From a stainless steel Tesla Optimus to an electric DeLorean, new Polestar EVs, and even a tail-sliding adventure in a Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally, the last Electrify Expo of the 2024 season had something for everyone (especially if you like Cybertrucks).
For the uninitiated, Electrify Expo is a sort of touring music festival — except, instead of various stages and bands, it sets up a number of unique tracks, street drives, and closed course “experiences” that are populated not by bands, but by the newest EVs from your favorite brands. And this past weekend, Electrify Expo closed out its 2024 season with a stop at Circuit of the Americas, and they were kind enough to invite me to check it out.
Here’s the rundown.
So. Many. Cybertrucks.
Yes, it’s Texas. And yes, it’s an EV expo that highlights custom cars in the same way that Hot Import Nights did back in the 90s and early aughts. Still, nothing prepared for the sheer number of Tesla Cybertruck “tuner cars” on display.
Everything from polished steel to rainbow wraps to off-roaders was there — one guy even had a “digital exhaust” on his that sounded a bit like a anemic leaf blower. Beyond the ones shown here (plus a few more), there were another dozen “plain Jane” Cybertrucks filling up booth space for home solar, EV charging equipment, and extended warranty companies. Even Tesla had a half-dozen or so Cybertucks on hand for demo drives, allowing anyone with a driver’s license to take to the storied F1 circuit behind the wheel of Elon’s boxiest ride.
If your only exposure to cars was the Electrify Expo, you’d walk away thinking they were the best-selling vehicles in the world.
People want Restomods to be a thing
Those electric DeLorean (more than one) and Subaru Brat projects probably look familiar to longtime Electrek readers, but whether they do or don’t they were just a few of the many EV conversions on display in the Electrify Showoff area that invited local EV owners to show off their unique, electrified rides.
More surprising than the presence of so many Restomods at an event like this, however, was how adamant their builders were that The Answer™️ to the problem of harmful carbon emissions wasn’t building new EVs, but converting all (and they mean all) the existing ICE cars into EVs.
Really.
The OEMs
The real reason people flock to Electrify Expo — and they do, more than 20,000 people showed up to the Austin event and that was one of eight stops nationally — is to check out the latest EVs from the OEMs.
To that end, Porsche had its latest Macan EV, GMC had both the Hummer EV and Sierra Denali EV, Polestar had the 3 and 4 models on display, and Lucid even showed off an early production Gravity model. A Rivian R2, new Lexus PHEV, and a stainless steel-skinned version of Optimus rounded out my favorites there — but it wasn’t just about seeing these cars. It was about driving them.
See, unlike a traditional auto show where you can walk around some static vehicles and maybe sit in them, Electrify Expo lets attendees actually drive these vehicles. Sometimes around a race track like COTA, sometimes on public roads, and sometimes on dedicated “experiential” tracks purpose-built to showcase the car’s unique abilities.
If you’ve ever seen a dirt-focused obstacle course with Jeeps running around it at your local auto show, you get the idea. And, while the same kind of thing exists at Electrify, I have to hand it to Ford for taking it to the next level with a new Mustang Mach-E Rally driven by professional driver on a closed, 90-second -ish rally course just off the main parking lot.
Ford set the tone
The first thing most attendees saw when they got to the event was an eerily quiet, high-speed display of lurid, tail-wagging slides courtesy of the new Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally. By 9AM on the second day, a full hour before opening time, there was already a line forming to experience the Mach-E. Such was the power of the word-of-mouth and social media influence surrounding this event.
Having some rally experience, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect — but the quiet was surreal. In an ICE car doing stuff like this, the sound of the engine gives you some indication of what the driver is doing. In an EV? In the Mustang? You have no idea. All you can do is strap in and feel the gs, then let your brain sort out what happened later.
And the rest
When you’re an EV festival, you’re there to see all of it — from e-bikes and electric scooters all the way up to one-off SEMA specials like Neil Tjin’s Mustang Mach-E, ultrafast Formila E racecars, a pack of BMW CE02 electric bikes, a new Sur-Ron style e-bike from GoTrax, and even a Pickman micro truck.
Honestly, if you ever get to one of these, trust me — plan on spending the whole day there. If they do it again in 2025, I know I will.
Original content fromElectrek; images by the author.
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A fully electric Isuzu pickup truck? That’s right. The D-MAX EV is Isuzu’s first electric pickup, and it will be rolling in the next few months. After kicking off mass production, Isuzu said the new EV pickup will “match the performance of existing diesel models,” boasting high towing capacity and payload.
Isuzu’s first electric pickup is launching in 2025
Isuzu announced on Tuesday that the D-MAX EV has officially entered mass production. The company has started building left-hand drive models, which will be shipped to Europe in the third quarter of 2025.
By the end of the year, production of right-hand drive models will begin for the UK, with sales expected to start in 2026.
The electric pickup is nearly identical to Isuzu’s popular gas-powered D-MAX, but swaps the diesel powertrain for a pair of electric motors. The D-MAX EV features new e-Axles, one on the front and the other at the rear, for a full-time 4WD system.
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The dual-motor powertrain enables it to match the performance of existing diesel models, with a combined 188 hp (140 kW) and a maximum torque of 240 lb-ft (325 Nm).
It can also tow over 7,700 lbs (3,500 kg) with a maximum payload of over 2,200 lbs (1,010 kg). That’s about the same as the D-MAX diesel, which has a 3,500 kg towing capacity and a payload capacity of up to 1,200 kg.
Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s first electric pickup boasts a driving range of up to 263 km (162 miles) on the WLTP. In the city, it can have a driving range of up to 224 miles (361 km).
Isuzu D-Max EV specs
Drive System
Full-time 4×4
Battery Type
Lithium-ion
Battery Capacity
66.9 kWh
Max Output
130 kW (174 hp)
Max Torque
325 Nm
Max Speed
Over 130 km/h (+80 mph)
Max Payload
1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs)
Max Towing Capacity
3.5t (+7,700 lbs)
Isuzu D-Max EV electric pickup specs
Built for on and off-road performance, the rugged electric pickup features over 8″ (210 mm) of ground clearance with a wading depth of nearly 24″ (600 mm).
Although prices have not been announced, the D-MAX EV is expected to start slightly higher than the diesel model, which has a base price of around € 36,500 ($41,600).
Isuzu’s popular D-MAX is sold in over 100 countries, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central and South America. The electric version will arrive in Europe in the next few months, followed by the UK and other regions in 2026.
The electric D-MAX will compete with the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger, and other electric pickups, such as Geely’s Radar R6, BYD’s Shark, and Ford’s F-150 Lightning.
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For the first time in five years, a Tesla insider required to report Tesla stock transactions bought stocks rather than selling them.
But the transaction is so small that it makes the whole situation hilarious.
Insiders in public companies are top executives and board members who are required to report to the SEC any transaction related to the company’s stock.
For Tesla, it has become a running joke that insiders only sell, never buy the stock.
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This has been true without exception for years.
We don’t know as much about executives as Tesla has a very short top executive bench who are required to file transactions. However, when it comes to its board members, they have been selling at an impressive rate.
However, we now have confirmation that a Tesla board member is buying, rather than selling.
Joe Gebbia, the Airbnb co-founder who joined Tesla’s board in 2022, confirmed that he bought 4,000 shares in Tesla last week worth about $1 million:
Electrek’s Take
Gebbia is estimated to be worth over $7 billion. Therefore, his purchase of $1 million worth of Tesla stock would be equivalent to my buying a fractional share in Tesla.
Furthermore, the disclosure confirmed that despite being on the board for the last 3 years, Gebbia owned only 111 shares in Tesla before the transaction.
That’s quite the show of confidence in Tesla.
Thie whole situation with the board is disappointing. Tesla’s core business is melting. The company reported its worst quarter in years last week, and the stock surged 20%.
None of it makes any sense.
The board is sitting on its hands while the most powerful force accelerating the advent of electric transport is being destroyed in favor of nonsensical predictions about the potential of solving self-driving and humanoid robots.
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Venmo, long a centerpiece of PayPal‘s growth story but often criticized for its lack of monetization, is becoming a bigger contributor to the business.
PayPal said Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings release that revenue at Venmo increased 20% year-over-year in the first quarter, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013 through the acquisition of parent company Braintree.
While it’s long been a popular consumer service for sending money to friends, Venmo’s ability to drive meaningful revenue has been a major question mark for investors, especially as competition from rivals like Zelle and Square Cash has intensified.
Venmo’s total payment volume rose 10% from a year earlier, but revenue grew twice as fast, reflecting the business opportunity. Venmo only gets revenue from specific products like Pay with Venmo at online checkout, Venmo debit cards, and instant transfers, but not from peer-to-peer payments.
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Ahead of the earnings report, Jefferies analysts noted that Venmo revenue growth appeared to be “accelerating sharply” and flagged its rising contribution to branded checkout as a key area to watch. Compass Point analysts similarly said that while competition from Zelle and Square Cash remains fierce, Venmo’s traction with debit cards and online checkout could “open up new monetization avenues” if adoption trends continue.
The company added nearly 2 million first-time PayPal and Venmo debit card users during the quarter, and total debit card payment volume across PayPal and Venmo climbed more than 60%. Meanwhile, Pay with Venmo transaction volume surged 50% year over year, and Venmo debit card monthly active users grew about 40%.
PayPal reported better-than-expected earnings for the quarter but missed on revenue. The company reaffirmed its full-year guidance, citing macroeconomic uncertainty.