Transportation

Uber and Lyft will have to increase the minimum pay rates for drivers in New York City by the end of the year, Engadget reports. The fare increase comes amid a driver shortage post-pandemic, in large part due to rising operational costs. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) voted to increase the per-minute rates of ride-hail drivers by 7.42% and per-mile rates by 23.93%. Yellow and green cab rates will also increase by 23% by the end of this year. The commission is hoping that increasing the pay rates will attract more taxis and drivers to the roads in order to serve increasing passenger demand. “Raising taxi fare rates and minimum pay for high-volume drivers is the right thing to do for our city,” said TLC commissioner David Do in a statement. “This is the first taxi fare increase in ten years, and these raises will help offset increased operating expenses and the cost of living for TLC-licensed drivers.” Per the new rates, a sample trip of 30 minutes that goes 7.5 miles will require a minimum driver pay of $27.15, which is up $4 from original rates and more than $2.50 from the current rates, according to the TLC. The commission noted that this is still a minimum and companies can pay drivers higher than that amount. Companies will continue to choose how much to charge passengers. It’s not yet clear how this will affect Uber and Lyft customers, and neither company has yet explained if they will offload costs onto passengers. In terms of metered rides, the new drop rate will be $3.00, up from $2.50. Unit rates will go from $0.50 to $0.70. This translates to an increase in passenger fare of about 22.9%, according to the TLC. So a $15.97 ride will now cost $19.62. In February, Uber and Lyft drivers got a 5.3% increase in minimum driver pay rate due to inflation and higher operational costs. Today’s fare hike is on top of that. Ride-hail drivers can also expect to receive an additional rate increase in March, which will be based on inflation comparing December 2022 to September 2022. Last month, Uber urged the city to vote against the proposed fare increase, saying it was “economically unjustifiable” because it meant the agency would be locking in this summer’s high gas prices in perpetuity, only allowing expenses to go up moving forward. “While moving away from dynamic pay rates was long overdo, passing a rule that expressly says it wont be guided by economic reality going forward hurts riders, drivers and the agency’s credibility,” said Freddi Goldstein, an Uber spokesperson. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) applauded the fare raise, saying it would provide momentum to get driver income to $25 per hour after expenses. “This raise is very important for us. After the $2300 a month I pay in rent, the expensive cost of gas and food, what do I have left at the end of the day?” said Mamadou L Diallo, NYTWA member and Uber and Lyft driver, in a statement. “Our families, parents, children depend on us but it is not enough. We make New York a 24 hour city. We deserve this raise!”

Battery materials and recycling startup Redwood Materials has landed a multi-billion-dollar deal to supply critical battery components to Panasonic as efforts accelerate to build a domestic supply chain in North America to support the coming influx of EVs. Redwood said Tuesday it will supply Panasonic Energy of North America with cathode material for battery cells produced at a  new factory currently under construction in Kansas. The new $4 billion Panasonic factory, which will be larger than the Gigafactory operates with Tesla in Sparks, Nevada, is expected to begin mass production of its “2170” cylindrical lithium-ion batteries by March 2025. The deal, the largest yet for Redwood, is valued at several billion dollars. Lithium-ion batteries contain three critical building blocks. There are two electrodes, an anode (negative) on one side and a cathode (positive) on the other. Typically, an electrolyte sits in the middle and acts as the courier to move ions between the electrodes when charging and discharging. Cathode foils, which accounts for over half the cost of a battery cell, contain lithium, nickel and cobalt. Redwood is able to capture all of those materials through its battery recycling and processing. Initially, the cathode materials supplied to Panasonic at the Kansas factory will contain about 30% recycled lithium and nickel and 100% recycled cobalt, Redwood founder and CEO JB Straubel told ZebethMedia. That percentage will increase as more batteries — used in EVs and electronics — no longer have a useful life and enter into a pipeline where they’re recycled and processed by Redwood. “It’s a pretty exciting, real example of the closed loop ecosystem actually happening,” Straubel said, adding that he is confident the percentage of virgin material can get near zero. ” It will take a while for the industry as a whole to have enough material in circulation to do that. We’re a long way away from that for every element. But it can happen much sooner with things like cobalt.” Image Credits: Redwood Materials The Kansas factory deal expands on startup’s existing partnership with Panasonic. Several years ago, Redwood began recycling the scrap from battery cell production at the Gigafactory, extracting and then processing materials like cobalt, nickel and lithium that are typically mined, and then supplying to back to Panasonic. Redwood also recycles consumer electronics like cell phone batteries, laptop computers, power tools, power banks, scooters and electric bicycles to access, process and supply critical materials to companies like Panasonic and Amazon. The Carson City, Nevada-based company recycles about 10 gigawatt-hours of battery material annually, and “that’s increasing daily,” Straubel said. Redwood has since expanded beyond the recycling business, a move that is part of Straubel’s strategy to create a circular supply chain. In January, Redwood said it would supply Panasonic with copper foil produced from recycled materials, a critical component of the anode side of a battery cell. Redwood is expected to start producing the copper foil this month. Redwood is also producing the anode and cathode foils for companies like Panasonic and is making major investments in the U.S., including building its own factory, to bring cathode online and ramp production to 100 GWh, enough for 1 million EVs by 2025. Straubel, who wouldn’t give an exact investment figure, said the company is spending several billion dollars on these efforts. By 2030, Redwood said it expects production of both anode and cathode to scale to 500 GWh/year of materials, enough to power five million electric vehicles. Redwood has reached agreements with a number of automakers and other OEMs, including Ford, Proterra, Toyota and Volvo to collect, refurbish and recycle batteries and battery materials that can be sent to back to each company’s respective battery plant. Those deals will likely continue as automakers and cell manufacturers bring more production to the North America. The trend, which had started a couple of years ago, has accelerated with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Within the massive climate-and-energy focused bill is a set of new parameters around EVs that prioritizes and rewards companies that bring battery cell production as well as vehicle assembly to North America. “The IRA sort of straps rocket boosters on this entire industry and direction,” Straubel said. “It obviously accelerates everything and it provides a lot stronger incentives and demand to do this sooner.”