Elon Musk’s EV pickup fantasy is not the truck the market’s looking for — I’m a Tesla fan. I’ve never owned one of Elon Musk’s EV sedans, but I have test-driven an early Model 3, been driven hundreds of miles in a Model S, crawled around a Tesla Semi, and even had a few 0-to-60 in 3.4- second experiences in a P85 d Model…

On July 20, Elon Musk announced to a Tesla owner who had tweeted about the car-maker’s pioneering Supercharger that his company planned to open its network of charging stations to vehicles of other brands at some point in 2021, and to do so progressively around the world. Goldman Sachs says…

Just as with “student driver” signs, pedestrians should know when an AI is at the wheel — When you’re a student driver, you’re a little dangerous behind the wheel. You don’t quite know how to control the vehicle. Society has a vested interest in helping you learn to drive. So that means letting you take the wheel on city streets. Risky, but over the years, US states…

Not so fast for EVs, LFP’s comeback, tinkering with lithium sulfur — Each Wednesday, The Mobilist highlights reader articles on Medium, comments, and updates. About that fait accompli: Across the world of electric vehicles and batteries, the accepted wisdom is that Americans — and motorists everywhere — are on the cusp of a big switch. En mass, they are about to discard…

In a much-overlooked shift, Ford, VW and Tesla have rushed to an old chemistry — Last week, Ford CEO Jim Farley made a big splash with his plans to go digital, mine data, and leverage connectivity. Ford was going to “lead the electric revolution” with an “ion boost” and reduce its battery costs by 40% by the middle of the decade, with more to come…

Volkswagen’s looks, Tesla’s quality problems, Elon Musk on SNL — Each Wednesday, The Mobilist highlights reader articles on Medium, comments, and updates. A mandate for style: Last week, I wrote about a week’s test drive of Volkswagen’s electric crossover SUV ID.4. The car is mechanically outstanding. Physically, it is meh. Why are this vehicle’s looks so important given the industry’s…

The Tesla CEO made it even harder for rivals to sell their electric cars — With his aw-shucks, confessional, good-sport, loves-his-mom, boyishly eager-to-please star turn on Saturday Night Live, Tesla’s Elon Musk did what the CEOs of Volkswagen, Ford, GM and everyone else in the electric vehicle race know they cannot: yuk it up as an equal alongside pop culture celebrities, and then hog the…