Bruce Crumley is journalist and writer who has worked for Fortune, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, The Guardian, AFP, and was a Paris correspondent and bureau chief for Time magazine specializing in political and terrorism reporting. He splits his time between Paris and Biarritz and is the author of the novel Maika‘i Stink Eye.
Next-generation air taxi developer AutoFlight has released new video of an upgraded proof-of-concept version of its electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) Prosperity I aircraft undergoing a new battery of test flights.
Expand Expanding Close
A drone has been factored into Renault’s all-electric delivery solution alongside a battery-powered van and e-bike to permit companies to transport goods to bustling city centers without leaving a measurable carbon footprint.
Expand Expanding Close
Renault’s new 100%-electric Mégane E-Tech is the French company’s non-hedged bet it can convince drivers they’ve nothing to lose in swapping their traditional ICE rides for modern a EV – and gain considerable performance, cost, and flair advantages in the bargain. A day test driving the car on the roads of southern Spain suggests the company stands a good chance of winning that wager and setting some standards for European EV development as it does.
Expand Expanding Close
Though still young, 2022 is shaping up to be monumental for Swedish flying car developer Jetson, which plans to deliver the first series of its one-passenger personal electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle later this year, then turn to outside investors to help scale activity.
Expand Expanding Close
In wrapping up the 60th anniversary celebration of its iconic old-school 4L car, French automaker Renault has unveiled a redesign of the model as the AIR4 electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle.
Expand Expanding Close
South Korean transportation giant Hyundai has announced the creation of an advanced air mobility (AAM) company, Supernal LLC. The company will pursue the development of next-generation passenger electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, and aims to conduct its first commercial flight in 2028.
Expand Expanding Close
A village in southwest France had a problem: too few remaining local shops providing for the needs of its 130 aging and decreasingly mobile residents. To break the resulting isolation, the hamlet set itself up with a solar-recharging Renault Zoe EV that villagers take turns using to run errands in outlying towns, and voilà – affordable, safe, and carbon-free transportation available to all.
Expand Expanding Close
One thing seems certain these days: If you’re a legacy car sector company wanting to give your stock price a serious goosing, find some way to thrust yourself into the EV news cycle.
Expand Expanding Close
The government of Belgium’s Flemish region is reportedly preparing to introduce legislation to ban the sale of new, non-EV vehicles by 2027, nearly a decade before the European Union’s ICE phase-out date.
Expand Expanding Close
US President Joe Biden has spent weeks battling opposition to his sweeping Build Back Better spending bill from Just Say No Republicans, and even some self-promoting sellouts in his own party. Now he’s also getting blowback to proposed rebates on US- and union-built EVs from foreign ambassadors and several domestic automakers.
Expand Expanding Close
The French oil mastodon TotalEnergies is making amends – and doubtless seeking to make a buck from renewables as well – by installing fast-charging stands for EV cars at its gas stations along France’s highway system.
Expand Expanding Close
In case people to the left of, say, Mitt Romney (Republican, UT) or Susan Collins (Republican, ME) needed an additional reason to despise coal-addict Joe Manchin (For Rent, WV), the most dependably conservative-abetting senator gave it to them this week in comments mocking sustainable and clean air proposals while defending billionaires from higher taxes to fund those proposals.
Expand Expanding Close
Enterprising officials from the Minnesota town of Warren are using drones equipped with thermal sensors to gauge heat seepage from local buildings and houses as part of a public service to help homeowners cut spending on energy.
Expand Expanding Close
The Detroit Free Press just may have been looking to stir the pot a bit over the weekend with its article on a study’s contrarian finding that driving an electric vehicle (EV) costs more than a standard gas-burning car. What the paper apparently got was a Wagnerian choir of “WTF?” because, on Tuesday, it ran what reads like a back-away-slowly follow-up to the original piece it demurely says “generated debate and inspired reader questions.”
Expand Expanding Close
A group of airports in Italy and France are banding together to create electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) veliport infrastructure to speed the deployment of quicker, carbon-free air taxi transportation between their respective city centers and passenger terminals.
Expand Expanding Close
In the wake of last week’s unveiling of a Swedish single-seat personal electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle, Israeli company Air One now introduces a two-seat rival to allow individual consumers to fly themselves around.
Expand Expanding Close
With the opening of the UN-sponsored COP26 climate summit less than two weeks away, a trove of leaked documents obtained by Greenpeace is revealing efforts by of a group of nations furiously lobbying to gut language critical of their carbon-spewing economic interests from a report to be released during the Glasgow conference.
Expand Expanding Close
Groupe ADP, the French company that operates Paris area airports, is running a trial of autonomous electric vehicles (EV) transporting luggage in the Charles de Gaulle platform – the biggest in Europe now that Brexit has turned Heathrow into a mid-Atlantic outpost.
Expand Expanding Close
A series of minutely prepared explosions brought the four remaining cooling towers at North Yorkshire’s Eggborough power station down over the weekend – a visually spectacular demolition captured from multiple angles in video shot by drones and ground cameras.
Expand Expanding Close
French company XSun specializes in solar-powered drones – and has produced a pretty impressive craft, indeed. Its SolarXOne fixed-wing aircraft not only soaks up and stores the sun rays that power it, but also packs onboard tech that allows it to make its own decisions during flights.
Expand Expanding Close
With the Biden administration sounding serious about weening the US off fossil fuel consumption, the rapid development of sustainable energy production is becoming a major industrial challenge – and giant business opportunity. One Richmond, California-based company is looking to embrace both of those with a fully electric autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that can radically speed seafloor mapping necessary to construct offshore wind turbines.
Expand Expanding Close
British researchers scouring shorelines for places to locate wave-generated energy installations are turning to drones as a faster and cheaper means of finding ideal spots.
Expand Expanding Close
It’s well known short traders are atop the many, many things Tesla honcho Elon Musk hates in this world. But it’s a safe bet mischievous drone geeks now populate that list – especially after a pair of pilots hacked one of his luxury rides open from the air.
Expand Expanding Close