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Old Bolt, new tricks: Making an EV into a backup power station with an inverter

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Putting big batteries to use

Using a custom kit to make a budget EV offer some emergency power.

Back when EV enthusiasm was higher, there were fits and starts of vehicle-to-home concepts and products. If EVs and their ginormous batteries are expensive, resource-intensive purchases, the thinking went, maybe we should get something more out of them than just groceries and school pick-ups. Maybe we could find other things for that huge battery to do during the 95 percent of time it spends parked in or near our homes.

An EV powering your whole home, or even pushing power back to the grid, is something higher-end EVs might do at some point with some utilities. I have a Chevy Bolt, an EV that does not have even a three-prong 110 V plug on it, let alone power-your-home potential. If I wanted to keep the essentials running during an outage, it seemed like I needed to buy a fuel-based generator—or one of those big portable power stations.

Or so I thought, until I came across inverter kits. Inverters take the direct current available from your vehicle’s 12V battery—the lead-acid brick inside almost every car—and turns it into alternating current suitable for standard plugs. Inverters designed for car batteries have been around a long time (technically, the “cigarette lighter” port on a car is an inverter), opening up both novel and emergency uses. The catch is that you have to start the car’s gas engine often enough to keep the battery charged.

The author’s Chevy Bolt EUV, last seen on Ars Technica exploring the then-new world of Tesla charging with an adapter. Credit: Kevin Purdy

What’s different about this Bolt-specific kit is that, as the inverter pulls power from the 12 V battery, the car’s larger battery, the high-voltage one that makes it actually drive, steadily refills it. And given that it’s an EV without emissions, it’s OK to keep it running in the garage. It’s by no means a whole-home solution—my kit maker, EV Extend, recommends drawing just 1,000 watts of continuous power so as not to drain the battery too far or damage the electronics. But it’s certainly better than having only flashlights, USB battery packs, and the power utility’s website open on your phone.

What can you do with 1,000 W, plus a bit of “surge” overhead for devices that kick on strong, like a refrigerator? I can’t run my home’s central HVAC system, so an outage in the depths of a DC summer, or the occasionally painful winter, would still be unpleasant. There are only three plugs, and they’re inside the car hood, so everything that needs power has to be reached by extension cord (and you don’t want to go too far with those). The car is also unlocked and running, with its key fob nearby, so it can’t be left alone.

But for backup power I never planned to have, in an area where outages are less frequent, I have something like minimum viable backup power. With properly rated extension cords, I could run fans, a small space heater, or a single-room-sized window A/C unit for a day or two on conservative settings. I could, if my fiber provider is still up, keep the Internet and router running. At a minimum, I could keep a lot of distraction devices running with the Bolt’s 64–66 kW battery (assuming I fully charged it before an outage).

I have not had a chance to really test this inverter, as the residential power in Washington, DC has been stubbornly reliable since I bought it. But I did run it for about an hour mid-day to try out some of my assumptions.

What’s in the kit

I bought a $444 kit from EV Extend, which specializes in inverter packages for the non-flashy and early adopter EVs: Chevy Bolts and Volts and Nissan Leafs. I opted for a 1,500 W pure sinewave inverter, capable of briefly handling surges of up to 3,000 W. The inverter itself is a commodity, and you can find it lots of places. The things I was really buying with this kit were:

  • Quick connect/disconnect couplings for attaching to the 12V battery
  • A safety fuse between the 12 V battery and inverter
  • Cables and connectors, cut and crimped and soldered specifically for the angles and spaces of the Bolt’s front compartment
  • Detailed instructions on how to attach, run, fit, and use everything

The owner of EV Extend makes a point of not offering his instruction manuals publicly. This is in part for “low-volume niche market” reasons. But it’s also because of a real concern that folks will see EV Extend setups, do some “I could rig that together” thinking, and expose themselves to a whole bunch of electrical, mechanical, or safety problems. He’s not opposed to DIY-ers, he writes, so much as he’s concerned about wiring quality and bad assumptions.

From the images on EV Extend’s site and various Reddit installs, you can get the gist. A big brick of an inverter, with two thick cables running to a gray plug, and another gray plug running out from the 12 V battery area, easily tucked away (with velcro) when not in use. You can buy more or less surge protection, opt to skip pure sinewave inversion (not a great idea if you’re powering electronics), or upgrade and get a remote switch. But they are all largely the same.

Among the frequently asked questions on the product page is “will this void my warranty?”

The answer: No, it should not, because the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act still exists, so there needs to be proof that this damaged your 12 V system. But there is also the unwritten caveat that it can still be very painful if your car maker or dealer is not up on their consumer rights laws.

Just a little 12-hour vehicle panic attack

My installation took about 20 minutes. It involved some socket-wrenching, and I had to saw off an inconvenient but inessential plastic bit. The toughest part involved fishing some stiff, thick wire through a space between the coolant tank and a metal bracket (which the manual warned about).

That night, I plugged in the inverter, turned on the Bolt, flipped on the inverter, and plugged in a USB-C wall plug. I connected an iPad, it started charging, and I felt a weird sense of accomplishment at having found one of the most expensive and inefficient ways to watch YouTube. For a few hours, I held some project-completing pride.

iPad charging on top of a car trunk, with an inverter visible in the background.

That feeling of project success, which would remain unfettered by diagnostic warnings until the author checked his phone.

Credit: Kevin Purdy

That feeling of project success, which would remain unfettered by diagnostic warnings until the author checked his phone. Credit: Kevin Purdy

Later that night, the myChevrolet app flung about a dozen notifications at me. The gist: Every single system on the Bolt was failing, I needed to have it towed to a dealer, and I was wrong to try and redistribute its precious electrons. These were bad messages to receive in the middle of brushing my teeth, and sleep did not come easy.

Why the panic? The majority of EVs, however sophisticated, are heavily dependent on their old-fashioned 12 V batteries. This is due in part to how many of an EV’s ancilliaries—locks, lights, infotainment, power steering, and more—are designed to run at 12 V, in common with the rest of the auto industry. But it’s also because when an EV’s higher-voltage traction battery is off, it needs to be fully off and de-energized, and the 12 V helps switch it off and keep residual systems running (Inside EVs has a good explainer on this). Disconnecting my 12 V battery, even for just a minute to attach a connector, gave the car fits about lacking this crucial reserve of juice.

It’s weird, and it can be quite frustrating in the wrong circumstances. But the next morning, I started the Bolt, let it idle for a few minutes, and all the divinations of doom disappeared from the Chevy app. Six months later, I have yet to see any others. I’ve taken my car in for a general check-up since, and the mechanic made no note of my velcro-anchored connector.

A deeper test: Pretend office outage

The inverter hook-ups were set, but household power remained stubbornly stable for months, so I decided to stage a pretend outage. Could the Bolt keep me and my wife reasonably comfortable in my office, the next room over from the garage? Could I keep a space heater or window air conditioning unit running, with occasional kick-on surges? What about the fridge? And how annoying would it be to have the car running in neutral in my garage the whole time?

Here’s what I figured could fit into 1,000 W from the inverter and its three plugs, using appropriately sized and rated extension cords:

  • At their lowest settings, either a bigger space heater (750 W), or a 15,000 BTU window unit (350–450 W, running roughly 50 percent of the time)
  • The fiber optic network terminal (ONT) and my Ubiquity network gear (Dream Machine Pro and two power-over-Ethernet access points)
  • My whole working desk setup: monitor, M2 MacBook Air, Sonos speakers, too many peripherals
  • If possible, the refrigerator (typically 60 W, with surges up to 1,200 W and defrost cycles at 240 W)
  • A bit of overhead, should I need to run anything else, like lamps, off my desk’s power strip

I unplugged the Bolt, opened the hood, placed the inverter on a reasonably flat part of the compartment (next time, I will have a flat piece of wood to place there), turned on the car, and flipped on the inverter. So far, so good!

Because the car was in park, it would automatically shut itself off after two hours. A number of committed campers and preppers on Reddit have suggested putting the car in neutral, engaging the parking brake (or putting chocks behind the rear wheels), and exiting the car from the passenger side (as opening the driver side door can make the car auto-shift for safety). Because it’s not in park at a low speed, the Bolt will make a whirring noise for pedestrian safety. I could temporarily cancel it by pulling the right fuse from the engine compartment box, so long as I left a note for myself with big letters to put it back in.

I first plugged in my desk and all its accompaniments, then nudged and woke up my laptop and monitor: 14.7 watts. That seemed a bit low, given that monitors are typically more than 20 watts, but the inverter is perhaps slow to report the full draw. Still, there was lots of headroom remaining.

Adding in the fiber optic modem, the Dream Machine Pro router (specified at a 50 W maximum power draw), and its PoE-based devices boosted the number to 90 watts. That left 910 watts, which felt like a lot until I plugged in the big space heater and set it to its lowest setting. Once the heater had been on for a bit, I was at 850–860 watts, combined with the other gear. I knew space heaters were inefficient in a broad sense, but now that fact is burned into my brain in little red digits.

All three plugs in—desk, networking gear, space heater—and the 850 watts the inverter eventually settled at once the heater ran a while.

Credit: Kevin Purdy

All three plugs in—desk, networking gear, space heater—and the 850 watts the inverter eventually settled at once the heater ran a while. Credit: Kevin Purdy

All these things ran off the inverter for about 30 minutes (I wrote the previous two paragraphs with mostly inverter power), floating between 810 and 920 watts, and I saw the car’s projected mileage dip one mile when I checked on it. If I had the Bolt fully charged, I might get a maximum of 60 hours of this, or 48 hours at my typical 80 percent charge, give or take some resistance and use variables. Given what I learned, I would need to use a smaller space heater or very light air conditioning if I also wanted to keep the fridge running without nervous monitoring (and make up for some loss to an extension cord). That, or hope the power only goes out during comfortable temperatures.

But I’m using the Bolt and inverter as a just-in-case option, not something I would lean on if regular multi-day outages were occurring. It would also be quite useful for car camping, though I can’t speak to that personally. The process has, like most DIY projects, taught me some things: about power draw, EVs, and my priorities. If you have a similarly nifty but not exactly new EV, consider checking out your inversion options for it—after you fully understand the limits and know-how required.

Photo of Kevin Purdy

Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch.

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The same day Trump bought a Tesla, automaker moved to disrupt trade war

Donald Trump, Electric vehicles, elon musk, EVs, Policy, tariffs, Tesla / /

Tesla hopes to slow down Trump’s tit-for-tat tariffs amid financial woes.

Donald Trump and White House Senior Advisor, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk deliver remarks next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House on March 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. Credit: Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images News

Elon Musk’s Tesla is waving a red flag, warning that Donald Trump’s trade war risks dooming US electric vehicle makers, triggering job losses, and hurting the economy.

In an unsigned letter to the US Trade Representative (USTR), Tesla cautioned that Trump’s tariffs could increase costs of manufacturing EVs in the US and forecast that any retaliatory tariffs from other nations could spike costs of exports.

“Tesla supports a robust and thorough process” to “address unfair trade practices,” but only those “which, in the process, do not inadvertently harm US companies,” the letter said.

The carmaker recommended that the USTR—in its ongoing review of unfair trade practices and investigation into harms of non-reciprocal trade agreements—”consider the downstream impacts of certain proposed actions taken to address unfair trade practices.”

According to Tesla, the current process to address unfair trade threatens to harm its more than 70,000 employees, and more broadly could trigger job losses and revenue dips in the US auto industry. It could also disrupt supply chains, as Tesla claims that even its best efforts prove it would be “impossible” to source all parts from the US currently.

“Even with aggressive localization of the supply chain, certain parts and components are difficult or impossible to source within the United States,” the letter said, asking the USTR to “evaluate domestic supply chain limitations.”

If left unchanged, the process could make the US less competitive in global auto markets, Tesla warned, recommending that the “USTR should investigate ways to avoid these pitfalls in future actions.”

Moving forward, Tesla recommends that the USTR “take into account” how the trade war could hurt US exporters, as “US exporters are inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to US trade actions.”

In the letter, Tesla appears to suggest that Trump’s tariffs were rushed, suggesting that “US companies will benefit from a phased approach that enables them to prepare accordingly and ensure appropriate supply chain and compliance measures are taken.”

Tesla was not alone in submitting comments to the USTR. So far, hundreds of companies have chimed in, many hoping to push back on Trump’s aggressive tariffs regime.

Among them was a trade group representing major foreign automakers like BMW, Honda, and Toyota—Autos Drive America—which agreed with Tesla that the USTR should slow Trump down and require considerations about long-term impacts of sudden actions to address unfair trade. They similarly warned that imposing “broad-based tariffs will disrupt production at US assembly plants,” Reuters reported.

“Automakers cannot shift their supply chains overnight, and cost increases will inevitably lead to some combination of higher consumer prices, fewer models offered to consumers and shut-down US production lines, leading to potential job losses across the supply chain,” the group said.

Disrupting Trump trade war may be tough

Last week, Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico took effect, likely frustrating Tesla, which relies on a small parts manufacturer in Canada, Laval Tool, to source parts for the already costly molds for its Cybertrucks. Those tariffs threatened to spike costs beyond the current rate of nearly $500,000 per mold at a time when the Cybertruck hasn’t been selling well, InsideEVs reported. And for Tesla, Trump’s China tariffs may hit even harder, as China is Tesla’s second biggest market.

On the day that those tariffs kicked in, the head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation—which represents all the major US automakers, except Tesla—John Bozzella warned that “all automakers will be impacted by these tariffs on Canada and Mexico,” Reuters reported. He joined others predicting price hikes on cars coming soon, perhaps as high as 25 percent.

Tesla’s letter to the USTR is notably unsigned, despite CEO Musk’s close allyship with Trump as a senior advisor in his administration—suggesting Musk may be hesitant to directly criticize Trump’s trade war or his opposition to EVs.

Many have questioned how long Musk’s friendship with Trump can possibly last, given their strong personalities and seeming unwillingness to bend to critics. At the beginning of this administration, Musk seemed unafraid to question Trump despite teaming up with him. Perhaps most notably, Trump’s team was supposedly “furious” after Musk trashed Trump’s $500 billion “Stargate” project with OpenAI, Politico reported, which Trump had hyped as “tremendous” and “monumental.”

“It’s clear he has abused the proximity to the president,” a Trump ally granted anonymity told Politico. “The problem is the president doesn’t have any leverage over him and Elon gives zero fucks.”

Officially, Trump downplayed Musk’s public criticism of his major announcement, seeming to understand that Musk views OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—whom Musk is suing for making a “fool” out of him—as an enemy.

“He hates one of the people in the deal,” Trump told a reporter who asked if Musk’s comments had bothered him, confirming, “it doesn’t.”

Despite a long history of harsh comments about EVs, Trump has recently hyped Tesla cars, which Tesla noted in its letter to the USTR, further its mission “to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” The BBC noted Tesla’s letter was sent the same day that Trump hosted a White House event where the president vowed to purchase a Tesla in defiance of Tesla boycotts and protests that some believe are driving a steep Tesla stock fall and even degrading the price of used Teslas. In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed that he was buying a Tesla to support “one of the World’s great automakers” and “Elon’s ‘baby,'” alleging that protests and boycotts were somehow illegal.

The Hill suggested that their friendship isn’t likely to end soon, even though Trump has supposedly complained in private about taunts suggesting that Musk is really the president or somehow pulling the strings, The Independent reported.

Musk may be settling into a good dynamic with Trump after spending ample time at the president’s side, reportedly even joining meetings and sensitive calls. Or perhaps Musk is giving Trump space to call the shots, after Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency’s aggressive cuts at federal agencies sparked backlash that finally pushed Trump to rein in Musk’s power a little.

Musk’s proximity to Trump was predicted to be a boon to his businesses, but Tesla has been stuck in a slump that seemingly some Trump allies think Trump might fear makes him look weak, The New Republic reported. But Trump has made tariffs the core of his trade policy, hoping aggressive taxes will force more industry into the US, and it’s hard to see how Musk could easily influence him to shift gears.

In Tesla’s letter, the automaker told the USTR that it was “essential to support US manufacturing jobs” by ensuring that cost-prohibitive tariffs or other import restrictions don’t disrupt critical auto industry supply chains. For Tesla, the stakes couldn’t be higher, as the company reminded the USTR that “Tesla was ranked as the world leader in the transition to vehicle electrification,” manufacturing “the best-selling car in the world (EV or otherwise).”

“Tesla’s US facilities support over 70,000 employees and are responsible for billions of dollars of US investment and economic activity each year,” Tesla’s letter said.

Photo of Ashley Belanger

Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience.

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Trump has thrown a wrench into a national EV charging program

Cars, electric car charging stations, electrify america, EVs, Policy, syndication, trump administration / /

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.”

Photo of Inside Climate News

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

citing-ev-“rollercoaster”-in-us,-bmw-invests-in-internal-combustion

Citing EV “rollercoaster” in US, BMW invests in internal combustion

bmw, Cars, Electric vehicles, EV, EVs, internal combustion, PHEVs, syndication / /

“We anticipated that people wouldn’t want to be discriminated against because of the power train,” Goller said. “We’ve gone the path which others are now following.”

Analysts say BMW is better positioned than rivals to meet the EU’s tougher emissions targets without selling EVs at deep discounts. It is also less exposed to Trump’s tariff war since 65 percent of its cars sold in the US are built locally, and it is also a net exporter from the US.

“From an operational standpoint, I think BMW, outside China, is very well placed,” said UBS analyst Patrick Hummel. “They’re pretty much where they need to be in terms of the EV share in the mix.”

Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois has described BMW, which has in the past drawn criticism from investors for hedging its bets on power train technology, as “the most thoughtful [original equipment manufacturer] over the years.”

This year, the group will launch its Neue Klasse platform for its next generation of EVs, with longer range, faster charging, and upgraded software capabilities, which Houchois said would “consolidate a lead in software-defined vehicles, multi-energy power train, and battery sourcing.”

But China has proved challenging to the Munich-based carmaker. BMW and Mini sales in the world’s largest automotive market fell more than 13 percent last year to 714,530 cars, a more severe slump than rivals such as Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Analysts at Citigroup have warned that BMW remains vulnerable to China, where intensifying price pressure in an overcrowded market has been forcing carmakers to discount prices. Sliding sales in the country, where BMW still delivers just under a third of its cars, “remains our key concern,” the Citi analysts said.

Goller acknowledged China was unlikely to return to the explosive economic growth that first attracted foreign carmakers to flood into the country.

“But we still see a growing market… and therefore, our ambition is clearly that we want to participate in a growing market,” he said.

Goller added that it shouldn’t come as “a shock” that Chinese brands were rapidly taking domestic marketshare from foreign carmakers.

“The cars are really good from a technology perspective,” he said. “But we are not afraid.”

© 2025 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.

Citing EV “rollercoaster” in US, BMW invests in internal combustion Read More »

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Feds putting the kibosh on national EV charging program

EV charging, EVs, syndication, Trump, Uncategorized / /

“There is no legal basis for funds that have been apportioned to states to build projects being ‘decertified’ based on policy,” says Andrew Rogers, a former deputy administrator and chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration.

The US DOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s unclear how the DOT’s order will affect charging stations that are under construction. In the letter, FHWA officials write that “no new obligations may occur,” suggesting states may not sign new contracts with businesses even if those states have been allocated federal funding. The letter also says “reimbursement of existing obligations will be allowed” as the program goes through a review process, suggesting states may be allowed to pay back businesses that have already provided services.

Billions in federal funding have already been disbursed under the program. Money has gone to both red and blue states. Top funding recipients last year included Florida, New York, Texas, Georgia, and Ohio.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has spent the last few weeks at the head of the federal so-called Department of Government Efficiency directing “audits” and cuts to federal spending. But his electric automobile company has been a recipient of $31 million in awards from the NEVI program, according to a database maintained by transportation officials, accounting for 6 percent of the money awarded so far.

The Trump administration has said that it plans to target electric vehicles and EV-related programs. An executive order signed by Trump on his first day in office purported to eliminate “the EV mandate,” though such a federal policy never existed.

NEVI projects have taken longer to get off the ground than other charging station construction because the federal government was deliberate in allocating funding to companies with track records, that could prove they could build or operate charging stations, says Ryan McKinnon, a spokesperson for Charge Ahead Partnership, a group of businesses and organizations that work in electric vehicle charging. If NEVI funding isn’t disbursed, “the businesses that have spent time or money investing in this program will be hurt,” he says.

This story originally appeared on wired.com.

Feds putting the kibosh on national EV charging program Read More »

whistleblower-finds-unencrypted-location-data-for-800,000-vw-evs

Whistleblower finds unencrypted location data for 800,000 VW EVs

Cars, connected cars, data breach, Electric vehicles, EVs, Online Privacy, Volkswagen, vw / /

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 »

hertz-continues-ev-purge,-asks-renters-if-they-want-to-buy-instead-of-return

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

Cars, chevy, Chevy Bolt, Electric vehicles, EVs, Hertz, Tesla, tesla model 3 / /

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 »

lower-cost-sodium-ion-batteries-are-finally-having-their-moment

Lower-cost sodium-ion batteries are finally having their moment

Cars, EVs, sodium batteries, sodium-ion batteries, syndication / /

In contrast, a sodium-ion battery relies on an element—sodium—that you can find in table salt and ocean water.

Among the other benefits, sodium-ion batteries perform better than lithium-ion batteries in extreme cold. CATL has said its new battery works in temperatures as low as -40° Fahrenheit.

Also, a sodium-ion battery has much lower risk of fire. When lithium-ion batteries sustain damage, it can lead to “thermal runaway,” which triggers a dangerous and toxic fire.

The process of manufacturing sodium-ion batteries is similar to that of lithium-ion batteries, or at least similar enough that companies can shift existing assembly lines without having to spend heavily on retooling.

But sodium-ion batteries have some disadvantages. The big one is low energy density compared to lithium-ion. As a result, an EV running on a sodium-ion battery will go fewer miles per charge than a lithium-ion battery of the same size.

“That is just what nature has given us,” Srinivasan said. “From a physics perspective, sodium batteries inherently have lower energy density than lithium batteries.”

A typical sodium-ion battery has an energy density of about 150 watt-hours per kilogram at the cell level, he said. Lithium-ion batteries can range from about 180 to nearly 300 watt-hours per kilogram.

I asked Srinivasan what he makes of CATL’s claim of a sodium-ion battery with 200 watt-hours per kilogram.

“We tend to be skeptical of news releases from companies,” he said. He specified that his comment applies to all battery companies.

Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science, discusses battery research with a materials scientist in one of the energy storage discovery labs at Argonne National Laboratory.

Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science, discusses battery research with a materials scientist in one of the energy storage discovery labs at Argonne National Laboratory. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory

The national labs’ initiative has a five-year timeline, with a goal of developing sodium-ion batteries with energy densities that match or exceed those of today’s iron phosphate-based lithium-ion batteries. Researchers would do this by finding various efficiencies in design and materials.

The project is happening alongside the labs’ ongoing work to develop and improve other kinds of batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries dominate today’s market. This year, global production of lithium-ion batteries was about 1,500 gigawatt-hours, and production of sodium-ion batteries was 11 gigawatt-hours, or less than 1 percent, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Lower-cost sodium-ion batteries are finally having their moment Read More »

electric-vehicle-battery-fires—what-to-know-and-how-to-react

Electric vehicle battery fires—what to know and how to react

batteries, battery fires, Cars, EVs, syndication, Tesla / /

sick burns —

It’s very rare, but lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles can catch fire.

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battery pack

Enlarge / The battery pack of a Volkswagen ID. Buzz electric microbus on the assembly line during a media tour of the Volkswagen AG multipurpose and commercial vehicle plant in Hannover, Germany, on Thursday, June 16, 2022.

Lithium-ion battery fires can be intense and frightening. As someone who used to repair second-hand smartphones, I’ve extinguished my fair share of flaming iPhones with punctured lithium-ion batteries. And the type of smartphone battery in your pocket right now is similar to what’s inside of electric vehicles. Except, the EV battery stores way more energy—so much energy that some firefighters are receiving special training to extinguish the extra-intense EV flames that are emitted by burning EV batteries after road accidents.

If you’ve been reading the news about EVs, you’ve likely encountered plenty of scary articles about battery fires on the rise. Recently, the US National Transportation Safety Board and the California Highway Patrol announced they are investigating a Tesla semi truck fire that ignited after the vehicle struck a tree. The lithium-ion battery burned for around four hours.

Does this mean that you should worry about your personal electric vehicle as a potential fire hazard? Not really. It makes more sense to worry about a gas-powered vehicle going up in flames than an electric vehicle, since EVs are less likely to catch fire than their more traditional transportation counterparts.

“Fires because of battery manufacturing defects are really very rare,” says Matthew McDowell, a codirector of Georgia Tech’s Advanced Battery Center. “Especially in electric vehicles, because they also have battery management systems.” The software keeps tabs on the different cells that comprise an EV’s battery and can help prevent the battery from being pushed beyond its limits.

How do electric vehicle fires happen?

During a crash that damages the EV battery, a fire may start with what’s called thermal runaway. EV batteries aren’t one solid brick. Rather, think of these batteries as a collection of many smaller batteries, called cells, pressed up against each other. With thermal runaway, a chemical reaction located in one of the cells lights an initial fire, and the heat soon spreads to each adjacent cell until the entire EV battery is burning.

Greg Less, director of the University of Michigan’s Battery Lab, breaks down EV battery fires into two distinct categories: accidents and manufacturing defects. He considers accidents to be everything from a collision that punctures the battery to a charging mishap. “Let’s take those off the table,” says Less. “Because, I think people understand that, regardless of the vehicle type, if you’re in an accident, there could be a fire.”

While all EV battery fires are hard to put out, fires from manufacturing defects are likely more concerning to consumers, due to their seeming randomness. (Think back to when all those Samsung phones had to be recalled because battery issues made them fire hazards.) How do these rare issues with EV battery manufacturing cause fires at what may feel like random moments?

It all comes down to how the batteries are engineered. “There’s some level of the engineering that has gone wrong and caused the cell to short, which then starts generating heat,” says Less. “Heat causes the liquid electrolyte to evaporate, creating a gas inside the cell. When the heat gets high enough, it catches fire, explodes, and then propagates to other cells.” These kinds of defects are likely what caused the highly publicized recent EV fires in South Korea, one of which damaged over a hundred vehicles in a parking lot.

How to react if your EV catches fire

According to the National Fire Prevention Agency, if an EV ever catches fire while you’re behind the wheel, immediately find a safe way to pull over and get the car away from the main road. Then, turn off the engine and make sure everyone leaves the vehicle immediately. Don’t delay things by grabbing personal belongings, just get out. Remain over 100 feet away from the burning car as you call 911 and request the fire department.

Also, you shouldn’t attempt to put out the flame yourself. This is a chemical fire, so a couple buckets of water won’t sufficiently smother the flames. EV battery fires can take first responders around 10 times more water to extinguish than a fire in a gas-powered vehicle. Sometimes the firefighters may decide to let the battery just burn itself out, rather than dousing it with water.

Once an EV battery catches fire, it’s possible for the chemical fire to reignite after the initial burn dies down. It’s even possible for the battery to go up in flames again days later. “Both firefighters and secondary responders, such as vehicle recovery or tow companies, also need to be aware of the potential for stranded energy that may remain in the undamaged portions of the battery,” says Thomas Barth, an investigator and biomechanics engineer for the NTSB, in an emailed statement. “This energy can pose risks for electric shock or cause the vehicle to reignite.”

Although it may be tempting to go back into the car and grab your wallet or other important items if the flame grows smaller or goes out for a second, resist the urge. Wait until your local fire department arrives to assess the overall situation and give you the all clear. Staying far away from the car also helps minimize your potential for breathing in unhealthy fumes emitted from the battery fire.

How could EV batteries be safer?

In addition to quick recalls and replacements of potentially faulty lithium-ion batteries, both researchers I spoke with were excited about future possibilities for a different kind of battery, called solid-state, to make EVs even more reliable. “These batteries could potentially show greater thermal stability than lithium-ion batteries,” says McDowell. “When it heats up a lot, it may just remain pretty stable.” With a solid-state battery, the liquid electrolyte is no longer part of battery cells, removing the most flammable aspect of battery design.

These solid-state batteries are already available in some smaller electronics, but producing large versions of the batteries at vast scale continues to be a hurdle that EV manufacturers are working to overcome.

This story originally appeared on wired.com.

Electric vehicle battery fires—what to know and how to react Read More »

why-the-fiat-500e-could-be-your-ideal-second-ev

Why the Fiat 500e could be your ideal second EV

bevs, Cars, EVs, Fiat 500e, Inspired By Music, Stellantis / /
The Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty.

Enlarge / The Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty.

BradleyWarren Photography

Over two decades of parenting has left me with a healthy appreciation for SUVs and minivans. But there comes a time when the nest empties and transportation needs change. While it’s useful to have a larger car around for road trips and hauling stuff around, one such vehicle is sufficient. The second car can be small, economical, energy efficient—the kind of car that I wouldn’t have given a second glance in the past.

When Ars first drove the Fiat 500e last spring, we were impressed with what we saw and how it drove during the few hours spent behind the wheel. But Fiat is positioning this as an ideal second car, as Fiat CEO Olivier Francois told Ars at the drive. “My ambition is not to replace your sedan or [S]UV.” The automaker wants the 500e to be your stylish but economical secondary ride.

A novel approach to branding

After spending a week with the Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty, I can attest that the 500e does indeed make for an ideal second car, at least if you don’t have regular backseat passengers. Fiat’s tiny hatchback is also one of the most efficient BEVs Ars has ever driven, as it consistently averaged 5 mi/kWh (12.4 kWh/100 km).

Returning to US shores after a five-year absence from the market, the 500e rolls on an all-new platform designed from the ground up for EVs. That’s a great change—and here’s a weird one. Instead of buying a black 500e, one purchases the Fiat 500e Inspired By Music edition, which is black. I drove the Fiat 500e Inspired By Beauty edition, which is a striking rose gold. The 500e is also available in red (RED) and silver Marine Layer Mist (Inspired By Los Angeles).

The branding may be a bit twee, but it makes sense for a car that Francois has referred to as the “ultimate fashion accessory.” But you’re reading Ars, not our most-excellent sibling Vogue, so this review focuses more on functionality than style.

That said, the 500e is all kinds of cute. In an ocean of black, white, and gray SUVs, Fiat’s wee, rose-gold car stands out. It’s not just the color—Fiat has given the 500e a distinctive face, with the hood giving the headlight/running-light combo an eyebrow-eyelid-eyeball appearance.

A rose gold car stands out in a sea of monochrome SUVs.

Enlarge / A rose gold car stands out in a sea of monochrome SUVs.

BradleyWarren Photography

No frunk for you!

Enlarge / No frunk for you!

BradleyWarren Photography

Although the materials feel more fast-fashion than haute couture, the 500e interior looks sharp. Seats are white, with “FIAT” embossed all over. Most importantly, the front seat feels bigger than it should. There’s never a sensation of feeling confined or penned in. Visibility is excellent (unless there’s an SUV next to you blocking your view), and storage is adequate with the rear seats folded down (unfortunately, they do not fold flat). With the back seats up, there are 7.5 cubic feet (212 L) of storage. Unlike most other BEVs, the 500e is frunkless, as the short (142.9 in/3,630 mm) chassis means the motor, power electronics, and other equipment needs to live there.

Why the Fiat 500e could be your ideal second EV Read More »

why-fisker’s-bankruptcy-is-likely-to-leave-its-ev-owners-without-warranty

Why Fisker’s bankruptcy is likely to leave its EV owners without warranty

bankruptcy, Cars, EVs, Fisker, Fisker Ocean, syndication, warranty / /

Getting Fisked —

Build problems and unmet need for software updates have Fisker owners worried.

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Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker introduces the all-electric compact hatchback Pear during its inaugural

Enlarge / Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker introduces the all-electric compact hatchback Pear during its inaugural “Product Vision Day” in Huntington Beach, California, on August 3, 2023.

It was the last week in June, and José De Bardi hadn’t gotten much sleep. The trouble had really kicked off on June 18, about a week earlier, when the electric vehicle company Fisker announced it had filed for bankruptcy protection. Now some 6,400 Fisker owners like De Bardi wondered: What will happen to their cars in the future?

The bankruptcy “lit a fire,” De Bardi says. “We had to get organized if we had any chance of representing owners’ interests.” Within days, he and a handful of other Fisker vehicle owners had established a nonprofit organization called the Fisker Owners Association, dedicated to keeping their cars running. (Hence, the lack of sleep.) By the end of the month, 1,200 owners—representing nearly a fifth of total Fisker cars sold—had registered through the group’s website, De Bardi says.

Fisker vehicle owners’ questions are mostly practical. Fisker began shipping the Ocean, its electric SUV—priced to start at $41,000 and ranging up to $70,0000—last year. Immediately, the vehicles were found to have serious build quality shortcomings and software issues, including a less-than-responsive central touchscreen. (WIRED’s reviewer declined to rate the vehicle entirely, calling it “just not ready yet.”)

Owners reported that some of the most serious issues, including a difficult-to-use brake hold and Bluetooth connectivity problems, were ironed out through software updates. But owners sometimes complained that it was tricky to get their vehicles serviced or repaired, because there weren’t enough certified Fisker repairers and technicians. Fisker initially launched with a Tesla-like “direct to consumer” model that eschewed the traditional “middleman” dealerships often seen in the US. But in January, the company began to sign dealerships to a new Fisker network, citing ballooning costs associated with the direct model.

Ownership woes

Even now, as the carcass of Fisker gets picked over, the EVs still have niggling problems—window cracks, dysfunctional key fobs, sudden connectivity blackouts—and will unquestionably need servicing and spare parts to keep them running into the future. Without Fisker, the company, to provide that, what are owners to do?

The FOA is still in the early stages of figuring it out. A small band of volunteers have worked around the clock to define the problems owners might face down the road—legal questions about their vehicle financing; issues with the car’s app; finding parts—and start solving them. These people have full-time jobs, too. De Bardi, for example, who lives in the UK and has headed up the European owners’ efforts, is also the CTO of a telecommunications firm.

Experts say Fisker owners’ situation is looking increasingly tricky. Automotive companies have a playbook to handle bankruptcies, developed during the 2008 financial crisis, which led General Motors and Chrysler to file for Chapter 11 protection, as Fisker has. Thanks in part to support from the US government, those automakers were able to honor their vehicles’ warranties as the companies restructured.

But in legal proceedings in Delaware this month, Fisker’s situation looked more dire. Lawyers for the firm’s creditors argued that Fisker should have filed for bankruptcy late last year. And Fisker plans to sell its remaining inventory, some 4,000 vehicles, to a firm that leases electric vehicles to New York City Uber and Lyft drivers, lawyers told the court.

If the company is forced to liquidate this way, owners may not be top of mind for the court and Fisker’s creditors, says John A.E. Pottow, a professor of law who studies bankruptcy at the University of Michigan Law School. The company may simply not have enough money to honor its vehicles’ warranties. “If Fisker is bankrupt, they have no obligation to update their software,” he says. And the company’s assets—its cars, their parts, and its intellectual property—may be too piddling to attract another firm to take up the mantle of service and repair. “Bankruptcy is never good,” Pottow says. “The smaller the business, the worse the issues.”

Right now, Fisker owners should make sure they have great comprehensive insurance on their cars, says Justin Simard, an associate professor of law researching commercial law at Michigan State University College of Law. Without a functioning service and repair system, “you could get totaled out with a little fender bender,” he says. The worst-case scenario might also see Ocean insurance rates increase and the cars’ resale values plummet even further, he says.

Fisker spokesperson Matthew Debord declined to comment on issues related to vehicle repair and parts manufacture, and referred WIRED to the company’s statements related to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Fisker initially paused production of the Ocean in February, after warning investors it might not be able to see out the year. A month later, reported investment talks between the electric vehicle maker and Nissan collapsed, and the fate of Fisker became clearer. The automaker brought in some $273 million in revenue last year but lost $940 million and owes some $850 million to bondholders.

A handful of other electric vehicle makers, including Lordstown Motors, Arrival, and Volta Trucks, have also filed for bankruptcy amid a more-challenging-than-expected climate for electric vehicles and new vehicle development. A fleet maintenance firm agreed to provide service for Lordstown’s remaining fleet customers, while the assets of Arrival sold to another EV manufacturer, Canoo. Volta Trucks emerged from restructuring earlier this year with new ownership and says it will continue to manufacture vehicles.

Despite it all, José De Bardi, the Fisker Owners Association leader, says he wants to keep his black Fisker Ocean around for as long as he possibly can. “It’s now a fantastic car,” he says, acknowledging the EV’s initial “quirks.” Despite the challenges—and hard work—the group is feeling optimistic. “We’re feeling positive that we’re going to get some kind of good outcome,” he says.

This story originally appeared on wired.com.

Why Fisker’s bankruptcy is likely to leave its EV owners without warranty Read More »

why-americans-aren’t-buying-more-evs

Why Americans aren’t buying more EVs

automotive, BEV, Cars, EVs, hybries, PHEV, syndication / /

Electric avenue —

Tariffs on Chinese EVs could increase costs while reducing competition.

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Urban outdoor electric vehicle charging station

Clint and Rachel Wells had reasons to consider buying an electric vehicle when it came to replacing one of their cars. But they had even more reasons to stick with petrol.

The couple live in Normal, Illinois, which has enjoyed an economic boost from the electric vehicle assembly plant opened there by upstart electric-car maker Rivian. EVs are a step forward from “using dead dinosaurs” to power cars, Clint Wells says, and he wants to support that.

But the couple decided to “get what was affordable”—in their case, a petrol-engined Honda Accord costing $19,000 after trade-in.

An EV priced at $25,000 would have been tempting, but only five new electric models costing less than $40,000 have come on to the US market in 2024. The hometown champion’s focus on luxury vehicles—its cheapest model is currently the $69,000 R1T—made it a non-starter.

“It’s just not accessible to us at this point in our life,” Rachel Wells says.

The Wells are among the millions of Americans opting to continue buying combustion-engine cars over electric vehicles, despite President Joe Biden’s ambitious target of having EVs make up half of all new cars sold in the US by 2030. Last year, the proportion was 9.5 percent.

High sticker prices for cars on the forecourt, and high interest rates that are pushing up monthly lease payments, have combined with concerns over driving range and charging infrastructure to chill buyers’ enthusiasm—even among those who consider themselves green.

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While EV technology is still improving and the popularity of electric cars is still increasing, sales growth has slowed. Many carmakers are rethinking manufacturing plans, cutting the numbers of EVs they had planned to produce for the US market in favor of combustion-engined and hybrid cars.

Electric vehicles have also found themselves at the intersection of two competing Biden administration priorities: tackling climate change and protecting American jobs.

Biden has pledged to lower US greenhouse gas emissions to 50-52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, with widespread EV adoption a significant part of that ambition.

But he wants to achieve it without recourse to imports from China, the world’s biggest producer of EVs and a dominant player in many of the raw materials that go into them. Washington has set out an industrial policy that hits Chinese manufacturers of cars, batteries and other components with punitive tariffs and restricts federal tax incentives for consumers buying their products.

The idea is to allow the US to develop its own supply chains, but analysts say such protectionism will result in higher EV prices for US consumers in the meantime. That could stall sales and result in the US remaining behind China and Europe in adoption of EVs, putting at risk not only the Biden administration’s targets but also the global uptake of EVs. The World Resources Institute says between 75 and 95 percent of new passenger vehicles sold by 2030 need to be electric if Paris agreement goals are to be met.

Rivian electric vehicles on the assembly line at the carmaker’s plant in Normal, Illinois. Its focus on luxury vehicles means many families cannot afford its cars.

Enlarge / Rivian electric vehicles on the assembly line at the carmaker’s plant in Normal, Illinois. Its focus on luxury vehicles means many families cannot afford its cars.

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Getty Images

“There is no question that this slows down EV adoption in the US,” says Everett Eissenstat, a former senior US Trade Representative official who served both Republican and Democratic administrations.

“We are just not producing the EVs the consumers want at a price point they want.”

Incenting consumers

The administration is attempting to reconcile its industrial and climate policies by offering tax incentives to consumers to buy EVs and by encouraging manufacturers to develop US-dominated supply chains.

Tax credits of up to $7,500 are available to buyers of electric cars. But the full amount is only available on cars that are made in the US with critical minerals and battery components also largely sourced in the US.

That means few cars qualify for the maximum credit. Two years on from the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which set out Biden’s ambitious green transition strategy, there are only 12 models that can actually score buyers the full $7,500.

The act also offered hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies and other incentives to companies building a domestic clean energy industry. The automotive sector has been one of the beneficiaries of that largesse.

Last month, the Biden administration went a step further, adding steep new tariffs on billions of dollars of goods imported from China. These included a quadrupling of the tariffs on imported electric vehicles, a tripling of the rate on Chinese lithium-ion batteries to 25 percent and the introduction of a 25 percent tariff on graphite, which is used to make batteries.

The levies were an extension of a package first imposed by then president Donald Trump as part of his trade war with Beijing in 2018, and have been under review by the Biden administration as it figures out how to respond to what it says are Beijing’s unfair subsidies to strategic industries.

Joe Biden with union members last month as the president approved a rise in tariffs on Chinese-made goods, including a quadrupling of the levies imposed on imported EVs.

Enlarge / Joe Biden with union members last month as the president approved a rise in tariffs on Chinese-made goods, including a quadrupling of the levies imposed on imported EVs.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Few Chinese EVs are available for sale in the US. Polestar is the only Chinese-owned carmaker currently active in the country and it sold a mere 2,210 cars in the first quarter—out of nearly 269,000 new EV sales. (The company plans to add manufacturing in the US this year.)

Wendy Cutler, a former trade official and vice-president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, describes the pre-emptive levying of tariffs as a new development in global trade policy.

“This sends a clear signal to China: don’t even think about exporting your cars to the United States,” she says.

More significant than the tariffs on Chinese electric cars are the levies on lithium-ion batteries and the materials and components used to make them.

China is a key player in the supply chain for EV batteries, with companies such as BYD and CATL developing the country’s capacity over more than a decade. It dominates the processing of the minerals contained in lithium-ion batteries as well as the manufacture of battery components such as cathodes and anodes.

According to data analyzed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think-tank, US-based carmakers have been importing a growing share of their batteries from China. In the first quarter of 2024, more than 70 percent of imported car batteries came from the country.

The tariffs will drive up manufacturing costs for carmakers in the US and that cost is likely to be passed on to consumers because battery materials and components are not currently available in large quantities from any supply chain that excludes China.

US trade officials draw parallels with the solar industry. The cost of photovoltaic panels fell worldwide as Chinese manufacturers, benefiting from subsidies, lower labor costs and growing scale, came to dominate the industry.

That has been a boon for consumers, but resulted in production and jobs shifting from the US to China. Washington does not want a rerun of this process in the automotive sector.

“The idea that we should just open our gates and have a bunch of systematic Chinese economic abuses . . . and that that’s the answer to climate change is incredibly naive and short-sighted,” says Jennifer Harris, a former economic adviser to Biden.

In an election year, the issue is politically charged too. Michigan and Ohio, both home to large numbers of auto workers, are swing states in the presidential election. Both Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump are trying to appeal to working-class voters there.

Preserving jobs in the US auto industry as it moves towards green technology is largely about the supply chain. More than half the 995,000 people employed in the auto industry across the US are making parts, rather than assembling vehicles, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

EVs already threaten these jobs because their powertrains comprise fewer components than cars with traditional engines and transmission systems. The United Auto Workers union, arguing for a “just transition” to clean energy, fought during its six-week long strike last autumn to have battery plants in the US covered by the same contracts that protect workers at plants making petrol-powered vehicles, winning an agreement with General Motors.

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Ilaria Mazzocco, chair in Chinese business and economics at CSIS, says the reduced competition and rising cost of imported battery components could delay price decreases for US consumers.

“It’s not just that the same car costs less in China, it’s that in China you have a wider variety,” says Mazzocco. “US automakers will have the leisure of not having competition, and they’ll be able to focus on making these high-cost trucks”—a reference to larger sedans and SUVs, which have bigger profit margins.

“That’s just what the Biden administration feels they need to do on the political front, because they need to prioritize jobs,” she adds.

Price and infrastructure

Electric vehicles face other barriers to mass adoption. Affordability, lack of charging infrastructure and range anxiety all remain concerns for mainstream US car buyers.

The price for a new EV averaged just less than $57,000 in May, compared with an average of a little more than $48,000 for a car or truck with a traditional engine.

The starting price for a Tesla Model Y, by far the most popular electric vehicle in the US, was just less than $43,000 during the first quarter. The Ford F-150 Lightning, the electrified version of the best-selling pick-up truck in the US, was teased at $42,000 when it went on sale in May 2022 but now starts at $55,000—more than $11,000 above the petrol-powered F-150.

Used EVs are cheaper, with a vehicle less than five years old costing about $34,000, according to Cox Automotive. But they remain more expensive than used cars with traditional engines, which average about $32,100—and they make up just 2 to 3 percent of used vehicle sales.

esla Model Y vehicles at a dealership in Austin, Texas. Elon Musk has suggested that the carmaker would launch ‘more affordable’ models in the coming year or so.

Enlarge / esla Model Y vehicles at a dealership in Austin, Texas. Elon Musk has suggested that the carmaker would launch ‘more affordable’ models in the coming year or so.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Ford and Stellantis, which owns brands such as Dodge, Ram and Jeep, are promising $25,000 EVs for the US market in the next few years. General Motors plans to revive the Chevrolet Bolt as “the most affordable” EV on the market. Tesla chief Elon Musk also told investors in April that Tesla would launch “more affordable models” this year or early in 2025.

But these models will still face obstacles like a dearth of charging infrastructure. Overnight charging at home is the preferred method of replenishing an EV, but this is only really an option for those who can install a charger on their property. Those living in apartment complexes in states like California, where a greater share of people drive EVs, are more reliant on public charging facilities.

While there are about 120,000 petrol stations nationwide, according to the US Department of Energy, there are only 64,000 public charging stations in the US—and only 10,000 of them are direct current chargers, which can replenish a battery in 30 minutes rather than several hours. Charging stations also can be inoperative or have long lines when drivers arrive, forcing them to go elsewhere.

Potential buyers also worry their EV may not travel as far on a single charge as they require. While electric vehicles are well suited to the short trips that make up most driving, many Americans also use their cars and trucks for longer distances and worry that charging en route may add to their driving time, or even leave them stranded. Cold weather and towing a load can both diminish an EV’s range.

“What we’re seeing is the pace of EV growth is faster than the rate of publicly available charger growth,” says John Bozzella, chief executive of US auto trade group the Alliance for Automotive Innovation.

Two strategies

Many global carmakers are making big investments in US manufacturing plants, in response to the government’s incentives. But in the light of slowing EV sales growth they are shifting that investment towards hybrid vehicles, which use battery power alongside a traditional engine.

Last month, executives from GM, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Ford all said that tapping into demand for hybrids was a priority. Ford chief executive Jim Farley told investors at a conference “we should stop talking about [hybrids] as a transitional technology,” viewing it instead as a viable long-term option.

Hyundai said it was considering making hybrids at its new $7.6 billion plant in Georgia. US competitor GM said in January that it would reintroduce plug-in hybrid technology to its range, though chief executive Mary Barra recently affirmed she still saw EVs as the future.

Bozzella says that even with the tariff protection measures and US subsidies in place, he was unsure how long it would take for the US auto industry to produce EVs that could compete with heavily subsidized Chinese vehicles on pricing.

“There is no question that EVs built in the US now, and built by American companies now, are absolutely competitive with EVs around the world,” he says, citing Tesla.

“If what you mean is competitive at price points . . . well that’s a different matter entirely, and my answer to that is: I’m not sure.”

Van Jackson, previously an official in the Obama administration and now a senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, says electric cars still need to fall in price if the market is to grow substantially.

“How do you bring workers along and increase their wages, and have a growth market for these products, given how expensive they are?” he asks. “I’m an upper-middle-class person and I cannot afford an EV.”

He is skeptical about whether shutting the world’s dominant producer of EVs and related componentry out of the US market will reduce the price of the cars and encourage uptake.

“The tariffs are buying time,” he says. “But towards no particular end.”

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