Jo Borrás

Automotive photographer Anthony Carter was on hand at last week’s SoCal Spring Fest 2025, where he captured a number of hot electric Mopar muscle cars – and one of those cars was the first publicly shown 2026 Dodge Charger Daytona sedan.

This white Hyundai IONIQ 5 is single-handedly rewriting the rules on EV longevity by driving over 360,000 miles on its original battery. What’s even wilder? The battery still had 87% battery health, despite the owner exclusively using DC fast charging to charge the car to 100%.

That was more than 50,000 miles ago, and the car is still going strong!

Porsche is launching a new EV battery recycling pilot to recover valuable raw materials from its cars’ high-voltage battery packs at the end of their useful life in vehicles. The new pilot hopes to develop a “closed-loop” raw material cycle that would have new batteries made from old batteries without the need for new, high carbon cost mineral mining.

Yamaha has announced plans to launch a pair of new five-seater electric golf carts featuring new lithium-ion batteries and vehicle control units developed in-house this June. The launch is scheduled to coincide with the company’s 50 year anniversary in the golf car/golf cart business.

Last week, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration would impose a 25% tariff on all cars, trucks, and even automotive parts imported into the country. The tariffs kick in April 2nd, and these are the EVs set to be the hardest hit by those tariffs – if any of these are on your shopping list, you’ll want to act now.

Chinese equipment manufacturer SANY says its new, SY215E 25 ton electric excavator offers all the power and performance of its diesel competitors while dramatically reducing both noise, total cost of ownership, and (of course) emissions … but the number that stands out to me is 422.

As in: the machine’s massive, cobalt-free, 422 kWh lithium iron phosphate battery pack. (!)

It may market itself as “America’s Oldest Brewery,” but the D.G. Yuengling and Son, Inc. brewery in Pottsville, Pennsylvania has been on the leading edge of manufacturing innovation for decades. Recently, Yuengling replaced its original automation equipment with new, state-of-the-art robots from Kuka.

US President Donald Trump recently announced a raft of new, expensive import tariffs on cars, trucks, and even parts and batteries imported into the country – which means that Ford might have timed its BlueOval SK battery factory going online perfectly.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded ENERGY STAR certification to five additional Honda and Acura dealerships, recognizing them as among the most energy-efficient vehicle dealerships in the country and bringing Honda’s total number of 2025 awarded stores to seven – more than any other auto brand.

Electric construction equipment is quieter, cleaner, and safer to operate than diesel equipment anywhere, but that’s especially true in crowded urban areas where more people live and work. Charging that equipment isn’t always as easy as driving over to the nearest BP Pulse fast charger, however. Now, a new pilot program in London is hoping to eliminate the need to take equipment to chargers, and bringing charging to them.

The Trump Administration just slapped huge tariffs on imported cars, causing many car buyers to accelerate their purchase plans and snap up a new car now, rather than wait. If that’s you, and you’re one of the thousands looking to distance yourself from Tesla, the time is now to check out this $20,000 Tesla conquest deal from Polestar.

Big changes are hitting the US car market this week – but uncertainty bring opportunity, and few companies have less to lose and more to gain from 2025’s automotive turmoil than Nissan. With a new, enthusiastic CEO, interest from Foxconn and Honda, and a number of American manufacturing sites already in operation, Nissan has a chance – but the new LEAF is a snoozer, and they’ll have to do better if they want to survive.

When Kovaco (Firstgreen Industries) released its Elise CBL last year, it was the world’s first cabinless, remotely operated electric skid steer. This year, the company’s bringing another “world’s first” to America’s job sites. Meet CyberX – a machine that Kovaco claims is the world’s first, commercially available electric, remote-control mini track loader.

The SGMW Wuling Hongguang EV offers Chinese car buyers five or seven-seat configurations, 300 km of range (that’s about 185 miles to you and me), and a $9,600 price tag – but it’s the 1000 km EREV version that would take the US by storm in 2025.

Context: this is an opinion/satire piece, so get that out of the way and have some fun.

Depending on who you believe, concrete is responsible for between 5 and 10% of global carbon emissions. That’s a lot of carbon, and the quest for carbon neutral concrete has become a multibillion-dollar endeavor – but a team of scientists from Northwestern University thinks they’ve cracked it, and gone one better: carbon negative concrete.

After £220 million financing raise to fund its 400/800 MW battery energy storage project in Eccles, Zenobē investment in Scotland reaches the £750 million mark – one of the largest BESS investments in all of Europe (so far).

Lease deals get all the hype, but most people still want to own the car after they’re done making all those payments on it. If that sounds like you, and you’ve been waiting for the interest rates on auto loans to drop, you’re in luck: there are a bunch of great plug-in cars you can buy with 0% financing this March … and that includes a zero percent Tesla deal!

Peugeot UK says its new E-EXPERT SPORT electric cargo van was inspired by the brand’s rich motorsport pedigree, and the desire to bring that racing heritage to the everyday working professional. And let’s face it, kids – if a fat-tired and bespoilered European cargo van doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what will!

Chinese air taxi company EHang has established a new joint venture with JAC Motors to fund construction of a production facility for its eVTOL aircraft following the company’s first unmanned urban eVTOL flight test in Spain – the first such milestone in Europe.

Electra first showed off its zero emission eSTOL (electric Short Take Off and Landing) aircraft concept back in 2021. After a proof-of-concept prototype that exceeded nearly every initial promise, the company seems to have a surprise, $9 billion hit on its hands!

We already know that BMW closed off 2024 with a banner year for its electrified “i” models – but it took a while for the larger picture to become clear. Not only is BMW succeeding with EVs, the Bavarians are outselling their two closest competitors combined. (!)

Cynics will point at big rebates and claim they mean the vehicle isn’t selling, but that just exposes them as industry noobs. A rebate is a powerful financial tool that helps dealers overcome obstacles like negative equity, poor credit, down payment requirements, and interest rate objections so you can drive home in the car of your dreams today.

If you’re dealing with any of the above, pay attention: these EVs could get you behind the wheel of a new electric ride sooner than you think!

Xiaomi is building some of the best, most capable high-performance electric cars in the world right now – and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun wants you to know that they’re among the safest, too. To prove it, he’s wrapping a watermelon in the company’s “bulletproof” battery armor and dropping it off a six-storey building.

MOOG Construction’s energy skunkworks ZQUIP made headlines last year by bringing the cordless power tool battery model to the world of industrial-grade heavy equipment – now, they’re making it even easier for job sites to make every kilowatt count by enabling them to switch from diesel to electric and back, on the same machine. (!)