Welcome to Route Zero

🔌 What Is Route Zero?

Great question. Over the past few years as a journalist who covers the global auto industry, I have primarily focused on its transformation—the shift from gas-powered cars to electrified and connected ones. A lot is happening here, all of the time; it’s a world where we don’t get many slow news days.

I’ve long wanted a go-to roundup of all the most important news in this space, as covered by my team at InsideEVs and the many other outlets doing great work out there. Plus, there’s a ton of industry news that doesn’t get a lot of wider attention, even when it should. This is my attempt to fix that problem.

I’m starting Route Zero to round up all of the most important developments in what I and others call the “race to zero”: zero emissions, zero crashes and zero traffic.

Every Friday, Route Zero will land in your inbox with my analysis of the top story of the week, a curated list of the other major developments in the EV and autonomy space, a look at what’s on my radar, and the can’t-miss news for industry pros. (It’s free, too.)

💡 Why I’m doing this amid a tough time for EVs and renewable energy in America.

I started working on this project right as President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill was moving through Congress with the goal of, among other things, ending the electric-vehicle tax credit and other incentives for renewable energy. That’s since been signed into law. Meanwhile, the administration aims to end the fuel economy and emissions rules that were driving a more electrified future.

To some, it may seem like a screeching halt for EVs and green energy here in America, the world’s second-largest car market and the second-largest consumer of energy in the world.

I don’t see things that way. The car industry has always chased two things: efficiency and performance. EVs represent the apex of both, at least with current technologies. Any car company that wants to use these policy reversals to go “back to gas” will pay for it in the long run.

Plus, hardly a week goes by without some game-changing EV breakthrough in China, like five-minute fast-charging or a new car with tech that makes a Tesla look like a Toyota Corolla. Europe, too, is pushing to reduce emissions and combat climate change in ways that will continue to transform how we get around.

Add in the race for autonomous vehicles, and it’s clear that the whole world is in the midst of a massive paradigm shift.

But then there’s the biggest reason I find this transformation to be so imperative. As I sit down to write this note to you, it’s hot outside. Hot in London, hot in the Pacific Northwest, and hot in New York, where I live. Hotter than it should be, with a lot of summer left to go in one marked by increasingly common weather and climate disasters. This energy and mobility transition is also a necessary one.

It’s a lot to take in, right? That’s where I’m here to help.

⚡️ Route Zero is here to chronicle that race, for consumers and pros alike.

As Editor-in-Chief of InsideEVs and as someone who’s covered the EV and autonomy race for years, I spend a lot of time writing and editing stories about the latest in batteries, charging, software, self-driving tech, and more. I also spend a lot of time reading about what’s next in this space.

Now, I’m going to share those insights with you.

Each week, this newsletter will deliver the key stories about what’s next in electric vehicles and autonomy. Whether you’re an industry insider, an EV owner or shopper, or just curious about the future of mobility, I’ll bring you the must-read headlines—along with the context and analysis to help you understand where things are headed.

🚗 What you’ll get:

• The latest EV and hybrid developments: Who’s up and who’s down in the car industry as this technology advances at a breakneck pace.

• The impact of software: From what’s next for Apple CarPlay to generative AI in your car, the auto industry is bleeding into the tech industry—and often not very seamlessly.

• What’s new in charging: Believe it or not, the charging space is evolving and growing much more quickly than you might think. That’s an under-covered story, and one I aim to fix with news on the biggest developments in that arena.

• The tech race with China: Call it a modern “Sputnik moment” if you like. But China’s rise cannot be ignored. Its auto industry may not be invincible, but it will be a force to be reckoned with long-term.

• The big moves by startups: For pros in the EV space, there aren’t a lot of places to find the insider-y business news that matters most. Got a hot tip? Send it my way.

🚀 Are you in? Here’s what to do next.

That’s the easy part. Just hit the subscribe button below. Remember: it’s free.

🖊️ About me:

I’ve been the editor of InsideEVs since 2023 and covered the auto industry for a decade before that. I was previously the longest-serving Editor-in-Chief of Jalopnik before overseeing the editorial department for the publisher that owns The Drive.

These days, I’m also a regular contributor to The Atlantic. My writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Road & Track, The Verge, TechCrunch, Heatmap News and other fine publications.

I live in New York with my wife and our pomeranian, and I mostly just do what he tells me to do.

❓️ Did You Know?

The watt—and its derivatives, the kilowatt, kilowatt-hour and megawatt—are named in honor of a dude, the pioneering Scottish engineer James Watt. He also came up with the concept of horsepower.

May we all aspire to such long-term relevance.

Until next time,

Patrick George