Hyundai’s luxury brand Genesis has unveiled an all-electric version of its GV70 SUV model. The Electrified GV70 is Genesis’ third BEV model, following the Electrified G80 and GV60, and will be available exclusively with all-wheel drive.
The Audi e-tron GT is now available to order in Europe. The electric Gran Turismo is only available with all-wheel drive in two performance levels. Prices for the Audi e-tron GT quattro start at €99,800 and prices for the RS e-tron GT start at €138,200.
Toyota has started the market launch of Proace Electric and Proace Verso Electric in Europe. List prices in Germany start at 41,948 euros for the Proace Electric and 58,530 euros for the Proace Verso Electric. The smaller Proace City Electric is to follow in October this year.
According to a new study by Ferdinand Dudenhöffer’s CAR Research Institute in Duisburg, the tightening of the EU’s CO2 requirements and the shift to electromobility will not be a job killer.
The new 14-brand car company Stellantis has given more details about its electrification plans. These include four platforms for electrified models and more battery factories.
Volkswagen’s commercial vehicle subsidiary Traton has increased its investments in electromobility. The commercial vehicle manufacturer has now decided to invest 1.6 billion euros in research and development for e-mobility by 2025. Long-haul trucks will also be powered by batteries.
Volkswagen has just presented its technology roadmap for the battery and charging sectors up to 2030 at its Power Day presentation. The aim of the roadmap is to significantly reduce the complexity and costs of batteries. At the core of the plan are six “Gigafactories” throughout Europe.
Panasonic has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the energy company Equinor and the industrial group Norsk Hydro to explore the possibilities for building a “sustainable and cost-effective European battery business” for electric vehicles, likely in Norway.
The Berlin-based micromobility provider Tier Mobility has announced the closing of a new financing round in the amount of 250 million US dollars (about 211 million euros). The Series C round, the third capital increase of this kind, was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
The German Charging infrastructure specialist eLoaded has presented plans for energy and mobility hubs that the company plans to build throughout Europe. One of these projects is an innovation centre for energy and mobility with “Europe’s most extensive charging infrastructure”.
e-troFit, specialist for the conversion of diesel buses to electric drive, will bring out further series-ready electrification solutions for existing commercial vehicles in the next two years. This will involve retrofitting kits for the “most common models in Europe”.
The electric motorcycle manufacturer Zero Motorcycles has introduced its 2021 model year, which this time includes almost only optical updates. The 2021 Zero models will be shipped immediately from the company’s headquarters in California to dealers in North America and Europe.
Yamaha has reorganised the sales and service of its e-bike systems. Starting next month, Yamaha will service European customers of its e-bike systems directly from Europe.
The fully-electric van is a version of the e-NV200 with a larger load floor. Until now, the model has been marketed by the e-mobility specialist under its own management but from now on, the model will be sold by Nissan in Europe as the Nissan e-NV200 XL Voltia.
First carmakers announce closures of factories in Europe due to the Coronavirus crisis unfolding on the continent. PSA will lockdown all vehicle production plants in Europe by 27 March and the French carmaker is not the only one.
Daimler is announcing a CO2-neutral new vehicle fleet for its commercial vehicle sector in the “most important regions” in 20 years. The first electric trucks will go into mass production by 2022.
After two quarters of losses, Tesla closed the third quarter of 2019 with a profit. While sales were near the level of the previous quarter, the fresh business figures this time show a bottom-line improvement of 143 million US dollars.
V2G pilot in the Netherlands: Nissan and Enel have expanded their V2G activities as they hook up with NewMotion and Mitsubishi to come to the Netherlands. Grid operator TenneT is on board as well and the Outlander PHEV serves as bidirectional charging test mule. The first V2G station is live. electriccarsreport.com
EV tech for driving in the cold: A new control strategy can restore EV battery power and permit full regeneration while driving at temperatures as low as −40 °C, thanks to Researchers at Penn State and a practitioner from EC Power. The method involves heating the battery internally during regenerative braking and rest periods of driving. greencarcongress.com
Electrode made in the microwave: Lithium cobalt phosphate is the latest material to be praised as promising material for cathodes and could now be made easier than ever. Researcher Jennifer Ludwig of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has developed a method to synthesize high quality crystals at low cost by microwaving it. tum.de
Another battery out of the kitchen comes from Stanford, where researchers have developed a sodium-ion battery based on a compound related to table salt. Its cost is less than 80 percent of a lithium ion battery with the same storage capacity. greencarcongress.com, stanford.edu
Electric vehicle sales in Europe list 1,243 Nissan Leafs making it the best-selling electric car on the continent in January. Far behind, yet second best is the Volvo V60 plug-in with 439 units followed closely by VW’s E-Up (398). Overall, 4,288 EVs were sold. ev-sales.blogspot.de (Europe), ev-sales.blogspot.de (worldwide)