, a decade after all cars sold in California will be EVs. At that point, total electrical demand will be close to twice the existing capacity.
Enlarge/ EVs are making in-roads at the annual King of the Hammers event in California.
Michael Teo Van Runkle
Electric vehicles are few and far between in the desert at King of the Hammers, a weeks-long off-roading event that often looks more like Burning Man than motorsport. Almost all EVs can be found at the Optima Oasis, a not-so-literal oasis of solar and hydrogen-powered chargers that the battery company erected smack-dab in the middle of nowhere for the past two years.
King of the Hammers takes place in Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area, the nation’s largest OHV space by sheer acreage. But the vast expanse, about 100 miles as the crow flies from downtown Los Angeles, turns into a thriving metropolis once a year when a makeshift city dubbed “Hammertown” draws tens of thousands of four-wheeling enthusiasts to the sand and rocks.
I went to check out the festivities—especially the event’s EV-focused Unplugged rally.
Slow charging at King of the Hammers
This year’s attendance peaked at over 100,000, but that full number wasn’t quite present when I drove out on KoH’s first Sunday in an Audi Q8 e-tron to watch trophy trucks race at top speed across the desert. Range anxiety kicked in heavily on my 135-mile (217 km) commute, which included a few thousand vertical feet of climbing to truly test the Audi’s claimed 280 miles (450 km) of electric range.
I arrived at the Optima Oasis with 78 miles (126 km) of range remaining and promptly plugged into a Level 2 charger, where I left the Audi charging for the rest of the day. I checked in a few times, noting that the charger, hooked into the KoH grid, managed to pump out an average of about 12 miles (19 km) worth of electrons per hour. At approximately 50 kilowatts, that rate would be enough to get me home later in the evening, but not if I’d been out four-wheeling in the car all day—and that slow rate certainly wouldn’t do the trick for the massive group of EVs that Optima expected later in the week as part of its second Unplugged rally. As the sun went down and I readied myself for the drive home, three massive tractor-trailers arrived with the solar and hydrogen setups to support EV owners for King of the Hammers’ main events.
The following Thursday, I drove back to Johnson Valley in a Ford Bronco Raptor, probably the greatest production vehicle ever built for the desert—if not the most fuel-efficient or eco-friendly. I planned to catch the home-built Every Man Challenge, as well as the most hardcore half-million-dollar-plus Ultra4 race that serves as the main event on the second Saturday. But first, I sheepishly pulled my gas guzzler back into the Optima Oasis to join a growing group of EV enthusiasts milling about the charging stations.
The sun began to warm us, the cars, and two massive solar arrays as more and more EVs pulled in—far more than I expected at an event that tilts heavily toward the joys of internal combustion. We’d definitely need faster chargers than I used on the Audi, I thought. Many owners topped up their batteries, while a team from Morrflate gave out lessons on airing down tires for better traction, a more comfortable ride, and reduced risk of flats while off-roading.
Enlarge/ These solar arrays charge batteries in the trailer that can fast-charge four EVs at once.
Michael Teo Van Runkle
And we needed that lesson, as Optima also chose a much more technical route than I expected—especially considering the smattering of bone-stock Kia and Toyota crossovers throughout the group, some of which wore eco tires or little more than all-seasons. But Rivian R1T and R1S owners made up the majority, and most of the vehicles still rode on factory Pirelli Scorpion All-Terrains. Optima allows plug-in hybrids into the Unplugged rally, too, and I spotted a few Jeep Wrangler 4xes and Toyota Tundra hybrids, plus one Cybertruck brought out for testing by Unplugged Performance.
I’m paranoid, and the weather forecast predicted heavy rain, so I packed my recovery gear and threw in a set of Maxtrax Lite recovery boards, a Yankum rope, and two soft shackles into the back of my borrowed R1T before we left Optima’s home base for the trail run. And not just for the “soft-roader” hybrids—also because I’d never actually driven a Rivian before and didn’t quite know what to expect.
Enlarge/ Trevor Milton, founder of Nikola Corp., arrives at court in New York on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Milton is set to be sentenced on Monday after being found guilty of securities fraud and wire fraud in October 2022.
That’s a lighter sentence than prosecutors had requested after a jury found Milton guilty of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud in 2022. During the trial, Milton was accused of lying about “nearly all aspects of the business,” CNBC reported.
From 2016 to 2020, Milton’s “extravagant claims” were fueled by a desire to pump up the value of Nikola stock, The New York Times reported. He was accused of misleading investors about everything from fake prototypes of emission-free long-haul trucks to billions worth of supposedly binding orders for hydrogen fuel cells and batteries that were never shipped. In a sentencing memo, prosecutors said that Milton targeted “less sophisticated investors,” the Times reported, engaging “in a sustained scheme to take advantage of” their inexperience.
Nikola’s stock peaked in 2020, but then dozens of fraud allegations were reported by the investment firm Hindenburg Research, causing Nikola stock to plummet promptly. “We have never seen this level of deception at a public company, especially of this size,” Hindenburg Research’s report said. Facing backlash, Milton resigned, voluntarily withdrawing from his company and selling off $100 million in Nikola stock to fund more than $85 million in luxury purchases, the Times reported. Today, Milton remains Nikola’s second-largest shareholder, Bloomberg reported.
The price of these lies to investors was more than $660 million, prosecutors claimed.
Through it all, Milton has denied the charges, requesting to be sentenced to only probation while holding back tears, Bloomberg reported. At his sentencing hearing, he said that his “misstatements” came from a place of “deeply held optimism,” and he did not intend to cause any harm, Yahoo reported.
“I was not a very seasoned CEO,” Milton reportedly said.
Prosecutors sought heavier consequences, asking the judge to order Milton to pay a $5 million fine and sentence Milton to 11 years in prison.
Milton is likely to appeal, Bloomberg reported.
Nikola’s spokesperson provided Ars with a statement on the sentencing.
“Nikola has a strong foundation and is in the process of achieving our mission to decarbonize the trucking industry, which is our focus,” Nikola’s statement said. “We have made significant progress year-over-year and will continue with the same level of discipline and commitment in 2024. We are pleased to move forward and remind the public that the company founder has not had any active role in Nikola since September 2020.”
Nikola’s shaky road to recovery
Current Nikola CEO Steve Girsky has recently said that Nikola will recover by attracting “world-class people to execute on our business plan” and working toward “establishing ourselves as the leader in zero-emissions commercial transportation,” Forbes reported.
Girsky seems keen to move past the scandal by promoting Nikola’s latest successes. In September, Girsky boasted that daily tests showed that one of Nikola’s fuel cell trucks could successfully run for 900 miles.
“This was quite an accomplishment, and I defy anyone to find another zero-emission vehicle truck anywhere that can run up to 900 miles in a day,” Girsky said.
However, since the 2020 scandal, Nikola’s stock has dropped 99 percent, Forbes reported, and now an investor analytics company called Macroaxis has estimated that Nikola has an 81 percent chance of going bankrupt.
While Forbes credited Milton with most of Nikola’s current woes, it’s not just the scandal causing investment setbacks for Nikola. In August, Nikola also recalled most of its battery-electric trucks—about 209—after a fire probe revealed a “defective part” that “is believed to have caused a battery to overheat” and risk setting trucks on fire, The Wall Street Journal reported.
This represented “virtually all” the battery-electric trucks that Nikola had shipped to customers, the Journal reported. While engineers worked on a solution to keep battery-electric trucks on the roads, Nikola temporarily halted sales of the battery-electric trucks, ramping up production instead on hydrogen fuel-cell electric trucks that remain Nikola’s core focus.
In September, Girsky described the recall as a setback but pointed to all of Nikola’s progress since Milton’s departure.
“It’s a setback, but we’re in it for the long haul,” Girsky said. “We’ve proved the skeptics wrong who said we couldn’t engineer a truck, couldn’t build a truck, and couldn’t sell a truck, and we’re not planning on stopping any time soon.”
