The purely electric successor model of Jaguar’s luxury sedan XJ, announced a year ago, is experiencing delays. The production start planned for early 2021 could not be kept, new reports suggest.

The Southampton City Council has taken delivery of 24 Renault Kangoo ZE vans, which will be used in the upkeep of the city and contribute to its goal of 90 per cent of its fleet to be zero-emission by 2030.

As the UK fast-tracks the e-scooter trials, the new regulation just being tested could lead to a more generous classification of light electric vehicles than applied across the EU. It could see not only e-scooters but also light electric mopeds without type-approval being allowed.

Volta Trucks, a start-up with offices in Sweden and the UK, is working on the prototype of an all-electric 16-ton truck. The Volta Zero, due for launch later this year is to use hi-tech organic materials developed together with the European Space Agency, ESA.

The Geely subsidiary LEVC has presented the series version of its electric van with range extender called VN5, which can be ordered immediately and delivered from the end of 2020. Prices for the British market have been revealed.

The Opel sister brand Vauxhall has received an order from British Gas for 1,000 fully electric vans, the Vivaro-e. According to the manufacturer, this is the largest commercial order for electric vehicles in the UK to date.

Jump’s bright red e-bikes return. The new owner Lime was last caught scrapping many of the electric bikes after taking over the service from Uber. London is now the first city in Europe where e-bikes are making a comeback, and more cities are to follow.

The Dutch bicycle subscription provider Swapfiets has announced that it will also offer its service in London, Milan and Paris before the end of the year and will include other electric vehicles in its product range in addition to bicycles.

EU states as well Great Britain, Norway and Switzerland subsidise fossil fuels with at least 137 billion euros annually, as research from Investigate Europe shows. Germany is the biggest contributor with fossil fuels subsidies of at least 37 billion euros annually.

Groupe Renault has created a new subsidiary called Elexent to help other companies find solutions for charging their fleets of electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. A branch office in France is already operational.

Another £900,000 were committed by Transport Scotland towards the eBike Grant Fund for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. Round four of the grant programme is now available to assist the adoption of eBikes, eTrikes and electric cargo bikes in Scotland.

British specialist automobile manufacturer AC Cars is launching a limited edition run of zero-emission cars, the first-ever electric cars to bear the AC marque. This model is called the AC Cobra Series1 Electric and only 58 reservations will be taken.

JCB has just presented its prototype of a hydrogen-powered excavator. According to the manufacturer, the 20-tonne 220X excavator equipped with a fuel cell system is the first of its kind in the industry. The excavator has been tested on JCB’s test site for more than a year.

The UK-based Engie has agreed to launch a partnership with waste management company Biffa to provide electric vehicle charging facilities across their UK sites. This is to support Biffa’s ‘Resourceful, Responsible’ sustainability strategy.

McDonald’s wants to set up hundreds of fast charging points for electric cars branches in Great Britain in cooperation with InstaVolt. The rapid chargers are designed for charging capacities of up to 125 kW. New Aldi branches in the UK are also to receive charging points – but at a much slower rate.

Kia is now offering the e-Niro in the UK with the 39 kWh battery and 100 kW drive, in addition to the 64 kWh and 150 kW versions available to date. More so, this means UK customers can now get a Kia electric car for less than £30,000.

The UK government has awarded £73.5 million in funding through the Advanced Propulsion Centre. This includes ten projects in the automotive sector to develop technologies to reduce CO2 emissions. A significant proportion of the money is being spent on furthering electric vehicle production and technology.

Hyundai Motor UK has confirmed the supply of “thousands of electric vehicles in 2020”, in its aim to become one of the UK’s largest provider of electric cars. Customers looking for an all-electric Hyundai can now order their car with delivery in as little as a few days.

Retail estate developer Brookhouse Group has opened high power charging points (HPC) at seven of its busiest retail parks and unveiled plans to turn three more locations into charging sites by the end of 2020. Engenie will install the chargers.

ZeroAvia, which specialises in electric aircraft propulsion systems, has now completed the maiden flight of a six-seater battery-electric aircraft at Cranfield Airport as part of the HyFlyer project supported by the British government.

The new model year of Jaguar’s only all-electric car I-Pace now includes a three-phase AC charger for faster charging and a new infotainment system. The latter has extended functionalities for planning a route including charge stops. The company has also adjusted its pricing.

The English city of Leeds has taken delivery of 122 Renault Kangoo Z.E. electric vans. The city will use 102 in its services and will make the remaining 20 available to local companies as part of a new test programme called EV Trials Scheme.

Maxus, formerly LDV and a British brand of China’s SAIC, is now taking orders for the E Deliver 3, its first compact electric van, in the UK. The E Deliver 3 had debuted as EV30 before the Maxus re-brand and is expected to arrive in September.

The Liverpool-based boat builder Water Witch has announced that it will replace its existing outboard motors with electric drives from Torqeedo. The company has been building specialized cleaning boats for over 50 years and uses around 200 workboats to remove waste and refuse in harbours and waterways around the world.

Danfoss will supply the Danish shipbuilder and operator MHO-Co with hybrid drive systems for the first two so-called Crew Transfer Vessels (CTVs) in the UK. Also, the Danish technology group announces the signing of a contract with Infineon.

According to official figures, there were just under 18,000 public charging points in the UK on 1 April 2020. This means that there are now more than twice as many charging facilities for electric cars on the island as there are petrol stations (just over 8,000).

In the UK, special license plates for zero-emission vehicles will be introduced starting this autumn. The UK government has also announced £12 million in research and development grants.

The startups Britishvolt and AMTE Power have provided details of their plans to build a battery cell factory for electric cars with a capacity of 30 to 35 GWh with the support of the British government. The first expansion stage is to be completed in 2023.

Renault UK is offering new car buyers money off its range of electrified models, with up to £1,000 to switch to an all-electric New Zoe, or £500 towards the deposit on All-New Clio Hybrid and All-New Captur Plug-in models.

Bus and rail operator Abellio is launching its first fleet of electric buses in London. This week the first five buses were put into operation on route P5. This will mark a total of 34 electric buses to the C10 and P5 bus routes.