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The race to electrify the world’s vehicles and store energy will require batteries — so many of them, in fact, that meeting the demand we will see by 2040 will require 30 times the amount of critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel that those industries currently use.

That presents an enormous challenge, one exacerbated by the mining industry’s alarming allegations of labor crimes, environmental destruction, and encroachments on Indigenous land. There are ways to mitigate electrification’s extractive impacts, one of which may seem obvious: Recycle every battery we make. 

Doing so would reduce the world’s need to mine these minerals by 10 percent within 16 years, because the critical materials in batteries are infinitely reusable. Eventually, a robust circular battery economy could all but eliminate the need to extract them at all.

Of course, that would require recovering every EV pack at the end of its life, a sizable undertaking as the United States prepares for hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles to retire by the end of the decade. A nascent ecosystem of startups is working toward that goal, and the Inflation Reduction Act includes tax credits to incentivize the practice. But some electrification advocates say those steps do not go far enough. While the European Union recently passed a regulation mandating EV battery recycling, there is no such law in the U.S. Proponents of a federal recycling standard say that without one, batteries that could be recycled might get left behind, increasing the need for mining and undermining electrification’s environmental benefits. 

“We need a coordinated federal response to truly have a large-scale impact on meeting our demand,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, a policy advocate at Earthjustice, which favors a federal recycling requirement. “If you compare us to the EU, we are woefully behind and need to move much more quickly.”

That movement would have to come from Congress, according to Miller-McFeeley. Historically, however, regulating recycling has been left up to the states and local jurisdictions. The Biden administration has instead been supporting the country’s budding EV battery recycling industry, mainly by making it good business to recover critical materials. 

The Department of Energy wants to establish a “battery ecosystem” that can recover 90 percent of spent lithium batteries by 2030. It has granted billions in loans to battery recyclers to build new facilities. Automakers are incentivized to buy those recyclers’ products, because part of the federal EV tax credit applies only to cars with batteries that include a minimum amount of critical minerals that were mined, processed or recycled in the U.S. or by a free-trade partner. Manufacturers also get a tax credit for producing critical materials (including recycled ones) in the U.S.

Daniel Zotos, who handles public advocacy at the battery recycling startup Redwood Materials, said in an email that a healthy market for recycled materials is emerging. “Not only is there tremendous value today in recycling these metals, but the global demand for metals means that automakers need to source both more mined and recycled critical minerals.”

Zotos said Redwood Materials agrees with the approach the federal government has taken. “The U.S. has in fact chosen to help incentivize, rather than mandate, recycling through provisions established in the Inflation Reduction Act, which we’re deeply supportive of.”

During a pilot project in California last year, the company recovered 95 percent of the critical materials in 1,300 lithium-ion and nickel metal hydride EV and hybrid batteries. The cost of retrieving packs from throughout the state was the biggest barrier to profitability, but Zotos said that expense will subside as the industry grows.

A tiny but growing secondary market for EV batteries is also driving their reuse. Most batteries will be retired once their capacity dwindles to about 70 to 80 percent, due to the impact on the car’s range. But they’re still viable enough at that point to sustain a second life as storage for renewable energy like wind and solar power. 

B2U Storage Solutions used 1,300 retired batteries from Nissan and Honda to create 27 megawatts hours of storage at its solar farm just north of Los Angeles in Lancaster, California. Photovoltaic panels charge the packs all day, and B2U sells the stored power to the local utility during peak demand in the evening. “There is more value in reuse,” said company president Freeman Hall, “and we’re not doing anything more than deferring recycling another four or five years.” 

Homeowners and hobbyists are embracing second-life batteries, too. Henry Newman, co-owner of the auto dismantler EV Parts Solutions in Phoenix, said customers buy his Tesla and Nissan Leaf batteries to convert classic cars or create DIY power storage at home. Any batteries that Newman can’t sell are picked up by Li-Cycle, a lithium-ion battery recycler with a plant in Gilbert, Arizona. 

Newman said dismantlers and customers seem to want to do the right thing. “I know there will be people who don’t follow regulation, but my experience in the last six to seven years is that the industry is pretty conscious of it and tries to mitigate throwing these things in the trash,” he said. A law could help prevent mishandling, but Newman worries about any overreach or added costs that would come with more regulation. 

But relying on the market to ensure proper stewardship is risky, said Jessica Dunn, a senior analyst in the clean transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “The recycling of cars has traditionally been a market-based environment,” she said. “But we’re dealing with a completely different system now. EV batteries are big and have a lot of critical materials in them that we need to get out of them no matter if it’s economical or not.” 

Transporting EV batteries, which can weigh more than 1,500 pounds, is expensive (as much as one-third of the cost of recycling them), dangerous, and logistically challenging. Packs can catch fire if improperly handled, and they are classified as hazardous material, which requires special shipping permits. If the battery is in a remote location or is damaged, a recycler could deem it too much trouble to retrieve without a mandate to do so.

Dunn also said that not all batteries contain enough valuable materials for it to make financial sense to go through the trouble of recovering them. While most EV batteries currently contain high-value cobalt and nickel, a new generation of cheaper lithium-ion-phosphate, or LFP, batteries don’t use those metals. Tesla, Ford, and Rivian all recently announced they will use LFPs in some models.

“Just because there aren’t nickel and cobalt in them doesn’t mean that the lithium isn’t something that we should be recovering,” said Dunn. Redwood Materials said it collects lithium-ion phosphate batteries and uses the lithium within them to assemble new battery components, and that they collect all battery packs no matter their condition.

Finally, without guidelines in place, viable batteries may not be repurposed before being recycled, which Dunn said undermines their sustainability. “You’ve already put all that literal energy — and the environmental impacts that go along with that — into manufacturing these batteries,” she said. “So if you can squeak an extra five to 10 years out of them, that’s a really good option.” 

With the U.S. poised to see about 165,000 electric vehicle batteries retire in 2030, Dunn said the time to ensure no batteries are stranded is now. “We’re not seeing a big wave now, but that’s coming, and so we need to be prepared for that.”

There has been some federal movement toward a recycling requirement. The 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed the Department of Energy to establish a task force to develop an “extended battery producer responsibility framework” to address battery design, transport, and recycling.

Extended producer responsibility, or EPR, is the approach that the EU took in its battery regulation that passed last December. EPR puts the onus on the manufacturer to ensure that what they produce is properly repurposed and then recycled, either by compelling them to pay for the recycling or to handle it themselves. 

Thirty-three states have such laws, covering 16 products ranging from mattresses to packaging. “It is a paradigm shift for how waste is managed in the United States,” said Scott Cassel of the Product Stewardship Institute. But Congress has never passed such a law. 

EV battery recycling might be the issue that could garner bipartisan support for one. Access to critical materials is a foreign policy and national security issue: China processes more than half the world’s lithium and cobalt, which means a steady domestic supply from recycling would help alleviate dependency on a geopolitical rival. 

Building out the infrastructure to dismantle, recover, and process battery materials could also create thousands of jobs, an accomplishment most lawmakers are happy to align themselves with.  

Republican senators alluded to both benefits when supporting the bipartisan Strategic EV Management Act of 2022, which passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act last year. It requires multiple agencies to work on guidelines for “reusing and recycling” batteries from vehicles retired from the federal fleet. 

Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee said in a statement that the bill would ensure agencies could “reap the full economic benefits of EV investments … and do so in a manner that lessens our dependence on communist China.” 

These laws set in motion efforts to design recycling frameworks, but the timelines to develop them span years. In the meantime, a few states are weighing their own mandates. “The states don’t want to wait for any of these bills to move,” Cassel said. “They’re ready to act right now.”

In California, a Senate bill would require battery suppliers to ensure that all “vehicle traction batteries” be recovered, reused, repurposed, or recycled. The bill passed unanimously this week and is headed to the Assembly. Senator Ben Allen, who introduced the bill, said there is bipartisan political and industry support for creating a framework. “You need a system in place,” he said. “That’s like saying, ‘Oh, the people will drive just fine to and from work. We don’t need traffic laws.’” 

As it has been with other clean-vehicle targets, California could be a bellwether for a standard that would eventually take hold nationally.

“We’d love to create a system that could help to inform national policy,” said Allen. “And in this case, with this industry support and bipartisan backing, there actually may be a blueprint here.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/technology/the-u-s-doesnt-have-a-law-mandating-ev-battery-recycling-should-it/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

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One of the world’s busiest airports will soon showcase an innovative, undeniably cute way to speed up travelers’ entrances and exits. First announced earlier this month, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is partnering with EV Safe Charge to demonstrate how the company’s mobile electric vehicle charging station, ZiGGY, could be deployed in public spaces to economically and conveniently power up consumers’ parked cars.

[Related: Electric cars are better for the environment, no matter the power source.]

Electric vehicles are an integral component of the societal shift towards clean, renewable energy. Unfortunately, battery shortages stemming from supply chain issues alongside a need for evermore charging stations is hampering a wider adoption of green transportation. ZiGGY obviously isn’t a catch-all fix, but it’s still a novel tool that both its makers and DFW hope to highlight over the summer as part of the airport’s series of EV charging solution demos.

“We know that electric vehicles will be a big part of the future of transportation,” Paul Puopolo, DFW’s Executive VP of Innovation, said in a statement, adding their air hub is “leaning into emerging technology now so that we are prepared to meet the needs of the airport community well into the future.”

ZiGGY itself resembles a large vending machine on wheels, which makes a certain amount of sense given it dispenses electric fuel on demand. Using geofencing technology, app-based controls, and on-board cameras, ZiGGY can be deployed directly to the location of your parked EV, where a user can then connect the charging bot to their ride. To court additional revenue streams, each ZiGGY also features large video screens capable of displaying advertisements. Don’t worry about getting stuck behind it if someone is using a ZiGGY, either—its dimensions and mobility ensures each station can park itself behind an EV without the need for additional space.

Speaking with Ars Technica on Tuesday, EV Safe Charge’s founder and CEO Caradoc Ehrenhalt explained that the idea is to deploy ZiGGY fleets to commercial hubs around the world, such as additional airports, hotels, and shopping centers. “What we’re hearing from people… is the common thread of the infrastructure being very challenging or not possible to put in or not cost effective or takes too much time. And so there really is the need for a mobile charging solution,” said Ehrenhalt.

[Related: Why you barely see electric vehicles at car dealerships.]

Of course, such an autonomous vehicle could find itself prone to defacement and vandalism, but Ehrenhalt apparently opts to look on the sunnier side of things. “Ziggy is fairly heavy because of the battery,” they cautioned to Ars Technica. “It has cameras all around and sensors, including GPS, and so there potentially could be [vandalism], but I’m always hoping for the best of humanity.”

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At first glance, race cars and electric go-karts have nothing in common except for a vaguely similar shape. Both are open-cockpit vehicles with wide wheels, and they both thrive on sharp turns—and that appears to be it. 

What many don’t realize is that go-karts are often the entry point for future Indy 500 drivers, and competitors also practice in the tiny vehicles to develop muscle memory. Several companies manufacture karts, and the most recent iteration of Honda’s version is the eGX go-kart concept, which is equipped with two 10-kilo (about 23 pounds) swappable battery packs good for about 45 minutes at a time. This battery technology allows the brand to test the dynamics of electric vehicles on a smaller scale before rolling it out to the much pricier race cars (and eventually apply this insight to passenger vehicles as well). 

Honda Accord, Civic, CR-V, and Odyssey owners might not realize it, but Honda’s passion starts with racing, and passenger cars reap the research benefits. Only two manufacturers make IndyCar engines, and Honda is one of them. In the last 30 years, Honda has claimed 18 IndyCar championships and 15 Indianapolis 500 wins. 

PopSci had a chance to pilot one of these eGX karts in the Indianapolis area over Indy 500 weekend. It was heart-pounding, arm-muscle-straining excitement, like a taste of the race itself (minus the yellow and red flags). We also got to speak with engineers to better understand Honda’s strategy for its entire product lineup, from power tools to cars. Here’s what we learned.  

Battery packs offer modularity and continuity

Kids interested in racing start with small go-karts and work their way up. If they have enough skill and a little luck, they’ll find themselves behind the wheel of a high-performance IndyCar or F1 machine. As they develop, drivers keep practicing with karts—albeit increasingly high-powered versions—that twist and squeal and mimic the experience of a road course race. 

“Karts are closer to the open-wheel experience than anything else,” says John Whiteman, commercial motorsports manager at Honda Performance Development. (In case you were wondering, an open-wheel car is one that has its wheels outside of the car versus underneath, like a passenger car.)

Honda Performance Development, or HPD for short, was founded in 1993 for the purpose of designing and developing racing engines along with chassis and performance parts for motorsports. HPD has a history of repurposing small engines to make gas-powered karts and quarter midgets (small racers that are about one-quarter scale of a full-size midget race car).

If you’ve ever been to an outdoor recreational karting track with friends and family, you’re familiar with the whine and buzz of the gas-powered version. Gas-powered kart engines are often shared with lawn mowers, made by other companies like Briggs and Stratton as well as HPD, and indoor tracks use electric karts so they’re not filling the air with toxic fumes. 

The eGX takes a typical electric go kart to the next level, employing two saddle packs on either side of the seat to house the lithium-ion batteries that power the kart. That way, the kart is balanced and maintains its grip with the road without adding rear bias or tip-over potential by loading the battery on one side. 

Whiteman says the swappable battery packs offer many upsides, including reduced maintenance costs and environmental benefits. Through this technology, HPD has learned more about energy storage, heat management, and vehicle weights and balances. These battery packs are already in use for small construction equipment like cordless rammers and compact excavators.

Along with reduced emissions and noise pollution, battery-pack-powered vehicles keep the equipment in commission continuously if you have a bank of these batteries that can be charging up while the others are in use. 

How race car research benefits Honda’s passenger cars

Ultimately, Honda and its HPD division are testing new ideas to find out how that translates to performance and customer satisfaction. Rebecca Johnson, HPD director of production and senior manager, says exploring electrification and sharing each division’s findings throughout the company creates opportunities to improve across the board. 

“We’re trying to train ourselves to be better at hybrids and battery packs for electrified racing,” Johnson says. “Let’s build something. Let’s make a car and let’s call it our laboratory, if you will, and let people ‘play’ and iterate on the design or technology. As we strive forward, we can put that together with what customers want.”

In 2024, the IndyCar series will run with hybrid units with 2.2-liter engines; currently, the power is all supplied by renewable race fuel. Honda is getting ready for this change by testing battery packs and a custom concept hybrid built with a tubular cage and sheet metal copied from a production CR-V crossover. It’s mind-boggling to ride in the Beast, as Honda calls it internally, as it looks like an SUV with a giant wing and sounds like a screaming hurricane inside. This is the future, and it’s pretty exciting. 

Johnson is steeped in racing culture, and she has her eyes trained forward as HPD works to maintain the visceral appeal of IndyCar and Formula One races while moving toward drastically reducing emissions.   

“We’re a racing company that happens to sell cars,” Johnson says. “Racing is in our DNA. If we can prove out tough things on a race track, we can surely make a good Civic. If you can do it at [IndyCar] level, then you should be very good at performance for a Civic owner. They want all the things that we want [for race cars] but on a different level.”

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Ford and Tesla have been rivals for years in the electric vehicle market, but a new agreement may change their relationship status. On Thursday, Ford said in a press release that its EV customers would be able to get access to 12,000 Tesla superchargers across the US and Canada by spring of next year. This will broaden the availability of charging stations by adding to the network of ​​10,000 DC fast-chargers and over 80,000 level-two chargers that Ford has been building out for the last decade. 

Most EVs on the market use the Combined Charging System (CCS) ports for fast charging. Teslas have a unique charging port called the North American Charging Standard (NACS), but its vehicle owners can use special adapters to charge at non-Tesla power stations. 

Pre-2021, it meant that Teslas could charge at public power stations, but no other EVs could charge at a Tesla station. However, starting in November 2021, Tesla started making some (but not all) of its superchargers open to non-Tesla EVs through a “Magic Dock” adapter. Drivers who wanted to use this still had to download the Tesla app on their phones in order to make it work. The Ford partnership will change that process, making things easier for people driving vehicles like the Mach-E or F-150 Lightning.  

“Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning and E-Transit customers will be able to access the Superchargers via an adapter and software integration along with activation and payment via FordPass or Ford Pro Intelligence,” the company said. “In 2025, Ford will offer next-generation electric vehicles with the North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector built-in, eliminating the need for an adapter to access Tesla Superchargers.”

[Related: Electric cars are better for the environment, no matter the power source]

As EVs become more commonplace, charging availability and range anxiety become understandable concerns for many owners. The only way to relieve that is to build a charging infrastructure that parallels the distribution of gas stations across the country. The Biden Administration has made building public chargers a priority, and last fall, the Department of Transportation said that it had signed off on the EV charging plans for all US states, as well as DC and Puerto Rico. States like Michigan and Indiana have even come up with ambitious plans to make wireless charging possible through special roadway systems. 

When it comes to smoothing over the potholes in the way of EV adoption in the US, more accessible chargers are never a bad thing. Tesla, having led the EV game for so long, seems like it’s finally ready to share its resources for the greater good. “Essentially, the idea is that we don’t want the Tesla Supercharger network to be like a walled garden. We want it to be something that is supportive of electrification and sustainable transport in general,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Thursday in Twitter Spaces, as reported by TechCrunch.  

“It seems totally ridiculous that we have an infrastructure problem, and we can’t even agree on what plug to use,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at a Morgan Stanley conference, CNBC reported. “I think the first step is to work together in a way we haven’t, probably with the new EV brands and the traditional auto companies.”

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These days, it seems like every carmaker—from those focused on luxury options to those with an eye more toward the economical—is getting into electric vehicles. And with new US policies around purchasing incentives and infrastructure improvements, consumers might be more on board as well. But many people are still concerned about whether electric vehicles are truly better for the environment overall, considering certain questions surrounding their production process. 

Despite concerns about the pollution generated from mining materials for batteries and the manufacturing process for the EVs themselves, the environmental and energy experts PopSci spoke to say that across the board, electric vehicles are still better for the environment than similar gasoline or diesel-powered models. 

When comparing a typical commercial electric vehicle to a gasoline vehicle of the same size, there are benefits across many different dimensions. 

“We do know, for instance, if we’re looking at carbon dioxide emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, that electric vehicles operating on the typical electric grid can end up with fewer greenhouse gas emissions over the life of their vehicle,” says Dave Gohlke, an energy and environmental analyst at Argonne National Lab. “The fuel consumption (using electricity to generate the fuel as opposed to burning petroleum) ends up releasing fewer emissions per mile and over the course of the vehicle’s expected lifetime.”

[Related: An electrified car isn’t the same thing as an electric one. Here’s the difference.]

EVs also produce no tailpipe emissions, which means reductions in particulate matter or in smog precursors that contribute to local air pollution.

“The latest best evidence right now indicates that in almost everywhere in the US, electric vehicles are better for the environment than conventional vehicles,” says Kenneth Gillingham, professor of environmental and energy economics at Yale School of the Environment. “How much better for the environment depends on where you charge and what time you charge.”

Electric motors tend to be more efficient compared to the spark ignition engine used in gasoline cars or the compression ignition engine used in diesel cars, where there’s usually a lot of waste heat and wasted energy.

Creating an EV produces pollution during the manufacturing process. “Greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing an electric vehicle are almost twice that of an internal combustion vehicle…that is due primarily to the battery. You’re actually increasing greenhouse gas emissions to produce the vehicle, but there’s a net overall lifecycle benefit or reduction because of the significant savings in the use of the vehicle,” says Gregory Keoleian, the director of the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. “We found in terms of the overall lifecycle, on average, across the United States, taking into account temperature effects, grid effects, there was 57 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions for a new electric vehicle compared to a new combustion engine vehicle.” 

In terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with operating the vehicles, fully battery-powered electric vehicles were the best, followed by plug-in hybrids, and then hybrids, with internal combustion engine vehicles faring the worst, Keoleian notes. Range anxiety might still be top of mind for some drivers, but he adds that households with more than one vehicle can consider diversifying their fleet to add an EV for everyday use, when appropriate, and save the gas vehicle (or the gas feature on their hybrids) for longer trips.

The breakeven point at which the cost of producing and operating an electric vehicle starts to gain an edge over a gasoline vehicle of similar make and model occurs at around two years in, or around 20,000 to 50,000 miles. But when that happens can vary slightly on a case-by-case basis. “If you have almost no carbon electricity, and you’re charging off solar panels on your own roof almost exclusively, that breakeven point will be sooner,” says Gohlke. “If you’re somewhere with a very carbon intensive grid, that breakeven point will be a little bit later. It depends on the style of your vehicle as well because of the materials that go into it.” 

[Related: Why solid-state batteries are the next frontier for EV makers]

For context, Gohlke notes that the average EV age right now is around 12 years old based on registration data. And these vehicles are expected to drive approximately 200,000 miles over their lifetime. 

“Obviously if you drive off your dealer’s lot and you drive right into a light pole and that car never takes more than a single mile, that single vehicle will have had more embedded emissions than if you had wrecked a gasoline car on your first drive,” says Gohlke. “But if you look at the entire fleet of vehicles, all 200-plus-million vehicles that are out there and how long we expect them to survive, over the life of the vehicle, each of those electric vehicles is expected to consume less energy and emit lower emissions than the corresponding gas vehicle would’ve been.”

To put things in perspective, Gillingham says that extracting and transporting fossil fuels like oil is energy intensive as well. When you weigh those factors, electric vehicle production doesn’t appear that much worse than the production of gasoline vehicles, he says. “Increasingly, they’re actually looking better depending on the battery chemistry and where the batteries are made.” 

And while it’s true that there are issues with mines, the petrol economy has damaged a lot of the environment and continues to do so. That’s why improving individual vehicle efficiency needs to be paired with reducing overall consumption.

EV batteries are getting better

Mined materials like rare metals can have harmful social and environmental effects, but that’s an economy-wide problem. There are many metals that are being used in batteries, but the use of metals is nothing new, says Trancik. Metals can be found in a range of household products and appliances that many people use in their daily lives. 

Plus, there have been dramatic improvements in battery technology and the engineering of the vehicle itself in the past decade. The batteries have become cheaper, safer, more durable, faster charging, and longer lasting. 

“There’s still a lot of room to improve further. There’s room for improved chemistry of the batteries and improved packaging and improved coolant systems and software that manages the batteries,” says Gillingham.

The two primary batteries used in electric vehicles today are NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) and LFP (lithium-ferrous-phosphate). NMC batteries tend to use more precious metals like cobalt from the Congo, but they are also more energy dense. LFP uses more abundant metals. And although the technology is improving fast, it’s still in an early stage, sensitive to cold weather, and not quite as energy dense. LFP tends to be good for utility scale cases, like for storing electricity on the grid. 

[Related: Could swappable EV batteries replace charging stations?]

Electric vehicles also offer an advantage when it comes to fewer trips to the mechanic; conventional vehicles have more moving parts that can break down. “You’re more likely to be doing maintenance on a conventional vehicle,” says Gillingham. He says that there have been Teslas in his studies that are around eight years old, with 300,000 miles on them, which means that even though the battery does tend to degrade a little every year, that degradation is fairly modest.

Eventually, if the electric vehicle markets grow substantially, and there’s many of these vehicles in circulation, reusing the metals in the cars can increase their benefits. “This is something that you can’t really do with the fossil fuels that have already been combusted in an internal combustion engine,” says Trancik. “There is a potential to set up that circularity in the supply chain of those metals that’s not readily done with fossil fuels.”

Since batteries are fairly environmentally costly, the best case is for consumers who are interested in EVs to get a car with a small battery, or a plug-in hybrid electric car that runs on battery power most of the time. “A Toyota Corolla-sized car, maybe with some hybridization, could in many cases, be better for the environment than a gigantic Hummer-sized electric vehicle,” says Gillingham. (The charts in this New York Times article help visualize that distinction.) 

Where policies could help

Electric vehicles are already better for the environment and becoming increasingly better for the environment. 

The biggest factor that could make EVs even better is if the electrical grid goes fully carbon free. Policies that provide subsidies for carbon-free power, or carbon taxes to incentivize cleaner power, could help in this respect. 

The other aspect that would make a difference is to encourage more efficient electric vehicles and to discourage the production of enormous electric vehicles. “Some people may need a pickup truck for work. But if you don’t need a large car for an actual activity, it’s certainly better to have a more reasonably sized car,” Gillingham says.  

Plus, electrifying public transportation, buses, and vehicles like the fleet of trucks run by the USPS can have a big impact because of how often they’re used. Making these vehicles electric can reduce air pollution from idling, and routes can be designed so that they don’t need as large of a battery.  

“The rollout of EVs in general has been slower than demand would support…There’s potentially a larger market for EVs,” Gillingham says. The holdup is due mainly to supply chain problems. 

Switching over completely to EVs is, of course, not the end-all solution for the world’s environmental woes. Currently, car culture is very deeply embedded in American culture and consumerism in general, Gillingham says, and that’s not easy to change. When it comes to climate policy around transportation, it needs to address all the different modes of transportation that people use and the industrial energy services to bring down greenhouse gas emissions across the board. 

The greenest form of transportation is walking, followed by biking, followed by using public transit. Electrifying the vehicles that can be electrified is great, but policies should also consider the ways cities are designed—are they walkable, livable, and have a reliable public transit system connecting communities to where they need to go? 

“There’s definitely a number of different modes of transport that need to be addressed and green modes of transport that need to be supported,” says Trancik. “We really need to be thinking holistically about all these ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

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A road capable of charging electric vehicles en route to their destinations could power up as soon as 2025 in one of the world’s most eco-friendly nations. As the Amsterdam-based tech site The Next Web explains, Sweden is well on track to electrifying a roughly 13-mile portion of its E20 highway spanning between Hallsberg to Örebro, both of which are located between Sweden’s two largest cities, Stockholm and Gothenburg.

The electric road system (ERS) project is overseen by the nation’s transport administration, Trafikverket, who are still determining which of three specific technologies could be best suited for the task: overhead conductive, ground-based conductive, and ground-based inductive charging. The first format utilizes an overhead pantograph design similar to those seen atop traditional trolleys and streetcars, but would be limited to large vehicles capable of reaching the tall power lines, i.e. public commuter vehicles.

[Related: Car owners: here’s when experts say you should switch to an EV.]

The other two options, however, could hypothetically also support smaller vehicles and private EVs. In a ground-based conductive format, power would transfer from specialized tracks installed either on top or below the pavement via a mechanical arm. Inductive charging would require conductive coils installed in both the roads and vehicles.

As futuristic as these ideas may sound, Sweden has already successfully tested all three ERS methods in various areas around the nation, including the towns of Gotland, Lund, and Sandviken. While much of that work has pertained to mass transit options, designers also tinkered with systems capable of supporting smaller and private vehicles as far back as 2018.

There are immense benefits to expanding ERS capabilities, beyond just the immediate convenience. According to one recent study from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, increased reliance on ERS installations alongside at-home EV charging could lower electrical grid demands during peak usage times, as well as potentially reduce vehicle battery size by as much as 70 percent. Those smaller batteries would mean less rare earth materials are harvested, leading to potentially cheaper, more accessible EV options for consumers.

[Related: Why you barely see electric vehicles at car dealerships.]

“After all, many people charge their cars after work and during the night, which puts a lot of strain on the power grid,” author Sten Karlsson, an energy efficiency researcher and professor at Chalmers, said in a release in March. “By instead charging more evenly throughout the day, peak load would be significantly reduced.”

Sweden isn’t alone in its aim to electrify portions of its roadways. As the electric transportation industry site Electrive notes, similar projects are also underway in the UK, Germain, Italy, and Israel. Here in the US, the Norwegian company ENRX recently announced plans to install a one-mile ERS prototype section within a stretch of four-lane highway near Orlando, Florida.

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In the news, it seems like electric vehicles are everywhere—from new tech developments to changing policies to increasingly interesting designs. And while the road to electric vehicles may be bumpy, reports show that it’s absolutely crucial to electrify our transportation sector in order to reach critical climate change goals. But unfortunately, the feeling of EV omnipresence doesn’t currently extend to the dealership.

According to a new study released this week by the Sierra Club, 66 percent of car dealerships nationwide did not have a single electric vehicle for sale. And out of those dealerships, only 44 percent reported that they would offer an EV for sale if they could get their hands on one. While this is a step up from previous reporting done by the Sierra Club in 2019, it’s still low considering the massive EV goals set in place by businesses and certain state legislation.

[Related: EV companies call out their own weaknesses in new clean energy report.]

“To help avoid the worst impacts of climate disruption and protect our communities, it’s important that we accelerate the transition to all-electric vehicles,” Sierra Club Clean Transportation for All Director Katherine Garcia said in a release. “Enough empty promises: The auto industry must step on the accelerator and get electric vehicles on dealership lots now.”

One of the major problems getting EVs to the dealership lots is supply chain problems involving semiconductors and batteries, but some major manufacturers are also part of the problem themselves. Major manufacturers often don’t have many EV options in the US—for example, Honda’s first EV to sell in the US won’t be available until 2024, with Toyota only starting to sell the BZ4X stateside last year. 

For dealers, selling EVs just isn’t the same money making machine as selling combustion cars. A decent chunk of a dealership’s income is from parts and service, something that just isn’t as necessary for electric vehicles, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.

“All else equal, an electric car has fewer mechanical parts than a gasoline or diesel car, which directly means that the revenue a car dealer makes from an electric car is much lower than what the dealer will make from a gas or diesel counterpart,” Vivek Astvansh, an assistant professor of marketing at Indiana University, told Vox.

Plus, investing in infrastructure can represent a huge cost, from purchasing chargers and infrastructure to retraining staff on the ins and outs of EVs. Some manufacturers, such as Chevrolet, are enacting EV standards for their dealerships, according to reporting by Vox. 

[Related: Here’s when experts say you should switch to an EV.]

It’s not all bad news, however—the ability to buy directly from EV makers such as Rivian and Lucid can put the pressure on dealerships to get the electrification started. States where policy allows for direct sales account for 615,724 EVs sold in 2022, representing 65 percent of all EVs sold nationwide, according to the report. 

And if you’re looking to find a dealership that has an EV in stock, your best bet is to try locations in the Southeast (which have a 41 percent rate of dealers with EVs) or look around for Mercedes-Benz dealerships which above 75 percent of offer EVs. 

But for dealerships, the time to act is now. There are already 1.9 million reservations or pre-orders for recently released EVs, and the percentage of EVs in new vehicle sales has tripled since 2020.

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If you have Face ID set up on your iPhone, you can unlock your device by showing it your visage instead of using a pin code or a thumb print. It’s a familiar aspect of smartphone tech for many of us, but what about using it to get in your vehicle?

The Genesis GV60 is the first car to feature this technology to unlock and enter the car, pairing it with your fingerprint to start it up.

How does it work? Here’s what we discovered.

The Genesis GV60 is a tech-laden EV

Officially announced in the fall of 2022, the GV60 is Genesis’ first dedicated all-electric vehicle. Genesis, for the uninitiated, is the luxury arm of Korea-based automaker Hyundai. 

Built on the new Electric-Global Modular Platform, the GV60 is equipped with two electric motors, and the result is an impressive ride. At the entry level, the GV60 Advanced gets 314 horsepower, and the higher-level Performance trim cranks out 429 horsepower. As a bonus, the Performance also includes a Boost button that can kick it up to 483 horsepower for 10 seconds; with that in play, the GV60 boasts a 0-to-60 mph time of less than four seconds.

The profile of this EV is handsome, especially in the look-at-me shade of São Paulo Lime. Inside, the EV is just as fetching as the exterior, with cool touches like the rotating gear shifter. As soon as the car starts up, a crystal orb rotates to reveal a notched shifter that looks and feels futuristic. Some might say it’s gimmicky, but it does have a wonderful ergonomic feel on the pads of the fingers.

Embedded in the glossy black trim of the B-pillar, which is the part of the frame between the front and rear doors, the facial recognition camera stands ready to let you into the car without a key. But first, you’ll need to set it up to recognize you and up to one other user, so the car can be accessed by a partner, family member, or friend. Genesis uses deep learning to power this feature, and if you’d like to learn more about artificial intelligence, read our explainer on AI.

The facial recognition setup process

You’ll need both sets of the vehicle’s smart keys (Genesis’ key fobs) in hand to set up Face Connect, Genesis’ moniker for its facial recognition setup. Place the keys in the car, start it up, and open the “setup” menu and choose “user profile.” From there, establish a password and choose “set facial recognition.” The car will prompt you to leave the car running and step out of it, leaving the door open. Gaze into the white circle until the animation stops and turns green, and the GV60 will play an audio prompt: “facial recognition set.” The system is intuitive, and I found that I could set it up the first time on my own just through the prompts. If you don’t get it right, the GV60 will let you know and the camera light will turn from white to red.

After the image, the GV60 needs your fingerprint. Basically, you’ll go through the same setup process, instead choosing “fingerprint identification” and the car will issue instructions. It will ask for several placements of your index finger inside the vehicle (the fingerprint area is a small circle between the volume and tuning roller buttons) to create a full profile.

In tandem, these two biometrics (facial recognition and fingerprint) work together to first unlock and then start the car. Upon approach, touch the door handle and place your face near the camera and it will unlock; you can even leave the key in the car and lock it with this setup. I found it to be very easy to set up, and it registered my face on the first try. The only thing I forgot the first couple of times was that I first had to touch the door handle and then scan my face. I could see this being a terrific way to park and take a jog around the park or hit the beach without having to worry about how to secure a physical key. 

Interestingly, to delete a profile the car requires just one smart key instead of two.

Not everyone is a fan of this type of technology in general because of privacy concerns related to biometrics; Genesis says no biometric data is uploaded to the cloud, but is stored securely and heavily encrypted in the vehicle itself. If it is your cup of tea and you like the option to leave the physical keys behind, this is a unique way of getting into your car. 

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Earlier this week, a California judge tentatively ordered Elon Musk to testify under oath regarding the Tesla CEO’s past claims related to the EV company’s Autopilot software. The request, as reported by multiple outlets, pertains to an ongoing lawsuit alleging the AI drive-assist program is partially responsible for the 2018 death of Apple engineer Walter Huang. The request would also compel Musk to address previous, frequently lofty descriptions of the system. In 2016, for example, Musk alleged “a Model S and Model X, at this point, can drive autonomously with greater safety than a person.”

But before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Evette D. Pennypacker issued their decision, Tesla’s legal defense offered a creative argument as to why the CEO shouldn’t have to testify: any documentation of Musk’s prior Autopilot claims could simply be deepfakes. 

Reports of the defense strategy came earlier this week from both Reuters and Bloomberg, and also include Judge Pennypacker’s critical response to Tesla’s concerns. “Their position is that because Mr. Musk is famous and might be more of a target for deep fakes, his public statements are immune,” wrote the judge. “In other words, Mr. Musk, and others in his position, can simply say whatever they like in the public domain, then hide behind the potential for their recorded statements being a deep fake to avoid taking ownership of what they did actually say and do.”

[Related: Why an AI image of Pope Francis in a fly jacket stirred up the internet.]

While there are some entertaining examples out there, AI-generated videos and images—often referred to as deepfakes—are an increasing cause of concern among misinformation experts. Despite the legitimate concerns, contending that archival recorded statements are now rendered wholesale untrustworthy now would be “deeply troubling,” Judge Pennybacker said in the reports. Although Musk’s deposition order is “tentative,” as Reuters notes, “California judges often issue tentative rulings, which are almost always finalized with few major changes after such a hearing.” 

Tesla faces numerous investigations involving the company’s controversial Autopilot system, including one from the Department of Justice first revealed late last year. Last week, a California state court jury ruled the company was not at fault in a separate wrongful death lawsuit involving an EV’s Autopilot system. Huang’s wrongful death lawsuit is scheduled to go into trial on July 31.

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Although Tesla’s latest Impact Report promises that “a sustainable future is within reach,” the company’s 2022 figures show just how crucial accurate measurements are in achieving the lofty goal. Released earlier this week, an expanded dataset dramatically upped the electric vehicle maker’s total carbon footprint when compared with the prior year’s available information. The larger picture? An estimated 30.7 million tons of CO2 in supply chain emissions atop previously reported categories of pollution. That’s roughly equivalent to Serbia’s total emissions in 2021. 

[Related: Tesla employees allegedly viewed drivers’ car camera footage.]

Tesla only publicly offered how much greenhouse gas the company generated in 2021 via direct operations and EV owners charging their cars—around 2.5 million metric tons of CO2. That might seem small compared to its competitors (Ford recorded 337 million metric tons of CO2 in 2022, for example), but these segments of overall emissions are just a fraction of a company’s supply chain pollution stemming from production, transportation, and indirect operations. And while those numbers weren’t disclosed for 2021, they were for last year within Tesla’s new report.

As The Verge notes, the vast difference in numbers comes down to what companies generally choose to include in these kinds of industry reports. Carbon footprints are often broken down into three “scopes,” with Scope 1 encompassing direct company emissions (i.e. factory emissions, brick-and-mortar offices, and its own vehicles for travel and commuting). Meanwhile, Scope 2 includes emissions stemming from heating, A/C, and electricity usage in company buildings like offices. Scope 3 focuses on all the extra, indirect emissions from supply chain manufacturing alongside products’ lifecycle emissions.

Most often, businesses choose to detail only Scopes 1 and 2, as they are usually smaller than Scope 3’s numbers, even when combined. This often makes a company’s carbon footprint appear much smaller than it actually is when seen as a fuller picture; a strategy often referred to as “greenwashing.” In Tesla’s 2022 Impact Report, for instance, the first two “scopes” totaled just 610,000 metric tons of CO2—a much more palatable figure for investors and consumers than the true total of over 31 million tons.

[Related: Tesla is under federal investigation over autopilot claims.]

Still, Tesla actually making its Scope 3 data available to the public offers some much needed additional transparency within the industry. Even then, however, the company’s  combined Scope 1 and 2 numbers rose a little under four percent, year-over-year. This, as The Verge also added, came even as Tesla still worked to make its EVs less carbon-intensive. Earlier this month, Tesla revealed “Part 3” of its ongoing “Master Plan” to provide sustainable energy for the entire world, estimating it will take $10 trillion in investments to fully realize.

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Jeep established its roots back in the 1940s, and the brand quickly established itself as a 4×4 expert. Rugged and utilitarian, Jeep has been an icon of off-roading ever since. For its next act, the automaker is getting electrified. Jim Morrison, senior vice president and head of the Jeep brand in North America, says it has established its line in the sand. 

“We’ve said we will be the greenest SUV brand and by 2025 all of our vehicles will be electrified,” Morrison says. “We expect half our sales to be electrified by 2030.”

Jeep’s plan includes four all-electric SUVs in North America and in Europe by 2025. The automaker debuted sneak peeks of two of those vehicles—the Jeep Recon EV and Wagoneer EV (code name Wagoneer S)—via its YouTube channel back in September of last year.

Remember, electrified in an automotive context is different from fully electric: Electrified refers to using motors to enhance and support gas-powered models for better efficiency and fewer emissions, while fully electric is a pure EV, with no internal combustion engine whatsoever. Jeep will offer both types, at least for now. Stellantis, Jeep’s parent company, has ranked at the bottom of the EPA’s 2022 rankings [PDF] for fuel efficiency and carbon emissions between 2016 and 2021; Stellantis includes brands like Chrysler, Alfa Romeo, and Dodge. Each of these brands is finally getting a hybrid version—Dodge unveiled the hybrid Hornet in March and Alfa Romeo is about to launch its first electrified model, the Tonale—so improvement is on the table. 

The electrified plans are well on its way: the Wrangler 4xe, Jeep’s first plug-in hybrid vehicle, made its debut for model year 2021 and the Grand Cherokee was offered as a PHEV for 2022. Since then, both have registered impressive sales, with the Wrangler 4xe taking the crown as America’s best-selling PHEV for 2022. How will the electrification of Jeep affect its off-roading credibility? 

Here’s how it’s working in the real world. 

The Jeep Magneto concept

At its 57th Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah this March, the brand showed off its newest batch of concepts intended to inspire Jeep owners to enhance and accessorize, and to entice non-Jeep owners to dream. (The Easter Jeep Safari is typically a nine-day event with day-long 4×4 trail rides throughout—basically, it’s like summer camp for off-roaders.) One of those was the Magneto 3.0 concept, a fully-electric variant of the popular Wrangler SUV. The Magneto name sounds like a superhero badge, and it’s definitely a way for the automaker to see how far it can go. 

“Magneto has been our test bed and pushed the extremes for 4×4 capability and electrification,” Morrison tells PopSci. “Over these years, we have been learning more and more about how electrification is accepted by our customers. Magneto 3.0 is exponentially better than 1.0; we learned that instant torque is cool with 1.0, then we learned you can modify it with 2.0, adding 40-inch tires and Dana 60 axles. This year, we took it up to 900 hp with Magneto 3.0, and it’s an absolute beast off road.” 

The automaker says the third time’s the charm with this version, as it expands upon the improbable combination of a six-speed manual transmission with a battery-electric powertrain. I got behind the wheel of Magneto 2.0 in Moab last year with Morrison in the passenger seat, and was impressed by the concept’s rock crawling ability; it held up to the capability everyone expects of a Jeep. 

The sounds of (off-roading) silence

Driving a Magneto and a 4xe, what I noticed most of all was the quiet. In the Magneto, of course, the vehicle is nearly silent, but it’s just a concept at this point and not available to the masses. Details on the upcoming Jeep Recon EV are slim so far, and we’ll be waiting to see what features and range it will include.

Unlike an all-electric Jeep, the Wrangler 4xe or Grand Cherokee 4xe are available now. The vehicles default to the hybrid system, and operating it in E-Save mode on the asphalt conserves the electric capacity for the trails. In the Wrangler 4xe or Grand Cherokee 4xe (those two models boast 21 all-electric miles for the Wrangler 4xe and 26 all-electric miles in the Grand Cherokee), drivers can run nearly the entire Rubicon Trail in California if they want to. 

Off-roading competitor and owner of Barlow Adventures in Arizona, Nena Barlow, has led Jeep tours at the Easter Jeep Safari and tested all three versions of the Magneto on the trails. She’s also a six-time Rebelle Rally competitor, and won the last two years in a Wrangler 4xe. Barlow also cited silence as a key benefit to driving an electrified off-roader, not just for the reduction in noise pollution but for the driving advantages, being more in tune with her vehicle. 

“The power with electric motors is just amazing in terms of the torque, the control, and the quiet,” says Barlow. “Even in the 4xe, being able to run obstacles in electric mode has spoiled me. I kind of get irritated by engine noise now; I want to hear what my tires are doing.”

When tackling challenging terrain, it’s a huge advantage to be able to hear your tires. Drivers can hear if they’re slipping off a rock and evaluate how well the rubber is connecting to the road. There’s a crunching sound on loose terrain, and a different noise when you’re at that threshold of losing adhesion, Barlow says. 

Morrison’s daily driver is a 4xe, and he says the wildlife near his home pay him no mind. “You’re just driving around and suddenly you’re face to face with a deer,” he says. “It’s fun to go off road and connect with nature.” 

Does an electrified Jeep provide enough power?

Some have asked Barlow why she would choose the Wrangler 4xe and not the beastly 6.4-liter V8-carrying Wrangler Rubicon 392 for the Rebelle Rally. The 4xe has the same amount of torque (470 pound-feet) but less horsepower (270 hp versus 470 hp) than the 392, but the 4xe gets twice the range out of one tank of gas. 

Those worried about scraping up the battery pack needn’t fret, because the bellies are well protected. In fact, Barlow has been renting out Wrangler 4xe models to tourists for the past couple of years, and she says if renters can’t find a weak spot, no one can. 

What you’ll notice while off-roading in an electrified Jeep is the pure power to take on big hills with no hesitation. In electric mode, the vehicle pushes forward smoothly and without lag, holding on an ascent without much effort. The bigger challenge may be the charging infrastructure, which Jeep is addressing with solar-powered charging stations at its Badge of Honor trailheads.

“I believe the 4xe is the future,” Barlow says. “It has all the power and great range, and that’s the way we need to be going.” 

Correction on April 25, 2023: This article has been updated to clarify Jeep’s plans for all-electric vehicles, including the Recon EV and Wagoneer EV.

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Boasting 576 horsepower and 545 pound-feet of torque, the new Kia EV6 GT is thrilling. Press your finger on the GT button on the steering wheel and, like electrified magic, the crossover seems to catapult into hyperspace. The company boldly proclaims that the EV6 GT can go toe to toe with the Ferrari Roma or the Lamborghini Huracán Evo Spyder RWD, accelerating from 0-60 miles per hour in 3.4 seconds. Take a moment and let that comparison sink in.

In fact, this vehicle was recently recognized with the 2023 World Performance Car title at this year’s World Car Awards. After having the EV6 GT in my possession for a test drive, I can report that it has certainly earned its accolades. 

Planning to build a crossover with supercar-like chops is no accident or stroke of luck—this is how Kia’s EV strategy has developed behind the scenes. 

Planning for a winner

Stunners like the EV6 GT have been on the books for years now, a glimmer in Kia’s eye long before it was a reality. 

The EV-dedicated chassis on which the EV6 was engineered was announced back in 2017, which means the design was in the works well before that. The Korean company’s long-term strategy is paying off: Late last year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that Kia achieved the largest reduction in CO₂ emissions in the U.S. market for its 2016 to 2021 vehicles. After the Biden Administration’s newest edict to drastically reduce emissions from vehicles was revealed last week, Kia and its parent company Hyundai Motor Group appear to be way ahead of the curve.

Twenty-five years ago, Kia was better known for making inexpensive cars that were more like uninteresting appliances than the attractive vehicles earning accolades now. Its rise to popularity is no accident, as the company has steadily poured money into research and development in its domestic market in Korea, which spills over into the rest of the world. For example, Hyundai Motor, Kia, and Hyundai MOBIS (Hyundai’s global parts company) are banding together to invest $18 billion into EVs. The goal: to catapult Hyundai Motor Group into the global top three global automakers by 2030 with a planned total lineup of 31 EV models. 

Every year, the EPA issues a trend report on the industry’s fuel economy and emissions, and in its most recent report it called out Kia’s performance as exceptional. The automaker recognized that its fuel economy and emissions had been improving year over year, but it wasn’t anticipating doing as well as it did in the report.

“To be frank, it was a little bit of a surprise,” says Steve Kosowski, the company’s manager of long-range strategy and planning. “We knew we were doing well, but seeing it in the EPA report was a nice pat on the back for the company.”

At the intersection of EV product and portfolio planning, regulatory compliance, and charging infrastructure, Kosowski has a job that involves peering ten years into Kia’s future. Soothsayers like Kosowski tackle the tricky prospect of figuring out where the company should spend its time and money, straddling the line between practical planning (production vehicles) and wishful thinking (concept cars and futuristic prognostication). 

With future-predicting analysts like Kosowski on board, the automaker doesn’t have just an inkling about which cars are going to be a success; they have enough data to support their predictions. 

None of this means that Kia is happy to sit back and bask in its achievements. At its 2023 CEO Investor Day on April 5, 2022, Kia ramped up its electrification target even more, announcing it was aiming for 1.6 million EV sales by 2030.

Getting (way) beyond boring crossovers

Any and all success the company is seeing now is due to its meticulous planning and analysis at a micro and macro level, and the product planners read the tea leaves to see what trends are unfurling. Generally, Kosowski says, product planners start at a high level, looking at industry volumes and analyzing trends to get a forecast that is as targeted as possible.

“The first big step is to understand the regulatory requirements,” Kosowski says. “That gives you a really good calculus on how many EVs you need to sell, how many trucks you can sell, and so on. I like to look at it like a wheel: you have the consumer research spoke, the supplier spoke, the dealer spoke, and you start to get a flavor for what people like and want and what they’re willing to pay for.”

Kia seems to be cranking out hit after hit, riding on the wave of success from its Telluride SUV, which also raked in awards across the industry for its affordable, well-designed package. With SUVs taking the lion’s share of attention in the market—two in three Kia vehicles sold in 2022 were SUVs, and the company’s SUV lineup continues to expand with hybrid and plug-in hybrid options—the company is well positioned for the EV surge.

“Electrified utility was an important signal 10 years ago,” Kosowski says. “Buyers love the torque and efficiency, and they feel like they’re part of the solution [to the challenges of climate change].”

On top of that, Kia and Hyundai vehicles on the global EV platform are capable of charging up in less than 20 minutes. That’s faster than many EVs on the market and goes a long way toward adoption. Soon, Kia’s three-row EV9 SUV will become available, opening up competition in the highly desirable family segment. 

Now, if Kosowski and his prognosticating colleagues can map out a way to shore up the infrastructure so that range isn’t a concern, the EV future will roll out as smoothly as Kia hopes it will. 

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This article was originally featured on The Drive.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed Wednesday perhaps its most sweeping changes to vehicle emissions controls in its history, a far-reaching measure that could effectively mandate a tenfold increase in EV sales by the middle of the next decade. Under the proposed plan, electric-car sales would comprise more than two-thirds of overall light-duty new car sales and nearly half of all medium-duty car sales by 2032. The plan would also ratchet up emissions targets for internal combustion-powered vehicles by roughly 13 percent every year from 2027 to 2032, compared to 5-10 percent increases proposed for 2023-2026 model-year cars. The EPA’s proposal will likely face a mountain of legal challenges before it’s adopted. Still, regulators said they would build in language that would make the standards tougher to repeal for subsequent administrations.

“By proposing the most ambitious pollution standards ever for cars and trucks, we are delivering on the Biden-Harris administration’s promise to protect people and the planet, securing critical reductions in dangerous air and climate pollution and ensuring significant economic benefits like lower fuel and maintenance costs for families,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

The EPA said its proposal could save the average new-car buyer $12,000 over the lifetime of the vehicle, compared to an ICE engine. The proposal for light- and medium-duty vehicles was accompanied by a proposal for heavy-duty fleets to electrify 25 percent of their trucks and half of all new buses to be electric by 2032. This week the EPA also proposed recalculating how efficiency is measured among electrified vehicles to represent the impact of those cars more accurately in Corporate Average Fuel Economy figures. Combined, the total impact of the EPA’s suggested regulations could vastly reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced on America’s roadways. However, the ambitious targets exceed President Joe Biden’s initial target of 50 percent EV sales by the decade’s end. 

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers in America, CEO John Bozzella called the proposal “aggressive by any measure. By that I mean it sets automotive electrification goals in the next few years that are … very high,” he wrote, according to Automotive News. 

Automakers and unions are likely to push back against the regulations, which they’ve said could cost jobs and further hike the prices of new cars. Last year, EV sales accounted for less than 6 percent of overall vehicle sales and 2 percent of heavy-truck sales. In addition to building battery facilities in the U.S. that won’t come online for several years, automakers have warned that existing and planned charging infrastructure may not handle such a dramatic increase in EVs, and critical mineral supplies wouldn’t be enough. The Biden administration has offered trillions in spending to accelerate both while pushing forward with ambitious targets. The EPA doesn’t have the mandate to quantify overall vehicle sales but instead can set targets to force automakers to otherwise comply with those stringent rules. 

Going forward, the plan will be open to public comment and face scrutiny from legislators and others, likely including legal challenges. 

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The automotive industry may be going through an electric car revolution, but at the same time, actual cars seem left behind. The shift to EVs has been heavy on electric crossovers like the Tesla Model Y, and pickups like Ford’s F-150 Lightning, while the traditional sedan and hatchback shape has been left by the wayside. Pickup trucks, crossovers, and SUVs are quickly becoming the de facto choice among most consumers, regardless of whether those vehicles are electric or gas-powered. But thankfully, Hyundai has embraced the sedan and delivered an interesting aero steampunk electric four-door that doesn’t resemble anything else on the road.

Hyundai’s latest and greatest EV, the Ioniq 6, is ultra-aerodynamic and chic, eschewing the practicality associated with a hatchback or crossover shape (and the easy cargo storage that comes with that configuration), but for good reason. The vehicle’s targeted clientele includes the young professionals and millennials who aren’t necessarily focused on outright practicality. Instead, those customers want design, style, driving engagement, and range; they’d rather trade off practicality to get those things.

And thus, the Ioniq 6 is a very different-looking vehicle from its sister model, the Ioniq 5, despite sharing a platform. While the Ioniq 5 is a practical crossover-shaped retro homage to Hyundai’s first car, the Pony, the Ioniq 6 takes a different route. The Ioniq 6 feels like a pastiche of 1930s-era aerodynamic streamlined cars like the Chrysler Airflow or the Stout Scarab, but mixed in with an obscure callback to 1990s-era efforts from Hyundai itself. Add in a dash of square video-game-like pixel details in the taillights, and that’s the Ioniq 6.

Regardless of how you might feel about the execution, the Ioniq 6 is a visually striking car. From the side view, the very short nose quickly sweeps into the main arch that comprises most of the Ioniq 6’s cabin. Then, that arch gently flows into the rear trunk area, terminating in a rear overhang and decklid that visually appears to make the rear of the car look longer than the front. 

The Ioniq 6 is organic in its form—an odd, funky-looking design that somehow works. The result is a car that appears delicate, petite, and low-slung, with just a touch of retro; if you squint, the front fascia and overall shape feel like a strangely modernized, ultra-sleek version of the 1996 Hyundai Elantra. 

The Ioniq 6 is different from its siblings

It is easy to think that with the shift to electrified transit, every EV will look, feel, and drive the same. After all, the Ioniq 6, Kia EV6, Genesis GV60, and Ioniq 5 all share a technology platform: Hyundai’s Electric Global Modular Platform, or E-GMP for short, forms the basis of most new Hyundai, Genesis, and Kia EVs, including the forthcoming EV9 seven-passenger crossover. That’s a very diverse range of products, and they all share common motor, battery, and platform designs. So, does that mean they’ll be the same car?

In a word, no. Hyundai’s engineering team went to work differentiating the Ioniq 6 from its platform kin. The Ioniq 6 aims for a more engaging driver-centric experience, without compromising a composed and smooth ride. The engineers learned from the Ioniq 5, and they’ve tweaked and changed things about the Ioniq 6, just to make it that much different from the Ioniq 5, and in turn, other E-GMP platform vehicles. Hyundai likens this to chess pieces, where each model has a different role, but they’re all part of the same cohesive lineup. 

[Related: Hyundai’s new Ioniq 6 is a long-range EV with Art Deco vibes]

Inside, much of the Ioniq 6’s interior instrument panel and dashboard elements are shared with the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5. This means a twin-screen setup controls most of the interactions, for the radio and other general controls. A line of physical buttons for HVAC controls and volume sit underneath it. Most of the user interface screens and infotainment setups are the same as other EV Hyundai and Kia products, which means that they’re good. Those systems are easy to use and well organized. If using their systems is too hard, the Ioniq 6 comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

But, that’s where the similarities between the Ioniq 6 and other Hyundai and Kia products ends. The center console sits close to the driver and passenger, coming up to meet the dashboard. The door panels are simple and switchless. The switches for the windows and locks have been moved to the center console. It’s more claustrophobic than the Ioniq 5, but here, it feels distinctly sporty. 

How the Hyundai Ioniq 6 drives

The Ioniq 6 doesn’t drive like its E-GMP siblings, either. Piloting the Ioniq 6 around the curvy roads of Scottsdale, Arizona was a delight. The car silently and accurately slinks around curves, with the precision of sci-fi cyberpunk killer snake assassin. Whereas the Ioniq 5 feels soft almost to the point of wallowy, the Ioniq 6 is dialed in. The less-upright seats and lower center of gravity make the Ioniq 6 feel more engaging on curvy roads, unlike the Ioniq 5.

The Ioniq 6 doesn’t weigh that much less than the Ioniq 5, and yet, the Ioniq 6’s character is lighter and more jovial, compared to the serious and utilitarian Ioniq 5. The steering is more engaging than the Ioniq 5, although it’s not quite as sharp as the Tesla Model 3. Driving the Ioniq 6 against its platform-mates gives the impression that Hyundai’s engineers took the command to make the Ioniq 6 a sharp-handling sedan very seriously.

The motivating power for the Ioniq 6 comes in one of two forms. In rear-wheel-drive models, a single rear-mounted motor fed by either a 53 kWh battery (for standard range) or 77.4 kWh battery (for long range) turns the rear wheels. It’s good for a healthy 225 horsepower (149 horsepower in the standard range), and 258 ft/lbs of torque. The higher-equipped, dual-motor, AWD trims can produce 340 horsepower and 448 ft/lbs of torque. That will shunt the car from 0-60 in under 4 seconds. Both trims are more than adequate on the street, allowing for brisk performance no matter which motor and battery combination.

The Ioniq 6’s standard-range 53 kWh battery pack is smaller than the Ioniq 5 standard range’s 58 kWh battery. Yet, the Ioniq 6 can go further on a smaller battery pack. Even in the smallest model, Hyundai claims a range of 240 miles. The Nissan Leaf can’t go as far as the Ioniq 6, and the Bolt can crest 258 miles (or 247 miles in EUV form). The range-leading SE trim in single motor, rear-wheel form can achieve 361 miles on a single charge, which is very impressive for a relatively small 77.4 kWh battery. This is part of how optimized the Ioniq 6 is compared to its EV kin on the same platform. Its wind-cheating shape allows Hyundai to do more with less. 

The Ioniq 6 is normal, but also not normal

The Ioniq 6 is strange to look at, but nice to drive. True, it is not without its shortcomings; there is no wireless Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. The front trunk could likely only comfortably fit one roll of discount paper towels, and the aerodynamic shape means that headroom for rear passengers is compromised, especially when equipped with the optional sunroof. 

But, for many, those gripes will be fairly minor inconveniences and not outright deal breakers. The Ioniq 6’s direct competition, the Tesla Model 3 and the Polestar 2, feel and look as if they’ve driven out of the future. However, those cars can have frustrating user interfaces and Teslas have related quality-of-build concerns. And both those cars are online-oriented buying experiences. 

By comparison, the Ioniq 6 should be able to be purchased at any Hyundai dealer. Plus, the infotainment dials feel just like any other Hyundai or Kia product. It has physical buttons that don’t require pawing through complicated computerized screens to operate. It’s a very simple, uncomplicated car at its core. That’s a huge asset for those interested in going electric, but turned off by the convoluted techno-wizardry that is inherent to new EV models.

Even the pricing of the Ioniq 6 is attractively normal. The base Ioniq 6 standard range will start at $42,715, including the destination fee. That’s about $2,000 cheaper than the Tesla Model 3, although it can’t go quite as far—it’ll travel a mere 240 miles compared to the 272 of the Model 3. But for $46,615, (about $2,000 more than the base Model 3 long-range RWD), the Ioniq 6 can go nearly 100 miles further. That’s a really attractive deal.

That’s kind of the ethos of the Ioniq 6; it’s unconventional to look at, but everything else is satisfyingly conventional and has a strong value. For drivers who want an eye-catching EV that can go the distance, the Ioniq 6 is worth a look. 

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A new investigation from Reuters alleges Tesla employees routinely viewed and shared “highly invasive” video and images taken from the onboard cameras of owners’ vehicles—even from a Tesla owned by CEO Elon Musk.

While Tesla claims consumers’ data remains anonymous, former company workers speaking to Reuters described a far different approach to drivers’ privacy—one filled with rampant policy violations, customer ridicule, and memes, they claim.

Tesla’s cars feature a number of external cameras that inform vehicles’ “Full Self-Driving” Autopilot system—a program that has received its own fair share of regulatory scrutiny regarding safety issues. The AI underlying this technology, however, requires copious amounts of visual training, often through the direction of human reviewers such as Tesla’s employees, according to the new report. Workers collaborate with company engineers to often manually identify and label objects such as pedestrians, emergency vehicles, and roads’ lane lines, alongside a host of other subjects encountered in everyday driving scenarios, as detailed in the Reuters findings. This, however, requires access to vehicle cameras.

[Related: Tesla is under federal investigation over autopilot claims.]

Tesla owners are led to believe camera feeds were handled by employees sensitively: The company’s Customer Privacy Notice states owners’ “recordings remain anonymous and are not linked to you or your vehicle,” while Tesla’s website states in no uncertain terms, “Your Data Belongs to You.”

While multiple former employees confirmed to Reuters the files were by-and-large used for AI training, that allegedly didn’t stop frequent internal sharing of images and video on the company’s internal messaging system, Mattermost. According to the report, staffers regularly exchanged images they encountered while labeling footage, often Photoshopping them for jokes and turning them into self-referential emojis and memes.

While one former worker claimed they never came across particularly salacious footage, such as nudity, they still saw “some scandalous stuff sometimes… just definitely a lot of stuff that, like, I wouldn’t want anybody to see about my life.” The same former employee went on to describe encountering “just private scenes of life,” including intimate moments, laundry contents, and even car owners’ children. Sometimes this also included “disturbing content,” the employee continued, such as someone allegedly being dragged to a car against their will.

Although two ex-employees said they weren’t troubled by the image sharing, others were so perturbed that they were wary of driving Tesla’s own company cars, knowing how much data could be collected within them, regardless of who owned the vehicles. According to Reuters, around 2020, multiple employees came across and subsequently shared a video depicting a submersible vehicle featured in the 1977 James Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me. Its owner? Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

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The sleek new all-electric Ioniq 6 looks very different from the original Ioniq EV. It doesn’t even look like the Ioniq 5, for that matter. It’s based on Hyundai’s Prophecy concept, which was unveiled in 2020. But the Ioniq 6 is measurably more aerodynamic than that concept or the Ioniq 5, with design inspiration from the fantastical, Art Deco 1930s-era Stout Scarab.

Looks are only sheet-metal deep, however, and the technological underpinnings are what makes Hyundai’s newest EV so interesting. The inner workings of the Ioniq 6 include an updated battery module with improved cooling functions and so-called “hairpin wiring” that packs more energy into a smaller space.

Here’s how all those things work together to create more range and power for this EV.

Aerodynamics and “Pop-Tart” battery cells

When Hyundai launched the Ioniq 5 nearly two years ago, it was a big improvement over the original Ioniq EV from 2016, which topped out at 100 miles per hour and offered only 124 miles of range. The Ioniq 6 has taken things up another notch, maxing out at an impressive 361 miles of range with the rear-wheel-drive Long Range version of the EV. That’s 58 miles better than the best of the Ioniq 5 options and nearly triple the range of the original.

How did Hyundai make that kind of progress over a quick couple of years? One key factor is the aerodynamic improvements, on display with a swoopy ducktail in the back, active air flaps, and a low-to-the-ground nose. The coefficient of drag, which quantifies the aerodynamics, is 0.21 for the Ioniq 6, compared with 0.29 for the boxier Ioniq 5. (For efficiency, you want that number to be as low as possible.) At its starting price of $42,715, the Ioniq 6 has no business showing off a drag coefficient that is better than cars that cost three times as much, but it does.

Another important element is the battery design, which in the case of the Ioniq 6 is built into Hyundai’s Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). Also used as the underpinning platform for the Ioniq 5, this versatile platform acts as the ground floor for a row of battery modules.

“Each battery module is made up of individual cells that are stacked neatly, like a stack of Pop-Tarts,” Dean Schlingmann, Hyundai manager of electrified management systems explains. “We can vary the number of modules and configurations depending on the segment and what the goals are for that vehicle.”

With the packaging improvements Hyundai has made to the battery module, the automaker has been able to reduce the part count significantly, which lightens the vehicle overall. Energy density increased by 7 percent. 

“We can cram more electrons in [the battery], which means more EV range or [heating and air conditioning] usage, wherever you want to use it,” Schlingmann says. 

Amping up the density with flat wires

For all intents and purposes, Schlingmann says, the Ioniq 6 motor is identical to the Ioniq 5’s, but with improvements to the motor winding design. Hyundai uses hairpin winding technology, named for the metal pins used in a salon for elaborate hairstyles, and this technology is widely known to be more efficient, with a higher power density and performance under a variety of hot and cold settings.

“Instead of using a perfectly round wire that goes through some of the winding gaps in the motor housing, we have more of a flat, rectangular wire. The [hairpin wiring] fills the gaps in the spaces around the motor itself more efficiently,” Schlingmann explains. “The more dense you can get the wire (or the more fill you can achieve in those gaps) the more power or performance—or whatever characteristic you’re looking to push with the motor—you can do so more effectively.”

The effectiveness lends itself to other applications, as well. Schlingmann helped develop the vehicle-to-load (V-to-L) capability for the Ioniq 6. This function takes advantage of Hyundai’s bidirectional power capability and allows access for customers to 110-volt power. There is an interior outlet available in Limited trim, and users can also export power with a V-to-L connector accessory. 

Schlingmann personally tested several plug-in devices with the Ioniq 6: air compressors and even a welder, which like an air compressor is not recommended but shows that pickup trucks aren’t the only electric vehicles that can power up a house. If you want to plug in a blender and whip up a smoothie on the road, you can do that. It might not be the ideal camping vehicle because of its ground clearance, but it could be useful for camping at less-remote sites. 

Range is the magic word

At $42,715, Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 is priced to compete with the Tesla Model 3, which starts at $44,380. The EPA says the Model 3 will get 272 miles of EPA-estimated driving range with the base rear-wheel-drive model, and up to 358 miles with the Long Range model (compared to the Ioniq 6’s max range at 361 miles). 

Both of these EVs can charge up quickly. In 15 minutes, Tesla’s SuperCharger network can pump 200 miles of range back into a Model 3. The Ioniq 6 can go from 10 percent to 80 percent charged in 18 minutes. Automakers are eager to kick the ball down the road and get customers to start buying EVs, and that charge-up time makes a difference.

Most trims of the new Ioniq 6 are on sale now at dealerships.

Read our full review, here.

The post Hyundai’s new Ioniq 6 is a long-range EV with Art Deco vibes appeared first on Popular Science.

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For decades, Automobili Lamborghini has built its reputation on creating supercars with large-displacement engines. Mid-mounted naturally aspirated V12 combustion engines have been its signature since the debut of the classically stunning Miura in 1966.

But change is on the horizon, and Lamborghini’s rivals at Ferrari and McLaren have already begun the shift toward turbocharged smaller-displacement engines to maximize efficiency. Characteristically, Lamborghini is plotting a different course. Battery-electric Lamborghinis are on the CAD screens of the company’s engineers, but before they debut, Lamborghini aims to give its naturally aspirated V12 models a fitting send-off with a hybrid-electric assist.

The Revuelto is that V12 tribute model. As is customary, the car’s name comes from a traditional Spanish fighting bull. Revuelto was famous in 1880, so you’re forgiven if you haven’t heard of him. The word means “mixed up,” and it was chosen in reference to the Revuelto’s combination of combustion and electric power. The bull was said to be mixed up because eight different times he leapt out of the ring into the crowd in the stands.

The Revuelto is a plug-in hybrid-electric vehicle

In a step toward the electric future, Lamborghini has for the first time ever added a plug-in hybrid drivetrain that boosts efficiency and, crucially, lets the Revuelto drive into the fashionable city centers of Europe, where there are often prohibitions on combustion power. This is only the first from Lamborghini, which will electrify its entire portfolio in coming years, states chairman and CEO Stephan Winkelmann during my visit to Lamborghini’s Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy headquarters to view the Revuelto.

“The Miura and Countach established the V12 engine as an icon of Lamborghini,” notes Winkelmann. 

“However, things change and we have new challenges in front of us right here and right now,” he continues. “Geopolitics are a constant companion to all of our planning.” 

The company will roll out a hybrid-electric Huracan by the end of 2024, with the first battery-electric cars arriving in 2028 or 2029. Considering the likely finite lifespan of the Revuelto, one might expect that Lamborghini would make the vehicle simply an evolutionary development, but instead they went the extra mile with a full redesign. 

The Revuelto features an all-new carbon fiber platform, an all-new combustion engine, an all-new transmission, and even a new drivetrain layout in the chassis. The chassis is 10 percent lighter and 25 percent stiffer than before, and employs a new carbon fiber front impact structure in place of the Aventador’s aluminum structure.

The Revuelto’s V12 engine, explained 

The new 814-horsepower, 6.5-liter, L545 V12 engine still rides behind the cockpit, nestled in an all-aluminum rear subframe that is where the rear suspension attaches. At a time when rivals’ engines are muted by turbochargers, you’ll hear the Revuelto’s song better than ever, because the L545 now spins to a 9,500-rpm rev limit and explodes each combustion stroke with the force of a 12.6:1 compression ratio rather than the Aventador’s 11.8:1 ratio.

This 12-cylinder beast is even 37 pounds lighter than the Aventador’s power plant. As the Revuelto contains the last Lamborghini V12, we can chart the progress from the original engine in the Miura, which displaced 3.5 liters, spun to 6,500 rpm and churned out 280 horsepower under the more optimistic rating system of that era.

The Miura’s V12 rode side saddle, bolted transversely across the back of the cockpit, with its transaxle behind it. Its replacement, the Countach, rotated the V12 90 degrees into a longitudinal position and routed power to a transmission installed ahead of the engine. This “Longitudinale Posteriore” location was the source of the Countach’s LP500 designation, and the layout has remained that way ever since.

Until now. The Revuelto’s 8-speed dual-clutch paddle-shifted transmission was designed by Lamborgini’s engineers and is built by Graziano, the same company that built the Aventador’s transmission and also supplies them to McLaren for that company’s sports cars like the Artura, which is also a plug-in hybrid. The Aventador’s single-clutch automated manual transmission was consistently criticized for clunky shifts, so the buttery smooth action of the new dual clutch should be a dramatic improvement, especially in urban driving.

The gearbox contains a 147.5-hp electric motor from Germany’s Mahle that boosts the power going to the road. The electric motor also serves as the V12’s starter, and provides the Revuelto’s reverse function, eliminating the need for a reverse gear in the transmission. This motor can also work as a generator, letting the combustion engine recharge the battery pack when driving in Recharge mode.

This gearbox is a transverse design, mounted behind the longitudinal engine, which provides abundant packaging benefits. But crucially for the hybrid-electric Revuelto, this location leaves the car’s center tunnel vacant, so there is space there now for the car’s 3.8-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack.

The Revuelto’s battery and electric motors 

Yes, 3.8 kWh is a tiny battery. Lamborghini engineers wanted to minimize the amount of mass the battery would add to the car, and the short six miles of electric-only driving range should be enough to get the Revuelto to the trendy urban club’s valet parking line on electric power. 

The Revuelto is all-wheel drive thanks to a pair of 147.5-hp electric motors under the front hood. These are Yasa axial flux motors from Britain, another similarity to the McLaren Artura, which also employs compact pancake-shaped axial-flux motors.

The V12 and trio of electric motors produce a combined 1,000 horsepower. Remember that combustion engines and electric motors produce their peak power at different speeds, so you can’t just add up the peak power of all the motors in a hybrid system to calculate the actual horsepower total. They combine to push the Revuelto to 60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds and to a top speed of more than 219 mph.

Revuelto’s performance also benefits from advanced aerodynamics in a body shell that incorporates extra space for improved comfort. There’s an extra inch of headroom to make it easier to operate while wearing a helmet for track driving and the added 3.3 inches of legroom is a blessing, as the front wheel wells intrude into the footwell of mid-engine cars like the Revuelto.

Despite the added size, the Revuelto optimizes the balance between drag and downforce using adaptive aerodynamics, such as a rear wing that can lie flat for less drag or stand up for traction-boosting downforce. The transverse transmission leaves more space under the car’s rear, so the diffuser ramps upward at a steeper angle, contributing to the 74 percent increase in rear downforce.

At the front, downforce is increased by 33 percent thanks to a complex front splitter. That’s the chin jutting out from beneath the front bumper, and on the Revuelto it has a radial leading edge in the center between the headlights and slanted outer edges that provide downforce and create vortices (like the ones you might see off airplane wing tips in humid air) to push airflow away from the drag-inducing front tires.

The engine is exposed (kind of) 

Revuelto’s coolest styling detail is its exposed engine. While typical cars have their engines covered with sheet metal hoods, and exhibitionist supercars have recently showcased their power plants beneath glass covers, the Revuelto’s combustion V12 is on proud display through an opening in the engine cover. At least, it appears to be. That’s because the engine wears a plastic cover that looks like a crinkle-finish intake plenum, so that is what is actually visible from outside the car. 

The engine’s exhaust note is authentic, even if the engine itself is wearing a mask. Since this is the final V12, and to draw a contrast with turbocharged rivals with fewer cylinders, Lamborghini engineers prioritized Revuelto’s sound, says chief technical officer Rouven Mohr. “It is not only about the numbers,” he says, referring to the car’s impressive performance. “It is also about the heart. The sound. And the Revuelto is the best-sounding Lamborghini ever.”

Engineers specifically targeted the sharp frequencies in the engine’s exhaust note to cultivate a mellower bellow, he explains. And in an unprecedented Lamborghini capability, the car’s six miles of pure electric driving range means that you can also drive completely silently when exiting your neighborhood in the morning. Your neighbors will surely think this combination of roar and snore is the best kind of “mixed up” at 6 am.

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Earlier this month, a new kind of electric boat was demonstrated in Colombia. The uncrewed COTEnergy Boat debuted at the Colombiamar 2023 business and industrial exhibition, held from March 8 to 10 in Cartagena. It is likely a useful tool for navies, and was on display as a potential product for other nations to adopt. 

While much of the attention in uncrewed sea vehicles has understandably focused on the ocean-ranging craft built for massive nations like the United States and China, the introduction of small drone ships for regional powers and routine patrol work shows just far this technology has come, and how widespread it is likely to be in the future.

“The Colombian Navy (ARC) intends to deploy the new electric unmanned surface vehicle (USV) CotEnergy Boat in April,” Janes reports, citing Admiral Francisco Cubides. 

The boat is made from aluminum and has a compact, light body. (See it on Instagram here.) Just 28.5 feet long and under 8 feet wide, the boat is powered by a 50 hp electric motor; its power is sustained in part by solar panels mounted on the top of the deck. Those solar panels can provide up to 1.1 kilowatts at peak power, which is enough to sustain its autonomous operation for just shy of an hour.

The vessel was made by Atomo Tech and Colombia’s state-owned naval enterprise company, COTECMAR. The company says the boat’s lightweight form allows it to take on different payloads, making it suitable for “intelligence and reconnaissance missions, port surveillance and control missions, support in communications link missions, among others.”

Putting sensors on small, autonomous and electric vessels is a recurring theme in navies that employ drone boats. Even a part of the ocean that seems small, like a harbor, represents a big job to watch. By putting sensors and communications links onto an uncrewed vessel, a navy can effectively extend the range of what can be seen by human operators. 

In January, the US Navy used Saildrones for this kind of work in the Persian Gulf. Equipped with cameras and processing power, the Saildrones identified and tracked ships in an exercise as they spotted them, making that information available to human operators on crewed vessels and ultimately useful to naval commanders. 

Another reason to turn to uncrewed vessels for this work is that they are easier to run on fully  electric power, as opposed to a diesel or gasoline. COTECMAR’s video description notes that the COTEEnergy Boat is being “incorporated into the offer of sustainable technological solutions that we are designing for the energy transition.” Making patrol craft solar powered and electric starts the vessels sustainable.

While developed as a military tool, the COTENERGY boat can also have a role in scientific and research expeditions. It could serve as a communications link between other ships, or between ships and other uncrewed vessels, ensuring reliable operation and data collection. Putting in sensors designed to look under the water’s surface could aid with oceanic mapping and observation. As a platform for sensors, the COTEnergy Boat is limited by what its adaptable frame can carry and power, although its load capacity is 880 pounds.

Not much more is known about the COTEnergy Boat at this point. But what is compelling about the vessel is how it fits into similar plans of other navies. Fielding small useful autonomous scouts or patrol craft, if successful, could become a routine part of naval and coastal operations.

With these new kinds of boat come new challenges. Because uncrewed ships lack humans, it can make them easier targets for other navies or possibly maritime criminal groups, like pirates. The same kind of Saildrones used by the US Navy to scout the Persian Gulf have also been detained, if briefly, by the Iranian Navy. With such detentions comes the risk that data on the ship is compromised, and data collection tools figured out, making it easier for hostile forces to fool or evade the sensors in the future.

Still, the benefits of having a flexible, solar-powered robot ship outweigh such risks. Inspection of ports is routine until it isn’t, and with a robotic vessel there to scout first, humans can wait to act until they are needed, safely removed from their remote robotic companions.

Watch a little video of the COTEnergy Boat below:

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As we’ve learned over the past few years, almost anything that connects to the internet, uses Bluetooth or any other wireless protocols, or simply has a computer chip inside can be hacked—and that includes cars. There are just too many potential vulnerabilities across all these surfaces for hackers to exploit, and every time there’s a software update, there is a chance that new ones get introduced even as the old ones are patched out. (Seriously, keep your software up-to-date, though. It’s the best way to stay as secure as possible.)

With that in mind, researchers from French security firm Synacktiv have won $530,000 and a Tesla Model 3 at Pwn2Own Vancouver, a security competition where “white hat” hackers and security researchers can win the devices with previously unknown vulnerabilities (that they discover and exploit)—plus a cash prize.

The team from Synacktiv demonstrated two separate exploits. In the first, they were able to breach the Model 3’s Gateway system, the energy management interface that communicates between Tesla cars and Tesla Powerwalls, in less than two minutes. They used a Time of Check to Time of Use (TOCTOU) attack, a technique that exploits the small time gap between when a computer checks something like a security credential and when it actually uses it, to insert the necessary malicious code. For safety reasons, they weren’t hacking a real Model 3, but they would have been able to open the car’s doors and front hood, even while it was in motion. 

The second exploit allowed the hackers to remotely gain root (or admin) access to the mock Tesla’s infotainment system and from there, to gain control of other subsystems in the car. They used what’s known as a heap overflow vulnerability and an out-of-bounds write error in the Bluetooth chipset to get in. Dustin Childs, head of threat awareness at Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), told Dark Reading, “The biggest vulnerability demonstrated this year was definitely the Tesla exploit. They went from what’s essentially an external component, the Bluetooth chipset, to systems deep within the vehicle.” 

According to TechCrunch, Tesla contends that all the hackers would have been able to do is annoy the driver, though the researchers themselves aren’t so sure. Eloi Benoist-Vanderbeken, one of the Synacktiv researchers, told TechCrunch, “[Tesla] said we wouldn’t be able to turn the steering wheel, accelerate or brake. But from our understanding of the car architecture we are not sure that this is correct, but we don’t have proof of it.” Apparently they are looking forward to fact-checking Tesla’s claim as soon as they get their hands on their new Model 3. 

This is the second year in a row that Synacktiv has been able to hack a Tesla. Last year the French security team were also able to exploit the infotainment system, but weren’t able to gain enough access to the rest of the system to win the car. 

It’s worth noting that Tesla was a willing participant and provided the car to Pwn2Own. It—along with all the other companies involved—uses the competition as an opportunity to find potentially devastating “zero day” or undiscovered vulnerabilities in their devices so they can fix them. Apparently, the company is already working on a patch for these latest bugs that will roll out automatically. 

As well as Tesla, some of the big names at Pwn2Own were Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Zoom, and Adobe. An exploit using two bugs in Microsoft SharePoint was enough to win Star Labs $100,000, while two bugs in Microsoft Teams won Team Viettel $75,000. Synacktiv also picked up another $80,000 for a three-bug exploit against Oracle’s Virtual Box. 

In total, contestants found 27 unique zero-day bugs and won a combined $1,035,000 (plus a car). 

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The Dodge brand leans heavily into performance, with commercials talking about “the brotherhood of muscle” and cars with names like “Demon” and “Hellcat.” So it’s no surprise that when releasing its first electrified vehicle, Dodge came up with a crossover to meet the market demand for family-friendly vehicles that includes a concession to in-your-face swagger. The new vehicle is called the Hornet, and it’s available in both a gas-only (GT) and a plug-in hybrid version (R/T).

Chris Piscitelli, one of the designers of the all-new Hornet, says the vehicle’s stinging-insect namesake is “a nasty little thing.” He says that with a mischievous grin, clearly happy with the association; the five-seater exudes intentional personality. In both drive and looks, the Hornet exhibits the Dodge legacy in the form of a small SUV that feels more like a hot hatch than a family car. 

The Hornet R/T (that stands for road/track) offers a unique feature called PowerShot. When the driver chooses Sport mode and pulls both paddle shifters (for changing gears in manual mode) simultaneously, the system tacks on a bonus 30 horsepower. Then, stepping on the accelerator and mashing it down through a palpable click triggers a mechanism called a detent that tells the car to get moving. Pronto.

Dodge’s first electrified vehicle

This is Dodge’s first foray into electrification, and the brand is not taking any chances with its reputation. In its base iteration, the Hornet G/T is propelled by a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine that Dodge labeled the Hurricane4. As a plug-in hybrid, the Hornet R/T combines a turbo four-cylinder 1.3-liter engine and a single electric motor mounted to the rear axle, and together it’s good for 288 horsepower and 383 pound-feet of torque. During the presentation, Dodge representatives said the Hornet’s closest competitor is the Mazda CX-5, which gets 256 horsepower and 320 pound-feet of torque.

Dodge vehicle synthesis senior manager Brian Del Pup has worked with the automotive companies under the Stellantis umbrella (including Dodge and Chrysler) for the last two decades or so. He says the team pushed the Hornet to be as true to the brand as possible, stretching the limits of what a typical crossover—like a Subaru Outback or a Honda HR-V—might be.

“A lot of [crossovers] are appliances, and people buy them to get from point A to point B and that’s it,” Del Pup tells PopSci. “There’s a lot of things that we did with this vehicle to make it fun and make it stick out. It’s a plug-in hybrid, but that wasn’t the focus. The focus was, ‘Hey, how much performance can we get out of this architecture?’ And ‘How can we make it perform like a sports car?’ It had to feel and drive like a Dodge.”

Part of that vision included the PowerShot for the Hornet PHEV, complete with the detent that requires mashing the pedal to the floor. Other vehicles use that type of tactile click to indicate the pedal is near the end of travel, and it announces the initiation of a more aggressive maneuver. 

During testing, Del Pup was sitting in the passenger seat and encouraged me to press the accelerator more firmly until I could feel it; soon we were traveling at a much higher rate of speed as though we were experiencing a tiny wrinkle in time. 

Boosting the power, 15 seconds at a time

In the Hornet R/T, a PowerShot activation shaves 1.5 seconds from the 0-to-60 time for a total of 5.6 seconds from a dead stop. That said, the feature doesn’t offer a never-ending buffet of power boosts. Depending on the battery health and state of charge, the actual boost will vary, and it lasts for about 15 seconds. 

“[PowerShot works best] at a higher state of charge and when the battery is at temperatures that high-voltage batteries like, which is around 72 degrees,” Del Pup explains. “When you deviate from that, it will still allow a PowerShot, but it may take some away based on where the system is.”

It also requires a 15-second cooldown period between activations. Unlike a video game, however, it doesn’t limit the total number of PowerShots per drive. 

Plugging the Hornet R/T into a Level 2 charger fills up the battery in about 2.5 hours, Dodge says. The 15.5-kilowatt-hour battery pack is capable of 30 miles of all-electric driving under ideal conditions, which is about three miles short of the average American commute (according to AAA). The EPA hasn’t released fuel economy numbers for the R/T, but we expect those to beat the 21 miles per gallon city/29 miles per gallon highway numbers from the Hornet GT. 

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Nestled in the heart of California’s high-tech Silicon Valley is the Alliance Innovation Lab, where Nissan, Renault, and Mitsubishi work in partnership. The center is a cradle-to-concept lab for projects related to energy, materials, and smart technologies in cities, all with an eye toward automotive autonomy.

Maarten Sierhuis, the global director of the laboratory, is both exuberant and realistic about what Nissan has to offer as electric and software-driven vehicles go mainstream. And it’s not the apocalyptic robot-centric future portrayed by Hollywood in movies like Minority Report.

“Show me an autonomous system without a human in the loop, and I’ll show you a useless system,” Sierhuis quips to PopSci. “Autonomy is built by and for humans. Thinking that you would have an autonomous car driving around that never has to interact with any person, it’s kind of a silly idea.”

Lessons from space

Educated at The Hague and the University of Amsterdam, Sierhuis is a specialist in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. For more than a dozen years, he was a senior research scientist for intelligent systems at NASA. There, he collaborated on the invention of a Java-based programming language and human behavior simulation environment used at NASA’s Mission Control for the International Space Station.

Based on his experience, Sierhuis says expecting certain systems to fail is wise. “We need to figure there is going to be failure, so we need to design for failure,” he says. “Now, one way to do that—and the automotive industry has been doing this for a long time—is to build redundant systems. If one fails, we have another one that takes over.”

[Related: How Tesla is using a supercomputer to train its self-driving tech]

One vein of research has Nissan partnering with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to develop an uncrewed rover prototype for NASA. Based on Nissan’s EV all-wheel drive control technology (dubbed e-4ORCE) used on the brand’s newest EV, Ariya, the rover features front and rear electric motors to navigate challenging terrain. 

Sierhuis calls the Ariya Nissan’s most advanced vehicle to date. It is a stepping stone toward combining all the technology the lab is working on in one actual product. He and the team have switched from using a Leaf to an Ariya for its hands-on research, even simulating lunar dust to test the system’s capabilities in space.

‘There is no autonomy without a human in the loop’

There is an air of distrust of autonomous technology from some car buyers, amplified by some high-profile crashes involving Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving” vehicles.

“It’s hard for OEMs to decide where and how to bring this technology to market,” Sierhuis says. “I think this is part of the reason why it’s not there yet, because is it responsible to go from step zero or step one to fully autonomous driving in one big step? Maybe that’s not the right way to teach people how to interact with autonomous systems.”

From the lab team’s perspective, society is experiencing a learning curve and so the team is ensuring that technology is rolled out gradually and responsibly. Nissan’s approach is to carefully calibrate its systems so the car doesn’t take over. Computing is developed for people, and the people are at the center of it, Sierhuis says, and it should always be about that. That’s not just about the system itself; driving should still be fun.

“There is no autonomy without a human in the loop,” he says. “You should have the ability to be the driver yourself and maybe have the autonomous system be your co-driver, making you a better driver, and then use autonomy when you want it and use the fun of driving when you want it. There shouldn’t be an either-or.”

[Related: Why an old-school auto tech organization is embracing electrification]

The Ariya is equipped with Nissan’s latest driver-assist suite, enhanced by seven cameras, five millimeter-wave radars and 12 ultrasonic sonar sensors for accuracy. A high-definition 3D map predicts the road surface, and on certain roads, Nissan says the driver can take their hands off the wheel. That doesn’t mean a nap is in order, though; a driver-attention monitor ensures the driver is still engaged.

New driver assistance technologies raise questions about the relationship between technology and drivers-to-be: What if someone learns how to drive with a full suite of autonomous features and then tries to operate a car that doesn’t have the technology; are they going to be flummoxed? Ultimately, he says, this is a topic the industry hasn’t fully worked through yet.

Making cities smarter

The Alliance Innovation Lab is also studying the roads and cities where EVs operate. So-called “smart cities” integrate intelligence not just into the cars but into the infrastructure, enabling the future envisioned by EV proponents. Adding intelligence to the environment means, for example, that an intersection can be programmed to interface with a software-enabled vehicle making a right-hand turn toward a crosswalk where pedestrians are present. The autonomous system can alert the driver to a potentially dangerous situation and protect both the driver and those in the vicinity from tragedy.  

Another way to make cities smarter is by improving the efficiency of power across the board. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average home consumes about 20 kilowatt-hours per day. Nissan’s new Ariya is powered by an 87-kilowatt battery, which is enough to power a home for four days. Currently, Sierhuis says, we have a constraint optimization problem: car batteries can store a fantastic amount of power that can be shared with the grid in a bi-directional way, but we haven’t figured out how to do that effectively.  

On top of that, car batteries use power in larger bursts than inside homes, and the batteries have limited use before they must be retired. However, that doesn’t mean the batteries are trash at that point; on the contrary, they have quite a bit of energy potential in their second life. Nissan has been harnessing both new and used Leaf batteries to work in tandem with a robust solar array to power a giant soccer stadium (Johan Cruijff Arena) in Amsterdam since 2018. In the same year, Nissan kicked off a project with the British government to install 1,000 vehicle-to-grid charging points across the United Kingdom. It’s just a taste of what the brand and its lab see as a way to overcome infrastructure issues erupting around the world as EVs gain traction.

Combining EV batteries and smart technology, Nissan envisions a way for vehicles to communicate with humans and the grid to manage the system together, in space and here on Earth.

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Lexus, Toyota’s luxury arm, just started delivering its first all-electric vehicle to dealerships in the US. Starting at $59,650, the RZ 450e is offered in two flavors—Premium and Luxury—and it will play a starring role in the Lexus lineup as the brand works toward an all-electric product offering by 2035. Highlights for this new car include a steer-by-wire system with a controller that looks like it belongs in a commercial jet; radiant heaters to warm your feet and legs where a glovebox usually sits; and silky-smooth acceleration that distinguishes the RZ from its competitors.  

Here’s what sets it apart and what it’s like behind the yoke—more on that detail in a bit.

Two motors

The public got its first glimpse of the RZ 450e when it was unveiled last spring. The RZ was built with some familiar parts and design elements borrowed from Toyota’s bZ4X, including the “skateboard” platform the Subaru Solterra also uses. Automakers build EVs on these flat surfaces as a painter uses a blank canvas, creating unique structures unencumbered by engine and transmission placement. The lithium-ion battery is distributed under the subfloor of the vehicle, establishing an even weight balance and sports car feel when cornering.  

Effectively, that’s where the resemblance ends. The RZ employs two motors instead of one (as in the bZ4X or Solterra), and combined, the dual-motor setup delivers a total of 308 horsepower. Even more importantly, the RZ is tuned for luxury customers with incredibly smooth acceleration and a quiet cabin enhanced by active sound control, which balances unwanted cabin noise with directed sound frequencies. When testing it recently in Provence, France, my driving partner and I found we could carry on a conversation in normal voices with no problem, even on somewhat bumpy rural roads.

Inside the cabin, Lexus is now using more bio-based sustainable materials like plant-based “polyester,” or simulated suede (Lexus calls it Ultrasuede) replacing the yards of leather from previous model years. The RZ’s 14-inch touchscreen was first seen in the Lexus NX when the brand finally replaced the often-criticized touchpad that held court in the console of many Lexus vehicles. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, and Wi-Fi connectivity is available for up to five devices. 

A panoramic moonroof is also standard in both trims of the RZ. At the base Premium level, the roof has a special coating called low-e, or low emissivity, to keep the interior cool by blocking some wavelengths of light. Or, you could jump up to the Luxury variant for upgraded dimmable glass that Lexus calls Dynamic Sky. In either case, Lexus opted to remove the motor-driven automatic shade present in many cars with a glass roof. By doing so, the RZ affords more head room and more importantly, it shed 12.8 pounds from the total vehicle weight. 

Steer-by-wire

Also unique to the RZ is an optional steer-by-wire system that Lexus is calling a “game changer.” It’s not the first car to include a U-shaped steering control, typically called a yoke in the aircraft world. A couple of years ago, Tesla dabbled with yoke steering and then offered a retrofit traditional steering wheel for those who didn’t like it. Lexus is not going down that road for good reason: the steering systems are completely different. 

The RZ’s steer-by-wire option is not just a reshaped wheel in the way Tesla attempted. There is no mechanical link between the steering wheel and steering rack with a steer-by-wire setup, as it would be in a car with a traditional steering system. Instead, information is relayed electronically (“by wire”). While a traditional steering wheel can be turned all the way around for a total of about 720 degrees, the steer-by-wire controller tips only 150 degrees in either direction.

“Up until now, there have been other [steer-by-wire systems] but this actually extends the capability by far,” Lexus assistant chief engineer Yushi Higashiyama told PopSci. “Of course, there will be customers who prefer the traditional steering system. The reason why the RZ team took on the challenge of implementing the steer-by-wire system is because that’s also taking on the challenge of the future of electrification and what’s coming next.”

Lexus representatives advised us to take it slow the first time out to get used to the difference in motion, but we found it to be very intuitive and easy to adjust to. Making a 90-degree turn required a gentle twist instead of a hand-over-hand turn, and I thought the steering felt more like a direct connection from my arm motion to the car itself. The RZ is engineered such that the steering ratio adjusts depending on how fast you’re driving, which is intended to feel agile at low speeds and stable at higher speeds.

Before you get too excited about it, know that the steer-by-wire option won’t be available at launch. Lexus has not revealed when it will offer the alternative steering choice; all that the representatives will reveal right now is “not yet.” Incidentally, this feature is called One Motion Grip—OMG, for short—in Europe, and Lexus decided that abbreviation would not play as well in the US market.

Does the RZ offer enough range? 

Because it’s an EV, range anxiety is still a concern for buyers in the US. The Biden administration’s new rollout of standards for EV charging stations, powered by $7.5 billion in federal funding, is aimed at standardizing charging stations across the country. That should help alleviate apprehension, but the market has plenty of room to grow. Still, it may be a surprise to some that the RZ was launched with a range of 220 miles with the standard 18-inch wheels, or 196 miles with the upgraded 20-inch wheels. Bigger wheels mean less rolling resistance and decreased range. 

With a DC fast charger, the RZ’s battery can top up from zero to 80 percent in about 30 minutes. At home with a Level 2 charger, expect it to recharge from zero to 100 percent in roughly 9.5 hours. 

Lexus knows that the RZ’s range is lower than some of its competitors, but Aono says that most RZ buyers will opt for home charging, and that the range is still far above what they need on a daily basis. To entice potential customers who might be skittish about buying an EV, the brand is offering a new benefit called Lexus Reserve. This dealer-led program allows RZ owners to borrow any other available Lexus car from the dealership for free for a total of 30 days over the first three years. That way, if an RZ owner wants to take an extended road trip that exceeds the range, they can borrow a gas-powered GX SUV, for example, to bring the family.

“Americans’ daily average is 40 miles,” Aono says. (According to research from AAA, that number was about 33 in 2021.) “Are you going to be driving 200 miles [in a day]? Probably not. Instead of worrying about that, you can swap your vehicle. We want to make sure our customers are comfortable.”

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Amplitude modulation transmissions, better known as AM, have been a mainstay in traditional car radios for decades. But consumers’ adoption of electric vehicles could soon end the avenue for easy-to-access public safety announcements—and emergency response experts are sounding the alarm.

AM radio may be most often associated with rural church pastor sermons, local high school football coverage, and colorful talk radio hosts, but it actually still serves an extremely vital purpose—few sources are as reliable during disasters and emergencies. These messages can travel the farthest on low radio frequencies, and AM operates on some of the lowest: between 525 to 1705 kHz. Time and again, they inform upwards of 47 million Americans of real-time federal and state information for hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms, wildfires, and other major public safety incidents.

[Related: Pete Buttigieg on how to improve the deadly track record of US drivers.]

Unfortunately, many current electric vehicles’ propulsion systems generate electromagnetic noise that can interfere with AM signals. Both Tesla and Ford have already dropped AM support in their vehicles, including the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning, and emergency management professionals are worried the cuts could spread.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, seven former administrators of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sent a letter on Sunday to both Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and several congressional committees, urging legislators to guarantee continued AM radio support in carmakers’ EVs. According to FEMA via WSJ, an estimated 75 radio stations operating on the AM band covers over 90 percent of the entire US population, and are reinforced by backup comms equipment and generators allowing them to continue issuing crucial information in the event of an emergency. Although EVs’ arrival are needed to speed transitioning to a green transportation industry, losing an affordable, easy-to-maintain, and reliable safety tool could create major problems in the future.

[Related: EV companies call out their own weaknesses in new clean energy report.]

Sen. Ed Markey (D, Mass) previously drew attention to the situation in December 2022 via a letter to 20 EV manufacturers, urging them to commit to continue AM availability in their products. The WSJ reports that the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a group representing major carmakers in the US, pledged a commitment to “maintaining access to safety alerts,” and has been meeting with the National Association of Broadcasters to discuss possible solutions.

For now, at least two automakers—Hyundai and Toyota—have stated they have no plans to remove AM radio support from their EV models, although representatives for the latter company conceded to WSJ that AM radio static “is a challenge” in its electric models.

Correction (March 16, 2023): AM stands for amplitude modulation, not amplitude modification.

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On January 24, Prerak Patel’s new 2023 Tesla Model Y was delivered. Five days later, according to tweets from Patel’s account, the car’s steering wheel fell off while he was driving. Luckily, no one was hurt. But this wasn’t an isolated incident. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the exact same issue has happened to another Model Y. It was enough for the NHTSA to begin looking into the problem, which they estimate could affect over 120,000 cars.

“I wasn’t sure what to do,” he said in an interview with Scripps News. “I was really scared—kids were scared too.”

The exact cause of the issue, according to the NHTSA document, is a manufacturing defect. The retaining bolt, the part of the steering wheel designed to keep it in place and attached to the rest of the steering mechanism, was missing. The report says that both cars received repairs before being delivered that involved removing the steering wheel. 

According to the NHTSA, after being delivered, the steering wheels were held in place by pure friction until they eventually experienced “complete detachment.” In Prerak Patel’s case, that happened while he and his family were on the highway. Luckily, there was no car behind him, and Patel was able to stop safely. After making sure his family was safe, Patel started a thread on Twitter to ask Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the company’s customer support for help. 

The NHTSA investigation is just the latest in a long string of Tesla mishaps. As early as 2018 and 2019, Tesla owners posted videos of poor build quality on their newly delivered cars. Tesla has consistently ranked near the bottom of the Consumer Reports reliability survey, placing second to last in 2021 and 19th out of 24 brands in 2022. But in addition to the manufacturing defects and reliability issues, the so-called self-driving software has also faced regulatory scrutiny.

[Related: Massive new Tesla recall focuses on dangers of self-driving software]

In February, the NHTSA announced a recall of hundreds of thousands of Teslas because of issues in their autopilot system. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta (FSD Beta) system has been linked to fatal accidents. That NHTSA report explains that the FSD Beta was driving unsafely around intersections and ignoring speed limits. The problems were reportedly set to be fixed by an over-the-air software update. 

Tesla isn’t the only automaker to cope with a serious problem like the steering wheel coming off. Not long after Toyota’s first electric SUV, the BZ4X, was released, the company quickly recalled the EVs they had begun delivering because of problems that could lead to the wheels—the ones the vehicle rolls on—completely falling off. After an investigation, Toyota discovered that part of the issue was that a wheel supplier had been manufacturing the wheels to a different specification. Just 260 vehicles were affected. 

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It’s hard to go faster on the road than in a Formula One car, which can reach top speeds of 220 miles per hour. The so-called pinnacle of motorsport races takes place around the world, from Australia to Sao Paulo. And after an exciting week of preseason testing, the 2023 season got underway at the Bahrain International Circuit on March 5. Reigning world champion Max Verstappen won for Red Bull Racing, with his teammate Sergio Perez in second. There are 20 drivers across 10 teams in F1, and none of the other 18 drivers finished within 30 seconds of Verstappen. Only time will tell if the other teams will be able to catch up.

Below F1 are Formula Two and Formula Three, which are called the feeder series, and function in a similar fashion to baseball’s minor leagues. They’re mostly young drivers attempting to prove their worth by competing against each other for a spot in the big leagues. It’s how most drivers gain one of the 20 seats currently available in F1. (All three F1 rookies this season, Nyck DeVries, Oscar Piastri, and Logan Sargeant, drove at least one season in F2.)

But like any other vehicle with an internal combustion engine, Formula One vehicles burn fossil fuels, which is a problem in a world that must decarbonize to combat climate change. Beyond the 20 Formula One cars racing on tracks every other weekend, there are the massive transportation costs to move the teams and drivers across the globe and the millions of fans traveling to and from the racing circuits.

The Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Formula One’s governing body, realizes that. In November 2019, F1 and the FIA announced plans to become fully carbon neutral by the end of 2030, and the plans to make that transition are already underway. 

Formula One currently uses a hybrid fuel that’s 10% biofuel and will make the transition to fully renewable fuels in 2026, meaning all carbon output by the cars will be offset by the production of the fuel. There will be other regulatory changes as well. 

Now, F1 has announced that their feeder series will be following along. Starting with the opening sprint race of the 2023 season at Bahrain last weekend, F2 and F3 cars will use a blend consisting of 55% “Advanced Sustainable Fuel.” And by 2027, according to The Race, the feeder series aim to use a type of sustainable, carbon-captured fuel called e-fuel.

What are sustainable fuels?

“Sustainable fuel” is a catch-all term for a bunch of different alternative ways of producing fuels for planes and cars with the goal of reducing their carbon footprint. It includes biofuels, which recycle organic materials into fuel (this is what F1’s hybrid fuel is) but also carbon-capturing e-fuels that are made by taking carbon from the air, which is what F2 and F3 plan to switch to in 2027. But what all sustainable fuels have in common are their low net carbon emissions.

When it comes to e-fuels created by carbon capture, Nikita Pavlenko, the fuel program lead at the International Council on Clean Transportation, says there are two different sources—getting it directly from the atmosphere, or getting it from smokestacks: “You have a fuel that is pretty close to zero carbon, just produced from renewable electricity and carbon dioxide captured from the air or from a smokestack.” While F1 is allowed to source their carbon from so-called point sources (Pavlenko says this is almost always taken from smokestacks), F2 and F3’s fuel must be fully sourced by direct-air carbon capture technology.

That strict direct-air carbon capturing is what differentiates e-fuel from biofuels and other sustainable power sources, and according to Pavlenko, it’s a very new technology. The F2 and F3 experiments will be one of the first large-scale applications of e-fuel, which has implications for the future of transportation. Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, the chief technology officer at Aramco, who will supply the e-fuel, tells The Race that the FIA understands this is a hard goal to reach because of how underdeveloped carbon capture technologies are but is committed to setting the course. 

Pavlenko says he’s excited that F1 is pursuing e-fuels, because of their very prohibitive cost. “F1 would be one of the use cases that’s best able to support the cost difference,” he says. “It’s a relatively small quantity [in relation to the quantity of non-sustainable fuels] and I assume there’s a high willingness to pay.”

Even better: EVs

There are some concerns, however. The FIA will have to ensure that its e-fuel is made using renewable energy sources. Much like electric cars, producing e-fuel using electricity created by fossil fuels simply moves the source of emissions rather than limits it. In addition, Palvenko says that e-fuel generally has more applications in aviation than on the road, where using electric vehicles is the generally best way to go.

In the past 20 years, F1 has exploded in popularity, thanks to new ownership and a series on Netflix. But as it’s gone global, it’s come under increasing scrutiny for its sustainability, or lack thereof. The FIA is making an effort, however. Even before the fuel changes, F1’s sister electric-only series Formula E launched in 2014. Only time will tell if the two series will eventually merge, but anyone who’s watched Formula E can confirm that the racing is just as electric as the cars are.

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Concept cars are designed to be flights of fancy—showpieces that give automakers the chance to put their creativity on display. Quite often, a concept car represents just a blip on a timeline and a blast of buzzy excitement, later shelved in a museum for all of us to marvel at a company’s foresight or folly. 

A concept, by definition, is an idea; in this case, a concept car is an idea that takes the temperature of the public to see how buyers might react to a set of features and designs. Automakers don’t necessarily release a concept every year, and they have to balance the cost of building a vehicle that may or may not ever see the light of the production line. While it’s true that some concepts fade into oblivion, others become successful models that carry many of the same characteristics as the concept. Even those that are wildly futuristic and wacky lay the groundwork for innovations to come. 

Most recently, truck maker Ram announced the 1500 Rev, the production version of its Revolution EV concept. The Revolution (not the Rev) was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, with some exciting features, like coach doors (which open at the center like French doors in a home), and a glass roof that adjusts its tint electronically. But when the production version launched at the Chicago Auto Show in February, some expressed disappointment in how much it looked like its gas-powered sibling. Where were the cool removable third-row seats from the concept? Where was the storage tunnel to hold long objects?

To be fair, automakers—especially when they’re large, public companies—are beholden to not just manufacturing and safety regulations but their shareholders. In the case of the Ram 1500 Rev, the company will build the production vehicle on the new all-electric architecture from its parent company Stellantis instead of the one used by the gas version of the 1500 truck.

Otherworldly concepts

There’s a long history of wild concept cars, many of which never became actual production models.

Consider the otherworldly Berlinetta Aerodynamica Tecnica series commissioned by luxury automaker Alfa Romeo in the mid-1950s. These three cars featured unusual, gorgeous bodies that evoke sea creatures in motion. And somehow, all of them survived in remarkable shape and sold as a set for more than $14 million at auction in 2020. These concepts, which never became production vehicles, were more art than realism, unlike recent modern offerings. 

In 2021, Genesis unveiled its X Concept EV, a sleek coupe with wraparound parallel LED lights defining its curves. Last year, it followed up with the X Concept convertible that peeled back the top and showed off more futuristic details. To our great joy, Automotive News reported that the X Convertible recently got the green light for official production. 

Also under the Hyundai Motor Group, Kia introduced a streamlined concept in 2011 that eventually gave way to the Stinger, which was widely lauded by the industry as a game-changer for the Korean manufacturer. Engineered by a former BMW vice president of engineering and sketched out by celebrated former Audi designer, the Stinger was finally launched to the world in 2017. It was taller than the concept and included more buttoned-down design features on the outside, but under the hood the performance was impressive, especially the 365-horsepower GT model. A moment of silence for the now-discontinued Stinger, please. Hope springs eternal, as rumors of an all-electric Stinger have been swirling. 

On the gas-powered side, the raw and rowdy Dodge Viper started life as a concept showcased for the first time at the 1989 Detroit auto show. Using an existing truck engine as its base, the concept evolved over three years into the 1992 Viper RT/10 and delighted fast-car enthusiasts for more than two and a half decades until it was discontinued in 2017. 

From Revolution to Rev

In the same automotive manufacturing family as the Viper, the Ram 1500 Rev moved quickly from concept to production. And while the Rev may not be exactly the same as the Revolution, it retains the benefit of sharing some parts with the gas-powered Ram 1500 pickup. That will both speed production and keep the cost on the manageable side. Ford did the same thing for its F-150 Lightning, which is purposely built to feel familiar to F-150 customers to avoid alienating its loyal base. 

The 1500 Rev will not be equipped with the removable jump seats from the concept, which could have turned the Ram pickup into the first third-row truck. Ryan Nagode, Ram/SRT’s chief designer for interiors, was inspired to add the track seating when he noticed parents hauling around stadium seats to make hours of sitting on the bleachers at their kids’ sporting events more comfortable. He wondered if something like that could be incorporated into the truck and successfully integrated the idea into the cabin of the Revolution concept. 

“There have been vehicles in the past with jump seats, and I think there is a lot of reality built into these ideas,” Nagode told PopSci at the Concept Garage of the Chicago Auto Show in February. “Obviously, some of these things take a little pushing and pulling with the engineering team, but I think it’s not far-fetched.” 

Alas, those seats won’t be included in the Rev, but the seeds of creativity could feasibly show up sometime in the future. 

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You may not have heard of the Speciality Equipment Market Association, but SEMA, as it is known, hosts a massive event annually to showcase the hottest parts and technology in the automotive industry. But with cars changing, and new types of vehicles emerging in the space, the 60-year-old organization debuted SEMA Electrified in 2019 to highlight gas-free machines and parts. Since then, the section has grown from a handful of features to 60 exhibits encompassing 21,000 square feet.

That’s a big leap for an organization that was founded by a bunch of performance equipment makers making a living from gas-guzzling hot rods. And yet it makes sense, says SEMA director of vehicle technology Luis Morales. Everything about the EV market is growing, including the aftermarket for spare parts, accessories, and components. It only makes sense to give these cars their share of the automotive spotlight—even if some of the event’s audience may be anti-electric.

“There are going to be diehard gas or diesel fans who may be hesitant to convert, and that’s fine. We love where we came from,” Morales told PopSci. “Then again, we also want to bring in all the new options that are coming out to the market.”

Encouraging electrification in the aftermarket

Long before the Prius and other electrified cars were even a twinkle in Toyota’s eye, SEMA formed as an alliance of manufacturers in 1963. Then, gas-powered vehicles were in full swing while alternative fuels were a far-off futuristic idea. As hybrid and electric technology started to take off, leaders at SEMA started to notice not just new powertrains but innovations like portable battery packs and full conversion kits.

SEMA vice president of marketing RJ de Vera points to California-based EV West as an example of a company seeing incredible success selling electric car parts, conversion kits that turn a gas-powered car into an EV, and charging accessories. Interest in full conversions is growing as parts for older gas-powered cars become scarce; after all, an electric motor is made up of just a few components, while combustion engines can contain hundreds of parts. 

Conversion kits are a hot aftermarket item, de Vera says, some with wait lists that are two or three years long. EVs don’t require an engine, fuel tank, or fuel pumps, for example, and really just one moving part: the motor. 

[Related: Chevy’s first electrified Corvette, the E-Ray, is a heavyweight built to be quick]

“That seems to be more and more of an interest point for a lot of enthusiasts that are doing a restomod,” de Vera says. Restomod is the process of revamping a classic car with more modern technology.  “They might be thinking it’s going to be such a pain to get the original engine or get gaskets or things that are no longer made, especially for quirkier vehicles. An EV conversion becomes a lot more enticing because the powertrain is so simple.”

Discovering enthusiasm within the EV market

As recently as the 2018 SEMA show, EVs were scarce and aftermarket parts even more so. However, slowly, then all at once, interesting new niche companies emerged. For instance, companies like Juice Technology, which was founded less than a decade ago, are now selling portable EV chargers that weigh just a few pounds and are capable of charging even at temperatures as low as -22 degrees F or as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s music to an EV owner’s ears, since temperature fluctuations can affect range and charging in a big way. A portable charger for an EV means that it can be toted around for emergencies like a charging bank for a smartphone; it’s meant to offer a bit of a respite from range anxiety with a quick burst of power to get you to the next charging station. 

“Range anxiety is the reason everybody is focused on getting a car with the most mileage they can get per charge, and that drives up the price of the vehicle, which can make EVs a little bit less attractive to the consumer,” Morales says. Portable chargers could ease that. Plus, it’s kind of an old automotive practice, but just in a slightly newer form. 

“If you look at the overland scene, for example, there are trucks that go camping 30 or 40 miles off road. You’ll notice that they carry their spare fuel, just in case they run low on fuel,” he adds. “[These portable chargers] can get you out of a situation where you need to get to a charging station as opposed to calling a tow truck.”

Whether it’s devices, parts, alternative fuels and powertrains, or new technology, SEMA leadership is striving to embrace it all. Not to mention there’s a lot of room for small startups to think creatively, chip away at current challenges, and grow fast in the space. 

“It’s not just about [internal combustion] vehicles or EV vehicles,” de Vera says. “It’s really about the culture of being a proud vehicle owner and having that passion for automotive culture as well as aftermarket customization and modification. And that’s really our message: to make sure that the love for cars and modifying cars and customizing them stays around for generations.” 

Correction on March 6, 2023: This article has been updated to correctly describe SEMA as the Speciality Equipment Market Association, not the Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association.

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Solar canopies built above parking lots are an increasingly common sight around the country—you can already see these installed at university campuses, airports, and lots near commercial office buildings. Because the sun is a renewable resource, these solar canopies reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with energy production. 

The clean energy benefits are clear: A 32-acre solar carport canopy at Rutgers University in New Jersey, for instance, produces about 8.8 megawatts of power, or about $1.2 million in electricity. They also make use of existing space to generate clean energy rather than occupying croplands, arid lands, and grasslands.

There may be other perks to adding solar panels over parking lots, too. Research shows that the benefits of solar canopies can be taken a step further if electric vehicles (EVs) are able to charge right in the parking lot. People can tap into this potential by installing EV chargers in solar carports, which makes charging more accessible for owners and creates a small-scale local energy grid for the community. The expense of installation and other barriers, though, can make deployment challenging. 

EV charging in the carport

A solar carport canopy with 286 solar modules is able to produce about 140 megawatt-hours of energy per year for EV charging, according to a new Scientific Reports study. That’s enough to provide electricity to more than 3,000 vehicles per month if each car parks for an hour. The authors say charging EVs this way can generate 94 percent lower total carbon dioxide emissions than electricity from traditional grid methods. 

To maximize these benefits, smart technology that controls the timing and speed of charging is critical, says Lynn Daniels, manager at RMI’s Carbon-Free Transportation program who was not involved in the study. Smart charging allows users to optimize energy consumption by charging only when prices are cheaper due to low-energy demand or when more renewable energy is available on the grid.

[Related: Solar energy company wants to bolt panels directly into the ground]

EV ownership is growing so swiftly that entire electric grids are at risk of being stressed. If most owners across the US Western region continue to charge their EVs during nighttime, peak electricity demand can increase by up to 25 percent, according to a 2022 Applied Energy study. Accessible daytime charging at work or public charging stations would help address this problem and reduce GHG emissions.

There are ways to maximize emission reductions when smart-charging electric vehicles, according to a recent report from RMI, a nonprofit organization focusing on sustainability. “Our report found that, today, charging one million EVs at the right times is equivalent to taking between 20,000 and 80,000 internal combustion engine vehicles off the road,” says Daniels. If EVs represent 25 percent of vehicles by 2030, “emissions-optimized smart charging,” he adds, would be the equivalent of removing an additional 5.73 million automobiles with combustion engines.

A source of revenue, goodwill, and more

Solar canopies provide vehicles with protection from rain, sleet, hail, and other inclement weather, says Joshua M. Pearce, whose research specializes in solar photovoltaic technology and sustainable development at Western University in Canada. The shade they provide also means car owners may require less cooling from air conditioning at start-up because the vehicle didn’t stay under the sun. But that’s not all they can do.

A solar carport canopy with EV charging can be an opportunity for site owners to earn money if drivers have to pay a fee to charge their cars, says Daniels.

On the other hand, if businesses or large-scale retailers provide EV charging for free, Pearce says, that may develop goodwill with customers. Shoppers might spend more time and money while waiting for their cars to charge, allowing business owners to earn even more profit, he adds. And shopping centers have lots of potentially convertible areas: If Walmart deployed 11.1 gigawatts of solar canopies over its 3,571 Supercenter parking lots in the US, that would provide more than 346,000 solar-powered EV charging stations for 90 percent of Americans living within 15 miles of a store, according to a 2021 estimate.

[Related: What you need to know about converting your home to solar]

Solar canopies also save energy, since about 5 percent of electricity is lost each year as it travels from a power plant to your home or business. If the electricity the solar panels produce is used directly by the buildings they’re connected to or the EVs charging in the parking lots, transmission losses can be reduced, says Pearce.

The widespread deployment of solar canopies across parking lots may be an opportunity to create a small-scale local energy grid as well. The electrical grid is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, intentional physical attacks, and cyberattacks. Solar systems in parking lots can be used as anchors for microgrids—local, autonomous power systems that can remain operational while the main grid is down—that could make communities more resilient, “similar to how the US military uses solar to improve national security,” says Pearce.

Logistics of transforming parking lots

Upfront capital costs are the primary roadblocks to solar-powered carports with EV charging, says Pearce. The physical structure needs to be taller and more robust than a conventional solar farm, requiring more materials like metal and concrete, he adds. EV chargers also cost money, increasing the price even further. Commercial EV charging stations can cost around $2,500 to $40,000 for a single port. An installation often requires permits and approval from local authorities or inspectors, all of which are additional expenses and barriers to faster deployment.

The design of the solar array may be a challenge, too. “There’s a trade-off between right-sizing the solar array for current EV charging needs versus anticipated future demand and the costs of the solar array,” says Daniels. “The solar array design and location on the site can create significant variability in installation complexity and project costs.”

Daniels recommends raising awareness about the currently-available tax credits and other incentives, such as the federal solar tax credit that can deduct 30 percent of total commercial solar installation costs. There is a tax credit of 6 percent (with a maximum credit of $100,000 per unit) on commercial charging equipment as well, given that it is placed in a low-income community.

When it comes to new regulations, Pearce suggests that policymakers begin with a small step, like mandating solar-powered carports with EV charging capabilities for new surface parking or government-owned lots. After that, requirements for other locations like public universities could follow, he adds.

States or municipalities could also offer incentives other than the existing federal solar tax credit. To encourage state agencies, government offices, businesses, and nonprofits to install EV-charging solar canopies over parking lots, the Maryland Energy Administration’s Solar Canopy and Dual Use Technology Grant Program is offering grants. In 2019, one of these grants enabled IKEA to install a 1.5-megawatt solar canopy with EV charging stations at its Baltimore store.

Moreover, offering low- or no-interest loans to small- and medium-sized businesses can help them “keep up with the big firms investing millions in solar now simply to make money,” says Pearce. In general, if the federal government hopes to break one of the biggest barriers to the installation of solar canopies with EV charging capabilities, reducing upfront costs would be the key.

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Franklin Chang-Díaz gets into his car, turns on the radio and hears the news about another increase in the price of gasoline. But he sets off knowing that his trip won’t be any more expensive: His tank is filled with hydrogen. His car takes that element and combines it with oxygen in a fuel cell that works like a small power plant, creating energy — which goes into a battery to power the car — and water vapor. Not only will Chang-Díaz’s trip cost no more than it did yesterday, it will also pollute far less than a traditional gasoline-powered car would.

Chang-Díaz would like to have a public hydrogen station nearby whenever he needs to fill his tank, but that isn’t possible yet, either in his native Costa Rica or in any other Latin American country. He ends up instead at the hydrogen station he built himself, as part of a project aimed at demonstrating that hydrogen generated with renewable energy sources — green hydrogen — is the present, not the future.

A physicist, former NASA astronaut and the CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company, Chang-Díaz has a clear vision. Green hydrogen, he believes, is a fundamental player in lowering emissions from transportation and converting regions that import fossil fuels — such as his small Central American country — into exporters of clean energy, key to avoiding the catastrophic effects of global warming.

According to data from the Inter-American Development Bank, the most polluting sectors in Latin America to which clean hydrogen technology could be applied are transportation (which generates 40 percent of the region’s CO₂ emissions) and electricity and energy (36 percent of emissions). And Chang-Díaz is not alone in his belief in the promise. Large-scale hydrogen transportation will be part of the future, says Nilay Shah, a chemical engineer at Imperial College London. “By 2050, hydrogen could deliver 18 percent of the global energy supply … 28 percent of which would be destined for the transport sector,” he and his colleagues note in an article on the application of hydrogen in mobility technologies in the 2022 Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

But for green hydrogen to become an important player in the world’s energy resources, the technologies for obtaining it will need to be developed on a large scale. Latin America wants to be part of this future and is already preparing, with projects throughout the region.

Not all hydrogen is the same

Hydrogen is the lightest chemical element: Its nucleus has only one proton, orbited by an electron. It’s also the most common: Up to 90 percent of the atoms in the universe are believed to be hydrogen atoms. In its gaseous state (H ₂), it is tasteless, colorless and odorless. In the terrestrial environment, it is usually found in more complex compounds, such as two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom to form a water molecule (H ₂O), or four hydrogen atoms bonded to one carbon atom to form methane (CH ₄). If we need the hydrogen atoms alone, we must uncouple them from these compounds.

The use of hydrogen as an energy source is not new. For decades, NASA mixed H₂ gas with oxygen to generate the energy needed to lift hundreds of tons and send its shuttles into space. The US Department of Energy lists it as a safer fuel than fossil fuels because it is non-toxic and dissipates quickly in the event of a leak, since it is lighter than air.

At present, hydrogen as an energy source is mainly used in the production of petroleum derivatives, steel, ammonia and methanol. According to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2020 the world’s population consumed about 90 million tons of hydrogen — equivalent to only 2.5 percent of global energy consumption. Latin America uses only 5 percent of this hydrogen, mainly in countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia and Chile. It is mostly dirty hydrogen, which pollutes the planet due to the processes used to obtain it.

Depending on how it is derived, hydrogen can be classified as gray, blue, green — or even black. Gray hydrogen is generated using fossil fuels — natural gas especially, in the case of Latin America. In a process called steam reforming, carbon monoxide (CO) and water vapor (H₂O) are subjected to high temperatures, moderate pressure and a catalyst, producing carbon dioxide (CO ₂) and hydrogen (H ₂). If coal is used instead of gas to generate the heat necessary for steam reforming, the hydrogen is then considered black — the worst of all, from an environmental point of view.

Blue hydrogen uses gas or coal in the same steam reforming process, but in this case 80 percent to 90 percent of the carbon emissions end up underground through a process called industrial carbon capture and storage (CSS). Finally, green hydrogen — also called clean hydrogen — uses electrical energy generated by renewable sources, such as solar and wind power, to separate the water molecule into its two elements, hydrogen and oxygen, by means of an anode and a cathode in a process called electrolysis.

Currently, less than 0.4 percent of the hydrogen utilized in Latin America is green; the rest is linked to fossil fuels. In fact, in 2019, hydrogen production for the region required more natural gas than all of the gas consumed in Chile, a country with 19 million inhabitants. And it generated more polluting emissions than those produced in a year by all the cars in Colombia, a nation with some 7 million vehicles.

Globally, 4 percent of hydrogen production is already the result of electrolysis, but the remaining 96 percent still requires gas, coal or petroleum derivatives.

Toward green hydrogen

With the goal of producing more and more green hydrogen, several projects on different scales are taking shape in Latin America.

• The Brazilian company Unigel plans to inaugurate a $120 million plant in 2023, which will produce 10,000 tons per year of green hydrogen — the equivalent of 60 megawatts (MW) — in its first stage.
• Sener Ingeniería Mexico announced in August 2022 the creation of the first of a series of small plants, of about 2.5 MW.
• Chile, for its part, is already seeing some of the fruits of its National Green Hydrogen Strategy, launched in 2020. This South American country says it plans to “conquer global markets” in 2030, mainly Europe and China, where it aims to send 72 percent of its production. The port of entry to Germany will be Hamburg. “With its great potential for green hydrogen production, Chile is on the verge of becoming an exporter of global magnitude,” said the mayor of Hamburg, Peter Tschenscher, during the signing of a cooperation agreement in September 2022.
• Uruguay launched the Green Hydrogen Sector Fund, with $10 million non-reimbursable funding from the government to finance projects. In August 2022, nine companies won a spot, some with names such as “Green H ₂ Production for Forest Transport” and “Palos Blancos Project: green hydrogen, ammonia and fertilizer production plant with wind and solar photovoltaic renewable energy.”
• And in Costa Rica, Chang-Díaz is helping lead the way to add green hydrogen to the country’s portfolio of clean energy sources (about 99 percent of electricity in Costa Rica is generated through sources such as the sun, wind and water from dams). In July 2022, Chang-Díaz demonstrated on social media how he fueled his car, at a prototype station, with green hydrogen produced in his own country.

While some Latin American countries may benefit from the production of green hydrogen, others will benefit from large-scale consumption of the clean energy source. For example, Trinidad and Tobago, which consumes 40 percent of the region’s hydrogen for its oil refining processes, emits 12.3 metric tons of carbon per person per year (by comparison, Costa Rica emits 1.6 metric tons per capita per year, according to 2019 World Bank data). If Trinidad and Tobago used green hydrogen in its processes instead of gray hydrogen, its carbon footprint would be significantly reduced.

Other countries are being creative and are not yet focusing on either production or consumption of green hydrogen. Panama, for example, seeks to become a storage and commercialization node for the element, like the air and maritime transport hub it already is. As part of this national energy transformation plan, called Green Hydrogen Roadmap, the authorities of this country signed a memorandum of understanding with Siemens Energy. Panama also has plans to produce some of its own green hydrogen eventually: The Ciudad Dorada Biorefinery, expected to begin construction this year, will have the capacity to generate 405,000 metric tons.

“Green hydrogen technology is developing worldwide and by 2030 Latin America will be the third region in the world with the most projects, after Europe and Australia,” says José Miguel Bermúdez, chemical engineer and energy technology analyst at the IEA.

For Shah, the reason for this growing interest is clear: Many Latin American countries have the potential to generate more clean energy than they need. “Let’s take Chile, for example,” he says. “The amount of potential for renewable electricity is probably 10 times more than the amount of electricity you need in the country.” Exporting that clean energy from Chile or Costa Rica in the form of electricity over long distances is complicated and expensive. But using it to create hydrogen and transport it in tanks to practically any place in the world is realistic, he says, although it will require investments — just as investments in oil tankers and gas pipelines were once needed.

But, Shah adds, green hydrogen could also be transported with existing infrastructure if it is used to create popular products, such as ammonia (NH₃, a nitrogen atom bonded to three hydrogen atoms, a compound widely used in agriculture) or synthetic fuels.

Challenges to be solved

After the production and distribution of green hydrogen comes its myriad uses. To power car batteries, it’s combined with oxygen in a fuel cell and generates water vapor and energy. To manufacture iron, hydrogen is used to transform one molecule of iron oxide (Fe₂O ₃) into two molecules of iron (Fe) and three molecules of water (H ₂O) at high temperatures — fossil fuels are currently used for this purpose. Processing this iron further, with more energy, produces steel.

The manufacture of cement also requires high temperatures, currently generated with fossil fuels: The IEA indicates that as much as 67 percent of hydrogen demand in 2030 could come from this industry. In addition, hydrogen combined with carbon in the Fischer-Tropsch process generates synthetic fuels, which are cleaner than traditional fossil fuels. Aircraft are already allowed to fly on up to 50 percent synthetic kerosene.

Some 50,000 hydrogen vehicles are already on the road worldwide, Bermúdez adds. Projections are that the number will soon skyrocket — China alone expects to have 1 million on its streets by 2035 — but experts agree that, in the short or medium term, hydrogen will not completely replace the most polluting fuels; instead, it will be one alternative in a matrix of different options, such as traditional electric cars or solar-powered airplanes. However, the experts also agree that it will be a significant option, not a marginal one.

“There will be a series of technologies and areas of opportunity that do not have to be specifically the same in all the countries of our region,” says Andrés González Garay, a process engineer at the chemical company BASF and a coauthor of the article on hydrogen production and its applications to mobility in the Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “It is also true that hydrogen, although it can be applied in a lot of areas, will not make sense in all of them, and it will depend a lot on our political, social and economic systems.”

To arrive at the more environmentally friendly scenario that green hydrogen offers, its production should be increased as soon as possible and, at the same time, its consumption needs to be encouraged, Shah says. “Global hydrogen production is expected to grow six to 10 times between now and 2050,” González Garay says, and the increase is projected to be mainly in clean hydrogen.

The role of governments will be pivotal, the scientists say. “If governments become the first users of hydrogen — for their buildings, for their vehicle fleets, for their other operations, for power generation — they become the customer. Then they can create the supply chain of hydrogen and give confidence to the producers that there is a market,” Shah says.

Adds Bermúdez: “The public sector needs to put the regulations and support programs in place to accelerate the private sector. Public policies are needed to force demand for green hydrogen…. If Latin America does not position itself well and start producing and closing agreements, it runs the risk of being left behind.”

Chang-Díaz, for his part, fears that countries like Costa Rica, despite producing almost all its electricity through clean renewable sources, risk moving too late to take advantage of the wave of green hydrogen that is already beginning to rise. In December 2022 he participated as a speaker at an international meeting held in San José, the capital of his country. But at the same time, a few kilometers away, the bill to support the green hydrogen sector, which has been under discussion for months, has not advanced in the Legislative Assembly.

So, at least for now, Chang-Díaz will remain the only one in his country who can travel in a car that uses green hydrogen as fuel.

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

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Tesla is carrying out a recall because of issues with its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta, according to an announcement posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website, which cites the software’s potential to cause crashes. The supposed fix will come in the form of a free software update issued over the air.

According to the announcement, certain Teslas with the FSD Beta engaged could “act unsafe around intersections, such as traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, entering a stop sign-controlled intersection without coming to a complete stop, or proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution.” The software also could encounter problems with “changes in posted speed limits.” The recall affects all 2016-2023 Model S and Model X vehicles, 2017-2023 Model 3s, and 2020-2023 Model Y vehicles utilizing FSD Beta. All told, as many as 362,758 could be affected.

Tesla’s autopilot technology employs machine learning and cameras to aid in steering, lane changes, braking, and speed changes. Alleged incidents, some fatal, involving cars with versions of the software have been reported over the years, while the electric vehicle maker continued to offer public testing subscriptions to its customers.

[Related: Tesla is under federal investigation over autopilot claims.]

At the end of 2021, over 475,000 vehicles faced a recall due to front trunk hood and rearview camera issues. As CNBC reports, Tesla has never disclosed the exact number of vehicles using FSD Beta, but CEO Elon Musk said in the company’s most recent earnings call that it had been deployed to “roughly 400,000 customers in North America.” He added during the call that, “This is a huge milestone for autonomy as FSD Beta is the only way any consumer can actually test the latest AI-powered autonomy.” Musk tweeted today contesting the word “recall,” while Tesla plans to release a free over-the-air (OTA) software update.

[Related: YouTube pulls video of Tesla fan testing autopilot on kid.]

In October 2022, news leaked that the Department of Justice was conducting an ongoing investigation into alleged misleading and false claims regarding its “Autopilot” systems, which still explicitly requires a human driver behind the wheel at all times. As recently as last fall, Musk said FSD mode was close to being able to drive people “to your work, your friend’s house, to the grocery store without you touching the wheel.” Tesla also faces investigations from the state of California over similar statements. Last month, the NHTSA said it was “working really fast” on another “extensive” Tesla Autopilot probe that could affect more than 830,000 vehicles.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has called terms like Autopilot “extremely problematic.”

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Two up-and-coming electric vehicle companies, Polestar and Rivian, aren’t mincing words about their industry’s shortcomings. In a new report commissioned by the automakers from global management consulting firm Kearney, experts warn the EV economy remains “far off track” from doing its part to meet targets set by the Paris Climate Agreement. Signed by 196 countries in 2015, the Paris Agreement aims to keep the world’s temperature from increasing more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The team-up between two technically competing carmakers is outside the norm, but as Ellen Broomé, a spokesperson for Polestar, explained to The Verge on Thursday, the report’s “shocking and sobering” data confirmed their suspicions that “everything was moving too slow.”

[Related: A new solution could keep old wind turbine blades out of landfills.]

“We have both been frustrated by the lack of an honest, data- and science-led pathway for the car industry to remain in line with [Paris Agreement’s] 1.5-degree limit,” they added.

As the new report explains, despite the rising interest in EVs alongside automakers’ commitments to retiring internal combustion engines, companies’ primary focus on eliminating greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions is simply not enough. Instead, Kearney’s conclusions urge businesses to rapidly increase investments in renewable energy power grids, as well as reducing emissions generated across their entire supply chains. Polestar and Rivian concede carmakers haven’t been traditionally involved directly within these separate industries, but urge rethinking the approach to such topics in order to meet climate change goals. Potential avenues include vehicle companies investing more heavily in clean energy companies, or starting their own projects in the field.

[Related: Honda’s newest Accord hybrid is a sleek, brawny beast.]

One of the main areas requiring improvement is battery sourcing and construction, by far the largest source of pollution within EV production. Automakers must simultaneously focus on vastly reducing emissions, the authors of the report argue, alongside revising what materials are used in the batteries themselves.

The report’s conclusions depict an extremely tall order, one that will require unprecedented cooperation between automakers across the board to accomplish the already lofty goals. “We need to come together to create a plan to tackle the challenge and deliver on that plan as quickly as possible,” the paper’s authors urged.

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In 2009, Prince Albert II of Monaco asked experimental vehicle manufacturer Venturi to take a crack at designing an electric vehicle that could handle the harsh cold of Antarctica. Over the next 12 years, the company went to work. After testing out two full prototypes, the company pulled off a final product launch on June 1, 2021. The Venturi Antarctica, as the vehicle is called, has been transporting scientists and lab equipment in eastern Antarctica since December 2021.

Designing an electric vehicle for the harsh climate of Antarctica is no easy feat. The battery and other components have to be able to tolerate the frigid Antarctic temperatures, and there needs to be space to store research equipment and transport the researchers comfortably. Venturi has experience with experimental electric vehicles going back to 2000, and has competed in Formula E, the top-tier electric car racing competition in the world, since its inaugural season in 2014. 

[Related: Boaty McBoatface’s new mission is more serious than its name]

According to Venturi, scientists based at the Belgian Princess Elizabeth research station have driven the Antarctica EV over 500 kilometers (310 miles) in just one summer of use. The vehicle has a range of 50 kilometers (31 miles), with space for a second battery if the scientists need more range. However, its range can vary depending on how compact the snow it has to drive on is, and scientists started noticing some problems. 

As climate change has affected global temperatures, Antarctica has warmed. Average temperatures on the icy continent ranges from a frigid -50 degrees Celsius (-58 F) inland to around -10 C (14 F) on the coasts, and the vehicle, designed for the extra cold, needed tweaks to tolerate the relative warmth. Venturi instructed researchers to limit trips to 40 kilometers (25 miles), and is beginning work on modifications to restore the vehicle to its true glory. 

Since Antarctica is covered almost entirely in snow, the Antarctica EV uses a continuous track system, just like you’d expect on a snowcat or a snowmobile. The treads spread the 5,500 pounds of vehicle over its entire surface area, preventing the Antarctica EV from sinking into the snow like a wheeled vehicle would. But the warmer temperatures have caused the snow to stick to the sprockets that drive the treads, creating unwanted vibrations that could further damage the vehicle. The company has since redesigned and replaced the sprockets in an attempt to keep the vehicle in working order.

Increasing temperatures also made it more likely for the cabin, which is packed with electronics and exposed to the sun, to overheat. To balance that out, Venturi has had to install a new ventilation system for a more comfortable riding experience. They also made a new cooling system for the power electronic systems themselves.

Venturi announced on January 24 that their next set of improvements will be focused on redesigning the treads and increasing the vehicle’s range in Antarctica. Barring any other unforeseen circumstances, these should allow the vehicle to putter around the ice and snow of the southern continent more and more in the years to come.

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Something remarkable has happened in Hoboken, New Jersey over the past six years: No one has died in a traffic crash since early January, 2017. 

But Hoboken, with a population of some 60,000 people, unfortunately is not representative of the United States as a whole, where traffic deaths have risen since the beginning of the pandemic. In 2020, more than 38,800 people died because of traffic crashes, a nearly 7 percent increase from the year before. And then they climbed again in 2021, up by more than 10 percent compared to 2020 and hitting nearly 43,000. 

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg draws a comparison between this problem and casualties from firearms. “Most Americans know that there’s a difference between the rate of gun death in the US and in most developed countries. I’m not sure most Americans know that something similar is going on with roadway deaths,” Buttigieg tells PopSci. “Not the same disparity—but a comparable pattern, where a lot of other places that also have cars and drivers and advanced economies don’t have the level of carnage that we do.” 

That carnage has continued into 2022, although initial data from the first nine months of that year suggest that traffic deaths may have declined a tiny amount compared to the same time frame in 2021. But pedestrian and cyclist deaths still continued to climb last year, as they have throughout the pandemic—vulnerable people on the roads are being killed by vehicles, and in climbing numbers. 

Here’s why experts think it’s been happening, how technology can help (even as it also causes problems), and what to know about the simple changes that Hoboken has made to try to make its streets safer. 

Why did traffic deaths spike as the pandemic began?

“One prevailing theory is that you saw less traffic, higher speeds, and the crashes that happened were more likely to be fatal,” Buttigieg says. 

That’s a big piece of the equation, says Leah Shahum, the director of the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit that aims to help connect communities with one another to fight traffic deaths. Another underlying issue is that “we’ve supersized our roads,” she says, allowing people to speed when congestion is absent. “And then secondly, our vehicles are getting a lot bigger.” 

Buttigieg also notes that in general, the tech inside some vehicles right now acts as a double-edged sword. 

He mentions in-car systems where the vehicle might track your eyes to see if you’re paying attention while cruise control is engaged. “What that means is that we have some technologies that are being developed to protect you from over-reliance on some of the other technologies that are being developed,” he says. “And it just shows you what a complicated and sensitive time we’re in.” 

Complicating the landscape are terms like “Autopilot,” the Tesla feature whose name alone implies that the vehicle is on a type of autopilot, like an aircraft. “There is no commercially available technology that doesn’t require that you be paying attention and driving,” Buttigieg says. “Words like ‘autopilot’ I think are extremely problematic.” 

[Related: What can ‘smart intersections’ do for a city? Chattanooga aims to find out.]

Tesla is in the crosshairs of the Justice Department and reportedly the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a part of the DOT. (Meanwhile, an option from Mercedes-Benz called Drive Pilot achieves what’s known as Level 3 autonomy, but is only legal in Nevada and comes with a speed restriction.) 

“I think we also need to recognize the responsibility that exists outside of just the technical design of the vehicle, to how you market, how you talk about it, and what expectations you create for drivers,” Buttigieg says.

How do you protect against ‘murderous’ human drivers? 

Advanced driver assistance tech can be a benefit, too, he argues. “I think we need to be very thoughtful about emerging technologies because they hold huge promise,” Buttigieg adds. “The track record of human drivers is borderline murderous.” 

He says that there is potential for in-vehicle tech to help improve the situation, arguing that it could “represent a major safety” improvement. But there are also low-tech changes that cities can make to their streetscape that can protect people from driving machines made of metal, glass, and plastic. 

Hoboken holds clues. The current mayor, Ravinder Bhalla, says that when he was a council member, an 89-year-old woman, Agnes Acerra, was killed in 2015 while crossing Washington Street after being struck by a vehicle. Bhalla attended Acerra’s funeral and wake. “That’s when it really hit home for me,” he says. “In the years that have passed, we’ve made multiple improvements that could have avoided that crash.” 

One of those, he says, are curb extensions. A curb extension, as the name implies, extends the sidewalk space out into the street to about the width of a car. “It reduces the distance that someone like Agnes would have to cross the street, thereby reducing the possibility of being hit by a vehicle,” Bhalla says. “It increases the visibility for both pedestrians and drivers” because the curb extension makes it harder for a vehicle to park right next to the crosswalk. 

They’ve also reduced the speed limit to 20 mph in the city. Shahum, of the Vision Zero Network, says that changes like these are important. “Most importantly, at the local level at least, it really is about redesigning streets—it really is about slowing drivers down so that there’s more safe, comfortable, shared space,” she says. 

[Related: It’s an especially dangerous time to be a pedestrian in America]

Bhalla says that they have made a tweak to the way the signals work when pedestrians cross, too. “Pedestrians have 30 seconds to cross Washington Street,” he says. Baked into that time is a “pedestrian-only interval” that lasts seven seconds. “All traffic lights are red, and only pedestrians can cross the street” during that time, he says. 

Bhalla’s advice to other cities is to move both slowly and quickly, depending on the issue. The slow approach refers to routine street maintenance, and using that moment to make safety tweaks. “We do that on an incremental, block-by-block basis, and I think over time, in the aggregate, the data shows positive results,” he says. The fast approach refers to acting when something urgently needs a change, like examining areas with high accidents. 

It’s not copy-paste from place to place, though. “Find out what works well in your own community, and do those things as well as possible,” he says. 

Can you change culture? 

Pedestrian deaths in the first three-quarters of 2022 climbed by 2 percent, and cyclists deaths by 8 percent, even as the total traffic fatalities declined a tiny bit. In 2020, more than 6,500 pedestrians were killed because of traffic crashes, and some groups are much more vulnerable than others: the DOT reports in the Safety Strategy they released last year that people who are American Indian or Alaskan Native, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders are all more likely to be killed as pedestrians. 

“There are a lot of measures that we can take that make a difference” with the pedestrian and cyclist fatality problem, Buttigieg says. That involves “making sure that we have more separated bike lanes, making sure that we have better lighting—basically reducing the frequency and the severity of situations where a pedestrian or bike and a vehicle can cross each other’s paths to begin with.”

[Related: US pedestrian deaths are reaching a new high]

“Part of it also I think though, beyond the physics of it, is frankly the culture—making sure that drivers are aware,” he adds. 

So how does one go about changing culture, and trying to get drivers to pay attention? He points out that street engineering can play a role in how people act. “We know that if the road is designed a certain way, it can force you to pay attention at a complex intersection, or nudge you toward driving at a safe speed,” he says, “and so these are among the things that I’m eager to see developed through the hundreds of planning grants that we’re supporting in different communities around the country.” 

Those grants total hundreds of millions of dollars and were announced on Wednesday. For example, they include $9 million for a “Complete Streets Project” on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles that will “include new pedestrian crosswalks and signals.” On the other coast, a project in Boston is also getting $9 million for changes like “raised crosswalks, pedestrian island refuges, street right-sizing, curb extensions,” and more. Here’s the list. 

The cultural issue is on Bhalla’s mind, too. “There is a certain culture and cultural adaptation that’s occurring in Hoboken,” he says. “We’ve come to realize that everyone is a pedestrian at some point, even if you’re a motorist.” After all, he says, drivers have to walk to their cars to get in them in the first place. 

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The name Lamborghini evokes powerful acceleration and large engines, with oodles of cylinders and a sound to match. But the supercar builder isn’t blind to the electrification movement. And while Lamborghini is not yet phasing out its thundering herd of combustion engines, the brand is moving towards a compromise that feels true to itself: internal combustion plus an electric motor. 

In 2019, Italy’s Raging Bull automaker teased its future with a hybrid, the V12 Sián FKP 37. The vehicle went above and beyond with 819 horsepower, the company’s most powerful model ever. However, with a $3.5 million price tag, it wasn’t made for the masses (nor even an average Lamborghini buyer). Only 63 were made in honor of the year Lamborghini was founded, and collectors snapped them up quickly. The Sián, which means “lightning” in Italian, contains a 48-volt electric motor that adds 34 horsepower to V12; it was made to showcase the brand’s capabilities and show a hint of what’s to come. Here’s what’s next.

Vitamin V12 deficient

The leadership team is making it clear that it’s not the right time for the Raging Bull to go all electric. All in due time, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann says.

“If you would have asked me five or six years ago, I would have been convinced that hybridization would happen, but I’d have my doubts on the execution and acceptance,” Winkelmann told PopSci. “Now, it’s a generational issue. We have a lot of young fans who are telling us we’re on the right path in terms of sustainability.”

While an all-electric vehicle is slated to be revealed in 2028, Lamborghini is first launching a hybrid-powertrain successor to its top-of-the-line Lamborghini Aventador sports car before the end of Q1 2023. 

[Related: Behind the wheel of the thunderous Lamborghini Aventador]

“We have to take care that we have this kind of emotional attachment, but always the technology will find a way,” Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr told PopSci. “Even if I personally like the combustion [engine], it would be a mistake to think that there will be no tipping point.”

Mohr says they are not following the engine-downsizing trend, pairing a smaller powerplant with an electric motor to compensate for power. The plan is to take existing internal-combustion vehicles and add power in the form of electricity, so the electric motor isn’t a replacement but an enhancement, with the benefit of hopefully fewer CO2 emissions.  

Rumors hold that the follow up to the Huracán, which is more compact and less expensive than the Aventador, will be a V8 hybrid, which is a smaller engine than the current V10. Whether or not the whispers are true, Lamborghini isn’t yet willing to say. It’s too soon to talk about that, Winkelmann told PopSci.

The heart of the bull

In the last couple of years, the automotive market has flipped inside out. The pandemic affected the supply chain in ways no one anticipated, but even more surprising to Lamborghini was the uptake of luxury products in the aftermath. Lamborghini broke its own sales records for 2022, delivering 9,233 vehicles worldwide: that’s a stunning ten percent over the sales figures for 2021. Lamborghini launched its SUV, the Urus, in 2017, which has been an explosive seller for the brand. Winkelmann says 80 percent of its new customers are Urus buyers; breaking into the SUV segment also helps attract more female buyers.

In the meantime, in 2021 Lamborghini shared the details of its Direzione Cor Tauri (“Heart of the Bull”) program, which lays out a roadmap for a nearly two billion dollar cash infusion. This, the highest-ever investment in the company’s history, translates directly to the development of hybrid and all-electric cars to get the Italian automaker primed for the switch to EVs in the next few years. That funding will be welcome as the automaker shifts its design and production to include electrification. Software and its upkeep will be another significant line item as driver-assist technology advances.

[Related: Behind the wheel of McLaren’s hot new hybrid supercar, the Artura]

Machine learning, for example, will allow engineers to do new things. Imagine there’s a kind of algorithm Lamborghini could use to train its motorsports teams to be better drivers on the track. “You can have an intelligent stability control, for example, that understands exactly your driving style, analyzes it, and helps you enter the corners [more efficiently],” Mohr said.

It may seem incongruous to tie advanced driver-assist tech to a supercar for people who love to geek out on cars and live to drive. What’s the attraction of a car that takes over for you when a car like a Lamborghini Huracan—or even the Urus SUV—is designed for the sheer pleasure of driving it? The technologies Lamborghini is looking at can enable a driver to improve their driving skills and enjoy the limits of the car, Mohr says.

The sounds of silence

For the 2023 Rolex 24 endurance race at Daytona International Speedway this month, Lamborghini fielded five teams: four in the GT Daytona class and one in the GT Daytona Pro category. The distinctive sound of the Raging Bull Huracáns echoed across the lanes, its voice calling out clearly. One of those teams was the only all-female lineup, the Iron Dames, piloting a can’t-miss-it hot pink Huracán. 

Motorsports like this endurance race give manufacturers a chance for research and development in high-stress situations for the cars. It also gives them an ear to the ground to listen to the fan base and get more insight on what’s needed to improve. 

What Lamborghini is hearing now is that the younger generation is demanding more sustainability, and they want to see change. The other is an open question about a personality crisis for supercars when EVs take over. EVs are much quieter than combustion engines, and that will affect not just motorsports events but everyday satisfaction while driving the cars. 

Mohr, who grew up admiring a poster of a purple Lamborghini Diablo on his wall, says he’s not about to let the brand lose its grip on the super sports car community. While both he and Winkelmann say they don’t have an answer to the sound question quite yet, they know it’s going to be uniquely Lamborghini. 

Mohr says people often suggest to him that he might have enjoyed working for Lamborghini 20 years ago instead of today, but he disagrees. “I say no, because from the engineering perspective, you now have much more freedom,” Mohr says. “To influence this kind of new generation of cars, this is a good change. I want to ensure that in 20 years I still like to buy cars, and if they are only boring cars, it will be really a mess. Because at the moment, to be honest, there are a lot of boring cars on the market that I will not buy. And I can see that in the electric world the dream of Lamborghini is continuing on. It’s pretty exciting.” 

The Huracán and other models by the Bull remain a touchstone goal for many, and Mohr welcomes the challenge to make sure it lives up to its reputation as it shifts into hybrid, and eventually all-electric, mode. 

“The favorite part of my job is the fact that I can influence the dream cars,” Mohr tells PopSci. “Because at the end of the day, every Lamborghini is a dream. It’s not like [with] volume manufacturers, they [launch] a kind of icon of the brand every 20 years. In our case, you work permanently with dreams.”

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Vehicle electrification is a major step toward decarbonizing the transportation sector, the biggest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the US. In 2020, it accounted for 27 percent of the country’s emissions, more than half of which came from light-duty vehicles.

Replacing fossil fuel-powered automobiles with electric vehicles (EV) provides significant benefits for environmental and human health. Not only will carbon emissions decline, but air quality also improves, and there are fewer negative health outcomes due to pollution, says Daniel Horton, assistant professor at the Northwestern University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

New research also shows that vehicle owners may see reductions in their transportation energy burden, or the percentage of their income that is spent on vehicle fuel. In a new Environmental Research Letters study, researchers found that more than 90 percent of vehicle-owning households in the country would shrink GHG emissions and their transportation energy burden if they switched to EVs.

“Due to the fuel cost savings, EVs effectively reduce the percentage of income that households have to spend on vehicles,” says Joshua Newell, professor of environment and sustainability at the University of Michigan and an author of the study.

Newell and his colleagues estimated fuel costs in terms of US dollars per mile. They created an equation that included the gasoline price for vehicles with internal combustion engines. For EVs, they used the levelized cost of charging (LCOC), which accounts for electricity prices as well as charging location, time of day, and power level. According to the study, areas with high transportation energy burden reductions have lower LCOC compared to gasoline prices, smaller temperature- and drive cycle-related impacts on fuel consumption (like how extremely cold temperatures tend to affect battery performance or how batteries or fuel cells adapt when vehicles conditions change abruptly), or both. 

Unequal benefits of driving an EV

Widespread deployment of EVs would effectively double the number of households with a low transportation burden, based on the authors’ modeling, which they defined as spending less than 2 percent of their income on fuel annually. However, the study also revealed that more than half of the lowest-income households (based on area median income) would continue to have a high energy burden—spending more than 4 percent of their income on fuel annually—despite driving an EV.

[Related: Thousands of EV chargers will soon line America’s highways.]

Currently, higher-income households and those with higher levels of education dominate EV ownership in the country. Vehicle-related energy costs are a relatively small portion of higher-income households’ monthly income, but they can be sizable chunks for lower-income households, says Newell.

Additional factors that contribute to this energy burden include vehicle miles traveled, fuel consumption, and electricity and charging infrastructure costs. Newell says suburban and rural households tend to experience a higher energy burden due to the lack of public transit and greater travel distances to services and jobs. 

Since the lowest-income households are not distributed uniformly in the US, the study mapped where high-energy burden communities are clustered, which were concentrated in the Midwest, Alaska, and Hawaii. This would enable policymakers and planners to “develop targeted strategies to address the uneven distribution of burdens as society transitions from internal combustion vehicles to EVs,” says Newell.

The authors recommend localized approaches to improve the benefits of EV adoption, which include regional subsidies for charging infrastructure, reducing the cost of electricity, and expanding access to cycling, walking, and other forms of low-carbon transportation.

EV policies can boost accessibility

Incentives such as tax credits to lower the upfront costs of buying new and used EVs are critical for accelerating their adoption, says Newell. The Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law last August, currently provides significant tax credits for these purchases.

Individuals who purchase a new EV, whether it’s the plug-in or a fuel cell kind, may qualify for a clean vehicle tax credit of up to $7,500. However, there are different rules for the tax credit depending on when the vehicle was purchased. To check if you and your vehicle qualify, visit the Internal Revenue Service websites for vehicles purchased before 2023 or those in 2023 and beyond. Those who buy a used electric vehicle starting in 2023 may also be eligible for a tax credit that equals 30 percent of the sale, with a maximum credit of $4,000.

[Related: Self-driving EVs use way more energy than you’d think.]

Other policy interventions that may increase EV accessibility for older and lower-income households include incentives for new and used vehicles that aren’t necessarily tied to taxes and programs that target low-income households. For instance, low-income California residents who live in a district that implements the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program may receive up to $1,500 for scrapping their old, high-polluting vehicle. Those who choose to replace their old vehicle altogether with a cleaner, more fuel-efficient one may get up to $4,500.

Aside from purchasing incentives, access to charging infrastructure is also critical in the transition of light-duty passenger fleets to EVs in lower-income communities, says Horton, who was not involved in the new study. According to the study, increasing access to residential or cheaper public charging is a major factor in establishing the fair distribution of benefits and burdens among everyone, especially for renters and rural, lower-income, or multi-family households.

All of these solutions hope to balance out a major barrier to EV adoption—they are costly for many. “EV batteries make up about one-third the cost of the vehicle,” says Newell, “and until these costs are reduced through economies of scale and technological improvements, EV incentives are needed to achieve price parity with gasoline-powered vehicles.”

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It was just a few short years ago that Chevrolet debuted the first mid-engine version of its venerable all-American Corvette. After more than six decades punctuated with whispers and rumors, the mid-engine ‘Vette was finally a reality, and it was all-new from the ground up for model year 2020. That eighth generation (commonly called C8) Corvette was touted as the quickest one in history, leveraging better weight distribution and improved responsiveness.

Now Chevy has done it again, launching a new sports car on January 17 that shakes up the market. The 2024 Corvette E-Ray is electrified for the first time in the car’s history, moving the General Motors company toward its electrification goals. 

Here’s how we got here.

Seven decades of power

General Motors set hearts aflutter back in 2015 when it filed an application to patent the name E-Ray. Eight years later, the hybrid sports car is finally a reality. In fact, the E-Ray was launched 70 years to the day after the first Corvette prototype debuted at Motorama in New York City on January 17, 1953. Every one of the first batch of Corvettes was white with a red interior, only available with a convertible top.

While the Corvette is best known for its roaring V8, the first ‘Vette was built on a modified passenger car chassis and was propelled by a 3.9-liter inline-six engine called the “Blue Flame.” In 1955, Chevy upped the ante with a 4.3-liter V8 making 195 horsepower paired with a three-speed manual.

[Related: Behind the wheel of the most technically advanced Corvette on the market]

In 1966, the Corvette was the first to get the 427 cubic-inch engine, one of several powertrain options that included a 300-horsepower small-block 327 cubic-inch engine along with the larger 427, which came in 350-, 390-, and 425-horsepower versions. With stats like these, it’s no surprise that the Corvette’s appeal has grown through the decades with everyone from early astronauts like Alan Shepard to President Joe Biden counted as fans.

In 2019, the last year of the front-engine Corvette, the car was available with a 6.2-liter naturally aspirated V8 in 455- and 460-horsepower flavors. The Z06 came with a supercharged version making 650 horsepower and the even fiercer ZR1 was good for 755 horsepower and 715 pound-feet of torque. 

As for the forthcoming E-Ray, it pairs the 6.2-liter V8 from the gas-powered mid-engine 2022 model (called Stingray, a term that has been in the Corvette family since the 1960s) with an electric motor for a total power output of 655 horsepower and 630 pound-feet of torque. This combination gives the E-Ray all-wheel drive, and the brand says the E-Ray is the quickest production Corvette in history, boasting an impressive zero-to-60 miles per hour time of 2.5 seconds.

The E-Ray is a heavyweight 

That very first Corvette weighed less than 2,900 pounds. Over the decades, Chevy’s sports car has steadily gained heft, tipping the scales at about 3,600 pounds in 2020. Electrified powertrains like the one in the E-Ray are heavier than gas-only engines, requiring revised calculations for everything from the frames to the axles to the wheels and tires.

Chevrolet says the coupe version of the E-Ray will weigh in at 3,980 pounds, and the convertible adds 76 pounds for a total of 4,056. That’s a heavyweight sports car, compared to McLaren’s plug-in hybrid Artura at 3,303 pounds. It’s still lighter (and exponentially less expensive) than the ultra-exclusive all-electric $2 million Rimac Nevera, which is 4,750 pounds.

[Related: Strapping into the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to take turns at 1.3 Gs]

Starting at about $60,000, the reimagined mid-engine 2020 Stingray was a shockingly affordable American stunner. The E-Ray, however, starts at a whopping $104,295 and tops out at $120,000 or more with options. 

While it may not be as destined to be as affordable for the masses as the gas-only Stingray, it still handily beats the price of rivals such as McLaren’s Artura and the Ferrari 296 GTB. Plus, the E-Ray doesn’t require a plug like the McLaren and Ferrari; the E-Ray’s small 1.9-kilowatt battery pack regenerates energy when the car slows and brakes. Unlike an all-electric vehicle, the hybrid E-Ray leans heavily on the gas-powered engine and uses the battery to increase torque and conserve fuel. 

Stealth mode and more

The E-Ray will also have a lower and wider stance; it’s 3.6 inches wider overall than the Stingray and offers a bit more elbow room. Plus, the tech of the new electric motor will affect how this iconic vehicle sounds.

Believe it or not, the delightful roar of a V8 isn’t music to everyone’s ears. When in hybrid mode, the Corvette will retain its distinctive growl. However, those who prefer a less-flashy approach in the neighborhood will appreciate Stealth Mode, which is a quiet all-electric drive mode that operates up to 45 miles per hour (let’s hope that doesn’t surprise pedestrians). 

EVs are quiet by nature, but automakers like Ford have created ways to make gas-powered vehicles quieter as well. You might remember the debut of Ford’s “Good Neighbor Mode” on the 2018 Mustang, which muffled the muscle car’s voice by adapting the active exhaust function.

As the US continues to explore new ways to bolster the EV infrastructure in terms of charging stations and alternate energy, the E-Ray is timed perfectly. While this iteration doesn’t ever need to be charged because it’s a hybrid, we expect to see an all-electric version next. 

In the meantime, expect to see the 2024 Corvette E-Ray available for sale later this year.

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Truly self-driving cars are still at least a few years down the road—but if the day does come when the software becomes a de facto means of navigation, a new study indicates it’s going to need to be much more energy efficient. If not, autopilot features could ostensibly neutralize any self-driving electric vehicles’ environmental benefits. According to a new study from researchers at MIT, statistical modeling indicates the potential energy consumption needed to power a near-future global fleet of autopiloted EVs would generate as much greenhouse gas as all of the world’s current data centers combined.

The physical locales which house the massive computer arrays powering the world’s countless applications today generate about 0.3 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions—roughly the annual amount of carbon produced by Argentina. Researchers estimated this level would be reached from the self-driving tech in 1 billion autonomous vehicles, each driving just one hour per day. For comparison, there are currently around 1.5 billion cars on the world’s roads.

[Related: Tesla is under federal investigation over autopilot claims.]

Researchers also found that in over 90 percent of the models generated, EV computers would need to use less than 1.2 kilowatts of computing power just to keep within today’s realm of data center emissions, something we simply cannot achieve with current hardware efficiencies. For example, in another statistical model analyzing a scenario in which 95 percent of all vehicles are autonomous by 2050 alongside computational workloads doubling every 3 years, cars’ hardware efficiencies would need to essentially double every year to keep emissions within those same levels. In comparison, the decades’ long accepted industry rate known as Moore’s Law states that computational power doubles every two or so years—a timeframe that is expected to eventually slow down, not accelerate.

The parameters for such scenarios—how many cars are on the roads, how long they are traveling, their onboard computing power and energy requirements, etc—might seem relatively clear , but there are numerous unforeseen ramifications to also consider. Autonomous vehicles could spend more time on roads while people multitask, for example, and they could actually spur additional demographics to add to traffic, such as both younger and older populations. Then there’s the issue of trying to model for hardware and software that doesn’t yet exist.

And then there are the neural networks to consider.

[Related: Tesla driver blames self-driving mode for eight-car pileup.]

MIT notes that semi-autonomous vehicles already rely on popular algorithms such as a “multitask deep neural network” to navigate travel using numerous high-resolution cameras feeding constant, real-time information to its system. In one situation, researchers estimated that if an autonomous vehicle used 10 deep neural networks analyzing imagery from 10 cameras while driving just a single hour, it would generate 21.6 million inferences per day. Extrapolate that for 1 billion vehicles, and you get… 21.6 quadrillion inferences. 

“To put that into perspective, all of Facebook’s data centers worldwide make a few trillion inferences each day (1 quadrillion is 1,000 trillion),” explains MIT.

Suffice to say, these are serious hurdles that will need clearing if the automotive industry wants to continue its expansions into self-driving technology. EVs are key to our sustainable future, but self-driving versions  could end up adding to the energy crisis.

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There are a multitude of wonderful aspects about electric vehicles—they have a low carbon footprint, are pretty easy to maintain compared to gas guzzlers, and affordable options seem to be expanding. But, just like most solutions, they come with drawbacks—when an EV gets in a crash, it can be more expensive and more destructive than a typical accident. 

One reason why an EV crash can be so disastrous is their weight. To get an electric car from place to place requires energy that utilizes batteries. And for cars that can handle a lot of range and power, those batteries add up. For instance, a GMC Hummer EV weighs over 9,000 pounds, around 2,900 of which is just batteries. Similar distinctions exist between the electric and ICE (internal combustion engine) versions of the Ford F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, Volvo XC40 EV, and RAV4 EV. These electric versions may have lost the need for gasoline—but they’ve taken on some serious weight in return.  

The startling difference between EVs and their ICE counterparts was the focus of a keynote speech at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting on Wednesday from National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy.

“The U.S. transportation sector accounts for the largest portion of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and I firmly believe it is a human right to breathe clean air,” she said. “But we have to be careful that we aren’t also creating unintended consequences: more death on our roads.”​  

[Related: The 3 most exciting automotive reveals from CES 2023]

These concerns aren’t particularly new, at least when it comes to concerns about heavy vehicles in general. As far back as 2011 Michael Anderson, a University of California professor of economics, published a study that found that being hit by a car 1,000 lbs heavier than your own results in a 47 percent increase in the probability of your fatality. 

Nowadays, when there are not only big cars but big electric cars on the road, it can be worrisome for drivers in small cars, whether they are electric or gasoline powered. “What matters is less the average weight than the heterogeneity,” Anderson told Bloomberg last year. “There could be a window where it’s pretty unsafe to be driving (small, gas-powered vehicles) and getting into multi-vehicle accidents.”

Research is already underway to make EV batteries lighter, denser, and safer. Nevertheless, it’s crucial that policymakers, corporations, and consumers are aware of the risks that EVs pose to everyone on the road.

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Government incentives might encourage you to add another goal to your new year’s resolutions in 2023: reducing your carbon footprint. Starting this year, Americans can take advantage of a stream of tax credits to make their homes, cars, and businesses more sustainable thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The new legislation narrowly passed Congress after a lengthy political battle in the Senate last August. Considered one of President Biden’s signature achievements, the $440 billion package provides money for clean energy and lowers drug costs for older people, among other things. The government plans to pay for the credits through raising taxes on corporations that make over $1 billion in profit per year, taxing stock buybacks and investing in the Internal Revenue Services to catch tax cheats. If all works out as planned, the package will actually bring in $300 billion extra dollars, which will go towards paying off government debt.

Climate policy experts like Rachel Cleetus, the policy director for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, see the IRA as the stimulus the country needs to make America’s energy infrastructure more sustainable, even if it’s just an initial step to meeting emission reduction goals. Cleetus says the law is the culmination of years of work.

“It’s a moment of relief, more than anything else,” she says. “Clean energy is already so competitive in the marketplace, here in the US and around the world, and this will really tip the scales in favor of accelerating that momentum around renewable energy, wind, solar, etc.”

With a receipt and tax form, consumers can save up to thousands of dollars on everything from electric cars to solar panels to two-pane windows. As you take stock of your sustainability resolutions this year, review how to apply for IRA credits.

“By being proactive, consumers can have a plan to make the most cost-effective upgrades for their specific housing and local policy circumstances once IRA funding is made available,” says Dan Esposito, a senior policy analyst at the an energy and climate policy think tank, Energy Innovation.

What are the tax credits?

There are two main buckets of credits you might qualify for: electric vehicle credits and home improvement credits. The first is purchasing an electric vehicle. To reap maximum benefits from the credits, you’ll want to make sure that it complies with a long list of technical and trade manufacturing requirements, like making sure the vehicle’s final assembly was in a US facility. 

Consumers should pay special attention to electric vehicle credits because they will most likely give buyers “the biggest bang for their buck,” Esposito wrote in an email to PopSci. A new electric vehicle can qualify for up to a $7,500 credit and used vehicles could be $4,000. (You can find more details about IRA tax credits from electric vehicles in our guide.) 

“The tax credits for electric vehicles are generally most impactful in terms of reducing one’s climate footprint, as the average US passenger vehicle emits roughly 60 percent more greenhouse gases than the average US home using natural gas,” he says. “However, the [exact] climate benefit depends on several factors, such as the vehicle you currently have (hybrid vs. gas guzzler), how often you drive, the climate you live in, and your home’s insulation,” Esposito writes.  

[Related: Check before you buy: Here are the new EVs that qualify for the clean vehicle tax credit]

The second bucket of IRA credits can be collected by reducing your home’s emissions through switching to renewable energy and making it more energy efficient. Consumers can save money on a range of products designed to reduce their home’s reliance on fossil fuels. You can get money for putting a solar panel on your roof. You can also get money from buying energy efficient products like two-pane windows that better insulate your house. You can also receive a $300 tax credit for purchasing a heat pump, instead of the typical furnace or energy inefficient air conditioners that most Americans own. 

If you plan to replace both the furnace and an air conditioning unit, then the tax credit for heat pumps could be worthwhile as well. How much you actually get back in credits, however, will vary from house to house—wiring might need to be upgraded or a heat pump designed to tolerate colder climates. “The timing of when these credits will become available will vary by state, with state energy offices set to play the dominant role in facilitating their rollout,” Esposito writes. “In the meantime, homeowners can assess the state of their house to determine which upgrades to seek out in the coming years.”

While renters might be locked out of some credits that require home ownership, they are still eligible for many incentives. It might be worth it to make the long-term investments if they plan to stay in their rental space for a year or more, Cleetus says.

[Related: How heat pumps can help fight global warming]

“The question for renters is obviously, how long are you going to be in a place? And is that something that you and your landlord want to split the cost?” she says. “In some cases, you can recoup the cost within a year, so even if you’re renting for just a year, it might make sense to do it.”

For example, it might make sense to purchase a more energy efficient air conditioner that will save you money on heating and cooling bills in the long run. And with the insulation-related tax credits, you can recoup the cost faster, perhaps in a year or two, than you would otherwise, according to Cleetus.

What to know before filing for the credits

Consumers should research what tax credits they can take advantage of before they buy any green products, says Susan Allen, senior manager for tax practice and ethics with the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants (CPA). 

The amount of money you get will differ depending on your income, the number of dependents you have, and if you rent or own your home, so it’s important to do your research before buying anything that could have a tax credit or an upfront discount, Cleetus and Allen say.

“Planning before you buy helps you make the most informed decision on the ultimate savings you can accomplish,” Allen says. “If you can work with a CPA tax or financial planner, wonderful. They can help guide you and maybe save a lot of time and headache while you might be trying to navigate it.”

One of the best ways to make sure you can cash in on the credits is to ask the manufacturer before you make a purchase, Allen says. Car dealers will be aware of which vehicles qualify for the credits and appliance companies that manufacture electric stoves or other green products will likely know how much you can save. 

Cleetus says stores should start adopting labels that indicate if a product is eligible for tax credits. “That’s the kind of thing that will be really impactful, so that people don’t have to search,” she says. 

[Related: The Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS could kick US climate policy back into action]

If you don’t have an accountant, you can also take advantage of a number of government guides, Allen and Cleetus say. Consumers can refer to the White House’s interactive clean energy website, which helps users determine what credits are available to them. The Department of Energy published a list of the credits people can save specifically on green energy and energy-efficient household appliances. The Internal Revenue Services details the cars eligible for electric vehicle credits. For those who want a more thorough breakdown of the credits, the White House also published a 183-page guidebook. And further guidance is still coming out, Cleetus says. 

And while the tax credits can help you save money on clean energy investments, the IRA doesn’t quite live up to what the country promised during global climate negotiations.The US pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030. The package aims to reduce emissions by about 40 percent. “It’s not enough, for sure. From a science perspective, we know we have to go further, faster,” Cleetus says. 

Still, the IRA is a vital step in accelerating the nationwide transition to clean energy infrastructure. “It’s important to think about this in a holistic way,” Cleetus says. “These tax credits will go a long way towards many, many households lowering their carbon footprint. But they’re also part of a broader system that has to shift.”

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Hurricane Ian caused billions of dollars in damage when it hit Florida in the fall of 2022. Along with $112 billion in damages, 152 fatalities, and countless uprooted lives, the fallout included at least 12 electric vehicle fires caused from lithium-ion batteries coming into contact with saltwater flooding in from the ocean. Unlike standard fires, however, these battery blazes require a significant amount more water to quell them due to their unique chemical reactions, with the International Association of Fire Chiefs suggesting somewhere between 3,000 and 8,000 gallons of sustained dousing.

It’s an unfortunate downside to EVs’ lithium-ion power sources, especially as coastal flooding increasingly becomes the norm, but a promising new alternative could one day be available to carmakers. Thanks to novel breakthroughs at the University of Central Florida electric cars could one day embrace saltwater instead of avoiding it entirely.

[Related: Rain, storms, and mudslides batter California.]

A research team at UCF’s NanoScience Technology Center recently unveiled a new form of aqueous battery that replaces lithium-ion batteries’ notoriously volatile, extremely flammable organic solvents with actual saltwater. What’s more, the new EV power source detailed in the team’s study published in Nature Communications appears to be safer, faster charging, and pack just as much punch as existing batteries.

Saltwater is a death sentence for traditional lithium-ion setups, corroding and subsequently short circuiting the battery, which can then interact with internal solvents to cause fires. By utilizing a saline solution’s metal ions (including potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium) as the battery’s liquid electrolytes, however, UCF’s new design proved much more stable while also charging faster than its lithium-ion competition.

[Related: The 3 most exciting automotive reveals from CES 2023.]

Aqueous batteries aren’t a new concept, but until now they’ve shown themselves to be extremely unstable and liable to form minute, corrosive metallic structures known as dendrites. The team’s new battery, however, relies on a “forest-like” 3D zinc-copper anode design containing a thin zinc-oxide protective layer. This nano-engineered covering allowed scientists to precision control the electrochemical reactions for increased stability and charging capabilities.

The result, says research lead Yang Yang, an associate professor at UCF, is a potentially revolutionary battery to “remain safe even if they are used improperly or are flooded in saltwater.” While it is still likely a while until we start seeing Ford F-150 Lightning trucks barreling down flooded roads thanks to aqueous saltwater batteries, the new innovations could soon address one of lithium-ion batteries’ most concerning hazards, thus encouraging the rapidly-approaching EV transition. 

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The annual Consumer Electronics Show may be known as a venue for tech companies to show off gadgets like folding screens, smart watches, televisions, and even random gizmos like a “Smart Hose Timer.” But CES is also a place for automakers to reveal how they’re embracing technology, too. A few rose to the top with high-profile launches that caught our eye. These are the three unveilings we thought were the most fascinating.

Ram Revolution electric truck concept

The biggest automotive moment from the show may well have been the splashy reveal of the much-anticipated Ram Revolution, an all-electric pickup truck. Ford is already selling its Lightning EV and Chevrolet’s Silverado EV will go on sale this spring, so while it may seem that Ram is catching up, it appears that it may be right on time in the grand scheme of things.  

President and chief analyst at AutoPacific Ed Kim says the importance of the Ram Revolution, the truckmaker’s first EV, can’t be overstated for the North American market. Kim was on the show floor at CES and saw the launch in person. 

“In the EV world, there is so much discussion about EV pickups,” Kim says. “We have already seen Ford and GM’s EV trucks, and we’ve been waiting to see what Ram would come up with. Yes, the Revolution is a concept, but the brand did have a real production frame on the show floor. It’s more than a flight of fancy.” 

Ram’s gas-powered 1500 pickup received a major overhaul a few years back, with the brand inserting its excellent UConnect infotainment system into the new model with a large optional screen. The electric Revolution concept took that a step further with not just one but two 14.2-inch displays, and the lower screen can be removed to use as a separate tablet when the truck is parked. 

The body style also showcased the possibilities of what can be done with EVs when designers don’t have to work around massive engines that take up a lot of space. “Here’s a truck you can use to carry an 18-foot pole or log with a pass-through from the nose to the tailgate,” Kim said. “What’s interesting about that feature is that it really does demonstrate just how much an EV car or truck can change the basic architecture of a vehicle. In an ICE vehicle, you can’t run something through the truck. Electric motors are miniscule compared to an engine, and you can do a lot with that.”

The Revolution features three rows, with highly configurable second- and third-row seats. Its extra-long cab allows a limo-like experience when the second row is pushed back or when more passengers need to ride along, all three rows can be pressed into service. Fully independent rear suspension is a step above where it is now. It should drive more like a big, nice SUV than a pickup truck after it goes on sale in 2024.

BMW i Vision Dee

Ram wasn’t the only automaker making waves at the show. BMW showed off a flashy concept car called i Vision Dee (that last word stands for “Digital Emotional Experience”) featuring a color-changing exterior. Working with company E Ink, BMW had the i Vision Dee covered in 240 different panel segments that can alter the appearance of the car into 32 available hues, controlled by a smartphone. 

“With the BMW i Vision Dee, we are showcasing what is possible when hardware and software merge,” BMW Group chairman Oliver Zipse said.

Last year at this time, BMW unveiled a similar concept exterior with comparatively limited capabilities. The concept from last year could only change from white to black to gray, laminating the body of the car with an electrophoretic film (which separates charged molecules) containing “microcapsules the diameter of a human hair,” BMW said. As the company explained it, each capsule contains differently charged particles which become visible when an electric field is applied. 

Beyond the wild exterior, the BMW i Vision Dee showcased a virtual dashboard that displayed on the windshield instead of the usual spot and integrated that with virtual reality. It also debuted a new voice assistant, Dee, that operates more like an artificial reality bot than a simple voice  command prompt. 

While it’s unlikely the i Vision Dee will become a production car, BMW still hopes to draw attention to one of its new EVs and to its vision for future technology.

Volkswagen debuts the ID.7

Fans of the Passat were crushed that Volkswagen discontinued the gas-powered sedan, and the ID.7 is the German brand’s peace offering in the form of an EV. It also serves as hopefully a better follow-up to the electric ID.4, which has been plagued with software challenges that have prevented the brand from dominating the EV segment in ways it hoped. The ID.7 is six inches longer than the now-defunct Passat, with a higher roofline that shows echoes of Mercedes-Benz’s EV lineup. 

Interestingly, the new ID.7 is a sedan like the Passat, which bucks the crossover/SUV trend automakers have followed in recent years. 

“The last 10-15 years has seen the sedan market decline dramatically and people want more crossovers,” Kim said. “You can see the details and proportions of the ID.7, and it looks like a traditional sedan. I do think it is important to point out that even though consumers have been less interested in sedans than SUVs, in the EV universe we have seen one particular product that bucked that trend—and that’s the Model 3.”

Kim believes sedans may make a bit of a resurgence in the EV segment because of the success of the Model 3 and also because sedans are more aerodynamic. With a lower profile, sedans typically achieve better range; since range anxiety remains a main concern of EV shoppers and rejectors, a sedan can add more appeal. 

Masked in “smart camouflage” to obscure the design details for now, the ID.7 model at CES was covered in “at least” 40 layers of paint to create 22 disparate electrified illuminated zones. We probably won’t see that paint scheme in production, however.

Hungry for more news out of CES? PopSci’s gear team has created three different roundups of the coolest stuff they noticed last week.

And watch the reveal of the Ram Revolution Concept, below.

The post The 3 most exciting automotive reveals from CES 2023 appeared first on Popular Science.

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An intersection is a complex place, even when regulated by a traffic signal. They’re full of vehicles with potentially distracted drivers trying to inch across the asphalt, and pedestrians with different levels of mobility attempting to use crosswalks. Throw bikes and other two-wheelers into the mix, and it can get hectic and hazardous, especially for the people not protected in machines made of metal and glass. 

There are other aspects of a modern urban streetscape as well, like operators of electric vehicles who want to find a place to charge. 

Experts hope that integrating more data-collection tech, in addition to traffic signals, can potentially help with issues like these. Chattanooga, Tennessee, is planning to create 86 new so-called smart intersections that are monitored by sensors such as lidar and cameras. 

The goal of making an intersection smart is “to be able to make sense of that intersection” based on the information provided by the sensors, says Mina Sartipi, the director of the Center for Urban Informatics and Progress at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga. It will help them answer questions like: “Where are the cars? Where are the people? How close do they get to each other? How safe is it for a wheelchair [user]? Do we allow a disabled person, or an elderly [person], or a mom or a dad pushing a stroller, enough time to cross the street or not?” 

Adding the sensors will “make that environment observable,” she adds. 

[Related: It’s an especially dangerous time to be a pedestrian in America]

The project is supported by a $4.57 million grant from the US Department of Transportation, and builds on an already existing testbed of 11 other smart intersections in the same city. All told, the city will have nearly 100 smart intersections once the new ones come online. 

The DOT grant, she says, “basically brings transportation, energy, and people together.” The energy element comes from trying to connect people driving electric vehicles to charging stations if they need it, taking into account variables like if a station is available. 

Gathering data from intersections involves sensors like cameras and lidar, which use lasers to detect objects. And intersections, like people, are not all the same. “We do pay attention to the needs of each intersection as well,” she says. “It’s not necessarily copy-paste.” 

With lidar—which is also a key sensor that autonomous vehicles use to perceive the world around them—the data from those will be interpreted by a computer vision company called Seoul Robotics. “We interpret the information by looking at the objects that it sees in that world,” says William Muller, the vice president of business development at the company. “Those main three objects that we look at are people, vehicles, and bikes.”

“Because it’s all three-dimensional, it’s highly accurate,” he adds. “We’re within centimeters of accuracy, of knowing where those objects are in the three-dimensional space.” In an ideal world, the system could know if someone is crossing an intersection slowly, and the signals could take that into account—or even warn vehicles to be aware of them. 

To the west and south of Chattanooga, on an old airport runway in Texas, is a smart intersection used for research purposes at Texas A&M University’s RELLIS campus. “There’s a lot of paved surface there,” says Srinivasa Sunkari, a senior research engineer at Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Part of what makes the intersection smart, he says, is the detection sensors that it has, such as radar and a fish-eye camera. The intersection does not have regular traffic passing through it, but is used for tests. 

Sunkari says that smart intersection initiatives like in Chattanooga, “when done smartly, and when implemented with the right infrastructure, it gives an opportunity to improve pedestrian safety.” 

The project in Chattanooga starts later this year and is expected to last for three years. While connecting EV drivers with charging stations is the main focus of the $4.57 million grant, having nearly 100 intersections with rich sensor data flowing from them should allow researchers to study various aspects of them and ideally optimize the streetscape.

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One of the biggest issues holding back many drivers from making the switch to electric vehicles is the comparative lack of supportive infrastructure like public charging stations. After decades of fossil fuel guzzling cars traversing the country, the US now hosts an estimated 145,000 gas stations compared to around just 53,000 EV charging locales. But this week at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, Mercedes-Benz announced plans to provide a sizable boost to the grid over the next few years—drivers can soon expect another 2,500 fast chargers at over 400 sites around the country within the next four years.

The news came courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Chief Technology Officer Markus Schäfer, who also reiterated the company’s goal to make battery-powered EVs more accessible to the public.The company  aims to become carbon neutral by 2039. To accomplish the project, Mercedes-Benz is partnering with the battery storage provider MN8 Energy and solar power company ChargePoint as its North American partners for the new stations.

[Related: Mercedes vehicles will soon be getting game-quality graphics on their hyperscreens.]

And before you ask—don’t worry, you won’t need a swanky EV Benz to use the upcoming locations. Schäfer explained that plug-and-charge compatibility will be integral to the stations, so that any EV owner can refuel as needed.

Strategic locales are key to Mercedes-Benz’s newest EV endeavor. As Ars Technica highlights, many public electric vehicle power stations are currently relegated to the outskirts of shopping center parking lots, making the visits uncomfortable and potentially unsafe for drivers at certain times of day or night. As such, sites will be chosen “with food outlets and restrooms situated nearby,” as well as provide security features like surveillance cameras to offer “a safe and secure charging environment.” As for the number of stations at each location, drivers can expect a minimum of 4 and as many as 30 individual charging ports.

Although the overall cost isn’t cheap—roughly $1.1 billion split between Mercedes-Benz and MN8 Energy over the next few years. But, EVs are key to the world’s transition to a fully renewable energy structure, and many more of these kinds of projects will be needed to ensure that becomes a reality. As such, similar plans from the European carmaker are expected in both China and Europe down the line. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz has a  2030 deadline for a complete transition to electric car manufacturing. 

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This article was originally featured on The Drive.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released its list of vehicles that qualify for a clean vehicle tax credit.

The list is available on the IRS website, with the tax credit scheme taking effect from January 1, 2023. Customers purchasing eligible vehicles may be entitled to a tax credit of up to $7,500, depending on certain income tests. Buyers must earn less than $300,000 in household income if in a couple for tax purposes, or $150,000 if single. As covered earlier by The Drive, vehicles aren’t solely eligible based on a make and model basis. The individual vehicle itself must have been assembled in the US, too.

Notably, the tax credit is also only applicable to vehicles under certain price limits. To remain eligible, MSRP must be below $80,000 for vans, SUVs, and pickups, or $55,000 for other vehicles. This has the unintended side effect of creating some weird edge cases. For example, the five-seat model of the Tesla Model Y doesn’t count as an SUV. Thus, with an MSRP of above $55,000, it’s not eligible for the credit. However, the seven-seat models are counted as SUVs, and thus qualify for the credit as the relevant limit is $80,000, instead.

Overall, US manufacturers are well-represented in the list. The Chevrolet Bolt, Bolt EUV, and Cadilliac Lyriq are present for GM. Meanwhile, Ford’s growing range of EVs also makes the list, including the Escape Plug-in Hybrid, F-150 Lightning, and Mustang Mach-E. The Lincoln Aviator and Corsair are present too, both in Grand Touring trim. Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 are present, as per the above noted price restrictions, as are the Rivian R1S and R1T.

Chrysler and Jeep both make the list too, albeit without any full EVs. Instead, the Stellantis brands instead attract credits for plug-in hybrids, with the Chrysler Pacifica, Jeep Wrangler 4xe, and Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe.

Other manufacturers with vehicles on the list include VW, Volvo, Nissan, BMW, and Audi. Beyond that, other automakers have signed agreements with the IRS to qualify under the scheme. However, they are yet to submit lists of their eligible models to the government agency. This includes Jaguar, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, and Mercedes Benz, among others.

The scheme will face further changes as soon as March, as the Treasury Department firms up battery sourcing requirements. At that point, the rules will shift to consider the source location of battery components and critical minerals used in the vehicle’s construction. Vehicles that don’t comply with the full requirements may only be eligible for a lesser tax credit.

While some countries are rolling back EV credits, the US is currently going full-steam ahead. The aim is to not just spur uptake of electric vehicles. The scheme also hopes to incentivize the construction of both vehicles and the batteries themselves in the US, all the way back to the sourcing of the raw mineral components. In any case, if you’ve got your eye on a particular EV that qualifies for the scheme, you might be best placed to order it sooner rather than later.

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Imagining a 9,000-pound GMC Hummer EV racing a 3,600-pound Corvette Z06 sports car evokes an image of an elephant lined up next to a cheetah. Considering that the Hummer EV’s Ultium battery pack alone weighs nearly as much as the Corvette, the question of which will win seems obvious. 

Not so fast, though: YouTuber Austin Everett of Speed Phenom recently pitted his own Z06 against the massive all-electric truck, and the results were much closer than you might think. 

Here’s what a race like this can teach us about the difference between being fast and being quick—and what aspects of a vehicle contribute to those qualities.

Quick vs fast

For a traditional drag race, two vehicles generally start side by side on a flat, straight quarter-mile strip. A device called a “Christmas tree” sits between them, initiating a light sequence that usually switches from amber to green for go. During a race, a red light indicates an infraction of some kind at the start. For an amateur head-to-head drag race (don’t try this at home, kids), someone can signal the cars manually. 

While horsepower makes a car fast in terms of its top speed, getting the jump at the starting line is about quickness, and torque plays a starring role. The 2023 Corvette Z06 boasts 670 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque, for which Chevrolet claims a 0-to-60 mph time of 2.6 seconds. Equipped with the Z07 Performance Pack (like Everett’s vehicle), the car can achieve that acceleration in 2.8 seconds. 

In contrast, the Hummer EV has an astounding 1,000 horsepower and brags of 11,500 pound-feet of torque. To be clear, the latter number is the sum of four motors, one at each wheel, each generating between 380 and 400 lb-ft of what enthusiasts call “grunt.” As is, the powerful EV truck can reach 60 mph in about four seconds. But in a setting called “Watts to Freedom” mode, the Hummer EV can shave a second from that time.

Surprising (and unsurprising) results 

Electric cars like the Hummer EV turn stored energy into speed nearly instantaneously, versus gas-powered cars like the Z06, which employ a mechanical process to convert fuel to energy. Still, on this particular chilly day for the competition in question, the Z06 raced to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and the Hummer EV reached that speed in 3.8 seconds. 

Driving the Hummer in WTF mode (remember, that technically stands for “Watts to Freedom”) provides an unexpected thrill if you haven’t experienced it before. WTF mode enables peak torque for a few seconds, much like launch mode in gas-powered cars. When I tried it, my face broke into a wide, uncontrolled grin that erupted into a laugh. The sensation of being propelled into the space ahead with that kind of force in such a big car feels like being strapped to a bullet train. 

During Speed Phenom’s test, the big Hummer EV rocketed off the line, as expected. Everett said it was faster than Chevrolet’s vaunted sports car up to about 40 mph. By the time each vehicle reached 60 mph, however, the internal-combustion-powered Z06 made up the time and then some. In the end, the Corvette handily won the competition, but it wasn’t the pounding many might expect between the sleek car and the hulking EV. 

Ultimately, while torque is impressive up front for the GMC, the Chevy won with sustained torque and horsepower that carried it to the finish line. Contributing to the Hummer EV’s relative lag is its bulky weight and off-road-ready 35-inch tires, which are fantastic for tackling dirt and rock but less so for speed. 

EVs are getting even quicker

For the uninitiated, a reminder: EVs can be really quick, and that’s thanks to several factors. As Car and Driver explains it, EVs quickly deliver maximum torque due in part to the front and rear motors providing additional traction to all four tires. As a result, EVs can “channel more of their power to the pavement than if they had two-wheel drive and to launch from rest aggressively with minimum or no wheelspin.” EVs also ride on specially-designed wheels and tires crafted to carry the extra weight of electric components. 

As an extreme example, a few months ago, I took a spin in a 1,914-horsepower Rimac Nevera, which cranks out 1,741 lb-ft of torque for its $2 million-plus price tag. “Do you mind if I drive fast?” the Rimac engineer asked me, before flattening the back of my head to the passenger seat with an explosion of power. Further, Rimac’s engineers claim a 0-60 mph time of less than one second is possible. 

For those without that kind of balance in their bank account, even Kia’s new EV6 GT claims an impressive 576 hp and 546 pound-feet of torque for about $50,000. With that level of power, Kia says its humble four-door crossover matches up to a Porsche Taycan, Ferrari Roma, and Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder RWD for acceleration. 

In the real world, most people don’t need massive torque or horsepower to enjoy the ride. On the other hand, it does feel good to dust that obnoxious tailgater every now and again. 

Watch the competition, below:

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Quantum researchers at Ford have just published a new preprint study that modeled crucial electric vehicle (EV) battery materials using a quantum computer. While the results don’t reveal anything new about lithium-ion batteries, they demonstrate how more powerful quantum computers could be used to accurately simulate complex chemical reactions in the future. 

In order to discover and test new materials with computers, researchers have to break up the process into many separate calculations: One set for all the relevant properties of each single molecule, another for how these properties are affected by the smallest  environmental changes like fluctuating temperatures, another for all the possible ways any  two molecules can interact together, and on and on. Even something that sounds simple like two hydrogen molecules bonding requires incredibly deep calculations. 

But developing materials using computers has a huge advantage: the researchers don’t have to perform every possible experiment physically which can be incredibly time consuming. Tools like AI and machine learning have been able to speed up the research process for developing novel materials, but quantum computing offers the potential to make it even faster. For EVs, finding better materials could lead to longer lasting, faster charging, more powerful batteries. 

Traditional computers use binary bits—which can be a zero or a one—to perform all their calculations. While they are capable of incredible things, there are some problems like highly accurate molecular modeling that they just don’t have the power to handle—and because of the kinds of calculations involved, possibly never will. Once researchers model more than a few atoms, the computations become too big and time-consuming so they have to rely on approximations which reduce the accuracy of the simulation. 

Instead of regular bits, quantum computers use qubits that can be a zero, a one, or both at the same time. Qubits can also be entangled, rotated, and manipulated in other wild quantum ways to carry more information. This gives them the power to solve problems that are intractable with traditional computers—including accurately modeling molecular reactions. Plus, molecules are quantum by nature, and therefore map more accurately onto qubits, which are represented as waveforms.

Unfortunately, a lot of this is still theoretical. Quantum computers aren’t yet powerful enough or reliable enough to be widely commercially viable. There’s also a knowledge gap—because quantum computers operate in a completely different way to traditional computers, researchers still need to learn how best to employ them. 

[Related: Scientists use quantum computing to create glass that cuts the need for AC by a third]

This is where Ford’s research comes in. Ford is interested in making batteries that are safer, more energy and power-dense, and easier to recycle. To do that, they have to understand chemical properties of potential new materials like charge and discharge mechanisms, as well as electrochemical and thermal stability.

The team wanted to calculate the ground-state energy (or the normal atomic energy state) of LiCoO2, a material that could be potentially used in lithium ion batteries. They did so using an algorithm called the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) to simulate the Li2Co2O4 and Co2O4 gas-phase models (basically, the simplest form of chemical reaction possible) which represent the charge and discharge of the battery. VQE uses a hybrid quantum-classical approach with the quantum computer (in this case, 20 qubits in an IBM statevector simulator) just employed to solve the parts of the molecular simulation that benefit most from its unique attributes. Everything else is handled by traditional computers.

As this was a proof-of-concept for quantum computing, the team tested three approaches with VQE: unitary coupled-cluster singles and doubles (UCCSD), unitary coupled-cluster generalized singles and doubles (UCCGSD) and k-unitary pair coupled-cluster generalized singles and doubles (k-UpCCGSD). As well as comparing the quantitative results, they compared quantum resources necessary to perform the calculations accurately with classical wavefunction-based approaches. They found that k-UpCCGSD produced similar results to UCCSD at lower cost, and that the results from the VQE methods agreed with those obtained using classical methods—like coupled-cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) and complete active space configuration interaction (CASCI). 

Although not quite there yet, the researchers concluded that quantum-based computational chemistry on the kinds of quantum computers that will be available in the near-term will play “a vital role to find potential materials that can enhance the battery performance and robustness.” While they used a 20-qubit simulator, they suggest a 400-qubit quantum computer (which will soon be available) would be necessary to fully model the Li2Co2O4 and Co2O4 system they considered.

All this is part of Ford’s attempt to become a dominant EV manufacturer. Trucks like its F-150 Lightning push the limits of current battery technology, so further advances—likely aided by quantum chemistry—are going to become increasingly necessary as the world moves away from gas burning cars. And Ford isn’t the only player thinking of using quantum to edge it ahead of the battery chemistry game. IBM is also working with Mercedes and Mitsubishi on using quantum computers to reinvent the EV battery. 

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The electric vehicle spotlight is typically trained on range and charging speed, along with battery makeup and sustainable materials. However, EV news rarely gives enough credit to one unsung-but-critical factor: tires. EVs are heavier than their gas-powered cousins, and as a result, the electric motors generate more on-demand torque, which puts additional pressure on the vehicles’ rubber shoes. Tires made for EVs use special tread compounds and patterns and are engineered to take on the heavier components, as well as more torque strain.

Reducing tire drag

Companies like Pirelli, Goodyear, and Continental have actively ramped up research and development of tires designed specifically for EVs. Rolling resistance is an important aspect of tire construction for EVs, as it directly affects both range and ride quality. Continental Tires defines rolling resistance as “the amount of energy a tire uses over a defined distance.”

Reducing rolling distance requires a shallower tread depth and narrower footprint, along with harder tread compound and stiffer sidewalls. By decreasing tire “squirm,” or excess movement, EV-specific tires are designed to improve efficiency – or more aptly, to avoid losing energy.

“Rolling resistance coefficient is always the issue when designing for EVs,” Pirelli Chief Technology Officer Ian Coke told PopSci. “You have to understand the compromise between lowering the rolling resistance to match range and maximize performance. It’s a big challenge.”

Building from scratch

Two years ago, a two-woman team driving a pre-production Rivian R1T pickup truck competed in the Rebelle Rally, a grueling 1,500-mile off-road competition. The R1T had been in production for several years at that point, but testing it out in a tough desert environment at the rally laid bare its strengths and weaknesses. Emme Hall, the R1T driver, found one of those strengths to be the custom-designed Pirelli Scorpion all-terrain tires.

“The Scorpions are usually set to 48 [pounds per square inch] for street use, but I kept it around 35 psi most of the time, airing down to 20 psi when I hit the soft sand of Big Dune, Dumont Dunes and Glamis,” Hall wrote for CNET. “These Scorpions took everything I could throw at them without a hiccup.”

The key to a safer, more efficient, and quieter ride, Pirelli’s Coke says, is to create the tires for a new EV from the ground up. EV drivers tend to wear out their tires an average of 20 percent faster than those operating a traditional gas-powered vehicle, so using the same tires non-EVs do could cause a fair amount of hassle, as they must be more frequently exchanged. 

“It’s very important to us that the tires we provide are tailored to the vehicle itself,” Coke said. “[A manufacturer] program starts at least three years before it’s launched. We’re designing the tires as the vehicle is being designed.”

[Related: As electric vehicles get bigger and faster, they also get more dangerous]

And those tires are built with a prescribed air pressure in mind for that particular vehicle. Altering that formula could cause skids, slides, and worse. Coke told Forbes that “while increasing air pressure in a tire does lower rolling resistance…it also reduces the tire’s ability to grip at the same time, which can be a dangerous trade in adverse conditions, when hard braking or when cornering loads push traction to the limit.”

What’s next? 

Rivian isn’t the only EV maker with bespoke tires; some Tesla models and the new Volkswagen ID.3 wear original equipment tires formulated by Continental. There are countless other examples in the works or already on the market also. 

For example, GMC’s Hummer EV rides on specially engineered 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory tires made for both on- and off-road performance. While we know that GMC will introduce the Sierra EV pickup in 2023, we don’t know what kind of tires it will have. The brand has indicated that the new Sierra EV will include the same CrabWalk feature as the Hummer EV, a GMC-exclusive feature that syncs the turn and angle of the rear and front wheels, allowing diagonal movement of the vehicle at low speeds. That combination of movement and weight will certainly require rubber shoes that can handle the stress as well as those on the Hummer EV or Rivian R1T.

In the meantime, companies like Goodyear and Michelin are working toward the next EV frontier: airless tires. These types of tires use a unique system of spokes to support the outer ring instead of air, effectively eliminating flat tires Whether these can support EV heavyweights is still in question, but the sustainability factor is attractive, as airless tires require fewer replacements.

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This article was originally featured on The Drive.

One of the most satisfying feelings in an electric vehicle is instant torque. Us car lovers crave the feeling of being pressed back into our seats, and while a high-powered internal-combustion car gives that feeling, so does a hyper-efficient EV.

Instant torque can also translate into very quick acceleration. In fact, we’re seeing battery-powered vehicles achieve supercar-level zero-to-60 MPH sprints despite tipping the scales two or three times heavier than gasoline-powered exotics. While this can be fun for the driver and vehicle occupants, it’s becoming clear that these bloated EVs easily could pose a danger to other cars and pedestrians on the road—and no regulators have stepped up to tackle these problems yet.

The 2022 Hummer EV’s electric motors generate 1,000 horsepower and 1,200 pound-feet of torque—that’s enough power to propel the 9,100-pound vehicle from zero to 60 MPH in just three seconds. Consequently, a Lamborghini Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae takes around 2.8 seconds at just over one-third of the weight. In either case, that’s a lot of speed very quickly, but in the event of a crash, the Hummer generates more than 2.5 times the force at 60 MPH than the Aventador.

It’s hard to say how often supercar owners actually crash their vehicles. According to Automotive News, safety officials don’t have data corresponding to supercar crashes, but information on high-performance motorcycles is available. In fact, most crashes for sport bikes occur within the first 120 days of ownership. Perhaps there’s some correlation to the number of news stories that show new owners crashing high-performance cars within hours or days of buying them.

A prime example is YouTuber Edmond Mondi. Several weeks ago, Mondi posted a video to Instagram showing the Hummer EV’s supercar-like acceleration from a standstill launch. The video generated a bit of controversy given that it was filmed from the driver’s seat while the Hummer was barreling towards multiple lanes of cars in stopped traffic. Weeks later, we reported that Mondi totaled his Hummer EV just hours after picking it up from the dealership, as revealed in a later-published YouTube video.

With rapid acceleration and massive weight, it’s fairly obvious that there will be crashes from drivers, likely both new and seasoned. How deadly those crashes will be is still something that researchers will need to gather data to determine.

One study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that being killed in a car accident is a roughly 1-in-500 chance. The same study determined that being in a crash with a vehicle 1,000 pounds heavier than your own increases the risk of baseline fatality by 47%. It’s not immediately clear how this scales with modern battery-electric vehicle weights (for example, a 3,300-pound Toyota Camry being involved in an accident with a Hummer EV—a difference of 5,800 pounds).

Realistically, it’s hard to imagine a solution to what is potentially a public safety problem except for regulation. Sure, automakers can offer in-car warnings or geofence speed and performance to racetracks or certain designated zones (like the Japan-market Nissan GT-R in the late 2000s), but hackers will undoubtedly treat it like a cat-and-mouse game to defeat these restrictions. Realistically, it’s inconceivable to think that an automaker would willingly cripple the selling points of their performance cars in the name of safety.

Consumers want the option to go fast. It’s a sexy selling point of a sports car and akin to having the option of drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and performing myriad other tasks that pose risks to the user’s own health. The problem is that a huge 4.5-ton EV stretching its legs at a full sprint on the public road poses a threat to other drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. No automaker or consumer wants to have more government oversight on a product they manufacture or own—I certainly don’t. But at some point, we have to accept that there will be people who will die because of product misuse in the name of exhilarating acceleration, and even one will be one too many.

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On Thursday, Uber announced a partnership with the robotics manufacturer Cartken that will send a fleet of miniature self-driving robots into Miami, Florida. These little vehicles won’t be driving people though—just snacks.

Based in Oakland, California, and started by a team of former Google engineers, Cartken already deploys their automated, six-wheeled delivery vehicles delivering food and other small items across multiple college campuses. But as The Verge notes, Uber claims this will be the “first formal partnership with a global on-demand delivery app beyond” universities.

[Related: Uber’s latest goals involve more delivery and more EVs.]

Cartken’s line of small, fully electric, automated delivery vehicles are manufactured by auto supplier Magna, and can carry around 24 pounds of items in its cargo storage. While they only clock in at speeds slightly slower than pedestrians, an embedded camera system allows the robots to maneuver around obstacles and adjust in real-time to the environment around them. Each Cartken robot can deliver within a several mile radius depending on battery change, which makes them ideal for relatively small areas such as school campuses and the Miami’s Dadeland commercial shopping complex, where they are making their UberEats debut on Thursday before potential expansions throughout the county and in other cities.

Uber has openly pursued automated driving and delivery services for years now, although the path towards accomplishing this goal has been anything but smooth. In 2018, a self-driving Uber car in Arizona struck and killed a pedestrian, putting at least a temporary halt to the company’s aims of fully automating fleets. Earlier this month, the company appears to have restarted the plans via the introduction of self-driving taxi options in Las Vegas alongside expansion plans for Los Angeles —although a human safety driver will still remain behind the wheel for the time being.

[Related: Study shows the impact of automation on worker pay.]

While potentially convenient for hungry consumers, the Uber-Cartken teamup belies wider industry aims of increased automation. A diminished need for human labor is directly related to cost efficient advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. Corporations such as Uber are literally banking on this automation to be cheaper and faster than its current employees. The Cartken fleet may be cute to look at roaming around sidewalks and campuses, but every additional robot is potentially one less delivery job for a gig economy worker already strapped for cash.

Earlier this year, Uber also announced a partnership with Nuro, makers of a much larger, street traveling autonomous vehicle capable of delivering roughly 24 bags of groceries at a time to customers in Houston, Texas, and Mountain View, California.

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A 600 acre, 1,500 employee electric vehicle battery recycling facility will soon break ground outside of Charleston, South Carolina, providing a major boost in clearing one of the biggest hurdles currently facing EV adoption. Once completed, Redwood Materials’ Battery Materials Campus will break down end-of-life lithium-ion batteries into their raw materials such as copper, cobalt, and nickel within its 100 percent electric factory facilities. From there, new cathode and anode products can be built and subsequently used once again in future EV manufacturing, thus extending material lifespans while lowering overall vehicle costs for consumers.

According to Redwood’s estimates, the campus will eventually be able to provide 100 GWh in recycled components per year—enough to annually power an estimated 1 million EVs—and can eventually scale upwards as demand grows. The startup already has a similar facility in Nevada, which announced its own expansion earlier this year.

[Related: Why solid state batteries are the next frontier for EV makers.]

Redwood’s newest project is located in what is becoming known as America’s Battery Belt—a region stretching from the Midwest to the Deep South increasingly focused on the production of electric vehicles and EV components. Green energy and EV advocates argue that shifting production stateside is crucial for economics, the environment, and human rights. Currently, the vast majority of EV parts such as the rare earth minerals needed for batteries are mined overseas in countries like China, resulting in massive ethical and ecological concerns. As Engadget notes, the company alleges its methods lowers battery component production’s CO2 emissions by around 80 percent when compared to current standard Asian supply chain outputs.

Charleston’s geographic location is a strategic choice, given its ports. As CEO JB Straubel explained in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, there currently aren’t enough recyclable EV materials to meet industry demands, and importation is still a necessary step in the process. Straubel estimates that between 40 and 60 percent of its Redwood Materials’ South Carolina facility products will be made from recycled materials.

[Related: You throw out 44 pounds of electronic waste a year. Here’s how to keep it out of the dump.]

One of the biggest hurdles in electric vehicle adoption is the e-waste generated from depleted “end-of-life” lithium-ion batteries. Thankfully, industry pushes such as Redwoods’ latest venture furthers our capability of breaking down these power sources and recycling the bulk of what would otherwise be relegated as potentially harmful trash. Construction on South Carolina’s Battery Materials Campus is set to begin early next year, with an eye to begin initial recycling processes by the end of 2023.

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Now in its fifth generation, the Ram 1500 pickup truck was originally born as the Dodge Ram in 1981. It made the moniker switch in 2010, and soldiered on as your average full-size pickup truck until it was treated to a full makeover for model year 2019, earning accolades the brand hadn’t seen before. In sales numbers, the Big Three truck manufacturers compete for customer dominance, with the Ford F-150 handily leading the market and the Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500 trailing behind in a relatively distant second and third.

In that order, the automakers have released their versions of all-electric pickup trucks. Ford launched its F-150 Lightning EV last year, and Chevy plans to start selling its Silverado next year for model year 2023. Meanwhile, Ram is hyping its version of a full-size electric truck, aiming to unveil the Ram Revolution Concept on January 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares will take the stage for the keynote.

What we know so far

One of the first questions that pickup truck tire-kickers ask is how much the vehicle can tow and haul. Ram hasn’t answered that query definitively yet, but CEO Mike Koval enthusiastically set the bar high, saying the Revolution would “push past” its competitors’ “core attributes,” like hauling and towing. Considering the F-150 Lightning claims 10,000 pounds of towing capacity and the Silverado EV has advertised matching numbers, it’s almost a certainty that Ram is shooting to beat that. 

As for other automakers, Tesla says its Cybertruck will tow up to 14,000 pounds, but after three years with not a single Cybertruck on the road, it’s difficult to muster the energy to buy in.

Rivian is the current outlier with its R1T offering an estimated 11,000 pounds of towing capacity. On the surface, the R1T seems to be significantly more expensive than the Lightning or Silverado EV, with a starting price of $67,500. Ford put together a similar strategy for its F-150 Lightning, starting at just under $54,000 and soaring to nearly $83,000 with the extended range battery that improves both towing and distance between full charging. And, while the Silverado EV costs $42,000 for its Work Truck variant, that’s a stripped-down model that won’t appeal to many; the cost is estimated to jump up to $75,000 for the well-equipped LTZ trim. 

As for range, Ram says the Revolution will achieve 500 miles on a full charge, which is more than the Lightning (230-320 estimated miles), the Silverado EV (up to 400 miles) and the Rivian R1T (314 miles). Tesla claims the Cybertruck will get 500 miles of range, but imaginary trucks can’t travel far. 

Where it could set itself apart

A new teaser video of a clay model appears to show a two-door single-cab truck, which is different from the Lightning, Silverado EV, Hummer EV pickup, Cybertruck, and R1T, all of which are four-door vehicles. However, spy photographers captured pictures of the Revolution mocked up with a crew cab and long bed, which suggests that perhaps the Ram 1500 BEV (battery electric vehicle) will be available in a variety of body styles like the gas-powered version. 

Stellantis reporting specialists Mopar Insiders snapped the spy photos, and the reporter developed some assumptions based on what the pictures show. Referencing Stellantis’ EV Day 2021 event, Mopar Insiders recalled a claim that vehicles built on the new EV-ready frame architecture will include individual electric drive modules (EMDs) capable of 330 kilowatts (443 horsepower) each and that each frame can accommodate up to three of those modules. Considering the Lightning uses two EDMs and the GMC Hummer EV uses three as well, Insiders believes a Ram Revolution with three motors can generate up to 990 kilowatts, or more than 1,320 horsepower. (That’s a lot.) 

On top of that, Koval said the Revolution will be enhanced by a gasoline or diesel-fueled range extender. You can think of a gas-powered range extender as the exact opposite of a hybrid, which harnesses the power of an electric motor to boost the initial torque. Ram has experience with hybrids, as it launched its eTorque mild hybrid system in 2019 on the Ram 1500. Ram’s eTorque replaces the traditional alternator and adds more functionality for a quieter ride, improved fuel economy, and better towing and hauling capability.  

The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, has become a popular platform for technology and vehicle reveals; in fact, GM CEO Mary Barra unveiled the Chevrolet Silverado EV at the 2021 event. While Ram is trailing the Silverado by a year, that may not be a detractor for the Stellantis brand considering all-electric trucks are still such a new entity. Truck buyers are still skeptical of towing numbers and range when it comes to EVs, and the uptake is going to take more time. By the time the Revolution arrives in dealerships in 2024, the market (and the beleaguered supply chain, which has struggled to manufacture the necessary chips that run the electronics systems) will hopefully be ready.

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We may be decades away from replacing fossil-fuel-powered vehicles with a fully electric fleet, but at the same time, EVs have continued their impressive gains on US roadways. But the most innovative companies in the automotive industry are looking beyond just batteries and charging infrastructure. They’re making the most of what we’ve got while doing the heavy lifting that goes unnoticed: Making vehicles lighter, more aerodynamic, more useful, and less wasteful. They’re also giving us faster and extremely entertaining cars—and we’re here to honor their technical brilliance.

Looking for the complete list of 100 winners? Check it out here.

Grand Award Winner

Vision EQXX by Mercedes-Benz: The slipperiest EV

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This year, Mercedes-Benz introduced a one-off, world-beating car with an altruistic purpose: To make the most out of the heavy batteries at the core of the growing EV fleet. The numbers for the Vision EQXX are otherworldly for an EV: 3,900 pounds of car and 747 miles on a single charge. It’s slow by EV and gasoline standards, yet modesty was the mission. So how did they do it? Here’s one trick: Its body can extend its sweptback tail at speed another eight inches, helping cut drag by half that of a normal sedan or crossover. To further augment efficiency, Mercedes-Benz opted for a Formula 1 subframe, magnesium wheels, tiny side-view mirrors, and a 100-kWh battery that the company claims is half the size and almost a third lighter than the powerpack in their production EQS sedan. Reducing mass and improving efficiency are old mechanical concepts that all manufacturers need to revisit if EVs are to succeed in the gasoline era. For that to happen, however, the breakthroughs must be this dramatic. Though it’s only a concept, the Vision EQXX may be the spark that ignites that reality.

Uconnect 5 by Jeep: Putting the passenger in command

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Large SUVs typically allow the people in the back to zone out and watch whatever’s on the screens in front of them. But in the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, all the fun is in the shotgun seat—and won’t distract the driver. The Uconnect 5 infotainment system can run up to eight independent displays, including a 10.3-inch touchscreen built into the passenger-side dash. To reduce distraction, Jeep tints the display so it’s a faint glow to the driver while still looking bright to the passenger. You can connect an Xbox to the HDMI port, stream a ton of titles with the built-in Amazon Fire TV, control the 360 cameras, and set the navigation system by sending a chosen route to three of the driver displays. Best of all, there’s no ugly screen-mounting hardware to clutter the polished black dash.

Pilot Sport EV by Michelin: When tires go electric

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Electric vehicles—performance models especially—put the strain of extra mass and torque onto their tires. The Pilot Sport EV is the first of a growing segment of EV-specific treads designed to improve both range and grip. Typically, a manufacturer can increase range by reducing the rolling resistance—the slowing effects of friction—at the expense of grip. These Michelins find balance by putting different parts of the tire in charge of handling torque and mass: The center of the tire has a grippier compound to take the brunt of an EV’s torque, while the shoulders are optimized for lower rolling resistance. It’s a mix they honed over the last eight years on Formula E racers. Compared to the company’s gold standard, the Pilot Sport 4S, the Pilot Sport EV increases range by as much as 20 percent with nearly the same level of traction. 

Android Automotive OS  by Google: A car OS from an OS company

Google

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Google’s suite of car-specific software has been mediocre for the past several years. Android Auto projects a limited array of Android apps onto a car’s infotainment display; then there’s regular old Android, which is tablet software that many automakers modify for their vehicles. In either instance, their interfaces feel half-baked. Enter Android Automotive OS, which is Google’s first operating system developed specifically and only for cars. Through it, the voice assistant, maps, keyboards, and the Play store run faster and function more intuitively than a smartphone connected to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay ever could. Thanks to it, the experience on the latest Volvo, Polestar, and Chevrolet vehicles is dramatically better than anything those automakers had ever coded themselves.

GR Corolla by Toyota: A three-cylinder powerhouse

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In 2022, it’s rare to see automakers develop all-new gasoline engines. To see Toyota craft an engine with as much output per liter as a Bugatti Chiron? That’s a cosmic event. The G16E-GTS spews 300 turbocharged ponies from three tiny cylinders displacing only 1.6 liters. This is the ferocious heart of the 2023 GR Corolla, an ordinary-looking hatchback. On the Morizo Edition, the turbocharger pumps 26.3 PSI of air through the intake—a monstrous amount that the fortified engine block can handle. First offered overseas in the smaller GR Yaris, this engine transforms the humdrum Corolla—the world’s best-selling car of all time—into an everyday sports car. It’s comfortable, practical, gets 28 mpg on the highway, and will absolutely embarrass a Porsche on a twisty road. 

FC1-X by Nitro: Rally racing at its most extreme

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The FC1-X is what happens when motorcycle stuntman and record-breaking rally driver Travis Pastrana and a Swedish race team agree that Red Bull’s Rallycross is too slow. The FC1-X is a custom, 1000-horsepower electric car that zaps to 60 mph in 1.5 seconds and can land a 100-foot jump. A major reason: The car’s silicon carbide inverter is a fraction of the size and weight of a typical EV’s inverter—the device that converts the battery’s DC output to AC for the motors—and the battery can handle major power draws without overheating. It’s unique to Pastrana’s Nitro Rallycross series. As it evolves, FC1-X stands to influence the next generation of EVs—for both the track and the road.

Super Cruise by General Motors: Best hands-free system

GM

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General Motors’ Super Cruise strikes an ideal balance between hands-free driving assistance—giving the human operator a break—and safety. Using a network of laser-scanned highways at 10 times the accuracy of a GPS map with a full suite of ultrasonic, radar, and infrared cameras, Super Cruise can operate on more than 400,000 miles of marked US highways, including executing automatic lane changes. Most important, however, is when it won’t operate: Super Cruise will disable the system for the entire drive if the driver looks away for too long, a road is unmapped, the vehicle’s data connection goes dark, or any number of failure points to keep the person behind the wheel engaged. Next up is Ultra Cruise, which promises “door-to-door” hands-free driving, but that may be years away.

Hummer EV by GMC: A maneuverable behemoth

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Let’s get this out of the way. From the standpoint of energy consumption, the GMC Hummer EV is wasteful—and, at nearly 10,000 pounds, it’s a behemoth. Its battery pack is twice the capacity of the best Tesla Model S but delivers 80 percent of the EPA-estimated range compared to that vehicle. But underneath this super truck’s extravagance is a mind-blowing method of four-wheel steering. CrabWalk sounds too ridiculous and motion sickness-inducing to be true, but it is: All four wheels can steer the truck diagonally. The rear rims steer in tandem with the front at up to 10 degrees, enough to let this massive vehicle dance sideways like a crustacean that needs to parallel park, moving up to 25 mph. 

Nevera by Rimac: The most powerful production car

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A Croatian scientist who converted his broken BMW to run on electricity is now, at age 34, the CEO of a hypercar company that’s fresh off a merger with Bugatti. Mate Rimac’s dream machine, the 1877-horsepower Nevera, has four electric motors and the stiffest carbon fiber monocoque—that’s a combination of the car’s frame and body—around. It’s the world’s fastest EV: 258 mph. Car enthusiasts with $2.4 million to blow will soon show us the evidence. But more importantly, Rimac’s other partners, which include Hyundai and Porsche, will benefit from the company’s EV expertise in future cars costing a fraction of that price.

MotoE by Ducati: The hottest electric racing bike

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The heavy batteries that can be packaged easily in a car are harder to incorporate into a motorcycle that needs to balance. Instead of allowing a bulky, off-the-shelf battery pack to dictate the bike’s design, Ducati designed the battery on its MotoE—which the entire field of the 2023 FIM MotoE World Cup will ride—so that it functions as an integral part of the bike’s central frame instead of a bulky add-on. Two separate cooling systems (one for the 18-kWh battery, the other for the 150-hp motor and inverter) ensure the MotoE can sustain 171 mph and then pit for a recharge without needing to cool down. It might not be the first electric racing bike, but it is the first such bike that customers will ultimately want to ride on the road. 

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The past year has been marked by serious challenges, from the ongoing climate emergency, a subsequent increase in extreme forest fire frequency, and the devastating war in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. But we’ve also seen true innovation in the field of crisis response. More exact location systems will help emergency services find people in trouble quicker. Better respirator technology is rolling out, designed to help wildland firefighters breathe a little easier. And fire trucks are finally starting to go electric. This year’s best emergency services and defense innovations offer paths out of tight spots, aiming to create a safer future—or at least a better way to handle its myriad disasters.

Looking for the complete list of 100 winners? Find it here.

Grand Award Winner 

Wildland Firefighter Respirator by TDA Research: A lightweight, field-rechargeable respirator for forest firefighters

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Forest fire fighters need a lightweight wearable respirator to protect them from inhaling smoke. The Wildland Firefighter Respirator, by TDA Research, uses a hip-mounted pump to pull air through a HEPA filter, channeling it to a secure but loose-fitting half-mask (a helpful feature for people who haven’t had the chance to shave while in the field). A sensor in the system detects air flow direction, letting the pump only blow at full strength when the user inhales. Importantly, the device weighs just 2.3 pounds, which is only about 10 percent the weight of a typical urban firefighting Self Contained Breathing Apparatus. About the size of a 1-liter water bottle, the respirator is powered by a lithium-ion battery pack. To recharge in the field or away from a generator, that pack can also draw power from 6 AA batteries. Bonus: Even though it was designed for safety professionals, the device could also become civilian protective gear in fire season.

Connect AED by Avive: Connecting defibrillators to those in need, faster

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Avive’s Connect AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is designed to be a life-saving device that’s also smart. The devices can automatically do daily maintenance checks to ensure they can perform as needed, thanks to WiFi, cellular, bluetooth, and GPS. Plus, with that connectivity, 911 operators could alert nearby Connect AED holders to respond to a called-in cardiac arrest, saving time and possibly someone’s life. Once a person has been defibrillated, Connect’s connectivity also lets emergency room doctors see data the device collected, such as the patient’s heart rhythm, as well as the device’s shock history, complete with timestamps. The Connect AED also has a backpack-like form factor and touch screen for intuitive use.

Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations by Ames Research Center: Letting drone pilots clear skies for aerial emergency vehicles 

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The sky above a forest fire can be a dangerous, crowded place, and that was before forest fire fighters added drones joined the mix. Developed by NASA, the Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations project (STEReO) is developing tools for managing the complicated airspace above an emergency. In the spring of 2022, a NASA team field-tested a STEReO’s suitcase-sized prototype device, called the UASP-Kit, to monitor drones safely in the open airspace around prescribed burns. By tracking transponders on crewed aircraft, the UASP-Kit can play a sound through tablet speakers, alerting drone operators when helicopters and planes fly close to where they are operating. That hopefully lets drone pilots get their equipment to safety without risking aerial collision.

Locate Before Route by AT&T: Pinpointing the emergency 

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When a person in an emergency calls 911 for help, that call is routed, based on its location, to the closest 911 operator. For cell phones, that meant matching the call to the nearest tower and hoping it sent the call to dispatch in the right county. But in May 2022, AT&T announced the nationwide rollout of a better system. Leaning on the improved location services on iOS and Android phones, AT&T’s Locate Before Route feature can pinpoint the location of the emergency call within 50 meters, sometimes even as precisely as 15 meters. This better location information should allow the call to be routed to the best dispatch center, ideally helping responders arrive faster. That data can only be used for 911 purposes, and helps first responders get where they’re needed quickly, nationwide.

GridStar Flow by Lockheed Martin: Helping to power defense with renewable energy

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The US military is a massive consumer of fossil fuels, but if it wants to use more renewable energy, it needs a way to store that electricity to power vital functions. GridStar Flow, developed by Lockheed Martin for the US Army, is a massive battery complex that takes advantage of the space of Colorado’s Fort Carson to go big. It will store up to 10 megawatt-hours of juice, thanks to tanks of charged electrolytes and other equipment. Construction at Fort Carson broke ground on November 3, but the company has already tested out a smaller flow battery in Andover, Massachusetts. Using electrolytes that can be derived from commodity chemicals, GridStar Flow offers a power storage and release system that can help smooth the energy flow from renewable sources.

Volterra Electric Firetruck by Pierce: A more sustainable, quieter fire truck

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Fire trucks are big, powerful vehicles, but they run on diesel, a polluting fossil fuel. The Pierce Volterra truck can deliver all that power on an electric charge, and it can also run on diesel fuel if need be. Already in use with the Madison, Wisconsin fire department, but with contracts to expand to Portland, Oregon and Gilbert, Arizona underway this year, the Volterra has enough battery power for a full day as an electric vehicle. The electric power helps complement a transition to renewable energy, but it also comes with immediate benefit to the firefighters: the vehicle doesn’t spew exhaust into the station. The quiet of the electric engine also lets firefighters coordinate better on the drive, and can help cries for help be heard when the responders arrive on site.

Vampire Drone by L3Harris: Taking down drones from kilometers away

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Drones are increasingly a part of modern battles, seen in wars across the globe but especially with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with both countries using a range of uncrewed aircraft to scout and fight. In August 2022, the Department of Defense announced it would send a new tool to aid Ukrainian forces as a way to counter Russian drones. Made by L3Harris, the Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment (VAMPIRE) system is a rocket launcher and sensor kit that can be mounted to a range of vehicles, providing a means to damage and destroy drones at a range of at least three miles. The laser-guided rockets, directed by a human operator, explode with a proximity fuse, making near misses into effective takedowns. 

Emergency SOS via satellite by Apple: Locating lost hikers with satellites

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For hikers lost in remote parts of the United States and Canada, calling for help means hoping for cell phone coverage, or waiting for a serendipitous rescue. But Apple’s Emergency SOS via Satellite, announced September 2022, will let people with an iPhone 14 transmit emergency messages via satellite, provided they can’t first establish a cellular connection. Texters will have a tap-through menu to create an information-dense but data-light report, and provided trees or mountains don’t block the signal, they can transmit crucial information, like what kind of injuries someone has sustained. With a clear view of the sky and fifteen seconds, a cry for help can reach space and then, even better, rescuers on Earth.

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Scrappy Italian brand Fiat has risen from the proverbial ashes once again. Launched way back in 1899, Fiat established itself in the US in 1908 and has weathered storms through the two world wars, twice departing the American market to regroup. Now a subsidiary of auto conglomerate Stellantis, which also owns brands such as Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Ram, Maserati, and Alfa Romeo, Fiat is finding its footing with an expansion of its small-car lineup. Only this time, it’s as an EV manufacturer. 

Seeing an opening with the departure of the Ford Fiesta from the market this year, Fiat showcased a trio of super-chic 500e models mocked up with designer-brand interiors at the LA Auto Show on November 18. The ultra-compact, Euro-stylish Fiat 500 has always been adorable and represents la dolce vita (“the sweet life” in Italian) that Americans find charming. In EV form as the 500e, its appeal expands exponentially. 

Lavishly festooned with design elements from luxury brands Giorgio Armani, Kartell, and Bulgari, the 500e models on display were intentionally set up to lay out the brand’s direction and pricing structure. Fiat boss Oliver François told Autocar UK that making small electric cars affordable is a challenge, but he’s tapping into all the resources of its parent company to leverage experience and manufacturing synergies. 

“The only super-profitable, easy way to go electric is to make it super-premium, because you embed the horribly high cost of batteries into something that is anyway expensive,” François said. 

Fiat called the 500e “irresistibly cool, small and Italian” and a “fashion accessory” in its November 17 press release, indicating the automaker’s branding strategy. Combining the electrification trend with fashion is a bet the brand can win, especially in Europe where small cars are more common. However, in the US, where consumers have been in the middle of a love affair with large SUVs and trucks, these vehicles represent a welcome step in the other direction—if people can be convinced to buy them. 

At some point, we may get an Abarth version of the 500e, too. Following the tracks of its (sadly) now-defunct 124 Abarth, the new 500e Abarth will be a performance-focused option available later on, with no confirmed date currently in place. The result of a glorious partnership with Mazda, the Fiat 124 Spider Abarth was based on the popular MX-5 Miata and shared many of its attributes. However, the 124 Spider Abarth possesses a spunky attitude that reveals itself on the autocross as the back half slips around with a delightful wiggle not unlike the wagging tail of an exuberant dog. The 500e may not have the same swagger and is narrower and taller than its 124 counterpart, but the 500 model has always been equally eager to please in all kinds of driving conditions. Except, perhaps in the snow (unless it’s hard-packed).

In Europe, the 500e is available with a 23.8 kilowatt-hour battery pack good for 100 miles of range or a 42 kWh battery pack capable of 199 miles on a full charge. On the surface, that sounds shockingly inadequate, until you consider that this car is made for the urban environment where owners will be driving it short distances from charger to charger. It’s the right car for the city for short commutes and tight parking, but it may not be the best choice for a road trip. 

According to Consumer Guide’s Tom Appel, gas- and electric-powered versions of the 500 were available in the US between 2012 and 2019, with the caveat that the 500e was offered only in California and Oregon. Appel expects the new Fiat model to be offered more broadly for the 2025 model. The North American 500e will launch officially at the 2023 Los Angeles Auto Show with availability expected in the first quarter of 2024.

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At the start of the pandemic nearly three years ago, the number of outdoor activities increased rapidly. Off-roading and overlanding (adventure traveling in a vehicle combined with camping) pursuits have been front and center ever since, and bicycle riding is on an upswing. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a US-based nonprofit that promotes the transformation of unused rail corridors into trails for hiking and biking, says its trail counters showed an average increase in trail use of 51 percent for 2021 compared to 2019. This number continues to expand.

Bike riding isn’t just for outdoor fun, however. Cars and city streets are making room for more cyclists, and e-bikes could help reduce emissions and smog while offering benefits for riders. E-bikes are a less-sweaty way to get around compared to manual cycling since they have an electric motor that can give the  bike a boost. That brutal hill on the way to work? Easy to get up with motorized wheels.

More e-bikes, fewer cars in city centers

Robin Stallings, the executive director of Texas-focused bicycle advocacy and education organization BikeTexas, told PopSci that e-bikes could replace cars in many urban settings.

“We need to at least get some people out of their trucks to make room for the rest of us,” Stallings told NPR. Continuing the conversation with Houston Public Media, he said: “You take up less footprint, less space, you have fewer parking issues [with bikes]. And you save a ton of money on gasoline and car payments and insurance.”

To be clear, e-bikes aren’t motorcycles; the two modes of transport have different rules. Vehicles must fit into one of three classes to qualify as an e-bike: class 1 covers bikes that use pedal assist up to 20 mph; class 2 covers bikes that also include a throttle along with pedals and can travel at speeds of up to 20 mph; and class 3 is an expansion of class 1 with e-bikes that can reach speeds of up to 28 mph. 

Protecting cyclists on the road

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, bicycle trips make up only 1 percent of all trips in the United States, but bicyclists account for more than 2 percent of fatalities involving a motor vehicle. Every year, nearly 1,000 cyclists are killed and more than 130,000 are injured on US roads. The cost impact from health care expense plus lost lives and work productivity is estimated to be around $23 billion.  

Nonprofit bike advocacy organization League of American Bicyclists’ executive director Bill Nesper says US roads weren’t always built to prioritize cars the way they are today. In fact, the first vehicles to use paved roads were carriages and bicycles. Members in the organization have witnessed the evolution since it was founded in 1880, several years before cars became commonplace. It wasn’t until after World War II that our streets became so car-centric, Nesper says. Community groups like Strong Towns call city infrastructure roads “stroads” (street plus road) and are trying to bring more attention to the unsafe conditions it presents for pedestrians and bikes.

“It’s absolutely true that people moving and getting around by foot and by bike is an afterthought, you know, if thought about at all,” Nesper told NPR.

Organizations like BikeTexas and the League of American Bicyclists have successfully lobbied lawmakers to add bike-only lanes to city streets, especially as the number of cyclists increases.

E-bike battery safety critical

Claudia Wasko, Vice President of Bosch eBike Systems Americas, stresses the importance of e-bike battery safety. To this end, she notes that Bosch voluntarily adheres to testing by safety certification company Intertek to the Underwriter Laboratories (UL) 2849 Safety Standard. Intertek gives E-bike companies the UL 2849 certification after carefully examining the electrical drive train, battery, and charger systems.

Bosch’s Kurt Hoy says the manufacturer voluntarily creates components with extra layers of safety beyond the legal requirements and certifications. Bosch competes with the likes of Brose, Shimano, and Yamaha for e-bike market share, and Hoy says it’s critical to look for a product with stringent standards, because there are plenty of companies pairing a substandard motor with a bike and selling it for pennies on the dollar online. Honestly, high-quality e-bikes aren’t cheap; I tested a Tern with a Bosch motor that provided 400 percent assist that retails for about $5,000.

That said, part of what customers are paying for is the safety factor, and cheap e-bikes with poorly maintained or damaged lithium-ion batteries have a much greater potential to catch fire.

Legislation under consideration for e-bikes and batteries

Delivery cyclists swapping batteries between subpar bikes are unknowingly contributing to the risk, and organizations in big cities like New York are considering bans on sales of second-hand electric vehicle batteries along with batteries that haven’t been approved by a nationally recognized testing lab like UL. 

“As e-bikes and e-scooters become more popular, unregulated knockoff parts including batteries and chargers are flooding the market, sometimes with disastrous consequences,” Molly Hurford wrote on Bicycling.com. 

Companies using multiple safety protocols are highly unlikely to have batteries or chargers that catch fire because each component in the devices is isolated from the others. Bosch, for instance, encases individual lithium-ion cells in its batteries in flame-retardant plastic and tightly seals the compartment to protect it from water.

Charging is a critical point for e-bikes, and Wasko says her company’s battery management system can detect high temperatures and immediately shut down the battery. That protocol protects owners from “deep discharging” and overcharging their e-bikes, which can cause excessive heat that leads to a fire. Responsible brands should comply with laws and certify their systems to voluntary and/or mandatory standards and norms, she says.

With all that added in, e-bikes may be a considerable investment. But for those living in crowded urban areas with limited parking, it could still be a smart one. For one, an e-bike costs a fraction of the price of a car and doesn’t require costly trips to the gas station or electric charging station. The key is to purchase and use bikes that are tested at a qualified testing laboratory, and it should serve for years to come. 

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Golems, leprechauns, and new-generation versions of the classic Volkswagen bus are all mythical creatures of fantastic legend, but unlike the others, at long last, the Volkswagen ID.BUZZ is a real, drivable machine, and Popular Science got a chance to take one for a spin.

Imagine getting to drive the automotive equivalent of the Loch Ness Monster—that’s the feeling of piloting a real-life all-electric 2023 VW ID.BUZZ down everyday streets, surrounded by mere mortal vehicles. The outrageous throwback styling puts smiles on the faces of passers-by, and it will probably be difficult to stop with one at a public charger without an impromptu Q&A session.

This ID.BUZZ is not a concept, not a pre-production prototype, or any other form of not-real vehicle like that crazy Ford Mustang Mach-E 1400 we track tested. VW has whetted fans’ appetites for a new version of the classic bus with three different concept vans between 2001 and 2016, before finally showing the concept version of the ID.BUZZ production model in 2017.

Our test vehicle, however, is a European-market configuration, so while this ID.BUZZ is not imaginary like a sasquatch, it is also not exactly the vehicle that Americans will be able to buy when they arrive in US dealers.

Instead, this example ($67,000 base price), is a short-wheelbase (118 inches), two-row, five-seat model that we will not get in America. We’ll get a longer model with three rows of seats to hold seven passengers. But otherwise, this test vehicle is an accurate representation of what we can expect to find in dealers. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until 2024 to take one home, as VW focuses on fulfilling orders in Europe, where the van is already on sale.

However, if you want the electric driving experience of the ID.BUZZ without the cool nostalgic styling, hefty price tag, or lengthy wait, the company’s ID.4 crossover SUV delivers much of the same experience today, as both vehicles share their Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB is the German acronym) platform and dashboard controls and displays. 

Volkswagen’s original bus was built on the platform of the Beetle compact car, producing a people hauler that, while much-loved by the Baby Boom generation as it took them to Woodstock, was comically underpowered. Westfalia camper versions sported a pop-up tent on the roof, and later iterations switched from air cooling for the engine to water cooling to help boost power. The VW EuroVan was the last version of the bus imported to the US, ending its run here in 2003. 

And now, finally, electric versions are here.

What it’s like to drive the ID.BUZZ

The shared platform between the ID.BUZZ and the ID.4 means that there is an 82-kilowatt-hour battery pack (which has a usable capacity of 77 kWh) powering a 201-horsepower electric motor that can accelerate the bus to 60 mph in 10 seconds. The driving experience is similar to that of the ID.4, with a twist shifter to select drive or reverse, numb electric power steering that gives little feeling for the road, and an impressively tight turning circle that makes it easy to pilot the vehicle into parking spaces.

Twist the shifter into Drive and then twist it a second time to set it to the high-regeneration mode that recharges the batteries when you lift off the accelerator pedal. However, while this vehicle delivers much of the one-pedal driving experience, the ID.BUZZ does not come to a complete stop when taking your foot off the accelerator, so in stop-and-go traffic you still have to dance between the accelerator and the brake.

The longer US model will need more space to turn around because of its stretched wheelbase, but the tight turning radius of the Euro-spec version suggests that even a longer model will still be easy to line up for a parking space.

For now, the ID.BUZZ is saddled with the same unfortunate ID.COCKPIT capacitive-touch controls for functions like door locks and volume control that infuriate many drivers in the ID.4. We can only hope that VW will swap those controls for the US model with some decent physical knobs and buttons.

The cabin in the ID.BUZZ is also reminiscent of the ID.4. While the styling is very different, the hard, unfriendly materials used on most of the interior surfaces are the same. The upholstery in our test vehicle’s seats was a nice combination of throwback plaid fabric on the contact surfaces of the seats that actually touch the occupants and easy-to-wipe-clean vinyl.

What they won’t be able to change is how VW’s engineers matched the MEB platform to the ID.BUZZ body. For one thing, the van is about six inches wider than the ID.4, but the seats seem to have stayed in the same location inside the vehicle. That pushes the doors further from the occupants, making the armrests on the door panels uselessly distant.

To address this, VW has put fold-down armrests on both sides of the van’s front bucket seats. Fold down the outer armrest and you have support right where you want it. Forget to fold it back up when you try to depart the vehicle and you’ll get an unpleasant reminder in the ribs that the armrest is down. Imagine dealing with this every day.

Having the doors far from the van’s occupants has the benefit of leaving plenty of space in the lower door panel for XXL-sized water bottle holders, so the popular Yeti-type giant water bottles will fit in the ID.BUZZ bottle holders.

Another aspect of the MEB platform is that, as an EV platform, it mounts the bus’s 12 battery modules into the floor. As a result, the floor is very high, making entry a challenge, especially for shorter people. The interior grab handles are located above the front door openings, which is normally the preferred location. But the ID.BUZZ has a very high roof in addition to its high floor, potentially putting those handles out of reach for the people who most need them.

The ID.BUZZ’s floor is 22 inches off the ground, but there are cutouts in the door openings that drop it down to 19.5 inches in a bid to provide occupants a toe hold for climbing aboard. In comparison, the Chrysler Town & Country-derived Volkswagen Routan minivan, which was the company’s most recent US market van, had a floor that was 17.5 inches off the ground.

People are used to SUVs being higher from the ground, but those often employ running boards to provide a step in, which the ID.BUZZ does not have. Another thing people are used to is having windows in the rear doors that actually open. This is the norm for SUVs’ hinged rear doors and family vans’ sliding rear doors, but the windows in the ID.BUZZ’s rear doors are fixed closed, which will make it tougher to route emergency fresh air to back-seaters who are feeling motion sickness coming on.

Anyone who is prone to motion sickness is going to especially suffer in the ID.BUZZ, as its very stiff suspension provides a ride that is surprisingly harsh for a vehicle that is carrying 1,000 lbs. of battery ballast in its floor.

The stiff springs cause the ID.BUZZ to crash over every bump and pavement imperfection, which is uncomfortable. But worse is its tendency to rock side-to-side sharply, without the suspension compliance to absorb irregularities that are especially common on the right edge of the pavement.

The test vehicle rolled on the optional 20-inch wheels, which are a feature that designers love. But their low-profile tires lack the sidewall height to provide the air cushion that smooths the ride. Equip an ID.BUZZ with 18-inch wheels and hope the engineers soften the springs for the US market, and this issue could be solved.

Range of the ID.BUZZ

The ID.BUZZ is electric, of course, so it’s fitting to discuss the electrified aspects of its operation. VW says it will go 263 miles on a full charge and that it will do DC fast charging at a maximum of 170 kilowatts, which is promised to boost the battery from 10 percent to 80 percent in 30 minutes.  

My time behind the wheel on mostly rural two-lane highways produced a driving range that extrapolated to 210 miles in very mild weather. At the same time, I averaged 3.2 miles per kW, according to the computer, which should yield 246 miles if it uses the full 77 kWh, so the van would probably have made it somewhere between 210 and 246 miles if I’d started with a 100 percent charge and ran it until it was dead.

The ID.BUZZ’s on-board charger supports 11 kW of Level 2 AC charging, which is good except that it is hard to find a Level 2 charging station that provides that much juice. Public Level 2 chargers seem to be 6.2 kW or 7.7 kW, but my Chargepoint Home Flex charging station at home promises to deliver up to 12 kW.

Some of the charging details could change before the ID.BUZZ comes to America, along with whatever other changes accompany the added length and extra row of seating. But what surely won’t change is the bus’s legendary status and appeal to drivers, even if it finally sheds the “mythical” appellation.

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Renault was founded in 1898, a long time before computers and the internet. Perhaps that’s what makes it feel a little surprising to find that its current goals are of the high-tech, modern kind. For instance, the Renault Group is working toward being carbon neutral in Europe by 2040, two years after the Stellantis supergroup’s 2038 target. And Renault just minted an expanded partnership with Google for in-vehicle software.

Electronics and over-the-air software updates have exploded in the automotive industry over the last several years. Renault says the partnership is focused on what they call the “Software Defined Vehicle,” which brings more opportunities to update its cars, melding further the relationship between tech and autos. SDV may sound like a new acronym, but it’s a term on the rise as more automakers embrace electrification and find ways to improve efficiency. Companies like Rivian have already been pushing out over-the-air software updates, elevating its status as a tech company with upgrades such as Soft Sand Mode, which appeared like magic on customers’ touchscreens earlier this year. 

The Renault Group is made up of four brands: Renault, Dacia, Alpine and Mobilize. It formed an alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors in 2016 and has boosted its performance credibility with Formula 1 cars under the Alpine name. The next frontier is the collaboration with Google. “The complexity of the electronic architecture of cars is increasing exponentially, driven by the sophistication of the functionalities and services expected by customers,” said Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo in a press release. “Equipped with a shared IT platform, continuous over-the-air updates, and streamlined access to car data, the SDV [software defined vehicle] approach developed in partnership with Google will transform our vehicles to help serve future customers’ needs.”

Renault says it will “eventually transform its entire operational model to the cloud for more agility, better performance, and higher profitability.” In other words, working with Google means Renault can gather more data about its customers’ driving habits and increase residual value and retention, two of the most important value metrics for automakers. By creating what it calls a digital twin—a digital representation of the physical machine—in the cloud, Google and Renault can use AI to quickly make changes and improvements. The benefit of this type of tech is that changes can be tested and monitored digitally before rolling out the updates to the physical realm, minimizing the chance of error.  

The alignment between the Mountain View, California tech firm and the Boulogne-Billancourt, France-based manufacturer started in 2018. With this announcement, Google becomes Renault Group’s preferred cloud supplier, playing a big role in the automotive conglomerate’s “Move to Cloud” digital transformation.

Renault Group and Google aim to improve the driver experience by predicting maintenance intervals and detecting mechanical issues. SDVs, or software defined vehicles, can also adapt to individual driving patterns and route to EV charging stations and other frequent destinations. 

Renault isn’t alone in this kind of initiative. Tesla has embraced a software-focused strategy for several years and Hyundai is jumping in, vowing that every one of its models will be an SDV by 2025. Renault says its tech focus can also affect insurance models based on actual usage and driving behaviors, which may or may not be a positive thing depending on your driving habits.

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At best, experiencing a flat tire is an inconvenience. Whether you’re pulling out the jack and lug wrench and changing it yourself or waiting for AAA to come to your rescue, it’s a big waste of time. And in the age of electrification, a new level of tire complexity is emerging. Electric vehicles are heavy, and designers are opting to omit spare tires to save weight. Also, batteries take up a lot of real estate, leaving less room to carry a spare. Overall, tire company Bridgestone says that approximately one-third of all new passenger vehicles sold in the US today are not equipped with a spare tire.

Self-sealing technology can mitigate the issue of an absent spare tire, freeing up space and providing a way to lighten the overall weight of the vehicle, which in turn improves total driving range. Global manufacturer Dow has announced the launch of a recyclable silicone self-sealing tire solution that will allow drivers to travel long distances even after a sharp object (like a nail) punctures the outer wall of a tire. It seals the inner layer to retain tire pressure. No lug nut wrenching required. 

Here’s how it works.

Silicone versus other sealants

Giving the driver an opportunity to continue down the road after a puncture offers a major benefit on its own, but what’s more impressive is the sustainability element of silicone sealant, Dow and Bridgestone boast. Bob Lux, Bridgestone Tires’ director for consumer tires, explained to PopSci why silicone is easier to work with than traditional sealants like natural rubber and butyl. An elastomeric polymer used widely in adhesives and sealants, butyl is a synthetic rubber invented in the 1940s. It has been effectively used as a sealant for many years, but companies like Bridgestone are finding that it has a host of challenges that can be solved with silicone. 

“Manufacturers are starting to apply sealant more widely,” Lux says. “It’s not necessarily new as they have been around in some form since the 90s, but it’s much better today because silicone sealant doesn’t cause ride disturbances. In the past, sealants didn’t stay in place and would shift and cause unevenness. Today’s sealants don’t cause that issue.”

Unlike aftermarket sealants like Fix-a-Flat, which are sold in single-use cans, this silicone sealant is applied to the tire for preemptive protection during the manufacturing process. This seals the puncture wound to maintain tire pressure like a superhero absorbs and instantly heals from epic battles on screen.

Sustainable tire practices

From an energy-saving standpoint, silicone is also easier to employ because it’s applied at room temperature. Natural rubber and butyl require heat from the preconditioning phase to application, and heat consumes more energy. Previous sealant materials are sticky, too, which causes a significant problem in the recycling process. Tires are chopped up and recycled in a number of ways to use in roads, as playground material, or back into the tire manufacturing cycle.

“At the end of life for a tire, recycling becomes very difficult with traditional sealant inside,” Lux says. “[Traditional] sealant will gum up the machines that chop up tires for recycling.”

Not silicone, however. Using this kind of new sealant technology could result in a reduction of the number of tires in the landfill, although the silicone needs to be removed first. Then the silicone itself can be recycled separately and used as an industrial lubricant, playground mulch, and more. 

Run flats or sealant?

Speaking of getting a flat, you may have heard of run-flat tires. They have been growing in popularity in recent years, thanks to their convenience factor. Companies like Bridgestone and BFGoodrich manufacture run-flats, which employ reinforced sidewalls to give drivers a way to limp to a safer place to change it out. 

Meanwhile, the repairable area of a tire is approximately a quarter-inch in case of a puncture, and sealant holds the tire together. Basically, run-flats can help in the case of difficult sidewall punctures, while sealant protects the tread area. 

Theoretically, silicone sealant could be paired with run-flats for extra protection, but that combination isn’t a priority for EVs currently. “We see a big impact on range with silicone sealant,” Lux says. “It’s lighter and doesn’t impact rolling resistance.”

Bridgestone will be adding this co-developed sealant into tires for a car manufacturer fitment soon; Lux says it will be released in 2023.

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Electric vehicle advocates have waited for decades for the technology to mature sufficiently such that the vehicle’s driving range, performance, and utility are sufficient to meet the needs of most drivers—and for EVs to sell at prices that are within reasonable reach for many buyers.

We’ve reached that point now, or we’re very close to it, but the rollout of EVs is obstructed by a shortage of the batteries these cars need. So what’s a potential interim solution that would deliver the maximum number of efficient new vehicles to the most customers possible? Making the most of the available battery cells by employing them in plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles (PHEVs) that have gas engines in addition to their battery-electric drive.

Plug-in hybrids were initially seen as a bridge technology to help provide consumers the driving range they demand, but today’s battery-electrics are largely accomplishing that without the need for the cost and weight of a combustion drivetrain.

However, PHEVs can still play an interim role, but for a different reason: They use fewer precious battery cells than battery-electric cars. Jeep’s parent company, Stellantis, says that the Wrangler 4xe is the best-selling PHEV in the country, though they decline to provide sales numbers to back that up. This success comes despite having an electric-only driving range of just 25 miles, according to the EPA, but that’s the same as the Toyota Prius Prime’s electric-only range. 

Consider the Range Rover

But the new Land Rover Range Rover Sport plug-in hybrid points the way for hybrids to optimize battery availability: It has a 38.2-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack of cylindrical cells that give the Range Rover Sport a range of 51 miles on electric power alone. That’s about one-third to one-half as many cells as a battery-electric commonly requires.

Meanwhile, EV battery packs are typically between 80 kWh and 100 kWh or more. For example, Rivian says its fully electric R1T pickup truck carries 7,777 individual cylindrical-style 2170 cells in its 135-kWh pack. 

Besides the Range Rover Sport, other leading PHEVs include the Polestar 1, which is also rated at 51 miles of EV range, and the Toyota RAV4 Prime, which goes an impressive 42 miles.

PHEVs are also perfect for soothing the nerves of drivers who want to drive on electric grid power, but worry about getting stranded, observes Philipp Kampshoff, senior partner, leader of future mobility sector at McKinsey. “When we interview consumers, the biggest concern is still range anxiety and charging infrastructure, which are two sides of the same coin,” he says.

Extended-range PHEVs like the Range Rover could be necessary to meet future regulations, he adds. “Governments might require a minimum of 50 miles. Not all of them are capable of doing that.”

A 141-horsepower (105-kilowatt) electric motor powers the Range Rover Sport through the same drivetrain as the Ingenium 3.0-liter inline 6-cylinder combustion engine. That means that it employs the same 8-speed ZF automatic transmission and Intelligent All-Wheel Drive system whether it is running on gas, electric, or both, so the driving experience and off-road capabilities are undiminished. Combined, the motors produce 434 hp, which launches the Range Rover Sport to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. 

While the Range Rover Sport’s EPA rating in all-electric mode is for 51 miles, it can go further than that, boasts chief engineer Peter Bingham in an interview at the Range Rover Sport media launch in Madrid, Spain. “Guys in the UK have managed driving real-world to get to around 70 miles,” he tells Popular Science. “EPA takes into account extremes, temperature variations, etc, but yeah, we’ve got guys who are managing to exceed 50 miles. And we know from our customer journey data, that the vast majority of customers will be able to make most of their daily journeys simply on EV power.”

That, of course, is the goal here: To provide enough battery capacity to cover most daily drives—which were an average of 32.7 miles in 2021, according to AAA—without wasting any of this resource on excess range while battery supply is tight.

The cost of complexity

Of course, unlike battery EVs, plug-in hybrids do burn gas. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says on its FuelEconomy.gov site that plug-in hybrids use roughly 30 to 60 percent less fuel than conventional vehicles. That means that by rationalizing battery cell use, automakers can put more efficient vehicles on the road in the near term, while the many battery plants that carmakers have announced are built.

Battery EVs cost an average of $66,000, according to Kelley Blue Book, versus an average of $45,000 for regular non-luxury vehicles. Compared to purely combustion-fueled models, plug-in hybrids cost between $4,000 and $8,000 more, according to the EPA, putting the sticker price on PHEVs somewhere between traditional vehicles and pure EVs.  Federal EV tax credits can often offset the difference in purchase price, and lower fuel costs will put PHEV drivers ahead.

That’s because while gasoline currently costs $3.65 per gallon on average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the same agency says that electricity costs 10.59 cents per kilowatt-hour. So a vehicle charged at home at the average national price enjoys the ability to drive for a cost of electricity that equals about $1 per gallon for gasoline, based on the distance the car can travel on $1 worth of electricity compared to a gallon of gas.

Fast-charging at public direct current chargers costs more, and can be on par with the price of gasoline, so while it makes sense for battery-electric drivers, it is better for plug-in hybrid drivers to stick to the 240-volt alternating current SAE Level 2 chargers at home or work, which can charge a PHEV’s battery in between one and four hours according to the EPA. Using a plain 120-volt wall outlet takes twice as long.

Another advantage of buying a car that shifts more of its driving time to electric power than conventional hybrids or short-range plug-ins is the fact that the US electric grid is continuously moving to greener fuel sources. So EVs, and cars that use power from the grid like PHEVs, can get increasingly green over their lifetimes thanks to cleaner electric power in the future. Gasoline vehicles, of course, will never run on anything else.

The University of California Davis Electric Vehicle Explorer site provides consumers detailed information on the costs of driving an EV or hybrid that are specific to their location and model. 

So why haven’t carmakers rushed to build more PHEVs? Well, because they aren’t simple to construct. “Plug-in hybrids are very interesting because you can run with electric in the city and on the motorway you can use the combustion engine,” notes former McLaren Automotive director of engineering Mario Carendente.

“The problem is around the cost,” he says. “You have to think about having a gas powertrain and an electric one and the complexity of the engineering.”

Indeed, Bingham, of Land Rover, concedes that was the challenge for the Range Rover Sport PHEV. “The hybrid is the most challenging thing,” he says. “You’ve got two powerpacks essentially right in a hybrid, so that you’re balancing fuel tank volume with battery capacity with exhaust routes. I would say it’s probably one of the more challenging aspects of the whole platform design.”

But there is a drivability benefit to plug-in hybrids that might make the complexity worthwhile to drivers. That is because the electric motor in a PHEV is much stronger than that in a conventional hybrid, and it makes a substantial difference in the car’s response to the accelerator pedal.

Sure, battery EVs can be electric rocket ships, but PHEVs deliver a stronger, smoother driving experience on the highway than combustion-only thanks to the electric motor working in concert with the combustion engine. That means more effortless acceleration and hill climbs, and as I experienced in the Range Rover Sport, more accurate cruise control because the electric motor can help hold the desired speed more precisely while climbing hills. Plus, its regeneration of electricity prevents the car from gaining speed on downhills.

We can’t all afford a $105,000 Range Rover Sport PHEV, but mainstream models like the Toyota RAV4 Prime and the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV provide electrified options that give more drivers the opportunity to do their daily driving on electric power rather than hoarding the limited supply of battery cells in EVs that don’t use all their capacity very often.

After that, it will be all pure EVs, says Kampsoff. “We would still say plug-in hybrid is a bridge technology. If you fast forward to 2030 and beyond, EV is a clear winner.”

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It’s not just New York and California passing major measures to stifle and eventually stop new gas-powered car sales recently—just today the European Union announced their own version on Thursday. This step is just the first part of the bloc’s current climate legislation dubbed the  “Fit for 55” package, which is meant to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent over the next decade. 

The first step in the new deal is to reduce emissions of new cars by 55 percent of 2021 levels by 2030, with vans requiring a 50 percent cut in that time. This is higher than the existing target set by the EU in 2018 of 37.5 percent reductions by 2030

The EU additionally aims to require car companies to cut emissions from their cars by 100 percent by 2035, effectively banning gas and diesel engines. This would make it impossible to sell new fossil fuel powered cars across all 27 EU countries. 

[Related: Car owners: here’s when experts say you should switch to an EV.]

The proposal faced resistance when it was first presented back in July 2021. Reuters reported at the time that the European car industry association ACEA argued that banning one type of technology was “not a rational way forward.” 

Some industry voices have expressed support for Thursday’s decision. “This extremely far-reaching decision is without precedent,” Oliver Zipse, the CEO of BMW, tells CNBC. “It means that the European Union will now be the first and only world region to go all-electric … Make no mistake, the European automobile industry is up to the challenge of providing these zero-emission cars and vans.”

However, not all car executives are on board. “I think there is the possibility—and the need—for a more pragmatic approach to manage the transition,” Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, told CNBC earlier in October.

[Related: Thousands of EV chargers will soon line America’s highways.]

On the other end of the spectrum, some activists argue that this phase out isn’t quick enough, and setting targets for 2028 would make more sense. 

“The EU is taking the scenic route, and that route ends in disaster,” Greenpeace EU campaigner Lorelei Limousin told the AP. She also described the deal as “a perfect example of where politicians can bask in a feel-good headline that masks the reality of their repeated failures to act on climate.”

Some details are yet to be decided, for example, allowing vehicles that run on carbon-neutral fuels to be sold in Europe after 2035. In 2026, the Commission must also thoroughly assess any progress made on the goal.

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Elon Musk may finally move forward with his $44 billion purchase of Twitter this week, but his legal sagas are far from over. As Reuters reported exclusively earlier this week, multiple insider sources revealed the Department of Justice has been conducting a previously undisclosed investigation into Tesla and Musk’s repeated misleading and false claims regarding their Autopilot system capabilities since last year. The DOJ’s criminal probe reportedly centers on more than a dozen accidents, some of them fatal, involving Teslas that occurred while the EVs were engaged in Autopilot mode.

Musk and Tesla have hyped their supposed “Full Self-Driving Mode” software for years, repeatedly promising a completely driverless experience was just around the corner for customers. Tesla’s website currently features a demonstration video that at one point claims “the person in the driver’s seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself.” Musk himself has taken part in multiple interviews from a Tesla’s driver seat with the system engaged.

[Related: YouTube pulls video of Tesla fan testing autopilot on kid.]

Using a network of artificial intelligence, camera systems, sensors and machine learning, Tesla’s Autopilot can hypothetically control steering, speed, lane changes, and braking in real time, but “do not make the vehicle autonomous,” per the company’s own volition. Drivers are also advised to maintain full attention on the road at all times while Autopilot is engaged.

The DOJ’s investigation is far from the only one regarding Tesla’s AI systems right now. Last year, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened its own case regarding fatal crashes potentially involving Autopilot, which could result in requesting a complete Autopilot “recall” via an over-the-air software update to Tesla computers. Meanwhile, the state of California is looking into similar charges regarding misleading statements.

[Related: What we know so far about the fatal Tesla crash in Paris.]

Reuters reports that “officials conducting their inquiry could ultimately pursue criminal charges, seek civil sanctions or close the probe without taking any action,” while noting that the case is far from completion.

In 2016, Musk claimed that Tesla’s then-latest Autopilot update could have potentially saved the life of a Model S driver who died in a recent crash. Last week, Musk alleged during an investor call that the company was close to releasing an update to its “Full Self-Driving” software that would allow customers to travel “to your work, your friend’s house, to the grocery store without you touching the wheel.” Later on the same call, he cautioned that “we’re not saying that that’s quite ready to have no one behind the wheel.”

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Iconic Italian automaker Alfa Romeo is all in on the electrification train, claiming its spot as the first brand under the Stellantis umbrella (created through the merger of car companies Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot S.A.) to go all electric by 2027. 

Alfa Romeo revealed its ambitious plan to release five new vehicles in the next six years, and the first model on that list will be an electrified crossover, the Tonale. This new plug-in hybrid will be available to customers in the US in early 2023 as part of Alfa Romeo’s transition to an EV brand.

With its Dare Forward 2030 strategy, which it announced on March 1, Stellantis committed to selling more than 75 different kinds of battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs. That includes Jeep’s first fully battery-electric SUV launching in early 2023, followed by the Ram ProMaster BEV later next year and the Ram 1500 BEV pickup truck in 2024. Stellantis is also targeting carbon net zero emissions by 2038. Even Alfa Romeo’s stablemate Dodge, famous for producing gas-guzzling muscle cars, is on board with the shift and plans to sell its first fully electric performance model in 2024. 

Some Stellantis brands have been paving the way towards full electrification by first offering a series of hybrids. For example, Jeep’s Wrangler and Grand Cherokee models are available as plug-in hybrids and have been selling quite well. Meanwhile, Americans looking for a rugged EV pickup now have a new option in GMC’s just-announced Sierra EV, competing with the upcoming Ram EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV along with Ford’s already-available F-150 Lightning. 

[Related: Carmakers are pouring billions into producing EV batteries]

The whole trajectory is leaps and bounds away from where executives thought it was heading as recently as a year ago. 

It’s an especially sharp turn for Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who said at the start of 2022 in an interview that he felt that “electrification is a technology chosen by politicians, not by industry.” However, the industry’s race toward electrification is sweeping up everything in its path, and the pressure from policymakers, as well as the public, are mounting. Many big car makers have stated that they’re onboard, despite progress being slower than expected.

“The people have decided: we will be purely electric,” the company’s European Head Uwe Hochschurtz declared during an interview this month. 

And it seems that most are in favor of Alfa Romeo’s metamorphosis. After the global reveal of the Tonale PHEV in February, a flood of curious virtual tire-kickers made their way to the Alfa Romeo website to learn more. Surprisingly, about 82 percent of website visitors checking out the Tonale are new to Alfa Romeo. This statistic is a good sign for Senior Vice President and Head of Alfa Romeo and Fiat North America Larry Dominique, since the company’s, and industry’s, move to electric cars will require the 113-year-old brand to cater to a new buyer demographic.

Alfa Romeo is profitable and stable for the first time in several years, Dominique says, riding the success of the Giulia performance sedan and the Stelvio SUV. The brand has promised its fealty to the popular Giulia, which will become an EV at some point in the coming year or two. 

“We will still build a flagship sedan and Giulia will be electrified,” Dominique told MotorTrend’s Alissa Priddle in an interview in May. 

While the Stelvio seems to be the logical second act, it seems the production of the all-new Tonale may open the door to other innovations. Currently, Alfa Romeo’s Formula One team is running with a Ferrari V6 turbo hybrid engine in its cars, and Alfa’s production engineering team worked closely with its F1 engineers and drivers to create the Tonale from the ground up. These synergies may spawn a reimagining of the electric-vehicle course as the line between racing and mass production blurs, cross-pollinating the Italian performance brand across the board. 

Head of Alfa Romeo’s F1 group Cristiano Fiorio told PopSci at the Grand Prix in Austin that he fully supports the CO2 reduction goals Stellantis set. The future, for him, is clear. 

“It’s very easy for me because I have two kids, 7 and 11 [years old], and we owe them because we have not done our job [to reduce carbon emissions],” Fiorio said. “Now we don’t have time to wait. There is no other way.” 

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Long before Tesla entered the market, automakers have been tinkering with electrified vehicles and working toward creating an alternative to gasoline-powered cars. Targeted at urban commuters looking to save some coin at the gas pump, cars like Toyota’s Prius and Chevrolet’s Volt emerged as promising frontrunners, followed by today’s Hyundai Ionic 5 and Volkswagen ID.4, among others. 

Today, the race is on for the next frontier: battery-powered off-roading trucks. GMC accelerated its production schedule for the Hummer EV, which features a crab-walking trick made for tight turns on tough terrain, and Ford’s new all-electric F-150 Lightning wasn’t far behind. Chevrolet is nipping at its heels with an electric-powered Silverado truck coming to market soon. 

Meanwhile, small-batch upstart Rivian has been selling its R1T pickup since 2021 and R1S SUV since 2022—and coming up with new ways to make electric trucks as capable off the pavement as they are on it. Part of that formula can be attributed to the kinetic system, a proprietary electro-hydraulic roll control setup that replaces a mechanical anti-roll bar and smooths out the ride. On traditional vehicles, an anti-roll bar is a simple U-shaped piece of metal that acts as a torsion spring, connecting the axles to prevent excessive roll that is both uncomfortable and makes controlling the vehicle difficult. 

The company sent teams in both of its vehicles to this year’s all-female Rebelle Rally, the longest rally raid (long distance off-road racing that takes place over several days) in the United States, at over 1,600 miles between Nevada and California. At the rally, Rivian put its trucks to the test on dirt, rock, and sand, finishing triumphantly. Rookie team Lillian Macaruso and Alex Anderson, both engineers for the automaker, placed fourth overall out of 53 teams in an R1T and Rosanna Nuch and Nicole Johnson also performed admirably in the top half of the field in an R1S. Macaruso explained more about Rivian technology to PopSci during a ride along after the competition to explain how it works.

Rivian’s hydraulic roll control provides stiffness when cornering in the same manner (and with similar equipment) as a McLaren 720S supercar. That’s no coincidence: Rivian recruited chief engineer Charles Sanderson from the auto manufacturer in 2018, and Sanderson integrated the Tenneco-supplied linked hydraulic damper system he knew quite well. That means the R1T has a sportscar feel, especially when accelerating, but the system leaves space for a looser fit in situations where articulation—vertical wheel travel, or how far the axle can move up and down— is present.

On a typical gas-powered off-road-capable vehicle, the sway bar (another name for an anti-roll bar) reduces the vehicle’s body roll and “sway” to stabilize the weight distribution. One thing you don’t want when you’re entering a turn on a racetrack, or cresting a dune, is for a weight shift to cause the car to tip; in heavy electric vehicles, even more so. Significant “head toss,” or the way the vehicle shakes your body around while traversing uneven terrain, is clearly undesirable, and Rivian strives to improve the drive to what Macaruso calls “living room comfort.”

“Essentially, you feel the vehicle tip or tilt when you turn a corner, and that’s what [the hydraulic system] is controlling with different pressures on each corner of the vehicle,” Macaruso says. “Imagine if you were to try to walk up a set of stairs with your arms and your legs on all fours and one leg starts to get more tired, the other three compensate for it.”

Rivian’s R1T has 800 horsepower and more than 900 pound-feet of torque on tap, and drivers can mash the accelerator and reach 60-mph in a scant three seconds. That’s fantastic when speed is the goal, but four-by-four driving requires more finesse to avoid breaking the truck. The R1T boasts balanced geometry for its approach, breakover (the angle between the vehicle’s tires and the middle its underbelly), and departure angles matched with a fairly generous ground clearance of 15 inches, giving the truck plenty of poise and steady movement over obstacles on the trail.

The company is watching how the truck handles tough test runs and is adjusting accordingly. After longtime Rebelle team Emme Hall and Rebecca Donaghe found the settings in their model R1T to be unconducive for sand dune driving during 2021’s rally, Rivian added a soft sand mode to both the R1T and R1S and pushed it out via an over-the-air software update earlier this year. On hard sand, changing to soft sand mode isn’t necessary, but floating on top of dunes or on a beach requires more rotation, and the mode allows for better control.

“When you activate soft sand mode, it changes how much wheel spin you can have,” Macaruso says. “And it’s essentially telling the truck, ‘Hey, you can dig more’ because every single wheel is independently controlled. And that means that each motor can control a wheel and move it differently.”

While Rivian’s recent recall due to an insufficiently torqued steering knuckle fastener spooked investors this week, the company is plowing forward with its impressive truck and SUV. If they can handle the Rebelle Rally, they’re positioned well to succeed.

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It’s been a big year for electric vehicles. Big companies frequently announce new models, and scientists are figuring out how to charge cars faster. Potential buyers also now have new EV tax credits. 

The Biden administration is building up America’s electric vehicle charging station infrastructure, most recently with the Department of Transportation approving plans to build charging stations in all 50 states. This move is part of the bipartisan infrastructure legislation passed late last year. These charging stations will cover roughly 75,000 miles of highways—nearly half of the highway system. The ultimate goal is to have 500,000 new charging stations by 2030. 

Still, financing the switch to a cleaner transportation system across the country. Where the stations will be placed, how increased demand for charging will be handled, and coordinating other types of transportation will be crucial to getting an EV-focused highway system up and running.

Where do charging stations need to go?

One of the main questions regarding charging stations is where they should go. Is it more important to focus on putting them in rural areas or cities? Currently, most are located in or near cities. 

Jeremy Michalek, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, tells Popular Science that you have to consider where people are currently charging and how charging needs to adapt depending on where people are traveling.

“The priority is in two places. It’s along highway corridors so that if you own an electric vehicle and you go to visit somebody in another part of the country, you don’t end up without a place to charge,” Michalek says. “The other focus is for communities that don’t have much off-street parking. Those households aren’t going to have a charger in their garage, especially if they don’t have a garage, so they’re going to rely on public infrastructure for charging the vehicle on a day-to-day basis.”

[Related: New ‘super-fast’ method can shave EV battery charging down to minutes.]

For EV owners with a garage fit for charging and who only travel a couple of dozen miles a day, finding a charging station on the day-to-day won’t be too problematic, especially if that car can hold 400 miles per charge. But even the most ideal EV situations have their downfalls— if you’re traveling out of state to visit family, you might need a charging station along the way. 

But many electric vehicle owners live in cities where garages aren’t as standard.

“Charging needs to be available at work, at schools, in downtown areas, and in particular in secure ways at rental properties,” says Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley.

One good thing, Kammen notes, is that the range of electric vehicles is increasing pretty quickly. He says electric cars may be able to travel 1,000 miles on one charge in the not-too-distant future. He adds that that would certainly relieve some of the pressure to build more charging stations.

“I think as the range gets larger, the need for those highway chargers becomes less critical because people can go further before needing to recharge, Michalek says.

Handling charging availability—and range anxiety

Everyday charging is one thing—finding a charging station on a busy holiday is another. “I think that the issue of peak demand is what worries me most when it comes to making this rollout be successful,” Michalek says. Tens of millions of cars travel the road on big holidays like Thanksgiving and July 4th. 

There are currently nearly 2 million electric vehicles on the road in the US, but there could be over 26 million by 2030. Preparing for that increase is vital, and Kammen says the administration needs to continue dolling out funds in an innovative, effective way.

[Related: This portable EV charger could be an antidote to range anxiety.]

“We need to get the very cleverly designed Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds out the door,” Kammen says. “A national network of charging stations is going to accelerate the clean transportation movement.”

Aside from what the Biden administration is doing, the private sector will also undoubtedly play a role in the building up of charging stations. 

“I think, by and large, the automakers have mostly not wanted to play the game of making infrastructure at the same time they’re making vehicles, but I think the private sector has an important role to play,” Michalek says. “But there are areas where it might not be profitable to install a charger because it won’t be used that frequently, but you still need it there.”

There still needs to be emphasis on public transit

Though electric cars are better for the climate than gasoline-powered cars, public transit is better for the environment than EVs because it transports more people than a single driver, so it’s more energy efficient. Unfortunately, public transit is often highly underfunded around the country. 

The bipartisan infrastructure law dedicates nearly $80 billion to fund public transit projects, but experts argue we need a lot more than that to repair and expand our public transit system. The transit system arguably needs more than twice that amount to get to where it needs to be—closer to $200 billion. 

Electric vehicles are great, but America’s car addiction, unfortunately, means policy typically is not focusing enough on the most climate-friendly ways to transport people. So along with high-tech new charging stations, public transit also needs some attention if America’s transportation system is going to be sustainable.

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Batteries to store renewable energy and power electric vehicles are essential if countries, communities, and businesses hope to meet climate change and clean energy goals. But, these technologies require complicated-to-mine materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel. And the demand for these minerals is only expected to increase—the market for battery cells is predicted to grow by more than 20 percent annually until 2030.

This increasing demand for batteries rustles up interest in seabed mineral extraction because the deep seafloor may contain enough minerals to support the transition to a low-carbon energy system.

However, deep-sea mining—the process of extracting minerals from the ocean below 200 meters—may destroy habitats and cause the loss of marine species. Is mineral extraction initiatives in shallow sea areas the key to meeting mineral demand sustainably? It’s unlikely, according to researchers.

Shallow-water mining isn’t necessarily a sustainable option

Shallow-water mining, defined as extracting materials at depths less than 200 meters deep under the water, is a contentious subject. Two factors are often considered it comes to the sustainability of deep-sea mining versus shallow-water mining: We have better knowledge of shallow-water ecosystems, and their biological communities have shorter recovery times, says Laura Kaikkonen, visiting scholar at the University of Helsinki Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme.

Deep-sea ecosystems are incredibly understudied, and the lack of data makes predicting the long-term impacts of mining very difficult. In addition, deep-sea species are long-lived and reproduce less often than their shallow-water counterparts. Therefore their populations will take much longer to recover, she adds. However, a recent study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution argues that there are no thorough and impartial comparisons between the two. Consequently, the paper argues there are no justifications in favor of shallow-water mining.

“Despite ​claims about how shallow-water mining can be the environmentally and socially sustainable alternative to traditional mining, thus far there have not been any thorough evaluations of the impacts of different mining practices to back these claims,” says Kaikkonen, who was involved in the new study.

Shallow-water mining may save operational costs because it takes place closer to the shore, and dredging shallow seafloor minerals is often efficient. But, any mineral extraction from the seabed will result in several environmental changes, including disrupting shallow-water minerals and their massive role in the habitat of seafloor organisms. And when seafloor organisms hurt, those impacts can be felt all the way up the chain of marine life, Kaikkonen adds.

However, shallow-water ecosystems may be more tolerant of mining-related stressors like elevated turbidity, sediment burial, and noise levels, says Craig Smith, professor emeritus in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa who was not involved in the study. That’s because shallow-water ecosystems usually experience noise and disruption from the surface more often than their deep-sea counterparts due to human activity.

That said, no matter how minimal, the noise, vibrations, and other impacts of mining operations may be detrimental—especially since the effects added would be on top of the stressors that already exist from human activities, pollution, and the impacts of climate change, says Kaikkonen. She adds that we must evaluate whether the short-term benefit from seafloor minerals is worth the permanent damage to ecosystems.

Shallow-water mining is likely to cause heavy metal contamination of the marine environment, damaging different habitat types that may take decades to recover, says Andrew K. Sweetman, professor of deep-sea ecology at the Heriot-Watt University who was not involved in the study. 

A 2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research study assessed water and fish samples from fourteen monitoring stations to determine heavy metal contamination in the Persian Gulf. The authors found high concentrations of heavy metals like copper, nickel, and lead in water samples from stations near petrochemical plants. They also discovered that fish populations dwelling near the seafloor were more contaminated than those living within the top five meters of the water column, making them hazardous to human health.

More research about the environmental impacts of shallow-water mining is needed

Before rushing to exploit new mineral resources, research and development should be targeted to improve the use of what we already have, says Kaikkonen.

According to a 2022 commentary in One Earth, seabed mining is often justified by the incorrect assumption that land-based metal reserves are rapidly depleting. But, this isn’t true—the identified resources of nickel and cobalt on land can meet global demand for decades. Therefore, it’s essential to embrace circular economy practices that reuse, repurpose, and recycle minerals as much as possible to avoid the expansion of mining into the ocean.

For instance, nickel has a high recycling efficiency, and about 68 percent of all nickel from consumer products is recycled. However, plenty of factors stand in the way of increased recycling of cobalt and lithium. This includes inefficient collection infrastructure, product design without thinking of second-life uses, and price fluctuations of raw materials.

Although some extractive activity might be necessary to move to a carbon-negative economy, it must be done properly—which means doing baseline and impact assessments, says Sweetman. Smith suggests proceeding very slowly with deep-sea and shallow-water mining, allowing only one operation to happen until the resulting intensity and extent of the disturbance to ecosystems is well-understood. It’s essential to close the significant knowledge gaps on the potential impacts of mining before seafloor mining is allowed to proceed at a large scale, he adds. 

Protecting large areas from mining may also preserve regional biodiversity and ecosystem services, says Smith. The International Seabed Authority (ISA), an intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Union, was formed to protect the marine environment by regulating mining operations in international seabed areas. But, the group has faced controversy given that they have granted at least 30 exploration contacts covering more than 1.3 million square kilometers of the deep seafloor, leading some environmental activists to argue that they prioritize the development of deep-sea mining over environmental protection.

Shallow-water mining activities should not be considered the silver bullet to resolving the growing global need for metals. Fully powering the world’s growing demand for electric vehicles and storage—even with all currently known mineral resources—is unrealistic, says Kaikkonen. For a future that is sustainable for human life and the ecosystems that will be affected by growing demand, shrinking energy use is just as important as finding new ways to power the world.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced yesterday that all new vehicles purchased in the state must be zero-emission models beginning in 2035. To reach this goal, the governor said that 35 percent of new cars will need to be zero-emissions by the year 2026 and 68 percent by 2030. Additionally, all new school buses purchased will have to be zero-emissions by 2027, with the entire fleet meeting these standards by 2035.

“We’re really putting our foot down on the accelerator and revving up our efforts to make sure we have this transition—not someday in the future, but on a specific date, a specific year—by the year 2035,” said Hochul in yesterday’s press conference.

New York is the fourth most populous state in the United States and the second state to mandate zero-emissions vehicles by the year 2035 after California.

[Related: California poised to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars.]

Last month, The California Air Resources Board voted to ban the sale of gas-powered cars beginning in 13 years. Due to federal regulations, any state-led move to enforce stricter emissions rules must occur first in California. California was authorized with the ability to set its own emissions standards in 1970, when Congress passed the Clean Air Act. This ability to set emissions standards was granted to the populous western state due to smog conditions at the time.

However, the Clean Air Act does have a a provision that prevents states from setting their own emissions. So to use its emission setting power, California must first apply for a waiver with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Once that step is complete, other states can follow.

New York’s State Department of Environmental Conservation has been tasked with implementing the necessary regulations to require that all new passenger cars, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles (SUV) sold in New York State will be be zero-emissions by 2035. These regulations were passed last year.

[Related: Everything you need to know about EV tax credits and the Inflation Reduction Act.]

The governor also announced a $10 million investment in the state’s Drive Clean Rebate program. She said the program could “help New Yorkers purchase and drive these vehicles.” She explained that an up-to-$2,000 rebate is available in all of New York’s 62 counties.

The New York Power Authority also recently completed the installation of its 100th high-speed EV charger. The installation was part of New York’s EVolve NY statewide charging network. According to Governor Hochul, New York State will receive $175 million from The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s $5 billion allocation for EV charging networks.

“So that’s going to help over 14 interstates in New York, especially ones used by the people in this community,” Hochul said. “So you’re going to see that you have no more excuses.”

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Batteries are more crucial than ever as they propel cars, power our myriad devices, and even allow some experimental aircraft to fly. But battery technology has a long way to go before we will see a more widespread adoption of electric vehicles, months-long laptop battery lives, and longer flights on electric planes. That’s why engineers and researchers around the world are constantly looking for the next big battery innovation.

According to a paper recently published in Nature Communications, researchers from Carnegie Mellon have used a combined robotic and artificial intelligence system to design better electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries. In particular, the team was looking for electrolytes that would allow for batteries to charge faster—which is one of the biggest problems in battery technology today and a major barrier to widespread electric vehicle adoption. 

Lithium-ion batteries have a cathode and an anode surrounded by an electrolyte. When they are charged, ions migrate through the electrolyte from the cathode to the anode (and vice-versa when they discharge). The exact composition of the electrolyte determines how fast a battery charges, discharges, and otherwise performs. Optimizing the electrolyte solution is thus one of the key challenges for battery designers. 

The research team used an automated arrangement of pumps, valves, vessels, and other lab equipment that they dubbed “Clio” to mix together different ratios of three potential solvents and one salt. As the paper points out, “battery innovations can take years to deliver” in part because there are so many potential chemicals that can be used in various ratios that optimizing them is “time-consuming and laborious”—at least for people. But with its various automated parts, Clio was able to run experiments significantly faster. 

[Related: Why Dyson is going all-in on solid-state batteries]

To remove the human element even more, Clio’s results were fed into a machine-learning system dubbed “Dragonfly” that analyzed the data to look for patterns and propose alternative ratios that might perform better. Clio then automatically ran those new proposed experiments, allowing for Dragonfly to optimize the chemical recipes yet further. 

In total, working with just the one salt and three solvents, Clio and Dragonfly were able to run 42 experiments over two days and come up with six solutions that out-performed an existing electrolyte solution made from the same four chemicals. The best test cell containing one of the robot-AI-developed electrolytes boasted a 13 percent improvement in performance compared to the best performing test cell using the commercially available electrolyte. 

In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Venkat Viswanathan, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon and one of the co-authors of the Nature Communications paper, explained that the problem with working with electrolyte ingredients is that you can combine them “in billions of ways.” Prior to now, most research relied on guesswork, intuition, and trial and error. By being both free from bias and rapidly able to cycle through experimental conditions, Clio and Dragonfly can test far more options than human researchers—whether they’re minor refinements or moonshot solutions—and aren’t hamstrung by their preconceived notions. They can then take what they learn from each experiment and tweak things to find optimal electrolytes for whatever the researcher team needs. 

In this case, Clio and Dragonfly were optimizing for recharge speed, but similar “closed-loop” experiments could optimize for capacity, discharge time, voltage, and all the other factors that matter in commercial battery performance. In fact, the team thinks their work will “be useful beyond the battery community,” claiming that their “custom-designed robotic platform, experiment planning, and integration with device testing will be valuable in optimizing other autonomous discovery platforms for energy applications and material science in general.”

The team at Carnegie Mellon aren’t the only ones exploring how machine learning can optimize the many design considerations and complex variables that go into battery manufacturing, maintenance, and charging. Late last month, a team of government researchers at the Department of Energy-run Idaho National Laboratory announced that they had found a way to safely and reliably recharge electric vehicles up to 90 percent within just 10 minutes. They used a machine learning algorithm to analyze between 20,000 and 30,000 data points from different kinds of lithium-ion batteries to find the most efficient and safest method of recharging. They were then able to confirm their results by testing the newly developed recharging protocols on real batteries. 

And while liquid electrolytes are one frontier for battery research, another involves exploring ways to replace that liquid with a solid instead.

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Solid state batteries, or SSBs, have been the holy grail for EVs for the past several years. Sometimes whispered about in the way one might regard a legend or ghost story, the longer-range, faster-charging promise of SSBs has seemed to be just out of reach.

That status may be shifting. Several automotive manufacturers like BMW and Ford have invested in battery maker Solid Power, which was established in 2011 and claims its SSBs will be safer, offer higher energy and cost less than lithium-ion batteries. Ford’s F-150 Lightning’s chief engineer Linda Zhang says the company is not using SSBs right now but they’re “definitely something we’re looking at.”

With the wild popularity of the Lightning right now, the Blue Oval is doing everything it can to keep up with demand as is. However, implementing another new element into the vehicle can’t be a far behind plan.

So, how does a solid state battery work?

GMC’s new Hummer EV is a gigantic machine in frame alone, and the 24 stacked battery cells on the Ultium platform adds nearly 3,000 pounds to this heavyweight. The Hummer EVs power comes from a proprietary NCMA combination (nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum) packed into a lithium-ion cell technology much like the battery in your smartphone. 

Commonly used EV batteries are comprised of a cathode, anode, separator, and liquid electrolyte. While driving, positively charged lithium-ions inside the battery are attracted to the cathode and electrons zip through the high-voltage circuits. A solid-state battery, on the other hand, uses solid electrolyte in place of the liquid.

Why does that matter? Not only is the solid state battery lighter and denser, and able to pack more power into a smaller footprint, it’s also studier. Imagine a waterbed and a typical mattress. If an object forcibly falls onto a waterbed, the risk of leakage (and flooding the room where it sits) is high. A solid mattress can withstand more damage without ruin. Current Li-ion batteries are prone to swelling caused by temperature changes and can certainly leak in a crash. Solid state batteries are known to be less prone to fires and more stable for features like quick charging.

Current lithium ion batteries versus solid states 

Solid state batteries will offer more than just expanded range and increased stability. Many EVs today use a familiar “skateboard-type” architecture (an expansive sheet of lithium-ion battery packs placed neatly below the cabin floor between either axle), AutoPacific analyst Robby DeGraff tells PopSci. Moving to smaller, more-efficient SSBs affects the construction of the whole vehicle.

“Shifting to solid-state batteries could mean we’ll see new possibilities of further maximizing interior space and a bit more flexibility when it comes to drafting an EV’s overall shape itself,” DeGraff says. “When solid-state batteries are ready for primetime use, I think that’s going to be a turning point in the ongoing migration towards EVs. Solid-state batteries will likely address one of the biggest hesitations consumers may have committing to going all-electric: range anxiety.”

SSBs charge quicker too, which is another roadblock in the adoption of EVs. For automakers, these batteries have the potential to open up new doors when it comes to designing an EV, as solid-state battery packs are much more packable, compact, and safe.

According to Brussels-based group European Federation for Transport and Environment, SSBs also have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of EV batteries by up to 39 percent compared with liquid lithium-ion batteries. The Federation says that although making solid state batteries would use up to 35 percent more lithium than the current lithium-ion technology, it would also need less graphite and cobalt.

What’s taking so long?

The promise of SSBs sounds tantalizingly good. However, it’s important to note that the technology isn’t fully developed and has not been tested yet, so there is going to be a bit of a wait. Chris Martin, who heads up advanced technology communications for Honda, tells PopSci the development of materials optimal for a solid state battery is quite challenging, as is establishing an efficient production process.

“In chemical products, like batteries, it is often much easier to make small battery sizes in small numbers in a lab; mass production of larger products is much more difficult,” Martin explains. “Honda began the process of developing all solid state battery technology nearly 10 years ago, and we anticipate that it will still take more time to achieve mass production at Honda’s exacting quality standard.”

Martin says Honda is making progress and will invest approximately 43 billion yen (nearly $300 million USD) to establish a pilot production line in Tochigi, Japan to produce solid-state batteries, aiming to introduce EVs with all solid state batteries into the market in the second half of this decade. 

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On September 18, an all-electric aircraft sped down a runway in Washington state, its nose wheel lifting off the ground. It didn’t take off, though, by intention: The test was a predecessor to an actual first flight, which the company says is “imminent.” 

The 57-foot-long aircraft, which its makers call Alice, is just a prototype, although a pretty slick one at that. Someday, if a production version enters service with an airline like Cape Air, the goal will be for it to be able to carry nine passengers and their bags for flights lasting about an hour or two—think distances of about 170 to 230 miles. Up front in the commuter plane will be space for two pilots, although it will be certified to be flown by just one person. 

Other companies working on electric flight, which is one way that the industry hopes to become less carbon-intensive, are developing flying machines that don’t look like traditional aircraft. An air taxi by Joby Aviation, for example, is capable of taking off and landing vertically, and thus has a different design. But Alice, made by a company called Eviation, looks a lot more like a regular plane. Here’s how it works right now. 

Batteries in the belly

The plane’s motors need battery power to give them the juice they need. Not surprisingly, the batteries that do that are in the bottom of the plane, where the girth of the aircraft is also a little wider. 

Batteries are heavy, and they don’t have the same energy density as regular fuel does, which sets a major limit for electric flight. The batteries on this prototype weigh a total of 8,000 pounds, and these lithium-ion cells are cylindrical, which is the same shape that some automakers, like Tesla and Rivian, use. For luggage, the cargo compartment is behind the passenger cabin. 

Other attributes of the aircraft’s design are all about making it be able to accomplish its intended mission—commuter flights over relatively short distances—while harnessing battery power. “Building an electric aircraft is a war on weight, and it’s a war on drag,” notes Gregory Davis, the company’s CEO and president. “Our challenges are to get the best possible lift-over-drag ratio.”

The aircraft has long, narrow wings, which don’t sweep backwards; wings that are lengthy and skinny are referred to as possessing a high aspect ratio. “We need to have the most efficient wing that we can,” he says. (For a point of comparison, take a look at the wings on an aircraft like an F-16, which is designed for performance and supersonic speeds, as opposed to efficiency.) 

As for keeping the weight to a minimum where they can, the plane is made mostly out of carbon composite material, Davis says. The aircraft is also what is known as fly-by-wire, which Davis says also makes it lighter than it otherwise would have been. A non-fly-by-wire aircraft employs mechanical connections, like metal cables, to translate what the pilot does at the controls to the actual surfaces on the outside of the plane. A fly-by-wire aircraft uses computer signals to do the same, removing those cables or other physical connectors.

Props in the back 

At the rear of the aircraft are two electric motors that spin two propellers. Those motors are made by a company called magniX; an airline, Harbour Air, has also used a magniX motor to power a converted electric seaplane. 

In the case of the Alice aircraft, the power units in the back “can produce 650 kilowatts of power per side, so 1.3 megawatts of power for the aircraft during takeoff, which is great,” Davis says. 

Right now, there’s an understandable gap between where the company eventually expects to arrive with the range of its production-model aircraft and the prototype, which will soon be making its first flight. “The batteries aren’t there yet,” he says. “Battery technology is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest challenge in electric aviation.” The hope is that as development of the Alice aircraft continues, the industry—electric aircraft, electric ground vehicles—keeps innovating. 

He refers to this battery situation as “a challenge for the entire industry.” The prototype aircraft, he says, is good “for demonstrating that the technology works together.”

To be sure, Eviation and its Alice aircraft are not the only ones working in this new frontier. Companies like Beta Technologies and Joby Aviation are flying electric air taxis that are designed to take off and land like helicopters, although in recent flights with Air Force pilots at the controls, or a multi-leg journey to Arkansas, Beta’s demonstrator took off and landed conventionally. Others include Archer and Wisk. Finally, Kittyhawk was working on a one-person plane known as Heaviside, but just announced on September 21 that they would be shutting down the company.

And in related news, a company called Heart Aerospace is working on a hybrid-electric aircraft, the ES-30. The Air Current aviation website has more on why Heart recently pivoted away from an all-electric smaller craft to a larger, 30-seat machine that also has turbo-generators on board. 

For Eviation’s Davis, he compares their current stage of development to NASA’s Mercury program, which saw the first American in a sub-orbital flight in 1961, eight years before the moon landing of Apollo 11. “What we’re doing here with Alice is like Alan Shepard going into space on a Redstone [rocket]—it’s showing that we can do it,” he says. “Where we’re headed in terms of making electric aviation part of our world—something that our children will fly on and we won’t think twice about—that’s the destination here. We need to show that we can do it.” 

Watch the high-speed taxi test, below. 

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Tesla is no stranger to vehicle recalls—from camera issues, to “self-driving” problems, to that time earlier this year when every single car needed safety fixes. This week, company CEO Elon Musk received yet another problem to add to the list—as NPR reported, the electric vehicle company “is recalling” approximately 1.1 million cars, citing a flaw with the windows that could cause them to possibly pinch fingers.

“Tesla, Inc. is recalling certain 2017-2022 Model 3, 2020-2022 Model Y, and 2021-2022 Model S and Model X vehicles. The window automatic reversal system may not react correctly after detecting an obstruction,” reads an announcement issued earlier this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). “As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 118, ‘Power-Operated Window Systems.'” The issue will be fixed with an over-the-air update, according to NHTSA.

Musk, not surprisingly, shared his feelings about the topic on Twitter.

[Related: Tesla’s software-related recall extends to 11,704 vehicles.]

It’s unclear if the malfunction has injured anyone yet, and according to official documents, Tesla is not currently aware of any warranty claims or serious injuries resulting from the issue. Tesla owners can expect to receive notification letters via mail around November 15, but can also contact Tesla customer service at anytime at 1-877-798-3752 for information.

In related Tesla news, a security researcher published evidence showing how a Model Y can be theoretically hacked. Meanwhile, in February, the automaker was hit with a fine for violating the Clean Air Act.

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This article was originally featured on The Drive.

Today’s onslaught of electric vehicles might feel like it’s coming out of nowhere, but really, it’s the culmination of years and years of research and development from a number of automakers. Go back a few decades, and you start to find some really strange and captivating stories from the dawn of our modern electric revolution. Recently, I stumbled upon one of the most incredible unknown projects from that era: Back in the early 1990s, Motorola—yes, that Motorola—built a fully functional 1987 Chevy Corvette EV prototype. And moreover, the car still exists today, a future museum piece currently sitting in a random salvage yard in Gurnee, Illinois, waiting to be discovered by the right buyer.

Right now, you’re probably as surprised as I was. Motorola made cars? Motorola made electric cars? But after getting the tip and checking it out in person, I couldn’t deny what was before my eyes—a fully-intact C4 Corvette with a battery-electric drivetrain, official Motorola markings all over it, and stacks and stacks of internal Motorola paperwork on the project. It’s the real deal.

In an era where EVs were mostly homemade kit cars cobbled out of cheap hatchbacks, Motorola built itself a proto Tesla Roadster that, from what I’ve been able to learn, matched the performance of its contemporary gas-powered sports cars. Even more surprising was that as I dug around, I realized basically no information about this car exists online. No rumors, no reports, no chronicles on hobbyist EV sites and forums from the mid-2000s. It’s an amazing project that apparently lived and died at the tail end of the analog age, slipping out of sight just before the internet could hoover up its story and immortalize it for everyone.

So how did such an important piece of automotive history end up languishing in a random garage in northern Illinois? The world needs answers, so I decided to find out. The story is still incomplete, but here’s what we know so far.

What got me there

The Corvette EV story started from a random tip from a friend about a different obscure car that was little bit north of the Chicagoland area—a Chinese-made Beijing Jeep that was badged as a Fuqi, if you’re curious. As The Drive’s resident Chinese car fanatic, I wanted to check it out. Soon, I was in touch with the Fuqi’s owner, Larry Brosten, the proprietor of Auto Parts City. 

While chatting, Brosten dropped a bombshell on me, maybe in an attempt to drum up more interest in his ginormous collection of custom cream-de-menthe colored Studebakers, 6.9-liter V12 Benzes. “I’ll do ya one better,” he said. “I’ve got a one-of-one 1987 Chevy Corvette, done up by Motorola.”

For some reason, what Brosten said didn’t immediately click. “It’s probably just a pace car or something, maybe some weird livery,” I thought to myself. But within two seconds of Brosten unveiling his Motorola Vette to me in a garage a stone’s throw from the Wisconsin border, I realized that I had wildly underestimated its significance. It wasn’t some decal package. It was a one-of-a-kind fully electric prototype vehicle that was built by Motorola Automotive sometime in the early to mid-1990s.

And not only that, but Brosten was also in possession of the motherlode of its development documentation.

The car itself

I’ll tell you right off the bat: The car doesn’t run. Brosten says that the previous owner left it outside in the winter, which ruined the batteries. He’s not sure what it would take to get running, and he wasn’t clear how long he’s owned the electric Vette. 

Outside, the car looks like any normal, pre-facelift Chevy Corvette C4 convertible. It’s red and has the same body panels and interior as the standard Corvette, but no badging, wheels or anything that would inform any passerby that it’s different, save for the “EL” electric vehicle plate on the rear. Today, EL plates are fairly common, once mandatory on all electric cars registered in Illinois until mid-2020. Back in the early to mid-1990s, chances that any stranger would understand what those plates meant would be pretty slim.

Pop the reverse-opening, clamshell hood, and you’re greeted with several silvery boxes with scary-looking “High Voltage” stickers on them. On top of the biggest box closest to the vehicle firewall sits a bright blue Motorola Automotive logo. The conversion is bespoke, definitely using as many stock C4 Corvette pieces as possible, along with the proprietary electric powertrain.  

From what we can see, the EV Vette seems to be powered by an unknown amount of what appear to be deep-cycle batteries; many of them in the trunk, some possibly in the floorboards, and four to six underneath the hood, housed in those big silver “high-voltage” boxes. None of the documents specify how many batteries the Corvette used or where they were placed, so I’m only going off of what I can see as the car sits in a dimly lit and dusty warehouse. The batteries look old, with a limited warranty and “void if not dated” stickers that only go up to 1997. Whatever electric motor sits under the hood of the Corvette appears to send power to the Corvette’s manual transmission and spins the rear wheels. None of the documentation explains how much power the electric Vette’s motor made, though.

The charging plug was done in such a manner that it would have fit right in the same housing as the old gas fuel filler door. Yet, it looks like the charging port was removed and the lines hastily capped. It’s unclear when this was done, possibly when the car left Motorola, but before it came into Brosten’s possession. Brosten himself isn’t sure how the previous owner charged the car.

Brosten said he got the car from a former Motorola engineer who worked at the company during this project, but not on the project itself. The car floated around Motorola’s Northbrook, Illinois, headquarters until, somehow, someone escaped with it. According to Brosten, the car’s previous owner stealthily rolled around the Chicagoland area it until it eventually came into Brosten’s possession.

Accompanying the car are acres of documents; about a phonebook’s worth of wiring diagrams, blueprints, and technical schematics that likely only an electrical engineer can make sense of. Some blueprints and correspondences are hand drawn and done in pencil. Interestingly the documentation even outlines plans for the charging, using a now-obsolete NEMA L10 connector, but it’s unclear if the Corvette needed any other parts to its charging system. This setup would be a pre-Magne Charge (SAE J1773) charging paddle, like what you’ve seen on a GM EV1 or early Toyota RAV4 EV, and also pre AVCON, like what one would have found on cars like the very early Ford Ranger EV. Those two technologies were early attempts to standardize the EV charging experience, rather than the “Home Depot special” 220- to 240- volt plug found on most EV homebuilt kits. 

Inside, the Corvette looks mostly stock, save for the big, red kill switch near the driver’s right leg, and another metallic box with wiring behind the seats. In the center console, a nearly OEM-looking electric heater switch had been cut in next to the stock power mirror switch. Under the hood, the electric heater is made by a company named Russco, and appears to use the same routing lines as the standard gas-powered car’s heater core; meaning, the Corvette’s standard HVAC likely worked to some degree. 

The documents from the phonebook stack seem to support this theory, too. Corvette wiring diagrams with pin-out information look to be something Motorola engineers likely used to keep the gas-powered car’s ancillary functions. It appears there was an attempt to make the hydraulic power steering work, and the vehicle’s ride height looks about the same as the gas-powered car. Batteries and electric motors are heavy, and the Corvette’s stance isn’t dramatically sagging or too low, meaning that, at least, there was likely some thought in keeping the Vette’s weight in check. All are hallmarks of a sophisticated EV prototype, rather than a homebrew ‘90s-era conversion that would have used a whole bunch of batteries and a glorified golf cart motor. 

The whole project was definitely a secret; deep in the documentation are procedures on how to act when visitors were at the Motorola office. Motorola employees privy to the existence of the EV Vette weren’t to ever work on the batteries, plug the vehicle in for a charge, put it on a lift, or even pop the hood if visitors were in the building.

The documents place the development of the car as starting sometime in 1992 or 1993. Motorola purchased the used 1987 C4 Corvette with about 64,000 miles on the clock in the winter of 1993. This Convertible would have been equipped with the Chevy 350, making 250 horsepower, and matched to the strange 4+3 manual transmission with automatic overdrive endemic to early C4 manual Corvettes.

One of the first pages of the documentation includes a starting and driving procedure. Starting and driving the EV Vette was pretty seamless. The driver merely had to insert the key and turn it, taking care not to press the throttle while not in gear, since the motor would turn. Since the motor wouldn’t turn unless the throttle was depressed, drivers could place the car into first or reverse without depressing the clutch. While on the move, the documentation recommended using first gear for slow speed driving up to 30 mph. Otherwise, Motorola suggested drivers cruise around in second gear, then allow the automatic overdrive function that the gas-powered Vette already had to take over at higher speeds. To shut the car off, simply turn the key, set the parking brake, and walk away. Very simple, especially for the era.

The Motorola E-Vette’s previous owner attested that the EV setup was as fast as, if not faster than, the 250-hp gas-powered Vette, according to Brosten. A paper marked “EV Power” states that at 320 volts and 1,000 amps, the car, in theory, will output 428 hp. That’s Polestar 2 levels of power, but back in the 1990s. By comparison, the original Toyota RAV4 EV only had 67 hp, and the GM EV1’s 137 hp was an unheard-of rocket by EV standards of the era.

I’m not an electrical engineer, but I gather that the documentation Brosten has for the EV Vette isn’t complete. None of it has any battery information for the vehicle, so we don’t know how many kilowatt-hours, amperes, or volts the batteries currently installed could cumulatively make. Sure, the EV power paper insists that the car could potentially make 428 hp, but there’s no real way to know if the batteries in there could support that output, or what the voltage and ampere specifications of the installed electric motor are rated for. The documentation for the electric motor seems to be lost.

I’m also not sure if the Motorola Vette had the ability to sustain a 320-volt system back in the 1990s when it was developed because battery technology just wasn’t there yet. EVs of the era (including the GM EV1) primarily used nickel-metal hydride, or lead-acid batteries, not the relatively energy-dense, high voltage lithium-ion batteries found in most modern cars. I can’t see watt-hour, amperage, or any information at all on the handful of batteries visible, if they are in fact simple auto parts store deep-cycle batteries. 

Tracking people down

Clearly, there are a ton of question marks here. The care and OEM precision of the electric  Corvette tells me that Motorola was clearly serious about the project.  Brosten told me that he heard that the Corvette wasn’t the company’s only electric vehicle prototype and that it had several other prototypes using different types of vehicles, all showcasing whatever EV tech Motorola was working on during that time.

Unfortunately, this is where the trail goes cold.

Like it or not, 1992 was a really long time ago. That’s 30 years since the development of the EV Corvette started. Motorola Automotive no longer exists, having been sold off and acquired by Continental AG back in 2006. Yes, the tire company.

There were some names on the printed-out intra-office Motorola emails included in Brosten’s stack of documents, and a few names on blueprints and engineer drawings. I succeeded in finding a couple of people on LinkedIn; more than a couple of the profiles indicate they’d worked at Motorola Automotive for nearly 40 years but ignore the switchover to Continental. It’s very possible that many of the engineers that worked on the Corvette are retired or have since passed away. I sent messages to everyone I found, but none have replied.

I also reached out to GM, Motorola, and Continental, and none were familiar with the EV Vette, even after I dropped some names of the engineers who worked on the project. This is strange, to say the least. Why did everyone just forget about this project? I’ve been researching this Vette since I first heard about it in 2021, and yet, all of my leads have turned into dead ends.

For his part, Brosten is mainly interested in selling the Corvette—ideally to a museum, to someone who can do it justice in getting it back on the road, or have it displayed in a way that gives such a strange project its due credence. His nephew recently put it on TikTok, but so far most offers have been “just talk,” according to Brosten.

So here’s where you come in. We are admittedly publishing this piece without knowing everything in the hopes that it jogs some memories out there and gets us closer to the real story of Motorola’s electric Corvette. Did you work at Motorola Automotive anywhere from the late 1980s until it was folded into Continental in 2006? Do you know someone who did, who might have been involved with the project? Do you have any inside information on what Motorola was planning to do with EVs? Get in touch here: tips@thedrive.com.

The post The super-secret story behind the world’s only electric Motorola Corvette appeared first on Popular Science.

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EV news is spilling at a fast and furious pace this week as automakers clamor for attention to reach Wall Street, the media, and future buyers. The exception is Pagani, which unveiled its newest model, the Utopia, with a price tag of $2.2 million and an 864-hp V12, proudly describing it as using “no heavy batteries, no hybrid power, just a wonderful V12.”

On the luxury EV side, the new Audi RS e-tron GT is twice as much as the average EV cost at close to $150,000.

But wait: We have good news. Motor companies from Chevrolet to Jeep to Honda are announcing a range of new EV options, with prices that are mass-market friendly.

Chevrolet electrifies the Equinox

Coming to the rescue is Chevrolet, which just revealed its shiny new 2024 Equinox EV. Starting at around $30,000 for the base 1LT model, the all-electric version of Chevy’s SUV will be seven inches longer and three inches wider than the gas version. The brand says the Equinox EV will have up to 57 cubic feet of cargo space with the rear seats folded, which is nearly seven cubic feet less than the gas-powered Equinox.

[Related: Everything you need to know about EV tax credits and the Inflation Reduction Act]

Offered in five trims, the Equinox EV will be available with GM’s Super Cruise driving assistance technology and adaptive cruise control starting at the second level up. GM estimates the total range for the EV version of the Equinox to fall between 250 and 300, depending on whether it’s a front-wheel-drive or e-all-wheel-drive variant.

Following the launch of the Blazer EV and Silverado EV, the Equinox EV will be available in about a year and will be produced at GM’s Ramos Arizpe, Mexico facility.

Jeeps goes Recon

Twitter has been afire with comments about the name of Jeep’s new EV, Recon. Merriam-Webster says the word “reconnaissance” means “to conduct a preliminary and especially an exploratory survey,” and considering Jeep’s heritage as a vehicle people buy to explore and adventure, it seems apt. One of four zero-emission vehicles set to be launched in North America and in Europe by 2025, the Recon joins an all-electric Wagoneer S on the main stage, with two more to come. While Jeep hasn’t revealed the Recon or Wagoneer S starting price yet, it would be a safe bet to assume each will carry a higher price tag than its gas-powered siblings.

Jeep’s plan is for 50 percent of its US sales to be fully electric by 2030, while 100 percent of European sales will be all-electric in the same time frame. That explains why it’s also pushing out the Avenger EV, Jeep’s first all-electric EV, which will only be available in Europe and some Asian markets to start in 2023.

When Jeep released its PHEV 4xe, it showcased mobile solar-powered charging stations on the trail. For the Recon, Jeep says that it has the capability to traverse the brand’s home away from home, the Rubicon Trail, with enough juice to return to town to charge. After experiencing both the 4xe and the Magneto electric Jeep concept in Moab and in Austin, Texas, we can share that the silent-Jeeping experience is stunningly good.

Honda brings the two-wheeled fun

Automotive, powersports, and equipment conglomerate Honda Motor Company announced it would release “10 or more” electric motorcycles by 2025. That’s ambitious, but seems possible for the brand that brought us motos from the Grom to the Gold Wing and everything in between over the last 70 years or so. 

Yesterday, Honda said it was planning to “accelerate electrification of its motorcycle models while also continuing to advance ICE (internal combustion engines),” which is a smart strategy to cover the market. Citing an uptick in demand for business-use two-wheelers, Honda revealed plans to launch two all-electric commuter models between 2024 and 2025 in Asia, Europe and Japan. During the same time period, it will introduce three large EV models in Japan, Europe, and the US based on its “Fun EV” platform currently in development. 

With the instant torque EV provides, we hope Honda reminds riders to go easy on takeoff.

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A security researcher has just published a new, proof-of-concept attack that allows thieves to unlock and steal a Tesla Model Y. Josep Pi Rodriguez, a principal security consultant with IOActive, identified the potential exploit and, while it might be tricky to pull off in the real world, it shows how cars underpinned by advanced technology can also be vulnerable to novel attacks. 

A Tesla Model Y can be legitimately unlocked in three ways: With a keycard that uses near field communication (NFC), with a correctly configured smartphone, or with a key fob (that is a $175 add-on). This attack—called an NFC relay attack—targets the Tesla’s keycard system. 

Before looking at how the hackers exploit this vulnerability, let’s step back and understand how the keycard system works. Tesla provides two smart keycards with every car. They are required to set up the smartphone-based key, and Tesla recommends that drivers keep a keycard in their wallet at all times as a backup in case their phone breaks or runs out of battery, or Tesla’s servers go down. (As futuristic as unlocking your car with a phone is, getting stuck somewhere because you dropped your device in the toilet is not exactly Jetsons material.)

To unlock their car, drivers hold the keycard up to the middle B-pillar. The car detects the nearby card and issues a cryptographic challenge over NFC. The smart keycard calculates the correct response and replies using NFC. The car validates the response and opens the doors. The driver then has two minutes to start the car and drive off before the keycard needs to be validated again. This is the process that the NFC relay attack seeks to break. 

To pull it all off, the relay attack requires two thieves working together. One stays close to the car with a device called a Proxmark that is capable of imitating NFC devices, while the other has to get close to the target’s keycard with a NFC reader equipped smartphone. The Proxmark and the smartphone communicate over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. You can see it in action in the video above. 

Of course, developing the attack was a little more complex. Rodriguez had to decipher the Tesla’s communication protocol in order to accurately emulate it. If you want to see the low-level code, he breaks it all down in the research paper. 

Also, it’s worth mentioning that this is all just a proof-of-concept. While thieves have taken Teslas with relay attacks in the past, there are still a number of challenges that they would face pulling this method off in the real world. First, the attackers have to find a target that carries their keycard in a predictable pocket. Second, they have to get a smartphone or other NFC-reading device close to the target’s keycard without them noticing—possibly while they’re standing in line for coffee or are otherwise stuck in a queue. Finally, the two attackers currently have to be within Bluetooth or Wi-Fi range of each other, so the target is still going to be pretty close to the car. 

Of course, there are ways to overcome some of these challenges for a motivated hacker. Rodriguez theorizes that the range of the NFC-reading device could be increased from around 2 inches to around 2 feet. Similarly, the Wi-Fi range of the Proxmark can be increased using a Raspberry Pi as a wireless relay. He also thinks it is possible to perform the attack using an internet connection. 

Once the car is unlocked, the attacker can hop in and drive off. They aren’t able to restart the car if they stop the engine, so they are most likely going to sell it for parts or steal any valuables left lying around.

If you own a Tesla—or any other car that uses an NFC keycard—you should be aware of this attack, but not overly concerned. This is the kind of thing that can only be pulled off if you are specifically targeted. Regular Tesla drivers going about their business are unlikely to be at much risk. 

With that said, there are still a number of steps you can take to mitigate the attack. Enabling Pin-to-Drive would prevent the attackers from being able to drive off. You could also keep the keycard in an RFID-blocking sheath which would prevent it from being read while you stand in line for your coffee. 

Overall, Rodriguez thinks that Tesla has a good security track record. In an interview with The Verge, he says, “Tesla takes security seriously, but because their cars are much more technological than other manufacturers, this makes their attack surface bigger and opens windows for attackers to find vulnerabilities.” In other words, as cars get more like computers, hackers have way more options in how they can attack them. There may not be a need for crowbars any more. 

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Someday over the next decade, if you live in Texas or California, a roughly car-sized robot could deliver your Uber Eats order to your curb. That’s thanks to a 10-year partnership between Uber and a company called Nuro that’s set to start this fall. This curbside grab-and-go scheme was announced today. 

Nuro is known for creating autonomous electric vehicles that can schlep stuff like groceries or pizza down the road; those vehicles have no room in them for humans. In January, the company unveiled the newest version of this self-driving delivery machine, which, like the company itself, is called Nuro. This latest iteration of bot can transport almost 500 pounds of goods, keeping them hot or cold as needed. It even sports an airbag on the outside of its front end, so that if ever accidentally bumps into anyone, hopefully the harm will be minimal. 

The newest Nuro vehicle follows two predecessors, both also designed to take deliveries where they need to go along public streets. In February of 2020 Nuro revealed the R2 machine, which is about 9 feet long and 3.6 feet wide. The R2 unit followed the company’s original version, the R1, which Dave Ferguson, the company’s cofounder, described in 2018 as being about the size of “a big guy on a motorbike.”

The company won’t say exactly the size of the latest Nuro vehicle, but does note that it is about 20 percent smaller, width-wise, than a regular car. 

Today, the company lists three different vehicles in its fleet: the Nuro, the R2, and the P2, which is different from the others—it’s a Toyota Prius, with room for humans in it, outfitted with specialized hardware. P2 rolls with “onboard safety operators,” the company says on its website. 

With the Uber Eats deal, which will take place in Houston, Texas and Mountain View, California (as well as eventually the larger San Francisco Bay area), the company says that all of their different vehicle types will be involved. “We will be utilizing three different vehicles from the Nuro autonomous fleet including Nuro,” a Nuro spokesperson said via email. “We have committed to using Nuro with Uber at a mutually agreed upon time during the term of the partnership.” 

However, it remains unclear to what extent, and when, deliveries will be arriving in truly uncrewed vehicles versus the self-driving Priuses. Nuro has previously carried out programs with the likes of Kroger and Domino’s, but won’t say to what extent those deliveries have occurred with the person-less bots versus the Priuses. “We have made tens of thousands of deliveries to date,” the company said in a statement. “We can’t share the specific number of deliveries for each partner, since these details, along with the types of vehicle deployments and specific deployment plans with partners, are confidential.”

The company added: “We are actively working to increase our deployment of R2 on public roads and intend to learn much more from expanded operations over the next year.” 

More specifically, TechCrunch reports that the company “will initially use” the R2 and that the Nuro vehicle will be coming out in “late 2023.”

Ultimately, the robotics company sits at the interesting intersection of EVs, autonomy, and fulfillment of goods and services—and is certainly not the only player in that general space. While some companies like Waymo, Zoox, or Cruise work on creating vehicles that can carry humans from place to place on the road, others are delivering goods from the air, via small drone, like Wing and Zipline. And finally, companies are working on transporting people and cargo through the skies, like Beta Technologies or Joby. It’s a bold new transportation and delivery future—or at least that’s what the companies envision.

With the Nuro-Uber partnership specifically, the Verge reports that it is “the culmination of over four years of start-and-stop negotiations between the two companies.” Food delivery via bot doesn’t always come easily. 

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Honda is working its way toward the goal of a 100-percent zero-emission lineup in North America by 2040. It’s an ambitious but achievable endpoint, as many of its competitors are on similar (if not accelerated) timelines. 

One of Honda’s latest strategies is to invest a hefty sum into a brand-new battery plant in the US for its electric vehicle lineup. This week, Honda Motor and LG Energy Solution announced its $4.4 billion joint venture intended to produce lithium-ion batteries for Honda and Acura EVs; it’s waiting for regulatory approval. With plans to produce about two million EVs a year by 2030, Honda has no time to waste. 

While the Japanese automaker didn’t reveal the location of the new US-based plant, it stands to reason that it could break ground near one of its existing facilities in Ohio, Alabama, or Indiana. The companies plan to start construction in early 2023 and commence mass production of advanced lithium-ion battery cells by the end of 2025. That’s a fairly speedy goal, but Honda is motivated and determined, and the cash infusion from LG appears to have tipped the scale. 

Honda is not alone. Stellantis, the umbrella company over US auto brands Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo, announced in May that it is building a $2.5 billion EV battery manufacturing facility with electronics giant Samsung. It will be situated just north of Indianapolis in Kokomo, Indiana. Stellantis is committed to selling five million battery-electric vehicles per year by 2030, and they have a lot of work to do to reach that goal. 

Other manufacturers jumping on the US-based-battery-factory train include General Motors, which is also working with LG at its battery plant in Lansing, Michigan. Ford is partnering with SK Innovation to build an EV battery lab in southeast Michigan, and Hyundai is building a gigantic $5.5 billion dedicated electric vehicle and battery plant near Savannah, Georgia. 

Meanwhile, electric vehicle maker Rivian went public last year and brought in a reported $11.9 billion in cash, and it’s planning to spend $5 billion of that to expand its operations in Georgia. Rivian is watching its competitors and chasing success using best practices; it makes sense for it to follow Tesla’s lead in building its own batteries. 

[Related: Everything you need to know about EV tax credits and the Inflation Reduction Act]

If there is any doubt about the importance of keeping as much technology and development in-house as possible, take a look at what happened to small-batch automaker Henrik Fisker’s previous company, Fisker Automotive. The creator of the Karma and Revero relied on battery maker A123 Systems, and when A123 went belly up, so did Fisker in 2013. With his new company, Fisker Inc, Henrik Fisker hasn’t changed its position on outsourcing through its “asset light” model, and is farming out the manufacturing of the Ocean to Magna Steyr’s carbon-neutral factory in Austria. However, he has indicated he’s keeping his eyes open for ways to increase production in the U.S. 

Finding a wealthy dance partner like LG is a win for automotive companies like Honda, which all have big manufacturing problems to solve. Leveraging resources takes some of the pain out of a multi-billion investment, and presumably distributes the pressure. Honda Motors is reading the room and seeing the massive potential for EVs in North America and throwing its considerable weight behind giving it every chance it can to succeed. 

If the past two and a half years have taught us anything about the automotive industry, it’s that plans can go awry quickly—especially considering that global supply chain challenges have ramped up from a mere annoyance to an all-out hindrance in many cases.

Now, if we could just solve the chip shortage problem. 

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Electric vehicles are key to a sustainable future for the planet, but while EVs continue their steady rise within the automotive industry, many drivers remain skeptical of making the major change. There are a number of factors behind consumer hesitancy, but one of the foremost concerns is just how long it takes to recharge a car’s battery. Owners can still expect between 15 and 30 minutes to re-up their EVs for another estimated 200-300 miles, while gas stations’ rates are obviously dramatically shorter—typically only a few minutes for around 400 miles.

Last week, however, a team of government researchers at the Department of Energy-run Idaho National Laboratory announced extremely promising new advancements that could help the US achieve the Biden administration’s lofty goal of making EVs half of all automotive sales by 2030. Thanks in part to a machine learning program analyzing vast amounts of lithium-ion battery data, scientists have reportedly found a means to safely and reliably recharge EVs’ power supplies up to 90 percent within just 10 minutes.

[Related: Biden pushes forward on electric cars, clean emissions.]

“Fast charging is the key to increasing consumer confidence and overall adoption of electric vehicles,” Idaho National Laboratory researcher Eric Dufek said in a release. “It would allow vehicle charging to be very similar to filling up at a gas station.”

When an EV’s lithium-ion battery charges, the ions migrate from the cathode to the anode. Faster migration means faster charging, but as researchers explained, this currently means lithium ions sometimes don’t fully make over to the anode, resulting in lithium metal buildups that cause battery failure, cathode cracking, and even explosions.

Achieving the charging goal required massive data troves to determine new methods that could quickly restore battery charges without doing significant, often irreparable damage to the battery itself. As The Washington Post explained last week, Dufek and colleagues designed an algorithm that analyzed somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 data points from various kinds of lithium-ion batteries to determine the most efficient and safe recharging method, which they then tested on real batteries. The results created “unique charging protocols” based on the physics of what is exactly happening within batteries during charging and usage. The end goal, according to researchers, is to develop EVs that are able to “tell” charging stations how to recharge based on a vehicle’s specific battery.

[Related: Why Dyson is going all-in on solid-state batteries.]

The resultant designs drastically reduced charge times without sacrificing battery health and consumer safety. With faster charge times, car makers could also conceivably introduce vehicles with smaller (i.e. cheaper) batteries, thus lowering the economic barrier many face when considering EV purchases. And although Dufek and colleagues estimate consumers won’t see these kinds of charge times for EVs for about another 5 years, the prospect of such advancements will help solidify electric cars as the viable alternative to fossil fuel transportation moving forward.

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Over the past 13 years a brand you may not have heard of—Rimac—has quietly established itself as a central player in high-performance EV development. The brainchild of Mate Rimac, a Croatian entrepreneur who was still in college when he founded the namesake company in his garage back in 2009, the operation now boasts more than 1,700 employees and is currently building a 2-million-square-foot campus in Kerestinec, Croatia. Set to open its doors next year, the site will house the company’s production facilities as well as its research and development headquarters. 

Rimac’s technology has become a highly sought-after commodity in recent years. The company has worked on development projects with Audi, Lamborghini, and Porsche, among others, and recently took control of Bugatti—a 113-year-old marque with a storied history of producing ultra-high-performance vehicles—from parent company Volkswagen. VW had reportedly considered shuttering the brand due to the expected expense involved in rolling out its next generation of vehicles, and when Rimac offered to develop a new hybrid hypercar for the company for less than it would have cost Bugatti to update their current architecture, VW proposed a merger that gave Rimac a controlling stake in the company. 

The new Nevera hypercar, meanwhile, is an important milestone for Rimac. The two-seater EV is the automaker’s first serialized production vehicle, and serves as a showcase of what the company’s technology is capable of when completely untethered. With a $2 million price tag and production limited to just 150 examples worldwide, the Nevera obviously isn’t aimed at the mainstream, but its hardware and performance capability are harbingers of what’s to come for the auto industry at large. And the results are truly incredible. 

Equipped with four 450 kW permanent-magnet motors and a 120 kWh battery pack that also serves as a structural element of the car, the Nevera offers a stunning 1,914 horsepower and 1,725 pound-feet of torque. While its 256 MPH top speed is impressive, the Nevera’s acceleration figures represent an entirely new echelon for road car performance. Capable of sprinting to 60 MPH from a standstill in just 1.85 seconds and running through the quarter mile in 8.58 seconds, the Nevera not only significantly outpaces a Bugatti Chiron, it’s also quicker than an F1 car. The performance is even more impressive when you consider the fact that the Nevera offers up to 341 miles of range and managed to achieve those figures on normal Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires rather than some flavor of semi-slick track rubber. 

[Related: At $1,807, the Honda Navi is the perfect starter motorcycle for a beginner]

Much of the Nevera’s next-level capability can be attributed to Rimac’s development approach. Rather than sourcing major components like the motors, batteries, inverter, and the electrical architecture from an outside manufacturer and integrating them into the vehicle—a strategy that has become common practice in the automotive industry—Rimac chose to develop these technologies in-house, along with other key elements like the carbon fiber monocoque chassis, the battery cooling system, and even the infotainment. “Our project manager calculated that the development of the Nevera took about 1.6 million man-hours from start to finish,” explains Rimac’s Marta Longin. “We made this difficult on ourselves because there really were no shortcuts taken in the process, but we ended up with an array of new technologies as a result.” 

Time spent behind the wheel of Rimac’s new EV hypercar revealed a machine that is devastatingly quick regardless of circumstance. While a Dodge Challenger SRT Super Stock can struggle to fully utilize a “mere” 807 horsepower despite the fact that it’s outfitted with drag-tuned suspension and sophisticated launch control functions, the Nevera leaps off the line without a hint of wheelspin and remains reassuringly planted as the speedometer rapidly climbs into extra-legal territory. 

Considering the fact that the Nevera is a legitimate world-beater when it comes to straight-line performance, one might assume that it’s a rough-hewn drag racer that was built to hit a number. But Rimac put a great amount of effort into making the Nevera a well-rounded performance machine, and it not only proved to be surprisingly agile when hustled along the ribbons of winding tarmac that drape the Malibu hills, but also unexpectedly civilized when called upon to contend with LA’s notorious afternoon traffic. The latter is due in part to the high torsional stiffness of the monocoque chassis, which allowed Rimac to give the Nevera’s adjustable suspension a relatively soft tune without compromising its high-speed stability.  

Miro Zrncevic, Rimac’s chief development driver, tells us that they did extensive development in simulation long before Rimac built a single physical prototype for testing. “And the testing took a couple of years on its own, not just because of everything that had to be done to globally homologate the car, but also because we had specific targets that we wanted to achieve with the Nevera in terms of both performance and usability. And we set those targets extremely high, especially for a small OEM that was starting out with a clean sheet of paper.” 

[Related: The souped-up Ford Mustang Mach-E makes driving EVs a lot more fun]

Another important piece of technology that Rimac opted to develop on their own was the Nevera’s torque management system, which scans the road ahead and can adjust the amount of power that’s sent to each individual wheel up to 100 times per second. The system is a crucial part of the car’s record-setting performance, permitting the Nevera to exploit every last bit of power based on the amount of grip that’s available as the car accelerates. It can also improve the Nevera’s handling by adjusting the torque bias between the left and right sides of the car to minimize understeer and sharpen turn-in, and it allows for a “Drift” mode that adjusts the torque bias in favor of the rear wheels in order to coax the car into big powerslides.   

Although the Nevera’s powertrain lacks some of the drama that’s inherent to a naturally aspirated V12 or a supercharged V8, it’s clear that this sort of hardware will play a crucial role in the path forward for high-performance automobiles. And while very few will get the opportunity to experience what this EV hypercar is capable of first-hand, the technology which motivates it may not be so far out of reach. 

“There are some things that we are currently involved in that we can’t discuss just yet,” Longin said. “But what I can say is that there are projects that we’re working on today, and will be over the next few years, that are expected to be on the road by 2025. It’s not mass market, but we’re talking about much higher volumes; premium sports series that are expected to sell in the range of tens of thousands of units per year.”

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During Monterey Car Week in California last weekend, Acura revealed its Precision EV Concept with a sleek and futuristic silhouette. The concept vehicle is intended to set the design tone for the brand’s all-electric line, showcasing eye-catching lines and LED lighting set in a luminescent sapphire blue finish the brand is calling Double Apex Blue. Acura, the Honda-owed luxury brand, spilled some details about the interior, and we know from the renderings that designers are favoring a two-grip yoke-style steering wheel. The concept also features what Acura is calling “Spiritual Lounge mode,” which will retract the steering wheel, pipe in “soothing scents” and project animated water scenes when the car is autonomous mode.

While that vehicle and its futuristic lounge mode is just a concept for now, what’s real and set for its debut during calendar year 2024 is the brand’s first all-electric model, the Acura ZDX SUV. In case that name rings a bell, it’s because Acura built a gas-powered ZDX from 2010-2013 that wasn’t particularly popular. The ZDX will take design cues from the Precision EV concept, although Acura hasn’t revealed which cues will survive the production process. 

For the new battery-powered ZDX, Acura borrowed nothing from the old one except for the name, and decided the “Z” was a good fit for its new zero-emissions vehicle. Toyota opted for a similar moniker for its bZ4X, which is unfortunately experiencing some new-model pains and a major recall.

None of this is shocking, as automakers worldwide are jockeying for position in the EV landscape. What is interesting, however, is that Acura is teaming up with an unlikely partner to power its EV line: American legacy giant General Motors and its Ultium platform.

“The partnership with GM helps unlock economies of scale that benefit both companies and accelerates Acura’s electrification roadmap in North America,” Emile Korkor, assistant vice president of Acura National Sales, tells PopSci. “The Acura Design Studio is leading the top-hat styling direction of the all-electric ZDX. There has been co-development work of the vehicle between Acura and GM engineers, but Acura is responsible for the design of the new ZDX.”

Ultimately, that means the concept may be a pie-in-the-sky wish for the designers tasked with creating something unusual. However, when the production version of the ZDX is built, some of those futuristic details will likely be smoothed out or omitted altogether. 

Featured prominently in GMC’s Hummer EV and Cadillac Lyriq SUV, GM’s Ultium platform is designed to be flexible and modular. American Honda recognized an opportunity to harness already-developed technology. The platform is built on a proprietary NCMA combination—nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum—in the cathode (that’s one of two electrodes in a battery), which improves overall stability. Current batteries often use much larger amounts of cobalt, which is not only expensive but largely mined in Congo, where forced and child labor are reportedly exploited to collect the mineral. 

Ultium’s rectangular cells take up less space and can be configured in two ways: stacked like a deck of cards or slotted vertically like a sliced loaf of bread. As Ultium is deployed in vehicles of different sizes and power needs, engineers can adjust the number of cells. In the Hummer EV, for instance, the total battery weight is nearly 3,000 pounds and consists of 24 individual battery modules. Cadillac’s Lyriq uses half that with 12 battery modules. GM says its battery packs can use six, eight, 10, 12, or up to 24 modules in total, depending on what is needed for that particular vehicle. These configurations allow for creative configurations that work around the vehicle’s mechanical parts with fewer constrictions. 

Acura co-developed the ZDX with GM with the intention to use Ultium batteries. Next, Acura is planning to break off to launch additional EV models on its own global EV platform. Honda has dabbled in EV production in the past with the mostly-forgotten Fit EV, EV Plus and the simply-named e, which was only available in Europe and Japan. All-electric vehicles have come a long way since then, and the brand is trying again with the GM partnership.  

“Following ZDX will be an additional number of Acura EVs,” Dave Gardner, American Honda’s executive vice president for national operations and sales said during a media briefing last week. “That’ll be based on the company’s new global e:Architecture, starting to arrive in 2026. These are exclusive products, which we are designing and engineering completely from the ground up.” In 2021, Honda announced its plan to make battery-electric and fuel cell electric vehicles to represent 100 percent of its North American vehicle sales by 2040, starting with 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2035. Perhaps even more optimistically, the company has set its sights on carbon neutrality for all products and corporate activities by 2050.  

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The California Air Resources Board is expected to vote today on strict a strict set of rules that will ban the sale of new gasoline powered cars by 2035. In an interview with CNN, California Air Resources Board member Daniel Sperling said he was “99.9 percent” positive that the measure will pass. The new rule will require that in 13 years, 100 percent of new car sales sold in the state will be “zero-emissions” vehicles, or vehicles that do not produce exhaust or pollutants (primarily greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide) from their onboard source of power. If it passes, California will be the first state in the United States to pass such a rule.

Quotas will likely be used to phase in the ban. Starting with 2026 models, 35 percent of new cars, SUVs, and small pick-up trucks sold in the state would be required to be zero-emission vehicles. This quota would annually increase and is expected to reach 51 percent of all new car sales in 2028 and 68 percent in 2030. The quotas also would allow 20 percent of zero-emission cars sold to be plug-in hybrids, which utilize electricity and gasoline. The state also plans to boost its current consumer incentives and expand charging stations.

Twelve percent of cars sold in California in 2021 were plug-in electric vehicles. According to the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, the transportation sector is responsible for more than half of the state’s carbon pollution, 80 percent of smog-forming pollution, and 95 percent of toxic diesel emissions. Additionally, communities in the Los Angeles Basin and Central Valley are home to some of the dirtiest and most toxic air in the United States.

[Related: FedEx is charging up its electric vehicle fleet.]

“California has been a driver of innovation, including in the automobile pollution space, since the 1960s, and this new directive will continue that tradition,” says Stanford University environmental law professor Deborah Sivas in an email to Popular Science. “It is likely that a dozen or more other states will follow suit, as they are currently permitted to do under the Clean Air Act, potentially affecting more than one third of the new car market.”

The move builds on the executive order issued by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020 that announced the phase out of gasoline powered cars to help fight climate changes. “This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” said Governor Newsom, in a 2020 press release. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse—and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”

[Related: GM wants its cars to be fully electric by 2035. Here’s what that could mean for auto emissions.]

In February, the Biden administration reinstated California’s ability to set limits on car emissions to fight climate change, after they were rolled back by the Trump administration three years ago. Similarly, lawmakers in the European Union voted in June to support a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars beginning in 2035. The vote upholds a key part of the EU’s plans to cut net planet-warming emissions 55 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. This  target that requires faster reductions from  the industry, energy, and transportation sectors. The law is not yet final, and Germany has already rejected the proposed ban. According to reporting from Reuters, Germany’s Finance Minister Christian Linder said that a ban was the wrong step, as there would continue to be “niches” for combustion engines.

Meanwhile, Hainan island in the South China Sea has announced that it will become the first region in China to ban sales of gasoline– and diesel-powered cars, in an effort to curb carbon emissions. According to the province’s Carbon Peak Implementation Plan, sales of fossil fueled-powered cars and electric vehicles will be promoted with tax breaks and more charging stations by 2030.

In an email with The New York Times, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation John Bozzella, said that these new electric vehicle sale mandates would be “extremely challenging” to meet. He called on the state and federal government to do more to help car manufacturers meet the regulations. Some major automakers like Toyota have also recognized the state’s ability to set vehicle emissions standards.

“Even if California’s ambitious goal is not strictly met,” Sivas adds, “it has the near-term benefit of increasing regulatory certainty for the automobile and aligned industries that will drive the necessary transition to non-fossil fuel transportation. And that increasing certainty creates powerful incentives for innovation.”

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YouTube has pulled at least one Tesla diehard’s video showing them attempting to prove the safety of their electric vehicle’s Full Self-Driving autopilot system by driving towards an actual child, although other similar clips still appear to be available to watch on the website. The now-removed clip came from Omar Qazi, a Tesla advocate and stockholder, as well as founder of the Whole Mars Catalog blog spanning multiple social media channels.

YouTube’s decision is the latest turn in an already surreal and disconcerting escalation of events reportedly stemming from a video posted earlier this month by The Dawn Project founder and U.S. Senate candidate, Dan O’Dowd. In O’Dowd’s upload, he calls the autopilot feature a “demonstrable danger to human life,” and illustrates his concerns via multiple clips of Teslas hitting child-sized pedestrian mannequins. Musk fans were subsequently so unhappy with the viral critiques that they quickly mounted a debunking campaign, showing off how confident they are in the feature by using their own children as potential victims.

[Related: “Unpacking the bot issue behind the Twitter-Musk drama“]

Motherboard gave a rundown last week of Qazi’s video while it was still online, which reportedly first showed three tests with child mannequins, followed by one with an adult man standing in the street, and finally one with an actual child. “I trust the system enough… that I would trust my kids’ lives with them, so I’m very confident that it’s going to detect my kids and I’m also in control of the wheel so I can brake at anytime,” the child’s father, Tad, says. In the video, the Tesla appears to make a full stop near the child without injuring them.

“YouTube doesn’t allow content showing a minor participating in dangerous activities or encouraging minors to do dangerous activities,” the company said in a statement, with a spokesperson later adding, “Specifically, we don’t allow content showing or encouraging minors in harmful situations that may lead to injury, including dangerous stunts, dares, or pranks.”

Despite Tesla fans’ vows of fealty, the company’s autopilot feature has received mounting scrutiny as numerous accidents, some deadly, continue to occur while the system is purportedly engaged. Currently, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating multiple of these crashes in order to determine whether or not the autopilot system should be banned from roadways entirely.

As of writing, at least one similar YouTube video is still online courtesy of a different Tesla owner, in which the driver tests the autopilot feature on another child standing in the road.

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Residents and visitors of Las Vegas will be able to hail a new, fully autonomous “robotaxi” earlier than its makers anticipated. According to an official press release from Lyft, the popular ride-sharing company and its partners at the self-driving startup, Motional, are moving forward with the debut of a fleet of driverless Hyundai Ioniq 5s early next year. Although both Lyft and Motional have tested similar autonomous vehicles since 2018, next year’s introduction of the Ioniq 5 AV onto the market will be the first taxi experience to not include a human safety driver behind the wheel for cases of emergencies or malfunctions. Motional first announced the Las Vegas plans back in 2021.

Once the cab is hailed, customers will simply need to approach the car with their Lyft app open to remotely unlock the vehicle, at which time passengers can enter and be driven to their intended destinations via help from an in-car AV app. “The features are backed by extensive research and feedback from real riders to maximize their comfort and ease of use,” Lyft states in the announcement, adding that, “Motional and Lyft are making the new user features available to the public now in preparation for when the service plans to be fully driverless next year.”

According to Lyft, an estimated 100,000 customers have already interacted in recent years with its early-stage (human supervised) autonomous vehicle, garnering a 95-percent approval rating from riders. Both Lyft and Motional plan to quickly scale its AV options to other major cities outside Las Vegas soon after next year’s debut, pending local authorities’ approval of introducing the controversial technology onto the roads.

Aside from companies like Tesla’s suspect track record when it comes to fully autonomous cars, projects like an AV Lyft have vast implications on the country’s labor force, particularly workers reliant on gig-based jobs. Businesses such as Lyft and Uber have never exactly had the best labor reputations, and expanding their AV fleet would hypothetically take the pressure off the companies to provide fair wages, healthcare, and basic insurance coverage to their drivers. It will be a while before the majority of our app-hailed rides are driverless, but companies like Lyft and Motional appear dead set on making that a reality as soon as possible.

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A big change is coming down the pike in how the federal government encourages people to buy clean cars like electric vehicles. The Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on August 7, and the House of Representatives could pass it today. Barring any last-minute shifts, automakers and car buyers will find themselves with new tax rules that are baked into that massive legislation after President Biden signs it into law. 

The changes, experts say, are restrictive in terms of what electric vehicles and potential buyers will qualify. However, it’s not all bad news, either. 

Here’s a look at what to expect in the EV space if the IRA becomes law. 

The current landscape 

First, it makes sense to consider the way tax credits have worked in the clean vehicle space, pre-IRA, in the United States. Currently, in some cases, as much as $7,500 is available as a tax credit to people who want to buy an electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid. “The amount of money that you could credit from your taxes was based on the battery size, although the battery size limits were so low, that basically everything qualified for the $7,500,” says James Di Filippo, a senior policy analyst with Atlas Public Policy. 

The current system has some important rules. One of those is that the $7,500 is a tax credit towards the sum a person might owe the federal government in taxes. For example, imagine that a taxpayer owes exactly $7,500 in federal taxes for a certain year, and has been careful about their withholdings in their paycheck, paying the exact right amount throughout the year. Typically, come tax time in April, when that person and the IRS reconciled, neither party would owe anything. But, if that individual bought an EV that qualified for the $7,500 tax credit, the IRS would then cut them a check for that amount. “Typically, the way that it was working was people were just getting their money back when they filed their taxes,” Di Filippo observes. 

But Di Filippo points out that that system wasn’t fair, or equitable, across income levels. “The key equity implication of that is that the less you earn—at a certain threshold, basically—the less you get in that credit.” Imagine you only owned $1,000 in federal taxes, then the maximum you could gain in a credit was also $1,000. 

There’s another issue with the current system, too. The full $7,500 credit only applies to the first 200,000 qualifying vehicles a company makes, and then it diminishes and ends. “That particular cap was a point of contention,” Di Filippo adds. General Motors and Tesla, for example, have since surpassed that 200,000 figure already. 

Interested in reading up more on all this? Here’s where it is spelled out in US Code. 

The road ahead 

If the IRA becomes law in its current form, the system outlined above will change. For one, the 200,000 limit disappears. “That is going to be a humongous help—in theory—for automakers like Tesla, as well as General Motors,” reflects Robby DeGraff, an industry analyst with AutoPacific. 

Another change restricts people who make over a certain amount of money annually from getting the credit. For example, households that make more than $300,000 a year are out of luck, at least in the tax-credit department. Also, there are caps on the price of the vehicles: For example, a pickup truck that costs more than $80,000 would not be eligible; others are capped at $55,000. In short, expensive vehicles are left out. 

But other changes have to do with where a vehicle—and the parts in it—comes from. “The vehicle must be assembled in North America,” says Di Filippo. “And right away, that removes quite a few current vehicles on the market from eligibility.”

An ID.4 made by Volkswagen in Tennessee is in good shape at least with this requirement, but a Hyundai Ioniq 5, which is made overseas, not so much. 

[Related: Can the Chips and Science Act help the US avoid more shortages?]

Then there are other requirements pertaining to the provenance of the vehicle’s components. In particular, in the spotlight are the questions of where the battery components (like the cells) are assembled, and where the minerals in the battery—such as lithium and cobalt—are mined from and processed. Whether or not an automaker checks these boxes determines how much of the $7,500 might apply. “The battery mineral content and components really make up the two halves of that $7,500,” Di Filippo says. (In other words, some vehicles could qualify for smaller tax credits based on what boxes they do tick.) 

“Battery components have to be manufactured and assembled in North America, and if you meet the thresholds, which expand over time—starting in 2023, it’s 50 percent—then the vehicle is qualified for $3,750,” he explains. 

As for the minerals that go in a battery (here’s more on how a lithium-ion battery works), that part is tricky.

The new restrictions state that by 2023, 40 percent of the battery’s critical minerals need to come from—be extracted from, and processed in—a country that the US has a free-trade agreement with. That percentage requirement increases over time. And by 2025, none can come from China (which refines lithium) or Russia, for example. So even if the lithium was mined in Australia or Chile, an issue could remain if it was processed in another country.

“My understanding is no car manufacturer can hit that 40-percent target in 2023, as of right now,” Di Filippo says. “They may be able to scramble and change that.” 

The takeaway

Ultimately, the changes are restrictive, says Di Filippo. “From a consumer’s perspective, this is going to probably reduce, or almost certainly reduce, the number and value of EV credits going forward for the next few years at least.” 

There are some bright spots, though. One is that there will be up to a $4,000 tax credit that a person can get when buying a used EV from a dealer, provided their income is below a certain level ($75,000 for an individual person, for example). “The used EV tax credit, or clean vehicle credit, is a huge perk for consumers looking to get into electrification,” says DeGraff, of AutoPacific. 

Also, previously the tax credit was money that someone would generally get when they filed their taxes; now there will be a way for it to go into effect when people actually purchase the vehicle at a dealer. 

But still, there’s general concern about the effects of the legal changes on the electric vehicle market, as the CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wondered in a blog post titled: “What If No EVs Qualify for the EV Tax Credit? It Could Happen.” 

Ultimately, Di Filippo sees some improvements with the new policies over the old, but with an important caveat. “It’s a win for equity in the EV tax-credit policy space—of course none of that matters if nobody can buy a vehicle that can actually qualify for the tax credit,” he reflects. 

The post Everything you need to know about EV tax credits and the Inflation Reduction Act appeared first on Popular Science.

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Unity Technologies, a developer of video game software, revealed this week that it will be providing the technology backbone for Mercedes-Benz’ next-generation infotainment system. The newest headline on the company’s blog repeated what Mercedes-Benz Group AG Chief Design Officer Gorden Wagener said in 2019: “Screens are the new horsepower.” Considering that screen size inside vehicles has been growing hugely in the past few years, some exploding past most iPad dimensions, he may be right.

For Mercedes-Benz, California-based Unity Technologies will underpin the automaker’s newest operating system, MB.OS, which will launch with 2024 models. The new OS will connect the powertrain (along with current semi-autonomous driving) with the infotainment and body and comfort systems in ways it hasn’t before, turning its cars even more into computers on wheels. Ultimately, the intent is for the car to become more tuned in to its capabilities as well as the driver’s and passengers’ desires. 

“With our own operating system, we want to achieve three key things: to shape the user interface according to a luxury brand, to create a bidirectional communication with the customer and to integrate the digital lifestyle of the customer into the vehicle domain,” Magnus Östberg, chief software officer for Mercedes-Benz, told Automotive News.

Unity offers a development platform with some serious street cred. Gamers recognize the name for its licensed game engine, and Unity claims nearly half of the world’s games are built on Unity technology. On top of that, it says that 72 percent of the top 1,000 games were created with its platform. With heavy emphasis on 3D modeling, the technology company is working with the automaker on 3D navigation enhancements and digital avatar assistants for the future. Unity says its development enables Mercedes-Benz to create “visually compelling” and “highly interactive” graphics, incorporating all of the passengers in the cabin. 

“Unity wants to be the 3D operating system of the world,” says Sylvio Drouin, VP of the Unity Labs R&D team, according to TechCrunch. Drouin isn’t speaking theoretically: Unity works on 30 platforms, including Windows, iOS, Android, Linux, Oculus Rift, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch. Competing head-to-head with Epic’s Unreal Engine (the brains behind Fortnite along with scores of games for PS4 and Xbox One), Unity is a legitimate powerhouse and Mercedes-Benz anticipates reaping the benefits of Unity’s experience. 

Mercedes-Benz says it will be fully electric by 2030, including its high-performance AMG subdivision and uber-luxury Maybach brand. The automaker started with its EQS sedan in three flavors—EQS 450+, EQS 580 4Matic, and AMG EQS—and it’s ramping up as quickly as possible considering the constraints of supply chain challenges and chip shortages. 

The Hyperscreen is the centerpiece showpiece of the EQS cabin. Behind a single soaring piece of glass, this eye feast includes a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster for the driver, a 17.7-inch OLED center infotainment display, and a 12.3-inch touchscreen for the front passenger. The OLED screen is particularly impressive, its pixels emitting their own light source instead of other tech that requires a backlight. As a result, the graphics are video-game crisp. 

If the name Unity sounds familiar in the automotive realm, it may be because BMW is using a Unity platform to pressure-test cars with Level 3-enabled automation. (On the scale of automotive autonomy, Level 3 means the driver must be ready and able when the system alerts the driver to regain control of the vehicle.) Currently, cars equipped with Level 3 autonomy are not legal on US roads, so BMW harnesses Unity’s development expertise to simulate driving conditions in three dimensions.

It’s a smart move for Mercedes-Benz, which is looking to expand its digital footprint and appeal to a younger audience. Experimental vehicles like the all-electric Vision EQXX concept vehicle have the potential to turn heads and show that the German brand is making an attempt to stay ahead. In fact, it was the Vision EQXX prototype that launched the Unity and Mercedes-Benz collaboration five years ago. The combination of zoomy powertrains and high-tech usability gives the brand a fighting chance to get ahead in the next decade.

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Setting improbably ambitious goals has a way of motivating people to achieve things that they might not have believed possible beforehand. Land on the moon and return safely to Earth by New Year’s Eve, 1969? Seemed impossible. But determined NASA employees and contractors made it happen. 

The term “moonshot” is hopelessly overused, but this kind of daring assignment is exactly what happened when Mercedes-Benz executives decided that the company would build an electric concept car that is capable of traveling 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of driving on public roads without recharging. Oh, and they’d have to design the car from scratch, build it, and prove its capability in an actual 1,000 km road drive in just 18 months. Crazy!

The result is the low-slung Vision EQXX. It stands only 53 inches tall, and its slippery design yields a wind-cheating coefficient of drag (CoD) of just 0.17. In the car industry, anything less than 0.30 is considered excellent. A football’s score ranges between 0.18 and 0.20. Mercedes’ own superb EQS production model achieves a CoD of 0.20.

Mercedes’ current electric vehicle product line includes the EQS full-size luxury sedan as a production model today, and the company has a flurry of battery electric models hitting showrooms imminently or arriving in the not-too-distant future. These include the EQS full-size SUV, the mid-size EQE sport sedan, EQE mid-size SUV, and EQB compact SUV.

I had the opportunity to slide behind the wheel of the EQXX, a bullet-shaped technical marvel concept car at the Mercedes Immendingen proving ground in southern Germany, and to my surprise, what I found is a polished machine that is seemingly ready for showrooms rather than the one-off technical breakthrough that the EQXX really is.

To achieve this seemingly impossible goal, Mercedes attacked efficiency at every opportunity in pursuit of the “virtuous circle” of benefits that result from minimized weight and drag that reduces the demands for a bigger, heavier battery pack and motor. However—and this is part of why the car looks like something that could go on sale next year—they consciously chose to skip a couple highly visible design elements for drag reduction.

[Related: Opulence and displays galore: Meet the EQS 580 EV and its ‘Hyperscreen’]

The company wanted anyone seeing the Vision EQXX to consider it a real car and not an experiment. So the aerodynamic team limited the car’s drag-reducing rearward taper to an invisible two inches, they eschewed the rear fender skirts that reduce the aerodynamic drag that results from the rear wheels churning turbulently through the air, and they mounted plain, old-fashioned glass mirrors on the doors instead of using cameras for side-view mirrors. The homely original 1999 Honda Insight hybrid-electric is the appearance they sought to avoid.

Then, even with one hand proverbially tied behind their backs, the engineers, aerodynamicists, and stylists still produced that world-beating 0.17 CoD number. One way they accomplished this was by substituting an underside cooling plate for the usual radiator. Air flows along the bottom side of this plate rather than through a radiator’s cooling fins, dramatically reducing drag. On-demand cooling means that the EQXX has air exhausts in the hood that can draw air from under the car’s front when needed in hot weather. Doing that adds only 0.007 to the car’s coefficient of drag.

And the car rolls on Bridgestone’s narrow, low-rolling-resistance Turanza Eco tires that provide the dual benefit of reduced aero drag and reduced friction. During the test drive, I experienced the benefit of these tires first-hand while cruising on a very slight downhill straight, when the car coasted from 57 kilometers per hour to 60 kph where a regular car would probably soon come to a stop rather than gaining speed.

As with most EVs, the EQXX has multiple settings for energy recovery. Normally, I like to drive in a mode that provides high regeneration when the driver lifts a foot off the accelerator pedal, but Julien Pillas, an electric drive special projects engineer who babysits my time in the company’s very expensive project car, coaches me that I can improve the efficiency of my drive by selecting the “coast” mode at some points in the drive. 

This lets the car exploit its slipperiness, and takes advantage of the fact that there are no conversion losses by directly using gravity to power the car when going down hills, rather than turning that energy into electricity stored in the battery and then deploying that juice back to the electric motor later.

The EQXX is fully instrumented and Mercedes produces a data chart of my drive. They’re impressed that during my 20 minutes behind the wheel, the car consumed energy at a rate of 7.78 kilowatt-hours per 100 kilometers of driving, which bested the 7.9-kWh benchmark set by their driver on the same route. To be fair, I did average a slightly slower speed during my drive, but my trip also included a full-throttle 0-60 mph acceleration blast up a steep hill to gain a seat-of-the-pants impression of the EQXX’s entirely acceptable acceleration.

Unlike immensely powerful and quick vehicles like the 1,000-horsepower Hummer EV, the EQXX’s single electric motor powering its rear wheels is rated at a modest 241 horsepower. However, that motor is only tasked with moving a similarly modest (for an EV) curb weight of 3,858 lbs. The EQXX employs exotic carbon fiber construction and has so-called bionic castings whose optimized shape mimics biological structures, but a big source of the car’s weight control comes from its battery pack, which is a relatively lithe 1,091 lbs.

[Related: The new Hummer EV is an agile, 9,200-pound monster]

For a 100-kilowatt-hour pack, that’s an amazing accomplishment. Mercedes achieves this using a 920-volt battery pack with silicon carbide power electronics to produce a battery that is half the physical size of the battery in the Mercedes EQS production model, and that occupies 30 percent less space than its production counterpart.

The pack is the work of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) in Brixworth, England. These are the wizards who helped the Mercedes Formula 1 team win the last eight constructor’s championships with their hybrid-electric drivetrain mastery.

“One of the best ways to improve efficiency is to reduce losses,” explains Eva Greiner, chief engineer of the electric drive system at Mercedes-Benz, in the car’s press release. “We worked on every part of the system to reduce energy consumption and losses through system design, material selection, lubrication and heat management. And our fantastic simulation tools helped us find out quickly what works and what doesn’t.” 

The car’s light weight and its narrow tires contribute to light steering effort. Underway, the electric power steering assistance diminishes and the steering feel is communicative and responsive. At parking lot speeds, the assistance is overboosted, leaving the steering feeling disconnected. In a production car, I’d hope for an over-the-air update to improve this. In a groundbreaking prototype that rushed to meet a deadline, this is the closest thing I can find to a complaint. Astounding.

Power application through the accelerator pedal is smooth and linear, and the regeneration when I lift off the pedal is driver-selectable. In any regeneration mode, the car delivers no surprises, with the refinement you’d expect of a Mercedes production car.

The EQXX’s doors open and close with authority. The cabin is spacious and well-detailed (though the seats’ foam is curiously hard). My impression of reliability is born out by the fact that the EQXX never broke down and stranded its test drivers, says Pillas.

The team tested the car’s drivetrain components in an EQB SUV prototype fitted with the experimental parts. This car did suffer failures, and even when it was working, the drivers suffered from a lack of climate control during many chilly European winter tests, Pillas recalls.

After this preparation, the team successfully completed its mission of driving the EQXX for 1,008 km (630 miles) in a drive from Sindelfingen, Germany, over the Alps, to Cassis, France. But the team wasn’t done. Feeling their car had still more potential, Mercedes engineers executed a shocking 1,202-km (747-mile) drive on a single charge, piloting the EQXX from the company headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, to Silverstone, England. This trip benefited from more moderate temperatures and flatter terrain, averaging 52 mph and hitting a top speed of 87 mph on the autobahn.

Do you suppose that when the engineers set out to achieve the seemingly impossible goals set for their concept car, they imagined they’d produce a machine so road-ready that it could plausibly also be a preview for a showroom-ready version? My guess is that, as with the first record-setting drive of the EQXX, Mercedes is still not done with this car.

The post This Mercedes EV is a moonshot machine that can travel 621 miles on a single charge appeared first on Popular Science.

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Cadillac once represented the luxury standard of the world. In the era prior to the 1973 oil crisis, Cadillac was responsible for churning out vehicles with powerful engines, luxurious interiors, and technologically advanced creature comforts. Plus, the brand wrapped all of that in a stunningly gorgeous exterior design. While some might have turned up a judgemental nose at the sheer size or soft floaty suspension of a golden-era Cadillac—think early 20th century to about 1969—the premium experience on offer was unparalleled. General Motors put Cadillac at the top of its multi-brand lineup for a reason. 

For decades the company has been struggling to regain its former glory after a series of unfortunate events relegated Caddy to a luxury also-ran, a brand known as a denizen of the cul-de-sacs of Boca Raton retirement communities. But with the upcoming ultra-luxury Celestiq electric sedan, General Motors’ crested brand is hoping to regain the footing it once held. Cadillac announced production intent of its very pricey flagship sedan on July 22, with the aim to take on the best that Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Maybach have to offer—and do it with zero tailpipe emissions. 

Cadillac has recently pledged that it would be an all-electric luxury brand by 2030. Cadillac’s first all-electric offering—the 2023 Lyriq, a two-row premium SUV—sold out in a matter of just four hours, reportedly around 25,000 units. Production of the Lyriq began back in March, and customers are already starting to receive their electric SUVs. Built with GM’s Ultium battery architecture, the rear-wheel drive Lyriq starts at around $63,000 and delivers 340 horsepower and 312 miles of range, which is quite competitive in the current EV market. 

[Related: How computer-aided engineering shaped Cadillac’s first EV to a tee]

If the Lyriq represents the future of Cadillac’s bread-and-butter offerings, then the Celestiq is a powerhouse halo vehicle that aims to draw potential buyers into the showroom for a closer look. The Celestiq has been designed and built with Cadillac’s old “Standard of the World” tagline in mind. The dramatically-styled hatchback was designed to blend the future with bits of the brand’s long history. Expected to debut as a 2025 model, the Celestiq will be hand-built in Warren, Michigan with customers able to customize pretty much any detail of the car they want. 

Cadillac hasn’t said much as to what kind of power the Celestiq might offer when it is finally delivered. Considering that the competition from Rolls-Royce makes use of a 600-horsepower gas-burning V12, and Bentley’s Flying Spur now has a 536-horsepower hybrid V6 on offer, the Celestiq is going to need some impressive electric shove to keep up. By all indications the Celestiq will only come in all-wheel drive layout with an electric motor at each end. To really get the extreme luxury clientele to sit up and take notice, Cadillac might be smart to install the combined 1,000 horsepower electric motors directly from stablemate GMC’s Hummer EV. 

Power notwithstanding, the main thing that the Celestiq designers need to keep in mind is the luxury on offer. Technology is now seen as the primary indicator of luxury, so Cadillac is going to need to bring the advanced user interface to this car. The company indicates that the car will feature the next-generation of GM hands-free driving systems called Ultra Cruise, which promises to be a more complete system than Tesla’s (still in beta testing) “Full Self-Driving” assistance tech. 

Cadillac is proud of a new 55-inch wide curved display that stretches all the way across the Celestiq’s dashboard. The high-end interior appears to be a gorgeous blend of new and old. Surrounding the massive screens are acres of supple leather, real wood and metal trim, and LED backlighting to create an unusual but inspiring interior. The seats are said to have been inspired by the iconic Eames loungers of the 1950s. 

“I feel like it’s more like a piece of art, something you will want to collect,” Laetitia Lopez, lead color and trim designer for Celestiq, told Car and Driver. “So it’s not something you would use everyday.”

Cadillac’s current lineup tops out at $151,490 with the new Escalade V as the most expensive model on the brand’s dealer lot (it’s still powered by an internal combustion engine). It will likely take traditional Cadillac customers by surprise to see a vehicle that is potentially twice that price sharing the floor with more traditional and attainable Cadillac fare, but if the company wants to reinvent itself as the so-called standard of the world, it is going to take building vehicles like the Celestiq to create that kind of reputation once more. 

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Triumph is a motorcycle brand best known for its old-world flair and vintage-inspired rides, like the Bonneville or the Thruxton. There’s good reason for that, because the company’s heyday occurred sometime around the 1960s, when Steve McQueen slung a leg over one in the 1963 epic The Great Escape. However, with the new all-electric TE-1, the company is leaving the past behind and zipping into the future with its first electric offering. 

Not only does the new EV motorcycle build on Triumph’s streetfighter knowhow with its gas-burning Speed Triple lineup, which is similar in form to the TE-1, but based on the specs recently unveiled by the company, the TE-1 aims to completely blow every other electric motorcycle out of the water. Triumph’s upcoming electric whip will be perhaps the most advanced e-motorcycle to hit the asphalt, and other bikemakers are going to have a new target to aim for in the next decade. 

Triumph first kicked off as a bicycle manufacturer in 1885. Company boss Moritz Schulte felt the need for speed back in 1898, when he strapped an engine to a bicycle. It began developing ground-up motorcycle designs in 1904, and by the end of the following year it had produced 250 examples. Over 100 years later, despite having gone through some lean years and a bankruptcy in 1983 leading to the sale of company assets, hundreds of thousands of Triumph-branded motorcycles have hit the streets all over the world. 

[Related: How the stunt crew in ‘No Time to Die’ pulled off the film’s astounding motorcycle jump]

The electric motorcycle world isn’t nearly as crowded as the regular EV car and truck market right now, with Triumph essentially becoming only the third legacy motorcycle maker to dedicate resources to developing and delivering a ground-up electric machine, after Harley-Davidson and KTM. Harley launched its own electric streetfighter-style motorcycle in 2020’s LiveWire. That bike launched to near-universal praise, but little commercial success because of its high price. In 2022, that bike relaunched with a lower price as the One under Harley’s all-electric LiveWire sub-brand. KTM, meanwhile, went for the dirtbike segment with its Freeride E-XC. 

These are the details to know about the TE-1: The electric motorcycle project has been in the works at the British bike builder since 2019, but before Triumph issued a release on the bike’s progress on July 12, information was scarce. Triumph is coming out of the gate swinging with a bike that is both more powerful and lighter than LiveWire’s One. The TE-1 will feature a 175-horsepower motor and be a featherweight (for an electric bike) 485 pounds. Triumph is being conservative with its advertised acceleration times: The TE-1 is stated to sprint from 0-60 in just 3.6 seconds, but that’s a few tenths slower than LiveWire’s 3 seconds dead. 

Meanwhile, there are several electric-only motorcycle brands like Zero and Energica, which are sure to provide stiff competition to the traditional moto brands like Triumph. The TE-1 isn’t as quick or as fast as the ultra-aggressive Energica Ego, but it matches up fairly well against more standard sporty models like Zero’s SR/F. There’s no word yet on price for the Triumph, so we don’t yet know where it stacks up against marketplace competition, but based on these specs and what the EV bike market looks like today, it’s fair to expect the bike to be priced around $20,000. 

[Related: This new electric motorcycle is built for long-range adventures]

As for range, Triumph claims the TE-1 will deliver 100 miles on a full charge, but doesn’t specify whether that number is city, highway, or a real-world mix. The LiveWire One has a claimed 146 miles of city range, and in real-world testing can deliver about 90 miles on the highway. Triumph hasn’t revealed the size of the TE-1’s battery, but based on the fact that it weighs less than the LiveWire, our guess is that it is smaller than that bike’s 12.5 kWh unit. Triumph claims the TE-1 can be charged from 0 to 80 percent in just 20 minutes, which is blazingly quick in today’s motorcycle market. The LiveWire, by comparison, takes around 40 minutes for the same charge, and the Zero SR/F—lacking a DC Fast charging port—takes more than double that. 

Perhaps the best news, however, is that the TE-1 is apparently quite fun to ride. During a track test of the bike, Triumph rider Brandon Paasch had this to say about the experience: “The throttle response on the TE-1 is kind of incredible, it’s very torquey and when you first touch the throttle it’s instant power, which is obviously what I love as a motorcycle racer – I love when it’s super-torquey and picks up right away, so for me it was a really great experience. I got to peg this thing all the way from zero to 100% throttle and it’s unbelievably quick, it pulls like crazy.”

There’s no official timeline for when this bike will make production, or when you can expect to pick one up from your local dealer, but judging by how polished the machine looks already, it can’t be too far away—hopefully.

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Electric vehicles require batteries to help them zip down the road. Those batteries consist of a multitude of individual cells that together form a battery system. Today, in Salzgitter, Germany, the Volkswagen Group broke ground on a new factory that will crank out those cells, someday producing enough of the powerpack units for around 500,000 vehicles every year. Production is set to begin in 2025.

In fact, this factory is just the beginning of what the corporation calls, in a press release, its “global battery offensive.” While a VW battery cell factory already exists in Skellefteå, Sweden, four more planned factories will follow a similar setup as the new one in Salzgitter, which will act as a type of blueprint. After this facility in Salzgitter, the next one is planned for Valencia, Spain; there will be a total of a half-dozen factories in Europe alone by 2030. 

The cells that these factories will produce, which the VW Group describes as a “prismatic unified cell,” will one day be able to power as much as 80 percent of the different vehicle models that the company makes. This prismatic design is different from the shapes other EV battery cells typically take—cylinders and pouches. The battery producers at these factories will be able to tweak the chemistries of the cells to best suit the vehicles they are going into. With this general approach should come cost savings, too. “The new unified cell harnesses synergy effects and will reduce battery costs by up to 50 percent,” the company said in a statement. 

[Related: How the massive ‘flow battery’ coming to an Army facility in Colorado will work]

A new company, called PowerCo, will take the reins of the battery production machine. “PowerCo will become a global battery player,” Thomas Schmall, the supervisory board chairman of PowerCo, said in the statement. “The company’s major strength will be vertical integration from raw materials and the cell right through to recycling.” 

The Volkswagen Group includes brands such as Volkswagen, Audi, and Porsche. Volkswagen, for example, recently announced a new electric sedan concept car, the ID Aero. In addition to other EVs, like the ID Buzz, VW also makes the ID 4, which it will also start producing in the US, in Tennessee. While the VW Group plans a total of six battery factories in Europe, the company also says that there is the “​​prospect of further factories in North America in the future.” 

Meanwhile, here’s what Stellantis, General Motors, and others are up to when it comes to producing batteries for electric vehicles. 

The post Volkswagen is launching a ‘global battery offensive’ with a giant new cell factory appeared first on Popular Science.

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The balance between form and function is always a delicate one when carmakers introduce new models, as the fantastic shapes conceived by creative designers meet the harsh realities of government regulations, manufacturing requirements, and everyday useability.

But the team behind Cadillac’s new Lyriq battery-electric crossover insists that this time, the good guys won. That means that the designers got to keep most of the flavor of the Lyriq concept car. Meanwhile, the engineering team got to flex its own creative muscles by noodling out ways to let the designers’ dreams live within the real-world constricts that usually cause production models to be disappointingly dull in comparison to the concept car.

Here’s how it all came together—and what it’s like to drive.

$200 million in computer time 

Computer-aided engineering (CAE) was a crucial tool in this achievement, reports Cadillac Lyriq executive chief engineer Jamie Brewer. The team burned through $200-million worth of cycle time on GM’s computers to model every aspect of the Lyriq, she says. “By the time we got our first prototype vehicle built, we were 80 percent of the way there and could go right into tuning,” Brewer explains.

This was important, because as the first in the line of Cadillac’s all-electric models (the company says it will only introduce battery-powered new models from now on), the Lyriq serves to illustrate everything Cadillac aims to be going forward. So that means challenges like working out noise management, now that the combustion engine is no longer there providing background white noise to drown out other, more unpleasant sounds.

“The engine is a significant masking factor for annoying high-pitched noises and pumping noises,” says Brewer. Cadillac’s solution, which was heavily reliant on that CAE modeling, is to eliminate as much noise as possible at its source. As an example, the Lyriq rolls on wheels that have been specifically designed for maximum rigidity to help quell road noise, and they are wrapped in tires that are filled with self-sealing goo that also quiets noise at the source.

[Related: Ford’s electric Lightning still drives like an F-150 truck, but better]

When that fails, the solution is to apply sound deadening to block the noise from getting to the driver. And the last line of defense is active noise cancellation through the car’s AKG stereo system, which directly attacks any remaining unwanted sound waves that enter the Lyriq’s cabin.

CAE also contributed to the Lyriq’s absence of a rear window wiper. The company modeled airflow to help keep the rear window clear as an alternative. Even the welds that hold the Lyriq’s sheet-metal chassis together were modeled on the computer. “We were able to use CAE to very quickly iterate different welding types and different materials to optimize the structure,” Brewer says.

Hop in the car, kids

These measures combine to provide the hushed, posh experience that Cadillac hopes will attract—finally—a new generation of customers. So far it is working. Seventy-eight percent of the people who’ve bought the 2023 model year of the Lyriq completely out are new to Cadillac. If you want a Lyriq now, it will be a 2024 model, delivered sometime next spring. Two-thirds of these customers are Generation X or Y rather than the geriatrics who’ve been Cadillac’s mainstay customers for decades.

To catch and keep more such buyers, the Lyriq needs to break Cadillac’s history of nearly-there efforts. These have been cars that Cadillac enthusiasts, if there were any, could accept as a reasonable facsimile of the BMW the cars were trying to be. But there were still shortcomings. Plastics that looked out of place. Wonky infotainment interfaces whose processors were inadequate for their task.

So, the stakes are high: As the bellwether for Cadillac’s new generation of electric models that will attract its new generations of customers, the Lyriq cannot afford to fumble these things. And mostly, it doesn’t.

The car is as placid to drive as you’d hope, sailing effortlessly down the road on the power of its 340-horsepower, 325-lb.-ft. rear drive motor. It is powered by a 102-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion Ultium battery pack that the EPA says will last 312 miles. This is the configuration for our $62,155 rear-drive test car. 

[Related: The new Hummer EV is an agile, 9,200-pound monster]

Starting at the end of the year, the company will also ship all-wheel-drive models that add a front motor for a total of 500 hp. Torque values haven’t been determined yet.

As is the norm for such vehicles, the Lyriq has fake engine noise in the cabin that provides aural cues to the car’s power state. It also has multiple drive modes, so drivers can choose from Touring, Sport, Snow/Ice, and a personalized “My” mode. These settings tweak the power delivery, brake response, and fake sound levels.

The suspension is unchanged, as the initial Lyriq models will not employ the magnetoresistive active shock absorbers that Cadillac pioneered in the ‘90s under the Magneride brand. (That system employs hydraulic fluid containing iron particles whose alignment is controlled by a magnetic field to change the fluid’s viscosity and therefore the stiffness of the shock absorbers.) The Lyriq’s steering is well-weighted and provides decent feedback for a luxury car, but it is slow, requiring many turns on the wheel to negotiate the switchbacks of the roads through the mountains outside Park City, Utah, where I tested the car.

Slow steering is no particular shortcoming in a luxury car with no racetrack pretensions, and the Lyriq’s handling easily surpasses the disappointing understeer of the BMW iX electric crossover. In this instance, Cadillac is showing BMW the way.

Hitting the brakes

The Lyriq has driver-selectable one-pedal drive. This is the feature in most EVs that causes the car to slow when the driver lifts off the accelerator pedal, the way a golf cart does. Most companies choose a corporate philosophy on how much or how little their EVs will slow when the driver lifts off the pedal. Cadillac wisely exploits the fact that this is a matter of software, and as such, should be driver-selectable.

So in the Lyriq, drivers can switch the function off, or they can choose low or high levels of deceleration. This means that just by lifting off the accelerator pedal, the Lyriq will slow at 0.23 g of force in the low setting or 0.30 g in the high setting. Additionally, the driver can squeeze a paddle on the back of the steering wheel that provides proportional braking that varies by how much they squeeze the paddle to produce 0.35 g of deceleration—all without ever touching the Lyriq’s brake pedal.

The brake force when the brake pedal is used is something that was developed entirely in-house by GM. Previously brake response was the province of the brake system supplier. But now that braking must be metered between regenerative braking from the car’s electric drivetrain and friction braking using the conventional brakes, GM has taken the responsibility of integrating these systems itself.

Those devilish details

The car is spacious and comfortable inside, with a light, airy cabin that is illuminated through the standard panoramic skylight. The rear seat feels roomy, with abundant leg and headroom. But some of this is a trick, bought by using a too-low rear seat cushion that would leave adult passengers squirming uncomfortably before long.

As pleasant and capable as the Lyriq is, the car is undermined by some head-scratching decisions. The navigation system does not display the speed limit, which is valuable information in a tourist area with surprisingly low speed limits like Park City. 

Those cool driver-selectable drive modes and one-pedal drive modes? Don’t look for a button to conveniently set these. Instead, you’ll navigate through a couple menu layers on the Lyriq’s infotainment display. 

A Cadillac engineer acknowledged these oversights, and indicated that the one-pedal drive setting could get a dedicated virtual button at the bottom of the display screen soon. Speaking of the touch screen, steadying your hand by grasping the top as you press on-screen buttons reveals that the top of the display gets hot in the sun. Really hot.

So there are details that leave us puzzled and disappointed. They aren’t deal breakers, and many of them could be addressed with updates in the future. But when new customers are being introduced to the brand for the first time, they may not be in a mood to forgive such quirks. Cadillac just needs to unleash a tiny bit more of its engineers’ capabilities to iron out these fixable details, because they’ve done exemplary work on the Lyriq’s fundamentals.

The post How computer-aided engineering shaped Cadillac’s first EV to a tee appeared first on Popular Science.

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Today, Volkswagen unveiled a sleek new electric sedan—a concept vehicle it is calling the ID Aero. The announcement indicates that the automaker’s electric car clan is set to grow. 

VW labels its EVs with the prefix “ID.” The only electric vehicle model from VW currently on the US market is the ID.4, which is a compact SUV. The new Aero sedan will sport a range of as much as 385 miles, and will roll on wheels that are designed to evoke turbines, the company said in a press release. Other design details include two light strips that begin at the front, near the VW logo, and wrap backwards, on either side, as well as honeycomb patterns on the front and rear. 

“Following the ID.4, this model will be our next global car for Europe, China and the US,” Ralf Brandstätter, the CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, said in a statement. 

The company is crowing about the aerodynamics of the vehicle, which is an appropriate quality for a car named the Aero. “The roof slopes elegantly to the rear in coupé style and contributes to achieving an excellent drag coefficient of 0.23,” VW said. With that 0.23 number, the Aero will have a similar coefficient of drag as a Tesla Model S or Toyota Prius, which are 0.21 and 0.24, respectively (lower is better). Instead of regular handles to open the doors, touch-sensitive surfaces will do the trick. Other attributes of this concept car include a blingy paint job, which will contain “pigments [that] create a golden shimmer effect in appropriate light conditions.”

The ID Aero will be nearly 5 meters (16.4 feet) long, which is a bit longer than a Tesla Model 3. 

[Related: Volkswagen’s retro bus is finally going electric]

Another recent VW electric vehicle that is generating buzz is the ID Buzz, which is an electric model of the company’s famous little bus. A version of that EV, with a long wheelbase, is set to come to the US in 2024. Like the ID Buzz and other electric VW vehicles, the ID Aero will utilize what the company calls its MEB, or Modular Electric Drive system. 

Volkswagen says that by 2030, in North America, “the proportion of unit sales accounted for by purely electric vehicles” will be more than 50 percent, and that it will cease development of vehicles that run on internal combustion engines by 2026. 

[Related: FedEx is charging up its electric vehicle fleet]

In a Chattanooga, Tennessee, manufacturing facility, VW is gearing up for production of its 2023 model year ID.4 vehicles; right now, the ID.4s available on the US market were made in Germany. For the ID Aero, VW says it should be on sale in China in the second part of next year, and the company plans to start making a European version of it as well, also in 2023. Car-buyers in the US will be able to grab one sometime after that, as VW says that a version is coming to North America at some point.

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Electric vehicles and package deliveries are poised to go together as naturally as stamps stick onto envelopes. One of the big players moving forward in that space, FedEx, said today that it now has 150 electric delivery trucks in its Southern California fleet.

Those delivery vehicles, named the Zevo 600 after their approximate cubic-foot cargo capacity, come from a General Motors subsidiary called BrightDrop. 

Each van boasts a range of some 250 miles on a charge. One of them set a world record in April for the longest journey of an electric delivery vehicle on just one charge, when it clocked nearly 259 miles. (The road trip was so riveting that a reporter tagging along from the Verge seems to have, understandably, fallen asleep twice.) Like other electric vehicles from GM, the battery system that undergirds these BrightDrop rigs is called Ultium. 

The first five of these BrightDrop vehicles arrived in December, to an Inglewood, California, FedEx facility, the parcel giant previously said. Those deliveries continued, and now the electric vans number 150 in total, all in the hands of FedEx Express. The other stats to know: The company wants all of its pick-up and delivery vehicles to be electric by 2040, and it says it will purchase 2,500 Zevo 600s specifically from BrightDrop “over the next few years.” Plus, it says that it has already built “more than 500 charging stations” in the Golden State. 

James Di Filippo, a senior policy analyst with Atlas Public Policy, says that he expects to see a rapid shift to electrification in the parcel delivery space. He’s pleased with milestones like the one FedEx just announced. “It’s good to see those numbers starting to move up, especially because supply chain issues have plagued this transition—the delivery fleet transition—for a while,” he says. “Being able to take delivery on 150 vehicles is great news.” 

FedEx isn’t the only delivery company working towards electrifying its last-mile vehicles. UPS’s worldwide fleet includes “more than 1,000 electric and plugin hybrid electric vehicles on the road,” it notes on its website. The shipping corporation has also said it plans to buy 10,000 electric vehicles from a UK company called Arrival. 

[Related: FedEx will start testing a 1,900-pound drone for hauling packages]

When it comes to Amazon, The New York Times has described its need for EVs as “insatiable.” Amazon plans to incorporate electric delivery vehicles from Rivian (which it partially owns) into its fleet, though there have been speed bumps and drama with that process, and the number of vehicles it has actually delivered is not public. “We continue to produce and deliver Amazon custom electric delivery vans,” a Rivian spokesperson says via email, “with a focus on ramping both production and deliveries.” 

Amazon says that by 2030, it expects to have 100,000 delivery vans from Rivian making the rounds. 

Still, there are some variables holding back the switch to EVs, such as supply chain disruptions. And rural areas could pose a challenge for electric deliveries, Di Filippo says, because of the longer distances. But “urban parcel delivery is a slam dunk for electric vehicles,” he says. 

Metropolitan areas have a number of factors that lend themselves nicely to electrification: The fleet vehicles may return to a central hub where they can be charged after their routes, for example, and the routes themselves are predictable and not too long. 

“It’s great from a climate change perspective,” Di Filippo says, “especially as we are relying more and more on parcel delivery for the final mile of retail goods.” Plus, “it’s fantastic for air quality” in the neighborhoods in which they are delivering, he notes. 

An outlier is the United States Postal Service, which, as of April, was facing lawsuits resulting from its plans for its next-generation vehicles. As of March, it planned for just 20 percent of its new vehicles to be electric, with the rest to be combustion-engine powered. By comparison, FedEx’s plans hold for 100 percent of its pickup and delivery vehicles to be electric within the next 18 years.

“The real red flag for USPS is that all of their direct competitors in the private parcel delivery space have electrification plans, [and] are putting them into motion,” Di Filippo says. 

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“Driving on the moon is like driving on ice,” warns Jeff Vogt, the advanced program lead for vehicle dynamics at General Motors. “If you can imagine the worst ice storm ever, that is what it is like.”

I was interrogating Vogt in preparation for my turn at the wheel of GM’s lunar rover simulator, an experience that promised to virtually fulfill a dream of mine since I watched the Apollo astronauts as a kid.

The Apollo 17 crew of astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt roved the surface in search of geologically significant rocks, a mission made more productive by their trusty 4×4. But the notion of wheeling an off-roader across the pockmarked surface of the moon has been dormant since Cernan and Schmitt blasted off from the moon in the ascent stage of their lunar lander in December, 1972.

Now, General Motors, the company that built the original Lunar Roving Vehicles, aims to return with a new Lunar Mobility Vehicle (LMV) in partnership with Lockheed Martin.

A critical development tool in this program is GM’s simulator, which helps engineers test designs for a vehicle that cannot realistically be physically tested on Earth. That’s because of the moon’s weaker gravity, which is one-sixth that of Earth’s. The LMV has all of the 1,500 kilograms of mass it has on Earth, but only one-sixth the weight, which is why traction is so poor on the dusty surface.

I slide behind the simulator’s wheel. The aim is to avoid abrupt moves. No hard starts, stops, or turns. And most especially, take it easy driving out of craters, says Vogt. “We learned pretty quickly that if you accelerate too hard to climb an incline, with lower gravity, you launch into space.”

Noted.

It turns out that when driven gently, like you would on ice, the LMV is perfectly docile and responsive. The main challenge is an artifact of driving in a simulator with a 2D-screen standing in for reality. Despite its 270-degree wrap-around display of the one square kilometer of the lunar south pole that is loaded into GM’s computer, there is very little sensation of inclination, like you would feel in reality if you were going up or down a crater. 

Operating the sim, you are wrapped within a 26-foot-diameter high-definition display situated in a darkened room. You drive from a car’s cockpit section that is mounted atop a pedestal that tilts side to side and pitches fore and aft, but most of that motion is imperceptible while driving the moon program because of the gentle driving motions. Presumably the ride gets a bit rougher when it is simulating the latest Corvette tearing around a track!

When the LMV seems oddly sluggish in response to the accelerator pedal, that’s the clue that you’re climbing. When it doesn’t seem to slow down when you lift off the accelerator, that’s because you’re going downhill.

The available photography of the Moon’s south pole is low-resolution, so large features are accurately represented. Smaller craters and rocks were generated statistically, based on an understanding of their prevalence on the moon. The LMV proves to have enough ground clearance that it easily straddles the small-looking rocks. Without a frame of reference, I have no idea how big they really are, but I now know that the rover will be able to drive right over most of the rocks it encounters.

The LMV’s top speed is 25 kph, but I never venture above 12 kph. A crash would be harmlessly virtual, but the time needed to reset the simulator would mean an instant end to my moon-driving fantasy. The Apollo LRV topped out at 13 kph, but astronauts tended to drive at about 5 kph to avoid breaking the rover and to minimize the dust kicked up by its wheels.

It is important to model the LMV’s capabilities because, unlike the Apollo LRV, the LMV is expected to spend most of its time driving autonomously between jobs carrying live crews. The 3-second round-trip time of radio signals from Earth makes remote piloting impractical, especially at the speeds the LMV can achieve. 

GM is applying the know-how from its Cruise autonomous vehicle division to the LMV so that it can work when the astronauts aren’t there. Lockheed Martin’s design is for a dedicated lander to deliver the LMV to the Moon’s surface, rather than having it stow away with the astronauts on their flight, as the LRV did.

Autonomy means that the LMV can begin working as soon as it lands, exploring the terrain and conducting experiments without waiting for the Artemis lunar mission astronauts to arrive. The LMV will employ Ultium electric drivetrain components that are the same ones that are going into GM’s terrestrial EVs. It will have the same electric motors, and although the Ultium battery cells used so far in the GMC Hummer EV we tested previously and the new Cadillac Lyriq are the pouch-style prismatic cells, GM’s Ultium road map also includes the cylindrical cells the LMV will use. These AA-like cylindrical cells are better suited to the extreme 500-degree temperature swings between the Moon’s two weeks of daylight and two weeks of nighttime, according to the company.

GM’s know-how from the Hummer EV’s control programs for its three electric motors have informed the programming for the LMV’s four motors. This means that the motors will be able to maximize the paltry available traction, and they will also let the rover do nifty tricks like the super-tight turns the Hummer can execute by routing power to the outside wheels.

Design details to notice about the LMV include the seating position, which puts the two astronauts ahead of the front wheels rather than plopping them into the middle of the vehicle as they were in the LRV. This reduces their exposure to the abrasive dust kicked up by the front wheels, which sticks to everything because of its electrostatic charge.

Models that GM designers show me have the astronauts sitting in the open, but they explain that the latest versions feature body panels that enclose the seats and the LMV’s cargo bed to help further block the dust.

Knowing that GM has gone to such measures to help keep my future spacesuit pristine makes it all the easier to volunteer for the mission to drive the LMV on the moon. Who else has already practiced?

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If you were to walk into a Chevrolet dealership today and ask for a Blazer, the salesperson would show you a milquetoast mid-sized medium-priced crossover. Its starting MSRP is $33,400, and you can choose from a two-liter turbocharged inline-four cylinder or a 3.6-liter V6. Either way, you’ll find yourself pumping gasoline. That changes next year when Chevrolet’s new Blazer EV launches. 

Chevrolet first teased the Blazer SS EV back in March of this year, and finally showed the world what the performance electric crossover would look like on June 13 when GM CEO Mary Barra tweeted a photo of it. While we don’t yet know the specifications of the vehicle—those will be unveiled in about a month—the car seems promising even without the details. General Motors, and by extension Chevrolet, has a wide variety of electric motors and electric battery stacks to choose from when building this machine, so expect to see at least a few variants. 

The one pictured in Barra’s tweet appears to be the upmarket performance “SS” model, which is likely being built to go head-to-head with Ford’s Mustang Mach-E GT. It’s more than likely that this machine will be built on GM’s Ultium battery technology, which it co-developed with Honda. And if GM used the same motors from the all-wheel drive version of the electric Cadillac Lyriq, the Blazer SS EV would have exactly what it needs to fight its Ford and Tesla rivals, putting down about 500 horsepower to the Mach-E GT’s 459 and the Model Y Performance’s 450. Based on what we can infer from the images of the Blazer SS EV, it looks like it could simply be a Lyriq in Chevrolet clothing. 

If the Blazer SS EV is in fact Lyriq-based, it will likely undercut both Tesla’s Model Y Performance and Ford’s Mach-E GT on price. Cadillac’s Lyriq AWD is priced at an impressively competitive $64,990, and a lower-content Chevrolet-badged model would likely fall a good bit below that $60,000 mark, which is near exactly where both the Ford and Tesla are priced. 

In short, we don’t expect the Blazer SS EV to be a bargain-priced EV, but it’ll almost certainly offer similar performance for less money to the competition, which Chevrolet has a history of doing. Being on the same platform as the Lyriq would also indicate that it’s likely that a base model Blazer EV would be rear-wheel drive and carry about 312 horsepower. 

The existing gasoline-powered Blazer crossover appears to share nothing with its future electric counterpart, and this type of branding approach is already in place with Chevrolet’s Silverado EV: The gasoline-powered Silverado is a completely different vehicle than the electric Silverado. The former is built in the tradition of steel ladder-frame pickups, while the Silverado EV is a pickup built on the same quasi-unibody platform as the GMC Hummer EV. As with the Silverado variants, the Blazer EV makes use of more aggressive—and subjectively more attractive—bodywork than its gasoline sibling. 

Chevy says the Blazer EV is coming in 2023, and together with the smaller and less-expensive electric Equinox and Bolt EUV, will set the automaker up nicely for the EV future with three different sized electric crossovers. If the Bolt EUV and Equinox EV both start around the $30,000 mark, and the Blazer slots in somewhere in the low-to-mid $50,000 range, Chevrolet could have a handful of hits on its hands. These are the cars that new car buyers want to buy, and making them electric while still hanging on to the affordability that Chevy is known for is a smart play in the current car market. 

General Motors has deeper experience building EVs than you might assume: Not only was it responsible for the first mass-market electric car in the EV1 way back in 1996, but it delivered the plug-in hybrid Volt in 2010 and the modern battery-electric Bolt hatchback in 2016. While companies like Nissan and Tesla have built more EVs, GM has been doing it longer. 

The new Chevrolet Blazer SS EV is just one of the many new EVs planned to come out of the General Motors stable in the next handful of years. The company announced in 2020 that it would invest $35 billion globally in EV and autonomous vehicle tech through 2025. That included converting the old Hamtramck plant in Detroit into an all-EV facility called Factory Zero. 

Add in that the company is rolling out new battery electric models at breakneck speed, and this moment could be the tipping point toward widespread adoption of EVs in America. GM says it wants to sell a million EVs per year in North America and China by the middle of the decade, and it only has a couple years left to make that happen. Buick recently announced it would be going all-electric, GMC already sells the very large Hummer EV, and Cadillac is also pivoting to electric. Between the upcoming electric Corvette, Silverado EV, the Blazer EV, and the Equinox EV, Chevrolet has its EV bases covered.

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Like their four-wheeled cousins, motorcycles are increasingly available in electric versions. And when it comes to battery powered rides, options like Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire or an offering from Zero might come to mind. Another key player is Energica, out of Modena, Italy. 

Energica has deep experience delivering electric two-wheeled performance to customers, having launched its first EV motorcycle over a decade ago. With several models worth of development under its belt, the Italian e-moto company is well placed to develop technology beyond that of its competitors. On May 31, Energica announced its newest model—the adventure-focused Experia—would deliver an impressive 261 miles of city range, which is significantly more than any other electric motorcycle yet on the market. Among the electric motorcycle competition, only Zero has been able to crack the 200-mile barrier, with its SR/S model delivering 223 miles of electric range. 

As the only chassis and electric-motor supplier for the electric motorcycle racing series MotoE since its inception, Energica has been given an opportunity to develop its bikes at an advanced pace. With noted international sport riders providing feedback, and hundreds of hours of wheel-to-wheel racing competition, Energica has been allowed to develop its new bikes in the crucible of motorsport. While the new Experia is not a track-focused machine, the company has gained knowledge in the development process, spending its school days where giants tread. 

[Related: I rode an electric motorcycle for the first time. Here’s what I learned.]

The new Experia aims to take on the rapidly expanding adventure touring motorcycle market, dominated for decades by gasoline-powered models like the BMW GS and Ducati Multistrada. It’s a motorcycle segment with fervent enthusiasm and significant competition. Energica is taking a risk by jumping into this competitive field, but based on the numbers, the all-electric Experia makes a compelling case for itself. 

Built as a brand new machine from the ground up, the new Experia is a so-called green tourer for the modern rider. Unlike any other electric motorcycle, it can travel more than 100 miles at highway speeds without needing to stop for a charge. Also, unlike the competition, the Experia offers standard onboard charging capacity for Level 1, Level 2, and DC Fast charging. Some Zero models offer 1 and 2, while the much lauded Harley-Davidson-built LiveWire One only offers L1 and DC Fast, skipping over the often useful L2. 

While California-built Zero does already offer an electric adventure segment motorcycle in its DS and DSR models, both are built on aged platforms that are eclipsed by the new Experia by pretty much every measure. The DSR is an incredible machine already, and proves that there is room for an electric model in the adventure arena. But with just 163 miles of standard range, and only 70 horsepower available, it doesn’t measure up to the Energica on paper. 

While the Experia’s large battery gives it the ability to deliver impressive electric range, it is almost certainly going to also make the bike quite heavy. The LiveWire One, for example, makes do with just 13.6 kWh of usable battery capacity, while the Experia has a larger—and heavier—19.6 kWh battery. Depending on the type of lithium-ion battery used, that extra six kilowatt hours of battery capacity can account for an extra 60 to 100 pounds of rolling weight. 

That said, the Experia, as an adventure touring bike, plays to its strengths with that extra weight, because it shouldn’t be expected to handle nearly as well as the sport-oriented LiveWire. With around 100 horsepower and 85 lb-ft of torque (compared to the LiveWire One’s almost identical power numbers) it probably won’t have the same level of straight-line acceleration, solely by dint of the Experia’s extra weight. 

“We have focused on the real-world needs of motorcycle riders worldwide, creating an ex-novo state-of-the-art engineering platform,” Giampiero Testoni, CTO of Energica Motor Company said in a release. “We melded high-tech electric mobility with the roaming spirit of the motorcycle traveler. The intention was to create the first electric motorcycle created specifically for long-distance bike lovers. “

To combat some of the battery’s extra weight, Energica worked diligently to get the rest of the Experia’s heft to a minimum. For example, the new synchronous reluctance and permanent magnet electric motor is around 22 pounds lighter than the motor found in Energica’s other earlier models, like the Ego, Eva, or EsseEsse. The new motor is water-cooled for improved thermal efficiency, which also allows the motor to be placed lower in the chassis to help improve center of gravity, and thus the bike’s handling. 

Starting at $25,880, the Energica is not inexpensive. But what it will cost you in dollars it makes up for in advanced EV motorcycle tech. In addition to the largest battery on the market, this motorcycle offers seriously competitive rider aids as well. You’ll get seven distinct rider modes, four different levels of switchable EV regenerative braking, and six levels of advanced traction control intervention combined with Bosch cornering-intuitive anti-lock braking. 

With an increasing number of adventure touring motorcycles hitting the market every year, including recent highly-anticipated examples like the Harley-Davidson Pan America, or the Ducati Desert X (both powered by gasoline), the Experia has an uphill battle ahead of it to become a sales success. Being the most advanced electric example in the segment, however, has its benefits. It isn’t the first such electric adventurer, and it certainly won’t be the last, but for now it appears to be punching well above its weight. 

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If you want to get an electric vehicle, there are more options becoming available every year. You can get everything from the new Chevrolet Bolt to the new Ford F-150 Lighting. That being said, a lot of people like classic cars, and those run on gasoline and might only get around 20 miles per gallon. However, it turns out some car enthusiasts are starting to change that. 

Back in 2006, the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, CA decided to convert a 1964 Type 2 microbus into an electric vehicle. David Benardo, who worked in graphic design at the time, saw this at the time and decided he wanted to embark on a similar project. 

After years of thinking about this project, Benardo finally got together with experts in electrical engineering who knew their way around a car. Around 2012, they started working on converting his vintage 1963 Ragtop VW Bug into an electric vehicle. They spent a whole two years testing it. He documented the process on social media.

Benardo founded the company Zelectric that year, which turns classic VWs and Porsches into electric vehicles. Currently, they only work on 1950s–70s air-cooled rear-engined models. 

“It just started out as a personal project, but even before we were done with it, we were posting progress photos and stuff to social media,” Benardo tells Popular Science. “Once people found out, they wanted to know if we could do another one. That’s really how this business came to be.”

Zelectric doesn’t cut up the cars to make them electric. Instead, they find a motor that will fit in the car’s existing body. A classic Porsche can fit a Tesla motor, but a classic VW needs something special. To convert antique VW models, Zelectric uses smaller motors made by companies like HPEVS and NetGain. These kinds of companies started making motors for industrial purposes, such as forklifts, but eventually got into the EV scene as interest increased. 

“We don’t want to cut up this precious 50-year-old car to accommodate some monster motor,” Benardo says.

Electrification isn’t cheap, with rates starting at around $70,000, and it takes three to six months for the car to be finished. Benardo says that hasn’t stopped people from deciding to take the plunge—as he currently has a two year waiting list. Zelectric completes roughly half a dozen cars or so every year. 

[Related: Electric vehicles have come a long way since the 1890s.]

“Our clients really want something that’s unique. They don’t want something that’s easy to find in a parking lot,” Benardo says.

Converting these classic cars makes them more environmentally friendly—but it also extends the life and usefulness of the car significantly. Benardo says the new electric motor often doubles or triples the car’s horsepower, and a brand new motor also makes the car more dependable. 

Some classic car enthusiasts tell Benardo they feel like he’s taking the soul out of the vehicle by replacing its motor. They see the engine as an important part of the vehicle’s history. However, many are just fine with the electric motor. 

Zelectric focuses on VWs and Porsches, but they’re not the only ones on the scene. Zero Labs, for example, is converting classic Ford Broncos and Landrovers into electric vehicles. Big car companies have caught on as well—new electric car concepts like Hyundai Grandeur and Pony are modeled after vintage cars. 

“There’s a huge interest in it,” Benardo says. “Not everyone wants a Nissan Leaf or a Tesla.”

Companies like Zelectric aren’t only helping the environment by converting these classic cars into electric vehicles, but they’re possibly extending their lifespan by giving them reliable new engines. If they’re properly taken care of, these cars could stay on the road for a long time to come.

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Like many automakers, Mercedes-Benz is currently undergoing a metamorphosis. With increasingly stringent emissions and fuel economy rules set to go into effect over the coming years, brands throughout the industry are directing incredible amounts of money and engineering muscle at powertrain electrification and EV platform development. Mercedes’ goals are more ambitious than most, though, with the company targeting a fully electric lineup not only for Mercedes-Benz, but also its high-performance AMG subdivision, as well as its ultra-luxury Maybach brand by 2030—although that plan comes with a “where market conditions will allow” caveat.

The EQS line represents the company’s opening volley in the full-size luxury EV segment, and it’s clear from the posh amenities and the array of technologies onboard our test car that the company is taking this small-but-growing segment seriously. And as the game plan in the car-making business typically goes, the stuff onboard today’s flagship will make its way into more accessible vehicles as time goes on. For example, new iterations of the S-Class have often foreshadowed what’s coming for brand’s E-Class and C-Class vehicles down the road, and in the case of the EQS, it previews some of the hardware that we can expect to see in the less expensive models that are on the way. 

After a week spent with this electric luxury sedan, we can say that the future does indeed look promising. But in the case of the EQS specifically, it seems like Mercedes is more interested in appealing to existing high-end EV owners than bringing traditional luxury car buyers into the fray, and that design philosophy is a sword that cuts both ways.  

The basics

The exterior of the EQS 580 is a showcase of technical prowess. The car’s shape is owed to an extensive amount of aerodynamic testing, efforts that resulted in a slippery 0.20 drag coefficient that’s one of the best in the industry today. Standard 21-inch wheels and AMG Line exterior accents give the bodywork additional personality, but the teardrop silhouette is what truly defines the look of the EQS. We like how streamlined and distinctive it is, but aesthetics also tend to be a largely subjective endeavor.

On the powertrain front, a pair of AC permanent-magnet synchronous electric motors send 516 horsepower and 631 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels while a 107.8-kilowatt-hour battery pack offers up 340 miles of range. The EQS can recharge at 9.6 kW on AC or 200 kW on a DC fast charger, the latter of which will bring the battery pack from a 10 percent charge state to 100 percent in 31 minutes. Mercedes-Benz has also partnered up with Electrify America to provide new EQS owners two years of complimentary charging at their stations. 

The big sedan rides on an air suspension that’s paired with adaptive dampers for a greater range of adjustability. Rear-axle steering also comes standard, and the system provides up to 10 degrees of steering angle to reduce the vehicle’s turning circle during low speed maneuvers. At speeds above 37 MPH the rear wheels steer in phase with the front wheels to provide more responsive handling and improve high speed stability. 

An array of safety features like Active Lane Keeping Assist, Active Steering Assist, and Active Blind Spot Assist are also part of the deal, along with a surround-view camera system that makes positioning the car in tight parking spots easier. 

The Hyperscreen

That’s all impressive stuff, but the cabin is where the EQS 580 really stakes its claim in the full-size luxury EV space. The centerpiece is what Mercedes-Benz has dubbed the Hyperscreen, a trio of displays that consists of a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster in front of the driver, a legitimately stunning 17.7-inch OLED center infotainment display, and an additional 12.3-inch touchscreen for the front passenger, all of which are housed behind a single piece of glass. 

The company’s latest MBUX software manages the proceedings and offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, and a Burmester 3D surround sound audio system also comes as standard. 

The Hyperscreen and MBUX interface are a pleasure to use, offering fast input response, an intuitive menu layout, and gorgeous graphics, and that’s particularly important because the majority of the vehicle’s features are accessed through that interface. 

[Related: Ford’s electric Mustang Mach-E is an important leap into the future]

The problem is, the other controls found inside the car are all capacitive touch surfaces rather than physical buttons and knobs. That helps the interior of the EQS 580 achieve an uncluttered, futuristic vibe not unlike what you’d find in a Tesla Model S. But in practice it also makes it more cumbersome to, for instance, lower the volume or skip the current audio track than it would be if conventional controls were present. (Actions like these take place via touch sliders on the steering wheel, or on the center display, or both.) This is a different approach from what Ford has taken on the Mustang Mach-E, for example, which still retains a physical volume knob.

We warmed up to it a bit over time, but adjustments still rarely landed where we wanted them to while in motion and often required taking our eyes off of the road in order to get things sorted. In some ways it speaks to a larger mindset that’s focused on appealing to expectations of existing high-end EV owners as opposed to those of mainstream buyers who may be considering making the jump to an electric vehicle. 

Performance 

The EQS is more or less positioned as the S-Class of the Mercedes-Benz EV lineup, and as such, it’s more focused on cocooning its occupants in opulent comfort than delivering a thrilling driving experience. The air suspension is softly tuned, and that compliance effectively absorbs all of the imperfections found throughout LA’s system of ramshackle roadways. There’s a trade-off for that cushy ride quality, though—out on the twisting tarmac of the Angeles National Forest the handling of this nearly-three-ton sedan isn’t particularly inspired, even when the dampers are firmed up in the vehicle’s Sport drive mode. But that’s a task better suited to the AMG model anyway.  

Although it doesn’t pull like a Porsche Taycan Turbo S or the absurdly-quick Tesla Model S Plaid, the EQS 580 has more than enough grunt to get the job done. In fact, we’d probably be fine with the less-powerful EQS 450 under most circumstances, which makes 329 horsepower and offers roughly the same amount of range. But it’s hard to complain about an overabundance of power, and the EQS 580 responds instantly when you drop the hammer. Thanks to the deep well of torque on tap and the all-wheel drive grip, passing slower traffic is truly effortless under almost any circumstance. 

While we have a few nits to pick with the EQS 580, the truly important stuff—the powertrain, the range and charging capability, and the infotainment tech—make this car a compelling option in the luxury EV segment. Of course, with a starting price of $119,110 ($133,655 as tested, with the destination fee), it certainly should be. Perhaps more importantly, the EQS points the way toward a promising EV lineup for Mercedes-Benz that will see various elements of this tech shared amongst a range of vehicles—and at a variety of price points. 

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First launched in 1903, the Buick brand has been around for well over a century. On June 1, Buick—the division now positioned as the General Motors brand sitting between Chevrolet and Cadillac on the luxury scale—announced that it would be launching its first all-electric model next year for the 2024 model year. This will be the first in a long series of EVs for Buick, as it also announced this new EV will be the springboard to transition Buick to an all-electric brand. And in a move that looks to the future of the brand, Buick is keeping an eye on its own past by reviving the Electra name. 

The Electra name was introduced in 1959, and denoted Buick’s largest and most luxurious model available at the time, slotting in above the Invicta and LeSabre. For over three decades the Electra was a large comfortable American luxury cruiser. It downsized in the late 1970s as a response to competition and rising fuel prices, but continued to fill the same slot in the General Motors lineup of automobiles. The name was last used in 1990 when the sixth-generation Electra was replaced by a vehicle with a totally new shape called Park Avenue.

For the past two decades, Buick has been a somewhat nebulous brand without much of an identity. Its resonance with the Chinese market kept it alive through the 2008 financial crisis, which claimed former GM stablemate Oldsmobile. For many years the brand’s American dealerships were largely kept afloat with rebadged imports from Germany and South Korea. Once a vibrant and full fledged sub-luxury automaker, Buick has now been relegated to a lineup consisting of just three crossovers of varying size. 

The company is now set to transform itself into an all-electric brand by the end of the decade, kicking off with the aforementioned Electra—a name that has been dead for longer than it was originally used. Starting next year, however, the Buick brand will use that long-extinct name as a sub-brand for all of its battery electric vehicles.

“The Buick brand is committed to an all-electric future by the end of this decade,” said Duncan Aldred, global vice president, Buick and GMC, in a release. “Buick’s new logo, use of the Electra naming series and a new design look for our future products will transform the brand.”

As part of the June 1 announcement, Buick also pulled back the wraps on a new concept car to help showcase the future of the brand’s design language. Also inspired by a nameplate from Buick’s past, the new Wildcat EV concept proves that the brand and its artists can still pull off an inspired and forward-thinking design aesthetic.  

“The Wildcat EV concept represents the real design future for the brand,” said Sharon Gauci, executive director, Global Buick and GMC Design. “Buick has always been forward looking and this expression is a glimpse of where we’re going, and the optimism we have for the limitless possibilities of an electric future.”

The concept 2+2 (that refers to two seats in the front, and two in the rear) coupe is striking in a way that Buicks have not been for quite some time, delivering the elegance that the brand once had in spades. There’s a blend of sporty performance and luxury that gives the concept an almost Lexus-like visual hook. Unlike many concept cars of the recent past, Buick doesn’t quote any out-of-this-world performance figures or headline-grabbing power numbers. The company clearly wanted this design to stand on its own merits, showcasing what future electric Buick models could look like. 

In conjunction with this transition to EVs, and a new design language previewed by the Wildcat, Buick is also refreshing its logo. The company’s tri-shield badge, which has remained largely unchanged for over thirty years, is also getting a whole new look. 

Back in January of 2021, General Motors made a commitment to discontinue all gasoline and diesel-powered light-duty vehicle sales by 2035, across all of its brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. Buick, it seems, is bringing that goal forward by half a decade, discontinuing all internal combustion products before 2030. The company’s three remaining models are getting quite long in the tooth, so the lineup is already due for a refresh. 

Watch a video about the Wildcat EV, below:

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On the morning of Monday, May 23, an electric aircraft took off from Plattsburgh International Airport in eastern New York, near Lake Champlain and the border with Vermont. From there, it pushed west and south. It landed and took off again two more times in New York, and then flew into Akron, Ohio the next day. After seven stops in total, it finally landed on Monday, May 30, in Bentonville, Arkansas, completing a start-and-stop journey of 1,403 miles. 

The craft is called Alia, and it was created by Beta Technologies, an aviation startup based in Burlington, Vermont. A single propeller, powered by two electric motors, gives it its thrust through the air. Electric aviation is in its infancy, and the burgeoning industry—which includes other firms like Joby, Wisk, Kitty Hawk, Archer—has generally focused on the idea of using electric aircraft as air taxis, like Ubers in the sky, for travel around cities. With this longer series of flights, Beta CEO Kyle Clark says that they wanted to show that aircraft like these can be more than just a vehicle for local transport. 

“I think that with this type of flight, at a very high level, we change the image of what electric aviation is,” he says. “It’s not an aircraft that’s hopping within a city; it’s not flying test flights around a range, unmanned; it’s you put a couple pilots in it, you put some cargo in it, and you go halfway across the country.” 

He says that the “launching point” for their business is to start with a focus on flights for cargo and logistics that span about 150 miles in length. “And we just went and proved that you can do that, and you do it over and over and over again,” he says.

[Related: FedEx will start testing a 1,900-pound drone for hauling packages]

After the stop in Akron, Ohio, it flew to Springfield, Ohio, then Bloomington, Indiana, before pushing into Illinois, Missouri, and then Arkansas. The flight legs ranged from about 159 miles to as long as 211, and had an average flight time of around 88 minutes. All told, over the eight days that the mission lasted, the aircraft was in the air for nearly 12 hours. 

Two pilots from Beta took turns flying the aircraft: Lochie Ferrier and Camron Guthrie. The pilot not flying the electric plane for each leg took the controls of a Cessna Caravan that acted as a chase plane. 

Guthrie, one of the pilots for the mission, notes that the journey took them through “really sleepy areas” of the country, attracting onlookers. “People just came out to see the folks from Vermont and their spaceship,” he says. In Ohio, the landing garnered an article in the Springfield News-Sun about the aircraft, which arrived at the Springfield–Beckley Municipal Airport on May 24. The website Electric VTOL News previously reported on part of the aircraft’s journey.

To be clear, the flying machine is not a spaceship. It’s an electric aircraft with a 50-foot wingspan that The New York Times has referred to as “a flying battery” that has an “exotic, almost whimsical shape.” (The company notes on its website that the plane’s design “takes inspiration from the Arctic tern.”) While Beta and its competitors are designing aircraft that can take off and land vertically from small areas, this particular model did not do that—it took off and landed like a regular airplane, just as it did in March when two Air Force pilots tried flying it. 

The journey also included a delay due to bad weather in Ohio. After landing in Springfield on Tuesday, May 24, it didn’t take off again until Saturday, May 28, when it flew to Indiana. The multi-leg journey was a chance for real-world testing of a new kind of aircraft. “We ran into weather, we operated out of austere locations, we tested our recharging network,” Guthrie says. “There’s a lot of things we learned about our design that we’ll put back in the hopper.”

[Related: The Air Force just soared past an electric aircraft milestone]

About the charging network: An electric aircraft produces zero tailpipe emissions while flying, but the juice in its batteries has to come from somewhere. For this journey, Beta says that they were able to recharge the aircraft using their own charging stations at four locations, including their departure airport of Plattsburgh, New York. (Another charger is located in Bentonville, Arkansas.) At other locations, they relied on a mobile generator that can burn fossil fuel to make electricity. “We try to minimize that, but yes, we have those provisions, and we used it on this flight,” Clark notes. 

Ferrier, one of the two test pilots, says that one issue driving where and how they charged was the performance of the aircraft, which he says exceeded their expectations. “Our charging network was actually spaced for a little bit less range than we’re currently making,” he says. “The airplane is actually outperforming the charging network—so we could have actually used more of our own charges, but we ended up with a better airplane than we expected, and so we had to skip some of the charges.” In short: briefer flights would have allowed them to utilize more of their stationary chargers instead of their mobile solution.

“The charging network is an evolving thing, and every week we get more chargers online,” adds Clark. 

The permission for this multi-state journey—the aircraft soared through six states in total—came in the form of a market survey certificate from the FAA. It’s not the longest flight on the books for an electric aircraft: between 2015 and 2016, a solar-powered airplane circled the world. 

Beta doesn’t intend to operate its own cargo or passenger airline; instead it plans to make the aircraft itself so that companies such as UPS could use it to carry goods. 

For now, the Alia aircraft, after flying just over 1,400 miles, remains in Arkansas. It will be at an event called the UpSummit, and then will eventually fly back east.

Watch more about the flight, below.

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As part of the federal government’s action plan to expand clean and safe school transportation across the country, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently launched the Clean School Bus Program. The new program aims to use $5 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act over the next five years replace diesel-powered school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models. Almost 95 percent of school buses nationwide are powered by diesel, carrying more than 25 million children to school every day.

In 2020, the number of diesel emissions was equal to approximately 26 percent of the US transportation sector’s carbon emissions or about 9 percent of the country’s total energy-related carbon emissions. Not only will this transition reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but it will also minimize health risks associated with diesel exhaust, such as eye and nasal irritation, headache, and fatigue.

Several places nationwide have already begun shifting away from diesel-powered school buses. The Montgomery County Public Schools district in Maryland, which intends to replace more than 1,442 diesel buses by 2035, began its transition to electric school buses last year. The city of Boston hopes to replace more than 700 school buses with electric ones by 2030, starting with 20 buses in the next school year. The state of New York is the first state to commit to electrifying all its school buses, a goal it hopes to achieve by 2035.

Diesel-powered school buses affect human and environmental health

Diesel engines contribute to poor air quality because exhaust contains various pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and fine particles.

“When diesel is burned in a bus engine, it produces fine particulate matter—particles with a diameter much smaller than human hair—that floats in the air and lodge deep in our lungs when we breathe them in,” says Jeremy J. Michalek, director of the Vehicle Electrification Group at Carnegie Mellon University. 

Fine particulate matter can increase the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and exacerbate existing health conditions such as asthma and heart disease. Diesel exhaust exposure may also cause changes in lung function and inflammatory changes in the airways, and increase the risk of lung cancer and premature death. Children, whose bodies are still going through physical growth and functional maturation, are especially vulnerable to air pollution.

“Diesel exhaust is one of the most dangerous pollutants we come in contact with in our daily lives,” says Will Barrett, national senior director of advocacy and clean air at the American Lung Association. Aside from causing asthma attacks and other respiratory problems in children, it can also affect their brain development and test scores, he adds.

[Related: Filtering diesel exhaust could make it worse.]

Research shows that communities of color and those with a low socioeconomic status have greater exposure to air pollution. Historical redlining—the racially discriminatory policy of residential segregation during the 1930s—played a huge part in shaping systemic environmental exposure disparities in the US. It is a major factor why communities of color are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, regardless of income, in more than 200 cities today. 

The Clean Air Act of 1963, the first federal legislation regarding air pollution control, significantly improved air quality and public health over the past few decades. For instance, the national concentrations of air pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide improved by 73 and 61 percent, respectively, between 1990 and 2020. However, despite the dramatic reductions in pollutants, more than 4 in 10 Americans today still live in places with unhealthy levels of air pollution.

“Our air is cleaner now than it used to be, thanks to improved recognition, public policy, and technology, but air pollution still kills about 100,000 people every year in the US,” says Michalek. Replacing diesel-powered school buses is a step in the right direction, which helps reduce air pollutants and health risks from diesel exhaust.

Electric and clean fuel school buses are the way to go

The Clean School Bus Program will provide $5 billion from 2022 to 2026 to replace diesel-powered school buses with zero-emission models. “What they really mean by ‘zero-emission’ is ‘no tailpipe emissions,’ and the only technology currently eligible is electric,” says Michalek. The program also supports the transition to low-emission models, which refer to buses powered by alternative fuels such as compressed natural gas or propane. 

The transition to these models can reduce community exposure to pollutants from the exhaust, GHG emissions, and maintenance and fuel costs. A 2015 study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that the adoption of clean technologies and fuels on school buses reduced children’s exposure to pollutants and improved their health.

[Related: Low-carbon energy minimizes racial disparities in neighborhoods with air pollution.]

“There is no question that replacing diesel school buses is one of the most important local actions that can be taken to protect children’s health, both for kids who ride buses, bus drivers and teachers, and for those around idling buses at schools, says Barrett. Schools with fewer resources can immediately benefit from updating diesel buses to electric ones, which could mean an overnight elimination of diesel exposure for kids, he adds.

The first funding opportunity under the program is the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates. Online applications for the rebates already opened last month, and high-need school districts and low-income areas are considered priority applicants. Those who are selected by the EPA can already purchase new buses and submit the necessary payment request forms by October this year.

“We know that the burdens of unhealthy air aren’t shared equally, and we know that more must be done to ensure equitable access to the benefits of cleaner technologies,” says Barrett. “Kids in lower-income school districts, rural districts, and other districts in underserved communities must be prioritized for this investment.”

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IN LATE OCTOBER 2019, a fire broke out at a recycling facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. The blaze consumed a 40,000-square-foot site, and 60-mile-per-hour winds blew a massive smoke plume across a nearby highway, forcing local officials to close the road. It took firefighters until the next day to extinguish the flames. In the aftermath, the company that operated the site had to suspend collection in nearby cities; the scorched compound had been equipped to handle 85,000 tons of waste a year, and now that junk had nowhere to go except a landfill.

The culprit? A lithium-ion battery like the ones found in phones and laptops. While these hyperefficient cells are generally safe, they continue to store volatile energy even after they die, which means that careless disposal can cause explosions and fires. A 2021 report from the Environmental Protection Agency found public records of such conflagrations in 28 states between 2013 and 2020, and flagged one facility that had had more than a dozen in a single year. The risk will only grow: The global lithium market can be expected to multiply by a factor of 20 by 2030, according to an estimate from research firm Rystad Energy.

The fact that so many batteries end up in scrap heaps poses an even more profound problem for the transition away from fossil fuels. Their contents are a key component of electric vehicles, but the metals they contain—lithium, cobalt, and nickel—are getting ever harder to obtain and often come from only a few countries. Powering the next generation of EVs will entail mining thousands of tons of lithium and cobalt from salt flats and ore deposits around the world, a process that is as ecologically destructive as it is expensive.

“We should try to recycle anything we can, but in the case of batteries, it’s become even more important,” says Fengqi You, an engineering professor at Cornell University who studies the life cycles of elements like lithium within energy systems. You points out that our domestic EV industry depends on lithium that is mined and refined in countries around the world, giving us little domestic control over the production of essential materials. If anything happens to the global supply chain, our access to these precious metals is disrupted, delaying efforts to turn to green technologies.

The good news, though, is that the dead can rise again. The key metals contained in old batteries like the one that started the fire in Scottsdale are ripe to be plucked out and pumped back into the supply chain. With the right infrastructure, we could drastically reduce the amount of mining needed to supply metal for new cells—all while cutting down the risk of literal dumpster fires.

As EVs take off in the US, a handful of startups are working to do just that. One of the most advanced, Ascend Elements, is opening a massive battery recycling facility in Georgia this summer where it will recover lithium, cobalt, and nickel, and its competitors aren’t far behind. Together these companies are racing to scale up before the first full generation of EVs gets scrapped. Their efforts have the potential to close the loop, creating a system that is less dependent on fossil fuels—and on unnecessary mining.

BRITISH-AMERICAN chemist M. Stanley Whittingham outlined the first conceptual framework for a rechargeable lithium-ion battery in the late 1970s, winning a Nobel for his efforts in 2019. Entities from NASA to Oxford University further developed his core technology over the next decade. But the concept didn’t go commercial until 1991, when Sony started using the cells to bump up the life of its camcorders. The energy density such batteries can hold has almost tripled since then, and the price of producing them has fallen by more than 97 percent within that same period, from around $7,500 in 1991 to less than $200 in 2018.

All batteries work by storing chemical energy and converting it to electricity. An ordinary cell contains different conductive metals in two terminals: the anode, or negative side, and the cathode, or positive side. These two components are separated by a chemical medium known as an electrolyte. When you turn on a device, the pent-up electrons in the anode stream out of the cell, through a circuit, and toward the cathode, attracted to its positive charge. The electrons’ movement through the circuit is what generates juice.

In an ordinary battery, there’s no way to reverse this process. When enough pent-up electrons have left the anode, the whole thing dies. Lithium-ion batteries, on the other hand, have a much longer life thanks to their titular element, which is one of the lightest and most reactive metals on the periodic table. In an uncharged state, a bunch of lithium atoms hang out in the cathode. When you plug your device into a power source, those reactive lithium atoms are quick to surrender their electrons, which move through the external circuit before coming to rest in the anode. The key advantage is that those departing electrons leave behind positively-charged lithium ions, which are then drawn by the negative charge of the power source through the electrolyte toward the anode, where they become trapped. When you disconnect your device from the power source and turn it on, the process reverses. The naturally unstable lithium ions move back through the electrolyte to return to the cathode, while the electrons move to join them, generating electricity along the way. The electrons and the ions now hang out in the cathode until the next time the battery charges.

The structure of this metal cathode is key to the battery’s longevity: It functions as an atomic lasagna of metals like nickel and cobalt, with layers thin enough that lithium ions and electrons get trapped between them. As the ions move back and forth across the battery, though, they distort this lasagna, causing the atomic architecture to swell and crack. Every charge cycle causes a number of other uncontrolled chemical reactions that degrade the battery over time, much as our own body degrades in the normal course of aging. You usually can’t see this decay with the naked eye, but over the course of a couple of years, the power cell has a harder time moving energy. The average lithium-ion battery is good for a few thousand charge cycles before it starts to wither away. (Even then, though, the battery retains charge, which is what makes them so flammable as they molder.)

The rapid growth of the EV industry has created a surge in demand for the metals that make this all possible—including the titular lithium. The result has been a mining boom in some of the countries with significant deposits, like China, Chile, and Australia. Worldwide production tripled from 31,000 tons a year in 2010 to 110,000 in 2021. But with the global EV market growing around 20 percent each year, demand is rising much too fast for any producer to keep up. The International Energy Agency predicts annual lithium production could fall short of demand by nearly 2 million tons by 2030. And while at least three or four continents have the potential to mine the metal, almost all the refineries and battery factories are in China, resulting in a classic bottleneck. If capacity does not increase, research firm Rystad Energy has said, the price of the material could triple by the end of the decade.

Soaring demand creates higher environmental costs too. Companies use tens of billions of gallons of water per year to pump the metal out of the ground, straining resources in already parched countries like Chile. There have been several reports of fish kills and freshwater depletion or contamination near lithium mines in Tibet, Argentina, and the United States.

All these factors strengthen the case for recycling. For their first few decades on the market, lithium-ion batteries weren’t valuable enough for anyone to bother turning spent ones into new material, but a few organizations still tried to keep them out of landfills—most notably Call2Recycle, Inc. Founded and funded by major battery manufacturers in the 1990s in the hopes of mitigating the environmental risks (and legal liability) posed by their products, the nonprofit has since spun up a collection program that draws refuse from three main sources: repair centers, municipal waste facilities, and a network of 16,000 public-facing drop boxes across the United States. Last year it collected more than 8 million pounds of discarded cells.

“When we first started, the predominant battery chemistry was nickel cadmium,” says Eric Frederickson, the program’s managing director of operations, referring to a type of cell often used in bulky, yet portable power tools. Now, he says, “lithium ion is the single largest chemistry of batteries that we collect.”

For a number of years, the US capacity for recycling lithium was so low that Call2Recycle had to ship its spoils abroad. Now, though, there’s a new customer on the scene, one that promises to turn these discards into ingredients for brand-new EV power cells.

ASCEND ELEMENTS’ research and development facility sits in a nondescript office park just outside Worcester, Massachusetts. If you stood outside, you’d likely guess that everyone within spends their days tapping away on computers. The reality is a bit messier: The front office leads back into a warehouse where the company has been fine-tuning its lithium-ion battery recycling process and preparing to scale it up.

Ascend’s system is based on the company’s own spin on a process called hydrometallurgy, which involves dissolving crushed-up metals in a chemical solution and leaching them back into solids again. It’s an improvement on an older and less elegant technique known as pyrometallurgy, which requires smelting batteries and separating out the superheated components—creating toxic gases like dioxins and furans.

After handing me a pair of safety goggles, Ascend’s co-founder and chief technology officer, Eric Gratz, shows me the works. Shouting over the constant whine of a generator, he ushers me into a high-ceilinged space dominated by a dozen interconnected tanks and machines. There are three steel vats towering over us, a pair of 10-foot-long contraptions that look like accordions, and a set of several smaller tanks connected by pipes and tubes.

All together, Gratz says, the machinery functions like a giant French press coffee maker. Ascend buys dead batteries from collectors like Call2Recycle or from EV manufacturers, then grinds them up in a fine-toothed shredder. The residue arrives at the Worcester facility as a dark powder—“black mass,” in industry parlance—that takes the place of java beans in this chemical brew. The goal is to liquefy the dead metal, remove impurities like plastic and unwanted metals, alter its chemical structure, then condense it back into powder so it can be used for new manufacturing.

First Gratz leads me to the trio of vats, behind which sits a hopper holding the shredded batteries. Step one is to pipe the black mass into the vats, where it dissolves in a proprietary chemical mixture, loosening the atomic structure of the lithium, nickel, and cobalt inside. That part isn’t all that difficult. The trick is turning it back into powder again.

Ascend wants to produce material for new cathodes—the positive side of the battery—since that’s the hardest to come by. But because pulverized batteries contain several different metals, some of which aren’t useful, Ascend first has to separate out any it doesn’t need. Tiptoeing around lab techs as they bustle back and forth, we reach the accordion-like machines. These pump the black-mass slurry through a set of filter panels to strain out irrelevant solids—the equivalent of pushing down the grounds in a French press. Fragments of graphite and copper stick to the filters, leaving black and greenish-yellow stains; Ascend later packages and sells these to traditional recyclers.

The next step is to separate the remaining mixture into two key components: the lithium and a melange of nickel, cobalt, and manganese. The exact method by which Ascend does this is proprietary—part of what separates the company from its competitors—but Gratz allows that it takes advantage of lithium’s unique chemistry. While most metals are more likely to dissolve when heated, lithium is less soluble at higher temperatures. This means the team can isolate the all-important metal by heating the mixture. The resulting granules look a lot like the salt you’d keep in an ordinary shaker.

Then they precipitate the black mass back into powder, another proprietary process, this one taking place in a set of machines that look like older-generation droids from Star Wars—big, boxy trapezoids with little doodads on top. The team at Ascend can adjust the concentrations of nickel and cobalt in each batch to the specifications of buyers: A battery with more nickel, for example, has a shorter shelf life but can hold more energy, making it ideal for vehicles that need to travel hundreds of miles. Once a mixer recombines the powder with the extracted lithium, the final product looks just like the one that came in, as evidenced by the before-and-after jars Gratz hands me. But the molecular structure of the recycled powder is rejuvenated, ready to again store hyperreactive lithium ions.

The process is remarkably efficient: Ascend recovers 98 percent of the most expensive metals, nickel and cobalt. For lithium, Gratz says, that figure is more like 80 percent. The black powder that leaves the factory is quite literally ready to roll. Battery manufacturers usually spray the substance on foil and roll or fold the material into fresh battery cells.

COMPLICATED AS Ascend’s operation in Worcester may seem, it’s just a prototype for a 154,000-square-foot battery recycling plant set to open near Atlanta in the summer of 2022. The operation will sit at the nexus of an EV boom in the Southeastern US. Volkswagen will soon start up an electric vehicle division at its plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Ford is building an assembly plant and multiple battery factories, including in Kentucky and Tennessee. Ascend’s facility won’t start up for another few months, but manufacturers like SK Battery America, which helps power heavy hitters like Ford and Volkswagen, have already begun to ship over pallets of manufacturing scrap. It’s piling up by the ton, just waiting to hit the road.

When it’s up and running, Ascend’s Georgia plant will be able to turn around 33,000 tons of dead batteries and other waste per year, resulting in enough recycled metal to spark up to 70,000 EVs. Auto manufacturers will be able to sign a simple one-way contract to buy the reconstituted material from dead EV cells, vice president of marketing Roger Lin explains, or they could do a two-way deal to provide excess scraps from their factories and get them back in revived form. Ascend could also take the dead batteries from auto manufacturers and then create new material for anyone who wants it.

Ascend CEO Mike O’Kronley is confident the old EV batteries his plant will depend on won’t end up like so many forgotten cell phones stashed in drawers. “One EV battery is equivalent to a thousand from cell phones,” he says. “It’s much easier to collect and transport to a recycling center.” Auto shredders and junkyards, he contends, have an incentive to sell them to companies like Ascend.

Though Ascend may have the head start in lining up customers, it does face strong competition: Li-Cycle, a Canadian recycler building a plant near Rochester, New York, and Redwood Materials, a company founded by Tesla’s former CTO. Both firms are scaling up their own systems, using hydrometallurgical processes similar to Ascend’s.

Right now, not enough EVs have been retired to supply the quantity of batteries needed to meet the demand for reclaimed metals. “If we recycled every battery in the world, the most recycling can provide is maybe 20 to 30 percent of the demand,” says Ascend CTO Gratz. As long as the total number of EVs on the road continues to increase, we’ll need to keep mining significant amounts of lithium, cobalt, and nickel.

However, Ascend is banking on the majority of the population eventually driving EVs and turning in their old ones for new models. “Then,” Gratz says, “we can just keep recycling the same nickel and cobalt and lithium atoms over and over again.”

This story originally ran in the Summer 2022 Metal issue of PopSci, as the third in a three-part series about batteries. Read part one and part two or more PopSci+ stories.

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Stellantis, the company in charge of US auto brands Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge, Ram, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo, announced on May 24 that it would be partnering with Samsung to build a new $2.5 billion electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Kokomo, Indiana. Stellantis has its sights set on selling five million battery-electric vehicles per year by 2030, and it is going to need a serious boost to achieve that goal; the international conglomerate doesn’t currently offer any electric vehicles for sale in the US. 

The location in Kokomo is centrally located for several of Stellantis’ midwest-based vehicle assembly plants, and in close proximity to the company’s supplier base. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, with production capacity online by 2025. The company projects the new assembly plant will create around 1,400 new jobs, and will be operated as a joint venture alongside brand partner Samsung. 

“Just under one year ago, we committed to an aggressive electrification strategy anchored by five gigafactories between Europe and North America,” said Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, in a release. “Today’s announcement further solidifies our global battery production footprint and demonstrates Stellantis’ drive toward a decarbonized future outlined in Dare Forward 2030.”

So how do Stellantis’ plans stack up against what’s already going on in the EV production landscape?

Tesla currently has the largest EV battery plant in the world, operating its Gigafactory in conjunction with Panasonic outside of Reno, Nevada. So-called Giga Nevada was opened in 2016, and currently produces battery packs for many Tesla vehicles. The $5-billion facility was designed and built by Tesla with around $1.5 billion coming in the form of state aid and deferred taxes. The plant is intended not only to produce new Tesla 2170 nickel manganese cobalt lithium ion battery cells (21mm diameter, 70mm length), but also to recycle used cell materials into new battery packs. Tesla also produces its 4680 batteries at the recently opened Giga Texas plant near Austin, though this factory’s primary purpose is vehicle construction, and will allegedly be the home of Cybertruck production, if that vehicle is produced.

Other automakers are busy in the field, too. General Motors is building its own battery plant with LG in Lansing, Michigan. Ford, likewise, is working with SKI to build an EV battery lab in southeast Michigan. Volkswagen is considering installation of a new battery plant near its US production facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Hyundai is spending some $5.5 billion to build a dedicated electric vehicle and battery plant outside of Savannah, Georgia. 

Stellantis itself recently announced the construction of a $4.1 billion joint venture plant with LG in Canada. Even newcomer Rivian is looking to expand operations with a new $5 billion plant near Atlanta, Georgia for battery production and vehicle assembly. These new battery production facilities are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to investment in the future of automobile production.

Many electric car manufacturers buy their battery packs from outside suppliers, like A123, Panasonic, LG, Samsung, and Amperex. In fact, Stellantis already contracts with Amperex, LG, and Samsung to build battery packs for its various global EV and hybrid products. That said, many automakers are following Tesla into the business of producing their own batteries in stand-alone battery factories. This method helps reduce production bottlenecks and decreases cost per unit substantially. 

The Stellantis plan for transitioning to an all-EV lineup is led by its European brands: Fiat, Citroën, Peugeot, and Opel in particular. By 2030 the company pledges to only sell EVs in Europe, and at least 50 percent EVs in the US market, with an individual plan for each of its automaker brands to achieve this transition. According to Stellantis, it will have at least 75 BEV nameplates globally, and 25 of those will be available in the US. 

The first new battery electric model from the company is scheduled to hit the US market in 2023 as a small urban Jeep, based on its Compass compact crossover. Jeep is, of course, currently seeing lots of success in its plug-in hybrid Wrangler 4xe models, selling them as quickly as it can produce them. During last year’s Stellantis EV Day, Jeep was rebranded with the tagline “Zero Emissions Freedom” and it looks like the company is prepared to deliver on that promise. 

Stellantis’ Chrysler brand recently announced the re-introduction of the Airflow model after an 86-year hiatus, as a luxury electric crossover with between 350 and 400 miles of range. The winged brand’s new tagline was introduced last year as “Clean technology for a new generation of families.” Similarly, Ram was rebranded as “Built to serve a sustainable planet” and performance-oriented Dodge now holds the tagline of “Tear up the streets, not the planet.” 

This plant in Kokomo will be one of five Stellantis EV battery facilities worldwide. The company’s original plan called for production of around 140 gigawatts of battery storage, but this was expanded to about 400 gigawatts as demand and markets have changed. Not only will Stellantis need all five of these plants to meet growing EV demand, but it will continue to purchase battery packs from outside suppliers. 

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