E-Mobility

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.

In a recent press conference, Tesla confirmed that it would not be releasing any new vehicles this year. Musk confirmed rumours that Cybertruck production would be delayed until 2023 at the earliest.

In addition to being more efficient by using more regenerative braking, Tesla's latest Autopilot software update is also supposed to provide an improved driving experience in slow stop-and-go traffic.

The range of BMW's powerful electric SUV apparently holds up quite well when being driven at high speeds which are prohibited in many countries around the world.

Instead of relying on touch-sensitive buttons, a new iteration of Tesla's futuristic yoke steering wheel in the Model S and Model X could be equipped with a regular horn.

General Motors announced the biggest single production investment in its history, a nearly US$7 billion outlay aimed squarely at the production of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra electric trucks. GM plans to surpass Tesla and become America's largest EV manufacturer, and will start by converting the Orion factory in Michigan into an electric truck plant, as well as invest in battery cell production there.

The NIO ET7 and ET5 performance sedans that are sizing up Tesla's Model S Plaid won't be the first electric cars with semi-solid state batteries, as a humble taxi fleet just got its first delivery of EVs with such packs. Made by the world's largest lithium producer Ganfeng, the E70 electric cars' battery packs are made with solid electrolyte diaphragm.

Volkswagen has finally previewed its new bus - the first of its kind to be electric. It has been revealed to have a design somewhat like the original's hallmark shape - however, it will be outfitted with considerably more up-to-date tech. They include an AR heads-up display, LED headlights and a new kind of wheel.

The Chinese car company Geely allegedly has plans to start making phones as well. To this end, it is said to be in talks to acquire the OEM Meizu. Meanwhile, the same brand has confirmed that it will release 2022 devices with Qualcomm silicon, prompting the release of an image projecting how such handsets might look.

The now announced Yamaha EMF electric moped comes with a futuristic and sporty design, a swappable Gogoro battery system and impressive performance specs including a quick 0 to 50 kph time of just 3.5 seconds.

About 80% of the electric vehicles currently on the market, as well as the ones that will appear up to three years from now, will be able to use the new EVOGO battery swap station network of the world's largest EV battery maker CATL. The cross-platform EVOGO network is achieved by an innovative rented battery block concept that can be used for swaps by most EVs out there in 125-mile range increments.

The first felony charges against a driver using a widely available autonomous driving system like Tesla's Autopilot have been pressed in California after a deadly crash. The U.S. government has been investigating a number of incidents involving Tesla cars in Autopilot and Traffic Aware Cruise Control modes since last August, too.

More performance sometimes results in a higher power consumption, which is why Tesla had to inform certain customers that the projected range of their ordered Model 3 is lower due to the recently introduced AMD Ryzen CPUs which now power Tesla's infotainment systems.

The rather sophisticated but still imperfect workaround that enables Apple CarPlay on Tesla's infotainment system may present technically inclined users with an experimental method to improve the connectivity between their iPhone and their electric car.

Subaru Tecnica International, the motorsports focused arm of Subaru, has revealed a new concept car. The all-electric STI E-RA has four motors which can deliver up to 1,073 hp.

This new software update for the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y apparently initiates the recalibration of a vital component of the heat pump, which may have caused some defects and the failure of the entire heating system in very cold winter temperatures.

Mazout is a new start-up targeting the growing electric 2-wheeler market in India. However, the company asserts that its upcoming motorcycle will be the country's first example of the "cruiser" variety. A prototype of its flagship has been previewed at events such as the EV India Expo 2021 thus far.

The world's largest electric vehicle battery maker CATL isn't optimistic about the speed of solid-state battery development and pegs 2025 as the year when the first samples will appear. CATL expects just 1% of electric cars to boast solid-state batteries by 2030.

Hyundai Motors plans to release no less than seven electric vehicles in the U.S. this year among all of its brands like Kia or Genesis, starting with the base Ioniq 5 model. The existing factories in Alabama and Georgia may be retrofitted for expanding EV production in America according to Hyundai's US$7.4 billion manufacturing plan, but President Biden's pending subsidies for carmakers registered with the United Auto Workers Union may tip the scales in the Tennessee plant's favor.

Even though Tesla claimed that it has solved this already known issue of the Model 3 and Model Y with a software update, owners are still reporting heat pump failures which could potentially lead to life-threatening situations when driving these electric cars in very cold winter conditions.

A 19-year-old IT and security enthusiast has managed to gain access to a number of Tesla cars in different countries following a vulnerability in third-party software or hardware that they installed. The access included key control features like "disabling Sentry Mode, opening the doors/windows and even starting Keyless Driving," in addition to honking the horn or taking over the car stereo while driving.

Tesla scrubbed all Cybertruck 2022 production references from its website recently and threw those who hit the preorder button in a state of confusion. It turns out that Elon Musk may simply be preparing for a grand 2022 Tesla product roadmap unveiling during the next quarterly conference call where the top Cybertruck electric pickup trim and its pricing will be revealed.

LG has scored another electric vehicle win after making its durable dual-stack OLED displays the preferred choice for in-car infotainment systems. Not only will LG be providing the flexible OLED panel for the unique Mercedes EQS pillar-to-pillar Hyperscreen, but it also announced that its new infotainment system will be present in the EQS electric performance sedan as a full package.

With only two wheels and about 1,000 less horsepower than the thunderous Bugatti Veyron, the first electric vehicle made by the French company comes as a bit of a surprise since it appears to be nothing more than an electric scooter.

The already rumored upgrades to the headlights, taillights and charging port of the 2022 Tesla Model S have now apparently been confirmed by pictures of an official production unit which has been spotted in a Tesla showroom in Taiwan. However, not all of these updates are necessarily expected to make their way to the North American market.

Tesla has asked its fanbase to contact the Governor, Senate, and Assembly of the state of New York and ask them to allow direct sales of electric vehicles. In some U.S. states, car manufacturers can't sell directly to buyers.

A prototype of the EV with cryptomining capabilities has been driven on public streets in Canada during a first test drive, and this milestone for the Daymak Spiritus has of course been captured in a recently released video.

The 'Full Self-Driving' 10.3 update that Tesla outed not long ago to owners with the sufficient number of Safety Score point and then pulled for left turn issues, has three distinctive driving modes - Chill, Average, and Assertive. A new driving test takes and compares the three profiles on one and the same road to determine what passes for aggressive driving in the opinion of Tesla engineers.

A couple of enterprising Tesla owners have been using their electric cars to mine for cryptocurrencies or privacy tokens like Monero. According to them, the most profitable way to mine for crypto with a Tesla is to use a hacked firmware and hook graphics processing units directly to the electric motor. One Tesla Model 3 owner reveals that this way he was able to net up to $800 a month in Ethereum when the cryptocurrency was at its record price.

In addition to a provision that should prevent the re-sale of the electric F-150 in the first year of ownership, Ford has also issued a stern warning for dealerships who try to take advantage of their customers by demanding high price markups from F-150 Lightning reservation holders.

Microsoft has partnered with one of the most promising electric car makers, XPeng, to provide its Azure AI-powered voice that scored the highest of any in-car virtual assistant on the MOS voice quality scale. The new EV virtual butler of XPeng will use Microsoft's Azure cloud to offload the processing tasks from the cars' chipset and provide unsurpassed life-like voice command experience inside XPeng's electric cars.

If you thought the 1000+ horse powers of the Model S Plaid not pushy enough at 163 miles per hour, Tesla just released the third of its storied line of Track Mode updates that upped the top Model S Plaid speed to 175 MPH. Besides all the new performance features, the update also includes critical break temperature warning to remind you that you have to get Tesla's new US$20,000 Carbon Ceramic Brake kit for the Plaid.

With its particularly efficient aerodynamic design and a projected range of up to 620 miles per charge, the new electric concept car Mercedes-Benz EQXX intends to finally put an end to EV range anxiety.

The BMW iX Flow concept car has been demonstrated at CES 2022. The vehicle can change color thanks to a coat of paint which includes E Ink, the same technology used in e-readers.

Chevrolet will be releasing a number of new electric vehicles starting next spring with the Silverado Work Truck fleet pickup, and continuing with its performance RST version in fall 2023. The real electric bestseller of Chevy, however, may be an Equinox crossover EV that will start from just US$30,000 when it gets released in 2024, and it will be followed by a full-size Blazer electric SUV model.

In addition to a gorgeous teaser video showing its first electric SUV, Sony has also announced that it will register a separate EV division called Sony Mobility Inc., which raises hopes that the Japanese tech behemoth could become a serious player in the electric car business.

Dubbed the technology flagship of the Bavarian automaker, the iX M60 electric SUV comes with impressive performance specs and is supposed to provide an exceptional driving experience despite being geared towards sustainability.

The new Gemini 001 battery pack prototype by Our Next Energy (ONE) propelled the Tesla Model S for 14 hours straight around Michigan in the cold mid-December temps. ONE managed to double the battery density of Tesla's stock 103.9 kilowatt-hours battery by using innovative packaging technology and proprietary chemistry. ONE's high-density battery pack beat the world record for a Model S range by covering 752 miles on winter highways, and 882 miles on a dynamometer in the lab.