Electrek

Waymo is putting Google’s Gemini AI assistant inside its robotaxis for the first time, alongside the first major redesign of its rider interface in years.

Both features are launching in the Ojai, Waymo’s purpose-built vehicle, as the company gets ready to open the car up to more public riders.

For many parents, the idea of buying an electric bike for their kid might initially seem unnecessary. After all, didn’t we all grow up pedaling regular bikes without a motor?

But the more you look at today’s generation of young riders – and the role that e-bikes can play in getting them outside – the more compelling the argument becomes. Huffy is betting on exactly that with its Quantis Kids eBike, a 24-inch electric bicycle designed for riders aged 12 and up.

Hyundai says the IONIQ 3 is attracting more customer interest than any vehicle it’s ever launched. With over 300 miles of range, Hyundai’s new high-tech infotainment system, and a starting price around $30,000, the electric hatch checks all the boxes.

Volvo has confirmed it’s dropping lidar for good on the EX90 and ES90, and it’s paying owners compensation for a feature they were promised but will never get.

In Norway, that payout is NOK 18,000 (about $1,900) per car, one of several market-by-market checks Volvo is writing after cutting ties with lidar supplier Luminar.

Starting next year, Kia will begin launching vehicles equipped with Hyundai’s new high-tech infotainment system.

Green Mountain Power’s virtual power plant (VPP) – the state’s largest energy source – cut an estimated $6 million from all customers’ peak electricity costs during Vermont’s early July heat wave.

A former Tesla manager who ran the company’s “Full Self-Driving” test fleet in Houston says the operation was so understaffed that its cars became “rolling hazards on public streets,” according to a lawsuit.

The manager, Javier Medrano, filed the wrongful-termination complaint in Houston federal court, and its contents were reported this week. He oversaw the fleet before Tesla launched its driverless “Robotaxi” in the city.

If you’ve spent any time in a city with shared micromobility, you’ve probably seen fleets of rental e-bikes and e-scooters waiting on street corners. But one company is betting that the next evolution of shared transportation isn’t just another bike or scooter – it’s an electric trike.

The GLA is the smallest, most affordable SUV Mercedes-Benz offers. Ahead of its debut on July 29, the first image of the all-new GLA EV leaked online.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has disclosed a 5% stake in Lucid Group, and the market read it as a fresh vote of Saudi confidence in the cash-strapped EV maker.

Lucid (LCID) shares jumped as much as 25% on Tuesday after the filing surfaced, even though the disclosure itself is passive and mostly a technical formality.

Our Tuesday Green Deals this week are all about home maintenance and improvements, led by the $1,200 savings on Greenworks’ 80V CrossoverT 30-inch Cordless Electric Riding Mower that comes with 4x 6.0Ah batteries and a 600W turbo wall charger at a new $2,500 low. Next, we have 3.5kW to 27kW Camplux Tankless Electric Water Heaters at some of their lowest 2026 prices starting from $108, as well as the meross 2-Zone Wi-Fi Smart Water Timer at its $80 low. There are also amazing chances to score savings for Worx’s popular 13A Electric Leaf Mulcher, the Aerocart 8-in-1 Yard Cart, EGO’s 56V 5.0Ah Battery, and more. As always, you can find all the hangover deals from this week down at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s Bluetti exclusive roadtrip-ready power station deals (with new lows), the launch deal on Heybike’s CityScape 2.0 e-bike, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Baidu’s Apollo Go started robotaxi road testing in London today, and it’s doing it with both of ride-hailing’s biggest names at once — Uber and Freenow by Lyft.

The launch lands days after Apollo Go ran the first fully driverless trial in any right-hand-drive market, in Hong Kong. Two milestones in one week, on opposite ends of the world.

Volkswagen opened pre-orders for the ID. Polo with the smaller 37 kWh battery, starting at under $30,000. The lower-priced model arrives after Volkswagen’s new EV received 25,000 orders weeks after it went on sale.

The new BMW iX3 has already received nearly 100,000 orders. Now, BMW is ramping up production at a record pace to meet the strong demand.

Tesla has signed a long-term deal to buy 90% of the output of Project Sterling, a big solar and battery plant going up in Arizona.

The project pairs 509 MW of solar with a 360 MW battery, and it’s being built by ContourGlobal, the power producer owned by private equity firm KKR. It’s expected online in 2028.

The Racco went on sale as the “world’s first SDV-based” light EV, BYD said, with a low starting price of around $13,000.

Mitsubishi is bringing a fully electric vehicle back to North America for the first time in over a decade, and it’s calling the 2027 Eclipse Sportback EV “all-new.”

It isn’t. The Eclipse Sportback is a rebadged next-generation Nissan Leaf, sourced from Mitsubishi’s Alliance partner and reskinned with new bumpers and lights.

Yamaha may not have found runaway success with its previous electric scooters, but new design filings suggest the company isn’t giving up on battery-powered two-wheelers just yet.

Tesla has signed a long-term power purchase agreement to buy the entire output of a 140-MWac solar farm being built in northeast Texas.

The plant, called Lumen Farm, is being developed by Zelestra, an EQT-backed renewable developer. Construction is expected to start in 2027, with the farm going online in 2029.

Tesla is asking a federal judge for emergency access to a supplier’s plant in Troy, Texas, so it can haul out the tooling it needs to keep building the Cybertruck.

The supplier, Angstrom Automotive Group, is closing the plant and won’t let Tesla in. Tesla says that without those dies, several thousand Cybertrucks already committed to customers don’t get built.

It’s not just capable of driverless operation, the SANY SKT145Ei doesn’t even have a place for the driver to sit! The company’s latest all-electric heavy haul truck ditches the driver’s cab in favor of a millimeter-wave radar-guided sensor suite on a purpose-built architecture that hints at the future of zero emission mining.

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, the audio is sketchy but the math is absolutely rock solid with 94% of current EV owners saying they’ll NEVER go back to driving an antiquated gas guzzler. CDK’s David Thomas walks us through the findings.

BMW is planning an all-electric i4 Convertible for 2028, according to a new report from BMWBLOG citing sources close to the automaker.

That would make it one of a small handful of electric convertibles anywhere in the world. Right now, you can buy exactly one new EV convertible in the US, and it starts at $206,095.

Southern fast-food chain Bojangles is getting into EV charging, debuting its first DC fast-charging station in Savannah, Georgia – and dozens more are following.