Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
Sales of cars powered solely by batteries surged in the United States, Europe and China last year, while deliveries of fossil fuel vehicles were stagnant. Demand for electric cars is so strong that manufacturers are requiring buyers to put down deposits months in advance. And some models are effectively sold out for the next two years. — The New York Times
As noted by The New York Times, the rise of electric vehicles represents the largest shift in the auto industry since the introduction of Henry Ford’s Model T. Their sales account for nearly 9 percent of new cars sold last year, which is up from 2.5 percent in 2019, according to the... View full entry
Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo is partnering with Chinese automaker Geely to create a fleet of all-electric, self-driving robotaxis. — The Verge
The cars will be designed in Sweden, where Geely owns Swedish car manufacturer Volvo. Waymo will integrate the Waymo Driver, their autonomous driving technology, into Geely's electric, transportation-as-a-service (Taas)-optimized Zeekr vehicle. Waymo plans to deploy the vehicles in the US within... View full entry
French start-up EasyMile is to be the first transport provider to run a fully autonomous vehicle on a public road in Europe. The company has been authorised to run a driverless bus at the Oncopole medical campus in Toulouse, in partnership with French engineer Alstom. — Global Construction Review
The bus will operate at “Level 4,” meaning no human attendant will be on board. The authorization was granted by France’s Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Ecological Transition, on advice of the Minister of the Interior and local authorities. The bus arrives ahead of the implementation... View full entry
The ending of this year’s COP26 conference has left many architects to ponder how effective the mostly non-representative group of negotiators were in addressing the skepticism and high expectations coming into the meeting that is meant to address what is undoubtedly the greatest moral issue of... View full entry
But where cities are succeeding, they’re finding that electrifying public transit can solve more than just climate problems. It can clean the air, reduce traffic jams and, ideally, make getting around town easier for ordinary people, which is why some politicians have staked their reputations on revamping transit. In many cases, city governments have been able to take climate action faster than their national governments. — The New York Times
The effort to reduce car traffic mirrors those taking shape in U.S. cities like New York and San Francisco. The cost of doing so has in a way become its own problem, as the infrastructure required to support expansive EV fleets in large metropolitan areas has proven to be a challenge for many of... View full entry
Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric-vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com Inc., is in talks to invest at least $5 billion to build a factory near Fort Worth, Texas, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. — Bloomberg
The factory, labeled “Project Tera” according to the Bloomberg-obtained document, would be able to produce 200,000 vehicles a year and create at least 7,500 jobs by 2027. A number of incentives, including grants and a city tax abatement of up to $440 million, have also been proposed in the... View full entry
According to South Korean car manufacturer, Hyundai, flying cars will exist in cities around the world by the end of this decade. At the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) conference, a trade association for the United Kingdom motor industry, Michael Cole, the president and chief... View full entry
Researchers at Cornell University are developing technology that would allow an electric car to charge while it’s in motion. Like a high occupancy lane, highways would have a charging lane that would charge vehicles’ batteries as they drive over its surface. This would be a monumental solution... View full entry
Led by Samir Bantal, AMO, the think tank founded by Rem Koolhaas has announced a new partnership with Volkswagen to focus on the development of rural mobility. As a first step in the partnership, the team has begun a study for an electric tractor that will be developed for sub-Saharan Africa "to... View full entry
Ann Arbor-based autonomous Transportation-as-a-Service (TaaS) provider May Mobility and Toyota are taking steps forward to realize their mission to transform cities through autonomous transport. With demand rising, Toyota has led a new round of funding of $50 million that will aid the TaaS... View full entry
Last week the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and its partners released the Zero Emissions 2028 Roadmap 2.0 which seeks to accelerate the deployment of zero-emissions electric cars, buses and trucks, and charging stations across Los Angeles. "Our Roadmap 2.0 charts a course... View full entry
Lyft recently announced that it deployed 200 long-range electric vehicles (EVs) into its Express Drive program in Denver. The Express Drive program operates in nearly three dozen U.S. cities and allows drivers to rent vehicles through Lyft's partners instead of committing to longer-term options such as leasing or buying their own. — Smart Cities Dive
According to Smart Cities Dive, the effort is part of Lyft's larger plan for a fully electrified fleet. The vehicles will be available this December. View full entry
