Tesla Y/3, Bolt, Mustang Mach-3e Top Sellers
Experian reports electric vehicles are up 95% during the first four months of 2021 with EVs accounting for 2.3%.
Here are the top selling EVs
- Tesla Model Y (53,102)
- Tesla Model 3 ((35,468)
- Chevrolet Bolt (13,611)
- Ford Mustang Mach-E (6,104)
- Nissan Leaf (5,023)
- Audi e-tron (4,321)
- Porsche Taycan (3,002)
- Hyundai Kona (2,192)
- Tesla Model X (1,730)
- Tesla Model S (1,633)
In all, 133,509 EVs were sold through April and 126,186 of those came from the top 10 vehicles. The e-Golf saw registrations decline, but production of the vehicle ended last year.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales in the US, China and Europe will outstrip all other engines five years sooner than previously expected, according to new EY research and analysis.
Audi Plans All-Electric 2033
Production of Audi’s final completely newly developed combustion engine model will start in just four years. And beginning in 2026, the premium brand will only release new models onto the global market that are powered purely by electricity. As part of its strategic realignment, the company is accelerating the transition to e-mobility. The manufacturer will be gradually phasing out the production of internal combustion engines until 2033. Audi aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest.
VivoPower Partners with Toyota for Land Cruiser
VivoPower International PLC (NASDAQ: VVPR) announced an exclusive manufacturing collaboration with Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker.
Toyota Australia intends to integrate VivoPower’s conversion kits to electrify its iconic Land Cruiser vehicles during the build process – turning chassis originally destined to be diesels into emission-friendly EVs with VivoPower batteries and electric motors.
In an update note issued after the news broke, international equity research house Edison declared the five-year exclusive deal ‘a major milestone’ and ‘a strong endorsement’, supporting revenues and dialling down risk as VivoPower prepares to hyperscale.
According to lead Edison analyst David Larkham: ‘Toyota is the largest car company in the world, having delivered 9.5m units in 2020. This is a position it has gained through technology, quality and manufacturing excellence. Hence, we see this agreement as providing strong endorsement.
‘It is also a real step change for VivoPower to move from re-kitting existing vehicles to being an integrated part of the manufacturing process.’
The deal follows two years of collaboration and field trials in the harsh environment of the Australian mining sector. Whilst the Letter of Intent is not the final contract, it is binding and the end agreement is expected to lock out VivoPower competitors from working with Toyota Australia to electrify Land Cruisers.
Since last year, the business has been building a global distribution network and has signed three agreements, spanning major mining markets including Australia, Canada and the Nordics. Together the deals, announced ahead of the Toyota news, envisage VivoPower delivering at least 4,475 kits to those regions in the next five and a half year with a total revenue of €268.5m.
Toyota sells c 400,000 Land Cruisers a year worldwide, with over 25,000 sold in Australia in 2020 and more than 10 million in total sales since its launch in 1951.
In July 2011 Tesla announced a $100 million agreement with Toyota to supply electric powertrain equipment for the RAV4 sports-utility vehicle.
GM Partners with Shell for Renewable Charging
2″>General Motors and Shell, through its wholly owned subsidiary MP2 Energy, LLC (“Shell”), are collaborating to provide comprehensive energy solutions programs to GM’s customers and supply chain partners, including fixed-rate home energy plans backed by 100 percent renewable energy resources.
This program is currently available for eligible owners of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles in Texas. Coming this summer, owners of electric vehicles from GM brands will have the opportunity to select home energy plans that include the option for free overnight hours of EV charging1. This month, the companies will also begin providing GM suppliers access to a tailored suite of renewable energy products to assist in setting and achieving their individual emissions-reduction goals. Employees of participating GM suppliers will be eligible for the home energy plans mentioned above.
Both GM and Shell have recently announced ambitious goals to address emissions.
GM plans to be carbon neutral in global products and operations by 2040 and has committed to science-based targets that align with the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement.
“Addressing climate change requires incredible scale,” said Kristen Siemen, chief sustainability officer, General Motors. “At GM, we’re committed to helping bring everybody in on a more sustainable future.”
Shell’s target is to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, in step with society’s progress in achieving the goals of the UN Paris Agreement on climate change. This target includes emissions not only from the energy Shell produces and processes, but also from all the energy products it sells to its customers.
Electra Seeded
Electra Vehicles, Inc. closed an oversubscribed Seed Round of $3.6 Million led by the Italian investment group LIFTT S.p.A. and BlackBerry Limited. Other investors include Club degli Investitori, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Hyperplane Venture Capital, Prithvi Ventures, Launchpad Venture Group, TiE Boston Angels, and successful Angel investors. These strategic, industry-leading investment groups join the funding round and affirm their support of Electra’s flagship product, EVE-Ai™ 360 Adaptive Controls, a revolutionary, AI-based software that optimizes the performance of battery systems on any vehicle in the eMobility space.
As electrification continues to be a predominant focus for passenger & commercial vehicle industries with major OEMs, Electra Vehicles is strategically positioned to help these automakers maximize their battery pack investments using their groundbreaking AI software, which can be up to 20% of a vehicle’s costs. Electra Vehicles’ unique data models are built upon an extensive dataset of 300+ battery and capacitor chemistries.
Proterra to Electrify Miami Dade
Proterra Inc a leading innovator in commercial vehicle electrification technology, and Miami-Dade County today announced a landmark fleet electrification project with the County acquiring 42 Proterra ZX5+ electric transit buses, featuring a total of 19 megawatt-hours of battery storage capacity, along with plans to install 75 Proterra chargers across three bus depots. The first electric buses are slated to be delivered in 2022.
The partnership demonstrates Proterra’s ability to deliver a comprehensive, full scale deployment of commercial electric vehicle fleets with its EV technology solutions. This includes Proterra’s industry-leading commercial vehicle battery systems, electric transit buses, and fleet charging infrastructure.
“Miami-Dade County has long been a leader in advancing forward-looking clean technology
Designed and manufactured in the United States, Proterra’s electric transit buses are equipped with the Company’s industry-leading battery technology systems. With more than 600 vehicles on the road today, the Company’s battery systems have been proven over 20 million service miles driven and selected by world-class commercial vehicle manufacturers to electrify delivery vehicles, construction equipment, school buses, coach buses, and more.
Manufactured in the United States, Proterra battery-electric buses feature zero tailpipe emissions, saving approximately 230,000 pounds of greenhouse gases annually when replacing a diesel bus. The Company’s fleet of zero-emission, electric transit buses have displaced over 100 million pounds of CO2 tailpipe emissions.
In addition to the Company’s Proterra Transit and Proterra Powered business units, Proterra Energy offers a turn-key approach to delivering the complete energy ecosystem for heavy-duty electric fleets through charging infrastructure design, build, financing, operations, maintenance and energy optimization.
Wallbox ISO Renewed
Wallbox has successfully renewed its ISO 9001:2015 (quality management systems) and ISO 14001:2015 (environmental management systems) certifications and earned for the first time an ISO 45001:2018 (occupational health and safety management systems) certification. The audits were conducted by GCL International. Wallbox creates smart charging and energy solutions, for public and private use, that combine innovative technology with outstanding design to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles today to make more sustainable use of energy tomorrow.
Wallbox underwent a 12-month-long verification process to demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customers’ needs, as well as specific statutory and regulatory requirements. The process also verified Wallbox’s environmental performance and occupational health and safety management systems.
The certifications are granted by the third-party accredited certification body GCL International based in London and are publicly available in on the Wallbox website and on the GCL Certificate Check website.
OBE Power and Casata EV CaaS
OBE Power, a leading private network of smart, distributed electric vehicle chargers in Florida, has partnered with Casata to offer Electric Vehicle Charging as a Service (EV CaaS) at their unique micro green living rental communities. The partnership will launch in Casata’s debut development in South Austin and expand to planned locations across Texas and the Southeast.
OBE Power’s Electric Vehicle Charging as a Service and digital platform allows Casata to integrate smart community charging into their unique sustainable-forward approach to the micro living experience. Miami-based OBE Power owns, installs, and manages the charging amenity. Property managers can oversee its administration through OBE Power’s user-friendly web portal, as well as track environmental benefits real time.
“This partnership allows us to expand our popular Host program into the important Texas and Southeastern markets and compound our effective reduction of greenhouse gases in the transportation sector,” according to OBE Power’s Managing Director Alejandro Burgana, “Installing chargers in multifamily properties removes the biggest barrier to consumer EV adoption – fear of not having a place to charge. With EV charging amenities available, residents can make the switch to an electric vehicle that costs less to ‘fuel,’ is faster, safer, less costly to operate and emits zero tailpipe pollution.”
“We’re excited to offer residents a cost-effective and convenient EV charging solution that adds value to our projects while helping reduce emissions,” says Zain Mahmood, Casata’s Co-Founder & COO.
Casata plans to partner with OBE Power at their next planned developments beginning with Casata San Marcos and roll out into other locations over the next two years.
As Electric Vehicle adoptions continue to accelerate, offering green amenities to residents can attract loyal tenants while also reducing emissions. Together OBE Power and Casata are committed to leading on sustainability to build a green future.
OBE Power, founded in 2017, is an Electric Vehicle Charging as a Service company. With OBE Power, multi-family residents, Fortune 500 corporate employees and university students can charge their electric vehicles where they work, live, and play. Their user-friendly app and web portal tracks vehicle usage and reports on environmental benefits real time. OBE Power makes charging fun, convenient, and impactful.
Casata is a new, Austin-based startup creating micro home rental communities across the state of Texas and beyond. With their first community in South Austin, they are pioneering their scalable, highly-amenitized model of micro living. Each independent Casata home is beautifully designed with open, efficient layouts and abundant natural light, and enhanced with smart home technology and outdoor patios. The community features multiple exciting events per week, put together by their unique “Campus Alchemist”, along with many other amenities such as electric vehicle charging. The combination of these features elevates Casata as an attractive alternative to traditional apartment living or single family rentals.
Exro Tech Partners with Linamar
Exro Technologies Inc. a leading clean technology company that has developed a new class of power electronics for electric motors and batteries, announced a strategic development agreement with Linamar Corporation (“Linamar”), a global powerhouse in automobile parts manufacturing, to develop an advanced electric drive solution for electric vehicles.
Linamar is a leading tier one manufacturer of advanced mobility solutions for the automotive industry that stands at the intersection of leading-edge technology and deep manufacturing expertise. Linamar has over 26,000 employees in 61 manufacturing locations, 12 R&D centres and 25 sales offices in 17 countries in North and South America, Europe and Asia which generated sales of $7.4 billion in 2019. Customers include top automotive manufacturers, commercial vehicle manufacturers and multinational delivery services companies.
Linamar and Exro have agreed to develop an advanced eAxle utilizing Coil Driver™ technology to improve cost and performance of Linamar’s eAxle product line. An eAxle is an integrated electric drive solution for battery electric vehicles (“BEV”) or fuel cell electric vehicles (“FCEV”). The integrated solution provides better manufacturing cost and more efficient volume usage, without sacrificing key performance capabilities.
With growing demand for electric vehicles around the world to reduce carbon emissions, there is still a critical gap in electric vehicle affordability and performance to achieve mass adoption. An advanced eAxle solution can help bridge the gap to cost-effective and high-performance battery electric vehicles.
Initial demonstration of this technology will utilize Linamar’s Medium Duty eAxle product. In the initial phase of development, Exro will supply Coil Driver™ development samples and optimized electric motors for integration in eAxle program testing. Linamar will supply and integrate the remaining critical elements of the eAxle system, including the gear box assembly, for lab and on-road testing. Completed testing and validation of prototypes is planned for the second quarter of 2022. Following successful testing of the eAxle program, Exro and Linamar will promote the technology to the market with the intention of commercializing the Coil DriverTM eAxle into series production.
“Exro came to us with a unique solution for our electric drive program that we believe is a step in the right direction for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles,” commented Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz. “This integrated design can pave the way for cost-effective and high performing electric propulsion systems that are essential to scale the transition to electric mobility.”
Sue Ozdemir, Exro Chief Executive Officer said, “We are very excited for this development with Linamar, who has been a staple in auto industry manufacturing for decades. This strategic development agreement marks one of our biggest milestones to date and represents a huge opportunity for us to become an integral part of the EV supply chain for major automotive companies.”
About Exro Technologies Inc.
Exro is a clean technology company pioneering intelligent control solutions in power electronics to help solve the most challenging problems in electrification. Exro has developed a new class of control technology that expands the capabilities of electric motors, generators, and batteries. Exro enables the application to achieve more with less energy consumed.
Exro’s advanced motor control technology, the Coil Driver™, expands the capabilities of electric powertrains by enabling intelligent optimization for efficient energy consumption. Exro is working with many partners from all over the world to bring their technology to the electric mobility industries and beyond.
About Linamar Corporation
Continental Ties for Ford Mach-e
Continental has received approval for original equipment of the Ford Mustang Mach-E for its PremiumContact 6 tire. The PremiumContact 6 is specifically geared for sporty and comfortable driving, but at the same time is able to increase the range of electric vehicles thanks to its low rolling resistance.
“Providers of sporty electric vehicles like the Ford Mustang Mach-E value good handling, steering precision and safety at high speeds. Furthermore, a particularly low rolling resistance increases the vehicle’s range,” says Andreas Schlenke, tire developer at Continental.
He adds: “There is not the one tire for fully electric vehicles. Rather, we have been working for over a decade to further develop our existing portfolio in such a way that they meet the requirements of all electric vehicles and at the same time are able to sustainably reduce emissions of combustion vehicles.” All tires supplied for the Ford Mustang Mach-E have a rolling resistance class A, according to the EU-tire label the best value in this area.
The PremiumContact 6 is specifically geared towards comfortable sedans and sporty cars. It combines comfort with precise steering response, safety and environmental characteristics. To reach this, the tire engineers developed new compounds, a new tire design as well as a tread that rolls comfortably.
As a result, the performance in terms of handling, rolling resistance, mileage, and comfort was increased by up to 15 percent compared to the predecessor model.//
–XL Fleet Corp. (NYSE: XL) (“XL Fleet” or the “Company”), a leader in fleet electrification solutions for commercial and municipal fleets, announced an agreement with Rubicon, a software platform that provides smart waste and recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide, to bring XL Fleet’s offerings for fleet electrification to Rubicon’s network of waste and recycling hauler partners.
This will allow XL Fleet to grow its customer base by jointly approaching Rubicon’s expansive partner network with the Electrification-as-a-Service offering. XL Fleet aims to provide hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid and all-electric solutions, as well as deliver charging infrastructure through its XL Grid division, as a complete, end-to-end offering to Rubicon’s network of more than 7,000 vendor and hauler partners across the United States. XL Fleet and Rubicon can significantly accelerate fleet electrification in this space by reducing upfront costs and complexity. This also creates an opportunity for infrastructure investors to deploy significant capital into clean vehicle and charging infrastructure assets.
With over 150 million customer miles driven and more than 4,300 units on the road, XL Fleet is the leader in fleet electrification solutions for Class 2-6 commercial and municipal vehicles, with plans to expand its product offering into heavy duty applications including waste management. The company is excited to advance on its Electrification-as-a-Service offering and accelerate the electrification of Rubicon’s network of hauler partners.
This latest partnership builds on XL Fleet’s existing initiatives in the waste and recycling space announced earlier this year, including a key partnership with refuse trucks provider Curbtender, to develop all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
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Greenland Technologies Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: GTEC) (“Greenland” or the “Company”), a technology developer and manufacturer of electric industrial vehicles and drivetrain systems for material handling machineries and vehicles, today announced that it intends to offer ordinary shares for sale in an underwritten public offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate and working capital needs. The offering is subject to market conditions, and there can be no assurance as to whether or when the offering may be completed, or as to the actual size or terms of the offering.
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In the coming weeks, Hyundai Motor Company will work with bus operators in Germany to run in-service trials of its hydrogen-powered Elec City Fuel Cell bus.
Yesterday, at OMV Hydrogen Refueling Station in Wendling, Irschenberg, Bavaria, Hyundai handed over the test bus to Busbetrieb Josef Ettenhuber GmbH (Ettenhuber) and Geldhauser Linien- und Reiseverkehr GmbH & Co. KG (Geldhauser).
The two bus operators will take turns running the Elec City Fuel Cell bus on existing routes in Munich, carrying actual passengers. The bus can travel over 500 kilometers when fully charged.1
Hyundai Motor plans to run demos with four more bus operators this year, collecting passenger and driver feedback along the way. Through the demo runs, the company expects to prove hydrogen-powered buses as a viable, efficient solution for commercial transportation. Elec City Fuel Cell has been commercially available in Korea since 2019 and a total of 108 units have been put into operation.
Electric vehicle battery recycling market will see an upturn by 2030.
The most obvious market to follow EV mobility is the Recycling Market for Electric Vehicle Batteries. According to Market Research Future’s (MRFR) recent analysis, the worldwide EV battery recycling market is expected to reach 3 US billion Dollars towards the end of 2025, with an expected CAGR of 19%.