EVs | TechCrunch

Canoo’s CFO and top lawyer are the latest executives to leave

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 22:34:27 +0000

EV startup Canoo has lost its chief financial officer and its head lawyer, the latest in a string of executive departures as the company continues to struggle to find mass adoption of its electric work vans. CFO Greg Ethridge and general counsel Hector Ruiz both resigned from Canoo on October 31, the company announced Tuesday […]

Ford pauses F-150 Lightning production as Tesla Cybertruck heats up

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 18:06:50 +0000

Ford will pause production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck starting in mid-November for almost two months as it struggles with decreased demand, increased competition, and losses in its electric vehicle business. “We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability,” a Ford spokesperson told TechCrunch. The news was […]

Rivian’s chief software officer says in-car buttons are ‘an anomaly’

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 22:16:56 +0000

The trend of big touchscreens in cars has left many yearning for the not-so-distant days when most user interactions happened with physical buttons. But Rivian’s chief software officer Wassym Bensaid believes using buttons in a car is an “anomaly.” “It’s a bug. It’s not a feature,” Bensaid said Wednesday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “Ideally, you […]

GM CEO Mary Barra on the politics of EVs, the future of AVs, and moving away from China

Rebecca Bellan — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:26:04 +0000

“I never thought the propulsion of a vehicle would become a political issue,” GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra said onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Tuesday. While the executive didn’t expand on this statement, former president Donald Trump has railed against EVs and claimed, wrongly, that there is a mandate to make and sell electric […]

Mary Barra still thinks GM will make an AV with no steering wheel

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 19:30:44 +0000

General Motors CEO Mary Barra still believes an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel and pedals is “definitely” in her company’s future, despite recently suspending work on the purpose-built Origin. Barra told the crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday that she still has an eye on a robotaxi with no steering wheel but that […]

Jon McNeill’s insights on Tesla’s robotaxi and why EV startups fail

Rebecca Bellan — Sun, 27 Oct 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Jon McNeill — a former Tesla and Lyft executive and current CEO at DVx Ventures — spread the word last week at the World Business Forum on what he calls the “Tesla innovation method” of radical simplification. After his presentation, we sat down to chat about Tesla’s automation goals, its new robotaxi, and why building […]

VW spinoff Scout reveals its EV vision and it includes a model with a gas-powered generator

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 22:47:13 +0000

Scout Motors, the Volkswagen Group spinoff, unveiled Thursday two EVs it hopes will hook American customers with modern-meets-rugged styling that downplays digital and embraces the mechanical. The catch? The company will also offer variants to its all-electric Scout Traveler SUV and Scout Terra Truck that will come equipped with a built-in gas-powered generator using a system […]

Tesla’s $25,000 EV flip-flop, explained

Sean O'Kane — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 19:00:53 +0000

The idea of a $25,000 Tesla has persisted for years — in part, perhaps, because CEO Elon Musk said he was “very confident” the company could do it at an event in 2020. But on Wednesday night, during Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call, Musk said the idea of a $25,000 car with a steering wheel and […]

Zero Motorcycles is raising $120 million

Sean O'Kane — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 18:24:07 +0000

Electric motorcycle company Zero is in the process of closing a new funding round for a little bit more than $120 million, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing shows that Zero has sold around $100 million of the equity round so far from two undisclosed investors. The company […]

I just spent my first week ever with an EV, the Chevy Equinox — here’s what it was like

Matt Rosoff — Sat, 19 Oct 2024 19:30:00 +0000

The funnest car I ever drove was the original Tesla Roadster. This was in 2011, back when Elon Musk’s EV company was courting press instead of denigrating us, and they offered me a test drive. I took the car up I-280 — a beautiful, mostly deserted highway with perfectly banked curves that seemed designed for Silicon […]

Fisker owners get help with recall repairs as court approves liquidation plan

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 18:52:46 +0000

Fisker’s plan to liquidate its assets has been accepted by the bankruptcy court in Delaware. And with it, the issue of who should pay for labor costs associated with a pair of recalls on the bankrupt EV startup’s SUVs is finally settled. Fisker has also reached a deal with American Lease, the buyer of its […]

Tesla’s Robotaxi reveal, Palantir owns some of Faraday Future, and the Strava for EVs

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Your usual host Kirsten is out on vacation, but she didn’t leave without writing up This Week’s Wheels. But for the rest, you’ve got me, Rebecca Bellan, […]

Palantir now owns nearly 9% of EV startup Faraday Future — here’s why

Sean O'Kane — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:46:04 +0000

Palantir now owns 8.7% of struggling electric vehicle startup Faraday Future, according to a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The data-mining company was granted more than 800,000 shares in the EV startup on October 2 “as payment for certain outstanding receivables” — the equivalent of roughly $2.4 million judging by Faraday […]

Fisker bankruptcy hits major speed bump as fleet sale is now in question

Sean O'Kane — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:53:15 +0000

Fisker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy has hit a major snag, as the company buying the startup’s remaining fleet of electric SUVs says it might not complete the purchase because of a surprising technical issue. The buyer, a New York-area leasing company called American Lease, says in a new filing that Fisker now believes there is no […]

Honda gave us a sneak peek of its 0 Series EVs — here’s what we learned

Emme Hall — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:00:00 +0000

For years, Honda has relied on hybrids — not so much EVs — to drive its electrified mission. All of that is about to change with the Honda 0 Series, a portfolio of new electric vehicles that will go into production over the next several years. Honda has been teasing the Series 0 EVs since […]

Uber to launch OpenAI-powered AI assistant to answer driver EV questions

Rebecca Bellan — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Uber is continuing its push to bring more electric vehicles onto the ride-hail and delivery platform, and it thinks giving drivers a chatbot to answer all their EV questions will help. Starting early 2025, Uber will launch an AI assistant for drivers in the U.S. powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o. At launch, the assistant will only answer […]

Fisker’s plan to make owners pay for recall repairs is illegal, DOJ says

Sean O'Kane — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 17:10:24 +0000

The U.S. Department of Justice says bankrupt EV startup Fisker’s plan to make owners pay for labor costs related to multiple recalls is illegal, according to a new filing. The DOJ, writing on behalf of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said in a filing submitted to Fisker’s bankruptcy docket Monday that the “scheme” […]

Lucid Motors sets third straight quarterly sales record ahead of Gravity SUV launch

Sean O'Kane — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 13:24:32 +0000

Lucid Motors has now officially sold more EVs this year than it did in all of last year, and with three months to go in 2024. The milestone comes after Lucid announced Monday it delivered 2,781 vehicles in the third quarter of 2024. That’s a third straight record quarter for deliveries, though Lucid is still […]

Fisker’s HQ abandoned in ‘complete disarray’ with apparent hazardous waste, clay models left behind

Sean O'Kane — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 14:07:49 +0000

The headquarters Fisker used in its waning days was recently abandoned and left in “complete disarray,” with drums of apparent hazardous waste, automotive equipment, and even vehicles and full-size clay models left behind, according to the landlord. The chaos was described in a new filing that was submitted to Fisker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy docket Friday […]

Fisker faces SEC investigation as bankruptcy case drags on

Sean O'Kane — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 18:30:55 +0000

Bankrupt EV startup Fisker is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a new filing from the financial regulator. The SEC says in the filing it has sent multiple subpoenas to Fisker as part of the investigation, and that it may send more. The agency does not say what the investigation […]