Study: Pace of US EV adoption requires 8X charger growth by 2030

Mercedes-Benz EV charging networkKeeping up with anticipated U.S. EV sales growth will require a lot more chargers, according to a new S&P Global Mobility study. Even accounting for home charging, which is how most EV drivers currently charge most of the time, the U.S. public charging network will need to quadruple in size between 2022 and 2025, and grow more than eight-fold...

Mercedes reportedly plans to drop EQ badging for EVs

2023 Mercedes-Benz EQSMercedes-Benz could drop its EQ badge for electric cars as it moves toward an EV-only lineup, a German business newspaper reported. EQ was launched in 2016 as a sub-brand that would serve as a launch point for EVs, but Mercedes plans to drop the EQ nomenclature from the end of 2024, according to Handelsblatt (via Automotive News Europe). The...

Ram Charger inductive charging robot: How it will work for Ram EV

Robotic inductive Ram Charger for future Ram EVThe first widely available factory original wireless charger in the U.S. might arrive not from Tesla or one of the Chinese EV makers, but from Stellantis. As it revealed its Ram electric truck concept last week, Ram gave a future inductive charging robot center stage. “We know from our Real Talk tour that our customers aren’t just...

Chinese startup might soon make EVs with cell-to-chassis tech

CATL cell to pack battery tech sketchA Chinese startup plans to ditch battery packs entirely and integrate cells directly with an EV's chassis. With this goal in mind, Neta Auto on Wednesday announced a cooperative agreement with battery supplier CATL to use the latter's cell-to-chassis tech, branded as Integrated Intelligent Chassis (CIIC). In a press release, Neta said it would be...

Virtual power plants of GM, Ford EVs could cut “peaker” pollution

2023 Ford F-150 LightningGeneral Motors and Ford have joined a pilot project to use EVs as an alternative energy source for the electricity grid, helping to cut pollution from fossil fuels. Organized by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), the project will network EVs, along with smart thermostats, appliances, and home solar installations and energy-storage arrays, to...

2023 Mazda MX-30 EV carries over, as range-extended rotary idles

2023 Mazda MX-30 EVMazda confirmed Tuesday that the 2023-model-year version of the MX-30 EV will be arriving in California dealerships this spring. Prices for the 2023 MX-30 EV are up somewhat, to $35,385 for the base model and $38,395 with the Premium Plus package. At the base level that’s $740 higher than the 2022 Mazda MX-30 price. Just earlier this week...

DOE: In 2022 money, EV battery costs have kept falling

Mercedes-Benz Alabama battery factoryMany analyses have shown that EV battery costs stopped decreasing in 2022, putting off affordability goals. But the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a reality check. Based on 2022-constant dollars, battery costs actually continued falling last year at the pack level, because of accelerated inflation, according to DOE estimates. The...

Hyundai Ioniq 5 with e-corner tech turns on a dime

Hyundai Ioniq 5 with e-corner modulesAn electric powertrain allows for a lot more possibilities for improving low-speed maneuverability, as Hyundai recently demonstrated. The automaker's Hyundai Mobis mobility-tech division has developed a hardware set called "e-corner" that allows a vehicle's individual wheels to rotate up to 90 degrees. The system was first shown in 2021, and the...

Stellantis CEO: Ram range-extended electric pickup to outrun regulations

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept  -  CES 2023 Stellantis is going about electrifying trucks in a different way than Ford or GM. Rather than only rolling out a line of full battery electric trucks to keep selling alongside its gasoline models, it will also produce a range-extended Ram electric truck to fit into a middle ground that could get more people to plug in. In a Q&A session last...

Goodyear shows fuel-saving tire with 90% sustainable materials

Goodyear 90% sustainable tireGoodyear has developed a tire made from 90% sustainable materials that can also save fuel, but it's not destined for production just yet. The "demonstration tire" passed all of Goodyear's internal testing, as well as all applicable regulatory testing, and was shown to have a lower rolling resistance than a comparable conventional tire, the company...

Waitlist opens for $40,000 Lightyear 2 solar car due in 2025

Waitlist announced for Lightyear 2 solar car due in 2025.Lightyear has opened a waitlist for its second solar-assisted EV model, which aims for a lower price point and something much closer to mass-market appeal. Straightforwardly called Lightyear 2, this new model is scheduled to start production by the end of 2025 with a base price of approximately $40,000, according to a Lightyear press release. The...

EV range-boosting heated seat belt is a mass-market first

ZF Heat Belt - heated seat belt for EVsYou might already have heated seats and possibly a heated steering wheel in your vehicle. Are you ready for a heated seat belt? That’s what ZF, one of the world’s top automotive suppliers, announced this past week at CES. The innovation is focused toward electric vehicles. While it might sound extravagant and unnecessary, ZF has a...

Ram confirms range-extended EV, considers fuel-cell HD trucks

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept  -  CES 2023 As Ford and GM appear poised to go big on a range of battery electric full-size pickups, Stellantis and its Ram brand are readying more than BEVs as they shift to cleaner trucks. The range of Ram possibilities that became a little clearer last week, surrounding the reveal of the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept at CES, includes an electric...

Vinfast details smaller VF 6 and VF 7, confirms US VF 8 deliveries

Vinfast VF 8Vinfast has delivered its first VF 8 electric SUVs to U.S. customers, and it plans to open reservations for the VF 6 and VF 7 follow-up models in March, the company announced at CES in Las Vegas last week. The first 100 VF 8 EVs were delivered in Vinfast's home country of Vietnam in September 2022. Vinfast now says the first U.S. customer cars...