2025-06-22
The May 2025 issue of the Alternative Power Report contains articles on Volvo’s launch of the world’s first electric articulated Hauler, Aeson Power’s new sodium battery products, the IMO votes on the first-ever global carbon price on shipping, and a report on CATL’s next generation batteries. Read it all here. PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast and Technology Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
The April 2025 issue of Guy Youngs’ Alternative Power Report presents articles on Tesla sales and other activities. It also contains several reports on battery development . PSR
Guy Youngs is Forecast and Technology Adoption Lead at Power Systems Research
Deere & Company estimates that Brazil will become its second-largest global market within the next five to ten years, surpassing Europe in sales of tractors, harvesters, and other agricultural equipment.
The forecast is based on the expansion of Brazilian agricultural production, particularly soybeans, corn, and sugarcane. According to Cristiano Correia, Vice President of Production Systems for Latin America, “no other region shows a compound growth rate in grain production comparable to Brazil’s over the next decade.”
The Illinois-based company is holding its first Investor Day in Brazil in over a decade in 2025, gathering around 40 investors from North America, Europe, and Asia.
Deere projects a 27% increase in Brazil’s planted grain area by 2035 and expects corn-based ethanol production to double during the same period.
2025-06-14
MOSCOW—(TASS) Sales of heavy trucks in Russia in 2025 may decline by 23% year-on-year to 85,000 units, Mikhail Matasov, Deputy General Director of the Russian truck producer Kamaz, told reporters. “The market will be poor in 2025. We currently estimate it at 85,000 units against 110,000 this year. We think that 85,000 is even optimistic,” he said.
Matasov noted that the decline in sales can be attributed to a decrease in demand for cargo transportation.
“If there is no construction, then there will be fewer dump trucks (needed). We also provide trucks for cargo transportation industry – if there are fewer of them, then there will be fewer haulage trucks,” he explained.
“The plan for 2025 is, in my opinion, 10,000 units. But we don’t know if there will be that many, because Chinese brands have large warehouse stocks,” Matasov added.
2025-06-13
The U.S. had a robust policy in place to promote the adoption of electric cars, and it used all the tools conservatives say they like — carrots such as financial incentives instead of sticks such as mandates. But now, according to the IEA (International Energy Agency), USA is moving backwards while the rest of the world continues to move forward.
In its EV Global Outlook 2025 report, the IEA says that 20% of new cars sold worldwide in 2024 were electric, a definition that includes plug-in hybrids as well as battery-electric cars.
2025-05-25
Komatsu announced that its consolidated net income for the fiscal year ending March 2026 is expected to decrease by 30% year on year to 309 billion yen. This is lower than the market forecast of 403 billion yen. The U.S. administration’s tariff policy will have a negative impact of $650 Million USD (94.3 billion yen). The exchange rate assumption of 1 yen = 135 yen (compared with 152.8 yen in the previous fiscal year) is also a factor, as it reflects an appreciation of the yen by approximately 8 yen compared with the current market rate.
Of the 943 billion yen, 785 billion yen is attributable to increased production costs due to tariffs, and 158 billion yen is attributable to a decrease in sales volume due to reduced demand.
2025-05-24
Both Volvo and International Truck have initiated layoffs this year due to sluggish orders and high production capacity in preparation for a potential 2026 truck pre-buy ahead of the phase 3 GHG Emission Regulations scheduled for implementation in 2027.
Volvo Trucks North America plans to lay off up to another 350 workers from a Virginia plant as part of job cuts affecting up to 980 employees across the country since the beginning of the year.
Employees at the New River Valley plant in Dublin, Virginia, were notified of the workforce reduction this month, and their last day at the facility will be June 27, Volvo spokesperson Janie Coley said.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN agency which regulates maritime transport, has voted to implement a global cap on carbon emissions from ocean shipping and a penalty on entities that exceed that limit.
The agreement makes the shipping industry the first sector to agree on an internationally mandated target to reduce emissions along with a global carbon price. The agreement includes standards for greenhouse gas intensity from maritime shipping fuels, with those standards starting in 2028 and reducing through 2035. The end goal is to reach net-zero emissions in shipping by 2050
2025-04-25
Brussels, Belgium. Registrations of power 2-wheelers across the top 10 markets in Europe were down 19% in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period of 2024. This result is mainly a consequence of the introduction of the Euro 5+ emissions standards on Jan. 1, 2025, and it was anticipated after the very positive results of 2024.
Germany, Austria and the UK saw the harsher decreases, reporting respectively a -41%, -27% and -22% compared to last year. On the other hand, Switzerland limited the loss to -6%, while Poland and Spain were the only countries to report positive growth, +3% and + 6%.
2025-04-21
French Conseil d’Analyse Économique (CAE) and the German Council of Economic Experts (GCEE) finally weighed in on the EV vs. Hydrogen debate. And they didn’t fall for the hydrogen fantasy. Instead, they did what economists do best: they looked at the numbers, ran the models, and calmly declared that battery-electric trucks are not just viable—they’re the smart bet
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