Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1h

The BLM killed a massive solar project in Nevada. The Esmeralda 7 project website now says the environmental review is 'canceled.' The agency provided no reason.

Seven solar plants with battery energy storage, on 118,000 acres of federal land near Tonopah, NV, would have generated 6.2 GW of power.

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

3

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2h

Haven't heard Reuss say anything lately about the "family of Bolts" or the "FunBolt" in a while now.

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 4h

Or EV4, no?

3 1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 4h

And apparently a not-insignificant number of GM execs too, who had Bolts in their family fleets before any of the Ultium stuff was available.

2

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 4h

In part because with Chinese battery cells for a couple of years in their *cheapest* #EV, they're likely eating a shit-ton of losses on each one.

1 3

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 5h

The Comms people are working manfully to do their best, but ... the company is not doing itself any favors.

And if ONE more #EV advocate tells me that OF COURSE this is how GM plans to re-kill the Bolt, I'm gonna throw something through a window.

1 1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 5h

Meanwhile, however ... I wonder if GM is limiting the number of Bolts it will build since it's absorbing the high cost of importing cells from China for at least a couple of years.

GM lays off 900 workers at Fairfax Assembly plant

GM lays off 900 workers at Kansas plant after delaying second shift due to weaker EV demand and changes in federal incentives.

www.cbtnews.com

2

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 7h

Of COURSE they will !! Independently owned franchised third-party dealerships are *always* perfectly honest + transparent with the shoppers who come in wanting to buy vehicles from them. Why do you hate America ??

3

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 7h

My story on the Bolt #EV reboot coming today or Monday ...

2

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 7h

Just visit your dealership; they'll answer ALL your Qs. You know, what you REALLY want isn't a Bolt #EV, it's a heavy-duty pickup truck. Great deals !!

1 2

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 9h

"GM would not clarify what it meant by limited run during a call with news media on Oct. 9. GM plans to start shipping Bolts to dealerships in January."

Many reporters asked what that means. We all got: "We'll tell you later."

Most baffling new-car reveal in some time, this one, #EV or otherwise.

Originally marketed as a sport-utility vehicle, the Bolt EV debuted in 2016 and quickly set sales records.

www.freep.com

7 4 32

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

An important article restates the obvious: #EV demand will not simply vanish because the federal incentives have ended. Longtime EV reporter Alysha Webb talked to Urban Science about this.

At the risk of #humblebrag, I've said this for months. Lots of headlines will get it wrong; brace yourselves.

EV demand isn’t falling off a cliff: Urban Science

Despite the end of a key tax credit, five other factors are still supporting demand for battery electric vehicles sales, per the consultancy.

www.wardsauto.com

2 2 24

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

At least in this respect, the tariffs seem to be doing what the administration has designed them to do: reduce imports.

How that affects U.S. consumers will become clearer over the next year. Spoiler: Probably not beneficially.

U.S. imports seen well below average for rest of 2025

Containerized imports are likely to take a hit from earlier-than-normal stocking up by retailers and expanding tariffs through the remainder of 2025, a trade group predicts.

www.freightwaves.com

1 6

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

Y'know what this means? Another @temptingfatetours.bsky.social video is imminent, courtesy of ace producer @brwtwit.bsky.social. Stay tuned!

Tempting Fate Tours @temptingfatetours.bsky.social · 1d

We realized we'd never introduced another member of the very diverse TFT team. Please welcome Jack The Dog.

Jack enjoys road trips, even in dubious British cars of questionable reliability. He also keeps Tom's garage free of pesky squirrels. He also sleeps more than the rest of us put together.

Black dog wearing green collar, with ears back, looking at camera inside old British car with split windscreen. He is being petted by man in glasses and grey shirt sitting in (LHD) driver's seat. Interior has a grey dashboard with red seats + door panels.

1 9

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

Ummmmmmm ... the President of the United States of America is having his second yearly checkup in ... [checks notes] ... 6 months?

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

Trump to get routine yearly checkup on Friday, White House says reut.rs/4q1zaI3

Trump to get routine yearly checkup on Friday, White House says

U.S. President Donald Trump will visit Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday and undergo his routine yearly check up, the White House said on Wednesday.

reut.rs

1 8

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

The most recent #coal power plant in the U.S. (opened 2013) is expected to remain closed until March 2027.

The 932-MW plant went offline in April, when it apparently suffered a major failure. Few details have been made public about the outage; the cause of the failure remains unclear.

Newest big U.S. coal-plant offline until 2027

The newest major coal-fired power plant in the U.S. is expected to be offline until March 2027 after a major failure in April.

ieefa.org

2 5

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Always possible. And we're very unlikely ever to know the P+Ls.

But point of my OP was difference between (1) Ford effectively renting space in an underutilitized US factory to produce its own hybrid; and (2) relabeling a Nissan small crossover with a totally different incompatible hybrid system.

1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Offers have to work for the other maker's P+L, more so than for Nissan.

1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

You can do the pros + cons as well as I can. I think it'll come down to having local dealers + service, what degree of screen-only you can tolerate, and relative feature sets in each of the trim levels.

1 2

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, but both those decisions were made years ago. I don't see any of the Detroit 2.5 bringing any new vehicles from China ... though will be curious to see what Stellantis does, if anything, with the Leapmotor vehicles. (Which didn't get great reviews in Yurrop.)

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

To @burnsf.bsky.social: What Gary said.

1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

I've read ~ 10 different analyses, but one of 'em had a nice bulleted rundown of all the changes ... noting that loss.

Concern I've seen is that Tesla doesn't actually have a lot of optional eqpt on previous versions of those models + this adds a surprising degree of complexity. Batch builds?

1 1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

That's a whole LOT of changes for probably low volumes, though I imagine that model will be 100% of Uber + Lyft fleets within a couple of years.

1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

It is estimated that the CCP has contributed more than $230 BILLION in direct or indirect subsidies (2009-2023) especially since the "Made in China 2025" plan in 2014 to promote global #EV battery + vehicle dominance.

The Chinese EV Dilemma: Subsidized Yet Striking | Trustee China Hand | CSIS

Scott Kennedy writes that Chinese EVs have benefitted from massive industrial policy support, and their quality is improving, making them attractive to domestic and overseas consumers. An effective re...

www.csis.org

1 1

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Peasant 1: "That's King Arfur!"

Peasant 2: "'Ow do you know 'e's King Arfur?"

Peasant 1: "'Cause 'e's not all covered in sh!t like the rest of us peasants."

Peasant 2: "Ah, right."

1