China's Automotive Expansion
Chery Fulwin T7
Chery launched the Fulwin T7, a new electric compact SUV. The T7 is available in three trim levels, with prices ranging from 97,900 yuan ($14,300 USD) to 118,900 yuan ($17,500 USD). carnewschina.com
FAW–Volkswagen’s ID. Aura T6 BEV crossover started presales in China with a price of 135,900 yuan ($20,225 USD). carnewschina.com
Great Wall Motor launched its new Haval H9 SUV, the Li Hun edition, with a suggested retail price ranging from 239,900 yuan ($35,300 USD) to 257,900 yuan ($37,900 USD). carnewschina.com
BYD says its flash-charging network has reached 10,000 stations across 325 Chinese cities in less than six months. carnewschina.com
BYD plans to add a larger low-cost hatchback between the Dolphin and Seagull. The Great Seagull is expected to go on sale by the end of 2026. electrek.co
BYD posted its first quarterly profit rise in more than a year, helped by a surge in exports that offset weak domestic sales. reuters.com
Li Auto will launch a refreshed Mega MPV on September 2. The update has swivelling seats, folding tables, and a large ceiling light. carnewschina.com
Polestar says the Commerce Department barred new US sales for its 2027 models despite earlier signals that sales could continue. theverge.com
Chinese automakers target South Africa's EV buyers. reuters.com
Must-Know Musk News
SpaceX engineers rescue Starship from the Indian Ocean
SpaceX has pulled off its biggest salvage operation yet, recovering its most recently launched Starship from the Indian Ocean. apnews.com
SpaceX plans to spend up to $100 billion to build its new Louisiana-based spaceport. Elon said the complex could support thousands of launches a year and create around 10,000 jobs. cnbc.com
xAI is accused of using a child sexual abuse survivor's decades-old images to generate new abusive material through Grok. ndtv.com
Tesla says it will officially inaugurate its new Semi factory in Nevada next month, marking the grand opening of the plant it has designed to build 50,000 electric trucks a year. electrek.co
Tesla raised Cybertruck prices by $5,000 in the US. reuters.com
Tesla is denying rumours that it has pulled its “Full Self-Driving” team out of China, saying its Shanghai data center is “operating normally” and that it has even reported the claims to police. electrek.co
Elon’s America PAC has launched digital ads in three key US states with Senate races, urging people to register to vote and criticizing socialism and Zohran Mamdani. nbcnews.com
Time Magazine lists Elon as one of the top 100 most influential people in Artificial Intelligence. time.com
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Elon Ukraine’s Order of Freedom for his “outstanding personal merits” in protecting human life and freedom and strengthening ties with the US by providing access to Starlink. ctvnews.ca
Rise Of The Machines
Hugging Face unveiled the Microduck, a cute, teachable, open-source, duck-like robot that sells for $399. techcrunch.com
Meet the humanoid robots cleaning homes for $30 an hour. nbcnews.com
Chinese automakers are following Tesla’s bet that robots are the next big profit machine. techcrunch.com
XPeng’s robotics raised over $900 million at a post-money valuation of more than $6.3 billion. XPeng calls it the largest single-round private financing in the history of China’s embodied AI industry. They plan to use the funds to put their IRON humanoid robot into mass production by the end of 2026. electrek.co
Generalist, a start-up working on an AI model that learns from watching short videos, raised nearly $200 million, bringing its Series B round to $600 million and its valuation to $3 billion. techcrunch.com
Perceptron, a start-up founded by two former Meta research scientists, is developing frontier vision models to help machines interact more competently with their physical environments. techcrunch.com
Researchers at the University of Manitoba are testing robotic dogs to see how they can assist people using wheelchairs. cbc.ca
ICE is looking to spend up to $2 million on robot dogs to help surveil and secure the US border. abcnews.com
Energy
Radiant Energy won $750 million of the $2.2 billion fund for US Army SMRs
The US Army awarded $2.2 billion to build compact nuclear reactors at five bases. The program aims to provide on-site power and reduce reliance on conventional fuel deliveries. nytimes.com | radiantnuclear.com
The Donald's administration is pouring billions of dollars into grid-level battery storage, while cutting incentives and support for electric vehicles and wind power. nytimes.com
Diesel prices are nearing a record high as global supply concerns tighten crude markets. Higher diesel costs could raise trucking and freight rates. nytimes.com
The Donald's administration is working on an agreement for access to Venezuelan oilfields. reuters.com
California lawmakers passed a bill allowing residents to install solar panels that can be plugged into standard electrical outlets, in a bid to lower their electricity costs and reduce their contribution to climate change. nytimes.com
Renewables could overtake natural gas in US installed generating capacity by summer 2027. electrek.co
Siemens Energy plans to sell most of its Transformation of Industry division to focus on gas turbines and grid equipment. reuters.com
Enbridge formed a joint venture with KKR and Apollo to fund its West Coast natural-gas pipeline expansion. cbc.ca
But Wait, There's More
2027 ID. California Cruise EV
VW reveals the 2027 ID. California Cruise EV camper built on the ID. Buzz MEB platform. electrek.co
VW is considering measures that could double its planned job cuts, close factories and carve out parts of the business as it seeks to revive profits and fend off growing competition. reuters.com
GM Canada will add the next-generation GMC Sierra HD to Oshawa Assembly, backed by a $144 million investment, under a tentative three-year deal with Unifor. GM also committed in writing not to close or sell its idle CAMI plant in Ingersoll, though no product mandate was secured for the facility. autonews.com
GM’s electric vehicles, including ones built for Honda, are facing increased scrutiny from US auto safety regulators after hundreds of incidents, more than 20 crashes or fires, and at least six injuries. techcrunch.com
A senior Honda executive said the company might not build an eighth assembly plant in North America unless a key trade deal is in place with Canada and Mexico. reuters.com
Toyota received the largest share of Canada's July zero-emission vehicle rebates. autonews.com
Hyundai plans new electrified crossovers, body-on-frame trucks, and commercial vehicles through 2030. The lineup includes a Santa Fe extended-range EV and a GV80 hybrid. autonews.com | electrek.co
Volvo is expanding alerts that let its cars warn one another about road hazards. Three electric models will add notices for animals, pedestrians, cyclists, roadwork, and crashes. theverge.com
Tata Consultancy Services is buying Porsche's IT unit, expanding its automotive software-services business. Reuters puts the unit's value at $373 million. reuters.com
Dutch regulators fine Uber $966 million for automating driver suspensions. techcrunch.com
Parents will soon be able to remotely access Uber drivers' phone cameras to monitor their teen riders. mashable.com
Waymo has developed a custom chip for its robotaxi computing stack, according to TechCrunch. The hardware is designed to handle driver-system processing inside the vehicle. techcrunch.com
Robotaxis are expanding. So is the fight over the rules governing them. theverge.com
Test drivers for Waymo and Zoox sustained more than two dozen injuries in 2024 and 2025 from hard braking or other sudden movements made by the autonomous vehicles, according to a TechCrunch review of data submitted to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. techcrunch.com
Vacuum and cleaning robot manufacturer Dreame no longer dreams about building a rocket car. carnewschina.com | theverge.com
More Americans oppose police license plate cameras than support them. techcrunch.com
US police use Flock to search license plates. Now there's a viral website to see if yours was one of them. businessinsider.com | haveibeenflocked.com
The Donald said he could impose a 50% tariff on cars and trucks imported from Canada as the trade dispute continues. reuters.com
Automakers thought Canada was getting a trade deal. Then tariffs doubled. reuters.com
Canada doubled countertariffs on US steel and aluminum to 50% and announced billions in support for businesses affected by the duties. autonews.com
EV registrations rose 13% in July across 16 European markets. reuters.com
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