21 Coolest Cleantech Stories of the Week

Hello!

We’re changing up our weekly CleanTechnica newsletter a bit, so we figured it could be useful to show readers what it’s going to be like going forward (until further notice, of course). We are still including a list of completely original CleanTechnica stories and reports in the email, but before that, I’m going to write a summary of the coolest cleantech stories of the week. Some weeks that may be 5 stories, some weeks it may be 21 … like it was in this initial newsletter. Below is the weekly newsletter that went out today. Check it out and join our weekly newsletter if this interests you. (Also, you can join our daily newsletter here.)

We’re changing up how we’re doing CleanTechnica‘s weekly newsletter! I’m going to start highlighting what I think are the coolest stories of the week — and then we’ll also still include a list of all of our completely original stories of the past week. If you like what you see, share with friends!

This week, I’m extending a little further back since we skipped last week’s newsletter.

First of all, some hot news we published just a moment ago: a new electric ridesharing service just launched in Tampa, Florida, using 6 yellow Tesla Model Y crossovers. How cool do these look?

Image Credit: Downtown Tampa Partnership

Speaking of the Tesla Model Y, a CleanTechnica exclusive this week was that we calculated the hottest car on the planet passed 2 million cumulative sales in the 3rd quarter of 2023. It’s now right behind the Tesla Model 3 as the second best selling electric car of all time, and it will surely pass up the Model 3 in the 4th quarter the become #1. What EV can catch it? Jo Borras and I discussed that question in a recent EV Obsession YouTube show.

By the way, Tesla just slashed prices on the Model Y and Model 3 in the USA, making them ridiculously competitive and compelling. Let’s see where sales go from here. You can watch or listen to Jo and me talk about this at length on YouTube as well.

Wrapping up the Tesla highlights, I also produced a report with 9 Tesla sales charts and graphs — most of which you won’t find anywhere else. It’s worth a quick peek, imho.

Following the theme of EV sales, we published our monthly Netherlands EV sales report, and it showed a whopping 47% of new cars sold in the country are now plugin cars, and 34% are full electrics. The Model Y is far and away the model leader.

Germany is quite a distance behind, but still far ahead of most markets. In September, 21% of new cars were plugin cars, and 14% were full electrics.

Worldwide, 18% of new vehicle sales were plugin vehicle in August, and 13% were full electrics.

Kia EV3 Concept

Kia EV3 Concept

Now we’ve got some cool Kia news. The South Korean brand has introduced some very cool future models, the Kia EV3, EV4, and EV5. There’s a strong element of unrealistic concept car fun involved at this point, but overall, these look like they could be big hits! Kia also just rolled out pricing and specs for the EV9. This large SUV should have no problem finding buyers, even in the USA.

Speaking of popular electric SUVs, the Ford Mustang Mach-E has arrived on Australian shores! There are just 4 or so in the country available for test drives at the moment, but I think this cool electric crossover will be a bit hit in Oz when it arrives in volume.

Though, Ford will not sell nearly as many as BYD and Wuling could sell of the Seal and Bingo, respectively, if they target markets in Africa and elsewhere that buy a lot of old, used, inefficient, unreliable gas cars for the same price.

As exciting as electric cars are, it’s hard to not consider electric boats even more exciting. The electric boat news we have this week is twofold. Blue Innovation Group has introduced a really nice, cute, solar powered electric boat for chilling with your family and friends — and it’s semi-affordable? Not affordable, but super exciting, is a Porsche electric boat. Yes, a Porsche electric boat. Stop drooling! (Side note: we do accept donations if anyone wants to provide us with a CleanTechnica boat for Florida’s Gulf of Mexico waters.)

Shifting over to power generation, an Australian startup could be on to something big. It is bringing the Volt solar tile to market, with some happy owners and many waiting in line already. The company founder, who owns a Tesla of course, says it is about 25% of the cost of a Tesla solar roof. Wowza!

Similarly fun, we’ve got Tina Casey saying, “The floating solar revolution is coming to America, along with a new high tech tracking system to boost efficiency.” Floating solar or solar roof tiles — which wins? Both do!

There’s a bit of a murmur in the European Union about requiring corporate fleets to electrify 100% by 2030. Who would support that? Well, IKEA, Tesco, Uber, 3M, Volvo Cars, Ford, Renault Group, and many others.

Last but certainly not least, we’ve got Sinopec — China’s state-owned oil & gas company that Mike Barnard says “approaches being the Chinese oil and gas industry.” It’s big. And the news is that it believes 2023 will be the year of peak gasoline demand in China! That’s something.

By Jacek Fior on Oct 13, 2023 04:51 pm

By Jo Borrás on Oct 11, 2023 04:30 pm

By Zachary Shahan on Oct 11, 2023 01:57 am

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By Arthur Frederick (Fritz) Hasler on Oct 07, 2023 12:11 pm

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