Hyundai Mobis has developed an “integrated front module” for electric vehicles. It retains the traditional design of the radiator grille, but is also intended to “reduce drag and ensure design diversity”, which the Korean company believes is jeopardised by the ubiquitous streamlined shape. Read more…

Pham Nhat Vuong, the founder of Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast, has set up a charging infrastructure company called V-Green. The new company is to create charging networks in key markets – “primarily for VinFast vehicles”, as it says. Read more…

The ban on new diesel cars, which was due to come into force on Mallorca and the other Balearic Islands from 2025, is likely to be cancelled. The background to this is a change of government that has brought the People’s Party (PP) to power. Read more…

A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has used a patented multiphase electromagnetic coupling coil to wirelessly charge an electric car with an output of 100 kW and an efficiency of 96 per cent. Read more…

The Swiss microcar is being used in car-sharing for the first time; however, it is on a scale as small as the car, which is actually not a car. Regardless, Astara, Microlino’s distributor in Germany and Spain, has added ten Microlinos to its new service in Madrid. Read more…

The British government continues delivering its Local Electric Vehicle fund to councils, which can best choose where to install charge points. Following the approval of the first full LEVI applications in February, payments to another 44 councils worth over £185 million have been approved. Read more…

DFDS, with headquarters in Copenhagen, has ordered another 100 electric trucks from Volvo. Once the order is fulfilled, DFDS will nearly double its Volvo e-truck fleet and run 225 trucks in European logistic operations.
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In future, Nio will only supply its 75 kWh battery pack with LFP cells, apparently in order to further reduce costs. Previously, Nio had relied on a mixture of LFP and NMC chemistry for this battery. Read more…

There are new electric buses from Hungary that will be particularly lightweight. Local manufacturer Credobus has started production of its first BEV model – and promises a range of 300 kilometres with a battery capacity that is a quarter smaller than that of other manufacturers. Read more…

Ballard Power Systems is planning a new “Gigafactory” in Texas for the production of fuel cell components and systems. Ballard plans to invest around 160 million dollars in the new factory called Ballard Rockwall Giga 1 in Rockwall, Texas. Read more…

Following the unsuccessful electric car offensive, which resulted in high write-downs, car rental company Hertz has changed its CEO. Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr is stepping down and will be replaced on 1 April by Gil West, who until recently was responsible for operations at GM’s robotaxi company Cruise.
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India’s government has adopted an incentive programme to turn the country into an EV production hub. Car manufacturers can import a limited number of electric cars into India at significantly reduced customs duties if they set up production there. Read more…

Sam Bird has won the Formula E race in Sao Paulo in a McLaren. The Brit secured victory in the fourth round of the electric racing series on the final lap ahead of Mitch Evans (Jaguar) and Oliver Rowland (Nissan). Read more…

The German public transport operator Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK) has ordered 20 new fuel cell buses from Solaris. These will be delivered by the end of April 2025. Solaris will provide a further 22 Urbino 12 Hydrogen buses to France by 2025. Read more…

Stockholm’s public transport company SL will soon launch three tenders for a total of 380 new electric buses, which will go into service in the Swedish capital and surrounding municipalities from 2026. There are currently only 29 electric buses on the road in the SL area. Read more…

Vianode, the battery material subsidiary of Norwegian metal producer Elkem, received a grant of 30 million euros from Innovation Norway as part of the second major European battery cell production project (EuBatIn). Read more…

Daimler Truck North America has announced the delivery of its first battery-electric Freightliner eM2 trucks, after the start of series production of the medium-duty electric vehicles at the end of 2023. Read more…

After the financially troubled electric car manufacturer Fisker recently warned that it may not be able to continue operations, the company is now preparing for possible insolvency, according to a US media report. Read more…

Mercedes-Benz is moving its electric technologies from the laboratory into the field. Mercedes-AMG’s future electric platform is currently undergoing winter testing in northern Sweden. The Vision EQXX technology demonstrator from Mercedes-Benz was recently on the road in the Arabian Desert. Read more…

Global engineering service provider FEV has presented a new solution called ‘Partial Discharge – High Voltage X’, or ‘PD-HVX’ for short. It is designed to provide early detection and prevention of partial discharge in high-voltage electric drive units. Read more…