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Hyundai Ioniq 5 reveal, Kona Electric recall, Lucid IPO, Mirai and Toyota EVs: The Week in Reverse

Where is the $25,000 Tesla being developed?

What company announced this week it might build a Fisker EV?

This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending February 25, 2021.

Hyundai carried a couple of our biggest headlines of the week, but for very different reasons. First, it revealed its 2022 Ioniq 5 electric car. With retro-sharp styling plus very speedy fast-charging, an augmented-reality head-up display, and a new HDA 2 driver-assistance system—as well as V2L capability to patch as a power source—it’s at the leading edge of a new generation of EVs. 

2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5

Just a day after that intro, the company announced that it will recall and replace approximately 82,000 battery packs globally, most of them on the Hyundai Kona Electric, after at least 14 fires outside the U.S. Hyundai confirmed that the U.S. and Canada are included in the effort, however. 

We think the 2021 Mirai might be the best-driving sedan Toyota currently makes—which says good things about its upcoming battery-electric cars, in a roundabout way. 

2021 Toyota Mirai - Portland OR

2021 Toyota Mirai – Portland OR

This week, California’s Lucid Motors announced that it’s going public, with the reverse merger with a SPAC that will provide $4.4 billion, enabling the development of its Gravity SUV and energy storage products.

Porsche released photos of the 2021 Taycan Cross Turismo—the brawny Taycan wagon—doing some final testing in the sort of dusty and snowy active environments its owners are expected to venture into. It’s due this summer. 

2021 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo

2021 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo

After it recently revealed its 2022 Outlander, Mitsubishi detailed the 2021 Outlander Plug-In Hybrid. Although it keeps with the old body style for another year or two, the Outlander PHEV gets an engine-and-battery upgrade—offering 24 electric miles on a charge, plus quicker acceleration. 

The longtime maker of the Apple iPhone, Foxconn, has entered a collaboration with EV upstart Fisker Inc. that could result in a Fisker global electric vehicle in 2023. 

Karma teased an upcoming electric and plug-in hybrid SUV, called the GX-1 and due in 2022, and it put a price tag on its GS-6 plug-in hybrid that arrives soon. 

Karma GX SUV teaser

Karma GX SUV teaser

The competition may finally be heating up for Tesla. A study released earlier this week from J.D. Power found that, among shoppers considering a luxury EV and naming Tesla as their top choice, only 4% said they were only considering a Tesla. 

Meanwhile, Tesla China president Tom Zhu appears to have confirmed that the EV maker is doing the development in China for a more affordable global EV, for export to other world markets—assumed to be the $25,000 Tesla CEO Elon Musk has discussed is due in 2023. 

Although the U.S. is a net exporter of electric vehicles, the same definitely doesn’t apply for the raw materials that go into them. With an executive order issued Wednesday by President Biden, more of those materials might be made in America

USPS Next Generation Delivery Vehicle - Oshkosh Defense

USPS Next Generation Delivery Vehicle – Oshkosh Defense

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on Tuesday announced a ten-year, multi-billion-dollar contract for next-generation mail-delivery vehicles. Although revealed a month after President Biden plotted out an all-electric future for the federal fleet, only 10% of these vehicles are due to be electric

Could synthetic fuels make internal-combustion-engine vehicles as clean as EVs? A Porsche executive believes so. 

1967 Porsche 911 S Targa restored by Porsche Classic Factory Restoration

1967 Porsche 911 S Targa restored by Porsche Classic Factory Restoration

Virginia has joined the ranks of states adopting EV-boosting California clean car standards, with the support of its car dealers.

As recently predicted by analysts IHS Markit, EV sales will surge to 10% of the U.S. new-car market by 2025. Yet sales data by region reveals just how widely the differences are in U.S. EV adoption by region. EVs reached 1.8% in new-vehicle registrations in 2020, and while the area around San Francisco leads the nation at about 11% of EV sales, they made up just 0.8% of sales in the Midwest. 

The annual “greenest” and “meanest” ratings were released by the non-profit ACEEE, and it’s the Hyundai Ioniq Electric, Mini Cooper SE, and Toyota Prius Prime that top the greenest cars list. Why wasn’t the very efficient Tesla Model 3 at the top? Look at the size of its battery for a hint. 

Alpha Motors Jax

Alpha Motors Jax

And last weekend, we looked at the retro-cute designs from Alpha Motors, including its Jax. While the company might be an unknown, these vehicles show some exciting design work in city-savvy SUVs. 

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