Interesting Ideas

There are many questions about what is happening with sodium-ion batteries today. For example, to most people, news that CATL expects to commercialize sodium-ion batteries for EVs in 2026 with 310 mile range comes as quite a surprise. Background There are several different sodium-ion battery cathodes, just as there are ... [continued]

The post Why The Sudden Emergence Of Sodium-Ion Batteries? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Problem at water treatment centre left 24,000 Tunbridge Wells homes without drinking water for two weeks

A failure at a water treatment centre that left tens of thousands of Kent households without water was foreseen weeks before it happened and could have been stopped, the regulator has said.

Twenty-four thousand homes in the Tunbridge Wells area were without drinking water for two weeks from 30 November last year due to a failure at the Pembury water treatment centre.

GM is on a golden road to the future with Cadillac, whose EV sales were still strong in the 4th quarter despite the loss of the $7,500 US EV tax credit. Cadillac buyers now see EVs as the top tech, the smoother drive, the quietest power. Cadillac EVs have the ... [continued]

The post Enormous Chevrolet EV Sales Drop in 4th Quarter appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A couple days ago, I wrote about Kia’s electric vehicle sales dropping more than 50% in December. That wasn’t a great result, but more or less what was expected. The question is more about how much they rebound in 2026. I expected to see similar results from other automakers, but ... [continued]

The post Nissan’s US Electric Vehicle Sales Absolutely Crash appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Cadillac did it. Despite the $7,500 US EV tax credit ending at the end of the 3rd quarter, leading to a rush of EV purchases before October and then a big dropoff in sales after that, Cadillac actually sold more electric vehicles in the 4th quarter of 2025 than in ... [continued]

The post Cadillac EV Sales Actually Up Year Over Year In 4th Quarter! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Twenty-five years after I revealed the practices of the industrial food giants, the profits – and dangers – of mass producing meat and milk have only grown

Cats have long been kept at American dairy farms to kill rats, mice and other rodents. In March 2024, a number of barn cats at dairies in the Texas panhandle started to behave strangely. It was like the opening scene of a horror movie. The cats began to walk in circles obsessively. They became listless and depressed, lost their balance, staggered, had seizures, suffered paralysis and died within a few days of becoming ill. At one dairy in north Texas, two dozen cats developed these odd symptoms; more than half were soon dead. Their bodies showed no unusual signs of injury or disease.

Dr Barb Petersen, a veterinarian in Amarillo, heard stories about the sick cats. “I went to one of my dairies last week, and all their cats were missing,” a colleague told her. “I couldn’t figure it out – the cats usually come to my vet truck.” For about a month, Petersen had been investigating a mysterious illness among dairy cattle in Texas. Cows were developing a fever, producing less milk, losing weight. The milk they did produce was thick and yellow. The illness was rarely fatal but could last for weeks, and the decline in milk production was hurting local dairy farmers. Petersen sent fluid samples from sick cows to a diagnostic lab at Iowa State University, yet all the tests came back negative for diseases known to infect cattle. She wondered if there might be a connection between the unexplained illnesses of the cats and the cows. She sent the bodies of two dead barn cats to the lab at Iowa State, where their brains were dissected.

Behind the west’s huge appetite for the fruit lies the dark reality of environmental destruction and Indigenous exploitation in Mexico

I grew up in San Andrés Tziróndaro, a Purépecha community on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro in the Mexican state of Michoacán. My childhood was shaped by water, forests and music. The lake fed us. The forest protected us. In the afternoons, people gathered in the local square while bands passed through playing pirekua, our traditional music.

That way of life is now under threat as our land is extracted for profit.

Ford has had the most dramatic pullback in its electric vehicle plans, ambitions, and investments this year in response to US policy on electric vehicle changing under Republicans. We have written all about that, but if you missed it, head here, here, here, and here. With that context behind us, ... [continued]

The post Ford EV Sales Drop In USA, But Not As Bad As I Expected appeared first on CleanTechnica.

China’s covert effort to build an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) system, described as a Manhattan Project and leveraging Chinese nationals with experience from key Dutch EUV manufacturer ASML, is not interesting because it appeared suddenly or because it surprised intelligence agencies. It is interesting because it exposed how industrial capability ... [continued]

The post China’s Chips Manhattan Project And The Semiconductor Skills Race appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Inkpen, Berkshire: The felted mouse choir, the sleeping fawn … a lot of it has meaning to us. At least the greenery goes up in a blaze of glory

By the time you read this, we’ll be taking down the Christmas decorations. I don’t like to let them go. I love the mischief of the days and nights over Christmastide. They sit outside ordinary time, disappearing and extending of their own accord. I enjoy the historical ambiguity over when Twelfth Night falls: the 5th, or this night? I don’t want to be pressed by traditions or superstitions, making up my own ways to say goodbye to the festive period – yet still, I’m wary of them.

We used to cut our tree from the estate we lived on, but in recent years we’ve chosen one from Willis Farm, high on the downs, where they’re grown sustainably, with wildlife in mind. Ours is a colourful tree. Each bauble has meaning and I’m sorry to see them go. Some are from childhood; a treasured wooden goose, and a beaver nestled in a walnut shell, came from a Christmas shop in Banff, Alberta, bought on a day off from ranching in 1989.

As I wrote a few days ago when reporting on NIO’s December, 4th quarter, and 2025 sales, the company was super close to passing 1 million cumulative vehicles produced and it would probably be just a few more days until we got an announcement that the company reached that milestone. ... [continued]

The post NIO Passes 1 Million Vehicles appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Exclusive: data reveals hundreds of UK nests have been raided in the past decade amid growing appetite to own prized birds for racing and breeding

In the echoing exhibition halls of Abu Dhabi’s International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition, hundreds of falcons sit on perches under bright lights. Decorated hoods fit snugly over their heads, blocking their vision to keep them calm.

In a small glass room marked Elite Falcons Hall, four young birds belonging to an undisclosed Emirati sheikh are displayed like expensive jewels. Entry to the room, with its polished glass, controlled lighting and plush seating, is restricted to authorised visitors only.

Every year a Chinese-dominated flotilla big enough to be seen from space pillages the rich marine life on Mile 201, a largely ungoverned part of the South Atlantic off Argentina

In a monitoring room in Buenos Aires, a dozen members of the Argentinian coast guard watch giant industrial-fishing ships moving in real time across a set of screens. “Every year, for five or six months, the foreign fleet comes from across the Indian Ocean, from Asian countries, and from the North Atlantic,” says Cdr Mauricio López, of the monitoring department. “It’s creating a serious environmental problem.”

Just beyond Argentina’s maritime frontier, hundreds of foreign vessels – known as the distant-water fishing fleet – are descending on Mile 201, a largely ungoverned strip of the high seas in the South Atlantic, to plunder its rich marine life. The fleet regularly becomes so big it can be seen from space, looking like a city floating on the sea.

AI is pushing its way into every corner of daily life, especially sports and education. Few people are aware of its most negative aspects.

The post AI & Its Discontents — Part Three appeared first on CleanTechnica.

It’s finally time to see what happened to various electric vehicles in the United States after the loss of the $7,500 EV tax credit, and we’re getting basically every kind of thing under the sun. Cadillac EV sales actually rose year over year in the 4th quarter. Kia EV sales ... [continued]

The post Volkswagen EV Sales — Mixed Results in USA appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Pacific Grove is known as ‘Butterfly Town USA’ for its role as an overwintering spot. As the insect’s population plummets, residents are coming to its rescue

In the tiny seaside village of Pacific Grove, California, there’s no escaping the monarch butterfly.

Here, butterfly murals abound: one splashes across the side of a hotel, another adorns a school. As for local businesses, there’s the Monarch Pub, the Butterfly Grove Inn, even Monarch Knitting (a local yarn shop). And every fall, the small city hosts a butterfly parade, where local elementary school children dress up in butterfly costumes. The city’s municipal code even declares it an unlawful act to “molest or interfere” with monarchs in any way, with a possible fine of $1,000.

Exclusive: From solar subsidies to meat taxes, minority rightwing voices appear to drown out the consensus

“There may have been a silent majority in favour of windfarms and higher petrol taxes, but if there was, these people were mighty quiet. Essentially, all I ever heard from was people objecting to them.” That was the view of a former UK MP who took part in new research that reveals how significantly British and Belgian politicians underestimate the public’s support for climate action.

From solar power and energy efficiency to meat taxes and frequent flyer levies, the politicians consistently failed to appreciate people’s appetite for policies that tackle global heating. The misapprehension has real world consequences: those politicians were less willing to vote for or speak up for those policies, according to the study.

‘Everybody loses’ if production supercharged in country with largest known oil reserves, critics say

Donald Trump, by dramatically seizing Nicolás Maduro and claiming dominion over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, has taken his “drill, baby, drill” mantra global. Achieving the president’s dream of supercharging the country’s oil production would be financially challenging – and if fulfilled, would be “terrible for the climate”, experts say.

Trump has aggressively sought to boost oil and gas production within the US. Now, after the capture and arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, he is seeking to orchestrate a ramp-up of drilling in Venezuela, which has the largest known reserves of oil in the world – equivalent to about 300bn barrels, according to research firm the Energy Institute.

Hyundai is at CES 2026, and it’s having fun. The company has rolled out a AI robotics products and solutions to show off. Naturally, some of these are really not our cup of tea here at CleanTechnica. However, some definitely are. If you want to run through the announcement about ... [continued]

The post Hyundai Showcases AI Robotics & RoboTaxi That Could Grow EV Sales appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Flooding across the state’s north and west blocks roads and cuts off towns at a time of year when so many are on holidays

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Over the weekend, Narelle Hetherington got a call from a couple planning a more than 1,000km trip across Queensland. The drive would see them pass through Winton, where Hetherington runs a motel – the couple wanted a room.

“I’m like, ‘mate, the roads are all cut off out here’,” Hetherington says.