Here’s how F1 is tweaking its hybrid systems to try to save the show

The greater harvesting limit also applies during the races, and there are new rules on how much power the electric motor (better known in the sport as an MGU-K, or motor-generator unit-kinetic) can send to the rear wheels.

In “key acceleration zones (from corner exit to braking point, including overtaking zones)” the MGU-K will be able to deploy its full 350 kW (469 hp) to complement the V6’s 400 kW (536 hp). Outside of those zones, the MGU-K is limited to just 250 kW (335 hp) around the lap, which means smaller speed differentials. And the boost—which drivers can engage if they’re within a second of a car in front—is capped at an extra 150 kW (201 hp) now.

Those changes should also mean F1 drivers spend a little less of their time worrying about energy management, although their hybrid powertrains remain governed by algorithms that have shown the potential to be unpredictable. Lap times will be slower than they otherwise might, but the powers that be hope these tweaks are enough to quell criticism that has been growing since preseason testing in February. They’ll also be hoping the changes don’t ruin the action we’ve seen during the last three races—lest people forget, the pre-hybrid era had loud and dynamic cars but precious little overtaking (and so, so many mechanical breakdowns).

There are also changes that will be tested at the start of the Miami race to ameliorate the problem of a car failing to get off the line (and therefore being dangerously slow) because of a problem on the formation lap. If the “low power start detection” system detects a car making too little power off the line, the system will make that car’s warning lights flash and also trigger full MGU-K deployment; in normal conditions, the MGU-K only joins the fun above 50 km/h (31 mph), so it isn’t used in the first phase of a race start.

The FIA will see whether that works before making the change permanent for the rest of the 2026 season. Additionally, there are some tweaks for racing in the rain, including hotter tire blankets for wet tires, a lower deployment limit for the MGU-K if it’s wet, and simpler visual cues from the cars’ rain lights.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/f1-new-hybrid-rules-will-come-into-effect-at-the-miami-grand-prix-in-may/

$25,000 buys plenty of used EVs: Here are some options

Whether you’re considering an electric vehicle because of gas prices or climate change, there has probably never been a better time to buy a used EV, despite that the Trump administration abolished the used clean vehicle tax credit last year. When we started this ongoing series looking at used EV options, the initial idea was to see what was available at bargain-basement prices. But today we’re looking at the $20,000–$25,000 bracket, and we’re firmly out of the basement, with thousands of EVs across the country to choose from.

If you’re only spending $5,000 on an EV, you’re looking at much older models with smaller batteries that never had that much range even when new. But at four or five times that sum, the net casts much, much wider. Buyers can start being a little choosy here, particularly as ex-lease cars begin filling dealership lots this year.

For those in the market, it helps that EVs face lower residuals than equivalent hydrocarbon-powered cars. All those incentives given to the original purchaser are passed along to future owners, but according to a Deloitte report, EV residuals are underperforming even more than expected. While I might expect most Ars Technica readers to see the potential, “many US consumers remain cautious about range, charge time, price, battery replacement cost, and public charging access,” says Deloitte. Changing that will require automakers and car salespeople to do a much better job explaining battery longevity and range, according to the consulting company.

The above isn’t great if you’re trying to sell an EV, but it’s good news if you’re in the market to buy one. You’ll get more car for the same outlay—a better spec, newer model year, or fewer miles already on the odometer versus spending the same money on something that needs gasoline.

A new price cap of $25,000 also means you can afford to start being picky about which badge the car wears: Do you want something mainstream, maybe with lower mileage, or perhaps something plusher or more premium?

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/25000-buys-plenty-of-used-evs-here-are-some-options/

Slate Auto raises $650 million as production gets closer and closer

The electric pickup startup Slate Auto started the week well. This morning, it announced it has raised $650 million in its latest funding round.

Slate is a refreshing outlier among the aspiring new electric vehicle OEMs. Lucid debuted with an electric sedan that intended to move the game on from the Tesla Model S. Rivian said, “What if [we had] supercar suspension and a smiley face for an EV with serious off-road skills?” Both arguably succeeded. Sony Honda Mobility wanted to make the EV a true digital content hub, at least until one half of that joint venture called time—who knows how that project would have turned out, although I suspect sales would have been underwhelming.

But Slate, which got its start in 2022, is doing things differently. It’s not starting sales with something near six-figures; far from it. The abolishment of the federal clean vehicle tax credit was no doubt inconvenient—with it, a sub-$20,000 starting price was possible, but even at “mid-$20,000s” the Slate Truck should match or undercut the Ford Maverick XL, currently the cheapest pickup on sale in the US.

Slate is taking a radical approach to meet that price. It will be assembled from just 600 parts, a tenth the amount of normal pickup trucks. The body panels are plastic and unpainted, and so there’s no need for stamping or a paint shop. Each truck will be built at the company’s Warsaw, Indiana, factory in the same blank configuration: two doors, manual windows, and no infotainment or touchscreens. People on the Internet have been saying for some time now that they want to buy something uncomplicated and bare-bones, and Slate Auto is taking them at their word.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/slate-auto-raises-650-million-as-production-gets-closer-and-closer/

F1 moves a step closer to fixing its 2026 hybrid problem

While lifting and coasting, the car’s brain tells the V6 to keep revving, and it siphons off 350 kW to the battery. But there’s another way the engine can recharge the battery that happens when the driver’s foot is still flat on the throttle. F1 calls this “super clipping,” and while it’s happening, the car’s power output at the rear wheels is significantly curtailed—any power going to the battery can’t go to the rear wheels, and the V6 only has 400 kW to offer. So super clipping has been capped at 200 kW, leaving the other 200 kW (268 hp) to push the car.

So sometimes an F1 car has 750 kW (1,005 hp), sometimes it has 400 kW, and sometimes it might just have 200 kW.

As will the other 21 cars on track, but not in any coordinated way. The software that governs the hybrid systems is capricious, and it decides when to initiate super clipping, and when to ramp up or ramp down power from the MGU based on how much it has already expended on the lap and how much it thinks it will need.

What’s the problem?

The new engine regs were created to get automakers more enthused about the sport, back before so many of them started pulling back on electric vehicles. It worked: Audi, Cadillac, and Honda signed on to join Ferrari and Mercedes. But as I’ve described above, the new formula means that the cars are energy-starved during a lap, particularly during qualifying when the aim is to drive the car right at its very limit.

As we saw in Japan, this has effectively neutered all of F1’s fast corners, because you can reach a shorter overall lap time by using that energy elsewhere. There’s no real problem with lift and coast during a race—as noted before, it’s already common practice in IndyCar and endurance racing. But in qualifying, that’s another matter, and watching the cars lifting and coasting through the 130R corner at Suzuka in Japan was something that demoralized virtually every race fan this author knows. Driving it seems to be worse: McLaren’s Lando Norris described it as “soul destroying.”

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/f1-moves-a-step-closer-to-fixing-its-2026-hybrid-problem/

Volkswagen stops building ID.4s in the US, has inventory “into 2027”

“The Chattanooga plant has been, and will continue to be, a cornerstone of Volkswagen’s strategy in the United States,” said VW Group of America president and CEO Kjell Gruner. “This strategic shift underscores the company’s commitment to Chattanooga and its workforce as we position the plant for long-term success and future product opportunities.”

If you still want an ID.4, VW says it has sufficient inventory at dealers “to support customer demand into 2027,” and the post-refresh models are both more powerful but also more efficient than earlier cars.

But it does leave the prospect of VW not having any electric cars to sell at some point; in December, the company revealed it was selling so few ID.Buzz minivans that it would simply not bother with a model year 2026 at all, ceasing imports. (In retrospect, that really does make this one of the worst headlines of my entire career.)

In this case, VW says “a future version of the ID.4 is currently planned for the North American market; details will be shared at a later time.” If and when that car appears, it may well be rebadged as the ID.Tiguan.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/volkswagen-ends-id-4-production-in-tennessee-to-build-atlas-suv/

The Rivian R2 will launch with 335 miles of range

It won’t be long before Rivian starts delivering the first of its new R2 SUVs to the lucky owners. After wowing everyone with its R1S and R1T, the startup is ready to enter more mainstream market segments, first with the midsize R2 this year. Last month, we got pricing and trim details for the new electric SUV: $57,990 for the R2 Performance, the only version that will be available until the $53,990 R2 Premium goes on sale in late 2026.

Both of these R2s use the same spec battery with a capacity of 87.9 kWh. At the time, Rivian said it expected at least 330 miles (531 km) of range from these models on 21-inch tires. But it seems that details of the actual Environmental Protection Agency range certification have leaked and were posted to the Rivian Forums. And from those documents, we now know that, when fitted with 21-inch wheels and performance, the official EPA range estimate will be 335 miles (539 km).

The testing also generated an official EPA range estimate for the R2 when fitted with smaller 20-inch wheels. Usually, fitting smaller wheels to an EV increases range because the rotation of each wheel causes a lot of drag that saps range, and smaller, narrower wheels disturb less air. But in this case, the 20-inch wheels drop the EPA range estimate down to 314 miles (505 km), thanks to the knobby all-terrain tires.

Once other trims become available, we should get additional EPA range data on smaller wheels with all-purpose (as opposed to all-terrain) tires, as well as the $45,000 version with a smaller battery that isn’t due until late 2027.

There were some other interesting details in the R2 document. The pack capacity is listed as 86.8 kWh, slightly lower than the 87.9 kWh in the official Rivian specs. The maximum DC fast-charging rate is 210 kW, and max level 2 AC charging is 11.5 kW. A heat pump is also standard and is improved from the one in the R1.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/rivian-r2-epa-certification-leaked-gets-335-miles-of-range/

This Ford is the quickest production car at the Nürburgring, ever

When it comes to automotive bragging rights, a good Nürburgring Nordschleife lap time is right up there with the best of them. And today, those bragging rights belong to Ford. The automaker revealed that its GT Mk IV, an evolution of the mid-engined supercar it created in 2016, is now the fastest production car to ever lap the 12.9-mile (20.8-km) race track in Germany, with a time of 6 minutes, 15.997 seconds set by Frédéric Vervisch.

The century-old racetrack in Germany’s Eifel region was built during the Great Depression as a way to create jobs but also to provide Germany’s car industry with a place to test its products. In addition to races, it was—and remains—open to the public for leisure driving.

Well, for some definition of leisure: The place isn’t known as the Green Hell for nothing, with hundreds of feet of elevation change across 12.9 miles (20.8 km) and between 73–170 corners, depending how you count them. After years of driving it online, I got my first laps there last summer and can report that in real life, it is bumpy and narrow, and I’d need another hundred laps or so before I started to feel properly comfortable.

Which would still leave Vervisch on another plane. Along with his teammates, he won the 24 Hour race here in 2019 and 2022 and now has the outright fourth-fastest lap time across the Nordschleife; only Volkswagen’s battery-electric ID.R (6:05.336, driven by Romain Dumas in 2019) and Porsche’s hybrid 919 Evo (5:19.546 driven by Timo Bernhard in 2018) have gone faster this century, both beating Stefan Bellof’s 1984 qualifying time of 6:11.13, set in a Porsche 956 Group C race car. (Because Bellof’s time was set in qualifying, some don’t count it among the official records, so Ford can officially claim the GT Mk IV is the third-fastest car around the ‘Ring.)

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/a-production-ford-sets-third-fastest-time-ever-at-the-nurburgring/

Tesla sales grew by 6% in Q1, but company has an overproduction problem

This morning, Tesla published its production and delivery results for the first three months of 2026. And for the first time in a while, the news has been largely positive. The automaker built a total of 408,386 electric vehicles, a 12.6 percent increase from Q1 2025.

Almost all of those EVs were Models 3 and Y—the company built 394,611 of these, a 14.2 percent increase compared to the same quarter last year. The rest were mostly Cybertrucks, as we learned at the end of January that the aging Models S and X had finally been put out to pasture. At 14 years, the Model S’s service to Tesla showed longevity beaten only by Nissan’s R35 GT-R, which was old enough to vote when it was finally retired.

Overproduction

Tesla also recorded an increase in sales for Q1, though not to the same degree. It sold a total of 358,023 EVs, a 6.3 percent increase compared to the same quarter in 2025. Unfortunately for Tesla, that growth is only half as much as the increase in production.

Looking at the Models 3 and Y, we see the same trend. Tesla sold 341,893 of these vehicles, a 5.6 percent increase year over year. But it ended up with 50,000 more cars in inventory as well. Sales of everything else—the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X—fell by 19.7 percent year over year to 13,775 units.

The bad news extends to Tesla’s energy storage business. This has been growing steadily in recent years and contributes a small, if meaningful percentage to the company’s coffers. But Tesla was able to deploy only 8.8 GWh of energy storage in Q1, a 15 percent decline compared to the same three months last year.

Both car deliveries and energy deployment were below analyst estimates.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/tesla-sales-grew-by-6-in-q1-but-company-has-an-overproduction-problem/

Kia shows off small cars in NY: The 2027 EV3 and 2027 Seltos Hybrid

The other EV3s—the Wind, Land, GT-Line, and GT—all make use of a larger 81.4 kWh pack that provides as much as 320 miles (515 km) of range if you stick with front wheel drive. The larger pack also makes all-wheel-drive possible via a second motor for the rear axle as an option for the Wind and Land trims but standard on the GT-Line and GT. The GT also boasts a bit more oomph with 288 hp (215 kW), up from 261 hp (195 kW) for the other AWD EV3s. (Kia didn’t specify FWD output in the press materials it sent us, but we’re pretty sure it’s 201 hp/150 kW.)

The infotainment is the same system seen in the EV9. It is OTA-updatable, and Kia tells us there’s a range of customizable dashboard themes from Disney and National Geographic, as well as the NBA and FIFA World Cup, should you find the default ones uninspiring. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard.

The EV3 goes on sale here in late 2026; we’ll learn pricing closer to launch, though we expect the short-range car to start at around $35,000.

Seltos Hybrid

Kia also has an all-new version of its little Seltos SUV on display in the Big Apple. The last one wasn’t bad at all, and for model year 2027, there’s a naturally aspirated 2.0 L version and another with a 1.6 L turbocharged engine, but it’s the hybrid I’m most interested in. This is new for this generation of Seltos and pairs a 1.6 L turbocharged four-cylinder with an electric motor, both powering the front axle, with a second eAxle for AWD as an option.

The Seltos, like the EV3, comes with a suite of advanced driver assists to warn you about blind spots and approaching vehicles, and there’s the same themeable infotainment with standard CarPlay and Android Auto. The hybrid Seltos also goes on sale in late 2026, so we have a little time to wait before we find out how much it will cost and what its fuel economy looks like.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/04/kia-shows-off-small-cars-in-ny-the-2027-ev3-and-2027-seltos-hybrid/

No more Chinese Polestar 3s as production shifts entirely to the US

The Volvo factory outside Charleston, South Carolina, will get even busier this year. Formerly the site that built the S60 sedan, in recent years it shifted to building big electric SUVs, the EX90 and closely related Polestar 3. Today, Volvo and Polestar announced that Charleston will now be the sole production site for the Polestar 3; until now, it was also being built at a factory in Chengdu, China.

“The move to consolidate global Polestar 3 production in Charleston help[s] generate efficiencies for both companies, whilst also underscoring our confidence in the plant and the role it plays in our manufacturing footprint,” said Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars. “The US is a very important market for Volvo Cars, both to support our growth ambitions as well as a strategic production site to meet regional and export demands.”

Volvo had a challenging 2025, with sales falling by 7 percent. Meanwhile, Polestar, which was spun out from the Swedish OEM’s performance arm into a standalone startup in 2017, had a rather good 2025, seeing a 34 percent increase in sales. So increasing the proportion of Polestar 3s to come out of South Carolina seems sensible.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/03/polestar-3-production-consolidated-to-the-us-to-keep-volvo-factory-busy/