How Ukraine assassinated a Russian general with an electric scooter
In a brazen operation pulled off by Ukrainian security forces, Russian Lt. Gen. Igor Anatolyevich Kirillov was assassinated in the Russian capital with what appears to be a weaponized electric kickscooter.
Kirillov was the head of the Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear defense troops of the Russian military at the time of his death. He was reportedly responsible for the use of the poison gas chloropicrin during Russia’s war with Ukraine, which the New York Times noted is classified as a war crime by the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Kirillov and his assistant were said to have been killed when a bomb attached to an electric scooter exploded outside of an apartment building Tuesday morning in Moscow.
Damage from the scene was relatively limited to the immediate vicinity of the blast, indicating that the size of the explosive was likely small and that the attack was targeted specifically at Kirillov. Officials claim that the explosive was likely detonated remotely.
Witnesses reported seeing a scooter leaning against the wall shortly before the blast, a common sight in the area that would have been unlikely to arouse suspicion.
An electric scooter was also seen at that location in video footage taken just before the explosion, and local officials were filmed collecting the charred remains of a scooter in a plastic bag while processing the scene.
Dashcam footage has also emerged showing the blast originating from the area where a black electric scooter is parked against the wall.
The non-conventional use of micromobility vehicles such as electric scooters, e-bikes, and e-motorcycles has become a common tactic employed by Ukraine. Small-format electric vehicles have been deployed by Ukraine on several occasions during the war, which escalated significantly with Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukrainian territory.
We first learned of Ukrainian electric bicycle manufacturer Delfast’s electric bikes being used as a mobile platform for carrying NLAW rockets used to destroy Russian tanks. The 50 mph (80 km/h) off-road electric bikes were uniquely suited to carrying heavy gear in rough terrain while remaining undetected due to low a noise/heat signature.
The Ukrainians have also used powerful electric bikes as silent, stealthy vehicles for inserting sniper teams at the front lines, allowing soldiers to emplace quickly and effectively without giving away their positions.
We’ve even seen Ukrainian soldiers using small electric boats, including electric kayaks, for mobility along rivers and other narrow waterways.
For its part, Russia has also employed non-conventional vehicles, though to much lesser effect. For example, its golf cart-mounted soldiers fared poorly when attempting to storm Ukrainian positions earlier this year, though the country has also begun testing electric motorcycles for wartime use.
Lead image: AI-generated; second image: Wikimedia Commons; third image: Wikimedia Commons
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Porsche plans to cut 1,900 jobs in Germany by 2029 as it struggles with slumping EV sales. The luxury sports car maker has already warned of lower profits this year. With plans to reduce its workforce, is Porsche sounding the alarm?
Porsche to cut jobs in Germany as EV sales lag
After announcing last week that it expects profit margins of around 10% to 12% this year, significantly lower than its long-term 20% target, Porsche said it would launch new internal combustion (ICE) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles in response.
The company warned that developing the new models and other battery-related projects would cost an extra 800 million euros ($830,000) in 2025.
It looks like the situation could be even worse than expected. Porsche said it would cut 1,900 jobs at two German plants by 2029 (via Bloomberg), blaming “challenging geopolitical and economic conditions.” The sites include Porsche’s Zuffenhausen and Weissach plants, where it aims to reduce around 15% of the workforce.
The job cuts are expected to be voluntary, including through early retirement and layoff packages. A job security agreement is still in effect for employees in Germany until 2030.
Porshe also plans to take a “restrictive approach” to hiring, hinting growth could be slower over the next few years.
Porsche’s global deliveries dropped 3% last year, driven by a sharp decline in China, one of its most profitable markets in recent years.
As domestic EV makers like BYD, XPeng, Li Auto, Geely, and others gain momentum with advanced new models, foreign automakers continue to get squeezed out of the market.
A report from Germany’s Handelsblatt suggested other Volkswagen-owned brands could follow Porsche’s lead by introducing more ICE and PHEV models. The Volkswagen Golf, T-Roc, Tiguan, and Audi A3 are potential candidates, but we reportedly won’t see them until after 2030.
In an email to Bloomberg, the company confirmed that “Volkswagen has not changed its plans to phase out the combustion engine in Europe by the early 2030s,” adding it will “react flexibly to possible market changes.”
Electrek’s Take
While Volkswagen, Porsche, and most leading global automakers have cited slowing demand for EVs, the numbers prove otherwise.
According to Rho Motion, 1.3 million electric vehicles were sold globally in January 2025. Although that’s down from the record 1.9 million in December due to typical seasonality, the market has grown 18% from January 2024.
While Porsche continues investing in outdated gas-powered vehicles, EV leaders like BYD are doubling down on software, AI, connectivity, smart driving features, and other tech that buyers are looking for.
BYD just launched 21 of its best-selling vehicles this week with its new “Gods Eye” smart driving system for free. Although BYD is best known for its affordable EVs, like the Seagull and Dolphin, it’s expanding into Porsche territory with several new luxury models under its Denza and Yangwang brands rolling out. And BYD is only one example. Several Chinese EV makers, such as XPeng and NIO, are also expanding, with new models arriving.
Can Porsche keep up? Or will it continue falling behind as the global market shifts to electric vehicles? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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President Donald Trump‘s steel and aluminum tariffs could slow data center growth by exacerbating the shortage of key components in the electric grid, according to a leading commodity analyst at Carlyle.
Big Tech missed Wall Street expectations for their cloud segments last week due in part to a shortage of transformers, said Jeff Currie, chief strategy officer of energy pathways at Carlyle.
Transformers are crucial pieces of equipment that ramp the voltage of electricity up and down, enabling its distribution from power plants to end customers such as data centers.
“What are transformers? They’re just big chunks of metal,” Currie told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “So if you put tariffs disrupting supply chains it just aggravates that situation.”
Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft missed revenue targets for their cloud segments in their most recent quarterly financial results, sending their stocks lower. Microsoft’s Azure cloud business has been struggling with supply shortages. Demand for Alphabet’s AI products is exceeding available capacity.
“We are in a tight supply-demand situation, working very hard to bring more capacity online,” Anat Ashkenazi, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, told investors on the company’s Feb. 4 earnings call.
The world’s largest transformer manufacturer, Hitachi Energy, warned late last year that the industry is overwhelmed with demand for the equipment.
“Ramping up capacity is definitely an issue. It’s not easy and it will probably not ramp up fast enough,” CEO Andreas Schierenbeck told The Financial Times in a Nov. 3 interview. Schierenbeck told the FT that utilities that need transformers would have to wait up to four years if they don’t already have one reserved.
Transformer capacity might need to more than double or triple through 2050 compared with 2021 levels to keep up with demand as infrastructure ages and the economy is electrified, according to a study published in March 2024 by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Trump’s aluminum tariffs could also disrupt the grid by bringing manufacturing of the energy-intensive metal back to the U.S., Currie said.
“If you think AI is power intensive, aluminum is a whole different world,” Currie said. “It is six times more power intensive than AI data centers. So bringing it onshore in an environment in which AI data centers are already expected to consume any excess power, this would be incredibly disruptive to power grids.”
“There is a reason it was outsourced to begin with,” said the analyst, who headed up commodities research at Goldman Sachs for decades. He is known for bold, and often bullish, calls on oil prices, including his predictions of a China-driven surge in the 2000s.
Tesla is being targeted by protests organized at its stores around the globe. The demonstrations planned for this Saturday appear to be a grassroots movement without a clear goal or leadership.
The protestors are calling it the “Tesla Takeover”.
The movement appears to have started on Bluesky, a social media platform that spun off of Twitter before Elon Musk bought it and turned it into X.
Several bigger accounts on Bluesky, including Anonymous, the infamous hacker group, have promoted the effort.
As stated in the post, the main goal appears to be protesting Elon Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla and only owns 13% of the company, but he is seen as having complete control over the automaker.
Many people believe that it is warranted to target Tesla to protest Musk because he used his wealth from the company to acquire Twitter and finance Donald Trump’s campaign, which both resulted in what many see as a takeover of the US government by the wannabe technocrat.
Ralph Ballart, a long-time Tesla owner and Electrek reader, made us aware of the planned protests. He planned to attend the rally at his local Tesla store in California, and he shared his personal reason for wanting to boycott Tesla:
I have a 2015 Model S and the only reason I want Tesla sales to decline is to get Musk out as CEO and get someone like JB Straubel to replace him.
Straubel is a Tesla co-founder and long-time CTO who left in 2019 to found Redwood Materials. More recently, he joined Tesla’s board of directors.
Other than Anonymous, there doesn’t seem to be any organization behind the protests. People are promoting them locally to get activists at Tesla stores worldwide on Saturday at 11AM.
They are using the hashtag #TeslaTakeover, which is ironic because it used to be the name of a Tesla event organized by John Stringer, one of Musk’s biggest shills.
As we recently reported, Tesla stores around the world have been targets of vandals lately to protest against Musk.
However, in this case, it seems that the protesters are planning to stay civil and exercise their freedom of speech – encouraging people to boycott Tesla to send a message to Musk.
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