MARCH 2026 ARCHIVE.

The Kia EV2 is Europe's smallest Kia EV at 4,060mm long, sharing its platform with the EV3. The standard range packs a 42.2 kWh gross battery against an official 197-mile WLTP claim. A British reviewer takes it up 12% cobblestone gradients, onto a motorway at 120 km/h, and out along the Atlantic coast before plugging in at 19% remaining. The 145 hp motor holds its own, the interior is near-identical to the EV3 with three screens, and the boot holds 363 litres. The long-range 61 kWh version promises 281 miles and may qualify for the full UK grant of £3,750, putting both versions at around £25,000.

Most apartment buildings get told they are out of electrical capacity. Switch founder Carter Lee says the real issue is nobody measures what the panel is actually drawing. Their CT sensor platform monitors live load on old sub-panels, and a 400-amp panel pulling 50 amps at night suddenly has room for up to 15 chargers with no upgrades. Lee started the company in 2016 because he lived downtown and couldn't charge his own EV. Their product lineup now runs from a lockable waterproof smart outlet to a dual-port unit with tap-to-pay. Their tap-to-charge tech even activates without cell signal in underground garages. One charge, one bill, remitted straight to the property manager.

The Verge's transportation editor Andrew Hawkins tests three electric cargo bikes, rides through Brooklyn with Propel Bikes owner Cat Strain, and checks in on the bike bus movement his own town in Montclair, New Jersey helped pioneer. 234 US cities now score above the bikeability tipping point, up from just 33 in 2019. Cargo e-bikes are outselling traditional bikes. They cost a fraction of a car. But tariffs, slashed bike lane funding, and safety concerns on shared roads are real obstacles. The question is whether the momentum survives the politics. Hawkins makes a strong case that it should.

Slate Auto hauled its electric pickup to Keweenaw Research Center in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for a full cold weather torture test. The program included driving through slush troughs, freezing vehicles in cold chambers, running dynamics courses on ice, and then checking if everything still works the next morning. After a full freeze-and-thaw cycle, the brakes released on their own, nothing broke underneath, and the truck came out under its own power. Slate is targeting deliveries by the end of 2026, and this is the kind of behind-the-scenes engineering footage that usually stays internal.

Car Wow's Matt Watson lines up all three Porsche Cayenne flagships and then, completely casually, invites Orlando Bloom along to try to beat his times. The Turbo E Hybrid makes 729 hp. The Turbo GT is 300 kg lighter with a titanium exhaust, because Porsche. The new Cayenne Turbo Electric shows up with 1,139 hp in launch mode, runs a 10.16 quarter mile, and is visibly annoyed it didn't go sub-10. Orlando wins by 0.05 seconds. Nobody is more surprised than Matt.

Xiaomi delivered over 411,000 EVs in 2025, turned a profit in its second year of making cars, and holds the Nurburgring production EV lap record. Now it has become the first Chinese brand in Gran Turismo's 28-year Vision GT program, joining Ferrari, Porsche, and Bugatti with a 1,900 hp concept hypercar. Gran Turismo series producer Kazunori Yamauchi personally extended the invitation. A full-scale physical model was on display at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, though it is not a running vehicle. The concept will eventually be playable in Gran Turismo 7.

carwow's Matt Watson does a proper head-to-head between the all-new BMW iX3, the electric platform set to underpin the next 40 BMW models, and the petrol X3M. Tests include a drag race (X3M wins by a whisker), a rolling race (iX3 takes it convincingly), braking (iX3 stops shorter despite being 315 kg heavier), a moose test (iX3 more composed), boot space, and a baby seat challenge. After a week of real-world driving, the iX3 averaged just 3 miles per kilowatt hour, a full third less efficient than a Tesla Model 3 on the same roads, and its claimed 490-mile range came closer to 300 in practice. Instagram gave the old car 79% of the design vote. A thorough and honest look at a car BMW simply cannot afford to get wrong.

Autogefühl's Thomas puts the all-new electric GLC (badged GLC 400 4MATIC, not EQ) through a full driving review covering exterior trims, the surprisingly large frunk, interior quality, and a real-world motorway range test against the BMW iX3. The short version: 4.3 seconds to 100 km/h from a two-speed gearbox that stays in first gear all the way up, air suspension with rear-axle steering that makes tight European parking almost embarrassing, and about 400 km of real-world motorway range from a 94.5 kWh battery. The iX3 beats it on battery size, range, seat comfort, and price. The GLC beats it on suspension, acceleration, and chassis refinement. Thomas calls both the best electric SUVs Germany has produced in a long time, which makes choosing between them genuinely difficult.

A Finnish startup called Donut Labs announced at CES 2026 that it had a production-ready solid-state battery with 400 Wh/kg energy density, five-minute full charges, and 100,000 cycle life. The battery world immediately split in two. Independent VTT testing confirmed some claims while leaving the most extraordinary ones untouched. Robert brings in Dave Borlace from Just Have a Think and battery chemist Dr. Euan McTurk to work through what the chemistry can actually support, which parts of the pitch are credible, and which parts are still running ahead of the evidence. The best breakdown of this story you will find anywhere.

A new Ember report co-authored by Bloomberg New Energy Finance founder Michael Liebreich argues that the fossil fuel dominance shown in most global energy charts comes down to a flawed measurement system, not a stalled transition. Traditional "primary energy" accounting treats one unit of coal identically to one unit of wind electricity, even though roughly two-thirds of coal's energy content never reaches anyone as useful power. It disappears as waste heat before it leaves the power station. When you measure what energy systems actually deliver rather than what they extract, renewables look dramatically more competitive than the headline numbers suggest. That same efficiency gap plays out right in your driveway. See today's opinion piece for the street-level version.

Rivian shares surged as much as 10 percent Thursday after the company announced a robotaxi agreement with Uber. Under the terms, Uber will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian in exchange for 10,000 fully autonomous R2 SUVs beginning in 2028, with an option to expand the fleet to 40,000 additional vehicles starting in 2030. The deal adds Rivian to Uber's growing roster of autonomous vehicle partners, which already includes Waymo, BYD, and Lucid.