What would you get if you created the illegitimate love child of a Mercedes G-Wagon and a Brinks armored truck (and perhaps if the Mercedes chain-smoked through the pregnancy)? I think you’d wind up with something like the wacky-looking electric cart that has earned the dubious honor of being named this week’s Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week!
I’m not sure this is exactly an armored golf cart, so I wouldn’t invite any unnecessary potshots while cruising your hood, but I’m at a loss of how else to describe it.
It’s definitely not a “real” car, as evidenced by its US $6,999 price tag and the 30 km/h (18 mph) top speed. If you ask me though, that speed goes in the ‘advantages’ column. When you drive something that looks this good, you want to be going slow enough to give people a good, long look.
A vehicle like this is designed to send a statement. Unfortunately, I think that statement might be, “I wanted a Jeep but my spouse wanted to remodel the kitchen.”
So if it’s not a real car, then what is it?
Measuring a stubby 306 cm long (an entire half inch over 10 feet), this four-seater mini-SUV is less G-Wagon and more “Oh, gee” wagon. It can supposedly carry up to 370 kg (815 lb) in passengers or cargo, but there’s no telling how much of a dent that puts in the already challenged top speed.
Safety might also be a passing concern. It doesn’t have any seatbelts, but the tires look like they just about extend out past the front and rear, so at least you’ve got some nice shock-absorbent bumpers built into the design.
The advertisement claims a maximum range of up to 80 km (50 miles) per charge, which seems like several more miles than anyone needs from something like this.
There’s no word on battery technology, which means I’m assuming either features older lead acid tech or there’s a frunk full of lemons and a bunch of loose wires running through the firewall.
I’m glad to see that the roof rack is at least equipped with enough LED lights to make an airport runway jealous, just in case I find myself stuck in the wilds of my backyard after dark. And that roof rack even looks pretty heavy-duty, though since the cart is considerably taller than it is wide, tight turns with a heavily-loaded roof rack should probably be avoided.
As much as I love this thing, I don’t think I’ll be whipping out my credit card any time soon.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve bought plenty of bad ideas on Alibaba before. But since my $2,000 electric truck ending up costing me nearly 4x that much by the time it landed in the US, I’m a bit worried what the final price tag on a $6,999 Mini-MegaOverlander would become.
I don’t recommend anyone actually try buying this cute little TinyTrailblazer either, and I’m certainly not vouching for the vendor, who I discovered by chance while scrolling through Alibaba to procrastinate real work. Keep in mind that this is all part of a tongue-in-cheek column I write, diving into the depths of Alibaba’s weird and funny collection of awesome electric vehicles.
But hey, if someone does go that route, it wouldn’t be the first time my advice has been ignored and some awesome photos have landed in inbox several months later. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you if it turns out some Nigerian prince has your last paycheck and you’re up a creek with no MicroMudder to come bail you out!
When your local HOA finally gets its own tactical response unit
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul today announced it would loan $60 million to Revel to triple its EV charging infrastructure across New York City.
NY Green Bank (NYGB), the state’s clean energy investment fund and a division of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), is providing the loan to Revel, New York City’s largest provider of public DC fast-charging. It’s NYGB’s first EV charging infrastructure transaction.
The loan will allow Revel to more than triple its current New York City public fast-charging network in 2025. It will pay for the construction of 267 new charging stalls across nine sites and support the design and build of EV charging stations.
Revel will complete construction of the below 178 sites in the next 12 months, with the remainder to be completed by 2027. (Those with asterisks are in disadvantaged communities):
60 charging stalls in Maspeth, Queens, which will be the largest fast-charging station in the Northeast US
44 charging stalls near LaGuardia Airport, making it the largest fast-charging station near an airport in the US*
24 charging stalls at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), making it the largest charging station at the airport*
30 charging stalls in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
20 charging stalls in the Port Morris section of the Bronx*
Revel broke ground in November at JFK Airport, adjacent to the main rideshare vehicle waiting area, with support from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. With funding from NYGB, Revel will now be able to complete the construction of the 24 charging stalls. That site will open in Q1 2025 and is expected to be one of the busiest EV charging stations in the country.
NYSERDA’s president and CEO, Doreen M. Harris, said, “Increasing the state’s charging capabilities is a step forward in ensuring New Yorkers can plug in and drive clean, and we commend Revel’s leadership in this regard in a major hub and in high-impact locations such as major airports.”
Revel charging stations are open to the public on a 24/7 basis for any make and model EV. All chargers installed at future locations will have speeds of at least 320 kilowatts (kW).
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Hyundai is set to shake up the EV market with advanced new batteries soon. In March, Hyundai will reveal its all-solid-state EV battery pilot line to the public for the first time. The “Dream” batteries promise to unlock more range, faster charging, and significantly higher energy density.
Hyundai will reveal its all-solid-state EV battery pilot line
During its 2023 CEO Investor Day, Hyundai outlined plans to become a leader in the EV battery space. Hyundai announced an investment of over $9 billion (KRW 9.5 trillion) over ten years to develop a range of batteries.
Hyundai is developing lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM), and all-solid-state EV batteries to cover all segments.
Last month, local reports surfaced that Hyundai was almost finished constructing an all-solid-state EV battery pilot line.
On February 9, industry sources (via ET News) said Hyundai will hold an opening ceremony in March for its next-gen battery research center in Uiwang, South Korea. Hyundai built the all-solid-state EV battery pilot line inside the new research facility.
The ceremony will mark the first time Hyundai unveils its new battery technology to the public. Several industry leaders and high-ranking officials will reportedly attend, including GM, which recently expanded its EV partnership with Hyundai.
2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 (Source: Hyundai)
Hyundai’s all-solid-state pilot line will begin full-scale production next month. Industry sources expect Hyundai will release a prototype powered by the new EV batteries by the end of 2025.
Hyundai will use the demo line to test the new battery technology. All-solid-state batteries are often referred to as the “Dream” EV battery because they have the potential to provide more range, faster charging, higher energy density, and safety than alternatives.
Hyundai IONIQ 9 three-row electric SUV (Source: Hyundai)
However, they are not yet commercially available due to poor stability and manufacturing hurdles. To put it simply, it’s much easier said than done.
Hyundai aims to begin mass-producing all-solid-state batteries around 2030, with the first EVs powered by the new tech arriving shortly after.
Although a pilot line is still a small step, it can be huge for Hyundai. Like many automakers, Hyundai currently gets its batteries from others like CATL, SK On, and LG Energy Solution, but with plans to build them in-house, it could get a considerable advantage over rivals.
Based on its E-GMP platform, Hyundai already has some of the most efficient electric cars on the market, including the IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6.
With plans to launch its more advanced “eM” platform and in-house batteries, Hyundai has a chance to drastically cut costs, speed up output, and take a leadership role as the industry shifts to electric.
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Elon Musk is about to move the goalpost on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) program in a masterful way that will allow him to claim a win.
Don’t be fooled.
I asked Grok, Musk’s “truth-seeking AI”, to list all of the CEO’s timelines for Tesla achieving self-driving and then compared them to reality:
2015: Predicted full autonomy by 2018.
Reality: Not achieved; Tesla cars still required human supervision.
2016: Claimed full autonomy from LA to New York by 2017, all Teslas as robotaxis by 2020.
Reality: Did not happen; FSD remained in development.
2018: Full self-driving capability in “3 to 6 months”.
Reality: Missed, FSD still required human supervision.
2019: Early access FSD by year-end, full unsupervised driving in 2020.
Reality: Limited beta release in 2020, but not unsupervised.
2020: Very close to Level 5, quantum leap in FSD.
Reality: FSD Beta launched, but still Level 2 with human oversight.
2021: Full self-driving, 1 million robo-taxis by year-end.
Reality: Neither achieved; FSD remained in beta.
2022: Full self-driving by end of 2022 or May 2023.
Reality: Did not reach this milestone; FSD still not fully autonomous.
2023: Reiterated confidence in achieving full self-driving.
Reality: No full autonomy achieved; continued FSD improvements but still supervised.
2024: Announced unsupervised FSD in Texas and California for Q2 2025.
Reality: As of early 2025, this has not yet been launched.
2025: Specified launch of unsupervised FSD in Texas for June 2025.
Reality: As of now, this has not been confirmed to have occurred; the timeline is still within the projected future, so no definitive comparison to reality can be made yet.
That’s about as embarrassing as it gets, but many Tesla supporters still don’t care because they believe that now it’s going to finally happen.
As the last point states, Tesla is still within the latest timeline of “unsupervised FSD in Texas in June 2025.”
The problem is that what Tesla is planning to launch in Austin in June has very little to do with what Musk has been promising and selling to Tesla FSD buyers since 2016.
As the latest data shows, Tesla FSD is still far from unsupervised self-driving in customer vehicles, which was promised, but it has improved significantly in the last few months. The combination of the improvement and the fact that Musk can’t take many more losses with missed FSD timelines has pushed Tesla to find a solution: Waymo.
Musk has pooh-poohed Waymo’s approach to self-driving for years. He claimed its geo-fenced, mapped, teleoperation-supported approach wouldn’t scale.
Yet, that’s almost exactly what Tesla is about to launch in Austin this year.
The planned teleoperation, combined with the service being limited to Austin, points to Tesla launching a geo-fenced service where it will optimize FSD performance in Austin and use teleoperation to support the vehicles.
That’s exceptionally close to Waymo’s product, which has been available in many cities for years, including in Austin more recently.
As for the long-anticipated unsupervised self-driving capability in all customer vehicles produced since 2016, it looks like Musk is too scared to share a timeline after being consistently wrong for a decade.
Electrek’s Take
I can almost guarantee what will happen: Tesla will launch this project and claim to have achieved “unsupervised self-driving.”
Elon and his Tesla influencer simps will pump this up while blurring the line between this product and FSD in customer vehicles to give the impression that Tesla is still a leader in self-driving.
When, in fact, Tesla will only have achieved what Waymo delivered years ago.
Tesla won’t be closer to delivering what it promised and sold to owners since 2016: unsupervised self-driving capable of robotaxi driving in customer vehicles.
As of the latest data, Tesla FSD v13 is achieving about 500 miles between critical disengagement while Tesla’s own stated goal to be safer than humans is to surpass miles between collision with human drivers, which is at 700,000 miles, according to NHTSA.
This program in Austin is no more than a diversion, a moving of the goalpost, to give Tesla an impression of a win in self-driving and distract owners who have bought FSD and have been promised unsupervised self-driving capability for years.