As various countires and cities around the world are rolling out policies with regards to the integration of charging stations that would allow for greater use of electric and hybrid vehicles, it’s becoming more apparent that perhaps the development of vehicular technology is moving substantially faster than might be realistic.
Canadian province Ontario is to introduce green-coloured licence plates, available only to drivers of plug-in hybrids and battery-powered electric vehicles.
Sounds like another gimmick? Well, here’s the deal - vehicles sporting the new green plates will be able to drive in the province’s dedicated carpool lanes until 2015, even if only one person is in the vehicle.
Speaking about the initiative, Transportation Minister Jim Bradley said, “The McGuinty government’s plan is to have one out of every 20 passenger vehicles on Ontario’s roads an electric vehicle by 2020.”
A US-built Tesla Roadster has broken the world record for the distance travelled by an electric production car on a single charge.
While competing in the Global Green Challenge, Australian Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauskas drove an incredible 313 miles before the batteries finally died in their Roadster.
Until now, the record has been held by another Tesla Roadster, after completing a 241 mile road rally on one charge.
Last week, Volkswagen debuted it’s E-Up! electric vehicle during the Frankfurt motor show. VW has already coined its new car “The Beetle for the 21st Century.” And now, according to VW, this city-sized electric vehicle concept will be Americanized and super-sized (okay, super-sized may be a slight exaggeration) for its American debut shortly after its launch in Europe in 2013.
In an article published by autoweek.com, the board member in charge of product development at Volkswagen AC, Ulrich Hackenberg, summed up in one sentence why they are developing an electric car. “The reason we are working on an electric vehicle is the American market.”
VW premiered its spanking new EV concept, the E-Up!, at the Frankfurt Auto Show yesterday, and gave the strongest hint yet that the car will be very close to the production model available from 2013.
The E-Up! boasts acceleration to 62 mph in a fairly zippy 11.3 seconds and tops out at 84 mph, whilst its 18 kWh integrated lithium-ion batteries will enable a range of over 80 miles (see picture gallery after the jump).
Exciting new pictures of a hotly anticipated Audi electric car concept have been leaked, a week before the ‘official’ unveiling at the Frankfurt Motorshow.
The car will apparently be called the ‘e-Tron,’ and as you can see from the pictures, will take a lot of its design cues from the R8, but with a different front grille, LED headlights, wheels and rear end. Inside, the cabin is also quite different, featuring a driver-biased center console with two screens; one for the rear view camera and one showing a navigation map (see picture gallery after the jump).
Scanning the week’s news of the leading fleet magazine, more than half the headlines are focused on automotive manufacturers including Toyota, Ford, Nissan and their commitment to greening of their fleets by moving to electric vehicle technologies.
For example, Nissan plans to use a $1.6 billion U.S. loan to rework a Tennessee factory so that battery-powered cars can be manufactured there. Ford Motor Company said it has developed an intelligent vehicle-to-grid communications and control system for its plug-in hybrid electric vehicles that “talks” with the nation’s electric grid.
Indeed it is exciting to read on a daily basis how much closer we are to the reality of EV’s for consumers and fleets. Fleets will be the first mass adopters of EVs and PHEVs. We are already seeing businesses, government agencies, cities and countries across the world that are making significant and meaningful steps to reducing their fuel costs, our nation’s dependence on imported fuel, and our carbon footprint by converting their gas guzzling and polluting fleets to eco friendly EV’s…but what about the infrastructure needed to support such vehicles? Is there different technology needed to support EV fleets vs. consumer EVs? Just what are the needs of fleet managers when it comes to EV fleets?
Better Place and Renault announce plans to produce up to 160,000 electric vehicles in Denmark and Israel by 2011
Editor’s Note: This is a guest contribution by Elaina Medina of Portland General Electric.
Editor’s Note: This is the first post from Nevres Cefo, author of Two Cents Per Mile: Will President Obama Make it Happen with the Stroke of a Pen? For more information, please visit his website.
I am thrilled, not just about all of the current green action, activism, and blogging…but also the real life examples of people living clean and green.
I was in Santa Monica and L.A. while researching for my book and I was overjoyed at the innovation and enthusiasm of all the 100% Electric Vehicle owners and users I met. The city has solar powered carports for all-electric cars, charging garages for government fleets, photovoltaic charging stations, free charging stations in prime parking locations at shopping malls, and the cleanest garages I have ever seen…no oil stains, no smell, no sound while cars are pulling out!
Editor’s Note: John Gartner is Editor in Chief of Matter Network and an Industry Analyst at Pike Research
While San Francisco and Portland are each publicly claiming they’ll have the best electric vehicle networks in place in their cities, San Jose may be have made the most progress.
The city of San Jose has installed 7 charging stations so far, including spots at City Hall and a public parking garage. At the charging locations vehicle owners don’t pay for the power; instead they are charged based on the time in the parking spot. To simplify payment, EV owners get a keychain fob that’s connected to their credit card.
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