ICYMI: China Makes Kick-Ass Hybrids Too

ICYMI: China Makes Kick-Ass Hybrids Too

They Offer Better Range Than Toyota’s (Or Anyone Else’s) But Are Just Gas Vehicles In Disguise.

In a world where Canadians and Americans are still on the fence about the viability of electric vehicles, Chinese OEMs are building PHEVs with EV battery range and capacity as good or better than some of the BEVs available in North America. drive.com.au, reuters.com, finance.yahoo.com

This week, Geely and BYD got into a fistfight over who sold the most cars (both are near the bottom of the top 10 global sales list) and who has the most efficient hybrid. Geely won in sales, and BYD won on the hybrid. carnewschina.com, asia.nikkei.com

BYD’s new powertrain would let you drive from New York to Miami on a single tank of gas, nearly double the range of a Toyota Camry Hybrid.

The Qin L and the Seal 06 models will be the first to offer 2.9l /100 km fuel consumption, a 2,100 km range and 46.06% thermal efficiency. Geely complained that their new engine is more efficient. But really, who gives a fuck at that level of efficiency. bloomberg.com, carnewschina.com, topgear.com, cleantechnica.com, reuters.com

The Qin L and Seal 06 sell in China for less than $20,000 USD. cnevpost.com

Meanwhile, GM and Ford are sitting in their nowhere land, making all their nowhere plans for nobody. reuters.com

It's fantastic to have more fuel-efficient vehicles. Who doesn't want to save money on gas? It's time for people to wake up to the reality that hybrids are essentially gas vehicles in disguise. Plus, most folks neglect to plug in their Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, completely nullifying any potential positive environmental impact. motortrend.com, caranddriver.com, cleantechnica.com, abc.net.au

China’s Automotive Expansion

BYD hopes to win a bid to sell iconic-looking double-decker electric buses to London. carscoops.com, topgear.com

BYD opens their 100th dealership in Brazil. cnevpost.com

Huawei started taking pre-orders for its new EV. carnewschina.com

Geely partners with Renault on ICE and Hybrid production. reuters.com

The Chinese government now requires that 25% of the chips used in vehicles be locally made. ft.com

China is getting more serious about solid-state battery R&D. reuters.com

China wants to make a deal with the EU on EVs. reuters.com

This is an interesting Wall Street Journal piece on how sanctions have created a shadow economy led by China, which they call an “axis of evasion.” wsj.com

Must Know Musk News

Elon claims that Elon is an alien. He might have been joking. livemint.com

Elon’s xAI raised $6 billion, making him the wealthiest man in the world again. forbes.com, forbes.com

Elon is being sued over failure to disclose the size of his stake in Twitter (X). reuters.com

Elon still wants his $56 billion pay package, and he’ll give you a factory tour to get it. reuters.com

Elon plans to build the “gigafactory of compute”, a supercomputer four times larger than the largest existing. interestingengineering.com

Used Tesla Model Y sales are surging as prices fall. forbes.com

Tesla recalled 125,227 vehicles over a seat belt warning system issue. reuters.com

The Boring Company is still making holes in Las Vegas. teslarati.com

SpaceX dropped space junk on a Saskatchewan farm. globalnews.ca

The growth of StarLink, built on the backbone of SpaceX, is very impressive. theglobeandmail.com

Rise Of The Machines

China put a machine gun on a robot dog. And you could have your own for a little over $100,000 USD (plus shipping, handling and the cost of a Chinese assault rifle). cnn.com, businessinsider.com, theguardian.com, unitree.com

What would you do with your robotic third thumb? interestingengineering.com

A Swiss start-up built (nay, grew) a bioprocessor-based computer that uses 16 human brain organoids. tomshardware.com

Check out this Korean Starbucks, where robots deliver your coffee. youtube.com, interestingengineering.com

Someone taught robots how to play soccer. reuters.com

Economists don’t have a model to predict AI's job-loss impact accurately. hbr.org

Energy

Solar’s share of US energy is small, but it is the fastest growing. reuters.com

Germany has so much solar that electricity prices are dropping below zero. And that’s a problem. futurism.com, businessinsider.com, bloomberg.com

A copper shortage would be a massive problem for the global energy transition. oilprice.com, ief.org

Almost ironically, Pennsylvania’s fracking wastewater has a large amount of lithium in it. arstechnica.com

A study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and startup Utilidata suggests that AI tools could help utilities make the grid and EV charging more reliable. theverge.com

But Wait, There’s More

VinFast makes an electric bike. And it’s kinda hot. hypebeast.com

Toyota sales drop in April. reuters.com

Toyota, Mazda, and Subaru are partnering on new lower-cost Internal Combustion Engines. motor1.com, reuters.com

Hyundai hired a former Apple executive to lead the development of Genesis and performance vehicles. europe.autonews.com

Hyundai is in trouble over potential child labour issues in Alabama. reuters.com

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N is faster than the Lamborghini Urus. insideevs.com

Ford Performance teases us with a juiced-up F-150 Lightning they assembled for racing at Pike Peak. electrek.co

Nissan follows Tesla (and Toyota) into Gigacasting. autonews.com

Stellantis plans to build a hybrid Fiat 500 and Jeep Avenger in Italy. reuters.com

VW plans to build a low-cost electric vehicle dubbed the “ID.1”. reuters.com

Ventje makes a fantastic camper van out of your ID Buzz. theverge.com, ventje.com

Geneva auto show shuts down. reuters.com

NHTSA is looking into Zoox autonomous driving vehicle braking issues after crashes. reuters.com

Kingston, Ontario, is investing in Electric Garage Trucks. electrek.co

Canoo, Aptera and the new Delorean all make appearances in the new Jennifer Lopez Netflix Sci-Fi movie. canooers.com

This 1971 Ford Bronco half-cab pickup is a thing of beauty. caranddriver.com

ICYMI

The new 3D-printed optical fibres may make the Internet even faster. scitechdaily.com

Pope Francis attributed a second miracle to Carlo Acutis, the patron saint of the Internet. nytimes.com

Kick Out The Jams

Lightning strikes during Metallica concert at precisely the right time. youtube.com

Also, Apocalyptica’s symphonic cover of Metallica’s “One” is fucking fantastic. youtube.com

New music this week from Eminem and Snow Patrol.

Some epic songs have been produced for the soundtrack to the American Psycho comic book series (yes, comic books have soundtracks now). Check out these tracks by Ramsey and Puscifer.

My jams this week are “Me vs You”, “Knives,” and “Autonomy” by Le Destroy. They sound like Shirley Manson and Courtney Love had a love child that was raised by Trent Reznor and Peaches.

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