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It’s a tale as old as time. A man takes a ride on an electric motorcycle and thinks to himself, “This is great, but you know what it’s missing? The ability to morph into an electric snowmobile, too.”

Ok, perhaps it’s not the most common thought among us. But that hasn’t stopped it from apparently becoming a reality thanks to Canadian designer Steven Foster, who has now spent three years developing and testing that exact concept to bring the Avvenire Combat e-motorcycle to life.

The Toronto-based EV brand Avvenire, which was spun out of low-cost e-bike and mobility company Daymak, is preparing to launch the Combat Ebike, a 3-in-1 menace on tires…and on snowmobile tracks.

That’s right. This electric motorcycle is something of a shapeshifter, claiming to offer three different types of rides. The bike can be set up to run as a typical street-legal electric motorcycle, an off-road electric dirt bike, or a snowmobile. The last one does require a bit more work on the rear end, though, where the wheel is replaced by a snowmobile track mechanism.

“The Combat Bike can be a dirt bike, a snowmobile, and a street-legal bike, 100% electric—all in one at a reasonable price! It was something I’d always dreamed of. The 3 in 1 makes it an all-year vehicle,”
states Aldo Baiocchi, President of Avvenire Electric Vehicles International.

The company claims that the Founder Edition of the novel bike has already sold out, despite the internet being surprisingly devoid of mentions of the new bike… at least before the press release announcing how sold out it was.

Now Avvenire is offering pre-orders for the supposed next batch of bikes, with a $2,000 discount on the $9,999 MSRP for anyone who cares to take a big enough gulp and lay down a full payment. Fortunately, folks won’t have to wait long. The delivery date for those pre-orders is said to be later this month.

Hmm, with the delivery date of the regular production bikes so close, it almost seems like those Founder Edition bikes should already be out there somewhere.

Regardless, we can at least enjoy learning a bit about the specs on this new 3-in-1 electric motorbike. A 5,000W (7 hp) motor is said to power the bike up to a top speed of 37 mph (60 km/h). That might be closer to scooter-level performance, but you do get the ol’ leg-swinging-over-the-bike feel of a motorcycle.

There’s no word on how fast it travels when in snowmobile mode, but I’m guessing not quite 37 mph.

A 3.6 kWh lithium-ion battery sufficient for 43 miles (70 km) of road range “at top speed” powers the bike, which supports riders up to 285 lb (130 kg).

There isn’t much else available regarding the bike’s performance. We do have several images that appear a bit prototype-like, and Avvenire has often relied heavily on renders for its product images, similarly to the largely computer-generated teaser video launched to go along with the Combat Ebike “sold-out” announcement.

Electrek’s Take

I love the concept here. A single bike that you can ride on the street in the summer and in the snow during winter sounds like something out of a Canadian fairytale. I dig it.

But something seems a bit off about the whole thing. The supposedly “sold-out” bike doesn’t appear to have existed until we all learned it was sold out, many of the photos look like a prototype with flat panels, and the company’s website nearly has more mentions of investment opportunities than trying to sell its products.

I know they’re still trying to get that three-wheeled EV of theirs into production after several years of work, and that probably burns through capital, but this bike feels a bit like an early launch that is trying really hard to generate some really fast funds. And we’ve seen before how that can go sideways.

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New York awards $60M to Revel to install 267 DC fast chargers

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New York awards M to Revel to install 267 DC fast chargers

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).

Read more: Dandy Mini Marts chooses Tesla to install its first EV chargers


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Hyundai is launching its all-solid-state ‘Dream’ EV battery pilot line next month

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Hyundai is launching its all-solid-state 'Dream' EV battery pilot line next month

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.

Hyundai-all-solid-state-EV-battery
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-all-solid-state-EV-battery
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.

Hyundai’s opening ceremony comes after Honda unveiled its first all-solid-state EV battery pilot line in November.

Electrek’s Take

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 masterfully move the goalpost on Tesla Full Self-Driving

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Elon Musk is about to masterfully move the goalpost on Tesla Full Self-Driving

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 CEO confirmed that Tesla’s plan is a “paid unsupervised self-driving ride-hailing service using an internal fleet of Tesla vehicles” in Austin in June.

We reported that Tesla was looking to hire people to work in teleoperation to support its self-driving vehicles shortly after announcing its plan for unsupervised ride-hailing services in Texas and California last 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.

Then you had the HW3 situation into the mix, and you have quite the mess.

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