Author: EVAI

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• Used-vehicle wholesale prices decline

• More information sought from Waymo

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• A $25,000 electric Jeep is coming “very soon”
• The budget EV will carry the Jeep Renegade nameplate
• Stellantis said the electric Jeep Renegade will be powered by LFP batteries

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a recent interview that a $25,000 Jeep EV is coming to the U.S. soon. Now we know that it will expand on the Renegade nameplate, which was previously given to a small gasoline crossover that was discontinued after the 2023 model year.

First spotted by MoparInsiders, the Renegade name was confirmed in Stellantis’ Investor Day 2024 presentation this week at the former Chrysler Technical Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

While the presentation largely focused on software features like the company’s STLA Brain, STLA SmartCockpit, and STLA AutoDrive, it did include some mentions of of Jeep and its North American product plans. Slides showed a new Renegade arriving for the 2027 model year, with a quoted base price of “under $25K for BEV variant,” indicating a gasoline model will return as well.

Jeep North American product plan from Stellantis Investor Day 2024 presentation

The electric Renegade is expected to be a relatively small B-segment crossover similar to the outgoing model. Sources citing a media roundtable after the event noted confirmation that it will ride on the eCMP platform used by the Citroën e-C3.

The e-C3 is one of the cheapest EVs currently available in Europe, and was mentioned by Tavares as a benchmark for the $25,000 Jeep when he first spoke of it publicly.

In response to a question at the event, Tavares also said the electric Renegade would use LFP battery cells to help achieve its targeted retail price, according to Autoblog.

Jeep North American product plan from Stellantis Investor Day 2024 presentation

The Renegade will be one of several new Jeep EVs and plug-in hybrids arriving over the next few years. Jeep recently revealed the Wagoneer S, an all-electric SUV scheduled to start deliveries later this year; announced that a Gladiator 4xe plug-in hybrid will arrive next year; and confirmed the arrival next year of range-extended Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer 4xe plug-in hybrids, with a propulsion system similar to that of the Ramcharger pickup truck.

Jeep aims to have six all-electric models in its lineup by 2027, including the Wagoneer S, Renegade, an unnamed midsize SUV, and the Recon, a Wrangler-inspired off-roader. The Recon is due to be revealed in production form later this year, but it’s unclear exactly when it will go on sale.

• Honda, Mitsubishi Corp. to partner on battery-lease business
• It’s a Japan-only experiment, for now
• Company would also manage second and third battery lives—up to recycling
• Vinfast tried this model—and reconsidered

Battery leasing has long been considered as a way of helping make EVs more affordable, and it appears that Honda is embarking on a business venture that might allow that idea to be scaled up. 

The joint venture company called Altna, announced Thursday, has been formed as a 50:50 venture between Honda Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Corporation. Combining Honda’s EV smarts and connected technologies with Mitsubishi’s power-generation expertise, it aims to optimize EV usage cost, boost the lifetime value of batteries, and fill an increasing need for grid-storage batteries. 

Mitsubishi Corporation is a wide-ranging conglomerate that does include oil and gas businesses, and it owns 20% of Mitsubishi Motors, but Nissan actually owns more of Mitsubishi Motors. 

Honda will launch the plan in the Honda N-VAN e, a box-like commercial minicar launched in Japan on Thursday at a starting price of around $15,500—in the vicinity of the Nissan Sakura electric minicar that Green Car Reports drove last fall. 

Honda N-VAN e commercial EV

Leases for the vehicle’s battery will be worked around the assumption that when they reach “end-of-life” for vehicle use, the batteries will be used and managed as grid storage batteries. 

“Altna will set leasing prices based on the assumption that batteries will be utilized for a long period of time, from on-vehicle to stationary applications, which will contribute to a reduction of the financial burden on EV users,” Honda said, in a release accompanying the announcement. 

The new company will also manage the end-of-life recycling of the batteries after they’re used for grid-storage purposes, so as to recover materials used for making new cells. “Altna will continuously monitor the use conditions of EV batteries, and then recover end-of-life EV batteries based on data obtained through long-term monitoring,” the automaker explained. 

Finally, the new company will focus in on smart charging. Initially that will be in the form of charging plans that simply charge the vehicle to avoid on-peak grid times, perhaps optimizing for renewable energy. But it will later “proceed with consideration toward offering V2G services with an eye toward the opening up of the electricity market in the future.”

Could battery leasing lead to cheaper US EVs?

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe, last year told Green Car Reports and others that it would take a battery breakthrough to be able to offer a small affordable car that might be U.S.-bound. But perhaps all it might take is a new way of looking at how the costs are mapped out. 

Honda-Mitsubishi Altna battery leasing plan

Battery leasing, also called “battery as a service” as a business model, has in recent years been seen as a way of simultaneously lowering EVs prices while coordinating reuse. Hyundai is looking to create an “ecosystem” around EV batteries, it announced in 2021, and among many companies that have tried battery leasing in other markets include China’s Nio. Years ago, the Renault Zoe in Europe was one of the first EVs to offer such a plan. 

So far this company and model is limited to Japan, and it’s unclear whether it might lead to a U.S. effort. American Honda Motor declined to comment to Green Car Reports from a U.S. perspective on how this might affect our market. No automaker has as of yet tried battery leasing in the U.S. on the private-vehicle front. The closest was Vinfast, which initially priced its VF 8 and VF 9 around battery leasing. But it reconsidered the plan, which would have made these models more affordable, before the VF 8 arrived. 

• AI makes its way into Volkswagen’s maiden electric car
• VW says it’ll be used as a voice assistant
• VW also says your data won’t be at risk from in-car use

Volkswagen confirmed Thursday that it’s carrying over its refreshed lineup of VW ID.4 EV models to the new model year essentially unchanged—and with most of the lineup now offering the ChatGPT-based voice assistant that the ID.4 gained for 2024. 

As with the 2024 models, which arrived earlier this calendar year, the vast majority of the 2025 Volkswagen ID.4 lineup offers a punchier permanent-magnet rear motor unit allowing 282 hp in single-motor rear-wheel-drive form, or 335 hp in dual-motor all-wheel-drive form that includes a smaller induction motor in front. Meanwhile VW boosted ID.4 EPA range ratings to 263 miles for AWD versions or up to 291 miles for the single-motor version, both with the larger 82-kwh (77-kwh usable) battery pack.

The base ID.4 Standard, with its 62-kwh (58 kwh usable) battery pack is only offered with rear-wheel drive and keeps the 201-hp rear motor unit formerly used throughout the lineup. It also holds tight with the old 12.0-inch infotainment screen, while the rest of the lineup gets a 12.9-inch infotainment system with a revamped interface that cures, from what we could see in a first drive of the 2024 VW ID.4, nearly all of the interface ills of the ID.4 as it was initially launched. It keeps its Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, but it adds improved processing hardware to get rid of the latency, a tray of shortcuts, and climate functions that “stick” to the bottom of the screen. Supporting haptic sliders are now backlit and no longer laggy.

2024 Volkswagen ID.4

2024 Volkswagen ID.4

2024 Volkswagen ID.4

It also maintains the ChatGPT-embedded functions VW rolled out in January at CES—for which it’s been challenging to parse out what VW is doing with or without the help of AI. The automaker at that time emphasized that nothing changes for the driver. “There is no need to create a new account, install a new app or activate ChatGPT,” it summed. “If the request cannot be answered by the Volkswagen system, it is forwarded anonymously to AI and the familiar Volkswagen voice responds.”

VW has underscored, thankfully, that ChatGPT, or the integration partner Cerence, doesn’t gain access to vehicle data, and questions and answers are “deleted immediately to ensure the highest possible level of data protection.” At that time VW said that the new voice assistant could help answer general-knowledge questions, but in a CES demo Green Car Reports didn’t find it any easier than a Google search—or any more competent than Siri, which says something.

2024 Volkswagen ID.4

2024 Volkswagen ID.4

2024 Volkswagen ID.4

For 2025 this new assistant isn’t just for the ID.4. While VW didn’t list out exactly which other models in the lineup get it, it did say most of its 2025 models will get it.

Although it might be hard to tell what ChatGPT is doing as of yet, it’s not going away. VW has said that it’s developing a large-language-model-based system, once again incorporating AI, for a next-generation in-car assistant. 

VW didn’t give any arrival date for the 2025 ID.4, but it does say it will be offered once again in a total of seven trims. VW did raise the price of the 2024 ID.4, versus 2023, but they start at $41,160 with the smaller pack and $46,300 with the larger pack. All versions are eligible for the full $7,500 EV tax credit, and given no expected change in its Tennessee assembly point or trade-partner-approved battery supply, we expect the 2025 models to continue to qualify.

The 2025 BMW M5 debut is in sight BMW teased the 2025 M5 on social media The 2025 BMW M5’s front end will be defined by an illuminated grille BMW took to social media on Wednesday to confirm the debut of a new M5 will take place shortly. Together with the confirmation, BMW posted a teaser photo that reveals little apart from the car’s illuminated…

Porsche adds thousands of chargers to its app. The point-of-sale EV tax credit is very popular. And are plug-in hybrids potentially adding to future oil demand? This and more, here at Green Car Reports. 

With the release of its annual EV sales outlook, Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests that plug-in hybrids are a wild card for oil demand. With PHEVs making a comeback, and data suggesting they’ll only run 11-54% of their miles in electric mode, if PHEVs are bought instead of EVs, they’ll boost oil demand above current projections. And if they’re pushed into the market to satisfy regulators, will they be plugged in even that much?

Porsche has added thousands of ChargePoint EV chargers to its options for those driving its EVs and plug-in hybrids—meaning that the Porsche app now allows access to 75% of compatible U.S. chargers. The expansion, arriving just ahead of Porsche’s expansion of its EV lineup to include the Macan Electric as well as the Taycan, allows integrated payment through Porsche’s app. It includes Level 2 “destination” chargers as well as DC fast-charging connectors. 

And according to the U.S. Treasury Department, EV buyers in recent months are overwhelmingly opting to claim their federal EV tax credit when they buy the vehicle. On Wednesday it revealed that 90% of eligible EV buyers in 2024 have opted to claim the credit at the point of sale—and 80% of eligible used EV buyers are claiming it that way. 

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The 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans marks the return of McLaren to the iconic race after a 26-year hiatus The McLaren 720S GT3 Evo will race this year McLaren took the overall win at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans with a F1 GTR It was in 1995 that a McLaren F1 GTR was driven to outright victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, beating a number of faster…

• Plug-in hybrids might add to oil consumption estimates, says BNEF
• New EPA guidelines might give plug-in hybrids a pass, if drivers don’t plug them in
• Meanwhile, automakers have softened their battery-electric sales targets

The global fleet of internal-combustion vehicles will peak in 2025, but plug-in hybrids may determine whether this leads to decreased oil demand, according to new analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Sales of internal-combustion vehicles already peaked in 2017, and BNEF expects them to be 29% below that peak in 2027. While BNEF still expects EVs to be “the primary method of decarbonizing road transport,” right now sales are slowing in established markets while plug-in hybrids are “making a comeback,” analysts note.

Electric range for plug-in hybrids is also increasing, averaging 80 kilometers (49.7 miles) in 2023, but the share of kilometers driven in electric mode is around 11% to 54% of total distances driven, depending on the country and owner type, analysts found.

Plug-in hybrid electric mode usage and global oil demand (via BNEF)

“If PHEVs are displacing BEV sales and are not utilizing their full electric driving potential, they add to oil demand in our analysis,” BNEF noted. In the U.S., the EPA has potentially given them a pass with new regulations, and it’s unclear how often drivers will truly plug in.

Meanwhile, EV markets are not traveling at the same speed, according to the analysis. Some markets the U.S., Germany, and Italy have seen slowing sales, and automakers—such as Mercedes-Benz—have softened EV targets. But markets like China, India, and France are still seeing “healthy growth.”

EV sales are also still growing on a global level, helped by expansion in developing economies. Thailand, India, Turkey, Brazil and others are seeing record EV sales thanks to an influx of low-cost models targeted at local buyers, according to BNEF, which adds that much of this product comes from Chinese manufacturers eager to find new markets.

BYD Shark plug-in hybrid pickup

BNEF points out that dropping battery prices are mostly a good thing for the EV market. As Goldman Sachs noted earlier this year, a 40% drop in battery sales will help EVs reach cost parity with internal combustion as soon as next year in some segments of the market, without subsidies. And increasing use of LFP battery cells will decrease demand for nickel and manganese, further improving the economic and environmental picture for EVs, BNEF noted.

Another point made by this analysis is that EV sales and fleet turnover are very different things. BNEF estimates that, even with rapid EV adoption, less than 50% of of the global passenger-vehicle fleet will be electric at this rate. In the U.S. and abroad, it begs the question as to whether regulators are focusing too much on EV sales and not enough on retiring internal-combustion vehicles. 

Volkswagen presented an updated Golf range earlier this year, but the high-performance Golf R variant is yet to debut. It’s set to be revealed shortly and will start sales together with the updated Golf GTI in the U.S. in early 2025. BMW’s 2-Series has also been updated, including the M2 variant. While the regular coupe only benefits from some…

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