Tesla (TSLA) has secured a massive order of 130 Tesla Semi electric trucks from Walmart Canada.

Back in 2017, shortly after the unveiling of the Tesla Semi, Walmart Canada ordered 15 electric trucks from the automaker.

They have been adding to that original order and now almost 3 years later and after the Tesla Semi program was delayed, Walmart has announced that it is expanding its Tesla Semi orders to 130 trucks:

“Walmart Canada is now reserving a total of 130 Tesla Semi trucks, making it one of the largest reservations of electrified trucks in the country. The move comes on the heels of Walmart Canada announcing a major $3.5 billion investment over the next five years aimed to generate significant growth in the business and is aligned with  Walmarts global goal to target zero emissions by 2040 announced at Climate Week earlier this month.”

Tesla first started taking reservations with a $5,000 deposit per truck, but it later changed the listed deposit price to $20,000 for a “base reservation” of the production version and the full $200,000 for the “Founders Series” truck.

It means that Walmart would have placed over $2 million in deposits alone for the electric trucks and the total order could be worth over $20 million.

It makes this new order one of the biggest orders to date for the Tesla Semi….

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“The advanced new P400e Plug-In Hybrid perfectly balances performance with fuel economy and all-electric off-road capability,” senior manager for powertrain advanced engineering at Jaguar Land Rover, Iain Gray said in a statement. “The latest model also provides refined and powerful new in-line six-cylinder diesel engines that bring improvements in fuel economy and drivability. They join a comprehensive range of powertrain options for Defender.”

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Honda had done hybrids but they’re now doing an all electric car…very tiny…but a car.

Most car companies, not just US auto-makers, but seriously most, are desperately trying to figure out how to make a bigger EV. Honda, who is entering the game a little later, is actually making waves by going small.

“The Honda e, released in Europe earlier this month, is a compact model meant solely for city driving.”

Maki Shiraki

Tesla dominates the market currently, and wisely started with a luxury sedan. Of Course Tesla was a startup company that needed to ramp up production. Selling a high ticket item with limited run capacity made a lot of sense.

Honda has evaluated the market and found a niche they feel they can dominate with an EV given the unique limitations of current technology.

I one sense they are removing the gas bill from a market that typically already drives very efficient vehicles. In another sense they’re removing carbon emissions from a community that is most conscious of smog.

Starting in Europe is the no-brainer choice as they have the highest population centers and highest fuel prices. They’re also less dependent on personal vehicles for longer trips as the rail system already fits that bill.

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It appears that the upcoming Lucid Air is poised to enter the market with a trump card against the kings of the premium electric sedan market today: the Tesla Model S and the Porsche Taycan. While the Model S boasts a drag coefficient (Cd) of 0.23, and the Porsche Taycan stands with an impressive Cd of 0.22, tests of the Lucid Air at the Windshear facility in North Carolina have determined that the upcoming premium electric sedan has an industry-leading Cd of only 0.21.

The findings were announced by the electric car maker on Tuesday, with Peter Rawlinson, CEO and CTO of Lucid Motors stating that the company has been intensively focused on optimizing the Air’s aerodynamics. This should help the vehicle achieve its target electric range of 400 miles per charge, which should place it right on the level of the Tesla Model S’s EPA range and far above that of the Porsche Taycan.

GM will spend $2.2 billion to build electric and autonomous vehicles at Detroit plant

First, an electric pickup truck, followed by Cruise’s recently announced driverless shuttle

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Last week, GM-subsidiary Cruise unveiled the Origin, its first self-driving car without a steering wheel or pedals. At the time, the company’s CEO Dan Ammann promised to reveal production details in the days to come. Well, today’s the day, with GM announcing plans to spend $2.2 billion to retrofit its Detroit-Hamtramck plant for the production of autonomous and electric vehicles.

In addition to the Origin, the facility will also produce all-electric SUVs and pickup trucks. The automaker plans to release 20 electric nameplates by 2023, the first of which will be an electric truck slated to go into production in 2021. This will be followed “soon after” by the Cruise Origin, a shared, electric, self-driving vehicle unveiled in San Francisco last week. Detroit-Hamtramck will be GM’s first “fully-dedicated” electric vehicle assembly plant, the company said. (The news was first reported by The Detroit News last week.)

Will we get the chance to drive the EV in Gran Turismo Sport?

We usually associate the Sony brand with the Walkman music player, the Vaio laptops, Bravia TVs or the PlayStation gaming console. While the tech giant does have a bunch of new products to show at CES this year from its typical area of expertise, the Tokyo-based company is also displaying something only very few expected – a car. It’s called the Vision-S and takes the shape of a sleek EV with a highly advanced autonomous driving system and a design that might make you think of a mashup between a Porsche Taycan and a Lucid Air.

Created primarily to showcase what Sony can bring to the table in terms of automotive technologies, the showcar has been developed in collaboration with big names such as Nvidia, Continental, Bosch, ZF, and Qualcomm. The zero-emissions sedan is equipped with no fewer than 33 sensors to detect people and objects not just outside of the car, but also inside that modern four-seat cabin with individual rear seats and giant glass roof.

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