Why Cheap Gas Isn’t Bad News for Electric Cars
-via Slate.com With gasoline prices falling sharply, consumers are reverting to mean behavior: They’re buying gas-guzzlers. The No. 1 seller in December was a pick-up truck, the Ford F-150, which sold 85,211 units—a 10-year high. According to Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, the average new vehicle sold […]
The Microbus of the future?
Market for electric vehicles is ready to explode
-Via Ecomento.com A report from research firm IDTechEx entitled Electric Vehicle Forecasts, Trends and Opportunities 2016-2026 says the market for electric vehicles is set to explode over the next 10 years, creating nearly a half trillion dollars worth of new business along the way. “Batteries, supercapacitors, energy harvesting, wireless charging, power electronics and structural electronics are all […]
BMW and Nissan partner up to offer new DC Fast Chargers around the US
by Andrew Krok. Automakers are no stranger to partnering up with the competition. Subaru and Toyota have built multiple vehicles on the same platform in the past, for example. This time, BMW and Nissan are getting together to flesh out America’s electric infrastructure, which should pave the way for easier adoption of alternative-propulsion vehicles. Together, […]
Swedish electric car firm in $12 billion Chinese deal
“National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the electric vehicle company born out of the ashes of Swedish automaker Saab, has inked a $12 billion deal with a Chinese leasing firm that it says goes a long way to meeting its business objectives. In a statement Thursday, the company said it will be providing 150,000 sedans to Panda […]
Long term extension to Plug-in Car Grant announced
Yesterday the Government announced a long-term extension to the Plug-in Car Grant which will continue until at least the end of March 2018. The new grant reflects the growing popularity of electric vehicles with consumers and as business fleets. Sales have doubled over the past year, and there are now 29 ULEVs on the market, produced […]
Council checklist
Here are some suggestions for how councils can help encourage the uptake of EV. I welcome your feedback on this. Many thanks to Sigurd Magnusson for putting these ideas together. The key ideas are: Fleet pilot. Fleet transition. Public charging. Promote what the council is doing. Website content Publish why private individuals should own electric cars, […]
The history of the Norwegian EV association
An excellent video (20 minutes – well worth watching) that outlines the history of the Norwegian equivalent of Drive Electric. The point is that the Norwegian DE had a very difficult start. The lesson I take from this video is that we should not beat ourselves up about the difficulties in getting EVs up and […]
A few days with a Tesla in Wellington
Congratulations to Sigurd Magnusson who did a tremendous job organising to have a Tesla (courtesy Steve and Dee West) in Wellington for a few days. Let’s just say that the Tesla was very busy. Sig took a number of people for drives as did I. The tally goes something like this: 2 MPs, 3 mayors, […]