MyOpinion

Shoppers in need of an adventurous and zero-emission ride have slim pickings. To enjoy off-road credibility and an electric powertrain, they need deep pockets or a big driveway, as the key players in this space include the Ford F-150 Lightning , Chevy Silverado EV , GMC Hummer EV , and the Rivian R1S and R1T . Even the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally is a pricey rally warrior, emphasizing performance rather than off-road confidence.

With a lower price tag and a few noteworthy compromises, this is the space the 2024 Subaru Solterra will hopefully find an audience. It’s cheaper than those other vehicles and a bit more manageable to drive than a large truck or SUV while including a few off-road-oriented features to appeal to the right crowd. However, it has a few limitations that make it difficult to recommend to any EV shopper.

The Subaru Solterra launched in the latter half of 2023 to some stern words from Driving editor Andrew McCredie, who noted the Subaru EV was lacking in a few areas. The most significant criticism from our editor was the way the Solterra charges. Subaru implemented conservative fast charging limitations on its new EV to prevent battery degradation. For 2024, many of these restrictions have been lifted.

The starting price for the 2024 Subaru Solterra is $59,340, while the Luxury Package adds $4,500 ($63,840 MSRP), and the Technology Package adds $7,000 ($66,340 MSRP). The automaker notes that the Solterra is eligible for $5,000 in incentives, but so are many of its competitors.

The current top picks in the segment include the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 , which offer more range and power for a similar price. The Kia EV6 , Mustang Mach-E , Nissan Ariya , Chevrolet Blazer and Tesla Model Y are all worth mentioning as well, alongside the mechanically similar Toyota bZ4X .

Final thoughts about the 2024 Subaru Solterra

Lacking a competitive edge in power, range and recharge times, the Solterra may struggle to find a foothold in this crowded segment, but at least it’s loaded with safety equipment and it’s spacious. The main draw of the 2024 Solterra is that it’s capable off-road and more accessible than some of the other rugged electric trucks and SUVs, providing this electric Subaru with a dedicated but niche fanbase.

Rebadging is just part of the business. When two disparate companies want to share technologies or save costs, they team up to build similar vehicles with different badges, and market each one to their respective audiences. And apart from a few outliers (remember the Aston Martin Cygnet?), modern rebadging usually proves successful for both brands.

The problem with badge engineering though, is that sometimes the two products are too similar. They share virtually everything: Powertrains, technology, dynamics, etc. The only differences are the way they look and the badges on their backsides. With the Prologue, I was worried Honda’s new EV would feel too much like a Chevy—and in many ways, it does. But in this case, that's actually a good thing.

Starting at $48,795 for a base EX model with front-wheel drive, the Prologue isn’t the cheapest option in the segment by a long shot. That honor goes to the Ford Mustang Mach-E at $42,985 (and it has standard rear-wheel drive). For the Prologue Elite, prepare to dish out at least $59,295 before options. The $455 Sonic Gray Pearl brings the as-tested price to $59,750.

That’s a pretty penny to pay for a badge-engineered Honda. Thankfully, GM’s Ultium platform makes the Prologue an excellent proposition thanks to its serene ride, sumptuous cabin, and superb powertrain. And for my money, it looks better than the Blazer.

September saw plugin EVs take 29.4% share of the UK auto market, up from 23.4% year on year. Both BEVs and PHEVs grew volume YoY, by 24% and 32% respectively. Overall auto volume was 275,239 units, up 1% YoY, but still far below pre-2020 seasonal norms (350,000+). Tesla was the leading BEV brand in September.

China is investing in EV factories, battery plants, and all sorts of other transition tech around the world. It is building EV factories and battery plants abroad to retaliate against a tariff push in the West that may prove to be just as counterproductive as sanctions on Russia.

In June, the media reported that European governments were competing for Chinese financial attention. At the EU level, there was increasingly louder talk of import tariffs as the bloc tried to build its own transition supply chain very much from scratch in a bid to protect local industries from cheaper—and superior—Chinese tech. At the national capital level, however, money talked louder.

Hungary is one beneficiary of what the Financial Times reported was a “tsunami” of transition investments across the world. The central European country, which is often at odds with the central EU government in Brussels, hosts two South Korean battery plants and EV giant BYD has picked it for the location of its first European factory. Poland is another beneficiary of Chinese transition investment—China’s Leapmotor and its new joint venture partner, Stellantis, will build an EV factory there.

Meanwhile, BYD is also planning an EV factory in Mexico for the same reasons it is building one in Europe: the tariff push. Naturally, this tactic of setting up local production to beat the tariffs has raised Washington hackles. U.S. politicians are now trying to pressure Mexico into being less hospitable to Chinese investors, as Reuters reported in August. The pressure campaign worked, too, with the Mexican authorities refusing to provide Chinese EV investors with any incentives available to other carmakers. The problem: they could just take their business elsewhere.

Charging an electric vehicle in the future increasingly looks like an experience somewhere between a truck stop and an airport lounge.

Most public chargers sit in parking lots, often three or four machines along the side of a hotel or grocery store. Drivers are exposed to the elements and, unless they need to go shopping, are basically stuck hanging out in their cars while filling their batteries.

But charging companies and automakers increasingly see a need for stations with amenities: restaurants, good bathrooms, comfortable furniture, and canopies that shield from the rain, snow and sun. After all, even the fastest chargers need a half-hour to top off your car so you’d better enjoy the stay. The additional convenience could entice would-be EV drivers to take the plunge, adding fuel to the electric transition.

After breaking ground on the site in October 2022, Hyundai Motor Group’s Metaplant America (HMGMA) in Bryan County, GA, is now open.

Hyundai completed construction in just under two years, fast-tracking production as it looks to gain an edge with US-made electric models.

“After validating its production processes to ensure its vehicles meet Hyundai Motor Group’s high standards, (the Savannah plant) has started initial production of customer vehicles ahead of schedule,” a statement from Hyundai on Friday read (via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

The new facility is a significant milestone for Hyundai and Georgia as the largest economic development project in state history.

Hyundai initially invested $5 billion into the facility, which later grew to a whopping $7.6 billion. Just last week, the plant added its 18th supplier as Hyundai builds an extensive US network. Hyundai alone is creating an additional 8,500 jobs in the area.

General Motors apparently decided the company needed to prove EVs were cool by creating a flagship that goes beyond what any consumer needs. The world got the GMC Hummer EV as both a pickup truck and an SUV.

A showcase for the brand’s Ultium electric vehicle battery and architecture tool set, the GMC Hummer EV provides excess for buyers in every conceivable way.

It has cartoon-like proportions, supercar-like speed, usable range, and a plush ride. But it’s wildly inefficient, weighs more than a heavy-duty pickup, has some software glitches in a vehicle that’s defined by its software, and sports some cheap interior materials despite the extreme price tag.

It’s a rolling contradiction.

Here are the pros and cons of the 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV after spending a week hauling the kids to activities, running errands, and WTFing (Watts To Freedoming, don’t be silly).

Just like America, the 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV is completely over the top. It’s too much of everything and not enough of certain things—like restraint—to make it a fit for mainstream buyers. For the people who buy this electric SUV, it’s a standout in every way, for better, worse, and everything in between.

The Hoosier State is the site of a new electric vehicle battery plant project that keeps getting delayed.

The General Motors-Samsung SDI factory, a $3.5 billion venture, is being built in New Carlisle, Indiana, the Detroit Free Press reported in August. It was first set to begin production in 2025, then 2026, and now 2027.

"The Samsung SDI joint venture is the latest example of GM's commitment to driving innovation in America," GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement, per the Free Press. "The EV market and GM sales will continue to grow as more customers experience our EVs, the charging infrastructure builds out and we expand into more segments."

The saga dates to March 2023, when the companies signed an agreement. GM has other partnerships and plants, including in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan, all per the newspaper. These batteries will be nickel-based.

The plant will create 1,600 jobs, another downgrade — of 100 — from an initial estimate. Construction was expected to employ another 1,000 people, the Free Press reported. Barra previously stated GM will be able to manufacture more than 1 million EVs thanks to its Samsung partnership. It's part of a plan to create a hub of EV technology and manufacturing.

Tesla owners who drive for Uber and Lyft with "Full Self-Driving" enabled operate like gray-market autonomous taxis, as a new report from Reuters details. That's a problem when one of these not-actually-self-driving cars crashes, as Justin Yoon's allegedly did.

Reuters broke the story of Yoon's allegedly car getting in a collision with another car while being operated for a ride-share service. The accident was ruled to be the other vehicle's fault, not Yoon's, but it was Yoon himself who eventually steered to mitigate the impact of the accident. Both Yoon and his passenger sustained minor injuries.

Reuters spoke to 11 other Uber or Lyft drivers who said they used the system while driving for ride-sharing companies. The drivers said they used it to reduce fatigue and stress while driving, allowing them to work more hours and earn more money. I am editorializing here, but I find it far more stressful to monitor an inept robot driver that I'm legally responsible for than I do to drive.

Tesla's inaccurately named "Full Self-Driving" (FSD) system is a fully supervised system, meaning that the driver remains fully responsible for any collisions while the system is engaged. That's an entirely different category of product from true driverless self-driving systems operated by companies like Waymo and Lyft, which face strict regulations and bear responsibility for collisions caused by their products. Tesla says that drivers must pay attention while using FSD and be ready to intervene.

Uber and Lyft both responded to Reuter's report. While neither company seemed to directly support the idea of drivers using Tesla FSD, neither expressed direct disapproval or banned the practice.

Uber told Reuters: "Drivers are expected to maintain an environment that makes riders feel safe; even if driving practices don't violate the law."

Things aren't looking great for Stellantis. Sales for the company's Dodge and Jeep brands in America are cratering, and its overseas brands aren't doing much better. Adding to the bad news, Stellantis announced today it will extend its suspension of production for the all-electric Fiat 500 until November 1 over low demand.

The company originally stopped production of the 500 on September 12, planning to idle the car's Mirafiori, Italy plant for four weeks. Now, that stoppage has been extended by another three weeks.

The decision, Reuters reports, comes alongside a statement given to trade unions claiming the electric car market in Europe is "in deep trouble."

(Fiat never seems to learn they keep creating these cars with such limited range.)

A few days ago, Michael Barnard slammed Jim Farley for being asleep at the wheel during his time as CEO of Ford Motor Company. Michael’s primary complaint about Farley is that he has failed to usher Ford into the electric car era fast enough. He contended that only in the middle of last year did Farley realize the Chinese weren’t just doing cheap knockoffs of US products and buying US brand cars with the proceeds.

“Presumably, it took a year for this to become public because Farley’s sleeping pattern was so disrupted that he couldn’t concentrate. That would explain why electric vehicles were only 1.65% of Ford’s global sales in 2023, and still only a paltry 4.3% in the first half of 2024. Meanwhile, Tesla sold 25 times as many electric cars globally. BYD sold 41 times as many plug-in cars. While those two firms are the highest volume car, SUV, and light truck OEMs in the electric arena, Ford has been outsold by 180 times in this space,” Barnard wrote.

In response, Ford reached out to CleanTechnica to make their case as to why and how Farley had not been asleep on what’s happening in China. Additionally, in response, Zachary Shahan wrote a followup piece arguing that Farley had actually done a pretty good job at grabbing Ford by the scruff of the neck and dragging it forward into the EV future. It has in fact created a separate division within its corporate structure called “Model e” that is dedicated exclusively to the development, manufacture, and sale of electric vehicles. Some readers will recall a time when Elon Musk got his knickers in a knot because Ford had trademarked “Model E,” thus preventing Tesla for using it. That suggests the Model e division was not some Johnny Come Lately afterthought. Somebody within the company had actually been planning for the EV future quite a few years ago.

Just a few days ago, my colleague Tina Casey wrote about a new initiative started by Jim Farley to address the fear of the unknown that keeps many potential EV owners from considering an electric car. Ford wants to solve that by giving customers a free EV charger and assistance from a licensed electrician to install it (in most cases), which seems to indicate Ford really does see the big picture when it comes to marketing electric vehicles.

Ford Doubles Down On Iconic Cars

During a recent interview with the UK’s Car Magazine to introduced the new battery electric Ford Explorer for Europe, Jim Farley’s alter ego made a surprise appearance. He said the company’s marketing plan going forward was to stop building “boring” cars and start selling “iconic” EVs, off-road trucks, SUVs, and crossovers, as well as more muscle cars. “We’re getting out of the boring car business and into the iconic vehicle business,” he said in the interview.

This isn’t the first time Ford has slashed its lineup to focus on a small number of the most profitable — and expensive — models. Ford stopped selling the Fusion in the US in 2020. The Focus is set to be discontinued next year. The Fiesta was killed off in 2023; the Flex in 2019. The C-Max left the stage in 2018 and 2019 for the regular and hybrid models, respectively. The last Taurus rolled off the factory floor in 2019.

What all of these models had in common was that they were priced lower than Ford’s other offerings but still high for their market segments. Ford is no stranger to cutting its most affordable, least profitable models. It seems yet again the company is angling away from its roots as the name that brought automobiles to the masses to focus instead on catering to wealthier clientele.

Kia officially launched the 2025 Ray EV in Korea with the same low starting price of under $21,000. However, the new model year gains additional features. With incentives, the entry-level electric car can be bought for as little as $15,000 (20 million won).

The “New Kia Ray” was reborn as an entry-level EV last year. After opening pre-orders last August, starting at around $20,500 (27.35 million won), the Kia Ray EV secured over 6,000 reservations in less than a month.