letters

We are so hooked on smartphones that Gen Z has found its own “detox”: sending letters again

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I remember perfectly the first letter I wrote. My best friend had moved to a town in Ciudad Real and the distance, back then, was measured in the time our parents allowed us to use the telephone line. We couldn’t spend hours on the phone, so we decided to tell each other our lives by email. Every week, a letter. That exchange of envelopes lasted as long as it took us to have a computer tower and internet access. Then the great migration arrived: Messenger, Fotolog, Tuenti, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp… Today we send photos to each other in real time and make video calls. If someone had told those two girls that technology would be the glue of their friendship, they wouldn’t have believed it. In the middle of 2025, history seems to be closing an unexpected circle. We live in the era of immediacy, where WhatsApp messages coexist with saturated emails that ask for mercy under the tagline ASAP (as soon as possible). The saturation is such that the phone’s storage warns every so often that there is no space, while the messages are interspersed with alerts, reminders and the white noise of a hyperconnected world. Faced with this “uncontrolled beat of the digital rush”, Generation Z has rescued the habit of being penpals or pen pals. Stamps.com Data reveal that almost 48% of this generation sends physical correspondence at least once a month, breaking the myth of the young person unable to tear themselves away from the screen. On Instagram, the hashtag #penpal already exceeds 1.3 million of posts, while TikTok becomes a catalog of calligraphy and sealing wax. It’s not about sending a text; It is a “slow ritual” where both the content and the container count. Neuropsychology explains this return with crystal clear clarity. According to psychologist Noelia Barroso, interviewed by El EspañolWhile digital notification triggers a rapid and volatile dopamine pulse, waiting for a letter activates multisensory processes that generate much more stable oxytocin peaks. The weight of the paper and its aroma link deep memories that the pixel simply ignores. This phenomenon is, in essence, a measure of mental health. The Tunheim report points out that 44% of young people have reduced their screen time out of sheer exhaustion, searching through the mail for a necessary “digital detox.” The expert Victoria López, in Hello magazinedefines it as a form of “constant presence”: a physical object that lives on a shelf and that, unlike a chat, has a mass and texture that make it indestructible against oblivion. A love of the tangible This “historical nostalgia” for times they did not live in is an emotional compass towards the authenticity that the algorithm has worn away. The impact is such that the market is transforming. Pinterest Predictions 2026 indicates that searches of “beautiful stamps” have risen 105% and that letter writing will be considered a “performative art.” However, the road is uneven. While in the United States 31% of young people trust the email for securityIn Europe we are experiencing radical contrasts. Denmark has stopped delivering letters after 400 years due to extreme digitalization, but even so, young Danes send three times more letters than the rest of the population through private companies, according to The Guardian. Even the connection with our own future has changed. Tools like FutureMe either Letter to Yourself They allow you to send messages to yourself ten years from now. It is an exercise in “realistic optimism” to connect with the present and relativize the current crises, a way of “leaving a mark.” In the end, Generation Z is not technophobic; They are simply the first to understand that technology is a means, not an end. According to sociologist Narciso Michavila in La Vanguardiathey look for the physical because hyperdigitization no longer surprises them; It is its natural state and, therefore, it lacks the value of the extraordinary. This need to touch the memory has crystallized into another practice that is sweeping networks: junk journaling. It’s not just collecting papers; is, as WeLife explainsthe art of turning recycling into a personal diary to reconnect with yourself. The New York Times collect how young enthusiasts They rescue everything from traffic tickets to museum tickets or bread wrappers for their aesthetic value. “It’s a challenge to find things you would normally throw away and use them in a fun way,” its practitioners explain. In a world consumed by screens, the junk journal forces hands to still and embrace the silence of cutting and pasting, creating physical time capsules that, unlike the cloud, do not depend on a server to exist. In a context where generative AI can write thousands of emails in seconds, human handwriting is positioned as the last bastion of the unrepeatable. The handwritten letter has ceased to be a formality and has become an object of resistance against the attention economy. Some things don’t go out of style, they just wait for us to need them again. Today, in 2025, it seems that Gen Z has found in a sealed envelope the calm that fiber optics failed to give them. Image | freepik Xataka | Harvard bought a cheap copy of the Magna Carta in 1946. They just discovered they had a treasure worth a fortune

We send fewer and fewer paper letters. So Denmark Post has said goodbye to the service after 400 years

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“Denmark is the canary in the mine.” The comment is by Marvin Ryder, researcher at the McMaster University (Canada), and what he talks about is not about markets, finances or geopolitics, but about something that has been part of the daily lives of a large part of the world’s population for centuries: the mail. The postal operator PostNord has decided that on Tuesday, December 30 will send his last letter in Denmark. In fact, it has been removing its characteristic red mailboxes from the streets for months and Monday the 29th will be the last day it accepts certified envelopes. From now on he wants to focus on sending packages, something that makes a lot of sense in view of his results. The question, how Ryder slidesis whether the end of postal mail will be limited to Denmark or will reach more countries. Goodbye letters, goodbye mailboxes. End of cycle in Denmark. The once powerful Danish postal service has decided to adapt to the times and say goodbye to postal mail. It’s not exactly new (the announcement did it months ago), but the effects of the measure will begin to be felt now, with the turn of the year: in 2026 the operator PostNord will stop collecting and delivering letters in Denmark. In fact the company takes time preparing the ground for change: in June it began to withdraw its 1,500 mailboxes from the streets, on the 18th it stopped accepting letters and on the 29th it will collect the last certified envelopes with acknowledgment of receipt. One day later, New Year’s Eve, PostNord will deliver its last envelopes. Chart on letter sending (in millions) from PostNord Danmark. A key figure: 90%. PostNord, a Nordic operator founded in 2009 from the merger of Denmark’s Post Danmarck and Sweden’s Posten AB, has been very clear about its motives. Stop sending letters in Denmark because its users have stopped doing so. Only in the last 25 years has its flow been reduced more than 90% without the demand showing signs of having hit rock bottom. If in 2000 they were distributed more than 1.4 billion of letters, in 2024 they did not reach 200 million. This collapse has coincided with the increase in online commercewhich is precisely where the operator has decided to focus its efforts. From now on in Denmark it will focus exclusively on the parcel service. “We are forced to adapt to the new situation and take the next step to build a strong PosNord for the future,” claims. It makes sense considering that the MitID system already allows Danes to receive all their official notifications digitally, the option chosen by the vast majority of the population. Only 5% of adults has renounced that possibility. Will there be no more letters? Yes. And no. PostNord has decided to turn the page 400 years of postal history (the service operates from the 17th centuryin times of Christian IV), but that does not mean that paper envelopes will no longer be sent. Danes will be able to continue sending letters to each other through Daoa courier firm that is already operational and is now preparing for a considerable increase in activity: if its estimates do not fail, it will go from 30 million letters in 2025 to 80 million in 2026. Of course, the service will be somewhat different for citizens: whoever wants to send a letter will have to go to one of their locations to deliver it or pay extra if they want it to be picked up at home. Question of obligations. In the statement in which it advanced its plans PostNord made it clear that its decision comes preceded by a change at a legal level that, in practice, frees its hands. “Our responsibility for the universal postal service in Denmark was extinguished with the Postal Law which came into force on January 1, 2024, except for mail for the visually impaired, small islands and international mail during a transition period,” clarify. Things will be different in Sweden, where PostNord will continue to operate a mail system “self-financed and profitable” and assuming the postal service. “Difficult decision”. Breaking a tradition that dates back to the 17th century is not easy. And this has been recognized by PostNord, which talks about “a difficult decision” and an “important step” designed to be strengthened in the future. For now, his goodbye has served to unleash collecting fever for his mailboxes: the operator put 1,000 units on sale for between 270 and 200 euros (depending on their state of conservation) and sold out of stock. in just a few hours. It is estimated that its network is made up of about 1,500 mailboxes and in January they will be auctioned another 200. Beyond Denmark. Where PostNord’s movements are probably also followed with interest is in the Post Offices. Although there are signs which suggest that Generation Z is reconnecting with the pleasure of sending written letters, the truth is that postal mail is also going through slow times in Spain. The National Markets Commission calculate that in ten years the exchange of letters has plummeted by 64%, which has forced Correos to try new (and multiple) avenues of business. Parcel shipping is increasing, moving at “record levels”, but precisely for this reason it is a sector with fierce competition in which it is not easy to gain a foothold. In Denmark, the readjustment of the postal service will be accompanied by a snip of staff, with the loss of 1,500 jobs. Images | News Ãresund – Johan Wessman (Flickr) and PostNord In Xataka | Correos wants to be a bank in 2025. It is an eye-catching plan in the face of the continuous closure of bank branches

Cover letters were a treasure for recruiters, until AI turned them into wet paper

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AI promised to speed up the processes of staff recruitmentbut after a period of intensive use of AI by both companies and candidates, it has been shown that It’s more broken than ever. Further proof of this degradation are cover letters which, although before the arrival of AI models were a clear differentiating factor, are currently worthless, as a study by Princeton University and Dartmouth College has shown. Cover letters made a difference. The study ‘Making Talk Cheap: generative AI and Labor Market Signaling‘ carried out by Princeton researchers analyzed more than 2.7 million proposals on the Freelancer.com platform before and after the implementation of the LLM text generation models to create these cover letters. Their conclusion is that, before using AI, attach a well-written and to show interest and knowledge of the position and the company to which one was applying, considerably increased the hiring options because the recruiters perceived that this was a very capable candidate. Now they are wet paper. However, as the use of AI tools to generate these cover letters has spread, the appreciation of quality has improved so that candidates in the top 20% of writing skills were 19% less likely to be hired, while those in the lowest 20% increased their chances by 14%. In other words, employers stopped associating a well-written letter with a competent candidate. This has meant that the differentiating factor that a well-written cover letter previously provided has disappeared, reducing the curve of possibilities between the best-trained candidates and those who are not so well-trained. Letters submitted before the LLM models had a better chance of being hired than those post-LLM AI makes hiring more difficult. The effect observed in cover letters has been extended to other areas of personnel selection, since AI distorts real capabilities of the candidates. It is true that its use increases the perception of quality of the candidates, but as the average quality of the group increased, companies began to trust less in the information provided by the applications. He study ‘Does AI devalue communication? Theory and evidence of entrepreneurship and contracting at a global level’ carried out by researchers at Columbia University and Yeshiva, found a similar pattern in selection and entrepreneurship processes: access to AI reduced the accuracy with which recruiters identified the best profiles to fill a given vacancy by between 4% and 9%. If everything is good, nothing is good. For decades, a letter well tailored to the offer served as proof of interest and commitment on the part of candidates. In labor economics, this is known as “signalling”: the candidate conveys their effort through the quality of the text. Generative models have thrown that signal to the ground. The meta-analysis ‘The role of artificial intelligence in personnel selection’ concluded that the automation of selection processes with AI is eroding the traditional signals of merit that were transmitted through cover letters, emails or applications received by the hiring and human resources departments. In that sense, while it is true that AI has democratized competition in the job search, it has also made genuine talent less visible. Who is behind the algorithm? The current degradation of those “clues” that allowed recruiters to locate the best talent, forces us to look for new ways to evaluate candidates. As and as they pointed From the technological employment platform Manfred, the use of AI has multiplied the number of applications, but the perceived quality has not improved at the same pace. For this reason, many companies are choosing to implement more practical tests and face-to-face interviews in their selection processes. That is, eliminate from the equation the presence of AI for the last stage of the selection process. The unknown of this practice is knowing how much talent has succumbed to AI resume filtering prior to that first face-to-face interview. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos assures that there is a type of employee who can never be replaced by an AI: inventors Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

Cover letters were a treasure for recruiters, until AI turned them into wet paper

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AI promised to speed up the processes of staff recruitmentbut after a period of intensive use of AI by both companies and candidates, it has been shown that It’s more broken than ever. Further proof of this degradation are cover letters which, although before the arrival of AI models were a clear differentiating factor, are currently worthless, as a study by Princeton University and Dartmouth College has shown. Cover letters made a difference. The study ‘Making Talk Cheap: generative AI and Labor Market Signaling‘ carried out by Princeton researchers analyzed more than 2.7 million proposals on the Freelancer.com platform before and after the implementation of the LLM text generation models to create these cover letters. Their conclusion is that, before using AI, attach a well-written and to show interest and knowledge of the position and the company to which one was applying, considerably increased the hiring options because the recruiters perceived that this was a very capable candidate. Now they are wet paper. However, as the use of AI tools to generate these cover letters has spread, the appreciation of quality has improved so that candidates in the top 20% of writing skills were 19% less likely to be hired, while those in the lowest 20% increased their chances by 14%. In other words, employers stopped associating a well-written letter with a competent candidate. This has meant that the differentiating factor that a well-written cover letter previously provided has disappeared, reducing the curve of possibilities between the best-trained candidates and those who are not so well-trained. Letters submitted before the LLM models had a better chance of being hired than those post-LLM AI makes hiring more difficult. The effect observed in cover letters has been extended to other areas of personnel selection, since AI distorts real capabilities of the candidates. It is true that its use increases the perception of quality of the candidates, but as the average quality of the group increased, companies began to trust less in the information provided by the applications. He study ‘Does AI devalue communication? Theory and evidence of entrepreneurship and contracting at a global level’ carried out by researchers at Columbia University and Yeshiva, found a similar pattern in selection and entrepreneurship processes: access to AI reduced the accuracy with which recruiters identified the best profiles to fill a given vacancy by between 4% and 9%. If everything is good, nothing is good. For decades, a letter well tailored to the offer served as proof of interest and commitment on the part of candidates. In labor economics, this is known as “signalling”: the candidate conveys their effort through the quality of the text. Generative models have thrown that signal to the ground. The meta-analysis ‘The role of artificial intelligence in personnel selection’ concluded that the automation of selection processes with AI is eroding the traditional signals of merit that were transmitted through cover letters, emails or applications received by the hiring and human resources departments. In that sense, while it is true that AI has democratized competition in the job search, it has also made genuine talent less visible. Who is behind the algorithm? The current degradation of those “clues” that allowed recruiters to locate the best talent, forces us to look for new ways to evaluate candidates. As and as they pointed From the technological employment platform Manfred, the use of AI has multiplied the number of applications, but the perceived quality has not improved at the same pace. For this reason, many companies are choosing to implement more practical tests and face-to-face interviews in their selection processes. That is, eliminate from the equation the presence of AI for the last stage of the selection process. The unknown of this practice is knowing how much talent has succumbed to AI resume filtering prior to that first face-to-face interview. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos assures that there is a type of employee who can never be replaced by an AI: inventors Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

In 2011 a mysterious series of numbers and letters appeared in Reddit. Thousands of people would spend years trying to decipher her

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Fourteen years ago a Reddit user appeared called ‘A858DE45F56D9BC9’ and began publishing characters of characters, apparently meaningless, in a SubnetDit of the same name. For more than a year the publications went unnoticed until one day madness began. What followed was the creation of a community with thousands of obsessed people with solving the puzzle And, above all, know who was behind the one who is considered One of the biggest Internet mysteries. Reddit’s Stonehenge Although the user’s name was much longer, in Reddit it is known as The mystery of A858. Although the first publications arose in July 2011, it was not until 2012 when the Reddit community began to pay them attention. Some users attempted to disappoint the messages and there was one that made interest explode. The comment and the answer confirmed that A858 was not “something”, but “someone.” A user mentioned that A858 was Reddit’s Stonehenge in reference to Its function was a mystery. A858 responded shortly after with one of his classic encrypted messages. The surprise came when they discovered that it was an image in ASCII format that represented precisely that: the Stonehenge. Until that point he had not given too much importance, but with this it was demonstrated that Behind A858 there was someone human. And then madness unleashed. Years trying to solve it Users wanted to know the goal behind those messages and set out to disregard them, but they soon realized that it was not going to be simple. In September 2012, the SOLVINGA COMMUNITY858 which currently has 15,000 members. Here a collective effort to understand The goal behind A858 that lasted years. Decipher A858 seemed impossible. He also behaved strangely: he disappeared, erased posts … the community was frustrated Only a few messages were deciphered by the community, including some citations of famous authors such as is from Max Lerner, Christmas greetings either References to April’s Fool (The equivalent of innocent’s day). The challenge was very complex from the technical point of viewhe used unusual obfuscation techniques, and there was not a clear pattern in his behavior; Sometimes he disappeared, he deleted posts, the submandit made deprived, Some messages were very easy to solve and others seemed impossible… This made the community frustrate and begin to lose interest, but then A858 appeared and everything was reactivated. Ask A858 Anything One of the points in the Subbreddit Solvinga858 was in 2015 when A858 made a mist (Ask Me Anything) where He attended to the numerous doubts of the users, although they also had to disappoint them. It wasn’t going to be so simple. Users asked him if they were wasting his time trying to decipher him, to which A858 replied that no, but I couldn’t tell them the goal behind the project. He also revealed that only a woman from the United Kingdom had managed to decipher him and expected more correct answers. Here you can read in fullbut then we highlight some of the questions and answers of the session: What is R/A858DE45F56D9BC9? The objective cannot be revealed. A858 published ASCII art drawings, prime numbers tables, Apple II source code fragments, etc. Were you playing with us? Because? Coded posts are designed to be easily resolved. And the other encrypted using a stronger encryption? The other posts are not designed to be easily resolved. There are often long pauses in which there are no A858 posts. Is A858 your only job? Sometimes we are retouching. Other times we are working on other projects. Are you doing this love alone or are we talking to the team of which you are part? A858 is a project with a team. I am a member of the team. Are you affiliated with a government organization? I don’t know any place that has no government. An unsolved mystery The question session fed even more if the mystery fits, but over time A858 was publishing less frequently until the publications ceased completely. In March 2016, after months in which the Subbreddit had been deprived, A message appeared which said “the A858 project has concluded. It can be unsubscribed.” Many users did not believe it, but A858 never published again. A858 was never resolved. We only know that there was a company behind that one day cut the financing. The next news that was had was In September 2016 through one of the moderators of Solvinga858which revealed that he had had contact with the person behind A858. In his message he assured that this mysterious person was paid by a company to “post code puzzles through encryption and different text handling methods.” After a while, The company behind the project decided to cut the financing And there all ended. Needless to say that It was not the answer that the community expected and left too many unknowns to solve. Theories behind A858 As a good mystery, there are many theories about what was really behind A858. One of the most repeated is that it was A company looking for experts in encryption To hire them. A858 agreed over time with Cicada 3301 Another very similar mystery, although much easier to solve. Supposedly those who managed to decipher Cicada, received a message to enter a mysterious organization. Another of the theories defends that A858 a ‘Numbers Station’ Used by Mossad for Espionage Tasks. It does not seem to be known with total certainty, but one of the theories that makes more sense is that A858 was A company testing its own safety. In this scenario, The objective of the project would be precisely for anyone to solve the puzzleswhich would show that security was good. If so, they got it. Image | Amparo Babyloni, Xataka In Xataka | The James Webb has just photographed one of the great mysteries of the universe’s galaxies: how they intertwine

Younger millionaires have found a more profitable investment than the S&P500: Pokémon’s letters

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Some years ago, YouTuber Logan Paul hit the nail With a formula for financial success: nostalgia + business = the new art. Take an element of your childhood, add a collecting component and the Business is assured. Ask Nintendo with their Pokémon cards. More and more young millionaires are betting on Pokémon cards as a form of investment away from the whims of bags and values that, to date They were considered refuge. It is a trend that we already saw with the Hermès bagsand now he is also emerging with the letters Pokémon collectibles. The power of nostalgia. The attractiveness of these letters not only lies in nostalgia, but also in their ability to generate benefits that exceed those of large stock market rates. Pokémon card fever is sweeping and leaving record figures in its path, such and As publishes Fortune. Collectible articles have always been likely to achieve surprising quotes, especially when they evoke memories of childhood. Pokémon’s letters, which are already approaching their thirtieth anniversary, have conquered young investors looking for more than investing in traditional actions. According to Cardder data, collectible card assessment portal published by Fortunethe annual average profitability of Pokémon letters is increasing almost 46%, exceeding the profitability of very powerful actions such as Nvidia or the average annual profitability of the S&P 500 stock market index, which is 12%. A consolidated and booming market. Since its launch in 1999, They have been manufactured more than 75,000 million pokémon cards. After a first decade of settlement, the market began to value these cards as authentic collectible assets, comparable to classic comics. According to Cardder data, the Japanese animation series cards have been revalued at 3,261% in the last 20 years. Only during the pandemic, the boredom of collectors caused the profitability of the letters to increase by 500%, as published by what was published by Business Insider. AND, according to The AthleticPokémon and Magic letters would have displaced part of the business of collectible sports cards. Almost three decades later, this business model continues to generate about 1,000 million dollars a year. Shortage increases the price. The success of Pokémon letters has generated unusual situations in retail trade. Great chains like Walmart and Target were forced toimitate the number of units By user due to high demand and violent incidents related to the purchase of cards. Pokémon’s letters have reached be the objective of theftwith thieves sneaking in stores and floors in the purest mission style impossible to get a booty of letters valued at several thousand dollars. The last one, without going any further, happened on July 12 at a Massachusetts store, where A thief took pokémon letters valued at $ 100,000. Celebrities and the attractiveness of investment. The fever for investment in Pokémon cards between millennials and the Z generation has grown even more thanks to the interest of celebrities Like elrubius either Justin Bieberwho have paid thousands of dollars for some of them. Famous youtubers such as Logan Paul have brought this passion to the extreme. In 2022, Paul He got the Guinness record When buying the most expensive Pokémon letter in history, for which paid 5.27 million dollars. “This card cost me more than my ranch. My 84 acres ranch,” Paul said. Capital and organized crime The value of Pokémon letters has reached such magnitude that even organized crime groups in Japan have used them To bleach capitalssimilar to what happens with works of art. The ease of transporting and selling these letters abroad makes them an attractive instrument for illegal activities, confirming that the phenomenon of Pokémon cards transcends Simple collecting And it has become A financial asset With global impact. In Xataka | Millionaires found in the luxury watches a refuge value. Now the bubble has exploded Image | Wikimedia Commons (Romer Jed Medina), Unspash (Omid Armin)

Dacia Spring does not have it easy, but his letters play well

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What if they told you that you can have an electric car for less than 9,000 euros? He Dacia Spring It is, today, the cheapest 100% electric model you can buy, provided you can host you currently available public aid. But one thing is the price and a very different real experience. In the new 24/7 episode, Mario Arroyo has used it for a whole monthwithout garage or cargo point at home, and with both urban and interurban routes. How much do you spend? How do you behave? Who really compensates? You have answers for all that. He full video is now available On the Xataka YouTube channelwhere our partner has documented in detail his experience. From the first day he has used it as a main car in real journeys: to work, to the airport, to make the purchase, even for getaways inside and outside Madrid. “The idea of ​​this video is to experience what it is to have a 100% electric car designed for Ciudad in full 2025,” he explains. He has tried it in varied conditions, with its limitations and also with its advantages. As we can see, Dacia Spring does not promise great luxuries. The version that our partner has tried is the Extreme, with a 48 kW electric motor, about 65 hp, and a useful battery of 26.8 kWh. According to the brand, that gives for about 220 km of autonomy. “Basically I will tell you that it has more than enough strength to move around and even to make a short road by road.” Now, to what extent does that autonomy figure be sustained in real use? And how does it behave? The answers may not be so obvious. The experience changes when we leave the city. In highway or circumvaluation sections, the spring shows its limits. Our partner describes it like this: “When the steering wheel turns, you feel a small Zig Zag, as if the car staggered a little.” At 100 or 120 km/h speeds, lack of stability is noted and can affect driver’s confidence. Even so, he assures that for short and everyday paths he has not had major inconveniences. In the video we analyze it in detail. Another key challenge has been the recharge. Without charge point at home, all experience has depended on public stations, with its advantages and also its frustrations. “It is not the simplest process in the worldhonestly, ”says our partner, who has used apps as Electromaps To find points available. Between slow charges, out -of -service stations and limited powers, experience reveals both what works and what still needs to improve in Spain. After almost a month of use, the video breaks down all the paths, consumptions, times and load prices to make a direct comparison with a combustion car. “For short and usual journeys I think the option to choose from,” says our partner. Now, that comes with very specific conditions: having access to domestic load, not needing great displacements and assuming a simple construction, focused on the basics. Is the final urban electric or an intermediate step along the way? We invite you to discover it In the last video posted on the Xataka YouTube channel. Images | Xataka In Xataka | China has taken the next step to dominate the electric car industry: bet on their own chips

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