Cars

Tesla is pivoting to turn its cars into a side business. The reason: their income falls by 61%

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The Tesla Model S and Model X are incredible cars. Get them while they’re still available! With these phrases, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has accompanied the company’s announcement in X in which they point out that during the next quarter they will reduce their production of the Tesla Model S and Model To its credit, the company will produce Optimus robots. by surprise. It was known that Elon Musk has been pushing for some time for Tesla to increase its investments in artificial intelligence and robots, either in humanoid form like Optimus or through its robotaxis for autonomous driving. But what we did not expect is that this bet would displace two of its most iconic models. And the company will stop producing its Tesla Model S, its first sedan, and the Model X, its first SUV, in Freemont (California) to make way for the production of Optimus robots. The company closes a chapter by recognizing that “Tesla would not be what it is today” without these cars. In Xataka Tesla wanted to make 20 million cars in 2030. The reality in 2025 is that Tesla has crashed and BYD is already leading A paradigm shift. The decision to invest in this factory to increase robot production is more than just a redistribution of its efforts, it is confirmation of a change in strategy in the company. Musk seeks invest $2 billion in xAIthe company dedicated exclusively to artificial intelligence. Intertwining your companies is one of the obsessions from the CEO of Tesla so that some feed each other. xAI is key to power and improve Grok which, in turn, is already included in Tesla vehicles as an artificial intelligence assistant. At the same time, xAI is also decisive for the functioning of its robotaxisthe cabin without wheels or steering wheel that Tesla wants to put on the street to offer a completely autonomous taxi service. In Xataka Tesla can’t wait for us to take our hands off the wheel. We have tried it and we have opinions More than complicated numbers. Optimus has left many doubts and Musk himself has confirmed that he expects a slow deployment. However, dedicating a plant that only manufactured a handful of cars is not only confirmation that the company does not care in the least about killing a product if it understands that it is not profitable or that its future is much less interesting than a new bet. Changing the use of the factory is also a necessity. And the numbers presented by Tesla are something much more than complicated: Net profit has gone from 7.1 billion to 3.8 billion dollars, 45% less. In the last quarter, turnover has fallen from $2.1 billion last year to $840 million. It is a drop of 61%. The company has delivered 1.64 million cars in 2025 in what is its second year reducing its sales. In the United States the drop in sales is 7%, according to Cox Automotive, reported in The New York Times.  In the same period, it is estimated that BYD has sold 2.25 million cars Purely electric. In Xataka The Tesla Cybertruck is such a sales failure that Elon Musk has only found one solution: buy them from himself Loss of identity. The Tesla Model S and Model X have become residual cars for the company since the Model 3 and Model Y occupied the bulk of sales. Both are very expensive cars that cost around or exceed 100,000 euros. Both the saloon and the SUV served the brand to boost your image and personality as unique cars. Over the years, that has been lost. And the huge screens that previously surprised now do not stand out in a market that has turned to trying turn the cabin into a multimedia centerespecially in China. Your own assembly line has been forced to keep its design unchangedwhich has made them lose freshness. The popularization of its Tesla Model 3 and Model Y has popularized access to the company, making them lose part of that desirable car aura. {“videoId”:”x9tnvi4″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Why YOUR NEXT CAR WILL SURELY BE CHINESE”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”614″} A cut production. The decline in sales has led to declining production of both models. To give us an idea, nothing is better than the data provided by the company itself: 2022: 71,777 units produced and 66,705 deliveries 2023: 70,826 units produced and 68,874 deliveries 2024: 94,105 units produced and 85,133 deliveries* 2025: 53,900 units produced and 50,850 deliveries* Starting in 2024, Tesla accounts for the production and deliveries of the Tesla Model S, Model X and Cybertruck in the same item. That’s whyCybertruck sales are estimates outside of Tesla The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y Standard confirms a story. The story of what I want and I can’t of Tesla’s 25,000 euro car In Xataka The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y Standard confirms a story. The story of what I want and I can’t of Tesla’s 25,000 euro carThe limits . Tesla is in a stagnant situation with its electric cars. The company stepped on the accelerator in 2024 to remain the best-selling electric car brand in the world and improve the previous year’s data. But it did not succeed, going from 1.85 million cars produced and 1.81 million cars delivered in 2023 to 1.77 million units produced and 1.79 million cars deliveredin 2024 . Year in which, in addition, They increased their range with the Cybertruck which started at a very good pace. The company, therefore, needs to kill some very expensive cars that are barely generating a positive impact on its accounts no matter how high the profit margin obtained with each unit. To begin with, because the company needs a boost from its investors, who seem to support these decisions. And, second, because we have to see if the company has not already peaked in its vehicle sales. At leastwith its particular way of producing cars with huge presses that are only profitable by manufacturing millions and … Read more

There is an unexpected victim of the rise in RAM memory prices: the very modern connected cars

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Which what’s happening with the RAM memories is making one thing clear: the best time to buy memory modules is yesterday. The price increase is so extraordinary which is already affecting other classic components of our PCs such as SSD units or graphics cards. However, the crisis that these components are generating goes further. Much further. Data centers devour memory. The AI ​​fever, we already know very well, has generated a voracious hunger not only for cutting-edge AI chips, but also for RAM and HBM memories that accompany these chips. As indicated in The Wall Street Journaldata centers (both conventional and those dedicated to AI) will consume more than 70% of the high-end memory chips that manufacturers produce in 2026. And if they could take more, they would take them. This is not (only) about PCs or mobiles. It is evident that the first affected by this problem are conventional desktop and laptop computers, as well as our mobile devices. Hundreds of millions of them are sold every year and they all have a certain amount of RAM that is now more expensive than ever. The shock wave is already causing other components such as SSD drives or graphics cards affected, but in reality memory chips are everywhere. And above all, in one. From TV to car. The frenetic rise in memory prices is certainly going to affect other segments that we had not thought about soon. Of course it will do so on other consumer electronic devices, and this certainly includes Smart TVs, which They have their own processor, memory and storage to offer us its functions. But the problem may be even more critical for cars, which for years were already computers with wheels and which are now even better and more powerful computers (and with more memory) with wheels. Memories of all kinds. Although car electronic systems have traditionally used RAM, the latest in most cases was not needed. But that was in the cars of a few years ago, because the arrival especially of the electric car and the fever for screens in our vehicles has made these needs different. Now our cars need various types of memory, but in some cases those modules are as good (or better) than the ones we have in our cell phones and computers. The ECUs. A modern car makes use of so-called ECUs (Electronic Control Units) for issues such as controlling the transmission, the airbag system or the engine itself. It is normal for them to have between 50 and 150 of these control units or microcontrollers, and almost all of them contain RAM for temporary data and a ROM for firmware and software. Infotainment systems. The most obvious component that surely comes to mind as that “car computer” is the infotainment system, which usually consists of a touch screen, navigation functions, support for CarPlay and Android Auto systems, and voice assistants. Although in many cars these systems use 1 GB or 2 GB of DRAM memory, there are more modern cars that They reach 4 GB and even 8 GB of LPDDR4 memory. And if we talk about some manufacturers like BYD or NIO, there are models in which They use 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory. The Ford SYNC 5 system, for example, is based on a Qualcomm SoC with 16 GB of RAM. Driving assistance requires memory. In addition to these components, there are others that also require the use of RAM. Advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) allow you to activate functions such as adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, automatic emergency braking or parking assistant. And to achieve this they use RAM with high bandwidth, which allows working with real-time images and processing of sensor signals. Samsung knows this well and in fact manufactures modules specifically oriented to this market. Tesla’s well-known autopilot hardware, Hardware 4 (currently used) makes use of 16 GB of RAMFor example. Micron already warned. In December 2023 Micron already indicated that “a car needs more memory than a (space) rocket.” The firm, an absolute protagonist in the field of RAM memory module manufacturing, indicated how in 2023 the average vehicle used 90 GB between RAM and NAND, but in 2026 that figure was estimated to be 278 GB and would reach 2 TB in high-end vehicles. That was good news for it and other manufacturers, and even then it pointed to how “generative AI is transforming automotive.” What they probably didn’t realize is that this revolution was going to need many data centers, and those data centers were going to need a lot of memory. And this is where we are. In Xataka | “Not a phone, it’s a car”: Volkswagen believes that screens in cars are going too far

The fundamental trick to perfectly control the car’s temperature is a (not) forgotten button on the dashboard

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Although with the fury of bringing screens to cars There are fewer and fewer buttons, we still find a lot of old-fashioned controls scattered around the steering wheel and the dashboard of the car. However, there is usually a small element (sometimes shaped like a circular knob, which may or may not protrude) that usually looks like a button that goes unnoticed due to its location: it is far enough away that it cannot be easily operated. Spoiler: if you touch it nothing happens. And nothing happens simply because it is a solar sensor or solar load sensor (if we get more technical, a phototransistor), a piece little known to the general public but of great importance as it is the element that the automatic air conditioning uses to regulate the temperature correctly. It is essential to control the temperature of the car More specifically, is located at the bottom of the dashboard and in the central area, attached to the front window. It usually has the speaker grille or the air outlet grille nearby to defog the window. Hence it neither looks good nor is it comfortable to touch. That position makes all the sense in the world: it is one of the best areas inside the cabin to capture sunlight from outside. Precisely the reason for the sensor, since the sunlight that enters a car can reach represent up to 60% heat load that the air conditioning system has to overcome in the search for comfort. A good everyday example: the temperature difference between parking in the same place on a summer day when the sun is shining overhead or doing so at night or when it is cloudy. This solar load sensor It is actually a photodiode which measures the intensity of solar radiation in order to be able adjust climate controlwhich includes the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. On that hot day in the example, the air conditioning will have to work as hard as possible to cool the cabin as soon as possible. But if it’s night or cloudy, you won’t need to blow as hard. At a technical level, its mechanism is simple: the photodiode moves in an operating range between 0 and 5 Volts, offering more resistance as the light intensity increases, so that the sensor signal decreases as the solar load increases. This signal is what then reaches the control, which gives orders to the system to adjust the speed and intensity. The solar load sensor is not the only one responsible of the operation of the air conditioning, since the vehicle integrates more sensors such as the sensor to measure the interior temperature. And they also have other sensors to turn the lights on or off or configure the mode of the screens and dashboard depending on the exterior lighting. By the way, in some cars there is not only one solar charge sensor, but there are two, one on each side of the dashboard and in that same area adjacent to the front window: they are models that have dual zone air conditioning. In Xataka | The triangles on the plane window are not for decoration: they are a quick way to check that the flight is going well In Xataka | Few people know what the red balls on high-tension cables are for: they are a simple way to save lives Images | Skoda, Opel and SEAT

Madrid has bought so many electric cars that the DGT has ended one of its great incentives

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Electric cars and plug-in hybrids will not be able to circulate in the Bus-HOV lane unless the signs indicate so. The DGT has confirmed that it was one of the most attractive measures for the potential customer of a car with a Zero Emissions label to take the leap. Now, so many cars of this type have been sold in Madrid that they have ended up putting an end to this advantage. What has happened? The DGT has sent a statement announcing the “Resolution on special traffic regulation measures for 2026.” Nothing very juicy except for one detail: the announcement that the Zero Emission cars they have run out of taking advantage the Bus-HOV lane to avoid traffic jams. The DGT explains that from now on, drivers of a Zero Emissions car (electric or plug-in hybrid with more than 40 kilometers of autonomy) will only be able to circulate on this special lane when it is specifically signposted. By default, they will not be able to enter it. Because? According to the DGT, the decision “responds both to the demand of the citizens and to the requests of the public transport companies and the Ombudsman who have conveyed to the DGT their concern about the progressive loss of effectiveness of the HOV lanes that directly affects the regularity and punctuality of the service, discouraging its use and harming thousands of daily users who opt for public transport.” And they provide data: traffic jams on the main roads have increased by 10%, while in the Bus-HOV lanes they have increased by 22%. But the data skyrockets in Madrid. According to their accounts, traffic jams are 20% more frequent on the main road of the A-6 entering and exiting Madrid. In its Bus-HOV lane, traffic jams have increased by 90%. Madrid, absolute leader. According to ANFAC data, Madrid was the Autonomous Community where the most electrified cars (electric and plug-in hybrids because the data also discriminate by non-plug-in hybrids) were purchased. In total, at the end of 2025, 102,245 cars of this type were recorded. Across Spain, 245,629 Zero Emission cars were purchased. The next region in which the most Zero Emission cars were purchased was Catalonia but it remained at 33,309 units. Behind them, only the Valencian Community and Andalusia exceeded 20,000 units. Goodbye to one of the great incentives. Until now, switching to the Bus-HOV lane despite only having one passenger traveling in an electric or plug-in hybrid car was one of the great incentives to get a vehicle of this type. The HOV Bus on the A-6 in Madrid, the only one for which the DGT offers data, is a relief for a road that is clogged daily. Beyond the driving comfort (absence of noise or vibrations) and the savings if we recharge at home, the Zero Emissions cars had two great incentives that were considered “political”. One is the purchasing aid that until now was collected in the MOVES III Plan but that have been frozen waiting for a Auto+ Plan that has not yet materialized. The second was this use of the Bus-HOV lane, since the time saved per day was considerable. However, advantages applied by each municipality such as unlimited access to ZBEsexemptions in the payment of road taxes or free parking in regulated parking areas. These aids are of municipal application and, therefore, vary from one city to another. Goodbye, goodbye. The loss of the unlimited pass for the VAO Bus is only a reminder that Zero Emission cars continue to enjoy some aid that, it is hoped, will end up disappearing. This is what has happened, for example, in Norway, where the exemption from paying taxes has caused a hole of 1.8 billion euros. The solution that has been proposed is to tax the weight of vehicles to alleviate this problem. In other cities, like parisit is also ignored whether the car is electric or not and a similar mechanism is also used to charge in regulated parking areas. Photo | DGT In Xataka | Guide to know if your car will be able to circulate in the ZBEs of Madrid in 2026: labels, registrations and areas

Canada has opened the door to Chinese electric cars. The US warns: “they are going to regret it”

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Canada has reopened the doors of electric vehicles from China, giving a radical turn to its trade policy. Last Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney reduced tariffs by 100% to 6.1%, which could take the Canadian automobile market to a new horizon. Below these lines we tell you what this may imply. Change. The move comes a year after Canada impose massive tariffs to Chinese electric vehicles, following in the footsteps of the United States under the Biden administration. The argument, as describe from the BBC, was that they considered China to be carrying out ‘a policy of deliberate overproduction’. Now, with relations between Canada and the United States on somewhat delicate ground under the Trump administration, the Canadian government has chosen to diversify its trade alliances. “We take the world as it is, not as we would like it to be,” counted Carney. Quantities. The initial agreement allows the entry of up to 49,000 electric vehicles annually from China with the reduced tariff of 6.1%. This figure represents approximately 3% of the total Canadian market, which is around two million vehicles per year, according to account the Driving medium. According to the prime minister, the quota could increase to 70,000 vehicles within five years. Furthermore, the agreement stipulates that, in that period, more than 50% of these vehicles must be affordable models with an import price of less than 35,000 Canadian dollars (about 21,569 euros at the exchange rate). Date. Although there is no exact confirmed date, several media predict its arrival in the coming weeks. Addisu Lashitew, associate professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, counted to the CBC that Chinese manufacturers have the capacity to accelerate production and ship quickly. BYD, the largest Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles, even operates its own cargo ships, which could shorten shipping times even further. Brands that will arrive first. Curiously, the first brands to benefit from this opening will not necessarily be the purely Chinese ones. Tesla is in a prime position to take advantage of the deal immediately, according to they count from Reuters. Elon Musk’s company had already equipped its Shanghai plant in 2023 to manufacture a specific version of the Model Y destined for Canada, exporting more than 44,000 vehicles that year before the 100% tariffs came into effect. Other brands with a previous presence include Volvo and Polestar, both owned by the Chinese group Geely. For purely Chinese brands like BYD or Nio, the process will be somewhat slower, as they will have to establish dealer networks, service chains and spare parts markets from scratch. Disparate political reaction. The Premier of Saskatchewan (province of Canada), Scott Moe, celebrated the agreement as “very good news,” especially since China has committed to reducing tariffs on Canadian agricultural products such as rapeseed. However, Ontario Premier Doug Ford critical harshly criticized the move, calling Chinese electric vehicles “subsidized spy cars” and warning that the deal would “damage our economy and lead to job losses.” To put it in context, Ontario is the province where the Canadian automobile industry is concentrated. The US response. United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer qualified the agreement “problematic” and warned that Canada might regret it. However, President Trump declared that it was “a good thing” and that “if you can get a deal with China, you should do it.” The reflection of Japan. In 1981, Canada reached a similar agreement with Japan, allocating unit quotas instead of prices. The result was that Japanese manufacturers simply moved up the range: Civics became Accords, Corollas became Camrys. In two or three years, the average price of an imported Japanese car went from $8,000 to $14,000, as remember Greig Mordue, director of the Master of Engineering and Public Policy program at McMaster University, told Driving. However, that agreement also led to Honda and Toyota establishing production plants in Canada, today becoming the two largest vehicle manufacturers in the country. In fact, according to revealed A senior Canadian official told the CBC, the government wants to explore the idea of ​​​​creating joint ventures and investments with Chinese companies in the next three years to build a Canadian electric vehicle with Chinese know-how. More competition. Lashitew emphasize that the entry of cheaper Chinese vehicles will force other manufacturers to lower their prices, which would make electric vehicles more accessible to consumers and help Canada move toward its emissions reduction goals. “With electric vehicles still 30% to 50% more expensive than comparable gasoline cars, reducing trade barriers would significantly ease the affordability constraint,” he noted. Cover image | aboodi vesakaran and Xataka In Xataka | Cars are so absurdly expensive that FIAT already has a plan to solve it: limit them to 117km/h

The director of the DGT says that in the future cars will not enter cities. It’s more of a wish than a reality

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Today is January 14, 2026 but, really, it doesn’t matter when you read this: Pere Navarro, director of the DGT, is once again in the news for some controversial statements. We could have titled this article that way, in fact, because the truth is that every time the Director of Traffic speaks at an event broadcast by the media there is something to scratch. This time it was at an event organized by Europa Press where Navarro showed off this particular superpower. There, he has assured the following: “We are all day with emissions, yes emissions, no such and such. Don’t look, you don’t go to the city center with electric, diesel or gasoline. Let’s not make a mistake. You go with public transportation and if you’re in a hurry, taxi, Uber or Cabify” They are literal words. There is no possible misinterpretation or audio cuts to take the message out of context. You can check it yourself in the tweet that accompanies this article. Click on the image to go to the original tweet The words clearly point to an ambition: to get the car out of the city center. It doesn’t matter if it’s gasoline, diesel or electric. There is a goal and that goal is vehicle sharing and public transportation. We could put our hands on our heads. We could say that they want to prohibit us from moving where the elites want. Of course, there will be those who relate this to 15 minute cities. However, we have been hearing similar messages for so long and the measures to be taken have been so lukewarm that, without fear of being wrong, I say: calm down. Once again, the same old thing This is not the first time, far from it, that we have heard this type of message from the director of the DGT. For two years, news and articles have been recurring that point to supposed prohibitions on using our cars if they are only occupied by one person. One of the most repeated formulas is found in these words from Navarro himself at an event called Global Mobility Call held in Madrid in 2024: “The future of traffic will be shared or it will not be (…) we must make a collective change in mentality that allows us to encourage high vehicle occupancy, because we cannot afford to move 1,500 kg every day to move a single person. Increasing vehicle occupancy is a challenge and a necessity” Navarro too has come to be described as “luxury” moving a single person in a vehicle. And in November he insisted again in that it doesn’t matter if the car is electric or not because the future of cities depends on public transport. However, the DGT has not taken any action that points in this direction nor is there anything on the table to debate it. The closest thing is the creation of a Bus-HOV lane at the entrance to Madrid where cars with two or more people traveling inside are rewarded. And that in 2019 it was also advocated from the DGT magazine for a city “with more pedestrians and fewer cars.” The statements have also been used to fill the network with articles pointing out that we will not be able to enter the center of our cities by car, linking them with the creation of low-emission zones. But the truth is that these low-emission zones have a very limited scope. In some of them, such as Madrid or Barcelonavehicles without a label are prevented from entering, but either there are exceptions or they allow all cars with a label to enter the very center of the city. It is true that sometimes you are forced to park in a parking lot but the passage, if our car has at least label Bit is open. Despite many statements by the DGT, the truth is that the efforts to reduce or not reduce traffic in cities go through the municipal corporations of each place. A context that has led to turning the issue of urban mobility into a political weapon. To the point of defending that traffic jams can be “a hallmark” of a city. The comparison between Madrid and Barcelona are two good examples. In the capital, the Popular Party won an election by ensuring that it was going to lift all circulation restrictions, something he didn’t do and that, in fact, he maintained to eliminate all unmarked cars (regardless of whether the driver lives in Madrid or not) from the city. Barcelona en Comú promoted a completely different way of understanding the city in Barcelona, ​​betting on pedestrianization, reduction of lanes in the city center and the creation of what are known as Superilles. It has also been promoted to be more aggressive and fence off the entrance to the city from the most polluting vehicles. Two different approaches that, however, have given a very similar result. And the measures against the car have been very lukewarm. In both cities, if the vehicle has an environmental label it can circulate inside, just taking into account a series of obligations that, in practice, barely change our daily lives. In Madrid, the idea of ​​preventing unlabeled cars from being banned was finally scrapped (as long as they are registered in Madrid). And prohibiting entry to city centers with cars is not something that is catching on in Europe either. Yes, the main cities have restrictions and barriers that discourage its use, but in all of them you can continue to travel to the city center by car. In London you want reduce traffic with tollsin Paris punishing street parking and in Berlin you are also forced to drive with certain modern vehicles. Be that as it may, the only certainty is that total prohibitions do not come and if citizens end up leaving their cars aside in the cities it is because they have been transversal jobs in different areas and sustained over timewith investments … Read more

Tesla wanted to make 20 million cars in 2030. The reality in 2025 is that Tesla has crashed and BYD is already leading

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Tesla has had another setback in 2025. And it has accumulated two years in a row of decline. The company had experienced a meteoric rise until 2023 but has accumulated two years of clear decline. And the most worrying thing is that their promises were to multiply their sales but, above all, to take advantage of the pull of an electric car that is gaining followers. When it is easier to sell electric cars, Tesla falls. 1,636,129. These have been the cars delivered by Tesla in 2025. Of them, 1,585,279 correspond to the sum of the Model Y and Model 3, which leaves the S, X and Cybertruck slightly above 50,000 units in an entire year. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? For the second year in a row, Tesla falls. If we review the figures for 2024, the company put about 150,000 more electric cars on the market than this year. to get it pressed the accelerator to the floor in the last quarter of the year but this time it has not worked for him. two years. Although Elon Musk’s team tried by all means to stop the fall in 2024, this time it has been impossible. The drop in deliveries is significant but it is much more so if we look at 2023. That continues to be a record year for the company. So they put 1.81 million cars on the market. If we look back, Tesla has stopped selling around 10% of electric cars compared to two years ago. That year, Tesla positioned the Tesla Model Y as the best selling car in the world. With his final push, Tesla managed to stop BYD from overtaking him. But it was a victory with an expiration date because the Chinese company has far surpassed it in 2025. According to data collected by ElectrekBYD has sold 2.25 million electric cars in 2025 (exceeding 4.5 million cars in total). 20 million. Tesla’s data is especially concerning for the company because its promises were enormous. In 2022, Elon Musk aimed to In 2030 they would sell 20 million cars. To give us an idea, it is the sum of all the sales of Toyota and the Volkswagen Group together. The problem for Elon Musk’s company is not just that its growth has stagnated. The real problem is that it does so just when the electric car market is broader than ever. In the absence of knowing the definitive data for 2025, the truth is that Every year the electric car market is broader and the possibilities of placing a car in it are broader. In the European Union (with data from November) The electric car has grown by 27.6%. And the share of electric cars has grown by three points, standing above 16%. According to ACEA data, only in Croatia, Estonia, Luxembourg and Romania have fewer electric cars been sold than in 2024. And sales of electric cars in China continue to grow. Because? There are several factors that explain Tesla’s sharp sales decline. Elon Musk’s company has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in 2025. The first stages of the year They didn’t anticipate a good workout. and it has ended up being confirmed: And he has made efforts. And the company has tried to turn the tables. The most obvious efforts are the redesign of the Tesla Model 3 (September 2023) and Tesla Model Y. The latter has undoubtedly had to impact its production in 2025 but it is clear that it has not managed to gain traction as expected in the market. But, in addition, the company has put on the market two shortened versions called Standard. The objective is clear: to make the product more attractive while raising the price of the previous options so that anyone interested in them would have to spend some extra money. At the same time, it looks like a great car to sell to large fleets. No gap. The other big problem for Tesla is that rivals seem to have entered territory that seemed limited for the company. In China, the market has long turn towards local products and in Europe more attractive sized versions are arriving. And the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are large for the size they are usually purchased in Europe. Before, with less competition, they seemed like the ideal product. and for price They are still one of the best options of the market but unaffordable for those looking for cars of about four and a half meters. Tesla is also not managing to carry out options that are clearly cut from the Model 3 or Model Y. The company had the objective of launching an electric car smaller than these two models but if it has not launched them on the market it is because can’t make them profitable. Photo | Bram Van Oost In Xataka | The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y Standard confirms a story. The story of what I want and I can’t of Tesla’s 25,000 euro car

Xiaomi has made profits selling cars in its first year. The problem is that it has optimized for an unrepeatable moment

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Xiaomi Auto, Xiaomi’s car division, reported a few weeks ago something that is considered impossible in the automobile industry: achieving profits in its first year. It has had a healthy gross margin of 25.5% and a net profit of 680 million yuan, about 82 million euros, thanks to 109,000 cars delivered in a single quarter. Barely a year after selling its first car, the division presents numbers that place a newcomer in the same range as BMW or Mercedes. One that took Tesla years to reach and one that other manufacturers like NIO are still not there. Some They died trying to get there. Lei Jun has executed an impeccable launch and his investors have reason to be impressed, but if we take a closer look at the numbers and break down the origin of the margins (something that must be attributed to Poe Zhao’s wonderful analysis in Hello China Tech), a different story appears: that of a company that has perfectly optimized for a moment that will not be repeated. Two figures: The average price per car in the third quarter was 238,000 yuan (about 29,000 euros). The broadest category was close to 260,000 (about 32,000 euros). Those numbers They are not representative of the market that Xiaomi wants to addressbut rather they represent a temporary concentration. In that quarter, many units of the SU7 Ultra and other premium configurations. The first buyers (the biggest fans of the brand, those who wanted to be the first to drive a Xiaomi) ordered the most expensive versions. It’s not that Xiaomi has fooled anyone, it’s the natural dynamic of any technological launch. The early adopters They always buy the higher versions. The testmotto is to confuse that initial demand with sustained market demand. The 25.5% margin does not validate your business model, it only tells you that you have sold the right product to the right people at the right time. The question is what happens when those people run out. Lu Weibing, president of the group, made this clear in the presentation of results. It said auto margins will likely fall in 2026 due to “competitive factors and normalization of the product mix.” It’s careful business language, but lto translation is simple: When you’re done delivering premium configurations and have to sell entry-level versions to maintain volume, you’re going to find out how much it really costs to compete in this market. Apple experienced something similar with the first Apple Watch. The first few quarters showed spectacular margins, but those numbers reflected sales to enthusiasts willing to pay for novelty, not sustained demand from a mature category. They had to learn to sell beyond the circle of fans. The difference is that Apple was not competing in a market with structural overcapacity and price wars. Xiaomi yes. Xiaomi competes in a Chinese electric vehicle industry where overcapacity is systemicgovernment subsidies have an imminent expiration date and the competition is fierce. There is another detail that should worry: Xiaomi is delivering cars faster than it is selling them. They are consuming the backlog of accumulated orders at a rate that exceeds the entry of new orders. An optimized factory running at maximum capacity is impressive, but if demand is not growing at the same rate, you have built production capacity for a level of demand that you have not yet proven exists. What is coming in 2026 is a kind of convergence of pressures: The portfolio of premium configurations will be exhausted. Subsidies will disappear. And security regulations will be tightened. Xiaomi will have to demonstrate that it can be profitable by selling cheaper cars, without public aid and meeting stricter standards. It is the moment when companies that built a real business are separated from those that surfed favorable temporary conditions. The trap of early profitability is not that the numbers are false. It’s that they make you believe that you have solved the problem when you have only optimized for the easier phase. The real test of Xiaomi Auto is not whether it can make quality cars (it has already proven this) but whether it can build a car business that works when the novelty wears off and it has to compete car for car with rivals that cannot afford to lose. That answer is not in the third quarter report. It’s coming. In Xataka | Xiaomi is no longer a brand: there are several brands fighting over the same logo Featured image | Xiaomi

Accessing our car’s mechanics has become increasingly complicated. BMW has thought of complicating it even more

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Do-it-yourself repairability of a vehicle is something that Over the years it has gotten worse. while the systems have become increasingly complicated. Therefore, it is not surprising that multiple manufacturers have chosen to design specific tools to access sensitive parts of the vehicle. In the case of BMW, a patent recently discovered Meanwhile, CarBuzz could make things even more complicated for those who want to have access to certain parts of your car. And the patent shows some screws with heads designed in the shape of the brand logo that require specific tools for handling. What is this about? The patent from BMW describes four different types of custom screw heads that replicate the brand’s circular emblem, divided into four quadrants. Two of these sections are recessed to accommodate the screwdriver, while the other two remain flat or raised. The design of this type of specific screws means that they cannot be manipulated with conventional tools such as Torx, hexagonal or Phillips, but rather requires parts manufactured specifically for BMW. Why BMW says it does. As the patent itself explains, the objective is “to prevent the screw from being loosened or tightened using common drive structures, for example, by unauthorized persons.” The company proposes its use in structural and semi-structural applications, such as seat anchors or joints between the passenger compartment and the supporting structure of the body. The intention is that these screws can be used in visible areas, since if we judge these screws from an aesthetic point of view, the truth is that molar is cool. The problem for workshops and owners. On the other hand, and addressing the central problem behind this decision, this would turn even the most basic maintenance tasks into mandatory visits to the official dealer or, at best, would force independent workshops to purchase exclusive BMW tools. Something that, on the other hand, is not so strange if we take a look at the history of many of the largest automobile groups. Just like account In the middle, working with a two-point system and the decorative ring taking up much of the surface of the screw would increase the risk of breaking the tools, especially in applications that require very hard fastening. It’s not the first time. German manufacturers have a long tradition of using specialized fasteners. Just like points out In the middle, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW routinely use triple-square, oversized Torx or even E-Torx screws, which force mechanics to have specific tool sets. Against the current. The curious thing about it all is that this patent openly contrasts with the direction that other manufacturers are taking. Mercedes-Benz for example, its main rival, advertisement that would work on redesigning its future vehicles to facilitate repairs. An example of this is their decision to replace the glue with screws in the headlights to simplify their replacement. Just a piece of paper, for now. The patent was filed on June 7, 2024 and was made public on December 11, 2025. However, it is worth remembering that manufacturers register numerous patents that never materialize in series models. There is no confirmation that BMW will actually implement this system in its production vehicles. For now, this is only technical documentation. A general trend. Regardless of whether these specific screws are manufactured or not, the patent is yet another example of the progressive distancing of owners from the mechanics of their vehicles. With electrification and greater technological complexity, drivers they increasingly depend on specialized workshops for any intervention. It should also be noted that very few owners fix or modify their car on their own. Perhaps precisely because the systems have become increasingly more complicated to access. Cover image | Paul Martinez In Xataka | Ferdinand Porsche devised the first car with an electric motor in each wheel. Today a Chinese manufacturer is going to make it possible

Since I know that combustion cars will survive 2035, there is one that I dream about. And it’s not a Porsche or a Ferrari

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If you are one of those who like the world of automobiles, it is almost impossible that you have not heard about it. The European Commission has proposed maintaining cars with combustion engines. Indeed, we have not been wrong. Europe has not approved anything yet, the European Commission has made its proposal and now it has to be approved by the European Parliament and the Member States (the Council of the EU). Seeing how positions within the European Union have evolved in the last three years, everything indicates that if this proposal is not approved we will see something very similar to what has already been published. This proposal, as we tell in this article, anticipates a future where, indeed, we will have combustion cars. But they will be restricted to a few exceptions. With the obligation to maintain the average emissions below 11.6 gr/km of CO2 in its fleet To avoid possible fines, brands will have to continue selling enormous volumes of electric cars. The measure has been called by some analysts such as Mathias Schmidtt of “Porsche amendment”. And it is these types of vehicles that will continue to have combustion engines at exorbitant prices. Luckily, if everything goes the same, we can continue to see a Porsche 911 with a combustion engine or a Ferrari with its good V12. But it seems almost impossible for us to see affordable cars with this type of technology. Does that mean that every sports car will be electric? Most probably will be. But if this new regulation is approved, at least the door will be open to seeing a type of vehicle that we have little studied in Europe. One with which Mazda wants to keep alive a sports option in its range. The new wording opens the door for our dream of seeing the Mazda Iconic SP becoming a reality to be closer. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? Let’s dream about him It was November 2023 when Mazda dropped a bomb at the Tokyo Motor Show. It was at that time when he presented the Mazda Iconic SP, a beautiful prototype with retractable headlights and proportions halfway between the Mazda MX-5 and the Mazda RX-7two of his legendary cars. Very few details were given about the car but enough to understand that its return may be viable even with the expected emissions reduction. It was said that it was an extended range electric car. That is, a kind of plug-in hybrid where a rotary engine supports the vehicle to generate electricity and send it to the battery. The electric motors are what drive the wheels by taking electricity from the battery. A battery just enough for daily trips in electric mode but supported by a rotary motor allowed the car to have 370 HP but, above all, a weight of 1,430 kg. A low figure for an electric car, in line with Mazda’s philosophy of always trying to keep weight at bay. And the company has made it very clear on repeated occasions that they do not believe in electric cars with long ranges, among other things because of the excess weight it causes in their cars. He Mazda MX-30 electric and its 1,720 kg weight is a good example of how batteries affect this aspect. But its extended range version is also a good example of how they are already using this technology. The passage of time, however, seemed to be making things complicated for the company. In a recent interview with Coachhis Masahi Nakayama, head of the sports car’s design, said that it was the car of his dreams and that “technically it is viable” but the problem was in the costs. It has logic. For a brand as small as Mazda, putting a vehicle that will presumably be niche on the road is a huge risk. The eccentricities, the different cars, are reserved for huge companies like Toyota or vehicles that can remain on the market. If the company could not emit CO2 emissions in Europe in 2035 it would be another market that would be closed. The European market is, in fact, the most interesting market for this car. In China, customers They have looked at another type of vehicle more technological inside. In the United States the electric car is not taking off and There doesn’t seem to be any intention for it.. Only Europe and Japan seem to be areas where sales can be made, but the first market still has a ban on selling cars with combustion engines approved, which prevents a commercial life long enough to guarantee its viability. However, approving the European Commission’s proposal leaves the door open to seeing this sports car on the street. First because it would be complying with the regulations and second because, given that it is a niche car with few sales expected, it would be easy to offset the emissions with other vehicles from the firm or with the purchase of emissions credits. It remains to be seen, however, the future of Mazda in Europe. The restrictions are so tough over the next 10 years that they threaten to thin the firm’s product portfolio. Right now, its only competitive electric comes from China and the second model It will also be a purely Chinese car. The rest of its range is made up of cars with large combustion engines with emissions that go well above the 93.6 gr/km of CO2 with which they have to comply in 2027. What is certain is that a change of this type in the regulations paves the way for a different car. One of those cars that are worth dreaming about to break the monotony of an increasingly standardized market. Photo | Mazda In Xataka | Mazda wants to reinvent the electric car with an electric car that is not entirely electric. In China they have improved the idea

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