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First Country To Ban Sale of Gas Cars Doing Fine
In 2024, Ethiopia made history by becoming the first country in the world to ban the sale and import of new internal combustion-powered vehicles. The decision was based on several factors, but, surprisingly, environmental reasons were quite low on the list.
The major reason for this seemingly bizarre action was economics. As a poor country with no oil reserves, Ethiopia was importing US$ 4 billion of refined fuel every year – US$ 4 billion may not seem like a big number, but to a country whose total budget is only US$ 14 billion, it’s massive.
The second major reason behind the decision was the completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which brings in massive amounts of energy to this energy poor country (it doubled the country’s generating capacity).
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Iran War, Worldwide Tariffs Disrupt Global Markets
Guy Youngs Strait of Hormuz. On Saturday, Feb. 28, the USA and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran which resulted, among other things, in the death of several of Iran’s senior leadership, including the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Apart from targeting the leadership, the attacks were also aimed at the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (the Iranian paramilitary organization whose official role is to support the Islamic Republic).
Iran has long threatened, if attacked, to drag the region into total war, including targeting Israel, the Gulf Arab states and the flow of crude oil crucial for global energy markets. So, in retaliation, Iran has launched a series of attacks on gulf states, Cyprus, the US Navy carrier groups in the Gulf and the Mediterranean. The US responded to these attacks by wiping out the Iranian navy and hitting various missile sites in Iran.
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Alternative Power Report, February 2026
Download PDFIn the February 2026 issue of the Alternative Power Report produced by Power Systems Research and authored by Guy Youngs, you’ll find articles on Tesla committing suicide by shifting away from auto productions, Germany’s new stance on hydrogen, new 4X power sodium-ion batteries, Europe’s hydrogen bus experiment, and Mercedes introducing a new solution to cut pollution. Read these articles and more in the February Alternative Power Report today. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast and Technology Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
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Tesla Committing Automotive Suicide
Guy Youngs Following its Q4 2025 financial update, Tesla appears to be pivotally shifting away from its identity as a traditional automaker. By phasing out the Model S and X to focus on ‘Transportation as a Service,’ leadership is betting heavily on an autonomous-first business model.
And instead of building on that success, expanding into new segments, addressing affordability, and competing with the flood of new EVs from legacy automakers and Chinese competitors, the company that revolutionized the auto industry is walking away from it.
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Alternative Power Report, January 2026
Download PDFIn the January 2026 issue of the Alternative Power Report produced by Power Systems Research and authored by Guy Youngs, you’ll find articles on Tesla’s very weak 2025 sales in Europe, CATL’s winning position in the shipping electrification race, CATL’s upgrade to its sodium-ion battery, and the possibility that China is running out of critical battery materials. Read these articles and more in the January Alternative Power Report today. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast and Technology Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
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Tesla’s 2025 Europe Data Shows Total Bloodbath
Guy Youngs The data is in for Tesla’s full year 2025 in Europe, and frankly, it’s a bloodbath across most major markets. Every market in Europe showed a substantial decline (ranging from -4.1% to -66.9%). There’s a single exception, Norway, and Tesla can’t even count on this market in 2026 because the growth in Norway was caused by changing regulations for 2026, that brought forward car purchases into the last two month of 2025.
According to registration data compiled from major European markets, Tesla saw its total volume drop from roughly 326,000 units in 2024 to just over 235,000 in 2025. That is a staggering 27.8% year-over-year decline
The truth is that this is an impressive demand cliff by any standard that points to significant brand problems, which are due to a mix of Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, becoming highly toxic, and Tesla’s EV lineup becoming stale amid tougher competition.
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