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Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

EV Expert
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.

Got any tips? Feel free to contact him through his LinkedIn profile or Threema: R6F4J872.

Gustavo knew he would make a living with writing. The options were a career in law and journalism. After a quick research, he learned that law professions would help him earn ten times more than a reporter. Knowing how it feels to be broke, he took no effort in going to law school.

Having grown up reading anything about cars his father would put in his hands, he started driving late: Gustavo wanted to buy his first car before learning to drive. But life is funny, and his law internships demanded him to have a driver’s license so that he could go to courts driving company cars. That was the only fun he had in the world of legal affairs.

In the third year of college, dying of boredom, he took part in a journalism training course. Loving cars was what landed him his first job as a motoring writer. But he also fell in love with journalism and how powerful it can be when things are not right in the world.

The profession was as unstable and low-paying as predicted, which eventually became a problem. That made him try to go back to the legal world working as a trainee. Ironically, it was at Ford, where he missed his days as an automotive journalist. That drove him back to newsrooms and made journalism turn into a professional refuge: he could always count on it.

Accepting that the life of a reporter is full of ups and downs – aren’t them all? – Gustavo fully accepted he was a journalist. That helped him earn a few prizes, work in multiple places, visit almost every major auto show in the world, meet a bunch of nice people, and feed his family while working with what he loves. He thanks for that privilege every single day.

At autoevolution, he found the right environment for journalism at its best: it can be fun to have a purpose.
Unsustainable $25,000 BEVs: The Push for Them Totally Misses the Point
Unsustainable $25,000 BEVs: The Push for Them Totally Misses the Point

29 Oct 2023, 14:41 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Nissan said at the Japan Mobility Show that it wanted to develop more affordable electric cars. The Volkswagen Group is working on that with the MEB Lite and all the ID. 2all siblings that it will spawn. Their goal is to cost around €25,000 an...

 
Is the Fiat Strada On Its Way Back to Europe?
Is the Fiat Strada On Its Way Back to Europe?

28 Oct 2023, 17:35 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Fiat Strada is also known as the RAM 700. It is selling in buckets in Brazil and will soon reach Mexico as well. The idea of a tiny cargo carrier that can transport more stuff than a GMC Hummer EV probably rang a bell at Stellantis, which decid...

 
Hertz Q3 Earnings Report Kills Two Tesla Myths With One Stone
Hertz Q3 Earnings Report Kills Two Tesla Myths With One Stone

27 Oct 2023, 19:08 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / People repeat endlessly that Tesla vehicles are cheaper to live with. They also praised the price cuts as proof that the company was a battery electric vehicle (BEV) champion that would offer them to the masses. Hertz killed these two myths with a ...

 
This Is Why Stellantis Joining With Leapmotor Is More Important Than You May Think
This Is Why Stellantis Joining With Leapmotor Is More Important Than You May Think

26 Oct 2023, 19:16 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Leapmotor. Talk about anywhere but China and people will look at you with a massive question mark on their faces. Mention it in China, and most people will tell you about the C11 and how the company is selling reasonably well there. That starts to ...

 
QuantumScape's Solid State Battery Pack Could Power Your EV for 300,000 Miles, Maybe
QuantumScape's Solid State Battery Pack Could Power Your EV for 300,000 Miles, Maybe

26 Oct 2023, 10:57 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Those who follow QuantumScape are certainly familiar with the company's commercial target. The solid-state platform startup wants to ensure its cells can reach 800 cycles while retaining at least 80% capacity. After it shipped its A0 24-layer ...

 
Tesla Profits: Offering Discounts Made No Financial Sense, So What's the Justification?
Tesla Profits: Offering Discounts Made No Financial Sense, So What's the Justification?

25 Oct 2023, 18:16 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Tesla's discounts have been bugging me since they started. I love the idea of having cheaper cars, but I can only respect things that make sense. The battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker's strategy doesn't. When the Q3 2023 numbers g...

 
Tesla Profits: Do the Energy and Services Divisions Cover the Losses Caused by Discounts?
Tesla Profits: Do the Energy and Services Divisions Cover the Losses Caused by Discounts?

24 Oct 2023, 11:39 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / In this Tesla Profits series, I have already shown how much money the battery electric vehicle (BEV) maker lost with its discounts. In an unrealistically beneficial calculation, it was $7.77 billion. The first hypothesis the company's advocate...

 
Tesla Profits: Do Cost Cuts Justify the Discounts the BEV Maker Currently Applies?
Tesla Profits: Do Cost Cuts Justify the Discounts the BEV Maker Currently Applies?

23 Oct 2023, 08:58 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / One of the explanations Tesla advocates find to justify why the company is cutting prices is that the company was allegedly so efficient in slashing costs that it now can share that with customers. The goal would be to "save the world" by...

 
Elon Musk Suggesting the Cybertruck is Bulletproof Is Reckless (and Nothing New)
Elon Musk Suggesting the Cybertruck is Bulletproof Is Reckless (and Nothing New)

23 Oct 2023, 08:29 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Elon Musk is famous for being controversial about all kinds of matters. Honestly, that should matter only to those who take him seriously or give him more relevance than he truly has. That changes substantially when it affects Tesla customers'...

 
Tesla Profits: Q3 2023 Confirms the Numbers Are Unbelievable, in a Bad Way
Tesla Profits: Q3 2023 Confirms the Numbers Are Unbelievable, in a Bad Way

21 Oct 2023, 20:59 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / On July 20, I made an exercise to understand the profits Tesla's earning reports suggested the company had. At that point, they made no sense at all. With the release of the Q3 2023 results, I decided to repeat these calculations in a more ela...

 
Another Battery Pack Error Code Story Shows a Debatable Tesla Practice
Another Battery Pack Error Code Story Shows a Debatable Tesla Practice

19 Oct 2023, 09:27 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The BMS_u029 error code Facebook group recently reached 1,000 members. Luckily, it seems to be growing more due to the interest that the subject raised than due to new cases. Despite that, the stories of those affected never cease to disappoint reg...

 
ICE for REx: Mazda Missed Chance to Establish Rotary Engines as Range Extender Standard
ICE for REx: Mazda Missed Chance to Establish Rotary Engines as Range Extender Standard

18 Oct 2023, 09:53 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When people defend that internal combustion engines (ICEs) still have a role to play in personal transportation, they are correct. Having an electric motor driving the wheels does not necessarily require a massive battery pack, and a lot of people ...

 
US Government Will Grant $7 Billion to Create Seven Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs)
US Government Will Grant $7 Billion to Create Seven Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs)

14 Oct 2023, 23:08 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Hydrogen in transportation lives the chicken-or-egg paradox. Companies do not invest in producing this gas for automotive use because there is not enough demand. At the same time, automakers do not put that much money into fuel cells because people...

 
Tesla Wants To Enlighten Employees About Unionizing in Germany, They See It as a Threat
Tesla Wants To Enlighten Employees About Unionizing in Germany, They See It as a Threat

13 Oct 2023, 16:04 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Stern covered how Giga Grünheide poses a risk to the environment and its employees in a series of articles that now look like just the beginning. The German magazine's reports made waves in the country and unleashed reactions from politic...

 
Toyota Partners With Oil Company to Make Solid-State Batteries, Reveals More Details
Toyota Partners With Oil Company to Make Solid-State Batteries, Reveals More Details

12 Oct 2023, 23:41 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Toyota seems resolute in making battery electric vehicles (BEVs) after it achieved a breakthrough in its quest to make solid-state batteries (SSB). This appears to be what changed the company's strategy around electrification. Curiously, one o...

 
Twenty Tesla Vehicles Affected By Fires on the Same Day in Turkey and France
Twenty Tesla Vehicles Affected By Fires on the Same Day in Turkey and France

12 Oct 2023, 09:20 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / On October 6, a car hauler with 6 Tesla Model Ys faced a fire that destroyed all battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Turkey. On the same day, another blaze destroyed 14 cars at the Chambéry Tesla Service Center in France. Although there is a...

 
Can You Really Say From Which Country a Car Company Is Anymore?
Can You Really Say From Which Country a Car Company Is Anymore?

11 Oct 2023, 07:58 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When I wrote in July about how money bears no passport, I made a question that stood there, waiting to be answered. Is Stellantis French? Or is it Italian? Perhaps American, considering it owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and RAM… I left it there...

 
BEV Price Reductions Should Condemn the Electrification Shift
BEV Price Reductions Should Condemn the Electrification Shift

10 Oct 2023, 10:18 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Rivian admitted during its Q3 earnings report that it loses around $33,000 per vehicle it sells. RJ Scaringe now wants to cut production costs by $40,000, which would give the company a $7,000 profit per unit. This report from the Wall Street Journ...

 
Driven: ZEEKR 001 EV Is a Bargain Among Full-Size Luxury Vehicles
Driven: ZEEKR 001 EV Is a Bargain Among Full-Size Luxury Vehicles

8 Oct 2023, 18:06 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When I first saw the pictures of the Lynk & Co Zero Concept three years ago, I thought the car was stunning. It was obvious that it deserved to reach production lines, which it did in a rather surprising way. When I learned I would have the cha...

 
Why Do We Have Cars With Manual Releases Instead of Traditional Door Handles?
Why Do We Have Cars With Manual Releases Instead of Traditional Door Handles?

7 Oct 2023, 09:41 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Most car buyers look at modern cars as if they worked like old ones. Nothing is further from the truth, especially when you talk about door handles. Battery electric cars were the first ones to ditch a mechanical connection between them and the loc...

 

Stories by Gustavo Henrique Ruffo