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.

If you’re a tech geek who is intrigued by the latest futuristic technology, chances are you would already be aware of the GITEX tech show. This annual event is currently taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre between 16 to 20 October and visitors for this year are in for a treat from Mercedes-Benz. The German luxury carmaker is showcasing two of its latest concept cars – the Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX and VISION One-Eleven at the 2023 edition. While the former is considered a flagbearer in EV efficiency courtesy of its record-breaking 1200km road trip across Europe on a single charge, the latter is seen as a design stalwart by the brand. The Vision One-Eleven’s design language is seen as a 21st-century style marker by the carmaker as it showcases the first sports car interior with a lounge concept while the exteriors exhibit a modern reinterpretation of the legendary C 111 experimental vehicles from the 1970s. As the GITEX event is considered a platform to promote accelerating digital innovation and technology, it is considered the ideal event for Mercedes-Benz to showcase pioneering concept cars that represent breakthroughs in design, technology, and progressive luxury.

As part of the strategic alliance between Audi Middle East and the Museum of the Future, the automaker recently announced the arrival of the Audi urbansphere concept to the Middle East region for the first time. The Audi urbansphere is the third and largest of the four concept vehicles in the sphere series and also happens to be the first from the sphere series to be displayed at the iconic Dubai attraction. The other models showcased at the Museum of the Future comprises Ken Block’s S1 e-tron drift car, the Audi AI:CON and the Audi e-tron Vision Gran Tourismo. The Audi urbansphere concept will be on display at the museum as part of the ‘Tomorrow, Today‘ exhibition until mid-January 2024 and boasts a lounge-chair-inspired cabin with the option to hide the steering wheel, pedals and dashboard entirely. With a length of 18ft and over 6ft width, the urbansphere is one of the largest vehicles in the Audi concept car line-up and comes equipped with full autonomous driving capabilities.

The Polestar 2 was the first volume model for the Geely-backed Swedish brand. It entered production in 2020, and over 150,000 examples have been produced within three years. No matter how you look at it, that is an impressive feat.

In the UAE, where Al-Futtaim Electric Mobility Company is the authorised dealer, the Polestar 2 has received strong interest since being introduced in the first quarter of 2022. The country also hosted an exclusive showcase of the Polestar 6 at the Emirates Towers, Dubai, in February this year. Another event that boosted interest in the brand was the presentation of future EVs, the Polestar 3, Polestar 4, Polestar 5 and the Polestar 6, at ADGM in Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island in May 2023.

Sales of the Polestar 2 in the UAE have been supported by its Polestar Space at the Mall of the Emirates. It can house up to three Polestar EVs at any given moment. Besides housing two consultation rooms, the showroom has a configuration studio for customers to customise cars as per their taste.