Jennifer Mossalgue

European automakers including Volkswagen and Jaguar Land Rover had to pay $552 million in fines for missing CO2 emission targets in 2020, the first year new regulations were put in place, according to a new report.

China has been heavily subsidizing its green tech sectors, but homegrown EV company BYD is a favorite child of the bunch, receiving subsidies to the tune of “at least” $3.7 billion, according to a new German study.

What’s an Alfa Romeo without a cool Italian-sounding name? The Stellantis-owned company is naming its first BEV after the famous city of Milan, but the Italian government is now playing hardball by saying that’s illegal since the car will be built in Poland. If it’s not made in Italy, it can’t sound Italian.

Chinese automakers are looking to export electric vehicles by the hundreds of thousands around the globe, but they need a lot more car-carrying vessels to make that happen. Demand is so high that the country is on track to amass what will be the world’s fourth-largest fleet in a few short years, with new trade routes being created especially for Chinese cars.

Chinese automaker Chery is planning to make cars in Spain, where the EV market is at just 12%, half that of Portugal and France. This would be Chery’s first manufacturing site in Europe.

A new study from UC Berkeley confirms what EV fans already know: EV adoption does, in fact, make the air cleaner. Perhaps even more importantly, the study offers some quantifiable, granular data about how much electric vehicles are impacting emission rates in the here and now, not just in the foreseeable future.

Another major blow to California-based startup Fisker, as tens of thousands of customers reportedly have canceled their EV reservations to date – which is some serious bad buzz amid a tumultuous time as the company scrambles for funding to stay alive.

South Korean automaker Kia has started production on its all-electric EV5 SUV for export in China, with the first markets targeted being Thailand and Australia, with Australia’s price expected to undercut Tesla’s Model Y, which is the best-selling SUV in the country. A global launch is set for next year, but will that include the US?

EV startup Canoo paid $1.7 million for CEO Tony Aquila’s private jet bills, twice its total revenue last year. According to its earnings report released this week, Canoo lost $302 million in 2023 – but it’s apparently been champagne and caviar for its top executive.

Renault is ramping up development of its upcoming all-electric Twingo, hoping to shave off as much time as possible to launch the car in three years and get an EV for under $22K out to consumers.

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi seems to have hit the ball out of the park with the launch of its debut EV, the SU7, last week. The launch has pushed its market value up by $4 million, with the company now nearing valuations higher than GM and Ford.

Amid an intense price war and lost market share to BYD and Tesla, China’s state-owned automaker SAIC Motor is reportedly making drastic job cuts this year at its joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen and at its EV unit – with mass layoffs a rare move for a China-owned company.

Orders for Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi’s brand-new SU7 have been pouring in – with Xiaomi announcing that within 27 minutes of the company accepting orders for the new all-electric sedan, it had already received more than 50,000 orders. Today Xiaomi has alerted potential buyers of a seven-month waiting time before getting the car. Apple, read it and weep.

Swedish automaker Volvo has rolled out its last diesel-powered passenger vehicle, after a 45-year relationship with the powertrain and cranking out millions of oil-burning cars. Between 2012 and 2016, diesel accounted for half of the company’s global sales. But those days are over now as the company moves toward an all-electric future.

It’s not a good week to be working at Stellantis. As it (finally) moves to try to sell EVs in the US, the automaker just laid off 400 US salaried tech workers and software engineers on Friday. Today the company announced that it was slashing more than 1,500 jobs in Turin, Italy, due to what it says are slow sales of its all-electric Fiat 500e city car. [Updated: Stellantis announced later after publication that the total number of layoffs in Italy would be 2,500.]

Chinese EV giant BYD just released its 2023 annual profit report, and it looks like it missed analyst estimates by a smidge, netting $4.16 billion (30.04 billion yuan) compared to the estimated $4.29 billion (30.94 billion yuan). Still, the company reported a more than 80% rise in net profit last year, so it is showing no signs of slowing down.

French automaker Renault is exploring a lucrative business prospect by partnering with companies to extract  and recycle lithium and other metals in EV batteries, creating a circular economy that can bring in billions of dollars and reduce reliance on China.

The heads of BMW, Volkswagen, and Renault have spoken out against European Union’s emission targets in recent days, arguing that the phase-out rules put too much pressure on the industry and that consumers aren’t buying EVs fast enough. Next year, the policy will tighten ahead of the full ban of gas and diesel cars in 2035, leaving automakers to pay steep fines if they fall short.

Lovers of the retro VW bus can get a sporty, all-wheel-drive, all-electric version with 335 hp – the most powerful ID. Buzz to date. Today, Volkswagen has followed up the recently announced ID.3 GTX and ID.7 GTX with the debut of its high-performance microbus Volkswagen ID. Buzz GTX.

Stellantis-owned Fiat has had high hopes for its all-electric Fiat 500, available in the US, but now a report says that the company may backtrack due to low demand and add an ICE version to the lineup.

Stellantis – the parent company of Jeep, Chrysler, Fiat, Dodge, and Ram – says that it will comply with California’s stricter emissions policy requiring two-thirds of new cars to be zero-emissions or all-electric by 2030 – and will commit to the deal even if former President Donald Trump makes a return to office and tries to dismantle the policy.

Volkswagen has canceled plans to build its all-electric ID.3 at its main factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, due to low demand, adding that “every euro that we do have to spend counts.” It will keep production at its EV-only plant, where it has been shaving off jobs for months.

Tesla battery supplier Panasonic Energy is considering pouring new investments potentially up to $4 billion in its De Soto, Kansas, plant to produce 4680 battery cells for the Tesla Cybertruck and Tesla’s next-gen vehicles.

Just as the EU is considering tariffs on Chinese EVs imported into Europe, three US Democratic senators are urging that the Biden administration hike import tariffs on Chinese EVs to address national security risks.