Jameson Dow

The Dawn Project, a group that runs ads attacking Tesla’s full self-driving system, has received a letter from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) demanding that it cease using its logo in advertising, which Dawn Project did in contravention of US federal law in its Super Bowl ad aired this weekend.

The EPA is currently finalizing new rules to limit truck emissions, and a group of manufacturers including Ford, Cummins, BorgWarner and Eaton has broken with the industry to support the upcoming “Phase 3” heavy duty emissions rules, while the rest of the industry, led by Volvo and Daimler, continues to lobby against them.

Mercedes invited us out to drive the new eSprinter, the electric version of Mercedes’ cargo van, and if there’s one thing I want you to understand about it is: it’s a van, but it’s electric.

Consumer Reports is out with its annual owner satisfaction survey, showing Rivian to be far and away the most-loved car brand according to owners. The rating comes soon after a couple of Consumer Reports’ reviewers strangely listed the R1S as one of their “least favorite cars we tested in 2023.”

Polestar’s online configurator is no longer accepting new custom Polestar 2 orders, and Polestar says that the reason is because demand is too high for its best-selling vehicle.

Tesla Cybertrucks are now being delivered without aerodynamic wheel covers installed, due to the covers causing excessive wear and tear to tires. Tesla is currently redesigning the covers, with a fix coming soon™.

California hit a new record last year with 21.4% of new cars being all-electric, and once again Tesla led the pack with the two best-selling cars in the state, the Tesla Model Y and Tesla Model 3. But Toyota narrowly maintained its leadership as the top-selling brand in the state, with Tesla nipping at its heels.

Rivian has filed plans for a “global product launch” on March 7th at its new flagship store in Laguna Beach, and documents reveal that the launch is of its much-anticipated smaller, more affordable R2 platform.

“Toyota” announced a new eco-conscious AI copilot at the DC Auto Show yesterday, which promises to reduce environmental impact by up to 10% – but it turns out the whole thing was a prank, and the prank makes a real point about Toyota’s tendency towards greenwashing.

Formula E returns to track this Saturday for its tenth season with a race in Mexico City, in a season that brings three new tracks and the debut of Formula E’s new ultra-fast mid-race charging system.

Tesla will shut down its Berlin gigafactory for about two weeks, from January 29 to February 11, due to a lack of components as a result of a Red Sea blockade, according to Reuters.

Sony is now on its fifth year of showing off its upcoming electric car in its CES press conferences, which we learned last year will be named AFEELA and is planned hit the market in 2026.

This year, the press conference focused on Sony’s software plans for its new vehicle – along with a heap of the latest buzzwords, mostly to do with AI.

Tennessee has started the process of hiking its EV registration fee from $100 to $274 per year and beyond, aiming to continue hiking the fees in perpetuity, further increasing the disproportionately high taxes paid by EVs in the state as compared to gas cars.

Tesla has updated its Model Y EPA range estimates, lowering the range of its Long Range and Performance models by 6% in its online configurator.

Tesla has updated its US Model Y configurator, adding the Ultra Red and Stealth Grey colors to the Model Y, which had previously only been available on the Model S and X.

GM has released its Q4 sales numbers, showing Ultium still ramping steadily, but overall EV sales are down as its best-selling model, the Bolt, winds down as Chevy takes it off the market in its best year of sales ever – leaving GM with only 3.1% EV share, well below the US average.

As of January 1st, Kentucky has implemented not one but two new taxes on electric vehicles, both of which are individually higher than what gas vehicles pay on similar units of energy.

The Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla’s first vehicle to fully utilize its larger 4680-format cell, has been out for about a month now. But with only limited quantities on the road in the public’s hands, there have still been a lot of questions about the vehicle.

Now we’ve got an answer to one of the most important questions: charge rate. It’s not great – but that might not be the whole story.

Waymo has released a report saying that its Waymo Driver self-driving vehicles outperform human drivers significantly, leading to much fewer crashes and injuries when compared to benchmark human drivers.

The Federal Highway Administration announced today that it will seek feedback on how government rules should be updated to account for the new NACS/J3400 charging standard, potentially unlocking $7.5 billion in federal subsidies for the Tesla-developed charging connector.

VW, Audi, and Porsche have all committed to using the Tesla-developed NACS connector starting in 2025. It’s one of the last dominos to fall towards universal adoption of the connector.

Tesla has announced that it will raise factory worker pay for some workers at its Nevada Gigafactory by 10% or more. The news comes not long after UAW’s historic strike wins, in which it earned 25% pay increases at all of the Big Three American automakers.

After VW, Hyundai, Toyota, and Honda did the same recently, this shows how union wins tend to affect entire industries, raising conditions for even nonunionized companies who have to compete for workers.

Trevor Milton, founder and former CEO of Nikola Corporation, has been sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding investors with false statements about the company’s electric trucks.

After nearly nine months on the road, an all-electric Nissan Ariya has become the first vehicle ever, gas or electric, to drive all the way from North to South pole, piloted by Chris Ramsey of Plug in Adventures and his wife Julie.