Skip to main content

Electric Cars

The future of transportation is electric. Tesla proved with the Model S that customers would want to buy luxury vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. Other EV startups like Faraday Future, Byton, Lucid Motors, and SF Motors are chasing after Elon Musk. And major automakers like Jaguar, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz have each released their own Tesla challengers. There are obstacles, such as the need for a more robust charging network. But battery-powered cars are here to stay.

Rivian spinoff Also wants to reinvent the wheel — but first, it has to ship

Also President Chris Yu opens up about surviving the AI server component crunch, rewriting UL battery standards, and why the company’s modular e-bike is just the first step.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
This game will probably be the closest any of us get to having our own Tesla Roadster.

The game, which is called Roadflip and was made by Shopify software engineer Niko Draca, allows you to drive the Roadster up the vertical ramp, and then flip around as many times as you want before using the cold-gas thrusters to land safely on the ground — which, as it turns out, is harder than it sounds! The more flips you do, the higher your score. “Think Tony Hawk... but with a Roadster,” Draca said in an email. I have yet to land without exploding.

Roadflip

[Roadflip]

Sterling Anderson doesn’t think humanoid robots should be building cars

General Motors’ product chief breaks down the company’s software evolution, the physics of multisensor vehicle safety, and why personally owned autonomous vehicles beat robotaxis.

Andrew J. Hawkins
David Pierce
David Pierce
Today’s Vergecast: Why Tesla needs its cars to fly.

Tesla recently showed off a new version of its Roadster. Well, a new version of its old version of the Roadster, anyway. But this one flies! The Verge’s Andy Hawkins joins the show to explain the last decade of the Roadster saga, make sense of the flying and kickflipping new vehicle, and cast out into the future of Tesla’s cars for humans. If there even is one.

Sure, let’s smoosh SpaceX and Tesla together, who cares

Yes, of course there are pay package incentives in play for Musk. But that’s not all.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
VW tells ID.4 owners to limit charging to 80 percent or risk ‘thermal propagation.’

Charging the vehicle over 80 percent “may trigger thermal propagation within the high-voltage battery,” VW says. “If thermal propagation occurs, it may result in a vehicle fire.” If owners opt out, VW may decide to limit the charging through a remote vehicle setting. The recall affects 22,524 ID.4 vehicles built between January 2023 and February 2025.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
How Tesla made a car drive upside down.

The incredible flying Tesla Roadster may only have been for show, but it was still a pretty good show. Wired has a great breakdown of how the tricks worked, explaining the physics of static friction and vertical acceleration behind the Roadster’s many stunts.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Tesla ‘cannot guarantee’ Roadster pre-orders will be delivered.

The company is asking for $5,000 upfront for Roadster pre-orders, followed by $245,000 within 10 days. But even if you fork over the money, Tesla won’t guarantee your car will be delivered. According to the terms and conditions of the pre-order (emphasis ours):

You understand that Roadster is still under development at the time you entered into this Agreement and so we cannot guarantee when your vehicle will actually be delivered or if it will be delivered.

Turns out nothing is guaranteed in this world, not even flying cars.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Watch this deep dive into the engineering work that went into the flying Tesla Roadster.

Hagerty’s Henry Catchpool sat down with Tesla VP for Engineering Lars Moravy to talk through the details of last night’s impressive Tesla Roadster demonstration. But behind all the flipping and flying (falling?) stunt work is some impressive engineering — as well as some surprising reveals. (The Roadster is rear-wheel drive?!?)

The incredible flying Tesla Roadster is just for show

It’s okay to marvel at the stunt — it’s pure spectacle.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
A gas thruster, steering wheel, and a teeny weeny clock.

What else do you need from the Tesla Roadster? I mean, it can apparently fly and do kickflips too, but this video shows what you’ll actually be seeing inside the driver’s seat, including an interactive 3D X-Ray of the car you can check out on its infotainment system.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
The flying Tesla Roadster is ‘not approved for public road use.’

I mean, duh. But still I’m glad they are making that explicit.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Want to preorder a Ford EV that no one has even seen yet?

Ford is now accepting sign-ups for preorder invites for the upcoming Ford Fathom, the automaker’s $28,350 electric truck that’s coming out next year. Keep in mind, no one has seen this truck beyond a few camouflaged images. But with the average transaction price for a new vehicle over $50,562, it couldn’t hurt to get in line for Ford’s new ultra-low-cost EV.

The Tesla Roadster could have stayed vaporware

It took nearly a decade for Tesla’s next-gen sports car to arrive, but it’s finally here. The timing couldn’t be worse.

Andrew J. Hawkins
Inside the mini factory where GM builds its EV future

GM is using AI models and a new mini factory to build and test cheaper EV battery cells in half the time.

John Voelcker
The Telo MT1 is a big truck trapped in a tiny truck’s body

Tiny pickup trucks might just become a thing in the US if the California-based startup Telo has its way.

Abigail Bassett
Stevie Bonifield
Stevie Bonifield
Take a look at Volkswagen’s new ID.Tiguan EV.

VW’s successor to the ID.4 has a “completely redesigned exterior,” a range of up to 600 km (372 miles), and either a 58 or 77 kWh battery. The ID.Tiguan will start at €42,695 and could launch as soon as early 2027.

The VW ID.Tiguan EV
The VW ID.Tiguan EV
The VW ID.Tiguan EV
The interior of the VW ID.Tiguan EV
1/4Image: Volkswagen
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
BMW’s iX3 M60 looks sick.

The sportier, M-badged iX3 SUV has twin motors putting out 603 horsepower and 645 lb-ft of torque, with a blistering 0-60 time in 3.9 seconds. You can also expect all the standard M chassis tech, like adaptive suspension, variable sport steering, and an electronically controlled differential. BMW calls the design “unmistakably extroverted,” and yeah, I kind of agree.

1/12
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Rivian’s R2 adds Pet Cam and an AI voice assistant.

A new software update rolling out the R2 enables Pet Cam, through which vehicle owners can keep tabs on their furry friends, as well as cabin temperature, via the Rivian app. (Tesla pioneered using in-cabin cameras to monitor pets with Dog Mode, released in 2019.) Rivian is also adding its AI-powered voice assistant to the R2 — which may be more of a mixed bag, based on some reviews from R1 owners.

If you buy something from a link, The Verge may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

1/3Image: Rivian
Andrew J. Hawkins
Andrew J. Hawkins
Lucid’s EV sales slip.

The company just released its third quarter sales in report, in which it recorded a 6.7 percent decrease in deliveries and a whopping 24 percent drop in production. Lucid said it only built 2,954 vehicles in Q3, a 38 percent drop from the previous quarter and the lowest number of vehicles for the company since early 2025. But Lucid said this is all part of the plan:

Deliveries exceeded production as the company continued to execute its planned inventory reduction, converting existing vehicle inventory into customer deliveries as part of the previously announced operating reset targeting $1.4 billion of cash flow improvements in 2026.