Author: EVAI

A fully electric Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class with EQ Technology arrives in 2026 The electric compact crossover will be among the first models on the MB.EA dedicated EV platform A related C-Class with EQ Technology is also due next year Mercedes-Benz plans to launch an electric GLC-Class next year, alongside a related electric C-Class. The compact duo…

The Chevrolet Suburban and GMC Yukon XL are pure America. These full-size three-row SUV provide plenty of everything, including space, power, equipment, and options. The 2025 Chevrolet Tahoe and 2025 GMC Yukon are cousins that share their underpinnings, powertrains, features and most options. The chrome-laden GMC Yukon Denali meets its match in…

Toyota brought back the Land Cruiser, kind of The Land Cruiser’s coarse, cheap, unrefined, and poorly packaged America deserves the real Land Cruiser, known as the 300 Series Enthusiasts bemoaned the death of the Toyota Land Cruiser in 2021. We then rejoiced upon its return in 2024. Disappointment has ensued for many, though not all, that…

Massachusetts will give residents free bidirectional electric vehicle chargers if they participate in a statewide bidirectional charging demonstration program.

Run by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (CEC), the program aims to place bidirectional chargers at residences and with fleet operators to show the possibilities of using EVs to supplement the grid or provide backup power for homes and buildings.

Nissan Leaf and Fermata Energy FE-15 bidirectional charger – Photo by Fermata Energy

Participants with EVs capable of bidirectional charging will receive free charging equipment, with installation costs also covered, in exchange for sharing data on charger use and maintenance, as well as potentially providing feedback on the experience of using bidirectional chargers, according to an FAQ document for the program. EV owners will get to keep the chargers after the program is finished.

By the numbers of chargers, it’s a relatively small program. The CEC plans to allocate 50-60 chargers for single-family homes, with an emphasis on environmental justice communities, and additional 30-40 chargers for commercial fleets across three to five sites, and 10-20 chargers for electric school buses across three sites.

Electric school buses with Zum bidirectional charging stations

Applications for the program open in April, with onsite assessments in July through December. The CEC did not list a definitive date for the start of charger installations, but said it’s aiming to complete them by September 2026, with data reporting for the project wrapping up that December.

Numerous pilot programs and demonstrations have been conducted over the years around the ability of EVs to discharge power from their battery packs for other uses, but they’ve become more relevant as automakers like General Motors and Hyundai/Kia have begun building more vehicles with this capability. California has even floated a requirement for bidirectional charging capability in future EVs sold within its borders.

Hyundai and Kia likely won’t have solid-state batteries ready for electric vehicles before the end of the decade, an executive said in an interview with Automotive News published Thursday.

“I don’t think we can commercialize these batteries before 2030,” Spencer Cho, head of global product planning for Kia, said Feb. 24 at the automaker’s EV Day presentation in Tarragona, Spain.

The three brands under the Hyundai Motor Group umbrella, including Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis, are pooling efforts to develop solid-state batteries in-house, Cho said. But whether that will lead to commercially-viable tech is unclear.

2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9

“Once our engineers believe that we have credible technologies that we can bring, then we might produce them on our own, Cho said, adding that “there is a lot of uncertainty about the progress of solid-state batteries.”

Hyundai has been proactive in developing its own LFP batteries that it can scale up for affordable EVs, independent of Chinese suppliers CATL and BYD, which today dominate the chemistry originally developed in the U.S. But the more conservative approach to solid-state batteries could leave the door open for a supplier stepping up ahead of Hyundai’s own in-house effort. Korean supplier SK On, for instance, sounds more optimistic and it recently claimed solid-state battery “breakthroughs”—in two different variants that could be put into running prototypes by 2027 and 2029.

Genesis Neolun Concept – 2024 New York Auto Show

There’s a handful of automaker-supported firms and startups working to develop the solid-state batteries, too. But among automakers themselves working on the tech, the major Japanese automakers appear more confident in it than Hyundai Motor Group. 

Nissan has pushed along with its own internal solid-state battery program and is hoping that they’ll help revolutionize and simplify the EV—with smaller battery packs and less or no cooling needs. Honda, too, has its own solid-state program and sees them arriving before the end of the decade—and as potentially enabling affordable EVs by 2030. Toyota also still plans to ramp up solid-state batteries for production models later this decade.

• Mercedes-AMG is reportedly a few months away from revealing the quickest-accelerating car in the company’s history.
• It’s a fully electric supercar that will serve as a showcase for what AMG has in store for its future EVs.
• Its design won’t be dissimilar to the Mercedes One-Eleven concept, which means it will look like a traditional mid-engined supercar.

Mercedes-AMG is working on its first dedicated series EVs, a high-performance SUV and a sedan, which will be launched sometime around 2026. Until then, the company will reportedly give us a taste of what it can do with electricity by unveiling a one-off electric supercar concept—a vehicle that will become the quickest-accelerating Mercedes ever when it’s revealed later this year.

Perhaps the biggest news about the concept, is that it could be powered by a solid-state battery. Mercedes is already testing this tech in a prototype on public roads. It will also showcase AMG’s next-generation electric powertrain, which includes axial flux electric motors that are smaller and several times more powerful than the drive units used in today’s EVs.

The concept will bear a resemblance to the Mercedes One-Eleven concept from 2023. According to an unnamed high-ranking insider quoted by Autocar, the upcoming concept is “not a million miles away” from the One-Eleven, which suggests it will have a retro-inspired design. The One-Eleven is a modern reinterpretation of the C111 series of 16 experimental mid-engined vehicles made in the early 1970s.

AMG doesn’t have a bespoke mid-engined car in its past to draw from, so its inspiration could be another Mercedes car, like the C112, which was an evolution of the C111. Regardless of its design, it sounds like this concept will be more of a technology showcase, hinting at where AMG will go next.

The unnamed insider noted that “Where the EQXX aimed to go the furthest, this aims to go the fastest. It will be the fastest-accelerating car AMG has ever produced.” They said it will redefine what an electric performance car is and what it can do.

Even though AMG doesn’t have any dedicated electric models on sale today, it is a performance EV pioneer with the SLS AMG Electric Drive produced in very limited numbers between 2013 and 2014. What makes it special is its quad-motor setup, which made it exciting enough to turn Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, an outspoken critic of EVs, into a fan.

There’s nothing confirmed or floating in the rumor mill suggesting a quad-motor Mercedes-AMG EV is coming, but it’s not out of the question. Mercedes’ rival BMW has confirmed plans to put up to four independent motors in its upcoming electric M models, so it’s fair to assume that Mercedes, which briefly produced such a model in the past and offers a similar setup in the electric G class, is doing the same.

This unheard-of level of performance alluded to by the insider comes courtesy of mixing a high-voltage 800-volt platform with four motors and a solid-state battery. The latter offers many advantages over current lithium-ion batteries, but it should also be smaller and lighter, which is crucial when looking to make a performance car fun and responsive to drive.

The AMG One is currently the quickest car to wear a Mercedes badge. Its plug-in hybrid powertrain mixes a small-capacity V6 with electric turbocharging and two electric motors to produce a combined 1,049 horsepower and sprints to 62 mph (100 kph) in 2.9 seconds. It shouldn’t be hard to make a pure EV with a quicker sprint time than that.

To make this new AMG concept world-beating, it would have to come close to a Rimac Nevera. It’s currently the quickest road-legal production EV in the world, capable of reaching 60 mph in under 2 seconds thanks to its four individual motors. But while it’s the quickest in a straight line, it can’t quite keep up with the ludicrously grippy McMurtry Speirling which employs a fan to create immense downforce, even at low speed.

Having created the SLS Electric Drive over a decade ago and one of the most advanced EV programs of any automaker today, Mercedes could produce something really special. Since it’s a one-off, it’s clearly more a statement of intent and a sign of what future AMG EVs might be like. It will serve a similar role to the EQXX study, whose technology will find its way into electric Mercedes models beginning with the new CLA.

The second model based on the new AMG.EA platform has been spotted testing The vehicle is an electric full-size SUV that will follow an electric liftback, also based on the AMG.EA platform Camouflaged prototypes hint at styling inspired by the Vision AMG concept from 2022 Mercedes-Benz plans to launch dozens of new models over the next two years…

The 2025 Honda Prologue electric SUV receives range and power boosts for its second model year, but remains priced just under $50,000.

All versions still have an 85-kwh battery pack, but Honda claims a 12-mile increase for the longest-range single-motor front-wheel-drive models, to 308 miles on the EPA cycle. Honda also expects EPA ratings for dual-motor all-wheel-drive models to increase by 13 miles, to 294 miles, for EX and Touring grades. The dual-motor Elite grade, with its 21-inch wheels and higher equipment level, is now estimated at 283 miles—10 more than previously.

A new front drive unit increases the output of single-motor models by 8 hp and 7 lb-ft of torque, to 220 hp and 243 lb-ft. All-wheel-drive models see increases of 12 hp and 25 lb-ft, to 300 hp and 355 lb-ft of torque.

2025 Honda Prologue

The Prologue’s peak DC fast-charging rate of 150 kw is unchanged, allowing to gain 65 miles in 10 minutes of charging or get from 20-80% in 35 minutes. An 11.5-kw onboard charger allows for an eight-hour full charge for at least some of the lineup, given a 48-amp wallbox on a 60-amp circuit.

Honda expects all 2025 Prologue models to remain eligible for the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit—assuming it doesn’t go away. Even without the tax credit, the base single-motor Prologue EX’s starting price of $48,850 (including a $1,450 destination charge) is just $55 higher than the 2024 model year when it was new. Touring and Elite grades start at $53,150 and $59,350, respectively. All-wheel drive is a $3,000 option on the EX and Touring, but standard on the Elite.

The Prologue is based on a General Motors platform, but in a first drive of the 2024 model we found it to be a good on-ramp for current Honda owners looking to embrace EVs. That should make it a good warm-up for Honda’s in-house 0 Series EVs, the first of which are due to arrive in 2026.

Mercedes-Benz will unveil the Vision V van concept in early 2025 The concept is based on the new Van.EA platform The production model is confirmed for the U.S. in luxury guise, though the timing remains uncertain Mercedes-Benz will unveil a concept in the spring previewing a midsize van that will form part of the automaker’s next-generation family…

What kind of vehicle is the 2025 Honda Prologue? What does it compare to? The 2025 Honda Prologue is an all-electric crossover SUV. Compare it to the Tesla Model Y, the Nissan Ariya, and its close cousins from General Motors, the Chevrolet Equinox EV and Blazer EV. Is the 2025 Honda Prologue a good SUV? It’s an appealing, if largely…