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A commercial plane takes off after sunset from Geneva Airport, Switzerland.
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From the Wright brothers’ historic flight in 1903 to the development of supersonic aircraft, the history of aviation has been driven by technology and ambition.

Now, as the 21st century progresses, the sector continues to show its appetite for innovation and radical design.

Last September, for instance, a hydrogen fuel-cell plane capable of carrying passengers took to the skies over England for its maiden flight.

The same month also saw Airbus release details of three hydrogen-fueled concept planes, with the European aerospace giant claiming they could enter service by the year 2035.

More recently, United Airlines announced it had signed a commercial agreement to purchase aircraft from a firm called Boom Supersonic.

In a statement, United said the Overture aircraft — which is yet to be built — was set to be “optimized to run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel.”

All of the above are linked by a focus on technologies designed to reduce aviation’s environmental footprint. This represents a major task, even if the number of flights last year slumped due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the International Energy Agency, carbon dioxide emissions from aviation “have risen rapidly over the past two decades,” hitting almost 1 gigatonne in 2019. This, it notes, equates to “about 2.8% of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion.”

Elsewhere, the World Wildlife Fund describes aviation as “one of the fastest-growing sources of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change.” It adds that air travel is “currently the most carbon intensive activity an individual can make.”

A variety of solutions

Iain Gray is director of aerospace at the U.K.’s Cranfield University. In a phone interview with CNBC, he described zero carbon as “the top priority” for the industry and sought to emphasize the importance of developing a range of solutions to tackle the challenge.

“The really big technology driver is around the propulsion system,” he explained, “but that doesn’t take away from the importance of new technologies around … new lightweight materials, enhanced carbon composite materials, and the systems itself.”

Expanding on his point, Gray provided an example of why the innovations on planes flying above our heads should not be viewed in isolation. 

“There’s a lot of effort goes into reducing the weight on an aeroplane for it only to spend half an hour circling an airport,” he said.

“So the whole interaction of air traffic management with the aircraft itself is a … very important development and new technologies on airspace management are emerging all the time.”

The power of propulsion

Alongside the development of hydrogen fuel-cell planes there’s also been a lot of discussion around electric propulsion in recent years, with firms such as Volocopter and Lilium developing eVTOL, or electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

The key with technologies such as these is the types of journeys to which they can be applied.

“If you look at hydrogen fuel cells and you look at batteries, that really is very much aimed at the smaller aircraft, that’s the sub 1,000 kilometer range,” Cranfield’s Iain Gray said.

“You have to do that in a zero carbon way, there’s no question,” he added. “Is that going to make a big difference to the overall CO2 contributions that aviation makes? No.”

“We need to focus on the longer range flights, flights greater than 1,000 kilometers, flights greater than 3,000 kilometers in particular.”

Fueling change

This focus on long-haul trips will be important in the years ahead, even though they make up a small proportion of flights.  

According to a sustainability briefing from Eurocontrol published earlier this year, “some 6% of flights from European airports were long-haul” in 2020, measuring over 4,000 kilometers (around 2,485 miles) in length.

The intergovernmental organization went on to state that “more than half of European aviation’s CO2 emissions were from this tiny proportion of the overall number of flights.”

This viewpoint was echoed by Jo Dardenne, aviation manager at Transport & Environment, a campaign group headquartered in Brussels.

“We shouldn’t forget that the biggest chunk of aviation emissions are linked to long haul flights because you fly longer, you fly higher,” she told CNBC.

“So all in all you’re producing more CO2 … those long haul flights can only be decarbonized by replacing the kerosene that they’re using.”

It’s on these longer journeys that sustainable aviation fuel could have a significant role to play in the future.

Although the European Union Aviation Safety Agency says there’s “not a single internationally agreed definition” of sustainable aviation fuel, the overarching idea is that it can be used to reduce an aircraft’s emissions.

For its part, Airbus describes SAF as being “made from renewable raw material.” It adds that the most common feedstocks are based on crops or used cooking oil and animal fat.

“Currently, the big challenges of sustainable aviation fuel are producing it in the right volumes that are required, and at the right cost point,” Cranfield’s Gray said.

The provenance of feedstocks used for SAF is also important, he explained. “If what you’re doing … to produce sustainable aviation fuel is transporting fuel right across the world using feedstocks from the other side of the planet, then is it really sustainable?”

“The big effort at the moment is looking at how you can produce sustainable aviation fuels in a …  green way.” This could be fuel from waste or local resources, Gray added.

One type of fuel generating interest is e-kerosene, which also goes by the name of synthetic kerosene. According to a briefing from T&E published in February, e-kerosene is produced by combining carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

“What’s great about it is that it can be dropped into these jets without any modification of the engine and of the technology of the plane,” Dardenne said.  

“It’s a carbon neutral fuel, it’s something that can be easily dropped in,” she added. “The only problem is that it’s very expensive.”

Driving cost down will indeed be key in the years ahead, but organizations like T&E are keen to emphasize the potential environmental benefits of using it.

If the CO2 is “captured from the atmosphere” and hydrogen produced using renewables, T&E says “the combustion of e-kerosene will, apart from some residual emissions, be close to CO2 neutral.”

The future

While technology may be developing, the world also needs to come up with rules and regulations focused on the environmental footprint of air travel. 

Examples of these efforts include the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation and the European Union including carbon dioxide emissions from aviation in its emissions trading system since the year 2012.

In her interview with CNBC, T&E’s Dardenne stressed the importance of “proper regulation.”

She said: “If you price emissions and pollution effectively, then mandate the use of clean technologies, you send the right signals to investors, private and public, to invest in them.” 

“The clearer the regulatory framework the more certainty you can provide to the market that these technologies will have a future,” she added.

“And that will actually bring added value, financial added value, as well as environmental added value.”

Looking at the bigger picture, she went on to state that “proper regulation” would come via effective carbon pricing and fuel mandates, describing the latter as an obligation to use clean fuels. These were, she argued, “the cornerstone of effective aviation decarbonization strategy.”

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Manitou and Hangcha commit to heavy equipment battery production JV

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5 hours ago

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July 21, 2025

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Manitou and Hangcha commit to heavy equipment battery production JV

Manitou and Hangcha form lithium-ion battery joint venture

French equipment manufacturer Manitou has committed to a joint venture with Chinese forklift manufacturer Hangcha that will see the two companies develop and manufacture advanced lithium-ion batteries to support the electrification of the heavy material handler space.

Manitou is well-known in the West, so they need no introduction. Hangcha, though, is arguably just as capable of a company, having opened its first forklift plant in 1956, manufacturing others’ designs under license. They developed their own, in-house material handler in 1974, and have racked up hits ever since. Hangcha is currently the world’s eighth-largest manufacturer of industrial vehicles globally (sounds wrong, but here’s the source).

The plan for the JV is to upgrade the two companies’ deployed fleets of existing lead-acid battery-powered vehicle with longer lasting lithium-ion (li-ion) batteries to expand their operational lifespan. From there, the focus could switch to diesel retrofits and, eventually, the joint development of entirely new products.

“Deepening strategic cooperation with Manitou Group and jointly establishing a lithium battery joint marks a new phase in the partnership between the two sides, which is a milestone in Hangcha global industrial layout,” explains Zhao Limin, Chairman and General Manager of Hangcha Group. “Leveraging Hangcha’s core technological and manufacturing strengths in lithium battery solutions, we will collaboratively enhance solution capability of new energy industrial vehicle power systems. This partnership perfectly aligns with our shared objectives to accelerate electrification transformation and drive sustainable development, while providing robust support to the broader industrial vehicle market.”

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Manitou MHT 12330

MHT 12330 with 72,750 lb. lift capacity; via Manitou.

Once production begins, the joint venture factory will play a key role in supporting Manitou Group’s “LIFT” strategic roadmap. LIFT aims to expand Manitou’s electric vehicle lineup of telehandlers and forklifts, and have EVs account for 28% of total unit forklift sales by 2030. Hangcha Group, meanwhile, has publicly stated its intention to become 100% electric by the end of 2025.

This joint venture plans to recruit employees including engineers, operators, sales representatives and after-sales service technicians. Le Mans Metropole will support the recruitment and local integration and training of future employees.

SOURCE | IMAGES: Manitou; images by Manitou, via Belkorp AG.

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With another tariff deadline looming, these 10 things are going the right way for stocks

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6 hours ago

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July 21, 2025

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With another tariff deadline looming, these 10 things are going the right way for stocks

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These cars are losing value fast — that’s GREAT news for used EV buyers!

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11 hours ago

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July 20, 2025

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These cars are losing value fast — that's GREAT news for used EV buyers!

These Cars Are Losing Value So Fast It’s Almost Impressive
2023 EQS, via Mercedes-Benz.

New car buyers like to talk about the latest tech and resale value, but most people don’t buy new cars. The used car market is 3x bigger than new, and if you’re content to let the last guy take that big depreciation hit by scoring a great deal on a reliable, low-mile used car you could save thousands on your next EV.

I know what you’re thinking: these posts are always weird because they’re disproportionally impacted by the COVID-era supply chain disruptions, and the obscene dealer mark-ups that came along with them.

But looking into the data shows trends that are much closer to the kind of think you’d expect to see before COVID, with high-end luxury models like S-Class Mercedes that trade on being new and shiny taking massive depreciation hits and more mainstream offerings from brands like Toyota and Honda that trade on economy and reliability holding strong.

That usual luxury brand hit seems like it’s being compounded over at Tesla, where Elon Musk’s highly publicized political leanings have polarized support for the brand, and alienated a huge portion of the market. Demand for new and used Tesla vehicles has plummeted, and iSeeCars reports that the Tesla Model S suffered the biggest percentage price drop of all makes and models over the last twelve months, showing the pioneering electric sedan’s average price in June 2025 at $46,700, nearly 16%, or $8,800 lower than it was 12 just months earlier.

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This isn’t a post about Tesla, though (not intentionally, at least). Instead, it’s about those EVs that have lost the most value since they were first sold new five-ish years ago. So, if you’re looking for a great deal on a pre-loved EV, you could do a lot worse than the list, below, presented in order from biggest “loss” of value.

Top 10 fastest-depreciating EVs

Tesla Model S X Lunar Grey

  Make & Model MSRP Avg. 5 yrs >Difference % Change
1 Audi Q8 e-tron $74,400 $20,958 -$53,442 -71.9%
2 Jaguar I-Pace $72,000 $20,047 -$51,953 -72.2%
3 Tesla Model S $74,990 $27,835 -$47,155 -62.9%
4 Nissan Leaf (SV Plus) $36,190 $13,000 -$23,190 -64.1%
5 Tesla Model X $79,990 $32,940 -$47,050 -58.8%
6 Mercedes EQS $104,400 $41,121 -$63,279 -60.6%
7 Tesla Model Y $44,990 $23,775 -$21,215 -47.2%
8 Hyundai Kona Electric $32,675 $13,860 -$18,815 -57.6%
9 Tesla Model 3 $38,990 $20,950 -$18,040 -46.3%
10 Porsche Taycan $99,400 $48,445 -$50,955 -51.3%
11 Ford Mustang Mach-E $39,995 $21,600 -$18,395 -46.0%

Disclaimer: the models and pricing shown, above, were sourced from CarsDirect, Carscoops, iSeeCars, USNews, and Yahoo!Finance. These deals may not be available in every market, and the standard “with approved credit” fine print should be considered implied. Check with your local dealer(s) for more information.

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Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

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