In the first 4 months of 2018, the proportion of new German SUV registrations dropped almost in half from where it was before DieselGate and the impending bans on older diesels in some cities, like Hamburg. The dramatic decline was documented by a study conducted at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) located in the University of Duisburg-Essen.
The TX electric taxi from the London EV Company will be imported for use in German cities by Volvo Germany. Both companies are owned by Geely.
When it comes to clean technology, German Chancellor Angela Merkel says China is no longer seen as a developing country but a competitor.
The German plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) passenger car market cooled off somewhat in May, growing just 24% year over year (YoY) to 4,711 registrations. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) slowed down significantly (+6%), while fully electric cars (BEVs) continued growing at a healthy pace (+52%). In 2018, with all-electrics reaching 1% share and plug-in hybrids are dropping their share to 0.9%, the total PEV share of the German car market is 1.9%.
The German state of Saarland isn’t pulling any punches in its push to be the home of Tesla’s European Gigafactory. The state was surely stimulated by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tweet that Tesla was looking at a location in Germany for its European Gigafactory, “perhaps, on the German-French border.”
In classic Elon Musk style, he made a major hint about a coming gigafactory on twitter this week. Musk tweeted, “Germany is a leading choice for Europe. Perhaps on the German-French border makes sense, near the Benelux countries.”
Chinese battery heavyweight CATL is reportedly looking to invest up to €1 billion into a new battery factory in Germany, according to a Bloomberg report on the matter. The move would put one of the largest plug-in vehicle battery manufacturers right in the backyard of Germany’s lucrative luxury automotive manufacturers, including Daimler, Volkswagen, Porsche, and BMW.
Europeans are in a quandary about whether to build battery factories now or wait for the next generation of solid state batteries to arrive. The decision is not an easy one to make.
While reading an article on the ING website regarding a study on electric vehicle sales in the Dutch market by value, instead of by units, something struck me: the Tesla Model S was the 5th highest revenue generating model (€85 million) in the Netherlands in the first quarter, with an average price of €104,800!
When Sono Motors entered the international arena of e-mobility July 2017, it was a sort of magic for me. What the company offers is often on an environmentalist’s wish list.
