Ionna Doubled Its EV Charging Network by Removing the Hassle
Few EVs on the market today can charge above 350 kW, even briefly, so the hardware is built ahead of the cars. Ionna is also expanding Plug & Charge, which bills a driver's account automatically when the vehicle plugs in. Volvo, Toyota, and Lexus drivers get access in October, joining Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and GM. A new Driver's Dashboard shows real-time session details with no downloads, subscriptions, or logins.
More EV Owners Are Switching Back to Gas, and Choice Is the Reason
Through June 2026, 52,154 US EV households returned to the market and bought a gasoline vehicle, excluding hybrids and plug-ins. That's up 15.9% from a year earlier, according to Mobility Global data reported by Car Dealership Guy.
CarMax's Turnaround Plan Is Already Showing Up in the Numbers
CEO Keith Barr, a former hotel industry executive, took over in March after the board fired longtime CEO Bill Nash. His four-part plan has been in place since June:
🚗 Dealers Are Moving Fast on AI, With Guardrails Built In
🚙 Himanshu Khandelwal of AlixPartners suggests three: assign an employee to approve AI recommendations on pricing or repair diagnoses before they reach customers, audit AI outputs regularly, and know exactly who's accountable when the tool gets something wrong.
America.gov Just Put an AI Front Door on the Federal Government
Launched Tuesday, America.gov puts a generative AI chat interface in front of federal information and services. It says it pulls answers from 29,000 government websites, with links back to the original sources.
This month, GM began building EVs with battery cells made from 100% recycled nickel, cobalt, and manganese, all recovered from its own end-of-life battery packs. Those vehicles, built at Factory Zero in Detroit and Spring Hill Assembly in Tennessee, are now headed to customers.
Farley and Reuss Say Patience Wins, but the Clock Keeps Speeding Up
Paul is pretty sure he puts more thought into his outfit every morning than Jim Farley does. That's about where the comparison ends, though. On Wednesday's show, we dug into what Farley and GM's Mark Reuss told the Automotive News Congress, and both leaders made the same case: stay the course, even when the ground keeps moving.
🚗 Ford Is Giving Work Truck Buyers a Certified Used Option
🚙 Used truck values are softening. Black Book says full-size pickups posted another week of wholesale declines above 1%, with diesel-equipped heavy-duty trucks under particular pressure from fuel prices. Ford is also modeling the program on its retail CPO effort, which is on pace for 450,000 sales this year.
Ford's Most Valuable Employee in Mexico Might Be a Hawk
The Hermosillo plant builds more than 300,000 pickups and SUVs a year with 4,300 workers. For years, it also hosted a growing pigeon population that got into light beams and equipment and left droppings that had to be buffed out of freshly painted vehicles. Some birds even learned to wait by the doors and fly in when they opened.
Washington Set the New Fuel Economy Bar Just Below Where the Industry Already Is
The Transportation Department finalized lower fuel economy standards Monday, dropping the 2031 fleetwide target from 50.4 mpg under the Biden-era rules to 34.9 mpg. The rule also ends credit trading among automakers in 2028.
🚗 The Fuel Economy Rules Are Final, and the Target Moved Slightly
🚙 Weaker standards give automakers more room to build pickups and SUVs, which carry bigger margins than smaller cars, though GM says it still plans to keep making EVs. All of this lands with gas at $4.49 a gallon, 43% higher than a year ago.
