The future of transportation is electric. Tesla proved with the Model S that customers would want to buy luxury vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. Other EV startups like Faraday Future, Byton, Lucid Motors, and SF Motors are chasing after Elon Musk. And major automakers like Jaguar, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz have each released their own Tesla challengers. There are obstacles, such as the need for a more robust charging network. But battery-powered cars are here to stay.
The iX is the latest EV to meet an untimely death in America, where policy decisions are propelling us backward rather than forwards. But discontinuing the iX — first reported by BMW Blog (we love it when an enthusiast blog breaks news ) — isn’t the end of BMW’s EV journey in the US. The German automaker is shifting to its next-gen Neue Klasse platform, with the new iX3 set to arrive in just a few months.
Finnish startup Donut Lab claims it’s made a solid-state battery breakthrough. Whether you believe it or not, the technology does appear to be more than just hype.
VW is swapping the electric compact SUV with the gas guzzling Atlas at its Chattanooga factory, right in the midst of a global oil crisis. The automaker says it will continue to sell ID.4s in the US while it still has inventory, and promises future version of the EV for the US market — with no timeline attached. The ID.4 is the latest casualty of the Trump administration’s knee-capping of the EV market in the US.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed its investigation into Tesla’s Actual Smart Summon, or ASS, which allows owners to remotely control their vehicles from a smartphone app. The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation was probing an estimated 2.6 million vehicles with the parking feature after dozens of reports of crashes. But the agency closed the investigation after concluding that the risk of crash severity was low because the speeds were very slow.
A two-seater electric pickup with no paint, no radio, no power windows, not even a dang cell connection — who is this for?
Car reviewer Edmunds says its “the first automotive testing authority in the US” to put a Chinese electrified vehicle, in this case the Geely Galaxy M9, through its rigorous review process. The verdict is as you would expect: a hybrid with superior electric range (101 miles!), world-class metrics, a premium interior, and serious value. “The Geely Galaxy M9 is a wake-up call for the automotive industry,” said Alistair Weaver, Edmunds editor-in-chief.
It’ll take more than a $4 gallon of gas to kill America’s love affair with big SUVs.
“We’re bringing Maps’ AI-powered EV charging features to over 350 car models with Android Auto,” the company writes. It should predict where, when, and how long you’ll need to charge — after you punch in charge level manually. Google doesn’t mention battery preconditioning, though both Apple and Google are pursuing that vehicle-by-vehicle.
The Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies joint venture brought one of its new software-defined test vehicles to Sweden and Germany to see how it handles the cold. They stress-tested the all-wheel drive system and validated over-the-air software functionality, amid other tests. Most importantly, the completion of these tests bring Rivian a step closer to receiving the next tranche of investment from VW, which will be crucial as the automaker ramps up its R2 production.
A prototype Tesla Cybercab was spotted out and about in Los Angeles recently, complete with a steering wheel and a human driver. The panel gaps, of course, were in full display. But the cab’s apparent misalignment was the thing that really caught this TikTok user’s attention. Also his observation that it looks like “a Pixar Model 3” is going to live rent-free in my brain for the rest of time.
Tesla and Lucid are raising eyebrows with their two-seater autonomous vehicles. But ridehail fleets have very different needs for EVs than retail buyers do, and that matters.
How a Slovenian startup is keeping the in-wheel dream alive after the Lordstown implosion.
Elon Musk says he’s planning to open a “Terafab” chip plant in Austin, Texas, jointly run by Tesla and SpaceX, as we approach dire risk levels of “tera” ceasing to have all meaning.
Dkfkhfkwkdnc:
Someone take SI units away from this man
Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.
That’s according to BMW SVP Bernd Körber, speaking to Motor1.com. BMW announced the new i3 EV on Wednesday, but it appears that the i4 won’t be around much longer.
[Motor1.com]
Raffi Krikorian, who now serves as Mozilla’s CTO, writes in The Atlantic that he’s rethinking the relationship between humans and machines after a near-death experience in his Tesla.
Full Self-Driving works almost all of the time—Tesla’s fleet of cars with the technology logs millions of miles between serious incidents, by the company’s count. And that’s the problem: We are asking humans to supervise systems designed to make supervision feel pointless. A machine that constantly fails keeps you sharp. A machine that works perfectly needs no oversight. But a machine that works almost perfectly? That’s where the danger lies.
The styling won’t work for everyone, but 440 miles of range could make this an attractive package.
The R2 arrives in a segment already dominated by the Model Y. But ultimately Rivian needs to do more than just beat Tesla if it’s going to survive.
Cosmos and Earth. Paging Carl Sagan! The EV company announced the names at its Investor Day in New York City today. Both are expected to be mid-sized crossover SUVs, with an estimated starting price of $50,000. That makes the Lucid Earth and Cosmos incredibly important to the company’s long-term future — sort of similar to the Rivian R2. If Lucid wants to break into the mainstream, it needs to sell more affordable vehicles.
