The US Environmental Protection Agency is throwing out fuel economy regulations that were planned to go into effect from 2026 through 2032. The new regulations would have required automakers to sell many more electric vehicles than they currently do, although due to lobbying, the previous administration softened the rules to allow for more plug-in hybrid EVs alongside battery EVs.

This was widely expected to happen; the first Trump administration was tireless in its attempts to roll back vehicle pollution controls. Then, its argument in favor of more pollution was that fuel economy standards would kill people. Now, things are less strident: We will suffer more smog and climate change in the name of consumer freedom.

"The American auto industry has been hamstrung by the crushing regulatory regime of the last administration. As we reconsider nearly one trillion dollars of regulatory costs, we will abide by the rule of law to protect consumer choice and the environment," said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.

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Earlier today, Toyota and Lexus debuted some improved and some new electric vehicles. The event was focused on the European market, where battery EV penetration is relatively high, and I wouldn't expect either the Urban Cruiser or C-HR+ crossovers to show up on sale in the US. But we'll likely find the upgrades to the Toyota bZ4x and the closely related Lexus RZ, or at least some of them, in North American models at some point.

The revised bZ4x will come in three powertrain options, at least in the EU, all with new battery packs. There's a 165 hp (123 kW) front-wheel drive version coupled to a smaller-capacity 57.7 kWh battery pack (which I would not expect to come to the US), and then 221 hp (165 kW) FWD and 337 (252 kW) all-wheel drive options, both of which use a new 73.1 kWh battery pack.

For comparison, the bZ4xs that went on sale in the US several years ago are offered with either a 71.4 kWh pack for FWD or a 72.8 kWh pack for AWD versions.

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With all the announcements from automakers planning for more gasoline and hybrid cars in their future lineups, you'd think that electric vehicles had stopped selling. While that might be increasingly true for Tesla, everyone else is more than picking up the slack. According to analysts at Rho Motion, global EV sales are up 30 percent this year already. Even here in the US, EV sales were still up 28 percent compared to 2024, despite particularly EV-unfriendly headwinds.

Getting ahead of those unfriendly winds may actually be driving the sales bump in the US, where EV sales only grew by less than 8 percent last year, for contrast. "American drivers bought 30 percent more electric vehicles than they had by this time last year, making use of the final months of IRA tax breaks before the incentives are expected to be pulled later this year," said Charles Lester, Rho Motion data manager.

With the expected loss of government incentives and the prospect of new tariffs that will add tens of thousands of dollars to new car prices, now is probably a good time to buy an EV if you think you're going to want or need one.

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When Ars finally drove the single-motor BMW i4 eDrive40 last year, we came away very impressed. Until then we'd only sampled the powerful twin-motor i4 M50, which is fast and fun but a bit too expensive, and it gives away a little too much range in the process. But neither of those is the model most people will buy. All-wheel drive is non-negotiable to car buyers in many parts of the country, and that means they want this one: the i4 xDrive40 Gran Coupe.

If the pictures are giving you a bit of deja vu, that's perfectly normal. Yes, it looks a lot like the BMW 430i Gran Coupe we reviewed yesterday, and the two cars share a lot more than just the CLAR platform that underpins much of BMW's current lineup.

All things being equal, designing a vehicle to be an electric vehicle from the ground up involves many fewer compromises than using a platform that has to cater not just to batteries and electric motors but also internal combustion engines and transmissions and gas tanks.

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Like life itself, BMWs seemed less complicated last century. You didn't need a crib sheet to understand the badge, and body styles were mostly just sedans, with a smattering of station wagons, two-door coupes, and convertibles. That was before it helped kickstart the SUV craze; now instead of 3, 5, 7, the series run 2–8 and X1 through X7. And don't get me started on individual model names. Like the 2025 430i xDrive Gran Coupe.

At first glance, if you're middle-aged like the average Ars reader, your brain probably says "this is a 3 Series sedan." After all, it has a pair of doors on either side. But there is no requirement for a coupe to only have two doors: the name is derived from the French "couper," meaning cut. And indeed, the roofline is cut down more than 2 inches lower than the actual 3 Series.

There's also a hatch at the rear, rather than a trunk lid. So, technically it's a fastback body style, which BMW has decided to call Gran Coupe the way it calls station wagons Tourings. Pedantic pigeonholing of body style will probably take a back seat to discussion of the front grille, though.

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Electric motors are, in so many ways, much better than internal combustion engines. They don't waste most of the energy you put into them as heat and sound, they're easy to control, and they make huge amounts of torque almost instantly. Having recently driven BMW's 430i and i4 back to back over the course of two weeks, the electric version was easier in traffic and more responsive on a twisty road. Electric wins, then. Except at the very high end, it seems.

Because even though electric motors can pack a punch, people paying big money for super- and hypercars are increasingly disinterested in those cars being electrified. So much so that Maserati has canceled the all-electric version of the MC20.

The MC20 debuted in 2020. No longer associated with Ferrari after that brand was spun out and IPO'd, the MC20 could offer a full carbon-fiber monocoque and an engine with very clever F1-derived combustion technology, undercutting its now-independent Italian competitor to the tune of more than $100,000 in the process.

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There's a reason that the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, were home to many autonomous vehicle programs: Driving on wide streets in great weather is easy mode for an AV. But a commercial robotaxi service that only works when the sun is shining is a commercial robotaxi service that will never recoup the billions it would cost to develop. That's why Moia—Volkswagen's AV division—has begun testing its autonomous ID Buzzes around the streets of Oslo, Norway, this winter.

For a while, autonomous driving was the hottest thing in tech. That hype has certainly calmed down a lot over the last few years as reality began to bite. Developing an AV that can safely drive around unpredictable humans turned out to be pretty hard, with myriad edge cases needing to be solved differently for each new city.

Startups have shut down, winnowing the field. Uber gave its AV program to Aurora, together with a rather fat investment check; Aurora these days is concentrating on autonomous trucking rather than robotaxis on busy city streets. VW, together with Ford, gave up on Argo AI. And General Motors killed off Cruise AV, seeing no way to make back the large pile of money it had already spent trying to make robotaxis work in San Francisco.

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A surprise find in my inbox this morning: news from Volkswagen about a pair of new electric vehicles it has in the works. Even better, they're both small and affordable, bucking the supersized, overpriced trend of the past few years. But before we get too excited, there's currently no guarantee either will go on sale in North America.

Next year sees the European debut of the ID. 2all, a small electric hatchback that VW wants to sell for less than 25,000 euros ($26,671). But the ID. 2all isn't really news: VW showed off the concept, as well as a GTI version, back in September 2023.

What is new is the ID. EVERY1, an all-electric entry-level car that, if the concept is anything to go by, is high on style and charm. It does not have a retro shape like a Mini or Fiat 500—VW could easily have succumbed to a retread of the Giugiaro-styled Golf from 1976 but opted for something new instead. The design language involves three pillars: stability, likability, and surprise elements, or "secret sauce," according to VW's description.

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Early on Monday morning, a bank of Tesla Superchargers went up in flames in Littleton, Massachusetts. While the cause of the fire is unknown, Tesla's Superchargers are not known for bursting into flames, and a $5,000 reward is being offered by the authorities, who believe the fire was "intentionally set." Assuming that arson is to blame, this may well be one more attack against a brand that's becoming more and more toxic.

Elon Musk's involvement with US President Donald Trump has changed the nature of the spotlight on the Tesla CEO. Instead of cute cameos in Marvel movies and being name-checked by Star Trek, Musk now makes headlines for boosting far-right politics in Europe and suggesting cuts to Social Security. This has made him some new friends, but it has lost many more in the process. And the consequences for Tesla's core business—selling electric cars—have been disastrous.

2024 was already a not-good year for the automaker. A decade ago, it was basically the only game in town if you wanted an electric car that could go more than 200 miles between charges, and celebrities and tastemakers flocked to the brand in droves. Now, customers are spoiled for choice, and Tesla's model range—effectively just two cars—has to compete against all the established OEMs that are increasingly working out how to build great EVs, plus all those Chinese startups that appear to have cracked that market in terms of what customers want and how to make it cheap.

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Watching Genesis' cars evolve and mature over the years has been interesting. Originally part of Hyundai's lineup, Genesis stood up as a brand in its own right at the end of 2015. Those early Hyundai-badged Genesises (Geneses?) were impressive considering the H on the nose, the dealerships they were found in, and the price out the door. The soft bigotry of low expectations, perhaps.

As Genesis has become its own thing, its vehicles no longer get that kind of benefit of the doubt. They have to stand against competitors from established luxury brands, the old-timers from Europe and now-middle-aged Japanese competitors. Recruiting the people associated with many of Bentley and Audi's more memorable designs was a good move in that regard.

This GV80 Coupe's design proved to be a hit with neighbors and the general public—few cars we've tested in the past couple of years have garnered as many compliments. The coupe was a relatively recent addition to the normal GV80 SUV, sacrificing a little volume at the back for a rakish ducktail rear end. All four corners are wrapped in what's now Genesis' light signature, a pair of thin horizontal stripes with microlens arrays supplying the brightness at the front.

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There's a saying about putting lipstick on a pig, but what if it's not lipstick? That's the question the universe set out to answer when it aligned in such a way that famed (or perhaps infamous) car customizer Mansory got itself a Tesla Cybertruck. The Mansory Elongation—a name that must have taken ages to think of—offers exterior, interior, and wheel and tire upgrades for the straight-edged stainless steel-wrapped pickup.

Among those who mod cars, there are the tuners, who focus on adding power and (one hopes) performance, and then there are the customizers, who concentrate more on aesthetics. Once upon a time, the entire luxury car industry worked like that—a client would buy a rolling chassis from Bugatti, Rolls-Royce, or Talbot and then have bodywork added by coachbuilders like Gurney Nutting, Touring, or Figoni et Falaschi.

At least the rear winglets don't entirely compromise access to the bed. Credit: Mansory

Modern homologation requirements have mostly put an end to that level of coachbuilding, but for the ultra-wealthy prepared to spend telephone numbers on cars, brands like Rolls-Royce will still occasionally oblige. More common now are those aftermarket shops that spiff up already luxurious cars, changing normal doors for gullwing versions, adding flaring fenders and bulging wheel arches, and plastering the interior in any hue of leather one might imagine.

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Ram's 1500 Ramcharger goes on sale later this year, and the company is taking a slightly different approach to its electrified truck than rivals Ford and General Motors, which both now offer battery electric pickups. The Ramcharger will be a range-extended EV, albeit one with more lithium-ion on board than most BEVs have.

Honestly, pickup trucks are a poor candidate for electrification, at least while we're still firmly in early adopter territory. The instant and impressive torque from an electric motor is great, but the shape of a cab and bed is inherently draggy in a way that few other vehicles are, a problem exacerbated by whopping great frontal areas.

But the pickup truck is also the most popular kind of vehicle in the US, and the industry has tried very hard to convince itself and everyone else that pickup buyers could seamlessly adopt electric powertrains en masse. That way, everyone in America could drive an EV, climate change would go away, and no one would have to consider changing their lifestyle or taking a bus to work.

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One of the big advantages of electric vehicles is their greater freedom when it comes to packaging. Batteries go where it makes the most sense in terms of stability and safety. Electric motors are compact and don't need much cooling compared to a combustion engine, and there's no exhaust to worry about.

Putting the motors close to the wheels makes sense—in the wheel itself if possible—and it seems that a startup called Donut Lab may have solved some of the problems hub-mounted motors have faced in the past.

You can see where the name came from—the motors look like metal donuts. That originally had me thinking they used axial flux technology, as some hybrid supercars do, but I was mistaken. These are radial flux motors, just ones that make a lot of torque considering their size and mass.

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Acura is gearing up to build its first entirely in-house battery-electric vehicles, but it has gotten a head start with the ZDX SUV. Built in collaboration with General Motors, the ZDX is a comfortable and competent luxury EV. More than that, it's a shining example of what badge engineering looks like in the digital age.

Automakers have long collaborated with each other. Sometimes that means working together on a powertrain or vehicle platform for use in quite different products. Sometimes, it's a little less involved—the Dodge Hornet differs very little from the Alfa Romeo Tonale, for example.

In the case of the Acura ZDX, the vehicle platform and the battery-electric powertrain are all thoroughly GM, what used to be called Ultium, until the American automaker retired that branding. It is, in essence, Acura's take on the Cadillac Lyriq and is similar, if not identical, in terms of power output and pricing.

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High-revving naturally aspirated engines and their associated screaming soundtracks might be on their way back to Formula 1. Not with next year's rule changes—that will see even bigger lithium-ion batteries and an even more powerful electric motor, paired with a turbocharged V6. But the sport is starting to think more seriously about the technical rules that will go into effect in 2030, and in an Instagram post yesterday, the man in charge of those rules signaled that he's open to cars that might be louder, lighter, and less complicated.

Mohammed Ben Sulayem's tenure as president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile has been packed with controversy. The former rally driver has alienated many F1 drivers with clampdowns on jewelry and, most recently, swearing, as well as a refusal to explain what happens to the money the FIA collects as fines.

He also ruffled feathers when the FIA opened up the entry process for new teams into the sport and then approved an entry by Andretti Global. While the FIA said yes, the commercial side (which is owned by Liberty Media) and the teams wanted nothing to do with an 11th team—at least until the $200 million anti-dilution fee was more than doubled and Michael Andretti stepped aside.

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Senior politicians in Japan are not going to let Nissan die easily. The automaker has been struggling for some time now, with an outdated product portfolio, ongoing quarterly losses, and soon, the closure of factories and thousands of layoffs. The Japanese government has been trying to find a suitor and had hoped that Honda would do its patriotic duty and save its rival from extinction.

That deal—one branded "a desperate move" by former Nissan CEO and fugitive from Japanese justice Carlos Ghosn—fell apart last week after Renault demanded a price premium for its shares in Nissan, and Nissan demanded a merger of equals with Honda. In reality, it was always going to be a takeover, with very little in it for Honda in the way of complimentary product lines or access to new technologies.

Today, we learned of yet another desperate move—the former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is among a group that is trying to get Tesla to invest in Nissan instead.

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Do you remember The Simpsons episode "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield"? It first aired in February 1996, and it's the one where Homer and Bart go to Appliance Zone and are confronted with "genuine" Panaphonics, Sorny, and Magnetbox TVs. Well, it seems a similar brand name game has been going on at a Volvo dealership in China.

News started filtering out of China last week about an owner of a Volvo S60 sedan who realized the speakers in his car were not from Bowers and Wilkins, as they were supposed to be. Instead, the speakers were branded Bowers and VVilkins, substituting a pair of Vs for the W. We've seen that "typosquatting" approach in malicious emails plenty of times, but it's a first in a Volvo.

That wasn't the only phony part of the customer's S60. He also realized that the crystal transmission knob wasn't entirely right either and lacked the genuine article's backlighting.

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Some Tesla owners have yet another thing to worry about. As sales crash in Europe and protests gather outside Tesla showrooms in the US as a result of the CEO's political engagement, it now emerges that more than 376,000 Model Y crossovers and Model 3 sedans are at risk for power steering failure. So far, it has resulted in more than 3,000 warranty claims and caused 570 crashes, according to Tesla and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Federal investigators have known about the problem for some time—in 2023 NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened a preliminary inquiry after 12 reports of steering failures, including three Model 3s and nine Model Ys.

By February 2024, NHTSA had received 124 complaints about steering failure in 2023 Teslas and found another 2,264 reports of steering problems. Color me wrong, though—at the time, I wrote that "a software patch is unlikely to help," except a software patch is indeed the remedy here.

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New Yorkers' ongoing attempts to rein in car traffic on the island of Manhattan took a serious blow yesterday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy terminated the city's congestion charge, which made drivers pay for going below 60th Street.

Duffy claimed that it's unfair that drivers should have to pay to use roads since there are already tolls on bridges into Manhattan and claimed there are no alternatives, ignoring the buses and subway trains operated by the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Further, the city is being unfair against people who live far away, Duffy said. "The toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative and instead takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backwards and unfair," he said in a statement.

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New Yorkers' ongoing attempts to rein in car traffic on the island of Manhattan took a serious blow yesterday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy terminated the city's congestion charge, which made drivers pay for going below 60th Street.

Duffy claimed that it's unfair that drivers should have to pay to use roads since there are already tolls on bridges into Manhattan and claimed there are no alternatives, ignoring the buses and subway trains operated by the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Further, the city is being unfair against people who live far away, Duffy said. "The toll program leaves drivers without any free highway alternative and instead takes more money from working people to pay for a transit system and not highways. It’s backwards and unfair," he said in a statement.

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