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Porsche says half of its sales will be electric by 2023

Porsche, whose presence in the plug-in vehicle market has been pretty minimal, now plans to substantially boost its commitment to electric vehicles in the next few years. The German luxury automaker intends to dedicate up to half its annual production to electric vehicles by 2023, Electrek reported, citing comments CEO Oliver Blume made to German publication Manager Magazin. Specifically, the company says it will be able to produce as many as 60,000 EVs annually from its Zuffenhausen factory in Germany. First and foremost will be Porsche's Mission E, which is slated to debut in 2019. That model will be able to go about 310 miles on a full charge (via the more generous New European Driving Cycle, or NEDC). Porsche first showed off a concept version of that 590-horsepower beast at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2015. The company hasn't hinted at pricing for the car, which will have a 90-kilowatt battery and will jet from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a tidy 3.5 seconds, but expect it to be well into six figures. Porsche also plans an all-electric version of the Macan, its biggest seller. But Porsche's math indicates bigger plans than that. Porsche delivered nearly 238,000 vehicles last year, so an output of 60,000 EVs at Zuffenhausen is only a quarter of the total, not half. You can assume then that Porsche has plans to electrify other models that it hasn't announced yet, built at other factories. It might also be counting hybrids in its "half" projection. Last month, Porsche decided to discontinue its plans for a plug-in hybrid variant of its iconic 911 model, suggesting a temporary pullback of sorts. Then again, in April, reports surfaced that Porsche and Audi, both owned by Volkswagen, were collaborating on vehicle-electrification technology as well as autonomous driving advancement. Porsche's green-car sales have been so thin that Autoblog last year officially pulled the German automaker off of its monthly green-car sales tally. For 2015, the most recent year we tracked, Porsche sold 1,738 plug-in vehicles, about the same as 2014. Related Video: Featured Gallery Porsche Mission E Concept: Frankfurt 2015 View 37 Photos News Source: Electrek, Manager MagazinImage Credit: Drew Phillips Green Audi Porsche Volkswagen Electric mission

Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla truck's close call, Tesla age discrimination suit

A semi with a trailer full of Teslas has a close call on the highway in this video. With a half-dozen electric vehicles in tow, the truck has to swerve onto the shoulder as a commuter bus nearly hits it after crossing multiple lanes. An example of human error, this near miss is the type of thing Tesla would like to prevent by advancing and widely deploying autonomous vehicle technology. Watch the heavy-duty mishap in the video above, and read more at Teslarati. A former Tesla engineer is suing the automaker for age discrimination. 69-year-old Thomas Flessner, who was fired from his Materials Engineer position in February, says he "was isolated due to his age and routinely chastised for completing projects slower than his coworkers." The suit claims younger engineers working at a similar pace were not subject to the same criticism. Flessner encountered further problems after taking time off for surgery, when a supervisor told him, "these guys are gunning for you." Read more from Fusion. Audi has placed orders with Ballard as part of Volkswagen Group's HyMotion fuel cell technology program. Audi has taken over responsibility for Volkswagen's program to develop its next-generation fuel cell stack. Ballard is providing engineering services to the automaker until at least March 2019. "Our HyMotion team of engineers and scientists are collaborating closely with Audi's experts and together we are on-track with respect to key technical and financial goals set for the current year," says Ballard VP of Technology and Product Development, Dr. Kevin Colbow. Read more at Yahoo Finance. Car2go has reached 2 million members worldwide. The world's largest car sharing service has 800,000 members in North America, 1.1 million in Europe, and 100,000 in Chongqing, China. Car2go claims 43 percent year-over-year growth, with a trip taken by a member every 1.5 seconds. "The rise of car sharing can be attributed to a changing paradigm of demographics, social preference shifts towards usage of vehicles instead of ownership, and technology that enables the seamless short term rental of vehicles," says Frost & Sullivan Principal Mobility Analyst Martyn Briggs. Read more from Car2go. Related Gallery Volkswagen Golf SportWagen and Passat HyMotion News Source: Teslarati, YouTube: Rumble Viral, Fusion, Yahoo Finance via Electrek Government/Legal Green Audi Tesla Volkswagen Alternative Fuels Transportation Alternatives Electric Hydrogen Cars Videos recharge wrapup

Felicity Ace sinks with thousands of VWs, Porsches, Lamborghinis

The stricken ship Felicity Ace sank overnight after a week of salvage efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful. The ship, which was carrying up to 4,000 VW Group cars, went to the bottom unexpectedly while a salvage team was attempting to tow it to shore, Bloomberg reports.  "Initial reports from the local salvage team state that the vessel had sunk at around 9AM local time having suffered a list to starboard," Mitsui O.S.K. Lines transportation company (MOL), which owns the Felicity Ace, said in a statement released early Tuesday.    "The last vessel position was around 220nm off the Azores," MOL said. "The salvage crafts will remain around the area to monitor the situation. Further information will be provided as it becomes available." The ship sank after being battered by waves and listing 45 degrees to starboard, the ship’s operator said. “The weather was pretty rough out there,” Pat Adamson, a spokesperson for MOL Ship Management (Singapore), a unit of Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd., said by phone. “And then she sank, which was a surprise.” VW, Porsche, Audi, Bentley and Lamborghini-branded models were aboard the ship, which was headed to Rhode Island from GermanyÂ’s Emden port when the fire broke out on Feb. 16.  Rough seas and ongoing fires fueled by the lithium-ion batteries of EVs onboard delayed the ship's salvage and recovery operations for the better part of a week. While the likelihood of salvaging the smoke and potentially fire- and water-damaged vehicles from Felicity Ace's hold was slim to none, some had held out hope that their special-ordered vehicles might survive the mishap.  The Panama-flagged Felicity Ace was safely evacuated of its 22 crew members by the Portuguese navy after a fire started in its hold more than a week ago. The ship can carry up to 4,000 cars. European carmakers declined to discuss how many vehicles and what models were on board, but it appears to have been transporting approximately 2,500 cars, including roughly 1,100 Porsches and an undetermined number of Volkswagens.  The cars aboard were on order. Porsche customers in the United States were being contacted by their dealers, the company said. “We are already working to replace every car affected by this incident and the first new cars will be built soon,” Angus Fitton, vice president of PR at Porsche Cars North America, Inc., told The Associated Press in an email. The ship sank in water nearly 10,000 feet deep, the Portuguese Navy said.