Will Ohio’s Voltage Valley energize a new era for the US auto industry? Big things are happening in the Mahoning Valley area of northeastern Ohio. The region, which centers on the city of Youngstown, was a booming center of steel production until the 1970s. Since then, like many other industrial hubs, the area has suffered… Read more »
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On Elon Musk Day, fans post personal messages about the Iron Man’s influence
Why shouldn’t there be a day to honor Elon Musk? If static electricity and bubble wrap are entitled to commemorations on the calendar (January 9 and 27, respectively), surely the visionary behind Tesla, SpaceX, PayPal and other high-tech ventures deserves a day. That’s the question that Tesla pundit and superfan Anuarbek Imanbaev asked a group… Read more »
EV software delays threaten to become “a disaster” for the German automakers
When I interviewed Tesla co-founder Ian Wright in 2014 for my history of Tesla, he described the software found in traditional automobiles as “a dog’s breakfast,” by which he meant that it was a motley mixture of heterogenous hardware and software, in contrast to Tesla’s elegant unified system, which controls every function of the vehicle…. Read more »
Bakery giant Bimbo to build 1,000 electric trucks per year
The dynamics of the commercial vehicle market are very different from those of the fashion-driven passenger vehicle market. When it comes to electric trucks, it’s fleet buyers who are taking the initiative, from Germany’s Deutsche Post to Amazon to UPS. Now the bakery giant Grupo Bimbo has announced plans to build its own EVs. Mexico… Read more »
Hyundai releases details of 2020 IONIQ Electric
Hyundai’s 2020 IONIQ Electric will start at $33,045 for the SE model and $38,615 for the Limited model. The automaker has revealed a number of improvements over previous models, including 36 percent more energy storage capacity and 37 percent more driving range . The 2020 IONIQ Electric offers 170 miles of range, 134 horsepower, and… Read more »
UPS orders 10,000 electric vans from UK startup Arrival
The days of small-scale pilots in the commercial fleet market would seem to be over, and good riddance to them. It was Amazon that started the betting with its order of 100,000 vans from Michigan startup Rivian, but now the venerable Big Brown has joined game with an order of its own from UK startup… Read more »
Accell’s new AxFAST 3202 portable Level 2 charger
Accell is an electronics manufacturer that’s based in Silicon Valley, and also has facilities in Mexico, Malaysia, and China. The company’s new AxFAST 3202 32-amp Level 2 charger is a higher-current version of its 16-amp AxFAST Level 2 charger. The new AxFAST 3202 offers a maximum charging level of 7.68 kW at 32 amps. It… Read more »
Q&A with Rivian’s VP of Propulsion (Full Interview)
The electromobility revolution is gathering speed, but the world’s EV-makers have fallen behind popular tastes in terms of the form factors auto buyers want, and this has emerged as a roadblock to mass adoption. Buyers love SUVs and pickups, and automakers love the high profit margins associated with these models. Electric SUVs are starting to… Read more »
Rivian raises $1.3 billion in funding
Rivian, an automaker that revealed its prototype electric pickup and SUV in November 2018, has raised $1.3 billion in a recent funding round led by T. Rowe Price Associates. Amazon and Ford also participated in the funding round. Designed as all-terrain EVs, Rivian’s launch products, the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, are notable for their… Read more »
Rivian says its battery pack has the highest volumetric energy density in the world, thanks to its cooling strategy
Rivian has been generating a lot of headlines since the November 2018 reveal of its prototype pickup and SUV. The company has scored substantial investments, including $700 million from a group of investors led by Amazon and another $500 million from Ford. That cash was accompanied by a history-making order of 100,000 electric delivery vans… Read more »