A lot of EVs aren’t that fun to drive, built as they are to glide around a highway like a swan on a river. Sure, like the swan’s manic paddling, there’s a lot of hardware and software sweating in the background to maintain that serenity. But the feeling can be so soporific that you wind up lusting for the day full autonomy comes and puts us out of our misery.

Except, of course, if you’re driving a new Lotus.

You see, when you’re driving an electric Lotus, there’s a sense of cognitive whiplash you don’t often get these days. EVs are quick and have plenty of torque thanks to their electric motors but they rarely have anything close to a personality. But even when you’re driving its new two-plus ton SUV, you’re capable of zooming around a race track as if you were driving a go-kart. It’s this unity of electric smarts and old-school drivability that Lotus hopes will return the perpetually beleaguered manufacturer to its former glory.

Lotus

Lotus Cars

If you’re not a car person, I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing Lotus was a big name in manufacturing and F1 – emphasis on was – responsible for many innovations that shaped how we build, drive and race cars today. “We talk about [having] this pioneering and rebellious spirit,” says Mike Johnstone, Lotus’ new VP of Commercial Operations. For the last 75 years, Lotus has been a left-field car manufacturer, with customers who want something that is “not necessarily part of the status quo.”

Lotus is a company defined by, and proud of, its idiosyncrasies. It’s idiosyncratically based in rural Norfolk, a hundred miles or more from the rest of the UK’s automotive industry. It’s idiosyncratic co-founder Colin Chapman (pictured, above), whose famous mantra was “simplify, then add lightness.” It’s idiosyncratic technical innovations, like monocoque bodies, ground-effect aerodynamics and the early use of carbon fiber. Its cars' idiosyncratic obsession with perfect handling and speed rather than creature comforts.

It would be impolite to mention the idiosyncratic financial relationship between Chapman and John DeLorean that would lead to the latter’s undoing.

It was this idiosyncratic reputation that made it a draw for pop culture figures who wanted to stand out from the crowd. Patrick McGoohan chose a Lotus Seven to be The Prisoner’s car in 1996 because it showed a “touch of the rebel.” The Avengers’ Mrs. Peel drove a Lotus Elan, while James Bond drove a Lotus Esprit underwater in The Spy Who Loved Me and a Turbo Esprit in For Your Eyes Only. And Richard Gere drove a Lotus Esprit in Pretty Woman because Porsche and Ferrari, who were asked first, objected to the film’s subject matter. I doubt Lotus has ever uttered the phrase “brand safety” with a sincere face.

Since Chapman’s death in the early ‘80s, Lotus has become a byword for stagnation, passed from one corporate parent to another. Its model line suffered: It sold the Elise from 1996 until 2021, while the Exige was in production from 2000 to 2021. Its newest car pre-Geely was the Evora, and its 12-year lifespan made it the youngest and freshest ride in the range. All three were discontinued in 2021 when the Emira made its debut as the company’s last gas-powered car.

Lotus remained alive because of its small but passionate fanbase, which happened to include a number of automotive executives. But while demand for its own cars waned, the rest of the industry continued to rely on its expertise in making cars drive well. Lotus’ fingerprints are visible in so many high-profile cars, from the DeLorean DMC12, Aston Martin DB9 and even Sinclair’s C5. More importantly, the first Tesla roadster was developed on Lotus’ platform, with the first run of cars built at its Hethel, England base.

In 2017, Geely — the Chinese EV giant that owns Volvo and Polestar — bought a 51 percent stake in the company. It’s spent the last few years and a considerable amount of cash to push the company into the 21st century. The existing gas-powered product line was cleared out, the HQ revamped and a new electric-only facility built in China. I was able to visit the company’s Hethel plant to see the fruits of this investment, and also to try all of the new vehicles. The headline-grabbing model, of course, is the Evija, the company’s $3 million all-electric hypercar.

The Evija

Lotus Cars

Emeya, Eletre, Emira, Evija, Evora, Exige, Elise, Elan, Esprit: It’s tradition, or something, that all Lotuses have incomprehensible faux-Latin names beginning with an E. The Evija will, hopefully, lodge itself in your memory as the company’s hypercar, of which only 130 will be built. One of the first is owned by former Formula One world champion Jenson Button with a Brawn GP paint job in honor of his 2009 win.

Lotus opted to put a lot of hardware in the middle of the car behind the two seats to retain that mid-engined weight distribution. The body is a single piece of carbon fiber, and it’s obvious to all that this is a race car first, with Lamborghini-esque styling. To save weight, there’s little sound dampening, so you can hear the roar of the gear, and the road, as you slice through the air. Put your foot down and you’ll hear the power unit spin up to push juice to those four wheel-mounted 500W motors.

What comes out the other side is eye-bleeding acceleration and enough g-force that you feel your lunch shift from one side of your stomach to the other. Yes, other EVs can go quickly, and some accelerate ludicrously fast, but the Evija is playing in different water. For car people, Lotus has always been synonymous with fast-twitch driving dynamics and slightly lackluster reliability. But the Evija feels mature, solid, stable and able to harness all of the pure grunt that only an electric motor can provide.

I’d go further and say that the Evija is terrifying, especially when Karl Eaton, one of the minds behind the vehicle, took me around the track in one. He waited until the car reached 201 miles per hour to start explaining all of the smart choices embodied in its design. I didn’t recall much of what he said at the time since I was trying to keep all the fluids in my body.

The Eletre and Emeya

Lotus Cars

Of course, the Evija is the standard bearer for Lotus as a luxury EV maker that stands out from the crowd. It’s not likely you’ll have a few million lying around, but its existence will make you aware of the relatively more reasonably-priced options in its lineup. The Eletre is the first real Lotus EV, priced around $100,000 and again, something of a departure from the norm. Whereas Lotus prides itself on making zippy, mid-engined sports cars, this is a two-and-change ton SUV that just happens to be as capable on a race track as its E-named predecessors.

On my first few laps around the track, I drove the Eletre like a high-sided SUV, which is to say, gently. After all, I didn’t want to flip this thing over when I’d need to save three years worth of paychecks just for a chance to look at the sales brochure. My co-pilot kept urging me to go harder, and eventually I did, realizing that Lotus has done something amazing. It’s a car that you can fling around a track and feel like you’re Lewis Hamilton, and then drive it home without missing a beat.

Lotus Cars

The Eletre is already on sale, but we won’t need to wait a decade to see what follow-up Lotus has planned. Next on the docket is the Emeya, a luxury hyper-grand tourer based on the same platform as the Eletre. You can see the shared design language and the emphasis on active aerodynamics in the body to help the cars zoom around the corners. There are gaps and vents all around the body to help push air past the cabin and keep all four wheels planted on the road.

As for the interiors, Lotus is a company that has traditionally avoided fripperies like comfort and ease of use. These, after all, aren’t conducive to Chapman’s mantra of simplifying and adding lightness. But the Eletre and Emeya have gloriously un-Chapmanesque cabins full of luxurious materials and physical dials and switches more reminiscent of a high-end camera. When you look at the price and see that the luxurious excesses of this cost the same as a Tesla Model X, you feel as though the incumbents need to get a lot better quickly.

The Spirit of Lotus

Lotus Cars

You could argue that Lotus is just a badge under which Geely can slap components it’s using elsewhere. But Mike Johnstone said the parent company has no interest in diluting what makes Lotus Lotus. “More than 99 percent of all of our development is done ourselves,” said Johnstone, “where we benefit [from being owned by Geely] is access to a supply chain.”

Much has been made about what Lotus’ role in the automotive firmament should be in the new world of electric vehicles. Colin Chapman’s famous principles were to simplify and add lightness so aren’t bulky EVs, shorn of their gas-powered engines, an insult to his memory? Thankfully, I only needed to cross the road that runs alongside Lotus’ Hethel HQ to ask an expert: Chapman’s son, Clive (pictured, left). Clive is the head of Classic Team Lotus, a heritage brand that keeps the company’s former gas-powered F1 cars working. Despite the shared name and proximity, there’s no financial relationship between Lotus and the Classic Team.

Clive showed me around the facility, which maintains those classic F1 cars and races them at heritage events, like the Historic Grand Prix at Monaco. If you’re a one-percenter with an old Lotus, you can also send it here to be restored by specialists. On the upper floor, there’s a collection of classic Lotuses of every stripe. It’s a rare and beautiful sight to see. I asked Clive how his father would feel about the shift to electric. “Dad was never sentimental,” said the younger Chapman, and directed me to a pristine Lotus 56 in the collection. He explained that his father was never wedded to one technology or philosophy, despite what some Lotus fans may claim. The Lotus 56, after all, was equipped with a gas turbine engine more commonly seen in aircraft than vehicles, but Colin Chapman was very interested in the speed advantage it could have offered.

It seems that what mattered to Colin Chapman then is the same as what matters to Lotus now: Pushing automotive design forward, no matter how unusual the method. Before I tried any of Lotus’ EVs on its test track, I tried the (gas-powered) Emira and used that as my benchmark. My expectation was that the subsequent cars would all pale somehow in comparison to the last “true” Lotus to be made at Hethel. And yet, the new cars, despite their batteries and electric motors, are just as lithe and energetic as ever. This, I suspect, is why Lotus has a good chance of making a mark in the new world, because it remains enough of that uncompromising spirit to stand out from the crowd and make sure that, for those who need it, you can still feel connected to your car.

Like many premium electric rides, Cowboy's e-bikes make short commutes easier, especially those involving hills or a lot of stop-start traffic. Its latest bike is an attempt to address another challenge: comfort. The Cowboy Cross is the company’s first “all-road” model, with thicker, bigger tires, seat suspension, inverted fork suspension and a substantially bigger battery for more extended trips—or simply fewer trips to the charger.

It’s a substantially different offering from Cowboy, which previously aimed its products at European cities with established cycling communities and infrastructure. With the Cross, the addition of a rear rack fused to the frame and an expanded range of 120km (in ideal conditions) both mean it’s designed for more involved trips beyond a simple jaunt around your neighborhood.

With that larger battery and suspension, the Cross ST weighs 26.5kg – over 58 pounds – more than the company’s Cruiser and C4 models, while the standard Cross is even heavier at 27.9kg. It’s a substantial e-bike. Once again, you can choose between step-over and step-through frames, and the Cross will launch in three colors: dark green, dark brown and black. All of them have an almost-satin finish, and the company has changed up the paint it uses to make it more resistant to scratches and grazes.

Image by Mat Smith / Engadget

Compared to its predecessor, the Cross is far better equipped for curbs and random road bumps, resulting in a much smoother ride that I immediately felt during a brief test ride in central London. The e-bike launched up curbs, instead of the bounce and shudder I usually get on other e-bikes. It’s a single-gear bike, again, with a carbon belt drive system and the suspension is split between inverted fork suspension on the front wheel and seat suspension, both with 40mm of travel.

It’s easy to forget, due to the assistance you get pedaling, but e-bikes can be heavy – almost always heavier than their manual counterparts. So suspension makes a lot of sense when you’re riding something that weighs in at well above 20 kilograms. The ride, otherwise, was very similar to the Cowboy C4 I’d ridden before. Adaptive power is also on-board, ensuring the bike controls are simple and comparable to a standard bike. You just squeeze the brakes, and the bike will handle acceleration and thrust.

Cowboy couldn’t help tinkering with its companion app, and these bikes will launch with new social aspects for your rides, adding league tables between groups of riders and incentives to pump those pedals using your legs. (Excuse me, Cowboy, but I ride e-bikes in order to do that less). Fortunately, the onboard phone holder doubles as a wireless charger too.

While I love the Cross, I’m unsure about the in-app mini-games. Madly pedaling to reach your app goals in a place like London, where you might miss a junction, cyclist or runaway baby stroller if you blink, simply doesn’t seem wise. Cowboy says it’s still working on ways to gamify your trips in a way that’s fun and not, well, so dangerous.

Image by Mat Smith / Engadget

Adding suspension and a bigger battery cell, however, also contribute to the price. The Cross will be available at an early-bird price of £3,099 (just shy of $4,000) for a limited time, and will eventually go up to £3,499 (almost $4,500). In mainland Europe, it’ll cost at 3,500 Euros at launch and will increase to 4,000 Euros. You can order one now and the bikes will start shipping near the end of May or in early June 2024.

There are no US prices though, because the Cross won’t be headed to the US for now. The company says it’s continuing to focus on the European market, as it – getting all TechCrunch on you here – chases profitability. For some business context, rival premium e-bike maker VanMoof declared bankruptcy in 2023. However, the company still plans to roll out its rides to the US. But only when it’s ready.

Rivian owners can now use Tesla Supercharger stations to juice up their electric trucks and SUVs, after a software update issued during the weekend. The company first announced the integration last year, along with plans to include Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports in forthcoming vehicles. These ports won’t start showing up until 2025, so Rivian has also started a program to send Tesla-made NACS adapters to current customers.

The adapters will be free of charge, which calls to mind the move Ford made last month as it continues to transition to the NACS charging standard. Rivian will send out one free adapter per customer, based on the vehicle’s VIN number. The company hasn’t announced whether this is a limited time offering or how much additional adapters will cost. As a comparison, Ford will begin charging $230 for these adapters in July.

Rivian owners can select Tesla Superchargers as a charging option via the vehicle’s infotainment system or the manufacturer’s smartphone app. Everything is handled by Rivian, so there’s no need to download or use the Tesla app to pay for charging. Rivian’s chief software officer, Wassym Bensaid, told The Verge that this will give customers access to over 15,000 more DC fast chargers across the country.

The move to incorporate NACS charging into its vehicles will not impact Rivian’s proprietary network. The company still plans on installing thousands of DC fast chargers at hundreds of locations throughout the next few years, as part of its growing Adventure Network.

Tesla’s charging standard is widely considered to be the best available option for EV owners, as these chargers are known to be more reliable than CCS and CHAdeMO chargers. Tesla’s standard is also more readily available, with more than 55,000 Supercharger stations worldwide.

It wasn’t so long ago that Tesla’s Supercharger network was exclusive to the company’s vehicles. Those days are gone. Just about every major automobile manufacturer has announced plans to join the NACS party, including Subaru, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota and Lexus, among many others.

As for Rivian, the company says customers can access most V3 Tesla Superchargers using the adapter, but only some V2 chargers. The just-announced Rivian R2, R3 and R3X vehicles will all come with factory-installed NACS ports.

Following Hertz's disastrous misadventure with EVs, CEO Stephen Scherr is stepping down, Bloomberg reported. He'll be replaced by the former COO of GM's robotaxi Cruise division, Gil West, who will also join the board of directors. 

A year after emerging from bankruptcy in 2020, Hertz said it would transform its car rental business by purchasing 100,000 Tesla EVs. "The new Hertz is going to lead the way as a mobility company, starting with the largest EV rental fleet in North America," the company said at the time. The announcement helped send Tesla's value soaring to a $1 trillion valuation. 

Scherr joined Hertz after that decision was made, but increased Hertz's bet on EVs by placing orders with Polestar and GM as well. The company didn't purchase many EVs from those automakers, but by the end, it had around 60,000 from the three automakers. 

Things went sideways after that, though. Tesla drastically cut prices of its Model 3 and Model Y EVs, scorching resale values. In addition, Hertz said that Tesla's vehicles were expensive to repair and unpopular with renters. 

As a result, the company started unloading 20,000 EVs, about a third of its electrified fleet. That resulted in a $245 million charge for Hertz and its largest quarterly loss since the pandemic. Other rental car firms have also recently ditched EVs, with Germany's Sixt doing away with its entire fleet. 

West, meanwhile, was one of nine Cruise executives dismissed following an incident that saw a pedestrian dragged by a Cruise vehicle after being struck by another car. Authorities accused the company of withholding a video that allegedly showed the victim underneath its vehicle.

Rivian’s R2 reservations are off to a hot start. On Friday, CEO RJ Scaringe posted on X that the automaker had taken more than 68,000 reservations for the SUV in less than 24 hours. Amid alarmingly weakened demand for electric vehicles, perhaps there’s a latent interest in innovative EV companies when they aren’t helmed by a conflict magnet with a fixation on baseless conspiracy theories and the supposed online “rights” of Neo-Nazis.

Rivian’s 68,000 reservations hold up well against its most high-profile competitors. It took Ford about three weeks to get 100,000 pre-orders for the F-150 Lightning. Tesla’s Cybertruck got 250,000 reservations in less than a week. To be fair, reserving a Rivian R2 only requires a $100 deposit the same as the Cybertruck and F-150 Lightning.Customers plunking down a Benjamin to hold one have no obligation to pay the remaining $44,900 (and up) when the vehicle finally arrives in 2026, and even if they intend to buy one now, that’s plenty of time to change their minds.

You could argue that — like with Tesla and Ford — Rivian chose the low deposit to build hype, knowing full well that many pre-order customers won’t follow through. But it also helps that Rivian’s event on Thursday did everything the company needed. The R2 looks “quite fetching,” as Engadget’s Lawrence Bonk pointed out. On the inside, it has sleek and subtle details like two glove boxes, fold-down rear and front seats, a slide-out cargo floor and dual scroll wheels with dynamic haptic feedback on the steering wheel. It also has a 300-mile minimum range and a $45,000 starting price, which doesn't hurt.

And, of course, the surprise “One more thing”-style reveal of the cheaper, sportier and more compact R3 and R3X could help provide a halo effect for the company when it desperately needs to build excitement around its brand. In February, Rivian announced that it would lay off 10 percent of its salaried workers, and this week, it cut 100 employees at its Illinois factory. Still, the EV market could use a new “hero.” I have no idea if Rivian or its CEO, RJ Scaringe, has potential to be the face of the industry. But Elon Musk, its current poster boy, is a lightning rod for unnecessary turmoil.

In a survey of Americans conducted by The Harris Poll late last year, 45 percent of respondents said they had a lower opinion of EVs “because of the actions of people associated with them.” (I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean Ford’s Doug Field or GM’s Mary Barra.)

Perhaps Rivian’s impressive showing reveals at least some Americans have an appetite for an EV maker that’s neither a traditional auto company nor one helmed by someone who, at times, seems more interested in behaving like a teenage contrarian than a responsible adult serving as the public face of an industry the world desperately needs to grow up — and get people excited about driving electric vehicles — as climate change begins to ravage the planet.

Rivian officially revealed the R2 electric SUV during a livestream held Thursday afternoon. We knew the followup to the well-regarded R1 was coming, and we even got some leaked specs earlier this week, but now we’ve heard it from the electric horse’s mouth. The company also surprised view R3 and R3X, however, came as a complete surprise, harkening back to Steve Jobs and his famous "one more thing" conference enders. 

As previously suspected, the R2 is a compact SUV that looks quite fetching. All versions of the five-seat electric vehicle get at least 300 miles per charge, thanks to newly-designed 4695 cell and a much larger battery pack that makes up a large portion of the bottom floor. Owners will also get plenty of refueling options. It comes with a NACS chargeport, so it'll work with Tesla Superchargers. 

The R2 has plenty of get up and go, with three motor layouts to choose from. There's a standard single-motor rear-wheel drive model, a dual-motor all-wheel model with motors in both the front and back and the beastly tri-motor version, which features two motors in back and one in front. That last model can go from zero to 60 in three seconds, though the metric likely shrinks when considering the other two versions. 

There’s a robust infotainment center up front, though the layout of these digital elements are subject to change as we get closer to launch. Also up front? The R2 sports two gloveboxes, whereas the R1 line lacked even one. There's also two scroll wheels on the steering wheel, complete with dynamic haptic feedback. The car's self-driving features have gotten a major boost here, thanks to 11 cameras throughout and five radars, including a long-range front-facing radar. 

Prices start at $45,000 for the standard single-motor version, which is in line with what company CFO Claire McDonough has been promising. Though slightly smaller than the R1, the R2 is still pretty roomy. As previously stated, it fits five people and boasts an open-air design with quarter windows that pop out and a rear glass window that drops and opens. Seats on both rows fold flat, so owners should be able to transport longer-than-average gear like surfboards. 

Now, the bad news. Despite today’s reveal, the Rivian R2 isn’t slated for release until 2026. Additionally, Rivan itself has been experiencing some issues. The company announced back in February that it would be laying off 10 percent of its salaried employees and job cuts have already started. The EV maker laid off around 100 employees at its Normal, IL factory this week.

The consumer electronics industry has changed radically over the past two decades. AR/VR devices have come and gone and come again, smartphones have grown from filling our pockets to dominating our lives, and the tendrils of connected services now touch everything we touch.

Yet, for me, the most exciting to watch has been the development of technology that moves us. I mean that literally: cars and scooters and e-bikes and all the other wild and wonderful modes of transportation that have grown wings or wheels over the past few decades.

A love for all that stuff has always been at my core. Many moons ago, before my time as editor-in-chief of this site, I served as automotive editor. In the late 2000s, that mainly meant pondering what was happening in the world of Ford Sync or writing about flying car concepts that, today, are still very decidedly grounded.

An excellent perk was getting to drive many early EVs, though it didn’t always end well. In 2012, I made an aborted attempt to get from Portland to Seattle for an emissions-free Engadget Show episode. The poor Mitsubishi i-MiEV we’d borrowed wasn’t up to the task.

But then along came the Tesla Model S. At the time, I knew it would be significant. Everyone in the industry knew it would be significant, but it’s only in looking back more than a decade later that we can truly appreciate just how significant it was. In the rear view mirror, we can also see what a shame it is Tesla has barely moved the needle since.

A preview in Fremont

In the (long) lead-up to that car’s eventual late-2012 release, Tesla invited me out to a supposed grand reopening of its Fremont factory. The place was unbelievably massive and virtually empty. Tesla officials were proud to show off the numerous giant presses that would stamp out Model S components.

Other Tesla employees were dutifully feeding into those presses metal sheets, which came out the other end as flat as they went in. The presses were there and they were a-pressing, but the dies that formed the parts were absent. This event, like the many Tesla events to come, was somewhat lacking in substance.

Still, the time I spent chatting with Peter Rawlinson had a huge impact on me. Formerly of Lotus and Jaguar, Rawlinson was the chief engineer at Tesla at the time. He and I talked for ages about the advantages of low-slung battery packs and the torque behavior of electric motors. It’s all standard stuff these days, but back then, it was a fantastic opportunity for me to learn. (You can enjoy some of his insight in a series of videos here.)

Early Tesla EVs had two-speed transmissions. I asked Rawlinson whether there was a third gear for handling reverse.

“No,” he said. “We just spin the motor backward.”

That seems like such a simple concept now, but that moment caused a small-yield explosion between my ears. I spent the remainder of the day pondering the myriad other unforeseen implications of this switch to electrification. Nothing else happening in the industry was nearly as exciting as this.

My review

I got a quick go in a Model S at that Fremont event, a lap or two around Tesla’s test track, but I’d have to wait until early 2013 before I could take one for my first proper review of the Model S. It was a Performance edition, with an 85kWh battery pack and a $101,600 sticker price.

I picked it up in New York City and drove it home to Albany, NY. Along the way, I got a preview of what would become another unfortunate Tesla theme: an uncomfortable relationship with the media.

Before I’d made it far, I got a warning light on the dash. I called Tesla PR to ask what to do.

“Oh, don’t worry, we’re watching you,” they said. “It’s fine.”

I didn’t feel fine. I’ve been reviewing devices for decades, and I always assume some degree of logging is involved, but this seemed a little more ominous.

(Over the years, it only got more so. In a later review of a Model 3, I complained the auto high-beams were terrible on country roads. Tesla PR asked me when this occurred so their engineers could pull up the footage from my drive.)

Warning light extinguished, Big Brother now visible in the back seat, I got back to enjoying the car. After having reviewed the Tesla Roadster two years before, a beautiful mess of a slapped-together machine, the Model S was something entirely different. It was calm, it was composed and it wasn’t nearly so drafty. I made the 165-mile drive home with 23 percent to spare, this in January on a 24-degree day.

That is pretty poor by today’s standards, but remember, the most common EV of the day was the Nissan Leaf. In 2013, the Leaf’s range was EPA rated at 75 miles. The Model S was on another level.

But it wasn’t perfect. I was not a fan of many of the interior materials and design choices in 2013, and I would have been so disappointed to know things really haven’t improved since.

I also found the handling underwhelming, but my biggest complaint was the lack of advanced driver assistance systems. That Model S didn’t even have adaptive cruise. Autopilot was still years away, and the ongoing debacle of Full Self Driving much further afield.

And yet I still gave it a glowing review, and it deserved it. I was suitably impressed, as were plenty of others. I recently spoke with several buyers of these early sedans, and most were totally enamored with their cars, despite many teething issues. (So many broken door handles...)

However, it probably goes without saying that many of the folks I spoke with are less enamored of Tesla’s CEO than they were back then. Between that, the racially abusive work environments, and the constant anti-worker behavior, cheering for Tesla is a lot more complicated than it used to be. That is a true shame.

The evolving landscape

The seismic forces generated when the Model S dropped still echo through the industry. You can feel them in virtually every premium EV on the market today.

And yet it’s in those other EVs that the bulk of EV innovation is happening. If you look at what Peter Rawlinson did with the Lucid Air, a sedan that goes over 500 miles on a charge, it’s easy to imagine what could have been had he not parted ways with Tesla. The on-road performance of the Porsche Taycan, the off-road prowess of the Rivian R1T and the minimalist cool of the Volvo EX30 are raising the bar.

Tesla has been more successful than any other manufacturer at getting more EVs into more driveways and at getting more chargers into more places. Tesla made EVs viable and desirable. You have to respect it for that. Lately, though, the company’s greatest achievements have all focused on cutting costs and minimizing complexity, often at the expense of quality and, indeed, safety.

Look at today’s Model S and you still see the car that was released in 2012. It’s quicker and has more range, sure, but it is the same platform and basic design I reviewed over a decade ago. Pondering the time wasted on vanity projects, like the Model X, and vaporware, like the new Roadster, it’s hard to not feel the ache of missed potential.

To celebrate Engadget's 20th anniversary, we're taking a look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.

Mini has promised to go all electric by 2030, a date that seemed pretty far off back in 2021 but right now is starting to sound not that far off at all. While the company's prior battery-powered efforts have been great, it's going to take something more serious and more practical to convert the masses to the wonders of electrification.

That something might just be the 2025 Mini Countryman. While Mini will offer this car with a gasoline-burning engine if you're feeling traditional, the star of the lineup will be the new, $45,200, all-electric Countryman SE. With 313 horsepower and 363 pound-feet of torque, it's quick, and with way more cargo space, it's practical too.

But how does it drive? That's what we headed to Portugal to find out, and while the extra volume and weight of the new Countryman does come with some compromises, it's an engaging SUV to drive with a fantastic interior that's just a few software updates away from perfection. Full the full preview, watch the video up top.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has given Waymo permission to expand its robotaxi operations to Los Angeles and more locations in the San Francisco Peninsula despite opposition from local groups and government agencies. "Waymo may begin fared driverless passenger service operations in the specified areas of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula, effective today," the regulator wrote in its decision (PDF). As CNBC notes, Waymo has been testing its driverless vehicles in those locations for a while now, but this decision will allow it to charge passengers for their robotaxi rides. 

In the CPUC's decision, it admitted that it received letters of protests regarding Waymo's expansion from the City of South San Francisco, the County of San Mateo, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance. And, it received those letters before the agency suspended Waymo's expansion efforts in February for up to 120 days following the Alphabet-owned company's revelation that it had issued a recall for its vehicles. Waymo reported back then that two of its robotaxis collided with a backwards-facing pickup truck that was being towed in December 2023 because its software predicted the truck's movements incorrectly. The company had to develop and deploy a fix to its fleet. 

LA Mayor Karen Bass previously sent a letter to the CPUC (PDF), stating her concerns about the regulator's decision to allow autonomous vehicles to operate in her city. "To date, local jurisdictions like Los Angeles have had little to no input in AV deployment and are already seeing significant harm and disruption," she wrote. David Canepa, vice president for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, also said in a statement regarding this recent development: "I'm confused and a bit suspicious that the CPUC took only 11 days to change its mind on the suspension. I find this to be egregious and disingenuous. We have had no talks to address our concerns and it says to me that neither Waymo nor the CPUC care about local concerns the public safety of our residents."

Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina, however, assures the public in a statement to Wired that the company will take an "incremental approach" when it comes to deploying the service in LA. It also has "no immediate plans" to expand its service in San Francisco. In addition, she said Waymo will continue to "work closely with city officials, local communities, and [its] partners." Ilina has also noted that while the CPUC did get letters of protest, it also received letters of support for Waymo's expansion from 81 organizations and individuals. They include letters from various groups for the elderly and people with disabilities, local community councils, as well as transportation advocates.

Fisker has announced its future plans alongside preliminary 2023 and Q4 earnings, and it's not looking great for the EV manufacturer. The company plans to lay off 15 percent of its workforce — nearly 200 people — as it shifts from a direct-to-consumer to a Dealer Partner model. The company is halting all investments in upcoming models and will resume only if in partnership with another automaker.

The company's fourth-quarter revenue increased to $200.1 million from $128.3 million in Q3. However, its gross margin was negative 35 percent, and it lost $1.23 per share. Its sole EV on the market, the Ocean SUV, also had 10,193 units produced but 4,929 vehicles delivered.

The automaker first introduced its pivot to a Dealer Partner Model in January and claims it has received interest from 250 dealers across North America and Europe, along with 13 signed agreements. "We are aware that the industry has entered a turbulent, and unpredictable period," Henrik Fisker, chairman and CEO of Fisker, said in a statement. "With that understanding and taking the lessons learned from 2023, we have put a plan in place to streamline the company as we prepare for another difficult year. We have adjusted our outlook for 2024 to be much more conservative than in 2023." The company plans to deliver between 20,000 and 22,000 Ocean models across the world. 

Fisker is currently negotiating with "a large automaker" for an investment and joint production of future EVs. This means that previously announced vehicle production, such as the Alaska EV pickup with humungous cup holders and a designated cowboy hat space, will be on hold indefinitely. Fisker originally planned to start production on the Alaska EV pickup in early 2025.