Good news, EV users! If you’re travelling towards Shimla from Chandigarh, you’ve got two Tata Power EV Chargers at your service. One of the charging stations is at Hotel Falcon Crest near Kandhaghat, while the other is at The Oberoi Cecil, Chaura Maidan Road, near Shimla. Where the former is 83km from “The City Beautiful”, the latter is 26km ahead. They cover a distance of 111km between the two capitals.

Both newly activated EV charging stations can be traced via the Tata Power EZ Charge mobile application. The same can also be used for payments.

After the striking Lyriq, the brash Escalade IQ and the magnificent Celestiq, Cadillac is all set to introduce a fourth electric vehicle (EV). What you see here is called the Optiq – notice the ‘iq’ that has been common in all EV names. It has been tagged as a 2025 model. Almost nothing has been confirmed about the Optiq, except that it will act as the entry point for the brand’s EV lineup in North America, slotting below the Lyriq.

The Optiq seems to follow the same design language we’ve seen on other Cadillac EVs, especially with the front and rear lights. And in profile, it’s leaning more towards a crossover than a boxy SUV. But that’s mainly to keep the high-riding body as slippery as possible through the air.

Since Cadillac and Chevrolet use GM’s Ultium battery platform, one could try to join the dots here – Optiq with Equinox. But the carmaker will reveal details about availability, pricing and specifications in 2024.

At the COP28 UAE, which will run between November 30 and December 12, 2023, in Dubai, BMW Group will be the VIP e-mobility provider. Three BMW models will ferry VIP guests and officials during the United Nations (UN) annual climate change conference, also known as the ‘Conference of the Parties’ (COP). They are – the i7, iX and the iX5 Hydrogen. Where the former two are battery-powered electric vehicles, the iX5 features a hydrogen fuel-cell system. In fact, it has just finished its hot-weather testing in the UAE.

BMW Group will showcase its commitment to sustainability and emission-free mobility at COP28 UAE. Here’s what Christian Bahoo, Global Head of Special Political Engagement at BMW Group, said in an official release:

The COP28 UAE Presidency’s vision correlates with BMW's commitment to technology orientation solutions and the Paris Climate Agreement. At COP28, the BMW Group will present solutions and discuss the requirements which we consider necessary to achieve the transformation to sustainable mobility.

Rimac is back at hogging headlines in the automotive world. The latest record set by the Never Time Attack Edition will surely blow your mind. Here goes – at the Automotive Testing Papenburg facility in Germany, the electric hypercar set the speed record for cars driving backwards (in reverse). The maximum speed clocked was 275.74kmph. People from the Guinness World Records witnessed and verified it using data recorded by Dewesoft – a third party. Absolutely astonishing!

For Rimac, 2023 has been a year for setting mind-boggling records with its current flagship – the Nevera. For instance, the Croatian brand set 23 performance records in a single day with the EV in question earlier this year. A few months later, it took the ‘Time Attack’ derivative of the Nevera to the Nurburgring. By lapping the 20.6km stretch in 7 minutes and 5.298 seconds, the 1,888hp EV destroyed the previous lap record for production EVs by 20 seconds.

JLR opened a new EV testing facility – Future Energy Centre – in Coventry, UK, earlier this month. The British brand has now confirmed that its plant in Nitra, Slovakia plant will be upgraded to produce electric vehicles. The announcement comes on the said plant’s fifth anniversary. This move will help the company transform into a maker of luxury electric vehicles, nine of which will be launched by 2030. The brand aims to become carbon net zero by 2039.

JLR has invested EUR 1.3 billion in its Nitra facility. Since operations commenced at the plant in October 2018, it has produced over 365,000 units of the Defender and Discovery models. In fact, the latest-gen Defender is built exclusively in Slovakia. It has been a success story for JLR, bagging the bestseller title for the last two financial years.

Buoyed by the demand for the EX30 EV, Volvo Cars has announced that it will start manufacturing the EV in question at its Ghent plant in Belgium in 2025. It will be produced alongside the XC40 Recharge and the C40 Recharge, becoming the third pure-electric vehicle to be manufactured in Europe.

The Volvo EX30 made its world premiere earlier this year, with first customer deliveries scheduled before 2023 comes to a close. Production for the small electric SUV commenced a few weeks ago in Zhangjiakou, China. The Geely-backed automaker expects the EX30 to become one of the bestselling models globally.

Volvo Cars will also be unveiling a new EV next month. Read about it here.

It was in March last year when Lotus unveiled the Eletre for the first time. Now, the all-electric SUV from the British brand has made its regional debut in Dubai. Moreover, bookings for the Lotus Eletre are also open in UAE, with the company’s exclusive retail partner – Adamas Motor Group – taking the lead. The starting price is AED 480,000, with the first customer deliveries scheduled for the second quarter of 2024.

Depending on the variant, the Lotus Eletre offers a range of up to 600km. The quickest version – the Eletre R – has 905hp, plenty to post a 0-100kmph sprint time of 2.95 seconds and clock 265kmph flat out. The battery can be replenished using a 22kW AC charger. Alternatively, it can also take a DC feed of up to 350kW, which can add a range of 400km in about 20 minutes.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal has been presented with a Kia EV9. The handover ceremony was conducted in Spain, Madrid, at an event called #TheIcon. The specimen is the fully loaded GT Line derivative, finished in the shade Kia calls Ocean Blue Matte. The three-row electric vehicle joins Nadal’s garage, where a Kia EV6 also resides.

Rafael Nadal has been Kia’s ambassador since 2004.