Toyota bets big on plug-in hybrids as EV adoption slows

The largest Japanese automaker, Toyota, is intensifying its focus on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), aiming to increase its share of U.S. sales from 2.4% in 2023 to approximately 20% by 2030. The move marks a huge shift in the company’s electrification strategy, which reflects consumers’ hesitations around fully electric vehicles and regulatory uncertainty. The plan aligns with California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule, which mandates 100% zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035. However, President Donald Trump is expected to eliminate that mandate, adding another layer of uncertainty to automakers’ compliance strategies.

Source: CBT News

Electric-vehicle drivers tend to put high value on mobile applications that control their cars from outside, but many find most apps don’t make the grade. From a spring survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. EV owners, J.D. Power found that while such apps have become “an extension of the vehicle itself,” many leave much to be desired, particularly in several categories. The apps allow users to remotely lock and unlock EVs and remotely manage battery charge monitoring, and interior temperature, and use of them keeps increasing among EV drivers.

Source: F&I and Showroom

Hyundai Motor Co. is preparing to increase the price of all of its US vehicles as the automaker looks to cushion the blow from tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. The South Korean manufacturer is considering a 1 percent increase to the suggested retail price of every model in its lineup starting as soon as next week, said the people, who asked to not be identified discussing the plan because it isn’t public. The move would apply to newly built vehicles, leaving cars already sitting on dealership lots unaffected. In addition, the company is likely to raise shipping charges and the fees for options such as floor mats and roof rails that are installed before cars arrive at retailers to avoid further raising the base price of its vehicles, the people said, cautioning that discussions are ongoing and could still change.

Source: Bloomberg via Automotive News

Maserati vehicles are known for stylish exteriors, luxurious interiors, and incredible performance specs. Affordability isn't exactly synonymous with models from the Italian brand. Hertz is offering Maserati's newest SUV model for under $37,000, which is less than a new 2025 Toyota RAV4 Limited. The company is offering some models at extremely discounted rates compared to their actual market value. Is the Grecale worth considering at the prices Hertz is offering?

Source: The Tennessean

Interest in electric vehicles has sunk to its lowest level since 2019, according to a consumer survey commissioned by AAA. Only 16 percent of respondents reported being “likely” or “very likely” to purchase an electric vehicle as their next car. “While the automotive industry is committed to long-term electrification and providing a diverse range of models, underlying consumer hesitation remains,” said Greg Brannon, director of automotive engineering for AAA. The percentage of customers who indicated they would be “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to purchase an EV as their next vehicle rose to 63 percent from 51 percent, the highest since 2022. Respondents ― 62 percent ― cited high battery repair costs as a main reason for not going fully electric. However, EV batteries may have longer lives than previously thought, according to a study from the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center.

Source: Automotive News

Four major automakers are racing to find workarounds to China’s stranglehold on rare-earth magnets, which they fear could force them to shut down some car production within weeks. Several traditional and electric-vehicle makers—and their suppliers—are considering shifting some auto-parts manufacturing to China to avoid looming factory shutdowns, people familiar with the situation said. Ideas under review include producing electric motors in Chinese factories or shipping made-in-America motors to China to have magnets installed. Moving production to China as a way to get around the export controls on rare-earth magnets could work because the restrictions only cover magnets, not finished parts, the people said. If automakers end up shifting some production to China, it would amount to a remarkable outcome from a trade war initiated by President Trump with the intention of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The sprawling U.S. assembly plant that Volvo Cars powered up in the summer of 2018 signaled a bold ambition to expand into the world’s second-largest auto market. But seven years later, Volvo has failed to capitalize on the $1.4 billion investment. The 2.3 million-square-foot factory in Ridgeville, S.C., an hour northwest of Charleston, was designed to turn out 150,000 vehicles annually. According to an estimate from Automotive News Research & Data, Volvo built 20,000 vehicles there last year—13 percent of its capacity. 

Source: Automotive News

While many automotive AI headlines focus on self-driving cars or flashy infotainment upgrades, Audi is quietly building something more foundational: AI that runs the factory floor. In a June 2 briefing, the German automaker revealed that more than 100 AI projects are now in operation or development across its global production network. These systems are doing real work from inspecting welds and predicting equipment failures to optimizing logistics and assisting human workers in tasks that range from parts flow to process simulation.

Source: Forbes

Volvo’s first long-distance electric semi seeks to upstage Mercedes’ model, but both will still rely on their own charging infrastructure for a while.

Commercial buyers now have some choices from multiple manufacturers when it comes to heavy-duty electric trucks—choices that didn't exist at all five years ago. In a short span of time, truck makers ranging from Scania to Volvo to Daimler have introduced two- and three-axle tractors and flatbed options, allowing fleets that feature trucks that perform repeatable, daily routes to go electric.

But truck makers have more than just regional models in mind. The latest electric semi from Volvo Trucks is aimed at long-distance routes, able to cover 600 kilometers or 372 miles between charging sessions. This would permit the truck to make the trip from Albany, NY, to Washington DC without recharging with a few miles to spare, at least on paper. And serious distances like these require serious batteries. The newly revealed 6x2 Volvo FH Aero Electric features 780 kWh worth of battery packs, eight in total, which coupled with a compact driveline technology dubbed e-axle maximizes the battery space on board.

And truck makers including Volvo are getting ready for a future MCS (Megawatt Charging System) that will permit the truck's batteries to complete the 20-80% session in just 40 minutes.
"Now, transport companies can operate really long distances with electric trucks without having to compromise on productivity. The superfast charging and high payload capacity make this a very competitive solution," said Roger Alm, President of Volvo Trucks. One crucial element here is the availability of MCS itself, with just a handful of stations in Europe at the moment, all of them still quite experimental even if nominally online. So a landscape where MCS stations dot European or American highways is still some time away, as are any charging stations that are designed to cater to 18-wheelers. At the moment there aren't many of those, either. But Volvo Trucks isn't the only manufacturer racing ahead of where charging infrastructure actually is at the moment.

In 2023 Mercedes-Benz introduced its own long-distance electric semi dubbed eActros 600, with 600 kWh worth of battery capacity on board and a range of up to 310 miles. Volvo's 372-mile truck eclipses that number, but the real-world impact of this EV range progress is perhaps secondary to other considerations currently holding back EV semi truck adoption among fleets.
Earlier this year Amazon ordered over 200 of the eActros trucks from Mercedes-Benz for its European operations, set to rely largely on behind-the-fence charging infrastructure at its own hubs.

In fact, it is Amazon's operations that will represent one of the largest-scale tests of long-distance electric trucks in the real world, with the sizable fleet being the largest orders for EV trucks of its kind. Amazon is in a special if not unique position, able to operate electric semis between warehouses with their own charging infrastructure, and that's quite different from a lone driver being out on the road for several days.

In effect, it's largely the big logistics and retail companies that would even have the necessary geographic footprint to make these electric routes possible on paper, with companies like DHL in Europe being another example.

Given how long it took for passenger EVs to make coast-to-coast trips in the US that weren't complete nail-biters on each leg, reaching a utopia where MCS stations permit the same for trucks could take a while.

Source: Autoweek

Higher steel tariffs are likely to raise the cost of new cars and trucks. That will be bad for consumers, who are already facing near-record prices for new vehicles, and car companies that are contending with higher costs stemming from previous tariff increases on imported vehicles and engines and other components. “These tariff increases will further raise the cost of both imported and domestic steel and aluminum, thereby increasing the cost of assembling a car in the United States,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which lobbies on behalf of General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis. “This action places U.S. industry and U.S. workers at a disadvantage in the global marketplace.”

Source: New York Times