Monthly Archives: July 2017

Swedish study calls for smaller EV batteries, finds Tesla more polluting than an 8-year-old car

Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Tesla

Swedish study calls for smaller EV batteries, finds Tesla more polluting than an 8-year-old car

Swedish researchers have argued that electric vehicle (EV) batteries should not be as large as possible, but as large as necessary. This is the conclusion of their study which found that in terms of equivalent CO2 emissions, a car with an internal combustion engine (ICE) can drive for eight years before it reaches the same environmental load as a Tesla with a 100kWh battery.

Published in the journal Ingeniøren, the Swedish meta-study, which analyses and summarises studies completed so far in the field, found that around 150 to 200kg of CO2 equivalents (environmental impact equivalent to that of the release of CO2) are produced for every kilowatt hour (kWh) storage capacity of electric car batteries.

For example, taking two electric cars, the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf, which have 100kWh and 30kWh batteries respectively in Denmark, the study says these capacities are equivalent to 17.5 tonnes and 5.3 tonnes of CO2 being generated respectively.

To put this in perspective, a round-trip from Stockholm to New York, by International Civil Aviation Organisation figures, releases around 600kg (0.6 tonnes) of CO2 into the atmosphere. In Germany, annual emissions of CO2 are currently almost 10 tonnes per person.

Therefore, the study has calculated that a fossil fuel vehicle can currently drive for more than eight years before it reaches the same environmental impact of a Tesla. For the Nissan Leaf, with its smaller capacity battery, this figure comes in at three years.

Mia Romare, one of the two researchers of the study, hence concludes:

‘Unnecessarily large batteries weigh more on the environment. One should therefore consider whether one can manage with smaller batteries.’

According to the study, only 10-20% of the environmental impact is generated by the source extraction of raw materials such as lithium from the mines. The main environmental impact comes from the processing of these raw materials and the production of the lithium-ion batteries in factories, which accounts for around 80% of the environmental impact.

Read more: Autovista Group

This is how Big Oil will die

Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, Oil, Opinion

Big Oil is perhaps the most feared and respected industry in history.

Oil is warming the planet — cars and trucks contribute about 15% of global fossil fuels emissions — yet this fact barely dents its use. Oil fuels the most politically volatile regions in the world, yet we’ve decided to send military aid to unstable and untrustworthy dictators, because their oil is critical to our own security. For the last century, oil has dominated our economics and our politics. Oil is power.

Yet I argue here that technology is about to undo a century of political and economic dominance by oil. Big Oil will be cut down in the next decade by a combination of smartphone apps, long-life batteries, and simpler gearing. And as is always the case with new technology, the undoing will occur far faster than anyone thought possible.

To understand why Big Oil is in far weaker a position than anyone realizes, let’s take a closer look at the lynchpin of oil’s grip on our lives: the internal combustion engine, and the modern vehicle drivetrain.

BMW 8 Speed Automatic Transmission

Cars are complicated.

Behind the hum of a running engine lies a carefully balanced dance between sheathed steel pistons, intermeshed gears, and spinning rods — a choreography that lasts for millions of revolutions. But millions is not enough, and as we all have experienced, these parts eventually wear, and fail. Oil caps leak. Belts fray. Transmissions seize.

None of these failures exist in an electric vehicle.

The point has been most often driven home by Tony Seba, a Stanford professor and guru of “disruption”, who revels in pointing out that an internal combustion engine drivetrain contains about 2,000 parts, while an electric vehicle drivetrain contains about 20. All other things being equal, a system with fewer moving parts will be more reliable than a system with more moving parts.

And that rule of thumb appears to hold for cars. In 2006, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimated that the average vehicle, built solely on internal combustion engines, lasted 150,000 miles.

Current estimates for the lifetime today’s electric vehicles are over 500,000 miles.

Read more: NewCo Shift

UK in a chicken-and-egg situation regarding electric vehicles says InstaVolt CEO

Charging, Electric Cars, InstaVolt, News, Reviews and Comment

Sales of electric cars will never reach their potential unless the UK commits to providing easy access charging for everyone says Hampshire firm InstaVolt.

Tim Payne, InstaVolt CEO

The company will be using National Clean Air Day tomorrow (Thursday June 15) to highlight the importance of an inclusive strategy for motorists rather than focussing on home charging points. The company installs and maintains electric vehicle charging points and believes that the UK is currently too focused on home charging, when the country should be making points accessible to all drivers.

“Around 30 per cent of UK households don’t have off-street parking so that means that more than eight million potential buyers are unlikely to buy an electric vehicle unless it’s easier to charge in public places”

said Tim Payne, CEO of InstaVolt.

“We’re caught in a chicken and egg situation where people simply won’t buy an electric vehicle until the infrastructure is there. At the same time, companies are hesitant to install charging units until they know there’s a buoyant market to use them. People don’t fill up their cars with petrol or diesel each night – they stop in to fill up as and when they need to. We need to make it just as easy to do so with electric vehicles.”

Tim believes that building a network of rapid chargers at the roadside is the key to boosting use of electric vehicles in the UK.

“Research consistently shows that a fear of not being able to charge up is one of the biggest factors stopping people from buying an EV” he added. “When you couple this with the number of people who don’t have access to home charging, it’s a recipe for failure. If we can install rapid chargers at service stations, petrol forecourts and shopping centres across the UK, people will be much more confident in buying and driving electric vehicles.”

InstaVolt is set to install 3000 rapid EV charging units across the UK by 2020. Last month it signed a deal with Silicon Valley giant ChargePoint to purchase more than 200 of its electric vehicle rapid charging solutions. The units, which can add hundreds of miles of range in just 20 minutes, will be installed later this year, marking the first time the rapid charging systems will be deployed in the UK.

They will be strategically placed close to popular routes across the country, enabling drivers to easily charge their vehicles during long journeys. It will offer a pay-as-you-go service with no subscription and will be installed at no cost to the landowner.

Tim says that ultimately, the private and public sector should be working together to make the UK’s roads an easier place to drive an electric vehicle.

Source: Renewable Energy Magazine

Nissan LEAF charges to 20,000 UK sales as all-electric favourite is named ‘Best Green Car’ in 2017 Driver Power New Car Survey

As Nissan LEAF charged past the milestone of 20,000 sales in the UK, owners of the best-selling electric vehicle have heaped praise on the model in the 2017 Driver Power survey.

Diane Ray collects the 20,000th LEAF from Hammond Nissan

The Nissan LEAF was awarded Best Green Car overall and also came top in the Best Engine and Gearbox and Best MPG and Running Costs awards categories.

Driver Power is the UK’s biggest and most in-depth car satisfaction survey, with seven surveys covering the different phases of vehicle ownership. There also nine Judging Category awards split into satisfaction categories.

Editor of Auto Express, Graham Hope, commented;

“The Nissan LEAF’s results in the 2017 survey indicates that the hard work that the Nissan team has put in developing the vehicle and educating the market about the benefits of Electric Vehicles (EV) has paid off.”

“Leading the way in EVs is important. People are becoming more conscious of green vehicles (Hybrids and Electric Vehicles) and this year we have seen a 375% increase in the number of green vehicle owners.”

The Driver Power results came as Nissan GB confirmed it had sold its 20,000th Nissan LEAF in the UK.

The buyers of the milestone model were Diane and Chris Ray of Hollesley in Suffolk, who took home a range-topping 30kWh LEAF Tekna from local dealer Hammond Nissan.

It is the couple’s second Nissan LEAF – replacing a two year-old 24kWh model – and it was the only car on their shopping list when the time came for a replacement.

Diane Ray collects the 20,000th LEAF from Hammond Nissan

Diane, who runs a holiday let business, said:

“I love the LEAF. It does everything I want from a car and is beautiful to drive.

“When the time came to replace mine I didn’t look at anything else. I only wanted another LEAF but this time with the bigger battery.”

She added:

“It was a real surprise to find out I was the 20,000th LEAF customer but it’s so encouraging to see more and more people switching to all-electric cars and exciting to know I’m a part of that story.”

Read more: Nissan GB News