Author: James Bryant

Nikola announced that the Department of Energy’s Energy Loan Program Office (LPO) has invited the Phoenix Hydrogen Hub LLC project loan application to Part II of its application process. The project loan application was submitted on May 26, 2022, and has now progressed through Part I review. Applications for loan guarantees under an Innovative Clean Energy project application can amount to up to $1.3 billion for a renewable electrolytic hydrogen production facility that can produce up to 150 metric tons of hydrogen per day. The application process is entirely dependent on the outcome of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) review…

Ford Motor will invest 149 million pounds ($180 million) to increase electric car power capacity in Northern England by 70 percent. This investment is Ford’s step to accelerate electrification. Quoted by Reuters, Ford said the additional funds would increase electric car production at the Halewood factory from 250,000 to 420,000 units per year from 2024. As a result, the US manufacturer’s total investment in converting it into an electric car factory reached 380 million pounds. “Our vision in Europe is to build our business by expanding our leadership in commercial vehicles and through the electrification of our car lineup,” said…

Volkswagen on Wednesday (30/11/2022) announced that it was temporarily suspending vehicle production at two of its facilities located in China due to the Covid-19 related lockdown. Quoted from Carscoops, a VW spokesperson confirmed that production at the Chengdu plant had been halted due to difficulties getting parts from suppliers who had to cut production due to the coronavirus. Meanwhile, the production stoppage in Chengdu also affected the Jetta brand. In addition, VW was also forced to stop two of its five production lines at the Changchun factory due to a shortage of spare parts. The move will impact production of…

In five weeks the ninth season of Formula E electric car racing will begin. Several teams have also begun to reveal the car livery that they will use when the Formula 2023 racing season starts in 2023. The first three teams to have introduced their car livery for Formula E 2023 were the Nissan, Jaguar and McLaren factory teams on Thursday (1/12/2022) early this morning. It becomes even more special, because we finally see the Gen3 Formula E car, which is the latest generation of Formula E electric racing car in the official team livery. First, let’s take a look…

Earlier this month, Lucid introduced its second electric vehicle, the Gravity SUV. The electric vehicle startup has also hinted that a third, more mainstream model will also be coming soon. When Lucid introduced its first vehicle, the Air, the main highlights on offer were range, performance and luxury. However, now the company is looking to package its technology in a more affordable way. One of them is by introducing Lucid Air Pure with an initial price of $ 89,050. Compare that to the luxurious Dream Edition trim which costs $170,500. “All of the development of the high-end cars has trickled…

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today signed a 200 billion yen syndicated green loan agreement arranged by Mizuho Bank. Nissan will utilize the loan to support its clean mobility and related projects to progress its long-term electrification and carbon neutrality ambitions. The loan contract period will be five and seven years. As the first funds raised since launching the Nissan Sustainable Finance Framework in July, the company is deepening its investment program in electrification. Loan proceeds will fund eligible green projects defined in the framework, such as R&D, investments and expenditures for the design, development, and manufacturing of zero-emission vehicles and…

Rivian started doing its international deliveries for the first time. Canada is the first country outside the US to be able to use electric vehicles made by Rivian. Rivian delivered the first units of the R1S electric SUV and R1T electric pickup in Vancouver. As in the US, the first deliveries are going to employees, with the first customer deliveries scheduled for before the end of the year. At the launch event in Vancouver, Rivian first publicly presented the new vehicle to their future owners, which was quietly preceded by the first delivery to employees on Thursday. The launch followed…

Hyundai Mobis invested US$926 million for an electric vehicle components factory in Bryan County in the US state of Georgia. It is in this area that Hyundai Motor Group, which is the parent of Hyundai Mobis, recently started construction of its electric vehicle factory in the US. Hyundai Mobis follows a concept tried and tested by other manufacturers of the group by building its own components factory around it. These include various sensors for assisted or autonomous driving, as well as chassis, steering and braking systems – and, as in the Georgia case, also for electrification. The Hyundai Mobis plant…

MV Agusta is better known as a manufacturer that makes aggressive style motorbikes, street fighters and cool sports. However, now the Italian manufacturer is starting to look at the urban transportation market, by presenting a modern electric scooter. The EV scooter named Ampelio was developed by MV Agusta together with a company from Taiwan, Kymco. For design, this electric scooter was designed by Maksim Ponomarev, designer MV Agusta from Russia, and is different by taking inspiration from motorbikes from the 50s. As can be seen from the rendering results, this motorbike has a rounded design with inflated edges that are…

Polestar celebrates the 100,000th production milestone of the Polestar 2 in Luqiao, China. The electric vehicle will be delivered to a customer in Ireland and will feature a unique door sign to mark the production milestone. “It’s an amazing achievement – especially given we launched the Polestar 2 during the pandemic. Thank you to the team and all our customers who have joined us on this exciting journey,” said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO. Polestar 2 first shipped to consumers in July 2020. In Europe, the Polestar 2 is the No. 1 selling mid-range premium car. Over the nine months, fastback…

At the Los Angeles Auto Show 2022 (17/11), VinFast introduced the new electric car VinFast VF 6. The VinFast VF 6 appears at the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show as a new electric car that will soon greet US consumers. Together with the VinFast VF 7, the VF 6 will fill the new electric car segment against the Tesla Model 3, Hyundai IONIQ 5 and Kia EV6. “VinFast VF 6 and VF 7 have luxurious exterior and interior designs and advanced technology,” said Le Thi Thu Thuy, Vice Chairwoman of VinFast. “With four electric cars that have been introduced in…

– Added a new “deep lane guidance” module to the Vector Lanes neural network which fuses features extracted from the video streams with coarse map data, i.e. lane counts and lane connectivities. This architecture achieves a 44% lower error rate on lane topology compared to the previous model, enabling smoother control before lanes and their connectivities becomes visually apparent. This provides a way to make every Autopilot drive as good as someone driving their own commute, yet in a sufficiently general way that adapts for road changes. – Improved overall driving smoothness, without sacrificing latency, through better modeling of system…

General Motors announced it has entered into a Vale agreement for the long-term supply of battery-grade nickel sulfate. GM’s move comes to slash the cost of electric vehicle battery cells as automakers prepare to increase EV competition after 2025. Vale will supply the equivalent of 25,000 metric tons of nickel sulfate to GM per year from the proposed plant in Bécancour, Québec, Canada. Later this nickel will be used to produce electric vehicle batteries used by the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Blazer EV, Cadillac Lyriq, and many more. GM hopes to cut the cost of Ultium battery cells to less than…

Nuro, an autonomous vehicle delivery startup backed by SoftBank, Google and Tiger Global Management, on Saturday (11/19) announced the Termination of Employment (PHK) for 300 people, or 20 percent of its workforce. In an email received by the laid-off employees, the startup said that the downsizing was done in an effort to save on the company’s operational costs amid the poor economic prospects. Several Nuro employees also posted on Twitter and LinkedIn that they had been affected by the layoffs. Meanwhile, the startup founders, namely Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, will be responsible for the layoffs. “We apologize to the…

Korean luxury car manufacturer, Genesis launched its new concept, named X Convertible, right before the Los Angeles Auto exhibition, United States. A drop-top electric car with a 2+2 seating configuration, the car is based on the same architecture and electric powertrain as the 2021 Genesis X Concept and Genesis X Speedium, and marks the final chapter in the luxury brand’s Concept X series. Genesis started life by producing sedans primarily targeting business users. While creating a distinct new design DNA, they gradually increased the emotional appeal by applying this DNA to the SUV typology. “Now, the electric powertrain has provided…

The Hyundai N Vision 74 has been announced globally by the company some time ago. Now the car has made its debut in North America at the LA Auto Show. The first impression of the car is as wild and retro-futuristic as it gets in the renderings. Taking inspiration from the Hyundai Pony Coupe concept, the automaker describes the new concept as a vision into an electrified future for the N performance sub-brand. The Hyundai N Vision 74 is an FCEV with a hydrogen stack up front to charge the 62.4 kWh battery. The car uses independent motors which can…

Drako Motors, a California-based startup electric car company, has introduced the Dragon Dragon in conjunction with the 2022 Los Angeles Auto Show. The Drako Dragon was launched as Drako Motors’ second electric car after the Drako GTE which was developed based on the Fisker Karma. If you look at the specifications, the Drako Dragon electric car has wild power that surpasses the Tesla Model X Plaid and even rivals the Rimac Nevera. Before discussing power, it’s worth mentioning that the Drako Dragon has a unique SUV body that features two gullwing doors. The Super SUV body design was worked on…

Volkswagen’s dream of building an electric vehicle that can compete with Tesla is in jeopardy, as its flagship Project Trinity is now drifting off course. The facility, which is a new $2.2 billion EV factory to manufacture Trinity electric vehicles, may now be in jeopardy. VW is starting to review whether a Trinity EV power plant is really needed This bad news circulated after Manager Magazine, released an interview with VW CEO, Oliver Blume. Mr. Blume as reported in the magazine wants to cancel the new facility as part of its strategy to “clean up” the German car group. Blume’s…

Volta and Cake announced a collaboration aimed at decarbonising and decongesting last mile deliveries, while also improving service to end customers. The first trial, planned in Q1 2023 in Paris will be with the H&M Group, a fashion and design family of brands and businesses. The fully integrated, zero tailpipe emission delivery service from warehouse to end customer uses the most efficient combination of electric trucks and electric two wheelers. Free to operate in the world’s most rigorous zero-emission zones, the capacious Volta Zero will act as a mobile micro hub, or mini warehouse. Cake’s electric motorcycles will be loaded…

After debuting in July, the electric pickup truck, the Radar RD6, has finally launched in China with an initial price of 178,800 yuan. This model is based on the Geely Haoyue VX11 SUV, which will also form the basis of the seven-seater Proton X90 SUV that will be launched next year. Measuring 5,260 mm long, 1,900 mm wide and 1,830 mm high with a wheelbase of 3,120 mm, the Radar RD6 is almost the same size as the Toyota Hilux. According to Car News China, the double-cab version of the Toyota pickup is 5,325 mm long, 1,900 mm wide and…