May 27, 2022
Electrified cars are slowly gathering momentum among company cars. That’s the conclusion from a survey by employer’s organization Partena Professional that analyzed a fleet of more than 41.900 cars. The share of pure-electric vehicles has risen to 7,5%. Electrified powertrains, including plug-in hybrids running on petrol and diesel, account for a market share of 26.6%, […]
May 25, 2022
On Tuesday, the CEO of the French railway operator SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, announced that a new high-speed TGV line linking Paris to Berlin was in the making. It should be operational by December 2023, and connecting the two capital cities is around seven hours. “A few years ago, we thought it was a bit long, […]
May 25, 2022
The Flemish government must pay environmental organization Greenpeace a penalty of 850 000 euros. The Air Policy Plan drawn up after a judgment by the Brussels Court of First Instance does not meet the requirements of that judgment, Greenpeace reports. “Flanders still does not have a sufficiently ambitious air action plan,” the organization denounces. No […]
May 25, 2022
D’Ieterens ‘Lucien’ bike business has a new, important competitor: Raida. The new group consists of three local chains: Cool Electro Cycles (West-Flanders), Velodome (Antwerp), and Bicyclic (Wallonia). Altogether, they represent 22 shops with 120 employees and a € 40 million turnover. Another big chain is the Colruyd daughter Bike Republic (formerly called Fiets!), which counts […]
May 24, 2022
Road safety institute Vias advocates the rapid introduction of a driving license based on points to which measures and judicial sanctions are automatically linked up to a certain level. This is stated in a study commissioned by Federal Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), and for which a comparison was made with the practices of […]
May 24, 2022
In an objective to renew the airport of Zaventem into a multimodal hub based on a more environmental-friendly strategy, her CEO Arnaud Feist wants to exchange short-haul flights with high-speed train connections. While pointing at how Brussels Airport was one of the first in Europe with an integrated train station, he also puts the ball […]
May 24, 2022
The decision has been made on the almost 18-year-old plans for a tram connection between Hasselt and Maastricht: the Flemish government is shelving the plans for an express tram between the two Limburg capitals. Instead, there will be an electric tram bus with maximum free bedding. In the longer term, the aim is fully autonomous […]
May 23, 2022
Lancia is resurrecting. It starts its ‘ten-year plan’, which will begin in 2024 with the new Lancia Ypsilon. In 2026, the new flagship is supposed to arrive, 4,6 meters long, which will allow the brand to enter the largest segment in Europe. 2028 will be the year of the new 4,4 meters long ‘Delta’, a […]
May 23, 2022
In 2021, there were 41,1 million trucks, mostly foreign, on Belgium’s roads. Never before has this number been so high. This is evident from the report for its operating year drawn up by Viapass, the organisation that manages the kilometer charge for trucks in Belgium. Consequently, revenues for the kilometer charge are also peaking: 822 […]
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 20, 2022
The European Commission wants the EU to faster accelerate its endeavor to gain energetical independence. Energy use must be more efficient, the energy supply must be diversified, and the energy sources must become sustainable. The whole plan has been presented this week under the REPowerEU name. The war in Ukraine has once again emphasized the […]
May 19, 2022
Together with Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands, Belgium will increase the capacity of wind turbines in the North Sea tenfold by 2050, to a total capacity of 150 gigawatts. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) signed an agreement on this on Wednesday in Esbjerg, Denmark. The sky-high energy prices and the ongoing military conflict […]
May 19, 2022
After more than six years, high-speed train operator Thalys is canceling its IZY low-cost offer. With the IZY trains, you could travel between Brussels and Paris for 10 euros, although it took an hour longer because it did not run on high-speed rail in France. On 10 July, IZY will run for the last time. […]
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 19, 2022
The Dutch charging infrastructure provider Allego, already well introduced and proliferating in Belgium, has entered into a cooperation to install ultra-fast charging stations at 100 rest stops operated by G&V Energy Group by 2024. The partners want to realize twelve locations before the end of 2022 and see the longer-term potential for another 150 sites. […]
May 19, 2022
Giant Japanese carmaker Toyota has announced a significant partnership with the French world leader in gas and technologies Air Liquide for hydrogen mobility. Together with Portuguese bus manufacturer CaetanoBus, they will act on developing infrastructure and vehicle fleets to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen for both light and heavy vehicles. “We are uniting our forces […]
May 17, 2022
In his eagerly awaited report, the intendant appointed by the Belgian government, Guy Vloebergh, concludes that the Ventilus line is best placed above ground. The high voltage connection, which must bring wind electricity from the North Sea onshore, has been strongly debated. Action groups now threaten with legal procedures, which would stall the project resulting […]
May 17, 2022
SOLiTHOR, a spin-off of the Leuven-based research company Imec, will develop and market solid-state batteries under the brand name SOLiTHOR. These batteries should also be usable in automotive applications within five to ten years because they are safer, weigh less, and, above all, are cheaper than the current generation of batteries. Ten years of research […]
May 13, 2022
On Tuesday, the Norwegian government put forward a proposal to apply taxes to the sales of electric cars, putting an end to their world-renowned incentive scheme that electrified the national fleet over the past few years. The Norsk Elbilforening, or Electric Car Association, reacts with disapproval. Thanks to VAT exemption and a host of benefits […]
May 13, 2022
Flemish Minister of Mobility, Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), wants to know the effect of lowering the speed on the highways around Ghent. She, therefore, ordered a study, the Minister announced on Thursday in the Mobility Commission of the Flemish Parliament. The Minister hopes she will be able to start a test phase based on the […]
May 13, 2022
General Motors CEO Mary Barra is ready to return to Europe. The most obvious reason is that electric vehicle sales are booming in the EU. The old continent could be an integral part again of GM’s accelerated switch to electrification. Europe is the second-largest electric vehicle market globally, next to China. On Monday, Barra confirmed […]
May 13, 2022
During the announcement of the latest quarterly figures, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse confirmed that ‘die Neuse Klasse’, the new New Class platform planned for 2025, will first be used in the 3 Series segment. Zipse did, however, also somewhat limit the future use of the platform. Shortly after Zipse’s statement, the next strategic shift is […]
May 12, 2022
Both the new and second-hand motorbike markets were hit like the car market. Last month, the number of new motorbike registrations fell by 20,3%, while the second-hand market did even worse with 24,2%. The figures come from the automotive federation Traxio. The declining new motorbike market is partly due to delayed deliveries of ordered motorbikes. […]
May 12, 2022
More than a third of Belgian companies will not make the switch to a fully electric car park by 2026, the deadline the government is setting for new company vehicles sold to be electric. This is shown by an online survey by insurer AON and FLEET Magazine. The reasons are diverse, the 200 respondents say. […]
May 12, 2022
Many manufacturers are already sold out of vehicles (especially EVs) in 2022. The delivery delays are getting longer than a year, making some stop taking orders. VW was the first, and now Tesla and Mercedes-Benz seem to be following, among others. Recently, Volkswagen was the first to announce that it is “basically sold out” of […]
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
There’s something weird going on in the automotive industry. Even though sales are beating record lows in some regions, the financial results of many companies are still good to excellent. Pushed by the Ukrainian conflict and the chip shortage, most manufacturers try to sell their more expensive and profitable cars first. The message was already […]
May 09, 2022
Luring more people and companies on the train, with a connection every 15 minutes around the big cities. These are some of the spearheads of Railway Vision 2040, the plan with which Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) wants to guide the Belgian railway policy for the next 20 years. The Council of Ministers approved […]
May 09, 2022
A few weeks ago, D’Ieteren CEO Francis Deprez presented its plans for the Group at its investor’s day in the Ixelles headquarters. The four divisions of the Group revealed their plans, and this has to result in a yearly cash flow of €2 billion and a benefit of €1 billion by 2025. Remarkable also: the […]
May 06, 2022
It’s the world’s best-selling van for decades, so if you get the chance to drive some of the first all-new e-Transits coming from Ford’s Kocaeli (Turkey) factory, you grab it. Expect a totally new experience, so quietly and swift you might forget you’re on your way with a 3,5-ton vehicle. And that can be a […]
May 06, 2022
The European car manufacturers association ACEA just released the total European car sales figures for the first quarter of 2022. There’s a noticeable growth for alternatively fueled cars, especially electrified ones. Battery electric vehicles (BEV) now account for 10% of the market, hybrid electric vehicles (HEV and PHEV) for 25,1%. Together, the electrified vehicles represent […]
May 05, 2022
In a television interview, Norwegian Minister of Transport Jon-Ivar Nygård has unveiled that the government is reconsidering the EV incentives that helped push electric car sales to almost 90%. Scrapping the benefits must get more people out of their cars. Free municipal parking. No tolls on ferries. Access to bus lanes. No annual road tax. […]
May 05, 2022
According to news agency Bloomberg, insiders report that LG Chem has set its eyes on Antwerp-based materials handler Umicore to quench its thirst for expansion abroad. Umicore is an appealing candidate for the South-Korean battery manufacturer because it needs to secure its materials supply line in the wake of the explosive global growth of EV […]
May 04, 2022
The impact of digital technology on the climate is five times more positive than the total digital footprint by 2030. CO2 emissions in Belgium could decrease by 10 to 12% by using digital technologies in the four most CO2-polluting branches of industry. That is the conclusion of a recent study by the technology federation Agoria. […]
May 04, 2022
After contradicting that there won’t be enough charging infrastructure for all new electric cars to be built, the Brussels-based environmental NGO, Transport & Environment (T&E), wants to shatter another myth: the shortage of raw materials for batteries. A T&E study into the short-term availability of raw materials claims there is enough lithium and nickel for […]
May 04, 2022
The car and two-wheeler manufacturers and importers association Febiac have released the new sales figures for April. But unfortunately, the falling tendency has been reinforced. Last April, registrations of new cars fell by 23,6% to 28 402 units, those of LCVs even more, by 31,85%, to 4 704 units. For the first four months of […]
May 04, 2022
Stellantis’ car-sharing division Free2move announced today it had signed an agreement to acquire car-sharing company Share Now, a joint venture formed by Mercedes-Benz Mobility Group and BMW Group in 2019. Share Now is a market leader and pioneer of free-floating car-sharing and is represented in 16 major European cities with around 10 000 vehicles, including […]
April 29, 2022
The Brussels Government is raising its ambitions to reduce greenhouse gas from 40 to 47% by 2030 compared to 2005. To this end, subsidies for gas-fired condensing boilers will be abolished in 2023, and the move away from fossil fuels will be accelerated without waiting for the next legislature. This emerges from the policy guidelines […]
April 29, 2022
The new Port of Antwerp-Bruges, a fusion of the harbors of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, wants to become “the green entry to Europe”. Its ambitions are not to be sneezed at: Port of Antwerp-Bruges wants to become Europe’s largest international export harbor, and at the same time reconcile economy and climate. Port of Antwerp-Bruges is determined […]
April 28, 2022
Rental cars will remain very expensive this summer. Prices have increased spectacularly – some almost tripled – because there is more demand than supply. “A rental car eats away the largest part of your holiday budget,” some say. The best advice rental companies can give is to book in advance and on time. In 2020, […]
April 28, 2022
According to Russian press agencies and Reuters, Renault will sell its stake in local partner AvtoVaz for one symbolic rouble, with the option of repurchasing it later. The deal includes the French carmaker’s factory in the outskirts of Moscow, where models from Renault and Dacia are built. The Russian minister for commerce and industry, Denis […]
April 27, 2022
The number of people traveling, especially by train, will reach a ceiling in Belgium in the coming years due to the widespread use of teleworking and the aging of the population. Specifically for commuter traffic, the train would even lose 20% of passenger kilometers by 2040. But on the other hand, the Belgian Federal Planning […]
April 27, 2022
London’s typical ‘black cabs’ are crossing the Channel to Belgium in white and blue livery and as a battery-electric van with a range extender. The first two LEVC VN5 vans were delivered to logistics company Hazgo, a specialist in transporting medical samples, headquartered at BruCargo in Brussels. LEVC (London Electric Vehicle Company) has been making […]
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 26, 2022
Four out of ten Flemish citizens – 42%, to be specific – get annoyed about the driving behavior of their partner. One-third of them (32%) even say they sometimes quarrel about it. Women are more easily irritated (46%) about the driving behavior of their partner than men; men don’t mind that much (37%). The figures […]
April 26, 2022
Last year, the Brussels Region paid out 771 547 euros in compensation for the poor state of the roads. Two hundred ten complaints were handled, 107 following incidents on the Ring Road. Also, five motorcyclists, 13 pedestrians, 19 cyclists, and three scooter users suffered damage due to the bad condition of the road. Although it […]
April 22, 2022
The environmental organization Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL) complains about the indecisiveness of the Flemish government to tax pick-ups properly. Already in 2020, Flemish Finance Minister Diependaele announced that the taxing of pick-ups would be changed. But, until now, nothing has happened. In Belgium, pick-ups are considered to be light commercial vehicles. This means they don’t […]
April 22, 2022
Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment states in a new analysis report that the charging infrastructure in Europe will keep pace with the uptake of electric vehicles by 2035, when the combustion engine would be banned. T&E forecasts 10,4 million public chargers for 131 million EVs in Europe by 2035. It counters the persistent warnings by […]
April 22, 2022
In its first study on life cycle assessment, Green NCAP, the sustainability branch of safety organization Euro NCAP, has examined the environmental impact of 61 popular models on the European market. Though the electric Fiat 500 showed the smallest carbon footprint, the Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI made a case for the combustion engine. Life cycle […]
April 21, 2022
BMW has presented the new generation of the 7 Series, for the first time also in a fully electric version i7. BMW sees this generation change as a “redefinition of luxury”. When one looks at the technical information, the i7 seems to be the top model of the entire series. For Europe, only electrified models […]
April 21, 2022
According to the latest report of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Belgium still is far too dependent on fossil fuels. And after the partial nuclear phase-out in 2025, this reliance will probably only increase. But unfortunately, it also means the country has hardly made any progress in reducing its CO2 emissions. In 2020, 71% of […]
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 20, 2022
The Council of State has decided to stop the works of the Antwerp Oosterweel connection for a second time after receiving complaints from environmental organizations Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL) and Greenpeace. Both contest the restart of the earth-moving activities on the left bank of the river Scheldt. It’s the second time that the Council of […]
April 19, 2022
Spain is gearing up its efforts in hydrogen as a sustainable alternative to oil in the northern part of the country, spanning from the Basque Country over Navarra and Aragon to Catalonia. Beginning of this month, it announced the creation of the ‘Ebro Hydrogen Corridor’, with a network of 20 hydrogen filling stations by 2025 […]
April 19, 2022
During a media tour at the Rivian factory in Illinois, CEO RJ Scaringe warned that battery supply for the EV transition would be a much steeper mountain to climb than the current semi-conductor crisis. He pinpoints that manufacturers who don’t take these signs seriously will risk challenging times ahead. Rivian’s factory is running at a […]
April 19, 2022
Volvo Cars has invested StoreDot, an Israeli company developing extreme-fast charging battery technology for electric cars. The investment was made through the Volvo Cars Tech Fund, its venture capital arm. StoreDot is working on a pioneering technology that, according to the company, should result in batteries that can charge to 160 km of pure electric […]
April 14, 2022
D’Ieteren, Ginion Group, Valckenier, and finance&invest.brussels have joined forces and resources to promote new mobility trends via the D’Ieteren Lab Box scale-up MyMove. They want to make car-sharing (inside or outside organizations or companies) more accessible and popular internationally. The car business is moving fast forward, as is mobility in general. New trends like ride-hailing, […]
April 14, 2022
The Mercedes Vision EQXX prototype for the electric sedan of the future has recently proven its 1 000 km + range in real driving conditions. After a 1 008 km long drive from the research center in Sindelfingen (Stuttgart) to Cassis (French riviera), the car had some 140 km range left. Driving from Germany to […]
April 14, 2022
According to several sources, Renault is thinking of a possible spin-off and IPO of its electric car business. According to them, the Renault management is exploring the possibility of splitting the company into two entities for the internal combustion and electric car businesses. At a recent press conference, CEO Luca de Meo confirmed the internal […]
April 13, 2022
Hyundai plans to make the onboard charger from the Ioniq 5 suitable for bidirectional charging, enabling V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) technology. In addition, Hyundai will soon introduce a new electric model equipped with V2G technology from the beginning. The new vehicle is probably the Ioniq 6, which will be presented soon. The electric sedan will be the […]
