Elon Musk Can’t Solve Tesla’s China Crisis With His Desperate Asia Visit

Elon Musk will be pleased that his surprise jaunt to China on Sunday garnered many glowing headlines. The trip was undoubtedly equally a surprise to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who had been scheduled to offer Musk the red carpet on a long-arranged visit. The billionaire blew off India at the last minute, citing “very … Read more

Tesla Promises ‘More Affordable Models’ and a ‘Cybercab’

Tesla is accelerating plans for a line-up of new electric vehicles, including “more affordable models,” the automaker said in a memo to investors Tuesday. New models previously slated to start production in the second half of 2025 will now launch before then, the company said, implying production will start much earlier. It’s unclear whether the … Read more

Here Comes the Flood of Plug-In Hybrids

Last week, the Biden administration made it official: American cars are really going electric. The US Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule, long in the works, that will require automakers selling in the United States to dramatically boost the number of battery-powered vehicles sold this decade, putting a serious dent in the country’s carbon emissions … Read more

BMW’s Vision Neue Klasse X Has a Car-Wide Screen and a ‘Joy’ Brain

“The ‘heart of joy’ effectively takes 30 years of experience and blends it into a single control unit,” BMW chief technical officer Frank Weber tells WIRED. “Everything that is driving-performance-related, chassis-control-related, powertrain-related—it’s all integrated into one control unit. If you love the idea of the ultimate driving machine, there are functions in there that are … Read more

EVs With Built-In Camera Drones Have Already Landed in China

Chinese automakers are starting to equip electric cars with camera drones. For now, this drone integration is aimed at content creators who want to collect videos of themselves driving. These systems typically enable one-click filming of a moving vehicle, with the action viewable live on the car’s interior display as well as recorded for posterity. … Read more

China’s Best Self-Driving Car Platforms, Tested and Compared

I experienced the City NGP function under XNGP in a P7i in Shanghai, and later in a G6 in Guangzhou. With my second experience I soon realized it was a tale of two cities. In Shanghai it was quite smooth, and at least one of the interventions made was due to me being disoriented rather … Read more

Tesla’s Charging Network Is Now Open to Other EVs—and Ford Is First in Line

Every six months, the automotive research company JD Power surveys some 5,000 US electric vehicle owners about their experiences driving their battery-powered cars. The latest edition of this survey, out this week, found that EV’s perennial bugbear is still bugbear-ing. In fact, it’s got worse: Drivers say they are even more dissatisfied with the availability … Read more

RIP Apple Car. This Is Why It Died

All these firms seek to capitalize on what Apple recognized a decade ago: The software and connectivity now built into new autos gave tech incumbents a jump on traditional auto-builders. But those advantages haven’t always proven out. Project Titan had plenty of other challenges. High-profile executives from tech companies, tech-inspired automakers like Tesla, and legacy … Read more

Lamborghini Revuelto 2024 Review, Specs, Price, Availability

Such is the fluidity of this interchange between electric and combustion that, after a time, you stop thinking of the car as being a hybrid at all, and settle to simply enjoy the visceral experience of the Revuelto—which, although hugely entertaining, is more refined than any previous Lamborghini. And not just in the powertrain. The … Read more

Panasonic’s New Powder-Powered Batteries Will Supercharge EVs

“There are companies that have partnerships and collaborations, but they’re all still in development,” claims Berdichevsky, “while we’re ready for scale production manufacturing.” Not coincidentally, Moses Lake is also home to REC Silicon, a formerly shuttered supplier to the photovoltaics industry, and now one of only two US makers of silane gas. Group14 will be … Read more