Enlarge / Can a 400-mile road trip up the California coast tell us whether the EV6 GT adds enough smiles to justify its added expense over the regular—and already excellent—EV6?

We are emotionally connected to our cars. Even when we buy something that's purely utilitarian, we can't be expected to spend that much time with an object without feeling… something. Even hatred of a car, truck, or SUV shows that we're attached in a tangible way to a vehicle. But when we talk about driving, we generally gravitate toward fun and the joy of the open road.

This brings us to the 2023 Kia EV6 GT . The sportier, quicker EV6 burst onto the scene with a video of the EV besting supercars in the quarter-mile. It kept up with those it couldn't beat, thanks to a zero-to-60 time of 3.4 seconds. It's 576 hp (430 kW) and 545 lb-ft (738 Nm) of torque fast. It's "I bet you didn't think a station wagon that's masquerading as an SUV could blow the doors off a Lambo" fast. Kia is selling one thing with this car: fun.

What is fun worth? Sure, you're dropping more cash on the quickest EV6. Paying more for a performance variant is expected. That's not the real cost of the EV6 GT, though. What you're paying in is range, and that translates to more time on a trip. This might be the faster Kia, but you'll be hitting more charging stations.

Enlarge (credit: Greg Vaughn/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Legislators of the nation's least-populous state are taking a brave stand against modernity and climate action. They're sponsoring SJ0004, " Phasing out new electric vehicle sales by 2035 ," an uncomplicated bill that expresses the state's goal to phase out sales of new EVs by 2035 and asks Wyoming's industries and citizens to do their civic duty in resisting the EV. Copies of the resolution would be sent to the White House, leaders in Congress, and the governor of California.

The motivation, according to the bill's preamble, is that the oil and gas industry is important to the state, a state with fewer than 600,000 residents. Wyoming is proud of its oil and gas industry, and that gas—here presumably meaning "gasoline" and not the natural gas referred to in the bill's early sentences—powers vehicles that drive on the state's vast stretches of highway.

The bill's authors think Wyoming's interstate network is too desolate for electric vehicles, particularly since there is no existing EV charging infrastructure, they claim.

Enlarge / The Hummer EV has become the poster child for oversized, overweight EVs, and it was called out by the government's top road safety advisor. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

If you're concerned that road vehicles are getting too large and too heavy, particularly as we make the transition to electric ones, you're not alone. On Wednesday, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy raised the alarm during her keynote speech at this year's Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in Washington, DC.

"I'm concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death for all road users from heavier curb weights and [the] increasing size, power, and performance of vehicles on our roads, including electric vehicles," she told attendees.

The poster child for excessive EVs is the GMC Hummer EV , a monster truck with a monstrous 9,063 lb (4,110 kg) curb weight. The vehicle is still powerful enough to hurl itself to 60 mph in three seconds. Appropriately, that feature is called "WTF mode." Indeed, Homendy drew attention to the gigantic Hummer in her speech.

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Skepticism about electric vehicles—and there's a lot of it out there—is really more of a concern about infrastructure than the EVs themselves. After all, EVs are more efficient, quieter, more refined, and usually much quicker than an otherwise-identical fossil-powered vehicle. But the charging problem is not something EV advocates can dismiss as a simple inconvenience.

While it's true that most EV owners recharge their EVs overnight at home, as adoption increases, EVs will be purchased by people without garages or carports from which to charge , increasing the importance of widespread and reliable public chargers. And we'll need many more public chargers, according to a report from S&P Global Mobility.

As regular readers will no doubt be aware, there is plenty of investment going into charging infrastructure. In March 2021, US President Joe Biden set a goal of adding half a million new EV charging stations by 2030 . In 2022, President Biden followed up with a $5 billion plan to build DC fast chargers along the interstate highway network, with at least four chargers every 50 miles.

Enlarge / Mercedes wants its charging hubs to be safe and well-lit and to offer a charging experience that befits its range of luxury EVs. (credit: Mercedes-Benz)

On Thursday, Mercedes-Benz announced that it is entering the DC fast-charging arena for electric vehicles. The German automaker is in the midst of an electrification push and a plan to be carbon-neutral by 2039, and it evidently doesn't believe that the current charging infrastructure is as good as its new EVs , so it's doing something about the situation. Mercedes says it plans to deploy more than 10,000 fast chargers around the world, starting in North America.

The new network is separate from and independent of Ionity, the European fast-charging network backed by Mercedes, BMW, Ford, and Volkswagen. Here in the US, Mercedes is partnering with the charging company ChargePoint and MN8 Energy, a solar and battery-storage company. Together, they will deploy more than 2,500 DC fast chargers at more than 400 sites around the US by 2027.

"Mercedes-Benz customers deserve a compelling charging experience that makes electric vehicle ownership and long-distance travel effortless, and that’s why we are launching a global high-end charging network that will offer a charging experience to match the extraordinary Mercedes driving experience," said Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG. "We are excited to start right here in North America with two strong and experienced partners, ChargePoint and MN8 Energy."

Enlarge / This is the BQ79731-Q1, a new battery pack monitor from Texas Instruments. TI has also developed a battery cell monitor that works with it to much more accurately manage LFP batteries in EVs. (credit: Texas Instruments)

One of the more exciting developments to come to electric vehicles over the past few years has been the development of lithium-iron phosphate cells as an alternative to more traditional lithium-ion chemistries that use minerals like nickel, manganese, and cobalt. Now, a new battery management system, or BMS, could mean much more accurate range predictions for EVs with these batteries.

Why LFP?

LiFePO4, or LFP, batteries were mostly the province of Chinese EV makers until last year thanks to a series of exclusive patent licenses signed with the US and Canadian researchers who first developed the technology. But those patents are expiring, and non-Chinese automakers are beginning to adopt LFP batteries.

LFP cells dislike very cold weather more than an equivalent NMC or nickel-cobalt aluminum cell, and they also store less energy. But that last bit might in fact be an advantage to this chemistry—there's no danger that an LFP pack will combust or explode in a crash, so there's much less need to surround the pack with a heavy protective shell.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

One of the biggest promises of electric vehicles is that they provide relative freedom from constant car maintenance. Gone are oil and filter changes, spark plugs, tune-ups, diesel particulate traps, diesel exhaust aftertreatment fluid, and countless other parts to replace. There's not even so much as a muffler clamp to deal with.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to petrol-free motoring bliss. The final piece connecting the car to the road is still a tire, and it still flexes. It uses air and needs to be replaced every so often. And the demands a motor places on traction, load, and noise are quite unique if that motor whirs silently. There's no way around it: EVs require EV-specific tires.

How are tires for EVs different? We spoke to several tire companies to better understand what ingredients go into the tire oven in the first place and what development testing has proven before the tires hit the street.

Enlarge / GM's Ultium Charge 360 integrates charging networks, GM vehicle mobile apps, and other products and services to simplify the overall charging experience. (credit: Dan MacMedan for Chevrolet)

Electric vehicle drivers in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and Owosso, Michigan, are the first to benefit from General Motors' Dealer Community Charging Program. These deployments of new level 2 (AC) chargers are the first in a planned rollout of 40,000 new plug-in points, which GM says will nearly double the number of public charging stations in the US and Canada.

GM first announced the program in October 2021 and since then has had almost 1,000 of its Chevrolet dealerships sign on to the initiative, which is designed to increase charger access in underserved, rural, and urban locations. GM will supply dealerships with up to 10 19.2 kW chargers to be installed around the communities they serve, and the chargers are available to any EV driver, not just those who drive electric models from GM.

"Nearly 90 percent of the US population lives within 10 miles of a GM dealership. Our dealers are deeply involved and trusted in their communities and are well positioned to determine locations that expand access to EV charging, including at small businesses, entertainment venues, schools, and other popular destinations," said Hoss Hassani, vice president of GM EV Ecosystem.

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Electric vehicles have never been more popular. Just about every automaker is in the midst of an electrification effort, spurred on by impending government regulations around the world aimed at reducing our dependency on fossil fuels. But is the movement having an effect? Here in the US, plug-in vehicles are selling better than ever, despite supply chain shortages and frequent hefty dealership markups.

According to Argonne National Lab , between 2010 and the end of 2021, the US had bought more than 2.1 million plug-in vehicles, including 1.3 million battery EVs. That sounds like a very impressive number, but bear in mind that's out of a total national vehicle pool of nearly 276 million cars and trucks . Argonne estimates that despite all these plug-ins, national gasoline consumption was reduced by just 0.54 percent in 2021.

In total, Argonne calculates that US plug-in vehicles have driven nearly 70 billion miles since 2010, consuming 22 TWh of energy in the process. That's displaced the use of more than 2.5 billion gallons of gasoline and 19 million tons of greenhouse gases, Argonne reports, although for context, the US consumed about 369 million gallons of gasoline a day in 2021. For 2021 specifically, plug-in vehicles saved about 690 million gallons of gasoline—about two days of consumption—and reduced CO ₂ emissions by 5.4 million metric tons, consuming 6.1 TWh in the process.