E-car news: Solar cars in need ++ Tesla’s nightmare in China is called BYD ++ Cybertruck is coming

The cyber truck is coming

The highly anticipated Cybertruck is expected to enter production in mid-2023, according to Elon Musk, giving Tesla a chance to enter the lucrative U.S. pickup market. However, production starts “very slowly” and then increases exponentially. Full production capacity will not be reached until 2024.

At the presentation in 2019, it was said that production would start at the end of 2021. In early 2021, Musk said a handful of Cybertrucks would be delivered to customers by the end of the year, but no deliveries ever materialized. In August 2021, Tesla announced a delay to 2022. It should now be 2024 before the cybertruck is available in larger quantities.

Tesla’s China problem is called BYD

Tesla is being built in China more than every second and the Middle Kingdom is also a very important sales market. There, however, the Chinese battery and car manufacturer BYD (Build Your Dreams) is increasingly becoming a problem for Musk. BYD replaced Tesla as the top-selling e-car brand in China last year and immediately left it behind.

Musk sees Chinese car manufacturers as Tesla’s biggest competitors, US broadcaster CNBC reports. “We have a lot of respect for the car manufacturers in China. They’re the most competitive in the world,” Musk said. If he had to guess, “a company from China would probably take second place after Tesla.”

Musk is undoubtedly thinking of the Warren Buffett-backed BYD. It is increasingly penetrating the West and, unlike Tesla, can offer a wide range of electric cars: from large and expensive SUVs to cheap small cars.

In recent months, Tesla has responded to emerging competition and weaker-than-expected demand with massive price cuts, first in China and more recently in the US, Europe and other countries. Tesla wants to ramp up production “as quickly as possible” in 2023 and sees itself on track to deliver some 1.8 million cars in the year as a whole.

Solar cars in need

Sono Motors and Lightyear wanted to start with solar cars, now the dream seems to be bursting. The Munich start-up Sono Motors has tried to save its solar cell car Sion with another support campaign in recent weeks. So far, less than half of the targeted EUR 100 million has been raised. The bailout will be extended until February 28, 2023 as talks are held with potential investors. So the solar car is not quite dead yet.

Things don’t look any better for Dutch electric car newcomer Lightyear.

Shortly after the start of series production of the Lightyear 0 solar car, the manufacturer’s money is almost gone. Production of the solar sedan 0 (pronounced zero), which cost more than 250,000 francs, has been discontinued. At the end of 2025, the Lightyear 2 model should still be on the market.

Prestigious success with “Autopilot” for Mercedes

Mercedes is the first manufacturer in the world to receive approval for highly automated driving in the US state of Nevada. The “Drive Pilot” is therefore the first driver assistance system with Level 3 approval in the US. However, for the time being the autopilot can only be used on motorways with speeds of up to 60 km/h, as long as the distance to the vehicle in front is not too great.

Level 3 means temporary autonomous driving within a certain scenario. The person behind the wheel no longer has to continuously monitor what is happening on the road, but must be able to intervene within a maximum of 10 seconds if the assistance system is overwhelmed by the situation.

Important: While Drive Pilot is driving the car, the responsibility lies with Mercedes.

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Fully autonomous driving would be level 5, current systems reach level 2. The Germans plan to deliver the first vehicles equipped with level 3 “in the second half of 2023” in the US. The Drive Pilot will be available as an option for the S-Class and the EQS electric luxury saloon. Drive Pilot has been available in Germany since May 2022.