Which standard electrical car acquired yet one more value hike?

Which firm was awarded a $2.5 billion federal mortgage?

That is our look again on the Week In Reverse—proper right here at Inexperienced Automobile Experiences—for the week ending December 16, 2022.

Whether or not you’ve written hybrids off or not, you may doubtless be fascinated with our assessment of the 2023 Toyota Prius, with its startling correction to this effectivity icon’s design lineage, and perkier efficiency whereas preserving its gasoline mileage numbers. In a separate piece, we sat down with Prius chief engineer Satoki Oya to assist flesh out a few of the fascinating backstory of the 2023 Prius. In an uncommon chronology for Toyota, the corporate first set a radical design, then needed to reengineer the automotive round it to satisfy different targets. 

2023 Toyota Prius

We named 5 finalists for Inexperienced Automobile Experiences Finest Automobile To Purchase 2023. Then we ran via what didn’t make the lower. The Cadillac Lyriq is a kind of finalists, and it alerts a number of firsts, as the primary mass-production mannequin constructed round GM’s Ultium propulsion technique, and the primary EV for Cadillac, which plans to be all-electric by the top of the last decade. One other was the Ford F-150 Lightning, which has revolutionized the pickup truck—by making it totally electrical, including performance the truck set will respect, and in any other case not messing with a lot. Its runaway demand is proof already that Ford is on to one thing. 

That stated, Ford raised costs on the F-150 Lightning this week, but once more. This time the price of the bottom Lightning Professional, with the usual vary battery good for 240 miles, stands at $57,869—almost 40% larger than earlier this yr. 

2023 Ford F-150 Lightning

The U.S. Forest Service can also be certainly testing the Ford F-150 Lightning electrical pickup, and whereas the Lightning seems to have been the first fashionable electrical pickup open to buy by federal companies—on the GSA record—it’s already off the record as a result of Lightning orders have been closed. 

The Division of Vitality on Monday confirmed a $2.5 billion federal mortgage backing GM’s Ultium EV plan. Extra exactly, it backs the development of three Ultium Cells LLC battery vegetation, in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan, that can all be making large-format pouch cells for upcoming GM EVs, from crossovers to pickups and supply vans. 

In one other huge transfer from the federal authorities: The IRS on Monday revealed some preliminary steering on what it can want for EV tax credit score compliance, as revamped by the Inflation Restoration Act (IRA). In brief: prepare for extra paperwork. Automakers might want to submit month-to-month reviews with EV specs, and even sellers will probably be chargeable for handing over paperwork together with particulars comparable to battery capability. 

2023 Lucid Air Pure

Lucid introduced that will probably be seeking to Panasonic for battery provide because it ramps up the remainder of the Lucid Air lineup in 2023 and begins manufacturing of the Lucid Gravity SUV in 2024. That may embrace future U.S.-made cells from Panasonic by way of its Kansas manufacturing facility. 

An announcement from a superconductor agency confirms that not less than a few of the Hyundai Group’s E-GMP electrical automobiles will probably be getting improved silicon-carbide energy modules—bringing larger working voltages and a spread enhance for future Hyundai and Kia EVs. 

Squad Photo voltaic Metropolis Automobile

Sustainable resorts and gated communities within the U.S. might in 2024 have the ability to select a $6,250 photo voltaic automotive. The Squad Photo voltaic Metropolis Automobile can get well as much as 19.2 miles of vary per day in Las Vegas, the corporate claims—which occurs to be the place it can reveal a U.S.-bound model of this low-speed photo voltaic EV subsequent month. 

Some Kia Niro EV fashions have been recalled for a difficulty that would permit coolant into the ability management unit. Though lower than 900 U.S. automobiles are affected, it might result in sudden stalling. 

2020 Kia Niro EV

Electrical car vary suffers in cold-weather driving. However a brand new report from the battery evaluation agency Recurrent factors out simply how a lot that real-world winter EV vary varies by mannequin. 

Toyota has teamed up with a Texas utility to launch a small pilot challenge wanting into vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tech for smoothing the grid. Though Toyota has already been finding out using hydrogen gas cells for such a job, that is the primary such U.S. take a look at for the corporate with a battery electrical car.

2023 Toyota bZ4X for use in V2G pilot challenge with utility Oncor

Selecting an EV is greater than a selection for the planet and carbon emissions; it’s an funding in higher native air high quality, in keeping with a brand new Cornell College examine that pulls from huge EPA information modeling. And, it finds, in simply 5 U.S. metro areas the shift to EVs might save almost 2,500 lives yearly because of the cleaner air and lack of tailpipe emissions.

In accordance with the newest information from Client Experiences, Tesla and Nissan lead in EV reliability. The patron group ranked the Kia EV6, Tesla Mannequin 3, and Nissan Leaf among the many most dependable—though it nonetheless famous that hybrid automobiles carry out higher than EVs in reliability. 

2022 Kia EV6

And real-world U.S. car fleet gas economic system remained flat in 2021, after some spectacular enchancment lately. Because the EPA suggests, it’s due partly to the continued shift towards much less environment friendly SUVs and pickup vehicles, which proceed to get heavier. Lax Trump administration targets definitely didn’t assist issues. 

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