December 29, 2017
Small BMW dealers in Belgium are facing tough times. They are pushed to make big investments and the BMW importer wants bigger dealers. The last 5 years 19 of the 69 Belgian BMW dealers changed hands. BMW is doing well in Belgium. This year the German manufacturer will again sell more than 40.000 vehicles and […]
December 28, 2017
More than 3.200 carriers in 9 European countries have pressed charges against a trust of truck manufacturers in München (Germany). Together they claim a compensation of at least 500 million euro. 2,9 billion euro fine Last year truck manufacturers MAN, Volvo/Renault, Daimler, Iveco and DAF already were imposed a 2,9 billion euro fine by the […]
December 28, 2017
Chinese car maker Geely, already owning car division Volvo Cars, is taking a major part in AB Volvo, the group building trucks under Volvo brand, Renault and Mack. By acquiring 8,2% of the capital and 15,6% of the voting shares from the Swedish Cevian Capital fund, it becomes the prime share holder. 3,25 billion euro […]
December 27, 2017
The Netherlands will start tests with autonomous trains as from the beginning of 2018. The Dutch railroad company ProRail collaborates with several transporters and manufacturers. There will be several test routes: the Betuwe, a rail route for the transport of goods, the port of Rotterdam, the railroad in Groningen (Arriva), the Schiphol tunnel and maybe […]
December 27, 2017
This year already 80.000 vans were sold in Belgium, a 14% increase compared to last year. These record sales are mainly due to the increase in online shopping. Today there are approximately 800.000 vans in Belgium and that’s 150.000 or 18,8% more than 3 years ago. If you take the foreign vans that circulate in […]
December 26, 2017
D’Ieteren is in a changing mode. This is making the stock market nervous and explains why the rate of the group regressed by more than 10%. The transformation of the entire group is playing an important role here. CEO Axel Miller takes unexpected decisions, making some people nervous. An example is the overtaking of Italian […]
December 22, 2017
The sale of motorbikes during the last eleven months of the year has come down with 9%. Especially the scooter market suffers. Climate conditions are pointed out the guilty part. The sector is astonished, they expected the opposite because of the growing traffic-jams. It is clear for everybody that year after year Belgian car drivers […]
December 22, 2017
Offering a car loan approval and an insurance certificate at the touch of a smart phone button while at the car dealership buying a new car. That’s what Belgian KBC/CBC bank is trying to do with its international award winning block chain technology. Too much paperwork “Today there is too much paperwork and time loss […]
December 22, 2017
In a letter to the Flemish Association of Communes (VVSG) the Minister of Consumer Affairs Kris Peeters (CD&V) indicates that parking meters without any possibility to pay cash are illegal. Radio listener The whole consumer trade is more and more dominated by paying with credit card or smartphone. Nevertheless it’s illegal for sellers of goods […]
December 21, 2017
The Belgian-Dutch tour operator Pharos Reizen, specialized in car holidays, launches completely outlined car holidays with electric cars as from January 2018. A challenging idea because this also means that there have to be enough charging stations along the planned roads. Another consequence is that the trip and the daily distances have to be adapted […]
December 21, 2017
German manufacturer of premium cars Audi calls back 875.000 cars in Europa due to fire risk problems with the additional heating system, a popular option for drivers in cold regions. In Germany alone 330.000 cars are concerned, in Belgium 6.821 will have to go back to the dealer. The concerned cars are the models A4 […]
December 20, 2017
Brussels public transport company MIVB/STIB has selected Solaris as supplier for 25 electric articulated buses. Solaris will also build the charging stations for the transport net. The new buses will appear in the streets of Brussels from 2019 on. 21 million euro Solaris will deliver 25 articulated ‘opportunity charging’ buses with a low floor and […]
December 19, 2017
‘Veilig Fietsen’, a recent traffic campaign about safe bicycle driving, launched on Monday showed that 42,06% of the bicycles of pupils from the primary and secondary schools in the province of West-Flanders has defaults. The campaign is an initiative of the province and Carl Decaluwé, governor of West-Flanders. 19.185 bicycles From October 1st till November […]
December 19, 2017
For the first time in its 20 years of existence the EuroNCAP organization, crash-testing cars for consumers, saw a car – the Fiat Punto – awarded with zero stars, even worse than the Rover 100 in 1997. The European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP), with headquarters in Brussels, tests cars on behalf of consumer and […]
December 15, 2017
Almost fifty years after its first flight Delta Airlines has decided to send the last active Boeing 747 used for passenger flights into retirement. The popular airplane, the preferred model by American presidents, made the world a smaller place and also accessible in less than 24 hours. Mass tourism and traveling to exotic destinations came […]
December 15, 2017
According to figures of car manufacturers federation ACEA, European car market grew with 5,9% in November, with all major national market growing, except for the UK. Great Brittain saw the market shrink with 11,2% again due to Brexit. In the five biggest markets, best of class was Spain with +12,4%, followed by France with +10,3%, […]
December 15, 2017
German car and truck maker Daimler has delivered the first full electric (Mitsubishi) Fuso eCanter trucks at a handful of German costumers. The Fuso eCanter has a weight of 7,49 tons with its 600 kg battery and has a range of 100 km. Maximum speed is 80 kph. Pricing was not given by Daimler. Japanese […]
December 14, 2017
Last Wednesday the Brussels agency ‘parking.brussels’ launched a new regional parking platform to uniformize the payment for parking in the Brussels’ Region, BIPaSS. Anderlecht and Molenbeek already introduced the system, the other 17 communities of the Brussels Capital region will follow. Spring 2018 By Spring 2018 you will no longer need cash money to pay […]
December 14, 2017
Japanese car maker Toyota aims at selling at least 50% electric, hybrid or fuel cell cars by 2030. That was confirmed by CEO Akio Toyoda at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday. Today the percentage is only 15%. 5,5 million cars In total this would represent 5,5 million cars upon 2030, among which 4,5 […]
December 12, 2017
On Monday the first hydrogen bicycles were launched in Sint-Lô (Normandy, France). A world premiere, according to Christophe Bruniau, sales manager at Pragma Industries. The bicycle company will provide the region with 20 bicycles, 40 more will follow for other regions in France. The company estimates to sell several hundreds of bikes in 2018. Fuel […]
December 12, 2017
Morocco has signed on Monday a series of agreements with French car manufacturers and automotive suppliers to build 26 new automotive suppliers factories. A total investment of 1,23 billion euro. 11.568 new jobs The suppliers will work mostly for French car makers Renault and PSA (Peugeot, Citroen, DS and Opel). According to the Moroccan Minister […]
December 08, 2017
Until now you had art, jewels, boats or planes as symbols of power, wealth and status. Old timers are nestling themselves in these category now, they are becoming a new status symbol with a cherished added value: driving pleasure. Prices for old timers have gone through the ceiling lately (times 3 since 2009 says the […]
December 07, 2017
Sales of Volkswagen in Belgium were down 4,4% for the first 11 months of this year compared to 2016, according to Febiac data. Since may the VW-importer D’Ieteren sold less Volkswagen cars every month compared to 2016, with a worrying low of -17% last November. According to spokesman Jean-Marc Ponteville of D’Ieteren, the regression is […]
December 06, 2017
It’s not uncommon in the car industry that one buys a competitors’ new product to take it apart and study it. But hiring a Tesla X to test it to the extreme, dismantle and reassemble it as Mercedes-Benz engineers apparently did in Bavaria, is rather exceptional. According to German magazine Der Spiegel, the Tesla X, […]
December 05, 2017
Google Glass was launched as a very promising device some years ago, but it was a commercial disaster. Not so in the professional world: in a hospital in Belgian Herstal it even saves lives. Google Glass would make our daily live so much easier, that was the promise when a prototype was launched in 2013. […]
December 04, 2017
Dutch driver association ANWB figured out how much an electric car is still more expensive than a petrol car, approximately 10% they claim. This price difference is practically the same in Belgium, but the gap is closing. ANWB took the average cost of 13 electrical cars (middle class) and compared them to 13 petrol cars. […]
November 30, 2017
Dutch car supplier organisation BOVAG ordered a study about the replacemnt of worn wipers on passenger cars. The study of bureau Markteffect showed that only 4% of the car owners replace their wipers after a fixed period.The rest is waiting until they hear screeches or have their vision blurred. The study from Markteffect asked 1.026 […]
November 30, 2017
The insurance premium for a family car like a Peugeot 308 is 6 to 19% more expensive when living in Antwerp city than in the four other Flemish province capitals. De Standard asked specialized website spaargids.be to make an analysis on car insurance in Flanders, depending on where you live. Spaargids collected tenders from six […]
November 29, 2017
Chinese car maker Geely, owner of Volvo, considers building its new branded Lynk 01 car in the Belgian Volvo factory in Ghent. This was confined to the Reuters news agency in an interview by Alain Visser, commercial director at Lynk & Co and a Belgian himself. Same platform as XC40 The new brand is a […]
November 29, 2017
German car builder Audi is going to build two new electric SUV models in its home factory in Ingolstadt (Germany) from 2021 on. This was confirmed by CEO Rupert Stadler on Tuesday. He promised the German Audi employees job security until 2025. Audi’s two first electric models will be build in Brussels (Vorst), starting in […]
November 28, 2017
Russian car manufacturer Avtovaz, controled by French car maker Renault, is resuming export of Lada cars to Cuba after a twelve year stop. A first shipment of some 350 cars of the latest two models are expected in Havana beginning next year. Public taxi companies The new Ladas will be used by local public taxi […]
November 28, 2017
Dutch oil company Shell announced on Monday an agreement with tech company Ionity, to roll out 80 of their superfast chargers in Shell’s own pump station network. Ionity, created by car makers BMW, Daimler, Porsche, Audi and Ford in 2016, develops chargers that allow to charge a battery in five to eight minutes. Ionity’s mission […]
November 27, 2017
Premium brands of plug-in hybrids are overwhelmed these days with ‘last minute’ orders for luxury plug-in hybrids before the end of the year. These cars, combining a fat combustion engine with a small battery driven electro-motor with an average range of 40 km, are targeted by Belgian federal government as ‘fake hybrids’ and will lose […]
November 24, 2017
Last year sales of heavy pickup trucks, combining a passenger cab with an open loading platform doubled compared to 2009 to 5.700. This year almost as much pickups were sold in ten months time, according to figures of sector federation FEBIAC. Huge fiscal benefits – that are questioned more and more – are at the […]
November 20, 2017
Last week Elon Musk surprised the world again after introducing the Tesla Semi electric truck, with a late Steve Jobs like ‘one more last thing’: a new Tesla supercar rolling out of the back of one of the trucks. The charismatic entrepreneur keeps on scattering new promises, but can’t fulfil the old ones up today, […]
November 17, 2017
French start-up OnePark collects 12 million euros to develop its activity in France and Europe. OnePark offers drivers the possibility to reserve vacant parking spots from hotels or companies, with an app. A kind of ‘booking.com’ of car parking. OnePark is a French start-up that claims to be number one in parking spots booking to […]
November 17, 2017
After revolutionizing the electric car, Tesla’s flamboyant CEO Elon Musk wants to do the same for heavy transport lorries. Musk himself drove a prototype of the ‘Semi’ on stage in Hawthorn, California, on Thursday, a fully electric 40 ton lorry with a range of 600 to 800 kilometres. Tesla’s Semi is a futuristic looking lorry […]
November 16, 2017
Italian sports car maker Lamborghini offered Pope Francis a snow white Lamborgini Huracan. But you won’t see the Pope racing around the Vatican with it. He’ll stick with his Popemobile and puts up the Lambo – like his Harley Davidson bike before – for auction at Sotheby’s for charity. Blessed and signed Being blessed and […]
November 15, 2017
French car maker PSA Group and Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei announced a new partnership to develop a platform dedicated to connected vehicles. Named CVMP (Connected Vehicle Modular Platform), this new platform has been created by the French car manufacturer group PSA and Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei. “It will allow to deploy new services such as […]
November 13, 2017
French car maker group PSA created this Sunday a new joint venture with three Algerian companies to build cars in a new plant in Oran. In five years, it should produce 75.000 Peugeots and Citroëns. After Renault, Hyundai and Volkswagen, PSA’s is to start building cars in Algeria. After two years of negotiations, the French […]
November 10, 2017
To lead its European division, Kia Motors has chosen Yong Kew Park, nicknamed ‘Mr Russia’. Leading the Russian Kia division, he managed to make the South Korean the top seller in the Russian car market in one year. Today, one car out of ten sold in Russia is a Kia. USA, Africa, China and Europe […]
November 10, 2017
Dutch car buyers are going massively for ‘big’ performing cars again, rather than a ‘green’ car, now that the fiscal incentives for the latter are scrapped. That’s why the CO2 emissions in the Netherlands are rising for the second year, being 10% higher again. Last year it was already clear that CO2 emissions were rising […]
November 09, 2017
Flemish public transport company De Lijn sees it ambitiuos: they want to take 10.000 cars off the roads every day in the northern edge of Brussels. Therefore De Lijn have ordered fourteen trambuses from bus builder Van Hool from Koningshooikt (Lier). Alternative to tram The trambuses are of the Exqui.City 24 Hyb type. They can […]
November 07, 2017
Uber Belgium has listened to the different demands from its drivers and the company will now offer more flexibility, reduce the passenger free cancel period to 2 minutes and charge the passenger 25 cent/min when the driver has to wait more than 2 minutes. Job’s attracticeness Before, we put our priority on growth and perhaps […]
November 07, 2017
According to recent figures from the Flemish mobility organization VAB, the price of the second hand diesel car take a serious dive. The sector even predicts that prices will dip further. Already today, VAB sells only 16% diesel-occasions compared to 84% used cars on petrol. Five years ago this balance was 61% diesel-occasions to 39% […]
November 07, 2017
One year ago, 31-year-old Perrine Collin launched Cycad, a young company building electric bikes out of bamboo. They now offer these ecological bicycles for long term rent at a degressive rate. “I met Narciso while I was working for an NGO in the Philippines”, explains Perrinne, “He was building bicycles out of bamboo and I […]
November 06, 2017
Since September 2017, numerous shared bicycles from different renting companies such as GoBee Bike, OBike or Billy Bike are appearing all around Brussels., totaling around 850 today. These “free-floating” bicycles can be picked-up and dropped-off wherever the user desires it, without the need of a station. In Brussels, the concept of the shared bike is […]
November 06, 2017
A growing number of lakes and rivers prohibit the use of combustion engines in leisure boats. The Belgian Liso Yacht anticipates this trend by building luxury electric pleasure boats, capable of reaching speeds up to 100 kph on the water. “We are the Tesla of the boats,” says Dirk De Munter, the founder of Liso […]
November 03, 2017
Elon Musk himself predicted that the production start of the Model 3 would be ‘a hell’. But the actual problems go beyond his worst case scenario. Especially the software for the Model 3 batteries from Tesla’s own Gigafactory turns out to be problematic. Production prognoses are delayed by another three months. GigaFactory If all goes […]
November 02, 2017
Californian electric car maker Tesla announced on Wedsnesday its biggest quarterly loss ever, due to continuing production problems with the new Model 3 and 700 sacked employees. Since it entered the stock market back in June 29 2010, Tesla has experienced eight annual losses. Yesterday, the company announced its biggest loss ever of 620 million […]
October 30, 2017
Japanese carmaker Subaru has confirmed that its certification method for home market cars wasn’t done by certified inspectors, just like Nissan. The company plans on recalling 250.000 cars. “These methods involving controlling new vehicles by non-accredited inspectors for the Japanese market have been going on for 30 years at Subaru”, declared CEO Yasuyuki Yoshinaga. The […]
October 27, 2017
Two Brussels police zones will be given bait-bikes equipped with GPS trackers and use them to catch bicycle thieves. The justice deems the method to be legal. “Lately, the Dutch Tilburg University published a study reveiling that the number of bicycle thefts in the municipalities using bait-bikes had decreased by 40% in one year”, explains […]
October 26, 2017
Toyota and Opel/Vauxhall are freezing their investments in the United Kingdom due to the uncertainty of what Brexit might bring. Toyota wants to be certain that a free EU market access without customs levies is maintained before investing in its UK plant. Toyota is uncertain about its future in the UK. In March, the Japanese […]
October 26, 2017
With the launch of its new Leaf 2, Nissan wants to remain the world’s number one in electric vehicle. In Belgium, it hopes that the new model will oversell the Tesla Model S that is currently the country’s best selling EV. Nissan has been playing in the electric vehicle segment for much longer than its […]
October 26, 2017
Swedish NEVS, the former Saab which is owned by a number of Chinese investment companies, is going to build electric taxis for taxi hailing and private car sharing service DiDi, the ‘Chinese Uber’. An agreement was signed on Wednesday in Trollhättan (Sweden) for developing a specific electric vehicle, capable of autonomous driving in the future. NEVS, […]
October 25, 2017
The automatic gearbox gains in popularity. Seven years ago only 11,5 per cent of the cars sold in Belgium had an automatic gearbox. Today a third of the cars sold in 2017 are ‘automatics’ while experts predict the disappearance of the manual gearbox. “In family cars the manual gearbox remains the most popular”, says Maarten […]
October 24, 2017
The European Commission opened on Friday an anti-dumping investigation on Chinese electric bicycles, after complaints from EU bike producers. “These Chinese bikes are sold at ridiculously low prices and don’t respect the same quality standards as bicycles built in Europe.” Europe’s electric bicycles market is booming in terms of sales and production. In 2016, 1,1 […]
October 23, 2017
According to the Wall Street Journal there is an agreement between American electric car maker Tesla and the Chinese government to start the construction of a Tesla plant in the free-trade zone in Shanghai. China is an important market for Tesla. It counts for 15 per cent of Tesla’s turn-over with an expected growth of […]
October 23, 2017
Dutch company Prodrive Technologies introduces a sensor that is capable of detecting PM2.5 particulates entering the car interior and shutting of air intake or filtering it out by the air con. The sensor is developed for a not yet disclosed German car maker, who intends to launch the product in 2018. Prodrive Technologies already developed […]
