Australia in the Race for Green Hydrogen
There is a green gold rush going on in Australia at the moment. Billions in investment is flowing into the production of green hydrogen. Before you reach for your keyboard, let me stress this hydrogen is green. The plans include massive wind and solar farms. And I am not suggesting it is for use in cars. It will mainly be for our export partners in Asia, particularly Japan, which is pushing for a hydrogen-powered economy.
Although the vast majority of current hydrogen is grey, produced from fracked natural gas, this will be green and some of the current fossil fuel incumbents will be caught with their pants down.
Let’s start with Western Australia.
In the Pilbara, $36 billion is being invested to create the Asian Renewable Hub. Not only will they use solar and wind, but they are also planning to manufacture wind turbines on site. This is cost effective because of the huge distances involved in transporting the massive steel structures. The nearest port is 250 km away. The plan is to produce over 10 million tons of it a year using the power generated by 1743 wind turbines and 25 million solar panels. It is at least a 10 year project. They are going to need a large water source also.
A $94 billion energy hub is being proposed for the Nullarbor (no trees) Plain. This is serious money. The same companies that are behind the Pilbara project are expecting to produce 50 GW of wind and solar power to make 3.5 million tonnes a year of green hydrogen for the export of 20 million tonnes of green ammonia. The traditional owners of the land, the Mirning people, will also hold a stake creating a brighter future for their young people.
Even BP is getting involved, recently doing a feasibility study for a green hydrogen and green ammonia project in Western Australia just north of Perth. They note that costs of production and of providing the infrastructure are still a problem.
Queensland, NSW (they’re going to be using treated wastewater as part of the process) and Tasmania are starting to get interested, but nothing like the scale of Western Australia. Not only are the states racing each other, they must also compete with the EU and the USA. Every country has the ingredients — water and wind and sun. It will be about who can scale up the fastest, who has the will and the determination.
Sources: here, here, here, here, and here.
Related story: Green Hydrogen — Where Is It Useful? Where Is It Not?
In a move that helps the brand duck protectionist anti-Chinese tariffs, Volvo Cars has switched production of its award-winning EX30 models destined for US roads from its Zhangjiakou plant in China to the Ghent facility in Belgium.
Volvo EX30 production began in the company’s Ghent factory back in April, but those first cars were earmarked for the Swedish domestic and European export markets, but that move wasn’t primarily motivated by avoiding tariffs. As Electrive reports, the company seemed happy enough to continue importing its small electric crossover from China and accepting the new 28.8% tariffs (up from 10%), but the wait times to get the vehicles shipped in from China was imply too long.
In 2024, Swedish and German buyers had to wait up to eight months for their EX30 in some cases, according to Volvo Cars’ European boss, Arek Nowinski, per Automotive News. Once production in Ghent is fully up to speed, however, wait times should be cut to about 90 days. Those wait times, and the price hike associated with the tariffs, have hurt sales of the originally Chinese-made Volvo EV. In 2024, for example, the EX30 ranked third in European EV sales, but slipped out of the top 10 first half of 2025.
“The car is now being built in Europe, which means faster delivery times,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson to Automotive News. “We should return to the sales and market share figures for the EX30 that we had before the introduction of tariffs.”
Coming to Staying in America
The EX30’s switch to Ghent is good news for American fans of the compact, lickety-quick Volvo EV. Now that it’s no longer exclusively made in China, Volvo has decided to give it a stay of execution as it revamps its US product lineup to better align with market trends (read: SUVs) and the changing political landscape (read: tariffs and inflation).
The reason? The Made in China version of the EX30 would virtually unsellable in the US due to the implementation of 147% tariffs on vehicles imported from China. Vehicles imported from Europe, meanwhile, carry just 15% tariffs, keeping the EX30 in a competitive price bracket.
Expect to see both Ghent and South Carolina play an increasingly large role in Volvo’s US product mix – at least for the next three-odd years.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Cars, Automotive News, via Electrive.
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New filings have revealed that BYD is about to release a ridiculous 3,000 hp electric supercar: the Yangwang U9 Track Edition.
BYD already shocked the world when it launched the Yangwang U9, its first all-electric supercar.
It featured four advanced electric motors with a combined power of nearly 1,300 horsepower. The U9 can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) in just 2.36 seconds.
With a motor at each wheel and a highly advanced electric-air suspension, the U9 can turn on itself and even jump over potholes.
But that was only the beginning.
Based on a new filing with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), BYD is preparing to launch a new ‘Track Edition’ of the Yangwang U9:
When an automaker releases a “track” version of a car, it typically primarily features body changes for better aerodynamic performance, adding downforce, and it will also often feature bigger brakes.
The Yangwang U9 ‘Track Edition’ appears to feature all that… and much more.
The filing reveals that BYD updated the motors at each wheel to a new 555 kW motor. That’s a higher-performing motor than in most performance electric vehicles. The U9 Track Edition has four of them for a total of 2,220 kW (3,019 hp).
I would have thought that this was a typo if it wasn’t for the insane electric vehicles coming out of China these days.
Here are a few pictures from the MIIT filing:
There are a lot of performance specs that are not included in the MIIT filing. Therefore, it will be interesting to see when the vehicle is fully unveiled and BYD reveals what kind of performance it can achieve with 3,000 hp packed in 4 electric motors.
Here are a few other features mentioned in the filing:
Standard features:
- 20-inch wheels with 325/35 R20 tyres
- Carbon-fibre roof
- Large fixed carbon-fibre rear wing
- Rear diffuser with adjustable blades for aerodynamic optimisation
Optional aerodynamic parts:
- Standard or enhanced carbon-fibre front splitter
- Electric rear wing
Electrek’s Take
How are they going to keep that thing from flying away? Seriously.
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