In America
With the continued strong growth of the electric vehicle market, manufacturers of charging services have had to invest huge capital to improve infrastructure around the world; while in Italy the modernization is still limited (our in-depth analysis here), in America companies are specializing to offer increasingly valid, effective and innovative solutions. In this regard, Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen, plans to install over 10 thousand charging points in the United States by 2025.A decidedly important number, but the data currently shared by the company: 800 charging stations currently in operation, 3,500 charging points, and the largest ultrafast charging network in circulation with 150 kW and 350 kW chargers. The company claimed to have recorded 1.45 million charging sessions last year alone - a truly enviable boom, if we think that in 2020 there were just 270 thousand. According to Electrify America, this saved American petrolheads 5.7 million gallons of fuel. In total, Electrify America used 41.4 gigawatt hours of energy to charge customer vehicles in 2021.
Volkswagen is currently working to develop a new range of ultra-fast charging stations, in collaboration with oil giant BP. Known as the Flexpole, they will offer up to 150 kW of power and are designed to optimize charging times with Volkswagen cars, such as the ID.4. Meanwhile, Tesla, which still offers one of the largest global charging networks, is opening its infrastructure to other brands in an attempt to consolidate the market. The race for charging stations seems unstoppable in some parts of the world, a push that could, however, suffer a strong setback thanks to the constant crisis of the semiconductors, which affects the production of the cars themselves, and of lithium, which could limit the construction of batteries. . - th_motorlabs_d_mh2_1 slot id: th_motorlabs_d_mh2 "); }
The state of abortion in America
The number of U.S. women who get abortions has decreased dramatically in recent decades, with typical patients now tending to be in their 20s and living in blue states.
Why it matters: Abortion access is likely to be drastically curtailed in red states should a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision hold, gutting the federal right to an abortion. But the profile of abortion patients has trended older since that right was established, and the vast majority of procedures tend to be early in pregnancies.
State of play: In 2019, nearly 630,000 abortions were reported to the CDC, reflecting a rate of about 11.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years.
The big picture: Abortion rates have been declining for years, particularly among adolescents. The overall birth rate has also declined since 1973, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Zoom in: These national trends are largely encapsulated in Texas, one of the states that would automatically ban abortion if SCOTUS overturns its earlier ruling.