nOn Wednesday, Volkswagen officially unveiled the ID 4, the first electric vehicle built on the automaker’s mass-manufactured modular electric vehicle platform, or “MEB,” to be sold in the US. The ID 4 will also be VW’s first affordable crossover SUV to reach America, with a suggested retail price of just under $40,000. The ID 4 is one of the many ways VW has had to atone for Dieselgate, the massive emissions cheating scandal made public five years ago. In addition to nearly $35 billion in settlement fees and fines, VW vowed to spend billions more on a whole new lineup of electric Read more

What’s the best way to tease Americans who might not otherwise consider an electric car with a glimpse of EVs’ true performance potential? Take an insanely overpowered, seven-motor Ford Mustang Mach-E electric drift machine where the Cheetah Launch Teslas rarely run: to a NASCAR race.  The Mustang Mach-E 1400 is based on the upcoming 2021 Mach-E electric SUV and follows the traditional coupe-bodied Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 electric drag-racer revealed earlier this spring and cranks it up even higher, “to demonstrate the performance possibilities of electric propulsion,” according to Ford.  Ford says that the Mach-E 1400 will debut at NASCAR—well, to shed the smirk, Read more

The electric-vehicle range race continues as automakers do their best to catch up with Tesla’s impressive numbers. Earlier this month Daimler chairman Ola Källenius told shareholders that the upcoming Mercedes-Benz EQS would have a range of over 435 miles (700 kilometers) using the non-U.S. WLTP rating system. We still don’t know what that means for the EQS’s U.S.-specific EPA range number, as our agency uses a completely different series of tests to determine its range estimates. The longest-range Tesla Model S is rated at 402 miles by the EPA, so that will be the number to beat. Unfortunately, we don’t have an updated WLTP number out Read more

As it ramps up electric-car production, BMW has inked a battery-supply deal with Sweden’s Northvolt. BMW plans to buy 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) of batteries from Northvolt beginning in 2024. Batteries will be manufactured at a factory currently under construction Skelleftea, Sweden, which will use 100% renewable energy, according to a BMW press release. Northvolt is also building a battery factory in Salzgitter, Germany, as part of a partnership with the Volkswagen Group announced in May. That factory is also scheduled to start producing batteries in 2024. The new deal will make Northvolt BMW’s third primary global supplier for Read more

Nissan has unveiled the first of its new electric vehicles as part of a turnaround strategy for the loss-making company. The Japanese carmaker is hoping its new all-electric sports utility vehicle (SUV) Ariya will sell well in China. But it faces tough competition from Tesla which has a strong presence in the world’s largest car market. Electric cars are a cornerstone of Nissan’s four-year plan to get it back to profitability. The Ariya was launched online on Wednesday from the company’s headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Nissan chief executive Makoto Uchida referred to the all-electric SUV as the “flagship of the Read more

LONDON (Reuters) – An ‘Extreme E’ race series launched on Thursday plans to showcase electric SUVs in some of the world’s harshest and most remote environments while also highlighting the effects of climate change. The brainchild of Formula E founder Alejandro Agag and former Indianapolis 500 winner Gil de Ferran, the series plans a series of races in locations ranging from Arctic wastes to Brazilian rainforests. “Formula E’s great but we don’t race with cars that people can buy on the road,” Agag told Reuters, referring to the city-based single-seater electric series that is now in its fifth season. “So Read more

The new Jaguar I-Pace is the British firm’s first electric car, promising 0-60mph in 4.5sec and a near-300-mile range between charges. It’s also the first challenger to Tesla’s dominance of the luxury electric car market On sale: Summer 2018 Price: £58,995-£76,900 It all started 20 years ago when Apple introduced the first iMac and not only saved itself from bankruptcy but became a brand others desperately wanted to be like. Since then, the letter ‘i’ has been used on everything from newspapers to teddy bears in the hope that some of the magic will rub off. However, the new Jaguar I-Pace is unusual Read more

Rimac has stolen the show at Geneva with its latest hypercar, the C_Two. Claiming 0-60mph sprint times of 1.85 seconds and topping out at 258mph thanks to a truly titanic 1914hp, the C_Two has furthered the all-electric hypercar game well past the realms of internal combustion. And due to a well placed safety feature, Rimac has made the car ‘Richard Hammond-proof’ thanks to one of the greatest pieces of trolling ever seen in the car industry. The Croatian EV supercar company has placed a svelte, tailored fire extinguisher into the rear ‘engine bay’/boot, with the securing strap reading ‘IN CASE Read more

You’ve seen the teasers, you’ve seen the CGI shots but now, it’s finally time to uncover the future of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. Welcome, one and all, to the first official pictures and technical specification of the Gen2 car, as the covers come off at the Geneva motor show. Unveiling the car for the very first time was FIA President Jean Todt, Founder & CEO of Formula E Alejandro Agag, alongside a helping (not-so-human) hand from our title partner ABB’s robot arm. With a top speed of 280 km/h (174 mph) and the ability to travel double the Read more