Leeroy Jenkins

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If you’re not familiar with the Leeroy Jenkins meme, it’s basically an analog for running into a situation without a plan (see Wikipedia and YouTube for more context).

EV Share Grows, Just Not In North America

One out of every four new cars sold globally in 2025 is now electric, according to new analysis from energy think tank Ember.

The EV segment is the fastest-growing segment for new car sales around the world.

But it certainly doesn’t feel like that in North America, where “drill, baby drill,” “scrap the EV mandates,” and “where my new pipelines at?” are the mantras of the day.

The fine folks at the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association (CVMA) launched a website to lobby against Canada’s 2035 EV targets. They claim that the target is unrealistic and puts Canadian automotive manufacturing jobs at risk.

Both are odd claims, since the CVMA represents Ford, GM, and Stellantis, which already appear to be putting Canadian automotive jobs at risk all on their own, without anyone else’s help.

Ford is retooling for an uncertain future in Oakville, with 3,000 auto workers laid off since 2024.

Stellantis is moving Jeep production to the US.

GM shut down the CAMI plant and plans to reduce shifts at its Oshawa plant in 2026.

Nary an electric vehicle nearby to blame.

Math Is Hard

When you dig into the EV adoption trend for every country that has made significant progress moving away from gas-powered vehicles, the curves look the same.

From Norway to China, countries start with around 10% of vehicle sales being electric, then rapidly progress to 50% over about five years, and reach 90% adoption in about a decade.

In every country, it’s the same curve.

That seems pretty achievable and realistic to me. (Sorry, not sorry CVMA)

Canada is expected to end the year with about 8%-9% of vehicles sold being electric.

In 2024, when federal incentives were still in place, that number was around 14%.

Either way, we’re at the starting gate of that ten-year climb that Norway, Nepal, Denmark, Finland, China, the Netherlands, and Ethiopia have already jumped through.

Ford Kills An EV, Births An EREV

This week, Ford announced that it is ending production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning.

Ford lost money on every Lightning they sold.

The net result of which is a $19.5 billion writedown.

The folks at autoevolution present a compelling argument for Ford’s money-losing pick-up: “Analysts estimate that each F-150 Lightning sold allowed Ford to sell about 16 gas F-150 trucks without paying the ‘gas guzzling tax.’ That’s a huge win that is not visible in the financial books.”

But it wasn’t a huge enough win to offset the $19.5 billion loss.

Arguably, the Lightning was a truck no one asked for, sold at a price point no one wanted to pay.

Also this week, Ford announced plans to begin production of an EREV (extended range electric vehicle) F-150.

I don’t know if you’re keeping up with current events, but an EREV is an electric vehicle.

It just happens to also have a gas-powered generator to charge its battery.

If Ford couldn’t make the economics of the EV Lightning work, what magic has Jim Farley unearthed that will allow them to turn a profit building an EREV?

Some of the coverage of the Lightning suggested that Ford is reversing course on EVs.

It is easy to forget that Ford sells five other electric vehicles in other parts of the world.

We get the Mustang Mach-e here; folks in Europe get the electric Explorer, Puma, Capri; and our friends in China get the newly launched electric Bronco.

The Gamble, The Stakes

With Europe pulling the plug on its EV targets and North American automakers stuck in EV-transition neutral, what’s the plan for our global EV transition?

Those shifts create a gap that Chinese carmakers will be more than happy to fill outside of North America, with companies like BYD and Xiaomi making rapid advances in in-cabin technology, advanced driver-assistance systems, and ultra-fast charging to further strengthen their position as leading EV producers.

The Wall Street Journal offers this succinct perspective: American automakers want to boost profits by selling high-margin gas guzzlers today, all while not falling behind on EV technology. It will be difficult to do both.

Leeroy Jenkins!

The MG4 Anxin Edition hatchback is the first mass-produced vehicle with a liquid-solid-state battery. carnewschina.com

BYD has announced that it has produced its 15,000,000th new energy vehicle (NEV), marking the company’s cumulative production of pure electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) across its brands. carnewschina.com

Geely’s EX5 boasts independent 90-degree four-wheel steering capabilities. carnewschina.com

Zeekr is finally making the kind of splash in Europe that legacy automakers have feared for years, and Germany, of all places, is one of its strongholds. forbes.com

According to Schmidt Automotive Research, Chinese brands controlled 10.7% of the market for all-electric cars in Western Europe. forbes.com

Chinese cars are rapidly gaining ground in Britain. nytimes.com

Tesla launched a $350 pickleball paddle that it says is “optimized for high-performance play.” businessinsider.com

Tesla robotaxis have been spotted without their safety monitors. theverge.com

Tesla misled customers about self-driving features, judge rules. theverge.com

Elon is gonna get paid! Musk wins appeal restoring his 2018 Tesla pay package, now worth about $139 billion. reuters.com

A SpaceX Starlink satellite is tumbling and falling out of orbit after partially breaking apart. space.com

Longtime Tesla investor Ross Gerber says 2026 will be a year of reckoning for Musk's car company. businessinsider.com

The Midea Group plans to launch a six-armed, wheeled “super humanoid” robot designed to exceed human performance on the factory line. interestingengineering.com, youtube.com

Ukraine says its small propeller battle drones can now go faster than Formula 1 cars. businessinsider.com

Roomba maker iRobot files for bankruptcy, pursues manufacturer buyout. reuters.com

Sharpa develops the world’s most advanced robotic hand. prnewswire.com

Why is Kyrie Irving so mean to robots? interestingengineering.com

Pumped hydro, a centuries-old system that can balance energy supply and demand, is being reappraised and innovated upon. wired.com

President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers going into and leaving Venezuela. bloomberg.com

Gasoline demand has surpassed expectations, reaching a fresh record high of 27.62 million barrels a day, and is likely to continue growing, with the peak in demand possibly being delayed to 2029 or 2030. bloomberg.com

Virtually all of the world’s biggest traders see the oil market in a state of oversupply early next year — the only question is by how much. The International Energy Agency estimates that output could exceed consumption by around 3.8 million barrels a day in 2026. bloomberg.com

Mantel Capture Inc. is targeting Alberta’s oil sands, launching an engineering study for a commercial-scale carbon capture project with an unnamed Canadian oil producer. theglobeandmail.com

Redwood Materials is rolling out new battery recycling and retrieval bins in San Francisco and Nevada to collect old, unused, and unwanted batteries. Inside the bins, a microcontroller uses infrared, ultrasonic, and other sensing tools to scan each item and maintain safe conditions. Any batteries up to 300Wh will be accepted. theverge.com

Ford has an integrated park module problem. reuters.com

BMW has a steering wheel movement problem. reuters.com

Kia and Hyundai will offer free repairs for millions of cars that lack anti-theft technology as part of a settlement with dozens of US states. theverge.com

Mercedes-Benz recently sent out a notice to customers announcing plans to discontinue MBUX Sound Drive, an interactive audio feature that syncs music to the car’s actions. theverge.com

GM is adding native Apple Music to the infotainment systems of select 2025-model-year Cadillac and Chevrolet vehicles. theverge.com

Sterling Anderson, a former Tesla executive who now leads GM’s technology push, is emerging as a candidate to (maybe, one day) succeed Mary Barra as CEO. bloomberg.com

Rivian rolls out new ‘Universal Hands-Free’ driving feature. techcrunch.com

Automakers developing Level 2 and higher driving systems would be required to restrict their vehicles to specific road types or to clearly defined operational conditions under a new bill introduced today by Senator Ed Markey. theverge.com

Slate Auto, the electric truck startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has now collected more than 150,000 refundable reservations for its low-cost EV due out at the end of 2026. techcrunch.com

Twenty-one states, plus the District of Columbia, filed an amended complaint in the FTC’s lawsuit against Uber. According to the lawsuit, Uber charged consumers for the Uber One subscription without their consent. cnet.com

Lidar maker, Luminar, files for bankruptcy. techcrunch.com

Rad Power Bikes files for bankruptcy protection. cyclingweekly.com

Waymo is in discussions to raise more than $15 billion at a valuation near $100 billion, in a financing round led by its parent company, Alphabet Inc. bloomberg.com

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I hope you are having a fantastic day!