Category Archives: News

News

VW delays launch of new EVs for 2026

The decline in demand for electric cars in Europe has forced Volkswagen to postpone the introduction of new EVs until 2026. This was announced by German automotive analyst Matthias Schmidt in an interview with Bloomberg.

In early 2024, Volkswagen introduced its most powerful station wagon ever, the ID.7 GTX Tourer, and this year, there will be no new models. In 2025, the German brand will be selling old technology to new customers. The reason is a large number of unsold EVs, and the same problem is plaguing other manufacturers as well.

However, what is most troubling VW are two new electric models that it is developing in China. These are two mid-range models, one of which will be an SUV, and the German company is developing them in cooperation with the Chinese company XPeng. VW hopes that this will not disrupt plans and that with the arrival of these models on the market, the VW Group will increase annual sales in China to four million vehicles by 2030. In 2023, the VW Group sold 2.93 million vehicles in China.

Source: Bloomberg

News

Xiaomi SU7 overtook Tesla Model 3 in sales in China

Since it appeared on the market in early 2024, no one could have predicted that Xiaomi’s first car would experience such success. In just eight months since its debut, Xiaomi has shipped more than 130,000 SU7s, and in December it managed to outsell the Tesla Model 3.

Xiaomi currently offers several versions of this model, and all of them achieve outstanding sales results. That’s big for a company whose primary market is China, home of the biggest EV manufacturers. So, why are buyers more likely to opt for the SU7 than the Tesla Model 3?

The biggest difference between these two models is the price. With a starting price of 26,710 euros for the Standard version, the SU7 beats Tesla’s Model 3 by almost 10 percent, as it costs at least 29,000 euros. Also, Tesla recently increased the prices of all versions of the Model 3 in China, and with the growing competition from domestic manufacturers, this represents a rather big challenge for Tesla’s dominance in the Chinese market.

Chinese manufacturers think differently. They listen more to the needs of local buyers , offering more attractive cars at competitive prices and putting a lot of pressure on international brands. This will become even more evident when the Xiaomi YU7 hits the market, which will happen in the summer of this year.

Source: Reuters

News

The Land Rover Defender EV will not hit the market before 2030

In an interview with Autocar, Jaguar’s chief commercial officer Lennard Hoornik hinted that the Land Rover Defender won’t hit the market until 2030.

Land Rover has conducted research into electrifying the Defender, which has shown a lack of space for batteries. “We said we would do an electric model for each of our new brands, Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar. We remain committed to that. But finding the space in the current Defender is really, really difficult. We’ll have to use something different,” Hoornik said.

Hoornik also added that electrifying the current L663, which is based on the D7x platform, is not something the company wants to do. “The L663 is brilliant at what it does and we already have a four-cylinder plug-in hybrid version, but it’s not easy to find the extra space in the chassis that you need for the batteries, given the axle and the capabilities that are required,” Hoornik said.

It is not known whether a new platform will be developed or whether JLR will use an existing one for the future Defender EV.

Source: Autocar