March 15, 2024
It looks like the automotive industry is sounding the ‘all hands on deck alarm’ to win private buyers over to switching to an EV with a price tag of €25,000 or lower. Škoda joins the race with the all-electric Epiq, the second of six new electric vehicles scheduled for launch in the coming years. For […]
March 15, 2024
Chinese premium EV maker NIO has chosen ‘Onvo’ as the English name for the line of affordable ‘family electric cars’ it will sell in Europe. In China, it’s called Ledao (乐道), which means as much as ‘happy road’, according to founder and CEO William Li. Under the ‘Alps’ codename, it has been developing a mass-market […]
March 14, 2024
According to Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon and Minister for Work Jo Brouns, several possible candidates are ‘lining up’ and showing interest in investing in a restart of bus manufacturer Van Hool in Koningshooikt (Lier). But that doesn’t mean avoiding bankruptcy, as some – like Belgian entrepreneur Guido Dumarey, a specialist in blowing new life into […]
March 13, 2024
On Tuesday, Belgium’s most significant car importer, D’Ieteren Automotive, kicked off its own B2B ‘motor show’ in the industrial settings of Silo Brussels, a former brewery and malthouse located along the canal at Neder-Over-Heembeek. Called ‘Mobility Solutions’ by D’Ieteren, it demonstrates it’s no longer about selling cars only but rather focusing on a far broader […]
March 13, 2024
In an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius made a remarkable statement, rubbing up his French competitors by urging the European Commission to lower tariffs on Chinese EV imports instead of raising them. This would force European carmakers to make better cars, he added. “I’m a contrarian,” he said in […]
March 11, 2024
Together with the official opening of its new test center in Donauwörth, Germany, Airbus Helicopters presented last week the prototype of its fully electric CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL, a four-seater with eight propellors that takes off and lands vertically. Once airborne, the two-ton so-called ‘multicopter’ tilts its rotors to fly like an airplane for some 80 […]
March 11, 2024
In stormy weather since the Covid-19 pandemic and the following crisis, Belgian bus and coach builder Van Hool production workers face the ultimate doom scenario. On Monday’s ultimate works council, the unions got the grim message that 1,116 of currently 2,494 jobs at the company’s main factory in Koningshooikt (Lier) will disappear by 2028, 834 […]
March 06, 2024
According to a document published on Tuesday and cited by the Reuters news agency, the EU Commission says it has sufficient evidence ‘tending’ to show Chinese EVs were being subsidized, and it will start ‘customs registrations’ on Thursday to prepare for possible retroactive tariffs. That means that import tariffs could be imposed retrospectively if the […]
March 05, 2024
After announcing new price cuts every day last week for nearly every model in its lineup, BYD announced a 12% price reduction for its best-selling compact SUV, the Yuan Plus, better known in Europe as the Atto 3. In China, the Yuan Plus Glory Edition has a starting price of 119,800 yuan (€15,338). In Belgium, […]
March 01, 2024
While in the Netherlands, at VDL Nedcar in Born, for the 2,000 employees, the curtain fell in February for the production of the MINI, BMW shows it is capable of keeping production within its own factories. The first fully electric MINI Countryman models are rolling off the line in Leipzig. Leipzig is the birthplace of […]
March 01, 2024
German carmaker Volkswagen has inked a Master Agreement with Chinese partner Xpeng on strategic technical collaboration to develop two ‘smart e-car’ models in the Chinese market’s mid-size (B) segment. These two first models should hit the market in 2026. For the time being, the collaboration is only for the Chinese market. Still, earlier in July […]
February 29, 2024
China’s top EV maker, BYD, keeps on pushing further in the price war it started two weeks ago, now targeting the mid-to-high-end EV market, according to Chinese media, by lowering the prices of its Han sedan and Tang SUV hybrids by 11 to 14%. The fully electric Han gets an update as ‘Glory Edition’ costing […]
February 28, 2024
Swedish-Chinese Zeekr, the sister company to Volvo and Lynk & Co, and positioned as one of Geely’s premium brands, has refreshed and beefed up its 001 shooting brake flagship and cut prices in China drastically in the hope of doubling slacking sales to 230,000 cars in 2024. China is seeing a new price war in […]
February 28, 2024
For the approximately 2,000 employees working for nearly a decade on the ‘Apple Car,’ the news came as a bombshell on Tuesday: the billion-dollar project will be shuttered, and people will be relocated to other projects like AI, if possible. The message was delivered to the team internally by Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, […]
February 27, 2024
What else must modern carmakers do to get a hardcore V8-sound-and-feel-loving petrolhead in a too-smooth-driving silent electric car? Dodge is working on packing its upcoming ‘electric muscle car,’ the Charger EV, with sensors and ‘force generators’ to mimic V8 vibrations, on top of a screaming Hellcat sound. This tactile feedback is something BMW is experimenting […]
February 26, 2024
At the Geneva Motor Show, Swiss-Italian electric micro-carmaker Microlino unveiled the ‘Lite’ or L6e version of the Microlina L7e, which is the fully electric lightweight quadricycle. This one has a limited maximum speed of 45 km/hour, half of its older brother, with a basic range of approximately 100 km that can be extended up to […]
February 22, 2024
Dutch Fastned has opened a new fast-charging station in Belgium along the E40 highway in Walshoutem (Landen), and this one is the first to feature 400 kW charging on eight charging points. Fastned now has 26 stations in Belgium, all in Flanders except for one (in Vielsalm), since opening the first in 2020 in Ostend. […]
February 20, 2024
Swedish car manufacturer Volvo is determined to become a fully electric carmaker by 2030, and that’s why it’s now ironing out the naming of its electric models, all consequentially starting with an ‘E’. Volvo’s first fully electric XC40 Recharge, made in Ghent (Belgium), among others, becomes the ‘EX40’, and the first electric sedan C40 that […]
February 19, 2024
In a remarkable video posted on Weibo, Chinese premium EV maker NIO has demonstrated a feature of its flagship sedan ET9’s SkyRide chassis system that will please customers in the High North. Like a Husky awakening in the snow in the morning, the car is shaking all the snow off its body during winter testing, […]
February 16, 2024
Automotive Cells Company (ACC), the joint venture by Stellantis, TotalEnergies’ Saft, and Mercedes-Benz, has announced that its shareholders secured a €4.4 billion debt raising, increasing the funding for the construction of four new production facilities at three gigafactories for lithium-ion battery cell production in France, Germany, and Italy. Future production sites include one factory in […]
February 16, 2024
Officially, VDL Nedcar’s contract with BMW ends on March 1st, 2024. Still, the curtain drops definitively this Friday with the last MINI, a silver-grey cabrio, rolling off the production line in Born (Netherlands). On Thursday, the main assembly line came to a halt; on Friday, on three smaller lines, the finishing touch on the last […]
February 15, 2024
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) latest ‘Vehicles on European Roads’ report, there were 252 million cars on European roads in 2022, a 1% increase from the previous year. But despite battery-electric sales reaching ‘all-time highs’ in 2022, only 1.2% of cars on EU roads are battery-electric. Only six countries had a share […]
February 15, 2024
German automotive supplier has finally announced it will slash 7,150 jobs in its car division, of which around 5,400 jobs are in the administrative areas and a further 1,750 in research and development. That reduces roughly 3.6 percent of the German supplier’s global workforce. In November, Continental said there would be job cuts in 2024, […]
February 13, 2024
It isn’t a car, and it isn’t a moped on four wheels. Still, it can reach a top speed of 90 km/hour, and you need a driver’s license B for it in Belgium. Officially, it is a fully electric lightweight quadricycle (L7e) that looks like the direct reincarnation of the ultimate bubble car of the […]
February 12, 2024
Autobahn GmbH, the German federal agency that plans, finances, builds, maintains, and manages the network of highways in the country, has finalized a tender for 1,000 new fast charging points at 200 so-called ‘unmanaged’ rest areas. These will have to be upgraded to the grid to support high-power charge points (HPC) first, as most today […]
February 09, 2024
Dutch beer giant Heineken has engaged Swedish Einride, a specialized transport company in electric and remote-controlled trucks, to start delivering daily to its German distribution center in Duisburg from its brewery in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, by electric Mercedes eActros 300 trucks. These trucks will cover some 540 km each daily, driven by a human […]
February 08, 2024
CAKE, the nifty Swedish maker of premium lightweight, electric motorcycles and mopeds, has unexpectedly filed for bankruptcy on February 1st. The lawyer’s office, Fylgia, says attorney Jakob Callmander was appointed as the bankruptcy administrator, and tender documents are being prepared for the sale of the business. Its Swedish compatriot Polestar, Volvo’s electric sister brand, launched […]
February 07, 2024
Porsche has given its electric flagship, the Taycan, an ‘extensive update’ with more power, more range, faster acceleration, and faster charging with greater stability. It will arrive at dealerships in Spring 2024. Although the next generation looks pretty much like the first one, Porsche says it sharpened the design and more strongly differentiated the Turbo […]
February 07, 2024
On Wednesday, Nissan introduced its next generation of the Interstar, its largest van for the first time available with a 100% electric powertrain, “without compromising performance”, as the manufacturer claims. An 87 kWh battery should provide a range of 460 kilometers, and it can charge 252 km in just 30 minutes on a DC charger. […]
February 06, 2024
At the Netherlands’ only car production plant in Born, VDL Nedcar, unions see the last gleam of hope vanish of starting up again in 2026, as the British Gordon Murray Automotive Group is pulling out the so-called L60 project. Details were never given, but it was assumed Nedcar would build two electric premium SUVs with […]
February 06, 2024
They only caught a glimpse of minor details of JLR’s first all-electric Range Rover in December 2023, but already 16,000 people have joined the waiting list the company opened simultaneously. It only gives an indication of people interested without any commitment yet, but JLR boss Adrian Mardell told British media he was “excited about the […]
February 06, 2024
Swedish Volvo Group, the parent company behind Volvo Trucks, Mack Trucks, and Renault Trucks, has acquired Proterra’s battery plants in the US. Volvo Group paid $210 million (€195 million) before adjustment for inventory level at closing, including a development center for battery modules and packs in California and an assembly factory in Greer, South Carolina. […]
February 05, 2024
In China, the world’s currently biggest EV maker, BYD (Build Your Dreams), has started to deliver the first batches of its new Yuan Up, an affordable compact electric crossover, to dealerships, preparing for the official sales launch in March 2024. It’s expected to retail there for 100,000 to 130,000 yuan or some 12,900 to 16,800 […]
February 02, 2024
German carmaker BMW has completed construction of the new production halls at its Steyr site in central Austria and is now adding half a billion worth of equipment for the future manufacturing and development of its Neue Klasse e-drives. Pre-series production will launch in the summer of 2024, and serial production will start in the […]
February 01, 2024
It’s not a car, and it isn’t a motorbike, nor a trike; it is what Yamaha calls an electric three-wheel ‘autocycle,’ a development concept to offer “Exciting Urban Mobility when one’s body and mind and the machine become an organic whole”. In a promo video, Yamaha has a young urban mother and her son drive […]
January 31, 2024
The delivery of Europe’s cheapest China-built Volvo, the EX30, is getting behind schedule due to a necessary update of the car’s software based on Google’s Android Automotive operating system. A few glitches must be solved before software version 1.2 can be installed, as it “does not yet meet all the requirements necessary to be released”. […]
January 30, 2024
BYD (Build Your Dreams), the Chinese car manufacturing giant that dethroned Tesla as the world’s biggest EV maker, expects to be on a bed of roses with a profit growth of 86.5%. That’s up to between 29 billion and 31 billion yuan (€3,98 billion) for 2023 compared to the previous year, driven by solid sales […]
January 30, 2024
New EU van, truck, and bus sales rose again in 2023, with double-digit growth figures in all segments. New van sales surged by +14.6% to nearly 1.5 million units, driven by strong performances in key EU markets. It is the same story for trucks (+16.3%) and 346,986 units sold, and buses with +19.4% growth compared […]
January 29, 2024
At the shipyard of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HD HHI) in Ulsan, South Korea, the world’s first vessel on ‘green methanol’ carrying up to 16 592 twenty-feet shipping containers (TEU) has been baptized ‘Ane Mærsk’. At the beginning of February, it will enter service connecting Asia and Europe The 350-meter-long vessel is Mærsk’s second container […]
January 25, 2024
Cadillac has started to build the exclusive Celestiq EV at the General Motors Global Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. But they’re doing it ‘by driblets’, as they are hand-built, and only 100 to 150 of them will be made to keep them exclusive. As will be the price tag: $340 000 (€311 950) before customization. […]
January 25, 2024
It has been over two years since we heard anything about Apple’s decade-long ‘Titan Project’ to launch its own fully autonomous electric car that wouldn’t even feature a steering wheel anymore. But that won’t happen, insiders told the Bloomberg news agency, as the new shift is to a somewhat ‘common’ EV with the driver still […]
January 24, 2024
Alexander Vlaskamp, CEO of German heavy truck maker MAN Truck & Bus, is no believer when it comes to hydrogen to decarbonize heavy transport. Although MAN develops both to a certain extent, he’s convinced that the limited supply and high cost of green hydrogen make a fuel cell truck unable to compete with battery electric […]
January 24, 2024
While the Manta is sent to the history books, German carmaker Opel has announced the comeback in 2024 of the Frontera nameplate – Opel’s 4×4 sold between 1991 and 2004 – for an entirely new SUV that will also feature a fully electric version right from the start. Details are scarce, but Opel CEO Florian […]
January 23, 2024
Japanese Yamaha Motors, a big name in marine engines – outboard and inboard – has fully acquired German electric outboard motor pioneer and world leader Torqeedo from Deutz. German ‘historic’ combustion engine manufacturer Deutz AG is more into burning hydrogen now, focusing on construction equipment and agricultural machinery, among others. It says in a press […]
January 23, 2024
Those nostalgics waiting for the ‘electric comeback’ 2025 of Opels’s 1970s icon, the Manta, might be disappointed, as Stellantis is said to ‘freeze’ the plans, not to say ‘ditch’ them altogether. According to the French car magazine L’Automobile, an ‘internal evaluation’ has led to that decision. And if the French magazine’s sources are correct, there […]
January 22, 2024
Ford Motor has announced it will slow down production of its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck to one shift at its Michigan Rouge Electric Vehicle Center, starting in April, to adjust to a slower uptake expected in 2024. Meanwhile, Ford will add a third crew at the Michigan Assembly Plant to increase the popular Bronco […]
January 18, 2024
With the immediate appointment of Mark Zwaaneveld (62) as co-CEO, Belgian bus and touring car builder Van Hool is getting a shrewd crisis manager in-house to put the company back on track after four years of doom. Zwaaneveld will focus on a restructuring plan, while Filip Van Hool (59), the founding family’s third generation, runs […]
January 17, 2024
BYD (Build Your Dreams) has commissioned the first of what will probably become a fleet of four giant ro-ro ferries with up to 7 000 cars to ‘fuel’ its expansion into Europe. According to Chinese press agency Xinhua, the BYD Explorer 1 has set sail from China’s southern city of Shenzhen to the Dutch port […]
January 17, 2024
Wednesday is the moment of truth for 2 000 employees of Dutch contract builder VDL Nedcar in Born, as the company has summoned everybody to show up and get to know the final end day of their work. Only 474 will escape the hatchet. The employees are informed department by department and can get answers […]
January 17, 2024
After opening its first station in Denmark in Q4 2023, Dutch fast-charger provider Fastned is now expanding to Spain, where it won a first tender for seven stations along highways. The first Spanish station will be built in Casarrubuelos (Madrid) along the A42 to Toledo, featuring eight 400 kW chargers. The goal is to build […]
January 15, 2024
Since Monday, production at the Ghent factory of Volvo Car has come to a standstill, as supplies got exhausted due to container ships having to choose an alternative 10-day longer route to avoid the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. Volvo hopes to be able to restart on Thursday. Earlier, Tesla told Reuters it would […]
January 15, 2024
After signing last year a contract with Qbuzz, a public transport operator in the Netherlands, to deliver 54 battery-electric buses of its latest type A battery-electric city bus, Belgian bus builder Van Hool may deliver another 112 before the end of this year. That’s a gift from the gods, as up to 65% of the […]
January 12, 2024
Belgium has always been a ‘car-loving country’, and although the pandemic and the energy crisis made Belgians lose the appetite to buy a new (or used) car, 32% of them are getting that itch again. That’s double the percentage of 2022, and 12% more than last year, according to a Traxio survey. But it won’t […]
January 11, 2024
Chinese BYD (Build Your Dreams) just unveiled on Weibo ‘out of the blue’ the new super sedan under its premium YangWang brand name, the U7, which is yet another challenger for German premium brands like Porsche, Mercedes, and BMW. Previously, only some European patent images of the sedan appeared, identified as ‘U6’. But apart from […]
January 10, 2024
South Korean carmaker Hyundai unveiled in Vegas, at the start of the Consumer Electronics Show 2024, the second S-A2 concept of its four-passenger ‘flying taxi,’ an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. The real ‘take-off’ in the market will not be before 2028, as this one is on static display at the parking lot […]
January 10, 2024
Volvo has delivered – at the last moment in December 2023 – as promised, the first Chinese-built EX30 EVs to customers in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal. The EX3 is Volvo’s smallest fully electric SUV to date, built on the same SEA platform as its siblings within the Geely Group, the Zeekr X and […]
January 09, 2024
While most Belgian car drivers generally stick devotedly loyal to trusted European or to lesser extent Japanese quality, and up to 80% don’t trust Chinese cars, 52% of the professional lease drivers start admitting these ‘Dragons on Wheels’, EVs with an attractive price and lots of high techs, could be a good deal. The distrust […]
January 05, 2024
Last year’s new car sales in the United States are nearing pre-pandemic times, with +13% more vehicles sold in 2023, or 15,5 million units in total, compared to peaks of 17 million cars in 2015-2019. Despite the biggest six-weeks-long automotive strike America has ever seen, supply has normalized, and prices dropped by 2 to 3% […]
January 04, 2024
Japanese two-wheeler specialist Yamaha Motor has created a new European daughter, Enyring GmbH, headquartered in Berlin (Germany), to offer swappable batteries for ‘compact urban electric vehicles’ via subscription-based services. With these vehicles ‘in the low-speed range,’ it means mainly e-bikes from ‘strategic partner companies’ using a compatible swappable battery. Enyring aims to start operations in […]
January 04, 2024
Volkswagen is betting on American solid-state pioneer QuantumScape in the race for the ‘Holy Grail’ of EV batteries, and its European PowerCo daughter just proved their claim that batteries can last for over 500 000 kilometers without substantial degradation. QuantumScape delivered the first samples of its latest solid-state cells to several partners for in-depth testing […]
