Motiv Power Systems, a 14-year veteran of the electric truck industry, has just announced Argo, a new medium-duty Class 4-6 truck designed from the ground up to be electric, available in 2024.
Electric trucking is a hot sector right now due to new rules adopted by California requiring rapid electrification of commercial fleets. These rules mean about 20,000 medium-duty electric trucks will need to be deployed by the end of 2024.
And Motiv hopes that it can have the Argo in production by late next year and hopes to provide possibly a thousand of those vehicles (an optimistic number, given that it currently only has 180 vehicles deployed in the field).
Motiv has provided trucks to Cintas, Bimbo Bakeries, and Purolator but is hoping to double its total delivered fleet this year and then scale up quickly to match the tsunami of demand it sees coming in 2024 and 2025.
Motiv says the experience and feedback it has collected through its years of providing EVs to its customers has helped it design the Argo to better fit real-world needs. Its cab features a command seating position (helping to bring the battery forward, taking some weight off the rear axle) but has taken some lessons from the step van world and included stairs rather than a ladder for easier entry and exit.
Argo will be built on Motiv’s next-generation platform, which it announced in April. The platform uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are cheaper and more durable than lithium-ion, but don’t offer quite as much energy density.
But even with a relatively less dense LFP battery, Motiv says the Argo will offer 150 miles of range with its base 158 kWh battery, even when loaded to its max 26,000 lb gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). There will be an additional three-module 237 kWh option available, which will give over 200 miles of range.
Motiv says its powertrain, co-developed with Nidec, makes up to 1,770 lb-ft of torque, which is as much as a Class 8 diesel truck, but in a Class 4-6 package. This gives it better performance than any gasoline-powered equivalent when fully loaded (4-6 tons).
In the face of new regulations and to fulfill ESG commitments, companies are scrambling to make plans, and the cost of trucks and availability of charging are two major questions for fleets as they get ready for electrification.
Motiv thinks the Argo offers better answers to these questions for many fleets. It hasn’t yet announced a price for the Argo but wants to keep it under $250,000 (before a commercial EV tax credit of up to $40,000) – which it says is lower than competitors like the Freightliner eM2.
This, of course, comes alongside much lower operational costs and higher uptime than diesel trucks, and Motiv says Argo will have a simpler powertrain with less cabling and fewer parts than its electric competition as well, leading to potentially lower maintenance costs.
Argo will also use a 400-volt DC charging system capable of 65 kW, differing from some of its competitors, which are going with 800-volt systems. Motiv thinks the lower voltage will offer an advantage in that it can interface with existing DC chargers from the light-duty world, which should make charging easier. For AC charging, it has a 19.2 kW onboard charger. Argo will likely use the NACS connector, but Motiv hasn’t decided yet since things are changing rapidly on that front.
That DC charge rate seems low compared to light-duty vehicles, but the fleets that Motiv services tend to have defined routes and long park times at the end of the day. It figures most customers will charge overnight on an 80-amp charger and recommends that as the optimal charging solution.
Hyundai issued a recall for nearly 600,000 vehicles in the US, including the popular Palisade SUV and several IONIQ electric vehicles.
Hyundai Palisade and IONIQ EV recall details
In a notice to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on September 12, Hyundai announced a recall of 568,580 2020-2025 model year Palisade vehicles.
The recall is due to faulty seat belt buckles in the front and rear, which may fail to latch. Although Hyundai expects only about 1% of the Palisade models actually have the defect, it’s issuing the recall out of an abundance of caution.
Hyundai said those with impacted vehicles may notice a lighter-than-normal “click” when fastening the seatbelt. You can bring it to a Hyundai dealer, where they will fix the seatbelt, free of charge.
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Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed on November 10, 2025. You can contact Hyundai’s customer service at 1-855-371-9460 with any questions. Hyundai’s recall number is 283.
Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Source: Hyundai)
In a separate notice sent to the NHTSA on September 12, Hyundai issued another recall for 31,042 2023 – 2025 IONIQ 6 EV models because the charging port door panel could detach.
Again, Hyundai expects only about 1% of them to have the defect. Those impacted can bring their vehicle to a local Hyundai dealer, where they will fix the port, free of charge.
Owner notification letters will also go out on November 10. Hyundai’s recall number for the IONIQ 6 is 282. Owners can contact Hyundai’s customer service hotline (listed above) with any questions.
The 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 at a Tesla Supercharger (Source: Hyundai)
But, wait, that’s not all. Hyundai issued a third recall on September 12 for just eight 2025 IONIQ 5 models due to improperly tightened fasteners that could loosen over time. Dealers will replace the bolts, align the wheels, and even replace the tires if needed, free of charge.
If you own any of the recalled vehicles, you can contact Hyundai’s customer service or NHTSA hotline (1-888-327-4236) with questions. You can also visit NHTSA.gov for more information.
Hyundai’s recalls follow Toyota, which issued a recall for over 590,000 vehicles in the US. Between the two, a combined 1.1 million cars have been recalled.
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Tesla has lost another leader of its Optimus humanoid robot program, which is upsetting those who bet on Tesla’s stock (TSLA), as CEO Elon Musk says most of Tesla’s value is tied to the robot.
Musk claims that 80% of Tesla’s future earnings would come from its humanoid robot, which he believes would bring in trillions of dollars and finally justify Tesla trading at more than 200 times earnings.
That’s been hard to believe considering the state of the Optimus program.
Now, we learn that another leader of the Optimus program has left Tesla: Ashish Kumar, who led Tesla’s Optimus AI team for the past two years.
Kumar received a phD in artificial intelligence from Berkeley in 2023 and quickly joined Tesla’s humanoid effort. He was believed to be leading the AI aspect of the program, while Kovac led the overall program, including robotics.
He announced his departure on X:
Decided to leave Tesla.
It’s been an incredible ride leading the Optimus AI team. We went all-in on scalable methods — swapping the classical stack with reinforcement learning & scaling dexterity by learning from videos.
AI is the most significant bit to unlock humanoids.
Kumar confirmed that he joined Meta’s AI team as a researcher. Meta has been aggressively poaching AI researchers over the last year, but Tesla has remained largely unaffected by this effort.
The Facebook owner has been reported to be offering substantial compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions to AI researchers, but this hasn’t been confirmed.
Some Tesla shareholders were visibly upset by Kumar’s announcement and some quickly accused him of taking Meta’s money:
Kumar responded and claimed that Tesla was actually giving him a better deal than Meta:
Financial upside at Tesla was significantly larger. Tesla is known to compensate pretty well, way before Zuck made it cool. If I wanted to optimize for money, I would have stayed at Tesla.
It didn’t stop many Tesla sharehodlers to be mean to him for simply deciding to work on something else than Optimus:
Electrek’s Take
It will not come as a surprise to anyone here, but damn, the Tesla community is really becoming toxic.
This individual dedicated two years of his life working at Tesla. The only appropriate thing to say is: thanks for your hard work and good luck in your next endeavor.
The reason they are being so mean is that they believe Elon Musk’s lies that Optimus will justify Tesla’s insane valuation and become the most valuable company in the world; this guy’s departure challenges their view.
Why would he give up working on the most important product of all time and likely become a billionaire in the process? Maybe because these things won’t happen?
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It looks like electric motorcycle influencer Surronster has landed himself in trouble south of the border, based on an arrest video posted to his social media channels.
A heavily edited video posted on his Instagram page shows the controversial rider in handcuffs being led into a police vehicle by officers in Tijuana, Mexico. The reel appears to have been filmed by a companion in the influencer’s entourage. No additional context was provided in the post, and at the time of writing, details surrounding the arrest remain unclear.
The incident comes just two days after the influencer posted another update to his social media showing that he was being denied entry into Mexico with his Sur Ron electric off-road motorcycle loaded in the bed of his truck.
In the more recent clip, the Tijuana Municipal Police appear to be questioning him and an associate before handcuffing them both. An officer is seen starting to remove the influencer’s helmet, then the clip jumps to a shot of the influencer entering the back of the police truck, edited to avoid showing his unhelmeted face. Surronster has long concealed his identity, always being filmed while wearing a full-face dirt bike helmet.
Surronster has gained a large following online by pushing the limits of electric motorcycles – especially the Sur Ron Light Bee and similar lightweight electric dirt bikes. His content often shows him performing stunts, riding in traffic without a license plate, and usually on electric dirt bikes that are not street legal for use on public roads. His 1M+ following is comprised mainly of young male viewers in their teens and twenties, with many attempting to imitate the riders’ style and stunts. He has risen to become one of the leading influencers in the electric motorbike industry, all while promoting a rebellious image and racking up millions of views on social media.
That notoriety has earned him plenty of fans, but also a long line of critics. Many in the e-bike and e-moto community have called out the influencer for encouraging illegal and unsafe behavior that risks drawing increased regulation and public backlash against electric two-wheelers, not to mention the danger to young riders who may attempt to recreate his stunts. Others defend him as a thrill-seeking entertainer similar to traditional motorsport stunt riders.
A large proportion of his videos feature illegal riding activities, but his strict control over his anonymity has meant that he has effectively operated with impunity. But getting arrested in a foreign country is a serious matter, and it remains to be seen what charges – if any – he’ll face. At the time of publishing, the Tijuana Minicipal Police have not responded to a request for comment.
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