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Plug reservations and retail therapy are coming to “upscale” charging stations.
Gas stations aren’t fancy. There are a few quirky or pretty refueling stations scatted around the world, but the typical roadside stops amounts to a few pumps that reek of gasoline, the air pump that only takes quarters, and a convenience store stocked with Zingers. The experience is more or less the same whether you drive a new BMW or a 1980s Dodge Caravan. Nobody at the Chevron is coming out to your car with a hot towel and a glass of cucumber water.
A lot about the car ownership experience will change in a country of EVs, though, and that includes refueling stops. As we’ve covered at Heatmap, the charging stations that exist now don’t look much like the Conoco on the corner. They could be the couple of plugs at your local Whole Foods or the big Tesla Supercharger at an outlet mall next to the interstate. The fact that car charging is still in some ways a blank slate also creates an opportunity to invent the “upscale” charging experience, which is what Mercedes-Benz is now up to.
Courtesy of Mercedes.
The German automaker is trying a few different ways to make sure its luxury-minded clientele feel comfortable going electric. Mercedes adopted the Tesla plug (now called the North American Charging Standard) so its future EVs could visit Elon Musk’s Superchargers. It joined a group of major automakers who promised to build 30,000 new chargers across the country, to try to convince buyers that reliability will be there. And now, Mercedes has announced its vision for luxe charging “hubs,” starting with one in Atlanta and a handful overseas. These fancy flagship charging stops will be protected by a canopy of solar panels, be situated next to an “elevated” retail experience, and feature charging speeds of up to 400 kW, which would be the best in America.
What does a lovely charging experience actually look like? Given the state of America’s charging infrastructure — featuring lots of busted plugs and broken interfaces — it starts with basic, seamless competence. “This is maybe at the risk of undermining my job, but charging done well fades into the background,” says Andrew Cornelia, formerly of Tesla and Volta, who is now president of Mercedes North America High-Power Charging. “People always kind of dwell on this: How long does charging take? For me, charging should take five seconds. It should take the time that you get out of your car, plug your car in, and walk away.”
To that end, Mercedes says it is working to make sure its chargers reach the level of reliability mandated by the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program through which the federal government is funding new charging stations. Cornelia says Mercedes also will target the level of ease familiar to anyone who’s stopped at a Tesla supercharger: The driver plugs in and the charger automatically recognizes them and bills their card on file for the electricity, no extra steps or logins required.
In addition, the brand plans a few perks for its signature charging stations. Mercedes EV drivers will be able to reserve a plug in advance, potentially avoiding the very real annoyance of navigating to a charging depot only to find a line for a spot. That feature will roll out to non-Mercedes drivers later, Cornelia says, though they will be able to charge at the hub from day one.
Another part of Mercedes’ new deal to build chargers at the Simon brand of retail outlets is the plan to make these locations bright, safe, and welcoming, with solar-panel canopies in place to ward off the weather and to remind customers they’re charging with renewable energy. “We want to be in well-lit, well-marked retail integrated locations,” Cornelia says. “We don't want to be in the back of the parking lot next to a dumpster. It’s kind of dingy and kind of scary to plug your car in.” (Elon Musk’s Superchargers have made it possible for Tesla drivers to traverse much of the country, but many are built in dark corners of parking lots where stores, and their bathrooms, are not necessarily open late at night when the well-caffeinated traveler might need them.)
Courtesy of Mercedes.
Mercedes’ move could be a step toward making EV charging stops destinations in themselves rather than crappy chores to be endured. Tesla tried this early on with its big station in Kettleman City, California, a halfway stop between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The dozens of plugs there gave drivers the confidence they wouldn’t have to wait for one to open, and the welcoming structure on site included a dog relief area outside and a little coffee counter where you could get your cup of joe with a Tesla T logo drawn on top. Perhaps Atlanta drivers will make a habit of passing up a closer, less luxurious charging depot to visit Mercedes’ hub so they can get their favorite latte while their car gets its juice.
“What’s big for us is making sure that we are attenuating the charging experience to the actual location,” Cornelia says. “So this isn't putting slow charging right next to your coffee shop. This is not putting fast charging next to your movie theater. This is high-power charging, which will take about 15 minutes to fuel your vehicle, matched to the right retail partner, and really thinking intentionally about that pairing.”
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A loophole created by the House Ways and Means text disappeared in the final bill.
Early this morning, the House of Representatives launched a full-frontal assault on the residential solar business model. The new language in the budget reconciliation bill to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed Thursday included even tighter restrictions on the tech-neutral investment tax credits claimed by businesses like Sunrun when they lease solar systems to residential buyers.
While the earlier language from the Ways and Means committee eliminated the 25D tax credit for those who purchased home solar systems after the end of this year (it was originally supposed to run through 2034), the new language says that no credit “shall be allowed under this section for any investment during the taxable year” (emphasis mine) if the entity claiming the tax credit “rents or leases such property to a third party during such taxable year” and “the lessee would qualify for a credit under section 25D with respect to such property if the lessee owned such property.”
This is how you kill a business model in legislative text.
“Expect shares of solar companies to take a significant step back,” Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith wrote in a note to clients Thursday morning, calling the exclusion “scathing.” Investors are “losing the now false sense of security that we had 'seen the worst' of it with the initial House draft.”
Joseph Osha, an analyst for Guggenheim, agrees. “Considering the fact that ~70% of the residential solar industry is now supported by third-party (e.g. lease or PPA) financing arrangements, the new language is disastrous for the residential solar industry,” he wrote in a note to clients. “We believe the near-term implications are very negative for Sunrun, Enphase, and SolarEdge.”
Shares of Sunrun are down 37.5% in mid-day trading, wiping off almost $1 billion worth of value for its shareholders. The company did not respond to a request for comment. Shares of fellow residential solar inverter and systems Enphase are down 20%, while residential solar technology company SolarEdge’s shares are down 24.5%.
“Families will lose the freedom to control their energy costs,” Abigail Ross Hopper, chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement, in reference to the last-minute alteration to the investment tax credit.
When the House Ways and Means Committee released the initial language getting rid of 25D by the end of this year but keeping a limited version of the investment tax credit, analysts noted that Sunrun was an unexpected winner from the bill. It typically markets its solar products as leases or power purchase agreements, not outright sales of the system.
The reversal, Dumoulin-Smith wrote, “comes as a surprise especially considering how favorable the initial markup was” to the Sunrun business model.
“Our core solar service offerings are provided through our lease and power purchase agreements,” the company said in its 2024 annual report. “While customers have the option to purchase a solar energy system outright from us, most of our customers choose to buy solar as a service from us through our Customer Agreements without the significant upfront investment of purchasing a solar energy system.” .
The new bill, Dumoulin-Smith writes is “‘leveling the playing field’ by targeting all future residential solar originations, whether leased or owned.” The bill is “negative to Sunrun with intentional targeting of the sector.
Last year, Sunrun generated over $700 million from transferring investment tax credits from its solar and storage projects. The company said that it had $117 million of “incentives revenue” in 2024, which includes the tax credits, out of around $1.4 billion in total revenue.
But the tax credits play a far larger role in the business than just how they’re recognized on the company’s earnings statements. The company raises investment funds to help finance the projects, where investors get payments from customers as well as monetized tax credits. Fund investors can “can receive attractive after-tax returns from our investment funds due to their ability to utilize Commercial ITCs,” the company said in its report. Conversely, the financing “enables us to offer attractive pricing to our customers for the energy generated by the solar energy system on their homes.”
Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Perocco wrote to clients that “this is a noteworthy change for the residential solar industry, and Sunrun in particular, which dominates the residential solar [third-party owned] market and has recognized ITC credits under 48E.”
Current conditions: A late-season nor’easter could bring minor flooding to the Boston area• It’s clear and sunny today in Erbil, Iraq, where the country’s first entirely off-grid, solar-powered village is now operating • Thursday will finally bring a break from severe storms in the U.S., which has seen 280 tornadoes more than the historical average this year.
1. House GOP passes reconciliation bill after late-night tweaks to clean energy tax credits
The House passed the sweeping “big, beautiful” tax bill early Thursday morning in a 215-214 vote, mostly along party lines. Republican Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio voted no, while House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris of Maryland voted “present;” two additional Republicans didn’t vote.
The bill will effectively kill the Inflation Reduction Act, as my colleague Emily Pontecorvo has written — although the Wednesday night manager’s amendment included some tweaks to how, exactly, as well as a few concessions to moderates. Updates include:
The bill now heads to the Senate — where more negotiations will almost certainly follow — with Republicans aiming to have it on President Trump’s desk by July 4.
2. FEMA cancels 4-year strategic plan, axing focus on ‘climate resilience’
The combative new acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, David Richardson, rescinded the organization’s four-year strategic plan on Wednesday, per Wired. Though the document, which was set to expire at the end of 2026, does not address specific procedures for given disasters, it does lay out goals and objectives for the agency, including “lead whole of community in climate resilience” and “install equality as a foundation of emergency management.” In axing the strategic plan, Richardson told staff that the document “contains goals and objectives that bear no connection to FEMA accomplishing its mission.”
A FEMA employee who spoke with Wired stressed that while rescinding the plan does not have immediate operational impacts, it can still have “big downstream effects.” Another characterized the move by the administration as symbolic: “There are very real changes that have been made that touch on [equity and climate change] that are more important than the document itself.”
3. Energy Department redirects Puerto Rican rooftop solar investment to upkeep of fossil fuel plants
The U.S. federal government is redirecting a $365 million investment in rooftop solar power in Puerto Rico to instead maintain the island’s fossil fuel-powered grid, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday. The award, which dates to the Biden administration, was intended to provide stable power to Puerto Ricans, who have become accustomed to blackouts due to damaged and outdated infrastructure. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority declared bankruptcy in 2017, and a barrage of major hurricanes — most notably 2017’s Hurricane Maria — have destabilized the island’s grid, Reuters reports.
In Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s statement, he said the funds will go toward “dispatching baseload generation units, supporting vegetation control to protect transmission lines, and upgrading aging infrastructure.” But Javier Rúa Jovet, a public policy director for Puerto Rico’s Solar and Energy Storage Association, added to The Associated Press that “There is nothing faster and better than solar batteries.”
4. EDF, Shell, and others to collaborate on hydrogen emission tracker
The Environmental Defense Fund announced Wednesday that it is launching an international research initiative to track hydrogen emissions from North American and European facilities, in partnership with Shell, TotalEnergies, Air Products, and Air Liquide, as well as other academic and technology partners. Hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas that, through chemical reactions, can affect the lifetime and abundances of planet-warming gases like methane and ozone. Despite being a “leak-prone gas,” hydrogen emissions have been poorly studied.
“As hydrogen becomes an increasingly important part of the energy system, developing a robust, data-driven understanding of its emissions is essential to supporting informed decisions and guiding future investments in the sector,” Steven Hamburg, the chief scientist and senior vice president of EDF, said in a statement. Notably, EDF took a similar approach to tracking methane over a decade ago and ultimately exposed that emissions were “a far greater threat” than official government estimates suggested.
5. The best-selling SUV in America will now be available only as a hybrid
Toyota
The bestselling SUV in America, the Toyota RAV4, will be available only as a hybrid beginning with the 2026 model, Car and Driver reports. The car will be available both as a conventional hybrid and as a plug-in that works with CCS-compatible DC fast chargers, meaning “owners can quickly fill up its battery during long road trips” to minimize their fossil fuel mileage, The Verge adds. The RAV4 will also beat the Prius for electric range, hitting up to 50 miles before its gas engine kicks in.
Toyota’s move might not come as a complete surprise given that the automaker already introduced a hybrid-only lineup for its Camry. But given the popularity of the RAV4, Car and Driver notes that “if you ever wondered whether or not hybrids have entered the mainstream yet, perhaps this could be a tipping point.”
Nathan Hurner/USFWS
The Fish Lake Valley tui chub, a small minnow threatened by farming and mining activity, could become the first species to be listed as endangered under the second Trump administration.
The House passed its version of the budget bill early Thursday morning, with even deeper cuts to clean energy added overnight.
Trump’s tax bill passed the House early Thursday morning, after a marathon session in the Rules Committee that began early Wednesday morning and stretched late into the night. The final floor vote came down to the slimmest of margins, 215 yeas to 214 nays, with House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris voting “present.”
The clean energy tax credits, already on life support, barely made it out alive.
The text that now heads to the Senate retains many of the provisions that came out of the Ways and Means Committee last week, but would terminate some of the tax credits even more rapidly to appease Republican hardliners.
It still eliminates the electric vehicle tax credits after this year, except for vehicles produced by automakers that have sold fewer than 200,000 tax credit-qualified cars, which will be eligible for one additional year. It still terminates tax credits for residential energy efficiency, rooftop solar, and new, energy-efficient homes. And it still ends the clean hydrogen tax credit at the end of this year.
But for the clean electricity subsidies, the revised text nixes the previously proposed three-year phase-down schedule and bluntly cuts off any project that doesn’t break ground within 60 days of the bill’s passage — basically the same deal handed to the hydrogen industry.
The only concession to the many objections to the bill from the clean energy industry appears to be some carve outs for nuclear plants.
Here’s a rundown of everything that changed.
The revised text demands that clean power projects start construction within 60 days of the bill’s final passage in order to qualify for the production and investment tax credits, 45Y and 48E. Projects that are able to hit that deadline would also have to meet a second one — they would have to start operating before 2029.
But there’s an exception for advanced nuclear facilities, which would only have to start construction by 2029 to be eligible for the credits and would have no deadline to begin sending power to the grid.
The amended text also speeds up material sourcing requirements that prohibit clean power projects from using anything made in China. Under the earlier iteration, power companies would have had a full year to reorganize their supply chains — a timeline that industry experts already said was unworkable. The revised bill imposes the restriction starting January 1 of next year.
In summary, if you are developing a wind farm and want to qualify for tax credits, you now face an almost impossibly short eligibility timeline. You would have to start construction within two months of the reconciliation package passing, eliminate Chinese goods from your supply chain before the end of the year, and then get your project hooked up to the grid and operating by the end of 2028.
When that 60-day clock starts will depend on how long it takes the Senate to pass its version of the reconciliation bill and both houses to approve the final text, which could take weeks or months. Regardless, these new time restrictions would likely “TANK real projects in active development right now, killing jobs and costing investment,” as industry group Advanced Energy United’s managing director Harry Godfrey posted on social media Wednesday night. Godfrey went on to name six projects in Republican districts, including solar farms, solar on schools, and a long-duration storage installation, that would be affected.
To the few clean energy developers that can hit all of these deadlines, House Republicans have offered a small reward. The revised bill appears to retain transferability, the ability for developers to sell their clean energy tax credits to other companies and thereby access more capital more quickly and easily than they otherwise would. There is some confusion among energy experts, however, about exactly how this provision would apply, with Politico Pro reporting Thursday morning that only nuclear would be able to use it. Regardless, the 60-day deadline to start construction makes this mostly moot.
A new section of text takes aim at companies like Sunrun that lease solar installations to homeowners and businesses. Under current law, Sunrun typically claims the commercial investment tax credit (48E) for solar installations on customers' roofs. But the change would prohibit any company that leases solar or wind installations to a third party from claiming the tax credits for those projects.
Under the Way and Means version of the budget bill, the tax credit for electricity produced by existing nuclear plants would have phased down over three years before terminating in 2032. The revised bill nixes the phase-out, keeping the full amount of the credit in place until 2032, which is just one year earlier than the phase-out timeline in the Inflation Reduction Act.
The revised bill also allows nuclear plant owners to take advantage of transferability for as long as the credit is in effect — a provision that nuclear industry advocates told me was essential to keeping existing plants online.
The text does not make any amendments to the Ways and Means bill’s changes to the carbon capture (45Q), clean fuels (45Z), and advanced manufacturing (45X) projects. These projects would still not be able to use transferability past 2027.
The clean fuels credit would still be extended for four years, through the end of 2031, and come with looser carbon accounting rules. The clean manufacturing credit would still be cut short by a year, with wind manufacturers losing their eligibility even earlier, in 2028.
These provisions are not yet law, and there are a number of Republican Senators who have subtly, though publicly disagreed with the approach the House has taken to paring back the tax credits. Regarding the short timeline the Ways and Means Committee had proposed for claiming the tax credits, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota told Politico, “we’ll have to change that.” Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said she expected the “blanket” repeal of the tax credits to change, noting “there has been job creation around these tax credits.” And four Republicans led by Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski also sent a letter to party leadership back in April arguing to maintain the tax credits.
The House appeared to have its clean energy holdouts too, however. But as my colleague Matthew Zeitlin wrote on Wednesday, “at no point have these members ever seriously threatened to vote against the bill” in support of the tax credits, and at the end of the day their concerns were mostly ignored.
The Senate is about to take a week-long recess, and won’t be back in session until June 2. How long until the one big, beautiful bill becomes law, nobody knows. But we’ll soon see how hard the energy transition’s defenders are actually willing to fight.