Since the public humiliation of the diesel debacle, Volkswagen’s execs have had much to say about producing more electrified vehicles. Speaking at the company’s New Year’s party in Brussels, CEO Matthias Müller promised that the Volkswagen Group would concentrate on sustainability “more than ever before,” and confirmed plans to introduce about 20 new plug-in models… Read more »
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New e-Golf will have improved batteries, 30% more range
An upcoming battery upgrade will increase the VW e-Golf’s range by almost 30 percent, Volkmar Tanneberger, the company’s head of electronic development, told Autoblog at the 2016 CES. The capacity of the e-Golf’s cells will be increased from 28 amp hours to 37 amp hours, and no physical changes to the pack design will be… Read more »
Tesla leads the pack as overall 2015 plug-in sales fall short
2015 was a year of retrenching and preparation for the future in the EV industry. US sales for the year were around 116,000, falling short of 2014’s figure of 123,000. The Tesla Model S grabbed and held the lead position, handily outselling all other plug-ins in the US with 25,700 deliveries. However, the big news… Read more »
Ford reveals ambitious electrification plans
For the past several months, we EV newshounds have suspected that Ford had plans for a new generation of plug-ins up its sleeve. Now the #2 US automaker is beginning to reveal its answer to electric rivals GM, Nissan, VW et al. Ford announced plans to invest a record $4.5 billion in electric tech over… Read more »
New York Times: Car dealers holding back EV sales
Car dealers are a conservative lot, and many have shown themselves to be highly skeptical about EVs. This topic, which the EV press has been discussing for some time (including a feature article in the June/July 2014 issue of Charged), has now broken through to the mainstream press, as the New York Times reports that… Read more »
Volkswagen Group to boost investments in EV tech by €100M
As the Volkswagen Group works to control the damage from its emissions cheating scam, it plans to cut planned investments in property, plant and equipment for next year by about €1 billion. One area, however, will see an increase. VW plans to boost spending on electrification technologies by €100 million, continuing its development of electric… Read more »
UCLA study: HOV access for plug-in cars drives sales
One of the goodies that many governments offer to encourage EV sales is access to special highway lanes. In California at least, it seems that such policies are very effective. A new study conducted by UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation, with funding from the California Air Resources Board, has found that state legislation that opened… Read more »
Bob Lutz thinks Tesla’s in trouble
Since Tesla’s 2003 founding, there’s been a steady stream of articles explaining why it would soon go belly-up. The latest comes from a seemingly unlikely source: Bob Lutz, the “father of the Chevrolet Volt.” Back in the day, Lutz and Musk seemed like fellow travelers – the former GM exec said he would always be… Read more »
BMW CEO: New EV planned, but diesel still rules in Europe
Instant replay department: An auto exec makes a passing comment about future electrification plans; the pro-EV press hears what it wants to hear, and reports that the company is making a major new push to get charged. A couple of weeks ago, VW announced that it would continue several EV development programs – most of… Read more »
Slow sales for Tesla in Germany. Are more EV incentives on the way? (UPDATED)
Last month’s Frankfurt auto show was positively crackling with EV news, as Audi, BMW and Porsche presented concept EVs, Mitsubishi showed its 2016 Outlander PHEV, and several suppliers touted tech advances. However, the comparatively low-key presence of electric trendsetter Tesla – which was showing red, white and blue Model S but no Model X –… Read more »
