Category: General

• Chines battery supplier CATL could build a plant in the U.S.
• The decision would hinge on whether Trump’s administration allows the Chinese to enter the market
• CATL wanted to invest in the U.S. but to date the government’s said no

Chinese battery supplier CATL is open to building a U.S. factory if the incoming Trump administration allows it, the company’s founder said in a recent interview.

“Originally, when we wanted to invest in the U.S., the U.S. government said no,” Robin Zeng said in an interview with Reuters published Wednesday. “For me, I’m really open-minded.”

CATL has so far limited its U.S. presence to licensing deals with automakers. Ford in 2023 announced a Michigan battery plant to build lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which the automaker has said are a key to EV affordability. The battery cells produced there would be based on CATL tech, but the factory itself would be owned by Ford. An April report said General Motors may be seeking a similar deal with CATL.

Ford Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning getting CATL LFP batteries

Even before Trump, who launched a trade war with China during his first term in 2017, was elected to a second term as president, that arrangement was already under threat.

Under existing Biden administration policy, vehicles with Chinese-made batteries do not qualify for a federal EV tax credit, nor do vehicles manufactured by entities in whose parent companies the Chinese government has a stake. A Republican bill, opposed by the current administration, would also eliminate tax credits for EVs making use of Chinese battery tech licensed by U.S. automakers.

Yet while Trump wants to prevent imports of cars from Chinese automakers—even if they’re assembled in other countries like Mexico—Reuters notes that in an August interview he was open to Chinese firms building cars in the U.S.

CATL Freevoy plug-in hybrid battery pack

“We’re going to give incentives, and if China and other countries want to come here and sell cars, they’re going to build plants here, and they’re going to hire our workers,” Trump said in August. Zeng appears optimistic that this policy will apply to batteries as well, telling Reuters that “I do hope that in the future they are open to investments.”

It remains to be seen what batteries CATL would produce in the U.S., but the company is currently expanding its commercial-vehicle battery-supply business in its home market, and recently launched a mixed-chemistry battery pack designed for plug-in hybrids.

• VW’s taking a larger stake in Rivian, now up to $5.8 billion
• Rivian and VW’s joint venture has formally been created
• The Rivian R2 in 2026 and a Volkswagen in 2027 will be the first vehicles to feature the new joint-venture electrical architecture

The Volkswagen Group on Tuesday announced that it would up its investment in Rivian as the two companies officially launched their previously announced Rivian and VW Group Technology joint venture.

The joint venture was announced in June with an initial investment of $5 billion from the VW Group over a period of years in exchange for access to Rivian’s electrical architecture and software development expertise.

On Tuesday, the VW Group and Rivian announced that the investment would be increased to $5.8 billion. This is the result of VW pulling ahead some future capital and changing the original deal structure, the companies said.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe (left) and Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume

Under the updated terms of the deal, $1.3 billion is set to be spent on software development, a further $3.5 billion will be spent by the VW Group to purchase shares of Rivian, and the remaining $1 billion is earmarked for a potential loan by VW to Rivian.

The joint venture, which is expected to start operations Nov. 13, will focus on developing and supply electrical architecture and software systems to both companies, with features like network hardware and software stacks that enable vehicles to be updated over the air for their full life cycle mentioned during an investor briefing.

At the same briefing, the two companies confirmed that the first vehicle to use these jointly developed systems will be the Rivian R2 crossover due in 2026. The additional investment from VW may be the difference in getting that lower-priced model across the line, as well as funding further development of the hatchback-like R3 and several additional models Rivian has teased.

Rivian and Volkswagen Group electrical architecture and software stack

The VW Group said that some Volkswagen-brand models will likely be the first of its vehicles to use the new systems in 2027, followed by vehicles from Audi and the new Scout brand. VW Group CEO Oliver Blume said some sports cars could also use the systems, without providing further details.

The joint venture will initially be based in Silicon Valley and employ around 1,000 engineers. Three additional sites in the U.S. and Europe are planned for the near future.

Both companies noted that they were open to additional collaboration in other areas such as batteries, whole vehicle platforms, and joint production, but said that would be outside the scope of the current joint venture. It also appears Rivian won’t join development of the VW Group’s Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) for next-generation EVs which, according to a report published in July, is being delayed by software issues.

The 2025 Polestar 2 lineup shrinks to just one configuration, dropping the less-expensive, higher-range models.

First spotted by Car and Driver, the 2025 Polestar 2 will only be available in Performance Pack spec. That means the base single-motor version, as well as the non-Performance dual-motor version, are history.

2025 Polestar 2

The single-motor version, which switched from front-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive as part of a refresh of the Polestar 2 for 2024, was the longest-range configuration, with an EPA-rated 320 miles of range from an 82-kwh battery pack. All-wheel drive models have a 78-kwh pack, and 2024 models achieved a maximum 276 miles in non-Performance guise. Performance Pack models were rated at 247 miles for 2024, so the Polestar 2 is likely to see a substantial effective drop in range for 2025.

The Performance Pack does include manually-adjustable Öhlins monotube dampers, upgraded brakes, and Continental SportContact 6 performance tires, but in a sampling of the 2024 Polestar 2 lineup, we found it didn’t feel as balanced or at ease with itself as the rear-wheel drive version. For 2025, output does rise back to 469 hp, which Performance Pack models made prior to 2024, while keeping the higher 546 lb-ft of torque figure from that model year.

2025 Polestar 2

In addition to the Performance Pack, and the Pilot Pack of driver-assist features that was standard on all-wheel drive models for 2024, the 2025 Polestar 2 comes standard with the Climate and Plus Packs. But this configuration costs $66,200, a big step up from the $51,300 base price of the single-motor 2024 model.

Green Car Reports has reached out to Polestar for comment and was told the automaker’s committed to being a three-car company with the addition of the Polestar 3 and Polestar 4.

Lucid Motors is pitching its Air electric sedan as a potential police cruiser.

On Sunday the automaker posted photos of an Air decked out in police equipment on X (formerly Twitter). Lucid said the car had recently participated in California Highway Patrol testing, but did not provide any other details. We’ve reached out to Lucid with questions and will update this story if and when we hear back.

Lucid Air police car

While Lucid has submitted the Air to the California Highway Patrol for testing, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the electric sedan enter service with Saudi Arabian police forces in the future. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is Lucid’s largest shareholder, and in 2022 the country’s government agreed to buy up to 100,000 Lucid EVs. That same year, Lucid announced plans to open a factory in Saudi Arabia in 2025.

Several California police departments already roster electric cars, including some Teslas modified by the UP.FIT division of tuner Unplugged Performance. The company recently unveiled a police version of the Tesla Model S Plaid, and has performed similar work on at least one Cybertruck as well as Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles.

Lucid Air police car

However, some California police departments have criticized these Tesla conversions for maintenance difficulties, as well as the lack of space in the smaller Model 3 and Model Y.

Aside from Unplugged Performance’s Tesla conversions, police departments looking to go electric generally haven’t had many options. That’s starting to change, with Ford and General Motors introducing police versions of the F-150 Lightning and Chevrolet Blazer EV, respectively. Stellantis has also teased a police version of the upcoming Dodge Charger Daytona.

• A Porsche Taycan 4 and revised GTS model join the 2025 lineup
• The Porsche Taycan is now available in 13 different versions
• When they arrive in 2025 the Taycan 4 will cost $105,295 while the GTS will cost $149,895

The 2025 Porsche Taycan received an engineering-focused refresh that improved range and efficiency, the benefits of which are now being spread across more models.

Porsche on Tuesday confirmed new versions of the Taycan 4 and Taycan GTS, the latter available in both the standard sedan and the Sport Turismo wagon body styles. They grow a lineup that already includes several grades ranging from the base Taycan to the record-setting Turbo GT performance variant, as well as a third Cross Turismo body style, adding up to 13 different versions.

The Taycan 4 sedan is priced from $105,295 with the mandatory $1,995 destination fee. The GTS costs $149,895 in sedan form, while the Sport Turismo wagon costs $151,795. All three are available to order now, with deliveries scheduled to start late in the first quarter of 2025.

2025 Porsche Taycan GTS

Slotting between the base Taycan and the Taycan 4S, the Taycan 4 sedan joins the existing Taycan 4 Cross Turismo in offering a dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain rated at 402 hp, or 429 hp when launch control is engaged. That’s the same as the base rear-wheel-drive Taycan, but the 4 will accelerate from 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds, or 0.1 second quicker, according to Porsche.

The Taycan 4 is available with both the standard “Performance” battery, which grew to 83.6 kwh usable (89 kwh gross) for the 2025 model year, or the “Performance Battery Plus,” which saw a roughly 15% increase in capacity to 97 kwh usable (105 kwh gross) for 2025.

Taycan GTS models now boast up to 690 hp with launch control—100 hp more than the previous versions. A push-to-pass function, part of the standard Sport Chrono Package, adds up to 93 hp for 10 seconds at a time. Both the sedan and Sport Turismo models will accelerate from 0-60 mph in a Porsche-estimated 3.1 seconds—0.4 second quicker than their respective predecessors. The sedan will also run the quarter-mile in 11.1 seconds—0.7 second quicker than before.

2025 Porsche Taycan GTS

GTS models also feature chassis upgrades, including available rear-wheel steering, adaptive air suspension, torque vectoring, and an active anti-roll system. That should further enhance performance, although in a first drive back in April we found the real benefit of this refresh is that it pairs performance with greater efficiency.

EPA range ratings will be available closer to launch, but the additional models will likely fall between the current high of 318 miles and low of 266 miles for the slipperier sedan body style. They’ll also benefit from a charge curve that’s been lifted and broadened, with its peak of 320 kw (or 270 kw for the base battery) now taking better advantage of 350-kw Combined Charging Standard (CCS) connectors.

• The Cadillac Vistiq will serve as the electric XT6 three-row SUV replacement
• Cadillac Vistiqs are expected to have about 300 miles of EPA-rated range
• The Vistiq will cost $78,790 when it arrives in 2025.

Cadillac on Tuesday confirmed additional details of the Vistiq three-row electric SUV, which remains on track for a launch next year as a 2026 model.

Production is scheduled to start in early 2025 at General Motors’ Spring Hill, Tennessee, factory (which also builds the Lyriq), with deliveries later in the year. Pricing starts at $78,790 (with a mandatory $1,395 destination charge) for the initial Platinum grade. Lower-priced Luxury, Sport, and Premium Luxury grades will arrive later.

Revealed 11 months ago, the Vistiq fits between the two-row Cadillac Lyriq and the plus-sized, three-row Escalade IQ. At 205.5 inches long, 86.7 inches long, and 71.0 inches tall, it’s longer and taller than the Lyriq, but nearly identical in width and shares a 121.8-inch wheelbase.

2026 Cadillac Vistiq

A standard dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrain is rated at 615 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque, which will get the Vistiq from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds with the Velocity Max launch-control mode, according to Cadillac.

Cadillac also estimates around 300 miles of range from the Vistiq’s 102-kwh battery pack, but official EPA ratings won’t be available until closer to launch. The Vistiq comes standard with 21-inch wheels but will be available with 22-inch and 23-inch wheels, which could impact range.

An optional 19.2-kw onboard charger will be able to add up to 46.7 miles of range per hour of charging, Cadillac estimates. Like other new GM EVs, the Vistiq also features bidirectional charging, enabling vehicle-to-home (V2H) functionality that allows it to serve as a home backup power source with GM-supplied hardware.

2026 Cadillac Vistiq

DC fast charging can replenish 79 miles of range in a claimed 10 minutes. Cadillac did not specify whether the Vistiq would launch with a Combined Charging Standard (CCS) port, requiring owners to use an adapter to access Tesla Supercharger stations, or whether it would arrive after the point in 2025 when GM previously said it would start building EVs with the Tesla North American Charging Standard (NACS) port.

Adaptive air suspension and rear-wheel steering are available, but the latter won’t offer the Arrival Mode diagonal driving mode (itself a rebranded version of the GMC CrabWalk mode), as in the Escalade IQ. An available road noise cancellation system should help quiet any tire roar, at least.

2026 Cadillac Vistiq

Inside, the Vistiq has a 33-inch dashboard display similar to the Lyriq, along with an available 23-speaker AKG audio system. A fabric material made from 100% recycled content will also be available on some models.

Toyota on Friday gave the first indication of a renewed pushback against California’s ability to set stricter emissions standards and wind down sales of gasoline cars.

“At this point, it looks impossible,” Toyota North America COO Jack Hollis said in a virtual roundtable with CNBC and other media, regarding California rules that call for 35% of 2026-model-year vehicles in those voluntary California-compliant states to be electric, on the way to ending sales of most new vehicles with internal-combustion engines by 2035.

2024 Lexus RZ

According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which sets the state’s emissions standards, 12 other states as well as the District of Columbia have signed on for the stricter rules. But Hollis argues that there isn’t enough demand to support these targets, and that they are already leading to “unnatural acts” in which automakers ship a disproportionate amount of electrified vehicles to states that follow the California rules.

These comments are mainly significant for their timing. After fighting California’s ability to set its own, stricter emissions standards, Toyota essentially agreed to a truce with CARB in 2022. For passenger cars and trucks, little in CARB’s top-level emissions rules has changed in the interim, and signs of EV demand look higher than six to 12 months ago. But now that Donald Trump has won a second term Toyota appears to once again be emboldened to resume the pushback.

2025 Toyota RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid

Toyota had tried, with the previous Trump administration—along with GM, Stellantis’ previous corporate entity, and several other foreign automakers—to take away California’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards. Ford, Honda, BMW, VW, and Volvo were among the companies that didn’t try to topple California’s ability to combat emissions on its own terms—allying with the state instead on a deal.

While Toyota has been pushing toward hybrid volume, not EV volume, all along, GM’s moves have remained the most puzzling. It continued to attempt to derail California rules behind the scenes—while pushing toward an all-EV, non-hybrid future, while being criticized by Trump for a plan that wouldn’t work. 

The 2025 Kia Niro EV receives a few more standard features, but costs the same as the 2024 model.

That means prices still start at $40,975—including a $1,375 destination fee—for the Niro EV Wind base model. For 2025, the Wind receives a larger 10.3-inch digital instrument cluster and switches to a rotary shifter.

2025 Kia Niro EV

The higher-level Wave grade costs $45,975 with destination. For 2025, it adds blind-spot monitors, a 10-way power front-passenger seat, and head-up display as standard equipment. A rear parking-collision avoidance system and Smart Park Assist semi-automated parking are new additions to the option list.

The Niro EV still offers an EPA-rated 253 miles of range from a 64.8-kwh battery pack. An 11-kw onboard charger allows for a full charge in around seven hours from a Level 2 AC source. DC fast charging, with a maximum power rate of 85 kw, can accomplish a 10%-80% charge in around 45 minutes.

2025 Kia Niro EV

A single permanent-magnet motor sends 201 hp and 188 lb-ft of torque to the front wheels. Kia says this will get the Niro EV from 0-62 mph in 7.8 seconds. In a test drive review of the current-generation Niro EV, we found this front-wheel-drive vehicle was a bit traction-limited at freeway merging speeds, but quick and quiet in other conditions.

Kia continues to offer hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Niro, which cost $28,365 and $35,865 for the 2025 model year, respectively. All three Niro variants serve as the entry points in the Kia lineup for their respective powertrains, with the Niro EV slotted below the Kia EV6 and EV9 crossovers. But a report earlier this year claimed that the Kia EV3 will be built in Mexico to a hit a $30,000 price point, undercutting the Niro.

Leftover fabric from car airbags is now being used in sneakers, helping to lower the environmental impact of cars and footwear alike.

The Asics Gel-Sonoma 15-50 uses airbag nylon fabric remnants from Toyoda Gosei, one of Toyota’s captive suppliers, in its upper elements. Launched in January 2023, the sneaker won a Good Design Award 2024 from the Japan Institute of Design Promotion.

Toyota Land Cruiser showing off airbags

“Making an upcycled product using waste material as a main material is seen as the kind of action that is needed by society, both from the viewpoint of effective use of materials and in arousing users’ interest in material waste in today’s society,” jurors said in a statement.

Toyoda Goesi has also marketed bags and pen cases made from airbag fabric and scraps from leather steering-wheel wrappers under its own Re-S brand. There have been a great many airbag recalls in recent years, some of which include hundreds of thousands of vehicles, like the Toyota Grand Highlander, so if the material could potentially be recovered, the supplier has shown a way to potentially use it.

2025 Toyota Grand Highlander

Automakers and suppliers are also well on the way to cutting the footprint of vehicles by taking other types of recovered materials—from landfill waste to ripped jeans—and using them for vehicle cabins.

Other odd but useful recovery efforts that may pay off big include recovering magnet material from old hard drives for EV motors. And Kia has ambitious plans, announced in 2021, to phase out leather and up the level of recycled plastics in its cabins and vehicles.

• GM is phasing out Apple CarPlay in its lineup
• New Chevy, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick EVs won’t have Apple CarPlay
• GM’s software boss believes the automaker’s making the right call

General Motors is still committed to phasing out Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity in future EVs, software boss Baris Cetinok said in a recent interview with The Verge.

Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which allow users to “project” features from their smartphones onto in-car displays—plus more for EVs, including route planning—have proven popular with customers. But GM announced last year that it would stop including them in future EVs as it shifts to a new Google-based infotainment system.

2024 Chevrolet Equinox EV

That’s still the best path forward, Cetinok told The Verge, because it allows GM “to create the most deeply integrated experience that you can create with the vehicle,” rather than relying on interfaces ported in from smartphone apps.

“We are not shipping devices with just monitors; we’re not a monitor company,” said Cetinok, who previously worked at Apple in product management and marketing for features like Apple Pay and iCloud. Abandoning deeper smartphone connectivity will create a seamless experience across different features, such as driver aids like GM’s Super Cruise and entertainment features like podcast apps, he claimed.

2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV RS

The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV was the first GM vehicle to launch without Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and subsequent EV launches like the Chevy Equinox EV and Chevy Silverado EV have also gone without those features. It’s likely more of an adjustment for users who prefer Apple features like Apple Maps. Google-based infotainment systems in newer GM EVs incorporate many of the same features as Android Auto, such as Google Maps and Google Assistant voice recognition.

Deep integration of software features can be important for route planning, as access to the vehicle’s state of charge and other data is needed to determine charging stops and precondition battery packs for the quickest possible charge. But as other automakers have demonstrated, that doesn’t mean taking functionality away. For instance, Ford EVs offer a choice, with these abilities integrated with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, as well as via its own built-in navigation systems.