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It’s hard to make a case for Die Another Day as a great James Bond movie, but it did do one important thing for the franchise: reunite 007 and Aston Martin. Bond actor Pierce Brosnan was so enamored with his character’s new ride that he ordered one for himself. But that Aston Martin Vanquish did not live to die another day.

In an Instagram reel posted by HaphazardStuff, Brosnan explains that he asked if he could have a Vanquish during filming. A build slot was duly arranged. Brosnan said he went to the factory to see his car being assembled, and three months after filming of Die Another Day wrapped, it was delivered to him. On February 11, 2015, a fire broke out at Brosnan’s Malibu, California, house, destroying the car.

All that’s left are two plaques that were affixed to the kick plates reading “Hand built in England for Pierce Brosnan.” An ignominious end for a great machine.

As featured in Die Another Day, the original Vanquish was the capstone of Aston’s 1990s resurgence under Ford ownership. It pumped up the design language introduced with the DB7, as well as the power from Aston’s 5.9-liter V12. Initial versions produced 460 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque, which got the Vanquish from 0 to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and onto a top speed of 190 mph, according to Aston. The later Vanquish S (introduced in 2005) had 520 hp and 426 lb-ft. An underdeveloped paddle-shifted six-speed gearbox (essentially a manually with an electronically-actuated clutch) spoiled things a bit, but the Vanquish was still a truly desirable for a new generation.

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYZVDotjoGP

And that was before it became a movie star. Die Another Day was Brosnan’s last Bond movie, and he’d driven a BMW in all of the others. The Vanquish not only felt right because it was an Aston, but because it was armed to the teeth with machine guns that popped out of the hood vents and rockets in the grille. It also had adaptive camouflage—Q famously called it “the Vanish”—and the remote-control feature previously seen in Tomorrow Never Dies. An appropriately ridiculous car chase with the baddie’s Jaguar XKR convertible on a glacier ensued. Too bad the rest of the movie wasn’t as good.

That car chase was filmed with four-wheel drive cars made from Vanquish body shells and Ford Explorer V8 engines and drivetrains. But some genuine Vanquishes were used as “hero cars” for close-ups and promotions. One of those was put up for sale in 2024 with a $129,000 asking price. That’s still less than a new Vanquish, which carries on the V12 tradition and, unlike the original, is also available in convertible Volante form. Seems like the perfect ride for whoever the next Bond turns out to be.

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• Stellantis will build Dongfeng’s Voyah EVs in France through a new European joint venture.
• The deal follows Stellantis’ Leapmotor tie-up, which already brings Chinese EV production to Spain.
• Chinese automakers are turning to European assembly to blunt tariffs and gain a local foothold.

Stellantis, the automotive conglomerate that owns Jeep, Ram, and 12 other car brands, has just announced a joint venture agreement with China’s Dongfeng to build Voyah EVs in one of its European factories. It already has a similar deal with Leapmotor, under which the latter is assembling its vehicles at a Stellantis plant in Spain to bypass import tariffs these vehicles would have faced if they were manufactured in China.

Chinese EVs face an additional import duty of up to 35% in the EU, on top of the existing 10% import tariff. This hasn’t stopped Chinese automakers from bringing their vehicles over and undercutting local competition, but building them locally is an even better deal for the automakers.

The new Dongfeng deal focuses on the Stellantis plant in Rennes, France. It can accommodate up to three production lines and, at its peak, produced 400,000 vehicles per year, but now it only produces the Citroen C5 Aircross, using only a third of its capacity. Dongfeng will also build Peugeot and Jeep vehicles in China as part of the same deal.

Stellantis already knows the playbook through its tie-up with Leapmotor (in which it holds a controlling share). The Chinese manufacturer initially began production of the T03 electric city car in Poland, but production there was halted in March last year, and it now builds the B10 electric crossover at the Stellantis factory in Zaragoza, Spain. 

Reuters says Leapmotor is looking to expand its collaboration with Stellantis and identify which of Stellantis’ European factories have unused production capacity to build its own models. Leapmotor will also be providing the platform and key components for a new Opel electric crossover, making it one of the first European-badged vehicles built on fully Chinese underpinnings.

Other Chinese automakers have also begun efforts to localize production in Europe. BYD is the most famous in this respect with the huge factory it’s building in Hungary. Chery has partnered with Spain’s Ebro to use the former Nissan plant in Barcelona, while Xpeng and GAC have turned to Austria’s Magna Steyr to assemble cars in Europe.

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Europe’s tariffs were designed to protect its car industry from cheaper Chinese EVs, but they may end up accelerating a different kind of Chinese expansion. Instead of simply importing finished cars from China, automakers are now looking for factories, partners, and production footholds inside Europe itself.

For Stellantis, this gives underused plants the prospect of more work and potentially gives its European brands access to cheaper, faster-moving EV technology. Chinese automakers need to get around tariffs and find a path into the market. It’s increasingly looking like Europe’s next wave of affordable EVs may not be imported from China. They may be Chinese-engineered cars built in European factories, sometimes wearing badges buyers already know.

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The batteries that we use to power electric vehicles rely on heavy metals like cobalt and nickel. Unfortunately, these metals are hard to find, are expensive, and often come from places with poor working conditions. But a new study published on February 18, 2026, shows that we might be able to trade those heavy metals for something much lighter and more common: organic polymers.

Professor Xun Yinhua from Tianjin University and Professor Huang Fei from South China University of Technology led the team of scientists. Their work, featured in the journal Nature, describes a new kind of “organic” battery. Instead of the usual metal-filled parts, this battery uses a special plastic-like material called PBFDO, which acts as the cathode.

Most EVs today use batteries that are sensitive to the weather. If it gets too cold, they lose power. If it gets too hot, they can become dangerous. This new organic battery is different. It can work in temperatures as low as -94°F and as high as 176°F. This massive working range means an electric car could start easily in a freezing Arctic winter or drive through a scorching desert without any trouble.

The researchers built real “pouch cells,” which reached an energy density of 250 Wh/kg. That’s as much energy as the high-tech batteries found in many electric cars on the road today. Usually, when scientists try to use organic materials, the batteries are too weak, but this time, they proved that an organic battery can actually keep up with the current tech.

Traditional lithium batteries can catch fire if they get pierced or crushed in an accident. The team of scientists put their new battery through some serious tests, including driving a needle straight through it. The battery didn’t smoke, it didn’t catch fire, and it didn’t change shape.

Because the PBFDO material is a polymer, it is also very flexible. The researchers found they could bend, stretch, and squish the battery without breaking it. This is great news for the future of car design. Instead of a giant, heavy box under the floor, future batteries might be able to fit into different shapes or even be part of the car’s frame.

One of the best things about this discovery is where the materials come from. Cobalt and nickel are hard to get out of the ground, but organic polymers are made from common molecules that are easy to find. This makes the batteries much more sustainable.

The new technology is still in the prototype stage, but it fits perfectly with where the car world is going in 2026. Many car companies are already planning to show off new kinds of batteries this year – some are looking at solid-state batteries, and others are interested in using sodium. The organic polymer pathway is another tool that could make cars cheaper and easier to build.

Via