electric

the factories of robots, electric cars and AI

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China is one of those destinations that I have marked on my vacation wish list: I hope to see the red pandas, the Xi’an Warriors and the Great Wall. Yes, I have been there twice already, but they were work trips where although I could see the spectacular night skyline of Shanghai, the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong or temples in Shenzhen, where I was most was in brand headquarters and their factories. Be careful, I don’t regret anything: they were wonderful trips where I discovered that China technologically lives in the future. Because China has an immense historical legacy, but a future and an industrial fabric that, quite simply, leaves you speechless. Highly recommended. Well, what for me were work trips have now become a tourist destination. And be careful, it is not a new phenomenon: technology has always aroused curiosity, but until now the most techie people had their mecca in Silicon Valley. Shenzhen, resort city. The GloPen tour operator offers 8-day tour packages through Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu to see first-hand companies, technologies and people in the world of AI and autonomous driving. Among the organizers is BYD. Tech Buzz China has “crash dives” for investors, executives and founders with direct access to AI labs, electric vehicle factories and robotics startups. China Study Tour has of seven-day programs that combine AI, electric vehicles, robotics, healthcare and sustainability for corporate and academic groups, with access to BYD, Huawei or DJI. The price range starts at $3,000 for travel not included, but if you are looking for something more affordable, on Viator there are boring options and one that is amazing: “Shenzhen Tech Tour: Explore the Future”a bilingual tour from 80 euros that includes a drone food delivery demonstration, a robotaxi ride, and visits to stores selling AI glasses. Why is it important. Because this sociological phenomenon shows something: the perception of who leads global technology is shifting from the United States to China. For a more specialized profile like an investor, the trip makes all the sense in the world: reading a PDF is not the same as being there on the ground and seeing it yourself. On a larger scale, these trips are helping to shape new economic alliances: giants like India or old Europe are updating their industrial strategies and these trips to see it in situ constitute a great reinforcement. An example: the trips of the president of Spain to China, where he visited the Xiaomi headquarters. Context. That China is where it is is anything but a coincidence: it has been directing its industrial policy towards robotics, electric vehicles and ICT as priority sectors for years with subsidies, goals and specific commitments, as an example of its ‘Made in China 2025‘. The result has been a brutal boost to the industry, the development and manufacturing of complex high-tech products. What is visited today on tours is the result of that strategy that has been maturing for a decade. Furthermore, China and the United States are immersed in a technological war with vetoes and tariffs. When standard channels of collaboration and communication are closed, showing up on the spot becomes one of the best ways to not be blinded to what is happening on the other side. And China is making it easy, both through these private and institutional initiatives: in 2025 it opened its doors to almost 50 countries, including France, Germany, Spain and Russia, which can access China without the need for a visa. In detail. Technological tourism is aligned with China’s interest in getting closer to the world, because the Asian giant is truly unknown to the outside world and obviously these types of tours are a magnificent sales and image showcase, an authentic soft skill that sweeps social networks. And since a picture is worth a thousand words (which in this case is not even painted), YouTuber iShowSpeed ​​will ride a flying car in Shenzhen or the German Chancellor Merz saw robots doing kung-fu It makes fantastic advertising. Someone sees the technology that is being made in China on social networks, becomes curious and that leads them to book a tour. A virtuous circle. Yes, but. We continue with the obvious: in a tourist package sponsored by manufacturers you will see only what they want you to see, just like those dream Google officesand they can perfectly be showcases designed to impress that do not have to represent the entire Chinese industry: one thing is the showroom and another is reality. On a five-day trip to Shenzhen you can see the tip of the industry’s iceberg in cutting-edge factories, but not the working conditions or its environmental policy. Although that is not something exclusive to China: on a visit to Meta in San Francisco or Stellantis in Zaragoza they are not going to tell you that either. In Xataka | China stripped Japan of its tourists in hopes of causing an economic hole. Nothing could be further from reality In Xataka | Young tourists from China have begun to visit random places en masse. There is an explanation: Xiaohongshu Cover | Jose Garcia and Joel Danielson

Volkswagen delays plans to manufacture batteries in Sagunto. It is very bad news for your cheap electric cars

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Volkswagen battery production in Sagunto (Valencia) is delayed. He does it because the works are not progressing in the stipulated times but the problem is greater. And the company proposed this factory as essential to have its plans for electric cars manufactured in Spain at full capacity. a delay. This is what they assure in The Confidential who, exclusively, assure that the plans to produce battery cells at Volkswagen’s Valencian factory in Sagunto are delayed, at least, “a few months.” In Xataka We have tried to contact Volkswagen but, as of this writing, we have not received a response to our questions. According to the media, the information has been provided by “sources close” to the company and “unofficial sources linked to the universe of contractors do not rule out that the delay hides more serious changes in the project.” What is the delay? Volkswagen had a calendar which was to have the manufacturing of the first pre-series units of battery cells ready in September 2026. The objective is that, with these tests, mass manufacturing would arrive during the first quarter of 2027. However, they point out in The Confidentialit will not be until December when the tests will begin, so the final production of the cells could be postponed until almost half of next year. The delay, of course, would be due to problems during the construction of the factory but not to cuts in the project. Despite everything, it comes at a bad time. A (small) breath. What they assure from the media is that the project is not in danger, neither due to investments nor due to size. And Volkswagen is in the midst of a restructuring process, with up to 100,000 layoffs hanging over European plants and the possibility of closure of some of them. The Spanish project, however, is one of the most important that the company has in the short term. The investment, adding all the phases, is expected to reach 3,000 million euros and right now 1,500 people are working there in the construction phase. For the production of pre-series cells It is expected to employ 500 people. The Spanish hub. The biggest problem for Volkswagen with the delay of these plans is that the final production to feed the Barcelona and Navarra plants is irremediably delayed. In them, the company will produce the smallest models with up to four cars that will cost 25,000 euros. In Spain alone, Volkswagen will invest 10,000 million euros. Of them, 3,000 million will go to the Sagunto plant, as we have mentioned, and the same amount is dedicated to the renovation of Martorell. The Navarra plant will be renovated with an investment of 1,000 million euros and the remaining 3,000 million will be invested in auxiliary component companies. At a very bad time. Although no work is free of delays, delaying the production of batteries is a real problem for the company. And the German company has enormous hopes placed on these cars to continue gaining share in the electric car market and, finally, to take advantage of this technology as they expected. Besides, the delivery of Perte VEC aid It is also conditioned to comply with the planned schedule. But above all because each car sold is a break in its emissions quota. In 2027 average emissions will be reviewed that the company has put on the street with each car sold. Going over 93.6 gr/km of CO2 will be an automatic fine and now In 2025 the company expected billion-dollar sanctions. Selling as many affordable cars as possible next year is essential to reduce the expected penalty. Photo | Volkswagen In Xataka | Europe has its hope in the 25,000 euro electric car and Volkswagen already knows who will manufacture it: Spain

Electric car sales in Europe, on a revealing map with a devastating peninsula. Spoiler: it is not the Ibérica

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If tomorrow your car breaks down and you have to buy a new one, the million dollar question is: Would it be a combustion car, a hybrid or an electric car? Obviously, there is also another respectable alternative that makes a lot of sense in the face of a future full of uncertainty and skyrocketing prices: bet on second hand (however, the question remains the same). Saying goodbye to old combustion and welcoming electricity (in any form) is a complex issue where factors such as tax policies, infrastructure and income come into play. The transition to electric has been here for a long time, but it is not advancing in the same way throughout the continent. The map you see below these lines represents the percentage of new electric car registrations in Europe in 2025which includes pure electric and plug-in. Another important consideration: it only collects new cars, not the existing fleet, that is another much more modest story where electric cars currently represent only around 5%. Its creation is the work of The World in Maps, an informative project specialized in cartographies and infographics. To prepare it, use the report Global EV Outlook 2026 from the International Energy Agency (IEA), published in 2026, that is, the world reference report on electric mobility. Electric cars (EV and PHEV) registered in 2025. AIE On the old continent, sales of electric cars (EV + PHEV) increased by 30% last year, above the global trend, which grew by 20% to exceed 20 million units. That is to say, if in the world one in four cars is electric, in Europe it is almost one in three. In fact, Europe has surpassed China as the fastest growing electric car market, with notable increases in Germany, Spain and Italy. But the colorful map suggests a very heterogeneous panorama on the continent and part of the blame lies with state policies: public support for electric vehicles, in the form of direct subsidies, tax incentives and tariff exemptions, has been progressively decreasing in the last decade as sales have increased, although Denmark, Norway and Turkey continue to have the most favorable scenarios due to their strong tax exemptions. A Europe at two speeds Electric Europe is made up of the Nordic countries and the Netherlands, where the highest quotas are concentrated: Norway (97%), Denmark (71%), Sweden (61%) and Iceland (62%). The recipe for success is a high per capita income, strong taxation on fossil fuels, historic exemptions for electricity and a highly developed charging network. Norway takes the cake, where fully electric cars reached a record share of 96% of all car sales in 2025, although from 2026 the tax advantages have been cut. The Europe of fuel comes from the east, with Russia (2%), Bosnia (5%), Romania and Bulgaria (6%) as markets where the electric car has barely penetrated, conditioned by lower purchasing power, scarce charging infrastructure and absence of relevant tax incentives. In fact, Croatia, Greece and much of the Balkans move in similar figures, between 5% and 15%. This ancient Europe lives under the restraint of increasingly strict EU regulations. These data matter because road transport is one of the major sources of emissions of carbon dioxide in Europe and the speed of electrification attacks it directly, stepping on the accelerator towards achieving the EU’s climate objectives. But it also has industrial implications: the automotive sector, a true historical bastion on the continent, is adapting and planning based on demand. The jump to electric also has its economic and geopolitical reading where one country leads the way: China. In Xataka | Europe’s passenger car industry, in a revealing map that makes it clear who is the real “engine” of the EU In Xataka | All the car plants in Europe (including the few battery-electric ones), on a map Cover | The World in maps

electric cars that are mobile batteries

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I’m going to tell you a little anecdote about what moves behind some texts. For a time, it became fashionable among car brands to put a coffee maker in presentations to show us the advantages of technology. V2L or Vehicle to Loadin English. Most of the cars electric and some plug-in hybrids They already have it. It is the possibility of using the electric car battery as an energy store to charge our devices. To demonstrate this in the presentations, we have seen everything as we said: coffee makers, electric bicycles, lighting systems with small bulbs to decorate some spaces… Honestly, it’s usually something I mentioned in passing in the texts because I didn’t see much use in it. Who makes a capsule coffee on the road or in the middle of the field? Who prefers to eat up the range of their car to recharge the battery of their electric bicycle instead of carrying it already charged from home? But in China they are showing that the system has much more interest than we can think. In fact, we ourselves have been able to see it, still in a limited way, during the general blackout last year. Now, floods in the Asian country are showing us how useful it is. Your cell phone always ready in an emergency situation Last April 2025, when Spain’s general network was off, a lucky few were able to eat hot, keep the refrigerator cool, and keep their mobile phone ready. They were the owners of electric cars. Some of them then saw that this function that the commercial had sold them and to which they had not paid much attention, finally, served something really useful. Luckily, our discomfort lasted only a few hours but it made clear to us some added advantages of having an electric car. But when your country has filled the streets with this type of vehicle and you suffer real problems, the electric car can become a saving rolling battery. In the Guangxi region have suffered historic rains by the action of a typhoon called Mesaak. Many have been left completely stranded in the middle of the water. We have seen how the drones used for food delivery They helped those who fled from the water in the upper part of their homes. Or even those who have used their “floating” cars to rescue those affected. To the point that since BYD they have had to remember that these cars cannot be used as emergency services. But in addition to these uses, having a multitude of NEV cars (as China calls the category that includes plug-in hybrids and electric cars) has proven to be a perfect opportunity for dozens of people to keep in touch with their families and the emergency services. Media like Southern Metropolis Daily either Shanghai Daily They have published some images on Weibo that show how people crowd next to cars because a single vehicle can charge dozens of mobile phones or portable batteries. This is possible because cars that have V2L technology can charge external devices using alternating current. In this case, what they have done is remove the socket from the vehicle and plug it into a multiple-input power strip to increase the number of phones that can be charged. The result is rolling batteries that keep the phones of dozens of people in a risk situation active. Of course, as explained in CarNewsChinait is important to be clear that this is not the most recommended practice and that multiplying the energy output by connecting power strips together can cause damage to them and, therefore, to the devices. The most striking thing is that, in the cars we see in Europe, bidirectional charging is usually limited to about 3.6 kW in many cases. However, in the CNC They point out that this is a rarity in China and is only available on lower-end cars. On the contrary, most cars have much higher charging capacities when they have to power other devices and even mention a Geely pick-up called Riddara RD6 which is capable of charging up to a power of 36 kW because it can carry a drone on its back. Photo | Southern Metropolis Daily and 老兵陈大叔 In Xataka | I have tried the BYD circuit in China: an underwater YangWang, a 29 meter dune and a car that turns by itself

China’s best-selling car has just headed to Europe. It has several arguments beyond being electric

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Europe has already begun to fill in one of the boxes that was most difficult to resolve in the electric car: that of small, urban and somewhat more rational models. There are proposals like the Renault 5 electriche Citroën ë-C3 or the Dacia Springeach with its own recipe to bring electric mobility closer to more everyday use. He wants to enter that fight now Geely with the E2but with an unusual cover letter. It does not come as a proposal without a commercial route, but as the European name for a car that in China has already shown that it can sell a lot. Geely Auto Europe already shows it on its website as a model that “will arrive soon” and presents it as a compact electric hatchback for everyday use. It is a relevant confirmation, but still incomplete: the brand has not detailed in which countries it will be sold, when exactly its marketing will begin, what versions will arrive or what price it will have in the European Union. The Chinese bestseller that wants to make a place in Europe An important fact is not in a European promise, but in what the car has already done in China. Geely assures that the Xingyuan, which is how it is known in its original market, was in 2025 the best-selling model in the country in all segments, with 465,775 units. That nuance is relevant because we are not talking about a residual category, but rather about a pure electric car that came to lead the Chinese market as a whole. As additional context, the brand also positions it as the world sales leader within the A/B segments, that is, between small and utility cars. The name change is not a rarity for this model, but rather a fairly common practice in the automotive industry: manufacturers selling cars on the same basis, or practically identical ones, with different names depending on the market. In this case, the Xingyuan retains its Chinese identity at home, but when going abroad It moves under the names EX2 and E2. In the European Union, the brand is already using E2, while the United Kingdom appears associated with EX2 and its own calendar. Geely’s European page already makes it clear where it wants to sell the E2. The brand presents it as a compact electric hatchback for everyday use, with a speech based on three ideas: dynamism, space and safety. It also ensures that the chassis is tuned specifically for European roads, a phrase designed to answer a common question with Chinese cars that arrive on the continent: how they will behave outside their original market. In the absence of the definitive record for this market, Geely’s Chinese website It allows us to define the starting car quite well. The Xingyuan measures 4.14 meters long and has a 2.65 meter wheelbase, figures that clearly place it in the urban territory, but not in that of microcars. The brand also talks about a frunk of 70 liters and a trunk of 375 to 1,320 liters, depending on load configuration. For Europe, the reference available on CarNewsChina points to a 39.4 kWh battery, an 85 kW/rear motor 114 HP and 317 km WLTPalthough final specifications for the EU will be known closer to launch. The temptation would be to look at the Chinese price, convert it to euros and draw a quick conclusion. It is advisable not to do so. In its domestic market, Geely places the Xingyuan between 64,800 and 94,800 yuan, about 8,350-12,200 euros at the exchange rate, but that figure belongs to China and responds to very different industrial and commercial conditions. For Europe it only serves as a clue of origin: the car is born as an affordable proposal, although its real price here will depend on the final version, import costs, homologation, logistics and Geely’s strategy. And here appears the closest unknown: Spain. We have entered the Spanish Geely website and, for now, the E2 is not among the brand’s visible models; what appears are the Starray EM-i and the Geely E5. That doesn’t mean the E2 isn’t coming, just that Geely hasn’t added it to its local showcase yet. If it finally lands in this market, furthermore, it would not be another SUV within the range, but rather an entry into a different terrain: that of the urban and compact electric car. The arguments are on the table, but the decisive part is still missing. We know that it comes from a model that has worked massively in China, that Geely already shows it on its European page and that its format fits into an increasingly competitive category. We do not yet know how much it will cost, what versions will arrive, if Spain will be among the first markets or how it will respond to already known rivals. That is why the most prudent reading is not that he is going to repeat his Chinese success, but that he arrives with sufficient reasons for us to look at him closely. Images | Geely In Xataka | Anti-electrics lose an argument about car batteries: a study confirms that they are more durable than previously believed

Mercedes believed that the new electric motor in its AMG GT was “barely feasible.” Now it aims to be the future of all electric vehicles

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A few days ago, Mercedes finally announced the start of serial production of your axial flux motor at the historic Berlin-Marienfelde plant. This has serious implications for the future of electric cars, as the technology that powers this engine promises to redefine what a high-performance electric vehicle can do. That is why under these lines we are going to tell you all the details. What exactly happened. On June 9, Mercedes confirmed the start of serial production of this new engine in Berlin-Marienfelde, the historic factory founded in 1902 that has now been converted into the center par excellence for the brand’s high-performance electric motors. The first production model to debut is the new Mercedes-AMG GT 4 Door Coupea car that has also been left in the background in the conversations of recent weeks due to Ferrari and its first electric, Luce. However, this new vehicle will be the very first host of Mercedes’ new axial flow engine, which enters large-scale industrial manufacturing in a 30,000 square meter plant, three pavilions and seven production lines. Why is this engine different?. The vast majority of current electric cars use radial flux motors. In these, the magnetic field goes from the center outward, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. In an axial flux motor, this field runs parallel to the axis of rotation, which allows the internal components (rotor, stator, etc.) to be coupled in flat layers facing each other, something like a sandwich. This arrangement makes the engine much more compact and lighter for the power it is capable of generating. Where does this technology come from?. The story begins in 2009, when engineers from the University of Oxford They founded the British company YASA with the aim of developing axial flux electric motors. Before arriving at Mercedes, YASA already supplied its engines to manufacturers such as Ferrari, Koenigsegg and Lamborghini. In 2021, Mercedes acquired the company seeing the potential these engines could have in their future AMG models. From there, the challenge was to transfer this technology from the laboratory to the mass production chain, something that, according to the company itself“for a long time it was considered barely feasible due to its complexity.” Figures. In its development phase, YASA presented an engine weighing just 13.1 kilos capable of generating 550 kW, which is equivalent to 738 HP, with a power density of about 42 kW per kilogram. It is no small feat, since if we compare these figures to those of the best radial engines, it practically doubles them. In more recent iterations, that same concept, weighing only 12.7 kilos, reached 750 kW of peak power, close to 1,000 HP. What comes out of those production lines. The AMG GT 4 Door Coupé mounts three axial flux motors grouped in modules called High Performance Electric Drive Units, which integrate motor and reducer in the same housing. One is on the front axle, less than 9 centimeters wide, and two on the rear axle, just 8 centimeters wide. Despite these dimensions, in its most powerful version (the AMG GT 63) the set adds 1,169 HP and 2,000 Nm of torque, with acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds and a maximum speed of 300 km/h with the specific high-performance package. The challenge of manufacturing it. Making this engine in series has required processes that did not exist before. And just as account Mercedes in its official publication, of the 98 stages that make up manufacturing, 65 are used for the first time within the Mercedes group and 35 are completely unprecedented worldwide, generating more than 30 patent applications. According to the brand, one of the most technically demanding steps is what the factory calls “the wedding”, the moment in which the stator is placed between the two magnetic rotors. The magnetic forces are equivalent to about 900 kilos, and the margin of error allowed is less than a tenth of a millimeter. To do this, a control algorithm sends adjustments in the last 0.5 seconds of the process to ensure alignment. Mbeyond the AMG GT. The axial flux engine has not arrived in Berlin just to power an electric supercar. From Autoblog they point out that, given its compact and modular design, the technology is easy to adapt to different platforms. The usual industry logic also applies here, as when production volumes increase, costs fall. So there is hope that these types of engines will end up reaching more accessible models in the future. We will have to wait to find out if it really ends up being like this. For now, ArenaEV point to the CLA as a possible future candidate. It should be noted that Mercedes is not the only one working on axial flux engines, but it is the first to bring them to mass production in a series vehicle. Manufacturers such as Ferrari, BMW, Koenigsegg or Alpine are already investigating this technology. After all, electric cars are heavy by nature, so a lighter and more compact engine helps offset that burden without sacrificing performance. Tim Woolmer, CEO and founder of YASA, affirms that this technology “will change the game in the high-performance automotive sector.” We’ll see if it ends up being that way. Cover image | Mercedes-Benz In Xataka | Michael Leiters, CEO of Porsche: “We rushed with the Taycan, a 911 will never be an electric car”

Police intercept a modified electric scooter after a movie chase

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A souped-up electric scooter starred last Saturday a chase through the center of Benidorm after skipping a police check. The vehicle had been manipulated in such a way that it could reach a speed of about 104 km/h, four times above the legal limit, and ended up colliding with one of the Local Police motorcycles that were trying to intercept it. As expected, the driver has been reported for reckless driving. How it all started. The incident occurred during one of the routine controls that the Benidorm Local Police carries out daily on personal mobility vehicles (VMP). Quique Tortosa, spokesman for the body, explained to Radio Sirena COPE that these devices serve to verify that users circulate in the authorized areas and that their vehicles comply with the required technical conditions. In one of these controls, the agents detected a scooter which was moving at a clearly higher speed. When they tried to stop him, the driver went through everything and chose to flee. Drain. Just like they claim According to the media, the scooter traveled approximately two kilometers through several streets in the urban area before being intercepted. During that journey it reached a top speed of 104 km/h, a figure subsequently verified by Police measurement equipment. The chase took place in the heart of Benidorm, and it all ended when the scooter collided with one of the police motorcycles. Image shared by the Benidorm Local Police on networks Inspection. Once intercepted, the agents subjected the vehicle to a technical inspection. That was when the results confirmed that the scooter had been manipulated to be able to greatly exceed the 25 km/h that the regulations establish as the maximum speed for this type of device. He also did not have civil liability insurance or a homologation certificate, two requirements that are now mandatory to legally drive one of these vehicles. The sanctions that fall on you. The driver thus accumulates several complaints: reckless driving, driving a vehicle with altered technical characteristics and lack of regulatory documentation. The fine for carrying a souped-up scooter can reach 500 euros, but the lack of insurance increases that amount significantly, with penalties that can reach 3,000 euros, depending on the case, according to they point in We Are Electric. The scooter was confiscated. A recurring crime. It is not the first nor will it be the last of this type in Spain. Another recent example was the incident in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria last April. Here, just like point In the middle, an electric scooter also reached 104 km/h, with the added peculiarity that the driver also tested positive for drugs. “VMPs are not toys and their manipulation and improper use is not only prohibited, but can put human lives in danger,” counted Tortosa in the middle of all of Alicante. The use of this type of vehicle has become widespread in Spain, and the fact that it is relatively easy to trick them makes them even more dangerous. Cover image | Yiting He In Xataka | The bridge that Seville has been waiting for for decades: 3.5 kilometers over the Guadalquivir and a height that no other bridge in Europe reaches

“We rushed with the Taycan. A 911 will never be electric, viability depends on the combustion engine”

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The electric car is suffocating for brands that produce luxury sports cars. The market does not seem to be determined to buy the proposal and companies have been taking steps back in their strategy or have opted for an unexpected path. Porsche is one of them and its CEO, Michael Leiters, is very clear about it. “We rushed”. For Leiters, the Porsche Taycan was “a flagship project and an excellent product” but it arrived early. That is what he defended in a meeting organized by the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport which brought together the CEOs of Mercedes and the Volkswagen and BMW automobile groups, as well as the president of the board of directors of Audi. There, at the round table, Leiters pointed out that the product is good but that the future is not only about the electric car. “It seems that we were too fast with the jump to electric, we will continue investing in this sense but we will not have an electric 911. Viability depends on the combustion engine and the hybrid,” Leiters made clear. What happened to Porsche? The German company is going through a difficult financial moment. In its 2025 income statements a profit margin of 0.2% was reflected. That is to say, Porsche turned on the machines, put its operators to work and moved all its resources and its profit was practically non-existent. An entire year lost. The perfect storm has hit the German company. In China its sales have plummeted because The Porsche Taycan has become outdated and their customers no longer want their combustion cars, while look at the local market. In the United States, tariffs have punished the company so much that It was rumored that they could take part of their production there. And, furthermore, the jump to the electric car is not completely convincing. He porsche taycanalthough renewed, has not regained the traction of its early days. and the Porsche Macanwhich is only sold in purely electric format, is a great car but it seems that the customer is looking for something else. The client. Within the Volkswagen Group, Porsche has a problem with the electric car. Almost all cars within the rest of the group are replaceable by electric cars because they are mobility objects. There are honorable exceptions where the customer would continue paying extra to have a car with a combustion engine but in no case is there such a strong identification as with Porsche. When we get on the Porsche Macan We tried to explain why the car was not working properly. A Porsche Macan is the everyday car for customers who are already within Porsche and a purely electric version for everyday use could fit them. But there is a client who comes new to Porsche for whom electric is not worth it. that person has preferred to pay a premium By the Germans, for the simple fact of enjoying a car with Porsche DNA, they fulfill a dream that seemed unattainable to them. And no matter how good the electric one is, for them the Porsche DNA is inseparable from a combustion engine. In that case, electric is not an option, which leaves out a very important customer base. Expectations satisfied. Porsche has encountered another problem, everything indicates that the electric supercar is not of interest. The Taycan is a great product that sold a lot in the first years but it has deflated over the years. And the thing is that, after the first fever of having the first electric Porsche that everyone is talking about, the balloon has deflated. Lamborghini keeps delaying its first electric car because electric supercars are not receiving the love of the public. Maserati has thrown away billions of euros to cancel cars that were already developed. Mate Rimac confessed that his electric supercars are not selling, although pointed out the policies to promote electric cars as the culprits. That’s why Ferrari seems to have wanted to try its luck with a completely disruptive product and different. Aware that they were not going to please their most loyal customers and that they could not catch those who do not like their aesthetics, whether correct or not, they have ended up taking a third route, no matter how controversial it may be. In the end, the same as always. In his statements, Michael Leiters also made it clear that they did not have the development of an electric Porsche 911 on the table. It makes perfect sense seeing how the Taycan has deflated and the low interest in the Porsche Macan. Completely electrifying its most iconic model and the one most respected by its fans is presented as a leap into the void. And, to begin with, the Porsche 911 is a particular product. Throughout its history it has evolved taking solutions that seemed sacrilege at the time. Air cooling was abandoned and the turbo was introduced. But jumping to a pure electric car seems like an insurmountable red line. Also because batteries add weight and force a redistribution of the masses that threaten break their very particular dynamic. The good thing for Porsche is that the gap that Europe has left for combustion engines will allow them to continue selling its iconic sports car at an even more expensive price. and with The United States taking steps backwards With the electric one, the red carpet is laid out to amortize investments and earn more money. Photo | porsche In Xataka | Electric car skeptics are in luck: the United States has just joined their cause

BYD’s plan so that charging your electric car takes the same time as stopping for gas

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In recent years we have seen how Chinese brands have begun to conquer Europe with the accelerator pressed, with BYD as the main protagonist. However, let us remember that BYD is not only a manufacturer of cars: it is also a manufacturer of batteries and charging technology. That is why he is going to bring out all the heavy artillery in Europe as well, with a plan of 2,000 million euros to plague the region of ultra fast chargersthose that charge their cars in five minutes and that the brand itself showed us during the presentation of the Denza Z9GT. Breaking down obstacles. Charging has historically been the Achilles heel of the electric car. Not so much because of the capacity of the batteries, but because of how long it takes to charge the batteries compared to a brief refueling in a combustion car. BYD aims directly at this psychological brake with its own infrastructure that equates recharging an electric car to filling the tank of a combustion car. If it manages to impose its infrastructure, it would eliminate one of the great barriers of those who are skeptical about the electric car. Technology. The system Flash Charging It uses chargers with up to 1,500 kW of power, three times more than the most modern Tesla Superchargers, which are around 500 kW. To make the most of it, the car must equip the second generation of the BYD Blade Batteryspecifically designed to withstand these extreme loads. With that combination, going from 10% to 70% battery takes five minutes. The first European model with this capacity is the Denza Z9GT, which we were already able to try first-hand last April and which has a starting price of 115,000 euros in its electric version, acting as a technological showcase for the brand. Already in the presentation we were also able to see how the car, in fact, only took about five minutes to reach 70% of its charge, although the infrastructure that the brand must put in place to reach those figures is no small feat. Numbers. The plan involves adding about 3,000 stations in Europe before the end of 2027, of which 600 correspond to the United Kingdom, where BYD has already inaugurated its first ultra-fast charging point. On the other hand, the manufacturer told us at the time that the idea in Spain is to start with about 200 or 300 chargers. “It’s a lot of money, with each charging point costing almost half a million pounds,” counted Stella Li, the group’s top international executive, told the Financial Times. How they avoid saturating the electrical grid. One of the technical challenges of very high-power chargers is the impact on the electrical infrastructure. BYD solves this with a system of stationary batteries installed at each charging point, which are recharged during hours of lower demand (normally early morning) and act as an energy reserve when a user connects their vehicle. Thus, the peak demand on the network is much lower. The real bottleneck. Curiously, the main obstacle is neither technical nor economic. Bono Ge, head of BYD in the United Kingdom, counted to the FT that “the challenge does not lie in the infrastructure, but in the speed with which the town councils can give their authorization. We can implement it very quickly.” Technological showcase. The move is very reminiscent of Tesla’s Supercharger network, which was key in its commercial expansion by minimizing that recurring thought of having to recharge the car on long trips. Europe already has extensive networks, in fact Tesla has about 20,000 points on the continent, but BYD is betting on fewer and much more powerful stations. The idea is to continue expanding its technology, and make it so that other vehicles can also use their chargers, regardless of the manufacturer. BYD’s market share in the EU has already risen from 0.8% to 1.9% in the first four months of 2026, according to data from the European automobile association ACEA, and in the United Kingdom it reaches 3.4%, above Renault and Volvo. In Xataka | The best electric car chargers 2026: Which one to buy and six recommended models

Europe’s secret weapon to win the electric battery war is not in the mines: it is in the garbage

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The race for European energy sovereignty is being fought far from the large open pit mines. The new battlefield is located in a much more unexpected place: the garbage heap. The companies Vianode and Cylib they have forged an alliance to convert old batteries from scrapyards into high-performance components for new vehicles, the continent’s latest attempt to achieve supply chain independence. However, this scientific advance collides head-on with a real political earthquake. As anticipated at the time Reutersthe European Commission is evaluating whether to reverse or delay its star measure for five or more years: the ban on selling combustion cars from 2035. While technology shows that stopping dependence on foreign powers is possible, economic fear makes Brussels hesitate. The “unsung hero” at the bottom of the landfill. To understand the magnitude of the project, you have to look at a specific material. How do you define it? Aqua Metals, This is the “unsung hero” of lithium-ion batteries: graphite. This material is essential to create the anode (the negative pole of the battery) that allows energy to be stored and released efficiently. Although it is light compared to metals such as cobalt, graphite represents between 10% and 20% of the total weight of a cell. The underlying problem is geopolitical. Global demand for this mineral has skyrocketed, but Europe depends almost entirely on imports of virgin material controlled by external markets. The situation became critical when China, the world’s largest producer, announced severe restrictions for export. The answer to this vulnerability lies in what the industry knows as “black mass,” the dark dust that results from crushing discarded batteries. In this mixture, graphite can account for up to 50% of the content. Recycling has ceased to be a simple green initiative and has become a matter of industrial survival. Urban water-based mining. How exactly is that scrap metal transformed into cutting-edge components? The German company Cylib has developed its own technology based on water, named OLiC. This system is capable of recovering 90% of critical metals (lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and manganese) from spent batteries, reducing carbon emissions by 80% compared to traditional mining extraction. This development is not an improvised promise. By mid-2025, Cylib has already marked a milestone together with the Syensqo firm by producing high purity lithium hydroxide directly from this black mass using a proprietary selective solvent (CYANEX 936P). This achievement allowed different battery chemistries to be processed in a single operational line, preparing to more than comply with EU regulation, which will require recovering 80% of lithium by 2031. With the new alliance signed, the graphite recovered by Cylib will be delivered to the Norwegian firm Vianode, which will integrate it into the formulation of its advanced synthetic anodes. Its goal for 2030 is radical: emitting just 1.0 kg of CO2 for every kilo of graphite produced. As Dr. Lilian Schwich, co-founder of Cylib, summarized: “Circular does not mean making concessions. It means a competitive advantage for Europe.” The fracture of the industry in the mirror of 2035. Although recyclers demonstrate that material autonomy is technically viable, pressure from traditional manufacturers has fractured the automotive sector. Giants like Volkswagen or Stellantis They argue that the current goals They are not viable because consumers are reluctant to pay the extra cost of the electric vehicle and the charging infrastructure remains poor. Ford CEO Jim Farley himself publicly admitted that EU demands “are not a sustainable reality in Europe today,” pushing to save combustion engines through the use of synthetic biofuels. But this position is not unanimous. Purely electrical firms see this possible political delay as a strategic error that will give the market to China. Michael Lohscheller, CEO of the electric brand Polestar, was blunt in the face of regulatory uncertainty: “The technology is ready, the charging infrastructure is ready and consumers are ready. So what are we waiting for?” The great European paradox. Europe holds the key to its energy future in its own scrapyards. This year’s pilot plants and commercial agreements demonstrate that the circular ecosystem is a mature reality. The great paradox that remains in the air is evident: What will be the point of building the most advanced battery recycling technology on the planet if, out of fear of competition from foreign markets, Brussels decides to artificially extend the life of the exhaust pipe? European automotive independence may have been born in the trash, but it risks dying in the offices. Image | Pexels Xataka | Keeping combustion engines alive in 2035 leaves us with clear winners. Some called BMW, Porsche and Ferrari

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