Waymo's crash data makes its case more clearly than any press release could; Honda hands its own customers a how-not-to document; and two sets of sales numbers suggest the market is moving whether or not US legacy brands want it to.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has published its first comprehensive Waymo safety analysis, covering 56 million miles of autonomous operation across San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Waymo's crash rate per million miles is 68% below the human-driver baseline for equivalent road types. The study notes the comparison excludes pedestrian-rich urban intersections, where the gap narrows to 41%.
JD Power's 2026 US Electric Vehicle Experience Study finds EV owners reporting higher satisfaction scores than internal combustion vehicle owners for the first time in the survey's history. The shift is driven primarily by improved public charging reliability — DC fast charger uptime reached 94% in Q2, up from 81% two years ago — and lower total running costs.
InsideEVs' extended road test of the updated BMW iX3 confirmed both headline figures under real-world conditions: a 23-minute 10-to-80% charge time at compatible 400 kW stations, and 412 miles on a single charge at motorway speeds. The test was conducted in Germany; UK pricing and right-hand-drive availability remain unconfirmed.
Kia sold 110,000 EVs globally in Q2 2026, an 88% year-on-year increase, with the PV5 commercial van leading volumes for the second consecutive quarter. The company attributed the growth to pricing discipline — the PV5 starts below 35,000 euros in Europe — and improved battery availability following its expanded LFP supply agreement signed in Q4 2025.
Honda has confirmed it is cancelling its US EV programme and discontinuing the Prologue, citing market conditions. The company's communication to existing Prologue owners — advising them to consider Honda's petrol and hybrid range when their leases expire — has drawn significant criticism from current customers, several of whom posted the letter publicly.
Ford has confirmed two new EVs: an affordable crossover developed jointly with Geely on a shared platform, targeting a sub-$30,000 US price point, and a compact electric Bronco. The Geely partnership gives Ford access to cost-competitive Chinese EV architecture without the direct manufacturing exposure that has complicated other US-China automotive relationships.