News

Here we go again. The scandal that we dubbed VW’s Dirty Diesel Debacle opened a lot of folks’ eyes to the true priorities of automakers and other corporations. As reported in these pages, VW was truly sorry that it got caught, and performed several acts of contrition—it bought back a fraction of the defective cars,

Xiaomi, the world’s second-biggest smartphone manufacturer, wants to become one of the world’s top automakers, and this week the company revealed its first vehicle. Called the SU7, the vehicle is a sleek electric sedan boasting up to 664 hp. 2025 Nio ET9 More established EV manufacturer Nio revealed a flagship model blending sedan and SUV

Syensqo has completed its spin-off from Solvay, a Belgian chemical company. Now a stand-alone, Euronext-listed company, Syensqo has more than $8.5 billion in annual sales and 13,200 global employees. It has 34 industrial sites and 3 research and innovation centers.  The company’s Materials segment makes high-performance, high-margin Specialty Polymers and Composites, mainly for automotive (including

Australian technology company Applied EV has announced its partnership with Dutch vehicle electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture solutions provider NXP Semiconductors to advance safer and more connected autonomous electric mobility. NXP and Applied EV will collaborate on software-defined vehicles and electrical and electronic architecture (EEA) innovation, share ideas and form strategic and production partnerships. Digital Backbone—Applied EV’s

Buyers after the 2024 Mercedes-Benz EQS can look forward to a little more power and range on some grades. The big electric hatchback first arrived on the scene for the 2022 model year and received the special Manufaktur Signature Edition for 2023. For 2024, all EQS grades receive a heat pump that Mercedes says improves

UK-based energy supplier OVO and energy software company Kaluza have announced a partnership with Volvo Cars to develop EV managed charging services for Volvo Cars and OVO customers in the UK. One-way smart charging and bidirectional charging from Kaluza are scheduled to launch in 2024, as is the Volvo EX90 SUV, the company’s first vehicle

Electric bicycles have quickly become enormously popular—the Light Electric Vehicle Association estimates that some 880,000 were imported to the US in 2021. However, some of them have a way of catching fire unexpectedly, sometimes in residential settings, with unfortunate consequences. At this point, unfortunately, a disclaimer is necessary. This is not one of those “EVs

A 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster is headed to an RM Sotheby’s auction next month in Phoenix, Arizona. It is being offered up from a collection known as the Open-Touring Collection, and is scheduled to go under the hammer on Jan. 25. The 1938 540K, which bears chassis number 408338, was originally sold with a

Among the many drawbacks of public charging sites is a perceived lack of security—a feeling familiar to anyone who’s had to use a charger located in a dimly-lit corner of a vast parking lot. SMS, a new UK-based charge point operator, recently published a white paper, “Powering up public EV charging,” that included the results

California-headquartered InCharge Energy, a provider of commercial fleet EV charging infrastructure, has integrated its proprietary InControl CMS charge management software with the Geotab Marketplace, a network of fleet-management telematics services. The integration allows fleet managers to view EV data even when their vehicles are not plugged in, according to the company. It offers improvements in

The Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II was a homologation special required for DTM competition, which was launched in 1990 in a limited run of 502 cars. It’s an icon of the era, and now HWA wants to recreate the magic by building a modern example. HWA’s car is known as the HWA Evo, and

Komatsu America, a subsidiary of global construction and mining equipment giant Komatsu, has agreed to acquire Detroit-based battery manufacturer American Battery Solutions. ABS develops and manufactures a wide variety of heavy-duty and industrial battery packs for commercial vehicles, transit buses and other on- and off-road vehicles. The company provides both standard battery packs and custom

In what appears to be an example of healthy coopetition, Archer Aviation has bought several multimodal chargers from rival eVTOL manufacturer Beta Technologies. Beta says it has delivered two chargers to Archer’s flight test facility in Salinas, California, where Archer is conducting a flight test campaign with its four-passenger Midnight eVTOL air taxi. Both Archer

The 2024 Genesis G70 compact sedan gets a $42,695 base price to go with an updated base engine. That’s up from $40,525 for the 2023 model. The new price, which includes a mandatory $1,195 destination charge, applies to the 2.5T Standard RWD model. This entry grade gets the new 2.5-liter turbo-4, which replaces the previous

Trans Am Worldwide’s 70/SS is a tribute to the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport with more than 1,500 hp, a manual transmission, and a design that drips in nostalgia. The convertible muscle car was unveiled in 2022, but Trans Am Worldwide recently released a video that delves into more detail about the car’s genesis and

CarMax, a major national retailer of used cars, has begun pilot operation of its first electric semi-truck. The company is using a Freightliner eCascadia as a vehicle hauler in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The truck can transport up to seven vehicles at a time, and has a range of around 230 miles, which enables it

We drove the 2024 Porsche 911 S/T, the Chevrolet Camaro died again, and the 2025 Ford Bronco Sport broke cover. It’s the Week in Reverse, right here at Motor Authority. We had our first stint behind the wheel of the 2024 Porsche 911 S/T and found that it strips down for driving engagement. The flat-6

St. Petersburg, Florida is known as a boater’s paradise (and of course, the epicenter of EV journalism), so John Vo, the former Global Head of Manufacturing at Tesla, saw it as the perfect site for his new electric boat company, Blue Innovations Group (BIG). Only about a year after setting up shop in the suburb

Mercedes-Benz is developing its own public charging network, and it has chosen SwissAI to provide network planning and site selection services. SwissAI’s AI-based analysis and forecasting SaaS platform, AIOME, is designed to facilitate location selection and charging infrastructure deployment. By the end of the decade, Mercedes-Benz Mobility plans to build some 2,000 charging hubs with

McLaren revealed an updated version of its GT supercar this week. Rebranded as a GTS, the newcomer features a power boost, plus revised looks, and more personalization options. Subaru Targa Florio ’23 (Subaru WRX TR and BRZ tS) Subaru has launched hotter versions of its WRX and BRZ for 2024 in the form of the

It’s been a long time since auto industry observers have seen Toyota as an innovator, so it was a pleasant surprise when the world’s second-largest automaker demonstrated a version of the die-casting process pioneered by Tesla, using a massive hydraulic press to cast the entire rear third of an auto chassis as a single piece.

Too-frequent DC fast charging can theoretically damage an EV’s battery, causing it to lose capacity, and thus driving range, faster than would otherwise be the case. However, there’s little hard data on the long-term effects of frequent fast charging. Now battery data specialist Recurrent has made a substantial contribution to the literature on the subject.

A new generation of the Mini Convertible is coming soon, and a prototype has been spotted. The prototype is for the high-performance John Cooper Works Convertible, but prototypes for the regular Cooper Convertible are also out testing. Both versions are expected to debut next year as 2025 models for the U.S. Clear giveaways that this

Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil and German auto brand Porsche have collaborated to introduce a 3-in-1 thermal management fluid for an electric racing car. The Mobil 1 thermal management fluid meets the needs of the Porsche GT4 e-Performance, a racing car with a new cooling system. The Porsche GT4 e-Performance can deliver a peak output

Green Battery Minerals and Volt Carbon Technologies are working together to develop battery anodes made with high-grade graphite. Testing of graphite refined from Green Battery’s Berkwood property confirmed its suitability for lithium-ion batteries, and now Volt has begun battery anode development using Green Battery graphite. Using the super-jumbo flake graphite concentrate derived from rock samples

Audi’s upcoming A6 E-Tron has been spotted testing again as a wagon, or Avant as the automaker likes to call the practical body style. The A6 E-Tron is a midsize electric vehicle previewed by a concept of the same name at the 2021 Shanghai auto show. The concept showed the vehicle in its standard sedan

Colorado-based CIE Solutions builds a variety of custom battery packs for specialized applications. Its new MonoLith Battery System is a versatile and scalable battery pack that can be customized to fit into a vast variety of motive and stationary applications. The MonoLith features a flat-pack design, a liquid-cooled architecture and sophisticated internal logic controls.​ It’s

A favorite argument of the anti-EV crowd (or perhaps I should say, the crowd that “loves EVs,” but just wants to delay adoption for a decade or two) is a lack of sufficient charging infrastructure. Recently, truck manufacturers including Volvo and Daimler (big EV fans both) asked the EPA for a three-year delay of the

During the launch of its updated 2024 F-150 in September, Ford promised the 2024 F-150 Raptor R range-topper would deliver best-in-class horsepower. The automaker on Wednesday finally delivered on that promise by confirming the output at 720 hp. That’s up 20 hp on the previous model year and bests the 702 hp of the Ram

Battery-makers are eagerly researching ways to incorporate silicon, which can potentially store 10 times as much energy as graphite, into anodes. Now silicon anode specialist GDI says it has developed a 100% silicon roll-to-roll processed anode for next-generation batteries, potentially enabling graphite-free battery cells that deliver far higher energy density, faster charging and greater safety