Jo Borrás

The dumb oil war in Iran is driving up the cost of just about everything, including new cars. That’s giving Chinese EVs a huge advantage over Western “legacy” car brands already lagging in tech and struggling with affordability – and those legacy brands about to have a whole new to them problem on their hands: USED Chinese EVs.

EGO Power’s commercial group showed up at this week’s EQUIP Expo with a trio of new zero-turn riding mowers, a commercial-grade 780 CFM leaf blower, and a heavy-duty 16.5″ trimmer built for the 56V PGX battery system. And, with incentive programs designed to help landscapers make the switch to electric popping up all over, the timing couldn’t be better.

CapMetro’s Austin transit fleets electrified two public bus lines and opened two new park-and-ride facilities featuring overhead pantograph-style wired charging equipment to help Austinites breathe a little bit easier.

On today’s numerically-infused episode of Quick Charge, we take a look at all the latest product and delivery delays from Tesla’s Q3 earnings call before changing lanes and recapping some of the biggest developments in the world of EV charging innovation.

Record fuel prices driven by the dumb oil war in Iran are fueling a faster-than-expected switch to electric trucks in the world’s biggest freight markets – and Swedish heavy truck brand Scania is scrambling to meet demand with a new factory in China.

Humanoid robots aren’t ready to juice up the massive, 240-tonne electric haul trucks Fortescue is putting to work in Australia’s punishing Pilbara. Instead, the company is using specially modified and massively powerful automotive assembly-line robots from KUKA to wrangle the massive cables needed to deliver a mind-bending 6 MW of power to its trucks’ batteries.

Redwood Materials and Rivian are expanding their existing EV battery partnership, adding a fresh battery material recycling effort to the EV startup’s Normal, Illinois, vehicle factory and, potentially, other Rivian-owned sites.

Buried in a press release titled, “Even more colours and even greater convenience for the Cayenne Electric” was news that Porsche, for the first time, would be offering electrically wireless inductive charging on its impressively powerful Cayenne Electric SUV.

SDLG Brasil has completed its first sale in the South American country, delivering an order of six heavy-duty electric wheel loaders to Brazilian mining, construction, and infrastructure company Grupo Base.

If last week’s headlines proved anything at all, it’s that the long wait for flying, flipping, fully self driving electric vehicles is finally over – especially if you’re shopping at Tesla’s competitors. On today’s episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got a full rundown of hot new EVs that you can fly, flip, and (most importantly) take delivery of today.

GM just took the wraps off the electric-drive pickup America’s commercial fleets have been waiting for: a one-ton chassis, dually rear axle and massive capability baked in. The best part? You can have it in any color you want — as long as it’s Army green.

The plug-in hybrid BYD Denza B8 didn’t set the sales charts on fire, but its high-tech suspension promised a smooth ride across just about any terrain, adjusting damping and ride height while independently controlling hydraulic pressure at each wheel. It’s a neat trick, but one driver has figured out a whole new use for it: avoiding traffic boots.

Over the past few years, LEGO has quietly added an impressive array of plug-powered machines to its block-based lineup, from hybrid racers to battery-powered excavators and garbage trucks. We’ve rounded them up here.

Oregon utility Portland General Electric (“PGE”) is highlighting the environmental, health, and grid benefits to electrifying medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks, calling the battery-backed big rigs “batteries on wheels.”

EcoFlow is hoping to make a titanic splash with its new, smaller (but scalable!) residential energy storage lineup that the company is calling a more approachable entry point to its backup battery offerings.

Chinese PV and solar equipment brand LEAPTING has taken the wraps off its new, battery-powered Auto-Navigation Forklift Robot (AFR) designed to speed up the installation of large, utility-scale solar power projects.

Jeff Bezos-backed electric truck startup Slate Auto opened the doors to its first-ever brick-and-mortar “experience center” in Chicago’s Near West Side, offering midwest fleet buyers and automotive journalists (Hi!) their first real, up-close look at what promises to be the most affordable new vehicle in America.

Your eyes do not deceive you, dear readers – the iconic, stainless-steel bodied and gullwing-doored sportscar brand DeLorean is not only somehow still alive, but they apparently have enough money to campaign a DeLorean-branded eVTOL in the new Airspeeder racing series.

The winter equipment experts at Prinoth are partnering with Swedish trucking group SCANIA on a pair of new, battery-electric snow groomers that are ready to hit Europe’s ski slopes with up to 624 kWh of battery power all winter long.

Orange is the new green at the University of Tennessee, which deployed a new McNeilus Volterra ZFL electric garbage truck at its Knoxville campus this week, bringing together advanced, battery-electric waste collection technology and Made-in-Tennessee manufacturing.

Electric work trucks are earning their keep at one of Canada’s busiest container terminals, where Peterbilt’s battery-powered box vans are keeping cargo moving without the air pollution of diesel and propane. And now, they’re getting recognized for it.

The Hunter WOLF military robot is one of six private-sector projects chosen for US Army’s Infantry Last Tactical Mile (ILTM) initiative – an advanced research initiative designed to modernize infantry support for soldiers on the battlefield.

For the last few weeks, we’ve been running a sidebar survey about whether our Electrek believed there might be some silver lining to the record-breaking fuel prices following the start of the war in Iran. After nearly 2,000 responses, here’s what you told us.

For a lot of fleet managers, whether or not electrified equipment assets will lead to real world savings that are worth the higher up-front costs might feel theoretical, but early adopters Groupe Bellemare have been operating battery-powered heavy equipment for years – and their real-world results are real impressive.