The Change Optimist: Weekly News Roundup - August 16, 2026

Dongfeng’s Voyah brand announced that the Voyah Passion S successfully completed a “Schumacher Mercedes-Benz SLS-inspired” 360° tunnel loop challenge at a closed test tunnel in Wuhan. youtube.com

BYD launched the Qin Max EV in China at half the price of a Tesla Model 3, starting at 109,900 yuan ($16,500). The Qin Max is offered in EV and DM-i plug-in hybrid variants and uses BYD's Blade Battery 2.0 with Flash Charging that goes from 10% to 70% in five minutes. electrek.co

BYD's first electric kei car is drawing strong early interest in Japan, with more than 1,000 orders in its first two weeks after its July launch. electrek.co

Chery has launched the 2027 Arrizo 8 Pro, adding the Falcon 500 driving assistance system. The update keeps the existing powertrain lineup while adding a larger flowing diamond grille, four-segment S-shaped taillights, red callipers, and new black-red and black-brown cabin options. carnewschina.com

Chery's Fulwin T7 has kicked off domestic presales in China. The compact EV offers a 65 kWh battery and a range of about 600 km. carnewschina.com

Geely's Geome Xingyuan topped China's July model sales with 32,306 units, followed by Leapmotor's A10 at 26,424, and the Tesla Model Y in third place. Most of the top ten were NEVs, electric or hybrid. carnewschina.com

Domestic car sales in China are easing, even as automakers push more vehicles into overseas markets. Exports are gaining share as production shifts toward international buyers. reuters.com | reuters.com

Chinese EV makers captured 14.2% of battery-electric vehicle sales in Western Europe during the first five months of the year. The record share adds pressure to the region's tariff-and-trade debate. theguardian.com

Cards Against Humanity wants to build an “Elon Musk is a Sad Little Bitch with No Friends” monument on the land they own next to SpaceX's Starbase. For $10, you can join the monument design committee. cardsagainsthumanity.com/elonhasnofriends

Elon plans to donate to America PAC, the group he set up to fund pro-Trump efforts in 2024. He plans to invest at least $100 million in a get-out-the-vote operation in key states, according to a person familiar with the details, as reported earlier by Axios and the New York Times. wsj.com

Canadian Neuralink N1 chip recipient says that Elon changed his life. macleans.ca

Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla's design chief, says the new Roadster is coming “very soon.” This is the car Tesla revealed in 2017 and promised to build by 2020. electrek.co

Tesla exhausted its California MyFirstEV rebate allocation in five days after the program opened to its buyers on August 3, with roughly half of the share claimed in the first three days and the rest by August 8. electrek.co

Tesla’s Cybercab appears to include an integrated Starlink antenna. electrek.co

Kyle Shanahan crashed his Tesla Model S on Autopilot while reaching for a dropped iPhone, leaving him with a concussion, a broken nose, three broken ribs, a broken left hand, and 40 stitches over his right eye. The July 14 incident happened around 6:12 p.m. in Palo Alto as his car drifted into oncoming traffic at about 20 mph and struck a 21-year-old woman in an SUV, who wasn’t seriously hurt; police initially logged fault incorrectly before Shanahan corrected it. electrek.co | theverge.com

Tesla is recalling more than 20,300 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles because their low-beam headlights exceed brightness limits. electrek.co

Tesla plans to build a large V4 Supercharger installation in San Francisco, aiming for a 124-stall station on the city’s south side. Planning permits call for a 400-square-foot amenity building and 28 parking-lot lights on a yellow-cab storage lot at Alemany and Bayshore, beside the US-101. electrek.co

Tesla is expanding its Powerwall backup options with a two-unit lease offered through Tesla Electric, available in Texas. The first-year price drops to about $35 per month after an $87 monthly credit, which starts after installation. electrek.co

Tesla plans to build a $10.1 billion solar cell factory in Fort Bend County, Texas, under the codename Project Crystal Sun. The filing projects 9,712 permanent jobs on about 3,050 acres near Richmond, with commercial production planned for early 2029 and a 10-year property-tax break under Texas's JETI program. electrek.co

SpaceX and xAI’s Terafab megafactory in Texas will be powered by its own natural gas plants and very large battery arrays, with no Tesla solar in the plan. The site sits on a former coal-fired plant, and phase one costs $16.8 billion, aiming for over a terawatt of compute per year. electrek.co

Nvidia discloses a $21 billion stake in SpaceX at the end of the second quarter. cnbc.com

BYD unveils 5.2-feet-tall Xiao Di humanoid robot on showroom floors in China. interestingengineering.com

China’s AgiBot has surpassed its domestic rival Unitree Robotics to become the world’s largest humanoid robot vendor in the first half of 2026. scmp.com

Unitree is expected ​to have an explosive stock market debut in Shanghai next week. reuters.com

Beijing will host the second World Humanoid Robot Games starting next week. interestingengineering.com

Uber has sold its entire stake in Serve Robotics, the autonomous delivery robotics firm that grew out of Postmates X, a move disclosed in a regulatory filing after a year of stake reductions in 2025. techcrunch.com

German start-up Agile Robots expects its revenue to double this year from 300 million euros, helping it turn profitable in two to three years. wsj.com

America wants to manufacture its own humanoid robots. Current US policies that limit access to China’s robot component supply chain won’t make that easy. nytimes.com

Humanoid robots are being increasingly tested and deployed in car factories. Experts warn that they may not deliver the efficiency gains that proponents claim. nytimes.com

Toronto start-up Civic Grid built Ontario's first architectural battery in Cannington, transforming a local community square into a public energy storage hub. betakit.com

Sinopec, China’s biggest fuel retailer, just gutted one of its Shanghai gas stations and swapped the pumps for BYD’s 1,500 kW flash chargers. electrek.co

CATL plans to expand its battery after-sales service to 100 cities worldwide in the second half of 2026. carnewschina.com

GM plans to sell half of its planned $3.5 billion electric-vehicle battery joint venture in Indiana to partner Samsung SDI. reuters.com | bloomberg.com

Nigeria's electric-vehicle push runs into the reality of a weak electricity supply. Frequent outages and an underdeveloped grid are slowing the development of charging infrastructure and consumer uptake, Reuters reports. reuters.com

Ottawa has approved the Crawford nickel project in Ontario. The move aligns with efforts to secure nickel supplies for batteries and EV components. autonews.com

The US Army Corps of Engineers has permitted construction of the controversial Line 5 tunnel project in the Straits of Mackinac. The project, which would divert a section of Enbridge’s Line 5 petroleum pipeline from the open waters of the Straits into a concrete tunnel beneath the lakebed, is “not contrary to the public interest” and would not harm tribal treaty rights, the Army Corps said in announcing its permit. apnews.com

Shares of Australia’s Sunrise Energy Metals gained on Monday after the miner secured a $400 million investment in long-term debt financing from the US to support the development of the world’s first primary mine for the rare earth mineral scandium. cnbc.com

Car makers, including Volkswagen, Stellantis and Toyota, are turning to new blends of motor oil and lubricants to ease a serious supply shortage caused by the Middle East conflict. ft.com

Oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve falls to its lowest level since 1983. businessinsider.com

Lamborghini launched the Revuelto SV, a limited-edition hybrid version of its V12 Revuelto, the fastest and most powerful car it has ever built. cnbc.com

Ford announced two lower-priced vehicles to dealers, a sub-$40,000 four-door Mustang sedan and a $25,000 entry-level SUV, to broaden its lineup and fill the gap left by the Edge, Escape, and EcoSport. thedrive.com | arstechnica.com

Ford's new AI assistant acts as a quick-check guide for your vehicle, reporting fuel levels and tire pressure and answering questions about capacity and tow limits. theverge.com

Ford plans to shift more Lincoln manufacturing to the US starting in 2030. cnbc.com | reuters.com

Ford is on track to complete a $2B factory overhaul in preparation to manufacture the Fathom EV truck. techcrunch.com

Unifor wants Sierra pick-up production moved to GM's Oshawa, Ontario, plant as bargaining with GM begins. The talks mark a new round between Unifor and GM Canada over jobs and production at Canadian facilities. autonews.com

GM's CAMI assembly plant in Ontario is at a critical juncture as Unifor contract talks begin over a costly paint shop. The negotiations could determine the plant's future and its ability to keep producing GM crossovers for the North American market. autonews.com

Cadillac is expanding its hand-built customization to the Escalade IQ through a program called Curated by Cadillac Escalade IQ, with production in Michigan. Buyers will have a dedicated design concierge and access to more than 160 exterior colours and finishes. electrek.co

GM has secured a multibillion-dollar parts facility designed to preserve cash and guard against supply-chain disruptions. The up to $4.5 billion facility with Procura Auto Parts will be funded by a bank syndicate led by JPMorgan Chase and Banco Santander to prepay suppliers on GM's behalf, and GM will issue irrevocable payment undertakings to repay the company later. cnbc.com

The Grand Sport X positions the Corvette as a high-performance option that competes with the Porsche 911 on driving dynamics while costing a fraction of the price. theverge.com

GM will equip its entire 2027 model-year EV lineup with native North American Charging Standard ports, allowing Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC EVs to plug directly into Tesla Superchargers. electrek.co

Dodge is rolling out two drift-ready versions of the Charger powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-litre Hurricane inline-six. thedrive.com

Ram adds a Cummins 6.7-litre diesel to the Power Wagon, expanding its heavy-duty off-road capability. thedrive.com

Chrysler signals factory-tuned updates for the Pacifica as part of a broader push from Stellantis. Two lowered Pacifica concepts debuted at Roadkill Nights in Pontiac, Michigan. thedrive.com

Stellantis is considering selling a Canadian plant. The move could affect production plans in Canada and bring the country’s auto workers’ union into sharper focus during ongoing labour talks. reuters.com

Lexus is bringing back the all-electric ES for 2027 with an entry price under $50,000, placing it competitively in the luxury EV segment. electrek.co

Japanese automakers are expanding in the United States to counter tariffs and grow manufacturing capacity. autonews.com

Toyota is recalling more than 508,000 US vehicles because the instrument cluster display may malfunction. reuters.com

Hiroshi Okuda, the former Toyota chairman who led the company through much of the 1990s, has died at 93. He pushed Toyota's global growth and backed models such as the RAV4 and the Prius hybrid. nytimes.com

Honda is opening its vault to sell some of its most iconic race cars from Le Mans, Daytona, and Indy, including production-based GT cars and purpose-built prototypes. The first car for sale is the Sebring-winning V8-powered #26 XM Satellite Radio AGR Acura ARX-01a, which will lead HRC's new venture and is set to debut at The Quail during Monterey Car Week. thedrive.com

Kia's affordable EV3 SUV lands in the US with a starting price of $29,890 for the Light FWD trim and an EPA range of 221 miles for the standard-range version. electrek.co

Hyundai is expanding the IONIQ 9 lineup with the Calligraphy Black Ink edition, the new range-topping trim now launching in the UK and Europe. The Black Ink adds exclusive blacked-out styling to the dual-motor. electrek.co

Genesis is expanding into hybrids with the GV80 HEV, its first hybrid, a model pitched for an EV-like drive and better efficiency. electrek.co

VW is upgrading the Atlas Cross Sport for 2027 with more power, improved ride comfort, and upgraded safety gear. Specific specs and feature details aren’t available in this excerpt due to site access restrictions. autonews.com

Audi's 2027 Q6 e-tron is proving its range in everyday driving, delivering more miles than the EPA label suggests. Edmunds’ range test logged 337 miles on a single charge, about 12% beyond the 301-mile EPA estimate. electrek.co

Porsche is reportedly ending Taycan production by 2030, reversing earlier signals that the model would stay in its lineup. The move comes as the Macan EV posts strong sales and as high-end buyers increasingly favour larger SUVs over sport sedans. electrek.co

Mercedes-AMG is teasing a high-performance electric SUV that could exceed 1,000 hp, aligning with the 1,153 hp GT 4-door. electrek.co

Rivian is addressing owners’ long-standing requests by swapping the second-row bench for captain’s chairs in the R1S. The change arrives with the 2027 model-year refresh of the entire R1 lineup, easing access to the third row and simplifying loading for families. theverge.com

Lucid unveils the Gravity GT-S, branding it America’s most powerful three-row SUV with 1,070 horsepower. electrek.co

Volvo is teasing a new sedan that could mark a return to small cars, but it may not be fully electric. The brand has stopped offering sedans and wagons in the US and will discontinue the EX30 after the 2026 model year. electrek.co

Boeing is exiting its air taxi ventures by selling three eVTOL subsidiaries to Archer Aviation. Archer will acquire Wisk Aero, SkyGrid, and Insitu for an undisclosed sum, and Boeing will take a stake in Archer. theverge.com

Flock cameras are deployed across thousands of locations and can continuously capture license-plate data to track how vehicles move over time. Police say the network helps solve crimes and recover stolen cars, but privacy advocates warn about pervasive surveillance and data-retention risks for everyday drivers. nytimes.com

Canada is seeing fewer auto thefts over the first half of 2026, says a new report from Équité Association. autonews.com

Auto loan originations hit a nominal record of $211 billion in the April-June period. reuters.com

Detroit automakers warn that an overhaul of the North American trade deal could cost them billions. The concern centers on how revised regional trade rules could affect production and supply chains. reuters.com

An EPA proposal would change parts of the 2027 heavy-duty diesel-truck emissions program, including exhaust-fluid safeguards and warranty terms. The proposal also includes a nonconformance-penalty option for manufacturers. forbes.com

Amazon-owned Zoox is moving toward charging for robotaxi trips as it expands into Las Vegas and San Francisco and adds early rider programs in Miami and Austin. techcrunch.com

Waymo is growing its driverless taxi service at an accelerating pace, expanding its robotaxi fleets into more markets. nytimes.com

Waymo has California approval to expand paid driverless rides into 18 counties, from Sonoma to San Diego. The authorization covers further service in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, as well as future rollouts in Sacramento and San Diego. electrek.co

Autonomous truck developers Aurora Innovation and Kodiak AI have been granted permits by the California DMV to test their driverless heavy-duty trucks on public roads. techcrunch.com

Uber and Pony.ai plan to deploy 2,000 robotaxis across four European cities, with rollout details to be released in stages. The agreement expands their existing work together as both companies pursue more driverless rides outside China. techcrunch.com

ICYMI: The Donald used an August 5 speech in Las Vegas to mock electric vehicle owners, telling the crowd that EV drivers "have a disease" and calling them "crazy" for their choice of vehicle. I guess he forgot that he owns (at least) two electric vehicles: the Tesla Model S he bought from Elon on the White House lawn and the Cybertruck gifted to him by Adin Ross. Some reports suggest he also has an original Tesla Roadster in his personal car collection. autoguide.com

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