ICE Vehicle Sales Peaked in 2017

Bloomberg NEF released its latest Electric Vehicle outlook in June, and there are a lot of fantastic data nuggets in the report. bnef.com

ICYMI internal combustion engine sales peaked in 2017 and began their slow, inevitable decline.

Global peak oil demand is projected for around 2027.

Newer lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries with superior battery chemistry that don’t lose capacity in the cold and are less likely to have run-on fire issues averaged $53/kWh between January and April 2024, a 44% year-on-year drop.

The continued drop in $/kWh will put battery replacement costs around the same as the cost of replacing an ICE engine today.

Plug-in hybrids made a profound comeback, but their full role in our global energy transition needs to be clarified.

EVs are projected to have a record sales year in 2024, hitting a slower but still impressive growth rate of 21% year over year. Growth rates vary dramatically in different parts of the world.

EVs of all types are already displacing 1.7 million barrels per day of oil usage, equivalent to about 3% of total road fuel demand. The report also pointed out that 2-wheeled and 3-wheeled vehicles are displacing oil use at a much more significant and faster rate.

Bloomberg NEF published a blog post about the report as well. bnef.com

German automakers realize how much they need China. Urge the EU to drop tariffs. reuters.com

SAIC wants to chat with Europe about their tariffs and stuff. reuters.com

BYD is working on a deal to build a huge production facility in Turkey (to circumvent tariffs). electrek.co

BYD launches new models in Tunisia. cnevpost.com

BYD gets into the EV bus business in Azerbaijan. electrive.com

BYD, now Thailand's most popular EV brand, invests in Thai auto group. reuters.com

Zeekr and Nio report record deliveries in June. cnbc.com

Nio plans to launch a new brand that will require different battery-swapping stations. cnevpost.com

Nio did over two million battery swaps in June. cnevpost.com

Chinese OEMs are projected to deliver 33% of global auto production and sales by 2030 (note that they already deliver 21%). This growth is predominantly expected outside of North America. cnbc.com

China also wants to corner the golf cart market. bnnbloomberg.ca

SpaceX gets to bring down the International Space Station when it reaches “end of life” in 2030. engadget.com

SpaceX partners with Comcast to give business customers access to Starlink. teslarati.com

SpaceX wants to ramp up launches in Florida. techcrunch.com

Tesla is upgrading the motors in Cybertrucks. electrek.co

Tesla filed a patent for an in-vehicle sanitization system. driveteslacanada.ca

Tesla is now on the “approved government vehicles” list in China. electrek.co

Tesla’s energy business is now a business. electrek.co

Tesla released a software update that includes “night curfew’ parental controls and adds YouTube Music. mashable.com

Twitter (X) is losing ground to Threads (Instagram without photos, now with photos). qz.com

Elon says Elon didn’t mislead investors. arstechnica.com

Elon vows Bill Gates will be ‘obliterated’ for shorting Tesla. msn.com

Elon trash-talks Mark Zuckerberg again. businessinsider.com

Celebratory drone constellations, so hot right now. cbc.ca, cbsnews.com

Futurama had it right! Robots can now be controlled by 'brain-in-a-jar' biocomputers. newatlas.com

Nio expands the use of Huawei's humanoid robot. cnevpost.com

Amazon kills their adorable security robot. theverge.com

The West Japan Railway has a giant 12-meter-tall tree-trimming robot. theguardian.com

A clunky fold-away rooftop solar panel lets you charge wherever you park. cnet.com

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) ban on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) in the Arctic goes into effect. Russia gives absolutely no fucks about it and is expected to continue to use the tar-like fuel regardless. bbc.com

The Globe And Mail realizes that solar energy might be important. theglobeandmail.com

German small and medium businesses look to save on energy costs by adopting solar. reuters.com

China plans to build a monster 8 GW solar farm that also includes 4 GW of wind, 5 GWh of energy storage capacity, 200 MW of solar thermal, new ultra-high voltage power transmission lines, and 4 GW of coal-fired power (because why the fuck not). electrek.co

US utility FirstEnergy’s CEO doesn't “see a pathway” to not using coal. ft.com

Recent Rivian van fires are not the fault of the batteries, says Rivian. qz.com, insideevs.com, gizmodo.com

Rivian clarifies that they don’t plan to build with VW. Only share software. reuters.com

CDK Global mostly unfucks fucked up cyberattacks fuck up. canada.autonews.com

Ford wants Ford managers to drive their EVs (just five years after they first launched the Mach-E). reuters.com

GM has to pay $145 Million in emissions penalties. autonews.com

That thang gotta HEMI? Nope. Stellantis replaces infamous engine with V6 Hurricane. autonews.com, canada.autonews.com, msn.com

Stellantis dumps $55 Million more in air-taxi company Archer. reuters.com

Ferrari has some new warranty options for the batteries in their hybrid vehicles. reuters.com

Hyundai’s new IONIQ 9 is delayed a bit. electrek.co

Toyota says, “There’s nothing to see here. We checked and we didn’t fuck anything else up. Just the stuff we already said we fucked up.” (Maybe I’m paraphrasing). reuters.com

Renault wakes the fuck up and gets into LFP batteries. electrive.com

A Colorado Nissan dealer is practically giving away Nissan Leafs. electrek.co

Northvolt will continue EV battery plant project in Canada as it reconsiders other investments. canada.autonews.com, electrive.com

British startup Nyobolt charges an EV battery from 10% to 80% in only 4:39 minutes. electrive.com, cnn.com

Martin Brower plans to use more electric Volvo Trucks to deliver your Big Macs and hashbrowns to McDonald’s locations across Canada. mcdonalds.com

In most cases, EV charging is cheaper than gasoline. cnet.com

If I was going to buy an e-bike, I might buy the Happyrun Tank G100 (once I got over how ludicrous the name was). electrek.co

Denmark is implementing a carbon tax on cows. ctvnews.ca

DJI now sells an e-bike. electrek.co

Japanese government finally stops using floppy disks. bbc.com

BBC Music posted many great highlights from the Glastonbury Music Festival on YouTube.

If you haven’t seen it, you should watch Michael J Fox play guitar with Coldplay at Glastonbury during ‘Fix You.’

This week, there was also lots of great new music from Eddie Vedder, Tom Morello, deadmau5, Eminem, Snow Patrol, Faderhead, and Kesha.

But the song of the week is ‘Afterlife (Davy Love Dub Mix)’ by the Sam Roberts Band. I spent a lot of drunk Saturday nights listening to Davy spin at the El Mocambo. It's great to see this track in the wild.