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Investors are focusing on Middle East and SK Hynix listings as they look at the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Futures.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq Futures slowed on Friday as investors weighed Middle East tensions, and awaited SK Hynix's highly anticipated Nasdaq debut. Chipmakers' gains fueled the main U.S. indices to close higher during the previous session. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow were all on track to gain weekly gains as of Thursday's closing. The AI trade was also back on the agenda ahead of SK Hynix listing in the U.S. on Friday. Memory-chip maker, Micron, priced its American depositary Receipts (ADRs) at $149 per share on Thursday. The company raised about $26.5 billion. This offering will be the second largest share sale in history, behind SpaceX's record breaking IPO last month. Dan Coatsworth is the head of markets for AJ Bell. He said that "SK Hynix’s U.S. listings has?arguably been a few month too late, as shares in memory-chip suppliers have pulled back following a purple patch in earlier this year." The demand for U.S. shares has been higher than expected by some. This implies that the memory chip rally may have taken a breather rather than reached its peak. The AI rally this year has been fueled by expectations that data centers and AI infrastructure will be heavily invested in. Recent volatility in the sector has been attributed to concerns about stretched valuations and profit-taking. Semiconductor shares eased during premarket trading. Memory-chip makers led the declines. Micron Technology declined 3.2%, after rising 4.5% the previous session. Western Digital and Seagate Technology also fell 2.8% and 2.7% respectively. At 05.08 a.m. At 05:08 a.m. ET, Dow E Minis gained 61 points or 0.12%. S&P 500 E Minis dropped 12.25 points or 0.16%. Nasdaq E Minis lost 167.5 or 0.56%. Investors were also on edge due to the geopolitical risks after Iranian forces attacked U.S. military facilities in Gulf states, on Thursday. This was following U.S. attacks on Iran's eastern and southern provinces. The recent escalation has rekindled concerns about inflationary effects of the war. New York?Federal Reserve president John Williams said that he didn't expect Middle East hostilities would cause energy prices to rise for the remainder of the year. He declined to reveal how he will vote at the Fed policy meeting later this month. Kevin Warsh, the U.S. Federal Reserve chair, is due to appear before the House Financial Services Committee in the next few days. According to LSEG, the markets are pricing in a minimum of a 25-basis point rate increase by 2026. According to data compiled and analyzed by LSEG, analysts expect earnings for the S&P 500 to increase 24% compared to a year ago, with technology companies leading this growth. Before the bell, traders will also be watching Delta Air Lines' second-quarter earnings. (Reporting by Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
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Thai court considers damages claimed by crew of ship which was attacked in Strait of Hormuz
The lawyer for the three Thai sailors said that the Labour Court of Thailand accepted their petition on Friday, seeking damages following a deadly attack on their cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz during the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran in March. The petition seen by seeks at least one million baht ($30,000), per sailor, from companies and agencies connected to Precious shipping, the vessel's owner, and its captain. Kunpat 'Singhathong, their lawyer, told reporters that the sailors had accused their employers taking them to dangerous areas and putting their life at risk. They also claimed their employers were preventing them from continuing their work by forcing them to go into these danger zones. He did not release the medical reports, but said that all three had been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and were unlikely to return as sailors. Kunpat has said that the sailors have received compensation for their lost items and two months of wages. Precious Shipping did not respond to email sent by. Two projectiles hit the Thai flagged Mayuree Naree as it was sailing through the Strait of Hormuz on 11 March. Three crew members were killed and 20 rescued. Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned of a possible attack on any vessel passing through the Strait of Hormuz after Israel and the United States attacked Iran in February. Before the passage of Mayuree Naree, several vessels were hit. Precious Shipping, in a statement made to the Stock Exchange of Thailand on March 11, said that its vessel had taken enhanced security measures and was in constant communication with maritime security coordination centers. Kunpat claims that the company told him they had paid all the compensation to which the sailors were entitled and wouldn't take on any additional responsibility. "They paid, and they told us to?don't request more, what we have given is already enough," said Noppadon, a 33-year-old former crewman, who called the compensation insufficient and not up international standards. Panithi Tumkaew (43), a former crew member who worked for the company 'for 11 years, said that he needed'medical assistance because he was frightened of loud noises. He is now unable to do his job. "I'm taking sedatives these days" Panithi said, "I take them to sleep."
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Officials say 11 people have been killed by a fast-moving wildfire in southern Spain
Antonio 'Sanz, the Andalusia head of emergency, said that 11?people died in a wildfire which broke out in Almeria, in southern Spain. Sanz stated that the fire spread rapidly around Los Gallardos, in the province of Almeria in Spain's southern Andalusia region. It affected the nearby hamlet Bedar. He said that authorities had warned residents to remain in their homes, and the deaths seemed to have happened when people tried to evacuate their cars. Sanz reported that four people who appeared to be British, as the steering wheel was on the 'right-hand side of their car,' died in one vehicle. Seven others were also found dead, after they had abandoned their cars to try to flee on foot, along a route not included in the evacuation plan. Sanz reported that four more people are being treated for severe burns in hospitals. Sanz urged residents to heed official instructions and avoid risky situations, as authorities are focused on saving lives. The authorities are continuing their search operations as they fear that there could be more missing people. This is the deadliest wildfire in Spain since 2005 when 11 firefighters died in a fire in central province Guadalajara, which was started by a barbecue. The fire burned thousands of acres of forest. This disaster, which is considered to be one of Spain's worst wildfire tragedies led to major changes in the wildfire prevention systems and emergency response system. The Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed "enormous sadness" and "devastation" at the effects of the fire. He offered his condolences and best wishes to the families of the victims and the injured. In a message on?X he stated that?emergency service, security forces, and the military emergency unit(UME) were mobilised to fight the fire and advised residents to exercise caution. This latest fire?comes a week after a wildfire that burned out of control near the Spanish border in southern France forced over 10,000 people to evacuate from two dozen small villages and towns. The early summer heatwaves in western?Europe, which occurred between May and June, have drained vast?areas. This has made them vulnerable to wildfires. The World Meteorological Organization says that Europe is heating up at a rate more than double the global average. This makes prolonged heat waves more likely. (Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru. Emma Pinedo, in Madrid, contributed additional reporting; editing by Lincoln Feast and AislinnLaing.
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Russia uses small drones to evade Ukraine's electrical substation defenses
Open-source analysis shows that Russia is using small drones to damage high-voltage substations of electricity in the frontline region of Sumy in northern Ukraine. The Centre for Information Resilience in London is an open-source investigative group that has verified the footage of a new wave of strikes posted on Russian social media. Throughout the war, Russia bombarded Ukrainian power plants, particularly in frontline regions. As a response, Ukrainian authorities covered high-voltage converters with concrete sarcophagis and anti-drone webs. Ukraine's frontline areas are also filled with electronic warfare systems, which aim to interfere with the radio signals that control drones. As long as the thin, translucent fibre optic cable of small, agile First Person View (FPV), drones is not cut, or snagged, they are immune from?signal interfering. RUSSIA SEEMS TO WANT UKRAINIAN REGIONS BLACKED OUT Joshua Scriven, an investigator at CIR said that the Russians created holes in the protective net by first breaking it, before sending a drone through the gap. Since May, Russia uses these drones to navigate the vast structures of a sarcophagus. They find their way through ventilation openings to a central piece of equipment called the autotransformer. Oleksandr Kharchenko, the head of the Energy Research Centre, Kyiv, explained that removing the autotransformer (which in a substation with 330 kilovolts is worth around $3.5 million) will bring down the entire transformer. CIR has confirmed four of these strikes on large, well-defended substations 330 kV, and at least another four on smaller substations 110 kV. According to Deepstate, an independent producer of a battlefield map online, the locations of the strikes at 330 kV Substations range between 16 and 26 km (10-16 mi) from the frontline. This shows the increasing range of small fiber-optic drones. They've been using these protective sarcophagi for a while now. Scriven stated that they protect against "missiles" and "Shaheds" (heavy duty drones). The cost of a fibre-optic FPV RC drone is as low as $2,000. The cost-benefit analysis is staggering. Scriven stated that the strikes appeared to be a part of a Russian strategy to isolate Ukrainian areas from the national grid, and then to black out those regions by attacking the local power stations. Sumy has suffered from Russian bombardment ever since the summer of 2024 when Ukraine launched a military offensive from its province into?Russian territories. After being pushed back last year, Russia launched an attack on Sumy. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukrainian Minister of Defence, said on Wednesday that the?security situation in the region had worsened since June. He wrote: "Russian's goal is to terrorise the people and make their lives in the border regions unbearable." The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for senior Russian military officers who were involved in attacks on Ukraine's electricity grid between 2022-2023. Russia denies that it is targeting civilians, and claims all of its strikes are military in nature. (Reporting and editing by Kevin Liffey, Felix Hoske, Magdalini Gkogkou and Max Hunder; Additional reporting by Felix Hoske)
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Apollo wins easyJet bid of $7.65 billion over Castlelake
EasyJet, the British budget airline, said that it had agreed to a takeover offer of PS5.7 billion ($7.65billion) from Apollo Global. This was a higher bid than a rival suitor Castlelake. Apollo's offer of around PS7.15 per easyJet shares is approximately 3.6% higher than Castlelake’s latest bid. This could be the beginning of a battle to takeover?the London listed carrier. EasyJet's board announced that it would no longer recommend Castlelake’s proposal of PS6.90 a share, which the two parties had agreed on in principle just days earlier. EasyJet and Apollo stated in a joint press release that the cash offer was superior for easyJet's shareholders, as it provided a "higher cash value" than Castlelake’s latest proposal. Apollo must make a "firm" offer to easyJet before August 7, or they will walk away. Castlelake has until August 3 "Apollo believes in easyJet’s existing strategy to evolve and strengthen the?low cost carrier model," said?Apollo. ($1 = PS0.7447) (Reporting by ?Yamini Kalia and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru Editing by Rashmi Aich, Subhranshu Sahu and David Goodman)
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Maguire: From curiosity to cornerstone, how batteries became mainstream
Batteries were essential but not transformative for most of the last century. Batteries powered radios and started cars. They also provided backup power when the grid went down. They are today?at a center of an industrial revolution, underlying everything from electric cars and smartphones to power grids that are increasingly dependent on renewable energy. This transformation from a niche component to a strategic foundation has unfolded at an unusually fast pace. Batteries have evolved from a niche component to a strategic foundation in less than 30 years. It is not a single breakthrough that brought 'batteries to the mainstream, but rather a convergence in technology, economics, policy, and scale. Portable Constraints Batteries were used for a variety of applications, many of which were not glamorous. Lead-acid battery technology dominated the market, used in cars and industrial backup systems. There were rechargeable options, but they were expensive, bulky and short-lived in comparison to the amount of energy they could hold. Batteries were seen as a limitation rather than enabling technology in the late 20th Century, even as electronics became more prevalent. The devices were designed to work around the limitations of batteries: limited runtimes and heavy weight. It would have been unthinkable to think that batteries could transform entire industries, or even global energy systems. LITHIUM ION CHANGES THE EQUATION This changed in 1991, when lithium-ion battery technology was commercialized. This new chemistry provided a significant improvement in terms of energy density, flexibility and rechargeability. Instantly, portable electronics no longer had to be plugged into power outlets. In the decade that followed, lithium-ion battery technology quietly fueled the growth of laptops and mobile phones. Eventually, smartphones were also powered by these batteries. In the early 2000s batteries no longer supported devices, but enabled new product categories. Batteries became a part of everyday life, even though they were largely invisible. The next turning-point came from scale. The global consumer electronics market boomed between 2000 and 2010. Battery manufacturing grew dramatically in East Asia. Scale brought learning. Manufacturing processes improved. Yields increased. Supply chains matured. Costs started to drop -- first slowly, then quickly. According to the International Energy Agency, the price of lithium-ion batteries has dropped between 80% and 90% in the last decade. This is one of the steepest declines in cost of any major technology. The cost curve would be decisive. Batteries that were cheaper did not only expand the existing market, but also created new markets. EVS BATTERIES MAKE BATTERIES STRATEGIC Transport is the best sector to illustrate this shift. The battery in electric vehicles has become the "defining feature" of the vehicle, replacing the internal combustion engines as the core of the car. This shift has forced automakers, at least those who want to compete in EVs, to rethink their supply chains and manufacturing processes. Tesla, for example, built its business model around the performance and cost of batteries. Governments introduced incentives and emission rules to accelerate adoption. At the same time, raw materials like lithium, nickel, and cobalt were in high demand, bringing batteries into geopolitics. Supply chains were transformed into strategic assets and the control of battery materials had implications for industrial competitiveness and energy security. Batteries are no longer just a consumer technology -- they're a cornerstone for the future of transport. MOBILITY AND THE GRID Power has become the next frontier. The variability of renewable energies, such as wind and solar, has led to a need for greater flexibility. Batteries are one of the best tools for achieving flexibility. Battery storage projects at utility scale are being implemented to balance the supply and demand, improve grid stability, and store excess renewable energy for later use. What started as a niche frequency regulation solution has evolved into a wide range of applications in modern power systems. According to the IEA, in many markets, battery-powered peaking plants are now competitive with gas-fired systems for certain applications. This was unimaginable a few years ago. Batteries have been elevated from mobility technologies to core infrastructure. Power Politics The government's policy played a key role in speeding up this transition. Climate targets have moved electrification up the national agenda, and industrial policies have tried to localize battery production. In the U.S. the Inflation Reduction Act offered incentives to domestic production and supply-chain development. The European Union introduced battery regulations and investment structures, while China spent years dominating the?battery chain. It is not just a race to deploy batteries but also to manufacture them and secure the raw materials required to do so. Batteries are a unique technology at the intersection of geopolitical competition, industrial strategy and climate policy. GROWING PAINS The transition to mainstream culture has not been smooth. The raw material supply is a constant concern. Lithium and other inputs are subject to price volatility, and geographical concentration. The environmental and social impacts of mining have also been a subject of increasing attention, raising concerns about the sustainability of battery supply chains. Despite this, there are still technical challenges. The pace of improvement in energy density is slowing down, while safety risks, though manageable, persist. Recycling systems must also be scaled up to meet the future demand. The 'constraints' are shaping, not halting the battery story. The industry is diversifying as it matures. In cost-sensitive applications such as mobile phones, lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP) are increasing their market share. Alternatives like sodium-ion batteries are also beginning to appear for certain uses. Solid-state batteries continue to be researched, with potential improvements in safety and performance. Commercial timelines are still uncertain. New use cases continue to expand the market. Batteries are being used in more and more homes, businesses and industrial settings to create a flexible and distributed energy system. Recycling will also become a key component in the industry to both reduce the environmental impact as well as to ensure supply chains on a long-term basis. From Innovation to Infrastructure However, the most significant?shift may be conceptual. Batteries are not viewed as a new technology. Batteries are now viewed as an essential part of infrastructure, embedded and regarded as a given. The grids and devices that people use are based on them. They are important not only for what they can achieve individually, but also in the way they allow broader systems to work. The rise of batteries is similar to that of other foundational technologies, from railways and electricity networks to the Internet. The center of gravity is now in a new place. Now, the key questions revolve around?scale integration and control - who manufactures batteries, where are they deployed, and what impact they have on the global energy systems. What was once a niche tech has now become an integral part of modern living. Batteries will play a more important role as the energy shift accelerates. They won't be on the fringes anymore, they'll be at the center. The opinions expressed are those of the columnist, author. This column is a great read! Open Interest (ROI) is your new essential source of global financial commentary. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, X and X. Listen to the Morning Bid podcast daily on Apple, Spotify or the app. Subscribe to the Morning Bid podcast and hear journalists discussing the latest news in finance and markets 7 days a weeks.
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Special delivery: Italy’s postman joins AI infrastructure race
Italy's national postman has been chosen as the unlikely champion for developing its technology infrastructure and protecting digital sovereignty. Poste Italiane, a?postal services that pays pensions via 12,600 post office locations in remote towns, as common as local churches, bets on its EUR13.5billion ($15.4billion)?bid to Telecom Italia for it to accelerate the shift towards digital, telecom, and cloud services. Poste, which is two-thirds state owned, began its digital transformation at the beginning of the 2000s when it ventured into electronic payments. In the last decade, it has registered 30 million users (around 70%) to Italy's digital identity system for online access to public services. Poste, Italy's largest retail network, serves 46 million customers in banking, insurance and telecommunications. It also offers public services, such as passport applications, through its branches to those who are less tech-savvy. The deal with TIM is part of a larger sovereign cloud push across Europe. Domestic telecom and tech companies in Germany and France are building cloud and AI-based infrastructure to support strategic sectors like defence and healthcare, as well as parts of public administration. BUILDING UP THE TECH CAPACITY Poste argues that the tie-up?creates a larger, state-backed group capable of building distributed computing infrastructure throughout the country', a person familiar with the plans for TIM stated. Poste said that even without the financial firepower or the size of U.S. technology giants like Amazon, Google, or Microsoft, the new entity could be a supplier to these companies. Telecom operators provide infrastructure services to large tech companies, including fibre networks and data centres. They also offer local network access points near end users. TIM, with 125 megawatts of installed data center capacity, is one of the top three operators in the country. Italy's installed capacity is only 15% that of Germany. Poste-TIM, along with TIM's data centres, could increase computing capacity in widely distributed telecom hubs. They could also convert former postal sorting centers into local edge-computing clusters. This would bring processing power?closer the users, Poste argued. The person said that TIM's mobile networks sites may also be used in the future. Poste and TIM declined to comment. Antonio Capone is the dean of Milan's Politecnico University School of Industrial and Information Engineering. Capone said that telecom operators have assets located across the country and are therefore well-positioned to develop these facilities. Poste has a right to be focused on this emerging trend. He said that managing a distributed network was more difficult from an operational perspective -- consider maintenance, cooling and power management. But it's a challenge worth embracing. Italy's energy costs are much higher than those of France or Spain, and Europe is lagging behind in terms of AI investments and infrastructure. The Tough Journey of Tim A failed privatisation 30 years ago left TIM in debt. Since then, it has faced fierce price competition which has slashed profits and limited its ability to spend on upgrading infrastructure. TIM's debt-to-core profit ratio has been halved and its revenue per employee almost doubled with the sale of its fixed network in 2024 to U.S. Fund KKR. However, TIM will struggle to maintain its 5G and cloud investment plans despite doubling their revenue. Italy has made some progress in 5G technology. However, AI-powered services need advanced 5G networks. In the U.S., these accounts for a fifth (or more) of all mobile connections. Spain is the only European nation where this figure is higher than 5%. "Building a network for 5G is 'extremely expensive and you need to scale it up in order to make it viable. You cannot sustain four mobile operators in a country like Italy," a TIM investor stated, adding that the investment case was based on the expected consolidation of industry. TIM is in competition with Vodafone-Fastweb and WindTre. WindTre owned by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison and France's Iliad began exploring a 'tie-up. Poste owns already 20% of TIM. If the number of phone operators is reduced to three, a full takeover would allow Italy to reap higher profits at the former monopoly. The investor declined to comment on whether or not they would accept the offer and requested anonymity. However, he noted that the rise in Poste shares since the announcement indicated the market believed the benefits of the deal could exceed the EUR700 million target. The investor said that as a state-backed entity, the new entity would be able to handle sensitive communications including those in defence. He also pointed out?Poste’s "low leverage business with strong cash-generation from payments, financial services, and insurance." Poste said that the tie-up will support TIM in its efforts to expand outside of its traditional consumer business, which is shrinking since more than a decade. This includes cloud and cybersecurity services, as well as higher margin corporate clients. From a commercial perspective, the combination makes sense: a wider range of services can be offered to a larger customer base. Claudio Baretti, partner at AlixPartners consultancy, said that this increases switching costs while also helping to retain customers. ($1 = 0.8763 euros)
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Wally Funk, pioneering astronaut and aviator trainee, has died at the age of 87
Wally Funk has died in Texas, aged 87. He was the pioneering aviator and astronaut who, at the dawning of the Space Age with 12 American women, became the oldest person ever to fly into space. According to the statement, Funk died the night before at her home in Grapevine, Texas. The cause of death wasn't given. Funk, who had been barred from NASA’s early astronaut corps due to her gender, made headlines when she joined Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, as his honorary guest, along with two other guests, on the inaugural spaceflight Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocketship in July 2021. She said, "I never thought I would get to go up." In a video posted on Blue Origin website weeks before the flight when Bezos revealed his first crew list. After a 10-minute suborbital flight, Funk, at the age of 82, became the oldest person to ever reach outer space. He surpassed the record held by John Glenn, a retired Mercury astronaut who returned to space as a U.S. Senator in 1998, when he was 77. I WANT TO GO AGAIN Bezos was joined by his brother Mark, and a Dutch 18-year old high school graduate. This is the youngest person ever to have reached space. After a safe parachute land in the Texas desert on the New Shepard capsule, Funk said to reporters: "I have been waiting for a long time." He added, "I would like to go back, and fast." With her?broad smile, royal-blue flight suit, and?short, cropped white hair, Funk immediately won a whole new generation of fans on social media. White House spokesperson Jen Psaki called Funk "America's sweetheart." The record for the oldest person in space was held by Funk for almost three months. That is, until William Shatner - who played Captain Kirk in the 1960s sci fi television series "Star Trek" - launched aboard Blue Origin’s second New Shepard launch flight, which took place on October 20, 2021. Shatner had 90 years at the time. Ed Dwight, an Air Force veteran, beat Shatner’s record in 2024, when he flew with Blue Origin. He was also 90 years old. Funk is still the oldest woman in history to have travelled to space. Before achieving her dream of spaceflight Funk trained over 3,000 pilots and logged 19,000 flight hours. She also broke down gender-related barriers in aviation. Mary Wallace Funk, born in 1939, was the first woman to teach flight at Fort Sill, a U.S. Military base in Oklahoma. She also became the first female inspector of the Federal Aviation Administration, and the first female air safety investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board. Funk was the youngest woman of the 13 selected to participate in NASA's Mercury program, which sent the first Americans to space between 1961 and 1964. She outperformed many of her male colleagues on several tests. Mercury 13 was the name given to the women's group, but they were excluded from NASA astronauts at the time due to their gender. According to the Washington Post, Glenn, who was one of the seven original Mercury astronauts, and the first American in orbit around Earth, once spoke out against enlisting females into the space-flight program. In contrast, the Soviet Union's arch-enemy during the Cold War, the United States, accepted women early in its program. Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to reach space in 1963. Sally Ride was the first woman U.S. space astronaut, and she reached orbit in 1983. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Jamie Freed) Funk was the last member of Mercury 13 to survive. He became the first of the group's members to fly into space. (Reporting and editing by Jamie Freed in Los Angeles, Steve Gorman)
The Russian fuel queues are too long for electric cars.
Oksana Yasinskaya’s electric hatchback in sky-blue zipped by a 'long line of cars awaiting the reopening of a filling station and pulled into a charging bay that was empty.
Yasinskaya, after plugging in her car, 'looked across the deserted frontage. The signs on the fuel pumps apologized for being temporarily out of gas. This is a common sight in Russia as a result of Ukrainian attacks on energy targets.
Gasoline and diesel prices have increased due to the shortages, causing long lines and hours of waiting. Some drivers, like Yasinskaya's husband, are now switching to electric cars.
The fuel queues at the stations settled the issue. "We had never before considered buying an EV," explained Yasinskaya a 36-year old engineer who commutes to Moscow for her job.
"I'm relieved that I don't need to stand in this embarrassing queue. I hate to waste time. I know people who wait in line for two to three hours or drive at night to fill up with fuel.
According to Autostat, the market for new EVs and plug-ins hybrids grew in June, as fuel shortages became more prevalent. The agency predicts that the small but growing market will continue to grow if the fuel crisis continues.
Yasinskaya claimed she purchased her car from a retired man who kept it mainly in his garage and stored pickle jars up on the roof.
She said that she would not regret the decision, as her commute costs have dropped by 80%.
The lack of charging infrastructure in Russia and the severe weather are still major challenges for EV drivers. However, Yasinskaya says that her family can now afford to switch from their current car to a hybrid because they can charge it at home.
She said as she drove past another queue of motorists. "Those unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky individuals are just waiting there." (Written by Alessandra Prrentice, Edited by Ros Russell).
(source: Reuters)