Monthly Archives: July 2017

Green energy given the go-ahead with electric vehicle charge point

July 5, 2017Charge Your Car, Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

An electric vehicle charge point has been installed in the Tove Short Stay car park in Towcester by South Northamptonshire Council (SNC).

Cllr Dermot Bambridge and Facilities Manager Stephen Wright

The charge point is a type-two floor mounted socket which is part of the Charge Your Car electric vehicle re-charging network.

The charge point can be activated by using the Charge Your Car access card, Charge Your Car mobile phone app or automated pay-as-you-go telephone line and is compatible with most electric vehicles.

There are two parking bays designated for electric vehicle charging only and they are marked in green.
Parking restrictions of three hours maximum stay, with no return within 3 hours Monday to Friday 8am until 6pm still apply.

Cllr Dermot Bambridge, SNC’s portfolio holder for environmental services, said:

“This is a really proactive step forward in the move towards greener energy sources in the district.

“As a council it’s important for us to encourage the use of more environmentally friendly travel options, and also pave the way for other councils to follow suit.

“I hope that, as electric vehicles become increasingly accessible and common place, we will see an increase in use and adoption of charge points such as this.”

Electric vehicle owners will need to supply their own cable in order to use the charge point.

Rebecca Roper, Community Manager for Charge Your Car, also said:

“Here at Charge Your Car we want to make it as easy as possible for electric vehicle drivers to charge their cars, so it’s encouraging to see organisations such as SNC taking the initiative and installing charge points in more rural locations.”

Source: AboutMyArea/Northamptonshire

ENGIE joins the drive towards electric vehicles

July 5, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

ENGIE has pledged to invest £600,000 to start switching to a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK.

It aims for 20% of its vehicle fleet to be electric by 2020 and zero diesel vehicles by 2025.

It is part of ENGIE’s plans towards tackling air pollution and helping meet its decarbonisation targets for 2020 and beyond.

The project will start in the second half of this year, with the company switching to 395 EVs in the next three years.

Wilfrid Petrio, CEO of ENGIE in the UK & Ireland said: “This is an exciting programme which looks to position ENGIE as a front runner in green mobility whilst capitalising on our newly acquired EV charging capabilities following ENGIE’s purchase of EV-Box.

“There are many benefits including improved air quality, carbon reduction and operating efficiencies, all of which support our goal of improving the lives of the communities and clients that we serve.”

The company has also launched an air quality app in partnership with King’s College London, which will help employees and customers to walk and cycle using the lowest pollution routes across the capital.

Source: Energy Live News

Porsche changes its mind on electric vehicles, plans 50% of its production to be electric within 6 years

July 5, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, Taycan / Mission EJo

It wasn’t long ago that Porsche claimed all-electric powertrains didn’t offer enough performance to reach the level that their customers expect from the premium German brand.

As their work on their first all-electric vehicle progresses, they are now changing their view on the technology and CEO Oliver Blume now says that he expects half of Porsche’s production to be electric by 2023.

The Mission E will be Porsche’s first all-electric vehicle and it is planned to enter production in 2019.
Last year, Blume said that they were planning for an annual production of 20,000 units for the new vehicle. It’s a significant volume for the German automaker considering they delivered just over 230,000 vehicles worldwide last year across its entire lineup.

But now they are ready to crank it up with a second all-electric vehicle based on the Macan.
In a surprising move, The CEO now says that between the two vehicles, Porsche is preparing for a capacity of 60,000 cars per year at its Zuffenhausen plant. Blume made the comment to Germany’s business magazine Manager Magazin last week.

The capacity would quickly make electric vehicles an important part of its overall production and it explains why the CEO now sees them reaching 50% of its total production as soon as 2023, which is much sooner than any established automaker.

Rapid Charging with an Ecotricity Charge Point – Part 2

July 4, 2017Blog, Charging, Charging, Ecotricity, Electric Cars, FAQTrevor Larkum

Rapid Charging on the Motorway – Completing the Charge

Ecotricity rapid charger with LCD display (Image: T. Larkum) — Ecotricity rapid charger with LCD status display (Image: T. Larkum)

I previously described the process for initialising a charge at an Ecotricity rapid charger, as found at most motorway services. Here I’ll cover the process for monitoring and ending the charge session.

Step-by-Step Guide

12. While the car is charging you will want to monitor it regularly to confirm it is continuing successfully and to see when it has completed. The charge status, the time taken, the amount of electricity used and usually (depending on the car) also the charge level will be shown on the charge point screen.

Rapid charger status screen during charging (Image: T. Larkum)

13. There will also be visual indications on the car, for example the Nissan Leaf has blue lights on the dashboard, the Renault ZOE shows an icon on the driver’s screen, the BMW i3 has an indicator light around the charge socket, etc. However the most convenient monitoring method is via smarthphone, using an app provided by the car manufacturer. You can use this remotely, for example while eating in a services restaurant. Each app functions differently, but they all provide a display of the current charge level. The BMW one can generally be updated on demand (though sometimes requires the app to be killed to achieve this). The Renault one, rather inconveniently, will only update every 30 minutes.

BMW 'i Remote' app display during charging (Image: T. Larkum) — BMW ‘i Remote’ app display during charging (Image: T. Larkum)

14. When you wish to end the charge session you do so first in the Ecotricity app, then follow its instructions.

Ecotricity app display after ending session (Image: T. Larkum)

15. You remove the charge cable from the car and hang it back up on the charge point. Then you notify the Ecotricity app. The app will display the cost of the session (zero if you’re an Ecotricity customer) and the session identification number. You will also usually receive this information soon after by email to your registered address.

Ecotricity app display at end of session (Image: T. Larkum)

16. The session is ended and the rapid charger display will return to its welcome screen.

Ecotricity rapid charger welcome screen (Image: T. Larkum)

EV road trip marks 100,000 plug-in car sales

July 4, 2017BP Chargemaster, Charging, Electric Cars, Milton Keynes, News, Reviews and CommentJo

To celebrate more than 100,000 plug-in cars having been sold in the UK, 25 electric and plug-in hybrid cars drove from London to Milton Keynes [on] Sunday 18th June.

Organised by Chargemaster, the road trip covered around 100,000 meters in cars as diverse as the Nissan Leaf to the Tesla Model X, and BMW’s i3 to the Volvo XC90 T8.

The convoy all safely completed the journey of a little over 60 miles, showcasing the variety of plug-in cars on sale in the UK at the moment.

Coinciding with the sales milestone were two celebrations of Chargemaster’s own – 100,000 home charging sessions have been carried out on a single week, and Chargemaster’s Polar network has seen 100,000 public charging sessions so far in 2017.

David Martell, Chief Executive of Chargemaster, said:

“Today was a pivotal moment for the EV market, to mark a significant milestone in vehicle adoption and to celebrate two 100,000 milestones of our own. Thank you to the team, and everyone that made the day so special – here’s to the next 100,000 EVs.”

Source: ZapMap

Plug-In Vehicles Sales In UK Up 32% In May

July 4, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

While the overall automotive market in UK shrank by 8.5% in May, ahead of June’s general election, the plug-in segment of the market continued to move forward, noting a strong 32% increase year-over-year.

Plug-in Electric Car Registrations in UK – May 2017

Total plug-in electrified sales in May amounted to 3,117 vehicles registered (17,904 YTD), which is one of the best ever results (that is, ex-annual March surges) in terms of market share at 1.67%.

All-electric offerings still only hold a third of the segment, but are now growing faster than their plug-in hybrid counterparts:

926 BEVs (up 79 percent year-over-year)
2,191 PHEVs (up 19 percent year-over-year)

The great result also helps the overall “alt-fuel” vehicle segment set a new record market share of 4.4% (previously 4.2% in January 2017).

We don’t yet know the individual model ranks; however, the new/longer ranged Renault ZOE ZE and reports of more RHD Tesla sales, likely accounted for the bulk of the all-electric sales.

Source: Inside EVs

Whoosh! The Electric Car Is Rolling into American Life

July 4, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

U.S. transportation is about to get a mighty electric shock.

The days of the internal combustion engine are numbered. The electric car is about to do to the traditional gasoline and diesel car engine what the cell phone is doing to the copper-wire, landline telephone: shoulder it out of the way.

Andrew Paterson, a principal with the Verdigris Capital Group, told a conference in Washington on June 7, electric car sales will at least quadruple in the coming decade and then really begin to accelerate. This, he said, was part of a larger electric boom that would see the doubling of world electric demand, mostly in Asia, by the middle of the century.

Electric utilities in the United States stand to benefit from the switch from gasoline and diesel to electricity largely because they will be able to meet the new demand without adding new generation, according to the Electric Power Research Institute in Palo Alto, Calif. It believes most of the charging of electric vehicles will take place off-peak, at night and when there is less demand. At worst the new load will fall partly during the day, when there is a surplus of solar power.

Analysts say much depends on whether commercial and company parking facilities can be turned into charging stations as well. Maybe when the boom really picks up, even parking meters will become charging stations.

The change in transportation will have huge effects beyond the car infrastructure. Gradually, gas stations will become obsolete. Technicians who service cars with oil changes and tuning will be out of work.

Electric cars are fundamentally simpler than today’s vehicles — they will run for tens of thousands of miles without maintenance, and that will be confined to things like tires, brakes and lights. Cities will get cleaner and quieter.

The speed of technological evolution is the unknown, but it will control the accelerator in the race to electricity. Better batteries, faster charging and more public confidence in the duration of each charge will all control the rate of change.

Like all revolutions, there will be winners: those who find out how to make money out of battery charging and those who make electricity. And losers: oil companies, gas stations, service departments of dealerships and the long-dreamed-of hydrogen car.

Incontrovertibly, the air in cities will be a winner — a big, big winner.

Norway is a leader in EV sales but has subsidised itself into a corner

July 3, 2017Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

When it comes to leaders in electric vehicles (EVs), Norway is top of the list. Around 35% of new cars sold in the country have some form of plug-in electrification, while the Government there has a target for all cars to be zero emission by 2025.

However, much of this adoption has been built around a program of subsidies, as current EVs are not able to compete with petrol vehicles in terms of price. While the country’s Government believes that price parity will come about by 2025, due to the falling cost of batteries and rising demand, many manufacturers believe it more likely to be 2030 before petrol and electric achieve price parity.

However, to ensure that the take up of EVs continues, there needs to be a point where public finances are not required for their purchase. If Norway wants to highlight to the rest of the world that the market for these vehicles can grow, it needs to do so organically. Penalties on fossil fuels and subsidies may drive many to plug-in power but it cannot then be claimed as free choice of the consumer.

EVs in Norway are free from any purchase tax and the country’s 25% VAT. However, a proposal to raise their road tax while cutting it for petrol cars caused a crisis within the government in 2016. This raises the challenge of how the country can raise taxes while still offering incentives. Otherwise if the proposal of an all zero-emission network is realised, it could cost the government dearly, losing out on taxes and VAT in vehicle sales, while investments in charging stations are also not being made back due to free charging.

Norway wants to be a leader in plug-in technology, however many will now be watching to see how it is able to ensure that zero-emission sales can grow when it starts to wean its drivers away from any subsidies.

Falling costs, new revenues fuel Britain’s big battery boom

July 3, 2017Economy, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentJo

Britain is emerging as a hotbed for utility-scale battery development, with two of Europe’s three biggest projects under way there and several companies joining a race that could shake up the energy market.

The i3 waiting for us (Image: T. Larkum) — The BMW i3 (Image: T. Larkum)

Rapid growth of solar and wind energy means power supplies depend increasingly on whether the wind is blowing or the sun shining. As a result, utilities are looking for new ways to store renewable energy for release into the grid when supplies are low.

In the UK the challenge is especially acute because the buffer between supply and demand is tighter than in other European countries as old fossil fuel plants close, while Britain lacks Germany’s supply lines to import power and maintain grid frequency – the change in direction of the electrical current – when local supplies drop.

“(Renewables) intermittency means the frequency on the grid changes more quickly than before so we need faster technology which can react to that,”

said Cathy McClay, commercial head at the British National Grid system operator.

Last year, National Grid held one of the world’s first tenders to supply rapid grid balancing services on four-year contracts.

“The National Grid tender required such a fast response it almost exclusively created a market for batteries, which isn’t something we have seen elsewhere in Europe,”

said Andy Houston, senior analyst at UK-based consultancy Poyry.

Swedish utility Vattenfall [VATN.UL] is developing battery projects in the Netherlands and Germany but chose Britain for its largest — 22 megawatts (MW) — at the Pen y Cymoedd wind farm in Wales after winning a National Grid contract.

“Britain’s National Grid tender is one of the best opportunities for batteries,”

said Sebastian Gerhard, Vattenfall’s head of battery projects.

Vattenfall is using lithium ion batteries purchased from German car manufacturer BMW (BMWG.DE), the same as those used in its i3 electric cars, stacked together in portacabin-sized units. Vattenfall estimates the drive to create commercially viable electric cars has sent battery costs tumbling by around 40 percent since 2010.

Energy trader Vitol [VITOLV.UL] is building two battery plants in Cumbria and Kent through subsidiary VPI Immingham after winning two National Grid contracts with joint venture partner Low Carbon, and aims to hook them up to the grid by the end of the year.

All-Electric Taxi To Be Rolled Out Across The Uk

July 3, 2017Electric Cars, Electric Taxis, Milton Keynes, News, Reviews and CommentJo

The innovative all-electric Dynamo Taxi, which has been developed in Coventry, is to be rolled out across the UK following its official launch.

The taxi has been created by the Dynamo Motor Company – a division of ADV Manufacturing – in conjunction with Nissan – and was unveiled at the Private Hire & Taxi Exhibition at the MK Arena in Milton Keynes last week.

(l-r) Andy Wood, John Paterson, John Heath from Dynamo Motor Company with the new Dynamo Taxi.

The vehicle has been developed to be used in UK towns and cities. Within Dynamo’s vehicle line-up is a fully working demonstrator London Taxi that, pending approvals, will comply with Transport For London’s stringent Conditions of Fitness as well as exceeding new zero emission capability legislation coming into force in January.

The five-seat Dynamo electric taxi, with full side wheelchair access, will have a range of 100 miles between charging and can be re-charged in only 30 minutes when using a Rapid Charge Post which are growing in numbers around the UK.

Brendan O’Toole, chairman at Dynamo, said this was an exciting development in the move towards all-electric powertrains.

“We’re at the start of the biggest change in the motoring world since the era of Henry Ford because most of us will be driving electric vehicles in the future,”

he said.

“This is a pioneering new chapter in motoring and, if anything, driver selection of electric cars will continue to accelerate since they provide zero emissions for the environment which is important as we all continue to learn more about the damage to our health from pollution.

“We have spent several years developing the Dynamo Taxi and we are really proud of it. Our taxis are ideal for urban driving and we believe will play a leading role as regards electric vehicle adoption.

“By 2018, all new taxis bought in London must be zero emission capable and with more and more charging posts being installed throughout the country, I think within a short space of time drivers of electric vehicles will no longer need to make detailed plans for longer journeys because the UK’s major cities and towns will be connected by charging hubs.”