Renault has showcased the new Megane eVision concept electric car. It foreshadows the latest in the line of electric vehicles from Groupe Renault and is based on the entirely new modular CMF-EV (Common Module Family - Electric Vehicle) platform. 

According to the designers from the Alliance (Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi), this hatchback car features one of the thinnest batteries on the market and a new ultra-compact powertrain offering more roominess. This marks a new era in Renault for electric vehicles that would feature connected services, improved electric ecosystem for more efficient energy transition. This also marks an important step towards the development of smart charging to support the stability of the electrical grid and help users reduce their costs. 

Experts at Renault have revealed that the car’s connectivity allows charging to be triggered at the right time to avoid overloading the grid and promote the use of renewable energy. V2G (vehicle-to-grid) is another technology currently in development that allows any parked car that is charging to transfer part of the electricity from its battery to the grid. Megane eVision comes with a 60 kWh battery and a DC charger support for upto 130 kW. The engine itself is one of the most powerful in the Renault range across all energy sources with 160 kW (217 hp) of power and 300 Nm of torque. Renault claims that it accelerates from 0 to 100 kph in less than eight seconds.

Renault’s future all-electric vehicles will be built on the new modular CMF-EV platform designed by the French and Japanese engineers at Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. According to the latest updates, the platform will have a smaller engine compartment in comparison to the internal-combustion or mixed electric/internal-combustion engine vehicles. The platform will support low saloons and larger SUVs. The platform is also modular in terms of length, to adjust the battery even more to the type of car and driving range required. With extended wheelbase, sophisticated frame and low center of gravity due to the floor-mounted battery, the vehicle will have enhanced responsiveness, performance and aesthetic value. 

Similar to what was observed in the ‘MORPHOZ’ concept, the Megane eVision features large aerodynamic wheels in the shape of propeller blades. The wheels and part of the 245/40 ZR 20 tyres are covered by 21-inch trims finished with aerodynamic flaps, while shaded decorative lines recalls those of the lower grills. 

The graphic finish of the ‘E’ at the end of ‘Mégane’ in the first part of the car’s name is different from the other letters. This symbolic feature of electric engines and the ‘E-TECH’ label boasts the same bold gold colour as the roof and black parallel lines like those found on the 1972 Renault logo designed by Victor Vasarely.

Part of Renault’s Livingtech technological ecosystem, the ‘Livinglights’ lighting technology in the car highlights the car’s identity and accentuates the interior features as well. The vehicle could be remotely customised through FOTA (Firmware Over-the-Air) technology. This update also includes the ‘Livingscreen’ display and infotainment system in the concept car.

Megane eVision and the CMF-EV platform combined carries 300 patent-pending innovations that range from the engine, charging system, battery, thermal management, architecture and acoustics. One such innovation revealed by Groupe Renault is the ERS (Energy Recovery System) that captures the heat of the engine and the battery to heat the passenger compartment without using the battery, ensuring that the car’s driving range is not impacted by the cold.

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Coretura, a 50:50 joint venture between Daimler Truck and Volvo Group, has entered into an engineering agreement with Accenture to accelerate the development of a software platform for commercial vehicles.

The company, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, currently employs over 100 engineers. It continues to recruit specialists in system architecture, high-performance computing and cloud infrastructure to support its roadmap, which targets the delivery of its first commercialised products towards the end of the decade.

Coretura intends to create a single software platform, language and standard for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty transport vehicles. The platform is designed to support vehicle lifecycles of more than 15 years, moving the industry away from projects that require custom software development for each new vehicle.

As the engineering partner, Accenture will support development across several areas, including:

• Electrical and Electronic (E/E) architecture
• Software abstraction and hardware integration
• Embedded software, middleware, and cybersecurity
• Functional safety and cloud infrastructure

The platform aims to provide a reusable software stack to lower costs and standardise time-to-market for global manufacturers. For fleet operators, the system is designed to allow for continuous software updates and performance upgrades delivered over the air.

Johan Lunden, CEO, Coretura, said, “Our purpose is to advance mobility at the speed of ideas, and that takes depth. Building a full-stack SDV platform demands expertise across embedded software, middleware, cybersecurity, and functional safety, all designed for vehicles with lifecycles measured in decades. Accenture’s reinvention capabilities let us move faster without compromising the standards our customers depend on. This is acceleration, not course correction.”

Rainer Oder, SDV Embedded Software Lead, Accenture, added, “Helping the industry advance software-defined vehicles is a priority for Accenture. Our landmark collaboration with Coretura is designed to change embedded software engineering for automotive platforms. Together, we are looking to solve the challenges of a fully software-defined architecture – addressing critical areas such as hardware abstraction, API management and AI-based engineering optimisations.”

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The ePlane Company has announced the completion of its full-scale electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the e200X. Designated PT-01, the prototype has successfully integrated all core subsystems into a single structure, marking the transition from design and simulation to physical testing.

The e200X is designed as a single airframe versatile enough to serve three distinct markets – Passenger Air Taxi, Urban Cargo Carrier and Air Ambulance.

The company emphasises that the aircraft was designed to be compact, allowing it to integrate into existing urban infrastructure without requiring significant city redesigns.

Developed at the company's own facilities in Chennai, the e200X features in-house development of major components, including propellers, airframe structure, landing gear and battery pack.

This vertical integration provides the company with control over performance, manufacturing costs, and iteration speed, having reached this milestone on approximately USD 21 million in funding.

With assembly complete, the e200X will now undergo ground testing, flight testing and certification.

Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder, The ePlane Company, said, "We set out to build an electric aircraft to a world-class benchmark, engineered and manufactured in depth in India for the World.  We deliberately designed the e200X to be compact, because an aircraft that asks a city to rebuild itself around it will not solve the problem it was built to solve. The same airframe can move people as an air taxi, carry goods as a cargo aircraft, and save lives as an air ambulance, and it can do all three using the infrastructure cities already have. That combination of real capability and capital efficiency is how we intend to compete, and win, in markets around the world.”

The company’s board includes prominent figures such as Vishesh Rajaram (Speciale Invest), Eash Sundaram (JetBlue) and Aditya Ghosh (Homage, Akasa Air). The venture, incubated at IIT Madras, has also received international recognition, including being showcased at Bharat Innovates 2026 and featured in Nvidia Founder Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote.

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Chinese technology company Xiaomi has marked a new milestone for its automotive product offering with its electric vehicle.

The company has announced a significant milestone in autonomous vehicle technology by completing the first official autonomous lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany with the Xiaomi YU7 GT, equipped with a Track Package, navigating the 20.8 km circuit without a human driver, recording a lap time of 10:29.483.

Following this performance, the Nurburgring has introduced a new official vehicle category: Autonomous Driving (under Electric Vehicles).

The Xiaomi YU7 GT autonomously navigated all 73 corners of the Nordschleife, managing 300 metres of elevation change and varying road surface conditions. The performance was driven by Xiaomi’s autonomous driving system, which integrates the Xiaomi XLA architecture and the MiMo-Embodied foundation model introduced in March 2026. The end-to-end architecture enabled the vehicle to coordinate steering, braking and power delivery in real-time, maintaining stability under high-speed and high-load conditions.

Xiaomi’s autonomous driving programme has evolved since the 2024 launch of Xiaomi HAD. The current system moves beyond simple behaviour imitation toward autonomous decision-making and deeper environmental interpretation. The company stated that the Nurburgring project serves as a critical testing ground to collect data for refining vehicle dynamics modelling, control strategy optimisation and safety redundancy mechanisms.

This achievement underscores Xiaomi’s commitment to advancing artificial intelligence in the automotive sector through rigorous real-world validation.

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QuantumScape Corporation has announced a multi-year joint research agreement with Honda R&D Co., a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co.

The collaboration focuses on advancing QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium-metal battery platform, including the development of associated manufacturing processes.

This agreement follows a successful technology evaluation period during which Honda conducted a technical study and competitive benchmarking of QuantumScape’s battery platform.

Atsushi Ogawa, Chief Operating Officer, Research Center of Excellence, Honda R&D Co, said, “QS technology demonstrated compelling and unique advantages during our evaluation. We see potential for QS technology to add value across a range of applications, including automotive, and we are excited to move forward into the next phase of our partnership.”

Dr. Siva Sivaram, CEO and President, QuantumScape, added, “Honda is a leading global automaker renowned for its engineering excellence and product quality across automotive and other applications worldwide, and its evaluation represents one of the most rigorous assessments of our technology to date. This agreement reflects the growing confidence in QS solid-state lithium-metal batteries to enable safer, higher-density energy storage.”

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