Electric Cars News

Recently the Honda Jazz EV was spotted testing in India, for the first time, in its undisguised avatar with all the badging. While the car could be here simply for R&D purpose, but this does beg the question, is Honda planning to join the bandwagon of carmakers gearing up to launch electric cars?

The Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance has signed an agreement with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) for the deployment of 15 electric vehicles for their officers. The electric cars handed over by EESL to the Finance Ministry include the Mahindra e-Veritos. EESL also sources the Tata Tigor EVs that that are used in the government fleet. In addition to the 15 electric vehicles, the government also set-up 28 electric vehicle charging points that include 24 slow charging points and four fast charging points at the North Block. With 15 EVs in its fleet, the government said that the Department of Economic Affairs is expected to save 36,000 litres of fuel every year, and will reduce over 440 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

Chinese-funded electric vehicle manufacturer Byton is seeking to raise at least $500 million to finance growth, valuing the nearly three-year-old company at more than $4 billion, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The latest round of fundraising comes as China's government promotes new energy vehicles (NEVs), a category comprising battery-powered and plug-in battery-petrol hybrid cars, to help reduce air pollution and support high technology development. Byton is keen to primarily attract foreign investors in its latest fundraising and the proceeds will be mainly used to finance the mass production of its first premium electric SUV vehicle - Byton M-Byte and research and development, one of the sources said on condition of anonymity as discussions are still private.

2018 hasn't been a cakewalk for Tesla and the Electric carmaker has had its share of challenges in the previous year. For instance, the deliveries of Tesla Model 3 were delayed due to sluggish production and the company has also been penalised by SEC over the infamous tweets of its CEO- Elon Musk about taking Tesla private and both Musk and Tesla will have to pay $ 20 million. Despite legal and financial hurdles, Tesla is afoot to become America's number-one premium automotive company as it has sold more units than most of the other premium carmakers in the States like Lexus, Infiniti and Acura. However, the electric carmaker is still few thousand units behind of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

The company has plans to reveal the Polestar 2 in the coming weeks and the only bit we get to see in this teaser image is the rear of the car.

Toyota has possibly one of the widest range of Hybrid cars available on the market today and for the longest time, Toyota management has stuck to its guns saying it's buyers and dealers do not need an electric car and are happier with hybrid tech. That said, with the world moving swiftly towards electric mobility, the automaker does need to make its presence felt. And with most automakers, Toyota might be looking at a top down approach. Lexus, the luxury arm of the Toyota Group has recently filed a patent for the name 'UX300e' hinting at the first ever all-electric model from the carmaker.

Electric Vehicles are what we are looking to for the mobility solution in the future. The Government Of India has allotted Rs. 5500 crore for the FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles) Scheme and has an ambitious target to achieve 100 per cent electrification in the Automobile sector by 2030. While electric cars are still is an expensive proposition not only for car buyers but also for the auto manufacturers, electrification technology and electric two-wheelers is where most of the EV makers are concentrating on. The Electric Vehicle Expo is one platform for EV makers to demonstrate their products and technologies and in its eighth edition of the EV expo has witnessed participations going up by 35 per cent compared to the previous edition. Here are Our Top Picks From The EV Expo

The air quality in Delhi-NCR has been at its worst over the past week and the state government is taking dramatic steps to curb the deteriorating air pollution. In a positive step towards the same direction, the Delhi government has initiated the trials of zero-emission and noise-free electric buses in the capital today. Olectra-BYD's 12-metre electric bus - eBuzz K9 will be used for the trials, which has a seating capacity of 35, along with the driver. The made-in-India electric bus will be plying on the roads of Delhi for the next three months, and will give the authorities an opportunity to evaluate the efficiency and competency of these buses in the standard road conditions of the national capital. The Delhi government aims to induct electric buses in the public transportation system, as it promotes the use of electric vehicles.