On Labor Day weekend, Tom Moloughney of State of Charge charged at his local IONNA site in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, during a 20-cent-a-kilowatt-hour special that he says undercut his rate at home. What caught his eye was the stream of Teslas, a car he rarely sees on any network but Tesla's own. A cheap weekend got them to try it. The rest of the year, the host notes, their cars' navigation still points them to Superchargers, and that is the problem Seth Cutler, IONNA's chief executive, now says his company is working on.
Cutler lists three things Tesla drivers already get from Tesla: affordable pricing, plug-and-charge and built-in navigation. In the State of Charge interview, IONNA has the first, by the host's account, but Tesla owners still pay by card at its sites and their cars do not suggest it. Moloughney argues the map is the biggest barrier of the three, because a driver whose car always proposes a Supercharger rarely goes looking for anything else. Whoever sets that default keeps the customer without having to argue for them.
Top Gear's R2 and iX3 comparison shows a default working the other way. Rivian leaves out Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which the presenter finds as irritating as in a Tesla, and by the show's count the R2 gives up 80 to 100 miles of range to the BMW. He would still buy the Rivian with his own money, because the choices it did make, from an adaptive scroll wheel on the steering wheel to a rear window that opens on its own, made it easier to live with than a BMW he rates as the better drive.
Other defaults get overridden from outside. UpsideDownFork's MG5 has the same ports as cars with vehicle-to-load, but the host says MG never fitted the hardware to send power back out, so he tried a 4 kW box that does the job through the DC pins. Used prices are set by forces nobody chose, too. Ever's guide sends buyers under $25,000 to 2024 Ioniq 5s that came back off lease in numbers, while used Model Y prices have climbed this year, the host says. And sometimes the default sits in the paperwork. After Tesla's flying Roadster demo, Marques Brownlee opened his own reservation agreement and found it says Tesla cannot guarantee when, or whether, the car will be delivered.
Watch whether a Tesla ever recommends a charger it does not own. Cutler says IONNA has work under way on all three of those pillars, without saying when any of it lands. Until the map changes, the 39-cent rate Moloughney quotes will mostly reach drivers who were already searching. Watch Rivian's updates too: Top Gear asked for clearer gaps between the R2's ride and regen settings, a default Rivian could change over the air.
Top Gear Would Take the R2 Over BMW's iX3, Range Gap and All
Top Gear drove the two back to back in North Carolina, the R2 in dual-motor Performance form. The presenter puts the R2's headline starting price near $45,000, about $15,000 below a base iX3, and this Performance car at $58,000 before options and $62,000 as tested; the iX3 tested at $72,000. Top Gear lists the R2 at 656 bhp, an 88 kWh battery, 2,250 kg and a 330-mile EPA range, which leaves the 469 hp BMW 80 to 100 miles ahead by the show's reckoning. On the same hot, humid roads the R2 returned 3.7 miles per kWh and the iX3 about 4; Everyday Chris averaged 2.68 in an R2 over 1,178 miles, covered here on October 12, so Top Gear's figure reflects one route on one day. The presenter calls the iX3 the best-driving electric SUV of its type short of the Porsche Cayenne Electric, but faults its touch-sensitive wheel buttons, hard plastics and a screen shape that frames CarPlay in bezels. In his view the R2 wins inside, with light leather, driftwood trim, a rear window that opens on its own and a frunk that opens from outside. It rides softly, more Volvo than BMW in his telling. Not every reviewer agrees on the BMW: savagegeese, covered October 1, found the iX3's ride, steering and controls short of its price, where Top Gear praises how it drives.
Marques Brownlee Sorts the Roadster Into Four Versions, Then Reads His Own Reservation
Following yesterday's Tailosive EV coverage, Marques Brownlee's Auto Focus video, built from Tesla's site and follow-up reports by MotorTrend, Hagerty and Top Gear, sets out how the car splits up. By his account there are four versions: a base car without the tricks, which he heard about from MotorTrend and which Tesla's site does not list; a Performance car with a fan system for downforce, 0 to 60 mph in about 1.6 seconds, and Tesla's "road ready" label; a Thrust car that adds rear thrusters fed by a 200-litre carbon-wrapped tank holding over 100 kg of nitrogen at 10,000 psi behind the driver, for under a second to 60; and the invitation-only Rocket, with six more thrusters and a 400-litre tank where the passenger would sit, which Tesla says is not approved for public roads. He says a thrust run lasts three to five seconds and cites Hagerty for a refill time of six to seven hours. He also reports carbon body panels, a weight under 1,700 kg, about 1,300 hp through the rear wheels only, 500 kW charging, and range down from roughly 600 promised miles to over 300; Tailosive put the 2017 figure at 620. Brownlee says he does not know Tesla's plan for that tank in a crash, and his reservation agreement says delivery is not guaranteed. Production is promised for 2028.
A 4 kW Box Gives UpsideDownFork's MG5 the Vehicle-to-Load Its Maker Left Out
UpsideDownFork's MG5 has the same Type 2 and CCS ports as cars with vehicle-to-load, but the host says it lacks a bidirectional inverter behind them, so the small plug-in adapters that work on other cars do nothing on it. The device tested here goes around that. It plugs into the DC pins and carries its own 4 kW inverter, five times the 800 W output of the Sigenergy plug-in battery covered here on October 14. The host explains that it turns the battery's roughly 400 volts DC into 230 volts AC at a three-pin socket, with USB and a barrel plug alongside. A 12-volt lead wakes the car, the unit takes about 30 seconds to start, and only then does it lock in. Once running, it powered what he plugged in. The host's complaints are size, since it is far bulkier than the AC adapters, and that it is not waterproof, a problem for camping in British weather. He gives no price, and the video tests only the MG5, so whether another car will accept it is worth confirming before buying.
Ever Picks a Used Electric SUV at Every Budget From $25,000 to $40,000
Ever's host picks one used electric SUV at each $5,000 step. Under $25,000 it is a 2024 Ioniq 5 SEL with 20,000 to 30,000 miles, plentiful because so many came off lease, he says, with 303 miles of EPA range in rear-drive form and a 10 to 80 percent charge in 18 minutes at 350 kW. He notes that pre-2024 cars need a battery coolant flush every 35,000 miles. At $30,000 it is a 2022 Model Y, Performance under 60,000 miles or Long Range under 50,000, since used Model Y prices have risen this year. He expects about 250 to 260 real miles from its 303-mile rating and says front control arms are known to wear and creak, a repair that cost him about $250 on one of his own Model 3s. At $35,000 it is a 2024 Cadillac LYRIQ, 314 miles from 102 kWh, but about 45 minutes from 10 to 80 percent in Ever's testing and no lane centring on the trims in budget; he cites State of Charge's Tom Moloughney for 330 miles at 70 mph. At $40,000 it is a single-motor EV9 Light Long Range, 305 miles and 24-minute charging, with 201 hp for 5,300 lb. Out of Spec's run-to-empty test, covered here September 22, found a year-old Model Y about 20 miles short, another reason to read older range figures with care.
IONNA Passes 200 Sites and Says Tesla Drivers Are Next
IONNA opened its first full site in February 2025 and now has over 200 locations and about 1,700 stalls, State of Charge's Tom Moloughney says, all with 400 kW chargers and both NACS and CCS1 cables, at a standard 39 cents a kWh by his account. For a non-Tesla driver, that compares with the roughly 57 cents State of Charge reported for Tesla's non-member rate, covered here on October 15. CEO Seth Cutler told him 80 more sites are under construction and a couple of hundred are in permitting, though the stated goal of 30,000 stalls by the end of 2030 would need close to 600 a month from here, by the host's arithmetic. Cutler stresses quality instead: about a quarter of sites have canopies, a tenth or slightly fewer have IONNA-built amenities, a first California flagship is waiting on a transformer ahead of a pre-Thanksgiving opening, and a first Michigan site is about to break ground. He says he wishes IONNA had more pull-through stalls, which are easier where IONNA builds from scratch, as in Garner, North Carolina, and Janesville, Wisconsin, than on convenience-store lots. Two California Circle K sites converted to NACS-only are busy, he says, but CCS drivers complained and IONNA will be careful about repeating it.
Bottom line: Buy the R2 if 330 rated miles covers your life, because Rivian's choices make it the easier car to live with, and a missing CarPlay is a fair trade for a cabin this good. Used buyers should start with Ever's off-lease Ioniq 5 at $25,000 before paying up for a Model Y whose price has already run. IONNA's cheap power will not move Tesla owners until a Tesla's own map shows it. And Brownlee's contract says more than the demo did: no guaranteed date, no promise of delivery, and an invitation needed for the version that flies.
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