Seagulls have a nasty reputation for swooping in and stealing your lunch, and BYD’s Seagull has its eyes on Western carmakers’ slice of the budget EV market pie. Renamed the Dolphin Surf for its launch in Europe, the sub-Dolphin-sized electric city car is nowhere near as cheap as it is in China, where it costs around $10,000, but it’s well priced, well equipped and is sure to cause the likes of Fiat and Citroen a major headache.

The 3,990 mm (157.1 inches) Dolphin Surf is on sale in Germany now priced at €22,990-30,990 ($26,100-35,100), but a launch promotion drops the entry price to €19,990 ($22,700) until June 30, putting it well below the €23,300 ($26,400) starting price of a Citroen e-C3.

More: BYD’s SUV Rips Off Genesis So Hard You’ll Do A Double Take

Even at the discounted price, the BYD is more expensive than Dacia’s base Spring, which starts at €16,900 ($19,200), but you pay a price for saving on the price. The Romanian car is much slower and much stingier on the gadget count, not even featuring a screen and taking 19.1 seconds to reach 62 mph (100 km/h).

All three Dolphin Surf trims – Active, Boost, Comfort – get a 10.1-inch touchscreen and heated and electrically adjustable mirrors. Step up to the €26,990 ($30,600) Comfort and you add rain-sensing wipers, bigger (16-inch) wheels and a power driver’s seat. Top-spec Comfort goes two steps further, bringing a 360-degree camera system, wireless phone charging, heated seats, LED lights and electrically folding mirrors.

Powertrain and Range

Power, range and charging speeds vary between those trims. The Active and Boost get an 87 hp (88 PS / 65 kW) motor, but the cheaper car has a tiny 30 kW LFP battery and slow 65 kW max charge rate. Boost features a 43.2 kW power pack and can charge at 85 kW (both take 30 mins to go from 30-80 percent), but because the Active is lighter it gets to 62 mph in 11.1 seconds instead of 12.1 seconds.

Comfort sticks with the same BYD Blade battery and charge speed as the mid-spec Boost, but pairs it with a 154 hp (156 PS / 115 kW) motor that drops the 62 mph sprint to 9.1 seconds. It also drops the range, but by exactly how much isn’t very clear.

Also: Dacia’s Practically Giving Away The Spring EV At €79 A Month With No Downpayment

BYD is only quoting WLTP urban figures for now rather than the WLTP combined figures that are more useful when making comparisons with other EVs, though UK’s Auto Express reckons the three models return 137, 200 and 193 miles (221, 322, 311 km) combined.

The first cars will be shipped from China, but eventually BYD will build the Dolphin Surf at its new plant in Hungary. Europe’s carmakers, including Stellantis and VW are all working on even more affordable EVs, and looking at what BYD is offering here, they can’t afford to get it wrong.

BYD

Tesla’s engineers have been busy at the Nurburgring recently, and it’s not just the Model Y Performance getting a facelift. The updated version of the Model S Plaid was spotted, making a few laps around the track, with a fresh look that, frankly, doesn’t seem all that groundbreaking.

The Plaid was once the quickest electric production car at the ’Ring, but it’s had its thunder stolen recently by both the Weissach Pack-equipped Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, and Xiaomi’s new SU7 Ultra. There’s no way Tesla was going to take that lying down, and it’s testing an updated Plaid that’s sure to get a big upgrade over the existing car’s 1,006 hp (1,020 PS / 750 kW) triple-motor powertrain.

Related: New Tesla Model Y Performance Breaks Cover, Plaid Wheels And All

The black sedan was spotted putting in some hot laps wearing a bikini camouflage wrap on its nose and tail, though the changes appear to be so minor it was almost a waste of time covering them up. Because if you were hoping Tesla was finally going to make some major visual changes to its ancient sedan, something along the lines of the Model Y Juniper facelift, as imagined in renderings we’ve published before, you’re going to be disappointed.

Minor Updates, Bigger Expectations

Photos Baldauf / Carscoops

The sole change at the front appears to be a tiny lower lip spoiler mounted below the existing bumper. The headlights, DRLs graphic and bumper itself are seemingly identical to the ones on the current car. That means this new Plaid has the same basic face introduced when Tesla refreshed the original 2013 Model S for 2017, though it did some detail revisions in 2021 to help it fight against Porsche’s newer Taycan.

For the track work, however, it was rolling on a new design of alloy wheels that look like they might be bigger than the stock Plaid rims seen in the images of the car driving to and from the circuit. That could give the Plaid a bigger footprint to improve grip and traction, and to help push the rubber into the road Tesla has added a more aggressive diffuser below the rear bumper.

Tesla’s VP of Engineering, Lars Moravy, pretty much confirmed that Tesla would roll out a refreshed Model S this year, and while we weren’t  expecting an all-new car – though after 13 years, we deserve one – we were hoping for some bigger changes than it looks like Tesla will deliver.

Photos Baldauf / Carscoops

Even today, when most populated areas of the US and Europe provide access to at least some EV charging points, it’s all too easy to succumb to the panic of range anxiety when the remaining charge indicator lights up red. Now imagine you’re trying to explore rural Asia and you’ll understand why one EV owner came up with an unusual method of keeping range anxiety at bay.

Related: Cybertruck’s $16K Range Booster Is Dead And Tesla Isn’t Saying Why

The Chinese Tesla owner, who wanted to visit the Mount Everest viewing platform in Lazi County before road-tripping through uninhabited areas of Tibet, decided to turn his fully-electric Model Y into a kind of range-extender hybrid.

A Gasoline-Powered Back-Up Plan

To do it he mounted a gasoline generator to the rear of his SUV, complete with its own license plate to stay within the bounds of the law. The idea wasn’t to rely solely on the ICE power station and to avoid real static EV charging stations, but to help keep the Tesla going in remote areas where those chargers were few and far between.

While hardly capable of cranking out DC fast charging levels of power, the owner found it was still able to produce 3 kW even at the 17,400 ft (5,300 m) of the Everest viewing platform. That was enough to add 12 miles (19 km) of range per hour, though as Car News China points out, it’s not a true range extender because it can’t charge the Model Y on the move,

The owner, who’s known as @Xiaomo, reportedly paid ¥2,800 ($390) for the generator, which swallowed around 22 US cents’ worth of gas for every mile (1.6 km) covered. That makes running on gas more expensive than running on electricity piped in from a cheap mains supply in China, but it’s certainly preferable to finding yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere with a dead EV.

Tesla doesn’t seem interested in offering range extenders for its cars, but we’ve come across plenty more owners who’ve had the same idea, including one who added a turbo-diesel engine to the trunk of his Model S.

Images: @Xiaomo

It’s no secret that Western brands are having a tough time in China after making bank for years. Sales are falling as buyers turn to domestic brands that are gaining ground fast and in some instances overtaking legacy automakers. BMW and Mercedes were comprehensively outsold in 2024 by a brand that didn’t even exist four years earlier.

Also: Aito Gets 70,000 Pre-Orders For New M8 EREV

That brand is Aito, one that you might not have heard of even if you’re familiar with other Chinese automaker like XPeng, Xiaomi and Nio that we frequently cover here at Carscoops. Aito was born in 2021 when smartphone maker Huawei teamed up with Seres Group, a company once known for its basic mini trucks and minivans whose twin kidney grilles were shameless rip-offs of BMW’s.

Two brands, one with no high-end car-building expertise and the other completely new to to car game? It doesn’t sound like the basis for a company that could crush the kings of Western luxury carmaking within a few short years, but that’s exactly what has happened. Seres Group’s total vehicle sales trebled in three years to 427,000 according to figures quoted by Bloomberg, and Aito’s success was a major driver.

Aito’s Breakthrough Year

Atio sold 151,000 luxury cars last year – defined as vehicles costing over ¥500,000 ($69k) – making it the most popular brand in the luxury segment. BMW came second with 145,000 units and Mercedes was a distant third having delivered 127,000 cars. Fourth-placed Land Rover scraped 50,000 sales and Porsche, whose China woes are well known, secured fifth spot with 48,0000 units delivered, ThinkerCar’s data shows.

Because most of Aito’s models fall below the ¥500k luxury threshold, the heavy lifting at the high end was handled by the brand’s M9, an SUV that’s roughly the same size as China’s long-wheelbase BMW X5 and comes with a triple-screen dashboard and a choice of range-extender and full EV powertrains.

Seres 5 Review: Can A Chinese Newcomer Beat Tesla And BMW In The EV Game?

Aito isn’t slowing down. The company launched a slightly smaller version of the M9 this year called the M8, which is just 40 mm (1.6 in) shorter, and it’s set to continue cranking up the heat on Western luxury brands in 2025. However, even Aito has to contend with a general slowdown in luxury car demand and an all-out price war. Still, it’s clear that the brand’s rapid ascent is far from a fluke.

GM’s interest in hydrogen fuel cell technology may seem like a recent endeavor following their work with Honda, but the American automaker has been tinkering with the stuff since the 1960s. While NASA was busy figuring out how fuel cells could help them conquer the space race, GM was busy figuring out how to make hydrogen work on Earth.

Related: GM’s Electrovair Is The Precursor To The Company’s Electric Future

Batteries of the time didn’t have the beans to power the Apollo command module’s communications, drinking water, lighting, and air conditioning systems, so NASA turned to fuel cells, which turn hydrogen into electricity.

And at the same time, GM, having already created two purely battery-powered EVs in the form of a pair of converted Corvairs, Electrovair I and II, was looking to explore the possibilities for hydrogen power back on Earth.

A Fuel Cell System Too Big for the Job

The fuel cell it created with the help of Union Carbide was so massive there was no way it was going to fit into a Corvair, so GM switched to the Handi-Bus, a passenger version of its Handi-Van and a VW Type 2 bus and Ford E-series rival. Even then, the powertrain’s bulk turned the van into a two-seater.

The system, which combines hydrogen and oxygen in an electrochemical reaction that produces water, heat, and electricity, wasn’t only big due its large hydrogen and oxygen tanks, but heavy, too. A total curb weight of 7,100 lbs (3,220 kg) makes most modern EVs – GMC Hummer EV aside – look like lightweights, and 3,900 lbs (1,770 kg) of that was down to the fuel cell equipment.

Predictably, performance was abysmal, zero to 60 mph (96 km/h) taking around 30 seconds, though to to fair ,a stock Handi-Bus with the base 90 hp (91 PS) 2.5-liter four was no fireball either. GM reckoned the range was around 150 miles (240 km) but never tested that on the public road due to safety concerns that turned out to be well-founded. During one test an external fuel tank exploded, shooting debris a quarter mile (400 m) away.

A Test Project, Not a Production Vehicle

This was a true test-bed project and GM never intended to put the Electrovan into production. But it showed that a fuel-cell vehicle could work and paved the way for more efficient, more compact successors that get their oxygen from the air rather than from space-eating tanks of compressed oxygen.

Almost 60 years later, GM is still committed to both BEV and fuel-cell technology, particularly believing that its Hydrotec fuel cell cubes makes more sense in big commercial vehicles like Komatus’s mining trucks than batteries, which are better suited to lighter passenger cars, trucks and SUVs.

Subaru was slow out of the blocks when it came to adding EVs to its lineup, but now it’s wondering whether to even bother trying to catch up to rivals. The automaker revealed this week it was “re-evaluating” its electrification strategy amid a turbulent and uncertain time for the auto industry.

Also: Subaru Trailseeker Is Faster Than A WRX But No One Knows If It’s A Wagon Or SUV

Look at Subaru’s US website and you’ll find just one EV: the recently facelifted Solterra. A second, the Outback-sized Trailseeker that made its debut at last month’s New York Auto Show, is scheduled to be added to the range for 2026. But we’re unlikely to see many more EVs join it any time soon.

Tariffs and Tax Credits: The Great Unknowns

Aside from a general concern about a slowdown in the rate of EV takeup, Subaru, like every other automaker, is hamstrung by a lack of clarity from the US regarding its long term position on both import tariffs and EV tax credits. Nobody knows what the tariff situation will look like six or 12 months from now or whether tax credits will be scrapped or not.

Subaru estimates Trump’s tariffs could cost it $2.5 billion this year because, although the company does have a plant in Indiana, it only builds around half of the 700,000+ cars the brand sells in the US each year, Auto News reports. The remainder have to be imported, an d while Subaru could theoretically push the US plant’s current 345,000-unit annual capacity to 500,000, its supplier base can’t handle more than 370,000 units without a major upgrade.

Overseas Production and Shifting Plans

That means the Trailseeker will probably have to be built overseas, Auto News suggesting production will take place north of Tokyo. Subaru also had planned to create a new EV-only plant, but is rethinking that strategy, too. It now says it might have to add combustion vehicles into the mix at the new site.

Subaru execs made the admissions while announcing the company’s fiscal year financial results that revealed operating profit had dipped 13 percent to $2.7 billion. Global sales dropped 4.1 percent to 936,000 vehicles and North American deliveries slid 4.1 percent to 732,000 vehicles, though sales in Japan did climb 5.4 percent to 104,000.

Mazda’s latest creation is here, and it looks even sharper than before. The 6e sedan already boasted sleek styling and a refined interior, but it was crying out for a sportier edge, think something along the lines of BMW’s M Sport trim. Well, Mazda listened and has finally delivered.

The Japanese automaker and Changan have come up with the EZ-6 Sports Edition for the Chinese market, EZ-6 being the Asian name for the car we in the West know as the 6e.

Related: 2026 Mazda 6e EV Debuts In Europe To Battle The Tesla Model 3

Black exterior brightwork, gloss black 19-inch alloy wheels and red brake calipers help the Sports Edition stand out from more laid-back EZ-6 models from the outside, and the performance vibe continues inside through the use of Alcantara upholstery and flashes of red on the seat stitching and seats.

Mazda has also added red backlighting for the interior surfaces and a mesh-look aplique for the console that looks very similar to the trim pattern used on sportier CX-60 grades. The same 14.6-inch infotainment screen used on other EZ-6/6es, a 50-inch augmented reality head-up display powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chip, and a 14-speaker Sony audio system come standard, according to Car News China.

Photos Mazda Changan

The Sports Edition was revealed at the Shanghai Auto Show last month but managed to slip under our radar. Mazda and Changan didn’t specify whether it was packing more power than the stock sedan, but we suspect this is merely a trim package. We also strongly suspect Mazda will very soon launch a similar trim option for the European market 6e – Car News China reports that the Sports Edition was jointly developed by Mazda and Changan in China and Mazda Europe.

We’ve asked Mazda Europe about the powertrain, whether the Sports Edition is coming west, and what it’ll be called if it does, and we’ll let you know when we hear more.

One thing that will definitely be different about the Chinese and Western versions is the choice of powertrains, even though production for both models takes place in the same Changan plant. China’s EZ-6 is available with either a 1.5-liter range-extender setup making 215 hp (218 PS / 160 kW) or a 255 hp (258 PS / 190 kW) pure-battery alternative, but Europe’s 6Es are EV-only.

Photos Mazda

Changan

Renault’s retro 4 E-Tech crossover has only just hit the streets of Europe, and already the company is teasing us about a major upgrade. The 4 Savane is a rugged, off-road-themed concept that adds an extra motor to the EV’s rear axle, giving the 4 all-wheel drive for the first time.

Borrowing a name from one of the original R4s, the Savane gets a 15 mm (0.6 inches) body lift, and bespoke 18-inch wheels with Goodyear UltraGrip performance tires that increase the track width by 20 mm (0.79 inches) front and rear.

Related: The New Renault 4 E-Tech Makes For A Chic Beach Buggy

Its Jade Green paint is new to the R4 and topped by a printed fabric roof, while the stock bumper overriders are replaced by new 3D-printed parts with shock-absorbing properties. The interior also gets an outdoorsy theme courtesy of seats finished in Deep Brown and featuring houndstooth backrests and bolsters.

We hope you like brown because there’s more mud coloring on the dashboard, but the Savane’s real appeal is that it might also be able to handle some mud on its tires with an extra electric motor boosting traction.

The production 4 E-Tech rides on the same AmpR Small architecture as the award-winning Renault 5 E-Tech and its Alpine A290 brother, and all of those production cars are strictly single-motor, front-wheel drive affairs – the $180k, RWD  Renault 5 Turbo 3E rides on a totally different platform.

Single-motor Fours get a choice of 118 hp (120 PS / 88 kW) and 148 hp (150 PS / 110 kW) power units, so adding a second motor to the rear could theoretically push power close to 300 hp (304 PS / 224 kW), which is not far off 10 times as much power as the original Renault 4 had back in 1961. That wouldn’t just be the basis for a rugged Savane production car, but could enable Renault to get into the hot crossover market with an AWD Alpine spinoff.

Renault hasn’t confirmed the Savane, or a bi-motor 4 for production, saying only that it “demonstrates the potential of the AmpR Small platform to create a B-segment electric vehicle with four-wheel drive,” but it tends not to make concepts that don’t have real production intent. What we don’t yet know is whether the Renault 5, running on a shorter version of AmpR Small, could also accommodate a rear motor.

Images: Renault

We’ve got some bad news for Ram fans who were hoping to jump into one of the automaker’s two new electrified trucks. Both have been delayed again, their production debuts having already been pushed back at least once.

The all-electric 1500 REV and hybrid Ramcharger both had their global reveals back in 2023 and were originally slated to enter production in late 2024. That date was then pushed back to 2025, but now truck fans face an additional wait of up to two years to get their hands on one of the hi-tech pickups.

Related: A Secret Ram EV Truck You Never Heard Of Just Sparked A Multi-Million Lawsuit

Stellantis has delayed the Ramcharger’s introduction to the first quarter of 2026 and the REV won’t now land in dealerships until the summer of 2027 as a 28MY truck. The delay was first reported by Crain’s Detroit Business, which discovered two different reasons for the hold-ups.

The Ramcharger delay is due to Ram “extending the quality validation period” to get a handle on some quality niggles, a Stellantis spokesperson told CDB via email. Though the rep didn’t expand on what kinks needed straightening, the powertrain – an electric motor and battery setup charged by a massive combustion V6 – is an entirely new one for the automaker.

Stellantis makes no suggestion that the delay of the 1500 REV is related to quality issues with its fully-electric powertrain. Instead, the spokesperson places the blame squarely on market forces, specifically a “slowing consumer demand” for half-ton BEV pickups.

With technology and customer expectations evolving so quickly these days, let’s just hope the trucks still feel fresh and exciting when they finally start rolling off the line in Sterling Heights, Michigan – several years later than originally planned.

While the delays are disappointing, at least the trucks haven’t been canned altogether like the heavy-duty electric pickup Ram scrapped last year. And there is still plenty of good news coming out of Ram right now. We reported a few weeks back that the brand promised to announce 25 new products over the next 18 months, and the first one is scheduled for June 8.

One of those new models is a smaller truck, though it’s still unclear whether it will go into battle with midsize pickups like the Ford Ranger, or take aim at the small Maverick.

Three years after disappearing from US Toyota dealers, the C-HR is back. But it’s not like you remember it. What was once a puny combustion crossover that struggled to get out its own way is now an all electric fastback that can out-accelerate Toyota’s own affordable performance hero, the GR86.

Toyota’s C-HR announcement wasn’t a complete surprise. The same basic car, but badged C-HR+, made its worldwide premiere in Europe only a few weeks back and we reported at the time that it was expected to be confirmed for sale in the US soon.

More: Toyota Kills bZ4X To Welcome The And More Powerful bZ

The C-HR rides on the same e-TNGA 2.0 platform as the new BZ, which is what Toyota is calling the facelifted version of the bZ4X. But the C-HR’s 108.2-inch (2,750 mm) wheelbase is 4 inches (102 mm) shorter than the BZ’s and it gets a sportier fastback coupe-style tail instead of the SUV’s squarer, more practical rear end.

One Powertrain, No Choices, But Plenty of Power

Another big difference is in the choice of powertrains and batteries. While BZ buyers get to pick from a menu, C-HR buyers get no choice at all, the only available configuration being a dual-motor, all-wheel drive setup that makes 338 hp (343 PS / 252 kW). It gets the crossover to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 5 seconds, or 1.1 seconds faster than a GR86. The 165 hp (167 hp / 123 kW) and 221 (224 PS / 165 kW) single-motor front-wheel drive versions available in Europe aren’t coming to the US.

Battery options are also limited, the only power pack making it into US-spec cars being a 77 kWh unit that Toyota says is good for around 290 miles (467 km) of driving before you need to find a charger. An 11 kW onboard charger is standard, as is an NACS port, but the 150 kW peak charging speed is nothing to write home about. A 10-80 percent fill takes around 30 minutes.

Inside the C-HR, there’s more commonality with the new BZ, which shares its 14-inch touchscreen media system. You get that screen, heated front seats, power liftgate and two wireless phone chargers on both SE and XSE grades. But going for the XSE upgrades the 18-inch wheels to 20s, adds a memory for the driver’s seat, 8-way power to the passenger’s and brings other goodies like Lane Change Assist and a Panoramic View Monitor.

When Can You Get One?

Although we’re getting our first look at the North American C-HR now, Toyota says it won’t be available until 2026. While pricing will be revealed closer to the on-sale date, it’s expected that the new C-HR will start from around $35,000. This should give it some breathing room compared to the slightly larger bZ, which is expected to kick off in the low $40,000s.

For the last five years Skoda’s “Icons Get A Makeover” series has been a great way for the brand’s designers to let their imaginations run a little bit wild, and the latest two-wheeled concept is about as far removed from a sensible family SUV as you can get.

The story of Skoda-branded cars goes back to the 1920s, but the company’s roots go back further still, to the final years of the 19th century when Vaclav Laurin and Vaclav Klement began building bicycles, and then motorcycles, starting with the 1899 Slavia B.

Related: Skoda Recreates Czechoslovakia’s Favorite Transporter For The 21st Century

And it’s the Slavia B that’s the icon in line for the makeover treatment this month. Skoda hasn’t built a motorcycle for over a hundred years but the company’s French designer Romain Bucaille has imagined what a modern bike would look like if it followed the rules of Skoda’s latest Modern Solid design language.

“I wanted to do something unique and go back to the brand’s roots,” said Bucaille, who studied mechanical engineering before switching to design. “I work on cars every day, and since I also love motorcycles, creating one was really a refreshing change.”

At first glance it doesn’t look like the old and new bikes have much in common at all. Bucaille opted for a sporty cafe racer look for his creation with low bars and a seat that floats above the rear wheel. And unlike the original Slavia B, which got a 240 cc air-cooled, single-cylinder engine that pumped out a whopping 1.7 hp (1.75 PS) for a top speed of 25 mph (40 km/h), the modern bike would be electricn and definitely much faster.

Nevertheless, Bucaille retained the split-frame design whose front section is V-shaped referencing the háček, the diacritical mark atop the Czech letter Š in Skoda’s official spelling of its name, and a squiggle that’s become a grille motif and the v before RS in its performance cars. The designer also fitted a tool bag inside the frame (something essential in the pioneering days of motorcycles when maintenance might be required en-route) and finished it in the same leather as the seat.

We love the look of this retro-futuristic Slavia B but sadly, like the other icons reimagined by Skoda’s designers in this series, the concept will remain just that.

Images: Skoda

Americans bought 1.3 million fully-electric cars, trucks and SUVs in 2024 and tax credits of up to $7,500 on new EVs was one of the major factors driving take-up. But those credits might to be around much longer judging by comments made by a senior Republican.

“I think there is a better chance we kill it than save it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said of the tax credit system in an interview with Bloomberg this week. “But we’ll see how it comes out.”

Related: IRS Lets EV Buyers Claim Missed Tax Credits Retroactively

It’s been no secret that the new Trump administration is not a big fan of the credits, which were introduced during Barack Obama’s time in office and have undergone changes during Joe Biden’s era governing which EVs and which buyers are eligible. Other countries, including the UK and Germany, have already scrapped subsidies, believing EV demand is now strong enough for the segment to survive without them (sales are up in the UK, down in Germany).

Axing the credits would fit in with Trump’s policies of promoting fossil fuels and dismantling green initiatives started during the four years before his second stint at the White House began. And dropping credits would also help Republicans meet their target of saving $2 trillion from government spending, though it’s real impact would be almost imperceptible considering ‘only’ $2 billion was spent on EV subsidies in the first 10 months of last year.

The impact of canning the credits on US carmakers and customer demand for EVs, however, could be very significant. Electric cars are currently more expensive to make than gas cars and credits help bring the retail price closer to ICE money, though not all battery vehicles are eligible.

Take-up of EVs was already slower in the US in 2024 than it had been in 2023 and without the credit sweetener buyers might choose to buy a combustion car instead at a time when US-based automakers have invested billions in developing electric cars and batteries, and in some cases creating entirely new plants in which to build them.

Those points may help save the incentives because some Republican lawmakers might be unwilling to vote for something that could lead to job losses in their region, while others are already in favor of safeguarding some existing green initiatives.

Have you ever upgraded your phone or computer to the latest operating system and instantly regretted the decision, wishing you could just go back to the earlier version? That’s a scenario familiar to Chinese owners of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra who discovered an update cost them around 650 hp.

The Ultra is the halo car in Xiaomi’s phenomenally successful SU7 lineup, a rival to the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT that costs a quarter as much and has laid waste to the German car at various racetracks thanks to its incredible 1,526 hp (1,548 PS / 1,138 kW) triple-motor drivetrain.

Related: First Fatal Xiaomi SU7 Crash Sparks Questions About Self-Driving Tech And Locked Doors

But owners were furious to learn that version 1.7.0 of its software reduced power to around 888 hp (900 PS / 662 kW) unless they could prove they were worthy of the true maximum. To unlock it, drivers had to complete a qualifying lap time on a Xiaomi-approved track that would be logged and verified by the SU7’s onboard Qualifying Mode laptime assessment feature, Car News China reports.

The update also made drivers wait an agonizing 60 seconds before the launch control function was ready to showcase the Ultra’s possible 1.89-second zero to 62 mph (96 km/h) times, ruling the tech out for impromptu stoplight races.

Xiaomi claimed the version 1.7.0 update’s power restrictions were designed with safety in mind, claiming the maximum performance potential was only created with track use in mind and by drivers who could handle all those Watts. But while some owners appreciated the sentiment, many took to online forums to complain that they now owned EVs with far less performance than they’d paid for, and which Xiaomi had advertised.

Following the backlash, Xiaomi pulled a U-turn, scrapping the performance limitations and promising to be more up-front about future software updates.

“We appreciate the passionate feedback from our community and will ensure better transparency moving forward,” Car News China reports a company representative saying.

Do you think Xiaomi was right to demand drivers prove their skills before being allowed the SU7’s full power?

Last September, Volvo rowed back from its previous pledge to go all-electric by 2030, and now, eight months later, that looks like a very smart move. The Geely-owned automaker just announced its latest sales figures, and they show registrations of fully electric Volvo vehicles fell by almost one-third.

Volvo’s EV sales fell 32 percent in April versus the same period last year. The company sold 17,090 EVs in April 2024, compared to the 11,697 EVs sold in the month just gone. PHEV sales actually grew fractionally (by 2 percent) to 14,688, but MHEV and ICE registrations also dropped 5 percent to 34,315.

Related: Trump’s Tariffs Drive Volvo To Build A New Model In The US

That means Volvo’s combined electric sales were down 16 percent, and total sales for all power types for April stood at 65,838, or 11 percent lower than they were for the corresponding period last year. And April’s terrible performance really dragged down the overall Q1 EV sales figures, which showed a 6 percent sales decline and are down 7 percent Jan-April.

The lacklustre demand for EVs comes despite the EX30 being rolled out to the US and sales of the big EX90 also now having begun. But Volvo is one of the automakers affected by President Trump’s tariffs, albeit not as badly affected as Audi or Porsche. Although it does build the EX90 at its South Carolina plant in the US, other models like the XC90, XC60, XC40, and EX30 are all made overseas and subject to import levies.

Volvo sales April 2025

Volvo is looking to address that issue and is planning to build a second model – probably the XC60 or XC90 – at the same site. Volvo recently dropped the S90 from the US market due to tariffs, though the newly facelifted sedan will still be offered in Asia.

The man tasked with managing the turnaround is Hakan Samuelsson, who returned to the CEO role on April 1 on a two-year contract while the company looks for a permanent new boss. He replaces Jim Rowan, who took over from Samulesson in 2022 but was shown the door this spring after three years in the big chair.

Porsche brought electric power to its sports car lineup for the first time last year with the launch of the 911 GTS Hybrid, but that’s pretty mild compared with what’s about to happen to the 911’s Boxster and Cayman baby siblings. The two-seat coupe and roadster are ditching combustion technology altogether, and spy photographers have just snapped a couple of Cayman prototypes trialing their EV powertrains on and around the Nurburgring.

Related: Porsche 718 Cayman Electric Spied For First Time

Our scoop photo teams has spotted the Boxster several times before over the last couple of years and they snapped some grainy, long-lens pics of the Cayman on its first trip outdoors at the beginning of the year. But these fresh images are much sharper and show two cars with different wheel designs.

A Familiar Silhouette, Under New Power

Despite switching to an all-electric powertrain, the proportions of the new Cayman are very similar to those of today’s ICE-powered car. It still looks like a classic mid-engined junior supercar with a nose that dives towards the pavement and a sleek fastback tail. One of the great things about the ICE 718s is how practical they are thanks to having a trunk at either end, and we expect the EVs to carry on that tradition.

The set of pictures taken on the Nurburgring itself shows a small active spoiler at the base of the liftback hatch in a raised position. Directly below it in the center of the bumper is the charging flap for the battery that is mounted vertically behind the seats and will feature 800-volt tech. The nose features the same active cooling slats seen on the 911 GTS Hybrid and the disguise on the rear quarter window and lower quarter panel hides an upswept windowline and lower air intake, like on the Mission R concept.

Rear-Drive or All-Wheel Drive? You’ll Have Options

Images: Baldauf

Both single-motor, rear-wheel drive and dual-motor, all-wheel drive versions should be available when the Boxster and Cayman go on sale in 2026 as MY27 cars. Though the 911 has been available with AWD traction for 35 years, this will be the first time it’s been offered in the mid-engined, entry-level sports cars.

Porsche has partially put the brakes on its electrification plans due to slower-than-expected development of the electric market, and is extending the lifespan of combustion engines and re-engineering some still-secret new EVs to take ICE power. But the new 718 Boxster and Cayman were too far down the development path to be reconfigured with an ICE option in time for launch.

It’s possible Porsche could adapt them and introduce combustion options later, as Fiat is doing by turning its slow-selling 500e into a hybrid. Although global 718 sales were down in Q1, that was largely due to the car being dropped in Europe due to the same cybersecurity regulations that forced the demise of the old ICE Fiat 500. In the US, 718 sales almost doubled in the first three months of this year.

The Real Test: Handling Like a Porsche

Porsche is also reported to have been struggling to make the EV Cayman handle as well as the outgoing combustion car, a problem that might have led to pushing back the planned debut from 2025 to 2026 – and can only drive sales of the current 718. The automaker can’t afford to mess the handling up, because the Cayman Electric is going to face some stuff competition from the new Alpine A110 EV.

Images: Baldauf

There are plenty of reasons to like the Polestar 4, including its modern coupe-SUV design, high quality interior and generous equipment levels. But if you remember anything from the 4’s debut I’ll bet it’s that it doesn’t have a rear window, Polestar reasoning that we don’t need glass back there because a camera can do a better job.

But now the Geely-owned company has been forced to issue a second recall for faulty back-up cameras, reminding us why most cars have had a window in the back for more than a century, and why they probably ought to hang on to them for a while yet.

Related: 2026 Polestar 2 Looks The Same But Hides Major Interior Upgrade

To be clear, this recall doesn’t relate to the 4, but rather the Polestar 2, which does have a rear window and was recently pulled from sale in the US due to President Trump’s tariffs. However, given how widespread camera glitches are on cars from almost every brand (Ford, Hyundai, Kia, JLR, multiple Stellantis brands and more have issued related recalls) it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if the 4 ends up with a problem at some point . And unfortunately, like mentioned above, if this happens, the driver doesn’t have a backup window (pun definitely intended).

In this case, Polestar is recalling 27,816 examples of its 2 EV so it can update the software, something that unfortunately can’t be done over-the-air. The campaign affecting 2021-25 MY cars comes in response to some owners claiming their cameras were totally inoperative. Instead of showing the road behind them when reverse was selected, the screen displayed a message saying “camera is temporarily unavailable.”

The automaker says the fault is down to a synchronization error between the Parking Assist Camera (PAC) and the infotainment system. If this sounds familiar it’s probably because Polestar already issued a similar recall in June 2024 covering almost 26,000 examples of the 2 EV. In that case, the recall fix was an OTA update, but it also wasn’t much of a fix.

Polestar’s upcoming 5 EV is also designed without a rear window, as is Jaguar’s controversial-looking new electric sedan. Do you think automakers should be forced to retain a window for safety reasons or are these cases too isolated and designers may continue to go wild?

We all love the idea of getting our hands on a brand new car, but the depreciation all but the most rare-groove, in-demand models suffer is a bitter pill to swallow. Take a look at this GMC Hummer EV for proof. It just sold on a well-known auction site for around $45,000 less than its MSRP despite having only been driven a few hundred miles.

A Hummer 3X, it would have cost $104,650 in base form, but this one came with some choice options. The most significant of those is the $23,355 Omega Edition package, which included Neptune Blue matte paint, transparent removable roof panels, 18-inch beadlock wheels and black emblems. Then there’s Off-Road package that added skid plates, underbody cameras, locking differentials – and a further $9,995 to the price.

Related: $36,000 Off MSRP After Just 303 Miles? This 2025 Hummer EV Buyer Pulled A Heist

The total with-options MSRP came to $140,295, yet the auction hammer price for this GMC Hummer EV SUV was only $95,500. In an earlier listing on Bring a Trailer, bids reached $95,750 but that wasn’t enough to hit the reserve and it failed to sell. A week later, with the Hummer listed again on the same site and the reserve now removed, somebody got themselves a steal of a deal.

Visually, this 830 hp (842 PS) triple-motor Hummer looks as good as new, which it ought to considering it’s covered only 404 miles (650 km). That’s about as much driving as the average American might do in two weeks and means the huge 200+ kWh battery won’t have degraded.

Bring a Trailer

Compounding the good-as-new feel is the fact that whoever won this auction will be the first owner. The SUV was never titled because it hasn’t been sold to a private party before and is being offered by the dealer with its Manufacturer Certificate of Origin.

Buying a zero-mile new car can make sense if the dealer has a great zero-percent finance deal to go with it, something not open to auction buyers. And yes, this is a 2024 model rather than a 2025, which helps explain some of the depreciation. But it’s hard to argue with a $45,000 saving on the MSRP, and at least a $25,0000 saving on a 2025 model with some (but not all) of the same options.

Bring a Trailer

Spain and Portugal recently experienced a massive power outage that left tens of millions of residents without electricity for most of the day. Lights out, appliances useless, Wi-Fi routers dead, the works. But for a small number of people, it was business as usual. Ironically, the reason they were able to carry on came down to a decision many might not expect: they bought an electric car.

Multiple EV owners in Spain posted to social media to show how they were leveraging their cars’ batteries to provide power to their houses. Some EVs such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, have what’s called V2H or vehicle-to-home functionality, which means they can feed their charge into a home’s electrical system.

Related: GM Energy’s Residential Charger Turns Your EV Into A Generator For Your Home

EVs with V2H can essentially function as giant versions of one of those portable power packs many of us rely on to keep our smartphones juiced on days out. Or the battery packs some homeowners with solar panels on their roofs already use to store excess energy harnessed during the day.

Not all electric cars support V2H, even though the technology has been around for years. But according to the UK think tank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), an average EV with a 71 kWh battery and V2H capability could power a home for nearly six days using just 60 percent of its charge.

“As well as reducing emissions and saving their owners hundreds of pounds in running costs, EVs are also capable of adding resilience to their owners’ homes,” ECIU head of transport Colin Walker said. “More and more EVs are arriving on the market that are capable of returning power to the home. In an unprecedented blackout like the one we just saw in Spain, these EVs will allow people to keep their lights on, their fridges cold and their wireless routers running for days.”

Power Cuts Are More Than Inconvenient

Power outages can be frustrating, particularly if you, like me, work from home. They can also get expensive fast if you end up throwing out a freezer full of spoiled food. But more importantly, they can be dangerous. During a power cut that lasted more than a day, my 92-year-old father-in-law suffered third-degree burns when his dressing gown brushed against a candle he had lit in the kitchen.

Four months and multiple skin grafts later, he’s still recovering and it’s sobering to think he might have been spared lengthy hospital stays and permanent scarring if he owned an EV. Provided, that is, he remembered to charge it before the power went out…

When anyone is evaluating two vehicles, the MSRP is always one of the major metrics considered alongside horsepower, zero to 60 mph (100 kmh) times, fuel economy and, now with EVs, range figures. But a huge discrepancy in lease costs between Lucid’s Gravity SUV and the Air sedan reminds us that MSRP is actually irrelevant to many new car shoppers. It’s what they pay each month that matters.

And in the case of the electric Gravity, that monthly cost is far higher than it is for the Air, despite the SUV having a much lower MSRP, Cars Direct discovered. The website describes the Gravity as “a terrible vehicle to lease” due to its steep circa-$1,380 monthly lease cost, which is around 30 percent above what you’d pay to run an equivalent Air sedan.

Related: How To Lease A $69K Lucid Air For Just $510 A Month With $0 Down

Although Lucid says a more affordable Touring trim will join the SUV’s lineup later this year, for now you can only get it in Grand Touring spec. Its MSRP is $96,640, which looks good value next to the $112,400 Air Grand Touring.

But by the time you’ve factored in a down payment of $8,030 and the acquisition fee of $995, Lucid’s quoted $1,099 per month lease cost for a 36-month contract has ballooned to $1,380 before fees and taxes. Compare that with the Air Grand Touring, which costs $849 per month and a true price after down payments and fees of around $1,070.

So why does the Gravity cost $310 more to lease when it’s almost $16k more expensive to buy outright? The difference is down to the amount of rebates Lucid offers for the Air: they’re almost twice as big as the ones for the Gravity and include a $5,000 Air Credit, $1,000 On-Site Vehicle Bonus, and a $2,000 Conquest Offer, Cars Direct explains.

Right now the Air looks better value, especially since you can also order it in lower trim levels that really ramp up the savings. Go for the Air Touring and your overall monthly lease cost comes in at $731, which is close to half what the (admittedly better equipped) Gravity will cost you.

Party hats were compulsory headgear at VW’s Zwickau plant in eastern Germany this week. The factory produces six different EVs for various VW Group brands and just built its millionth electric car, an ID.3 GTX hot hatch. But Zwickau’s busy production lines are causing a headache for the bean counters at VW’s Wolfsburg HQ.

The problem is that EVs are expensive to build and deliver smaller margins than equivalent combustion-powered cars. And while electric sales doubling in Europe in the first quarter of 2025 is something to celebrate, some of those sales come at the expense of ICE sales.

Related: VW ID.2 Might Have A Shot In America, But ID.1 Is ‘Highly Unlikely’

As EVs take up a greater proportion of the sales mix – they accounted for one in five VW Group cars in Jan-March – they push profitability down, reducing the margin to 4 percent. And the withdrawal of EV subsidies in many European countries means VW can’t lean on government incentives to allow them to charge more.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the VW ID.2 and its various spinoffs and related EVs. The €25k ($28k) ID.2, which will be built in Spain, goes on sale in 2026 and should be one of the first Western-built EVs to return margins close to an ICE car’s. The baby VW and its sister SUV, plus the Cupra Raval and Skoda Epiq use a new front-wheel drive version of the MEB platform that costs less to produce.

Earlier this month VW revealed that earnings before tax were down 40 percent to €3.1 billion ($3.5 bn) in Q1 even as deliveries increased by 1.4 percent. The company’s finance chief Arno Antlitz partly attributes this to EVs taking a bigger slice of the sales pie.

But President Trump’s tariffs threaten to throw an even bigger spanner in the VW Group’s plans. The constantly-changing US import tariff situation is making it harder for automaker to make financial forecasts for the rest of the year, but VW, which is badly exposed due to Audi and Porsche’s lack of US production sites, has already downgraded primed investors to expect a less successful year than previously anticipated.