Category: General

• Tesla’s installing longer cables on its Superchargers
• Superchargers can now detect when a non-Tesla EV is plugged in
• Tesla’s Supercharger software will take into where a vehicle’s charge port is located

Tesla is installing longer cables and making other changes to accommodate EVs from other brands at its Supercharger DC fast-charging stations.

The official Tesla Charging account on X (formerly known as Twitter) the social media network owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, recently posted that the automaker is increasing the number of longer-cable V4 chargers and expects them to outnumber short-cable chargers within the next 18 months.

Tesla has also modified over 1,500 sites to avoid drivers blocking a charging space to reach a charger, and has updated the software that tells Tesla drivers which charging stalls are available, according to the same post.

Chevrolet EVs at a Tesla Supercharger station

To further account for EVs potentially blocking spaces to plug into chargers with short cables, Tesla claims it can now detect when an EV with a charge port located somewhere other than the left rear or right front of the vehicle is plugged in at shorter-cable spots in an effort not to overpromise on charger availability.

This is possible because Tesla can now detect what type of vehicle is plugged in, Max de Zegher, Tesla’s director of charging in North American said in an X post, adding that the charger-availability algorithm now refreshes about every 15 seconds.

Polestar 3 at a Tesla Supercharger station

A migration of most major car brands to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) began in May 2023 with Ford, followed the formalization of NACS as a true standard by the SAE and the backing of that standard by the Biden administration, which has prioritized funding for expansion of public charging. Musk, meanwhile, nearly shuttered the Supercharger team earlier this year before backtracking and promising a $500 million expansion of the network.

Such expansion will likely be needed as more automakers equip their EVs to charge at Supercharger stations. To date, Ford, General Motors, Rivian, Polestar, and Volvo have made adapters available to customers, while the first non-Tesla EVs with built-in NACS ports are expected to appear in 2025.

• 145,235 Hyundai and Genesis EVs have been recalled
• The recall stems from a potential issue with the onboard charger
• The issue results in a potential loss in drive power

Hyundai is recalling 145,235 electric vehicles from its main brand and Genesis luxury brand because of a potential issue with onboard chargers that could cause vehicles to enter a fail-safe driving mode with reduced power.

The recall includes 2022-2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5, 2023-2025 Hyundai Ioniq 6, and 2023-2025 Genesis GV60 models. Those three are based on the same E-GMP dedicated EV platform. Other vehicles in the recall population, including 2023-2025 Genesis Electrified GV70 SUVs and 2023-2024 Genesis Electrified G80 sedans, are electric variants of internal-combustion models.

Integrated charging control units in the affected vehicles may become damaged by certain electrical loads, preventing them from charging the vehicles’ 12-volt batteries, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This triggers the fail-safe mode, which initially allows full power but gradually decreases available power over time.

2024 Genesis GV60

Drivers will see warnings on the dashboard and hear audible chimes if this fault occurs, the NHTSA said, adding that other vehicle functions such as steering and brake assist, as well as airbags, will remain functional.

The remedy involves updating the charging control unit’s software, as well as inspection of the unit and its fuse, with replacement as needed. All of this will be done free of charge by Hyundai and Genesis dealers.

Hyundai plans to mail owner notification letters Jan. 17, 2025. Owners can also contact Hyundai customer service at 1-855-371-9460 or Genesis customer service at 1-844-340-9741. Reference numbers are 272 for Hyundai and 025G for Genesis. Some of the recalled vehicles are involved in a previous recall, but will need to have the new recall work completed as well, according to the NHTSA.

2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6

Automakers have been very slow to get rid of 12-volt electrical systems in new vehicles. One of the few vehicles to have made the switch so far is the Tesla Cybertruck, which uses 48-volt hardware that Tesla is now shopping around to other automakers.

Omission of 48-volt electronics is particularly surprising in Hyundai’s E-GMP vehicles, which incorporate various other advancements like 800-volt charging. Hyundai has even introduced a solution that does away with the old-style lead-acid 12-volt battery in some of its hybrids—but not any of its EVs thus far.

• Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe pointed to a “horrific state-by-state level of rules”
• Dealers’ lobbying efforts have made it hard for Rivian to interact directly with customers
• Rivian’s aware it has a service backlog, views it as a short-term problem

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe isn’t a fan of U.S. dealership franchise laws. These laws work against the EV maker, which has a direct-sales model rather than franchised dealers.

On Wednesday during a roundtable with Green Car Reports and other media Scaringe said “we have this horrific state-by-state level of rules that are as close as you can get to corruption.”

The CEO was referring to franchise laws for car dealers, which are widely protected by heavy lobbying efforts.

“You essentially have lots of dealers that paid for lots of laws that make it really hard for us to interact directly with the customer,” Scaringe said. 

Scaringe had been asked whether, after VW’s recent investment of $5.8 billion into Rivian, the U.S. EV maker might be able to leverage the dealer network of one of the world’s largest automakers.

Rivian’s CEO then noted with an upbeat smile that “Europe doesn’t have the same rules,” and “there’s certainly opportunities there.” Rivian plans to sell both the smaller upcoming R2 and R3 crossover SUVs in Europe, but the R1T and R1S are deemed too large for that market.

“Service is the bigger thing,” continued Scaringe. “You don’t need 5,000 retail location in the U.S. to sell 3 or 4 million cars a year. Tesla’s a good example,” he said.

“You do need a lot of service infrastructure,” Scaringe went on to say. But even that’s changing because historically a customer needed to go into a dealer anytime a car made a clicking noise.

Often, depending what is needed, that service can come to you. Rivian handles more than half of its service with its in-house mobile service crews going to customers rather than customers coming to them.

Scaringe admitted the automaker has a service backlog in the U.S., as it tries to build as much service infrastructure as fast as it can. But in some U.S. markets the product is scaling faster than the automaker can build out the infrastructure.

“That’s a short-term anomaly,” Scaringe said. Long-term the executive said the team believes it’s going to build a robust service infrastructure.

In Europe, Scaringe said there’s a question whether Rivian partners with someone for service. “It’s certainly an opportunity,” he added.

But in America, with the franchise laws, the possibility of Rivian partnering with anyone else for service would be complicated.

Mercedes-Benz has its eyes on solid-state batteries with its partnership with Factorial for battery cells, but the automaker’s already thinking one step beyond that.

In the future, Mercedes envisions mixed battery packs with different types of cells all wired in parallel rather than today’s series arrangement. The enabling factor to this is a new micro-converter the automaker’s developing in-house to replace today’s electrical inverter systems.

In Germany, Mercedes engineers showed working prototypes to Green Car Reports of the programmable micro-converters. The converters are about the length of a stick of gum and twice the width. They looked light and were encased in black plastic, but engineers were sure to keep us from touching the (presumably expensive) prototypes.

Mercedes-Benz micro-converters

The micro-converters can be connected directly to any number of cell pairs. This enables engineers to program and control individual cell pairings independently regardless of the state-of-charge. Engineers demonstrated this on a workbench, putting the mixed test cells under load and then independently turning on and off certain cell pairings.

Engineers said the new micro-converters open the possibility to mix-and-match cell types, chemistries, and more for various situations. The converters could enable a pack to have LFP cells, NMC cells, and solid-state cells all together, and they could call upon different types of cells for different conditions and situations to work in their optimal operating windows. That could open a new door for performance vehicles for the automaker’s AMG division.

The new approach could translate to faster charging rates, longer driving range, and more flexibility in pack design, according to Mercedes’ engineers.

Mercedes-Benz paid for travel and lodging for Green Car Reports to bring you this information.

• Mercedes-Benz is developing a solar coating for EVs
• In ideal conditions it could provide many miles of additional EV range per day
  
• Mercedes wouldn’t say how the solar paint would be applied to a car

Mercedes-Benz is trying to come up with any and all new ways to increase efficiency, which it believes is the new currency as it enters the EV era.

In Germany, the automaker showed Green Car Reports working prototypes of a new solar coating, which the automaker views as solar paint that could cover future EVs.

Mercedes-Benz solar paint coating vs. a solar cell

Mercedes-Benz solar paint coating vs. a solar cell

Some EVs, hybrids, and even gas-powered cars have featured various arrangements of solar cells. These are usually mounted on the roof and are wired in a series array actuated by a single central control unit. The solar cells aren’t flexible and can shatter under stress.

Mercedes is developing a solar paint that could cover the entire body in solar-active material. Mercedes said the coating is thin at only 5 micrometers thick and weighs 50 grams per square meter, and that it can be applied to any material. It can also be applied to any surface, from wheels to curved fenders and hood creases.

The solar paint can be any color, but darker colors are better because they absorb more light whereas lighter colors like white and silver are more reflective. Mercedes engineers said the solar paint has an efficiency of 20%, which matches today’s solar cells used on vehicles.

The energy recovered by the solar paint can be transferred to the vehicle’s high-voltage battery pack. The paint is active at all times, whether the vehicle is on or off, and always provides energy to the battery.

The average customer in Los Angeles drives 29 miles per day, the brand says. But according to its engineers, an EV with the solar paint could produce up to 34 miles worth of energy per day. 

Mercedes noted the paint is a paste-like substance, but the automaker wouldn’t say how it would be applied—only confirming it wouldn’t be painted on.

Mercedes-Benz paid for travel and lodging for Green Car Reports to bring you this information.

• Mercedes In-Drive system mounts the brakes to the electric motor
• In-Drive is a friction-based braking system
• Mercedes has In-Drive in active testing, hasn’t given a timeline for production

Mercedes-Benz is rethinking how the braking system works, and where it’s located, in upcoming EVs.

In Germany last week, Mercedes-Benz engineers showed Green Car Reports one of its latest innovations dubbed In-Drive. It’s a system that relocates the entire braking system from inside the wheels to inside an EV’s electric motor housing.

The automaker didn’t commit to when, or which vehicle, the system might debut on and go into production, but it said the feature is already in active testing.

Mercedes-Benz In-Drive brake system

Referred to internally as “the brake of the future,” the In-Drive system is still a friction-based brake system that consists of a water-cooled brake disk that isn’t exposed to air. Mercedes engineers said they are still experimenting with different fluids. They want a lot of water in the unit to dissipate the heat, but they don’t want a giant radiator to assist. Completely enclosed, the brake discs reside on both sides of the electric motor.

Mechanical braking in EVs is only needed about 2% of the time while 98% of braking situations can be handled by regenerative braking, according to Mercedes engineers.

The new regenerative braking system in the 2026 CLA-Class, which will be the first EV on the automaker’s next-gen MMA platform, is capable of up to 200 kw of recuperation, according to Mercedes. The current EQS—a heavier car—is capable of up to 290 kw of recuperation, a Mercedes engineer said.

Mercedes-Benz In-Drive brake system

The Mercedes team said In-Drive is designed to be a lifetime system good for about 15 years and 186,400 miles (300,000 km), given it would theoretically only be engaged 2% of the time. Today’s brake pads only cover a small percentage of the brake disc, but the In-Drive system’s pads cover the entire surface area of the disc, which results in less force being used.

The In-Drive braking system could be mounted on a front axle that’s devoid of an electric motor, but the system would still sit in the center of the car and axle rather than by the wheels like today’s brakes.

Moving the brakes inboard shifts the weight to the center of the car and creates less unsprung mass, which will result in better handling.

By enclosing the brakes fully there’s no brake dust particulates and the wheels can be closed off to be more aerodynamic.

Mercedes-Benz paid for travel and lodging along with some German pretzels for Green Car Reports to bring you this firsthand report

Swedish battery firm Northvolt filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday, with CEO Peter Carlsson stepping down the following day.

Northvolt needs to raise between $1 billion and $1.2 billion to restore itself to full operations, Carlsson told Reuters and other media Friday. On Thursday, the company said it only had enough cash to support operations for about a week, and that it had secured $100 million in financing to take it through the bankruptcy process, according to Reuters.

Rendering of Northvolt Six battery factory in Quebec, Canada

In its Chapter 11 filing, Northvolt said it expected to complete the restructuring required by the bankruptcy process by the first quarter of 2025. Carlsson told reporters that the bankruptcy process will give the company time to reorganize itself and ramp up operations, while honoring customer and supplier commitments.

Carlsson will remain on the company’s board and will take on a new senior advisor role. The company has reportedly started searching for a new CEO, and will be led by current CFO Pia Aaltonen-Forsell for the time being.

Volvo and Northvolt partner on battery development and production

Northvolt was the subject of high hopes for the establishment of a local EV battery industry for Europe. It opened its first battery factory in Sweden in 2021, and that year claimed to be making battery cells with 100% recycled nickel, manganese, and cobalt. Battery-supply deals with BMW and Volvo, as well as for a Canadian battery factory, soon followed.

But Northvolt has faced several setbacks recently. In June BMW cancelled its battery deal, estimated to be worth about $2 billion, and in September Northvolt announced a strategic review and cost cuts, including suspension of cathode active material production at its first factory. That plant never reach full production capacity, Reuters reported at the time.

Honda on Thursday unveiled what it calls a demonstration production line for solid-state batteries, with aims to commercialize the technology later this decade.

Located in Sakura City, in Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture, the 295,000-square-foot facility is intended to establish the process for eventual mass production, as well as determine costs and some final cell specifications, Honda said.

Construction was completed this past spring, and all necessary equipment has now been installed, according to the automaker. Honda plans to start making cells in January 2025. That’s almost a year later than the spring 2024 target date Honda executives mentioned when first publicly discussing the demonstration plant in 2022.

Honda solid-state battery production demonstration plant in Sakura City, Japan

Honda said the production process it plans to use is based on that of liquid-electrolyte lithium-ion cells, albeit with a roll-pressing step designed to increase the density of solid electrolyte layers that’s unique to solid-state cells. This also increases the degree of interfacial contact between by the electrolyte and electrodes, according to Honda.

The automaker also claims to have consolidated or accelerated several other parts of the production process, including bonding the positive and negative electrodes, and hopes to cut other associated costs, including by lowering energy consumption.

Honda solid-state battery prototype

Honda aims to start mass production of solid-state batteries in the second half of the 2020s, for use “not only in automobiles, but motorcycles and aircraft.” With this wider array of applications, Honda hopes to achieve reasonable economies of scale to make solid-state batteries financially viable.

Honda has been discussing solid-state batteries since at least 2021, at the time also saying that they would arrive later in the decade. Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe told Green Car Reports earlier this year that solid-state batteries may enable a small affordable EV by 2030 thanks to lower battery costs and higher potential range than current cell chemistries.

• The Chrysler Pacifica lineup will gain an electric variant
• Electric Chrysler Pacifica interior will feature flexible interior packaging
• Pacifica will be refreshed in 2026 with the electric variant to follow 

Chrysler’s inching closer to an electric minivan, and now we know what it will be called.

On Thursday at the 2024 LA Auto Show, Chrysler CEO Christine Feuell confirmed to Green Car Reports that the upcoming electric Chrysler minivan will bear the Pacific name.

“There’s so much equity in the market, consumers have a favorable opinion about Pacifica and very high awareness. I see no reason at this point to change the name,” Feuell said.

In 2022 at the New York Auto Show, Feuell told GCR the automaker was rethinking the minivan for the electric era. That future is coming quickly.

Chrysler Portal concept, 2017 Consumer Electronics Show

In 2026 the Pacifica will receive a refresh, according to Feuell. The updated design will set the stage for the electric Pacifica that will follow, likely a year later.

Chrysler will not use the design direction set by the Airflow electric SUV concept. Feuell said the brand’s design identity will take design cues from the Halcyon concept shown in February. “Modern” and “futuristic” were the design terms Feuell used for Chrysler’s design direction.

Feuell wouldn’t commit to whether the Pacifica Hybrid with its plug-in hybrid powertrain will coexist alongside the electric Pacifica. The executive also wouldn’t comment on whether an electric Pacifica with a range extender, like the Ram Charger EREV pickup truck, would make sense.

Chrysler Portal concept, 2017 Consumer Electronics Show

Electric Chrysler Pacifica getting flexible seating

Feuell was quick to note that with the VW ID.Buzz–the first electric minivan to hit the U.S. market–you have to remove the seats entirely to create an open space.

The Chrysler team’s been working up creative ways to reimagine the automaker’s patented Stow ‘N Go seating system with a BEV powertrain. Feuell noted one option is pushing the front seats forward to create a clever cargo space under the front seats to store the second row. The executive also mentioned looking at the outboard seating positions in the second row and perhaps putting them on rails to slide sideways.

No final interior configuration for the reconfigurable seating has been locked in yet, according to Feuell. But the planning stages are advanced enough that suppliers are now involved in the discussion to understand what’s possible.

Feuell said the team’s looking at the use cases and how customers will want to use the space. From lounging while waiting for their kid’s soccer practice is done to camping or having a picnic or tailgating, it’s all on the table. There’s also a focus on how to load and unload cargo along with ingress, egress, and cargo liftover height. 

• The performance model of the EV9 three-row electric SUV debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show
• Expect a 0-60 mph time of 4.3 seconds for the 2026 Kia EV9 GT
• The 2026 Kia EV9 comes with a NACS port to access Tesla’s Supercharger network

Three-row SUVs aren’t generally the first choice for performance car buyers, but Kia believes dialing up power and speed is the next logical step for its all-electric EV9.

Debuting at the 2024 Los Angeles auto show, the 2026 Kia EV9 GT applies a similar template to the previous EV6 GT to the larger EV9. That starts with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain producing 501 hp—122 hp more than the EV9 GT-Line, currently the most powerful EV9 grade. Kia estimates that this will reduce 0-60 mph acceleration from 5.0 seconds for the GT-Line to 4.3 seconds for the GT.

Kia also gave the EV9 GT virtual shifting, which provides the feel of running up through gears this EV does not have (or need), and will even slow acceleration once an artificial “rev limit” is achieved, just like in a combustion car. The artificial gear shifts are accompanied by their own soundtrack. Similar features debuted in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N from Kia’s parent brand—but in a more track-focused package.

GT models also receive Continental performance tires, upgraded brakes, an electronic limited-slip differential, and adaptive suspension. Normal, Eco, Sport, and My Drive modes change the damping, as well as steering and brake feel, as does a GT mode that automatically dials in the stiffest damping. Kia notes that the 7.8 inches of ground clearance and 5,000-pound towing capacity of other EV9 models carries over.

Exterior differences between the GT and other EV9 models are subtle, mostly limited to new 21-inch wheels and green brake calipers, the latter a styling trait shared with the EV6 GT. The green theme continues inside with select trim elements. GT models also have a different steering wheel and robustly bolstered sport seats with Alcantara inserts, as well as unique schemes for the ambient lighting and the menus of the 12.3-inch touchscreen.

Kia expects to begin U.S. deliveries in the second half of 2025, meaning the EV9 GT will have a standard North American Charging Standard (NACS) port, which will be standard on all EV9 models starting in the first half of the year.

Pricing will be announced closer to launch, but expect the GT to come in higher than the current range-topping GT-Line, which is priced at $75,225 for the 2025 model year with the $1,325 destination charge factored in. The EV9 sees a modest $700 price increase for 2025, with no other significant changes to the vehicle that we named Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2024.

All EV9 GT models will be assembled in South Korea, meaning they won’t qualify for the $3,750 federal tax credit available for EV9 models assembled in Georgia, either at Kia’s West Point factory or Hyundai’s new Metaplant. It’s another indication that, as a recent report suggested, Kia is becoming less committed to U.S. assembly of the EV9 in the face of tougher tax-credit rules.