Week of Monday, Feb. 16
This week, we're looking at a newly awarded "Best of the Best" EV, the growing adoption of electric first responder vehicles, Ford's next electric truck attempt, and all the other news about clean machines you need to know right now.
A new 'Best of the Best' might be an EV you've never heard of
Edmunds's vehicle awards are a big deal, and winning its Top Rated Best of the Best — chosen from over 300 vehicles — is considered a major achievement.
2026's No. 1 is the Hyundai Palisade Hybrid. The big, three-row car sets what Edmunds called "a new standard in family SUVs."
In the electric SUV category, Hyundai's Ioniq 5 came out tops, and the same company's Tucson Hybrid and Ioniq 9 did well, signalling that Hyundai is doing more than a few things right.
Ford is giving its EV trucks another go … with a lower price tag
Despite the failure of Ford's first EV truck attempt, the F-150 Lightning, which cost more than its gas-powered stablemate and offered less functionality, the Blue Oval team went back to the electric drawing board and has just unveiled its next-gen EV platform.
The Maverick-sized vehicle is 15% more aerodynamic than its gas equivalent. And working hard to find other efficiencies, such as reducing the side mirror motors needed to adjust and fold to just one (instead of two), Ford says its new truck will have a base price of $30,000.
Why first responders are starting to love EVs
There's a saying that when police and ambulance services adopt a particular new tech, then it must work pretty well. With that in mind, ElectricDrives has released a roundup of emergency services worldwide that have adopted EVs.
Here in the U.S., California's Dept of Transportation has gone big, with over 450 Rivians (SUV and pickup variants), and the city of South Pasadena has a fleet of Tesla patrol cars. The LA Fire Department has even taken delivery of an electric fire truck: a $1.2m Rosenbauer RTX.
Meanwhile, the U.K. has seen the British Transport Police introduce dozens of EVs in London, while in Germany, the state of Lower Saxony has 200-plus Volkswagen ID.3 police cars.
Singapore police have added the more exotic Polestar 2 to its fleet. And in Basel-Stadt, Switzerland, a fleet of EV firefighting appliances is coming soon.
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Save $1,000 this year 💸 Is China's dirt-cheap EV era over already?
China's cut-throat EV industry — which has brought excellent cars to most of the world's public at ridiculously low prices — has been brought to a screeching halt.
Just as BYD began heavily discounting models to attain the No. 1 spot in Germany for EV sales, the Chinese government has forbidden home-grown manufacturers from selling their vehicles at cost.
It's not the first time the overheated market has attracted attention from on high, but this time the rules define "cost" as including the price of sales and administration, and have outlawed the sneaky little discount schemes and alleged price-fixing between manufacturers that benefited customers but were killing profits.
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