During our monthly search for the best EV discounts, we found four models – two BEVs and two PHEVs – that can cost less than $20,000 before tax and license. Considering the average used vehicle price as reported by USA Today was trending upward at $21,558 in July, and that the average new vehicle transaction price is just shy of $40,000 ($39,259 to be exact, per Kelly Blue Book), $20K for a…
VW unveils prototype autonomous charging robot for electric cars
December 29, 2020
VW has unveiled an actual working prototype of an autonomous charging robot for electric cars – something that it has been conceptualizing for years.
Last year, we reported on VW unveiling the idea of a charging butler robot concept for electric cars.
They had the vision…
Tesla is working on Apple and Amazon Music in-car integration
December 29, 2020
Tesla is working on adding Apple Music and Amazon Music as new native in-car music services inside its electric vehicles.
While most other automakers are turning to phone mirroring with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay to handle media playback inside their cars, Tesla is…
Tesla driver accused of sleeping on Autopilot is going to trial for dangerous driving
December 29, 2020
A Tesla driver’s case over sleeping while using Autopilot on the highway is going to trial for dangerous driving in what legal experts are calling a legal first.
Earlier this year, we reported on the Alberta RCMP (Canada federal police) issuing a report on a strange incident involving a Tesla vehicle on Autopilot:
“Alberta RCMP received a complaint of a car speeding on Highway 2 near Ponoka.
Ford throws shade at Tesla over quality, calls its electric vehicles a ‘compromise’
December 28, 2020
The head of Ford’s electrification effort has thrown some serious shade at Tesla over quality issues and promises that you won’t have to make that compromise with Ford’s electric vehicles.
Darren Palmer, one of the original members of Ford’s Edison team tasked to…
Tesla (TSLA) has recently introduced plans to produce its own battery cells called ‘4680’, but now we learn that Panasonic will also be producing the new cell for them, according to a new report.
While Tesla has been working on its own battery cell chemstry for years…
Quick Charge Podcast: December 26, 2020
December 27, 2020
Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from Electrek. Quick Charge is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.
New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded Monday through Thursday and again on Saturday. Subscribe to our podcast in Apple Podcast or your favorite podcast player to guarantee new episodes are delivered as…
Tesla has pushed its ‘holiday update’ and it enables owners to turn their cars into a boombox, as well as a few other improvements.
As we have been reporting over the last few weeks, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been teasing a ‘fire’ holiday update to be pushed…
Elon Musk says Tesla can still achieve milestone of 500,000 cars in 2020, but will need to ‘go all out’
December 27, 2020
Elon Musk told Tesla employees in a new email obtained by Electrek that the automaker can still achieve its milestone of 500,000 electric cars delivered in 2020, but it will need to ‘go all out’ in order to achieve it.
Tesla is nearing the end of its end-of-year…
Scientists set a solar cell efficiency world record
December 25, 2020
A Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) research team published a paper in the journal Science earlier this month on the development of a perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell that achieved 29.15% efficiency. That’s a new world record.
Solar cell efficiency record
This beats the previous achievement of 28% efficiency. The long-term efficiency target for a perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell is 30%…
