Lavender Might Save Us

Lavender Might Save Us

I called this newsletter The Change Optimist because I know that optimism is a choice.

However, making that choice is harder than I sometimes think.

Here’s something that might supply a few drops of optimism.

Let’s talk about lavender.

You might not know this, but lavender is part of the mint family of plants. wikipedia.org

While France is often considered the world’s premiere producer of the flower, Bulgaria is actually the largest lavender exporter. bbc.com

Aside from making fantastic soap, lavender has a surprising number of potential health benefits. webmd.com

Beyond smelling great and some medicinal uses, researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany recently derived a whole new way to make use of this purple flower. mpg.de

This German research team developed an innovative material derived from linalool—an essential component of lavender oil—combined with sulphur to create a more efficient sodium-sulphur battery. These new batteries maintained over 80% of their charging capacity after 1500 charging and discharging cycles. interestingengineering.com

The lower cost of sodium-sulphur battery components makes them ideal for future battery energy storage solutions (BESS) that provide grid-level energy storage for utilities and cities.

Max Planck researcher Dr Paolo Giusto said, "I am confident that our development will attract increasing attention in the near future and enable us to make the leap of this technology from laboratory to practice."

But while we wait for Dr Paolo’s research to become a reality, we can enjoy the beauty of lavender farms in Bulgaria, France, the UK and near my home in Ontario.

Tariffs (I F#$king Hate Tariffs)

“Trump declared a national emergency under IEEPA on Saturday, citing the "extraordinary threat" from fentanyl and illegal immigration. The law gives the president broad powers to impose economic and financial sanctions in times of crisis.” reuters.com, whitehouse.gov

Apparently, nothing could have been done to avoid this reality. reuters.com

Mexico’s president started out weirdly optimistic that the tariffs wouldn’t happen. ctvnews.ca

But her optimism faded.

The Donald signed executive orders imposing sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. “The three countries account for more than a third of the products brought into the United States, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.” nytimes.com

All three countries are expected to levy retaliatory tariffs against the US. bbc.com, theglobeandmail.com, theglobeandmail.com

Chrystia Freeland suggested that Canada target Elon Musk’s Tesla in a tariff fight. “We need to be very targeted, very surgical, very precise,” Freeland said. “We need to look through and say who is supporting Trump and how can we make them pay a price for a tariff attack on Canada.” bnnbloomberg.ca

In the interim, buy more Kraft Dinner and Hickory Sticks. “War is no time for soft cheezies!” youtube.com

China’s Automotive Expansion

GAC-Toyota bZ3X EV with a 620 km range will launch in China in a couple of weeks. carnewschina.com

Geely’s Zeekr may have built the fastest-charging EV in the world. youtube.com

VW is open to letting Chinese OEMs take over excess production lines in the EU. ft.com

Thailand is bracing for an EV price war triggered by the growth of Chinese OEMs. reuters.com

More coverage of BYD’s "slavery-like conditions" in Brazil. reuters.com

Human rights violations aside, BYD's Stella Li was named the “2025 World Car Person of the Year.” forbes.com

Must Know Musk News

This robot sucks. youtube.com

ClusterTruck, and five more fun names for the Tesla Cybertruck. autoblog.com

Tesla’s revenue went down in Q4. Yet, their stock went up. Elon predicts that Tesla will become the world’s biggest company. forbes.com

Tesla says cheaper Tesla EVs are coming in the first half of 2025. reuters.com

“Elon Musk reveals Elon Musk was wrong about Full Self-Driving” (Brilliant headline from Techcrunch that I can’t improve upon.) techcrunch.com

Elon wants to manufacture and sell a whole whack of Optimus robots. fortune.com

Crossing the streets in Austin, TX, might be unsafe in June. electrek.co

Elon wants to help Boeing finish work on the new Air Force One. futurism.com

Rise Of The Machines

Humanoid robots dance to folk tunes on China’s New Year Gala. interestingengineering.com

Now, there’s a construction robot built to speed up installing fields of solar panels. therobotreport.com

SoftBank plans to invest $500 million in a software company building an AI model for robots. techcrunch.com

Energy

Solar energy expansion in the UAE and Saudi Arabia is expected to free up more oil and gas for export over the next 25 years. ft.com

Australia’s Western Green Energy Hub is in the planning stages. Once built, it will be the world’s largest renewables project, including thousands of wind turbines and millions of solar panels covering an area larger than El Salvador. This project is expected to double the country’s electricity output. rechargenews.com

Poland and Canada signed an agreement for more intensive cooperation on nuclear power. reuters.com

But Wait, There’s More

The Cadillac Optiq will be the brand’s cheapest EV to lease in the US. electrek.co

Unlike Tesla, GM’s earnings exceeded Wall Street's expectations. Yet, investors still dumped the stock on fears of tariffs and EV sales challenges that may make it difficult for the manufacturer to hit its 2025 targets. reuters.com

Global sales of EVs and PHEVs are projected to rise by at least 17% globally to over 20 million vehicles in 2025. rhomotion.com

Ford Broncos have a rear suspension problem. caranddriver.com

Honda wants to bring cheap EVs to the US market. autoblog.com

Stellantis calls their staff back to the office. freep.com

To avoid tariffs, VW might expand its US factories to build Porsche and Audi models in North America. thedrive.com

VW won’t bring the ID.7 into Canada and the US. driving.ca

Nissan is offering buyouts to workers and cutting shifts at three of their US factories. reuters.com

Sadly, the new Kia EV5 is not coming to the US but will sell in Canada. electrek.co

BMW i5 spotted with native NACS port. electrek.co

The Lucid Gravity has a built-in booster in its rear drive unit that lets it charge faster. theverge.com

Waymo is now testing its robotaxis on LA freeways. techcrunch.com

Waymo plans to test its service in 10 new cities in 2025, starting with Las Vegas and San Diego. theverge.com

Check out my podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or wherever else you get your podcasts.

You read to the bottom. Amazing!