EVs In The News - February 2026

Igor Orlovich and Ravi Mehta follow the news about Electric Vehicles and have curated items for fans and those thinking about going electric for their next car, SUV, or truck.

News from the Dealers:

The 2027 Volvo EX60 has been revealed - 670 HP, 400 mi range, and will sell for $55,000 to $70,000. It boasts new battery technology that charges 31% faster. The EX60 will available for ordering this spring.

Toyota has shared details about their new 2026 EVs: the C-HR (more compact, starts at $38,450) and bZ Woodland ($46,750). The author of this InsideEVs article says that buyers should consider the essentially identical Subaru versions instead - same car for ~$5,000 less. Despite the upcharge, a recent article shows that the bZ is 4th in the US for sales behind the Tesla Model Y, Model 3, and the Chevy Equinox EV.

Toyota has also revealed its 2027 Highlander EV - made in the US and the first one by the manufacturer that will have a 3rd row of seating and an All-Wheel Drive option. Newly released specs can be found in this article.

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Power Your Home With Your EV*!

One of the truly exciting things about owning an EV is that it has the potential to be a power back up for your home in an outage. This article digs into the ~ten* vehicles that are Vehicle-to-House (V2H) Vehicle-to-X (V2X) ready and the a Powerwall competitor that makes the Tesla Models Y and 3 also capable of bi-directional charging.

Note! CPG's good friend, certified electrician, EV enthusiast, and frequent co-presenter Bob Kanauer recommends holding off on installing V2X converters for now. He's optimistic that the next generation will be able to do more for less money.

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What About Hydrogen Powered Vehicles?

What makes hydrogen passenger cars costlier than their battery-electric counterparts is the lack of fueling infrastructure, energy-conversion inefficiencies, and the price of the fuel at the pump.

The Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center shows 55 public hydrogen fueling station locations in the U.S. today, almost exclusively in California, next to more than 68,000 active public electric vehicle charging stations across the country.

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They Were Ahead of Their Time:

Did you know that the first EVs were launched in the early 1900's? Popular Science walks you through a history lesson of the very first EVs and Hybrid vehicles - and why they failed - in this article.

Hybrid power systems weren't just for personal vehicles: In 1926, the first rotor ship was rebuilt as a hybrid and sailed from Germany to New York via South America, a 6,200 nautical-mile voyage that used only 12 tons of oil compared to the 45 tons it would have required without rotors. Unfortunately, timing is everything: just as momentum gathered for the novel wind-ship technology, the stock market crashed, then the Great Depression. Fuel prices plunged. The economic advantages of rotor sails vanished. A century later, however, as the shipping industry confronts volatile fuel costs and climate change, rotor sails are making a comeback.