Cadillac has shown off a prototype of the upcoming Celestiq.The new electric hatchback is shown going for its first engineering drive at GM’s Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.We don’t have word on when the Celestiq will reach dealerships. This morning Cadillac shared photos on its social platforms of its new EV flagship, the Celestiq, beginning its road testing in prototype form. As it takes its first drive at GM’s Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan, we can see that the production model should look very close to the concept photos released just over a month ago. The Celestiq is expected to reach customers sometime in 2024.

The Celestiq pictured here is wearing blue and white camouflage with hundreds of Cadillac badges in all different orientations meant to create an optical illusion. But the camouflage can’t hide how massive the car is, and its silhouette is remarkably dramatic on the road. The main difference we can tell from the concept is that this prototype has real side-view mirrors.

The electric hatchback is on track to arrive as a 2025 model, although Cadillac hasn’t yet announced exactly when deliveries will begin. We also don’t have any information on how many vehicles Cadillac plans to build, but production will be kept at low volume to ensure exclusivity. The Celestiq EV uses GM’s Ultium battery technology, and we expect it to offer a large battery pack that should be good for at least 300 miles of driving range per charge. Its competitors such as the Tesla Model S and the Lucid Air offer more than 400 and 500 miles of range, respectively. The slinky electric hatchback’s base MSRP has yet to be announced, but we expect it to start in the high-$200,000 to low-$300,000 range. The Celestiq will be hand-built, and customers will be able to customize their car to a large degree. Look for more details on the 2025 Celestiq as Cadillac prepares this new electric hatchback for production and works with customers to spec and build their cars before finally handing them over. More

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Volkswagen is teasing an autonomous robot that charges EVs in parking lots.
The robot would tow batteries to individual vehicles and hook them up to begin charging.
No word on when this will become a reality, but it does solve the issue of adding charging to a garage without placing individual charging stations at parking stalls.

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Robots typically fall into two categories: a helpful friend like R2D2 or a killing machine like the T1000. While Volkswagen begins its video of its mobile charging robot with the percussion associated with the Terminator movies, it quickly pivots to R2D2-esque noises as it teases its rather cute solution to charging EVs in parking lots without installed charging stations.
This prototype for the mobile charging robot is one of the concepts the Volkswagen Group is developing to help bring the charging infrastructure up to par with the number of electric vehicles the automaker is hoping to sell over the next few years.
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This technology uses car-to-x (a.k.a. V2X vehicle-to-everything) communications. In a second video, VW shows a driver pulling into a spot in a garage and using an app to tell the charging robot that their vehicle needs juice. The robot grabs the so-called “mobile energy storage” unit, which is essentially a battery on wheels, and tows it over to the vehicle and plugs it in to begin charging.
The robot will then either return to its home base and wait to remove the rolling battery or grab another mobile energy storage unit and attach that to another vehicle. All of this is done without the need for a human attendant, according to Volkswagen. It’s less terrifying and more practical than the autonomous metal snake Tesla showed off in 2015.
These types of systems could allow parking garages to have a charging infrastructure without the need to place a charging station at individual parking stalls. Instead, the rolling battery packs can be charged at a single location and deployed as needed.
There’s no word on when the adorable robot car butler will become a reality. But in its release, Volkswagen stated, “The mobile charging robot has successfully reached prototype status and will now be comprehensively further developed.”
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Chevrolet will start replacing the batteries in the Bolt EV in October, the automaker announced this afternoon.GM started to recall the Bolt nearly a year ago over the potential for battery fire, later expanding the recall to every Bolt EV made to date and adding the Bolt EUV crossover as well, for a total of more than 140,000 vehicles.Along with replacing batteries, GM will install new diagnostic software to be installed in every Bolt to closely monitor batteries for anomalies.General Motors said Monday it will start replacing battery modules in its Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars as soon as next month, now that its battery supplier LG is again producing the necessary cells and modules. The company will first prioritize 2017–2019 Bolts built during times it believes defective cells were most likely to have been produced.

The replacements are the first long-term fix to address a recall underway since last November, when GM first identified 50,000 Bolt EVs from those model years that could have defective cells. The recall ultimately expanded to every Bolt EV and EUV made, a total of roughly 141,000 cars. Drivers of those cars have been advised to limit their charging, how deeply they discharge their batteries, and where and how they park their cars [see sidebar]. Owner discontent has surged, to the point that some Bolt EVs have been bought back by the company. Now, a fix is in sight. GM said LG only resumed production of its cells and modules after it “implemented new manufacturing processes” in its plants in the Michigan cities of Holland and Hazel Park to eliminate two different defects in the cells, a torn anode tab and a folded separator, that could cause fires in the rare instance that both flaws occur in the same cell. The companies didn’t provide further details about how the defects occurred or what specific changes to build processes had been made to eliminate them. But Tim Grewe, GM global electrification and battery systems director, confirmed during a media call that “interaction between the two [defects] is what causes the issue.”

Those same new manufacturing processes will be rolled out to all LG plants that supply cells to GM, the company said. GM will increase its frequency of individual cell checking, and work closely with LG to share manufacturing expertise in areas that apply to cell fabrication and assembly processes. It will also work with LG to “review and enhance its quality-assurance programs” as part of an effort to “provide confidence in its batteries” in the future.GM said it is aware of 13 Bolt fires suspected to be linked to defective cells in the battery packs. No injuries or deaths are attributed to those fires, but all 141,000 Bolt EVs and EUVs built since December 2016 are being recalled. Meanwhile, GM has directed Bolt owners to follow specific recharging, usage, and parking protocols to reduce risk until their cars can be updated.Production of both the Bolt EV and the new, larger Bolt EUV model was suspended last month. GM confirmed the Orion Assembly Plant’s lines will remain idle at least through the week of October 11 but didn’t give a date for resumption of Bolt production.New Modules and Software ComingAs cell production under LG’s revised processes ramps up, GM will start to replace battery modules in existing Bolt vehicles. The company said it would “prioritize Chevy Bolt EV and EUV customers whose batteries were manufactured during specific build time frames” in which the company believes “the defects appear to be clustered.”Affected Bolt EVs will receive a full set of new battery modules. Owners of 2017–2019 Bolt EVs whose modules are replaced will see the rated range of their cars rise from 238 to 259 miles. That comes from replacing the cars’ original cells with a newer and more energy-dense cell, boosting pack capacity from 60.0 to 65.0 kWh.GM did not offer any estimates on how many vehicles it believed would require battery replacement, or how long the replacement of all affected Bolt modules would take. Chevrolet will notify “affected customers,” which is to say owners of existing Bolts, when new modules are available for their batteries.Monitoring Batteries More CloselyNow that LG will be starting to supply replacement battery hardware, GM will also roll out new diagnostic software to be installed in every Bolt that monitors an expanded set of battery performance data. The goal is to look at more indicators than the existing software does, so the cars can alert drivers of any unusual readings in its battery’s electrical performance.The program will detect “specific abnormalities that might indicate a damaged battery” and, GM says, will let the company prioritize damaged modules for replacement. Getting that software installed in a Bolt will require a visit to the Chevrolet dealership, however. Customers can start to schedule those visits in roughly 60 days, during the second half of November. Meanwhile, the new software will limit charging to 80 percent of rated capacity until it has fully analyzed the behavior of all modules. After that, future diagnostic software to come will gradually increase the charge percentage as the pack continues to perform appropriately, with the final goal being to offer recharges up to 100 percent of capacity once again. LG’s resumption of cell and module production under new, presumably defect-free, protocols may be the first shred of good news around the Bolt battery recall in quite some time. Since August 20, when the company expanded the recall to cover every Bolt built since 2016, Bloomberg reported that GM told some owners their Bolts should be parked at least 50 feet from other vehicles. That guidance has now been modified to “ample distance,” though how owners choose to interpret the advice will likely vary quite a lot based on their parking circumstances. Automotive News published an editorial suggesting the only way for GM to restore public confidence in its EVs would be to provide entirely new battery packs for all Bolts that are based on the newer Ultium cell technology GM and LG have jointly developed. That would be a remarkably lengthy and ambitious undertaking, given Ultium’s different cell size and shape, different module design, and entirely different battery-management system. Meanwhile, Bolt drivers have at least two months to wait before both new hardware and new software will be available for installation. What Should Bolt Owners Do?GM has not changed its guidance on how Bolt owners should park, charge, and use their electric vehicles. Until replacement modules can be installed, it said, Bolt drivers should continue to: Use Target Charge Level mode to set vehicle to limit recharging to 90 percent of battery capacity. If customers can’t make change that setting, or aren’t comfortable doing so, they should visit their Chevrolet dealer to have these adjustments made; Charge more frequently and avoid depleting the battery below roughly 70 miles of range remaining, whenever possible; Never leave a vehicle charging overnight while indoors;Park the car outside immediately after charging; and Leave “ample space” around the parked vehicle where possible.Bolt EV customers can visit Chevrolet’s Bolt recall site or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recalls site for more details about the recall.

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Honda recently confirmed that the Insight will be discontinued and a Civic hybrid is on its way.There’s a new Civic hybrid for Europe, and we think it could offer a preview of the model we’ll eventually get.We’re not sure if the Civic hybrid will be offered in the U.S. as a sedan or a hatchback, or both.The Honda Civic hybrid is poised to return to the U.S. market, as the Insight—which is effectively a Civic hybrid in all but name—bows out after the 2022 model year. Honda has yet to release details about the upcoming U.S.-market Civic hybrid, but did just release photos and specs for the Europe-spec version that could give us an idea of what to expect.

The Euro Civic’s hybrid powertrain is similar to the Insight’s in that it uses two electric motors and a gasoline engine, but it swaps out the Insight’s 1.5-liter inline-four for a larger 2.0-liter inline-four. This means the Civic hybrid is significantly more powerful, producing 181 horsepower in total compared to the Insight’s 152 hp. That’s about the same as the nonhybrid Civic’s optional turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-four. But the U.S.-market Accord hybrid, which also uses a 2.0-liter gasoline engine, is more powerful still, with a combined 212 hp.

Honda

Fuel economy may suffer somewhat, as the Insight has an EPA combined rating of up to 52 mpg, while the Euro Civic hybrid is rated at 50 mpg combined on the more favorable WLTP cycle.Honda hasn’t said where it plans to build the U.S.-market Civic hybrid, but the Civic hatchback is currently built in Indiana and the sedan is built in Canada. Although the Europe-market Civic comes only as a hatchback and is exclusively a hybrid, we’re not sure which bodystyles will be offered for the hybrid on our shores. A Civic hybrid sedan would be an obvious rival for the sedan-only Toyota Corolla hybrid, but we hope Honda will offer the hatchback as a hybrid too for its extra measure of practicality. The Euro Civic hybrid, for its part, appears to offer many of the same visual elements from the Civic Sport and Sport Touring trims, including larger wheels.Look for Honda to release more information soon about the U.S.-bound Civic hybrid soon, as we expect it to join the lineup soon, possibly as a 2023 model.
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