Electric Vehicles

At a press event held yesterday in Berlin, Volkswagen launched pre-booking in Europe for the first model in its new full-electric ID. model family, the ID.31. Customers’ interest in the special edition, the ID.3 1ST, which is limited to 30,000 vehicles, is significantly exceeding the brand’s expectations. Sometimes, the IT systems are unable to handle …

The start of the new all-electric Volkswagen family will be in the compact class with the ID.3. ID. stands for intelligent design, identity and visionary technologies. Months before its official world premiere at the IAA international motor show, the next milestone has already been reached: Today, Volkswagen is officially announcing the name of the first …

At the start of the pre-booking phase for its new full-electric ID. in Europe on May 8, Volkswagen is launching a broad-based international e-mobility (BBIE) marketing campaign. The campaign focuses especially on the ID. and is to start one year before the model’s market launch. Normally, large scale campaigns only start in connection with the …

Dubai. Ten years ago, Porsche launched into a new market segment. With the Panamera, the sports car manufacturer presented its first Gran Turismo in April 2009. Like no other car in the luxury car class, this model combines the performance one would expect from a sports car with the luxury and versatility of a touring …

One day after the world premiere for the new ID. R at the Nürburgring, Romain Dumas drove the first test laps on the Nordschleife in the fully electric race car. On the 20.832-kilometre-long circuit, the Frenchman completed an extensive testing programme, driving two alternative ID. R chassis to make optimal use of the available time. …

Volkswagen has presented the continuously developed version of the ID. R, the fully electric race car. The racing flagship of the future fully electric product family from Volkswagen is to set a new lap record for electric vehicles on the 20.832-kilometre-long Nordschleife. In order for driver Romain Dumas to undercut the until-now best time of …

The Samsung-built 14 nanometer processor that goes into Tesla cars is capable of 144 TOPS (trillion operations per second).

The ID. R has completed the next series of tests in preparation for the challenges that lie ahead. After working on the aerodynamics in the wind tunnel, the most recent tests at the racetracks in Le Castellet and Alès (both France) focused on the energy management software. The objective was to establish the ideal set-up …

Stuttgart, Germany. A clean, quiet drive to the factory: Porsche has commissioned a fully electric MAN eTGM for logistics operations at its Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen site. The truck is the first vehicle of this kind that has gone into series production in Germany. The zero-emissions, virtually silent 32-tonne truck will soon enhance the commercial vehicle fleet that …

Volkswagen has set itself a new challenge with the ID. R this year – the Nürburgring-Nordschleife instead of Pikes Peak. A race track instead of a hill climb. Full-throttle sections instead of hair-pins. Because of this, the fully electric-powered ID. R has been continuously developed with respect to its aerodynamics. “Though almost identical in length …

It is estimated that fully-autonomous vehicles will require an estimated one billion lines of code – compared to just 145,000 needed to land on the moon in 1969. To that end students from 14 countries, including South Africa, have qualified for the Land Rover 4×4 In Schools Technology Challenge world finals. Tomorrow’s engineers are already …

Shanghai (China), April 16th, 2019 – Today is an important milestone for Groupe Renault in China. During a press conference at the Shanghai Motor Show, Thierry Bolloré, CEO of Groupe Renault, presented a clear road map and high ambitions for the Group in China by 2022: a target of 550,000 units sold per year – …

China will play a key role in the Volkswagen group’s global transformation and its accompanying decarbonization program. Thus, this year will see an intensified roll-out of new energy models. Volkswagen Group China aims to produce more than half of the group’s global objective of 22 million BEVs by 2028. To speed up its e-offensive, it …

Volkswagen is planning to introduce a range of new, electric-only vehicles from 2021 onwards in China: the ID. family. Starting with the introduction of a mid-size SUV, the ID. ROOMZZ previews a large-size ID. flagship SUV that will have its global launch in China, in about two years from now. The MEB vehicle architecture, with …

Volkswagen has today presented the newest member of the ID. Family – the ID. ROOMZZ – at the “Brand SUV Night” in the run-up to Auto Shanghai. The multivariable all-rounder is a zero-emission SUV of the five-metre class which is tailored to both family and business requirements. The series version is to be initially launched …

The Transparent Factory in Dresden is expanding its electric charging infrastructure. Extra charging points have been installed at Volkswagen’s Dresden site as part of a joint venture with the start-up ChargeX. Just days after receiving CE certification, the start-up’s first charging solution anywhere in the world has officially come on stream. The idea behind it …

Alternet Systems, Inc. (ALYI) (“ALYI”) management is in Kenya this week meeting potential partners and touring facilities with the intention of opening an assembly plant to complete manufacturing in Africa for ReVolt Electric Motorcycles to be sold across the African continent. ALYI has already signed $1.5 million in confirmed orders for its ReVolt Electric Motorcycles …

The Volkswagen Group and Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd. registered in Jiangxi (China) have signed a memorandum of understanding on long-term lithium supplies for battery cells. Under the agreement, Ganfeng will supply lithium to the Volkswagen Group and its suppliers for the next ten years. Volkswagen is thus already securing a significant share of its lithium …

Hyundai Motor Company has officially opened its Hyundai CRADLE Berlin office in Germany establishing its third CRADLE office worldwide, with additional bases in Silicon Valley (USA) and Tel Aviv (Israel). Hyundai CRADLE is Hyundai Motor Group’s corporate venturing and open innovation business, which partners and invests extensively in promising global startups to accelerate the development …

The next challenge for the ID. R awaits: in summer, a new record is set to be delivered on the Nürburgring-Nordschleife. The team from Volkswagen Motorsport are therefore working intensively on the continuing development of the purely electric-powered race car. The focus of the testing and development phase is on increasing the efficiency of the …

Volkswagen Group Research is testing automated vehicles in urban traffic in Hamburg. This is the first time Volkswagen has begun to test automated driving to Level 4 at real driving conditions in a major German city. From now, a fleet of five e-Golf, equipped with laser scanners, cameras, ultrasonic sensors and radars, will drive on …

The fully-electric Volkswagen ID. R will take on another special challenge in September 2019. Romain Dumas (F) will be back at the wheel of the 500-kW electric sports car for the “China Challenge” on the Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road – a unique stretch of tarmac, featuring 99 corners, which winds its way up Tianmen …

Volkswagen and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are to develop the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud together. Both companies Services announced a multi-year, global agreement to jointly develop this project. In future, the Volkswagen Industrial Cloud will combine the data of all machines, plants and systems from all 122 facilities of the Volkswagen Group. This will cre-ate new …

Automated and flexible production processes are the answer to increasing quantities, smaller batch sizes, and high production speeds. Automated guided vehicle (AGVs) systems and their smaller relatives, automated guided carts (AGCs), were once mainly the preserve of production logistics in the automotive industry. SICK Automation’s portfolio ranges from sensor solutions for small AGVs or automated …

Groupe Renault, the European leader in electric vehicles, is beginning the first large-scale pilot schemes in reversible electric charging. Our alternating-current technology has the particularity of placing the reversible charger inside vehicles, so it just requires a simple, inexpensive adaptation of the existing charging terminals. A fleet of fifteen Zoe vehicles with vehicle-to-grid charging will …

The Volkswagen Group and further European partners are joining forces to form the European Battery Union (EBU) with a view to forging ahead with battery research throughout Europe. The new consortium is to be led by the Volkswagen Group and the Swedish battery producer Northvolt. The joint research activities of the European Battery Union will …

Hyundai Motor Group (the Group) and Ola ― one of the world’s largest ride-hailing platforms ― today announced a strategic partnership under which Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai) and Kia Motors Corporation (Kia) will make their biggest combined investment to date, as part the Group’s continued efforts to become a Smart Mobility Solutions Provider. The agreement …

Volkswagen’s natural gas strategy continues to gain ground: only recently available to order, the Polo TGI and Golf TGI are now joined by the Golf Variant TGI1) with eco-friendly natural gas engine. The new model now boasts three natural gas tanks – instead of just two as before – once again increasing the already long …

The new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport have taken major steps toward the future of motoring with the addition of plug-in hybrid (PHEV) drivetrain options, and both variants are now available in South Africa. Both models are badged P400e in reference to their respective power outputs of 404PS (297kW), and both combine a 221kW …

Success in a time of transformation: In the 2018 financial year, Porsche AG achieved new records for operating profit, sales revenue, deliveries, and headcount. The company’s operating profit grew by around 4% compared with the same period in the previous year, reaching €4.3 billion, and sales revenue increased by 10% to €25.8 billion. The operating …