Monthly Archives: September 2017

U.K. Companies Pledge to Expand EV Fleets

Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment

The head of Go Ultra Low, a public-private EV advocacy group, says the corporate sector has a huge role to play in achieving the U.K. government’s goal of having every new car and van in the region be ultra-low-emissions by 2040.

Government offers grants, incentives to businesses wanting greener fleets.

The number of U.K. companies promising electric vehicles will make up at least 5% of their fleets by 2020 tops 100.

The companies signal their intention by signing up with Go Ultra Low, a consortium of automakers, government and the Society of Manufacturers and Motor Traders formed to promote the benefits, cost savings and capabilities of EVs.

Organizations signing on range from the London Fire Brigade to Microsoft U.K.

Many of the companies have ambitions to exceed the 5% target.

Santander U.K., a bank, operates 57 EVs and wants to increase this to represent 10% of its 1,400-strong fleet by 2020. The Oxford City Council says all-electric vehicles will account for 7% of its fleet by the end of the decade.

Minister of State for Climate Change and Industry Claire Perry says the government backs companies making the switch to low-emissions vehicles through grants and incentives.

Go Ultra Low Head Poppy Welch says the corporate sector has a huge role to play in achieving the U.K. government’s goal of having every new car and van in the region be ultra-low-emissions by 2040.

“Go Ultra Low companies are setting an example for others to follow, dispelling misconceptions around EVs at the same time as helping to improve U.K. air quality and reduce the country’s carbon footprint,”

Welch says in a statement.

A survey of U.K. company car drivers commissioned by Go Ultra Low last November found almost 700,000 U.K. motorists would join the EV revolution, if they were given the opportunity by their employers. It also found only 25% of businesses offered electric company cars to employees.

U.K. sales of EVs rose 14.3% in first-half 2017 to 22,480 units.

Source: Wards Auto

Renewable energy boost allows for reduction in EV pollution

Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution

A new study has found that electric vehicles (EVs) are more environmentally friendly than they were five years ago, based on the energy they draw from the UK’s National Grid, affirming their use in reducing pollution.

The research has been carried out by Imperial College London, and was commissioned by power supplier Drax. It suggests that due to the increase in renewable energy production such as solar farms and wind turbines, the amount of CO2 produced by charging an EV has dropped considerably. For example, charging a Tesla Model S would create around 124 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/km) in 2012, however this is halved to 74g/km in winter and 41g/km in summer. The seasonal difference is down to the energy generated by solar farms, which is far less in colder and darker months. The shortfall is instead made up by gas power stations.

Dr Iain Staffell from Imperial College London explains: ‘It is widely accepted that electric cars dramatically reduce air pollution in cities, but there is still some debate about how clean they actually are – it varies depending on where the electricity to charge them with comes from.

‘According to our analysis, looking at a few of the most popular models – they weren’t as green as you might think up until quite recently, but now, thanks to the rapid decarbonisation of electricity generation in the UK, they are much better. Smaller electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 can be charged for less than half the CO2 of the cleanest non-electric car on the market – the Toyota Prius hybrid.’

To use small cars as an example, the Nissan Leaf uses 58g/km in winter and 32g/km in summer, compared with 97g/km in 2012, while the BMW i3 uses 48g/km (winter) and 27g/km (summer) compared to 81g/km in 2012. For context, a 2 litre Range Rover Evoque emits 125g/km and a Toyota Prius emits 70g/km based on data from the government’s Vehicle Certification Agency.

Read more: Autovista Group

Apple’s autonomous programme reportedly ‘where Google was three years ago’

Autonomous Driving, News, Reviews and Comment

Apple’s development of autonomous driving technology, following a major refocussing and scaling back of its auto project last year, is way behind its main competitors, a source familiar with autonomous vehicle technology and who has seen their tech told Business Insider.

They say that Apple’s autonomous technology, a field CEO Tim Cook described as the ‘mother of all AI projects’ in June, is only about at the stage where field-leader Google ‘was three years ago.’

He added:

‘Apple is just trying to play catch-up.’

Apple’s autonomous project, once a sprawling team aiming to create a revolutionary self-driving Apple Car, is still transitioning following massive layoffs when the immediate plan to build an Apple Car was abandoned as too ambitious last year. Google had also made a similar less-drastic change of course around the same time, shelving immediate plans to re-invent driverless cars with no steering wheel or pedals towards working more closely with OEMs on conventional cars. It also spun off the division into its own company called Waymo, allowing it to diverge its business model away from that of Google, and also signifying the huge promise Google sees for the technology.

Apple’s autonomous scheme, part of its internal Special Projects Team, according to the source is still suffering from confusion of its purpose, with an underdeveloped concept of how it is to use the technology and monetise it. However, it is hiring again following the period of mass-culling initiated by new leader and Apple veteran Bob Mansfield, particularly for those with autonomous vehicle software experience. This presumably means poaching people from other firms – with more than 250 companies and startups working on self-driving technology. However, talent is scarce and fiercely competitive, with seven-figure salaries not uncommon.

Similar to how Google developed a shuttle service around its Googleplex campus in Mountain View, California at the early stages of its self-driving programme, Apple has set up a commuter car service for employees to test its autonomous technology between Apple’s Infinite Loop campus and the nearby town of Palo Alto, California.

Three years ago, Google’s programme – which is now rapidly approaching commercial deployment – still had lots of kinks to work out – including the ability to detect open manholes on streets and read traffic lights in glare of very bright sun.

Read more: Autovista Group

Hyundai Ditches Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology For Now, Pivots to Electric Vehicles

Electric Cars, Hyundai, News, Reviews and Comment

The Korean automaker finally puts its focus on batteries, rather than hydrogen, to power the car of tomorrow.

Hyundai has often proclaimed that hydrogen will power future generations of cars, even as other manufacturers believe that it is too early to make such claims, especially since the rise of electric cars has come to pass. Despite recently announcing a new hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, BBC reports that Hyundai has decided that it needs to pivot in order to remain competitive in the electric market during the coming years.

The Korean manufacturer is no stranger to electric cars, though its current long-range offering, the Ioniq, only delivers around 124 miles of range. This sandwiches its EPA-rated range between the BMW i3’s 114 miles and the Volkswagen e-Golf’s 125 miles. Though it may be ideal for the urban commuter, this is hardly long range when compared to equivalent gasoline-powered vehicles. If Hyundai wants to remain in competition with the next generation of EVs, they will need to work on matching the range of the Tesla Model 3 or Chevy Bolt.

Hyundai can’t be happy that their plans for a hydrogen-powered future seem to be falling short. The company put forth plenty of effort marketing their hydrogen fuel-cell Tuscon, including elaborating on the shorter fill-up time compared to an EV, as well as the potential for longer range. Its downfall, however, isn’t necessarily due to the price or uncommon nature of the fuel cell, but rather the availability of hydrogen fill-up stations. In fact, the United States Department of Energy only charts 38 hydrogen fill-up stations in the entire country, primarily localized in California.

Source: The Drive

Industry gears up for WLTP introduction

Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution

In just a week’s time, the EU’s new more rigorous emissions test, the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) will finally be rolled out, two years after news of the Volkswagen emissions scandal first broke.

It will apply to all new car type model approvals from September 2017 onwards, replacing the previous NEDC procedure, and incorporate real world driving conditions into the test for the first time, as well testing with optional equipment fitted, to give a truer impression of vehicle emissions on the road.

It is hoped the new WLTP test, alongside software updates and scrappage incentive schemes announced following the Berlin diesel summit earlier this month, will help restore political and public confidence in the EU emissions testing procedure following Dieselgate, and avert costly diesel driving bans.

The new WLTP emission test has enormously far-reaching implications, affecting pricing, residual values, sales volumes and revenues. Premium brands who previously NEDC-tested their vehicles without popular optional equipment installed are likely to see the greatest increase in their fuel economy and emissions figures, due to the additional weight these add to the car.

Japanese and Korean OEMs such as Toyota and Hyundai are expected to benefit the most from the new testing procedure, due to their typical strategy of including higher levels of specification in their cars as standard to compete with their European rivals, at a similar price point.

Some more confident OEMs have already started publishing WLTP CO2 and mpg (miles per gallon) figures for their new models alongside the NEDC figures. However, with all new models launching from September forced to publish WLTP figures, and with some manufacturers having developed more sophisticated methods to optimise their vehicles for the outgoing NEDC test, it is expected that a considerable number of headline-grabbing shocks are on the cards. Figures from some models could suddenly be significantly higher than competitor models they previously outperformed, and this could also result in changes to marketing strategies.

Read more: Autovista Group

Electric cars charging in Milton Keynes (Image: T. Larkum)

National Grid issues EV grid demand fact check after misreporting

Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment

National Grid has moved to dispel various misconceptions over its projections for extra power demand triggered by an electric vehicle revolution in the UK.

Electric cars charging in Milton Keynes (Image: T. Larkum)
Electric cars charging in Milton Keynes (Image: T. Larkum)

Earlier this summer the UK government pledged to ban the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040, promoting a wider switch to hybrid and pure electric vehicles.

That announcement coincidentally followed the publication of National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios (FES), within which the system operator established various scenarios of EV uptake and how they would impact on overall power demand.

But while National Grid had the best intentions for including such estimates, today’s ‘myth buster’ document argues that they have been “cited incorrectly and sometimes out of context” by national media outlets.

National Grid appears to have been particularly irked by a number of articles which claimed that it had said that a mass uptake of EVs would require as much as 30GW of new generating capacity. One report in particular went as far as to suggest that this would require “ten new nuke plants” to be built in the UK.

The SO has thus moved to stress that the FES document is not to be regarded as an accurate forecast, but a “set of four credible pathways” for electricity demand out to 2050. EV peak demand in those four scenarios ranged between 4 – 10GW, with the “best fit” scenario placed at around 5GW.

This, National Grid stressed, would equate to an 8% increase on today’s peak demand value and far from the “ten new nuke plants” some media outlets had claimed.

National Grid indicated that the 30GW figure appeared to have been spun out of a more extreme scenario included in the FES document for the first time, dubbed ‘High EV’, which was designed to be an outlier and was based on a number of outlying predictions, typically that conventional vehicle sales would have been stopped by 2025 and that society was prosperous enough to allow 85% of people to charge their vehicles at peak time.

Read more: Clean Energy News

Ford offers both diesel and petrol scrappage scheme in the UK

Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution

Ford has become the latest vehicle manufacturer to offer a scrappage scheme in the UK, following the likes of BMW and Volkswagen (VW) in offering drivers the opportunity to save on their new vehicle by trading in their old one for scrap. With the largest fleet in the UK, this could have a significant benefit for drivers and air quality levels in the country.

However, unlike its scrappage plan in Germany, which followed the country’s government led diesel forum, for the UK market the company will take both petrol and diesel vehicles. These have to be pre-Euro 5 vehicles registered by 31 December 2009, with customers being offered £2,000 (€2,181) against a new Ford vehicle.

However, the manufacturer does not yet offer a pure electric vehicle (EV) in the country, and the scrappage scheme does not include the company’s Mondeo model, the only vehicle the company offers with a hybrid option. Furthermore, the Focus EV is expected to launch in the UK during 2018, while the scrappage deals only run until 31 December 2017, meaning drivers will simply be trading in for a new petrol or diesel.

‘Ford shares society’s concerns over air quality’,

said Andy Barratt, Chairman and MD of Ford of Britain. ‘Removing generations of the most polluting vehicles will have the most immediate positive effect on air quality, and this Ford scrappage scheme aims to do just that.

‘We don’t believe incentivising sales of new cars goes far enough and we will ensure that all trade-in vehicles are scrapped. Acting together we can take hundreds of thousands of the dirtiest cars off our roads and out of our cities.’

According to data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) there are around 19.3 million pre-Euro 5 vehicles on the road in the UK. Therefore, Ford believes it will be aiding the reduction of that number, which, together with other scrappage schemes from other manufacturers, could have the effect of reducing CO2 by 15 million tons per year.

Read more: Autovista Group

EVs reach best ever market share in July

Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales

July saw the UK’s electric car market have its best performing month ever, taking a little over a 2% market share for the first time.

Significant growth for both pure electric models and plug-in hybrids combined with an overall decline in sales for the 2% figure to be reached. Pure EVs had an exceptional month, up 105% on July 2016 with 860 models registered. PHEVs still fared well, with a growth of 43% vs last year.

The strong performance of plug-in vehicles contrasts strongly with diesel’s performance, which continues to fall significantly. With 20% fewer sales than last year, the UK’s drop in new car registrations across all fuel types is largely attributable to this. Petrol cars were down 3% too though, and it is only alternatively fuelled cars – including hybrids – that was positive performances.

To date, there have now been more than 107,000 plug-in car grant eligible vehicles registered, 3,277 of those in July 2017. Last month’s figures were 50% up on the year before, and almost 25,000 PiCG-eligible models have been registered so far this year, up around 4,000 units compared to the same period in 2016.

In terms of EV market share, PHEVs had a far stronger month than in recently, with three quarters of plug-in car sales. Total electric car registrations came in at 3,503 for June, which also shows that more than 6% of plug-in car sales were not eligible for the PiCG. Whether that’s because of price or emissions/electric range, we don’t know.

All in all, July was a very positive month for electric cars and further typifies the shift away from diesel in the public consciousness. With recent news pieces about a ban on non-electrified new car sales in the UK from 2040, plus other announcements from manufacturers, it seems as though drivers are looking at plug-in models more than ever before.

Although July’s registrations were the sixth highest figures ever for the UK plug-in car market, the far more important aspect is how many are sold in comparison to conventional internal combustion cars.

July is typically a fairly quiet month for the market, only a little ahead of February and August – the months before the new registration plates – in terms of overall sales. It is encouraging then to see that plug-in cars are actually increasing in popularity while petrol and diesel sales – the latter especially – drop.

Source: Next Green Car

VW denied permission to use SEAT name on EVs in China

Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Volkswagen

SEAT, a brand of the Volkswagen (VW) Group, is being prevented by a Chinese Government agency from lending its name to a number of locally made electric vehicles (EVs).

In a move which is seen as limiting foreign manufacturer ability to compete in the country’s car market, especially with the introduction of quotas on EVs in 2018, VW has been refused permission to use the SEAT name on vehicles produced by its joint venture with Chinese firm JAC. However, according to a report in the Financial Times, the decision could yet change, according to one person familiar with the matter. ‘The first step is for a local brand name,’ he said.

The ability for vehicle manufacturers to use their brand power to sell vehicles in the world’s biggest car market could be at stake, with the potential domination by foreign brands threatening to out-compete the country’s home-grown industry and the country’s plans to become a world leader in EVs and battery technology. The latter is a move already seen with the announcement that Geely will turn Volvo into an electric and hybrid only manufacturer, and a Chinese consortium buying Nissan’s battery company.

Therefore, a foreign name on a car produced by a venture including a Chinese company would be seen as taking away a local name from the market. Some are interpreting the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NRDC) decision as one aimed at ultimately hamstringing foreign carmakers’ ability to market locally produced electric vehicles and hybrids in China, where their brand recognition could provide an edge over local Chinese brands.

Read more: Autovista Group