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Good evening, India’s IT Ministry is not pleased with Elon Musk. Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him on Lex Fridman’s podcast, his satellite internet service Starlink, announced partnerships in India ahead of a launch, Musk’s social media platform X is now on the Indian government’s radar. Why is that? Blame Musk’s unhinged AI chatbot Grok for it. Over the weekend, Grok misbehaved and replied with abusive Hindi responses (read: gaalis) during a “banter” with a user. It also harshly criticised prominent Indian politicians such as Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi and their respective political parties. Needless to say, this hasn’t been well received by the government and raises serious questions about X’s content moderation practices—a feature of the social media network that has significantly loosened since Musk’s takeover in 2022. On that note, let’s dive into today’s edition 👇🏽
📝 The Debrief
How BYD is upping the ante in the race for EV supremacy…one thing at a time
I led yesterday’s edition with BYD’s potential game-changing battery charging platform—the Super-e Platform. Once I finished writing, I did what I enjoyed most: I went down the rabbit hole to learn more about it. And now, I feel it's worth a debrief. So here we go. Let’s ignore Musk and Tesla for a few minutes as we do this. So, what’s happening? The Shenzen-headquartered electric automaker BYD seems to have sensed an opportunity to race ahead in the battle for EV supremacy across the value chain: cars, software, battery, and charging. Sometime last month, it unveiled an autonomous driving system, which it called “God’s Eye”, with its billionaire founder Wang Chuanfu dubbing the feature an “essential tool”, comparing them to airbags and seatbelts. Besides that, BYD announced that it would roll the feature out to *all* its cars, including its budget Seagull hatchbacks. Shots fired? Now, let’s get to Monday. It's a breeze: As my colleague Anil Sasi correctly notes in this must-read piece, the ability to charge electric vehicles for the same time taken to refuel an ICE vehicle, i.e. ~five minutes, has often been cited as the “holy grail” of the “technological evolution.” But on Monday, BYD launched its Super-e Platform—a new charging system that could add about 470 km in range to its cars’ batteries in about five minutes. The company claims its platform has a charging power of 1000 kilowatts and takes up to 1000 amps. If you break it down, it could add 2 km of charge per second and about 400 in 5 minutes. This is an impressive feat in itself, as is BYD’s advancements in battery technology. How exactly? At first glance, you’d probably think it's impossible, with (legit) questions about the battery heating up (and perhaps more bad things happening). Two factors are at play here: ultra-high voltage and ultra-large current, which occur simultaneously when these EVs get charged. It is the current that triggers issues like excessive heating. So, what has BYD done now? It has introduced a new battery, cutting internal resistance by 50% and allowing super-high charging speeds. To make this happen, the company has also designed a system based on “silicon carbide chips” with voltage levels of up to 1500V. What’s the catch? These feats might seem impressive, but they come at a cost. By that, I don’t mean the cost of producing the car (which undoubtedly will go up) but also the charging costs. It’s simple, right? If you want faster charging, you’ll need more power, making it more expensive.
✍️ From our newsroom
The Euro’s strong run: Something is happening with the euro, the currency for 20 out of 27 European countries, as it squares up against the formidable dollar. To know what’s up, we need to go back to that fateful November day when Donald Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States. On that day, 1 euro was equal to 1.0933 US dollars. Between election day and Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, it lost further value (or, in currency speak, weakening) to 1.0277 US dollars. Euro’s plunge (or the dollar’s rise) post-Trump’s win resulted from his high-pitched campaign to Make America Great Again and revitalise the US economy—tax cuts, deregulation, tariffs (as a negotiation ploy…you get the drift. And Europe was seen to be stagnant, even as political uncertainty became commonplace. But something has changed since then, with the euro climbing back to its November 5 rate this week. Well, a lot has, to be fair. My colleague, Udit Misra, has this *excellent* explainer on the euro’s phenomenal run.
🔎 Need to know
It's here: US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has launched its successful weight-loss drug, Mounjaro, in India. Tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro, will be available in a single-dose vial that must be administered weekly as an injection under the skin.
Detained: Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar at Georgetown University, was detained by US immigration authorities. The US government, in court documents, has accused Suri of “allegedly having connections with Hamas.” Book-ed: The Telangana Police has filed First Information Reports (FIRs) against 25 persons, including film stars and social media influencers, for allegedly promoting illegal betting apps. Among those booked are actors Rana Daggubati, Prakash Raj, Vijay Devarakonda, and Lakshmi Manchu, to name a few.
🎙️Expresso Playlist!
In today’s Playlist, I’ll recommend a BBC podcast called Good Bad Billionaire. Now, I haven’t heard a lot of it—just one episode (heh!)—but it's quite an interesting concept, with stories of how the ultrarich made their money—and with a verdict whether they’re good, bad or “just another billionaire.” So, here’s the episode I heard: Jerry Seinfeld: The World’s Richest Comedian.
✋🏽One last thing
I’ll leave you with this excellent New York Times piece on Japanese baseballer Shohei Ohtani, whose stock has significantly risen in his home country. Now, the Major League Baseball (MLB) is cashing in on Japan’s Ohtanimania, recording a 183% jump in apparel and jersey sales in the country and a 114% increase in sponsorships. As they say on those shores, sore wa kureijidesu (it is crazy!).
That’s all from me today. Thank you so much for reading this edition. If you enjoy the Evening Expresso, tell your friends to subscribe to the newsletter. You can do so by signing up for the Morning Expresso. Also, you can contact me via email for tips, feedback, or just a hello! 😀 Until tomorrow, Venkat Ananth |
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