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 […]
May 03, 2024
One of the speakers at the Automotive eMotion Summit organized by sector federation Febiac a few months ago was Georges Massing, who is working for Mercedes-Benz on autonomous driving and the integration of this in the car. Massing is Vice-President MB.OS Autonomous Driving and E/E Integration. In his contribution, Massing put great emphasis on safety. […]
February 14, 2024
Today, the resurrected Italian car brand Lancia launches the first car in its new product portfolio, the successor to the current Ypsilon. We presented the car in another article and talked to Lancia’s brand CEO, Luca Napolitano. Napolitano studied Business Administration in Rome and began his automotive career at Ford. In 2000, he started working […]
January 12, 2024
Since September last year, Wolfgang Bremm von Kleinsorgen (52) has been CEO of Mercedes-Benz Benelux. He took the alternative Mercedes motor show event ‘Defining Class Star Days’ in his own headquarters as an opportunity to talk to the outside world for the first time. The new CEO originates from Aachen, Germany, and knows Belgium fairly […]
October 02, 2023
Jochen De Smet is the current president of EV Belgium, a known facilitator of the energy transition. Being one of the speakers at Mobia’s Mobility Stakeholders Day, he stressed that the technology of this transition is not the problem, but the organization of it, especially the price transparency for the customer. “Europe has been working […]
August 29, 2023
In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the CEO of the Swedish/Swiss technology group ABB, Björn Rosengren, says that the time has definitely come to buy an electric car. The development of charging infrastructure is gaining momentum, so the biggest hurdle is disappearing. “Due to Covid-19, I’ve been unable to travel to […]
August 02, 2023
In May of this year, vehicle lease company ALD Automotive announced that it had successfully acquired 100% of LeasePlan, one of the world’s leading fleet management and mobility companies. More than enough reasons for us to talk with Johan Portier, the new Country Managing Director of ALD Automotive/LeasePlan in Belgium. This transformative acquisition represented a […]
July 20, 2023
Estonian mobility company Bolt introduced its new e-scooter, Bolt 6. The plan is to gradually roll out the new model, with better handling and a pimped-up design, in Brussels and the other cities where Bolt operates. According to the company, the new two-wheeled means of transport sets a new standard for safety and sustainability. Two […]
April 06, 2023
Just before the presentation of the new Ford E-Transit Courier, we got a chance to sit down with the CEO of Ford’s commercial vehicle operation Ted Cannis. He offered some insight on what’s next for Ford Pro, and how he would like to see some support from the Belgian government for electric commercial vehicles. “At […]
March 03, 2023
During a round table, BMW Group CEO Oliver Zipse told car magazine Motor.at and others about his view on hydrogen and the plans to ban ICE cars in the EU by 2035. In his view, “hydrogen-fueled cars don’t stand a chance against BEVs except for customers who do not have access to charging infrastructure or […]
February 09, 2023
Citroën CEO Vincent Cobée is clear: the energy transition will lead to another smaller, lighter type of car. It could prelude the end of the current hype: the big, boxy SUV. BEVs need more aerodynamic shapes and as less weight as possible. Unfortunately, that’s hardly the case for SUVs. The Citroën boss is fairly outspoken […]
January 18, 2023
At the Brussels Motor Show, we met Jon Williams, European Vice-President and General Manager of Ford Blue, the ICE part of Ford Europe’s business. He talked about the different specialisms inside Ford Motor Company now. “Recently, we’ve made clear that electrification and sustainability are the main priorities for our company, certainly in Europe,” Williams started. […]
December 28, 2022
Since the end of last month, the first units of the new electric SUV Fisker Ocean have been coming of the line in the Magna-Steyr factory in Austria. This is a perfect moment to ask CEO and owner Henrik Fisker about his views on the car business and its recent evolutions. Henrik Fisker is Danish […]
August 30, 2022
In light of the recent events and their impact on the energy market, we chatted with Grégoire de Pierpont, CEO of Enerdeal, an installer of solar energy systems at the industrial level. “Our company has existed since 2009 and is mainly active in Belgium and Luxembourg but also in Africa. We install medium to large […]
April 04, 2022
China’s second-biggest independent automaker next to Geely, BYD or Build Your Dream in English, announced on Sunday that it had stopped ultimately making cars with only an internal combustion engine (ICE). BYD will only continue to produce smaller ICE engines for its plug-in hybrids, next to battery-electric models, the sole focus left. On Twitter, BYD […]
March 11, 2022
When traveling to Mazda’s EU headquarters in Frankfurt for the CX-60 reveal, we talked with Joachim Kunz, Senior Management Development & Engineering, and Jo Stenuit, Design Director. They’re both impregnated by the need for Mazda to stay Japanese and to offer an alternative to classic premium. In a multi-solution approach. “At Mazda, we’re bound to […]
January 19, 2022
In an interview with four European media, the CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, gave his thoughts on Europe’s campaign to phase out the internal combustion engine by 2035. The 63-year-old company director believes that switching to more expensive EVs without a progressive transition could create a social fracture. One year after the fusion of French […]
November 03, 2021
Volvo’s sister brand Lynk & Co, just celebrating its fifth anniversary two weeks ago, is struggling to keep all of its 30 000 – or even 50 000 – ‘club members’ in Europe happy and tackle software problems that may differ in different countries. And every day, some 150 to 200 additional members are signing […]
August 31, 2021
Toyota Motor chief scientist Gill Pratt denies that Toyota has been slow to develop full battery solutions. However, a significant portion of the $10 billion per year the company spends on R&D goes to scientists working on battery development. In a blog post, Pratt counters the criticism of Toyota dragging its feet about BEVs and […]
March 22, 2021
Recently, car leasing company LeasePlan published its yearly ‘Mobility Insight Report’. According to Johan Portier, Managing Director of LeasePlan Belgium, the most striking result is that some 55% of the Belgians consider switching to electricity when buying a new car. “We are at a crucial tipping point regarding electric driving,” he says. We had a […]
February 02, 2021
In a recent press release, Irish low-cost airline Ryanair reports a €306 million net loss and a 78% drop in customers during 2020’s third-quarter (October to December) due to the corona pandemic and the different travel restrictions. The airline declares that its balance sheet remains one of the strongest in the industry, with €3,5 billion […]
January 26, 2021
Dutch oil giant Shell will buy German charging point manufacturer ubitricity if allowed to do by competition authorities. The Germans are specialists in integrating EV charging points into lampposts and bollards. In the UK, ubitricity has built in more than 2 700 chargers into ‘street furniture‘ already, being the largest provider with a market share […]
January 13, 2021
Alain Visser, CEO of Lynk & Co, preaches the revolution. He doesn’t want to sell cars anymore, he wants to lend them monthly, and he wants his clients to share them. In this second part of the interview, he explains how it works. Visser has no high opinion of the current car business. Over the […]
January 12, 2021
The Belgian Alain Visser is Lynk & Co’s CEO, the Chinese Geely daughter who intends to change things on the car market. Many new and sometimes controversial ideas come from or are stimulated by the CEO — no better reason for having a chat with him. We’ve known Alain Visser for a long time. Already […]
January 07, 2021
Dutchman Bas Viveen, an ‘automotive veteran’ with mileage at Renault, Nissan, Peugeot, and Opel/Vauxhall Europe, runs Peugeot Belux for a few months already from August 2020. His colleague CEO at Citroën Belux, Frenchman Damien Martin-Cocher, just arrived from Ukraine, finishing his obligatory ‘quarantine’. Time to meet the new faces at PSA Belux. For both men, […]
