Maarten Vinkhuyzen Grumpy old man. The best thing I did with my life was raising two kids. Only finished primary education, but when you don’t go to school, you have lots of time to read. I switched from accounting to software development and ended my career as system integrator and architect. My 2007 boss got two electric Lotus Elise cars to show policymakers the future direction of energy and transportation. And I have been looking to replace my diesel cars with electric vehicles ever since. And putting my money where my mouth is, I have bought Tesla shares. Intend to keep them until I can trade them for a Tesla car.
March 29th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Wearing a mask to protect yourself from germs and air pollution is quite normal in East Asia. In China it is now even mandatory in a number of provinces when leaving the house. The coronavirus scare has made the public and the government even more conscious of the threat of infection
March 29th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo stated yesterday that New York expects to need 30,000 ventilators in 14 –21 days, and also 140,000 hospital beds. That is when the number crunchers of New York’s health care system expect to reach the apex of coronavirus infections
March 24th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
First, I am not a scientist. I think I have a knack for making a logical picture of a situation. Those pictures are often usable, and sometimes completely wrong
March 22nd, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Travelling widens your view of the world. These last few months, in the midst of auto industry conferences and travel, I have suddenly been encountering situations in the auto world that really open my eyes
March 22nd, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
After the cancellation of the Geneva International Motor Show, as compensation for the missed opportunity to interact with the press, Carlos Tavares, CEO of Peugeot, held a conference call with a number of journalists. There were some discussions about the future electrification of the automotive industry. His comments on the subject were shocking for the ignorance they revealed
March 21st, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
The European Car of the Year is not the “Best Buy” advice of a consumer organization. It does not put a sticker on Product X in category Y in price class Z. It does not help customers to choose between the myriad offerings on the market by positioning something as the cheapest, coolest, easiest, safest, healthiest, or greenest product they can buy
March 19th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
When I read “Volkswagen Confirms Summer Launch For ID.3, Says It Will Cost Less Than Gas/Diesel Models,” I only thought: “Wow, price parity sooner than I expected.” An hour later, I thought: “Wait a second, better product, lower price” — that causes what is known as the “Osborne effect.”
March 17th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
In the automotive echo chamber, BMW is seen as the leader in electrification of autos. Among those that look at the future disruptive transition to tailpipe-free vehicles, BMW was climbing to the top of the “will likely not survive” list. Both rankings are based on the vision of BMW’s top managers, CEO Harald Krueger and CTO Klaus Fröhlich
March 16th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
It is that time of year again. We see all the self-appointed experts extol their superior vision on the subjects that are most clickbait worthy. For a few years now, Navigant Research has produced its “Leaderboard” about the race to full autonomous driving. It is highly respected in the media, not so much among those that know a tiny bit about the subject
March 14th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
The Tesla milestone of 1,000,000 cars created a bit of speculation about Tesla production volume in Q1. As is often the case, some are better at the speculation than others. The best I came across was the InsideEVs estimate by Mark Kane. Therefore, I am going to shamelessly use some of his numbers
March 5th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
It seems like e-Mobility has become the new tech market for all types of investors. Companies like Tesla, Rivian, Byton, Bird, Tier Mobility, Sono Motors, and ChargePoint are the new Facebooks of this era. Besides venture capitalists (VCs), many corporate venture entities of Fortune 500 companies stepped in last year
March 2nd, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
The Dutch ruling party, libertarian-conservative free-market capitalist zealots, are not known for their environmental policies
March 1st, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Renault published its 2019 results on Valentine’s Day. It is unlikely the company made its shareholders happy. The company lost €383 million in 2019. Thanks to a €242 million bonus from Nissan, only €141 million was charged to the shareholders
February 29th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
A CleanTechnica delegation recently visited a super-secret Renault presentation. It was the press presentation of the soon-to-arrive Renault Twingo ZE. This is Renault’s second mass market fully electric passenger vehicle
February 29th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Many organizations have to improvise at the last minute to replace their media communication from the Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) with something else
February 16th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
When visiting the leading car shows in Geneva, Paris, and Frankfurt, the carmakers will take you on a journey, showing their grand visions about future mobility with vehicles that merge into houses, are lounges on wheels, or are just crazy, impractical futuristic works of art
February 16th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Hyundai is a case of a company listening well to its customers, and not understanding what it is hearing
February 15th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
It is a luxury problem every company likes to have — the customer base of Dutch charging provider Fastned grew by 30% or 30,000 drivers in Q4 2019. Luckily, the Fastned network was never sized to facilitate existing demand. It was built to create and service future demand
February 13th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
The Global e-Mobility Funding Report for the third quarter of 2019 showed a total of $2.7 billion raised by 45 electric vehicle (EV) companies across the world. This funding amount is even higher in reality since another 18 EV-related companies didn’t disclose any financial details
February 12th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Most people in the renewable energy ecosphere know that battery electric mobility is ahead of hydrogen fuel cell mobility. Many people are also aware that progress in battery technology is going faster than in hydrogen fuel cell technology
January 29th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
All markets have their peculiarities. Especially around the end of one year and the start of the next. Consumers look for presents and fun shopping for the holidays. Companies have to spend their budget or wait for the new budget next year
January 21st, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
In last week’s press release about Renault's 2019 sales success, there was a stealth announcement about the introduction of the Twingo Z.E. “For the group, 2020 will mark a new stage in its electric offensive with the launch of Twingo Z.E. and the deployment of its new E-Tech hybrid and plug-in hybrid offers.” Only a few obsessive followers realized that this was news
January 15th, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
After the bankruptcy of the iconic British carmaker MG/Rover, the MG brand name was sold to a Chinese company. A few years ago, it was bought by SAIC Motor Corp. (formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation). This is about the brand name, the logo, the goodwill, claims to its history, the models, and intellectual property. The production facility was used for a few years, but ultimately all production was relocated to China
