Author: David Smith

VinFast employs an additional 8,000 employees for its electric vehicle factory in Haiphong, Vietnam. The addition of this employee is done to increase production of their electric SUV which will be sent to the United States by the end of this year. VinFast currently employs 6,000 people in total. According to the company’s post on a verified Facebook account, the new hire is for VinFast’s production expansion. “The new staff, including assembly workers, technicians and engineers, will start work from August and September.” The EV factory in Haiphong has a production capacity of up to 250,000 cars per year. VinFast…

In the latest release notes for Tesla 2022.24.1 written on the web, there are a few additions that Tesla users should note. One of them is the ability to use an external SSD and USB drive to add/remove games. However, Twitter user greentheonly notes it’s not yet user-facing. https://twitter.com/greentheonly/status/1555404094147272704 Some users such as Twitter’s Teslascope said Tesla was preparing Tesla’s upcoming “App Store,” which is tentatively slated for release later this year. https://twitter.com/teslascope/status/1555406258970116102 Some of the changes that have been made include: Model 3/Y and refresh Model S/X cloud drive profiles North American refresh of Model S/X brake blending Model…

EV Primus, a distributor of DFSK cars in Thailand, has launched the tiny electric car VOLT City EV (4/8). VOLT City EV is present as a new electric car in Thailand and will meet face-to-face with Wuling Hong Guang Mini EV. Interestingly, the VOLT City EV electric car has specifications that are quite competitive with the Mini EV or even the Wuling Air ev Standard Range. Starting from the variant, the VOLT City EV is available in two body options, namely For-Four and For-Two. The City EV For-Two body has the most compact body dimensions with a length of 2,920…

Tesla shareholders agreed to a 1:3 stock split in an effort to attract more retail investors. Quoting Bloomberg, Friday (5/8/2022), the stock split will make Tesla’s shares drop to the range of US$300, but the Austin, Texas-based company did not immediately specify when the stock split period would take effect. Tesla first announced its plans on March 28, 2022 via Twitter. The four-month lag between the announcement and the vote has proven beneficial as the rally in tech-listed stocks has brought the Nasdaq 100 Index up nearly 20 percent from its June low, with Tesla outperforming the tech index and…

The 2022 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, Elon Musk said that the price of the Tesla Cybertruck will be from the first announced price. The Tesla Cybertruck was first announced in 2019, before the pandemic. This futuristic truck experienced several production delays, when other competitors were already on the market such as the F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T and Hummer EV. After several design revisions, Elon Musk said that the final design of the Cybertruck electric truck is final and will start production in mid-2023. With the condition of raw material inflation, it is not surprising that Cybertruck prices are also rising. Tesla…

The first half of 2022 was sensationally passed by Stellantis because their electric car sales figures in Europe managed to beat Tesla. Stellantis is now at number 2 with electric car sales reaching 105,413 electric cars. While Tesla is below it with 78,277 units. Both still lose to Volkswagen, which dominates the electric car market in Europe with a record 116,307 sales in the first half. Stellantis is now ready to challenge VW and take the No.1 position next year Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said, “We are fighting for the top spot in terms of electric car sales in the…

Tesla is again taking orders for the Model S and Model X from European consumers after closing production of the Model S and Model X in January 2021 to upgrade both vehicles. Tesla took the decision to stop taking orders outside of North America from December 2021. That means Europe has been short of those models ever since. But now Tesla is again accepting orders for the two cars, starting from the Plaid variant. Shipments for new orders will begin between December 2022 and February 2023. https://twitter.com/tesla_adri/status/1554713514266198016 It is likely that Tesla will ship the car first to those who…

Porsche previously reported that they were working on a new, more luxurious electric SUV that would sit above the Cayenne in the company’s lineup. Not only that, this new electric SUV is also predicted to be able to shift the BMW iX from its position. Announced at a strategy update meeting last week, the new model will be known as the K1, and is built using a modified version of the VW Group SSP electric architecture. Porsche boss Oliver Blume not only revealed the plans for his new vehicle, but also confirmed that this car will be produced at the…

Waiting for your electric vehicle battery to be full is not fun. Especially if you have to charge in a public place and are alone. To that end, Tesla has tried to build Supercharger stations close to facilities that offer coffee, food, and toilets, but it’s not easy. Even in some locations, Tesla had to create its own lounge to offer these facilities to its consumers. Because of this, Tesla has just entered into a new partnership with bk World. With the partnership, Tesla will deploy Supercharger lounges and stations to other regions. In addition, the cube-shaped waiting room will…

BMW built a special facility in Solokov, Czech Republic for the development of driving technology, especially autonomous cars. In the facility there is a circuit that has two tracks that function to maximize BMW’s driving assistance technology. Currently the facility is still under construction. It’s just that the special circuit can be used 100 percent. Carscoops said that the plan is to open the facility next year. In an official statement, BMW said the facility would employ 100 people. Andreas Heb, BMW’s representative at the Solokov facility, said that both tracks are dedicated to maximizing BMW’s autonomous technology. In addition,…

Tesla signed deals with two Chinese battery material suppliers to secure the supply of its electric vehicle batteries. The two Chinese companies are Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. and CNGR Advanced Materials Co. This collaboration will last until the middle of this decade or around 2025. The partnership will also involve sourcing materials for ternary precursor materials and chemical cocktails which are key to storing energy in Lithium-ion batteries. In this collaboration, Hoayou Cobalt will supply battery material to Tesla from July 1, 2022 until the end of 2025. While CNGR will supply Tesla electric car battery material between 2023 and…

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has many reasons why it can become a winner of the 2022 World Car Award. Its driving quality is proven to be above the average electric car. In addition to its electric drive technology, the Ioniq 5 is also equipped with a series of advanced features, especially in terms of safety. The active safety feature package, packaged as Hyundai SmartSense, is complete in the Ioniq 5. This electric crossover is a model that has the full features of SmartSense from all other Hyundai products. Therefore, the Ioniq 5 can accommodate the needs of driving both inside…

Mercedes-Benz has succeeded in realizing the concept of an electric car that can cover a distance of 1,000 kilometers with just one charging. The concept vehicle, dubbed the EQXX, was realized in 18 months. The result is a low-slung Vision EQXX, only 53 inches tall, and its sleek design delivering a wind resistance (CoD) coefficient of just 0.17. In the auto industry, anything less than 0.30 is considered excellent. A score between 0.18 and 0.20 is considered already outstanding for any Mercedes EQS production model. One way to do this is to replace the bottom cooling plate for a regular…

The global automotive trend that is starting to focus on electrified vehicles or EVs has made the majority of manufacturers start competing to present various products and platforms that support EV. One of them is a manufacturer from the United States, General Motors which continues to develop a new platform called Ultium. As reported by Autocar on Thursday (28/7/2022), President and Managing Director of GM Europe, Mahmoud Samara said that one of their targets is to become an important player for the electric vehicle market in Europe. One of the steps is to sell the first product with the Ultium…

Stellantis has just announced sales reports of BEV vehicles from all brands under their group for the first half of 2022. Global sales of Stellantis BEV vehicles reached 136,000 units in the first half of 2022, up nearly 50 percent over the same period last year. The Stellantis Group owns no less than fourteen car brands and aims to become a global electric vehicle leader. Currently, all brands under the Stellantis banner have 20 fully electric vehicle models and are targeting to increase to 28 vehicles in the next two years. “In a demanding global context, we continue to ‘Dare…

Ford Pro as a division of the Ford Motor Company that focuses on the production of commercial vehicles has launched its first electric pickup truck that was made specifically for the fleet of the United States (US) police department. The electric truck is the Ford F-150 Lightning Pro SSV (Special Service Vehicle) 2023. With this pickup truck, Ford has shown its commitment to helping lead cities in the US towards the world of sustainability, especially the era of electrification. Ford Pro National Government Sales Manager, Nate Oscarson, said that the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning Pro SSV will be a modern…

Mitsubishi Fuso will soon start testing the eCanter electric truck in Bali in August 2022. This trial is the first in Indonesia, as well as direct testing in daily operational activities. According to PT Krama Yudha Tiga Berlian Motors (KTB) as the official distributor of Mitsubishi Fuso in Indonesia, they said that the Mitsubishi Fuso eCanter trial was a form of company support for the Indonesian government’s efforts to reduce emissions in the transportation industry. The electric truck is planned to be used to distribute raw materials to factories and support shipping routes in the Denpasar, Bali area. From this…

General Motors has reportedly lost nearly $5 billion on San Francisco-based robotaxi company Cruise, which started in 2018. General Motors (GM) said it lost $500 million on its Cruise program in its second-quarter earnings report. The total comes to approximately USD 5.5 million per day, evenly distributed in Q2 over 91 days. According to info from Reuters, investors are now stepping back from the risky business of investing in tech startups, instead reassessing how robotic vehicles will be used on public roads. Other companies are also struggling with the same, such as Amazon’s robotaxi service Zoox which is still in…

To expand its electric vehicle (EV) portfolio, an automotive manufacturer from the United States (US), Chevrolet has introduced its new electric SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) model, the Chevrolet Blazer EV. The General Motors (GM) subsidiary has designed the Blazer EV that aligns with consumer demand for ease of EV ownership and propels Chevrolet towards the heart of the electric SUV segment which is currently growing rapidly in the global market. Chevrolet vice president Scott Bell revealed that the Blazer EV has set a new tone for electric SUVs, with intuitive options and technology helping position Chevy (Chevy as it is…

The electric vehicle revolution could see Kodak announce its plans to turn its film manufacturing equipment into car batteries. The company will reuse several high-tech machines originally intended for photographic film into electric vehicle battery manufacturing equipment. Kodak has invested in Wildcat Discovery Technologies in pushing its entry into electric car battery manufacturing. Kodak says that the Wildcat supercell battery requires a coating and technical input similar to that of its 35mm film. Therefore, it only takes a bit of retooling to get into electric car battery manufacturing. This could provide a major boost to the electric vehicle battery industry,…