The Renault eDams team currently leads the Formula E standings and its racers Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Prost currently sit in first and third in the Driver’s Championship, respectively.
Since the next race of the season is in Paris on May 20, the crew is celebrating the strong performance in its home country by holding a parade of electric vehicles through the City of Light. The Renault eDams R.S. 16 race car and Zoe e-Sport Concept lead the procession in this video.
Read more: Motor 1
Stricter nitrogen oxide emissions regulations mean an end to diesel-engine development.
Volvo Cars has come down with a case of electric fever, and the cure is “no more diesel engines.”
The company’s CEO, Håkan Samuelsson, recently told German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Volvo’s current diesel engines may well be the last of their kind.
Samuelsson said that the technology is necessary to meet upcoming European carbon emission standards, which require OEMs to drop from 130g/km to just 95g/km in 2021.
But the outlook farther ahead involves regulations that will also severely limit nitrogen oxides (NOx). As a result, the company will devote its energy to electrification instead.
As we reported earlier this week, NOx are noxious and linked to 38,000 premature deaths in 2015 alone. Contributing to that body count is evidently beyond the pale for an automaker which has built an impressive reputation for safety.
The news is all the more remarkable given that the bulk of its sales in Europe are diesel-engined vehicles. Right now, Volvo uses a 2.0L diesel engine that shares much with the 2.0L gasoline engine that we get here in the US in the S90, V90, and XC90 models.
Samuelsson said that Volvo’s first purely electric vehicle will arrive in 2019. He also paid a mighty compliment to Elon Musk’s EV outfit.
“It must be acknowledged that Tesla has managed to offer such a car for which the people are queuing. In the area, we should also have space, with high quality and attractive design,”
he told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Source: Cars Technica
Exclusive poll for The Independent shows public – and most Conservative voters – back banning the most-polluting cars from city centres as pressure builds on the Government
It has been described as a “public health emergency” responsible for tens of thousands of deaths every year, but dozens of local councils have been failing to report on air pollution as required by law for years.
The revelation, based on documents obtained under Freedom of Information rules, casts doubt on local authorities’ ability to play their part in the Government’s new draft Air Quality Plan – its third attempt to meet minimum safety standards after repeatedly being taken to court by campaigners.
Ministers had sought to delay publication of the plan until after the general election, with a Government lawyer arguing it would drop a “controversial bomb” on the campaign.
But a judge ordered ministers to comply with a court-ordered deadline and the resultant plan was duly derided as “feeble” and “much weaker” than expected.
Public concern about air pollution has been growing. A new survey for The Independent found the majority of the public is now in favour of banning the most-polluting vehicles from city centres.
Some 51 per cent of respondents agreed with this suggestion, with only 15 per cent against and the remainder not expressing a view, pollsters ORB said.
The Government’s latest Air Quality Plan sought to pass the buck to a large degree to councils, saying they were “best placed to take the lead”.
However, the council documents, obtained by the DeSmog UK environmental news website, show that local authorities have already been failing to carry out the current requirements, suggesting they would struggle to cope with further responsibilities without extra funding.
Of the 77 councils contacted, 59 had not made air pollution reports, which must be produced under the 1995 Environment Act, available to the public.
After the website got in touch with the councils, 34 authorities were found to have gaps in their reporting between 2011 and 2016, although some said they were still in the process of producing reports covering last year. If this is a representative sample, it would mean 44 per cent of councils in the country are failing to properly monitor and assess the extent of air pollution.
Mat Hope, deputy editor of DeSmog UK, said:
“I think it shows local councils need resources to be able to deal with this problem properly.
“I think the councils themselves are doing what they can, but with the current budget constraints it’s clear they are likely to struggle with the extra obligations under the new Air Quality Plan.
“The Government needs to think very hard about the resources they are putting behind this.”
Read more: The Independent
Half a century ago, the General Motors assembly plant was the largest employer in Fremont, California, and the town was known for its dragstrip.
Today, that plant makes Tesla electric cars and Fremont is a part of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Silicon Valley, creating advanced technology for the world.
The city has now taken another step into the future, requiring that all new houses be delivered ready for the installation of electric-car charging stations.
According to the East Bay Times, the city of Fremont has announced that any new housing project must include both solar panels and the electrical wiring required for the installation of a charging station.
The town, across the bay from Palo Alto—where a similar regulation was adopted in 2013—prides itself on being the ZIP Code with the highest concentration of electric-car owners in the state.
That makes it likely to have the highest such concentration in the U.S.
When the first 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV electric cars were sold in December, Fremont Chevrolet was the site—because it sells more Chevy Volt plug-in hybrids than any other dealer in the country.
It’s exactly 3 miles from the dealer to the Tesla factory, formerly the GM-Toyota joint venture known as New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. or NUMMI.
The required coverage of the solar panels will be determined by the size of the new project.
As for the charging stations, the wall hardware itself will not be mandatory.
New buildings will, however, have to be equipped with the electrical setup needed for later installation.
For commercial or multifamily projects, the ruling goes even further, requiring that at least 10 percent of the parking spaces have charging stations installed
Read more: Green Car Reports