Battery makers are keen to reduce their use of costly and controversial cobalt. Half the world’s supply of the metallic element comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a war-torn land in which child labor is common. Worse yet, the stuff is getting expensive – cobalt prices have climbed to their highest level in a decade.

Tesla said in its recent letter to shareholders that it has slashed its use of cobalt in the Model 3’s battery cells, while raising nickel content, and that its latest batteries already require less cobalt than other battery-makers’ products. On a conference call with analysts, Musk said, “We think we can get cobalt to almost nothing.”

Tesla has been working to kick its cobalt habit “for literally several years now, and this has been extremely helpful in the overall cost per kilowatt hour, especially with recent commodity price movements,” said CTO JB Straubel.

Tesla claims in its shareholder letter that its battery cells offer the highest energy density of any on the market. “We have achieved this by significantly reducing cobalt content per battery pack while increasing nickel content and still maintaining superior thermal stability.”

Source: Bloomberg

LVCHI Auto presented at the Geneva Motor Show 2018 Venus, the first fully electric limousine with high performance tested, ready to go into production in 2019. Venere has been tested by the CSI with surprising results: thanks to over 1,000 horsepower, it reaches 100 km / h stops in just 2.5 seconds, with a top speed of 286 km / h. Autonomy is over 652 km on a single charge.

The Venere project is developed with I.DE.A. Institute, operating in the design, modeling, engineering and prototyping that has made use of the excellence of the Piedmont area in the automotive sector. Among these stands out Bylogix Srl, which designed and developed the electric and electronic vehicle architecture, the logic of integration and function on board and the software that allowed displaying information on the new touch screen in the center console, which acts as a control panel for the driver and passengers.

The 5-meter long limousine is powered by 4 independent electric motors - two front and two rear - capable of reaching 13,000 rpm and generating 185 KW each, for 1,540 Nm of torque. These, together with a 100 KWh Lithium Ion battery, guarantee large numbers in terms of autonomy and performance.

LVCHI Auto will start the production of Venus in Turin. Subsequently, a new electric Citycar will be introduced, allowing the brand to position itself on different segments of the market. Between 2020 and 2021, the development plan includes the launch of SUV and MPV platforms and a high-performance electric sedan.

Today starts the Geneva Motor Show, celebrating its 87th edition. The public finally will be able to admire the Chinese supercar designed by a purely Italian team.

Indeed Giorgetto e Fabrizio Giugiaro and their Turin-based GFG Style design team took part to this ambitious project. The aerospace-inspired design is optimised for aerodynamic efficiency, with a striking modular three-cockpit design. The Techrules Ren features a lightweight chassis that has been designed and constructed to the highest standards. The performance-focused modular layout that allows the car to be configured with one, two or three polycarbonate canopies: one for track use by only the driver, two for the ‘Le Mans’ configuration with a single passenger, or three to accommodate the driver and two passengers.

Techrules Ren is the world’s first electric traction production supercar to feature the ground-breaking -developed Turbine-Recharging Electric Vehicle (TREV) system. The series hybrid powertrain technology delivers unprecedented levels of efficiency and performance, and an ultra-low environmental impact. This is an all-new range extender system that uses a turbine to drive a generator which charges the battery pack. This in turn, provides electricity to drive the traction motors. The TREV system can be run on both liquid and gaseous fuels. The TREV system still has the potential to deliver 2,000 km from 80-litres of fuel, depending on the vehicle it is used in.

The Ren is packed with new technologies that combine intelligent advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and advanced connectivity solutions to provide safety and convenience for customers. The sweeping upper instrument panel wraps around the driver’s cockpit and houses three separate monitoring screens that display the video feed from the rear-view cameras. The two side cameras deliver views onto the two outer screens equivalent to those from traditional side mirrors, eliminating blind spots.

With a future range of models in mind the Ren represents a platform that can be modulated to support supercars, SUVs, family sedans and even small city cars.

Production of Ren is likely to start in 2018, with orders starting at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show

The US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said that within a few months, the Government will formalize federal guidelines for the development and circulation on roads open to traffic to self- driving vehicles.
The guidelines will be defined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (the federal agency for road safety), who will also verify the continuous technological innovations in this field in order to keep pace with the progress and update what legislated.
Foxx also proposed the allocation of $ 4 billion over 10 years in support of national governments and specialized companies to accelerate the adoption of autonomous driving technologies.

On Friday, March 18th, during the "The Future of Sustainable Mobility" day, it was inaugurated Bluetorino, Piedmont capital’s sustainable car-sharing.

Within a year the city will have 250 charging columns and 150 electric Bluecar, Bolloré’s city car designed by Pininfarina and featuring bylogix’s dashboard and body computer.

With an energy capacity of 30 kw/h, the Bluecar has a range of 250 km in urban environments. The service will be available 24/7 and will cover the entire city area with a widespread network of charging stations, which can also be used by private electric cars’ owners, in order to encourage the electric market production chain.

Perfectly in line with global targets for emissions reduction recalled by Paris Climate Conference (December 2015), Torino, formerly Italian car capital, returns as a sustainable city model.