There are currently two major recalls for combustion engine models due to possible fire hazards in a total of around 644,000 cars. Both ICE models from Kia and Mercedes-Benz are affected.

Mercedes offers its particularly powerful models, for example with specially developed V8 and V-12 engines under the AMG subsidiary. According to media reports, an electric Mercedes from AMG will soon be available.

Mercedes-Benz is presenting the EQC, GLC F-Cell and the E 300 de in police livery at the General Police Equipment Exhibition & Conference (GPEC) in Frankfurt am Main.

According to the latest CAM ‘Electromobility Report’, in which 212 series innovations in e-mobility have been evaluated by 30 car manufacturers over the past five years, German automobile manufacturers still have catching up to do.

After a message claiming that “If this summer wasn’t hot enough for you, the Mercedes-AMG GLA 45 4Matic will turn the heat up”, many criticized the company for the environmental implications of the slogan.

Daimler has set up a central charging station for electric buses at their Mannheim bus plant. It is designed for charging by cable as well as by pantograph. The station is used to charge the eCitaro during production and before delivery.

Following Geely, BAIC is now also joining Daimler. The BAIC Group has acquired a stake of around five per cent in Daimler AG, according to the German automotive group. Daimler and BAIC have a long-standing strategic partnership.

ViaVan, the joint venture of Mercedes-Benz Vans and the US startup Via, plans to convert all its locations to purely electric fleets by 2025. In Berlin, only fully electric vans are to be used from the end of 2020.

Mercedes is planning to produce 100 fully electric EQC SUVs every day this year, according to a manager. The company opened the order books for the EQC just a few days ago.

Mercedes-Benz has received a major order from the ESWE public transport operator in Wiesbaden for the electric city bus eCitaro. The local transport company of the Hessian capital ordered a total of 56 units of the electric bus, which is manufactured in Mannheim.

Following the merger of their mobility services and the planned cooperation in the development of autonomous cars, BMW and Mercedes could also use common platforms for electric vehicles in the future. According to media reports, confidential discussions have been going on for months already.

Daimler’s battery assembly facility in Kamenz is the cornerstone of a battery production network spanning a total of seven production facilities around the world. Our colleagues from electrive.net were recently able to accompany the assembly of Mercedes Benz batteries – an exclusive factory visit.

With the completion of the fuel cell system development for the Mercedes GLC F-Cell, the Daimler subsidiary NuCellSys will receive a new name for the upcoming development projects: Effective immediately, the company will operate under the name Mercedes-Benz Fuel Cell GmbH.

Mercedes-Benz is handing over the first GLC F-Cell models to selected customers in the German market. These include various ministries, the National Organisation for Hydrogen (NOW) and H2 Mobility as well as Deutsche Bahn.

After Tesla reported a profit this Q3 due to strong sales of the Model 3, reverberations are being felt across the industry. Carmakers like BMW and Audi are losing the bracket for their middle class models such as the 3 series and Audi A4.

China’s BYD and Daimler will put more money behind their joint electric vehicle venture Denza in China as they increase their investment. Both will add another 400 million RMB, (about 53M euros) in order to build on production and service.

Mercedes wants to give people some time to ease into the silence of an electric car. Their latest clip advertising the arrival of their first EQ concept comes with a rather unique ICE soundtrack – not from an artificial but most organic source.

Mercedes is known for fast and luxurious cars. Their newest marketing strategy shows their concept progress crawling along, but still moving forward.

Daimler’s plug-in with fuel cells is coming together through symbiosis as Mercedes is banking on expertise from various subsidiaries and neighbouring specialists. The GLC F-Cell is to launch this year and so Daimler talks details.

Mercedes has starting testing its fuel cell plug in GLC F-Cell, which will be released on the market this year, as well as the battery electric EQC, which will be released next year, on a winter track in northern Sweden.

The development team behind the Mercedes electric van was in Northern Sweden testing the van during the past few weeks. The focus of the testing series in Arjeplog, near the arctic circle, was to test cold starts as well as charging and driving behaviour at minus temperatures.

A total of  16,132 Model S were sold in Europe during 2017, meaning Tesla has been outselling the continent’s established premium manufacturers such as Mercedes or BMW with their S-Class or 7 series respectively. And by a couple of thousand units.

Ahead of the debut at the Geneva Motor Show, Mercedes has released pictures showing the facelifted C-Class that will be on display with two plug-in hybrid variants. Daimler also announces a serial EQC model and a new edition Smart EV for the Swiss salon.

Daimler has a facelift scheduled for the C-Class this March. Once the updated Mercedes sedan takes to the spotlight in Geneva, it will preview a tech revamp that includes two plug-in hybrid variants. 

Hubject Inc., a U.S. subsidy of German roaming joint venture Hubject created back in autumn, teams up with Volta Charging. It is the first cooperation it set up in the States.

The next Mercedes A-class is ever more likely to bear the EQ Power label designating electric propulsion. Rumours were fuelled anew through pictures from the inside of the latest model.

Honda accelerates electrification: Each and every new Honda model launched in Europe will offer some form of electrification, be it it hybrid or all-electric. The hybrid Honda CR-V marks the start next year, followed by the Urban EV (we reported). The Japanese carmaker wants to make two thirds of its sales from electrified models by 2030 but aims to reach this target 5 years earlier in Europe.
carscoops.com, insideevs.com, hondanews.eu

Tesla decelerates for once and has rescheduled the presentation of its Semi truck. Initially due this month, it will now be shown on Onctober, 26 in Hawthorne, California. Taking a time out as well is Tesla VP Diarmuid O’Connell, who decided to depart after eleven years to spend more time with his family.
electrek.co, insideevs.com, teslarati.com (O’Connell)

Daimler’s all-electric truck however has just launched and the first four FUSO e-Canter have taken up their work at NGOs based in New York City. Serial production is on and 500 units shall be delivered to clients in the U.S., Europe and Japan over the next two years before production is to seriously scale up.
media.daimler.com

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www.ecomobiel.nl

Why would you name a racer Owl? Because you want to underscore its silent flight, well drive, as is the case with Aspark’s Owl that has seen the light of day at the IAA. With a carbon body it weighs just 850 kilos and is allegedly fast too, going from 0 – 100 in less than two seconds powered by a 320 kW two motor system and supercaps. Order on request from 2019.
autoblog.com, jalopnik.com

Bentley confirms plug-in plans: There is an electric sports car cooking that will utilise Porsche’s Mission E platform, Bentley CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer confirmed. A first concept appeared in Geneva this year where the EXP 12 Speed 6e wowed a crowd. Expect production to commence by the end of the decade but first there will be three Bentley PHEV, namely the Bentayga, Continental and Flying Spur.
autoexpress.co.uk

Luxury PHEV: Mercedes positions the S 560 e as the S 500 e’s successor at the IAA. The novel plug-in hybrid drive allows for electric cruising over 50 kilometres and offers 90 kW plus the 270 kW of the engine. It is the 8th model in Daimler’s plug-in line-up, only an on sale date is missing.
electriccarsreport.com, greencarcongress.com, media.daimler.com

600 km range and a top speed above 200 kph, that is BMW’s i Vision Dynamics. Rather than the Gran Coupé being just visionary a EV, series production has been planned but not yet scheduled. In any case, it will sit well between the i3 and i8 and amongst the 25 electrified models the carmaker has promised to launch by 2025.
carscoops.com, motor1.com

All electric Mercedes: Long has it been teased and now it is released, the EQA, Daimler’s electric compact concept. It has an electric drive at each axle with a combined output of 200 kW. Range was given at 400 km, depending on the chosen battery that can also fast-charge inductively.
carscoops.com, autoblog.com, autocar.co.uk

And the fuel cell Mercedes has been revealed in full as well and is ready to go on sale by 2018. The GLC F-Cell plug-in hybrid carries 4.4 kg hydrogen on board, enough for 437 km with another 49 km of range being kept inside an additional 13.8 kWh battery.
autoblog.com, autocar.co.uk

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Baden-Württemberg will demonstrate E-Mobility expertise at EVS30: The State Agency e-mobil BW and its cluster networks “Electric Mobility South-West” and “Fuel Cell BW” participate in the joint booth “German Regions” at EVS30. The partners will proudly present the accumulated know how of the German South-West in the field of electric mobility solutions. Come and visit us at Hall 1, Booth A33. EVS30 will take place on October 9-11, 2017 in Stuttgart, Germany. www.e-mobilbw.de (Exhibitors at a glance – PDF)

Urban EV by Honda: The Japanese surprise with an electric concept for city-dwellers in Frankfurt and say a series version would make it to Europe no later than by 2019. Technical details of the litte four-seater are scarce but Honda has dedicated a whole new platform to it.
electriccarsreport.com, autocar.co.uk, carscoops.com

VW I.D. Crozz revised: Known since April, Volkswagen has further developed its fully electric SUV for the IAA, bringing it closer to the series version that is expected by 2020 (we reported). Its twin electric motors come with a combined power 0f 225 kW and VW targets a 500 km range.
carscoops.com, electriccarsreport.com, autocar.co.uk

Opel’s first PHEV: The brand based in Rüsselsheim is not dead but tries to venture further into electric territory instead. At the IAA, Opel now announced the Grandland X to become the first model with a plug-in hybrid variant. It will most likely borrow the drive from the Peugeot 3008.
autonews.com, gm.com

Norway’s PEV share exceeded 40 percent for the second time ever this August. The record of 42.4% was set last June. BEVs alone were sold 2,784 times and account for 20.8% percent marketshare. The remaining 19.4% are made up of 2,609 PHEV.
insideevs.com

Significant changes at Audi: Electrification is the new norm, or shall be in Ingolstandt and so Audi decided to get rid of power output designations such as 2.0 TFSI oder 3.0 TDI. Instead, two digits that stand for the output in kW followed by the actual motor technology such as TFSI, TDI, g-tron, or e-tron shall describe each variant. Audi explains this step with new technologies taking over in the future, which will make cylinder capacity less relevant for customers.
greencarcongress.com, audi-mediacenter.com

Latest tease for Nissan Leaf: The countdown is on for the launch of the next-gen Nissan Leaf and so the Japanese continue to serve one little piece of tease after the other. Not sushi of course but an animated video and a snapshot of the rear light. However, the web was faster as usual so the full menu, meaning a naked Leaf and spec, have been put on the table already.
greencarreports.com

First view of the Mercedes EQA: We missed a tiny little detail when announcing Mercedes’ IAA line-up lately. If you look very closely, you can discover the compact EQA already in the picture.
electrive.net (picture)

New NEVS investors: Saab successor NEVS has got a new co-owner in Beijing Zhenghuon Technology, an investors group that just poured 108m dollars into National Electric Vehicle Sweden. Didi Chuxing, China’s equivalent to Uber, is also thinking about taking a stake in NEVS, and “discussions have been going on all summer,” according to NEVS CEO Stefan Tilk.
just-auto.com, saabplanet.com

German design for Chinese EVs: WM Motors has turned to Isdera, a design and engineering firm based in the German town of Saarwellingen and led by former Porsche engineer Eberhard Schulz, to give their electric cars some substance. Founded in China last year, WM Motors wants to cooperate across all business areas with Isdera, including manufacturing and raising capital.
autonews.com, autonewschina.com

Indonesia’s EV incentives: A new policy by the Indonesian government wants to favour electric and hybrid vehicles by granting them a break from taxes. The goal is to reduce emissions by 29 percent by 2030 and the Ministry of Industry, intends to make its plans public by the end of the year.
nikkei.com