EVs
Electric vehicles are having a shaky trip so far. Tesla, the biggest name within the space, has substantially cut its workforce as demand slows and the Cybertruck’s launch stalls. And it’s not alone: Newer companies like Faraday Future and Rivian are struggling to establish themselves, and established automakers like GM and Toyota face challenges meeting sales targets for their EVs. TechCrunch deeply covers the space, from the vehicles hitting the roads to the turbulence at EV makers like Fisker.
Fisker is just a few days into its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the fight over its assets is already charged, with one lawyer claiming the startup has been liquidating assets…
Fisker was facing “potential financial distress” as early as last August, according to a new filing in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, which the EV startup initiated earlier this week.…
Fisker failed because it wasn’t ready to be a car company
Two years ago, an employee at Fisker Inc. told me that the most pressing concern inside the EV startup was not whether its Ocean SUV would get built. Fisker was…
Fisker Group Inc., the EV startup founded by famed designer Henrik Fisker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection — a capstone to months of problems with its Ocean SUV that included…
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Rivian overhauled the R1S and R1T to entice new buyers ahead of cheaper R2 launch
Rivian has changed 600 parts on its R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck in a bid to drive down manufacturing costs, while improving performance of its flagship vehicles. The end goal, which will play out over the coming year, is an existential one. Rivian lost about $38,784 on every vehicle…
Swiss startup Neural Concept raises $27M to cut EV design time to 18 months
Neural Concept lets designers model how components will perform before they can be manufactured.
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Inside EV startup Fisker’s collapse: how the company crumbled under its founders’ whims
Update: Fisker has since filed for bankruptcy, after last-ditch efforts to rescue the company failed. An autonomous pod. A solid-state battery-powered sports car. An electric pickup truck. A convertible grand tourer EV with up to 600 miles of range. A “fully connected mobility device” for young urban innovators to be…
Tesla shareholder sweepstakes and EV layoffs hit Lucid and Fisker
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Okay, okay…
Fisker cuts hundreds of workers in bid to keep EV startup alive
Struggling EV startup Fisker has laid off hundreds of employees in a bid to stay alive, as it continues to search for funding, a buyout or prepare for bankruptcy. Workers…
The Cadillac Optiq EV starts at $54,000 and is designed to hook young hipsters
Cadillac may seem a bit too traditional to hang its driving cap on EVs. And yet, that hasn’t stopped the GM brand from rolling out — or at least showing…
Redwood Materials is partnering with Ultium Cells to recycle GM’s EV battery scrap
Redwood Materials, the battery recycling startup founded by former Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, will be recycling production scrap for batteries going into General Motors electric vehicles. The company announced Thursday…
Porsche Ventures invests in battery startup South 8 to boost cold-weather EV performance
All cars suffer when the mercury drops, but electric vehicles suffer more than most as heaters draw more power and batteries charge more slowly as the liquid electrolyte inside thickens.…
Forget EVs: Why Bedrock Materials is targeting gas-powered cars for its first sodium-ion batteries
Bedrock Materials is developing a new type of sodium-ion battery, which promises to be dramatically cheaper than lithium-ion.
Orange Charger thinks a $750 outlet will solve EV charging for apartment dwellers
Charging has long been the Achilles’ heel of electric vehicles. One startup thinks it has a better way for apartment dwelling EV drivers to charge overnight.
Zeekr’s market hype is noteworthy and may indicate that investors see value in the high-quality, low-price offerings of Chinese automakers.
Fisker stiffed the engineering firm developing its low-cost EV and pickup truck, lawsuit claims
Henrik Fisker stood on a stage last August and proudly debuted two prototypes designed to catapult his eponymous EV startup Fisker into the mainstream. There was the Pear, a low-cost…
Acura’s new all-electric SUV proves the most expensive model isn’t always the best
The first electric vehicle I ever drove was a Tesla Roadster in 2011. I will never forget the feeling of the instant torque provided by the electric motor, propelling me…
EV startup Fisker Inc. is laying off more employees to “preserve cash,” one week after warning investors it would have to make cuts to stave off impending bankruptcy, according to…
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The all-electric Mercedes G-Class ratchets up the tech and off-road capability
The Mercedes-Benz G-Class — the rugged off-road powerhouse that launched in 1979 and has since become a brutalist status symbol — has gone electric. This is, in many ways, Mercedes’ most prestigious car, a model more prized for its presence and exclusivity than its power and capability. Going electric, then,…
Tesla’s new growth plan is centered around mysterious cheaper models
Tesla’s been undergoing some major changes, and now we have a sense of why: The company says it is upending its product roadmap because of “pressure” on EV sales. The…
Tesla profits drop 55%, company says EV sales ‘under pressure’ from hybrids
Tesla profits fell 55% to $1.13 billion in the first quarter from the same year-ago period as a protracted EV price-cutting strategy and “several unforeseen challenges” cut into the automaker’s bottom…
Tesla execs Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel leave as company lays off 10%
Two high-profile executives have departed Tesla the same day that the electric automaker laid off thousands of workers, TechCrunch has confirmed. Drew Baglino, Tesla’s SVP of Powertrain and Energy, and…
Voltpost wants to bring curbside EV charging to a lamppost near you
The New York City-based startup has been working on a product that retrofits existing street lampposts to enable EV charging.
Two internal whistleblowers at Faraday Future claim the troubled EV company has been lying about some of the few sales it has announced to date. They also claim founder Jia…
Given flagging sales of the company’s existing product line, a mass-market electric vehicle would be a welcome shot in the arm.
Lucid Motors ekes out a new delivery record as it searches for more EV buyers
Lucid Motors delivered more EVs in the first quarter of 2024 than it has in any other quarter, though it set the record by a very slim margin. The Saudi-backed,…
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TechCrunch Mobility: Apple layoffs, an EV price reckoning and another Tesla robotaxi promise
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Automakers reported auto sales for Q1 and, welp, turns out that pricing sure does…
Just hours after Elon Musk claimed Reuters was “lying” about Tesla’s plans to ditch its $25,000 low-cost EV and instead focus all its efforts on a robotaxi, the Tesla CEO…
Tesla is reportedly abandoning its plan to build a lower-cost EV, thought to be priced around $25,000, according to Reuters, despite that vehicle’s status as a pivotal product for the…
Tesla slashes Model Y inventory prices by as much as $7,000
Tesla is dropping prices of unsold Model Y SUVs in the U.S. by thousands of dollars in an attempt to clear out an unprecedented backlog of inventory. Many long-range and…