Aptera on Friday detailed the Launch Edition configuration of its 3-wheeled EV, which the company hopes to begin producing by the end of 2023. The company claims now to have over 40,000 reservations for the vehicle, the first 5,000 of which will be Launch Edition models. While Aptera has shown multiple powertrain and range options, Launch Edition… More…

Hertz is beginning the rollout of what the company claims is North America’s largest EV rental fleet in Denver, and showing how it plans to continue that rollout nationwide. The company on Thursday announced Hertz Electrifies, a public-private partnership model aimed at bringing EVs to rental customers and rideshare drivers in major cities, along… More…

General Motors is said to be considering adding a compact electric pickup to its lineup, as one of several models that might be priced at less than $30,000. That’s according to a report Thursday from Automotive News, which claims to have seen the pickup at GM’s “affordable EV design studio” in Warren, Michigan. Automotive… More…

Elaphe and McLaren are partnering to marry the former’s in-wheel motor tech with the latter’s racing expertise. At the recent 2023 CES in Las Vegas, the two companies announced an “in-wheel propulsion system” using Elaphe’s in-wheel motors and inverters from McLaren Applied Technologies to create “highly efficient and hyper-responsive electric… More…

Volta, a charging company distinguished by its partly free, partly ad-supported EV charging, announced Wednesday that it will be acquired by oil giant Shell. The two companies have signed a “definitive merger agreement” under which Shell will buy Volta in an all-cash transaction that values the charging company at $169 million, according to a… More…

SUVs are supplanting traditional sedans, hatchbacks, and wagons in sales, but the head of Citroën believes EVs could reverse that trend. “The world of SUVs is done,” Citroën CEO Vincent Cobée said in a recent interview with Auto Express (via InsideEVs). That’s a bold prediction considering that SUVs have accounted for 50% of all… More…

Volvo has revealed early details for revamped single-motor versions of its most affordable EVs, the XC40 Recharge and C40 Recharge crossovers, which have up until now not been offered in the U.S. Both vehicles get some fundamental changes underneath. Up until now they’ve come with front-wheel-drive. Now, by switching that single-motor layout… More…

Toyota on Friday unveiled two rebuilt examples of the classic 1980s Corolla GT-S, also known by the internal model code AE86—one with a battery-electric powertrain, and one with a hydrogen combustion engine. Debuting at the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon, the two cars are meant to demonstrate how older vehicles—particularly ones cherished by… More…

Mazda on Friday revealed its rotary range-extended version of the MX-30 electric vehicle, called the Mazda MX-30 e-Skyactiv R-EV. The MX-30 R-EV would offer a far greater range than the MX-30 EV’s 100 EPA miles. But as Mazda USA suggested earlier in the week, this model that was previously confirmed for the U.S. may have been delayed or… More…

Tesla has once again lowered prices. As of Thursday the automaker’s online configurator shows price cuts for every model in its lineup. The Model Y received the biggest cut. The base Model Y Long Range now starts at $52,990 before destination—20% lower than before—while the Model Y Performance now starts at $56,990, a 19% cut. The… More…

Keeping up with anticipated U.S. EV sales growth will require a lot more chargers, according to a new S&P Global Mobility study. Even accounting for home charging, which is how most EV drivers currently charge most of the time, the U.S. public charging network will need to quadruple in size between 2022 and 2025, and grow more than eight-fold… More…

Mercedes-Benz could drop its EQ badge for electric cars as it moves toward an EV-only lineup, a German business newspaper reported. EQ was launched in 2016 as a sub-brand that would serve as a launch point for EVs, but Mercedes plans to drop the EQ nomenclature from the end of 2024, according to Handelsblatt (via Automotive News Europe). The… More…

The first widely available factory original wireless charger in the U.S. might arrive not from Tesla or one of the Chinese EV makers, but from Stellantis. As it revealed its Ram electric truck concept last week, Ram gave a future inductive charging robot center stage. “We know from our Real Talk tour that our customers aren’t just… More…

A Chinese startup plans to ditch battery packs entirely and integrate cells directly with an EV’s chassis. With this goal in mind, Neta Auto on Wednesday announced a cooperative agreement with battery supplier CATL to use the latter’s cell-to-chassis tech, branded as Integrated Intelligent Chassis (CIIC). In a press release, Neta said it would be… More…

General Motors and Ford have joined a pilot project to use EVs as an alternative energy source for the electricity grid, helping to cut pollution from fossil fuels. Organized by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the project will network EVs, along with smart thermostats, appliances, and home solar installations and energy-storage arrays, to… More…

Mazda confirmed Tuesday that the 2023 MX-30 EV will arrive in California dealerships this spring. Prices for the 2023 MX-30 EV are up somewhat, to $35,385 for the base model and $38,395 with the Premium Plus package. At the base level, that’s $740 higher than the 2022 Mazda MX-30 price. Earlier this week, Mazda confirmed that a rotary-engine… More…

Many analyses have shown that EV battery costs stopped decreasing in 2022, putting off affordability goals. But the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a reality check. Based on 2022-constant dollars, battery costs actually continued falling last year at the pack level, despite accelerated inflation, according to DOE estimates. The… More…

An electric powertrain allows for a lot more possibilities for improving low-speed maneuverability, as Hyundai recently demonstrated. The automaker’s Hyundai Mobis mobility-tech division has developed a hardware set called “e-corner” that allows a vehicle’s individual wheels to rotate up to 90 degrees. The system was first shown in 2021, and the… More…

Stellantis is going about electrifying trucks in a different way than Ford or GM. Rather than only rolling out a line of full battery electric trucks to keep selling alongside its gasoline models, it will also produce a range-extended Ram electric truck to fit into a middle ground that could get more people to plug in. In a Q&A session last… More…

Lightyear has opened a waitlist for its second solar-assisted EV model, which aims for a lower price point and something much closer to mass-market appeal. Straightforwardly called Lightyear 2, this new model is scheduled to start production by the end of 2025 with a base price of approximately $40,000, according to a Lightyear press release. The… More…