Enlarge / Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (L) and Debbie Stabenow (R) don't exactly see eye to eye on the auto industry's transition to electric vehicles. (credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The new and somewhat-complicated rules governing which cars do or don't qualify for the new clean vehicle tax credit look like they might get tweaked a little in the near future.

Before, the tax credit was linked to the battery-storage capacity of a plug-in hybrid or battery-electric vehicle. But the Inflation Reduction Act changed that— now a range of conditions must be met , including final assembly in North America and an annually increasing percentage of locally sourced minerals and components within that battery pack.

On the one hand, the domestic sourcing requirements are beneficial because they are stimulating the development of local battery mineral refining and manufacturing here in the United States, adding well-paying jobs in the process. But the new rules have also significantly reduced the number of EVs that qualify.

Enlarge / Milk float in Earlsfield in London, England, United Kingdom. In Britain, a milk float is a vehicle specifically designed for the delivery of fresh milk. (credit: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Electric delivery vehicles are big business. These "last-mile" solutions from companies like UPS and Amazon are a way around restrictions on freight vehicle emissions in cities and provide green credentials at the point where customers interact with a service.

In Europe, electric van sales went up 74 percent over the first five months of 2023, with EV powertrains becoming the second-favorite propulsion behind diesel, leapfrogging gasoline. Delivery EVs are massively accelerating as companies head toward 2025 commitments for fleet transformation and Ford and Stellantis bring more vehicles to market. Nissan has even been using Nikola battery electric heavy-duty car transports to deliver Ariyas to customers in California.

But they’re not especially new. In fact, a very significant proportion of electric road vehicles for most of the 20th century were working in suburbs, small towns, and villages in the UK as milk floats.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

The mass sponge EV charger plug migration continues to gather steam. Since we last wrote about the topic, first Polestar and then Mercedes-Benz also announced that they're dropping the Combined Charging Standard 1 (CCS1) connector in favor of Tesla's North American Charging Standard (NACS) . Sometime next year, non-Tesla electric vehicles from those makes, as well as Ford , General Motors , Volvo , and Rivian , will be able to start making use of Tesla's Supercharger network. In 2025, those automakers—and probably a few more—will start building cars with NACS ports built in.

It's not just the car makers. Charger manufacturers and charging networks have also been announcing new NACS products, and it feels like enough critical mass is building that CCS1 might be headed for extinction. Or at least it may be relegated to curio status alongside CHAdeMO. Things are looking even better now that SAE International is taking over the management of NACS, so it will no longer be under the control of a rival OEM run by a billionaire known for impulsive and often arbitrary decisions. At this point, many are merely waiting to see if Hyundai Motor Group or Volkswagen Group will be the next big convert.

The justification for dropping an entrenched standard and switching to NACS, from Ford and others, was as much about obtaining access for their EV owners to Tesla's Supercharger network, and why not? Even the most hardened partisan from the EV brand flame wars has to concede that not only are there far more Superchargers out there, but they offer a vastly superior charging experience to any of the public charging networks.

Enlarge / US Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) is a millionaire thanks to coal, gas, and oil interests. He was responsible for rewriting the US electric vehicle incentives. (credit: Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

US Senator Joe Manchin was instrumental in rewriting the nation's electric vehicle incentives , but now the West Virginia Democrat says he wants to sue the federal government "if I'm allowed to" in order to stop too many EVs from reaching US customers with battery packs that contain materials and components refined, processed, or manufactured abroad. The politician made the remarks during a panel on Wednesday, according to S&P Global .

Originally, the IRS tax credits offered to car buyers to incentivize them to purchase a plug-in electric vehicle were linked to the size of the car's battery. But as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the rules were changed. Now, the $7,500 tax credit is only applicable to "clean vehicles"—either battery EVs or hydrogen fuel cell EVs, not plug-in hybrids.

Where do your minerals come from?

There are several more requirements , including final assembly in North America, but for most new EVs, the stumbling block is a requirement that battery components be domestically sourced.

Enlarge / Ford is tripling the production rate of the F-150 Lightning EV this year. (credit: Ford)

There's no doubt that Ford is embracing electrification. It was first to market with an electric pickup truck for the US market, and a darn good one at that. It has a solid midsize electric crossover that's becoming more and more common on the road, even if it does still upset the occasional Mustangophile. And there's an electric Transit van for the trades. But its electric vehicle division will lose $3 billion this year as it continues to build new factories and buy raw materials.

The news came in a peek into Ford's financials released this morning. As we reported last year , Ford has split its passenger vehicle operations into two divisions. Electric vehicles fall under Ford Model e, with internal combustion engine-powered Fords (including hybrids and plug-in hybrids) falling under Ford Blue. The move was in large part to placate investors and analysts, no doubt starry-eyed during a time when any EV-related stock was booming.

"We've essentially 'refounded' Ford, with business segments that provide new degrees of strategic clarity, insight, and accountability to the Ford+ plan for growth and value," said Ford CFO John Lawler. "It's not only about changing how we report financial results; we're transforming how we think, make decisions and run the company, and allocate capital for highest returns."

Enlarge / Lithium ore sits waiting for processing. (credit: Bloomberg Creative Photos )

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has some car troubles. One of President Joe Biden’s major initiatives, the law was intended to foster activities that are both good for the economy and green. As such, it contains stipulations about the manufacturing of EVs—particularly that their batteries come from local sources or free-trade partners. But there are some issues with the availability of critical minerals that meet the "local" criteria and some vagueness on important terminology, according to a recent paper .

Higher standards

The IRA was signed into law in August of last year. It includes a provision that gives tax credits to producers that use critical minerals that come from the US or some of its close trade partners. In particular, to get the credits, an electric vehicle—which needs to be fully electric—would need to have a battery in which 80 percent of the market value of its critical minerals is sourced from within the US. Alternatively, this benchmark could be reached using minerals sourced from free-trade partners, or the minerals could hail from elsewhere but be processed in the US.

This is an increase over the requirements ( 40 percent ) for receiving previous incentives. In theory, purchasing one of the vehicles eligible for a tax credit would be more affordable for many consumers.

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.

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Enlarge / Joe Biden speaks at the White House on March 2, 2021. (credit: Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images)

US President Joe Biden has made the shift to electric vehicles an early focus of his administration. Days after his inauguration, he vowed to replace hundreds of thousands of federal civilian vehicles with electric versions. On Tuesday, Biden held a virtual meeting with CEOs from companies building charging infrastructure. The administration has set a goal to build more than 500,000 new electric vehicle charging stations by 2030.

Also on Tuesday, a coalition of six electric utilities announced a new initiative that will help Biden achieve his goal. The companies are planning to build a "seamless network of charging stations" in and around the American South. The group plans to build chargers near major highways in every southern state, stretching as far west as Texas and as far north as Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia.

(credit: American Electric Power)

This is not a joint venture. Each utility will build and run its own charging stations. But the goal is to make them appear to the customer as a unified network.

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