Green Transportation

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Car News China reports that in the first half of 2025, consumers in that country bought 10,891,000 passenger vehicles. But here’s the catch. They bought 5,458,000 EVs and 5,433,000 gasoline cars. Look carefully at those numbers. They bought more EVs than internal combustion engine cars. To be precise, 50.1% of […]

Climate Crisis

How Electric Vehicles and Water Heaters are turning Cities into giant Batteries

The Conversation

By Bin Lu, Australian National University and Marnie Shaw, Australian National University (The Conversation) – As the electrification of transport and heating accelerates, many worry the increased demand could overload national power grids. In Australia, electricity consumption is expected to double by 2050. If everyone charges their car and heats water using electric systems at […]

Featured

EVs will Make Up 25% of New Car Sales Globally in 2025, up from 20% last Year

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Electric vehicles are expected to make up some 25% of cars sold globally in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. Given where we were only a decade ago, this is a world-historical statistic. In 2016, EVs made up a little less than one percent of light vehicle sales. The […]

Featured

China’s BYD has a $16K “Tesla-killer,” as IEA finds EVs are an Oil Company-Killer

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Incredible new developments in electric vehicles are taking place in China with global implications. China’s BYD sold $100 billion worth of its electric vehicles (EVs) in 2024, outstripping Tesla, the sales of which were $97 billion. Since CEO Elon Musk has ruined the Tesla brand by attacking Americans’ social security, […]

Featured

For First time, US is at 42% Zero Carbon Electricity, as Solar Surges by 49 GW

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Business Council for Sustainable Energy Factbook is out, and it has good news for the environment despite the dark shadow being cast by a climate denialist White House. The good news is that the incredible advance of solar power generation has boosted renewable sources of power to 24% of […]

Donald Trump

Detroit’s Death Spiral: How Trump’s Climate Policy Could Kill the US Auto Industry

Alfred W. McCoy

( Tomdispatch.com ) – It came upon a midnight clear, a vision both complete and quite specific — not from any of those “angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold,” as in the Christmas carol, but from a long line of trucks on the Indiana Toll Road. On that cold winter’s […]

Climate Crisis

How smaller, more affordable Electric cars can Accelerate the Green Transition

The Conversation

By Agnieszka Stefaniec, University of Southampton and Keyvan Hosseini, University of Southampton (The Conversation) – Norway is set to make history by becoming the first nation to sell only zero emission (electric- or hydrogen-powered) vehicles by the end of 2025. While this doesn’t mean that fossil fuel-powered cars already on the road will suddenly disappear […]

China

Over half of new Car sales in China in July were EVs, as America faces threat of Falling Behind

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In July, China reached an unprecedented inflection point for an industrialized society, with more electric cars purchased than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. William Gavin at Quartz points out that 3 years ago, only 7% of cars sold in China were EVs. Just this year, EV sales are up 37%. […]

Featured

China and the Slowing Petroleum Market: EVs displaced 1.5 mn. Barrels per Day in 2024

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Energy Agency signaled last week that the rate of increase in world petroleum demand fell in the second quarter of 2024 to an 18-month low. The increased demand was only 710,000 barrels a day. The world used 102.04 million barrels per day of petroleum as of May. That […]