EV Breakthroughs in China, Tesla’s Ongoing Roller Coaster Ride — News of the Week

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It’s been a busy month, and a few weeks have truly skipped by us since my final “Cleantech News of the Week” replace. So, this can be a two-week abstract of a few of the greatest information we’ve seen and op-eds we’ve written.

Clear Power

The world is shifting right into a clear vitality future, and there’s little doubt about that. One information level displaying us that is undeniable fact that the world is investing almost twice as much money into clean energy than fossil fuels this yr. Equally, forecasts for a way a lot clear vitality can be put in in coming years maintain having to be revised upward.

Within the US, almost all new power capacity added in the country this year has come from renewable energy sources.

We simply handed the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Discount Act, and research shows that “Red states” (primarily Republican states) have received the most investmentregardless of truly having far much less of the inhabitants than Blue states. (As a reminder, the Inflation Discount Act was handed by Democrats once they managed Congress, with no help from Republican politicians.)

Maybe on a associated observe, Tina Casey discusses how much agrivoltaics and community solar power are a match made in heaven.

Steve Hanley additionally mentioned solar growth and success in Germany, the UK, and Texas.

On the subject of wind energy, the US Department of Energy has three new reports out on our growing wind energy future.

Sadly — not due to radiation or something like that, however due to fundamental economics, practicality, and monetary effectivity — some are still wasting their time on new nuclear power.

However let’s finish with one thing enjoyable — walkable solar PV floors. Okay, this is probably not probably the most environment friendly use of photo voltaic PV, nevertheless it’s a enjoyable choice to discover.

Electrical Vehicles

350 mayors across the US have pledged to impress at the very least 50% of their municipal fleets by 2030 and enhance their EV infrastructure by 500% by 2035. The pledge was made as a part of the 2nd anniversary of the Inflation Discount Act.

Now we have a enjoyable new month-to-month report from Jose Pontes through which he does a “market roundup” of the top countries in the world and their EV sales trends. These of us into quantity enjoyable are completely loving this.

Colombia shouldn’t be a kind of main markets, however we even have a report on this booming younger market, which has seen EV sales grow 240% recently.

But it surely’s not all about new EVs. The nice information for almost all of people that store the used automotive market is that used electric vehicle prices have come down tremendously in the past several months — by 20.5% yr over yr within the 2nd quarter.

On the subject of Tesla, we mentioned what should be coming from an upgraded Tesla Model Ynot too long ago noticed undercover, and likewise a super-trimmed-down and cheaper Model 3 for Mexico.

Concerningly, Tesla’s favorability dropped from among Democrats 39% to 16% in just 6 months this year! There are some anticipated causes for that, however they go a bit broader than we in all probability assume, as a result of

On the optimistic entrance for Tesla, it got a relatively small 9% tariff added to the bottom EV tariff of 10% for electrical vehicles produced in China and shipped to the EU. That ought to assist defend it from a giant gross sales drop in Europe.

Over in China, EV startup Zeekr has now set a new high bar for how briskly an electrical automotive (on the market in the marketplace at this time) can cost. The corporate additionally simply reached 300,000 cumulative gross sales.

Chinese language EV corporations Zeekr, BYD, and NIO additionally proceed their fast enlargement in markets world wide, most recently into Japan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the UAE.

At house, China’s got a new “cash for clunkers” program to incentivize extra EV gross sales and get extra previous polluting vehicles off the street.

We’ve additionally had a number of broader articles in regards to the EV management of China — how long-term imaginative and prescient and 20 years of policy initiatives have led to China dominating the clear vitality and EV markets. All of the whereas, too many within the US — together with in energy out there or politics — have been complacent, entitled, and scared of change. On that matter, GM and Ford havesadly, adopted the short-term, anti-community, short-sighted guidance of Jack Welch — and it’s not turning out properly.

Sticking to US challenges, the newest information is that the rollout of Tesla Supercharging adapters for non-Tesla brands is not going well — it’s going very slowly as a consequence of an unexplained glacial tempo of manufacturing of those adapters by Tesla. Hopefully that can change quickly.

A police chief in Georgia explains how he went from EV skeptic to EV lover. It’s a enjoyable story.

Many anti-EV individuals like to assert “they’re not as green as you think they are.” Properly, that’s bunk. And on that matter, the US Department of Energy points out that “a small electric SUV with a range of 300 miles produces 52% fewer life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than a comparable gasoline vehicle.”

George Harvey wrote a enjoyable little thought train on what will happen as we come to the end of the fossil fuel era.

And over in Kenya, we’ve acquired the optimistic information that the government there is buying 1,000 electric vehicles for its staffa rising pattern of robust authorities coverage in direction of EVs over in Africa.

Robotaxis

Maybe these needs to be within the part above, however I’m giving them their very own class.

The largest information is that Waymo has tripled its weekly paid robotaxi trips in just 3 months!

Additionally, the corporate has a new, 6th-generation self-driving system just launched which might drive in additional excessive climate, is cheaper than ever, and was developed quicker than ever.

Different

The 2028 Olympic Video games in Los Angeles are reportedly going to be car-free. It’s laborious to think about that in some of the auto-dependent cities on the planet. However that’s the aim. As a part of that, we’re anticipating to have electric air taxis at the 2028 Olympics! Actually, the extra bold aim is to have these electrical air taxis in operation for the 2026 World Cup within the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

On the matter of electrical air taxis, the important thing firm behind these plans talked about above, Archer Aviation, additionally just sold 116 of its Midnight electric aircraft to Future Flight Global.

Relating to the approaching presidential election within the US, I additionally mentioned one thing I’d a lot moderately not focus on — how the Trump administration aims to dismantle local weather motion, clear vitality progress, and even staple items just like the Nationwide Climate Service and Division of Power if Trump is elected once more. That’s a part of a Venture 2025 agenda constructed by dozens of former Trump admin individuals and folks very near Trump and JD Vance, and it primarily goals to “drown the government in the bathwater,” as Grover Norquist once advised.

Okay, I’ll finish on one other unhealthy observe. I pointed out in an op-ed recently thatsatirically and sadly, it appears the individuals most afraid of immigration to the US (a rustic constructed by immigrants) are additionally almost definitely to disregard the underlying local weather disaster that’s inflicting a lot of this immigration. Ugh.

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