So when Consumer Reports recently backtracked on a Tesla Model 3 review, which criticised the Model 3’s braking as being substandard we wondered if Tesla, aka, Elon Musk twisted a few arms.
So did Tesla try to buy positive feedback from a truly independent review source? The answer is no
Tesla do get a lot of hit jobs from media, particularly automotive media, because they refuse to pay for adverts. It does seem to have died down in recent times as most people now know the pros and cons of a Tesla, so the FUD is less effective and hurts their credibility.
Kiwicon came first. Kiwicon started decades ago with a couple of hundred nerds down at Pipitea campus with a sense of bewilderment that anyone showed up at all, and the cleaners refusing to do the men’s bathroom overnight.
We’ve grown up since then. Not too much.
We’ll always have black t-shirts and lasers, but we’ll also have glitter fountains. Maybe a petting zoo.
China is replacing its diesel trucks with electric models faster than expected, potentially reshaping global fuel demand and the future of heavy transport.
In 2020, nearly all new trucks in China ran on diesel. By the first half of 2025, battery-powered trucks accounted for 22% of new heavy truck sales, up from 9.2% in the same period in 2024, according to Commercial Vehicle World, a Beijing-based trucking data provider. The British research firm BMI forecasts electric trucks will reach nearly 46% of new sales this year and 60% next year.
China’s trucking fleet, the world’s second-largest after the U.S., still mainly runs on diesel, but the landscape is shifting. Transport fuel demand is plateauing, according to the International Energy Agency and diesel use in China could decline faster than many expect, said Christopher Doleman, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Electric trucks now outsell LNG models in China, so its demand for fossil fuels could fall, and "in other countries, it might never take off,” he said.
The share of electrics in new truck sales, from 8% in 2024 to 28% by August 2025, has more than tripled as prices have fallen. Electric trucks outsold LNG-powered vehicles in China for five consecutive months this year, according to Commercial Vehicle World.
While electric trucks are two to three times more expensive than diesel ones and cost roughly 18% more than LNG trucks, their higher energy efficiency and lower costs can save owners an estimated 10% to 26% over the vehicle’s lifetime, according to research by Chinese scientists.
“When it comes to heavy trucks, the fleet owners in China are very bottom-line driven,” Doleman said.
Math is like love -- a simple idea but it can get complicated. -- R. Drabek
