Jameson Dow

This weekend, a Tesla Roadster will make the journey from Lands End to John O’ Groates, an 870-mile drive spanning the full length of the island of Great Britain. This drive has been done by EVs many times before, but in this case, it’s in a special vehicle: the very first car that ever did the drive, the same 2010 Tesla Roadster, still on its original battery, to make a point about EV battery longevity.

The drive also serves as a fundraiser for Zero Carbon World, a UK charity pushing for carbon reduction and EV adoption. Zero Carbon World is chaired by Formula E driver Alexander Sims, who has done a similar drive before in a Model 3. If you’d like to toss in some coins, you can donate to the cause through JustGiving (for £30 you can get your name on the car).

A Plaid Tesla Model S has set a new electric lap record at the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife racetrack in Germany, with a lap time of 7:35.579. This beats the Porsche Taycan’s time by 7 seconds, and is quite competitive with the gas-powered competition as well.

Update: Tesla and Nürburgring have released a statement that 7:35.579 is the official record, despite that being the slower of the two laps on the time slip.

Rivian has released the EPA range rating for their upcoming R1T and R1S electric truck and SUV. For vehicles with the “large pack” configuration, the R1T pickup truck will have a range of 314 miles and 70mpg and the R1S SUV will have a near-identical 316 miles of range and get 69mpge.

California’s planned transition to 100% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035 could be getting changes soon, as the Executive Board of the California Democratic Party today unanimously adopted a resolution to call for an end to new gas car sales in the state by 2030.

The move comes soon after several California cities, including Culver City, Oakland, and Berkeley, have adopted similar resolutions calling for a 2030 target.

Electric off-road racing series Extreme E will race at Russell Glacier at the Arctic X Prix near Kangarlussuaq in Greenland this weekend, in the first motorsport event ever to be held in Greenland.

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 Arctic X Prix, the focus is on ice melt leading to global sea level rise.

Ford is planning to double production of their upcoming F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, according to Reuters. The move comes in response to strong early demand, with Ford already racking up 120,000 customer reservations for the vehicle in advance of its spring 2022 release.

Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury division, has just unveiled interior and exterior images of their first entry into the electric vehicle market. The car takes form of a crossover SUV, designated the GV60.

Mercedes has announced that they will pull out of Formula E at the end of next season, the 2021-2022 race season.

The announcement comes just after the conclusion of this year’s Formula E season, which saw Mercedes win both the Teams’ and Drivers’ championship (via Nyck de Vries) last weekend.

Cadillac invited us out for a chance to get up close and personal with the “production-spec” Lyriq EV that they unveiled back in April.

We’ve got photos and video to share, and you can decide for yourself whether you agree that this thing looks sweet.

Formula E’s season finale is coming up this weekend in Berlin with a doubleheader of races at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit. It’s another two-race weekend, but this one is a little different – for the second race, the cars will go the opposite direction around the track to shake things up a bit.

Ford has sent out an email to future Mach-E owners warning of a six-week delay in delivery times for orders produced or scheduled between July 5 and October 1. To compensate affected customers, Ford will provide an additional 250kWh (about 700 miles) worth of complimentary charging to affected owners.

Audi invited us out to LA for a first look at their new Skysphere concept, which they will be showing at Pebble Beach this week. The car, while only a concept so far, gives us a glimpse into the future of Audi design and engineering, and we’re seriously here for it.

Audi invited us out to Los Angeles for a test drive of the Audi e-tron GT and Audi RS e-tron GT on the scenic Angeles Crest highway to get a feel for just how ridiculously powerful and controlled their new electric car is.

Formula E returns to London this weekend for another doubleheader, but at a new venue. This time, the race will be held in and around London’s ExCeL convention center in a unique track layout which Formula E says is the first indoor-outdoor race in motorsport history.

Tesla has dropped the price of their FSD Computer/Hardware 3.0 upgrade to $1,000, from the previous price point of $1,500. This applies to vehicles that still have Hardware 2.0/2.5 computers and want to try the new Tesla FSD subscription service rolled out this weekend.

The move comes after significant criticism from Tesla forums and from us here at Electrek, who pointed out that Tesla is charging owners to upgrade to hardware they were already told they had.

This weekend, Tesla started offering their long-awaited Full Self-Driving subscription package for $199/month. Along with the package, Tesla is offering a $1,500 hardware upgrade for early owners who have old hardware that is not capable of full self-driving tasks.

The problem is, Tesla previously told those same owners that their cars were capable of full self-driving tasks and isn’t allowing those owners to take advantage of the new subscription scheme without paying again for a hardware upgrade that they already paid for.

Update: Tesla has reduced the price of the upgrade to $1,000. Which is still $1,000 more than the appropriate price for something that customers already paid for.

As part of the European Green Deal, the EU has adopted a package of climate proposals they’re calling “fit for 55”. In it, Europe targets a 55% reduction in CO₂ by 2030 and full climate neutrality by 2050. To serve this goal, Europe plans to reduce new car emissions by 55% by 2030 and 100% by 2035 — which means no new emitting vehicles.

Tesla has started taking orders for Model Y throughout Europe. For current orders, estimated delivery is listed as September for Long Range models.

In contrast to original plans, the first Model Ys delivered to Europe will reportedly be produced in Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory.

CarSpyMedia has released video of the upcoming electric ID Buzz during a braking test in the Alps.

We’ve seen a few spy photos recently, but this is the first video we’ve seen yet of the van driving on public roads. And, just a warning: it looks nothing like the cute throwback prototype that so many of us loved when we first saw it.

The Formula E season is starting to close down, with just three race weekends left in New York, London, and Berlin. This weekend, we return to the shadow of the Statue of Liberty for another doubleheader in Brooklyn.

After an (American) holiday weekend largely dedicated to setting things on fire, we think it’s relevant to note something that caught on fire this weekend that absolutely shouldn’t have: namely, the sea.

Over the weekend, not only did a fire break out in the Gulf of Mexico but also in the Caspian Sea. Both incidents were, predictably, associated with fossil fuels.

New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state and home to Sydney, has announced a massive new EV policy package with $500 million worth of tax exemptions, rebates, and new spending on chargers, along with traffic-avoidance perks.

In contrast, earlier this year, neighboring Victoria, the second most populous Australian state, implemented the “worst EV policy in the world” by punishing EVs with a high road usage tax while collecting no similar road usage or gas tax from gasoline-powered vehicles.

After a few weeks off, Formula E is back with a doubleheader in Mexico. This time, we’ve moved from Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to nearby Puebla and the Autodromo Miguel E. Abed.

The race comes after a truly excellent Monaco ePrix, the first time Formula E has raced on the full historic Monaco circuit and one of the better races the track has ever produced.

Extreme E, the electric off-road racing series, is back this weekend with their second race, this time on the beach at Lac Rose/Lake Retba outside Dakar, Senegal.