China’s auto market saw seasonal weakness in February as the 2024 Lunar New Year holiday fell in mid-February, the CPCA noted. Read more…
Battery factories: Europe’s mechanical engineering companies are lagging behind
Around 200 battery factories are under construction or planned worldwide, most of them in Europe. That is the result of a new study by Porsche Consulting and the Germany Engineering Federation (VDMA). The study centres on how German and European machine and plant manufacturers can catch up to their Asian competitors. Read more…
EU project Nextbat to improve batteries via recycling technology
The EU research project NEXTBAT, which was launched in June 2023, aims to improve the performance of batteries for electric vehicles and reduce production costs by making the components highly recyclable. Read more…
Vattenfall to invest €100 million per year in Germany
Vattenfall says it will spend half a billion euros on expanding charging infrastructure in Germany by 2028. The Swedish energy company focuses on the private, commercial, and semi-public markets. Read more…
Berlin research into the stability of sodium-ion batteries
Scientists in Berlin have investigated the extent to which sodium-ion batteries can be made more stable by doping their cathode material with foreign elements. Scandium and magnesium were used. Read more…
The 2024 Honda Prologue Should Tide You Over Til’ Dinner’s Ready
This EV stopgap for Honda is actually GM’s best Ultium vehicle yet. But that might be damning with faint praise. Read more…
HiPhi founder apologizes to employees, says firm has only 3-month window left
Ding Lei said that he was using old-fashioned business strategies and was no match for his counterparts from Internet companies. He also said that there have been companies expressing interest in HiPhi, including acquisitions and investments. Read more…
Circontrol presents Raption Compact 80 charging station
The Barcelona-based charging station manufacturer Circontrol has introduced a new entry in its Raption series with the new Raption Compact 80. The charger is capable of 40 to 80 kW capacity. Read more…
Lucid reports turnover losses in 2023
Lucid Motors has published its business figures for 2023. It is hardly surprising that the bottom line is a loss in the billions. Surprisingly, however, the manufacturer cannot benefit from the rise in unit sales: Turnover was even lower than in 2022. Read more…
Volvo EX30 Winter Energy Consumption Test Leaves Much To Be Desired
The car was running pre-production software, but the real-world energy consumption was almost double the advertised figure. Read more…
Rivian records billions in losses in 2023
The American EV start-up Rivian has presented its business figures for the fourth quarter and full year 2023 – with a deep red balance sheet. Although the company was able to increase production and sales, the bottom line is a net loss of 5.4 billion US dollars – and Rivian does not expect production to increase in 2024. Read more…
JAC Yiwei starts first exports electric cars with sodium-ion batteries
Electric cars with sodium-ion batteries are being shipped from China for the first time. Specifically, 5,000 units of the E10X small electric car from JAC Yiwei are being transported to Central and South America. Read more…
XPeng expands to 5 Middle East countries, Germany and UK are next
XPeng, a well-known Chinese electric vehicle maker, is cooking up an ambitious global takeover. The company’s already established a presence in some European nations, but it’s now got its eye on the UK, Germany, and the lucrative oil-rich markets of the Middle East. XPeng’s not exactly sneaking into these markets. It formed partnerships with big names in car distribution, like… Read more…
Mercedes drastically electric target for 2030
Mercedes-Benz is lagging far behind its target for EV sales and has now axed its electric target for 2030. Instead of the envisaged 20 per cent or more, battery-electric cars only accounted for 12 per cent of total sales last year. Read more…
Is VW planning an electric Scirocco for 2028?
VW is reportedly considering a comeback of the Scirocco as an electric car. According to a British media report, VW is working internally on a corresponding model – as part of a larger project with several Group brands, including Audi and Porsche. Read more…
Nio to report Q4 earnings on Mar 5
Nio delivered 50,045 vehicles in the fourth quarter, exceeding the upper end of its previous guidance range of 47,000 to 49,000 vehicles. Read more…
Stellantis to build electric vans in Luton in future
Stellantis has announced that it will start producing medium-sized electric vans at its plant in Luton, UK, in the first half of 2025. However, the British market will primarily be served from there. Read more…
Huawei strikes strategic partnership with Dongfeng’s electric off-road brand M Hero
Huawei and M Hero are still discussing specific partnership models, with those based on parts supply or the HI model being prioritized. Read more…
Nio needs to sort out its strategic direction to turn profitable in foreseeable future, analysts say
Nio still needs to get its strategic direction sorted out before it can expect to turn profitable in the foreseeable future, particularly for its second brand, Alps, analysts at CMB International said. Read more…
Nio App resumes showing wait times, most models 2-4 weeks
ET5 Touring, ES6, EC6, EC7, ES8 all have wait times of 2-4 weeks, while the ET5 has 9-11 weeks and the ES7 11-13 weeks. Read more…
