Joe Biden Wants to Bring Back Cash for Clunkers

Earlier this week, presumed Democratic nominee for president and former shut-in Joe Biden discussed some of the changes he’d make if elected. While most do not overlap with the automotive industry and would force your author to digress into rants about the perils of unchecked government spending, one item tied to his ambitious $2 trillion climate proposal is related directly to cars — and feels uncomfortably familiar.

Biden appears interested in bringing back the Car Allowance Rebate System (aka Cash for Clunkers) from the last recession, or at least a version 2.0 that accelerates electric vehicle adoption and development inside the United States.

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So, What Exactly Is GM's EV Plan?

General Motors’ pledge to introduce 20 electric vehicles by 2023 sounded great to tech-obsessed investors and granola types, but the exact nature of these products, for the most part, remained hazy.

Sure, the Hummer name’s coming back, attached to a massive (and massively powerful) GMC pickup, and the Chevrolet Bolt’s getting a sibling, but what about the rest? Well, there’s news on that front.

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Coronavirus Seems to Kill GM's Hydrogen Ambitions

Maybe the military will still be able to get one, but the cash-consuming coronavirus pandemic appears to have nixed any chance that a normal consumer will be able to slide into a fuel cell-powered General Motors vehicle anytime soon.

Good news for Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai?

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Jekyll & Hyde Jeeps Aim to Steal a Certain Ford's Limelight

What’s an automaker to do when a well-off rival decides to throw its hat in the ring? Fight back with whatever’s at hand, then brainstorm new weaponry.

That’s what Jeep did Monday, revealing a concept Wrangler powered by a 6.4-liter V8 and hinting — nudge, nudge — that the potent off-roader might one day reach production. And as a certain vehicle that rhymes with Ronco premiered last night, Jeep pulled out its backup: an upcoming vehicle that’s the polar opposite of the Rubicon 392.

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Fluke? Electrified RAV4 Outsells Normal RAV4

Please don’t send us emails complaining about the use of the word “normal” in a headline. Yes, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is still a RAV4. Yes, it has every right to exist, and it makes its parents proud, each and every day.

Especially lately, given that the electrified version of the country’s top-selling compact crossover outsold its conventional sibling in June. Not that the hybrid RAV4 was a sales slug to begin with.

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Fisker, Eager to Attract All Sorts of Green, Goes Public

As predicted last week, Fisker Inc., the company created by Henrik Fisker that aims to introduce an ultra-eco electric crossover, the Ocean, in 2022, has announced plans to go public.

Again, as expected, Fisker made its move by merging with a blank check company backed by a private equity firm.

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Nissan Ariya Debut Coming In July; CEO (Again) Promises to Right the Ship

I’m your man, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida told shareholders at an annual meeting Monday, promising to take a pay cut while firming up the fiscal foundations of an automaker that was floundering even before the pandemic hit.

Nissan rolled out a very different kind of four-year plan in late May. Cost-cutting and consolidation is the name of the game going forward, but shareholders often want more assurance than a blueprint can provide.

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Prelude to a Preview: Cadillac Lyriq Continues Its Long March to Reality

“Lear-ick” or “lear-eek”? That’s the first question the Cadillac Lyriq brings to mind, the second being who, exactly, was behind the naming of this future electric crossover. Names matter, and if they don’t roll off the tongue easily, that’s a problem. At least for non-Italian brands…

But this writer digresses. On Thursday, which proved quite eventful in terms of product news, Cadillac decided to seek a little limelight of its own.

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Report: Tesla Eager to Get Started on Roadrunner

No, Tesla isn’t resurrecting an intermediate-sized Mopar muscle car. It’s something far less sexy than that.

According to documents, Tesla aims to build a battery research and manufacturing facility, staffed 24/7, in the dreaded state of California.

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Bullish on EVs, Hyundai Issues a Challenge

Hyundai and its sister automaker, Kia Motors, want to hear from you. Well, maybe not you, but someone with electrification expertise and a startup in tow.

As the automakers prepare a series of upcoming electric models, the automakers, joined by their battery supplier, have issued a challenge.

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Tesla Update: Brace Yourself for B-Day

There’s a big to-do coming up in Tesla’s social calendar. Dubbed “Battery Day,” the occasion seems to have something to do with…well, you can probably read.

Battery Day, on which Tesla will presumably storm the beaches of electrification technology, is slated for September 15th — the same day as a postponed shareholder meeting.

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Air, Coming In September

Are your ready for Air?

It’s been a long time coming, but funding and an actual assembly plant have a way of making things happen. And such is the case at Lucid Motors, which plans to reveal its production Air sedan on September 9th.

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Paging Raymond Loewy: Volkswagen ID.4 Leaked

Hey, look — it’s Volkswagen’s upcoming electric crossover! Leaked on the vwidtalk.com forum and spied by Jalopnik on Wednesday, the MEB-platform EV, which will one day roll out of Chattanooga Assembly, apparently used a Coke bottle for a muse.

Shunning straight lines as well as gasoline, the ID.4 has been spotted disguised as both an Opel and a Kia, but these photos bare all.

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Moving Day: Volkswagen Brand Gets a New Boss

Forget all about that Porsche dude. The current CEO of Volkswagen Group’s sporting car brand will not become the new head of the automaker’s namesake brand. Instead, a supervisory board meeting Monday saw Herbert Diess punted, replaced by the brand’s former chief operating officer.

Come July 1st, Ralf Brandstätter will take the helm, tasked with guiding the brand through troubled water and into an electrified future.

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Hybrid War: Ford Touts Escape Plug-in As Efficiency King, but Toyota Has Two Things It Wants to Tell You

In the compact crossover segment, at least, the sky’s the limit when it comes to choice. And making inroads into this enormously popular crowd is plug-in hybrid power — a feature added to two major players this year: the Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4.

As efficiency numbers trickle out, Ford is claiming victory over its rival, though which of the two models ultimately boasts the most appeal will be borne out in future sales figures.

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  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?