MyOpinion

The number of EVs on the road is growing. Recent figures show the EV market share closing in on ten percent nationally. EV infrastructure — with the help of substantial government investment — is improving to meet the demand. The number of EV charging points in America increased by 29 percent nationwide in 2023. But is that increase happening quickly enough?

The picture becomes a bit murkier, looking at individual states. Different states have different needs for EV charging. An interesting metric for how successful states have been at providing EV infrastructure is to look at their EVs per charging point ratio. The more registered EVs a state has, the more public charging points it needs. And many states — even avowedly EV-friendly ones — may be far from where they need to be with EV charging infrastructure.

The HERE-SBD EV Index for 2024 scores states out of 25 for their EVs per charging point ratio. And it tells a slightly different story than the raw numbers. California, for instance, has by far the most EV charging points of any state. However, California also has the second-worst EVs to charging point score of any state, suggesting far more needs to be done.

With the slick Kia EV6 and the family-loving EV9, one can be forgiven for forgetting that the Kia Niro EV is still around. While the Niro EV is from a different era, it’s still going strong, and a new 2025 version now has some details announced — most importantly, pricing.

The Niro EV had 2,349 sales in the US last quarter, a bit less than half of the EV6’s 5,044 sales, but perhaps it will get a boost from the 2025 model options. Pricing for the Kia Niro EV Wind starts at $39,600, while pricing for the Kia Niro EV Wave starts at $44,600 (MSRP).

The 2025 Kia Niro EV has a 64.8 kWh battery that provides 253 miles of range on a full charge (EPA estimate). “The 2025 Niro EV retains its extensive list of features while adding even more technology. Rear seatbelt pre-tensioners are now standard on both trims, with the Wave trim receiving Blind-Spot Collision Avoidance Assist – Rear with Parallel Exit as an additional Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS),” Kia writes. Rear seatbelt pre-tensioners? Well, it’s something…. That’s the baseline upgrade for the 2025 model.

The battery blitz in America continues and the newest beneficiary of that is the upcoming Rivian R2.

Rivian just inked a battery supply deal with Korean battery giant LG Energy Solution (LGES) for its next-generation R2 model that's set to launch in the second half of this decade. The Irvine, California-headquartered automaker showcased the R2 electric SUV—which looks like a baby R1S—in March and is now inching closer to bring that model to market.

LGES said on Thursday that it will provide Rivian with its advanced 4695 cylindrical cells for over five years, with a capacity totaling 67 gigawatt-hours. The new cell type has a diameter of 46 millimeters and is 95 mm tall, the battery maker said in a press release. It will feature six times the capacity of the existing 2170 cylindrical cells.

If you've been wanting an electric car but everything seems too expensive, there's some good news on the horizon. A whole lot of EV leases are due to expire in 2026, which should lead to something of a glut, according to data analyzed by JD Power.

We have the revised IRS clean vehicle tax credit to thank. This was revamped under the Inflation Reduction Act, and while tough new battery sourcing rules and a requirement for final assembly in North America have meant many fewer EVs are eligible for the tax credit when bought new, a loophole that considers a leased vehicle to be a commercial sale means any leased EV is eligible for the $7,500 incentive, which can now be subtracted from the price of the EV at the time of sale or leasing.

In 2023, 46 percent of all franchise (i.e. not Tesla, Rivian, Vinfast, or Lucid) EV sales were leases, a trend that JD Power says it has seen through the first three quarters of 2024 as well. Once Tesla is included, about 30 percent of new EV sales this year have been leases. By contrast, fewer gasoline-powered cars are being leased each year since the start of the pandemic.

That means there will probably be a shortage of used ICE vehicles in 2025 and 2026. Used EVs might also be a little scarcer next year, JD Power says. It expects a 2 percent drop in the number of used EVs next year, but a 230 percent increase in 2026 as 215,000 cars end their leases.

JD Power also has some good news about new EV prices—they're getting cheaper. The average price for a new electric compact SUV, once tax credits and manufacturer incentives are included, is $35,900, $12,700 less than the price in 2022 for the same class of vehicle.

As Reuters reports, CEO Elon Musk was asked during an earnings call Q&A about when to expect a $25,000 "non-robotaxi regular car model." Musk responded that "the future is autonomous," pointing to the Cybercab that Tesla unveiled last month.

"It should be blindingly obvious" that that's the direction Tesla is taking, Musk added, arguing that "having a regular $25K model is pointless."

In December 2023, however, Musk said Tesla was "obviously...working on a low-cost electric vehicle that’ll be made at very high volume." And when Reuters reported in April that Tesla had canceled plans for a $25,000 EV to focus on its robotaxi, Musk said the article was incorrect.

According to Tesla, "what matters [now] is lowest cost per mile of efficiency." Musk said the Cybercab will be around $25,000 to produce and available to purchase in some capacity, but it won't have a steering wheel, so it wouldn't be like purchasing a Model 3 or Cybertruck today.

However, Tesla plans to start fully autonomous, unsupervised Full Self-Driving in Texas and California next year for its Model 3 and Model Y EVs.

Royal Enfield is a company that's been around for over a century. It started as a British company, and has a long and storied past, including a little lightweight machine designed to drop from the literal sky for RAF dispatch riders during WWII. After the war, the original Flying Flea found new life as a lightweight urban commuter as the country worked to get back on its feet.

The Flying Flea C6 is one of two new Flying Flea designs that Enfield first introduced to the world ahead of EICMA 2024. Technically, they're in Milan right now, but the event doesn't kick off in earnest (even for press) until November 5, and they've chosen to get out ahead of the scrum by launching it today.

Flying Flea isn't just a revived model badge for Royal Enfield in 2024. Instead, it's meant to be the company's new electric sub-brand, and to have an identity of its own. It even has its own social media channels, although the livestreamed press conference for the event was shown on the existing Royal Enfield YouTube channel.

What you're seeing here is the Flying Flea C6, which is the first production EV that Enfield will be releasing. It's meant to be a lightweight, nimble, urban-focused motorcycle; part of what Royal Enfield Managing Director Siddhartha Lal describes as "City Plus."

By that, he explained, he means a bike that shines in city riding, but that can also go beyond and offer a bit of fun on top of that. That's the intended ethos for all Flying Flea models, in fact.

Specs aren't available yet, so we can't offer opinions on them at this time; only the design. Given Enfield's track record of more than reasonable pricing for its gas models, though, it seems like a safe bet to think that Flying Flea will be priced much more in line with what riders want to pay than some other EV motorcycle brands.

A few years back, General Motors had to recall 142,000 Bolts in a major fiasco due to fire risk. This time around, however, just a small number of Bolts are being recalled, only 107. But the risk of fire is deemed high – according to the NHTSA – if these vehicles are charged to full or nearly full capacity.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) posted a recall of the Chevrolet Bolt EVs and its larger version, the EUV, covering model year 2020-22 that were recalled and repaired previously over the same risk. Apparently, the previously installed advanced diagnostic software, which is supposed to detect whether or not the battery is defective, is itself faulty, which could, in turn, lead to a fire risk.

“The installation of advanced diagnostic software may have failed,” the NHTSA stated. “As such, the high voltage battery could catch fire when charged to full or nearly full capacity.”

According to a recent post citing He Zhiqi, BYD executive vice president, the NEV (new energy vehicle) automaker added production capacity of nearly 200,000 vehicles per month from August to October of this year. The capacity addition of nearly 2.4 million vehicles over the course of a year is greater than Tesla’s total annualized global production (469,796 units in the 3rd quarter multiplied by four equals 1,879,184 units). Note that Tesla’s production capacity, without adding new lines, appears to be about 3 million — but consumer demand is apparently lacking.

In addition, BYD added nearly 200,000 employees, significantly more than Tesla’s total employee count, especially following the layoffs earlier this year.

The BYD executive said that this level of growth is without precedent, which seems like a fair assessment. Despite the growth, BYD is now reportedly still running at capacity and will need to expand more to meet demand. BYD currently has factories under construction in countries like Hungary and Brazil, with several other factories in various stages of planning and construction around the world.

BEIJING (Reuters) -U.S. automaker Tesla sold 68,280 China-made electric vehicles in October, down 5.3% from a year earlier, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Monday.

Deliveries of China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles fell 22.7% from the previous month.

Chinese rival BYD, with its Dynasty and Ocean series of EVs and plug-in hybrids, hit another monthly record, with a 66.2% year-on-year increase in passenger vehicle sales to 500,526 units last month.

Overseas shipments made up 6% of total sales, according to a BYD filing.

The U.S. EV company's third-quarter earnings beat estimates after one-offs for layoffs in the prior quarter and it posted the first annual gain in deliveries this year owing to sales promotions.

It still outsold BYD in EV shipments last quarter, but was bested by the Chinese rival in revenue terms.

In late October, Tesla extended a zero-interest financing scheme it first introduced in China in July for some Model 3 and Model Y cars by another month to the end of November.

Suzuki has unveiled its first true mass-market EV, the eVitara, which it plans to sell in Europe and Japan starting next summer. The Suzuki eVitara will also go on sale in India, where it will be built alongside a future Toyota bZ sister model that will debut at a later date.

In Europe, it’s entering a hotly contested segment of the EV market where Kia, Hyundai, Stellantis, Volvo and even BYD already offer attractive electric crossovers in that space. The eVitara is almost exactly the same size as its direct rivals, measuring 4.275 meters (168.3 inches) in total length and sitting on a 2.7-meter (106-inch) wheelbase.

The EV’s front and rear fascias are all Suzuki, but if you look at it from the side, you can easily recognize that it has the same profile as the Toyota Urban SUV concept, which will also spawn a production model.

If you’ve been in a recent Suzuki, then you know interior quality, design or flamboyance are not strong points. However, the eVitara looks great inside, even with the “tough-looking panels” that the manufacturer advertises in the official presentation blurb. The brown leather-like material on the dashboard and parts of the seats gives the eVitara a premium appearance, especially when compared to other current Suzuki models.

More details about the Suzuki eVitara will be revealed closer to its official debut. Its all-important range rating has not been made public yet, but given its size and battery capacity, we estimate its WLTP range to not exceed the 320 km (200-mile) mark. Pricing will also be revealed later, but since the eVitara is built in India, not China, it shouldn’t incur the same steep import duties that Chinese-made cars face when entering Europe.

Andreessen Horowitz founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz said on their podcast that Chinese automakers have developed high-quality and affordable vehicles supported by a robust supply chain ecosystem.

With the American auto industry struggling with slowing growth in its EV market, American automakers need to be able to offer a compelling $20,000 EV that also competes on quality if the US doesn't want to "lose the auto industry," Andreessen said.

"What China has now is not just really good car companies, but they've got this entire constellation of supply chain componentry," Andreessen said.

China's government has spent at least $230 billion to support electric vehicle makers such as BYD since 2009, according to a study published in 2024 by the Centre for Strategic & International Studies think tank.

Andreessen said that Chinese car brands are outperforming American EV automakers in affordability and quality, calling them "super technologically sophisticated."

"For example, they've got this feature where you just come in, and you just drop your phone down on the center divider, and basically, the car lights up," he said. "The whole system inside the car comes off your phone — like all your music and your maps and your calendar and all that stuff is just automatically there."

The venture capitalist also highlighted other features, such as customized dancing animations in the LED headlights that greet the driver and self-driving capabilities, which are already integrated into several lower-cost Chinese EVs.

To keep up, American automakers need to be able to offer a similarly affordable and full-featured car at the $20,000 price point, Andreessen said.

Sometimes reading the stats is not enough. I like to see for myself. So, we went to China. We had been looking forward to cruising the Yangtze River upstream from the Three Gorges Dam and thought it an opportune time to see what “53% of new cars sales in China are plugins” looked like in the flesh — so to speak. The short answer is: spectacular! “What do all the green number plates mean?” the tour guide was asked repeatedly by our group. “Green number plates means the car is electric!”

We had been in China 8 years ago, and the transformation since then has been dramatic. The country is much wealthier. We landed in Chengdu (a city of over 25 million) and were immediately impressed by the fact that most cars on the road were less than 5 years old. (The Chinese government is giving incentives to update to cleaner, newer cars. I wonder where all the old ones went? Scrap metal by the looks of it.) Gone were the human-powered vehicles and the three-wheeled, smoke-spewing rickshaws. There were even fewer motor scooters — and the ones that were on the road were — you guessed it — electric.