Writing about cars and the automotive industry used to be a relatively straightforward affair.
A typical year in this business usually meant checking out, and eventually testing, the latest new and updated models; tracking the typical who’s up, who’s down corporate moves; covering the occasional crisis or two; and shaking hands and doing interviews at the same circuit of trade shows that’s been around for decades.
But the electric vehicle transition has thrown all of that into chaos. Everything I just listed above is still true, but it all happens at 500 mph daily. Established players are struggling in this new reality defined by batteries and software. More and more consumers are on board with what’s happening, but certainly not all of them. China has turned from a reliable cash cow to an existential threat. Delays of new cars are common, plans change all of the time and nobody yet understands what the still-undelivered promise of autonomous cars might do to the way things have worked for more than a century.
All of this is to say that the pace of this world can feel impossible to keep up with. More happens now in one year than once happened in five. But that’s why the team here at InsideEVs has been so impressive. Despite the firehose of daily news, this small but dedicated crew delivered must-read investigations, scoops, technical deep-dives and conversation-starting features that speak to the times we’re in better than any other publication out there. (At least, that’s what I think. I am clearly biased.) I am immensely proud of the work this entire team has done.
So as we wrap up 2024, I wanted to highlight some of our very best work from our team of staff writers, editors and contributors. If you’ve got some time over the holidays, maybe you can catch up on the stories you missed.
Illustration: Sam Woolley for InsideEVs
I feel the need to start here because Kevin Williams’ dispatches from China got so much wider attention than any of us expected. But that’s a testament to Kevin, who has directly experienced more about China’s EV sector than nearly any other U.S.-based journalist and also knows how to tell the heck out of a story. In this report, Kevin went to the Shanghai Auto Show to see for himself just how advanced the Chinese car industry has become, and his findings were eye-opening, to say the least. Now the question for 2025 and beyond is this: Can the rest of the world catch up?
Photo by: InsideEVs
One of the most frequent criticisms we hear about EVs is that they’re still too expensive for most people. And you know what? Those criticisms are justified. The rise of the modern electric car unfortunately coincided with skyrocketing post-pandemic new car prices—something that’s now a headache for the entire car industry—and batteries and their components still remain expensive to develop and procure. We may see signs of relief soon with affordable options like the 2026 Chevy Bolt and Kia EV3, but in this essay, Mack Hogan points out the real problem: the car business is built on profit margins, not selling cheap cars that everyone can afford.
Photo by: Fernando Pino
Even with all of the challenges facing the EV sector, this year was truly a landmark one for electric options across all price levels. That’s why I’m so proud of this package spearheaded by Mack Hogan. If you haven’t read our inaugural Breakthrough Awards, you owe it to yourself to check it out. InsideEVs staff members and contributors across the country spent months testing six of 2024’s most promising cars, and it was a tough competition; the winner really earned its honors here. I can’t wait to do this again next year. We have even bigger plans for the Breakthrough Awards in 2025.
Illustration: Sam Woolley for InsideEVs
The U.S. will likely end this year with electric cars making up 10% of new sales. That number is already above 20% in California and 50% in China. So even with all the doubts out there about America’s own electric future, I’m glad Tim Levin reminded everyone of this fact: sales of purely internal combustion vehicles have been sliding since 2017 and they aren’t coming back. Maybe it’s hybrids in the interim and EVs long-term, but the simple truth is that the future of driving is electrified. And carmakers and governments can either figure that out or get left behind.
The road to a zero-emission future is a rocky one. No one can truly predict what’s going to win out and when. But one thing has become abundantly clear lately: while hydrogen fuel-cell power shows increasing promise for commercial applications, its prospects for passenger cars have never looked dimmer. Rob Stumpf breaks down the many headaches that Toyota Mirai owners have faced in California, and folks, it’s not pretty. I don’t want to write off hydrogen power completely, but right now, there are even more barriers to wider adoption than even EVs face.
Here’s the thing, though. We’re not about sugar-coating the situation here at InsideEVs. And while we’ve tracked the incredible growth of public EV fast chargers as of late, we’ve also singled out one of the biggest reasons that isn’t happening fast enough. In this story, Suvrat Kothari reports on one of the most annoying challenges facing charger installation: there’s no easy, turnkey process to get all those permits, paperwork and red tape done in a timely way.
In retrospect, Democratic Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin running anti-EV ads in her own state of Michigan was more of an omen for the 2024 election than most people realized at the time. I think it’s a shame that EVs have become such a partisan issue in the U.S., and were in the last election cycle. We ran this story from longtime Republican political consultant Mike Murphy, and I remain proud of it—but the lessons that the auto industry must overcome to get people to move on from gasoline are as relevant as ever now. That’s especially true with a presidential administration coming in that’s far less friendly to EV adoption than the last one. Can this technology go truly mainstream, or will it be lost to politics? We’ll soon find out.
Photo by: InsideEVs
Okay, so maybe the hype train for the Cybertruck is slowing down quite a bit in America. But it’s also pretty much only sold in this part of the world. If you’re in a European Union country and you want one, it’s going to take some doing. Iulian Dnistran spoke to several people who were after a Cybertruck in Europe, either to own or to sell. One thing is for sure: it’s not easy to pull that off.
Photo by: Ford
But here’s another problem: the myth of the “EV slowdown.” Maybe it’s that the early 21st century’s rampant late-stage capitalism has conditioned us all to demand immediate, overnight returns and permanent up-and-to-the-right growth without understanding what long-term investments look like. Or maybe anti-EV clickbait just puts numbers on the board at pageview-driven news outlets. Either way, there’s a lot more doomsaying for a sector that’s still in its infant stages but now represents so much of the new car market. In this great piece, Mack busts the myth of EV sales hitting the skids. Oh, and you had better believe this myth will get permanently busted when more modern affordable models come to market—whether they come from Chevrolet or, say, BYD.
But hey! We’re not just boring policy stories and doom-and-gloom around here. We’re fun. We’re very fun; many people are saying that right now! And about the most fun I had in any car, electric or otherwise, this year was in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. And if you’ll indulge me, this is one of my favorite reviews I’ve ever written. I include it in this list because here at InsideEVs, we like to think about what’s possible—what can be done, how things can be better and what it would take to make that happen. The paradigm-shifting (and simulated gear-shifting) Ioniq 5 N is a great example of that principle at work. I’m excited for more EVs in the coming years that can reset the ways we think about cars.
Photo by: InsideEVs
Sure, the future is uncertain. But that also makes it exciting. Extended-range EVs, or EREVs, represent some of the more interesting technologies coming to the car market in the next few years. Built as EVs with gas engines that act as generators to recharge the batteries, these vehicles could represent the future of internal combustion. Andrei Nedelea has a great explainer here about how these cars work and what we can expect from them.
Speaking of EREVs, Eric Loveday offers a great explainer here about what we can expect from one of the more interesting—and promising—electrified trucks coming to market soon. If our internal data is any indication, there’s a ton of buyer interest in the Ramcharger. Stellantis could certainly use a win lately, so maybe this EREV pickup will do the trick.
Here’s another cool story on the “What’s Possible” beat—and it’s why the mighty Volkswagen Group is seeking help from an upstart like Rivian. This explainer from Suvrat goes into how EVs can be designed differently from the gas-powered cars we’ve known for a century (even as those lessons are being applied to modern ICE vehicles as well) and why Tesla and the Chinese automakers have such a lead on traditional players.
Photo by: InsideEVs
Here’s another thing that often makes the EV-skeptical crowd go “Oh, I get it now”: more and more, these cars are being designed with vehicle-to-load and vehicle-to-grid capabilities, which makes them big, mobile batteries on wheels capable of powering homes or putting energy back into the electrical grid as needed. That opens up a whole new world of possibilities. And as we saw after several natural disasters this year, EVs kept the power going during emergencies and maybe even saved some lives—including those of the animal sort. Suvrat was one of the first writers to really catch on to this trend and I suspect you’ll be hearing about it much more in the years to come.
Here’s another China-focused story from Kevin that I really enjoyed. While everyone talks about BYD when speaking of the Chinese EV revolution, we’re trying to keep an eye on several other promising players too. Of them, Xiaomi could end up perhaps the biggest disruptor yet. It has done what countless others have tried and failed to do: start as a powerful tech and smartphone company, and then successfully branch into cars. Here’s the story of how its CEO, often described as China’s Steve Jobs, is making that happen.
Photo by: InsideEVs
I had a lot on my mind around my one-year anniversary at the helm of InsideEVs, so much so that I needed to put those thoughts to (digital) paper. I’m surprised this story was shared as widely as it was; I still get emails about it months later. Tim was kind enough to elaborate on its appeal: “Since you may be reluctant to gas yourself up in this post, you can quote me: This is a must-read piece for anybody who wants to see the big picture of why the EV transition is so fascinating, fraught and high-stakes. If you have a friend or family member who doesn’t ‘get it,’ they will after reading this.” Thanks, Tim.
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Here’s the thing: none of us are against hybrid cars. I do consider the name of this site to be “Inside Electrified Vehicles.” But lately, as the EV transition proves to be more complicated and protracted than the car companies wanted, plug-in hybrids are seen as this great in-between step that will reduce our gas use and teach people to get used to cars they need to plug in. But it’s not like they’ve only been around a few minutes; this technology is almost two decades old now. So why is it unclear whether people will actually plug them in or not? Veteran auto journalist and contributor John Voelcker dives into an issue that should matter to any automaker putting their eggs into this basket.
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I’m highlighting this one car on my list for a few reasons. First of all, the next Mercedes-Benz CLA seems to be going from an entry-level lease special to a high-tech electric and hybrid powerhouse, perhaps even at a “budget Lucid Air” level of performance. And I really enjoyed Andrei’s series of stories explaining how it might work. But I think this next CLA—if it can deliver—will be an amazing counterattack from a traditional automaker known for its technology, but whose first attempts at modern EVs didn’t take off as planned. Some car companies seem inclined to back off if they didn’t get the results they wanted at first. Mercedes instead went back to the drawing board. Maybe that will serve as an example to the rest of this business on how to mount an electric comeback. We’ll find out next year.
Photo by: InsideEVs
But as Tim explains here, perceptions are tough to beat. One of the most controversial things we cover here is Apple CarPlay in EVs, or the lack thereof. Startups and some traditional automakers see a software-defined vehicle future where they aren’t beholden to Apple or Google for everything; others get that people want what they want, especially after two decades of abysmal in-car software. General Motors is doing this stuff better than people think. So can they convince a skeptical public of that?
Yet it’s certainly not all sunshine and roses on the software front. Tim covered the hell out of the downfall of Fisker Inc. this year, but our stories about this particular issue were the most fascinating to me. What happens to a software-defined vehicle, and that car’s long-term owners, when its manufacturer can no longer provide proper software support? Fisker owners were tech-savvy enough to take matters into their own hands this time. But what about next time? We fully expect this scenario to happen again someday, and regulators and consumer rights advocates had better start getting ready now.
When people talk about Vietnamese EV startup VinFast, they tend to talk about the cheap lease deals or what seem to be pervasive quality issues. But I’m proud of Kevin and this outlet for taking aim at something that’s considerably more troubling: allegations that VinFast uses its influence to punish critics in its home country, which could even include criminal penalties. VinFast still has a long way to go before the rest of the world will take it seriously, and the modern internet means criticism won’t stay hidden forever.
Photo by: InsideEVs
We’re very fortunate to have longtime tech and automotive journalist (and BMW iX owner) Tim Stevens as one of our contributors. This year, Tim launched a series called EV Myths Discharged that’s aimed at countering the many misconceptions about driving electric you see in the wider media. Sometimes, this can feel like taking on a basement flood with a tablespoon—there’s a lot of misinformation and outright disinformation out there and our small team can only do so much. But this story takes on one of my favorite myths, and I say that because it is so stupid. Read on if you need to be enlightened.
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Here’s another thing that can be tough for folks to understand coming from the gas-car world: DC fast-chargers are not substitutes for gas stations. They’re immensely useful for road trips, ventures outside of normal driving and for people without easy access to home charging, but not enough people realize the benefits of being able to “fuel” your car anywhere there’s a plug. In this essay, Kevin explains what it’s like to live without fast charging and why we need more good Level 2 and even Level 1 plug options everywhere.
As always, we’re grateful for your attention and support. We’ll see you in a 2025 that certainly won’t be slow, either.
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