It’s officially summertime now, and there’s always less news in the summer, but the cleantech news never truly pauses globally, so we still have a number of big stories to share from the past week.
1. Tesla’s tiny robotaxi pilot started in Austin, Texas. Tesla fans/shareholders are super enthusiastic about it and seem to think it’s already a great success. Others have noticed multiple issues with the driving, and I have raised the question of how long Tesla robotaxis will be allowed to drive around the city — and potentially others — breaking the law.
2. Tesla sales continue to stumble in Europe. We’re well past the start of production of the new Tesla Model Y, and remember that there’s a Tesla gigafactory in Germany producing this model too. Yet, Tesla sales were still down tremendously again in May year over year in Europe. That’s not a good sign for claims that sales would bounce back big time once the new Model Y arrived. In fact, it seems to be a big warning sign. If June doesn’t finally provide Tesla with some good news in Europe, this could be a disaster for the company.
3. Waymo robotaxis launch in Atlanta with Uber. Coming back to the topic of robotaxis, Waymo has now expanded into another city, Atlanta. Like in Austin, it is partnering 100% with Uber there. If you want to ride a Waymo, you need to do so through the Uber app. Connecting this story to #1 above, there’s also: “Is Waymo Worth Way More Than $45 Billion In Midst Of Tesla Robotaxi Launch?”
4. Trump bombed Iran, and there’s a cleantech angle to that of course. As Michael Barnard points out, this is going to lead to higher oil/gas prices and a quicker transition to electrification and biofuels.
5. Ethiopia doubles down on its commitment to EVs. Rather than going backward and weakening the strong stance the country took banning the import of fossil-fueled vehicles, Ethiopia extended the ban to knocked down kits (semi-knocked-down and completely-knocked-down fossil-powered vehicle kits). My big question is when other countries will follow suit and implement similar bans. It seems highly logical to do so, and as long as Ethiopia is showing it’s going well, why wouldn’t other countries follow its lead?
6. Solar + batteries ready to truly dominate. Yes, solar power has been the leading source of new power capacity for a few years now, and battery energy storage has been growing fast, but a new report from Ember argues that they are really on the verge of taking over — or at least have the potential to. “Batteries are now cheap enough to unleash solar’s full potential, getting as close as 97% of the way to delivering constant electricity supply 24 hours across 365 days cost-effectively in the sunniest places,” they note. And things are only going to get better. Buckle up, because our solar-powered future is arriving.
Credit: Ember
7. BYD’s profit margins very healthy despite price war drama. One of the biggest stories recently has been EV price wars in China, and even a bit beyond. BYD has led those. However, that doesn’t mean it’s been cutting its car prices down to unsustainable levels. In fact, even as it has initiated “price war” after “price war” over the past few years, its profit margin has actually gone up, considerably. So, claims that this price war is damaging EV producers and threaten their existence may be true for several companies, but it seems BYD is absolutely fine.
8. Plugin vehicles reach 53% of Chinese auto sales, BEVs 31%. Jose Pontes brought his latest China EV sales report to town, and it showed the Chinese EV market is as good as ever and looking to hold steady at more than 50% plugin vehicle sales.
9. BYD’s expansion to export markets continues, with some pushback. Most of BYD’s sales are in China, but it is quickly expanding into new markets with low-cost, competitive electric vehicles. Raymond Tribdino reported on how it is set to dominate the plugin vehicle market in Southeast Asia, starting in Thailand. It’s also on the verge of becoming a serious player in Brazil, and now auto industry players there want to slap tariffs on its vehicles. And then it’s in the midst of a huge series of product launches in Europe.
10. US EV sales could surge in 2025, and then crash. Coming back around to the US, one of the biggest EV stories of the year is that Republicans look intent on removing EV subsidies. If this happens as it’s expected to, there will be a phasing out of the subsidies that will likely lead to a surge in EV sales in the second half of this year, and then a big crash in 2026.
11. Ireland is done with coal. It may not be the biggest country in the world, but Ireland has now closed down its last coal power plant. “Ireland recently became the 15th European nation to stop burning coal to make electricity,” Steve Hanley reports.
12. E-bike conversion kit. Want to turn a normal bike into an electric bike (e-bike) on your own? Kamingo has launched an e-bike conversion kit, via a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.
13. Solar & EV chargers for LA schools. It may not be a huge scale, but five schools in Los Angeles are getting solar roofs and EV chargers, and that’s great news and a good example for other schools across the country world. Sooooooooo many schools should have solar power and EV chargers by now!
14. Rapid electric motorcycle expansion in Africa. While electric cars get a lot more attention, sales of electric motorcycles and scooters are also growing fast and are extremely important. Remeredzai Kuhudzai just highlighted Spiro’s huge growth and expansion across Africa.
15. Great EV charger from EVIQO. To wrap up, I recently got the EVIQO EVIPOWER GEN 2 home EV charging station and provided a video and article review for you all. Check it out if you missed it and are in the market for a charging station.
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