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“We built it, you make it.”That’s the motto for Slate, a new American electric vehicle company, which just revealed its launch model and is backed by ex-Amazon (AMZN) executives, including, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’s family officeSlate said its EV pickup, a bare-bones truck with a footprint smaller than a Ford (F) Maverick, will cost somewhere in the mid-$20K range, and it will come in any color you want — as long as it’s slate gray, that is. The option-challenged vehicle offers a choice of two battery sizes for the rear-wheel-drive truck: a 52.7-kWh battery pack targeting 150 miles of range and...

It could take up to five years to develop a domestic supply chain to supplant China’s global monopoly in processing rare earths into materials needed to produce everything from iPhones to F-35 fighter jets. While the United States has most of the 17 rare earth elements and 50 critical minerals underground, it has no industrial capacity to refine them into processed metals and magnets, according to Melissa “Mel” Sanderson, American Rare Earths board member and Critical Minerals Institute co-chair. “Currently in the United States, we have zero magnet manufacturers,” Sanderson told The Epoch Times. She said that’s why China imposed...

Great Wall Motor, a China’s firm, aims for long-distance travel with its next-gen Haval Xiaolong Max hybrid EV. GWM's Haval Xiaolong Max PHEV SUV. credit: GWM China’s Great Wall Motor (GWM) has introduced the second-generation Haval Xiaolong Max plug-in hybrid SUV, featuring updated exterior styling and the company’s in-house Coffee Pilot Plus driver assistance system. The new model promises to offer more range, power, and smart features. Haval Xiaolong Max blends modern styling with practical features The latest Haval Xiaolong Max follows the brand’s “rhythmic natural aesthetics” design language with a refreshed exterior that gives the SUV a more modern...

Tariffs of up to 45 per cent on Chinese-made electric cars imported into the European Union may be replaced with a new ‘minimum pricing’ system after previously stalled discussions between the two trading partners were re-started. A ‘minimum pricing’ arrangement – also referred to as ‘price floors’ or ‘price undertakings’ – between the European Union (EU) and China would see tariffs abolished and set minimum prices agreed upon. According to Reuters, European trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic has said any new policy would have to be as effective as tariffs, given the approach has previously only been applied on ‘homogenous commodities’....

The Chinese EV giant delivered 1 million+ cars in Q1 and continues to pull ahead on some pretty huge metrics.In its preliminary earnings for the first quarter on Tuesday, electric automaker BYD revealed that net income could jump as much as 119% in the first 3 months of the year to 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), after delivering more than 1 million EVs across Q1 — up almost 60% on the same period last year. Easy rideWhile Trump’s tariffs have been a major bump in the road for other automakers, BYD — which had no plans to sell cars in...

Tesla’s sales in the United States fell almost 9 percent in the first three months of the year even as the overall market for electric vehicles grew, according to data compiled by a research firm. Car buyers are moving away from Teslas and toward models like General Motors’ Chevrolet Equinox electric vehicle, which starts at around $35,000 and can travel more than 300 miles on a charge, Cox Automotive, the research firm, said in a report. Sales of all-electric vehicles in the United States rose 11 percent during the first quarter to about 300,000 cars and light trucks, Cox said,...

The Skoltech team tested six plasma compositions on the capacitance of carbon nanowalls. Plasma treatment introduced foreign atoms into supercapacitor electrodes to enhance performance. Skoltech ********************************************************************* Scientists at Russia’s Skoltech have achieved a refined understanding of how plasma treatment can significantly improve the capacitance of supercapacitors. Their latest findings reveal that a specific mixture of nitrogen and argon plasma can double the areal capacitance of carbon nanowall electrodes. This could lead to the development of supercapacitors with greater energy storage capabilities and broader applications. “These are energy storage devices that complement batteries in electric cars, trains, port cranes, and elsewhere,”...

US Experience The US has seen two eras in e-bike injury—an early era with the majority of deaths in older patients who have the financial resources to purchase earlier generation and more expensive e-bikes but were less skilled riding a bicycle. During the pandemic, sales of all bikes increased, and the closure of gyms and social distancing led some to purchase e-bikes as a safe option for outdoor exercise. In the second era, e-bike prices fell significantly and became more affordable, leading to a dramatic increase in pediatric use and injury. [snip] For decades, MarinHealth Medical Center has been the...

China’s BYD reported annual revenue of 777 billion yuan ($107 billion) for 2024, leapfrogging Tesla as competition between the two EV rivals heats up. “BYD has become an industry leader in every sector from batteries, electronics to new energy vehicles, breaking the dominance of foreign brands and reshaping the new landscape of the global market,” Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, said in a statement. The filing comes shortly after BYD announced a new battery technology that it claims can charge EVs almost as quickly as it takes to fill a gasoline car. Last week, BYD unveiled an ultra-fast...

It’s become vogue on the right to trash electric vehicles. And, mostly, we’re right to. Most of them are garbage retrofits that rely on a garbage network of chargers which are made by garbage ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) manufacturers who have absolutely no idea what they are doing. What they are manufacturing is virtue-signaling, not cars with anything even remotely resembling good EV—or any other type of—engineering. And then there’s Tesla. There are EVs, and there are Teslas. And though they are both clearly electric cars, they are two completely different animals. This article aims to give you a permanent...

As the push for renewable energy intensifies, the demand for effective electricity storage solutions becomes increasingly critical. Current lithium-ion batteries, commonly used in electric vehicles and portable electronics, are hitting their limits. According to Xiaolei Wang, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Alberta, these batteries are not well-suited for large-scale energy storage required for the electrical grid. Survives 380,000 charging cycles Wang and his research team are focusing on an innovative approach to battery technology: grid-level aqueous batteries that utilize seawater as an electrolyte. Collaborating with the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, this approach could...

… Oregon transportation officials say that without more funding, residents like (Timothy) Taylor could see further declines in the quality of roads, highways and bridges starting this year. But revenues from gas taxes paid by drivers at the pump are projected to decrease as more people adopt electric and fuel-efficient cars, forcing officials to look for new ways to fund transportation infrastructure. States with aggressive climate goals like Oregon are facing a conundrum: EVs can help reduce emissions in the transportation sector, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, but they also mean less gas tax revenue in government...

Shares in Chinese EV giant BYD surged to a record high Tuesday after it unveiled new battery technology it says can charge a vehicle in the same time it takes to fill up a petrol car. The company said the battery and charging system, called "Super e-Platform", boasted peak speeds of 1,000 kW, allowing cars to travel up to 470 kilometres (292 miles) after being plugged in for just five minutes.

The electric buses in question were made by a company called Proterra, which went bankrupt two years ago.. A city in Washington is selling nearly half of its electric bus fleet following reliability issues and difficulty getting replacement parts. The Everett City Council voted earlier this week to sell nine of the electric buses, of which only four are in service right now, because of reliability issues, including critical sensors and components that have been failing since they went into service. The city is now looking to purchase retrofitted diesel buses so there are no gaps in service. According to...

Battery cell maker Northvolt has filed for bankruptcy in Sweden, the company said on Wednesday, marking one of the country's largest corporate failures and effectively ending Europe's best hope of developing a rival to challenge China. "This was a decision we did not take lightly" and it was the only "realistic path forward," Northvolt Chairman Tom Johnstone told a press conference, saying every avenue had been pursued to avoid bankruptcy for the company, which puts 5,000 jobs at risk. The EV battery maker sought U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November as its cash pile dwindled and it scrambled to...

Korean researchers have developed advanced Ni-rich cathodes that improve all-solid-state battery performance, offering longer lifespans and greater energy efficiency. n an era where electronic devices and electric vehicles demand better battery performance, scientists are racing to develop batteries that last longer, charge faster, and store more energy. A promising solution lies in all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs), which could outperform traditional lithium-ion batteries in both efficiency and safety. At the heart of this innovation is the cathode active material (CAM), particularly those rich in nickel (Ni), which plays a crucial role in boosting battery performance. Role of Ni-rich cathodes ASSBs differ from...

Electric vehicles are “not mission critical,” said the Trump administration, which has ordered all EV chargers located at federal buildings to be shut down nationwide and newly purchased EVs to be offloaded. This comes on the heels of pausing already-promised EV infrastructure funding. The U.S. General Services Administration, or GSA, is the federal agency responsible for contracts and procurement as they relate to the government’s real estate, IT, products, and equipment, which includes vehicles. According to The Verge, there are several hundred charging stations managed by the GSA, which amounts to roughly 8,000 charging ports across the country. And they...

According to a new report by the California New Car Dealers Association, the growth rate of all electric vehicles in California was stagnant, and went up by only 1% in 2024. The number of total registrations for electric cars dropped by o.3% from 2023.

That’s one way to avoid congestion pricing. U.S. automaker Alef Aeronautics proved that the sky’s not the limit for vehicles after releasing the first-ever footage of a flying car like something out of a science-fiction movie. The groundbreaking fly run starts off typically enough with the black test vehicle — which is 100% electric — driving along a road in California. Then, all of a sudden, it lifts off vertically and soars over another car like a less futuristic scene from the film "Back To The Future II." Flight is facilitated through a system called distributed electric propulsion, with a...

When Ric Harris traded in his ageing Mercedes for a Tesla Model 3, he was instantly converted. “It was a bit like having a spaceship,” says the 51-year-old computer programmer. “It saved me an absolute fortune in fuel; the only thing it’s had done is tyres and topping up the windscreen washer fluid.” When he acquired the car on a company scheme, Harris did not consider the politics of Tesla’s billionaire owner too closely. “Elon Musk just seemed like a really interesting person. Everything he was doing seemed really positive,” he says. Four and a half years later, the car’s...