Picture taken on May 3, 2022 shows a general view of Slovakia’s largest mineral oil refinery Slovnaft in Bratislava, Slovakia. (Photo by JOE KLAMAR / AFP)
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The Group of 7 nations are in talks to cap Russian oil at $65 and $70 a barrel — but analysts say it likely won’t have a significant impact on Moscow’s oil revenues even if it’s approved.
Prices at those levels are close to what Asian markets are currently paying Russia, which are at a “big discount,” said Wood Mackenzie’s vice president of gas and LNG research, Massimo Di Odoardo.
“Those levels of discounts are certainly in line with what the discounts already are in the market … It’s something that doesn’t seem, as it is placed, like it’sgoing to have any effect [on Moscow] whatsoever if the price is so high.”
Russia has threatened to it will not supply oil to countries setting and endorsing the price cap.
“Given Russian oil (Urals) is trading at $60‑65/bbl, the proposed price cap is already compliant under prevailing market conditions,” said Vivek Dhar, Director of Mining and Energy Commodities research from Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
In a note on Thursday, he said that current Russian oil shipments face minimal disruption from the European Union denying shipping and insurance services.
He agreed that the discussed price cap won’t make much of a dent or deter Moscow in its war against Ukraine.
“Russia’s seaborne oil exports have increased to China, India and Turkey at the expense of advanced economies following the Ukraine war,” he added.
In fact, he said the price cap discussed was higher than markets were expecting.
“Oil prices finished lower overnight after the EU discussed a price cap on Russian oil between $US65‑70/bbl, a higher price range than markets expected and at levels that will reduce the risk of disruptions of EU sanctions on Russian oil shipments,” Dhar said.
There was similar skepticism over the EU’s proposed cap on natural gas prices. Several EU member states locked horns over the effectiveness of capping prices at 275 euros per megawatt hour, with some saying it’s not realistic to keep gas prices at such high levels for so long.
The bloc is seeking to stop gas prices from soaring sky-high as consumers are already struggling with rising cost-of-living.
G-7 policymakers have a tough balancing act to tread.
It seems to me like [the G-7] will err on the side of caution — setting it high rather than low to avoid worsening the inflationary spiral.
Pavel Molchanov
Energy analyst at Raymond James
If prices are set too high, they will be meaningless and risk having no impact on Russia — but if the price cap is too low, it could lead to a physical reduction in the supply of Russian oil onto the global market, said Raymond James’ energy analyst Pavel Molchanov.
A lower price cap “means more inflation, more consumer unhappiness, and more monetary tightening,” Molchanov pointed out.
“It seems to me like [the G-7] will err on the side of caution — setting it high rather than low to avoid worsening the inflationary spiral.”
If EU members agree to the proposed cap, Dhar expects the price of oil to fall below $95 per barrel for the last quarter of 2022.
Oil prices were fractionally higher on Friday afternoon Asia time. Brent crude futures inched higher by 0.35% to stand at $85.64 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 0.55% to $78.37 per barrel.
“Our price forecast assumes EU sanctions accompanied by a price cap on Russian oil will result in enough supply disruption to offset ongoing global growth concerns.”
Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs lowered its oil price forecast by $10 to $100 per barrel for the fourth quarter of 2022,citing rising Covid concerns in China and lack of clarity over the Group of Seven nations’ plan to cap Russian oil prices.
Republicans in the Senate have now updated Trump’s tax and budget bill to kill the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles by the end of September.
The Senate is currently finalizing its version of the GOP’s budget and tax bill, better known as Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, that passed the House last month.
While it has been clear for a while that they are going to eliminate all incentives for electric vehicles and renewable energy, we have been reporting on the evolving details about how it will happen over the last few months.
As of earlier this month, the plan was to end the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles 180 days after the bill was signed, which they aim to achieve by July 4th, with a provision for automakers who have delivered fewer than 200,000 EVs in the US.
The Senate has now released an updated version of the bill that now kills the electric vehicle tax credit altogether by September 30th:
IN GENERAL.—Section 30D(h) is amended by striking ‘‘placed in service after December 31, 2032’’ and inserting ‘‘acquired after September 30, 2025’’
The new bill also accelerates the phase-out of incentives for solar, wind, and energy storage projects, while adding additional taxes if they use any materials from China.
Electrek’s Take
The US is already significantly behind the rest of the world in terms of EV adoption, and this will only increase this gap.
It will only further isolate the US from the world’s transition to electric vehicles and make the domestic auto industry uncompetitive on the world stage.
Ironically, Tesla, whose CEO helped make this happen by giving Trump and the GOP $300 million, is going to be the most affected.
I expected Tesla to start losing money in Q1 2026, but if this passes, I can see Tesla beginning to lose money in Q4 2025.
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For the better part of a year, Tesla has been promising “more affordable models” to replace the cancelled “Model 2.” The new models were supposed to go into production in the next 2 days, but it sure feels like that might not happen, because nobody’s heard anything at all about them.
For several years now, Tesla has been teasing everyone with the promise of more affordable models.
While the Tesla Model 3 is pretty reasonably priced, many were waiting for a promised $25,000 model, which many had taken to calling the “Model 2.”
Tesla was supposedly going to pursue a new revolutionary “unboxed” manufacturing method to get costs down for the future vehicle, to enable this lower price.
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However, last year Tesla CEO Elon Musk refocused the company’s efforts on its much–delayed Robotaxi project, which finally launched last weekend in limited form in Austin, to mixed results. The company also wants to release a purpose-built Robotaxi vehicle called the Cybercab, which is first showed off last October. It plans to its unboxed manufacturing method for the Cybercab.
Despite canceling $25k Tesla, “more affordable models” were teased
Even after canceling plans for the $25,000 “Model 2,” Tesla continued to say it was working on “more affordable models.” It started including that phrase in its quarterly reports in April 2024, in its Q1 report. At the time, it said it had “updated our future vehicle line-up to accelerate the launch of new models ahead of our previously communicated start of production in the second half of 2025.”
In each report since then, Tesla has reiterated that “Plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, remain on track for start of production in the first half of 2025.”
The most recent inclusion of this phrase is in Tesla’s Q1 2025 report, which was released on April 22 of this year. Again, Tesla said that these models were on track for start of production in the first half of 2025.
On that Q1 call, Tesla’s head of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravy, answered a question about the company’s more affordable models thusly:
Yeah, we’re still planning to release models this year. As with all launches, we’re working through like the last-minute issues that pop up. We’re not getting down one by one. At this point, I would say that ramp maybe — might be a little slower than we had hoped initially, but there’s nothing, just kind of given the turmoil that exists in the industry right now. But there’s nothing blocking us from starting production within the next — within the timeline laid out in the opening remarks. And I will say, it’s important to emphasize that as we’ve said all along, the full utilization of our factories is the primary goal for these new products. And so flexibility of what we can do within the form factor and the design of it is really limited to what we can do in our existing lines rather than build new ones. But we’ve been targeting the low cost of ownership. Monthly payment is the biggest differentiator for our vehicles. And that’s why we’re focused on bringing these new models with the big, new lowest price to the market within the constraints of selling.
That was said only two months ago, when Tesla should have had good visibility on the imminent start of production of new models. And the first half of 2025 ends on June 30, two days from now. As of yet, we have heard nothing more about it.
We should have heard something by now
Typically, in advance of the launch of a new model, we will get some sort of information. Rarely can a company, especially on with such a magnifying glass over everything it does, get away with a secret launch of something like a car. There’d be camouflagedvehicles, supplier reports, leaks from the inside, or something of the sort. Yet we’ve seen very little.
Now… Tesla did say that it would start production, rather than start sales, within the first half of this year. So they don’t have to have it ready on the lot, and even starting trial production could kind of qualify.
The last time Tesla did pull off an unexpected vehicle launch was the next-gen Roadster, but that was 8 years ago, and it still hasn’t gone into production. Even the Robovan concept unveiled at the Cybercab event, which wasn’t expected at that particular event, had seen leaks years prior.
It might just be a stripped down Model 3/Y
Another wrinkle is that Tesla has never really detailed exactly what the phrase “more affordable models” means.
As best we can tell, the plan is to release a stripped-down version of the Model 3/Y, rather than an actual new model. However, in that case, the inclusion of the word “models” is strange, since that suggests an actual new model (or multiple new models) rather than just a cheaper version of an existing one.
Tesla could really use a boost right now
Importantly, now would be a good time for Tesla to have a more affordable model. The company is suffering from a huge sales decline in almost every territory where it sells – partially due to an aging product line, with only one new model released in the last 6 years, the Cybertruck… and it’s a flop.
And while Musk also continues to promise world-changing innovations at Tesla (whenever he looks away from his phone for two seconds), few of them have materialized. Tesla is supposed to change the world in 6 ways this year (Semi, Roadster, unsupervised FSD, Cybercab, Optimus, and the “affordable EV”), and halfway through the year, has so far achieved none of them.
So, given that releasing an eyesore didn’t work, updating its most popular vehicle didn’t work, overpromising world-changing innovations didn’t work, and the CEO acting like a nazi at every possible turn didn’t work, maybe the company should try the one thing it hasn’t: a more affordable model. But Tesla, so far, has declined this strategy – despite teasing us for so long with the idea.
Now, we do still have two days, so who knows, maybe we’ll get some sort of announcement imminently. It is possible, for example, that Tesla is saving its announcement for the very end of the quarter, so as not to spoil its traditional end-of-quarter sales rush (on what is already expected to be a poor sales quarter). But if it does happen, we will be surprised. And if the change is anything more than a mildly de-contented Model 3/Y, we may even be impressed.
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TQ, the German force behind some of the lightest and quietest e-bike motors on the market, just took a leap forward – again. Barely weeks after debuting the lightweight HPR60 e-bike drive system, the company has introduced the HPR40, now claiming the title of the lightest and most efficient mid-drive motor in the world.
Tailored for road and gravel e-bikes, the HPR40 clocks in at just 1.17 kg (2.6 lb). That means it has slashed nearly half the weight of the previous HPR60, which weighed 1.92 kg (4.2 lb).
Despite being smaller, it still delivers a respectable 40 Nm of torque and up to 200W of peak power, making it ideal for riders seeking subtle assist rather than brute force. This isn’t about raw horsepower; it’s about efficiency and seamless integration.
Unlike motors that have been rebadged from their original use on mountain bikes or commuters, TQ designed the HPR40 from scratch for lighter frames, aiming to remain nearly invisible on a bike’s bottom bracket and with controls hidden inside the handlebar. The result is a drive system that blends into the bike like a whisper, offering performance without the bulk.
At the heart of the HPR motor is TQ’s Harmonic Pin-Ring Transmission, which is a refined drivetrain rearranged to live fully inside a bike in place of the bottom bracket. This clever design eliminates noisy gears, reduces friction, and lets the motor engage instantly with zero lag. While that might sound like many mid-drives we regularly see from manufacturers like Bosch, TQ’s is so small and so deeply integrated that it’s barely visible to a casual observer.
The HPR40 pairs with a 290Wh battery that weighs just 1.46 kg (3.2 lb) and is hidden inside the downtube. There’s also a water bottle-sized 160 Wh range extender available, keeping total system weight under 2.7 kg (6 lbs). That’s one of the lightest fully integrated e-bike systems out there.
Control comes via a hidden handlebar remote hidden under the handlebar tape, and a sleek end-cap LED display keeps essentials in view without disrupting aesthetics. This stripped-down interface reinforces TQ’s philosophy: get out of the rider’s way. Or as New Atlas humorously described it, “it’s almost as if the company is daring riders to start a fresh round of mechanical doping scandals.”
TQ’s HPR40 isn’t just a fancy new drive system in a display booth, it’s already built into the new Canyon Endurace:ONFly, a sub‑10 kg (22 lb) e-road bike that tips the scales at just 9.9 kg. The Endurace:ONFly marries TQ’s whisper-soft assist with Canyon’s aerodynamic finesse, offering riders a bike that feels analog but rides electric.
The HPR40’s high torque density means riders can double their pedaling output with a modest 200 W boost. That translates to better climbs, longer rides, and a natural ride feel, all without the compromises of heavier systems. Considering that many riders can put out around 200W of constant power by themselves, the effect is like having a tandem rider along helping out, except that he only weighs 6 pounds.
The move shows that not every drive maker is merely chasing horsepower and torque figures. Instead, by merging elegant design, noticeable yet natural power, and light weight, TQ is proving that electric assistance doesn’t have to scream. It can whisper.
Electrek’s Take
Here’s the real story: the HPR40 isn’t just a technical footnote, it’s a signal. It shows that electric bike engineering is transitioning from brute force toward a future that also includes invisible, intuitive power systems. For riders chasing the delicate line between analog feel and electric assist, this is a breakthrough.
And considering that many riders are reaching an age where their mind wants to do the kind of rides that their body might no longer be capable of, systems like these can keep those riders in the saddle for longer. That’s many more years of keeping the good times rolling (and keeping the body young by continuing regular exercise).
Now the question is whether other brands will follow suit. Will we see this ultra-light motor trickle down into commuter e‑bikes or adventure-ready gravel rigs? If so, the day when an e‑bike feels exactly like a bike, but gives you a little assist when you need it most, just got much closer.
TQ is playing a long game: subtle, smart, and purpose-built. The HPR40 is merely the first move, and if this is any indicator, the next wave of e-bikes may feel less electric and more… old school?
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