The electric bus manufacturer Nexport has announced plans for the production of electric vehicles in a new plant in the Australian state of New South Wales. It will initially produce buses, but later also other types of vehicles such as cars, trucks and vans.

Tesla has now apparently started to export Model 3 produced in China to Europe – a first order from France already contains the reference ‘Model 3 – China’. In addition, not only the Model 3 is to receive additional range, but also the Model S and Model X.

Audi and FAW have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the joint production of electric vehicles based on the PPE platform, which Audi developed with Porsche. With FAW, the German Volkswagen brand wants to produce several purely electric Audi models for the Chinese market from 2024.

Elon Musk has revealed more details about Tesla’s plans for the upcoming factory in Germany, which is to become a testbed for the Fremont and Shanghai factories. Giga Berlin will be using the new 4680 format batteries as well as a completely new cast frame, which is not without risks.

The sports car manufacturer Lotus will work with partners to develop a new lightweight architecture for electric vehicles as part of a project sponsored by the British government.

BMW has started production of the all-electric iX3. According to the carmaker, the first BMW iX3 rolled off the production line at the BMW Brilliance Automotive factory in Shenyang, China on 29 September.

Tesla has officially lowered the base price of the Model 3 in China from 271,550 to 249,900 Yuan. The price reduction has likely be achieved by using LFP battery cells from CATL for the first time.

In China, Buick presented the all-electric concept car Electra, which provides an outlook on the electric future of the General Motors brand. The crossover model uses GM’s new electric platform with an ‘Ultium’ battery.

Chinese manufacturer Human Horizons presented its first electric SUV at Auto China. The HiPhi X is due to be launched in the first half of 2021 and will be available in small series production as early as the end of this year.

Lynk & Co plans to deliver their first vehicles in Europe in spring 2021. The Geely subsidiary is starting with the hybrid SUV 01, which shares the platform with the Volvo XC40. A subscription-like membership model will also handle sales in Europe.

Copycat technology from China is nothing new – this year at the Auto Show in Beijing, local manufacturer Songsan Motors presented a Corvette and a VW T1 clone.  However, unlike the originals, the Chinese offshoots can drive electrically because Songsan Motors installed a plug-in hybrid drive in both vehicles.

German automotive supplier Mahle and the Canadian fuel cell manufacturer Ballard Power Systems have agreed to jointly develop and mass-produce fuel cell systems for commercial vehicles of various weight classes.

Volkswagen will invest around 15 billion euros in electric mobility in China by 2024 with its three joint venture partners SAIC, FAW and JAC. This comes in addition to the €33Bn the Group had already announced in 2019 for the global development of the electric car sector.

Xpeng Motors has begun building another electric car plant in China. The Chinese manufacturer intends to expand its production capacities beyond the existing plant in Zhaoqing. The new production facility in Guangzhou is set to go into operation at the end of 2022.

Honda has just presented the E:concept at the Auto China trade show. The e-SUV study is a preview of a purely electric production model for the Chinese market. The Japanese automaker also presented the CR-V PHEV that will go on sale in China in January 2021.

Audi is planning a new joint venture with FAW in China with a new plant for the production of electric cars based on the PPE platform. The Word is that the negotiations are well advanced and should be completed by the end of the year.

Plug-in hybrids have been losing their allure as bridges to a new era of clean transport with many analysis finding real-world consumption and CO2 emissions far from type-approval values. Fraunhofer ISI and the ICCT just prove this to hold globally and across models.

The Chinese EV charging company Star Charge has completed a funding round totalling $125 million. Chief investors included Schneider Electric and the Chinese CICC Capital’s sub fund.

When the US-American auto blogger ordered an electric sports car online from the online retailer Alibaba, he thought he found a great deal with a price of US$31,000 for the Qiantu K50. However, things did not go as hoped.

The Chinese electric car startup WM Motor has now generated 1.25 billion euros ($1.47Bn or RMB 10Bn). The most recent round of financing was led by SAIC Motor’s investment platform and the Shanghai Municipal Asset Monitoring and Management Commission.

Evergrande New Energy Vehicle, the NEV offshoot of the Chinese Evergrande Group, has raised around half a billion US dollars in fresh capital by selling treasury shares to a number of external investors. Among the investors are prominent names like Tencent and Didi Chuxing.

Tesla is apparently preparing some upgrades for the Model 3 – at least as far as the version produced in China is concerned. Besides a reworked frunk and steering wheel as well as an electric tailgate, there are some indications that the electric sedan will also get a heat pump.

Chinese manufacturer SAIC has announced that it will bring at least ten fuel cell vehicles to market within the next five years. At the same time, the Chinese government is expected to announce further support for fuel cell vehicles.

In China, the joint venture BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) has opened another battery centre at the Tiexi location, where the batteries for the purely electric BMW iX3 are now being produced.

Reports from China indicate that Tesla has completed the main sections of the expansion of its Shanghai plant. The development, which will facilitate the production of Model Y, is expected to be completed in October or November.

BYD sold more New Energy Vehicles in August than in July. If the sales figures of the country’s largest NEV manufacturer are taken as an indicator, the situation on the Chinese market for New Energy Vehicles could calm down a bit. For the year as a whole, however, the number of EV sales remains in […]

Jeep is expanding its range of electrified models with the Wrangler 4xe with plug-in hybrid drive, which will be available in Europe, China and the US in early 2021. The Wrangler 4xe follows the Renegade 4xe and Compass 4xe partly electric vehicles that are already available for order.

Similarly to competitor Nio, Xpeng Motors is now decoupling battery costs from the purchase price of its vehicles and offering customers the option of renting the battery over a period of seven years.

Better late than never – it is hard to put it any other way with this electric trike called Solo from the Canadian company Electra Meccanica. While first reports date back to 2016 and again 2018 when deliveries were set to start, it took until today for production to take off.

There is news about the electric car start-up Byton, which has been temporarily suspended since 01 July. Chinese media now report, citing insiders, that the company is ready to resume full operations in September 2020.