More than 40 percent of all cars sold worldwide will be electric vehicles by 2030 -- nearly double the market share last year -- thanks to increasing affordability of EVs, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency. But the growth rate of EV sales in the United States is less than the global increase, with an increase of 10 percent in the past year. This is perhaps because, in the US, EVs cost 30 percent more than conventional vehicles on average, according to the IEA.  The IEA report suggests that, despite economic uncertainties in the US and in global markets, EV sales will continue to surge as their price becomes more and more competitive with conventional vehicles.Two-thirds of all electric cars sold in China last year were priced lower than their gas-powered equivalents, according to the IEA report.According to American research and shopping website CarGurus, the average list price of a new EV in the USis approximately compared to for an internal combustion engine vehicle, and for a hybrid. That price gap is larger here than in markets like China or the EU.Cheaper EVs are comingAntuan Goodwin, EV writer at CNET, believes the average price of EVs in the US will drop as more EVs are manufactured."Automakers that I've spoken to list economy of scale as the factor with the largest potential to move the needle of EV pricing," Goodwin said. "In China, EV adoption has greatly outpaced that of the US. They simply sell more, which has pushed prices down. As EV adoption picks up speed, I believe that we'll see price drop here as well."Goodwin added that cheaper EVs are also entering the American marketplace."Up until recently, there haven't been very many true 'entry-level' EVs with barebone specs that bring prices down," Goodwin said. "It's been all bells and whistles or nothing at all. Prices should come down as the current crop of vehicles matures and more affordable models -- such as the Volvo EX30 or Chevrolet Equinox -- with more reasonably equipped trim levels begin to sell in greater volumes."Charging infrastructure is an issueKevin Roberts, director of economic and market intelligence at CarGurus, said that EV charging infrastructure has also slowed EV sales in the US.There "is a lack of fast and reliable charging options," Roberts said. "This becomes especially challenging for those in rural and suburban regions that don't offer charging networks that are as readily available for those in more urban areas."The U.S. will need significant upgrades to both charging networks and the broader electric grid to support large-scale EV adoption," Roberts added. "While the number of charging stations is increasing, coverage remains uneven -- especially for fast chargers and in rural areas. We may also need to consider alternative solutions like battery swapping or mobile charging in the future. And beyond chargers, the grid itself will need to evolve to handle increased load, which could require major investment and policy coordination."Roberts said that gap in pricing between EVs and internal combustion engine vehicles will narrow as battery costs decline and competition increases. That narrowing could be stymied, however, with Trump administration tariffs, uncertainty around the future of clean vehicle tax credits, shifting manufacturer priorities around EVs and supply chain challenges.Beyond the purchase price, EVs are cheaper to operate than conventional gas-powered vehicles, according to various reports. Consumer Reports said that EV drivers spend 60 percent less to power their cars, and a University of Michigan report found that on average the cost of powering an EV was annually, compared to for gas-powered vehicles. The US Department of Energy also stated that "the average EV travels 4.4 times farther on a given amount of energy than the average gasoline vehicle."More than 300,000 EVs were sold in the US from January to March, CNET reported last month, which is a 10 percent increase from the previous time period in 2024. Although Tesla sales dipped 9 percent, General Motors boasted EV sales of more than 30,000, and new Acura, Audi, Chevrolet, Honda and Porsche models also helped drive up EV sales in the US.One of the more striking aspects of the IEA report is the even bigger surge in EV truck sales. Global sales increased 80 percent in 2024, with EV truck sales doubling in China, driven by operating costs that are much lower compared to diesel-powered trucks. #cars #sold #worldwide #will #evs

The Norman Foster Foundation and Porsche have launched a new creative partnership at the 2025 Venice Biennale, presenting a project that bridges architecture and mobility design. Titled Gateway to Venice’s Waterway, the structure acts as a transportation hub that explores the future of sustainable mobility within Venice. Image credit: Pablo Gómez OgandoImage credit: Pablo Gómez OgandoDesigned by the Norman Foster Foundation Team in collaboration with Porsche designers, the 120-foot-long installation draws inspiration from Venice’s historic bridges and adopts advanced lightweight technologies used in Porsche racing vehicles. The exterior incorporates a kinetic surface based on the Porsche Kubus pattern and is constructed with a solid aluminium chassis, referencing the Porsche 917. Image credit: Pablo Gómez OgandoImage credit: Pablo Gómez Ogando“This project encouraged a reimagining of the design philosophy to integrate circular economy principles and car manufacture know-how,” No... #norman #foster #porsche #unveil #future

BUDGET BALANCED Nvidia wants the RTX 5060 to be your new 1080p daily driver GPU thanks to big frame-generation boosts Nvidia’s newest entry-level card promises high frame rates and great performance on new games for - but only if you turn on all of the performance-enhancing extras. Article by Alex Donaldson Assistant Editor Published on May 18, 2025 I often think of graphics cards as being a little bit like cars. They’re performance focused, but aesthetics and efficiency also hugely matter. They also run the budgeting gamut. If you want to run everything with all the bells and whistles, then your Porsche or Ferrari equivalent is there for you, should you be willing to part with a huge chunk of change. Equally, most people don’t need nor can afford such extravagance. Sometimes you just need something decent that is going to get you where you need to go. For most gamers, where they need to go is running the newest games at stable frame rates and having them look good. In many cases this is the realm of the console - but increasingly more players are jumping onto the PC bandwagon at an entry level - which is where graphics cards like the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 come in. Now, disclosure time - this is not a review of the 5060. Consider it a first look, so to speak, since the truly finalized drivers for this particular GPU weren’t available at the time of testing and Nvidia gave us an early glimpse at the card in more limited circumstances. As such, I’m not presenting in-depth benchmarks and the like today. I’ll check in with a final verdict along those lines a little later on - but for now, I wanted to take a brief early lookat what this new card is capable of. That price point is crucial. is in the sort of realm where it’s a viable upgrade to toss in to an older PC, but for that money you’re also getting a card that is nevertheless a member of Nvidia’s ‘50 series’ family. That means access to all of the latest bits of snazzy RTX technology - including the new ‘multi frame generation’option that in supported games will let you boost frame rates massively with AI-augmented fakery that is surprisingly well-executed. It’s also a relatively familiar price. If you look at the class of card this belongs to from Nvidia, the price has been relatively stable for a while. 2019’s RTX 2060 ran at launch, while the 4060 launched at If you go back to 2016, before the advent of the ‘RTX’ era, you can find cheaper - but that was a long time ago in human terms, leave alone in the context of the evolution of PC graphics. In line with that evolution the expectations of such a card have shifted, too, obviously – which is where we come to a preview of this card, tested strictly on the terms Nvidia is most keen to highlight - which is obviously going to be favorable. Within these parameters, it’s a powerful proposition on paper. These parameters saw us offered a selection of games that Nvidia suggested as ideal for road testing the 5060. Among these was Cyberpunk, an old favorite tester of mine, and Doom The Dark Ages, the newly-released shooter that requires ray-tracing and benefits greatly from high frame rates and responsiveness. I zeroed in on those. With only 8GB of VRAM, the 5060 obviously has a bottleneck that sets it apart from the higher-end cards. But we also have to be realistic: this is a card primarily designed for 1080p or 1440p gaming, and as an RTX card you also have to assume that in many modern games DLSS is going to be something you want to switch on. Which is handy, as Nvidia’s guidelines for an early look at the card indeed wanted DLSS and Multi-Frame Generation switched on. As far as these features go, each individual has to decide if they’re content to make peace with the concept of upscaling, or indeed in ‘fake frames’ if you turn on frame generation. I personally think it’s fine - great, even - so long as the end result is a high-quality image. Others want raw rendering, of course - but if you’re in that camp you probably need to save more cash for a higher-end card. If you are simply focused on how the games look and feel on your eyeballs and in your hands, however, this is definitely a reasonable option. Watch on YouTube Looking at Doom, it all becomes clear that 8GB of VRAM be damned, DLSS4 does a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Let’s be blunt: you can whack the latest Doom release onto the ‘Ultra Nightmare’ preset - and then toggle on DLSS4’s balanced preset and 3x MFG, Nvidia’s two big frame-boosting offerings. With that setup, you can enjoy this brand-new shooter at 1080p with a frame rate in excess of 200fps. Tasty. Hop on over to Cyberpunk, which is broadly a more taxing game, and in RT Overdrive settings you’re once again reliant on those extra features of the 50 series hardware to get it to where you want it. Here the headline is an average FPS of around 120 - a magic number for high-end displays - but this came with heavier dips and stuttering when things got really heated than in Doom. This is something that could get mopped up with drivers, but my read is that this is probably the likely final performance - heavy highs but with some caveats - which is sort of to be expected on an entry-level card. Like I say, a lot of it comes down to your acceptance of the parameters of this card - and this preview. Is 1080p acceptable to you in 2025? And are you willing to accept turning on features that mean that all the frames you’re seeing aren’t technically ‘real’? That might also bring with it the odd blurry frame or diffuse detail, too. But that’s the trade off. The answer to how acceptable all that is will vary depending on the individual player - but many will doubtless take that deal for a shot at a game like DOOM at 200fps for This is obviously a new generation card in terms of raw rendering too - but the focus of previews tips Nvidia’s hand, in a sense: this is a card led by its additional performance-enhancing features. Nvidia’s frame generation and upscaling technology is best-in-class - and this is now the cheapest way to get the newest generation of it. Testing in the coming weeks will reveal how well the 5060 stacks up against the 4060 and older in raw rendering, and it's here that the rubber may meet the road in terms of the question of if this is truly a full-on upgrade or not. But with the bells and whistles turned on, it looks to be a good quarter-step better than its predecessor while remaining at the same price. The concept is ‘Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget’, as the saying goes. But you’re not going to get actual Bollinger for the price of a four pack of Stella. There will always be compromises. But whereas before budget card marketing would promise you a stable 30fps, we've now got it talking about 120, albeit with frame generation. Or to continue my clunky analogy, previously at the entry level you were, indeed, just buying beer. This is masquerading as something else - and in many cases, the generated frames do the job impeccably. The question now is how this card performs more broadly, outside of narrow tests on just a handful of games. Stay tuned for that. #nvidia #wants #rtx #your #new

13 May, 2025 We asked a range of designers to share their most deeply-held design belief, and their responses ranged from designing feelings to embracing mistakes. Every designer has deeply held beliefs that shape the way they think, and the way they work. We asked a range of designers what is their absolute non-negotiable when it comes to their profession, and they provided an enjoyably eclectic set of answers. Pete Hawkins – “Print it out, mock it up” Design hills can be lonely places. And truthfully, I’ve made sacrifices, this is a service industry after all. But my “hill” is more of a range. At the summit is, ‘Unique, relevant ideas, executed with artistry.” It’s the guiding principle, the DNA of every project, shaped by everything I’ve learned from colleagues to role models who’ve inspired me. But let’s face it, that sentiment isn’t rare. So I’ll stake my flag a little lower. In the foundational foothills of composition, colour and typography lies the forgotten Mount Piomiu which stands for, “Print it out, mock it up.” A modest peak, often overlooked, but vital. And I’ll defend this one with conviction! Pete Hawkins is creative director of Chase Design Group. Leon-Anthony Smith – “Make it work, then make it shine” Most users just want to get something done. If someone can move from A to B without swearing, squinting, or solving a puzzle, that’s good design. The impact isn’t in big reveals or clever flourishes – it’s in the boring stuff actually working. Set the bar at clarity first. Respect people’s time, reduce noise, and make the path obvious. Then, if there’s room, add the charm. Stop designing for awards. Design for real people doing real things, that’s what actually impresses. Leon-Anthony Smith is head of design at Atomic. Brigid McMullen – “Walk away if the trust isn’t there” Powerful brand strategy is profound. Brand definition captured in a matter of words, not pages. No fluff. No filler. Distilled to its very core. Meaningful. Creatively loaded. When it lands, everything else flows. When it doesn’t, it’s literally just blah. And essential to any significant brand programme is client and designer’s genuine openness to ideas, challenges, & uncomfortable conversations. Brave organisations are open-minded with their agency. Their trust deserves care, so our job is to guide, not bulldoze. Transformation demands collective curiosity, cut-and-thrust debate, plus a willingness to be wrong in pursuit of what’s right. Great brand design isn’t born from ego or tunnel vision but intellectual rigour, honesty and the courage to walk away if trust isn’t there. Sacred cows? Off the table. Preconceptions? Questioned. Every. Time.Brigid McMullen is founder and managing director of The Workroom. Tassia Swulinska – ”Make mistakes and embrace the chaos” I like making mistakes on purpose. I’ve always believed that creativity needs space to be messy. Something designed within an inch of its life risks becoming sterile – overworked and lifeless. The approach may seem chaotic from a distance, but that chaos weaves together spontaneous connections and unexpected moments. You have to short-circuit the rational brain to tap into instinct. Design it, kill it, remix it, then place it in a random space to give it new meaning. Let it break and glitch, then refine it. I think there’s something vital in the mess. Creativity isn’t a clean process because we are not robots – it’s intuitive, looping, non-linear. Embrace the mistakes and trust that your gut and taste will get you to the sweet spot. That’s a beautiful, chaotic design hill I’d happily lay to rest on, and watch the flowers grow across my perfectly typeset gravestone. Tassia Swulinska is design director at DixonBaxi. Bobby Burrage – “Always strive for simplicity” “Get rid of everything that doesn’t need to be there.” I find myself saying this a lot as a creative director. This isn’t an indulgent pursuit of pretentious minimalism – it’s about revealing what truly matters: the idea. What’s the design hill I would die on? Fighting against decoration, embellishment and the all-too-common over-designing that weakens brand impact. As creatives, we’re tempted to include multiple thoughts, references and elements in our work. The real skill is knowing how much to leave in versus remove. Deciding on what’s important and what’s just noise is a battle. This requires confidence and conviction – there’s a fine line between a clever twist and a forced concept. In branding, clarity cuts through noise. The most powerful message is often the simplest one. Simple is complicated!Bobby Burrage is creative director of The Click. Sarah Fairhurst – “Design should make life better” As designers, we could and should pub-rant every design detail. Vertical type? Only runs from top to bottom. Drop shadows? Should be illegal. Faux neon? Incomparable to the real thing. For none of these would I “die on a design hill.” Deep down I’m motivated by the belief that design should make life better, on purpose. Be transformational and uplifting! We don’t need more vanilla-coloured so-so, or so-what. We all need design for a better, lighter life – be that easier, more colourful, engaging, simpler or smilier. Design is a powerful weapon, and I’m fighting for more smiles. Sarah Fairhurst is creative director at Dalziel & Pow. Richard Taylor – “Don’t get caught up in the craft” My first love affair with design was born from something that fell off the back of a car. I was 16, and the Porsche 911 Carrera badge had fallen off and landed on the road. It was the most beautiful curvaceous type I’d ever seen. That badge was Blu Tacked to my bedroom wall for years. Skip forward to today, and I use design as a tool to achieve a commercial objective; to bring brands closer to the people they serve and drive transformational growth. As an industry, we often get caught up in the craft and can lose sight of the idea. But ideas and design are like yin and yang. Form and function. They need to be good bedfellows to truly move people, to break us humans out of our ritualistic buying habits. Whilst my passion for beautifully crafted typography will never wane, design thinking is what motivates me. And it should you. Richard Taylor is founder and CEO of Brandon Consultants. Lucy McKenzie – “Aesthetics are felt, not seen” The design hill I’d die on is that aesthetics are felt, not seen. Design isn’t just visual – it’s sensorial. Form, shape, and colour don’t just communicate; they provoke, they influence how we interact with the world and feel. These elements can spark something deeper and more innate – they evoke the senses and emotional responses that live in our subconscious, bypassing what’s rational. Like David Lynch builds feeling before story, design should evoke something intrinsic to the human condition before igniting a meaning that is something deep and relatable within us that we can all connect to. Working on a haircare brand, we weren’t just designing for function — we were designing for feeling. A sensorial experience demonstrating how the product smelled, flowed from the bottle, and felt on the scalp and hand. This mattered just as much as how it performed. Ultimately, design is not just about what a product does or enables us to do or how it fits within the cultural zeitgeist, but how it makes you feel. The design I believe in goes beyond what is in vogue, to something visceral and human, to something that is memorable and lasting. Lucy McKenzie is associate director of forpeople. Lee Roberts – “Fight the good fight for the guest experience” Although it is imperative that design is efficient and functional, the absolute priority has to be the user experience. At Zebra, we work extensively in the hospitality sector and there is often pressure to compromise on customer space for the operational aspect of a facility. Sometimes this is unavoidable, however I will always fight for the guest to ensure their overall experience is not diminished. The customer journey, from order to seating should always be exemplary – we strive to never have a bad seat in the house! Lee Roberts is creative director at Zebra Projects. Industries in this article What to read next Source: https://www.designweek.co.uk/what-is-the-design-hill-you-would-die-on/ #what #the #design #hill #you #would #die