r/electricvehicles

This is interesting. XPeng has one of the best self drive technology in the world, after Tesla. Electric Viking thinks XPeng is #2 in the world for self driving technology, and Tesla is #1, for passenger cars. If both Tesla and XPeng, who have the best self driving technology in the world for passenger cars (note that Waymo, Pony AI, etc, are not passenger cars) think Lidar isn't needed, this is an interesting observation from the two companies.

I mostly charge at home, but when checking the recent feedback for public charge points, I notice that users often complain that cars are parked there long after the charging is complete.

One local charging point has an "Additional cost by time" condition, whereby 15 mins after the charging is complete, the user incurs a charge or 0.09 EUR per minute until you disconnect, and ideally leave.

This seems like a sensible feature to discourage cheeky users from treating the spot as unlimited parking as part of the charging fee, and unaware users from overlooking the need to free up the space for the next EV to charge.

Is this type of condition an exception or becoming the norm? It seems like a sensible measure to prevent unnecessarily unavailable public charging points.

Pic in comments

I was at a four stall EVgo station. I was the only one there. They have two 100kW and two 350kW chargers. I have a Bolt, so I was chugging along slowly at a 100kW unit. A couple in an Ioniq 5 pulls in and goes to the other 100kW charger. They were waiting in the vehicle while charging. Would you assume they picked that unit on purpose or would you offer them the tip about moving to one of the 350kW units?

Edmunds data showed a 7% jump in people trading in gas cars for EVs over the past four months.

I know that on gas powered cars the alternator is used to power electronics, but am wondering if electric vehicles use the main battery.

The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking of getting a electric cargo van and put a solar panel on the roof to charge the main battery so I could power a gaming laptop for long periods of time.

I wanted to go "off the grid" and still game on my laptop, would the main battery power my laptop?

Sorry if this is a stupid question, I don't know much about cars.

I just got a Dodge Charger Daytona EV. I didn’t know if I’d like it, but I’m so in love with this vehicle. First, the muscle car style combined with an EV is perfect for me. I charged it yesterday and some guys were checking it out for a solid 10-15 minutes as I showed them all the features. In an ICE, when someone is trying to merge onto the highway, it’s always a dance of whether they are going to speed up, slow down, or just merge into the side of my car. With the EV, I just gun it and it isn’t an issue. Finally, the closest charging station to my house is at the county health department. They can’t charge more than cost. So I took my car from 30% to 80% on less than $5. The charging took a little longer than I would have liked, but I cannot beat the price.

That being said, it was really early when I showed up on county property and the police pull up and scope out the vehicle to make sure I was actually charging and not breaking into county property at 5am. No knock or anything, just staring me down for a few minutes before deciding I wasn’t a threat. 😂

Chinese commercial vehicle and heavy equipment manufacturer Sany has sold 15 electric trucks to Indonesian mining contractor Saptaindra Sejati. The company recently held a handover ceremony at the Sany Intelligent Truck Industrial Park in Changsha, Hunan Province, China.

By Sagar Parikh

20.05.2026 - 06:00

Saptaindra Sejati has purchased a fleet of Sany’s SE588 heavy-duty model. Sany provided the client with a factory tour and test drives during the handover ceremony before shipping the trucks to Indonesia. Before these 15 units, the Indonesian company had acquired two vehicles for trials and started operating them at Indonesian mining sites in late 2025.

Over the last few months, Saptaindra Sejati used the trial units in operations involving a total Gross Combined Weight (GCW) of 220 tonnes. Sany says that, besides handling complex operating conditions, the trucks demonstrated reliability in the tropical rainforest climate of the region where they were deployed. Saptaindra Sejati has also committed to a future procurement plan involving nearly 100 trucks, although no further details are available at this point.

Sany manufactures the SE588 in a ‘Composite’ version with a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) rating of 80 tonnes and a ‘Super’ version with a GVW rating of 120 tonnes. The former has a kerb weight of 12.6 to 13.6 tonnes, while the latter tips the scale at 14.6 tonnes. Both feature a single centrally mounted 480 kW motor, a six-speed automated manual transmission, and a 588 kWh battery pack that can be swapped in five minutes.

The battery pack also supports dual-gun fast charging, taking the state of charge from 20 per cent to 80 per cent in as little as 55 minutes. Sany claims the SE588 can travel up to 445 kilometres on a single charge.

Commenting on the fulfilment of the order from Saptaindra Sejati, Sany Group Director and Sany Truck Chairman Lincoln Liang said: “Against the backdrop of global energy transition and deepening China-Indonesia cooperation, Sany will continue to leverage its full industrial chain advantages. Drawing on our leading smart manufacturing strengths in new energy, we will join hands with your company to build a global benchmark for zero-carbon mines.”

with all the ev advancements made by China, how would Lexus EV hold against the Chinese cars? Lexus is comparably expensive to Chinese models and the Chinese batteries seem much better too.

After the December end-of-incentive sales rush (NEVs are no longer exempt from purchase tax this year), and the following sales slump, high gas prices and a never ending wave of new models has allowed April to reach record EV market share, with plugins surpassing the 60% barrier for the first time!

But while in the past it was achieved thanks to record EV sales, this time, this is thanks to a significant ICE (internal combustion engine) crash. The overall market dropped 22% year over year (YoY), to around 1.4 million sales. ICE-powered models were at the epicenter of this disruption, crashing 37% YoY, but plugin hybrids (PHEVs) were also down 25% in April, and even extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) dropped, albeit a more moderate 11% YoY.

The only thing that grew in April? Pure electrics. Despite having fewer incentives, BEVs were up 2% YoY, to 579,000 sales. So, this meant that BEVs scored a record 42% BEV share in China!

Adding PHEVs (13% share) and EREVs (6%) to the tally meant that in April a record 61% of all cars sold in China had a plug!

This result pulled the 2026 share to 49% (in the same period last year, it was at 48% share). BEVs on their own were also up, to 32% (30% BEV in Jan–April ’25). Expect to see plugins north of the 50% mark, and BEVs over 33%, at the end of the first half of the year.

Another interesting statistic is that the breakdown between pure electrics and plugin hybrids is shifting, to the profit of BEVs. At the beginning of the year, PHEVs were profiting from the incentive-derived BEV drop, but pure electrics are returning with a vengeance. April showed a 68% vs. 32% breakdown, to the benefit of BEVs, significantly above the 65%/35% average of 2026 so far.

Having a quick look at Chinese exports — even here plugins are breaking new ground. EV share scored a record 53%, or 406,000 units, in April alone. And with Chinese OEMs fast winning share overseas, markets where they are present in large volumes are also being quickly electrified….