Seth Weintraub

I got to spend almost a week with the Mercedes EQS as my daily driver and it sure was interesting to see what it was like owning a $130,000 car. One thing’s for certain and stood out however, electric propulsion takes luxury to a new level. In fact, at this point, I’d be reluctant to call anything with an internal combustion engine a luxury vehicle. Here’s why:

The BMW i4 eDrive40 delivered to my door by BMW looks almost indiscernible from a 4-series internal combustion engine vehicle. It even has what appear to be exhaust pipes out the back.

I imagine the pitch for this car in some Bavarian BMW corporate office was something like:

Look, Tesla is eating our lunch, let’s please just make an EV version of the 4 series to take on the Model 3. It will take almost no effort, we’ll just rip out the ICE components and throw in a battery and some electric motors. It will barely appear on the balance sheet. How bad could that be?

Yet somehow this is still a very compelling EV, and I’d argue a lot better than the 4-series it is masquerading as. It is even better than the Model 3 in a bunch of ways…

Long time Electrek readers will know that I leased a Chevy Bolt EV from 2017 until the pandemic and really loved that electric blue “Micro-SUV” EV; we’ve already taken a look at its younger sibling, the EUV with Super Cruise. But considering recent events GM has cleaned up the battery “issue” and lowered the price by $6000, and introduced 2023 model year – as well as a tax rebate refresh opportunity – I thought it would be fun to take another look at the now sub-$30,000 Bolt EUV.

The most accessible and likely most popular Mercedes EV, the EQB, is soon going to be hitting dealerships in the US, joining Europe and Canada. And it might seem a little lot familiar if you’ve experienced the Mercedes GLB ICE vehicle, yet far improved because of the electric powertrain. Mercedes flew us to its proving grounds outside of Stuttgart to find out more…

There’s exactly one Mercedes EQXX in existence, and we had the good fortune to be able to drive it around a test track in Southern Germany this week. This is a special car for a number of reasons, but in a nutshell, it is a 100kWh ultra high efficiency EV with a slippery .17 coefficient of drag and 600W of solar panels on top.

Mercedes brought us out to Stuttgart, Germany this week to check out the latest developments in their DRIVE PILOT Level 3 autonomous software and hardware. After testing other beta autonomy products, I found Mercedes’ latest software/hardware bundle to be quite…relaxing.

One simple fact is going to tell you more than all of the Rivian R1S Review words, images, and video below: I’m in line to buy a Rivian R1S, and after a few days on and off the roads of upstate NY, I’m more excited than ever to get my hands on it.

But if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to tell you about this mighty, electric seven-seat off-road SUV and why it is on my, and many many others’ dream car list – from the perspective of someone who is test-driving their next vehicle.

Question: When does an internal-combustion-engined car become valueless?

Answer: When the cost of buying or leasing an electric vehicle along with paying for maintenance and miles becomes less expensive than using a free gas car.

GM flew us out to beautiful Park City Utah to review the Cadillac Lyric EV last week. It was our first hands-on drive of GM’s first mass-market Ultium drivetrain (with apologies to the 9,000 lb. gorilla in the room, niche HummerEV) vehicle. With Cadillac no longer releasing ICE vehicles and going full EV in just eight short years, it isn’t a stretch to say that the brand is betting the company on the success of its first EV. So, how’d it do?

Chevrolet announced the reveal of the 2024 Blazer EV today and noted that the SS, or “Super Sport,” version would be in dealers’ hands in the spring of 2023 for model year 2024…

….that pedals smoother than most acoustic bikes up to 25mph.

I’ve spent the last few weeks with Luna’s new $1395 Eclipse folding fat tire e-bike. It is unlike any other e-bike on the market, and yet I can recommend it enthusiastically for a big swath of the foldable fat tire e-bike market. And even some general e-bikers. Here’s why:

Rivian gave us a loaner R1T for four days last week to drive around and enjoy. We took it from the Brooklyn delivery center through New York City, into the Adirondacks, and back through the mud, suburbs, and traffic.

For background, we’re already gushing over the R1T from our first drive of it, naming it Electrek’s vehicle of the year 2021, but now we’ve gotten some alone time with it and have seen some of the software updates that have moved into production vehicles – and we’ve got a whole new appreciation.

Ford flew us down to San Antonio, Texas, and took us around town and out to a lovely country winery to test the Ford F-150 Lightning in its natural habitat. They say everything’s bigger in Texas…

In a very “Muskivelian” move today, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe tweeted some cool new features that would be coming to owners, while Tony Caravano, head of Rivian customer engagement, told reservation holders with Ocean Coast interiors (like myself) that their vehicles would be delayed further. Oh and today’s the day that Rivian stakeholder and competitor Ford starts deliveries of the F-150 Lightning. So much for subtlety.

Today GM finally announced the electric AWD Corvette and perhaps something that will have a wider consequence outside of car enthusiasts: GM’s Ultium platform’s “energy recovery system”. The EV tech will help boost range, help vehicles charge faster, and heat car interiors with excess heat produced by the batteries.

Last week, a GM Cruise-converted Chevy Bolt without a driver was pulled over by San Francisco Police. In an unexpected turn, the car “bolted” …to a safe spot. Cruise responded below.

GMC flew Electrek out to Scottsdale, Arizona, last month to test-drive the new Hummer EV on proving grounds, backroads, highways, and desert trails. After a few days with this beast, it is clear that this thing has all the bells and whistles – but with a huge 200+ kWh battery, is the Hummer brand still a little excessive?

The one question we had when GM unveiled its Cadillac Lyriq SUV was “will GM make enough of them to meet demand?”

We’ll start to find out the answer starting today as GM celebrates its first Ultium powered Cadillac Lyriq rolling off the assembly line in its sprawling Spring Hill, Tennessee complex.

One of the (probably unintended) consequences of putting us in a hybrid before the fully electric Volvo C40 Recharge is juxtaposing just how thoroughly satisfying a quiet, powerful pure EV powertrain in a premium coupe-crossover can be.

The electric aviation world got a big shakeup today when Textron, the maker of Iconic small aircraft brands Cessna, Beechcraft, and Bell bought the Slovenian/Italian maker Pipistrel. The new organization has big plans for “eAviation”…

One area of the EV experience that traditional automakers seem to have little thirst for is the DC fast charging network that recharges their cars over long drives or in cities where Level 1/2 charging is inaccessible. Volvo is now exploring its own DC Fast Charging network of sorts, and it’s teamed up with charging heavyweights Starbucks and Chargepoint to do so…

Volvo flew us out to sunny Palm Springs to test the relatively new C40 BEV. But the Gothenburg, Sweden-based company couldn’t help but give us a quick drive in the bigger XC60 Recharge plug-in hybrid while we waited. The mid-sized SUV got a nice upgrade this year to 35 miles of all-electric driving in its “Pure” mode. That puts it into our “if you can commute without using gas, it’s an EV” category, but that wasn’t the only improvement…

GM’s Chevrolet division announced a high-performance variant of its upcoming Blazer EV SUV this morning but left us with precious few details.