Electric Mobility News

Volkswagen will have to review its plans for a shift toward mass production of electric vehicles to meet new European Union CO2 targets in 2030, CEO Herbert Diess said in a statement on Tuesday.

Dutch start-up Lithium Werks BV is considering Poland and other European countries for a storage battery plant alongside the 1.6 billion euro ($1.8 billion) one it plans to build in China, founder Kees Koolen told Reuters on Monday. Energy storage is becoming increasingly important as the use of intermittent renewable sources of power grows. Combining wind, solar and battery technology would bring down cost of renewable energy and help power grids balance supply and demand.

Maruti Suzuki India is currently testing its electric cars in India, and we have now come across spy photos of one of these test mules. The electric car is based on the new-gen Wagon R, which was unveiled early this year.

The Indian Government has finally announced a policy for the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In an official document that was sent out by the Ministry Of Power on December 14, 2018, the government has outlined several key facts, figures and a plan to support the expansion of electric vehicles in the country. The push for electric mobility charging stations will first be rolled out in cities with a population of greater than 4 million residents i.e. Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Surat and Pune. The rollout means that after much waiting and uncertainty, India will finally have public electric charging stations as a reality rather than just a pipe dream.

Mahindra Racing has kickstarted the 2018-19 Formula E Season 5 with a bang, taking a podium in the season opener. Mahindra's Jerome d'Ambrosio finished third in the Ad Diriyah e-Prix competing in the Gen2 electric race car. BMW i Andretti Autosport's Antonio Felix da Costa won the season opener, while reigning champion Jean Eric-Vergne of Techeetah took second place on the podium. The Ad Diriyah e-Prix saw a host of changes to the electric motorsport series with a completely new venue, more powerful cars, and with new teams and drivers on board.

Infiniti will preview a vision for its first fully-electric crossover at The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit in January, revealing a new form design language for electrification, infused with Japanese DNA. The advent of electrified platforms heralds a fresh approach to what crossover and sedan platforms look like, both inside and out. In January 2018, the company announced that it would electrify its portfolio from 2021 onward, using either e-power (serial hybrid) or pure EV powertrains.

Electric two-wheeler maker Okinawa Scooters has announced the pre-bookings for its upcoming i-Praise e-scooter. The new Okinawa i-Praise can be booked at a token amount of Rs. 5000 at any of the company's 200-odd dealerships starting on December 14, 2018. The i-Praise is the manufacturer's new version based on the Okinawa Praise scooter and now comes with a detachable lithium-ion battery. Okinawa says the new battery system brings more convenience for users who can now detach and charge the battery at their homes, with the charging time reduced to 2-3 hours.

Through his favourite medium of dispersing Tesla based news and opinion - Twitter, Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will showcase a prototype all-electric pickup truck next year. While no other info on the project has been shared yet, considering the manufacturing challenges that have plagued the superstar tech startup in the last few years, don't expect the production ready vehicle to see market launch before 2021. While there isn't an all-electric pickup truck in the market just yet, the automaker will go up against the Rivian R1T very soon since the new tech startup is expected to come to market with its pickup and SUV in 2020.