The British Government is giving £12.5 M to Israel based Ree Automotive as part of a £41.2 M project to bring advanced electric vehicles to market from UK plants.
Ree has a UK technical centre and has developed its radical flat platform in the Midlands where it plans to assemble a range of commercial vehicles.
Volta Trucks, a leading and disruptive full electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has confirmed the start of engineering evaluation and development testing of the first prototype Volta Zero at MIRA in Nuneaton.
The start of testing follows soon after the reveal of the first prototype chassis of the Volta Zero – the world’s first purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed specifically for inner city logistics and scheduled for production in December 2022.
According to the latest data from Auto Trader, the exceptionally strong levels of consumer demand in the market is continuing to fuel record price growth.
Based on the circa 400,000 used vehicles currently advertised on its marketplace, the average price of a used car increased a massive 15.2% year-on-year on a like-for-like basis last week and marks 66 weeks of consecutive price growth with a huge acceleration on what is now a comparatively conservative 5.7% increase recorded during the week of 12 April when physical forecourts reopened.
IHS Markit analysts expect the semiconductor shortages across the automotive sector now extending into Q1 2022 and possibly into Q2.
Both Intel and Infineon have cautioned that the situation may persist throughout all of 2022 and the issue is also affecting the machinery that builds assembly machines, both in wafer-fab facilities as well as the vehicle plants.
