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One of the less obvious features of the Tesla Cybertruck is its vehicle voltage architecture. The Cybertruck is the first EV from the automaker to use a 48-Volt (48V) electrical system implementation throughout the entire vehicle, as compared to the 12V systems that are used in pretty much every other vehicle on the planet. Today, Tesla shared its 48V implementation documentation with other major automakers — including competitors like Ford.

Ford’s own CEO Jim Farley confirmed the news on X, formerly Twitter, last night.

Ford CEO Jim Farley confirms Tesla has shared its 48V architecture documentation

Tesla CEO Elon Musk also chimed in.

The consequences of Tesla’s actions won’t be immediately obvious in any other carmaker’s products, as they will likely take a long time to manifest into any real changes for the industry — if they do at all. But let’s take a step back.

Why does 48V architecture matter?

48V architecture is a huge deal not because it enables any particular feature or capability for any one car, but because it will lead to a step change in how automakers wire, accessorize, and electrically engineer their vehicles.

The first mass-produced vehicles generally used 6V architecture to power things like headlamps, and the industry broadly began to adopt 12V electrics in the 1950s. By the late 1960s, almost every car on sale in the US used 12V electrics — power windows, interior lighting, cigarette lighters, brake lights, ignition spark, batteries, and more all unified around this common voltage standard. This change was a big deal, because it meant that the suppliers who built a lot of these electrically-driven components could easily adapt their products to work with any car. Parts became yet more standardized (plus, more affordable and reliable), and eventually 12V became the universal standard for vehicle electrics.

The problems with 12V architecture, though, have been looming (pun intended) for years. Because of the low voltage of this architecture, delivering sufficient power to all vehicle systems that need electricity became more and more complex. And as cars integrated more and more electrical components over the years, this led to ruinously complicated vehicle wiring layouts. (I want to be clear: I am vastly oversimplifying the nature of the challenges of 12V architecture, and it should be obvious by now I’m not an electrical engineer. I probably shouldn’t be allowed to be too close to a wall outlet, frankly.)

Switching to 48V architecture alleviates a huge number of challenges automakers are facing with 12V. The biggest one, though, is complexity: You need far less complex wiring harnesses to power all your vehicle systems, because each wire can supply far more power and voltage in a 48V system. 48V architecture also potentially improves overall electrical efficiency for reasons that I am not sufficiently qualified to explain beyond a kindergarten level, meaning your car’s accessory systems may require less power overall to operate (quite important for an EV).

12V roadblocks remain despite Tesla’s action

The challenge in adopting 48V architecture primarily lays in the vehicle supplier ecosystem, but that conclusion requires a bit of context setting.

If you cannot convert all of a vehicle’s systems to 48V architecture, the benefits of using such an architecture start to diminish pretty quickly in the form of introducing new complexities (i.e., a hybrid 48V / 12V vehicle architecture). As such, most automakers have clung to 12V because they know it and it works.

If an automaker decides to move to a 48V architecture, whatever car it builds must use 48V-ready accessories. But, suppliers aren’t incentivized to build such accessories without sufficient demand. While carmakers like Ford certainly have the power and scale to commission 48V parts independently, the per-unit cost of those components is likely to be substantially higher than their 12V equivalents — especially if they’re being produced in comparatively low volumes. And, many carmakers would be forced to make such a transition slowly over their entire vehicle lineup (it’s worth noting that ICE vehicles can use and would benefit greatly from 48V systems, too). And so, most carmakers stick with 12V. It’s a chicken-and-egg kind of issue.

Why did Tesla share its 48V architecture?

To be frank, Tesla isn’t sharing its 48V architecture from the Cybertruck for purely altruistic reasons. Once you understand the conundrum around vehicle suppliers in the 12V world and making a transition to 48V, things start to come into greater focus. Tesla knows that transitioning to 48V is going to be incredibly difficult for legacy OEMs, and while there is potentially upside for Tesla in such a change (more on that in a moment), this is something of a PR move.

By publishing its 48V architecture, Tesla is saying “OK, we’ll show you how we did this thing — a thing you say is really complicated and difficult and would take years to replicate. You can just copy us.” But Tesla knows full well that even a powerful and well-resourced company like Ford can’t spin up a 48V accessory supply chain overnight, and that such a change would incur very substantial non-recurring engineering work (NRE, as it’s known in some industries).

For Tesla, though, there are theoretical benefits in the event the wider industry switches to 48V vehicle systems. The biggest one is the supply chain. The more components in the global vehicle supply chain that are designed for 48V vehicle systems, the lower the cost of those components will become over time — through volume, competitive engineering, and increased reliability. The second is a bit more nebulous, but arguably just as important: Engineers and other skilled workers in the industry will coalesce their work and knowledge around 48V systems, reducing the amount of redundant work happening and increasing the number of workers in the hiring pool who can understand and innovate on Tesla’s systems (and who can bring their knowledge to Tesla, barring any intellectual property infringement, of course).

Electrek’s Take

It’s hard to see a downside to this move for anyone — for Tesla, the industry, or for the engineers designing the vehicle systems themselves. And it’s plain that the supplier ecosystem needs a kick in the pants to accelerate the transition to 48V, and that the benefits of such a transition are very substantial.

But it’s much harder to say how much of an impact Tesla’s decision to share its 48V design will actually have. Clearly, automakers are already incentivized to move to 48V, but doing so is challenging for a reason — it’s not just laziness. There are legitimate (if frustratingly financial and logistical) reasons that the 48V transition is moving along slowly.

It’s very possible that providing publicity around this relatively esoteric technical issue will be the greatest factor in instigating more aggressive work to implement 48V vehicle systems, as opposed to any technical know-how gleaned from Tesla’s documentation.

It should also be noted that Tesla has two distinct advantages in transitioning to 48V that legacy automakers do not. The first is being unusually vertically integrated in its approach to building vehicles — Tesla designs almost all of its own vehicle systems, even if they may be procured from third parties who actually manufacture them. The second is that Tesla doesn’t have many legacy vehicle designs to support or consider in deciding to transition electrical architectures. Put another way, Tesla’s focus on independent engineering and low legacy debt are huge reasons it can introduce a 48V vehicle while other auto OEMs continue to stick to 12V and likely will for years from now, even in their EVs. And simply telling other carmakers how it built a 48V system won’t change those realities overnight.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


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Stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

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USDC stablecoin issuer Circle files for IPO as public markets open to crypto

Jeremy Allaire, Co-Founder and CEO, Circle 

David A. Grogan | CNBC

Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has filed for an initial public offering and plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

The prospectus, filed with the SEC on Tuesday, lays the groundwork for Circle’s long-anticipated entry into the public markets.

JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are serving as lead underwriters, and the company is reportedly aiming for a valuation of up to $5 billion. It will trade under ticker symbol CRCL.

It marks Circle’s second attempt at going public. A prior merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) collapsed in late 2022 amid regulatory challenges. Since then, Circle has made strategic moves to position itself closer to the heart of global finance, including the announcement last year that it would relocate its headquarters from Boston to One World Trade Center in New York.

Circle reported $1.68 billion in revenue and reserve income in 2024, up from $1.45 billion in 2023 and $772 million in 2022. The company reported net income last year of about $156 million., down from $268 million a year earlier.

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A successful IPO would make Circle one of the most prominent pure-play crypto companies to list on a U.S. exchange. Coinbase went public through a direct listing in 2021 and has a market cap of about $44 billion.

Circle will be trying to hit the public markets at a volatile moment for tech stocks, with the Nasdaq having just wrapped up its steepest quarterly drop since 2022. The tech IPO market has been mostly dry for over three years, though there are signs of life. Online lender Klarna, digital health company Hinge Health and ticketing marketplace StubHub have all filed their prospectuses recently. Late last week, artificial intelligence infrastructure provider CoreWeave held the biggest IPO for a U.S. venture-backed tech company since 2021. But the company scaled back the offering and the stock had a disappointing first two days of trading before rebounding on Tuesday.

Circle is best known as the issuer of USD Coin (USDC), the world’s second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

Pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash and short-term Treasury securities, USDC has roughly $60 billion in circulation and makes up about 26% of the total market cap for stablecoins, behind Tether‘s 67% dominance. Its market cap has grown 36% this year, however, compared with Tether’s 5% growth.

The company’s push into public markets reflects a broader moment for the crypto industry, which is enjoying political favor under a more crypto-friendly U.S. administration. The stablecoin sector specifically has been ramping up as the industry gains confidence that the crypto market will get its first piece of U.S. legislation passed and implemented this year, focusing on stablecoins. President Donald Trump has said he hopes lawmakers will send stablecoin legislation to his desk before Congress’s August recess.

Stablecoins’ growth could have investment implications for crypto exchanges like Robinhood and Coinbase as they become a bigger part of crypto trading and cross-border transfers. Coinbase also has an agreement with Circle to share 50% of the revenue of its USDC stablecoin, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on the company’s most recent earnings call that it has a “stretch goal to make USDC the number 1 stablecoin.” 

The stablecoin market has grown about 11% so far this year and about 47% in the past year, and has become a “systemically important” part of the crypto market, according to Bernstein. Historically, digital assets in this sector have been used for trading and as collateral in decentralized finance (DeFi), and crypto investors watch them closely for evidence of demand, liquidity and activity in the market.

WATCH: Circle CEO on launching first stablecoin in Japan

Circle CEO on launching the first stablecoin in Japan

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BYD’s global EV takeover is far from over as overseas sales double to start 2025

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BYD's global EV takeover is far from over as overseas sales double to start 2025

After its meteoric rise in the global auto industry last year, the Chinese EV giant is off to a hot start in 2025. BYD sold over one million EVs and plug-in hybrids in the first three months of the year. Even more impressive, BYD’s overseas sales doubled to start the year as it expands into new markets. With new EVs arriving, some predict BYD could see even more growth this year.

BYD’s overseas sales are surging as new EVs arrive

BYD sold 377,420 new energy vehicles (NEVs) last month alone. Like most Chinese automakers, BYD reports NEV sales, including plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and fully electric vehicles (EVs).

Of the 371,419 passenger vehicles BYD sold in March, 166,109 were EVs, and the other 205,310 were PHEVs. Combined, BYD’s sales were up 23% compared to last year.

BYD’s Dynasty and Ocean series accounted for 350,615, while its luxury Denza brand sold 12,620, Fang Cheng Bao had 8,051, and its ultra-luxury Yangwang brand sold another 133 models.

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Through the first three months of 2025, BYD sold over one million (1,000,804) NEVs. That’s up 60% from the 626,263 sold in Q1 2024. Fully electric models accounted for 416,388 while PHEV sales reached 569,710, an increase of 39% and 76% from last year, respectively.

BYD-overseas-EV-sales
BYD Dolphin (left) and Atto 3 (right) at the 2024 Tokyo Spring Festival (Source: BYD Japan)

BYD’s overseas sales reached a new record last month, with 72,723 vehicles sold in markets outside of China. Through March, BYD has sold over 206,000 NEVs overseas, more than double (+110%) the number it sold last year.

BYD has made a name for itself with ultra-low-cost EVs like the Seagull, which starts at under $10,000 in China. In overseas markets, like Mexico, it’s sold as the Dolphin Mini and starts at around 358,800 pesos, or around $20,000.

BYD-overseas-EV-sales
BYD Seagull EV (Dolphin Mini) testing in Brazil (Source: BYD)

The world’s largest EV maker is quickly expanding into new segments with pickup trucks, smart SUVs, luxury models, and electric supercars rolling out.

Last week, BYD launched the Yangwang U7, its first ultra-luxury electric sedan. With four electric motors, the U7 packs 1,287 horsepower, good for a 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) sprint in just 2.9 seconds. It also has up to 720 km (447 miles) CLTC driving range.

BYD's-ultra-luxury-EV-sedan
BYD Yangwang U7 ultra-luxury electric sedan (Source: Yangwang)

The Porsche Panamera-size EV is loaded with BYD’s top-tier “God’s Eye” A advanced driving assistance system, DiPilot 600, and a host of other premium features. All of that, and it starts at just just 628,000 yuan ($87,700).

In Europe, BYD is aggressively expanding with new vehicles tailored to buyers in the region, like the Sealion 7 midsize SUV and Atto 2. It’s also expected to launch the low-cost Seagull EV in Europe later this year or early 2026 as the “Dolphin Surf.”

BYD-overseas-EV-sales
BYD’s wide-reaching electric vehicle portfolio (Source: BYD)

According to S&P Global Mobility, BYD’s sales are expected to double in Europe this year to around 186,000. By 2029, that number could reach 400,000 or more.

BYD outsold Honda and Nissan in 2024. As it aims to sell 5.5 million vehicles this year, BYD could be on track to surpass Ford in global sales this year. BYD also aims to sell over 800,000 EVs overseas in 2025, double the number it sold last year.

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