Entry Details

About the Entry

Category: 
Overall Excellence > Best Body of Work > By a Staff Journalist

Title of entry: 
Molly Boigon, staff writer, technology and innovation

Issue or Publication date:
03/17/2024; 06/17/2024; 06/09/2024; 01/11/2024

Publication name: 
Automotive News

Links to entry URLs

Please note: These URLs are only required for entries in the Online division categories, or digital entries in appropriate Overall Excellence, Design or All Content division categories.

Entry URL(s), if applicable:
Please enter a URL that will direct judges to the entry: 
https://www.autonews.com/mobility-report/ev-transition-brings-thacker-lithium-mine-nevada/
Additional URLs, if needed:
https://www.autonews.com/mobility-report/software-defined-vehicles-will-require-supply-chain-and-revenue-strategy-shifts/
https://www.autonews.com/video/autonews-now/automotive-news-video-nevada-town-prepares-lithium-mine/
https://www.autonews.com/shift-podcast-about-mobility/reporter-roundtable-what-should-ev-sound-episode-254/
https://www.autonews.com/ces/2024-ces-failed-ideas-display-offers-warning-amid-hype/

Best Body of Work Essay: 
For 100 years, Automotive News has provided critical news and information to automakers, suppliers, auto dealers, regulators, and financial and policy analysts. It has produced in-depth journalism like: “Small town, big lithium mine: One American community undergoes its own EV transition.”

The article starts in Northern Nevada, where Lithium Americas has broken ground on what is estimated to be the largest known lithium deposit in the world. Excavators will scoop up enough lithium ore to support more than 80,000 electric vehicles per year, bolstered by an equity investment from General Motors.

Just down the road, residents of communities like Winnemucca and Orovada are hard at work, to—extending water and sewer access, navigating government grants to pay for infrastructure and meeting with the company to get their needs met.

Reporter Molly Boigon visited the part of rural Nevada to meet the people whose lives are changing to accommodate the global demand for battery materials and to learn about the company that struck white gold at exactly the right time.

She talked with government workers navigating a maze of bureaucracy to cover the costs of infrastructure improvements. She shielded her eyes against the blinding-white snow covering the future pit site, a location that some Native American tribes say is the site of an historic massacre. She attended the Lowry High School basketball game and the cash-only movie theatre, symbols of the regional character that some residents worry is at risk.

Boigon painted a picture vivid picture using lucid prose and stunning photographs and video. Tucked in the Santa Rosa mountain range is a tension that the automotive industry has yet to resolve, and Automotive News was able to share new perspectives with our readers because of her thoughtful, thorough and illustrative reporting.
….