Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

Solarchaser

I wonder if the French car manufacturers are on board with this,  obviously the zoe is quite well known, are the Peugeot and Citroën ones well known??

Martyn1981

I think this is a fun story simply because the California New Car Dealers Association mistakenly reported that the Honda Civic was the top selling car ..... oops!

Tesla Model 3 = Top Selling Car in California

silverwhistle

Hmm, I like their category 'Pony Cars'. Not a title you should use in the UK!

Martyn1981

silverwhistle said:

Hmm, I like their category 'Pony Cars'. Not a title you should use in the UK!

LOL. My first car and first love was a pony car (as pictured) a Pontiac Trans-Am Firebird. Ridiculous car, too big (wide) to use, and too expensive to run ...... but I luvved her. I blame the parents, they shouldn't let 8yr olds watch Smokey and the Bandit. 

The term Pony cars was created after the Ford Mustang was launched for 'smaller' cheaper sports cars, v's the monster engined beasts like the Pontiac GTO, Dodge Charger etc, labelled muscle cars.

JKenH

Interesting EV YTD sales stats for Norway where traditionally Tesla has been very strong.

Coastalwatch

So having completed one life powering vehicles and then possibly a second as energy storage  recycling awaits for them to start all over again!

Northvolt and aluminum company plot Norwegian EV recycling plant

With Swedish sustainable battery manufacturer Northvolt having committed to draw at least half its components from recycled materials by 2030, the business has formed a joint venture (JV) with its investor Hydro to secure a stream of dead electric vehicle batteries.

Norway is a global pioneer for plug-in electric vehicle (EV) take-up and its fast maturing EV market can supply battery materials and aluminum until Northvolt’s own lithium-ion products start reaching the end of their shelf life and being returned to the manufacturer.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/06/01/northvolt-and-aluminum-company-plot-norwegian-ev-recycling-plant/

Martyn1981

Electric cars gain market share in Europe despite Covid-19 crisis

Electric and hybrid cars gained traction among European buyers in April despite coronavirus lockdowns stalling the market, suggesting carmakers are likely to avoid potential fines potentially worth billions of euros if they fail to reduce average emissions.

Martyn1981

Interesting article for me, as it's left me pondering. Should we support all cars to help an industry, or only cleaner cars to still help an industry whilst 'nudging' in the desired direction, and one that is inevitable anyway. From my perhaps biased position, and certainly from a G&E board perspective I'd say we should only be supporting PEV's, but can't work out if that's 'fair' or not for a struggling industry, after all, should we be supporting the buggy whip industry too?

UK car industry pushes for scrappage scheme to help buy new petrol and diesel vehicles

The UK automotive industry has been in confidential talks with the government over a possible £1.5bn scrappage scheme or “market stimulus package” that it insists should encourage the purchase of diesel and petrol cars on an equal footing with cleaner vehicles.

The plans under consideration by industry and government would take £2,500 off the price of a car and put a further 600,000 new vehicles on the road.

zeupater

Martyn1981 said:

Interesting article for me, as it's left me pondering. Should we support all cars to help an industry, or only cleaner cars to still help an industry whilst 'nudging' in the desired direction, and one that is inevitable anyway. From my perhaps biased position, and certainly from a G&E board perspective I'd say we should only be supporting PEV's, but can't work out if that's 'fair' or not for a struggling industry, after all, should we be supporting the buggy whip industry too?

UK car industry pushes for scrappage scheme to help buy new petrol and diesel vehicles

The UK automotive industry has been in confidential talks with the government over a possible £1.5bn scrappage scheme or “market stimulus package” that it insists should encourage the purchase of diesel and petrol cars on an equal footing with cleaner vehicles.

The plans under consideration by industry and government would take £2,500 off the price of a car and put a further 600,000 new vehicles on the road.

Hi

I'd be very reticent to support such a scheme without first seeing the eligibility criteria!!

If it's a general £x/unit then it's a definite no from me, however, throw in some tight rules that both significantly improve consumption & ensure that the scheme isn't open to various forms of 'manipulation' then the position may change ...

As an example, if the criteria was for a limited time scheme (say 4 months) for purchasers to replace vehicles which they had owned for more than <a> years (say 5) & had a currently valid Tax & MOT with a new & less polluting vehicle which achieved more than <b> MPG (say 60) whilst achieving  <c>% (say 33%) improvement in miles/gallon over the published (new) figures for that being scrapped and the new vehicle cost less than £<d> (say £20k) and the incentive was a percentage (less than VAT!!, say 10%) of final OTR negotiated price with the dealership (base vehicle only - no accessories!) as opposed to list price then it could work to help improve overall emissions & the market .... and of course, to ensure that UK taxpayers' funds are used to best support UK employment & the UK economy, such a scheme should only apply to vehicles made in the UK .....

.... pretty decent criteria in my mind, probably of little impact to HM Treasury too if those criteria were applied .... are there many UK made vehicles with a decent MPG available for below £20k that would be of interest to purchasers that met their own eligibility criteria? ... if so, good luck to them! ....

HTH - Z

Martyn1981

A host of EV articles that might interest, and I think together paint a picture of where this is going:

Norway remains the PEV monster in Europe, with ~44% of sales being BEV's in May.

Unstoppable EV Growth In Norway — 66% Market Share

The world’s leading electric vehicle market, Norway, has seen another month of record market share growth in May — 66% share. That’s up from 47% a year ago. Popular all-electric models included the e-Golf, the Audi e-tron, and newcomer MG ZS EV breaking into the top 5.

Nice rise in PEV's over 5 years, and accelerating ..... give or take the US!

Plug-in Vehicle Sales Rise from 1% to 5.1% in China in 5 Years, 1.3% to 3% in Europe, & 0.7% to 1.9% in USA

Shame it's not BEV's, but Volvo moving rapidly in the right(ish) direction.

14% of Volvo Sales = Plug-in Vehicles

Halifax, no the Canadian one, planning to go 50% leccy bus, and some leccy ferries, with plans to expand further.

Halifax Aims To Add 210 Electric Buses In Next 8 Years

The Halifax Regional Municipality up in Canada is getting more serious about climate action and stopping air pollution in its borders. The municipality has plans to put $780 million into getting the 210 electric buses onto the road and 3 new ferry routes into service by 2028, according to TheChronicleHerald (h/t Collie Guy).

Some of the buses will also be part of a new “bus rapid transit” (BRT) focus implemented on 4 bus lines that will make transit use quicker, more convenient, and more respected.

“They will run primarily on transit priority lanes that allow buses to avoid traffic congestion. [Dave Reage, director of Halifax Transit] said 60 per cent of the 50-kilometre network will feature priority lanes.”

I get the idea here from Fiat, and I'm sure that cities will welcome it, but perhaps they should accelerate their BEV plans?

FCA Trials System That Converts PHEVs Into EVs When Driving In City Centers

Some cities, especially in Europe and the UK, ban cars with infernal combustion engines from driving in designated areas. FCA, which is way behind the 8-ball when it comes to getting electric cars on the road, is relying on plug-in hybrid versions of existing models such as the Jeep Renegade to meet tightening European Union emissions rules. But how to let drivers use their cars in sections of cities where gasoline and diesel engines are banned?
That’s easy. FCA says it is working on a system for its PHEV cars that will recognize when they are operating in a restricted zone and automatically lock out the engine, turning them into battery-only cars until such time as they exit the designated zone.