On September 20th, more than 1.4 million people went on the streets in Germany to demand real climate action. My government’s response to these mass-demonstrations will go down as one of the worst political failures of this century.
Tesla’s plan to build Gigafactory 4 (GF4) in Germany makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of Tesla’s mission. Business Insider recently published an opinion piece on this topic, claiming the factory location didn’t make sense, and I am aiming to provide a different point of view of things.
Something clicked in the German plug-in vehicle market after the summer holidays. The market had a record month (9,452 registrations) in September, and then October came and set a new record, this time 26% above the previous one! 11,926 plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) were registered, more than doubling last year’s result. With China’s PEV market in post-subsidy blues, this is a welcome boost to global sales. Now if only the US market helped to carry the burden…
A Tesla Model X was set on fire in Germany last week. But let’s not jump to conclusions.
Supply increases to meet demand. CATL is building its first battery factory outside China in Germany and Rio Tinto says leftover rocks from its borax mine in California may have a higher concentration of lithium that any other US location.
The German plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market continues on the fast track in September, having scored a new record, 9,452 registrations, which doubles last year’s result. Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) were up 150% year over year (YoY), and this time plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) were also helping (+51%), allowing the PEV share to reach a record 3.9% share last month. BEVs alone hit a best ever, 2.4%. That pulled the 2019 plug-in share to 2.7% (1.7% BEV).
Ciel & Terre recently announced the launching of a new utility-scale 750 kWp floating solar array in Renchen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neige BREANT, Sales manager EMEA and Vincent Pinchou, Project Engineering Manager EMEA, answered some questions for CleanTechnica about the project.
BYD is moving into car country with its first order for fully electric transit buses in Germany. The orders for 22 of its 12-meter buses came from German public transit operators BOGESTRA and HCR and are aimed at improving ailing air quality in the greater Ruhr Metropolitan Region.
The German plug-in electric vehicle market continued on the right track in August, having registered 8,121 units. Fully electric vehicles (BEVs) were up +104% year over year (YoY), while plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) keep suffering (down 9%). The plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) share was 2.6% in the month, with BEVs alone hitting 1.6%. That kept the 2019 plug-in share at 2.6% (1.7% BEV).
After growing fat on expanding sales and record profits, the world’s automakers are now facing lean times. The decade-long global economic expansion is running out of gas, and the industry-changing trend of electrification, which automakers happily ignored when the profits were rolling in, now looms as an existential threat.
