Could Rivian emerge as “the next Tesla?” On the strength of its debut truck, that’s not an unreasonable question. If you want to attract attention, keeping a company in stealth mode for several years is a good way to do it. The startup carmaker Rivian was founded a decade ago by RJ Scaringe, but it… Read more »
Legacy automakers have long insisted that there was no consumer demand for EVs. This doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment, at least if one of the EVs in question is a pickup truck. Ford CEO Jim Farley recently told Automotive News that the demand for its new EVs has turned out to… Read more »
Electrify America has opened one of its largest charging stations to date at the Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in Santa Clara, California. The location features 14 ultra-fast chargers offering power levels of 150-350 kW. Solar canopies above the chargers will provide customers with protection from the elements and reduce electricity draw from the local… Read more »
How green is an EV? A PHEV? A hybrid? Most Charged readers understand that the answer depends on many factors, including the efficiency of a particular model, the region in which it operates, and the type of driving it’s used for. The clever folks at MIT have devised the ingenious Carbon Counter, an online tool… Read more »
Electric pickups are expected to be the next big thing, and newcomer Rivian stole a march on everyone—Ford’s F-150 Lightning is in pre-production, but deliveries aren’t to start until spring of 2022. Tesla’s Cybertruck is delayed until who-knows-when. GM may be struggling to catch up, but it’s moving forward. The latest news is that Chevrolet’s… Read more »
Here at Charged, we don’t usually repeat superlative claims—“the first, the biggest, the fastest”—we leave those to the Guinness Book of Records. In this case, however, we’ll make an exception. Ford says its plan to build two new manufacturing complexes in Tennessee and Kentucky represents “the largest ever manufacturing investment at one time by any… Read more »
Redwood Materials, the battery materials firm founded by Tesla cofounder JB Straubel, has announced a partnership with Ford. The two companies will work together to “create a closed loop for battery recycling and a domestic supply chain for critical battery materials.” Ford also made a strategic investment of $50 million in Redwood. “Excited to work… Read more »
In May, Ford announced that it would boost its planned EV investment, including battery development, to $30 billion by 2030. Now Ford North America COO Lisa Drake says the company expects to be spending more on electrified vehicles than it does on fossil vehicles by 2023. “In 2023…we’ll spend more on EVs than we will… Read more »
The 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 should be taken very seriously when it goes on sale this fall. It will be a new and likely very competitive entry in what will soon become a crowded field of EVs in the popular “compact crossover” segment. It’s not the first such EV: the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model… Read more »
As the world’s automakers prepare for an electric future, what do the world’s auto dealers have to say about what’s going on? As regular readers of Charged know, dealers have long been considered a major roadblock for EV adoption. (Advocacy group Plug in America, believing that the problem is one of education rather than will,… Read more »