Monthly Archives: May 2020

Brits predicted to surge to electric vehicles post-lockdown

May 30, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, SalesRepost

Improved air pollution levels during lockdown could result in a surge towards electric vehicles (EVs), a new study has found.

The latest research by online parking portal YourParkingSpace.co.uk discovered that 4-in-10 people are more likely to purchase an EV in the future as a direct result of the lockdown which has seen fewer vehicles on the road, resulting in less pollution.

Indeed, the findings correspond to April’s car sales, which although dramatically down due to the government restrictions, saw the electric Tesla Model 3 as the UK’s best-selling car and EVs take a record market share of 32 per cent.

Harrison Woods, managing director at YourParkingSpace.co.uk, commented: “The lockdown has changed nearly every aspect of life, including less vehicles and traffic fumes, and our study would indicate that this will result in a surge in popularity towards electric vehicles.

“While plug-in cars have been growing in popularity over the last few years, seeing and feeling the benefits of less pollution means we will probably see many more EVs on the roads of Britain sooner rather than later.”

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Nissan NV400 becomes Japan’s first electric ambulance

May 29, 2020Electric Cars, Electric Vans, Master Z.E., News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, Nissan, Renault, RenaultTrevor Larkum

It will be used by the Tokyo Fire Department

Consumer passenger cars aren’t the only vehicles undergoing electric transformations. We’ve seen the introduction of early electric fire trucks, and now Japan is getting its first electric ambulance. It’s a Nissan NV400, and it will be used by the Tokyo Fire Department at the Ikebukuro station.

Though badged as a Nissan, the NV400 is at its heart a Renault Master Z.E. electric van. The powertrain is the same as the French van with a 33-kilowatt-hour battery (7 kWhs less than the base Nissan Leaf) and a 55-kW motor driving the front wheels. That translates to 74 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. That doesn’t sound like much, but in as dense a city as Tokyo, it’s not likely the NV400 will be able to reach high speeds at all, even if it had a Hellcat engine.

There are a couple of unique additions to the van to enhance its ambulance capability. One is the inclusion of a separate 8-kWh lithium-ion battery that can operate all the equipment on board for long periods of time without eating into the ambulance’s range. It can even be used like a generator to provide power to external emergency equipment. Then there’s the stretcher, which Nissan vaguely says is electrified to make it easier to use by the medical personnel. We presume the stretcher has an electric motor to make it easier to push around.

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Government to finance connection costs for 350kW chargers across strategic road network

May 28, 2020Charging, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

A new government fund is to help pay for connection costs to enable the installation of high-powered charging (HPC) at motorway sites across England.

The Rapid Charging Fund – which was first announced in the 2020 Budget – will be available to fund a portion of costs at strategic sites where upgrading connections to meet future demand for HPC is “prohibitively expensive and uncommercial”, supporting several governmental ambitions.

One such ambition is that by 2023, six HPC points between 150kW and 350kW will be available at motorway service areas in England, with some larger sites having up to 10-12 chargers.

Secondly, by 2030 this network is expected to be “extensive”, with the government planning for there to be 2,500 HPC points across England’s motorways and major A roads. This increases to 6,000 by 2035, the date the government is consulting on to ban sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles.

Timing and delivery of the funding is to be confirmed in due course, the government said. No details as to how much funding will be available has been disclosed.

It listed expectations it had for new chargepoints to make them easy to use and hassle-free, including that they are able to take credit and debit card payments and will be available 99% of the time.

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UK: Stealthy police use electric cars to hunt poachers

May 27, 2020Electric Cars, Leaf, News, Reviews and Comment, NissanRepost

The Gloucestershire Constabulary is putting the country’s largest police fleet of electric cars to new tactical use.

On Twitter, they described their latest ops against illegal poachers with the electric vehicles being central to their strategy.

To catch unwanted hunters, the police on Gloucestershire tweeted that the officers lay waiting in “unmarked electric cars patrolling and listening for gunshots, utilising their quiet running”.

It is an unusual use for electric cars and followed a string of poaching incidents which left local deer shot but left alive. The police reports speak of “appalling acts of cruelty” leading them to come up with what we’d like to call Operation Smart Charge.

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Number of diesel cars on UK roads falls for first time in 25 years

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

There were 111,000 fewer diesel cars in the UK in 2019 than the year before as people switched from polluting vehicles to greener ones

The UK has reached a motoring milestone, passing ‘peak diesel’ as the number of diesel cars on the roads fell for the first time in at least 25 years.

There were 111,000 fewer diesel cars in the UK in 2019 than the year before as people switched from polluting vehicles to greener, electric ones, according to government figures.

Although sales of diesel vehicles have been falling for a while this is the first time that the total number on the roads has declined, according to data from the Department for Transport.

“These figures hint at a motoring milestone – the possibility that we have hit or even passed ‘peak diesel’,” said Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation.

Collapse in diesel sales

“This was due to the collapse in sales of new diesel cars together with the scrapping of older diesels, which have either come to the end of their useful lives or whose owners fear increasing restrictions on their use because of air quality concerns,” he said.

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Renault Zoe GT Line review: Electric vehicle perfect for essential journeys

May 22, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Renault, ZOERepost

Mirror Motoring’s Colin Goodwin has found the Renault Zoe electric vehicle the perfect runner in lockdown to go and visit his mum and – with no off-street parking – found it easy to charge up away from home

There’s only one essential journey that I have to make and that’s to care for my 94-year-old mum.

She’s only 10 miles away and for this I’ve been using a new Renault Zoe that was delivered a few days before the lockdown started.

This is the longest period that I’ve run an electric car and it’s proving to be a very interesting experience as I live in a terraced street with no off-street parking.

That means I cannot charge the car at home.

This leaves me with three options: our local mini Waitrose which has a Polar public charging point; my pal Jim’s wallbox charger; or public charging points while out on my travels.

Anyway, this is the third generation Zoe and its range has been extended to 245 miles thanks to a 52kWh battery.

There’s also a new front bumper and LED headlamps.

Other changes to the car’s lines bring its styling more into line with the latest Clio and Captur models.

The more significant changes, however, have taken place inside.

Many of the hard plastics have been replaced by soft-touch materials. There’s also more brightwork which lifts the perceived quality.

There are three grades of Zoe to choose from, starting with the entry-level Play (106bhp R110 motor), the Iconic (R110 or 133bhp R135 motor) and top-spec GT Line (R135 motor only).

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Why Electric Vehicles Are Going To Take Over The World

May 21, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, Tesla, VolkswagenRepost

Interesting times in the electric vehicle market, as more and more carmakers try to position themselves in what looks like a second phase of growth.

In the luxury market segment, the announced launch of Tesla’s Cybertruck has galvanized a market that, in the United States, buys two million vehicles each year. What at first looked like a prototype of a prototype, has turned out to be a completely revolutionary design that combines a unique-looking vehicle with much lower manufacturing costs than expected. With more than half-a-million orders on its books, the company is now prioritizing its production over the Roadster.

The reason is simple: the Roadster appeals to a relatively marginal market and, from a target audience point of view, does not contribute much to the segments in which the brand already had significant appeal, whereas the Cybertruck, if successful, could allow it to dominate a very important and iconic part of the market that is fundamental to achieving mass popularity in a country like the United States.

In the economy segment, Volkswagen has announced plans to launch a family of electric vehicles priced at below $22,000, targeting city dwellers and not originally designed for the US, which was originally going to be launched under the Seat brand. Affordable mobility is an important segment that could shift a lot of units.

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Asda rolls out electric vehicle fleet in a bid to boost online capacity

May 20, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and CommentRepost

Asda has rolled out a fleet of electric vehicle in a bid to boost its online delivery capacity, amid the increasing demand on online services due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Used in 48 stores

The new fleet of electric vehicles will be used to ferry orders from stores to click-and collect points, freeing up traditional delivery vans to focus on home deliveries.

The initiative will enable stores to collectively ramp up the number of available click and collect slots by over 7,000 per week, to reach more than 34,000 slots.

The electric vehicles, which can be charged on-site, have a 40 miles single charge range, and are fully road-legal.

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Electric cars could cut total CO2 by 12 per cent, Nottingham study shows

May 19, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, PollutionRepost

Total carbon emissions in the UK will be cut by almost 12 per cent if the country exclusively uses electric cars in future, a new study shows.

Research by Nottingham Trent University shows that 42 million tons of CO2 (MtCO2) will be removed from the atmosphere in the UK – a reduction of 11.89 per cent of the UK’s 351.5 MtCO2 total emitted last year.

The analysis offsets the increase in carbon emissions for the electricity grid which is required to power the country’s 32 million cars and taxis if they were switched to electric vehicles.

The switch to electric cars is found to save 14 per cent from the total carbon emissions, but will also cause an increase in carbon emissions from electric power stations of about 2.1 per cent for the additional electricity needed, making the net savings to be about 11.89 per cent.

The research – by PhD candidate George Milev, from the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment – considers fully electric cars currently used in the UK, including the Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf, Jaguar I-Pace, and more.

“These are encouraging findings and show just how much impact the switch to electric cars could have,” said researcher Mr Milev.

“In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are regularly seeing reports on how the environment has benefitted from the decreased use of combustion engines.

“If and when the UK moves exclusively to electric car usage, we will similarly see real benefits in the dramatic reduction in levels of CO2.”

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Should I buy an electric car?

May 18, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, SalesRepost

So you’ve been thinking about making the switch to an electric car, but you’re still unsure whether the time is quite right. After all, the Government keeps on providing fiscal incentives to go electric, while seemingly clobbering drivers of petrol and diesel cars with taxes, so the financial case is already strong.

The thing is, are electric vehicles (EVs) good enough, is the charging infrastructure widespread enough, and do the financial incentives really offset the higher initial price of an electric car? With this advice guide, you can make an informed choice about whether or not the time is right for you to make the change.

Go Ultra Low members boast 15 ULEVs across a range of segments (Image: OLEV) — (Image: OLEV)

Electric cars are more expensive than conventional ones
But a range of grants and subsidies are available
Electricity is cheaper than petrol or diesel
There are some very compelling tax breaks, too
An EV could well save you money overall
Driving an electric car is enjoyable
They’re usually fast and very quiet
Also very easy and relaxing to drive
They usually come with lots of equipment and technology
And obviously, they’re good for the environment

Low running costs/subsidies/grants

It’s true that electric cars are expensive to buy compared with petrol or diesel cars, but that’s not the full story. If you think about how much your car will cost overall during the lifetime of the car, then the reduced running costs could well make up that difference, and then some. The good news is that an electric car can save you cash in a wide variety of ways, and once you add them all up, the cumulative savings can be really compelling.

Obviously, the first saving you’re going to make is on fuel. An electric car might not be able to travel as far as a combustion-engined car when they are both fully filled/fully charged, but charging a car up with electricity is much cheaper than filling it with petrol or diesel.

How much cheaper? Well, that depends on a number of things. If you’re charging at home, what sort of electricity tariff are you on? Are you charging overnight or at peak time? Or, if you’re regularly relying on public chargers, what are you paying in terms of subscriptions to providers, and in terms of power costs? Also, how much charge can your electric car hold? The variables are numerous.

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