Letters to the Editor, Author at CleanTechnica

More Flaws in the Robotaxi Revolution Dream

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 20:39:48 +0000

I published an article the other day on flaws in the robotaxi revolution dream. It was based on a reader comment that I wanted to highlight. However, there was another reader comment I had spotted to highlight as well, and it gets even a bit more granular. Here’s that comment, ... [continued]

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BYD Keeps Delivering on Tesla’s Unkept Promises

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 23:28:45 +0000

I recently read Steve Hanley’s excellent article on the woes of Tesla and found the closing insightful: “Tesla is like the boy who cried wolf. Every time it makes promises it doesn’t keep, its reputation suffers. Most major corporations care passionately about their reputation, but such things do not seem ... [continued]

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Highlights & Lowlights of the Worldwide Renewable Energy Revolution

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 03:40:37 +0000

I was catching up on reader comments from the past several days earlier today, and as it goes, a few comments jumped out at me as interesting comments that could stand alone as individual articles — or at least inspire more. The comment below, graphs included, comes from Amos Batto. ... [continued]

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Estimating the Growth of Electric Vehicles, A 2024 Update on S-Curve Modeling

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 01:25:43 +0000

The transition to electric vehicles has certainly been filled with drama. Tesla and European sales both dropped in 2024, while the Chinese EV market saw a meteoric rise which triggered a fresh round of tariffs. This turbulence makes it difficult to look into the future. But a few short years ... [continued]

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The End of the Gas-Powered Vehicle Era — Look at the Numbers

Tue, 18 Mar 2025 16:18:31 +0000

Responding to an article yesterday about the potential effect of repealing the US EV tax credit, one of our readers provided a great, long comment on a topic I’ve been meaning to cover for months. The “fun with numbers” part is right at the end. Check out the comment below ... [continued]

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BYD vs. Tesla — Some Key Points

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 23:07:55 +0000

In the comment thread for our article “BYD Shocks — Is Winning the EV Revolution,” Larry Evans added some very interesting and useful perspective. Because of how things stood a few years ago, some people claim that BYD’s got a really low gross margin whereas Tesla has a very high ... [continued]

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Are Waymo’s Accomplishments & Methods Being Overlooked?

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 04:46:53 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, Michael Barnard published a great article on Tesla’s approach to autonomous driving, what he thought about it a decade ago, what’s happened since then, and whether Tesla can ever achieve robotaxi-level self-driving. There were a lot of great comments under the article. A few articles ... [continued]

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Local Energy, Global Lessons: How Ranch Sereno Models the Future of Community-Centered Energy

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 01:30:31 +0000

Clean energy isn’t just about power — it’s about people. The Ranch Sereno project shows how solar developers can navigate community opposition by designing projects to serve multiple local needs. As a solar developer, I’ve experienced firsthand how renewable energy projects can struggle to address community opposition, navigate complicated permitting ... [continued]

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BYD is “Pushing the Boundaries of What’s Possible.” For Its Own Brands and Other Companies.

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 18:39:54 +0000

I recently travelled to Europe to celebrate my birthday. While I was on the flight home, I thought about my past few decades on this planet. While we seem to be going backwards politically, that can largely be attributed to fear. That fear often comes from the disruptive change created ... [continued]

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A Case for Small Hydro

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 04:58:06 +0000

Harnessing renewable energy is a crucial step in building sustainable communities, and as climate change accelerates, finding carbon-free energy sources that are affordable, reliable, and can handle changes in policy, extreme weather events, and rising demand is more important than ever. One often-overlooked solution? Our rivers. Small hydroelectric turbines (“Small ... [continued]

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Footnote on Chery’s Solid-State Batteries

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 04:57:04 +0000

CleanTechnica reader Amos Batto caught some very interesting notes on Chery’s solid-state batteries. Following up on our story about the company developing the first solid-state battery factory in the world (1 GWh of capacity), it seemed prudent to publish his comment as a standalone article. We will surely be referencing ... [continued]

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BEVs & Renewables Apparently Are Not the Answer

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 13:26:53 +0000

This article is about critical thinking and bias. If you are interested in why people (all of us) often hold “incorrect” beliefs, read on. This subject is big and “hairy” in that there are many “forcings” that impact how we humans think, understand, and believe. This topic really deserves a ... [continued]

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A YangWang U9 Recently Went 243 MPH — What It Says About BYD

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 02:21:14 +0000

While many of us were focused on the election, BYD announced that the YangWang U9 went 391.94 km/h (243 mph). Auto-translate under subtitles helps. This was not a one-off. No track-only equipment (other than a roll cage, for safety reasons), rockets, or gimmicks. It was a street-legal car using street ... [continued]

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BYD Added A Tesla-Worth Of Production Capacity Over The Past 3 Months … With More To Come

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 22:47:13 +0000

Editor’s note: BYD is clearly on a huge roll, after more than a decade of growth and rapid innovation. Its sales are booming fast, and it is establishing itself firmly as the #1 plugin vehicle producer in the world, and probably soon the #1 automaker in the world. Larry Evans ... [continued]

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What’s Up? BYD 3Q Financials … As Expected

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 16:27:08 +0000

BYD announced their 3Q financials this week. To summarize, almost everything is up, quarter on quarter and year on year: sales, revenue (now more than Tesla), net profit, earnings per share, shareholder equity … all up by double digits. Gross margin is also up for Automotive, Electronics, and overall (continuing ... [continued]

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PHEV Sales In China Are Skyrocketing, Led By BYD. Here’s Why.

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 02:02:01 +0000

As recently reported, PHEV sales in China are growing at an astounding rate, driving new energy vehicle (NEV) market share above 53% in the largest car market. New PHEVs are being introduced, as well as new batteries designed specifically for these applications. At the same time, changes to China’s purchase ... [continued]

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BYD — Leading In Electric Vehicles More Than You Think

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 22:44:21 +0000

I didn’t know what to expect when I wrote “Our Stance On Covering Tesla,” but I had realized that I really needed a post to explain that there are different people covering Tesla with different opinions and also that some Tesla news is positive while some Tesla news is negative. ... [continued]

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A New Era in Transportation — Part 2

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 03:57:43 +0000

In Part 1 of this series, we addressed the anticipated impact of robotaxis on the regular taxi market. In case you missed it, here is the link. In Part 2, we will now explore the impact of Transportation as a Service (TAAS) on the general automotive market and the transportation ... [continued]

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Is British Columbia Looking at a Black Swan Event? The Complete Stupidity of BC Politics & the Carbon Tax.

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 21:59:03 +0000

First, according to Wikipedia, a black swan event is a high-impact event that is difficult to predict under normal circumstances but in retrospect appears to have been inevitable, or an event that comes as a surprise, has a major impact, and is often rationalized with the benefit of hindsight as ... [continued]

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My Take On What’s Going On With Extinction Rebellion

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 01:45:23 +0000

Note that this is a reader’s response to Scott Cooney’s article about Extinction Rebellion, where he postulated the organization could be a front group for fossil industries or at least manipulated by them. This letter to the editor comes to us from David Woodward, and we think it’s absolutely excellent. ... [continued]

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Single-Well, High-Output Enhance Geothermal (“DGS”) — In Depth

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 00:44:16 +0000

Greetings, serious geothermal supporters. This letter to the editor addresses articles touting the baseload, climate impact, and large-scale PPA capabilities of hot dry rock geothermal (HDR) systems, in particular Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). The letter also answers increasing recognition by government, investors, offtakers, and clean energy proponents for the needs ... [continued]

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Cross-Canada Road Trip in 2019 Hyundai Kona EV

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 22:58:29 +0000

“We think you’re crazy!” “Wow, we’d never try that!” “What are you going to do if you get stranded?” Almost every time we broached the idea of driving our 2019 Kona EV across Canada, we got these responses in return. Except once. “You’re really worried about climate change, and you ... [continued]

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World’s 1st Electric Timber Truck with Crane Takes Sustainable Forestry to the Next Level

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 17:45:38 +0000

The forestry industry just saw a major leap towards sustainability with the debut of the world’s first electric timber truck equipped with a crane. Unveiled in Sweden at the Elmia Lastbil fair, this cutting-edge vehicle is the result of a collaboration between SCA and Scania. It’s set to revolutionize timber ... [continued]

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The Freebie EV Charger — Lessons Learned by a Green Samaritan

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 13:00:49 +0000

By Janis Petzel Long ago, for a review giveaway far, far away, the Autel Company offered a free EV charger from their company to CleanTechnica. CleanTechnica in turn offered it to the first subscriber willing to write a review about the equipment. To my surprise, and possibly to Autel’s chagrin, ... [continued]

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How Propane Broke My Heart

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 20:27:59 +0000

On the way decarbonizing my home, a heated love affair with propane went up in flames. At the start, seeking warmth and comfort, the fuel’s seemingly slim carbon footprint was infatuating. Propane came in those big cuddly tanks one sees next to romantic mountain cabins, or those cute little UFO-looking ... [continued]

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Note to Tesla: Customer Choice Key to Financial Success, Including Stalks & Steering Wheels

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 22:01:22 +0000

Tesla needs to respect its customers’ wishes by providing them with options to purchase the driving controls that they prefer. In particular, Tesla should provide customers with options to include turn signal and gear shift stalks, and also provide Model S and X purchasers with the ability to equip their ... [continued]

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The Absurd “Sin Tax” on Electric Vehicles in Brazil

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 00:28:14 +0000

In an unexpected move, Brazil has recently proposed a “sin tax” on electric vehicles. Traditionally, sin taxes are levies placed on products considered harmful to society, such as tobacco and alcohol. The rationale behind extending this concept to electric vehicles is multifaceted and somewhat controversial. Rationale Behind the Tax 1. ... [continued]

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Reviewing the BYD Tang EV in Russia — Exclusive

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 01:30:54 +0000

Hello! I am from Russia, my name is Ilya, I have lived in the city of Perm since birth. It is located at latitude 58, almost the same as Alaska’s capital, Juneau. Only, the population of Juneau is some 31,000 people, and Perm is more than 1 million people. At ... [continued]

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Are Advanced Driver Assist Systems Safer? And What’s Next?

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 19:11:39 +0000

For some time, I have been met with pitchforks over declaring the safety of advanced driver assist systems (ADAS). The shortest articulation for this measure is to not crash, or to not perform maneuvers that could cause you or others to crash. But is there any data to back up ... [continued]

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Letters To The Editor: How Green Is Green Hydrogen?

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:25:14 +0000

There is no such thing as “green hydrogen” (except perhaps “white” hydrogen, if that turns out to be a reality). Any power generated from any source is fungible in the grid. If you use it locally, the green percentage in the grid is lower than what it would have been ... [continued]

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Drilling Into Magma For Renewable Energy

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 16:35:48 +0000

A magma geothermal plant has the potential to produce at least 10 times the power of a traditional geothermal plant.

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Estimating the Growth of Electric Vehicles & Tesla Sales, an Exploration of S-Curves

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 15:06:55 +0000

In this special report from CleanTechnica reader and data analyst David Gines, we get a high-quality, professional, useful exploration of exponential growth of EV sales — Tesla’s sales, Norway’s EV sales, and broader regional and global EV sales. By David Gines, an electrical engineer specializing in algorithms for data analysis ... [continued]

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Case Study: Cost Comparison Of Utility Transition To Clean Energy

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:34:07 +0000

If we look not at the rate of change but just the pure cost of energy, Kauaʻi went from the most expensive energy in the state to the cheapest in about a year and has kept this low cost lead ever since

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What’s Going On With The Protests At Tesla’s Giga Berlin Factory? Situation On The Ground

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 03:57:47 +0000

Below is a Letter to the Editor from on the ground near Tesla Giga Berlin, by Madeindex Blog, with minor editing. If you’d like to submit a letter to the editor, please visit this link. In this post, I would like to address the situation around Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin ... [continued]

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Evolution Of Tesla Loyalty From A Non-Elon-Fan

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:55:34 +0000

I was driving a Toyota Prius for several years until I made the move to an EV in 2018, buying a Tesla Model 3 Mid Range. Last summer I traded up to a Model Y Long Range. My admiration for Elon Musk has been dinged by his political pronouncements, but ... [continued]

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Letter to the Editor: The Bolt With The Most Miles On Earth? And Towing Capacity To Boot?

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 10:55:19 +0000

The following is a letter to the editor from a reader who may very well hold the record for the Chevy Bolt with the most miles on it. And someone who makes that car really work, sometimes towing multiple tons! Following graduation from Arizona State I have found many ways ... [continued]

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Letters To The Editor: Opinions From Poo-Poo’ers

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 21:20:08 +0000

We get a solid amount of…interesting…. email from clean tech doubters and outright haters. We recently launched a “Letters to the editor” section, and well, I decided to run a smattering of the commentary that CleanTechnica receives (slash have to deal with) on the daily, just for your entertainment. Enjoy. ... [continued]

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Why One Climate Tech Investor Is Betting On Hardware

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:35:15 +0000

By Victoria Beasley, Partner at Gigascale Capital In the fast-evolving world of climate tech, everything under the hard tech umbrella — hardware, deep tech, and science-driven innovation — is now commanding attention. This isn’t a fleeting trend; it’s a shift to contend with the most formidable challenges of climate change ... [continued]

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Opinion: The End of the Oil Age

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:15:15 +0000

CleanTechnica is committed to publishing a diversity of educated opinions on the clean energy transition. Want to submit a thought piece? Go to CleanTechnica.com/contact THE OIL AGE by David L Historians label time periods for dominant technologies. The Stone Age and the Bronze Age are well known examples. In the ... [continued]

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