Volkswagen, Nissan, Toyota, Beijing, Caocao, Tesla.

Dawn of the Era at VW: The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced that during the keynote address of Volkswagen’s Chairman of Passenger Cars Dr. Herbert Diess at the upcoming CES 2016, he will unveil a new all-electric concept car. According to Autocar, it will be a close preview to the planned production version of the all-electric Microbus. In Europe, the electrification strategy may visibly kick off in German Dresden. From 2016, the electric Golf and Up could be produced in the so-called Transparent Factory before the E-Phaeton takes its place in line by 2019.
businesswire.com, autocar.co.uk, handelsblatt.com (Transparent Factory, in German)

Range-extended Nissan Juke? The Gripz concept is a preview of Nissan’s next compact SUV, the Juke, Motoring alleges. First shown at the IAA earlier this year, the electric prototype is the firm’s first EV with a range extender. The electrified Juke might already be unveiled in early 2016.
motoring.com

New Prius on-sale: The fourth generation of Toyota’s bestselling hybrid arrived at Japanese dealerships. North America is next in January before the Prius goes to Europe a month later. Toyota expects to sell 12,000 units a month in Japan and projects up to 350,000 sales annually worldwide.
cnbc.com

Red alert: Beijing has issued a red smog alert resulting in a complete shut down of factories, schools and half the traffic for the first time. The warning is based on air pollution levels more than 10 times higher than the level at which WHO recommends to take cautious measures.
chinabusinessnews.com, forbes.com, autonews.gasgoo.com

Geely Uber: Caocao is a new ride hailing and rental service to be set up by a Geely subsidiary that will also include electric cars. Different from Uber, the service aims to be more upmarket as it includes translators, drivers or simply rental cars.
reuters.com

Model S 70D review: John Howell stays down to earth in his description of the entry level Tesla that comes with AWD. The latter helps it “to get its power down with stunning efficiency” Howell says before describing the “bizarre” feeling of trusting the Autopilot.
autocar.co.uk