Tag: Automobiles

Ford Says an Affordable Electric Pickup Truck is Still Coming Next Year

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Last year Ford Motor suspended production of an electric pickup truck, shut down a battery factory in Kentucky and booked a $20 billion loss to account for its diminished plans. Then, last month, the senior executive who oversaw development of this new technology left the company. But Ford executives insist that those setbacks do not mean that the company has given up on electric vehicles. As evidence, they point to a former warehouse here in Long Beach, Calif. There, a team lead by Alan Clarke, a Tesla veteran, is building…

The Rising Chinese Automaker Not Named BYD

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Each April, the world’s top auto executives and engineers fly to China’s main auto show to take stock of BYD, the electric car powerhouse that passed Tesla in global sales last year. But at the Auto China event now happening in Beijing, another name is commanding attention: Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. In an unexpected development, Geely beat BYD in sales in the first two months of the year and is rapidly broadening its lineup. Geely is now pushing overseas, more than doubling exports to Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere…

China’s Clean Energy Push is Powering Flying Taxis, Food Delivery Drones and Bullet Trains

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By The New York Times Dec. 17, 2025 Battery-swapping robots for carsLunch from the skyVery rapid transitTaxis that drive themselvesRobot trucks don’t need windowsSubways get a makeover NYT

There’s a Race to Power the Future. China Is Pulling Away.

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ChinaSolar in Shanxi Province Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times U.S.Oil in California J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times Lithium-ion batteries China$65 bil.United States$3 bil.Asia$21 bil.Europe$26 bil.Africa$2 bil.Americas$17 bil.Oceania$1 bil. Solar panels and modules China$40 bil.United States$69 mil.Asia$11 bil.Europe$20 bil.Africa$2 bil.Americas$6 bil.Oceania$1 bil. Electric cars China$38 bil.United States$12 bil.Africa$281 mil.Oceania$3 bil.Europe$26 bil.Asia$14 bil.Americas$8 bil. Crude oil China$844 mil.United States$117 bil.Asia$50 bil.Americas$16 bil.Oceania$799 mil.Europe$52 bil.Africa$359 mil. Natural gas China$3 bil.United States$42 bil.Asia$13 bil.Europe$22 bil.Africa$3 mil.Americas$11 bil. Coal China$1 bil.United States$15 bil.Africa$718 mil.Americas$3 bil.Asia$8 bil.Europe$5 bil.Oceania$16 thou. ChinaElectric car…

Republican Bill to End E.V. Tax Credit Could Hurt G.M. and Ford

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Sales of electric vehicles have been rising in recent years, partly because of a $7,500 tax credit from the federal government that helps lower the cost of buying one. But a budget bill that House Republicans released on Monday would end that tax credit. Their proposal would also put new restrictions on other tax breaks that have encouraged automakers to invest tens of billions of dollars in new battery plants in the United States. By next year, the bill would do away with the $7,500 tax credit for buyers of…

Why Elon Musk Needs China

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When Elon Musk first set up Tesla’s factory in China, he appeared to have the upper hand. He gained access to top leaders and secured policy changes that benefited Tesla. He also got workers accustomed to long hours and fewer protections, after clashing with U.S. regulators over labor conditions at his California plant. The Shanghai factory helped make Tesla the most valuable car company in the world and Mr. Musk ultrarich. But Tesla is now struggling. Mr. Musk helped create his competition, Chinese E.V. makers that are taking market share…

Tesla’s Pivot to China Saved Musk. It Also Binds Him to Beijing.

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When Elon Musk unveiled the first Chinese-made Teslas in Shanghai in 2020, he went off script and started dancing. Peeling off his jacket, he flung it across the stage in a partial striptease. Mr. Musk had reason to celebrate. A few years earlier, with Tesla on the brink of failure, he had bet on China, which offered cheap parts and capable workers — and which needed Tesla as an anchor to jump-start its fledgling electric vehicle industry. For Chinese leaders, the prize was a Tesla factory on domestic soil. Mr.…

U.S. Accuses Two Men of Stealing Tesla Trade Secrets

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A Canadian man who lives in China was arrested Tuesday and held in New York after he and a business partner were accused of trying to sell secret battery manufacturing technology belonging to Tesla. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn asked a judge to hold Klaus Pflugbeil without bail on a charge of theft of trade secrets. He was arrested after meeting with undercover agents Tuesday on Long Island and trying to sell them technology used to produce battery parts, the office of the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New…

Biden Calls Chinese Electric Vehicles a Security Threat

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President Biden took steps on Thursday toward blocking internet-connected Chinese cars and trucks from entry to the American auto market, including electric vehicles, saying they posed risks to national security because their operating systems could send sensitive information to Beijing. The immediate action was the opening of a Commerce Department investigation into security threats, which could lead to new regulations or restrictions on Chinese vehicles. But administration officials made clear it was the first step in what could be a wide range of policy responses meant to stop low-cost Chinese…

Volkswagen and BASF Are Reconsidering Ties to Xinjiang, China

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Volkswagen Group is reviewing the future of its joint venture in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China and another German industrial giant is starting to sell its stakes there following new international scrutiny of forced labor by predominantly Muslim ethnic groups. Volkswagen said last week that it was in discussions with one of its main joint venture partners in China, the state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, in the wake of allegations of human rights violations at their joint venture in Xinjiang. The companies are examining “the future direction of the…