The battery that failed in Jared's 2019 Chevrolet Bolt was not the car's first. It went in under GM's recall at about 138,000 miles, and reports at the time said repaired Bolts of that age got an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty on the new pack. That pack kept going until 471,694 miles, when one cell group gave out, according to Out of Spec Reviews, and a used replacement cost about $1,800 delivered. No lab could have produced that answer in 2021. It took a driver doing rideshare and delivery work in rural Vermont, what Out of Spec believes was near-daily fast charging, and a lot of time. Most of what buyers want to know about an electric car, how the battery ages, what breaks and what fixing it costs, only arrives that way.
Tom Moloughney is building that kind of record on purpose. He ran his own R2 from full to empty at 70 mph on the New Jersey Turnpike, got 270 miles, and called the run a baseline for future tests in winter and as the car ages. It beats his earlier 259-mile result in a borrowed R2 and the 212 miles Out of Spec recorded, but the figure that will matter is the next one on the same road. Range Rover has tried to do some of the waiting before launch. Electrifying's presenter says long testing of the battery and chassis is part of why the Range Rover Sport Electric arrived late, and the brand now quotes a 333-mile real-world estimate alongside its WLTP figure. That at least sets a lower expectation before owners set one for it.
Two stories ask for patience in the other direction. Chery says its Rhino S solid-state cell has reached 400 Wh/kg, but its own plan makes 2027 a year of vehicle validation in one Exeed model, not a year of sales. Omar Yaghi says his MOF powder can keep harvesting water for five or six years, and his company Atoco expects to ship its first units in 2027. Matt Ferrell closes his Undecided video by saying he wants to see the machines deliver what is claimed, reliably, for years before he would install one. That is the test the Bolt just passed. Chery and Atoco can publish every lab figure they have, and neither company can skip it.
What to watch: Moloughney's promised cold-weather rerun on the same course; the Bolt's return to Out of Spec at 500,000 miles, which its owner has promised; whether the semi-solid pack Chery has scheduled for the Exeed EX7 reaches customers before the year ends; and a delivery date for the Range Rover Sport Electric, which Range Rover had not given when UK orders opened on September 30.
A 471,000-Mile Chevrolet Bolt Gets a Used Battery for About $1,800
Out of Spec Reviews and its repair channel, Out of Spec Renew, replaced the battery in a viewer's 2019 Bolt EV that stopped running at 471,694 miles. The owner, Jared, bought it new and, according to Alex of Out of Spec Renew, piled on miles doing rideshare and delivery work from rural Vermont. The car had received a recall replacement pack at about 138,000 miles, so the failed pack covered more than 330,000 miles. That 2021 recall covered about 140,000 Bolts; GM put its cost at about $2 billion, and LG agreed to reimburse $1.9 billion. Alex traced the fault to one cell group with a likely internal short and a few others out of balance, and says the old modules showed visible swelling. The used replacement cost about $1,500, or about $1,800 shipped, through a dismantler Alex works with; Alex puts a more typical shop job at $3,000 to $3,500 for the pack plus about $1,000 in labor. Used pack prices follow demand rather than capacity, Alex says, citing a 99 kWh EV9 pack bought for about $1,600. The car still runs its original drive unit, has had two steering racks, and drove without clunks or drivetrain noise on the hosts' test. The new Bolt's shortened production run came up in our September 30 edition.
Tom Moloughney's Own R2 Covers 270 Miles at 70 mph in New Jersey
Tom Moloughney of State Of Charge ran his own R2 Performance, on 21-inch wheels and all-season tires, from a full charge to zero at a GPS-checked 70 mph on the New Jersey Turnpike, a stretch he says varies by less than 200 feet in elevation over about 100 miles. In Conserve mode with the climate set near 70 degrees Fahrenheit, on a day that warmed from 58 to about 66 degrees with a light crosswind, the car covered 270 miles at 3.09 miles per kWh, using 87.4 kWh of the roughly 88 kWh he gives as usable. His earlier test, in a friend's R2 on 20-inch all-terrain tires in Colorado, reached 259.4 miles. He lists this version's EPA ratings as 330 miles combined and 301 highway, which puts his result at about 82 percent of the first and 90 percent of the second. He calls 270 a good result but argues Rivian could have chosen a more conservative rating, and notes the 212 miles Out of Spec recorded in its own comparison. He drove the final 2.4 miles to a Supercharger showing zero percent and zero miles left, and plans to repeat the run in cold weather. For how Out of Spec runs its own 70 mph test, see our October 27 edition.
Chery Puts 400 Wh/kg on Its Solid-State Roadmap, With Cars to Follow in 2027
The Electric Viking, who says he attended the launch in China, walks through two battery claims from Chery. The first is a conventional liquid-electrolyte Rhino cell that he says can peak at 12C and average above 8C, enough for a 10 to 80 percent charge in about five minutes, though he notes a 70 kWh pack charging at 8C would need a charger of more than 550 kW. The second is the Rhino S solid-state cell, which he says reaches 400 Wh/kg with a sulfide electrolyte and high-nickel cathode, about double the 195 Wh/kg he gives for Chery's current EV battery, works across a range he gives as minus 40 to 100 degrees, and could support up to 1,500 km of range. A semi-solid pack comes first, in the Exeed EX7 SUV before the end of this year, with the full solid-state cell to follow in the Exeed ES8 shooting brake. Published reports differ on which cell carries the 1,500 km figure: CarNewsChina and electrive tie it to the 400 Wh/kg cell, while Battery-Tech Network links it to a 600 Wh/kg cell Chery is still developing. EnergyTrend says Chery has set 2027 as the year of vehicle validation for the ES8.
Electrifying Finds the Electric Range Rover Sport Barely Changed, and Quieter
Electrifying drove the Range Rover Sport Electric in Scotland and found it nearly identical to the combustion car outside, apart from flush door handles and EV lettering on the wheels. The presenter quotes prices from just under £110,000 to just under £127,000, a 118.5 kWh battery, 374 miles of WLTP range with around 300 to 330 expected in normal driving, 800-volt charging at up to 350 kW and 22 kW AC as standard. Range Rover's own list runs from £109,810 for the Dynamic SE to £126,290 for the First Edition, and its real-world range estimate is 333 miles. In Dynamic mode, the presenter says, it makes 550 hp and 850 Nm for 0 to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds, and Range Rover calls it the most powerful Range Rover Sport yet. The review praises the quiet cabin on 22-inch wheels, the rear-wheel steering and limited body roll, and finds the single-pedal mode very gentle. The presenter gives boot space as 733 litres, slightly less than the petrol version. The presenter says long testing of the battery, car and chassis, including 45-degree climbs and 900 mm wading, was one reason the car arrived late. What Car?'s first drive is in our October 24 edition.
Undecided Examines Machines That Pull Drinking Water From Desert Air
Matt Ferrell's Undecided examines atmospheric water harvesters built around MOF-303, an aluminum-based metal-organic framework from the family of materials that won Omar Yaghi a share of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, alongside Susumu Kitagawa and Richard Robson. The video explains that the powder takes up water vapor at night and gives it back when heated above about 45 degrees Celsius, so it needs far less energy than chilling air to its dew point. A small solar-powered unit from Yaghi's UC Berkeley team made water in Death Valley even where night-time humidity averaged 14 percent, according to the video. Yaghi's company Atoco claims its shipping-container machine can produce 2,000 to 4,000 liters a day on grid power, using a third of the energy of the best dehumidifier-style systems, or up to 1,000 liters a day from waste heat. It plans to ship its first couple of hundred units in 2027, and its own simulations put utility-scale water at $2.50 per cubic meter. Ferrell also cites an LA Times report putting AirJoule's units at $100,000 to $200,000, and the UK's Ahbstra, whose £150,000 ARK targets 500 liters a day at an estimated 20p per liter. He says he will wait for proof that the machines deliver reliably for years before installing one at home.
Bottom line: The Bolt is the most useful evidence in this edition, and it argues for buying older EVs with common battery packs rather than fearing them. A used pack at about $1,800, or a shop job of $4,000 to $4,500 by Out of Spec Renew's estimate, is a repair, not a write-off. Moloughney's 270 miles is a good result, but the R2's 330-mile rating is generous for highway driving, so plan around the lower number. Treat Chery's 1,500 km and Atoco's six-year powder like any launch claim: promising, unproven, and worth checking again in 2028.
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.