Global EV Sales Rose 20 percent in 2025
Last year global electric vehicle adoption grew by 20 percent. There was significant growth in every major region except for North America, according to the research firm Rho Motion. Global consumers bought 20.7 million EVs, an increase of 20 percent from the prior year. China accounted for the majority of that total, with 12.9 million cars and light trucks sold within its borders, up 17 percent.

The highest percentage growth was in Europe, which was up 33 percent with 4.3 million in sales. In North America, where the market was hurt by the cancellation of tax credits for EV buyers, sales of new EVs hit 1.8 million, down 4 percent. To put this in perspective, in 2025 approximately 16.2 million light vehicles were sold in the US.  EVs accounted for approximately 11 percent of all vehicles sold within that region.

Is Nuclear coming to Ohio?
Meta announced last week agreements with three nuclear power providers, including one backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as part of its efforts to secure necessary power for its AI data centers.

The contracts are for Meta's Prometheus supercluster computing system that's being built at its data center near New Albany, Ohio.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Prometheus last July, describing the project as key to the development of the company's advanced artificial intelligence efforts. Meta has said it expects Prometheus to come online sometime this year.

In working with the three companies on energy production, Meta said the projects should construct 6.6 gigawatts of power by 2035.  This amount of power exceeds the total load demand used by the state of New Hampshire.

Ohio currently has more than 100 operational data centers. The state is slated to get another 77 by 2030. That will propel Columbus past New York City to become the second-largest data center hub in the region, after Chicago.

The new data centers are expected to more than double the industry's share of the state's energy consumption in the next four years, from 5.3 percent to 10.9 percent.

Meta did not address where they will obtain power during the nine years between when the data centers come on line and the projected date of completion of the proposed nuclear facilities.

Data centers add to copper demand stress
AI and military needs could worsen what's already shaping up as a looming copper supply shortage in the coming decades, a new analysis by S&P Global finds.

"AI and data centers is a key new demand vector given data centers' electricity intensity, direct copper use, and rapid growth in the industry," it states. Over the long term, development of  robotics which are "heavily wired with copper" are another anticipated source of growing demand.

The study warns that without significant new investment in copper mining, a 10 million metric ton supply shortfall is projected by 2040, as existing mines decline and new projects lag behind demand. Copper prices have surged sharply over the past year, rising from about $8,700 a tonne in early 2025 to an all-time high above $13,000 in January 2026, marking a 52 percent increase.

Analysts predict demand could rise 50 percent by 2040, while mining struggles to increase output, creating a potential shortfall. This will put additional pressure on already surging mineral prices.

A second factor in the rapidly escalating price of copper has been increased financial speculation. The study notes that futures prices for copper are also rising due to U.S. inventory stockpiling. Traders have been building inventories in anticipation of potential U.S. tariffs on refined copper, expected to be 15 percent from January 2027 and possibly rising to 30 percent by January 2028. They note that the proposed 15 percent and 30 percent tariffs are politically illogical, noting that the U.S. imports about half of its copper, with more than 90 percent sourced from Chile, Canada and Peru.

Court finds Trump clean energy cuts illegal
The Trump administration violated the Fifth Amendment when it canceled clean energy grants last year based on whether the projects were located in states that voted for him in 2024, a federal court judge ruled on Monday
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The court's decision covers seven grants totaling $27.6 million. The U.S. Department of Energy's October terminations included more than $7.5 billion in financial awards to clean energy projects in states that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the most recent presidential election.

While the district court decision only impacts a limited number of grants, officials said the court's reasoning and its legal holding would apply to all projects that were subject to this unconstitutional action which violated equal protection of the law.