Ben Shimkus
Ben Shimkus covers how carmakers’ business decisions, new vehicles, and emerging technologies reshape the auto industry and the wider economy, with a focus on the practical stakes for companies and workers. He is a reporter on the business news desk at Business Insider, where he writes about cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. His work stands out for connecting product launches, production strategy, and AI-driven tools into clear narratives about where the industry is headed.
Rivian, GM, and the race to build new EVs
Shimkus reports closely on automakers' bets on new electric vehicles, using flagship programs to show how much is riding on each launch.
In his coverage of Rivian’s R2, he lays out a detailed launch road map for the new electric SUV and explains how the company is betting its future on the model, treating the vehicle as a business pivot rather than just a product refresh. He also examines how legacy makers such as GM are trying to compress development cycles, including a story on how the company developed its Hummer EV in 20 months and now wants that speed to become routine across its lineup. Across these pieces he tracks timelines, platforms, and volume expectations, giving readers a clear view of how EV programs fit into long-term corporate strategy.
Automakers teaming up and betting on AI
A major strand of Shimkus’s coverage looks at how automakers respond to rising costs and competitive pressure by partnering with rivals and bringing AI into the production process. In a Business Insider feature on the New York Auto Show, he reports on how car companies are teaming up, speeding up development, and hoping AI can help them manage a tough road ahead, tying show-floor announcements to broader questions about manufacturing efficiency and investment risk. He extends this interest in AI beyond autos with a piece on an AI CEO explaining how much he spends on Codex each month and why he still uses “very nice” prompting, using concrete spending figures to show how businesses experiment with new tools while watching the bottom line. Together, these stories show him treating AI as part of the operating toolkit for both carmakers and other firms, not a standalone tech curiosity.
Cars, transportation, retail, and jobs
Shimkus’s author bio at Business Insider makes clear that his beat spans cars, transportation, retail, and jobs, reflecting how vehicle markets sit inside broader consumer and labor trends. He has experience reporting on granular consumer topics such as automotive insurance and home improvement projects, giving him a practical understanding of how household decisions intersect with big-industry developments.
Before his current role, he worked as a money and automotive reporter for a tabloid outlet where he launched the publication’s first vehicle review section, bringing structured testing and pricing detail into a mass-market environment. His reporting has also appeared in Rolling Stone, where he has written investigative pieces, adding long-form depth to a portfolio that otherwise focuses on day-to-day business dynamics.
This mix of consumer guidance, investigative work, and business news supports a style that treats car stories as part of how people earn, spend, and move.
Repair shops, infrastructure, and policy
Beyond national business coverage, Shimkus has written regularly about the repair side of the auto world and the systems that support drivers.
As a freelance reporter for an autobody trade outlet, he has covered the Northeast repair market since mid-2024, focusing on how body shops and related businesses operate within changing cost structures and supply chains. His work for an enthusiast and industry site emphasizes electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and government transportation policy, showing how new networks of chargers and regulations shape what automakers can sell and how drivers can use it. Taken together, his stories across trade, enthusiast, and business publications give him a wide-angle view of the auto ecosystem, from factory decisions and policy debates down to shop floors and everyday ownership.
Across these beats, Shimkus brings a consistent lens: he follows the money, the timelines, and the tools that determine whether new cars, EV platforms, and AI investments succeed. His coverage links strategic decisions at automakers to downstream effects in retail, jobs, and repair, making him a useful contact for stories that sit at the intersection of vehicle technology, business performance, and the working lives around the car industry.
4 more automobile journalists.
Aarian Marshall
Aarian Marshall is a staff writer at WIRED who stands out for covering how cars, software, and policy collide. She writes on transportation systems and cities, from the auto industry to broader mobility systems. Before WIRED, she reported on cities and urban policy for The Atlantic’s CityLab. Her beat runs from electric vehicles, fuel prices, tariffs, and car-buying decisions to autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and software-defined cars. She reports with a systems view, linking policy shifts, technical failures, and urban life to what happens on streets, in repair shops, and at the pump.
Abby Smith
Abby Smith’s most distinctive work combines motorsports coverage with live digital and radio reporting. She is Digital Director at KRDO13 and covers the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, including race updates, weather shifts, breaking developments and ways to follow the action. Her beat also includes automotive news, crime, public safety, politics, city government and community life. Notable work includes coverage of homicide arrests, a major drug bust, a presidential address about the war with Iran, a family’s effort to bring Stephen Hubbard home, a state governor candidate and a city security ordinance. She also reports on fitness, school spirit and station staff. Smith writes in a concise, factual style shaped by investigative documentary experience. She turns live events, official announcements and daily developments into clear coverage across digital and radio platforms.
Adele Peters
Adele Peters covers climate solutions and other structural problems as design and policy questions, focusing on what can work in practice. She is a senior writer at Fast Company, where she reports on energy, transportation, housing, materials, agriculture, corporate sustainability, and social impact. Her stories examine climate technologies, grid resilience, electric vehicles, renewable energy, modular construction, homelessness, affordable housing, compostable materials, regenerative agriculture, and ecosystem restoration. She looks at whether projects can scale, their real-world constraints, and their measurable effects. She interviews political and philanthropic leaders, startup founders, and climate tech entrepreneurs, anchoring stories in what is being built and tested. She has written more than 3,000 stories and contributed to Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century and State of Housing Design 2023.
Adrian Leung
Adrian Leung writes engineering-led coverage of Chinese electric vehicles and performance cars for CarNewsChina. He focuses on new energy vehicles, battery systems, powertrains, electric platforms, high-end domestic brands, and track-ready models, and he explains technical details in plain language for non-specialist readers. His reporting treats new models as hardware and systems stories, with precise figures on range, battery capacity, chassis layout, motor outputs, weight, and acceleration. He also covers the Chinese auto industry’s finances and technology roadmap, including sector profits, vehicle volumes, and solid-state battery timelines. His background in Electrical and Computer Engineering shows in the way he writes about vehicle electronics and battery management.