U.S. Crosses the Electric-Car Tipping Point for Mass Adoption
Many people of a certain age can recall the first time they held a smartphone. The devices were weird and expensive and novel enough to draw a crowd at parties. Then, less than a decade later, it became unusual not to own one. That same society-altering shift is happening now with electric vehicles, according to a Bloomberg analysis of adoption rates around the world. The US is the latest country to pass what’s become a critical EV tipping point: 5 percent of new car sales powered only by electricity. This threshold signals the start of mass EV adoption, the period when technological preferences rapidly flip, according to the analysis. For the past six months, the U.S. joined Europe and China — collectively the three largest car markets — in moving beyond the 5 percent tipping point. If the US follows the trend established by 18 countries that came before it, a quarter of new car sales could be electric by the end of 2025. That would be a year or two ahead of most major forecasts. Click here for the full story.
VW of America Teams with Redwood on EV Battery Recycling
Volkswagen Group of America is teaming with Nevada startup Redwood Materials to recycle batteries from VW and Audi electric vehicles in the United States. Reuters reports VW is the latest carmaker to partner with Redwood, which has forged similar alliances with Toyota Motor Corp, Ford Motor Co., and Geely Automobile's Volvo Cars. In a statement, VW Group of America Chief Executive Scott Keogh said the recycling partnership with Redwood will "help us accelerate EV adoption in America." VW has said it is aiming for 55 percent of its U.S. sales to be fully electric by 2030. Started by Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, Redwood has said its mission is "to create a domestic closed-loop battery supply chain" that eventually could reduce reliance on mining raw materials. Redwood said it will work with more than 1,000 VW and Audi dealers in the United States to recover and recycle battery packs at Redwood's Nevada facilities, including re-manufacturing battery electrode components from such materials as cobalt, nickel, lithium, and copper. Click here for the full story.
Everything You Need to Know about the 2023 Honda CR-V
A new generation of Honda CR-V is coming and is looking to set a new standard for the affordable family crossover. The first generation debuted with one model trim in 1996 for the US market and has evolved steadily through five generations, but now it's taking a leap to become something larger and more sophisticated while Honda leans into hybrid technology. Carbuzz reports the sixth-generation CR-V arrives wider and longer than previous generations, and with new and more mature and chiseled styling that follows in the footsteps of the latest Honda Accord and Civic models. We visited the new CR-V in a secret location recently in Los Angeles to check out the next iteration of what Honda describes as "America's favorite SUV" and came away optimistic that it will be a winner for the Japanese brand. Click here to view photos of the 2023 Honda CR-V. Click here to learn more about the 2023 Honda CR-V.
May Mobility Partners with State Farm to Help Fund Work with Toyota
Self-driving tech startup May Mobility has added to its Series C investment round and now raised funding totaling $111 million. The money will enable the company to add engineers and incorporate its system on a new vehicle platform. Automotive News reports the fresh funds will underpin the company's ongoing work with Toyota Motor Corp., which has been a longtime backer of the Ann Arbor, Mich.–— based organization. May Mobility's work on autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans, called the Autono-MaaS will continue, with a commercial launch of service expected this year. Further, May Mobility says it will begin preliminary work integrating its self-driving systems on the Toyota e-Palette, a battery-electric vehicle expected to someday operate in Toyota's Woven City — a prototype city of the future — and beyond. New funding comes from State Farm Ventures, a subsidiary of the auto insurance company of the same name. May Mobility had said in January it had raised $85 million as part of the Series C round. Click here for the full story.
NHTSA Rejects Proposal on Driver-Selectable Alert Sounds for EVs
The nation's top auto safety regulator has rejected a proposal that would have allowed automakers to install several driver-selectable pedestrian alert sounds in each of their hybrid and electric vehicles. Automotive News reports the 2019 proposal would have allowed automakers to install "any number of compliant sounds" on each hybrid and electric make, model, body style, and trim level they produce for sale in the U.S. The agency under the Trump administration had requested comment on the proposal, including whether the safety standard should allow more than one sound and, if so, how many sounds should be allowed. NHTSA said the proposal is not being adopted because of a "lack of supporting data." "The great majority of the comments on the [Notice of Proposed Rule-Making], including those submitted by advocacy organizations for the blind and by people who are blind or who have low vision, did not favor the proposal to allow hybrid and electric vehicles to have an unlimited number of different pedestrian alert sounds," the agency said. "Most of those comments favored more uniformity, rather than less, in the number and types of alert sounds allowed." Click here for the full story.
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