The Change Optimist: Weekly News Roundup - September 20, 2026

BYD is reported to have ordered 10 additional LNG-powered car carriers, each with capacity for 9,200 vehicles. If completed, the order would increase its owned fleet to 18 vessels with a combined capacity for more than 130,000 cars. electrek.co

The 2026 BYD Atto 1 Essential EV is now the cheapest new car for sale in Australia. mashable.com

BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li said the company plans to put its solid-state battery technology into a vehicle next year. BYD’s roadmap points to small-batch solid-state battery trials in 2027 and larger-scale production by 2030. carnewschina.com

BYD plans to launch its first heavy-duty truck in Europe next year and ultimately build the vehicles locally, Executive Vice President Stella Li said. reuters.com

BYD launched the all-electric Denza N8L luxury SUV in China, priced from 299,800 yuan (about US$45,000). Its 130.15 kWh Blade Battery 2.0 is rated for up to 960 kilometres of CLTC range, and the SUV has six seats, 800-volt charging, and a claimed 10% to 70% charge time of five minutes. electrek.co

Renault and Geely plan to invest €319 million in Brazil as they deepen their industrial partnership. The investment is intended to expand local production and strengthen the companies’ position in the Brazilian market. reuters.com

Li Auto launched its flagship i9 electric SUV in China at 369,800 yuan. The company says its 0.215 drag coefficient is the lowest among mass-produced SUVs, while the vehicle has a 705-kilometre CLTC range and can add 500 kilometres in 10 minutes. carnewschina.com

Xpeng is looking beyond its VW partnership to sell its technology to other automakers. The planned portfolio up for grabs includes their electronic architecture, cockpit systems, Turing AI chips, advanced driver-assistance software, and services for robotaxis and physical AI. reuters.com

A coalition of auto-industry groups urged The Donald to keep Chinese cars out of the U.S. ahead of a meeting with leader Xi Jinping, saying any entry by Chinese newcomers would undermine jobs and national security. wsj.com

Tesla says it will unveil the next-generation Roadster on October 1, nearly a decade after first showing it in 2017. reuters.com

ICYMI: Tesla’s US electric-vehicle share rose to 52% through August, up from 43% a year earlier, according to The Wall Street Journal. The gain comes as several legacy automakers pull back on electric-vehicle plans and US EV sales remain under pressure. wsj.com

Tesla has established a subsidiary in ​Vietnam. reuters.com

Tesla is putting the Cybercab on public display in China, but Tesla China says the showcase does not include sales or a driverless ride-hailing launch. electrek.co

NHTSA has ordered Tesla to answer questions by September 30 about how the steering-wheel-free Cybercab was self-certified to meet US safety standards. The agency is asking whether temporary driver controls or other equipment formed part of Tesla’s certification basis, as well as the vehicle’s operating limits. reuters.com

Tesla deployed its first “Accordion” Supercharger, a pre-assembled charging unit that ships 16 stalls on a single truck and installs 20% cheaper than a conventional site. electrek.co

Tesla will operate public Megacharging sites at three new Forum Mobility electric-truck depots in California. The network adds 30 megawatts of heavy-truck charging capacity, with Tesla’s Megawatt Charging System technology alongside CCS ports and pull-through lanes. reuters.com

Australia just switched on its longest-duration grid battery, and it runs on 144 Tesla Megapacks. electrek.co

NASA is extending its SpaceX contract by US$950 million for three additional crewed Dragon flights to the International Space Station. The missions would extend the existing transportation agreement through 2030. cnbc.com

A glitch caused several Coco Robotics delivery robots to swarm a Chicago sidewalk. foxnews.com

OpenAI is offering robotics engineers up to half a million dollars per year in base salary as it expands its robotics efforts. businessinsider.com

UBTECH began operations at its new industrial humanoid robot factory, where humanoid robots build other humanoid robots. The machines can produce one of their robot cousins every 10 minutes. interestingengineering.com

The da Vinci surgical robot began operating at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre in May. The system gives surgeons better visualization, precision and control to support “minimally” invasive procedures, resulting in less pain after surgery and shorter hospital stays for patients. ctvnews.ca

Spirit AI says its robot-brain software could reach a GPT-3.0-style milestone by mid-2027, allowing robots to follow natural-language instructions through a series of physical actions. The Chinese start-up has raised more than US$670 million and already has robots working on production lines. reuters.com

Toyota estimates it could cost 1 trillion yen ($6.4 billion) annually to modernize its ​factories from 2028 onward as the world's largest automaker accelerates the deployment of automation and robotics. reuters.com

A Saudi pipeline damaged in drone attacks could leave the country short of export stocks within days if it does not restart. Reuters reports that the route carries about 4 million barrels per day, roughly 4% of global oil supply. reuters.com

Aramco halts October crude deliveries to some European refiners after pipeline attack. reuters.com

Dozens of exhibitors gathered at the Lloydminster Heavy Oil Show from Sept. 15 to Sept. 17 in the city that straddles the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. cbc.ca

The soaring cost of moving oil around the world is making some long-distance crude trades uneconomical due to a shortage of available supertankers. bloomberg.com

Continental Resources signed a preliminary agreement with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company to develop and produce oil. The deal is an early step toward possible US-linked oil operations in Venezuela. nytimes.com

Shell and FAW are developing a battery pack for commercial trucks that surrounds its cells with an electrically insulating immersion-cooling fluid. The companies said initial testing showed improved hill-climbing capability, a 0.8% gain in energy efficiency, and the potential for up to 32% longer battery life compared with a conventional cooling setup. electrek.co

New York City selected Brooklyn start-up it’s electric to supply nearly 700 Level 2 curbside charging points across all five boroughs over the next three years. The network will replace the current pilot, add about 600 plugs, and target neighbourhoods where many residents and rideshare drivers park on the street. electrek.co

The Donald’s Administration has moved to remove federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants. The New York Times reports that the change could face legal challenges and would reverse major climate policies from the Obama and Biden administrations. nytimes.com

Porsche has put wireless inductive charging into production for the Cayenne Electric, allowing drivers to charge by parking over a ground pad. The system delivers up to 11 kW with about 90% efficiency. electrek.co

Canada’s Industry Minister Melanie Joly reiterated Friday that Stellantis could be on the hook for hundreds of millions in repayments to the government unless the company’s Brampton, Ontario, factory near Toronto resumes auto production. wsj.com

Ford is lowering the starting prices of its 2027 F-150 Raptor and Tremor while expanding the availability of the 5.0-litre V8 across the lineup. The Raptor starts at US$77,800, and the Tremor starts at US$62,400, with some equipment removed from the lower prices. cnbc.com

GM is refreshing the software in its Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups to run alongside CarPlay and Android Auto. The picture-in-picture interface will debut on 2027 Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 trucks later this year, while keeping native trailering and vehicle controls visible. theverge.com

GM’s early focus on electric vehicles has left it with a smaller hybrid lineup as US buyers increasingly choose gasoline-electric models. Dealers and analysts say the shift is giving hybrid-focused competitors more room in the market. reuters.com

GM is sticking with diesel engines for its next-generation pickups as rivals add more hybrid options. The strategy keeps a familiar powertrain for customers who tow and haul, while the US truck market remains stronger than the broader electric-vehicle market. reuters.com

Hyundai Motor Group now expects vehicles using its proprietary driver-assistance software to arrive in late 2029, two years later than planned. In the interim, it will work with Nvidia on supervised Level 2+ and Level 2++ systems due in 2028. reuters.com

Kia unveiled the PV7 electric van in passenger and cargo forms, with up to nine seats or 8 cubic metres of cargo capacity. Its long-range cargo version has a stated WLTP range above 460 kilometres, and Kia plans Korean and European launches in the second half of 2027. electrek.co

Hyundai CEO Jose Munoz warned that Chinese vehicles could expand rapidly in the US if tariffs and other market-access conditions are loosened. He said Chinese vehicles are already 30% to 40% cheaper than rival models in some European markets. reuters.com

VW’s near-production-ready Mission Efficiency electric coupe has a drag coefficient of 0.158 and uses 6.48 kWh per 100 kilometres in a controlled efficiency test. Volkswagen also completed a 1,278-kilometre Wolfsburg-to-Vienna drive on one charge from its 54.9 kWh battery, arriving with 164 kilometres of stated range remaining. theverge.com | techcrunch.com

VW has revealed the electric ID.3 GTI, an electric hot hatch with more power than the current Golf GTI. It brings the GTI name to the ID.3 as Volkswagen expands its performance-oriented EV range. electrek.co

VW and its main investor, Porsche Holding, have cut their 2026 outlook. The companies cited a challenging market environment as they lowered their earnings expectations. reuters.com

BMW says its new iX3 has passed 100,000 European orders in its first year, accounting for about one in three of the company’s electric vehicle orders. The Neue Klasse SUV also accounts for roughly half of orders across the wider X3 lineup, according to BMW. electrek.co

Waymo robotaxis are now available to some riders in Nashville through Lyft’s app, where Lyft also provides fleet readiness, maintenance, infrastructure, and depot operations through Flexdrive. techcrunch.com

Waymo, taxi app operator GO, and Nihon Kotsu aim to launch Japan’s first fully autonomous commercial taxi service in Tokyo in 2027. reuters.com

Waymo plans to launch a robotaxi service in Singapore in 2028 after mapping and testing with human safety drivers in 2027. The Alphabet-owned company says its vehicles will begin arriving in the coming months as it prepares for the new market. theverge.com

A Waymo robotaxi blocked an on-duty fire truck during a tense standoff. nypost.com

A regulatory cap limiting Zoox to 100 robotaxis in Nevada is set to expire this month, clearing the way for the Amazon-owned company to expand its commercial fleet of custom-built robotaxis in Las Vegas just as competition heats up. techcrunch.com

Einride and Lidl have put a Level 4 cab-less autonomous truck into daily service between a distribution centre and a store in Germany. The truck operates without a driver or safety operator under an authorization from Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority. reuters.com

May Mobility plans to merge with a SPAC at a US$1.4 billion valuation, with the transaction potentially providing more than US$300 million. The autonomous ride-hailing company has completed more than 550,000 paid rides and operates in three US locations. techcrunch.com

Lucid and European mobility platform Bolt plan to deploy 25,000 autonomous electric vehicles in European cities. The vehicles will use Lucid’s upcoming mid-size platform and Nvidia’s Hyperion architecture, with Bolt intending to own and operate the Level 4 fleet. reuters.com

US automakers could soon be forced to include AM radio for free. techcrunch.com

Joby completed its first cross-country autonomous flight. The flight covered 3,199 miles with “zero control inputs from onboard safety pilot,” including autonomous taxi, takeoff, cruise, and landing, the company said. theverge.com

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