Cars

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The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid: A refreshing alternative to a crossover

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The Honda Civic Hybrid powertrain.

This is the hybrid powertrain. Credit: Honda

And that can be tempting. The car we tested is much more pedestrian than the Type-R, but from the driver’s seat, it wants to eat corners almost as ravenously as that track-tuned model. That surprised me because the Type-R uses a limited slip differential, and these more sedate models do not. This is indeed a car that will reward you for hustling it down a twisty road should the desire arise.

The paddles on the steering wheel increase or decrease the amount of regenerative braking you experience when you lift the throttle rather than changing (non-existent) gears. Turned off, the Civic Hybrid will coast down the road with aplomb; in its strongest setting, it’s not quite one-pedal driving.

The driving position is now rather low-slung for a normal passenger car, no doubt a feeling exacerbated by a driving diet too-heavy in crossovers and SUVs, but you don’t feel quite as close to the ground as you might in, say, an MX-5. Visibility is good, and the ergonomics/HMI deserves praise for the fact that most of the controls are physical buttons. The air vents even have little machined metal stalks to aim them.

It’s a well-thought out interior. Honda

It’s also easy to live with. The hatchback means loading cargo is no hassle, although at this price point, you have to close your own tailgate; there is no motor assistance. The front and rear are spacious enough, considering the class of car, and there are plenty of USB-C ports for people to use to recharge their stuff. The heated front seats heated up very quickly on cold days, although a heated steering wheel would have been a nice addition.

The Sport Touring Hybrid we tested also comes with a 9-inch Android Automotive-based infotainment system that includes a full suite of Google’s automotive services, as well as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. And all Civics come with Honda Sensing, the company’s suite of advanced driver assistance systems. Unusually for a Honda, we didn’t even notice that many false positive alerts for the forward collision warning.

In all, I find very little reason not to recommend the Civic Hatchback Hybrid to people looking for a fun and efficient car that’s not too huge, too expensive, or too dependent on touchscreens.

The 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid: A refreshing alternative to a crossover Read More »

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How NASCAR and its teams are embracing 3D printing

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Carbon fiber, aluminum, maybe the odd bit of titanium here or there: These are the materials we usually expect race cars to be made of. Now you can start adding thermoplastics like Ultem to the list. Additive manufacturing has become a real asset in the racer’s toolbox, although the technology has actually been used at the track longer than you might think.

“Some people think that 3D printing was invented last year,” said Fadi Abro, senior global director of automotive and mobility at Stratasys. The company recently became NASCAR’s official 3D printing partner, but it has a relationship with one of the teams—Joe Gibbs Racing—that stretches back two decades.

“Now the teams only have certain things that they can touch in the vehicle, but what that does is it makes it so that every microscopic advantage you can get out of that one tiny detail that you have control over is so meaningful to your team,” Abro said.

Currently, JGR has five printers, which it uses in a variety of applications. Some are common to other industries—additive manufacturing is a good way to quickly develop new prototypes, as well as tooling and fixtures. But the team also prints parts that go straight onto the race car, like housings, ducts, and brackets.

“These are elements that are really integral for the vehicle to be on the track. If there are changes they want to make, they throw it to the printer, it prints overnight, and you have a part that can go on a track that’s specific to that track. So that gives them a competitive advantage,” Abro said.

How NASCAR and its teams are embracing 3D printing Read More »

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Whistleblower finds unencrypted location data for 800,000 VW EVs

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Connected cars are great—at least until some company leaves unencrypted location data on the Internet for anyone to find. That’s what happened with over 800,000 EVs manufactured by the Volkswagen Group, after Cariad, an automative software company that handles much of the development tasks for VW, left several terabytes of data unprotected on Amazon’s cloud.

According to Motor1, a whistleblower gave German publication Der Spiegel and hacking collective Chaos Computer Club a heads-up about the misconfiguration. Der Spiegel and CCC then spent some time sifting through the data, with which allowed them to tie individual cars to their owners.

“The security hole allowed the publication to track the location of two German politicians with alarming precision, with the data placing a member of the German Defense Committee at his father’s retirement home and at the country’s military barracks,” wrote Motor1.

Cariad has since patched the vulnerability, which had revealed data about the usage of Skodas, Audis, and Seats, as well as what Motor1 calls “incredibly detailed data” for VW ID.3 and ID.4 owners. The data set also included pinpoint location data for 460,000 of the vehicles, which Der Spiegel said could be used to paint a picture of their owners’ lives and daily activities.

Cariad ascribed the vulnerability to a “misconfiguration,” according to Der Spiegel, and said there is no indication that anyone aside from the publication and CCC accessed the unprotected data.

Whistleblower finds unencrypted location data for 800,000 VW EVs Read More »

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Hertz continues EV purge, asks renters if they want to buy instead of return

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Apparently Hertz’s purging of electric vehicles from its fleet isn’t going fast enough for the car rental giant. A Reddit user posted an offer they received from Hertz to buy the 2023 Tesla Model 3 they had been renting for $17,913.

Hertz originally went strong into EVs, announcing a plan to buy 100,000 Model 3s for its fleet by the end of 2021, but 16 months later had acquired only half that amount. The company found that repair costs—especially for Teslas, which averaged 20 percent more than other EVs—were cutting into its profit margins. Customer demand was also not what Hertz had hoped for; last January, it announced plans to sell off 20,000 EVs.

Asking its customers if they want to purchase their rentals isn’t a new strategy for Hertz. “By connecting our rental customers who opt into our emails to our sales channels, we’re not only building awareness of the fact that we sell arsenal but also offering a unique opportunity to someone who may be in the market for the same car they have on rent,” Hertz communications director Jamie Line told The Verge.

Hertz is advertising a limited 12-month, 12,000-mile powertrain warranty for each EV, and customers will have seven days to return the car in case of profound buyer’s regret.

According to The Verge, offers have ranged from $18,422 for a 2023 Chevy Bolt to $28,500 for a Polestar 2. We spotted some good deals from Hertz when we last checked, with some still eligible for a federal tax credit.

Hertz’s EV sell off may be winding down, however. Last March we saw more than 2,100 BEVs for sale on the company’s used car site. When we checked this morning, there were just 175 left.

Hertz continues EV purge, asks renters if they want to buy instead of return Read More »

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Honda and Nissan to merge, Honda will take the lead

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In 2019, then-head of the alliance Carlos Ghosn was arrested by Japanese police on charges of financial misconduct. After three months under house arrest, Ghosn fled the country and Japan’s criminal justice system, which rarely returns a not guilty verdict.

What about Renault, Mitsubishi?

Last year, Nissan agreed to invest $663 million into Renault’s EV activities; at the same time Renault gave up the majority of its shares in Nissan, reducing the stake of each company owned by the other, down to 15 percent. That was meant to lead to “a broader range of EV products and powertrains,” said Uchida at the time. But evidently it was decided that this arrangement was not sufficient to improve Nissan’s electric vehicle portfolio.

For its part, Mitsubishi says it will monitor the situation and decide whether or not to join at a later date. Meanwhile Renault said in a statement that “as the main shareholder of Nissan, Renault Group will consider all options based on the best interest of the Group and its stakeholders. Renault Group continues to execute its strategy and to roll-out projects that create value for the Group, including projects already launched within the Alliance.”

Assuming nothing throws a spanner in these particular works, the deal will be finalized by next June, with the new holding company for the two OEMs created by August 2026. Honda will take the lead of the new enterprise, in large part thanks to its larger market capitalization. But Mibe said that any real payoff from the merger wouldn’t be realized until after 2030. The hope is that shared development costs and greater purchasing scale will help drive down costs, but both companies will continue existing partnerships such as that between Honda-GM as well.

We can expect more shared vehicle platforms between Honda and Nissan, as well as deeper cooperation at the R&D stage. But there are also plans to optimize manufacturing, including facilities, as well as integrating supply chains and even sales financing to find cost savings and efficiencies.

Honda and Nissan to merge, Honda will take the lead Read More »

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Human versus autonomous car race ends before it begins

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A2RL admits that this is a hard problem, and that’s refreshing.

A pair of open-wheel race cars parked on the main straight at Suzuka in Japan

A2RL chose the Super Formula chassis to install its autonomous driving tech. Recently, an A2RL car went to Suzuka in Japan to try and race against a human-driven version. Credit: Roberto Baldwin

A2RL chose the Super Formula chassis to install its autonomous driving tech. Recently, an A2RL car went to Suzuka in Japan to try and race against a human-driven version. Credit: Roberto Baldwin

TOKYO—Racing is hard. It’s hard on the teams, it’s hard on the owner’s bank account, it’s hard on the cars, and it’s especially hard on the drivers. Driving at the edge for a few hours in a vehicle cockpit that’s only slightly wider than your frame can take a toll.

The A2RL (Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League) removes one of those elements from its vehicles but, in doing so, creates a whole new list of complexities. Say goodbye to the human driver and hello to 95 kilograms of computers and a whole suite of sensors. That setup was poised to be part of a demonstration “race” against former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat at Suzuka Circuit in Japan during the Super Formula season finale.

But again, racing is hard, and replacing humans doesn’t change that. The people who run and participate in A2RL are aware of this, and while many organizations have made it a sport of overselling AI, A2RL is up-front about the limitations of the current state of the technology. One example of the technology’s current shortcomings: The vehicles can’t swerve back and forth to warm up the tires.

A team of people stand in front of a racing car and pose for a photograph

The A2RL team and former F1 racer Daniil Kvyat (center) smile for the media at Suzuka. Credit: Roberto Baldwin

Giovanni Pau, Team Principal of TII Racing, stated during a press briefing regarding the AI system built for racing, “We don’t have human intuition. So basically, that is one of the main challenges to drive this type of car. It’s impossible today to do a correct grip estimation. A thing my friend Daniil (Kvyat) can do in a nanosecond.”

Technology Innovation Institute (TII) develops the hardware and software stack for all the vehicles. Hardware-wise, the eight teams receive the same technology. When it comes to software, the teams need to build out their own system on TII’s software stack to get the vehicles to navigate the tracks.

Not quite learning but not quite not learning

In April, four teams raced on the track in Abu Dhabi. As we’ve noted before, how the vehicles navigate the tracks and world around them isn’t actually AI. It’s programmed responses to an environment; these vehicles are not learning on their own. Frankly, most of what is called “AI” in the real world is also not AI.

Vehicles driven by the systems still need years of research to come close to the effectiveness of a human beyond the wheel. Kvyat has been working with A2RL since the beginning. In that time, the former F1 driver has been helping engineers understand how to bring the vehicle closer to their limit.

The speed continues to increase as the development progresses. Initially, the vehicles were three to five minutes slower than Kvyat around a lap; now, they are about eight seconds behind. That’s a lifetime in a real human-to-human race, but an impressive amount of development for vehicles with 90 kg of computer hardware crammed into the cockpit of a super formula car.

Credit: Roberto Baldwin

Currently, the vehicles are capable of recreating 90–95 percent of the speed of a human driver, according to Pau. Those capabilities are reduced when a human driver is also on the track, particularly for safety reasons. When asked by Ars what his biggest concern was being on the track with a vehicle that doesn’t have a human behind the wheel, Kvyat said he has to “try to follow the car first to see what line it chooses and to understand where it is safe to race it. Some places here [at Suzuka] are quite narrow—on the contrary from the Abu Dhabi track—and there are a lot of long corners. So I really need to be alert and give respect and space to the AI car,” Kvyat said.

Kvyat also noted that the AI car is traveling at a more respectable speed, so he really needs to know what’s going on.

The predictability of a human driver both on a track and in the real world is one of the issues surrounding AI. As we drive, walk, or bike around a city, we rely on eye contact from drivers, and there are certain behavioral expectations. It’s the behavioral outliers that cause issues. Examples include things like running a stop sign, weaving into a lane already occupied by another vehicle, or stopping in the middle of the road for no discernible reason. On the track, an autonomous vehicle might choose to deviate from the racing line around a corner because of a signal input that a human driver would ignore or fold into their driving based on their real-world experience. The context of the rest of a lived life is just as important as what’s learned on the track. Life and racing are hard and chaotic.

The “race”

On the Saturday of the race weekend, a demonstration of two A2RL vehicles raced around the circuit. The vehicles were moving quickly down the straight. The corners, though? We were told that they were still a bit tricky for the vehicles to navigate.

Down in the pits, the team watched a bank of monitors. Sensor data came in from the vehicles—zeros and ones representing the track translated into a sea of graphs. To help parse the data quickly, the system shows a green flag when everything is going well and red flags when the values are out of whack with what’s supposed to happen. In addition to how the vehicle is moving, information about fuel consumption, brake wear, and tire temperature is shared with the team.

All of this data lets the team know how hard it is pushing the vehicle. If everything looks good, the team can push the vehicle to go a little quicker, to push a little harder for a better lap time. Humans elsewhere in the pits will soon tell their human drivers the same thing. Push harder, be quicker; the car can handle it. The data coming in predicts what will happen in the next few seconds.

Hopefully.

The individual teams will try to find the optimal line, just like the human team, but it doesn’t always follow what humans have done before on a track. They work to create an optimal line for the autonomous car instead of just copying what humans are doing.

This team has been at Suzuka for weeks ahead of this race. The HD map they bought from a third party was off by meters. In that time the team had to remap the track for the vehicles and teach them how to drive on a circuit that’s narrower than the track at Abu Dhabi.

The car is outfitted with Sony 4K cameras, radars, lidar, high-definition GPS, and other sensors. The electric steering can handle up to five Gs. The hydraulic brakes on each wheel could be triggered individually, but currently, they are not, according to Pau. However, Pau did note that enabling this function would open up new possibilities, especially in cornering.

A pair of racing cars on the grid at Suzuka before the start of a race. Photographers and engineers are fussing over the car

On the grid at Suzuka. Credit: Roberto Baldwin

Pau took a moment while walking us around the vehicle to point to the laser that measures the external temperature of the tire. That, along with the ability to track the tire’s pressure, are key to ensuring the vehicle stays on the track.

The next morning, the main event was gearing up. Man versus machine. A modern-day John Henry tale without the drama of the song about a steel-driving man. We all knew Kvyat would win. A2RL was very up-front that the system is not nearly as quick as a human. At least not yet. But it had decided to bring the race to Japan, a country known to be on the cutting edge of technology. The “race” was to be held ahead of the season finale of the Super Formula season.

It was cooler that morning than the previous day. The cars were pushed out to the grid. Kvyat was stationed behind the driverless vehicle. The time between leaving the pits and the race starting felt longer than the day before. The tires were cooling off.

The A2RL vehicle took off approximately 22 seconds ahead of Kvyat, but the race ended before the practice lap was completed. Cameras missed the event, but the A2RL car lost traction and ended up tail-first into a wall. A rather anti-climatic end to weeks of work by the team. In the pits, people gathered around the monitors trying to determine exactly what went wrong.

Khurram Hassan, commercial director of A2RL, told Ars that the cold tires on the cold track caused a loss of traction. A press release sent out later in the day noted that one of the rear tires suddenly lost pressure, causing the vehicle to lose traction and slide into the wall.

The cameras missed the spin, but caught the aftermath. Roberto Baldwin

Hassan reminded us that the vehicle does not know how to swerve back and forth yet to warm up its tires. But more importantly, he said that the gap between simulation and the real world is very real. “You could do things on a computer screen, but this is so important. Because you have to be on the track,” Hassan said.

The reality is that reality is chaos and always changing. When a company notes that it’s doing millions of miles of simulated testing, it’s vital to remember that a computer-generated world does not equal the one we inhabit.

Reality and intelligence

A2RL doesn’t want to replace human-to-human racing. It understands the emotional attachment humans have to watching other humans compete. It also realizes that as these vehicles improve, what the teams learn will not be directly pulled from the track and put on self-driving cars. But by pushing these vehicles to the limit and letting AI determine the best course of action to keep from slamming into a wall or other vehicle, that information could be used in the future as a safety feature in vehicles—a way to keep a collision from happening used in conjunction with other safety features.

The day before the human versus AI race, Super Formula had its penultimate race of the season. During that race, two cars left the pits only to have one of their rear wheels come off. Also, another two cars collided with each another. Racing is hard, and accidents happen.

For A2RL, failure is always an option. It may break the hearts of everyone in the pits that have prepped for weeks for an event, but it’s important to remember that it’s a controlled environment. A2RL seems to understand and talks about the complications of aiming for an AI-powered vehicle. It would be nice if those companies testing on our streets did the same.

Human versus autonomous car race ends before it begins Read More »

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Automakers excoriated by Senators for fighting right-to-repair

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Yesterday, US Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Joshua Hawley (R-MO) sent letters to the heads of Ford, General Motors, and Tesla, as well as the US heads of Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Stellantis, Subaru, Toyota, and Volkswagen, excoriating them over their opposition to the right-to-repair movement.

“We need to hit the brakes on automakers stealing your data and undermining your right-to-repair,” said Senator Merkley in a statement to Ars. “Time and again, these billionaire corporations have a double standard when it comes to your privacy and security: claiming that sharing vehicle data with repair shops poses cybersecurity risks while selling consumer data themselves. Oregon has one of the strongest right-to-repair laws in the nation, and that’s why I’m working across the aisle to advance efforts nationwide that protect consumer rights.”

Most repairs aren’t at dealerships

The Senators point out that 70 percent of car parts and services currently come from independent outlets, which are seen as trustworthy and providing good value for money, “while nearly all dealerships receive the worst possible rating for price.”

OEMs and their tier-one suppliers restricting the supply of car parts to within their franchised dealership networks also slows down the entire repair process for owners as well as increasing the cost of getting one’s car fixed, the letter states.

As Ars noted recently, more than one in five automotive recalls are now fixed with software patches, and increasingly the right-to-repair fight has centered on things digital—access to diagnostics, firmware, and connected services. The percentage of non-hardware recall fixes will surely grow in the coming years as more and more automakers replace older models with software-defined vehicles.

Automakers excoriated by Senators for fighting right-to-repair Read More »

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Here’s what we learned driving Audi’s new Q6 and SQ6 electric SUVs

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HEALDSBURG, Calif.—Earlier this summer, Ars got its first drive of Audi’s new Q6 e-tron on some very wet roads in Spain. Then, we were driving pre-production Q6s in Euro-spec. Now, the electric SUV is on sale in the US, with more power in the base model and six months more refinement for its software. But the venue change did not bring a change of weather—heavy rain was the order of the day, making me wonder if Audi is building its new electric vehicle on the site of an ancient rain god’s temple?

Of all its rivals, Audi appears to have settled into a nomenclature for its vehicles that at least makes a little sense. Odd numbers are for internal combustion engines, even numbers for EVs, although it also appends “e-tron” on the end to make that entirely clear… and give francophones something to snicker about. (Yes, the e-tron GT does not fit into this schema, but nobody’s perfect.)

The Q6 e-tron is also the most advanced EV to wear Audi’s four rings. Built on a new architecture called PPE (premium platform electric), at its heart is an 800 V powertrain with a 100 kWh (94.4 kWh useable) lithium-ion battery pack that powers a permanently excited synchronous motor driving the rear wheels, and in the case of the quattro versions, an asynchronous motor. The electric motors have 30 percent less energy consumption than those used in the Q8 e-tron, and are smaller and lighter.

That makes it a lot more up to date than the Q8 e-tron, which uses a modified version of Audi’s venerable MLB Evo platform, or the smaller Q4 e-tron, a somewhat disappointing electric crossover that’s essentially a Volkswagen ID.4 with a glow-up. That goes for the Q6 e-tron’s electronics, which are also a generation newer than the Q4 e-tron, and also more capable.

Audi is starting off US Q6 e-tron sales with a pair of models, the $65,800 Q6 e-tron quattro and the $72,900 SQ6 e-tron quattro. A $63,800 single-motor (not-quattro) Q6 e-tron will be available in time, with 302 hp (225 kW) and an EPA range of 321 miles (517 km), but we’ll have to wait a while before we get behind the wheel of that one.

Here’s what we learned driving Audi’s new Q6 and SQ6 electric SUVs Read More »

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Here’s the new hybrid Honda Prelude, on sale late 2025

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The fact that Honda was working on a new Prelude coupe was not entirely secret—not after the automaker unveiled a show car at this year’s Long Beach Grand Prix. This morning, the Japanese automaker confirmed that the new Prelude will go on sale here in the US late in 2025.

“The return of the Honda Prelude as a hybrid-electric sports model demonstrates our continued commitment to offer a variety of exhilarating products to meet the needs of our customers,” said Jessika Laudermilk, assistant vice president of Honda Auto Sales. “The first three products in the Honda lineup in the 1970s were Civic, Accord, and Prelude, and soon all three will be back together again in our passenger car lineup as hybrids.”

Honda has often used the two-door Prelude coupe as a testbed for new technologies, including torque vectoring and four-wheel steering, and was praised by the late automotive writer LJK Setright, who owned several Preludes across the years.

An innovation in the next Prelude will be a new drive mode, called Honda S+ Shift, which it says “advances linear shift control to deliver maximum levels of driver engagement.” But as the Prelude will use a hybrid powertrain, there won’t be an option for a manual transmission in this generation.

Beyond that, Honda is keeping quiet on Prelude details until closer to the car’s arrival on sale next year.

Here’s the new hybrid Honda Prelude, on sale late 2025 Read More »

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Trump to block the government and military from buying EVs

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The incoming Trump administration has even more plans to delay electric vehicle adoption than previously thought. According to Reuters, which has seen transition team documents, the Trump team wants to abolish EV subsidies, claw back federal funding meant for EV charging infrastructure, block EV battery imports on national security grounds, and prevent the federal government and the US military from purchasing more EVs.

During the campaign, candidate Trump made repeated references to ending a supposed EV mandate. In fact, policies put in place by current US President Joe Biden only call for 50 percent of all new vehicles to be electrified by 2032 under EPA rules meant to cut emissions by 56 percent from 2026 levels.

More pollution

Instead, the new regime will be far more friendly to gas guzzling, as it intends to roll back EPA fuel efficiency standards to those in effect in 2019. This would increase the allowable level of emissions from cars by about 25 percent relative to the current rule set. US new vehicle efficiency stalled between 2008 and 2019, and it was only once the Biden administration began in 2021 that the EPA started instituting stricter rules on allowable limits of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from vehicle tailpipes.

About a third of the population looks to the California Air Resources Board, rather than the EPA, to get their emissions regulations.

The so-called ZEV states (for Zero Emissions Vehicles) do have something closer to an EV mandate, and from model-year 2026 in these states (California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia) a third of all new cars sold by each automaker will have to be battery-electric—assuming the EPA grants California a waiver to allow this to happen.

As with the first Trump administration, we can expect a sustained attack on California’s ability to set its own vehicle emissions regulations and any attempts by other states to use those regs.

More tariffs

Trade tariffs will evidently be a major weapon of the next Trump administration, particularly when deployed to block EV manufacturing. Even the current administration has been wary enough of China dumping cheap EVs that it instituted singeing tariffs on Chinese-made EVs and batteries, with bipartisan support from Congress.

Trump to block the government and military from buying EVs Read More »

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Amazon starts selling Hyundai cars, more brands next year

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Fear not—there’s no one-click option, so no one should be in any danger of absent-mindedly buying a brand-new Palisade. Instead, there’s a “Begin Purchase” button, at which point you can choose to pay the entire amount or finance the purchase.

Here is a huge difference to the traditional dealership experience: There’s no negotiation, no browbeating or asking you how much of a monthly payment you want to make, and no upselling paint protection or the like. Everything can be done through amazon with a few clicks, ending with scheduling a pick-up time for the new car at the dealership. You can even trade in your existing car during the process. (I only tested it so far lest I accidentally end up with a brand-new Ioniq 5 N, which I still can’t charge at home.)

Amazon says it will add more brands next year, as well as leasing, and will also expand to more cities. For now, Amazon Autos is available in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Beaumont-Port Arthur, Birmingham, Boston, Champaign/Springfield, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbia, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, El Paso, Fond Du Lac, Ft. Myers/Naples, Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, Harrisonburg, Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Nashville, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Providence, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Sheboygan, Springfield, St. Louis, Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Washington, DC.

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EV charging infrastructure isn’t just for road trippers

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Although there’s been a whole lot of pessimism recently, electric vehicle sales continue to grow, even if it is less quickly than many hoped. That’s true in the commercial vehicle space as well—according to Cox Automotive, 87 percent of vehicle fleet operators expect to add EVs in the next five years, and more than half thought they were likely to buy EVs this year. And where and when to plug those EVs in to charge is a potential headache for fleet operators.

The good news is that charging infrastructure really is growing. It doesn’t always feel that way—the $7.5 billion allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act for charging infrastructure has to be disbursed via state departments of transportation, so the process there has been anything but rapid. But according to the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, the total number of public charging plugs has doubled since 2020, to more than 144,000 level 2 plugs and closing in on 49,000 DC fast charger plugs.

There are ways to throw off a planned timeline when building out a station with multiple chargers. Obviously you need the funds to pay for it all—if these are to come from grants like the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, that had to wait for the states to each develop their own funding plans, then open for submissions, and so on, before even approving a project, for example.

Permitting can add plenty more delays, and then there’s the need to run sufficient power to a site. “The challenge is getting the power to the points that it needs to be used. The good thing is that the rollout for EV is not happening overnight, and it’s staged. So that does give some opportunity,” said Amber Putignano, market development leader at ABB Electrification.

For example, ABB has been working with Greenlane, a $650 million joint venture between Daimler Truck North America, NextEra Energy Resources, and BlackRock, as it builds out a series of charging corridors along freight routes, starting with a 280-mile (450 km) stretch of I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

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