Kia is set to unveil its newest electric vehicle next month in China at the annual Chengdu Motor Show. The Kia EV5 will be a compact electric SUV aimed squarely at the Tesla Model Y with an expected starting price of around 50 million won (roughly $40,000).
Just a week after revealing its flagship EV9, Kia unveiled the new EV5 electric SUV concept in March as it expands into new segments.
Kia says the EV5 is influenced by the same “opposites united” design philosophy which you can begin to see emerge throughout its lineup.
Kia introduced the new design language alongside a new logo as part of a rebrand into the new electric era. Compared to previous generations, Kia’s unique design features sharper sculpted lines, a powerful stance, and modern upgrades.
The EV5 embodies this with a new Digital Tiger Face up front, replacing Kia’s signature Tiger Nose Grille.
On the inside, Kia designed the electric SUV concept to create a “space of coexistence” to enhance the interaction with people, nature, and technology.
Kia EV5 electric SUV concept (Source: Kia)
Karim Habib, executive vice president and head of Kia Global Design Center, said the EV5 “is designed to inspire our customers on every journey, while providing sustainable and environmentally responsible solutions.”
Although the production version will likely look different on the interior with a more realistic setup, we expect the exterior to remain very similar, as other concepts that have gone into production have shown.
Kia EV5 concept (Source: Kia)
Kia didn’t release further details other than the electric SUV will be available in China later this year.
According to a new report from The Korean Car Blog, the EV5 will be revealed next month at the annual Chengdu Motor Show in China. The report notes Kia confirmed that the electric SUV would start “within the standard 50 million won range,” or around $40,000.
The base version will have larger battery capacity than the current Kia EV6 (77.4kWh) and reach up to 82 kWh. The long-range model is expected to feature over 600 km (372 mi) range.
While overseas markets will use an NCM battery, the Chinese version will go with LFP. According to sources, the EV5 will be based on a 400V system rather than the 800V used for other Hyundai Motor Group EVs that ride on the E-GMP platform. As a result, Kia can offer the electric SUV at a lower price.
The EV5 will face stiff competition in the booming Chinese EV market, where EV makers like BYD and Tesla continue grabbing a bigger share of the pie.
With a starting price of around $40K, the EV5 is aimed directly at Tesla’s Model Y. The Model Y starts at $36.9K (263,900 yuan) in China, with 545 km (338 mi) CLTC range. Starting at $43.9K (313,900 yuan), the long-range version offers up to nearly 400 miles range.
Electrek’s Take
Kia expects the EV5 electric SUV to play an integral role in its push to win market share in the world’s largest EV market. It will be the automaker’s first model built in China that will also be shipped overseas.
At $40K, Kia’s new electric SUV looks like a good deal for those of us in the US, and it is. However, China’s market is extremely competitive, with drastic price cuts taking a toll on many automakers’ bottom lines.
Can the EV5 compete with Tesla’s Model Y? Not only that, but will it be able to keep up with domestic EV makers like BYD selling its Yuan Plus electric crossover for less than $20K?
Kia will try to prove to the world that it’s a legitimate competitor, and the EV5 is expected to highlight that. Stay tuned for the latest information on the Kia EV5 launch.
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OpenAI on Thursday said it is launching a Stargate-branded AI data center in Norway, marking its first foray into Europe with such a project.
British firm Nscale will design and build the site as part of a 50-50 joint venture with Norwegian energy infrastructure firm Aker.
OpenAI will be a so-called “off-taker” in the project, meaning it will effectively buy capacity from the data center.
“Part of the purpose of this project is to partner with OpenAI and leverage European sovereign compute to release additional services and features to the European continent,” Josh Payne, CEO of Nscale, told CNBC in an interview on Thursday.
The site aims to deliver 100,000 NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPU) by the end of 2026, “with the intention to expand significantly in the years ahead,” OpenAI said in a press release. The companies said the data center will run entirely on renewable power and have 230 megawatts of capacity, making it one of the biggest in Europe.
Nvidia’s GPUs have become the de facto choice of chips for data centers because of their ability to handle large AI workloads.
For the Norway project, Nscale and Aker have each committed around $1 billion to the initial 20MW phase of the project. The site will be located in Kvandal, just outside Narvik in northern Norway. The companies said the region is characterized by “abundant hydropower, low local electricity demand, and limited transmission capacity.”
Payne declined to comment on how Nscale would fund this project or the financial benefits of the project to the company. The CEO said there were no plans for additional Stargate data centers but that Nscale has its own “robust European expansion plan.”
OpenAI has looked to take this initiative globally. In June, the company and its partners announced plans to build a Stargate campus in the UAE.
Europe has meanwhile been pushing the concept of “sovereign AI,” requiring data centers and AI workloads to be located and processed on European soil.
Payne said Europe has two “problems” — the first is that it does not have enough computing capacity, and the second it is “very fragmented.”
“What the continent needs is large AI infrastructure projects deploying compute [power]. The ecosystem can consume from the project to build AI products, to generate productivity growth and economic benefit,” Payne said.
In a trip to Europe this year, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang urged the continent to build more AI infrastructure. French AI company Mistral announced plans to use Nvidia’s GPUs in a new data center planned for France.
The brand logo of the mineral oil and natural gas company Shell plc can be seen at a filling station of the company in Nuremberg (Bavaria) on July 25, 2025.
Britain’s Shell on Thursday reported better-than-expected second-quarter profit and maintained the pace of its shareholder returns, despite the impact of lower global oil and gas prices.
The energy giant posted adjusted earnings of $4.26 billion for the three months through June, beating analyst expectations of $3.87 billion, according to an LSEG-compiled consensus.
A separate, company-provided analyst forecast had expected Shell’s second-quarter profit to come in at $3.74 billion.
Shell reported adjusted earnings of $6.29 billion over the same period last year and $5.58 billion in the first three months of 2025.
The results come shortly after the London-listed firm flagged weaker trading results at its integrated gas division and losses at its chemicals and products arm.
Shell also announced another $3.5 billion in share buybacks over the next three months, keeping the pace of its shareholder returns. It marks the 15th consecutive quarter of at least $3 billion in buybacks.
“The backdrop of the macro has been challenging, and what I would say is we continue on the momentum that we have in transforming Shell,” CEO Wael Sawan told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Thursday.
“On all measures, [I’m] pleased with that performance. And on the trading side, indeed, despite difficult macro, pleased with how the team has performed,” Sawan said.
Shares of Shell were up 2.5% at around 9 a.m. London time (4 a.m. ET).
Value creation
In March, Shell announced plans to prioritize shareholder returns, ramp up the cost of savings and double down on its liquified natural gas (LNG) push. The strategic update was designed to bolster its commitment to value creation, while maintaining focus on “performance, discipline and simplification.”
The plan appears to have been well received by investors. Shell’s share price has outperformed many of its European and U.S. rivals so far this year, notching gains of 8%. By comparison, Britain’s BP is up 3%, France’s TotalEnergies is down 2% and Exxon Mobil is up 4% over the same period.
Notably, Shell recently dismissed speculation about a possible takeover bid for BP, saying in late June that it had “no intention” of making an offer for its struggling domestic rival.
Asked about the prospect of acquisitions and whether the current state of play means bigger is better for oil companies, Sawan replied: “I don’t buy bigger is better. I think you have to drive it from a value perspective.”
Shell’s CEO said scale is not of concern for the world’s largest trader of liquified natural gas (LNG).
“It is how do we leverage that scale by focusing on the areas where we have competitive strengths and the areas where can create value,” he addd.
‘You can be sure of Shell’
Shell on Thursday said that it achieved structural cost reductions of $800 million through the first six months of 2025, bringing cumulative reductions since 2022 to $3.9 billion. Earlier in the year, the company set a cost reduction target of $5-7 billion by the end of 2028.
The company’s net debt, meanwhile, came in at $43.2 billion at the end of the second quarter, up from $41.5 billion on a quarterly basis.
Shell’s Sawan repeated his comments from earlier in the year when asked about the prospect of the company moving its listing from London to New York, saying it is not a live discussion.
Customers pump gas into their vehicles at a Shell station on April 10, 2025 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
“Part of the reason is actually we have been outperforming. We have been able to just stick to our own story, just deliver on what we say we’re going to do. At Capital Markets Day we used the old tag line: ‘You can be sure of Shell,'” Sawan said.
“On the back of that, we feel more and more confident that our message is getting through to those pools of capital that want to invest in this differentiated investment thesis that we have,” he added.
It’s a big day for upstart electric semi truck manufacturer Windrose. The company has lined up what could be a landmark, $60 million deal and announced plans to being shipping its innovative HDEV trucks to South America.
ChinaTrucks is reporting that Windrose has lined up a deal to supply several hundred of its long-range, battery-powered heavy-duty trucks to US-based, zero emissions logistics company Nevoya that, once finalized, will represent the startup’s largest North American order to date. The agreement, which is reportedly valued at more than 430 million yuan (approximately $60 million, as I type this), has initial deliveries of the Windrose R700 BEV semi planned by the end of 2025, with full deployment expected by the end of 2026.
The company used its own electric trucks to complete the logistics process between warehouses and ports in both Shanghai and Los Angeles, achieving what it’s calling a fully zero-emission transport loop. Windrose CEO Wen Han posted the knock-down kits arriving at the Port of Long Beach a few days ago, and it appears that these could be the first of hundreds of electric semi trucks destined for deployment at Nevoya.
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Expansion plans
Windrose R700 electric semi truck; via Windrose.
At the same time, Windrose announced expansion into its 5th continent, thanks to a partnership with Chilean logistics firm Trailerlogistics Sudamerica.
Chile has a goal of reaching 100% zero-emission sales of freight transport and intercity buses by 2045. This aligns with its broader National Electromobility Strategy, which targets carbon neutrality by 2050. Chile is ranked as the 5th largest economy in Latin America by nominal GDP and 46th in the world (just above Finland and Portugal). Further, Chile has the highest per-capita GDP in Latin America. In 2024, there were 14,267 trucks sold in Chile, according to National Automotive Association of Chile.
For their part, Trailerlogistics Sudamerica seems excited by the prospect of electrifying their fleet with Windrose. “I am completely convinced Chile is the perfect market to start with Windrose in South America,” says Hernan Searle Ferrari, the company’s founder and CEO. “Apart from having totally open trade agreements with all international markets, Chile boast world-class highways and a unique geography; from the desert in the north, all the way south down to Antarctica, covering a total of 4000km. This will allow us to continue developing the dominance of our long-haul EV technology in all terrains.”
The first Windrose trucks will arrive in Chile to begin route testing with Trailerlogistics later this year, with a stated goal of deploying up to 100 trucks by the end of 2026.
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