Honda Prologue details, Kia EV9 price, 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 price $2,500 a 12 months so drivers can take eyes off the highway and fingers off the wheel—beneath 40 mph?

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

In a first look at the 2024 Honda Prologue, Inexperienced Automotive Stories 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 doubtless haven’t any concern 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 may give EV drivers “single-app access” 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. 

2024 Kia EV9

The 2024 Kia EV9 will start around $56,000, Kia confirmed on Wednesday. That’s for the EV9 Mild, 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 12 months, with U.S. manufacturing beginning in 2024, and Inexperienced Automotive Stories lately provided up a first-drive review of the Kia EV9.

The 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid will get a brand new Nightshade Version this mannequin 12 months, and with no mechanical modifications it’s more likely to stick to its attractive mixture of all-wheel drive, an EPA mixed 42 mpg, and a price ticket beginning below $30,000. 

2024 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid

Mercedes-Benz will quickly begin delivering a choose variety of U.S. EQS electric hatchbacks with Drive Pilot, the corporate’s help system that lets drivers take their eyes off the highway and fingers 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 price $2,500 a 12 months to make use of.

On Monday, Nissan made an enormous assertion. It revealed a fully electric sporty hot-hatch concept 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 automobiles 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. 

Nissan Idea 20-23

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

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

2024 Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid

There are actually 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 course 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 construction of its LFP EV battery plant in Michigan, which simply earlier this 12 months it pointed to as a key step towards EV profitability and affordability. Whereas Ford hasn’t made totally clear why it’s doing so now, it’s arduous to think about this isn’t related to President Biden’s go to to a UAW rally this morning. 

Ford LFP product introductions

Whereas the long run 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 placement in Quebec was allegedly chosen for its uncooked supplies, renewable vitality, 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 charge much quicker, however to downsize EV battery packs and its automobiles’ carbon footprint. StoreDot says that it is going to be delivering the primary samples for testing by the Swedish automaker subsequent 12 months. 

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

Mercedes-Benz AMG EQE sedan at Tesla Supercharger station

And which upcoming EV brands are switching to the Tesla NACS charge port? Inexperienced Automotive Stories 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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