Automotive News: Faraday Falls Behind on Plant Construction Bills

A construction firm working on Faraday Future’s $1 billion Nevada factory has warned the electric-car startup that it could face a work stoppage over millions of dollars in unpaid bills, raising questions about Faraday’s financial condition.

In an Oct. 10 letter, Robert Gay, vice president and project executive at AECOM -- which is overseeing $500 million of work on the roughly $1 billion, 3-million-square-foot plant -- cites an unpaid $21 million deposit, due in September, to an escrow account to cover material costs and subcontractor work. A copy of the letter was obtained by Automotive News.

Bloomberg: Climate Change May Trigger the Next Financial Crisis, Fisher Says

Climate change could spark the world’s next financial crisis, according to Paul Fisher, who retired this year as deputy head of the Bank of England body, which supervises the country’s banks.

“It is potentially a systemic risk,” Fisher said Monday in an interview in Sydney. A sudden repricing of assets as a result of climate change “could be the trigger for the next financial crisis,” he added.

Fisher, a 26-year-veteran of the U.K. central bank, pointed to the renewed fall in sterling earlier this month, after the government set out a timetable for leaving the European Union, as an example of the way that prices can shift suddenly. “That is exactly the sort of event you might get with climate change,” said Fisher, formerly deputy head of the U.K.’s Prudential Regulation Authority.

AutoBlog: Henrik Fisker Reveals the Face of His Upcoming Electric Vehicle

Henrik Fisker once again took to Twitter to release an image of the 400-mile-range electric vehicle being developed by his new company, Fisker Inc. This time, the tweet revealed the front end of the upcoming car.

The picture, which has the patina of old video game CGI, hints at a design more likely to be seen on a Matchbox car, rather than an actual street-legal vehicle. According to Fisker, the front of the car is heavily influenced by the principles of aerodynamics. Besides the grille-less front end, a feature also found on the refreshed Tesla Model S, the vehicle is fitted with adaptive LED headlights, as well as a centrally located radar and camera-sensor combination.

Guardian: Coal Will Be Important for 'Many, Many Decades to Come,' Says Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull has declared coal will be part of Australia’s energy mix for “many, many, many decades to come” as a critical Senate bloc expressed opposition to so-called “green lawfare” changes designed to limit the legal standing of conservation groups in court proceedings.

Turnbull made the bullish observation about coal during a radio interview in Brisbane on Tuesday morning, arguing that the effort to “strangle the Australian coal industry is not going to do anything to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions."

Rocky Mountain Institute: Electric Vehicles Are Coming. Regulators Must Respond

It’s a great time to be in the market for an electric vehicle. Customers have never had as many EV options, at as many price points, with as much support infrastructure in place as they do today. During the last decade, the number of plug-in vehicle models available for sale has grown to more than 20, just as battery costs have decreased by 70 percent, and the number of EV charging stations across the U.S. has climbed to more than 16,000.

However, the growth rate for EVs and the locations where they are charged is likely to vary by geography, with adoption rates materially higher in certain areas compared with others. While new sources of concentrated load growth from new EVs can pose challenges to the distribution system and to electricity customers -- affecting grid reliability and increasing electricity costs -- they also can provide considerable benefits. For example, technologies available today allow EVs to act as demand response resources and to assist with the integration of renewable energy onto the grid by managing when and where they charge.

Integrating conversations with stakeholders across the country, Rocky Mountain Institute’s new report, Driving Integration: Regulatory Responses to EV Growth, describes how regulators and legislators in California and Washington engaged early and proactively in navigating these issues, setting up the conditions to kick-start the EV market. Based on these experiences and conversations, the report highlights regulators’ options and tradeoffs in enabling EV deployment and integration.