Car Wearing: VW reveals details of powerful new EV motor

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Will This New EV Motor Power the VW ID.7 Sedan?

The next wave of EVs from Volkswagen is on the way, and the automaker has just unveiled a new, more powerful and more efficient motor that some of these models will receive.

Could we see it in the upcoming ID.7 sedan, to be revealed in just a few days?
All the clues certainly point in this direction.
Known internally as APP550, this new motor aimed at rear-wheel-drive models will produce well over 250 hp, with Volkswagen Group Components specialists in Kassel, Germany, upgrading all the parts to squeeze out more power from this unit while also making it more efficient.
But is it something that we could see in the ID.4 as well, when it comes time for VW to update the Chattanooga-built SUV?
Here's what we know so far about this new motor.

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Mini Teases Next-Generation Cooper Hardtop

The exterior design of the first new Mini Cooper Hardtop in a decade has just been revealed, and in a rather unusual way. The next-gen Mini had been spotted by spy photographers for weeks undergoing testing in Europe, still in camo, and just recently in LA as well. Such things happen all the time, of course, but in this case Mini decided to take the wraps off the hatch a little early, giving the world a look at the design of its next standard hatch.
It's not simply a next-gen Mini Hardtop, however. You might notice in these photos it doesn't quite have a traditional grille—and it doesn't have a tailpipe, either.
Mini has been known to be working on the next-gen EV variant of its standard hardtop, in addition to other EVs in its lineup, ahead of plans for EVs to make up half of its sales in just four short years. And the next-gen Mini Cooper EV will certainly offer far more range than the current Cooper SE Electric.
Read on to find out more about plans for the next electric Minis.

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Tesla Pivoting to a Different Battery Type in Some Future Models

Tesla Will Use This Battery Type in Future Models

Tesla's on-again, off-again effort to develop an affordable compact EV positioned below the Model 3 received an unexpected update in the automaker's Master Plan Part 3, published just a few days ago. The 41-page document shed some light on Tesla's engineering goals for the next few years, giving the EV world a much needed glimpse at the automaker's product plans.

And one technical detail in particular stood out.
The EV maker indicated that it plans to use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in some of its models in the near future, with this type of lithium-ion battery offering a cheaper manufacturing cost, a greater tolerance for more frequent—as well as faster—recharge cycles, and a greater tolerance of low temperatures.
Specifically, Tesla suggested that it wants to use a 53-kWh LFP battery in its Compact model, often referred to in Tesla circles as the Model 2. And this battery composition type could make it into shorter-range versions of the Model 3 and Y as well, perhaps promising a lower starting price.
One once-confirmed Tesla model was oddly not mentioned anywhere in the automaker's Master Plan Part 3, however.
Read on to find out just what Tesla could have in the works.