The new Cayenne S Electric slots between the entry level Cayenne Electric and the high performance Turbo Electric, both of which were released late last year. The dual-motor S Electric will have an output of 536 horsepower, which jumps to 657 hp when using Launch Control. And it will start at $126,300 when it goes on sale this summer, as compared to $165,350 for the Turbo Electric. Giddyup.
Andrew J. Hawkins

Transportation editor
Transportation editor
More From Andrew J. Hawkins


The FAA just announced its picks for the Advanced Air Mobility and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program (eIPP). Out of over 30 applicants, eight projects were selected to serve as the blueprint for how these aircraft will eventually fit into daily lives. The key focus areas are: urban air taxis; regional connectivity; medical and cargo; and autonomous flight. But the clock is ticking. Under the program’s guidelines, we can expect to see the first test flights beginning as early as summer 2026.
The feature that allows women to adjust their settings to indicate a preference for a woman driver in all circumstances is coming to more cities, including New York, Philly, D.C., Atlanta, and Austin. Uber started piloting the feature in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Detroit in 2025 and is now expanding it after receiving positive feedback.
But not everyone is on board; one Uber driver called it “gender-based labor exploitation, not empowerment.”
The Amazon-owned company with the toaster-shaped robotaxis is now testing its vehicles in Phoenix and Dallas. Zoox will start manually mapping with its retro-fitted Toyota SUVs before leveling up to fully autonomous testing with its purpose-built vehicles.
The company is also actively testing with passengers in California, though it has yet to receive a permit for a fully public, paid commercial robotaxi service in the state.

Plug-in hybrid owners rarely actually plug in their vehicles, practically negating the climate advantages of the technology.
That is, the fastest EV product launch in US history. TechCrunch’s Sean O’Kane (who’s also a Verge alum) outlines how Rivian is staking its future on the launch of the more affordable R2 mid-sized SUV, predicting it will sell 20,000-25,000 by the end of this year.
If it succeeds, it will pull off something that only Tesla has done with the Model Y — and in a much more challenging environment. Rivian is expected to announce the R2’s price (previously estimated to start at $45,000) at SXSW next week.
Glenn Mercer of Car Charts has a new chart that shows EV sales ticking up slightly in the US, after all the chaos around the expiration of the tax credit has settled. We’re basically back to where we were around 2022-2023, with EVs capturing around 5-6 percent of total sales. So where are things headed? According to Mercer:
As the saying goes, we will eventually “solve for the equilibrium.” Which might in the near term be something like diesel-powered duallies on the ranches, gas-burning pickups in the ruburbs (rural suburbs), BEV runabouts in most urban areas, and PHEVs and HEVs in the closer-in suburbs. Not to mention a diverse zoo of person- and cargo-carrying e-bikes and scooters everywhere.
That’s Ford CEO Jim Farley to Car and Driver about the F-150 Lightning. The automaker recently discontinued the electric truck, after announcing a massive $19.5 billion write-down on its EV operations. “I mean, look, we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Farley adds, admitting that Ford’s gas-engine “prejudice was so high that we hadn’t designed the [electric] cars right.” Now the company is betting that it can right-size its business with smaller, more aerodynamic EVs.














