Happy Friday, and welcome to Critical Materials, your source for the biggest stories shaping the future of the auto industry.

Every Friday, we break down the week’s biggest EV news, keep you up to speed on the cars we’re testing, and recap must-read stories from around the web on driverless cars, batteries, charging, and more.

– Today’s email was written by Rob Stumpf, Kevin Williams, and me, Tim Levin.

The InsideEVs staff is off today for Juneteenth, and we hope you’re enjoying the long weekend too.

Still, we’ve cooked up an abridged version of Critical Materials for you, full of the week’s biggest headlines and a review of a very special Chinese EV.

-Tim Levin

Get up to speed on the news that caught our eye this week:

Want a new Ferrari? Buying the new (and controversially-styled) Ferrari Luce could help move you up in line for some of the Prancing Horse's more coveted models.

Mack Hogan reviewed the new Mercedes CLA EV. There were some things he loved, but some parts of the experience that were maddening.

Porsche originally said that fake shifting would make EVs "worse." Now it's adding the feature to its new 2027 Porsche Taycan, along with a bigger standard battery.

BMW says it’s opening orders for the i3 sedan ahead of schedule due to high demand. The electric 3-Series will offer 440 miles of EPA range and 400-kilowatt charging.

The Rivian R2 Performance is more efficient than a Tesla Model Y Performance—despite being boxier and 500 pounds heavier.

Rivian laid off "hundreds" of employees this week, or less than 2% of its staff. It was also slapped with a new class action lawsuit, first reported by TechCrunch, which claims that the automaker didn’t keep its promise to bring Level 3 driving tech to its first-gen R1 vehicles.

Lucid’s roughly $50,000 Cosmos will be its first EV with the potential for mass appeal. Its design was revealed through patent filings in Europe.

Electrify America is betting on battery backups at its DC fast charging sites. The system will allow the charging company to charge up its battery pack when demand is low and discharging when demand is high—that means reducing stress on the grid and potentially costs when variable electricity rates are at their peak.

America now has over 250,000 charging points, including Level 1, Level 2, and DC fast charging hookups.

Solid state might look like the future of EV batteries, but General Motors has something else up its sleeve that could be ready much sooner. Its new silicon-anode tech will help EVs drive further and charge faster until solid state is ready for prime time.

Telo's tiny MT1 truck has an impressive feature: super high-powered charging. The truck is set to use an 800-volt architecture, allowing it to charge its 106-kWh pack at a whopping 400 kilowatts.

Honda has a new partner for solid-state batteries in QuantumScape.

Waymo just issued its second recall in two months. The first was for cars that could drive into flooded roads. Now it’s addressing robotaxis that could drive into closed highway construction lanes. America’s robotaxi leader also just launched a premium membership tier with shorter wait times and priority access to new cities, as it looks to turn its lead into a long-term business.

We discussed the latest on the AV race on the Plugged-In Podcast this week. Tune in on YouTube or on audio platforms.

Tesla's Cybercab packs an extremely tiny battery. That helps to make it the lightest, most efficient Tesla ever made—30% more so than the Lucid Air. 

Uber wants to blanket the world in robotaxis and catch up to Waymo. So it’s collecting partners like Pokémon cards. The latest deal brings together Stellantis, Wayve and the ride-hailing giant.

We also learned this week that Uber’s premium robotaxi service that it’s developing with Lucid and Nuro will hit Houston in 2027, after launching in the San Francisco Bay Area this year.

-Rob Stumpf

So, what does $75,000 get you? Well, if you’re in China, it’s 1,500 horsepower, and a car that can take the Porsche Taycan head on.

A little over a month ago, I found myself in China behind the wheel of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, a tri-motor AWD sedan that has captivated the world with its ability to set Nurburgring records and deliver hypercar-level power for not all that much money. It only took about three laps around the track to see that this thing really is as good as everyone says it is.

The SU7 Ultra has a crazy amount of power. And yet, it never feels out of its depth. The car’s ability to make even the least skilled driver feel like a hero is why it’s so intriguing. Accelerate hard out of a corner or brake a bit too much, and the car won’t ever penalize you. It feels incredibly forgiving—not easy to do with over 1,000 horsepower.

Now, the SU7 Ultra will likely never make it to the U.S. But when it makes it to Europe, it’s going to make waves.

For more, check out my full review of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra.

-Kevin Williams

Some guys can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire. I think a lot about batteries—how good and cheap they’ve gotten, and their potential to stabilize the grid and save people money on electricity.

I’ve always assumed I was shut out of those benefits until I either bought a house, or an EV with vehicle-to-home capability, or both. But I just learned there are clever, renter-friendly programs for apartment-dwellers too. A company called Every Electric offers New Yorkers free portable battery packs that can help lower electricity bills and manage grid stress during hot summer months.

You just plug your A/C into the battery, plug the battery into a wall socket, and the system will automatically shift where the power comes from depending on the time of day. It’s a really smart idea.

Read more about it in this recent story from the Associated Press.

Thanks for reading Critical Materials. See you next week!

-Tim Levin