Volvo EX90 particulars, Wrangler 4xe recall, EV battery costs, Tesla Cybertruck: The Week in Reverse


What did Hyundai and Kia current as higher than in-wheel motors?

And which electrical truck are consumers most enthusiastic about? Trace: It’s not the Cybertruck. 

That is our look again on the Week In Reverse—proper right here at Inexperienced Automobile Reviews—for the week ending December 1, 2023.

The Tesla Cybertruck was revealed Thursday in manufacturing kind, and the Cybertruck’s stainless-steel building, steer-by-wire system, and packaging like no different truck are all noteworthy firsts. Tesla made loads of claims about its efficiency—like out-accelerating a Porsche 911, whereas towing a 911—but it surely didn’t reside as much as a number of the key pragmatic targets it had beforehand set for pricing and vary. However the Cybertruck may even be the first Tesla with bidirectional charging. With the rollout of Powershare, the Cybertruck and future Tesla fashions will be capable of present energy for worksites or campsites, or for dwelling backup, or for charging different EVs.

2025 Tesla Cybertruck - Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

2025 Tesla Cybertruck – Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

U.S. pricing for the 2025 Volvo EX90 electrical SUV is out—and at $77,990 to begin, this luxurious mannequin’s lineup picks up proper round the place the Kia EV9 tops out. And at below $80,000, this U.S.-made EV is prone to be tax-credit-eligible. 

Some house owners of the 2021-2024 Jeep Wrangler 4xe—sure, that’s the bestselling plug-in hybrid within the U.S.—are being advised to not cost, and to not park close to buildings or different autos. In about 32,000 probably affected autos, Stellantis will likely be utilizing diagnostic software program to examine for a battery-pack situation, however the variety of autos with the flaw is way smaller. 

2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe

2021 Jeep Wrangler 4xe

Volkswagen’s Scout EV model is reportedly planning to outsource the event of its upcoming electrical SUV and pickup to Austria’s Magna—the identical agency that builds the Mercedes G-Class, Jaguar I-Tempo, and Fisker Ocean. These could possibly be the 2 merchandise set to be made in South Carolina in 2026, so it’s but unclear how Magna may also change into concerned in that.

Nissan on Monday confirmed that it’ll make the next-generation Nissan Leaf plus electrical variations of the Juke and Qashqai crossovers, at its U.Okay. manufacturing unit for the European market. With that, it confirmed the look of those upcoming fashions as taking after the Chill-Out, Hyper Punk, and Hyper City ideas, respectively. 

Hyundai and Kia Uni Wheel drive system for EVs

Hyundai and Kia Uni Wheel drive system for EVs

Hyundai and Kia have proven an various to in-wheel motors that accomplishes a number of the similar packaging objectives. Referred to as the Common Wheel Drive System, or Uni Wheel, it strikes a planetary gearset into the wheel, with downsized motors close by, bypassing the necessity for CV joints. 

Based on the newest annual survey from Shopper Reviews, EV reliability is worse than ICE fashions. Drawing from greater than 330,000 autos from the previous a number of mannequin years, CR discovered that autos with a cost port had been extra trouble-prone—with plug-in hybrids the worst—whereas hybrid reliability continues to surpass that of non-hybrids.

An annual survey assessing shopper curiosity in electrical vehicles, out this morning, confirmed “a slowdown in enthusiasm from consumers of all stripes”—though consumers stay very excited in regards to the Tesla Cybertruck and the potential for a Toyota electrical pickup. 

Toyota EPU concept

Toyota EPU idea

Stable-state battery tech guarantees positive aspects in power density and charging, and their arrival could possibly be a game-changing second for the EV market. However in accordance with current figures from Toyota, which is among the leaders in growing the tech, it’s going to stay in area of interest provide even by 2030—a lot that, by then, Toyota seems to see extra hydrogen fuel-cell autos than solid-state EVs.

EV battery costs are dropping once more. Due to a variety of components—most notably, the underutilization of battery crops, which freed up supplies and lowered costs—lithium-ion EV battery pack costs have dropped 14% this yr to a brand new low of $139/kwh. 

Lotus Flash Charge DC fast-charging hardware

Lotus Flash Cost DC fast-charging {hardware}

The efficiency model Lotus is thought for its quick vehicles, however now it’s providing up a number of the quickest EV chargers on the earth. Whereas they’re set to benefit from its upcoming Eletre electrical SUV, the record of EVs that may reap the benefits of the additional cost energy at this level may be very brief. 

Fewer EV drivers might have to fret about plugging in every evening due to some last steerage introduced final week concerning {hardware} parts for EV wi-fi charging. This “lacking piece” of standardization that permits automobile parking techniques to help with exact alignment over charging pads, might give the tech a long-awaited jumpstart. 

Nio is on to one thing with its battery-swapping enterprise, which has lately began scaling up in Europe. Geely, the mum or dad of Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus, has simply partnered with Nio for battery-swapping in China—and for future “a unified battery swap operation” between manufacturers. 

Hyundai at Tesla Supercharger

Hyundai at Tesla Supercharger

And Inexperienced Automobile Reviews rounded up all of the manufacturers which have introduced a shift to the Tesla NACS cost port for EV charging. It began in Could with a joint announcement between Tesla and Ford CEOs, however the shift has continued even this month with bulletins from Subaru and Lucid. Getting EVs from all these manufacturers beginning to flood Supercharger stations subsequent yr could possibly be one of many causes Tesla is imposing a $1-per-minute Supercharger congestion price.

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