2023 Fisker Ocean on 2040-cars

Auto blog

5 new electric car companies coming in 2023 and beyond

It’s an exciting time in the automotive world as the industry shifts to electric vehicles at a rapid pace. With the changes, there are opportunities for new automakers to get traction and join the EV frenzy. Tesla did it over a decade ago, and now, a handful of well-funded startups hope to take on legacy automakers with new and innovative EV models. To help you make sense of the market, weÂ’ve outlined some more promising EV upstarts that weÂ’ll see in the next couple of years. LetÂ’s get rolling with our list of new EV automakers weÂ’ll see soon. VinFast VinFast is a Vietnamese automaker with headquarters in Singapore. ItÂ’s the first brand from the company to sell in other countries. The company says it will open dozens of dealerships in the U.S. by the end of 2022, though all will be in California. Two models will be available when the automaker launches in the U.S.: VF 8 and VF 9. VinFast will offer a unique battery subscription service that separates the cost of the vehicle and the battery. Read more: How Vietnam's VinFast wants to reach America's EV mainstream Read more: VinFast plans competitive pricing* to win over U.S. EV market (batteries not included)   Fisker Henrik Fisker, the guy who designed the BMW Z8 and Aston Martin DB9, didnÂ’t have the best luck with his first self-named automotive company in the 2000s. The Fisker Karma he created during that time lived on as the Karma Revero and now the Karma GS-6, but the original Fisker Automotive is long defunct. The auto design genius is back with another company bearing his name, though this time itÂ’s sleek electric vehicles heÂ’s designing, not futuristic plug-in executive sedans. The Fisker Ocean will be first out of the gate and is expected to start production in late 2022, and it's expected to be followed by the low-cost and unique Fisker Pear. Read more: All our coverage of the Fisker brand   Canoo CanooÂ’s vehicles look as funky as its name sounds, but that uniqueness has made the company hard to forget. That said, Canoo has had its share of management disputes and challenges getting products off the ground. The automaker plans to release a van, a pickup truck, and a boxy delivery van that looks like itÂ’s made from Legos. CanooÂ’s van and truck feature a unique cab-over design that places the driver and front passenger over the front axle rather than behind it. The look is similar to old-school semi-trucks and school buses and is unlike anything else on the road.

Recharge Wrap-up: Fisker takes apart Finland assembly, Nissan Leaf sales in Europe expected to grow 25%

The Fisker Karma's Uusikaupunki, Finland production lines are being dismantled. The lines, operated by Valmet Automotive in the same plant that assembles the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, have been idle since Fisker's money woes brought them to a halt in 2012. Fisker, which has since been purchased by Wanxiang, and Valmet are still in talks over future collaboration. Read more at YLE. Nissan expects a double-digit percentage growth in Leaf sales in Europe in 2015. Nissan Europe's Jean-Pierre Diernaz puts that number at around 25 percent over 2014's record sales. Part of this is due to much lower prices than earlier model years, thanks to government incentives and lower production costs than earlier model years. Diernaz also said that the e-NV200 van will make up about 20 percent of Nissan's EV sales in Europe. Read more at Automotive News Europe. EV drivers pay less on average in taxes than gasoline vehicle drivers in every state except Virginia. Some states impose extra taxes and registration fees for EVs to make up for lost revenue from fuel taxes, but EV drivers still come out ahead, even when compared to high-mileage cars like the Toyota Prius. Even in Wisconsin - which might follow Colorado, Nebraska, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington in added EV fees - those who drive electric should fare better. Virginia, however, charges EV drivers an extra $114 annually across two added fees, while gas drivers would only get dinged about $35.10 in gas taxes in a 50-mpg car. Read more at Green Car Reports. Two hydrogen-powered electric bus prototypes will be deployed on a trial basis Hamburg, Germany. The Solaris articulated electric buses use fuel cell range extenders from Ballard. The buses were unveiled on December 18, and will go into operation in January 2015. The German government is funding the trial, and Hamburg aims to cease the purchase of diesel buses by 2020. The new-generation fuel cell system in the two Hamburg buses improve upon Ballard's previous design by using fewer parts and exhibiting less parasitic power loss from the integrated air compressor and coolant pump. Read more at Ballard's website. Featured Gallery 2012 Fisker Karma: Second Drive View 30 Photos Related Gallery 2013 Nissan Leaf View 55 Photos News Source: YLE, Automotive News Europe, Green Car Reports, BallardImage Credit: Copyright 2014 Drew Phillips / AOL Green Fisker Nissan Alternative Fuels Transportation Alternatives Electric Hydrogen Cars recharge wrapup

US Senate authorizes DOE green car loan program [UPDATE]

Tesla Motors' crush of Model 3 reservations is fresh in everyone's minds, while Fisker Automotive (or at least its bankruptcy) is a distant memory. That's one explanation for a US Senate with a Republican leadership at one time bashed the Department of Energy's loan program for green-vehicle makers but now, under bipartisan support, the Senate has OK'd about $1.6 billion more to push forward green-vehicle technology, according to Hybrid Cars. The Senate voted to authorize a $1.6-billion federal program. The US Senate voted by about a seven-to-one margin to authorize a $1.6-billion federal program for the DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office program housed under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). This is a different program from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program, which was last funded in 2007. The feds have been green-lit to spend $339 million per year through 2020 to speed up the development of advanced-technology vehicles. The mission: to get the US new light-duty fleet to meet the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandate of a 54.5 miles per gallon average (which is a real-world average of around 40 mpg) by 2025. Four automakers received funding from the ATVM program in the first go-round. The list was: Tesla, Fisker, Ford and Nissan. Specifically, Tesla was loaned $465 million in 2010, and paid that loan back in 2013 – about nine years ahead of time, with interest. On the flip side, the Department of Energy was slated to loan extended-range plug-in vehicle maker Fisker $528 million, but Fisker only received $192 million before the spigot got shut off because of missed deadlines. Fisker collected enough cash to pay down some of the debt, but the government still was stuck with $168 million unpaid. And that got washed out in Fisker's 2013 bankruptcy. Nissan was awarded $1.4 billion and Ford got $5.9 billion. Senator Gary Peters (D-Michigan), one of the authors of the new bill, issued a press release about the new funding, which you can read here. The new ATVM program will also target automotive suppliers. UPDATE: This post has been updated. We inaccurately said that the ATVM had been re-authorized. In fact, the ATVM loan program "has $16 billion in remaining loan authority for automotive or component manufacturers for reequipping, expanding, or establishing manufacturing facilities in the U.S.