Rick Wilmer, CEO of EV charging company ChargePoint, sees the environment in which the US EV charging sector is operating right now as “a big basket of headwinds and tailwinds.”

On the one hand, the federal government is rescinding support for electrification on all fronts—most recently with the Trump administration’s move to roll back fuel economy standards. On the other, Wilmer is convinced that battery-powered vehicles will win the day on their own merits.

Tech Brew recently caught up with Wilmer about federal policy, as well as ChargePoint’s recent debut of an upgraded software platform and its rollout of vehicle-to-home charging solutions in partnership with multinational power management company Eaton.

“As part of our three-year strategy, we’ve really been focused on innovation, both on the software side and the hardware side,” Wilmer said. “Furthermore, we also believe that technically innovating in collaboration with the grid, which our chargers plug into, and the vehicles which plug into our chargers, can create even more differentiation and value and better experiences for drivers, and lower costs for charging station operators.”

Keep reading here.—JG

Being the new kid on the block has its challenges.

Battery electric vehicles didn’t fare so well compared to their internal combustion engine counterparts on Consumer Reports’ latest Automotive Brand Report Card, which heavily weights reliability metrics. But EVs might just need a chance to catch up—gas-powered models have had a roughly century-long head start, after all.

Consumer Reports analysts unveiled the nonprofit consumer organization’s 2026 report during an Automotive Press Association event on Dec. 4, and explained that new technologies tend to struggle with reliability and then improve over time.

“Our surveys continue to show that the slow and steady approach to vehicle redesigns pays dividends for reliability, while more aggressive changes and the introduction of new technologies often lead to setbacks,” Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for CR, said in a statement. “For reliability-conscious car shoppers, the best bet is to steer clear of newly introduced or newly redesigned vehicles in their initial model year, as that’s when they are almost always the most problematic.”

Case in point: Tesla’s eight-place climb up the report card to the 10th spot. Thanks in large part to improved reliability, the EV maker made the top 10 for the first time.

Keep reading here.—JG

Gaining “algorithmic trust” is top of mind for many marketers, especially as shoppers turn to AI for assistance in their search for the perfect gift or deal this holiday season. But gaining said trust can be harder than it might seem—and some brands are seeking outside help.

Audio brand JBL has been working with Code and Theory to audit its SEO practices, reimagine its website, and develop an editorial content strategy that accounts for an uptick in AI tools, Carolina González, manager of global digital content strategy at JBL, told Marketing Brew.

The aim is to improve how the brand shows up when consumers are searching across various platforms, including large language models, and the goal is for the brand’s content output to work for human readers and automated crawlers alike. That’s becoming increasingly crucial: Throughout Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, referrals from LLMs were up 2,434%, according to Code and Theory and JBL data shared with Marketing Brew.

“We develop stories that are not only focused on search—it’s a combination of talking to you in a way that you’ll feel [it’s] fresh, fun, and engaging for you to continue to read the article, but it’s also technical,” González said. “It will be easier for you to understand our features or products and our portfolio overall, but also just common things that people have doubts about—for example, is it actually worth buying a soundbar?”

Keep reading here.—KM

The price is right extremely variable, actually: Lace up your shoes and warm up the car, kids. We’re going to the grocery store. Morning Brew has notes on a study from Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collective, a progressive think tank, that showed an algorithmic pricing experiment from Instacart could cost shoppers an extra $1,200 annually.

Posting through it: Social media bans are relevant for consumers and marketers alike. Marketing Brew has a status update on TikTok in the US and Australia’s social media ban on the under-16 set.

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.

More focus, less fluff. CollabWORK filters out the noise and delivers jobs that actually match what Tech Brew readers are looking for. Click here to see the full board of curated roles.

• Product Manager at Micron Technology, Inc.
• Director, Product Management at Unity Technologies
• Director of Product/Product Operations at Elastic
• Production Manager at Progress Rail Services Corp.
• AVP, Data Product at Banc of California