The hottest vehicle segment that doesn’t yet exist — full-size electric pickups — continues to arouse interest online, though the nature of that buzz can’t be directly translated into future sales.

Lofty promises of future product may send investors and tech geeks into mouth-frothing displays of overreaction, but established automakers, regardless of what Silicon Valley disciples claim, stand a better chance of having their wares on the market before the upstarts. Ford’s upcoming F-150 EV is one of those products. Scheduled to arrive in the middle of 2022, the automaker is preparing a plant overhaul designed to slot the new variant into its next-generation truck’s assembly operation. (Read More…)

There’s another B-Day set to occur next month, and this one has nothing to do with the Ford Bronco. “Battery Day” is what Tesla dubs September 22nd — the day of its annual shareholder’s meeting, but also the date of a planned technology reveal.

Tesla has suggested its near future holds great advancements in energy density, meaning far greater miles from a same-sized battery. In response to an online query, company CEO Elon Musk hinted that the EV maker’s batteries could travel 50 percent longer on a charge. (Read More…)

When we last checked in on the Volkswagen Passat, the manufacturer was rumored to be considering removing the model from its production lineup. Jetta’s bigger brother failed to garner much attention after its last update, and it just so happens to exist within a vehicle segment that has has seen far better days. Combine that with VW heaping added importance on a lineup of fresh new EVs, and there was good reason to think the family sedan was living on borrowed time.

Despite some company brass eager to kill off the model, it has been decided that the Passat will stick with us a while longer. Autocar recently reported the car has been approved for another generation, expecting it to launch in Europe in 2023. (Read More…)

Interested in a new electric vehicle with an after-tax credit price of $9,999? What about a larger model stickering for $19,999? Hmmm… doesn’t seem to be that many of you.

You can be forgiven for not knowing about Kandi America, the U.S. subsidiary of Kandi Technologies Group — a Chinese battery and electric vehicle manufacturer. Earlier this week, Kandi revealed two models it plans to bring to America in the hopes of cleaning up at the low end of the EV market. Having seen its share price skyrocket after announcing a U.S. market entry last month, the company’s stock fell back to earth when Wall Street gauged the public’s enthusiasm. (Read More…)

The ID.4 isn’t the first all-electric Volkswagen to reach consumers in the United States. That distinction goes to the e-Golf, but that model’s all washed up after 2020. A new family of emission-free VWs await global buyers, with European customers poised to take delivery of the first of the bunch: the ID.3 hatchback.

Overseas orders for that MEB-platform car began in June, with the first deliveries scheduled for September.

For U.S. customers — a crop of buyers used to larger, more capable vehicles — the ID line starts at the number 4. And that vehicle just started production in Germany. (Read More…)

Chinese automaker Nio is planning to allow customers to lease vehicle batteries independently from the cars themselves, and has involved Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) in the venture.

Considering EVs are useless without their battery, leasing an essential component seems to serve little purpose on its face. But Nio intends to sell its ES6 crossover for 273,600 yuan ($39,500) in China with the option to lease the battery for 980 yuan a month. Customers can also choose to purchase the entire vehicle outright for 343,600 yuan ($49,600) if they haven’t tricked themselves into believing a better battery is less than a year away.

This is a weird one, because the stated purpose is to lower the vehicle’s upfront costs. But it’s just a paperweight without an energy source, forcing customers to lease the power pack if they want to use the vehicle — and at no small cost. The companies announced the new program in Beijing on Thursday with Nio CEO William Li stating his company plans to enter Europe in the second half of 2021. Hopefully they’ll be dumb enough to accept the batteries-as-a-service premise. (Read More…)

Getting something for nothing always feels good, like when the dealer serves up complimentary air freshener or a water bottle during your regularly scheduled servicing. Alright, so you’re paying for it in a roundabout way, but it’s still nice. Even the complimentary coffee in the waiting grotto counts as something.

For buyers of the Lucid Air, a very long-range electric sedan due to arrive in driveways early next year, a three-year perk awaits. This week, Lucid announced buyers will be table to tap into Electrify America’s charging network for free. (Read More…)

Electric vehicle startup Bollinger announced plans to double its staff on Tuesday and has opened a new headquarters substantially larger than its original building. While its previous move took the company from New York to Michigan, its latest relocation keeps it within metropolitan Detroit — specifically Oak Park, which is roughly four miles away from the old Ferndale facility.

The change is supposed to help ready the business for its upcoming B1 utility and B2 pickup, which will need additional investments to get off the ground, as well as help secure deal with a contract manufacturer. EV companies seem to have no trouble attracting investors, despite most of them looking like carbon copies of each other. All you need is an electric platform that can be shared across numerous nameplates with the least imaginative alphanumeric names imaginable and Wall Street seems happy enough. (Read More…)

Sales of General Motors vehicles sank 15 percent in 2019 —  the automaker’s second straight year of annual sales pullback in that once promising market.

Maybe the product was the problem?

That seems to be GM’s thinking. On Wednesday, The General revealed its plan to capture market share in the world’s mos populous auto market with a raft of electric vehicles underpinned by its new modular electric vehicle platform, all powered by the company’s low-cobalt Ultium battery technology. (Read More…)

Want to wear your environmental activism on your sleeve? Park some of it in your driveway.

Gone are the days when driving an electric car required careful trip planning — and white-knuckled, pit-stained trips to the suburbs. Automakers have finally endowed their greenest rides with enough range to keep anxiety mostly at bay.

And, because there’s a pandemic (among other factors impacting electric vehicle sales), some of those same OEMs really want to move those cars off the lot. There’s deals to be had, greenies. (Read More…)

Genesis sure is getting a lot of headlines lately. That wasn’t always the case.

Yesterday, we told you of spy photos showing a compact hatchback/crossover vehicle that’s destined to become the fledgling premium brand’s new electric vehicle. What name it will bear, and what type of performance and range it can offer, is unknown, but Genesis will most definitely benefit from Hyundai’s new e-GMP dedicated EV architecture and its fast-charging 800-volt electrical system.

Then another electric Genesis appeared, this one looking quite familiar. (Read More…)

Canoo Holdings Ltd., creator of highly configurable electric vehicles built atop its proprietary “skateboard” platform, plans to merge with a blank-check firm in order to seek investor cash. If past examples of EV startups going public are any indication, Canoo will soon be valued at eleventy bazillion dollars, give or take a few bucks.

On Tuesday, the company announced a tie-up with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. IV, a special purpose acquisition company, in order to get itself a listing on the Nasdaq. (Read More…)

As it slowly fleshes out its lineup, fledgling premium brand Genesis can’t be without an electric vehicle. It’s 2020, after all. Thankfully, living under the Hyundai Motor Group umbrella means having access to a number of goodies — among them, Hyundai’s new modular electric architecture, which will underpin the fully-electric Ioniq brand.

As spy photos show, a small Genesis EV is already undergoing testing. (Read More…)

Steve Carlisle, whose job title was recently upgraded to president of GM’s North American operations, knows you can’t market emissions-free driving on novelty alone. The former Cadillac brand boss offered a hint about the window sticker affixed to the upcoming Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV on Wednesday, citing a need for competitive pricing.

The Lyriq, which this writer can’t seem to spell correctly the first time, is Caddy’s first EV. The first of many, too. Entering production in late 2022 as a 2023 model, the midsize Lyriq’s price won’t be stratospheric, Carlisle claims. (Read More…)

The Lucid Air, an unabashed luxury electric expected to roll out of an Arizona factory early next year, just got the PR boost it needed.

Working with FEV North America at the firm’s Auburn Hills, Michigan test center, Lucid and its partner put the Air to the test, applying standard EPA testing procedures to wring out the vehicle’s maximum driving range. The resulting number was impressive, to say the least. (Read More…)