📊 EV’s charts of the week #25

May 05, 2021

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Azeem

🦠 DEPARTMENT OF COVID-19

The big one

As the spike in infections took hold of India, mobility data demonstrates how people stopped moving. Via Dennis de Busschere / Evercore ISI

The politics of vaccination

The United States has turned a corner with Covid-19 thanks in large part to a steady vaccination drive. Yet, the long arm of political rhetoric is never far in contemporary America. Just look at this chart. Via Pantheon Macroeconomics

Vaccine diplomacy

Part of the challenge facing India’s current Covid-19 wave is that the country can’t produce enough vaccines for its population. The irony is that the Serum Institute of India has been instrumental in producing vaccines for much of the Global South as the chart above highlights. Via Quartz

Is the pandemic mindset is here to stay?

Curious results from this Deloitte survey. It would seem that something profound has changed in our habits as a result of the pandemic and it might stick with us longer than expected. Via Dragos Novac

🔋 DEPARTMENT OF DECARBONISTION

Negative returns

New evidence from the Netherlands that the profitability of coal is on a steep decline. But there is more to the story as we can see in the next chart. Via SOMO

Fossil fuels just won’t quit

The short-term profitability of coal took a serious hit during the pandemic. As the global economy opens back up (and we all jump on planes), fossil fuels are making a bit of a comeback. Via The Economist

Falling from the sky

Despite the short-term bounce in fossil fuels, the direction of travel for renewables is clear. The price of lithium-ion batteries, for example, has declined an eye-popping 97% since 1991. Via Hannah Ritchie

Big in China

Another extremely encouraging development: China was the leading market for electric cars in the first quarter of 2021.Via The National

Trucks are charging

Those failing prices of batteries are translating into the growth of the electric freight truck sector. The genie is out of the bottle and there is no going back at this stage. Via Colin Mckerracher

🧾DEPARTMENT OF SUBSCRIPTIONS

The greatest subscription model in history

We saw Amazon’s incredible earnings last week. Yes, that was driven by the pandemic but it’s also thanks to the visionary prime subscription model. Not only is it one of the largest subscription models in the world but look at how much more Prime members spend on the platform. Incredible. Via Quartz

Apple’s other revenue stream

Apple has been trying to diversify its revenue streams away from sole dependence on iPhone sales for years. It seems like it is starting to work. $40 million in new paid subscriptions in the Apple ecosystem in the second quarter of 2021. Not bad. Via Neil Cybart

💻 DEPARTMENT OF PLATFORMS

Off a cliff

In the last four years, development on new VR projects has dropped dramatically. Could exercise applications buck this trend? Via The Information

Airpods as a tech company

Meanwhile, the rise of AirPods as a force in the tech industry doesn’t seem to be showing an end. Airpods are creating more revenue than Spotify, Twitter, and Snap combined. Via Bill Gross

⚡️AND FINALLY

A new measure of inflation?

Is the consumer price index, one of the most popular measures of inflation, outdated? The economist Christopher Carroll Smith makes a compelling argument that it is (follow the link). Via Christopher Carroll Smith/ TradingView

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