Honda Prologue particulars, Kia EV9 worth, Ford LFP pause, EVs adopting Tesla NACS: The Week in Reverse

Which automaker accelerated efforts to go all-electric in Europe and the U.Ok.?

Which EV’s tech will value $2,500 a yr so drivers can take eyes off the highway and arms off the wheel—beneath 40 mph?

That is our look again on the Week In Reverse—proper right here at Inexperienced Automobile Experiences—for the week ending September 29, 2023.

In a primary take a look at the 2024 Honda Prologue, Inexperienced Automobile Experiences sees it to be proper on the cash by way of what it must be as each a step up from the CR-V Hybrid and a gateway mannequin to Honda’s personal upcoming devoted EVs. The Prologue is ready to be priced within the higher $40,000 vary earlier than any EV tax credit score, in order that they’ll seemingly don’t have any subject delivering as many as GM can construct. And in preparation for the Prologue, together with the Acura ZDX, Honda has inked new offers with EVgo and Electrify America that can give EV drivers “single-app entry” to charging with the stations on each networks. That may all be along with Honda’s pending Supercharger entry beginning in 2024 plus its personal fast-charging community with six different automakers. 

The 2024 Kia EV9 will begin round $56,000, Kia confirmed on Wednesday. That’s for the EV9 Gentle, within the single-motor rear-wheel-drive configuration with the smaller 76.1-kwh battery pack. That ought to nonetheless be good for a 225-mile vary, Kia estimates, and all EV9s include three rows of seating. Deliveries will begin late this yr, with U.S. manufacturing beginning in 2024, and Inexperienced Automobile Experiences not too long ago supplied up a first-drive evaluation of the Kia EV9.

The 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid will get a brand new Nightshade Version this mannequin yr, and with no mechanical modifications it’s prone to persist with its attractive mixture of all-wheel drive, an EPA mixed 42 mpg, and a price ticket beginning below $30,000. 

Mercedes-Benz will quickly begin delivering a choose variety of U.S. EQS electrical hatchbacks with Drive Pilot, the corporate’s help system that lets drivers take their eyes off the highway and arms off the wheel, albeit in a really restricted set of eventualities together with mapped divided highways, in daylight, at a pace of below 40 mph. Solely enabled in California and Nevada, it’s going to value $2,500 a yr to make use of.

On Monday, Nissan made an enormous assertion. It revealed a totally electrical sporty hot-hatch idea that previews an upcoming all-electric Micra hatchback, designed in and impressed by London. Regardless of U.Ok. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s transfer to push a ban of non-plug-in autos to 2035, from the present 2030, Nissan’s CEO mentioned there’s “no going again now” on EVs, accelerating plans to make EVs 100% of Nissan gross sales in Europe by 2030—U.Ok. included. 

Previous to the announcement that the U.Ok. would search to delay coverage shifting completely to plug-in autos to 2035 relatively than 2030, the Shell-owned charging community Ubitricity introduced the set up of 1,050 streetside public EV chargers. These 5-kw Stage 2 sockets will all be a part of the agency’s lamppost charging challenge. 

A Honda electrical sports activities automobile is because of bow on the Tokyo auto present, now known as the Japan Mobility Present, later in October. It additionally plans to point out a compact automobile product of acrylic resin that may be simply reused, in addition to an electrical bike with swappable batteries.

There at the moment are three plug-in hybrid Porsche Cayenne SUVs (or Coupes), all with a bigger 25.9-kwh battery pack that ought to ship plug-in electrical vary approaching 30 miles. The 2024 Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid lands in the midst of that lineup, permitting faster efficiency with out the thirsty V-8. 

One of many head-scratchers of the week got here on Monday, when Ford formally pressed pause on the development of its LFP EV battery plant in Michigan, which simply earlier this yr it pointed to as a key step towards EV profitability and affordability. Whereas Ford hasn’t made fully clear why it’s doing so now, it’s onerous to think about this isn’t linked to President Biden’s go to to a UAW rally this morning. 

Whereas the longer term hangs unknown for Ford battery-making, the Swedish battery provider Northvolt introduced Thursday that it selected Canada for a $5.2 billion EV battery plant—its first exterior Europe. The situation in Quebec was allegedly chosen for its uncooked supplies, renewable power, and for the stipulations of the Biden administration’s Inflation Discount Act (IRA).

A strategic collaboration with the battery agency StoreDot might allow Volvo to ship not simply EVs that cost a lot faster, however to downsize EV battery packs and its autos’ carbon footprint. StoreDot says that will probably be delivering the primary samples for testing by the Swedish automaker subsequent yr. 

A rising portion of customers are involved concerning the carbon footprint of EVs, past merely that they don’t have any tailpipe emissions, in response to a survey from Ipsos—with battery manufacturing seemingly on the core of these considerations. The outcomes emphasize that automakers have to deal with training in addition to making a sustainable EV provide chain. 

And which upcoming EV manufacturers are switching to the Tesla NACS cost port? Inexperienced Automobile Experiences rounded all of them up—and famous that there stay some holdouts, in addition to some puzzling early commitments. However maybe it’s going to all make sense with the rollout of the Cybertruck and the yet-unnamed charging community from seven automakers.

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