Norway has become the first country to have sold more electric cars than petrol, hybrid, and diesel engines in a year. The Independent reports: Electric cars comprised 54% of all new vehicle sales in Norway for 2019. The Norwegian government plans to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, and is using tax breaks and financial incentives to…
Tag: Audi
New Electric Cars Have Problems In Latest Consumer Reports Survey
schwit1 shares a report from Autoblog, adding: “And CR decides to predict poor reliability on EVs it hasn’t even evaluated yet.” From the report: The latest auto survey from Consumer Reports shows several newer electric cars to be beset with problems, contradicting the conventional wisdom that EVs with their simpler powertrains should have fewer issues than gasoline- or diesel-powered cars. The…
How Tesla Improves the Range of Its Electric Cars
Car and Driver magazine explores what gives Tesla’s vehicles their comparatively long range. And apparently one factor is just “big batteries.
This may be obvious, but a battery that holds more energy should translate to more range, and Tesla has the largest battery packs out there… What isn’t always obvious is how much of a battery pack’s energy is usable versus its…
Will Elon Musk License Tesla’s Technology To Other Automakers?
Audi’s CEO “willingly admits that Tesla is two years ahead of the industry in some critical areas of building electric vehicles,” reports Electrek. But where will that lead? “Earlier this week, Musk made a subtle comment on Twitter that could majorly upend the auto industry,” reports Inc. magazine: In response to an article in Teslarati highlighting German automakers’ attempts to bridge…
Tesla Model 3 Was California’s Best Selling Car Through First Quarter
Through the first quarter of this year, the Tesla Model 3 was California’s best selling vehicle. CNET reports: Data from the California New Car Dealers Association released last week shows the Model 3 sold 18,856 units through March 31 of this year. The figure is greater than any rival car, and even trumps mass-market cars and crossovers. The car to come…
Racing Team Exploits Pandemic to Drive Across America in Under 27 Hours
There’s a new landspeed record for driving from New York City to Los Angeles — but “unlike most speed records and races, there’s no sanctioning body or official rules,” notes Road and Track. “That’s because setting a ‘Cannonball’ record invariably involves breaking multiple traffic laws.” But now Cannonball purists “are criticizing the run as grossly irresponsible while the nation deals with…
Honda Bucks Industry Trend By Removing Touchscreen Controls
Honda has done what no other car maker is doing, and returned to analogue controls for some functions on the new Honda Jazz. Autocar reports: While most manufacturers are moving to touchscreen controls, identifying smartphone use as their inspiration – most recently seen in Audi’s latest A3 – Honda has decided to reintroduce heating and air conditioning controls via a dial…
Audi To Cut 9,500 German Jobs In Switch To Electrification
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Audi plans to eliminate roughly 15% of its German workforce to lift earnings by $6.6 billion as Volkswagen AG’s largest profit maker pushes ahead with a restructuring plan to help adapt to the costly transition to electric cars. The turnaround is aimed at regaining ground lost to luxury-car leaders Mercedes-Benz and BMWand counter…
Volkswagen’s Bold Plan To Create a New Car OS
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: VW Group is now consolidating its software all under one new internal group, similar to the way that financial services or the ride-hailing Moia exist alongside individual vehicle brands. And that means in the future, a single unified automotive OS will run on everything from a VW Polo to an Audi A8….
Jaguar and Audi SUVs Fail To Dent Tesla’s Electric-Car Dominance
Tesla has managed to expand its electric-car marketshare, despite two new battery-powered luxury SUVs that have been in U.S. showrooms for the last 10 months: Jaguar’s I-Pace and Audi’s e-tron. Bloomberg reports: Their starts are the latest indications that legacy automakers aren’t assured instant success when they roll out new plug-in models. Tesla’s Model S and X have largely held its…