Lucid Motors founder and CEO Peter Rawlinson will step down, as the luxury EV company sets its sights on doubling production over the next year.

Rawlinson won’t be leaving the company. Instead, he’ll be assuming the role of “Strategic Technical Advisor to the Chairman of the Board,” the company said. Chief operating officer Marc Winterhoff will serve as interim CEO while the board initiates a search for a new chief executive.

“Now that we have successfully launched the Lucid Gravity, I have decided it is finally the right time for me to step aside from my roles at Lucid,” Rawlinson said in a statement. “I am incredibly proud of the accomplishments the Lucid team have achieved together through my tenure of these past twelve years. We grew from a tiny company with a big ambition, to a widely recognized technological world leader in sustainable mobility. It has been my honor to have led and grown this remarkable, truly world-class organization, because Lucid has always been first and foremost about a team effort.”

The leadership shuffle comes as Lucid eyes major growth for the next year. The company says it expects to sell 20,000 vehicles in 2025, nearly double the 10,241 EVs it delivered in 2024. The updated guidance was announced as part of the company’s fourth quarter earnings. Lucid reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $636.9 million for the three month period ending December 31st.

Lucid said it earned $234.4 million in revenue for the fourth quarter, on top of $807.8 million for the entire year. The company lost $3.06 billion attributable to common stockholders in 2024, and ended the year with $6.13 billion in total liquidity.

Doubling production will be a tough feat for Lucid, with most analysts predicting that EV share of the retail market to remain flat this year. Its especially tough for a luxury EV company like Lucid, with most of the growth taking place in the mass-market segment. But Lucid has high hopes for its Gravity SUV, which just started its first customer deliveries late last year. The company says it plans on gradually ramping up production during the year.

Lucid said the SUV would get up to 440 miles of range, offer 800 horsepower, and accelerate 0–60 mph in under 3.5 seconds. The Gravity will also be the first vehicle from Lucid to come with a native NACS charging port that’s compatible with Tesla’s Supercharger network.

Lucid is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which invested $2.5 billion in the company in 2024. The money has helped the cash-losing EV maker from heading down a similar path as some of its less financially stable peers.

Volvo is continuing to drop hints about its upcoming high-tech electric sedan, the ES90, ahead of the EV’s official reveal next month. Today, the Swedish automaker provided new details about the ES90’s range and battery efficiency, calling it “a car that goes further and charges faster than any electric Volvo before.”

That’s mostly thanks to the ES90’s new-for-Volvo 800-volt architecture, putting it on par with other fast-charging EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6. The new architecture is an upgrade from previous Volvo EVs, like the $80,000 EX90 SUV, which features a 400-volt system.

Volvo claims that the ES90 will be able to add 300km (186 miles) of range in just 10 minutes when plugged into a 350kW fast-charging station (depending on the outdoor temperature). Moreover, it will offer a driving range of up to 700km (435 miles) under the more generous WLTP testing cycle.

Automakers are increasingly trending toward higher voltage systems in the hopes of luring in more customers who are turned off by slow charging speeds and the prospect of being stuck at a public charging station for 40 minutes or more. Stellantis, parent company of Jeep and Ram, recently announced a new 800-volt flexible architecture for some of its upcoming EVs.

Volvo said it needed to upgrade a number of its components in order to support the higher voltage system, including battery cells, motors, inverters, and thermal parts. The new motors were lighter and more efficient, and the overall system now creates less heat, meaning the battery can be charged at a faster rate without overloading the electrical system.

Volvo also plans to introduce a new, in-house-developed battery management software for the ES90, provided by Breathe Battery Technologies, which also received investments from Volvo’s corporate venture capital arm. The new software will slash the amount of time it takes to charge from 10 to 80 percent by as much as 30 percent, down to 20 minutes.

The ES90 will also feature a slew of recycled materials, including 29 percent of the aluminum, 16 percent of polymers, and 18 percent of steel. Wood panels inside the ES90 are made from FSC-certified wood, Volvo says. The automaker is also introducing a new blockchain-based battery “passport” to track raw materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite used in the battery. 

Tesla is starting to push a software update to its customers in China that appears to fulfill a long-gestating goal for the company to offer its controversial Full Self-Driving features in its largest car market. Or does it?

According to Not a Tesla App, it’s unclear whether the version of FSD that Tesla is offering in China is the same as the one available in North America. For one thing, it’s not even called FSD, but rather, “Urban Road Autopilot Assistance” (URAA). According to the website:

On controlled-access highways and urban roads, URAA guides vehicles according to navigation routes, assisting with entering and exiting highways, navigating intersections, and recognizing traffic lights to perform actions like going straight, turning left or right, or making U-turns. 

That sounds like FSD, which is a semiautonomous driver-assist system that responds to traffic lights and stop signs, performs lane changes, and includes a self-parking feature. Not a Tesla App also found a video on X that appears to show a Tesla owner using URAA in China. On the surface, it looks a lot like FSD, including a visualization on the central touchscreen with the familiar blue line emanating from the vehicle to indicate the driving path.

But Reuters reports that the Chinese version of FSD will be “less capable” than the North American version “due to insufficient data training on Chinese roads and traffic rules,” citing unnamed sources. The software update is being pushed out in batches, so it’s unlikely that everyone who paid for the feature — which reportedly costs 64,000 yuan (about $8,800) — will receive it right away. Bloomberg says the update will only be available to vehicles with “HW 4.0,” which includes most Model Y and Model 3 vehicles built in China last year.

Elon Musk has long sought approval for FSD from Chinese regulators, even flying to Beijing last year to meet with government officials about deploying the semiautonomous feature. But he acknowledged that the company was running into obstacles, including a lack of usable training data, and that Tesla engineers were trying to resolve those issues by using videos of driving in China that were found on the internet. Reuters reports that Musk is considering building a local data center in China to process data.

The delays have hurt Tesla’s ability to compete with Chinese EV makers, including BYD, which recently rolled out its own advanced driver-assist system called God’s Eye. China is an enormously important market for Tesla, which reported its first year-over-year sales decline in 2024. Xiaomi’s SU7, which sells for less than $30,000, with the company offering a smart city driving feature in its cars for free, has outsold the Model 3 on a monthly basis, according to Reuters. Chinese law requires driver supervision for its Level 2 assist features.

Tesla has said repeatedly that FSD will ultimately lead to fully driverless cars — though Musk recently admitted that most Tesla vehicles will need a significant hardware update in order to achieve unsupervised driving. Tesla’s approach to autonomy has also been criticized for lacking redundant sensors like lidar and for falling short of the capabilities of companies like Waymo.

In its 2024 roadmap, Tesla said it would launch FSD in China and Europe in the first quarter of 2025. The company has yet to receive regulatory approval in Europe for the driver-assist feature.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, around 50 sign-wielding protesters stood outside the Tesla showroom in Manhattan’s Meatpacking neighborhood, screaming insults at passing Tesla vehicles. 

“Uncool car!” 

“Don’t buy a Swatsticar!”

“Major loser!”

The excitement peaked when an unsuspecting Cybertruck suddenly pulled around the corner. As a woman in the passenger seat stared wide-eyed out the window, the protestors began to chant: “Micro penis! Micro penis!” 

The protest was one of dozens outside Tesla locations across the country that day, spurred by Musk’s attempts to dismantle large parts of the federal government. As part of an effort dubbed #TeslaTakedown or #TeslaTakeover by organizers, groups of protesters have largely planned their actions on Bluesky, a competitor to Musk’s X, and are now entering their third week of activity. 

It started with a smattering of demonstrations outside Tesla showrooms in places like Maine, Massachusetts, New York, California, and Colorado. But as Musk continues to blaze a path of destruction, the number of protests has exploded. There are currently 65 events listed on TeslaTakedown.com, e …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages buildings owned by the federal government, is planning to shut down all of its electric vehicle chargers nationwide, describing them as “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages contracts for the government’s vehicle fleets, is also looking to offload newly purchased EVs. 

The GSA currently operates several hundred EV chargers across the country, with approximately 8,000 plugs that are available for government-owned EVs as well as federal employees’ personally owned vehicles. 

The official guidance instructing federal workers to begin the process of shutting down the chargers will be announced internally next week, according to a source with knowledge of the plans. Some regional offices have been told to start taking their chargers offline, according to an email viewed by The Verge. 

“As GSA has worked to align with the current administration, we have received direction that all GSA owned charging stations are not mission critical,” the email reads. 

The GSA is working on the timing of canceling current network contracts that keep the EV chargers operational. Once those contracts are canceled, the stations will be taken out of service and “turned off at the breaker,” the email reads. Other chargers will be turned off starting next week. 

“Neither Government Owned Vehicles nor Privately Owned Vehicles will be able to charge at these charging stations once they’re out of service,” it concludes.

At the GSA’s Denver office, employees were told that EV chargers at four federally owned buildings would be taken offline next week. The news was first reported by Colorado Public Radio. 

Under the Biden administration, the GSA was in charge of implementing the president’s plan to phase out the federal government’s use of gas-powered vehicles in favor of EVs. The federal government owns approximately 650,000 vehicles, more than half of which were to be replaced with EVs.

Those new EVs would need reliable places to charge. Former President Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, included $975 million for the GSA to upgrade federal buildings across the country with “emerging and sustainable technologies.” The aim was to achieve a net-zero emissions federal building portfolio by 2045, which included EV chargers.

According to a March 2024 update, the GSA had ordered over 58,000 EVs and begun installing more than 25,000 charging ports, adding to the 8,000 already in use across the government. An interactive map showing the location of all GSA-owned chargers has been taken offline as of February this year. (An older version is available through the Wayback Machine.)

The GSA will also begin offloading the EVs it purchased under the Biden administration, the source said. It’s unclear whether those vehicles will be sold or simply put away in storage. It’s also unclear whether other federal agencies will be making similar decisions for their own EVs, although many of those agencies tend to use the GSA’s EV chargers for their own plug-in vehicles. 

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to roll back his predecessor’s EV policies, which he falsely labeled a “mandate.” And since his inauguration, he halted a $5 billion program to install new public EV chargers across the country, signed an executive order rescinding Biden’s directives to purchase new EVs for the federal government’s vehicle fleet, and signaled his intention to eliminate the federal EV tax credit and other incentives for consumers.

Unlike gas-powered vehicles, EVs generate no tailpipe pollution. Burning fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel release carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the environment. These emissions have been proven to cause climate change, which supercharges extreme weather events like wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding. Transportation, including personal vehicle usage, accounts for about 28 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

A spokesperson for the GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The GSA also plans on selling approximately 500 buildings as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the federal government, Wired reports. 

With additional reporting by Mia Sato

Rivian announced a significant milestone today, reporting its first “positive gross profit” in its fourth quarter earnings for 2024. It was a sign that the struggling company’s efforts to slash costs through the gut overhaul of its R1 electric vehicles is starting to yield some positive results. But dark clouds loom ahead, as the company said it expects to sell fewer vehicles in 2025 than last year.

Rivian reported $170 million in positive gross profits, which includes production and sales but does not factor in other expenses, for the three-month period that ended December 31, 2024. That was based on $1.7 billion in revenues. The company said its net loss for the fourth quarter was $743 million, as compared to $1.5 billion in net losses in the same period in 2023.

Rivian earned $4.5 billion in revenue for the full year 2024, based on the delivery of 51,579 vehicles. It record a net loss of $4.7 billion, compared to $5.4 billion in 2023. Rivian cited increased revenue from the sale of regulatory credits to other automakers, which is also a primary revenue driver for Tesla. The company said it saw a $260 million increase in regulatory credit sales in the fourth quarter year over year.

“Our variable cost reductions were driven by the launch of our second generation R1 vehicles, which included significant engineering design optimizations, supply chain driven cost reductions, and improvement in commodity costs,” the company said in a note to shareholders.

For the year ahead, Rivian said it expects to sell 46,000-51,000 vehicles, citing “changes to government policies and regulations, and a challenging demand environment.” Despite this, the company says it expects to achieve “modest gross profit” for the full year.

“While uncertainties persist, we remain focused on executing against our key value drivers and are confident in electrifying the world in the long term,” Rivian said. “Our guidance represents management’s current view on potential adjustments to incentives, regulations, and tariff structures.”

The company recently announced plans to open up sales of its electric delivery van to any commercial fleet owner. And it unveiled its first special edition R1 vehicle for soft sand off-roading.

Rivian is certainly facing tougher months ahead, with the Trump administration promising to apply tariffs to a range of auto parts, as well as rolling back Biden-era EV incentives. On the plus side, the company has a $5.8 billion joint venture with Volkswagen on software and vehicle development.

Kia revealed the exterior design of the upcoming PV5 electric van, the automaker’s first EV to come out under its “Platform Before Vehicle” (PBV) brand.

With the PV5, Kia has declared its intention to compete with heavy hitters like the Volkswagen ID Buzz, Ford E-Transit, Mercedes eSprinter, and Ram ProMaster EV. There are very few electric vans on the market today, but that looks to be changing with these new entrants.

The PV5 will come in a number of configurations, depending on whether you want something for cargo delivery, rideshare, or just to fulfill your #vanlife fantasies. There will also be models built for specialized conversions, which is sure to thrill the van conversion aftermarket.

While the passenger version features a large window area, the cargo variant emphasizes space efficiency with a clean, modern look. Kia didn’t offer any details about its powertrain, range, price, or availability.

The PV5 will be the first of many PBV-branded vehicles to come from Kia. PBV was introduced during CES 2024 in Las Vegas as a family of EVs built on a flexible vehicle architecture, with different swappable body types. The vehicle can be transformed from a minivan to a full-size van to a small truck, depending on the specific need. The driver cab remains fixed, while the rest of the vehicle is interchangeable, like a real-life Duplo set.

At the time, Kia said that the PV5 would be ideal for ridehailing, delivery, and utilities. Uber swooped in soon after to sign a memorandum of understanding to add the PV5 as an option for its drivers in the hopes of fulfilling its pledge to go all-electric in all markets by 2040.

Kia said it will reveal more details about the PV5, as well as a new model, at its Kia EV Day in Spain later this month. A heavily camouflaged PV5 was spotted by Electrek earlier this month in the US.

Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Dodge, and Ram, announced its first “hands free, eyes off” partial autonomous driving feature. The company is pitching this new feature, which is called STLA AutoDrive, as for drivers who want to reclaim “valuable time” while stuck in stop-and-go traffic.

But that said, Stellantis isn’t launching the feature quite yet, citing market and regulatory hurdles. And the company wouldn’t say which models will be the first to get the new partially autonomous features.

“The technology is fully developed and ready for deployment,” company spokesperson Dan Reid said in an email. “However, the current market for Level 3 autonomous driving is very limited. We have made the strategic decision not to launch it at this time. Once the market opens up and becomes more receptive, we will move forward with introducing this advanced technology.”

As defined by the Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE), Level 3 describes highly automated driving, where the driver still needs to be able to take over control of the vehicle upon request but can also take their eyes off the road in certain situations. Some experts have argued that L3 systems can be dangerous given the need for drivers to stay attentive despite the vehicle performing most of the driving tasks.

That hasn’t stopped most major automakers from pursuing Level 3 driving, describing it as a helpful technology in slow speed scenarios, like stop-and-go traffic. STLA AutoDrive will cover a range of driver assist situations, from hands-on Level 2 driving, to hands-off, eyes-off Level 3+, the company said.

Stellantis said its Level 3+ system can be engaged “even at night and in challenging weather conditions.” But there will be limitations. For example, drivers can only take their eyes off the road and hands off the steering wheel at speeds of less than 60 km/h (37 mph). Stellantis says the system is designed to evolve as the technology improves, anticipating that it will eventually be functional at speeds of up to 95 km/h (59 mph) and while off-roading.

Stellantis describes STLA AutoDrive as being powered by “an advanced suite of sensors” that can clean themselves when conditions get dirty. These include cameras, radar, and ultrasonic sensors that are also used for features like blind-spot detection, lane keep assistance, and parking assistance.

Stellantis is the latest automaker to jump on the Level 3 bandwagon. Others include Mercedes-Benz, Ford, GM, Volvo, Honda, and others. But few of these features are available in cars you can buy today, hamstrung by local rules and a sense of caution by the automaker.

Like other automakers, Stellantis sees partial automation more as a convenience feature than explicitly about safety. To be sure, drivers are adept at skirting the rules that govern driver-assist systems, according to a recent study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And when a car is traveling at much higher speeds than before, all it takes is a split second for something to go wrong.

There have been studies that show that the handoff between an automated system and a human driver can be especially fraught. When people are disconnected from driving for a long period of time, they may overreact when suddenly taking control in an emergency situation. They may overcorrect steering, brake too hard, or be unable to respond correctly because they haven’t been paying attention. Those actions can create a domino effect that has the potential to be dangerous — and perhaps even fatal.

Fully autonomous companies, like Waymo, have said they think Level 3 is too dangerous, preferring to work exclusively on Level 4 technology that cuts the driver completely out of the equation. But most automakers are washing their hands of full autonomy, preferring the near-term revenues associated with selling optional Level 2 and 3 features to their vehicle owners.

Volvo’s next electric vehicle, the ES90 midsized luxury sedan, sounds like its got some serious computing chops.

The new EV will come with a dual Nvidia Drive AGX Orin configuration, making it the “most powerful car Volvo ever created in terms of core computing capacity,” the company claims today. The new supercomputer is included as part of a single tech stack called Superset, which Volvo says will underpin all of its next-gen vehicles going forward.

The ES90 will be Volvo’s first vehicle to come with the Nvidia’s system-on-a-chip, enabling it to perform core functions at lightning fast speeds thanks to the computer’s abilities to perform 508 trillion operations per second (TOPS). This will come handy when managing functionalities such as “AI-based, state-of-the-art active safety features, car sensors and efficient battery management.”

Orin system also represents an “eightfold” improvement in processing speeds over the San Jose-based chipmaker’s Xavier computer that featured in the 2018 announcement of a team-up between Volvo and Nvidia on in-car hardware. The increased processing power to enable Volvo to gradually enhance its deep learning model and neural network “from 40 million to 200 million parameters,” the company says.

The ES90 will be built on Volvo’s SPA2 architecture and will be the second vehicle, after the EX90, to be based on its Superset tech stack. Superset is a modular engineering platform that the company says will be used to make safer cars, more efficiently, and to improve them over time through over-the-air software updates.

Tesla was the first company to introduce the idea of a connected vehicle with updateable software that could improve over timne. Now, the rest of the industry is scrambling to catch up by introducing their own upgradable vehicles. Volvo’s EX90 was intended to be the first major effort, but the electric SUV was delayed by software troubles, and when it eventually arrived it lacked many of its promised features.

Volvo says it envisions a future in which features such as driver assist technology and battery range are able to be improved over time thanks to this new tech stack. And improvements for the EX90 will be translatable to the ES90, and vice versa.

“The Volvo ES90 is one of the most technically advanced cars on the market today and is designed to be improved further with time,” says Anders Bell, Volvo’s chief engineering and technology officer, in a statement. “Built on our state-of-the-art Superset tech stack, the ES90 puts safety at the forefront.”

Rivian announced the California Dune edition of its R1 electric vehicles, with new 20-inch All-Terrain wheels, a new paint color, and a protective underbody shield for those with a desire for some serious off-roading.

The company says the California Dune edition vehicles are “built to tackle the toughest terrains.” Rivian’s tri-motor EVs already offer a number of distinct drive modes, including Soft Sand, but now the automaker is building a vehicle specifically for those desert adventures.

The special edition is based on the company’s tri-motor powertrain, which offers 850 horsepower and 1,103 lb-ft of torque. That means 0-60mph acceleration in 2.9-seconds, with an EPA-estimated range of 329 miles. But the new add-ons won’t come cheap: the California Dune version of the R1T truck starts at $99,900, while the R1S SUV starts at $105,900.

The 20” All-terrain wheels come in two styles: newly introduced dark wheels or the all new California Dune finish wheels that match the exterior paint color. That new paint is called California Dune, which Rivian says was inspired by “the subtle natural undertones of the desert dunes with calming, earthy tones that offer a neutral and warm feeling.”

And because you can’t offer a new paint color without freshening up the inside, Rivian is offering a new two-tone Adventure interior with Sandstone topped with a layer of Black Mountain (those are colors, I suppose). Newly durable and easy-to-clean floor mats allow for swift removal of sand and other off-roading detritus.

There’s also a range of accessories to choose from, including dark Maxtrax recovery boards, in case your Rivian finds itself stuck in some deep sand and needs a little extra help getting out. The California Dune edition also comes with dark crossbars and a powered tonneau with a new look.

The new special edition EVs are being announced on the eve of a crucial earnings report from Rivian. The company will report its fourth quarter results, as well as its full-year numbers and outlook for 2025.

The Tesla Cybertruck finally has its first crash safety rating over a year after deliveries first began in November 2023. And like all other Tesla vehicles before it, the electric truck scored a 5-star rating in nearly all the individual categories.

The categories include frontal and side crashes, as well as risk of rollover. To simulate a head-on collision, the Cybertruck was driven into a flat rigid barrier at 35 mph. For that, NHTSA awarded the truck a 5-star rating for drivers and a 4-star rating for passengers.

The report notes that the driver seat center airbag deployed, but knee airbags for both driver and passenger did not. Tesla confirmed to the agency that the knee airbags were not designed to deploy “for this specific test configuration.”

For the side crash test, the Cybertruck earned an overall 5-star rating. These tests consisted of a side barrier test, in which a moving, non-rigid barrier angled at 27 degrees is crashed into the driver side door at 38.5 mph. A side pole crash test involves simulating the vehicle crashing into a fixed object like a tree or utility pole at 20 mph.

And lastly, the Cybertruck earned a 4-star rating in the rollover test. NHTSA determined that the truck did not tip over during the dynamic test, but that there was still a 12.4 percent risk of rollover.

In the US, car companies “self certify” that their vehicles comply with federal safety standards requiring everything from sideview mirrors to airbags to automatic emergency braking. There is no “pre-approval” before an automaker is allowed to sell its cars to the public. Crash tests are typically performed after the vehicle is available for sale.

Tesla conducted its own crash tests with the Cybertruck in-house, videos from which were shown during the delivery event in 2023. But this is the first time that the EV has been tested by independent regulators. Previous Tesla vehicles, including the Model Y, the Model 3, Model X SUV, and Model S all earned 5-star crash test scores. 

After it was released, safety experts questioned whether the Cybertruck’s stainless steel body and sharp angles presented a unique risk to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users. There were questions whether the Cybertruck’s crumple zone, which helps prevent or reduce injuries to the occupants of the vehicle during a collision, was enough to mitigate the effects of a crash. A stiffer vehicle, like one made from stainless steel, could complicate this process.

The government’s NCAP program was recently updated to include pedestrian safety for the first time. This new assessment is designed to evaluate the ability of a vehicle’s front end to mitigate pedestrian injuries and fatalities in vehicle-to-pedestrian impacts. But there’s no mention of the Cybertruck’s pedestrian safety rating in NHTSA’s evaluation.

The Cybertruck has been subject to seven recalls since its release, including for a slow-to-appear rear camera display, faulty windshield wipers, loose trim, jammed accelerator pedal, and undersized font on its warning lights.

Sales of the Cybertruck have also been slowing down in recent months, forcing Tesla to begin offering discounts in order to juice demand.

Struggling electric truck company Nikola said it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Wednesday and would sell off its assets, effectively ending a challenging journey punctuated by rapid cash burn, allegations of fraud, and the incarceration of its first CEO and founder.

Nikola said it would seek an auction and sale process, pending court approval. The company said it had $47 million in cash on hand to fund its bankruptcy proceedings, implement the sale process, and exit Chapter 11. Nikola listed assets of between $500 million and $1 billion, and estimated its liabilities were between $1 billion and $10 billion, Reuters said citing a court filing.

“Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate,” Steve Girsky, President and CEO of Nikola, said in a statement. “In recent months, we have taken numerous actions to raise capital, reduce our liabilities, clean up our balance sheet and preserve cash to sustain our operations. Unfortunately, our very best efforts have not been enough to overcome these significant challenges, and the Board has determined that Chapter 11 represents the best possible path forward under the circumstances for the Company and its stakeholders.”

The filing represents a fall from grace for the once buzzy company that aimed to transform the polluting heavy-truck industry into one based on zero emissions. Founded in 2015, Nikola pitched the idea of zero-emission big rigs using hydrogen fuel cell technology, and later said it would include battery-electric trucks as well. The company scored a huge win in 2020 when General Motors announced plans to would help Nikola engineer and manufacture its battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, including the Badger pickup truck. In exchange, GM would acquire an 11 percent equity stake in the startup.

But less than a week later, short-selling firm Hindenburg Research published a bombshell report accusing Nikola of fraud, including the video showing the truck rolling down a hill to simulate driving. The report set off a chain reaction that resulted in founder Trevor Milton’s stepping down as board chair and CEO and his eventual arrest.  Later, GM backed out of the equity deal.

In addition to staging the video, Milton was accused of falsely claiming to produce his own hydrogen fuels at below-market rates and obtaining “billions and billions and billions and billions” of dollars’ worth of committed truck orders. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Nikola went public in 2020, and started shipping its first trucks less than a year later. It ramped up production in 2024, but was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on every truck it sold. As of the third quarter of last year, the company had only produced 600 vehicles, many of which have been recalled due to defects, costing the automaker tens of millions of dollars.

Nikola was the latest high-profile EV company to go belly after failing to meet high expectations. Other EV startups that failed include Lordstown, Proterra, and Fisker. TuSimple, a self-driving truck company from China, pivoted to gaming tech.

A team from Elon Musk’s SpaceX is visiting the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Virginia Monday to help overhaul the system in the wake of last month’s deadly air disaster in Washington, DC, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced. The news comes after CNN reported that the Federal Aviation Administration fired hundreds of probationary employees who maintain critical air traffic control infrastructure.

The exact number of workers losing their jobs is unknown, but the union representing them said it was in the “hundreds.” The Trump administration is in the process of trying to eliminate thousands of federal employees as it works with Congressional Republicans on a massive tax cutting bill that is said to favor mostly corporations and the wealthy.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is playing a key role in the mass terminations from his perch at the Department of Government Efficiency. And as critics have noted, Musk’s status as a major government contractor — mostly through his company SpaceX — represents a massive conflict of interest that both he and President Donald Trump have repeatedly attempted to downplay.

In a post on X, Duffy said the team from SpaceX went to Virginia to “get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system.” Previously, Duffy said that Musk’s DOGE team would “plug in” to the FAA to help “upgrade our aviation system.”

Duffy also dismissed criticism about opening the door to a Musk-led team to another sensitive area of the federal government. “Because I know the media (and Hillary Clinton) will claim Elon’s team is getting special access, let me make clear that the @FAANews regularly gives tours of the command center to both media and companies,“ Duffy said. (Clinton has previously criticized the DOGE team’s lack of experience.)

The FAA is under heightened scrutiny three weeks after a midair collision over the Potomac River resulted in the deaths of 67 people. The tragedy highlighted shortages of air traffic controllers as well as congestion at major hubs like Ronald Reagan National Airport. The FAA has fielded hundreds of complaints from air traffic workers describing dangerous conditions from staff shortages to dilapidated buildings. And the agency itself lacked a permanent head at the time of the crash — mostly because Musk had a hand in ousting the last administrator after the FAA fined SpaceX for failing to submit safety data.

Duffy’s post doesn’t mention Musk’s role in the ouster, nor the hundreds of workers who were just laid off. CNN says the probationary employees were likely targeted because they’ve been employed for less than a year and lack the right to appeal.

“This draconian action will increase the workload and place new responsibilities on a workforce that is already stretched thin,” David Spero, National President of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO, said in a statement. “This decision did not consider the staffing needs of the FAA, which is already challenged by understaffing.” 

Two bills were introduced in the Senate that, if enacted, would dramatically increase the price for most electric vehicles. The first bill, sponsored by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), would eliminate the $7,500 EV tax credit, while a second one from Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) would impose a $1,000 tax on the purchase of any new EV.

None of this is exactly surprising, except perhaps the timing. After taking office, Donald Trump signed executive orders signaling his intent to eliminate the Biden administration’s electric vehicle policies, which he has falsely labeled a “mandate.” But an executive order was never going to be enough; it was going to take an act of Congress to get rid of it — and now several Republicans have stepped up to get the ball rolling.

Barrasso’s bill is called the Eliminating Lavish Incentives to Electric (ELITE) Vehicles Act (S. 541), because lawmakers love their awkward acronyms. In addition to killing the $7,500 tax credit, it would also wipe out the federal investment tax credit for EV charging stations, get rid of the $4,000 used EV tax credit, and loophole incentives for leased EVs. It currently has 14 co-sponsors.

Meanwhile, Fischer’s Fair Sharing of Highways and Roads for Electric Vehicles (Fair SHARE) Act would slap a $1,000 fee on every EV purchase. The idea is that EV owners don’t pay any gas taxes that are collected for the Highway Trust Fund for infrastructure improvements and repairs. The fund’s primary source of revenue is the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel. (That tax hasn’t gone up since 1993, and isn’t pegged to inflation.)

“EVs can weigh up to three times as much as gas-powered cars, creating more wear and tear on our roads and bridges,” Fischer said in a statement. Its certainly true that some electric trucks and SUVs, like the Ford F-150 Lightning or the Hummer EV, are ridiculously heavy. The Tesla Model Y, which is the most popular EV on the road, weighs around 4,300 lbs, which is the same as the Toyota Rav4.

Also, many EV owners also own gas cars, which means they do pay fuel taxes for those vehicles. But several lobbying groups have decried what they see as a “free ride” for EV owners. A handful of states have imposed annual registration fees, and some are experimenting with so-called vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) pricing.

According to Fischer, the $1,000 tax is a one-time only fee and designed to match was an average gas car would pay in fuel taxes over a 10-year period.

Both bills could run into opposition from other Republicans, especially those members who’s districts have directly benefitted from Biden’s EV investments in the form of new assembly plants and battery facilities.  A letter sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson in August 2024, signed by 18 Republicans, warned that “prematurely repealing energy tax credits… would undermine private investments and stop development that is already ongoing.” The members represent states with some of the highest levels of clean energy investments as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Still, it’s hard to see how the EV tax credit survives through the year. Trump has made it clear that any policy bearing the initials “EV” goes in the dustbin.

Protestors are planning more demonstrations outside Tesla showrooms nationwide this weekend, as Elon Musk’s polarizing behavior and political activities within the Trump administration continue to have negative side effects on his electric car business.

The protests are being advertised on BlueSky under the tags “Tesla Takeover” and “Tesla Takedown,” similar to demonstrations held last weekend. At least three dozen events are listed on Action Network’s website, with a banner urging people who own Tesla vehicles or stock in the company to divest, sell their vehicle, and “join the picket line.”

It’s unclear how many people will join the demonstrations, and whether there is even a clear leader behind the movement. Alex Winter, a progressive activist and actor who played Bill in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, posted about it on BlueSky.

Still, it’s a sign that Musk’s company as well as the millions of vehicles that he has sold continue to serve as a target for people angry and frustrated by the unelected billionaire’s efforts to take over the federal government at Trump’s behest, shutting down whole agencies and targeting federal workers for layoffs.

It has led to vandalism in some cases. Social media is rife with images of Tesla vehicles defaced with swastikas or slapped with stickers of Musk throwing a fascist salute at Trump’s inauguration. Earlier this month, police in Arcata, Cali., received several reports of Tesla owners finding threatening notes on their cars, warning them to sell their cars or risk the consequences. “No Nazis in America,” several of the fliers read, according to local reports.

Several Tesla shareholders have expressed a desire for a change in leadership at the company, worried that Musk’s growing polarizing reputation could significantly impact the company’s financial future. But that seems unlikely in the near term, given Musk’s broad shareholder support. Still, Tesla’s stock price has plummeted 30 percent from its all-time high in December, including a 21 percent selloff since Trump’s inauguration, ABC reports. Tesla sales were down year over year in 2024 for the first time in over a decade. And the company appears to be in free fall in Europe, plummeting in several key markets like Norway, France, and Spain, Wired found.

For years, Tesla’s fortunes have been inextricably linked to attitudes toward its controversial CEO. When people thought Musk was going to usher in a brighter future, full of robotaxis and trips to Mars, the value of the company went up like one of his rocket ships. But now that he’s being labeled a fascist while leading a shadowy effort to root out “DEI” and “woke ideology” in the federal government, Musk is becoming more of a liability than an asset.

Lyft says it will launch a fleet of robotaxis, using self-driving technology from Intel’s Mobileye, in Dallas in “as soon as 2026,” with plans to scale to ”thousands” of vehicles in additional markets in the months to follow. To signal its seriousness, the company tapped Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate, to run fleet operations.

Lyft’s news comes after Uber dropped new details about its plan to feature Waymo’s robotaxis on its platform in Austin and Atlanta later this year. And Tesla recently shared plans to launch a robotaxi service in Austin this summer.

Lyft is taking a similar approach as Uber, offering its ridehail platform to different self-driving developers who want to connect with customers without having to build their own customer-facing operation. Like Uber, Lyft’s interest is staying as “asset light” as possible, needing other companies to own, operate, and maintain the robotaxi fleet for its customers.

Toward that end, Lyft says that Marubeni is a global leader in fleet management, with over 900,000 vehicles worldwide through various subsidiaries and joint ventures. Lyft says the company will use its Flexdrive fleet-management capabilities “to minimize total cost of vehicle ownership and maximize fleet utilization.” Marubeni does not appear to have any specific experience with ridehail or autonomous vehicle operations, but as TechCrunch noted, it has worked with Mobileye on on-demand mobility in Japan.

“They’re aiming to be leaders in the emerging AV space, and we look forward to working together,” Lyft CEO David Risher said in a post on X.

Marubeni will own the vehicles that operate with Mobileye technology. The Intel-owned company is a supplier of advanced driver assist technology to a number of top automakers, including Ford, Volkswagen, and Toyota.

Lyft is scrambling to keep up with its main rival Uber in the race to gain a toehold in the world of autonomous vehicles. Uber has already struck deals with Waymo, Cruise (now defunct), Aurora, Motional, and Avride. Meanwhile Lyft has preexisting partnerships with Waymo (which has now ended) and Motional. The ridehail company had thought to develop its own robotaxis, but eventually sold off its AV research and development division to a subsidiary of Toyota back in 2021.

Rivian’s electric van is now available to be purchased by anyone with a commercial fleet, the automaker said today.

For several years, Rivian’s van was exclusive to Amazon. Now, the platform on which the e-commerce giant based its delivery van is open to anyone with a fleet of commercial vehicles and some money to burn.

Amazon agreed to buy 100,000 Rivian vans in 2019 as part of a blockbuster deal that would also include a $1 billion investment into the startup. Under the terms of the agreement, Rivian would sell its vans exclusively to Amazon.

But that partnership ended prematurely in November 2023, with Amazon only acquiring around 20,000 vans from Rivian — or about 20 percent of the original commitment. Amazon remains Rivian’s largest shareholder, with an estimated 17 percent stake in the company.

Rivian says it will sell anywhere from a single van to thousands to individual buyers, depending on their needs. However, the vans can’t be for personal use (sorry #vanlifers) and must be registered as part of a business. The vans come in two sizes and two prices: the RCV 500 starts at $79,900, while the RCV 700 starts at $83,900.

Rivian says it has spent the time since the end of its exclusivity deal with Amazon trialing the van in some larger fleets (like AT&T’s), while also building out a service and software business for its future van customers.

“Over the last year we have been focusing our efforts on testing with some larger fleets, and we’re really pleased with how those trials have gone,” said Tom Solomon, senior director of business development at Rivian, in a statement. “As a result, we’re excited to now be able to open sales to fleets of all sizes in the US, whether they want 1 van or thousands.”

The electric van market has been volatile. General Motors spun off and then reabsorbed BrightDrop, its electric commercial vehicle business, after deciding the market was too fragile for BrightDrop to stand on its own. Ford has seen some success with its E-Transit vans, selling 12,610 of them in 2024, which was a 64 percent increase from 2023. And Mercedes-Benz revealed its eSprinter van in 2023, with deliveries expected to begin later this year.

Being able to sell its electric vans to a wider pool of customers could be good for Rivian’s financial situation, which has been relatively shaky over the past few years. The vans have better profit margins than the company’s R1T and R1S vehicles. And Rivian can also sell subscriptions to the various software features within the van, boosting its long-term value overall.

The Trump administration’s war on electric cars continues with the halt of a national program that sends money to states to install EV charging equipment. It was the latest move by President Donald Trump to reverse Biden-era EV policies — even as those policies have personally enriched his top ally, Elon Musk.

According to a memo from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program will be put on pause while it is retooled to align with the new administration’s priorities (those priorities being more gas guzzlers and fewer EVs). The agency said it is “immediately suspending” the approval of plans to deploy new EV chargers “for all fiscal years” and will no longer approve new funding requests until a new plan is implemented.

The FHWA said it aims to have updated guidance published by the spring, at which point it will start accepting public comment. After the comment period is closed, it will issue revised guidance that incorporates its responses to public comment.

The agency is also giving leeway to those states (most of which are Republican-run) that have declined to spend federal funds already received under NEVI.

“Since FHWA is suspending the existing State plans, States will be held harmless for not implementing their existing plans,” Emily Biondi, associate administrator at the agency, writes in the memo to state transportation officials. “Until new guidance is issued, reimbursement of existing obligations will be allowed in order to not disrupt current financial commitments.”

Since his election, Trump has vowed to reverse many of his predecessor’s pro-EV policies, including the federal EV tax credit and new tailpipe emission rules that would require automakers to produce more EVs. The NEVI program, in particular, was often criticized by Republicans as wasteful, especially after The Washington Post reported in March 2024 that only seven charging stations with 38 ports had been opened under the program.

NEVI may have gotten off to a slow start, but its most recent report for the fourth quarter of 2024 showed improved progress. According to the Q4 update, there are 126 public EV charging ports in operation across 31 NEVI stations in nine states, an 83 percent increase in open NEVI ports over the previous quarter. (In Q3, there were 69 public charging ports in operation across 17 NEVI stations in eight states.)

A total of 41 states have released at least their first round of solicitations, as of November 2024. Of those states, 35 have issued conditional awards or put agreements in place for over 3,560 fast-charging ports across more than 890 charging station locations.

That progress is now at risk with the Trump administration rescinding funds for NEVI. The legality of pausing the program is certainly an open question, especially considering the money for it was approved by Congress as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The Trump administration attempted to freeze all funding for federal programs, only to rescind the order after a judge ordered it to be paused.

Another variable is Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s efforts to root out waste in the federal government under the umbrella of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has said he supports eliminating federal incentives for EVs, while also collecting vast sums of taxpayer dollars to expand his company’s EV charging network. Tesla has received $31 million in NEVI funds to install 539 DC fast-charging ports, which represents 6 percent of all funds distributed so far, according to a dashboard that tracks the spending.

Barring any legal challenges, the EV charging industry now must wait for the Department of Transportation to retool the program. The pause could also give congressional Republicans enough time to write legislation to rescind funding for the program altogether, which would obviate the need for the administration to follow the process it laid out in the memo.

Eliminating federal funding for EV charging would have a significant impact on the number of chargers that get installed and could help further dampen EV sales. Consumers routinely cite charging anxiety as among their top concerns about switching to electric power. With today’s order, the Trump administration is essentially making that problem worse.

President Donald Trump has set his sights on California’s high-speed rail plan, calling it “the worst-managed project” with massive cost overruns that deserve to be investigated.

“They have hundreds of billions of dollars of cost overruns,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. “It’s impossible that something could cost that much.”

A spokesperson for the California High-Speed Rail Authority declined to comment on the record, instead posting to X, “Ignore the noise. We’re busy building.”

The authority also sought to respond to Trump’s claims that “hundreds of billions of dollars” have been spent, noting that only $10.5 billion of $13 billion has been funded by the state of California. The project has 50 major structures, 60 guideways, and ha …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Lyft announced a new partnership with Anthropic to use the Claude AI assistant to handle customer service requests.

Claude is already being put to use handling service inquiries from drivers, reducing the average resolution time for a request by 87 percent, the company said.

In an example provided by Lyft, a driver asks the chatbot for the requirements for driving for Lyft in their area, to which the chatbot responds with a list of five requirements.

How well the new AI-powered service requests will go over with drivers remains to be seen. Lyft drivers, along with Uber drivers, have long complained about the impersonal nature of the companies’ stance toward drivers, including the lack of human customer service support. Using an AI chatbot to handle even more service requests could exacerbate those sentiments among drivers.

Lyft says the new chatbot will only handle the most common support questions, redirecting customers to human specialists when more detailed assistance is required.

The company is also using generative AI to boost productivity among its engineers, with as much as 1 in 4 lines of code produced using these technologies.

Lyft and Anthropic, which is backed by Amazon and Google, say they are exploring new products and capabilities, in the hopes of integrating Claude into more of the ridehail company’s features.