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Stellantis is getting into the battery swap game, announcing a partnership with US-based swap specialist Ample. Using Ample’s existing technology, Stellantis intends to deliver EVs with battery packs that can be swapped in five minutes, beginning with its 500e.

As a global automotive conglomerate responsible for noteworthy brands like Jeep, Ram, and Fiat, you’ve probably heard of Stellantis or, at the very least, its precursor, FCA. Ample, on the other hand, might come as a new name to you, although we have covered the battery swap specialist several times in the past couple of years.

Ample is a California-based startup that continues to work toward helping put 1 billion electric vehicles on roads worldwide. The startup’s specialty is modular battery swap stations that can be quickly erected and moved if necessary.

Ample began deploying its first generation of autonomous battery-swapping stations around San Francisco in the spring of 2021. From there, it established and gathered data while working with rideshare companies like Uber and last-mile delivery startup Sally.

When it introduced its second-generation swap station this past May, Ample added swap capabilities for larger EV models and cut its entire process from ten to five minutes. By July, Ample had announced a global partnership with Mitsubishi Fuso to integrate battery swaps in commercial EVs and now looks to do the same in passenger models with Stellantis.

Stellantis battery swap
Credit: Stellantis/YouTube

Stellantis to roll out battery swaps in EU with Ample

Earlier today, Stellantis announced it has signed a binding agreement with Ample to establish a partnership that entails the implementation of the latter’s battery swap technology into EVs under its existing umbrella.

The initial program will begin in Madrid, Spain, using a fleet of 100 Fiat 500es – Stellantis’ best-selling all-electric model – operating within the automaker’s “Free2move” carshare service. Ample’s modular batteries can fit into any existing electric vehicle and were designed to act as a drop-in replacement for the original battery.

By initially deploying Ample’s technology across its carshare fleet, Stellantis hopes to offer drivers a fast and cost-effective battery swap solution it can expand upon in the future. Per Stellantis’ senior vice president, charging & energy business Ricardo Stamatti:

The partnership with Ample is another example of how Stellantis is exploring all avenues that enable freedom of mobility for our electric vehicle customers. In addition to other projects we are focused on, Ample’s Modular Battery Swapping solution has the opportunity to offer our customers greater energy efficiency, outstanding performance and lower range anxiety. We are looking forward to executing the initial program with our stellar Fiat 500e.

In addition to the initial fleet rollout in Spain, the new partners state they are also discussing expanding Ample’s modular battery swap technology to Stellantis’ fleet and consumer customer bases in other territories. While it was not directly said, the US would make sense, given that is where Ample is currently headquartered. Ample CEO Khaled Hassounah also spoke about the new partnership and the company’s goals in the future:

At Ample, we believe in the importance of making electric vehicles accessible to everyone without compromises, which is the only way that we will make a significant impact on lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Stellantis’ ambitious electrification goals, its range of electric vehicles, and the commitment of its leadership, make Stellantis a perfect partner in achieving our goals. The combination of offering compelling electric vehicles that can also receive a full charge in less than five minutes will help remove the remaining impediments to electric vehicle adoption. We look forward to working with Stellantis to deploy our joint solution across communities around the world.

The initial Fiat 500e program in Madrid is scheduled to begin in 2024. Check out Ample’s battery swap station in action in the video below:

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Velotric Breeze 1 e-bike first discount with $150 in free gear from $1,699, Navee Back to School Sale, EcoFlow 48-hour flash sale, more

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Velotric Breeze 1 e-bike first discount with 0 in free gear from ,699, Navee Back to School Sale, EcoFlow 48-hour flash sale, more

We’re kicking off this week’s Green Deals with the first-ever cash discount on Velotric’s new Breeze 1 Cruiser e-bike in a red colorway with $150 in free gear at $1,699. Right behind it is Navee’s Back to School Sale that is offering a bunch of e-scooters at up to $600 off with bonus 15%, 20%, and 30% savings, like on the new flagship ST3 Pro Electric Scooter starting from $684. We also have another EcoFlow 48-hour flash sale that is offering the DELTA 2 Max Portable Power Station with a protective bag at its best rate, as well as expansion battery and solar panel bundles too – all starting from $319. We also have Worx’s Nitro 20V 5-inch Cordless Chainsaw sitting $1 above its all-time low, as well as a new one-day-only low price on the Greenworks 80V 17-inch Cordless String Trimmer. Plus, all the hangover savings from last week are at the bottom of the page, rounded together in our Electrified Weekly coverage.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

Velotric’s 70-mile cruising Breeze 1 e-bike with SensorSwap tech, Apple Find My, more gets first savings and free gear from $1,699

Velotric is offering a collection of seasonal promotion bundles with many of its newest e-bikes, while also providing some select price cuts. Of the models seeing discounts, we spotted the very first cash savings on Velotric’s new Breeze 1 Cruiser e-bike in its red colorway that is coming with $150 in free gear at $1,699 shipped, while the others are just getting the bundle for free. It was released back in March but has been keeping up at its full $1,799 price tag in the time since, with only some bundle packages ever being offered towards savings. Now, not only are you continuing to get the rear cargo rack and fenders from before, but you’ll also get $100 off the price tag for the best deal we have yet seen.

The new Velotric Breeze 1 e-bike is a 48-pound commuter that is perfect to get through daily appointments as much as it’s ready to cruise the boardwalk. The streamlined and light-weight frame houses a 750W rear hub motor paired with a 627Wh battery in order to max out at 20 MPH speeds (or 28 MPH if your local laws allow it) for up to 70 miles of travel when its PAS is activated (with three modes and five levels each). One innovation that we’re seeing included more in the newest models from this brand is the SensorSwap technology, which lets you switch between a cadence or torque sensor, depending on your preferences and the terrains you’ll be travelling across.

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It’s also nice to see Apple Find My integrations for added security and peace of mind, which comes alongside the usual array of remote companion app smart controls. From there, the experience is only further heightened as you’ll enjoy Tektro hydraulic disc brakes, KENDA puncture-resistant tires, integrated headlighting and taillight with both braking and turn signals, as well as an 8-speed Shimano derailleur, a removable trigger-control throttle, a 3.5-inch full color display sporting a USB-C port, an IPX6 waterproof construction, and more.

You can check out the full lineup of Velotric’s seasonal promotions on the landing page here.

man pops wheelie on Navee ST3 Pro electric scooter with city in background

Head to classes on Navee’s ST3 Pro e-scooter with free carbon fiber bag starting from $684 in latest sale

Navee is having a Back to School Sale running through August 25 with up to $600 in discounts across a solid lineup of electric scooters – plus, there’s bonus 15%, 20%, and 30% savings you can take advantage of too. Among the offers, my personal favorite is the new Navee flagship ST3 Pro Electric Scooter that is coming with a free carbon fiber riser bag and is initially falling to $726.75 shippedafter using the code SCHOOL15 at checkout for an extra 15% off your order, beating out Amazon by $128While this is a solid drop from its usual $950 pricing, the costs can go even lower if you’re a student or teacher with exclusive 20% discounts to $683.99 shipped, after verifying on the landing page here and receiving the appropriate code to use at checkout. We’ve mostly been seeing discounts drop the price to $760, though we have seen it go as low as $660. Depending on which of these extra savings you can pick up, you’re looking at scoring a highly advanced ride with $223 to $266 in savings at some of the lowest prices we have tracked. Head below for more on this scooter and the others in this sale.

If you want to learn more about this new flagship model or the other e-scooters seeing back to school savings, be sure to check out our original coverage of this sale here.

EcoFlow DELTA 2 Max portable power station sitting on counter next to toaster oven and condiment bottles

Save up to 60% on EcoFlow bundles for solar panels, extra batteries, and a DELTA 2 Max station from $319 for 48 hours

As part of its ongoing Home Backup Sale through August 17, EcoFlow has launched the next of its scheduled 48-hour flash sales that are taking up to 60% off a power station bundle, an expansion battery bundle, and a solar panel bundle. The only of these offers to include a station comes with a DELTA 2 Max Portable Power Station and a protective bag for $999 shipped. This bundle would normally cost you $1,978 at full price, with discounts seen on the bundles that usually include some solar paneling over the lone bag. While you won’t find this package at Amazon, you can currently find the station on its own for $1,099, making this deal with the included bag (valued at $79) all the better, saving you $979 in total off the tag for the best rate we have tracked.

If you want to learn more about this power station or the other bundle deals, be sure to check out our original coverage of this 48-hour sale here.

man sawing off tree branch with Worx Nitro 20V 5-inch cordless chainsaw

Make up to 160 cuts, even in tight spaces, using Worx’s Nitro 20V 5-inch cordless chainsaw kit at $100

Running parallel to Best Buy’s Deals of the Day offer, Amazon is bringing the price down on the Worx Nitro 20V 5-inch Cordless Chainsaw to $99.99 shipped, with it matching in price at Best Buy for only the rest of the day. This model usually fetches $150 at full price these days, which fell to $104 during last month’s Prime Day event and then dropped lower to this same rate the following week. You’re looking at another shot at the second-lowest price we have tracked, giving you $50 off the going rate and landing just $1 above the all-time low that last appeared in February.

If you want to learn more about this compact chainsaw, be sure to check out our original coverage of this deal here.

man cleaning edges of lawn against sidewalk with greenworks 80V 17-inch cordless string trimmer

Tackle up to 3/4 acres with this Greenworks 80V 17-inch cordless string trimmer kit at new $171 low (Today only)

As part of its Deals of the Day, Best Buy is offering the Greenworks 80V 17-inch Cordless String Trimmer with 2.0Ah battery at $170.99 shipped. Normally, you’d have to shell out $250 for this kit at full price, which is only available in a renewed condition directly from the brand’s website at $9 more, while at Amazon, you can only find the 16-inch model sitting at full price. We’ve seen this kit go as low as $180 in the past (last seen in May), with the one-day-only deal here giving you $79 in savings at the best new price we have tracked.

If you want to learn more about this 80V string trimmer, be sure to check out our original coverage of this one-day-only deal here.

Best Summer EV deals!

Best new Green Deals landing this week

The savings this week are also continuing to a collection of other markdowns. To the same tune as the offers above, these all help you take a more energy-conscious approach to your routine. Winter means you can lock in even better off-season price cuts on electric tools for the lawn while saving on EVs and tons of other gear.

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Elon Musk confirms he killed Tesla Dojo, but his reason raises eyebrows

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Elon Musk confirms he killed Tesla Dojo, but his reason raises eyebrows

Elon Musk confirms he killed Dojo, Tesla’s supercomputer project, but the reason he claims led to the killing of the project does raise some eyebrows.

Last week, a new report from Bloomberg claimed that Tesla shut down its Dojo supercomputer program after 20 members quit to join a new startup, DensityAI.

The news came just a month after CEO Elon Musk said: “Dojo 2 is good, but Dojo 3 will be great.”

For years, the CEO has been claiming that Tesla has the “best chip design team in the world” and that Dojo’s supercomputer platform could surpass the products made by its current main training compute supplier, NVIDIA.

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While Musk didn’t deny the Bloomberg report, he has now commented in a way that suggests a different story:

Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some tough personnel choices, as Dojo 2 was now an evolutionary dead end. Dojo 3 arguably lives on in the form of a large number of AI6 SoCs on a single board.

If you are to believe this narrative, Musk saw that Tesla’s new AI6 chip, which has been developed for inference computer power onboard its vehicles, was so good that he decided to shut down Tesla’s chip program for training compute, Dojo, and fired the team.

Does this narrative hold up to scrutiny?

Electrek’s Take

This doesn’t add up. At best, it is partly true. Let’s say that it’s true that Musk saw the AI6 chip and was so impressed that he believes it would even replace Dojo chips. Then, why did Peter Bannon go to?

Bannon was the chip architect in charge of all custom silicon at Tesla, training compute (Dojo) and inference compute (AI6). According to the Bloomberg report, he also left Tesla amid the talent exodus to DensityAI.

However, at this point, it’s not clear whether he left on his own or if he was part of Musk’s claimed “tough personnel choices.”

If it’s the latter, it wouldn’t make sense since Musk has been so impressed with AI6. Why would he fire Bannon after he delivered the new chip?

This point supports the Bloomberg narrative that critical Dojo team members left, which hurt the program to the extent that it made sense for Musk to shut it down, especially within the context of having difficulties competing against NVIDIA and others.

And then you have to question the logic of using the same chips for training and inference computing. It’s certainly not impossible, but it doesn’t sound like an optimal solution.

They generally utilize different data types and have varying throughput requirements. Training is geared toward high numerical precision while inference needs low latency and high throughput per watt.

To be fair, energy efficiency is also essential for training computers, but it is less so than for an inference computer running in an electric vehicle with limited energy capacity.

You gotta give credit where credit is due: Musk knows how to spin a story.

There’s basically a mutiny in Tesla’s Dojo team, and Musk spins it into Tesla developed such a good inference chip that it fired its training compute chip team.

It is clearly a fake narrative pushed by Musk to justify his very recent pro-Dojo comments.

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Kia is killing off these popular models to make room for the EV4 and another new EV

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Kia is killing off these popular models to make room for the EV4 and another new EV

Kia is clearing space in its lineup as it prepares for several new models. That means saying goodbye to a few popular gas models as Kia prepares for the EV4 and another new electric car that will arrive soon.

Kia axes gas models for the EV4 and EV2

Kia’s lineup is due for a major overhaul in the UK as it prepares for its next-generation vehicles. The Korean automaker is trimming a few trim options on some of its most popular ICE models, while axing a few from the lineup altogether.

Like its new EVs, the Picanto and XCeed will now be offered in three trims: a base Pure model, a GT-Line, and a GT-Line S.

Kia said the move is to make it easier for buyers to find their favorite features. Meanwhile, the Ceed and Ceed SW will be cut from the lineup. Production will end at Kia’s Zilina plant in Slovakia, where it has already stopped building Proceed models.

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A company spokesperson confirmed to Autocar that the new lineup is to clear room at the facility to prepare for the EV4, Kia’s first electric sedan and hatchback.

Kia-models-EV4
Kia EV4 (Source: Kia)

According to the spokesperson, deliveries will begin “imminently” after Kia opened orders for both the EV4 Fastback and hatch variant earlier this year.

Kia is clearing production capacity for another new electric vehicle, the EV2, which is set to begin at the Zilina plant in early 2026.

Kia-EV2
Kia Concept EV2 (Source: Kia)

The EV2 is Kia’s new entry-level EV that will sit underneath the EV3. Although prices, range, and more have yet to be revealed, it’s expected to be around 4,000 mm (157″) in length, or slightly smaller than the EV3.

Since the EV3 starts at £32,995 ($44,000), you can expect the smaller EV2 to be priced from around £25,000 ($33,500). We got a closer look at the EV2 testing in the Alps last month, revealing a more SUV-like profile.

Through the first half of 2025, the EV3 was the most popular retail EV in the UK. Will the EV4 or EV2 take over?

Either way, Kia is quickly gaining market share in the region. The Korean automaker is now the third top-selling car brand in the UK. With new EVs on the way, Kia is poised to gain momentum over the next few months.

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