BYD will be offering electric car components to third parties in order to diversify their income sources in the face of dwindling demand for cars. The components business is to be conducted through the recently founded sub-brand FinDreams.

BMW has activated the eDrive Zones digital service for the first PHEV models. This is intended to allow cars to automatically switch to electric mode when entering a certain zone, such as inner cities.

DAF Trucks has started to test the CF Hybrid in customer applications to gain experience in daily use. The Dutch transport company Peter Appel will be using two of these hybrid trucks to supply supermarkets in the Netherlands close to city centres.

EVBox partner Hollander Techniek has installed 124 charging points on the campus of Wageningen University in the Netherlands. The charging point each have an output of 11 kW and are meant for guests and employees of Unilever’s Global Foods Innovation Center at the University.

The Dutch government has now confirmed the rumours of a planned purchase subsidies for privately used e-cars from July and has provided further details. Hybrid cars and vehicles above a list price of 45,000 euros will not be considered. However, electric used cars will be considered.

Before the end of this year, Chinese manufacturer Byton will be accepting advance orders from European customers for its first electric model M-Byte – for a reservation fee of 500 euros. Byton has also revealed some details on the planned distribution and charging service.

Aiways will offer its new battery electric SUV U5 in Europe exclusively through direct sales and not through traditional dealer networks. After sales and service will be handled by partners – the first ones for Europe have now been named.

Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) is now accepting advance orders for its electric construction equipment, specifically for the ECR25 Electric compact excavator and the L25 Electric compact wheel loader.

The Berlin-based electric scooter manufacturer Unu is about to enter the sharing business. According to a media report, the Dutch company Check wants to make Unu scooters available to customers by April at the latest.

Electric car charging pioneer NewMotion has been in business for ten years and since 2017 belongs to the Shell Group. They invited us to the ‘Meeting of Minds’ event in Amsterdam, where NewMotion CEO Sytse Zuidema gave our Nora Manthey a frank interview.

Intelligent charging of electric cars could significantly reduce the need for grid extensions. This is the result of a smart charging test within the framework of the now completed European project Invade. The central component of the test was a specially created algorithm from GreenFlux.

Seventeen partners want to turn the so-called Rhine-Alps corridor stretching from Rotterdam to Genoa into a purely hydrogen-based transport route – by water, road and rail. The RH₂INE project stands for ‘Rhine Hydrogen Integration Network of Excellence’.

Shortly before the market launch of the Corsa-e, Opel has significantly reduced the prices for the all-electric Ampera-e in the Netherlands. The Business version is now available from 34,149 euros instead of 44,799 euros.

The Dutch company Tribus is now presenting two electric buses at the VDV Electric Bus Conference in Berlin: The compact and modular city bus Movitas and the wheelchair-accessible VW e-Crafter mini-bus.

The Dutch government intends to grant a subsidy of 4,000 euros for the purchase of privately used electric cars up to a list price of 45,000 euros from July this year, according to local media.

In Amsterdam, EVBox has opened what they are calling the Lab Space. Thanks to the new site, the company says it can test all of its future charging stations on actual vehicles. The facility should thus also be home to research and development of new charging technologies.

As part of the EU-funded project REVIVE (Refuse Vehicle Innovation and Validation in Europe), a fleet of 15 electric vehicles for refuse collection is to be built and put into operation by 2021. The trucks will have a fuel cell system to increase the range.

In the Netherlands, the car-sharing platform Amber and research organisation TNO are studying the optimal use of electric cars. By collecting battery data from the Amber fleet, the partners want to find out whether fleet managers can organise car-sharing in a way that extends battery life long-term.

Total has received a concession from the Amsterdam Electric Metropolitan Region (MRA-Electric) allowing the Group to install and operate up to 20,000 new charging points in the Netherlands.

The US-American startup Lucid Motors has now opened European reservation books for the first model Lucid Air. The startup says it will officially unveil the Tesla-like debut car in New York in April. Deliveries in Europe are scheduled to begin at the end of 2021.

The Ecomotive team of the TU Eindhoven has presented another interesting concept car. Luca is an electric car that is consistently designed for sustainability. With lightweight construction and recycled materials, Luca is designed to conserve resources.

ABB has installed more than 100 electric bus rapid charging stations for public transport operator Qbuzz in the Netherlands. Most of these are cabled charging stations in depots, but there are also a few pantograph fast chargers.

In the two most important markets for e-mobility, new car sales in 2019 as a whole were down, as CAM notes in its latest industry study Electromobility Report 2020. Germany, on the other hand, has the highest gains worldwide – if you include PHEVs.

The Dutch solar car startup Lightyear has engaged former Tesla manager Johan Vos as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO). He will drive the commercialisation of the long-range solar car Lightyear One.

Volvo Buses aims to give its e-bus batteries a second life. In cooperation with Stena Property and Stena Recycling, the company will use its electric bus batteries as stationary energy storage in the Fyrklövern complex in Gothenburg.

As of today, visitors to the Johan Cruijff Arena (JCA) in Amsterdam can actively contribute to the power supply of the arena with their electric cars by integrating them into the stadium’s power grid. The first of 15 bidirectional charging stations in the JCA is now officially in operation.

BYD has received its largest single order ever for electric buses from Europe. Keolis Nederland has ordered 259 battery-electric buses from the Chinese manufacturer to be delivered from summer 2020. This is based on a new ten-year operating concession recently granted to Keolis.

Over the next two years, Rosenbauer and the Amsterdam fire brigade intend to test a pre-series vehicle based on the Concept Fire Truck (CFT) in everyday use. After an implementation phase, the vehicle is to be delivered at the end of 2020.

The Austrian e-mobility service provider Smatrics has announced that it has entered into several new roaming partnerships in recent months. With the charge card, customers will now have access to 44,000 charging points in Central Europe.

Jaguar now cooperates with the Dutch smart-charging specialist Jedlix to integrate the latter’s application into the infotainment system of the Jaguar I-Pace from early 2020. Jedlix helps to optimise charging processes.