Why were many of Audi’s diesel models not able to meet the stricter NOx emissions standards that went into effect in the US in 2007 without relying on fraud? Because meeting the new standards would mean reducing the size of the sound system, apparently.
Having been a strong competitor in so much of the motor sport sphere for decades, Audi is now setting its sights on the Formula E racing series.
I just wrote a piece putting Tesla’s H1 2017 sales into a bit of perspective. At the end, I started getting into Tesla sales versus gas vehicle sales in the Model S and Model X classes, but then decided this topic deserved its own piece, with a focus on how sales of of the various models changed in H1 2017 versus H1 2016.
The European passenger plug-in market had more than 21,000 registrations last month, up 48% over the same month last year. Year-t0-date, the market is up 27% this year, with the EV share standing at 1.4%.
With quality control issues solved in the second half of the month, the Renault Zoe was once again Master in Command, with the BMW i3 and Outlander PHEV recovering some ground over the ageing Nissan Leaf.
The German auto manufacturers BMW and Audi and the truck manufacturer MAN have agreed with the German state of Bavaria to work to reduce diesel vehicle pollution — both with regard to reducing emissions from older vehicles, and also with regard to incentivizing the sale of newer cars that emits less pollution.
The Model 3 is placed at the bottom of the premium sedan market. Of course, being a unique vehicle in a heavily undersupplied niche market, it competes with models well beyond the small premium sedan market, so definitely don’t consider this to be anything close to a comprehensive global competition summary — the Model 3 will be attracting people who would have otherwise bought a Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Ford Mustang, Nissan LEAF, and BMW Z3 (me 20 years ago). But I think this is a decent list of gasmobiles (gasoline-powered cars) whose sales will be remarkably body slammed by the Model 3.
I’ve had this article in mind for many months, set the draft up on March 17, and had it on my schedule to finally write on Saturday. Then, on Friday evening, Elon Musk basically made my point in a couple of tweets and “stole my thunder.” Alas — it’s actually his thunder anyway, and my words are just echoes.
We’ve published a number of articles about the German auto manufacturer Audi in recent days … here’s a blockbuster to add to those: the German Transport Ministry has now asked Audi to recall around 24,000 A7 and A8 vehicles because of alleged emissions fraud.
The top 20 CleanTechnica stories of the week are an interesting bunch. Check them out below to see if you read them all!
As I noted last month, due to Tesla’s higher and higher production rates and little insight into where those cars are shipped, we’ve decided to stop estimating Tesla’s US sales/deliveries. That said, generally speaking, we expect that Tesla ships approximately 2,000–3,000 Model S and Model X each (so, 4,000–6,000 combined) to US customers. So, more likely than not, the Model S and Model X are the highest-selling electric cars in the United States.
