Emissions

Audi recently unveiled its very own charging lounge concept. It is currently opening the first of them to the public at a very visible location, i.e at the Nuremberg Exhibition Center in Germany.

Audi is testing this new charging model in action for the first time with this pilot location. The fast-charging station features reservable high-power charging bays, along with a lounge area with a vending machine that will serve customers as they put some juice back into their EVs.

Toyota Motor Corporation has been slow to adopt electric vehicles (EVs). As a matter of fact, it was only a few weeks ago when the Japanese automaker decided to unveil a plethora of EVs. To make matters even more interesting, Toyota, along with Volkswagen, did not sign the Glasgow Declaration on Zero Emission Cars and Vans, which aims to put an end to fossil-fuel cars by 2040.

Toyota has ambitious goals for an all-electric future. The Japanese automaker plans to considerably expand its electric vehicle lineup over the coming years.

Akio Toyoda, the brand’s President & CEO himself was at hand to give us a glimpse into what Toyota has in store for their next decade, which is set to be dominated by EVs. In a mega unveil for the brand’s future EV strategy, he gives us a first look at 16 distinctive concept vehicles that the brand has been working on.

The Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo is the more practical version of Porsche’s first, modern-day EV. More importantly, from 2022, both body styles get a GTS version. The Porsche Taycan GTS is already shaping up to be right in the middle of the Taycan lineup, in terms of price and performance, but it also brings a bit more excitement. Find out how, below.

The Mazda MX-5, also known as the Miata, is a car that doesn’t need much introduction. The Japanese take on the British, lightweight roadster, is in its fourth generation, with the current, ND generation being the most lightweight and quickest of all iterations. With that being said, rumors of the ND Miata being discontinued in 2022 have been circulating. However, those are false, since we will be getting another updated version of the current generation.

If there’s one brand that’s catapulted EV ambitions within the Volkswagen Group, it has to be Porsche. While Audi may have been the first to bring their e-Tron to market, it wasn’t until the Taycan came along that several brands within the VW Group started making the shift to electric mobility.

If you are a fan of 1980s science fiction cinema, you will love what Porsche has done, in order to celebrate ‘Back to the Future” day. At the same time, Porsche is celebrating the Electrify America and Europe Ionity charging networks exceeding 1.21 gigawatts. What’s the connection, you’re asking? In “Back to the Future”, the time-traveling DeLorean required the same 1.21 gigawatts in order to run “back to the future”. Now, the future is here.

Over the coming decade, several automakers have already pledged to transition to electric vehicles. As the industry now makes this shift to EV’s, Mercedes Benz is also taking a forward-thinking approach.

With the German automaker set to become an electric-only marque by 2030, the company has already halted the development of new combustion engines in order to devote more resources towards the shift to electrification.

Politicians around the world are doubling down on their commitment to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The United States is no exception, and this trend will definitely continue until we’ve achieved carbon neutrality or zero emissions. As the world heads toward this eco-conscious future, high-performance sports cars and supercars with gas-guzzling internal combustion engines (ICE) could soon be a relic of the past. The effect of these ever-stricter emission standards has led Ford to make performance changes to the Mustang GT and Mach 1.

Honda held a virtual event online to showcase their EV strategy for the Chinese market, via their new EV sub-brand e:N. The Japanese brand unveiled two production-ready electric vehicles: the e:NS1 and the e:NP1. Apart from these two EV’s we also got to see three electric concept cars. The e:N SUV Concept, e:N GT Concept, and e:N Coupe Concept.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed that the company’s headquarters will be relocated from California to Texas at the 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders event. The famed EV automaker was previously based in Palo Alto, in Silicon Valley. However, last year, Musk vowed to relocate the company’s headquarters to Texas in response to the closing of its primary facility in Fremont outside, San Francisco. He was dissatisfied with the factory’s temporary closure owing to Covid restrictions.

Yet another high-performance EV, from a startup manufacturer is coming out. It seems Elektron wants to give us a new EV hypercar every year. In 2020, they showed us their Elektron One – an all-wheel-drive EV with 1,341 horsepower. One year later in 2021 – they announced a new project – the four-motor, 2,300-horsepower Elektron Quasar. Now, Elektron Innovativ is showing us their latest project – the Elektron Truva, which will be built in Italy’s motor valley, alongside brands like Ferrari and Pagani...

British heavy machinery maker, JCB has developed a combustion engine that works on Hydrogen. As with the entire industry, pushing for electric powertrains, JCB too initially jumped on the trend and soon realized that there are some major setbacks with battery technology for their applications. They feel that Hydrogen provides a better way to go green. What does this mean for the combustion engine? Well, Let’s find out.

The European Union’s comprehensive ban on combustion engines is set to go into force in 2035, but the Italian government is hoping for an exception for supercar makers. Italy is trying to negotiate with the European Union and is seeking to protect supercar makers like Ferrari and Lamborghini from the planned phase-out of combustion engine vehicles altogether. According to a Bloomberg post, Italy wants to shield Ferrari and Lamborghini from this potential European Union ban on gas-powered engines.

Notice how automakers are really starting to cram EVs down our throats even though the vast majority of the driving population doesn’t want them? Well, you can’t actually blame the automakers, you can blame the emissions regulations set forth by the government. In Europe, the situation is dire, and fines for not meeting emissions regulations are about to skyrocket in 2021. If the penalties going into effect in 2021 were in effect today, the penalties would climb into the tens of billions of dollars category. That’s why Mercedes and other automakers are scrambling to put EVS on the road – they will reduce their average emissions output.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard automakers try, they just can’t convince people to buy EVs over big, gas-guzzling SUVs. And, because of this, brands like AMG just might have to trim back… A lot. So much so that AMG might be forced to cut its most powerful models and reduce its lineup by as much as 75-percent.

Electric cars seem to be our only way to the future. They will save the planet and give us more comfort. They are quicker, faster, and more fun. Heck, EVs also have the potential to be cheaper and more accessible alternatives to any ICE-powered vehicle. In this article, I will try to explore the broader ramifications of electric car mass production. I will show you why electric cars could give governments more control over your life and give car companies more money out of your pockets. Electric cars will do all that while taking away from you the one thing that gasoline and diesel-powered cars selflessly provided - freedom. I have a question that is almost in the realm of conspiracy - are electric cars a hoax?

Carmakers across Europe are striving to meet a 2020 EU target of average car CO2 emissions of 95g per kilometer. To avoid the fines, the EU allows automakers to pool their fleets together and purchase credits from other automakers with a surplus. Last month, Financial Times revealed a deal between Tesla and Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) worth “hundreds of millions of euros”. According to the Financial Times, the understanding is now worth around €2 billion ($2.3 billion USD). The deal with FCA is expected to be an extremely great boost of money for Tesla but FCA should keep in mind that the sale of emission credits will not last forever. The new regulations while helping Tesla financially are pushing other carmakers to release their own all-electric vehicles as nobody in the industry is ready to keep dispensing billions to their own competitors.