Within Range

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In 2023, a group of students from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) developed the world’s longest-range electric car.

These kids built a car and drove it more than 2,573 kilometres on a single battery charge.

It was clearly a prototype vehicle.

They drove it in ideal conditions.

There was no room for your dog (sorry, Gurdy), your family, your Costco toilet paper purchase, your golf clubs or even a larger-than-average-sized driver.

But it drove, and it proved that long-range EVs weren’t that far off.

I’ve used this example in A LOT of presentations.

Those German kids weren’t the only ones to pull off some long-range EV antics in recent years.

The fine folks at Lightyear built the Lightyear One (or Lightyear 0), a hyper-efficient all-solar-electric car that collected around 70 km of range per day from ambient light and could drive around 800 to 1000 km on a single charge.

I talked about the Lightyear One in my interview for Project Ignition.

Sadly, you’re never going to get to drive a Lightyear One.

Lightyear stopped production of the Lightyear One to focus on developing and selling its solar IP to other OEMs and applying its know-how to other energy projects.

Mercedes built a suspiciously similar-looking, highly efficient vehicle, which they called the VISION EQXX.

This vehicle leveraged many of the same low-drag aerodynamics and first-principles thinking that Lightyear put into their vehicle.

On its first road trip, the VISION EQXX drove the 1,008 km from Sindelfingen (Germany) to Cassis (France), with around 140 km of electric range remaining. Its energy consumption was a groundbreaking 8.7 kWh/100 km (7.1 mi/kWh) at an average speed of 87.4 km/h (54.5 mph).

Impressive, but also a prototype vehicle.

BYD enters the chat.

During its “Disruptive Technology” event this week, BYD revealed its next-gen Blade Battery 2.0, featuring record-breaking charging speeds (again) and more than 1,000 km (621 miles) of driving range.

BYD’s luxury brand confirmed on social media that the Yangwang U7 will be the first to feature the second-generation Blade Battery.

This announcement comes after BYD’s other sub-brand, Denza, claimed the new Z9 GT is the “world’s longest pure electric driving range vehicle” with a range of up to 1,036 km (644 miles) on a single charge.

Charging tests show the Blade Battery 2.0 recharges from 10% to 70% in 4 minutes and 51 seconds, just under the 5-minute mark. To reach 97%, it takes 8 minutes and 44 seconds.

Chevrolet, Lucid, GAC, and Nio have either demonstrated prototypes of long-range EVs or are now working on long-range production models.

Also making news this week, VW’s partner, Gotion High Tech, has begun testing all-solid-state EV batteries with a CLTC range of 1,000 km (620 miles) in actual vehicles.

Long-range electric driving over 1,000 km on a single charge is now within reach.

The industry is systematically making range anxiety a thing of the past.

Which is good, because there are a lot more important things happening around the world right now that might be better candidates for your anxiety.

Xpeng launched the G6 EREV, marking the first EREV variant in the G6 coupe SUV lineup. Priced at $27,080 USD, the new model targets China’s rapidly expanding extended-range SUV segment. carnewschina.com

Geely sold more vehicles than BYD for a second consecutive month, piling pressure on BYD to beef up its lineup and reignite waning demand for its vehicles. bloomberg.com

Li Auto trash-talks VW for producing “outdated” range-extender technology. carnewschina.com

China’s commerce ministry on Saturday raised the possibility of ‌another global semiconductor supply chain crisis due to “new conflicts” between Dutch chipmaker Nexperia and its Chinese subsidiary. reuters.com

Elon’s social media platform X and ​artificial intelligence start-up xAI plan to repay in full about $17.5 ‌billion in debt tied to the companies. reuters.com

Elon continued to defend his actions in court in the months leading up to his 2022 purchase of Twitter, as he faces a class-action lawsuit alleging he misled investors and caused them to lose millions of dollars. ctvnews.ca

Tesla UK car sales drop 37% as Chinese competition heightens. reuters.com

Tesla has wiped out its entire Canadian Model 3 inventory. The automaker has sent its US-built units back to the States. The move comes as Canada officially opened its new Chinese EV import program on March 1, allowing up to 49,000 Chinese-built electric vehicles into the country at a drastically reduced 6.1% tariff, down from the 100% surtax that had blocked imports since 2024. electrek.co

Two Tesla Cybertrucks burned to the ground, and several other Tesla vehicles were damaged after a fire broke out on the rooftop of a seven-story parking garage in Santa Monica on Wednesday. electrek.co

Chinese robotics player Agibot has unveiled an updated version of its G2, an industrial robot designed to combine extreme precision with human-like flexibility for modern manufacturing. interestingengineering.com

Xiaomi beats Hyundai and Tesla by deploying humanoid robots in its EV auto assembly plant. cnevpost.com

Lenovo built a weird desktop robo-arm-style companion robot called the AI Workmate. theverge.com

The Donald shrugs off the biggest gas price spike in years. “I don’t have any concern about it,” the president told Reuters in an interview on Thursday evening when asked about rising prices. “They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.” reuters.com

GE Vernova has landed orders to repower 1.1 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind turbines across the US. Originally booked in 2025, these repower projects will be completed and resume commercial operation by the end of 2027. electrek.co

Legal and certification changes underway in the US would unlock a market for cheaper DIY balcony solar installations that are already plentiful in European cities like Berlin. pcmag.com

Following last month’s dramatic capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Trump Administration is now shifting into high gear to expand the footprint of Western companies in Venezuela’s oil sector. forbes.com

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are scaling up solar, wind, nuclear, and hydrogen projects as part of long-term economic diversification strategies. Regional renewable capacity is projected to grow rapidly, with solar expanding tenfold by 2035 and nuclear output tripling.

oilprice.com

The Corvette ZR1X has a Nürburgring circuit time of 6 minutes, 49 seconds, a new American production-car record. theverge.com

GM is moving its US pre-owned vehicle dealers onto the CarBravo platform. aol.com

Subaru has yet another new EV that uses Toyota’s shared e-TNGA platform. arstechnica.com

US Volkswagen dealers are upset about their sister company Scout’s plan to sell vehicles directly to consumers. Lawyers are involved. wsj.com

Ford has issued two ‌new recalls affecting a total of 1.74 million vehicles, in which defects could cause rearview-camera images to display incorrectly when the vehicle is ​in reverse. reuters.com

Ford also has a windshield wiper problem. reuters.com

Stellantis plans to maintain a high level of patent filings despite the cancellation of many EV projects as part of a strategic reset, its chief of innovation, Anne Laliron, said. reuters.com

Volvo US sales volumes fell 10% in the ​three months through February due to trade tariffs and other ‌market headwinds, but sales of fully electric cars jumped. reuters.com

Suzuki announced an agreement with Kanadevia Corp to acquire its all-solid-state EV battery business. electrek.co

Toyota-affiliated auto parts supplier plans to take over Kyoto-based chipmaker Rohm. wsj.com

A coalition of environmental, climate, and human rights groups ranked 18 of the world’s largest automakers on their efforts to eliminate emissions, environmental harms, and human rights violations from their supply chains.’ Tesla, Ford, and Volvo occupy the top three spots, and Toyota is at the bottom of the list. theverge.com, leadthecharge.org

Zeno announced a $25 million Series A to expand its app-controlled battery-swap network and produce more of its Emara motorcycles. techcrunch.com

Nokian’s new Hakkapeliitta 01 tires feature metal studs that automatically extend and retract based on weather conditions. theverge.com

First Brands’ creditors expect upcoming asset sales at the bankrupt car parts maker to bring in less than $200mn, leaving holders of its $12bn in debt nursing heavy losses. ft.com

Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Industry Minister Melanie Joly continue to court Korean automakers to build an assembly plant in Canada. autonews.com

Hybrids accounted for nearly one in five vehicles registered in Canada in the fourth quarter of 2025, capping a year of rapid growth that has made the powertrain the preferred electrified option among new-car buyers. autonews.com

US post-EV-rebate electric vehicle sales started to tick up a bit in January. glennmercer.substack.com

David Blenkle has put over 316,000 miles on his 2022 Mustang Mach-E Premium with an extended range battery pack. He bought the car new at the end of June 2022 and launched his private car service in the Santa Cruz area soon after. David has gone through six sets of tires, seven cabin filters, zero repairs, over 20 routine 10,000-mile checkups, and driven more than 7,000 passengers in the back seat of his Mach-E, with only 8% battery degradation. forbes.com

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That was a lot. You deserve a snack.