Is Ford shifting its electric vehicle efforts away from large EVs like the F-150 Lightning, and focusing on translating the ethos of the Model T into the EV era Taken at face value, remarks from Ford CEO Jim Farley made Tuesday suggest that may be the case. During the company’s Q4 2023 earnings, Farley and top executives summed that the… Read more…

Porsche appears to be keeping all that’s great about its leading-edge Taycan electric sports car, while teasing out more of the numbers that matter: range, efficiency, and acceleration. The 2025 Porsche Taycan starts with a larger battery pack. Versions with the Performance Battery Plus now have a gross capacity of 105 kwh—up from 93… Read more…

A small number of 2023-2024 Kia Niro EV and 2023 Kia EV6 electric vehicles are being recalled for an issue that most definitely can’t be remedied with an over-the-air update. In affected vehicles, Kia explains, one of the driveshafts may have been improperly heat-treated, potentially allowing it to break under load. That would result in the… Read more…

The first new EV charging site in Tennessee funded through the Biden administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program bucks the trend of co-locating chargers with gas pumps. Installed by Atlanta-based charging infrastructure firm EnviroSpark, the new chargers are being hosted by a Waffle House restaurant in Lakeland… Read more…

The Rivian R2 lineup is due to debut March 7, the California-based electric truck maker revealed Monday. Rivian has revealed very little about the R2 as of yet, other than that it will be smaller and lower-priced than the existing R1 lineup. While the R1T pickup and R1S SUV are full-size trucks—or within a few inches of full-size, by any… Read more…

Aptera claims to have raised enough money in a recent crowdfunding campaign to start production of its solar-assisted three-wheeled EV, but the company is still far from assured of success. The company on Friday announced the completion of its Accelerator Program, which allowed those investors contributing $10,000 or more to secure one of the… Read more…

As I was threading the 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter along LA’s ever-congested I-405 freeway, among its dozen or more lanes in our direction, passing lots of commercial vans with tailpipes, the thought occurred to me. These could nearly all be electric. And they soon will be. Large vans have always been a sort of open canvas for… Read more…

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) has launched a certification program it claims can turn car salespeople into EV experts in just 90 minutes. Called ElectrifIQ, the program aims to prepare dealers to address common consumer questions, relating to things like charging times and costs, total cost of ownership, and available… Read more…

EV sales are still booming in California—and they continued to capture an even larger piece of the market in 2023. Although there was a slight downturn in the market share of EVs toward the end of 2023, EVs finished the year up 5% in market share in the Golden State versus 2022. And looking at all of 2023, BEVs added up to 33.8% of the… Read more…

Ford provided an update on Wednesday on its plans to adopt the Tesla charge port for future EVs and to allow current and recent EV models to charge on the Tesla Supercharger network. To the latter point, Ford revealed that the accessory adapters needed to get drivers of current and recent American Ford EVs on-network with Supercharging will be… Read more…

Volvo will stop funding Polestar and is considering a move that could give parent Geely greater control of the EV brand, Reuters reported Thursday. The news comes after Polestar announced that it missed already-reduced 2023 delivery targets. The brand’s shares are also down 83% since it went public in June 2022 via a merger with a special purpose… Read more…

Dealers think the Biden administration’s EV policies are forcing the auto industry to move ahead of market demand, according to a new Automotive News survey. The publication’s 2024 Dealer Outlook Survey compiled responses from 208 U.S. car dealers and dealership managers. Nearly 83% of those surveyed said the federal government was pushing too… Read more…

Three of the largest commercial truck manufacturers have joined forces on charging infrastructure. Daimler Trucks North America, Navistar, and Volvo Group North America on Wednesday announced Powering America’s Commercial Transportation (PACT), described in a joint press release as a “coalition focused on education and advocacy for accelerating… Read more…

EV sales will reach 8.0% of the total U.S. new vehicle market this month, S&P Global Mobility has predicted. The market share of EVs won’t increase dramatically over the previous month, as automakers, dealers, and consumers digest new federal tax credit rules brought on by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that went into effect with the start… Read more…

The BMW 5-Series lineup adds two more plug-in variants for the 2025 model year. The automaker confirmed Tuesday that the 2025 BMW 550e xDrive plug-in hybrid will join the lineup for the new model year, along with a third version of the all-electric BMW i5 that launched for 2024 as part of a redesigned 5-Series range. BMW slots the plug-in hybrid… Read more…

Rolls-Royce is recalling many of the first electric cars it has ever produced over an insufficient electrical ground that could increase the chances of a fire. The U.K. prestige luxury brand notes that potentially affected 2024 Spectre electric coupes were made from October 24, 2023 through December 11, 2023. Production of the Spectre started in… Read more…

Ford is instituting big discounts on the Mustang Mach-E for fleet customers, as well as a new program that allows dealers to use inventory as rental cars. A discount of $7,500 for state and local government customers, as well as certain customers, is available on all new 2024 Mach-E orders received through Apr. 30, reports CarsDirect. The… Read more…

The reasons why EVs might not click for all car shoppers are evolving—and it’s no longer simply a matter of whether an EV will go far enough on a charge. Cost and the time needed to charge are now nearly as important to U.S. car shoppers as range, a Deloitte study published earlier this month found. Time required to charge was listed as a… Read more…

The U.S. Postal Service will purchase six electric vans from startup Canoo, to be delivered later this quarter. The vans will be right-hand-drive versions of the Canoo LDV 190 van, according to a press release from the startup. Canoo’s website lists the LDV 190 has having a 79-kwh battery pack yielding an estimated 200 miles of range. The van has… Read more…

Stellantis last week detailed its STLA Large platform, which the automaker claims can house powertrains capable of hurling an EV from 0-60 mph in 2.0 seconds. That breathtaking acceleration figure may be something Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares now claims is a safety feature. That’s because quick acceleration allows for quicker overtaking, Tavares… Read more…