Monthly Archives: July 2018

The i3 on our drive (Image: T. Larkum)

The taxi service that’s free… as long as you keep singing

Do you enjoy singing in front of strangers in a confined space? Like the interior of a BMW i3?

Are you going to be in Finland next month and want a free ride to a music festival?

The i3 on our drive (Image: T. Larkum)
BMW i3 (Image: T. Larkum)

Well, if you can say ‘yes’ to all of those increasingly obscure questions, then you are in luck – a Finnish clean energy company is providing a taxi service to the Ruisrock festival that is free, as long as you keep singing.

The Fortum Singalong Shuttle is a taxi service that only accepts singing as payment – as the company says, combining ride sharing with Carpool Karaoke – and only uses pure electric BMW i3 BEVs.

Read more: Stuff

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Final testing before the rouen normandy autonomous lab on-demand mobility service opens to the public

Métropole Rouen Normandie, Transdev Group, Groupe Renault, Matmut – partners in the Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab initiative – are testing, with the support of the Normandy Region and Banque des Territoires, the first on-demand shared mobility service to use autonomous vehicles on open roads in Europe. The service will be made available to the public in the final quarter of 2018 with four autonomous Renault ZOE all-electric vehicles and an i-Cristal autonomous urban shuttle jointly developed by Transdev and Lohr.

The Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab service will provide extensive coverage in Rouen’s “Technopôle du Madrillet” business park in Saint-Etienne du Rouvray through connections to the “Technopôle” tram stop. The goal is to provide mobility solutions in an area to which conventional public transportation services are poorly suited, in a first-mile and last-mile approach. Users can call a vehicle in real-time from the smartphone app.

Renault ZOE Z.E. 40 Example Colours (Image: Renault)
Renault ZOE Z.E. 40 (Image: Renault)

The vehicles will run on three routes covering a distance of 10 kilometres, with 17 stops across the district and a link to the Rouen public transportation system.

The four Renault ZOE all-electric cars used in the project are already being tested on open roads and are equipped with autonomous systems developed by Transdev and Renault. The tests cover all considerations related to typical traffic conditions, such as other vehicles, intersections, rotaries and building exits. The fleet will also feature an i-Cristal autonomous urban shuttle jointly developed by Transdev and Lohr.

After a period of tests, this on-demand experimental service is due to be made available to the public in September 2018, subject to obtaining the necessary approvals, and will the run until December 2019. This trial will provide an opportunity to fine-tune the technology and gain insight into usage and take-up among local residents to enable necessary adjustments.

Read more: Automotive World

The Transition Trinity: Electric Car, Solar and Home Battery

Fuel Included was founded in 2014 in response to the threat of global warming. Our aim is to promote sustainable technologies at affordable prices, a mission that becomes ever more important as global climate changes accelerate.

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Initially we concentrated on electric cars but as they become increasingly mainstream we are able to focus on other green technologies. We now offer our own home battery system, the PowerBanx, to go along with solar panel installs.

While the Global Energy Transition often seems to be about big infrastructure projects, like offshore windfarms and grid battery storage, what’s happening at the home level is arguably more important, in terms of the impact on the individual and on the future requirements for national grids.

For years we have seen the rise of solar power as it becomes cheaper and undercuts other forms of power generation. More recently, we have seen the spread of electric vehicles (EV), as the replacement of fossil fuel vehicles accelerates.

Finally we are seeing the widespread introduction of battery systems (such as our PowerBanx) into homes; all already have solar and many already have an EV.

Read more: LinkedIn

 

Red Tesla Model S (Image: T. Larkum)

5 Reasons EVs Will Displace ICEs

My grandfather was quite intrigued with those horseless carriages. Here he is, with a big grin on his face, testing out a Model T back in 1913.

A few years earlier, Henry Ford had debuted his Detroit assembly line and began cranking out Model Ts – the world’s first mass-produced automobile. The rest is history.

Then, a hundred years later in 2010, Nissan (OTCPK:NSANY) became the first company to mass-produce EVs (cars powered only by electricity), the Nissan Leaf. Motortrend at the time noted that the Leaf “could be the most significant vehicle of the century.”

Red Tesla Model S (Image: T. Larkum)
Red Tesla Model S (Image: T. Larkum)

Did the 2010 Leaf and does today’s Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model 3 indeed herald a transportation revolution into EVs, much as Henry Ford’s Model T did into “horseless carriages” a century earlier?

Well, EV sales have soared from practically nothing in 2010 to an estimated 1.6 million in 2018 and are up 68% over 2017.

The surge in EV sales (growing 50-100% each year now) is primarily due to better and more affordable batteries and today virtually every major automaker plans on introducing electric cars, if they haven’t already, both hybrids and EVs.

Read more: Seeking Alpha

Rapid Chargers next to Milton Keynes Central railway station parking (Image: T. Larkum)

BP to buy Chargemaster electric car charging network

BP to add EV fast chargers at its 1,200 filling stations with its new BP Chargemaster venture

Oil giant BP has announced that it intends to buy the UK’s biggest electric vehicle charger suppliers Chargemaster. The Luton-based company operates the Polar charging network with over 6,000 charging points across the UK, covering home, workplace and public installations.

Rapid Chargers next to Milton Keynes Central railway station parking (Image: T. Larkum)
Chargemaster Rapid Chargers next to Milton Keynes Central railway station parking (Image: T. Larkum)

BP currently has 1,200 filling stations in the UK and says that it will roll out ultra-fast chargers, including 150kW rapid chargers capable of delivering 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes, across its forecourts within the next 12 months. The oil company estimates that there will be 12 million EVs on UK roads by 2040, up from around 135,000 in 2017.

David Martell, Chief Executive of Chargemaster, said

“The acquisition of Chargemaster by BP marks a true milestone in the move towards low carbon motoring in the UK. I am truly excited to lead the Chargemaster team into a new era backed by the strength and scale of BP, which will help us maintain our market-leading position and grow the national POLAR charging network to support the large range of exciting new electric vehicles that are coming to market in the next couple of years.”

The deal will see Chargemaster, which has 40,000 customers, rebranded as BP Chargemaster.

Read more: AutoExpress

First Pivot Power battery plans emerge outside Southampton without electric vehicle chargers

Pivot Power’s maiden 50MW battery and electric vehicle charging hub could be set for Southampton after the first planning documents appeared for the company’s proposed 2GW nationwide network.

But despite presenting the plans to the market last month as a combined energy storage and EV solution to accelerate the take-up of low carbon transport, the first documents to appear in Test Valley Council’s planning database includes no mention of charging infrastructure.

The battery storage facility, if approved, will be located on National Grid land adjacent to the existing 400kV Nursling Substation, where it will be connected directly to the transmission grid.

The 49.9MW site, just off Station Road to the south of the M27, will comprise 25 containerised batteries that will seek to utilise the advantages of the higher level connection to provide frequency response and other ancillary services to National Grid.

In place of specific mention of EV chargers connected to the site, the documents merely state that the site, as part of a “programme of installed batteries”, will provide “significant opportunities for councils” to implement their EV strategies.

Read more: Current News

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Renault Confirms “New Alliance Electric Platform” New Electric Vehicle Family

One billion euros is a lot of cash, even for an automaker as successful and strong from a financial standpoint as Renault. As part of the Drive the Future strategy, the French automaker said that it’s investing more than that “to accelerate investments for the development and production of electric vehicles” in its domestic market.

Renault ZOE Z.E. 40 Example Colours (Image: Renault)
Renault ZOE Z.E. 40 (Image: Renault)

Aiming to strengthen the industrial base in France, jumping on the EV bandwagon is the right thing to do. A considerable chunk of the one billion euros will go into the introduction of “a new Alliance electric platform” that will be manufactured in Douai. There, the company will open its second electric vehicle manufacturing site.

Regarding the assembly plant in Flins, Renault confirmed that it’s doubling production capacity of the Zoe subcompact hatchback. This decision comes as a result of an increase of 44 percent in registrations in 2017. The automaker’s growth in EV sales in Europe stands at 38 percent, boasting a 23.8-percent market share.

Over in Cleon, the company will “triple electric motor production capacities” and introduce “a new generation electric motor from 2021.” This news comes days after Renault updated the Zoe to R110 specification, improving the output to 109 PS.

Read more: Auto Evolution

Nissan Leaf (Image: Qurren/Wikipedia)

Nissan 2022: 1 million e-cars per year, zero lethal accidents

Renault’s Japanese ally has presented its first ever sustainability plan – and it’s rather ambitious. Over the next 4 years it wants to crank up its annual sales of electric or electrified cars to 1 million units per year, thereby reducing by 40 percent the CO2 emissions of its models compared to the year 2000. At the same time, it targets a 30-percent reduction in CO2 emissions coming from vehicle manufacturing and other corporate activities.

Nissan Leaf (Image: Qurren/Wikipedia)
Nissan Leaf (Image: Qurren/Wikipedia)

Moreover, it wants to reduce the use of new materials by 70 percent through the promotion of circular economy of reused and recycled lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. Finally, Nissan aims at reducing the water intake per unit in global production by 21 percent compared with 2010.

Read more: Fleet Europe

A full charge point at Newport Pagnell services, and my first ever sight of an Audi A3 e-tron (Image: T. Larkum)

Audi delays launch of e-tron quattro electric SUV amidst arrest of the CEO

After months of showing us a camouflage production prototype of the e-tron quattro, Audi was finally going to reveal the official production version of the electric SUV in August.

Now the German automaker has reportedly postponed the launch of the vehicle amidst the arrest of its CEO.

If you haven’t been following the Dieselgate scandal lately, it has started to heat up from a legal standpoint after Audi CEO Rupert Stadler was arrested earlier this month.

A full charge point at Newport Pagnell services, and my first ever sight of an Audi A3 e-tron (Image: T. Larkum)
A full charge point at Newport Pagnell services, and my first ever sight of an Audi A3 e-tron (Image: T. Larkum)

Following the events, Audi has decided to cancel its Summit, which was the set of the launch of the production e-tron quattro.

The Financial Times reported:

“Audi, Volkswagen’s most profitable unit, said late on Monday that the Audi Summit, set for August 30 in Brussels where the e-tron will be built, has been cancelled. Instead, the summit will take place at an undetermined time and location in the United States.”

Read more: Electrek

The Renault Electric Z.E. Range (Image: Renault)

Why Ghosn’s Renault paycheck depends on EV sales

PARIS — Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn has a new incentive to promote development and sales of electric vehicles: A significant part of his pay now depends on it.

Ghosn, who has led Renault since 2005, was formally named to another four-year term by shareholders on Friday. However, his mission has been significantly altered. Earlier this year he handed off day-to-day operational duties to Thierry Bollore, and he agreed to a 19 percent reduction in base pay, to 1 million euros in 2018. The 64-year-old Ghosn’s mandate now is to prepare the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance for a future without him at the helm.

The Renault Electric Z.E. Range (Image: Renault)
The Renault Electric Z.E. Range (Image: Renault)

Ghosn’s compensation has been a point of contention in France, with the government (which holds 15 percent of Renault) and significant number of shareholders arguing that he is overpaid, because he receives a separate salary from Nissan. After he lost a non-binding vote on pay in 2016 (and with this year’s vote binding), Renault’s compensation committee held more than a dozen meetings “to better understand this negative outcome.”

In addition to cutting Ghosn’s base pay, his long-term incentives will be reduced to a total of 80,000 shares from 100,000 (Renault stock has been trading at about 84 euros recently). Until this year, his performance targets have been conventional, equally divided among operating margin, free cash flow and shareholder return.

Those targets represent an automotive industry that was more focused on current performance than future adaptation. Recognizing that, the board has changed the criteria to better align with new strategic plans for Renault and the alliance, which call for doubling synergies from the alliance and ramping up EV vehicle sales.

Read more: Autonews