The week’s news agenda has been completely dominated by the global spread of coronavirus and its impacts at all levels of society. As an international industry, automotive events, factories and more have been severely impacted.
As a result, we’ve drawn up a list of automotive-related disruption that we’ll be updating as events unfold.
We also have a column that looks at the longer-term impact of coronavirus on the industry. Could it be more disruptive than CASE technologies? Read more here.
Here’s a couple of other non-Covid-19 stories that caught our eye this week:
Chinese self-driving startup Neolix sees increase in demand
Yes, it’s a coronavirus story, but the significant uptick in demand for Chinese firm Neolix’s self-driving vehicles shines an interesting light on the advantages of autonomy in a time of difficulty.
Neolix is based in Beijing, and has seen orders for 200 of its Level 4-capable delivery vehicles come in the past two months, according to a Bloomberg report.
Its metre-wide vans are being used to deliver food and medical supplies, and to help disinfect streets in Wuhan, when the Covid-19 outbreak began.
Could coronavirus kickstart the autonomous delivery industry? We shall see.
Bollinger EV goes commercial
In addition to its B1 Sport Utility Truck, and its B2 Pickup, Michigan-based Bollinger Motors has announced its Class 3 B1 electric vehicle chassis aimed at the commercial vehicle market.
Features of the B1 chassis include a 120 kWh battery pack with a 180 kWh battery pack optional; all-wheel drive; a 2,268kg payload; and complete power system controls, configurable to given vehicle application.
This segment is hotting up, with Amazon’s investment in Rivian and Hyundai-Kia’s moves to work with UK-based Arrival, so we’ll see if an OEM tie-up is forthcoming.
Tesla Gigafactory to feature a rave cave?
In a post-corona world, could Tesla’s new Gigafactory outside of Berlin be the place to go to let off steam? Elon Musk asked his to his 32.1-million followers on Twitter if 'Tesla should have a mega rave cave under the Berlin Gigafactory?'
A grand total of 772,987 people took part, with 696,461 (90.2 percent) delivering an unequivocal 90.2 percent yes vote. The people have indeed spoken, although perhaps best wait until Covid-19 is no more.