One of the biggest arguments for steering clear of electric vehicles and going for a pure combustion or plug-in hybrid car boils down to the cost of repairs–in popular culture, at least. You know it, I know it: the huge battery pack nestled in the floor of an EV is the most expensive part of the car, and if it were to break, the repair bill would be over $15,000.

But statistical data is here to calm down the nerves of current and wannabe EV owners. According to Mitchell, a company that delivers smart technology solutions and services to the auto insurance and collision repair industries, the average cost of repairing an EV last year in the United States was on par with a newer model combustion car.

“While automobiles powered by an internal combustion engine (ICE) had the lowest average severity among all propulsion types, newer model ICE vehicles were closely aligned with BEVs and PHEVs when it came to severity costs,” the company said in its 2024 EV Collisions Insight Report.

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Tesla Model S and Model X EVs at a Tesla Service Center

Furthermore, costs are coming down–albeit slightly. Last year, the average claims severity for repairable EVs was $6,236 in the United States, a year-over-year decrease of 3%. For plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), the average insurance claim was $5,583, while combustion cars had an average insurance repair bill of $5,066. Mitchell did not say what model years are included in these statistics, but said that the average severity of newer ICE vehicles was $6,127 last year in the U.S. That’s just $109 less than the average EV.

When it comes to total loss frequency–that’s the number of vehicles totaled by insurers out of all the cars that needed repairs–all powertrain types went up. For EVs, the percentage went up from 8% in 2023 to 10.2%, a figure influenced by the record sales numbers posted last year in the U.S. Meanwhile, the claims frequency for collision-damaged, repairable EVs went up to 2.71%--a year-over-year increase of 38%.

The EV that was the subject of most insurance claims was the Tesla Model Y with a frequency of 31.43%, followed by the Tesla Model 3 with 29.86%. The Model Y saw a 7.58% uptick in claims, while its sedan-shaped brother had 4.67% fewer claims last year compared to 2023.

The Ford Mustang Mach-E was in third place with 6.37% of insurance claims out of the total of EVs, followed by the Tesla Model S with 5.53% and Tesla Model X with 4.58%.

Porsche didn’t mess around when it created the Taycan, a bespoke EV designed from the ground up as one. It won massive praise over the years because even though it was electric, it still felt like a real Porsche, retaining the driving characteristics people look for in these cars. The Taycan’s only big problem was its price, which put it out of reach for many.

Now that the Taycan is almost six years old, prices for used examples have come down considerably. You can get a good early example for under $60,000, and it’s a lot of electric performance Porsche for the money. That’s if you want the dual-motor with the big battery, which is what we would pick, but you can get them even cheaper.

If you’re looking for a base single-motor rear-wheel-drive car, there’s one listed on Cars.com right now for $39,995 with under 37,000 miles on it—that's an awesome deal if the car is as advertised. The cheapest 4S with the small battery costs $46,420, and it’s covered over 65,000 miles, but there are lower-mileage dual-motor examples for a few thousand more.

We also found a 2021 Taycan 4S Performance Plus, which has the bigger battery, up from 79.2 kilowatt-hours to 93.4 kWh, with just under 46,000 miles for $53,900. That was a $110,000 car back in 2021, and that’s before you added options, so it’s now less than half its original price, which makes it sound like a used terrific deal.

Second-hand Taycan prices seem to have come down quicker after the updated version was released, which upped range but especially performance numbers. This is usually the case when a model facelift is launched, and it applies to the Taycan, too. However, it has to be said that even though the revised Taycan is so much better than before, it isn’t as popular as Porsche was expecting, and sales have taken a downturn.

Car YouTubers, even ones not typically into electric vehicles, have recently started buying cheap Taycans. Tom Voelk from Driven Car Reviews bought a certified pre-owned Taycan 4S sedan for about half its original price, and he says it’s a fantastic car. Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire got a used Taycan 4 Cross Turismo, which he drove from Michigan all the way back to California, and he can’t stop raving about what a good purchase it was.

Used Taycans may go up in value (along with the rest of the second-hand electric car market) as tariffs on imported new EVs by the Trump administration start to take effect. This may be the best time to buy one of these cars, which at half of their original value and low miles sound like a great deal for drivers looking to go electric without sacrificing having fun behind the wheel.

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It’s become an accepted fact that China’s EV scene is kicking ass, to the chagrin of longstanding Western OEMs who have rapidly lost marketshare. Some brands are figuring out how to get out of China before the losses get too bad, but others are giving it another go. Honda is taking another crack at China’s super competitive EV market with this, the S7.

Now, we’ve technically covered the Honda S7 before. At last year’s Beijing Auto Show, Honda showed off three models under a new subbrand called Ye. Perhaps the association with Kanye West was too great, so the Ye prefix was dropped, and now it’s just called “S7”. This model is made by Dongfeng (Dongfeng-Honda), while its badge-engineered twin, the P7, will be made by GAC, Honda’s other Chinese joint venture partner. 

Underneath, the S7 rides on the “e:N Archiecture W”, which isn’t the same as the new ground-up EV platform that the 0 Series prototypes use. Still, the S7 will come in either dual motor AWD or single-motor RWD guise, both fed by an 89.8 kWh NMC battery. The S7 can go up to 404 miles (650 km) on a single charge, at least according to China’s notoriously easy CLTC cycle. Single- motor cars are good for 268 horsepower, while dual-motor ones get 469 hp. At 187 inches long, it's a little trimmer than the 192-inch-long Prologue.

The real story, though, is the S7’s price. The cheapest RWD S7 starts at 259,900 CNY, or about $36,000. Chinese pricing doesn’t necessarily translate to U.S. pricing, but this price puts it in the direct line of sight of a lot of EV crossovers. The new updated Tesla Model Y’s 263,500 CNY ($36,200) price is higher, and its 368 mile (598 km) range means it can’t go as far as the S7. For once, it seems like Honda has made an EV that could be well-suited to the Chinese market.

With that in mind, I think it’s a shame that Honda has no plans to bring the S7 to the U.S. The Prologue is okay for a stopgap meant to keep Honda’s name in EV buyers' minds, but it’s not really a Honda, is it? It sort of looks like the rest of Honda’s lineup, but it drives and feels like the GM product that it is. Some consumers may be fooled, but I’m not.

Of course, there’s a lot of red tape that stops the Honda S7 from being sold directly at U.S. dealerships. Its Level 2 autonomous driving features are supposedly cribbed directly from Huawei, which is a no-go here. Honda hasn’t said who makes the battery for this car, but no doubt it’s likely some Chinese supplier that would screw up the the vehicle’s elligibility for any tax credits. Plus there's the whole tarriff business. 

I can’t help but wonder if it would have been a smarter take to simply develop this car to be produced in other markets. What if the S7 was made at Honda’s Ohio EV hub? The 0 Saloon is cool looking, but it will be pricy, limiting its broad appeal. We need a mainstream Honda-made EV, pronto. If the S7 was introduced to the US at similar pricing as the Tesla Model Y, they’d likely have a big hit on their hands. How hard could it possibly be to get a different battery from a compliant supplier and use Honda’s own software? Oh, right, both of those things are actually very hard. 

If Honda wants to get its foot in the EV realm, it needs to move quicker than it has. It’s a shame that the Honda S7 isn’t making its way to American dealerships at the same time as Chinese ones.

Contact the author: Kevin.Williams@InsideEVs.com

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Telo wants to be the cure for the bloated trucks we see today. The company is promising to provide big-truck utility in a package no longer than a Mini Cooper. Now, we're finally getting a look at what the final product may look like.

The Fast Lane Truck takes the Telo MT1 for a very brief, low-speed drive in their latest video. It's still very much a prototype—the screens cannot be used, for instance, and even the shifter and other controls are temporary. But it's our first real look at a vehicle that the company has been teasing for a while. 

The MT1 combines a full five-foot bed with a downsized passenger and frontal area, giving it something of a cab-over look. Combined with a folding mid-gate (a-la the GMC Sierra EV), he Telo can swallow eight-foot long items. Add a tonneau cover and you should be able to lock your surfboards in there safely. 

It's an innovative design, with an intentionally non-innovative powertrain. While Telo worked on a proprietary battery pack to maximize space and structural integrity, every other powertrain component is an off-the-shelf unit from a supplier. That means whether you go for dual-motor all-wheel drive or single-motor rear-wheel drive, you'll get a standard e-motor design with a limited-slip differential at the rear for extra slippery-surface traction.

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That focus on off-the-shelf tech means it also uses 400-volt power components, but Telo's CEO says it should be good for 250-kW charging in the real world thanks to solid pack chemistry. Range for the base model will be 260 miles with a starting price of $41,520 and 300 horsepower. Upgrading to a long-range version gets you 350 miles of range from a 106 kWh-battery for around $4,000 more. You can also option dual-motor all-wheel drive with 5000 hp for another five grand. Telo says the MT1 it should be able to haul 1,700 lbs of payload and tow 6,600 lbs, though notes that it isn't designed for long-range towing. 

All of that sounds pretty compelling, but ambitious. Telo says it wants to put the MT1 into production next year, ideally, using a contract manufacturer. If the company can pull this off, it may be just what we need. But launching a car company is a tough and expensive project, so we'll have to wait to see if the people behind Telo can pull it off.

Contact the author: Mack.hogan@insideevs.com. 

Toyota has launched an all-electric family SUV in China. Its features hint that the Japanese automaker may finally be getting serious about EVs, at least on the other side of the planet.

The bZ3x, or Bozhi 3X as it’s locally called, is Toyota’s cheapest EV in China. It starts at 109,800 yuan or $15,150 as of current exchange rates. The version equipped with lidar and self-driving features increases the price but not by much, starting at 149,800 yuan ($20,707).

Toyota operates in China under a joint venture with local partner GAC Group. It is aiming to grab a larger piece of China’s burgeoning yet cutthroat new energy vehicle (NEV) market, where over a hundred brands are competing to stay relevant in the long term. Brands that fail to keep up with the fast-advancing EV tech risk getting wiped out. Toyota doesn’t want to be in that position.

The bZ3x isn’t groundbreaking on the range and charging fronts, but it makes up for that in features. Toyota has launched seven trims of the bZ3x, five without lidar and two with it included. They are all equipped with a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, varying in size depending on the version, between 50 and 58 kilowatt-hours.

With the larger battery, the range on the overly optimistic CLTC cycle is 520 kilometers (323 miles). Output isn’t all that great either, with 200 horsepower and 147 pound-feet of torque. It appears to be using a 400-volt architecture, taking 24 minutes to charge from 30-80%.

The cabin is more reminiscent of a California start-up than something from Toyota, with a minimalist look. There's a 14.7-inch screen in the center powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip. It gets its “smart driving system” from Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta, which includes hardware such as the Nvidia Drive Orin X chip offering up to 254 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of computing power.

The sensor suite is impressive for an EV that costs just $20,000. It gets one lidar, three long-range radars, 11 short-range ultrasonic radars, and 11 cameras.

China’s traffic landscape is far more complex than the U.S., with many more two-wheelers, narrow roads and tricky intersections, so this sensor suite makes sense as companies race to develop more sophisticated driver aids.

Local reports also suggest that the model may be an instant hit given its low price, with Toyota getting 10,000 orders in the first 60 minutes and then the web server crashing due to a flood of visitors.

Have a tip? Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com

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There’s a good chance that you heard about electric vehicles being totaled left and right because of insurance companies not wanting to pay for repairs.

The truth is, oftentimes the high-voltage battery pack, the most expensive component of an EV, is fine. So instead of throwing a perfectly healthy battery in the landfill, wouldn’t it be nice if it could power something else?

That’s exactly what United Kingdom-based Fellten is trying to do with the Charge Qube. To summarize, it’s half of a 20-foot sea container that’s filled with entire EV battery packs. It can be a huge off-grid generator, on-grid helper or fleet charging station. It comes with all the components needed to make all of this happen, and it’s customizable.

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For starters, one could use any battery pack, not just those extracted from high-mileage or damaged Tesla Model 3s, as is the case with the unit in the video embedded below. Anything from BYD to Volkswagen works. Then, there are multiple options for exporting power and the number of EV chargers installed: single- and three-phase inputs and outputs, space for up to six battery packs in the small version, and up to 36 Level 2 chargers on the large version. That’s perfect for an EV fleet.

With a small unit filled to the brim with Model 3 batteries—roughly 450 kilowatt-hours of energy—the Charge Qube can also function as a DC fast charger with up to 240 kilowatts available to export. It’s an all-in-one solution that can absorb energy from the grid when prices are low and dispense electricity when prices are high. It can charge the batteries with solar power, and it can keep the lights on (and the vehicles charging) in case of an outage.

It’s a pretty cool solution that uses ready-made components and, more importantly, prolongs the life of used EV batteries.

The primary reasons for China's EV market dominance are myriad and well-trod. China put serious government money behind EVs. It cut red tape, incentivized buyers, and provided cheap property. Homegrown companies with minimal or no experience building ICE vehicles saw the transition as an opportunity, not a chore, as many Western companies clearly perceive it. Yet one factor is as under-covered as it is important.

A far larger proportion of Chinese EV buyers are first-time car buyers. Many more had owned only one or two cars before. That's key for one main reason: In China, EVs were free from much of the baggage still weighing them down here. 

Ford's CEO recently called the economics of large SUV EVs "unresolvable." I agree, which is why EREVs and hybrids will stick around in those segments for a long time.

The average new-car buyer in the U.S., meanwhile, was around 51 years old in 2022, per Cox Automotive. Even the average used-car buyer was 49, and both groups had higher-than-average income. These are relatively wealthy people who grew up in a country dominated by cars. They were raised in internal-combustion cars. They were raised when air travel was far less affordable and popular, too, which means almost every one of them has a memory of a family road trip in a gas car. They've purchased gas cars for most of their adult lives, and relied on them for a vast majority of their travel.

Now, they are being told that EVs are here to replace them. But for the big, heavy vehicles most buyers are accustomed to, road-trip capability requires a huge upfront price premium, a suite of planning and charging apps and a longer, more arduous driving experience. They're being told to buy a product sold by the company that has long sold them gas cars, in the shape of the car they know, for more money and with, on average, worse reliability.

So of course they're pissed off.

I know I am. In seeking to replace a $2,500 Chevy Tahoe for camping duty, I leased a Chevy Blazer EV. I love driving it around town, but its eco tires limit its off-pavement capability. Its seats don't fold all the way flat, so I can't sleep in it when I camp, as I do in the Tahoe. When I took it on a 1,000-mile round trip to Utah, I lost hours of time charging.

I had to bail on the chance to see an awesome overlook in Bryce Canyon because of range anxiety, and because I had only one of the two necessary Tesla charger adapters. The one I did have allowed me to use Superchargers, but that required parking across two stalls, which made me look like a jerk. The real kicker: With prices ranging from $0.53 to $0.65 per kWh at many stations, I didn't save any money over doing the trip in a gas crossover.

The experience sucks.

I have not found a 1:1 EV replacement for this, because frankly the idea of a 27-year-old with no kids driving an SUV big enough to sleep in is absurd. It doesn't need an EV analog.

So if you're approaching this from a gas-car paradigm, I get it, I really do. You think about road trips. You think about driving into the backwoods. You think about summer trips to Hilton Head from Cleveland, 14 hours away. You think about screaming kids at rest stops, and all the hassle of learning a new way to do something your gas car solved decades ago.

But an EV isn't a gas car. It's entirely different. That means it comes with a fundamentally different trade-off, which is well-covered: The current versions are either too expensive or bad at road trips.  

I like my Blazer EV, but I would never have paid the $52,000 sticker price. I got it for $273 a month with $2,000 due at signing, with the dealer and GM taking a loss. That's a sign that these big, expensive EVs aren't really winning customers on merit.

Those two problems are linked. Because when you release EVs from the expectation of road trips, everything else fades away.

Take the Blazer. What I've described in vivid detail covers three total days in about eight months of ownership. They spanned the edge of my edge case. A 1,000-mile trip to rural America. That's the dream of the American road trip many of us share. Yet it's nothing near the primary utility of our car. I've lived in California for about three years now, and it's only the second time I've ever gone more than 500 miles on a trip. My far more frequent trips to Joshua Tree National Park and Anza Borrego Desert State Park are well within the Blazer's easy reach. Even these, though, are outliers. 

Despite all of the ads showing mountain trails, despite the marketing onslaught for towing, or performance, or "finding new roads" or conquering the Great West, that's maybe one-tenth of every mile your car drives. In reality, it takes you to work. Or school. To visit friends. The city next door. It shuttles you from one place to another, with no real heroic adventure involved. 

Listen, it would be sick if this is what day-to-day life was like. But in seeking to solve the absolute edge case—people who go off-roading in large luxury SUVs—the Hummer EV got more expensive, more absurd and way heavier. Maybe we can leave rock-crawling to hybrids and EREVs.

For all of those cases, an EV is a far better solution. Yet our focus on the alternative case—road trips—has dampened that advantage. EVs require almost no regular maintenance, with sealed motors and far simpler drivetrains. Yet when you force an EV to fit into the road-trip paradigm, it must be heavy, which means you spend more on tires. EV simplicity means they should be cheaper to produce, too. Except, you guessed it, that giant-ass battery makes it $15,000 more expensive than the gas version.  

I know, I know. You need to take that road trip. Though it happens once a year, it is vital, for whatever reason. Trust me, I am not coming for you. I'm making the opposite point: Let gasoline handle these duties for the time being. Offer extended-range EVs, and hybrids and even full gas powertrains to those who frequently travel long distances. Gas trucks are incredible machines, and it'll take a while before any EV can fully replace the Ford F-150 for the same price. Leave road trips to the fossil-burners. Lord knows they can handle it. 

The Lightning is a great truck, but it's a tough sell against a gas F-150 that's far cheaper and can tow anything, anywhere.

That'll free up EV designers to focus on the actual advantages of this transition. Automakers are already choosing to make range-extended EVs with small batteries and gas powertrains for further endurance. As an alternative, they'll offer a more expensive pure-EV play, with hundreds of miles of EV range. 

Flip that script. Offer the same, small battery pack on both options. Give the EV a 150-mile range and make road-trip capability the upsell. Hell, offer range-extender rentals, or the ability to rent more battery modules. Dealership service centers will surely be looking for new ways to stay busy as EVs quickly eclipse ICE reliability.

Offer us low-range EVs that are actually exciting, too. Buyers may have scorned the Nissan Leaf and Mini Cooper SE, but did planners ever consider that Americans won't buy hatchbacks regardless of propulsion? Offer a city SUV, with enough space and range to take your mountain bike to the woods, but a $30,000 asking price before credits. If Chevy can offer a 319-mile Equinox EV for $35,000, even greater savings seem possible. 

The Chevy Bolt could handle anyone's commute and even handle medium-length road trips. If someone can manage to build one with more sex appeal than a laser printer, that could be the electric people's car we need.

Make a luxury version, too. I'd be happy to keep my beat-up gas truck forever if my daily driver was a leather-wrapped electric pod with the best speakers and seats I've ever had. With small motors and a small battery, the simplicity of the design means luxury trimmings should be more accessible than ever. Make an electric Ford Ranger, too, and tell anyone who wants road-trip range to get the hybrid. The EV is the cheaper, simpler, smoother option, not a 1:1 replacement for a product that's already nearly perfected.

EVs are already taking off in the commercial van sector, because buyers in that segment focus on what they actually do day-to-day, rather than on the once-a-year trip they may eventually take.

This is an opportunity for reinvention. But it requires us to ditch the binary of EVs being better or worse than gas vehicles. It requires us to stop approaching these as cars with batteries, and instead as a new transportation option. It will not replace gasoline in every possible scenario, at least not yet. But for the lives we actually live, for 90% of the miles we actually drive, this is the ideal solution.  

EVs aren't gas cars. That's a good thing.

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com. 

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Manufacturers are slowly starting to listen to what car journalists and owners have been complaining about for almost a decade: Cramming all the car’s functions into a touchscreen is an inferior solution to having dedicated physical controls for key tasks.

Among the manufacturers known to be switching back to buttons is Volkswagen, whose latest vehicles have gone touch-control-crazy with functions either buried inside a touchscreen menu or relocated to an annoying haptic feedback panel.

We’ve known for a while that Volkswagen was considering putting back some buttons in its cars, but the manufacturer never officially acknowledged this. Now VW’s design boss, Andreas Mindt, has admitted to Autocar that this approach was a mistake and that the automaker is backtracking on this trend.

“From the ID.2all onwards, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions—the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light—below the screen,” Mindt told Autocar. He added, “They will be in every car that we make from now on. We will never, ever make this mistake anymore. On the steering wheel, we will have physical buttons. No guessing anymore. There's feedback, it's real, and people love this. Honestly, it's a car. It's not a phone.”

The five functions that will have dedicated controls are in addition to requirements from Euro NCAP, which will include them in its safety ratings starting in 2026. If a car doesn’t have physical controls for the horn, windshield wipers, turn signals, hazard lights and SOS functions, it won’t be able to achieve the maximum five-star rating.

So it’s not just us journalists that consider moving toward touch-only interfaces a bad idea. "What we now see is we have more and more... crashes where people are having collisions because they're being distracted,” Matthew Avery, NCAP's director of strategic development, told Politico. 

You’ll know why that is not surprising if you’ve been in a modern Volkswagen, like an ID.4, which forces you to use non-backlit haptic slides below the screen to adjust the cabin temperature or media volume (the 2024 refresh at least made these controls backlit on all but the base model). And if you want to fine-tune your climate settings, you must do it through the touchscreen, which is harder than it has to be even when VW’s infotainment software works.

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VW made the user experience even worse for the driver by placing haptic panels on the steering wheel instead of buttons. These can activate if you accidentally touch them, and don't always respond as expected when you do want to touch them.

Mercedes is another manufacturer that went all-in on screens, and its steering wheel-mounted touch controls are even more annoying than VW’s. Like VW, Mercedes should also go back to buttons and knobs after the company’s Chief Design Officer, Gorden Wagener, admitted that “screens aren’t luxury.” This is coming from a manufacturer that offers a gigantic 56-inch array of three screens in its cars, taking up the entire dashboard.

Cost has been a huge driver of this trend. Manufacturers know they have to put a big screen in a modern car to attract customers, anyway. It's easier and cheaper, then, to put all of the controls in that one screen, rather than sourcing and fitting a variety of physical control switches. That's led to some truly infuriating compromises, like VW and Volvo making their window switches far more annoying for pennies in savings.

Tesla started this trend with the original Model S and its gigantic screen that made everything look old-fashioned. Even though it was a fantastic screen that left legacy automakers to play catch-up, after the wow factor wore off, a lot of people started wondering whether a screen-only experience was really better.

That was exacerbated by later Tesla models. With the Model 3 Highland, Tesla took minimalism to new heights by removing the turn signal, wiper and gear selector stalks. Its cars are the only ones on the market that require you to swipe on a touch screen to go into forward or reverse. At least Tesla realized ditching the indicator stalk was too much, and it will likely bring it back, although in a simplified form without any additional functionality.

Slowly, these companies seem to be learning that tactile controls are a life-saver when you're going 65 mph down the highway. If that costs Volkswagen and Tesla a few more pennies per car, that seems like a worthwhile trade-off.

Electric vehicle rebates in Canada differ from those in the U.S., but they serve the same purpose: bringing the upfront costs of EVs down. Dealerships provide rebates of up to $5,000 at the point of sale and then the government reimburses them. However, before the program ended in January, Tesla reportedly claimed over half of the remaining funds, leaving Canadian dealers in the red. Now, they’re pissed.

Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily round-up of news and breakthroughs shaping up the world of electric cars and autonomous vehicles. Also on our radar today: A U.S. agency said California’s plans to ban gas car sales by 2035 are not subject to review or repeal by Congress. And Toyota has halted the production of the RAV4 in Japan after an explosion killed a worker at a parts factory.

30%: Canadian Car Dealers Cry Foul Over Rebates Claimed By Tesla  

Canada’s iZEV rebate was paused in January after the funds earmarked for the program were allocated earlier than expected. The weekend before the program ended, there was a massive increase in claims from Tesla, as it claimed over half of the remaining $71.8 million (Canadian dollars).

The Toronto Star reported that four Tesla outlets filed for 8,653 EV sales in just 72 hours, worth $43.1 million in rebates. This ultimately led to the portal’s shutdown, leaving hundreds of dealerships without a way to recoup the rebates they had offered to buyers at the point of sale.

Independent dealerships have reportedly spent $10 million out of pocket. Now a Canada Automobile Dealers Association spokesperson thinks Tesla may have done something unusual, possibly illegal.

Here’s more from the Star: 

“These dealers in good faith gave customers the money for a program that is always refunded,” said CADA spokesperson Huw Williams. “They shouldn’t be left making a payment on behalf of the Government of Canada.”

“Tesla had a run on the bank,” said Williams. “Somehow, Tesla gamed the system.”

As per Transport Canada rules, rebate applications "must" be filed before the car is delivered. But that rule was apparently not being enforced, so it’s possible that previous claims were filed right before the rebate program was ending. Some officials likened that to the “Black Friday” of EV sales.

One Tesla store in Quebec City alone filed for 4,000 rebates in a weekend, according to the report. Now dealerships that were unable to file for reimbursements are in the red for as much as half a million dollars.

The dealers are fighting back hard and have the attention of Canada’s Transport Minister Anita Anand, who said she was “disappointed” at what happened and has ordered a review. Regardless of what may have happened, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been vocal about ending EV subsidies here in the U.S.

“Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla,” he said last year of the federal tax credit in a post on X. The future of those subsidies is uncertain, as President Trump has threatened to repeal them, but so far, dealers in the U.S. haven’t had any trouble redeeming the credits.

60%: California’s Gas Car Ban Cannot Be Repealed: U.S. Agency

Electrify America Flagship Indoor Charging Station In San Francisco, California

Last December, the Environmental Protection Agency approved California’s ban on sales of new gas cars from 2035. Eleven other states plan to adopt the state’s Advanced Clean Cars II program.

However, Trump has vowed to strip California of its ability to set stricter emissions standards and plans to revoke the gas car ban, too. The Government Accountability Office said on Thursday that California’s gas car ban is not subject to review of repeal, even by Congress, according to Reuters.

That’s because the ban is not a federal regulation; it’s a waiver granted under the 1970 Clean Air Act—so even a Congressional vote to repeal it is deemed illegal, according to some officials.

Nonetheless, Republicans are now reportedly planning the next steps and the Department of Transportation, under President Trump, is also planning to push the EPA to loosen its emissions rules.

California has spearheaded America’s clean energy transition and its Advanced Clean Cars II program aims to have 100% of light-duty vehicles either fully electric, plug-in hybrid, or hydrogen-powered by 2035.

90%: Toyota Suspends RAV4 Production In Japan

Toyota has suspended the production of the RAV4 in Japan, where the hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions are also made.

According to Automotive News, the halt is in response to the death of a worker at parts supplier Chuo Spring Co. Two others were also injured and now, operations on three lines at two plants will be suspended for the first shift on Monday, March 10.

Toyota makes the RAV4 in Japan, Canada, the U.S. and China. It has been America’s best-selling SUV for eight consecutive years. Toyota sold a whopping 475,193 units in the U.S. last year, of which a little over 100,000 were imported.

100%: Should California’s Gas Car Ban Be Revoked?

California has been the authority in setting emissions standards for years, pushing the U.S. and inspiring the rest of the world with its stricter tailpipe rules that encourage faster EV adoption. But demand for EVs has seen some roadblocks recently and automakers are scaling up cautiously instead of a full-blown commitment.

Do you think California—and the eleven U.S. states that have adopted its tailpipe emissions standards—should continue to enforce them? Or should they be stripped of their ability to do so?

Have a tip? Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com

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If you’re in the market for a new or used Hyundai Ioniq 5, the most popular of the E-GMP-based EVs, there’s a high chance that you ran into the following acronym: ICCU. And those four letters may evoke dread.

The acronym stands for Integrated Charging Control Unit: a nifty piece of hardware that bundles all the charging controllers, current converters and power export bits into a single unit. 

It’s a powerful piece of equipment, but it can fail—specifically the part that charges the 12V battery. That alone isn’t a huge issue. The low-voltage battery can go bad in any car, including combustion cars, if the alternator doesn’t do its job properly. In the case of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and other E-GMP-based EVs, the driver is made aware of things going south by a “Power Limited” warning that appears on the digital instrument cluster. Then, the car gradually loses power until it can no longer move, making it a tow-truck kind of situation.

While failures seem to be relatively rare as Hyundai, Kia and Genesis’ E-GMP sales have taken off, these high-profile incidents that have left often-new EVs “bricked” have caused extreme trepidation among owners. And while there have been recalls to fix the issue, some drivers have reported still experiencing ICCU failures after the repairs were done, too. 

According to the chronology report published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drivers should be able to drive the vehicle for up to 45 minutes after the warning pops on the display. But here’s where things get complicated.

Hyundai has issued two recalls to fix the issue in the United States, with the most recent one in November. According to the NHTSA documents, a total of 145,351 EVs in the U.S. are part of the recall, including the 2023-2025 Genesis G80, 2022-2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5, 2023-2025 Genesis GV70, 2023-2025 Genesis GV60 and 2023-2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6. Additionally, there are 62,872 Kia EV6 vehicles from 2022-2024 included. Similar recalls have been issued in other parts of the world, too.

The ICCU is tasked with a lot. It handles DC fast charging and AC charging and it makes sure the 12-volt battery is up to spec. It’s also responsible for the vehicle-to-load feature, allowing owners to export power from the high-voltage battery to tools, or appliances or even their homes via an adapter that plugs into the charge port.

As per the recall report, the ICCU failure has two causes—overvoltage induced at the start and end of the 12V battery charging cycle and from thermal loading during charging and/or driving. When it fails, it’s because a transistor inside the ICCU goes kaput and pops the fuse that feeds energy into the 12V battery.

To fix the issue, a service bulletin states technicians will first scan the vehicle to check if the diagnostic trouble code (DTC) P1A9096 is stored in the car’s brain. If it’s not there, they’ll move on to updating the ICCU’s software and call it a day. If the code is stored, then the ICCU and the fuse—even if it has not blown—will be replaced, and the low-conductivity coolant will be flushed. The ICCU software will also be updated.

As spotted by MotorTrend, the software update changes the way the ICCU makes use of the high-voltage battery to charge the 12V battery, and, more importantly, it forces the low-voltage DC-to-DC converter to do a “soft start” when charging the low-voltage battery. This, according to Hyundai, reduces the overvoltage that’s mentioned as one of the causes of the failures. Furthermore, the new software changes the way the fans and water pumps operate to make sure temperatures don’t get too toasty inside the ICCU.

Statistically, just 1% of the roughly 200,000 vehicles involved in the recall can have their ICCUs fail, which is 2,000 cars. Out of all the cars that are part of the latest recall for the failing ICCU, 41,137 Hyundai and Genesis EVs have already been fixed by Jan. 22, while another 14,828 Kia EV6s have had the remedy applied. Motor Trend concurred in a recent look at the issue: “It’s a big deal, but not one that individual E-GMP owners are statistically likely to face.”

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 is just one of the EVs affected by the ICCU recall.

This doesn’t mean that all these cars have had their ICCUs replaced, though. As we mentioned earlier, if there’s no trouble code, then just a software update is needed.

However, if you ask owners who have had their cars die on the highway, things are not exactly rosy. Some drivers claim that they had the ICCU fail on their EV before having the recall work done. Then, after fixing the car and updating the software, a second failure occurred.

“Second ICCU failure, first one [was] replaced seven months ago,” said Reddit user beyondthetech. “Luckily I wasn't vacationing down at the Jersey Shore last time it happened. Nevertheless, knowing they're just replacing them with the same built, unimproved ICCUs meant that it could fail again just as easily, and seven months later, it did.”

Another member of the Ioniq5 subreddit had this to say about their experience: “I am taking my car into the dealership tomorrow, but it looks like I have a SECOND ICCU failure on my hands with my 2022 HI5. First one was June 2024 while 600 miles away from home. So less than a year ago. Absolute nightmare of an experience.”

For some owners, getting their cars fixed took weeks or even months.

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“I’m beyond fed up with Hyundai,” said Danki13. “My late 2021 IONIQ 5 has been in the shop more than it’s been on the road, and the latest fiasco has pushed me over the edge. I’ve been waiting FIVE MONTHS for them to replace the ICCU (Integrated Charging Control Unit). Five. Months.”

We got in touch with Hyundai to try and find out what owners can do to mitigate the chance of the ICCU failing on their vehicles, regardless of whether the recall was already done. A Hyundai Motor America representative said: “The best course of action is to have the remedy performed.” 

That’s a hard pill to swallow for people who have gone through Hyundai’s service department twice for the same problem, leading owners to question the quality of the fix and whether the 1% failure rate is even accurate.  

We asked Hyundai if there are statistics available regarding the actual number of EVs that had their ICCU fail after getting the recall, but we received no response. So the best information at hand is what has already been published by the NHTSA, which states the vast majority of affected vehicles will be fine.

Subjectively, people who have had bad experiences with cars tend to voice their woes loudly, whereas happy owners don’t go to the trouble of writing about their experience. “With the two recalls to address the ICCU and then the subsequent failure, I don’t have faith in the vehicle or faith Hyundai has a grasp of the situation,” one self-labeled “ICCU victim” said in a Reddit thread.

Have you had issues with this component on your Hyundai, Kia or Genesis EV? Get in touch: tips@insideevs.com.

At this point, it's no secret that the future of electric vehicles doesn't lie with more six-figure luxury sedans. What matters now will be battery-powered options with reasonable price tags for more unique use cases. A few interesting startups are beginning to make the most of this moment. 

California-based Telo Trucks is one of the more notable examples of this trend. Its MT1 truck aims to be the antidote to the huge, expensive choices that have pervaded that space so far. It's planned to be about as big as a Mini Cooper, all for about $42,000 before any incentives. As Motor Trend reported recently, the company's financial backers and advisors include Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, the original founders of Tesla, Nissan and Aston Martin veteran executive Andy Palmer, and others. 

Now, just about anyone can come up with a cool design and a slick website these days. But the Telo Trucks MT1 just hit an important milestone as its first fully drivable pre-production prototype hits the road for testing, the automaker announced this week. 

Telo Pre-Production Prototype

"Telo Trucks is defining a new category of pickup trucks that meets a significant market need for sustainability, size and functionality across both consumer and fleet audiences," the company said in a statement. "These capabilities in the size of a mini truck are only possible as an electric vehicle."

If Telo can deliver on its stated specs, it will indeed be an impressive offering in this space. Besides the novel design that includes several different configurations, a mid-gate and a Rivian-style "gear tunnel," the MT1 will supposedly boast 77 or 106 kWh battery options, up to 250 kW DC fast charging, a zero to 60 mph time of four seconds flat and up to 350 miles (560 km) of range. Telo is aiming for a payload capacity of up to 2,000 lbs (907 kg) and a tow rating of 6,600 lbs (3,000 kg), making it ideal for smaller urban gear-hauling rather than outright replacing someone's Ford Super Duty truck.

But the company is right that EVs make this idea possible when internal combustion likely could not. The MT1's packaging is a compact, squarish affair with the wheels nearly at each corner and a premium on interior space—as much as a Toyota Tacoma in that Mini-sized body, the company says. The company also puts a premium on sustainable materials like biodegradable cork. 

"We designed the future of utility transportation by maximizing every inch to provide comfort without compromising performance or capability," designer Yves Béhar said in a statement. "Telo brings more features, space, and practicality than any other vehicle on the road today."

Telo electric truck mini electric

For now, Telo Trucks is getting pre-production build help from bespoke EV and restomod company Aria Group, and its list of employees remains very small. It's also using a proprietary battery pack designed to save more space than most EVs seen thus far. The company says that from here, it aims to continue safety and durability testing with the MT1 before limited production begins this year.

Can Telo Trucks pull this off? That's always the question with any automotive startup; after all, the industry has a graveyard full of them, and the current economy isn't exactly friendly to new and capital-intensive startups. But American buyers in particular want more affordable options of all types, and if the MT1 can deliver on those promised specs, it may find an audience that's not being served by more established players. 

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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Tesla's sales in Europe are tumbling like a kid at gymnastics camp. In February they were down 42% in Sweden, 48% in Norway and—wait for it—76% in Germany. This is not great news for the global EV transition or for Tesla, folks. 

Why the slump? It's complicated, but we can't rule out Elon Musk's meddling in politics as one huge factor. (There are parts of Europe where certain gestures don't go over too well, to put it gently.) Plus, Tesla's rather skimpy lineup is facing stiffer competition there than ever before, especially from the bargain-basement Chinese EVs we don't get here in the States due to massive tariffs. 

A generous read of the situation is that a lot of buyers are delaying their purchases until the refreshed Model Y hits Tesla stores. I think that could be a valid theory; the Model Y is still one of the most important new cars on sale, period, and some people are certainly waiting for it. But Model 3 sales have also taken a dive in Europe this year, suggesting deeper issues are at play. 

We cover all that and more on this week's episode of The Plugged-In Podcast. Patrick's on the road this week, so we fed all of his blogs into a large-language model and created a proprietary AI agent to co-host the show with me. That got super creepy, and also AI Patrick tried to fire everybody. So we asked my colleague Kevin Williams to fill in instead. 

On the show, Kevin and I get into a lot besides Tesla. We talk about Waymo's recent expansion into Austin on the Uber platform, and how it's running circles around Tesla's autonomy efforts. Plus, we discuss why you shouldn't sleep on Level 1 EV charging, and why the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is one of Kevin's favorite cars despite once being rated a 2/10 by Car & Driver. 

Our podcast is available on the InsideEVs YouTube channel and all major audio platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeart Radio. New episodes drop every Friday.

If you haven't already, please go subscribe and leave us a review. Hope you enjoy!

Got a topic or guest you'd like to see featured on the show? Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com

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Despite its flagship status in Volvo’s lineup of electric models, the EX90 SUV’s high-voltage battery pack is not what I’d call top-tier. That’s because it’s rated at roughly 400 volts, which is fine for most applications, but for a flagship product, it’s behind rivals such as the Kia EV9, Hyundai Ioniq 9 and Lucid Gravity, all of which run at 800V or higher.

Even the Volvo ES90, the recently revealed electric sedan that rides on the same SPA2 architecture as the EX90, will feature an 800V battery pack. So something has to give.

The biggest benefit of an 800V system over a 400V one is its ability to charge at faster speeds. You don’t get more range, but because the number of kilowatts dispensed by a DC fast charger is a simple volts-times-amps math problem, the higher the volts and amps, the higher the kilowatt input.

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Volvo knows this, so it will upgrade the EX90’s battery pack to an 800V setup sooner rather than later. Speaking with AutoExpress, Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan said: “We started off with 400 volts on the SPA2 architecture, and then we wanted to upgrade that–partly because of range and faster charging speeds; now we can put about 300 kilometers (186 miles) of range on in 10 minutes.”

“As we go forward, we’ll move everything to 800 volts–we’ll upgrade the EX90 in one of the model-year changes,” Rowan added. “And of course, the ES90 starts at 800 [volts], and the EX60 on SPA3 will come out on 800 [volts] as well. That helps us standardize across the platform.”

Bear in mind that the EX90 is just hitting dealerships across the world, so the battery change is likely to happen sometime in the next three to four years when the EV is set for a mid-cycle refresh.

Currently, the 400V EX90 can charge at up to 250 kW from a DC fast charger, leading to a 10-80% top-up in as little as 30 minutes. Switching to 800V could slash the charging time by as much as ten minutes when connected to a 350 kW fast charger–a 50% improvement.

All this being said, it’s unclear if Volvo will use the ES90’s 106-kilowatt-hour battery pack in the EX90 when the time comes. Currently, the electric SUV has a 111 kWh pack, but it uses the same architecture as the sedan, albeit with a slightly shorter wheelbase. If Volvo goes down this route–of reusing the ES90’s battery in the EX90–the driving experience should remain largely unchanged. A difference of 5 kWh in capacity could reduce the overall range by a few miles from the current EPA rating of 310 miles, but thanks to faster charging times, it should be a non-issue in the long run.

Despite toning down its ambitions of going full-electric by 2030, Volvo hasn’t abandoned its goal of launching several new battery-powered cars this decade. After the EX30, EX90 and ES90, it’s time for the EX60 to join the party later this year.

The mid-size electric crossover made a brief appearance during the reveal event of the ES90 electric sedan earlier this week, although it was anything but a surprise. As you’ll see in the video embedded below, both the presenter and the person holding the cover over the EX60 were anything but caught off guard.

It’s no surprise that Volvo wants to stir up interest in the upcoming EX60. Sales of the aging EX40 and C40 in the United States were appalling last year, and the more affordable but rather small EX30 has just started showing up at dealerships across the country. Meanwhile, the EX90 is a $90,000+ machine, albeit a pretty capable one.

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So an XC60-sized EV slots perfectly in the same space currently dominated by the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ford Mustang Mach-E. Just like its competitors, the EX60 is poised to become Volvo’s best-selling EV thanks to people’s affinity with mid-size crossovers the world over.

The Volvo EX60 will be the Swedish automaker’s first model to sit on the new SPA3 platform. The architecture is much more flexible than the SPA2 platform underpinning the ES90 sedan and EX90 SUV and allows the automaker to build cars smaller than the EX30 and larger than the EX90. Significant cost reductions are also a big part of the SPA3 architecture.

Thanks to an 800-volt high-voltage battery, charging times should also be better than average. The ES90, for instance, is advertised as being capable of adding up to 186 miles of range in just 10 minutes from a 350-kilowatt charger–we might see something similar in the EX60.

Volvo’s new mid-size EV is not the last card in the Swedish automaker’s plan, though. Two more electric models based on the SPA3 architecture, as well as a long-range plug-in hybrid will join the ranks in the coming years, hopefully enabling Volvo to reach its newly-adjusted goal of having 90-100% of sales coming from EVs and PHEVs by the end of the decade.

Many of you are worried about the long-term reliability of electric vehicle batteries. I know because you ask me all of the time. Among skeptics and prospective buyers alike, it's one of the first things to come up: Will the battery last? Yet more and more data is showing that modern EV traction batteries just don't fail in significant numbers. You don't have to worry about them. It's the damn 12-volts that'll leave you stranded in the office parking lot.

Internal combustion drivers know that risk. Traditional cars use a 12-volt battery—usually a chunky lead-acid unit—to start the vehicle and power the electronics. You may expect that EVs, with their massive drive batteries, don't need these ancient bricks.

Yet they rely on them for the exact same reasons. EV 12-volt batteries are used to switch on the primary power system, power low-voltage electronics like infotainment systems and operate background tasks like passive entry systems and cell connectivity. Just like on an internal combustion car, if they run out of juice, you may be stranded. Your fully charged, giant main battery won't be able to help you. 

You may have a $20,000 lithium-ion battery propelling you around town, but that whole experience likely still relies on a simple, $200 12-volt battery.

"I think there are just some misconceptions," Steven Elek, senior automotive data analyst at Consumer Reports, told InsideEVs. "People are like, oh, it's a rolling battery. My battery should never go dead. But that's just not how they work."

Issues with 12-volt batteries are clear in Consumer Reports' reliability data, Elek said. While the firm couldn't confirm whether 12-volt problems are more common with EVs, it has data showing them as consistent trouble spots for EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Rivian R1S and Rivian R1T. Forums for any of those brands support the issue.

Hyundai, Kia and Genesis have all had to recall EVs due to issues with the system that charges the 12-volt battery. Rivian, for its part, completely redesigned the way the 12-volt battery is maintained for the second-generation R1.

How EV 12-Volt Systems Work

To understand these issues, you have to understand how EVs charge and use their 12-volt batteries. They typically use what's called a DC-to-DC converter. The system takes direct current (DC) from the main battery and steps it down from the pack's voltage—usually anywhere from 300 to 900 volts—to the charging voltage of a 12-volt battery which is—confusingly—14 volts.   

There are two basic strategies for how to manage this. Most companies use a simple approach—when the vehicle is on, the high voltage (HV) system charges the low-voltage (LV) 12-volt battery. When it's off, there's very little power demand, so the battery should last weeks without the vehicle powering on. That's how it works in an internal combustion vehicle. Elek notes that for safety reasons, many manufacturers never want to engage the HV battery without the user choosing to start it. 

Other designs use more power when switched off, and therefore have an automatic power control logic that will flip on the HV battery to top off the LV system when it gets low.

Why EV 12-Volt Batteries Fail

Rivian infamously used such a system on the original R1S and R1T lines, leading to what users call "vampire drain." The car's connectivity features and its security feature, gear guard, often deplete the 12-volt battery. When that happens, the whole HV system wakes up to feed the 12-volt, leading to the drive battery draining.

Countless consumers have complained on forums that their Rivian loses a significant amount of battery just sitting still. As this video from MotorSport Unplugged shows, the constant cycling on the 12-volt battery can lead to premature failure of the 12-volt battery itself. There's a reason, too, why this may be more surprising and inconvenient than 12-volt failure in an internal-combustion car. 

"I think the other thing that happens is, we as owners and drivers, we're so conditioned to the fact that when you hear that slow crank on your internal combustion vehicle, instantly we know, oh, hey, my battery's getting low, I need to get it checked, I need a new battery," Michael Crossen, an automotive engineer at Consumer Reports, told InsideEVs. "You know, it's winter, I don't wanna get stranded, that you buy a battery. You'll never get that in an EV."

We've also seen designs that constantly feed power to the LV system from high-voltage battery. Those have issues, too. When Out Of Spec's VinFast VF8 bricked itself in a parking lot, the drivers tried the ol' IT department special. They tried to turn it on and off again. Disconnecting the 12-volt battery is usually the easiest way to force a car to do a full, hard reset. Yet the VinFast continued powering itself using the HV battery, meaning they couldn't reset the system for the better part of a day. 

Rivian updated the R1T's LV battery charging system as part of the Gen 2 refresh.

Yet the simpler route is not without its pitfalls. EVs from Hyundai, Kia and Genesis don't have the same power management issue as Rivians. They have a much worse physical issue. The Integrated Charging Control Unit (ICCU) that charges the 12-volt batteries in these vehicles is a key failure point. A transistor within the unit can be damaged by overvoltage, making it unable to charge the vehicle's 12-volt battery. When that happens, it's a ticking clock until you lose all 12-volt power. That will lead to a gradual loss of drive power, which the recall notice notes could potentially increase the risk of crashing. Well, multiple recall notices.

Hyundai has been trying to fix this issue for years, with multiple recalls. We're still seeing anecdotal reports of problems even among vehicles that have previously had recall work done on the ICCU. They're not the only ones. VW had issues with the 12-volt batteries on the ID.3 (which isn't sold here). Chevy had teething issues with the 12-volt system in the Bolt. Even Toyota—the paragon of reliability—didn't get things right on its first try. A bZ4X left Out Of Spec's Kyle Conner stranded due to a dead 12-volt battery. 

Kyle Conner got stranded by the Toyota bZ4X's 12-volt battery issue.

Is This A Long-Term Issues For EVs?

Time heals all things. That remains the case here. While older Tesla and GM EVs occasionally had issues with 12-volt batteries, yet newer models have been completely fine. Rivian's newer R1 seems to have solved the issue with a trickle-charging approach that no longer energizes the entire car just to charge the 12-volt battery. 

Here, we're once again seeing a symptom of a greater trend in EV reliability: The problem isn't EVs, it's new designs. There's nothing inherently wrong with a DC-to-DC charging system. Yet automakers that have decades of experience building alternators now have to work with a new system. Like any complicated part designed from the ground up, there's a chance of having a design flaw. 

These correspond with a larger trend in the automotive world. The simple, decades-old 12-volt battery is being asked to do more and more. Modern vehicles have more screens, sensors, antennas and lights asking for power. Far more of these systems must also be at least partially available when the vehicle is off. Your car that can remote start via an app needs to keep its cellular modem energized constantly. Ditto its proximity key sensors that enable keyless unlock. Walk-up lighting also means that if you walk past your car to walk the dog, you may trigger its headlights. This happens to my Blazer EV constantly.

These issues are not EV-specific, and neither is the growing trend of starter battery issues. 

"So actually, I mean it's across the industry that the starter batteries have been kind of an issue for consumers," Frank Hanley, senior director of automotive benchmarking at. J.D. Power, told InsideEVs. "It's been a problem for EVs more so, but just in the industry in general it's been a rising problem.  

Tesla had some issues when it moved the Model 3 to a lithium-ion 12-volt battery, but those are in the rearview mirror. It does not appear that 12-volt issues are significant issue for modern Teslas.

The good news is that things are getting better. Automakers are getting more experienced not just with EV technology, but also managing the workload on 12-volt batteries. Some have moved towards dual-battery setups or, in the case of Tesla's Cybertruck, a primarily 48-volt system.

Automakers are also getting more intentional about choosing low-voltage batteries better suited to EVs. Many are switching toward deep-cycle batteries, which are worse at handling the high-current demand of starting an internal combustion vehicle, but better suited to being depleted more often. Slowly, automakers are learning the hard lessons.

"It's a learning curve. I mean anytime you introduce new technology and features, it takes a while to get right," Hanley said. "This is one of the growing pain points we see with the electric vehicles."

Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com. 

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Chevrolet has revealed a new off-road-ready Silverado ZR2 EV Concept, which has 1,100 horsepower and multiple modifications to improve its ability to cross rough terrain. The manufacturer is using this highly modified one-off to draw attention a more tame off-road edition of the Silverado EV, the Trail Boss. That version will be on sale in a few months, but it's not clear if there will ever be a production electric ZR2.

The Silverado ZR2 concept looks like a proper off-road racing truck, which is why Chevy decided to unveil it at The Mint 400, an off-road race that brands itself as America’s oldest. The manufacturer created the concept in just five months, and it looks like it means business with its lifted suspension, aggressive 37-inch off-road tires and a slew of other mods.

The most significant change is the addition of adaptive spool-valve dampers from Multimatic, which have worked great in products like the gas Silverado ZR2, Colorado ZR2 and Camaro Z/28. They work together with new springs to give the vehicle 13 inches (33 centimeters) of ground clearance. The Silverado ZR2 has more power courtesy of a tri-motor powertrain, too. That boosts output from 760 horsepower to 1,100 hp. 

Chevy notes that 98% of the parts used to make the ZR2 are GM production parts, which means you could theoretically create your own ZR2 if you got the same parts and installed them on your Silverado EV.

Locking differentials are also among the list of ZR2 modifications, but since this is a pure electric vehicle with three motors, it could also simulate the effect of a locker without having one. But only on the rear axle, and since gas ZR2s get lockers on both ends, it makes sense.

The production Trail Boss model won't be as extreme as the ZR2, but it still gets lifted suspension, unique 18-inch wheels with 35-inch all-terrain tires as well as the same red tow hooks coming through the front bumper. Chevy will offer additional Trail Boss-exclusive optional equipment, but we’ll have to wait until the manufacturer reveals these options closer to the variant’s official debut this summer.

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Back in 2023, Volkswagen showed off the U.S. version of the electric van meant to pay homage to the classic Type-2 Volkswagen Bus of the 1960s. With it came marketing materials that conjured up ideas of surfing on the beach and living a free-spirit lifestyle. In reality, man of these vans will serve commuter duty in a not-so-pretty (or warm) city. Sure, driving up and down Route 1 listening to John Lennon at full blast may sound cool, but listening to NPR quietly on I-75 is probably closer to what real life is like for them. Well, that's my life, at least. 

Okay, maybe I’m being a little too negative. I get why I-75 isn't what they show in the ads. Anyway, Volkswagen has given me an ID. Buzz for the next week. The unit Volkswagen has sent me is a Pro S Plus model, which sits smack in the middle of the range, above the Pro S, but below the AWD Pro S 4Motion trim. The only option my tester has is the $995 Mahi Green and Candy White two-tone exterior. If you want an ID. Buzz identical to my tester, and they expect to pay $66,040 after destination fees.

Since it’s not an all-wheel-drive dual motor model, my rear-wheel-drive ID. Buzz is powered by a 282 horsepower motor fed by a 91 kWh battery. This combination is rated for 234 miles of range, slightly more than the AWD Buzz' 231-mile range figure. 

Of course, my colleague and InsideEV's deputy editor Mack Hogan did drive the ID. Buzz at its launch event last year. However, his time with the van was limited to a few hours, and it was driven in Northern Calfornia. I will be driving the ID. Buzz around my home of Central Ohio during the tail end of winter for a full week. The weather is predicted to be around freezing for much of my time, but temperatures are expected to be 60-degree springtime weather before the ID. Buzz is returned.

These aren’t ideal conditions for any electric car, let alone one as big as the ID. Buzz. Yet, we all can’t live in California; my experience might be more representative to buyers who live in the rest of the country.

So, what do you want to know about the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz? Sound off in the comments, or feel free to send me an e-mail at kevin.williams@insideevs.com

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Electric cars have become a partisan punching bag like never before. Yet in 2025 they’re also more critical than ever to the future of American manufacturing. Something’s got to give. 

Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican campaign strategist turned EV advocate, hopes to change hearts and minds before his party’s trifecta has the chance to torpedo landmark pro-EV policies and the investments they’ve seeded. As things stand today, though, he says the situation looks rather "grim." He thinks EV subsidies like the $7,500 federal rebate for clean-car purchases are headed for the wood chipper. 

“Right now, if you’re a Republican member of Congress and you vote against the consumer credits—the lease and purchase for EVs—you get a total pass from the voters,” Murphy, who runs the American EV Jobs Alliance, an advocacy group, said during an interview on InsideEVs’ Plugged-In Podcast last week. “If we don’t whip up trouble in the districts and create political pushback, it’s going to be a steamroller.”

On its face, this sounds preposterous. Why on Earth would lawmakers consider kneecapping manufacturing investments that directly benefit their constituents? After all, loans, grants and tax credits established by the 2021 Inflation Reduction Act kicked off an EV manufacturing and jobs boom in the U.S., primarily in red and purple states like Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan. The EV buying incentives that President Trump has threatened to kill fuel important demand for those battery and car plants. 

The problem, according to Murphy’s polling, is that while readers of this publication probably know all of that, many voters have no idea. Or they don’t care. 

Republicans spent big attacking EVs in places like Michigan, while Democrats did little to punch back. As a result, the sheer scale of potential EV jobs and investments announced since the passage of the IRA were “the best-kept secret of the presidential campaign,” Murphy said. 

Rivian is building an EV plant in Georgia. 

Plus, he said not enough voters get that China is way ahead of the U.S. on EVs and gobbling up market share around the world, largely due to aggressive government subsidies. (A third of Republican voters think the U.S. is the biggest car producer in the world, and only a third recognize that it’s actually China by far.) On top of all that, dumping on EVs has become a “tribal” issue for Republicans, since electric cars have come to symbolize the environmentalist movement. 

“If Republicans see them not as cars but as dogma-signaling liberal mobiles, beating up on them as a Republican politician gets you applause,” he said. “And that’s where Trump is right now: Not seeing the bigger picture, and I think underestimating how important EVs are going to be in the world market in 15 years.”

Taken together, this means there’s zero “political pain” for lawmakers who move to gut the IRA, he said.

His organization wants to change that by launching a pressure campaign—focused on China and jobs issues—with the aim of turning a handful of representatives in key Republican districts. Privately, he says, members of Congress would love to protect proposed plants in their districts, but they’re also laser-focused on getting reelected.

“The average member of Congress is trying to survive the voters,” Murphy said. “Congressmen love to put on a hard hat and cut a big red ribbon. But on the other hand they don’t want a primary, and they don’t want the tribe to burn them alive.”

Hyundai Motor Group opened an EV and battery plant in Georgia called the Metaplant. 

Aside from piling pressure on elected representatives, Murphy thinks getting the message to the president could do some good too. 

After all, Trump says he’s all about revitalizing American manufacturing, and that’s what Biden-era EV policies are already doing—even if few Americans understand that. For example, the EV tax credit that’s been the target of so much vitriol only applies to cars built in North America without Chinese battery components. 

Here is Murphy’s advice to companies looking to save pro-EV policies: “Make sure your lobbyists go to the White House with a beautiful picture book of all these new plants that are going to be built, or are under construction now, that Trump can go cut ribbons at and shamelessly claim credit for in 18 months to two years."

“There’s a win here for Trump politically, but I don’t think he understands it," he said.

Got a tip about the EV world? Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com

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Kia EV9 owners in the United States will soon be able to use their EVs high-voltage battery pack to power their houses during outages thanks to the magic of vehicle-to-home integration. Furthermore, owners can take advantage of low energy rates by powering their house from the car’s battery when rates are high and replenish the battery when energy is cheap. Solar integration is also possible.

All this being said, there is a caveat: one cannot simply hook a cable to the EV9’s charging port and be done with it. A bidirectional charger is required to enable all these features, and the only compatible unit in the United States right now is the Wallbox Quasar 2.

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Wallbox said it is now taking pre-orders for the charger with deliveries set to begin in June. The electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) has several features including vehicle-to-home, vehicle-to-grid, solar charging and dynamic load management. It has a CCS1 connector, so it supports both AC and DC charging.

Whether it’s charging the EV or extracting energy from the battery and sending it to the house or the grid, the Quasar 2 can handle up to 12.48 kilowatts on AC and up to 12.8 kW on DC. Wallbox showcased the bidirectional charger’s capabilities a year ago, (video embedded below) but the product will be ready for prime time this summer.

"We're thrilled to open pre-order availability of the innovative Quasar 2 charger, including the Power Recovery Unit, to eligible Kia EV9 drivers," said Enric Asunción, CEO of Wallbox. "This cutting-edge technology allows eligible EV9 owners and lessees to take control of their energy usage and costs, while also providing backup power during power outages."

As a reminder, the Kia EV9 comes with either a 76.1 or 99.8-kilowatt-hour battery. When fully charged, the small pack could sustain an entire house for three days assuming a daily energy use of 25 kWh, while the big pack could go for almost four days.

The Wallbox bundle includes the Quasar 2 bidirectional charger and something called a Power Recovery Unit. According to the EVSE supplier, the bundle is eligible for a tax credit of up to $1,000. Pre-orders are currently limited to residents of California, Texas, Florida, New York, Washington, New Jersey and Illinois, with a nationwide rollout to follow.

Nissan's falling out with Honda was just as unexpected as talks of its potential merger. Yet, somehow, it felt inevitable—neither brand seemed interested in a true 50/50 partnership. Soon, rumors arose that the deal was to avoid a hostile takeover from Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn. Ironically, Nissan may now tap a Foxconn executive to replace its CEO.

Welcome back to Critical Materials, your daily roundup for all things electric and tech in the automotive space. Aside from Nissan's news, Volkswagen ID. Every1 will be the first VW to use Rivian's software, and GM faces another lawsuit over the OnStar data debacle. Let's jump in.

30%: Nissan Expected To Tap Foxconn Exec To Replace CEO

Nissan's CEO Makoto Uchida is in hot water. After a failed merger with Honda and only hubris to blame, the Japanese automaker's board is out for blood and Uchida is first in line to answer for a half-decade of decline in the post-Ghosn era.

It turns out that the board might already have Uchida's replacement in mind. Enter: Jun Seki, a former Nissan executive turned EV strategist for Foxconn. Yes, that very same Foxconn that is gunning for a reportedly hostile takeover of Nissan. According to a recent report from Automotive News, Nissan's board is looking to tap Seki after Uchida steps down as CEO as anticipated.

Here's the scoop from Automotive News:

The automaker is considering Jun Seki to orchestrate a financial turnaround and possibly get a derailed merger with Honda Motor Co. back on track, a person familiar with the plan told Automotive News. Seki was among a trio of leaders who took over Nissan in the wake of the 2018 arrest of then-Chairman Carlos Ghosn.

Seki is chief electric vehicle strategy officer at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the Taiwan manufacturer of iPhones also known as Foxconn. Hon Hai is interested in partnering with Nissan to diversify from contract manufacturing to building a consumer brand and retail business.

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida is expected to step down, having failed to execute on multiple business turnaround plans. Some blame Uchida’s slow pace at making reforms for the breakdown of merger talks with Honda.

“Nissan is realizing that drastic action is needed as is a strong leader to drive it,” said the person, who asked not to be identified because the CEO search discussions are private.

Seki is no stranger to Nissan. He spent more than 30 years rising through the ranks of the brand before abruptly quitting following Uchida's appointment to CEO. Seki denied that the move was due to being passed over for CEO at the time. He left Nissan to work for automotive parts supplier Nidec before moving to Foxconn.

As his title might imply, Seki is responsible for helping to guide Foxconn in the direction of becoming an EV manufacturer. The brand has been desperately trying to break into the EV game for years, building out prototype EV platforms and even making deals with Fisker (RIP) and Stellantis. Foxconn is obsessed with becoming the "Android system of the EV industry" and it will seemingly do whatever it can do to get there—including swallowing up Nissan in a desperate time.

Bringing in Seki could mean that Nissan is getting serious about a tie-up with Foxconn, possibly even as part of a new alliance that includes Honda. Honda told Automotive News that it has not been contacted regarding an alliance between the trio, but also wouldn't necessarily be opposed to it if the structure was favorable.

The bigger question is whether or not Seki even wants the job. When he left Nissan in 2019 at the age of 58, he told Reuters that he believed moving to Nidec was his "last chance to lead a company" and that he actually took a financial hit by leaving Nissan.

60%: Volkswagen's ID. Every1 Will Be The First VW To Use Rivian's Software

Volkswagen and Rivian are tied up in a mutually beneficial $5.8 billion software deal. Rumors have been swirling about just which car from the German automaker will be the first to flex this partnership, and it sure looks like we know the answer now.

Sources familiar with the plan confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday the newly-announced Volkswagen ID. Every1 will be the first car in its lineup to sport the new Rivian-sourced Zonal Architecture when it launches in 2027. 

From TechCrunch:

VW didn’t name Rivian in its reveal Wednesday, although there were numerous nods to next-generation software. Kai Grünitz, member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management responsible for technical development, noted it would be the first model in the entire VW Group to use a “fundamentally new, particularly powerful software architecture.”

“This means the future entry-level Volkswagen can be equipped with new functions throughout its entire life cycle,” he said. “Even after purchase of a new car, the small Volkswagen can still be individually adapted to customer needs.”

Sources who didn’t want to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to TechCrunch that Rivian’s software will be in the ID EVERY1 EV.

This move marks a major shift for VW. The platform was previously expected in its high-end Audi and Porsche models before rolling it out to the rest of the lineup. Instead, the ID. Every1 is jumping in line and ditching its own glitch-prone software in favor of Rivian's tech stack.

Let's be honest here: VW's in-house software game has been a hot mess. The brand's CARIAD division has proven to be problematic, which is part of the reason that Volkswagen was willing to drop billions of dollars into a partnership with a baby-faced Rivian.

Clearly, the brand has a lot of faith in the partnership if it's willing to forego limited use in low-volume luxury cars for a mass-market, sub-$25,000 commuter. That, or VW knows it has to fix its software image because the early ID-cars haven't exactly been trouble-free. An improved software experience could truly be a big selling point for the brand.

90%: GM Is In Yet Another Legal Battle Over Selling Driver Data To Insurance Companies

In 2024, General Motors was one of the automakers slammed for selling drivers' data to insurance companies through connected car features. Now, almost a year to the day, the automaker faces yet another lawsuit over allegedly deceptive practices that claim to have violated the privacy of owners who purchased OnStar-equipped cars. This time it's from Arkansas, as reported by AutoBlog.

The state's Attorney General, Tim Griffin, has filed suit accusing GM of secretly collecting driver data from OnStar-equipped vehicles and selling it to companies who, in turn, brokered the data to insurance providers—all without the explicit and intended consent of the vehicle owner.

The secret sauce is GM's "Smart Driver" program which takes note of everything from acceleration and braking to speed and cornering habits. The lawsuit claims that GM failed to clearly disclose the true intention of this data; namely that insurers would ultimately be able to access it. Some drivers claim they were automatically enrolled without knowing what they were signing up for, and opting out wasn't straightforward.

And if your insurance company happened to get a hold of your driver data and you weren't the most, ahem, law-abiding driver, then your rates might have gone up.

The idea that someone's car could not just be spying on them, but actively snitching to insurance companies might seem like some dystopian concept, but it's very real. So real, in fact, that it sparked outrage all the way up to the U.S. Senate—which called for companies like GM to be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over its role in the data privacy nightmare.

Arkansas isn't the only state taking action on GM for this kerfuffle. Texas's AG, Ken Paxton, also filed a lawsuit against GM last year on behalf of the 1.5 million Texas residents affected by the alleged illegal sale of their driver data. The brand also has 27 separate class-action lawsuits filed against it, all tracing back to the sale of this data.

100%: Where's America's Hot Hatch, EV Makers?

I'll say it: the VW ID. Every1 is cool. Granted, I have a thing for hatchbacks—it's the reason I owned a Ford Focus ST for years and will be the reason I drool over the Rivian R3X. Unfortunately, the Every1 is one of those "from Europe for Europe" deals.

That being said, we've at least got the new Chevrolet Bolt and eventually Rivian R3 on the way. But that's not enough. I'm tired of SUV-sized EVs at every turn. I want something small, zippy, and with 300 miles of range. A big ask, I know.

Is anyone in the same boat as me, wanting some sort of sweet battery-powered hot hatch to hit America's streets? Tell me all about your dream EV, whatever it may be, down in the comments.

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