Surging Solar Power, Booming EV Sales, & Robotaxi Safety — Top 12 Stories of the Week

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It’s been a busy week! Beneath are 12 high tales (or teams of tales) from the week. Examine them out and share with buddies.

1. Sadly, CO2 surged globally in 2024and it’s not even clear why — except for the lengthy understood undeniable fact that burning fossil fuels results in extra CO2 emissions, but it surely’s unclear what precisely brought about such an enormous surge in 2024.
2. Uber is rolling out robotaxis an increasing number of with a wide range of companions, together with with Waymo, with WeRideand with Volkswagen and its ID. Buzz electric minivans.
3. On that matter of robotaxis, Waymo has been exhibiting how the one large advantage of its robotaxis is safer roads — much safer roads.
4. Solar energy continues to grow at a rapid clip around the world — even (or particularly) in “Trump states” in the USA. For extra enjoyable, this previous week, we took a take a look at the top 5 solar power states in the USA.
5. On that word, a brand new report out from EnergySage tells us that residential solar system pricing and solar-plus-storage pricing declined to record lows in the second half of 2024. Prices simply proceed to drop.
6. AcePower has just launched a new 50 kW air-cooled high-efficiency module to speed up Europe’s fast-charging community enlargement which sounds fairly … cool.
7. If you would like fun, and a cry, Michael Barnard’s takedown of a ridiculous, absurd hydrogen carsharing program is worth a read.
8. In the meantime, a brand new examine is out of Germany sharing that electric cars are proving to be more reliable than fossil-powered cars.
9. EV gross sales are booming in varied markets, however as a few highlights, Sweden’s plugin vehicle share is now at 63% whereas its BEV share of the auto market is at 35%, and Norway leads the world with greater than 97% of vehicle sales being plugins and 97% even being BEVs! Moreover, Costa Rica is a truly fascinating market and is leading South and Central America for share of its auto sales that are electrics.
10. However for the most important, broadest take, see our two new world EV gross sales experiences — one focused on models and one focused on brands & OEMs.
11. Highlighting just a few standout manufacturers (from China in fact), NIO sales were up 53% in April, XPENG sales were up 313% in January–Apriland BYD full-electric passenger vehicle sales were up 46% in April whereas the company’s electric truck sales were up 1,249%.
12. Let’s finish with one tremendous enjoyable one. Michael Barnard writes that, “Seventy percent of ferries currently on order globally now feature electric drivetrains.” Wow — 70% of ferry orders! Spectacular. “There are about 15,400 ferries in operation around the world, new ones are overwhelmingly being purchased with electric drivetrains, and most operators have electric retrofit plans for existing vessels.”

That’s it for this week, however I’m positive I left out another large, sizzling tales. Chime in down within the feedback when you have extra so as to add.

Be aware: That is additionally despatched out as a publication on high cleantech tales of the week. You can sign up for the newsletter here.