Electrek

Tesla announced today that its “Robotaxi” service is now rolling out in Dallas and Houston, marking the company’s first expansion beyond Austin and San Francisco. The company shared maps of the two new service areas, which appear to cover small slices of each city.

The Houston geofence covers approximately 25 square miles, according to early user analysis of the maps, while the Dallas zone appears to center around the Highland Park area. For context, Tesla’s Austin geofence has grown to roughly 245 square miles after months of gradual expansion — but that took nearly a year to reach from an initial 20-square-mile footprint.

A YouTuber bought a completely stripped-down Tesla Model 3 for just $2,000 — no body panels, no windshield, no seatbelts — and took it off-roading, drifting, and even jumping it. The wildest part? It still showed 212 miles of range on a full charge.

The video, posted by Remmy Evans, is a testament to both the durability of Tesla’s drivetrain and the questionable decision-making that makes YouTube entertaining.

Packing just over 1,380 hp and up to 255 miles of all-electric range, the new, tri-motor, extended-range hybrid Zeekr X8 is redefining what buyers could and should expect from their next SUV – and parent company Geely’s global ambitions could mean the platform will make its way to North America. As a Volvo.

Every kid between 12 and 16 wants a Sur Ron-type Emoto this summer. The market has exploded to match that demand — and for riders on the smaller end of the size and budget spectrum, it’s hard to beat the Yozma IN10.

In a move the company is calling breakthrough initiative, Lloyds Metals and Energy have successfully converted one of their massive, 650-ton class Liebherr R 996 excavators from diesel power to fully electric for the first time – and it won’t be the last!

It’s long been cheaper to own an electric car, due to lower fueling costs. But the upfront cost is now lower, according to UK’s largest auto-buying website Autotrader, and reported by The Guardian. And a large part of it is because of the availability of low-cost Chinese EVs, which are unavailable or subject to tariffs in many other countries.

Almost everyone positions home solar panel systems with home batteries as backup grid power insurance – and while that can be vitally important in a whole host of “what if” scenarios, keeping the lights on is the LEAST interesting thing your home battery can do.

18APR2026: I forgot the best one!

Mangrove Lithium has opened what it says is North America’s first commercial electrochemical lithium refinery, a 1,000-tonne-per-year plant in Delta, British Columbia, aimed at strengthening the continent’s EV battery supply chain.

With gas prices surging, driving an EV sounds even more attractive right about now. This month, several automakers are offering discounts of up to $10,000 or more on popular EVs, including the Hyundai IONIQ 9 and Chevy Equinox EV.

Vestas finished installing its wind turbines at Pattern Energy’s SunZia, the largest clean energy project in the US, last month, and the wind farm has now come online.

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla having its HW3 reckoning, Ford reshuffling its EV unit, Donut Lab being in hot water, and more.

The Santa Fe will launch as Hyundai’s first extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) in 2027. With its official debut coming up, the Santa FE EREV was spotted with a unique design.

We’re closing out this week’s Green Deals with plenty of amazing sales – some of which even have exclusive bonus savings for our readers only. Things start with Aventon’s expanded Spring Sale that has added the premium Aventure M Mid-Drive All-Terrain Smart e-bike to the mix at a new $2,699 low, among other newly included models. We also have Anker’s eufy Earth Day Sale with up to 30% exclusive combined savings using our code, like the eufyCam S3 Pro 2-Cam Solar Security Camera Kit with a 16GB storage hub at $385, with many other security devices and robot cleaners able to benefit from the extra savings too. There are also two 72-hour weekend flash sales from EcoFlow and Anker SOLIX to check out – the latter of which has our continuing exclusive bonus savings code available on orders over $1,000. All those and more await you below, and don’t forget about the other hangover deals at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s Navee Earth Day EV Sale with up to 50% e-scooter savings, the ongoing Jackery Explorer 2000 Plus flash sale lows, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

The Dutch Tesla owner who launched a collective claim against Tesla over FSD on HW3 cars called Tesla to ask about the €6,400 he paid for “Full Self-Driving” in 2019. After 7 years of waiting, Tesla’s answer was to “just be patient.”

It’s an almost comically tone-deaf response that perfectly encapsulates Tesla’s approach to the HW3 problem — and it’s only going to fuel the growing legal pressure in Europe.

Volkswagen launched the ID.UNYX 08, starting at under $35,000 in China. The fully connected electric SUV is Volkswagen’s first EV co-developed with XPeng.

Toyota has no plans to launch an EV version, but the RAV4’s chief engineer said you can try its updated electric SUV instead.

Donut Lab’s miraculous solid state battery, promising energy density, charging and durability numbers unseen by the industry, has been subject to a criminal complaint in Finland from an insider who says it doesn’t live up to the public promises Donut Lab has made.

But the company says that the insider didn’t work on the battery project, and denies any fraudulent behavior.

It’s that time of year again, time for events across the country to show off electric vehicles at Drive Electric Earth Month. And it couldn’t come at a better time, as gas prices are spiking through the roof worldwide – which EV drivers haven’t had to worry about.

The EV5 is expected to be among Kia’s best-selling vehicles. Following its initial success, Kia revealed plans to introduce a new high-volume electric SUV. Here’s what we know about the new EV so far.

Late last year, I had the chance to check out the world’s first semi-solid-state batteries designed for electric bicycles. At EICMA 2025, I visited T&D, an electric mobility company that was spun out of e-bike component maker Bafang (and founded by the same co-founder of Bafang, Sunny He). There I saw the first production-destined semi-solid-state e-bike batteries.

At the time, it was a big secret which company would be the first to put them into e-bikes and get those new batteries on the road. But now we’ve finally learned who will claim the title: Giant.

Volvo is expanding its electric trucking lead with the launch of new and improved line of FH, FM, and FMX Electric HD and semi trucks with up to 700 km (~430 miles) of range.

California Senate Bill 1213 is calling out truck makers for playing games with zero emission truck pricing by requiring manufacturers to make truck pricing public if they want access to the state’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) and Clean Transportation Programs.

US community solar just cleared 10 GW, and that’s a big deal, but the growth story just got a lot more complicated.

Hyundai will unveil the IONIQ 3 during Milan Design Week in less than a week. Ahead of its debut, the electric hot hatch was spotted racing down the streets of South Korea.