July 08, 2026
At Château-Ferme de Moriensart in Céroux-Mousty, Subaru Benelux made its point quite clearly. The brand’s new electric models may share their core engineering with Toyota, but they are intended to be more than badge-engineered cousins; a ‘go-anywhere family car’. On the short off-road course prepared for the press drive, the Solterra, Uncharted, and E-Outback showed […]
July 07, 2026
If you want to boost battery life, it seems only logical to look to the periodic table for a breakthrough. But maybe the solution is much simpler. Researchers at the University of Cambridge applied pressure and witnessed significant progress in cell lifespan. Better performance under pressure? It seems that batteries, too, benefit from the equation. The […]
July 06, 2026
A blistering heat dome in the eastern US has pushed the power system to the brink of a widespread emergency, raising the risk of a major blackout. But the vehicles that critics love to blame for grid strain managed to feed their stored power back into the grid via their V2G capability. A record number […]
July 03, 2026
At a dedicated event in Rome, Fiat CEO Olivier François unveiled what the company calls its “micromobility vision.” The lineup consists of a threesome running on batteries: the existing Topolino, the earlier announced three-wheeler Tris, and the new Multiplina Concept. In these retro-crazy times, the Italian brand is reinterpreting the classic Fiat 600 Multipla. Highest […]
July 02, 2026
Ford is presenting its Ranger Plug-in Hybrid equipped with ‘Power Onboard’ as a cleaner, cheaper, and more convenient alternative to a genuine portable petrol generator for contractors working on site. The claim has a solid practical basis, but the striking emissions ratios in Ford’s new study need careful reading. More importantly, the comparison becomes less […]
July 01, 2026
Toyota filed a patent last month for a hydrogen-powered gas turbine combustor. It’s a compact spinner designed to produce between 13 and 130 horsepower, but to what use? And is it feasible or just a quirky engineering idea? Back to the sixties As a strong – and increasingly isolated – believer in hydrogen for passenger […]
June 30, 2026
Stellantis is betting on Chinese Dongfeng to get Jeep back on track in Europe. In addition to greenlighting the import of the American Recon, the lineup will be completed in 2028 with a Chinese-built plug-in hybrid SUV. But Brussels is already drafting tariffs on the exact type of vehicle this partnership produces. Jeep’s European portfolio […]
June 30, 2026
Renault is preparing a technical upgrade for the electric Renault 4 and Renault 5, promising more power and improved efficiency for its two retro-inspired small EVs from late 2026 or early 2027. The information comes from Marianne Bataillon, Renault’s director of electric motor and battery development, who told Autocar that work is continuing on the […]
June 29, 2026
In the wake of the new European E-car rules, a similar concept from an unexpected name has surfaced. Shell has unveiled a small urban EV called the Triple10 Challenge, which shows some interesting features for a car of its size. This is more than oil supermajor window dressing for green credentials. Shell still pumps roughly […]
June 26, 2026
Hyundai, together with sister brand Kia, believes it can develop and bring to market vehicles that clean themselves. The only thing that’s needed is… light. Imagine this: you are a shuttle driver for a big hotel in Brussels. After the morning shift, you pull into the depot at 7 a.m., toss the empty coffee cups […]
June 26, 2026
China wants its vast electric-car fleet to become more than a transport revolution. Under its newly unveiled 15th five-year energy plan, Beijing aims to have EVs play a role in balancing a power system increasingly dominated by wind and solar. The plan, covering 2026 to 2030, targets a 50% share for non-fossil sources in electricity […]
June 25, 2026
Daimler Truck is adding hydrogen combustion to its zero-emission truck portfolio through a partnership with German specialist KEYOU. A move that gives the technology a high-profile industrial endorsement while underlining its likely role as a niche solution rather than the future default for heavy-duty transport. Under the agreement announced this week, Daimler Truck will supply […]
June 25, 2026
No, the Mach-E is not canceled today. Ford is still building it in Mexico and shipping it to dealers. But a second-generation Mach-E built on Ford’s new Universal EV architecture isn’t going to happen. A dead end seems ahead for the battery-powered vehicle that galloped the Blue Oval into the EV era, despite its unfortunate […]
June 22, 2026
According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, the European Commission has finalized a proposal for punitive tariffs on plug-in hybrids made in China. These bread-and-butter models could face a similar fate to their counterparts with full-electric drivelines. However, the percentages would be lower. Europe set out to punish Chinese electric cars. Instead, it created a market for […]
June 22, 2026
At the Beijing Motor Show, Smart unveiled the concept that matters most to its renaissance under new German-Chinese ownership: the #2. Will the successor make an impact just as quirky, revolutionary, and safe as the legendary original, or has modern reality overruled the formula? We find out in Rome, where the concept version hit European […]
June 19, 2026
In August, the first all-electric BMW X5 will roll off the production line at Spartanburg, South Carolina. The SUV is expected to weigh roughly three thousand kilograms, as it carries a battery larger than any BMW has ever fitted to a production car. That’s because it sits on a platform that was never designed to […]
June 19, 2026
Maserati has had a rough few years. Sales are down. The brand’s EV pivot has moved more slowly than planned, and the Grecale, its core volume model, has quietly fallen behind the competition on the one metric that matters most for electric cars: range. Revised Folgore versions of the Grecale and GranTurismo must help fix […]
June 18, 2026
BYD has officially released the Great Tang in China. This is not the successor of the Tang, but a more luxurious model positioned higher in the hierarchy. Its size and technology give it the allure of a limo in an SUV, though its price tells a different story. The BYD Great Tang doesn’t arrive empty-handed […]
June 18, 2026
The Antwerp-based construction company Smulders will participate in the construction of a power outlet in the North Sea for the German grid operator 50Hertz, a subsidiary of the Belgian high-voltage group Elia. The offshore power connector, known as ‘North Sea Connector 2,’ will enable up to 2 gigawatts of wind power electricity to be transmitted […]
June 18, 2026
The Porsche Taycan was the first EV to feature a two-speed gearboc. But now the German sports carmaker wants to reinvogarate the driving joy by adding fake gears, a feature that debuted on the Ioniq 5 N and which is also investigated by Toyota. The appeal for electric sports cars seems to reside in old-fashioned […]
June 17, 2026
Continental has developed a high-efficiency tire with Renault Group that is claimed to cut rolling resistance far beyond today’s best European label standard. According to Continental, it achieves up to 35% lower rolling resistance than required for the EU tire label’s top A rating, which could add up to 30 kilometers to an electric car’s […]
June 17, 2026
Brussels Minister of Mobility Elke Van den Brandt (Groen) acknowledged as much last year: Floya, the Brussels-Capital Region’s multimodal app, needs to become better known. MIVB/STIB is now addressing the issue itself by announcing that it will discontinue the multimodal mobility app starting in 2027. The app cost 6 million euros to develop, although Van […]
June 17, 2026
To fool the camera detection systems on their Teslas while driving in automated mode, Chinese customers turn to fake plastic doll heads. Screwed onto the ceiling of their cars, they successfully trick the system into thinking the driver is alert. It’s not the first time the aftermarket has tried to outsmart the safety systems of […]
June 17, 2026
The paper looks good, now that the American certification body has officially registered the Cybercab as the most efficient EV it has ever filed. But the streets are a completely different story for Tesla. With a shrinking fleet in place, Robotaxi rides are diminishing instead of growing Tesla has filed its official EPA documents for […]
June 17, 2026
Renault Group will not turn itself into a defense company, CEO François Provost insisted in Brussels last week. But barely days later, the French carmaker announced a new Thales deal that makes that red line harder to read. In an interview with De Tijd’s Bas Kurstjens and other media during the Automotive News Europe Congress, […]
June 16, 2026
Renault’s new electric Twingo has already been pitched as a cheerful answer to the affordable urban EV. Now the French carmaker is giving it a second role: a mobile data collector for cities. Together with Software République, Renault has unveiled cleveR insights, a Twingo E-Tech electric equipped with cameras and sensors to collect and analyze […]
June 16, 2026
As Tesla is gradually but quickly rolling out its supervised autonomous driving tech in Europe, details are emerging about how the company is trying to influence the approval process. According to Reuters, a policy manager is on a roadshow with a polished presentation that overestimates the safety benefits of FSD Supervised. After Tesla obtained approval […]
June 15, 2026
Solid-state batteries are often presented as the next great leap for electric cars, promising more range, faster charging, better safety, and perhaps lower costs. But Robin Zeng Yuqun, founder and chairman of CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker, has given that optimism a reality check. And when such an authority speaks, it’s worth listening. […]
June 15, 2026
BMW says customers have driven more than 200 million kilometers hands-free with its Highway Assistant, underlining how quickly advanced driver assistance is moving from technology showcase to daily use on European motorways. The German premium brand uses the milestone to position itself among the front-runners in an increasingly crowded field. Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Tesla are […]
June 12, 2026
Belgium has officially become the fifth EU member state to grant full approval for use of the Tesla FSD self-driving system. After succesful trials with a test vehicle, the Flemish Minister of Mobility, Annick De Ridder (NV-A), has granted approval. As regulatory barriers across Europe continue to fall, Tesla has simultaneously overhauled the pricing model […]
June 12, 2026
According to CarNewsChina, Dongfeng will start mass-producing its next-generation battery in the second half of this year and immediately start integrating it into vehicles. That would make it the first brand to offer solid-state at scale and could open opportunities for Peugeot, with whom the brand has strengthened its ties. But as with many battery […]
June 12, 2026
Within VW Commercial Vehicles’ range, the ID. Buzz gets most of the spotlights. But the Multivan and its motorhome sibling, the California, just got a significant cosmetic and technological update. The electrified drivetrains remained the same, however. The youngest evolution of both models brings a redesigned front end, an entirely new cockpit, and an upgraded […]
June 11, 2026
Dodge is back in Europe, and it is not arriving quietly. Stellantis has officially announced the European debut of the new Dodge Charger, bringing both the all-electric Daytona and the gasoline-powered SIXPACK across the Atlantic. In other words, the muscle car that America did not quite know what to do with is now being handed […]
June 11, 2026
Renault has found a new trick for the electric age: making a sensible small SUV look as if it has just escaped to the Riviera. The Renault 4 E-Tech Electric Plein Sud is not a full convertible, and it is certainly not as bare-legged as the Renault 4 Plein Air of the sixties. But with […]
June 10, 2026
Volkswagen has shown its autonomous charging robot to a live audience for the first time. The concept of a charging butler is no longer science fiction. This prototype will do real work in a real city. Has plugging in finally become hassle-free? Volkswagen Group Innovation brought its autonomous charging robot to Dresden. It’s got six […]
June 10, 2026
Alpine is using the opening of orders for the A390 GTS to do something unusual for a carmaker: instead of only explaining a complex chassis technology in a press release, it is putting it into Assetto Corsa. The new electric fastback has been modeled for the simulator, with Alpine describing the powertrain settings and dynamic […]
June 10, 2026
Stellantis has teamed up with Bolt and Pony.ai to start offering robotaxi rides in Luxembourg. Not the city, but the whole country. Adding to other pilots, ranging from Zagreb over Munich to London, 2026 is unfolding as the year when robotaxis finally land in Europe. Luxembourg is a small country, but apparently it has a […]
June 09, 2026
It was the battery claim of the decade. Donut Lab introduced solid-state cells that shocked the battery world with their efficiency and blistering charging times. Now, it turns out that it was just a decent liquid lithium-ion cell with an ambitious press release. Finnish financial and criminal authorities are reportedly looking into the matter. Alarm […]
June 09, 2026
If the Euregio secures the prestigious project to build the Einstein Telescope, a railway site spanning over 44 hectares in Montzen, near Voeren, will be available for this purpose. Both the Belgian rail infrastructure manager, Infrabel, and the Belgian national railway company, NMBS/SNCB, have given their informal approval for this. World-class measuring instrument The Einstein […]
June 09, 2026
Citroën’s CEO, Xavier Chardon, confirmed in an interview with German fleet publication Autoflotte that the new 2CV will make its debut at the Paris Motor Show this October. The concept, he says, will be “very close to the production model.” Sales follow in 2028, or exactly eighty years after the original premiered at the same […]
June 08, 2026
China wants its electric cars to become slimmer and more efficient after years in which bigger batteries, longer range claims, and SUV-style comfort features have made passenger cars larger and heavier. According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, the average passenger car in China weighed 1,704 kg in 2024, roughly one-third more than in 2012. Some […]
June 05, 2026
With the Nuvolari, VW’s premium daughter, Audi, is unveiling its first supercar with a high-performance hybrid powertrain and making a bold statement about the future. Limited to 499 units, offering 1,001 hp and a top speed of over 350 kph, the Nuvolari is Audi’s fastest and most powerful production vehicle ever. “This shows how the […]
June 04, 2026
The world’s largest battery maker has publicly backed lithium-air technology as its long-term strategic direction. Not solid-state (though that is next up, too). Not sodium-ion (that is already going into mass production this year). The battery company that correctly predicted and pushed those transitions now says the real endgame is a battery that uses atmospheric […]
June 03, 2026
Ride-hailing giant Uber announces a three-way collaboration with chip giant Nvidia and Israeli artificial intelligence startup Autobrains to launch a second robotaxi program in Munich. With a different software approach, the technology bets on fast scalability and carmaker independence. Uber’s new deal combines Autobrains’ autonomous driving software, Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion Level 4 compute […]
June 03, 2026
Despite earlier denials of the rumors, TikTok’s parent company is preparing to launch a car in its home country, China. It will be a crossover targeting the youthful audience typically active on social media platforms. The car itself will be manufactured by Seres, the Chinese automaker that’s also behind Huawei’s Aito brand. Five months ago, […]
June 02, 2026
Three months after quietly abandoning its pledge to go all-electric by 2030, Rolls-Royce is refreshing its only EV. The Spectre Series II has landed, and it is a proper update, not just a nose job. The recently appointed CEO of Rolls-Royce, Chris Brownridge, publicly stated that he had walked back the commitment his predecessor had […]
June 02, 2026
It’s the main question hovering over the use of ADAS technology and automated driving: if the systems fail and cause an accident, who’s paying the bill? Most disclaimers say that the use must be supervised and that the driver is always responsible. Not BYD. Still, there remain some ‘buts’. At its Intelligence Strategy Launch Event […]
June 02, 2026
Vehicle-to-grid has been “just around the corner” for some years now. Many EV owners are eagerly awaiting it, as second-generation EVs almost all offer the technology as a standard feature. This week, several announcements arrived at once – in Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands – that suggest the corner has finally been turned. The latest […]
June 01, 2026
Japanese automaker Toyota has quietly killed its most technologically ambitious electric vehicle: the LF-ZC. It joins Honda, Mazda, and Subaru in retreating from their own electrification promises. When Toyota unveiled the Lexus LF-ZC at the Japan Mobility Show in October 2023, it looked, briefly, like the world’s largest carmaker had decided to stop hedging. The […]
June 01, 2026
Scania launches its first-ever battery-electric CrewCab for fire, airport, and civil rescue operations. The new battery-electric CP31L 4×2 is purpose-built to support demanding emergency operations while enabling zero-tailpipe-emissions transport operations. Equipped with 356 kWh installed battery capacity and a 90% state-of-charge window, the vehicle combines operational capability with electric performance. Designed with free frame sides, […]
June 01, 2026
American ride-hailing operator Waymo has brought its most ambitious vehicle yet into rotation: the purpose-built Ojai (pronounced: oh-hi), its sixth-generation robotaxi made in China. Rides are currently free, but not for long. All of Waymo’s previous autonomous vehicles were regular consumer cars converted into robotaxis: a Chrysler Pacifica minivan, the Volvo XC90, and then a […]
May 30, 2026
BMW’s presence at Auto China 2026 combines a production milestone with a product reset. As the company celebrates its seven-millionth vehicle, it is also using Beijing for the world premiere of the long-wheelbase BMW iX3 and BMW i3. It’s the first Neue Klasse models developed specifically “in China, for China and with China”. The broader […]
May 29, 2026
In Europe, Stellantis Pro One sells more vans than any other brand. Now it wants to reinvent what a van actually is. The vision? The autonomous driving Box on Wheels. At its Investor Day, Stellantis flooded the press with strategic road maps, investment programs, and a reshuffling of its brand hierarchy. In the margin, it […]
May 29, 2026
Is Japan’s tightly guarded kei car market ready for a shake-up? There’s a new kid on Tokyo’s block, as the fresh brand EMTA has announced its intention to get its slice of the nation’s famous small and affordable cars. There’s a very deliberate attempt not to look Chinese, but the reality – of course – […]
May 28, 2026
Starting in June, the Belgian Limburg municipalities of Lommel and Pelt will become a rest region for smart and autonomous vehicles. Lommel Mayor Bob Nijs (CD&V) and his Pelt counterpart, Dennis Fransen (CD&V), have signed a letter of commitment to that effect. Initially, the test drives will take place at Ford’s test site in Lommel, […]
May 28, 2026
Volvo EV owners in Europe are getting a meaningful charging improvement while traveling longer distances. Starting in the autumn of this year, drivers will be able to access, initiate, and pay for sessions at Tesla Supercharger stations without the need for a separate app. No, Tesla allowing rival brands to its Supercharger network in Europe […]
May 28, 2026
Former Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess plans to launch a new mid-range electric tractor next year. To this end, he has founded Diess E-Agrartechnik AG, based in Munich. One of the unique features of the e-tractor is expected to be a swappable battery system enabling 24/7 operation. Herbert Diess is undoubtedly enjoying an active retirement: after […]
May 27, 2026
The Tesla Cybercab leaves every other production EV in the dust when it comes to frugality. For robotaxi economics, its record consumption is genuinely significant. For everything else, context is more important. Tesla’s Cybercab has been officially certified by the US EPA at 165 Wh per mile. Converted to the European WLTP standard, this would […]
May 27, 2026
BYD is bringing plug-in hybrid technology to the B-segment, a class that until now has been bypassed or abandoned by car makers. The Dolphin G DM-i aims squarely at Europe’s B-segment. Not only is this the first model BYD has developed specifically for overseas markets, but it is also the only PHEV currently on sale […]
May 27, 2026
Renault has put one of the most evocative names in its back catalog back into the air. Almost 90 years after entering French aviation history, the Renault Caudron Rafale C.460 flew again on 23 and 24 May at the ‘Le Temps des Hélices’ air show at La Ferté-Alais, near Paris. The flight is more than […]
