News Reporter
Umar Shakir is a news reporter for The Verge, covering electric cars and more. He's spent over 15 years in IT support beforehand, including managing Macs for a University and also fixing them at the Genius Bar. Umar likes collecting video game cartridges, watching football, and hanging in shopping center parking lots waiting for his EV to charge.
Honda’s cute little Japan-only N-VAN is going electric and comes in versions like “FUN” for personal use and “G” which gives you a seat and a blank canvas for commercial use. It’s got 152 miles of range with support for 50kW DC fast charging, perfect for city driving. It could very well be made into a cool camper, too.
After opening its first charging hub in Atlanta, which features 400kW chargers by ChargePoint, the automaker will now install Alphitronic HYC400 models at new locations later this year. It has two plugs, supports CCS and Tesla’s NACS, and features dynamic load sharing, i.e. one car can charge at 150kW while the other at 250kW. It’s part of Mercedez-Benz’s $1 billion investment to build 400 EV charging hubs.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk got his big compensation package approved yesterday, but how many really voted in favor? Well, it seems 1.78 billion shares voted in favor of Musk’s payday, while 529 million voted against — a 72 percent margin, excluding shares held by Musk and his brother Kimbal, as The New York Times reports. Musk took a victory lap on the mic at the shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas.
[www.sec.gov]
Musk is asked when the Cybertruck will go international. He responds saying it was designed with American specs in mind, and a new and redesigned version would be needed for the European and Chinese markets. There won’t be an international model this year, he confirms.
Musk quipped in response to the recent layoff of the Supercharger team, which left many charging station projects stalled. Musk says there will be more Superchargers this year than the rest of the industry combined and promises to give other manufacturers adapters to use Tesla stations (which are still in limited supply).