January 04, 2024
From Saturday, Flemish public transport company De Lijn’s new basic accessibility network will be operational. But even before the new timetable – “the biggest transition ever” at De Lijn – goes into effect, criticism is louder and louder. More stops would be scrapped than planned, and the new Hoppin bus network would create greater transport […]
January 04, 2024
2023 was the second-best year ever for new speed pedelecs and the record year for second-hand fast bikes. That is the conclusion of mobility federation Traxio’s spokesperson Filip Rylant. Last year, a total of 22 477 new and second-hand speed pedelecs were registered. The good news is that there is still room for further growth, […]
January 04, 2024
Audi prepares again to take on the legendary Dakar rally with its electric-powered RS Q e-tron. The German brand has transformed its electric SUV Q8 e-tron into a terrain-ready vehicle with the edition Dakar to highlight this challenge. Since 2022, Audi has taken on the Dakar rally (which now takes place in Saudi Arabia) with […]
January 04, 2024
Last year, the second-hand passenger car market grew by 7,2% to 689 170 units, 46 501 more than in 2022 but 20 429 less than in 2021. Expectations are that the second-hand car market will remain high in the coming years, says car service and mobility federation Traxio. The best-selling used car brands last year […]
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 […]
January 03, 2024
At least 22% of new cars sold by manufacturers in the UK this year must be zero-emission. New rules requiring car manufacturers to sell a minimum proportion of zero-emission vehicles have come into force, the Department for Transport (DfT) in the UK announced. The mandate became law on Wednesday. Zero emission means, in practice, that […]
January 03, 2024
Under Joe Biden, the US has become the world’s largest oil producer and is producing more oil than any country ever has. According to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), US oil production has even increased by 21% over the past five years, and it settled in December a new annual production record with […]
January 03, 2024
In Belgium, 2023 was a good year for wind and solar energy production, accounting for 27,6% of the total of 30,1% of renewable energies with sources such as biomass and waste included. At the same time, production from nuclear (31,29%) and gas power plants (19,8%) fell significantly. That’s clear from the latest statistics of the […]
January 03, 2024
According to a draft document the Italian press agency ANSA could lay hands on, the Italian government is playing around with the idea of subsidizing the private purchase of electric vehicles from 6 000 to 13 750 euros. The condition is to scrap a Euro 2 car or even older, and it would only apply […]
January 03, 2024
Porsche is returning to the Nürburgring with its electric Taycan. In-house development racing driver Lars Kern has managed to beat the electric Porsche’s previous record by 25 seconds, recording a lap time of 7 minutes 07,55 seconds. Kern was at the wheel of a still unnamed, more powerful, and track-ready Porsche Taycan. Porsche refers to […]
January 03, 2024
In 2023, the car market in Belgium and Luxembourg (Belux) booked its best result since the pandemic broke out and ended close to the sales average of the last ten years (476 675 cars registered compared to 483 670 as the decade average). In December 2023, 25 715 new cars were registered, which is still […]
January 03, 2024
Volkswagen Anhui – former JAC-Volkswagen – has started building Seat’s sporty daughter Cupra’s second EV, the Tavascan, in the Anhui province in China, to be launched in 2024 in Europe. Based on the Volkswagen Group MEB platform, the Cupra Tavascan will be available with either 210 or 250 kWh of power and a WLTP range […]
January 03, 2024
The Chinese car manufacturer BYD (Build Your Dreams) has a very ambitious goal: to become the world’s biggest car manufacturer and overtake Toyota and other VWs by 2030. It is now the biggest producer of electrified cars in the world. BYD sold a record number of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in December, reaching its full-year […]
January 02, 2024
A new study by the British Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) comparing four popular electric cars available on the second-hand market today in the UK with their siblings with a combustion engine on petrol shows EVs to be four times cheaper in energy costs in 2023, despite soaring electricity prices last year. It presumes […]
January 02, 2024
Taxi drivers at Brussels Airport in Zaventem think the mandatory language requirements are too strict, so they went on strike for two and a half hours last Friday. The Flemish government wants to impose an oral and written test of Dutch (level B1) on drivers from 1 July 2024. “The bar is far too high,” […]
January 02, 2024
European aircraft maker Airbus has a much better financial year than its US rival Boeing. In December alone, 500 orders were placed, accounting for a record 1 880 new aircraft orders for 2023. This makes Airbus the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer for the sixth time in a row, a position it owes mainly to its […]
January 02, 2024
How do you make hydrogen more appealing to petrolheads? Perhaps outfitting a 1976 Jeep Cherokee Chief with a 6.2-liter V8 hydrogen combustion engine and some tasty modifications will allow you to have all the fun without any pollution. This is the French energy technology group GCK’s approach, together with motor oil specialist Motul. Consolidated in […]
January 02, 2024
Honda and Isuzu have started on-road testing in Japan of their jointly-developed ‘Giga Fuel Cell’ truck, a 12-meter long, 25-ton truck equipped with four 103 kW fuel cells providing 320 kW (429 hp) of electric power and a range of 800 km with 56 kg hydrogen in its tanks. The potent fuel cell developed by […]
January 02, 2024
Volvo Cars is working on an electric version of its luxury saloon, which will probably launch in 2025 as the ES90. According to media reports, the carmaker has already built the prototypes at its plant in Shanghai. Deliveries will kick off in mid-2025. According to information from the specialized site motor.es, the Volvo ES90 will […]
January 02, 2024
From January 1st, 2025, the city center of The Hague will become a zero-emission zone. This means that vans and trucks driving in this area have to be emission-free – electric or running on hydrogen. The measure should improve air quality and reduce noise pollution, nitrogen deposition, and CO2 emissions in the city. The same […]
December 29, 2023
Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has unveiled its very first car in China. The new SU7 is a mid-size electric sedan powered by two electric motors up to 673 hp. Not only does Xiaomi claim it can reach 100 kph in only 2,78 seconds, but it also has a range of 800 km (CLTC). Xiaomi is […]
December 29, 2023
The Škoda Enyaq 60 GO is the latest of a series of electric vehicles in Belgium that sees its bare price plunge with an attractive €6 310 to get under the €40 000 threshold set by the Flemish government to be eligible for the 5 000 euro premium. But that twenty-million-euro pot will only benefit […]
December 29, 2023
All airlines departing from Brussels Airport in 2024 can benefit from a one-off premium to use Sustainable Aviation Fuels or SAFs. The SAF premium will be up to 200 000 euros per airline. According to Brussels Airport, that will cover up to 80% of the additional cost. Due to the high price of SAF, that […]
December 29, 2023
Some EV experts and sector federation Traxio say there is an urgent need for a reliable battery test and the appropriate certificate to regulate upcoming sales of second-hand electric vehicles. Recent tests of battery packs in second-hand full-electric vehicles have shown that batteries still can be in good shape after years of use and can […]
December 29, 2023
American powertrain manufacturer Cummins has to pay almost $1,7 billion as a fine for selling devices that can bypass emissions sensors. The US Department of Justice sees this as a direct violation of the Clean Air Act and has imposed a fine, which is the second-largest in the history of the Act, which was installed […]
December 28, 2023
JAC, China’s partly state-owned EV maker, controlled by Volkswagen, has launched the world’s first mass-produced electric car, equipped with a sodium-ion (Na+ ) battery pack, a promising cheaper alternative to today’s lithium-ion batteries. The advantage of Na-ion batteries is the natural abundance and lower cost of sodium compared to lithium. In addition, Na-ion batteries are […]
December 28, 2023
In 2023, the air quality significantly improved in Belgium’s biggest cities (Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, and Charleroi). According to figures from the Interregional Cell for the Environment (Ircel), Belgium is well on its way to achieving the recommended value of the World Health Organization (WHO). It showed the lowest nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter emissions in […]
December 28, 2023
The Flemish Traffic Center, the watchdog of traffic jams in the most populated Belgian Region, which has been counting traffic to calculate congestion severity since 2011, is looking for ten extra traffic controllers on top of the 20 people currently working there. With congestion figures climbing to unprecedented heights, the Center is running out of […]
December 28, 2023
E-bikes tend to weigh a lot – at least 22 to 25 kg on average – mainly due to their battery and motor, but this can be improved, as the French sports chain proves with its new electric road race bicycle, the Van Rysel E-EDR AF. This one, offered at €2 800, weighs only 14 […]
December 27, 2023
Belgian public railway company NMBS/SNCB wants to outsource the management of its 60 payable car parks to a commercial company. So writes the business newspaper L’Echo. Sophie Dutordoir, CEO of NMBS/SNCB, is reported to have said so in the federal parliament a few weeks ago when she came to the Parliamentary Committee on Mobility for […]
December 27, 2023
Toyota Motor Corp. said on Wednesday that its global output from January to November reached 9,23 million vehicles. That’s a new single-year record with still one month left in 2023. The result is also achieved thanks to robust demand in North America and Europe. The all-time high came as the automaker’s worldwide production for November […]
December 27, 2023
Japanese motorbike and marine engine manufacturer Yamaha will present at the next Miami Boat show in February 2024 a prototype of a 5.6 liter V8 outboard motor running on hydrogen. Specs are scarce, but Yamaha already developed a 5.0 liter V8 car engine on hydrogen for Toyota in 2021. Yamaha is also working on fuel […]
December 27, 2023
Royal HaskoningDHV, a global consulting engineering company, has reported that the lithium levels in the river Rhine near Lobith, in the Dutch province of Gelderland, are already higher than the risk limit. Users of Rhine and Meuse water may now or in the future suffer from higher lithium levels. The lithium concentrations in river water […]
December 27, 2023
Last Friday, DATS 24, Colruyt Group’s fuel and energy provider, opened up two additional hydrogen filling stations in Belgium, one in Erpe-Mere and the other in Herve. The latter is also the first hydrogen station in Wallonia for passenger cars. In addition to the ones in Halle, Haasrode, Wilrijk, and Ollignies, DATS 24 now counts […]
December 27, 2023
The Chinese car manufacturer BYD, the world’s number one in building and selling electrified cars, will build a car plant in Hungary as part of its plan to conquer Europe. “BYD is preparing to build its first car manufacturing plant in Szeged, Hungary, and is hereby making an important step towards green mobility in Europe,” […]
December 26, 2023
Limburg will soon have a new cycling attraction called ‘Cycling Underground’. As the final plan was drafted, things suddenly seemed to be moving forward for the new tourist cycling project in Kanne/Riemst. Limburg is particularly popular among cyclists. In recent years, the province spared no trouble or expenses to offer tourists special bicycle routes. After […]
December 26, 2023
The Belgian oil tanker company Euronav, specializing in the transportation and storage of crude oil, is gearing up for a ‘greener’ future with the take-over of CMB.Tech. That Belgian cleantech maritime group builds, owns, operates, and designs large marine and industrial applications running on hydrogen, ammonia, or dual fuels. It’s a significant step to gradually […]
December 26, 2023
The Brussels government and the board of directors of the Brussels public transport company MIVB/STIB have signed the new 2024-2028 management agreement. The agreement provides for an 11,9% increase in supply so that MIVB/STIB can count 457 million passengers by 2028, or over a third more than 2022. Indexation of fares is provided, but for […]
December 26, 2023
The day before Christmas, at Nio Day 2023, the Chinese premium EV maker took off the wraps of its new ‘executive flagship sedan’, the ET9, which has to play in the highest luxury car segment like the Mercedes-Maybach or EQS, or the BMW i7. It is something no Chinese brand has successfully done in their […]
December 26, 2023
Toyota is not experiencing its best week ever, on the contrary. At its daughter Daihatsu, part of the Toyota Group, serious fraud has been discovered running already for decades. Toyota has recalled more than one million vehicles in the US with a possible airbag safety issue. On Thursday, the Japanese Ministry of Transport started an […]
December 26, 2023
The British multinational Shell has introduced a new charging structure. The company will charge blocking fees for drivers who leave their EV at a public charging station for more than four hours, even if the battery is not yet fully charged. The measure only applies to Bluecorner, EV Box, and Road charging points for now, […]
December 22, 2023
From January 1st, car buyers in Belgium will pay an additional 10 euros environmental contribution when buying a new car or van. This contribution will pay for the future recycling of the vehicle, reports Febelauto, the Belgian management body for both end-of-life vehicles and batteries from hybrids and EVs. Febelauto has been managing the recycling […]
December 22, 2023
The Russian car manufacturer Avtotor has released the first pictures of a new electric prototype called Amber. It’s 100% made in Russia and has been developed in partnership with the Russian Polytechnic University of Moscow (MAMI). Since the start of the Ukrainian war, the Russian industry has been almost entirely on its own since all […]
December 21, 2023
South Korean carmaker Kia has announced that Marc Hedrich, the current CEO of the brand in France, will join the European regional headquarters in Frankfurt as President and CEO of Kia Europe, starting on 1 January 2024. He succeeds Won-Jeong Jeong, who held the position for the last four years. His primary assignment will be […]
December 21, 2023
The General Court of the European Union has annulled the billions in aid approved by the European Commission to French airline Air France-KLM during the coronavirus health crisis. According to the court, the EC “erred” at the time. France, the major shareholder of Air France, helped the airline in 2020 with a 4-billion-euro state guarantee […]
December 21, 2023
Shared mobility platforms Poppy and GreenMobility are withdrawing from several regional capitals. As of January 1st, 2024, the typical red Poppy cars will no longer be seen in Ghent, Leuven, and Mechelen. The GreenMobility vehicles, on the other hand, will disappear from the streets in Brussels and Ghent. D’Ieteren’s subsidiary Poppy was launched in Mechelen […]
December 21, 2023
Since Thursday, public transport in the southern French city of Montpellier has been free of charge. In France, there are already around 40 cities where buses and trams are free for residents. Still, with more than 500 000 inhabitants, Montpellier is the largest European metropolis offering such a free service. “This is a measure that […]
December 21, 2023
BMW Belux will be celebrating its 50th anniversary of presence in Belgium and Luxembourg with the third consecutive number-one place in the market in 2023. At a press meeting, Belux CEO Alexander Wehr and his colleagues looked forward to consolidating this success. The fact that three premium brands are in the top five of car […]
December 21, 2023
Belgian Alain Visser, founder and driving force behind Swedish-Chinese Lynk & Co, is unexpectedly leaving the company “to pursue other opportunities outside the company”, according to a press release surfacing on Thursday. He will leave his European CEO chair to Nicolas Lopez Appelgren, a Volvo veteran for 28 years and current Head of Retail Operations […]
December 21, 2023
Swedish-Swiss multinational ABB will supply Volvo’s factories in Torslanda (Sweden) and Daqing (China) next year with 1 300 robots to build the carmaker’s next generation of electric cars. These robots will cover various production tasks, from spot-welding, riveting, and dispensing to flow drilling and ultrasonic weld inspection. ABB, a historic partner for its compatriot, claims […]
December 21, 2023
After intense negotiations, Volkswagen managers and employee representatives have agreed on key points in a paper for the ‘Accelerate Forward/Road to 6.5’ plan announced in June. The 6.5 describes the key target, a return on sales of 6,5% for the core brand of the VW Group by 2026. It was first announced in June when […]
December 21, 2023
The harmonization organization SAE International (created by the Society of Automotive Engineers) published a corresponding document that turns Tesla’s de facto North American Charging Standard (NACS) into a harmonized connector standard. The development prompted the Department of Transportation (DoT) to look into infrastructure funding. Volkswagen is also joining the band for good. The ‘SAE J3400 […]
December 20, 2023
Owning an ultra-rare wide-bodied competition 1993 Porsche 964 RSR 3.8, of which only 51 were built, might be a distant dream for a classic car lover. A ‘Strassenversion’ with only 10 km on the odometer was sold by Bonhams in Abu Dhabi in November 2023 for $2 127 500. But what about an even faster […]
December 20, 2023
Lufthansa has ordered 80 new short- and medium-haul aircraft with Boeing and Airbus. These include 40 Airbus A220-300 aircraft and 40 Boeing 737-8 Max. The German airline group is also taking an option on 120 additional aircraft. The group itself calls it the most extensive fleet modernization in its history. The aircraft will be delivered […]
December 20, 2023
Following the rest of the Stellantis vans, Fiat’s compact E-Doblò and mid-sized E-Ulysse passenger vans get a revamp that includes a fresh face and efficiency improvements. Both models will be available to order in early 2024. Stellantis recently unveiled a comprehensive facelift for its entire LCV range with more distinguished looks between the brands. Now, […]
December 20, 2023
The liberalization of the European railroad market is continuing, which will also be at the expense of the services of NMBS/SNCB. So says Belgians railroad company’s CEO, Sophie Dutordoir, who warns of congestion on the track if additional international operators track trains through Brussels. “If two operators are added, ten public service trains will disappear […]
December 20, 2023
The city of Antwerp will adjust its low-emission zone (LEZ) regulations and postpone the next tightening of the standards from 2025 to 2026. The city will also take additional social measures and increase the number of day passes per year (from 8 to 12). By relaxing the rules, diesel cars with Euro 5 standard (or […]
December 20, 2023
Giant Chinese automaker group Geely is launching its first Galaxy-branded EV in its home market. The E8 is a large electric sedan that claims to have the lowest drag coefficient of any production vehicle but also one of the lowest prices seen so far in the Chinese EV market at 180 000 yuan or under […]
December 20, 2023
If Ryanair’s share price continues to rise, top executive Michael O’Leary could land a bonus of as much as 100 million euros. That reports the British business newspaper Financial Times, based on a 2019 bonus plan for the Irishman. If Ryanair’s shares maintain a price of 21 euros for 28 consecutive days, then the super […]
December 20, 2023
According to the sales figures assembled by the European Car Manufacturers Association ACEA, the EU’s car market grew by a modest but reasonably robust 6,7% in November 2023. Despite a relatively low comparison base, solid growth persisted, marking the sixteenth consecutive month of expansion. Some markets had substantial double-digit gains, including two of the largest: […]
