Lithium, the common ingredient in almost all electric-car batteries, has become so precious that it is often called white gold. But something surprising has happened recently: The metal’s price has fallen, helping to make electric vehicles more affordable. Since January, the price of lithium has dropped by nearly 20 percent, according to Benchmark Minerals, even […]
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The small-town mayor, long a loyal foot soldier for Hungary’s governing party, recently committed what he described as “political suicide,” throwing himself in the path of an enormous $7.8 billion Chinese battery factory project promoted by his dissent-intolerant prime minister, Viktor Orban. “It is like lying in front of a steamroller,” Zoltan Timar, the mayor […]
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WASHINGTON — President Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, opened negotiations on Friday over the critical minerals used in electric vehicles amid concerns of a potential trade war triggered by the Biden administration’s signature clean energy legislation. The recent tensions with European allies center on provisions in the legislation […]
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Free-trade deals are legal agreements that the World Trade Organization defines as covering “substantially all trade” between countries, including a broad range of goods and, typically, services. They usually take years to negotiate and, in the United States, require the approval of Congress. Scott Lincicome, the director of general economics at the Cato Institute, said […]
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The federal government, aiming for half of all vehicles sold to be zero-emissions by 2030, has allocated $7.5 billion to installing public chargers nationwide over five years, including in the tristate area. But Brandt Hastings, Volta’s chief commercial officer, says that the region still has fewer public chargers per electric vehicle than the national average […]
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That was back in 2017. In the years since, Tesla’s become even crankier, while its competition has loosened up. Public perception hasn’t yet caught up with the reality of the situation. If you want to work for a flexible, modern company, you don’t apply to Tesla. You apply to 120-year-old Ford. Tesla’s veneer of irreverence […]
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In February, the first lawsuit against Tesla for a crash involving its driver-assistance system, Autopilot, will go to trial. The slew of trials set to follow will be a costly fight that the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, has vowed to take on in court. When Tesla released its Autopilot feature in October 2015, Musk […]
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Germans take huge pride in their automotive industry, and have never been eager to abandon their Audis, BMWs or Mercedes-Benzes for foreign makes. But with a goal to change that, a Chinese automaker that sells the most electric cars in the world has begun offering three of its models in Germany. BYD, founded in 1995 […]
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Hey, why are we worried about what I think? You’re in charge of Republicans. Tell me — which of these folks would you vote for against Joe Biden? Bret: A lot will depend on who is, or isn’t, willing to bend the knee to Trump. I’m waiting for one of them to say something along […]
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Tesla is recalling more than 362,000 cars equipped with its Full Self-Driving driver-assistance system after government regulators found it increased the risk of accidents. The company’s technology, which can steer, accelerate, brake and change lanes on its own, allows vehicles to travel above legal speed limits and through intersections in “an unlawful or unpredictable manner,” […]
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Tesla fired at least 18 employees, including several leaders of a unionization campaign, a day after they announced plans to organize a Tesla plant in Buffalo, workers said in a filing to the National Labor Relations Board. Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, has been blunt in his opposition to unions, and the company […]
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Declines in new car prices are pushing down used electric vehicle prices, too. They have fallen 17 percent since July, according to Recurrent, which tracks the used car market. That’s largely because of Tesla cutting the price of the Model 3 and G.M. lowering the price of the Chevrolet Bolt by almost $6,000 last year. […]
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BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — In the mid-1970s, when Mark Raddish wasn’t more than 11 years old, his coal-mining grandfather picked him up from a mining camp and took him a thousand feet underground, to the cold darkness beneath West Virginia. There, he imparted a lesson. “You don’t want to make this your livelihood,” warned his grandfather, […]
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More than three years after Elon Musk stunned the auto industry with an electric pickup truck that looked more like a stealth fighter than a way to haul two-by-fours and drywall, Tesla said last week that it would begin building the vehicle by the end of 2023. The announcement has helped fuel a recovery in […]
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Growth in sales of electric vehicles has created thousands of jobs in auto manufacturing, batteries and other new fields, but not without turmoil. There is talk of layoffs at some suppliers and automakers even as other companies expand. I cover the auto industry for The New York Times, and I am planning to write about […]
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A jury decided Friday that Elon Musk was not liable for losses suffered by investors after he posted messages on Twitter that he had secured the funding to take Tesla private in 2018. Investors had sued Mr. Musk, Tesla and the company’s board, arguing that Mr. Musk’s statements about his embryonic plan to take the […]
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That way, you have a better picture of how much energy you’re losing and from where, and what makes sense to fix. I can tell you, as I write this in my New York City apartment, bundled in a shawl on a very cold February morning, I’m losing a lot of heat from my drafty […]
Read MoreELK CREEK, Neb. — In this rural part of Nebraska, county-board agendas include moratoriums on solar farms and some residents scowl when they pass the handful of wind farms that have sprouted. But the idea of a new mine that could help power the transition to renewable energy has received broad support. The tenor of […]
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