-January 26,2023-
California announced that 18.8% (345,818 units) of all new cars sold last year in California were Zero Emission Vehicles. A small number of those ZEV sales (3.89%, or 3,303 units) were made to out-of-state buyers. 40% of ZEVs sold in the US are sold in California. Three counties account for almost half of the sales. With LA County customers acquiring almost 100,000 ZEVs. Buyers in Tulare County numbed 807 and Kings County residents bought 255 cars.
Tesla will invest an additional $3.6 billion in Nevada to continue growing Gigafactory Nevada with two new factories: a 100 GWh 4680 cell (earlier post) factory (with capacity to produce enough batteries for 1.5 million light duty vehicles annually), as well as its first high-volume Semi factory.
Semi is Tesla’s fully electric Class 8 tractor, with 500 miles of range and energy consumption of less than 2 KWh per mile.
In 2014, Tesla committed to invest $3.5 billion in Nevada for its first Gigafactory, targeted at 35 GWh of battery cells annually—enough to manufacture about 500,000 vehicles per year.
The City of Visalia plans to extend Caldwell east to Lovers Lane from Santa Fe widening it to four lanes. The city is acquiring land from Kaweah Health to move the project forward.Widening the road to 4 lanes is part of the city strategy to provide easy circulation around all quadrants of the city. Also on deck is Riggin to Highway 99.
Lowe’s on Demaree is going solar installing nearly 1700 solar panels on its roof in coming weeks -enough to provide a substantial percentage of the big home improvement store’s power needs.
Caldwell and West St in Visalia is about to welcome a new Starbucks.
Gary Herbst, CEO at cash-strapped Kaweah Health tells his board they will begin to work with the Board of Supervisors to explore a sales tax initiative for the District hospitals in Tulare County.
Matheny Tract Wastewater Collection System and Pipeline Inter-tie Project with the City of Tulare will finally happen after years of discussion. The low income community will get a new wastewater collection system and a a new lift station along Pratt Street connected to the City’s Domestic Wastewater Treatment Plant according to a public notice.
What grape is growing in popularity? Sauvignon Blanc. Sauvignon Blanc made an impressive showing with significantly more vines planted this past year than in any other recent year say an industry report.
How big a storm hit the north Fork of the Kaweah River a few weeks ago? The North Fork of the Kaweah (which has fire impacted Redwood Mountain Grove as its headwaters) flooded enough to deposit debris on roads and properties that haven’t seen water in a long, long time. One neighbor Sequoia Park scientist Nate Stephenson talked to found a sequoia cone and a charred piece of sequoia bark among the flood debris on her property!