Jameson Dow

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.

GM has committed to an additional $7 billion in funding for electric car and autonomous vehicle programs and will launch 30 new EV models globally through 2025, CEO Mary Barra announced today. Two-thirds of these new EV models will be available in North America, and 40%(!) of GM’s US model line will be battery electric vehicles by 2025. GM also announced it would be moving its US debut of the Cadillac Lyriq SUV up from late 2022 to early 2022.

But GM has been making a lot of announcements lately, yet if you go to a GM dealership today, there’s a very small chance you’ll see an EV. Should we take GM at its word?

California has refreshed its “Clean Fuel Rewards” program, increasing the amount to $1,500 upfront (no application required) and simplifying availability to customers statewide. The new incentive is available for any eligible electric vehicle (including motorcycles!) purchased from a participating retailer starting today, November 17.

As this is a refresh of California’s previous Clean Fuel program, which was a collaboration between the California Air Resources Board and electric utility providers, those previous utility programs will disappear at the end of this year. But other incentives still exist, and until the end of the year, the utility incentives are still active — which means customers who buy before December 31 may be able to double-up and save an extra grand or so.

Update: SCE has reached out to clarify that their $1k rebate does not stack with the new $1,500 incentive, and other utility incentives likely don’t either. While CARB said that both incentives can be used on the same car, SCE itself doesn’t allow customers to take both incentives. So check with your individual utility to see if their programs stack.

After four years of being filled by such industry mouthpieces as corrupt oil stooge Scott Pruitt and lying dirty coal advocate Andrew Wheeler, it looks like the Environmental Protection Agency is set to resume its actual purpose of protecting the environment come Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

While Biden’s selection for EPA head has not yet been announced, one name that should be familiar to electric car enthusiasts is reportedly on the short list: Mary Nichols, head of California’s Clean Air Resources Board (CARB).

The all-electric MINI Cooper SE will get a high performance “GP” version, according to BMWBLOG.

While no specific details are available yet, BMWBLOG claims their “extremely reliable source” says the car has been green-lit and is currently in development.

Lordstown Motors has released a video of its Endurance electric pickup truck in a tug of war battle against a 2019 Ford F-150 Lariat EcoBoost.

China plans to require that all new cars sold after 2035 be eco-friendly “new energy vehicles” according to Nikkei Asia. The plans were announced in a future road map for new energy vehicles and will be regulated under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The specifics of the plan state that as of 2035, 50% of new cars sold in the country will be either electric, plug-in hybrid, or fuel cell vehicles, and 50% of new cars will be conventional hybrids, which still run entirely on gasoline.

Honda has announced that it will withdraw from Formula One as an engine supplier, stating that it wants to focus more of its R&D towards fuel cells and battery electric vehicles instead of combustion engines. They will continue supplying Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Alpha Tauri until the end of the 2021 season.

Honda says that this change in focus is intended to facilitate their “realization of carbon neutrality by 2050.”

A dealer cheat sheet for the upcoming VW ID.4 electric SUV has been leaked, and it shows that the company considers gas SUVs, rather than electric SUVs like the Mustang Mach-E, Tesla Model Y, and upcoming Nissan Ariya, as its direct competitors.

Bob Murray, ex-CEO of the now-bankrupt Murray Energy, has filed for black lung benefits, as reported today by West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Murray Energy was once the largest private coal mining company in the US, and Murray, who spent decades as a coal miner himself, is currently dying of black lung.

VW’s online configurator for the ID.4 is out, and a new detail has emerged about the car’s towing capabilities. It looks like all ID.4 models will have some towing capability, with the RWD model sporting 2,200lb capacity and the AWD model 2,700lbs. All models will have roof rails as an additional exterior storage solution.

The AWD model will be available mid-2021 as a $3,680 upgrade, for a base price of $43,675 before incentives.