Toyota’s egg-shaped minivan, the Previa, is officially going electric. It will be revived as the first all-electric Toyota minivan. Will the funky-looking minivan find success as an EV?

When will Toyota launch its first electric minivan?

Although Toyota launched Japan’s first “electrified,” or PHEV models less than two weeks ago, we are already learning that a fully electric minivan is coming.

Toyota launched the Alphard and Vellfire PHEV minivans on December 20, offering both gas and hybrid powertrains. The new PHEV system provides up to 45 miles (73 km) of all-electric driving range, while the interior features “the quietness of a BEV.” Meanwhile, Toyota has bigger plans to enter the electric minivan market.

According to a recent report from Japan’s leading auto magazine, Best Car (via Forbes), the Toyota Previa will be revived in 2026.

Known for its egg-shaped design, the Toyota Previa was sold in the US and overseas markets in the early 1990s. However, due to stiff competition from the Chrysler Town and Country, Dodge Caravan, and others, the Previa was discontinued in 1997. In its final sales year, only 3,780 units were sold, compared to a peak of around 52,000 in 1991.

The Previa was replaced by the Sienna, which has a much more toned-down design and is still sold primarily in the North American market.

Although Toyota was expected to use the e-TNGA platform, which underpins the bZ4X electric SUV, a Toyota insider said the Previa EV will use the GA-K platform, currently used for the Crown, Camry, and RAV-4 models.

It will be available in both electric (EV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) options. Like its predecessor, the electric minivan is expected to feature a similar egg-like design for aerodynamics.

The revived Previa was initially developed as a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCEV), but Toyota changed its plans due to a lack of demand and charging. The FCEV model was previewed as the “Fine-Comfort Ride” Concept (shown above) in 2017.

Electrek’s Take

An all-electric Toyota minivan could help the Japanese auto giant finally gain traction in the EV market. Sales of its first electric model, the bZ4X, have been slower than expected due to an early recall and an influx of mid-size electric SUVs, many times with more range and features.

Toyota is known for its hybrids, like the Prius, so it’s no surprise that it will offer a PHEV version. However, without a dedicated EV platform, the electric Previa could suffer the same fate as the bZ4X, with less range and options.

Rivals like Hyundai are also launching their first electric minivans soon. Hyundai is preparing to begin production of its Staria Electric minivan next year. It’s expected to launch in Korea next year, followed by Europe in the first half of 2026. European-made models will be imported to places like Australia and Thailand, two key overseas markets for Toyota.

Recently, reports surfaced that Toyota is dropping the bZ4X (bZ) naming system, so an electric Previa minivan could make sense.

Toyota has teased other EV revivals, including electric Land Cruiser and Supra models. It also just launched the Urban Cruiser electric SUV in Europe. Check back soon for more info on Toyota’s first electric minivan.

Tesla has replaced some of its US employees who were let go as part of a big wave of layoffs earlier this year with foreign workers using H-1B visas, which CEO Elon Musk is now campaigning to increase.

Over the last week, Elon Musk has been promoting the increase of H-1B visas, which are used to bring foreign workers into the US for “specialty occupations.”

Qualified foreign workers need to be sponsored by a company to get the visa, which lasts three years, extendable to six years, after which the holder needs to reapply.

The visa holder must maintain employment at the visa sponsor to retain the work visa. The worker would have to leave the country if the employment ends for whatever reason. This has led to some criticism as it gives tremendous power to the employer and can lead to a modern version of indentured servitude.

While there are obvious benefits to bringing skilled workers into the US, people are divided on the issue because those workers are often paid less than US workers, putting negative pressure on compensation, especially in the tech industry, on top of the moral questions about holding visas over the heads of foreign workers.

That’s why the US Congress has mandated a 65,000 visa cap limiting the number of H-1B visas that can be issued each fiscal year, plus an extra 20,000 for foreign people coming out of graduate programs at US universities.

Tesla has been a big user of those visas, and its CEO, Elon Musk, has been using his newfound political influence to promote increasing the cap of H-1B visas. He received significant pushback from his new friends on the right side of the political spectrum in the US, who see this visa as being used to steal jobs from Americans.

He is quite passionate about the issue, to say the least:

To be fair, Musk didn’t come to the US on a H-1B visa. He came on a student visa, and later, his own brother admitted that they were illegal immigrants in the early days of launching their Zip2 startup in the US.

Tesla’s use of H-1B visas

Over the last few days, several current and former Tesla workers reached out to Electrek to reveal that Tesla ramped up its use of H-1B visas to replace US workers it let go during a wave of layoffs earlier this year.

We reported that roughly US 15,000 employees were let go at Tesla around April 2024. Every department was affected, but the layoffs were concentrated in Texas and California, where Tesla has more workers than anywhere else.

Current and former Tesla employees said that many of the laid-off US workers were replaced by foreign workers using H-1B visas.

These claims are backed by US Department of Labor data, which show that Tesla requested over 2,000 H-1B visas during the time it was laying off US workers (via Reddit):

Again, there’s a cap of 65,000 visas for the entire US annually, and Tesla alone tried to get over 3% of them.

Tesla workers said that many employees let go were more senior engineers with higher compensation and they have been replaced with junior engineers from foreign countries at a lower pay.

Electrek’s Take

To be clear, I’m not taking a stance on H-1B here. It seems like there should be good uses for this visa, but it certainly can be abused. My goal is to share more information that could explain why Elon would want more of this visa for his businesses, and maybe not for the right reasons.

At the core, people see the problem of hiring workers from other countries who are willing to work for lower pay than US workers – taking jobs from Americans and putting pressure on overall compensation in the US.

There’s certainly value to the argument. Elon’s counterargument is that the US doesn’t have enough skilled workers, and he needs to hire people from other countries to compensate.

This argument also has some value, especially for specific sectors, like manufacturing engineering, which has become less popular in the US.

However, at Tesla and with Elon, the problem is much deeper than this.

The problem stems from the employer’s weight over the workers as a sponsor of their visas. Elon is famously hard on workers, and he doesn’t like the traditional 40-hour workweek. He often pushes Tesla employees to work 60 to 80 hours per week.

Many Tesla employees have happily done this for years, and the main motivator has been the belief in Tesla’s mission to accelerate the advent of electric transport in order to curb climate change.

Some people still believe in this mission, but Elon has eroded it over the last few years by shifting focus on self-driving and advocating for removing EV incentives in the US. It is becoming harder to make people believe that Tesla’s main goal is to accelerate the advent of EVs when its CEO is talking more about Tesla becoming “the most valuable company in the world” than its impact on climate change. And let’s not forget that he has spent a tremendous amount of effort and money over the last year to get deniers of the human impact on climate change elected.

But he has found another effective way to motivate workers to work harder and for longer hours: hold a visa over their head.

The nature of the H-1B visa being attached to your employer puts tremendous pressure on the workers.

On top of it, Tesla, like many other companies using H-1B visas, tends to hire from countries where longer workweek are already the norm. For example, India is already mostly on a 6-day workweek.

I don’t like to Tesla workers killing themselves working 80 hours per week, but if they do it passionately, by choice, for what they believe to be a great mission, it’s hard to argue against that. It’s their choice.

But if they do it because they want the “American dream” and they are afraid that getting let go will kill or slow down their chance of immigrating because they are in the country on a H-1B visa, that feels like exploitation to me.

Is Hyundai finally about to launch the smaller IONIQ 3 EV we’ve been waiting for? A mysterious new Hyundai ‘OE’ vehicle, which appears to be the IONIQ 5’s little sibling, has surfaced again. Here’s what we know about the new EV.

When will Hyundai launch the IONIQ 3?

Hyundai has been on a roll, launching new electric models in key global markets, including the US, Europe, China, and others.

After a new Hyundai EV model badged with the codename “OE” surfaced again, local reports suggest it could be the IONIQ 3. Hyundai has given previous electric models, such as the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6, codenames, including “CE” and “NE.”

The most recent model to earn a codename was the three-row IONIQ 9 SUV, unveiled at the LA Auto Show last month. Hyundai’s larger electric SUV model code was “ME” before its official debut.

After more images of the new “OE” model surfaced online, Hyundai’s Chinese joint venture, Beijing Hyundai, appeared to confirm the new EV through a local regulation portal.

The screenshots from Autospy reveal the “OE1C” codename again, confirming that it will be an electric SUV. Hyundai’s new EV is set to launch in 2026. Another “EA1C” model is also listed.

According to TheKoreanCarBlog, local rumors suggest the new EV could finally be the IONIQ 3 or even 4. The mysterious new model is expected to ride on Hyundai’s E-GMP platform, which underpins its current IONIQ 5, 6, 9, and Kia’s electric car lineup.

Although little is known about it, the IONIQ 3 will be slightly smaller than the popular IONIQ 5. It will likely be closer to Kia’s new EV3.

The recent spy shots show IONIQ-like design elements, including the wheels, door handles, and several interior features.

Hyundai’s new EV is expected to be available in single and dual-motor powertrains with 62 or 84-kWh battery pack options. For comparison, the Kia EV3 offers up to 605 km (375 mi) WLTP range with the larger (81.4 kWh) battery. The smaller (58.3 kWh) battery provides around 436 km (271 mi) range on the WLTP cycle.

In Europe, Kia’s smaller EV3 starts at around 36,000 euros ($38,300). The low-cost EV can be bought in Korea for under $30,000 with incentives.

It will be interesting to see how the IONIQ 3 compares to Hyundai’s new Casper Electric. The Casper Electric, known as the Inster EV in Europe, starts at just around $20,000 (27.4 million won) in Korea.

Hyundai’s low-cost EV offers up to 315 km (195 miles) range in Korea and 355 km (221 miles) on the WLTP cycle. Unlike the IONIQ series, the Casper Electric is based on Hyundai’s smaller H2 platform.

The new Hyundai electric SUV will first launch in China in early 2026. For those in the US, Europe, and other overseas markets, we will have to wait to find out if it will launch in overseas markets. Stay tuned for more.

Source: TheKoreanCarBlog, Autospy