The Government has just announced that Britain is to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040. The writing is on the wall, with some sources saying that most cars sold will be electric as soon as 2025. If you want to learn about what’s coming, and how owning an electric car is going to affect you, then this guide is for you.
I have been driving an electric car for four years; first a Renault ZOE (48,000 miles) and now a BMW i3. Through my blog sites at Fuel Included and My Renault ZOE I have answered tons of questions about home charging. I decided it was about time to put all the answers together in one place, in a downloadable eBook.
Click on the image, enter your name and email, and download your free guide.
If it leaves any questions unanswered, just get in touch (contact details here and in the eBook).
Elon Musk’s company Tesla will partner with French utility Neoen to deliver the lithium ion battery designed to improve the security of electricity network.
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, will build the world’s largest lithium ion battery to store renewable energy in South Australia in partnership with French energy utility Neoen.
The 129MWh battery, which is paired with a wind farm, is designed to improve the security of electricity supplies across South Australia.
On Friday the state’s premier, Jay Weatherill, confirmed the deal, which forms a key part of the government’s $550m energy plan.
The state government said Musk had confirmed his pledge made on Twitter in March that he could deliver the battery within 100 days of signing the contract or it would be delivered free.
Romain Desrousseaux, the deputy chief executive of Neoen, said that at 129MWh the South Australian lithium ion battery would become the largest in the world. The battery will be built near Jamestown, in the state’s mid-north, and will be paired with Neoen’s Hornsdale windfarm to provide stability for renewable power being fed into the grid.
Musk told reporters in Adelaide on Friday the project was not without technical challenges, given it would be the largest battery installation in the world “by a significant margin”.
“When you make something three times as big, does it still work as well? We think it will, but there is some risk in that,” he said. “We’re confident in our techniques and the design of the system.”
He anticipated it would help stabilise the grid and help bring down prices for consumers.
Pollution free electric car is the answer to global warming and it is expected to become a reality by 2030.
Electric powered vehicles do not spew harmful gases and are free of pollution. Hence, one of the options to reduce #Global warming, which is at the root of many ills that plague the world, is to promote vehicles that do not use fossil fuels. The concept is gradually spreading and the world wants to see the popularity of #plug-in cars increase.
Electric car charging station in Buffalo New York (Image -wikimediacommons)
This strategy is necessary to combat climate change. As per estimates of the International Energy Agency, the population of electric vehicles must be at least 40 percent of passenger vehicle sales by 2040 to check global warming. This has to be achieved to meet the climate goals as envisaged in the Paris climate agreement.
However, transition would not be an easy affair because of several factors.
The bright side
According to New York Times, a new report by a research group has suggested that there is a downward trend in the price of plug-in cars because of the availability of cheaper batteries and aggressive policies that promote zero-emission vehicles in some countries. The vision of the future is that, within the next couple of decades, such vehicles would become cost competitive against traditional petroleum-powered cars. Obviously, people will be influenced to switch loyalties and embrace them to fight the menace of global warming.
It is true that plug-in vehicles are linked to climate change but they have yet to get a toehold in the market. At present, they comprise a miniscule percentage but the picture is slated to change.
Two majors like Tesla and Volkswagen have drawn up plans to roll out more than one million electric vehicles on an annual basis by 2025. Volvo is another major that plans to gradually phase out the combustion engine models and, from 2019 onwards, its new models would be either hybrids or entirely battery-powered.
One forecast is that by 2040, plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles will make up 54 percent of new light-duty sales and ease out combustion engine models.
Electric cars are expected to outsell gasoline-powered vehicles within twenty years, based on new projections by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The news and research organization expects electric cars and gasoline cars to be priced similarly by 2025, turning the automotive industry upside-down and having a severe impact on oil-exporting countries.
Electric cars in Milton Keynes (Image: T. Larkum)
What are the reasons? Dropping prices in batteries (a 73 percent drop in the past 7 years), increased manufacturing efficiencies, lower prices, and EV cars having simpler designs that require much less maintenance compared to cars with gasoline engines.
Bloomberg expects that plug-in vehicles will account for one-third of autos in use worldwide by 2040, eliminating 8 million gallons a day of oil production, equivalent to more than all the oil Saudi Arabia exports today. In Europe they expect two-thirds of all new cars to be electric in this same time period, compared to almost 60 percent in the U.S. and half in China.
Adoption of electric vehicles (EV) is already underway by Uber and Lyft, which are adding fleets of EV models. Lyft has a relationship with GM and is adding Bolts to their fleet, and in Europe and China, many of the transportation companies are using Teslas.
One of the surest signs of this transition is this week’s announcement from Volvo that beginning in 2019, every new model will use electronic propulsion, either hybrid or all electric. They’ve already abandoned diesel because of the stricter emission targets established by the EU and the growing concern over its health effects. The company said that between 2019 and 2021 they’ll launch five new electric vehicles.
Volvos are being built in Sweden, but the company is owned by Chinese automotive giant Geely, which likely influenced their decision. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set a target that one-fifth of all new vehicles being sold in China in 2025 must be electric and hybrids.
Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, said,
“This announcement marks the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car. Volvo Cars has stated that it plans to have sold a total of 1M electrified cars by 2025. When we said it we meant it. This is how we are going to do it.”
