Pumping The Brakes On Renewable Energy (In A Good Way)

This newsletter is sponsored by:

If you drive a hybrid, PHEV or BEV, you likely take your regenerative braking for granted.

You hit the brakes.

It just works.

And you get small charges to your vehicle battery that cost you nothing.

And while it’s not new (every big battery vehicle since the fucking Prius has used this technology), the scale, sophistication, and the applications of this regenerative braking are reaching a new inflection point.

Regular readers of The Change Optimist might remember that Fortescue, the Australian mining giant, recently deployed its Infinity Train, a regenerative electric iron ore hauler that never requires charging.

As it descends from the Pilbara region’s mountains fully loaded, it uses regenerative braking to convert gravitational energy from the weight of all that ore it carries into electricity. That energy is then stored and used to power the train as it climbs back up the hill.

No diesel.

No plug.

Just physics.

“The Infinity Train will not require any charging infrastructure, making it the most capital-efficient solution for eliminating diesel and emissions from our rail operations,” says Fortescue. They expect to reduce their annual diesel consumption by 82 million litres. That’s 218,000 metric tonnes of CO₂. zero.fortescue.com

YouTuber Matt Ferrell recently explored why regenerative braking is suddenly so relevant. youtube.com

He explained how Barcelona’s transit system installed regenerative braking on two of the city’s transit lines. Their trains produced enough energy from regenerative braking to power 25 subway stations as well as a network of nearby EV charge ports. theprogressplaybook.com

Similar systems have been tested or deployed in transit networks in cities around the globe for years now. From Philadelphia to Portland to Paris, we’re putting the brakes on renewable energy in a good way.

Back home in Canada, the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) conducted a regenerative braking pilot on its subway system.

Unlike Fortescue’s self-powering loop, this test involved recapturing energy from braking trains and feeding it back into the grid or directly to other accelerating trains, kinda like Barcelona did. cleanenergycanada.org

The TTC found that their test wasn’t financially viable.

But they concluded that the knowledge gained from the test would help inform future green technology deployments. In the meantime, they plan to focus on retrofitting existing hybrid and electric buses with enhanced regenerative braking. ttc.ca

The Infinity Train might be the headline grabber.

The Toronto subway pilot may have cost too much.

But Barcelona and many other cities are just getting started.

The combination of urban retrofits and industrial logistics signals something bigger.

By embracing a world where movement generates energy, we transform the act of travel into a tool that powers itself.

The new MG4 EV hatchback is set to debut in China in August. It’s expected to be the world’s first small mass-market EV equipped with a semi-solid-state battery. insideevs.com

Chinese media outlet Dongchedi closed a highway for a multi-day test of 36 different driver-assist systems in complicated, dangerous real-world driving situations, and most came up severely lacking. However, Tesla escaped the tests relatively unscathed. electrek.co

Pony AI has launched 24/7 robotaxi testing in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, extended from the previous hours of 7 am to 11 pm daily. cnevpost.com

Mitsubishi Motors exits the Chinese market completely with the termination of its joint venture with Shenyang Aerospace. carnewschina.com

The Chinese government announced that it would restrict any effort to transfer key technologies for manufacturing electric vehicle batteries out of China. nytimes.com

Chinese OEMs have big plans for Brazil. nytimes.com

Starlink network suffers rare global outage. cbc.ca

Tesla says it has received several shareholder proposals to invest in Elon’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI. reuters.com

Tesla plans to offer a chauffeur-style service with human drivers to a select group of individuals in San Francisco. reuters.com

Elon admits that the new, more affordable Tesla is just a stripped-down Model Y. theverge.com

Tesla may lose its right to sell cars in California amid a lawsuit alleging false advertising. electrek.co

Tesla dumped 75% of its bitcoin at one of the worst times, losing out on billions. cnbc.com

Tesla shares closed down 8.2% on Thursday after the company reported second-quarter profits were down 16% and revenue had slumped 12%. Automotive revenue, which made up nearly three-fourths of Tesla’s revenue in the second quarter, also fell 16%. wsj.com

Tesla is reportedly behind on its pledge to build 5,000 Optimus bots this year. techcrunch.com

Tesla aims to offer Robotaxis to ‘half the population of the US’ by the end of 2025, despite their current Robotaxi service serving only one, limited (penis shaped) area of Austin, Texas. mashable.com

Tesla finally opened its drive-in charge-station diner. techcrunch.com

Protestors plan to target Tesla’s newly opened drive-in charge-station diner. theverge.com

China’s UBTech demonstrated how the Walker S2 robot can change its own batteries. interestingengineering.com

Killer drone manufacturer Anduril considers making a US-built laptop. tomshardware.com

Philadelphia-based robotics company Asylon announced on Tuesday that it has raised $26 million in Series B funding to expand its drone and robot guard dog business. techcrunch.com

BP Pulse plans to deploy EV charging stations at major US airports. motortrend.com

Sunrun is putting tens of thousands of home batteries to work in Puerto Rico as the island’s electric grid faces a summer of high temperatures and energy shortfalls. The company says it’s now dispatching energy from over 37,000 residential batteries to help grid operator LUMA keep the lights on. electrek.co

Conifer’s iron-magnet electric motors could reduce global dependence on Chinese rare earth magnets used in EVs. newatlas.com

Qatar has threatened to cut gas supplies to the EU in response to the bloc’s due diligence law on forced labour and environmental damage. reuters.com

Solar provided over 11% of total US electrical generation in May, and the mix of all renewable energy sources generated nearly 30%. electrek.co

MIT spinout Electrified Thermal Solutions has signed a deal with HWI to produce electrically conductive firebricks. The E-bricks enable factories to ditch fossil fuels and run on renewables without sacrificing performance or reliability, and at a lower cost. electrek.co

The Lucid Gravity Dream Edition clocked in the quarter-mile at just 10.6 seconds. That makes it the quickest SUV Car and Driver has ever tested. It also beat the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 to 150 mph by almost three seconds. caranddriver.com

OEMs calling on Canada’s federal government to roll back its EV targets, say their case has failed to sway Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, who appears “committed” to keeping them in place. nationalpost.com

Vietnam plans to ban all gas-powered motorcycles by mid-2026. electrek.co

GM had a more than $1 billion chunk taken out of its profits due to The Donald’s bullshit tariffs. fortune.com

VW reported a 1.3-billion-euro first-half hit from tariffs and cut its full-year sales and profit margin forecasts thanks to The Donald’s bullshit tariffs. reuters.com

Hyundai posted the equivalent of a $602 million operating loss stemming from elevated US import duties on finished cars and auto parts for the April-June period. wsj.com

Stellantis is staring down a massive $3.7 billion loss for the first half of 2025, with The Donald’s bullshit tariffs delivering a $480 million blow that has forced the company to slash production and shipments. ctvnews.ca

Nissan plans to shut down production at two assembly plants in Mexico, including its joint venture with Mercedes. autonews.com

Honda and Acura EV owners can now use Tesla Superchargers. theverge.com

Lucid is now selling its own NACS charging adapter. theverge.com

Earlier this month, Rivian, in partnership with the Montoni Group, held a groundbreaking ceremony to announce the start of construction on its new service centre in Laval, Québec. newswire.ca

Lyft is partnering with Benteler Mobility to launch a self-driving shuttle service near airports in cities around the US. theverge.com

A mechanic found a wallet in a 2015 Edge that had been lost by a Ford assembly worker 11 years earlier. fordauthority.com

Autograph Analytics is your AI-powered partner for automotive data, analytics and reporting.

They unify GA4, Ads, CRM and DMS data, turning scattered information into sleek, automated insights that drive smarter decisions.

Trusted by top dealer groups across North America, Autograph saves time, reduces errors and boosts performance. No spreadsheets. Just clean, intelligent reporting that moves as fast as you do.

Learn more at www.autographanalytics.com

ICYMI: I chatted with Autograph Analytics CEO Steve Barker on the Change Optimist Podcast. Check it out at thechangeoptimist.com or wherever you get your fucking podcasts.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my Music and Artificial Intelligence newsletters that are part of the growing “Extended Growdy Universe”.

Have a fantastic day!