Kia smothers plans to bring Sorento diesel to America

2018 Kia SorentoThe Kia Sorento may not get a diesel version for the U.S. after all. On the eve of the Paris Motor Show and the introduction of the production-spec Kia Niro EV, company officials have confirmed that it’s shelved plans to bring any diesel model Stateside for now. The hold is officially temporary, but it's hard to see how it changes anytime...

Volkswagen details the foundation for 10 million electric vehicles

Volkswagen MEB platform architectureVolkswagen last week laid out the basics for its set of electric-car components that plans to use to underpin a million new all-electric vehicles each year by 2025. With those components on the Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB), VW claims that it has the first pure-EV platform designed for high-volume production. It’s a claim that may be...

Here’s the battery pack behind VW’s global electric-vehicle push

VW Battery PacksNo single core component in an electric vehicle costs more—or probably matters more for the acceptance of EVs—than the battery pack. Many would argue that one of the best decisions Tesla ever made was going with the Panasonic 18650 cells in the Model S (and later, Model X). Thanks in part to good power management and thermal planning...

Will Volkswagen’s electric Microbus be made in the USA?

VW ID familyVolkswagen is expecting to launch at least three new all-electric vehicles in the U.S. in the next five years. The first will be the 2020 introduction of the ID, a unique electric-only that would replace the e-Golf; the much-anticipated, all-electric ID Buzz, a remake on the counterculture-icon microbus, due in 2022; and the I.D. Crozz, a...