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Auto blog

Electrify Expo is an all-electrified auto show like the old days

In late July, Autoblog swung by Washington, D.C. to check out the Electrify Expo. Now in its third year of nationwide shows, the Electrify Expo calls itself “North America's largest electric vehicle festival filled with over 1 million square feet of the world's top electric brands.” At every stop, visitors can find out about, crawl around in, drive and ride just about any personal conveyance that uses a battery for propulsion. Truth be told, when the show's PR team reached out to us with an invite, we only considered going after finding out about an area showcasing battery-electric tuner cars. EV tuning is undoubtedly going to be huge—eventually—which got us curious about these early days. We figured weÂ’d brave whatever the rest of the expo was to find out whatÂ’s the equivalent of nitrous for a Tesla. See, the EV event scene is still such that one never knows if theyÂ’ll show up to a mix of science and county fairs with a few cars on display just for truth in advertising, or if theyÂ’ll show up to a parking lot with 26 cars, 10 of them locked, 10 of them homemade, and 6 guarded by promotional hires desperate to tap all your identifying info a tablet before dispensing dubious and superficial information. Which is to say, we didnÂ’t expect much. And that makes us chuffed to report: Electrify Expo is great. We hadnÂ’t been strolling the lot outside the old RFK Stadium for five minutes before thinking, “This feels like an old-school auto show!” The exclamation to that point came from a group of four who cut me off to reach the C40 Recharge in the Volvo booth, one of them exclaiming as if he were the group expert and as if his friends were deaf, “THATÂ’S THE LEAST EXPENSIVE ONE! AND ITÂ’S BEEEE-YOUUUUU-TI-FULLLLLL!” I wasnÂ’t there to judge, I was there for the enthusiasm. Automakers had built small, simple, open booths, parked cars in them, then provided visitors the kind of interactions that will do the most good for anyone wondering about or interested in an EV. We only saw two cars that were off limits, the new Volkswagen ID.Buzz and the Ford F-100 Eluminator. Volvo wouldnÂ’t let me get an espresso from their chic little trailer, either, unless I visited the EX90 Experience trailer first. Otherwise, it was a free-for-all. Tesla had a large booth full of cars. BMW had two i7s open for everyone to sit in, next to the Ford booth with that Eluminator and an unlocked Mustang Mach-E GT and F-150 Lightning showing their cooler-chest-frunk trick.

Volkswagen, Bosch reach diesel settlement worth $1.6 billion

Volkswagen Group of America and automotive parts maker Bosch reached a settlement in which the two companies will pay a combined $1.6 billion because of their roles in the automaker's diesel-emissions scandal. VW, Europe's largest automaker, will pay about $1.2 billion to either repair or buy back vehicles. Bosch said separately that it will pay more than $300 million to owners of diesel-powered Volkswagens, Audis, and Porsches. The settlement stems from emissions issues related to about 78,000 VW-made cars and SUVs with 3.0-liter V6 diesel engines that were sold in North America. VW will recall and repair about 58,000 vehicles made for the 2013-through-2016 model years. The company will also buy back, offer a trade-in credit, or terminate the leases for about 20,000 cars for the model years 2009 through 2012. The older impacted models are the Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7, while the newer ones are the Touareg and Q7 as well as Audi's A6, A7, A8, A8L, and Q5 models, and finally the Porsche Cayenne Diesel. Previous reports estimated the payout at closer to $1 billion. The US settlement follows one reached last year between VW and US regulators in regards to VW's 2.0-liter diesel engines. That settlement was estimated to cost VW about $15 billion and impacted owners of about 500,000 vehicles. VW has had a stop-sale on its diesel vehicles in the US since late 2015 after it was discovered that VW installed software in its diesels that allowed those vehicles to cheat emissions-testing systems. VW on Wednesday also reiterated that it would contribute $225 million towards environmental-remediation efforts in the US. Volkswagen of America CEO Hinrich J. Woebcken, in Wednesday's statement, said that "we will continue to work to earn back the trust of all our stakeholders and thank our customers and dealers for their continued patience as this process moves forward." Related Video: News Source: Volkswagen via Automotive News-sub.req.Image Credit: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters Government/Legal Green Audi Porsche Volkswagen AutoblogGreen Exclusive Emissions Diesel Vehicles vw diesel scandal scandal settlement

EU formally questions French government assistance of Peugeot's finance arm

Recently, the finance arm of PSA/Peugeot-Citroën was in such debt trouble that it was pricing itself out of the car loan market. The rates it was paying to service its debt, which was rated one step above junk, were so high that it was forced to charge car-buying customers higher rates than they could find elsewhere. This was adding to Peugeot's already impressive woes by sending revenue out the door to competitors.
Two months ago a deal was worked out with the French government whereby the state would provide 7 billion euro ($9 billion USD) in bonds to guarantee the finance arm's loans. The French government could nominate someone to join the Peugeot board, Peugeot would guarantee more French jobs, and on top of that deal, other banks would provide non-guaranteed loans. The government would take no equity stake in the car company.
Although not yet finalized, the arrangement is meant to create some breathing room for Peugeot Finance to lower its interest rates for customers, and a government-nominated board member, Louis Gallois, was recently named to Peugeot's supervisory board. The arrangement was also openly questioned by at least three competitors: Ford, Renault - which is 15-percent owned by the French government after it received state aid - and the German state of Lower Saxony, itself a 15-percent shareholder in Volkswagen.