Jameson Dow

Volkswagen will change the name of its US electric car unit to “Voltswagen,” according to an accidentally leaked press release as reported by CNBC, which verified its authenticity with “a person familiar with the company’s plans.” Before it was taken down, the press release was dated April 29.

[Update: As of March 29, the name change is now official per VW’s media page. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 30 that it’s an April Fools’ joke, despite that it’s not April 1 yet.]

Kia has shown the first images of their all-electric “crossover-inspired” EV6, based on the Hyundai E-GMP modular EV platform, which it shares with the recently announced Ioniq 5. While we have no specs yet, we expect to hear more about them at an event later this month.

Mini will stop selling gas cars by 2030, according to a report by Der Spiegel. The brand also plans to introduce its last gas model in 2025 and for half of its sales to be electric by 2027.

In the wake of USPS’ announcement to replace its vehicle fleet with mostly gas-powered vehicles, lawmakers are asking questions about possible insider trading and seeking to ensure that the fleet purchases a minimum percentage of all-electric vehicles, as reported by Bloomberg.

The upcoming Hyundai IONIQ 5 was spotted charging at an IONITY station by a German YouTuber, and it looks like the car could be the new champion of charging speed.

Rivian’s R1T, the upcoming electric pickup truck, was spotted driving on public roads in Suwon, South Korea.

While we don’t know why it’s there, the area is nearby both Samsung SDI and LG Chem R&D centers, two battery suppliers that work with several EV manufacturers.

After last season was significantly rearranged in the middle of a global pandemic, Formula E, the top electric racing series, is back this weekend in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. The season’s first race weekend will consist of two races, one on Friday and another on Saturday.

The new season brings the same teams and few technology and rule changes, but includes several new tracks and drivers.

Washington state’s House Transportation Committee has voted 17-12 to advance a bill requiring all light-duty vehicles of model year 2030 and later registered in the state to be electric. The bill now moves on to the House Rules committee to be considered for a potential floor vote.

All automakers have dropped support for a lawsuit that threatened California’s long-held legal ability to set its own emissions rules, as reported by Reuters.

President Joe Biden has just announced that he will replace the entire US federal fleet with electric vehicles made in the US.

GM is considering expanding the Corvette into a family of vehicles, with the first new vehicle being an all-electric crossover SUV with Corvette branding, according to a report by Bloomberg. If GM does go through with the plan, the electric Corvette SUV wouldn’t hit the road until at least 2025.

Toyota will pay a penalty of $180 million for failing to comply with the Clean Air Act’s emissions-reporting requirements from 2005-2015, according to a filing today by the US Department of Justice.

Over that time period, Toyota delayed required filings about emissions defects and failed to inform the EPA about progress on recalls related to emissions defects. This resulted in higher emissions, higher costs for consumers, and greater profit for Toyota.

Rivian’s upcoming Amazon delivery van has been spotted in the wild in the Los Angeles area, seemingly being used in some sort of test capacity in the real world.

It looks about as we expected it would, but one surprise stands out: a loud “pedestrian-warning” noisemaker that sounds as unpleasant as our worst fears.

Sony released multiple videos showing off their Sony VISION-S electric car concept, which they first unveiled in a surprise move one year ago at CES.

The videos provide new insights on the design and engineering of the car, with comments from partners Sony is working with, and reveal that Sony has started testing their vehicle on public roads near their engineering center in Graz, Austria.

Workhorse Group, a company focusing on commercial sales of last-mile electric delivery vans, has received an order for 6,320 all-electric vans. The order comes from Pride Group Enterprises, a company that focuses on equipment sales, rental, and leasing for the logistics industry.

While 6,320 doesn’t seem like an astounding number at first blush, it’s much larger than Workhorse’s planned production this year, which was around 1,800 units.

German VW dealers failed to recommend the brand’s flagship electric car, the ID.3, to secret shoppers with a “suitable driving profile,” according to a new study by Greenpeace. Out of 50 dealers visited, only eight of them (16%) recommended the ID.3, and the percentage was even lower (4%) for customers who didn’t specifically mention they were considering the ID.3.

Lordstown Motors and Camping World will work together to build an electric motorhome, announced in an event at Lordstown’s Ohio plant with Lordstown CEO Steve Burns and Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis.

Lordstown also plans to use Camping World for nationwide service locations for the Endurance electric pickup truck.

Rivian was spotted testing its delivery van near the company’s facility in Irvine, Calif., on Saturday. The van is part of a deal with Amazon, which has ordered 100,000 of them from Rivian after leading a $700 million funding round for the company.

Einride, a Swedish company focusing on autonomous electric trucks, announced today that their next-generation Pod will use NVIDIA’s “Orin” processor for autonomous driving.

Last year, Einride became the first company to make deliveries with a completely driverless heavy truck on public roads with their first-generation T-Pod heavy truck. Their next-generation Pod, available for reservation now and shipping next year, features new functionality and design changes over the original vehicle.

Japan plans to phase out sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by the mid-2030s, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK.

The plan is not yet finalized (expect more info by the end of the year), and will still allow for sales of conventional gas-powered hybrids. So this is a step forward, but resembles China’s recently announced gas car ban that doesn’t actually ban gas cars.

Volvo officially started North American commercial sales of its VNR electric heavy truck today, ahead of production, which will start in “early 2021.”

The truck will be available in three configurations: a single-axle box truck with 33,200lb GCWR, and two tractor configurations, a 4×2 with 66,000lb and a 6×2 with 82,000lb GCWR.

It’s happened yet again: Another EV sold out before it launched. This time, it’s the upcoming Opel Mokka-e that is sold out in Europe, even though the car won’t hit the road until next March. Opel says they were “totally surprised” by the demand and were expecting a “high-four-digit” number of sales next year.

Opel is not the first company to experience this. GM, Ford, Porsche, VW, and others have all had a hard time meeting initial demand for their vehicles, or sold them out well in advance of launch. So if this keeps happening, what’s it going to take to convince manufacturers that consumers want electric cars?

Last month we reported on rumors that BMW had greenlit development of a high-performance “GP” version of the electric Mini. Today BMW announced that the car is indeed being worked on, but it will be designated as a “John Cooper Works” model, a name reserved for the brand’s highest-performance, track-ready vehicles.

60% of Fiat’s car models will be “electrified” — either conventional hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or full electric — by the end of next year, according to a presentation by the company’s European brand chief Luca Napolitano reported by Reuters. Napolitano claims that this is “better than the market average.”

While many companies have been making similar commitments, often using the weasel word “electrify” that includes conventional hybrids that still rely entirely on petroleum for movement, Fiat’s commitments are notable, considering their recent history as EV opponents, formerly headed by Sergio Marchionne, who was a famously anti-EV figure.