All posts tagged: ev charging

Ford’s 2,200-HP electric Mustang runs 6.87-sec quarter mile, smashes EV record

Ford’s 2,200-HP electric Mustang runs 6.87-sec quarter mile, smashes EV record

Published by skeptic

Ford Racing’s new Mustang Cobra Jet 2200 just became the quickest electric car on the planet, running a 6.87-second quarter mile at 221 mph at the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte this weekend. The run demolished Ford’s own previous EV record — a 7.623-second pass set by the Cobra Jet 1800 in September 2024 — by a massive 0.75 seconds, a staggering improvement in a sport measured in thousandths. A clean-sheet design, not an evolution The Cobra Jet 2200 is not a tweaked version of the previous Cobra Jet 1800 that Ford used to chase records and wheelies. It’s a ground-up redesign that fundamentally rethinks how to deliver electric power down a drag strip. The headline number is 2,200 horsepower from two custom-built electric motors paired with inverters exceeding 98% efficiency. Each motor/inverter pair delivers roughly 1,200 horsepower. But the real story is that these motors weigh roughly half as much as the previous generation while producing an additional 600 horsepower — a massive leap in power density. Advertisement – scroll for more content Ford’s …

AITO joins BMW, Mercedes-Benz charging JV in China as equal partner

AITO joins BMW, Mercedes-Benz charging JV in China as equal partner

Published by skeptic

SERES Group’s Huawei-powered AITO brand is joining IONCHI, the premium charging joint venture between BMW and Mercedes-Benz in China, as an equal 33.3% shareholder. The deal restructures what was a 50:50 German partnership into a three-way collaboration with one of China’s fastest-growing luxury EV brands. The move signals a significant shift in China’s EV charging landscape, where German and Chinese automakers are now directly collaborating on premium infrastructure rather than competing on separate networks. The IONCHI joint venture was originally formed by BMW and Mercedes-Benz in late 2023 as a 50:50 partnership between Mercedes-Benz Group China and BMW Brilliance Automotive. The goal was ambitious: build at least 1,000 high-power charging stations with approximately 7,000 charging points across 100 Chinese cities by the end of 2026. Progress has been steady but faces a significant ramp. By December 2025, IONCHI had connected around 430 fast-charging stations with 2,408 charging points across 37 cities. That means the network needs to more than double its station count and nearly triple its charging points in 2026 to hit the original …

Tesla owner uses emergency solar to trickle charge after running out of battery in desert

Tesla owner uses emergency solar to trickle charge after running out of battery in desert

Published by skeptic

Screenshot A YouTuber driving a Tesla Model X the entire length of the Americas ran out of battery in Chile’s Atacama Desert — the driest place on Earth — and had to deploy emergency solar panels on the side of the highway to survive. The whole ordeal, captured on video, is a fascinating look at both the promise and the very real challenges of long-distance EV travel in regions where charging infrastructure remains sparse. Overlanding the Americas in a Tesla Model X Sandro van Kuijck, an Oregon-based creator who runs the YouTube channel EverydaySandro, has spent the past three years driving his Tesla Model X — nicknamed “Beluga” — from the northern terminus of the Pan-American Highway in Tuktoyuktuk, Canada, toward the southern tip in Ushuaia, Argentina. Chile marked country number 14 on his solo expedition. Beluga is no ordinary Model X. Van Kuijck converted the electric SUV into a full-time overlanding rig with a custom slide-out kitchen, induction cooktop, running water, a refrigerator, and a sleeping setup — all while keeping the exterior mostly …

BYD’s Fastest-Charging Car in the World Is Astonishing—in Good and Bad Ways

BYD’s Fastest-Charging Car in the World Is Astonishing—in Good and Bad Ways

Published by skeptic

The Denza Z9 GT is the world’s fastest car—fastest at charging, that is. It’s by no means slow in speed (we’ll get to that), and it is packed to the brim with bleeding-edge tech (we’ll get to that, too). But, trust me here, it’s the formidable charging tech BYD has brought to bear here that should get you hot under the collar. Many auto brands claim charging times that are, shall we say, massaged. Not so with the Denza Z9 GT. I sat in the car and personally watched it go from 10 percent to full in just over 9 minutes. It makes all other EVs look like they are standing still in this department, and the Z9 GT heralds a new age of electric cars that will confound gas faithfuls whose primary argument has always been that you can’t fill EVs quickly. Denza is BYD’s “premium” EV brand, here to bother the likes of Porsche and Polestar, and the Z9 GT is its opening salvo in Europe, intended to scare the hell out of …

TSLA stock slides, Supercharger prices, and who’s REALLY behind Elon’s big chip fab

TSLA stock slides, Supercharger prices, and who’s REALLY behind Elon’s big chip fab

Published by skeptic

On today’s Tesla-tastic episode of Quick Charge, a TSLA bear thinks the stock is headed for a 60% slide before the year is out, Tesla launches a Supercharger configurator, and we find out what’s really going on at Elon’s proposed chip fab. We also take a look at the NHTSA investigation into 159 incidents involving Tesla’s Actually Smart Summon (ASS) parking feature, and ask whether or not the Supercharger wholesale model will be able to stand up to increasing pressure from other EVSE manufacturers. Source Links Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage podcast series. Advertisement – scroll for more content Got news? Let us know!Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in …

I drive for work, but charge at home – how do I track costs?

I drive for work, but charge at home – how do I track costs?

Published by skeptic

EV enthusiasts and evangelists are always ready to answer their friends’ questions about going electric. Sometimes, they even get it right! In this series, we’re taking a look at some next-level EV questions that don’t always have easy answers, starting with: I drive my EV for work, but charge at home — how do I track charging costs? Tracking fuel costs for work vehicles is easy enough. In most cases, you can just submit your gas station receipts for reimbursement, but when you drive an EV for work and charge at home, things get a little murkier. Suddenly, you’re trying to separate what it costs to charge your car from what it costs to keep the lights on, and your utility doesn’t make that much easier. If that sounds like something you’re dealing with, here are three solid ways to track your electric vehicle’s charging costs, and get properly reimbursed. Option 1: get a smart charger Chevy Silverado with home battery; via GM Energy. Modern “smart” chargers with 5G or WiFi connections can monitor precisely …

How BYD Got EV Chargers to Work Almost as Fast as Gas Pumps

How BYD Got EV Chargers to Work Almost as Fast as Gas Pumps

Published by skeptic

Somehow, the whole thing got even faster. Earlier this month, Chinese automaker BYD announced that its Flash Chargers, first rolled out a year ago, can now charge some electric vehicle batteries from around 10 to 70 percent in five minutes, and from 10 to full in about nine. That’s more than 600 miles of range in the time it takes to order a cappuccino and leave a nice tip. The new BYD chargers can add miles super quickly because they deliver up to 1,500 kilowatts (kW) per charge. Compare that to the 350 kW “hyper-fast” chargers seen more typically in the US, which can top up 80 percent of a battery in 15 to 25 minutes, and the full thing in closer to 40. BYD’s move brings the charging experience closer to the auto industry’s holy grail: comparable to what drivers expect when they fill up their gas tanks. Survey after survey finds that potential EV buyers are worried about range and charging; speeding things up might go some way toward alleviating fears and getting …

New EV fee proposals charge owners 2-3x what gas drivers pay in federal tax

New EV fee proposals charge owners 2-3x what gas drivers pay in federal tax

Published by skeptic

A growing number of states and federal lawmakers are pushing flat annual fees of $200 to $250 on electric vehicles, amounts that charge EV owners two to three times more than what the average gas car driver pays in federal fuel tax. The proposals are being framed as a way to fund road infrastructure, but the math doesn’t add up. At a time when EVs represent roughly 10% of new car sales in the US and deliver billions in health, environmental, and energy security benefits, these blanket fees are a punitive approach that discourages adoption rather than fairly distributing road costs. The math: EV owners would overpay The federal gas tax has been stuck at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993. Based on the average American driving 11,484 miles per year at 22.3 mpg, a typical gas car driver pays roughly $95 per year in federal gas tax. That’s it. Yet the proposed federal EV fee, introduced by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO), would hit EV owners with $200 per year, …

Where do you charge your wheel loader? Try the Circle K!

Where do you charge your wheel loader? Try the Circle K!

Published by skeptic

As more and more job sites make moves to electrify their heavy equipment assets, there have been more and more questions from those on the outside looking in about how and where those big machines get charged up – which is why I absolutely love this picture of an electric wheel loader charging up at Circle K! Volvo Construction Equipment (CE) segment leader Gustav Bomberg took to LinkedIn recently with some absolutely fantastic pictures of the company’s L90 Electric wheel loader plugged into a 400 kW DC fast charger outside of a Circle K on a snowy morning. “It was fun to watch people’s reactions when a wheel loader was charging outside McDonald’s,” he writes. “We charged it there, too.” Volvo first announced the new L90 Electric wheel loader at last summer’s Volvo Days event, with dedicated electric motors for propulsion and hydraulics, enabling full available power to both systems with a faster response and shorter warm up times than conventional ICE loaders. Advertisement – scroll for more content The Volvo L90 Electric wheel loader features …

The Righteous EV Owners Who Won’t Let Their Broken Cars Die

The Righteous EV Owners Who Won’t Let Their Broken Cars Die

Published by skeptic

On an October evening in 2024, a gardener named Svein Hodne was driving home from vacation on a wind-buffeted coastal road in southwest Norway when his electric car began behaving strangely. Yellow and red warnings lit up its display. An alarm went off. The car lost power. Hodne barely managed to turn off the road and into a bus stop, right next to a graveyard and a church, before the car came to a stop. He was alone. His phone battery running low, Hodne quickly found a tow service online and called. He was told it would be about an hour wait. He went outside to stretch his legs, but it was dark, rainy, and in the mid-forties; he got back inside the car and closed the door behind him. Then everything went black. The car’s screens and lights turned off. The heater and fan died. Most disconcerting, he heard the car doors lock shut. The windows wouldn’t budge. As the glass started fogging up with condensation, he panicked. “What if I run out of …