Electric car charging station companies issue warning over VW settlement

Electric car charging station companies issue warning over VW settlement

Electric vehicle charging companies are calling for independent oversight of the $2 billion Volkswagen AG

is required to invest in clean car infrastructure, saying VW should not have the power to shape the nascent electric car charging space.

The German automaker agreed to invest the money, which includes $1.2 billion nationally and $800 million in California, as part of its penalties for equipping hundreds of thousands of its diesel vehicles sold in the United States with software designed to cheat tailpipe emissions tests.

While charging station companies called the money a potential "game changer," they worry that if it is misspent, it could hurt competition.

"The agreement shouldn't pick winners and losers, especially given that this emerging market transition will in no small part define 21st century transportation," twenty eight companies, including ChargePoint, EV Connect and Electric Vehicle Charging Association, said in a letter to the US Justice Department on Friday.

The letter, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, said an independent administrator is key to ensuring that the programme treats all industry participants, regardless of business model and technology, fairly.

VW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Read More

Chinese automaker plans self-driving, electric car by 2020

Chinese automaker plans self-driving, electric car by 2020

An automotive venture backed by China tech giant Tencent aims to launch an electric self driving car before 2020, entering a crowded field dominated by US-based Tesla, the chief executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

Future Mobility, backed by Tencent and Hon Hai Precision Industries, is one of an expanding field of China-backed ventures that aim to take on Tesla Motors Inc as green energy car sales boom in China.

Although the venture sought to produce premium cars like Tesla, it would attempt a different strategy from the US company that began with relatively limited production and focuses on a single model at a time, CEO Carsten Breitfeld said in an interview.

"Right from the beginning we define the platform, right from the beginning we define the production process to be mass production and right from the beginning we think of more than one model, a family of models, defined from this platform," Breitfeld said, defining mass production as 250,000 to 400,000 Electric car annually.

The company was in the midst of closing its Series-A round of funding, which also included dealership chain China Harmony New Energy Auto, Breitfeld said.

He declined to give financial terms of the first round or name other potential investors that the company was in talks with, although he said the leadership team would also have partial ownership.

While Future Mobility intended to jump directly to fully self-driving cars, drivers would only be able to turn on full autonomy in a pilot city at first, later expanding to other geographies.

The company would draw from the same battery technology made by a short list of suppliers that most automakers use but aimed to better rivals with more efficient battery management software. Read More