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There’s been some established European automakers who are moving into the space, but what about new potential automakers who are trying to get into the space?
I know there’s:
Rimac in Croatia which makes pricey supercars and has actually launched one or two and has also worked out deals with Porsche perhaps others to help with driving performance-oriented EV development.
Lightyear in the Netherlands with its Lightyear One prototype and the intention of making low volume, high price solar power-assisted electric vehicles with long ranges and quite high prices before trying for higher volumes and lower prices with another vehicle if successful.
Sono in Germany which is trying for a broader market from the get-go with a solar power-assisted electric vehicle.
Are there other at least somewhat serious contenders you’ve come across?
Other than that you named it: Lightyear and Sono are more 'on the ground' with Solar cars initiative, basically they're trying to beat Tesla by pushing the next stage: 100% solar.
I'd say the challenges are tremendous, solar is by no means yet ready to create the power needed to carry a huge weight over large area and flying cars have all the disadvantages everyone knows: turbulence, noise, power, safety.
There’s been some established European automakers who are moving into the space, but what about new potential automakers who are trying to get into the space?
I know there’s:
Rimac in Croatia which makes pricey supercars and has actually launched one or two and has also worked out deals with Porsche perhaps others to help with driving performance-oriented EV development.
Lightyear in the Netherlands with its Lightyear One prototype and the intention of making low volume, high price solar power-assisted electric vehicles with long ranges and quite high prices before trying for higher volumes and lower prices with another vehicle if successful.
Sono in Germany which is trying for a broader market from the get-go with a solar power-assisted electric vehicle.
Are there other at least somewhat serious contenders you’ve come across?
Sono is likely to never produce a car.
There is Streescooter, already bankrupt and E.go, propably going to become bankrupt too.
In terms of smaller start up's the UK has the likes of Arrival , EV Connect, Alcraft etc
Dyson was involved but decided not to proceed, whilst James Ratcliffe is a British billionaire who owns the Ineos chemical company is developing the Grenadier, a rugges 4x4 to replace the Land Rover Discovery which is being discontinued with Land Rover concentrating on SUV's instead.
Of course all the big major companies are involved in the race to find the best electric vehicles and Jaguar Land Rover have recently changed some of their production lines to electric vehicles in the UK, whilst Nissan manufacture the electric leaf at their UK plant, and there are numerous other major manufacturers.
How does Rimac perfom financially? Startups in car industry can only succeed in high price low volume segment. This is why Sono and e.go will fail.
Those are interesting. Do you know if both vehicles are platforms they themselves developed or are they just adapting existing automakers?
Sono did just raise even more money fairly recently, but who knows. It's a weird niche they're going for.
Rimac is seemingly doing okay as Porsche seems to be really interested in it and has bought a 15.5% stake in the company. I'd assume they did a bit of due diligence before putting some money down. Them vehicles are a bit on the pricey side though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brave New World
In terms of smaller start up's the UK has the likes of Arrival , EV Connect, Alcraft etc
Dyson was involved but decided not to proceed, whilst James Ratcliffe is a British billionaire who owns the Ineos chemical company is developing the Grenadier, a rugges 4x4 to replace the Land Rover Discovery which is being discontinued with Land Rover concentrating on SUV's instead.
Of course all the big major companies are involved in the race to find the best electric vehicles and Jaguar Land Rover have recently changed some of their production lines to electric vehicles in the UK, whilst Nissan manufacture the electric leaf at their UK plant, and there are numerous other major manufacturers.
That's a lot of things mentioned, but are any of them electric vehicle making startups?
Those are interesting. Do you know if both vehicles are platforms they themselves developed or are they just adapting existing automakers?
Sono did just raise even more money fairly recently, but who knows. It's a weird niche they're going for.
Both streetscooter and E.go were newly developed, a logistics professor is responsible for both, as I said streetscooter is already bankrupt, Post/DHL produced them for themselves but hardly anybody else purchased them, they are technically poor and were relatively expensive (this also applies to e.go).
If e.go company survives they might use the Volkswagen MEB for an electric beach buggy or something of that sort.
Sono are either amateurs or a fraud or both, they already burned millions with zero result, the prototypes they had were edited BMW i3, the car should have been launched in 2019 and now they say in 2022. The money they collected is enough for a few prototypes, then they have to collect hundred of millions again to start production while the car with its specs is already outdated (only 200 Km range).
The car should have produced in Sweden in a former Saab plant by a Chinese manufacturer, as it seems the Chinese manufacturer does not produce in Sweden but in China, who in Europe would buy 15 years old Saab models as electric cars so why build them in Sweden? This means no manufacturer for Sono, at least not as planned.
It sounds odd that Tesla would consider building a factory in the UK. They are just getting started on the factory in Brandenburg state, not far from the southern edge of the Berlin metro area. I think all the tree chopping recently wrapped up and they are now working on grading and site preparation. The construction schedule sounds aggressive, but Tesla has done some things that surprise many.
Meanwhile, VW is getting their first electric vehicle factory closer to production mode in Zwickau (Saxony) which is an hour south of Leipzig. I pedaled my bike by there last August and it was a whirlwind of activity. It's ironic that the same factory site on the north side of Zwickau was previously the Trabant car factory up until 1991.
I don't consider Tesla an European automaker. I mean, unless any automaker that sells in Europe is a European automaker. I was thinking about headquartered in Europe and also not a subsidiary of another larger automaker.
Arrival is interesting! I forgot about Uniti. I had never heard of Alcraft before, and I couldn't figure out what car EV Connect is making. Alcraft unfortunately seem vaporware-y.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 06-11-2020 at 09:12 PM..
I don't consider Tesla an European automaker. I mean, unless any automaker that sells in Europe is a European automaker. I was thinking about headquartered in Europe and also not a subsidiary of another larger automaker.
I merely pointed South African Elon Musk has visited England with a view to opening a vast factory,.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
Arrival is interesting! I forgot about Uniti. I had never heard of Alcraft before, and I couldn't figure out what car EV Connect is making. Alcraft unfortunately seem vaporware-y.
I think EV work more on charging points, and the UK has some leading battery technology and charging technology companies, with some excellent research carried out at places such as thr Faraday Institution and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC).
Last edited by Brave New World; 06-12-2020 at 03:14 AM..
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