The 1st Electrostate, BYD Enters Argentina, EPA’s Attack on Science — Top 12 Stories of the Week

Here are some of the hottest, coolest, and coldest cleantech stories of the past week. We’ve got some that, to be honest, are part of trends that keep appearing in these roundups, and we’ve got some quite unique stories. Have fun exploring these top stories, and chime in below with any favorites that I missed.

1. First of all, we have to highlight China becoming the first major “electrostate,” as the Financial Times put it. The country is weaning itself off of oil, and countering the dominance of petrostates with its own dominance of key tech sectors. Electricity’s share of final energy consumption in China has been growing strongly for years, while electricity’s share of final energy consumption in Europe and the US has more or less stalled for a couple of decades. I imagine it will rise much more by 2030 in China as EVs go from ~50% of new vehicle sales to ~100% of them.

2. The US Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) is supposed to pay credence to science and protect Americans from pollution. However, with a con man as president, good luck with that. Instead, under the current Trump administration, there are widespread attacks on science, and that includes within the EPA. Lee Zeldin, a former Republican Congressman, is apparently intent on destroying “climate change religion.” Our friend Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and the director of its Atmosphere/Energy Program, has responded. I don’t have to tell you who is paying more respect to science and who is treating the profits of fossil fuel companies as a religious right.

3. A woman in Seattle is suing oil companies over the death of her mother, and it actually looks promising! Get the details from Steve Hanley — who you might be surprised to know was once a lawyer — in the linked article.

4. BYD has continued its expansion and acceleration of the EV market yet again. The company is now entering Argentina, “the last frontier for electrification in Latin America,” and it has also sparked a new price war in China.

5. While it’s nowhere in the territory of BYD, Chinese EV startup XPENG is also growing fast and expanding broadly. In May, XPENG sales soared 230% year over year. Across the first 5 months of the year, its sales were up 293% compared to January–May 2024. The company also just expanded into Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to scoop up even more sales. More importantly, its new MONA M03 Max and MONA M03 Plus models are already a hit, logging 12,566 “locked-in” orders within just one hour of their launch.

6. Jumping to the topic of solar power, we have a cool and useful webinar coming up. The webinar discusses the challenges of ground mount solar power systems and how to overcome them. We will be featuring PVcase, whose customers say they can save 170 hours on detailed layouts and 59 hours on preliminary layouts using the company’s software. Tune in on June 12.

7. Speaking of solar power, the world hit another clean power record in 2024. Clean power sources accounted for 40% of world electricity generation last year. The prominent source behind clean power’s rise, of course, has been solar power.

8. More good news, Vatican City is now 100% solar powered. Technically, it’s the first country to be 100% solar powered, but, admittedly, Google tells me it has a population of only 882. Vatican City joins 7 other countries are 100% powered by renewable energy. Probably most importantly, though, the Pope and Vatican City can influence a lot of people around the world, and getting to 100% green power soon after taking over, Pope Leo XIV looks set to encourage smart, helpful green energy.

9. Getting back to leading Chinese EV companies, we have to give a mention to Xiaomi. The second largest smartphone producer in the world, Xiaomi has taken the Chinese EV market by storm. The company has sold 258,000 vehicles since it entered the market in April 2024, including 75,869 units delivered in the first quarter. It’s also getting close to achieving an operating profit in its EV division.

10. Over in the US, Kyle Field conducted and wrote up a great review of the 2025 Rivian R1S Tri-Motor Max Pack after spending a week with the vehicle. Fun stuff. He also tested out the NACS–CCS adapter and CCS–Cybertruck NACS adapter from A2Z.

11. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress and the White House have been working to undo a lot of great progress made during the Biden years. Largely as a result of expected changes, $14 billion in private-sector clean energy investments in the US have been cancelled or paused, costing the country an estimated 10,000 jobs.

12. Tesla may be facing some problems at home in the US and in Europe due to growing competition and political controversy, but its biggest threat may well be in China, where Tesla’s brand reputation and associated consumer purchases are dropping. It appears that other brands are just outshining Tesla now — it’s no longer the hot new thing. This could be a real problem for the American company.

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