BMW is thinking about making more fuel-cell cars—perhaps as an extension of its next-generation EVs. Payments have been made, and the 5,000-vehicle launch edition of the Fisker Ocean is already spoken for. And Toyota is going the extra mile with early owners of its BZ4X EV. This and more, here at Green Car Reports.
Toyota is offering a full buyback to customers with its BZ4X electric crossover affected by the ongoing wheel recall—and leading to a request not to drive these vehicles until a remedy is implemented. But the buyback is only an alternative to a suite of other goodwill options including a $5,000 credit, an extended warranty, bonus fast-charging, and free loaner cars with reimbursed fuel costs. The issue affects just 280 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada, out of 2,700 BZ4X (and 2,800 Subaru Solterras) globally.
The 5,000-unit Fisker Ocean One launch edition, for which the startup EV maker had requested a $5,000 down payment for each vehicle, is already sold out, the company reported this week in a quarterly report for investors. Fisker will start pre-orders for the Ocean Extreme versions in November, and it already has more than 4,000 reservations for the yet-unseen $29,900 Pear EV.
And while BMW is looking to create a dedicated electric vehicle platform for its Neue Klasse models arriving around the middle of the decade—and likely to spawn models around the size of the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y—BMW CEO Oliver Zipse mentioned that hydrogen fuel-cell versions are being considered, and they would be necessary to meet electrification goals of half electric by 2030. In the context of an EV skateboard, making room for the large cylinders required by hydrogen storage might not be so straightforward.
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