Tag: People

Lightyear wins Automotive Innovation Award

Lightyear wins Automotive Innovation Award
Press release:
Helmond, 12th of February 2019: Solar car manufacturer Lightyear has received both the ‘Challenging Concepts’ and the special audience award at the Automotive Innovation Awards. The prestigious awards were presented to the best Dutch mobility innovations.

The Challenging Concepts category is made especially for revolutionary new ideas, with the potential to completely change the industry. Much of the competition focused on reducing emissions and making the Dutch automotive industry future-proof.

The Automotive Innovation Award Audience Award is a special prize that was created to make Dutch innovations with a major impact on mobility more better known to the general public. Through tremendous public support Lightyear took an early lead in the race for the award.

With a yearly turnover of €65 billion, the Dutch automotive industry employs 120.000. Thanks to the many excellent universities and automotive education the Net..

Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian -sources

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc and General Motors Co are in talks to invest in Rivian Automotive LLC in a deal that would value the U.S. electric pickup truck manufacturer at between $1 billion and $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company… Continue reading Amazon, GM in talks to invest in electric pickup truck maker Rivian -sources

Growing McLaren ponders constraints on production – Automotive News Europe

North America’s record 2018 represented 33 percent of the automaker’s 4,806 global sales. Worldwide, the automaker posted a 44 percent increase. Because of that sales growth, other aspects of McLaren North America’s business are increasing, such as aftermarket. “We restructured a significant portion of our team,” Joseph said of 2018. “We added to our aftersales… Continue reading Growing McLaren ponders constraints on production – Automotive News Europe

Japanese self-drive cars map developer to buy rival U.S. startup – Nikkei

(Reuters) – Japanese map platform developer Dynamic Map Platform plans to acquire Detroit-based Ushr for nearly 20 billion yen ($181.1 million) in a bid to cement a stronger position in the burgeoning self driving cars market, the Nikkei newspaper said. Dynamic Map Platform would acquire U.S. map startup Ushr as it seeks a stronger position… Continue reading Japanese self-drive cars map developer to buy rival U.S. startup – Nikkei

‘I’ve assumed the worst’: Aston Martin and Bentley have prepared for slow-motion Brexit crash – The Sydney Morning Herald

Loading Aston Martin’s board before this week authorised contingency planning for Brexit that included shipping car components via air freight to allow for the use of ports other than Dover, which faces potential chaos in a no-deal scenario. For the last eight months, Volkswagen AG-owned Bentley has likewise supplied some parts through an alternative port,… Continue reading ‘I’ve assumed the worst’: Aston Martin and Bentley have prepared for slow-motion Brexit crash – The Sydney Morning Herald

Lyft Brings on Former Uber Executive as Vice President of Finance Strategy

2019 is off to a great start as we continue to bring top talent into the Lyft family. The newest addition to Lyft’s leadership team is Michelle DeBella who joins as our Vice President of Finance Strategy. Michelle is a dynamic and results-oriented finance executive with more than 20 years of experience. She was mostly… Continue reading Lyft Brings on Former Uber Executive as Vice President of Finance Strategy

Scoop: GM Reportedly Working On Electric Pickup Truck With Tesla Powertrain

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Clean Transport Published on February 12th, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
Scoop: GM Reportedly Working On Electric Pickup Truck With Tesla PowertrainTwitterLinkedInFacebookFebruary 12th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

Not an electric pickup truck. But could it be infused with a Tesla powertrain soon?
For years, electric vehicle enthusiasts in the US have been begging for a solid electric pickup truck for consumers. I’ve long reported on monthly electric car sales and I put them in the context of broader US car sales, but looking at the number of gas-thirsty pickup trucks sold each month is a whole other level and is quite disturbing.
Elon Musk announced a while back that Tesla was working on a wicked electric pickup like nothing else we’ve seen. Just last month, Ford finally announced plans for an electric version of the F-150, which is the king of the US auto market — by far — with nearly a million sales a year. But what about GM, which currently has the #2 vehicle on the US auto market, the Chevy Silverado?
Remember, Chevrolet raced the Bolt to market in order to be the first US automaker offering a long-range, semi-affordable electric car. It cares about going electric, maybe.
A source somewhat close to the heart of a big new development at GM has informed CleanTechnica that GM is indeed working on an electric pickup truck, and it is based around a Tesla powertrain. As in, the majority of the guts of the truck will be made by Tesla.
I know, I know — it seems unlike GM to swallow its pride and tap Tesla for this job. However, I’d briefly note a few things.
LG reportedly designed and built much of the Chevy Bolt’s powertrain.GM doesn’t have to announce or acknowledge a Tesla partnership if it doesn’t want to look less than capable.If GM does announce or acknowledge a Tesla partnership, it is likely to get big props from consumers for being brave and using the world’s electric vehicle leader to make an awesome electric pickup. Tesla is cool. Being friends with Tesla is cool.If GM wants to make sure to compete well with an electric F-150, there’s a good chance this is its best avenue, and the company knows that.Batteries — batteries, batteries, batteries. Aside from Tesla’s skill at designing and producing high-performance electric motors, it has a giant source of batteries. If other automakers want to offer mass-market EVs in the coming years, they need a good source of batteries, and Tesla may be as good as it gets for the time being.GM is good at building trucks, at putting them together. It has massive, awesome truck brands. Even if Tesla develops an amazing electric pickup truck of its own, many buyers will want to stick with the brands they know and love, and a truck design they’re familiar with. They may not want a giant Tesla touchscreen, minimalist interior, and smooth, futuristic exterior. A Tesla–GM partnership is a win–win that would bring a lot more people into the electric fold.Yes, I get it, you’d like to see proof of this partnership before getting too excited. So don’t get too excited. Take it as a rumor and stay tuned for more info in the coming months. I don’t currently have hard proof of this truck (no definitive picture or document), but I received enough information to feel confident the tip is correct and to thus run this article. The core source of this information wants/needs to remain anonymous and doesn’t even want any hints of identity tossed around, so I’m not going to say more about that. But let yourself dream a little bit tonight and accept that GM might be making a brilliant move in its approach to electric trucking.
If this plan rolls as smoothly as an electric powertrain, we may well have a Tesla semi, Tesla pickup, and Tesla-powered pickup from GM (Sierra Electric?) getting close to the starting line before the end of 2019. It could be another exciting year for the electric revolution. (Well, how could it not be?)
Note: No, the source is not Elon Musk.

About the AuthorZachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada. Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

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Tesla Owners Unimpressed With Car’s Winter Performance

The door handles are proving problematic, as are the batteries.

Electric car owners learned the hard way during the recent polar vortex that their batteries cannot hang onto a charge when temperatures dip that low. Tesla owners, in particular, discovered that they cannot open their doors very well after a winter storm either.

Tesla’s Model 3 owners are filling social media and online forums with complaints about their vehicles not performing well during the extreme cold the polar vortex brought with it. While cold temperatures will more quickly drain a battery in general, Tesla vehicles aren’t doing well.

“My biggest concern is the cold weather drained my battery 20 to 25 miles overnight and an extra five to ten miles on my drive to work. I paid $60,000 to not drain my battery so quickly,” New Jersey resident Ronak Patel told Bloomberg.

Patel owns a Model 3 and wasn’t happy with its performance. Salim Morsy explained that it’s Panasonic’s batteries manufactured for Tesla and not Tesla, said the Bloomberg new energy finance analyst.

“It happens to Chevy with the Bolt and Nissan with the Leaf,” he said.

The door design for Tesla’s Model 3 is futuristic and cool – when it isn’t wintertime. The handles are flush with the exterior of the car. In order to open the door, the driver or passenger pushes on one side of the handle, then pulls on the other side to open it.

But wintertime’s abundance of ice, particular what came during the polar vortex, has made it incredibly difficult to open those types of doors. Software engineer Andrea Falcone tweeted a photo of her frozen door handle and was less than impressed.

“I can’t wait all day for this silly car,” she tweeted.

Others argued that it’s winter and things freeze, deal with it. Bloomberg shared that Canadians are suggesting car owners place dental adhesive film over their door handles to help prevent them from freezing.

In response to the weather-induced issues, Tesla owner Elon Musk tweeted that the company would release software updates to improve the car’s winter weather performance after it had learned of motorists’ concerns.

But according to Top Speed, the “fix” that was released to solve freezing windows, door handles, and charge ports actually caused further problems.

Even after warming up their vehicles for 10 to 15 minutes, car owners still couldn’t open their doors or lower the windows. Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief for Electrek, tested the new fixes issued by the company and learned that the patch just wasn’t working.

It was 12 degrees Fahrenheit and he warmed up his Model 3 for 20 minutes.

“My driver’s window did go down when pulling on the door handle, but it didn’t go up after closing the door. It looks like Tesla is not allowing the window to go completely up anymore in order to enable people to safely open the doors in cold weather,” he told Top Speed.

Winter isn’t done yet, so hopefully Tesla fixes these issues very soon.

Rane TRW Steering Systems Opens New Facility at Trichy, Tamil Nadu for Occupant Safety Products

The facility is strategically located in Trichy-Chennai national highway, 40 kms from Trichy and 300 kms from Chennai. The new facility will address the expected market demand and add capacity to localize laser cutting of fabrics and airbag cushion manufacturing for captive and exports. The company has invested around Rs. 400 million in the new… Continue reading Rane TRW Steering Systems Opens New Facility at Trichy, Tamil Nadu for Occupant Safety Products