Autonomy Was Everywhere at CES. EVs? Not So Much. That Doesn't Add Up

In years past, CES has been the place to debut a hot new EV or EV concept. Honda’s 0 Series models, Kia’s PBV vans, the now-dead Fisker Ocean—all appeared there first.

This year? Besides the Sony-Honda Afeela SUV Prototype, pretty much crickets.

This reflects a broader EV pullback as sales slid at the end of 2025 and automakers scrapped previously announced models.

The consultants have their say: Deloitte’s latest Global Automotive Consumer Study indicates that 61% of Americans intend to buy a gas vehicle in 2026. That’s 26% for hybrids and 7% for EVs, only a modest bump from last year.

McKinsey data presented to reporters at the House of Journalists shows investment in autonomous driving outpaces that of electrification by billions of dollars, while U.S. and European battery supply now far exceeds demand.

Bosch, the world’s biggest automotive supplier, seems more pessimistic. It predicts 70% of cars in North America will have an engine of some sort in 2035—a far cry from when the 2030s were seen to be mostly electric.

Instead, at CES, automakers and suppliers wanted to showcase autonomous vehicles, in-car AI and a shift to robotics.

Granted, there were plenty of EVs at CES. But many of them were fully autonomous vehicles, from the likes of Waymo, Hyundai’s Motional, Zoox and more.

It’s not surprising. The global robotaxi business is expected to start booming this year, as it becomes a projected $100 billion industry by the 2030s.

And yet none of the robotaxis I saw at CES—or really anywhere—have gas engines.

Experts say that EVs simply make more sense for autonomous driving. You get a steady power supply for advanced sensors, a more centralized compute stack and easier software updates (fewer physical parts). They’re more efficient in how they use energy, and they’re smoother for passengers.

As one exec told me: Can you really see an autonomous car filling its own gas tank somehow? That’s like getting a typewriter for your iPhone.

Meanwhile, consumer ADAS—including hands-free highway driving, urban autonomy and so on—are now among the most-demanded features in new cars. (McKinsey says it’s due to be a top differentiator for “luxury” brands over time.)

This doesn’t mean ADAS has to be exclusive to EVs. Look at China: that market has plenty of advanced hybrids and extended-range EVs (with gas engines as generators) that also feature sophisticated autonomy features.

But over time, the idea that the auto industry can go back to business as usual—primarily making old-school, gas-powered cars—and deliver the autonomy that people want seems implausible.

“I think everybody that you ask in that space will say the EV is the better platform for autonomy,” Marc Winterhoff, the interim CEO of Lucid Motors, told me during a media roundtable.

Granted, he’s the CEO of an all-electric automaker, and one whose company also makes ICE or hybrids might tell you different.

But Lucid just inked a major deal with Nuro and Nvidia for driverless Uber taxis—and Winterhoff said that wouldn’t have been possible without the Lucid Gravity’s advanced EV platform.

“I think what we need to do is better explain the superiority of that technology,” Winterhoff said. “It is not only the better platform for robotaxis, but it's the better car.”

Autonomy right now is described as a capital-intensive “race” to see who can deliver the best approach to self-driving. But it would be a shame if those bets came at the expense of cleaner cars.

Even so, the industry’s current emphasis on “consumer choice” will eventually have to reckon with clear demand for driverless features, which may leave gas engines behind.

One bright spot from CES: Battery costs continue to fall, and that will bring down EV costs over time as well. And many automakers are working behind the scenes on next-generation EV platforms.

But you know who else was at CES? China’s Geely Group, with some electric and electrified SUVs that feel tailor-made for American tastes.

In other words: if America’s automakers don’t sort this out, somebody else will.

As Stellantis doubles down on gas power, it has canceled all of its plug-in hybrid Jeep and Chrysler models in America. [The Drive]

The upcoming Volvo EX60 should boast more than 400 miles of range, and it adds a ton of miles in just 10 minutes. [Car and Driver]

Ford says it has thousands of open six-figure mechanic jobs. Here’s why it can’t fill them. [Wall Street Journal]

Speaking of Geely: it was once the worst-kept “secret” in the auto industry, but now the Chinese automaker is basically admitting it’s eyeing a U.S. entry in the next few years. But when? [Autoline Network]

The “EV winter” now includes a likely contraction of the Chinese auto market in 2026 after years of explosive growth. [Bloomberg]

No wonder they’re looking for international expansion: China’s Nio, famous for battery-swapping tech, will enter Australia and New Zealand this year. [Wall Street Journal]

Also from CES: Autel Energy’s latest AC and DC charging solutions are sleek, smart and automated. [EV Infrastructure News]

Korean firm Chaevi unveiled a 2.2 megawatt charger (yes, that’s a lot) for trucks, buses, and industrial vehicles. [TechTimes]

New York City is getting its largest public EV charging station yet, and it’s landing right near JFK Airport. [Electrek]

ElectricFish’s DC fast charger can still deliver up to 400 kW speeds, but doesn’t need costly grid upgrades. [InsideEVs]

Forty more fast and ultra-fast EV chargers have been added near Chicago O’Hare airport. [CleanTechnica]

Great news, folks: some Blink Charging stations now take crypto. [ChargedEVs]

Certainly the biggest battery news at CES: Finnish company Donut Lab unveiled the first production solid-state battery, which will see duty in an electric motorcycle. It should charge in just five minutes. [InsideEVs]

Batteries from the Chinese giant CATL significantly outperform rivals in avoiding degradation over time, according to a new study. [Electrek]

Honda is buying out LG Energy Solution’s stake in an Ohio EV battery plant, a key part of the automaker’s U.S. “EV Hub.” [UtilityDive]

As new battery chemistry solutions emerge, a new study says that lithium-ion batteries aren’t going anywhere and will still dominate the field in 2035. [McKinsey]

Lucid at CES reaffirmed its commitment to fully driverless cars—Level 4 autonomy—by 2029. It’s a wildly ambitious timeline, but is it a realistic one? [LinkedIn]

Waymo’s Zeekr-made van gets a name: Ojai. [InsideEVs]

Chinese firm Hesai was selected as Nvidia’s lidar partner, so it will see massive scale in robotaxi deployments. [CnEVPost]

I rode shotgun in a car with Mercedes’ new hands-on urban autonomous driving tech, comparable to Tesla’s FSD. It seems very impressive. [InsideEVs]

Ford is planning eyes-off highway driving by 2028, but on its new affordable EV platform, not some expensive luxury car. [The Verge]

Are autonomous cars really safer than humans? Those companies and some public safety data say yes, but not everyone is convinced. [Bloomberg]

I’ve never seen so many robots in my life before this CES.

But the most serious effort I’ve seen is from Hyundai and its subsidiary Boston Dynamics, which aims to make 30,000 robots and put humanoids to work in car factories by 2028. [InsideEVs]

Hyundai’s effort is massively impressive. But I have questions about the impact on jobs and car prices if labor becomes so automated. [InsideEVs]

Once again, it’s Nvidia’s world, and the rest of us just live in it. The company unveiled a new chip design for autonomous cars, starting with the Mercedes CLA I drove. [New York Times]

More Nvidia news: the company unveiled Alpamayo, a new open-source AI model for self-driving vehicles. [Seeking Alpha]

Naturally, this was all dismissed as behind the curve by Tesla’s Elon Musk. [CNBC]

2026 is the year when AI needs to move beyond chatbots and into being a real driver of revenue. [Axios]

Grok, the AI developed by Elon Musk and used in Tesla EVs, is under fire for essentially creating on-demand sexual abuse imagery. [The Guardian]