Category: General

Polestar on Friday confirmed its first customer deliveries of U.S.-built electric vehicles.

Every Polestar model to date has been manufactured in China, but the 2025 Polestar 3 is assembled at a South Carolina plant shared with Volvo. Production started there in August following software-related delays.

First U.S. Polestar 3 deliveries

The Polestar 3 is a platform-mate of the Volvo EX90, which is built at the same South Carolina plant. But where the Volvo offers three rows of seats, the Polestar sticks to two, with total seating for five, with a sportier character. It offers up to 315 miles of range from a 111-kwh battery pack, with a standard dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain rated at 489 hp and 620 lb-ft of torque, or 517 hp and 671 lb-ft in optional Performance Pack spec.

The Polestar 3 has a base price of $74,800 that’s under the $80,000 federal tax-credit cap for electric SUVs. But even with that, and U.S. assembly, it’s unlikely to qualify for a federal tax credit for the foreseeable future. In addition to more stringent sourcing requirements, new “foreign entity of concern” language disqualifies subsidiary companies if a “parent entity” in China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea holds more than 50% in the company.

First U.S. Polestar 3 deliveries

Polestar has said it will pass on a $7,500 credit for leases, following the approach of other automakers in exploiting what’s being called the EV leasing loophole. This allows use of a provision intended for commercial vehicles by automakers with captive financing arms to claim a credit and pass the savings on to customers even if vehicles don’t otherwise qualify.

Building cars in the U.S. does at least avoid recently-hiked tariffs on Chinese EVs. In a more complex solution to the same problem, U.S.-market versions of the coupe-like Polestar 4 will be built at a Renault plant in South Korea. That’s scheduled to start in the second half of 2025.

Ford will pause production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck from Nov. 18 to Jan. 6, reports Reuters.

“We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” the automaker said in a statement to Reuters regarding the six-week production pause, which overlaps with a week in December when all Ford factories are closed for the holidays.

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning pre-production

Ford said this month that U.S. EV sales for its namesake brand were up 45% this year, and that Lightning sales had more than doubled to 7,100 trucks in the three months ending Sept. 30, Reuters noted, adding that this means the Lightning makes up a tiny 3.6% of total F-150 sales.

The production pause comes after Ford in April cut production to just one shift. The automaker also slowed production in 2023 rather than further lowering prices as demand for pricier Lightning variants dried up. Ford initially promised that the Lightning would cost around $40,000 but, even with a few price cuts, prices remained much higher than that throughout 2023.

2022 Ford F-150 Lightning pre-production

Prices continued to fluctuate into 2024, with Ford cutting the sticker price of certain versions by up to $5,500 this past April—the same month as the most recent production cut. Those changes only affected models in the middle of the lineup, with prices for both the base F-150 Lightning Pro Standard Range and the range-topping Platinum Extended Range unchanged.

Ford has been resetting its EV plans. In August, the automaker said it was nixing a three-row electric SUV, adding an electric midsize pickup, and pushing back the launch of the Lightning’s replacement from 2025 to 2027. More hybrids are also part of this plan, particularly in bigger segments where battery costs could make all-electric models less profitable.

Ford is now shipping a new North American Charging Standard (NACS) adapter to customers to help provide access to Tesla Supercharger stations more quickly.

First reported by InsideEVs, the new NACS adapter comes from Lectron, and will be distributed alongside the existing design from Tesla. They have the same specifications as the Tesla-provided adapters, with ratings of 500 amps and 1,000 volts, InsideEVs reports. But they have a slightly different appearance.

Ford Mustang Mach-E at Tesla Supercharger station

The new adapters aren’t replacements for the original design, which Ford began shipping to customers in March, but rather an “incremental” addition to get adapters to customers as quickly as possible, the automaker confirmed to Green Car Reports. The Lectron adapters began shipping Oct. 31, and customers in line for an adapter may get either one of those or one of the previous design.

Ford offered one free adapter per vehicle to all new and existing EV customers who enrolled in its charging aggregator by Jun. 30 of this year. Adapters are otherwise priced at $230, and Ford has set up a different process for fleet customers through its Ford Pro division. Those terms remain in place.

Ford EVs at Tesla Supercharger

The new adapter is also unrelated to a replacement program being undertaken by Ford after the automaker discovered a problem with a specific batch of the Tesla-sourced adapters that could result in reduce charging speeds, or potentially even damage to a vehicle’s charge port. The automaker has told certain customers to stop using affected adapters pending shipment of replacements, which was scheduled to start this week.

Ford led the industry last year in announcing a shift to the Tesla charge port, with nearly every other major U.S.-market automaker following suit. So far, though, only General Motors and Rivian have also begun shipping adapters to customers, with Volvo and Polestar announcing plans to do so earlier this week.

Walmart is adding Chevrolet BrightDrop 400 electric vans to its U.S. home delivery fleet.

The vans will be deployed in Austin, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, northwest Arkansas, Orlando, and the San Francisco Bay Area before the end of the year, General Motors said in a press release. They’ll be used for Walmart’s InHome service, which provides delivery of groceries from stores to nearby customer homes.

Chevrolet BrightDrop 400 electric van in Walmart livery

GM and Walmart initially ran a pilot program with the vans, which got positive reviews from employees for their driver aids, automated features like automatic-closing doors, and ease of ingress and egress, the release said.

The 400 is the shorter-wheelbase option, with a long-wheelbase BrightDrop 600 van also available. GM estimates 159 miles of range with the standard battery pack and 272 miles with a larger optional pack. The vans use the same component set, branded as Ultium until recently, as GM’s current generation of electric passenger vehicles.

2025 Chevrolet BrightDrop 600

GM launched BrightDrop as a separate brand in January 2021, but folded it into Chevrolet in August of this year. Production is still assigned to GM’s CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, which has been building BrightDrop vans since late 2021. Earlier customers included FedEx and the Ryder rental fleet.

Walmart has long shown interest in electric vehicles. In 2022, the retail chain placed a larger order with Canoo for 4,500 electric vans—effectively breathing new life into the struggling startup, for a short period of time, at least. Some Walmart stores also host Electrify America charging stations, and the company announced its own EV charging network in 2023.

Aptera on Wednesday announced that it had completed a working production-intent version of its high-efficiency, three-wheel solar EV.

This vehicle, the first in a series, is the first to combine a production-spec powertrain and carbon-fiber body with Aptera’s in-house designed software and battery pack, according to a company press release.

Aptera production-intent vehicle

Solar hardware, a production-intent thermal management system, and complete exterior surfaces will be added as part of the next phase of testing, according to Aptera. Vehicles will then undergo high-speed track testing to validate performance and efficiency characteristics, according to the company.

The production-intent process takes Aptera a step closer to an actual salable vehicle, for which the company claims to have more than 50,000 reservations. A $33,200 Launch Edition was revealed in January 2023 with a 4.0-second 0-60 mph acceleration time, a 42-kwh battery pack that would provide a range of up to 400 miles, and a solar power system that can provide 700 watts of continuous power good for 40 miles of range per day, the company has said.

Aptera has in the past discussed other versions with as much as 1,000 miles of range once power from the solar array is factored in, and 0-60 mph times as low as 3.5 seconds. The company also announced its use of the Tesla North American Charging Standard (NACS) port well ahead of the mass migration by U.S.-market EV brands last year. In recent months it’s also hinted that some design changes are coming to the three-wheeler for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Aptera earlier this year completed a crowdfunding program and moved on to seeking private capital on its way toward volume production. Over three years, Aptera raised more than $100 million from more than 17,000 investors across all phases of crowdfunding. The company said in May that, pending the necessary funding, it hoped to bring the three-wheeler to market “at scale” in 2025.

The 2024 Acura ZDX and 2024 Honda Prologue electric SUVs have failed to earn safety awards from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The two electric vehicles performed well in multiple tests, but came up short in the small overlap front test, earning only an “Acceptable” rating, the IIHS said Thursday in a press release. The highest “Good” rating is required to earn an IIHS Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ award. Both SUVs failed to earn a “Good” rating because the passenger crash test dummy’s head slipped between the front and side curtain airbags.

2024 Honda Prologue crash-test results from the IIHS

Other criteria include a “Good” rating in the updated side crash test, and “Acceptable” or “Good” ratings in the pedestrian front crash prevention test and headlight evaluation. In addition, a “Good” or “Acceptable” rating in the updated moderate-overlap front crash test is required to earn the highest Top Safety Pick+ award.

The ZDX and Prologue earned “Good” ratings in other crash tests and “Acceptable” ratings in the pedestrian front crash prevention test. The Prologue’s headlights were rated “Acceptable,” while the ZDX’s were rated “Good” following recent changes made by Acura. The headlights on vehicles built before September 2024 are rated “Poor.”

2024 Acura ZDX crash-test results from the IIHS

While not part of the award criteria, the IIHS also evaluates rear-seat reminders and LATCH child-seat anchor ease of use. The Acura and Honda both received “Good” ratings in each category.

Both the ZDX and Prologue are built by General Motors, with its battery and propulsion tech. The IIHS hasn’t published test results for the related Cadillac Lyriq and Chevrolet Blazer EV, but several other EVs are top-rated for safety by the organization. Eight all-electric models received the Top Safety Pick+ award for 2024, with nine earning the lower Top Safety Pick award.

Scout will follow the lead of Tesla and Rivian in offering software-based modes and features for its Traveler electric SUV and Terra electric pickup truck.

A TikTok video by Jordan Sanford briefly showed a pet mode on a Scout EV’s infotainment display. Scout spokesperson Kathy Graham subsequently confirmed this mode, as well as a camp mode and night mode, to Green Car Reports. Graham noted that all three modes “are presented as concepts” and that “we look forward to sharing detailed software features as we get closer to production.”

Scout Traveler concept

Pet mode is designed to use climate controls to allow pets to be safely left in vehicles, similar to the Dog Mode Tesla rolled out in 2019, and the Pet Comfort mode available from Rivian. Both automakers have released numerous other niche modes via software updates, with Rivian offering its own Camp mode that uses air suspension to level vehicles and provide a flat sleeping surface.

Scout’s camp mode will “manage audible sounds, energy settings, lighting, and more when outdoors.” An air suspension and active damping will be offered as an option, but automatically leveling was not specifically mentioned. Night mode dims interior displays and exterior lighting to reduce light pollution and help drivers and passengers better enjoy the night sky.

Scout Terra concept

Scout unveiled concept versions of the Traveler and Terra last week that the automaker says are 85% accurate to the production models. Those are scheduled to arrive in 2027, with assembly taking place at a new $2 billion factory in South Carolina.

Trading on nostalgia for the International Harvester Scout that ended production in 1980, Scout is a new brand under the aegis of the Volkswagen Group. It’s being run directly by the parent company rather than VW Group of America, creating space for a direct-sales model similar to Tesla and Rivian.

Sweden is the home of Volvo and Polestar, but the Scandinavian country is electrifying more than cars.

On Tuesday, an electric hydrofoil ferry service began operating in Stockholm, shuttling commuters between the 14 islands that make up the Swedish capital. The service was inaugurated when 25 commuters in the suburb of Ekero boarded the electric hydrofoil, named Nova, reports the Associated Press.

The first of the P-12 hydrofoils from electric boat manufacturer Candela to enter service with Stockholm’s public transit operator SL, the Nova skimmed about three feet above the water and covered the nine-mile route to Stockholm’s city hall in 30 minutes, versus 45 minutes with diesel ferries.

Candela electric hydrofoil ferry enters service in Stockholm

Hydrofoils lift their hulls out of the water at speeds, relying on extended struts (the foils) for control. This reduces drag, which, in the case of the Nova, contributes to an 80% cut in energy consumption compared to conventional vessels, Candela boss Gustav Hasselskog said in a statement. An added benefit is that the hydrofoil leaves no wake, so the Nova is exempt from the speed limit in Stockholm waters.

That allows the Nova to get closer to its cruising speed of about 29 mph—faster than conventional boats, according to Candela. It’s designed to carry 25 passengers, with one wheelchair space.

Just as electric buses could cut carbon emissions in other cities, electric boats like the Nova could make a big dent in emissions from public transit in Stockholm. According to the AP, ferries have been the fastest-growing mode of public transit since the coronavirus pandemic.

Candela electric hydrofoil ferry enters service in Stockholm

Candela also has a partnership with Polestar, which in 2022 made a deal to supply the company with batteries and charging tech. It’s part of Polestar’s plan to develop its own batteries and propulsion systems.

There are a number of electric ferries in use beyond Stockholm, but the up-front cost of putting them into service can be challenging. Cruise ships are likely too large for battery propulsion, although they’re starting to branch out into hybrid systems.

Hyundai on Wednesday released the first teaser for the Ioniq 9, a three-row electric SUV the automaker will unveil in November.

Judging by the teaser images, the Ioniq 9 will have the upright profile of a traditional SUV, albeit with a raked-back roofline that’s likely a concession to aerodynamics. It will be based on the same E-GMP dedicated EV platform as the current Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6.

2025 Hyundai Ioniq 9 teaser

Hyundai has been teasing this model for some time. It was announced along with the Ioniq EV sub-brand in 2020, and then previewed with the Hyundai Seven concept at the 2021 Los Angeles auto show. Expect the production Ioniq 9 to make its debut in L.A. as well.

In July of this year, Hyundai confirmed that an electric three-row SUV would arrive as a 2025 model, but is only now officially attaching the Ioniq 9 name to that model. While the use of Hyundai Seven for the concept version indicated the production model would be named Ioniq 7, the Ioniq 9 aligns the Hyundai with similar EVs from sibling brands Kia and Genesis.

2025 Hyundai Ioniq 9 teaser

The Ioniq 9 is likely to share some specs with the Kia EV9, which we named Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2024. Hyundai’s Genesis luxury brand will also launch its own “super-large GV90” electric SUV, likely in 2026. The GV90 is expected to take cues from the Genesis Neolun concept unveiled ahead of the 2024 New York auto show.

One big question mark over the Ioniq 9 is its production site. The GV90 will reportedly be built in South Korea, while EV9 production for the U.S. was recently shifted to Kia’s West Point, Georgia, plant. Hyundai has its own Georgia EV “Metaplant” that’s slated to build 2025 Ioniq 5 models, but Hyundai will also have to make room for the Ioniq 9 to make that model tax-credit eligible.

Tesla wants to apply the 48-volt electrical architecture it debuted in the Cybertruck to vehicles from other brands.

In a recent blog post, the automaker explained that it will implement what it calls the Low Voltage Connector Standard (LVCS), building off the 48-volt Cybertruck architecture, in all of its vehicles to help simplify hardware. And, much like the North American Charging Standard (NACS) DC fast-charging connector, it’s pitching LVCS to other automakers.

The LVCS narrows the number of electrical connector types needed in new cars down to six, according to Tesla, while meeting the requirements for 48-volt operation like increased spacing between contacts. That’s critical to prevent arcing and shorting once the current is stepped up from the current auto-industry standard of 12 volts to 48 volts.

Tesla LVCS connectors

Tesla believes a 48-volt electrical architecture is the “optimal long-term choice,” noting that it requires one quarter of the current to deliver the same amount of power, and claiming that it will help ensure reliable operation of autonomous-driving systems.

After Tesla rallied to drop 12-volt lead-acid accessory batteries from its EVs, it made the full leap to 48-volt with the Cybertruck. Next-generation Ford EVs might do the same. But these aren’t the first automotive applications of 48-volt tech.

Mild hybrids have used 48-volt electrical architectures for over a decade. Ironically, those systems all had DC step-down and carried over a 12-volt system for accessories—while suppliers extolled the virtues of going 48-volt for everything. Automakers didn’t bite, though, primarily due to the high cost of upgrading all electronics at once.

Bosch 48-volt mild hybrid

Now, with autonomous vehicles, standardized components, and streamlined connectors in mind, Tesla’s framing of its 48-volt hardware as a new industry standard could allow costs to be shared.

It’s worked for Tesla before. In 2022 it made a strong appeal to the industry to use its NACS connector. By the end of 2023 every major brand in the North American market had committed to migrating to it.