Lexus RZ and Kia Sportage Hybrid review, charging Ioniq 5 and EV6, Lucid and Polestar price hikes: Reverse week
Which major automaker has confirmed the 800-volt EV architecture in the works?
How much does the F-150 Lightning’s home backup system cost?
Here’s our look back at Reverse Week — right here at Green car report—For the week ending May 6, 2022.
This week, we’ve brought you some of the first rides, provided some technical news and provided some up-to-date impressions that can be of use if you’re cross-shopping a number of vehicles. The hottest new electricity. First, we drove the first car in 2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid, and found it to be not only the best-driver in the new Sportage line-up, but also outperformed hybrid rivals from Toyota, Honda and Ford. With a starting price of $28,545, the 43 mpg hybrid is also a great value.
2023 Kia Sportage Hybrid
Then in a First time driving Lexus RZ 450e 2023—As the brand’s first mass-market EV in the United States — we haven’t really been able to size it yet to fit together as a mounting package, although we did find one Satisfying handling numbers and an engaging steering wheel are done better than the Tesla.
While we can’t paint a complete picture of the RZ, we’re out with bigger news about our time with a Lexus engineering executive: Toyota and Lexus both have both. 800 volt charging and 800 volt architecture in constructions—Though we will only see it in EVs with large packages, over 100 kWh.
2023 Lexus RZ 450e
Should you bother looking? CCS 350 kw charging connector for super fast charging for Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Kia EV6? After some tolls we have to say probably not for these cars, and not now. If Hyundai and Kia add a dedicated pre-conditioning mode, we might change our mind.
Ford Smart Backup Power – F-150 Lightning
2022 Ford F-150 Lightning is the first EV on the market with manufacturer-backed home power backup system, allowing for a Tesla Powerwall-like utility. And last week it had a price tag – $3,895, which includes the inverter, disconnect switch, and battery pack. You’ll also need the 80 amp Ford Charge Station Pro (which comes with the Extended Range package) and don’t forget about $2,000 more to install.
Tesla recently stop including portable charger with its new cars — and so does Kia, starting with the EV6. We have seen why.
Charge Tesla (Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.)
Part of the group of 2017-2019 Chevy Bolt EV models recalled because of the most problematic battery pack, about 45% received a remedy, according to recall documents filed by the federal government. However, when looking at recent models, GM has only fixed a very small part.
Supply chains and inflation continue to drive electric vehicle prices up especially. Lucid announced price increase on the Air sedanranges from $10,000 to $15,000, starting June 1. Perhaps learning from Rivian, Lucid has extended the initial price to all existing pre-orders (over 30,000) plus any Anyone who pre-orders by June 1.
Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance
The 2023 Polestar 2 lineup also increases in pricebrings the base single-engine version to $49,800, more than the Model 3. Dual-engine versions get increased range, and the Performance Pack has more power — with the latter coming to offered to existing owners online at an additional cost.
That said, both in California and across the country, Electric vehicle sales at record levels During the first quarter of the year, Tesla led in sales with more than 10% of the California market. In California, the plug-in vehicle market share has essentially doubled in the past two years alone.
Entire US Volvo lineup to be electrified for 2023 — and that means combination of mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle. The new mild-hybrid XC40 and refreshed XC40 Recharge complete the lineup and are well on their way to becoming an all-EV brand by 2030.
Teaser for the electric sports car Fisker Ronin launched in 2024
Fisker teases a 550-mile electric sports car codenamed Ronin — with the statement that the film will be released in August 2023 with a production deadline of next year.
Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Chrysler, Ram and many other brands, announced Monday that it is planning to $2.8 billion overhaul of manufacturing plants in Canada for electric vehicles—As part of an electrification plan announced last year, worth $35 billion over five years. Electric Ram pickups and electric Dodge muscle cars are part of the plan, possibly even in Canada.
And even though BMW and Mercedes-Benz finished car-sharing, Stellantis ramped up acquisitions of the rest of these automakers’ joint ventures last week — to Free2Move service expansionwhere most of the Jeep Compass and Renegade models are available in the US
The US Department of Energy is aiming to take steps to boost domestic battery production — last week in the form of $3 billion in supply chain fundingplus $60 million for second-generation use and $45 million for battery development.
2021 Tesla Model S Plaid
Tesla has been reported more screen rotates to the latest versions of Model S. The mechanism and function, which has yet to be confirmed by the automaker, appears to be able to tilt the screen to the sides when that’s useful – for example, for entertainment or driver focus.
Sweden-based Volta Trucks — which has some very futuristic cargo truck designs — announced its plans on Thursday enter the US market with a manufacturing partner. That should lead to US production in 2024 or 2025, with a pilot fleet of 100 California trucks in the meantime.
Volta California Trucks
Electrify America earlier this week revealed that they have provided more than five times the number of toll sessions by 2021 compared to 2020 — with 41.4 GWh of electricity providing 145 million miles of exhaust-free driving.
Finally, a study from JD Power found that, surprisingly, some of the most tech-savvy companies including Rivian and Lucid are missing core functionality like remote fee management. Electric vehicle owners are increasingly using automakers’ smartphone apps for management, so they’re increasingly frustrated with the lack of such features.
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