Tesla boss Elon Musk has criticised Joe Biden’s decision to quadruple tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China, despite previously calling for trade barriers himself.

The multi-billionaire said via video link, “Neither Tesla nor I asked for these tariffs,” at a technology conference in Paris.

Last week, the White House said new measures, including a 100% tariff on EVs from China, were a response to unfair policies and intended to protect US jobs.

Musk has previously warned that Chinese car makers could “demolish” competitors unless governments imposed trade barriers. However, at the conference on Thursday, the Tesla chief expressed surprise at the move, adding: “Things that inhibit freedom of exchange or distort the market are not good.”

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FTX exec jailed for 90 months

Ryan Salame, the former right-hand man of jailed FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison, US federal prosecutors said.

Salame, who had served as co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, pleaded guilty in September last year to violating political campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business.

“Salame’s involvement in two serious federal crimes undermined public trust in American elections and the integrity of the financial system,” Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

It follows Bankman-Fried’s 25-year conviction for stealing $8bn (£6.3bn) from FTX customers, which was revealed when the crypto exchange collapsed in 2022.

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PwC becomes first ChatGPT reseller

PwC has signed a deal with OpenAI to offer its ChatGPT Enterprise licences to its business partners.

OpenAI has not previously offered Enterprise licences through a third party, and the agreement means PwC can also upsell its portfolio of services to those who want to use ChatGPT to optimise their workloads.

Not only does the management consulting giant become OpenAI’s first reseller partner, but it will also become the tech firm’s biggest customer to date, covering 100,000 users.

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Former OpenAI board member sheds light on Altman firing

A former board member of OpenAI has defended the ChatGPT firm’s shock decision to sack founder Sam Altman last year, accusing the CEO of “outright lying to the board.”

OpenAI quickly reversed its November decision to remove Altman following an outcry from inside and outside the organisation, but according to former board member Helen Toner, the directors had not taken the initial decision lightly. They claimed the founder had lied to, obstructed, and retaliated against those who criticised him, creating “a toxic atmosphere.”

“The [OpenAI] board is a nonprofit board that was set up explicitly for the purpose of making sure that the company’s public good mission was primary — was coming first over profits, investor interests, and other things,” Toner said to The TED AI Show host Bilawal Sidhu.

“But for years, Sam had made it really difficult for the board to actually do that job by, you know, withholding information, misrepresenting things that were happening at the company, in some cases outright lying to the board.”

When Altman returned to the company just days after his sacking, he brought with him an entirely new board of directors.

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The public seems to have lost faith in autonomous vehicles too, following reports that San Francisco residents set several on fire in protest in February, following safety concerns.

And these concerns are not entirely unwarranted, as it was reported this month that Tesla reached a settlement in a lawsuit after a crash in 2018 that killed Apple engineer Walter Huang when his car collided with a highway barrier while operating on autopilot.

Recent portrayals in film and TV appear to have cast autonomous cars as the villains:  High octane Netflix Sci-Fi series 3 Body Problem features a scene in which three hacked autonomous vehicles launch an attack on one of the drama’s main characters.

The 2023 film Leave the World Behind meanwhile, starring Julia Roberts, has a dramatic scene showing a logjam of Tesla cars losing their connection and crashing into each other.

While fears around autonomous vehicles existed before negative media coverage, there’s evidence that it may have exacerbated them.

According to a recent Forbes Advisor report, as many as 93% of US citizens have concerns about some aspect of self-driving cars, their main anxiety stemming from fear of safety and technological malfunctions.

Over 60% of Americans wouldn’t trust a self-driving car with their loved ones or children, the report added, and a similar number of consumers have lost confidence in Tesla due to recent safety and technology recalls.

The report was not completely negative however, sounding out a cautious note of optimism in autonomous vehicles’ abilities to empower disenfranchised groups. For instance, 20%  of respondents were enthusiastic about enhanced mobility for the elderly and people with disabilities.

But even this aspect is nuanced, as what is empowering to one group is seen as a safety hazard to another.  To reduce cyber attacks, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) is introducing mandatory regulations for autonomous vehicles and electric car manufacturers.

While a positive move for security, one organisation representing the providers of solutions for disabled drivers and passengers, Mobility in Motion, is currently warning that the new rules will bring new challenges for those who need driving adaptations (Read more about it here).

Is Carhacking a thing?

So how much of our fears over driverless vehicles are unfounded? Is car hacking even possible or is it just the stuff of science fiction and Daily Mail headlines?

According to Siddartha Khastgir, head of verification and validation at Warwick Manufacturing Group based at the University of Warwick, hacking vehicles remotely to cause harm is possible.

“But at the same time, the industry and regulators have appreciated and acted upon the growing importance of cyber security and the need to protect autonomous vehicles from being hacked,” he assures.

He adds that the UN’s regulations provide uniform provisions for vehicle cyber security and its management systems – but all this hasn’t prevented film and TV from using dramatic licence, which in turn affects market and public perception.

“Marketing and media coverage of autonomous or automated vehicles go a long way in shaping public opinion and expectations of this technology,” says Khastgir.

Cian O’Cuinneagain, chief product officer of Cubic Telecom, a telecoms firm that provides connectivity to software-defined connected vehicles (SDCVs), agrees.

He adds that if the public saw the amount of safety procedures, and were given information on how the algorithms work, while it might not make as compelling viewing it would at least serve to ease their concerns.

“I always find it reassuring that the algorithms used in self-driving vehicles have a lot of fail-safe complexity built in,” he says.

“If a vehicle encounters an obstacle that it can’t navigate, it doesn’t do something crazy, it gracefully stops and hands over to a teleoperator and someone can navigate around it.

“In public passenger vehicles, I think it’s a question of communication, education, reinforcing real statistics about how these things work, how much safer they are, and also what it’s going to look like from a journey of transition perspective.”

Cubic Telecom is already facilitating fully autonomous vehicles in industrial environments such as agriculture and heavy industry, which O’Cuinneagáin, presents as proof that autonomous setups can synchronise and work together in a safe manner.

Elsewhere, simulator provider, Ansible Motion, is using virtual reality to help with safety tests and public reassurance in their simulator Driver-In-The-Loop.

“In reality, autonomous vehicles can’t operate on their own,” says Salman Safdar, subject matter expert of DIL at Ansible Motion.

“Manufacturers are looking to real people to evaluate and test advanced driver-assistance systems to establish trust between the human occupant and the ADAS-driven car ‘brain’,” he adds.

Ultimately, Ansible’s simulator helps drivers become more confident in a driverless car by witnessing and understanding how an autonomous car works, but in a controlled environment.

“Humans tend to look for cues in the vehicle’s behaviour that indicate it’s being driven correctly – such as slowing down in good time on the approach to a junction – and simulators are being used to determine if emphasising these cues might make passengers feel more at ease,” says Safdar.

“What’s more, knowing at what point to intervene in an unfolding scenario is key to striking the right balance between driver control and active safety – something that can be within a range of driver levels and abilities, not just experienced evaluators,” he adds.

The Apple problem

When Apple dropped its plans to build an electric car, the sources came from multiple outlets but not from the firm itself.  The project was kept a ‘secret’ for over a decade, and executives made the announcement to the internal team.

A few weeks before the cancellation was revealed, reports emerged that the tech giant was scaling back its ambitions from completely autonomous to self-driving capabilities.

What this means for the market could be viewed in two ways according to O’Cuinneagáin.

“I think a lot of original equipment manufacturers will not be totally upset that Apple is not going to be a direct competitor,” he says, “but it also shows how hard it is.”

O’Cuinneagáin notes that there’s a perception that the EV and self-driving car market is easier for newer players to enter compared to manufacturing traditional combustion engine-based vehicles.

In agreement, Khastgir says: “There is definitely a dose of reality that has finally struck the industry.”

As a result, he adds, pressures on generating revenue have forced many players to either shut up shop, or pivot.

“But I think it’s important as well to counter this with the reality that there are still emerging players,” adds O’Cuinneagáin.

Right now, Khastgir says SDC companies have one of two options. The first is to bank on the deep pockets of their investors, such as Waymo and Cruise – a recent report by McKinsey shows autonomous vehicle decision makers estimate more than $5 billion in investment is needed across the sector for fully autonomous robo-taxis alone until official commercial launch.

John Redford, the chief technology officer at UK-based start up Five, which pivoted from offering a full self-driving car model to a less cash-intensive, cloud-based development and testing platform, described autonomous cars as a “multibillion pound problem”.

Five effectively took the second option on the table which is to shift focus to more immediate revenue generation streams. This also includes Khastgir’s second option, which is offering advanced levels of driver systems over completely self-driving vehicles, which we see in GM’s Super Cruise or Ford’s BlueCruise.

The timeline until fully autonomous cars take to our roads, meanwhile, is extending. McKinsey’s survey predicts that fully autonomous robo-taxis and trucks will start to appear by 2030. Although, O’Cuinneagáin says SDV trials in various metropolitan cities will happen sooner.

As more legislation is passed and consumers grow accustomed to the vehicles as part of their overall transport mix, however, it may well be that killer cars are consigned to movie history along with other tired tropes that include Great White sharks, wronged mistresses, and creepy English villains.

The post Why have self-driving cars become public enemy number one? appeared first on TechInformed.

According to the Department for Transport’s ‘Future of Flight’ action plan, piloted electric aircraft cabs could be taking to the skies by 2026, when the first flying taxi flight is scheduled.

Regular flying taxi services are set to become available by 2028, and autonomous, pilotless, flying taxis could be in flight by 2030.

Proponents of flying taxis, which are electric, claim that the vehicles are quieter and more environmentally friendly. At present the air-borne vehicles are currently undergoing a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) authorisation process.

The government also laid out its intention to lift off regular drone deliveries by 2027 – where the aim is to allow drones to fly beyond the sight of the person controlling it.

The UK government also said it would develop standards to improve the security for drones and create a new assessment platform to authorise drones efficiently and enable the development of mini airports (vertiports) by developing certification standards and reviewing the use of existing infrastructure.

Drones are already used by the emergency services, with the UK’s NHS piloting  drones for the delivery of medicine, while telco BT trialled an in-air delivery service between two UK hospitals last year.

The West Midlands Police are also using drones to tackle violent crime and antisocial behaviour.

Capture. Provide. Prevent: How drones are being deployed by emergency services

“Drones help professional teams capture data from the sky in a safer, cheaper, smarter and greener way and, in the future, they will help transport cargo and people,” said Anne-Lie Scaillierez, CEO of UK drone trade associated ARPAS-UK.

One of seven UK-based flying taxi manufacturers benefitting from the plan is Vertical Aerospace.

“With government and business working together, we can unleash the huge economic, environmental, and social benefits of zero emissions flight globally,” added founder and CEO, Stephen Fitzpatrick.

The post UK government sets 2026 goal for flying taxis appeared first on TechInformed.

The cryptocurrency firm collapsed in May after losing $40 billion in value and contributing to the 2022 cryptocrash. Its co-founder Do Kwon is currently in jail in Montenegro after been found guilty of forging documents.

Kwon has been charged with defrauding investors by US regulators and is awaiting extradition. He also faces fraud charges in South Korea, his native country, where he could be extradited.

Announcing the bankruptcy filing, Terraform Labs chief executive Chris Amani said: “This action is necessary to allow us to continue working toward our collective goals while resolving the legal challenges that remain outstanding.”

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Tesla teases new mass market electric vehicle in 2025

The automotive manufacturer has communicated with suppliers that it wants to begin production of a new mass market electric vehicle codenamed “Redwood”.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has long stimulated fans’ and investors’ appetites for affordable electric vehicles and self-driving robotaxis that are expected to be made on next-generation, cheaper electric car platforms.

Reuters reported that sources familiar with the matter said Tesla sent “requests for quotes,” or invitation for bids for the “Redwood” model, to suppliers last year, and forecast weekly production volume of 10,000 vehicles. They also added production would begin in June 2025.

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Wise and Skype’s Plural raises $436m to build tech giants in Europe

Plural, a venture firm created by Wise and Skype founders, has raised 400 million euros to back new startups in Europe to compete with established funds like Atomico, Balderton Capital and Creandum.

The funds were raised from a mix of limited partners, including British and American university endowments, US foundations and insurers, strategic family offices in Europe and America.

Plural’s co-founder Taavet Hinrikus, said that it will serve as a better alternative to startups in Europe than most venture capital funds, given that it was started by people with the “scar tissue” of proven entrepreneurs. Only 8% of VCs in Europe are former founders, he says, much lower than the 60% in the United States.

“If we look at a lot of VC funds, you have lots of people who have done great work with spreadsheets, not with startup life,” Hinrikus said in an interview. “In our case, it is seen as a core criteria for choosing our partners that they’re totally unemployable.”

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Disinformation attacks targeted voters, media and LGBTQ+ group

The research highlights the potential on digital weaponry to undermine Ukraine but also to spread fake news during elections in Poland and Spain.

Ukraine was the most frequently attacked but 149 entities including media organisations such as Euronews, Reuters, Deutsche Welle and the New York Times and LGBTQ+ organisation were also targeted.

Among the digital weapons used to attack were “bullying, harassment or threats” the report said. “The goal is not only to shape the global narratives, but also to suppress and silence dissenting voices,” it added.

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Currently used for copper-based broadband and phone services, the cabinets will be decommissioned as the UK-wide upgrade to full-fibre progresses.

The first phase of the repurposing pilot will take place in Northern Ireland this autumn. If successful, it will be expanded to the public with more pilot locations added across the UK later in the year.

The announcement follows the UK government’s commitment to grow the number of UK charge points from 45,000 to 300,000 by 2030 and will play a key role in exploring how existing infrastructure can be repurposed to accelerate decarbonisation.

During the trials, the team is expected to analyse a range of different technical, commercial and operational considerations with bringing this EV charge point network online, including cabinet location, power availability, customer accessibility, digital customer experience and funding options.

The start-up’s projections suggest that, in time, as many as 60,000 of the Group’s 90,000 cabinets may be suitable for upgrades to EV charging points.

BT has reassured that neither the trials nor any potential scaling of the new EV charge network would present any change or disruption to the telecommunications services supported from the cabinets.

“The UK needs a massive upgrade to meet the needs of the EV revolution,” said Tom Guy, managing director, Etc. at BT Group.

“The pilots are critical for the team to work through the assessment and establish effective technical, commercial and operational routes to market over the next two years.”

Helen Clarkson, CEO at Climate Group, added : “ We’re seeing more and more ambitious commitments from corporates to grow their EV fleets in the coming years. Programmes like BT Group’s are an incentive for other businesses and drivers to go electric.

“But we need the UK government to play its part – wider availability of charge points right across the country, not just in London, will help build confidence that switching to an EV is the right option.”

The post BT to repurpose street cabinets into charging points appeared first on TechInformed.

The new fleet will be powered by an ecosystem of products, including  Einride’s intelligent Saga platform, electric and autonomous fleets, charging infrastructure and connectivity networks.

According to the Swedish firm, it plans to establish a regional freight mobility grid along the M1, M5 and M6, between London, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol.

It added that the starting point would be the Midlands’ ‘golden logistics triangle,’ which lies within four hours’ drive of 90% of the British population and contains a significant share of the country’s logistics and warehousing facilities.

The Walkers brand will be Einride’s first commercial partnership following its expansion into Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway.

Over three years the 25 mile route is predicted to reduce the British food manufacturing giant’s carbon footprint by over 1,600 tonnes.

Head of sustainability at Walker’s parent company PepsiCo, Archana Jagannathan, heralded the partnership as a “small yet important step” on its journey towards net zero.

“With this initial deployment, we’re looking forward to better understanding the potential role electric trucks can play in our transport operations,” Jagannathan added.

Einride claims that the cargo mobility grid concept simplifies cargo management over long distances and removes inefficiencies that are otherwise typical for the industry, with smart handovers meaning goods don’t have to be delayed due to battery recharges or a change in driver, for instance.

In time, the Swedish company plans to establish a vast network of partners as it expands further into the UK and Ireland, connecting additional shippers and operators which will enable cost-efficient scaling of the grid together with increased emission savings.

Once a critical mass of transportation volumes is established, the expansion of the grid will be further supported by introducing human-led autonomous technologies such as Einride’s heavy duty, cables trucks, which are monitored by a remote operator.

According to Einride, each year, 1.4 billion tonnes of goods are transported around the UK by road, yet road haulage is responsible for over 20% of the country’s domestic carbon emissions.

For most enterprises, introducing new policies and piloting fleets is a good first step towards becoming electric, according to Andreea Nitica, fleet manager at Village Heating Ltd, who spoke on a panel at last year’s London’s EV Show.

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The are around 280 million road vehicles in the US as of the end of 2022, according to Zippia, and electric vehicles make up a small – but growing – segment. There are around 1.7 million electric vehicles on the road in the US – compared to around 400,000 in Q2 of 2018 – but whether the nation’s car companies, federal and state governments and utility companies are prepared for mass electrification is a moot point.

At CES last month Trevor Pawl, the chief mobility officer for the state of Michigan – which encompasses Detroit, home to the country’s  ‘Big Three’ car manufacturers [Ford, General Motors and Chrysler] spoke of both the challenges and opportunities involved in the transition from combustion to EV cars.

Given that one in every five jobs in the state is tied to the automotive industry, a major challenge for Michigan has been balancing its reputation as a key employer and manufacturer-base for automotive, while meeting its own sustainability goals of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

“One issue for us is that EVs require less parts,” said Pawl during a CES session on electrification.

“So when you think about that there are over 300 Michigan companies or 45,000 workers primarily in the Detroit area that are going to see some sort of negative displacement.”

“And yet, since 2017 emissions from transportation have surpassed that of built infrastructure – factories, homes… so who the hell else should come and save the day but Michigan?

“We want to have 2 million EVs on the road and 100,000 EV chargers by 2030 and we want 80% of our charging to be off peak,” he added.

The state is putting its money where its mouth is: reaching out to industry with funding that amounts to a $110m Federal government- approved levy.

“We want to find solutions through public/ private partnerships,” said Pawl.

“Come to us with a solution we can put down some seed capital we’re not afraid of that – but come up with a solution, come up with ways to address a challenge.”

Pawl added that for every grant the state issues to electrification projects in a low income areas, the state is able to claim back $1,000.

Charging ahead

Another main area of focus, the mobility chief continued, was putting more EV chargers in place and the state hopes to get to a place where public charging points are as ubiquitous as chains of Starbucks and McDonalds.

The state is also working in tandem with others in the Midwest creating initiatives such as the so-called ‘electrified route 66’ around Lake Michigan – a network of electric vehicle chargers covering 1,100 miles of drivable shoreline.

Initiatives like these, he hopes, will help position the Midwest as a place for clean energy and small business growth.

As much as state funding and state planning are helping to electrify Michigan, collaboration between local government, the car industry, the utility companies and other digital data players is also essential, but currently lacking.

Joining Pawl for the CES session was Chris Moyer, CTO at utility company Exelon which serves over 10m customers in several areas, including Chicago, Baltimore and Washington DC.

“There needs to be better planning around EVs and chargers , especially when we already know some of the data is,” said Moyer.

“If you take every governor in every state we service and look at their predictions they are all saying that they will have around 20 times the amount of EVs by 2045.”

“Now look at a fleet and see what the demand for that is. If that starts to exceed 15 megawatts in the charging window then there’s a lot of work to do. We’d need to build additional substations and which means planning and construction.

“So our biggest challenge is being very planful and intentional. We could plan better, especially for the higher draw vehicles,” he says.

Moyer added that utility companies needed more data from OEMs, charging facilities and local government around where cars were most likely to go to refuel.

Data gaps

Car companies say that they too are struggling to access data that might make charging an EV a less frictionless experience. Matt Jones, director of global technology strategy at Ford, suggested that expert groups around charging be formed between key stakeholders in EV.

“How do we get access to this data because at the moment each car company talks slightly different languages about EV? Data about how people move around is out there – it’s just not accessible for EV – but if we can collaborate and get that data out there then I’m convinced that we’ll be able to fix the issues going forwards,” he said.

In terms of public charging investment, fellow panellist Adam Woolway, head of EV at parking and sat nav app, Parkopedia, said that it would play “an oversized role” in the growth of EV, though, nonetheless, “an important one.”

He added: “The majority of charging will be done at home. Public charging – at the very most – might account for 20% – but what public charging [investment] does is provide a comfort blanket where drivers may have range and charge anxiety.”

On the flipside, said Woolway, charging companies were reluctant to spend a single dollar on points that weren’t going to be used – and once again it was a problem that boils down to a lack of data and a lack of collaboration.

“There’s simply not enough communication going on between the charging point manufacturers and the OEMs although this is less of a problem in Europe,” he said.

“When I look on my app for a charging unit most of the time charging point is not in the right location because there hasn’t been enough communication between the installer of that charging point and the OEM or the company managing the process in the middle.

“How do we get charging points in the right place and the correct data? Another concern is that 30% of chargers in US are offline at any one time. How do we communicate that data and make payment options and parking available? How do we get all of this data into one place and into the eyes of the consumer? That’s a huge challenge because the industry has grown fast and has been led by many different companies with many different agendas.”

Structural change

For Michigan’s part, Trevor Pawl admits that most local government mechanisms were “built in the early 20th Century and designed to deal with 20 Century challenges.”

He added: “We’re still using these same structures but are facing a new set of problems in Twenty First Century and things aren’t joined up.

“When it comes to charging infrastructure, for instance, a different person manages the charging programme from the procurement people who choose partners for the chargers. The consistency isn’t there yet. At a state and local level, the entire thing needs to be looked at,” he admitted.

As states like Michigan roll out their charging infrastructure Pawl added that it was “critically important” that they think about other elements connected to sustainable transport including “digital infrastructure, the future of autonomy and the future of hydrogen.”

He added: “It’s also important that we have designated fuel quotas and hydro funds. We need to make sure we’re drawing maps already for hydrogen autonomous vehicles and the like. Because the smarter a vehicle is the more efficient it is and that means more sustainability and a cleaner planet.”

On a very basic level Pawl added that the state needed to run an education campaign to address some of the inaccurate perceptions around EVs.

“The average person thinks that charging an EV costs as much as filling a car with gas and it’s not it’s $7-12 dollars, but it takes a bit longer…but that will go down.. but  I think that people need to understand how dirty they’re communities are right now and what exactly emissions can do to your bodies and your health. The narrative needs to go backwards and fix some stereotypes.”

The post CES perspectives: How America’s car capital is winning the EV race appeared first on TechInformed.

The Northumberland-based EV battery startup – which promised to produce enough batteries for over 300,00 electric vehicles – was put into administration last month after running out of money.

Completion of the acquisition is expected to happen within the next seven days according to Big Four firm EY – which was an adviser to Britishvolt before the venture collapsed, when it was then as administrator.

According to sources close to the ft.com, EY selected privately owned Recharge Industries – a division of New York-based portfolio company Scale Facilitation – on Friday as the preferred bidder for BV, having received four bids last Wednesday .

The publication added that the deal with the Aussie battery company was selected over offers from a group of current shareholders, the private equity group Greybull Capital, and the Saudi British Bank.

Last year the UK government offered Britishvolt a conditional support package worth £100m if the company raised private funding and began construction work. Britishvolt – which would have cost in the region of  £3.8b to build – hit neither target and the money wasn’t paid out.

The start up blamed “difficult external economic headwinds including rampant inflation and rising interest rates” for failure to raise capital.

But some remained disappointed that the UK government didn’t feel the need to play a more strategic role in supporting such a project, given that an EV battery plant is seen as vital to the security and the future of UK car manufacturing.

However, Recharge – which is building a large-scale lithium-ion cell factory in its native Australia – suggested that it was still interested in going ahead with building a UK plant.

Recharge founder and CEO David Collard said: “We’re thrilled to be progressing with our proposed bid for Britishvolt and can’t wait to get started making a reality of our plans to build the UK’s first gigafactory.”

The post Can Aussie firm Recharge Britishvolt’s UK ‘gigafactory’ dream? appeared first on TechInformed.

According to Reuters, a team from accounting firm Ernst & Young’s restructuring arm EY-Parthenon has been appointed as administrators and the majority of Britishvolt’s 300 staff have been made redundant.

The accountancy firm will now assess the company’s intellectual property and research in a bid to pay creditors before winding down the company.

The Blyth-based start-up had been in urgent talks with potential buyers to secure short term funding since November after the British government withdrew its £100m funding pledge.

While building gigafactories is seen as a key aim of the government, it refused make a £30m advance in the last quarter, upon learning that a third of the money would be used to help keep the firm afloat rather than to build the factory.

Britishvolt’s initial aim was to start producing enough battery cells for over 300,000 electric vehicles packs a year (the equivalent of around a quarter of current UK vehicle manufacturing).

The start up hoped that the government’s pledge could help its factory attract further support from private investors, creating 3,000 direct highly-skilled jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs in the wider supply chain.

Its closure today has endangered Britain’s hopes of keeping the next generation of electric vehicles built in the UK, rather than on mainland Europe, where most of the larger economies already have EV battery manufacturing plants in the offing – with Sweden’s Northvolt already up and running.

The post Britain’s EV battery dream tanks as Britishvolt collapses appeared first on TechInformed.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said that Tesla exaggerated the “driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles as well as the performance of its Superchargers” on its official South Korean website since August 2019 until recently.

According to the KFTC, the driving range of Tesla’s EVs drop by 50.5% in lower temperatures, in comparison to how they are advertised online.

Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment.

As it stands, Tesla provides winter driving tips on its website, including pre-conditioning vehicles with external power sources, and using its Energy app to monitor energy consumption but fails to mention the loss of driving range in temperatures lower than 0 degrees.

In 2021, Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty, a South Korean consumer group, said (citing data from the country’s environment ministry) that most EVs driving range’s drop by up to 40% in the cold when batteries need to be heated, with Tesla suffering the most.

In other news, and despite the known drop in driving range in colder climates, electric vehicles still prove to be extremely popular in Norway, where four out of five vehicles sold in 2022 were battery-powered, and most of them were Teslas. Norway has also achieved the world’s highest proportion of electric vehicles.

The post South Korea fines Tesla for not disclosing impact of cold on driving range appeared first on TechInformed.