Why is Ford slicing manufacturing of the F-150 Lightning in half?

The place is the federal authorities’s charging community already up and operating?

That is our look again on the Week In Reverse—proper right here at Inexperienced Automobile Stories—for the week ending December 15, 2023.

The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV is the primary mass-market SUV constructed on GM’s Ultium EV toolkit. As we present in a primary drive this previous week, it’s totally different than simply about every other EV you may evaluate it to—and that’s largely a superb factor. 

2023 Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid

Following up on our annual Greatest Automobile To Purchase finalists, introduced earlier this month, we ran by way of why plenty of different EVs and plug-in hybrids—just like the Mitsubishi Outlander Plug-In Hybrid and Hyundai Kona Electrical—didn’t make the reduce. 

We additionally began taking a better have a look at every of the 4 finalists. The Hyundai Ioniq 6 electrical sedan is one among our Inexperienced Automobile Stories Greatest Automobile To Purchase 2024 finalists as a result of it’s one of the exceptional new EVs—when it comes to design, effectivity, vary, charging, and extra. In lots of respects, it’s the primary formidable rival to the Tesla Mannequin 3. And with three rows, 300+ miles of vary, bidirectional charging, towing and off-road functionality, plus a non-luxury price ticket, the Kia EV9 reaches a very new space of the EV market. What took so lengthy?

2024 Hyundai Kona Electrical

With an entire redesign, the 2024 Hyundai Kona Electrical will get a decrease beginning value versus 2023, and in base kind it loses some driving vary however picks up extra customary tech. The loss in driving vary is as a result of the bottom Kona Electrical SE now has a smaller 48.6-kwh battery pack good for an estimated 200 miles. SEL and Restricted fashions now get a 64.8-kwh pack, so should you purchase for the longer vary the fee has risen a number of thousand {dollars}.

The Porsche Macan will refocus round a totally electrical model about six months from now, and on Monday Porsche summed up how the Macan EV advances Taycan tech—however with a spotlight towards the mass market. From sooner real-world charging to smaller, extra environment friendly energy electronics and revised motor designs, it’s displaying how this electrical Macan and its 800-volt PPE foundation co-developed with Audi will ship extra efficiency, extra effectively.

2023 Porsche Macan

GM’s Cadillac luxurious model has revealed first pictures of the Vistiq electrical SUV, due for the 2026 mannequin 12 months. The three-row Vistiq will slot between the Lyriq that’s already on sale and the upcoming three-row Escalade IQ. Cadillac didn’t but verify a manufacturing timeline or every other particulars, but it surely did trace beforehand that this is among the fashions that may go into manufacturing later subsequent 12 months.

Tesla has already confirmed that the Mannequin 3 Rear-Wheel Drive and Mannequin 3 Lengthy Vary variations received’t qualify for the $7,500 EV tax credit score after Dec. 31. Now it’s added language suggesting that the Tesla Mannequin Y “seemingly” received’t maintain the complete tax credit score in 2024. And the EPA listed the 2 variations of the Tesla Cybertruck as eligible for a $7,500 EV tax credit score quantity in 2023—though the preliminary deliveries of Cybertruck All-Wheel Drive fashions had been priced at greater than $120,000 and the Cyberbeast isn’t as a result of begin beneath the $80,000 value cap for the credit score. In no different occasion does the EPA record EVs that begin properly above the worth caps. 

2025 Tesla Cybertruck – Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

The Tesla Cybertruck’s shift to a 48-volt system for equipment is one which’s lengthy been talked about. With the latest trace from Ford’s CEO confirming that Tesla did really college different automakers on methods to accomplish it—and a few affirmation that Ford can also be engaged on the shift—we took a short have a look at why it’s taken so lengthy to purge 12-volt.

Final week the Home of Representatives handed a invoice trying to dam the EPA from implementing stricter car emissions guidelines for 2027-2032, underneath the misunderstanding it’s an EV mandate. With the Senate unlikely to take up such a vote, it’s a present for the ailing knowledgeable.

Rendering of Kia Objective Constructed Automobiles

Kia has confirmed that its purpose-built car (PBV), which can act as a versatile foundation for specialised van-like EVs for ride-hailing and last-mile supply, is due for a debut at CES in January. That features tech particulars but to be defined, comparable to “Straightforward Swap” and “Dynamic Hybrid modularization.”

Gross sales of the retro-cute Honda E electrical minicar are on the finish of the highway in Europe and Japan, simply forward of Honda’s announcement {that a} new era of Honda EVs will debut at CES in January. Whereas the Honda E may as soon as have come to U.S. huge cities, Honda as an alternative opted to give attention to Europe, the place gross sales have dissatisfied.

Ford is opting to sluggish F-150 Lightning manufacturing, the corporate revealed just lately in a memo to suppliers and cited by an Automotive Information report earlier this week. Whereas the corporate cited “altering market demand” on this newest of a number of latest selections to scale down the tempo of an EV manufacturing ramp, pricing certainly has a key function. 

2023 Ford F-150 Lightning

Ohio has introduced that its first NEVI-funded EV fast-charger is up and operating. Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Regulation, NEVI can be funding websites alongside Interstate highways and different routes over 5 years, in a number of phases—and it consists of devoted funding towards making them extra dependable.

And the DOE’s Cost X Consortium is aiming to repair public charging points by beginning with EV charger error reporting. With a report, the group just lately beneficial that networks and {hardware} makers consolidate a tangle of bother codes down to only 26 widespread codes—serving to higher underscore what’s going unsuitable alongside the best way.

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