Monthly Archives: February 2017

How EVs are Driving the Next Oil Crisis

February 17, 2017Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Peak Oil, SalesTrevor Larkum

When Bloomberg published a story under a version of the above headline at around this time last year, it was based on data predicting that by 2040, 35 per cent of new cars worldwide “would have a plug.”

Last week, a new graph based on new data by Bloomberg New Energy Finance has updated the details on how such a global shift electric vehilces might play out for the oil sector.

Oil Decline (in million barrels of crude oil per day)

According to the graph, featured below, some 13 million barrels of oil per day will be displaced by electric vehicles by the year 2040 – an amount, BNEF says, that is equivalent to 14 per cent of the Energy Information Agency’s estimated global crude oil demand in 2016.

On the same trajectory, BNEF says, electric vehicles will displace 1.1 million barrels per day by 2025. For the record, that’s slightly down on what BNEF forecast last year: that electric vehicles could displace oil demand of 2 million barrels a day as early as 2023. But we will leave you with Tom Randall’s closing comments on the February 2016 BNEF analysis:

“One thing is certain: Whenever the oil crash comes, it will be only the beginning. Every year that follows will bring more electric cars to the road, and less demand for oil. Someone will be left holding the barrel.”

Source: Renew Economy

Renault Zoe rally car

February 16, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Renault, ZOETrevor Larkum

“I spotted a Renault Zoe and thought it would make the ideal rally car.”

Hardly conventional thinking, but then Ellya Gold isn’t your average enthusiast. He’s the brains and force behind eRally, which is working towards creating the world’s first electric rally championship.

We caught up with Ellya and the eRally team at a demo run with Josh Hislop at the wheel as part of the Grant Construction Stages Rally at Knockhill Circuit. The compact Zoe makes the perfect base for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the championship is aimed at drivers aged 14-17 entering the world of rallying for the first time, so the car needs to be affordable to run alongside the existing Formula 1000 series.

It also has to be something that’s competitive, which has been proved in tests of the prototype car you see here. So far, it’s put in stage times quicker than a Ford Fiesta ST200.

Remote Voice Control of Hyundai IONIQ

February 15, 2017Electric Cars, Hyundai, IONIQ Electric, IONIQ PHEV, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

Hyundai has announced that its incorporating the use of Amazon Alexa into most of its new vehicles, including the upcoming IONIQ Electric.

According to Hyundai, owners of compatible vehicles will be able to use Echo for simple voice commands, including charging:

“Owners of the all-new Hyundai Ioniq Electric and Plug-in Electric vehicles are able to start and stop charging of their cars with the ease of simple voice commands with Blue Link.”

Just Ask Alexa... (Image: Hyundai) — Just Ask Alexa… (Image: Hyundai)

The Plug-in hybrid Sonata shares this functionality as well.

Of course, the cars won’t be able to start or stop charging unless you’ve manually plugged them in (this is where wireless charging would be preferred), but still it seems like a rather nifty feature to be able to make use of from time to time.

Additional commands (not plug-in specific) include

Owner: “Alexa, ask Blue Link to start charging my Ioniq.”
Alexa: “Request for remote charging your Ioniq has been sent.”

Owner: “Alexa, tell Blue Link to start my car at 80 degrees.”
Alexa: “Request for remote starting your car with climate control has been sent.”

Owner: “Alexa, ask Blue Link to lock my Santa Fe.”
Alexa: “Request for remote locking your Santa Fe has been sent.”

Check out the brief video showing how the vehicle’s interact with Amazon Echo below:

Source: InsideEVs

Renault ZOE in Emirates Road Trip

February 14, 2017Electric Cars, Model S, News, Reviews and Comment, Renault, Tesla, ZOE, ZOE Z.E. 40Trevor Larkum

The first Emirates Electric Vehicle Road Trip (EEVRT) concluded at The Sustainable City in Dubai last week, successfully opening nine new charging stations in the UAE and further driving electric vehicle adoption in the country.

The new, free-to-use electric vehicle charging stations, supplied by ENGIE, were opened at three AccorHotels, including Marjan Island Resort & Spa in Ras Al Khaimah (three), the Novotel Fujairah (four), and at the Sofitel Corniche in Abu Dhabi (two).

Accelerating the transition towards a sustainable low-carbon future, the four-day event took place from 29th January to 1st February 2017 when 11 electric vehicles left Dubai and traversed more than 700km across the UAE. The charging stations installed have opened up a whole new stretch of electric vehicle driving for the UAE.

“The UAE has already come a long way in moving towards taking a more environmentally friendly stance when it comes to vehicles, and we hope that this event showed people how much of a difference it can make.

Thank you to everyone who made the Emirates EVRT possible. It was a truly momentous event for the region and one we are extremely proud of,” says Ben Pullen, Founder and Managing Director of Global Electric Vehicle Road Trip who brought the event to the UAE.

…

The response from participants and event partners who experienced the event for the first time was overwhelmingly positive. Intrigued by how the electric cars would perform during the longer drives to Jebel Jais and Fujairah, the participants were pleasantly surprised by the acceleration and range of the new Renault Zoe and Tesla vehicles.

One of the most interesting experiences was to witness the regenerative braking which is a technology that allows the batteries to re-charge when driving down hills.

Through driving down Jebel Jais the Renault Zoe Long Range model was able to achieve around 50km of extra range.

“As pioneer and leader of 100% electric vehicles in Europe, Renault was glad to support the Emirates EVRT initiative that is developing the awareness of pure sustainable mobility in the UAE. We have shown through the use of the new Renault ZOE with 400km autonomy that autonomy was no longer an issue to move freely in the seven Emirates,” says Emmanuel Guiffault, Marketing Director of Renault Middle East.

Shell and Total Plan Electric Charging at Service Stations

February 14, 2017Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

Shell and Total plan electric charging at service stations, but BP’s Aral pushes back

The UK government has said that it wants to ‘ensure there is provision of electric charge points’ at large fuel retailers. Oil giant Shell has said it will install charging points at petrol stations in the UK and the Netherlands, and rival Total has said it will do the same in France.

However, Aral, part of oil giant BP and the largest petrol station chain in Germany with 2,500 service stations, is much less enthusiastic about installing electric charging at its own stations.

Could a £400bn plan to refreeze the Arctic before the ice melts really work?

February 14, 2017Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Wind PowerTrevor Larkum

Temperatures are now so high at the north pole that scientists are contemplating radical schemes to avoid catastrophe

Arctic sea ice under the midnight sun (Image: Solent News/Rex/Shutterstock)

Physicist Steven Desch has come up with a novel solution to the problems that now beset the Arctic. He and a team of colleagues from Arizona State University want to replenish the region’s shrinking sea ice – by building 10 million wind-powered pumps over the Arctic ice cap. In winter, these would be used to pump water to the surface of the ice where it would freeze, thickening the cap.

The pumps could add an extra metre of sea ice to the Arctic’s current layer, Desch argues. The current cap rarely exceeds 2-3 metres in thickness and is being eroded constantly as the planet succumbs to climate change.

“Thicker ice would mean longer-lasting ice. In turn, that would mean the danger of all sea ice disappearing from the Arctic in summer would be reduced significantly,” Desch told the Observer.

Desch and his team have put forward the scheme in a paper that has just been published in Earth’s Future, the journal of the American Geophysical Union, and have worked out a price tag for the project: $500bn (£400bn).

It is an astonishing sum. However, it is the kind of outlay that may become necessary if we want to halt the calamity that faces the Arctic, says Desch, who, like many other scientists, has become alarmed at temperature change in the region. They say that it is now warming twice as fast as their climate models predicted only a few years ago and argue that the 2015 Paris agreement to limit global warming will be insufficient to prevent the region’s sea ice disappearing completely in summer, possibly by 2030.

“Our only strategy at present seems to be to tell people to stop burning fossil fuels,” says Desch. “It’s a good idea but it is going to need a lot more than that to stop the Arctic’s sea ice from disappearing.”

The loss of the Arctic’s summer sea ice cover would disrupt life in the region, endanger many of its species, from Arctic cod to polar bears, and destroy a pristine habitat. It would also trigger further warming of the planet by removing ice that reflects solar radiation back into space, disrupt weather patterns across the northern hemisphere and melt permafrost, releasing more carbon gases into the atmosphere.

Government sets out new powers to shape electric vehicle charging infrastructure

February 14, 2017BMW, Charging, Electric Cars, i8, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

The government has set out its plans for the future of UK electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the UK, including powers to standardise new publicly accessible chargepoints; requirements for smart technologies to allow chargepoints to help balance the grid; and minimum provision of charging infrastructure at motorway services.

The proposals have been unveiled as part of the government’s plans for a Modern Transport Bill, which will be introduced to Parliament at the earliest opportunity.

Within the response to a consultation on proposed ultra low emission vehicles (ULEVs) carried out at the end of 2016, the Department for Transport (DfT) has outlined a series of new powers to increase deployment of charging infrastructure.

Within this are plans to require infrastructure installed for the purposes of charging EVs to have ‘smart’ functionality to receive, understand and respond to signals sent by energy system participants.

This would allow charge points to help balance energy supply and demand in a similar way as battery storage, although the plans did not explain if this infrastructure would be able to access the same revenue streams open to storage.

This measure was met with overwhelming support from respondents, with 90% approving of the plans which could allow EV charging demand to “form a controllable load of immense proportions at a national scale”.

DfT also plans to adopt powers requiring operators of motorway service areas to ensure a minimum provision of electric and hydrogen fuels for ULEVs at their sites. This may mean they need to engage a third-party operator to provide the required infrastructure.

Springtime May Be Coming Early for Britain’s Energy Storage Market

February 14, 2017Energy and Climate Change, Energy Storage, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

The U.K. government is on the verge of making structural changes to the energy market that will benefit storage

Powervault Energy Storage System (Image: Powervault.co.uk)

Last fall, the U.K. government reached out to players across the electricity industry for suggestions on how to reform the grid. Now industry observers are expecting the country’s energy storage market to take a major leap forward if legislation is enacted this spring.

The U.K. is set to become “the world’s best market for scaling up storage,” said Simon Daniel, CEO of energy storage developer Moixa.

“There’s a perfect storm on its way,”

thanks to a combination of new government promotion programs, a deregulated electricity market and a high adoption of solar, said Daniel.

The legislative changes should be implemented after the government finishes mulling over the results of a recent industry consultation on how to make the grid smarter and more flexible.

Joe Warren, managing director of storage developer Powervault, said the laws will

“focus on removing barriers and opening up access to electricity markets through smart tariffs and more stable network charging regimes.”

U.K. government officials have been warming to storage, most recently announcing funding for £9 million (USD $11 million) worth of projects. Storage advocates remain hopeful that the government will integrate their suggestions for market reform.

David Capper, deputy director and head of future electricity networks at the U.K.’s newly created department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has expressed the need to encourage markets for flexibility services.

Removing the regulatory barriers for storage are a major priority for BEIS, Capper said. He also believes developers should be allowed to stack revenues.

Some regulatory changes boosting the prospects for storage are already underway. The regulator Ofgem is planning to separate management of the distribution system from National Grid’s management of the U.K. transmission system in order to encourage competition and improve flexibility.

The new distribution system operator role will allow for greater coordination with the regional network operators to help speed up the grid connection process for new projects, according to the Renewable Energy Agency.

Met Police shifts gear with electric vehicle rollout

February 14, 2017BMW, Electric Cars, i3, News, Reviews and CommentTrevor Larkum

London’s Metropolitan Police Service has kick started its rollout of electric vehicles in a bid to help combat the capital’s air pollution problem.

The Met is currently working to introduce around 250 electric or hybrid vehicles into its fleet, with an overall target to replace 700 of the police force’s vehicles throughout 2017.

The Met confirmed that vehicles being rolled out will be similar to the BMW i3 which was successfully trialled as an emergency incident response vehicle in various London boroughs.

In January last year the Met took delivery of its first BMW i3 Range Extender ahead of it being tested in Westminster, Greenwich and Bexley after it was considered to be a “brilliant fit” for the Met’s demands.

Jiggs Bharij, head of fleet at the Met, said the force was now looking at various plug-in hybrids and alternative fuel-powered vehicles, however stressed the need for the operational fleet to remain available at all times.

“We have an ambition to deploy 250 [alternative energy] cars, vans and motorcycles on the road within the next 12 months. To support this we need to make sure that there are charging points available across the estate and that the vehicles are capable of carrying and powering additional police equipment which enables officers and members of the public to remain safe at the scene of an incident,” he added.

Bharij also revealed that the response from officers to the new vehicles had been “very positive”.

“The Met is leading the way – certainly in the police sector – and this compliments the decision in late 2015 to stop mandating diesel fuel for our fleet. We continue to work with a variety of vehicle manufacturers to explore the range of technology and the use of vehicles for evaluation has been a great success,” he said.

UK electric vehicle boom drives new car sales to 12-year high

February 14, 2017Charging, Electric Cars, Kia, Leaf, News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, Soul EVTrevor Larkum

The number of new cars registered in the UK hit a 12-year high in January, with electric vehicles taking a record share of the market, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

The industry body had warned of a slowdown in the motor trade in 2017 because of the impact of the weak pound, but there was no sign of deceleration in the first monthly numbers of the year.

Drivers registered 174,564 cars in January, up 2.9% on last year, to reach the highest monthly level since 2005, the trade body said.

Alternative fuel vehicles, mainly electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf, increased by a fifth to reach a record 4.2% share of new vehicle registrations, beating a previous high of 3.6% in November last year.