Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Netexporter

A review of the new small Citroen:

FIRST LOOK: £21k Citroen ë-C3 - Is this the affordable car we’ve been waiting for? | Electrifying - YouTube

The price point is very interesting.

Coastalwatch

Good news for owners, potential owners and EV manufacturers below although finance to replace that derived from the tax of FF's surely has to happen at some point. As Kath Davies says, Oz is lagging behind the rest of the world and should be encouraging EV take up presently.

Good timing given that two other states were planning similar taxes also.

Australia takes aim at Victoria’s extra EV tax

In Australia, the Federal Government has formally joined a legal bid to strike down Victoria’s controversial electric vehicle tax. According to a report in The Age, federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus filed an intervention in the High Court, supporting two Victorian motorists reportedly seeking to have the state’s EV levy ruled unconstitutional.

Update 19 October 2023

The controversial electric vehicle tax in the Australian state of Victoria has been struck down by the high court, finding the Victorian tax was unconstitutional. According to The Guardian, the decision will likely prevent New South Wales and Western Australia from proceeding with plans to introduce road-user charges from 2027.

“Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world on electric vehicle uptake,” said Kath Davies, who was one of the drivers who launched the lawsuit shortly after the state government introduced its zero- and low-emission vehicle road user charge, adding: “Now is not the time to be taxing electric vehicles – it’s the time to be doing everything we can to encourage people to make the switch to cleaner cars.”

https://www.electrive.com/2022/07/22/australia-takes-aim-at-victorias-extra-ev-tax/

JKenH

Coastalwatch said:

Good news for owners, potential owners and EV manufacturers below although finance to replace that derived from the tax of FF's surely has to happen at some point. As Kath Davies says, Oz is lagging behind the rest of the world and should be encouraging EV take up presently.

Good timing given that two other states were planning similar taxes also.

Australia takes aim at Victoria’s extra EV tax

In Australia, the Federal Government has formally joined a legal bid to strike down Victoria’s controversial electric vehicle tax. According to a report in The Age, federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus filed an intervention in the High Court, supporting two Victorian motorists reportedly seeking to have the state’s EV levy ruled unconstitutional.

Update 19 October 2023

The controversial electric vehicle tax in the Australian state of Victoria has been struck down by the high court, finding the Victorian tax was unconstitutional. According to The Guardian, the decision will likely prevent New South Wales and Western Australia from proceeding with plans to introduce road-user charges from 2027.

“Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world on electric vehicle uptake,” said Kath Davies, who was one of the drivers who launched the lawsuit shortly after the state government introduced its zero- and low-emission vehicle road user charge, adding: “Now is not the time to be taxing electric vehicles – it’s the time to be doing everything we can to encourage people to make the switch to cleaner cars.”

https://www.electrive.com/2022/07/22/australia-takes-aim-at-victorias-extra-ev-tax/

I hate to spoil the party but according to this CleanTechnica article, the case was won on a point of law and some form of tax on EVs will inevitably follow.

Did the High Court overrule the state of Victoria because of the virtue of driving EVs or because they are better for human and climate health? No altruism here. It was overruled on a point of law. The Victorian EV road user tax was deemed an excise and as such can only be levied by the federal government, not by individual states. My expectation is that the Feds will now see this as a money-making opportunity and bring in their own road user tax.

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/10/20/is-an-australian-ev-road-user-tax-inevitable/

Coastalwatch

JKenH said:

Coastalwatch said:

Good news for owners, potential owners and EV manufacturers below although finance to replace that derived from the tax of FF's surely has to happen at some point. As Kath Davies says, Oz is lagging behind the rest of the world and should be encouraging EV take up presently.

Good timing given that two other states were planning similar taxes also.

Australia takes aim at Victoria’s extra EV tax

In Australia, the Federal Government has formally joined a legal bid to strike down Victoria’s controversial electric vehicle tax. According to a report in The Age, federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus filed an intervention in the High Court, supporting two Victorian motorists reportedly seeking to have the state’s EV levy ruled unconstitutional.

Update 19 October 2023

The controversial electric vehicle tax in the Australian state of Victoria has been struck down by the high court, finding the Victorian tax was unconstitutional. According to The Guardian, the decision will likely prevent New South Wales and Western Australia from proceeding with plans to introduce road-user charges from 2027.

“Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world on electric vehicle uptake,” said Kath Davies, who was one of the drivers who launched the lawsuit shortly after the state government introduced its zero- and low-emission vehicle road user charge, adding: “Now is not the time to be taxing electric vehicles – it’s the time to be doing everything we can to encourage people to make the switch to cleaner cars.”

https://www.electrive.com/2022/07/22/australia-takes-aim-at-victorias-extra-ev-tax/

I hate to spoil the party but according to this CleanTechnica article, the case was won on a point of law and some form of tax on EVs will inevitably follow.

Did the High Court overrule the state of Victoria because of the virtue of driving EVs or because they are better for human and climate health? No altruism here. It was overruled on a point of law. The Victorian EV road user tax was deemed an excise and as such can only be levied by the federal government, not by individual states. My expectation is that the Feds will now see this as a money-making opportunity and bring in their own road user tax.

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/10/20/is-an-australian-ev-road-user-tax-inevitable/

No spoiler alert required jken as this point was covered in my first sentence.

JKenH

Coastalwatch said:

JKenH said:

Coastalwatch said:

Good news for owners, potential owners and EV manufacturers below although finance to replace that derived from the tax of FF's surely has to happen at some point. As Kath Davies says, Oz is lagging behind the rest of the world and should be encouraging EV take up presently.

Good timing given that two other states were planning similar taxes also.

Australia takes aim at Victoria’s extra EV tax

In Australia, the Federal Government has formally joined a legal bid to strike down Victoria’s controversial electric vehicle tax. According to a report in The Age, federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus filed an intervention in the High Court, supporting two Victorian motorists reportedly seeking to have the state’s EV levy ruled unconstitutional.

Update 19 October 2023

The controversial electric vehicle tax in the Australian state of Victoria has been struck down by the high court, finding the Victorian tax was unconstitutional. According to The Guardian, the decision will likely prevent New South Wales and Western Australia from proceeding with plans to introduce road-user charges from 2027.

“Australia is lagging behind the rest of the world on electric vehicle uptake,” said Kath Davies, who was one of the drivers who launched the lawsuit shortly after the state government introduced its zero- and low-emission vehicle road user charge, adding: “Now is not the time to be taxing electric vehicles – it’s the time to be doing everything we can to encourage people to make the switch to cleaner cars.”

https://www.electrive.com/2022/07/22/australia-takes-aim-at-victorias-extra-ev-tax/

I hate to spoil the party but according to this CleanTechnica article, the case was won on a point of law and some form of tax on EVs will inevitably follow.

Did the High Court overrule the state of Victoria because of the virtue of driving EVs or because they are better for human and climate health? No altruism here. It was overruled on a point of law. The Victorian EV road user tax was deemed an excise and as such can only be levied by the federal government, not by individual states. My expectation is that the Feds will now see this as a money-making opportunity and bring in their own road user tax.

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/10/20/is-an-australian-ev-road-user-tax-inevitable/

No spoiler alert required jken as this point was covered in my first sentence.

It was and I apologise for not acknowledging that.

I should explain (in mitigation) that I had posted the CleanTechnica article to correct what I thought was the misleading use of the term “unconstitutional” when describing why the attempt to impose taxes on EVs had failed. As the CleanTechnica article pointed out the state of Victoria was overruled on a point of law - it was acting ultra vires. (This is why the Federal government stepped into the case as the power to impose that tax lay with them not the state - it wasn’t about climate change which was the original reason the motorists brought the court action). 

As Australia, unlike the UK, has a written constitution “unconstitutional” can mean something different to what it does in the UK which doesn’t have a written constitution. In the context of Australia, the term was correctly applied. “Unconstitutional” to me, here in the UK, however, usually refers to rulings made by the courts to declare acts of parliament incompatible with legally entrenched rights or to quash actions of authorities acting in contravention of the Human Rights Act etc.,i.e. breaches of fundamental principles or common law rights.

I suspect that most people in the UK would have gained the impression (from the comments of one of the petitioners  -“Now is not the time to be taxing electric vehicles – it’s the time to be doing everything we can to encourage people to make the switch to cleaner cars.”)  that the action against Victoria succeeded because it was in some way in breach of fundamental principles rather than the legislation had simply been enacted by the wrong agency. 

Martyn1981

VW aiming to beat the 2025 ban on ICE in Norway. Actually I think it's a policy aim, not sure if it's passed into law yet.

Hopefulluy Norway will demonstrate that the slower/flatter phase of a disruptive 'S' curve after 80%, won't apply to BEV's. Unlike something like a mobile phone v's the disruptive smart phone, an ICE car will still be a very expensive and long lasting product. So, will companies still build them as sales, and profitability falls. Theoretically, if one company keeps going, whilst the rest stop, that might allow for enough production (and sales) to keep costs down.

Norwegians could lean on sales in Europe, as Norway is relatively low, but at the same time, would the dealerships want to bother with such low sales. Will be fun to see how this shakes out, then accelerates as Europe as a whole keeps transitioning.

Sweden and the Netherlands are rapidly chasing Norway, and closing in on 50% BEV sales (Sweden) and 50% PEV sales in the Netherlands.

VWG is doing well in Norway, leading on BEV sales YTD.

Volkswagen will sell only EVs in Norway from 2024 – but Tesla is still king

It’s soon game over for Volkswagen combustion-engine passenger cars in Norway. Norwegian VW importer Møller Mobility Group just confirmed the plan to wrap up any orders on ICE cars in the country by December 2023 – after that, the brand will only sell its electric models.

It’s no surprise that Norway is leading the world in EV adoption. EVs already account for more than 20% of all passenger vehicles in the country, and almost 84% of new vehicles sold. Counting plug-in hybrids, the figure rises to 90%, according to the Norwegian Road Federation. The Norwegian government also plans to ban all ICE vehicles from 2025 onward, the earliest of any country, so Volkswagen is beating them to the punch by a year.

Over the last 10 years, Volkswagen has imported more than 102,000 electric passenger cars into the country. The VW ID.4 is listed as the second best-selling car across all drive types in Norway, with 5,832 new registrations as of the end of September. The ID.3 takes eighth place with 2,615 units sold.

Martyn1981

Well that's not helping!

£1bn fund to expand EV charging network still not open after three years

Almost £1bn meant to help build Britain’s electric vehicle charging network remains unallocated more than three years after it was first announced by Rishi Sunak.

Promised in March 2020 before the first Covid lockdown in Sunak’s early weeks as Boris Johnson’s chancellor, the “rapid charging fund” was meant to support electrical capacity at motorway service stations. It was intended to help fund upgrades to the grid so that more electric cars can be rapidly charged at the same time.

The fund is still not yet open for applications. A pilot scheme had been planned for late 2022 before it was pushed back to spring 2023, then the summer of this year.

The government indicated last week there would be further delays after the transport minister, Jesse Norman, admitted to the House of Commons it was still “in the process of developing a pilot … which will open in due course”. Sunak had already been criticised for rowing back on net zero policies.

Industry sources said the pilot may not launch before Christmas, and warned the latest setback risks delaying the rest of the fund until after a general election, which is expected next year.

Martyn1981

Nice little huge list to mythbust the critics of EV's.

Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) significantly cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in almost all circumstances and are the key technology for decarbonising road transport.

While not having a car has even larger climate benefits, many peoples’ ability to go car-free is limited by their circumstances and the availability of alternatives.

This means EVs are “likely crucial” for tackling transport emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

EV sales are growing fast, accounting for one in every seven cars sold globally in 2022 – up from one-in-70 just five years earlier.

Yet EVs are also being subjected to relentless hostile reporting across mainstream media in many major economies, including the UK.

Here, Carbon Brief factchecks 21 of the most common – and persistent – myths about EVs.

1961Nick

Martyn1981 said:

Nice little huge list to mythbust the critics of EV's.

Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) significantly cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in almost all circumstances and are the key technology for decarbonising road transport.

While not having a car has even larger climate benefits, many peoples’ ability to go car-free is limited by their circumstances and the availability of alternatives.

This means EVs are “likely crucial” for tackling transport emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

EV sales are growing fast, accounting for one in every seven cars sold globally in 2022 – up from one-in-70 just five years earlier.

Yet EVs are also being subjected to relentless hostile reporting across mainstream media in many major economies, including the UK.

Here, Carbon Brief factchecks 21 of the most common – and persistent – myths about EVs.

I'm about half way through the Ricado report & it's already clear that due to the 3x energy requirement, FCEV deployment should only be considered when a BEV won't suffice.

 I guess that if the Government does eventually pull it's finger out regarding the current CFD impasse & wind capacity does reach 50GW, then there will be enough spare overnight capacity to produce hydrogen cheaply & the relative inefficiency of a FCEV compared to a BEV won't matter.

Anyway... back to the report.

JKenH

Martyn1981 said:

Nice little huge list to mythbust the critics of EV's.

Factcheck: 21 misleading myths about electric vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) significantly cut lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions in almost all circumstances and are the key technology for decarbonising road transport.

While not having a car has even larger climate benefits, many peoples’ ability to go car-free is limited by their circumstances and the availability of alternatives.

This means EVs are “likely crucial” for tackling transport emissions, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

EV sales are growing fast, accounting for one in every seven cars sold globally in 2022 – up from one-in-70 just five years earlier.

Yet EVs are also being subjected to relentless hostile reporting across mainstream media in many major economies, including the UK.

Here, Carbon Brief factchecks 21 of the most common – and persistent – myths about EVs.

This myth busting is all very well but the “evidence presented” to rebut the claims is frequently just as flawed and biased - produced with the sole purpose of proving a point.

Let’s have a look at one of the claims made in this so called “fact checking”

FALSE: ‘An EV has to travel 50,000+ miles to break even’

“First, these claims routinely overstate the emissions associated with manufacturing EV batteries, often cherrypicking older studies with the highest estimates.

Second, they usually take fuel-efficiency figures at face value, ignoring the long-standing issue that vehicle test cycles are unrealistic – with real-world efficiency around 40% worse than stated.”

In support of this “around 40% worse” claim the link provided shows a chart.

I don’t know what figures were used to calculate the Tesla Model Y consumption used in their example  but it is well documented that it is significantly worse than EPA figures but of course Carbon Brief don’t comment on that. 

So here we have Carbon Brief criticising claims for cherrypicking older studies and then to dismiss claims made in 2023  use out of date and discredited NEDC data from 2017. 

A touch of hypocrisy, there, perhaps?

All this reference to mythbusting, fact checking, debunking etc is the language of confirmation bias. These articles aren’t produced for any other reason than to gather clicks from the gullible, just like the Daily Mail does, by regurgitating, to the faithful, over and ver again, the same old one sided propaganda, dressed up as facts.  EV sales have reached a hiatus but rather than sit down and consider why that might be the EV community has turned to blaming what is, in fact, a reality check on the relenting hostile press (a touch of paranoia, perhaps?).

I thought we had moved on from these jingoistic articles or is it ok to post them if they support your particular point of view.