Enlarge / Jeep is ready to join the electric SUV fray with the new Wagoneer S, which goes on sale later this year. (credit: Jeep)

The Jeep brand has finally debuted its first purpose-built electric vehicle. It's targeting the hotly contested SUV segment with the new Wagoneer S, which goes on sale this fall. But other than its name, it shares little with the gasoline-powered Wagoneer; the Wagoneer S uses the same EV architecture—called STLA Large—as the forthcoming electric Dodge Charger.

It looks like Jeep is using a similar playbook to Dodge and Ram as it introduces its electric models: Give them the same name and styling as a familiar bestseller to keep customers comfortable, then give them serious power output and some headline-grabbing numbers to generate a halo effect.

Powerful

That's why the Jeep Wagoneer S Launch Edition will offer 600 hp (447 kW), 617 lb-ft (837 Nm), and a 0–60 mph (0-98 km/h) time of 3.4 seconds. It's powered by a 100.5 kWh battery pack with nickel manganese cobalt chemistry operating at 400 V.

Enlarge / For a while the Lyriq was a rare sight on the road, but now that production has picked up, we decided it was time to get a second impression. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

We first drove the Cadillac Lyriq a couple of years ago. It was the first of a whole range of new electric vehicles from General Motors built on shared electric powertrain components. Compared to more recent Ultium-based EVs from GM, the Lyriq launch went relatively smoothly, despite pre-production test vehicles. Hype was so great that Cadillac was said to have increased the first year's production run by almost a factor of 10.

But customers faced a long wait for their orders as the company stumbled at the step where cells get turned into battery packs. Now the production kinks have been worked out, and Lyriqs are becoming a more common sight. So it seemed like a reasonable time to check in on the electric Caddy.

We've written quite a lot in the past about the Lyriq's Ultium powertrain, so I won't repeat too much detail here. For model-year 2024, the underpinnings remain the same, although our test car is an all-wheel-drive version. (Cadillac only had the rear-wheel-drive variant at the first drive in 2022.) There are a pair of new trims, Tech and Sport—this test car was the top-of-the-line Sport 3, with a $78,295 sticker price (including delivery charge).

Enlarge / Used Tesla Model 3s can be had for less than $20,000 now. (credit: Getty Images)

The launch of a new electric vehicle these days is invariably met with a chorus of "this car is too expensive"—and rightfully so. But for used EVs, it's quite another story, particularly used Teslas, thanks to a glut of former fleet and rental cars that are now ready for their second owner.

"Due to a variety of reasons, Tesla resale values have plummeted, making many Tesla models very affordable now. Plus, for some consumers, an additional $4,000 Federal tax credit on used EVs may apply, sweetening the deal even further. Buying a used Tesla can be a great deal for the savvy shopper, but there are significant things to look out for," says Ed Kim, president and chief analyst at AutoPacific.

Indeed, a quick search on the topic easily reveals some horror stories of ex-rental Teslas, so here are some things to consider if you're in search of a cheap Model 3 or Model Y.

Enlarge / After building almost 100,000 W12-powered Bentley Continental GTs, the brand is moving to a plug-in powertrain. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

BARCELONA—The days of big engines are numbered, even for big spenders. Owning a GT that lets you drive across Europe in a day in cosseted luxury means very little if you're not allowed to drive it into the city you're meant to be visiting, after all. Low emissions zones are either a fact of life or on the way in many of the more desirable urban postcodes, and even here in the US, we're about to start getting quite tough on fuel efficiency. Which is why Bentley is saying goodbye to its W12-powered Continental GT Speed and replacing it with a new plug-in hybrid instead.

The W12 engine has become something of a trademark for Bentley in the 21st century. For many years, Bentleys were essentially just badge-engineered Rolls-Royces, while both companies were owned by the aircraft maker Vickers. But VW group took control of Bentley in 1998—BMW got Rolls-Royce—and it was time for something fresh.

Originally developed within parent company Volkswagen Group for use in the all-aluminum Audi A8, the W12 design essentially mated a pair of narrow-angle V6 engines as used in the Golf VR6 to create a compact and powerful multi-cylinder engine for those customers looking for a powertrain a bit less common than a V8.

Enlarge / The current 911—known to Porschephiles as the 992 generation—has just been given its midlife refresh. The most obvious visual indicator is the presence of vertical strakes in the front air intakes. But we're much more interested in what's gone on under the skin. (credit: Porsche)

Today, Porsche gave the venerable 911 a bit of a spiff-up, putting an updated engine in the base 911 Carrera and making some design tweaks to keep the 992-generation machine looking fresh. But the most interesting update is an all-new powertrain in the 911 Carrera GTS. For the first time, you can now buy a hybrid 911.

When Porsche has been asked about adding electrification to the 911, the answer has generally been some variation of "we'll do it when the technology gets light enough." Plug-in hybrid Cayennes, Panameras, and battery electric Taycans are all well and good because they are big cars.

But a Porsche 911 remains a relatively small car, even if it has grown a little since 1963. The engine bay behind the rear axle isn't exactly expansive, and adding a high-voltage battery and electric motors had to be done thoughtfully.

Enlarge / BMW's single-motor, rear-wheel drive i4 eDrive40 ticks an awful lot of my boxes. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

I have a theory about electric vehicles, and with a few notable exceptions, it's this: The cheaper, less powerful version is usually the one to get. Big power outputs and short 0–60 times have been the industry's go-to, but always with the trade-off being less range and a bigger sticker price. Today's EV is a good example. It's the BMW i4 eDrive40, a single-motor version of BMW's smaller electric fastback sedan. It has taken a while to get some seat time in one, but the wait was worth it, because this is one of the best electric sedans we've tested so far.

I've driven the BMW i4 a few times now since its launch in 2021, but always the very fast, very powerful, rather expensive i4 M50. Which is fine, but not exciting like the M3. The i4 eDrive40 undercuts the twin-motor, all-wheel drive M50 by more than $10,000—it starts at a more reasonable $57,300 and goes more than 30 miles (48 km) farther on a single charge of the same capacity 84.3 kWh (net) battery pack, with an EPA range of 301 miles (484 km).

BMW made its name on the back of a string of driver-focused, rear-wheel drive sedans, and I had high expectations for the eDrive40 to live up to. With no front motor, there's less weight on the front axle, and the front wheels just have to worry about steering and braking, not laying down power as well. Less power to put down means smaller wheels, which translates into a better ride and more range, although our test car was equipped with 19-inch wheels (a $600 option), which reduced its range to 283 miles (455 km) compared to the 18-inch option.

Enlarge / These minerals were once part of lithium-ion battery cells and will be once again. (credit: Redwood Materials)

Battery recycling company Redwood Materials will start recycling battery production scrap from General Motors' new line of electric vehicles. This morning, Redwood announced that it is working with Ultium Cells, the joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solutions that makes Ultium battery cells. Approximately 10,000 tons a year of production scrap will be sent from the Ultium Cells plants in Ohio and Tennessee to Redwood's site in northern Nevada.

Redwood was started by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel in 2017 and in recent years has announced partnerships with multiple OEMs, including Ford, Volvo, Volkswagen, and now General Motors. Last year, the US Department of Energy approved a $2 billion loan to Redwood as part of its Advanced Technology Manufacturing program (which also funded Ultium Cells).

Redwood says that its hydrometallurgy facility is now a "commercial-scale source of lithium supply," the first to come online in the United States for decades. The facility also produces raw nickel and cobalt from battery scrap.

Enlarge / Fleets looking for a medium-duty electric truck now have a new option. (credit: Motiv)

Medium- and heavy-duty vehicles account for about 23 percent of US vehicle emissions. That's much less than the amount of greenhouse gases emitted each year by light-duty vehicles, but if anything, businesses can often have a clearer case for electrification, whether that's to save money on annual running costs or to meet ESG goals. The annual Advanced Clean Transportation Expo is currently underway in Las Vegas, and yesterday Motiv Electric Trucks revealed the production version of its new modular medium-duty EV, the Argo.

Motiv has been around since 2009 and has been selling electric powertrains for school buses, step vans, box trucks, and even trolleys. Now it's branching out with its own vehicle, the modular Argo, which is capable of carrying up to 14,000 lbs (6,350 kg) with a range of up to 200 miles (321 km).

"Overnight we've moved from a company primarily serving a narrow slice of the $20 billion medium duty truck market to one that can serve nearly that entire market," said Motiv CEO Scott Griffith. "The launch of Argo is a transformational moment for our company as we can now offer more vehicles and options to help more fleet customers meet their sustainability goals."

Enlarge / Aurora's sensors festoon this Volvo VNL class 8 truck. (credit: Volvo Trucks)

Recently, we took a look at Volvo's VNL new Class 8 heavy truck developed for the North American market. Last night at the ACT Expo trade show, the company debuted a new variant, called the VNL Autonomous. The name should give it away—this truck has been designed to drive itself using autonomous tech from the startup Aurora.

The VNL Autonomous has been designed for SAE level 4 autonomy and combines long-range lidar with radar, cameras, and other sensors. Input from these sensors is processed by a redundant pair of computers running Aurora's AI software. Aurora has been a partner with Volvo Autonomous Solutions for some years now, working on hub-to-hub driverless freight systems for the North American market.

"Our platform engineering approach prioritizes safety by incorporating high-assurance redundancy systems designed to mitigate potential emergency situations," said Volvo Autonomous Solutions' chief product officer Shahkh Kazmi. "We built the Volvo VNL Autonomous from the ground up, integrating these redundancy systems to ensure that every safety-critical component is intentionally duplicated, thereby significantly enhancing both safety and reliability."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

The Federal Trade Commission's Office of Technology has issued a warning to automakers that sell connected cars. Companies that offer such products "do not have the free license to monetize people’s information beyond purposes needed to provide their requested product or service," it wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Just because executives and investors want recurring revenue streams, that does not "outweigh the need for meaningful privacy safeguards," the FTC wrote.

Based on your feedback, connected cars might be one of the least-popular modern inventions among the Ars readership. And who can blame them? Last January, a security researcher revealed that a vehicle identification number was sufficient to access remote services for multiple different makes, and yet more had APIs that were easily hackable.

Later, in 2023, the Mozilla Foundation published an extensive report examining the various automakers' policies regarding the use of data from connected cars; the report concluded that "cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy."

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto)

Two weeks ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk enacted widespread layoffs throughout the company, including the 500-strong team responsible for the brand's Supercharger. Now, Tesla is looking to hire some of them back, Bloomberg reports, as Musk promises to spend $500 million expanding the network.

The Supercharger network is inarguably Tesla's crown jewel. The company recognized early on that, even though its owners slow-charged at home each night, knowing they had the ability to rapidly recharge on the road was critical in making an electric vehicle an acceptable alternative to existing vehicles.

Since then, it has built out more than 2,000 charging stations in the US alone, with more than 25,000 plugs. More than that, the chargers invariably work, something that is often not true for other charging networks.

Enlarge / New energy vehicles are being loaded into containers for export at Taicang Port and Taicang International Terminal in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, on April 26, 2024. (credit: Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden is expected to levy new 100 percent tariffs targeted at specific Chinese industries, including electric vehicles, on Tuesday. The announcement follows growing calls from automakers, unions, and bipartisan efforts in Congress to address the problem of China unfairly subsidizing its own industries to undermine foreign competitors.

Why are Chinese EVs so cheap?

The Chinese government has been giving its green industries heavy direct subsidies for some time now, far in excess of those handed out by US or European governments. For EV makers like BYD, this has meant billions of dollars a year, in addition to the consumer-facing tax benefit for car buyers, similar to how EV sales are incentivized in the US.

Brands like BYD have concentrated on making their cars cheaper to build—only using one windshield wiper instead of two, for example—but also through vertical integration. Other than Tesla, automakers in the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea instead rely heavily on multiple tiers of suppliers, most of whom supply parts to more than one automaker.

Enlarge (credit: Graham Hughes/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The federal government is looking at a phantom braking problem that appears to be affecting the Fisker Ocean electric crossover. Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigation opened a safety probe into the electric vehicle—its fourth so far. Open investigations are also examining whether the doors can fail to open, in addition to problems with shifting into or out of park and issues with partial braking loss over low-grip surfaces.

The newest preliminary investigation was opened by NHTSA's ODI after the regulator received eight complaints of alleged inappropriate automatic emergency braking. AEB is one of the more effective new active driver safety systems. NHTSA added it to its list of recommended safety features almost a decade ago, and last month, it published industry standards that will make the feature mandatory on all new cars and trucks, although not until September 2029.

But not every AEB implementation is equal. Both Tesla's and Honda's systems have suffered from too many false positives, also known as phantom braking, triggering the feature inappropriately, sometimes resulting in that car being crashed into from behind.