The federal government is likely loaning money to GM’s joint-venture battery operation with LG. VW starts ID.4 production in the U.S. Porsche says it can make EVs profitable—more profitable than gas. And the production Sono Sion makes a bow. This and more, here at Green Car Reports. 

The Sono Sion solar-supplemented EV has been revealed in production form, with only subtle changes, although the interior has been reconfigured for more space. While its 54-kwh LFP battery pack provides 190 miles of range on its own, Sion claims that its solar cells—all over the body, really—will add 70 miles a week on average or up to 152 miles in ideal conditions. 

Ahead of a likely stock market listing later this year, Porsche is saying that it’s aiming to be more profitable with EVs than with gasoline models. The EV strategy aims for 8 out of 10 models from the performance-car maker to be electric by the end of the decade. 

Volkswagen has started U.S. assembly of the ID.4 electric car. With it, VW taps into a U.S. EV supply chain—including batteries from an SK plant in Georgia—but perhaps more importantly, it may start to ramp up sales to match the “millions, not millionaires” talking points it’s had for years. 

And the U.S. Department of Energy has confirmed a conditional federal loan of $2.5 billion to Ultium Cells LLC, the GM-LG joint battery-cell manufacturer, for battery plants in Ohio, Tennessee, and Michigan that will make GM’s large-format NCMA pouch cells—and, hopefully, spur the availability of more U.S.-built affordable EVs. The loan would be the first such ATVM loan in more than a decade. 

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