Tuesday, 14 July 2026

Four battery-electric container trucks have entered service at the Port of Vancouver, with the rest of the fleet due to arrive by year-end, the port authority confirmed to electrive.

Five freight operators are running the vehicles on active container routes into the port: Aheer Transportation Group, Lally Bros Holding, Simard Transport, Trans BC Freightways and West Coast Freight, according to electrive.

Delivery of the pilot brings together the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, Transport Canada, the Province of British Columbia, BC Hydro and fleet technology partner 7Gen, according to electrive.

Transport Canada, the province and the port authority together account for an estimated CAD 3 million in support, the port authority said, with further funding drawn from BC Hydro's EV Fleet Program.

Each operator takes a subsidised five-year truck lease. The package also covers charging infrastructure, driver training, maintenance help and access to a shared platform tracking vehicle and energy performance, according to electrive.

Over the first 12 months of each truck's service, the program will gather operational data and pass it to industry and government partners studying wider use of battery-electric container trucks, the port authority said, according to electrive.

A shipment of 18 Lotus Eletre EVs will be the first Chinese-built electric vehicles from a Chinese-owned brand to go on sale in Canada, under an import agreement that permits up to 49,000 Chinese EVs each year at reduced tariff rates, according to Electrek.

Electrek reports the arrangement was set up by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Chinese President Xi Jinping. In exchange for lower tariffs on Chinese EVs, Canada is seeking a reduction in China's current 100% import duty on Canadian canola oil and its 25% duty on pork, according to Electrek.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi indicated that Canada could supply nearly 22 million metric tons of crude oil to China annually, up from nearly 15.5 million tons last year, according to Electrek.

Reuters reports that tariff relief on Canadian products including canola meal, peas, and lobster, currently set to expire at the end of this year, is also on the table, according to Electrek.

The 2026 Lotus Eletre delivers 905 electric horsepower and a WLTP range of 304 miles from a 112 kWh battery, according to Electrek.

GM has recalled 15,000 Cadillac Vistiq eSUVs across the US and stopped shipping new units after finding that a folding third-row seatback can pin a passenger in place, according to electrive.

The campaign reaches 13,629 units built in the 2026 model year plus 911 from the 2027 model year, electrive reported, and GM estimates the defect is present in every one of them.

The filing describes a power seatback that, once the fold feature is triggered, may not reverse if it meets a person, according to electrive citing the NHTSA filing. Electrive reported the risk is higher for a child.

GM's own testing showed the mechanism kept folding with a box weighing 33 to 40 pounds on the seat, coming to rest in a spot where the box could not be freed unless the seatback was reversed by hand, according to electrive.

Six further incidents or complaints have been logged as possibly linked to the fault, and none caused injury, electrive reported.

The problem surfaced on March 31, 2026, when a GM engineer filed a report through the company's Speak Up For Safety program after examining how the third-row power seatback folds, according to electrive.

Owners will hear from GM beginning August 3 and be told to bring their vehicles to dealers, who will switch off the third-row folding function until replacement parts and a new seat module can be fitted, electrive reported.

CATL unveiled the Tectrans II Superfast Charging Edition battery for light commercial vehicles, offering an 8C peak charging capability that takes a cell from 20 to 80 per cent charge in six minutes and 48 seconds, according to electrive. The manufacturer describes it as the first battery in its class to reach that charge rate.

A full charge is expected to take eight minutes and 56 seconds, electrive reported.

CATL covers the battery with a warranty of up to ten years or one million kilometres, according to electrive.

The manufacturer said it cut the internal resistance of the cells by 50 per cent compared with the industry average.

Cold performance holds up under the design, according to electrive. At minus 20 degrees Celsius, charging time rises by only two and a half minutes against normal conditions.

CATL also pointed to its third generation Shenxing battery for passenger cars, which the manufacturer said charges from 10 to 80 per cent in three minutes and 44 seconds.

At the beginning of July, CATL reported 2,000 Choco battery-swapping stations serving passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, according to electrive.

Voltpost is partnering with EV charging services company InCharge Energy to deploy more of its lamppost and utility pole EV chargers across the US, beginning with New York, Connecticut, and California, according to Electrek.

The partnership is built to speed up installations of Voltpost's Level 2 chargers while adding ongoing maintenance and monitoring as the network grows, Electrek reported.

Voltpost's system retrofits existing lampposts and utility poles rather than requiring entirely new charging installations, according to Electrek.

Under the agreement, InCharge Energy becomes Voltpost's preferred installation and service partner, with certified field teams handling charger installation and ongoing maintenance and giving site hosts a single point of contact throughout the life of each charger, Electrek reported.

The partnership also covers Voltpost Care, the company's network monitoring platform, which is powered by InCharge's InControl charge management software, according to Electrek.

AVL and CEER have signed a letter of intent to work together on new electric vehicles and to build up an automotive supply base in Saudi Arabia, according to electrive.

The two firms will span the full engineering chain, from vehicle development and high-voltage system integration through to homologation, simulation, and validation testing, electrive reported.

CEER plans to reveal its first production models by the end of 2026, CEO James DeLuca said, according to electrive.

CEER was set up in 2022 by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and contract manufacturer Foxconn, electrive reported. Its cars will draw on Foxtron platforms and will be built in Saudi Arabia.

The carmaker has separately agreed to work with FEV on a local automotive and supplier base, and with Rimac on electric powertrain supply, according to electrive.

McMurtry Automotive has unveiled the final production version of its electric single-seater race car, the Spéirling PURE, according to electrive.

Electrive reported that around 95% of the components in the production version were redeveloped compared to the company's previous prototype record-breaking vehicles.

The lithium-ion battery has been upgraded from 60kWh to 100kWh in the production version, according to electrive. On the racetrack, a single charge should last for 40 to 50km at the pace of an LMP2 racing car.

The new Helix electric motors are expected to deliver around 745kW in parallel, equivalent to 1,014 hp, electrive reported. The car accelerates from 0 to 60mph in 1.55 seconds and reaches a top speed of 305km/h.

According to electrive, the patented fan system generates downforce of up to 2,000kg regardless of speed.

First customer deliveries are expected to begin in 2026, with a base price of EUR 1.15 million plus taxes, according to electrive.

The electric vehicle charging joint venture between Iberdrola and BP Pulse is migrating to the Driivz software platform to run its roughly 2,500 fast and ultra-fast charging stations in Spain and Portugal, according to electrive.

The two companies said they chose the Driivz platform's architecture and energy management solution to set a technical base for later work on vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and smart charging, according to electrive.

Federico Artes, Technology and Operations Director of the Iberdrola-BP joint venture for the Iberian Peninsula, described the migration as a strategic decision to build the operation on foundations that allow the venture to grow, innovate and deliver the reliability the Iberian market deserves, electrive reported.

Shiri Levi-Laor, CEO of Driivz, said the selection reflects where the EV charging industry is heading, and that networks of this complexity, spanning multiple markets, vendors and customer segments, require a platform built around data and operational intelligence, according to electrive.

Driivz will give the joint venture an integrated analytics layer covering its entire network, along with real-time transparency and insights into availability, uptime, hardware performance and charging behaviour, according to electrive.

WeaveGrid is collaborating with GM Energy to support access to utility programs across the country, according to Power Magazine. WeaveGrid is a grid-edge orchestration software provider for electric utilities.

The collaboration is designed to help eligible Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac EV drivers participate in utility programs, Power Magazine reported.

The effort is aligned with General Motors' vehicle-to-grid (V2G) efforts, according to Power Magazine.

The 2026 Fiat Topolino is on sale in the US in limited quantities through select Fiat dealers, starting at $13,995 before a $990 destination fee, according to Electrek.

The mini EV runs on a 5.4 kWh lithium-ion battery paired with an 8 hp electric motor, Electrek reported. The Topolino covers up to 46 miles on a single charge. A full recharge using a 240V outlet takes around four hours.

The car currently reaches up to 19 mph, according to Electrek. Owners can raise the top speed to 25 mph with a low-speed vehicle conversion kit that makes it street legal. Electrek reported the conversion kit will be available by the end of summer or fall 2026 at no extra charge.

"Topolino represents a new chapter for the brand in the US," Fiat brand CEO Olivier Francois said.

Fiat sold just 1,321 vehicles in the US last year, according to Electrek. That is down from nearly 44,000 in 2012, the brand's first full year of sales.