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The best EVs that won’t be available in the U.S.

Credit: Mercedes-Benz

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While the United States has plenty of great electric vehicles to offer, there is a laundry list of great EVs that aren’t coming to the United States any time soon.

While the EV revolution seems to be in full swing in much of the world, it has yet to catch up here in the United States. Many brands, including Mercedes, Volkswagen, and even Jeep, have been forced to sell some EVs outside of the U.S. first or potentially not sell them in North America at all. Here, we will list 5 of the best ones we wish would come across the pond in the next few years.

Jeep Avenger –

(Credit: Stellantis)

Being Jeep’s first EV, many anticipated that the American company would first serve its largest/home market in North America, but sadly, that isn’t the case. The fun little Jeep Avenger has already made a name for itself in Europe, winning Europe’s SUV of the year.

The zippy little Jeep comes in at a fairly affordable 36,500 euros ($38,623) but still offers impressive specs. Jeep says the crossover will go roughly 250 miles on a single charge, charge from 20-80% in just 24 minutes, and qualifies for numerous incentives throughout Europe. The only drawback is its less-than-exciting performance, producing 156 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque with a single-motor FWD system.

NIO es8 –

Credit: NIO

Looking at the largest car market in the world, China, you find many fascinating EVs, but perhaps one of the most intriguing comes from NIO. The NIO es8 is a large three-row SUV, which in the electric vehicle market is incredibly rare in the first place. On top of that, its impressive performance per dollar could make it a world-beater if it were to enter the United States.

Starting at 528,000 Chinese yuan ($76,431), the NIO es8 is certainly a premium offering, but its luxurious interior space and great performance match the higher price. With a dual-motor AWD system producing 644 horsepower and 627 pound-feet of torque, the es8 full-size SUV rockets to 60mph in just 4.1 seconds. And luckily, with an optional 100kWh long-range pack, the es8 still achieves a range of between 300-400 miles, though China’s generous CLTC range test should be taken with a grain of salt.

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Volkswagen ID.3 –

The Volkswagen ID.3. (Credit: Volkswagen)

Considering the incredible popularity of the VW Golf in North America over the past 30 years, many were shocked to hear that the mass-market German automaker would not be bringing its electric equivalent to the new world. Perhaps even more bewildering, despite the VW ID.3’s sales success in Europe, Volkswagen has remained firm, stating that it will not be coming to the North American market.

Starting at 36,900 euros ($39,046), the VW ID.3 is only slightly under the price of a new Tesla Model 3, but its eye-catching design stemming from the historic Golf makes it clear why the hatchback has garnered such a following. The ID.3 sounds like a blast using a single-motor RWD system, but with its meager 167 horsepower, it won’t be breaking any land speed records. Though, as noted by many owners online, this lack of power is more than made up by the impressive range of 265 miles. Charging is a middle of the pack 30-40 minutes from 10-80%.

Mercedes EQA –

Credit: Mercedes-Benz

As Mercedes’s most recent sales reports have indicated, the premium automaker is doing quite well in the EV market. Its top-of-the-line Mercedes EQS has become a class-defining sedan, while its newer EQE and EQB have been making headway in their respective markets. But disappointingly missing from the U.S. Mercedes lineup of EVs is the EQA.

The Mercedes A-Class is the brand’s smaller crossover/hatchback offering available in most major markets, but the EQA has only been made available in China and Europe thus far. Starting at 50,777 euros ($53,730), it is pointed squarely at the Tesla Model Y but is attempting to lure potential Tesla customers with refinement, luxury, and a legacy nameplate; Mercedes-Benz.

The small Mercedes SUV uses a single-motor FWD system, producing a modest 187 horsepower and 276 pound-feet of torque; plenty of power to get out of its own way. Further, its 321 miles of range is impressive for the segment and should be more than adequate for the layman. The Mercedes EQA will charge from 0-90% in just 32 minutes, leading numerous offerings from traditional competitors, Porsche, BMW, and Audi.

Renault Zoe –

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Credit: Renault

Last but certainly not least, one of the cheapest EVs available in Europe, the Renault Zoe e-tech. Being the French brand’s first foray into electric vehicles, it is no secret that the Zoe isn’t fast, won’t go very far, and won’t charge very fast. Still, at its price point of just 29,000 pounds in the U.K. ($34,850), and with the option to lease the battery to lower the upfront cost, it has proved to be a competitive offering.

What do you think of the article? Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Shoot me an email at william@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @WilliamWritin. If you have news tips, email us at tips@teslarati.com!

Will is an auto enthusiast, a gear head, and an EV enthusiast above all. From racing, to industry data, to the most advanced EV tech on earth, he now covers it at Teslarati.

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Lifestyle

Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi’s real advantage won’t be the ride service

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Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

For a century, the car has asked the same thing of its owner, which is basically to pay attention. Even the best ride-hailing app like Uber or Lyft only moved the problem into someone else’s hands. You stopped driving, but you still sat in a stranger’s car, while half listening, and wondering whether to take a phone call in the car without being rude. The Cybercab has no wheel, no pedals and no driver. With Grok @bot now live inside it, it becomes something else entirely, and I think that matters more than the fleet count that everyone is tracking.

Grok @bot is an agent, not a voice assistant. A rider signs in once, and from then on can say what they need and watch it happen. Order dinner from a favorite restaurant. Fill the grocery cart. Move money, answer email, adjust a calendar, push a work project forward. Tesla engineer Yun-Ta Tsai confirmed it is enabled across every Cybercab and the rest of the Model Y fleet, and Tesla’s own pitch is that Full Self-Driving handles the commute while Grok handles the errands.

Think about what that does to a thirty minute ride. Uber sells you a trip, while Waymo sells you the same trip in a more private setting. Tesla is selling the thirty minutes themselves, returned to you with an assistant attached. Errands that used to eat a Saturday get done between pickup and drop off. The ride stops being dead time between two places and becomes a place of its own.

Tesla integrates Grok Bot into its vehicles for the ultimate personal assistant

Best of all, your Bots follow you into any Cybercab, and presumably your own Tesla, then logs you out automatically when you step out. Anyone can bolt a chatbot onto a screen, but much harder to own the vehicle, the autonomy stack and the assistant at once. It also quietly ties SpaceX’s Super Intelligence business to Tesla’s fleet, after Tesla converted its xAI stake into SpaceX equity. The relationship between those two companies is getting harder to describe as separate.

This is also where the hard questions start, because an agent that can spend your money in a vehicle other people also ride in needs some answers. How does it handle a voice it shouldn’t trust? What gets recorded, who can see it, and for how long? What happens when a rider leaves halfway through a task?

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If Tesla gets those answers right, the scoreboard changes. We have been counting Cybercabs and wait times. The more telling number may be what riders accomplish per trip. That is data almost no one else will ever have, and it is the real reason to watch Grok @bot.

What do you think? Leave me a comment.

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Lifestyle

Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade

Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.

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Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)
Tesla Cybercab camera visibility for passengers (Credit: Dan Burkland via X)

Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.

The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”

The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.

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It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.

The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.

For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s surprise addition to the X Takeover lineup has fans talking

Elon Musk will join Saturday’s X Takeover at Giga Texas for a live virtual interview.

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Credit: Tesla Owners Silicon Valley
Credit: Tesla Owners Silicon Valley

Elon Musk will join X Takeover at Giga Texas on Saturday for a live virtual interview, according to Sawyer Merritt, who shared the news late Thursday. Musk will not be on stage in Austin. The conversation is set to stream for free on the @teslaownersSV account on X.

Organizers had kept expectations in check. In a September update, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley said Musk had appeared at the event twice before but was not promising a third appearance, even as fans hoped he would walk the Giga Texas grounds in person. A virtual spot matches 2024, when Musk gave a surprise interview of about an hour to the crowd in San Luis Obispo, as Teslarati reported at the time.

This year’s edition is a first in several ways. It is the first X Takeover held outside California and the first at a Tesla facility, with tickets selling out in eight days. Tesla provides the venue, but the event is produced independently by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley. The main event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT, followed by a drone and light show at 9 p.m. Maye Musk is the keynote speaker, Franz von Holzhausen is set for a virtual keynote, and Nicki Minaj is the special guest. Joe Tegtmeyer, whose drone footage Teslarati used to track the Optimus factory steel frame at Giga Texas, is also on the speaker list.

Musk’s interview topics have not been revealed, but the backdrop is busy. Tesla doubled its Cybercab fleet in Austin in late September, and last week Musk explained why Robotaxi hours only moved from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.. Merritt also reported Thursday that Texas DMV records now show 319 registered Cybercabs, up from 169. NHTSA’s deadline for Tesla’s sworn answers on Cybercab certification is October 30, and Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21.

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Fans who cannot make it to Austin can watch the livestream on X. Musk tends to say more in unscripted settings than he does in prepared remarks, which is the reason this one is worth having open on Saturday.

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