Cars

That’s Ford CEO Jim Farley to Car and Driver about the F-150 Lightning. The automaker recently discontinued the electric truck, after announcing a massive $19.5 billion write-down on its EV operations. “I mean, look, we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Farley adds, admitting that Ford’s gas-engine “prejudice was so high that we hadn’t designed the [electric] cars right.” Now the company is betting that it can right-size its business with smaller, more aerodynamic EVs.

They even had to blur out the Ford logo in a couple of shots in this video. The best part of the press release is when Caterpillar says it was inspired by a deluge of AI slop in response to rumors that it was building its own pickup truck (it’s not; according to The Autopian, this is just a one-off).

The Vision GT was designed to split the difference between performance on straights and corners, with a chassis that was “sculpted by the wind.” Apparently it’ll be on display at the MWC show floor, where hopefully I’ll get a better look at it.

The EV company says the staff cuts are intended to “improve operational effectiveness and optimize our resources,” TechCrunch reports. An internal memo added that the company is still focused on “further expansion into the robotaxi market,” following the launch of a robotaxi collaboration with Nuro and Uber last year.

Starting on May 3rd, 2026, five Formula 1 races, including the Miami, Monaco, British, Italian, and United States Grands Prix, will be shown in “select IMAX locations” across the country. The showings will take place in at least 50 IMAX theaters as a result of a new partnership with Apple.

The SUV pioneer owned by Volkswagen won’t start production on its first EVs, the Terra truck and the Traveler SUV, until 2028, not 2027 as originally planned, German publication Der Spiegel reports (as noted by The Drive). Given the dour mood around EVs these days, a one-year production delay isn’t the worse news.

Look, if you’re going to build a product that sits below a car’s backup camera and squirts it clean every now and then, there’s really only one name you can give it, and it isn’t Lens Lizard.

The system works to save fuel by cutting off the engine when the vehicle comes to a stop at a red light, for example. Automakers were incentivized at add the feature by off-cycle credits from the federal government. But now those credits are gone, and the auto industry is likely to start phasing the feature out. Lee Zeldin claims it will save “$1.3 trillion,” but good luck spending it while the world burns.

On X, Ford CEO Jim Farley posted several photos of the automaker’s Universal EV Project, calling it “one of the most audacious and important projects in @Ford’s history. American innovation is how we compete and win against China and the rest of the world.” The first EV, expected in 2027, will be a four-door, midsized $30,000 pickup truck.

Of all the Chinese automakers, Geely seems best positioned to sell its cars in the US. That may explain why Ford is considering a technology partnership with the parent company of brands like Polestar and Volvo. Reuters reports that Geely could use Ford factory space in Europe to produce vehicles for the region.

There are many important safety reasons to support China’s move to ban hidden, electric door handles from EVs, but also a pettier one: they’re just bad, unintuitive, and inconvenient handles.

The President announced a new $12 billion public-private partnership called Project Vault, meant to establish a strategic reserve of critical minerals. It’s expected to safeguard stores of rare earths and other materials used in batteries, smart phones, cars, planes, and more.

The Japanese automaker has a new SUV coming, possibly an EV. Last week, we saw the rear end; today, we’re getting a glimpse of the interior, which appears to have three rows of seats. We still don’t have any details about the powertrain, although Toyota characterized the new vehicle as “big energy” — whatever that means.

Lisa Drake, who previously served as vice president of technology platform programs and EV systems, is now in charge of the automaker’s energy division. Late last year, Ford downsized its EV ambitions, scrapped the F-150 Lightning, and announced a pivot to hybrids and battery storage systems to meet growing demand from AI data center construction. Drake will lead those efforts, which include “scale Ford Energy’s end-to-end operations, spanning design and development, battery cell and system manufacturing, and end customer sales.”

Two days after Nick Benson asked for donated dashcams in order to document the behavior of federal immigration agents flooding his city, Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by federal agent Jonathan Ross.

The Sony-Honda brand unveiled the higher-riding, roomier equivalent to the Afeela 1 at its CES keynote earlier this week, saying it could go into production in 2028. While the luxury EV market is a bit saturated these days, the concept is sure to appeal to anyone who loves Afeela’s approach to in-car entertainment and wants more room than the sedan version offers.