Tracking monthly US auto sales has been a fascinating endeavor this past year. Unfortunately, we don’t get data from some brands — Tesla, all Ford Motor Company brands, GM brands, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brands, Jaguar Land Rover no longer report monthly sales. However, there are 17 brands that do report monthly US sales, so let’s have a look at them.
In a surprise move, Toyota and BYD have agreed to form a joint venture to develop and produce electric cars for the Chinese market.
After a memorable month of September, the plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) markets in the Netherlands slowed down significantly, growing just 37% in September, with 2,776 registrations, translating into a PEV share of 8.1% in October. That keeps the 2019 PEV share at a record 10%.
A series of startups and established aviation giants are joining the Dassault Systèmes’ (DS) 3DEXPERIENCE platform family to support their digital engineering initiatives. Adding to the Airbus, Boeing, Bell, Lockheed Martin, and BOOM Supersonic family, electric air mobility pioneer Eviation Aircraft is also coming on board. A few more aviation startups are also using the Dassault platform, such as Joby Aviation and Solar Impulse. Stay tuned, as we will soon reveal even more startups who will use Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE.
(tl;dr: Donald Trump and a number of automakers are against higher voluntary emissions standards, and are pushing for policy that is not only bad for the environment, but completely betrays even conservative values. Our petition against this can be found here.)
Toyota, Mazda, and Honda have all made announcement this week concerning their electric car future. Of them all, Honda’s news may be the most important.
The top 20 CleanTechnica stories of the week were led by a Tesla Model Y production plan an insider leaked to us, which is both super exciting and something to be cautious about. The second most popular piece was a story about Tesla Model 3 range after 50,000 miles of driving. The black swan story of the week that climbed its way into the top 3 was on the topic of fusion energy. (Proceed with caution if you plan to read about that news item.) For the rest of the top 20, skim down below and click the ones that tickle your interest.
Elon Musk’s home town of Pretoria recently hosted the Smarter Mobility Africa 2019 Summit, where the future of South Africa’s automotive manufacturing industry was one of the major sessions. According its website, “Smarter Mobility Africa brings together mobility thought leaders from business and government to consider, collaborate, co-create and consolidate efforts for accelerating the transition to electric and smart mobility.” Some of the discussions zoned in on how international markets are preparing for the transition to electromobility and how South Africa’s motor vehicle manufacturing industry could be impacted by this shift.
Toyota’s presentations at the e-volution event focused on a dual prong approach to alternative fuel vehicles. For the near term, Toyota will focus on extending its hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle technology into new segments, extending the technologies horizontally across its lineup in the US.
The second generation Toyota Mirai will be unveiled October 24 at the Tokyo auto show. It features a next generation fuel cell and larger hydrogen storage tanks for a 30% increase in range.
