E-Mobility

Rivian's flagship quad-motor AWD R1T electric pickup model now starts from the whopping US$79,500 instead of the US$67,500 it cost the other day, and that's without the destinations charges. As if to soothe that drastic price increase, Rivian introduced two cheaper RWD models with smaller batteries, but for a 2024 delivery.

The ambitious CEO of the American manufacturer plans to modify the Lightning Strike superbike so it becomes the world's fastest electric motorcycle and can break the land speed record for electric two-wheelers which currently stands at 218 mph.

After the Volkswagen ID.Life, which may officially be called the VW ID.2, looked quite futuristic but also rather bland in its first pictures, a graphic designer has now given the upcoming electric compact car from Germany a more traditional look.

As some police departments around the US add more and more Tesla Model Y vehicles to their respective fleet, others are rather critical of the progressing EV transition as these electric cars are supposedly "too small" and "not designed for police work".

The Dongfeng E70 electric sedans were announced as the world's first commercially available electric vehicles with a solid-state battery when they were delivered as part of a taxi fleet. Now the energy density of the E70's battery pack and its range on a charge have been outed, and they are pretty run-of-the-mill.

Toyota has recently revealed that the batteries it has built through a joint venture with Panasonic retain over 90% of its capacity after ten years. The company has also announced a free charging deal for US customers in partnership with EVGo.

The Tesla Model S and Model X batches produced in North America after mid-February will come without a front radar to augment Tesla's self-driving mode. The more popular Model 3 and Model Y already moved to the cheaper Tesla Vision camera-only solution last May.

Tesla makes at least US$10,000 per electric vehicle sold and this is the strategy that Ford's CEO Jim Farley wants to replicate while executing its own US$50 billion 2030 electrification plan. The other electric carmaker that Ford's CEO admires is NIO which currently beats Tesla at the specs-for-price game with the ET7 performance sedan and its semi-solid state battery option.

In part due to the historic significancy of Tesla's very first electric car, an early and well-kept 2008 Tesla Roadster has now reached a record price as a collector apparently agreed to pay more than a quarter of a million dollars for the original model of the iconic electric two seater.

Tesla's well-established Supercharger network would be a willing participant in the Infrastructure Bill's US$7.5 billion effort to build 500,000 EV charging stations nationwide. In comments sent to the FHA, however, Tesla notes that it'd like its exclusive Supercharger stations to get the same grant treatment as any public stations it builds where non-Tesla cars can be charged.

The loss of cellular connectivity of older Tesla Model S vehicles will disable certain remotely controlled functions, which can be prevented by scheduling the affected electric car for a relatively fairly-priced US$200 LTE modem upgrade.

Tesla is working to bring the full Steam game portfolio to its cars' infotainment systems, some of which are already powered by AMD Ryzen and RDNA 2 GPUs capable of delivering PlayStation 5 level of gaming performance. Asked whether the Cybertruck will be able to run Cyberpunk 2077, too, Tesla's CEO answered "100%."

Firefighting efforts to quell the flames on the burning Felicity Ace ship full of luxury vehicles are complicated by the fact that electric car battery fire can't be easily put out with water. The SMIT Salvage company hired to save the burning ship says they've never had a case like that before due precisely to the electric cars on board.

Volkswagen's talks with Huawei to purchase its autonomous driving unit are reportedly already in the haggling stage regarding the price of acquisition. Huawei recently unveiled the first vehicle that runs on its HarmonyOS platform and VW intends to make it a Tier 1 supplier of autonomous driving solutions for its own electric cars.

The German Federal Motor Vehicle Transport Authority did not provide any reasons for the new investigation and only noted that this specific automatic function of Tesla's autopilot and full self-driving technology may not be permitted in Europe.

The Apple Car's autonomous driving subsystem processing power has reportedly been tasked to the Apple Silicon department responsible for the A15 or M1 chipsets. Apple is apparently developing the self-driving chip for its car project in partnership with Korean OSAT (outsourced semiconductor package test) companies just as it did for the M1 processor.

Buoyed by the generous U.S. government incentives and a growing electric vehicles market in America, Ford's two upcoming U.S. battery factories are now expected to start mass production three months ahead of schedule. Ford's battery partnership with Korea's SK Group - Blue Oval SK - has reportedly already started ordering the Kentucky battery plant equipment.

An off-road hydrogen car racing series, Extreme H, has been announced. The event will accompany the existing Extreme E electric car racing championship from 2024, with a prototype of the racing vehicle expected early next year.

Ford Mustang Mach-E now occupies the top spot in Consumer Reports' electric car rankings for 2022. Ford's premier EV beat the Tesla Model 3 to come out on top. Compared to Mach-E, Model 3 faltered in self-driving safety and the steering wheel, among other factors.

After being denied to board the plane for her flight from Orlando to New York, the apparently intoxicated woman decided to use her US$1,500 motorized suitcase to evade a police officer who was surprised about the speed of the drivable piece of luggage.

The BMW Mini Cooper SE has been earning good reviews owing to its affordable price and decent feature set. The main criticisms, however, include the limited range of the car, small battery size, and no Android Auto support. BMW is all-set to launch the Mini Cooper SE in India on February 24, though all of the first 30 units have already been booked.

Reverse Summon, an upgrade to the Tesla Autopilot's Smart Summon option, is reportedly getting closer to release and the Tesla engineers in charge are working on three smart parking options owners can pick from. One of the Reverse Summon auto-parking choices could be to drop you off close to your building entrance before your Tesla drives off to park itself.

Intel is among the U.S. companies that believes Israel could be the next major semiconductor hub and is now growing its presence in the region with the acquisition of Tower Semiconductor. The move also helps Intel increase the production capacity as related to the IFS initiative.

Some fans argue that buying a luxury electric car does not align with the anti-capitalist and socialist views of the popular political commentator HasanAbi, while some even call the successful Twitch streamer a hypocrite. However, the Porsche Taycan is not his first extravagant purchase that has caused some controversy.

A number of Rivian executives in charge of production and battery development have visited Korea recently to prepare for a pilot production run in local facilities. After the battery development and production partnership with Samsung fell through, Rivian was reportedly still left with Korean suppliers as the only option to gain know-how and speed its American battery factory plans.

Volkswagen's CEO Herbert Diess is of the opinion that Level 3 autonomous driving definitely requires a LiDAR in addition to the cheaper cameras-only solution that, say, Tesla uses for its Full Self-Driving Beta mode. Elon Musk, however, is on record saying that he'd be 'shocked' if the FSD Beta doesn't achieve better safety vision than human drivers this year.

Fully electric vehicles now occupy only four of the top dozen or so slots in the greenest American cars ranking, down from seven last year. The plug-in or gasoline hybrids of the 2022 model year turned out to be more energy-efficient than new EVs that are constantly growing in size and horse power.

After a two-year fight with Tesla's assembly quality, repair customer service, and interior trimmings, a Model S owner finally traded it for a Chrysler 300. The big V8 sedan checked all the boxes for them, down to the fact that they have physical knobs to control the A/C or car stereo volume while driving without looking to a screen.

While the newly released pictures of Lexus' electric BEV Sport certainly look impressive, a lack of detailed information and Lexus' overall vague language hint at a very long waiting period until the high-performing spiritual successor to the legendary LFA will finally hit the red-hot electric car market.

Rivian detailed its R1T electric truck's protection system aimed at preventing theft or damages to the expensive EV. Called Gear Guard, the sentry kit consists of five cameras offering a full 360-degree around the R1T at all times, a virtual Yeti sentinel, and the good ol' steel cable to guard your belongings.

NIO will be starting the first deliveries of its groundbreaking ET7 performance sedan with 600+ miles of range in Q4 and the Beijing municipality has prioritized the factory buildout of its 150kWh semi-solid state battery maker. Tesla's new design center is listed among the other priority projects of the local government, too.

A recent study of footage of Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' software, captured by Tesla owners, has left some experts with concerns for its safety. However, many vehicle owners taking part in the autonomous driving Beta defended the testing, arguing that it was vital for development.

An investment vehicle of the billionaire George Soros has staked US$2 billion in Rivian Automotive, the maker of the R1T electric pickup truck and the R1S midsize electric SUV. The R1T production delays, however, have sent Rivian's share price down 43% in 2022 alone, and the Soros Fund Management stake is now worth just $1.17 billion.

Tesla finally has some exciting news about the follow-up to its original Roadster EV as its design chief hinted they are still "feverishly" working on its development though a release probably won't happen before 2023. Tesla's design exec also said that Apple has long dropped the ball on the looks and excitement its products bring.

With an expected peak power output of almost 180 horsepower, Triumph's electric motorcycle prototype TE-1 will likely throw shade at direct competitors like the American icon Harley-Davidson and its electric two-wheeler called LiveWire.

Thanks to its beefy tires and dual LED headlights, very light adults may enjoy the rather outdated but relatively affordable Jeep Razor RX200 electric off-road scooter, even though it remains unclear what makes Jeep's newest two-wheeled EV a better choice compared to the cheaper and already available regular Razor RX200.

Qualcomm has just announced that it has become a Premium Partner in Scuderia Ferrari's campaign for the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship. This new agreement will also see much more Snapdragon technology in the classic Italian marque's next generation of road cars as well. Qualcomm will also become involved in the brand's eSports concerns.

From solid-state battery investments to hitting a production capacity for 600,000 electric vehicles by 2023, Ford wants to be the "true EV leader" in the U.S. In order to achieve this, Ford will invest up to US$20 billion more on top of its US$30 billion EV commitment by 2030, spearheaded by an ex-Tesla and Apple Car executive.

Tesla lost US$101 million on its crypto investments in 2021, reveals its latest SEC filing, as Elon Musk's buoyant $US1.5 billion Bitcoin purchase saw some writedowns throughout the year and towards the crypto price crash at its end. Tesla previously profited from a March sale of some of its Bitcoin holdings, and now holds US$1.99 billion worth of bitcoins.

Incidents with Teslas in the Full Self-Driving Beta mode have been reported, but there was no evidence to confirm them for the NHTSA so far. A YouTuber took the newest FSD Beta 10.10 update for a drive around San Jose and experienced what could be the first self-driving Tesla accident caught on tape in real time.

The new cylindrical 4680 battery that Tesla intends to start placing in its electric vehicles as soon as this quarter will also be produced by Panasonic later this year. Panasonic commented that, since Tesla has placed a huge order for them, it will be given 'top priority' as a client for its first 4680 batteries to be shipped later in 2022.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has filed a recall request with Tesla for an issue affecting the seatbelt fastening chime. The warning sound fails to engage when the driver exits the vehicle when it's on and then returns, so Tesla will have to issue an OTA fix for the affected Model 3, Y, S, and X vehicles.

A problem with Tesla’s “rolling stop” feature has been found, which has led to the company recalling nearly 54,000 cars. The feature, part of the Full Self Driving software, could mean that your vehicle does not come to a halt at a stop sign, which is illegal.

Toyota Camry can feel safe that its 28-year reign at the top of the new car sales ranking hasn't been abruptly brought to an end by the Model 3 EV. Tesla Australia, it turns out, has claimed record Model 3 sales in error, putting its numbers at odds with the actual vehicle registration data in defiance with the 'truth in reporting' initiative of a local industry board.

Panasonic claims to have pioneered the "world's first integrated-frame lens", a new type of lens suitable for demanding and potentially crucial use-cases such as the far-infrared sensing needed for effective person- or object-avoidance of the autonomous vehicles touted to take over in the future. Furthermore, this new advancement might boost the integrity of these lenses while reducing the cost of making them.

Tesla's gross profit margin is one of the highest in the industry, it turns out, as it costs Tesla just US$36,000 on average to build one of its electric vehicles. A healthy 29% profit margin is something many carmakers can only dream of, yet Tesla is determined to bring production costs even further down going forward.

It took a bog standard Porsche Taycan less than two and a half hours on the charger and US$76.82 in electricity costs to cover the 2,834.5-mile distance between Los Angeles and New York. "Hypermiling" aficionado Wayne Gerdes managed to shorten the previous Guinness world record's fast-charging time by nearly three times.

Tesla has released a new gadget, the TeslaMic, with its Chinese New Year software update. The device can be used to play karaoke in your car, with the Leishi KTV app included in the update.

Instead of creating a battery development and manufacturing partnership with Rivian, Samsung created such a joint-venture with Stellantis, as the maker of the R1T electric pickup went into a production delay spiral. Not only couldn't Rivian commit on purchase volumes, but it also wanted "unacceptable" technology transfers.

The electric car pioneers from the Alliance of Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi will be investing US$26 billion in the next five years towards fleet electrification with the goal to have 35 new EVs by 2030. Not only that, but Nissan is tasked with the mass production of an all-solid-state battery before the end of the period.