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...

Mercedes plans own EV fast-charging network, starting with America

Mercedes-Benz EV charging networkMercedes-Benz aims to have its own EV fast-charging network in place by the end of the decade, focusing on North America initially and expanding to other major markets like Europe and China. Construction will start this year in the U.S. and Canada, Mercedes announced at CES in Las Vegas this past week. The automaker wants to have more than 400...

BMW i Vision Dee concept: Back to basics for future electric sedan?

BMW i Vision Dee conceptBMW is developing a new family of EVs dubbed "Neue Klasse," German for "New Class," and provided a glimpse of the design direction of those cars with the BMW i Vision Dee concept. Unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, the i Vision Dee is a compact sedan with what BMW calls a "reductive design" that seems to us to be a throwback to the E30 3-Series. Like...

Sony-Honda EV takes form with new prototype, Afeela brand

Afeela electric sedan prototypeThe Sony and Honda's EV joint venture came into greater focus this week at CES, where the two companies unveiled a new prototype and confirmed Afeela as the brand name for the venture. Looking a bit different from the Sony Vision-S concept first shown in 2020, the sleek prototype previews a production model scheduled to begin pre-orders in 2025...

Ram plug-in hybrid pickup will sell alongside fully electric truck

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV conceptStellantis’ Ram brand has been hinting for several years that while there may be a fully electric truck in the future, it sees a plug-in hybrid truck as part of the plan, too. With the debut of the Ram 1500 Revolution Concept at CES on Thursday, and the confirmation that a production version will bow within months and be delivered in 2024...

Ram 1500 BEV Concept electric pickup bows with three-row seating

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV conceptIn the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept revealed Thursday at CES, Stellantis’ Ram truck brand showed how it plans to deliver an electric truck in 2024. Put simply, it plans to carry on the competition that it’s waged against the Ford F-150 family, plus Chevy, GMC, and Toyota full-size trucks, translated into a new era of fully electric...

Study: EV adoption faces critical cost barriers

GMC Sierra EV lineupConsumers are showing more interest in electric cars, but cost concerns are a critical barrier to further adoption, according to a new study. In its 2023 Global Automotive Consumer Study, consultancy Deloitte found that most Americans don't feel ready for an EV. Just 8% of survey respondents said an EV was the preferred choice for their next...

Stellantis will build 100-mile electric aircraft for Archer

Archer Midnight electric aircraft to be manufactured with StellantisAs it prepares to launch a global lineup of electric cars and trucks, Stellantis is also planning to build a very different kind of electric vehicle. At CES in Las Vegas, the automaker announced that it will build the Archer Midnight electric aircraft, as well as provide $150 million in funding to California-based Archer Aviation in 2023 and 2024...

GM hikes 2023 Chevy Bolt EV price as $7,500 tax credit returns

2023 Chevrolet Bolt EVThe 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EV once again qualifies for the federal EV tax credit, but now it's also getting a small price increase. General Motors lost eligibility for the $7,500 credit when it reached the 200,000-unit sales cap that was previously in place. Under the revamped rules enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and due to take...

Report: South Korea fines Tesla $2.2M over cold-weather range

2022 Tesla lineup  (Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.)South Korea's antitrust regulator has hit Tesla with a 2.85 billion won ($2.2 million) fine for allegedly minimizing the impact of cold weather on range, Reuters reported Tuesday. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said Tesla had overstated "driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline...