The Volkswagen ID.4, which went on sale in the US earlier this year, could turn out to be a very important vehicle for a couple of reasons. It’s the first of VW’s new-generation EVs to reach the US. That is, it’s the first to be built by the post-scandal, reformed and repentant VW, and the… Read more »
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2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe: The legendary SUV brand’s first plug-in hybrid
The plug-in hybrid version of the Jeep Wrangler offers useful all-electric range and great electric torque—if drivers plug it in. Do they? The accelerating pace of electric vehicle launches has brought us to this: The first Jeep in the US to get a plug-in hybrid version is the legendary Wrangler. In Europe, it was smaller… Read more »
Parsing the latest proposal to revamp the federal EV tax credit
The House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have released proposals to revamp the federal EV tax credit program. The two proposals will be reconciled, and the final version is expected to be included in the pending reconciliation package. The Zero Emission Transportation Association has published a detailed description of the two,… Read more »
2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5: First of an aggressive wave of new EVs
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 »
Five companies produce almost all EV battery cells for the US market
Five companies (AESC, LG Chem, Panasonic, Samsung and SK Innovation) produced almost all the battery cells used in plug-in vehicles for the US market over the past decade. Total capacity produced was 75,933 MWh. Panasonic supplied 74% of all the cells, and a majority of these were installed in Tesla battery packs. A small percentage… Read more »
New CEO confirms Honda will go all-electric by 2040
Honda has become the first major Japanese automaker to set an official date for phasing out sales of fossil-powered vehicles. New CEO Toshihiro Mibe has announced that his company hopes to go all-electric by 2040. Mibe’s announcement confirms a shift that Honda has been hinting at for some months. In 2020, the company partnered with… Read more »
Plug-ins surpass 10% market share in California as Tesla sales surge
We can’t let Europe and China have all the fun—EV sales in North America’s EV capital, California, are finally taking off. According to the California New Car Dealers Association, some 53,261 plug-in vehicles were sold in the Golden State in the first quarter of 2021, representing 10.8% of the total auto market. The pandemic was… Read more »
New CarGurus survey shows rising consumer interest in EVs
Over the years, we’ve seen many surveys of consumer sentiment about EVs, but this one feels different. E-mobility has been getting a lot of press lately, and consumers, auto dealers and automakers are a lot better informed than they were a year or two ago. In February 2021, CarGurus surveyed 1,097 automobile owners in the… Read more »
Slow fleet turnover means ICE vehicles could be on the roads for decades
Sales of EVs are growing—in some ahead-of-the-curve markets, plug-ins are outselling internal-combustion vehicles—and countries and regions around the world are announcing deadlines to phase out fossil-burners. However, as a recent New York Times article points out, it could take years, if not decades, before electrification leads to substantial reductions in emissions. The problem, ironically, is… Read more »
Honda hopes to go electric in North America by 2040, will develop solid-state batteries
Have the last two holdouts among major automakers just hopped on the electric bandwagon, or are they just indulging in some fast-follower greenwashing? Following Toyota’s announcement of a new line of battery-electric vehicles, Honda now says it plans to make battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles 100% of its North American sales by 2040. There are… Read more »