Month: March 2024

Enlarge / Harbinger's chassis mounts the eAxle and battery modules between the chassis rails. (credit: Harbinger)

It seems that every time Ars writes about a new commercial electric vehicle, about half the comments are along the lines of "great, now make me a camper out of that." Well, we have some good news for you on that front. The RV manufacturer Thor has just taken delivery of the first customer chassis from EV truck maker Harbinger.

"Harbinger believes in enabling the electrification of RVs, along with the wide variety of medium-duty e-commerce delivery vehicles you see every day," said Harbinger CEO John Harris. "Our strategy is focused on empowering companies to transform their fleets with sustainable options, tapping into a significant market opportunity that drives towards a greener, more innovative future in transportation."

You may remember Harbinger from our coverage last year. To briefly recap, it's targeting the medium-duty truck market—classes 4–7, to use the correct lingo. There's some interesting engineering at play too—the 800 V modular battery is made up of multiple 35 kWh packs using 2170 cylindrical cells, each in a gigacast aluminum enclosure.

Enlarge / Polestar is running a few months late with its next EV, but US deliveries should begin within the next three months. (credit: Polestar)

Polestar is almost ready to start selling its next electric vehicle here in the US. The Polestar 3 SUV has finally gone into production, and the automaker says deliveries to US customers should start in the second quarter of this year. That's a little behind schedule—in October 2022 we were told that the Polestar 3 would go on sale here toward the end of 2023.

There's just one powertrain at launch, the Polestar 3 long-range dual motor, which starts at $73,400. This offers 489 hp (365 kW) and 620 lb-ft (840 Nm), which should give the EV a range of about 315 miles (507 km) from its 111 kWh battery pack. And Polestar is making the Pilot Pack standard equipment, which includes a heads-up display and some advanced driver assistance systems.

There will also be the Polestar 3 with the Plus Pack, for $78,900. This adds different 21-inch wheels, an upgraded interior with either "MicroTech" fabric or wool covering the seats, heated rear seats to go with the heated front seats, and an upgraded Bowers and Wilkins sound system with 25 speakers and a subwoofer.