China has reached a stage of vehicle electrification that is easy to miss if the only number being watched is national EV market share. New urban buses are now essentially all electric, and in many cities the procurement question is no longer whether to replace a diesel bus with a … [continued]
Electric ships attract attention because the vessel is the visible technology. Put a large battery into an inland cargo vessel, replace the diesel propulsion system with electric motors, and the decarbonization story appears straightforward. Inland shipping looks particularly promising because many vessels travel repeatable routes between known terminals, where large … [continued]
People love to complain about how China provides massive state subsidies to its domestic manufacturers, as if the US, the EU, and Japan do not. Whether is it a zillion tax breaks for corporations or forgiveness of local property taxes, the last thing any business in the west wants is … [continued]
Two years ago, the EU imposed new tariffs on Chinese made electric cars because they were flooding the the new car market in Europe. For some reason, the European Commission decided not to place similar tariffs on plug-in hybrids made in China at the same time. The German auto industry … [continued]
Over the course of a few years, China became the absolute juggernaut of the world’s electric vehicle industry. That includes full electrics (BEVs) and plugin hybrids (PHEVs). Regarding the latter, Chinese companies added a lot more battery capacity and range to PHEVs while improving efficiency, technology, charging, etc. So, when … [continued]
XPENG’s autonomous driving technology has been getting better and better (see Larry’s real-world experiences with the technology in recent weeks here, here, and here). Going further down that road, XPENG has just launched a robotaxi model, YOYO. We don’t know a ton about this model yet, but there are some … [continued]
Norway found a real remote-access risk in a connected Yutong bus, but its older European comparison could not establish that the risk was uniquely Chinese.
When Norwegian transit authority Ruter put a Chinese Yutong electric bus through cybersecurity testing inside an isolated mine, the investigation started with two very different concerns. One was geopolitical: could the bus act as a visual-surveillance platform near sensitive facilities such as Lutvann, home to Norway’s intelligence service? The other … [continued]
Battery swapping has been a concept for electric vehicles for much longer than I’ve been covering the technology (which is more than 14 years). Better Place launched and grew, and then went bankrupt. Some other battery swapping trials have come and gone much more quietly. And then there’s NIO. NIO … [continued]
OceanX survived severe Yagi wind and waves with little reported nacelle inclination, but its stayed, weather-vaning architecture is the more interesting result.
OceanX gave me two immediate reasons to be skeptical. It puts two turbines on one floating platform, and it puts the rotors downwind of their supports rather than in front of them. I had looked at both ideas years ago and found good reasons why the wind industry had largely … [continued]
Something interesting is going on in China, and I’m not exactly sure what to make of it. Typically, I don’t see a lot of rival narratives in Chinese media. One story is often covered the same across the industry, and there’s not a ton of competing narratives arguing with each … [continued]
