DoorDash's investment in Also aims to develop and accelerate the deployment of autonomous delivery at scale, focusing on areas not yet fully solved for, including intersections of roadways and bike lanes.
General Motors just made life a little easier for the owners of its electric cars. That's because over 5,000 Electrify America DC fast chargers in the United States have been integrated into the car company's own smartphone apps. In other words, Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac EV owners can use the native myChevrolet, myGMC or myCadillac app instead to find chargers, initiate charging and pay for the top-up.
Ford is preparing to launch its Universal Electric Vehicle platform, its next-gen EV architecture. The first model on the platform will be a mid-size electric truck with a starting price around $30,000. It'll have a 400-volt battery, a 48-volt power system, a true software-defined architecture and an LFP battery. Ford needs an electric-vehicle reset. Its attempt to own the EV truck market, the original Ford F-150 Lighting, ended in that model's cancellation amid concerns over its high price, poor towing performance and chronic unprofitability.
On Thursday, CEO Jim Farley gave a brief update on the project's progress on social media. That included a bit more on how exactly the company plans to radically simplify manufacturing and reduce the number of parts needed to build a car. More On Ford's 'Skunkworks' EV Project "Ford will use large unicastings for the first time on the Universal EV Platform," he said. "The radically simplified aluminum unicastings condense over 146 parts into two, and enable the assembly tree method at the Louisville Assembly Plant." Ford has mentioned the use of large castings before. But the specifics of condensing well over 100 parts into two seem to be new.
General Motors has one of the broadest electric-vehicle lineups in the United States, spanning everything from compact crossovers to full-size trucks. But the manufacturer is already preparing the next stage of its EV evolution, and some changes will even appear on the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ. GM plans to roll out next-generation software with that model, which is also expected to be the first to feature lidar for more advanced autonomous driving capabilities and conversational AI.
Stellantis quietly debuted the production version of the delayed RAM 1500 REV extended-range electric pickup. The original version of the truck, called the Ram 1500 Ramcharger, was unveiled in 2023. The now-renamed Ram 1500 REV is expected to go into production in the second half of the year as a 2027 model. The range-extended version of the Ram 1500 electric pickup is real, despite it being unveiled back in 2023 and seemingly continually delayed.
Reengineering the Bolt for a new battery pack wasn't the work of a minute. The cells, modules, and electronics are all different but had to fit in the same size space with the same mounting points as the original. And GM's own LFP factory won't be producing cells until sometime next year. Which means for now, GM is importing LPF cells from CATL in China, paying costly tariffs in the process.
