Ever Wanted To Start Your Own Country? With Your Help, We Can Try It!
Have you ever wanted to start your own country? We’ve probably all had that thought, especially around election time when politics are at their worst. Plus, if you were in charge of your very own country, you could run it the right way instead of watching the clowns run it, right? If I know CleanTechnica’s readers at all, my guess is that you’d want that little country to be run on nothing but renewables. Plus, the country’s mission would be a lot like Tesla’s mission: to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.
The sad reality is, we can’t really start our own country. The people who run the existing countries obviously wouldn’t be very happy about that, and we also don’t want them thinking we’re dangerous extremists or anything (we all love our dogs). But, there’s nothing stopping us from making a tongue-in-cheek “micronation” to prove a point! Plus, we could do some good in the world, and have some fun along the way.
So, I hereby declare independence for the Mobile Micronation of CleanTechnia!
What Micronation? Where Is CleanTechnia? Why The Weird Hexagon Font & Logo?
You’ll never see CleanTechnia on a map, and to be honest, I couldn’t give you a latitude and longitude right now, either. You see, uh, we haven’t built it yet. Plus, it’s going to be portable, so it won’t always be in the same spot, so we definitely can’t put it on a map unless it’s an internet map we can change and update when it moves (we will do that).
What we can tell you is what it will look like.
Envision these Shiftpod “Burning Man” shelters with some solar panels set beside them to charge battery banks inside. Image by Shiftpod.
Next to the shelters, we’d have 4 or 8 of these solar panels, charging a Jackery battery bank (which we already have) and inverter. Picture by Jennifer Sensiba
Our little mobile micronation will be inside several Shiftpods (portable, insulated hexagon-shaped shelters). If you’re into Burning Man, you’ve probably seen these before. They’re like a tent, but they have some insulation in their walls and they can be set up and taken down in just a few seconds. Plus, they’re a lot lighter than the ice fishing shelters that they look like.
Having a little bit of insulation will help these little shelters be efficient with the solar-powered heating and cooling systems I’m getting for them.
What Point Are You Trying To Prove? (or, Why Do This?)
First, our “micronation” will show that it’s possible to not only travel on renewables like we do now with EVs, but to power comfortable temporary living space with just a few solar panels and a small lithium battery bank. No propane or other fossil fuels will be used in the mobile micronation, so this will prove that we don’t need fossil fuels to glamp. Its minimal weight and folded-up size will also allow minimum emissions when moving it. Even the shower and toilet will be designed for minimum environmental impact without major inconvenience.
I’m sure it will take some trial and error to get this setup to work right, but once it’s done, others will be able to do it without going through the testing we’d go through to make sure it all works well together. Unfortunately, the needed items are currently expensive because there’s not much demand for them. If we could all help popularize them, low-impact travel and camping like this could become a lot cheaper.
Pioneering this would also help EV drivers a LOT. If you want comfortable quarters out in the backcountry, the only easy option right now is to pull a camper along. Once we get the guesswork and techniques figured out, anybody will be able to put a few items in the back of their EV to do this, and they won’t have to worry about whether a big travel trailer would kill their range and leave them stranded.
There are also many homeless people in the developed world, impoverished people in developing countries, and people who have faced disaster who would love to have the kind of security and energy independence that such a shelter would provide. We hope that our efforts will make it possible for them to enjoy the benefits of clean energy like this, too.
One Other Thing We’d Like To Do: Tell The Untold EV & CleanTech Stories
The mobile shelter will also be used to chase the EV and clean technology stories that just don’t get told because they’re too expensive to travel to. Sure, when a big company has big dollars to bring journalists in to tell their story, they make sure to take care of things like plane tickets, hotels, and even meals. When the little guy needs to tell their story, or the story isn’t obvious, nobody wants to take a chance on going out there to see what’s going on and share it with readers.
By taking advantage of cheap and free camping space in rural areas, we can more cheaply chase these important stories to make sure they actually get told.
Being able to practice what we preach through low-impact travel and low-impact shelter on the road would also be a big plus. There’s already too much room for people to criticize clean technology advocates, and we want to shut them up for good with this.
What We Need Help Getting
The $30,900 for this project (you can find our Kickstarter here) will be used to purchase the following:
- Money for 3 nights of paid camping space each month, for a year (other nights will be on public land or in free camping areas, up to 2 weeks per month)
- Money for gas or DC fast charging (depending on whether our Nissan LEAF can reach the destination)
- 12 months of Starlink service and the Starlink hardware
- Two Shiftpod portable quick-deploy insulated shelters, plus a “tunnel” to connect them.
- Efficient <250 watt low-power heating and cooling for the shelter (powered by our Jackery 1500 solar generator we already have, which needs two additional solar panels)
- A low-power electric cooktop, non-plastic mess kits, etc
- Fold-up camping furniture, solar shower bags, miscellaneous campsite items
- A composting toilet
- A small enclosed cargo trailer to carry all of this, plus two e-bikes we already have
If Our Readers Are Particularly Generous, & Overfund Us…
If we get overfunded, we have several flex goals:
At $40,000, we would add a third Shiftpod to our “micronation” complex for more room to work and record videos. This would require a second Jackery solar generator and more panels, another small HVAC unit, and another “tunnel.”
At $43,000, we would add one more mini shiftpod for bikepacking adventures in even more remote areas, with some related bikepacking gear. We already have the e-bikes to do this.
Our final flex goal ($130,000 max) would be to upgrade our Nissan LEAF to another electric vehicle with more range, so we could avoid burning gas on nearly all trips. Ideally, this would be a used Tesla Model X with a hitch to tow the small trailer mentioned above, but there are other EV options we could afford with less.
In other words, all donations, no matter how far above the goal we get, would be used to further the project.
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Republicans announced a new tax plan today and it’s just about as bad for America as expected, taking money for healthcare, clean air and energy efficiency from American families and sending it to the ultra-wealthy instead.
You might think that this helps one of those ultra-wealthy, Elon Musk, who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to ani-EV candidates to help make this happen. But the main source of his wealth, Tesla, will be specifically harmed by rescission of EV credits – and its competitors largely won’t be.
Now that the republican party has unveiled its job-killing tax proposal, we know a little more about what’s in it.
Originally, it was thought by many that the proposal would completely kill all federal EV credits, with some estimating that the $7,500 credit would go away immediately (personally, I never thought it would be that stupid, but you never know with the republicans).
But it’s clear they want to destroy the credit and make cars more expensive for Americans. After all, Donald Trump, while running for an office he remains Constitutionally barred from holding, asked oil companies for a billion-dollar bribe in exchange for ending the EV credit, a promise he has continued to say he will uphold as he squats in the aforementioned office.
And last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the House is likely to end the credit.
It turns out the details are a little more nuanced than that, and that while the credit is ending, it will sunset a little later than many feared.
It’s likely that the credit will last through the end of this year – which makes sense, since that’s how tax changes often work. Then, at the end of the year, Inflation Reduction Act credits will largely disappear.
However, in the current draft of the bill, some automakers will retain access to some EV credits, for a time. This is due to an exception given for manufacturers who have not sold 200,000 vehicles between 2009 and 2025, a similar cap to the old EV tax credit that was first implemented in 2008, before Congress improved it and removed the cap in the Inflation Reduction Act.
So, smaller manufacturers will continue to have some support, while large manufacturers who have already sold plenty of cars will lose all of their credits.
A number of manufacturers have already reached the 200k EV cap, including Nissan, Ford, Toyota, Hyundai/Kia, GM, and of course, Tesla. Those manufacturers will lose access to credits.
But others who started late or have more niche offerings continue to be under the 200k cap. These include companies like Mercedes, Honda, Lucid, Mazda and Subaru.
Specifically, Rivian has been identified as one of the possible winners here, as the company has not yet sold 200,000 vehicles, though should be crossing that line sometime in the next couple years.
And finally, the real competition for Tesla, gas cars, will not lose anything from the rescission of EV credits. Those cars will continue selling, they’ll just have a $7,500 advantage relative to today – on top of their advantage of each gas car being allowed to choke the world with $20,000+ in unpaid pollution costs, which show up on everyone’s hospital bills and health insurance premiums.
So that brings up an interesting point: when Tesla and its bad CEO Elon Musk threw their support behind all of this, what did they think they would get out of it?
After all, Tesla wrongly said, at the behest of Musk and his tortured logic, that ending EV credits would somehow help it.
We called out that obvious incorrect statement at the time, saying that No, for crying out loud, killing EV subsidies will not help an EV company.
But now it turns out that the situation is even worse for Tesla, because not only does Tesla’s gas competition get to keep the credits, but many electric competitors will get to keep them for some time as well.
And don’t forget that this last quarter, government incentives were the only thing keeping Tesla from losing money. A regulatory environment that is more hostile to Tesla could turn black to red on the balance sheet, along with dropping sales and negative brand perception. Thank the bad CEO you voted to give $55B to for that loss, shareholders.
But the oil companies, another competitor for Tesla, will continue to benefit from roughly $760 billion in subsidy per year in the US alone, in terms of the health and environmental costs they impose on society and do not pay for.
If that subsidy was ended alongside the $7,500 EV credit, then EVs would indeed come out on top. But instead of ending those massive subsidies to fossil fuels, republicans have proposed to increase them, by cutting down enforcement and loosening pollution limits, both through this tax bill and through other agency actions and proposals.
Further, the tax proposal unveiled today sunsets credits for many other products that Tesla sells. There are solar and home energy efficiency credits which Tesla takes advantage of through its Energy division, which sells solar and home battery systems to homeowners. These can be worth tens of thousands of dollars per installation, and those will go away if this proposal goes through.
So in the end, Tesla loses access to credits both on its cars and its Energy division, while its competitors get an even more beneficial regulatory environment to continue polluting. And even its electric competitors get a temporary leg up for the time being.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk gets his part of the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that go directly to wealthy elites. So at least his pocketbook will look slightly better for a time, even though the company that has been responsible for filling it it will fall further due to less attractive product pricing and through his own association, which has driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and pushed many customers away.
So, to those of you who wanted us to “trust the plan” – how, exactly, is this beneficial to Tesla, again?
Among the proposed cuts is the rooftop solar credit. That means you could have only until the end of this year to install rooftop solar on your home, before republicans raise the cost of doing so by an average of ~$10,000. So if you want to go solar, get started now, because these things take time and the system needs to be active before you file for the credit.
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China’s EV giant is on a roll. BYD is coming off its best sales week in China of 2025, racking up nearly 68,000 registrations. In comparison, Tesla logged just over 3,000.
BYD notches its best EV sales week of 2025
Another week, another impressive performance from BYD. Although most automakers saw higher sales for the week ending May 11, the company continues leading China’s EV market by a mile.
According to the latest insurance registration data (via CarNewsChina), BYD registered 67,980 vehicles from May 5 to May 11. That’s up 15% from the 58,310 registrations the previous week and BYD’s best sales week of 2025.
BYD’s premium sub-brands, Denza and Fang Cheng Bao, notched 2,990 and 2,660 registrations, respectively, up 3.8% and 17.7% from the prior week.
NIO and XPeng posted stronger numbers last week in China, with 6,060 (+18.2%) and 6,870 (+23.8%) vehicle registrations. NIO’s new sub-brands are starting to gain traction. Onvo registered 1,660, and Firefly, which began deliveries on April 29, added 470 more.
During the week of May 5 to May 11, other Chinese EV brands, including Xiaomi, Deepal, and ZEEKR, also made strong showings. Xiaomi registered 5,180 vehicles of its sole EV, the SU7. Deepal registered 4,700 vehicles, and ZEEKR followed with 4,310.
Earlier today, Electrek reported that Tesla delivered just 3,070 vehicles in China last week, down 69% from the same week the prior year.
Tesla extended its 0% financing offer through June 30 to help drive demand and keep pace with BYD, SAIC, and others.
Electrek’s Take
Although EV sales were up 38% in China in April, Tesla’s fell 9% to 28,731. On the other hand, BYD sold over 380,000 new energy vehicles last month.
Those numbers include plug-in hybrids, but even if you look strictly at EV sales, BYD is leading Tesla and every automaker by a wide margin in China. Last month, BYD sold over 195,000 fully electric (EV) cars, the first time in over a year that BYD sold more EVs than PHEVs.
BYD’s overseas sales also hit a fifth straight month of growth, with over 79,000 vehicles sold. It outsold Tesla in key markets, including Germany (1,566 vs 855) and the UK (2,511 vs 512) in April.
Through April, the automaker has sold over 285,000 vehicles in overseas markets. With new manufacturing plans opening in Europe, Mexico, Brazil, Southeast Asia, and other global regions, BYD’s momentum is expected to accelerate over the next few years.
BYD is best known for its low-cost EVs, but it’s rapidly expanding into new segments with pickup trucks, luxury vehicles, and electric supercars rolling out.
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China has reclaimed the No. 1 spot on BloombergNEF’s annual Global Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Ranking, bumping Canada to second place, as its low electricity prices and strong infrastructure gave it the edge in 2024.
The report ranks 30 countries based on how well they’re positioned to build a secure and sustainable battery supply chain, and this year’s reshuffling says a lot about where the market’s headed.
Canada, which had taken the lead in 2023, held onto a solid second-place finish, tied with the US. But while Canada is still a leader in battery raw materials and continues to attract investors with its stable political environment, it’s been slow to scale up battery manufacturing. That drop in momentum left the door open for China to reclaim its lead.
The US is facing its own set of challenges. The Inflation Reduction Act gave America’s battery industry a significant boost last year, but that progress is now under threat. Donald Trump’s latest tariffs and climate rollbacks are starting to push up costs for US battery makers. They’re also making the US less attractive to investors, which could slow down new projects and shrink domestic demand for EVs and storage systems.
“Brazil and Indonesia registered the largest gains in the fifth edition of the ranking,” said Ellie Gomes-Callus, a metals and mining associate at BloombergNEF. “Growth across these emerging markets has been driven by surging demand and ambitious policy roadmaps. However, all eyes will be on the US this year, as it awaits the impact of the Trump administration’s trade policies.”
Japan and South Korea also climbed higher in the top 10. Their early lead in building out battery supply chains is still paying off, even as global competition heats up and profit margins shrink. Like China, they’ve managed to hold strong in all five of BloombergNEF’s scoring categories: raw materials, manufacturing, demand, ESG (environmental, social, and governance), and innovation.
Europe, on the other hand, is starting to slip. Out of 11 European countries in the ranking, only the Czech Republic and Turkey improved their standings this year. Five stayed the same, and four dropped. Hungary and Finland saw the biggest falls – seven and six spots, respectively. Hungary is now second-worst in Europe for ESG metrics, and Finland’s once-promising nickel and cobalt industries have lost steam, partly due to tough permitting rules. Case in point: BASF’s new battery component plant in Harjavalta has been delayed by permitting issues.
Without stronger government action and better support for manufacturers, Europe risks losing even more ground to fast-moving markets in South America and Southeast Asia.
The report also highlighted some other trends shaping the global battery race. Canada stayed strong overall but lost ground in manufacturing. A few major companies, including Ford, E-One Moli, and Umicore, have paused investments despite new government support, citing weaker-than-expected demand.
Meanwhile, Europe’s battery growth is slowing as capacity lags behind other regions and demand softens due to smaller market sizes and EV saturation in places like the Nordics. Countries in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia are falling behind as a result.
The raw materials side of the market isn’t looking great either. Supply is up, but demand is down. There’s too much material and not enough buyers. And while the market for mined metals is overflowing, refined battery metals tell a more mixed story. Still, one thing hasn’t changed: China remains the dominant force in refining, and it’s still leading the way in building new manufacturing capacity, even as other countries struggle to scale up.
Unless the US and Europe can course-correct quickly, they may find themselves watching from the sidelines as China and emerging economies lead the next phase of the global battery boom.
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