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Georgia man Dennis Kahler won a 2021 Chevrolet Corvette and $250,000 in a Georgia lottery in December but has struggled to get his hands on the Corvette, the blog Corvette Forum reported this week.
Kahler wants a 2LT Rapid Blue z51 Vette, but the lottery administrators can’t find a dealer with a spare Corvette to sell.
Kahler may have to wait until the third quarter of this year for delivery of his prize.
If Dennis Kahler was crazy enough to think he would actually win a free car when he bought a scratch-off ticket for Georgia’s Corvette and Cash event, he probably still didn’t imagine that his luck would be tarnished by vehicle supply problems, organizing failures on the part of the lottery, and the eventual involvement of a team of lawyers. But sadly, he would have been wrong.

C8 Corvette Owners (And Friends)/Facebook

Kahler won the grand prize in the Corvette lottery sometime in December. The win entitled him to $250,000 in prize money and a 2021 Chevrolet Corvette worth up to $107,000. Kahler says his spec of choice is the 2LT Z51 in Rapid Blue, and that he thinks his dream car will cost $80,465, meaning he’ll get an extra $26,535 in cash when the deal finally goes through. The base price of such a Corvette is $73,290, so Kahler may also be hoping to add features such as competition seats, carbon-fiber trim, or (let’s hope not) color-match seatbelts to his C8.

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But Georgia Lottery officials, who apparently did not have a prize vehicle waiting in the wings for a winner, are struggling to get their hands on an appropriate car. The launch of the new Corvette has been plagued by problems. First, the start of manufacturing on the mid-engine Vette was delayed by a 40-day United Auto Workers strike; then the coronavirus pandemic temporarily shuttered GM plants. In October, the Bowling Green, Kentucky, plant that builds Corvettes was shut down for a week because of unspecified coronavirus-related supply chain issues.
That all adds up to a lot of demand for not that many cars. So far, the only vehicle the Georgia Lottery has been able to secure for Kahler came from a dealer who wanted $10,000 above MSRP, but Kahler balked at any solution that would chip away at his winnings.

Now it seems that he may have to wait until at least the third quarter of this year before an unaccounted-for Corvette rolls of the line. Kahler says lawyers are now involved in his quest to extract a Corvette from Georgia Lottery. If you ask us, it’s bad form to look a gift horse in the mouth and especially bad to have your lawyer do it for you. But then again, our Corvettes always show up on time.
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Many automakers, both startups and well-established players, have announced plans to build all-electric pickup trucks.
We rounded up all the electric trucks on the horizon from Tesla’s new Cybertruck to Ford’s upcoming electric F-150.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic might affect the production timeline for some of these upcoming pickups.
Tesla is not the only car company preparing to build an all-electric pickup truck, although its new Cybertruck certainly is getting its fair share of attention. When—and if—it hits the marketplace, the Cybertruck will likely have to face some competitors, as numerous other automakers have announced plans to build and sell electric trucks in the near future. Here, we’ve rounded up the growing field of EVs with cargo beds, both from well-established car companies and new startup players.

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GMC Hummer EV SUT

GMC

General Motors is reviving the Hummer name. Except this time, the pickup-truck variant (as well as an SUV) will be electric and badged as a GMC submodel. With a claimed 1000 horsepower and a misleading torque number of 11,500 lb-ft, this fully electric truck is positioned to battle similar EV pickups from rival automakers in what appears to be the next frontier. The Hummer EV sits on 35-inch tires, is equipped with an adaptive air suspension, has skid plates, and has a “Crab mode” that uses the rear steering to move the truck diagonally. It’ll start at $79,995, though the first model available, arriving later this year, will be the $112,595 fully loaded Edition 1 model. Cheaper versions, as well as an SUV, will arrive for the 2023 model year. –Eric Stafford
Electric Ford F-150

Ford

Ford builds the best-selling pickup truck in the country, so its decision to create an all-electric version is a big deal. The electric F-150 is expected to appear sometime in 2021, and it’s set to enter production in mid-2022. Ford has already boasted about its capability, executing a stunt where an electric F-150 prototype towed a massive freight train filled with 42 F-150 pickups that weighed one million pounds. Ford hasn’t shared any specs or details about the electric truck yet, though it did say it’ll have more horsepower and torque and faster acceleration than any F-150 currently on the market. –Joey Capparella
Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla

Tesla wants people to forget everything they know about pickup trucks. With a weird wedgelike shape and a DeLorean-esque stainless-steel shell, the Cybertruck certainly eradicates the segment’s long-held conventions. Oh, and it’s dentproof, scratchproof, and allegedly bulletproof. But if Tesla’s ambitious claims that it can tow up to 14,000 pounds and drive more than 500 miles on a single charge are true, the Cybertruck will be more capable than even the current Ford F-150 and will have a longer range than any EV on the market. The all-electric pickup also boasts some impressive performance claims, with an estimated zero-to-60-mph time under three seconds and an adjustable air suspension that can provide up to 16 inches of ground clearance. If it sounds like Tesla intended the Cybertruck to be more capable off-road than a Jeep, quicker than a Porsche, and stronger than all of the best-selling half-ton trucks, well, that’s probably not too farfetched. However, when and whether or not the production version will actually yield these bold proclamations is much more dubious. –Eric Stafford
Rivian R1T

Rivian

American startup company Rivian is planning to throw its electric truck, the 2021 Rivian R1T, into the ring this year with deliveries starting in June. This truck, starting at $75,000, is sized between a mid-size pickup and a full-size. The R1T has multiple levels of power and battery capacity to choose from, but a few things are standard in all trucks: all-wheel drive, the ability to tow up to 11,000 pounds, an adjustable air suspension, and Level 3 autonomous driving capability. Rivian says the 105.0-kWh, 135.0-kWh, and 180.0-kWh battery packs are estimated to have a range of 230, 300, and 400 miles, respectively. The 400-mile battery pack will be available in January 2022. Rivian claims that models equipped with the 180.0-kWh pack can hit 60 mph in a supercar-like 3.0 seconds. The interior of the truck features lots of wood and leather, with large display screens for both the gauge cluster and infotainment screen. In addition to being able to tow a lot, the R1T can carry a lot, thanks to a large frunk and bed and a spacious cabin that fits five adults comfortably. –Mihir Maddireddy
Chevrolet Electric Pickup

GM

Pictured above is what we could see of the electric Chevrolet pickup at an event in late 2020. Details are sparse on the electric Chevy pickup, but we do know that it’s on its way. It’ll be based on General Motors’ Ultium platform and will use the batteries in that platform. So the Chevy EV pickup will likely have the ability to carry 200.0 kWh of power, like the Hummer EV. Late in 2020, GM said the Ultium platform can give vehicles a range of up to 450 miles; the Hummer EV offers up to 350 miles, so we expect a figure similar to that. When plans for the electric Chevrolet pickup first surfaced, GM said that it wouldn’t reach the market until 2025. Nonetheless, GM has accelerated its electrification plans and its timeline for new electric vehicles, so the Chevy EV pickup could come before 2023 along with the 20 other EVs GM said it will debut by that year. –Colin Beresford
Lordstown Endurance

Lordstown Motors

Since Lordstown announced that it was accepting $1000 deposits for the 2021 Endurance, the startup EV maker has released the full details of its forthcoming truck. The Endurance will have a range of more than 250 miles, according to Lordstown, supplied by a battery of 109.0 kWh. The pickup will have a towing capacity of 7500 pounds and a horsepower peak of 600 hp. Intended as a fleet vehicle—although it will be available to individual customers—the Endurance has a governed speed of 80 mph. Unlike most of the other electric pickups, Lordstown hasn’t released any zero-to-60-mph time estimate, but whatever it ends up being, it’ll get there through power routed through four hub electric motors. Production of the Endurance has been delayed several times, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic, but as of late 2020, the timing calls for the first Endurance to roll off the assembly line beginning in fall 2021 and full production starting in 2022, priced starting at $52,500. –Colin Beresford
Bollinger B2

Bollinger

The Bollinger B2 is the wildest and most expensive of the upcoming electric trucks: priced at $125,000, with geared axle hubs, hydropneumatic suspension, and the ability to carry 16-foot lumber with the tailgate closed. Actually, make that tailgates, plural. There’s one on the front, too, which we guess would make it a frontgate. Grill-gate? We’ll figure this out. Thanks to that exotic suspension and drivetrain—which is like a cross between a Hummer H1 and a Citroën DS—the B2 has a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,001 pounds, making it a Class 3 medium truck in the eyes of the Federal Highway Administration. That’s why it gets away with no airbags. With locking diffs, disconnecting sway bars front and rear, and up to 20 inches of ground clearance, the B2 should be a monster off-road. And despite looking like a cubist take on a Jeep Gladiator, the on-road stats are impressive, too: 614 horsepower, 668 pound-feet of torque, and a 4.5-second zero-to-60-mph time. Range is estimated at 200 miles, which isn’t a lot for a vehicle with a 120.0-kWh battery, but obviously range is pretty far down on the B1’s list of priorities. Bollinger is taking deposits now, with production slated to start in the second half of 2020. The company has also added a Chassis Cab model, which will be available to commercial outfitters in late 2021. –Ezra Dyer
Nikola Badger

Nikola

Nikola made a lot of claims about its Badger pickup—that it would be offered in an EV version as well as a hybrid battery-electric/fuel cell version, that it would have 906 peak horsepower and a range of up to 600 miles, that it would do zero to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds—and we thought it would come to fruition when Nikola announced a partnership with GM. Well, that agreement fell through, and as a result, it doesn’t look like the Badger will be reaching consumers, perhaps ever. For now, Nikola will be sticking with hydrogen fuel-cell semi=trucks. –Colin Beresford
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On his final night in office, former President Trump pardoned a former executive of Google and Uber, Anthony Levandowski.
Levandowski pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from Google’s self-driving division to benefit himself and Uber as part of a plea agreement.
Levandowski was sentenced to 18 months in prison but had not begun to serve his time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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On his last night as president, Donald Trump issued 73 pardons and commuted the sentences of 70 individuals. One of those pardoned was Anthony Levandowski, the former tech executive who pleaded guilty to charges of stealing trade secrets from Google’s self-driving-car division (now called Waymo), ahead of leaving the company to start his own self-driving technology company.
Levandowski worked at Google from 2009 until 2016. He admitted that in 2016, as he was getting ready to leave the company, he downloaded thousands of Google files onto his personal laptop, including proprietary schematics and designs for lidar. In court proceedings, he admitted that he planned to use the files to benefit himself and his new employer, Uber.
Levandowski left Google in 2016 to start his own autonomous trucking company, Otto, which was quickly acquired by Uber for $680 million. At that point, he took over control of the self-driving development at both companies. In 2017, Google accused Uber and Levandowski of stealing self-driving trade secrets. In May 2017, Uber fired Levandowski after he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself and refused to hand over evidence and testimony after being ordered to do so by a federal judge. Uber eventually settled with Google and agreed to pay $245 million in 2018.
After charges were filed against Levandowski, he pleaded guilty to 33 counts of trade secret theft as part of a plea agreement in 2019. In August 2020, he was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for his crimes and to pay a $95,000 fine and $756,499.22 in restitution. At the sentencing, Judge William Alsup said, “This is the biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen. This was not small. This was massive in scale.”
The sentence was never carried out. A plan was set in motion to incarcerate Levandowski after current COVID-19 risks had subsided. With Trump’s pardon, Levandowski has been spared that jail time. He took to Twitter to express his relief.
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In a statement, the Trump administration noted the pardon was supported by tech-industry insiders including Facebook board member Peter Thiel and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey.
New York Times reporter Mike Isaac, who covered the saga and wrote a book titled Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, commented to Car and Driver: “Trump coming in at the last minute to pluck Levandowski out of harm’s way is just the perfect ending to a completely wild story. An almost too on-the-nose finale for an already unpredictable saga.”
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The 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQA is an electric derivative of the GLA that Daimler is unveiling today.
In Europe, the EQA will offer 187 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque and is priced at the equivalent of $57,750.
The EQA may or may not come to the U.S., depending on how Mercedes’s EV plans shake out, and if it does it is expected to bring a more powerful motor with as much as 280 horsepower.
Mercedes-Benz has just unveiled the EQA, a member of a diverse family of Mercedes EQ electric vehicles. It’s just one of a full lineup that will be rolling out this year and next. Each is based on a conventional internal-combustion-engined Mercedes, from A-class to G-wagen, spearheaded by the EQC, a derivative of the GLC. The EQ family will grow with further models, such as the GLB-based EQB, followed by futuristic stand-alone models including the EQE and the EQS.

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The EQA, as a compact-crossover EV, may be a harbinger of Mercedes’s electric future, but actually, it looks rather clean and conventional. Stylistically, it is a GLA, but without any of the pseudo-sporty clutter, with a sweeping front end and horizontal light bar that is mirrored on its tail. Why can’t every GLA look like the EQA?
In Europe, the EQA250 will launch with a front-mounted asynchronous motor that makes 187 horsepower and, more important, 277 pound-feet of torque that’s available from step-off. That’s a bit more than the GLA250, which is rated at 258 pound-feet but makes a superior 221 horsepower.

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Mercedes-Benz

Sadly, the EQA250 can’t hold a candle to the GLA250 when it comes to acceleration. According to Mercedes numbers, it takes about two seconds longer to reach the 60-mph mark, and it is governed at 100 mph in the interest of range, while the Europe-market GLA250 will carry on to 149 mph.
When asked about plans to bring an EQA to the U.S., a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson told Car and Driver, “At this point the EQA is still being considered for the U.S. market.” If the EQA does come here, it could be fitted with a more powerful drivetrain. Mercedes has suggested there’ll be an EQA with all-wheel drive and around 280 horsepower. That sounds like fun to us; we do appreciate the instant torque of an EV, and a twin-motor EQA could be a serious performer.
The 66.5-kWh batteries provide for a remarkable range of more than 300 miles in the European cycle, which, admittedly, tends to favor electrics. We believe that a range of 200 to 250 miles is realistic. Unfortunately, that range comes at a cost: The compact EQA250 weighs more than a six-cylinder, mild-hybrid S-class, which incidentally features all-wheel drive and has far better towing capacity.

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Inside, the EQA remains a close sibling of the GLA, and that’s a good thing since it is fitted with one of the most advanced user interfaces on the market. While we mourn the loss of the Mercedes twist-and-push-button input system of yore, there are plenty of other ways to enter the desired commands, including an ever improving voice control system.

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Mercedes-Benz

For the EQA, Mercedes-Benz has tweaked the color and material selections, with optional rose gold applications and blue fabrics. Elegant and futuristic, the new look is sure to win over some customers that are on the fence about choosing an electric.
The EQA will be built in both Germany and China. In Europe, the price of the EQA250 is only slightly higher than the GLA250’s, and that gap is more than offset by the subsidies and incentives granted by the government. Similar measures will be most welcome if, going forward, EVs are to make any progress on the U.S. market.

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Porsche has introduced a new rear-wheel-drive base model to the Taycan electric sedan lineup.
The new Taycan is powered by a standard 79.2-kWh battery and a rear permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor that makes 402 horsepower, though a 93.4-kWh battery is an option.
The base Taycan starts at $81,250, and its EPA-estimated range will be announced by spring.
Porsche has added an entry-level Taycan model with rear-wheel drive to its electric sedan lineup, and it will arrive in the U.S. in the spring starting at $81,250. The base model shares its rear motor with the $105,150 all-wheel-drive 4S model, and it’s also 215 pounds lighter.

Porsche

The base Taycan is equipped with a 79.2-kWh battery pack and permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor that powers the rear axle and produces 402 horsepower and 254 pound-feet of torque. A 93.4-kWh battery is also available that increases output to 469 horsepower and 263 lb-ft of torque. Porsche claims a zero-to-60-mph sprint of 5.1 seconds and a top speed of 143 mph for both configurations. The top-dog Taycan Turbo S has 750 horsepower and reached 60 mph in 2.4 seconds during Car and Driver testing.

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Both units support DC fast charging, and regenerative braking is standard. Porsche didn’t release range estimates, so we don’t yet know how close this rear-wheel-drive base Taycan comes to the Tesla Model S. However, the heavier Taycan 4S with the same 79.2-kWh battery achieves only 199 miles of range. With the 93.4-kWh battery, its EPA-estimated range is 227 miles, the longest of any Taycan. The cheapest Model S currently available, the Long Range Plus, costs $10,630 less than the base Taycan and has an EPA-estimated 402 miles of range.

Porsche

Porsche’s adaptive dampers are standard across the board, including the base model, with an air suspension available. A set of 19-inch silver Taycan aero wheels with black calipers (pictured above) are standard on the base Taycan, while the 4S model is differentiated by polished wheels with black spokes and red brakes. The 20- and 21-inch wheels are also available on the base model.
Standard tech includes Apple CarPlay capability, Apple Music, Plug and Charge automatic payments, over-the-air updates, and three years of free Electrify America charging, plus a 19.2-kWh onboard charger and a head-up display. The 2021 Porsche Taycan is available to order now and will arrive in the U.S. in the spring.
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Chevrolet will unveil the 2022 Bolt EV and Bolt EUV on February 14 with the help of Walt Disney World.
In a video about the news, the automaker teased an image of the back of the Bolt EUV.
The 2022 Bolt and Bolt EUV will be available this summer and are part of GM’s huge electrification strategy.
Nothing says romance like cuddling up on Valentine’s Day in front of the computer and watching two Chevy Bolts be unveiled with some help from Walt Disney World. That may be what GM was going for as it announced today that it would unveil the 2022 Chevy Bolt and 2022 Chevy Bolt EUV electric vehicles on February 14.
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The announcement was accompanied by a video of the little girl who unleashes Tinker Bell’s sorcery upon the street lights of a neighborhood while sitting in the back of the Bolt EUV. Before the conclusion where the city is lit up by the magic following the Bolt EUV, the rear end of the EV is shown off. In the image, we get our best look at the tailgate and rear lights. As expected, the EUV crossover seems taller than the current Bolt. In August, GM released a silhouette teaser that shows off the relative size difference of the two upcoming vehicles.

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How Disney will play a part in the unveiling isn’t yet clear. The release accompanying the video does mention that the unveiling will “show how magic can take place when the imagination is electrified.” So it’s probably a good idea to expect a lot more Tinker Bell when the two vehicles are finally shown off in full to the public.
GM has been teasing images of the Bolt and Bolt EUV for months ahead of the February event. The automaker has been building hype not only for these vehicles but for its overall electrification plan to launch 30 new electric vehicles by 2025. The EV push even resulted in the recent redesign of the automaker’s logo, which sort of looks like a plug going into a wall. GM says the blue color is meant to represent “the clean skies of a zero-emissions future.”
The 2022 Bolt and Bolt EUV are both scheduled to be available this summer.
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Microsoft is partnering with GM to help bring the automaker’s robotaxi startup Cruise’s autonomous vehicles to the road.
The partnership is part of a wider investment and would see GM and Cruise use Microsoft’s Azure cloud and Edge computing platforms.
A year ago Cruise unveiled its Origin autonomous shuttle and recently completed its first autonomous drive in San Francisco without a safety driver behind the wheel.
Bringing self-driving shuttles to the streets clearly takes a village. Today Microsoft announced that it will be investing in and supplying technology to GM’s Cruise robotaxi service. Microsoft will be part of a group of investors, including Honda, that put more than $2 billion into Cruise, bringing the post-money valuation of the company up to $30 billion.

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On the technology front, Cruise will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and the company’s Edge computing platform to power the back end of the startup’s self-driving shuttles. By leveraging the power of Microsoft’s tech, Cruise will be able to scale much quicker than if it tried to build these systems on its own.
The partnership also makes Microsoft a GM preferred cloud partner as the automaker scales up its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities. “Microsoft will help us accelerate the commercialization of Cruise’s all-electric self-driving vehicles and help GM realize even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and create new businesses and services to drive growth,” said GM CEO Mary Barra in a statement.
Cloud platforms and accompanying technologies allow companies to offload the processing power needed to tackle intensive tasks like AI and machine learning that make self-driving technology possible. “As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.

Cruise

But it’s not just about building a vehicle that drives on its own, GM also stated that the automaker will “explore opportunities with Microsoft to streamline operations across digital supply chains, foster productivity, and bring new mobility services to customers faster.”
Cruise has been testing its fleet of specially outfitted Chevy Bolt EVs on the streets of San Francisco since 2016 as it tries to crack the self-driving problem. Recently, the company completed its first drive in the city without a driver behind the wheel in one of those Bolts. In January of 2020, it unveiled its Origin autonomous shuttle that will be the commercialization of these efforts. The vehicle will be built by GM at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant which has been renamed Factory Zero.
For now, there’s no word on when the Cruise Origin will be on the streets offering up driverless rides to passengers powered by Microsoft’s services. What we do know is that GM is not alone in its efforts to offer up robotaxis. Amazon, Cadillac, and other companies with self-driving tiny buses are also trying to figure out ways to eventually transport us around town without a human behind the wheel.
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