autoevolution
 

Cristian Agatie

Contributor
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As a child, he grew up among tractors and heavy machinery and was covered in grease from tip to toe most of the time. It was a tractor that he drove for the first time and when asked what he’d become, he candidly replied: “tractor operator”. Later on, he drove all kinds of vehicles, from heavy trucks to off-roaders, all outside of public roads until he got his driving license.

He did not become a tractor operator, as you can tell already. Instead, he got interested in journalism and pursued a career finding stories for local newspapers and radio stations. But the first love is never forgotten, so when presented with the chance, he seized it and became a motor journalist in 1995.

Having found the perfect job to mix his passion for cars and journalism, he couldn’t help exploring other areas, like science, computers, and mobile devices. He took stints working for a computer magazine for a couple of years, and it was then that he had his first contact with new media. But cars always remained his passion, so he returned to motor journalism when Auto Bild started its local branch. Later, he became an internet junkie, and moving online felt only natural.

In the meantime, he also became obsessed with technology, electric vehicles, batteries, and whatnot, so he writes a lot about those. He found autoevolution a fertile ground for exploration and so he discovered his passion for RVs and campers, but also solar panels and new energy solutions.
The NDAs That GM Signed With Early Cadillac Lyriq Adopters Raise a Red Flag at NHTSA
The NDAs That GM Signed With Early Cadillac Lyriq Adopters Raise a Red Flag at NHTSA

25 Jul 2022, 09:55 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / The Cadillac Lyriq is crucial for the brand’s future, so GM wants to get it right. The company intends to gather as much feedback as possible from the first customers before starting a broader rollout. But GM’s initiative to sign confid...

 
This Nissan Camper Van Has a Li-Ion Battery, but It's Not What You Think
This Nissan Camper Van Has a Li-Ion Battery, but It's Not What You Think

25 Jul 2022, 08:33 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Electric campers are starting to enter the market, but that doesn’t mean they are becoming instant hits soon. RV life is all about freedom, and being tied to a plug is not what people in this community want. At least, this is what guys at Sus...

 
Toyota Gets Defensive Over Tundra's Reliability Issues, Mentions the 1-Million-Mile Truck
Toyota Gets Defensive Over Tundra's Reliability Issues, Mentions the 1-Million-Mile Truck

24 Jul 2022, 11:28 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Toyota has a strong reliability reputation, especially for the company’s line of pickup trucks. Toyota wants us all to remember this, especially as the Tundra is all over the news for all the wrong reasons, safety recalls included. A Toyot...

 
Japanese Carmakers Face a Reckoning Moment As BYD Enters Their Home Market
Japanese Carmakers Face a Reckoning Moment As BYD Enters Their Home Market

24 Jul 2022, 09:51 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Toyota is a pioneer of electrification, having launched its first hybrid car, the Prius, 25 years ago. Since then, the Japanese carmaker has perfected its hybrid technology but refuses to let go of the internal combustion engine. Things might chang...

 
Herbert Diess's Sacking Shows What Happens When You Mess With the Establishment
Herbert Diess's Sacking Shows What Happens When You Mess With the Establishment

23 Jul 2022, 11:41 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Herbert Diess was far from a perfect leader at Volkswagen. Still, he is credited with the company’s successful turnaround following the Dieselgate fallout. Diess also pushed Volkswagen to become an EV powerhouse and made many enemies in the p...

 
Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess Leaves the Company, Oliver Blume Named Successor
Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess Leaves the Company, Oliver Blume Named Successor

22 Jul 2022, 17:43 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / After four years as CEO of the Volkswagen Group, Herbert Diess is resigning “by mutual agreement,” according to the announcement made by Volkswagen. This unexpected shake-up comes amid controversies and a spat with the influential work ...

 
SVolt Tests Solid-State Sulfur Battery Capable of 600+ Miles of Range
SVolt Tests Solid-State Sulfur Battery Capable of 600+ Miles of Range

22 Jul 2022, 16:39 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / SVolt Energy is known for pushing the LFP technology’s boundaries, with several LFP batteries showing impressive energy density. The Chinese company did not put all its eggs in one basket, though, and is now ready to announce a breakthrough i...

 
Volkswagen Teases Its Future Scout Electric Pickup With a Video of a Scout II Off-Roader
Volkswagen Teases Its Future Scout Electric Pickup With a Video of a Scout II Off-Roader

22 Jul 2022, 15:19 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / We already know that the newly-revived Scout brand in Volkswagen Group’s portfolio has plans to build electric vehicles in the U.S. Volkswagen hinted that the first product coming from the new brand would be an electric pickup inspired by the...

 
Munro Checks Out the Made-in-Texas Tesla Model Y Build Quality, Has a Few Words to Say
Munro Checks Out the Made-in-Texas Tesla Model Y Build Quality, Has a Few Words to Say

22 Jul 2022, 13:22 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Munro & Associates recently got a made-in-Texas (MIT) Tesla Model Y to teardown. Before stripping the parts off, they took the opportunity to check out the build quality coming from Giga Texas. What they found was interesting, although not at a...

 
Ford Stopped Taking Orders for Two Popular Models Because of Supply Problems
Ford Stopped Taking Orders for Two Popular Models Because of Supply Problems

22 Jul 2022, 10:05 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Carmakers across the world are grappling with excessively long delivery times caused by components shortages and supply chain problems. Ford had to close the order books for Fiesta and Focus, its most popular European models. Closing the order b...

 
Australians Concerned About Floodings, Will Test New Cars for Survivability Underwater
Australians Concerned About Floodings, Will Test New Cars for Survivability Underwater

22 Jul 2022, 08:56 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Just like the IIHS in the U.S., the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) performs such tests for vehicles sold in Australia and New Zealand. The body will tighten its test procedures from 2023 and introduce a new underwater safety test. ...

 
Tom Hanks Is Selling His 1975 Fiat 128 and Everybody Starts Pitying the Next Owner
Tom Hanks Is Selling His 1975 Fiat 128 and Everybody Starts Pitying the Next Owner

21 Jul 2022, 17:26 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Hollywood star Tom Hanks could probably buy just about any car in the world, but he made some questionable choices nevertheless. Among the more bizarre Hanks’ rides were two Fiat city cars, which the actor held dearly for whatever reason. He ...

 
The Tesla Model Y 4680 Battery Teardown Continues, Sandy Has More Questions Than Answers
The Tesla Model Y 4680 Battery Teardown Continues, Sandy Has More Questions Than Answers

21 Jul 2022, 16:02 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Sandy Munro is back from Italy to speed up the teardown process of the 4680 structural battery pack in the made-in-Texas Tesla Model Y. Following intensive work, the team finally took off the steel lid, but what they found inside puzzles Sandy. ...

 
Hummer Back to Military Roles, U.S. Army Wants to See if It's Humvee Material
Hummer Back to Military Roles, U.S. Army Wants to See if It's Humvee Material

21 Jul 2022, 14:20 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / The U.S. Army is looking to electrify its fleet, and GM Defense stepped in to offer a GMC Hummer EV for evaluation purposes. The GMC Hummer EV, a nephew of the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (aka Humvee), seems poised to complete the ci...

 
BMW i4 Embarrasses Itself in the Moose Test, It's Cone-ageddon
BMW i4 Embarrasses Itself in the Moose Test, It's Cone-ageddon

21 Jul 2022, 12:37 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / You’d’ve thought BMW knows how to make a car nimble and agile. After all, this is their bread and butter. And yet, the battery-electric i4 doesn’t seem to follow the steps of its more famous ancestors. Put to the popular moose tes...

 
Elon Musk Tells Us Exactly When the Tesla Cybertruck Is Expected to Start Deliveries
Elon Musk Tells Us Exactly When the Tesla Cybertruck Is Expected to Start Deliveries

21 Jul 2022, 10:05 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Tesla’s Q2 2022 earnings call with investors gave us some interesting information, especially about the MIA Cybertruck. The forever-delayed electric pickup truck is now closer to production, and Elon Musk thinks it should hit the roads as ear...

 
Watch Brand-New Nissan Maxima Getting Smashed With a Gong in a Bizarre Sales Celebration
Watch Brand-New Nissan Maxima Getting Smashed With a Gong in a Bizarre Sales Celebration

21 Jul 2022, 08:48 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / A salesperson at a Nissan dealership pulled off either a nice publicity stunt or a monumental blunder when he instructed a first-time customer to kick the gong in front of a car. From there, things quickly escalated in what could’ve been a di...

 
Beautifully Restored 1966 Volkswagen Type 2 Camper Wants To Make New Friends
Beautifully Restored 1966 Volkswagen Type 2 Camper Wants To Make New Friends

20 Jul 2022, 17:26 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / We haven’t seen a good Volkswagen Type 2 for a while. Still, we are impressed by this marvelous example of the original Bus selling on Bring a Trailer. It was completely refurbished five years ago, which explains why it’s in such good c...

 
Shoddy Dealerships in New York Forced To Pay $800K in Settlements for Deceptive Practices
Shoddy Dealerships in New York Forced To Pay $800K in Settlements for Deceptive Practices

20 Jul 2022, 16:22 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / Tight vehicle inventories have altered the market to the point that the MSRP does not mean anything. Used vehicles are also affected because production glitches have pushed customers to look for alternatives on the used-car market. In this environm...

 
General Motors Set to Fight Chip Shortage With Its Own Microchips by 2025
General Motors Set to Fight Chip Shortage With Its Own Microchips by 2025

20 Jul 2022, 14:47 UTC · By: Cristian Agatie / The microchip shortage affects every carmaker, and General Motors brands have not been spared either. But the company steered by Mary Barra has generally done better than the rivals at Ford. Although the problems are not over yet, GM is on course t...

 

Stories by Cristian Agatie