Following in the footsteps of its elder siblings, Tesla’s Model 3 has earned a perfect 5-star safety rating in every category from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA performs an extensive range of crash tests on all new vehicles, including frontal crash, side crash and rollover tests. Model 3 achieved the top score… Read more »
Electric bus maker Proterra, a company that we’ve often written about, has secured a new $155-million round of investment, co-led by Daimler (the exact amount Daimler invested has not been divulged). Along with the investment, Daimler and Proterra agreed to “explore the electrification of select Daimler heavy-duty vehicles. The first of these efforts will be… Read more »
Delivery trucks are ideal candidates for electrification, and they deliver long-term cost savings as well as cleaner air and quieter operation. Major fleets around the world, including FedEx and USPS, are testing them. A few operators have already passed the pilot stage, and placed substantial orders: Deutsche Post designed and built its own electric delivery… Read more »
This time, it feels different. We long-suffering EV journalists have been snookered time and again – automakers have launched new EVs, and we’ve covered them with enthusiasm and optimism, only to be disappointed when the companies failed to market them, and turned them into low-volume compliance cars. Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Kia, Audi and others have… Read more »
Can Tesla produce Model 3s in volume, and make a profit? That’s the question of the day (or maybe, of the century). Investment management firm Worm Capital (among others) believes that the answer depends on how efficiently the company is able to manufacture its battery packs, and it recently sent a team to visit Tesla’s… Read more »
It has gradually become apparent that Big Auto’s reluctance to embrace EVs is not due to mere Luddism or fear of the future. There are several reasons to believe that electrification will take a major bite out of industry profits, as Daimler execs acknowledged in March. Now Volkswagen has warned that its stated plan to… Read more »
China is by far the world’s largest EV market – nearly 373,000 plug-in passenger cars were sold there in the first half of this year (according to EV Volumes). It’s widely believed that Chinese automakers hope to ride the electrification wave to the top of the global industry, but so far the only Chinese company… Read more »
The Honda Clarity Plug-In Hybrid is a quiet star. While the Tesla Model 3 and Chevy Volt have been hogging the headlines, the Clarity PHEV has sold 8,109 units in the US since its late 2017 launch. It’s the third best-selling PHEV on the market, after the Prius Prime and the Chevy Volt. In the… Read more »
Winnebago Industries (NYSE: WGO) has partnered with Motiv Power Systems to develop an electric Mobile Lung Unit (eMLU) vehicle. Powered by Motiv’s EPIC 6 all-electric chassis, which is based on a Ford F-53, the specialty healthcare vehicle features the Samsung NeuroLogica BodyTom Elite, a portable full-body, 32-slice CT scanner. The vehicle’s electric powertrain eliminates the… Read more »
Berlin’s public transit operator BVG has ordered fifteen 12-meter electric buses from the Polish manufacturer Solaris. The new e-buses will arrive in the German capital in 2019, joining five Solaris electric buses already in BVG’s fleet. The Berlin battery buses will be powered by axles with integrated traction motors, and will use a set of… Read more »