2,073 ARTICLES
24 Aug 2023, 20:49 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Matthias Schmidt recently published that Chinese companies have not managed to obtain more than 3% of the new car market in Europe. In a way, they are still establishing their dealership networks and trying to gain buyers' trust, which takes a...
23 Aug 2023, 21:20 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Tesla insists it has enough demand for its cars despite constantly reducing their prices. It even created a new derivative for the Model S and Model X that allows it to sell them for $10,000 less so that it does not look like a discount. Yet, its i...
22 Aug 2023, 20:41 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / On August 12, I proposed a deeper discussion about how automakers establish the range of their vehicles. Although that is a much more predictable process in Europe than it is in the US, the truth is that WLTP ranges are also difficult to match in c...
22 Aug 2023, 11:32 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / It took Tesla quite a while to address the episode known as Tesla Files. If that does not ring a bell to you, the German newspaper Handelsblatt gave the world a demonstration of journalism at its finest: it exposed how the battery electric vehicle ...
20 Aug 2023, 22:28 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / It took a while to clarify why Amprius had different performance numbers for what appeared to be the same cell, but it was worth the wait. The company's chief technical officer (CTO) answered all the questions we had and presented a more preci...
20 Aug 2023, 16:44 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / This year's Earth Overshoot Day fell on August 2. Since 2011, it has been happening in the early days of this month, which may give the impression that things have been more or less stable in the past 12 years. However, when you think about wh...
19 Aug 2023, 07:31 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When Tesla started reducing prices, its usual advocates thought it was a fantastic move to increase sales. Some even parrotted Elon Musk's surreal excuse for that: that "demand at scale is limited by affordability," so Tesla had to s...
17 Aug 2023, 21:12 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Ternary cells – such as NMC or NCA – have a higher energy density than those made with lithium iron phosphate (LFP). That does not mean that a battery pack with ternary batteries will have a higher energy density at the pack level than ...
17 Aug 2023, 15:04 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Ask anyone why Tesla has the world's highest market cap among automakers, and nobody will offer you a sensible answer. That's because there isn't one: Tesla sells a fraction of what Volkswagen and Toyota can deliver every year, its p...
16 Aug 2023, 19:28 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Fremantle Highway may have raised the same questions as the Felicity Ace, but the roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) cargo ship faced a different fate – so far. After departing the Bremerhaven port in Germany toward Singapore with 3,783 cars, it cau...
16 Aug 2023, 14:21 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / A while ago, Tesla owners would fear or even mock those with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery packs. After the company adopted the chemistry and started selling vehicles with it, these customers now brag about having it. They can charge to 100%...
15 Aug 2023, 23:20 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Early adopters are necessary to test new technology and eventually see it go mainstream. At the same time, these guys sacrifice themselves for the privilege of being the first ones to try that tech. Till Westberg's story is a cautionary tale a...
15 Aug 2023, 09:09 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Some people marvel at coincidences, while others believe they do not exist: these events would be God's way of calling your attention to something important, which would eliminate the random effect that defines them as coincidences. Whatever y...
12 Aug 2023, 18:43 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / A blaze on June 23 destroyed five Tre BEV trucks at Nikola's headquarters in Phoenix. At first, the company said it suspected foul play because of a vehicle parked nearby that left soon after the fire started. However, Electrek revealed that R...
12 Aug 2023, 09:54 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Internal combustion engine (ICE) cars have fuel tanks and their reserves. The latter is the bottom 10% to 15% main reservoir capacity. Older vehicles warn about reaching the reserve by turning a warning light on, while onboard computers inform the ...
11 Aug 2023, 20:36 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When Volkswagen revealed the ID. Buzz, people saw it as the successor of the VW Bus (the T1 and T2). However, the electric MPV only shares the nostalgic styling and being an RWD with the first Transporter. Fans of the new vehicle who were hoping to...
11 Aug 2023, 11:47 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / I have written more than once about how Tesla established the battery electric vehicle (BEV) model that all automakers follow nowadays and how that standard may be flawed. The company was the first one to use thousands of ternary cells to create a ...
10 Aug 2023, 11:35 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / On May 19, I published an article about companies that armor Tesla vehicles. Clearly, being bullet-proof was not all these battery electric vehicles (BEVs) needed to offer. The added weight significantly reduced their ranges, which is also a safety...
8 Aug 2023, 14:36 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) had more than just the $7,500 tax credit for new battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Advocates of these cars also celebrated the $4,000 tax credit for used BEVs that cost up to $25,000: it would promote clean mobilit...
7 Aug 2023, 18:00 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / In March, I used Amprius silicon anode cells as an example of how far lithium-ion cells were from mature battery technologies. In other words, a cell with twice as much gravimetric energy density as the most used ones in battery electric vehicles (...