Fuel-cell vans on way
Stellantis will start volume production in Europe of large and midsize hydrogen fuel-cell vans, expanding its range of zero-emission commercial vehicles.
The company says it will produce the larger vans, pictured, at its Gliwice plant in southern Poland, and the mid-size ones in Hordain, northern France.
The group, which also offers battery electric commercials, has already sold hydrogen mid-sized vans, but so far only through lots for specific large clients.
Stellantis runs Europe’s largest commercial-vehicle plant. It’s located in the central Italian town of Atessa, which has a production capacity of up to 1,200 large vans per day under its Fiat Professional, Peugeot, Citroen, Opel and Vauxhall brands, as well as for Toyota.
No Vroom in American market
Vroom, an online used-car marketplace in the US, is shifting all its resources and capital into two divisions focused on AI-powered analytics and automotive financing.
The company has suspended all used-vehicles transactions through vroom.com. It has yet to determine how much the wind-down will cost, partly because of uncertainty on what its stock will sell for.
Vroom was part of a wave of US start-ups that launched about a decade ago aiming to disrupt used-car sales and traditional dealership model. Click here for the full story.
Alexa signed up by German marque
BMW says it will start using Amazon Alexa technology in some models this year. The two companies have showcased a voice assistant based on Alexa’s AI model, which processes human language at a high level and generates sophisticated responses.
“The next generation of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant will soon become more powerful over the course of the year in vehicles with BMW Operating System 9,” says the German marque.
Amazon is one of several large players in the vehicle voice-assistant market, which also includes Google and Cerence.
Lamborghini makes five digits
Lamborghini sold more than 10,000 vehicles last year for the first time. The marque, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, delivered 10,112 sports cars and SUVs in 2013, up from about 9,200 in 2022.
Europe, the Middle East and Africa was the region that saw the biggest increase in deliveries for last year, with a 14 per cent rise to nearly 4,000 units. Sales in the America region rose nine per cent to 3,465 and by four per cent in Asia-Pacific to 2,660.
