Welcome to the May issue!
April’s issue dealt with the immediate aftermath of APEC, and this month I’d like to get into some specifics.
Amongst a plethora of new developments, two specific themes stood out – the decline of EVs and the ascension of artificial intelligence.
Most companies and OEMs still proudly trumpeted their EV applications, but the word “decline” kept coming up.
2026 has already seen a steep drop in U.S. EV sales, with a 26.8% year-over-year regression in February. Driven in large part by the expiring federal incentives – the new ($7,500) and used ($4,000) EV tax credits ended on September 30, 2025 – EV sales surged in Q3 2025, before taking a 36% year-over-year plunge in Q4.
Will the U.S. EV market stabilize and swing back around? Given the various federal and industry deadlines, it’s a near-certainty that EVs will surge again. The federal government wants half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2030 to be zero-emissions vehicles, and various states have their own targets – like California, which wants 100% of new light-duty vehicle sold to be zero-emission by 2035.
Crucially, new EVs are becoming more affordable, with higher performance and longer ranges. Right now, EVs are still the domain of upper-income consumers – often as a second or third vehicle – but that could change in the near future.
On the other end, AI and the AI data center has gone nuclear – not literally, thankfully – and everyone at APEC couldn’t say enough about it. Generative AI training, cloud computing, infrastructure, and other factors are causing an unprecedented thirst for power, with the IEA projecting that electricity demand from data centers worldwide is set to more than double by 2030 to around 945 terawatt-hours (TWh).
By 2030, power consumption by data centers could account for a full half of the overall electricity demand. And given AI’s meteoric potential – on the consumer and the industrial side – we’re just in the tech’s infancy. Thus, unlike EVs, AI is unlikely to peak and wane quite so wildly.
It’s hard to overstate this, but almost any application – from AI-powered medical imaging and predictive analytics to autonomous robotics, adaptive learning environments, smart manufacturing, and countless more – can be improved with the addition of AI, so whatever trajectory we’re imagining is probably underselling it.
And that leads into the May issue, which deals with the bourgeoning AI phenomenon. We’ve got a focused selection of pieces dealing with AI, along with our usual repertoire of Technical Features and columns.
Hope you had a great APEC, and enjoy the May issue!
Best Regards,
Jason Lomberg
North American Editor, PSD
