I’ll take the L on this: back when Ford first filed the patent on a new technology that would allow vehicle owners to rev their engines remotely by using a key fob, I predicted we wouldn’t see it in a production car anytime soon. How wrong I was! “Remote Rev” is coming to the seventh generation pony car next year. Why would anyone want to do this, you might ask? TBD!
The Wall Street Journal reports that the electric automaker is pausing its plans to make batteries at its Gigafactory in Berlin. The shift in strategy came about after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $10 billion in tax credits for companies who build clean-tech facilities in the US. The company is also exploring building a lithium processing plant on the Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, Tesla’s vehicles will re-qualify for the $7,500 EV tax credit starting January 1st. (The company was the first to lose eligibility back in 2019.)
Gizmodo reports that Uber will pay $100 million in back taxes to the state of New Jersey in response to an audit that concluded the company was misclassifying its drivers as independent contractors. But here’s the thing: Uber will pay any amount of money necessary to continue misclassifying drivers, because reclassifying them as employees would cause Uber to cease to exist.
The Drive’s Kevin Williams has made what could be one of the greatest EV archeological discoveries of a generation: a 1987 Chevy Corvette EV built by cell-phone pioneer Motorola.
This raises so many questions. First and foremost, why the hell was Motorola making cars? Electric cars for that matter? And can I drive it? There’s loads of pics and fun backstory, so I recommend you go check it out.
Earlier this year, Specialized announced a new sub-brand called Globe dedicated to building high-quality electric utility bikes that are designed specifically to replace car trips. We still don’t know what these bikes will look like, but today the company released its brand statement in the form of a poem, which is cute. Specialized promises it will have more to say on September 27th, so mark you calendars.
