Toyota unveiled the new 2027 Highlander, a fully redesigned midsize SUV that marks the brand’s first three-row electric vehicle for the US market and the first Toyota EV assembled in America. It’s a familiar name — Toyota has been selling gas Highlanders for over 20 years — with an all-new powertrain aimed directly at one of the most popular vehicle segments in the market today. To say this is Toyota’s best chance to best its EV rivals would be an understatement.
The announcement comes at a tumultuous time for the world’s best-selling automaker. Toyota’s strategy of emphasizing hybrid vehicles over pure battery-electric ones seems to have been vindicated, as global EV sales slow down and the company’s rivals report huge losses related to their EV investments. But Toyota also has a new CEO, finance chief Kenta Kon, a close ally and former secretary of current chairman Akio Toyoda. Kon’s ascension is seen as an acknowledgement that Toyota, under his financial stewardship, has successfully weathered the chaos around Chinese EVs, global tariffs, and the expensive and extended shift to EVs.
The Toyota Highlander is an acknowledgement of some of those challenges. It’s going to be built at Toyota’s factory in Kentucky, at a time when domestic manufacturing is the best way to avoid Donald Trump’s tariffs. It’s a three-row, midsize SUV, which is the most popular vehicle segment in America right now. And it’s using a familiar name plate, acknowledging that most customers didn’t know what “bZ” stood for (it’s “beyond zero”) and weren’t exactly interested in learning.
The Toyota Highlander is an acknowledgement of some of those challenges.
The new Highlander will only come with two trims: XLE and Limited. The XLE is available with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, while the Limited comes standard with AWD. Battery options include a 77kWh pack and a larger 95.8kWh pack, depending on the configuration. And the AWD models with the larger battery will get up to 320 miles of estimated range, as well as 338 horsepower and 323lb-ft of torque. (FWD trims will offer 221hp and 198lb-ft of torque).
It will come with an updated infotainment setup, much like the one found in the new C-HR and bZ Woodland electric SUVs. That includes a 14-inch central touchscreen, a 12.3-inch gauge cluster, customizable ambient lighting, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and extensive charging options for devices in all three rows. And when you look up, you’ll see a fixed panoramic glass roof — the largest ever offered by Toyota.
The Highlander’s new infotainment system, powered by AT&T 5G connectivity, offers a customizable homescreen, enhanced voice recognition with “Hey Toyota” commands, dual Bluetooth phone connectivity, and integrated streaming services such as Spotify and SiriusXM.
The new Highlander seats seven, with a third row able to accommodate two passengers. When additional cargo space is needed, that third row folds flat to create more than 45 cubic feet of rear storage. And there’s a raft of additional features, like wireless charging trays, multiple USB-C ports across all three rows, rear HVAC controls, optional rear window shades, and a hands-free power liftgate.
The Highlander EV will come equipped with a NACS port for Tesla Supercharger access. Under the right conditions, the battery can charge from 10-80 percent in approximately 30 minutes using DC fast charging. Battery preconditioning, in which the battery is prepared for optimal charging, comes standard, and can be activated manually or automatically through a Drive Connect subscription (which is about $15 per month). The Highlander can also slow charge with Level 1 or 2 chargers, and will come with a dual-voltage 120V/240V charging cable.
It will also be Toyota’s first EV with vehicle-to-load capabilities, allowing it to function as a mobile power bank. Toyota says the Highlander can even serve as a backup power source during a blackout when equipped with optional bidirectional accessories. Toyota says it will have more announcements about this new feature in the future.
Size-wise, the new Highlander will go toe-to-toe with other three-row electric SUVs on the road. It will be 198.8 inches long, 78.3 inches wide, and 67.3 inches tall, with a wheelbase of 120.1 inches. That’s similar to Toyota’s current gas-powered Grand Highlander and comparable to other EVs, like the Rivian R1S, Kia EV9, and Hyundai Ioniq 9, among others.
Toyota says it will release the price of the new Highlander later this year, when it goes into production. But the automaker is certainly having a bit of a moment in the EV world. The recently revamped bZ (formerly bZ4x) has been a surprise hit for Toyota, coming in fourth in overall EV sales in the US in January, ahead of Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Ford’s Mustang Mach-E. And there’s more to come, with both the C-HR hatchback and bZ Woodland expected to go on sale in the US later this year.
Toyota has a chance to make up for its lackluster effort in EV production with all these new vehicles. We’ll see if it seizes the moment.
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![Palantir Debuts Chic Chore Coat So the World Knows You’re One of the Baddies
This week, Palantir announced the upcoming release of a new chore coat branded with the company’s logo. The company has been releasing gear since 2024, and this new coat is a great way to tell everyone what you stand for. Specifically, it communicates to everyone in your immediate vicinity that you support ICE and aren’t a big fan of civil liberties. Palantir’s head of strategic engagement Eliano A. Younes tweeted the chore coat this week, which he says will be released on April 30. the lightweight Palantir chore coat [04.30.2026 • 0930 AM EST] pic.twitter.com/9K5fmu3bSs — Eliano A Younes (@eliano) April 21, 2026 X users responded to Younes with the kind of comments that anyone might expect about Palantir, a company aligned with President Donald Trump and the most dystopian elements of our modern surveillance society.
“could it be operated remotely ? detonated? listening ? what’s the features list,” one user joked, while another asked if it had “built in surveillance trackers?” But Younes seemed genuinely offended by the most obvious jokes any reasonable person might be expected to make of Palantir, a defense contractor that prides itself in helping surveil and kill people around the world. He responded with “here for the shitposting but I need to see better from you. this is unoriginal and not funny,” and “not even remotely funny. try harder.”
Even Palantir employees seem to be waking up to what the company stands for, according to a recent report from Wired. When the U.S. launched a missile attack against an elementary school in Iran on Feb. 28 that killed about 175 people, mostly children, the employees reportedly started to question whether Palantir’s Maven technology had been used. Employees are also worried about the company’s lucrative contracts with ICE, an organization that has been terrorizing American streets in particularly heinous ways.
But Palantir seems intent on pushing out gear that allows like-minded people to wrap themselves in a horrifying, anti-American brand. “We want millions of people wearing Palantir merch around the world,” recently Younes told GQ. Younes says he wants Palantir to be a lifestyle brand, telling GQ, “There are people out there wearing Palantir merchandise to signal their alignment with our mission, and that’s exactly what a lifestyle brand is.” That lifestyle, of course, isn’t something that decent people would be proud of. Palantir recently promoted a Reader’s Digest-style version of the book The Technological Republic, co-authored by CEO Alex Karp, in a tweet. The book advocates for reinstatement of the draft, says the “postwar neutering” of Germany and Japan following the atrocities of World War II was an overcorrection, and criticizes the concept of pluralism.
It’s not just the chore coat. The company also sell sweatshirts, t-shirts, and hats, among other items. One t-shirt Palantir sold in 2025 featured an image of Karp along with the word “Dominate.” That item is no longer available for purchase. Younes also suggested to GQ that its CEO was important for Palantir as a fashion brand: “A lot of the store’s designs are downstream of Dr. Karp and our chief technology officer Shyam Sankar’s personal style.” Younes wouldn’t say how many units the company is selling, but did claim, “store sales have increased 64% year-over-year and everything we’ve made has sold out, sometimes in minutes.”
GQ asked about Palantir’s ICE contracts and the other “controversial” things it’s engaged in with the U.S. military, but Younes insisted the company is “not political,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, Palantir is leaning hard into selling the “tech-boss-as-hero ethos,” that’s frankly pretty common in Silicon Valley these days. But even some fans of the company think the merchandising effort is embarrassing.
“Unpopular opinion: all these merch posts are so ‘fan boy’ and extra cringe,” one user wrote in the Palantir subreddit about Karp’s Dominate shirt. “Like the stock or don’t, believe in the company or don’t,…. But the incessant merch posts are weak sauce.” Others are fully bought in, with one user writing, “Definitely a collectors item for me, could be worth something one day.” Younes told GQ that Palantir is working on a tennis collection and something for the America 250 celebrations this summer. So if you’re a fan of techno-fascism, keep your eyes peeled. Whatever merch they’ve got planned for the rest of the year could be sold out in no time. #Palantir #Debuts #Chic #Chore #Coat #World #Youre #BaddiesPalantir Palantir Debuts Chic Chore Coat So the World Knows You’re One of the Baddies
This week, Palantir announced the upcoming release of a new chore coat branded with the company’s logo. The company has been releasing gear since 2024, and this new coat is a great way to tell everyone what you stand for. Specifically, it communicates to everyone in your immediate vicinity that you support ICE and aren’t a big fan of civil liberties. Palantir’s head of strategic engagement Eliano A. Younes tweeted the chore coat this week, which he says will be released on April 30. the lightweight Palantir chore coat [04.30.2026 • 0930 AM EST] pic.twitter.com/9K5fmu3bSs — Eliano A Younes (@eliano) April 21, 2026 X users responded to Younes with the kind of comments that anyone might expect about Palantir, a company aligned with President Donald Trump and the most dystopian elements of our modern surveillance society.
“could it be operated remotely ? detonated? listening ? what’s the features list,” one user joked, while another asked if it had “built in surveillance trackers?” But Younes seemed genuinely offended by the most obvious jokes any reasonable person might be expected to make of Palantir, a defense contractor that prides itself in helping surveil and kill people around the world. He responded with “here for the shitposting but I need to see better from you. this is unoriginal and not funny,” and “not even remotely funny. try harder.”
Even Palantir employees seem to be waking up to what the company stands for, according to a recent report from Wired. When the U.S. launched a missile attack against an elementary school in Iran on Feb. 28 that killed about 175 people, mostly children, the employees reportedly started to question whether Palantir’s Maven technology had been used. Employees are also worried about the company’s lucrative contracts with ICE, an organization that has been terrorizing American streets in particularly heinous ways.
But Palantir seems intent on pushing out gear that allows like-minded people to wrap themselves in a horrifying, anti-American brand. “We want millions of people wearing Palantir merch around the world,” recently Younes told GQ. Younes says he wants Palantir to be a lifestyle brand, telling GQ, “There are people out there wearing Palantir merchandise to signal their alignment with our mission, and that’s exactly what a lifestyle brand is.” That lifestyle, of course, isn’t something that decent people would be proud of. Palantir recently promoted a Reader’s Digest-style version of the book The Technological Republic, co-authored by CEO Alex Karp, in a tweet. The book advocates for reinstatement of the draft, says the “postwar neutering” of Germany and Japan following the atrocities of World War II was an overcorrection, and criticizes the concept of pluralism.
It’s not just the chore coat. The company also sell sweatshirts, t-shirts, and hats, among other items. One t-shirt Palantir sold in 2025 featured an image of Karp along with the word “Dominate.” That item is no longer available for purchase. Younes also suggested to GQ that its CEO was important for Palantir as a fashion brand: “A lot of the store’s designs are downstream of Dr. Karp and our chief technology officer Shyam Sankar’s personal style.” Younes wouldn’t say how many units the company is selling, but did claim, “store sales have increased 64% year-over-year and everything we’ve made has sold out, sometimes in minutes.”
GQ asked about Palantir’s ICE contracts and the other “controversial” things it’s engaged in with the U.S. military, but Younes insisted the company is “not political,” whatever that’s supposed to mean. As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, Palantir is leaning hard into selling the “tech-boss-as-hero ethos,” that’s frankly pretty common in Silicon Valley these days. But even some fans of the company think the merchandising effort is embarrassing.
“Unpopular opinion: all these merch posts are so ‘fan boy’ and extra cringe,” one user wrote in the Palantir subreddit about Karp’s Dominate shirt. “Like the stock or don’t, believe in the company or don’t,…. But the incessant merch posts are weak sauce.” Others are fully bought in, with one user writing, “Definitely a collectors item for me, could be worth something one day.” Younes told GQ that Palantir is working on a tennis collection and something for the America 250 celebrations this summer. So if you’re a fan of techno-fascism, keep your eyes peeled. Whatever merch they’ve got planned for the rest of the year could be sold out in no time. #Palantir #Debuts #Chic #Chore #Coat #World #Youre #BaddiesPalantir](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/04/palatnir-chore-coats-1280x853.jpg)
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