Author: EVAI

• Toyota suspends more vehicle shipments in Japan

• Penske Automotive Q2 net income falls 20%

• Stellantis sues dealership

• BYD preparing to enter Canadian auto market

Prices are up across the board for the Hyundai Kona Electric in 2025, but so is standard equipment.

The ’25 Kona Electric also gains a new trim level: the N Line, which gets sporty trim inside and out, to mirror the version that’s sold with a gas engine. 

Regardless of trim, the electric Kona continues to outshine gasoline versions of the redesigned hatchback, and it continues to be one of the lowest-priced new EVs in the U.S.

This year’s Kona Electric SE costs at least $34,270, up $260 from last year. That includes a $60 boost in destination charges, up to $1,395 from $1,335.

The SE continues as the only model that gets a smaller 48.6-kwh battery pack, which offers 133 hp and 200 miles of EPA-rated range (for the 2024 model year; the EPA hasn’t published 2025 data, yet). 

The Kona Electric SEL costs $38,270 for 2025. The cost increase is the same—but it upgrades to the 64.8-kwh pack that returns 261 miles of range and also powers the N Line and Limited models. It’s rated at 201 hp.

The $39,670 N Line slots in below the $42,445 Kona Electric Limited, which costs only $65 more than last year.

Among the features found in the Kona Electric, ambient lighting moves from the Limited trim down to the new N Line trim and LED interior lighting now spotlights the SEL, N Line, and Limited trim levels.

V2L capacity now factors in across all four editions: SE, SEL, N Line, and Limited.

Otherwise the Kona Electric carries over for the 2025 model year. Last year, all models received a larger 12.3-inch touchscreen that brought with it wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a built-in wifi hotspot, and over-the-air (OTA) software updates. The Kona family, which was new for 2024, also sports more interior room than before, as well as options including a power tailgate and a head-up display.

 The Kona Hybrid that’s sold in other global markets still remains out of reach for American shoppers: Hyundai has focused its HEV and PHEV efforts on larger Tucson and Santa Fe crossover SUVs and the Elantra and Sonata sedans.

Hyundai has been spotted testing a prototype for an updated Ioniq 6 electric sedan for the first time. The prototype is heavily camouflaged but appears to wear a new front-end design. The biggest clue are the headlights which feature a new shape and sit lower than on the current model. It also appears the rear fascia has been revised, with the new…

The average Credit Acceptance second-quarter auto loan financed $26,816 in principal and interest, paid the dealership a $12,278 advance and was slated to run for 61 months.

• Uber partnered with BYD for 100,000 EVs for the ride-hailing service
• The partnership could get BYD into the U.S. while skirting retail sales
• Uber’s targeting a zero-emissions platform by 2040 and going all-electric by 2030 in some markets

Uber on Wednesday announced a partnership with BYD to bring 100,000 of the Chinese automaker’s EVs to its ride-hailing platform—laying the groundwork for BYD EVs to reach the U.S.

The agreement—the largest so far between Uber and an automaker—will see the ride-hailing giant deploy BYD vehicles “in key global markets,” starting with Europe and Latin America, according to a company press release, and later expanding to include the Middle East, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

While the U.S. was not mentioned, the Uber partnership gives BYD a way into the U.S. other than retail sales, which are unlikely to remain an option for the automaker given current high tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles, something that’s unlikely to change regardless of which party wins the 2024 presidential election.

BYD Seal

In Uber, BYD now has a large potential customer for fleet use of its EVs, something that failed to develop in the automaker’s previous efforts to enter the U.S. Marketed mainly as a taxi, the BYD e6 was even certified for sale in the U.S., but customers didn’t bite. BYD, which regularly competes with Tesla for the most EV sales, currently sells EVs like the Seal in Mexico, and is also considering entering the Canadian market, Reuters reports.

Uber claims its drivers are going electric five times faster than private car owners, but that driver surveys show that price and lack of financing options remain major barriers for those that haven’t made the switch. To address this, Uber and BYD will work to provide EVs to ride-hailing drivers at lower cost, the release said.

The partnership may include financing and lease offers for drivers, as well as discounts on charging, maintenance, and insurance, “based on what works best for drivers in a given market,” the release said.

BYD Dolphin EV – Euro spec

The two companies will also partner on future “autonomous-capable vehicles” developed by BYD to be used by Uber. The ride-hailing company has long considered EVs designed specifically for its ride-hailing and delivery services, also working with startup Arrival on a good-looking design that was later dropped by the startup. Among established automakers, Hyundai seemed like the most logical partner for Uber EVs on the ground, given the two companies’ existing partnership to develop electric air taxis.

Efforts to acquire more EVs feed into Uber’s targeting a “zero-emission platform” by 2040, with the goal to be all-electric by 2030 in some markets. In California, that will simply mean compliance with an EV mandate for ride-hailing services passed in 2021, which requires companies like Uber to go all-electric by the end of the decade.

The Federal Reserve indicated labor supply and demand are in sync in the U.S. economy for the first time in years. But suppliers are still lagging behind.

The Federal Reserve opted against changing its benchmark rate during its July meeting, attempting to restrict future inflation for consumers but leaving them receiving higher interest rates than they might like on financed purchases like vehicles.

Ford is offering owners of the 2024 Mustang Mach-E GT a little performance boost by way of an over-the-air update. Using the FordPass app and paying a one-time cost of $995, a Performance Upgrade can be installed that drops the 0-60 mph time a few fractions of a second to just 3.3 seconds, or quicker than what a Tesla Model Y Performance or…

• A6 and S6 Sportback E-Tron electric cars arrive in North America next spring or summer
• The first cars using Audi’s new platform cut a sharp shape
• A 94.9-kwh usable battery pack supports three models

The Audi A6 and S6 Sportback E-Tron join the Porsche Macan EV and Audi Q6 E-Tron SUVs as the first cars to utilize Volkswagen Group’s new Premium Platform Electric (PPE). 

These new underpinnings provide more range, promise better driving dynamics, optimizes the interior space, and introduces a new digital dash. 

A first drive of the Q6 E-Tron SUV earlier this summer and a media preview of the A6 Sportback E-Tron in mid-July in Munich, Germany, have shown Green Car Reports that PPE positions Audi to be a leader in electrification. 

Technically, Audi was there first. The Audi E-Tron launched the brand’s electric ambitions in 2018 for the North American market. The E-Tron joined the more expensive Tesla Model X and discontinued Jaguar I-Pace as the first electric crossovers to market. Audi played it safe by making the E-Tron as much like the combustion Q8 as possible, and Audi did it so well that it earned Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2020.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

So much has changed in five years, including a new 2024 Q8 E-Tron. While the Q8 showcases how much can change for a single electric model, the A6 and related Q6 show how much more is possible on a dedicated platform used not just on several model lines but across VW AG’s many brands.

The flexible PPE and its 800-volt electric architecture will be used on at least 10 electric models launched globally in the next few years.

Gernot Döllner

“The future will be an all-electric portfolio,” Audi CEO Gernot Döllner confirmed in a press briefing in Munich. “We have a lot of debate in Europe about the speed of that. We’ll be flexible for the next 10 years.”

By 2027, Audi plans to have a battery electric offering in every core segment, and in two years time the brand will have a new combustion portfolio. Audi still forecasts a fully electric lineup by 2033, even as automakers ranging from Cadillac to Mercedes-Benz and even its Porsche family member walk back those all-electric targets. The A6 and S6 hatchbacks will rival existing models ranging from the Mercedes-Benz EQE, BMW i5, and Tesla Model S.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

In the meantime, the new A6 E-Tron illustrates Audi’s new naming convention, where even-numbered models are electric and odd-numbered models are combustion vehicles, also on a new Premium Platform Combustion heralded by the 2025 Audi A5. 

“We will need these vehicles to bridge to the all-electric future,” Döllner iterated. 

For the time being, Audi holds fast to the balky E-Tron naming convention for EVs.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron builds a bridge

The 2025 A6 E-Tron spearheads Audi’s mainstream electric sedans, excepting the $130,000 E-Tron GT that’s also refreshed for 2025. The electric A6 embodies the understated poise that has defined Audi design for decades. 

The hood cascades down between slim daytime running lights bejeweled with a three-dimensional design. Customizable light signatures crown a solid grille studded with faux levers as part of Audi’s “inverted grille” design, where the lower grille is open except for the radar housings. Plastic corners with recessed intakes hold up the LED headlights in a raccoon mask of black. A splitter lips the bottom. The grille optimizes airflow while minimizing drag, Audi tells us, and helps make the A6 Sportback E-Tron the most aerodynamic vehicle in the VW Group family with a 0.21 coefficient of drag.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

You may notice the welcome light show more. With the optional light package, the four-ring logo illuminates in red at the tail and white on the nose. Brush your hand on the hood above the rings up front and it pops the frunk, which is large enough to fit a stuffed backpack or the cable for the 9.6-kw onboard charger. In the rear, a light arrow appears on the ground to wave your foot and pop the hatch with no hands.

Walk up to the car and it illuminates like a good pup sitting and waiting, its tail wagging, instead of other automakers’ light shows that can be too much, like a pup jumping all over you. In the back, ten OLED panels and a light bar span the raised hatch and integrated spoiler. It too has eight customizable light signatures, like the front, and in some markets the taillights can flash a hazard triangle to reflect danger up ahead or it can generate other images in concert with whatever the algorithms are picking up from the five onboard computers supporting Audi’s digital architecture.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

There’s a lot promised, and features such as car-to-X communications and the adaptive matrix LED headlights won’t be available for North America for now, but this evolution of using the taillights to communicate to other drivers could be far more significant than the third brake light mandated in the U.S. in 1986. 

Getting other automakers and cars to speak the same language is a separate hurdle.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

Even the customizable light signatures are subject to different U.S. regulations; they can only be changed when you’re parked. Blame U.S. regulators for the chunky side mirrors instead of the slim side-mirror cameras available in other markets; that ups the coefficiency of drag from 0.21 to 0.22 in North America. 

Another non-American thing? The gorgeous Avant wagon model, muscular in all the right places yet toned on the ends, won’t come to North America.

In profile short overhangs and slim wheel gaps house 19-inch wheels standard on the A6, 20-inchers standard on the S6, or optional 21-inch wheels. The curved roofline and raised haunches lend it the sophistication of a grand tourer but with a prominent Sportback rear. A black E-Tron blade breaks up the rocker panels and signals the thick, nearly 6-inch floor housing the 100-kwh battery pack (94.9 usable).

PPE platform for VW Group, developed by Porsche/Audi

Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron specs and the PPE

• A6 Sportback E-Tron RWD, 362 hp, 0-60 mph in 5.2 seconds
• A6 Sportback E-Tron Quattro, 422 hp, 0-60 mph in 4.3 seconds
• S6 Sportback E-Tron Quattro, up to 543 hp, 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds

Underneath its toned Sportback skin, the A6 E-Tron gets most of the same mechanicals as the Q6 E-Tron SUV that marked Audi’s first big evolutionary EV lift. 

When it goes on sale here next spring or summer as a 2025 model (we’re confident it will be changed to a 2026 model) it will be offered in three variants bulleted above.

New Audi S6 E-Tron Sportback

The low-set battery pack consists of 12 modules of 15 prismatic cells made of more energy-dense nickel-cobalt-manganese lithium-ion cells. The A6 E-Tron uses a 280-kw permanent magnet synchronous motor in back as the main propulsion unit, while a 140-kw induction motor on the front axle helps with takeoff and supplements heavy power demands. The front motor spins freely, when cruising for greater efficiency. 

New motor designs weigh less and require about 30% less installation space than the motors used in the Q4 and Q8, with more efficiency and about half of the friction losses versus Audi’s last-gen motors. Curb weight, range estimates, torque, and other specs were not finalized for the A6. 

Audi fits the S6 with an air suspension with adaptive dampers. Audi says the front and rear tires will be sized differently, wider in the rear, with the demo S6 cars wearing Michelin Pilot Sports 245/40R21s up front and 275/35R21s in back. We don’t know if that will carry over to the U.S.

New Audi S6 E-Tron Sportback

A6 Sportback E-Tron braking

Audi says that 95% of everyday braking in the A6 E-Tron can be handled by both motors, and it can recuperate up to 220 kw. The Q6 can capture up to 0.25 g of deceleration, but Audi didn’t have that spec finalized for the A6. Paddle shifters can adjust the regen levels, from coasting to grabby, or the “B” mode in the console gear selector enables one-pedal driving. An Auto mode modulates regen braking from the camera system reading the road and traffic ahead.

Audi did not want to talk range, especially for the U.S., but in European spec it targeted a range of 750 kilometers, or 466 miles on the very generous WLTP cycle. Maybe the A6 E-Tron RWD will reach 375 miles on the EPA cycle?

New Audi S6 E-Tron Sportback

A6 Sportback E-Tron charging

The PPE’s 800-volt system accepts a DC fast-charge of up to 270 kw, if you can find a public charger pumping electrons at that rate. Audi estimates a 10-80% state-of-charge in 21 minutes, and the first 10 minutes of charge at that rate could recoup nearly 135 miles of range. That’s fast. 

Owners can use Plug & Charge at Electrify America stations that automatically connect to your account, so you don’t need to swipe a card. Even at an EA station rated at 135 kw, the 800-volt charging system virtually splits into twin 400-volt circuits that can charge in parallel in 35 minutes. At home, on a 50-amp 240-volt AC circuit, the A6 E-Tron’s 9.6-kw onboard charger will fill the battery in about 10 hours.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

Audi A6 Sportback E-Tron interior space and digital dash 

• A6 Sportback E-Tron measures 58.7 inches tall, 194 inches long, 75.7 inches wide
• A6 Sportback E-Tron has a 116-inch wheelbase, and plenty of room for four adults
• The hatch measures 26 cubic feet or 40 cubic feet with the rear seats folded

The new A6 E-Tron is about the same length as the outgoing gas model but it’s at least an inch taller and wider, and I could fit easily in the rear seats, with a fist-full of headroom for my 5-foot-8 stature. 

A panoramic sunroof with six grades of opacity opens up the space, and the demo cars showcased Audi’s finest quilted leather.

New Audi A6 E-Tron Sportback

The A6 E-Tron embraces the brand’s “Digital Stage” rolling out in new models on these new platforms, including the Q6 E-Tron and the new Audi A5 sedan. The curved panoramic display starts with the crystal clear 11.9-inch digital instrument cluster that shows vehicle info and whatever the exterior sensors are picking up. It holds a small message board of colored dots and dashes that reflect what the voice assistant is processing. The same system in the Q6 had good fidelity and, aided by AI, it can process more than 800 vehicle commands and general interest questions.

The voice commands lessen the need for the 14.5-inch touchscreen interface that evolves Audi’s already excellent graphics. Users can easily press and drag apps to their desired position, rearrange info hierarchies, and customize tile displays. Beside it is a 10.9-inch passenger touchscreen for private streaming or to help navigate; the passenger can override the nav settings from their screen. One cool available feature will be a 20-speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system that includes headrest speakers creating two sound zones—one for the driver to listen to nav directions, for instance, without disrupting the passenger’s Netflix and chill.

Pricing and full U.S. specs won’t be released until closer to late spring, but in Germany the A6 Sportback E-Tron Quattro will cost 75,600 euros, or about $82,000, and the S6 slots at 99,500 euros, or about $108,000. We’ll see. 

Audi paid for lodging and airfare for Green Car Reports to present this firsthand report.

The A6 E-Tron and S6 E-Tron replace the gas-powered A6 in Audi’s lineup The A6 and S6 E-Trons arrive in the U.S. next spring or summer Audi hasn’t said how much the A6 E-Tron and S6 E-Tron will cost Audi on Wednesday took the covers off the new A6 E-Tron and its S6 E-Tron performance variant. Available as a Sportback hatch or Avant wagon…