All Access

Pro Rata Premium

Axios Pro Rata Premium

Standard

Axios Pro Rata: Non-Premium Subscribers

Other

Flashing lights

Deals of the week

Temperature check 

Quote of the week: Pushing limits

Let's get the easy part out of the way: whipping an electric police car around a track, lights flashing, was a total blast.

Why it matters: The driving experience wasn't much different from any other EV — which has spurred some 300 police agencies to order Chevy's electric Police Pursuit Vehicle. 

The other side: An electric fire engine, by contrast, is a whole other animal.

Driving the news: Alan had the opportunity this spring to take a ride in San Diego Fire-Rescue's plug-in hybrid Pierce Volterra pumper. 

It was a revealing experience, which you can read about here.

Yes, but: If you want to know what it was actually like, here's a mini-edition of Wheels, featuring insight from firefighters at San Diego's Station 52.

Price: $2.1 million. Roughly double a standard pumper.

Driving range: Estimated 80 miles; real-world 50-75 miles battery-only.

Charge time: About an hour. Not bad given the size.

Zero air pollution. ""My seat would be next to the exhaust, so normally I'd just be holding my breath," firefighter Ili Lacy says.

Backup diesel engine maximizes versatility.

Identical in appearance and operation to San Diego's conventional fire engines.

Slow on steep hills. Walkers outpaced us as the engine inched up a trail outside Torrey Pines Golf Course.

Repeated software glitches have required taking the engine out of service.

The bottom line: Firefighters at Station 52 strongly like their new engine, one they say offers plenty of upsides with few meaningful compromises.

💰 Exclusive: Houston hardtech VC firm Flathead Forge is targeting $200 million for a debut fund it aims to close this year. Go deeper

☀️ Exclusive: Cloover, a German software and financing provider for European home energy systems, raised $100 million in debt after generating $350 million in top-line revenue. Go deeper

🤖 SB Energy's IPO filing shows a company with little operational data center experience sitting on a $430 billion backlog, awash in a sea of circular financing. Go deeper

🤑 Exclusive: U.S. Bank is buying its first carbon removal credits from Carba's Minnesota landfill project, showing there's still life in the carbon removal markets. Go deeper

1 big thing: Flashing lights

San Diego Fire-Rescue engineer Kevin Taddonio driver with headset and sunglasses sits at the wheel inside a cab, dashboard gauges and devices in view, blurred trees outside through the windshield.

San Diego Fire-Rescue engineer Kevin Taddonio drives the Pierce Volterra electric pumper near Torrey Pines. Photo: Alan Neuhauser/Axios

👉 GO HERE TO CATCH UP on deals this week.

Sequoia Capital revealed it contributed $100m to battery developer Form Energy's recent $750m Series G. Go deeper

Reframe Systems, an Andover, Mass.-based home construction platform, raised $40m. Energy Impact Partners led, joined by Counterpart Ventures, E12 Ventures, Global Brain, Thin Line Capital, Up Partners, LACI Impact Fund and insiders Eclipse, VoLo Earth, Cubit Capital, RA Capital Management, MassMutual Catalyst, and Nor'easter. Go deeper

Khosla Ventures is raising an $800m "Moonshot" fund, according to a filing. Go deeper

2. Deals of the week

Illustration of an electric plug in the shape of a lasso around the words "Energy and climate deals roundup"

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images

🚖 Robocab corner: Denver and San Diego this week became the first Waymo markets served exclusively by China-made Ojai EVs — a vehicle subject to steep tariffs and at risk of being blocked from the U.S. entirely, Joann Muller reports in Future of Mobility. 

Tesla meanwhile launched its long-awaited Cybercab service in Austin, Texas, a test of whether the automaker's camera-only, end-to-end approach can catch up to Waymo, which built its robotaxi lead with multi-modal sensing and high-definition maps.

⚡️ Retail raise: Light, a Texas startup that enables businesses to offer customers bespoke, branded retail electricity plans, raised $46 million in Series A funding, Ben Geman writes in Future of Energy.

It will fund Light's expansion outside Texas into the massive PJM wholesale electricity market as it challenges incumbent power giants.

⛽️ Nuclear fuel-up: Holtec this week announced that it's started loading fuel into the shuttered Palisades nuclear reactor in Michigan, the latest step toward the first restart of a closed nuclear plant in the U.S.

Holtec in February confidentially filed for an IPO, with JP Morgan leading the listing and Goldman Sachs co-managing the offering. The timing of the listing is expected to be tied to the Palisades project.

3. Temperature check

Illustration of an ice cream cone with a melted puddle of ice cream that looks like the earth.

— A GM spokesperson, after I confessed I didn't drive the Police Pursuit Vehicle even faster for fear of wrapping it around a pole.

4. Quote of the week: Pushing limits

topics

politics-policy

epstein-files

donald-trump

2026-midterm-elections

immigration

behind-the-curtain

race-and-equity

technology

privacy-tech-regulation

automation-and-ai

tiktok-news

big-tech

social-media

cybersecurity

economy

social-security

inflation

tariffs

federal-reserve

transportation

business

c-suite

retail-news

September 05, 2026

1 big thing: Flashing lights