Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in the Berlin area, Elon Musk said Tuesday during an awards ceremony in Germany. TechCrunch reports: Musk was onstage to receive a Golden Steering Wheel Award given by BILD. “There’s not enough time tonight to tell all the details,” Musk said during an onstage interview with Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess. “But it’s in the…
Tag: Volkswagen
German Government Expands Subsidies For Electric Cars
The German government and car industry have agreed to increase joint subsidies for the purchase of electric cars on the same day automobile giant Volkswagen began production of a new all-electric vehicle. From a report: The agreement between the government and the automobile industry was reached following a Monday evening “car summit” aimed at fostering the mass production of cleaner transportation….
Analyst: Strike at GM ‘Is Really About the Switch to Electric Cars’
MarketWatch just published an interesting analysis by the head of automotive industry consulting at one of America’s top business advisory firms. It argues that a strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union at General Motors is really about the future of the electric car: UAW members’ anxieties and uncertainties are actually shared by General Motors (GM) and most other automakers,…
Thousands of Ships Fitted With ‘Cheat Devices’ To Divert Poisonous Pollution Into Sea
Volkswagen, BMW, and Daimler aren’t the only companies using “cheat devices” to get around environmental legislation. According to The Independent, “global shipping companies have spent billions rigging vessels with ‘cheat devices’ that circumvent new environmental legislation by dumping pollution into the sea instead of the air.” From the report: More than $12 billion has been spent on the devices, known as…
German Prosecutors Indict Top VW Bosses Over Diesel Emissions Scandal
dryriver shares a report from Reuters: German prosecutors have accused Volkswagen’s CEO of holding back market-moving information on rigged emissions tests four years ago, raising the prospect of fresh upheaval at the carmaker just as it tries to reinvent itself as a champion of clean driving. Prosecutors in the city of Braunschweig said on Tuesday they would press criminal charges of…
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….
Diesel Cars Emit More Air Pollution On Hot Days, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Emissions from diesel cars – even newer and supposedly cleaner models — increase on hot days, a new study has found, raising questions over how cities suffering from air pollution can deal with urban heat islands and the climate crisis. Research in Paris by The Real Urban Emissions (True) initiative found that…
VW Recalls 679K Cars With Faulty Micro Switch That ‘May Roll Away’
“Volkswagen issued a recall Friday of 679,000 vehicles for risk that they may roll away,” reports the New York Daily News: Models recalled include certain 2011 through 2019 Beetles and Beetle convertibles, GTIs, Golfs, Golf SportWagens and Jettas that have automatic transmissions, manual hand brakes and keyless entry. “In affected vehicles, a micro switch which indicates the position of the shift…
‘Cheating Volkswagen Diesels Have Become A Hot Commodity’
Remember the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal? “In the end, after paying huge fines and seeing key executives head to prison, VW agreed to buy back nearly 380,000 of the offending cars in the United States, to fix or scrap,” reports the New York Times. But this week the director of industry analytics for online car marketplace CarGurus tells them that VW…
French Startup Transition-One Plans a $5,600 Electric Makeover For Your Old Diesel Car
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: About 5,000 euros ($5,600) are set to buy your 10-year-old combustion clunker an electric makeover — and offer a cut-price way to avoid driving bans across European cities. French startup Transition-One has developed retrofitting technology that adds an electric engine, batteries and a connected dashboard into older models of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV,…