The Flemish public transport company De Lijn has concluded a framework agreement with BYD Europe for up to 500 electric 12-metre buses. A first tranche of 92 units from this framework agreement has already been ordered. Read more…

Hyundai has delivered 500 fuel cell commercial vehicles to companies in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The delivery represents only a fraction of what is to come, as the Guangdong Province has ordered fuel cell systems for 1,500 vehicles. Read more…

Hyundai and Kia, together with the US company W. L. Gore & Associates, are developing membranes for fuel cell systems that will later be used in hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles. Read more…

The SAIC brand MG Motor is expanding its distribution of electric and hybrid cars in Europe to Finland. The Hedin Mobility Group, which has already been organising sales for MG in Sweden since 2021, will serve as a partner for the Finnish market. Read more…

Growth declined slightly – and yet the electric car is beating the diesel in Germany: with over 500,000 new electric cars, the electric drive has established itself on German roads, while plug-in hybrids are on the decline. Here is all the data on the 2023 annual figures. Read more…

The strikes against Tesla in Sweden triggered by the IF Metall trade union are continuing into the new year. To start the proceedings off, the trade union has suggested a solution that could potentially end the conflict. Read more…

Romanian Energy OMV Petrom will fully acquire Renovatio Asset Management, the owner of 400 EV charging points in the country. OMV Petrom will thus become the leading e-mobility provider in Romania. Read more…

In 2023, Nikola produced 42 and sold 35 Class 8 Nikola hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks. Of the seven trucks not delivered, three are being used in an extended field test with a fleet partner, while another two are in continued validation and engineering and the final two are being used for service training/customer demos. Read more…

US semiconductor manufacturer Onsemi announces the availability of nine new versions of its EliteSiC PIMs that enable bidirectional charging for DC ultra-fast EV chargers and energy storage systems. The technology is more efficient purely silicon-based semiconductors. Read more…

BYD has started construction of its first factory for sodium-ion batteries in China. The factory in Xuzhou in Jiangsu province is designed for an annual production capacity of 30 gigawatt-hours. The start of construction follows just a few weeks after the official announcement of the project. Read more…

French automotive supplier Valeo will present Ineez Air Charging at CES 2024 in Las Vegas next week. The wireless charging solution with V2G functionality is suitable for all public and private charging locations. Read more…

VinFast has signed agreements with five dealers across four states in the USA. This is a major step in the Vietnamese startups plan to launch its electric vehicles in the US market ahead of the planned factory in 2025. Read more…

Fisker produced 10,142 units of its electric SUV Ocean in 2023 and delivered around 4,700. The electric carmaker thus achieved its revised production target of just over 10,000 units. It also announced that it will move away from its strict direct sales approach. Read more…

Volvo Cars will get a EUR 420 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to develop a new electric car platform. The two parties have signed a financing agreement to that end to decarbonise transport in the EU and help Volvo reach its goal of manufacturing EVs only by 2030. Read more…

The German Federal Motor Transport Authority lists 54,654 new electric cars in its statistics for December. The month was characterised by the short-term announcement of the end of the environmental bonus, which is likely to have led to a spontaneous increase in registrations of electric cars. Read more…

Audi presents a special edition of the all-electric Q8 e-tron SUV with off-road characteristics. The Q8 e-tron edition Dakar has a raised chassis and is optionally available with special foiling. From the outside, the special model is reminiscent of the RS Q e-tron hybrid racing car designed for the Dakar Rally. Read more…

In California, traffic offences committed by driverless cars in autonomous driving mode cannot be punished under current legislation due to a legal loophole. Read more…

BYD Mexico has delivered the first batch of 20 electric buses to Mexico City Metrobús. It is the manufacturer’s largest bus fleet delivery in a single shipment to Mexico to date. Read more…

Volkswagen’s battery subsidiary PowerCo confirms progress in the development of solid-state battery cells from its partner QuantumScape following tests in its own laboratories. The cell is said to have significantly exceeded the requirements in the A-sample test. Read more…

The Chinese government has published implementation guidelines to improve the interaction of electric cars and plug-in hybrids with the power grid. The introduction of a national technical standard system for vehicle-grid interaction and a tariff mechanism for bidirectional charging is planned for 2025. Read more…