Yangwang Sells a 1287-HP Super Sedan for Under $90K in China
The U7's quad-motor electric powertrain churns out 1287 horsepower, and the U7 can also be had as a range-extender plug-in hybrid.
Sales of the U7 just began in China, with prices starting at around $86,000 at current exchange rates.
Electric vehicles have truly democratized power. Engines making 800-plus horsepower were once reserved for only the most exotic supercars, but now potent electric powertrains can be found in everything from luxury sedans such as the 1234-hp Lucid Air Sapphire to pickups like the 1025-hp Rivian R1T Quad-Motor. In China, automotive giant BYD has begun selling its latest electric beast, the Yangwang U7, a sleek sedan with 1287 horsepower and a starting price that equates to less than $90,000 at current exchange rates.
BYD introduced the Yangwang brand in 2023, and yes, the name is bound to elicit a few snickers from those with a juvenile sense of humor. But Yangwang has cranked out some of China's most interesting cars since its arrival, starting with the brash, decadent U8 SUV and dramatic U9 supercar. Both produce well over 1000 hp, look sharp, and feature neat gimmicks: the U8 can act as a boat in emergency situations and the U9 can jump thanks to a trick active air suspension.
While both the U8 and U9 start north of $150,000, the U7 brings absurd performance at a more attainable price. The four electric motors—one for each wheel—combine for 1287 hp and 1239 pound-feet of torque, enough for the sedan to blast from zero to 62 mph in a claimed 2.9 seconds en route to a 167 mph top speed. That's a stellar result, especially since the U7 is a bit porky. It weighs around 6800 pounds and measures 207.3 inches long, about eight inches longer than a Porsche Panamera.
A 135.5-kWh battery provides 447 miles on a charge, although that figure came via China's optimistic CLTC test cycle and would be shorter using the EPA's test procedure. The battery can charge at up to 500 kW and Yangwang claims it can charge from 30 to 80 percent in under 20 minutes, although given the claimed peak power draw, that time seems a bit longer than we'd expect.
The U7 brings other goodies too, like rear-wheel steering and the DiSus-Z suspension system, which utilizes linear actuators instead of a traditional hydraulic damper like the DiSus-P system in Yangwang's other models. Along with providing an ultra-smooth ride and being height-adjustable, the system can stabilize the U7 if a tire blows by lifting the affected wheel and driving on the remaining three. The God's Eye driver-assistance system, meanwhile, makes use of three lidar sensors, five radar sensors, 13 high-definition cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors. This all combines to provide Level 2 hands-free driving capability.
The cabin is dominated by rich red nappa leather and a trio of screens, with a 12.8-inch central display augmented by a 23.6-inch digital instrument cluster and a 6.0-inch screen for the front passenger. Available in four and five-seat configurations, the front chairs are 20-way adjustable and are ventilated, heating, and massaging. Along with a pair of 12.8-inch screens, the rear passengers get foldout tables and a mini refrigerator, and there are even "temperature sensing" armrests meant to keep you from getting too hot or cold. There's also a 23-speaker sound system.
If you're not quite ready to commit to an EV, the Yangwang U7 is also offered as a range-extender plug-in hybrid. The PHEV retains all four electric motors—now hooked up to a 52.4-kWh battery—but adds a turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four, chosen for its low, compact design. The battery alone provides 124 miles, and when the gas engine kicks in the U7 can travel 621 miles.
It's a shame that the Yangwang U7—with its combination of handsome styling, brawny powertrain, capable suspension, and luxurious cabin—will almost assuredly never be sold here. And while it may not be entirely fair to compare the price directly to what's available in the U.S., it's hard to not be envious of Chinese EV shoppers when they can buy a vehicle as comprehensive as the U7 for less than $100,000.
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Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Inside BYD's plan to rule the waves
Elon Musk had a problem. As Tesla struggled to ramp up sales in October 2022, it faced a critical shortage of ships to deliver its EVs. "There weren't enough boats, there weren't enough trains, there weren't enough car carriers," Musk told investors, after Tesla announced it had delivered tens of thousands of cars fewer than it made over the previous quarter. As Tesla struggled, its biggest Chinese rival devised a novel solution. BYD, which is on course to surpass Tesla this year as the world's top seller of EVs, decided in 2022 to build a fleet of seven giant ships, each capable of carrying thousands of cars. Unlike most of its Western rivals, which typically buy space on car carriers operated by shipping companies, BYD has cut out the intermediary as it doubles down on ambitious plans to sell half its cars outside China by 2030. Six of BYD's giant ships, which are emblazoned with the company's livery and a striking red and white color scheme, have entered service in the past year. Data obtained by Business Insider from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic shows how the Chinese carmaker is using this fleet to drive an unprecedented international expansion, flooding ports in Europe, Brazil, and Mexico as it takes the fight to Tesla and overtakes legacy automakers. EVs on the high seas BYD's first ship set sail in January 2024, when the BYD Explorer No.1 — a 200-meter-long, 13-deck, roll-on roll-off behemoth — went into service. In July, the Zhengzhou, which can carry up to 7,000 vehicles, became the seventh vessel to join the fleet. The largest ship in BYD's armada, the Shenzhen, has a capacity of over 9,000 vehicles, making it one of the world's largest car-carrying vessels. The massive ships have been busy. After launching, Explorer No.1 immediately began a 41-day voyage to Europe, the first of three separate trips there in 2024. Explorer No.1 has also made three voyages to Brazil since May 2024. In May this year, it docked in the Brazilian port of Portocel in its second visit in four months, with two other BYD ships, the Hefei and the Shenzhen, also arriving in Brazil in April and May. All three arrived fully laden and left empty as BYD raced to deliver its vehicles to Brazil ahead of a planned EV tariff rise in July. The voyages to Europe and Brazil coincide with BYD's sales surging in both markets. BYD, which did not respond to a request for comment for this story, sold just 2,500 vehicles in Brazil in the first half of 2023. It's sold over 56,000 vehicles there so far this year, per data from Brazil's National Federation of Automotive Vehicle Distribution. That's more than Nissan, Renault, and Ford, and it has seen BYD take a dominant position in one of the world's fastest-growing EV markets. In Europe, BYD's sales in the first half of the year were more than 300% higher than over the same period in 2024. The Chinese carmaker sold more pure battery-electric vehicles than Musk's automaker in Europe for the first time in April, and its global EV sales have outpaced Tesla's for the past three quarters. Stian Omli, a senior vice president at logistics intelligence firm Esgian, told Business Insider that BYD was essentially operating a "shuttle service" between its production hubs in China and key ports in Europe and Brazil. BYD's strategy is shaking up the car shipping industry, which has been dominated historically by a handful of established shipping companies that usually plan and invest on cycles of a decade or longer. Companies like Norwegian logistics giant Wallenius Wilhelmsen and Japanese firm NYK Line sell space aboard their ships to multiple companies, then try to stop at as many ports as possible and pick up cargo for the return voyages. But Omli said BYD's strategy was to go direct, dump a massive number of EVs at one or two destination ports, and often return to China empty. "Just like they have changed the competitive landscape when it comes to cars, the Chinese are also changing the competitive landscape when it comes to the car carriers," Omli said. China's brutal EV market forces BYD to go global Stephen Dyer, managing director at auto consultancy AlixPartners, told Business Insider that the Chinese EV industry's drive to expand overseas is driven by a "never-ending" price war at home, as over 100 EV brands fight it out in the world's most brutally competitive car market. "If you can succeed outside China, you gain credibility with your core market consumers in China," said Dyer. BYD could do with a boost. In July, the automaker's sales fell for the first time this year, putting its target of selling 5.5 million cars in 2025 at risk. BYD's decision to operate its own ships had its roots in a post-COVID supply crunch between 2021 and 2023, when high demand combined with a shortage of specialised car carriers. This crunch sent the price of one car carrier for a yearlong charter soaring as high as $125,000 per day, far above the typical pre-COVID high of around $25,000, Omli said. This is what made Musk rage and prompted BYD to embark on its radical strategy just as it was beginning to enter international markets in earnest. BYD's setup allows the company to avoid being caught out if prices soar again, Omli said, and also gives it more flexibility to send its cars where and when it wants. Control over its supply chain is a key part of BYD's formula for building EVs quicker and cheaper than its rivals. The company manufactures almost all of its own parts. Executive vice president Stella Li previously said that the tires and windows of BYD's Dolphin hatchback were the only parts not made in-house. "Developing your own component suppliers gives BYD not only some cost leverage over other suppliers, but also the flexibility to do things much faster," Dyer said. "When you have your own fleet, it's the same idea. It allows you to do things quickly and flexibly. You can divert them to anywhere that you want to go, even part of the way on the voyage. You're assured of supply," he added. A costly gambit BYD is not the only Chinese EV company to dabble in deep-sea shipping. Rivals such as SAIC Motors have built even larger fleets, and Omli estimated the share of the global deep-sea car carrier fleet controlled by Chinese companies will rise from 10-15% to as much as 25% in the next few years. It's a hefty investment. Omli estimated that building the first four ships in its fleet cost BYD around $500 million, with such ships typically costing between $100 and $130 million each to build. BYD's fleet shows no signs of slowing down. The automaker's monthly vehicle exports in July were nearly three times higher than a year ago, per company figures, and its vessels have made six voyages to Europe so far this year. Recently, BYD's fleet has deployed its "shuttle service" strategy in Mexico. The 200-meter-long Changzhou became the first BYD vessel to arrive in the country in June, before criss-crossing the Pacific and returning with another load a month later. The Explorer No.1 has just made the same journey, docking at the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas on 14 August. BYD recently abandoned plans to build a factory in Mexico, but the company's EVs are still in high demand there. Executives say they expect sales to double this year. Data from Esgian shows that the four BYD vessels it tracks — The Explorer No.1, Shenzhen, Hefei, and Changzhou — have visited the Mexican ports of Mazatlan and Lararo Cardenas, along with Portocel, more than any other ports outside Asia this year. No risk, no reward While BYD's shipbuilding surge has given the company the flexibility to export its EVs at unprecedented volume, the strategy has risks. The company and its Chinese rivals have shipped so many vehicles to Europe over the past two years that it has put shipping infrastructure under pressure and turned some ports into giant parking lots. Germany-based auto analyst Matthias Schmidt told Business Insider that most of BYD's sales in Europe were to companies and dealerships, rather than consumers. Schmidt said he believed BYD's strategy was to flood the market through corporate channels and build enough momentum to become a recognisable brand for European consumers. The shipping supply crunch that pushed BYD to build its fleet has now mostly abated. A wave of car-carrying ships has been launched in the past two years, easing the shortage and bringing prices down to around $50,000 per day for one car carrier on a one-year charter, with Omli estimating they will probably fall to around $30,000. With shipping via external carriers a more affordable option, Schmidt said BYD now has to justify the massive costs of running its own fleet by exporting more vehicles. "That's probably partly behind the high number of vehicles coming to Europe right now. They need to ship those vessels relatively full to maximise utilisation," Schmidt added. Alexander Brown, a senior analyst at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, said that "a lot has changed" since BYD went all in on its own ships three years ago. Since then, Western economies have raised trade barriers to protect their own auto industries from Chinese carmakers, and the Trump administration has set about reordering global trade with tariffs. With this protectionism in mind, BYD has another big investment: factories. It recently began production at its new factory in Brazil, on the site of a plant Ford closed in 2021 after years of poor sales and big losses, ending a century of Ford production in the country. The Detroit automaker also shut down multiple plants in Europe, and Chinese automakers are now filling that gap. BYD is building production sites for the European market in Hungary and Turkey. Brown added that, if BYD had known how much tariffs would rise after going all in on cargo ships, "they may have done things a little bit differently." Graphics by Jinpeng Li. Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Insider
18 hours ago
- Business Insider
Inside BYD's plan to rule the waves
Elon Musk had a problem. As Tesla struggled to ramp up sales in October 2022, it faced a critical shortage of ships to deliver its EVs. "There weren't enough boats, there weren't enough trains, there weren't enough car carriers," Musk told investors, after Tesla announced it had delivered tens of thousands of cars fewer than it made over the previous quarter. As Tesla struggled, its biggest Chinese rival devised a novel solution. BYD, which is on course to surpass Tesla this year as the world's top seller of EVs, decided in 2022 to build a fleet of seven giant ships, each capable of carrying thousands of cars. Unlike most of its Western rivals, which typically buy space on car carriers operated by shipping companies, BYD has cut out the intermediary as it doubles down on ambitious plans to sell half its cars outside China by 2030. Six of BYD's giant ships, which are emblazoned with the company's livery and a striking red and white color scheme, have entered service in the past year. Data obtained by Business Insider from ship tracking and maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic shows how the Chinese carmaker is using this fleet to drive an unprecedented international expansion, flooding ports in Europe, Brazil, and Mexico as it takes the fight to Tesla and overtakes legacy automakers. BYD's first ship set sail in January 2024, when the BYD Explorer No.1 — a 200-meter-long, 13-deck, roll-on roll-off behemoth — went into service. In July, the Zhengzhou, which can carry up to 7,000 vehicles, became the seventh vessel to join the fleet. The largest ship in BYD's armada, the Shenzhen, has a capacity of over 9,000 vehicles, making it one of the world's largest car-carrying vessels. The massive ships have been busy. After launching, Explorer No.1 immediately began a 41-day voyage to Europe, the first of three separate trips there in 2024. Explorer No.1 has also made three voyages to Brazil since May 2024. In May this year, it docked in the Brazilian port of Portocel in its second visit in four months, with two other BYD ships, the Hefei and the Shenzhen, also arriving in Brazil in April and May. All three arrived fully laden and left empty as BYD raced to deliver its vehicles to Brazil ahead of a planned EV tariff rise in July. The voyages to Europe and Brazil coincide with BYD's sales surging in both markets. BYD, which did not respond to a request for comment for this story, sold just 2,500 vehicles in Brazil in the first half of 2023. It's sold over 56,000 vehicles there so far this year, per data from Brazil's National Federation of Automotive Vehicle Distribution. That's more than Nissan, Renault, and Ford, and it has seen BYD take a dominant position in one of the world's fastest-growing EV markets. In Europe, BYD's sales in the first half of the year were more than 300% higher than over the same period in 2024. The Chinese carmaker sold more pure battery-electric vehicles than Musk's automaker in Europe for the first time in April, and its global EV sales have outpaced Tesla's for the past three quarters. Stian Omli, a senior vice president at logistics intelligence firm Esgian, told Business Insider that BYD was essentially operating a "shuttle service" between its production hubs in China and key ports in Europe and Brazil. BYD's strategy is shaking up the car shipping industry, which has been dominated historically by a handful of established shipping companies that usually plan and invest on cycles of a decade or longer. Companies like Norwegian logistics giant Wallenius Wilhelmsen and Japanese firm NYK Line sell space aboard their ships to multiple companies, then try to stop at as many ports as possible and pick up cargo for the return voyages. But Omli said BYD's strategy was to go direct, dump a massive number of EVs at one or two destination ports, and often return to China empty. "Just like they have changed the competitive landscape when it comes to cars, the Chinese are also changing the competitive landscape when it comes to the car carriers," Omli said. China's brutal EV market forces BYD to go global Stephen Dyer, managing director at auto consultancy AlixPartners, told Business Insider that the Chinese EV industry's drive to expand overseas is driven by a "never-ending" price war at home, as over 100 EV brands fight it out in the world's most brutally competitive car market. "If you can succeed outside China, you gain credibility with your core market consumers in China," said Dyer. BYD could do with a boost. In July, the automaker's sales fell for the first time this year, putting its target of selling 5.5 million cars in 2025 at risk. BYD's decision to operate its own ships had its roots in a post-COVID supply crunch between 2021 and 2023, when high demand combined with a shortage of specialised car carriers. This crunch sent the price of one car carrier for a yearlong charter soaring as high as $125,000 per day, far above the typical pre-COVID high of around $25,000, Omli said. This is what made Musk rage and prompted BYD to embark on its radical strategy just as it was beginning to enter international markets in earnest. BYD's setup allows the company to avoid being caught out if prices soar again, Omli said, and also gives it more flexibility to send its cars where and when it wants. Control over its supply chain is a key part of BYD's formula for building EVs quicker and cheaper than its rivals. The company manufactures almost all of its own parts. Executive vice president Stella Li previously said that the tires and windows of BYD's Dolphin hatchback were the only parts not made in-house. "Developing your own component suppliers gives BYD not only some cost leverage over other suppliers, but also the flexibility to do things much faster," Dyer said. "When you have your own fleet, it's the same idea. It allows you to do things quickly and flexibly. You can divert them to anywhere that you want to go, even part of the way on the voyage. You're assured of supply," he added. A costly gambit BYD is not the only Chinese EV company to dabble in deep-sea shipping. Rivals such as SAIC Motors have built even larger fleets, and Omli estimated the share of the global deep-sea car carrier fleet controlled by Chinese companies will rise from 10-15% to as much as 25% in the next few years. It's a hefty investment. Omli estimated that building the first four ships in its fleet cost BYD around $500 million, with such ships typically costing between $100 and $130 million each to build. BYD's fleet shows no signs of slowing down. The automaker's monthly vehicle exports in July were nearly three times higher than a year ago, per company figures, and its vessels have made six voyages to Europe so far this year. Recently, BYD's fleet has deployed its "shuttle service" strategy in Mexico. The 200-meter-long Changzhou became the first BYD vessel to arrive in the country in June, before criss-crossing the Pacific and returning with another load a month later. The Explorer No.1 has just made the same journey, docking at the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas on 14 August. BYD recently abandoned plans to build a factory in Mexico, but the company's EVs are still in high demand there. Executives say they expect sales to double this year. Data from Esgian shows that the four BYD vessels it tracks — The Explorer No.1, Shenzhen, Hefei, and Changzhou — have visited the Mexican ports of Mazatlan and Lararo Cardenas, along with Portocel, more than any other ports outside Asia this year. No risk, no reward While BYD's shipbuilding surge has given the company the flexibility to export its EVs at unprecedented volume, the strategy has risks. The company and its Chinese rivals have shipped so many vehicles to Europe over the past two years that it has put shipping infrastructure under pressure and turned some ports into giant parking lots. Germany-based auto analyst Matthias Schmidt told Business Insider that most of BYD's sales in Europe were to companies and dealerships, rather than consumers. Schmidt said he believed BYD's strategy was to flood the market through corporate channels and build enough momentum to become a recognisable brand for European consumers. The shipping supply crunch that pushed BYD to build its fleet has now mostly abated. A wave of car-carrying ships has been launched in the past two years, easing the shortage and bringing prices down to around $50,000 per day for one car carrier on a one-year charter, with Omli estimating they will probably fall to around $30,000. With shipping via external carriers a more affordable option, Schmidt said BYD now has to justify the massive costs of running its own fleet by exporting more vehicles. "That's probably partly behind the high number of vehicles coming to Europe right now. They need to ship those vessels relatively full to maximise utilisation," Schmidt added. Alexander Brown, a senior analyst at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, said that "a lot has changed" since BYD went all in on its own ships three years ago. Since then, Western economies have raised trade barriers to protect their own auto industries from Chinese carmakers, and the Trump administration has set about reordering global trade with tariffs. With this protectionism in mind, BYD has another big investment: factories. It recently began production at its new factory in Brazil, on the site of a plant Ford closed in 2021 after years of poor sales and big losses, ending a century of Ford production in the country. The Detroit automaker also shut down multiple plants in Europe, and Chinese automakers are now filling that gap. BYD is building production sites for the European market in Hungary and Turkey. Brown added that, if BYD had known how much tariffs would rise after going all in on cargo ships, "they may have done things a little bit differently." Graphics by Jinpeng Li.
Politico
2 days ago
- Politico
A silver lining in Trump's anti-climate agenda
Presented by With help from Noah Baustin, Annie Snider and Jordan Wolman THE SAFETY IN ENDANGERMENT: The Trump administration is about to roll back the federal government's power to regulate climate change, but a former top Biden administration official sees a silver lining for California. Ann Carlson, a UCLA professor who served as acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under Biden, said the Trump administration's move to nix the so-called endangerment finding — which the Obama administration issued in 2009 and lays out the legal basis for EPA to regulate greenhouse gases as a threat to human health — could open the door for states to create their own emissions rules for the transportation sector. While states are preempted from setting vehicle greenhouse gas standards under Massachusetts v. EPA, a 2007 case that affirmed EPA's authority to regulate those emissions, Carlson said that the federal government getting out of the emissions game would present state leaders with a serious argument that preemption is off the table. That would be especially useful for California, after Congress in June revoked its unique ability to create stricter-than-federal pollution rules. Carlson spoke with POLITICO about the endangerment finding, the Supreme Court and what electric vehicle policies she wants California to push forward. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. It seems counterintuitive that the Trump administration rolling back EPA's ability to reduce greenhouse gases could potentially help California regulate its own emissions. Can you explain your thinking? I would start with the reality that what it looks like when you read the endangerment finding proposal from EPA is that it's essentially making arguments that greenhouse gases are not air pollutants under Section 202 of the Clean Air Act. That's the section that regulates vehicle emissions. So if that's true, then the states presumably are not preempted from regulating greenhouse gases. If you want Massachusetts v. EPA to be overturned, which is essentially what they're arguing, then you're basically saying that the Clean Air Act doesn't cover greenhouse gases, or at least with respect to mobile sources. How exactly would that help a state like California to develop greenhouse gas rules for vehicles? One of the arguments that opponents make against California's special authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate mobile sources is that Section 209, which is the section that both preempts other states and gives California its authority, is really designed to attack air pollution, because historically, that's been California's big problem. Los Angeles has the worst air pollution in the country, and that's really what that provision is about. And so if California is trying to use its authority to regulate greenhouse gases, opponents say that is beyond its scope. But now, if EPA is in fact arguing that Section 202 of the Clean Air Act, which gives it authority to regulate pollution from mobile sources, doesn't cover greenhouse gases, then states aren't preempted from regulating them. You could have 50 states potentially regulating greenhouse gases coming out of vehicles. Do you think that argument would hold up in front of a conservative Supreme Court? What EPA is doing is squarely putting on a collision course the combination question of whether Massachusetts v. EPA should be overturned and whether states can regulate independently because they're not preempted. Let's take power plants as an example. States can regulate greenhouse gases from power plants, because there's no preemption provision in the Clean Air Act. That's why California has its cap-and-invest program, for example. I believe the answer would be that if Section 202 doesn't cover greenhouse gases, there should be no prohibition on states regulating. Does that mean the Supreme Court would agree with me? Who knows. But it would raise a conundrum for them, because the conservatives on the court have been very reluctant to let EPA regulate greenhouse gases ambitiously. This seems to be a serious conundrum for the auto industry, which pushed the administration to revoke California's EV mandate. It's not an accident that the industry has not been urging EPA to withdraw the endangerment finding. If you look at who's aligned with that concept, going back to the first Trump administration, auto companies and the [U.S.] Chamber of Commerce are staying on the sidelines. It's the oil industry generally that has been arguing in favor of doing this. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order after Trump revoked California's EV mandate, directing state agencies to develop recommendations for maintaining progress. If you were a state regulator, what policies would you advocate for? Incentives are one way to push. For example, replacing the rollback of the federal tax credits is one possibility. Cities and counties can invest in zero-emission technology and consider things like feebates, where you reward buyers of electric vehicles through lower vehicle license fees. You can use the indirect source rules that require stationary sources that attract a lot of vehicle traffic to ensure that some of those vehicles are low-emission or zero-emission. All of those sorts of things are, I think, appropriate. I think the harder question is, can you do enough to replace straight regulation? Yeah, right. That's why this opportunity is potentially interesting. If the endangerment finding is going to go away, maybe California has authority that it didn't think it had. — AN Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! WAIT FOR US: The Trump administration is jumping into truck manufacturers' lawsuit seeking to dissolve a zero-emission sales agreement with California. The Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division filed the motion to intervene in a Sacramento federal court on Thursday, three days after four truck makers — Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo North America — sued to break a 2023 voluntary agreement with the state. The move is the latest step in the administration's aggressive effort to dismantle California's electric vehicle policies, most notably Congress' June revocation of EPA waivers that allow the state to enforce ZEV mandates. DOJ's filing, like the industry's lawsuit, argues that without the waivers, California no longer has the authority to enforce the Clean Truck Partnership, which was negotiated by nine manufacturers and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association. 'Agreement, contract, partnership, mandate — whatever California wants to call it, this unlawful action attempts to undermine federal law,' Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson said in a statement. — AN ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET: A who's who of the California wind energy industry, and their regulators, visited Merced County on Thursday to tour the under-construction Gonzaga Ridge Wind Farm. Just three of the new turbines being installed will produce more power than the 1980s-era installation of 166 turbines that it's replacing, according to the developer, Scout Clean Energy. In total, its capacity will reach 147.5 megawatts. 'That demonstrates how far the technology has come,' said California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild as he gazed at the site. 'This is what the future looks like.' Besides the state's top energy boss, POLITICO also spotted Ignis Energy USA General Manager Pedro Blanquer, Wind Stream Properties co-owner Bob Gates, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria's field representative Vanessa Barraza and California Wind Energy Association lobbyist Melissa Cortez. Also in attendance were representatives of Clean Power SF, whose agency has committed to purchasing the power for San Franciscans to use, and the state park system, whose land the installation sits on. Rows and rows of turbine blades were being stored on the location, a welcome site to Scout Clean Energy CEO Michael Rucker. When his team heard that the Trump administration would be imposing hefty tariffs, they sped to expedite shipping supplies from India, Germany, and Malaysia. The blades, which were manufactured in Turkey, cleared customs one day before Liberation Day, according to Rucker. 'We were lucky,' he said. — NB BETTER TO BE LUCKY: Warnings that the Trump administration's Forest Service downsizing could hamper wildfire response efforts haven't materialized yet, thanks in part to favorable weather conditions in fire-prone parts of the country. Democratic lawmakers and state officials across the country have warned that the Trump administration is courting disaster by removing about 5,000 Forest Service workers through early retirement and buyout programs, including about 1,600 people with wildland firefighting qualifications. But decent spring and summer rainfall and cooler temperatures across the West have helped contain wildfires, making existing personnel and resources adequate for ongoing response efforts, POLITICO's Jordan Wolman reports. 'He's gotten lucky in a way,' Steve Ellis, a former Forest Service supervisor who now serves as chair of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees, said of Trump. 'You're not really going to look bad until fire gets going and you don't have enough resources.' — AN, JW KEEPING THE TAP FLOWING: California can expect to receive steady Colorado River water supplies for the rest of the year, but the situation is getting dicey. The Interior Department announced Friday that states along the river will continue to get stable supplies, despite the latest projections for the waterway, which show water levels at the two main reservoirs continuing to plummet, POLITICO's Annie Snider reports. New projections show Lake Mead at elevation 1,056 feet at the beginning of 2026 — almost 8 feet lower than it was on New Year's Day 2025 — and Lake Powell at elevation 3,538 feet — 33.5 feet lower than it was on Jan. 1. But the Trump administration left open the possibility of making mid-year changes to how much water gets released from Lake Powell, and potentially also releasing water from other reservoirs upstream in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah and New Mexico. The news comes as the administration warns it could develop its own water-sharing rules for Western states if they can't reach an agreement among themselves. — AN, AS — Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter gives Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin's AB 1408 a shoutout in his call to speed up clean energy installations. — A small Napa County town is experimenting with a new microgrid run on batteries and liquid hydrogen. — An invasive swan species is a growing threat to California's wetlands, sparking a debate over whether hunters should be allowed to begin killing the beautiful birds.
