Jameson Dow

Plug in America, the Sierra Club, and the Electric Vehicle Association are hosting their annual Drive Electric Earth Day event where advocates educate attendees about EV ownership. While most events will take place on April 23-24, Earth Day weekend, events have been running all month, with over 180 events scheduled across the US (and a couple in Canada and New Zealand).

The House Oversight Committee held a 3.5-hour long hearing today on USPS’ contract to buy tens of thousands of gas guzzling trucks from Oshkosh Defense to replace its aging delivery fleet.

GM has finally restarted production on the Bolt EV and EUV lines after being out of production for the better part of a year due to an issue with its LG battery cells.

Canada has unveiled a $9 billion “2030 emissions reduction plan” with several provisions aimed at lowering the country’s emissions, including a plan to mandate 20% zero-emission new light-duty vehicle sales in 2026, rising to 60% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. But it may not actually ban gas cars – depending on how the plan defines plug-in hybrids.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ruled that heightened fines on automakers that fail to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy requirements on 2019 and later vehicles would be reinstated. The decision is a big hit to high-polluting automakers and the lobby group that supports them, and a win for EV makers.

Washington state has set a target that all vehicles of model year 2030 or later sold, purchased or registered in Washington state be electric vehicles. The bill was signed today by Gov. Inslee, making Washington the state with the earliest all-electric new car target in the nation.

NVIDIA announced two new automotive clients for their DRIVE self-driving platform, EV startup Lucid Motors and Chinese EV giant BYD. BYD will use the system in their next-generation vehicles, and Lucid revealed that they are already powering their DreamDrive ADAS system with NVIDIA’s DRIVE Hyperion platform.

Sony and Honda have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop electric vehicles, with the first car becoming available commercially in 2025, reports Nikkei Asia.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk invited the United Auto Workers to hold a union vote at the Tesla factory, stating that Tesla “will do nothing to stop” the voting process.

It’s the latest in a years-long saga between the UAW and Tesla, in which Tesla has been found to violate labor law in unfairly cracking down on union organization.

The USPS issued a “record of decision” today stating that it has finished its environmental review and responded to the EPA’s concerns and will go through with its plan to spend up to $11.3 billion on gas-guzzling, 8.6 mile-per-gallon vehicles to replace the aging USPS delivery fleet.

However, if you read the USPS press release summarizing the decision, you wouldn’t know that – since the press release makes no mention of the USPS’s plans to buy polluting, fossil-powered vehicles, and repeatedly only mentions electric and electrified vehicles.

Extreme E returns to the desert for the start of its second season with the Desert X Prix in Neom, Saudi Arabia this Sunday.

The electric off-road racing series started last year with a dual focus on racing with sustainable technologies while bringing attention to environmental issues across the globe.

Tesla has updated its smartphone app to version 4.6 adding some useful new features including actionable notifications and charging stats, and data-miners have found plans for an upcoming cheaper annual subscription to their Full Self-Driving and Premium Connectivity services.

But even with this upcoming cheaper subscription scheme, Tesla has so far shown no interest in ending its practice of charging owners $1k for hardware they already paid for.

Jaguar Land Rover is partnering with NVIDIA to use their DRIVE Hyperion 8 platform for future vehicles. NVIDIA’s system will power autonomous and driver assistance systems and will render visualization of the vehicle’s environment.

EcoCycle, a nonprofit recycler in Boulder, Colorado, is putting into service the nation’s first commercial electric truck for compostable waste collection. The truck is a Mack LR electric and EcoCycle hopes that it will be first of many adopted by the industry.

The US Army unveiled a comprehensive climate strategy including moves to lower emissions and build an electric vehicle fleet in the coming years.

The Army states that this will help them confront the growing global threat of climate change and enhance safety for soldiers who are already feeling the effects of our warming globe.

Nissan reportedly plans to end “most” gasoline engine development, becoming the first Japanese automaker to take this step, according to Nikkei Asia.

A couple of new photos leaked over the weekend of the Tesla Cybertruck, giving us a closer look at design changes that we’ve spotted recently from afar.

Sony brought another surprise to CES this year, revealing an SUV version of their VISION-S concept EV, which they showed off at CES 2020, and announcing the formation of “Sony Mobility, Inc.,” a new company to focus on mobility and EV efforts.

Even better, Sony explicitly stated that they are “exploring a commercial launch” of their VISION-S concepts, making this project seem more real than ever.

Hyundai has suspended development of their Genesis hydrogen fuel cell vehicle indefinitely, according to Chosun Ilbo. The news comes hot on the heels of Hyundai announcing an end to internal combustion engine development.

Extreme E is back this weekend for the fifth and final race of its inaugural season, this time on the Jurassic Coast in southern England.

Each Extreme E venue is picked to bring awareness to one aspect of environmental damage humans are doing to the Earth. In the case of the Jurassic X Prix, the focus is on erosion caused by rising sea levels and biodiversity loss caused by human incursion into natural environments.

VW is preparing a software update for its ID. series electric cars that increases peak charging speed from 125kW to 135kW on the largest 77kWh battery.

The 3.0 software also includes improvements to navigation, voice control, and driver assistance.

Images of the upcoming refreshed electric Mini Cooper have leaked, showing significant exterior and interior changes including redesigned taillights and a rimless center screen.

GM will bring the Chevy Bolt EV and EUV back into production in the week of January 24, 2022. Production is currently paused as GM sorts out a battery recall on both models.

55% of registered US voters support a requirement that all new cars sold after 2030 be all-electric, while just 35% oppose, according to a new poll.