Reading tip: The UK expects sales of hybrids to increase in the coming months, before the Plug-in Car Grant is modified. Then, the BMW i8 will no longer be subject to subsides due to its high price, and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV will only benefit from 2,500 pounds in rebates, instead of the current 5,000 pounds. businesscar.co.uk
Click tip: Designer Antonio Paglia conceptualised the electric sportscar ELK for Mercedes. Despite the untelling (or almost unfortunate) name, the vehicle will be a hit with anyone with a need for speed. carscoops.com
E-Racer rollout: Fraunhofer IISB in the German city of Erlangen has presented its electric sports car IISB-One. It is road ready as well as road legal and will be used to test various power electronics designed by the institute. Components like the drive system or on-board charger have all been developed by IISB. boldride.com
Doubled production: SK Innovation has increased its annual Li-ion battery production in its Seosan facility from 300 MWh to 700 MWh – enough to power around 30,000 EVs according to the Korean company. Customers include Kia and BAIC. koreaherald.com
— Text Ad — Efficient e-vehicle offering higher performance: The essence of the new project of the leading edge cluster Electric Mobility South-West “e-volution” is to merge peak technology from all segments of e-vehicle research and provide innovative integration for efficient interaction. e-mobilbw-sw.de
Battery makers merge: Swiss-German Leclanché has acquired Belgian battery-maker Trineuron. The latter offers multiple chemistries and system designs. Leclanché hopes to broaden its offering, especially with regards to BMS and larger transport applications such as buses or ferries. greencarcongress.com
Hybrid parity: Hybrid and non-hybrid vehicles could reach price equality as early as 2015, a new technical paper suggests. It states technological advances, especially in production, and further learnings as reasons, using the Toyota Prius as an example. hybridcars.com
Some 600,000 plug-in hybrids will be sold in Europe in 2021, says LMC Automotive. According to LMC, plug-in hybrids will become much more popular on the old continent than conventional hybrid starting in 2019. LMC therefore predicts that only 325,000 plug-less hybrids will be sold in 2021. autoblog.com
Reading tip: The Union of Concerned Scientists is warning to overrate hydrogen vehicles but recommends hybrids instead as a more cost-effective and greener solution (wells-to-wheels analysis). technologyreview.com via greencarreports.com
Study tip: A new study by the University of Minnesota confirms that the carbon footprint of EVs is dependent on the energy source. Media hype has it though that EVs are actually more pollutant than gasmobiles, again, it depends… transportevolved.com
German car makers sold 7,600 hybrids in America last year according to the the German car industry association VDA – a fairly low share of the total sales of 470,000 hybrids in the U.S. in 2013. However, in 2012 only 1,900 hybrids were made in Germany and sold in the U.S.. vda.de
E-Racer rollout: Fraunhofer IISB in the German city of Erlangen has presented its electric sports car IISB-One. It is road ready as well as road legal and will be used to test various power electronics designed by the institute. Components like the drive system or on-board charger have all been developed by IISB.
