EV Stories March 27
Electric vehicles were on a roll in Europe through February, before the coronavirus reached higher impacts on sales and production. JATO Dynamics, an auto market firm, reported this week that BEVs were up 92% to 38,700 units year-on-year, and plug-in hybrids were up 153% to 28,700.
EV Stories March 24
There is a ripple effect from Ford establishing its EV headquarters in Detroit’s Corktown, and GM dedicating its Detroit-Hamtramck plant for electric vehicles. America’s troubled automotive capital is taking on new importance as a center for EV engineering. That’s paying off in unexpected ways.
Sales of electric vehicles in China were already in a slump after the government cut subsidies last year. The coronavirus is now resulting in a free fall for the overall vehicle market, including EVs. The drop in electric car sales is prompting Beijing to consider bringing back incentives, starting with local sources.
In the wake of the coronavirus, overall auto sales in the US could drop to low levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis. In hard-hit markets, like Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the demand for cars already fell by as much as 22%. However, new EV-sales strategies are emerging to help revive the pre-virus momentum for electric vehicles.
EV Stories March 17
The threat of the coronavirus is causing global automakers to suspend production. The short-term impact is to delay the rollout of the next wave of EVs, such as VW’s ID.3. Volkswagen today said that it’s suspending production “in the near future” at factories across Europe, including in Zwickau, Germany, where the ID.3 is produced.
Nearly every other global automaker, with the exception of GM and Tesla, is temporarily suspending production. See our updates.
EV Stories March 12
The UK’s chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak presented Britain’s 2020 budget yesterday in Parliament. Here’s what the majority Conservative Party announced about EVs, green energy, and the environment.
EV Stories February 19
If we haven’t heard from Lucid Motors over the past two years it was to get the company up and running perfectly. Since the beginning of the year, Lucid has announced a series of good news. The factory is on target to start production by the end of 2020. We also have a new picture of the final Dream Edition Air. expand full story
EV Stories February 5
British prime minister Boris Johnson announced that a ban in the UK on selling diesel and petrol cars would be brought forward from 2040 to 2035 at a launch event for the November UN climate summit (COP26) in Glasgow. The new ban now includes hybrid and plug-in vehicles.
EV Stories January 30
Los Angeles has committed to electrifying their entire garbage truck fleet, and they’re doing it with a pretty aggressive goal.
Los Angeles Board of Sanitation director Enrique Zaldivar made the announcement last week that not only will the city stop buying gas-powered garbage trucks in 2022, but they will have a fully electric fleet by 2035.
EV Stories January 29
Electric cars are commonplace in California cities and other key US markets. But as the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report indicated last week, many US states, including Louisiana, have barely begun to make the shift to EVs.
“Interest is nearly nonexistent,” said Matt McBrayer of Royal Automotive Group. “The vehicles are a viable option, but there needs to be more interest in the car for more people to understand that.”
