China tells automakers to pause investment in tariff-supporting countries
China has reportedly already told its major automakers to hold off investments in EU countries that supported Europe’s new EV tariffs, according to Reuters.
While China started a little slow in the EV game, its investments into EV manufacturing have now started to bear fruit, and the country’s manufacturers have rapidly caught up and now passed western automakers, particularly on price.
As a result, both Europe and the US have recently imposed large tariffs on Chinese EVs, fearing that Chinese cars will undercut domestic industry with lower manufacturing costs. Chinese EVs are already quite popular in Europe, though very few sell in the US.
While the EU tariff vote passed handily, the voting patterns among countries mostly reflected fear of retaliatory tariffs. As is often the case with tariffs, a country can’t simply impose a restriction without expecting any pushback.
This is why, for example, Germany voted against the final tariff despite abstaining for the initial vote. German automakers do a lot of high-margin business in China, and worried that China would no longer purchase their autos either because of retaliatory tariffs or consumer animosity towards foreign brands (which is already happening, well before these tariff talks).
And China specifically has been quite effective in the past at responding to tariffs with targeted retaliatory tariffs of its own. Indeed, they’re already investigating EU dairy and wine products as potential tariff targets.
So it’s no surprise that today, on the same day as EU’s new tariffs went into effect, a report from Reuters says that the Chinese government has told automakers to think carefully before investing in Europe, particularly in countries that voted in favor of or abstained from the EU’s tariff imposition.
Several Chinese automakers are already considering building factories in Europe in order to localize production and bypass tariffs, including BYD, Geely and XPeng. This is kind of the intended effect of tariffs – ensuring that foreign automakers will invest in local production and local jobs.
But China wants to ensure that that investment money goes to countries that didn’t vote in favor of tariffs. BYD for example is currently building a plant in Hungary, a country that voted against the tariffs.
Meanwhile, other countries that did vote for the tariffs have attempted to get Chinese firms to invest in building factories there, like France and Italy. But this new directive would make their path towards investment tougher, if Chinese firms follow the government’s guidance.
This is likely not the only action that China will take in response to EU’s tariffs, merely a preliminary one. But it does show China’s willingness to swiftly respond to countries imposition of trade restrictions.
Concurrently, discussions are ongoing between EU and China about a potential minimum pricing deal to avoid tariffs. The hope was for those to conclude before tariffs were imposed, but it seems that they will have to continue.
Electrek’s Take
As I’ve said many times before, tariffs on China are not the answer to winning the EV arms race. I think countries would be much better off incentivizing local production than disincentivizing overseas production, and all the messy secondary effects that come along with the latter.
Further, tariffs can often lead to a sense of complacency for domestic manufacturers, who encourage them so they can have time to ramp up, and then take that time to slow-roll their ramp so that they end up back where they started. We saw this in the 70s with Japan in steel and autos – and the emergency tariffs did not forestall 50 years of Japanese export dominance (they were only kicked dethroned as #1 auto exporter last year – by China).
So despite the entrance of China onto the international automaker stage, most of the last year has been characterized by automakers doing their damnedest to slow down EV adoption. They’re scaling back production plans despite increasing EV demand , they’re begging governments to allow them to pollute more, and they’re generally not indicating that they’ll use the “time” these tariff impositions have given them wisely.
If this continues, then all Europe will get for its tariffs are a delay of the inevitable. They might still get some factories, but those factories will be owned by foreign entities instead of local ones. And this will come along with a lot of pain for whichever industries China decides to target with retaliatory tariffs, and with less competition and more inflation for local consumers as auto prices are buoyed by these tariffs.
I know I keep repeating myself (for more than a decade now…), but the true answer to this would have been to take EVs seriously from the get-go, instead of all the waffling that Western automakers have done that has left them now behind. That should have started long ago, but as the famous (possibly Chinese) proverb says: “the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is today.”
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A Tesla Robotaxi ‘safety driver’ in San Francisco was caught on video sleeping in the middle of a drive with a customer.
The good news is that the system did wake him up, but certainly a bit late.
Tesla currently claims to be operating its ‘Robotaxi’ service in Austin, Texas, and the Bay Area in California.
However, the services differ widely across markets, mainly because California has significantly stricter autonomous-driving laws than Texas. It requires companies to prove they can operate as a level 4 autonomous driving system – something Tesla is not prepared to do, as it has yet to even apply for the required permit.
In effectiveness, it means Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi’ service in the Bay Area has ‘safety drivers’ in the driver’s seat, who are responsible for the vehicle at all times, just like any other level 2 ADAS system, such as Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving (Supervised)’.
In Austin, Tesla moved the ‘safety driver’ from the driver’s seat to the front passenger seat simply because regulators allow it. The monitor still has a finger on a killswitch at all times – ready to stop the vehicle.
We recently reported that Tesla has a worryingly high crash rate in Austin, with the safety driver in the passenger seat.
Now, in San Francisco, a Tesla Robotaxis ‘safety driver’ was spotted asleep at the wheel. A local Robotaxi user posted the video on Reddit:
The user wrote:
I took a Tesla Robotaxi in SF just over a week ago. I have used the service a few times before and it has always been great. I actually felt safer than in a regular rideshare.
This time was different. The safety driver literally fell asleep at least three times during the ride. Each time the car’s pay attention safety alert went off and the beeping is what woke him back up.
In the video, you can see that Tesla’s same FSD driver monitoring system appears to kick in during the Robotaxi ride and wakes up the safety driver.
However, the anti-drowsiness system is supposed to prevent this from happening and audibly warn the driver before they fall asleep with their head down like this, and suggest that they stop the drive.
The user says that he reported the issue to Tesla, but he hasn’t heard back:
I reported it through the app to the Robotaxi support team and told them I had videos, but I never got a response.
I held off on posting anything because I wanted to give Tesla a chance to respond privately. It has been more than a week now and this feels like a serious issue for other riders too.
The video went viral on Reddit, and another user said that the same thing happened to them, adding that they believe it was the exact driver.
Electrek’s Take
It is undoubtedly a tedious job. The system handles virtually all driving tasks, but the safety driver remains critical and must be ready to take control at all times.
As shown in Tesla’s ADS crash reporting in Austin, Tesla’s system still makes mistakes, and the safety drivers are there to correct them.
Tesla’s incidents in the Bay Area are harder to report because they fall under Tesla’s ADAS incident reporting, and since the automaker redacts most critical information, we don’t know whether they happened in the Robotaxi fleet or with regular FSD customers. They are dozens of those every month in the NHTSA reports.
In short, the job must be taken seriously. The driver-monitoring anti-drowsiness detector should have kicked in much sooner, especially since it was the third time he had fallen asleep on this ride, according to the user.
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Electric motorcycles come in all shapes and sizes these days, but few take the idea of “small format” as literally as the new Icoma Tatamel Bike. Designed by Takamitsu Ikoma – a former toy designer who clearly never lost his taste for Transformers – this little EV doesn’t just shrink.
It folds itself into a tidy rolling suitcase shape that can follow you into elevators, offices, and apartments, where full-sized bikes are a non-starter.
While the original Motocompo-esque prototype was more of a curiosity, the Tatamel Bike is now a real production vehicle with a 2–3 week lead time and a ¥498,000 (about US$3,300) price tag. And believe it or not, it actually works as transportation.
A motorcycle that becomes luggage
In its unfolded “bike mode,” the Tatamel is roughly the footprint of a compact seated scooter. But fold it down and the machine shrinks to just 69 × 69 × 26 cm (27 x 27 x 10 in), small enough to roll around like a piece of carry-on luggage. That’s fortunate, because at 63 kg (139 lb), you won’t be tossing it over your shoulder.
The idea is simple: ride it through the city, fold it in the lobby, and bring it upstairs just like you would a suitcase. For urban apartment dwellers who’ve dealt with “no bikes inside” policies, this solves a major headache. It’s just a suitcase…with big wheels?
Small size, real specs
Despite the toy-inspired vibe, the Tatamel Bike is built like a legitimate (albeit small) scooter. It uses a 600W motor (with an actual 2,000W peak rating), runs on a 51.2V 12Ah LiFePO₄ battery (roughly 600 Wh), and is rated for 18.6 miles (30 km) of real-world range with a top speed of around 25 mph (45 km/h). The 10-inch front wheel, 6.5-inch rear wheel, and dual suspension setup – including a rear monoshock – give it surprising stability for something that can also masquerade as luggage.
Load capacity clocks in at 220 lb (100 kg), and the manufacturer quotes a long 2,000–3,000-cycle battery lifespan thanks to the LiFePO₄ chemistry. There’s even a USB port onboard for topping up devices.
Let your inner toy designer loose
One of the standout features is the customizable side panel system. The flat surfaces are removable and can be swapped or printed with your own graphics, letting riders effectively “skin” the bike however they want.
Think anime art, business branding, or just your favorite color – the idea is to make each Tatamel uniquely yours.
Electrek’s Take
I absolutely love seeing small-format EVs rethink what a motorcycle can be, and the Tatamel Bike might be one of the most creative examples yet due to its customization-encouraging design.
Sure, it’s not fast, and it’s definitely not light. But as a last-mile machine that you can literally roll into an elevator, it nails the task.
Between the compact folding design, the surprising build quality, and those fun customizable panels, this is exactly the kind of quirky micromobility innovation I live for.
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Wisconsin is getting another boost in DC fast charging thanks to $14 million in recovered federal grants for 26 sites statewide. The funding comes through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, part of President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The award follows a legal battle earlier this year, when Governor Tony Evers (D-WI) joined other states in a lawsuit to force the Trump Administration to release over $60 million that Wisconsin was owed from the NEVI Formula Program. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s illegal attempt to obstruct the NEVI program in June, clearing the way for planned NEVI EV charging projects to continue.
This round of sites fills in EV charging station coverage gaps following the initial awards announced in May 2024. Round one granted $22.4 million for 52 projects; 11 of those chargers are already online, and another 16 have been cleared for construction.
Across both award rounds, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has now allocated more than $36.4 million toward 78 total projects. The first NEVI-backed fast charging stations opened earlier this year at Kwik Trip stores in Ashland, Menomonie, and Chippewa Falls.
The 26 new charging stations will be built along Wisconsin’s Alternative Fuel Corridor and sited at convenience stores, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and other travel stops. They’ll service the more than 37,000 EV drivers registered in the state, as well as road‑trippers and visitors, and will have a minimum of 150 kW per port.
Round two awardees include Tesla, Kwik Trip, and Universal EV. A full list of the 26 fast charging locations can be found here.
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