EV Morning News: Rimac Charges Crazy Fast, Tesla FSD Increase, More

We’re back for another installment of EV Morning News. Settle in for the news as we head all around the world hunting down the most interesting stories!  

Rimac Nevera Destroys Lucid, Tesla in Charging! 

We’re always keeping an eye out for Rimac stories these days as we’re hugely excited by the car and them teaming up with Audi! With around 2,000hp, you’ll have no problems getting through the battery pack of their Nevera hypercar. But what if you want to charge it back up? 

Well, Mate Rimac has hooked up a Nevera to an IONITY charger and the images he’s shared are incredible. We’ve all been impressed by the likes of Teslas on V3 Superchargers, Taycans, IONIQ5 and others pulling around 250 to 260kW. Then the Lucid came along that tipped the 300kW mark.  

Now we have the Nevera which was shown to hit a whopping 333kW. But it gets even better, as Mate Rimac’s tweet claimed that the car could in fact go up to around 500kW, well over what the IONITY unit could dish out!  

Uber to get 3,000 electric motorbikes from Opibus  

We just thought this one was great when we saw it! As much as we love something like the Model S Plaid, it’s great to see more and more EVs with just two wheels…and this story brings us to Africa which we don’t get to do too often.  

Opibus are an African-Swedish electric motorbike manufacturer.  They have teamed up with Uber Africa to supply 3,000 ride-sharing electric motorbikes. Although Uber has become hugely popular through cars in places like the US, Africa is seeing a huge demand for motorbikes that will better suit their road infrastructure. 

The bikes will have dual battery packs that can be replaced. It’ll help the bikes run much longer as drivers can easily drop in a fully charged pack for a few more hours of work or commuting.  

Citroen, Opel, Peugeot MPVs to go all-electric   

Stellantis brands, Citroen, Peugeot and Opel will be making electric-only MPVs in Europe from 2022. It’s more good news for Europe as manufacturers concentrate their efforts on the electric revolution.  

Models such as the Rifter, Berlingo, Combi and Zafira Life will be sold only in electric form as early as this year. There will still be combustion versions available outside of the EU however.  

It’s going to be a busy time for the brands. Opel will be offering every one of their vehicles with some form of electrification. Although we get worried when we hear the ‘electrified’ word, so hopefully they all at least have a plug on them.  

Ford F150 Lightning price issues  

There have been many reports of dealers adding huge markups to the price of the Ford F150 Lightning as demand massively outstrips supply in the US. It looks like Ford would be able to find a home for every Lightning they could produce many times over for the next couple of years. 

And some dealers are taking advantage of this. But Ford is pushing back. Technically they cannot dictate the price at which dealers will sell the all-electric pickup truck. But they certainly have a lot of sway over the dealers and are seeking to protect the brand. Their putting some pressure on to make sure that customers for the truck. A sternly worded letter was issued to dealers, warning them that they could have their allocation of F-150 Lightnings redirected elsewhere. 

The F-150 Lightning has huge promise and will go a long way to converting a lot of people to electric. Let’s hope this doesn’t turn sour for potential buyers! 

Tesla increase FSD price…again 

Tesla’s price for the Full Self Driving package has been hiked again. Standing at $10,000, it will be rising to $12,000 on the 17th of January. This is not the first price rise, with the early versions costing $5,000. It is unlikely to be the last increase also as the company continually improves its technology with updates.  

The latest price rise might coincide with another update. And we can expect the subscription model to rise in line so that the outright purchase price makes economic sense for lots of people. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the sales figures. We wonder will any really be put off by the extra $2,000. Only time will tell! 

Mercedes 1,000km EQXX 

Mercedes showed off their concept car recently. In case you missed it, it was called the EQXX. We were blown away by the claimed range of 1,000km through efficiency of more than 6 miles per kWh!  

At first glance, its shape threw us a little bit. A gigantic overhang at the rear dominated the silhouette of the car. But it grew on us over time. There are hints of the Kia EV6 at the front, and the side profile reminds us of the Lightyear One.  

There doesn’t seem to be any active cooling, with Mercedes claiming that the car is so efficient, the battery won’t heat up enough to warrant the extra complexity and weight that would come with installing a system. Let’s see how that works out when Rapid Charging though! 

Summary 

Anyway, that’s enough from us here today. We hoped you enjoyed the show! We love scouring the news from around the world to come up with some really interesting stories. 

Do you think that Mercedes will come good on their 1,000km claim? 

What about Tesla raising the prices of its FSD package again…still worth it or was it ever worth $5,000 in the first place? 

Let us know in the comments what you think! 

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