Less than a year after its initial reveal, Hyundai officially launched its off-road-friendly IONIQ 5 XRT variant in the US and invited us to Palm Springs to test it out. This is a Hyundai IONIQ through and through, but it features some unique design upgrades, including a new drive mode to help it tackle tougher terrain than its siblings.
The Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT is the latest variant to come out of HMG’s design lab. It was initially announced in March of 2024, just days after news of a refresh coming to the standard 2025 IONIQ 5, which we also tested out during this trip (check out that review here).
It wasn’t long after Hyundai confirmed the IONIQ 5 XRT that a camouflaged version was spotted in Korea. It presumedly pushed the limits of a new “Terrain Mode” the off-road variant debuts. We certainly did the same last week in the desert outside of Palm Springs where we got an opportunity to take the IONIQ 5 XRTs out of a natural terrain course and kick up some dust.
While this may not be the most rugged BEV out there, it’s most certainly the most off-road-friendly option from Hyundai, and the automaker continues to wow us with unique design elements that are both functional and just plain cool-looking. I’ve shared my complete impressions below.
The 2025 IONIQ 5 XRT is super cool… in the right color
The XRT is the second highest trim level on the Hyundai IONIQ 5 totem pole, below the Limited but above the SEL. As such, several unique features have been added to this new spin on the ever-popular IONIQ 5.
Starting with the exterior, you’ll notice a more rugged look. XRT does stand for “Extreme Rugged Terrain,” after all. The Hyundai team described this design approach as an “armor-like aesthetic.” The front and rear fascias have been equipped with unique protective cladding that goes higher up than a standard BEV for added protection from rocks and other debris.
Of course, Hyundai had to include its parametric pixels in the cladding! This subtle pattern, Hyundai calls “digital camo,” looks different in every lighting scenario (see close-up images above). That cladding was also placed above the wheels, which are unique to the IONIQ 5 XRT. This variant sits on simple yet badass 18″ black wheels with all-terrain tires.
The front features two bright red recovery hooks, while the rear offers higher protection on its corners and an embossed XRT badge. For added off-road capabilities, the IONIQ 5 XRT features a 23mm suspension lift alongside unique tuning, offering an extra inch of ground clearance (7″), a higher approach angle (19.8º), and a higher departure angle (30º).
That being said, this off-road BEV does not have a skid plate or underbelly protection. Instead, the Hyundai team said the added security comes from increased ground clearance. Let’s move into the interior.
As you can see in the image above, the interior of the 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 XRT is murdered out and appears a bit sportier than some of its siblings. The doors feature more of the brand’s new digital camo pattern behind an XRT logo, the same of which you’ll find embossed into the front head rests (see images above).
The rest of the interior is comparable to the standard IONIQ 5s, aside from some unique tech upgrades. For instance, the XRT is the first model to come equipped with a new Terrain Mode, which can be activated directly from the steering wheel.
From there, you can choose between sand, snow, and mud. While we saw snow up at elevation in the non-XRT versions of the 2025 IONIQ 5, we were only fortunate enough to trek through a desert course with plenty of compact and loose sand to see what Terrain Mode can really do.
In all honesty, the XRT was a blast to drive. Terrain Mode and the BEV’s H-Trac AWD let me open it up, but I felt in complete control the whole time. I especially had a blast on the course curves with loose sand, as I was able to swing that back end around without feeling like I was about to spin out.
The raised ride height and suspension tuning were noticeable, especially after having just driven the standard IONIQ 5 earlier that day, but it was still a bit of a bumpy ride out on those rocks, especially as a passenger. Here’s some footage of the course:
I feel the overall approach to the XRT is slightly gimmicky because this is undoubtedly an off-road capable BEV, but not something you’d take to Moab. That being said, Hyundai did an excellent job designing it to look rugged and cool.
I was not a big fan of the contrast between the XRT-exclusive cladding and lighter-colored exteriors like Atlas White and Cyber Grey. In my opinion, the darker exteriors complemented the cladding much better. Still, I wish we could have seen the two new Hyundai colors exclusive to the IONIQ 5 XRT – Cosmic Blue Pearl and Ultimate Red Metallic. Unfortunately, those colors weren’t available for our drive since we got some of the first XRT models off the assembly line. Oh well.
Overall, I enjoyed my time behind the wheel of the 2025 IONIQ 5 XRT, but this is a niche variant for a niche audience, similar to the IONIQ 5 N, which I’m also a massive fan of. That being said, I would rather have an N or a Limited trim of the 2025 IONIQ 5 since I’m not much of an off-roader (although if I were, I’d probably go with a Rivian instead).
If you like taking vehicles out in the dust and dirt, the IONIQ 5 XRT could be the BEV you’ve been looking for. I recommend checking it out in person to see the cladding up close and scroll through the terrain modes (if you can drive one out on a course, that would be even better!)
The 2025 IONIQ 5 XRT is now on sale in the US, starting at an MSRP of $55,400 before taxes and fees. It also comes available in two new colors exclusive to the XRT only –
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Honda’s patent filings offer a clear glimpse into the company’s plans for an ultra-affordable electric motorcycle, integrating a proven chassis with a simple electric powertrain. It’s a clear glimpse into how the world’s most prolific motorcycle maker plans to challenge the nascent electric motorcycle market.
The filings in Honda’s new patent show a bike built around the familiar platform of the Honda Shine 100, a best-selling commuter in India, reimagined in electric form for a cost-effective future of urban mobility.
According to Cycle World’s Ben Purvis, Honda’s patent sketches outline a design that repurposes the Shine’s sturdy frame and chassis mounting points to house an electric motor and compact battery setup. Positioned where the engine once sat, a mid-motor drives the rear wheel via a single-speed reduction gear and chain – mirroring the essentials of the original gasoline-powered commuter bike.
Instead of a traditional fuel tank, the design features two lithium-ion battery packs, angled forward on either side of the spine frame and fitting neatly into the existing geometry.
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What makes the bike revealed in this patent even more interesting isn’t just its clever packaging, but rather the platform. By leveraging the proven Shine chassis, Honda can significantly cut development costs, manufacturing complexity, and market price. That’s a big statement given that surviving in price-sensitive markets like India demands simplicity and reliability. And by piggybacking off a proven platform, Honda can dramatically reduce the time to market from the time the boardroom bigwigs give the project the final green light.
Honda’s patent images show an electric motorcycle built on the same platform as the Honda Shine 100
The design still seems to feature styling that would be fairly consistent with the Shine 100, even down to a gas cap-like circular protrusion likely on top of a faux-tank. Some electric motorcycles in the past have used this location to hide a charging port, keeping similar form and function to outdated fuel tanks and fill ports, though it’s not clear if that is Honda’s intention.
It’s not clear what power level Honda could be targeting, but the Shine bike from which Honda’s creation draws its design inspiration could provide some clues. The Honda Shine 100 features a 99cc engine that provides around 7.3 horsepower (around 5.5 kW) and has a top speed of 85 km/h (53 mph), solidly planting it in the commuter segment of motorcycles.
The electric motorcycle in Honda’s design would be unlikely to target much higher performance as it would drastically increase the required battery capacity, and thus similar speeds of around 80-85 km/h (50-53 mph) would seem likely.
There also appears to be no active cooling, which would also limit the amount of power that Honda would be likely to draw continuously. The patent describes a channel formed by the two battery packs, leading to the speed controller and creating ducted cooling that pulls heat out of the batteries and electronics without drawing extra power.
Honda hasn’t released a final design, but I ask AI to create one based on the patent images. I’d ride that!
This emerging design is just one piece of Honda’s broader electric two-wheeler strategy. Their entry-level EM1 e: and Activa e: scooters launched with mobile battery packs and budget-friendly pricing. Meanwhile, high-tech concepts continually push the envelope. But this Shine-based bike aims squarely at the heart of mainstream affordability – a move likely to resonate with millions of new electric riders in developing regions like India where traditionally-styled small-dsiplacement motorcycles reign supreme.
Honda hasn’t revealed a timeline or pricing yet, but Honda’s patents offer real hope to fans of the brand’s electric efforts. If scaled effectively, this could be the first truly mass-market electric motorcycle from a major OEM, with a sticker price likely far below the $5,000 mark usually seen as a floor for commuter electric motorcycles from major manufacturers. That would also dramatically undercut models from brands like Zero or Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire, even as those brands rush to bring their own lower-cost models to market.
Electrek’s Take
Honda’s patent reveals a clever, no-frills EV designed to democratize electric two-wheeling, especially in developing markets that are even more price-sensitive than Western electric motorcycle customers.
Using a trusted frame, simple electric drive, and passive cooling, I’d say it definitely prioritizes cost over complexity, which is exactly what urban commuters need. If Honda can bring this to market, it would not just add another electric bike to the mix… it could create a new baseline for affordability in affordable electric mobility. Now we’re just waiting for the rubber to hit the road!
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And today, Musk made it official that he will seek greater collaboration between three of his companies: Tesla, xAI, and twitter, in the form of an investment into xAI by Tesla.
The situation is a little more complicated than that, though.
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Tesla is a public company, owned by shareholders. Musk is the largest shareholder, but only owns around 12% of the company himself.
This is a different situation than xAI, which is a private company, owned by Musk. While there are other investors, he can exercise much more direct control over the company, and doesn’t have to put big decisions up to a vote.
One of the recent decisions he made with xAI was to purchase twitter in March. You may say, “wait, I thought he bought twitter back in 2022?,” and you’d be correct. Musk purchased twitter for $44 billion in 2022, which was widely agreed to be far too high a price, and then rapidly saw the company’s valuation drop to under $10 billion.
Then, in March 2025, Musk had xAI purchase twitter in an all-stock deal, valuing twitter company at $45 billion – again, far too high of a valuation, but considering he purchased the company from himself, he could set the price at whatever he wanted.
The move was widely considered to be a bailout of twitter, and the numbers involved considered arbitrary, perhaps partially to help save face for Musk after he made one of the worst business deals of all time.
Now the two are the same entity, and it seems clear that he would like to bring Tesla into the fold, in some way or another.
Musk has already improperly used resources from Tesla, a public company, to boost xAI and twitter, his private companies. Last year, he gave up Tesla’s priority position for highly sought-after NVIDIA H100 GPUs, instead shipping those GPUs to xAI and twitter. Tesla could have used these GPUs for training its FSD/Robotaxi systems, which Musk has claimed is the most important thing to Tesla’s future, but instead graciously sent them to his other company that used them to, uh, train a bot to say Nazi stuff apparently.
xAI has also poached talent from Tesla, multiple times, showing how Musk is using Tesla as a farm team for his private company.
So it hasn’t been a secret that Musk would like to use public money to bail out his private companies, as he’s been setting the stage for for a while now.
Musk has previously “discussed” getting Tesla to invest in xAI in the past, but the idea was never made official until today, when Musk said that he will put the idea to a shareholder vote.
In response to one of his superfans asking for the the opportunity to waste money on an overvalued social media app (which would mark the third time it has been overpaid for in as many years), and the backend fueling “MechaHitler,” Musk said this:
Tesla traditionally holds its annual shareholder meeting around the middle of the year, so if it were a normal year, this shareholder vote might be imminent.
But it’s not a normal year, as just last week Tesla announced an exceptionally late shareholder meeting, pushing it back to November, the latest it has ever held the meeting.
This means that Musk will have around four months to campaign for this idea – something that he’ll perhaps have more time to do, now that he’s no longer cosplaying as a government official.
We don’t know what the structure of the deal might look like yet, but Musk has been clear in the past that he wants more shares in Tesla. After selling many of his shares in order to buy twitter, he later complained that he doesn’t feel comfortable having less than 25% of Tesla. Given that his recent xAI/twitter deal was an all-stock deal, Musk could attempt to fund any investment of Tesla into xAI via shares, giving himself more Tesla shares in exchange for the company gaining a portion of xAI. Though to get him to 25% voting shares in Tesla, that would require either an enormous valuation for xAI, a small valuation for Tesla, or purchasing a large percentage of xAI (or, perhaps, all three, given how much higher TSLA’s valuation is than xAI’s).
We may however have a hint as to how that vote will go, because the last time Musk campaigned for a clearly terrible idea, Tesla shareholders ate it up.
In mid-2024, Musk ended his yearslong absenteeism at Tesla in a flurry of activity, hoping to persuade enough shareholders to vote for his illegal $55B pay package.
So it looks like we’ve got another campaign coming up, and if last time was any indication, expect some really bad decisions along the way. It worked last time, didn’t it?
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The off-highway equipment experts at Perkins and McElroy have teamed up to develop a plug-and-play battery electric power unit designed to help equipment OEMs and upfitters to seamlessly transition from diesel to battery electric power.
Designed to occupy the same space as the companies’ diesel-engined power units, Perkins dropped its new battery power unit into the similarly new McElroy TracStar 900i pipe fusion machine (specialized equipment used to join thermoplastic pipes like HDPE or polypropylene by heat-welding them end-to-end to form a continuous length pf pipe).
Perkins’ battery electric power unit replaces the company’s proprietary 134 hp, 3.6 liter 904 Series Tier V diesel engine, enabling units that are already deployed to be quickly upgraded to electric power – and helping trade allies and development partners to easily retrofit existing equipment in order to add zero-emission options to their operational fleet.
“We’re actively helping customers navigate the shift in power system requirements, with a range of advanced power systems including electric, diesel-electric and alternative fuel compatible engines,” says Jaz Gill, vice president, global sales, marketing at Perkins. “When it comes to the innovative fully integrated battery electric power unit, it can be ‘dropped in’ to a machine to replace a diesel engine. The system consists of a Perkins battery along with inverters, motors and on-board chargers – all packaged up into a compact drop-in system to support seamless transition from diesel to electric for our customers looking to make that move.”
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McElroy believes that an electric, emissions-free power unit like this one will open new opportunities and applications for its customers.
“Their team has done a phenomenal job of integrating their battery electric system into our TracStar 900i,” explains McElroy President and CEO Chip McElroy. “We’re really excited to see what the market thinks about this concept.”
Development of the battery electric powered pipe fusion machine was completed in about nine months. Future Perkins-powered electric equipment running the 904 diesel (small excavators, telehandlers, pumps, and gensets) could be developed even more quickly. You can find out more in the company’s promo video, below.