Germany Will Require All Gasoline Stations to Provide Electric Car Charging. Germany said it will oblige all gasoline stations to offer electric car charging to help remove refueling concerns and boost consumer demand for the vehicles as part of its 130 billion euro ($146 billion) economic recovery plan. The move could provide a significant boost to electric vehicle demand along with the broader pandemic stimulus plan which included taxes to penalize ownership of large polluting combustion- engined sports utility vehicles and a 6,000 euro subsidy towards the cost of an electric vehicle. “It’s a very clear commitment to battery-powered vehicles and establishes electric mobility as a technology of the future,” said The Mobility House, whose investors include Daimler (DAIGn.DE) and the Renault-Nissan- Mitsubishi alliance. As of March 2020, Germany had 27,730 electric car charging stations according to BDEW, Germany’s association for the energy and water industry. To achieve a mass market for electric cars, at least 70,000 charging stations and 7,000 fast charging stations are required. Reuters, June 4, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-autos-idUSKBN23B1WU
Employees Offer Pay Cuts After Benefitting From Earlier Income Equality Treatment. When Dan Price announced his plan five years ago to raise the minimum wage at his company to $70,000, the Gravity Payments CEO made international headlines as he became an outspoken advocate on income equality. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Price’s employees are now stepping up to take a pay cut. Faced with a dramatic loss of revenue at the credit card processing and financial services company, Price was determined not to lay people off or raise prices on customers as a way to survive during the crisis. So Price went to the 200 employees of the Seattle-based company looking for ideas. The solution to stemming Gravity’s hefty losses was voluntary pay cuts, with employees choosing how much they could sacrifice individually. As many as a dozen people opted to take no pay at all. Gravity differentiates itself by not adding fees while charging about half as much to process credit card transactions. Geekwire, March 31, 2020, https://www.geekwire.com/2020/gravity-payments-employees- volunteer-take-pay-cut-company-sees-revenue-dive-50-crisis/
