Tesla is hailing the air quality benefits of less pollution from internal combustion engine vehicles during the lockdowns, calling it a temporary glimpse of what's possible in the long term, Bloomberg reports.

The intrigue: CEO Elon Musk has railed against stay-at-home orders, even calling them "fascist," and has also battled local officials as he sought to re-open the company's plant in Fremont, California.

Commercial vans are emerging as a key growth area for electrification — and General Motors is developing a vehicle for the sector, according to a Reuters report.

Why it matters: GM's interest shows how a powerful legacy automaker wants in on what Morgan Stanley analysts called "America's hottest new vehicle" in a research note this week.

"Germany is doubling incentives offered to buyers of battery-powered cars as part of a 130 billion-euros ($146 billion) economic recovery package for the period through the end of next year — but the government refused pleas for the program to include internal-combustion cars," Automotive News reports.

Why it matters: It fills in some of the blanks in the wider — and very open — question of how much governments will seek to use stimulus packages to bolster low-carbon technology as they support domestic industries.

At least a dozen electric vehicle startups with dreams of becoming the next Tesla are suddenly in limbo, hoping they can hang on through the coronavirus pandemic for a chance to deliver on their long-shot ambitions.

The big picture: Building a car company from scratch is extraordinarily difficult, requiring billions of dollars in capital. Tesla made it, but not without a few harrowing brushes with death. Add the economic uncertainty of a global pandemic, and the stunning collapse in oil prices, and the odds of success are even lower.

Tesla on Wednesday abandoned its federal lawsuit against Alameda County, California, over pandemic-related restrictions on business operations that affected its factory in Fremont.

Details: Tesla did not provide immediate comment. But the case filed May 9 appears to be a fait accompli at this point.

New analyses about electric vehicles underscore two things: the pandemic is creating unprecedented turmoil for all kinds of energy technologies, and attempts to assess the fallout are more art than science.

Driving the news: A brand new analysis from the research firm BloombergNEF projects that global electric vehicle sales will drop 18% this year, which would end 10 years of growth but represents a smaller decline than their estimated cut to sales of traditional cars.

Tesla filed a federal lawsuit Saturday in a bid to restart operations in its factory in Fremont, California — a step that came on the same day CEO Elon Musk threatened to move the company's headquarters out of the state.

Driving the news: The electric automaker's suit against Alameda County calls local officials' refusal to allow the factory to reopen a "power grab" that defies Gov. Gavin Newsom's policies on industry operations and constitutional due process rights.

The economic and logistical toll of the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the rollout of several electric vehicle models, and even canceling one project.

Driving the news: Ford and the EV startup Rivian just scrapped plans to jointly develop a vehicle under the Lincoln brand that would use Rivian's "skateboard" platform.

Lucid Motors is out with a new video showing off the performance of prototypes of the upcoming Lucid Air luxury EV in cold, snowy, and icy conditions in northern Minnesota.

What they're saying: "The extreme environment is ideal for validating vehicle dynamics as we test features like antilock braking, traction control, and stability control," a blog post alongside the video states.

Global sales of electric vehicles are projected to drop by 43% this year as the technology faces a series of overlapping problems, the consultancy Wood Mackenzie finds in an analysis.

Driving the news: "The coronavirus outbreak, potential delays to fleet purchasing due to lower oil price and a wait-and-see approach to buying new models have all contributed to this decrease in projected sales," they write.