Silicon Investor - The Electric Car, or MPG "what me worry?"

[Eric] High Fuel Prices Are Powering an Electric Motorcycle Boom By Felicity Bradsto...

Eric — 9/7/2026 1:54:14 PM

High Fuel Prices Are Powering an Electric Motorcycle Boom

By Felicity Bradstock - Sep 06, 2026, 2:00 PM CDT

Electric two-wheeler sales are surging in markets such as Pakistan and Vietnam as high fuel costs improve the economics of going electric.
Chinese manufacturers, subsidies, and battery-swapping systems are making electric motorcycles more accessible across Asia and Africa.
Major manufacturers such as Honda and VinFast are expanding their electric motorcycle businesses as demand accelerates.

While electric car and truck sales have grown more slowly than expected in recent years, prompting governments to rethink clean fuel targets and automakers to slow the pace of EV production, electric motorcycles are becoming increasingly popular in certain parts of the world. Two-wheel vehicles have long been popular in busy cities and low-income countries, and now, largely due to rising fuel prices, many are investing in electric two-wheelers.
The United States-Israeli attacks on Iran in February, which led to the ongoing Iran War and spurred the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have driven oil and gas prices up sharply in recent months. Many countries have faced energy shortages, and everyone has been forced to pay a premium to access much-needed fuel. This has hit some regions of the world harder than others, disproportionately affecting low-income countries.

Some of the most affected markets, such as those in Southeast Asia and Africa, have long used motorcycles as a low-cost means of navigating crowded cities. While the electric version of these vehicles is generally more expensive than petrol-powered ones, they can be cheaper and more reliable to run in the long term, given the volatility of fossil fuel prices. As it is often cheaper now to charge a battery than to fill a fuel tank, many people are making the switch.

In Pakistan, motorbikes make up about 80 per cent of vehicles on the road. E-motorcycles were rarely seen just a few years ago, but the trend has grown in popularity, with new brands entering the market every week. Models from around 84 companies are now available in Pakistan. The rise in popularity has given way to small startups, backed by venture capital, as well as traditional electric vehicle (EV) makers.

The sale of electric two-wheelers rose by 173 per cent in Pakistan in the first half of the year, according to market-intelligence firm Motorcycles Data. In addition to the rise in oil prices, which has driven demand, government subsidies have also supported the trend. Many of the motorcycles being sold in Pakistan come from China, although some companies are fitting domestically produced motorbikes with Chinese motors.

In Vietnam, where motorcycles have long been popular due to heavy congestion, automakers are seeing electric two-wheeler sales soar. The establishment of a low-emission zone in Hanoi’s city centre, which restricts the use of gasoline-powered motorcycles on weekends, is driving uptake in the capital. Vietnam’s VinFast saw record e-motorcycle order volumes in the first quarter of 2026. VinFast delivered 143,136 electric motorbikes and e-bikes in the first three months of the year, up by 219 per cent from the same period in 2025.

In July, Japan’s Honda Motor announced plans to begin production of its UC3 electric motorcycle in Vietnam starting this year. Honda is expected to develop production facilities in the northern province of Phu Tho. Honda’s Vietnam’s general director, Sayaka Arai, stated, “The trend toward electrification among consumers is moving forward more than expected.” She added that higher fuel prices, driven by the ongoing war in Iran, have further accelerated consumer interest in electric scooters and motorcycles.

The wider availability of more affordable Chinese EVs has driven uptake in recent years. More Chinese brands have opened stores selling e-motorcycles and other EVs across Asia and Africa, helping to drive up sales. Some Chinese companies have partnered with local firms to adapt their EVs for the local market to further boost demand.

The Chinese electric bike maker TAILG partnered with Ghanaian battery-swapping operator Kofa to develop the TK90 electric motorcycle, which is tailored exclusively for the African market. The duo created the TK90 with a swappable lithium battery and reduced the motorcycle’s operating costs by around 30 per cent. The model is now available in Kenya and Tanzania.

TAILG is also developing a solar-powered three-wheeler with over 25 per cent power generation efficiency. It is currently testing solar panels on outdoor battery swap cabinets across Africa. The rollout of these units could enable consumers to use an e-motorcycle in regions not yet equipped with sufficient charging infrastructure. The lack of charging points has been a major bottleneck to EV uptake in some countries, such as Kenya, where consumers have been deterred from investing in e-motorcycles for fear they cannot charge them in many areas.

In addition to their rising popularity in low-income countries, e-motorcycles are also gaining traction in certain market segments in other parts of the world. In California, e-motorcycles, e-scooters, and e-mopeds have become more popular among teenagers seeking access to cleaner, low-cost transportation. Sales have been steadily growing since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The sale of e-motorcycles is expected to continue to rise as a broader range of models becomes available, and consumers increasingly look to switch to cleaner modes of transportation. The trend is also being driven by the volatility in oil and gas prices, with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East demonstrating how an overreliance on fossil fuels can threaten energy security.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

oilprice.com

[Eric] VOLVOCOMMERCIAL EVSELECTRIC SEMI TRUCK1927-2027: Volvo celebrates 100 years with...

Eric — 9/7/2026 1:16:39 PM

1927-2027: Volvo celebrates 100 years with special-edition electric semi

Jo Borrás | Sep 7 2026 - 6:00 am PT

0 Comments

Volvo is celebrating its 100th anniversary with launch of a new, special edition Volvo FH16 Electric semi truck featuring special paint, interior upgrades, and a promise from the company to keep on keepin’ on for at least 100 more.

Volvo’s heavy-duty truck range has become safer, more powerful, and more energy efficient with the launch of the latest FH and FH16 Electric models – and the company is celebrating that century of progress with a unique new 100 Year Edition for its FH line featuring two-tone exterior design, a premium leather seat base with special 100 Year Edition embroidered on the grey textile of the upper half, and tan leather details that match the anniversary edition striping details on the truck’s paintwork.

“This special edition represents the peak of Volvo’s truck design and manufacture over the past century,” says Jan Hjelmgren, Head of Product Management at Volvo Trucks. “(It is) the result of 100 years’ worth of continual improvement in safety, quality, driver comfort, productivity, fuel efficiency and emissions saving.”

Details matter

The special-edition Volvo get unique illuminated doorsteps and LED strips on the console, switchable between red and white ambient mood lighting. An LED welcome light projects the 100 Year Edition branding onto the ground when the door opens, and the same design shows up on 3D-printed speaker grilles.

Special sleeper cab curtains (shown, below) display a timeline of Volvo’s key truck models from the past century, and a thicker, more luxurious floor mat in a black/grey mélange with tan leather labels rounds out the interior upgrades.

Sexy sleeper curtains

100 Year Edition cab curtain; by Volvo.

“The 100-year edition truck is a celebration of what we have achieved so far over the past century, and a very special truck in more ways than one,” explains Volvo Trucks’ Design Director, Jonathan Disley. “The interior is both modern and premium, as well as an homage to Volvo’s history. The design was inspired by our Swedish heritage and the professionalism that comes from years of innovation and progress, alongside our customers’ trust and passion.”
The Volvo 100 Year Edition FH is the latest in a storied line of special edition Volvo models, which have previously included the Volvo FH 25 Year Special Edition, the Volvo FH Aero Euro NCAP Special Edition, and the Volvo Ocean Race Limited Edition.

The truck, itself

Volvo FH16 Electric 100 Year Edition.

The Volvo FH Electric offers fleets up to 540 kW (~730 hp) of peak power from its advanced eAxles, which get their electrons from a 360 kWh battery pack (up to 780 kWh are available). That combination is good for up to 400 km (~250 miles) of loaded range and can be recharge from 20% to 80% in about an hour on “just” 350 kW of charging power, enabling the truck to effectively “top off” at stops, between shift changes, or while its trailer is being loaded or un-loaded.
Pricing for the new 100 Year Edition trim level wasn’t announced, but the order books are open, so I’m sure your dealer can tell you all about it.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Trucks.

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electrek.co

[Eric] [graphic] East And West Coasts Throw Electric Truck Shade At White House 2 hou...

Eric — 9/7/2026 12:57:04 PM

East And West Coasts Throw Electric Truck Shade At White House

2 hours

Tina Casey

11 Comments

The war on EVs is far from over, but signs of electrification victory are already emerging as the war in Iran continues to push the cost of fuel through the roof. The latest examples come from the politically blue East Coast states of New York and New Jersey along with the similarly blue West Coast states of California, Oregon, and Washington, where plans are in the works to stimulate more activity in the electric truck field.

Electric Trucks Save Big Bucks

In a last-ditch effort to distract the public from his war in Iran, the Epstein files, and a growing list of grifty corruption scandals, US President Donald Trump has finally decided to…change his hair. True fact. Over the Labor Day weekend, the President transitioned from Beach Boy Blonde to Fred Trump Brown. That distracted the media to some extent, but one bottle of Nice ‘n’ Easy won’t push down the price of diesel, which hit a record high of $5.85 per gallon on September 4 according to the AAA gas price tracker.

Against this backdrop, stakeholders in the electric truck field are licking their chops. Back in 2021, when diesel prices spiked during the COVID crisis, the University of California-Berkeley ran the numbers and came up with a figure of 13% savings to run a long haul electric truck compared to diesel, with a drop in the cost of batteries contributing to a lifetime savings of up to $200,000.

UC Berkeley also anticipated a 50% savings by 2030, which is just around the corner. Whether or not that forecast proves true remains to be seen, but in the meantime the International Council on Clean Transportation has developed a meticulously calibrated total cost of ownership calculator, which enables EV-curious fleet managers and operators to see for themselves. The ICCT TCO calculator covers commercial vehicles from Class 2b–3 medium-duty delivery vans and the like, to Class 8 long-haul trucks.

That’s all well and good, but a solid network of truck-friendly EV charging stations is needed to help get fleet managers and owner-operators get over the heebie-jeebies of switching from diesel to electric, and that’s where the East and West coasts have swung into action.

$451 Million From The US EPA Clean Ports Program…Wait, What?

On the East Coast side, the latest news involves a $451 million grant issued in 2024 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the busiest container seaport on the East Coast. The Port Authority oversees facilities shared between New York and New Jersey on both sides of the Hudson River, including bridges, tunnels, and transit assets such as the beloved PATH train and the Midtown Bus Terminal.

The 2024 grant was a carve-out from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through EPA’s Clean Ports program, aimed at accelerating the transition to low- and zero-emission trucks, ships, and cargo equipment at the container ports.

Somehow that grant survived the Trump chopper. If you can figure out how that came to be, you deserve a medal and please share your insights in the discussion thread.

Regardless of how and why the funding remains intact, on September 3, 2026, the Port Authority announced that $45 million from the Clean Ports pot has been earmarked for a partnership with the nonprofit electrification organization CALSTART, aimed at kicking up the adoption of electric trucks and other electrified equipment at Port Authority facilities.

At $39 million, the bulk of the CALSTART partnership goes to support the purchase of zero-emission trucks, yard tractors and on-site supporting infrastructure. The remaining $5 million is slated for up to five off-site electric truck charging hubs, to be located within 10 miles of a Port Authority seaport or marine terminal.

Starting now-ish, staff from the Port Authority and CALSTART will begin reaching out to stakeholders in the trucking business to solicit interest. Not leaving everything up to digital communications, the outreach will include in-person presentations.

CALSTART is also tasked with developing dashboards to track the progress of both programs. “These tools will monitor deployment, vehicle performance, and charger utilization across port operations before being fully transferred to the Port Authority in 2028,” the Port Authority explains.

That’s just for starters. The Port Authority also notes that the Clean Ports grant covers other programs beyond the CALSTART partnership, including funds for electrifying cargo equipment at marine terminals, and zero emission plug-in stations that enable vessels at berth to shut down their auxiliary engines.

“A separate $3 million EPA planning grant will fund the creation of a Port Community Advisory Council,” the Port Authority adds, with the aim of improving clean energy workforce training and job opportunities in the region.

Meanwhile, The US, Canada, And Mexico…What?

The Port Authority’s EV-friendly announcement is larded with sustainability references, amounting to a Port Authority-sized poke in the eye of Trump and his Republican allies in Congress, who collaborated to prematurely kill the all-important federal EV tax credit last year.

Another, even bigger poke is coming from California, Oregon, and Washington State, all three of which have embraced Trump’s #1 and #2 enemies — Canada and Mexico — to support a new electric truck transportation corridor program.

On August 26, elected officials from the three West Coast states joined with officials from British Columbia in Canada and Baja California in Mexico to announce the new “BC2BC” (British Columbia to Baja California) ZEV corridor on Interstate-5, enabling electric trucks to travel from one end to the other with the assurance of charging station availability all along the way.

“Once completed, freight shippers and operators will be able to charge their zero-emissions fleets along the entire West Coast with the initial buildout including 20 electric charging stations and 3 hydrogen stations,” the BC2BC program elaborates.

There’s plenty more where that came from. According to BC2BC, truck traffic on the I-5 corrider currently averages 10,000 vehicles per day. Twenty EV charging stations and three hydrogen stations (for fuel cell electric trucks) is a healthy start, but many more will be needed once the I-5 is saturated with electric trucks, which it will be if all goes according to plan.

Tesla, for one, is in there pitching with the new Class 8 Semi long haul truck. Now in volume production to positive reviews, the Semi is giving Tesla some breathing room between the Cybertruck flop and the underwhelming (and questionable) Cybercab rollout in Texas last week.

Among other stakeholders, keep an eye on ZM Trucks, the US branch of Japan’s ZO Motors (an arm of the Hong Kong conglomerate ZO Future Group). In 2024 ZM Trucksannounced plans to manufacture both battery electric and fuel cell electric trucks in the US with a concentration on “Baby 8” trucks as well as Classes 4-6, and Class 8. The plans were still in place after Trump took office last year.

ZM’s press room has been rather quiet since August of 2025, when the company announced its new headquarters and factory in the city of Fontana, California. However, the company exhibited proof of life at the official BC2BC launch event at the Port of Long Beach, which featured one of it trucks alongside Tesla and Volvo.

As a further poke at Trump’s psychotic isolationism, BC2BC is part of the global Drive to Zero commercial vehicle electrification initiative, supported in the US by CALSTART, which seems to be rather busy these days. In addition to CALSTART/Drive to Zero, other partners in BC2BC are the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, and the California State Transportation Agency.

Photo: The electric truck firm ZM Trucks is among those looking forward to a spurt in sales despite last year’s sharp U-turn in federal energy policy (courtesy of ZM Trucks).

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] [graphic] Electric freight rail is established technology. The unresolved North ...

Eric — 9/6/2026 5:52:53 PM

Electric freight rail is established technology. The unresolved North American question is where electrification pays first, not whether electric traction works.

US Lobby’s $1.1 Trillion Freight Rail Electrification Study Intentionally Asked The Wrong Question

3 minutes

Michael Barnard

6 Comments

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Direct electric freight rail is not speculative technology. It already operates across enormous railway systems, moves very heavy freight and works in difficult climates. The interesting North American question is therefore not whether electric freight rail can work, but where catenary should go first, where batteries or dual-mode locomotives make sense, and whether each successive investment saves enough diesel, maintenance and emissions to justify itself.

That is not the question the Association of American Railroads chose to commission. AAR had already publicly positioned itself against prescriptive rail electrification before it hired HDR to assess catenary across roughly 105,000 to 139,000 track-miles of the Class I network. The resulting HDR catenary study produced conceptual capital estimates of $870 billion to $1.1 trillion, including contingency. AAR then announced that an “independent analysis” had confirmed catenary was infeasible. There is an awkward detail in that framing: HDR’s underlying report says the system is technically feasible.

The full TFIE Strategy Briefing follows how that enormous scenario was constructed, what a decision-grade counterfactual would have to test, and how a commissioned engineering estimate turned into a much broader feasibility verdict.

There is substantial useful engineering in the HDR report. Electrification requires poles, foundations, traction substations, grid connections, signal work, bridge and tunnel treatments, and careful construction beside an operating railroad. None of those costs should be waved away. But estimating the cost of transforming most of a continental railway is a different analytical task from finding the economic frontier of electrification. A multi-decade infrastructure transition normally proceeds through successive investments: rank corridors, identify the highest-value early projects, learn from them and continue while the next project clears the hurdle. HDR’s scenarios begin much closer to the far end of that process.

The international reference class also weakens the easy physical objections. India has electrified 99.6% of its broad-gauge railway, while China operates another enormous, heavily electrified network. HDR itself acknowledges electric freight operation in several countries and cites a South African electrically hauled test train far heavier than the representative North American train in its model. These systems are not American cost templates; ownership, labour, financing and traffic mixes differ. But they make continental scale, difficult operating conditions and heavy trains poor explanations for why North American freight remains overwhelmingly diesel.

The institutional context deserves attention as well. HDR is a major freight-rail consultancy deeply involved in the industry ecosystem whose principal advocacy organization commissioned the work. That does not invalidate the engineering, nor does it demonstrate that HDR was instructed to manufacture a conclusion. It does make “independent analysis” a more complicated description than the phrase suggests. AAR had already adopted a public position against electrification before commissioning a study built around an extremely broad catenary deployment and then promoting its resulting cost stack as a feasibility verdict.

That qualification is already being lost as the study travels. Reuters later repeated the more-than-$1.1-trillion figure while reporting on freight-rail pollution. Once the sponsor, scope and assumptions drop away, the number begins to look like a neutral finding about electric freight rail rather than the output of a particular commissioned exercise.

Meanwhile, the Federal Railroad Administration is asking a materially different question. Its CURRENT framework developed with the University of Texas evaluates traditional catenary alongside battery-electric locomotives, dual-mode equipment and staged deployment, with cost, uncertainty and risk treated as variables rather than assuming most of the network should be wired first. That is much closer to the useful policy question: where does the next increment of electrification make economic sense?

AAR’s trillion-dollar scenario may tell us something valuable about the engineering scale of wiring most of today’s Class I network. It does not establish whether the first economically attractive freight corridor exists.

The full TFIE Strategy Briefing analysis traces the study from AAR’s prior position through the scenario design and into the headline verdict, then examines what would have to be analyzed before “infeasible” became a defensible economic conclusion.

cleantechnica.com

My comments:

The clock is ticking rapidly towards the end of diesel/electric train propulsion.

Just too expensive, dirty and ultimately unsustainable.

1940's tech. Obsolete today.

Electons baby!

100% electrified propulsion.

Just too cheap today with RE generation and storage.

One only has to look at Europe and China to see the massive change already occurring.

Eric

[Eric] AI Overview The coulombic efficiency (Ah efficiency) of flooded lead-acid cells...

Eric — 9/6/2026 5:24:10 PM

AI Overview

The coulombic efficiency (Ah efficiency) of flooded lead-acid cells typically ranges between 80% and 90%, with 85% widely accepted as the standard average across a full charge-discharge cycle. This means you must return roughly 115% to 120% of the amp-hours removed during discharge to bring the cell back to a 100% state of charge (SoC). [ 1, 2, 3]

Efficiency Dynamics Across Charge Stages

The coulombic efficiency is not static; it fluctuates significantly depending on the battery's current state of charge: [ 1]

Bulk Charge Stage (>90% Efficiency): When the battery is discharged, it is highly receptive to current. Almost all electrons go directly into converting active mass, yielding peak efficiency. [ 1, 2]

Absorbing & Top-off Stage (<50% to 80% Efficiency): As the cell nears a full charge (typically above 80% SoC), efficiency drops dramatically. [ 1]

Gassing Side Reactions: At high SoC, energy is lost to water electrolysis. This breaks water down into hydrogen and oxygen gas instead of storing energy. [ 1, 2]

Factors Influencing Efficiency

Charge Rate: Lower charge and discharge rates yield higher efficiency by reducing internal resistance and polarization losses. [ 1]

Electrolyte Stratification: Flooded cells are prone to acid stratification. Using active electrolyte circulation systems can improve coulombic efficiency to around 90% to 95%. [ 1]

Age and Temperature: Older cells and cells operating at higher temperatures experience accelerated self-discharge, reducing net efficiency

AI Overview

View all

The coulombic efficiency of Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4 or LFP) cells is very high, typically above 99%during normal cycling. [ 1, 2]

Key Details on LFP Coulombic Efficiency

Definition: Coulombic efficiency (CE) measures the ratio of the charge retrieved from a battery during discharge compared to the charge put into it during the previous charge cycle. [ 1]

Stable Cycling: After the initial formation cycles, commercial LFP cells regularly achieve a CE between 99.0% and 99.9%, meaning very little energy or active lithium is lost per cycle. [ 1, 2]

Initial Coulombic Efficiency (ICE): During the first charge-discharge cycle, the efficiency is slightly lower (often around 90% to 95%) because some lithium ions are consumed to form the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer on the anode. [ 1, 2]

Long-Term Impact: A high CE close to 100% indicates minimal parasitic side reactions, which directly translates to a long operational cycle life and high capacity retention. [ 1, 2]

My comments:

Lead acid batteries belong in the past.

Over a hundred years.....

Dinosaur tech in today's modern world.

Eric

[Jamie153] Ran my own question through AI to see what it came up with. Lead-acid (ICE 12V)...

Jamie153 — 9/6/2026 4:38:10 PM

Ran my own question through AI to see what it came up with.

Lead-acid (ICE 12V): rated for roughly 300–500 cycles before hitting 50-80% capacity, and that's under ideal shallow-cycling conditions. Deep-discharge them repeatedly (closer to what "350 full charges" implies) and you can wreck one in well under 100 cycles — lead-acid genuinely hates deep cycling; it's a big reason deep-cycle and starter batteries are different products.
Li-ion, specifically LFP (BYD's Blade Battery is LFP chemistry): typically rated 3,000–6,000+ cycles to 80% retention. The U7 did 350 cycles — including fast-charge cycles, which are the harshest case for li-ion — and lost 1.3%. Extrapolate that degradation rate linearly (it won't be perfectly linear, but as a rough gut-check) and you're looking at thousands of cycles before hitting the kind of capacity loss a lead-acid battery suffers in a few hundred.

So "EV traction batteries tolerate far more charge cycles, including abusive fast-charge cycles, than ICE starter batteries tolerate charge/discharge cycles at all" is a legitimate, evidence-backed claim — and this test is a genuine (if flashy) data point for it.

[Eric] ELECTRIC HEAVY MACHINERYCANADAMININGGlencore reaches new milestone at all-electr...

Eric — 9/6/2026 3:38:32 PM

Glencore reaches new milestone at all-electric Sudbury copper mine

Jo Borrás | Sep 4 2026 - 7:20 pm PT

27 Comments

There’s an impossible amount of good-looking girls in Sudbury, Ontario, and an equally impressive wealth of high-grade nickel and copper ore living “just” 8,500 feet below the town’s surface, too – and Glencore Canada is sending a bunch of big EVs down to get it.

Last week, Glencore recently welcomed Ontario Premier Doug Ford, alongside other political, Indigenous, industry and community leaders, to its Craig Mine in Northern Ontario to mark a key shaft development milestones at the Onaping Depth project at the Craig mine in Subdury, allowing the company to access a new nickel and copper orebody for the very first time. And they’re doing it all with emission-free electric electric equipment assets.

“Eliminating diesel emissions means less ventilation and cooling requirements, which are traditionally among the largest energy demands in underground mining,” explains Glencore Canada COO Peter Xavier. “The use of battery electric vehicles and the benefits they bring is helping to support both Glencore’s broader sustainability objectives and Canada’s net zero ambitions.”

Rolling Deep

Underground electric equipment, via Glencore.

Glencore ordered 23 battery-electric machines from the heavy equipment experts Epiroc for Onaping Depth, making the project a bit of a showcase. Currently, Onaping Depth features a 23-machine fleet of battery-electric equipment from Epiroc, covering much of the actual mining cycle. The fleet includes Scooptram ST14 SG battery-electric loaders for loading and moving broken ore; Minetruck MT42 Battery underground haul trucks, capable of carrying 42 tonnes; Boomer E2 Battery development drills for drilling blast holes at the mining face; Boltec rock-reinforcement machines for mechanized rock bolting; Cabletec machines for drilling and cable bolting; and Simba production drills for the long-hole drilling used to extract the orebody.
Together with the Craig mine concentrator and smelter, Glencore Canada’s $2 billion Onaping Depth project supports the company’s long-term presence in the region. Once fully operational, the mine will support more than 400 permanent jobs and extend nickel production in the Sudbury Basin beyond 2040, ensuring the future of mining (and possibly senior whales**t hockey) throughout the Sudbury basin.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Glencore, via Mining Weekly.

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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

electrek.co

[Eric] [graphic]Credit: Volkswagen Volkswagen Superviosory Board Approves Plan To Slas...

Eric — 9/6/2026 1:47:38 PM

Credit: Volkswagen

Volkswagen Superviosory Board Approves Plan To Slash Models & Reduce Workforce By 100,000

1 minute

Steve Hanley

43 Comments

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.

In June, Germany’s Manager Magazin reported that Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume had a plan to close four factories in Germany and eliminate 100,000 workers, both in Germany and around the world, by 2030. It said the plan would be made public at a company board meeting on July 9. The Volkswagen factories affected were said to be those in Hanover, Zwickau, and Emden, as well as the Audi factory in Neckarsulm.

July 9 came and went, and the plan did not get the approval from the board of directors that Blume expected. The vote was 12 against and only 7 in favor of Blume’s vision. As we reported at the time, “What happens now is anyone’s guess. Volkswagen is producing more cars than it can sell, a situation that cannot go on indefinitely. It has seen its annual sales fall from around 12 million vehicles to just 9 million. That is still a lot of cars and trucks, but the profit margins on them have fallen as well, putting the squeeze on investors.”

Then, on September 3, 2026, Volkswagen Group announced that the plan submitted in June had been approved unanimously by the supervisory board. Insiders have consistently described Blume as “determined” to push ahead with his restructuring plan. Following his initial setback, Handelsblatt reported that he wanted to implement the strategy “in stages now — if necessary, even against opposition from employees and the state of Lower Saxony”

The company already has plans in place to reduce its workforce by 50,000. The new plan adds another 50,000 to that number, bringing the total to 100,000. But wait, there’s more! The plan calls for eliminating half of all the models currently offered and still leaves the fate of four factories in Germany up in the air.

Focus On The Long Term

In a statement, the company said, “As the automotive industry and its markets undergo their fastest and most fundamental shift to date, it enables the Volkswagen Group to pave the way for sustainable long term success. The Future Plan 2030 sets the stage to make the Volkswagen Group and its brands stronger, more competitive and better positioned for the future. The Executive Board will now jointly drive the necessary measures, collaborating with the brands, subsidiaries and employee representatives.”

Blume told the press, “The Supervisory Board has unanimously approved the Executive Board’s Future Plan presented today. This is a strong signal for the future of the Volkswagen Group. We are taking responsibility for our entire workforce, for our partners and for industrial jobs worldwide. Over the coming years, we will invest a three figure billion sum to make our iconic brands even more attractive, stronger, and more competitive.”

A concept for a sustainable and competitive production structure is to be developed for the European plants by the end of June 2027, the press release said. “With its resolution, the Supervisory Board acknowledges that Volkswagen Group’s European capacity currently exceeds demand by more than 500,000 units and that a competitive future production allocation for the Emden, Zwickau, Hanover and Neckarsulm plants cannot currently be secured on a staggered basis from 2031 to 2034. In parallel and in addition, alternative uses for these plants are being assessed.”

More than 40,000 people work at those four factories, which have a combined annual production capacity of around 750,000 vehicles. Fortunately, actions by the current US administration aimed at undermining NATO are providing new opportunities to put underutilized factories to good use for the production of military hardware. Opportunities are where you find them.

“People forget how big the car industry is,” Harald Hendrikse, a managing director at Citi Research, told the New York Times. “The chance of saving all of these jobs and all of this capacity with the defense industry is zero.”

Another possibility is using some of that excess factory space to build cars for Chinese companies.

Time To Step Up

IG Metall and the Volkswagen Group works council, who strongly opposed the original plan proposed by Blume, are holding their fire, at least for now. They stressed that this most recent decision prevented an escalation of hostilities between management and workers. At the same time, they said the management board now had to do its homework.

“The confrontational approach and communication by the management board in recent weeks were not constructive,” said IG Metall chief Christiane Benner and works council chair Daniela Cavallo in a joint statement. However, Benner and Cavallo said that the spinoff of the core brand was now off the table and that the attack on Germany’s co-determination structures had therefore been successfully fended off. They added that “no plant has been abandoned, and contrary to several media reports, no plant closure has been finalized. Instead, concrete solutions must now be developed for all sites, and we continue to see the management board as having a clear responsibility.”

For years, we here at CleanTechnica have been predicting major changes ahead for legacy automakers. There are millions of people who may want an automobile but who are not in a position to pay $48,500 for one — the average price of a new car today in the US. There are huge potential markets in India, Africa, and the Orient, but many of those people are not looking for a 3-row, seven-passenger SUV. They are more likely to prefer entry-level cars that are simple, practical, and cheap. Chinese automakers are only too happy to offer customers cars that are significantly less expensive.

A V8 Was Good Enough For My Father!

Many manufacturers, especially in the US, are sticking to big, hulking models with tried and true infernal combustion engines. They seem not to know or care that electric cars are now about a quarter of new car sales, with the percentage rising quarter by quarter. Volkswagen is making a bold move by proposing to prune its model lineup by half. There is no word on whether the models Volkswagen will choose to cut from its lineup will be powered by conventional or battery electric powertrains.

There is also no guarantee that the restructuring at Volkswagen will succeed. The latest tariffs by the US administration are making many of the models it sells in America uncompetitive. Its sales in China have gone over a cliff, and its sales of conventional cars in Europe have been trending down for the past several years. The only real bright spot for the company is that sales of its electric vehicles in Europe have been trending up.

Despite all the happy talk about restructuring, there is still a chance that mighty Volkswagen — which was once tied with Toyota for the title of #1 car company in the world — could experience a Nokia moment and cease to exist as a major car company. The turmoil in the industry is fierce and there is no guarantee that Volkswagen can weather the storm headed its way. What happens in Wolfsburg in the next few years could be a harbinger of what is waiting down the road for Ford, GM, and Stellantis as well. Just because a car company has been successful in the past is no guarantee it will continue to be successful in the future.

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] Canada's Chinese EV Quota Reset: Why BYD, Chery and Polestar Are About to Flood ...

Eric — 9/5/2026 7:00:12 PM

Canada's Chinese EV Quota Reset: Why BYD, Chery and Polestar Are About to Flood In

The Electric Viking

386K subscribers

Sep 5, 2026

Canada's Chinese EV Quota Reset: Why BYD, Chery and Polestar Are About to Flood In

Canada's 49,000-unit annual quota for China-built EVs reset in September 2026, with Tesla, Lotus, and Polestar (which resumed shipments in August) as the early beneficiaries — while BYD, Chery, and Geely haven't sold a single car yet.

Since the quota is based on country of origin, not brand, any China-built vehicle can claim the allocation on a first-come, first-served basis, setting up a real race as BYD, Chery, and Geely finish certification and dealer networks.

youtube.com

[Eric] OPINIONLOBBYINGAlliance for Automotive Innovation begs Congress to stop automoti...

Eric — 9/4/2026 3:16:09 PM

Alliance for Automotive Innovation begs Congress to stop automotive innovation

Jameson Dow | Sep 4 2026 - 6:00 am PT

27 Comments

The entire US auto industry is back at it again, lobbying Congress to stifle competition and ensure that Americans remain stuck with overpriced, second-rate, highly-polluting vehicles.

The auto industry is rapidly moving towards electrification, and everyone knows it.

This has been the case for more than a decade now, and smart countries and companies have worked to get themselves prepared for the future.

China is in this category, having prepared its auto industry for this moment by securing raw materials partnerships, supply agreements, production capacity, and a thriving EV startup culture – and contrary to the common story we’re told in the US, much of this preparation was bottom-up, rather than top-down. As a result, Chinese automakers are making some of the best, most affordable cars in the world right now, and the world is taking notice.

Then, there are the companies that seem desperate to lose, to sit on their laurels in a shrinking market and pretend that nothing is changing, and to beg for government to coddle them into feeling better about their poor decisions.

The US auto industry fits into the latter category, and John Bozzella, head of the main US auto lobby group the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (formerly known as Global Automakers), is king of the babies.

Chinese cars are already blocked, we need to block them again?

He pleaded with Congress on Thursday to pass multiple proposed bills banning Chinese vehicles from operating in the United States, despite that Chinese vehicles are already functionally banned from the US, in two different ways.

Not only is there a “connected car rule” (which Polestar just fell victim to), but there’s also a 100%+ tariff on Chinese EVs, making them simply uneconomical to sell in the US.

So as of yet, there has been little attempt to bring Chinese EVs to the US. Besides, why bother when the rest of the world wants them so badly, leading China to rapidly become the world’s #1 auto exporter, leapfrogging the US and 4 other nations that had held the top 5 for decades until the 2020s.

But that’s not enough protectionism for the free market capitalists in America, they must beg for government to coddle them further.

So Bozzella has now targeted the cowardly new effort in Congress that wouldn’t just ban the sale of Chinese EVs, it would ban Chinese EVs from even driving on American roads at all (e.g. if driven in from Canada or Mexico, two countries whose citizens are allowed to purchase these affordable, advanced vehicles).

In current form, it could also apply to companies with partial Chinese ownership, which would mean that Mercedes and Volvo would both be disallowed from operating in the US, though those and other provisions of the bills are subject to change.

Weren’t we told freedom and competition conquered all?

It’s an interesting strategy in a country whose mythos has always suggested that restrictive authoritarian regimes can be defeated by displays of “freedom.”

A common story in America goes that Soviets attempted to show American films to their people to highlight the depravity of American culture, but that the people instead saw the abundance of American life and were made jealous. The story is meant to show that freedom and cultural exchange can beat propaganda, and will lead to better outcomes for a populace.

Apocryphal or not, America is now on the other side of that story. At this very moment, Chinese cities are the most advanced in the world. Due to the abundance of cheap, clean electric transportation options, their air is clean and their streets are quiet. And their people have been the least negatively affected by the world’s oil-conflict-du-jour.

This lobbying only harms Americans’ health and pocketbooks

But John Bozzella and basically the entire US auto industry simply can’t have that. They’ve had it too good for too long, shoving gas-guzzling, child-killing SUVs down the throats of Americans, saddling everyone with more auto debt than ever, and ensuring skyrocketing war profits for their partner industry, oil.

All along, the auto industry has lobbied for more pollution. It does this even when it knows its a bad idea. It simply can’t help itself, it must try to harm the planet and even its own business prospects, as long as it will result in more gas being burned in America in the short term.

It’s a strange message coming from the “Alliance for Automotive Innovation,” where Bozzella has never found an opportunity to fight against innovation that he didn’t jump at.

The companies providing innovation in EVs, at this moment, are mostly focused in China. Automakers outside of China are stumbling all over themselves to cancel EV projects and push back targets, while China is just getting on with improving transportation.

They said Americans didn’t want EVs, now Americans want EVs too much?

After spending years pretending that Americans don’t want EVs and that government needs to roll back EV targets, and even losing themselves $70 billion seemingly for no other reason than to spite their face, Bozzella and the auto lobby are changing their tune.

Now they’re telling government that, no, Americans probably want EVs too much, well, at least Chinese EVs, and it’s totally not fair that China’s actually trying to make good EVs and we’re not and can you please ban them so we don’t have to try very hard pretty please?

Even the EVs that the US auto industry does make are overly large, overly expensive, and generally retrofit onto gas-vehicle designs that don’t properly leverage the advantages of EV powertrain packaging.

This is why the only EVs that sell well in America are those that were designed from the ground up to be electric, by a company that isn’t saddled with a century of combustible baggage.

Incidentally, these are the type of EVs coming out of China right now – clean sheet designs from startups that develop cars quickly and don’t have a parts bin of full of pistons and spark plugs they need to justify the existence of.

US automakers feel the need to stop Americans from even knowing that these cars exist. The entire rest of the world gets access to the best EVs out there, saving them money and saving their lungs, but you can’t have them.

We’ve been through this before. It didn’t work.But protectionism hasn’t worked before, and it won’t work now. In the 1970s, the US saw an ascendant Japanese auto industry, with better processes and higher quality material inputs, and tried to stop it with tariffs. It failed to do so, but at least it bought itself some time to sit on its laurels and let Japan continue to improve, cementing them as a top auto exporter for the next half century.

The same story is playing out now, with China in the place of Japan. American Luddites like Bozzella are desperately trying to dig their heels into the ground and force a nation of 350 million people, who all have access to the internet, to close their eyes and stick their fingers in their ears and refuse to see what the rest of the world has access to.

Top comment by Noise

Liked by 5 people

What happened to protectionism being bad for our economy and free trade being good? What happened to 'the wisdom of the marketplace' deciding what product people want? This Congress doesn't care about the people of America it only cares about the few rich people that own our corporations - including the auto manufacturers. North American auto manufacturers can make products people want. It's only a question of whether or not they want to make those products. November is a chance for the American people to send a message about what theywant. Personally I want to buy an electric vehicle and I believe we need to sunset ICE vehicles.

View all comments

The US will not compete, and will not win, by refusing to act. It will lose, more miserably than any other national auto industry (except, perhaps, Japan), if it does not immediately shape up and knock it off with this idiotic rent-seeking behavior, begging to be declared the winner by government without even putting in an effort.

And as long as John “ I can’t do math” Bozzella is making a plea to Congress, you might as well too.

Find your members of Congress and give them a ring, and let them know whether you think the defenders of capitalism and innovation in the auto industry should have to compete with the world’s state of the art vehicles, or whether you prefer to have the overpriced, second-rate crap they keep shoveling down your throat. You can guess where I stand on the topic.

electrek.co

[Eric] BYD launches its ‘biggest-ever’ sales event in the UK with discounts on PHEVs an...

Eric — 9/4/2026 3:03:35 PM

BYD launches its ‘biggest-ever’ sales event in the UK with discounts on PHEVs and EV

Peter Johnson

2 Comments

BYD kicks off UK sales promo with big discounts

SMMT

BYD launches its “biggest-ever sales event” in the UK in September (Source: BYD)

With several new highly anticipated vehicles rolling out, BYD looks to build momentum into the end of the year.

BYD Dolphin G DM-i (Source: BYD)

Dolphin G DM-i

BYD Seal U DM-i (Source: BYD)

BYD’s Seal U DM-i, which is among the UK’s best-selling plug-in SUVs, is now available from £349 ($470) per month with a £1,999 ($2,700) customer deposit and 0% APR.

on sale right now

BYD Ti 7 (Source: BYD)

its first 7-seat SUV

going on the offensive

electrek.co

[Eric] Ford Fathom: The $30K Electric Pickup With a CATL Battery Inside [graphic] The...

Eric — 9/4/2026 2:58:30 PM

Ford Fathom: The $30K Electric Pickup With a CATL Battery Inside

The Electric Viking

385K subscribers

Sep 4, 2026

Ford Fathom: The $30K Electric Pickup With a CATL Battery Inside

Ford's new compact electric pickup, the Fathom, starts at $29,945 — the first fully-equipped, five-seat EV truck from a legacy US automaker to break the $30,000 barrier without federal subsidies.

It runs on domestically-made LFP battery cells using technology licensed from China's CATL, and comes standard with BlueCruise hands-free driving, bidirectional charging, a frunk, and native Apple Maps, with preorders opening in early 2027 and deliveries following that fall.

youtube.com

[Eric] EVs set new sales records across Europe in August, reach 98.7 pct of new car del...

Eric — 9/4/2026 1:01:10 PM

EVs set new sales records across Europe in August, reach 98.7 pct of new car deliveries in Norway

Joshua S. Hill

Sep 3, 2026

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
EV SALES

The sale of electric vehicles (EVs) continues to accelerate across Europe, with record monthly sales numbers set in August in the ever-dominant Norway as well as emerging superstar Denmark, and a number of countries edging closer to 50 per cent EV sales.

Norway set a new EV share record in August, with full battery electric cars accounting for 98.7 per cent of all new passenger cars registered in the month.

The best-selling car in Norway in August was the Volkswagen ID.4, followed by the Toyota bZ4X, neither of which rate in the top 10 best selling EVs in Australia. Tesla, which dominates the market in Australia along with BYD, slipped down the rankings with the Model 3 coming in at seventh place.

Across the Skagerrak strait, Denmark also set another record, a month after privately bought EVs set a record share of the market of 97 per cent. This time, EVs set a new record in August of 85.9 per cent across all sales, both private and other, the highest share of electric cars ever in total Danish new car sales.

Electric vehicles also set a new record in Belgium, finishing the month of August as the most registered type of car for the third consecutive month and taking home a record share of 46.2 per cent.

The sale of electrified vehicles set new records in Spain, taking home a 27.7 per cent share, up nearly 30 per cent over August 2025. Sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) also grew by over 30 per cent.

While the records stop there, the sale of EVs across the rest of Europe nevertheless showed continued growth. Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands all saw sales of EVs hover around the 50 per cent mark, while in Switzerland, France, and Ireland, EV sales all increased.

You can find The Driven’s detailed EV sales data here: Australian electric vehicle sales by month in 2026; by model and by brand.

And you can sign up for The Driven’s free daily newsletter and get the latest EV news and analysis delivered straight to your inbox.

thedriven.io

[Eric] Stellantis Delays EREVs Again; VW Approves Massive Job Cuts - Autoline Daily 437...

Eric — 9/4/2026 12:37:31 PM

Stellantis Delays EREVs Again; VW Approves Massive Job Cuts - Autoline Daily 4371

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Sep 4, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 VW Group Approves Massive German Job Cuts
0:54 SEAT Brand Likely to Be Phased Out
1:18 Porsche Consolidates Global Sales Operations
1:43 JLR Unveils New Military Vehicle
2:26 China Slowly Phasing Out NEV Subsidies
3:35 Stellantis Delays Jeep & Ram EREVs Again
4:32 Automakers Partner on European Hydrogen Infrastructure
5:02 Toyota Considers Hydrogen Power for Logistics
5:27 European Countries Launch Special EV License Plates
5:59 Ford Revives V10 Mustang Boss Prototype

youtube.com

[Eric] UKEV SALESGAS BANBEVs outsold every powertrain in August, so why is UK trying to...

Eric — 9/3/2026 5:24:48 PM

BEVs outsold every powertrain in August, so why is UK trying to roll back targets?

Jameson Dow | Sep 3 2026 - 11:00 am PT

7 Comments

August sales numbers from the UK show a rosy picture for electric car sales, with BEVs being the most common powertrain and making up 30% of the market, up from 23% a year ago.

The number is well ahead of the pace required to meet the UK’s current somewhat-ambitious target of 80% EV sales by 2030… so why is the UK government considering softening that target?

UK’s electric vehicle targets have gone through a lot of back-and-forth over the years. They were originally set to target 100% new EV sales by 2040, but then that target was pushed forward, then back, then forward again, until eventually landing where it is right now – 80% EVs by 2030 (and the remainder hybrid), and a total ban on sales of new combustion-engine vehicles in 2035.

The government has targets for every year, with this year’s end-of-year target being 33% EV sales. Although manufacturers can get away with lower numbers when taking into account extra credit from various sources (New AutoMotive, a UK EV advocacy group, estimates the current “real” target is 24.6%, when accounting for these credits).

And UK EV sales are currently on pace to meet or exceed that target. At the end of 2025, UK EV sales were high enough to meet 2026 targets already. And the newest data from August shows another month where BEV sales exceeded targets.

BEVs more popular than any other powertrain in August at 30%

In August, BEVs were more popular than any other single powertrain, taking 30% of the UK car market. That barely edges out conventional hybrids at 29%, and solidly beats petrol at 22%.

It’s not the first time BEVs have outsold all other powertrains in the UK, but it’s still a good achievement, because most other BEV wins have happened in December. For some reason, Brits love buying EVs in December, and there’s always a big spike in sales at the end of the year.

PHEVs were the fourth-most popular powertrain with 14%, and saw the largest growth compared to last year, up 44%. But it should be considered that PHEVs are rarely plugged in, and unless they are, they’re not any better than conventional hybrids.

So, all in all, plug-in vehicles made up 44% of the market – not a majority yet, but certainly knocking on the door.

But what about hybrids?

That said, BEVs being the most common powertrain is a little misleading, because that requires us to put hybrids and petrol/diesel vehicles into different categories. Conventional (non-plug-in) hybrids are in fact 100% fueled by fossil fuels, so should probably be considered as fossil vehicles, even if they’re a little more efficient than non-hybrids.

This distinction is relevant given that UK’s current electric car rules allow for hybrids. The UK government recently said it is committed to “the phase out of all new cars powered solely by internal combustion engines from 2030,” but inexplicably its current guidelines do allow for conventional hybrids after that point, despite that all of their energy comes from an internal combustion engine (some of it just gets recaptured into a battery under braking).

Nevertheless, the BEV sales number is meaningful, as it shows that the UK’s current EV targets are not too ambitious. But the UK is still considering rolling them back for some reason.

UK currently wants to roll back EV targets its exceeding

The UK recently launched a long-rumored “ consultation” on its EV rules, seeking feedback on whether it should maintain its current targets. The implication is that the government is considering rolling them back, rather than pushing them forward (which is what it ought to do, and is naturally what yours truly would suggest).

It launched this consultation as wildfires uncharacteristically ravage the famously rainy country, which has had to deal with new natural human-caused disasters as a result of the climate change caused by the petrol-powered vehicles the government is considering allowing to pollute for longer.

But UK drivers have been happily snatching up EVs in increasing numbers anyway, partially as a response to spiking global oil prices that show how vulnerable the island nation is to the whims of a senile reality TV host an ocean away. Maybe getting transportation off oil, and onto domestic energy supply from the UK’s booming wind and solar industries, might be a good idea.

Tanya Sinclair, CEO of Electric Vehicles UK, made the point:

While politicians argue about whether Britain is ready for electric cars, drivers are just getting on with buying them. EVs were the biggest single fuel type in August, and the market is already ahead of the ZEV Mandate’s target. So why mess around with it?

Indeed, Ms. Sinclair, indeed.

If you agree with her, feel free to tell the UK government your thoughts on its EV rules here.

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electrek.co

[Eric] Electric Trucks Have Moved From Impossible to Inevitable By Leon Stille - Sep ...

Eric — 9/3/2026 4:41:55 PM

Electric Trucks Have Moved From Impossible to Inevitable

By Leon Stille - Sep 03, 2026, 2:00 PM CDT

Global sales of zero-emission trucks and buses rose 86% in 2025 to more than 520,000 vehicles, with battery-electric models overwhelmingly dominating.
Fuel-cell vehicles and renewable diesel will retain niches, but vehicle sales, model availability and operating economics increasingly point to batteries as the main road-transport solution.
The constraint is shifting from battery weight and range to depot charging, grid connections and high-power public infrastructure.

Heavy trucks were supposed to be the place where batteries stopped working.

Electric cars could manage school runs and commuting, critics conceded. But long-distance freight needed range, rapid refueling and maximum payload. Batteries would be too large, too heavy and too slow to charge. Buses might electrify predictable urban routes, but serious trucking would require diesel, hydrogen or renewable liquid fuels.

The market is beginning to deliver a different verdict. Global sales of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles rose 86% in 2025, exceeding 520,000 units, according to new data from the International Council on Clean Transportation. China accounted for nearly 90% of sales, but the European market also accelerated: zero-emission trucks rose from roughly 2.5% to 4.5% of new sales, while the battery-electric share of buses increased from 18.5% to 24.8%.

The absolute numbers remain modest beside the global diesel fleet. The direction is not. Electric heavy transport has crossed from technical possibility into commercial scaling. The question is no longer whether batteries can move trucks and buses. It is whether infrastructure can keep pace with the vehicles customers are starting to buy.

China Has Already Broken the Weight-and-Range Argument

China sold approximately 457,300 zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles in 2025. Heavy battery-electric truck sales alone reached nearly 240,000 and more than doubled in one year. Battery-electric models captured almost 30% of China’s heavy-truck market.

Some of that expansion reflects policy, purchase support and China’s unusually competitive battery supply chain. Battery swapping is also important in mining, ports and fixed freight corridors where standardized operations make rapid exchanges practical.

But policy alone does not explain fleet adoption at this scale. Commercial trucks are productive assets. Operators care intensely about utilization, energy costs, maintenance, payload and downtime. A vehicle that fails economically does not become attractive simply because it has a green label.

Related: U.S. Diesel Prices Surge Toward All-Time High

Battery prices and vehicle performance have changed the calculation. The IEA reports that average battery prices fell another 8% in 2025, while battery demand from electric trucks more than doubled. Lithium iron phosphate batteries have lowered costs, improved durability and reduced dependence on nickel and cobalt. Better energy density has increased range without requiring battery weight to rise proportionally.

China’s electric trucks have already reached total-cost-of-ownership parity with diesel in several applications. Europe is expected to reach broad parity by around 2030, according to the IEA’s Global EV Outlook.

Once that threshold is crossed, high annual mileage becomes an advantage rather than a barrier. Every kilometer gives the cheaper and more efficient electric drivetrain another opportunity to recover its higher purchase price.

Fuel Cells Are Losing the Market Test

Hydrogen fuel cells were long presented as the natural zero-emission solution for heavy transport. They offered familiar refueling times and avoided the largest battery packs. Technically, that remains possible. Commercially, batteries are pulling away.

At the end of 2024, the EU fleet contained more than 15,000 battery-electric trucks but only around 170 hydrogen trucks. During that year, approximately 7,500 new battery trucks were registered, compared with just 106 hydrogen models. The gap was similarly wide in buses: around 6,600 new battery-electric buses versus 113 hydrogen buses, according to the European Commission.

Across the wider European bus market in 2025, registrations reached about 11,607 battery-electric buses and 558 fuel-cell buses. Hydrogen is growing in some municipal fleets, but batteries outsold it by more than twenty to one.

Manufacturers are voting in the same direction. More than 100 battery-electric truck models were available in the EU in 2024, compared with around 20 fuel-cell models.

The reason is not merely vehicle cost. Green hydrogen must be produced, compressed or liquefied, transported and dispensed before being converted back into electricity in the vehicle. A battery uses electricity far more directly. Hydrogen stations are expensive and lightly utilized when fleets are small, which keeps fuel prices high and delays the scale needed to reduce them.

Fuel cells may retain niches where extreme range, remote operation or very high utilization make charging unusually difficult. But the burden of proof has shifted. Hydrogen is no longer the presumed winner for heavy transport waiting for infrastructure. It is the specialist alternative trying to keep pace with a battery market already scaling.

Renewable Diesel Cannot Scale Like Electricity

Biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil offer a different advantage: they can reduce emissions from existing diesel vehicles without replacing the truck or building charging infrastructure.

That makes them useful during the long turnover of the fleet and potentially important in remote, legacy or specialized applications.

But renewable fuels preserve the central weakness of combustion: the operator must keep buying fuel. They also compete for limited supplies of used cooking oil, animal fats, vegetable oils and other sustainable biomass. Aviation, shipping, chemicals and existing road fleets all want the same feedstocks.

Even after recent oil-market disruption narrowed the price gap, European HVO has traded at roughly twice the price of fossil diesel. The IEA expects global biofuel use to more than double by 2030, but this would still equal only around 6% of current global oil supply.

Electricity is not unlimited, and grids require enormous investment. Yet renewable power can expand every year without waiting for another harvest of waste oils. Electric drivetrains also use that energy far more efficiently than converting biomass or renewable electricity into a liquid fuel and burning it in an engine.

Renewable diesel is therefore valuable precisely where direct electrification remains hardest. Treating it as the primary solution for the entire truck fleet would consume a scarce resource in a sector where batteries are increasingly viable.

The Bottleneck Has Moved to Charging

Electric trucks remain two to three times more expensive to purchase than diesel equivalents in many markets. Payload penalties still matter for the longest routes, cold weather reduces range and a long-haul truck cannot wait hours for an unreliable charger.

These are real constraints. They are increasingly infrastructure constraints rather than fundamental limits of the drivetrain.

Depot charging can already cover many urban, regional and return-to-base operations. Long-haul electrification requires high-power chargers at logistics hubs and along major corridors, combined with grid connections capable of supplying several trucks simultaneously. Europe now has more than 1,000 truck-specific charging points, but deployment remains far behind what a mass market will require.

Grid permitting may take years. A fleet operator can order trucks faster than a distribution company can reinforce a depot connection. Poorly located chargers can also sit underused while critical freight routes remain uncovered.

The policy priority should therefore move beyond vehicle subsidies. Governments need coordinated freight-corridor planning, faster grid connections, transparent capacity maps, depot-financing support and predictable road charges that reward zero-emission operation. The vehicle is arriving. The system around it is late.

Heavy Transport Is Following the Familiar Curve

Electric trucks and buses will not replace every diesel vehicle within a few years. China dominates current sales, Europe is still below a 5% truck share and many emerging markets lack reliable grids and affordable finance.

But clean technologies often look marginal immediately before scale changes the market. Solar, batteries and electric cars all passed through the same stage: expensive demonstrations became improving products, then manufacturing volume drove costs down and adoption forecasts repeatedly proved conservative.

Heavy transport is now entering that cycle.

Fuel cells and renewable fuels will survive where their characteristics justify the extra cost. The mass market, however, is increasingly choosing the simplest energy chain: electricity into a battery, then directly into the wheels.

Electric trucks were supposed to lose because batteries were too heavy. They are starting to win because diesel is too expensive to keep burning.

By Leon Stille for Oilprice.com

oilprice.com

[Eric] How Healthy Is That EV Battery? [graphic] Electric Vehicle Society 7.68K subs...

Eric — 9/3/2026 3:30:27 PM

How Healthy Is That EV Battery?

Electric Vehicle Society

7.68K subscribers

Sep 2, 2026 Canada Talks Electric Cars – Podcast

Two used EVs can have the same mileage—but one battery could be at 95% health while the other is closer to 80%.

How can a buyer know the difference? Zora Chung, Co-Founder and CFO of ReJoule, explains why an EV’s odometer and onboard battery-management system may not reveal the full condition of its most valuable component.

Discover how ReJoule applies electrochemical impedance spectroscopy—or EIS—to assess an EV battery in approximately 10 minutes. Zora also explores how better battery diagnostics could support used-EV buyers, lower repair costs, enable battery remanufacturing and keep healthy batteries in service longer.

Topics include

: • EV battery State of Health
• Used-EV battery testing
• Battery-management systems and their limitations
• ReJoule’s rapid diagnostic technology
• Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy
• EV battery repair and remanufacturing
• NMC and LFP battery recycling
• Battery reuse and second-life energy storage
• Right-to-repair legislation
• Battery passports and diagnostic standards

Whether you own an EV, are considering buying one used or want to understand what happens to EV batteries after their first life, this presentation offers a fascinating look inside the emerging battery-diagnostics and circular-economy industries.

Learn more about ReJoule and its battery-diagnostic technology: [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rUjZ1M2tYNUxuREVRN3A5U0NmY3ZQNXxBTl9pYzRmeW4zdmZ0aXpqdFRlSHU3d0dmRnBnSXZENy1YWG1sOWFjZmVrdHpUN1k1RG02bzVOWkFsQXpEdE54R1BlVE5HZ1RwZGdUS3VkVXMzQUVoeXl5Y3FLVjZSWFdJR3JR&q=https%3A%2F%2Frejouleenergy.com%2F&v=euT1fhX2vQk](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rU0ZSS1hpV2FoNEM5dmFJdWVkVGV2M3xBTl9pYzRlQW5FNnU5ZUpfZ1g2WjhYSndzbGJhVGE0dzdKeW80XzNfelRGdTVhZXNpanBRSFVUc0RwUHdCWHh1X0xhWXZzWlprbUJXclEwek1XUHhFc3p2VkJfWmlhUmNsMFUx&q=https%3A%2F%2Frejouleenergy.com%2F&v=euT1fhX2vQk)

Subscribe to EV Society for more expert presentations and conversations about electric vehicles, batteries, charging and the transition to electric transportation.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Why mileage can’t reveal EV battery health
01:23 Why onboard battery data may fall short
02:30 Traditional EV battery testing
04:32 Reuse, repair, repurpose or recycle
06:49 Why EV batteries are difficult to repair
10:03 NMC versus LFP recycling economics
11:43 How one weak cell affects an entire battery
1 3:05 ReJoule battery-test demonstration
14:10 Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy explained
16:47 Testing batteries for reuse and second life 1
8:08 Finding battery imbalance and repair opportunities
19:59 What used-EV buyers should demand
20:46 Right to repair and battery passports

#ElectricVehicles #EVBattery #BatteryHealth

AI-generated video summary

Quality and accuracy may vary.

Zora Chung from Rejuel explains the limitations of current diagnostic tools and how battery health often remains a black box for consumers. The presentation explores the importance of accurate, standardized testing in promoting a circular economy, detailing the technical challenges of battery remanufacturing and the potential of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to improve the EV industry.

youtube.com

[Eric] AI Compute Platforms & ADAS Tech - AAH 806 [graphic] Autoline Network 139K su...

Eric — 9/3/2026 3:08:44 PM

AI Compute Platforms & ADAS Tech - AAH 806

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

TOPICS:

- AI compute platforms - Advanced driver assistance systems
- Top auto news of the week

PANEL:

Chris Prediger, Regional President, Americas, Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division, Bosch Mobility

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PATREON: youtube.com INSTAGRAM: youtube.com TWITTER: youtube.com FACEBOOK: youtube.com

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[Eric] Australia's EV Sales Jumped 170% in One Year – Here Are the Top 10 Electric Cars...

Eric — 9/3/2026 2:53:49 PM

Australia's EV Sales Jumped 170% in One Year – Here Are the Top 10 Electric Cars

The Electric Viking

385K subscribers

Sep 3, 2026

Australia's EV Sales Jumped 170% in One Year – Here Are the Top 10 Electric Cars

Australia's electric vehicle market is absolutely exploding!

In a historic milestone, EV sales in Australia have skyrocketed by a massive 170% in just one year, capturing a record-breaking 24.9% of the entire new car market this August.

As Australians rapidly shift away from traditional petrol and diesel vehicles, the automotive landscape is changing faster than anyone predicted.

In this video, we break down the latest VFACTS sales data, explore the reasons behind this massive adoption rate, and reveal the official Top 10 best-selling electric cars dominating the country right now. Did your favorite EV make the list?

youtube.com

[Eric] Ford Wants Tesla-Like Sales from Fathom; Waymo Racking Up Tickets - Autoline Dai...

Eric — 9/3/2026 2:43:46 PM

Ford Wants Tesla-Like Sales from Fathom; Waymo Racking Up Tickets - Autoline Daily 4370

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Sep 3, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 Ford Wants to Sell 100K Fathoms
0:53 Significant Drop in August Sales
1:22 35-Hour Work Week at Risk in Germany
1:58 EVs Help Improve China's Air Quality
3:34 Waymo Racking Up Parking Tickets
4:18 Owners Not Using Passenger Screens
4:56 Carvana Worries Dealers More Than Tesla

youtube.com

[Eric] EVs grab record share of 24.9 pct of Australia’s new car market in August, more ...

Eric — 9/3/2026 12:40:29 PM

EVs grab record share of 24.9 pct of Australia’s new car market in August, more than petrol and diesel

Model Y in Australian outback. Photo: Tom Quinn.

Giles Parkinson

Sep 3, 2026

EV SALES
TOP NEWS

The surge in interest in electric vehicles has continued for another month, reaching a record monthly total for EV sales and grabbing its best ever market share of 24.9 per cent of Australia’s new car market in August.

New data released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries show a record 27,089 full battery electric vehicles were sold in the month, the highest ever. The 24.9 per cent market share beat the 23.5 per cent record set in June and is the third month in a row where EVs took a greater than 20 per cent share.

The data is doubly significant as EVs outsold petrol cars (25,824) and diesels (23,608), to become the best selling fuel type over the month.

EV advocates and market observers talks of a “structural” change in the market, driven by soaring petrol and diesel prices and the fact that more and more EV models are now at or approaching cost parity with the petrol equivalents, and despite the intense campaigns of misinformation laid against the technology.

According to to the FCAI, plug-in hybrid vehicles represented a further 10.5 per cent of August sales, taking the plug-in total to a record 35.4 per cent, while conventional hybrids accounted for an extra 18.5 per cent, taking the “electrified” total to early 54 per cent of the new car market.

“The sustained level of BEV sales, together changing brand preferences, shows how quickly consumer choice and competition are reshaping Australia’s new-vehicle market,” FCAI boss Tony Weber said in a statement.

The Tesla Model Y, as we reported on Wednesday with data from the Electric Vehicle Council, was again the best selling car of any type in August, with a total of 6,414 – its second best month on record. Just over half were the larger Model Y L six-seater.

EVs took four of the top 10 selling spots in the month.

Best selling EVs in August

Tesla Model Y – 6,414
BYD Sealion 7 – 2,213
Geely EX5 – 1,947 –
Zeekr 7X – 1,747
Jaecoo J5 1,672
Geely EX2 – 1,279
Tesla Model 3 – 1,271
BYD Atto 2 1,122
BYD Atto 3 – 572
Kia EV3 – 515
MG4 Urban – 514
XPeng G6 – 479
Toyota bZ4X – 434
BYD Seal – 433
BYD Dolphin – 352
GWM Ora – 349

The FCAI’s Weber says the surge in interest in EVs reinforce the need for infrastructure settings that “keep pace” with the market. Accessible and dependable charging will remain critical to consumer confidence, particularly on highways, in rural and regional areas and for motorists without access to charging at home,” he said in a statement.

The EVC head Julie Delvecchio said the sustained growth in monthly and annual EV sales points to a “structural shift” in Australia’s car market.

“Environmental and economic considerations are coming together, changing what Australians buy and how they spend,” she said in a statement, while the NRMA also released the results of a survey pointing to what it describes as a “tipping point” in the EV market, with just 17 per cent of respondents saying that they are not interested in EVs.

See also: Australian electric vehicle sales by month in 2026 – by model and by brand

thedriven.io

[Eric] [graphic] Electric Car Batteries Hold Up Really Well — These Are “The Best” 4 ...

Eric — 9/3/2026 12:02:02 PM

Electric Car Batteries Hold Up Really Well — These Are “The Best”

4 minutes

Z. S.

Tell Us What You're Thinking!

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In general, there’s far more concern about electric car range and electric car battery longevity than there needs to be. We’ve got a 2019 Tesla Model 3 SR+ and a 2018 BMW i3 REx and just need to charge them up once or twice a week overnight at home. Electric cars on the market now have far, far more range, better batteries, and negligible concern about battery longevity.

Electric cars have like three to four times more range than they did a decade ago, so even if they see significant battery degradation, they are still going to have far more range than electric cars bought 10 years ago had!

Anyway, Aviloo, an EV diagnostics company, recently examined the batteries of a bunch of electric vehicles to see how well they held up after 50,000 km (31,068 miles), 100,000 km (62,137 miles), and 150,000 km (93,205 miles). They conducted 500,000+ battery health tests for this. Let’s take a look at the results and see who fared best.

Oh, also note that these tests spanned most continents — North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia — and took place between 2022 and 2026. Also, of course, not all EV models were examined (that would be impossible). The company looked at just 20 popular models. So, we can see which models did the best from this group, but we don’t know which electric car models truly have the best medium-term and long-term battery performance.

So, as we can see, these electric car models largely had about 95% of their original battery capacity (or range) remaining after 50,000 km, and they were typically in the lower 90% after 150,000 km. Some of the cars tested had still only lost a few percent of their original capacity even after 150,000 km. However, some had lost about 20%, or even did so after about 100,000 km. Frankly, when we’re talking about hundreds of kilometers of original range, in my humble opinion, it really doesn’t matter or make much difference. Perhaps you charge a few more times in a month, and that takes a few seconds of actual activity on your part each time.

Some standout models, as you can see, are as follows:

Hyundai IONIQ 5
Hyundai Kona EV
Mercedes-Benz EQA
BMW i4
Volvo XC40 Recharge
Polestar 2
Ford Mustang Mach-E

Kudos to those models and brands, and congratulations to anyone who chose to buy them!

I won’t focus in on the models that did less well, but feel free to chime in down below with any thoughts you have on those, or on the top-performing models.

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] [graphic] BYD BEV Sales Up 28.4% in August 2 minutes Z. S. 8 Comments Suppo...

Eric — 9/3/2026 11:27:54 AM

BYD BEV Sales Up 28.4% in August

2 minutes

Z. S.

8 Comments

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BYD’s sales trends in August were positive overall, but some areas of the business grew a lot while others struggled to find any growth at all.

The fully electric (BEV) side of its passenger vehicle business was excellent, a shining success for the company. With 256,230 deliveries, its passenger BEV business grew 9.9% month over month (compared to 233,105 deliveries in July), but much more impressive was that it grew 28.4% year over year (compared to 199,585 deliveries in August 2025).

Was that enough to get the company’s overall 2026 BEV sales into positive growth territory? Not quite, but it’s getting closer. Overall, across the first 8 months of the year, BYD delivered 1,356,814 fully electric passenger vehicles, just 3.14% less than in the first 8 months of 2025 (1,400,853).

However, not doing nearly as well, plugin hybrids (PHEVs) barely grew year over year, and declined slightly month over month. BYD had 177,154 PHEV deliveries, down 0.5% from 177,967 in July and up 3% from 171,916 in August 2025. Across the first 8 months of the year, sales dropped 11.22%, from 1,424,949 to 1,265,017.

So, overall, when it comes to passenger vehicle sales, BYD has almost gotten back into the positive with BEVs but is still far off its previous high with PHEVs, meaning that passenger vehicles overall are going to struggle to get into positive territory. That said, the August trends were positive across the board. With 433,384 total passenger vehicle sales in August 2026, the company had 5.4% growth month over month (up from 411,072 in July) and 16.7% growth year over year (up from 371,501 in August 2025). Looking across the first two-thirds of the year, however, sales are still down 7.22% (from 2,825,802 in 2025 to 2,621,831 this year).

Will BYD reach net positive passenger vehicle sales in 2026? I’m still thinking it will, but just slightly.

Here are static versions of the charts above:

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] [graphic] BYD Electric Bus Sales Up 51.8% in August 3 minutes Z. S. 4 Commen...

Eric — 9/3/2026 11:24:17 AM

BYD Electric Bus Sales Up 51.8% in August

3 minutes

Z. S.

4 Comments

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.

Following up on our report on BYD’s passenger vehicle sales trends, let’s have a look at what’s happening with its commercial vehicle sales. As a reminder, all of BYD’s commercial vehicles are full electrics.

Browse Vehicle Brands

Starting with its bus business, BYD’s electric bus sales were down slightly month over month — down 6.5%, from 620 in July to 580 in August. However, they were up massively year over year — up 51.8%, from 382 in August 2025 to 580 in August 2026.

Across the first 8 months of 2026, BYD had 3,749 electric bus sales, up 12.55% from the 3,331 it had in the first 8 months of 2025. So, it is seeing solid growth in this territory.

Unfortunately, the company’s non-bus commercial vehicle sales absolutely crashed compared to recent months. They were down 76.8% month over month — from 7,519 deliveries to 1,743 deliveries. In fact, it was the company’s worst month since August 2025, when the company … also had 1,743 deliveries! Yep, exactly 0% growth year over year, since BYD somehow ended up getting the exact same total for non-bus commercial vehicle sales despite having several months of much higher sales in between.

The good news is that the company has sold far more non-bus commercial vehicles in 2026 than in 2025. Across the first 8 months of 2025, BYD sold 34,743 non-bus commercial vehicles. Across the first 8 months of 2026, BYD sold 42,435 non-bus commercial vehicles, 22.14% more.

BYD should be able to score decent growth in both areas of its commercial vehicle business across the full year. However, the sharp drop-off in sales month over month is certainly concerning. BYD sold about 15,000 commercial vehicles in the last three months of 2025.

BYD had 2,323 commercial vehicle deliveries in total in August 2026, up 9.3% year over year from 2,125 in August 2025 but down 71.5% month over month from 8,139 in July 2025. Across the first 8 months of 2026, BYD had 46,184 commercial vehicle deliveries, up 21.3% from its 38,074 deliveries in the first 8 months of 2025.

Here are static versions of the charts above:

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] Ford Develops Ranger 6-Wheeler; New CAFE Regs Target Trucks - Autoline Daily 436...

Eric — 9/2/2026 6:48:27 PM

Ford Develops Ranger 6-Wheeler; New CAFE Regs Target Trucks - Autoline Daily 4369

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Sep 2, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 Ford Develops 6-Wheel Ranger
1:03 Ford Fathom Doing Hot Weather Testing
1:31 Trucks Become Cars in NHTSA CAFE Regs
2:35 Honda Tells Suppliers: Cut Cost $9B
3:46 BYD’s $3,800 Home Solar Package
4:29 Mitsubishi Brings Pajero Back
5:30 Range Rover EV Tops $200K
6:11 Get an App, Get Paid to Train a Humanoid
6:55 Robotaxis Popping Up Everywhere

youtube.com

[Eric] Model 3 Update Coming in 2028; BYD & Leapmotor Want Stellantis' Brampton Plant -...

Eric — 9/2/2026 6:44:29 PM

Model 3 Update Coming in 2028; BYD & Leapmotor Want Stellantis' Brampton Plant - Autoline Daily 4368

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Sep 1, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 Model 3 Update Coming in 2028
0:39 China Worried Price War Will Expand Overseas
1:19 BYD & Leapmotor Want Stellantis' Brampton Plant
2:07 VinFast Pulls Back in India
3:06 Stellantis Shakes Up Leadership
3:51 'Leno Law' Passes California Legislature
4:51 Lexus NX Follows in RAV4's Footsteps
5:52 Ram Adds Cool-Factor to Chassis Cab Trucks
6:44 Autoline Viewer Fix for Exploding Sunroofs

youtube.com

[Eric] MARKETS & POLICY Charging infrastructure may soon struggle to keep up with Aust...

Eric — 9/1/2026 2:56:32 PM

MARKETS & POLICY

Charging infrastructure may soon struggle to keep up with Australia’s surging EV sales

Electric vehicles seem to be popping up everywhere. In the first half of 2026, sales of battery-powered EVs nearly tripled, and July’s figures suggest this trend will continue. However, our cumulative research reveals Australia’s charging network may soon fail to keep up with the booming EV market.

By
Kai Li Lim & Scott Dwyer

31 Aug 2026

Markets & Policy
electric vehicles
Opinion

Image: EBRD

Over the past six months, sales of battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs) have surged to represent 23.4% of Australia’s new car market, up from 8.4% in January. And this growth is showing no signs of slowing.

Combined data from the Electric Vehicle Council and the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries shows more than 108,000 new cars hit the road in July, of which more than a fifth were battery-powered EVs.

Major EV manufacturers Tesla and Polestar alone delivered more than four times as many new vehicles in July as they did in the same month last year. BYD, which sells EVs and hybrid cars, is now Australia’s second best-selling brand overall behind Toyota. It upped its new car sales by 70.5% year-on-year.

Until recently, Australia appeared to be a laggard in the uptake of EVs. This is despite a large and growing appetite for home electrification technology, including rooftop solar and home batteries.

This year, EVs seem to have become just as popular. In July, sales of petrol and diesel cars fell sharply as fuel prices climbed. Meanwhile, plug-in hybrid sales surged by 157%. This suggests new segments of the EV market are now opening up and attracting different types of customers.

Rapid rollout

Retailers and fuel companies are racing to meet this unprecedented demand for EVs with increasingly high-powered chargers.

Coles, in partnership with Evie Networks, is installing 200-kilowatt fast chargers at up to 30 supermarkets in Victoria and Queensland over the next two years.

Ampol has just switched on its first 400-kilowatt chargers as it aims to establish the country’s leading charging network by 2030. BP is building a 24-bay charging hub at Melbourne Airport, adding to the nearly 300 bays it has installed nationally since 2022.

The National Roads and Motorists’ Association is expanding its highway charging network, building 35 new sites in 2025 after receiving nearly A$40 million in federal funding.

Soon, EV fast chargers may be a common sight at places like your local supermarket and servo.

Where the problem lies

Governments are quick to fund new chargers, but this money often disappears after the ribbon is cut.

Chargefox, Australia’s largest charging network, owns very little of the hardware it relies on. It’s a network of networks, bundling chargers owned by other charging networks, councils, businesses and energy companies into one app. This means EV drivers may struggle to know who is responsible for a flawed or broken charger.

Having one dominant charger operator creates other issues. One study found Chargefox controls 83% of Tasmania’s public chargers and 58% of those in Western Australia. In such a concentrated market, one company’s bad month rapidly becomes a state-wide outage.

In WA, the Royal Automobile Club quietly wound up its decade-old Electric Highway project last year. It established 16 charging locations from Monkey Mia to Esperance, and was one of the first networks of its kind in Australia.

The project is now in the hands of local councils, many of which lack the resources and skills to manage such complex infrastructure. Several councils have decommissioned broken units rather than repair them. Others have pulled out chargers altogether, creating complete gaps in the network.

Not just AustraliaOther countries are trying to ensure their public charger rollout keeps pace with surging EV demand.

In the United States, federal standards apply only to chargers built with federal funding. Individual states, such as California and Hawaii, require any charger connecting to the grid to meet their own technical standards.

In the United Kingdom, the government mandates that all public rapid chargers have 99% uptime. Uptime is a measure of how often a charger is available and working. But operators are required to self-report their uptime figures, which are rarely tested by government or an independent body.

The European Union has stronger enforcement, requiring charger companies to share their uptime and payment data with authorities.

However, these approaches have failed to close the gap between reported uptime and what drivers actually experience.

A landmark study of San Francisco’s public chargers found only 73% worked when tested, compared to operator claims of 95% to 98% uptime. We observed the same pattern in our recent analysis of chargers funded by the Californian government.

Despite these challenges, most mature EV markets do have some kind of national strategy for EV charging infrastructure, delivered through local mean.

What we can do

We can strengthen Australia’s charging network by:

applying federal minimum operating standards, that currently require 98% uptime for chargers built with taxpayer dollars, to privately funded chargers
linking charger funding to performance rather than just installation, as the US does, so operators are incentivised to maintain reliability
ensuring networks in rural and remote regions are carefully planned and positioned along key highways
requiring charging companies and car manufacturers to disclose data, including how quickly cars charge, how often chargers fail and where, and which sites are charging hotspots to identify potential bottlenecks.

For now, Australia’s charging network is growing fast enough to meet the needs of EV owners. But that could soon change if we keep building new chargers while leaving existing ones to break down or simply disappear.

Authors: Kai Li Lim, St Baker Fellow in E-Mobility, Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation, The University of Queensland; The University of Western Australia; Scott Dwyer, Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney

This article was initially published in The Conversation and is republished here under a Creative Commons Licence.

pv-magazine-australia.com

[Eric] TOYOTALEXUSToyota succumbs and now plans to build a new EV in China first [grap...

Eric — 8/31/2026 2:23:24 PM

TOYOTA
LEXUS

Toyota succumbs and now plans to build a new EV in China first

Peter Johnson | Aug 31 2026 - 9:17 am PT

7 Comments

Toyota is breaking its own rules and will build a new electric vehicle in China before Japan, using advanced tech.

Why is Toyota building new EVs in China first?

If you can’t beat them, join them. Right? Toyota is reportedly planning to build a new electric vehicle in China rather than in Japan, its home market where it has traditionally developed and produced vehicles.

The new EV will be an SUV under the Lexus brand. According to Nikkei, production will begin at Lexus’ new manufacturing plant in Shanghai next fall.

Toyota broke ground on the facility in June 2025, claiming the new plant will enable what it calls “Lexus speed” as it aims to keep pace with domestic automakers like BYD. Construction was expected to wrap up this month, with the first vehicles set to roll off the line in 2027.

Production will start at about 1,000 vehicles per month next year as Toyota ramps up output to “tens of thousands” in 2028.

The new Lexus EV will be made using advanced manufacturing methods, including gigacasting, to cut costs and speed up production.

Toyota joins a growing list of legacy OEMs already developing and producing vehicles in China first or planning to do so very soon. China is by far the largest EV market, accounting for about 60% of global sales in 2025, or roughly 100 times that of Japan according to GlobalData.

Lexus LF-ZC EV concept car (Source: Toyota)

The report comes after Toyota scrapped plans earlier this year to develop a flagship next-gen Lexus EV in Japan using similar production methods.
In overseas markets like the US and Japan, Toyota is sticking to its “multi-pathway” strategy, which focuses mainly on hybrid and gasoline vehicles tailored to local needs.

Toyota bZ3X electric SUV (Source: GAC-Toyota)

In China, however, it’s a whole different game. Legacy automakers are being forced to adapt, or risk falling behind, and Toyota is no exception. China is Toyota’s third-largest market, following the US and Japan.
Toyota, like all automakers, is facing a wave of low-cost domestic vehicles in China. Through July, Toyota sold just under 810,000 vehicles in China, 18% fewer than in the same period in 2025.

Electrek’s Take

Toyota already builds several electric vehicles in China, like the bZ3X SUV. But it produces these through its joint ventures with China’s GAC and FAW.

Developing the new Lexus electric SUV in China first rather than Japan is significant given Toyota’s history of sticking to tradition.

It traditionally takes about four to five years to fully develop a new vehicle, while in China automakers are now building them in as little as two years.

Legacy automakers like Toyota are increasingly tapping into China for advanced tech, batteries, production methods, and other EV components as they look to keep pace with the industry’s shift to electric.

The shift caught most legacy automakers flat-footed in China, and now it’s happening in overseas markets.

While Toyota is turning to China, BYD’s CEO Wang Chuanfu believes the company will overtake it in global sales within the next five years.

electrek.co

[Eric] BYD reaches new milestone, opening its 10,000th Flash Charging station [graphic...

Eric — 8/31/2026 1:20:49 PM

BYD reaches new milestone, opening its 10,000th Flash Charging station

Image: BYD Linghui e7

Riz Akhtar

Aug 31, 2026

CHARGING & V2G

BYD, one of the fastest-growing car makers and one of the biggest battery manufacturers, earlier this year announced the release of its second-generation Blade battery, which, when charged with the company’s latest Flash Charging, achieves a 10% to 70% charge in just 5 minutes.

At the time of the announcement, it also shared its 2026 goal to have 20,000 Flash Chargers up and running by the end of the year.

Now, in a post on its Weibo page, BYD shared data showing it’s about to surpass 50% of its 2026 rollout goal, with 10,000 sites in operation as of August 2026. These sites span over 320 cities in China, with the milestone site being in the company’s home city of Shenzhen.

BYD post said the milestone was reached at a Flash Charge Station in Longhua, Shenzhen and added: “This achievement sets three records for Chinese automakers: the largest number of self-built charging stations in China, the fastest construction of 10,000 charging stations, and the widest geographical coverage of charging stations nationwide.”

At the same time, the company shared some key metrics around this program, highlighting that the network has dispensed 210 million kWh in just under 6 months.

This is off the back of 1.83 million users with almost 33% driving non-BYD EVs, highlighting the greater impact of this relatively new network.

BYD’s Flash Charging system includes the company’s latest Blade Battery 2.0 with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry. At room temperature, it can charge the new Blade Battery from 10% to 70% in just 5 minutes. It can also charge these cars from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes at ambient temperatures.

In extreme cold temperatures of -30 C, a 10% to 97% charge takes around 12 minutes, which is a big boost in cutting charging times under these conditions.

The company’s rollout of thousands of new flash charging sites across China began earlier this year and incorporated the new T-shaped charging gantries, designed to charge vehicles at scale.

Various models with the latest Flash Charging tech are already available to buyers, including multiple models officially becoming some of the world’s longest-range EVs, with over 1,000 km of CLTC range.

The Denza Z9GT was the first of these models, unveiled in March with the system’s official launch, but since then, multiple Ocean and Dynasty series models have also launched with over 1,000 km of range, using Blade Battery 2.0 tech.

Other more affordable models are also being rolled out, with consumer and BYD fleet-friendly models with a starting price of under $A25,000, making this latest tech available to the masses a lot sooner than originally thought.

BYD wants customers to use this Flash Charging technology and has been offering 12 months of free Flash Charging to early customers with all compatible models.

This technology is also heading to international markets, with The Driven reporting earlier in the year that sites have opened in Europe.

The latest announcement shows BYD’s rollout is moving fast, with over 50% of its 20,000 sites already commissioned.

This will boost confidence among new and future EV drivers, helping tens of thousands of buyers consider an EV that can charge faster than filling up at expensive servos.

thedriven.io

[Eric] BYD megawatt-charged this battery 350 times in 9 days — the result shocked every...

Eric — 8/31/2026 1:08:16 PM

BYD megawatt-charged this battery 350 times in 9 days — the result shocked everyone

The Electric Viking

384K subscribers

Aug 31, 2026

BYD megawatt-charged this battery 350 times in 9 days — the result shocked everyone

BYD pulled a random Yangwang U7 from a showroom, then drove it 30,000km at an average 240 km/h over 9 days in 36°C heat, stopping for 350 ultra-fast "Flash" charges pulling up to 640kW each time — a brutal combination of heat and rapid charging that normally wrecks batteries fast.

The result: the pack still retained 98.7% of its original capacity, suggesting BYD's Blade Battery 2.0 and thermal management can handle extreme fast-charging without the degradation everyone expected.

youtube.com

[Eric] Sunroofs Exploding Everyday!; Honda & Nissan Partner - Autoline Daily 4367 [gra...

Eric — 8/31/2026 12:32:25 PM

Sunroofs Exploding Everyday!; Honda & Nissan Partner - Autoline Daily 4367

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Aug 31, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 Honda & Nissan Partner on SDVs
1:20 Trump Administration Eases Biofuel Blending Rules
2:11 GM Invests Big in Canadian Plants
3:25 Lower Saxony Urges VW Restructuring Deal
3:59 Volvo Closes Stockholm Tech Hub
4:28 Kia To Debut PV7 Electric Van
5:19 Pure Lithium Develops Graphite-Free Battery Anode
6:05 Exploding Sunroofs Spike Across U.S.

youtube.com

[Eric] COMMERCIAL EVSAVIATIONPORTSE-quipment highlight: Tiger electric baggage tug haul...

Eric — 8/30/2026 3:00:24 PM

E-quipment highlight: Tiger electric baggage tug hauls 30 TONS [video]

Jo Borrás | Aug 30 2026 - 6:00 am PT

1 Comment

The Tiger Li-Ion electric baggage tug is quietly revolutionizing the airport ground handling and ground support equipment (GSE) market with silent, emission-free running, massive fuel savings, and a 60,000 lb. (!) payload capacity.

Despite their fun, approachable appearance, airport baggage tugs are seriously capable machines, geared down to produce the sort of immense torque necessary to haul literal tons of luggage ( or airplanes) from terminal to tarmac hundreds of times a day on duty cycles that would trash your neighbor’s “tough guy” pickup in under a month.

That amount of work requires huge amounts of energy and, as a consequence, huge amounts of fuel. But, while diesel prices are surging unpredictably, electric fuel has proven to be significantly less expensive and more predictable, leading Tiger’s parent company, Waev, to claim that its electric Li-Ion tug will save fleet operators more than $19,000 per year in fuel alone. Per tug.

Tiger math

Electric vs. ICE GSE costs; via Tiger.

The electric tug will also save more than 3.5 tons of carbon emissions per year – a big swing at airports that employ dozens or hundreds of these things. For their part, Waev executives absolutely get it.

“ The future of GSE is electric,” explained Waev president and CEO Keith Simon, at the Tiger Li-Ion’s launch in 2022. “Electric makes sense – for the work, for safety, and for the environment. As airports and operators are prioritizing sustainability, carbon-neutral, and net-zero solutions like never before, we are bringing high performance, trusted solutions that enable this.”

The Tiger Li-Ion tow tractor offers up to 60 miles of range from its 48 kWh battery pack. That’s more than enough to cover a day of operation at all but the biggest and busiest airports, and when the batteries run low, Tiger’s tugs keep charging simple by designing the tug to work with a facility’s existing 120V electrical infrastructure, or on a 240V, 50-amp L2 charger where available.

Tiger’s electric baggage tug ships with a number of industry-standard safety features, including anti-rollover technology that automatically reduces speed through tight turns, programmable speed controls that can be set to 10, 12, or 15 mph, and an automatic brake interlock to prevent unintended acceleration. An operator sensor cuts drive power if the driver leaves the seat, while high-visibility LED lighting ensures tractor stays visible in low-light scenarios.

You can check out Tiger’s recently released Li-Ion overview video, below, then let us know what you think of the ongoing electrification of America’s airports in the comments.

Tiger Li-Ion tractor overview

youtube.com

SOURCE | IMAGES: Tiger GSE.

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electrek.co

[Eric] [graphic] Stranded Asset, What Happens When A Gas Car Becomes Worth Less Than Z...

Eric — 8/30/2026 2:32:11 PM

Stranded Asset, What Happens When A Gas Car Becomes Worth Less Than Zero As Transportation?

3 minutes

Paul Fosse

12 Comments

In this article, I’ll make a five-year bet. I’m not making a claim about your local lot in 2026, but about where we’ll be in 2031. I think ordinary gasoline and diesel cars in the US will be worth less than the fuel, maintenance, and repairs it takes to keep them once cheap used EVs are sitting next to them. That is what I mean by worth less than zero. Of course, cars will still have scrap value for the materials in them and sentimental value for those who fondly remember the era of gas cars. So they will have positive value, but I’m saying they won’t have value as transportation if things play out as I describe below. This is similar to horses in the US. They still have value, but not for mainstream transportation for the average person.

My recent article titled “ For Lagging Automakers: Stop Pouring Money Into The Wrong Powertrains” explained how automakers should invest their money to remain viable, but I failed to explain why the market for new gas and hybrid cars would be so poor. The market in the US for gas cars and hybrids is very good now, why should it dramatically change in 5 years? That is what I am trying to explain in this article.

This actually first was true when a person spending $250 a month on gas way back in 2014 saw that they could lease a Nissan Leaf for $199 a month and have a new car and fuel it for the price they spent on gas.

I have been driving electric vehicles for 15 years, so the direction is not a surprise. I already ran the US math in my recent article on hybrids: 12,000 miles, $4 gasoline, 20 cents a kWh. I already highlighted used 2024 LEAFs at $15,000 to $20,000. What I have not written yet is the Norway and China used-ICE story, and why that same math shows up here on a lag.

I’m convinced of the direction. So I am going to treat Norway and China as leading indicators, and I am going to say out loud what would have to be true to lose this five-year bet.

Norway finished new-car ICE. That is the preview.

Norway is the proof case for new sales. Battery-electric vehicles took 95.9% of new passenger-car sales in 2025. Plugins together took 97.5%. By July 2026, BEVs were 97.6% of new cars. CleanTechnica‘s Maximilian Holland put it plainly: Norway has effectively reached the end of the new-car transition.

The fleet is a different animal, because cars last years. By mid-2026, BEVs were about 34.6% of Norway’s passenger fleet. More than 60% of the cars on the road still burn something. New-car share can be 98% electric while used lots are still trading combustion-engine cars. Anyone who tells you Norwegian used gasoline cars are already worth zero is mixing up this year’s showroom with last decade’s parking lot.

The stations are changing the way businesses actually change. Circle K’s Berger site near Oslo cut pumps from 8 to 6 in July 2026 and added chargers. That is not “Norway ran out of gasoline.” Residual value dies that way: the support system gets thinner while the used EV alternative gets cheaper.

Iceland is not Norway, and that is useful. Plugin share there has bounced with incentives, including a 2024 dip to about 43%. Policy can slow an S-curve. The US already yanked the federal EV tax credit. That is not a hypothetical.

China is the used-market test

Norway is a rich, small lab. China is the factory.

In June I wrote that China’s NEV share had hit 63%. Jose Pontes has July 2026 passenger NEV retail at about 65%, with pure BEVs at 44%. That is the world’s largest car market flipping on new metal.

The used market is the part that is news to me. From January to April 2026, used NEV trades in China hit 547,900, up 29% year over year, and resale values were up about 30%. Dealers were scrambling to buy used NEVs. Used gasoline cars went the other way. Dealers called them “unsellable.” One talked about nearly a 10% drop per month and eating a 30,000 RMB loss (about $4,400). Cars that had recently sold for 300,000 RMB were at 200,000 RMB.

Here is the number that actually matters: three-year ICE residuals in China have been tracked down to about 46%. That is a real hit. It is also still a car with a five-figure price, not scrap. The signal I trust is the gap: NEVs around 63% of new sales but only 8.57% of the used market. That gap is the next wave. As three- and five-year-old EVs hit lots, leftover ICE vehicles get harder to move.

The $50,000 gasoline car that becomes a $5,000 problem is the five-year destination I am betting on. It is not the 2026 Chinese lot, and it is not your neighbor’s Camry this weekend.

The Regular Joe math

A typical 25 mpg gasoline car at 12,000 miles burns 480 gallons. At $4 a gallon, that is $1,920 a year, or $160 a month, just for fuel. A thirstier truck at 18 mpg is about $2,667 a year, or $222 a month. For a 5-plus-year-old US ICE vehicle, I have used about $200 a month in fuel and $100 a month in repairs and maintenance. That maintenance number is an old-car number, not a new Camry. Consumer Reports is closer to an ICEV costing about twice a comparable BEV.

An EV doing those same 12,000 miles uses about 3,000 kWh. At 20 cents a kWh, that is $600 a year, or $50 a month, if you can charge at home. Maintenance would be half as much as the gas car at $50 a month.

A very efficient hybrid can get fuel near $800 a year. That closes most of the fuel gap with the EV. It does not close the gap with a regular ICE car. That is why I take hybrids seriously if fuel prices don’t rise significantly and laws don’t mandate change.

You will see $200 a month in gasoline plus $100 in oil, filters, brakes, and service.

University of Michigan work already finds used BEVs have the lowest US total cost of ownership. The five-year bet is that those prices keep falling as more off-lease EVs hit, and that a used gasoline car’s running costs stop making sense next to them.

Three options for Regular Joe, looking at about 2031, not this weekend:

Keep the paid-off gas car. You are still writing a fuel check, and shops and pumps get thinner. That costs you $300 a month.
Sell it while someone else still wants it. In China that window is already slamming. In the US you still have time. That is why I am writing this now. Buy a cheap used EV for $10,000 and get a 5 year loan so you have a $200 a month payment plus your $100 a month for electricity and maintenance if you can plug in at home. Total of $300 a month, the same amount as the “free” gas car.

If someone offered you a free gasoline car in a market where used EVs are inexpensive and cheap to run, option #2 is a logical choice. That is worth less than zero.

The export valve delays the collapse. It does not cancel it.

Unwanted gas cars have to go somewhere. China is the bigger dump valve: gasoline inventory that will not sell at home are headed to Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. You can postpone a residual-value collapse by exporting it. You cannot cancel it if those markets start doing the same TCO math, or if used EVs get cheap enough there too. The problem for the US is the other markets are doing the same math as I did above and will reach this same conclusion before we do in the US because they have access to inexpensive electric cars from China that we don’t have access to.

What this means if you are still driving a $50,000 gasoline crossover or planning to sell new gas cars in 2031

If in five years a five-year-old gasoline car that sold for $50,000 is a $5,000 problem because nobody wants the fuel bill, what will GM, Ford, and Stellantis do with their new crossovers that are priced at $60,000? They won’t sell. That line is a scenario I am putting on the calendar.

This is not a sudden event. It is what happens when EVs hit cost parity on total ownership and keep a much lower operating cost. Norway showed the new-car endpoint first. China is showing the used-car endpoint at scale. The US is on a lag.

Devil’s advocate: what would have to be true for me to be wrong?

I could be early. In the US I almost certainly am. I might not be five years early. I might be a decade early.

The US is not Norway. NADA’s July 2026 figures have battery-electric share at 5.9% of new vehicles year to date, down 1.9 points after the federal tax credit expired. Hybrids are 15.4% and up 20.5% year to date. That is the hybrid waypoint looking like a destination, not a rest stop. At $800 a year versus $600 for a home-charged EV, Regular Joe will take the hybrid and never open PlugShare.

This is a truck country. A used LEAF at $15,000 to $20,000 does not replace a work truck, a tow rig, or a rural driveway. If there is no cheap used electric truck, used ICE truck residuals stay “normal” even while sedans get harder to move. In America, that is a significant part of the market.

Fleet math is brutal. S&P Global Mobility had the average US vehicle at 12.8 years in 2025, from about 289 million light vehicles. We sell about 16 million new vehicles a year. In five years, you nibble the fleet. You do not turn it over. “Worth less than zero” as a typical residual requires cheap used EVs to be plentiful. We do not have that stock yet.

Home charging is doing a lot of work in my $50-a-month number. Roughly a third of US households are in multifamily housing. Public charging can turn that $50 into $150, and the hybrid wins on hassle. I cannot talk Regular Joe into a used EV if he parks on the street or in a large parking lot without a dedicated EV charging spot.

China’s 46% three-year ICE residual is a warning, not a corpse. The export valve can stay open past my five-year mark. Africa and Latin America still motorize with cheap used ICE vehicles. Ethiopia’s ban is on new private imports, not the used Corolla pipeline.

Used EV oversupply cuts both ways. If off-lease EVs glut the lots, EV residuals crash too. That helps the next buyer on TCO, and it wrecks the lease math that was supposed to put those EVs on the road. Electricity is not a constant. If residential rates keep climbing and gasoline stays in a $3/gallon to $4/gallon band, the operating-cost gap shrinks. Policy already reversed here. Five years is one election cycle and one oil-price cycle. It is not destiny.

For the five-year US bet to land, several things have to go right at once:

Used EV prices fall into Civic money for cars that actually replace a commute, not just a LEAF-shaped hole.
Home charging, or cheap reliable public charging, shows up for people without a garage.
Hybrids do not eat the “I don’t want to change” buyer.
A used electric truck exists that Regular Joe will actually buy.
Export markets get pickier, so leftover ICE vehicles cannot all be shipped away.
Gasoline stays expensive enough that the fuel bill hurts.

If two or three of those fail, 2031 looks like 2026 with a slower leak, not a floor dropping out. None of that reverses what already happened to new-car ICE in Norway or the direction of used ICE in China. It means I can be right about the physics and early on the calendar.

Conclusion

The residual value of ordinary gasoline and diesel cars collapses once used EVs are plentiful and cheaper to run. Norway and China are the leading indicators. The US is late. My bet is it will take about five years.

If you own a paid-off gas car, run the monthly numbers this week: fuel and service versus a used EV you can actually plug in. If the fuel check already hurts, sell while someone still wants the car. If you are shopping, look at a used EV before you sign another gasoline note. If you make cars, every extra year of ICE tooling is a bet that the used market stays stupid.

Late is not never. Five years is also not a promise. I am still making the bet.

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] Australia’s biggest car dealership says EV buyers are on one-way street: “We’re ...

Eric — 8/30/2026 11:35:55 AM

Australia’s biggest car dealership says EV buyers are on one-way street: “We’re not seeing them coming back to internal combustion cars”

Image: Ludicrous Feed

Giles Parkinson

Aug 29, 2026

EV NEWS
TOP NEWS

The head of Australia’s largest car dealership group has dismissed fossil fuel and social media talking points about EV satisfaction, saying that once people shift to electric vehicles, they don’t come back to petrol or diesel cars.

The observation was made by Keith Thornton, the CEO of Eagers Automotive, which says 25 per cent of its sales this last six months have been plug in electrics, and half of all sales if you include hybrids.

Asked at the company’s results briefing this week if the sales momentum would continue, Thornton said it was hard to tell.

“It’s a little bit hard to use what happened over March and April and the fuel crisis period when the Iran conflict first occurred as any sort of extrapolated demand, because it was so extraordinary,” Thornton said.

“We’ve never seen anything like it. The one thing we have observed, though, is that the transition from a fully combustion engine car to a full electric vehicle, and that transition might include a hybrid vehicle, a plug-in hybrid vehicle, and ultimately a full battery electric vehicle, is a one-way street.

“Generally speaking, people transition to a lower emission vehicle and either hybrid and/or plug-in, and we’re not seeing a lot of people who have gone down that path, then selling out and coming back to combustion engine vehicles.

“Once you take a big step change, like has occurred in 2026, along that path towards a more plugged-in or a lower emission powertrain, people have sort of started the journey and it will only be a small fraction that will come back the other way.”

Thornton said new energy vehicles represented just 1 per cent of the market in 2020, and are now the fastest growing segment, and the company is happy it has been able to position itself withs several Chinese manufacturers to take advantage of the transition.

“A great example of positioning the business to win the trend,” he said.

“The NEV upside is significant. One of the drags on the opportunity, not on our performance, but on the opportunity, is at the moment, NEV still has had an overweight percentage of sales through the Novated channels, and the Novated channels are less conducive to allowing trade-ins to be captured. We are rapidly fixing that. That NEV opportunity is significant.”

thedriven.io

[Eric] [graphic] Europe EV Sales Report: BEVs Reach 26% Market Share! 3 minutes José...

Eric — 8/29/2026 2:41:11 PM

Europe EV Sales Report: BEVs Reach 26% Market Share!

3 minutes

J osé Pontes

Tell Us What You're Thinking!

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.Europe is no longer dependent on one player for the EV revolution. In a month that Tesla was down 36% YoY, BEVs jumped 51% YoY!

Thanks to a number of factors (new cheaper models, high gas prices, mass arrival of Chinese models, etc.), BEVs are currently in high demand in Europe. Some 288,000 fully electric vehicles were registered in Europe in July, which is not only a 51% increase year over year (YoY), it is the fastest growth rate this year!

Overall, plugin vehicles were up 40% YoY, dragged down by plugin hybrids, which grew only 21%, to 137,000 units, thus placing July’s plugin share at 38% (26% for BEVs only).

With BEVs pulling the market upwards, the year-to-date share for BEVs is at 23% (34% for PHEVs and BEVs combined), which is already higher than the 2025 final result (20% BEV share, 29% adding PHEVs). This is an encouraging sign if we want to be close to 100% PEV share by the mid-2030s.

Although EVs are increasing their share across Europe, their expansion is not uniform — while electrification is quite advanced in Northern Europe (BEVs in Norway are at 98%, 80% in Denmark, 53% in Finland, 43% in Sweden, 47% in the Netherlands, and 43% in Belgium), elsewhere numbers are far below (Italy is at 6% BEV share, while in Czechia, they’re at 8%). In short, full electrification will happen at different times across Europe. While in some places we will see markets close to, or at, 100% BEV share by 2030, in others, 2040 is a more likely scenario.

Looking at the best sellers in several size categories, the EV push is starting to get visible. While we are far from the EV domination we see in China, things have indeed moved on in Europe compared to last year. Before, the only EVs that we saw on the overall podiums were Teslas. This month, with Teslas taking their usual stopgap month, others have taken the spotlight.

The A-segment has the new Renault Twingo, which was the 4th placed model overall, ending close to the 3rd placed Kia Picanto (5,149 units), and ahead of the 5th placed Fiat 500. Even with a new ICE version of the 500, sales have failed to replicate the previous generation’s numbers, or even the beginnings of the current one … so I guess the problem wasn’t the lack of an ICE version?

Maybe the slowdown had more to do with other, better, cheaper EVs starting to land on the market, cannibalizing the 500e’s sales?

Anyway, besides the current category leader, the Leapmotor T03, and the new Renault Twingo, we have a new Dacia Spring set to land soon, as well as its Nissan sibling, a new Smart #2, which is also landing later this year. And next year, the future city car from Volkswagen (ID.Lupo?) will start its career, so we have plenty of competitive electric city cars ready to take over the podium.

Oh! And let’s not forget that a new Panda city car (Pandina?) is set to start in 2027, both in BEV and ICE versions.

This all means that the city car category should be one of the first to be fully electrified.

Looking at the other segments, the B-segment is still ICE heavy, with only the #3 Peugeot 208 having some degree of electrification (24% of sales are from the BEV version). The C-segment is a bit more electrified (the #1 VW Golf is 14% PHEV, and the #3 VW Tiguan is 34% PHEV), but it is the midsize category where electrification is more advanced, even without taking Tesla into account.

The #1 Mercedes GLC has 52% of all of its sales coming from either the BEV or the PHEV version, the runner-up BYD Seal U is fully electrified, and the 3rd placed Mercedes CLA has 70% of its sales coming from its BEV versions.

In the full size category, electrification is also significant. The #1 BMW 5 Series has 62% of sales coming from either the i5 BEV units or its own PHEV versions, the #2 Mercedes E-Class is 40% electrified (PHEV versions), and the #3 BMW X5 has 32% of its sales coming from the PHEV version.

So, the A, D, and E segments have good electrification perspectives, but the all-important B and C segments, the most important in Europe, are the laggards.

Looking at the best selling EV models, the big news this month was the absence of Tesla representatives. BYD had 3rd place to itself thanks to the Seal U (BYD Song in Euro-spec), while the Skoda Elroq won the best seller title, followed by the BMW iX1/X1 PHEV twins. Here’s a more detailed analysis of the top 5 EVs this month:

#1 Skoda Elroq — After a slow June, the Elroq returned to the podium and was the best selling European model in July, with 9,996 registrations. Looking ahead, the Czech crossover will have to face fierce internal competition, as a new, smaller, and more affordable Skoda crossover is about to land. Called the Epiq, that model risks stealing lots of sales from the current star player of the Skoda lineup, as it will be simultaneously cheaper and more modern than the Elroq. Will we see it slow down later this year?

#2 BMW iX1/X1 PHEV — The German twins are in cruise control, winning another podium presence in July thanks to 9,883 registrations. Benefitting from favorable lease rates to help things along, the BMW crossovers are the brand’s bread and butter models. An interesting evolution is the fact that while the overall numbers remain stable, the mix between the BEV and PHEV versions is changing over time. While a year ago the iX1 represented 62% of the sales of these two, now they represent 74%, meaning that BEVs are gaining importance and PHEVs are losing sales (-1,300 units comparing July ’25 with July ’26). With a deep refresh coming to BMW’s compact models later, promising to transform them into baby Neue Klasse vehicles, expect both, but the iX1 in particular, to upgrade their specs. That will make them more interesting than the current versions and allow the Bavarian brand to keep its compact models as podium material.

#3 BYD Seal U (BEV+PHEV) — After three months of absence, the Chinese SUV returned to the top 5 and hit 9,575 registrations last month, meaning that while the BYD’s star is recovering in China, thanks to the new-generation Ultra body, the old generation is still able to reach the top 5 in Europe all by itself (a bit like when veteran football/soccer players leave top leagues and semi-retire in less competitive ones…). July’s 3rd place finish was much thanks to generous discounts, but still, with the model’s development costs now well behind it, BYD can afford to go into hard discount territory with this one.

#4 Renault 5 (including Alpine A290) — Renault’s star player delivered 9,474 sales in July, with the iconic hatchback increasing its sales year on year by 52%, thus backing previous optimistic statements from its representatives. The truth is that the French manufacturer has done its homework, and while others are scrambling with what to do next, Renault is now reaping the profits of its EV strategy. Sure, no matter how attractive the 5 is, the truth is that in 2026, its space in the market will be squeezed, not only by external competition like VW’s own take on the R5 formula, the ID.Polo, but also by internal competition, with the equally cute new Twingo potentially stealing sales from below. That is why Renault is taking a page from its Asian counterparts and going at China speed, evolving its R5 and R4 while they are still recent with more efficient motors and LFP batteries — because cute design can only take you so far (just look at the Fiat 500e). The real factor that will make the French twins true volume models over the years is meeting constantly evolving buyer expectations — regarding specs, value for money, and pricing.

#5 VW ID.4 — VW’s star player won its first top 5 presence this year in July, thanks to 9,009 registrations, a 39% improvement over last year’s performance and its best result this year, which is actually a surprisingly good performance for a model set for a deep refresh later this year, and a name change. Instead of ID.4, the refreshed model will be called the ID.Tiguan and will offer refreshed styling and updated specs, with much-awaited LFP batteries finally joining the range of options. Does this mean that the Volkswagen crossover will return to the podium? Maybe, but we should only know for sure about the volume potential of the new ID.Tiguan in 2027.

Outside the top 5, there were a number of highlights to mention.

Starting with BMW, we have another strong result from the new BMW iX3 (8th place with 7,873 registrations). One wonders if the midsize SUV has already reached its cruising speed or there will be even higher volume months ahead. Regardless of what might happen to the iX3, I am now curious about the production ramp-up of the upcoming BMW i3. Will the new midsize sedan also reach top 10 status?

In the Mercedes stable, its star player, the CLA EV, continued in near-record territory, clocking 6,599 registrations. The three-pointed-star brand is now concentrated on the new GLB EV seven-seater, which seems to have hit a plateau at around 3,500 units (more or less what the EQB, its predecessor, had in a good month) and the GLC EV midsizer, which is now starting to reach significant volumes (4,107 units). Will the GLC be able to replicate the BMW iX3’s success? I doubt it. Not only does it lack the Beemer’s waiting list, now at around 8 or 9 months, but I guess the GLC’s ramp-up should end sooner, at around 5,000 units/month. I’d love to be wrong, though.

Volkswagen also had a good month. Besides the surprisingly good result of the #5 VW ID.4, the ID.7 ended the month in 9th, with a year-best result of 6,766 units.

Finally, a reference is due for Renault. Not only did it continue to place the Renault 5 among the top 5, but this time it also placed the new Twingo in 17th, the first top 20 position for the new generation. Additionally, it snuck the Scenic crossover into 20th place, thanks to 4,354 registrations, thus placing three representatives on the table, probably for the first time ever.

Heck, even the relatively slow selling Renault Megane, due for a refresh soon, saw its sales jump 54% YoY in July, to 1,927 units, which proves that once a certain brand is on a high tide trend, all its models benefit from the increased dealership traffic.

Outside the top 20, in such a strong month, there was plenty to talk about:

In the midsize category, besides the Mercedes GLC EV ramp-up, another model on the rise is the Xpeng G6. It hit a record 3,222 registrations in July. A good omen for the future success of the Xpeng L03?

Speaking of the compact category, we do have a couple of record performances to mention. In the Mini stable, the Countryman BEV scored a record 3,266 registrations. Meanwhile, the Geely brand is starting to make itself noticed thanks to its Starray PHEV crossover, which hit a record 2,937 units in July.

But the highlights are happening below, in the B segment. The Cupra Raval and Kia EV2 are starting their careers on a high note, with the sporty Spaniard reaching 3,159 registrations in only its second month on the market while the Korean did the same with 4,335 registrations, losing a top 20 spot by just 19 units. Both have a waiting list, so the production ramp-up is still on its way, and top 20 presences are expected for both soon.

The slightly more veteran Peugeot e-208 EV had its best result since November, thanks to 3,212 registrations, but that wasn’t enough to be the Stellantis best seller. The Citroen e-C3 took that title with 4,013 registrations in July. With a new generation of the 208 said to land in a year, which will be BEV-only, Stellantis is currently lacking a star player in a category that could run at the same pace as both the Renault 5 and the VW ID.Polo.

Finally, somewhere between the A and B segments, we have the Hyundai Inster, the Casper-eyed city car that thinks it is an SUV. The car had 3,477 registrations in July, which was its best result in a year.

Looking at the 2026 ranking, the major change in the top positions was the three-position drop of the Tesla Model 3, back into the fifth spot. Without stock units to resort to, the Tesla sedan scored only 461 deliveries in July, an 85% YoY drop, which brought it back to where it was in May.

The beneficiaries were the usual. The Skoda Elroq returned to the runner-up position, the BMW crossover twins were up to 3rd, while the Renault 5 went up to 4th.

Still, it isn’t all bad for the Model 3. The lack of stock units means that demand is there, so expect a positive month of August and an epic September, which should propel it back to the podium.

The question is — to what place on the podium, second or third?

With the competition experiencing different kinds of headwinds in the second half of the year (the Skoda Elroq suffering from competition from the smaller Epiq, BMW compact crossovers going through a refresh later this year, increased competition for the Renault 5) and the BYD Atto 2 being too far away to be a real threat, all of a sudden the Model 3 seems to be the strongest candidate for the silver medal, which it last won in 2024.

Bring on the popcorn, because this looks to be fun!

As for the remaining changes, the VW ID.4 was up one spot, to 9th, switching positions with its smaller sibling, the ID.3. Still on Volkswagen, the ID.7 profited from a strong month and climbed one position, to 12th. Further highlighting the good month for the German brand, the VW Tiguan PHEV was also up one spot, to #14.

On the second half of the table, the Kia EV3 climbed one position, to #17, surpassing the Audi SUVs. And it would have gone higher …

… if the BMW iX3 hadn’t done even better. With the midsize SUV riding high, it not only replaced the Citroen e-C3 EV on the table, but at the same time managed to surpass four other models. So, it started its career in the top 20, in 16th. Not bad, eh?

How high will the German SUV go? I would say 14th in August, 11th in a few months, and maybe it can even have a shot at 10th in December? Please place your bets.

As for the plugin auto brand ranking, the leader, Volkswagen, remained in the lead, recovering some of the share (9%, up from 8.9% in June, but still down from the 9.3% in May) it had lost in the previous month. Sure, it still holds a comfortable advantage over BYD (7.9%), and its new small EVs (VW ID.Polo, ID.Tiguan, etc.) should help it recover some sales, but … the German brand cannot allow itself to slow down. It can’t distract itself by hoping for some kind of ICE recovery/miracle. If it does, the company will get BYD on its back real fast … in its home market. And if you can’t win at home.…

Comparing Electric Vehicle Models

BMW (7.1%, up 0.1%) recovered the last place on the podium thanks to Tesla’s crash (6.2% share, down from 7.1% in June). It will be an interesting race between these two for the bronze medal. Will the Texan make return to the European podium? Or will the Bavarian brand stay in the medal positions for the 6th time in a row? (As a side note, BMW was on the podium 9 times out of the last 10 years.)

In 5th we have Mercedes (5.8%). It is holding steady in the last position of the top 5 and gained even a little bit more distance over a slow selling #6 Audi (5.4%, down 5.5% in June and 5.7% in May). The Ingolstadt make now has its Czech cousin Skoda closer than ever (7th, 5.3%). Additionally, #8 Renault is on the rise (5%, up 0.1%), so it could start to pose a threat to both Volkswagen Group in a not too distant future.

Arranging things by automotive group, Volkswagen Group is firmly in the lead, with 24% share. With plenty of fresh metal coming soon, expect the German OEM to stay comfortable in the lead.

#2 BMW Group (8.7%, up 0.1%) continues to consolidate the runner-up spot, while #3 Stellantis is consolidating its never ending slide (8.2%, down 0.1%). The multinational OEM’s drops seem to have no end in sight, and it could even lose its podium position this year, as 3rd placed BYD (7.9%) is getting closer every passing month. Could this change happen already by September?

Interestingly, both BYD’s rise and Stellantis’ fall are almost a mirror of each other, so maybe the Shenzhen’s rise in Europe is being done mostly at the expense of Stellantis? Something to think about….

Outside the top 5, #6 Geely is stable (6.9%) but lost ground to #5 Hyundai–Kia (7.5% in July, up from 7.3% in June). Now the 7th placed Renault–Nissan Alliance is starting to show up on the radar as well, with 6.6% share, up 0.2% from June.

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] TESLABYDBYD Q2 profit jumps 30% as record exports offset weak China sales [grap...

Eric — 8/28/2026 2:27:51 PM

TESLA
BYD

BYD Q2 profit jumps 30% as record exports offset weak China sales

Fred Lambert | Aug 28 2026 - 7:52 am PT

5 Comments

BYD posted its first quarterly profit increase in more than a year, with second-quarter net profit rising 29.8% to 8.2 billion yuan ($1.22 billion) as a record surge in exports offset a weak Chinese market.

The rebound ends four straight quarters of profit declines and reverses the 55.4% collapse BYD reported just three months earlier.

The quarter turned, but the first half is still down

Despite the Q2 recovery, BYD’s first-half results remain lower year-over-year. Revenue for the six months through June fell 7.13% to 344.82 billion yuan ($50.9 billion), and net profit attributable to shareholders dropped 20.54% to 12.33 billion yuan, according to the company’s stock exchange filing.

BYD blamed the revenue decline on weakness in its new energy vehicle (NEV) business, compounded by foreign-exchange losses tied to currency swings as it expands abroad.

Automotive and related products generated 275.34 billion yuan in the first half, down 8.98% and accounting for 79.85% of group revenue. The electronics division rose 0.96% to 69.41 billion yuan.

Exports are doing the heavy lifting

BYD sold 1,808,511 NEVs in the first half, down 15.72% from a year earlier. But the drop was almost entirely a domestic problem — and it narrowed sharply as the year went on.

Second-quarter sales fell just 3.24% to 1,108,048 units, a dramatic improvement from the 30.01% plunge in the first quarter.

The reason is overseas demand. BYD exported roughly 792,000 vehicles in the first half, up 67.8% year-over-year and equal to about 44% of its total sales. In the second quarter alone, overseas sales hit 471,091 units, up 82.46% and nearly 47% higher than the previous quarter.

That international push is also lifting profitability. First-half gross profit slipped 2.81% to 64.99 billion yuan, but gross margin rose to 18.85% from 18.01% a year earlier — a sign that higher-value export sales are more lucrative than the price-war volume BYD is fighting for at home.

Sales of BYD’s premium brands — Denza, Fang Cheng Bao, and Yangwang — climbed 61% and now make up 12.8% of its passenger-vehicle sales.

The China price war is the backdrop

BYD’s domestic struggles reflect the brutal price competition that has gripped China’s auto market, where Beijing has started pressuring automakers to end the “involution” of endless price cuts that have crushed margins across the industry.

BYD kept spending through the downturn. First-half R&D investment reached about 28.9 billion yuan — roughly 2.3 times its net profit for the period — bringing cumulative R&D spending above 270 billion yuan.

Operating cash flow rose 17.3% to 37.34 billion yuan, though the overseas expansion stretched BYD’s inventory turnover to 109 days from 79 a year ago, as more cars sit in transit on long ocean voyages.

Momentum heading into the second half

The recovery appears to be accelerating. July sales rose 21.76% to 419,211 units, the third consecutive month of year-over-year growth. Overseas sales of passenger vehicles and pickups hit a record 179,841 units in July, up 124.3% and about 43% of the month’s total.

BYD has told analysts it is targeting 1.5 million vehicle exports for all of 2026.

How BYD stacks up against Tesla

BYD remains the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles by volume. In the second quarter, it delivered 557,090 fully electric vehicles, well ahead of Tesla, even before counting its plug-in hybrids.

Tesla, by comparison, delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2, its own rebound quarter, but reported record revenue alongside a big profit miss. Both automakers are leaning on markets outside their home turf, and both are being squeezed on margins.

Electrek’s Take

Strip out the international business and this is a rough year for BYD in China. First-half deliveries fell nearly 16%, and profit is still down more than 20% for the half. The price war Beijing is now trying to cool did real damage. What saved the quarter was BYD’s ability to sell cars in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America at higher margins than it can get at home — the same dynamic we’ve watched play out as BYD outsells Tesla across Europe and other overseas markets.

That’s a healthier revenue mix, but it comes with new risks. Inventory days jumped to 109 from 79 because cars are spending weeks on ships, tariffs in the EU and elsewhere are a moving target, and BYD is now exposed to the currency swings that already cost it real money this half. The export engine is powerful, but it’s more fragile than the domestic machine BYD built its dominance on.

Still, the trajectory is definitely better. Three straight months of sales growth, a rebuilt margin, and a 1.5-million-unit export target say BYD has found its footing again.

I think it’s fairly clear that BYD will come out on top here. Competition is fierce in China, and the automakers that will survive are those that already have a strong international presence. The dust from the price war in China will eventually settle, and BYD is likely best positioned to resume growth in the market.

Meanwhile, it’s still incredible to me that BYD brought in more profit than Tesla last quarter, and yet its market cap is roughly one-tenth of Tesla’s. Beyond the TSLA cult believing Musk, it’s hard to understand why, as I find BYD’s product roadmap way more interesting than Tesla’s. It is also catching up with advanced driver assist systems, and its battery business is a decade ahead of Tesla’s.

If you’re charging an EV at home, pairing it with rooftop solar is one of the smartest ways to lock in low fuel costs for years. With electricity rates climbing nearly 10% last year, home solar protects you against future rate increases. And with lease and PPA options, you can go solar with zero upfront cost and start saving immediately. If you want to find the best deal, check out EnergySage. It’s a free service with hundreds of pre-vetted installers competing for your business, so you save 20 to 30% compared to going it alone. No sales calls until you pick an installer. Get your free quotes here.

electrek.co

[Eric] Trade War Threatens Both U.S. & Canada; Dealers Worried About Carvana Impact - A...

Eric — 8/28/2026 2:20:52 PM

Trade War Threatens Both U.S. & Canada; Dealers Worried About Carvana Impact - Autoline Daily 4366

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Aug 28, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 U.S.-Canada Trade War Threatens Auto Industry
1:03 Volkswagen Management Pushes Job Cuts
2:14 VW In Talks to Build Military Equipment
2:59 BYD Q2 Profits Surge on Exports
3:51 BYD Planning Minicar for Europe
5:16 Stellantis Dealers Wary of Carvana
6:13 Ford Telematics Cuts Fleet Downtime Significantly
7:23 Ram ProMaster City Van Starts Under $40,000
8:20 Ford’s Lisa Drake Retires
9:02 Geely Reveals Off-Roading Architecture

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[Eric] Autoline After Hours 805 [graphic] Autoline Network 139K subscribers Started...

Eric — 8/27/2026 3:29:57 PM

Autoline After Hours 805

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Started streaming 27 minutes ago Autoline After Hours

TOPICS:

- Hyundai & its product offensive
- Trade war & its impact on the auto industry
- Ford dealers uses drones for parts delivery
- Electronic glitches

PANEL:

Keith Naughton, Bloomberg (Retired)

Jeff Gilbert, WWJ NewsRadio950

Gary Vasilash, shinymetalboxes.net

John McElroy, Autoline.tv

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[Eric] Hertz Offers 3-Year/100K Used Warranty; Strong iX3 Demand Good & Bad for BMW - A...

Eric — 8/27/2026 2:44:53 PM

Hertz Offers 3-Year/100K Used Warranty; Strong iX3 Demand Good & Bad for BMW - Autoline Daily 4365

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Aug 27, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 Hertz Offers 3-Year/100K Used Car Warranty
0:52 Board Change Could Help VW Restructuring Plan
1:42 EV Sales Take Off in Australia
2:39 China Cracking Down on 'Irrational Competition'
3:45 Strong iX3 Demand Good & Bad for BMW
4:49 BMW Delivers 2 Million BEVs
5:14 BYD Opens 10,000th Flash Charger
6:09 Researchers Get More Energy Density from Lithium Batteries
6:52 Refreshed Z Car Goes On Sale

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[Eric] EV CHARGINGEV CHARGERSThese EV chargers hang from garage ceilings – and install ...

Eric — 8/26/2026 4:21:25 PM

These EV chargers hang from garage ceilings – and install in hours

Michelle Lewis | Aug 26 2026 - 11:22 am PT

2 Comments

Image: Voltpost

Voltpost made its name turning lampposts into EV chargers. Now it wants to hang them from garage ceilings and bolt them to apartment-building walls.
The New York-based startup has launched two new versions of its Voltpost Air Level 2 charger: the Voltpost Air Ceiling Mount, designed for parking garages, and the Surface Mount, which attaches to walls and pedestals.

Both are aimed at property owners who want to add EV charging without digging up a parking lot or carrying out a major garage renovation. Voltpost says the chargers can be installed in hours with little or no trenching, cutting installation costs by up to 70%. That’s the company’s estimate, and actual savings will depend on the site and its existing electrical infrastructure.

The Ceiling Mount is (of course) installed overhead, with Voltpost’s AutoCoil cable lowering when it’s needed and retracting afterward. That keeps charging cables off the garage floor, where they can become a tripping hazard or be damaged by vehicles, water, or snow.

The Surface Mount uses the same retractable setup but is designed for walls and pedestals. That gives property owners another option in parking lots and garages where a suitable pole or ceiling isn’t available.

Both models can be ordered with one or two charging ports and either J1772 or NACS connectors. Each Level 2 charger delivers up to 9.6 kW, which Voltpost says can add about 25-30 miles of range per hour, depending on the EV.

Drivers can pay through the Voltpost app, by credit card, or with an RFID card. The chargers are also connected through AT&T’s cellular network for remote monitoring and can appear in Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, Uber, Tesla, and other automaker apps.

“The Voltpost Air portfolio expansion is the natural evolution of our company vision and platform. This lineup enables our team and partners to cost-effectively retrofit existing assets in the built environment with charging infrastructure, empowering more people with open access to reliable charging,” said Voltpost CEO and cofounder Jeff Prosserman.

Why multi-unit building charging matters

Home charging is one of the biggest advantages of owning an EV if you have a driveway or garage where you can install a charger. Apartment and condo residents often don’t have that option.

Nearly one-third of US homes are in multi-unit buildings, yet less than 5% of home EV charging takes place at those properties. Installation costs, limited electrical capacity, assigned parking, and the question of who pays for the charger and electricity can all slow projects down.

Voltpost’s new models don’t solve all those problems; a building still needs adequate electrical capacity, permits, and an owner willing to install them. But using existing ceilings, walls, and pedestals could simplify and reduce disruption during installation, particularly in older parking structures that weren’t designed with EV charging in mind.

The chargers are Build America, Buy America compliant and use modular, replaceable components to simplify repairs. Voltpost has not yet announced pricing, delivery dates, or the first locations for the two new models.

Read more: More US cities are getting Voltpost’s lamppost EV chargers

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electrek.co

[Eric] HYUNDAIGENESISHYUNDAI MOTOR GROUPHyundai is about to shake things up with 100 ne...

Eric — 8/26/2026 2:28:56 PM

Hyundai is about to shake things up with 100 new vehicles by 2030: Here’s what’s coming

Peter Johnson | Aug 26 2026 - 8:06 am PT

12 Comments

Hyundai Motor Company, including Genesis, is about to get very busy, with plans to launch more than 100 new or updated vehicles by 2030, including its first extended-range EVs (EREVs).

Hyundai plans new vehicle blitz with EVs and EREVS

While many are pulling back, Hyundai is going on the offensive. Hyundai announced plans to launch over 100 new or refreshed vehicles by the end of the decade during its 2026 CEO Investor Day on Wednesday.

“Our fundamentals have never been,” Hyundai’s CEO, José Muñoz, said. As the third-largest automotive group and second most profitable, Hyundai has “the ability to invest while others are pulling back,” Muñoz explained.

Hyundai will launch over 100 new vehicles globally by 2030, including 58 in North America, 49 in Korea, 41 in Europe, 26 in India, and 22 in China.

The first of which includes the new Elantra, IONIQ 3, the new Tucson and Tucson Hybrid, the Santa Fe EREV, a new A-segment EV SUV for India, a new global B-segment SUV, and another B-segment SUV for Europe.

Hyundai new vehicle launches by 2030 (Source: Hyundai)

The new Tucson and Tucson Hybrid will launch later this year, followed by the Santa Fe EREV in the first half of 2027, Hyundai’s first extended-range electric vehicle (EREV).

Hyundai expects the Santa Fe EREV will deliver over 600 miles of combined driving range. It uses a battery electric drivetrain for an “EV-like” experience and a small gas engine that serves as a generator to charge the battery when it gets low.

The new Santa Fe EREV will be built at Hyundai’s manufacturing plant in Alabama and sold in the US.

Hyundai plans to launch its first EREV in 2027 (Source: Hyundai)

New batteries, software, and other advanced techIt will be powered by Hyundai’s new in-house battery cells, which the company said deliver more than double the output of its previous high-nickel cells. They also cut charging time by 40%.

The new high-performance cells will debut in the EREV in the first half of 2027. Hyundai said new EVs will launch next year with mid-nickel NCM cells that slash battery costs by about 30%.

Hyundai plans to launch 10 new hybrid vehicles in North America by 2030, starting with the Genesis GV80 Hybrid, set to launch in September.

Hyundai new vehicle roadmap (Source: Hyundai)

In Europe, Hyundai will cover 85% of the market with a fully electrified lineup, including five new SUVs and light commercial vehicles. By 2030, Hyundai aims to sell 420,000 EVs in Europe, up from 116,000 last year.

Hyundai’s first compact EV from its IONIQ series, the IONIQ 3, went on sale this month. The electric hatch offers 309 miles (497 km) of range and is Hyundai’s first vehicle in Europe equipped with its next-gen Pleos Connect infotainment platform.

Korea will serve as “the cradle of Hyundai Motor’s global growth” with new manufacturing innovations.

Genesis GV90 debut (Source: Peter Johnson/ Electrek)

The flagship Genesis GV90, which Hyundai revealed in San Francisco last week ( see our photos from the event), will go into production at Hyundai’s new Ulsan EV plant.

As a software-defined factory (SSF), Hyundai’s Ulsan EV plant uses 108 advanced manufacturing methods, including AI quality control and inspection.

In China, Hyundai will lean on local partnerships as part of its comeback plans. Starting with the IONIQ V, the company will introduce new vehicles, including another EV and an EREV in 2027. By 2030, Hyundai plans to sell over 500,000 vehicles in China.

Chang Hwan Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of Electrification Energy Solutions Tech Unit at Hyundai Motor Group (Source: Hyundai)

Genesis expands into new luxury segments

Genesis, on the other hand, has “grown faster than any luxury marque in history” over the past decade, Muñoz said.

Over the next decade, Genesis plans to establish itself as a true global luxury powerhouse. The GV90 and new hybrid options will enable it to tap into some of the hottest segments in the luxury space.

The flagship GV90 embodies everything Genesis has to offer in terms of luxury and technology, which will eventually trickle down into other vehicles and segments.

Q&A at Hyundai’s 2026 CEO Investor Day (Source: Hyundai)

By 2030, Genesis aims to expand to over 40 markets with 350,000 in annual sales. Following Italy, France, the Netherlands, Tunisia, and Morocco earlier this year, Genesis will enter Spain by the end of 2026. It also plans to expand into India and Asia Pacific in the near future.

To support the aggressive product blitz, Hyundai will expand global production capacity to 1.27 million units by 2030.

This includes 500,000 units in North America, 320,000 units in India, 200,000 units in Korea, and 250,000 units for CKD production.

electrek.co

[Eric] Hyundai Launching 100 New Models; Soaring Tariffs Hurt U.S. Automakers - Autolin...

Eric — 8/26/2026 2:16:51 PM

Hyundai Launching 100 New Models; Soaring Tariffs Hurt U.S. Automakers - Autoline Daily 4364

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Aug 26, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 Hyundai To Launch 100 New Models Globally
2:45 Soaring Metal Tariffs Hurt U.S. Automakers
3:58 New Honda Plant Depends on USMCA Extension
5:28 Li Auto Reports Q2 Net Loss
6:11 Aston Martin Dropped from FTSE Index
6:44 Creditors Challenge Aston Martin Debt Deal
7:13 Ford Dealer Tests Parts Drone Delivery
7:51 Drivers Debate Proper Steering Wheel Grip

youtube.com

[Eric] 800V, 650km, $24,600: Hyundai's New Fastback EV Rewrites the Price Ladder [grap...

Eric — 8/25/2026 1:59:44 PM

800V, 650km, $24,600: Hyundai's New Fastback EV Rewrites the Price Ladder

The Electric Viking

382K subscribers

Aug 25, 2026

800V, 650km, $24,600: Hyundai's New Fastback EV Rewrites the Price Ladder

This is the Hyundai Ioniq V, a fastback sedan from Beijing Hyundai that opened pre-sales at the 2026 Chengdu Auto Show starting at 119,900 yuan (~$17,700, though your $24,600 figure may reflect a different exchange rate or trim), rising to 139,900 yuan for the top variant.

It runs on an 800V E-GMP platform with CATL LFP batteries in 53.5 kWh or 66.8 kWh sizes, delivering up to 650 km CLTC range (roughly 400-480 km WLTP-equivalent), alongside a 27-inch dual-screen cockpit and Momenta-developed driver assistance.

youtube.com

[Eric] Are Tariffs Worth the Benefits?; MINI Migrating to One Platform - Autoline Daily...

Eric — 8/25/2026 1:51:13 PM

Are Tariffs Worth the Benefits?; MINI Migrating to One Platform - Autoline Daily 4363

Autoline Network

139K subscribers

Aug 25, 2026

Autoline reports breaking global car news, with great insight and analysis. Also, top auto executive interviews. We cover electric vehicles (EV), autonomous vehicles (AV) and internal combustion engine technology (ICE), as well as car sales & financial earnings and new car reviews.

0:00 Are Tariffs Worth the Benefits?
0:52 Hyundai Reaches Agreement with Union
1:33 Porsche Sells IT Division to Tata
1:59 MINI Migrating to 1 Platform
3:08 CATL Buys Into Heavy-Duty Battery Swapping
4:01 Renault 5 Gets Improvements
4:55 Vacuum Maker Gives Up EV Plans
5:52 10 & 2 Steering Position No Longer Considered Safe

youtube.com

[Eric] MININGELECTRIC TRAINE-QUIPMENT HIGHLIGHTE-quipment highlight: 4,400 hp Wabtec FL...

Eric — 8/25/2026 1:21:13 PM

E-quipment highlight: 4,400 hp Wabtec FLXDrive electric locomotive

Jo Borrás | Aug 25 2026 - 4:10 am PT

6 Comments

After nearly a year of operation on a dedicated track line at the Jimblebar iron ore mine in Australia, BHP is proving that these 4,400 hp battery-electric powered heavy-haul locomotives are ready for prime time.

Australia’s first brand-new, purpose-built battery-electric locomotives ( BELs) arrived in Port Hedland last November – and the two Wabtec FLXDrive BELs were immediately put to the test on BHP’s rail routes between its Jimblebariron ore mines and Port Hedland operations in the Pilbara.

“The Pilbara has always been a place of big ambition, and these locomotives represent the kind of innovation that is needed to keep the region firing,” said Peter Thomas, Wabtec’s Regional Senior Vice President for ANZ & SEA. “Wabtec is proud to partner with BHP on this important step toward decarbonising rail operations. These locomotives are purpose-built to perform in one of the world’s most demanding environments, combining advanced battery technology and regenerative braking to deliver high efficiency and lower emissions.”

The train, itself

Wabtec locomotive, via BHP.

While most modern trains use electric drive motors, those are typically powered by diesel engines acting as electrical generators to haul up to 35,000 tonnes of ore. The Wabtec BELs are similarly powered by high-torque electric motors, but in these, the motors draw power exclusively from the locomotive’s batteries – and they are positively MASSIVE batteries!

Each of the Wabtec FLXDrive BELs is weighed down by a 7 MWh battery pack backed by advanced regenerative braking technology that can capture energy during downhill braking and feed it back into the battery.

On some long downhill runs and loaded up with ore, BELs with regenerative brakes could generate enough power to send the unladen train back uphill to get loaded up again, effectively meaning it’ll only need to be charged once, and then never again.

That kind of potential fuel savings is something every mining company will be looking at – including BHP, who announced plans to add two additional BELs to its Pilbara operations for extended trials just this week:

In FY2026, we commenced commissioning of two purpose-built Wabtec FLXdrive heavy-haul battery-electric locomotives in Port Hedland, marking the beginning of the trial program. Two further locomotives from Progress Rail were delivered to Perth in FY2026 and to be transported to Port Hedland for commissioning and testing in FY2027.

Once locomotives from both original equipment manufacturers are in trial, we expect to be one of the first mining companies globally to conduct side-by-side evaluations of battery-electric heavy haul locomotive technologies from two suppliers within the same operating environment. This creates a unique opportunity to compare [different products] and accelerate learning in large-scale rail applications.

BHP

Using gravity to charge up heavily-laden mining vehicles on downhill runs is an idea that’s been put into practice for years, with great success wherever the topography allows ( since 2017, at least). Combining that clever use of gravity, traction braking, and battery storage for use on a rail system like this just seems smart, and it makes me think we’re just scratching the surface of all the clever ways electrification and battery storage will eventually get put to use.

I wonder what would happen if you threw some battery electric rail cars into the mix, as well!? You guys are smart, head down to the comments and let me know.

SOURCE | IMAGES: BHM, via International Mining.

I

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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

electrek.co

[Eric] [graphic] Can BMW Regain Business in China with Electric SUV & Sedan? 4 minute...

Eric — 8/25/2026 12:00:46 PM

Can BMW Regain Business in China with Electric SUV & Sedan?

4 minutes

Z. S.

11 Comments

Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.

It’s been no secret — legacy automaker sales are getting absolutely drained in China. The shift to electric cars is more of a tsunami than a wave, and buyers are much more interested in and convinced by electric vehicles from Chinese producers than from legacy automakers.

Since China was an important, critical market for legacy automaker growth for several years before this electric era arrived, they are struggling from an overall, global perspective due to this huge drop in demand in China. In general, it seems like they are hopeless, like they have no way back and no path to growth with China turning away from them. However, BMW thinks it has what it takes to regain market share in the country.

Naturally, this effort has to involve EVs — has to center around EVs. “BMW is ramping up its electric vehicle offensive in China, showcasing two China-exclusive electric models at the ongoing 2026 Chengdu Motor Show, as the German premium automaker seeks to reverse lackluster sales of its luxury EVs in the world’s largest auto market,” China Dailywrites. “The automaker started pre-sales for its long-wheelbase Neue Klasse iX3 electric SUV at the auto event — the first of its kind — with three variants priced from 269,900 yuan to 339,900 yuan. BMW confirmed that the pre-sale price will match the final launch price, with mass deliveries scheduled to begin in November.” That’s about $40,150 to $50,565 in US speak.

With about 900 kilometers (560 miles) of range on a full charge and an 800-voltage powertrain, is this going to be enough to revive BMW sales in China? It’s possible, but I’m skeptical. That said, the new iX3 has been a huge hit in Europe, where it has pulled in 100,000 orders since it launched in 2025. However, the Chinese market is much more competitive, insanely packed with compelling, competitive, high-value-per-dollar (or yuan) electric vehicles. We will see….

cleantechnica.com

[Eric] BYDBYD opens orders for its new flagship EV with over 1,000 km of range for unde...

Eric — 8/24/2026 4:31:03 PM

BYD opens orders for its new flagship EV with over 1,000 km of range for under $40,000

Peter Johnson | Aug 24 2026 - 8:24 am PT

51 Comments

BYD opened orders for the Great Han, its new flagship electric sedan that can drive over 1,000 km (621 mi) on a single charge, starting at under $40,000.

BYD opens orders for the flagship Great Han EV

The Great Han, or Da Han as it’s called in China, is the first D-segment flagship sedan under BYD’s Dynasty family.

We got a sneak peek of the new full-size sedan in June after it was revealed in the batch of new energy vehicles approved for sale by China’s MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology).

Lu Tian, the general manager of BYD’s Dynasty series, confirmed last month that the Great Han would be revealed in full at the Chengdu Motor Show, teasing that “more surprises await.”

Tian also confirmed the electric sedan will offer a CLTC driving range of up to 1,008 km (626 miles) on a single charge.

BYD opened pre-orders for the new Great Han at the event, starting at just 249,900 yuan, or about $37,200.

BYD Great Han (Da Han) flagship electric sedan (Soure: Lu Tian)

The flagship sedan is available in three variants with single and all-wheel drive powertrains. Two rear-wheel drive (RWD) options are available: Premium and Flagship, starting at 249,900 yuan ($37,2000) and 269,900 yuan ($40,200).

Both are powered by a single 370 kW (496 hp) motor and 102.326 kWh battery, providing a CLTC driving range of up to 1,008 km (626 miles).

The AWD variant adds a frton electric motor for a combined 570 kW (764 hp). Although it uses the same battery pack as the RWD variants, the AWD version has a CLTC range of 880 km (546 miles).

All Great Han variants are equipped with BYD’s Blade Battery 2.0 and Flash Charging technology. The setup enables vehicles equipped with the new batteries to recharge from 10% to 70% in just 5 minutes using 1,500 kW technology. For a full recharge (10% to 97%), it takes just 9 minutes.

Top comment by LoveMyEvs

Liked by 56 people

This vehicle exemplifies why the US auto and energy industries are headed toward obsolescence. We had a real chance to reclaim greatness, yet the very people who championed 'making America great again' ended up accelerating our decline. Over 400 miles with 5-10 minute charging is all that is needed for like 95%+ of use cases and to overcome range anxiety.

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Measuring 5,256 mm in length, 1,999 mm in width, and 1,510 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 3,130 mm, BYD’s flagship sedan is bigger than the Tesla Model S and Lucid Air. It’s closer in size to the long-wheelbase Mercedes S-Class.

Like the flagship Great Tang SUV, BYD said the sedan is loaded with premium standard features, including its DiSus-A dual chamber air suspension system, rear-wheel steering, and zero gravity front seats.

All Great Han variants are also equipped with BYD’s God’s Eye B smart driving system, offering ADAS features like Navigation on Autopilot and remote parking.

The new flagship sedan is part of BYD’s broader push into higher end segments following the Great Tang SUV and several new vehicles under its premium Denza brand.

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