After I had such a good time pretending to operate my own private fire service with the mini electric fire truck I found last week, I think I’ll stick with the municipal services for just a bit longer. And considering the famed high-wages that garbage men are supposed to receive, perhaps its time I bought an electric garbage truck and take this dumpster fire on the road.

The garbage e-truck in this week’s edition of the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week will make that keenly possible, and I’ll sure be doing municipal waste collection in style!

We got our Tesla Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive, estimated range of 267 miles, in June 2021. Last autumn, we took it on its first long voyage – 10 hours round trip to Florida. It did great, so when it came time to head cross country with our two cats from Florida to New Hampshire over three days, we decided to give it a go. Here’s how it went!

This week on the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy, including Elon Musk donating billion in TSLA shares, the CEO also goes even more controversial, and Tesla Gigafactory Texas production in sight, and more.

Remember to also subscribe to Electrek Quick Charge Podcast hosted by Mikey G and Electrek’s new Wheel-E 2-wheel podcast with Micah and Seth.

As Volta Trucks works toward start of production for its all-electric Zero truck later this year, it has gained the funding to get it over the finish line. The zero-emission truck manufacturer announced it has garnered an additional €230 million (~$260.6 million) in Series C funding. Furthermore, Volta Trucks’ 5,000+ soft pre-orders offer a potential revenue value of over €1.2 billion (~$1.4 billion).

Tesla has announced that it has produced 1 million of its next-generation 4680 battery cell at its pilot factory in California.

The announcement comes as Tesla is expected to start deliveries of its new Model Y equipped with its 4680 cell and structural battery pack.

Extreme E returns to the desert for the start of its second season with the Desert X Prix in Neom, Saudi Arabia this Sunday.

The electric off-road racing series started last year with a dual focus on racing with sustainable technologies while bringing attention to environmental issues across the globe.

ALVA Yachts has introduced the latest addition to its family of all-electric luxury sailboats and yachts with the OCEAN ECO 60 Coupé, a 60-foot electric catamaran with solar panels. The Coupé arrives as a new, sportier version of ALVA’s ECO 60 and ECO 60 Explorer electric yachts, offering a lower profile silhouette and innovative new features.

The US is now on track to achieve at least 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind generation by 2030 – a goal that the Biden administration announced on March 29, 2021.

The Lion Electric Company has launched a new division called LionCapital Solutions. The new division will provide Lion Electric customers with flexible financing as they look to electrify their fleets of medium- to heavy-duty commercial vehicles such as school buses and trucks.

Electrification of school busses and fleets requires a huge upfront cost but lower total cost of ownership over the life of the vehicle. By helping spread out the purchase price of fleets over their lifetimes, Lion is allowing operators to keep in place their current financial structures.

Elon Musk’s Boring Company has submitted a proposal for a new 6-mile long Loop tunnel project in Miami. If approved, it would be the second of such full-scale commercial deployment of transportation system.

Remember that time 14 months ago when French company Valeo announced the development of a new electric bicycle mid-drive system that included a built-in automatic transmission? Electrek remembers.

And now that drive unit is ready for production. It will soon be available on several e-bike models thanks to partnerships with over a dozen electric bicycle companies.

This week, Nissan announced a plan to invest $500 million into its Canton, Mississippi factory to prepare for the production of two new electric vehicles.

Gone are the days of actually having to be near a wall outlet in order to plug in your AC devices. With today’s new offerings in the portable power station industry, plugging in everything from camping lights to power tools and even charging your electric bicycles can be done literally anywhere. And as I discovered from my testing of the unit, Issomi’s small yet mighty power station can do all of that and more.

Tesla has updated its smartphone app to version 4.6 adding some useful new features including actionable notifications and charging stats, and data-miners have found plans for an upcoming cheaper annual subscription to their Full Self-Driving and Premium Connectivity services.

But even with this upcoming cheaper subscription scheme, Tesla has so far shown no interest in ending its practice of charging owners $1k for hardware they already paid for.

Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Alex Spiro, Elon Musk’s lawyer, sent a letter to the SEC on behalf of Musk and Tesla arguing that the agency is “harassing” them and failed to transfer money to Tesla shareholders.

Australia’s largest coal-fired power plant will close seven years earlier than originally planned. That’s because its operator, Origin Energy, says it’s unable to compete with renewables.

Dozens of new Tesla Model Y vehicles have been spotted apparently being prepped for deliveries at Gigafactory Texas. It looks like the deliveries of Tesla’s first structural battery pack vehicles are imminent.

Redwood Materials, a startup launched by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, announced that it is beginning to collect and recycle EV battery packs from Volvo and Ford in California.

To what extent are electric vehicles better than gas cars for the environment? Experts at the Argonne National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy science and engineering research center in Lemont, Illinois, are inviting the public to listen in as they discuss the best ways to measure greenhouse gas emissions.

Fisker Inc. held its fourth quarter and 2021 fiscal year financial results call yesterday, sharing an update to investors and media alike. As part of a slew of progress news from the ever optimistic Henrik Fisker, the Ocean now has over 31,000 reservations and will deliver with what the automaker is calling a ‘world leading warranty program.’

Tesla has launched a new automatic electric trunk for Model 3 as an aftermarket offered directly at service centers. The product is currently only available in China, but like most things Tesla these days, it starts in China and then it is expected to expand to other markets.