Thanks to the constant evolution of battery technology and the constantly increasing number of charging stations in the Western world, electric vehicles have become easier to live with.
However, despite some of them having an autonomy comparable to gasoline-powered cars, range anxiety still remains a concern for many potential customers. This is where Renault has stepped in, attempting to fight the fear of running out of juice with a hilarious ad that demonstrates the versatility of the new Zoe.
2020 Renault Zoe (Image: Renault)
Posted by the company’s French arm, the 30-second long clip shows the advantages of having a small electric hatchback like the Zoe. More importantly, it highlights the fact that owners do not have to adapt to the car, as its purpose is not to change your everyday life, even if that means not using public toilets on the go, but the side of the road instead.
Plates will mean perks such as free parking as part of scheme to push zero-emission vehicles
Green coloured number plates will be issued for electric cars under government plans to encourage drivers to buy zero-emission vehicles.
The government said the new licence plates would make the least polluting cars easily identifiable and help their drivers benefit from incentives such as free parking or access to clean air zones.
A consultation has been launched on the proposals, modelled on a scheme in Canada which appeared to push up electric car sales.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said:
“Green number plates are a really positive and exciting way to help everyone recognise the increasing number of electric vehicles on our roads.
“By increasing awareness of these vehicles and the benefits they bring to their drivers and our environment, we will turbo-charge the zero-emission revolution.”
The Department for Transport said the green number plates would provide a useful visual identifier for local authorities pushing schemes for zero-emission vehicles, potentially allowing them to use bus or other priority lanes. The plates would retain black lettering but on a green background, although the design could be modified to a simple green stripe or blob after the consultation.
The government’s behavioural insights team (Bit) said the distinctive plates would make people aware of fellow drivers’ decisions to drive greener vehicles. Elisabeth Costa, a senior director at Bit, said: “The number of clean vehicles on our roads is increasing but we don’t notice, as it’s difficult to tell clean vehicles apart from more polluting ones. Green number plates make these vehicles, and our decision to drive in a more environmentally friendly way, more visible on roads.
“We think making the changing social norm noticeable will help encourage more of us to swap our cars for cleaner options.”
Tesla’s smallest and cheapest car was the UK’s third best-selling model in August and was the first electric vehicle to make the top 10 best sellers
The new Tesla Model 3 has picked up four awards – including Car of the Year – in a string of major industry accolades for the new electric model.
Tesla’s smallest and cheapest car was the UK’s third best-selling model in August – the first time an electric vehicle (EV) has made the top 10 best sellers.
Tesla Model3 (Image: Wikimedia/Carlquinn)
The battery-powered saloon is proving to be a critical success for Elon Musk’s American company.
It scooped prizes for Best Electric Car and Best Company Car, along with the Safety Award and overall Car of the Year top prize at the Parkers New Car Awards 2020.
Experts at Parkers, the UK’s biggest new car buying and advice website, were impressed with the Model 3, calling it “capable, likeable and extremely good to drive.”
Good Energy has become the latest supplier to launch an EV charging service, after having EVs in its sights for a long time.
The ‘all-in-one’ EV charging service, dubbed ‘One Point’, will be for businesses looking to offer destination or workplace charging.
The green energy supplier will recommend, install and maintain the charging services, having agreed partnerships with Swarco and RAW Infrastructure. The charge points will be supplied with 100% renewable energy by Good Energy.
SWARCO eVolt Rapid Chargers (Image: eVolt)
Four chargers have been installed at the Watergate Bay Hotel in Cornwall in the pilot of the scheme. The chargers are embedded with smart, load balancing technology, Good said, enabling smart charging
Lessons from the pilot are to be used to expand the full offering to businesses across the UK, and hopefully simplify the installation of chargers for businesses.
As EV uptake increases, destination and workplace charging will be important for “large numbers of drivers”, Good said, providing an important opportunity for businesses as well as helping to decarbonise transport.
Tim Wynn-Jones, head of energy solutions at Good Energy, said: “The EV market is currently fragmented and complex, but it will soon be essential for UK businesses to offer charging — to their employees, visitors and customers.”
In a victory for sustainability, UK restrictions on the use of electric car chargers are to be lifted under plans to increase the use of green vehicles in the UK.
Practically, this means only one subscription will be required to use charging points. Additionally, the transport secretary is allocating £2.5 million of funding for more than 1,000 new electric car charging points.
All signs point to the British government readying itself for the next wave of innovation in the auto-industry. Just as our streets were once emptied of the horse and cart, in the not-so-distant future our roads could be free of petrol and diesel powered vehicles – transforming how we drive in the process.
I recently bought an electric car, a BMW i3s. I did so for environmental reasons but I didn’t fully appreciate just how radically different the driving experience would be. Among many innovations, the experience embraces connected technology, reduced running costs, outstandingly fast performance and virtual silence. A measure of moral smugness is thrown in as an emotional extra.
BMW i3 and i3S 120Ah (Image: BMW Group)
Driving experience aside, we are on the brink of a design revolution for the auto industry thanks to e-cars. In a way, the clock is being turned back so auto designers can free their imagination.
There is evidence that the classic car market is heading for fast decline: the value of such cars at auction dropped dramatically over the summer, driven by concerns over the availability of fuel. Yet many of the vehicles of the 1950s, 60s and 70s remain iconic symbols of design at its wonderful best. They were symbols of freedom, opportunity and progress, and they were magnificent to behold.
But as competition and market demand increased, the distinctive beauty of car design eroded away. The dominant voices around the automotive industry table became those of engineers and economists who sought to compromise the work of the designer in the name of efficient manufacturing process and, ultimately, lower prices. The democratisation of the automobile happened at the expense of elite design.
But now, the possibilities for a design-led approach are once again coming to the fore and are endless. Electric vehicles do not require a cooling system, oil, a transmission, nor so much else of the mechanics of a fossil-fuelled car. As battery and electric motor technology improves, the design challenge shifts from “how do I fit it all in?”, to, “what on earth am I going to do with all this space?”. As a consequence, we are about to witness a transformation on the scale of how Apple transformed the PC or the mobile phone.
The figure – dubbed ‘miles per pound’ (mpp) – reveals how much a car can travel for £1 of petrol, diesel or electricity.
Electric cars travel up to three times the distance of their petrol or diesel rivals for the same amount of money, according to research.
With interest in electric cars rising, many potential buyers are left confused by the way running costs are explained, with ‘miles per kWh’ difficult to compare to ‘miles per gallon’.
Kia e-Niro EV (Image: Kia)
To help consumers, car reviews and advice website Parkers.co.uk has developed a way of showing how far your car will go on a single pound – regardless of what fuel it runs on.
The figure – dubbed ‘miles per pound’ (mpp) – reveals how much a car can travel for £1 of petrol, diesel or electricity.
The study found the Kia e-Niro First Edition and the Renault Zoe 65kW are the most efficient models on sale in the UK today, with the cars capable of travelling 33.1 miles per pound (mpp) of electricity.
This is more than three times as far as the most economical version of the Ford Fiesta (9.3mpp), the UK’s best-selling vehicle, when using official testing figures.
With the average UK motorist driving around 7,150 miles per year, they would spend just £216 over a 12 month period if they charged their Kia e-Niro or Renault Zoe from home.
The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range was the third most economical, covering 32.3mpp, while the Volkswagen e-Golf was fourth on 30.8mpp.
Outlawing the sale of internal combustion engine vehicles will help tackle the climate emergency, says shadow business secretary
A Labour government will aim to end the sale of cars with internal combustion engines by 2030, as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency.
The party is to begin talks with the car industry and trade unions to explore the policies needed to achieve the goal. It says it wants to help an “under siege” industry switch to electric car production.
It comes as measures to phase out the internal combustion engine gathering pace across Europe. Earlier this month, Denmark called for a plan to phase out diesel and petrol cars and allow a ban on their sale by 2030. It was backed by 10 other EU countries.
Labour has already pledged to provide £3bn to invest in electric car models and technology. It will exempt new investment in plant and machinery from business rates. Another £2bn will go towards the construction of three battery plants.
Turn on, plug in and drop out of the fossil fuel race with the finest zero emissions passenger cars currently on offer
Traipse around one of the recent European motor shows and you’d be forgiven for thinking that most of the world’s most famous manufacturers don’t produce or sell an internal combustion engine any more.
The major players have spoken and the future of personal transportation looks distinctly battery powered, with Deloitte predicting worldwide sales of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) will rocket from 4 million in 2020 to 21 million by 2030, whereas sales of traditional internal combustion engines will fall off a cliff.
There are political and ethical arguments around for instance, lithium mining for EV batteries but this isn’t quite the right place to get into it.
Jaguar I-PACE Electric Car (Image: T. Larkum)
Zero emissions vehicles boast a number of benefits that can be enjoyed today. There are fewer moving parts, meaning lower maintenance costs, the tax breaks and Congestion Charge benefits are extremely generous, while those with regular short journeys could save bucket-loads of cash by turning their backs on the humble petrol station. And don’t be misled by those bemoaning the public charging network, because a quick scan of Zap Map reveals an abundance of locations to charge a vehicle – a number that is growing by the day.
On top of this, those who have already made the switch to electric often attest to the fact that installing a charging point at home often negates the need to use the public charging network. After all, when was the last time you drove more than 200-miles several times in a week?
On Saturday I had the chance to take my family for a test drive in the new electric version of MG’s ZS.
While the name MG (‘Morris Garages’) has a lot of history, particularly in connection with sports cars, the current MG Motors is a Chinese brand. They have had some success in the budget end of the UK market, but have made waves with the new EV version of their ZS crossover. It has a good enough range (about 160 miles) at a low enough price (in the £21k to £28k range) to make people sit up and take notice.
MG ZS EV (Image: T. Larkum)
I’m not going to go into great detail on the car specs, how it handles, etc. (for some of that, see our MG ZS news and reviews page). Instead I’ll give a summary of our impressions:
It looks good close-up, in a typical SUV way. That’s to say, if you take the badge off one SUV it could be almost any other SUV on the road. But in this context, with a low price example of the breed, that’s a great result. We’d be happy to have one on our drive.
It drives well enough, absorbing most though not all of the roads’ bumps. It accelerates well, though it was very quick to wheelspin when I tried it a couple of times in Sport mode (though, to be fair, it was raining the whole time).
It felt spacious, particularly in the back. There was a noticeable gap between the knees of the rear passengers and the backs of the front seats. Conversely, the middle rear seat was very narrow – it would only suffice for a child, and then only without a car seat.
The multimedia console was pretty good – a touchscreen with satnav, handsfree phone, music, etc. The satnav had a noticeable lag the first time it loads but after that it seemed pretty responsive. It is compatible with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The boot was a decent size (something lacking in my current BMW i3!) even with the charging cables stored underneath. It had quite a big lip, but this could be reduced by raising the boot floor to a higher point when it was also nearly level with the back seats when folded forward and so giving a very large usable space overall. The seats don’t fold completely flat though.
We test drove the top-of-the-range Exclusive version which had lots of nice extras that we appreciated such as a panoramic sunroof, electrically adjustable seats, roof rails, leather seats and rear parking camera.
MG ZS EV (Image: T. Larkum)
Overall we were impressed with the car, particularly at the suggested price (equivalent to about £360 per month for the Exclusive with a £1500 trade in). Definitely one to consider if you’re in the market for a medium range EV at at good price.
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A supermini where 100kW recharging comes as standard
Vauxhall’s new Corsa-e will likely make a lot of friends with impatient types who are open to the idea of an all-electric car, but lack the time or inclination to get its battery charged.
Why? It’s going to arrive in April next year with the capacity for fast DC 100kW charging to replenish the 50kW battery. The feature isn’t an extra either, and it could pull in a lot of people who would otherwise pass on the chore of having to charge a battery over popping into a filling station for fuel.
Vauxhall Corsa-e (Image: Vauxhall.co.uk)
A five-minute pit stop or, potentially, many, many minutes as you wait for those battery bars to replenish is perhaps why so many of us have decided to hang fire on moving over to an electric vehicle. This is still the most frustrating aspect of electric car ownership and it’s mainly about the infrastructure.
Having a car that can be recharged promptly is therefore a definite bonus. And, with its perky recharging potential that could mean the Corsa-e could really hit the right note, assuming you can find a vacant 100kW charging station that is.
In real terms that means you’ll be able to get another 160 miles or so in around half an hour, which is admittedly very handy. Vauxhall also underlines that the Corsa-e boasts a 205 mile range, which has been ticked off via WLTP certification. The car will also come with a rather more sedate 11kW charger, which will get you charged at home in around 7.5 hours using a domestic wallbox.
