Caroline Petrow-Cohen
Caroline Petrow-Cohen follows how new transportation technologies and fuel markets reshape companies, workers and the wider economy. She reports on the business of electric vehicles and aviation for the Los Angeles Times, with an emphasis on corporate decisions at moments of stress or transition.
Electric vehicle makers under pressure
Her coverage of electric vehicle manufacturers highlights the tension between ambitious product launches and the hard math of staffing and costs. In her reporting on Rivian, she shows how hundreds of layoffs land just days after new vehicle deliveries begin, tying workforce cuts directly to the realities of ramping up production in a competitive market. She returns to competitive dynamics in pieces that examine how a Chinese electric vehicle company surged past an early pioneer, using the frame of winners and losers to explain shifts in market share rather than treating the sector as a uniform growth story. Across these articles she focuses on hiring, plant activity, and strategic pivots, making clear which choices are about survival, which are about expansion, and how they affect engineers, factory workers and early adopters.
Aviation, fuel supplies and summer travel
On the aviation side of her beat, Petrow-Cohen tracks both traditional airline operations and the stress points that can threaten them. Her reporting on jet fuel stockpiles falling to a two-year low uses the “black cloud” over the summer travel season to connect inventory data to the experience of airlines and passengers, translating supply numbers into operational risk and potential disruption. She treats fuel as a business story, looking at storage, refining and demand, but keeps the implications clear: the level in the tanks can dictate schedules, pricing and reliability. She also covers the edge of aviation innovation, following California companies that let customers book flying cars and other novel aircraft. In those pieces she explains what is real, what is still experimental, and how these vehicles fit into the broader transportation landscape rather than as isolated curiosities.
New mobility technology and freight
Petrow-Cohen’s work often extends beyond passenger cars and airplanes to the logistics systems behind them. Coverage of an electric, self-driving cabless freight truck built by a robotics startup shows her interest in how autonomous technology and electrification are changing freight and warehouse operations. She places such vehicles within the supply chain, linking the design of new trucks to warehouse automation, delivery timelines and labor on loading docks. When she writes about these early-stage companies and prototypes, the focus stays on the business case: why investors, customers and founders believe in these platforms, and what hurdles stand between a prototype run and large-scale deployment.
Corporate fallout in retail and local economies
Before focusing on transportation, Petrow-Cohen reported on the rise and fall of a major fast-fashion retailer, charting how a brand that once ran more than 800 stores and earned billions in revenue moved from rapid expansion to bankruptcy. That work shows the same interest in how business decisions reverberate through jobs, leases and shopping streets, tracing the impact on employees and suppliers as much as on executives. She has also covered businesses still struggling a year after major fires, giving texture to how disaster recovery intersects with insurance, rebuilding timelines and cash flow. Taken together, these stories reveal a reporter who follows the consequences of corporate and policy choices at ground level, whether the setting is a mall, a factory or a neighborhood main street.
Beat evolution and reporting style
Across outlets, Petrow-Cohen’s beat has moved steadily toward the intersection of business, technology and everyday life. Earlier in her career she wrote for regional news organizations, covering local issues and culture as well as business, which helped develop a habit of grounding macro trends in specific communities. Her current work at the Los Angeles Times keeps that focus while dealing with complex subjects such as electric drivetrains, energy markets and autonomous systems. She favors clear, straightforward explanations of how a company makes money, where it spends, and who is affected when those equations change, making her coverage useful to readers who need both industry detail and an understanding of human impact.
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.
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.
Al Pefley
Al Pefley is a television news reporter for CBS12 News whose work centers on how laws, law enforcement and local decisions shape everyday life for drivers and other residents. He reports in a general assignment role but returns often to transportation, public safety and pocketbook issues, treating driving as a point where policy, disability and policing intersect. His coverage includes driver-focused laws, fuel and tax policy, crime, policing and internal affairs findings, with a consistent focus on accountability and concrete consequences for people’s wallets, safety and trust in institutions. He explains county gas tax debates, campaign positions on teacher pay, property crime and retail theft in short, clear segments. Pefley works primarily on the scene, using live or recorded field reporting and interview-driven pieces to show what happened, why it matters and what comes next.
Aliza Savira
Aliza Savira focuses on the hidden financial costs of owning modern cars, especially how insurance can undermine expected savings. She writes about automobiles for MSN, looking at new technology and electric vehicles through everyday ownership rather than showroom appeal. Her work highlights the gap between promises of cheaper running costs and the full financial picture of owning a vehicle. In electric vehicle coverage, she treats insurance premiums as a key ownership problem that can erode long-term value. She stays close to practical questions drivers face, such as which recurring costs matter most after purchase. She reports on how insurance structures and premium levels interact with new automotive technology. Her beat is consumer-focused automobile reporting, with a clear, utilitarian lens on ownership experience, recurring expenses, and risk, rather than lifestyle or performance.