Tech Brew keeps business leaders up-to-date on the latest innovations, automation advances, policy shifts, and more, so they can make informed decisions about tech.

Tech Brew

Jordyn Grzelewski

techbrew.com

Image of a man and a woman charging red and green electric vehicles.

What’s driving women buyers away from EVs?

“It’s a collective effort to get more women driving [EVs],” Kate Harrison, the co-founder of EV transition startup MoveEV, told Tech Brew.

Image of a plug going into an electric vehicle

New research explains why US is ‘in the slow lane’ on EV adoption

The report points to “culture of ICE dependence” and charging concerns to explain why the US lags behind China and Europe on EV adoption.

Illustration of a car’s exhaust pipe with smoke in the shape of a lightning bolt

In unveiling new vehicle emissions rule, Biden administration emphasizes power of choice 

“Our autoworkers are making cars and trucks that give American drivers a choice,” Biden’s national climate advisor said.

Future of Travel

The numbers are in—and they show that the EV market has officially started a new chapter.

Battery-electric vehicles made up just over 5% of new-vehicle retail sales in October, according to JD Power and GlobalData. That’s down more than half from September’s all-time high of nearly 13%.

 of federal tax credits for EVs of up to $7,500, thanks to President Donald Trump’s tax and budget bill. Industry analysts and executives predicted EV sales would fall as soon as the credits went away, and October’s sales numbers back them up.

Ford’s EV sales fell by nearly 25% YoY, while the automaker’s internal combustion engine vehicle sales grew 3.4% and its overall sales rose 1.6%.

Kia’s sales ticked up slightly in October. While the brand’s electrified vehicle sales (which include hybrids) grew by 16%, some all-electric models, including the EV6 and EV9, had lower sales.

Sister brand Hyundai reported a 2% YoY sales decline in October. Sales of the all-electric Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 models were down.

“Hybrid vehicles led the way in October with a 41% increase, and electrified sales were up 8%,” Randy Parker, Hyundai Motor North America’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “We saw strong EV demand leading up to the expiration of federal tax credits, and while that shift has temporarily disrupted the market, we’re confident it will reset.”

Honda’s sales inched up 0.7% YoY. The Honda brand’s electrified vehicle sales (including hybrids) set a new record for the month and made up nearly one-third of brand sales, though sales of its all-electric Prologue model dropped 80% from September.

 in the months leading up to the credit’s expiration, boosting the new-vehicle market.

In an analysis released before industry sales reports, data provider Urban Science reported that industry sales were down as of October 25, “driven mainly by a 43% decline in battery and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.”

Tom Kondrat, global lead for advanced analytics at Urban Science, said he expects BEV sales “to remain behind last year’s pace through Q4 and into the early part of next year” before picking up in the spring.

S&P Global Mobility analysts expect slower EV sales to contribute to “muted growth” in the new-vehicle market through the rest of the year.

Hybrids’ market share climbed two percentage points in October to 14.2%, according to JD Power and GlobalData.

“While hybrid growth is encouraging, the recent EV market correction underscores a critical lesson: consumers prefer having access to a range of powertrain options that deliver comparable value,” Tyson Jominy, SVP of data and analytics at JD Power, said in a statement. “A singular focus on any one technology—be it EVs or hybrids—risks repeating past missteps. A diversified strategy that embraces multiple powertrain solutions will be essential to meeting evolving consumer preferences.”

Jessica Caldwell, AVP of insights for Edmunds, wrote in a blog post that “October mark[ed] the start of a reset period: one defined less by incentive-driven urgency and more by buyers motivated by genuine interest in EV ownership.”

And interest remains: According to Edmunds’ data, EV buyer consideration saw only a “modest” dip, from 12.7% in September to 9% in October. Going forward, Caldwell said, the EV market will be driven less by incentives and more by considerations like model variety and ownership costs.

“The ‘reset era’ will reveal which brands and retailers can make EV ownership feel not just aspirational but practical and within reach for the next wave of buyers,” she said.

An electric vehicle charger resembling a downward market arrow hovering over a charging port

October auto sales reflect EV market’s new reality

Analysts say the future of the EV market will be less incentive-driven, but that interest in battery-powered vehicles remains. 

Northern Michigan is famously scenic, with access to three Great Lakes and ample opportunities to see peak fall foliage.

But its roadways don’t always provide the most direct route. That’s just one of the challenges of delivering healthcare services, according to Tracy Cleveland, VP of supply chain for Munson Healthcare, the region’s largest healthcare system.

“The drives are beautiful at any time of year, but they meander, and so it takes time to get from Point A to Point B,” Cleveland told Tech Brew.

But what if you could skip the roads altogether? That’s what Munson Healthcare is testing out with a program that transports laboratory samples via drone. Eventually, leaders would like to scale it up to serve multiple uses, like delivering prescriptions to patients, and for other healthcare providers to replicate the model.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer earlier this year signed an executive directive promoting advanced aerial mobility, with the state’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) responsible for leading the state’s strategy. The effort aims to support the development and commercialization of drone tech for use cases ranging from 

 to moving automotive parts between plants.

Last year, OFME teamed up with the Michigan Department of Transportation’s aeronautics division to establish the Advanced Aerial Mobility Activation grant program, which aims to help build out infrastructure and enable drone deployments. The fund has awarded about $10 million to date.

“It does provide us the opportunity to showcase how we can have diverse applications for drones and advanced air mobility,” Justine Johnson, Michigan’s chief mobility officer and leader of the OFME, told us, “whether that’s in healthcare, whether that’s in public safety, whether that’s in agriculture, whether that’s in defense, this is enabling all of those applications to come to life.”

One of the grant recipients was Traverse Connect, an economic development agency in northern Michigan, for the Munson Healthcare drone pilot project.

Munson conducted the first phase, using drones from startup Blueflite, in May.

Typically, Cleveland explained, Munson Healthcare uses road transportation for tasks like delivering lab samples.

“The van goes on a defined route, and it picks up all the samples on the route, and it delivers them to the laboratory,” he said. “Then that laboratory will take those samples in and set up a big batch and process them. And then they wait for the next batch.”

“What we already saw in our proof of concept is that we can make more trips with the samples that are available, and the equipment can run continuously,” he added. “It’s more efficient for the laboratory. It’s results faster to the physician who ordered the test. It’s therapy faster to the patient who had the sample drawn.”

During the initial phase, Munson Healthcare tripled daily deliveries of supplies to locations like surgery and dialysis centers. Factors like wind speed, weather conditions, and temperature were taken into account; Cleveland said there was no difference in drone-delivered samples versus those delivered by traditional methods, and no sample loss or spoilage.

The second phase will involve beyond-line-of-sight flights, with lab samples remaining the focus for now. Additional grant funding will allow the program to add new drones, Cleveland said.

“How do we continue to think about critical supplies and lab samples that need to get from Point A to Point B, and really being that connecting force for rural communities?” Johnson asked. “I think this is such a great example.”

Cleveland said he’s heard from leaders from other rural healthcare systems who are interested in learning about how the program could work in their service areas.

“This is so right for a rural community,” he said. “Munson Healthcare serves 11,000 square miles of northern Michigan, and it’s a challenge to provide and maintain access to what we are offering. This is a very innovative way to serve our communities.”

A Blueflite drone with "Munson Healthcare" on the side

How a rural Michigan healthcare system is using drones to improve care

With support from the state, Munson Healthcare is piloting drone technology to deliver lab samples.

As the EV market enters choppy waters, legacy automakers are pulling back on electrification plans, delaying EV launches, and cutting production at EV plants.

That’s not an option for pure-play EV makers like Rivian. Instead, the Irvine, California-based manufacturer has its sights set firmly on the launch next year of its second-generation product: a midsize SUV 

“One of our core strategies and approaches to offset some of the impacts of the…elimination of some of the credits for consumers is to bring a product to market that opens up the addressable market of consumers that can now say yes to a Rivian,” Claire McDonough, Rivian’s CFO, said during a Reuters automotive conference in Detroit on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s tax and budget bill 

 of up to $7,500 on eligible EV purchases as of Sept. 30, and EV demand is expected to cool without federal incentives. Rivian recently cut 4.5% of its workforce, or about 600 workers, The Wall Street Journal 

“With the changing operating backdrop, we had to rethink how we are scaling our go-to-market functions,” CEO RJ Scaringe wrote to employees, per the WSJ.

Pricing starts above $70,000 for the EV maker’s current passenger vehicles.

“It meant that we needed to reduce our costs in our vehicle roadmap,” McDonough said of the end of the EV tax credits. “And the key strategy for us is to bring to market a more mass-market-priced product, which is coming out next year.”

Rivian employees have been building R2 prototypes in California, and the vehicle is now going through various validation and durability tests, McDonough said. The manufacturer has added a 1.1 million-square-foot expansion to its Normal, Illinois, plant to support R2 production. The company remains “on track” to launch production in the first half of next year, according to McDonough.

“As we look at R2, that’s where we’re opening up a much larger aperture of potential new customers into the brand and business,” McDonough told reporters at an earlier event. “We’re really excited about the opportunity to take younger consumers, older consumers that don’t necessarily need a three-row SUV, for example.”

The Illinois plant delivered just over 50,000 R1 units last year. With R2, the capacity of the plant can go up to 215,000 units annually. And Rivian plans to break ground on a new plant in Georgia next year to support production of the R2 and the future R3.

“You’ll see additional savings as we reduce and spread our overhead and cost across a much larger volume of products,” McDonough said.

As for Rivian’s path to profitability, McDonough noted cost savings derived from the launch of the second-generation R1 last year, and said the company will achieve further reductions with the R2.

Rivian employees were able to cut the material costs in half compared to R1, and to reduce manufacturing costs via scale and design efficiencies. McDonough also pointed to opportunities to raise awareness of the brand with the introduction of R2, for a company that she acknowledged is “not yet a household name.”

Execs also see opportunities to advance the company’s autonomous features with the R2, which will feature in-house-designed cameras.

“That allows us to have a closed, end-to-end data loop, and being vertically integrated across our software stack, across the hardware design of the product, and then the buildout of our large driving model as well, which is an in-house neural net that’s capturing data from our customer fleet over time,” McDonough said. “R2 is also really important for Rivian as we think about the continued progress of our autonomous growth, given the proliferation of our car park with a product like R2.”

Rivian’s CFO on weathering the EV market’s bumpy ride

The EV maker’s strategy hinges in large part on being able to increase its scale with the launch of the R2 SUV next year.

Bay Area, prepare for even more driverless cars on your streets.

Next year, the hot spot for self-driving startups like Waymo will be the first market where Uber launches robotaxis in partnership with AV tech company Nuro and EV maker Lucid, the companies announced Wednesday.

“We need to make it work everywhere. Therefore, we said, OK, yes, San Francisco is not the easiest city to drive around in, but that’s where all of our engineers are. That’s also where Nuro is, so we can also concentrate there,” interim Lucid CEO Marc Winterhoff said during a Reuters automotive conference in Detroit Wednesday. “And it’s only the start. We’re not expecting to be there alone, just in San Francisco, for a long period of time.”

In a news release, Uber said the companies have been “updating policymakers and regulators at every level…on our progress and continue to meet their requirements for operation.”

“We’re confident that by the time when we want to roll out—the plan is doing this [by the] end of next year—that everything is done and dusted,” Winterhoff said.

Lucid, Nuro, and Uber announced their plans to roll out 20,000 robotaxis globally over a six-year period. Lucid has 

 several vehicles to Nuro, which is outfitting them with its autonomous system. A fleet of vehicles is already conducting tests on roads in the San Francisco Bay Area. The companies said they expect to have “over 100 robotaxis” in the test fleet “in the coming months.”

Meanwhile, automaker Stellantis announced a new deal with Uber, Nvidia, and Foxconn to launch a robotaxi service, The Verge 

 Tuesday. Nvidia and Foxconn will be responsible for the tech, Stellantis will assemble the vehicles, and Uber will deploy them on its ride-hailing network. The plan reportedly calls for launching 5,000 vehicles in the US in the coming years.

 this week revealed the autonomous truck it developed with Volvo. Waabi’s autonomous driving system, called the Waabi Driver, was integrated into the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck.

“The future of autonomous trucking hinges on three critical areas: autonomous technology that is safe, scalable, and can deliver on customer needs; hardware that is purpose-built for autonomous operations from the ground up; and a commercial deployment model that solves problems in the supply chain without added friction,” Raquel Urtasun, Waabi’s founder and CEO, said in a statement.

The Waabi Driver employs an end-to-end AI model that the company says “is capable of true generalization.” Waabi, which has a partnership with Uber Freight in addition to Volvo, is working to launch fully driverless operations this year. The company currently has autonomous trucks driving on public roads in Texas with humans on board.

Urtasun said Waabi is working to become the first company to commercialize autonomous trucks without a human safety operator behind the wheel, TechCrunch 

In other autonomous trucking news, Aurora announced Tuesday that it’s launching a second, 600-mile driverless delivery route between Fort Worth and El Paso. The company shared that it’s now surpassed 100,000 driverless miles on public roads since launching driverless operations earlier this year from Dallas to Houston. The company later put a human safety observer 

“Six months out from launch,” Aurora co-founder and CEO Chris Urmson said in a statement, “we’re achieving more industry firsts, expanding quickly, and paving the way to deploy hundreds of trucks next year.”

Uber picks San Francisco as launch market for its robotaxi plans

Plus, AV company Waabi unveiled its truck developed with Volvo, and more AV sector news.

What if the car sitting in your driveway could become your own personal power plant?

That’s the question Ford aims to answer with its Home Power Management program, the 

Ford said Tuesday that owners of the electric F-150 Lightning who buy the Ford Charging Station Pro and Home Integration System will be able to charge their truck with lower-cost electricity “in select markets where electricity rates change throughout the day.” Typically that’s overnight, when there’s less demand for electricity. Those users would then be able to use the energy stored in their truck’s battery to power their home when rates are higher.

The automaker is launching a pilot program with DTE Energy, a Detroit-based energy company, to test vehicle-to-home managed charging, starting with 15 Ford employees. DTE will compensate participants for sharing some of their vehicle’s battery capacity.

, a vehicle-to-grid integration platform backed by Ford and other automakers, which will then communicate with the EV and manage its battery.

“We’re starting to move beyond the obvious perks of EV ownership—like instant torque and ditching gas stations—to potentially unlock new value: turning your F-150 Lightning vehicle into a smart personal power plant that can help you save money on your monthly electricity bills, and earn financial incentives from your participating electricity company,” Bill Crider, Ford’s head of global charging and energy services, wrote in a blog post.

Ryan O’Gorman, senior manager of Ford’s energy services business strategy and delivery, demonstrated how the technology works from the driveway of his suburban Detroit home, where he has an F-150 Lightning, a home charger, and Ford’s Home Integration System.

O’Gorman typically has his truck’s battery powering his home from 11am to 7pm. When there’s a power outage, the EV would disconnect from the grid, he explained, and the system would then kick in to power his house. He’s used it to power his home for days.

“Most people have some anxiety about how much range they’re going to lose, but I don’t think they have a comprehension of how big the battery is and how much your house uses,” he said.

“It’s about six miles per hour that you’re powering your house. So if you think about that, in a typical peak period that you might run is four or five hours, you’re talking maybe 20, 30 miles that you’re going to tick away off your truck. And when you have a 300-mile range truck…it’s not impactful.”

Ford estimates the average customer could save about $42 per month on their electricity bills.

The system, which users can control via the Ford Energy app, adjusts in real time to factors like battery health and electricity prices, and learns customer preferences like their typical daily departure time, according to Ford.

“Your car doesn’t do anything most of its life; 90% of its life, it’s just sitting. Now it’s working for you,” O’Gorman said. “It’s a unique utilization of the vehicle that you can’t do with other types of vehicles.”

 Ford rolled out managed charging programs, later added backup power capability, and now is expanding the Home Power Management system. In the future, the automaker aims to scale up 

 that allows EV batteries to discharge energy back to the grid. Ford is running a V2G pilot using Home Power Management with a small group of Baltimore Gas & Electric customers.

V2G technology is still nascent and will require buy-in from utilities, but there’s lots of 

 about its potential to convert EVs into major grid assets.

“EVs have always been this villain,” O’Gorman said. “They’re not the problem. They’re actually going to solve the problem.”

ford f-150 lightning pickup truck in the woods

Ford program helps customers manage home energy—with help from EVs

Eligible F-150 Lightning owners will be able to charge their vehicles with lower-cost electricity.

Q3 brought a mix of headwinds and tailwinds for the auto industry, from some tariff relief to the 

Here’s how Ford, Tesla, and General Motors fared financially.

Ford reported profits of $2.4 billion, up from $900 million in Q3 2024. Revenue was up 9% YoY to $50.5 billion. The automaker said that tariffs cost it $700 million in Q3.

Ford Model e, its EV business division, reported an EBIT loss of $1.4 billion, higher than the $1.2 billion EBIT loss it reported in Q3 2024. Its internal combustion engine and commercial vehicle businesses reported earnings of $1.5 billion and $2 billion, respectively.

The automaker is navigating a supply-chain crisis after a fire halted production at a Novelis aluminum plant in New York, a crucial supplier for Ford vehicles including F-Series trucks. Ford said it expects the fire “to be a headwind of $1 billion or less” between this year and next. The company announced plans to add “up to 1,000 jobs to increase F-Series production” to recover losses from the fire.

In part because of the fire, the automaker lowered its full-year adjusted EBIT guidance to between $6 billion and $6.5 billion.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement that the automaker is “working intensively with Novelis and others to source aluminum that can be processed in the cold rolling section of the plant that remains operational while also working to restore overall plant production,” and that Ford has “made substantial progress in a short time to minimize the impact in 2025 and recover production in 2026.”

Farley hailed a recent development on tariff policy that would help offset some tariff-related costs on US-assembled vehicles, and new tariffs on medium- and heavy-duty trucks that Farley called “a positive for Ford.”

 reported a drop in profits, with net income down 37% YoY to $1.4 billion despite record global deliveries in Q3.

Tesla’s automotive revenue rose 6% YoY, while revenue from energy generation and storage climbed 44%. Adjusted EBITDA fell 9% to $4.2 billion.

CEO Elon Musk spent part of the EV maker’s earnings call 

 in favor of a $1 trillion pay package for him that Tesla’s board is slated to vote on in November.

“My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?” he said. “I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have, at least, a strong influence.”

GM reported $1.3 billion in Q3 profits, down from $3 billion 

, on $48.6 billion in revenue. The automaker raised its guidance for full-year adjusted EBIT to between $12 billion and $13 billion.

In a letter to shareholders, CEO Mary Barra thanked the Trump administration “for the important tariff updates.”

She acknowledged the more challenging landscape for EVs in the US, and said that GM is “reassessing our EV capacity and manufacturing footprint,” resulting in GM recording a $1.6 billion 

 in Q3. Barra also announced that GM would 

 of its BrightDrop electric van, citing slower-than-expected demand.

“Our portfolio and capacity plans over the last several years have been heavily influenced by steadily increasing stringency requirements for fuel economy and emissions,” Barra said. “Now, with an evolving regulatory framework and the end of the federal consumer incentives, it is clear that EV adoption will be much lower than planned.”

Aerial view of trucks loaded with new energy vehicles for export at a terminal of Shanghai port on April 17, 2025 in Shanghai, China. 

How auto industry finances fared in Q3 amid tariff changes, end of EV tax credits

Q3 earnings reports were a mixed bag for major automakers like Ford, GM, and Tesla.

You hop into your vehicle, push a button, and it drives you to the office while you catch up on emails. After dropping you off, your car heads out to run some errands before picking you up in time for your kids’ activities.

That’s the vision for the future of transportation that GM CEO Mary Barra laid out during a media event in New York City on Wednesday.

“It’s more than just a vehicle. It makes your life easier, more streamlined, and more importantly, safer,” she said. “That’s what we’re working toward at General Motors.”

GM execs Dave Richardson, Sterling Anderson, Mark Reuss and Mary Barra

GM executives underscored this vision with numerous announcements, including plans to debut eyes-off driving starting in 2028, a new centralized computing platform, and the introduction of Google Gemini into vehicles beginning next year.

GM plans to launch eyes-off driving tech on the Cadillac Escalade IQ, initially on highways. The system will signal to drivers that it’s active via turquoise lighting across the dashboard and exterior mirrors. This capability, according to GM, will enable drivers to “sit back, read, or catch up on messages while the vehicle handles the drive.”

GM’s advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), 

, which enables hands-free driving in certain situations, has been on the market since 2017 and is available on 23 models. GM says it has mapped 600,000 miles of hands-free roads in North America, and that Super Cruise users have logged over 700 million hands-free miles.

The automaker also is leveraging the expertise and tech stack from Cruise, the robotaxi subsidiary 

 GM. Cruise’s fleet drove 5 million fully driverless miles.

GM highlighted the redundancies that it’ll build into its next-gen ADAS, including cameras, radar, and lidar sensors. The system’s decision-making model is underpinned by real-world driving data and simulations.

“Through Cruise, we acquired best-in-class capabilities in simulation, perception, AI platforms, and behavior modeling,” Sterling Anderson, GM’s chief product officer, said. “We’re combining over a decade of deep expertise in both of these areas, in fleet-based autonomy and in large-scale driver assistance, to create the next generation of autonomous vehicles for personal ownership.”

“Good morning,” a voice said over the speaker. “I’ve queued up a movie for the kids and an audiobook for you.”

Dave Richardson, GM’s SVP of software and services engineering, used this interaction as an example of one way conversational AI can make life easier: by assisting during family road trips.

Execs cited a number of scenarios in which they see conversational AI helping drivers, from flagging maintenance issues to finding restaurants based on routes and preferences. Eventually, the automaker plans to release its own custom-built AI tool.

“Connected by OnStar, this AI will draw directly from your vehicle’s onboard intelligence to surface relevant, vehicle-specific information like upcoming maintenance needs or optimal route timing, with controls that let you decide what you share and how personalized you want the experience to be,” per a news release.

These capabilities will run on a new centralized computing platform and next-gen electrical architecture. GM said the platform will deliver up to 35 times more AI performance, 1,000 times more bandwidth, and 10 times as many software updates as its predecessor. The redesigned architecture is more streamlined and “consolidates dozens of electronic control units into a unified computing core that coordinates every subsystem in the vehicle in real time,” according to a release.

A depiction of GM's current and future compute system.

It’s slated to launch on the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028, and eventually across GM’s lineup.

“As we create the car of the future, everything from AI to AV is possible through software,” Richardson said. “To unlock the promise of great software, we need a unified vehicle architecture, with the power to enable every experience in the vehicle, from propulsion to personalization.”

GM unveils vision for future of transportation

GM executives sketched out plans for an upgraded compute platform, conversational in-vehicle AI, and eyes-off driving during a tech-focused media event in New York City.