Author: admin
A handful of China-made vehicles are on sale in the United States right now – the Buick Envision, Lincoln Nautilus, and Polestar 2 are just a few examples – but Chinese brands themselves have yet to penetrate the market. Blame steep tariffs, tense U.S-China relations and the general headaches of starting up a new brand in the world’s toughest car market. But could Chinese automaker Nio pull it off next? The EV startup has been eyeing the market for a while now, with CEO William Li saying in 2021 that the company planned to start selling EVs in the U.S.…
We’ve seen a handful of cutting-edge performance-focused e-bikes hit the market in recent years. Automotive brands venturing into the electrified two-wheeled space has ushered in quite a number of these. For example, bikes like the Audi e-Tron electric mountain bike and the Ducati range of e-MTBs easily command close to $10,000. That being said, the bike we’re talking about today blows all those two wheelers out of the water. I’m talking about Lotus and its new Type 136 electric road bike. According to the brand, the bike’s frame was inspired by the Great Britain cycling team’s track bike, the Hope HB.T,…
Volvo has finally announced complete pricing for the 2024 model year lineup in the United States, including the upgraded electric Volvo C40 Recharge and Volvo XC40 Recharge models. As we know, the new all-electric C40 and XC40 are significantly improved and offer a far better EPA range of up to almost 300 miles. And their prices aren’t that different from before. The 2024 Volvo C40 Recharge, with an all-new rear-wheel drive powertrain, starts at an MSRP of $53,600 and is rated at 297 miles of EPA range, using an all-new 82-kilowatt-hour battery. The all-wheel drive version costs $1,750 more. At $55,350,…
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! The idea of beaming solar power down to Earth from orbiting solar farms is an alluring one. Space solar projects could deliver clean kilowatts 24/7, anywhere on Earth, any time, regardless of the weather — if they happen. Nevertheless, the technology pieces are beginning to fall into place, and the economic case is beginning to materialize, too. Reducing The Cost Of Space Solar Panels Solar cells are nothing new to the space field, of course. NASA launched the first solar-powered satellite back in 1958,…
Awkward name aside, the Lexus LF-ZC Concept that debuted at the Japan Mobility Show last week is a very big deal. When it goes into production in 2026, it will be the first electric vehicle on an all-new, ground-up Toyota platform; will do some very next-level things with the company’s steer-by-wire technology; and an alleged 620 miles of electric range. It is not, however, going to do that with some huge battery pack that weighs as much as an apartment building. Instead, it’s going to rely mostly on chemistry to deliver on those big range claims. As part of the…
Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News! Over a coffee at the Coochin Creek high-speed chargers, Rick told me why he bought an electric Mercedes AMG EQE53. “We had a Plaid Model X (and a base Model Y) on order when Tesla decided not to make RHD S & X. I was in the US at the time and began looking at high-end alternatives to purchase when we returned to Australia. I drove most of the German options available here including Porsche, BMW, Mercedes & Audi. Of them, Mercedes had the…
Chinese EV startup NIO revealed it will trim staff positions by 10% this month to improve profitability. NIO’s CEO, William Li, announced the news in an internal memo Friday, citing “fierce competition” in the EV market. According to the memo, reviewed by Bloomberg, NIO will trim its staff by 10% in November. Li said “duplicate” and other “inefficient” roles will be cut. In addition, any projects that aren’t expected to generate earnings within the next three years will be put off or cut altogether. The news comes as the EV price war in China intensifies. Market leaders in China, including…
BMW is confident that batteries for its next-generation EVs will finally outdo Tesla in range. In a recently published interview with Automotive News Europe, BMW Group production boss Milan Nedeljkovic said the automaker doesn’t see a gap to Tesla, and that the Tesla may in fact need to catch up to BMW once the German automaker’s sixth-generation batteries enter production with the Neue Klasse family of EVs starting in 2025. BMW previously said the new battery hardware, highlighted by a switch to cylindrical cells, will target 20% greater energy density and up to 30% more range, resulting in up to…
Israeli startup StoreDot says its battery prototype didn’t degrade after multiple fast charging sessions, compared with slow charging scenarios. The firm conducted 1,000 consecutive extreme fast charging (XFC) tests, including sessions where the state of charge was upped from 10 percent to 80 percent in just 10 minutes, as well as recharging cells from zero to 100 percent SoC with XFC. After the tests were conducted, StoreDot determined that the cells demonstrated no degradation in comparison to cells that were slow-charged from zero to 100 percent SoC, which translates into a real-world scenario where an electric vehicle would be charged…
Chinese automaker Chery has designed an EV concept inspired by tuna fish. And it claims this car is the most aerodynamic in the world. First spotted by Electrek, the concept is claimed to have a coefficient of drag (Cd) of just 0.168, measured during wind-tunnel testing conducted in August. That was reportedly achieved with “AI simulation techniques” that tested over 2,000 different configurations inspired by the tuna, one of the most hydrodynamic and fastest-swimming fish. Because air acts like a fluid at higher speeds, a design inspired by a sea creature could indeed be relevant for land-based vehicles. However, because these aerodynamic…