Biden charges up $174bn electric vehicle plan in Michigan speech May 18, 2021 US President Joe Biden today called for government grants for new battery production facilities as he made the case for his $174bn (£123bn) electric vehicle plan today. During a speech at a Ford electric vehicle plant in Michigan, Biden vowed to “set a new pace” for the technology and reverse what he described as the [...]
Electric scooter startup Bird to go public in £1.6bn SPAC deal May 12, 2021 Bird Rides announced a merger with Switchback II Corp, a blank-cheque company, to go public in a deal that values the electric scooter company at £1.6bn. SPACs are listed companies that use the proceeds from an IPO to buy a private firm and take it public. The scooter rental company said the deal will be [...]
German e-car boom will hit 178,000 workers unless companies focus on re-skilling May 6, 2021 The electric cars boom will hit 178,000 workers in Germany unless companies gear up efforts to re-skill their employees, a report has shown today. The country’s auto industry will suffer more employees retiring than the labour market can keep up within the coming years, the Ifo institute said. With battery-driven cars requiring less assembly work [...]
Stockpile key battery metals to avoid ‘looming mismatch’, governments warned May 5, 2021 Governments around the world should consider strategically stockpiling metals critical for energy transition technologies to avoid the “looming mismatch” between their climate intentions and the availability of such materials. A new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) today said that countries should act now to shore up supplies of metals such as nickel, lithium, [...]
Uber inks deal with Arrival to build electric car for its drivers May 4, 2021 Uber has this morning announced a partnership with UK start-up Arrival to build electric taxis designed for its ride-hailing drivers. The car, which will enter production in the first quarter of 2023, will be designed in partnership with the ride-hailing giant’s drivers. The partnership is part of Uber’s push to eliminate emissions from all 45,000 [...]
Why don’t I have an EV yet? April 24, 2021 Given all the hype around electric cars, it is sometimes easy to forget just how far off mass adoption of the climate friendly vehicles still is. A recent survey by consumer trends data firm Dynata suggests that as yet just 16 per cent of Brits have bought an electric or hybrid car – way behind [...]
EV: Honda pledges to have a 100 per cent electric fleet by 2040 April 23, 2021 The new CEO of Honda has confirmed today its goal to make electric vehicles (EVs) and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) count for 100 per cent of all sales by 2040. Chief executive Toshihiro Mibe, who joined the carmaker at the beginning of April, said the company will invest $46.3bn, or five trillion yen, in supporting [...]
Europe car sales pick up speed in March to erase early-year declines April 16, 2021 Europe’s monthly car sales leaped 63 per cent in March as markets overcame Covid restrictions to recover from a pandemic crash, according to new data. Registrations in the EU, EFTA and UK markets rose to 1.39 million year-on-year, data from industry association ACEA showed on Friday. The resurgence erased an early-year decline to shoot sales [...]
Exclusive: Liberty Charge kickstarts rollout of 800 EV chargepoints across London April 12, 2021 Telecoms giant Liberty Global has today kicked off plans to install 800 electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints across London over the next 12 months. The first 20 chargepoints, which were installed by Liberty Charge, a joint venture with Zouk Capital, went online this morning in the borough of Waltham Forest. It is the initial step in [...]
Pod Point hires Bank of America to help with float plan – report April 7, 2021 Electric vehicle charging firm Pod Point has reportedly brought on Bank of America to work on a potential stock market float. According to Sky News, the firm could go public at some point this year, with Bank of America working together with Barclays on the deal. Pod Point is majority owned by French energy giant [...]