Cars – Page 3

Donut Lab and the electric motors everyone has been talking about

Cars, Donut labs, hub motors / Shannon Garcia / February 26, 2025

“The set of benefits is different to each application or each size,” Piippo said. “In small things, you’re very price conscious, and you need to kind of optimize for the cost. And then the bigger you go, the more performance you can get or the more performance increase compared to the conventional setup you can get.”

“But then there’s also the kind of unlocked new industries where nobody has been that capable making a heavy lift… drone—like lifting shipping containers or something like this—until now. Because we have a very compact shape and very lightweight design, we can do quite a bit of performance in everything that flies because we can play with the cooling in a smart way with this design,” Piippo said.

For a compact EV crossover, Donut Lab thinks its tech could reduce the number of components in a powertrain by three-quarters, saving weight and assembly time—and therefore money. For a semi-truck, the savings could be an order of magnitude higher, according to the company’s case study.

In fact, the first use has been for motorcycles. The Verge TS Pro electric motorcycle we tested last summer was created to show off the motor technology.

The reaction at CES was positive—”we had maybe 10 to 20 times more business than we anticipated, and we were aiming quite high,” Lehtimäki said.

“Major OEMs have understood for decades that in-wheel motors would be the golden solution if they could get the weight down,” he said. “But I feel that there’s been some education going on in the last few years because it felt to us that everybody we spoke to, you just show the graph of torque and power per kilogram, and they’re like, ‘OK, when can we have it?'”

Plenty can happen between an OEM testing parts for proving and a product appearing in the showroom that uses that technology. But if all goes well, we might see vehicles with Donut Lab’s motors in a couple of years. They may show up elsewhere, too. Lehtimäki told me that interest has come in from outside the automotive and mobility sectors, including applications like wind turbines and washing machines.

That last one has some charming history to it—when inventors were tinkering with electric cars in the 1970s, they often turned to washing machines for a source of torquey electric motors.

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The Acura ZDX is an example of badge engineering for the software age

Acura ZDX, car review, Cars / 9u50fv / February 25, 2025

Acura is gearing up to build its first entirely in-house battery-electric vehicles, but it has gotten a head start with the ZDX SUV. Built in collaboration with General Motors, the ZDX is a comfortable and competent luxury EV. More than that, it’s a shining example of what badge engineering looks like in the digital age.

Automakers have long collaborated with each other. Sometimes that means working together on a powertrain or vehicle platform for use in quite different products. Sometimes, it’s a little less involved—the Dodge Hornet differs very little from the Alfa Romeo Tonale, for example.

In the case of the Acura ZDX, the vehicle platform and the battery-electric powertrain are all thoroughly GM, what used to be called Ultium, until the American automaker retired that branding. It is, in essence, Acura’s take on the Cadillac Lyriq and is similar, if not identical, in terms of power output and pricing.

Although the range starts with the rear-wheel drive $64,500 ZDX A-Spec, our test car was the range-topping all-wheel drive ZDX Type-S, which costs $73,500 before the $7,500 clean vehicle tax credit. It has an output of 499 hp (372 kW) and 544 lb-ft (738 Nm), and it has an EPA range of 278 miles (447 km) on a full charge of the 102 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

Despite winter temperatures and 22-inch tires (a $600 option), that range estimate seems spot-on—over the course of a week, we averaged 2.7 miles/kWh (23 kWh/100 km).

The next Acura EV to launch will have a NACS port, but ZDXs feature CCS1 for now. Adapters, and access to Tesla’s Supercharger network, should happen in this spring. Jonathan Gitlin

Fast charging wasn’t particularly impressive, especially compared to other luxury SUVs in this price bracket. Acura quotes 42 minutes to go from 20–80 percent state of charge; in practice, I plugged in with 38 percent SoC showing on the dash and had to wait 45 minutes to get to 80 percent. Charging peaked at 91 kW but had dropped to 69 kW by 50 percent SoC.

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This EV could reboot medium-duty trucking by not reinventing the wheel

Cars, electric trucks, Harbinger / Kelly Newman / February 23, 2025

Modest goals and keeping within the lines have done this startup well.

Harbinger’s rolling chassis, at the company’s factory in Garden Grove, California. Credit: Tim Stevens

GARDEN GROVE, Calif.—There’s no shortage of companies looking to reinvent the delivery experience using everything from sidewalk drones to electric vans. Some are succeeding, but many more have failed by trying to radically rethink the simple, age-old task of getting stuff from one place to another.

Harbinger likewise wants to shake up part of that industry but in a decidedly understated way. If you found yourself stuck in traffic behind one of the company’s all-electric vehicles, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t even notice. The only difference? The lack of diesel smoke and clatter.

From the outside, Harbinger’s pre-production machine looks identical to the standard flat-sided, vinyl-wrapped delivery vehicles that seemingly haven’t changed in decades. That’s because they really haven’t. Those familiar UPS and FedEx machines are built on common chassis like Ford’s F-59 or Freightliner’s MT45, with ladder chassis and leaf spring designs dating back to the earliest days of trucking.

Rather than discarding decades of learning and optimization, Harbinger is keeping its focus narrow, changing only what’s required to move the industry away from expensive and ugly combustion to cleaner and cheaper electric drive.

Harbinger is exclusively focused on medium-duty options right now, trucks that are significantly larger than the Rivians or Mercedes eSprinters of the world. “That’s basically everything 5 through 15 tons or thereabouts,” co-founder and Harbinger CTO Phillip Weicker said, “the dominant product for what’s called a strip chassis, essentially what in the passenger market is called a skateboard.”

Yes, Harbinger just builds the chassis. Everything on top comes from somewhere else.

“Most medium-duty vehicles are built by one company building the chassis [and] another company installing the body,” Weicker said. “So this made the perfect sense for our first product because we’re going to be focused almost entirely on the differentiated aspects. We don’t have to deal with the high capital investments for body in white, paint shop, [and] a lot of the things that have cost EV startups lots of money just to get to a table-stakes position with their incoming competitors.”

If you’re a company that wants a medium-duty vehicle like this, your dealer sources the chassis for you and then coordinates sending it to a company called an upfitter. The upfitter then builds the entire body on top of the chassis to your exact specifications.

Designs from upfitters have been defined and refined over decades of experience by the companies that operate them. Those giant white or brown delivery vans might look very similar from the outside, but there’s a lot of nuance to their design.

“The door handles work slightly differently. The locking logic works differently. The vehicles are about 2 inches narrower for one of those companies than the other,” Harbinger co-founder and CEO John Harris said. “These are all designed to get the driver in and out of the door one second faster at every stop, to get in and out of the depot and load the vehicle two or three minutes faster.”

A man drives a delivery van — Harbinger CTO Phillip Weicker demoing the delivery van. Credit: Tim Stevens

Harbinger’s solution fits the same template but operates in a very different way. It’s still a big, long ladder-frame, and it uses a leaf-spring rear suspension. But rather than slapping a big engine up front, Harbinger relies on a 330-kW (443 hp) electric motor that’s wound in-house and mounted between the rear wheels. It uses a De Dion arrangement, which isolates the heavy motor from the rear suspension.

The idea was to keep the whole thing simple and familiar so that any company that wanted to get off diesel could start ordering vehicles with a Harbinger chassis without radically changing its fleet management or driver training.

I got a chance to see just how familiar the two things are during my visit to Harbinger’s 5,000-square-foot headquarters in Garden Grove, California. I wish I could say driving the Harbinger was an evocative, world-changing experience, but the company’s ethos of not reinventing the wheel very much continues through to the experience of sitting behind the wheel that steers the thing.

I started by taking a lap of the Harbinger parking lot in a Ford F-59-based machine, a former delivery truck that had already lived a hard life before it was put out to pasture, becoming something of a test mule for Harbinger. I’d never driven anything exactly like this before, but I have spent many hours droning down the highway in various abused U-Haul trucks, and the experience is much the same.

The same, but louder. Yes, the 6.7-liter diesel certainly makes a lot of noise, but the creaking and crashing of the boxy body built on top of that aged ladder-frame chassis is deafening. The automatic transmission has a leisurely approach to its job, delivering the next gear only when absolutely needed. The throttle delivers the kind of precision response that had me slamming my foot to the floor just to get around the parking lot. Doing so made a lot more noise but not much more acceleration.

That part, at least, is radically different in the Harbinger. While the throttle pedal has the same long throw, you needn’t dip nearly so far into it. A light pedal brush had the empty Harbinger delivery truck leaping forward. It’s hardly a Lucid Air Sapphire, but it still surged forward with the sort of instant acceleration that makes EVs so addictive.

Braking, too, is far more sharp. I lurched against the racy orange seatbelt the first time I stepped on the left pedal, and the combination of regenerative braking and fresh disc brakes made for a far more effective slowing solution.

There’s no transmission to worry about here, either. Instead of slinging a giant column shifter downward, in the Harbinger, you just hit the D button and pull away.

Harbinger truck interior — It’s not the most stylish cabin we’ve sat in. Credit: Tim Stevens

In motion, though, the experience is much the same. You’re seated up high, deafened by the clatter and bangs from the empty, boxy body, which, again, is exactly like that built on a traditional truck. The feedback is so harsh that it’s actually difficult to separate the overall ride quality of the truck. Still, even unladen, and thus at its harshest, it’s a far smoother drive than the Ford.

It’s easier to turn, too. The Harbinger offers 50 degrees of steering angle at the front. I pulled off my first U-turn on a narrow, suburban LA street quickly enough to not get honked at by even a single impatient Angelino.

It ultimately wasn’t the plush, hushed experience offered by your average electric sedan, but that’s not the point. By keeping everything familiar, Harbinger CEO John Harris told me Harbinger can offer a product with price parity to those aged, diesel-powered machines. Harris declined to provide formal pricing, but its affordability is at least partially dependent on federal incentives.

Currently, alternatively fueled medium-duty vehicles like Harbinger’s are eligible for the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit 45W, which provides incentives of up to $40,000, depending on vehicle size and propulsion type.

A shelf of battery cell assemblies — Battery modules. Credit: Tim Stevens

“Where we’re pricing the vehicles, we need that 45 W if we want to undercut diesel, and that’s what we’re doing,” Harris said. “With 45 W, we can undercut the typical diesel vehicle by a few thousand dollars.”

But even if that credit goes away under the current administration, Harbinger has some price flexibility to remain competitive, he added.

That’s doubly true if you factor in operating costs. Harris says the average cost to operate a medium-duty vehicle like this is $0.50 per mile for fuel, or $0.85 if you factor in all costs relating to the vehicle itself. Harbinger is aiming to halve that, targeting $0.40 per mile. But, Harris says, Harbinger doesn’t need to lean on that total cost of ownership (TCO) logic.

“On a TCO basis, it’s easy: We blow diesel trucks away. But the whole point is to have the right acquisition cost from day one, and then the simpler operating costs deliver savings every day,” he said.

A cast EV battery case — The cast battery pack enclosure. Credit: Tim Stevens

Still, that’s potentially a huge savings when you consider the hundreds of thousands of miles a machine will cover over its lifespan, which is expected to be measured in decades, not years. Many of the medium-duty delivery vehicles you see on the road today date from the last century. Harbinger’s chassis has been designed to last just as long, including its custom-made, gigacast battery packs, which were designed for durability.

“If you took the battery pack out of a Tesla Model 3, and you put it in a commercial truck, and you tried to operate it in that environment, even if the cells lasted, I think the rest of the battery system would kind of shake itself to pieces,” Weicker said.

Harbinger customers can specify their desired pack size, and there’s even a hybrid model with an onboard generator for extended running. Harris, Harbinger’s CEO, declined to say when the company’s chassis will be in full production other than “very soon.” The company has 4,000 preorders on the books, and it has already delivered pre-production models to customers like Thor.

It’s a modest start for the company, which today counts 330 employees, but in an age of EV startups promising the moon and delivering little more than hype, the Harbinger’s focus on the basics is refreshing—and encouraging.

This EV could reboot medium-duty trucking by not reinventing the wheel Read More »

Nissan’s latest desperate gamble—see if Tesla will buy the company

Cars, Nissan, Tesla / DJ Henderson / February 23, 2025

Senior politicians in Japan are not going to let Nissan die easily. The automaker has been struggling for some time now, with an outdated product portfolio, ongoing quarterly losses, and soon, the closure of factories and thousands of layoffs. The Japanese government has been trying to find a suitor and had hoped that Honda would do its patriotic duty and save its rival from extinction.

That deal—one branded “a desperate move” by former Nissan CEO and fugitive from Japanese justice Carlos Ghosn—fell apart last week after Renault demanded a price premium for its shares in Nissan, and Nissan demanded a merger of equals with Honda. In reality, it was always going to be a takeover, with very little in it for Honda in the way of complimentary product lines or access to new technologies.

Today, we learned of yet another desperate move—the former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is among a group that is trying to get Tesla to invest in Nissan instead.

Such a merger seems exceedingly far from likely, even if Tesla CEO Elon Musk wasn’t completely distracted dismantling the federal government and its workforce. While the company still maintains a ludicrous market capitalization thanks to retail investors who believe it is poised to sell billions of humanoid robots to every human on earth, as an automaker, it may well be struggling almost as much as Nissan.

As experts told us last year, Tesla is not a well-run enterprise. Its product range suffers, like Nissan’s, from being outdated compared to the competition. It appears that consumers have turned against the brand in Europe and increasingly the US, and its quarterly financial results have been more than disappointing of late. Tesla’s free cash flow fell by 18 percent in 2024 to $3.6 billion, although such is the value of Tesla stock that, were a Tesla-Nissan deal to happen, the former could pay for the latter with equity, should it entertain the idea seriously.

Nissan’s latest desperate gamble—see if Tesla will buy the company Read More »

F1 may ditch hybrids for V10s and sustainable fuels

Cars, F1, Formula 1, sustainable fuels / DJ Henderson / February 22, 2025

High-revving naturally aspirated engines and their associated screaming soundtracks might be on their way back to Formula 1. Not with next year’s rule changes—that will see even bigger lithium-ion batteries and an even more powerful electric motor, paired with a turbocharged V6. But the sport is starting to think more seriously about the technical rules that will go into effect in 2030, and in an Instagram post yesterday, the man in charge of those rules signaled that he’s open to cars that might be louder, lighter, and less complicated.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s tenure as president of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile has been packed with controversy. The former rally driver has alienated many F1 drivers with clampdowns on jewelry and, most recently, swearing, as well as a refusal to explain what happens to the money the FIA collects as fines.

He also ruffled feathers when the FIA opened up the entry process for new teams into the sport and then approved an entry by Andretti Global. While the FIA said yes, the commercial side (which is owned by Liberty Media) and the teams wanted nothing to do with an 11th team—at least until the $200 million anti-dilution fee was more than doubled and Michael Andretti stepped aside.

This time, Ben Sulayem is saying all the right things, to this author at least. “While we look forward to the introduction of the 2026 regulations on chassis and power unit, we must lead the way on future technological motorsport trends. We should consider a range of directions including the roaring sound of the V10 running on sustainable fuel,” he wrote.

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See a garbage truck’s CNG cylinders explode after lithium-ion battery fire

Cars, CNG, fire, garbage truck fire, Lithium batteries / Beth Washington / February 21, 2025

When firefighters arrived on scene, they asked the driver to dump his load in the street, which would reduce the risk of anything on the truck itself—gasoline, CNG, etc.—catching fire. Then the firefighters could put out the blaze easily, treating it like a normal trash fire, and have Groot haul away the debris afterward. But this didn’t work either. The flames had spread far enough by this point to put the truck’s dumping mechanism out of commission.

So, firefighters unrolled hoses and hooked up to a nearby fire hydrant. They recognized that the truck was CNG-powered, as were many Groot vehicles. CNG offers a lower maintenance cost, uses less fuel, and creates less pollution than diesel, but best practices currently suggest not spraying CNG cylinders directly with water. Firefighters instead tried to aim water right into the back of the garbage truck without wetting the CNG cylinders nearby on the roof.

They were waiting for the telltale hiss of the pressure relief system to trigger. These valves typically open within two to five minutes, depending on fire conditions, and they should be capable of venting all their natural gas some minutes before the CNG canisters would otherwise be in danger of exploding. But the hiss never came, and as Fire Chief Lance Harris and his crew worked to secure the scene and put water onto the burning load, the CNG canisters exploded catastrophically instead.

A photo of the explosion, as captured by a bodycam. — The explosion, as captured by a bodycam.

In a board of trustees meeting this week in Arlington Heights, Harris recounted the incident, noting that he felt lucky to be alive—and thankful that no township personnel or residents sustained serious injuries.

“We can’t prove it,” he said, but after two months of investigating the situation, his department had concluded with high probability that the fire had been caused by a lithium-ion battery discarded into a recycling container. This suspicion was based on the amount of fire and the heat and speed with which it burned; lithium-ion batteries that enter “thermal runaway” can burn hot, at around 750° Fahrenheit (399° C).

Harris’ takeaway was clear: recycle even small lithium-ion batteries responsibly, as they can cause real hazards if placed into the waste system, where they are often impacted or compressed.

See a garbage truck’s CNG cylinders explode after lithium-ion battery fire Read More »

Protesters demonstrate outside Tesla showrooms in US

Cars, elon musk, syndication, Tesla / Beth Washington / February 18, 2025

“The worry of the Street is that Musk dedicating so much time—even more than we expected—to Doge takes away from his time at Tesla,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.

“In addition, Musk’s Doge-related actions and more powerful alliance with Trump clearly could alienate some consumers to move away from the Tesla brand.”

About 50 to 100 protesters turned out in Portland, Oregon on Saturday, carrying signs saying, “Dethrone Musk” and “If Tesla survives, your country dies.”

Edward Niedermeyer, author of Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors, was one of them. Since Musk’s power is not derived from election to public office, he said, boycotting and divesting from Tesla is the only tool available to curb his agenda.

He argued that Tesla was overvalued and that its core business of making and selling cars was deteriorating. Significant losses could force investors to sell, triggering a drop in the share price and forcing Musk to sell a portion of his shares to meet a margin call.

“Every Tesla sale that you prevent, every dollar not spent servicing a Tesla, not charging at the Supercharger—these further degrade the business,” Niedermeyer said.

“It’s not easy, it’s not guaranteed, but we do have the opportunity to wipe out a huge amount of Elon Musk’s wealth.”

In Chicago, protesters carried a banner saying “Stop buying Nazi cars.”

City resident Lisa Pereira said she came to the demonstration because “you have to do something.” She said she was disturbed by the administration’s attempts to crush diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, its aggressive immigration enforcement, and the power wielded by Musk.

“Everything is a little off the rails,” she said. “So I decided I had to show up. I had to be in cahoots with my soul.”

Chris White said he attended on Saturday because he fears “we’re living through a fascist coup.”

“My kids are trans,” he said. “I’m getting told they don’t exist. I don’t know if their healthcare will exist.”

Though one man yelled from a truck, “Elon’s my hero!” most passers-by in the heavily Democratic city expressed support.

“I’d rather buy a Rivian,” said one, referring to the electric-truck maker whose showroom was a block away from the protest.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protesters demonstrate outside Tesla showrooms in US Read More »

Trump has thrown a wrench into a national EV charging program

Cars, electric car charging stations, electrify america, EVs, Policy, syndication, trump administration / Mike M. / February 16, 2025

Electric charging projects have been thrown into chaos by the administration’s directive.

A row of happy EVs charge with no drama, no phone calls to the support line, and no one shuffling spots. Credit: Roberto Baldwin

This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, non-partisan news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for their newsletter here.

For now, Priester’s will have to stick to its famous pecans in Fort Payne, Alabama. But maybe not for long.

Priester’s Pecans, an Alabama staple, is one of more than half a dozen sites across the state slated to receive millions of dollars in federal funding to expand access to chargers for electric vehicles.

Across the country, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law under then-President Joe Biden, is set to provide $5 billion to states for projects that expand the nation’s EV charging infrastructure.

But in a February 6 letter, a Trump administration official notified state directors of transportation that, effectively, they can’t spend it. The Federal Highway Administration rescinded guidance on the funds, which had been allocated by Congress, and “is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years,” the letter said.

“Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved.”

POLITICO reported on Wednesday that a DOT spokesman said in an email that states were free to use a small portion of the funding—about $400 million—because that was money the states had already “obligated,” or awarded to subcontractors. But that would still leave close to 90 percent of the funding up in the air.

Even before the administration had issued its letter, some Republican-led states, including Alabama, had already announced pauses to their states’ implementation of the national EV charging program.

“In response to Unleashing American Energy, one of several Executive Orders that President Trump signed on January 20, 2025, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs has paused the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program as of January 28, 2025,” the Alabama agency responsible for implementing NEVI posted on its website. “In addition, for applications for funding that were originally due on March 17, 2025, ADECA has closed the application window until further notice.”

Despite the announcement by the Trump administration, however, legal experts and those familiar with the electric charging program at issue say the president does not have the power to permanently nix the NEVI program.

“NEVI funding was appropriated by Congress as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, and it cannot be canceled by the executive branch,” said Elizabeth Turnbull, director of policy and regulatory affairs at the Alliance for Transportation Electrification, a trade group for the electric vehicle industry. “It’s not clear that the secretary of transportation has the authority to revoke states’ NEVI plans, and it’s quite clear that the executive branch lacks the authority to withhold the funding for any sustained period. So, we expect recent executive branch actions to be successfully challenged in court.”

Even under the most aggressive arguments for a strong executive branch, the Supreme Court has stated clearly that the Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate and legislate.

Lawmakers, too, have weighed in on the legality of the Trump administration’s NEVI directive, saying officials acted with “blatant disregard for the law.”

In a letter to administration officials, Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works urged the Department of Transportation to retract its February 6 letter and “implement the law according to your responsibilities.”

The Democrats’ letter also asked for responses to questions about the legal basis for the action and for information about the involvement of individuals associated with Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.” DOGE is not an official department, and multiple reports show that Musk’s team has been dismantling parts or all of some federal agencies.

Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle company, currently has the largest network of fast chargers in the country. It’s not yet clear if any new policies on NEVI, or the pause on building out a more robust network for all EV drivers, could benefit Tesla.

The Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration’s parent agency, did not respond to a request for comment.

With or without NEVI, the move toward the electrification of transportation is inevitable, experts say. But they warn that although the administration’s pause of the program will likely be reversed by the courts, even a temporary delay in EV charging infrastructure can harm the nation’s ability to quickly and efficiently transition to electric vehicles. And the Trump administration ignored an earlier court order to lift a broad freeze on federal funds, a federal judge ruled this week.

Meanwhile, Trump’s NEVI freeze has sown confusion across the country, with EV stakeholders and state governments scrambling to figure out what the funding pause will mean and how to respond.

Beyond Alabama, interviews across the country found officials in deep red Wyoming contemplating a possible return of funds, while those in progressive states like Illinois and Maryland remain firmly committed to the EV buildout, with or without federal funding. In purple North Carolina, officials are in limbo, having already spent some NEVI funds, but not sure how to proceed with the next round of projects.

Alabama

In Alabama, officials had already announced plans to fund more than a dozen chargers at sites across the state along interstates and major highways, including installing two dual-port chargers at eight Love’s Travel Stops and another at Priester’s Pecans off I-65 in Fort Deposit.

At the time, state officials, including Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, praised the funding.

“Having strategic electric vehicle charging stations across Alabama not only benefits EV drivers, but it also benefits those companies that produce electric vehicles, including many of them right here in Alabama, resulting in more high-paying jobs for Alabamians,” Ivey said when the funding allocation was announced in July 2024. “This latest round of projects will provide added assurance that Alabamians and travelers to our state who choose electric vehicles can travel those highways and know a charging station is within a reliable distance on their routes.”

In total, Alabama was set to receive $79 million in funding through the program, including $2.4 million to expand training programs for the installation, testing, operation, and maintenance of EVs and EV chargers at Bevill State Community College in the central part of the state. The college did not respond to a request for comment on whether the money had been disbursed to the institution before the announced pause.

In an email exchange this week, a spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs confirmed what the agency had posted to its website in the wake of Trump’s inauguration—that the state would pause NEVI projects and await further guidance from the Trump administration.

Even with a pause, however, stakeholders in Alabama and across the country have expressed a commitment to continuing the expansion of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

For its part, Love’s Travel Stops, a 42-state chain that had been set to receive more than $5.8 million in funding for EV chargers in Alabama alone, said it will continue to roll out electric chargers at locations nationwide.

“Love’s remains committed to meeting customers’ needs regardless of fuel type and believes a robust electric vehicle charging network is a part of that,” Kim Okafor, general manager of zero emissions for Love’s, said in an emailed statement. “Love’s will continue to monitor related executive orders and subsequent changes in law to determine the next steps. This includes the Alabama Department of Transportation’s Electric Vehicle charging plan timelines.”

The state of Alabama, meanwhile, has its own EV charger program apart from NEVI that has already funded millions of dollars worth of charging infrastructure.

In January, even after its announced pause of NEVI implementation, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs announced the awarding of six grants totaling $2.26 million from state funds for the construction of EV chargers in Huntsville, Hoover, Tuscaloosa, and Mobile.

“The installation of electric vehicle charging stations at places like hotels are investments that can attract customers and add to local economies,” ADECA Director Kenneth Boswell said at the time.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, the full buildout of the state’s electric charging network under NEVI is in limbo just four months after the NC Department of Transportation announced the initial recipients of the funds.

NC DOT spokesman Jamie Kritzer said that based on the federal government’s directive, the agency is continuing with awarded projects but “pausing” the next round of requests for proposals, as well as future phases of the buildout.

If that pause were to become permanent, the state would be forced to abandon $103 million in federal infrastructure money that would have paid for an additional 41 stations to be built as part of Phase 1.

Last September the state announced it had awarded nearly $6 million to six companies to build nine public charging stations. Locations include shopping centers, travel plazas, and restaurants, most of them in economically disadvantaged communities.

NEVI requires EV charging stations in the first phase to be installed every 50 miles along the federally approved alternative fuel corridors, and that they be within one mile of those routes. The state has also prioritized Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) stations, which can charge a vehicle to 80 percent in 20 to 30 minutes.

The NEVI program is structured to reimburse private companies for up to 80 percent of the cost to construct and operate electric vehicle charging stations for five years, after which the charging stations will continue to operate without government support, according to the state DOT.

The state estimated it would have taken two to three years to finish Phase 1.

Under Phase 2, the state would award federal funds to build community-level electric vehicle charging stations, farther from the major highways, including in disadvantaged communities.

That is particularly important in North Carolina, which has the second-largest rural population in the US in terms of percentage. A third of the state’s residents live in rural areas, which are underserved by electric vehicle charging stations.

There are already more than 1,700 public electric charging stations and 4,850 ports in North Carolina, according to the US Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center. But they aren’t evenly dispersed throughout the state. Alleghany and Ashe counties, in the western mountains, have just one charging station each.

Vickie Atkinson, who lives in the country between Chapel Hill and Pittsboro in central North Carolina, drives a plug-in hybrid Ford Escape, which is powered by an electric engine or gas, unlike full electric models, which have no gas option. Plug-in hybrids typically have fully electric ranges of 35 to 40 miles.

“I try to drive on battery whenever possible,” Atkinson said. But she’s frustrated that she can’t drive from her home to downtown Siler City and back—a 60-mile round trip—without resorting to the gas engine. There are two chargers on the outskirts along US 64—only one of them is a fast charger—but none downtown.

“I really hope the chargers are installed,” Atkinson said. “I fear they won’t and I find that very frustrating.”

Former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, advocated for wider adoption of electric vehicles and infrastructure. In a 2018 executive order, Cooper established a benchmark of 80,000 registered zero-emission vehicles in the state by 2025.

North Carolina met that goal. State DOT registration data shows there were 81,658 electric vehicles and 24,457 plug-in hybrids as of September, the latest figures available.

Cooper issued a subsequent executive order in 2022 that set a more aggressive goal: 1.2 million registered electric vehicles by 2030. At the current pace of electric vehicle adoption, it’s unlikely the state will achieve that benchmark.

The electric vehicle industry is an economic driver in North Carolina. Toyota just opened a $13.9 billion battery plant in the small town of Liberty and says it will create about 5,100 new jobs. The company is scheduled to begin shipping batteries in April.

Natron Energy is building a plant in Edgecombe County, east of Raleigh, to manufacture sodium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Experts say they are cheaper and environmentally superior to lithium-ion batteries and less likely to catch fire, although they store less energy.

The global company Kempower opened its first North American factory in Durham, where it builds charging infrastructure. Jed Routh, its vice president of markets and products for North America, said that while “the rapidly shifting market is difficult to forecast and interest in electric vehicles may slow at times over the next four years, we don’t expect it to go away. We believe that the industry will remain strong and Kempower remains committed to define, produce, and improve EV charging infrastructure throughout North America.”

North Carolina does have a separate funding source for electric charging stations that is protected from the Trump administration’s program cuts and cancellations. The state received $92 million from Volkswagen, part of the EPA’s multi-billion-dollar national settlement in 2016 with the car company, which had installed software in some of its diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests.

The Department of Environmental Quality used the settlement money to pay for 994 EV charging ports at 318 sites in North Carolina. The agency expects to add more charging stations with $1.8 million in unspent settlement funds.

Electrify America was created by the Volkswagen Group of America to implement a $2 billion portion of the settlement. It required the car company to invest in electric charging infrastructure and in the promotion of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Electrify America operates 20 charging NEVI-compliant, high-speed stations in North Carolina, using the settlement money. However, the funding pause could affect the company because it works with potential site developers and small businesses to comply with the NEVI requirements.

The company is still reviewing the details in the federal memo, company spokeswoman Tara Geiger said.

“Electrify America continues to engage with stakeholders to understand developments impacting the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program,” Geiger wrote in an email. “We remain committed to growing our coast-to-coast Hyper-Fast network to support transportation electrification.”

Wyoming

In Wyoming, Doug McGee, a state Department of Transportation spokesperson, said the agency is taking a wait and see approach to NEVI moving forward, and is not ruling out a return of funding. About half a dozen people at the department handle NEVI along with other daily responsibilities, McGee said, and it will be easy for them to put NEVI on hold while they await further instruction.

The department was in the process of soliciting proposals for EV charging stations and has not yet spent any money under NEVI. “There was very little to pause,” McGee said.

Across 6,800 miles of highway in Wyoming, there are 110 public EV charging stations, making the state’s EV infrastructure the third-smallest in the country, ahead of charging networks in only North Dakota and Alaska.

Illinois

More progressive states, including Illinois, have explicitly said they will redouble their efforts to support the expansion of EV charging infrastructure in the wake of the Trump administration’s NEVI pause.

The state of Illinois has said it remains committed to the goal of helping consumers and the public sector transition to EVs in 2025 through state funding sources, even if some NEVI projects are halted.

Commonwealth Edison Co. (ComEd), the largest electric utility in Illinois and the primary electric provider in Chicago, also announced a $100 million rebate program on Feb. 6 at the Chicago Auto Show, funds that are currently available to boost EV adoption throughout the state.

The funds are for residential EV charger and installation costs, all-electric fleet vehicles, and charging infrastructure in both the public and private sectors.

According to Cristina Botero, senior manager for beneficial electrification at ComEd, the rebate is part of a total investment of $231 million from ComEd as part of its Beneficial Electrification plan programs to promote electrification and EV adoption.

While the $231 million won’t be impacted by the Trump administration’s order, other EV projects funded by NEVI are halted. In 2022, for example, $148 million from NEVI was set to be disbursed in Illinois over the course of five years, focusing on Direct Current Fast Charging to fulfill the requirement to build charging stations every 50 miles, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation.

“We are still in the process of reviewing the impacts of last week’s order and evaluating next steps going forward,” said Maria Castaneda, spokesperson at IDOT, in an emailed statement.

The NEVI funds were also set to help achieve Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s goal to have 1 million EVs on Illinois roads by 2030. Officials estimated that at least 10,000 EV charging stations are needed in order to achieve this 2030 goal. Last fall, there were 1,200 charging stations open to the public.

In January, Illinois was awarded federal funds totaling $114 million from the US Department of Transportation to build 14 truck charging hubs, adding to the statewide charging infrastructure.

According to Brian Urbaszewski, director of environmental health programs for the Respiratory Health Association, most of that funding is either frozen or at risk.

However, programs like the recent ComEd rebate will not be impacted. “This is at the state level and not dictated by federal policy,” Botero said.

Maryland

In Maryland, state officials are trying to assess the fallout and find alternative ways to keep EV infrastructure efforts alive. The outcome hinges on new federal guidance and potential legal battles over the suspension.

Maryland is allocated $63 million over five years under NEVI. The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) launched the first $12.1 million round last summer to build 126 fast-charging ports at 22 sites across many of the state’s counties. At least some are expected to be operational by late 2025.

In December, MDOT issued a new call for proposals for building up to 29 additional highway charging stations, expecting stable federal support. At the time, senior MDOT officials told Inside Climate News they were confident in the program’s security since it was authorized under law.

But Trump’s funding pause has upended those plans.

“The Maryland Department of Transportation is moving forward with its obligated NEVI funding and is awaiting new guidance from the U.S. Department of Transportation to advance future funding rounds,” said Carter Elliott, a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore, in an emailed statement.

The Moore administration reaffirmed its commitment to EV expansion, calling charging essential to reducing consumer costs and cutting climate pollution. “Gov. Moore is committed to making the state more competitive by pressing forward with the administration’s strategy to deliver charging infrastructure for clean cars to drivers across the state,” the statement added.

In written comments, an MDOT spokesperson said the agency is determining its options for future funding needs and solicitations.

Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All program, said that freezing the EV charging funds was an unsound and illegal move by the Trump administration. “This is an attack on bipartisan funding that Congress approved years ago and is driving investment and innovation in every state,” she said.

She said that the NEVI program is helping the US build out the infrastructure needed to support the transition to vehicles that don’t pollute the air.

The Sierra Club’s Josh Stebbins lamented the slow pace of the EV charger buildout across the state. “We are not sure when Maryland’s NEVI chargers will be operational,” he said. “States must move faster and accelerate the installation of NEVI stations. It has been frustratingly slow, and the public needs to see a return on its investment.”

Maryland EV ambitions are high stakes. Transportation remains the state’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, and public officials and advocates see EV adoption as critical to meet its net-zero carbon goal by 2045. NEVI is also a key plank of the state’s broader Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Planning initiative, designed to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.

What happens next

As litigation is brought over the Trump administration’s pause on NEVI funds, experts like Turnbull of the Alliance for Transportation Electrification believe the United States remains, despite this bump, on the road toward electrification.

“We are not shifting into reverse,” Turnbull said. “The EV market will continue to grow across all market segments driven by market innovation and consumer demand, both within the United States and globally. By pretending the EV transition doesn’t exist, this administration risks the US’s global competitiveness, national security, and economic growth.”

Trump has thrown a wrench into a national EV charging program Read More »

After 20% range reduction, I’m waiting for Jaguar to buy my car back

BEV, Cars, EV, I-Pace, jaguar, Jaguar I-Pace, recall / DJ Henderson / February 16, 2025

The waiting is the hardest part

Given that we know our I-Paces are doomed, owners really want to put this episode behind us and move on to new cars. But Jaguar has us in an indefinite holding pattern, and it’s frustrating.

In December, a Jaguar representative told me that a process specialist would reach out “within in the next few weeks to come to a final resolution.”

“Welp, here we are… Jan 2nd, and nothing from JLR on the buyback process or timeline,” wrote user copyNothing on the I-Pace Forum. “I hope this isn’t indicative of how things will proceed, but I’m not holding my breath that things will be easy.”

I’m not holding my breath, either. My last four emails to Jaguar—December 16, January 7, January 23, and February 12—all got the same reply: hang tight. “We do not have a current time frame for when a process specialist will reach out to you, but rest assured one will be following up with you shortly,” a Jaguar Land Rover case manager told me in an email.

A few I-Pace owners in California, which has the nation’s toughest lemon law, have reported progress with the repurchase. In the middle of January, I-Pace Forum user pan+kro posted that their buyback had been approved by JLR, and they expected to get around $38,000 for the car. This leads to another burning question.

How much for this gently used I-Pace?

The process would be less nerve-wracking if we had an idea of what Jaguar would offer to buy the cars back. As with every car, each day makes the I-Pace worth a fraction less than it was the day before—after all, each time you drive your car, it depreciates in value. But mileage isn’t the only factor in determining the value of a used car.

I headed over to Edmunds.com and discovered that my I-Pace would fetch $24,428 in a private sale. Ouch.

To determine a used car’s value, Edmunds takes historical data, dealer transactions, consumer feedback, and depreciation trends into account, along with mileage. Unfortunately for me, none of those data points work in the favor of I-Pace owners. Indeed, the battery defect is a major culprit in depressing the value of 2019 I-Paces. I asked Edmunds how Jaguar might come up with a fair valuation for the buybacks, especially as its actions are responsible for helping to depress prices.

After 20% range reduction, I’m waiting for Jaguar to buy my car back Read More »

Hyundai’s NACS adapter for EVs will be free to all existing owners

Cars, hyundai, NACS / DJ Henderson / February 15, 2025

Hyundai Ioniq 5s with NACS (J3400) ports, as opposed to the CCS1 style, are starting to roll out of its factory in Savannah, Georgia. It’s the first manufacturer to sell electric vehicles with native NACS ports—other than Tesla, that is, and you’ll be able to read about our first drive in the model year 2025 Ioniq 5, as well as the new, off-roady Ioniq 5 XRT next week. But we’ve got some good news for owners of any existing Hyundai EVs out there—if your car has a CCS1 port, then next month, you’re eligible for a free CCS1-NACS adapter.

Hyundai wasn’t the first OEM to ink a deal with Tesla to gain access to the Supercharger network, but it is ahead of Ford, General Motors, and Rivian in swapping to the Tesla-style charge ports. Existing owners get access to the large charging network, too, but they’ll need an adapter to make use of the smaller NACS plugs.

And those will be available next month, Hyundai told us. What’s more, they’re going to be gratis, or free as in beer. As long as you have a VIN, the automaker will send you the adapter, which you’ll be able to order once the website goes live in March.

Ford briefly showed similar generosity to its EV owners last year, offering its NACS adapters for free—at least until late June, at which point it started charging $200 for them. GM never even bothered with the free giveaway; instead it asks $225 for the NACS adapter.

Hyundai’s NACS adapter for EVs will be free to all existing owners Read More »

Common factors link rise in pedestrian deaths—fixing them will be tough

Cars, pedestrian deaths, road deaths, road safety / Beth Washington / February 13, 2025

American roads have grown deadlier for everyone, but the toll on pedestrians has been disproportionate. From a record low in 2009, the number of pedestrians being killed by vehicles rose 83 percent by 2022 to the highest it’s been in 40 years. During that time, overall traffic deaths increased by just 25 percent. Now, a new study from AAA has identified a number of common factors that can explain why so many more pedestrians have died.

Firstly, no, it’s not because there are more SUVs on the road, although these larger and taller vehicles are more likely to kill or seriously injure a pedestrian in a crash. And no, it’s not because everyone has a smartphone, although using one while driving is a good way to increase your chances of hitting someone or something. These and some other factors (increased amount of driving, more alcohol consumption) have each played a small role, but even together, they don’t explain the magnitude of the trend.

For a while, researchers started seeing that the increased pedestrian death toll was almost entirely happening after dark and on urban arterial roads—this has continued to be true through 2022, the AAA report says.

Together with the Collaborative Sciences Centre for Road Safety, AAA conducted a trio of case studies looking at road safety data from Albuquerque, New Mexico; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee, to drill down into the phenomenon.

And common factors did emerge. Pedestrian crashes on arterial roads during darkness were far more likely to be fatal and were more common in older neighborhoods, more socially deprived neighborhoods, neighborhoods with more multifamily housing, and neighborhoods with more “arts/entertainment/food/accommodations” workers. As with so many of the US’s ills, this problem is one that disproportionately affects the less affluent.

Common factors link rise in pedestrian deaths—fixing them will be tough Read More »

Tariffs will “blow a hole” in the US auto industry, says Ford CEO

Cars, Ford, tariffs / Shannon Garcia / February 12, 2025

The US has had to pause some of these new tariffs almost immediately, and the proposed 25 percent tariffs against any Canadian or Mexican imports have been delayed for a month. But yesterday, the president imposed 25 percent tariffs on any imported steel or aluminum. When last in office, Trump also imposed tariffs on steel (25 percent) and aluminum (10 percent), igniting a trade war and cutting US steel imports by far more than domestic steel production was able to rise to meet it.

“Let’s be real honest: long-term, 25 percent tariffs across the Mexican and Canadian border would blow a hole in the US industry that we have never seen,” Farley said, pointing out that the tariffs would “give free rein” to OEMs that import their vehicles from Japan, South Korea, or Europe.

As the CEO of Polestar told Ars last week, the main thing automakers want is clarity. The last they want is chaos, where the rules have changed from one day to the next based on whim. At the conference, Farley had a similar message. “They need to understand there’s a lot of policy uncertainty here, but in the meantime, we’re scrambling to manage the company as professionals,” he said.

Tariffs will “blow a hole” in the US auto industry, says Ford CEO Read More »