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.
The French plug-in passenger electric vehicle market broke all of its previous records in January, with all-electric models jumping 258% to 10,952 units and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles surging 238% to 3,813 registrations.
Hyundai and Canoo announced today the establishment of a joint effort to develop a standardized, scalable electric vehicle platform to underpin future Hyundai and Kia vehicles, but buried in the release was a hint at a completely new market segment for the Korean automaker: purpose-built vehicles.
Canoo and Hyundai will be developing an all-electric platform based on Canoo’s skateboard. The move has the potential to inject some much needed electric vehicle innovation into Hyundai, which, despite the success of the Hyundai Kona EV and sister company Kia’s Niro EV, has yet to find a solid foothold in the market.
The Tesla Model Y Performance has received its official range and efficiency rating from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Its range is 315 miles on a full charge, and it is officially the most efficient crossover SUV in the US based on the agency’s fuel economy formula for MPGe (miles per gallon equivalency).
The European plug-in electric vehicle market registered a record 77,000 vehicles in December (+88%!), with the Dutch market most helping to pull the market up. Fully electric vehicles (+91% year over year) grew a bit faster than plug-in hybrids (+81%), with the powertrain breakdown becoming even more friendly to fully electric vehicles (68% to 32% in December, versus 64% to 36% in 2019).
Kia and sister company Hyundai are interesting figures in the electric vehicle world. They have often been chosen as favorite EV brands only trailing Tesla. They have historically been ahead of the curve when it comes to EV design and range. This has given many people the impression they’re “more serious about” electric vehicles than other automakers.
Arrival, a UK manufacturer of electric delivery vans, has secured a $110 million dollar investment from Hyundai and KIA. It says its products are price competitive with conventional vehicles.
The German plug-in electric passenger vehicle market ended the year on fire, with registrations more than doubling in December, to 11,328 registrations.
The French plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market registered a record 7,250 units in December, +28% year over year (YoY), a new all time record. That was thanks to leader Renault Zoe (2,097 units, a new year best), which seems to be past the worse of the production ramp up, and the Tesla Model 3, which moved 1,250 units, its best result ever in France. Additionally, plug-in hybrid (PHEV) sales more than doubled YoY, helping to set the record score.
