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Posted onEVANNEX February 03, 2021byCharles Morris

2020, for all its faults, was a year full of milestones for the electric vehicle transition, but 2021 promises to hold even more. What will be the biggest Tesla- or EV-related happenings of this pivotal year? Who better to ask than Zac and Jesse Cataldo, a father-and-son team who preside overan empire of YouTube channelsfocused on sustainable energy and transportation?

As we mentioned inanother recent article, Zac and Jesse produce several weekly YouTube shows, including Tesla Time News, and they have an archive of over 1,000 videos, covering all kinds of Tesla, EV and renewable energy topics. They receive a tremendous number of questions and comments from viewers every week, so theyre closely in touch with the grass roots, and especially qualified to make some forecasts about whats going to grab the spotlight this year.

I wasnt surprised when Zac told me thatelectric pickup truckswill be one of the hottest topics of 2021, but a couple of his insights about the details were unexpected. For one thing, he expects charging infrastructure to be one of the factors that determine which brands will take the lead in the crowded pickup field.

TheRivian R1T electric pickup truckis scheduled to hit the streets in June, and Zac and Jesse have one on order. Rivian, if they can pull it off, will have beaten pretty much everyone to the electric pickup truck game, Zac told me. Itll be very interesting to see if they can handle the charging infrastructure. I have no doubt, having watched their truck evolving, that its going to be a really cool truck. But I think the Tesla Supercharging network is one of Teslas amazing assets.

Until youve experienced the Supercharger network, you dont really understand how awesome electric cars can be. And I know this first-hand, because Jesse and I have been on road trips all across the US, and across Europe, and using EVgo or Electrify America, [or IONITY in Europe], not to say you cant do it, but its a completely different experience than driving a Tesla using the Supercharger network. So, when Rivian comes out, we really want to test it out and see if you can drive up into the mountains and do everything fun you want to do in a Rivian, and be able to get there and charge it easily.

Rivian [has been] talking about itsAdventure Network. But are they going to partner with somebody? Where are these chargers going to go? Whats the rollout going to be? Because it could make or break their company. I know that its a very Lake Tahoe kind of vehicle, and I know that theyre probably going to cover Lake Tahoe in chargers, and there will be particular placesZion National Park or Yosemitebut are they going to get everywhere? Tesla had times when they didnt have good coverage in places, but now Im looking at their updated map, and theyre saying in Q2 theres going to be two Superchargers within 20 miles of where I live. And theyre also going into places that have never had any EV infrastructure, like way up in New Hampshire and places where youre usually worried about heading to, because you dont see any red dots on the map.

Im going through this weird dilemmaIve got a Model X, and I was thinking of selling it because were getting the Rivian. But will I be able to do all the things I can do in my Model X? I can just hop in it right now and go anywhere and not even think about it. So, thats what we want to tell our viewersif you get a Rivian, as fun as it might be, will you be able to go wherever you want? Because until you get EVs to do that, which is what Tesla has done, then you are still living in this world of worry and anxiety, and that is not the future of EVs.

The Tesla Cybertruck will surely be one of the most eagerly awaited new products this year, but many people thinkits unorthodox lookswill limit its appeal to mainstream truck buyers. Zac begs to differ.

I think if Elon can pull out all the stops at Giga Texas, and actually get a Cybertruck out by DecemberI dont know if he can do it, but if he can, getting a Cybertruck out in 2021 would be the story of the year, says Zac. I think its going to be a mind-blowing story, because to most of the world, its this kind of science-fiction, crazy-billionaire idea. But Jesse and I were at the unveiling event, we sat in it, we drove in it. Its going to be an amazing truck, and I think that it really appeals to the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado driver.

The Rivian, just by its looks, you can tell that its kind of a Land Rovery sort of experience. Its a little bit more luxury, and you can see that in the price too. I think that when Cybertruck rolls off the line and people start getting them, its not the people who have one on reservation that are going to be Teslas biggest customers, even though theres already a million people signed up for it. I think that its going to be the people who see them on the road for the first time.

Above: Zac and Jesse's reaction to the Cybertruck (YouTube:Now You Know)

Weve all seen concept vehicles before, and they always look Wow, I cant wait to drive that thing. Then you get it for real and it doesnt look that way. But Tesla doesnt operate in that fashion. The Model X has the Falcon Wing doors, and the Model 3 looked almost identical to what was unveiled the first time we saw it. I think the same thing will happen with the Cybertruck. Its stainless steelthey cant stamp it to conform it to some shape, so its going to be this stainless steel box thats going to blow every other truck out of the water. I think that theres a huge portion of this country that has completely missed out on EVs, because a Model 3 is not the type of vehicle that most people drive.

Another big story this year will be the start of Model Y production at the German Gigafactory, which will hopefully be up and running by the summer. I think the Model Y got short shrift because of COVID, Zac told me. I think if COVID hadnt hit, the Model Y would be a much bigger story because people would have actually gotten to experience it. Because of COVID, it makes it really difficultyou cant just go hop in your buddys Model Y, so I think fewer people have gotten to experience it.

I think Model Y is actually going to overshadow Model 3. Americans love SUVs. Its a great size vehicle. It can really handle families. It can handle what you need it for, which is to pack it full of stuff, right? And it looks really goodI didnt think that theyd be able to pull off the looks of it quite so well. We just saw the prices drop because they came out with the Standard Range model, and I think when you get down into this price range, when you drop from a $50,000 car down to a $40,000 car, you really broaden the number of people who can afford it. I think a lot more people who thought, I heard about Teslas but theyre expensive luxury cars are actually going to start to say, waitthis is an affordable car.

Will there be further price drops this year? Will Tesla bring Model Y down into the $30,000 range? With thesingle casting, that really is going to lower the cost for them, and I dont know if theyve actually even realized that price differential yet, says Zac. Its possible that when they start actually seeing the results of that, theyll be able to push that [cost reduction] to customers, but I dont think itll be this year. According to Elon, itll happen in Germany first.

Obviously, the election of Joe Biden, whoseenvironmental planforesees a massive shift to electric vehicles, represents a big package of good news for the clean-tech industries. At the time Zac and I spoke, this was a story that was somewhat under the radar, overshadowed by news stories about the pandemic and the election. Since then, President Biden has completely changed the equation with his announcement that the federal government will electrify its vehicle fleet. However, there are several less glamorous, but equally important, changes in the wind, including a major shift in the utility landscape.

It wont take much to really make the switch fully happen, says Zac. Just a little bit of government incentives for solar and wind, and kind of a peeling back the layers of corporate lies and deception about both climate change, and also utilities. With home rooftop solar, I think theres so much that could be done there, but the utilities have locked this up for years by lying. Theyll say things like solar is dangerous for the grid, blah, blah, blah. But now that we have low-price batteries, now that we have the ability to have grid energy storage, their arguments are just completely out the window. I think this is going to be a huge decade, where we move forward. Because it was an artificial block, it wasnt a true technological block. Its great to see California [mandating] that you have to put the ability to have solar on the roof, that you have to put in a charging infrastructure for new houses. I think youre going to see more and more states [adopting similar measures] and its just wonderful to see it.

When you make the switch to EV and that thing actually switches in your mind, you start to look at each aspect of your life and go, Hang on a second, this doesnt make any sense. I want to put solar on my roof because now I actually have the ability to control where the power that goes into my car comes from. Its no longer, do I go to Exxon or do I go to Shell? It could come from my roof. Well, then I want as much solar as I can possibly get.

Zac and Jesse arent just journaliststheyre also activists, and one of their new missions involves helping people all over the world to organize environment-friendly projects on a local level. The thing thats going to make the biggest difference is for all these people who are having their lives completely changed to run for office. To get those people to say, Knowing what I know now, what needs to change in the system? So Jesse and I set up a non-profit this year called Now We Act. Were going to be unveiling a web site where you can put a pin on a map and you can say, Id like to start a project here. Whether its putting solar on the roof of your high school, or whether its trying to get your utility to switch [to renewable energy], you can get the help you need, so that you dont have to reinvent the wheel so that you can move your project forward.

Theres so many people out there who have great ideas about what they want to do in their communitiesgetting EV charging infrastructure, lets say. But they dont know much about how their government works. We know a lot about how to get this moving, and we know a lot of the people out there who do know, even if we dont know, so were going to be connecting people up that can help you to get that going in your community. And then you can repeat that. You can help the next group to walk through those steps and even speed up the process. Because once you kind of get that ball rolling, we can get this rolling across the entire world pretty fast.

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Written by:Charles Morris

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Rivian R1T, Tesla Cybertruck: The Disruption Of The Pickup Truck Market - InsideEVs