Mark Kane

Fisker announced its third-quarter financial results, revealing an improving level of electric car production and customer deliveries. During Q3 2023, Fisker Ocean production increased to 4,725 units, which is a noticeable jump from 1,022 units in Q2 and 55 units in Q1. Let’s recall that the model is produced in Graz, Austria (at Magna Steyr’s plant). In terms of customer deliveries, 1,097 cars were delivered across two continents (in several European countries and in the United States). That’s…

EG Group, a British operator of fuel stations, announced today that it will acquire Tesla’s electric vehicle ultra-fast chargers for its evpoint business. According to the company, its rapidly growing charging network currently consists of more than 600 chargers across 189 sites, while the goal is to deploy more than 20,000 chargers across about 3,600 sites in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. That’s potentially a very large business opportunity for Tesla, which increasingly is expandin…

Mercedes-Benz announced the Buc-ee’s chain of travel centers as its second strategic partner for its network of premium EV charging stations across North America. Mercedes-Benz HPC North America LLC intends to build fast charging hubs at most of Buc-ee’s existing travel centers, starting with about 30 by the end of 2024. For reference, Buc-ee’s has 34 stores across Texas and 12 locations in other states. Some of the sites already have Tesla Superchargers. The agreement with Buc-ee’s comes on top…

In October, new passenger car registrations in the United Kingdom increased by 14 percent year-over-year to 153,529, which marks the 15th month of consecutive growth. After ten months of 2023, the total number of new registrations amounted to 1,605,437 (up almost 20 percent year-over-year). The plug-in electric car expansion is even faster, which means that plug-ins were able to slightly increase market share. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reports that 38,228 new plug-in…

In September, plug-in electric car sales in Europe continued to increase year-over-year, although the rate of growth was quite disappointing. According to EV Volumes data shared by researcher Jose Pontes, 288,459 new plug-in electric cars were registered in Europe, which is 15 percent more than a year ago. For comparison, the general market noted an 11 percent increase year-over-year. We guess that the main reason behind a slower growth rate is the slowdown in Germany (the single largest market…

BYD is expected to soon announce a decision about the location of its first European electric car factory. According to German newspaper The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS), via Reuters), the European plant will be built in Hungary. The information is unofficial, based on “unnamed sources close to BYD” who indicate that “the decision had already been made internally.” The article also points out that last month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met BYD Chairman and President Wa…

Volvo Cars USA reports that its car sales in the United States increased in October by 19 percent year-over-year to 11,296. During the first ten months of the year, sales amounted to 103,421 (up 27% year-over-year). Volvo’s plug-in electric car sales outpaced this growth, but only slightly. Last month, rechargeable car sales amounted to 3,041 (up 20 percent year-over-year), which is 26.9 percent of the brand’s total volume. The key thing to look at is the all-electric car sales, which amounted t…

In October, the Norwegian car market once again noted a significant 29 percent year-over-year decrease, dropping new registrations down to 8,925. Because of that, the year-to-date result of 104,424 is now deeper into the red at -9.4 percent year-over-year. Despite the fact that people are buying a lower number of new cars, the market is dominated by rechargeable ones, which maintain their ultra-high market share. According to the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV), 8,151 new passenger plug-in cars…

In October, NIO global electric car deliveries increased by almost 60 percent year-over-year to 16,074, which is a small improvement over September (15,641). However, the numbers still appear too low to make the business profitable, as NIO’s losses are estimated at around $35,000 per car. A real sales breakthrough would be needed for NIO to become profitable, it seems. The overwhelming majority of NIO sales are in China. The company is expanding its business in Europe too. The volume of 16,074 u…

The progressing expansion of the electric vehicle market and huge expectations about future growth have prompted massive EV-related investments in the U.S. Aside from new EV factories and a small tsunami of EV battery factories, there is also a significant wave of new EV charging equipment factories coming right now, an analysis of Department of Energy data shows. The DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office highlights that since 2021, manufacturers have announced more than $500 million in EV charger…