Opel, known as Vauxhall in the UK, will electrify all light commercial vehicles by 2021. Enough for us to take a look at the all-electric van Vivaro-e and its passenger car variant, the Zafira-e. Our editor had a short test drive with both vehicles in Germany.

Amazon is now part of a growing number of customers for Lion Electric vehicles. The company that entered the zero-emission market with electric school buses now sees demand increase for its electric trucks.

Peugeot is seeing growing demand from UK Police and Fire services for electrified vehicles. The French company said, 13 per cent of the cars ordered were all-electric with the e-208 being among the bestsellers to serve in British emergency services.

Punch Powertrain PSA e-transmissions, the joint venture between the French PSA Group and the Belgian transmission manufacturer Punch Powertrain, has now been established following official approvals. The company started operations on 17 September.

The Chinese automotive group SAIC has joined the Volkswagen Group’s CO2 pool in the EU with its brands MG Motor and SAIC Motors Europe. This is according to an official document of the European Commission.

Porsche is using a mobile charging system in the form of a truck trailer that allows ultra-rapid charging at Taycan presentations across the world. Made by battery storage specialist ADS-TEC Energy, the system delivers up to 320 kWh in any weather, real-life use shows.

York joins the expanding ranks of UK cities running e-scooter trials and has selected Tier Mobility to run the sharing offer on its streets. The University of York will receive the first kick scooters in a few weeks.

Voyages Ecker, a subsidiary of Voyages Emile Weber from Luxembourg, has taken delivery of the first four MAN Lion City Electric buses. The solo buses are pre-series models, which MAN sold to the Group under a partnership agreement concluded in 2017.

“Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,” CEO Elon Musk said in July. Now, it looks as if they may have found such a source, Reuters reports.

The US American bus maker Blue Bird says their electric school buses sell so well, they will increase production capacity to 1,000 units a year. Also in Russia, Kamaz announced plans to build twice as many e-buses next year.

Less is more. That’s the Citroën Ami in a nutshell. The all-electric four-wheeler with its 75-kilometre-range targets a young, urban group of buyers who simply want to get from A to B. We tested it and wondered whether the little friend is also suitable for fleet use.

Electrify America launched a new business unit called Electrify Home. The new offer essentially brings home (there’s hardly a better way to say it) the company’s existing residential charging business they previously had made available through Amazon.

LG Chem of South Korea announces its newly developed lithium-sulfur batteries helped an unmanned aircraft (UAV) complete a test flight into the stratosphere. The drone with broad wings and solar cells also set a national altitude record.

The Japanese company Cocoa Motors finally started the worldwide sale of what they call the Walkcar in August after they introduced the skateboard-like concept in 2015. The LEV weighs only 2.9 kilos and is the size of a 13-inch laptop.

The first VW ID.3 has been delivered in Germany as Volkswagen hands over the 1st Edition model made in its ‘Transparent Factory’ in Dresden. The first customer was handed over a white ID.3.

Volvo Buses is providing the batteries from its electric buses with a second life as stationary storage on a large scale. Following individual pilot projects, Volvo Buses has now concluded an agreement with Batteryloop, that covers all batteries for the manufacturer’s electric buses worldwide.

The Gigafactories under construction in Texas and Berlin have been making progress despite the final permit for the site in Grünheide, close to the German capital still pending. Brandenburg state minister Jörg Steinbach is confident however to be able to grant final permissions before the year’s end.

ABB announces the transition to an all-electric vehicle fleet in the UK by 2025. The Swiss-Swedish supplier of charging infrastructure runs 500 cars in its fleet in Britain.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) that is among the UK’s biggest rail franchises opened a large charging hub at Hatfield station, north of London. The site features a total of 27 charging points.

General Motors will rely on an “an almost completely wireless battery management system” for its upcoming electric car models. The company claims that the system should thus be much easier to adapt to new models from a common set of battery components.

Volkswagen has entered into a strategic partnership with RCS Global, a specialist in supply chain analysis as the Group aims to introduce greater transparency and responsibility in its raw material supply chains for batteries.

MG prepares to launch an electric estate in the UK next quarter. The MG 5 EV is essentially a rebranded Roewe Ei5 as offered in China – both Roewe and MG belong to SAIC. What’s new and intriguing is the base price though: £23,995 (government subsidy included).

RAW Charging has announced the installation of 26 smart-charging points at the new Worcestershire Parkway Railway Station in the UK. The company also says they have plans for more charging stations at 2,000 sites over the next three years.

The European BATTERY 2030+ project is gaining momentum as the research initiative launches seven projects with a total budget of 40.5 million euros from the EU’s Horizon 2020 program this September.

Lucid Motors have finally fully unveiled the production version of their first car: the Lucid Air, a luxury electric sedan designed to match any electric S-Class if it would be a Mercedes or Tesla back in the days.

Peugeot is working on a new mini-SUV below the 2008 model, which will replace the compact 108 and will feature a purely electric drive. Unconfirmed reports expect the new Peugeot e-1008 to launch in late 2021 or early 2022.

The new Citroën C4 which PSA presented in June together with its all-electric offshoot ë-C4 is available to order in France with immediate effect. Prices for the all-electric variant start from 28,600 euros after subsidies.

BYD is taking part in a statewide contract that will allow American transit agencies to leverage California’s purchase power to buy BYD e-buses made in Lancaster, California. The agreement includes three models offered at competitive conditions.

Nissan and Allied Irish Banks (AIB) have launched a 0% finance on the Nissan Leaf in Ireland. The ‘Power of Zero’ initiative offers consumers the opportunity to buy a Nissan LEAF with 0% finance as well as being given one year’s free servicing.

Southern California Edison has got the green light for an expansive electric car charging infrastructure programme that will add about 38,000 new chargers throughout the utility’s service area in California over the next four years.