Silicon Valley startup Renovo Motors made quite a splash at the recent Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance with its prototype supercar. A new video includes an interesting interview with Renovo’s CEO Chris Heiser, delivered during a tantalizing test drive. Yahoo! Autos’ Justin Hyde points out that over 20 would-be EV-makers have failed in the past decade… Read more »
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Mercedes S 500 Plug-In Hybrid goes on sale
Mercedes-Benz has begun taking orders for the S 500 Plug-In Hybrid. Prices (in Germany) start at €108,944 ($146,000). The new sedan will begin arriving at dealerships in September. The plug-in Benz features an 85 kW, 340 N·m electric motor and a new 245 kW, 480 N·m, 3.0-liter biturbo V6 gas engine. Combined system output is… Read more »
Tesla quarterly report: progress on all fronts
Steady progress was the theme of Tesla’s second-quarter report, released after the bell on Thursday. Development of the Gigafactory is firmly on track – the company formalized a partnership agreement with Panasonic, and has broken ground at a site near Reno, Nevada. Although, the final location of the factory is still uncertain. “Consistent with our… Read more »
Daimler and BMW commit to common technology for wireless charging
Daimler and BMW have agreed to jointly develop and implement a common technology for wireless charging. The system consists of two components: a secondary coil integrated into the under tray of the car and a primary coil integrated into a floor plate that can be placed on a garage floor. Electrical energy is transmitted at… Read more »
Daimler switching battery suppliers again?
Does Daimler have a coherent electric-vehicle strategy? Its battery supply chain is literally all over the map, and this week’s announcement that the company may close a German battery plant that it was boasting about a month ago has the EV press puzzled. The first generation of Daimler’s smart fortwo electric drive, which is selling… Read more »
Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive priced to compete with BMW i3
Mercedes-Benz has dribbled out a few more details about its eagerly-awaited B-Class Electric Drive, which is scheduled to arrive in eight US states this summer. The latest news: MSRP will be $41,450, almost exactly the same as that of the BMW i3. The Beemer, which went on sale in the US this month, appears to… Read more »
Mercedes Intelligent HYBRID system looks at the road ahead to maximize efficiency
Cars are not just getting charged – they are also getting smarter and more perceptive, and these technological trends reinforce each other in many ways. Increasingly, vehicles use real-time data about their surroundings to maximize the efficiency of their electrified powertrains. A prime example is Mercedes-Benz’s Intelligent HYBRID system, an energy management system for hybrid… Read more »
Tesla and Daimler: Is the honeymoon over?
The partnership between Tesla and Daimler, which dates from 2008, has been advantageous for both companies, with the stodgy Germans enjoying a little of Tesla’s bad-boy chic, and the Silicon Valley upstarts benefiting from Daimler’s old-world respectability. However, it’s sounding as if Daimler has lost that lovin’ feeling. Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told reporters at… Read more »
Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive goes into production
The first Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive has rolled off the assembly line in Rastatt, Germany, and is scheduled to go on sale in the US this summer. With an MSRP expected to be in the low 40s, the electric Benz may prove a worthy competitor to the BMW i3, and could really shake up the… Read more »
Daimler acquires two key German battery firms
Daimler has agreed to acquire Evonik’s shares of Li-Tec Battery GmbH and Deutsche ACCUmotive GmbH, making Daimler the sole owner of the two companies. In recent years, Daimler and Evonik have worked together to develop industrial series production of lithium-ion battery cells for EVs. The two companies produce the batteries used in the current model… Read more »