Two numbers describe the same battery. One is 12,000 watt hours per kilogram, roughly what gasoline holds, and it has spent the week bouncing between news sites. The other is 700, which is what a finished pack of that chemistry stores today. Undecided with Matt Ferrell gives the middle of his video to the gap between them, and the explanation turns out to be simple bookkeeping: the big figure counts the lithium and lets the oxygen ride along for free, leaving out the electrolyte, the current collectors, the cathode structure and the control electronics. Both numbers are real. Only one of them ever has to move a car.
Charging specs work the same way. Autogefühl watched a Volvo EX60 touch 377 kW on a fast charger, above the 370 kW peak Volvo publishes, and that is the figure headed for a brochure. The one that decides a road trip sits further right on the same graph: still above 100 kW past the halfway mark, 80 percent reached in 16 minutes. He then repeated the exercise on a station that would only hand over 300 kW and got 16 minutes again. Peak power is a moment. The curve is the trip.
Out of Spec BITS makes the electrical version of the point almost in passing. His Lucid Gravity pushed 40 amps into a Tesla Model 3 and held around 237 volts doing it. A Cybertruck, he says, also does 40 amps but sags toward 218 under that load, so two vehicles advertising the same current do not hand over the same power. Cleanerwatt's four panels are rated at 1,200 watts and made just under 4 kWh across a sunny day. Neither is a complaint. That is what a nameplate is.
The Ioniq 5 drive unit is the one with no second number published anywhere. Out of Spec Renew opened a motor carrying more than 150,000 miles, found nothing obviously broken, and could not separate the rotor from the drive gear. One bearing inside, he says, is a custom part its manufacturer will not sell to third parties. Every EV ships with a range figure. None ship with a number for whether it can be opened in eight years.
Three of these carry a date, which is more than most battery news manages. Air Energy, the Chicago company founded to commercialise the Argonne and Illinois Tech work, is aiming at pilot manufacturing in 2027, and its chief executive says significant engineering work is still ahead. CATL, according to the Taiwanese outlet CNYes, expects development to run past 2030. On solar the pace is legislative rather than technical: Cleanerwatt counts eleven more states that have passed plug-in solar laws since Utah went first.
The EX60 Beat Its Own Charging Spec, Twice, on the Way to the Dolomites
Autogefühl ran a Volvo EX60 P10 AWD in Ultra trim from Germany down through the Alps. Thomas reports the car opened a session at 360 kW, briefly showed 377 kW against a published peak of 370, and reached 80 percent from 9 percent in 16 minutes. A second stop from 15 percent also took 16 minutes on a station capped at 300 kW, though the car asked for 330. Power held above 100 kW until around 60 percent.
Efficiency is the ordinary story. At 100 km/h he measured 17 kWh per 100 km, rising to 22 at 130 and 33 at 160, which he converts to 540, 418 and 280 km of range from the 92 kWh pack. On the same test he puts the BMW iX3 at 15 and the Mercedes GLC Electric at 18. Pricing as presented starts at 63,000 euros for the 80 kWh P6, with the test car at 78,000.
Two things no spec sheet mentions. The 22 inch wheels are wider than the 20s and cost range, so the cheapest wheel is the fastest one. And the noise cancellation cannot be switched off, which he found intrusive below 100 km/h. We covered the same channel's four way comparison earlier.
CATL's Next Bet Breathes Air, and the Gasoline Comparison Is Not Its Claim
Matt Ferrell reports that CATL's chief scientist Wu Kai has named lithium air as what the company is backing after solid state. The chemistry drops the heavy cathode metals and pulls oxygen from the air instead, which is where the weight saving comes from. Ferrell says he found no evidence CATL itself claimed the 12,000 Wh/kg figure now circulating, and that it counts active material only.
The work he traces sits at Argonne National Laboratory and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Their 2023 prototype reached 685 Wh/kg at cell level and survived 1,000 cycles, helped by a molybdenum phosphide catalyst and a composite electrolyte he says conducted lithium ions roughly 15 times better than comparable solid materials. Steering the reaction toward lithium oxide rather than lithium peroxide lifts the theoretical ceiling from 3,500 to 5,200 Wh/kg. It has since reportedly reached 1,000 Wh/kg at cell level and 700 at pack level.
The pack figure is the one to hold onto, because it counts the whole battery including airflow and control electronics, and already sits above what solid state lithium ion promises. Ferrell's caution is earned: he notes the Department of Energy funded a different rechargeable lithium air effort in 2010 that is still going.
A Lucid Gravity Fed a Model 3 at 40 Amps Without the Voltage Falling Over
Out of Spec BITS tested the Range Exchange function on a 2027 Lucid Gravity Grand Touring, which uses a native NACS port and an optional cable that turns the car's own supply equipment into an export device. He set a 10 percent reserve, plugged into a 2019 Model 3 at 38 percent, and measured 40 amps at roughly 237 to 239 volts, about 9 kW. The session moved 27 kWh.
The voltage is his real point. He says an F-150 Lightning holds close to 240 volts but tops out near 30 to 32 amps, while a Cybertruck offers 40 amps and drops toward 218 under load, leaving the two closer in actual kilowatts than the ratings suggest. The Gravity did 40 amps with almost no sag, and its 80 amp onboard charger returned 19.3 kW.
Worth knowing before copying this: that test needed a J1772 adapter rated for the full 80 amps, and he points out many are good for only 40 or 60. His complaint is that the Gravity has no high power outlet, so unlike a Cybertruck it can only export into another vehicle.
Twelve States Have Now Written Plug-In Solar Into Law
Cleanerwatt installed a 1,200 watt Mango Power S plug-in kit, four 300 watt panels each with its own micro inverter, and timed assembly at a little over an hour and 18 minutes. The video is sponsored by Mango Power, disclosed at the start. He reports just under 4 kWh across one sunny day, and hired an electrician for the part that touches the panel.
The regulatory detail is the useful part. He describes Utah's House Bill 340, passed in March 2025, as creating a category for portable solar up to 1,200 watts on a standard 120 volt outlet with no interconnection agreement, and no net metering in exchange. Michigan, Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Vermont, Connecticut, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia and Colorado have since passed legislation by his count, with New York and New Jersey awaiting a signature.
Two cautions deserve repeating. Per Mango Power's own guidance, the anti-backflow gateway is a control system rather than a guarantee of zero export, so local rules still apply. And he explains breaker masking: a breaker only sees current arriving from the panel, so power fed in from an outlet is invisible to it, which is why he recommends a dedicated circuit. Retail listings put the kit with the gateway at around $2,400 to $2,800.
A 150,000 Mile Ioniq 5 Motor Came Apart, and the Fault Did Not Show Itself
Out of Spec Renew stripped the drive unit he pulled from a Hyundai Ioniq 5 after overcurrent faults, a car he says had over 150,000 miles on it. The gearbox oil, never changed, came out cloudy and oxidised but with no metal he could see. He notes Hyundai does not fit a magnetic drain plug, relying on a loose magnet in the case, and offers a workaround: a Toyota differential drain plug is the same size.
Inside, the inverter has four phase connections rather than three. The fourth, he explains, handles the voltage boosting E-GMP cars use to charge on 400 volt infrastructure. He found no visible damage or moisture in the inverter and reached no conclusion, suspecting a loss of isolation between phases but saying he cannot confirm it.
He gave up before separating the rotor from the primary drive gear, which share one shaft with the gear pressed onto splines. The rebuildability note matters more than the failure: he says one counter gear bearing is a custom NSK part not sold to third parties, where an earlier Hyundai and Kia generation used a bearing one millimetre wider than a common off the shelf size that could be shimmed. That is the difference between a repair and a replacement.
Bottom line: The EX60 is the buy here, and specifically the mid battery on 20 inch wheels, because 16 minutes to 80 percent on a capped station is worth more on a real trip than the two kilowatt hours per 100 km the iX3 claws back. Go and sit in one first, since the noise cancellation cannot be turned off and some people hate it. Ignore lithium air until somebody ships a pack. And if you plan to still own your EV at 150,000 miles, the bearing nobody sells you is the spec that should worry you.
Commentary on third-party videos. Figures and claims are as presented in the sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.