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Photo: rPlus Energies The US achieved a pretty big solar milestone in Q2 2026: it now has enough installed capacity to generate clean electricity equivalent to that used by more than 50 million homes. That’s more than one-third of all US households. But that doesn’t mean 50 million homes are directly running on solar – it’s an industry calculation that converts the solar fleet’s output into the electricity used by an average home. The milestone comes after a strong Q2 2026 for US solar. The industry installed 11.4 gigawatts direct current (GWdc) of new capacity, according to the latest US…

Apple has seen reason: It has a black model in the iPhone Pro lineup again.Last year, Apple went bold with its colors for the iPhone 17 Pro, offering a flashy orange, a shiny silver, and a dark blue. Don’t get me wrong, they looked nice. But there was no black (or dark gray) for the first time since the start of the iPhone Pro lineup, which Apple first introduced in September 2019 with the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max.I care about this because I always buy the black phone. I learned my lesson with the iPhone 6: I got…

Grab your spoon, it’s time for some alphabet soup. If you’ve been following the latest Chevrolet Corvette news, you know the latest Grand Sport lineup debuts with the first application of the sixth-generation small-block V8 by way of the new 6.7‑liter LS6. The engine is also standard on the 2027 Stingray. It replaces the outgoing 6.2‑liter LT2 from the previous iteration of the small-block family. The change ends the LT2 era after seven model years and brings the LS-series nameplate back for the first time in well over a decade. Below, we’re tracing today’s trio of 2027 Chevrolet Corvette V8…

Automotive Ford is facing new pressure from the Trump administration over its business relationships with several major Chinese companies, adding another layer of uncertainty to an auto industry already navigating tariffs, technology restrictions, and an increasingly complicated relationship between the United States and China. Reuters reports that U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley raising national security concerns about the automaker’s dealings with battery giant CATL as well as Chinese automakers Geely and BYD. Duffy urged Ford to reduce its dependence on Chinese companies and technology. A major point of contention is…

The Formula S sedan (left) and Formula S GT shooting brake in a screenshot from a Fang Cheng Bao video announcing their September 16 launch in Shanghai. Credit: Fang Cheng Bao The Fang Cheng Bao Formula S and Formula S GT have a pre-sales price range of 230,000 yuan ($33,940) to 280,000 yuan. The Formula S series is Fang Cheng Bao’s third product line, following the rugged off-road Bao series and the urban-focused Tai series. BYD’s (HKEX: 1211) personalized sub-brand Fang Cheng Bao said Thursday that it will officially launch its first sedan lineup, the Formula S series, on September…

Muse, Meta’s newly-released AI agent, is now using social media handles once controlled by Muse, the English rock band. The exact circumstances surrounding how the accounts changed hands are unclear, but it has once again raised questions about Meta and other large platforms’ ability to commandeer usernames when it suits them. Muse, the band, which trademarked its name in 1999, according to its wiki, has used the @muse moniker on Instagram and on X for years. But earlier this summer fans noticed the band’s Instagram username seemed to change to @museband. The change happened in July, according to The Independent,…

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but what do you call it when you build a whole brand on imitation? Well, “Toyota” would be a good name for it. The Toyota AA, the car that put Toyota on the map all the way back in 1936, was a shameless copycat, borrowing bits and pieces of the 1933 Chevy Master and the 1934 Chrysler DeSoto Airflow. Here’s how some creative remixing gave us the world’s biggest carmaker. The Swipe That Built A Brand 1936 Toyota AA Replica Toyota didn’t come into a ready-made automotive scene in Japan.…

The Drive 🤝 your inbox. Every weekday The Daily Brief wraps up the biggest stories and our exclusive reporting on the auto industry and car culture. What’s 16 seconds? In racing terms, it’s an eternity. So when Porsche took its Carrera GT back to the Nürburgring in 2024 and went 16 seconds faster than it did in 2004 with no changes except for the tires, it was a big enough bump to make headlines—or, at least we thought so—and Porsche gave all of the credit to the car’s reengineered rubber. The ‘ring is a massive track, to be sure. At…

Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) says she’s hearing rumors that President Trump is preparing to let Chinese cars be sold in the US as part of a broader deal with China. She raised the claim Wednesday, tying it to Trump’s upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington, which she said is coming “in just a few weeks.” There are many reasons to doubt these rumors. “We hear rumors that Trump is planning to allow Chinese cars to be sold in the U.S., as part of a larger deal he’s putting together,” Slotkin wrote on X. She called it “a…

A piston goes up, an explosion happens, and the piston goes down. That’s it, right? Not always. We’ve gotten used to engines being pretty standard nowadays – inline or V-configuration engines, downsized or hybridized, to make as much power as they can while staying within regulations. Whether it’s new technology or just trying to be different, some automakers have done things differently. These are our ten favorite engines that do things a little…strangely. Ferrari’s Tiny V8 Built To Dodge Taxes Every time an automaker makes an automobile, it has to stick to strict regulations. This rule even applies to luxury…