May 20, 2022
The Brussels government has launched a project call to boost the rollout of charging stations for electric vehicles. All owners of private car parks in Brussels have a chance of receiving a subsidy on the condition that their charging stations run on green electricity, are public, and are accessible 24/7. This has been confirmed by […]
May 19, 2022
In a press release, the American EV manufacturer announced that also in Belgium, certain Tesla superchargers would be made available to electric vehicles of other brands. This means that 141 additional fast-charging points will now be available in Belgium. Tesla drivers are not complaining Tesla announced last year that it would open up its charging […]
May 16, 2022
The board of directors has validated the ambitious draft business plan and investment plan up to 2032 for the NMBS/SNCB on Friday. They agreed on a 10% increase in train capacity, which must bring about a 30% growth in passenger numbers by 2032. Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet says that he will ensure that the […]
May 10, 2022
On ‘Mobilize Day’, the Mobilize department has shown its ambitions in services and technology inside the Renault Group. Its target is 20% of the total turnover of the Group by 2030. At the same time, Renault’s RCI Bank and Services become Mobilize Financial Services. At the start of the day, Renault CEO Luca de Meo […]
May 09, 2022
Taiwanese scooter manufacturer Kymco has plans to bring its range of electric scooters to Europe. The two-wheelers will be sold through the ionex brand and use battery swap. The arrival of an electric scooter of Kymco origin is not big news, as the manufacturer is already present in our market. However, the appearance of an […]
April 29, 2022
The metro station Albert in Forrest will be linked directly to the university districts (ULB-VUB) of Ixelles. The Brussels Region and the Brussels transport company MIVB/STIB have agreed on this. The Brussels Government, on the other hand, has definitively approved the draft ordinance on taxi services of Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS). The text now goes […]
April 26, 2022
The board of directors at Twitter has accepted Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s buy-out deal of 44 billion dollars to obtain complete control of the company. As a result, Musk is now set to own his most cherished communication channel. “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech […]
April 20, 2022
Belgian logistics player BD Logistics has asked Antwerp University to develop a tool to calculate the CO2 emissions of its urban delivery activities using a standardized calculation method. The calculation tool perfectly estimates the carbon impact of a specific delivery or shipment. This technology would also allow consumers to compare different players or means of […]
April 13, 2022
Porsche is sticking to its ‘Road-to-X’ strategy, whereby the manufacturer believes that by 2025 half of all new Porsches will be electric, and by 2030 that figure will be 80%. As more electric vehicles leave the showroom, the need to prepare the workshops for these vehicles also increases. Contrary to what is often claimed, an […]
April 07, 2022
Chinese electric carmaker NIO has upgraded its car rental service in several Chinese cities by offering a decremental fee for the monthly subscription and adding four free battery swaps. It’s an attempt to breathe new life into the subscription model that isn’t very popular with the Chinese, who rather want to buy a car as […]
April 04, 2022
Car rental giant Herz is buying 65 000 fully electric Polestars in the next five years and will start offering them in Spring 2022 in Europe and end this year in America and Australia. It’s a massive deal for Polestar, as the latter reached its global sales target of 29 000 vehicles in 2021 and […]
April 01, 2022
D’Ieteren is buying itself into the profitable B2B bicycle leasing market through its Lab Box daughter, investing one million euros to gain a majority part in Belgian Joule. This Ghent-based start-up, founded in 2018, offers full bicycle fleet leasing for companies and governments with a portfolio of some 20 different brands. In that arena, D’Ieteren […]
March 31, 2022
Carrefour will install 3 000 charging points for electric vehicles in the car parks of its 400-plus Carrefour Market supermarkets by 2025. On Wednesday, the French multinational retail corporation announced that the franchise supermarkets should also be equipped. According to the press release, Carrefour will thus become France’s leading electric charging network, with more than […]
March 31, 2022
The Belgian car distribution landscape is constantly changing. Consolidation is the keyword, and foreign players are moving fast, especially the Dutch Van Mossel Group. Today, it is prepared to ‘eat’ the Vereenooghe Group, a collection of nine dealerships in West Flanders. Vereenooghe is a family company, almost 100 years old, now run by nephews Alain […]
March 29, 2022
Supported by new research, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) calls on all EU member states to urgently step-up investments in infrastructure for electrically chargeable cars, vans, trucks, and buses. “The auto industry is already placing hundreds of models of low- and zero-emission vehicles on the market, but has serious concerns about the slow deployment […]
March 25, 2022
Ride-hailing giant Uber is smoking the peace pipe with the New York yellow cabs by integrating their service on its app. Users and yellow cab drivers will be informed before booking on the nature of their ride and subsequent prices. Each has the option to reject. Nothing much changes on the streets, as only taxis […]
March 23, 2022
In Saint-Gilles, cargo bikes have replaced the trams in the former Belgrade workshop of the public transport company MIVB/STIB. The Brussels-based cyclo-logistics cooperative Urbike has taken up residence there, the result of a call for projects before the building is completely renovated. Urbike is one of the reference companies in delivering goods by cargo bicycle. […]
March 18, 2022
Ford is opening up its ‘secret’ Lommel Proving Ground facilities and its team of highly skilled trainers to the general public, offering basic safety up to specialist sporty driving skills courses. At €249 per person, everyone can learn to control a vehicle on a slippery surface in all kinds of conditions or how to avoid […]
March 10, 2022
Public transport company De Lijn has introduced a new way of providing real-time traffic information via Google Maps. Since Wednesday, passengers of De Lijn can check whether their bus or tram will be on time or delayed via Google Maps. Until now, they could only check timetables, but now they get the actual times of […]
March 08, 2022
On Monday, Arval revealed its 2021 results, and despite the current difficulties, profit is on the rise. The branch of BNP Paribas Group specialized in vehicle leasing and mobility solutions’ net profit reached nearly €700 million, equating to a 52% increase in one year. This strong performance is led by the growth of the activity […]
March 04, 2022
On Wednesday, Tier Mobility, Europe’s leading shared mobility provider, announced its acquisition of Ford’s subsidiary Spin, which specialized in shared electric bikes and scooters. Through this acquisition, Tier expands into North America, becoming the largest multimodal micro-mobility operator globally in terms of number of cities and vehicles. The purchase price or other financial information about […]
February 16, 2022
After a pilot that started with ten Dutch stations in November last year, Tesla is opening up all of its Superchargers in the Netherlands to non-Tesla EV drivers with a CCS connector. It also starts gradually opening charging for third parties in Norway and France. Tesla announced the latter on its Twitter channel. But you […]
February 11, 2022
2021 seems to have been a positive year for automotive leasing companies. After Arval posted good results, now is the turn of ALD Automotive with a record net income of €843 million, 71,2% more than the previous year. This growth is mainly due to tensions in the second-hand car market, which drove prices upwards. “Following […]
February 10, 2022
Belgian’s most prominent car importer, D’Ieteren, is bringing together all its new bicycle businesses under the Lucien brand, the listed company announced on Thursday. Lucien is a nod to Lucien Van Impe, the last Belgian Tour winner. But it also refers to Lucien D’Ieteren (1880-1966), who decided in 1931 to switch from car bodybuilding to […]
February 09, 2022
As the debate on taxi services and ride-hailing in Brussels rages on, newcomer Bolt puts its cards on the table. Estonian company Bolt – previously known as Taxify – expands its e-scooter offer in Brussels with ride-hailing, as a competitor to Uber. The relatively young company doesn’t want to add oil to the fire and […]
February 08, 2022
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) is slightly optimistic about car sales in 2022 but also deeply worried about the pace of charging infrastructure roll-out. “It’s lagging way behind consumer demand for electrified cars,” an ACEA press release comments. “The strong performance of electrically-chargeable cars is very welcome news,” stated ACEA President and CEO of […]
February 07, 2022
Via its daughter Sopadis, D’ieteren Auto wants to take over the dealerships owned by the Jennes family in the eastern part of the Vlaams Brabant province. In a press release, D’Ieteren states that the negotiations for the take-over are in an advanced stage. The take-over concerns dealerships of the brands Audi, Cupra, Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen, […]
February 03, 2022
Corona restrictions have triggered a creative idea at Audi. Due to the pandemic, visitors worldwide are no longer allowed in their plants, bringing guided tours to a halt. As compensation, the brand has launched AudiStream. This service offers a free digital tour of some of their plants. One of the first online is Audi Brussels. […]
January 31, 2022
A few days after D’Ieteren’s car and e-scooter sharing service Poppy Mobility blew its fourth birthday candle, the user base counter exceeds more than 100 000 today, the company heralds in a new press release. The free-floating fleet, operational in Antwerp, Brussels, Malines, and three airports, consists of 700 cars and 550 electric kick scooters. […]
January 26, 2022
Car website Vroom launches the EV checker, an online tool that aims to guide prospective car buyers in their choice of car, particularly electromobility. The device is online today via vroom-ev.com. By entering some initial data like your location, the kilometers driven per year, whether you’ll use highways, city streets, or local roads mostly, the […]
January 25, 2022
Belgian road service and mobility organization Touring and traffic data specialist BeMobile offer a smart route planner on the Touring Mobilis website that tackles the ‘range anxiety’ of many newbie EV-drivers. It lets you calculate your route with planned charging stops tailored to your specific electric car, predicting availability at the time of arrival. You […]
January 24, 2022
Four in ten Belgian drivers use their car less often since the pandemic, an iVox survey ordered by Corona Direct Insurances, a daughter of Belgian state-owned Belfius bank, reveals. A large group chooses other means of transport for shorter trips and works at home more often. The survey done with 1 000 Belgians at the […]
January 21, 2022
Screens are the real motors driving the car of the 21st century. With Renault launching its all-electric Mégane E-Tech, firestarter of the so-called Renaulution reform, another example is added to the list. On the inside, the French compact crossover features a vertical touch screen for infotainment with a diameter of 12 inches. A flipped vent […]
January 20, 2022
Electric scooters with universal swappable batteries provided by a network of swapping stations may become the future mobility solution in busy cities. Yamaha is launching such a scooter on the Taiwanese market (Yamaha EMF), and for the exchangeable batteries, the manufacturer is working together with local Gogoro. Of course, one can take the removable battery […]
January 20, 2022
Belgian Mobility Card (BMC), the joint subsidiary of Belgium’s four public transport operators (NMBS/SNCB, MIVB/STIB, Tec, and De Lijn), is buying the startup Stoomlink. The latter specializes in creating new digital solutions to simplify travel with public transport. Through this acquisition, BMC aims to simplify the journey of intermodal customers. This means providing information and […]
January 14, 2022
AG Insurance, one of the leading players in the Belgian insurance market, wants to make charging infrastructure accessible to a broader public. With the Optimile Mobiflow card displaying actual prices that apply, it wants to give users a more transparent view of the different charging units. AG previously (2020) took a stake in Optimile in […]
January 13, 2022
The Belgian consumer organization TestAankoop/TestAchats has done a survey in five European countries concerning the reliability of cars. Asian cars are by far the most reliable, with Japanese brands at the top. Lexus is (again) number one, followed by Subaru and Toyota. Together with its sister organizations TestAankoop/TestAchats interrogated some 60 000 car owners (cars […]
January 07, 2022
Last year, the Antwerp shared bicycle platform, Velo, registered a total of 4,482 million rides or 288 000 more than in 2020. In 2019, Velo still registered a total of 6,8 million rides, but the popularity of the red bikes waned when the corona crisis broke out. In 2020, the use of Velo bikes decreased […]
January 04, 2022
Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo will have its groceries delivered in ten minutes by the flash couriers of Gorillas. For now, the cooperation only concerns the eleven Dutch and the Flemish cities of Antwerp where the deliverers of Gorillas are active. As part of the agreement, Jumbo will deliver a large part of the assortment to […]
December 31, 2021
Guess what? You’re among the first to ‘reserve’ on an exiting fully electric Ford F150 Lightning pickup after paying a $100 deposit, and suddenly the dealer asks you to pay a $30 000 markup on top of the list price if you want to be among the 25 first customers to get it. More, even […]
December 22, 2021
Recharging isn’t always the most pleasant of pastimes. Hardly shelter, no beverages, no desk, stuck in your EV… Audi wants to lift the experience and started a pilot project in Nuremberg. It has installed a comfortable executive ‘road office’ with six reservable fast-charging points available around the clock. But the real clue is that the […]
December 21, 2021
The Federal and Flemish Governments want to accelerate the electrification of the Belgian car fleet. The phasing out of the tax deduction for company cars with combustion engines will significantly increase the number of electric vehicles in the Belgian fleet over the next few years. To charge these vehicles quickly, Flemish Minister for Mobility, Lydia […]
December 16, 2021
Mobility organization Traxio, the Belgian federation of car dealerships, garages, and second-hand car sales outlets, has ‘promoted’ website AutoTrends.be to its preferred professional channel for second-hand cars offered with a guarantee by its members. The wanted-ad site of the likely-named car magazine run by journalist and racing driver Stéphane Lémeret engages itself to feature only […]
December 15, 2021
Earlier this year, Belgian car importer D’Ieteren announced that – besides car import – it would also focus on bicycle distribution and maintenance. Today, the group puts its money where its mouth is with the second major acquisition of iBikes, a group of bicycle shops in the Antwerp region. D’Ieteren has already made a significant […]
December 15, 2021
On Saturday, a serious road accident involving a Tesla Model 3 taxi left one person dead and 20 injured, three of whom were seriously injured. While the taxi driver was not in service and the cause of the accident is still being investigated, Parisian taxi company G7 has decided to temporarily withdraw its 37 Tesla […]
December 08, 2021
Software is the new gold in the automotive industry. Stellantis Group has unveiled its digital ambitions and wants to generate 4 billion euros by 2026 from software products and subscriptions. These revenues are expected to fivefold (20 billion euros) by the end of the decade. Replacing the old system of making money through the options […]
December 02, 2021
Trade unions and management at the Belgian D’Ieteren car group have reached a social agreement on the closure of the Drogenbos and Ixelles sites. Around a hundred employees will lose their job. The closure is scheduled for December 31, says the union. In June, negotiations were started at D’Ieteren to reduce the wage and working […]
November 30, 2021
A few hundred taxi drivers demonstrated on Tuesday morning in front of the Brussels Parliament to oppose the proposed temporary ordinance for Uber-related workers. They argue that social gains are at stake in the face of extreme liberalization of the world of work. An ordinance proposal, which adapts or temporarily suspends certain provisions of the […]
November 29, 2021
Chinese tech giant Baidu has started to put into service its Apollo Go robot taxis on the streets of Beijing, just as the Capital City authorized the commercial use of autonomous vehicles. Sixty-seven white SUVs with cameras and radars on the roof are in service in the south Beijing suburbs of Yizhuang. Users can hail […]
November 25, 2021
The Brussels Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday that drivers can no longer work with the Uber app. Concretely, the 2 000 Uber drivers will no longer be able to use the app as of Friday 18th, making the app virtually unusable in the capital. According to Laurent Slits, manager of Uber in Belgium, the […]
November 19, 2021
Thanks to data collected from its numerous users, Coyote has been able to identify nearly 23 000 dangerous bends in Belgium, 13 000 of which in Wallonia. Furthermore, according to internal sources, 86% of users had changed their behavior when their Coyote driving assistant warned them of an approaching dangerous bend. Through their collaboration with […]
November 10, 2021
On Tuesday, Antwerp has officially inaugurated the new ferry connection between the left and right banks of the river Scheldt. The ‘Marnix van Sint-Aldegonde’, as the boat is called, replaces the 90-year old ‘Simon Stevin’ and is far more sustainable. The name refers to Philips de Marnix (1540 – 1598), Lord of Saint Aldegondis, writer, […]
November 10, 2021
Car supermarket Cardoen is changing course and aiming much more at the second-hand market. With the installation of ‘The Reconditioning Center’ in Wilrijk (Antwerp), it will now focus on selling good second-hand cars and less on new stock cars. Cardoen is following the example of its French parent company (since 2018), Aramis Auto (owned for […]
November 09, 2021
Together with its sub-brand Smart, Mercedes is the first automotive manufacturer that turns its cars into credit cards. It is the next step in facilitating digital payments related to mobility for their car owners or users. The innovation comes from Daimler Mobility, which has teamed up with American credit card company Visa to enable so-called […]
November 09, 2021
Last week, Flanders decided to go entirely for EVs as of 2029. But one of the binding conditions for the total switch was the presence of good charging infrastructure. A lot of new technical workforce will be needed to install everything. Are they available? Jochen De Smet, president of EV Belgium, the sector federation for […]
October 29, 2021
The French oil and gas giant Total, now rebranded as TotalEnergies, announced an investment of €200 million to equip its highway gas stations with DC fast-charging points. At the same time, the company fully profits from the high oil and gas prices. The fast-charger plan includes more than 150 highway service stations in France to […]
October 26, 2021
Rising again from the ashes after bankruptcy, international car rental company Hertz has ordered 100 000 Tesla Model 3s to make 20% of its fleet electric and offer the largest EV rental fleet in the US. The Teslas will be available from November in selected cities in the US and Europe. The complete order should […]
October 22, 2021
According to a recent study reported by the French Association for the Electric Mobility Development (Avere), France would need 750 000 additional charging points every year to reach its electrified fleet requirements by 2030. And that’s based on a conservative estimate of 5,5 million EVs and PHEVs on French roads by that year. France is […]
October 18, 2021
Leasys, a car rental and mobility branch within the Stellantis Group, has unveiled details about its electrification strategy for the near future. The starting point for the company is to turn their short-term rental fleet electric while pushing zero-emission mobility across its services along the line. The electrification will be a step-by-step process, financed by […]
October 05, 2021
Belgian bpost has ordered 400 new electric vans and will launch a tender by the end of this month for 800 more to be delivered before the end of 2022. The financial newspaper De Tijd broke the news on Saturday. Spokeswoman Veerle Van Mierlo told the newspaper the order is spread over different brands (Renault […]
