Jennifer Sensiba, Author at CleanTechnica

How I Took My Travel Trailer All-Electric (So Far)

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 02:35:36 +0000

In another recent post, I shared what I learned from going all-electric and taking my travel trailer off-grid for a week. Now, I want to explain to readers what it took to teach my older camper new tricks. It took a surprising amount of hard, intricate work to do this, ... [continued]

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E-Bikes Would Be The Best Vehicle To Take Through A Stargate

Jennifer Sensiba — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 03:03:36 +0000

Today, we’re going to take a trip through the Stargate, a really cool plot device in a fictional universe now owned by Amazon. But, for readers who are super serious (and fellow writers who have wooden objects lodged in the worst places), I’m going to promise right now that we’ll ... [continued]

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Elon Can’t Save Tesla By Leaving Washington

Jennifer Sensiba — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 01:21:23 +0000

With Tesla’s disastrous quarterly results, it’s pretty clear that the company is actually in trouble. Despite years of poor product decisions (the Cybertruck is stacking up on Tesla property due to lack of buyers—something we warned you about in 2019), the company’s good decisions on things like powertrains, reliable charging, ... [continued]

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Climate Weirdness Hits The Colorado Plateau

Jennifer Sensiba — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 03:49:02 +0000

According to my grandfather, “Only fools and newcomers try to predict the weather around here.” in the American Southwest. And, should anybody try to predict the weather, he’ll remind us that we aren’t newcomers, leaving only one other option. But, I’ve learned over time that his advice largely applies to ... [continued]

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Jeep Is Still Serious About Clean Off-Roading

Jennifer Sensiba — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 21:30:59 +0000

Things were pretty different in 2021, not only for Jeep and Stellantis, but across the whole automotive industry. Nearly everyone had ambitious plans for future EVs, including Jeep’s announcement at EV Day promising an all-electric vehicle in every segment (including the legendary Wrangler) by 2025. The sky was the limit ... [continued]

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Lessons Learned Living Off-Grid For A Week in Moab

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 14:32:04 +0000

Last week, I did something many people would consider to be crazy. Instead of getting a hotel or paying for space in an RV park with full hookups, I drove several miles up a rough dirt road and parked my travel trailer. Not only is there no water or electricity ... [continued]

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How Road Signs Save Electricity

Jennifer Sensiba — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 22:29:13 +0000

On a recent road trip, high beams were essential. The Four Corners area might seem like a dry desert, but there are plenty of small mountain ranges to support deer in the area and even more species of sheep, goats, and homo sapiens that have adapted to living in the ... [continued]

The post How Road Signs Save Electricity appeared first on CleanTechnica.

SolarBank Corp. Understands The Importance of Energy Storage

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 18:27:25 +0000

Disseminated on behalf of Solar Bank Corporation I don’t think we need to tell most of CleanTechnica’s readers how important battery energy storage systems (BESS) are. After all, they’re the core technology that enables electric vehicles, portable solar generators, and home backup energy systems. However, the importance of batteries is ... [continued]

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New For April 2025: CleanTechnica Diesel Wednesday!

Jennifer Sensiba — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:51:51 +0000

Let’s face it, folks: elections matter. With Trump back in the White House, all of this electric vehicle stuff ain’t goin’ nowhere anymore. As we all know, EVs kind of suck, and they really aren’t better for the environment. I mean, they’re powered by coal, so they must be terrible. ... [continued]

The post New For April 2025: CleanTechnica Diesel Wednesday! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

China Might Have Moved Too Fast on Lithium Production

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:32:03 +0000

A recent study in China shows that pregnant women in Beijing have a LOT more lithium in their systems than women in other Chinese cities. While it’s natural for everyone to have some lithium in their systems from natural food and water sources, the levels can only be explained by ... [continued]

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The Bike Industry Needs More Cooperation

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 11:31:34 +0000

Like many other people, my first new bike came from Walmart. I was a kid getting into mountain biking, and it was what my family could afford to pool together to get me for my birthday. I rode it for years, had a lot of fun in the New Mexico ... [continued]

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Why E-Bike Crackdowns Will Lead To More Mid-Drives

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 05:58:01 +0000

The Crackdown on E-Bike Rule-Bending Starts in California Recently, California decided to do what it normally does: strictly regulate just about everything. Automotive technology, firearms, the little tags on mattresses — you can count on California to lead the way to exerting maximum control. It’s what the legislature does, and ... [continued]

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Tesla Stans Accidentally Highlight Shady AP Behavior

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 14:01:31 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a very interesting article at Electrek that’s worth talking about. In it, Fred Lambert (a man who has become a target for Tesla Stan hatred in recent years), discusses something kind of crazy that happened when the Stans tried to defend a ... [continued]

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From Phoenix to Vegas on Solar Power (Mostly)

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 13:41:51 +0000

In another recent article, I shared a video from Aptera about the company’s first road trip from Flagstaff to California. But, as we all know, it takes a fair amount of juice to carry something as big as a car from A to B. It’s a lot less energy than ... [continued]

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Aptera Takes Its First Road Trip

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 13:37:04 +0000

Recently, Aptera’s people did something I’ve said they should do for years: take the show on the road! In a YouTube video, the company showed a road trip from Flagstaff, Arizona, back to California in the latest version of the solar-charging two-seater. What makes this video important is that the ... [continued]

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March Tesla Protests Have Been … Educational (& March Ain’t Over)

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 03:59:45 +0000

Vladimir Lenin supposedly said, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” Whether he really said that or someone else did, one thing is true: whoever said that is right. I mean, if you told the average EV fan 5 years ago that there would ... [continued]

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This Video Makes Great Points About E-Bike Safety

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 16:07:36 +0000

I’d love to live in a place with excellent e-bike infrastructure. If my smaller city had dedicated lanes with barriers between me and the cars, I’d ride places almost every time. Separate bike roads would be even better. But alas, it does not. Instead, most places have a narrow “bike ... [continued]

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Tesla Vandalism Hurts The Cause More Than It Helps

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 14:41:52 +0000

Before I get into why I think people need to stop burning, shooting, and painting swastikas on Teslas, let me first start by explaining that I get it. Trump and Elon Musk are doing some awful things. Perhaps more importantly, multiple judges have ruled that what they’re doing is most ... [continued]

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EVs Need To Compete Better With Old Cars

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 03:59:24 +0000

I recently came across a video on YouTube that made an important point: there are HUGE advantages to driving an old car around. While you don’t get the latest technology (but can get most of it, more on that in a bit), don’t have the latest style, and often don’t ... [continued]

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Some More Proof That EVs Can Benefit From Transmissions

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 03:57:21 +0000

For years, I’ve been arguing with EV enthusiasts about transmissions. While EV manufacturers can get away with just one gear ratio, the benefits of extra gears are obvious to people familiar with automotive technology. Torque multiplication at low speeds can help with towing, pulling up hills, and just accelerating a ... [continued]

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Sorry, Elon, But “Conservatives” Will Not Pull Your Feet Out Of The Fire

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 03:50:29 +0000

A recent article here at CleanTechnica (written by an author I respect and like, to be clear) got a reaction from Elon Musk. Elon used to follow us on Twitter, and we used to get reactions to our content all the time, but when he started veering to the hard ... [continued]

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Could A BMW i3 Be The Last Car You Ever Own?

Jennifer Sensiba — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 13:45:22 +0000

I recently came across an article at The Autopian about some aging EVs that are coming back from the dead. How? By getting new batteries! Aside from batteries, EVs really have very little that can go wrong with them. There are so few moving parts operating at relatively low temperatures ... [continued]

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Two-Tiered Resistance Hits Tesla

Jennifer Sensiba — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 15:45:17 +0000

Recent news out of a Tesla retail and service location in Oregon is quite shocking. Not only are protests happening, but bullets are literally flying. Pro-Elon folks would tell us that Tesla is facing a violent intimidation campaign by evil leftists, while most people protesting against Elon Musk will correctly ... [continued]

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More Data Shows How Two Successful (If Slow) Solar Cannonball Runs Went

Jennifer Sensiba — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 11:00:28 +0000

A year or so ago, I wrote several articles about attempts to cross the United States on nothing but solar power, carried along on or in the vehicle. Since then, the slow pace and even slower release of information about these trips led to me moving on to other things ... [continued]

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EVgo: No Third Party Adapters Or EV Conversions Allowed

Jennifer Sensiba — Thu, 13 Mar 2025 11:31:23 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email that we get all the time: “Notice of new terms of service.” Nobody reads the terms of service. With all of the legalese that they can pack into them, some terms of service have a specific gravity that rivals uranium. These ... [continued]

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Tesla Cybertruck Hitch Tested To Failure, Could Be A Problem For Heavier Trailers

Jennifer Sensiba — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 13:14:53 +0000

Last year, extreme torture tests by WhistlinDiesel got a lot of attention. When put through testing that is far from real-world conditions, the Cybertruck eventually failed in spectacular fashion, with the hitch snapping completely loose. Then, stories of people hauling trailers and seeing similar failures without the torture testing started ... [continued]

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This Map Shows Us the 21st Century’s Biggest Energy Challenges

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 14:51:40 +0000

A common online joke is that Trump only wants Greenland because it looks big on the map. But, the joke goes, he’s been fooled by the Mercator Projection, which makes things look bigger the closer they are to the north or south poles. Why? Because stretching the features of a ... [continued]

The post This Map Shows Us the 21st Century’s Biggest Energy Challenges appeared first on CleanTechnica.

No Duty To Protect Us, But They Show Up For The Oligarchy

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 14:36:34 +0000

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (a prudent course of action in the US these days, especially for the unarmed), Elon Musk has been leading an effort to make the government more “efficient.” But, definitions of that word may vary. In Elon’s wake, there’s a lot of chaos and ... [continued]

The post No Duty To Protect Us, But They Show Up For The Oligarchy appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Is Trump Setting Off A Terrible Nuclear Domino Effect?

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 14:54:14 +0000

I know it’s cliche to say this, but it still holds true: those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. As the Trump Regime works both against renewables and against Ukraine’s sovereignty, the real history behind nuclear power has to become part of the discussion. If we ... [continued]

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One Big Weakness Of ICE: Energy Independence

Jennifer Sensiba — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:48:29 +0000

One of the big arguments anti-EV and anti-cleantech people in the United States make is that fossil fuels make America stronger. Instead of focusing on intermittent and unreliable energy sources, they say, we should focus on “drill, baby, drill!” policies that make the United States an energy powerhouse. Not only ... [continued]

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Anti-EV Policies Will Hit Rural Areas Hardest

Jennifer Sensiba — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 12:30:32 +0000

When it comes to the demographics of EV ownership, most people have a pretty narrow subset of the population in mind. Upper middle and wealthy people, living in or near larger cities, with a nice house with a garage, is basically what most people would see in their mind’s eye. ... [continued]

The post Anti-EV Policies Will Hit Rural Areas Hardest appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The Rebirth of the Regime Car

Jennifer Sensiba — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 04:55:23 +0000

For many years, politicians and conservative activists have pointed to the Soviet Union as the ultimate example of how bad things can be at the bottom of the slippery slope of socialism. Do anything other than support large corporations getting control of everything, and we’re certainly on the path to ... [continued]

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Follow Us On Xiaohongshu and Learn How The Gift Of Curiosity Helps During Tough Times

Jennifer Sensiba — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 13:36:49 +0000

For those not in the know, there’s something really cool happening on the internet right now. When Trump offered to save the day for TikTok users, it came at a great cost. The platform, like Twitter, Facebook, and now even Threads, has fallen into the MAGA sphere of influence. Initially, ... [continued]

The post Follow Us On Xiaohongshu and Learn How The Gift Of Curiosity Helps During Tough Times appeared first on CleanTechnica.

California’s Going Too Far On E-Bike regulations

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:25:36 +0000

There’s two ways to look at regulations. One common way to look at them is a bit like Metamucil. The goal isn’t to stop what’s happening (which would be very bad for your gut), but just to keep things working smoothly and regularly (the word regulation used to imply this ... [continued]

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Has Musk Given Up On AI Regulation?

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:12:52 +0000

Several years ago, Elon Musk frequently warned about the dangers of AI technology, raising doomsday scenarios and comparing machine learning technology to nuclear weapons to describe their potential power. But, at the same time, he’s been against certain types of AI regulations, especially those that would place guardrails around hate ... [continued]

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RV Industry Survey Gives Us A Hint About The Future of Clean Technology

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:04:19 +0000

A recent episode of RV Miles on YouTube shared the results of an interesting RV industry survey conducted to help RV manufacturers and dealers better understand the current state of the industry. While all of the findings shared in the video were interesting, I want to cover a few important ... [continued]

The post RV Industry Survey Gives Us A Hint About The Future of Clean Technology appeared first on CleanTechnica.

CNBC: GM EV Effort Better Prepared Than Ford For Tariffs

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 15:46:14 +0000

A few days ago, CNBC ran a story about GM’s confidence in the face of the threat of tariffs on Mexico and Canada, countries where U.S. domestic automakers have a sizable footprint. If the numbers are to be believed, GM is in a better position to weather tariffs than Ford ... [continued]

The post CNBC: GM EV Effort Better Prepared Than Ford For Tariffs appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Canadian Know-How: EVs Aren’t Useless In The Cold

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:24:54 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I see people making this dumb claim all the time. “EVs don’t work in the cold!” they say. “I’ll never be able to buy one because I don’t live in sunny southern California.” After that, they probably hit “post,” slide their made in China ... [continued]

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UK’s National Grid Does Some Mythbusting

Jennifer Sensiba — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:01:02 +0000

One of the most common nonsense things we hear about EVs is that electric grids can’t support them. After all, it takes a lot of energy to move a vehicle and its cargo, and if everyone did that with electricity, all of the energy coming from oil today would have ... [continued]

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Is Tesla Musk’s “Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down”?

Jennifer Sensiba — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 14:19:20 +0000

For those of us who were kids and watched action movies in the 1990s, things can get pretty weird. When the movies first came out, they were cool, realistic, and a little comical at times. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, Sandra Bullock, and a number of other ... [continued]

The post Is Tesla Musk’s “Bus That Couldn’t Slow Down”? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Clean Air Is As Serious As A Heart Attack (Thousands, Actually)

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 16:01:06 +0000

Recent news out of the UK shows us just how serious the hidden effects of air pollution can be. After one year of implementing a “clean air zone,” one city found that hospital and doctor spending reduced by over 30,000 pounds per month! More important than the money is the ... [continued]

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Google Maps Was Already Garbage For EV Drivers, So They Fit Into MAGA Perfectly

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:00:12 +0000

Recently, Google Maps decided to cave in to the Trump Regime and obey in advance. Without a single threat or even an executive order requiring it (it only applied to the federal government, not private companies), the company changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of ... [continued]

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Large EVs Shouldn’t Be Impossible

Jennifer Sensiba — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 14:09:21 +0000

According to various media outlets, Ford CEO Jim Farley wasn’t optimistic about the larger EV market during the company’s last earnings call. In short, the price of battery storage just isn’t coming down fast enough for Ford to see full-size trucks and SUVs as a profitable option anytime in the ... [continued]

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IONNA Plans To Unlock Arizona Camping Adventure

Jennifer Sensiba — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:10:53 +0000

A couple days ago, we shared a press release from IONNA where they discussed the next phase of the EV charging network’s growth. During 2024, the company (owned by several automakers) contracted with 100 sites around the United States. Now, the goal is to get steel in the ground and ... [continued]

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Cleantech Needs A Defense From Burial In Bullshit

Jennifer Sensiba — Sat, 08 Feb 2025 15:13:30 +0000

The last couple of weeks has been a whirlwind. Fortunately, at least for my own mental health, I was taking some time off to prep an older truck for transportation duty while I started the long process of building an electric Suburban. But, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t checking in ... [continued]

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