Sales of what kind of vehicle offset the global CO2 reductions of EVs in 2020?
Which company reported that it’s raised about $8 billion ahead of the delivery of any of its electric trucks?
This is our look back at the Week In Reverse—right here at Green Car Reports—for the week ending January 22, 2021.
We published two hands-on reports this week. One of them provided another wrap-up on our first experiences with the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E—this one on fast-charging, and what to expect on weekend road trips. Then a drive of the Hyundai Ioniq Plug-In Hybrid reminded us that this model offers top-notch efficiency and in ideal conditions can return more all-electric range than its 29-mile electric rating indicates—but you have to leave the car in charge about when that’s allowed.
2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E, at Electrify America DC fast-charger
On the day of the inauguration of President Biden, we looked at what the new administration might mean for electric cars.
A new Veloz EV campaign with “Hulk” Mark Ruffalo and a cohort of real-life superheroes arrived just as California is starting to map out how it will make 100% of passenger car and truck sales fully electric by 2035.
2021 Porsche Taycan rear-wheel drive
Porsche detailed a new base-model rear-wheel-drive version of the 2021 Taycan for the U.S. The model will start only about $3,000 above the Tesla Model S if you consider Porsche buyers’ eligibility for the federal EV tax credit.
Nissan showed a Winter Camper concept built on its Leaf-based e-NV200 electric compact van. Although the hopes of it coming to the U.S. are next to nil, it builds excitement for electric vans—and all the vanlife accessories—coming soon from other brands.
Nissan e-NV200 Winter Camper concept
The Mercedes-Benz EQA was revealed, and as an all-electric equivalent to the Mercedes GLA had no big surprises. The front-wheel-drive hatchback’s specs are much closer to the Kia Niro EV or Volkswagen ID.4 than to the Tesla Model Y.
Kia displayed a shadowy preview of its first few standalone electric vehicles that will be part of a strong EV push—including 11 models by 2025 and seven to be launched by 2027 on a dedicated EV platform.
Kia EV teaser
Rivian said that its latest round of investment has closed; the $2.65 billion makes it a total of $8 billion in private investment before the EV truck hopeful delivers a single vehicle.
The 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 offers a full suite of features that can help keep warm in the winter—and precondition to avoid putting as much of a dent in range to do it—but it doesn’t include a heat pump.
Volkswagen ID Buzz Cargo concept
Looking at the future from Volkswagen, two top executives pointed to Tesla in mentioning the “radically new production approach” planned for its Trinity electric-vehicle project, with higher-level autonomous driving capability and a revamp of its Wolfsburg home plant. And the production version of the VW Microbus revival signaled by the ID Buzz concept was confirmed for production in 2017. VW recently revealed that while it will arrive in 2022 as promised—in Germany—it won’t arrive in the U.S. until 2023.
Honda said that its next-generation version of the HR-V small crossover will be hybrid-only for Europe and Japan—although with Honda developing a separate version of the HR-V for the U.S. it’s not ready to make that claim here.
An Israeli company called StoreDot has been promising a five-minute recharge for years, and this week it announced the production of sample cells with that tech.
StoreDot sample batteries
A MIT team has updated its visualization that assists in seeing the cost and CO2 benefits of electric vehicles, together.
And go with those efficient models over less-efficient trucks if you can. Data released Monday by the International Energy Agency suggests that globally, any emissions reduction from electric vehicles in 2020 was offset by an emissions increase due to the shift to SUVs.
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