Ford announced Thursday that it’s delaying the production of two electric vehicles, a next-generation EV pickup and a three-row EV SUV.
Most recently, that startup mentality was on display with the Mustang Mach-E, Ford’s all-electric crossover.
The result was a crossover that has helped Ford claim second place in U.S. EV sales for several quarters in a row.
And don’t forget the original Ford assembly line, which while not a product, was definitely a product of entrepreneurial thinking.
Ford has excelled at those tasks: The Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning are by most accounts not just excellent EVs, but excellent vehicles overall.
Rivian has a challenging year ahead — and the first quarter is off to a tepid start.
Both of those figures are down from the fourth quarter of 2023, where it built 17,541 and shipped 13,972.
Rivian did signal that it plans to make roughly the same number of EVs as it did in 2023.
Producing and selling vehicles, which includes the R1S SUV, R1T pickup and two versions of a commercial electric van, has never been the company’s only challenge.
Tesla reported its own very weak first quarter sales on Tuesday.
One Bay Area startup called Amber thinks it can help them navigate that minefield, starting with Tesla owners.
When owners file a claim, Amber works with qualified repair shops to find the right parts and fix what’s wrong, and will transport the vehicle.
AmberCare is the latest addition to a growing economy built around used EVs.
One group is anyone who is looking to buy a used EV but is scared away by the thought of expensive, time-consuming repairs.
There are other unexpected things to consider in the process of repairing an EV that Pak thinks AmberCare can help with, like transportation.
Fisker’s finances are back in the news after the company warned back in February that it didn’t have enough cash to make it through its next year.
The company said this week that it intends to halt production for six weeks to get its business back in order.
Softening demand growth for EVs is making the normal challenges of scaling a company all the harder for Fisker and its peers.
Not that we’re all doom and gloom here at TechCrunch — we’re actually rather bullish on the prospect for EVs in the near and far future.
Let’s take a look at what’s going on under the hood here:
India will lower import taxes on certain electric vehicles for companies committing to invest at least $500 million and setting up a local manufacturing facility within three years, a move that could potentially bolster Tesla’s plans to enter the South Asian market.
Firms meeting these requirements will be allowed to import 8,000 EVs a year at a reduced import duty of 15% on cars costing $35,000 and above.
India currently levies a tax of 70% to 100% on imported cars depending on their value.
The decision could pave the way for Tesla to enter India, as the Elon Musk-led company has been in talks with the government to lower import duties on its electric cars for years.
The move also aligns with India’s goal to boost the adoption of EVs and reduce its dependence on oil imports, with the country setting a target of achieving 30% electric vehicle sales by 2030.
Coreshell, a battery materials startup, revealed a breakthrough this week that could lower the cost of lithium-ion batteries.
Forecasts for cheaper EVs are counting on a steady stream of technological improvements, including better battery materials.
Coreshell’s first product will be a silicon anode paired with a lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cathode.
Coreshell predicts that its silicon anodes might even give LFP an edge over traditional NMC cells with graphite anodes.
Granted, their silicon anode materials will cost more, but they’ll have the benefit of scale and experience to help bring costs down.
The great EV boom is fading a bit, but that’s not a concern if you take a long-enough view.
Sure, Tesla expects slower growth for its car sales this year, and there are some indications that other companies are trimming their electric car plans, but there’s also reason to be optimistic.
If you take a look at some upcoming EVs, you may notice that the don’t look precisely like the current, bestselling gas-powered cars out there.
I reckon that that is for the best — when you swap power sources, you can shake up the rest of a vehicles design, right?
So two cheers for Rivian’s R3 and what Telo is cooking up, because their plans have me hype.
Lucid Motors plans to build just 9,000 electric vehicles in 2024, only 500 to 1,000 more than it made in 2023, as it struggles with demand for its luxury sedans.
And it’s a sign of the brutal reality Lucid now faces: that it’s still scrambling to find buyers and losing money on every EV it builds.
The modest projection comes a few days after the company slashed the prices of its Air sedan by $8,000.
The Gravity is one of the reasons Lucid originally forecasted being able to make and ship 90,000 vehicles in a few short years.
In fact, in the presentation Lucid used to promote its 2021 merger with a special purpose acquisition company, it predicted the Gravity would outsell the Air sedan in 2024.
Ford is cutting prices of its all-electric 2023 Mustang Mach-E by has much as $8,100 as the automaker attempts to rid itself of inventory and compete with Tesla and its increasingly cheaper EVs.
Total market share of new EV sales has grown, reaching nearly 8% in U.S. in 2023.
Ford confirmed with TechCrunch the price cuts, which are only for model year 2023 Mustang Mach-E vehicles and range between $3,100 and $8,100.
“The Mustang Mach-E is America’s No.2 EV SUV in 2023 and Ford is America’s No.2 EV brand,” Ford spokesperson Marty Günsberg wrote in an emailed statement.
Tesla shipped a record number of electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, which helped it reach 1.81 million deliveries in 2023.
While other automakers are dialing back their electric vehicle plans, BMW is quietly going all in.
“The tipping point for the combustion engine was last year,” CFO Walter Mertl told journalists at a roundtable in Munich recently.
The German automaker has seen sales of its fossil fuel vehicles plateau and is expecting a slow decline, he said.
“Growth will come increasingly from electric vehicles.”BMW sold a record 2.5 million vehicles last year, 15% of which were all-electric.
This year, the company thinks it’ll sell 500,000 EVs, or 33% more than last year.
