Latest news with #Carmakers
NHK
5 days ago
- Automotive
- NHK
Japan's exports to US fall for 3rd straight month
The Japanese Finance Ministry says the country's exports to the United States fell in June for the third straight month. That appears to be the result of tariffs imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump. The ministry announced on Thursday the value of shipments fell 11.4 percent in yen terms from the same month last year. The drop was particularly sharp in the auto sector. Exports were down 26.7 percent. The number of vehicles was up, but their average price was down nearly 30 percent to around 22,800 dollars. Carmakers are believed to be cutting prices or shipping less expensive models to offset the tariffs. Japan's overall exports stood at about 62 billion dollars in June, down half a percent from last year. Imports ticked up 0.2 percent to about 61 billion dollars, translating into a slight trade surplus of 1.03 billion dollars. The ministry also says Japan had a trade deficit of over 2.2 trillion yen, or nearly 15 billion dollars, for the first six months of the year.
Top Gear
15-07-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Electric car grants are back! Cheapest, greenest EVs to be discounted by £3,750
Electric And only cars costing less than £37k will qualify. So you won't be funding next door's new Tesla… Skip 1 photos in the image carousel and continue reading The weekend rumours were true: the government has announced a new Electric Car Grant, which will see up to £3,750 knocked off the price of a new EV costing less than £37,000. But rather than a blanket discount, cars that qualify will be split into two bands: those with the lowest CO2 manufacturing footprint will get the full amount, but above a certain threshold the subsidy will be lowered to £1,500. Advertisement - Page continues below The Department for Transport hasn't, er, actually said what those thresholds are. Anyway. The ECG (not to be confused with an electrocardiogram) will be in place until the 2028/29 financial year, although if demand is strong enough the £650m pot could run dry before then. You might like Unlike the previous Plug-In Car Grant – which was killed off in 2022 – it's car manufacturers and not customers who will be in charge of applying for the new grant. Carmakers can apply from tomorrow (July 16), so you could start seeing lower prices within weeks. Or possibly even earlier than that if a manufacturer is really confident that its paperwork will be rubber stamped. Advertisement - Page continues below 'This EV grant will not only allow people to keep more of their hard-earned money – it'll help our automotive sector seize one of the biggest opportunities of the 21st century,' said Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander. 'And with over 82,000 public chargepoints now available across the UK, we've built the infrastructure families need to make the switch with confidence.' A cynic might suggest that if that last bit were true, the government wouldn't have announced more funding for home charging solutions just two days ago. Anyway, news of the Electric Car Grant has been pretty universally welcomed within the industry. Mikes Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT said the move is 'a clear signal to consumers that now is the time to switch', while Vicky Read, CEO of ChargeUK has called it 'brilliant news for drivers and for the UK's transition to electric vehicles'. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. READ MORE Are electric car grants about to make an Oasis-style comeback? And Adam Wood, MD at Renault UK, said: 'These incentives are extremely welcome, and a much-needed signal that government is ready to put tangible action behind the ambitious plans for the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) that it has outlined.' Will the money off tempt you to go electric, or are you staunchly sticking to ICE until the arctic has vanished?
Top Gear
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
What is a range extender? And can I buy an aftermarket one?
Top Gear Advice A battery-electric vehicle (BEV) powered by electrons and fossil fuels. Wait, what? Skip 1 photos in the image carousel and continue reading Not something that makes your wifi powerful enough for the whole street to abuse, but a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) paired up with... fossil fuels. Wait, what? How the heck does that work? Because the electric motor drives the axle from a battery, this is an electric car. But there's an on-board petrol-drinking generator that can recharge the battery once it's depleted, hence the 'range-extending' title. Advertisement - Page continues below Sure, both of them utilise an internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric motor, so you're right. But where the ICE drives the axle in a hybrid (whether it's 'self-charging' or a plug-in hybrid (PHEV)), the electric motor does all the work in a range extender. Semantics? Hardly. Since you're not connecting the engine to the wheels (only to the battery), carmakers can use a much simpler design – no driveshaft, no clutch, no gearbox. Plus, as it's not a geared engine, it can run with the optimal fuel efficiency and last a lot longer, too. You might like Well, triple bubble if you think about it. Not only are you driving around on delicious, earth-friendly electrons, you've also got an engine with the sweetest spot of energy-extracting efficiency to send more electrons to the battery and you're still capitalising on regenerative braking tech. Gotcha. What's the catch? You need a Scrabble board to figure out some of the titles. REX, REEV, EREV are some of the basic acronyms. REX stands for, er, Range Extender, a REEV is a 'range-extending electric vehicle', and an EREV is not a Bristolian call-to-arms even if it reads like one. It stands for 'electric range-extending vehicle'. Advertisement - Page continues below With all the engineering knowledge in all the land, you'd think a bunch of clever folk could get a few letters figured out in a similar order, eh? Anything else I should know? As the engine doesn't drive the wheels directly, there's far less vibration, so you still benefit from the quiet that is an electric vehicle. Plus, all this gubbins is far more cost-effective for manufacturers to tool up for, meaning the consumer cost of the range extender should be more attractive, too. SOLD. What cars can I buy with one of these amazing range extender set-ups? Erm, that's a bit tricky actually. The tech debuted on the Vauxhall Ampera (Chevy Volt for our US friends, and Opel Ampera to our mates on the continent). It was well-deployed in the BMW i3 (REX), and some folks living in countries with more extensive land mass than Britain have looked to mod with aftermarket, insurance-invalidating set-ups. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. The now-cancelled Ineos Fusilier was meant to have one, and Genesis intends to put one in the GV90 come 2027 (though that's not bound for UK shores just yet). VW – in collaboration with SAIC - showcased its first range-extending ID model, the SUV at Auto Shanghai 2025, but that was just a concept. With ZF creating the next-generation of range-extending powertrains after "increased demand from the industry", expect to see more Rs, Es, and Vs in model names at some point in the future. You're hunting the used car market for the odd Fisker Karma otherwise.
Bloomberg
29-05-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
Li Auto Second-Quarter Sales Set to Disappoint Amid EV Price War
Li Auto Inc. forecast second-quarter revenue that fell short of what investors are expecting, as the Chinese electric vehicle maker struggles amid intensifying competition in the world's biggest automobile market. Carmakers in China have slashed sticker prices to kick start sluggish consumer demand, including market leader BYD Co., which last week cut prices by as much as 34%.
