gasoline

Science already knows what is the best “gasoline” to create new neurons: physical exercise

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We have always known that playing sports is good for the heart and also the muscles, but neuroscience is showing us that running shoes are, literally, the best tool to sculpt our brain. This is how I put it on the table the neuroscientist José Luis Trejowhich pointed out that physical exercise acts as a true “gasoline” for neurogenesis in the hippocampus adult to make us more ‘smart’ and also tend less towards depression. Neuron factory. Until a few decades ago, it was believed that you were born with a certain number of neurons and that, from there, they could only be lost. But today we know that this is completely false, since the generation of new neurons has already been demonstrated, and it occurs mainly in a region of the brain that is key to learning, memory and emotions, such as the hippocampus. The exercise. Here the different studies were focused on how this generation of neurons can be enhanced, and moderate aerobic exercise is the main switch to turn on the neuronal factory. How it works. The specific exercise and also extended over time, it raises the BDNF segregationwhich is the brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and also the VEGFwhich is vascular endothelial growth factor. Two proteins that act as ‘fertilizer’ in the brain to promote neuronal plasticity and the formation of new blood vessels to nourish all these new cells that appear in the brain. There are results. Studies done in humans themselves measured cerebral blood volume using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and here they could see that there is a real increase in the volume of the hippocampus and there are also improvements in spatial memory and cognition, which is essential from certain ages onwards. And it is no wonder, because there are studies that suggest that constant exercise increases total hippocampal volume, being a first-level strategy against cognitive declineand therefore acts as a shield against Alzheimer’s. Antidepressant. In addition to being a shield against Alzheimer’s, it can also reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression, overcoming the effects of antidepressants in some patients. However, we must have common sense with the ‘dose’ of exercise we do. And a perpetual sedentary lifestyle is toxic, since sitting atrophies all brain capacities, but excess is destructive because extreme intensity training without rest generates a peak of stress in the body that completely cancels out the neurogenic benefits. That is, doing a lot of exercise at maximum capacity can block the creation of new neurons. It is hereditary. But if making new neurons is not enough to join the gym, science suggests that it can be transmitted to children thanks to epigenetics. In 2019, a study published in PNAS demonstrated that paternal exercise increases neurogenesis and mitochondrial activity in offspring, even if the latter are sedentary. But in 2024 went furtherseeing that these neuroplastic effects can be inherited up to two generations later. The dose. In summary, neuroscience suggests that doing 45-60 minutes a day of moderate aerobic activity can bring us great benefits over spending uninterrupted hours in the chair. Without a doubt, memory, mood and hippocampal volume will be truly grateful. Images | Chander R Bhautik Patel In Xataka | Scientists have connected 200,000 human neurons to a chip. And he made them play ‘Doom’

keep all the gasoline you produce

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The news of the week has been, without a doubt, the conflict between the United States and Israel against Iran, which has led to the Strait of Hormuz It will be practically sealed. According to a monitoring report of Morgan Stanleytraffic in the strait has plummeted by more than 95%, with only one oil tanker managing to cross on March 3. Given this scenario, the shock wave has not taken long to reach Asia, and the first major domino effect is already here. As he advanced BloombergChina’s government has ordered its largest oil refineries to immediately suspend gasoline and diesel exports. It is not a minor decision. Although the immense Chinese refining machinery produces mainly for its voracious domestic marketthe country It is the third largest fuel exporter by sea from Asia, only behind South Korea and Singapore. Suddenly withdrawing your product from the international market means, by pure law of supply and demand, less fuel available and rising prices for everyone. The execution of this measure has been as lightning-fast as it is opaque. According to industry sources cited by Reutersthere was no official public decree. Officials from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) — the country’s top economic planning body — met with executives from state-owned giants such as PetroChina, Sinopec, CNOOC and Sinochem, as well as private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical. The demand was verbal and clear: immediately suspend shipments, stop signing new contracts and negotiate the cancellation of those already agreed upon. In fact, Chinese diplomacy has played the distraction. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied having knowledge of this suspension when asked at a press conference. as reported Euractiv. However, there is small print in this export blackout. According to Business Standardrefueling of aviation fuel (kerosene) for international flights will be maintained, marine fuel stored in customs warehouses is exempt, and vital supplies to the Hong Kong and Macau regions will not be affected. As for deadlines, the international market will feel the real blow starting in April. As pointed out LiveMintmost March exports (estimated at a combined 3.8 million tons) were already closed and shipments are difficult to remove at the last minute. The reason for this drastic measure? Pure national survival. Although China has been trying to diversify for years, 57% of its direct imports of crude oil by sea come from the Middle East, according to the analysis firm Kpler. If the Persian Gulf tap is closed, Beijing prioritizes ensuring that its internal tanks do not empty. Asia in panic and runaway prices The consequences of China’s move are already shaking the global economy, hitting its neighbors first. Financial Times details how the great Asian technological powers They are activating emergency protocols. Taiwan, South Korea and Japan – highly dependent on Middle Eastern crude – are desperately seeking to secure alternative routes and coordinate mutual supplies due to fear of being left in the dark. In financial markets, panic translates into money. With less Chinese fuel available, refining margins in Asia have hit three-year highs. According to LSEG pricing data collected by APA Newsthe diesel margin has touched $49 per barrel, while that of aviation fuel (jet fuel) has shot up above $55. Paradoxically, Beijing’s order has also heated up its domestic market. Chinese wholesalers, anticipating shortages, have started hoarding product. Business Standard explains that the price of diesel wholesale jumped 13.5% and 92 octane gasoline jumped 11% in just one week. In this troubled river, independent refiners (known as “teapots” in Shandong province) are taking advantage to squeeze margins. “We are busy raising prices, hoping to maximize our profits,” one trader told the financial publication. Even so, the physical lack of raw materials is undeniable. At least two large plants—Zhejiang Petrochemical and the Sinopec refinery in Fujian—already have begun to reduce their volume processing this month. Beijing’s masterstroke To understand China’s position of strength today, we must look to the recent past. As we analyze in Xatakathe Asian giant is not improvising. In 2025, while the world feared an oversupply, Beijing spent $10 billion buying heavily sanctioned and cheap oil (Russian, Venezuelan and Iranian) that it did not immediately need. Thanks to this, its Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) are estimated between 1,100 and 1,400 million barrels, enough to cover about 140 days of internal demand. Furthermore, the closure of Hormuz will force a new geopolitical realignment. According to Financial TimesXi Jinping’s government will rely even more on Vladimir Putin’s Russia. There are already increases in shipments of Russian crude oil, and Beijing plans to revive refineries in the northeast (such as Dalian) to process it, in addition to accelerating the construction of the gas pipeline. Siberia power 2. On the other hand, the real Chinese insurance policy is not fossil, but renewable. As analyzed by Professor Hussein Dia in The Conversationthe country’s massive commitment to electric vehicles (which accounted for 50% of new car sales last year) and solar energy is, at its core, a national security strategy. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, physical collapse is a reality. The increase in logistics costs is wild. The charter of a supertanker on the route to China has risen 600%touching $200,000 a day, and insurers have raised war risk premiums by up to 50%. And the problem with ships not sailing is that oil accumulates at source. Iraq has already been forced to cut its production by 1.2 million barrels a day simply because its inventories have reached a critical level and it has nowhere to store the crude. In this context, OPEC+’s promises to inject 206,000 additional barrels per day are, as the expert John Kemp describes in the Financial Timesa mirage: that excess capacity is within the Persian Gulf; If the ships do not leave, that oil does not exist for the rest of the planet. While the West hyperventilates at the possibility of a barrel at 100 dollars and looks into the atavistic terror of reliving the inflationary crisis of 1973reality shows that interdependence … Read more

the theory that explains why the rise in gasoline is here to stay

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Gasoline skyrockets. It is the consequence of the attacks on Iran and the country’s responses to the United States and Israel. In an enclave very exposed to any type of crisis, the Strait of Hormuz, oil transit is suffering harsh consequences. China already warns that it will not export its fuel. And, meanwhile, gasoline is rising at a dizzying pace. 20 cents. Tomorrow, Saturday, March 7, marks one week since the United States and Israel attacked Iran. Since then, hostilities in the Middle East have continued, with a response from Iran in which its neighboring countries and even the European Union have been involved. It was February 28 and gasoline was moving below 1.50 euros/liter on average. When we write these lines, March 6, the portal dieselgasolina.com which monitors the price of Spanish service stations offers a very different image: So far this month, prices have skyrocketed: Gasoline 95: from 1,495 euros/liter to 1,608 euros/liter. +11 cents/liter Gasoline 98: from 1,687 euros/liter to 1,766 euros/liter. +8 cents/liter Diesel A: from 1,447 euros/liter to 1,643 euros/liter. +20 cents/liter Diesel A+: from 1,549 euros/liter to 1,734 euros/liter. +19 cents/liter A week. Barely a week has been enough for the price of gasoline and diesel to skyrocket and, above all… there is no prospect of their ceiling. And the oil companies and service stations are already beginning to notify the Government that they are not willing to support a new gasoline subsidy, as would happen in 2022. This means that the prospects are not at all promising and the truth is that if we look at the progress of the conflict, everything indicates that we can expect the worst. Right now: Sign of the increase in price in a few days like a rocket. What we are witnessing, again, is the theory of the rocket and the pen. When the supply chain falters, the price of gasoline skyrockets. However, its descent lasts for weeks or months, reproducing the effect of a feather. And, as soon as the last war in the Middle East began, gas stations have already started raising prices. It doesn’t matter that the impact of a rise in the barrel of Brent is not immediate on the prices at which they buy oil, the truth is that there are gas stations where prices have increased by more than 10% in the first days of the conflict, as you can see in the image above. The diesel. Although the price of gasoline is rising, without a doubt the biggest loser is the diesel customer. Spain continues to be a country whose automobile fleet is made up mostly for this type of fuel and seeing an increase of 20 cents/liter, on average, in just one week is hard. Its price is already higher than gasoline. What was once a historical raritytoday it has become a certain normality. As we already observed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war in this territory, diesel became more expensive because Russia was a big exporter of the same and European refineries had been reduced. That is to say, we had less fuel available on the market and for what there was we had two options: buy it at a high price or wait for the European funnel to ease. And the room for maneuver is small. But, in addition, since the War in Ukraine the State has been applying some measures that reduce the room for maneuver to try to patch the situation. Public transport is now much cheaper that then and gas stations and oil companies have already raised the hatchet against possible subsidies. A tax cut seems complicated. The State would be shooting itself in the foot, reducing revenue that also goes up when fuel prices rise. AND The European Union has been pressing for years so that diesel bonuses are eliminated and, therefore, taxes are equal to gasoline. Photo | Hamza Şamil Yavuz In Xataka | Europe has been demanding that Spain increase diesel prices for five years. And Spain is playing at being Spain

Gasoline prices are rising so much that a new subsidy is in the air. And her employers already reject her

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The sum of all numbers in a data set divided by the count of those numbers. This is how the arithmetic mean is defined, probably the most used statistical value. A first approximation to a story but it is by no means definitive. And the average tells us a small part of what happens. How is it turning out with the price of gasoline. Has gasoline gone up? The data They say yes but they are disparate. According to the portal dieselgasolina.com which monitors the price of Spanish gas stations, 95 gasoline has increased by two cents since yesterday and today it is purchased for 1.58 euros per liter. Diesel equals it in price and in this case it has increased by four cents. But the drivers’ feelings are very different.. Just a quick review of this map of eldiario.es in which the increase in the price of each service station is recorded. It clearly reflects that prices have risen where there is more population or in large mobility corridors, such as the most frequented highways. It is easy to find increases in gasoline to 1.70 euros/liter and diesel to even 1.80 euros per liter. With variations in the last week of more than 10%. That is, increases of more than 10 cents/liter in the last week. The average growth, therefore, is marked by other gas stations that have not changed their prices due to less frequent renewals. Click on the image to go to the original map. Source: eldiario.es The noise of the subsidy The rise in gasoline prices and, above all, diesel, which continues to be the vast majority in the Spanish vehicle fleet, has caused talk again about the application of a purchase subsidy by the Government. In March 2022, after a transport strikethe Government agreed subsidize the sale of gasoline and diesel to the final consumer with 20 cents/liter. Of those 20 cents, 15 were paid by the State and the remaining five cents were paid by the gas stations. Then, the price of both fuels was around 1.80 euros/liter and recovered them again despite the State’s efforts. That is to say, the subsidy somewhat alleviated the purchase of fuel but It certainly didn’t help curb prices.. Yet, In Portugal the aid reached 40 cents/liter and in Poland reduced VAT as a means to reduce the price. The situation does not invite optimism. Carriers are already beginning to complain the Government to implement an aid package to alleviate a situation that everything indicates will become even more complicated. Nacho Rabadán, general director of the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Employers (CEEES), described COPE the situation as “a black week for service stations”, ensuring that businessmen are eating part of the increase in costs from the rise in oil. However, CEEES has already informed the Government that they do not count on them if a new subsidy has to be applied to the purchase of fuel. They collect in The Independent that the association has sent a letter to the Executive and they rescue Rabadán’s words in which he assures that “in 2022, the payment of the bonuses had to be advanced by the service stations out of their own pockets and, on average, they amounted to 30,000 euros; we were the ones who financed the 20 cent measure. That cannot be repeated.” Those days, CEEES also defended that the procedure was erroneous and the low cost They threatened to close because, in their opinion, their business model would be put at risk if they had to advance the money. The big oil companies, on the other hand, they did enter into a price war. Recently, the CNMC accused Repsol to use the subsidy and subsequent discounts to eliminate its competition. At the moment, there is nothing firm on the table but the rumor of a possible subsidy for the purchase is taking shape again. All we have at the moment are statements from Carlos Corpus, Minister of Economy, collected by Expansion in which he points out that he says they will be “above the prices.” “Unfortunately, we already had to go through a similar episode in 2022 as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine, so we are perfectly prepared to know what we have to do if necessary, protecting our citizens and companies through that shield,” Corps has made clear. For now, what that shield will be for citizens and companies is unknown. What is certain is that the gas stations want us to not return to the situation of 2022. Photo | Eric Mclean In Xataka | There is a hidden war to sell us the cheapest possible gasoline. One that Ballenoil and Plenergy already dominate

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz already points to gasoline at two euros/liter

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Unpredictable, unexpected and extreme impact. There are three characteristics that define what Nassim TalebLebanese philosopher, mathematician and essayist, pointed out to explain the “black swan theory”. With it he tries to explain what position to take in the face of such an inexplicable event of which we cannot understand its consequences. The theory takes its cue from the poet Juvenal, who once spoke of “a rare bird on earth, and very similar to a black swan“, a phrase that makes it clear that there was a time when it was believed that the swan, invariably, must be white because a black one had never been discovered. The phrase, in fact, was popular in England centuries ago. For Western Europe, swans were white. Spot. But a Dutch expedition at the end of the 17th century in Australia found that the black swan did indeed exist, which forever changed the knowledge we had on this subject. It was an unexpected, unpredictable event whose impact was extreme in its branch. Nacho Rabadán, general director of CEEES (Spanish Confederation of Service Station Employers), the most representative association of the sector, rescues this theory to point out what can happen with a constant block of the Strait of Hormuz. “Whenever there are problems in the Middle East, there is speculation about a possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz and whenever that possibility is on the table, the price of oil rises. If Hormuz were really closed, we would be talking about a black swan, there would be an immediate and violent reaction in the price of oil and we would be in a scenario similar to that of the spring of 2022 with the invasion of Ukraine,” Rabadán explains to ABC. Gasoline at two euros/liter If the prices of the first days of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine are reached, we would be talking about gasoline at a sustained price of between 1.80 and 2.00 euros/liter. At that time, Europe got to work to contain the impact on homes, mitigated in our country with one of subsidy of 20 cents/liter that did not end up stopping the rise in price and which, in fact, came to be used as means to attract clients according to the CNMC. Those days when OPEC maneuvered to keep the price of oil above $80/barrel seems far away. It even reached $130/barrel. But now they seem more alive than ever. The Strait of Hormuz is a key passage for energy for much of the world. It is an enclave of high tension, where the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf narrow to leave just a passage of between 60 and 100 kilometers for ships loaded with oil. For Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, controlling the passage of ships is key. since two weeksthe traffic is committed and with the attack by the United States and Israel on Iranand the country’s response to neighboring countries with US bases, the closure seems confirmed. A closure that has caught some 240 ships stopped in the middle of a historic traffic jam. Of them, Bloomberg The number of detained ships loaded with the precious commodity is estimated at 40 supertankers. The impact on the oil futures market was immediate once the attack became known but, for now, the price per barrel is close to 73 euros/unit (a few days ago it was around 65 dollars/barrel). The impact should be felt in the coming days if the fight becomes entrenched and Hormuz remains closed. For now, the price of gasoline has already risen slightly but the figures we find at the pumps will be, in the opinion of analystsmuch lower than we can expect in a few days. With the Ukrainian War and the Russia’s exit from the market (legal) of fuel, the price of gasoline shot up to 2.15 euros/liter and diesel to 2.10 euros/liter. The fear, of course, is not that only the price of fuel will skyrocket. Increasing its price impacts a general rise in prices since transportation is much more expensive. In fact, indirectly, not only the closure of Hormuz to the passage of oil can make products more expensive. Have to border the entire African coast to reach Europe to avoid attacks by some and others would raise the final bill. Both because of the extra fuel spent and the higher cost of keeping a ship traveling for more than 10 days, which extends the route in traffic between Asia and Europe. Photo | Marek Studzinski and Glenn Fawcett, Gieling, Rob In Xataka | Spain was supposed to raise diesel in 2026. It was supposed

We have been dreaming of infinite “solar gasoline” for decades. A new material inspired by plants has just proven that it is possible

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Nature has been keeping a secret in broad daylight for millions of years: photosynthesis. For decades, science has pursued the dream of replicating this process to create clean, sustainable fuels, but “artificial photosynthesis” has always run into walls of inefficiency and technical complexity. Until now. In short. A team of Chinese researchers has developed a method that mimics the natural process of transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into the basic components of gasoline. We are no longer talking about abstract theory; It is a system capable of creating “solar fuel” without depending on expensive chemical additives, bringing us closer to the holy grail of renewable energy. The advance, recently published in the magazine Nature Communicationscomes from a joint team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Researchers have designed a new composite material: tungsten trioxide modified with silver atoms (Ag/WO3). The end of chemical “tricks”. The truly revolutionary thing about this “magic dust” is not only its composition, but what it manages to avoid. To date, most attempts at artificial photosynthesis cheated: they used “sacrificial agents”, organic chemical additives (such as triethanolamine) that facilitated the reaction but were irreversibly consumed in the process, making it unsustainable and expensive on a large scale. This new system breaks that barrier. According to the scientific studythe catalyst achieves the light-driven conversion using only pure water (H2O) as an electron donor. No additives, no tricks. The result of this reaction is the efficient production of carbon monoxide (CO). Although it sounds like a harmful substance on its own, in the chemical industry this molecule is pure gold: it is a key intermediate that, mixed with hydrogen, forms the “synthesis gas” necessary to manufacture complex hydrocarbons such as methanol or synthetic gasoline. Air fuel. We are at the gateway to “solar fuels.” The importance of this finding lies in its ability to decarbonize sectors that electric batteries cannot easily cover, such as commercial aviation or heavy shipping. Furthermore, the researchers stand out in their paper who have come up with a “universal strategy”. Its material (Ag/WO3) is not an isolated invention, but a versatile “charger” that can be coupled to various types of catalysts (such as cobalt phthalocyanine, C3N4 or Cu2O) and improve their performance drastically. In fact, by combining this material with cobalt (CoPc), they achieved an efficiency 100 times higher than that of the catalyst acting on its own, equaling the performance of old systems that used polluting additives. It is a pure circular economy: capturing the gas that warms the planet (CO2) and turning it into a valuable resource. The secret is to imitate the leaves. To understand how they have achieved this, you have to look at a tree leaf. In natural photosynthesis, the processes of breaking down water and fixing CO2 are separate. Plants use a molecule called plastoquinone (PQ) to temporarily transport and “store” electrons excited by the sun before using them, acting as an energy buffer. Without this buffer, the electrons would be lost before they could be used. Chinese scientists asked themselves: “Can we build an artificial plastoquinone?” And the answer was tungsten. The developed material works as a bioinspired cargo reservoir: The battery: Under sunlight, tungsten changes its chemical structure (a valence swing from W6+ to W5+), temporarily trapping electrons as if it were a micro-battery. The bridge: When the system needs energy to convert CO2, the silver (Ag) atoms act as a bridge, releasing those stored electrons just at the right moment to recombine with the “gaps” of the catalyst. This solves the big problem of artificial photosynthesis: time and load management. While the water oxidizes, the system “saves” the solar energy to have it ready when the CO2 enters. From the laboratory to the real world. The best thing about this research is that it has not remained a theoretical simulation under perfect lamps. The team built an experimental device equipped with a Fresnel lens (to concentrate light) and took it outside to test it under natural sunlight. The data from the outdoor experiment are revealing: Solar rhythm: The system began to produce detectable gas from 9:00 a.m., reaching its peak production between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m., faithfully following the intensity of the sun. Durability: The system demonstrated enviable robustness, maintaining its effectiveness over 72-hour test cycles without showing significant downtime. A bridge to the future. As reported by the South China Morning Postthis advancement builds a critical bridge between renewable energy and high-demand industrial applications. The study authors conclude that their work not only eliminates the need for unsustainable sacrificial agents, but provides a versatile design principle for building autonomous photocatalytic systems. Although there is still a way to go to see solar gas stations, the basic science—the mechanism for storing the sun’s energy in a chemical powder—is no longer a theory. Image | freepik Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels

The Government applauded Repsol’s discounts in the midst of the gasoline crisis. Competition the fine now with 20.5 million for them

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February 2022. Spain is still suffering the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis. After two years with workers suffering ERTES, Russia invades Ukraine and a war breaks out that we continue to suffer four years later. Immediately, the economy of the entire continent is reeling. Basic products skyrocket in price and, among them, fuel enters a runaway inflationary race. One that, in turn, once again raises the prices of basic products. February 3, 2022 we counted on Xataka that gasoline was more expensive than ever. We paid 1,538 euros per liter. 24% more than the previous year. In summer we were close to two euros per liter. By then the Government had launched its action plan. After a transport strike and with France applying state aid to the purchase of gasoline, the State began to subsidize with 20 cents/liter the purchase of fuel for all drivers. The measure only proved to be a plug through which water leaked. In summer the most pessimistic voices already pointed to a price of up to three euros per liter in gasoline. The pump price, fortunately, did not reach that point. In fact, that same summer another war began. This time at the service stations. And although the price of gasoline continued to rise to the point that at the till We were paying 1.80 euros for each liter again, The big oil companies brought out all their weapons: points cards, temporary discounts, loyalty plans… Movements that hid something that the CNMC already warned about that same summer: the big oil companies were getting rich. Now, it is the same CNMC that has made a decision: to fine Repsol 20.5 million euros. Abuse of power against competitors The CNMC has confirmed a sanction of 20.5 million euros to several Repsol Group companies and punishes them with disqualification from participating in public contracts for six months on the understanding that they abused their position of power to narrow profit margins with the intention of driving competitors out of the market. Competition defends that the discounts applied during the year 2022, which at the time were applauded by the Governmentthey narrowed the profit margins in the sale of fuel to the point of preventing companies selling low-cost fuel from competing on equal terms. The CNMC alleges that “competition law requires that companies in dominance position are especially responsible for not restricting competition. They assure that after various complaints they went to the Repsol Group service stations at the end of 2022 and that at the end of 2023 They initiated the disciplinary proceedings with the information collected. In the investigation. The behavior of Moeve, then Cepsa, and BP was also analyzed. However, only Repsol has been sanctioned. From the company, they point out in Five Daysassure that they will appeal the fine while arguing that “it is the first time in the history of national and community competition law that the CNMC sanctions a company for applying discounts.” Those days of 2022 were marked by the role of the oil companies. In April, when the State began to apply the discount of 20 cents per liter of fuel, low-cost operators They threatened to strike because they understood that the money they had to put out of their own pocket (of the 20 cents/liter, five were borne by the operator) destroyed their profit margins. Later, the CNMC confirmed that the companies in charge of supplying fuel were obtaining a juicy profit with the increase in fuel prices, to the point that their profit margins had widened despite having to put money in to subsidize fuel, with record gross margins. Now, the entity in charge of ensuring competition points out that Repsol also took the opportunity to try to sweep away the competition. It will have to be Repsol that manages to demonstrate that it did not act in this way and as the CNMC defends. Photo | Repsol In Xataka | For the first time, electrified cars are outselling gasoline cars. It is the beginning of the inevitable

For the first time, electrified cars are outselling gasoline cars. It is the beginning of the inevitable

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We already have the data on car registrations in 2025. And the inevitable has become reality: the electrified car has prevailed. Driven by countries like Germany or the United Kingdom, the alternatives to the combustion car make it clear that the future of the industry depends, yes or yes, on a plug. A discreet recovery. EU registration data for 2025 shows a clear trend: a significant increase in the registration of both electric and hybrid vehicles. Overall registrations rise by a discreet 1.8% but the change is not in the total volume, it is in the type of car that is sold. The data. The pure combustion vehicle is beginning to reduce its share in the European market. HEV (hybrids and microhybrids): 34.5% Gasoline: 26.6% BEV (pure electric): 17.4% PHEV (plug-in hybrids): 17.4% Diesel: 8.9% Others: 3.3% He electric car It already occupies third place in the ranking, doubling sales of diesel cars but below hybrids. Adding figures, the year-on-year variation (YOY) in December 2025 was an increase of 51% for pure electric cars and 36.7% for plug-in hybrids. The key countries. Figures from January to December 2025 show a substantial increase in electric car registrations in countries such as Germany (+43.2%), the Netherlands (+12.6%) and France (+12.5%). The data in countries like Spain is striking, which lead the growth in hybrids (+23.1%) and plug-in hybrids (+111.7%) in the latter case. The decline of combustion. At the end of 2025, gasoline car registrations fell by around 20%, and 24.2% in the case of diesel car registrations. If these figures are sustained in the short term, it will not take long for purely electric vehicles to surpass gasoline vehicles at the European level, placing them in second place in the ranking below HEVs. A bit of a trick. The photograph is clear: the electrified vehicle is growing at a rapid pace, but in cases like Spain there is some fine print. We are the country that has grown the most in adoption of HEVs (hybrid vehicles), but this category also includes MHEV. These are vehicles that combine a combustion engine with a small electrical system (generally 48V) and a low-capacity battery. They never circulate in 100% electric mode, but the small electrical system helps reduce emissions and consumption. Yes, but. It is also worth remembering that the total number of registrations does not only tell us about the preferences of individual users: the data reflects the registrations intended for companies and renters. Specifically, passenger car registrations in 2025 were quite distributed, with 50,213 in the case of channels for individuals and 43,362 for companies. The Transportation electrification is moving companies to buy electrified vehicles in volume, to comply with future European restrictionswho have recently lowered their forecast of reducing carbon emissions by 100% to now talk about 90%. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The Prosecutor’s Office believes that Moeve has saved 7.7 million euros in taxes. And the punishment is clear: dissolution of the company

less than fixing the gasoline engine

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What if your car’s engine breaks after 10 years? What are you doing with the car? With how expensive it has to be to change an entire engine… do you throw the car into the scrapyard? And if you don’t, do you invest thousands of euros in it? It is very likely that when you have told a friend, a cousin or a co-worker that you are thinking of buying a gasoline car, they have never asked you these questions. What if it were electric? Would they ask you what happens if your battery breaks when the car is 10 years old? In that case, the questions are not so strange anymore. Now, the answer will be less uncomfortable if you are one of the latter, one of those who are thinking about jumping into the electric car. At least not so much if you compare it with a combustion car. As expensive… as a combustion one How much does a serious gearbox breakdown cost? How much does a serious breakdown caused by the timing belt cost? How much does a serious engine cylinder head breakdown cost? These questions, and many others, are answered by RACE. Whether due to the amount of time that has to be invested, either because the replaced parts are expensive or due to a combination of both, the three aforementioned breakdowns can easily cost over 5,000 euros. An electric car, most commonly, does not have a gearbox. It will also not have a timing belt or an engine with cylinder heads, connecting rods or injectors. In fact, its maintenance is so simple that there are those who were wondering If electric cars have oil and if it is necessary to change it. However, there is a large public that continues to worry about the health of the battery and how much the bill may increase in the event of a forced change. This question was already answered by Recurrent study supported by Goldman Sachs. In it it was stated that in 2030 Changing an electric car battery will be as expensive as facing a serious breakdown of a combustion engine. According to his calculations, collected by Hybrids and ElectricsIn less than five years, changing batteries will cost between 3,200 and 4,800 euros for larger batteries. For lower battery cars, the forecast is for it to be below 3,000 euros. The bulk of the calculation to make these estimates is based on the price of its minerals and their impact on battery cells and packs. According to the data of Bloomberg NEFthe total cost of the battery in 2025 stood at $108/kWh. That is, a car battery with an 80 kWh accumulator (for which a highway range of between 350 and 450 kilometers is usually expected) would cost $8,640 right now, just over 7,200 euros. The number, however, has plummeted in a decade. In 2015 they calculated that the cost was $475/kWh and in 2013 it was $827/kWh. The evolution is promising. That Recurrent report already anticipated a price of $65/kWh cost for a complete battery replacement in 2030. That is, a car with the aforementioned 80 kWh battery would cost about $5,200 (about 4,380 euros). The study mentions the chemistry used (NMC are predictably more expensive than LFP) but it does not indicate whether there would be any additional cost between the cars that use CTC or CTB batteries. The first are batteries that are installed on the chassis of the vehicle but in the second the chassis itself is used as the vehicle’s casing and the cells are attached to it. In this way, energy density is increased and, therefore, there is a greater amount of electrical energy available in the same space. What is certain is that the price of changing batteries should fall over the years. The economy of scale itself will lower what remains the main cost of an electric vehicle. To this we must add that firms like Toyota They are already offering guarantees of ten years or one million kilometers if maintenance is carried out in their official workshops. To the above we must also add that some studies suggest thatOnly 2.5% of electric cars replace the battery due to breakdowns. Of course, it must be taken into account that the figure may have been distorted by the high cost that, until now, this operation has had. Photo | seat In Xataka | Toyota’s weapon to dominate the electric car is 1,200 kilometer batteries. And he has already set a date for them

Offering the cheapest gasoline in Spain has become an obsession. And 2026 is going to be the year of the great battle

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The cheapest gasoline in Spain today, January 7, is found at a Ballenoil service station in Coslada (Madrid) at a price of 1,239 euros/liter, according to dieselgasolina.coma portal that monitors the price of service stations throughout our country. The second position is also from a Ballenoil service station and is also in Coslada. And the third. And the fourth and the fifth. Oh. And also the seventh, the eighth and the tenth. And the company low cost has started a war to be the company that sells us fuel the cheapest in our country. It wants to continue expanding. And along the way it will face Plenergy, another of the queens of cheap gasoline. Both have undertaken strong expansion. The cheap gasoline war Ballenoil, which is part of Cepsa moeve since just over two yearsis the leg that its parent company has to continue attracting customers who prioritize the price of gasoline above any other incentive. The company goes through a transformation campaignmaking greater efforts for sustainable fuels and electricity. With Ballenoil, Moeve has some safety net. Its service stations require very little expense because, precisely, that is the secret of gasoline low cost. Minimum investments in the stations, forget about additives and any other additional service so that word of mouth is the true driver of service stations. Low prices but good performance at volume. The strategy is working. They point out in Five Days that Ballenoil sold 1.385 million liters of fuel in 2024 and that the target figure for 2026 is 1.8 billion liters. To do this, they seek to consolidate at the end of the year an offer of 500 gas stations spread throughout Spain. Last November they were the first low cost to reach 350 stations of service in Spain. The investment is by no means exceptional. Plenergy is another of the kings of low cost with a turnover of 1,550 million euros in sales in 2024. Right now, it has 352 gas stations on the Peninsula, of which 10 are in Portugal and the rest in Spain. The objective is the same as that of Ballenoil: 500 service stations by the end of 2026. He growth of this type of business It is so high that if the plans are fulfilled we will be seeing one opening of this type of company every four days. That is, every two weeks there should be three new service stations and another on the way. And to certify it, the objective of Plenergy, they point out in Five Days is to have a 10% market share in our country. That would place it as the third most used company, only behind Repsol and Moeve. To these two giants we must add the third in contention. Petroprix, which shares with Ballenoil the service stations with the cheapest fuel in Spain according to dieselgasolina.com, also plans an expansion. For now, talk about extend your influence abroad But it also does not turn its back on Spain and talks about having 400 service stations ready in our country by 2027. gasoline low cost proves to be a huge business in our country. As we counted on Xatakaits competitive advantage is zero investment in marketing or additives. The fuel arrives at these service stations as it is distributed by Exolum, former CHLin charge of distributing all gasoline throughout our country. In return, the business model proposes sales that are large enough to compensate for the narrow profit margin, without an alternative for additional services such as large gas stations such as Repsol or Moeve receive. Photo | Ballenoil and Plenergy In Xataka | Look at gasoline and diesel to improve the electric motor. This project is committed to an untested solution

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