While EV sales growth has slowed down this past year, demand was still up by about 10% in 2024. And the numbers would have been even bigger were it not for Tesla. While still the market leader, it suffered a first-ever annual sales decline last year. A variety of factors were at play, including CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly polarizing politics. More from Headlight.News.
Oh, what a year it was. 2024 took saw a number of predictable stories top our coverage on Headlight.News, but the year also saw some surprising twists and turns — like the planned merger between Honda and Nissan – that no one likely would, or could, have predicted 12 months ago. There was some good news for consumers, and some bad. Some automakers made out like bandits, while others are now struggling with an uncertain future. Here are the 2024 stories that our editorial team found most compelling.
Americans have been paying less and less at the pump since gas reached $5 a gallon during the tail-end of the pandemic in 2022. While the national average isn’t quite what it was prior to 2020, it has declined each of the last three years. Will it drop below $3 a gallon in 2025? Find out at Headlight.News.
December has become one of the biggest car buying months of the year and this December should be something to remember. Sales are looking very healthy as carmakers spend lavishly on product promotions, interest rates dip and higher tariffs – and prices – appear on the horizon.
In this week’s episode of the podcast we talk about the planned merger between Nissan and Honda, Tesla’s newest recall, and Honda teasing the Prelude hybrid and a new EV. We also go for a spin in the all-new Dodge Charger Daytona, and take a trip through This Week in Automotive History.
Tesla announced plans to recall nearly 700,000 vehicles due to a problem with the tire pressure monitoring system in those vehicles. The warning light may not remain lit during the entirety of the problem. Find out more at Headlight.News.
General Motors announced plans to partner with ChargePoint to install 500 new ultra-fast charging points. The new ports will be set up at various locations across the U.S. by the end of next year. Get details at Headlight.News.
The U.S. Department of Energy finalized a $9.63 billion loan for Ford Motor Co. and South Korea’s SK On to help finance the construction of three new EV battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky. Get the final details at Headlight.News.
Mercedes released teaser images of what will be a new line of family-sized all-electric vans. Based on its EV-only VAN.EA platform, the German automaker is confident enough to bring it back to the U.S. market where it’s been out of the people-mover segment for some time.
Texas-based EV maker Tesla becomes “more American” this year by capturing the top three spots in the 2024 Made in America Auto Index and while sharing No. 4 with Ford. The Tesla Model 3 Performance was the top finisher. Find out the rest at Headlight.News.
Tesla’s on-again/off-again effort to develop an affordable EV may be on again, at least according to a report by Deutsche Bank. It issued a new report claiming the automaker will launch a new vehicle that could come in under $30,000 in the U.S. — at least with the help of federal tax credits, though those may go underway when the Trump administration returns to the White House next year. Get details at Headlight.News.
General Motors is shutting down its Cruise robocab program, shifting resources to the development of self-driving privately owned vehicles. The move comes a year after the subsidiary was blamed for a near-fatal accident near its San Francisco headquarters. It effectively hands what proponents see as a potentially huge market to competitors like Waymo and Tesla.