Last month,a federal judge ordered the US Department of Transportation to unfreeze$5 billion from the federal program dedicated to building more EV chargers. But today, Transportation Secretary announced a new requirement that all federally funded EV chargers be “100 percent” built in America. Since most EV chargers are sourced from China, this will essentially refreeze the funds and indefinitely delay the installation of more chargers.

[USDOT]

A handful of journalists and YouTubers got to drive a pre-production version of Rivian’s upcoming $45,000 EV, and the reviews are now live.Doug DeMuro called it “awesome.”MKBHD thinks it will be Rivian’s answer to the Model Y.

JerryRigEverything took it off-roading. AndPatrick George fromInsideEVs found some of the software choices frustrating. They all agree that Rivian can’t afford to screw this up.

Car and Driver doing theimportant tests of thenew EV’s Jony Ive-designed interior.

David Stern suggested Epstein invest in multiple EV startups, including Lucid Motors, Faraday Future, and Canoo,TechCrunch reports. Stern was also an advisor to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and worked with Epstein for nearly a decade, calling him his “mentor.” He also pitched Epstein on buying farmland in Russia and the news organization Al-Jazeera.

[TechCrunch]

EV adoption was tied to a decrease insmog-forming nitrogen dioxide pollution in California, the biggest market for electric cars in the US, a recentstudy confirms.

[Fast Company]

“The charges announced today largely reflect the cost of overestimating the pace of the energy transition that distanced us from many car buyers’ real-world needs, means and desires,” CEO Antonio Filosa said in a statement. The automaker is the latest to record a massive charge on its EV investment, as sales growth slowsamid vanishing government incentives.Ford reported a $19.5 billion write-down, whileGM said it would take a more modest $6 billion hit.

[Reuters]

Geely may build cars in the US, but their software still has to follow cybersecurity restrictions.

The Geely, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr cars we drove were all ready for US primetime.

There are manyimportantsafetyreasons to supportChina’s move to ban hidden, electric door handles from EVs, but also a pettier one: they’re just bad, unintuitive, and inconvenient handles.

verge_user_m65nybmy:

Rejoice! Concealed handles are so dumb. What do you mean I have to press one side then pull the other? Just give me a handle ffs

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter,The Verge Daily.

Four monthsafter launching “Standard” versions of the Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla is dropping the trim description. The move comes as the automaker introduces a more affordable all-wheel drive version of the Model Y in the US.

[InsideEVs]

SpaceX is profitable, while xAI is burning about $1 billion a month. Is this another case of Musk bailing out himself?

The luxury EV made Tesla the world’s most interesting car company — for a while.

California will outline its own $200 million EV incentive program next week, after officials meet with Detroit automakers to discuss the next phases of its plan to regulate tailpipe emissions. The Trump administration has eliminated incentives for EV purchases,stymied energy efficiency policies, and guttedpollution regulations in general. California is challenging those efforts in court.

[Reuters]

In its earnings report today, Tesla disclosed a $2 billion investment in xAI “as part of their recent publicly-disclosed financing round.”Bloombergreported earlier this year that xAI, which also owns X.com and the Grok AI chatbot, burned about $7.8 billion in the first nine months of 2025. Tesla claims that the investment in xAI is “intended to enhance Tesla’s ability to develop and deploy AI products and services into the physical world at scale.”

[Tesla]

The company,which was led by ex-Tesla CTO JB Straubel, says it just closed its series E funding, including participation from Google and other investors. The money will be put toward building out Redwood Materials’energy storage platform as well as itsEV battery recycling and critical minerals business. And in a blog post, the company gestures at the current debate over AI data centers and electricity demand, saying:

As electricity demand surges—driven by AI, data centers, manufacturing and electrification—energy storage is no longer optional; it is essential infrastructure.

GM is ending production of its most affordable EV after the 2027 model year, replacing it with a gas-powered Buick. The decision came less than a year after the automakerrolled out a revamped version of the Bolt with better charging capabilities. Of course, this won’t be the first time that the automakerkilled off the Bolt. But given the inhospitable environment around EVs these days, the Bolt’s days were likely numbered. GM has said its priority is profitable autos like the Buick that previously was built in China.

[Bloomberg]

Sales of the polarizing, angular electric truckcontinue to plummet, down 68.1 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 48 percent for the entire year, according to new data fromCox Automotive. That represents the largest year-over-year sales drop for any vehicle in the battery-powered segment, including those that were discontinued halfway through the year.

“We dug our own grave with the Cybertruck,”Elon Musk said back in 2023. It pains me to say it, but he was right.

[InsideEVs.com]

After disbanding the team behind its Dojo supercomputer projectlast year, Tesla CEOElon Musk says the company is “restarting work” on Dojo3 now that “the AI5 chip design is in good shape.” Tesla is also recruiting people to work on the project.

The first near-final version ofRivian’s critical $45,000 electric vehicle just rolled off the assembly line at the company’s factory in Normal, Illinois. Customer deliveries are expected to follow soon after, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said. This is a make-or-break moment for the company: can it make more affordable, high-volume EVs? Or will it be relegated to niche status asan expensive truck company?

The charge is related to the automaker’s plans to reduce some of its EV production in the face of cooling demand and a less hospitable regulatory environment. It comes a week afterFord said it would take a similar financial hit on its EV investments, and a few months afterGM took a $1.6 billion writedown on EVs. When will the EV bloodletting end?

[SEC]