The Sustainability Podcast

Learn About Sustainable EV Form Factors - An Open Conversation with Glenn Cook

August 08, 2022 The Smart Cities Team at ARC Advisory Group Season 7 Episode 9
The Sustainability Podcast
Learn About Sustainable EV Form Factors - An Open Conversation with Glenn Cook
Show Notes Transcript

Listen in and Learn about;

Do Applications Specifics Matter?

How to Structure a Selection Process?

What Markets are Impacted Near-Term?

What About Financial Viability of Suppliers?

Glenn, let's jump right in. And with, you know, can you share with us a brief overview of your perspective of the new electric vehicle landscape? Basically, you know, the general background, you know, what do you see, because you've been in it for quite a while now. I know you've had lots of electric vehicles in your life. Perhaps you want to touch on vehicle types and impacts and maybe even legislation that may or may not be needed in the past and future.

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Glenn, let's jump right in. And with, you know, can you share with us a brief overview of your perspective of the new electric vehicle landscape? Basically, you know, the general background, you know, what do you see, because you've been in it for quite a while now. I know you've had lots of electric vehicles in your life. Perhaps you want to touch on vehicle types and impacts and maybe even legislation that may or may not be needed in the past and future.

 

Glenn Cook  

Sure, actually, I'm a little bit of background I formally was the Vice President of Business Development at the villages, many moons ago. And during that time span, I was on the advisory board for the National limousine Association, as well as the motorcoach association. So I spent my time dealing with fossil fuel vehicles, of course, diesel, regular gas-powered vehicles. And that's what prompted me to get into the electric vehicle space is when I was lobbying in DC for a diesel fuel surcharge tax. And I kind of looked at one of our representatives, Daniel Webster, and I said, Man, I just can't do this anymore. And so I started researching electric vehicles. And I got into Tesla, actually, at the time. And this was before, of course, Tesla became Tesla what they are today. And I reached out to a gentleman here at the University of Central Florida by the name of Dr. David Metcalf. And he had started a program called Friends of Tesla. And I told him, I said, you know, what would be great if we could actually transition, our commercial fleets and the National limousine Association, away from the, you know, the Escalades the towncars fossil fuel burning vehicles into electric fleet vehicles, and maybe even gain a little knowledge on the autonomy front with Level Two autonomy that Tesla had come out with with their autopilot. And so that's how I actually started my journey with was with Tesla and the National limousine Association, back in 2018. Wow.

 

Jim Frazer  

Now I know, I've seen some images from your past where you've had a roster of electric vehicles with you. Can you touch on a little bit of your history there? Yeah.

 

Glenn Cook  

Well, like I said, we started off working with Tesla. And one of the things that we decided to do is we worked through all the iterations starting back when the 2015 Tesla Model S had hardware. 1.0 was working with Mobileye, at the time on the autopilot, being able to basically, you know, Lane, keep and keep distances and maintain speeds, also utilizing their supercharging network to be able to recharge the vehicles strategically. Then at that time, we also started working with the Model X Tesla that had just come out. And this was all during the time period where Tesla was going through what they would call production, hell and model three. So we've had three different models of electric vehicles being able to utilize the L three DC three, charging network from Tesla right here in Orlando, Florida, and they were strategically placed, you know, up and down around the theme park areas, midtown area downtown so that you know if we needed to we could actually recharge the vehicles and of course, charge the vehicles that are homes and be able to do ride share with the vehicles be able to generate income I'm with these vehicles and to show and approve a use case that you didn't have to have a diesel, a gasoline burning engine to be able to generate revenue in the vehicle for heartspace. And we proved it over and over again with the SS X's and model threes.

 

Jim Frazer  

Wow, that's, that's fascinating. So as you alluded to a variety of vehicle types so and actually transitioning away from the big black car and the Escalades and those kinds of things. So what is the current situation today regarding not only the development of electric vehicles themselves, but the larger ecosystem of electric vehicles in Florida and well in North America?

 

Glenn Cook  

Well, as of right now, of course, everybody recognizes the fact that we just come out of the COVID era. And with that, we had a lot of shutdowns. And I was not exempt from that either, because we had a fleet of electric vehicles Tesla’s, and these things were not very cheap vehicles. And we still had, you know, vehicle payments, and we had insurance to pay and, and during that time period, we were doing research with the University of Central Florida, like I said, with electric partially autonomous vehicles. And so when we shut down here in the United States, we could no longer transport passengers for vehicle for higher in revenue. So we actually had a look at our data. And Dr. David Metcalf suggested, you know, pick out your two key metrics, what do you see in your data from utilizing your electric vehicles, and it turned out there was one in two passengers, and a 15-mile radius between pickup and drop off points was actually about 85% of all the transfers that we did. And I looked at that, and I said, Man, you know, we literally weren't generating the revenue. So what can I do during this research time, to be able to pick out these key metrics and to provide a service that we can start generating revenue again, and we call it the eternal pivot. So I had just happened to notice on a YouTube video by Galileo Russell on hyper change, that they were talking about this company, it was called Arca moto. And it was a three wheeled electric vehicle had a range of about 102 miles. And it was designed for last mile mobility. So I researched him bought a couple shares, too, so it'd be right into my stock feed. And I started researching them over and over and over, and I started following them. So then I got onto their website. And at the very bottom, it said, Investor Relations and fleet management. So I called up the fleet management number. And lo and behold, this gentleman by the name of Sam Puttaparthi, picked up the phone. So I started a conversation in a dialogue with Sam and I said, you know, Sam, my data says that your three-wheel electric vehicle is going to be the next big thing, just by data alone, that we can be able to service 85% of the population with your mobility product. And if we can get people transportation at a low cost, equitable manner, then why wouldn't we do it? zero emissions, two thirds less the cost of a normal vehicle, much less than electric vehicle where you didn't have to pay for fuel, oil changes, excessive amounts of maintenance. And I said, why not? Let's give it a shot. So he said, you know what, Glenn. I want to give this a shot. Because one of the things that we found was one of the key markets for us is the Florida market. And on top of that were having problems with legislation down in Florida. I said Well, Sam, funny you say that. I know some legislators. So,

 

Jim Frazer  

so glad that let me just restate this for our audience. So the situation you found and frankly, they probably were enlightened because of COVID and the revenue hiccup you had there was that the vehicular and transport personal transportation market was not only high end, Escalades? It could be something else. Yes, sir. Oh, so in your mind, the current situation includes this under frankly unserved market of one or two people short distances. That was 85% of our data. So I mean, so I mean, I see a gap. I know that you know, I'm, I'm here in South Florida, and there's an awful lot of, you know, electric bicycles. But there's, but that's at the other end of the continuum, and that there's clearly what you're stating is that there's a gap between the electric bicycle and the Tesla or the electric f150 or Escalade, or more something like that. Yes,

 

Glenn Cook  

sir. And that's what we found too is that strategically, especially when you're dealing with the D O T, or the DMV? They have classification use just for vehicles and you have to register your vehicle. Well, there was a huge gap between the motorcycle and the car. So that's what we focused on when it came for our Comodo. And there wasn't Leighton woods yet for a three-wheel electric vehicle in our state nor for a lot of states, for that matter. There were only three states in the union that we found that had the language for what's called the Otto cycle. Well, it's actually a three wheeled electric vehicle.

 

Jim Frazer  

Let me let me interrupt you for a second. So I mean, you're actually guessing my next question is, you know, what are the complications, the obstacles, the impediments of moving electric vehicle forward, and while the electric vehicles can compete head-to-head very nicely against existing vehicles here, here is a brand-new market, in fact. So let's focus on that brand new market. What are the obstacles? And before you get started, I know that I, here in Florida, I do see three wheeled vehicles that are internal combustion engine vehicles. They look like to me that look like a three wheeled motorcycle perhaps. And I'm not talking about a hawk. I'm not talking about a converted Harley. But through two wheels in the front, what are we on the back? And I believe their license is motorcycles. If they are not differing from, can you talk a little bit about that? And then I know you've had some legislative successes, talking about those vehicles, then legislation? And then perhaps markets that could be served?

 

Glenn Cook  

Yeah, well, well, you alluded to the fact that three will vehicle in the market that you know, as a combustible engine, well, that itself, enlarge the problem for electric vehicles. Because essentially, there's not charging stations, kind of like on every corner like you would have for fossil fuel vehicles, like you have for gas stations. So infrastructure is probably the number one thing that holds back the electric vehicle market right now. And which also just happens to be one of the main legislative barriers that we have found as well. So that's why currently, the legislation has come out with the new infrastructure bill. And a lot of that is geared towards the appropriations for the infrastructure for recharging electric vehicles. And so that's probably the biggest barrier of entry right now is people feeling like, hey, I can refuel this thing, or I can get enough electrodes in this thing to make me go from point A to point B. So how do I strategically do that? And that's what new infrastructure.

 

Jim Frazer  

So how does a so you're obviously working with three-wheel vehicles with a company by the name of automotive from the Pacific Northwest. Why was legislation required when we see three wheeled motorcycle type vehicles here on the roads in Florida?

 

Glenn Cook  

Well, specifically, there just hadn't been done before. It's kind of like a paradigm shift. You know, if it's never been done before, then most people don't think well, then it doesn't exist, you know, so we have to educate people to say, Hey, this is the art of the possible, if you can actually look at something and solve a problem, feel a pain point, so to speak. And to give people new options, we want to be able to do that and to create a better user experience and to be able to give a better quality of life to people. And that's what our research was built around. So when we found our Comodo, I said, look, guys, let's give this a shot. You know, the worst thing that we do is to try and fail. So when I started introducing this stuff to the university, and to the state people in the cities and municipalities, number one, they wanted to know what it was how you would register. And then another thing I want to know is how you tax it. Well, there wasn't a checkbox at the DMV for an auto cycle. So we actually had to create that language for the electric vehicle auto cycle that had three wheels and three electric motors. So literally a year and a half to do that.

 

Jim Frazer  

A lot of this motorcycle definition. I'm guessing the attractiveness is that you do not need a motorcycle license to drive or motorcycle insurance for that matter.

 

Glenn Cook  

Well, there again, that was one of the key things because I have a couple of friends that were state representatives and, and I reached out to them, I said, look, this is what we need to get accomplished. How do we get Otto cycle built into the DMV, the DNC so that people when they register these pieces of equipment in the state, that they get an actual registration, their little sticker a license plate, and you know, my insurance for it? Well come to find out that the legislators looked at and went, you know what, we're a tourism state. That would be wonderful. If we pass this legislation, and you didn't have to have a motorcycle endorsement. The vehicle is safer. It's got a roll cage. It's got dual seatbelts on it. It's ultra-safe, ultra-efficient, zero emissions, we get all these pluses, and we can get tax tourism dollar in when people come here, rent the vehicle. They don't have to take a motorcycle endorsement class, which is two or three days which would prohibit most people from engaging with the rental because they don't want to waste two of their days on their vacation here in Florida, going through a motorcycle endorsement course, they want to be able to jump in it and operate it. So the goal was to create the legislation that allowed our tourism or our people that came in from other states, which is here in Orlando is huge. That's 60 million people a year. So that comes through our, our airport to be able to rent a vehicle, fully sustainable, electric zero emissions, not have to have a motorcycle endorsement, operate it as a rental or subscription as it may be, and be able to enjoy themselves and have fun and experience, you know, the outdoors and be in the environment and, you know, also have safety and roll cage around them and seatbelts and to get the user experience. You know, it's about the experience.

 

Jim Frazer  

So when the I believe the legislation passed recently by the governor

 

Glenn Cook  

yesterday,

 

Jim Frazer  

and it was not only an auto cycle, three wheel non motorcycle endorsement, Bill, but I believe did it not include some autonomous vehicle language? Can you talk about that?

 

Glenn Cook  

Yeah, we were pretty strategic about management. We're the only state in the union that did tie in the Otto cycle language to an autonomy bill. And we did that strategically, because our governor Deborah DeSantis, very forward thinking, and we were very lucky to have Senator Brandis on our side, he championed the bill to begin with, and strategically placed it inside the language and on autonomy bill for delivery services. And then once representative McFarland, who was right down south, a representative or Senator Brandis tied it into her house bill, it passed the House and the Senate unanimously. So we have the electric auto cycle language inside and autonomous vehicle bill, which the governor signed into law immediately on July 1, 2021.

 

Jim Frazer  

Yeah, I think he did it subtracts that mean? Yes, sir.

 

Glenn Cook  

And we were having an opportunity to now with and of course, the Arca moto wants to remain agnostic as far as a platform is concerned. So we're working with multiple robotics companies for this Thomas feature.

 

Jim Frazer  

Okay, so we know you, you came into this market and discovered and undiscovered a, you know, an on support and market in terms of a lighter vehicle with one or two passengers between that motorcycle or electric bike and the larger electrified traditional vehicle. And you came to it with the passenger for higher perspective initially. But we're what other markets have you looked at? Have you done much research in that area?

 

Glenn Cook  

Well, yeah, we have MetaTrader. I've done a lot of research over the course of the last, you know, three years since COVID began or two and a half years, and maybe one of the things that we're finding is that people like to operate their own vehicles, they don't necessarily want to give over all of their you know, everything about the motor vehicle, they don't want to have somebody drive them. So what we found is people like to have subscriptions, do rentals. And by coming to Florida, they get to experience the auto cycle through a rental process. It started off actually down in Key West, we opened up more of the rental sites with our Comodo. And what happens is people are allowed to rent them, take them back, and then through our CRM system in our intake, our Comodo sends them out an option to be able to purchase now. So he's basically conversion, you know, you experience the vehicle through a rental, they send you the questionnaire, if you really like it and you want to buy it, then you can buy it online, just like a Tesla. Another thing that we found is for manufacturing purposes, let's just say that somebody's going to go out and buy a model Y Tesla. Well, a model Y Tesla weighs 4000 pounds has numerous batteries in it, the weight of the vehicle, sheer amount of materials that go into the labor in the manufacturing is literally three times that of a Arca moto. So if you can reverse engineer that and think, hey, you know, we can utilize an Arca moto for 85% of all mobility needs, at two thirds less the cost and two thirds less than manufacturing with materials. Why wouldn't you do it? So then we started saying to ourselves, let's give that a shot. We'll pilot it in the you know, the city of Orlando, and we'll pilot with the fleets and we'll pilot at Lake Nona and different areas and we'll try it out, see what happens. What we're finding more and more that people just enjoy it. We piloted at the Orlando Auto Show, we had a line so long that we were we should have had more vehicles there to give people the experience. But I know our bandwidth was limited as far as personnel. So we're finding that we have more interest than we have capacity to actually build these things now. So now we've had to slow our roll so to speak a little bit and create this mass manufacturing scale facility out in Eugene, Oregon. which happens to be representative De Fazio, who's in charge of the committee for transportation infrastructure. He's the representative for Oregon. So he wants to in his home state first, but believe me, Glenn Cook's lobbying for state of Florida to get the next micro manufacturing facility,

 

Jim Frazer  

that's for sure. So, you know, Glen, before we go to before we get into the particular, you know, markets for, for an auto cycle, you know, given the federal legislation, you know, one of the, of course, you know, big themes that in the last five years, 10 years increasingly is, you know, sustainability ESG reporting. You know, all of all of that, you know, having a broader stakeholder community. Transportation does take up an awful lot of resources spent with co2 and greenhouse gas emissions, road, where all of that. How does a motorcycle and you touched on it a little bit, but perhaps outline that, you know, what are the lessening impacts? By having a vehicle that is lighter. And more fuel efficient? You're what's the weight of a typical auto cycle versus a typical vehicle on the road? And what are the impacts?

 

Glenn Cook  

Yeah, essentially, you're looking at like 4000-pound electric vehicles compared to a 1300-pound Arca moto. So 1314 underpasses as opposed to 4002 thirds less weight, and that also that reduces your footprint to on the road. So if you're thinking about how wide the lanes are, we have accommodated full size vehicles. Now, since basically the end of the World War two era, and our roadways are designed around that. But if you actually changed form factors of vehicles to serve 85% of the population, you could shrink down our roadways, also, at the same time, it's about half the size, thus giving back, you know, more areas for trees and grass and, you know, things that don't produce what I would call, you know, the cement jungle out there,

 

Jim Frazer  

right, let's maintaining of asphalt and all those materials in general, you know, it's Road Less roads to light, all those kinds of things, you know, the, you gave us a number of 4000 pounds for a typical vehicle, can you draw contrast to the contrast of electric vehicle weights, because,

 

Glenn Cook  

essentially, if you look at a model Y, which is a smaller form factor, electric vehicle, and you go all the way up to like 6200 pounds on a Tesla Model X, and a lot of that is just the sheer chassis size, amount of batteries you put in it. And then also the amount of labor that goes into manufacturing these things. When you reduce the size of a vehicle, you also reduce the impact as far as decarbonization is concerned, with the amount of electricity used to manufacture inside a manufacturing facility, so everything across the board gets reduced with the size of your vehicle less materials, even when you look at a smaller form factor vehicle, the same amount of materials that go into producing one model why, you know, you can literally make two Arcmotos.

 

Jim Frazer  

Material. Well, there's no argument that you know, EVs are, you know, no less impactful to the environment, there still is, you know, a premium of a 50% weight gain from the equivalent vehicle once I go from an ice to an EV today, and that's plus the torque, the different torque curves means you're eating up your tires, because your lead photo, you want to burn rubber and all of that. So, so even as the world electrifies there will be even a larger impact when I when I contrast that 6000-pound vehicle versus something that's maybe a third,

 

Glenn Cook  

two thirds less of that really.

 

Jim Frazer  

Yeah. So why while you enter this as a in the vehicle for hire business transporting persons, what other markets does this address are there? I mean, I don't want to think just the common ones. Like I look at the game, and I think that was, you know, the meter parking meter attendant or things like that, but other applications that have gotten traction in this motorcycle world.

 

Glenn Cook  

Yeah. And I'll tell you what, we're already testing that here. And there's certain things that I have under NDA that I can't talk about, but I can specifically talk about certain areas like public works, a flatbed that we designed after the pilot with the city of Orlando, there util lysing that specifically with Berman Corp here in Lake Nona, security, delivery, all those types of form factor vehicles that are being utilized on a daily basis now for us to test and say, Hey look, not only can we do the things that are needed to be done around the community, but we can do it with a zero emission vehicle that has two thirds less the foot imprint as a normal vehicle inside the community. Example, we reached out to the fire department and said, you know, what was the art of the possible here if you can pick a vehicle, and we could pull it up and have the lights and the sirens and everything? What could you do with a vehicle a vehicle this size, he said you funny used to say that is because we have a real problem. When we do events, example a soccer stadium, Electric Daisy concert, we can't get our Freightliner trucks down a sidewalk, but you can with an Arca Moto, it's only 64 inches wide, you can get an Arca moto on a bike lane, taking it off, actually, if you had to put it on autonomous vehicle mode, you can move it over to a bike lane and get it all the way down and not even obstruct traffic if you had to go 2530 miles an hour. So less impact also, you know, with the human factor, I guess you would say road rage, that type of stuff, oh, I got to go as fast as I want to go because I'm a human driver? Well, we have to deal with restrictions, when we deal with autonomy, you know, we actually obey the laws, you know, we go, if it's 25 miles an hour, the vehicle is programmed to go 25 miles an hour, it doesn't do 45 minutes 45 Because as a human driver, it follows loss.

 

Jim Frazer  

You know, um, you know, Glen, this, this question might be too granular, but let's, let's take a stab at it. Anyway, I know that there. In the last couple of months, there has been a police department, I believe in the Upper Midwest, which converted their police cars all to model Tesla Model S's. Because they simply look at the dollars per mile cost of police vehicles. And it came out to be, you know, a no brainer decision. Right? It was a dramatic cost decrease. Have you looked at the cost per mile of, of an auto cycle given its, you know, smaller battery, smaller cost, smaller impact? And I mean, I'm not asking for particular numbers, but I'm going to give them to you. Go ahead.

 

Glenn Cook  

Okay. I mean, I'll give you very specific, the Otto cycle is ultra-efficient, basically. And if you look at a Tesla even in that, and this is something that's very efficient compared to a normal squad car, a normal squad car, you know, they might get a, let's say, one mile to 20 per gallon give or take a Tesla will get right around 105 miles per gallon equivalency, an auto cycle 173 miles per gallon equivalency. So just extrapolate that all the way down to miles per gallon. And that's just what you're burning in fuel alone. And that's not the oil changes. That's not an extra tire. That's not the you know, the cost of the fuel, the missions, the cost of medical care, because somebody that's asthmatic has to go to the hospital because they're breathing in toxic fumes. I mean, all of these costs of society has to be extrapolate into that ROI.

 

Jim Frazer  

Oh, no, I Yeah. That was my supposition. And, I mean, I could imagine it won't be long before we start saying you know, Instacart deliveries by similar

 

Glenn Cook  

that's part of the secret that I can't tell you about.

 

Jim Frazer  

Hey, well, this has been fascinating so far. You know, what, you know, as people you know, evaluate their transportation options, whether you be a you know, a city fleet operator, or an operator of a small plumbing company that might need vehicles, what recommendations do you have generally on, on, you know, electrifying your individual vehicle or your fleet? You know, as well as your choice of whether you have four wheels, three wheels, or perhaps even two wheels.

 

Glenn Cook  

Okay. Well, I mean, I'm, I'm going to tell you right now, the auto cycle is not going to be everything to everybody in on front with people. You know, if you're trying to go to Miami from Orlando, get into regular car, you know, but if you're trying to stay in your community, and you're going to go shopping, and you're going to do basic maintenance, or you're going to go get a cup of coffee or go to the bank or anything like that, absolutely, the Otto cycle is a better solution. Because just the sheer cost of operation is substantially less. The impact on the roads is substantially less. When you when you get done majority of places now at least have a level two charger. So I always call ABC always be charging. So when you get to your location, plug it in, you can download a free app, it's called Plugshare. It'll tell you where every time charging station is around any given area, especially in the urban area. And just makes it more efficient. And when you're done at night you go home, you can even plug it in, right? So a 110 outlet, you wake up in the morning, you got a full battery charge, simple. Most people sleep, you know, eight hours. And it's all it takes to charge on a regular 110 Ultra efficient.

 

Jim Frazer  

That's great. I mean, you know, from my perspective, I mean, I look at things from a system engineering perspective. And I think there's certainly an attractiveness here for an autocycle three wheeled device vehicle. And it really ultimately depends on your stakeholders, and what exactly are their needs? And to focus on their needs? Well, you might, you know, the oil sector may fit. And it may not, but certainly, it's been an underserved, underserved area.

 

Glenn Cook  

Honestly, that's what we're dealing with right now with the customer discovery that we're dealing with right now on the underserved equity areas, is how do you get people into the workforce? How do you educate people on maintenance and these things? How do you educate people that are just going to be coming out of the penitentiary that might have a felony to be able to get a high paying job after they get out? And or somebody that might be going out of high school in the community college? Are you going to chain them and being a diesel tech? No, you're going to start having to start to train them into high voltage, dealing with areas like electrification and wiring systems and going to kilowatt batteries, as opposed to replacing the fuel tank, you know, basic things like that, that we want to train up people. So they have higher paying dollar jobs, in our higher education systems, and even going, let's say, from the Boys and Girls Club of America, junior high level all the way through secondary level education, higher education engineers, all the way up to doctoral candidates. So you have a whole workforce and educational pattern that we're creating. And we're doing that now with some of the grants that we're trying to fulfill here in the central Florida area. And that's great.

 

Jim Frazer  

Well, I'm glad this has been this has been a very great overview about some fascinating developments in the world of electrification and transportation, that legislation, we do have a number of guests that are listening in so the list isn't huge. So I'm going to unmute all of our everyone. And if there are any questions from the audience, just I think everyone should be unmuted or you can unmute yourselves, you're allowed to talk now. Feel free just to say who you are and ask us the question. Hello. Yes. Hello, Todd,

 

 

how you doing? So I'm wondering, obviously, looking at your list, you've only got a number of states where you're starting to see this kind of take hold when you expect to see for more buy in across the country?

 

Glenn Cook  

Well, one of the things about our D O T, it goes state by state. So what we are asking right now is for different states to start looking at the language for Otto cycle, and reach out to your representatives reach out to your senators, and take them business model of Florida or Oregon or California or Washington State, Hawaii, there's seven states now in the union that have adapted the autocycle language. So take a look at it. And I've seen people tie in to like the state of Florida, we tied it into autonomy bill, and other states like Virginia and Maryland, Alabama, they've started tying it into tax credits for EVs. So it gives people an incentive. And also if you can tie it into an incentive of tax credit. Well, let's do that. Why not?

 

 

Why is it not as simple as being equivalent to like the Canon product? I mean, obviously, cannabis is gas powered versus electric. What is the difference that could have said the tolling people up on that?

 

Glenn Cook  

Right now it's a paradigm shift. People are just not used to utilizing electrical equipment. And I would say probably the biggest hold back is infrastructure. People want to know, and have range anxiety about where they're going to charge. So I'd say that's probably the biggest obstacle is infrastructure. Thank you, sir. Thank you.

 

Jim Frazer  

Do we have any other questions from our guests or listeners today? All right, that Well, Glenn, thanks for joining us today. Do you have any Thank you, Jim. Hey, you're very welcome. Hey, do you have any other final words for us today?

 

Glenn Cook  

Yeah, I tell you what, one of the things that I was pretty excited about was the fact that we did pass EV credits in the last Senate vote just recently, however, there was not language at the federal level for auto cycles. So we're going to be revisiting that in our state. And just trying to educate people you know, it's it takes a little while sometimes for government to react. But I will say that once we start creating these things more on the West Coast, and we start shipping them all over the world and scaling this Product globally, creating more infrastructure. It is going to be the next big thing. You know, Otto cycles are more efficient. They serve more of a population. They're more equitable. And I look forward to more people giving them a shot. If one comes to your town, I would encourage everybody to give it a shot. Get in there. We've been around for a little while. They're fun. They're really fun.

 

Jim Frazer  

You know, Glenn lit up. I probably should have asked this earlier. But with the with the recent bill that passed the House of Congress on presents I he may have signed the inflation bill; the Evie tax credit is reenabled. And it will be delivered to you when you buy the vehicle rather than file your taxes. Have you looked at whether an auto cycle is qualifies for that credit?

 

Glenn Cook  

It is not. As of this time, the way the rent language is set is for four-wheel vehicles. However, I do have a lobbyist up there that I'm currently working with. It might take another session, two sessions, three sessions, we don't know. But we are working on that. And I'm specifically working with the agency called zeta, which is the zero emissions Transportation Association. Mr. Joe Brighton is the executive director of that. And the person that's in charge of his policy and procedure is Leilani Gonzalez. So we are specifically working with that agency as a lobbyist to work that language in the next time it comes through man and maybe even to the house. You know, things can be adjusted, and they can be amended. So we're working hard at that.

 

Jim Frazer  

Certainly. Well, hey, this is this truly has been fascinating. Again, if any of our listeners on the podcast would like to contact you if you give us your contact information.

 

Glenn Cook  

Yeah, you certainly can. It's Glenn g l e n n at Evie. Transports Evie, t r a n s. p o r t s.com.

 

Jim Frazer  

All right, well, hey, again, Glen cook. Thank you very much for being a guest on this edition of Arc advisory smart city podcast. We thank all your listeners for joining us today and we look forward to seeing you all on a future edition Thank you very much

 

 

 

ARC Advisory Introduction  

broadcasting from Boston, Massachusetts. The Smart Cities podcast is the only podcast dedicated to all thing’s smart cities. The podcast is the creation of ARC advisory group Smart City practice ARC advises leading companies, municipalities and governments on technology trends and market dynamics that affect their business and quality of life in their cities. To engage further please like and share our podcasts or reach out directly on Twitter at Smart City viewpoints or on our website at WWW dot ARC web.com backslash industries backslash smart dash cities