autoevolution
 

Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

EV Expert
editor photo
Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.

Got any tips? Feel free to contact him through his LinkedIn profile or Threema: R6F4J872.

Gustavo knew he would make a living with writing. The options were a career in law and journalism. After a quick research, he learned that law professions would help him earn ten times more than a reporter. Knowing how it feels to be broke, he took no effort in going to law school.

Having grown up reading anything about cars his father would put in his hands, he started driving late: Gustavo wanted to buy his first car before learning to drive. But life is funny, and his law internships demanded him to have a driver’s license so that he could go to courts driving company cars. That was the only fun he had in the world of legal affairs.

In the third year of college, dying of boredom, he took part in a journalism training course. Loving cars was what landed him his first job as a motoring writer. But he also fell in love with journalism and how powerful it can be when things are not right in the world.

The profession was as unstable and low-paying as predicted, which eventually became a problem. That made him try to go back to the legal world working as a trainee. Ironically, it was at Ford, where he missed his days as an automotive journalist. That drove him back to newsrooms and made journalism turn into a professional refuge: he could always count on it.

Accepting that the life of a reporter is full of ups and downs – aren’t them all? – Gustavo fully accepted he was a journalist. That helped him earn a few prizes, work in multiple places, visit almost every major auto show in the world, meet a bunch of nice people, and feed his family while working with what he loves. He thanks for that privilege every single day.

At autoevolution, he found the right environment for journalism at its best: it can be fun to have a purpose.
Fiat Presents the Fastback, Its Crossover to Fight the Volkswagen Nivus/Taigo
Fiat Presents the Fastback, Its Crossover to Fight the Volkswagen Nivus/Taigo

3 Aug 2022, 23:02 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Not all European customers buying the Volkswagen Taigo may know that the crossover was developed in Brazil. There, it is called Nivus. Brazil may have another vehicle to export to Europe and other markets, only from a different brand: Fiat. The Ita...

 
Autopilot Makes Tesla Buy Back Another EV in Germany: It's the Third One Until Now
Autopilot Makes Tesla Buy Back Another EV in Germany: It's the Third One Until Now

3 Aug 2022, 22:05 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Tesla lost its third lawsuit in Germany because of its advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). A buyer took his case to the Darmstadt Regional Court on June 17, 2020. On February 21, 2022, the court ruled Tesla would have to buy back his car and...

 
BYD Han EV Has Another Fire Episode, This Time In the Middle of the Road
BYD Han EV Has Another Fire Episode, This Time In the Middle of the Road

3 Aug 2022, 15:14 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / About a year ago, a BYD Han EV caught fire spontaneously two days after an independent crash test. At the time, BYD said the blaze was caused by a conductive coolant that should not be in the vehicle. It will be interesting to learn what was the re...

 
CATL Postpones Announcement About North American Plant Due to Pelosi's Visit to Taiwan
CATL Postpones Announcement About North American Plant Due to Pelosi's Visit to Taiwan

3 Aug 2022, 10:45 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / CATL is the largest battery manufacturer in the world and a great producer of LFP cells. This is one of the reasons for it to want a factory in North America: apart from supplying these batteries to Tesla, Ford is also interested in this cheaper an...

 
General Motors Releases the Most Revealing Image of the Chevrolet Montana So Far
General Motors Releases the Most Revealing Image of the Chevrolet Montana So Far

2 Aug 2022, 23:45 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / General Motors continues to reveal the new-generation Chevrolet Montana little by little. By the end of June, it said the pickup truck would be the roomiest one in its unibody market segment. In the U.S., it would compete with the Ford Maverick and...

 
FreZe and Nikrob Parted Ways and Are Now Two Different Companies
FreZe and Nikrob Parted Ways and Are Now Two Different Companies

2 Aug 2022, 20:58 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Leonard Yankelovich went public about his new brand in April 2021. Apart from DARTZ, he was also in charge of FreZe, a company that would sell a rebadged Wuling Hongguang Mini EV in Europe for €9,999. Distribution was supposed to start in Augu...

 
BYD Seagull Is the Affordable EV All Carmakers Should Fear Right Now
BYD Seagull Is the Affordable EV All Carmakers Should Fear Right Now

2 Aug 2022, 13:07 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Tesla caused a frenzy when it said it would develop a $25,000 car in China. Elon Musk announced on the Q4 2021 earnings call that the plans were postponed. Volkswagen kept its plans for an affordable EV costing €20,000 ($20,302 at the current ...

 
BMW Recalls 27 i4 and 56 iX Units for Fire Risk, Asks Owners to Stop Driving
BMW Recalls 27 i4 and 56 iX Units for Fire Risk, Asks Owners to Stop Driving

2 Aug 2022, 09:24 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The BMW i4 and iX are the more recent pieces of evidence of what early adopters have to endure. For the privilege of being the first ones to drive a car, they are also the ones that face all problems a more mature manufacturing process should avoid...

 
Nikola Buys Romeo Power to Produce and Engineer Its Own Battery Packs
Nikola Buys Romeo Power to Produce and Engineer Its Own Battery Packs

1 Aug 2022, 20:53 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When Trevor Milton was in charge of Nikola, we had the impression that it had a revolutionary battery technology and that it was similar to Tesla in the sense of doing everything on its own. That was not true: Nikola pretty much followed the same r...

 
Audi Said It Would Have a Pickup Truck: Here Are Renderings of the Chinese Q6 With a Bed
Audi Said It Would Have a Pickup Truck: Here Are Renderings of the Chinese Q6 With a Bed

1 Aug 2022, 12:36 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / In March, Autocar reported that Audi was considering building a pickup truck. The information came from the automaker’s CEO, Markus Duesmann, at the Volkswagen Group’s annual earnings report. To be more specific, he said he could not pr...

 
Manifesto: Bring Spare Tires Back (Even If Temporary Ones) – or Give Us Airless Tires
Manifesto: Bring Spare Tires Back (Even If Temporary Ones) – or Give Us Airless Tires

31 Jul 2022, 19:56 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Theoretical discussions inspire people to divide into teams: those in favor and those against the main idea. It is not unusual to see the advocates from one side move to the other as soon as they see themselves in the discussed situation. I confess...

 
Lightyear Receives Koenigsegg Investment; Will Use Its Tech on the Lightyear 2
Lightyear Receives Koenigsegg Investment; Will Use Its Tech on the Lightyear 2

30 Jul 2022, 20:48 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Lightyear does not think it is enough to sell the first solar production car in the world, beating even Sono Motors in that mission. The bad news is that the Lightyear 0 is a pretty expensive car, which will give the Gerrman competitor the opportun...

 
Tesla's Mega Castings Are Not Working Well for Giga Gruenheide: Over 60% of Rejects
Tesla's Mega Castings Are Not Working Well for Giga Gruenheide: Over 60% of Rejects

30 Jul 2022, 15:53 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / You do not have to be a genius to realize that you will lose money if you have to test something to make money. After all, it may not work as planned. This is pretty much what seems to be happening at Giga Grünheide, which Elon Musk classified...

 
Could the Toyota Camry Based on the Crown Sport Concept  Beat the RAV4?
Could the Toyota Camry Based on the Crown Sport Concept Beat the RAV4?

30 Jul 2022, 00:25 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Toyota Camry has been the best-selling passenger car in the U.S. for 20 years in a row. Despite that, the RAV4 beats it as Toyota’s best-selling vehicle on American soil since 2017. That is something we can credit more to the preference f...

 
U.S. Senate May Keep $7,500 Tax Credit for New EVs, Create a $4,000 One for Used EVs
U.S. Senate May Keep $7,500 Tax Credit for New EVs, Create a $4,000 One for Used EVs

29 Jul 2022, 23:23 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Build Back Better Act is no more. It is still called H.R. 5376 on its Congress page, but senator Joe Manchin renamed it the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. That’s because it also aims to start paying the U.S.’s massive national deb...

 
Tesla Backtracks on $4,500 Ransom, Restores Range in Used Model S for Free
Tesla Backtracks on $4,500 Ransom, Restores Range in Used Model S for Free

28 Jul 2022, 09:34 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / Pointing out automakers' bad practices is fundamental to make them stop. When they get reversed, that is an even bigger win. This is what Jason Hughes managed to achieve when he shared one of his clients had lost 80 miles of range in his 2013 ...

 
QuantumScape Now Has Six Automakers in Its Sampling Agreements List
QuantumScape Now Has Six Automakers in Its Sampling Agreements List

28 Jul 2022, 00:02 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / QuantumScape may have suffered a blow recently after it lost its chief manufacturing officer, Celina Mikolajczak. In its Q2 2022 Shareholder Letter, the company did not even touch on the subject. Instead, it announced two significant achievements: ...

 
Citroen La 2 Deuche Concept Shows What the Ami Could Have Been
Citroen La 2 Deuche Concept Shows What the Ami Could Have Been

27 Jul 2022, 21:49 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The Citroën 2CV was presented in 1948 as an affordable family car. Being cheap is the only thing that connects this veteran with the Ami, an electric “sans permis” that several journalists and car enthusiasts have praised. The desi...

 
Nimbus Replaces the Halo and X With the One, Says First Deliveries Will Happen in 2023
Nimbus Replaces the Halo and X With the One, Says First Deliveries Will Happen in 2023

27 Jul 2022, 17:42 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / The last time we wrote about Nimbus, it was to make sure it was still alive. We had not heard about the company for a long time, but it quickly got in touch to say the website would be updated in a few weeks and we would have some surprises. We had...

 
NHTSA Will Investigate Tesla Crash That Killed Motorcyclist in Draper, Utah
NHTSA Will Investigate Tesla Crash That Killed Motorcyclist in Draper, Utah

27 Jul 2022, 11:20 UTC · By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo / When we reported another fatal crash involving Tesla Autopilot on July 24, we called it: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA) would probably want to have a closer look at the case. Reuters confirmed that the safety regulator a...

 

Stories by Gustavo Henrique Ruffo