Andrew Hawkins

Polestar is down for the count, global EV sales hit 2 million in June, and China’s electric vehicle industry continues to make news this week. Here are some notable headlines: * Reuters: Senate committee plans July 15th vote on a bill to block Chinese automakers from entering the US market. * Electrek: BYD launches $35,000 ‘Super Hybrid’ Dolphin for Europe. * Yahoo Finance: China’s domestic sales plunged 26 percent in June, even as exports surged 80 percent. * CarNewsChina: Xiaomi’s Sky Harbor lineup kicks off with an extended-range hybrid SUV. * Electrek: BYD’s energy division wins contract for massive 11.2 GWh storage contract.

Bloomberg has the details on some of the gnarlier aspects of a driverless car service, including finding blood, puke, and fecal matter in the vehicles. Emergency responders have received almost 100 calls about passengers falling asleep in their Waymos, and then failing to wake up at their destination. This story reminds me of one I helped report nearly six years ago about Waymo contractors discovering hypodermic needles in the cars. The more things change… [Link: Robotaxi Riders Are Falling Asleep, Sparking Frantic 911 Calls

Last year, Ford introduced an app-based kill switch for its F-series trucks, enabling owners to remotely kill the engine from inside the Ford Pass app. Now the company is bringing that feature to more models, including Bronco Sport, Expedition, and Mustang Mach-E, according to The Drive. [Link: Ford Now Offers a Remote Killswitch on Almost Every New Model

After months of rumors, Honda finally confirmed that it was killing off the electric Prologue SUV in the US, after just two years of sales, CarBuzz reports. The automaker already pulled the plug on its Honda Zero series of EVs before they even got out of the factory. And after ending sales of the Prologue, that’s exactly the number of EVs that Honda will be left with in the US: zero. [Link: Confirmed: Honda Prologue Is Dead After Just Two Years On Sale

Microcar sales in the US are still as small as the vehicles themselves.

The company’s second quarter revenues are up 26 percent year over year, but its profits are down 5 percent.

Mileage is flat, the number of vehicles are shrinking, and safety is an open question.

“When I logged into my Tesla account and view my lease/contract with it, it loads a PDF which just shows the Book of Enoch?” the anonymous owner said in a Reddit post (first spotted by Electrek). “What do I even do with this? Lol.” The Book of Enoch is a 2,000 year old apocalyptic religious book about angels and demons, so it’s anyone’s guess why it would pop up for a Tesla solar customer looking for their lease. AI-prompted mixup seems like a likely bet. [Link: Tesla swapped a solar owner's lease contract for the Book of Enoch

New safety rules could take years to adopt.

DoorDash has FAA approval to launch its own commercial drone delivery service.