EV Universe #148: Pope goes EV — e-tractor experience — Miata EV

Guess who’s offer you did not find in your inbox during the Black Friday craze?

Yeah. I just didn’t want to add to the noise.

I even had an email ready for you, titled “Has anyone told you it is Black Friday yet?” but… I didn’t send it out.

I’m trying hard not to buy any stupid sh*t I don’t really need myself, so I just looked at the subject lines this year and not take the bait on anything.

Anyway, before we kick off the newsletter, here’s something from me in case you need it. I’ll keep it short & sweet:

The short:

You win: More EV industry knowledge and context through our Pro Reports, our resources like the EV event calendar, sales trackers, early access, and more.

We win: EV Universe revenue grows, so I can keep focusing on this full-time, and make an ever larger impact. You can’t even imagine all the plans I have next for our evcosystem. Your support helps us get there.

The sweet:

You win: I’ll give you 10% off the annual or lifetime subscription, for the next 48 hours.

Planet wins: I’ll also double the trees planted for each new member
(2→4 🌲 on monthly, 5→10 🌳 on annual, or 15→30 🎄 on lifetime plan)

PS! Only available for the next 48 hours!

All the trees are trackable, by the way, so it’s not a dumb greenwashing thing. Here’s our EV Universe forest with 1,374 trees funded so far.

EV NEWS GLOBALLY

Hey, psst. Want to see something cool? Let’s start with the best graph I’ve seen so far on what is going on world’s largest car market. China.

The end is nigh! … for ICE, that is.

Ideanomics files for bankruptcy protection in the US, to find a buyer for its wireless charging business and other technology investments. (link) This comes after SEC charges alleging the company mislead investors about its performance. Chairman Shane McMahon has offered to acquire the firm’s assets (link).

If you remember, this is one of the companies we’ve reported on making several acquisitions around 2021-2023, piecing together smaller EV businesses. Ideanomics was one of the companies making a huge run up in valuation in the EV stock craze back in 2021, as the share price reached over $600/share. Last weeks before the bankruptcy application, the share price was down to ~0.1-0.2$/share.

In the Pro Report #143 in October, I already reported that one of its e-motorbike brands, Energica, filed for bankruptcy — and we knew that Ideanomics is looking to offload further assets.

Other companies Ideanomics owns are

• Wave, the wireless charging business,

• VIA Motors making electric vans and transporters,

• Solectrac, making tractors, and

• US Hy​brid, for conversions systems for medium/heavy-duty vehicles.

The company is said to have lost over $800M in the past five years through these investments. According to Reuters, Ideanomics has now closed all these companies but Wave.

The real Solectrac e-tractor experience

Sad to say, but Solectrac’s website is also indeed down. Somehow just now I found that Solectrac’s assets have gone up for sale by Ideanomics already late 2023 (link).

I reached out to one of our dear EV Universe Pro members who I remember had one of these e-tractors in the family. His write-up on the experience and his thoughts were put together so well that I decided to add it here in full (with his permission, of course):

“We have been following the decline and downfall of Ideanomics. It’s a classic story of overly-aggressive expansion and mismanagement by an ambitious acquiring company. Solectrac likely would have been better off if they hadn’t been acquired.

This story is also a reminder it’s risky to be an early adopter of products from start-up companies — we own an orphan product without support. That’s an issue with a long-lived product like a tractor.

My wife still likes her tractor and hopes some other company will buy Ideanomics in bankruptcy.”

Some ownership observations:

• The tractor delivers the core benefits of having adequate power and runtime for our needs while not spewing diesel exhaust for us the breathe. This includes mowing with a type-1 implement flail mower and moving soil, compost, and gravel with the front-end loader.

• The “Tesla of tractors” it’s not. Without the noise of an ICE, the hydraulic pump is noticeably loud. It has the same manual transmission and gears of a conventional tractor, and it’s not simpler to operate. The small monochrome screen is not easy to read in sunlight.

• It lacks a way to warm the LFP battery pack, limiting cold-temperature operation and charging. This is true even when daytime temps are fine if the previous night the battery pack cold-soaked with below-freezing temps.

• Our early model has some issues fixed in later versions before the company went belly-up. For example, the early models didn’t charge the 12v lead-acid battery when left plugged-in, so to our consternation we came back to a tractor with a drained 12v when left plugged in for two weeks.

• Later Solectrac models had improved controls we liked better when we looked at them at a local dealer—before the company failed.

As far as we know, established brands still haven’t launched small electric tractors like this.“

Thank you, Gary, for this rare insight from the ground.

Tesla Q4 push

For the first time ever, Tesla has officially introduced end-of-lease buyouts for the S3XY Models and the Cybertruck in the US. This is interesting as previously, Tesla kept insisting they’ll need the vehicles back to use them as a robotaxi fleet.

I’d assume they realized the Cybercab will be far better scalable and doesn’t come with redundant steering wheel and pedals. It is also just a good lever to pull for further Q4 sales, perhaps.

It is also retroactive, so all current Tesla lessees will be eligible for a buyout at a future date (Tesla Lease Trust customers will be able to request a buyout quote directly through the Tesla app).

Just last week, Tesla also upgraded the referral program in North America, with buyers now receiving up to $2,000 off the price of a new Tesla, Supercharging, service center visits etc. Referrers get $1,000. There’s also a wide range of perks from Tesla for those taking delivery before the end of the year.

The referral cap of 10 people was also restarted, not that most of us would have that problem… 

Tesla’s Holiday update

Tesla’s annual holiday update comes, as usual, with a bunch of updates to its cars and connected software. (link) Perhaps the most notable one is:

Tesla App on Apple Watch — although we’ve already speculated on that one recently, it’s now confirmed. The app can also be used as a phone key. You can also view battery charge, open frunk & turn on climate control.

From the nearly 30 updates, you’ll also find stuff like:

• Ability to save Dashcam & Sentry Mode Clips directly from and to the phone;

• Set Arrival Energy at Destination — You can now set a preferred battery charge level for when you arrive at your destination;

• Search Along Route with Estimated Detour Times — When navigating, search results are now filtered to show options along your route & estimated detour times.

• Precipitation Map & Weather at Destination — View precipitation directly on the map to check the weather at your destination

• Rear Cross Traffic Alert — When in Reverse, your vehicle will alert you if it detects a pedestrian or vehicle crossing behind you. An audible warning will also play if a potential collision is detected.

• Cybertruck Custom Wraps and License Plate Customization — Personalize your Cybertruck avatar with a custom wrap & license plate.

• Cybertruck Santa Mode — Santa Mode changes your Cybertruck avatar into Santa's sleigh including reindeer, and a Tesla Optimus as Santa.

• Fart On Contact — Your Tesla now has option to prank your friends with each new bum detection…

• … and more.

If you are interested in Tesla’s self-driving technology, subscribe to the weekly Tesla Space newsletter that I write — plenty of FSD (Supervised) version 13 videos listed in our latest issue.

From around the world Universe:

• 🇪🇺 Congratulations, European Union — you’ve just played yourself.
  “China's BYD to focus on plug-in hybrid cars in European expansion.”
  I am rather certain this is due to the fact that battery EVs are hit with new tariffs, while PHEVs are not. A mistake we saw coming, but sad nevertheless to see the impact.

• Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, resigns. Will be interesting to see where he ends up next. I would still applaud him for seeing and publicly calling out the incoming Chinese EV makers to Europe, and then doing something about it (Leapmotor jv).

• Rivian gets a $6.57B loan: The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office announced a conditional commitment of up to $6.57B for Rivian's new 400k EV/year production plant in Georgia.

• I don’t know if it is a coincidence that the administration is about to change in the US or not, but there is another huge loan from the same office for the EV industry: a Stellantis and Samsung SDI joint venture, StarPlus Energy, gets a $7.54 billion loan to build two EV battery plants for 67 GWh capacity in Kokomo Indiana. (link) I’ve got a feeling this won’t be the last one… I wonder who else is currently going through the process of the program, waiting for a yes/no?

• General Motors sells its stake in Ultium Cells’ Lansing, Michigan battery cell plant to its partner LG Energy Solution. Note, that it did not sell the stake in the joint venture itself, just one of the four plants. The two also extended their technology partnership to now include prismatic cells (these previous Ultium plants produce pouch cells). (link)

• Consumer Reports survey finds EV owners have 42% more problems with their vehicles than ICE owners on average, down from 79% in the 2023 survey. (link)
  What I’d say today: living on the edge of innovation comes with its own perks… and its early bugs. Meanwhile, Plug-in hybrids had 70% more problems over ICE.
  An interesting one to note on this survey is Rivian — scores highest in “satisfaction score”, as in owner would buy again with 86%, yet way lowest in the "predicted reliability” score.

• Aptera has reopened its crowdfunding campaign to raise another $60M to finalize development and begin production of its solar-powered three-wheeler. (link) Last round in May ended successfully, raising $135 million USD from 19,000 investors.

• Watch tip: Remember when I showed you the story of Michael and his fully flooded but still going-like-it’s-nothing Rivian R1T, on his rescue missions in Asheville, NC after the hurricane? Now, an EV content maker Josh West went there this week, 55 days after the disaster, to report on the whole story from the spot — great 18min (video).

EV SPOTLIGHT: Jaguar Type 00

We don’t show many concept EVs around here, for obvious reasons, but since we already covered the Jaguar wild rebranding story, and since this marks the historical spot where Jaguar goes fully electric with its offering, I’ll show you what they launched:

This is the Jaguar Type 00. Here’s the the launch in Miami, with the speech from Chief Creative Officer: (video). The comments… are similarly negative so far.

The Pope now rides the very first fully electric Popemobile, an electric G-Wagon. Welcome to the EV family, Pope Francis!

Dodge, with its Charger Daytona EV, now wants to save the planet… from all those electric "lame, soulless, weak-looking, self-driving sleep pods everyone keeps polluting our streets with.” Here’s the latest video ad saying this (video).

That’s one way to differentiate yourself, I get it, but I’d say Dodge could say this back in 2016 or so… In 2024, it’s already beat in most or all performance metrics (or the cool/mad factor) by even traditional automakers. By the way I found the frunk of the Daytona is… cute.

Xiaomi’s second EV, the SUV called YU7 early info was released. (link)

Some specs we have got so far:

Dimensions: L 4,999 mm, W 1,996; H 1,600; wheelbase is 3,000 mm, curb weight 2,405 kg.
Performance: Dual electric motors, a front 220 kW and a rear 288 kW, providing a total power of 508 kW (681 hp), top speed 253 km/h.
Battery: NMC fromCATL, no specific info yet.
Deliveries: start mid-2025

We’ve been tracking the SU7 production and sales ramp-up success in our Pro Reports and it is wild — Xiaomi has now delivered, starting from March this year, over 112k EVs and has already broken into the top 10 in EV sales in China.

Now this is a welcome sight in a charging station, isn’t it?

A plug-and-play “drop-in” EV conversion kit is finally ready for the Miata! (link) Launched by the EV conversion specialist Electrogenic, the electric MX-5 gets 150 mi (241 km) of range on a 42kWh battery, 160hp, and only adds 220 lbs. One of these for Christmas to me please, thank you.

CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Rivian opened its first Rivian Adventure Network (RAN) charging location that is open to all EVs regardless of make. (link)

The Joshua Tree Charging Outpost in California, less than a mile from the national park, is one of seven such sites the company wants to open by the end of the year. These are currently up-to-900V supporting Rivian’s in-house developed CCS chargers which can be used with a NACS adapter if needed, and the NACS connector is added in a “future hardware update”.

I was very surprised to stumble on the size of the RAN network — I looked up Department of Energy statistics as of today and Rivian has, quite silently, deployed 581 DC chargers across the US already. Plus another 466 Waypoint Level 2 chargers.

In the UK, new charing regulations came into force in late November that should improve the charging experience for EV drivers. Key points (link, and details via our friends at Paua):

1. All prices are now shown in pence per kWh.

2. New 8kW chargers and above (and all 50kW chargers) must have contactless payment.

3. 99% reliability. This will be measured via OCPI statuses at an EVSE (aka charger) level. First reports are unlikely until early 2026.

4. Open data. Free of encumbrance (no terms and conditions) live charge point data will be available via API.

5. Each charging network needs to have a free-to-use 24/7 helpline. By the way, our friend Tom from The Fast Charge called 55 charging networks to see if their helplines work. Here’s what he found: (link)

6. From November 2025, all providers need to be included in payment roaming.

Charge it up:

• 🇪🇺 Chargemap launched a Christmas promotion where every new Chargemap Pass order (which lets you charge in charging networks across Europe) enters a raffle to win €200 in charging credit (raffled every day until the 23rd). (link)

• 🇪🇺 In Europe, the NIO EV owners can now choose, while using the battery swap stations, if they’ll swap for the 75kWh or 100kWh battery. (link) Nio had reached 50 batswap stations in Europe this summer across five markets. A year ago, NIO claimed 98% of its European owners subscribed to its Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) model where they are only leasing the battery rather than buying it out with the car.
  It seems great for the owner — you’ll carry less weight in everyday situations, improve efficiency, and just swap it to higher pack when you need to go on a trip. This is common for the NIO system in China already.
  How NIO makes it all work financially, this I do not know.

• Chargelab launched Spark, an AI tool within their platform to find and prevent charger network issues before anything stops EV drivers from charging. (link)

• 🇺🇸 From today (Dec 10th), Nissan ARIYA drivers will gain access to over 17,800 Tesla Superchargers across the US and Canada, provided they buy the $235 adapter.

• 🇪🇺 Resource tip: Hassan Asghir is putting together a map of all charger manufacturers per country in Europe, crowdsourcing it, with 136 listed already (link).

• I once shared a “flat AC charging cable” design with you as I thought it was cool. Very little information was available back then, but now looks like one company is trying to commercialize this retractable flat-corded charger. Ghost just raised $14.5k on kickstarter, says patent is pending, handles 9.6kW. All the details and videos: (link)

My favorite comment from our previous issue comes from H:

“Love reading your newsletter. Would you mind posting ahead of time if there is an EV- show somewhere relatively close? Thanks.”

I actually already do that, with all listed a year ahead on our EVent calendar and then upcoming ones highlighted on our Pro Reports.

I’m afraid both resources are currently for EVU Pro members only ($10/mo for full access). I have to keep that paywalled for now to be able to work on the EV Universe full-time. It’s a step-by-step process: once I’ve reached critical scale with EV Universe, I’m planning to make the event calendar fully free for everyone.

In the meantime, would you consider joining Pro (-10% for today and tomorrow), so we could grow EV Universe to that point?