Detroit Electric, Future Mobility, Sinclair, Mellor Coachcraft, FF.

Detroit Electric to produce in China: Emperor Electric Car is a new Joint Venture between the Chinese CSE, ES&TP and Detroit Electric that will have its HQ in Hongkong. Together, they want to produce EVs and their components in China. Construction of a first facility in Yixing will start in 2017 and the JV hopes to make 100,000 electric cars a year comes 2020. This excludes Detroit Electric’s SP:01 roadster though. Instead EEC plans to build an electric SUV.
forbes.com

An electric SUV made in China is also the plan of Future Mobility Corp (FMC). The start-up funded by Foxconn and Tencent and led by former BMWi manager Carsten Breitfeld wants to launch its first EV by 2019 and aims at prices from 40,000 dollars. A sedan and mini van shall follow later. However, first the Najing facility with planned production capacity of 150,000 EV needs to be completed and receive its manufacturing license. If not, executives said they would look to outsource production.
greencarcongress.com, bloomberg.com

The Sinclair C5 is as quirky an invention as it is British. Now, a remake of the 1980 electric trike is due. The Iris eTrike is pedal-assist, comes covered and does look more modern than its predecessor. Grant Sinclair, Clive Sinclair’s nephew, is behind it and will offer the e-trike from 3,000 GBP.
futureentech.com, bikeradar.com, bbc.com (video)

World’s first low floor e-bus? Mellor Coachcraft will bring an electric low floor bus to the Commercial Vehicle Show in Birmingham this April. The Orion E sits 16 passengers and shall have a range of 160 km. Deliveries are planned for July.
transportengineer.org.uk

FF clings to life in USA: Just as Faraday Future seemed to have given up its ambitions to make it in the States (we reported), officials in Nevada refute. The EV start-up has poured 160m dollars into its desert facility and wants to break ground this spring. But the factory will be much smaller, at least during what FF calls the first phase. If completed, 12,000 electric cars may roll off the lines from next year.
recordcourier.com, electrek.co

Modular reviews: Hyundai’s Ionic comes in all shades of green that is as hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fully electric. As it arrived in the States, test reports reach us, comparing apples with apples for once.
jalopnik.com (HEV vs EV), autoblog.com (HEV vs PHEV)