GMC Hummer EV up close, BMW says farewell to i3, Volvo details its electric remake: The Week In Reverse

Which company is being sued over its idle fees at fast chargers?

Which automaker’s actions prompted some celebrities to dump a green-car icon?

This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending July 2, 2021.

“You don’t buy a Hummer for its subtlety,” remarked West Coast editor Brian Wong, after seeing the GMC Hummer EV and Hummer EV SUV up close earlier this week. It’s big and lives up to any impressions you might have of the former gas-guzzlers of the same name. 

A report about Toyota donations to politicians who were election objectors seems to have left one significant piece of collateral damage: the Prius. After the news, a handful of celebrities and noteworthy did some public dumping of this once golden child of green vehicles, making it truly feel like the end of an era. 

Is the time after Tesla drivers charge but are still connected to the charger—blocking others who need to use it—part of free Supercharging? One owner is suing the automaker over Supercharger idle fees. 

Volvo Concept Recharge – June 2021

Volvo revealed a comprehensive and wide-ranging look at how it plans to get to all-electric by 2030. By taking computing, software, battery development, and EV propulsion production in-house, it plans to build many future vehicles like the Volvo Concept Recharge it showed for the first time. Volvo is also planning to make its Charleston, South Carolina plant the first of its worldwide plants to only make EVs. That will include several Volvos and the upcoming Polestar 3 performance SUV. 

BMW is planning to stop building the i3 electric car in July 2021. Both the i3 BEV and REx models are finished for the U.S. market after the 2021 model year. 

2020 BMW i3

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe provided a video tour of the camp kitchen that the EV startup plans to offer on its R1T electric truck. It stows away in the Gear Tunnel and includes an inductive cooktop and coordinated cookware and utensils. It could be just right for all the burn bans in the dry West this summer and fall.

Honda announced at the start of the week that its GM-based electric SUV due in 2024 will be called Prologue. It will be powered by the same Ultium large-format NCMA pouch cells as GM’s other upcoming EVs. 

Ford E-Transit with tablet and Ford Pro fleet software

The recent acquisition of the startup Electriphi by Ford will help the F-150 Lightning Pro pickup, E-Transit vans, and other upcoming electric trucks navigate fleet charging logistics and help keep costs at a minimum. 

The battery supplier Panasonic has sold its stake in Tesla, although its relationship with the California automaker will persist. 

Mini Vision Urbanaut concept – June 2021

Mini has produced a physical concept-car version of its Urbanaut electric van, and it’s loaded with sustainable materials and ideas for how Mini might take its lineup all-electric by the early 2030s. 

Renault is looking both to retro design and affordability for its EV plans for Europe for the next few years—that includes a new electric Renault 5, the MéganE electric hatchback, and at least one EV for the Alpine performance brand. 

Renault 5 Prototype

A top Volkswagen executive announced that the company plans to exit the internal-combustion business in Europe as soon as 2033, and in the U.S. and China somewhat later.

Mazda CX-5 Skyactiv-D

And last weekend we took a look at Mazda’s ill-fated Skyactiv-D diesel project—specifically that its numbers on arrival in the CX-5 simply didn’t make sense. Let’s hope for more zoom-zoom with its quirky rotary-supplemented MX-30 arriving late this year. 

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