January 16, 2025
Volvo has set a new sales record in Belgium, selling 24.221 cars, a growth of 13.6% compared with 2023, and lifting the brand to sixth position in the top ten most popular brands. That growth was ‘fueled’ primarily by its electric cars, with fully electric BEVs accounting for 69%. Adding the plug-in hybrids, the figure […]
January 15, 2025
Even though electric cars are omnipresent at the popular Brussels Motor Show (BMS), one of the few remaining in Europe, Belgians are getting more cold feet about buying an EV. Deloitte’s Global Automotive Consumer Study, which is to be published on February 6th, shows that 45% prefer a car with a pure combustion engine (ICE), […]
January 14, 2025
Swedish Scania Trucks veteran Christian Levin was elected chair of the Commercial Vehicles Board of ACEA for 2025. He sees a monumental challenge for the European truck and bus sector—one that requires the complete reimagination of an entire ecosystem: the transition from ICE to zero-emission vehicles. And that is a transition of “a magnitude unprecedented […]
January 13, 2025
One of the most miniature cars at the Brussels Motor Show, somewhat lost in the vast exposition hall occupied by Belgium’s most significant car importer, D’Ieteren, is a world premiere: the Swiss Microlino Spider. Still a concept, this roofless version, with open side panels and no doors, is meant to recall the simplicity and functionality […]
January 10, 2025
Traxio, the Belgian Federation of the automotive service sector and Mobility organization, has a new—old-hand—president: Henri de Hemptinne (66). He is former vice president of Traxio and president of GDA, the subdivision representing Belgian car dealers. Henri de Hemptine succeeds Didier Perwez, who held the chairmanship for the last six years. With Henri de Hemptine, […]
January 09, 2025
Zeekr, the Swedish-Chinese sister brand of Volvo under the Geely umbrella, first appeared in April 2021 with the 001 shooting brake. Now, it is ready to show the world a second one: a ‘touring’ version called 007 GT, based on the 007 electric sedan that only sells in China for now. To avoid any confusion […]
January 08, 2025
Czech Škoda Auto, Volkswagen’s daughter and one of the first to follow the group’s advanced EV strategy is introducing the new Enyaq family, what it calls “one of Europe’s most successful all-electric model series.” Both the Škoda Enyaq and the Škoda Enyaq Coupé now feature the brand’s new Modern Solid design language and offer enhanced […]
January 08, 2025
In its latest update of the ‘Chinese military companies’ list, the US Department of Defense (DoD) mentions the Chinese battery giant CATL for the first time, along with Tencent, another Chinese giant in gaming and communications. CATL is the world’s biggest EV battery maker, with nearly 37% market share. It is way ahead of the […]
January 07, 2025
You’ll probably not have to use it very often unless you have the habit of being chased by a police car: jump over a 3.5 cm high spike strip at 120 km per hour. But we must admit, it’s a marketing stunt that stands out for BYD’s Yangwang U9 electric sportscar to demonstrate its DiSus […]
January 06, 2025
D’Ieteren Automotive, Belgium’s largest car importer of all Volkswagen brands, with branches in energy services, is merging its charging business (EDI) and solar production and battery storage solutions (Go Solar) into one single unit, “D’Ieteren Energy.” The group is also active in other mobility sectors related to cycling (Lucien, Joule), shared mobility (Poppy, TaxisVerts), and […]
January 06, 2025
Geely brand and former Volvo sibling Lynk & Co, known in Europe for its monthly subscription model, is launching a new global flagship PHEV model: the six-seater SUV ‘009’. It is L&Co’s biggest model, 5.24 m long, 1.999 m wide, and 1.810 mm high. Meanwhile, the wheelbase is long, 3.160 m, allowing for three rows […]
January 03, 2025
Chinese Chery Automotive is expanding its dealerships for its Omoda and Jaecoo brands in Belgium to Wallonia by signing up Stellantis dealer Groupe Ricco, which has footholds in Arlon, Libramont, Marche, and Rochefort and now also adding Groupe GSL. The latter covers the region of Nivelles and Charleroi. However, Chery has swallowed its EV ambitions […]
January 03, 2025
The world’s number one EV carmaker, Elon Musk’s Tesla, delivered 1,789,226 cars in 2024. That is 1% less than the 1,808,581 in 2023, and it is the first time that Tesla’s growth has stalled in a decade. In 2023, growth was still 38% compared to 2022. That’s a huge difference. On the other hand, Chinese […]
December 30, 2024
Mirai (未来 or 未來) is a Japanese given name. It means ‘future,’ but in the case of Toyota’s pioneering fuel cell (FCEV) passenger car on hydrogen, a gloomy one as global sales plunged to a record low of 134 units in November and only 1,702 since January 2024, of which 661 in Japan. That’s a […]
December 27, 2024
China is firmly on track to sell more ‘electric’ cars—that is, EVs and plug-in hybrids—than pure traditional gas cars with internal combustion engines (ICE) in 2025, reaching its 50% electric target a decade before the deadline the government had set by 2035. According to The Financial Times (FT) analysis, so-called New Energy Vehicle (NEV) sales […]
December 27, 2024
Chinese battery maker CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd) launched a new skateboard called ‘Bedrock’ the day before Christmas that should be as hard to crush as the name suggests, the safest EV chassis so far. What’s more, is that it promises a range of over 1,000 kilometers and supports Level 3 and 4 autonomous […]
December 23, 2024
China’s top EV seller, BYD (Build Your Dreams), is on track to sell 4.25 million cars this year. It has never masked its high ambitions to become a top-ten carmaker worldwide. According to the Belgian importer Inchcape, BYD is preparing an essential European first for the Brussels Motor Show in January. Eventually, there were no […]
December 23, 2024
The day before Christmas, at Nio Day 2023, the Chinese premium EV maker took off the wraps of its new ‘executive flagship sedan,’ the ET9, which has to play in the highest luxury car segment like the Mercedes-Maybach or EQS, or the BMW i7. Exactly a year later, the ET9 launches in China for 788,000 […]
December 18, 2024
With Carlos Tavares pushed out, the Stellantis car group is burying the hatchet and soothing the Italian right-wing Meloni government with new models to keep all Italian factories open until 2032. It won’t apply for government support, but it has committed to investing 2 billion euros next year and purchasing 6 billion euros from Italian […]
December 18, 2024
The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has given Mercedes the green light to launch an updated version of its conditionally automated driving system, Drive Pilot, in 2025. This system allows the driver to watch a movie or read the newspaper while driving on highways at up to 95 km/hour. Mercedes was the first to […]
December 17, 2024
Last year in October, we wrote that it “sits and feels like a Porsche, is utterly powerful, and blazing fast on the water, yet silent as a sailing boat, but it will cost you more than twice the price of the most expensive Taycan”: the Frauscher x Porsche 850 ‘eFantom’ Air. Now it gets a […]
December 16, 2024
Never in automobile history, and 125 years after the electric car had to surrender to the internal combustion engine car (ICE), has the yawning gap between believers and non-believers in electrification been so wide. Still, only 1% of today’s EV drivers want to return to a pure ICE car, and 4% would switch back to […]
December 12, 2024
Chinese premium EV brand NIO has opened its first battery-swapping station in Belgium, at the Hotel & Congress Ter Elst center, at the Kattenberg 1 in Edegem, parallel to the E19 highway. That might sound bizarre, as the brand hasn’t officially been sold in Belgium yet, and no launch date has been communicated so far. […]
December 11, 2024
A year after the California DMV suspended Cruise’s robotaxi services in San Francisco following a series of incidents with pedestrians, General Motors is killing off its robotaxi daughter. It dispatches its engineering teams to the motherhouse to focus on more common driving aid systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving for passenger cars. “GM will no longer […]
December 11, 2024
French-Italian-American car group Stellantis is joining forces with the world’s biggest battery maker, Chinese CATL, to build a new factory at the Stellantis’ Zaragoza site in Spain to produce low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. For CATL, it will be its third battery factory in Europe. “Targeted to start production by the end of 2026, […]
December 10, 2024
Belgium’s 218-year-old and most significant ‘car importer,’ D’Ieteren, has officially checked and approved its net-zero greenhouse emission targets for 2030 and 2050. These targets align with the scientific criteria for achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. The targets were ratified by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). That includes a 42% reduction by […]
December 09, 2024
In Belgium, employers must reimburse their employees with an electric company car for the actual cost of EV charging at home. So far, determining this ‘real cost’ has proved daunting, as electricity prices are ‘blurry’ and vary between employees and among regions, and digital meters aren’t widespread yet. To prevent confusion, the resigning Belgian Minister […]
December 09, 2024
Carlos Tavares has hardly closed the door after leaving Stellantis and the French-Italian-American car manufacturing group is eager to rejoin ACEA, the European carmaker lobbying federation based in Brussels, to which Tavares waved goodbye at the end of 2022. It looks like Stellantis wants to make the best of a bad job now and join […]
December 06, 2024
There are no longer any fully electric winners in VAB’s ‘Family Car of the Year’ election this year. The gold medal goes to a hybrid (HEV) from the Chinese brand that sells the most EVs in Europe: the MG3. The other gold winner in the more expensive category is a mild-hybrid Hyundai i30. It perfectly […]
December 05, 2024
Dutch fast-charging chain Fastned is partnering with Transport for London (TfL), the local government body responsible for most of the London transport network, to establish 25 fast-charging plazas in and around the British capital by 2030. Fastned is setting up a joint venture with Places for London, TfL’s real estate daughter, to invest £16 million […]
December 04, 2024
It was already an option in China, but now it’s also available in Europe, in the countries where NIO is already present: temporarily swapping your ‘daily’ standard battery for a bigger, longer-range one, like for going on a holiday trip. The Chinese premium EV maker lets you buy an EV without the battery, offering the […]
December 03, 2024
Chinese battery maker and electric carmaker BYD is heading for Europe with a brand new ro-ro carrier and 5,000 EVs on board. It’s the third giant car carrier and the second one it owns and operates itself, as the first one, the Explorer One, is leased from international shipping company Zodiac Maritime. The BYD Changzhou […]
December 02, 2024
Is there a slowdown in EV sales? Should we go back to the classic gasoline car? This is not the case in the Netherlands, Europe’s country with the most outspoken EV acceptance rate after Norway. The latest RAI-Bovag figures from November confirm its steady growth rate of 11.6% (114,765 registrations), compared to 102,849 registrations in […]
November 29, 2024
Finally, instead of complaining about low EV acceptance and the general public’s reluctance to give up combustion engines, a major carmaker, Volkswagen, is ready to address the ‘common customers concerns’ about the affordability and usability of an electric car. And that includes salespeople, too, who are often reluctant to sell EVs instead of the ICE […]
November 28, 2024
The all-electric Renault 5 E-tech is one of the first Renault vehicles equipped with a bidirectional charger capable of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). From March 2025, the Dutch city of Utrecht will implement that with a fleet of 500 shared Renault EVs that will help stabilize the grid and deliver extra electricity when demand is high. It […]
November 28, 2024
Amazon calls it a ‘practical joke’ but sells it online: “the ultimate gag gift for car enthusiasts and pranksters alike” who like to park their gas-guzzling pickup truck on a free parking spot at an EV charger. In the US, this practice is called ‘ICEing,’ referring to the car’s internal combustion engine (ICE). The $22.99 […]
November 27, 2024
Fully autonomous driving is becoming a reality, at least within the BMW and MINI factories. The cars drive themselves off the production lines after being finished without any human intervention. After a pilot in BMW’s largest European factory, Dingolfing proved successful, Leipzig is the official start of the roll-out. Other facilities are set to follow […]
November 26, 2024
By 2030, replacing an electric car’s battery might be cheaper and easier than replacing a dying classic combustion engine (ICE). At least, that’s what a new study of evolving battery prices by American startup Recurrent Motors Inc. shows. Using data from global investment banking and asset management firm Goldman Sachs and climate research firm RMI, […]
November 26, 2024
German carmaker Mercedes is ‘reinventing’ braking on electric cars by ditching the classic wheel brake disks and moving the braking system into the electric drive unit at the front or rear axle. This system is more efficient, quiet, and virtually maintenance-free for the car’s lifespan, and brake dust is kept inside without the need for […]
November 25, 2024
Chinese-owned British sports car icon Lotus, which was on track to be an electric-only brand by 2028, is backing down on its plan and will add extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs). It’s the such-and-such car manufacturer swallowing its green intentions to give in to the surge of negative perceptions of EVs by part of the general […]
November 21, 2024
The UK’s best-selling used electric cars, even from the first generation like the Audi Q8 e-ton, could save their owners an average of £1,600 (€1,919) per year compared with their gasoline equivalents. According to a new study by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), these savings can continue over the entire ten-year lifespan of […]
November 20, 2024
Chinese EV giant BYD, almost on par with Tesla as the biggest in the world, has officially released its Sealion 7 SUV on Belgian roads. It comes in three flavors: Comfort (€48,990), with a range of 482 km; Design (€51,990), a four-wheel version with a range of 456 km; and Excellence (€56,490), also all-wheel drive […]
November 19, 2024
German carmaker BMW announced in September of last year that it was investing an extra €100 million in its Innovation Park Wackersdorf campus near Regensburg to set up a new battery testing center that would be integrated into the existing buildings. The first section of the new battery testing center now has the green light […]
November 19, 2024
Chinese CATL, the world’s biggest battery maker, claims a breakthrough in developing its second-generation sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries. These batteries still perform well at minus 40° Celcius, which could make them an even more exciting alternative to current lithium-ion batteries, LFP or NMC. CATL envisions these batteries becoming the cheapest alternative, costing less than lithium iron […]
November 18, 2024
Chinese Chery Automotive has signed up a fifth Belgian dealer for its Omoda and Jaecoo brands. The company will officially introduce them in Belgium at the revived Brussels Motor Show in January 2025 and start deliveries in the spring. Stellantis dealer Nova-Van Brempt Groep from Lier joins Pagnotta from Limburg, L’Universelle from Luik, Garage Serneels […]
November 18, 2024
Xiaomi, China’s smartphone giant, has quickly become an EV carmaker to reckon with. It has revealed details of its next-generation intelligent chassis, featuring a 2,054 hp quad-motor system. Still, the system’s most remarkable ability is to spin around on the spot, make a complete circle with one wheel remaining in the same place, jump up […]
November 15, 2024
The Chinese ‘EV supremacy’ in rolling out new electric cars is making headlines nearly daily, but don’t underestimate the South Koreans with the Hyundai-Kia conglomerate. Kia is launching its fully EV3 compact ‘B-SUV’ in Europe in the ‘more affordable’ range, a warning for the Volvo EX30, Smart #1, Renault Mégane e-tech, or the Volkswagen ID.3. […]
November 13, 2024
Due to weak demand in the European EV market, Ford is slowing down its Explorer and Capri EV production at its sole electric car factory in the EU, in Cologne, Germany. Ford will apply for short-time work, a government furlough scheme of temporary unemployment whereby workers are sent home by a company in financial distress […]
November 13, 2024
The curtain has definitely fallen on Audi Brussels. The hope for a miracle in finding a take-over candidate is dead and buried, with the last one pulling out. The official date of the death certificate remains February 28th, 2025, when the last Audi Q8 e-tron will be made. Audi Brussels’ spokesperson, Peter D’hoore, confirmed that […]
November 12, 2024
Dutch fast-charging chain Fastned will deploy eleven fast-charging stations in the Belgian province of Luxembourg in the next twelve to eighteen months. Fastned won a tender from the inter-municipal group Idelux, which – under tourism pressure – wants to address the ‘EV-charging desert landscape’ in Wallonia. The Belgian province of Luxembourg, bordering the Grand Duchy […]
November 11, 2024
LiveWire, the electric spin-off of the King of American motorcycles, Harley Davidson, has joined forces with Taiwanese scooter specialist Kymco to develop a fully electric maxi-scooter based on its S2 Arrow powertrain. It hopes to see its debut maxi scooter pop up massively in cities like Paris and Milan in the future. Looking closely at […]
November 07, 2024
Humanoid robots are the next big thing if we’re to believe Elon Musk and the Chinese are definitely on the same wavelength. Chinese carmaker Chery is introducing its robotic car-babe, Mornine, nowadays to guide you through the Omoda or Jaecoo showroom of the future. She is unmistakably a female with her Coca-Cola body shape in […]
November 06, 2024
Oil giant British Petroleum (BP) is putting up for sale all its 310 fuel stations and 25 EV-charging stations in the Netherlands. The British are reluctant to spend millions to continue their expensive highway concessions, for instance, and expand their business in a market considered ‘too small, ‘ according to the Dutch newspaper AD. The […]
November 05, 2024
Despite continuous negative press about EV sales declining in countries like Germany and France, the Netherlands still sees growth in newly registered and second-hand electric cars. According to the automotive sector organization Bovag, the used EV market is picking up with a 36.9% growth, as more are available from the leasing sector. The number of […]
October 31, 2024
With the European tariffs coming into force this week, China is putting pressure on its carmakers not to invest in countries that voted for the tax wall. Mainly France and Italy were the driving forces for imposing tariffs, and instead, China suggested favoring Germany or Hungary, who voted against them. According to Reuters, quoting two […]
October 30, 2024
The curtain falls on Audi Brussels: the date of death is ‘officially’ fixed at February 28th, 2025. Or is there still one stalk of straw to grasp? Eventually, a new potential investor surfaced from several possible overtakers contacted by Audi management: a ‘mystery’ commercial vehicle—truck and bus—manufacturer. Audi confirmed on Tuesday that the factory would […]
October 29, 2024
Xpeng Aeroht, the flying car subsidiary of Chinese EV manufacturer Xpeng, has started constructing a new factory in Guangzhou to produce its modular flying car. The company plans to build 10,000 of the actual aircraft components here, an eVTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) drone-like two-seater. The three-axle parent vehicle that carries and recharges the […]
October 28, 2024
Chinese battery maker Svolt, a spin-off from Great Wall Motors since 2018, has confirmed to local media Yicai that it will end its European production activities by January 31st, 2025. It will cancel factories it was to build in Germany, in Saarland and Brandenburg, and shut down its headquarters in Frankfurt. Officially, the difficult decision […]
October 25, 2024
Chinese CATL, the world’s biggest battery maker, has presented a new type of battery for extended range (EREV) and plug-in hybrids (PHEV) to cure the prevalent ‘range anxiety’ of people reluctant to go fully electric. It promises a CLTC range of 400 km and 4C fast charging or 280 km in 10 minutes. The company […]
October 24, 2024
Jim Farley, Ford’s CEO and boss of the world’s sixth-biggest car company, with 177.000 people working for him, made a striking confession: He has been driving a Chinese Xiaomi SU7 fully electric car around Detroit for the last six months and doesn’t want to give it up. “It’s fantastic and is made by a smartphone […]
