Electric Vehicles=Cheaper Than Gas by 2027; Sony-PS5 Shortages Into 2022; DarkSide Hackers Fess Up to Colonial Pipeline Ransom Hack; Cal Legal Rulings & Effect on Amazon

Electric cars will be cheaper to build than gas and diesel vehicles within 6 years, and could amount to 100% of new vehicle sales by 2035, according to a study out today. Bloomberg New Energy Finance found that sedan and SUV-sized EVs will be as cheap to make as combustion engine cars by 2026! Smaller EVs will match the cost of gas cars by 2027. Light electric vans will be cheaper by 2025, and larger electric van by 2026. An electric sedan, which cost nearly 40,000 euros ($49,000) pre-tax in 2020, is expected to sell at the same price as a combustion model — around 20,000 euros (about $23,300) — in 2026, the study showed. If so, EVs will make up about 50% of all new car sales by 2030.

The Sony PlayStation 5 is a hot seller, but Sony has warned that it may be in short supply into 2022, limiting sales and keeping more buyers from getting the unit. According to engadget.com, Sony sold 7.8 million PS5’s through March 31st, and projects they will sell a bit shy of 15 million by the close of their current fiscal year. As is the case with numerous things electronic…and even autos…the chip shortage is partially to blame. Nintendo just warned last week that they are suffering a component shortage, although they did turn in an epic quarter’s sales. 

It was suspected, but now hacker group DarkSide has come out and admitted that they hacked Colonial Pipeline in last week’s ransomware attack. CNBC.com notes that the pipeline is still down, but expected to come back on line late this week. It supplies about half the gasoline and fuel to a lot of the East Coast. The hacker gang, based in Russia, claims they are in it purely for the money. Although President Biden would not finger the Russian government in questions following a speech this morning, it is widely believed that nothing of this magnitude happens in Russia without at least the tacit approval of Putin. President Biden said a whole of government action is involved in getting the line back online, and that there will be consequences. DarkSide has extorted as much as $20 and $30 million out of companies. 

A couple of California court rulings may have an impact on Amazon’s liability for third party goods it sells. Geekwire.com reports that a recent 2nd Appellate District court ruling against Amazon in the case of a hoverboard they sold catching fire and burning the owner, and a case from last year involving an exploding laptop battery (Bolger v. Amazon.com LLC), may leave the online giant with some legal liability. In the battery case, Amazon’s liability came due to it being fulfilled by the company…which had stored and shipped the item. In the hoverboard case, Amazon never stored or shipped the board, but it was sold via their platform. Third party sales are presently about 55% of sales on Amazon. Policing the millions of sellers and items could be a monumental task. Although their current position is that they are functioning like a shopping mall, Amazon has begun to pivot, and supervise their sellers a bit more closely.