Ian Robertson, Matthias Müller.
“Zero emissions will perhaps become a requirement and I think that 20 percent of combustion engines will come with some form of electrification within 10-20 years.”
Looking at i3 sales figures for the i3, BMW’s Ian Robertson believes that especially in cities, the number of EVs will continue to grow. Still, he does not see combustion engines going out of style anytime soon.
thegreencarwebsite.co.uk
“Zero emissions will perhaps become a requirement and I think that 20 percent of combustion engines will come with some form of electrification within 10-20 years.”
Porsche chef Matthias Müller is thinking about it out loudly. Following Tesla’s success, the carmaker is considering an all-electric sports car of its own – without a range extender.
auto-motor-und-sport.de (in German)
“Yes, of course we are thinking about it.”
“Government assistance is certainly helping to stimulate interest in EVs, with the grants applicable to both cars and vans.”
“These cars are going to go quicker in a few races than the old ones. We are going to get used to the sounds and I promise you next year we will not remember any difference in F1.”
Electric Hummer: GM’s mega car is back but in a much smaller version and fully electric. The ‘MEV Hummer HX’ is distributed by Swiss MEV Cars with a licence by GM. The electric mini Hummer is available with either lead-acid or li-ion batteries. Currently, production is in China but MEV Cars plans to relocate to Europe soon and is also looking for a German distributor.
“If you’re driving through the mountains, we don’t want you to be crawling up grades, or to be limited on any terrain.”
“Tesla is selling cars to emotional buyers who are comparing the Tesla S to other emotional, irrational and expensive products – such as the Mercedes S class and Maserati. That’s the genius of the product – consumers are not doing any cost/benefit calculations – but rather just saying ‘I want one’.”
Peugeot electric van for Germany: Peugeot now offers its ‘Partner’ electric van in Germany. It costs 24,752 euros without battery which can be bought for 6,037 euros or leased on a monthly payment. In UK, the Partner EV has been available since last year.
Scania tests electric trucks: The Swedish carmaker is trying out different methods of charging with electric trucks. At the Siemens test track in Groß Dölln, Germany, the EV is charged conductively via pantograph and overhead wires, while in Mannheim, Germany, Bombardier installed a 200 kW-inductive charging system.
“The reason that we did not choose to do this is that the auto dealers have a fundamental conflict of interest between promoting gasoline cars, which constitute virtually all of their revenue, and electric cars, which constitute virtually none.”
“Electrification is here to stay, so whether it’s plug-ins or whatever form it takes, we definitely have to continue working with them. This journey has only just started.”
The end for Mia Electric: The Niort Commercial Court has initiated liquidation procedures for the French EV manufacturer. In February, Mia was placed under judicial reorganisation (we reported) but was unable to raise the necessary funds to stay in business. Since mid-December, no car had rolled off the assembly line there.
“I foresee hybrid models pretty soon reaching 20 percent of global sales from about 13 percent to 14 percent now.”
“If we want to face the real problem of e-mobility, we need an open market of services. (…) This question of ‘where is the next charging station?’ should not exist.”
“We believe that Formula E is the perfect platform to help enhance our knowledge and expertise of electric vehicles, while also helping us to transfer cutting edge technology to our road cars.”
“I don’t think we need a dedicated EV to be as efficient as we want to be. We have some PHEV customers getting over 95 percent of their range from the battery alone, and overall, they’re reporting about 75 percent of their miles.”