Monthly Archives: January 2020

Hybrid XCeed and Ceed now available in UK

January 31, 2020Ceed PHEV, Electric Cars, Kia, XCeed PHEVRepost

Kia UK has now opened the order books for the plug-in hybrid versions of the XCeed and Ceed Sportswagon.

The XCeed PHEV will start from £30,695, the Ceed Sportswagon PHEV from £29,995 and deliveries are scheduled to start in April.

After Kia presented the two vehicles in September last year, the South Korean company is now releasing more concrete data on the two hybrid models. Most of the key data remain unchanged, with a 1.6-litre petrol engine, a 44.5 kW electric motor and an 8.9 kWh battery. The same drivetrain as the Kia Niro PHEV (or Hyundai Ioniq PHEV for that matter) is used in both compact PHEV models. The biggest difference is that the two Ceed derivatives have a lower standard consumption level, with provisional measurements showing a purely electrical range of up to 60 kilometres, although the official rating has yet to be released on both the fuel economy and CO2 emissions.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

Driving into a city should become as antisocial as smoking

January 30, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, PollutionRepost

Imagine a capital city where nobody has to die on the roads.

It may sound almost impossible, but last year not a single pedestrian, cyclist or child lost their life on the streets of Norway’s capital, Oslo; the only fatality recorded was a motorist crashing into a fence. (By comparison 12 people were killed in Bristol, a city slightly smaller than Oslo, in 2017 – and over half of them were pedestrians or cyclists.)

The catch? The lives saved in Norway seem to have been a byproduct of a bigger plan to become a carbon-neutral city that would probably spark a mutiny if you tried it here. Oslo has closed some streets to traffic entirely, removed parking spaces across the city to deter drivers, introduced measures to stop parents doing the school run by car and reduced speed limits. There’s plentiful public transport and lots of bike lanes but the bottom line is, as Oslo’s mayor says, that while cities will always have traffic, “the drivers should act as guests”. And not very welcome guests, by the sound of it.

Something like this would probably be the future for British cities, if we were serious about dealing with the air pollution filling urban children’s lungs, as well as tackling the climate crisis. This week, Birmingham announced proposals to stop people driving across the city centre, amid research suggesting that illegal levels of air pollution may be shortening the lives of children growing up in the city by up to half a year. Cars will be allowed into a new clean-air zone, but not through it to reach other parts of the city, forcing them out around the ring road, or otherwise encouraging drivers on to the bus.

It’s following in the footsteps of other cities, including Bristol, which unveiled proposals last autumn to ban diesel cars from parts of the city in daytime, and Oxford, which this week published plans for a zero-emission zone in the centre with a £10 charge for non-compliant vehicles. Suddenly you can imagine a time when driving into a smog-laden city, in all but the greenest cars and for all but the most essential journeys, will feel as antisocial as smoking on the bus.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

Nottingham Climate Emergency: Council’s zero-carbon target means only electric vehicles in the city by 2028

January 29, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

A draft plan, which was approved unanimously yesterday (Monday, January 13) will now go out for public consultation.

Nearly every vehicle currently on the roads of Nottingham will need to be replaced within just eight years if the city council is to meet its own zero-carbon target.

Nottingham City Council hopes to be the first in the UK to become carbon neutral and has now produced a plan on how it intends to do this by 2028.

Several actions are planned, including having all domestic heating from renewable energy or low-carbon sources, enforcing energy efficiency standards, further public transport improvements and expanding local energy creation.

The council already has a growing fleet of its own electric cars, but details are scant about how the council plans to facilitate a move away from petrol and diesel engines for regular motorists, and it has admitted that the scale of the change needed is ‘enormous’.

A draft plan, which was approved unanimously yesterday (Monday, January 13) will now go out for public consultation.

On the issue of removing petrol and diesel engines (Known as internal combustion engines or ICEs) it says: “To achieve the 2028 carbon neutrality ambition, it will be necessary to almost entirely replace existing fossil-fuel-based Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles with ULEVs (ultra-low-emission vehicles).

“Recent research suggests that the lifetime carbon emissions of ULEVs are half those of a conventional vehicle, with more efficient electric vehicles saving on the carbon produced in the batteries in just two or three years.”

As well as an action plan, the council also passed its own Carbon Neutral Charter, which expands on the council’s green ambitions.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:
rel=”noopener”>Westbridgford Wire

EVs will need to become the norm if we don’t want to burn the planet

January 28, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, SalesRepost

If the ongoing bushfire crisis has taught Australians one thing, it is that the use of petrol and diesel vehicles will have to be minimised in the future in order to avoid pumping more carbon into the atmosphere and making the problem worse.

And that means electric vehicles will have to start becoming the rule, not the exception as they are now.

Prior to the 2019 May election, the Australian Labor Party offered as one of its policies a subsidy on electric vehicles. But the government that was elected had no such policy and as a result any Australian who has to buy an electric vehicle today will have to fork out from his/her own pocket.

Electric vehicles are not cheap. I recently had a test drive in the Nissan LEAF, one of the three EVs that is available for sale locally – the others are from BMW and Hyundai – and the price is something that a medium-level petrol vehicle will cost.

There are some pluses: services are only required once every 20,000 kms, there is a five-year warranty, the drive is very smooth and the handling is exceptional. But the cost is still a big factor; the LEAF costs about $50,000.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

These could be the sounds of the suburbs

January 27, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

DESPITE that heart-felt promise declared in his three little words, our Prime Minister has yet to Get Brexit Done. We’re still in the European Union — so suck it up, gammons.

However, for all its brilliant environmental protections — many of which the IW directly benefits from, such as clean bathing water legislation — one EU rule I am struggling to support relates to electric vehicles.

With the climate emergency quite literally hotting up, electric vehicles are being promoted as the solution to the impending planetary catastrophe.

Of course, electric vehicles are old hat to this country. Sixties Britain had more battery-electric vehicles on its roads than the rest of the world put together, with its fleets of silent sustainable milk floats.

And there’s the rub.

You see, without a traditional internal combustion engine, an EV makes no sound.

A silent vehicle could easily be considered a potential hazard for pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.

To mitigate for this, the EU has ruled that all new types of four-wheel electric vehicle must be fitted with a noise-emitting device which sounds like a regular engine.

What a wasted opportunity.

I was sincerely hoping that the increasing popularity of electric vehicles might see a return to quieter public spaces, where people could have a pleasant chat without having to bellow over the intrusive racket of cars.

But alas, it seems not.

I’m of a generation that remembers the joy of hearing birdsong in the streets, not just at crepuscular hours, but throughout the day.

The birds that have survived to our current times are whistling their happy tunes as loud as they can, but we can’t hear them over the noise of traffic.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

Sales of electric vehicles rise by 144 per cent as diesel cars decline in popularity

January 26, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, SalesRepost

In a depressed new car market, sales of electric vehicles rose by 144 per cent in 2019, while diesel models continued the sharp slide in popularity witnessed in recent years.

Overall, Brexit uncertainties, weak consumer and business confidence and slow overall economic growth helped push new car sales down.

Preliminary figures suggest a fall of around 2.3 per cent in 2019, to 2.3 million units.

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, the main industry body, new cars sales will fall again in 2020, albeit by less than previously forecast and with the rate of decline slowing – down another 1.6 per cent by 2021.

Diesel is a major factor in the current market – a fall of 21.8 per cent last year as many potential customers simply postpone buying new until they have more clarity about future taxation and regulation of diesels.

Mike Hawes, chief executive of the SMMT described it as a another “turbulent 12 months” with the trade facing the same tough challenges.

As one of the few bright features in a gloomy scene, the growing acceptance and popularity of pure electric cars and stands out as a trend that should help, albeit in a modest way, the government to achieve its targets on CO2 emissions.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

2020 will be a key year (and decade) for electric vehicles

January 25, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales, TeslaRepost

You only have to look at the annual tech ritual that is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — which kicked off in Vegas this weekend amid a blur of oversized TVs, 5G phones and foldable tablets — to see how important electric vehicles will be in 2020.

Many of the big and small automakers that sell passenger vehicles will be showing off their newest electric models, such as Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, Nissan’s electric crossover concept Ariya, Fiat Chrysler’s plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler and Mercedes-Benz’s EQC 400 4Matic and Vision EQS vehicles. Sunday at CES, Chinese EV maker Byton showed off its M-Byte (most famous for its 48-inch wrap-around dashboard screen), due out later this year. Other automakers that are hosting press conferences or booths this week include Audi, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Daimler.

While CES has long been shifting to a “car show disguised as a tech conference,” this year it would seem especially quaint if an automaker premiered a gas or diesel-powered model. The future is electric, and CES is an event all about looking forward.

2020 will indeed be the “year of the electric car” particularly across Europe, says the Guardian. Cities in Europe are banning diesel vehicles from city centers while European automakers launch flagship EVs with names like the Fiat 500 and the Mini. 175 EV models will be on sale by the end of 2020 for European consumers, such as Volkswagen’s id3, up from fewer than 100 right now.

European vehicle electrification will have profound effects on Europe’s carbon emissions, but it also will present a challenging transformation for European auto sectors. Germany, for example, is expected to shed jobs as plants close that make internal combustion parts. Electric vehicles are simpler to make and require fewer parts, meaning a tightened supply chain. But you can also point to the German auto industry’s resistance to change as an equally big challenge.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

Average CO2 emissions of cars sold in UK up for third year in row

January 24, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, SalesRepost

Popularity of SUVs and falling diesel sales hit Britain’s hopes of reaching climate targets

The average carbon dioxide emissions of cars sold in the UK rose for the third year in a row during 2019 as falling diesel sales and the rising popularity of SUVs dealt a blow to Britain’s hopes of reaching climate targets.

Average CO2 emissions rose for the third year in a row, up 2.7% year on year to 127.9g of CO2 per kilometre, according to data from the car industry body. This is far above the newly introduced EU target of 95g per kilometre carmakers need to achieve over this year and next for all new cars. Cars account for just over 18% of UK emissions, according to government figures. Transport emissions as a whole account for a third of the UK total, with the sector viewed as vital contributor if the country is to achieve goals of cutting emissions to 51% of 1990 levels by 2025 and to reach net zero by 2050.

All manufacturers selling in the EU are rushing to meet emissions regulations that came into force on 1 January. The regulations were introduced in response to the climate crisis, with road transport a major contributor to global CO2 emissions.

Overall UK car sales fell by 2.4% year on year to about 2.3m, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, with the industry body blaming Brexit uncertainty and the slump in diesel sales as the main factors.

This indicates the worst year for the UK market since 2013, when sales were 2.26m. They reached a peak of 2.7m in 2016 but have declined steadily since.

A quarter of the CO2 increase was caused by the 21.8% drop in diesel sales over the year. Newer diesels on average have lower CO2 emissions than petrol cars, despite a backlash prompted by air quality concerns. Another quarter was caused by increased sales of SUVs, which are often heavier and have much worse aerodynamic profiles than smaller cars. Increased fuel use by SUVs was the second largest contributor to the increase in global CO2 emissions from 2010 to 2018, according to the International Energy Agency.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

‘First of its kind’ rapid EV charging point launches in London

January 23, 2020Charging, Electric Cars, Engenie, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Transport for London (TfL) and electric vehicle (EV) charging network Engenie have opened London’s first rapid charging hub in Stratford, London.

The hub will have six 50kW charging points, which are capable of providing up to 100 miles of charge in 35 minutes.

This EV hub is the first of five which will open in London over the next few years as part of the Mayor of London’s EV infrastructure delivery plan.

TfL has contributed funding towards the project, but Engenie will continue subsidising the site to ensure that there will be no parking fees for those using the chargers.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, said:

‘London’s air quality is a serious public health crisis and we face a climate emergency which threatens our future.

‘We need to help people to move away from petrol and diesel cars so that we can clean up our air and tackle climate change.

‘I want to help people to switch to public transport, walking and cycling and I want all new cars and vans in London to be zero emissions by 2030, not 2040 as the government is proposing.

‘This announcement will help us to continue to work together with London boroughs and the private sector to deliver a major expansion in charging infrastructure and an electric vehicle revolution in the capital.’

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form:

Climate change: If you worry about global warming, the next car you buy should be electric

January 22, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, PollutionRepost

If you’re concerned about climate change, the next car you buy really should be electric.

Why? Because the average car, SUV or light truck in the United States is on the road for 11.8 years. So vehicles bought this coming year will be part of the shift away from fossil fuels that climate scientists say needs to be well underway within 10 years.

“By 2030 we need to be really well into this transition. Which means people need to be buying these cars now,” said Lewis Fulton, director of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways program at the University of California, Davis.

The message is getting out there. In May, 16% of Americans said they were likely to buy an electric vehicle the next time they were in the market for a new or used car. Their leading reasons were concern for the environment and lower long-term costs of EVs, according to a AAA survey.

The good news, say owners, is that today’s electric cars are cost-effective, reliable, fun to drive and get upward of 200 miles to the charge so it’s not a hardship.

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form: