A worker walks past molten steel at a steel factory in Huai’an, in China’s eastern Jiangsu province on July 22, 2025.
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The European Union is less than three months away from launching its carbon levy — the world’s first large-scale border tax on carbon-intensive goods.
The forthcoming step, which has the potential to completely transform global trade, comes as part of the bloc’s efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industries and promote cleaner production processes across the globe.
Starting from Jan. 1 next year, the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will impose a cost on goods such as steel, fertilizers, cement, aluminum and hydrogen imported from outside the 27-nation bloc.
Under the terms of the policy, importers bringing these goods into the EU will be required to purchase CBAM certificates to cover their associated emissions. The cost of these certificates is expected to be the same as the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) market price.
Vocal opposition
Not everyone is thrilled about the EU’s upcoming carbon border tax. The U.S., China, India and Brazil are among the countries that have raised concerns, with some threatening to take retaliatory measures and others warning the policy might hinder rather than help global climate efforts.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by CNBC.
An aerial view of the Belchatow Power Station, Europe’s largest coal-fired power station near Belchatow, Poland on August 22, 2025. It is Poland’s largest power station with an installed capacity of 5,1 MW. The power plant is one of the candidates to be reconstructed as a future nuclear power site.
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Nicolas Endress, founder and CEO of ClimEase, a CBAM software solutions company, said the EU’s integrated carbon tax and tariff scheme will reshape global trade in ways most businesses haven’t yet grasped. Steel, cement, fertilizers and aluminum-related sectors are set to be first in the firing line.
It’s “no surprise” that the likes of the U.S., Brazil and India have raised concerns about the policy, Endress said, noting that countries without an emissions trading system (ETS) will be exposed to the border tax.
The EU says the CBAM is designed to put a “fair price” on carbon emitted during the production of emissions-intensive goods.
The tax is also designed to prevent what’s known as “carbon leakage,” which is when companies move production abroad to countries where less stringent climate polices are in place.
A test of climate leadership
The U.S., for its part, has warned that European climate rules could threaten the EU’s trade deal with the White House.
U.S. President Donald Trump struck a framework agreement with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in late July, establishing a tariff ceiling of 15% for most EU goods from the start of August.
This rate was significantly lower than the 30% previously threatened by the U.S. president, but above the 10% baseline the EU had been hoping for.
Speaking to the Financial Times last month, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that, in the absence of significant modifications, the EU’s CBAM — among other green regulatory policies — would create “huge legal risks” for U.S. companies selling fossil fuels into Europe.
Other countries exposed to the EU’s CBAM have criticized the plans, too. India has reportedly said it will retaliate against the carbon border taxes, saying high-income countries that are historically responsible for the climate crisis should do more to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte hold a joint press statement in Brussels, Belgium on September 30, 2025.
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The EU’s von der Leyen, in a 2019 manifesto to become European Commission president, said she intended to introduce a carbon border tax “to avoid carbon leakage” and help EU companies “compete on a level playing field.”
The policy was later introduced as part of the bloc’s effort to reduce emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade.
Alex Mengden, policy analyst at Tax Foundation Europe, said EU officials have typically sought to downplay the potential for any retaliatory steps from major economies when the final stage of CBAM kicks in.
“It might show that we can only take so much climate leadership because it has real costs on us and if we are not in a global coalition, those costs fall back on ourselves instead of our trading partners, which is essentially the goal,” Mengden told CNBC by video call.
“Now, of course, it might still succeed,” Mengden said. “The success case for policymakers that devise the CBAM policy would be other countries adopting their own ETS systems,” he added.
Not just ‘a European experiment’
For some, the EU’s CBAM marks the first step of what is expected to become a global initiative to tackle the climate crisis.
“Within the next few years, carbon pricing won’t just be a European experiment — it will likely cover as much as 80% of global trade,” ClimEase’s Endress said.
“CBAM is what is making this happen by likely penalising countries without sturdy systems and rewarding those with EU-aligned ETS frameworks,” he added. “Countries that evolve with the change and build credible carbon pricing will defend their industries, while those that pull away will watch their exporters ultimately face the consequences.”
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Hyundai’s electric vehicles, like the IONIQ 5, are among the fastest charging EVs, but the company says it’s still not quick enough. To match a typical gas fill-up, Hyundai believes 3 minutes is the magic number for EV charging times.
Hyundai aims for 3-minute EV charging
Built on the E-GMP platform, the Hyundai IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 can recharge from 10% to 80% in as little as 18 minutes using a 350 kW DC fast charger and 800V system.
Although that’s already among the best in the industry, Hyundai is pushing for even faster charging. According to Tyrone Johnson, head of Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Center, drivers are looking for EV charging times of around 3 minutes.
“The expectation from customers is that it will take three minutes to fill a car, the same as it does with an internal-combustion engine,” Johnson told Auto Express, even if it’s only for their own reassurance.
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Hyundai’s exec explained that “It’s maybe perception rather than reality, but they worry about range anxiety and whether they will suddenly need to drive 200 miles,” adding the ultimate goal “is to get to the same speed as ICE.”
Hyundai IONIQ 5 at a Tesla Supercharger (Source: Hyundai)
Drivers who can’t charge at home need to know how quickly they can recharge at public fast charge stations, Johnson said. The biggest hurdle is to deliver faster charging speeds, without just plugging in bigger batteries.
To achieve 3-minute charging times, Hyundai is working to bring 400 kW charging to market. By doing so, Hyundai will not only cut EV charging times to match the time it takes to fill up a gas tank, but also provide a longer driving range without using a bigger, more expensive battery.
SK Innovation executives drive the Hyundai IONIQ 9 and Genesis electrified G80 equipped with SK On batteries (Source: SK Innovation)
Although Hyundai promotes 350 kW charging, actual charging rates are typically closer to 250 kW, depending on factors such as battery temperature and charging station speed.
The Porsche Taycan is currently the fastest-charging EV, capable of up to 320 kW. Several new EVs, including the Lucid Gravity and Porsche Cayenne Electric, are rolling with peak charging power of 400 kW as charge times continue to improve.
Interested in testing one out for yourself? With leases starting at just $189 per month, the Hyundai IONIQ 5 is hard to pass up right now. Check out our links below to find Hyundai’s EVs in your area.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the automaker’s next-generation self-driving computer, known as AI5, will not be available in volume until mid-2027.
The new timeline confirms that Tesla’s upcoming Cybercab, scheduled for 2026, will launch on current-generation AI4 hardware – raising more questions about the capability of the vehicle, which isn’t supposed to have pedals or a steering wheel.
As usual with Tesla timelines, we are seeing a significant slip from the previously promised timeline.
For the past year, Musk has been hyping “AI5” (formerly known as Hardware 5, or HW5) as the key to unlocking the next phase of Tesla’s self-driving capabilities. The new computer is expected to be significantly more powerful than the current Hardware 4 (AI4) in Tesla vehicles today and produced since 2024.
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Back in June 2024, Musk officially renamed HW5 to AI5 and gave a specific timeline for its release, stating it would be “applied to autos in the second half of next year [2025].”
He also claimed at the time that the new system would be “10x” the power of the current hardware, creating the impression that the current computers might soon be obsolete for the true “unsupervised” autonomy Tesla has been promising for a decade, but as yet to achieve.
However, Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) this weekend to provide a “clarification” that effectively pushes that timeline back by nearly two years.
When discussing the production ramp of the new chip, Musk stated:
“AI5 will not be available in sufficient volume to switch over Tesla production lines until mid 2027, as we need several hundred thousand completed AI5 boards line side.”
This is a massive delay from the “second half of 2025” timeline provided just last year.
Perhaps more importantly, this delay creates a conflict with Tesla’s product roadmap. Tesla has scheduled the production of its dedicated robotaxi, the Cybercab, for 2026 (Musk recently cited Q2 2026 as the target).
Suppose the Cybercab enters production in 2026 and AI5 isn’t ready until mid-2027. In that case, the purpose-built robotaxi will have to launch on AI4 hardware, the same computer currently in the cars Tesla is selling today, which can’t achieve an unsupervised level of autonomy.
Musk seemed to confirm this implementation path, noting that while “samples” of AI5 might exist earlier, the volume needed for a vehicle launch won’t be there.
Musk shut down this idea, which came from his board chair, just days later – claiming that Cybercab won’t have pedals or a steering wheel.
Electrek’s Take
There’s good news and bad news here.
The good news is that AI4 will remain on top for an extended period of time, which means that Tesla will have to keep working the software to fit the computer rather than take advantage of the higher compute power of AI5.
However, it’s also bad news because Tesla is delaying another tech improvement, and Tesla is still not capable of delivering unsupervised self-driving on the hardware.
I have a feeling that Cybercab is going to have a steering wheel and pedals. It’s too big a risk otherwise to launch a vehicle program that would be virtually worthless beyond a very limited use case in some geo-fenced area.
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