Free Republic

Less than 400 additional electric vehicle (EV) public charging ports have been installed in the United States following billions of dollars of allocated funding under the Biden administration for building charging infrastructure, said a July 22 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, signed into law by then-President Joe Biden, appropriated $7.5 billion in funding for two programs—the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program (NEVI) and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program (CFI). The funds were aimed at supporting the development of public EV charging infrastructure.However, only 384 charging...

Matson surprised customers this week with an announcement that, effective immediately, it would suspend transporting battery-powered electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles due to the hazardous material classification of their lithium-ion batteries. The ability to ship cars between the mainland of the United States, Hawaii, Guam, and Alaska was an important service both for individuals and car dealers. In a letter sent to customers, the company writes, “Due to increasing concern for the safety of transporting vehicles powered by large lithium-ion batteries, Matson is suspending acceptance of used or new electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles for transport aboard...

With the federal EV incentive set to expire at the end of September, Ford is urging its dealers to prepare for a rush of buyers. Ford warns dealers of upcoming EV rush Like most automakers, Ford is preparing for a shakeup under the Trump Administration. After the “One Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law on July 4, the $7,500 and $4,000 tax credit for new and used EVs will no longer be available after September 30. In a memo sent to dealers this week, Ford warned, “demand is expected to increase as the deadline approaches for eligible vehicles.” The...

Washington’s first plug-in ferry will begin shuttling cars and passengers across Puget Sound by the end of next week. Gov. Bob Ferguson made the announcement Thursday during a celebratory demonstration lap around Elliott Bay on the ferry Wenatchee, concluding a challenging conversion to hybrid-electric propulsion over the past 22 months. *SNIP* “Washington state is a great visionary state. It deserves a great visionary boat and it has got one today,” Inslee exulted. *SNIP* The complicated shore power infrastructure is in the design phase for the downtown Seattle, Bainbridge, Bremerton, Kingston and Clinton terminals. The Seattle terminal’s plug-in charging arm and...

“Greater sickness in EVs can be attributed to a lack of previous experience, as both a driver and as a passenger, where the brain lacks accuracy in estimating the motion forces because it relies on previous experience in other types of cars,” William Emond, a PhD student researching car sickness told The Guardian. “When discovering a new motion environment, the brain needs to habituate because there is no knowledge of previous experience in such a context. This is, for example, why almost everyone becomes sick in zero-gravity environments,” he explained.

A New Jersey man has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s Tesla, alleging that the EV giant’s design defects led to a fatal crash on the Garden State Parkway that claimed the lives of his parents and teenage sister. New York Daily News reports that Max Dryerman, a 19-year-old resident of New Jersey, is seeking damages from Tesla following a tragic accident on September 14, 2024, which resulted in the deaths of his 54-year-old parents and 17-year-old sister. The family was traveling in a 2024 Tesla Model S on the Garden State Parkway in Woodbridge when the vehicle veered off...

A federal district court issued a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s attempt to block further disbursement of $5 billion set aside by Congress in 2021 for taxpayer-funded electric vehicle charging stations. The majority of the plaintiffs — 16 states plus the District of Columbia — had still not completed a single charger funded by the program over the past four years. The order excluded National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure charger funding for Minnesota, Vermont and the District of Columbia from the order, finding they had not submitted required documentation. The ruling says that because the funding is allocated according to...

A vehicle carrier transporting hundreds of Chinese electric vehicles (EV) sank in the Pacific Ocean after catching fire, fueling renewed concerns about the hazard associated with EV batteries, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The Morning Midas was carrying approximately 3,000 cars, including around 800 EVs, most of which were manufactured in China, according to the WSJ. While the exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, lithium-ion batteries used in many EVs are known to be highly flammable, and have been linked to similar maritime incidents in the past. The ship had been drifting in the ocean after...

The Supreme Court sided Friday with oil companies seeking to challenge California’s electric vehicle regulations. In a 7-2 ruling, the court allowed energy producers to continue their lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to approve California regulations that require manufacturing more electric vehicles. “The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion. “In light of this Court’s precedents and the evidence...

The Oklahoma City Fire Department responded to the incident on Northwest 137th Street Tuesday evening, where everyone left the house safely and no injuries were reported. "There were several of these lithium-ion batteries charging on a worktable on the garage … there was roughly 20 that was charging,” said Scott Douglas, with the Oklahoma City Fire Department. Douglas explained that these batteries were used to power remote control planes and racecars, but they can also be found throughout homes, powering everything from toys to cellphones to vacuum cleaners. He noted that fires caused by these batteries are becoming routine.

These days, it seems like every automaker and its rivals have some sort of electric car out on the market. Years ago, Elon Musk and Tesla were one of only a handful of manufacturers on the block producing electric vehicles, but today’s EVs come from a smattering of brands that include familiar mainstream names like Ford, Chevrolet, and even Hyundai and Kia. However, while there are more choices in the American EV market than ever before, a new customer survey conducted by the American Automobile Association reveals that Americans may not be as interested in electric cars as they think....

City health officials say nearby residents should stay indoors as much as possible, wear a mask outside, avoid strenuous physical activity and close windows and doors. Decommissioned buses were burned during a fire at the SEPTA Midvale Depot in North Philadelphia on June 5, 2025. (Emma Lee/WHYY) From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know! A fast-moving fire erupted early Thursday at a transit bus lot in Philadelphia filled with dozens of decommissioned vehicles, sending a thick plume of black smoke into the sky but causing...

A cargo ship carrying 3,000 cars, including 800 electric vehicles, caught fire off the coast of Alaska and continues to burn. The Coast Guard says that all 22 crew members escaped the ship and were picked up by two nearby freighters. The ship, a Liberian-registered car-carrier named "Morning Midas," was on its way to Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico, from Yantai, China.. ... the Coast Guard is going to let the ship burn, since trying to put out a lithium-ion fire is nearly futile. ... In 2022, the Felicity Ace, a car carrier slightly larger than Morning Midas, sank in the Atlantic...

If fire departments on land have problems unleashing the torrent of water needed to extinguish a single burning EV, the crew of a ship doesn't stand a chance against hundreds of flaming lithium-ion batteries. A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out. Zodiac Maritime, the ship's London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was fuming Thursday as Congress passed a repeal of California’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate, which relied on a special waiver from the outgoing Biden administration in December. “Make America Smoggy Again,” he announced, sarcastically. The Senate voted 51-44 to repeal the waiver, after a bipartisan majority in the House had done the same, as Breitbart News reported earlier this month. The repeal relies on the Congressional Review Act, a Bill Clinton-era law that allows Congress to repeal regulations that are not presented to it for timely approval. Newsom says the waiver is exempt from review....

The GOP-led Senate voted Thursday to take away California’s ability to set its own tailpipe emissions standards, effectively killing the country’s biggest driver of EV investment. The vote was 51-44. The move nullifies a measure, enacted by the state in 2022 and later adopted by 11 other states, banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. The House already passed the same resolution. Now it heads to President Trump for his signature. U.S. carmakers and auto dealers argued that keeping in place the waiver—which permits California to set stricter emissions rules than the federal government—could cripple the industry by...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is blazing forward with a controversial move to repeal California's EV mandate — and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is warning it will come back to bite him.Why it matters: Schumer (D-N.Y.) all but threatened to deploy similar strategies to get around opinions by key, nonpartisan rule makers if and when he grabs back control of the chamber."What goes around comes around," Schumer said on Tuesday. He and other Democratic leaders have described the GOP move as a "nuclear option."Thune (R-S.D.) accused Democrats of "throwing a tantrum."Driving the news: The Senate will vote as soon as...

TULSA, Okla. — A north Tulsa home was damaged after an electric bike caught fire in a carport that then spread to the house. The fire happened at a home near East 56th Street North and Yale. According to Tulsa Police, a family member took the bike to the house to charge it and show it to another family member. A neighbor then later saw smoke in the area and called the fire in. The homeowners said everything inside the carport was destroyed. "Everybody's good," shared David Baxter, the owner of the home. "You know, pretty much everything lost that...

Congressional Republicans are making a last-ditch effort to gut the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) green energy subsidies via President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.” The House Ways and Means Committee unveiled a draft bill Monday afternoon to repeal several IRA subsidies including those for electric vehicles and so-called clean hydrogen while preserving tax credits for carbon sequestration, biofuels and advanced manufacturing, which primarily benefit solar and battery storage projects. Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma’s Energy Freedom Act would take an even more aggressive approach by proposing a...

California and 16 other states are suing the Trump administration for halting federal money slated to build more electric vehicle chargers. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta accused the Trump administration of unlawfully withholding funding approved by Congress in the lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday. The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program had dedicated $5 billion to expand clean car charging across the country, including more than $300 million for projects in California.