The Auto Xone

Photo: Ørsted The Mockingbird Solar Center, Ørsted’s largest solar project globally, is now online, next to protected prairie donated by the renewable energy giant. This massive 468-megawatt (MW) solar farm is set to power 80,000 homes and businesses, providing a major boost to the Texas grid. But the launch of Mockingbird Solar isn’t just about clean energy – it’s also about restoring precious ecosystems. Ørsted has donated 953 acres of the Smiley-Woodfin Native Prairie Grassland, which sits next to the solar center, to The Nature Conservancy. The donated land is now the Smiley Meadow Preserve , a protected area for tallgrass prairie that’s home to more than 400 species of grasses and wildflowers. Tallgrass prairies are some of the rarest ecosystems in the US, with less than 1% of Texas’ original tallgrass prairies still in existence. Tallgrass prairie does a lot of heavy lifting for the environment, including storing carbon, preventing floods, and providing crucial habitats fo...

By Maria Merano Posted on November 21, 2024 Northvolt AB, a Swedish battery maker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Thursday, November 21, 2024. The Swedish company hasn’t given up yet. According to its press release, Northvolt hopes its Chapter 11 reorganization filing will enable it to restructure its debt, appropriately scale its business to meet customer needs and secure a sustainable foundation for continued operation. Northvolt also hopes the filing will help it implement strategies to rescope its business and prioritize customer commitments. “This decisive step will allow Northvolt to continue its mission to establish a homegrown, European industrial base for battery production. Despite near-term challenges, this action to strengthen our capital structure will allow us to capture the continued market demand for vehicle electrification. We are likewise pleased by the strong support we have received from our existin...

Audi has launched the new 2025 RS e-tron GT and S e-tron GT to update its top-performance EV lineup with what is now the most powerful and fastest accelerating production vehicle in the brand’s history. With almost 1,000 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of just 2.4 seconds, Audi’s electric flagship joins the electric supercar ranks, where efficiency meets performance. Two Models, One Bold Vision The 2025 e-tron GT family now includes two models: the S e-tron GT as an impressive entry point and the headline-grabbing RS e-tron GT Performance. Both models benefit from significant upgrades, including improved battery capacity, range, and faster charging. S e-tron GT : With 670 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of 3.3 seconds, the S model brings thrilling performance to a broader audience. Its range now stretches to an impressive EPA-estimated 300 miles, making it as practical as it is powerful. RS e-tron GT Performance : This model doesn’t just push boundaries—it obliterates them. Along...

By Joey Klender Posted on November 19, 2024 SpaceX successfully launched its sixth test flight of Starship on Tuesday from Starbase, Texas. There was no catch today, as SpaceX did not see favorable conditions for the attempt. Starship took off on time right at 4:00 p.m. CT, and the Super Heavy booster landed with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff. Super Heavy initiates its landing burn and softly splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/BZ3Az4GssC — SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024 About two minutes before the successful splashdown, SpaceX decided to abort an attempt at catching Super Heavy once again. SpaceX kept safety as a priority as always and decided that conditions for a catch attempt were not met. It called for a booster offshore divert and completed it with no issues. CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X that he hoped to catch Super Heavy faster and harder with this launch, along with three other...

When ChatGPT burst on the scene last spring, one of the editors at Automotive News asked it about himself. It described his career, listed several newspapers that had published his work and said he had died six years earlier. (To be clear, he hadn’t.) So my first impression of the technology was that it was fast, powerful and dumb — dangerously dumb, for journalistic purposes. And potentially perilous for the auto industry, as well. Remember when a chatbot agreed to sell a Chevy Tahoe for a dollar? Since those days, we’ve all learned a lot more about generative artificial intelligence, as well as its predecessors, artificial intelligence and machine learning. And it continues to pervade the automotive industry. So I challenged the team at Automotive News to explore how AI is being used throughout the auto industry today . They found so many applications — and we’ve just scratched the surface. Tesla pictures itself turning into an AI-based company that makes self-driving cars an...

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 18, 2024 A dirt bike rider stole the show at the Baja 1000 by completing the grueling 1,000-mile race while live-streaming to his mother using Starlink Mini the whole time. The rider, Ben Hundter, and his brother David, completed the race in 31 hours 30 minutes, which is a pretty long FaceTime video call, all things considered.  A video of Hundter finishing the race has made the rounds online, partly due to the racer’s eye-catching Starlink Mini setup. As could be seen in the video, Ben Hundter’s 279X Sportsman Moto class Sherco was equipped with a huge Jackery battery at the rear. The Starlink Mini was duct taped to the rider’s head. The iPhone that Hundter was using to FaceTime his mother was also taped to his chest. Check out the TESLARATI Marketplace! Head on over for more TESLARATI on TikTok! In an interview following the race, Hundter explained that he had always wanted to race the Baja 1000...

China’s BYD just topped another major milestone. The EV giant produced its ten millionth new energy vehicle (NEV) this week, becoming the first automaker to accomplish the feat. BYD’s accomplishment comes just three years after its one-millionth NEV rolled off the assembly line. After its fifth straight record sales month, BYD is now closing in on top global automakers like Ford. BYD continued its dominant run after selling over 500,000 vehicles for the first time in a single month in October. October was BYD’s fifth straight record-breaking month for NEV sales, including plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric (EV) models. Through the first ten months of 2024, BYD has sold over 3.25 million NEVs, up 36% from last year. Nearly 1.36 million of them were all-electric. Amid a wave of new competition and an intensifying EV price war in China, BYD is setting up shop in key overseas markets to drive growth. The company opened its first manufacturing plant in Thailand, a booming EV...