Volkswagen has approved an EV slotting below the ID.4 for the North American market, and it’s considering a battery plant in Ontario, according to German business daily Handelsblatt. The report notes five recent entries in the Canadian province’s Registry of Lobbyists for VW, including one that mentions CEO Oliver Blume, who last year said that… More…

Volvo is planning to expand its EV lineup at the behest of parent company Geely, Reuters reported Thursday. The automaker plans to launch six new EVs through 2026, according to the report, which cites two anonymous sources with knowledge of Volvo’s product plans. Volvo was already no slouch in the transition. It was one of the first brands to… More…

Ford CEO Jim Farley has already upped F-150 Lightning production to 150,000 a year, and he’s pressing production of its Mustang Mach-E toward 200,000 a year, effectively seeing it reengineered along the way. At the same time, this ramp has been part of a heavy lift at Ford—literally airlifts of parts at times—that’s costing… More…

Jeffrey Guyton, the president and CEO of Mazda USA, isn’t sold on the EV range race. Guyton told Green Car Reports at the 2024 Mazda CX-90 reveal that while electric vehicle buyers today are looking for 300 miles of range, the future’s not ever-longer range. Consumers will find they don’t really need even that much, he said… More…

A Kansas House bill calls for a tax on public EV charging—but not home charging. The proposed tax of 3 cents per kilowatt would go to a Kansas highway repair fund reliant on revenue, according to the Kansas Reflector, but it could force EV drivers to pay more than other drivers. Any tax on public charging would effectively be “double… More…

Meeting federal goals for a national charging network will require 1,104 EV fast-charging stations along major corridors, according to a new Great Plains Institute study. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law set aside $7.5 billion to build a national EV charging network of 500,000 charging sites, with $5 billion of that amount to be distributed to… More…

GM has built a strong argument around the idea that one specific battery cell format, co-developed with LG, is a key for the company realizing certain economies of scale as it ramps up EV production. But recent reports have suggested that GM is shopping around, and may be considering a shift to cylindrical cells for some upcoming vehicles. And… More…

A leadership change at Toyota doesn’t seem to have changed the automaker’s EV strategy. Akio Toyoda recently announced a step over to chairman after 14 years as CEO of the automaker founded by his grandfather, with Koji Sato anointed as the next Toyota CEO. But the automaker’s stance on EVs—that they’re not the only solution to addressing… More…

The 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 is EPA-rated at up to 361 miles of range and 140 MPGe combined, Hyundai confirmed Tuesday. Those figures apply to the Hyundai Ioniq 6 SE RWD Long Range model with the larger 77.4-kwh battery pack (a 53.0-kwh pack is the base offering). Opting for all-wheel drive results in 316 miles of range and 121 MPGe. Note that the SE… More…

The first 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV has been auctioned off to benefit conservation non-profit Tread Lightly, generating $500,000 for the group despite being incapable of treading lightly. In Edition 1 launch spec with Moonshot Green Matte paint, the first Hummer EV SUV was auctioned off by Barrett-Jackson at the company’s Scottsdale, Arizona, event… More…

Electrify America on Monday announced plans to install EV fast-charging stations at TravelCenters of America (TA) locations beginning later this year. An agreement between the two companies calls for approximately 1,000 individual chargers at 200 sites along major highways to be installed over five years, according to an Electrify America press… More…

Ford announced Monday morning that it’s lowering prices up to $5,900 on the 2023 Mustang Mach-E electric vehicle. The price change undoes some but not all of the hefty price increase of up to $8,300 that Ford applied just a few months ago to the 2023 Mustang Mach-E, and it brings one more popular model—the Premium eAWD Standard… More…

Reducing the size of EV batteries and generally lowering levels of car ownership and use could have a significant environmental impact, according to a new study. The study, commissioned by the Climate and Community Project, a climate policy think tank, used UC Davis research (first spotted by Green Car Congress). It found that limiting the size of… More…

Audi is considering an electric off-road electric SUV that would use the platform from parent Volkswagen Group’s planned Scout EV brand, according to an Autocar report. VW announced the Scout brand in 2022, using a name that originated on the classic International Scout SUV, with plans for a North American-market electric pickup truck and SUV and… More…

California EV sales increased again in 2022, with Tesla once again taking the lead. But could other automakers’ expanded EV sales threaten Tesla’s top-dog status? Firstly, 2022 was another good year for zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) sales in California. This week, the California Energy Commission (CEC) reported 345,818 new light-duty ZEV sales for… More…

Senator Joe Manchin this week introduced a bill seeking to delay federal EV tax credits, claiming the Treasury Department isn’t adhering to recently enacted rules. The federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for qualifying vehicles was re-upped under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed last year, but with added requirements including one that EVs… More…

In what would be a major strategy shift, Toyota is considering a dedicated EV platform similar to what other automakers have to compete more effectively with Tesla, The Asahi Shimbun reported this week. However, Toyota doesn’t plan to deploy this platform until 2027 or 2028, when it believes consumer demand for EVs will be sufficient to warrant… More…

Audi has saved the most intriguing—and arguably, more American—of its four sphere concepts for last: an electric pickup. Well, sort of. The Activesphere concept is “a master of metamorphosis,” as Audi puts it—a coupelike hatchback with an elongated roofline, in which the entire rear section folds horizontally, then… More…

Audi has saved the most intriguing—and arguably, most American—of its four sphere concepts for last: an electric pickup. Well, sort of. The Activesphere concept is “a master of metamorphosis,” as Audi puts it—a coupelike hatchback with an elongated roofline, in which the entire rear section folds horizontally, then… More…

In a potentially significant shift for the Detroit automaker, General Motors is considering cylindrical battery cells for future EVs, according to TheElec, a battery-focused South Korean trade publication. GM has favored pouch cells supplied by South Korean supplier LG Energy Solution, but could switch to the 4680-format cylindrical cells used by… More…