Author: Arnes Biogradlija

How an Austrian media executive ignored the “experts,” bought a car online in 2014, and accidentally became an electric mobility prophet In 2014, Franz Liebmann did something that made his colleagues think he’d lost his mind. He spent €100,000 on a car he’d never test-driven, from a company everyone said would be bankrupt within months, using technology the automotive press dismissed as “a toy for showoffs.” Eleven years and 800,000 kilometers later, that car is still running. And Franz? He’s still driving it, with no plans to ever buy another car again. WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW The Moment Everything Changed…

The production cost gap has widened to over 30% between Chinese and European manufacturers, fundamentally reshaping who will control the global automotive industry. The Anatomy of a Cost Crisis Manufacturing a small SUV in China costs approximately USD 7,000 less than producing the same vehicle in Germany or the United States. This gap isn’t primarily about labor rates or energy prices: those factors contribute less than 20% to the difference. The battery alone explains nearly 40% of the manufacturing cost disparity for electric vehicles, with Chinese battery cell prices running 30% lower than in Europe and 20% lower than in…

Oil companies don’t fight EVs with technology—they fight with confusion Ellen Hiep sits in theaters and hears people spreading lies about electric vehicles. She wants to interrupt them. She doesn’t. The misinformation spreads. As head of the Dutch Electric Vehicle Drivers Association (20,000 members) and Global EV Alliance steering committee member (60+ countries), Ellen has learned something critical: The biggest obstacle to EV adoption isn’t technology. It’s the billion-dollar misinformation machine. WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW The Sophisticated Playbook “Big OEMs, big oil companies—they’re not always spreading really bad fake news,” Ellen explains. “It’s about blurring information. Always asking questions so…

Associated British Ports Southampton and BW ESS will develop a battery energy storage system at Marchwood Industrial Park following New Forest District Council planning approval, targeting late 2028 commissioning with a 40-year operational lifespan. The facility’s proximity to Marchwood National Grid Substation enables grid connection with minimal infrastructure extension—a siting advantage that reduces capital costs and transmission losses compared to remote storage deployments. The seven-acre brownfield redevelopment converts obsolete industrial structures into grid-balancing infrastructure as the UK accelerates utility-scale battery deployment to manage renewable energy intermittency. Battery energy storage capacity in Great Britain reached 4.7 GW by mid-2025 according to…

China approved a 5.2 billion yuan ($730 million) green hydrogen facility in Inner Mongolia capable of producing 90,000 tonnes annually, while Hebei Province advances a 13.5 billion yuan pipeline to transport 1.5 million tonnes per year from Zhangjiakou to Tangshan’s steel manufacturing corridor. These developments follow Beijing’s latest five-year plan, signaling renewed commitment to hydrogen infrastructure despite sector struggles with economic viability and demand uncertainty. The China Coal Energy subsidiary project in Inner Mongolia represents significant scale expansion in a region already positioned as China’s renewable energy production hub. At 90,000 tonnes annual capacity, the facility would rank among China’s…

China’s first integrated green methanol demonstration facility broke ground in Siping, Jilin Province, targeting 300,000 tonnes of annual CO2 emission reductions through a wind-solar-hydrogen-biomass production system that directly links renewable energy generation to maritime fuel supply. The Lishu project, led by State Power Investment Corporation subsidiary Jilin Electric Power in partnership with COSCO SHIPPING and Shanghai International Port Group, represents China’s strategic positioning in the emerging green methanol market as International Maritime Organization regulations tighten on shipping emissions. The facility’s 197,200-tonne annual production capacity addresses a critical gap in maritime decarbonization infrastructure: fuel availability at scale. Green methanol—synthesized from green…

Six weeks before the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism transitions from reporting to payment phase, major European multinationals remain unprepared while 72 global markets develop parallel carbon border systems that could reshape international trade dynamics. Marcel Duits, chief CBAM officer at compliance platform Dubrink, reports his team is still conducting introductory briefings in November 2025, a timing crisis that exposes fundamental gaps in corporate readiness for what represents the EU’s most ambitious climate trade policy. GET YOUR CBAM ADVICE FROM EXPERTS! WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE The mechanism, which began mandatory reporting in Q4 2023, requires importers of steel, iron,…

Electricity is fast becoming the world’s defining energy currency. According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2025, global electricity demand will rise by roughly 40 percent by 2035, outpacing all other energy growth. Yet this surge—driven by the electrification of transport, heating, and data-intensive technologies—exposes a deeper fault line: the fragility of the material and industrial foundations supporting the transition. The IEA warns that the security risks once confined to oil and gas are now entrenched in the supply chains of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements. A single country—China—controls refining for 19 of the 20 strategic…

American electricity prices surged 34% from 2020 to August 2025, reaching $14.87 per kilowatt-hour from $10.96—the fastest five-year increase in recent history. Yet comprehensive state-by-state analysis reveals a counterintuitive finding: data center concentration shows minimal correlation with residential rate increases, challenging the narrative that server farms drive household electricity costs. U.S. Energy Information Administration data tracking all 50 states from 1990 through August 2025 exposes significant regional divergence that defies simple causation. Maine, with just 8 data centers, experienced a 95% price increase over five years—from $11.88 to $23.12 per kilowatt-hour. Meanwhile, Virginia, hosting 663 data centers (the nation’s highest…

Australia is taking a closer look at its tyre industry as part of a broader push to advance circular economy practices, with the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Innovation and Science opening an inquiry into the sector. The inquiry responds to growing pressure to balance economic opportunity with sustainable resource management and follows global debates on tyre sustainability in Europe and the USA. Written submissions from stakeholders are due by 23 January 2026. The inquiry will examine the full lifecycle of tyres, from manufacturing, import, and retail trends to reuse, retreading, recycling, and resource recovery. It aims to…