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A commercial plane takes off after sunset from Geneva Airport, Switzerland.
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From the Wright brothers’ historic flight in 1903 to the development of supersonic aircraft, the history of aviation has been driven by technology and ambition.

Now, as the 21st century progresses, the sector continues to show its appetite for innovation and radical design.

Last September, for instance, a hydrogen fuel-cell plane capable of carrying passengers took to the skies over England for its maiden flight.

The same month also saw Airbus release details of three hydrogen-fueled concept planes, with the European aerospace giant claiming they could enter service by the year 2035.

More recently, United Airlines announced it had signed a commercial agreement to purchase aircraft from a firm called Boom Supersonic.

In a statement, United said the Overture aircraft — which is yet to be built — was set to be “optimized to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel.”

All of the above are linked by a focus on technologies designed to reduce aviation’s environmental footprint. This represents a major task, even if the number of flights last year slumped due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the International Energy Agency, carbon dioxide emissions from aviation “have risen rapidly over the past two decades,” hitting almost 1 gigatonne in 2019. This, it notes, equates to “about 2.8% of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.”

Elsewhere, the World Wildlife Fund describes aviation as “one of the fastest-growing sources of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change.” It adds that air travel is “currently the most carbon intensive activity an individual can make.”

A variety of solutions

Iain Gray is director of aerospace at the U.K.’s Cranfield University. In a phone interview with CNBC, he described zero carbon as “the top priority” for the industry and sought to emphasize the importance of developing a range of solutions to tackle the challenge.

“The really big technology driver is around the propulsion system,” he explained, “but that doesn’t take away from the importance of new technologies around … new lightweight materials, enhanced carbon composite materials, and the systems itself.”

Expanding on his point, Gray provided an example of why the innovations on planes flying above our heads should not be viewed in isolation. 

“There’s a lot of effort goes into reducing the weight on an aeroplane for it only to spend half an hour circling an airport,” he said.

“So the whole interaction of air traffic management with the aircraft itself is a … very important development and new technologies on airspace management are emerging all the time.”

The power of propulsion

Alongside the development of hydrogen fuel-cell planes there’s also been a lot of discussion around electric propulsion in recent years, with firms such as Volocopter and Lilium developing eVTOL, or electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

The key with technologies such as these is the types of journeys to which they can be applied.

“If you look at hydrogen fuel cells and you look at batteries, that really is very much aimed at the smaller aircraft, that’s the sub 1,000 kilometer range,” Cranfield’s Iain Gray said.

“You have to do that in a zero carbon way, there’s no question,” he added. “Is that going to make a big difference to the overall CO2 contributions that aviation makes? No.”

“We need to focus on the longer range flights, flights greater than 1,000 kilometers, flights greater than 3,000 kilometers in particular.”

Fueling change

This focus on long-haul trips will be important in the years ahead, even though they make up a small proportion of flights.  

According to a sustainability briefing from Eurocontrol published earlier this year, “some 6% of flights from European airports were long-haul” in 2020, measuring over 4,000 kilometers (around 2,485 miles) in length.

The intergovernmental organization went on to state that “more than half of European aviation’s CO2 emissions were from this tiny proportion of the overall number of flights.”

This viewpoint was echoed by Jo Dardenne, aviation manager at Transport & Environment, a campaign group headquartered in Brussels.

“We shouldn’t forget that the biggest chunk of aviation emissions are linked to long haul flights because you fly longer, you fly higher,” she told CNBC.

“So all in all you’re producing more CO2 … those long haul flights can only be decarbonized by replacing the kerosene that they’re using.”

It’s on these longer journeys that sustainable aviation fuel could have a significant role to play in the future.

Although the European Union Aviation Safety Agency says there’s “not a single internationally agreed definition” of sustainable aviation fuel, the overarching idea is that it can be used to reduce an aircraft’s emissions.

For its part, Airbus describes SAF as being “made from renewable raw material.” It adds that the most common feedstocks are based on crops or used cooking oil and animal fat.

“Currently, the big challenges of sustainable aviation fuel are producing it in the right volumes that are required, and at the right cost point,” Cranfield’s Gray said.

The provenance of feedstocks used for SAF is also important, he explained. “If what you’re doing … to produce sustainable aviation fuel is transporting fuel right across the world using feedstocks from the other side of the planet, then is it really sustainable?”

“The big effort at the moment is looking at how you can produce sustainable aviation fuels in a …  green way.” This could be fuel from waste or local resources, Gray added.

One type of fuel generating interest is e-kerosene, which also goes by the name of synthetic kerosene. According to a briefing from T&E published in February, e-kerosene is produced by combining carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

“What’s great about it is that it can be dropped into these jets without any modification of the engine and of the technology of the plane,” Dardenne said.  

“It’s a carbon neutral fuel, it’s something that can be easily dropped in,” she added. “The only problem is that it’s very expensive.”

Driving cost down will indeed be key in the years ahead, but organizations like T&E are keen to emphasize the potential environmental benefits of using it.

If the CO2 is “captured from the atmosphere” and hydrogen produced using renewables, T&E says “the combustion of e-kerosene will, apart from some residual emissions, be close to CO2 neutral.”

The future

While technology may be developing, the world also needs to come up with rules and regulations focused on the environmental footprint of air travel. 

Examples of these efforts include the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation and the European Union including carbon dioxide emissions from aviation in its emissions trading system since the year 2012.

In her interview with CNBC, T&E’s Dardenne stressed the importance of “proper regulation.”

She said: “If you price emissions and pollution effectively, then mandate the use of clean technologies, you send the right signals to investors, private and public, to invest in them.” 

“The clearer the regulatory framework the more certainty you can provide to the market that these technologies will have a future,” she added.

“And that will actually bring added value, financial added value, as well as environmental added value.”

Looking at the bigger picture, she went on to state that “proper regulation” would come via effective carbon pricing and fuel mandates, describing the latter as an obligation to use clean fuels. These were, she argued, “the cornerstone of effective aviation decarbonization strategy.”

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Mercedes-Benz opens its first DC fast charging hub at Starbucks

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5 hours ago

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November 25, 2025

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Mercedes-Benz opens its first DC fast charging hub at Starbucks

Mercedes-Benz charging Starbucks

Photo: Mercedes-Benz HPC North America

Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging and Starbucks have officially opened their first DC fast charging hub together, off the I-5 in Red Bluff, California.

The 400 kW Mercedes-Benz chargers are capable of adding up to 300 miles in 10 minutes, depending on the EV, and every stall has both NACS and CCS cables – they’re fully open DC fast chargers.

Mercedes-Benz HPC North America, a joint venture between subsidiaries of Mercedes-Benz Group and renewable energy producer MN8 Energy, first announced in July 2024 that it would install DC fast chargers at Starbucks stores along Interstate 5, the main 1,400-mile north-south interstate highway on the US West Coast from Canada to Mexico. Ultimately, Mercedes plans to install fast chargers at 100 Starbucks stores across the US.

Mercedes-Benz HPC opened its first North American charging site at Mercedes-Benz USA’s headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia, in November 2023 as part of an initial $1 billion charging network investment. As of the end of 2024, Mercedes had deployed over 150 operational fast chargers in the US, but it hasn’t disclosed an official number of how many chargers are currently online.

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Andrew Cornelia, CEO of Mercedes-Benz HPC North America, is leaving the company at the end of the month to become global head of electrification & sustainability at Uber.

Read more: Mercedes-Benz is deploying 400 kW US-made EV fast chargers with CCS and NACS cables

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Tesla AI4 vs. NVIDIA Thor: the brutal reality of self-driving computers

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5 hours ago

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November 25, 2025

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Tesla AI4 vs. NVIDIA Thor: the brutal reality of self-driving computers


The race for autonomous driving has three fronts: software, hardware, and regulatory. For years, we’ve watched Tesla try to brute-force its way to “Full Self-Driving (FSD)” with its own custom hardware, while the rest of the automotive industry is increasingly lining up behind NVIDIA.

Now that we know Tesla’s new AI5 chip is delayed and won’t be in vehicles until 2027, it’s worth comparing the two most dominant “self-driving” chips today: Tesla’s latest Hardware 4 (AI4) and NVIDIA’s Drive Thor.

Here’s a table comparing the two chips with the best possible specs I could find. greentheonly’s teardown was particularly useful. If you find things you think are not accurate, please don’t hesitate to reach out:

Feature / Specification Tesla AI4 (Hardware 4.0) NVIDIA Drive Thor (AGX / Jetson)
Developer / Architect Tesla (in-house) NVIDIA
Manufacturing Process Samsung 7nm (7LPP class) TSMC 4N (custom 5nm class)
Release Status In production (shipping since 2023) In production since 2025
CPU Architecture ARM Cortex-A72 (legacy) ARM Neoverse V3AE (server-grade)
CPU Core Count 20 cores (5× clusters of 4 cores) 14 cores (Jetson T5000 configuration)
AI Performance (INT8) ~100–150 TOPS (dual-SoC system) 1,000 TOPS (per chip)
AI Performance (FP4) Not supported / not disclosed 2,000 TFLOPS (per chip)
Neural Processing Unit 3× custom NPU cores per SoC Blackwell Tensor Cores + Transformer Engine
Memory Type GDDR6 LPDDR5X
Memory Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth ~384 GB/s ~273 GB/s
Memory Capacity ~16 GB typical system Up to 128 GB (Jetson Thor)
Power Consumption Est. 80–100 W (system) 40 W – 130 W (configurable)
Camera Support 5 MP proprietary Tesla cameras Scalable, supports 8MP+ and GMSL3
Special Features Dual-SoC redundancy on one board Native Transformer Engine, NVLink-C2C

The most striking difference right off the bat is the manufacturing process. NVIDIA is throwing everything at Drive Thor, using TSMC’s cutting-edge 4N process (a custom 5nm-class node). This allows them to pack in the new Blackwell architecture, which is essentially the same tech powering the world’s most advanced AI data centers.  

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Tesla, on the other hand, pulled a move that might surprise spec-sheet warriors. Teardowns confirm that AI4 is built on Samsung’s 7nm process. This is mature, reliable, and much cheaper than TSMC’s bleeding-edge nodes.

When you look at the compute power, NVIDIA claims a staggering 2,000 TFLOPS for Thor. But there’s a catch. That number uses FP4 (4-bit floating point) precision, a new format designed specifically for the Transformer models used in generative AI.  

Tesla’s AI4 is estimated to hit around 100-150 TOPS (INT8) across its dual-SoC redundant system. On paper, it looks like a slaughter, but Tesla made a very specific engineering trade-off that tells us exactly what was bottling up their software: memory bandwidth.

Tesla switched from LPDDR4 in HW3 to GDDR6 in HW4, the same power-hungry memory you find in gaming graphics cards (GPUs). This gives AI4 a massive memory bandwidth of approximately 384 GB/s, compared to Thor’s 273 GB/s (on the single-chip Jetson config) using LPDDR5X.  

This suggests Tesla’s vision-only approach, which ingests massive amounts of raw video from high-res cameras, was starving for data.

Based on Elon Musk’s comments that Tesla’s AI5 chip will have 5x the memory bandwidth, it sounds like it might still be Tesla’s bottleneck.

Here is where Tesla’s cost-cutting really shows. AI4 is still running on ARM Cortex-A72 cores, an architecture that is nearly a decade old. They bumped the core count to 20, but it’s still old tech.  

NVIDIA Thor, meanwhile, uses the ARM Neoverse V3AE, a server-grade CPU explicitly designed for the modern software-defined vehicle. This allows Thor to run not just the autonomous driving stack, but the entire infotainment system, dashboard, and potentially even an in-car AI assistant, all on one chip.

Thor has found many takers, especially among Tesla EV competitors such as BYD, Zeekr, Lucid, Xiaomi, and many more.

Electrek’s Take

There’s one thing that is not in there: price. I would assume that Tesla wins on that front, and that’s a big part of the project. Tesla developed a chip that didn’t exist, and that it needed.

It was an impressive feat, but it doesn’t make Tesla an incredible leader in silicon for self-driving.

Tesla is maxing out AI4. It now uses both chips, making it less likely to achieve the redundancy levels you need to deliver level 4-5 autonomy.

Meanwhile, we don’t have a solution for HW3 yet and AI5 is apparently not coming to save the day until 2027.

By then, there will likely be millions of vehicles on the road with NVIDIA Thor processors.


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Velotric e-bikes get up to $750 increased Black Friday savings with new lows + extra battery bundles from $999, EcoFlow, more

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November 25, 2025

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Velotric e-bikes get up to 0 increased Black Friday savings with new lows + extra battery bundles from 9, EcoFlow, more


Taking the lead in today’s Green Deals is Velotric’s Black Friday Sale that has switched into a higher gear with increased savings and expanded FREE bundle sizes for a limited-time window, offering plenty of returning and new low prices. One notable standout is Velotric’s T1 ST Plus Lightweight Urban e-bike getting a FREE range extender battery ($400 value) at $1,299, among many others. Behind that, we have EcoFlow’s latest 24-hour Black Friday flash sale that is giving us some new low prices on various units, like the DELTA 2 Max hitting a new $799 low or a DELTA 3 Ultra solar home backup bundle, and others. There’s also Lectric’s XPeak 2.0 e-bike bundles that are close to selling out, holiday savings roundups on Worx and Husqvarna tools, and much more waiting for you below. And don’t forget about the hangover deals that are collected together at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s Anker SOLIX 4-day Black Friday flash sale with new lows or the brand’s PowerCore Reserve at $80, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Velotric’s Black Friday Sale switches gears with up to $750 increased savings and new lows starting from $999

Velotric has switched its Black Friday Sale into a higher gear with increased savings, new low prices, and expanded bundle packages on its e-bike lineup for a short-term window through Cyber Monday – plus, the option to save 30% on three accessories. One notable expanded package is the Velotric T1 ST Plus Lightweight Urban e-bike, coming with a FREE range extender battery ($400 value) for $1,299 shipped. You’d have to pay $1,649 for the e-bike on its own without any discounts, with that extra battery running that price up to $2,049. The brand’s early Black Friday deal only offered $350 savings (with the bundle being a rear cargo rack), but for this short-term change-up, you’re getting $750 in total savings that returns the tag to the lowest price we have tracked in 2025. Head below to check out the full lineup of Velotric’s expanded Black Friday Sale savings.

One of my favorite options from Velotric’s lineup, the T1 ST Plus e-bike, is a lightweight commuter that weighs only 39 pounds, and if you’ve read any of my e-bike reviews, you know I often lean towards models that can be easily handled up and down my rather large stoop. It brings a more European-style minimalist elegance to your travels, though keep in mind this model doesn’t possess a throttle, so it’s all PAS action. The 350W rear hub motor (with a 600W peak) is paired with a 352.8Wh battery for up to 70 miles of assisted travel at up to 20/28 MPH top speeds, depending on your local laws. What’s more, with the range extender battery, which connects right to this bike’s frame, boosts your pedal-assisted travel up to 100 miles in total, giving you serious commuting power.

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It comes with a nice lineup of features, too, but of course, I have to shout out the Apple Find My inclusion for the added peace of mind. From there, you’ll also be getting double hydraulic disc brakes, puncture-resistant tires, an 8-speed Shimano derailleur, an integrated LED auto-on headlight, a 3.5-inch LCD screen for setting adjustments that also has a USB port to charge up devices, and more.

Velotric’s new Black Friday Sale e-bike deals:

  • Fold 1 Step-Thru Folding e-bike (new low): $999 (Reg. $1,499)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 55 miles
    • comes with FREE suspension seat post upgrade ($120 value)
  • Nomad 1 Plus Off-Road e-bike (new low): $1,249 (Reg. $1,899)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 55 miles
    • comes with FREE rear cargo rack ($69 value)
  • T1 ST Plus Lightweight e-bike: $1,299 (Reg. $1,649)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles (100 miles with battery bundle)
    • comes with FREE range extender battery ($400 value)
  • Fold 1 Plus Folding e-bike: $1,399 (Reg. $1,499)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 68 miles
    • comes with FREE suspension seat post and rear rack pannier bag ($195 value)
  • Breeze 1 Cruiser e-bike (back at low): $1,699 (Reg. $1,799)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles
    • comes with FREE rear cargo rack, fender set, and front basket ($270 value)
  • Discover 2 Step-Thru Commuter e-bike: $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 75 miles
    • comes with FREE suspension seat post and front basket ($240 value)
  • Summit 1 Versatile e-bike (back at low): $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 70 miles
    • comes with FREE rear cargo rack and fender set ($160 value)
  • Nomad 2 Fat Tire e-bike (new low): $1,799 (Reg. $1,999)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 65 miles
    • comes with rack top bag ($96 value)
  • Nomad 2X Multi-Terrain Full Suspension e-bike (back at low): $2,299 (Reg. $2,399)
    • 20/28 MPH for up to 75 miles
    • comes with FREE rack top bag ($96 value)

You can browse Velotric’s upgraded Black Friday Sale deals on the main landing page here.

man enjoying coffee while camping with EcoFlow DELTA 2 max power station

EcoFlow Black Friday flash sale drops DELTA 2 Max power station to new $799 low ($600 off) + other bundles from $698

As part of its phase 3 Black Friday Sale event, EcoFlow has launched a 24-hour flash sale that is taking up to 61% off four offers, with a notable deal on the DELTA 2 Max Portable Power Station at $799 shipped, which beats out Amazon’s pricing by $100. While it carries an $1,899 MSRP, you’ll more often find it going for $1,399 these days, with the discounts we’ve been seeing in the latter half of 2025 regularly dropping things lower between $999 and $899. Now, for only 24 hours, you can pick it up $100 lower than we’ve ever tracked, giving you a total $600 off the going rate ($1,100 off the MSRP) for the lowest new price we have tracked.

***Note: some of these flash sale offers might start at higher prices, but for this 24-hour period, they have been given automatic discounts to these rates that activate in your cart.

EcoFlow’s 24-hour Black Friday flash sale offers:

man and woman riding Lectric XPeak 2.0 e-bikes down trail

Upgrade off-road commutes and adventures with Lectric’s XPeak 2.0 e-bikes and up to $583 in FREE gear from $1,499

As part of its ongoing Black Friday Sale, which is starting to show models running out of stock from the offers of up to $893 in savings across e-bike bundles. During this sale, Lectric’s XPeak 2.0 Long-Range Off-Road e-bikes are seeing the largest bundles of the year with $583 in FREE gear joining your purchase at $1,699 shipped. You’ll also find Lectric’s standard XPeak 2.0 Off-Road e-bikes coming with $434 in FREE gear at $1,499 shipped. These packages would normally cost $2,282 and $1,933 in full if not for the discounts on the bundles, which are the largest we’ve seen for the long-range models. The standard e-bikes come with a rear cargo rack, fender set, Elite headlight upgrade, a suspension seat post, a bike lock, and a phone holder, while the long-range counterparts get those, as well as a 5A fast charger that “is 250% faster, allowing you to power up in approximately 4 hours or less.” Head below to more on these all-terrain e-mobility solutions.

Lectric’s Black Friday XPeak 2.0 e-bike bundles:

Be sure to also check out Lectric’s full Black Friday Sale e-bike lineup with up to $893 in savings starting from $999, which, as I mentioned, is already seeing models go out of stock.

Worx Black Friday banner with different tools
woman trimming grass with Husqvarna tools

Best Fall EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.


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