Don't give up on EVs yet
Save the Date
CoMotion LA ‘26 is back November 18-19 for a very special 10th edition: Cities on the Move: Mega-events, AI & Shaping What’s Next — featuring the OMF Summit Track.
It can be hard to feel good about EVs these days, particularly in the U.S., where automakers are dialing back investments in response to cooling demand and opposition from the Trump administration. But there’s good reason to still believe that the future is electric. The $25,000 electric pickup truck unveiled by Slate Auto, for instance, offers hope that there is a way to produce zero-emission vehicles that are cheaper in every way (upfront cost, maintenance, fueling) than their gas-powered counterparts. Once that is the case, widespread EV adoption becomes inevitable.
In other news, California looks to data centers to fund high speed rail, President Trump stands in the way of a bipartisan housing bill, and Tesla faces (and disputes) an alarming allegation about its autonomous driving system.
What you need to know
A cheap electric pickup! Slate Auto, the Jeff Bezos-backed startup, finally unveils its minimalist electric pickup truck at a price of only $24,950. For context, only four new vehicles in the U.S. were priced below $25,000 last year and none of them were trucks. In recent years the talk has been about whether automakers could deliver an EV for $30,000, so this is very aggressive pricing. Let’s hope it’s a sign of things to come. Also encouraging: Slate’s truck is much smaller than other pickups. Its front is about 25 inches shorter than the Ford Maverick, the smallest truck Ford makes. A trend towards smaller trucks could help reverse America’s mounting pedestrian death toll.
Could data centers rescue California high-speed rail? The agency overseeing the construction of California’s embattled high-speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco is proposing using the land alongside the route for data centers that can generate revenue for the project. The rail already demands major investment in electrical substations, transmission connections, renewable energy facilities, and fiber communications networks — all assets that could support data centers as well. Granted, the plan faces political obstacles given the public’s antipathy towards data centers and AI.
A glimmer of hope on housing? Not so fast: In a rare display of bipartisanship, both houses of the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly approve a bill to boost America’s housing supply by reducing regulatory barriers to construction and financing. But then President Trump said he wouldn’t sign it until Congress passes an unrelated bill on voting restrictions that has already been declared dead in the Senate. Hopefully the president comes around and signs it, since America desperately needs more homes.
He says/Tesla says: A driver in Texas claims his Tesla was operating autonomously when it left the road and crashed into a house, killing a 76-year-old woman in her living room. Tesla leaders, including Elon Musk, claim the driver overrode the driver assistance system by pressing the accelerator. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into the incident and the family of the deceased woman has filed a lawsuit against Tesla.
Battery-swapping in Berlin: Amsterdam-based PowerShelter, which develops a number of storage and charging products for e-bikes, has begun setting up a battery-swapping network in Berlin aimed at e-bike delivery fleets. The system is “battery-agnostic,” allowing delivery workers to swap out a used battery for a fully juiced one in less than 2 minutes.
🎉 First Partners Revealed!
We’re excited to announce the first round of Partners joining us for the very special 10th edition of CoMotion LA ‘26, Cities on the Move: Mega-events, AI & Shaping What’s Next, on November 18-19, 2026 — featuring the OMF Summit Track.
Take part in two days of networking, collaboration, and explore how major global events and emerging technologies are accelerating mobility innovation.
Meet with leading organizations: LA Metro, SCAG, Open Mobility Foundation, LADOT, Schneider Electric, Alstom, Serve Robotics, Los Angeles World Airports, HNTB, SenSen, Elavon, Zoox, WSP, PayByPhone, Red Hat, LA28, MOVE LA, City of Long Beach, City of West Hollywood, Federal Aviation Administration, Monocle, Tranzito, Cities Today, The Transportation Channel.
Now is the best time to grab a pass. Save up to $1,000 with Super Early Bird pricing today.
What we’re reading
How Honda’s EV vision crumbled: The New York Times looks into how the Japanese automaker’s ambitious EV plans collapsed, leading to the Japanese automaker’s first unprofitable year since becoming a publicly traded company 70 years ago. The verdict is not that Honda was wrong to aggressively pursue EVs, but that it was caught off-guard by the short-term plateau in consumer demand.
