In the “It Had To Happen” department, Mazda finally says it will use its rotary engine as a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) generator. It also says it will deliver a pure EV by 2020. But is it too little, too late after downplaying batteries for over a decade?
If you read any articles on September vehicle sales in the automotive, financial, or general press, they all have two themes. One is that hurricanes artificially boosted demand for vehicles a year ago — this is a one-month impact. The other is that people are moving from cars to SUVs — this has been going on for years.
I just spent a long time — much of the day — putting together 8 charts and graphs comparing Tesla to its luxury brand competitors in the USA. In particular, I took a gander at how the Tesla Model 3 is delivering a swift lebewohl to the small and midsize luxury cars it’s competing against.
Business Insider claims Tesla cannot make an electric pickup truck that people will buy in large quantities because it does not have the same cachet as the trucks from Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Does that make sense?
I did something quite irresponsible lately. I made a prediction 6½ years in the future about Tesla’s finances. The normal financial analyst horizon is a single quarter, and that is often too difficult.
Automaker executives from Ford, GM, Nissan, and Toyota are fond of saying that not very many consumers want electric cars. They sometimes claim they could make many more electric cars, but customers are not asking for electric cars. (They somehow ignore the hundreds of thousands of orders Tesla has pulled in for the Model 3.)
Toyota is investing a half billion dollars in Uber. The two companies will combine their talents to create a fleet of autonomous vehicles based on the Toyotoa Sienna van.
Our friends at top electric vehicle (EV) data collection and analysis firm EV Volumes have just published European plug-in vehicle sales results for the first half of 2018. The most notable stat is probably the one in the headline — 42% market growth year over year (YoY). Additionally, in total, the number of plug-in vehicles on the street in Europe passed 1 million.
I’ve been reporting monthly US electric car sales for years. My monthly report has often been one of the most popular stories of the month here on CleanTechnica. However, unless something changes, I’ve concluded it’s time to stop — or to take a break — from these US EV sales reports. There are 4 core reasons why.
The Netherlands had 1,362 plug-in car registrations in July, up 208% compared to the same month last year. Those 1,362 pulled the year-to-date count to 10,444 units (+139%). That meant that last month’s EV market share of all car sales reached 3.8%, and the 2018 EV market share figure held steady at 3.6%.
