Honda, Renault-Nissan, Tesla, Alta Motors, Korea, Tata.

Two Honda BEVs to come: This autumn, Honda intends to introduce a fully electrified vehicle based on the manufacturer’s new EV platform. More details have not yet been provided, but it will likely be the Clarity BEV and it will most likely debut at the IAA in Frankfurt. For the Chinese market, Honda is to launch an additional BEV in 2018. Furthermore, the Japanese carmaker confirmed that by 2030 it wants two-thirds of its global sales to be made up of electrified cars. This strategy also includes research on fast and wireless charging systems.
autoexpress.co.uk

Renault to challenge utility companies? Renault-Nissan and British Powervault recently announced their cooperation to give EV batteries a second life and stationery home. Now the French carmaker goes a step further and plans to team up with energy storage specialist The Mobility House in order to build a huge power storage plant in Europe reusing batteries from EVs. With a capacity of 100MW, the “mega battery” shall be big enough to power 120,000 homes and could thus replace a coal power station. The project is at “study phase” according to Renault to determine where to build the plant.
reuters.com

Semi serious: Serial production of Tesla’s electric truck Semi could start in 18 to 24 months, states Elon Musk with the prototype to go on display this September as planned. Meanwhile, the EV maker’s stock reached another record high with shares being worth 360 dollars each. It thus comes as no surprise, Tesla made it on the Fortune 500 list of companies with the highest-revenue worldwide.
electrek.co (Tesla Semi), electrek.co (shares, Fortune 500)

New capital for Alta Motors: The Californian electric bike manufacturer raised a total of 27m dollars in its latest rounds of financing. The funds shall be invested in an expansion of a manufacturing and R&D facility in Brisbane and in further research of the company’s light electric vehicle technology.
prnewswire.com

Number plates for EVs in Korea: BEVs and FCVs shall be easy to identify in South Korea and that is why they get to bear blue number plates. Thanks to sensors recognising the colour, drivers of these vehicles are supposed to automatically pay less parking and toll charges.
koreaherald.com

Electric Tata Tiago? Tata Motors’ first EV reaching market maturity could be an electric version of the Tiago hatchback, Autocar India has learnt. More details have not been revealed, but it seems obvious that India’s recent push towards electric vehicles has hurried Tata’s plans to launch an electric line-up.
autocarindia.com