Tesla is selling bonds to bolster its balance sheet and support spending on the Model 3 sedan. The company plans to offer $1.5 billion in senior unsecured notes due in 2025, according to a statement. Tesla said it intends to use the proceeds to produce its most affordable model and for general corporate purposes. It would be the company’s first sale of non-convertible bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
After a two-year avalanche of revelations – from diesel emissions manipulation to claims of cartel collusion – German politicians will give car executives an unusually chilly reception in Berlin on Wednesday.
At an emergency “diesel summit” increasingly jittery federal politicians and leaders of car-building states – Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Baden Württemberg – will read auto executives the riot act over their handling of a scandal with growing political and economic consequences.
Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health.
The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle.
Plans to ban the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040 in a bid to encourage people to buy electric vehicles are a "tall order" and will place unprecedented strain on the National Grid, motoring experts have warned.
Grab, the ride-hailing company competing with Uber in Southeast Asia, has pulled in $2 billion of new financing from existing investors Didi Chuxing, the company that defeated Uber in China, and SoftBank.
The latest round of funding comes from Japan’s Softbank and China’s top ride-hailing firm Didi Chuxing. Grab said Monday that it expects another $500 million will come from other existing and new investors. Its last announced cash injection was in September when it raised $750 million led by Softbank, whose chief executive Masayoshi Son is Japan’s richest person and a self-styled tech visionary.
Volvo on Wednesday called time on the internal combustion engine in a bid to get ahead in the race to sell electric cars to the mass market.
The Chinese-Swedish carmaker has said that, from 2019, all of its models will be powered by electric engines. The Gothenburg-based company will continue to produce pure combustion-engine Volvos from models launched before that date, but said it would introduce cars across its model line-up that ranged from fully electric cars to plug-in hybrids.
Tesla has confirmed it’s in talks with the Chinese government to open a factory in the Shanghai region, as the company aims to fulfill a promise by its CEO Elon Musk to produce 500,000 cars a year by 2018.
“Tesla is deeply committed to the Chinese market, and we continue to evaluate potential manufacturing sites around the globe to serve the local markets,” the company said in an emailed statement.
Switzerland’s Classic Factory has announced a sleek, limited-production four-door electric car that will provide exclusivity and ultra-performance to well-heeled EV customers.
The Elextra electric car will be exclusive, with plans for just 100 to be hand-built in Germany. It will also be powerful and quick, to match its Italian looks. Elextra’s two electric motors provide all-wheel drive, with torque independently distributed to the front and rear wheels for better traction. With a combined peak 680 horsepower, the car will sprint from a stop to 62 miles per hour in under 2.3 seconds. Top speed is limited, though, to 155 miles per hour.
Between now and 2021, battery production all over the world will more than double, Bloomberg reports. With more companies getting into the game, expansion and competition are up, and prices are down. This will mean more opportunities for energy companies and electric car manufacturers, and better deals for consumers looking to purchase clean powered technology for less money.
The key is an expected increase in the number of battery factories, which will boost production capacity-and thus provide the economies of scale needed to make batteries cheaper.
