FOLLOW UP: BYD HELPED BY CHINESE GOVERNMENT A report is claiming that BYD has received $3.7 billion, in funding from the Chinese Government, to help it to reach its dominating position. This is all part of the EU’s investigation into whether companies from the country have an unfair advantage thanks to state aid. Click this Yahoo Finance article link for more information. FOLLOW UP: BRITISHVOLT SITE TO BE SOLD BY COUNCIL The site of the ill-fated Britishvolt battery factory is to be sold by the local council, to a company that wishes to create a data centre, after the new ‘owners’ Recharge Ind ..read more

FOLLOW UP: RENAULT AND VOLVO GROUP PRESENT EV VAN JV Flexis is the name of the joint-venture between Renault, the Volvo Group and transportation company CMA CGM, that will develop EV vans aimed at urban and last mile deliveries. This will fill the gap in both Renault and Volvo’s offerings to the commercial vehicle industry. For more information, click this Autocar link here. TOYOTA UPDATES ON CAR THEFTS Toyota GB has issues a statement regarding thefts of certain models and a fix that will be fitted by dealerships to affected vehicles. To read more on that, click this link here. Friends of the ..read more

FOLLOW UP: LUCID RAISES $1B FROM SAUDI ARABIA THe luxury EV maker, Lucid, has received a further $1 billion in investment, from the Saudi Arabian sovereign fund, Public Investment Fund. They also increased the number of vehicles they expect to produce in 2024 compared to 2023, still only 9,000 cars though. If you wish to learn more, click this link to a Reuters article. FOLLOW UP: CANOO BUYS UP ARRIVAL EQUIPMENT The bones of Arrival are being picked over as the administration team try to recoup as much money as possible by selling the assets off. Canoo has swooped in and bought a lot of equipm ..read more

FOLLOW UP: RENAULT VOLVO JV FOR EV VANS IS ON Last week we discussed the Reuters article that stated Renault and Volvo will announce that their joint venture for electric vans will shut in early April. This turns out not to be the case. Thanks to Renault sources we can confirm the JV is still very much on. Click this article link from AMOnline to read more. FOLLOW UP: FISKER TALKS WITH NISSAN BREAK DOWN The electric car company Fisker, has had their shares suspended following a huge drop in price after news that talks with Nissan had ended. The terms for the extra funding from an existing inve ..read more

FOLLOW UP: RENAULT AND VOLVO TO SHUT EV VAN PROJECT Renault and Volvo will announce that their joint venture for electric vans will shut in early April. There is no detail on why this is. Click here for more information, via the Reuters article link. UK GOVERNMENT PREPARES TRADE SANCTIONS ON CHINESE EVS At a SMMT conference, the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, said that the UK Government could impose sanctions to prevent the market being unfairly in favour of subsidised Chinese electric vehicles. If you wish to learn more, click this AMOnline article link here. HONDA AND NISSAN SIGN MOU FOR ..read more

FOLLOW UP: AGENCY MODEL CLARIFICATION Thank you to all who responded to Andrew’s request for more information on how the agency model works for car retails. We can now confirm, the query about who carries the financial liability, does in fact lie with the manufacturers now. To see who is moving to this model, click this link to an Auto Retail Network article. FEBRUARY 2024 NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURES SMMT has released the new car registration figures for February 2024 and they are the best in 20 years! Which caused us to raise an eyebrow or two. Battery electric cars are up, slightly, but sti ..read more

FOLLOW UP: VOLVO TO SELL SHARES IN POLESTAR We begin to get the answer of what difference Volvo cutting funding will mean to their Polestar relationship, as they look to offload a large portion of the shares they hold. The plan is to drop from 48% of shares down to 18%. For more information, click this electrive article link here. STELLANTIS TO CONVERT LUTON PLANT FOR EV VANS Stellantis has confirmed that they will convert the Luton plant to enable it to build the Group’s electric vans. ICE versions will continue to be built along side the EVs, which will be produced from early 2025. If you wo ..read more

FOLLOW UP: CRUISE APPOINTS FIRST EVER SAFETY OFFICER In a move that should have more people stunned, Cruise has announced their first every safety officer. Steve Kenner has worked at a number of places in the autonomous vehicle industry. Louise Zhang, who is a VP of safety and systems will remain in her role. Astonishingly. If you wish to learn more, click this TechCrunch link here. FOLLOW UP: FRENCH SUBSIDY FOR LOW INCOME HOMES HALTED The recently launched subsidy to help low income families into EV has already been halted, due to an overwhelming demand, according to French Government officia ..read more

FOLLOW UP: ARRIVAL GOES INTO ADMINISTRATION The inevitable has happened at Arrival and the company has brought in receivers to try and sell on the company assets. Last year they announced they were focusing only on their large van, but this has not been produced. Claims of macroeconomic conditions have been laughed at, following the revelations of management and how the business was run. If you wish to learn more, click this article here, from The Guardian. ASA BANS ADS OVER ZERO EMISSION AND ULEZ CLAIMS The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has rapped BMW, MG and Transport for London (TfL) o ..read more

FOLLOW UP: CRUISE’S ACCIDENT FAILURES ARE WORSE THAN GUESSED The ‘independent’ review by a legal firm employed by both GM and Cruise has produced their first report into the incident where a pedestrian who was knocked into the path of a driverless taxi was hit and dragged by the car. They try to claim that no one really meant to deceive the regulators and it was the internet that prevented them from showing the full video. They admitted that no one then attempted to explain verbally or via email. You can learn more from this Jalopnik article link here. You can find more context and details in ..read more