Author: World_Newz Mon

Exclusive: Evergrande’s EV Drive Hits Another Speed Bump

Evergrande Group, China’s second-largest real estate developer by sales, has shown its ambition in the electric vehicle business with billions dollars of investments.The company also poured 14.4 billion yuan into Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group for access to its auto sales network.Evergrande also signed an agreement with the Guangzhou city government this week to invest 160 billion yuan to build factories to produce 1 million electric cars and 500 GWh of batteries a year.

Swedish battery maker secures $1bn funding for Europe’s first ‘gigafactory’

Swedish start-up Northvolt Wednesday (12 June) announced it had secured funding.In 2017 Northvolt announced plans for battery factory “Northvolt Ett”, to employ between 2000 to 2500 people and be located in Skelleftea, a coastal town in Sweden’s industrial north-east.In May, Volkswagen already announced it would spend close to €1 billion building a factory for battery cells in Salzgitter.

Proton-Geely SUV X70 begins local assembly trials in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 (Xinhua) — Malaysian national carmaker Proton has begun local assembly trials of its X70 Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) at its manufacturing plant in Tanjung Malim, the company said on Wednesday.
The vehicle, jointly manufactured with China's Geely, will be put together at Proton's new 1.2 billion ringgit (290 million U.S. dollars) assembly plant, which is currently in its final stages of completion, said Proton chairman Syed Faisal Albar who spoke during a signing ceremony at the plant.
“Proton aims to start the production of the X70 in Tanjung Malim in the second half of this year so we are working hard to ensure we hit the target,” he said, adding that it was significant this was achieved within two years of cooperation.
Syed Faisal also said Proton had seen its sales jump from the fourth place on the Malaysian market to the second during the second quarter of this year, attributing this to the introduction of the X70, with its advanced features, to th..

Kenya to promote electric vehicle to reduce air pollution

NAIROBI, June 10 (Xinhua) — Kenya plans to promote use of electric vehicles in order to reduce air pollution in the country, a government official said on Monday.
Martin Eshiwani, director of road and railway transport in the ministry of transport, infrastructure, housing and urban development told a forum in Nairobi that standards for electric vehicles and motorcycles were put in December 2018.
“Kenya wants to move towards green vehicles so that it can also achieve its commitments under the Paris climate agreement,” Eshiwani said during the Urban Mobility Summit.
Eshiwani said that Kenya has approximately 350 electric vehicles and motorcycles on the roads.
He noted that the government is considering implementing a number of fiscal and regulatory measures that will increase e-mobility in the country.
Eshiwani observed that most vehicles standards are geared to the fossil fuels that are most prevalent in the country.
According to the government official, the number of motorbikes licens..

The GM-backed robo-taxi startup Cruise Automation is reportedly struggling to refine its self-driving car technology

The autonomous-driving startup Cruise Automation, which was acquired by General Motors in 2016, is facing technological issues as it seeks to launch an autonomous ride-hailing service by the end of this year, The Information’s Amir Efrati reported on Friday.Among the issues reportedly experienced by Cruise vehicles are near-accidents, according to The Information; getting stuck in the middle of a trip, taking 80% longer to complete a trip than a human driver would, and erratic braking and steering.Cruise had reportedly set a goal of lowering that rate to once every 1,000 miles by the end of 2018.

Aiways invests in carmaker to guarantee production

Chinese new energy vehicle startup Aiways is set to acquire part of Jiangling Holdings’ equity in exchange for investing 1.75 billion yuan ($252.65 million).New Energy startups Nio and Xpeng chose to cooperate with conventional automakers to produce vehicles.The two companies have built a production plant to manufacture the electric sport utility vehicle, Nio ES8.

Ford proposing autonomous mail truck tech to the USPS

Ford is one of the finalists vying for a $6.3 billion contract to build the next generation U.S. Postal Service delivery truck, and it’s already thinking about taking them to the next level.The USPS recently launched a two-week trial of a self-driving semi-truck developed by TuSimple that made five deliveries between its processing centers in Phoenix and Dallas.As far as the conventional trucks are concerned, Ford has partnered with Oshkosh on a Ford Transit-based vehicle to replace the iconic Grumman LLV, but is keeping details close to the vest, as are the other four bidders.

Germany’s Opel town shows struggle for Europe to plug in electric cars

RUESSELSHEIM, Germany, June 7 (Reuters) – Carmakers and policymakers in Europe are staking their futures on a race to electric vehicles. But the vast charging network needed to sustain their vision is patchy, and it's not clear who'll pay for it.
The central German city of Ruesselsheim, home to carmaker Opel, wants to build 1,300 electric car charging points by 2020, plans that would make it a frontrunner on the continent.
It has advantages enjoyed by few in Europe, including a powerful local car industry player and wealthy national economy. In Germany itself the city has an edge, having won a government grant of 12.8 million euros ($14.4 million) to fund the rollout.
Yet, even here, red tape, shortages of qualified staff and the requisite hardware are likely to delay the installation by around two years, local officials told Reuters.
The project will also need more money, said the officials who are running up against the complexity of civil engineering, potential power grid ..