Back towards the end of the time when Motoring Weekly was a podcast (at the end of 2010), we wrote a small article about a new vehicle called the Solaris Elettra - another vehicle that was supposed to be manufactured in Africa. What happened to this vehicle? The plan was simple - build an electric car in Ethiopia. The company that thought up the idea was Freestyle PLC, a … [Read more...]
What Happened to NextEV?
A few years ago when investors were piling into electric vehicle manufacturing, one small company grabbed a big slice of investment from the US and China. NextEV was literally going to be the next big thing! However, they went quiet and don’t really appear on anyones radar anymore. Well, they are still going, although they didn’t manage to build the supercar that they wanted … [Read more...]
The Venturi Antarctica
Here at Motoring Weekly, we have been following the progress of Venturi, the French manufacturer of sports cars and latterly more technically advanced road and race cars. They started back in the early 1980s developing a low volume sports car based on a VW Golf drivetrain. In recent years, they have been quiet pioneers in the electric car industry unlike companies such as … [Read more...]
ICE or EV?
The industry is now rapidly approaching a point where we will see a greater number of electric vehicles on our roads as buyers start to switch to a non internal combustion engine powered vehicle. I have read several articles recently that fundamentally state that the current petrol/diesel power modes are "dead men walking". I'd like to put forward some rational views against … [Read more...]
Mazda Could Revive the Rotary
Mazda recently made an announcement about its future with regards to power units. It was an announcement that helped the industry know what their plans were and how they were going to achieve them. Mazda has been one of the last manufacturers to say what they were going to do because they were seen as the last bastion of the internal combustion engine with their SkyActiv-G … [Read more...]