Before Mercedes-Benz shows its EQS electric flagship, the company’s performance offshoot shows the future of go-fast plug-in hybrids. Genesis teases what looks like a future electric luxury coupe. BMW asserts its plan to go without a dedicated EV platform until the middle of the decade. And it appears that everything’s changed for the California EV startup Canoo. 

The Genesis X concept coupe that Hyundai’s luxury brand just revealed in Los Angeles is the latest in a series of precursors to a production-bound electric 2-door—in this case, a plush, high-performance 2+2 luxury coupe. 

Mercedes-AMG, which makes high-performance variants of Mercedes-Benz models, has just revealed its own high-performance plug-in hybrid system that channels the electrification toward track time as much as the commute. With F1-based battery tech and a 2-speed rear gearbox like the Porsche Taycan, it’s all-in on being the bridge to high-performance all-electric AMGs. 

Suddenly the whole business model looks new for the California-based EV startup Canoo, which is now a publicly traded company. Earlier this week the company revealed it will be focusing on selling its vehicles to commercial fleets rather than a subscription-based model; and the deal for engineering and codevelopment with Hyundai now appears to be off. 

BMW was one of the first automakers with a dedicated electric vehicle, the i3, that didn’t have much of anything in common with conventional gasoline models. But since the middle of the last decade it’s been at work on a strategy to use the same toolkits that it uses for gasoline vehicles to build electric ones. The company’s current CEO says that models built on dedicated EV platforms “all look alike,” but has it made the right decision with the iX, the i4, and others?


And over at The Car Connection: A recent check-in with the 2021 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid reminded our colleagues why this plug-in hybrid van, with 32 all-electric miles and 30 mpg as a hybrid, is such a family-vehicle sweet spot.