Monday, 13 July 2026

Crews have broken ground on a pair of overhead pantograph chargers serving DASH (Alexandria Transit) in Alexandria, Virginia, Electrek reported. Each of the two units will supply as much as 360 kW.

Federal money covered part of the cost, with the project drawing more than USD 1 million routed through the Fiscal Year 2024 Consolidated Appropriations Act, according to Electrek. Work on the en-route chargers is slated to finish in 2027.

Sixteen battery-electric buses are already running on DASH routes, and a further 20 have secured funding and are now being procured, Electrek reported. Once upgraded, the transit depot can host up to 30 more electric buses along with wiring for as many as 24 additional overhead pantograph chargers.

ABM, a supplier of EV charging infrastructure for transit fleets, is providing the charging system, according to Electrek.

Chevrolet Bolt dealers are holding 118 days of inventory, nearly double the 60-day supply the industry treats as healthy, according to Electrek.

More than 4,500 new Bolts remain on dealer lots, Electrek reported. That pileup follows a sharp jump in sales. Chevy sold 3,433 new Bolts in Q2 2026, up from 791 in Q1, according to Electrek, which attributed the Q1 figure to CoxAuto.

The stock overhang comes after GM said its resurrected 2027 Chevrolet Bolt would be built for only a single model year, per Electrek.

One mechanism putting cars on lots is GM's Dealer Dividends program. Kyle Birch, president of North American operations at GM Financial, told Auto Finance News that the program lets dealers earn through tiers up to the Platinum Plus level, where they start to reap the benefits. Birch said dealers can apply dividends as they see fit, using them to reduce their floorplan rate or to add incentives on vehicles.

The CATL-backed Choco-SEB battery swap network reached its 2,000th station on June 30, according to Electrek. CATL has set a goal of running 3,000 stations across the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong by the end of 2026, Electrek reported.

The network spans 31 provinces and 180 cities in China, per Electrek. That footprint has grown from roughly 700 stations last October, with none in place at the start of 2025.

CATL said in December it had co-developed 10 electric vehicle models with domestic automakers, each built to use its swappable batteries, according to Electrek.

CATL has also announced a partnership with Octopus Energy to bring large-scale battery swapping to markets in the United Kingdom and Europe, Electrek reported.

CATL chairman and CEO Robin Zeng called battery swapping "a significant part of the future of commercial transport" and said the company had "field-proven this technology in China," in a statement cited by Electrek.

Kalmar closed the second quarter with four new ERG450 orders for customers in Mongolia, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, according to Electrek.

The company began building its 45-ton ERG450 electric reach stackers at a Shanghai manufacturing plant in 2023 to serve customers across the Asian market, Electrek reported.

The four machines are the first units to feature Kalmar's next-generation lithium-ion battery packs, which replace the company's typical lead-acid packs, according to Electrek.

Kalmar calls the ERG450 its most sustainable reach stacker to date, citing the use of at least 50% recycled steel, per Electrek.

John Zhang, Managing Director at Kalmar's Shanghai plant, said the orders reflect accelerating adoption of electrified heavy machinery across China and demonstrate the company's capability to deliver solutions for the industry's transition toward more sustainable operations.

KG Motors has suspended reservations for its MiBot EV, according to CleanTechnica.

The company said it will not take customer money until it knows when it can build the car, CleanTechnica reported.

KG Motors had announced that completed vehicle deliveries began in December, followed by a planned April production ramp-up after a tie-up with Idemitsu, according to CleanTechnica.

Fully deployed vehicle-to-grid (V2G) projects involving about 230 electric school buses can now return 8 MWh of power to the grid at any given time, according to the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Electric School Bus Initiative. Electrek reported that the 8 MWh figure is enough electricity to power about 1,600 typical US homes for up to four hours and to shave peak load demand for the utilities they serve.

The Oakland Unified School District runs the state's largest project, a fleet of 74 buses that add an estimated 2.1 GWh of clean energy back into California's grid each year, according to Electrek.

San Francisco Unified School District is set to launch a new project next month with a fleet of 104 buses expected to return about 3 GWh of energy annually during peak hours, according to Electrek. That fleet is scheduled to double to more than 238 electric buses by 2028.

Roughly 6,700 electric school buses are already in service on US roads, Electrek reported.

"It's very early days," said Steve Letendre, senior advisor to the Vehicle Grid Integration Council trade association, adding that school buses will be a critically important backbone of V2G capacity.

Hyundai has begun assembling the Ioniq 5 in Thailand to lower its price and make it more competitive, according to electrive. The locally built model launched at 1.699 million baht, about EUR 44,713.

Local assembly cut the price by 289,000 baht, roughly EUR 7,606 or about 15%, against the imported completely built-up version that had been priced at 1.988 million baht, or about EUR 52,319, electrive reported.

Hyundai is offering the first 400 customers of the locally assembled Ioniq 5 a discount of 300,000 baht, about EUR 7,895, which brings the price down to 1.399 million baht, or about EUR 36,818, according to electrive.

The Thailand Board of Investment approved Hyundai investments worth 1 billion baht for local assembly of EVs and their batteries, electrive reported.

Thailand becomes the Ioniq 5's seventh production site worldwide, joining South Korea, the United States, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.

The Thai-spec Ioniq 5 N Line uses a single rear-mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor rated at 168 kW and 350 Nm of torque, paired with an 84 kWh NMC battery pack, according to electrive. Using a 350 kW DC charger, the car can charge from 10% to 80% state of charge in 18 minutes.

The BRAVE10k consortium, led by telematics specialist INIT, aims to prepare for the integration of more than 10,000 autonomous vehicles in German public transport by 2030, according to electrive.

The three-year project is funded by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and supported by TÜV Rheinland, electrive reported.

Around 20 partners from the transport, industry, research, standardisation, and consulting sectors are collaborating on the effort, according to electrive.

Rather than developing new vehicle technology, BRAVE10k aims to create standardised procedures and digital tools for planning, tendering, approval, and operation of driverless vehicles, electrive reported.

Every place in Ireland's ICE2EV scrappage pilot went inside an hour of opening, with 2,000 applicants claiming grants worth up to EUR 5,000 towards a battery electric vehicle (BEV), according to electrive.

Applicants could add the pilot grant to Ireland's standing EUR 3,500 EV purchase grant, bringing the maximum support on a new EV to EUR 8,500, according to electrive.

Rural households were allocated 65% of the grants, with the remaining 35% set aside for urban applicants, according to electrive.

Funding of EUR 10 million came from the Climate Action Fund, run under the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, according to electrive.

To qualify, an applicant had to have held their vehicle for a minimum of 12 months, and the vehicle needed a registration date no later than 2013, according to electrive.

Transport Minister Darragh O'Brien said the government will review how the pilot performed before deciding its next steps, according to electrive.

A former Wisk Aero employee is suing the Boeing-backed eVTOL startup, claiming she was fired for reporting that the autonomous air taxi's software failed basic aviation software safety testing requirements, according to Electrek.

The lawsuit alleges Wisk's flight software contained known defects and excessive spaghetti code that had not undergone verification steps required under DO-178C, the FAA-recognized certification standard for aviation software, Electrek reported.

According to Electrek, O'Neill filed a formal safety report on March 19 and was fired 12 days later on March 31. Her manager cited an environment that hinders collaboration and program delays.

The complaint frames the firing as retaliation under California Labor Code sections 1102.5 and 6310, per Electrek.

The case is scheduled to come before the Santa Clara County Superior Court for a case management conference on December 2, 2026, according to Electrek.

Fiat's fully electric Topolino quadricycle can now be ordered in the UK for the first time, with pricing starting at GBP 8,995 on the road, according to electrive.

The quadricycle runs on a 6kW electric motor and a 5.5kWh battery, electrive reported. Its top speed is 28mph, and its maximum WLTP range is 46 miles.

Kris Cholmondeley, managing director of FIAT UK, said the Topolino is an important part of FIAT's sustainable micromobility strategy, delivering simple, accessible urban mobility.

The model has been rolling out through a phased launch across mainland Europe since 2023, according to electrive.

Brussels will apply a rotation fee for drivers who leave vehicles connected to public charging points after charging, according to electrive. The rule applies between 09:00 and 22:00 and aims to prevent charging points from being blocked for extended periods.

Data from Sibelga underpins the measure. On average, vehicles remain connected to public charging points for six hours and 30 minutes, while a typical session to top up 18 kWh takes only around two hours and 20 minutes, according to Sibelga.

"Charging stations are not parking spaces," said Brussels State Secretary for Energy Audrey Henry in an interview with The Brussels Times.

Uptake of electric vehicles is driving pressure on the network. According to the regional government, nearly one in four newly registered cars in the Brussels region is now a battery-electric vehicle, and among newly registered fleet vehicles the BEV share has reached 61 per cent.

Ghent already applies a similar charge. There, a fee of 3.60 euros per hour is levied if vehicles remain at public charging points after completing the charging process, according to electrive.

Electrek reported that Tesla has more than 100 steering-wheel-less Cybercab two-seaters sitting in outbound lots at Giga Texas as production accelerates. The output is building faster than the company can either sell the vehicle or run it without a driver.

The first steering-wheel-less unit came off the line in February, and Tesla told investors on its Q1 2026 earnings call in April that continuous production had begun, according to Electrek.

To self-certify the Cybercab against every Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, Tesla built the vehicle so it avoids the NHTSA 2,500-unit annual cap on exemption vehicles, Electrek reported.

On the same call, Musk told investors that safety validation is the limiting factor for Robotaxi expansion, saying Tesla will hold back until a rewritten FSD v15 lands, now targeted for the end of 2026 or early 2027, per Electrek. Musk also conceded Robotaxi "likely will not see material revenue until at least 2027".

Electrek reported that Tesla's supervised fleet has been crashing at roughly four times the rate of an average human driver, with the company filing a series of crash reports to NHTSA in Austin.

An earlier design reversal cuts against the driverless push. Tesla VP of engineering Lars Moravy admitted the company "deleted too much" when it removed the Model 3 turn signal stalk, and Tesla brought the stalk back and now sells a USD 595 retrofit, according to Electrek.

Hidden code in Tesla's newest iOS app release points to a feature using the cabin camera to confirm a driver's identity before Full Self-Driving (FSD) will engage, according to Electrek.

The evidence surfaced in a de-compile of Tesla app version 4.58.5, built June 27, posted by the account @Tesla_App_iOS, which follows new releases of the Tesla and Robotaxi apps.

Electrek identified two code strings, fsdIdentityCheckFailedTitle and showFsdIdentityCheckFailedDialog. They map out a sequence in which the cabin camera runs a driver identity check and, when it fails to match, blocks FSD from engaging and sends an error dialog to the phone.

The camera hardware already handles driver monitoring. Tesla switched on cabin-camera monitoring in 2021 and later widened its scope to track attention, drowsiness, and eye and head position, according to Electrek.

Since FSD v12.4 in 2024, the camera mounted above the rearview mirror has served as the primary monitor, reading a driver's face and eyes for attention instead of leaning on steering-wheel torque.

One hardware constraint limits any identity-check role. The cabin camera is a standard RGB sensor rather than the infrared depth-mapping system Apple uses for Face ID.

Tesla's owner's manual states that attention monitoring shuts off in poor lighting, when the camera is covered, or when a driver wears sunglasses or a hat, according to Electrek.