Back in July 2023, a group of seven major automakers announced plans to form a public charging joint venture along the lines of the European consortium Ionity. EV fans welcomed the plan to deploy some 30,000 fast charging stations throughout North America, but we’ve heard very little since. Now the venture has a name: IONNA…. Read more »
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Food company Mars to order 300 electric heavy-duty trucks
Some may think of Mars as a candy company (your correspondent has a weakness for peanut M&Ms), but it’s a food industry giant that owns 50 global brands, and operates a large truck fleet. Now the company has announced plans to put 300 heavy-duty electric trucks into operation in Europe by 2030, in partnership with… Read more »
The heavy-duty electric truck market could break out in 2024
Electrifying heavy-duty trucks is essential if we’re to fight climate change and air pollution, but the pace of the transition has been painfully slow—many, many pilots, but few truly large-scale orders. For example, shipping giant Schneider acquired 92 Freightliner eCascadias in 2023—a good start, but only that, considering that the company currently operates over 10,000… Read more »
Kia EV9 and Volvo EX30: Are they 2024’s most important EVs?
One’s a three-row midsize SUV under $60,000; the other’s a compact hatchback that starts in the mid-30s. Now we’ve driven both. Choosing “best of” or “most important” new cars is always dicey, and doubly so with electric vehicles. New entries are announced virtually every month, and picking the 2025 models that will be most important… Read more »
New report: automakers have secured less than a fifth of battery metals required for 2030 EV production
When it comes to electrifying by the magic date of 2030, automakers talk a great game—but if you want to know which companies are serious about electrification, look into which ones are lining up supplies of critical battery minerals. According to a recent report from Transport & Environment (T&E), automakers in the European market have… Read more »
Mercedes uses SwissAI for public charging site selection
Mercedes-Benz is developing its own public charging network, and it has chosen SwissAI to provide network planning and site selection services. SwissAI’s AI-based analysis and forecasting SaaS platform, AIOME, is designed to facilitate location selection and charging infrastructure deployment. By the end of the decade, Mercedes-Benz Mobility plans to build some 2,000 charging hubs with… Read more »
ChargePoint’s new 500 kW DC fast charging platform debuts as the power behind Mercedes charging network
EV charging powerhouse ChargePoint has developed a new DC fast charging platform that can deliver charging speeds up to 500 kW. In the first large-scale deployment of the new Express Plus Power Link 2000 system, it will power Mercedes-Benz’s new HPC NA charging network, which the automaker is touting as a premium network commensurate with… Read more »
No complaints at Volvo—EV sales soar in October
The legacy automakers had a truly scary October. Ford and GM, both of which had seemed to be manfully slogging forward with electrification, have scaled back their EV plans, moaning that they can’t make a profit on EVs. (It’s not just American companies—VW and Mercedes are wavering too.) Their can’t-do jeremiads are aimed at politicians,… Read more »
EV charging is changing, Part 4: Behind the scenes as seven automakers counter Tesla’s Superchargers
Part 1: How automakers’ disappointment in Electrify America drove them into Tesla’s arms Part 2: No, NACS is not today’s Tesla connector Part 3: Why Tesla’s NACS is unlikely to kill CCS EV charging is changing, but much remains to be settled A flurry of news over less than a year permanently altered the US landscape… Read more »
Seven automakers unite to create massive new public EV charging network in North America
A lot of folks were doubtless still digesting the details of Tesla’s near-takeover of the North American public EV charging scene—and along comes another blockbuster development on the infrastructure front. Seven of the world’s major automakers—GM, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia and (oddly enough) Honda—have announced plans to form a joint venture to build a… Read more »