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 […]
October 23, 2024
The all-electric Renault 5 e-tech and the Alpine A290 are the first Renault vehicles equipped with a bidirectional charger capable of Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G). They were launched with the promise of allowing the owner to earn back some money by delivering electricity from the car to the network. And now, France is the first European country […]
October 22, 2024
Mercedes-Benz has finally opened its own battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, southern Germany, using Primobius’s technology. It’s Europe’s first battery recycling plant using an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process: shredding battery modules and chemically washing out and drying ‘precious’ materials. The company expects more than a 96 percent recovery rate for valuable and scarce raw materials such […]
October 18, 2024
Chery Automobile, China’s fifth-biggest automaker with over 1.88 million vehicles sold worldwide last year, says it will take on Belgium from January 2025 with two models: the Omoda 5 EV and the Jaecoo 7 PHEV. While the brand awaits the Brussels Motor Show for an official launch, we could already take the Omoda 5 EV, […]
October 17, 2024
The brand new Höegh Aurora is currently the world’s biggest auto carrier, capable of storing 9,100 cars on its fourteen decks. It has visited Zeebrugge’s car terminal and the Antwerp harbor before sailing further to Gothenburg. The Höegh Aurora is making its maiden trip as it is the first launched of twelve Aurora Class ships […]
October 16, 2024
SAIC, the mother company of the now Chinese MG brand, has unwrapped the fully electric MG ES5, a compact SUV, likely to succeed in the current very popular MG ZS EV. This one is 153 mm longer and 40 mm wider but stands around 4 mm lower on its wheels than the outgoing car. Although […]
October 16, 2024
BYD, which originated in battery manufacturing and is now China’s biggest carmaker, is launching an eighth European model at the Paris Motor Show, the Sealion 7. This coupé-like crossover, again targeted to compete with the best-selling Tesla Y, will arrive during Q4 of 2024. The Sealion 07 EV was launched in May of this year […]
October 15, 2024
It’s finally here: the long-awaited fully electric Lynk & Co 02 for Europe. You can buy or lease it for a competitive price compared to its siblings, the Volvo EX30, Smart #1, or the Zeekr X, starting at €35,495. Sharing is natural for a brand that wants to redefine car ownership, but there is no […]
October 14, 2024
French energy giant Engie is pulling the plug on its Dutch charger daughter EVBox seven years after acquiring it and accumulating €800 million in loss. Attempts failed to find someone to take over the ailing company that installed 550 thousands of charging points worldwide and claims a +20,000 business customer base. The decision, like a […]
October 14, 2024
MINI uses the setting of the Paris Motor Show to boost the MINI Cooper Electric and MINI Aceman models with up to 190 kW (258 hp) John Cooper Works variants. With the same 54.2 kWh battery, the MINI John Cooper Works Electric gets a range of up to 371 kilometers (WLTP), and the MINI John […]
October 11, 2024
On Thursday night, it was show time again for Elon Musk in an appropriate setting: the artificial city of Warner Brothers’ studio lot in Los Angeles. Here, he could safely unleash a fleet of twenty fully autonomous two-seater Cybercabs and add a ‘one more thing’ surprise, the 20-seater Robovan. The whole thing was submerged in […]
October 10, 2024
After Sweden and the Netherlands, Chinese-Swedish EV brand Zeekr – sister brand to Volvo and Lynk & Co – is opening sales in Norway, a European forerunner and one of the world’s most developed EV markets. In September, 96.4% of all new car registrations in the country were fully electric vehicles. The Zeekr 001 shooting […]
October 09, 2024
According to figures from Korean consultancy firm SNE Research, from January to July 2024, batteries for electric vehicles (EV, PHEV, HEV) registered worldwide represented approximately 510.1 GWh of energy, a 21.7% growth compared to the year before. China’s biggest battery cell makers, CATL, with a market share of 37.1%, and BYD, with 16.4%, strengthened their […]
October 08, 2024
The latest ‘Mobility in Figures 2024-2025’ (Mobiliteit in Cijfers) report of the Dutch automotive sector’s RAI and Bovag shows the Netherlands is still one of Europe’s leading countries in rapid electrification. On a total car fleet of 9.4 million, 1.3 million cars (14%) are fully electric or have a hybrid drivetrain. That’s four times more […]
October 07, 2024
Are EV sales slowing down to near a standstill? Not in Belgium. Despite prevalent perception, EV sales are still soaring, with 96.233 new registrations in the first nine months of 2024, more than in the whole of 2023 (93,180). The same goes for second-hand EVs, 16,004 (January – September 2024) compared to 12,594 all year […]
October 04, 2024
“Today’s vote is a fatal signal for the European automotive industry. What is needed now is a quick settlement between the EU Commission and China to prevent a trade conflict from which no one gains,” BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said, according to Reuters. In an attempt to avoid a ‘damaging’ trade war with China, BMW […]
October 04, 2024
“Decarbonising mobility is a key objective in the fight against climate change,” French automaker Renault says, and how it plans to make tomorrow’s nearly zero-carbon family car it demonstrates at the Paris Motor Show from 14 to 20 October with the Renault Emblème. The Emblème concept is a sleek, fully electric shooting brake, 160 kW […]
October 02, 2024
Last week, Ford Cologne started ramping up production of its two European EVs, the Explorer SUV and the new Capri, a fully electric crossover. Both are up to 70% more Volkswagen than Ford as they extensively use VW’s MEB platform, siblings of the ID.4 and ID.5. Turning the old Fiesta factory into a modern zero-emission […]
October 01, 2024
A group of fifty companies and organizations from the automotive, clean tech, transport, and energy ecosystem that calls itself ‘Industry for 2035’ urges the European Union not to give in to the rising pressure from some car manufacturers and stay firm on car CO2 standards for 2026 and beyond, including the ICE ban from 2035. […]
October 01, 2024
It’s finally on sale in Europe, the MG everyone is waiting to revive the image of the iconic roadsters from its British heritage: the fully electric Cyberster. The basic 2WD version can be ordered in Belgium for €65,490, and the most potent, 4WD GT version, featuring 375 kW (510 pk), starts at €69.990. 47 pre-orders […]
September 30, 2024
Since this weekend, Flanders has a new government and embarks now on a new course to appease mobility and the environment. The latter comes off second-best as LEZ zones are ‘frozen’ to their current restrictions, and the 2029 ban on new cars with combustion engines (ICE) is set back by six years to 2035. And […]
September 25, 2024
Seven years after starting its car-sharing service under the wings of D’Ieteren Automotive Lab Box, Poppy Mobility is adding taxi services in Brussels with 800 ‘top-rated’ drivers from another D’Ieteren daughter, TaxiVerts. In a press release, Poppy says that it will “source the highest-rated drivers, who will be vetted through a double screening process. Drivers […]
September 24, 2024
In the first eight months of this year, China exported 4.09 million vehicles worldwide, with Russia (705,514 units) as its biggest export market. Belgium ranks fifth with 182,504 cars. However, when the Chinese Customs data are broken down to figures for NEVs only (New Energy Vehicles, as China calls electrified cars), Belgium tops the world […]
September 23, 2024
The official launch of Smart’s biggest model, the #5, is planned for the end of October, but in China, pre-ordering opened a few days ago at a price of 245,000 yuan, or some 31,200 euros. The #5 was previously tipped to the European market in 2025, costing around €40,000. Still, the possible imposition of new […]
September 20, 2024
Electric carmaker NIO has officially launched its ‘affordable’ Onvo brand in China with the L60 crossover, a Tesla Y competitor offered at an incredibly lower price of 149,900 yuan, or some 19,050 euros. That’s without the swappable battery, which is rented under the Battery as a Service (BaaS) option. The 60 kWh battery pack offering […]
September 19, 2024
Newmobility.news reported before that Danish car subscription start-up :Dribe is ogling Belgium to export its fully digital platform to the rest of Europe. Now, the Danish say about one in five (18%) Belgians would consider a car subscription instead of ownership. The latter might have been spurred by the success of Swedish-Chinese Lynk & Co […]
September 18, 2024
Dodge has opened ordering in the US for what it calls ‘the world’s first electric muscle car,’ the Charger Daytona EV. Customers can choose from two versions, the Charger R/T and the Charger Scat Pack. The first, with 496 horsepower, starts at $61,590 (€55,350); the Scat Pack’s whopping 670 hp will cost you at least […]
September 17, 2024
German Aerospace Center DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfarth) is keeping its ‘feet’ on the ground at IAA Transport in Hanover these days, showing the result of its research into autonomous last-mile delivery, the modular U-Shift concept. It’s basically a U-shaped platform or ‘drive board,’ and the capsules are designed for various purposes, such […]
September 17, 2024
At the IAA Transportation 2024 in Hannover, Hyundai launched the first vehicle from its global eLCV platform for European markets in partnership with the Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturer, IVECO. The Iveco eMoovy combines Hyundai’s EV chassis-cab-based 800-volt platform with a cargo compartment from Iveco. The Italian manufacturer of LCVs and trucks, Iveco and Hyundai, […]
September 16, 2024
In China, details of the new Lynk & Co Z20 have prematurely leaked through the Ministry of Industry. The launch should be in Europe in October and in China at the Guangzhou Auto Show in November. This fully electric model is presumed to come to Europe as the Lynk & Co 02, as a second […]
September 13, 2024
Heavy goods vehicles (HGV), increasingly seen on European roads, still represent only 3% of the vehicles but are involved in almost 15% of all EU road fatalities. That’s the main reason why Euro NCAP starts (crash-)testing heavy trucks this autumn to give them a bronze, silver, or gold safety rating. These ratings focus at the […]
September 13, 2024
Early in the morning on Friday, ‘white smoke’ came out of the negotiations between unions and management, which decided the factory would restart next Tuesday—first in the body and paint shop, later in the whole factory. From Tuesday on, the finished Audi Q8 e-trons will start delivering again to the dealerships, and the workers will […]
September 12, 2024
The new Chinese EV brand Jiyue, created by internet services giant Baidu in a joint venture with Geely, has officially launched its second model, the 07 sedan. Its starting price is 209,900 yuan or roughly 26,700 euros. The first ‘owner’ to receive the keys at the launch was Robin Zeng, chairman and CEO of battery […]
September 12, 2024
Mercedes-Benz is betting on solid-state batteries, co-developed with US-based Factorial, for its future electric car range. The companies promise a high energy density of 450 Watt-hours per kilogram that can extend the EV range up to 80%, which, at the same time, is safer, more compact, and cost-efficient to produce. The new battery—Solstice—should be ready […]
September 11, 2024
The 2023 European EAFO Consumer Monitor, an EU survey among 17,034 non-electric drivers and 2,046 actual BEV drivers in twelve countries, shows that despite the negative press EVs are getting in some countries, most EV drivers are generally satisfied and not willing to go back to fossil. Among non-EV drivers, 57% consider buying one in […]
September 10, 2024
After years of much excitement about the ‘hyperloop’, a science-fiction way of transporting people and goods at speeds above 1,000 km in vacuum tubes connecting cities envisioned by Elon Musk, it remained deafening quiet. However, Dutch Hardt Hyperloop, one of the pioneers, announced the first successful test of its hyperloop vehicle at the European Hyperloop […]
September 09, 2024
According to targets set in 2017, the EU requires carmakers to bring the average CO2 emissions of their newly sold car fleets below 93.6g/km by 2025. If this target is not met, they might have to pay €95 fine per gCO2/km over the target and per car sold. But now Luca di Meo, CEO of […]
September 06, 2024
As rumored before, BMW and Toyota officially announced their deepened partnership in developing a broader range of hydrogen cars on Thursday 5th of September. The first offspring that the collaboration for the next generation of fuel cell technology will bear is a mass-produced BMW FCEV by 2028. “The result of this collaborative effort will be […]
September 06, 2024
Lynk & Co, the Swedish-Chinese sister brand to Zeekr, Volvo, and Polestar, is going fully electric with the in July newly revealed Z10, a five-meter-long luxury sedan with a pure electric range of over 800 km. Presented first in Gothenburg, Sweden, it now debuts in China, with prices starting at 202,800 yuan (€25,733) to 288,800 […]
September 05, 2024
It sways the news headlines: the European car industry is facing one of the most challenging times in its 130-year history: reinventing itself in the much-needed energy transition while facing cutthroat competition from China. Still, EU car production jumped in 2023, nearing 15 million vehicles—nearly two million more than the previous year. China is the […]
September 04, 2024
In China, the fierce price war among the big car manufacturers raves on, with Geely throwing in a new weapon, the Geome Xingyan EV, for city dwellers at a bottom price of around 80,000 yuan or 10,170 euros. It’s targeted directly against BYD, which beefed up its popular Dolphin at unchanged prices starting at 99,800 […]
September 03, 2024
Researchers from the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center, linked to Californian Stanford University, have found that using high currents for the first charging after the battery’s production can improve its lifespan by 50 to 70%. At first glance, this might contradict the general belief that charging EV batteries frequently at ‘superchargers’ shortens their lifespan. However, it could […]
August 30, 2024
If anyone hoped the zero tax policy for EVs the Flemish government is offering to lure more people into electric driving was a never-ending story, it is time to wake up. Around the negotiating table for the next government, all parties – N-VA, Vooruit, and CD&V – agree that the ‘zero tariff’ will no longer […]
August 29, 2024
Chery Automobile, China’s fifth-biggest automaker with over 1.88 million vehicles sold worldwide last year, says it will take on Belgium from the end of Q4 2024 with two models: the Omoda 5 EV and the Jaecoo 7 PHEV. Officially, three dealers, one in Genk, one in Liège, and one in Luxemburg, were already presented, but […]
August 28, 2024
In China, the price war among EV makers is raging further with yet another ‘Tesla 3 killer’ launched; Xpeng’s Mona sedan M03 at half the latter’s price: 119,800 yuan (€15,058) euros up to 155,800 yuan (€19,584). A Tesla Model 3 is offered in China in three variants, from 231,900 (€29,149) to 335,900 yuan (€42,222). So […]
August 27, 2024
SAIC Motor Corporation, the owner of the MG brand, which is currently the best-selling Chinese EV in Europe, is hatching a plan to export its popular MG4 model straight out of its Thai manufacturing plant to sail around the EU’s maximum 46.3% (36.3 % + 10%) import tax. According to Thai media, the factory was […]
August 26, 2024
Chinese Build Your Dreams (BYD) jumped over Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan in Q2 2024 to the seventh spot in the top ten of the world’s biggest car manufacturers. According to data from the automotive industry portal Marklines, it sold 980,000 units, a 40% growth, partly thanks to overseas sales. It tripled this year to […]
August 23, 2024
For the first time, Tesla was challenged as the autocratic ruler of BEV sales in Europe by BMW, which sold more fully electric cars than the American electric brand in July 2024. BMW registered 14,869 BEVs that month, with the iX1, i4, and i5 as the driving forces, while the new iX2 registered more than […]
August 22, 2024
Philipp Römers, former Head of Exterior Design at Audi, who led the team designing the E-tron and E-tron GT, among others, is hopping over to Polestar, where he will succeed Maximilian Missoni, Polestar’s styling boss for the last six years. Römers is German, a native of Cologne, and worked as an exterior designer for VW […]
August 21, 2024
In China, the first L60 production models of NIO’s Onvo sub-brand have rolled off the assembly lines at NIO’s F2 plant in NeoPark, Hefei. The Onvo L60 will be a mid-sized all-electric SUV in an ‘affordable’ model line, positioned as an alternative to the premium NIO brand, also targeted at Europe. Prices start at 219,900 […]
August 20, 2024
BYD has rolled out an upgraded version of the Song Plus EV in China, known in Europe as the SUV version of the Seal, the Seal U. The starting price in China for the basic version with a 520 km range (CLTC) remains 149,800 yuan (18,922 euros). The cost of the top version with a […]
August 19, 2024
Swedish electric foiling boat start-up Candela has hooked a big fish by selling eight of its P-12 foiling shuttles to Saudi Arabia, which can accommodate 20 to 30 passengers, for Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s NEOM project. It’s the most significant commercial order in Candela’s history. The first batch of eight vessels will be delivered […]
August 19, 2024
Dutch fast-charging chain Fastned saw its revenue in the first six months of 2024 grow by 45% to €37.8 million compared to the year before and claims to be in a prime position as a top 3 fast-charging company in Western Europe. Profitability rose, with underlying company EBITDA growing by 12% to €3.2 million. Still, […]
