NASCAR recently became the latest motorsports organization to dip its toes into the electrification waters—a move that could help fuel awareness of and interest in EVs among its massive fan base.

The sanctioning body for stock-car racing in North America last month unveiled an electric prototype in partnership with ABB. NASCAR demonstrated the vehicle at the Chicago Street Race and announced that ABB would be its partner on its sustainability initiatives, including efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2035.

“The objective of the collaboration between NASCAR, ABB in the United States, and the NASCAR industry is to push the boundaries of electrification technology, from EV racing to long-haul transportation to facility operations,” ABB EVP Ralph Donati said in a statement.

At the same time, NASCAR reiterated its commitment “to the historic role of the combustion engine in racing.”

The introduction of the electric prototype may be an opportunity to help educate the masses about the benefits of electrification, from lower maintenance costs to EVs’ ability to act as backup power sources.

“There [are] a series of benefits of electric vehicles that can be introduced and communicated through this venue,” Eleftheria Kontou, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told Tech Brew.

“Every consumer segment will make a decision on the transition depending on their situation,” she added. “Having some knowledge and understanding of these machines can make a difference.”

Keep reading here.—JG

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Drivers may be less worried about EV battery range than before, but they remain concerned about the ways charging can go awry.

A new study spanning 20,000 chargers and 19 million data points homes in on some of the biggest issues with the public charging experience in the US—and, crucially for speeding up EV adoption, how to fix them.

The analysis was conducted by ChargerHelp, an EV equipment company that provides charging station repairs and maintenance.

The findings indicate that actual charger uptime is often lower than reported; that there’s significant variation in charger reliability by state and charging network; and that standardized reliability metrics are “crucial for improving uptime,” among other conclusions.

ChargerHelp conducted a point-in-time assessment of more than 4,800 charge points to see if reported uptime matched drivers’ actual experience. The company found that 26.3% of test charges failed. The report also cites external data indicating that actual uptime averages about 84%—lower than the 92% that stations report.

“The biggest [takeaway] for us was continuing to see the disparity between what the stations say about themselves…versus the reality on the ground when our technicians or when drivers are interacting with the stations in person,” Walter Thorn, ChargerHelp’s SVP of product and strategy, told Tech Brew.

Keep reading here.—JG

The push for a big AI legislation package may have petered out a bit on Capitol Hill, but that hasn’t stopped statehouses across the country from rolling out a stream of new regulations.

Lawmakers in 45 states introduced 446 bills tackling different aspects of AI’s use in the first half of 2024 and enacted 69 of them, according to a report from public affairs software company Quorum. Those proposals encompass everything from protecting against deepfakes and algorithm discrimination to data privacy and ensuring state governments themselves are using the tech fairly.

While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his colleagues in the so-called “AI gang” have released a roadmap toward AI policy, Ben Buchanan, the White House’s special advisor for AI, told us recently he doesn’t expect much progress on it during an election year. That’s left a gap for states to fill as generative AI tech continues to evolve at a breakneck pace.

Keep reading here.—PK

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